[Marxism] Fwd: The Resource Curse and Oil Revenues in Angola and Venezuela.pdf

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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ABSTRACT: According to the theory of the resource curse, poor
countries with large endowments of natural resources, especially
oil, often do not achieve sustainable economic growth because
the size and volatility of oil revenues encourage corruption, 
mismanagement, and authoritarian governments that fail to invest for

the future or provide for the well-being of the majority of their
populations. These are not consequences of resource riches per
se, however, but of the political conditions under which they are
exploited. Angola, a classic case of the resource curse, has experienced
corrupt and authoritarian government since independence
in 1975. Venezuela appears to have avoided the resource curse
under President Hugo Chávez. The concept of resource curse,
and accordingly its remedies, are multidimensional, encompassing
honest government, sound economic management, and public
welfare. The case of Venezuela shows that sound economic
management is not sufficient to overcome the resource curse; a
political and social revolution is required to serve the interests of
the population as a whole.

http://eslpasca.ipb.ac.id/pdf/The%20Resource%20Curse%20and%20Oil%20Revenues%20in%20Angola%20and%20Venezuela.pdf
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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[Fred Murphy via Marxism]

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OK I get it, Fred Fuentes. D'oh.

On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 5:45 PM, Fred Murphy  wrote:

> I agree with Patrick's quote, but I don't recall saying it :)
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Patrick Bond via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>
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>>
>> On 2017/06/09 12:05 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
>>
>>> ...I am for all attempts in Latin America to take control of country's
>>> resources and use it for the public good whether it was copper in Allende's
>>> Chile, oil in Venezuela, gas in Bolivia, etc. I thought that Federico
>>> Fuentes and the other Socialist Alliance comrades overprojected what was
>>> possible in Venezuela but I think he was right on this:
>>> http://climateandcapitalism.com/2014/05/19/dangerous-myths-a
>>> nti-extractivism/
>>>
>>
>> As Fred points out,
>>
>>Even some of the keenest critics of extractivism in Latin America...
>>acknowledge the need to differentiate between what they term
>>“predatory”, “sensible” and “indispensable” extractivism. It is also
>>true that most movements against specific extractive projects do not
>>propose ending all extractive industries and that within local
>>communities involved in such campaigns a variety of views exist.
>>
>>
>> Each case needs to be considered separately, but the overall net negative
>> wealth effect once GDP is properly corrected, suggests more caution is
>> needed.
>>
>> The other two factors that are more acute now than in 2014, are the
>> commodity price crash (especially in 2015) which in some cases led to
>> declining Western or BRICS corporate exploitation (especially of greenfield
>> projects) but in others led to more intense exploitation as shareholders
>> demanded profits based on high volumes of extraction rather than on the
>> high prices of prior years; and the imperative of climate change to leave
>> fossil fuels underground.
>>
>>
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>
>
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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[Fred Murphy via Marxism]

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I agree with Patrick's quote, but I don't recall saying it :)


On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Patrick Bond via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> On 2017/06/09 12:05 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
>
>> ...I am for all attempts in Latin America to take control of country's
>> resources and use it for the public good whether it was copper in Allende's
>> Chile, oil in Venezuela, gas in Bolivia, etc. I thought that Federico
>> Fuentes and the other Socialist Alliance comrades overprojected what was
>> possible in Venezuela but I think he was right on this:
>> http://climateandcapitalism.com/2014/05/19/dangerous-myths-
>> anti-extractivism/
>>
>
> As Fred points out,
>
>Even some of the keenest critics of extractivism in Latin America...
>acknowledge the need to differentiate between what they term
>“predatory”, “sensible” and “indispensable” extractivism. It is also
>true that most movements against specific extractive projects do not
>propose ending all extractive industries and that within local
>communities involved in such campaigns a variety of views exist.
>
>
> Each case needs to be considered separately, but the overall net negative
> wealth effect once GDP is properly corrected, suggests more caution is
> needed.
>
> The other two factors that are more acute now than in 2014, are the
> commodity price crash (especially in 2015) which in some cases led to
> declining Western or BRICS corporate exploitation (especially of greenfield
> projects) but in others led to more intense exploitation as shareholders
> demanded profits based on high volumes of extraction rather than on the
> high prices of prior years; and the imperative of climate change to leave
> fossil fuels underground.
>
>
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> ions/marxism/fred.r.murphy%40gmail.com
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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[Patrick Bond via Marxism]

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On 2017/06/09 12:05 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
...I am for all attempts in Latin America to take control of country's 
resources and use it for the public good whether it was copper in 
Allende's Chile, oil in Venezuela, gas in Bolivia, etc. I thought that 
Federico Fuentes and the other Socialist Alliance comrades 
overprojected what was possible in Venezuela but I think he was right 
on this:
http://climateandcapitalism.com/2014/05/19/dangerous-myths-anti-extractivism/ 



As Fred points out,

   Even some of the keenest critics of extractivism in Latin America...
   acknowledge the need to differentiate between what they term
   “predatory”, “sensible” and “indispensable” extractivism. It is also
   true that most movements against specific extractive projects do not
   propose ending all extractive industries and that within local
   communities involved in such campaigns a variety of views exist.


Each case needs to be considered separately, but the overall net 
negative wealth effect once GDP is properly corrected, suggests more 
caution is needed.


The other two factors that are more acute now than in 2014, are the 
commodity price crash (especially in 2015) which in some cases led to 
declining Western or BRICS corporate exploitation (especially of 
greenfield projects) but in others led to more intense exploitation as 
shareholders demanded profits based on high volumes of extraction rather 
than on the high prices of prior years; and the imperative of climate 
change to leave fossil fuels underground.


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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 6/8/17 4:28 PM, Fred Murphy via Marxism wrote:

I keep coming back to Richard Smith's "Six Theses..." as an uncompromising
ecosocialist framework for these discussions. It is long past time for
socialists to forgo and critique "productionist," "Promethean," or
"accelerationist" approaches to overcoming the planetary crisis.


I never thought that Venezuela would "go socialist". I was skeptical of 
the idea that Chavez would "follow the Cuban road" as the Jack Barnes 
cult might have put it. I heard them condemn the Nicaraguans for that 
failure in the late 80s and tend to discount a lot of the ISO junk in 
the same way today.


I am for all attempts in Latin America to take control of country's 
resources and use it for the public good whether it was copper in 
Allende's Chile, oil in Venezuela, gas in Bolivia, etc. I thought that 
Federico Fuentes and the other Socialist Alliance comrades overprojected 
what was possible in Venezuela but I think he was right on this:


http://climateandcapitalism.com/2014/05/19/dangerous-myths-anti-extractivism/
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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[DW via Marxism]

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Well..thank you Fred for posting this. It lays out a vision, at least, to
study and pick apart. I read what you posted and will read, what I assume,
to be the full set of "Six Theses" from the link you provided. I hope there
is a vision of what a 'sustainable' economy is. This is the weakest point
of the so-called "anti-productivist" position at least from a Marxist
perspective that focus, and indeed does focus, on "freeing the productive
forces". I've never seen anyone ever square these two seemingly mutually
exclusive concepts. Not Bellemy, not the eco-socialists.

David
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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[Fred Murphy via Marxism]

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I keep coming back to Richard Smith's "Six Theses..." as an uncompromising
ecosocialist framework for these discussions. It is long past time for
socialists to forgo and critique "productionist," "Promethean," or
"accelerationist" approaches to overcoming the planetary crisis.

http://thenextsystem.org/six-theses-on-saving-the-planet/

Thesis 2 (for example) - "We would have to 'contract and converge'
production around a globally sustainable and hopefully happy average that
can provide a dignified living standard for all the world’s peoples. To
effect such a balance, we would have to slam the brakes on out-of-control
growth in the Global North. We would need to retrench or shut down
unnecessary, resource-hogging, wasteful, polluting industries like fossil
fuels, autos, aircraft and airlines, shipping, chemicals, bottled water,
processed foods, pharmaceuticals, and so on. We would have to discontinue
harmful processes like industrial agriculture, fishing, and logging. We
would have to close down many services–the banking industry, Wall Street,
the credit card, retail, public relations, and advertising 'industries' —
built to underwrite and promote overconsumption. We would have to abolish
the military-surveillance-police state industrial complex, and all its
manufacturers, as this is just a total waste that’s only purpose is global
domination, state terrorism, destruction abroad, and repression at home. We
can’t build decent societies anywhere when so much of social surplus is
squandered on such waste.

"At the same time, we would be obliged to redirect considerable resources
to ramping up sustainable development in the Global South. We, in the
North, have a responsibility to help the South build basic infrastructure,
electrification, sanitation systems, public schools, health care, and so
on. We would help their citizens achieve a comfortable material standard of
living without repeating all the disastrous wastes of capitalist
consumerism in the North. After all, we owe them a huge debt: much of the
poverty of the South is the result of decades and centuries of the
industrialized North looting their resources. If we just stop this, the
South can use its natural resource wealth for its own sustainable
development. ..."
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[Marxism] On Venezuela

[Anthony Boynton via Marxism]

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My post on the "ground rent thesis" was mostly aimed at talking about how
differential rent works in mining and mineral extractions, but I mentioned
my opinion that Venezuela under the Chavistas had failed "to diversify the
Venezuelan economy to be more self-reliant."

This ruffled Lou's feather's, but it is a fact that no one can deny.
Despite big plans and lots of speeches, Venezuela's economy is less diverse
now then it was when Chavez was first elected. This is true not just for
industry, but for agriculture and tourism and every sector of the
Venezuelan economy.

I did not venture an opinion about the intentions of Chavez and his
followers, or about their big plans, or about their sincerity, or even
about why they failed.

IMHO Venezuela faces a crisis that in some ways is very much like the one
Cuba faced when Gorbachev pulled the rug out from under them. So far, the
Chavistas have not been able to mobilize the Venezuelan people to endure
their own "special period" and emerge from it in one piece. And, it does
not look like they have any ability to do so at this point.

This is not a good thing for Venezuela, or for anyone on this planet,
because the failure of the Venezuelan experiment will set the left back not
only in Venezuela, but everywhere in Latin America.

However, the drama is not over yet, and the unexpected is still very
possible.

All of Latin America remains extremely volatile. The right and the United
States have no solutions for any of the long standing problems of the
region. Witness Brazil. In Colombia, next door to Venezuela, the city of
Buenaventura, the main Pacific Ocean port of this country, just ended a
three week long "paro" that had many of the earmarks of a communal
insurrection. It occurred simultaneously with a month long public school
teachers' strike.

One of the lessons from the experience of the Soviet Union that everyone
should have learned, and that strongly applies to Venezuela, is that
socialism in one country, even a big country with a lot of natural
resources, is not possible in the long run. However, one of the lessons we
should all learn from Cuba is, that where there is a will, it can survive
for a long time against very stiff odds.

Anthony
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[Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[Richard M via Marxism]

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Hello David - 

Your starting point seems to be what is being produced today (solar cell
tech., EV's, etc.), as though these are the most efficient ways to provide
power or transport into the future.  As a former builder and amateur
architect I can assure you that placing solar panels on the McMansions of
today is utterly wasteful. Above all, orientation of buildings is key, and
with careful placement of doors and windows, shade trees and awnings -- and
perhaps most importantly changes to Building Codes to engender this -- we
can solve just about any problems with heating and cooling of buildings.
There are many other online resources, but as far as transportation goes one
I've found indispensable is Low Tech Magazine, which you can find online at
. Low Tech Mag. is also a fine historical
resource. We have so much to learn from the past; just about all the
problems of today have been pondered and dealt with by greater minds than
ours. If we take the best of past practice and put it to work today, there
is little left to solve. For example, if we practiced agriculture as
explained in the book "Farmers of Forty Centuries" then we would improve our
soil instead of deplete it.

If you're on Facebook, for alternative technology generally check out my
Post-Industrial Library at
.

Richard


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Message: 21
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2017 06:43:26 -0700
From: DW 
To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition

Subject: Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum
Message-ID:

[Marxism] Cuban activists pushing limits

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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Very interesting to see Cuban activists walking along the street distributing 
leaflets.
When I had a chance to see what they were distributing, I read “El 
Guardabosques: Cuba abre sus Puerto’s a cruces contaminantes,”  which I 
translate as The Protector of the Forests: Cuba opens it ports to contaminating 
cruise ships.

Among those thanked at the end was the Canadian embassy.

ken h
 
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=125631 
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[Marxism] Last Men in Aleppo to air on PBS

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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This Sundance-winning documentary feature LAST MEN IN ALEPPO will have 
its national television debut on PBS television series POV on July 10 
(one of 5 films kicking off POV's 30th season that focus on the Syrian 
war and the refugee crisis.) Please see the announcement below. – Adam 
Segal, The 2050 Group - Publicity



WINNER – Grand Jury Documentary Prize at 2017 Sundance Film Festival

‘Last Men in Aleppo,’ Airing July 10, 2017 on POV, Documents Syrian 
Volunteers’ Heroic Work


Incredible access, bravery and signs of life in a city under siege

TRAILER: http://www.pbs.org/pov/lastmeninaleppo/


The year is 2015. Syria’s brutal civil war has been ravaging the country 
since the government responded with force to civil protests during the 
Arab Spring in 2011. Regime, Kurdish, ISIS and rebel forces all occupy 
various parts of the city of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. A volunteer 
group called the White Helmets provides emergency services to 
traumatized residents in the rebel-occupied areas of the city. A crucial 
part of their efforts is rescuing survivors: After air attacks reduce 
buildings to rubble, the men of the White Helmets dig through the debris 
and pull survivors to safety. They are nothing short of heroes.


The White Helmets are the subject of Last Men in Aleppo, the searing 
documentary directed by Feras Fayyad that won the World Documentary 
Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film has its 
national broadcast premiere on July 10 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) 
on the PBS documentary series POV (Point of View). POV is American 
television’s longest-running independent documentary series, now in its 
30th season. Last Men in Aleppo is the final film in this season’s 
special series highlighting the Syrian conflict and refugee crisis.


Captured with incredible intimacy and urgency, Last Men in Aleppo shows 
the White Helmets at work in the wake of bombing raids. The film 
provides exceptional access. Volunteers wear microphones for the 
filming, and viewers can hear them as they share information, give 
directions and pray. When they learn of a raid, they speed through 
chaotic streets full of rubble. They dig through piles of concrete and 
metal, sometimes using construction equipment, other times their bare hands.


The viewing is often visceral and difficult. Fayyad’s cameras are 
unflinching as they document the extraction of dead bodies, including 
those of children. Survivors are badly injured and covered in blood. 
There is grim talk of body parts, of how many survived and how many 
died. “I’m 100 percent sure we will find his head on the roof,” a White 
Helmet says of a victim at the site of a bombing.


In these painful moments, the men of the White Helmets reveal their 
resilience and bravery in the face of daily carnage. In addition to 
showing the men at work, Last Men in Aleppo follows a few of them as 
they go about their daily lives. One, Khaled, is the father of young 
children. In a heartbreaking scene, he takes his little girl to a 
pharmacist, who examines her hands and declares she is not getting 
adequate nutrition.



The documentary also follows Mahmoud, a young man who performs his work 
as a White Helmet with grave precision. With other White Helmets, 
Mahmoud and his brother Ahmed race to the scene of a missile attack on a 
car, now in flames. They begin trying to put out the fire so they can 
extract the bodies, but another air strike hits, and the men scatter.


In yet another searing moment, Mahmoud is troubled when he visits with 
young children he has rescued. “Was my head stuck in the rubble when you 
got me out?” a young boy asks Mahmoud. “I can’t do a visit like this 
again,” Mahmoud says later. “It’s so difficult.”


As the volunteers monitor the news and perform their arduous work, they 
contemplate the future. There is talk of escaping to Turkey, to Germany. 
Midway through the film, a friend asks Mahmoud about his dreams. “I 
dream that my brother will be safe,” Mahmoud says. “What are your 
dreams?” The friend replies, “To live a stable and secure life.”


“This film is a story about hope, and it is an attempt to study our 
humanity and shared responsibility when faced with mindless, irrational 
killing,” said Fayyad. “I saw this with the White Helmets, whose heroism 
did not discriminate between civilians and aggressors. Covering their 
efforts also allows us to show the world the devastating toll of the 
Syrian civil war. The White Helmets’ rescue efforts cannot be a 
permanent solution to this crisis. It is our hope that this film 
motivates people to stop this tragedy altogether, begin peace talks in 

[Marxism] Five Songs Of Resistance: Nina Simone

[Richard Sprout via Marxism]

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https://shadowproof.com/2017/05/31/five-songs-resistance-nina-simone/


Sent from my iPhone


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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Secret History of the 2017 NBA Finals - BLARB

[Jeffrey Masko via Marxism]

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Come to SF and visit the the Outer Mission, or The Excelsior district or
how about the Tenderloin? Maybe think about all those people displaced from
SF who now live in Richmond and support the Warriors now and when they
where led by Don Nelson, a dozen years ago. Sorry, yes SF is full of tech
dicks and it's obnoxious, but they are not the only ones here and we were
here first. And thanks for erasing all the working people, especially those
of color, who service the tech overlords here making those 25$ pizzas and
who clean up after them. And the underpaid au pairs from Mexico, and
Central and South America so you can go to the games.

Oh, and by the way, your working class hero, Lebron, the guy who left his
hometown and went to Miami to build a team of multi-million dollars
all-stars? For money and fame, he broke the hearts of Cleveland?  Oh, and
the guy Steve Kerr, the coach, who was a mediocre at best as a player and
devised a plan to topple Lebron James, the superstar who was pampered from
prep school with Hummers before he could drive?

"John Rossiter is a writer and retail employee living in Los Angeles." Come
on, get someone who knows sports to write, not this muppet.

Sorry my original post was garbled, but it was the first thing I read when
I awoke and sent me reeling before my first coffee. Never write before your
first cup.
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[Marxism] In Trump Country, Renewable Energy Is Thriving

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, June 8 2017
In Trump Country, Renewable Energy Is Thriving
By JUSTIN GILLIS and NADJA POPOVICH

Two years ago, Kansas repealed a law requiring that 20 percent of the 
state’s electric power come from renewable sources by 2020, seemingly a 
step backward on energy in a deeply conservative state.


Yet by the time the law was scrapped, it had become largely irrelevant. 
Kansas blew past that 20 percent target in 2014, and last year generated 
more than 30 percent of its power from wind. The state may be the first 
in the country to hit 50 percent wind generation in a year or two, 
unless Iowa gets there first.


Some of the fastest progress on clean energy is occurring in states led 
by Republican governors and legislators, and states carried by Donald J. 
Trump in the presidential election.


The five states that get the largest percentage of their power from wind 
turbines — Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma and North Dakota — all 
voted for Mr. Trump. So did Texas, which produces the most wind power in 
absolute terms. In fact, 69 percent of the wind power produced in the 
country comes from states that Mr. Trump carried in November.


Renewable energy that produces no carbon dioxide emissions is not solely 
a coastal, blue-state phenomenon. From Georgia to the Dakotas, business 
and political leaders are embracing clean energy sources even as the 
Trump administration pushes for more exploitation of oil, gas and coal.


These red states are not motivated by a sudden desire to reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions. Nor are they joining solidly Democratic New 
York, Washington and California in defending the Paris climate agreement 
that President Trump walked away from last week. Instead, their leaders 
see tapping the wind, and to a lesser degree the sun, as an economic 
strategy.


The clean energy push allows their utilities to lock in low power prices 
for decades, creates manufacturing jobs, puts steady money in the hands 
of farmers who host wind turbines and lures big employers who want 
renewable power.


“We export lots of things, and in our future, I want us to export a lot 
of wind power,” Kansas’ conservative Republican governor, Sam Brownback, 
said in a speech in 2011. “We need more of it, and we need more of it now.”


Mr. Brownback got what he wanted: Since he spoke, wind power production 
in Kansas has nearly tripled, and the state is now an exporter of clean 
electricity.


Whatever the motives, the push in the red states does help to lower 
emissions, which means their goals tacitly align with those of blue 
states worried about climate change.


So a question is coming into focus: In an era when Washington no longer 
cares about emissions, could federalism — encouraging each state to 
pursue its own clean energy goals, for its own reasons — be the way 
forward for those trying to tackle the climate crisis?


“At the state level, you’re just much closer to democracy,” said Adam 
Browning, executive director of Vote Solar, a California group pushing 
clean energy.


In modern America, advocacy of states’ rights is often seen as a 
conservative stance, an aspect of the right’s general hostility to a 
large national government. But Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown 
University, pointed out that causes like giving women the right to vote 
and, more recently, allowing same-sex marriage had often succeeded at 
the state level first.


“In the American system, the states have enormous powers, which 
sometimes are used for progressive causes,” Dr. Kazin said.


More than a decade ago, frustrated by federal inaction, climate change 
activists and clean energy enthusiasts joined forces to push state 
governments to adopt binding targets for renewable energy. Climate 
change was a less divisive issue then, and a majority of the states — 
including many of the windy Great Plains states — did so, often setting 
targets to be met by 2020 or 2025.


Analysts have found that most states are on track to meet their targets, 
usually well ahead of schedule. In recent years, the conservative 
advocacy organizations founded by the industrialists Charles G. and 
David H. Koch have tried to get the targets repealed, but they have 
largely failed.


Kansas, where the Koch brothers have their headquarters, was an 
exception. Reluctantly, wind energy promoters agreed to a deal in 2015 
in which the Legislature turned the state’s requirement into a voluntary 
goal; in exchange, the industry received promises that it would not be 
subjected to punitive taxes, as some state legislators had proposed. Mr. 
Brownback embraced that deal but made clear that he expected Kansas to 
keep 

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Secret History of the 2017 NBA Finals - BLARB

[Jeffrey Masko via Marxism]

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Come visit the the outer mission, or The Excelsior district or how about
the tenderloin. Maybe think about all those people displaced from SF who
know live in Richmond and support the Warrior now and when they where lead
by Don Nelson. And thanks for erasing all the working people who service
the tech overlords here. Oh, and by the way, our working class here,
Lebron, the guy who left his hometown and went to Miami to do the built a
team of all-stars? Oh, and the guy Steve Kerr, the co

On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 6:02 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.
> *
>
> This was an appealing team before their first championship — a team of
> smaller, skinnier, stranger players than normal. The supremely coordinated
> Steph Curry and Klay Thompson can shoot from anywhere on the court,
> excellent defenders and creative passers like Draymond Green and Andre
> Iguodala create space and take pressure off of their gifted offense. They
> are undersized, but tough and smart. Yet soon enough, the Warriors got too
> good. And then they got Kevin Durant and his transcendent offensive talent.
> It certainly began to seem unfair, especially when you consider how San
> Francisco, a city steeped in tradition and history and physical beauty, has
> become the gaping maw of tech-fueled liberalism (and maybe the augury of
> the alt-right), the #1 place to get a $25 pizza and sing Gavin DeGraw with
> your coworkers at karaoke before you return to an apartment that only a
> peon of these murky and vaguely malevolent operations could afford. At the
> same time, gentrification spilled more and more into Oakland, the team’s
> true home. Now with the Raiders departing, we can fit the entire Bay into a
> neat and well-managed singular cultural narrative, rather than acknowledge
> these complicated, diverse, vibrant, and often difficult histories. The
> transition from the underdog 2007 character-driven Warriors led by Baron
> Davis (and his absurdly vicious dunk over Andrei Kirilenko) to the stacked
> machine of 2017 runs parallel. We accepted this story and it became very
> easy to hate Golden State as we continued our drift toward the bad
> decisions of the near-left.
>
> Here, our hero emerges. Whereas with Golden State we saw the triumph of
> “team,” Ohio native LeBron James materialized as the sole savior of
> Cleveland’s pro sports championship desert. Conveniently enough for this
> secret history, Ohio is a state tortured by the decline of
> industrialization in the United States, the “Rust Belt,” as they say. When
> white middle-class workers are feeling as disenfranchised as ever,
> desperate for distraction, the hope of an NBA Championship provides a
> powerful opiate. This is the subconscious shaping of our current ideology:
> that we may indeed be able to return to an (inherently false) American
> greatness. That these jobs will come back. That Cleveland is not needing a
> real change, but a simple tweaking and the return of a familiar home-grown
> heroism. When Cleveland won last year, it was the false return of the
> Midwestern middle class and a harbinger of the confusing orange-hued
> nightmare we would soon find ourselves in.
>
> full: http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/secret-history-2017-
> nba-finals/
> _
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-- 

J.A. Masko
College of Communications
Penn State University
State College, Pa 16801

  "The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without
becoming disillusioned."

   Antonio Gramsci.
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[Marxism] Fwd: The Struggle to Industrialize Venezuela | venezuelanalysis.com

[DW via Marxism]

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The https://venezuelanalysis.com
 analysis was from 2007. I
remember it well. It is exactly this  that I ask, again...then...what
happened? What happened to these much vaunted plans for "socialist
construction"? Did any of them take place? Was their an increase in
localized products, both feedstock and commodity production? This is not a
rhetorical question. It's more WTF happened??

David
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[Marxism] Fwd: Jonathan Di John: Is there really a Resource Curse? - YouTube

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3BCuiW9rPc
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Struggle to Industrialize Venezuela | venezuelanalysis.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 6/8/17 9:41 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:


The Bolivarian Revolution: Building Industry in Venezuela

The rise of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution was the end of 
democracy by pacts and coalitions in Venezuela. There would be no 
power-sharing agreements, and no powerful economic groups would have 
undue influence over the government. If it was the limitations of 
liberal democracy that had prevented previous governments from carrying 
out initiatives to build industry in Venezuela, it was the lack of those 
very same limitations that would allow the Bolivarian Revolution to 
engage in a flurry of industrial initiatives within the first few years 
of the revolution. Revolution meant just that; class conflict would be 
confronted, not avoided.




The author of this article hailing the industrial revolution in 
Venezuela now supports the ouster of Maduro:


https://medium.com/@cmcarlson_57618/who-is-to-blame-in-venezuela-f68631805a52
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[Marxism] Even In The Military, Black People Are Punished Disproportionately, Report Shows | HuffPost

[Richard Sprout via Marxism]

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http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5938847ce4b0b13f2c66da83?ncid=newsltushpmgnewsThe+Morning+Email+060817_medium=email_campaign=The+Morning+Email+060817_content=The+Morning+Email+060817+CID_4e8aaa580cb7d49b8c7a936e8fecdb57_source=Email+marketing+software_term=black+people+are+punished+disproportionately


Sent from my iPhone

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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[DW via Marxism]

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Patrick,
thank you for replying. I'm curious, especially because you are from a
major "extractivist" nation, S. Africa, what the alternatives are? For any
transformation, energy specifically, but technological/industry more
generally, requires some forms of pulling minerals out of the grown. This
is true for solar cell technology as it is for electrical vehicles or mass
transportation. I've never read a serious alternative to this except Green
de-development (and thus anti-Marxist) perspectives on this. Are there any
sources you can refer me to that deals with this issue?

On the issue of Venezuela...I raised this issue of their tar-sands
development here once, and other places, years ago when Chavez had
announced an expansion of investment in the Orinco Oil belt. I know a young
organizer who spent 6 months there back in 2010 or so. He said it was an
insane ecological disaster...extracting oil from the Venezuela's tar sands
(the largest in the world and what Chavez and PDVSA were claiming makes
Venezuela the owner of the largest oil reserves in the world) is
particularly bad, far worse than it is in Alberta, because of it's tropical
and semi-tropical location. Of course I defend the right the government to
develop this oil but always wondered if in the long run...it's a disaster
for the country and the planet if it all gets developed.

Thinking out loudly,

David
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[Marxism] Fwd: The Struggle to Industrialize Venezuela | venezuelanalysis.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(So what happened?)

The Bolivarian Revolution: Building Industry in Venezuela

The rise of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution was the end of 
democracy by pacts and coalitions in Venezuela. There would be no 
power-sharing agreements, and no powerful economic groups would have 
undue influence over the government. If it was the limitations of 
liberal democracy that had prevented previous governments from carrying 
out initiatives to build industry in Venezuela, it was the lack of those 
very same limitations that would allow the Bolivarian Revolution to 
engage in a flurry of industrial initiatives within the first few years 
of the revolution. Revolution meant just that; class conflict would be 
confronted, not avoided.


In search of the technology needed to build new national industries, the 
Chavez government has not made the same errors of past governments. 
Instead of attempting to arrange for technology transfer from the 
dominant US and multinational corporations which are linked to powerful 
local groups and are uninterested in cooperating with Venezuela's 
industrialization, the Chavez government has built close relations to 
countries that are interested in cooperating, such as China, Russia, 
Iran, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil and others. And instead of worrying 
about the impact their policies would have on powerful economic groups 
in the country, the Chavez government has tended to focus more on the 
impact they could have on national development and the lives of the 
majority poor.


"We are going to be a power on this continent and in the world. In 
petroleum, in gas, in petrochemicals, in industry, there is no doubt 
about it," said Chavez recently as he announced the launch of a new 
petrochemicals industry in the country. The industry would include the 
construction of more than 50 factories across the country, with 
investment and technology from Brazil, Russia, and Iran, to produce 
plastic and chemical goods from Venezuela's abundant natural resources. 
Chavez said the industry would not only supply the domestic market but 
would also be for export to other countries in the region.[10]


From Argentina, the country plans to bring technology for more than 56 
industrial projects to produce consumer goods, foods, auto parts, 
furniture, home appliances, and more. And not only are cooperative 
projects among the countries in the region rapidly increasing, but they 
have the intention of building national industries through what one 
Argentinean minister recently called a "new method of cooperation."[11]


"That is the idea, authentic cooperation in industrial technology 
transfer, more than commercial agreements," he said. "Cooperation among 
the southern countries is the true path to national development."


In an effort to construct industry in a socialist model, Venezuela 
recently announced the construction of more than 200 "socialist" 
factories over the next two years. With cooperation and technology from 
Belarus, Vietnam, Italy, and Brazil, the factories will produce 
electronics, motorcycles, housing and building materials, health care 
products, and more. The factories will be managed and operated by the 
communities where they are located and spread out around the country to 
bring development to poorer regions.[12]


With Russia and Belarus, Venezuela plans to construct joint companies to 
manufacture bicycles, heavy machinery, construction tools, and plastics. 
Belarus has agreed to supply Venezuela with seismic technology needed by 
the oil industry, a new aerial defense system, and needed aid in the 
distribution of natural gas to Venezuelan cities. They have also agreed 
to work with Venezuela in the areas of science and technology, 
agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, and military cooperation.[13]


Russia has provided Venezuela with military equipment to update its 
army, including a factory to manufacture Russian rifles, given that the 
US has refused further arms sales to Venezuela. But Moscow has also 
considered the creation of a bilateral development fund to finance joint 
projects in the oil sector, petrochemicals, food industry, 
transportation and construction.


From Iran, Venezuela is acquiring the needed technology to produce cars 
and tractors. Through an agreement for the transfer of technology, Iran 
and Venezuela have set up joint factories to produce 25,000 cars 
annually and 20 tractors daily, and with an increasing percentage of 
parts produced nationally. By 2011, Venezuela expects to have a line of 
cars that is one hundred percent nationally produced.[14] Tractor 
production is moving in the same direction and now, in a 

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Venezuela on fire: What happened - Renegade Inc

[Patrick Bond via Marxism]

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On 2017/06/08 03:57 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
(The same old critique. How is it that so little of this was heard 
before oil prices began to plummet?)


Because, I think, we haven't been good at connecting the dots between 
climate activism and general tendencies of Resource Cursing, applicable 
also in Venezuela. That failure to work across sectors is a more general 
problem, evident across the left, environmentalists, community, labour - 
certainly in Africa: 
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/13/disconnecting-the-minerals-energy-climate-dots/


It's why Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything is so vital.

Actually, the lefty critique of fossil extractivism in the Pink Tide 
zone that I just mentioned, from Edgardo Lander, has been rising fast in 
that region since at least the early 2000s. One very interesting group - 
Accion Ecologica radical eco-feminists based in Quito - has been central 
to the Oilwatch global network, along with their comrades at 
Environmental RIghts Action in Nigeria.


I hung out with them 6 years ago in the Yasuni forest trying to get a 
handle on "leave the oil in the soil" politics: 
http://links.org.au/node/2430


Here's a bit of a translation to an eco-social struggle in northern 
KwaZulu-Natal not far from Durban: 
http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/Leave-the-coal-in-the-ground-somkhele.pdf


Obviously there's a great deal of debate going on about whether 
'environmental justice' is the appropriate framing, or whether 
eco-socialism can get traction in scenes like this, as a result of 
various EJ limitations...




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[Marxism] Fwd: The Secret History of the 2017 NBA Finals - BLARB

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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This was an appealing team before their first championship — a team of 
smaller, skinnier, stranger players than normal. The supremely 
coordinated Steph Curry and Klay Thompson can shoot from anywhere on the 
court, excellent defenders and creative passers like Draymond Green and 
Andre Iguodala create space and take pressure off of their gifted 
offense. They are undersized, but tough and smart. Yet soon enough, the 
Warriors got too good. And then they got Kevin Durant and his 
transcendent offensive talent. It certainly began to seem unfair, 
especially when you consider how San Francisco, a city steeped in 
tradition and history and physical beauty, has become the gaping maw of 
tech-fueled liberalism (and maybe the augury of the alt-right), the #1 
place to get a $25 pizza and sing Gavin DeGraw with your coworkers at 
karaoke before you return to an apartment that only a peon of these 
murky and vaguely malevolent operations could afford. At the same time, 
gentrification spilled more and more into Oakland, the team’s true home. 
Now with the Raiders departing, we can fit the entire Bay into a neat 
and well-managed singular cultural narrative, rather than acknowledge 
these complicated, diverse, vibrant, and often difficult histories. The 
transition from the underdog 2007 character-driven Warriors led by Baron 
Davis (and his absurdly vicious dunk over Andrei Kirilenko) to the 
stacked machine of 2017 runs parallel. We accepted this story and it 
became very easy to hate Golden State as we continued our drift toward 
the bad decisions of the near-left.


Here, our hero emerges. Whereas with Golden State we saw the triumph of 
“team,” Ohio native LeBron James materialized as the sole savior of 
Cleveland’s pro sports championship desert. Conveniently enough for this 
secret history, Ohio is a state tortured by the decline of 
industrialization in the United States, the “Rust Belt,” as they say. 
When white middle-class workers are feeling as disenfranchised as ever, 
desperate for distraction, the hope of an NBA Championship provides a 
powerful opiate. This is the subconscious shaping of our current 
ideology: that we may indeed be able to return to an (inherently false) 
American greatness. That these jobs will come back. That Cleveland is 
not needing a real change, but a simple tweaking and the return of a 
familiar home-grown heroism. When Cleveland won last year, it was the 
false return of the Midwestern middle class and a harbinger of the 
confusing orange-hued nightmare we would soon find ourselves in.


full: http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/secret-history-2017-nba-finals/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Venezuela on fire: What happened - Renegade Inc

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(The same old critique. How is it that so little of this was heard 
before oil prices began to plummet?)



“It’s important to admit that the Bolivarian governments in the past 18 
years were incapable of transforming the economic structure of the 
country,” says Dr Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández, a lecturer of 
Anthropology and Spanish and Latin American Studies at Sydney University.


“There remains a structure of rentier capitalism which is absolutely 
dependent on the rent obtained by oil production and exportation. 
Certainly much of the money that was obtained through that oil revenue 
ended up in public redistribution,” he says.


https://renegadeinc.com/venezuela-fire-happened/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Fredric Jameson · No Magic, No Metaphor: ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ · LRB 15 June 2017

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n12/fredric-jameson/no-magic-no-metaphor
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[Marxism] Fwd: It’s Not ‘McCarthyism’ to Demand Answers on Trump, Russia, and the Election | The Nation

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By Kathe Pollitt

In a recent Nation piece, Victor Navasky argued that the charges that 
Russia meddled in the 2016 election resemble the wild accusations and 
poisonous atmosphere of the McCarthy era. Stephen F. Cohen and several 
other writers here also use the word “McCarthyism” a lot. Victor 
probably knows more about the subject than anyone on earth—his book 
Naming Names is a classic—so I hesitate to disagree with him. But here’s 
what he overlooks: McCarthyism involved the use of immense state power 
against a large, shape-shifting mass of fairly powerless ordinary people 
who, with rare exceptions, had done nothing more than exercise their 
right to freedom of speech and association. That’s quite different from 
the calls by Democrats to investigate whether Russian agents hacked the 
Democratic National Committee at the behest of Vladimir Putin, or 
whether Trump’s financial interests are tied up with Russia, or whether 
people like former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, former campaign 
foreign-policy adviser Carter Page, and former national-security adviser 
Michael Flynn were up to no good. McCarthyism was a miasma of innuendo, 
divorced from facts. In the matter of Russia and Trump, a small number 
of individuals are suspected of serious and specific crimes. Moreover, 
this time around, the state is firmly in the grip of the supposed 
victims of the witch hunt. Donald Trump isn’t a high-school teacher who 
once subscribed to The Daily Worker; he is president of the United States.


full: 
https://www.thenation.com/article/its-not-mccarthyism-to-demand-answers-on-trump-russia-and-the-election/

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[Marxism] Fwd: The Frontiers of American Capitalism | The Nation

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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 The gilding of American capitalism happened on both sides of the 
continent.


https://www.thenation.com/article/frontiers-american-capitalism/
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Re: [Marxism] "Ground rent" thesis at the Left forum

[Patrick Bond via Marxism]

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On 2017/06/08 04:07 AM, DW via Marxism wrote:

... what people were
standing online for in truly massive numbers: toilet paper, soap, food,
clothing, medicine, etc. ...
At the end of the day...how could what is happening in Venezuela today
*not* happen??? Anyone?


Today I happen to be in Beirut with eco-social (and a few eco-socialist) 
activists who are fighting mega-project maldevelopment, fossil fuels, 
pipelines and all sorts of environmental injustices - our network is 
connected through https://ejatlas.org/


What often emerges from these local battles is a fairly clear choice for 
a state: investment in extractive-oriented infrastructure with vast 
subsidies that typically benefit multinational corporations, displace 
local residents and wreck the eco-system on the one hand, or on the 
other, shift state resources towards meeting basic needs, including 
infrastructural backlogs in water and sanitation, household electricity, 
clinics and schools.


Finding the proper balance is vital, including nationalisation of 
commodity production and processing, for the sake of planning, retention 
of value and leaving resources underground when necessary, such as 
fossil fuels. (If you want one of the worst cases, I can tell you loads 
about South African ruling class choices along these lines.)


On the basis of a couple of visits to Caracas (2007-08) and discussions 
with people like Michael Lebowitz, Marta Harnecker and their allies 
(including a one-time planning minister) at the Centro Internacional 
Miranda, I was quite convinced of Chavez' desire to do the latter. 
Amazing radical hospitality was on display at CIM in those days, 
especially with Marta and Michael interpreting the complex shifts in 
power within the revolution.


However, there is a body of work by Edgardo Lander and his "Beyond 
Development" allies at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Quito office that 
suggests far too much emphasis was placed on extractivism, with all that 
that entails in terms of a political resource curse eating away at 
Chavez' legacy.


Edgardo was offering a comradely critique of this self-destructive 
extractivism well before the 2008 and 2015 oil price crashes, and I hope 
more comrades become familiar with his approach. At RealNews, Paul Jay 
did a fine 9-part interview with Edgardo: 
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content=view=767=74=11723




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