[Marxism] Hayek’s Road to Serfdom destroys a straw man

[David McMullen via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Hayek’s Road to Serfdom destroys a straw man

YouTube transcript. The Communist Manifesto Project YouTube Channel.

https://youtu.be/TTjwgybeGrQ

Audio
https://sites.google.com/site/communistmanifestoproject/home/audio-1/audio-page 




Hello There

I have just finished rereading Frederick Hayek's book Road to Serfdom. 
It was first published in 1944, and is something of a bible for 
supporters of limited government and free markets.


As well as the book there is a condensed version by Reader's Digest that 
Hayek approved of. And there is also a little picture book which is 
available as a YouTube video and I have provided a link to that below.


Hayek's basic aim is to defend free market capitalism by characterizing 
any alternative as government "planning" which will ultimately lead to 
dictatorship and servitude. The planners are the "socialists" that come 
in various varieties and include the national socialists better known as 
the Nazis.


According to Hayek, this planning requires the central direction of 
everything. All production decisions are made by central planners. And 
these central planners will also remove from the individual any choice 
over what they consume, what work training they receive and where they 
will work and live. And to avoid any squabbles over what the outcome of 
the plan should be you need a dictator to decide everything.


I agree that attempts to reduce, interfere with or eliminate the role of 
markets can lead to very bad outcomes. The former Soviet Union and 
present-day Cuba are good examples of this as is the crony capitalism 
found virtually everywhere now. However, I do not see that these bad 
outcomes are logically necessary. Consequently, I am in no way deflected 
from my support for a communist future where markets would no longer exist.


Hayek claims that consumption decisions would have to be centralized if 
the means of production are socially owned. However, he provides no 
reasons for why production could not be guided by the preferences of 
individual consumers. It is just part of his assumption that social 
ownership means central decisions by society as a whole.  As far as I 
can see anything available now to determine consumer preferences would 
still be available. For example, we have surveys and studies of spending 
habits.


I also have trouble with his idea that people would have no freedom to 
choose their jobs and jobs training. He says that if you do not have 
wage changes inducing workers to enter or leave a line of work they will 
have to be told where they are going to work. I cannot see how the 
presence of rigid wages or even a guaranteed income would prevent 
workers from choosing what jobs to apply for.


We then have the claim that production decisions would have to be 
excessively centralized because of the absence of markets. Hayek 
incorrectly assumes that enterprises could not have direct relations 
with each other based on non-market cooperation and that instead any 
dealings between them would have to be centrally directed.


Related to this is the idea that without private ownership you could not 
use a decentralized price system. This is not something Hayek discusses 
in Road to Serfdom but he does in his other writings. He was a leading 
figure in the Austrian school of economics which has spilled a lot of 
ink over this and they call it the socialist calculation problem.


Now I am in no position to set out how a future communist society would 
organize itself nor do I feel I am obliged to. However, I think I can 
say that there is nothing that prevents the effective use of a price 
system just because those running economic undertakings are no longer 
private owners or their representatives but instead are people you might 
describe as custodians of social property.


When you cut through the rigmarole, all the Austrian school is doing is 
arguing that only the profit motive can drive a properly functioning 
price system because only it can provide the incentives to minimize 
costs and to put resources to their most valued use. So that brings us 
to the real debate which is whether it is possible to achieve a 
communist society where financial reward disappears as a motivator and 
is replaced by work becoming a want in its own right and by a desire to 
contribute the best we can.


These guys also automatically assume that investment decisions under 
communism would have to be excessively centralized in the hands of some 
planning agency. I think that generally these decisions would be more 
centralized than under capitalism but that would be because it makes 
economic sense rather than out of necessity. 

Re: [Marxism] Communist Manifesto YouTube Channel

[David McMullen via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Whoops the Subject line should have read Communist Manifesto Project 
YouTube Channel.


It's an addition to my website

https://sites.google.com/site/communistmanifestoproject/

I have centred the website around the Communist Manifesto because I 
thought it was a good way of helping to bring out the fact  that current 
Marxists have nothing in common with Marx and Engels.


The website includes a little booklet called "Rescuing the Message of 
The Communist Manifesto: the revolutionary role of capitalism."


https://sites.google.com/site/communistmanifestoproject/files/aug23.pdf?attredirects=0=1

This is the preamble

In/The Communist Manifesto/of 1848, Marx and Engels place heavy stress 
on the revolutionary role of capitalism. It drags humanity out of 
economic and social backwardness, and changes us from peasants into 
proletarians. By doing this, capitalism removes the only insurmountable 
obstacle to a classless communist society. Such a society ceases to be 
pie in the sky, and instead becomes something made possible by 
historically created conditions. The  more that capitalism displaces the 
old conditions the better the basis for a revolutionary transition.


Present-day anti-capitalists do not share this view,  even those who 
claim to be Marxists. They believe capitalism is destroying a past that 
should be preserved and is leading us down a path from which we must 
retreat. Marx and Engels in their day had to contend with similar 
people, and indeed part of chapter 3 of/The Communist Manifesto/is 
devoted to them. As with popes and princes, their anti-capitalism is 
reactionary rather than revolutionary.


At the same time, this message of/The Communist Manifesto /is ignored by 
those for whom capitalism is the best of all possible worlds. It gets in 
the way of their "communism has failed" mantra which they base on 
abortive 20th century revolutions in backward and essentially 
pre-capitalist regions. This experience in fact only confirms the 
proposition that communism can only successfully emerge from advanced 
capitalism. Marx and Engels would not have been surprised by the outcome.


Even while capitalism’s eventual grave digger, the proletariat, 
continues its fitful slumber, the world still moves forward. Capitalism 
proceeds on its development path, knocking down obstacles to a more 
advanced classless society. By mid-century if the uneven and erratic 
development trajectory of recent decades in poorer countries is 
maintained we will see considerable progress towards a world where 
industrial modernity is the norm, a world in which capitalism has run 
its course and has no future.


On 6/04/2017 4:10 AM, Mark Lause wrote:

Yipes!  Talk about word fetishism.


_
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] FB conversation

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

give him our best

So strange. Am messaging back and forth to a young guy who was studying law
> in Aleppo and then forced to go to Idlib. In Idlib he broke a leg running
> from a Russian air attack. So glad to see that he is still alive.
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
> ions/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

[Marxism] FB conversation

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

So strange. Am messaging back and forth to a young guy who was studying 
law in Aleppo and then forced to go to Idlib. In Idlib he broke a leg 
running from a Russian air attack. So glad to see that he is still alive.

_
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 Assad Regime is a Moral Disgrace": Noam Chomsky on Ongoing Syrian War | Democracy Now!

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 4/5/17 8:39 PM, Nick Fredman wrote:

I can't say I've followed him in any detail or would agree with
everything he's said but on the face of it these I think positions
pretty sensible, consistently progressive and in tune with the facts as
far as we can determine them.


He undermines everything he says by endorsing Patrick Cockburn, who has 
been awful.

_
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 Assad Regime is a Moral Disgrace": Noam Chomsky on Ongoing Syrian War | Democracy Now!

[Nick Fredman via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On the contrary I reckon he's just saying here what he's said for several
years, whether you've agreed or disagreed with some or all of it. A search
such as
https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant=1=2=UTF-8#q=noam+chomsky+assad=20&*
shows apart from his recent comments, comments from the last several years
that include plenty of descriptors of Assad like "monstrous", "criminal"
etc. — along with his scepticism of a US/NATO conspiracy or consistent
policy of regime change, being critical of some rebels as reactionary
jihadists, recognising there's some democratic elements left among the
rebels, being guardedly supportive of the PYD-led movement, recognising
Assad has to go by some process. I can't say I've followed him in any
detail or would agree with everything he's said but on the face of it
these I think positions pretty sensible, consistently progressive and in
tune with the facts as far as we can determine them.

On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 6:30 AM, 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.
> *
>
> Somebody must have woke him up.
>
> https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/5/the_assad_regime_is_a_moral
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
> ions/marxism/nick.j.fredman%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] Wanted: summary articles on the Syrian revolution

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

check Joseph Daher's articles and interviews; some are specific to
particular turning points or issues, but others are written as "the
revolution to this point."

On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 6:59 PM, Omar Hassan 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.
> *
>
> Hi all,
>
> Just running a reading group with some newer members about the history of
> the revolution and was struggling to think of an obvious choice or choices
> for overall summary-type pieces.  Easy to find stuff about the debates on
> the western left (https://redflag.org.au/node/5559), and the
> inter-imperial
> dynamics (
> http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/no8-winter-2015/118-
> us-imperialism-and-the-war-for-the-middle-east),
> I've got Anand Gopal's excellent piece from Harpers Magazine early on
> giving a flavour for the councils and self-rule in rebel areas (
> http://harpers.org/archive/2012/08/welcome-to-free-syria/), but is there
> anything more general?
>
> Ideally there would be a detailed summary/review of Burning Country
> somewhere that I've missed.  But other suggestions would be great too.
>
> --
> Subscribe to Socialist Alternative's fortnightly newspaper - *The Red Flag*
>  option=com_virtuemart=shop.browse_id=7&
> manufacturer_id=01=1>
> Check out our theoretical journal - *Marxist Left Review*
> 
> And put away the Easter Weekend for our annual conference, *Marxism 2017*
> 
> _
> 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] Wanted: summary articles on the Syrian revolution

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Omar, I'll have a think later. Meanwhile, scrawl through this terrific 
resource: https://syriasources.org/


On 4/5/17 6:59 PM, Omar Hassan via Marxism wrote:


Hi all,

Just running a reading group with some newer members about the history 
of
the revolution and was struggling to think of an obvious choice or 
choices
for overall summary-type pieces.  Easy to find stuff about the debates 
on
the western left (https://redflag.org.au/node/5559), and the 
inter-imperial

dynamics (
http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/no8-winter-2015/118-us-imperialism-and-the-war-for-the-middle-east),
I've got Anand Gopal's excellent piece from Harpers Magazine early on
giving a flavour for the councils and self-rule in rebel areas (
http://harpers.org/archive/2012/08/welcome-to-free-syria/), but is 
there

anything more general?




_
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 Holes in Russia’s Account of the Syria Chemical Attack - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/world/middleeast/russia-account-syria-chemical-attack.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] Wanted: summary articles on the Syrian revolution

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 4/5/17 6:59 PM, Omar Hassan via Marxism wrote:


Hi all,

Just running a reading group with some newer members about the history of
the revolution and was struggling to think of an obvious choice or choices
for overall summary-type pieces.  Easy to find stuff about the debates on
the western left (https://redflag.org.au/node/5559), and the inter-imperial
dynamics (
http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/no8-winter-2015/118-us-imperialism-and-the-war-for-the-middle-east),
I've got Anand Gopal's excellent piece from Harpers Magazine early on
giving a flavour for the councils and self-rule in rebel areas (
http://harpers.org/archive/2012/08/welcome-to-free-syria/), but is there
anything more general?



You can download a copy of "Khiyana" here:

https://isqatannizam.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/khiyana.pdf

But for only $15, you can get a hard copy from Amazon. This makes it 
much easier to read plus that is about as low a price you are going to 
see for such a useful book.


https://www.amazon.com/Khiyana-Daesh-Unmaking-Syrian-Revolution/dp/0992650968

_
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] Lenin's theory of imperialism

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The USA as the Ottoman Empire?!!  If only!!!

Another crucial difference with the early 1900s if that none of the
imperialists seem to want to heat up trade wars to the point of shooting
wars or destroy rivals.  They are far better at managing inter-imperialist
rivalry these days.

Thanks Fred.

Cheers,
Phil



On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 8:01 AM, Fred Murphy  wrote:

> Excellent indeed - in particular, a useful antidote to John Riemann's view
> that the current world situation somehow evokes eve of World War I, with
> China in the role of Germany and the USA as ... the Ottoman Empire?!
>
> http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=13237
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 8:08 PM, Philip Ferguson 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.
>> *
>>
>> Excellent piece from Sam King, one of things discussed in our Imperialism
>> Study Group.
>>
>> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/09/30/lenins-theory-of-imperialism/
>> _
>> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
>> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt
>> ions/marxism/fred.r.murphy%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] Zygmunt Bauman Obituary

[Brian McKenna via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

"His best-known book, Modernity and the Holocaust
 (1989),
provided a stark warning of the genocidal potential latent within every
modern bureaucratic society to privilege process, order and efficiency over
morals, responsibility and care for the other. It was shaped by the memoir
Winter in the Morning (1986) by his wife, Janina (nee Lewinson), later
revised as Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto – A Young Girl’s
Story (2006), and his own experience of 20th-century horrors."

full:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jan/15/zygmunt-bauman-obituary

-- 
Brian McKenna, Ph.D.
Anthropologist
Department of Behavioral Sciences
CASL 4025
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Dearborn, Michigan
_
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: bellingcat - The Khan Sheikhoun Chemical Attack, The Evidence So Far - bellingcat

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*



https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/05/khan-sheikhoun-chemical-attack-evidence-far/
_
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 struggle to defend CEU is about much more than Soros

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*



https://roarmag.org/essays/central-european-university-soros-orban/
_
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 I Voted The Socialist Ticket

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Why I Voted The Socialist Ticket
by Vachel Lindsay

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice.
My life's unkind, but I can vote for kindness.
I, the unloving, say life should be lovely.
I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.

Man is a curious brute — he pets his fancies —
Fighting mankind, to win sweet luxury.
So he will be, tho' law be clear as crystal,
Tho' all men plan to live in harmony.

Come, let us vote against our human nature,
Crying to God in all the polling places
To heal our everlasting sinfulness
And make us sages with transfigured faces.
_
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] An encounter with Robert Oppenheimer

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

READINGS — From the January 2017 issue of Harper's
Destroyer of Words
By George Steiner, Laure Adler, Teresa Lavender Fagan

From an interview with the philosopher George Steiner that was 
conducted in 2014 by Laure Adler, a journalist. The interview appears in 
A Long Saturday, which will be published in March by the University of 
Chicago Press. Steiner is the author of more than two dozen books. 
Translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan.


The Economist sent me across the Atlantic to cover the debate on 
American atomic power: was the United States going to share its nuclear 
knowledge with Europe? Under Eisenhower, the Americans decided they 
wouldn’t. It wasn’t a given; there was still hope that there would be 
true collaboration. So I went to Princeton, a wonderful, unreal little 
town, to interview J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. 
He had a pathological hatred of journalists, but said, “I’ll give you 
ten minutes.” Oppenheimer had set our meeting for noon. He didn’t come. 
So I had lunch with George Kennan, the diplomat of diplomats; Erwin 
Panofsky, the leading art historian at the time; and Harold Cherniss, 
the great Hellenist and Plato specialist.


Afterward, while I was waiting for the taxi that was to pick me up a 
half hour later, Cherniss invited me to his office, and as we were 
talking, Oppenheimer came in and sat behind us. It was the ideal trap: 
if the people you’re talking to can’t see you, they feel paralyzed, and 
you become master of the situation. Oppenheimer was a genius at this 
sort of theatrical maneuvering. He was a man who inspired spine-chilling 
fear; it’s quite difficult to describe. I once heard him say to a young 
physicist, “You are so young and you have already done so little!” After 
comments like that, you could only hang yourself.


Cherniss was showing me a passage from Plato that he was editing, which 
included a lacuna; he was trying to fill it in. When Oppenheimer asked 
me what I would do with that passage, I began stammering. Then he added, 
“A great text should have some empty space.” I said to myself, “Hey, 
you’ve nothing to lose, your taxi will be here in fifteen minutes.” And 
so I replied, “That’s a pompous cliché. First, your statement is a quote 
from Mallarmé. Second, it’s the type of paradox you can play with ad 
infinitum. But when you’re trying to prepare an edition of Plato for the 
common mortal, it’s better that the empty spaces be filled.” Oppenheimer 
responded superbly: “No, in philosophy especially it is the implicit 
that stimulates argument.” He was enjoying our exchange immensely, he 
whom no one ever dared to contradict. We had a real discussion on the 
subject. Then Oppenheimer’s secretary ran in and announced, “Mr. 
Steiner’s taxi is about to leave!” I was going on to Washington for my 
reporting assignment. At the door this extraordinary man asked me, as 
one might speak to a dog, “You’re married?”


“Yes.”

“You have children?”

“No.”

“Great. That will make it easier to find lodging.”

That’s how he invited me to the Institute for Advanced Study at 
Princeton, as the first young humanist.


_
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 Assad Regime is a Moral Disgrace": Noam Chomsky on Ongoing Syrian War | Democracy Now!

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Somebody must have woke him up.

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/5/the_assad_regime_is_a_moral
_
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] Sanders: 'Make Democrats a party of the working class, not liberal elite'

[Fred Murphy via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Thought experiment: Let's say Sanders and Warren succeed beyond their
wildest dreams and either rout the neoliberal wing of the DP altogether or
break with the DP and successfully organize a new formation - in either
case, would it then be a working-class party? What else would have to
happen to make it so? While I see a lot of broadly reformist,
quasi-social-democratic ("progressive") programmatic points on the Our
Revolution website, I see nothing to indicate any aspiration to be a
working-class or social-democratic party.  And Google searches on "trade
unions" and "labor movement" on that site come up effectively empty.

https://ourrevolution.com/about/
https://ourrevolution.com/issues/


On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 2:09 PM, Mark Lause 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.
> *
>
> The idea of making the Democratic Party a vehicle suitable for change
> favorable to the workers goes back to the very origins of the party .
> ​..
>
_
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: Sarin gas deaths in Khan Sheikhoun: separating fact from fiction | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Jeff via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On 2017-04-05 20:25, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:


https://louisproyect.org/2017/04/05/sarin-gas-deaths-in-khan-sheikhoun-separating-fact-from-fiction/


I also awoke to find in my inbox the latest Information Clearing House 
article (originally published by Al-Masdar News) explaining away the 
chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun. After the last high profile chemical 
attack in 2013 it took the Assad supporters a few days to come up with 
various stories blaming the rebel side for their own deaths. This time 
they could skip the learning curve and started writing the same script 
as soon as they heard of the event. If you can stomach it, you might 
read that filthy article just so you're prepared for what will be thrown 
at us during the days to come.


I'm sure that Assad expected and planned for the UN SC "emergency" 
meeting in response. In an actual emergency response you do something to 
address the emergency. But it's a foregone conclusion that nothing will 
result since Russia's veto is assured. So just as was probably the case 
in 2013, this move was a test by the regime to verify that there would 
be no real consequences for using what is generally considered a 
prohibited weapon. Now that most of Syria's organized revolutionaries 
have been corralled into Idlib, their plan is to essentially exterminate 
them. After succeeding in Aleppo and now using this deadly weapon also 
with no effective international response, the road is open for them to 
so precede.


Of course I hope I turn out to be completely wrong. One twist would be 
if Trump sees this as an opportunity to prove his credentials as a 
militarist and hatches some unilateral action (he wouldn't want credit 
to be taken by other countries!). Of course the eventual outcome of that 
wouldn't be good even if it were seen by some as some immediate relief 
(but most rebels already wrote off the US and know that Trump is 
generally friendly to Assad and explicitly in favor of keeping his 
regime in power).


- Jeff









_
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: Sarin gas deaths in Khan Sheikhoun: separating fact from fiction | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*



https://louisproyect.org/2017/04/05/sarin-gas-deaths-in-khan-sheikhoun-separating-fact-from-fiction/
_
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] Communist Manifesto YouTube Channel

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Yipes!  Talk about word fetishism.
_
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] Sanders: 'Make Democrats a party of the working class, not liberal elite'

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

The idea of making the Democratic Party a vehicle suitable for change
favorable to the workers goes back to the very origins of the party . . .
when Andrew Jackson babbled about "the common man," while he was doing
ethnic cleansing on the native peoples and Latinos--and encouraging full
employment among African Americans by expanding the cotton plantations.

If experience matters at all, we should not encourage people to do what has
never worked well for us to see if it might be different this time.

Solidarity!
Mark L.
_
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] Communist Manifesto YouTube Channel

[David McMullen via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*


This note is to announce the  launch The Communist Manifesto Project 
YouTube Channel.  There are already seven videos uploaded and new ones 
will be added every two weeks.  Topics covered so far include: Hayek's 
Road to Serfdom, the ethics of Ayn Rand, the "failure of communism", gun 
rights and support for economic growth. There are also audio versions 
and transcripts. Comments are welcome.







https://www.youtube.com/user/davidfmcmullen/videos


David McMullen
_
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: bellingcat - The Chemical Realities of Russia's Khan Sheikhoun Chemical Warehouse Attack Claims - bellingcat

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*



https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/04/05/chemical-realities-russias-khan-sheikhoun-chemical-warehouse-attack-claims/
_
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