[Marxism] Same-sex marriage and US
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 a previous post I suggested that the US and Australia were aberrations on the issue of same-sex marriage in developed capitalist countries. My info on the US was clearly out of date - I thought only a handful of liberal states had same-sex marriage. Joseph Catron has brought me up-to-scratch. I'm (pleasantly) surprised to see that about three-quarters of the states have same-sex marriage and same-sex marriages are recognised by the federal government. I hadn't really paid attention to US developments in the past two-three years, so I'd missed the fact that 2013 and 2014 saw really big increases in the number of states which now have same-sex marriage. Phil _ 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 Swedish model (part 1) | 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. * As a Swede I can only agree. It’s also worth noting that for about two decades now Sweden has lead the first world in terms of rapidly growing economic inequality (and neoliberal extremism in other areas such as school privatizations). Sweden is as good an example as any of how social democracy saved capitalism from itself and disciplined the working class, making it almost completely defenseless when the boom ended and neoliberalism was launched as the only alternative. Website: http://filmint.nu/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FilmInt Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/FilmInt 24 maj 2015 kl. 22:45 skrev Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu: 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. * Bob Schieffer: Let me just start out by asking you, what is a socialist these days? I mean, I remember when a socialist was somebody who wanted to nationalize the railroads and things like that. Bernie Sanders: When we talk about Democratic socialism, I think it’s important to realize that there are countries around the world like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, who’ve had social democratic governments on and off for many, many years. And we can learn a whole lot from some of those countries. —Face the Nation interview, May 10, 2015 Sweden is a funny country to call socialist. In France or Austria the government owns a much larger share of industry, and I would expect that in a socialist country personal income taxes would be low and company taxes high, whereas in Sweden it is the opposite. It has the world’s highest personal income taxes and it’s a tax haven for companies! –A statement made in 1976 by Rune Hagelund, a member of the board of the Swedish Employers’ Federation (SAF), a former professor of economics, and president and chairman of the board of two of Sweden’s major corporations. full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/05/24/the-swedish-model-part-1/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/daniel.lindvall%40filmint.nu _ 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: Did the US DIA see ISIL as a strategic Ally against al-Assad in 2012? | Informed Comment
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Swedish model (part 1) | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
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On 05/25/2015 01:36 PM, Daniel Lindvall via Marxism wrote:
As a Swede I can only agree. It’s also worth noting that for about
two decades now Sweden has lead the first world in terms of rapidly
growing economic inequality (and neoliberal extremism in other areas
It's also worth noting that when you start low (in terms of e.g. gini
coefficient after tax and transfers), you can have rapid growth
(dozens or even hundreds of percentage points) without absolute numbers
changing that much. Late 2000s Sweden (or Finland) still had more equal
distribution of income than countries like France, Holland, Canada, UK
etc. ever had.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality#Gini_coefficient.2C_after_taxes_and_transfers
such as school privatizations). Sweden is as good an example as any
of how social democracy saved capitalism from itself and disciplined
the working class, making it almost completely defenseless when the
boom ended and neoliberalism was launched as the only alternative.
'Welfare state as a capitalist trick' sounds too instrumentalist to be
credible as a materialist explanation for the rise and dismantling of
the welfare state. Politically I don't see it as too useful either, as I
don't welcome the dismantling of the Finnish welfare state, whether it
originally was a capitalist trick or not.
Well was it a trick or not? Concerning Finland, the breakthrough of the
welfare state came in late 50s and early 60s, when most of the basic
legislations and institutions for social insurance was laid down. At the
time it certainly wasn't seen as a convenient way to domesticate the
workers' movement by the Finnish capitalist class. They fought it tooth
and nail, and gave in to some options rather than others because they
thought that if they don't accept this, then worse (for them) decisions
will be made without their input.
My source, Päivi Uljas's dissertation ('Hyvinvointivaltion läpimurto',
2012) is available only in Finnish. (The English summary is available
here: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/28892)
One might argue, well the *objective outcome* of the process, regardless
of any conscious goal of domesticating the workers etc. is that of
making the working class almost completely defenseless in the end.
That's all very well, but I don't see the point in that kind of I told
you so kind of revolutionary metaphysics. After all, you can throw that
on the table every time some gain turns out to have fallen short of
accomplishing socialist revolution.
--
jjonas @ nic.fi
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[Marxism] Fwd: Watch a police officer Taser, pepper-spray a man who is suffering a “massive stroke.”
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Swedish model (part 1) | 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 5/25/15 8:39 AM, Joonas Laine via Marxism wrote: One might argue, well the*objective outcome* of the process, regardless of any conscious goal of domesticating the workers etc. is that of making the working class almost completely defenseless in the end. That's all very well, but I don't see the point in that kind of I told you so kind of revolutionary metaphysics. After all, you can throw that on the table every time some gain turns out to have fallen short of accomplishing socialist revolution. The real question is not whether a welfare state should be defended against austerity. That should be clear from my defense of Syriza. However, my main goal is to make the case that this type of state as it existed in Sweden is very much the product of a particular congruence of interests between the ruling class and a section of the trade union movement against a backdrop of a long wave of economic expansion. In a way, Bernie Sanders proposal for the USA becoming like Sweden is a form of Ostalgia that was widespread in eastern Germany. _ 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: Did the US DIA see ISIL as a strategic Ally against al-Assad in 2012? | Informed 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. * It would be odd indeed if it had, since the group didn't have that name, nor much of a presence in Syria, until its short-lived merger with Jabhat al-Nusra in 2013. -- 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
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Swedish model (part 1) | 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. * It's also worth noting that when you start low (in terms of e.g. gini coefficient after tax and transfers), you can have rapid growth (dozens or even hundreds of percentage points) without absolute numbers changing that much. Late 2000s Sweden (or Finland) still had more equal distribution of income than countries like France, Holland, Canada, UK etc. ever had. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality#Gini_coefficient.2C_after_taxes_and_transfer A fair point, but even so, the consistent trend of Sweden leading the pack in a situation where inequality is exploding in all these other first world nations is still significant. Furthermore, in areas such as the school system, railways and communications, and health care Sweden now has systems that are as or more neoliberal than most other nations. This is especially true regarding the school system, which is generally considered the most extremely marketized in the first world (and a complete disaster in terms of outcome when it comes to students’ result - Finland who has a system very similar to what we had 30 years ago is held up as a shining example these days). The marketization and selling off of public housing and the price hikes and housing shortages this has led to in major cities is another example. 'Welfare state as a capitalist trick' sounds too instrumentalist to be credible as a materialist explanation for the rise and dismantling of the welfare state. Politically I don't see it as too useful either, as I don't welcome the dismantling of the Finnish welfare state, whether it originally was a capitalist trick or not. One might argue, well the *objective outcome* of the process, regardless of any conscious goal of domesticating the workers etc. is that of making the working class almost completely defenseless in the end. That's all very well, but I don't see the point in that kind of I told you so kind of revolutionary metaphysics. After all, you can throw that on the table every time some gain turns out to have fallen short of accomplishing socialist revolution. Firstly, surely objective outcome is an important point in this discussion? Secondly, though there have been genuine reform socialists in the social democratic movement up until the 1980s or so, the idea of the handshake between capital and workers and the de-mobilization of the rank and file in favour of building a human-faced capitalist society, jointly administered by social democratic bureaucrats and representatives of capital, has been the ideology of the majority of the leading social democrats. It wasn’t a ”trick” or a conspiracy, they have been very open about it. There is no shortage of evidence (for instance from the ”employee funds” debate in the 1970s and 80s) that leading Swedish social democrats absolutely hate the idea of workers’ control of production. Furthermore, this doesn’t mean I am for the dismantling of the welfare state or oppose genuinely progressive reforms. The very opposite. But we most be aware that reformism always comes up against the limits of capitalism sooner or later and the choice then has to be made whether we want to save and build on these reforms or save profits. In this situation social democrats as good as always choose profits. That’s just an historical fact. And a working class dominated by social democratic bureaucracies will be a weak force at such times. _ 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 Swedish model (part 1) | 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 5/25/15 9:29 AM, Daniel Lindvall via Marxism wrote: Firstly, surely objective outcome is an important point in this discussion? Secondly, though there have been genuine reform socialists in the social democratic movement up until the 1980s or so, the idea of the handshake between capital and workers and the de-mobilization of the rank and file in favour of building a human-faced capitalist society, jointly administered by social democratic bureaucrats and representatives of capital, has been the ideology of the majority of the leading social democrats. I should mention that my next post will entail a look at the Stockholm School of Economics that was founded with Wallenberg money and inspired by the theories of one Knut Wicksell, who taught at Uppsala. You've probably heard of Gunnar Myrdal and Dag Hammarskjold, who did teach at the Stockholm school. Their ideas were a conscious break with Marxism. Wicksell in particular was influenced by Böhm-Bawerk, who was one of the first bourgeois economists to attempt to disprove Marx's labor theory of value on the basis of marginalism. It should be mentioned that Wicksell was embraced by both the Swedish social democratic think-tank at Stockholm as well as by Mises and company. There's lots more about the peculiarities of a Second International party that broke with the theoretical consensus of sister parties that still embraced Marxism--at least in theory. _ 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 Swedish model (part 1) | 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 Mon, May 25, 2015 at 8:39 AM, Joonas Laine via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: Politically I don't see it as too useful either, as I don't welcome the dismantling of the Finnish welfare state, whether it originally was a capitalist trick or not. That seems like an oversimplified approach. All of us would oppose the rolling back of racial integration in the United States, but its implementation doubtlessly had an element of capitalist trickery, as the federal government sought to expand its influence in African and other black countries while minimizing the Soviets'. Tooling around with domestic backwardness helped in that regard, at minimal cost. Of course this doesn't mean we should reject these changes, but understanding them requires consideration of all the factors that went into them, not just the ones it's easy for us to retrospectively lionize. Otherwise, how can we even think of achieving comparable ones in the future? And how can you meaningfully support the welfare state without sober consideration of its origins, good, bad and ugly? -- 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] Most Canadians oppose communism victims memorial: poll
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. * When asked to rank a list of new facilities “to showcase Canada’s National Capital Region,” respondents ranked a memorial to the victims of communism last out of five possibilities...A national library “on a grand scale” and a memorial for historical injustices against Aboriginal peoples were the top two picks of respondents. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/most-canadians-oppose-communism-victims-memorial-poll _ 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 Swedish model (part 1) | 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 05/25/2015 04:29 PM, Daniel Lindvall wrote: 'Welfare state as a capitalist trick' sounds too instrumentalist to be credible as a materialist explanation for the rise and dismantling of the welfare state. Politically I don't see it as too [...] One might argue, well the *objective outcome* of the process, regardless of any conscious goal of domesticating the workers etc. is that of making the working class almost completely defenseless in the end. That's all very well, but I don't see the point in that kind of I told you so kind of revolutionary metaphysics. After all, you can throw that on the table every time some gain turns out to have fallen short of accomplishing socialist revolution. Firstly, surely objective outcome is an important point in this Sure, though I tend to think that that outcome is somewhat contingent, and what the sdems wanted is just a factor; even if something that the sdem's wanted happened, did it happen because they wanted it and tried to achieve it, or because of something else. Afterwards it seems much more inevitable than it probably was. When e.g. after a revolutionary situation the agitated mood of the masses ebbs, and institutions of some kind tend to replace the power of the streets, anarchists always find the ones that betrayed the movement, because they think the revolutionary situation can and should go on indefinetely. So if it doesn't, it's because of someone's betrayal. But the will and actions of those who rise to the top in the post-revolutionary institutions (which I believe will always happen in one form or another) are just a factor. IMO the same contingency was there with the Finnish struggles in the 50s–60s. Just before the major outbreak of the social movements in 1957 the prevailing feeling on the ground (as can be seen in the minutes from trade union meetings, CP meetings etc.) was that nobody is interested in doing anything, interest in taking part in meetings and demonstrations is dwindling etc. The social-democratic party had just split after the general strike in 1956, and with it the trade union federation SAK was split and other miserable stuff that doesn't really raise fighting spirits etc. When the movement broke out, the press claimed it was a CP conspiracy, but as Uljas documents, the CP was just as surprised as anyone else, though they later ended up as a major factor for the movement on the institutional level. Likewise I believe it took mostly other things than the sdem's (or anyone else's) will to strike a deal with the capitalists (or anyone). But afterwards it's easy to say, of course, the writing was on the wall. discussion? Secondly, though there have been genuine reform socialists in the social democratic movement up until the 1980s or so, the idea of the handshake between capital and workers and the de-mobilization of the rank and file in favour of building a human-faced capitalist society, jointly administered by social democratic bureaucrats and representatives of capital, has been the ideology of the majority of the leading social democrats. It wasn’t a ”trick” or a conspiracy, they have been very open about it. There is Looking at your mail again, I think I read too much into it. Sorry. I think what you write above is true. However, I also think that you mail had a lot of what I thought was the same what happens whenever two leftists from two different countries meet: there is an immediate comradely one-upmanship of whose bourgeois government is the most hideous oppressor of the workers. While fun, IMO it tends to distort the perspective. Furthermore, this doesn’t mean I am for the dismantling of the welfare state or oppose genuinely progressive reforms. The very opposite. But we most be aware that reformism always comes up against the limits of capitalism sooner or later and the choice then has to be made whether we want to save and build on these reforms or save profits. In this situation social democrats as good as always choose Revolutionary politics may just as well come up against the limits of capitalism, as can be seen in Greece. If and when they do, it's easy to say that the ones originally thought to be revolutionary weren't really so revolutionary after all. Also to answer Joseph Catron's reply here, probably you're right that if generalised, it's too simplified to just say welfare state, 100% for or 100% against? without further nuances. E.g. I think it'd be right to campaign against unnecessarily controlling aspects of the social welfare benefit system, like is a person's benefit dependent of the spouse's income or not. In the context (or what I, perhaps incorrectly, took
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Swedish model (part 1) | 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 5/25/15 11:48 AM, Jim Farmelant via Marxism wrote: Also, concerning the Myrdals, they were influential not only as economists but also as sociologists and as policy wonks. They were among the lead architects of the Swedish welfare state. They were also staunch advocates of eugenics. Eugenics policies were in fact implemented in Sweden between the 1920s and the 1970s and often involved forced sterilizations of women. I'll be covering this in some detail. It is tied to the Malthusian beliefs of Knut Wicksell who was a fervent believer in birth control as a cure for poverty. _ 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 Swedish model (part 1) | 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. * -- From: Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Sent: Monday, May 25, 2015 9:46 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Swedish model (part 1) | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist On 5/25/15 9:29 AM, Daniel Lindvall via Marxism wrote: Firstly, surely objective outcome is an important point in this discussion? Secondly, though there have been genuine reform socialists in the social democratic movement up until the 1980s or so, the idea of the handshake between capital and workers and the de-mobilization of the rank and file in favour of building a human-faced capitalist society, jointly administered by social democratic bureaucrats and representatives of capital, has been the ideology of the majority of the leading social democrats. I should mention that my next post will entail a look at the Stockholm School of Economics that was founded with Wallenberg money and inspired by the theories of one Knut Wicksell, who taught at Uppsala. You've probably heard of Gunnar Myrdal and Dag Hammarskjold, who did teach at the Stockholm school. Their ideas were a conscious break with Marxism. Wicksell in particular was influenced by Böhm-Bawerk, who was one of the first bourgeois economists to attempt to disprove Marx's labor theory of value on the basis of marginalism. It should be mentioned that Wicksell was embraced by both the Swedish social democratic think-tank at Stockholm as well as by Mises and company. There's lots more about the peculiarities of a Second International party that broke with the theoretical consensus of sister parties that still embraced Marxism--at least in theory. Also the Stockholm School, independently of John Maynard Keynes, arrived at many of the same conclusions concerning macroeconomics that are usually associated with the British economist. In a number of respects, the Stockholm School was a bridge between the mainstream neoclassicals, the Keynesians, and the Austrian School. Also, concerning the Myrdals, they were influential not only as economists but also as sociologists and as policy wonks. They were among the lead architects of the Swedish welfare state. They were also staunch advocates of eugenics. Eugenics policies were in fact implemented in Sweden between the 1920s and the 1970s and often involved forced sterilizations of women. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/farmelantj%40juno.com Protect what matters Floods can happen anywhere. Learn your risk and find an agent today. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3165/55633b1fa02623b1e0f6fmp07vuc _ 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] Public-Sector Jobs Vanish, Hitting Blacks Hard
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times, May 25 2015 Public-Sector Jobs Vanish, Hitting Blacks Hard By PATRICIA COHEN MIAMI — For the Ingram clan, working for the Miami-Dade County transit system has led to regular paychecks, a steady advance up the economic ladder and even romance. By driving buses in Miami’s sun-scraped communities, Richard Ingram and his wife, Susie, were able to join the ranks of the black middle class, moving with their four sons from a rental in the down-and-out neighborhood of Overtown eventually into their own house in central Miami. Two of their children later followed them to the county bus depot. The eldest son, also named Richard, met his future wife there when she was assigned to the same route as his father. “I tell you, my job is a godsend,” Richard Ingram Jr. said. Now his older son, 21-year-old DQuan, is applying to take the transit system test, hoping to become a third-generation driver. But Mr. Ingram said that unlike when he was hired, today the competition is tougher and the jobs are a lot scarcer. For the Ingrams and millions of other black families, working for the government has long provided a dependable pathway to the middle class and a measure of security harder to find in the private sector, particularly for those without college degrees. Roughly one in five black adults works for the government, teaching school, delivering mail, driving buses, processing criminal justice and managing large staffs. They are about 30 percent more likely to have a public sector job than non-Hispanic whites, and twice as likely as Hispanics. “Compared to the private sector, the public sector has offered black and female workers better pay, job stability and more professional and managerial opportunities,” said Jennifer Laird, a sociologist at the University of Washington who has been researching the subject. During the Great Recession, though, as tax revenues plunged, federal, state and local governments began shedding jobs. Even now, with the economy regaining strength, public sector employment has still not bounced back. An incomplete recovery is part of the reason, but a combination of strong anti-government and anti-tax sentiment in some places has kept down public payrolls. At the same time, attempts to curb collective bargaining, like those led by Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, a likely Republican presidential candidate, have weakened public unions. Continue reading the main story Narrowing Access to the Middle Class Working for the government has long been viewed by African-Americans as a relatively open pathway to the middle class, but the decline in state, local and federal employment in recent years has contributed to the struggles of black communities. The Labor Department counts half a million fewer public sector jobs than before the start of the recession in 2007. That figure, however, understates just how much the government’s work force has shrunk, said Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research organization in Washington. That is because it fails to account for the normal growth in the country’s population: Factor that in, she said, and there are 1.8 million fewer jobs in the public sector for people to fill. The decline reverses a historical pattern, researchers say, with public sector employees typically holding onto their jobs even during most economic downturns. Because blacks hold a disproportionate share of the jobs, relative to their share of the population, the cutbacks naturally hit them harder. But black workers overall, women in particular, also lost their jobs at a higher rate than whites, Ms. Laird found. There was a “double disadvantage for black public sector workers,” she said. “They are concentrated in a shrinking sector of the economy, and they are substantially more likely than other public sector workers to be without work.” In Miami’s public schools, many of the layoffs in recent years have fallen on secretaries, school monitors and paraprofessionals, said Fedrick Ingram, president of the United Teachers of Dade and one of the Ingram brothers. His bargaining unit lost more than 6,000 positions since 2009 at the same time the number of students was increasing, he said. “During the recession, we had a really hard time in the school system,” said Mr. Ingram, 41, who was previously a music teacher, a career spurred on by the music and dancing lessons his mother insisted he and his brothers take. “They’re still hiring a lot more people part time so they don’t have to pay benefits. Even for teachers, there’s no tenure and very little
[Marxism] Marxism mailing list
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, Folks-- Please put me on the Marxism mailing list. Thanks. Mike Murphy michael1938mur...@gmail.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] Kouvelakis: The Impossible Honorable Compromise
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 Impossible “Honorable Compromise” For Syriza, embracing an “honorable compromise” means abandoning the platform that brought them to power. by Stathis Kouvelakis Jacobin magazine, May 25 https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/greece-syriza-european-union-austerity-troika . . . The break is in any case unavoidable. The choice is between a Kornilov type of break and a Lenin type of break, in other words between a counterrevolutionary coup and a radicalization of the revolutionary process. Under these circumstances the search for a compromise would mean political impotence, and impotence in such a polarized situation means annihilation. . . . To put it somewhat differently: it is precisely because “compromise” under present conditions is in practical terms impossible, that its compulsive evocation obscures the actual issues, depoliticizing and presenting them as a clash of ethical preferences: “realists” vs. “hardliners,” “pragmatists” vs. “utopians,” and so on. What is actually reflected in the current discursive struggle is that “honorable compromise” is not possible because the prerequisites for it do exist. The stronger party, the European Union, is not interested in compromise but only in administering humiliation, which by definition entails dishonor. . . . The shock therapy applied to Greece over the past five years is nothing more than a radical (by the standards of a Western European country) version of this same neoliberal counterrevolution. Those who embody it, inside and outside the country, are executors of an operation of plundering and naked subjection. They are at once violent and vulgar, the antithesis of the type that would seek compromise. In those conditions only the action of the oppressed can open up a perspective of political, social, and ethical regeneration. This presupposes a decisive reemergence of what Gramsci, quoting the French Marxist Georges Sorel, called the “spirit of cleavage” of the subaltern classes, their ability to break the ideological and ethical hegemony of the dominant groups, to uncover the latent antagonism in social relations and put forward their own world view and their own “ethical reform.” Only the cleavage is, in the here and now, “honorable” — precisely because it is the vehicle for a break that is both the prerequisite for and the harbinger of the radically new, uniting politics and ethics in the struggle for popular emancipation. _ 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] How to turn a liberal hipster into a capitalist tyrant in one evening
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/commentisfree/2015/may/24/turn-a-liberal-hipster-into-global-capitalist-world-factory?CMP=ema_565 _ 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 Swedish model (part 1) | 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. * How does Olaf Plame fit into this? On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 12:01 PM, 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. * On 5/25/15 11:48 AM, Jim Farmelant via Marxism wrote: Also, concerning the Myrdals, they were influential not only as economists but also as sociologists and as policy wonks. They were among the lead architects of the Swedish welfare state. They were also staunch advocates of eugenics. Eugenics policies were in fact implemented in Sweden between the 1920s and the 1970s and often involved forced sterilizations of women. I'll be covering this in some detail. It is tied to the Malthusian beliefs of Knut Wicksell who was a fervent believer in birth control as a cure for poverty. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/sranz18%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
[Marxism] Greek Govt Backs Down on Red Lines to Secure Deal; Syriza MPs required to vote party line
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. * Greek Govt Backs Down on Red Lines to Secure Deal by Philip Chrysopoulos The Greek Reporter, May 25 http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/05/25/greek-govt-backs-down-on-red-lines-to-secure-deal The Greek government has been forced to back down on several of its pre-election campaign pledges as negotiations continue at a slow pace while state coffers are emptying at an alarming rate. The so-called “Thessaloniki program” that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had announced in September 2014 and boosted his popularity is now subject to negotiation with creditors while many items have been abandoned altogether. In other words, the “red lines” the government has set in negotiations are already partially crossed. The impasse in deliberations over the reforms that need to be implemented in order to secure further financial aid for Greece has forced Tsipras to push back several of his pledges. Government spokesperson Gavriil Sakellaridis indirectly admitted that several of the items of the Thessaloniki program cannot be implemented saying that they will be pushed back to a four-year timeframe. More specifically, the pledge for a 751-euro minimum wage has been pushed back for 2016. Accordingly, this means that the unemployment benefits raise also promised is pushed back as well. The abolition of the single property tax (ENFIA) will remain, for 2015 at least. The bill will apply, albeit with a different name. The bonus Christmas pension (the so-called 13th pension) also goes to the back burner. The pledge that incomes up to 12,000 euros will not be taxed is also “forgotten.” The 2-billion-euro program to battle the “humanitarian crisis” has been reduced to a bill reinforcing these actions by 200-300 million euros. The plan to form a program that would fund 300,000 job positions was also a promise that would never be kept. The pledge to stop privatizations does not seem to materialize either as the government is already negotiating partial sale of the Piraeus Port. Finally, and most importantly, the pledge to get a generous debt haircut from creditors was forgotten as early as February 20, when the bailout extension was signed. . . . Debt talks resume amid concerns over differences, looming repayment, political upheaval I Kathimerini, Athens, May 25 http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_25/05/2015_550362 Government officials on Monday expressed confidence that Greece was close to a deal with creditors that would allow loans to be unlocked but pressure is growing on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras from abroad and on the domestic front. The cautious optimism in Athens does not appear to be shared by creditors. A European official with knowledge of the negotiations, which resume Tuesday, told Kathimerini that momentum is lacking. “For us to move forward there has to be a political decision,” he said. There are four sticking points – fiscal issues, pension and labor reforms and changes to value added tax rates. The two sides have made few concessions and continue to differ on forecasts. According to Olivier Blanchard, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, Greece’s budget proposals are not adequate to ensure a surplus this year, which had been forecast at 3 percent of gross domestic product. In an interview with French newspaper Les Echoes, Blanchard stressed the need for “credible measures” if Greece is to regain a surplus, saying however, that “this is far from being the case at the moment.” Briefing reporters in Athens, government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis was upbeat, saying he believed a deal could be reached “soon.” The deal would have to be sealed in the coming days for it to go through Parliament and gain approval for the release of loans. A 300-million-euro IMF repayment looms on June 5. Sakellaridis said that Greece intends to make the payment. “We want to be consistent with our obligations and so we are striving for a deal so the economy can get some relief,” he said. His reassurances came after Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis said Greece “can’t and won’t” pay the IMF on June 5, the first such explicit statement by a minister. Voutsis made his comments on Sunday, a few hours before SYRIZA’s central committee voted down a proposal by the party’s radical Left Platform to halt payments to creditors. Sakellaridis did not confirm reports that Greece is considering asking the IMF to allow it to settle repayments worth a total of 1.6 billion euros next month in one sum at the end of June. Greek Negotiations Resume Tuesday to Discuss VAT and Pensions by Philip Chrysopoulos The Greek Reporter, May 25
[Marxism] Palestinian official: Venezuela is 'our most important ally'
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. * Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki has described Venezuela as “Palestine's most important ally”, Venezuelanalysis.com said http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11384 on May 19. Al-Maliki made the comments while in Caracas for bilateral talks with Venezuela's socialist government. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/59110 -- “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] Turkish car workers taken on bosses, state and yellow union
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. * Bursa, the heartland of the car industry in Turkey, has once more become the centre of working class resistance against the domination of transnational companies – a domination maintained through anti-trade union laws, through crooked industrial inspectorates and courts, and through Türk-Metal, the fascist-dominated yellow union forced upon workers by the state. Despite the intervention of union bosses and their thugs, 14,000 workers have resigned from Türk-Metal and gone on strike in key plants, including the assembly units of the local Renault and Fiat subsidiaries, as well as suppliers of components. A similar movement ripped through the nascent automotive industry in the early 70s when Maden-İş, the union affiliated to DİSK (Revolutionary Trade Union Confederation), broke the domination of Türk-Metal and other yellow unions, and began to win recognition. Despite the attacks of Türk-Metal thugs, which included shooting down workers at the factory gates under the benign eyes of the ‘security’ services, the DİSK Maden-İş snowball has continued to roll on. The strikes in the 70s ended in substantial gains and a sea change in industrial relations. The 1980 fascist military coup suppressed the organised working class movement with brute force. As the long-time president of the chamber of employers said at the time, “Up to now we have been crying and the workers were laughing at our expense; now. . . full at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/turkish-car-workers-take-on-bosses-state-and-yellow-union/ _ 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
