[Marxism] debating Syriza strategy: hopeful, Greece's Brest-Litovsk; doubtful, Europe's Pink Tide

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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

Greece's Brest-Litovsk

by Nicholas Vrousalis
openDemocracy
March 24, 2015

. . .
Neither war nor peace

Numerous strategies have been proposed for extracting Greece from the
social quagmire of mass unemployment, poverty, inequality and
xenophobia. One such strategy envisages a complete break with the
status quo. This is the much-vaunted Grexit strategy, which envisages
a unilateral default on debt and devaluation in the (newly minted)
Greek currency. As part of this strategy, Greece would have to
introduce capital controls, nationalize the banks, and introduce
rationing for basic goods such as medicine and energy (whose prices
are likely to soar due to currency devaluation). In all likelihood,
these measures would have to be implemented through exit from the EU,
whose treaties and acquis prohibit restrictions on the free movement
of capital. The upshot of this strategy—assuming Greece succeeds,
which is a strong assumption—is likely to be that others follow suit.
This would very likely spell the end of the euro. On balance, however,
opting for Grexit is likely to be a significant improvement over the
insidious poison of austerity, presently being administered in lieu of
putative cure. Under present circumstances—and quite unlike 1917
Russia—war seems preferable to peace.

SYRIZA’s leadership claims that the putative dilemma between war and
peace, or between exiting austerity and staying in the Euro, is not
exhaustive. The third possibility is neither war nor peace. As part of
this strategy, the Greek government, along with any domestic and
foreign allies, would engage in a Europe-wide campaign aimed at
strengthening the hand of the Greek worker by tying her interests to
those of the average European. At the same time, the government and
its allies would attempt to split pro-austerity opposition through
persistent agitation and ideological campaigning. Call this the
Brest-Litovsk strategy. What concrete steps does it require?

First, it requires a Europe-wide campaign of speaking directly to
working class organizations, trade unions and NGOs. The purpose of
this campaign would be to drive home the idea that the programme of
SYRIZA is to the interest of the German, the Spanish, the Portuguese
and the Irish worker. Austerity in Greece entails unemployment,
inequality and downward wage pressure outside it. EU structures, which
include the free movement of labour and capital, guarantee as much.
Widespread elaboration of this simple fact might provide a modicum of
support for the Greek government.
. . .
For these reasons, the Brest-Litovsk strategy seems preferable to both
peace and war. Peace implies devaluation through price and wage
adjustment. That is, the Greek worker recovers by underselling the
German worker, whose wages are higher. War implies depreciation
through exchange-rate adjustment: the Greek worker recovers by
underselling the French worker, whose currency is stronger. Both peace
and war with the euro pit peoples against each other. The no war – no
peace strategy has the added benefit that it does away with the
anti-German rhetoric and propaganda that de facto divides Europe.
‘Solidarity with the German worker!’: here’s a potent anti-nationalist
cry against the fascists, if ever there was one. Crucially, the
sufficiently widespread appeal of a united front against austerity
would give a stronger hand to German trade unions to negotiate higher
wages, and embarrass the likes of the CDU/CSU and the leadership of
the SPD, whose principal concerns are exhausted in placating German
capital.

The Brest-Litovsk strategy, even if sufficiently elaborated, is not
very likely to succeed. Moreover, the strategy taken by itself offers
no long-term remedy for the Eurozone’s ills, which have to do with the
deflationary, export-oriented structure of German capitalism. But it
might give SYRIZA the time to regroup, call upon reinforcements from
other parts of Europe, and implement a part of its programme. It
might, moreover, give Europe’s periphery the breadth of popular
support it needs in order to force a radical restructuring of the
common currency. Anything short of the said strategy, however, is
likely to precipitate either complete capitulation to austerity, or
else disorderly exit from the Eurozone, sooner rather than later.
   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _   _
Nicholas Vrousalis is Assistant Professor in Political Philosophy at
Leiden University.
full at 



Europe’s pink tide? Heeding the Latin American experien

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Varoufakis’ mission “to save European capitalism from itself”

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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

from Monthly Review, at the end of "Notes from the Editors",
current/March 2015 issue


Just as this issue was going to the printer, the left-wing party,
SYRIZA, won a stunning victory in Greece’s national elections on
January 25. The new government, which says it intends to end the
debilitating austerity measures forced upon Greece by the European
Union, announced that the new Finance Minister is Yanis Varoufakis, a
noted economist and good friend of Monthly Review (and MR author). We
wish him well and trust that, unlike most economists, he will put his
superb skills to work on behalf of the long-suffering Greek people
and, indeed, all those oppressed by the policies imposed by the ruling
classes of the European Union and United States.


On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 2:44 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism
 wrote:
>
> I just love how these people summarize "what has to be done" in Greece:
>
> http://www.marxist.com/varoufakis-mission-to-save-european-capitalism-from-itself.htm
>

_
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] Athens marches against racism and fascism

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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

Athens marches against racism and fascism
by Kevin Ovenden
Counterfire
March 22, 2015


In Athens thousands joined the Greek leg of the international day of
action against racism and fascism. Kevin Ovenden reports


I’ve not seen the centre of Athens so black since August of 2012 and
the massive protest against the onset of the Xenios Zeus
anti-immigrant police sweeps.
. . .
The African and Asian new Greeks thronging Omonoia and then Syntagma
squares today announced the return of a positivity of Black as surely
as when Nina Simone walked on stage in that August of 1965 and
announced to a shocked sophisticate audience of proto-hipsters that
she was dedicating her set to the young Black insurgents of Watts, Los
Angeles.
. . .
Common slogans of crushing the Golden Dawn, ricocheted in earthy Greek
from front to back. Arab women in hijabs. Cote d’Ivoirean sisters in
Sunday best. Young anti-fa school students with hoodies bearing the
legend “Good night white power!”.

Their more Marxist-inflected classmates with a range of other silk
screen or transfer designs: Love Football, Hate Racism through to a
standing army of Ches and a guerrilla of Malcolms and Hueys.

Interspersed throughout were speeches, but not the usual kind nor from
the usual suspects. What speeches – against the fascist criminal
conspiracy of Golden Dawn, of course, but for so much else besides.

They brimmed with impatient hope and righteous indignation against
injustice. Both, in one way or another, are bubbling up across Greece
50 days into the election of the Syriza government of the left facing
a tightening noose in the hands of the Troika, now sanitised as “the
Brussels Group”.
. . .
The deepening clash, which has raised again the prospect of leaving
the euro, permeates everything – like an ether changing the specific
weight of what is immersed in it. It struck me as we turned off
Stadiou and into Syntagma. I’ve made that hook to the right and then
swing leftwards into other side of the square from the parliament
building many times over the years.

It felt different this time to look up at the Vouli building and know
that on the majority, governing, benches and in the ministries we who
were marching had many friends and not a largely monolithic wall of
indifference or outright enmity.
. . .
It was loud and clear today – in Athens, Salonika, Patra and Chania
(Crete). From the platform in Omonoia Greek leftists denounced
Islamophobia, police racism and urged both the rapid closure of the
concentration camps for migrants without papers and the legalisation
of immigrant children. Both are measures promised by the new
government.

The message was of course amplified by the Bangladeshi agricultural
workers of Manolada, the Pakistani community – who lost retail worker
Shehzad Luqman and others to fascist violence – the newly
self-organising Senegalese and Cote d’Ivoirean communities, the Arabs
– longer established and newer refugees from Syria – and many others.

And all called for the prosecution to the end of Golden Dawn, while
reminding one another that fascism will be broken only by a mass and
militant movement.

But, conspicuously, the Black and brown who made up today’s
extraordinarily diverse events raised also the demands against the
Troika, for humanitarian relief for all the poor, for bread,
education, freedom (the old fighting slogan of Greek insurgency).

And they spoke of unity across the European continent of people who
look like them and also like the other Greeks on the protest, those
whose forebears happen only to have made their home in this part of
the world at some point earlier.
. . .
And in those battles, what today has shown for all on the left who
care to see is that we do not have a migrant or Muslim problem in
Europe.

I don’t mean that in the trivial (though far from universally
accepted, even on the left) sense that Muslims and migrants are not
the cause of the crisis created by the bankers back in 2008, or the
crushing of freedom brought by robocops, undercover cops in your trade
union or professional association and states which think it their
right to look inside your emails and your private life.

Even among some in the labour movement who reject the racism and
Islamophobic scapegoating there is a rather one-sided view which
focuses on the potential for right wing forces – from Tories to
fascists – to exploit or construct racism to divide and rule, to
disorganise “our side”. That certainly has some truth.

But as Muslims and migrants led others on the streets of Athens today
another side was manifest.

It is that the fig

[Marxism] Malaysia: Call for release of anti-GST protesters

[Stuart Munckton via Marxism]

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

Eighty people were arrested during the violent clampdown at the Customs
Office. Over 50 protesters were later released but another 26 anti-GST
protesters are still being detained by the police. The police have even
applied for a further remand of these 26 anti-GST protesters.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/58606

-- 
“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

Re: [Marxism] Scary conference in Russia

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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

Joseph Catron said:

On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 8:26 PM, Ken Hiebert via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

According to the BuzzFeed article "A Russian bank gave France’s Front
> National — whose leader, Marine le Pen, is an open admirer of Putin’s — an
> $11.7 million loan last year." Does Roger believe this is true? False?
> If he believes it is true, how does he think we should react?


What's the claim to which we should react? Of course the NF, by all
accounts, received a loan from the First Czech Russian Bank. What's the
significance, other than the business decisions, and possible political
sympathies, of a small, privately-held enterprise?

I'm aware that many confused leftists can discern the ghastly hand of Putin
at work in pretty much any events in, near, or at times far from Russia. I
treat such people like any other conspiracy theorists: harmless crackpots
who are best ignored.



Ken Hiebert replies:
Thank you for a clear and unambiguous answer.
While the bank, in addition to business considerations, may have had a 
political motive in making the loan, it was a decision made by a small, 
privately-held enterprise and did not involve Putin.  You could be right.  In 
any case, with the passage of time, we will learn the truth.
I won't be surprised if we learn that Putin was, in fact involved.  But we can 
wait to find out.
Looking at it as a business decision, I wonder how often a bank in one country 
lends money to a political party in another country?  What kind of collateral 
would they demand?  How would they estimate the future earnings of a political 
party?

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] reviewer wanted

[George Snedeker via Marxism]

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

I am still looking for someone to review a new and comprehensive biography of 
Lenin. I thought that this was something many people would be interested to 
do.Here is the basic info about the book. 
RECONSTRUCTING LENIN by Thamas Krausz, MR Press. 

 

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is one of the most important and influential figures of 
the twentieth century. His life and work are crucial to any understanding of 
modern history and the socialist movement.   After the fall of the Soviet Union 
and "actually-existing" socialism, it is possible to consider Lenin afresh, 
with sober senses trained on his historical context and how it shaped his 
theoretical and political contributions. Reconstructing Lenin, four decades in 
the making and now available in English for the first time, is an attempt to do 
just that.

Tamás Krausz, an esteemed Hungarian scholar writing in the tradition of György 
Lukács, Ferenc Tokei, and István Mészáros, makes a major contribution to a 
growing field of contemporary Lenin studies. This rich and penetrating account 
reveals Lenin busy at the work of revolution, his thought shaped by immediate 
political events but never straying far from a coherent theoretical 
perspective. Krausz balances detailed descriptions of Lenin's time and place 
with lucid explications of his intellectual development, covering a range of 
topics like war and revolution, dictatorship and democracy, socialism and 
utopianism. Reconstructing Lenin will change the way you look at a man and a 
movement; it will also introduce the English-speaking world to a profound 
radical scholar.

A work of exemplary scholarship, written with penetrating insights and 
steadfast commitment. With richly documented attention to detail it illuminates 
the formation and much disputed impact of Lenin's immense lifework in their 
dynamic historical setting, highlighting at the same time their enduring 
significance for the prospects of socialist developments.

-István Mészáros, author, Social Structure and Forms of Consciousness and 
Beyond Capital

Tamás Krausz is Professor of Russian History at the Eötvös Loránd University of 
Sciences in Budapest, and Head of the Department of Eastern European Studies. 
One of the best-known radical intellectuals and political activists in Hungary, 
he has published widely throughout the world and is the President of the 
Editorial Board of Eszmélet, the sole Marxist theoretical and political 
quarterly in Hungary, founded in 1989.

http://monthlyreview.org/

 



Please contact me offline: george.snede...@verizon.net

GS
 
_
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] Join the campaign to remove PKK from list of ‘terrorist’ groups | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

[glparramatta via Marxism]

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

By *Dave Holmes*

March 24, 2015 – /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ -- 
The Melbourne-based Australians for Kurdistan committee has launched a 
campaign calling for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to be removed 
from the Australian government’s list of terrorist organisations.


The PKK was first listed in 2005; its listing comes up for review this 
August.


In the light of the frontline role the PKK has played in fighting the 
“Islamic State” killers in Syria and Iraq and in mobilising support 
within Turkey for Rojava (the Kurdish-majority liberated zone in 
northern Syria), to label the PKK as “terrorist” is simply ridiculous.


The ban should be dropped and supporters of the PKK should be able to 
openly organise without harassment from the authorities.



Read more and sign the open letter at http://links.org.au/node/4344
_
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] End of scarcity and a society of abundance?

[Marla Vijaya kumar via Marxism]

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

OK. Good quotes. But what about the subject and the questions raised?Vijaya 
Kumar Marla
 


 On Wednesday, March 25, 2015 12:48 AM, MM  wrote:
   

 On 24 Mar 2015, at 6:06 PM, Marla Vijaya kumar via Marxism 
 wrote:


My basic question is "is it scientific and logical to assume that technology 
can automatically transform the society/"


"Perhaps my factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses: On 
the day that two army corps can mutually annihilate each other in a second, all 
civilised nations will surely recoil with horror and disband their troops." – 
Alfred Nobel, 1891, in a letter to countess Bertha von Suttner

"No, it will make war impossible." - Hiram Maxim, 1893, responding to a 
question about his invention, the machine gun

"The invention of aircraft will make war impossible in the future." - George 
Gissing (novelist), 1903, on the implications of heavier-than-air flight

"The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make 
war ridiculous." - Guglielmo Marconi, 1912, on the invention of radio

"The way to make war impossible is for the nations to go on experimenting, and 
to keep up to date with their inventions, so that war will be unthinkable, and 
therefore impossible." - Thomas Edison, 1922

"The invention will make war impossible for it will surround any country using 
this means with an impenetrable, invisible wall of protection." - Nikola Tesla, 
1934, on the invention of his “death ray"

“The conclusion, then, is clear: if the United States is to deter a nuclear 
attack on itself or its allies, it must possess an actual and a credible 
assured-destruction capability.” – Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 
1967

“Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.” - 
Albert Einstein, 1931, in an interview with George Viereck


  
_
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] Remembering El Salvador, Guatemala and Argentina

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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

*from SOA (School of Americas) Watch - **http://SOAW.org *


 *Today marks the 35th anniversary of the martyrdom of Monseñor Romero,
murdered by members of Salvadoran death squads, including two School of the
Americas (SOA) graduates while celebrating mass. *A 1993 UN truth
commission report confirmed that almost two-thirds of the Salvadoran
military had been trained at the SOA, now renamed the Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). *While Romero has been
declared a martyr by Pope Francis, and will be beatified and later declared
a saint, we at SOA Watch insist that only by addressing the question of why
and how he died will we truly be able to honor and dignify his memory.
Closing the SOA/WHINSEC is a huge part of this discussion, and is a
symbolic way to back words up with concrete actions. *This week, an SOA
Watch Delegation joins the activities taking place in San Salvador to honor
the memory of Monseñor Romero, to learn about the realities El Salvador is
facing today, paying close attention to the root causes of migration and
continued US interventionist and military policies. The delegation, led by
Latin America Liaison Brigitte Gynther, SOA Watch founder Father Roy
Bourgeois and Col. Ann Wright, will meet with President Salvador Sánchez
Cerén to ask his government to stop sending military personnel to the
SOA/WHINSEC.

*In neighboring Guatemala, we remember the March 23, 1982 military coup
that brought SOA graduate General José Efraín Ríos Montt to power.* For 18
months, Ríos Montt carried out some of the most brutal human rights
atrocities that occurred during the 36-year-long internal armed conflict.
In March 2013, Ríos Montt, along with former chief of military
intelligence José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, were put on trial for crimes
against humanity and genocide. *On May 10, 2013, Ríos Montt was condemned
to 80 years in prison for crimes against humanity and the genocide of 1,771
Ixil Mayans. *What is historic about this trial is that, aside from being
the first time a former head of state has been put on trial for genocide,
the sentence has established a truth - a counter memory - that cannot be
denied nor erased, despite the annulment of the sentence just ten days
later. This past January 5, a retrial was set to resume, but the defense
motioned for a postponement, arguing that Ríos Montt is too old and too
sick to stand trial. Nevertheless, in the face of a historical impunity,
Guatemalan civil society and Guatemalan Human Rights groups continue to
push for justice and hold those responsible accountable, both through legal
sentencings as well as social condemnation.


Lastly,* this March 24 marks the 39th anniversary of the civic-military
coup in Argentina*, a period during which 30,000 *compañeras *and
*compañeros *were disappeared. This day has now been reclaimed as the
National Day of Memory, Truth and Justice, and hundreds of thousands will
take to the streets to remember and honor the memory of the disappeared and
to celebrate that today, over 30 years after the return to democracy,
hundreds of repressors - civilians included - have been put on trial and
were given prison sentences for crimes against humanity.


*What do these countries have in common? They are marked by stories of
deliberate intervention and subversion by the United States, as well as
human rights violations committed by SOA graduates trained by US military
personnel, funded by US tax dollars.* They are histories filled with
horror, to the tune of thousands of cases of disappearances, torture, rape,
massacres, forced recruitment, internal displacement, exiles and refugees,
robbed identities and illegal appropriations of children, and the list goes
on. The changes that have taken place in these countries that have survived
such a brutal past have not happened by chance - they are the result of
grassroots struggles by those most impacted by the horror. If they can
create change, why can't we?


As we remember the victories in El Salvador, Guatemala and Argentina, we
are inspired by their struggles to face the horror head-on to counter a
historical and systematic practice of impunity, as well as the grassroots
efforts to build a historical memory of the past; a counter-memory so that
the slogan *nunca más* can become reality. As a grassroots movement founded
on the principles of peace and justice, *we call on ourselves to take
inspiration from our brothers and sisters in Latin America who have
suffered as a result of decades of disastrous interventionist policies, and
push for accountability within the ranks of the US government and armed
forces. While human rights

[Marxism] Child Labour in the United States Tobacco Industry

[Steffan Wyn-Jones via Marxism]

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

Hi all,
 
A friend who is researching this topic has asked me of any US academics 
(especially near NY) who are experts in this. If anyone on the list has any 
suggestions please email me off-list, 
 
Thanks and best wishes.
 
 
  
_
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] Scary conference in Russia

[Joseph Catron via Marxism]

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

On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 8:26 PM, Ken Hiebert via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

According to the BuzzFeed article "A Russian bank gave France’s Front
> National — whose leader, Marine le Pen, is an open admirer of Putin’s — an
> $11.7 million loan last year."  Does Roger believe this is true?  False?
> If he believes it is true, how does he think we should react?


What's the claim to which we should react? Of course the NF, by all
accounts, received a loan from the First Czech Russian Bank. What's the
significance, other than the business decisions, and possible political
sympathies, of a small, privately-held enterprise?

I'm aware that many confused leftists can discern the ghastly hand of Putin
at work in pretty much any events in, near, or at times far from Russia. I
treat such people like any other conspiracy theorists: harmless crackpots
who are best ignored.

-- 
"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
lytlað."
_
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] What Next for Greece? Joanne Landy of CPD/Nation magazine

[Marv Gandall via Marxism]

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


> On Mar 24, 2015, at 12:04 PM, Dayne Goodwin via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> What’s Next for Greece? Debating Syriza’s Options
> A reading list on the future of austerity in Greece, Europe and beyond.
> by Joanne Landy
> The Nation magazine, March 24
> 
 
The steady stream of topical links on Greece you've been providing is much 
appreciated, Dayne.
_
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: Varoufakis’ mission “to save European capitalism from itself”

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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

I just love how these people summarize "what has to be done" in Greece:

http://www.marxist.com/varoufakis-mission-to-save-european-capitalism-from-itself.htm

Marx explained in his 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of 
Political Economy: “At a certain stage of development, the material 
productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing 
relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in 
legal terms – with the property relations within the framework of which 
they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive 
forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of 
social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or 
later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.”


These words describe what we have today. The means of production 
accumulated in Europe are rebelling against the straitjacket of 
capitalism. For further development they need to be freed from that 
straitjacket. The means by which they are to be freed are class struggle 
and social revolution. In Greece we have already entered the “era of 
social revolution”. What is required is for the leaders of Syriza to 
take cognisance of that fact and act accordingly.


---

If there is anything that epitomizes the sterility of such sects it is 
writing articles that are variations of what you could have read in 
Daniel DeLeon's newspaper when it still was being published.


Polls taken a few days ago indicated that 84 percent of the Greeks 
supported remaining in the Eurozone. If it is the case that Greece has 
"entered the era of social revolution", why don't the Greeks recognize that?


These idiots conclude their article by saying that the leaders of Syriza 
have to take cognisance of that fact and act accordingly. That's like 
saying that Alan Woods should be invited to speak at the opening plenary 
of the next Left Forum.


If groups like this that are constituted as would-be Leninist vanguards 
see their role as urging Alexi Tsipras to do this, that or the other 
thing, what makes them different from a movie critic telling Martin 
Scorsese how he should do a different kind of film. Let them buy their 
own fucking camera and make their own god-damned movie.

_
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] NYC Fwd: Hamid Dabashi, Rania Khalek, & more! Media, Solidarity, & Palestine TONIGHT!

[Joseph Catron via Marxism]

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

-- Forwarded message --
From: Columbia SJP 
Date: Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 8:00 AM
Subject: Hamid Dabashi, Rania Khalek, & more! Media, Solidarity, &
Palestine TONIGHT!
To: Joe 


#IAW2015 panel on Tues 3/24 at 8pm in Ham 303~View this email in your
browser
Media,
Solidarity, and PalestineWhat are the possibilities and limitations of
social media in growing solidarity and affecting mainstream coverage? What
are the means for/how can we establish alternative voices in parallel, or
against, hegemonic propagandist discourse?

For* Israeli Apartheid Week 2015*, Columbia SJP is happy to announce our
panel with Alex Kane, Hanine Hassan, Rania Khalek, and Joe Catrone
moderated by Hamid Dabashi. This panel will discuss US media coverage of
Palestine with an eye on 2014's Operation Protective Edge, exploring the
connections with coverage of recent attacks on the Muslim American
community and the domestic repression in Ferguson. The massive media
explosion surrounding the attacks on the racist satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo is only one recent case study in how media can block or facilitate
the growth of solidarity and mass mobilization.
The panel will historicize American media coverage of the Middle East, and
more specifically Palestine, by foregrounding the political economy of the
media establishment in the US. Finally, the panel will touch upon the
significance and impact of social media.

We hope you can join us tonight at 8pm in Hamilton Hall, room 303 for what
is sure to be a wonderful event! Check the facebook for more info!



Title: Media, Solidarity, and Palestine
Panelists: Rania Khalek, Alex Kane, Joe Catron and Hanine Hassan in
conversation.
Moderated by: Hamid Dabashi
When: Tuesday 3/24 8pm
Where: 303 Hamilton Hall






This email was sent to joecat...@gmail.com
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine · 2960 Broadway · New York, NY
10027 · USA

[image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]


-- 
"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
lytlað."
_
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] End of scarcity and a society of abundance?

[MM via Marxism]

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

On 24 Mar 2015, at 6:06 PM, Marla Vijaya kumar via Marxism 
 wrote:

> My basic question is "is it scientific and logical to assume that technology 
> can automatically transform the society/"


"Perhaps my factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses: On 
the day that two army corps can mutually annihilate each other in a second, all 
civilised nations will surely recoil with horror and disband their troops." – 
Alfred Nobel, 1891, in a letter to countess Bertha von Suttner

"No, it will make war impossible." - Hiram Maxim, 1893, responding to a 
question about his invention, the machine gun

"The invention of aircraft will make war impossible in the future." - George 
Gissing (novelist), 1903, on the implications of heavier-than-air flight

"The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make 
war ridiculous." - Guglielmo Marconi, 1912, on the invention of radio

"The way to make war impossible is for the nations to go on experimenting, and 
to keep up to date with their inventions, so that war will be unthinkable, and 
therefore impossible." - Thomas Edison, 1922

"The invention will make war impossible for it will surround any country using 
this means with an impenetrable, invisible wall of protection." - Nikola Tesla, 
1934, on the invention of his “death ray"

“The conclusion, then, is clear: if the United States is to deter a nuclear 
attack on itself or its allies, it must possess an actual and a credible 
assured-destruction capability.” – Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 
1967

“Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.” - 
Albert Einstein, 1931, in an interview with George Viereck

_
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] What Next for Greece? Joanne Landy of CPD/Nation magazine

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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

What’s Next for Greece? Debating Syriza’s Options
A reading list on the future of austerity in Greece, Europe and beyond.
by Joanne Landy
The Nation magazine, March 24



In the weeks following its historic victory in the Greek elections on
January 25, 2015, Syriza has been engaged in a bitter struggle. Syriza
wants to implement the anti-austerity program it proposed to the Greek
people during the election campaign; European elites have declared
this to be impossible, and have thrown roadblocks in the way of even
the most minimal of the party’s promised reforms—going so far as to
challenge Syriza’s right to give food and restore electricity to the
poorest sector of the population in the midst of the country’s
profound humanitarian crisis.

As the conflict between Greece and the International Monetary Fund,
European Commission and European Central Bank (the three formerly
known as “the troika,” now renamed “the institutions”) has deepened,
Syriza’s popularity within Greece has soared. At the same time,
however, an intense debate is emerging among Syriza members and
supporters as to what strategy to follow in light of the relentless
pressure from European leaders, with no immediate prospect of a
positive change. The New York–based Campaign for Peace and Democracy,
which has been actively engaged in support for the Greek
anti-austerity struggle since 2012, organized a public forum held on
February 6, 2015, titled “After the Greek Elections: The Future of
Austerity in Greece, Europe and Beyond,” with speakers debating
different perspectives


CPD now follows the forum with further discussion of Greece’s options,
beginning with Syriza’s 2014 Thessaloniki Program, the basis on which
the party campaigned for the January 25 elections, and an overview by
Sarah Leonard that provides context for the policy debate, plus nine
selected articles representing differing viewpoints. The first by Tom
Walker is followed by interviews conducted by Sebastien Budgeon with
Stathis Kouvelakis and Costas Lapavitsas. Next are articles by Michael
Roberts, Kouvelakis, Barry Finger, James K. Galbraith and Maria
Margaronis. Each article is preceded by a brief introduction and
summary. We are grateful to Barry Finger for preparing this
introductory material. The articles are followed by links to the
report of the Hellenic League for Human Rights documenting the
horrific human rights abuses produced by the austerity crisis, and to
an extensive ongoing reference list on the Greek situation provided by
the Canadian Socialist Project.

Readers may find it helpful in understanding the array of technical
terms and references to consult a glossary provided here that was
featured in The Wall Street Journal


* * * * * * *

Syriza’S Thessaloniki Programme (September 2014)


Both an election platform (statement of priorities) and a governmental
action program for national reconstruction by the Coalition of the
Radical Left (SYRIZA), the Thessaloniki Program, released in September
2014, is a set of policy proposals designed to reverse austerity,
relieve the humanitarian crisis, deepen democracy and revive the Greek
economy within the formal context of a balanced budget. The program
calls for a European New Deal, a European debt conference to write off
part of the existing debt and to restructure remaining debt
obligations based on future growth. It calls for expanded public
investment financed off-budget (free from the restrictions of the
Stability and Growth Pact) by the European Investment Bank. It was
declared to be “not negotiable” by Syriza’s party leader, Alexis
Tsipras (Greek Reporter, Jan. 12, 2015).

Sarah Leonard, “How Greece Put an Anti-Austerity, Anti-Capitalist
Party in Power”


The author reconstructs the social and economic backdrop behind the
rise of the first anti-capitalist party to attain power in postwar
Europe. Leonard describes the Greek debt crisis as nothing less than a
hostage situation, in which the Greek people are being commanded to
submit not only to having their resources appropriated but also to
having their futures pulled out from underneath them by the demands of
the German banks. The humanitarian crisis is depicted in graphic
detail both at the macro and the personal levels. Syriza’s success is
analyzed

[Marxism] Danny Schechter, ‘News Dissector’ and Human Rights Activist, Dies at 72

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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

NY Times, Mar. 24 2015
Danny Schechter, ‘News Dissector’ and Human Rights Activist, Dies at 72
By SAM ROBERTS

Danny Schechter, whose media criticism became a staple of Boston radio 
and who went on to champion human rights as an author, filmmaker and 
television producer, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 72.


The cause was pancreatic cancer, his brother, Bill, said.

Mr. Schechter infused almost all his work — whether it was for 
alternative or mainstream media — with his deep-rooted advocacy of human 
rights. He was a producer of an award-winning public television series, 
“South Africa Now,” and of the ABC News magazine “20/20.”


His cherubic, if bewhiskered, countenance belied an indomitability that 
began with the civil rights movement, projected him into the front lines 
of the campaign against apartheid in South Africa and endeared him to a 
generation of counterculture radio listeners as “the media dissector.” 
He described himself as a “participatory journalist.”


“What distinguished Schechter,” John Nichols wrote in The Nation online, 
“was his merging of a stark and serious old-school I. F. Stone-style 
understanding of media power and manipulation with a wild and joyous 
Yippie-infused determination to rip it up and start again.”


In a tribute on his Facebook page, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the former 
public radio and television correspondent, wrote that Mr. Schechter had 
“used the media as Edward R. Murrow defined its mission: To teach, 
illuminate and inspire.”


Daniel Isaac Schechter was born in Manhattan on June 27, 1942. His 
father, Jerry, was a garment center pattern maker who became a sculptor. 
His mother, the former Ruth Lisa Lubin, was a secretary who became a poet.


Mr. Schechter grew up in the Bronx, the grandson of immigrant 
socialists, and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and Cornell 
University, interrupting his studies there to organize rent strikes in 
Harlem. As an organizer for the Northern Student Movement, he also 
marched for civil rights in Washington and in the South.


He received his master’s degree from the London School of Economics, 
where he became active in the antiapartheid movement.


In 1971 Mr. Schechter joined the Boston rock station WBCN-FM, where he 
found a following as “Danny Schechter, the News Dissector.” Noam 
Chomsky, the linguist and emeritus professor at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, recalled the “enlightenment and insight and 
humor” of his broadcasts, which, he said, “literally educated a generation.”


At the end of each broadcast, Mr. Schechter exhorted his listeners: “If 
you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.”


He joined CNN in its early days, in 1980, before moving to “20/20,” 
where his work won two Emmy Awards. In 1988, he and Rory O’Connor 
founded Globalvision, a New York production company, which produced 
“Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television,” a 1990s series hosted by Ms. 
Hunter-Gault, and “South Africa Now,” a weekly public affairs program 
that won a George Polk Award in 1990.


In a letter to The New York Times in 1991, Mr. Schechter defended his 
programs against complaints from some stations that they crossed the 
line into advocacy.


“How many PBS stations may have decided not to air our programs because 
they don’t want the controversy generated by the self-styled media 
police?” he wrote. “Self-censorship is always the hardest to detect. The 
public television system needs to be more open to programming that 
challenges the conventional wisdom, that lets the voices of the world in.”


By his count, he wrote 17 books, among them “The More You Watch the Less 
You Know: News Wars/(sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures” and “Madiba A-Z: 
The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela.” He also made more than 30 films, 
including six documentaries on Mr. Mandela and another titled “WMD: 
Weapons of Mass Deception,” and had blogged since 2002. He lived in 
Manhattan.


Besides his brother, he is survived by a daughter, Sarah, and Denzil 
McKenzie, who lived with the family for years. His two marriages ended 
in divorce.


“I know all this is easy for me to say,” Mr. Schechter wrote a year ago 
on Common Dreams, which describes itself as a website for the 
progressive community. “All I seem to have these days is this keyboard 
to crank out more condemnations and calls to action, knowing full well, 
as I do it, that I don’t know what else to do. I am compelled to make 
media, compelled to do what I can, thinking modestly that perhaps 
somewhere, in hearts I don’t know, words or images can still stir souls 
to rise.”


_

[Marxism] Fwd: Benjamin Netanyahu Walks Back Palestinian Comments After Election | The New Republic

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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

Martin Peretz must be shitting in his pants.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121351/benjamin-netanyahu-walks-back-palestinian-comments-after-election
_
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: Danny Schechter Lives » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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



http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/24/danny-schechter-lives/
_
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: New Directors/New Films 2015 | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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

3 films that are part of a yearly festival co-produced by MOMA and 
Lincoln Center.


1. "Line of Credit" -- Georgian film about a family pawning everything 
to survive.


2. "The Great Man" -- Chechen veteran of French Foreign Legion reunited 
with his son and dealing with racist immigration authorities.


3. "Los Hongos" -- Graffiti artists in Cali, Colombia.

full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/03/24/new-directorsnew-films-2015/
_
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] End of scarcity and a society of abundance?

[Marla Vijaya kumar via Marxism]

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


Comrades, 
 Here I am reproducing an introductory passage on 
nanotechnology. I am also raising a few questions. I hope, somebody will take 
up the deabte.

Excrept from:
Designing in the Wake of Nanotechnology
By John Milanski
Nanotechnology is technology based on the manipulation of individual atoms and 
molecules to build structures to complex atomic specifications. 
Put simply, nanotechnology is the ability to build objects one atom at a time. 
To do this we would need atomic-scale tools about one nanometer big, which is 
one-billionth of a meter, only 10 atoms long. And to make objects of normal 
size, we would need billions of these little tools (assemblers) working 
together. The easiest way to build billions of assemblers would be to design 
tools that can make more of themselves, in a way, reproduce (replicators). 
Since we cant devote billions of people to manipulate each individual tool, the 
tools must operate on their own. To do this, the tools must be programmable.
That is a very complex line of thought! And a very specific one. There are many 
other concepts for making big objects using small tools. But this idea of 
assemblers and replicators, the bottom-up approach, is the most popular one. 
Why? Probably because it sounds a lot like the way forms are created in nature. 
In nature, microscopic proteins move molecules and cells based on internal 
programming (DNA). Molecule by molecule, they build organic objects. They do 
their work independently. They create real-world sized things. And they also 
make copies of themselves. If nature can do it, nanotechnology supporters 
claim, then so can we. Why do it? Assuming we can make tools to move atoms, 
what can we build with them? Supporters see nanotechnology as "The Universal 
Building Machine," allowing "complete control over matter." These advocates 
talk of an end to starvation, war, and disease; unlimited lifespans; and a 
material paradise. So strong is their belief in the possibilities and 
negligence of the limitations that they have the appearance of a cult. But even 
renowned scientists agree on some more likely implications:
o computers 1000 times faster and cheaper than current models
o biological nanomachines that fix cancerous cells
o bridges and roads made of unbreakable diamond strands
o houses that can repair themselves or change shape on command
With enough of these assemblers to do the work, along with replicators to build 
copies of themselves, we could manufacture objects of any size and in any 
quantity using common materials like dirt, sand, and water. Manufacturing costs 
would drop to nearly zero. There would be no need to transport raw materials to 
a factory or finished goods back to consumers.


How does nanotechnology effect the society and economics in particular?

I feel,  most of the euphoria about nanotechnology ushering in:
a) an end of scarcity 
b) a society of abundance
c) end of capitalism (because people need not work to produce anything)
d) ushering in of pure communism (not all, but by the dreamy eyed utopians)
is mere speculation and wishful thinlking.

My basic question is "is it scientific and logical to assume that technology 
can automatically transform the society/"
I am one of those who argue that it is only the collective will and action by 
the people, that can bring about a change in socio-economic order.
Vijaya Kumar Marla

_
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] NYTimes: First Amendment, ‘Patron Saint’ of Protesters, Is Embraced by Corporations

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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

> “Corporations have begun to displace individuals as the direct
> beneficiaries of the First Amendment,” a law professor writes in a
> provocative new study.
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/us/first-amendment-patron-saint-of-protesters-is-embraced-by-corporations.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad
_
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: In Brazil, a Struggle to Protect Indigenous Land From an Oil Society

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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



http://truth-out.org/news/item/29677-in-brazil-a-struggle-to-protect-indigenous-land-from-an-oil-society
_
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: Europe’s far right flocks to Russia. International conservative forum held in St. Petersburg — Meduza. News, reports, interviews, videos from Russia

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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



https://meduza.io/en/feature/2015/03/24/europe-s-far-right-flocks-to-russia
_
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: Yemen, long on the brink of catastrophe, may have tipped over the edge | Brian Whitaker | Comment is free | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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



http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/23/yemen-brink-catastrophe-mosque-attacks-civil-war
_
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] Frank Marshall Davis: Obama’s ‘Communist mentor’?

[Charles Faulkner via Marxism]

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

it is funny and it's on the fringe here too though the fringe has some 
penetration into the media. 

to pick a nit i share this typo (i hope). or is it the kanye effect? 

" Writings in his column, “Frank-ly Speaking,” showed he developed class-based 
ideologies that linked racism with classicism and fascism." 

linked racism with classicism? or then again. 


Louis, It was really amusing to see this level of paranoia in today's America 
about Communists. I thought the McCarthy mindset had gradually withered away as 
time passed. How can somebody believing in Marxist ideology be automatically 
labelled as involved in un-American activities. The Indian Communists may not 
be successful politically, but no one dares to call them Anti-India, except 
some hard core Hindu Fascists, who are on the fringe, though their party is in 
power now. People here in general are open minded about various 
ideologies.Vijaya Kumar Marla 
_
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] Scary conference in Russia

[Thomas Campbell via Marxism]

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

The funny thing about our man in Vancouver and analysts like him is that
they believe media coverage, especially in big outlets like the NYTimes,
has total primacy over events on the ground, and how they are perceived and
contested by the people who actually live there. I would be reluctant to
comment on politics in Vancouver, which I've only visited once, but Roger
is somehow confident that having his eyes glued to the "right" websites
(like Russia Insider?) is all the savvy Canadian anti-imperialist militant
requires when discussing life eleven time zones away.

Back in the real Russia, this is how the famous Soviet-Russian bard poet
Alexander Gorodnitsky, a child survivor of the Nazi Siege of Leningrad,
reacted to the shameful surrender of the city to European and American
neo-Nazis at the Holiday Inn on Sunday:

Those who rented Piter [Petersburg] out today
To a Nazi congress
Have wiped their feet on the fallen,
Whose bones lie at rest round here.
These days they hand out
Medals to us, the Siege survivors.
During the war we did not surrender the city,
But they surrender it and put it up for rent.
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/columns/67771.html

This "scary conference" has been a big deal here, not only because of the
relatively large and speedy mobilization of antifa, progressive leftists,
and liberals against it, resulting in several arrests and possible jail
terms for some of the protesters, and the heavy local and national media
coverage, but also because of the reactions of otherwise politically
quiescent or loyalist folk like Gorodnitsky and the Federation of Jewish
Communities of Russia, who sent out this communique yesterday:

http://www.feor.ru/news/index.php?newsid=12968
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia expresses its extreme
concern and bewilderment that the most ultranationalist forces in Europe
were allowed to gather at a large-scale forum in St. Petersburg, a city
that survived all the horrors of a Nazi siege.

The Congress, according to the official list of participants on the forum
site, was attended by members of various ultranationalist parties in
Europe, including such notorious ones as the Greek Golden Dawn, the
National Democratic Party of Germany (whose leader, Udo Voigt, who also
took part in the forum, earlier expressly stated that he believes his party
the successor to the Nazi party NSDAP), the Austrian Freedom Party, the
Swedes Party (formerly called The National Socialist Front), the British
National Party (whose former leader Nick Griffin, who also took part in the
forum, is an infamous Holocaust denier ), and the Italian Forza Nuova,
whose leader Roberto Fiore directly calls himself a "fascist."

Most of these parties, from the FJC's point of view, could be safely
included in the list of extremist movements, whose activities should be
banned in the Russian Federation.

The Russian Jewish community is also extremely astonished that a gathering
of nationalists was held in a city that was one of the hardest hit by the
Nazis in the Soviet Union during World War Two and which was the most
northerly of the places where Nazis executed Jews en masse.

This event creates a very negative impression and looks like a real "dance
on the bones" of National Socialism's victims.

The gathering looks especially cynical vis-a-vis the large-scale events
planned in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazism.

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia considers that hosting and
organizing events involving such a roster of participants in our country is
absolutely unacceptable and blasphemous to the memory of the victims of the
Great Patriotic War.

___

Another local context that Roger, of course, knows nothing about is the
rather serious wave of neo-Nazi attacks against immigrants, foreign
students, antifascists, and leftist activists in Petersburg (and all around
Russia) during 2004-2000. That wave abated somewhat when police finally
went after some of the gangs behind the attacks, but general attitudes
towards Central Asian migrants and people from the Caucasus have only
gotten worse in the meantime, if anything, partly egged on by the regime.

This is borne out by recent massive virtual neo-Nazi attacks against two
friends of mine, attacks that were also motivated by that old Russian
standby in times of trouble, anti-Semitism:

https://therussianreader.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/antisemitism-petersburg-frenkel/

Given all these different contexts, it is no wonder that so many people
here reacted so strongly to the little neo-Nazi fest at the Holiday Inn on
Sunday. The NY Times didn't make up that reality. And the Lord Haw-Haws at
Russia Ins

[Marxism] Kurdish Front

[Prashad, Vijay via Marxism]

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

In today's The Hindu, my column on the complexities of Kurdish and Turkish 
politics - are the fighters in Iraq and Syria in battle for Kurdish ambitions 
or for protection of past gains? What is the reason why the PKK in Turkey seeks 
an entente with Turkish state? For more, 
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-kurdish-front/article7024858.ece.

Warmly, Vijay.

_
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] Scary conference in Russia

[James Creegan via Marxism]

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

John Lane wrote:

So, the National Front won big in French municipal elections, (with Russian
assistance) Poles are forming right-wing militias, (I haven't heard that
one yet, but I don't follow Poland very closely so a reference or two would
be very much appreciated)...

*

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/world/europe/poland-steels-for-battle-seeing-echoes-of-cold-war-in-ukraine-crisis.html?_r=0 



_
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