[Marxism] Wahhabism and Salafism
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I've just put up on Redline blog a piece a friend has written about Salafism and Wahhabism. It's at: http://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/explaining-wahhabism-and-salafism/ Phil _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Will Uruguay election be one more 'win' for Latin America's Pink Tide? - CSMonitor.com
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[Marxism] Fwd: Oil Price Fall: Saudi Arabi targets US Shale Oil, Iran, Iraq, Russia | Informed Comment
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * So how does this all relate to peak oil? It seems to me that if shale oil can't turn a profit, it will increase the demand on conventionally drilled oil and hence accelerate its exhaustion. I think the idea that oil is about to disappear any time soon is simplistic but the tendency for desperate violence over control of diminishing resources does confirm in its way the peak oil hypothesis. In any event, I think that peak oil is a much more serious problem. On Thanksgiving day, we had a friend of my wife from Istanbul and her husband over for dinner (we ate hindi, as the Turks call the bird.) Her dissertation was on competition for water in the Middle East, the Euphrates specifically. Her comment: declining water supplies in the region have more to do with the wars than Shi'a/Sunni conflicts. It is clear that among the major losers in the fall in the price of Brent crude petroleum from $115 a barrel last summer to about $75 a barrel today are Russia, Iraq and Iran. Petroleum sales are 50% of Russia’s income, and are also central for Iran and Iraq. But the big loser will likely be shale oil producers and prospectors in the US, who probably cannot make a profit if the price falls into the 60s. http://www.juancole.com/2014/11/targets-shale-russia.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Pakistani Anti-Terror Court Slaps Bollywood Star with 26 Years in Jail for Blasphemy | VICE News
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[Marxism] Fwd: Off-Duty Cop Allegedly Shoots Woman In Head During Road Rage Incident
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (A Jewish cop no less. He must have lived and worked in Israel before ending up in Houston. I'll never forget the day I was entering the Texas Commerce Bank back in 1974 or so, where I was working as a programmer and beating my head against the wall in the SWP. A traffic cop was telling some guy in a suit that he had a bullet with his name on it. I imagine that they guy had jaywalked.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/29/cop-shoots-woman-in-head-road-rage_n_6237910.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Anti-Semitism Rising in Russia as Simon Wiesenthal Center Accuses RT | New Republic
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Ironically, despite tendencies on RT.com to coincide with the European far right agenda, Putin is close to the Lubavitcher Hasidic sect that is a reliable arm of the Zionist lobby in the USA. Two sides of the same reactionary coin. full: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117759/anti-semitism-rising-russia-simon-wiesenthal-center-accuses-rt _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] In Northern Ireland, a Wave of Immigrants Is Met With Fists
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (I wondered how in the hell that Irish Catholics, the victims of racism, could end up as racists themselves. Once you get past the headline, you discover that the Protestants are responsible for the bulk of the attacks on immigrants.) NY Times, Nov. 29 2014 In Northern Ireland, a Wave of Immigrants Is Met With Fists By DOUGLAS DALBY BELFAST, Northern Ireland — More than 16 years after the Good Friday peace deal brought real hope that Protestants and Roman Catholics could live together in relative harmony, Northern Ireland is being racked by another wave of violence. But this time it is not driven by the sectarian divide, but by animosity toward a fast-growing population of immigrants — adding one more challenge as Europe struggles to cope with the combination of intense economic strain and rapid demographic change. “This is a society that always prides itself on being very friendly, but it is becoming less and less welcoming, particularly to certain types of people,” said Jayne Olorunda, 36, whose father was Nigerian, and though she grew up in Northern Ireland said her color has always marked her as an outsider. The expanding problem appears to be partly racial and partly directed at immigrants of all backgrounds at a time when open borders in the European Union have led more legal migrants to Britain and Ireland in search of work. At the same time, war and economic deprivation have driven waves of legal and illegal migrants toward Europe from Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The more recent immigrants from Eastern Europe and parts of Africa tell stories similar to those of people from China, India and Pakistan who have lived here for decades. Mohammed Khattack, a 24-year-old Pakistani who arrived in Belfast last year hoping to study humanities after three years in London, got a first warning one night in June when an empty wine bottle shattered the front window of his rented house in north Belfast. When he and his housemate, who is also from Pakistan, began cleaning up the next morning, small groups of neighbors had formed. But they had not come to help — they had come to gloat. Then one of them began raining blows down on Mr. Khattack amid a tirade of racist slurs. “He was a big guy and he approached me, and at this point I called the police to report trespass as he was inside the gate,” Mr. Khattack said. “But he grabbed me in a headlock and began punching me and jumping on my legs. I managed to get into the house, but he followed me through the door until I got to the bathroom and there he continued to beat me.” Mr. Khattack was treated for severe bruising and spent months on crutches. He still walks with a limp. The police arrested a 57-year-old man, who was later released on bail. The police told Mr. Khattack that the man had since fled the area. The official figures and anecdotal evidence indicate that the severity and frequency of attacks in Northern Ireland have increased in recent years. On average, almost three racial hate crimes a day are reported to the police. Between 2013 and 2014 there was a 43 percent increase in racially motivated offenses, 70 percent of them in Belfast. Immigrant groups assert — and the police concede — that the real figure is much higher, with many attacks going unrecorded because of fear of reprisals or a lack of faith in the justice system. According to a recent report by the Northern Ireland Commission for Ethnic Minorities, just 12 of 14,000 race-related crimes reported over the past five years ended in a successful prosecution. The police say paramilitary groups are cynically manipulating xenophobia to gain support in their communities by targeting migrants. In April, a senior police officer, Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr, said the rise in the number and severity of racial hate crimes in Protestant loyalist areas left “the unpleasant taste of a bit of ethnic cleansing.” But Patrick Yu, the executive director of the Northern Ireland Commission for Ethnic Minorities, said it is simplistic to brand certain communities intrinsically racist. “Most of the available housing stock for private rental just happens to be in loyalist areas where there is already a wariness of outsiders and a feeling of being left behind by Catholics who they believe have benefited disproportionately from the Good Friday Agreement,” he said. “There is still huge deprivation in these areas, and I believe sectarianism and racism are two sides of the same coin — both need to be tackled.” Although less prevalent, attacks have also taken place in Catholic west Belfast. In June, hundreds of
[Marxism] Fwd: Rise of the jehadis | Frontline
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Vijay Prashad: [Patrick] Cockburn’s writings are not of the genre that has come to be called “hotel journalism”—stories that come to reporters as they lounge in 5-star hotels—nor is it “embedded journalism”—stories written by reporters who come to see the world through the eyes of the troops who protect them. http://www.frontline.in/world-affairs/rise-of-the-jehadis/article6632703.ece?homepage=true --- The November 6 London Review of Books has published Patrick Cockburn’s latest article (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n21/patrick-cockburn/whose-side-is-turkey-on), ‘Whose Side is Turkey On?’. Now, as I support the struggle of the Syrian Kurds, led by the PYD and its armed militia, the YPG, against ISIS’ genocidal siege, I have no interest in defending Turkey’s shabby role in this, even if I think both the US and Turkey, in their current difference on this issue are both being totally cynical in their different ways. So this critique will not deal with these issues. Unfortunately, the angle from which Cockburn criticises Turkey is full of the same contradictions that significant parts of the left espouse, basked in an overall hostility to the Syrian revolution. Valid criticism of Turkey’s sabotage of the defence of Kobani – connected to Turkey’s own oppression of its Kurdish minority – is mixed in with criticism of Turkey for allegedly wanting to help overthrow the Syrian tyranny of Bashar Assad. As if there were something wrong with wanting the overthrow of a tyrant who has burnt his whole country, sending 1.5 million Syrian refugees into Turkey. full: http://mkaradjis.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/critique-of-patrick-cockburns-whose-side-is-turkey-on/ --- This is what passes for journalism these days: But in Syria, Washington’s policy is the exact opposite: there the main opponent of ISIS is the Syrian government and the Syrian Kurds in their northern enclaves. Both are under attack from ISIS, which has taken about a third of the country, including most of its oil and gas production facilities. See, Assad is the main opponent of ISIS, even if in over two years there has been a single major confrontation between the two. Why mention the sustained combat between ISIS and the FSA and Islamic Front. Remember this is the same patrick cockburn who described the surrender of one beleaguered village to the combined forces of the Assad regime and Hizbullah as a peace deal. No, I will not link anything that he writes. (Idrees Ahmad on Facebook) --- Commentary on a Patrick Cockburn commentary (http://louisproyect.org/2013/12/17/commentary-on-a-patrick-cockburn-commentary/) _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] An examination of poverty and income inequality
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century gets a mention in the first article. Most interesting to me is that these articles appeared in a business publication not known for searching examinations of the effects of capitalism. ken h http://www.biv.com/article/2014/11/eat-what-you-kill-capitalists-should-care-about-in/ http://www.biv.com/article/2014/10/gary-bloch-vancouver-raised-doctor-has-prescriptio/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] In Northern Ireland, a Wave of Immigrants Is Met With Fists
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots and how can the Jews end up as racists themselves vis a vis the Palestinians? On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 10:03 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: (I wondered how in the hell that Irish Catholics, the victims of racism, could end up as racists themselves) _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Spain: Podemos on road to sweeping away two-party system | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I am sure that this was posted on Marxmail before but it is very, very,very much worth rereading or reading for the first time, as I am doing now. In fact, go to Links (http://links.org.au/taxonomy/term/845) and read on Podemos there, especially anything that Dick Nichols wrote. Podemos was initially formed by academics from the Complutense University in Madrid in discussions with the Anticapitalist Left, the far-left organisation in the Spanish state aligned with the Fourth International. It grew rapidly through a campaign via social networks to run in the European elections. The key Podemos spokesperson is Pablo Iglesias, an academic from the Complutense. He is a media figure, who started by presenting political chat shows on obscure online or cable TV channels and then moving to frequent appearances on national networks. Since the European elections, in which it won 1.2 million votes and had five Members of the European Parliament elected (including Iglesias), and especially since its founding assembly and the latest cases of corruption, Podemos has featured daily in mainstream news, current affairs and printed media. Podemos spokespeople are called to appear or comment by all local and national radio and TV networks. Apart from the effective use of the mass media, Podemos employs web-based technology to maximise democratic participation. Facebook has been a key tool for building support and communicating with members. The national Podemos Facebook page has 880,000 likes and all circles and many key leaders have their own Facebook pages. Pablo Iglesias alone has 117,000 likes. This was especially evident in the organisation of the Citizen’s Assembly. The chief aim of the Citizens’ Assembly was to establish internal organisational structures for Podemos. The organisation’s founding process assembly began on September 15 with pre-draft discussions and proposals conducted through an online platform. This was followed by a presentation of draft documents on ethical principles, political organisation and political strategy on September 28. Nearly 100 teams presented more than 300 documents and 100 resolutions to the assembly. This was followed by a negotiations process until final drafts, totaling more than 2500 pages, were presented over October 18 and 19. The resolutions were voted on online. The five which won most votes were then passed and spoken to at the Madrid assembly by the teams that presented them. Each team had equal time to argue the case for their proposals. The assembly was streamed live and all teams faced questions. Voting on the documents was online and closed on October 26. Anyone who registered online could vote. Around 130,000 registered before the assembly and 20,000 more during it. Recently Podemos launched a smartphone application that combines all the applications and platforms used to participate in discussions and vote on proposals, resolutions and candidates. Crowdfunding was used to pay for the cost of the Citizen’s Assembly as well as by local circles to raise money for particular projects. The principal areas of agreement at the assembly were over the ethical accountability of all publicly elected and internal positions, as well as on salary limits and limits on the length of time anyone could hold a position. As a result, salaries for all Podemos officials will be limited to the average salary of a skilled worker. Podemos officials may only be employed in politics for up to eight years, after which they are expected to return to their previous employment with no special privileges such as pensions. They also may not occupy a position on a board of directors or work as consultants for 10 years after stepping down. During their time in any political position, officials agree not to receive special privileges such as official cars or claim expenses apart from the minimum required to fulfill their responsibilities. full: http://links.org.au/node/4137 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Two views on Catalan independence
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The rising revulsion against “Madrid” showed in many ways. Originally it was thought that bussing demonstrators from the regions would require 1500 coaches, but on the day more than 2000 had to be hired. The metro and rail lines serving the working-class inner and outer “belts” of Barcelona, where families from other parts of Spain, Latin America and North Africa predominate, were packed. In the populous neighbourhoods, the estalada, the pro-independence version of the Catalan flag (with its white star on a blue triangle—taken from Cuba’s) has been hanging from more balconies than ever, a visual symbol of growing working-class desertion of the social-democratic and anti-consultation Party of Catalan Socialists (PSC), the Catalan affiliate of the once-reformist Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). It’s not that hundreds of thousands of working people of non-Catalan origin have become one-eyed Catalan nationalists. As in Scotland, working-class support for national rights is driven by the experience of central-government austerity. Put bluntly: “If those bastards are opposed to the Catalans’ right to decide, I’m probably with the Catalans’ right to decide.” Dick Nichols, http://links.org.au/node/4061 --- Laia Gordi: As you have been campaigning for Yes to independence in Scotland, what’s your view –and your guess- on the Catalan self-determination movement and referendum? Tariq Ali: The Catalonian self-determination movement is largely led by the Catalan bourgeoisie. That’s the unfortunate truth. They are fighting essentially on the basis of “we are richer than the rest of Spain and why shouldn’t we spend all this money on ourselves?” http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/22/catalan-independence-scotland-and-the-middle-east/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Two views on Podemos
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Socialist Worker newspaper (ISO) The success of Podemos is good news for socialists and workers. Although there is still debate about how strong the class basis of its vote was, Podemos' program has a clear focus on both labor issues and social issues that affect the working class--for example, opposition to the latest labor law reforms imposed by the PP and PSOE, support for a ban on workers being fired from profitable companies, and a proposal to suspend all foreclosures and create a public housing program for evicted families. These measures would mean a great improvement in the lives of workers if implemented. http://socialistworker.org/2014/06/18/the-rise-of-podemos --- Socialist Worker Newspaper (British SWP, which stands for the Sectarian Woebegone Party) The leaders of Podemos and Syriza want to replace the people in government with others who they argue would do a better job. But power doesn’t stop with the people in office. Elected governments are still part of a capitalist state that is made up of powerful unelected bureaucracies, not to mention the police and the army. They are part of the class which owns the factories, supermarkets and the media. Much of Podemos’ rhetoric is about kicking out the “caste” at the top, while Jones stops at taking on a vague “establishment”. But if these were replaced by Labour left wingers or even by Podemos, real power would remain with the bosses and their state. The ruling class is rarely completely united, especially in times of crisis. But the state and capitalists rely on one another. http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/39431/Is+the+left+breaking+through+in+Europe%3F _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: Two views on Podemos
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The fact that one was published in June and the other November is significant; that is roughly the time period in which it became clear to all (well, almost all) that the Podemos leadership was intending to follow the liberal trajectory of Syriza's tops. On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Socialist Worker newspaper (ISO) The success of Podemos is good news for socialists and workers. Although there is still debate about how strong the class basis of its vote was, Podemos' program has a clear focus on both labor issues and social issues that affect the working class--for example, opposition to the latest labor law reforms imposed by the PP and PSOE, support for a ban on workers being fired from profitable companies, and a proposal to suspend all foreclosures and create a public housing program for evicted families. These measures would mean a great improvement in the lives of workers if implemented. http://secure-web.cisco.com/13tKxsfenzuDKa2aAqiAXFROOU5j_gdRHRKoS_LUtblEqD3axz5W6_5ZVvfIKAuZ_9hz7Lp4tnq7pJyu7Wbj94L9hNPKwlIifC6zqnEYLqKQuFg3fPZg9RuFHDMrgDC3J0xUBbMQcEuM-iOi0wDecY9KFCSzGsLVzcSW8obFQX0iWvkaQCbYcETd_OLsctSGNnDnOl9_S5r4acn5NxonoLnihXrGq1VhypkXhpLaiO-M/http%3A%2F%2Fsocialistworker.org%2F2014%2F06%2F18%2Fthe-rise-of-podemos --- Socialist Worker Newspaper (British SWP, which stands for the Sectarian Woebegone Party) The leaders of Podemos and Syriza want to replace the people in government with others who they argue would do a better job. But power doesn’t stop with the people in office. Elected governments are still part of a capitalist state that is made up of powerful unelected bureaucracies, not to mention the police and the army. They are part of the class which owns the factories, supermarkets and the media. Much of Podemos’ rhetoric is about kicking out the “caste” at the top, while Jones stops at taking on a vague “establishment”. But if these were replaced by Labour left wingers or even by Podemos, real power would remain with the bosses and their state. The ruling class is rarely completely united, especially in times of crisis. But the state and capitalists rely on one another. http://secure-web.cisco.com/1XM1iKYX2L5ukqHuB4Y7M2aKXdYmZtMA0kaCjN7L3qUhMEjtj34p-Eqf6MFuXluazxabty3JT_Rp__hpyC85EHlsIRhMu1F0oZvW8G4wDP-29pnuYip2cZIbBV3rmfc1PuSPrXmJoS8z-jCG9fWNqyUQEW10atxhxXqCvOmsD0shd-Mx06FuUpLU05F1kpWQjWrkG7f8maeFLcUcRn5vhRg/http%3A%2F%2Fsocialistworker.co.uk%2Fart%2F39431%2FIs%2Bthe%2Bleft%2B breaking+through+in+Europe%3F _ Full posting guidelines at: http://secure-web.cisco.com/1c4eWojO8tMSBBDD2eb7TRSilB2U3LsYovUokzOeb_bx_IVPc09FdeqCJCT2ZIsUKAOKQcbQZmbx3e1K55W7up02-NR1JLdt6AemkBWoEnpV9MwzGDbWqPMSVVGl6cJFF1x0cZ6JoefHsaaxgbEuvh2HoRUxVl55nkexgCkeK8fbYumSEwx8fAAsprwgNtlVSryTZyZGhH2I2zfhVxjy-UJMgbTkfs9Ub_99csk3WXfc/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marxmail.org%2Fsub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/ options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Two views on Podemos
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 11/29/14 4:34 PM, Andrew Pollack wrote: The fact that one was published in June and the other November is significant; that is roughly the time period in which it became clear to all (well, almost all) that the Podemos leadership was intending to follow the liberal trajectory of Syriza's tops. I think we probably have different ideas about what a liberal trajectory means. But beyond the question of its decision, for example, to scale back some of its more radical proposals, there is another dimension that has to be considered--namely, the class dynamic of a party that has no links to the Spanish bourgeoisie and that is open and transparent. Unlike the British Labour Party or the Democratic Party for that matter, Podemos is much more like the Greens in the USA. If you keep in mind that Podemos represents the next stage of the anti-capitalist struggle in Spain rather than the Leninist party that will ultimately be necessary for total emancipation, then it begins to make sense. The British SWP's mistake is to counterpose a Platonic ideal of a Leninist Party and seduce the innocent into its imaginary ranks. Hal Draper described its methodology here: The sect establishes itself on a HIGH level (far above that of the working class) and on a thin base which is ideologically selective (usually necessarily outside working class). Its working-class character is claimed on the basis of its aspiration and orientation, not its composition or its life. It then sets out to haul the working class up to its level, or calls on the working class to climb up the grade. From behind its organizational walls, it sends out scouting parties to contact the working class, and missionaries to convert two here and three there. It sees itself becoming, one day, a mass revolutionary party by a process of accretion; or by eventual unity with two or three other sects; or perhaps by some process of entry. full: http://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1971/alt/alt.htm#CHAPTER3 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Two views on Podemos
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 29/11/2014 22:51, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote: I think we probably have different ideas about what a liberal trajectory means. But beyond the question of its decision, for example, to scale back some of its more radical proposals, there is another dimension that has to be considered--namely, the class dynamic of a party that has no links to the Spanish bourgeoisie and that is open and transparent. I'm myself more positive about Podemos than just calling them liberals and writing them off, but they're not particularly more open or transparent than other parties. They've recently set up their internal organisation through a slate (or strictly speaking, quasi-slate) system. They have no organic links to the working class. Sure they're not like Labour or the Democcrats, but Spain has IU and the PCE as working class parties with plenty of cadre (we're talking high tens of thousands, not tiny sect size). Podemos seems a lot more hazy and potentially penetrable. --David. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Two views on Podemos
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 11/29/14 5:27 PM, David P Á wrote: Sure they're not like Labour or the Democcrats, but Spain has IU and the PCE as working class parties with plenty of cadre (we're talking high tens of thousands, not tiny sect size). If the IU and the PCE were not so compromised... _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] In Northern Ireland, a Wave of Immigrants Is Met With Fists
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * * (I wondered how in the hell that Irish Catholics, the victims of racism, could end up as racists themselves. Once you get past the headline, you discover that the Protestants are responsible for the bulk of the attacks on immigrants.) It is further evidence of the reaction encouraged by partition. Protestant sectarianism and its loyalist political expression, encouraged and bolstered by partition, is not going to stop at just hatred and violence towards one sector. As always, it is often the poorest Protestants taking out frustration and anger on those they view as below them. Ending partition is not going to end such racism, or sectarianism, but it would be an important step in removing the key for fostering such reaction, and undermine the sense that Protestants, however low on the social scale, have a state that belongs specifically to *them*. Stuart _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Oil Price Fall: Saudi Arabi targets US Shale Oil, Iran, Iraq, Russia | Informed Comment
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The other big loser is Venezuela which has an even higher percentage that Russia for it's budget. Saudi's vote against cutting production had to do with trying to dry up oil that is being fracked in the US and other countries. It does this by making the profit margins fall to zero or negative. This results not in fracking wells shutting down but in putting a halt investing in new ones. Here's a quote from an energy observer just on tar sands (which includes Venezuela and Canada): There are two primary methods to move oil: by pipeline, which is cheap, and by rail, which is expensive. That cost differential is make-or-break for a tar sands business. The break-even price of tar sands oil is around $100 per barrel if transported by rail, according to Anthony Swift, a staff attorney at NRDC (which publishes *OnEarth*). Tar sands oil sells for $75 on a good day. So producers have to find a savings of $25 per barrel somewhere in order to make it worth the investment. Basically the Canadians are going to lose their shirts over the next 6 months. But that's tar sands. What about fracking? Here in the U.S., the oil drilling boom is due largely to technologies like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to force oil from shale formations deep underground. Producing this oil, Rystad figures, costs an average of $62 a barrel. -- http://www.npr.org/2014/11/04/361204786/falling-oil-prices-make-fracking-less-lucrative So the aim of low priced oil benefits the cheaper producers and that's not anywhere in N. America or Russia. And this doesn't really have a thing to do with the now in-disrepute theory of peak oil as it shows that the amount of oil (while having an absolute limit by definition) available is *totally* dependent on price. Which is true for every extractive commodity. David _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Willie McBride vs the fortunate sons
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Few aspects of society are more hotly contested than the matter of war ― and of how to remember those who die fighting them. Recent controversies over new performances of two iconic anti-war songs ― one in Britain and one in the US ― highlight the point. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57914 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] John Pilger: The US plot against Assange
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The siege of Knightsbridge is a farce. For two years, an exaggerated, costly police presence around the Ecuadorean embassy in London has served no purpose other than to flaunt the power of the state. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57916 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] On Rooftops of Ferguson, Volunteers — With Guns
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times, Nov. 30 2014 On Rooftops of Ferguson, Volunteers — With Guns By MANNY FERNANDEZ and ALAN BLINDER FERGUSON, Mo. — When Sam Andrews awoke on Tuesday morning, he found his wife watching a television interview with a woman whose bakery had been vandalized during the violent unrest here on Monday. “She said, ‘You’ve got to go help her,’ ” Mr. Andrews said in an interview on Saturday morning. And so Mr. Andrews, a former Defense Department contractor who is now a weapons engineer in the St. Louis area, set to work. Under the auspices of a national group called the Oath Keepers, Mr. Andrews accelerated plans to recruit and organize private security details for businesses in Ferguson, which are receiving the services for free. The volunteers, who are sometimes described as a citizen militia — but do not describe themselves that way — have taken up armed positions on rooftops here on recent nights. “It’s really a broad group of citizens, and I’m sure their motivations are all different,” said Mr. Andrews, who is in his 50s. “In many of them, there’s probably a sense of patriotism. But I think in most of them, there’s probably something that they probably don’t even recognize: that we have a moral obligation to protect the weakest among us. When we see these violent people, these arsonists and anarchists, attacking, it just pokes at you in a deep place.” Mr. Andrews declined to say how many people were assisting in the effort, saying only the number was “more than five, less than 500.” He estimated that men make up about 80 percent of the volunteers. About 80 percent are also white, and 10 percent are black. But on Saturday, with the county police said to be threatening the Oath Keepers with arrest, the volunteers decided to abandon their posts and instead protest against the authorities. Late in the day on Saturday, a protest was being planned for that night. That some business owners accepted aid from a group regarded by some as an antigovernment militia is a testament to the rawness of emotions here following a riot on Monday night, after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer, Darren Wilson, who shot dead Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, on Aug. 9. Since then, the riot police have tussled on the streets with protesters. Convoys of National Guard Humvees patrol the streets, and law enforcement officials have confiscated homemade firebombs, firecrackers and guns from arrested protesters. Most recently, the Oath Keepers, equipped with militia-style gear and often clad in camouflage, have joined the volatile mix. Their presence is a symbol of the ongoing criticism of Gov. Jay Nixon’s handling of security before, during and after the grand jury’s decision became public. In the days before the announcement, Mr. Nixon declared a state of emergency and sent the Guard to Ferguson. Yet, in the initial hours following word of the grand jury’s decision, the Guard played only a limited role. Troops protected a police command post and other facilities, but they were not posted along the main commercial corridors where property destruction was rampant. Some here say that the state’s mixed messages may have been a consequence of Mr. Nixon trying to perfect a challenging balance after the government response to the initial unrest in August was criticized as too militarized. Leaders of the multiagency Unified Command have defended their approach, saying there was no way to know precisely what public reaction to the decision would be. “I don’t think anybody thought it was going to be this magnitude,” said Capt. Ronald S. Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. But such arguments have not kept local officials and businesses from frequently complaining that the National Guard’s deployment strategy was inadequate, and that its inaction allowed businesses to burn while still others were looted. “The governor said himself, I think on TV, that the businesses will be protected by the National Guard during this situation,” said Reggie Jones, the mayor of Dellwood, a neighboring city where many businesses were damaged in Monday’s unrest. “Unfortunately, that did not happen until Tuesday. But we were expecting it to happen on Monday.” After the destruction that night, Mr. Nixon ordered hundreds more soldiers to Ferguson, saying, “We must do better, and we will.” But for people like Mr. Andrews, the governor’s vow was of little solace. So while the New Chinese Gourmet restaurant at the end of a block of South Florissant Road appears to have little in the way of defense beyond the painted wooden boards
Re: [Marxism] In Northern Ireland, a Wave of Immigrants Is Met With Fists
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone Stuart Munckton via Marxism wrot (I wondered how in the hell that Irish Catholics, the victims of racism, could end up as racists themselves. Once you get past the headline, you discover that the Protestants are responsible for the bulk of the attacks on immigrants.) It is further evidence of the reaction encouraged by partition. Protestant sectarianism and its loyalist political expression, encouraged and bolstered by partition, is not going to stop at just hatred and violence towards one sector. As always, it is often the poorest Protestants taking out frustration and anger on those they view as below them. Ending partition is not going to end such racism, or sectarianism, but it would be an important step in removing the key for fostering such reaction, and undermine the sense that Protestants, however low on the social scale, have a state that belongs specifically to *them*. The article makes clear that most of the attacks are in Loyalist (i.e. Protestant) aread where right-wing and racist ideas have always been strong. It also mentions that when attacks have occurred in Catholic areas there have been anti-racist demos rather than racist mobs. Einde O'Callaghan _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The rise and fall of Palestine's socialists - Counterpunch
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/27/the-rise-and-fall-of-palestines-socialists/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
