[Marxism] What's new at Links: Thailand, repression in Malaysia, SA water, Egypt, China capital, Libya debate, NZ, Tariq Ali, Islam, Fukushima
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What's new at Links: Thailand, repression in Malaysia, SA water, Egypt, China capital, Libya debate, NZ, Tariq Ali, Islam, Fukushima * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to li...@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in Links. * * * Thailand's election: A slap in the face for the military, Democrat Party and royalist elites http://links.org.au/node/2389. By *Giles Ji Ungpakorn* July 4, 2011 -- The results of Thailand's July 3 general election are a slap in the face for the dictatorship. They prove without any doubt that the majority of people have rejected the military, the Democrat Party and the royalist elites. Pheu Thai, the party closely allied to the Red Shirt movement, has won a clear majority. The result is all the more remarkable, given that the election was held under conditions of severe censorship and intimidation of the Red Shirt democracy movement by the military and the military-installed Democrat Party government of Abhisit Vejjajiva. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2389 (Updated July 3) Malaysia: Socialists abused in custody; Philippine socialist detained; More arrests http://links.org.au/node/2385 By the *Socialist Party of Malaysia* July 1 -- The PSM is alarmed that its detained members are undergoing torture and inhumane interrogation from special Bukit Aman officers who have been brought specifically to extract information as most of those detained have preferred to use their rights under the law to speak to the court and not to the police. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2385 Malaysia: Government arrests socialists ahead of Bersih 2.0 pro-democracy rally http://links.org.au/node/2377 *[Urgent appeal for protest letters to be sent to the Malaysian government, please visit http://www.parti-sosialis.org/en/en/articles/1585 for details of where they can be sent. See also*http://links.org.au/node/2380***Malaysia: Protests demand release of democracy activists* http://links.org.au/node/2380***.] * June 27, 2011 -- At least 30 members of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (Parti Sosialis Malaysia, PSM) -- including member of parliament Dr Michael Jeyakumar -- have been detained by police. The Malaysian government is whipping up a massive red-scare campaign around the /Bersih 2.0/ rally planned for July 9 (see statement below), and is increasingly resorting to repression to try to prevent an expected huge attendance. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2377 South Africa: Two warriors die, alongside the right to water http://links.org.au/node/2388 By *Patrick Bond* July 3, 2011 -- Two of South Africa's greatest water warriors were not actually killed in conflict, though at the time of their deaths on June 22 and 23, both were furious with their traditional political party home, the ruling African National Congress (ANC). * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2388 Egypt: Left debates the Arab Spring, democracy and imperialism http://links.org.au/node/2387 By *Nicola Pratt* June 29, 2011 -- Egyptian, Arab and international socialists and progressive forces met in Cairo June 3-5, to discuss the future of the Arab revolutions in light of imperialism, Zionism and global capitalism. The Forum in Solidarity with the Arab Revolutions was organised by a number of progressive groups in Egypt and represented the first attempt to revive the annual Cairo Conference against Imperialism and Zionism, which was shut down by the Egyptian authorities in 2009. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2387 China, Brazil, Indonesia: Capital is a fickle lover http://links.org.au/node/2386 By *Walden Bello* June 22, 2011 -- China is today the ideal capitalist state: freedom for capital, with the state doing the 'dirty job' of controlling the workers, writes the prominent Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. China as the emerging power of the twenty first century ... seems to embody a new kind of capitalism: disregard for ecological consequences, disdain for workers' rights, everything subordinated to the ruthless drive to develop and become the new world force. Capital, however, is a fickle lover. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2386 The Egyptian revolution: phase two http://links.org.au/node/2384 By *Jesse McLaren* June 27, 2011 -- My previous
[Marxism] KARL MARX AND WORLD LITERATURE BY S. S. PRAWER
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NEW EDITION: KARL MARX AND WORLD LITERATURE BY S. S. PRAWER PUBLISHED: 1 AUGUST 2011 --- “A landmark in comparative literature in Britain.” - George Steiner “A learned, useful and entertaining book” – TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT “One of the most important books about Marx yet written in English” – TRIBUNE --- “Very few men”, said Bakunin, “have read as much, and, it may be added, have read as intelligently, as M. Marx.” Indeed, Moses Hess encouraged followers to ‘‘Imagine Rousseau, Voltaire, Holbach, Lessing, Heine, and Hegel fused into one person – I say fused, not juxtaposed – and you have Dr. Marx’. S. S. Prawer’s highly influential work explores the overlooked ways in which the world of imaginative literature—poems, novels, plays—infused and shaped Marx’s writings, from his unpublished correspondence, to his pamphlets and major works. In exploring Marx’s use of literary texts, from Aeschylus to Balzac, and the central role of art and literature in the development of his critical vision, Karl Marx and World Literature is a forensic masterpiece of critical analysis. Illuminating Marx’s dealings with literature, Prawer makes an incomparable contribution to the understanding of a mind that has helped to shape our world. Beginning with Marx’s engagement with poetry and myth in his early education, Prawer traces Marx’s life-long relationship to literature to uncover how his early allegiances to Romantic modes of writing and thinking and a late adoption of Hegelian philosophy merged to create his critical vision. Arguing that Marx’s most famous political concepts, particularly that of ‘alienation’ and ‘reification,’ have poetic, literary origins, Prawer delves into Marx’s writings in order to demonstrate Marx’s understanding of metaphor, inspiration, and conflict inherent in the world literary tradition. Liberally quoting from Marx’s own writings and the literary texts he engaged with to provide a well-rounded history of the formulation of the ideas and expressions that shaped Marx’s later social criticism, Prawer’s text creates an impeccably balanced cultural history. Blending history, literary criticism and cultural theory, Prawer’s ground-breaking work provides astonishing insight into the imaginary life of one of the most influential figures of the nineteenth century, and remains highly unique and relevant 35 years after it was originally published. S. S. Prawer is a literary and film critic. Born in Germany in 1925, he moved to the UK to escape Nazism and lectured in German at the University of Birmingham and Westfield College London, before becoming Taylor Emeritus Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. He is the author of over 20 books on German literature and poetry, comparative literature and film. --- AUTHOR: Professor S. S. PRAWER is Taylor Emeritus Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford. His many books include CALIGARI’S CHILDREN, A CULTURAL CITIZEN OF THE WORLD: SIGMUND FREUD’S KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN WRITING, and KARL MARX AND WORLD LITERATURE. --- ISBN: 978-1-84467-710-8 / $29.95 / £16.99 / $37.50CAN / Paperback / 480 pages --- For more information or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/975-karl-marx-and-world-literature --- Academics based outside North America may request an inspection copy – please contact ta...@versobooks.co.uk Academics based within North America may request an examination copy – please contact cl...@versobooks.com Please check the guidelines at http://www.versobooks.com/pg/desk-copies and include all necessary information. --- Become a fan of Verso on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789 And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooks Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] James Wolcott on The Larry Crowne Affair
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2011/07/the-larry-crowne-affair.html The Larry Crowne Affair by James Wolcott July 3, 2011, 8:57 PM Am I mistaken, or is the new Tom Hanks movie Michael Gates Gill's memoir made into a fruit smoothie? I haven't seen mention of it in the reviews I've read, but a few years ago Hanks optioned Gill's How Starbucks Saved My Life, a book that had an affirmative sweetness and lack of pretension that was charming and specific in its depiction of work-place dynamics, pecking order, and daily routine. What gave it its hook was that Gill wasn't just another man nearing retirement age who found himself unemployed and had to learn how to wield a mop and handle a cash register, but the son of Brendan Gill, the longtime New Yorker theater critic and bon vivant who worked with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the cause of architectural preservation. That a son of a New Yorker legend (not always a legend for the right reasons, but still) who had forged his own career as an ad executive should end up at Starbucks was intrinsically intriguing, at least for us New Yorker lore-addicts. And the book itself dramatized without exploiting the self-pity pump the shock of a sudden drop in social and economic status, in finding yourself no longer calling the shots behind a desk but taking orders from people decades than you and finding yourself starting over--embarrassed, tentative, afraid of feeling incompetent and failing. He went from being a hot shot to being at age of 60 the old man in a low-pay service job, a situation that's become even more prevalent--and movie-relevant--since the book was published in 2007 as legions of middle-aged, middle-management white collar employees have gotten wiped out in this Great Recession, many of them starting from the bottom and not even finding opportunities there to make do. The book also had a very specific New York geography, Gill's commute to work from Bronxville to the Starbucks at Broadway and 93rd taking an hour each day, allowing him to stand on the platform each day looking at business men and knowing that he used to be one of them and that none of them believe his fate could happen to them. Well, all that's gone, judging from the reviews of Larry Crowne. The setting has shifted from New York's asphalt and bustle to a sunny, generic So Cal suburb with a community college, from taking the subway to riding a motor scooter, and from Starbucks to Denny's (you almost expect the cast of Men of a Certain Age to be occupying a booth), with Tom Hanks bobbing like a buoy in his personal economic downturn with a host of sitcom-my supporting characters and Julia Roberts doing her impersonation of a prune danish before giving the camera both gums. Seeing Bryan Cranston's name in the cast reminds me that Breaking Bad returns on July 17th. Now there's a show that's got its sociology nailed. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Chomsky: Guardian's account of my Chavez's criticism was, as anticipated, deceptive
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1309706956.html -- Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class. -- Al Capone Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Mafia boss offers talks with rival gang
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == If you are angry with us because we are not buying the Rafale airplanes, you should talk with us, he added, a reference to the Dassault-built French warplane that Paris had been trying to sell to Tripoli before the uprising against Gaddafi. If you are angry with us because oil deals are not going well, you should talk to us. Rebels will not give you anything because they are not going to win. full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/04/gaddafi-son-western-powers-legitimate-targets Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Australia's ties to Abu Ghraib - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == TV report shows Australian complicity In Abu Grahib atrocities http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/07/04/3260841.htm -- Shared using Google Toolbar Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] He's back ...
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela in the early hours of this morning and a big welcome back demonstration is being organized for this afternoon. So much for the assurance of the imperialist press that he would be staying in Cuba for months. Joaquin Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 7/4/11 12:12 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: Writing during World War I, Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin differentiated the socialist movement into three sections: the revolutionary left, the social-imperialists (socialist in name, but openly pro-imperialist), and the “centrists.” He focused most of his polemical writing against the “center” group, represented by German socialist Karl Kautsky, who advocated radical positions in theory, but refused to take actions that would risk isolation from the pro-imperialist left. Lenin argued that regardless of their radical pretenses, the “centrists” were “accomplices” of imperialism. This relates directly to the present situation. Becker Brothers Lenin-channeling megalomania firing on all 8 cylinders. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] History of Socialist Women's Movements
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dear friends, I've posted two responses to my article, The Communist Women's Movement (1921-26), along with some thoughts of the challenge of researching the history of socialist women's movements, at www.johnriddell.wordpress.com. The next instalment of my series of working papers on socialist and communist history will be Nationality's Role in Social Liberation: The Soviet Legacy. Look for it later this month. To receive e-mail alerts regarding new articles on my website, fill in the box To be notified of new posts in the right-hand column. John Riddell Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis: Becker Brothers Lenin-channeling megalomania firing on all 8 cylinders. Ad hominem attacks are now the best you can do, Louis? And, as it happens, Brian and Richard Becker are as far from megalomaniacal as any two people I have ever met. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 7/4/11 1:03 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: Louis: Becker Brothers Lenin-channeling megalomania firing on all 8 cylinders. Ad hominem attacks are now the best you can do, Louis? It is a vacation day for me and I really have better things to do than explain how attempts to evoke 1914, Zimmerwald, etc., with the Becker boys assuming the wardrobe of Lenin, are absurdly vain. Maybe tomorrow when I am back at work and need a break from my perl programming. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] My former student on the front page of the New York Times
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have been virtually incommunicado for a while, giving papers at conferences, having my electronics from my suitcase after I checked it in at the South Bend airport, and now trying to catch up with the backlog of deadlines. I briefly awoke from my slumber with today's New York Times article regarding Congressman Mike Thompson, who was a outstanding student of mine.He also used to keep my tractor repaired and his wife would sometimes babysit for us.Both were very, very nice people. Mike earned an internship with a powerful representative in the state legislature, who taught him the ropes.Later, he ran for state Sen. in our district against the Republican who should have been a shoe-in.Republican, however, got caught up in a scandal and Mike won the office.He later switched districts in order to be closer to his home in the Napa Valley.The congressional seat had switched back and forth between parties, ever since a long standing representative, Don Claussen, was defeated.Mike won and has held the office ever since. He only contacted me a couple times many years ago and I have not heard from him since.He and Darrell Issa were the two representatives, who met with Saddam Hussein prior to the war, to see if hostilities could be prevented.I should have mentioned that he was also a Vietnam veteran. I can't tell if the article is attacking him for being overly supportive of the wine industry or if he is self interested as a small wine grower.In reality, he was interested in the wine industry as a student.Consequently, nothing he says seems particularly scandalous. I understand that Mike is a favorite of Nancy Pelosi.I recall that he identified himself as a blue dog.Our politics are obviously far apart, but I do remember him fondly as an excellent student and a friend, even though I'm not aware of any courageous stands he has taken, with the exception of the trip to Iraq. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael dot perelman at gmail.com Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis: It is a vacation day for me and I really have better things to do... Apparently you didn't have a mother who taught you one of the important things in life: If you don't have something nice (or intelligent or useful) to say, STFU! You aren't REQUIRED to respond to every post, Louis. If you have better things to do, then go do them. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] My former student on the front page of the New York Times
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Yeah, he's our Congressman here on the North Coast; he's also a Vietnam vet. For what it's worth, local Green Party activist and friend of Peter Camejo, Dan Hamburg held the seat for one term as a Democrat in the 90s. Hamburg was recently elected a Mendocino County Supervisor, an office he previously held in the 80s where he's now embroiled with the budget and its attendant pay cuts and layoffs. My colleagues over in the public defender/DA/county counsel County Attorneys Union (Teamsters) were asked to take a 20% cut in pay and benefits but when they threaten to strike like they did in 2006, they still limped away with a hefty 12% cut in the end. On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 12:05 PM, michael perelman michael.perel...@gmail.com wrote: I understand that Mike is a favorite of Nancy Pelosi.I recall that he identified himself as a blue dog.Our politics are obviously far apart, but I do remember him fondly as an excellent student and a friend, even though I'm not aware of any courageous stands he has taken, with the exception of the trip to Iraq. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] My former student on the front page of the New York Times
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hamburg was a breath of fresh air in Washington. On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Tom Cod tomc...@gmail.com wrote: local Green Party activist and friend of Peter Camejo, Dan Hamburg held the seat for one term as a Democrat in the 90s. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Here's a link to two of America's main centrist guys and one social patriot which gives an idea of the breadth of support the SP had at the time. I think I remember hearing Sidney Hook once refer to Morris Hillquit as one of his early heroes and role models. He got over 20% of the vote when he ran for mayor of NYC on an anti war platform in 1917; later he met with Wilson at the White House with Socialist Congressmen Meyer London, the latter being an open social patriot, although he cast the sole vote against the Sedition Act in 1918; The other Socialist Congressman, Victor Berger, didn't because the House refused to seat him because of his anti-war views and in fact he was himself, like Debs, convicted under that Act and imprisoned. I think the main focus of Lenin's centrist complaint had to do not with their line on the war, which was pretty stalwart, but their real or perceived caving in to bourgois public opinion around parroting its critiques of the Bolshevik Revolution. Certainly Kautsky, for all his faults, had been an anti-war socialist. Moreover, in the US these centrists also had their differences with Heywood and the IWW supporters in the party who constituted much of the Left Wing of the party whom they viewed as ultraleft. After November 1917, obviously, the Bolshevik Revolution upstaged much of that as a factional issue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Hilquit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Berger On 7/4/11 12:12 PM, Eli Stephens wrote: Writing during World War I, Russian revolutionary leader V.I. Lenin differentiated the socialist movement into three sections: the revolutionary left, the social-imperialists (socialist in name, but openly pro-imperialist), and the “centrists.” He focused most of his polemical writing against the “center” group, represented by German socialist Karl Kautsky, who advocated radical positions in theory, but refused to take actions that would risk isolation from the pro-imperialist left. Lenin argued that regardless of their radical pretenses, the “centrists” were “accomplices” of imperialism. This relates directly to the present situation. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Kate Richards O'Hare
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Here's a link to another SP leader who was imprisoned for her anti-war activism that I had never heard of. Sadly, unlike her comrades in that situation, she was a vulgar and outspoken racist, who unfortunately brings to mind certain left wing socialists who wound up with the Nazis later on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Richards_O%27Hare Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Obama’s Original Sin
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I'm not so optimistic about the possibilities of Obama not getting a second term. Admittedly he has imploded at an extremely impressive rate - far outstripping the direst predictions we made before his election. But my best guess from this distance is that he will be up against some fascist and the liberals will be scared back into voting for him. The lesser of two evils logic still has some traction, I fear. comradely Gary Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == When first reading your response and then the PSL editorial I wondered if Andy was being too harsh -- I am not too knowledgable abou the PSL. But after reading through the editorial he seems right on, though I've often found the throwing around of the term 'Stalinists' at groups (I mostly hear it heard hurled and the PSL and Sparks I think) may not be productive. That said, the interesting part to me is: ' Advocating for the rebels now is advocating for NATO.' While I think from the news coming from the US media on the rebels almost implies there are multiple groups and they are trying to get the Libyans (usually who actually have been living outside of Libya, right?) they support to be able to take full control of the rebellion. So to me saying one can not advocate for the rebel is saying one can not advocate for the working class of Libya! And if advocating for anyone against Gaddafi is advocating for NATO how is that not basically the same as supporting Gaddafi! This is the part that made it clear to me that it is not the other Left groups, who oppose NATO intervention, who are the problem in uniting in opposition in opposing the intervention but clearly the PSL themselves. As they first argue we can all work together as long as we oppose the NATO war but then say those of us who oppose the intervention and rallying against it actually support it! Tristan Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Tristan writes (echoing the sentiments of others): So to me saying one can not advocate for the rebel is saying one can not advocate for the working class of Libya! And if advocating for anyone against Gaddafi is advocating for NATO how is that not basically the same as supporting Gaddafi! I think a key line in the editorial I posted is this one: In other cases it results in the hopelessly confused slogan of “Yes to the rebels, no to the intervention!” Which I have put previously (in the discussion of the Arm the resistance statement from the Socialist Resistance group) like this, and never received an answer: If you really believe in victory to the Libyan revolution [or Down with Gaddafi], why WOULDN'T you support a no-fly zone? After all, the evidence was that this revolution was going to be defeated in the absence of US/NATO intervention. And if you're going to support the US and NATO arming the resistance [as this statement did, that's not to say that everyone shouting Down with Gaddafi agrees with that], and seizing the assets of the Libyan government, is it really THAT big of a step to support them also shooting down Libyan planes? After all, war is offense AND defense. Why would you support the US and NATO helping to support the offensive side of the revolution with arms and money, but not support them helping the defensive side by providing a shield against air attacks? Either the slogan down with Gaddafi is just empty words, and wishful thinking, or it means something. And if it means something, and you're in an imperialist country, it can only mean one thing - support for the imperialist war on Libya. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PSL Editorial: Libya and the united front
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I missed the 'arm the resistance' thread but for me that can mean a number of things. Would you have (or did you) supported outside elements bringing arms to the Franco resistance and fighting and dying with them? You jump very far in all your statements about supporting X isn't that far from supporting Y, its nonsense. Also, what was the evidence that the rebellion would be crushed? That was an argument for the intervention from the imperialist media... But now that is something you believe? The tanks were outside of Bengazhi because there were driven out. This doesn't mean I know it wouldn't be crushed but I find your use of it interesting. Not to mention your seeming acceptance of the idea that the only options were a crushed rebellion or a NATO bombing/invasion. Tristan Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Warning against confidence in the NY Citizens Complaint Review Board (CCRb).
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This, whether or not the origins are ultraleft in one form or another or not, smells to me to be good advice in dealing with this agency. I speak as one who has watched various Law and Orders for years, yelling at the screen for suspects to lawyer up and stop talking and am very cautious about plea bargaining, although sometimes lawyers have an obligation to understand the relationship of forces facing their clients and take deals. At any rate, I recommend that victims take this advice as a good starting point. Lawyer up! Fred Feldman A recent, disturbingly naive post circulating (from seasoned and usually highly effective activists) reminds us how many NYers are still deceived by CCRB...presumably both because of this city department's Orwellian name and their deliberate outreach campaign to trick potential brutality litigants, political organizers and progressives into talking to them, usually against their own interests or against the interests of some other NYer. NEVER TALK TO A CIVILIAN COMPLAINT REVIEW BOARD. NEVER TALK TO ANY CITY AGENCY WITHOUT YOUR ATTORNEY PRESENT. Please, please, let's sing it together now. CCRB is, by charter and city policy, explicitly created to sabotage brutality claims against the NYPD, and to increase cop impunity. It's a city-run department, controlled as a matter of law by present and past law enforcement and criminal justice system career operatives. Their staff's job is to take evidence statements from witnesses specifically without their attorney present. And as in any interrogation, they are allowed to lie, deceive and manipulate for the sake of extracting or manufacturing evidence for their case, which as a matter of law is the city's case. I am not a lawyer and cannot give advice. But any brutality attorney will tell you that filing any report with CCRB is essentially agreeing to work *for* the city against all survivors, potential brutality claimants and political arrestees, particularly oneself. It is common for statements voluntarily given in a CCRB interrogation to be used *against* the complainant and even to jail or convict them. And I have personally witnessed outreach workers visit an organizing group that later documents proved the city planned to physical attack, torture and to maliciously prosecute with false evidence for political purposes. They admit to such a program. Like every city department they also have a publicity budget. Some quick history. In response to a rapid acceleration in NYPD assaults and murders and systemic criminality, in the 1970s there was a *genuine* local movement among NYC liberals to create an independent and genuinely civilian-run investigative body. But in response and to defend NYPD violence and racial, caste and political repression, the party revised the original proposal, creating its exact opposite. The party then deceptively phrased the charter revision proposal to make it *appear* CCRB would be a check on cop brutality, an anti-brutality investigative body, rather than the pro-brutality body it was actually designed as by law. The resulting Orwellian CCRB proposal was overwhelmingly popular, but ONLY because of this misconception, centered around a (presumably organized) news blackout against the very same brutality activists who had developed the anti-brutality movement and original legal proposals. Every anti-brutality activist in the city fought *against* the creation of the CCRB as it now exists. But voters were successfully tricked. And the courts and Council have never reversed this criminal hoax. (Which is in itself telling.) By charter, the only civilians controlling the board are pro-cop. CCRB staff's chartered mission is to sabotage or discourage civil court process and to gather criminal evidence against civilians, using any means necessary. Talk to attorneys, never to cops or city agencies. Any information you give a city agency can harm somebody, no matter how harmless it may seem. These people are professionals. You cannot expect to out-smart them. I am not an attorney and cannot give legal advice. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Sales?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What about Sales? When I was in law school they had whole courses on this, but in my previous history as an acolyte in the Marxist left the whole focus was on production, the labor theory of value and the capitalist's expropriation of the surplus value with the shop worn theory of supply and demand being completely discounted-although I noted in recently reading Value, Price and Profit, Marx appears to give it its due. So, I mean, isn't a sale needed to realize that surplus value. A sophomoric young high priest on a marxist listserv scoffed in my face when I asserted there is overwhelming evidence that supply and demand and subjective factors in the minds of buyers affect prices and market behavior. leaving aside Marketing 101, why is that wrong? Don't we always hear about what the market is thinking or how the prices of various items are affected by rumors and news (and how corporate con artist exploit that)? For example, say I've got an ounce of medical weed, I'm gonna sell it for what someone tells me the value of the amount of labor involved in producing is? Well, maybe I would, but a less scrupulous guy is gonna sell it for what the market will bear and will do whatever he can to increase that ceiling as getting profit by hook or by crook is that kinda guy's guiding light. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sales?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == So...someone might be selling it for only the *accumulated* labor power for it's use-value as opposed to the balanced exchange-value? OK, so what? Marx throughout Capital 1 talks about the capitalist selling a commodity for what he can get or lower than his competitor, thus lowering the value of labor power in the commodity. He's talking marco-economics using micro-economic place holders. He's not talking *how* a commodity is sold...it stops at the distributor, so to speak, that is the capitalist selling the commodity t0o...some entity unnamed...be it the end user of C or a wholesaler of Cs.[He does make a a difference between Department 1 capitalsthe sellers of constant capital commodities: factories, machinery, etc and Department 2 capitals, the user of that constant capital that makes commodities...bought by the workers of both Dept 1 and 2.] If the sale doesn't go through, it means the exchange value is too high and the capitalist is forced to either lay-off or lower the wages of his variable capital or sell off some of his constant capital or *lower his price* of C, thus reducing the amount of M (surplus value). Marx didn't disagree with supply and demand (Adam Smith) but *explains* it in terms of the labor theory of value, the theme of which runs through out Capital. And it's to explain the *capitalism* not the whys and hows of individual capitals OR sellers. David Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Paul Le Blanc: Marxism and organisation | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == By *Paul Le Blanc* This presentation was given at the Chicago educational conference of the US International Socialist Organization's /Socialism 2011/, on the July 2-3, 2011, weekend. * * * It is always worth examining the question of Marxism and organisation because, if we would like to be organised Marxists who effectively struggle for socialism, we have a responsibility to know what we are about -- and such knowledge is deepened by ongoing examination. There are scholarly reasons for going over such ground, but for activists the primary purpose is to improve our ability to help change the world. There are three basic ideas to be elaborated on here: 1) there must be a coming together of socialism and the working class if either is to have a positive future; 2) those of us who think like that need to work together hard and effectively -- which means we need to be part of a serious organisation; and 3) socialist organisations must be a democratic/disciplined force in actual workers’ struggles -- that is the path to socialism. In what follows I will elaborate on this. Full article at http://links.org.au/node/2391 * Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Or join the Links Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Kate Richards O'Hare
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Excuse the title but it's the original name of the document: www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1912/0325-ohare-niggerequality.pdf David Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sales?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Tom Cod wrote: “So, I mean, isn't a sale needed to realize that surplus value. A sophomoric young high priest on a marxist listserv scoffed in my face when I asserted there is overwhelming evidence that supply and demand and subjective factors in the minds of buyers affect prices and market behavior. leaving aside Marketing 101, why is that wrong?” Haha, indeed, that was me: greetings comrade Cod. Well, firstly, let me say that my pontification had no ill-intention, more of a writing in the rush problem, in a language not my own. Anyway, I appreciate you bring it up again, I was planning to write something about this but work is holding me down as usual, so my response will have to be brief, but I’ll provide some helpful links below. As for supply and demand, Marx was clear about this in Capital, it explains nothing “Classical Political Economy borrowed from every-day life the category “price of labour” without further criticism, and then simply asked the question, how is this price determined? It soon recognized that the change in the relations of demand and supply explained in regard to the price of labour, as of all other commodities, nothing except its changes i.e., the oscillations of the market-price above or below a certain mean. If demand and supply balance, the oscillation of prices ceases, all other conditions remaining the same. But then demand and supply also cease to explain anything. The price of labour, at the moment when demand and supply are in equilibrium, is its natural price, determined independently of the relation of demand and supply. And how this price is determined is just the question. Or a larger period of oscillations in the market-price is taken, e.g., a year, and they are found to cancel one the other, leaving a mean average quantity, a relatively constant magnitude. This had naturally to be determined otherwise than by its own compensating variations. This price which always finally predominates over the accidental market-prices of labour and regulates them, this “necessary price” (Physiocrats) or “natural price” of labour (Adam Smith) can, as with all other commodities, be nothing else than its value expressed in money. In this way Political Economy expected to penetrate athwart the accidental prices of labour, to the value of labour. As with other commodities, this value was determined by the cost of production. But what is the cost of production-of the labourer, i.e., the cost of producing or reproducing the labourer himself? This question unconsciously substituted itself in Political Economy for the original one; for the search after the cost of production of labour as such turned in a circle and never left the spot. What economists therefore call value of labour, is in fact the value of labour-power, as it exists in the personality of the labourer, which is as different from its function, labour, as a machine is from the work it performs. Occupied with the difference between the market-price of labour and its so-called value, with the relation of this value to the rate of profit, and to the values of the commodities produced by means of labour, c., they never discovered that the course of the analysis had led not only from the market-prices of labour to its presumed value, but had led to the resolution of this value of labour itself into the value of labour-power. Classical economy never arrived at a consciousness of the results of its own analysis; it accepted uncritically the categories “value of labour,” “natural price of labour,” c.,. as final and as adequate expressions for the value-relation under consideration, and was thus led, as will be seen later, into inextricable confusion and contradiction, while it offered to the vulgar economists a secure basis of operations for their shallowness, which on principle worships appearances only.” http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch19.htm This, like I said that last time (if I remember correctly) does not negate the problem of realization of surplus value by any means, against what you had said and seem to be implying now, viz. Marx was oblivious to it. See the Grundrisse for example, though I know it’s something of a Talmudic crime to cite this work around here. Same thing goes for the staunch Leninists who dismiss Marx because he assumed competitive capitalism. It is plain clear that Marx was more than aware of the form the market takes with monopolies, in his critique of Proudhon, in volume 1 of capital, not to mention his analysis of ground rent, theories of surplus value, etc.. The point is: Marx was no political economist building models of capitalism; ergo, he assumed nothing, other than the real determinations presented to him. Contrary to the theoreticians who start
Re: [Marxism] Kate Richards O'Hare
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks, David. This jibes more with my recollection of reading her. I'd also recommend Mary Marcy, as an outstanding and outspoken socialist woman of that party and period. ML Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sales?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I forgot to attach this quote after Marx was crucially aware of the inversions this leads too. in my last post, All this is “drivel.” De prime abord,[20] I do not proceed from “concepts,” hence neither from the “concept of value,” and am therefore in no way concerned to “divide” it. What I proceed from is the simplest social form in which the product of labour presents itself in contemporary society, and this is the “commodity.” This I analyse, initially in the form in which it appears. Here I find that on the one hand in its natural form it is a thing for use, alias a use-value; on the other hand, a bearer of exchange-value, and from this point of view it is itself an “exchange-value.” Further analysis of the latter shows me that exchange-value is merely a “form of appearance,” an independent way of presenting thevalue contained in the commodity, and then I start on the analysis of the latter. I therefore state explicitly, p. 36, 2nd ed.[21]: “When, at the beginning of this chapter, we said, in common parlance, that a commodity is both a use-value and an exchange-value, we were, precisely speaking, wrong. A commodity is a use-value or object of utility, and a ‘value’. It manifests itself as this twofold thing which it is, as soon as its value assumes an independent form of appearance distinct from its natural form—the form of exchange-value,” etc. Thus I do not divide value into use-value and exchange-value as opposites into which the abstraction “value” splits up, but the concrete social form of the product of labour, the “commodity,” is on the one hand, use-value and on the other, “value,” not exchange value, since the mere form of appearance is not its own content. Second: only a vir obscurus who has not understood a word of Capital can conclude: Because Marx in a note in the first edition of Capital rejects all the German professorial twaddle about “use-value” in general, and refers readers who want to know something about real use-values to “manuals dealing with merchandise”—for this reason use-value plays no part in his work. Naturally it does not play the part of its opposite, of “value,” which has nothing in common with it, except that “value” occurs in the term “use-value.” He might just as well have said that “exchange-value” is discarded by me because it is only the form of appearance of value, and not “value” itself, since for me the “value” of a commodity is neither its use-value nor its exchange value. When one comes to analyse the “commodity”—the simplest concrete element of economics—one must exclude all relations which have nothing to do with the particular object of the analysis. Therefore I have said in a few lines what there is to say about the commodity in so far as it is a use-value, but on the other hand I have emphasised the characteristic form in which use-value—the product of labour—appears here, that is: “A thing can be useful, and the product of human labour, without being a commodity. Whoever [directly] satisfies his needs with the produce of his own labour, creates, indeed, use-values but not commodities. In order to produce commodities, he must not only produce use-values, but use-values for others, social use-values” (p. 15).[22] //This the root of Rodbertus' “social use-value.”// Consequently use-value—as the use-value of a “commodity” itself possesses a specific historical character. In primitive communities in which, e.g., means of livelihood are produced communally and distributed amongst the members of the community, the common product directly satisfies the vital needs of each community member, of each producer; the social character of the product, of the use-value, here lies in its (common) communal character. //Mr. Rodbertus on the other hand transforms the “social use-value” of the commodity into “social use-value” pure and simple, and is hence talking nonsense.// http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/01/wagner.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
