Viet Nam again? (was Re: El Verdadero *Plan Colombia*- Mas Reclutamiento Para 'Los Paras' )
En relación a El Verdadero *Plan Colombia*- Mas Reclutamiento P, el 29 Jan 01, a las 17:12, Tony Abdo dijo: > A brief news item in Spanish from a Colombian newspaper, that calls > attention to the real US *Plan Colombia*. That being a planned > construction of a much larger group of 'paras' by the Colombian > military. > > Tony Abdo A couple of parts deserve translation, perhaps to have a familiar (though somehow late) note ring in the heads of our American cdes.: > __ > El Tiempo, Bogota, 7 enero > EN 5 AÑOS PODRIA SUPERARLA > 'Guerrilla crece al 40% y las autodefensas al 100% Guerrilla grows 40 percent, and self-defence 100% > > Un reciente informe del Ministerio de Defensa reveló que "Las > autodefensas en Colombia están creciendo al 100 por ciento mientras la > guerrilla lo está haciendo al 40, lo que quiere decir, y si sigue > así la tendencia, que al cabo de 5 años las autodefensas podrían > superar a la guerrilla en número". Los pagos van desde 400 mil a 8 > millones de pesos colombianos. "Self-defence forces in Colombia are growing to the 100%", as disclosed by a recent report of the Ministery of Defense, "while guerrilla grows at a 40%, which means, if the tendency remains, that within 5 years the self-defence might outnumber the guerrilla". Payments range from 400 thousand to 8 million Colombian pesos. > ... > Hoy, cuando se cumplen dos años de la ceremonia en que se oficializó > el inicio del proceso de paz del Gobierno con las Farc, los grupos > paramilitares, paradójicamente, muestran en el mismo período el más alto > crecimiento de su historia. Paradoxically, today, at the second aniversary of the oficialization of the peace process between the Government and FARC, the paramilitaries display their highest historical growth. > Los 'paras' vienen haciendo su ofensiva de reclutamiento, de manera The 'paras'are doing their recruitment offensive in an open -and sometimes compulsory- way in the areas where their presence has been strengthening: Urabá, Casanare, the Meta area and Southern Bolívar. In other cases, when they try to colonize other territories, such as Santander, they offer up to 8 million pesos for commanders of front. "The 'paras', unlike the guerrilla, offer money to recruit their militants, and they don't receive under ages", a state officer of intelligence explains. Now, my question: what were the original tactics developed in Viet Nam, before the massive invasion? Any ideas and collections? Didn't the Americans try to have Vietnamese fight Vietnamese by similar ways? Weren't they defeated? Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[L-I] AIDS, Drugs, Patents, & the Empire
The New York Times January 28, 2001, Sunday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section 6; Page 26; Column 1; Magazine Desk HEADLINE: Look at Brazil BYLINE: By Tina Rosenberg... ...Until a year ago, the triple therapy that has made AIDS a manageable disease in wealthy nations was considered realistic only for those who could afford to pay $10,000 to $15,000 a year or lived in societies that could. The most that poor countries could hope to do was prevent new cases of AIDS through educational programs and condom promotion or to cut mother-to-child transmission and, if they were very lucky, treat some of AIDS's opportunistic infections. But the 32.5 million people with H.I.V. in the developing world had little hope of survival. This was the conventional wisdom. Today, all of these statements are false ...Since 1997, virtually every AIDS patient in Brazil for whom it is medically indicated gets, free, the same triple cocktails that keep rich Americans healthy. (In Western Europe, no one who needs AIDS treatment is denied it because of cost. This is true in some American states, but not all.) Brazil has shredded all the excuses about why poor countries cannot treat AIDS. Health system too fragile? On the shaky foundation of its public health service, Brazil built a well-run network of AIDS clinics. Uneducated people can't stick to the complicated regime of pills? Brazilian AIDS patients have proved just as able to take their medicine on time as patients in the United States. Ah, but treating AIDS is too expensive! In fact, Brazil's program almost certainly pays for itself. It has halved the death rate from AIDS, prevented hundreds of thousands of new hospitalizations, cut the transmission rate, helped to stabilize the epidemic and improved the overall state of public health in Brazil. Brazil can afford to treat AIDS because it does not pay market prices for antiretroviral drugs -- the most controversial aspect of the country's plan. In 1998, the government began making copies of brand-name drugs, and the price of those medicines has fallen by an average of 79 percent. Brazil now produces some triple therapy for $3,000 a year and expects to do much better, and the price could potentially drop to $700 a year or even less. Brazil is showing that no one who dies of AIDS dies of natural causes. Those who die have been failed -- by feckless leaders who see weapons as more alluring purchases than medicines, by wealthy countries (notably the United States) that have threatened the livelihood of poor nations who seek to manufacture cheap medicine and by the multinational drug companies who have kept the price of antiretroviral drugs needlessly out of reach of the vast majority of the world's population In other words, the debate about whether poor countries can treat AIDS is over. The question is how The drug companies are wrong...on how to make AIDS drugs affordable. Their solution -- limited, negotiated price cuts -- is slow, grudging and piecemeal. Brazil, by defying the pharmaceutical companies and threatening to break patents, among other actions, has made drugs available to everyone who needs them. Its experience shows that doing this requires something radical: an alteration of the basic social contract the pharmaceutical companies have enjoyed until now. By the terms of that contract, manufacturers, in return for the risks of developing new drugs, receive a 20-year monopoly to sell them in some nations at whatever prices they choose. The industry has thrived under this contractPoor countries, it is now clear, must violate this contract if they are to save their people from AIDS. Brazil has been able to treat AIDS because it had what everyone agrees is the single most important requirement for doing so: political commitment. At the beginning of 1999, Brazil's economy was skidding into crisis. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso was under great pressure to cut the budget by abandoning the AIDS program. He rejected that advice, deciding that treating AIDS was a priority. Such commitment has its roots in the gay community. Although AIDS is now a disease of the poor in Brazil, the first Brazilians infected were gay men. In a country famously open about matters sexual, gays were much more activist and better organized than in most other nations, and AIDS carried less of the stigma that has elsewhere led people simply to deny its existence. Then the movement found an unlikely ally in Jose Sarney, Brazil's first civilian president after the country emerged from military rule in 1985 and a conservative who led a pro-military party during the dictatorship. In 1996, scientists at the world AIDS conference in Vancouver announced that triple therapy with a protease inhibitor could reduce viral load to undetectable levels. Finally, there was a treatment for AIDS. "A doctor friend informed me about what was going
Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
En relación a Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1, el 29 Jan 01, a las 14:54, Louis Proyect dijo: > Speaking of Africa, I am midway in Bill Freund's "The Making of > Contemporary Africa" which I highly recommend. His attention is focused on the > need to transform African agriculture, which is a point that might be lost on > certain Marxists who see socialism solely in terms of the need to develop heavy > industry or who assume that it is the role of third world countries to supply > coffee beans for their morning fix at Starbucks. The agrarian question is THE question in the third-world, for the same reason that the national question is THE concrete expression of third-world status. Through land ownership of their local allies, the imperialist powers not only make sure that those allies are powerful enough against the mass of the population. They also use that land ownership to transform agrarian production in a production that will openly compete with the nutritional necessities of the local masses. Thus, a mass of landless proletarianized army of reserve (or, in very particular situations, of urban residents without access to industrial jobs) is an immediate outcome of the situation. This mass is one of the basic grounding points for extraction of extraordinary surplus value. And, what is imperialism about if not extraction of extraordinary surplus value? Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
RE: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
Stephen E Philion: > Mark, > Who was criticising Frantz Fanon? And what is wrong with saying that an > argument that Doug Henwood, even if you do think he is the most evil force > haunting the world today, happens to be similar to or even the same as > FF's on a particular issue? What is Leninist about that? I don't think Doug H is particularly evil (not banal enough, perhaps). My remark was not directed at you anyway, and I'm glad you mentioned Fanon. Sorry if I sounded rebarbative. Didn't intend it. Not about you, anyway. Mark ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
RE: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
Mark, Who was criticising Frantz Fanon? And what is wrong with saying that an argument that Doug Henwood, even if you do think he is the most evil force haunting the world today, happens to be similar to or even the same as FF's on a particular issue? What is Leninist about that? Steve Stephen Philion Lecturer/PhD Candidate Department of Sociology 2424 Maile Way Social Sciences Bldg. # 247 Honolulu, HI 96822 On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Mark Jones wrote: > Stephen E Philion wrote: > > > Well, if that is Henwood's argument, it's not that far from Frantz Fanon, > > who argued that advanced capitalist countries frequently set conditions > > for investment on newly decolonized countries that keep them from being > > able to experience development *and* if they refused they would be faced > > with the very real threat of withdrawl altogether of financial assistance > > (which Fanon also felt they were owed from the advanced cap. world as > > reparations for years of pilfering of colonial economies...). > > Wait a minute, whoa. Fanon gets a lot of (IMHO) entirely undeserved flak because of > his alleged lack of centre-periphery focus. It would be good to have a seminar about > Fanon. People talk about him in thought-bites and only half remember what they read > years ago. Fanon was an entirely consistent fighter against colonialism and is a > giant of our movement. Doug Henwood is not that. He is a pygmy. The problem with > Henwood is not that he argues like/unalike Fanon (or anyone else), it's that he > contradicts himself, does both often at the same time, and is politically > inconsistent. Empirical accuracy used as a camouflage for wild opportunism is an old > trick of Anglo-Saxon scholarship and should not mislead us. You cannot debate > empirical opportunism, because it is a true wilderness of mirrors, a political bog > and a haven for the worst kinds of self-seeking leftwing careerism. And this is > something we ought to have settled accounts with by now, and must do if we are to > develop. > > We shall have to take on board all the things which are flowing out of Porto Alegre, > and find the ways to participate more actvely, and decisively, in the movement it > embodies/represents: a movement which is characterised by a tacit alliance between > the compliant petit-bourgeois socialism of acadameics, and the lumpenised > semi-proletariat of the megacities who are now *also* firmly in the *political* > sights of the emergent, post-neoliberal Davos Consensus. These things are connected. > The bitterest and most decisive struggles against petit-bourgeois socialism will be > necessary and while I agree we should be comradely, we should also be extremely > serious and decisive in combating petit-bourgeois socialism. > > Mark > > > ___ > Leninist-International mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international > ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
[L-I] El Verdadero *Plan Colombia*- Mas Reclutamiento Para 'Los Paras'
A brief news item in Spanish from a Colombian newspaper, that calls attention to the real US *Plan Colombia*. That being a planned construction of a much larger group of 'paras' by the Colombian military. Amazing! how the US press/ US government finds itself unable to make 'Comandante Castanyo' anything other than a public figure of human interest. There are no calls for his capture and future trial, for his responsibility in ordering and directing the torture and assassination of thousands of innocent civilians. The US government calls for human rights, yet feeds the monster. Tony Abdo __ El Tiempo, Bogota, 7 enero EN 5 AÑOS PODRIA SUPERARLA 'Guerrilla crece al 40% y las autodefensas al 100% Un reciente informe del Ministerio de Defensa reveló que "Las autodefensas en Colombia están creciendo al 100 por ciento mientras la guerrilla lo está haciendo al 40, lo que quiere decir, y si sigue así la tendencia, que al cabo de 5 años las autodefensas podrían superar a la guerrilla en número". Los pagos van desde 400 mil a 8 millones de pesos colombianos. "Hemos recibido su mensaje y ya fue transmitido al Comandante Castaño que se encuentra alistando unas nuevas tropas en el área de operaciones". Es una reciente respuesta electrónica de las Autodefensas, escueta, pero que da cuenta de una de las principales tareas a las que se han dedicado en los últimos meses: el masivo reclutamiento de colombianos para las filas paramilitares. Hoy, cuando se cumplen dos años de la ceremonia en que se oficializó el inicio del proceso de paz del Gobierno con las Farc, los grupos paramilitares, paradójicamente, muestran en el mismo período el más alto crecimiento de su historia. Entre 1998 y el 2000 se duplicó el número de efectivos de las autodefensas -de 4.500 a 8.150- según un informe revelado recientemente por el Ministerio de Defensa. "Las autodefensas están creciendo al 100 por ciento mientras la guerrilla lo está haciendo al 40, lo que quiere decir, y si sigue así la tendencia, que al cabo de 5 años las autodefensas podrían superar a la guerrilla en número", dijeron fuentes oficiales que preparan un informe sobre el tema. De 400.000 a 8 millones Los 'paras' vienen haciendo su ofensiva de reclutamiento, de manera pública y en algunos casos obligatoria, en los territorios en los cuales han fortalecido su presencia: Urabá, Casanare, áreas del Meta y sur de Bolívar. En otros casos, cuando se trata de colonizar nuevos territorios como Santander, ofrecen hasta 8 millones de pesos para desempeñar el cargo de comandante de frente. "A diferencia de la guerrilla, los 'paras' ofrecen dinero para reclutar sus militantes, y no reciben menores de edad", explica un oficial de inteligencia del Estado. En unos volantes repartidos en Villavicencio el año pasado, las autodefensas prometían un millón de pesos mensuales para quienes se vincularan a su organización. "Eran unos volantes en los que decían que las mujeres también podíamos entrar a las Autodefensas", explicó a EL TIEMPO en Puerto López la novia de un miembro de la organización. "Lo del millón de pesos, lo que cuentan, es que luego le hacen descuentos por uniformes y alimentación y queda finalmente un pago de 400 o 600 mil pesos, que no se los entregan a uno ahí mismo sino seis meses después cuando puede uno ir a visitar su casa". En Barrancabermeja (Santander) -epicentro de actos terroristas en este comienzo de año- las Autodefensas están en pleno reclutamiento. Yolanda Becerra, presidenta de la Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), denunció la preocupación de las madres de familias porque grupos armados les están ofreciendo a sus hijos 500.000 pesos para ingresar en sus filas. Cambio de identidad En Santander el plan de incursión comenzó a ponerse en práctica en julio de 2000. El primer paso fue buscar cinco comandantes de cuadrilla para que se encargaran de abrirle el camino a las tropas 'paras' en Sabana de Torres, Barrancabermeja y Bucaramanga. La zona es de particular interés porque constituye un triángulo geográfico estratégico y permite el control de la entrada al sur de Bolívar. El perfil de los comandantes que buscaban era lo que ellos llaman 'guerreros': jóvenes, de gran contextura, que infundieran respeto y, a la vez, intimidaran con su presencia. Mucho mejor si eran militares retirados o tenían experiencia con labores de inteligencia. Les ofrecieron a los candidatos a las comandancias cambio total de identidad y de apariencia física y 8 millones de pesos mensuales libres. A cambio, debían olvidar por completo su vida civil y permanecer como mínimo 10 años en la organización. De acuerdo con una persona cercana al proceso de reclutamiento, ya están operando cuatro de los cinco comandantes. La tarea de cada uno es la de formar una cuadrilla, con unos 50 hombres, dividida en tres grupos y cada grupo debe 'trabajar' un terreno de unas 250 hectáreas. "El trabajo consiste en conocer a la gente de la región, saber quiénes son
RE: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
Stephen E Philion wrote: > Well, if that is Henwood's argument, it's not that far from Frantz Fanon, > who argued that advanced capitalist countries frequently set conditions > for investment on newly decolonized countries that keep them from being > able to experience development *and* if they refused they would be faced > with the very real threat of withdrawl altogether of financial assistance > (which Fanon also felt they were owed from the advanced cap. world as > reparations for years of pilfering of colonial economies...). Wait a minute, whoa. Fanon gets a lot of (IMHO) entirely undeserved flak because of his alleged lack of centre-periphery focus. It would be good to have a seminar about Fanon. People talk about him in thought-bites and only half remember what they read years ago. Fanon was an entirely consistent fighter against colonialism and is a giant of our movement. Doug Henwood is not that. He is a pygmy. The problem with Henwood is not that he argues like/unalike Fanon (or anyone else), it's that he contradicts himself, does both often at the same time, and is politically inconsistent. Empirical accuracy used as a camouflage for wild opportunism is an old trick of Anglo-Saxon scholarship and should not mislead us. You cannot debate empirical opportunism, because it is a true wilderness of mirrors, a political bog and a haven for the worst kinds of self-seeking leftwing careerism. And this is something we ought to have settled accounts with by now, and must do if we are to develop. We shall have to take on board all the things which are flowing out of Porto Alegre, and find the ways to participate more actvely, and decisively, in the movement it embodies/represents: a movement which is characterised by a tacit alliance between the compliant petit-bourgeois socialism of acadameics, and the lumpenised semi-proletariat of the megacities who are now *also* firmly in the *political* sights of the emergent, post-neoliberal Davos Consensus. These things are connected. The bitterest and most decisive struggles against petit-bourgeois socialism will be necessary and while I agree we should be comradely, we should also be extremely serious and decisive in combating petit-bourgeois socialism. Mark ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
RE: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
Louis Proyect wrote: > > I stand corrected. Furthermore, as a rule of thumb whatever Sam says I > agree with in advance. Unless, of course, it is related to the topic of > wild life preservation. > > I'd like to get a wilder life myself. I'm a protected sub-species, too, according to my wife. ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
At 11:27 AM 1/29/01 -1000, you wrote: >Lou wrote: >Henwood used to argue, except they >formulated it slightly differently. They said that imperialism was >manifested by the refusal of Great Britain, USA et al to invest in Africa. >..., the imperialists prevented multinationals from "developing" Africa. > >Steve responds: >Well, if that is Henwood's argument, it's not that far from Frantz Fanon, >who argued that advanced capitalist countries frequently set conditions >for investment on newly decolonized countries that keep them from being >able to experience development *and* if they refused they would be faced >with the very real threat of withdrawl altogether of financial assistance >(which Fanon also felt they were owed from the advanced cap. world as >reparations for years of pilfering of colonial economies...). Well, okay. Frantz Fanon made no pretenses of being a Marxist. If Henwood simply dropped that pretension himself, there would be less controversy around his views in cyberspace. (I should add that his print views are largely unobjectionable, although having little to do with classical Marxism.) Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/ ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
Lou wrote: Henwood used to argue, except they formulated it slightly differently. They said that imperialism was manifested by the refusal of Great Britain, USA et al to invest in Africa. ..., the imperialists prevented multinationals from "developing" Africa. Steve responds: Well, if that is Henwood's argument, it's not that far from Frantz Fanon, who argued that advanced capitalist countries frequently set conditions for investment on newly decolonized countries that keep them from being able to experience development *and* if they refused they would be faced with the very real threat of withdrawl altogether of financial assistance (which Fanon also felt they were owed from the advanced cap. world as reparations for years of pilfering of colonial economies...). Steve Stephen Philion Lecturer/PhD Candidate Department of Sociology 2424 Maile Way Social Sciences Bldg. # 247 Honolulu, HI 96822 ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
[L-I] DaimlerChrysler to ax 26,000 workers
DaimlerChrysler to ax 26,000 workers Detroit's Mound Road plant among 6 to be closed. Jefferson North to lose 1,000 jobs. By Daniel Howes and Mark Truby / The Detroit News AUBURN HILLS -- DaimlerChrysler AG's troubled Chrysler Group said today that it will eliminate 26,000 jobs -- 20 percent of its workforce -- and shutter six plants over the next two years. The targeted plants include Detroit's Mound Road engine plant, whose production will be transferred to the Mack Avenue plants in Detroit next year and then closed. One shift -- about 1,000 jobs -- will be eliminated at Detroit's Jefferson North plant, home to the Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Auburn Hills-based Chrysler also said it will eliminate one shift at Windsor's Pillette Road large-van plant, halt a $1 billion renovation there and reduce assembly speed at the nearby Windsor minivan plant. Chrysler executives pushed for eliminating a third shift at the Windsor minivan plant, but Canadian Auto Workers bargainers signalled their intent to forcefully oppose such a move. Chrysler will close engine and transmission plants in Toluca, Mexico, as well as its Cordoba assembly plant in Argentina. The Campo Largo assembly plant in Brazil will be idled and evaluated for closure, and production in the Lago Alberto plant in Mexico City will be shifted to Chrysler's Saltillo, Mexico, assembly plant. Shifts also will be eliminated at the Bramalea car plant in Brampton, Ontario, the Belvidere, Ill., Neon plant, the aging Toledo II Jeep assembly plant and the Newark, Del., sport- utility vehicle plant. Generally speaking, officials said, one shift equals 1,000 jobs. "Today this is our turning point," President Dieter Zetsche said today. "Today's actions will help remove the uncertainty many of our employees have been feeling. Going through this reduction of our workforce is the most serious part of our restructuring effort. But we can look up from this point." The steps are part of Zetsche's broad restructuring of the troubled automaker, which posted a $512 million third-quarter loss last year and is expected to lose another $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter. Already, Chrysler has demanded 15-percent price reductions from suppliers over three years. The cuts to Chrysler's 128,000-person workforce would eliminate 1,800 contract employees, 19,000 of the automaker's 94,000 hourly jobs and 5,000 of its 34,000 salaried jobs. The job reductions would come through attrition, early retirements and, if necessary, forced layoffs. Officials estimate that half of the cuts likely would come voluntarily. Chrysler officials say 28,260 employees in the United States and Canada are eligible to retire and estimate that half of the job cuts could come from voluntary programs. UAW members at affected operations in Michigan, for example, would receive supplemental unemployment benefits for 42 weeks -- essentially 95 percent of their take-home pay -- followed by weekly straight-time pay and benefits until their contract expires in September 2003. The plant actions come despite so-called "plant-closing moratoriums" in Chrysler's four-year contract with the United Auto Workers and its three-year deal with the CAW. By idling a plant, Chrysler can close the operation and then pay the union workforce for the remaining months on the existing contract. Union leaders officially opposed any moves by Chrysler to shutter plants, which effectively would appear to violate the hard-won plant-closing moratorium. But union leaders also appear to have understood the depth of Chrysler's troubles and were preparing themselves for deep cutbacks to restore the automaker to profitability. The plant-closing moratorium in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler national contract obliges the automaker to discuss any desired exemption from the moratorium. Among the conditions that "it is understood ... may arise," according to page 178 of the contract, is a "significant economic decline." "Everything you're hearing about today was in the framework of our existing contracts with our unions," said Gary Henson, Chrysler's top manufacturing executive. Company executives worked throughout the weekend to craft the final details of the manufacturing restructuring, which will be a cornerstone of Zetsche's unfolding turnaround plan. The complete restructuring also is likely to include a substantial charge against earnings and vehicle-development pacts with partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Chrysler's parent, German automaker DaimlerChrysler, is expected to outline the broad restructuring on Feb. 26 in Stuttgart, three days after the plan is presented to the company's governing supervisory board. ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
>Forgot to mention that Leys think it is hard to speak of dependency or >imperialism in subsaharan Africa when there is very little foreign >economic penetration or activity. As for Brenner, reading him I've >wondered if the world only consisted of four countries: USA, Germany and >Japan. > >Sam This was something that Heartfield and Henwood used to argue, except they formulated it slightly differently. They said that imperialism was manifested by the refusal of Great Britain, USA et al to invest in Africa. Using excuses conveniently provided by Greenpeace and company, the imperialists prevented multinationals from "developing" Africa. This argument obviously has little to do with Marxism and more to do with Samuel Huntington. Speaking of Africa, I am midway in Bill Freund's "The Making of Contemporary Africa" which I highly recommend. His attention is focused on the need to transform African agriculture, which is a point that might be lost on certain Marxists who see socialism solely in terms of the need to develop heavy industry or who assume that it is the role of third world countries to supply coffee beans for their morning fix at Starbucks. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/ ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
Forgot to mention that Leys think it is hard to speak of dependency or imperialism in subsaharan Africa when there is very little foreign economic penetration or activity. As for Brenner, reading him I've wondered if the world only consisted of four countries: USA, Germany and Japan. Sam ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
>Don't know if I'd go that far. Leys used to espouse a dependency theory >see esp. his *Underdevelopment in Kenya* (1974,U of Cal.) a classic >Baran-type analysis. He says "To my mind underdevelopment theory >represents an immense advance, politically and intellectually, over >conventional development theory (or modernisation theory-SP)." pxii. In >the last 20 or so years though, he has given up on it for he contends >that dependency or underdevelopment theory has failed to explain the >"African Tragedy" as he puts it. He now seems to think that sub-saharan >Africa has never been capitalist at all and this is one of the problems. >Leys now, justifiably I guess, is resigned to complete pessimism as >everything tried in S. Africa has failed completely and only made the >overall socio-economic-political situation worse. The situation there >today is about as good as it's going to get barring significant drastic >changes in the international political economy. A more optimistic (and >complete) analysis is given by Patrick Bond in his various books. > >Sam Pawlett I stand corrected. Furthermore, as a rule of thumb whatever Sam says I agree with in advance. Unless, of course, it is related to the topic of wild life preservation. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/ ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] The legacy...part 1
> Leys is a specialist in "development theory", Africa in particular. > According to Sam Pawlett, he comes at things from the same angle as Robert > Brenner which is to say that he is skeptical of the"development of > underdevelopment" thesis--another way of saying that imperialism exists. > Don't know if I'd go that far. Leys used to espouse a dependency theory see esp. his *Underdevelopment in Kenya* (1974,U of Cal.) a classic Baran-type analysis. He says "To my mind underdevelopment theory represents an immense advance, politically and intellectually, over conventional development theory (or modernisation theory-SP)." pxii. In the last 20 or so years though, he has given up on it for he contends that dependency or underdevelopment theory has failed to explain the "African Tragedy" as he puts it. He now seems to think that sub-saharan Africa has never been capitalist at all and this is one of the problems. Leys now, justifiably I guess, is resigned to complete pessimism as everything tried in S. Africa has failed completely and only made the overall socio-economic-political situation worse. The situation there today is about as good as it's going to get barring significant drastic changes in the international political economy. A more optimistic (and complete) analysis is given by Patrick Bond in his various books. Sam Pawlett ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] Cuba on Bush Administration
I still find Fidel Castro to be an inspiration. I might even go so far as to say Castro is the last original Leninist. His latest dispatches regarding the administration of the alleged U.S. president sure have all the proud contempt Lenin and Trotsky so rightfully showed Wilson and company. Sure, most of what Castro says are utterances to be heard anywhere on the left, but his status as a world leader provides these utterances mass media coverage no one else currently enjoys. I was especially delighted to read a bit on CNN online (Jan. 25) where Castro ridiculed the alleged U.S. president, saying 'I hope he's not as dumb as he seems.' Millions of Americans read that. Made my day. 'Defending banners in easy times is not difficult at all, it's nothing particularly worthy of merit. Defending banners in difficult times---that is what's really worthy of merit' (In Defense of Socialism, Pathfinder Press 1988, p. 32). ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] Random Insult Generator
> Why does everybody on this list have to read this bullshit? > > AD Ah, but comrade...this is the highest level of criticism. To critique our own bizarre little culture is a fairly positive step, all in all. Now, if I could only figure out who was revisionist by accident, and who is deliberately try to hi-jack the workers movement for ther purposes of the restoration of the Scottish Monarchy? Macdonald ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
Re: [L-I] Random Insult Generator
Why does everybody on this list have to read this bullshit? AD At 11:49 AM 1/29/2001 -0500, you wrote: >We have exposed your real motives as an anti-Communist, petty-bourgeois dilettante who sucks the cockroaches off the arses of the capitalist dog to exceed far-right expectations. > >from Random Sectarian Insult Generator: > >http://qualiall.homestead.com/files/adhom.html > >-30- > >Your incompetence is hardly anything but your tendency to be a Clinton loving, capitalist-roader who licks the toilet bowls of the bourgeoisie goat so that you may endeavor to be a wretched pro-imperialist, ACLU loving liberal ultra-rightist rat such that you may continue to be a Clinton administration adoring, opportunist ultra-leftist pig for 100% satisfaction. > >* >We have exposed your real motives as a fake left red-baiting who licks the toilet bowls of the bourgeoisie dog to allow you to be a centrist, Stalinist ultra-rightist goat while maintaining the highest standards > >*** >You are no more than a centrist, opportunist tool of the bourgoise who has carnal knowledge with the fascist pig in order that you may be a Blairite "Third Way" kissing, fascist who licks the toilet bowls of the bourgeoisie rat such that you may continue to be a fake left revisionist orthodox-Trotskyist swine and approach your job with passion an commitment. > >* > > > >___ >Leninist-International mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To change your options or unsubscribe go to: >http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international > ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
[L-I] Random Insult Generator
We have exposed your real motives as an anti-Communist, petty-bourgeois dilettante who sucks the cockroaches off the arses of the capitalist dog to exceed far-right expectations. from Random Sectarian Insult Generator: http://qualiall.homestead.com/files/adhom.html -30- Your incompetence is hardly anything but your tendency to be a Clinton loving, capitalist-roader who licks the toilet bowls of the bourgeoisie goat so that you may endeavor to be a wretched pro-imperialist, ACLU loving liberal ultra-rightist rat such that you may continue to be a Clinton administration adoring, opportunist ultra-leftist pig for 100% satisfaction. * We have exposed your real motives as a fake left red-baiting who licks the toilet bowls of the bourgeoisie dog to allow you to be a centrist, Stalinist ultra-rightist goat while maintaining the highest standards *** You are no more than a centrist, opportunist tool of the bourgoise who has carnal knowledge with the fascist pig in order that you may be a Blairite "Third Way" kissing, fascist who licks the toilet bowls of the bourgeoisie rat such that you may continue to be a fake left revisionist orthodox-Trotskyist swine and approach your job with passion an commitment. * ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
[L-I] NYTimes on DRCongo
Again, I tend not to view the contents of what the official line of the Americans on such matters as important as how (which we can almost never say with certainty) or when (which this article seems to indicate) it is developed, and where that blows the wind. When North America even sneezes in the direction of Africa, the entire continent can be made ill. Right now, I am wondering why the press is so concerned about the dead in the "civil war". It has passed without a mention (much like the 10 000 dead in Angola, during the four months leading up to the bombing of the human rights violators in the FR Yugoslavia) of such heart-tugging concern, and barely a headline or subsection mention. - Macdonald -- Congo's War Turns a Land Spat Into a Blood Bath By IAN FISHER UNIA, Congo, Jan. 24 - The head was hacked off a young man who was quite small, witnesses said. It was then skewered on the tip of a spear and paraded on the back of a white pickup truck, only five days before, around the streets of this city in northeastern Congo. Soldiers on the truck sang a soccer anthem. "You doubted we could win," they sang. "But now you see." This went on for several hours, as 250 or more people were hacked or shot to death in a resurgence of ethnic violence between the Hema and the Lendu, the two main groups here. Finally, a Congolese commander told the soldier with the spear it was time to bury the head. "In any family - say of 10 children - one or two will be a little odd," said the commander, Sion Malekera, fumbling to account for his soldier's behavior. "I was horrified. I have never seen anything like that." What is happening here, awful enough on its own, does not bode well for the rest of Congo. What began as a local dispute over land has now become entangled in Congo's larger two-and-half-year civil war - and thus, experts say, has been raised a frightening notch. Politicians and businessmen apparently see something to gain in taking sides. There is now no government in this region - and so no local authority to prevent everyday tensions in a very poor place from exploding. And the de facto rule by outsiders, in this case Uganda - one of five outside nations with troops regularly in Congo - seems to only fan the flames. These conditions exist, in varying degrees, all around Congo. The fear - heightened by uncertainty around the assassination this month of President Laurent Kabila - is that other parts of Congo where order has already been breaking down will also erupt into violence, as Bunia has sporadically done since June 1999. "We are reaching a situation where the soil is so thin that it may crumble beneath them, and we will see a crumbling of Congo," said Suliman Baldo, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who recently visited Bunia and wrote a report on the situation here. "I fear for the worst." It is hard to imagine much worse here, only a higher body count. "Cover me," a 9-year-old boy, Ngudjolo Bulo, asked his mother in a small, stone-walled room at a hospital with 20 beds, each filled with someone shot or hacked on Jan. 19. The boy's left hand was chopped off completely, along with most of the right, apparently as he tried to shield himself from his attackers' blows with machetes. Bandages cover deep machete gashes on his face. He is the second born of five children, and the only one who survived. He happens to be Hema, but even more Lendu died during the fighting. "These patients can recover but they will be scarred forever," said the doctor, Jean-Norbert Ngadjole. "This is a political problem. They are exploiting the tribal side of things so they do not expose the other side. "Before, all the tribes - Hema, Lendu, Ngiti - lived together," he added. "But since the war began, it has gone to the other extreme." No one knows how many people have died since the conflict between the Hema and Lendu, who have feuded for decades over land and other resources, erupted into violence two years ago. But most here agree that the number of dead is several thousand. There is also general agreement that it began in 1999 as a local dispute over a farm in Djugu, north of Bunia. The allegations are that the farm's owners, who are of the Hema, seen as richer than the Lendu, sought to expand their reach into land owned by Lendu. The disputes broadened, and for several months in late 1999 and early last year they battled viciously, killing hundreds of people in single attacks. >From the start, two aspects of the larger war in Congo have been at play. The first is the weakening of local government as a mediator of such disputes as the Ugandan military effectively took control of northeastern Congo in August 1998. Then, Uganda and Rwanda began backing rebels to overthrow Mr. Kabila. The second is the role of Ugandan soldiers themselves: human rights groups and aid officials allege that rich Hema have hired rogue Ugandan soldiers to drive Lendu from their land, in some cases killing them. Uganda has
[L-I] Rebuilding the Left in Toronto: Against The Current reports.
Forwarded, including note- Macdonald. ** I'm enclosing an article written by Toby Moorsom of Rebuilding the Left in Toronto, which will appear in the upcoming issue of the U.S. marxist magazine Against The Current. Against The Current can be contacted at 7012 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A, 48210. Subscriptions are $25 U.S. per year. Will +++ Electoral politics present challenging problems for labor movements all over the world. In the absence of strong working class parties, labor activists are often compelled to support parties that implement anti-worker legislation simply because they represent a lesser evil. While reforms are certainly necessary, the investment of activist energy and resources into the electoral process can often distract union and social justice organizations, preventing them from undertaking the important task of generating solidarity within more impoverished segments of the working class. A small step in addressing this dilemma of political organization was made at a conference in Toronto, Ontario this past October entitled "Rebuilding the Left". Instead of focusing on the role of political parties, the conference sought, at this point, to build a more inclusive and explicitly anti-capitalist movement. The organizers felt it necessary to discuss the possibility of a political organization that could act as a point of convergence for activist campaigns and encourage the long-term development of anti-capitalist politics. An organization of this sort, it was felt, might lay the foundations of a future party after a strong and inclusive movement is developed. Judging from the participation of more than 700 activists, it seems others were thinking along similar lines. Although the Rebuilding the Left conference was specific to Canadian experiences, the concept and process has significant relevance for the US labor movement as it grapples with various electoral options. The impetus for the conference came from several sources. Most immediately, it was a response to the sharp decline of the social democratic NDP party in both recent federal and provincial elections. In Ontario, this followed on the heels of an unprecedented period when the NDP held office for a single term in the early 1990s. Although the party has historically been backed by unions, it has proved equally willing to implement neo-liberalism and legislate restraints on labor as any other capitalist party. Many believe these actions of the NDP even paved the way for the present far right party to implement even more reactionary policy. These events spurred a 1996 wave of city-wide general strikes against the provincial government (then held by the Conservative Party) called the "Days of Action". Unfortunately, inter-union fighting and continued support for the NDP halted the actions. This was particularly demoralizing for labor activists as the events had managed to build the largest protests in Canadian history. Many here have in fact been angered by the extreme level of apathy that has since dominated the NDP. As with social democratic parties elsewhere in the world there is ample evidence to suggest that those within the NDP really do not believe radical change is possible. Their third-way policy orientation really only seeks to humanize the capitalist social relations, that are seen as inevitable, instead of trying to achieve democracy, equality and environmental responsibility. At the 1999 convention, the party adopted policy positions emphasizing fiscal responsibility and tax-cuts in virtually the same language as the Liberals and newly formed right-wing Canadian Alliance party The other big catalyst for the conference has been the international anti-globalization protests. Canadian protests in Vancouver against APEC, in Montreal against the G20, and the events in Seattle and Washington saw the development of a new layer of activists and new points of solidarity for labor. Ontario also experienced a heightened level of protest as anti-poverty demonstrators fended off attacking riot police outside of the provincial legislature in June of last year. Out of these events has developed a recognition of the need to maintain a sustained resistance to the undemocratic institutions of global capitalism. On the left there has been a feeling that younger activists have a lot to contribute as they have successfully experimented with organizational models that have been ignored and even denounced by labor leaders that are unwilling to damage their relationships with those in power. Another notable contrast between the labor activists and those organizing the anti-globalization protests has been the latter's interest in trying to achieve levels of democracy that are totally foreign to most unions. Many people now see the need to move this energy forward though conversations about how we should do this have been difficult when much of the acti
[L-I] Ueber die sog. Wende / About the winds of change
Liebe GenossInnen, dear comrades, Ich möchte Eure Aufmerksamkeit auf den folgenden Artikel lenken, der endlich in der richtigen Wortwahl einen guten Beitrag über die Konterrevolution in der DDR Aussagen trifft. I would like to draw your attention to the following - German - essay, which with the rights nomen offers a good view to the counter revolution which lead to the end of GDR. http://www.dkp-thueringen.de/Report/2001/trep0110.htm Martin ~ Visit http://www.communards.de for information of struggles worldwide. Post your events at http://metaevents.com/Communards/calendrome.cgi Send information for mailings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] BOYKOTT GMX: http://www.netz-antifa.org ___ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
