[Marxism] Fallujah and Obama's proxies in Iraq
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. * Fallujah and Obama's proxies in Iraq http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/fallujah-and-obamas-proxies-iraq-1072312342 Victoria Fontan and Ross Caputi Friday 17 July 2015 20:15 UTC Iranian forces, Iraq's government and the Popular Mobilisation Forces have become the Middle East Contras of the Obama administration Fallujah and its residents deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Their capacity to singlehandedly reconcile former enemies surpasses that of the most seasoned diplomats. Militants now work alongside US Special Forces, and US airstrikes give support to Iranian troops, whose dubious conception of human rights bypasses US qualms on the issue. This is not a consequence of the much-celebrated Iran nuclear deal: Iran and the US have been working together for months, more openly since the Battle of Tikrit. On this occasion, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard of Major General Suleiman was supported by US airstrikes, without which the month-long siege inflicted on no more than 80 Islamic State (IS) fighters could have lasted much longer. Since the beginning of hostilities against Fallujah on 28 December 2013, the Iraqi government and its allies have not stopped bombarding the city. Its civilian residents who could either not afford to leave, or had to return from exile because they were too poor to stay in safety in Iraqi Kurdistan, have been left to pay a heavy price: 3,190 have been killed and 5,197 wounded. This is not the first time that Fallujah has been steadily destroyed, yet since the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the shelling of the city has become more intense. Fallujah is a symbol: it is the city that never surrenders, or only does when it is left to look like the Chechen town of Grosny in its prime. It might surrender again, but at what price? Dr. Ahmed Shami Jasim, chief resident at the Fallujah Teaching Hospital, confirmed that over the last month, 224 civilians have been killed, including 46 women and 55 children, and the numbers are growing daily. Who is doing the killing? Fallujah is now surrounded from Saqlawiya to the west and Amiriyat al-Fallujah to the south by the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), known in Arabic as Hashed al-Shabi. Decried by some as a Shia militia exerting systematised revenge killings on Iraqi Sunnis, and glorified by others as the new Iraqi awakening, the PMF is headed by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who is still on the US list of designated terrorists. Muhandis has been maintaining close ties with the Iranian Quds Brigades and their chief General Qasem Suleiman, who was openly present during the Tikrit offensive. Despite the rumours that he has actively prepared the Anbar offensive, General Suleiman has been making himself very discreet, as the few Sunni tribes who joined the PMF as well as President Obama declared that they would not participate in the Anbar offensive should he be present. Several Fallujah residents have communicated with the authors that Scud missiles were launched onto the city in the last two weeks. In the region, only two armed forces possess such offensive ballistic missiles: Syria and Iran. While it is impossible for now to corroborate this information with pictures, this would prove that the Iranian army is indeed involved in the Anbar offensive. Over a year ago, the launching of barrel bombs over Fallujah was disputed by the Iraqi government until media outlets and human rights organisations reported it and made it a fact. Could this be the case for Scud missiles too? This would prove the direct Iranian involvement in the Anbar offensive with weapons that are still prohibited in the new and trendy Iranian nuclear deal. Muhandis is also being directly supported by the United States. West of Saqlawiya is Habanyia Airbase, where US Special Advisors were sent to train the PMF last January. While it is said that they only train Sunni tribes, Shia militias are also on the base. In effect, the US Special Advisors are training the troops of a wanted “terrorist”. From the same Habaniyah airbase and also the al-Asad base, Iraqi Army helicopters take off to drop their barrel bombs onto Fallujah. While some reports hint at the US and Iraqi militias mistrust one another, this does not make much of a difference for the Fallujah residents, who are still being bombarded, whether or not all parties to their destruction get along. As the ground offensive against Fallujah is likely to occur after the Eid celebrations, Fallujah is not empty of civilians like Tikrit was when Iranian and Iraqi forces laid siege to it last march. It is reportedly filled with
[Marxism] The Canberra Anti-Racism Rally kicked their sorry arses
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 Canberra Anti-Racism Rally kicked their sorry arses Well done to all those in Canberra who attended this great turnout to confront the racists. We outnumbered them five to one. We kicked their sorry arses. http://enpassant.com.au/2015/07/19/the-canberra-anti-racism-rally-kicked-their-sorry-arses/ _ 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 GMO will most certainly lead to
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[Marxism] Germans protest in 14 cities against Merkel's stance on Greece
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://www.popularresistance.org/germans-protest-in-14-cities-against-merkels-stance-on-greece/ _ 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: The euro train: going off the rails? | Michael Roberts Blog
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. * Bad analogy to compare the growth rate of an economy with the speed of a train. A train is built to move people or cargo, here the speed is an important criterion. An economy has the purpose to satisfy the needs of the people, here growth is irrelevant and often counterproductive. In the train analogy, the growth rate of an economy should be compared with the acceleration of the train. This would show how irrational the growth requirement is. The EU population grows very slowly (les than .4 percent per year, mainly due to immigration), Europe is producing enough (while overusing natural resources world wide) that everyone would be able to lead a prosperous life if income would be distributed fairly. The growth rate is irrelevant for the quality of life of the people. It is only relevant because capitalism cannot function without growth. India needs growth, Africa needs growth, Europe does not. Feeding the growth engine of capitalism in the rich countries is feeding the engine which is making the planet uninhabitable for humans. Hans G Ehrbar _ 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] Guardian: On the Aegean island that runs on cash, time is running out
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. * 'If we have to pay a tax of 23%, I’m sorry to say it, but we will all die on the island,' Kakali says in her office off the quiet main square of the island’s only settlement. The daughter of a fisherman and mother of two young children, she knows the strains across generations. Food and fuel are already more expensive than on the mainland, there are no economies of scale and little economic flexibility in an island which, even in summer, boasts only three shops, two restaurants and not a single official hotel. 'This is an expensive island. Everything, even milk or bread, has changed hands three or four times before it gets to us, and each middleman has to take a profit,' said Provatas Costas, a 58-year-old fisherman who can earn €1,500 (£1,000) in a good month, but barely covers his fuel costs in a bad one. ...'What is the future for our generation?' said Katerina Fikari, who feels she is extremely lucky to work for the local government in Lemnos. Some families on the island now have three generations living off a single pension, and many of her friends and classmates have left Greece: 'If you work only to pay your bills, how can you have dreams for your future?' If taxes go up, even more young people will leave, warns mayor Kakali, who has devoted her year in office to improving education on the island to help keep it an attractive place for families. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/18/greek-aegean-island-debt-crisis-future-austerity _ 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] Moderator's note
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. * Having been subjected face to face to the raving, incoherent spittle-laced yelling of JIm Robertson, on one occasion, in those long lost 1960's, and having been physically attacked on another occasion decades later by a Spartacist League member, Creegan [sp?] seems to me a pussycat in comparison. That said, perhaps a red line is whether or not anyone uses a personal insult, grounds for removal from any discussion group. If someone wishes to write that some political view of mine is stupid, or will lead inevitably to a reformist disaster, or is an accommodation to the swamp of petite bourgeois veganism, fair enough. That’s a discussion. From time to time I have expressed political views that were stupid. Who has not? Those who bluntly pointed that out did me a service, painful as it was at the time. If someone calls me stupid, or says I am a reformist disaster, or calls me a petite bourgeois veganist, that's over the line. Name calling is over the line in any discussion group. One warning would be sufficient. Of course it is the option of the creator of a discussion group to set what limits seem reasonable and proper. T -Original Message- From: Mark Lause via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Sent: Jul 19, 2015 11:49 AM To: Thomas F Barton thomasfbar...@earthlink.net Subject: Re: [Marxism] Moderator's note 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 list isn't a party or a movement body. Yes, there are inconsistencies and injustices result. The fact of the matter has always been that this is Louis' operation. That has been the most functional solution to having an ongoing 24/7 flame war over who should or shouldn't be here. There simply exists no mechanism for a democratic email list, Much less a democratic-centralist email list. Or does someone have an alternative that they've not implemented or are keeping secret? In this case, a second chance would not be amiss, particularly if there's a general acknowledgement of the remote possibility that the working class can be betrayed by people trying to figure out the situation in Greece in an email discussion. Solidarity! Mark L. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/thomasfbarton%40earthlink.net _ 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: The Greek test of strength and the urgency of a strategic debate on the left - International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine
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. * 8. To make leaving the euro the axis of the alternative would be to run up unnecessarily against the very generally-held idea that the currency is only “neutral” technical means of allowing trade, whereas it is in fact also the crystallization of a social relationship. To make leaving the euro (or the EU) the axis of the battle would be also to play the game of the hard-line and far right, by spreading the illusion that a harmonious socio-economic-ecological development would be possible within the national framework. This illusion harms internationalist solidarity. However, this is crucial not only for the fight in Greece, but also because the integration of the economies on the continent requires a European anticapitalist perspective to satisfy social needs and to answer the urgent ecological needs. 9. In the current conjuncture, outside a (pre) revolutionary period, the completely intransigent rejection of austerity, the intransigent requirement of democratic policies and respect for popular sovereignty, concrete measures of self-defence against internal and external capitalist sabotage - such as the socialization of the banks, capital controls, a land register and inheritance taxes, suspending the payment of the debt and its cancellation, workers’ control in the companies – are an indispensable condition for achieving this goal. 10. The key of the situation does not lie in the development of a “plan B”, a catalogue of more or less technical measurements – which implies by definition a “plan A” of staying in the Euro. It resides in a social strategy centred on the winning of ideological hegemony by a block bringing together the exploited and oppressed (workers, including notably women, youth, small farmers, illegal immigrants and the racialized) in the perspective of mass confrontation with capitalist logic and the European institutions which incarnate it. full: http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article4135 _ 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] Moderator's note
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 list isn't a party or a movement body. Yes, there are inconsistencies and injustices result. The fact of the matter has always been that this is Louis' operation. That has been the most functional solution to having an ongoing 24/7 flame war over who should or shouldn't be here. There simply exists no mechanism for a democratic email list, Much less a democratic-centralist email list. Or does someone have an alternative that they've not implemented or are keeping secret? In this case, a second chance would not be amiss, particularly if there's a general acknowledgement of the remote possibility that the working class can be betrayed by people trying to figure out the situation in Greece in an email discussion. Solidarity! Mark L. _ 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] Interview
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This is an interview of the two members of OKDE-Spartakos awaiting for their trial next Wednesday (in French) http://www.npa2009.org/actualite/interview-des-deux-militants-arretes-par-la-police-en-grece JA _ 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] Economic Policy Institute shilling for Hillary
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. * Funny how they treat Hillary as the agenda-setter for the debates. Sanders has a much longer record talking about and attempting to legislate on these issues, yet his pronouncements seem to be ignored entirely by EPI... [disclaimer: I am an internationalist eco-feminist anarcho-communist with zero illusions about Sanders, Democrats, liberal think tanks, and US electoral politics...this is a just saying post]. http://www.epi.org/blog/clinton-speech-confirms-that-presidential-campaigns-will-focus-on-wage-stagnation/ _ 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] Tennessee attacks - blowback from Gaza?
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.richardsilverstein.com/2015/07/19/tennessee-terror-attack-may-be-linked-to-gaza-war/?utm_source=feedburnerutm_medium=emailutm_campaign=Feed%3A+richardsilverstein%2FZOfh+%28+Tikun+Olam-%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%9F+%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%9D%3A+Make+the+World+a+Better+Place%29 _ 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
