[Marxism] Venezuela: Huge May Day march amid new struggles, wage rises
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Braving the heat, more than 100,000 Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas on May 1 to commemorate the International Workers' Day and gains for working people under the Bolivarian Revolution. https://www.greenleft.org.au/sections/international-news -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Letter from the US: Ferguson a 'turning point', says Black Lives Matter activist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Khury Petersen-Smith is a 32-year-old African American activist based in Boston, who is actively involved in the growing “Black Lives matter” struggle sweeping the US. I was able to speak with Petersen-Smith, a member of the International Socialist Organization, at the Marxism 2015 conference organised by Socialist Alternative in Melbourne over Easter, at which he was a featured guest. He told me: “There were some small actions in solidarity with the demonstrations in Ferguson that occurred when a white police officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed an unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown [last August]. “But when a grand jury chose not to indict Wilson for the killing in November, the call went out for protests. That night there were thousands of people who mobilised in Roxbury, the heart of Boston’ Black community. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/59008 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Accident at Indian Point | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 5/10/15 5:26 PM, John Obrien wrote: Ethel Rosenberg was totally innocent - but you just implied/stated she took part? I am not interested in splitting hairs but it is likely that Ethel Rosenberg was aware of what her husband was up to even if it was her husband who was the transmission belt. From the standpoint of bourgeois law, that makes her an accessory after the fact. That, of course, makes no difference to me. It was not a crime to save Russia from nuclear annihilation. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Aljazeera Arabic: Should We Kill All Alawites?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I think I've given this family of companies my last interview for a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULtNYSUqYHw -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Syriza stiffens in defense of red lines, election mandate
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * [This Telegraph report by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Athens jibes with the recent report on Syriza's party secretariat meeting: SYRIZA: 'The mandate of the Greek people is not negotiable' https://mail.google.com/mail/#sent/14d3b90488643fe8] Greece's 'war cabinet' prepares to battle EU creditors as anger mounts The country's radical-Left leaders have concluded that there is little be gained from any further concessions to EMU creditors photo caption: Syriza will defend their 'red lines' on pensions and collective bargaining and prepare for battle whatever the consequence by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The Telegraph, 11:00PM BST 10 May 2015 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11596286/Greeces-war-cabinet-prepares-to-battle-EU-creditors-as-anger-mounts.html Greece's war cabinet has resolved to defy the European creditor powers after a nine-hour meeting on Sunday, ensuring a crescendo of brinkmanship as the increasingly bitter fight comes to a head this month. Premier Alexis Tsipras and the leading figures of his Syriza movement agreed to defend their red lines on pensions and collective bargaining and prepare for battle whatever the consequences, deeming the olive-branch policy of recent weeks to have reached a dead end. We have agreed on a tougher strategy to stop making compromises. We were unified and we have a spring our step once again, said one participant. The Syriza government knows that this an extremely high-risk strategy. The Greek treasury is already empty and emergency funds seized from local authorities and state entities will soon run out. Greece's mayors warned over the weekend that they would not release any more funds to the central government. The Greek finance ministry must pay the International Monetary Fund €750m (£544m) on Tuesday, the first of an escalating set of deadlines running into August. We have enough money to pay the IMF this week but not enough to get through to the end of the month. We all know that, said one minister, speaking to The Telegraph immediately after the emotional conclave. The war council came a day before Greece's three-headed team - deputy premier Giannis Dragasakis, finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and deputy foreign minister Euclid Tsakalotos - are due to go to Brussels for a crucial meeting with Eurogroup ministers. Time is running out for a deal opening the way for the disbursement of €7.2bn under an interim agreement, due to expire in June. It is even harder to see how the two sides can narrow their enormous differences on a new bail-out programme, which must be intricately negotiated and then approved by the parliaments of the creditor states. German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said over the weekend that Greece risked spinning into default unless there was a breakthrough soon. Such processes also have irrational elements. Experiences elsewhere in the world have shown that a country can suddenly slide into insolvency, he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine. Greek officials retort that this is a conceptual misunderstanding by the German and North European authorities. Syriza officials say they may trigger the biggest sovereign default deliberately if pushed too far, concluding that it is a better outcome than national humiliation and the betrayal of their electoral vows to the Greek people. If it comes to the crunch, Greece must default and go its way, said Costas Lapavitzas, a Syriza MP and member of the party's standing committee. There is no point raiding pension funds to buy time. We just exhaust ourselves for no purpose. We went up and down Greece in the elections urging the voters to throw out the old government. The question now is whether we mean what we say, and whether we have the courage of our convictions. Officials say Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered Greece roughly €2bn up-front to smooth the way for the so-called Turkish Stream gas pipeline. While this would allow Greece to meet its IMF payments in May and June and then default later to the European Central Bank - deemed the real foe - it would not solve any of Greece's problems. The implicit quid pro quo would be a Greek veto on an extension of Western sanctions against Russia. Such a decision would damage the rift with Europe beyond repair and would infuriate the Obama White House, which still has some sympathy for Syriza. It is understood that US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told the Greeks that they would be dropped like a stone if they played this game. Amos Hochstein, Washington's energy envoy, said in Athens on Friday that the pipeline was a foolish distraction. Turkish Stream doesn't exist. There is no consortium to build it,
[Marxism] 50 earthquakes a day ignores by the Left in Syria
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * From Linux Beach in San Antonio: 50 earthquakes a day ignores by the Left in Syria http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/05/50-earthquakes-day-ignores-by-left-in.html Unlike the representatives of the Left that are meeting this weekend in Secaucus, NJ under the banner of the *United National AntiWar Coalition*, some people care about humanity more than they care about upholding an obsolete political line. Their Statement on Syria http://www.bethlehemforpeace.org/UNAC_Syria.htm doesn't even mention Assad, let alone condemn his actions. The naive reader is led to believe that all the deaths in Syria have been caused by Israel and the US. The UNAC opposes http://www.peaceandjusticesonomaco.org/statement-escalating-threats-unac-united-national-antiwar-coalition the imposition of a no-fly zone over Syria, which means that in practical terms, as opposed to rhetorical terms, they support Bashar al-Assad's barrel-bombing campaign. They also came out in force to deny Assad's responsibility for the sarin attacks of 2013, and they have remained silent about his use of poison gas and barrel bombs since then. This goes a long way to explaining why the Left has failed to grow and remains in the hands of old farts that only oppose the slaughter of Palestinians when Israel is doing it. Young people that care about humanity, and include Syrians in their definition of humanity, will be absolutely repelled by the Left and the role it has played in supporting the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian backers, in there devastating campaign against the Syrian people just because they claim to oppose US imperialism. This has left a big opening for ISIS and other extreme right-wing groups to recruit many of the same young people the Left should be winning because they at least fledge concern for the Syrian people and claim to be fighting the Assad regime. And make no mistake about it, the main reason these young people travel to Syria is to do something about the horror their elders, including the /Left,/ are all too willing to ignore, and not to build a mythological caliphate as the mainstream media would have you believe. Meanwhile, the rulers are now manoeuvring to use the ISIS scare to institute new controls on the Internet and social media because they know the vital role they played in enabling the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall St., and they want it locked down to avoid such uses in the future. And where is the /Left/ on this question? I have focused on the Syrian Revolution since the end of Occupy Los Angeles, over three years ago, because I saw that it had the capacity evolve into the defining struggle of this period. The /Left/ has all but ignored it, and in ignoring it, they have lost much credibility in their claim that they could be the force that leads humanity away from the catastrophes it presently faces. Not only is another Left possible, another Left is entirely necessary if humanity is to survive this century. *More...* http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2015/05/50-earthquakes-day-ignores-by-left-in.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] UNAC et al. shill for Houthis
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * of course Houthis are not Hezbollah which is not the Brotherhood which is not... But the Houthis have no organic connection to the revolution which swept Yemen 5 years ago, to the grassroots committees, especially in the South, and they are primarily a sectarian, undemocratic armed force. See MERIP on Yemen, and follow my retweets from Yemeni activists. Note also how this episode serves Iranian foreign policy aims. On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 8:36 PM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: On 5/10/15 8:18 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/05/10/410416/redcrescent-yemen-activists Anyone who's followed the tweets and posts of Yemeni antiwar activists knows that neither side represents the real grassroots revolution, and that Houthis are about as credible an opposition as al-Nusra in Syria. But listen to this: Is supporting the Houthis the same thing as supporting Hizbollah in Syria? I think it is more complicated than that. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] SAlt endorses, will work for Sanders AS a Democrat
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 5/10/15 7:17 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote: The rankest opportunism and betrayal. They totally deny the central purpose of his campaign (and misrepresent the meaning of past sheep-herders like Jackson), and actually say they'll work in it. http://www.socialistalternative.org/2015/05/09/bernie-sanders-independent-campaign/ I don't agree with their position but it is not quite the same thing as Progressives for Obama, etc. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Greek leader faces revolt by party hardliners as debt showdown looms | World news | The Guardian
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/10/greece-alexis-tsipras-syriza-revolt-debt-showdown _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] UNAC et al. shill for Houthis
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * WOW, Michael! All the essentials, and so quickly! Will share if no objection. On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 10:21 PM, mkaradjis . mkarad...@gmail.com wrote: The Ansarullah organization, commonly called the “Houthis” in US media, is at the center of a broad coalition of forces that is writing a new constitution. Popular Committees have sprung up all across the country.' That is a pack of lies. There are indeed Popular Resistance Committees al over the south, especially in Aden and Taiz, that are precisely those who are resisting the invasion of the south by the Houthi/Saleh forces, and they were resisting before the Saudi bombing began and indicate they will continue to regardless of Saudi ceasefires. That's because it is a life and death struggle for them. The southern resistance is usually called Hadi supporters by the media. This reflects the fact that some of them are the wing of the formerl;y ruling General People's Congress that supports Hadi (who replaced the detested tyrant Saleh in the Arab Spring yemeni revolution) and the wing of the military they control. However, the forces supporting the resistance in the south are the traditional southern left - the Yemeni Socialist Party, the Nasserites, the Southern independence movement (the mvt to revive South Yemen) - as well as the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Islah party, and the tribal confederations of the south. In addition, significant sections of the Saleh-controled armed forces have defected in the south since the opnme war began, to the Hadi side (ie, the side of the government recognised as legitimate by the UNSC and the Arab League). I know it may be difficult, but we need to recognise that this movement has its own existence regardless of the fact that the neighbouring reactionary absolute monarchy has committed its own aggression, for its own reasons, against Yemen, ostensibly on the side of the southern resistance. But for people who find it difficult to see Saudi Arabia on the side of the very forces that it fought against in the 1960s, I'll say two things. First, facts are important, regardless of how uncomforatbale they make us feel. We just need to deal with them and analyse them. Second, leftists need to stop analysing Middle east politics through the prisms of how things were 50 years ago (1960s Nasserism before 1967, the yemeni civil war etc). Quite simply, when sectarian Shiite invaders from the far north of the country, allied to the tyrant they thought they overthrew, are bombing you with warplanes, firing rockets and using tanks against your cities in the opposite end of the country in order to militarily crush you, you are likely to resist (even if some funny leftists in the US like to refer to the military invasion and crushing of people under mountains of blood as being the actions of a broad coalition of forces that is writing a new constitution. Further, we need to stop just talking about the Houthis. The Houthi forces are, no doubt, reactionary, sectarian and allied with and armed by Iran. However, noone really thinks they have received such a decisive level of Iranian arms as to allow them to take over nearly the whole of Yemen. In other words, in itself, no amount of Iranian support can put Iran at the same level as Saudi Arabia in terms of outside intervention. But in that case, how could a militia which only has a base among the Shia (Zaydi) of the far north take over all the way to Aden (almost)? It also wasn't due to popular support (anti-Houthio demonstratiosn of hundreds of thousands erupted in the capital Sanaa and other cities when they launched their coup there in January, and you don't need to bomb and shell cities if you have popular support). No, the absolutely decisive factor has been the opportunist alliance between the Houthi and Saleh (even if, whenn in power, a then Saudi-backed Saleh launched 7 wars against the Houthi in their own stronghold in the north!). Saleh, who stole $60 billion dollars from poverty-stricken Yemen still controls a large section fo the military (as a result of the half-baked 'Yemeni solution' whereby he was shiunted aside to be replaced by Hadi and a broader coalition to save the regime overall). Not satisfied with $60 billion and continued control of armed forces and not being arrested and imprisoned for tyranny and theft, the megalomaniac Saleh has used his control of the Yemeni armed forces, his links to the pro-Saleh high command, to mobilise the whole arsenal of warplanes, tanks, missiles and armed forces under his command to join the Houthi aggression. He aims to put his son in power. Whether
[Marxism] Mondoweiss: Front-page attack in New York Times says BDS movement is driven by minorities' 'hostility toward Jews'
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * As Phan Nguyen tweeted about this, I actually like that NYT portrays BDS as a race war. Also telling that NYT doesn't consider Jews a minority ... BDS used 2B dismissed as a thing that privileged white folks do. Now its being criticized as a thing brown folks do. http://mondoweiss.net/2015/05/movement-minorities-hostility -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] UNAC et al. shill for Houthis
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/05/10/410416/redcrescent-yemen-activists Anyone who's followed the tweets and posts of Yemeni antiwar activists knows that neither side represents the real grassroots revolution, and that Houthis are about as credible an opposition as al-Nusra in Syria. But listen to this: The Ansarullah organization, commonly called the “Houthis” in US media, is at the center of a broad coalition of forces that is writing a new constitution. Popular Committees have sprung up all across the country.' The sad thing is that Yemenis DESPERATELY need humanitarian aid; these stalinoids have just muddied the waters of sincere attempts to provide it. See also UNAC's earlier statement at http://nepajac.org/yemen.htm _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] UNAC et al. shill for Houthis
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The Ansarullah organization, commonly called the “Houthis” in US media, is at the center of a broad coalition of forces that is writing a new constitution. Popular Committees have sprung up all across the country.' That is a pack of lies. There are indeed Popular Resistance Committees al over the south, especially in Aden and Taiz, that are precisely those who are resisting the invasion of the south by the Houthi/Saleh forces, and they were resisting before the Saudi bombing began and indicate they will continue to regardless of Saudi ceasefires. That's because it is a life and death struggle for them. The southern resistance is usually called Hadi supporters by the media. This reflects the fact that some of them are the wing of the formerl;y ruling General People's Congress that supports Hadi (who replaced the detested tyrant Saleh in the Arab Spring yemeni revolution) and the wing of the military they control. However, the forces supporting the resistance in the south are the traditional southern left - the Yemeni Socialist Party, the Nasserites, the Southern independence movement (the mvt to revive South Yemen) - as well as the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Islah party, and the tribal confederations of the south. In addition, significant sections of the Saleh-controled armed forces have defected in the south since the opnme war began, to the Hadi side (ie, the side of the government recognised as legitimate by the UNSC and the Arab League). I know it may be difficult, but we need to recognise that this movement has its own existence regardless of the fact that the neighbouring reactionary absolute monarchy has committed its own aggression, for its own reasons, against Yemen, ostensibly on the side of the southern resistance. But for people who find it difficult to see Saudi Arabia on the side of the very forces that it fought against in the 1960s, I'll say two things. First, facts are important, regardless of how uncomforatbale they make us feel. We just need to deal with them and analyse them. Second, leftists need to stop analysing Middle east politics through the prisms of how things were 50 years ago (1960s Nasserism before 1967, the yemeni civil war etc). Quite simply, when sectarian Shiite invaders from the far north of the country, allied to the tyrant they thought they overthrew, are bombing you with warplanes, firing rockets and using tanks against your cities in the opposite end of the country in order to militarily crush you, you are likely to resist (even if some funny leftists in the US like to refer to the military invasion and crushing of people under mountains of blood as being the actions of a broad coalition of forces that is writing a new constitution. Further, we need to stop just talking about the Houthis. The Houthi forces are, no doubt, reactionary, sectarian and allied with and armed by Iran. However, noone really thinks they have received such a decisive level of Iranian arms as to allow them to take over nearly the whole of Yemen. In other words, in itself, no amount of Iranian support can put Iran at the same level as Saudi Arabia in terms of outside intervention. But in that case, how could a militia which only has a base among the Shia (Zaydi) of the far north take over all the way to Aden (almost)? It also wasn't due to popular support (anti-Houthio demonstratiosn of hundreds of thousands erupted in the capital Sanaa and other cities when they launched their coup there in January, and you don't need to bomb and shell cities if you have popular support). No, the absolutely decisive factor has been the opportunist alliance between the Houthi and Saleh (even if, whenn in power, a then Saudi-backed Saleh launched 7 wars against the Houthi in their own stronghold in the north!). Saleh, who stole $60 billion dollars from poverty-stricken Yemen still controls a large section fo the military (as a result of the half-baked 'Yemeni solution' whereby he was shiunted aside to be replaced by Hadi and a broader coalition to save the regime overall). Not satisfied with $60 billion and continued control of armed forces and not being arrested and imprisoned for tyranny and theft, the megalomaniac Saleh has used his control of the Yemeni armed forces, his links to the pro-Saleh high command, to mobilise the whole arsenal of warplanes, tanks, missiles and armed forces under his command to join the Houthi aggression. He aims to put his son in power. Whether the Saleh and Houthi forces eventually fight themselves remains to eb seen, but for the moment, he decided that an aliance with Iran and the Houthis would be a useful vehicle to use for his attempted counterrevolution. If
Re: [Marxism] Aljazeera Arabic: Should We Kill All Alawites?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * if this is genuine we need a global campaign against them On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 10:40 PM, Joseph Catron via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I think I've given this family of companies my last interview for a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULtNYSUqYHw -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] List comment
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 5/10/15 3:59 PM, james pitman wrote: Hi Louis, Have you deleted my comment? Or have I sent it incorrectly? Or do comments not show up on the sender's own email? Any idea? Jamie. Not sure why it didn't get to you but it did get posted. You can always check here: http://www.marxmail.org/maillist.html and here: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/ I am cc'ing the list in case anybody else runs into something like this. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] the British election - was Milliband on the Left?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The short answer to that is no, absolutely no. So this election was not a defeat for Left wing ideas no matter what nonsense pours out of the orifices of the Blairites. Milliband explicitly appealed to Tory voters. He attacked the SNP for being fiscally irresponsible. He was pro-Trident etc etc. But crucially he and his treasurer Balls refused to embrace even the Keynesian alternative to neo-classical economics, never mind the possibility of a rationally planned socialist economy So they had no solution to the de-industrialization of the UK. Thus they talked of guaranteeing apprenticeships for the young, when they should have guaranteed jobs. The political scientist David Mair wrote extensively about what Richard Seymour calls post-democracy, where a mandarin political class governs in the name of responsibility and refuses to respond to the wishes of those who elected them. That dialectic is at work all round the world. It produces massive abstentionism at election time especially in the USA and the UK. It also produces occasional and episodic vandalism and rioting, the flips side of despair. Now in Scotland the struggle to win a referendum on Independence totally transformed the political scene. The referendum was defeated largely by the Scottish Labour Party's counter campaign. If ever there was a Pyrrhic victory that was it. By winning the referendum campaign the Scottish Labour Party earned the undying hatred of 45% of the population. I would swear before godandhisholymother, that I could feel the anger down here in Oz. In a first past the post context, if 45% of the electorate hate you, then you are in trouble. Allied to the hatred was the SNP's oh so clever move to the Left and to embrace anti-austerity politics. That means that in Europe we now have four main anti-austerity blocks - Syriza, Podemos, Sinn Fein and the SNP. Whatever the doubts one has about the sincerity of the last two parties, it is still significant that in this juncture if one raises the banner of anti-austerity politics then the people flock to you. In Mair's terms, if one responds to one's political base rather than being Responsible, then one will do well electorally. That is the truth which the Blairites have rushed out to deny against all the empirical evidence, because it is a dangerous truth. There are as well curious elements to all this such as Rupert Murdoch's sentimental approach to Scottish nationalism, probably because of his ancestry. Also, Sinn Fein is anti austerity in the South of Ireland but part of an austerity government in the North as Philip has pointed out. So what will happen now? Only a fool attempts to answer that sort of question, so naturally I cannot resist having a go. The pragmatists, con artists, opportunists in the leadership of the SNP will not be able to climb down of the anti-austerity tiger they have ridden to victory. They will try, I have no doubt. But the working class of Scotland have taken a step towards socialist independence and I do not think they will be stopped. In England the political rhythmic is set to a five year cycle. But we will see another election before that. It will emerge that the Tory party will have victoried themselves to death by their win in 2015. To survive the English working class will have to become ungovernable. They have no alternative now. They will link up with the struggles in Scotland and Europe and then politics will become truly interesting. But I begin to rave... comradely Gary _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] SAlt endorses, will work for Sanders AS a Democrat
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The rankest opportunism and betrayal. They totally deny the central purpose of his campaign (and misrepresent the meaning of past sheep-herders like Jackson), and actually say they'll work in it. http://www.socialistalternative.org/2015/05/09/bernie-sanders-independent-campaign/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] UNAC et al. shill for Houthis
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 5/10/15 8:18 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/05/10/410416/redcrescent-yemen-activists Anyone who's followed the tweets and posts of Yemeni antiwar activists knows that neither side represents the real grassroots revolution, and that Houthis are about as credible an opposition as al-Nusra in Syria. But listen to this: Is supporting the Houthis the same thing as supporting Hizbollah in Syria? I think it is more complicated than that. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Aljazeera Arabic: Should We Kill All Alawites?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * He should be fired, that is disgusting and also potentially criminal. The other guy should have simply walked off, there are limits to what kinds of discourse one should engage. - Amith On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 10:40 PM, Joseph Catron via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I think I've given this family of companies my last interview for a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULtNYSUqYHw -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/amithrgupta%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Cops kill an unarmed Black man in Venice : What do we have to burn down to make the news?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY's finest taxi service? _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] American History Lectures
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 5/10/15 8:11 AM, Shane Hopkinson via Marxism wrote: I have just listened to Eric Foner's great series of lectures on the Civil War and Reconstruction so I know some of the above is outdated but wonder what comrades thought were useful references to update these with. Thankfully, Howard Zinn's masterpiece is online: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Oprah Winfrey: one of the world's best neoliberal capitalist thinkers | Television radio | The Guardian
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * An excerpt from a new Verso book on New Prophets of Capital. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/09/oprah-winfrey-neoliberal-capitalist-thinkers _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Putin to study how to get 110% of the vote
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Syria, Russia to Share Electoral Expertise May 5th, 2015 by SANA (State news agency) http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/News/29121 New agreement between Damascus and Moscow aims to boost cooperation in electoral expertise for optimal transparency Syria, Russia to Share Electoral Expertise Syria and Russia will soon sign an agreement for enhancing cooperation in election-related expertise and mechanisms, head of the Supreme Judicial Committee for Elections Hisham al-Shaar said on Sunday. Shaar, who headed a recent delegation to Moscow, told SANA the two countries held “positive and constructive” meetings, adding that Russia’s stance in support of the Syrian leadership and people is a result of the deep-rooted relations binding the two friendly nations. The delegation visited Russia from April 19-26 at the invitation of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, with talks focusing on the exchange of expertise in election mechanisms according to the optimal standards of transparency. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] American History Lectures
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hi While I was cleaning up my unit following some floods here in (usually) sunny Brisbane (Australia) and came across a copy of a 6 class series by the SWP on America's Revolutionary Heritage'. Alongside the key text Novack's 'America's Revolutionary Heritage' it lists the following as key references: CM Beard 'Rise of American Civilisation' R Hofstader 'American Political Tradition' J Mitchener 'Centennial' PS Foner 'History of the Labor Movement in the US' Marx 'Letters to Americans' and 'Civil War in the US' There are other refs to DuBois, Camejo and Aptheker. There is also a 4 class series 'American Labor Struggles' (1877-1934) based on Samuel Yellen's book of that name.. I have just listened to Eric Foner's great series of lectures on the Civil War and Reconstruction so I know some of the above is outdated but wonder what comrades thought were useful references to update these with. Cheers Shane _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Ukraine Separatists Rewrite History of 1930s Famine
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/world/europe/ukraine-separatists-rewrite-history-of-1930s-famine.html --- Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII. Part 1 WWII Article by: James Oliver The Ukrainians carried at least 40% of losses of the USSR in WWII. The Soviet historiographical concept of the “Great Patriotic War,” however, employed major misperceptions of the Ukrainians’ role and is now being used as a propaganda instrument fueling the war in Donbas. In our series “Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII” we seek to uncover the underreported role of Ukrainians living both in Ukraine and abroad in the most deadly war of the 20th century. On April 11 1935, a document titled “Valuable Declarations” was published in translated form for the eyes of the top brass of the Polish army. The author was Wsiewołod Zmijenko, a Ukrainian born Polish general who had served in Odessa during the Polish-Soviet war of 1920. His work was an attempt to see the Holodomor for what it was despite the fog of Soviet misinformation. “The Soviet government” he wrote “firmly denies the fact of the famine in Ukraine. This was the basis for turning down the [offer from] European organizations to bring in relief aid. The dissemination of information of the famine was dubbed as slandering [The USSR]. […] The letters from the people condemned to death from starvation were of no help, nor the reports from the correspondents, nor the photos brought in from Ukraine with great difficulties and at great risk. Everything was denied; the material evidence was described as a plot by the bourgeois against the proletarian state. […] So far the Ukrainian and foreign press were full of all types of information on the consequences of the famine in Ukraine. Numbers of 10,000,000, 6,000,000 2,000,000 victims were quoted, but the [Soviet] government refused to accept them. Today, it also does not accept it and probably will never admit it officially.” full: http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/05/08/understanding-the-ukrainians-in-wwii-part-1/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The British Election
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I suppose one should be immune from the vicissitudes of electoral politics, but I reacted with dismay to the sight of another Tory victory. Is there ever going to be an end to them? there they are in their plummy voiced splendor being voted into office by millions who will be their victims. The other side is equally disgusting. The spectacle now of the Blairites emerging from under their rocks to say that the problem is that Milliband took the party too far to the Left. What a sick joke! There is comfort though in the role that the Scots, good on them, have played. They have put right wing Labour to the sword and I wish I had been there to witness it. Hopefully Scotland will now build on this rejection and become totally ungovernable until they are set from the from the Union. The other source of comfort is the destruction of the Liberal-Democrats. The smugness of Clegg was truly insufferable, but he is a good deal less smug now. Richard Seymour and Tariq Ali in their differing ways say the condition of the Labor Party is terminal. One must be patient here of course, but hopefully that demise will not be overly long delayed. In the mean time our hopes shift to Podemos in Spain and Syriza's continued attempt to hold out. We shall see if the coming recession will be the final tipping point in Europe. comradely Garyu _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Labour's sell outs let Tories back in
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Labour's sell outs let Tories back in The election result in Britain is a disaster writes Charlie Kimber in Socialist Worker UK. Labour lost because it was too right wing, not because it was too left wing. http://enpassant.com.au/2015/05/10/labours-sell-outs-let-tories-back-in/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Why young people in Europe are joining jihadi groups
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/why-are-young-people-in-european-joining-jihadi-groups/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Marxists v Keynesianism
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * What is Keyesianism in the 21st century? https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/what-is-keynesianism-in-the-21st-century/ Marx versus Keynes on capitalist crisis: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/marx-versus-keynes-notes-from-a-conference-in-spain/ Rethinking economics in the backwater: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/rethinking-economics-in-the-backwater/ Capital and the state: a Maxist view: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/capital-and-the-state/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Conference Manifesto - NYTimes.com
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Yeah, well, personal attacks seem to be part of the territory when you try to say something meaningful or controversial out there in public. My daughter is a self-acknowledged alcoholic, disarmingly so if you read her books. And she has grossly falsified and exaggerated my part in her life. It's what you do, often, especially if your field is fiction, to sell your commodity. My take on parenting is perform the act if you can't refrain, do your best but expect nothing and then you are less likely to be disappointed. We adopted my spouse's gifted 10-year old autistic granddaughter a few years ago, so I'm having another chance at it. When my wife showed me the review of this book in Book Forum I drafted a letter demanding that this be expunged. But then I found that her publisher was part of the Bertellsmann publishing empire, with their formidable battery of lawyers, and the book was already in print. And so yes I was seventeen back then, 91 now, and still somewhat sentient. I wish the same to you, and when will I learn to shut up. On 5/10/15 1:11 PM, Ralph Johansen via Marxism wrote: But maybe forward to another form of dialectical clarity, if a more effective such relationship to one another can be visualized? I recall that when I was about seventeen, in the late 1930s in the depths of the depression, I accompanied a friend to a party in a badly run-down house in the poorest part of my home town. It was one of the first times I had ever gotten smashed. Holy mackerel. Someone older than me (and Gary McLennan and Hans Ehrbar). Ralph, were you *really* seventeen in the late 1930s? Also, is this you? Ralph Johansen, Christensen’s father, was charismatic but distant, a ponytailed Marxist lawyer who defended draft dodgers and Black Panthers. His hold on the daughter he named Laurie Kate Johansen continued long after her mother bravely left him and moved with her three daughters to Arizona to pursue her education. (When Christensen’s first stepfather, Jim Christensen, adopted the girls, their father’s name was removed from their birth certificates. She dropped the name Laurie at 14.) full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2013/08/23/696410fc-e97f-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Some Supplemental Thoughts on the Left Elect Conference
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The organizers of the Leftelect conference said that it exceeded their expectations in attendance and results. While I am no less excited and pleased, the results–the idea of holding another conference at some point–had been very predictable. I was hardly disappointed by this, because we really had no reason to expect more, but it is important to note that participants in the conference were ready to do more. I have little to add to the descriptions of the conference by Louis Proyect of The North Star and Dan Labotz of The New Politics, the latter also being one of the conference organizers. However, I did want to underscore a few issues that merit particular thought about this historic gathering. Towards the close of the first day, supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders circulated an open letter from the newly declared Democratic presidential candidate expressing his solidarity with the goals of the conference and reminding us of his efforts on behalf of independent candidates at Richmond, Madison, and Chicago. While such a development should have surprised nobody, the conference thereafter seemed haunted by the Sanders’ campaign. It could have addressed this by appointing a committee to draft a response. (After getting home, John Halle, Fred Murphy and myself made a very respectable job at doing this in a few emails.) Then, either the conference organizers could have send it or the conference itself could have voted to send it. full: http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=12268 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Conference Manifesto - NYTimes.com
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 5/10/15 2:09 PM, Ralph Johansen via Marxism wrote: And so yes I was seventeen back then, 91 now, and still somewhat sentient. I wish the same to you, and when will I learn to shut up. Well, I'll be fucked. I always thought you were a young'un like me--seventy or so. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Conference Manifesto - NYTimes.com
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 10 May 2015, at 8:09 PM, Ralph Johansen via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: … and when will I learn to shut up. Please don’t. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Some Supplemental Thoughts on the Left Elect Conference
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A spectre is haunting the somewhat left; the spectre of Bernie Sanders. Further comment unnecessary. T -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Sent: May 10, 2015 2:12 PM To: Thomas F Barton thomasfbar...@earthlink.net Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Some Supplemental Thoughts on the Left Elect Conference Towards the close of the first day, supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders circulated an open letter from the newly declared Democratic presidential candidate expressing his solidarity with the goals of the conference and reminding us of his efforts on behalf of independent candidates at Richmond, Madison, and Chicago. While such a development should have surprised nobody, the conference thereafter seemed haunted by the Sanders’ campaign. full: http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=12268 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/thomasfbarton%40earthlink.net _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Comments from British comrades?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (So according to this, Ed Miliband was a leftie and lost for that reason.) NY Times, May 10 2015 Appeal to Dwindling Core Proves Costly for Labour Party in Britain By STEVEN ERLANGER and STEPHEN CASTLE LONDON — The Labour Party’s defeat in Thursday’s British elections was its poorest performance in nearly 30 years. It was nearly wiped out in Scotland, long one of its strongholds. Some of its brightest and most experienced members of Parliament lost their seats, including its shadow chancellor and shadow foreign secretary. Most important, it lost the argument about Britain’s best path toward the future and was left with no clear guiding philosophy. Ed Miliband, Labour’s leader for the last five years, took responsibility and resigned, initiating another round of soul-searching for a party with trade union and socialist roots in a globalized country where heavy industry and the traditional working class are fading fast. (clip) The most obvious symbol of the internal conflict was the post-2010 battle of the brothers — David Miliband, a Blairite who was foreign secretary, versus Ed Miliband, a Brownite. The fight was close and Freudian, but while Labour members of Parliament backed David, the trade unions pushed Ed narrowly into the leadership. The former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, reportedly quoting a trade-union ally, famously said, “We’ve got our party back.” Ed Miliband gave that traditional socialism a modern gloss, but he sometimes seemed less than comfortable dealing with issues like nurturing the economic recovery, shrinking the budget deficit, appealing to business and managing, as opposed to funding, the national health service. In some sense, he was seen as running against Mr. Blair as much as Mr. Cameron. As Mr. Johnson said, if Labour was “suggesting that we failed in our 13 years in government it’s not going to do us much good.” Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that Labour must avoid a simple rerun of the old debate. A core strategy will no longer work since the electoral system no longer favors Labour, he said. “So will there be another debate about how to win back lost voters?” he said. “Or about ideas, values and ideologies? After 2010 the argument was more tactical, but the result was a miserable 30.4 percent of the vote.” _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] When Humans Declared War on Fish
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (This illustrates the folly of equating ecological limits with neo-Malthusianism.) NY Times Op-Ed, May 10 2015 When Humans Declared War on Fish By PAUL GREENBERG and BORIS WORM ON Friday we humans observed V-E Day, the end to one part of a global catastrophe that cost the planet at least 60 million lives. But if we were fish, we would have marked the day differently — as the beginning of a campaign of violence against our taxonomic classes, one that has resulted in trillions of casualties. Oddly, the war itself was a great reprieve for many marine species. Just as Axis and Allied submarines and mines made the transportation of war matériel a highly perilous endeavor, they similarly interfered with fishing. The ability to catch staple seafoods, like cod, declined markedly. Freed from human pursuit, overexploited species multiplied in abundance. But World War II also brought a leap in human ingenuity, power and technical ability that led to an unprecedented assault on our oceans. Not only did ships themselves become larger, faster and more numerous, but the war-derived technologies they carried exponentially increased their fishing power. Take sonar. Before the 1930s, electronic echolocation was a barely functioning concept. It allowed operators to trace the vague contours of the seafloor topography and crudely track the pathway of a large moving object. But the war pushed forward dramatic advances in sonar technology; by its end, sophisticated devices, developed for hunting submarines, had grown infinitely more precise, and could now be repurposed to hunt fish. Schools of fish could soon be pinpointed to within a few yards, and clearly differentiated from the sea’s bottom. Coupled with high-powered diesel engines that had been developed during the global conflict, the modern fishing vessel became a kind of war machine with a completely new arsenal: lightweight polymer-based nets, monofilament long lines that could extend for miles and onboard freezers capable of storing a day’s catch for months at a time. Even human resources developed during the war were later redirected toward fishing: Japanese fighter pilots adept at spotting subsurface Allied submarines were later retrained to look for whales. Likewise, more than a few former Allied pilots found postwar employment hunting bluefin tuna and Atlantic menhaden. In some ways, the “war machine” wasn’t a metaphor. Across South Asia, leftover explosives were “recycled” for “bomb fishing,” an obscenely destructive way of killing coastal fish, which turned many coral reefs into rubble fields. And the technological overkill continued into the Cold War era: Satellite imagery and GPS technology originally intended to track the movements of the Soviet nuclear arsenal eventually allowed well-populated fish habitats to be clearly identified from space. Because the war incentivized the creation of ships with much longer oceangoing ranges, it also meant that fishing was transformed from a local endeavor into a global one. “Industrial fishing,” maybe the first globalized economic enterprise, meant the wholesale, permanent occupation of marine ecosystems, instead of the local raids practiced by previous generations. In addition, emerging economies of scale meant that it wasn’t just the target fish that suffered. With the invention of postwar super trawlers that scooped up everything in their path, a sort of scorched-earth approach to fishing became commonplace. Taken collectively, the rise of postwar fishing technology meant that the global reported catch rose from some 15 million metric tons at war’s end to 85 million metric tons today — the equivalent, in weight, of the entire human population at the turn of the 20th century, removed from the sea each and every year. Only the turn of the third millennium saw a new kind of reprieve, this time not caused by human adversity, but by the insight that we need to make peace with other species as well. Growing signs of exhaustion and failure in global fisheries made humans reconsider the totality of their assault. Marine protected areas, an environmental version of a demilitarized zone, started to spring up, and now cover some 3.5 percent of the ocean. Countries formerly at war began to work together to hammer out new deals for fish, exemplified by both the recent revision of the Common Fisheries Policy in Europe and new efforts underway at the United Nations to better regulate fishing on the high seas, the 60 percent of the oceans outside national control. Collateral damage to sharks, turtles, whales and sea birds is
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Conference Manifesto - NYTimes.com
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Louis Proyect wrote ... http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/the-conference-manifesto/ An article that begins with We are weary of academic conferences. Worth reading for those who are presenting at the Left Forum, because it describes all too many left conferences that I have attended. There has to be a way to do this effectively. Maybe back to platonic method as one of the best forms of discourse, for those who may not fully remember, a form of inquiry and discussion between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical [exchange] and to illuminate ideas. It is a dialectical method, often involving a discussion in which the defense of one point of view is questioned; one participant may lead another to contradict themselves in some way, thus strengthening the inquirer's own point. (Wikipedia) But maybe forward to another form of dialectical clarity, if a more effective such relationship to one another can be visualized? I recall that when I was about seventeen, in the late 1930s in the depths of the depression, I accompanied a friend to a party in a badly run-down house in the poorest part of my home town. It was one of the first times I had ever gotten smashed. I found myself off in a corner of the room, talking with a couple, our hosts, who had just been through a long, agonizing wildcat strike, which they had lost. As I remember that party, they described in detail to me and a few others their rage, piling up over years, at the appallingly bad conditions of work that had caused them to act together to try to change things, their radical vision of a better world, the months of facing off against every resource that their powerful employer threw at them - strike-breaking, beatings and scabs, being sacked, cops interfering with picket lines, false accusations causing repeated arrests - all of the tactics that a corporation has at their disposal including the backing of the law and the state. They recounted how they were left, after prolonged, unsuccessful resistance, with months of unpaid rent, irate landlord and threats of eviction, running out of food, sending children off to school with no breakfast or lunch, efforts at solidarity and sharing of dwindling resources, illness and fatigue and bitterness and ultimately abject failure. All they had at the end was each other, sharing their defeat and their impoverished condition, and a lot of unanswered questions. I have never forgotten that party. It's indescribable, really, as a vicarious event. It left its mark on me for life. Unanswered questions. Point is, to me being there and being part of that struggle can be conveyed effectively, but it can't be done either on a narrative, or an abstract, level alone - at least not without placing the abstractions as explanatory, clarifying (historical and materialist) theory in a solid framework of relevant, vivid painful experience, struggle, the ground bass if you will which a great many of us have never personally shared. And it's the most important function we can perform for the time being - along with acting on it, because we find ourselves in a period largely without a program. The suits don't have one, certainly, but neither do we. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The lessons of World War II
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On the struggle against fascism in World War II In the US, Victory in Europe Day is commemorated on May 8. Russia celebrates Victory Day on May 9. Either way, it is a commemoration of the defeat of one of the most vicious powers that ever arose in world history, Nazi Germany. The fascist Axis powers of World War II were a threat to everyone living on the earth. Their defeat was crucial. And the victory over the Axis powers gave a tremendous impetus to progressive struggles around the world. Among other things, this victory accelerated the national liberation movement in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. And yet, this same national liberation movement fought against some of the victorious governments of World War II. It fought against British, French, and US imperialism in many bloody and protracted confrontations that sometimes won and sometimes lost. There is a tremendous gulf between the people who heroically fought fascism, and the imperialist motives of the governments. Many more examples could be given. The Western imperialist Allies not only tried to maintain colonialism, but they betrayed the left-wing resistance movements that had sprung up in Europe against the fascists And the same thing happened on the Eastern Front in Europe. The Soviet Union was one of the Allied powers. The sacrifice of the Soviet peoples against fascism will never be forgotten. They bore the brunt of assault by the bulk of the Nazi armies. Millions upon millions of Soviet working people died in this struggle, and they helped save the world. But the Stalinist government stained the anti-fascist banner. There was the Katyn massacre of over 20,000 Poles in 1940 by the Soviet government; this was a major crime and an embarrassment to the anti-fascist cause. During the war, there was also the mass deportation in 1944 of all Chechens from Chechnya, of all Crimean Tatars from Crimea, and of a number of other small nationalities from their lands. No Chechens were left in Chechnya, or Tatars in Crimea, and return didn't start until well after Stalin died. Back in World War II, Red Army soldiers of these nationalities, soldiers who had fought fascism, might return home only to find their families gone, and they themselves would be deported. There was also the extensive rape of women by the Soviet army during the occupation of its sector of Germany, and to some extent elsewhere in Europe. Many more examples could be given. The Soviet government had betrayed the Russian revolution and Marxism long before World War II; it had become the government of a new bourgeoisie; and this could be seen in the way it acted during the war. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, but today the Russian government is saying that it bears the banner of anti-fascism and deserves to have a sphere of influence that includes any country that was in the old Soviet Union. It has been shouting about this louder and louder as its intervenes in Ukraine. It says that anti-fascism is peculiarly Russian, and that its neighbors such as the Ukrainians are fascists. What a lie! The Ukrainian people fought against the fascists as did the Russian people. There are good and bad class trends in all countries: anti-fascism isn't a matter of being Russian. The Putin government in Russia talks about being anti-fascist: but after annexing Crimea, it began oppressing the Crimean Tatars again (those who were able to return to Crimea). It denigrates the right to self-determination to Ukraine, although that was supposedly guaranteed in the Soviet Constitution. It makes a mockery of the democratic rights of the Russian people. And Putin makes deals with fascist forces across Europe, such as with Le Pen's infamous National Front in France. Let's remember the sacrifice made by millions upon millions of people in the struggle against fascism in World War II, a struggle that not only took place in Europe but in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. But let's also remember that both the Western capitalist governments and the Soviet state-capitalist government carried out their own imperialist plans under cover of this war. If we are going to carry forward the anti-fascist banner today, it would help to be clear about what happened in the past. We need a class perspective on why World War II occurred, on what happened in this war, and on what the different class forces did. We need to remember: the working people fought fascism, and they fought it for the sake of freedom, but the Allied governments fought the Axis with different goals from that of the working people. We must keep the legacy of anti-fascist
[Marxism] 'The Revolution In Rojava: Strengths and Challenges.' - London talk by eye-witness, Jeff Miley, and discussion.
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Please publicise this event The Revolution In Rojava: Strengths And Challenges An eye-witness account by Jeff MileyTuesday, May 26, 6.45pm Many socialists and anarchists have been celebrating recent events in Rojava, West Kurdistan, describing what's been happening as a genuine social revolution through which women have gained unprecedented equality and power. Some have even described the result as a 21st century matriarchy. Others, however, are more skeptical. So what do we know about what is really happening there? Jeff Miley has visited Rojava and reports on the revolution's strengths and also its challenges. In the upstairs function room at Cock Tavern, 23 Phoenix Road, London NW1 1HB. (Euston station) For readings and other eye-witness accounts see: https://libcom.org/library/rojava-revolution-reading-guide _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: The Aesthetic Failure of 'Charlie Hebdo' | The New Republic
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (A good article by Jeet Heer who used to be on Doug Henwood's mailing list. Now he is a senior editor at New Republic. This should give you an idea of why the old gang there was so pissed off at the new owner.) Some might argue that the racist tinge of some Hebdo cartoons is a side issue. It’s not like the Hebdo killers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi were anti-racist activists. They were well-trained members of Al Qaeda who targeted Charlie Hebdo on the pretext of piety with the intent to polarize French society along religious lines. But this issue of polarization speaks to exactly why the racism is important. To the extent that Al Qaeda’s goal is to make French Muslims feel that they have no future in secular Europe, it’s worth asking whether Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons don’t, in their own way, further the alienation of the Muslim community. The strategy of using racism to fight racism itself can be questioned. Juice that gave energy to Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor has turned sour after more than four decades. Charlie Hebdo is the French counterpart of Robert Crumb, but the magazine is a Crumb that has never changed or evolved, that keeps using in 2015 an artistic strategy from the 1960s. The real sin of Charlie Hebdo is not so much racism but arrested development, a grave aesthetic failure because political cartoonists have to keep up with times and be mindful of the impact their images have. The free speech rights of Charlie Hebdo deserve protection and the cartoonists who work at the magazine have more than earned an award for courage. It’s entirely possible to support Charlie Hebdo being honored even if you are uncomfortable with the magazine’s content. But we do artists no favor by refraining from merited criticism of their work. Charlie Hebdo cartoonists deserve to be taken seriously as artists, which means that the aesthetic failure of their anti-racist racism has to be acknowledged. full: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121748/arrested-development-and-aesthetic-failure-charlie-hebdo _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Varoufakis' vision of a grand public-private partnership to revive the Greek economy
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * In an article which appears in today’s Project Syndicate, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis “imagines” the shape of a Greek economic rebound should the IMF, ECB, and eurozone countries relent and meet Syriza’s demands for debt relief and an end to austerity. A robust recovery would be fuelled by joint private-public enterprises and foreign investment flows resulting from the formation of two state-sponsored banks, one for development and the other to absorb the bad assets of the Greek banks and restore them to solvency. Varoufakis links his scheme to the privatization of public assets, which Syriza had pledged to resist. “Privatization would be part of a grand public-private partnership for development”, he writes. The state, in concert with the private sector, would target for development “IT companies that use local talent, organic-agro small and medium-size enterprises, export-oriented pharmaceutical companies…the international film industry (attracted by) Greek locations, and educational programs that take advantage of Greek intellectual output and unrivaled historic sites.” https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/greek-recovery-strategy-by-yanis-varoufakis-2015-05 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Comments from British comrades?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The argument that Labour should tack towards rightwards and the argument that Labour fought a shite election campaign need to disentangled, IMO. So, the mottled corpses of various New Labourites have been all over the newspapers (including Blair, Mandelsohn and Alan Johnson just today), using the occasion of Labour's (laughable, if it hadn't returned a Tory government) implosion to argue for the return of Blairism (athough its still not clear if this includes the Islamophobia and war bit, which ended up playing out badly in PR terms). I think this all may be the product of wishful thinking (or their haunted souls) or, if not, then old-timers disease, because the election results don't really carry any evidence of the sort the Blairites claim. Against the grain of the rest of the UK, Labour actually did pretty well in London, even gaining some seats. This despite the fact that the so-called 'mansion tax' and other pledges that had a vaguely leftish tint to them, would have disproportionately affected many Londoners, where the cost of the average property and the average salary have about as much relation to one another as me and Taylor Swift. Moreover, the Tories are obviously not going to fix inequality, they are going to turbo-charge it while drinking babies blood and eating swans and foxes and other stuff Tories do; so purposely codifying the intention to not fight the Tories on that terrain (i.e. social inequality) in the next parliament, and into the 2020 election, seems unutterably stupid (ok, it may be possible to talk aspiration whilst deploring food-banks for another party, but I don't trust Labour to walk and chew gum at the same time - Miliband couldn't even walk off the stage on one of the tv debates without tripping over like a massive tit). I'm not a psephologist, and I can't be arsed to calculate if the aggregate total of Green, SNP and Plaid votes (all to the left of Labour, although I suspect the SNP could prove to be more nominal in that regard over the long term) is greater than the seats they lost in swings to the Tories and UKIP - but if it isn't, and Labour do chase the votes they lost to the right, then fuck knows what sort of lumbering mutated bog monster they will unleash on the public, but its likely to be pretty vile given that the milieu over the next parliament is probably going to be characterised by a clash of nationalisms (Scots vs Westminster; followed by the Welsh and possibly the N. Irish, who are unlikely to accept lesser settlements; then the ongoing UK vs EU - with a referendum seemingly guaranteed, which will just translate into little Englander nationalism vs everybody etc). Anyway, in policy terms, I don't think there's much support for the argument that Labour would have done better if they had positioned themselves more to the right of where they were. This is not the Leninist dogma that everyone's a secret socialist wearing red underpants underneath their blue suit or whatever. I'm unconvinced many people voted differently just because 'food banks', for example. I think the problem, in the main, was that they lost the election *campaign* and the Tories won it, and a great number of new Tory voters probably held their noses whilst doing so. I'd argue that his had less to do with political positioning than Labour ineptitude and the avalanche of hostility they met in the media, who seemed to work for Lynton Crosbie and team on a mass intern basis. On 10 May 2015 at 17:44, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (So according to this, Ed Miliband was a leftie and lost for that reason.) NY Times, May 10 2015 Appeal to Dwindling Core Proves Costly for Labour Party in Britain By STEVEN ERLANGER and STEPHEN CASTLE LONDON — The Labour Party’s defeat in Thursday’s British elections was its poorest performance in nearly 30 years. It was nearly wiped out in Scotland, long one of its strongholds. Some of its brightest and most experienced members of Parliament lost their seats, including its shadow chancellor and shadow foreign secretary. Most important, it lost the argument about Britain’s best path toward the future and was left with no clear guiding philosophy. Ed Miliband, Labour’s leader for the last five years, took responsibility and resigned, initiating another round of soul-searching for a
[Marxism] Fwd: Accident at Indian Point | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Just by coincidence, I got an email this morning from Michael Meeropol at the very minute I was watching a TV news report on an accident at Indian Point nuclear power plant. His email had nothing to do with the accident but it reminded me that I had planned to say a word or two about his daughter Ivy Meeropol’s documentary on Indian Point that I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival last month. I should mention that this is not one of my favorite film festivals because a few years ago I was prevented from seeing a documentary about herring—of all things—by the festival staff because I had neglected to register for that showing but one later in the week. Even when the publicist intervened to tell them I was okay, I still could not get past them—as if I had a suicide bomb under my shirt or something. There’s a certain irony, of course, in Ivy Meeropol making such a film since her grandparents were none other than Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the subject of her first documentary in 2004. As the “atom spies”, they were charged with giving Russia “the secret” of how to make a nuclear weapon. For the longest time the left upheld the analysis of Walter and Miriam Schneir that they were wrongly accused. When it was revealed that they were passing information to the Soviets, the left had a feeling of being had. I always felt that the best tack would have been for them to admit it and defend it as necessary for the survival of the USSR. My strong suspicion is that if the Soviets lacked such a self-defense, WWIII would have taken place in the mid-50s with genocidal results. full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/05/10/accident-at-indian-point/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Comments from British comrades?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * In 2010 Labour Party got 8,606,517 votes, 29.0% of the total vote, and 258 seats in parliament. In 2015 Labour Party got 9,347,326 votes, 30.4% of the total vote, and 232 seats in parliament. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
