[Marxism] El Salvador: FMLN ramps up struggle against neoliberalism

[Stuart Munckton via Marxism]

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El Salvador's governing left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
(FMLN) concluded its first national congress on November 8 with plans to
advance its struggles against inequality, exclusion and neoliberalism.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60676


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original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made,
through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man
Under Socialism

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dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker
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[Marxism] Joe Hill — remembering a 'troubadour of discontent' 100 years on from his execution

[Stuart Munckton via Marxism]

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Joe Hill was a senior organiser, popular songwriter and cartoonist for the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), more commonly known as the Wobblies.
The 100th anniversary of his death is being commemorated worldwide this
month.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60677


-- 
“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
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[Marxism] France bombs Raqqa: "a stadium, museum, clinics, a hospital, a chicken farm and local governmental building"

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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My condolences and solidarity with the working-class victims of 
reactionary jihadist terror in Paris, and of imperialist terror in 
Raqqa.


France Bombs Islamic State in Raqqa

http://eaworldview.com/2015/11/syria-daily-france-bombs-islamic-state-in-raqqa/

In its first notable intervention in Syria’s conflict, France bombed the 
Islamic State’s center of Raqqa in the north of the country on Sunday.
Twelve French warplanes, including 10 fighter bombers, dropped 20 bombs. 
The attacks came two days after ISIS shootings and suicide bombings in 
Paris killed at least 132 people.
The anti-Islamic State activist group Raqqa is Being Silently 
Slaughtered reported the strikes, hours before French officials issued 
their confirmation.
“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh [the Islamic State] as a 
command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot. 
The second held a terrorist training camp,” the French Defense Ministry 
said in a statement.
Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said a stadium, museum, clinics, a 
hospital, a chicken farm and local governmental building were hit among 
at least 30 airstrikes. It said water and electricity were cut, but 
reported no civilian casualties.
Khaled al-Homsi, an opposition activist whose uncle was a famous 
archaeologist beheaded by Islamic State fighters, issued a plea on 
Twitter:

French jets taking off on their missions:
In a further sign of the French escalation, the aircraft carrier Charles 
de Gaulle is set to leave the port of Toulon in the next two days, with 
18 Rafale and 8 to 9 Super Etendard strike fighters aboard.
The Islamic State has controlled Raqqa, Syria’s 7th-largest city, since 
autumn 2013. The US Government has said that it wants to support an 
offensive of Kurdish and Arab forces to reclaim Raqqa, but the leading 
Kurdish party and military have indicated that the offensive is not a 
priority.
The Syrian air force and, since September 30, Russian warplanes have 
carried out occasional attacks on Raqqa, but their priority has been the 
bombardment of rebels opposing President Assad.


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Re: [Marxism] "49 armed factions in Syria" was: Syria rebels, activists denounce IS attack on Paris - Yahoo News

[Joseph Green via Marxism]

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Luko Willms distinguishes between "concrete democratic rights" and universal 
suffrage, and insists that Engels makes the same distinction. This is an 
important issue, and I will show below that he is turning Engels on his head.

Luko Willms wrote:

 >  No, that is wrong. Engels even took great pains to explain to the German 
>movement that the concrete democratic rights are indispensable, first and 
>foremost the freedom of the presse, the freedom of assembly and the freedom 
>of association, while parliamentary elections, even common and secret and 
>equal elections are mostly a trap. I think that I mentioned not long ago 
>this article, a veiled polemic against the Lassaleans in the article "The 
>Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party", in english in the 
>MIA at 
> >   For example:
> 
> >{Engels]  If the government decreed universal direct suffrage, it would from
> > the outset hedge it about with so many ifs and buts that it would in
> > fact not be universal direct suffrage at all any more.

But Willms takes the argument out of context. Engels is talking about a 
particular situation: 1860s Germany. Let's look into this.

 Engels distinguishes what might type of elections might be conceded by the 
bureaucratic-absolutist government of Bismarck representing "the feudal 
aristocracy and the bureaucracy" and elections under different conditions. In 
Germany in the 1860s, there was still the question of whether there would be 
a democratic revolution. Engels analyzes the concrete situation of that time, 
and distinguishes the type transformation Bismark aimed at in order to stave 
off revolution, and the type transformation that would be of most use for the 
masses.

When one reads the entire article, one sees that Engels is fervently in favor 
of universal suffrage; it is absurd to say that Engels distinguished between 
concrete democratic rights, which were important, and universal suffrage, 
which was supposedly mainly a trap. If one wanted to condense and simplify  
Engels' argument, it would be that universal suffrage can be a trap and an 
empty facade *if* there aren't other democratic rights,  but is extremely 
important when there are these other rights. This is exactly opposite to how 
Luko Willms understands him.

Also, one will see that Engels was not afraid to champion the overthrow of 
bureaucratic-absolutist rule in favor of a democratic government, even in the 
situation that this government was bound to be a bourgeois government. That 
is relevant to various of the democratic movements today. 

In the 1860s, the Bismarckian system of government could only have been 
overthrown if the bourgeois strata had supported this. The working class was 
faced with what its attitude to this should be. Engels calls the general 
democratic movement "the bourgeois movement", to indicate the distinction 
from the socialist movement and because democracy in Germany at that time 
would put the bourgeoisie into power, but he knew full well that not only 
capitalists were in that movement.

The concrete circumstances facing the masses has changed since the 1860s. The 
class situation is more complicated. But the general principles put forward 
by Engels - of the distinction between the democratic and socialist movement, 
of the need for the proletariat to participate in the democratic struggle, 
and the need of the proletariat to have its own independent standpoint during 
this struggle - remain valid.

Now for the quotes:

Engels writes, as if to repudiate Luko Willms in advance, "...the bourgeoisie 
and workers can only exercise real, organised, political power through 
parliamentary representation; and such parliamentary representation is 
valueless unless it has a voice and a share  in making decisions, in other 
words, unless it holds the 'purse-strings'. That however is precisely what 
Bismarck on his own admission is trying to prevent. We ask: is it in the 
interests of the workers that this parliament should be robbed of all power, 
this parliament which they themselves hope to enter by winning universal 
direct suffrage and in which they hope one day to form the majority? Is it in 
their interests to set all the wheels of agitation in motion in order to 
enter an assembly whose words ultimately carry no weight? Surely not."

So much for Engels' supposed denigration of the value of universal suffrage 
and parliamentary representation. 

 Luko Willms cites the following passage, but doesn't consider that Engels 
isn't referring to a French republic, but to the repressive Second Empire of 
Louis Bonaparte 

Re: [Marxism] From Paris bombings to Palestine

[Lüko Willms via Marxism]

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 on Montag, 16. November 2015 at 00:05, Philip Ferguson via Marxism 
had a bad dream:  

> What made you change your mind?

  Here we have someone who never gives attention to what people actually say or 
write, but only to their own private thoughts what others would have said if 
they were as Mr. F. is dreaming. 


 
Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt/Main, Germany
http://www.mlwerke.de
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[Marxism] Sri Lanka: General strike launched as Tamil prisoners renew hunger strike

[Stuart Munckton via Marxism]

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The entire northern province of Sri Lanka, an area mainly inhabited by
Tamils, was "brought to a standstill" on November 13, according to the
Tamilnet website, in support of Tamil prisoners on hunger strike for their
freedom.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60675


-- 
“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
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[Marxism] Irish politics

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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eirigi activist confronts govt senator over health cuts (short video):
https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/eirigi-activist-confronts-fg-senator-over-health-cuts/

Ireland: the class struggle is the source of the national struggle:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/ireland-the-class-struggle-is-the-source-of-the-national-struggle/

The referendum vote for gay marriage in (south of) Ireland

Big gay rights victory in Ireland:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/big-gay-rights-victory-in-ireland/
Southern irish society and the referendum on gay marriage:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/irish-society-and-politics-and-the-referendum-on-gay-marriage/

Revolutionary soldier and working class intellectual: Volunteer Tony 'TC'
Catney remembered:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/volunteer-tony-tc-catney-remembered-revolutionary-soldier-and-working-class-intellectual/
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[Marxism] éirígí and the PFLP

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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One group which combines solidarity with the Palestinian struggle in
general with specific solidarity with the PFLP is the Irish revolutionary
current éirígí.

To me, this - rather than a cluster of Potemkin Village 'internationals' -
is real internationalism.

Message from PFLP to the 2014 eirigi ard fheis (national conference):
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/for-a-world-that-is-free-of-racism-colonialism-imperialism-oppression-and-capitalist-exploitation-pflp-message-to-eirigi-conference/

The party had invited Leila Khaled to Ireland but she was denied entry; the
PFLP were, however, able to send another representative:
Denial of Leila K entry to Ireland:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/leila-khaled-denied-entry-to-ireland/
PFLP rep speaks at eirigi-organised events around Ireland:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/pflp-rep-speaks-at-eirigi-organised-events-in-ireland/

eirigi direct action re BDS at Sainsbury's, Belfast:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/organising-effective-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-cause-an-example-from-ireland/

Belfast mural:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/irishpalestinian-revolutionary-solidarity/

And a great Leila Khaled poster:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/leila-khaled-poster/
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[Marxism] How France loots its former African colonies

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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http://thisisafrica.me/france-loots-former-colonies/
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Re: [Marxism] Palestine

[A.R. G via Marxism]

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So what does that tell us about "leftists"? As far as I am concerned a
leftist group that doesn't take a principled stance on Palestine -- which
includes quite a few groups that won't shut up about their
middle-of-the-road stances about Zionism -- are as useful as "leftist"
groups that think white supremacy is matter of the past or that the like.

I'm nonetheless looking forward to Palestine solidarity activism taking off
in the coming years as per Mr. Netanyahu's insanity.

- Amith

On Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 6:33 PM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> *
>
> While a handful more leftists have caved under the pressure of their own
> imperialist regimes - most lately the move of the Barnesites to
> left-Zionism, before them the AWL in Britain - the Palestinian cause is
> gaining greater support from people around the world.
>
> As against the imperialist two-staters and the new left-Zionist
> 'two-staters', Israeli policy on the West Bank is making the one-state
> alternative more relevant than ever:
>
> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/is-there-a-two-state-solution-to-israel-palestinian-conflict-2/
>
> For a campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle:
>
> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/for-a-campaign-of-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-struggle/
>
> Phil
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[Marxism] Palestine

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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While a handful more leftists have caved under the pressure of their own
imperialist regimes - most lately the move of the Barnesites to
left-Zionism, before them the AWL in Britain - the Palestinian cause is
gaining greater support from people around the world.

As against the imperialist two-staters and the new left-Zionist
'two-staters', Israeli policy on the West Bank is making the one-state
alternative more relevant than ever:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/is-there-a-two-state-solution-to-israel-palestinian-conflict-2/

For a campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/for-a-campaign-of-solidarity-with-the-palestinian-struggle/

Phil
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[Marxism] From Paris bombings to Palestine

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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Luko wrote:
>The latter is only the special French expression of weakness of the
working class movement on a world scale.

You must have broken with the Barnesites, Luko!

Remember how they banged on for years that the working class hadn't - and
couldn't be - defeated.

What made you change your mind?


>And that needs to be changed, and the working class movement recovering
itself is the only way out of this impasse.

This is a truism.


>To do that, one of the important things to do is a campaign to defend the
Palestinian Arabs against the colonial settler state of Israel, demanding
"no more arms to Israel".

Good to see that you're no longer uncritically pushing the Barnesite line,
as they have gone over to left-Zionism.

Kenan, who you seem so intent on attacking, is of course a partisan of the
Palestinian cause.

Phil
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Re: [Marxism] "49 armed factions in Syria" was: Syria rebels, activists denounce IS attack on Paris - Yahoo News

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 11/15/15 4:56 PM, Lüko Willms wrote:

*ary democracy,

*No, that is wrong. Engels even took great pains to explain to the
German movement that the concrete democratic rights are indispensable,
first and foremost the freedom of the presse, the freedom of assembly
and the freedom of association, while parliamentary elections, even
common and secret and equal elections are mostly a trap. I think that I
mentioned not long ago this article, a veiled polemic against the
Lassaleans in the article "The Prussian Military Question and the German
Workers' Party", in english in the MIA at

Re: [Marxism] "49 armed factions in Syria" was: Syria rebels, activists denounce IS attack on Paris - Yahoo News

[Lüko Willms via Marxism]

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on Sonntag, 15. November 2015 at 18:15, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:

> There are still many people in Syria who have politics that are 
> revolutionary even if they don't quote Karl Marx.

 Also in Germany, Poland, the USA etc. And also here is no revolution taking 
place. 

 And if it were, there would be a unifying trend around one revolutionary 
leadership. Independent of any label you might want to attach to that 
leadership. 

 As said, in Syria the opposite development began in 2011, and is still 
continuing: an increasing fragmentation, a deepening splintering of the 
"opposition" into -- according to your message -- at least 50 factions, 51 if 
we include the country's government. Probably much more. And each of them is 
the result of some "leadership" group forming a separate armed faction in order 
to exercise power over the people by their separate sectarian leadership 
clique. 

 That is not revolution, that is the destruction of any chance for revolution. 
A revolution in Syria would have to chase all those armed cliques away in the 
first place. 

>  Marx and Lenin fought for democratic rights 

 sure, they were revolutionists. Lenins leadership is one such example of the 
unifying process of a real popular revolution, which was the opposite of what 
is happening in Syria right now. 

> and even for the replacement of dictatorial rule by parliamentary democracy, 

 No, that is wrong. Engels even took great pains to explain to the German 
movement that the concrete democratic rights are indispensable, first and 
foremost the freedom of the presse, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of 
association, while parliamentary elections, even common and secret and equal 
elections are mostly a trap. I think that I mentioned not long ago this 
article, a veiled polemic against the Lassaleans in the article "The Prussian 
Military Question and the German Workers' Party", in english in the MIA at 
>  If the government decreed universal direct suffrage, it would from
> the outset hedge it about with so many ifs and buts that it would in
> fact not be universal direct suffrage at all any more.
>
> And regarding universal direct suffrage itself, one has only to go
> to France to realise what tame elections it can give rise to, if one
> has only a large and ignorant rural population, a well-organised
> bureaucracy, a well-regimented press, associations sufficiently kept
> down by the police and no political meetings at all. How many
> workers' representatives does universal direct suffrage send to the
> French chamber, then? And yet the French proletariat has the
> advantage over the German of far greater concentration and longer
> experience of struggle and organisation.

 I also don't know of any place where Marx or Engels or Lenin talked about 
"dictatorial rule" as something to be replaced, and be it only a parliamentary 
democracy. 

 No, no, our comrades were very clear: we fight for material democratic rights, 
for the workers to take power out of the hands of the bourgeoisie.

 Lenin explained in a polemic against "Parabellum" (pseudonym of Karl Radek), 
written in or before October 1915 titled "The Revolutionary Proletariat and the 
Right of Nations to Self-Determination", to be found in an english translation 
in MIA at
>  From what Parabellum says, it appears that, in the name of the
> socialist revolution, he scornfully rejects a consistently
> revolutionary programme in the sphere of democracy. He is wrong to
> do so. The proletariat cannot be victorious except through
> democracy, i.e., by giving full effect to democracy and by linking
> with each step of its struggle democratic demands formulated in the
> most resolute terms. 
>
> It is absurd to contrapose the socialist
> revolution and the revolutionary struggle against capitalism to a
> single problem of democracy, in this case, the national question. 
> 
> We must combine the revolutionary struggle against capitalism with a
> revolutionary programme and tactics on all democratic demands: a
> republic, a militia, the popular election of officials, equal rights
> for women, the self-determination of nations, etc. 
> 
> While capitalism exists, these demands — all of them — can only 
> be accomplished as an exception, and even then 
> in an incomplete and distorted form. Basing ourselves 
> on the democracy already achieved, and exposing its
> incompleteness under capitalism, we dema

Re: [Marxism] "49 armed factions in Syria" was: Syria rebels, activists denounce IS attack on Paris - Yahoo News

[Lüko Willms via Marxism]

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on Sonntag, 15. November 2015 at 03:32, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:

> Forty-nine armed factions in Syria,

 That's the most interesting part on this message. 

 In the beginning there were peaceful mass demonstrations, then came the "Free 
Syrian Army", and now they are at least 50 armed factions trying to impose 
their power on the whole Syrian nation. 

 As I said before, in a real popular revolution, you see a concentration and 
centralisation of political forces around one revolutionary leadership, but the 
Syrian "revolution" has gone the opposite path: more and more splintering in a 
myriad of interfighting armed factions. 

 For me, this says that there is no revolution, but the opposite. 

 And out of this rather counter-revolutionary fragmentation come those most 
reacionary groups like those behind the bombings in Beirut and the shootings in 
Paris. 


Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt/Main, Germany
http://www.mlwerke.de 


PS: resent because it did not reach the mailing list 
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Re: [Marxism] "49 armed factions in Syria" was: Syria rebels, activists denounce IS attack on Paris - Yahoo News

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 11/15/15 11:51 AM, Lüko Willms wrote:


  For me, this says that there is no revolution, but the opposite.


You have made this mistake before. The schisms in Syria have a lot to do 
with a crisis on the left in general, particularly in the Middle East 
with the collapse of the USSR. Under Baathism, the CP became part of the 
political establishment thus discrediting the image of socialism even 
though it was Stalinism that the average Syrian had encountered. 
Furthermore, Syria lacked a civil society. If a student became an 
opponent of Baathism, he or she could be tortured, imprisoned or killed. 
So this meant that an independent left had little chance of getting 
started. Furthermore, this meant that oppositional politics tended to 
gravitate to the Sunni mosques that like Black churches in the south 
could function as organizing centers. It also meant that the Muslim 
Brotherhood could become a pole of attraction for anti-Baathist 
dissidents until it was smashed in 1982 at Hama. Robert Fisk said that 
the Syrian army killed 20,000 people there in less than a month to give 
you an idea of the savagery of the Syrian government.


But the biggest problem of all was Assad's turning the conflict into a 
sectarian one from the very start. He calculated correctly that it would 
sucker a large part of the liberal left, including a lot of people who 
mistakenly view themselves as revolutionaries, into taking his side as a 
symbol of pluralism, tolerance and all the other bullshit.


There are still many people in Syria who have politics that are 
revolutionary even if they don't quote Karl Marx. Marx and Lenin fought 
for democratic rights and even for the replacement of dictatorial rule 
by parliamentary democracy, despite capitalist property relations 
remaining. The admiration for Assad by so many on the left in defiance 
of what the founders of our movement believed is a stain on socialism 
that is almost too deep to remove at this point.

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Re: [Marxism] "49 armed factions in Syria" was: Syria rebels, activists denounce IS attack on Paris - Yahoo News

[Lüko Willms via Marxism]

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on Sonntag, 15. November 2015 at 03:32, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:

> Forty-nine armed factions in Syria,

  That's the most interesting part on this message. 

  In the beginning there were peaceful mass demonstrations, then came the "Free 
Syrian Army", and now they are at least 50 armed factions trying to impose 
their power on the whole Syrian nation. 

  As I said before, in a real popular revolution, you see a concentration and 
centralisation of political forces around one revolutionary leadership, but the 
Syrian "revolution" has gone the opposite path: more and more splintering in a 
myriad of interfighting armed factions. 

  For me, this says that there is no revolution, but the opposite. 

  And out of this rather counter-revolutionary fragmentation come those most 
reacionary groups like those behind the bombings in Beirut and the shootings in 
Paris. 

 
Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt/Main, Germany
http://www.mlwerke.de
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Re: [Marxism] Kenan Malik on Paris bombings

[Lüko Willms via Marxism]

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on Sonntag, 15. November 2015 at 01:28, Philip Ferguson via Marxism wrote:

> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/kenan-malik-on-the-paris-attacks/

Kenan Malik writes in his first article

> Many have inevitably looked to these two crises as explanations for
> the Paris atrocities. Some have seen the terrorism as the
> consequence of French foreign policy in Syria, others of lax
> immigration controls that have allowed terrorists to enter Europe.
> Both arguments seem superficially self-evident. But both are profoundly 
> untrue.
>
> Islamic State has officially claimed responsibility for the
> attacks. One of the terrorists in the Bataclan theatre, where at
> least 87 people were slaughtered, was said to have shouted ‘This is
> for Syria’. Yet we should be wary of seeing these attacks as a
> response, however perverted, to French, or Western, foreign policy.

And this is really superficial. 

These attacks are the result of the "war on terror" which has eradicated terror 
as successfully as the "war on drugs" has done away with drug addiction and the 
dealers getting rich by that. 

In order to "eradicate terrorism", the US and her allies have invaded and 
occupied Afghanistan, Iraq, intervened militarily in Somalia, Mali, Libya, 
Syria -- and have spread terrorism more and more widely. At the beginning of 
the conquest of Iraq, the US bombing was declared by the warmakers aimed at 
creating "shock and awe", good english translations for the latin word 
"terror". 

French president Hollande, visibly shaken on Friday night, has declared war, 
and merciless eradication of all those terrorists. 

So -- brutal violence has not helped against "terrorism"? So let us use more 
violence. That has been their line for many years. And what has it helped? The 
problem which they try to eradicate is getting greater and greater. 

And the "war on terror" is more and more clothed in a clash between "western 
values" and "the barbarians", echoing the cries of "the Turks are standing 
before Vienna!" back to "Hanibal ante portas". While the "western" civilisation 
has produced such nice things as the Nazi extermination camps Auschwitz, 
Treblinka and others, and the mass murder of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 

Why France? There are two reasons, or even three: a) there are about 4 to 5 
million people living in France which are of north-african descent and also 
quite a number from sub-saharan Africa (Mali especially). b) France has been in 
the forefront of the war on the countries of the Third world (Sarkozy announced 
bombing of Libya by French airforce in his opening speech to an international 
conference about the Libyan civil war) and among them former French colonies 
(France has intervened militarily in Mali and French military are still 
fighting in the country), following a long history of brutal clinging to its 
colonial possessions in Syria, Vietnam and Algeria. c) the French working class 
movement shows itself especially weak with the current extreme right wing 
government by the Parti Socialiste, and on the extreme left has weakened itself 
by the LCR liquidating itself into the NPA, with an ambiguous attitude towards 
the right of women to cover or unveil as much of their body as the women itself 
decides. 

The latter is only the special French expression of weakness of the working 
class movement on a world scale. 

And that needs to be changed, and the working class movement recovering itself 
is the only way out of this impasse. 

To do that, one of the important things to do is a campaign to defend the 
Palestinian Arabs against the colonial settler state of Israel, demanding "no 
more arms to Israel". 

 


Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt/Main, Germany
http://www.mlwerke.de 
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[Marxism] Fwd: Bare links on Marxmail

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(I just got this note. I don't think we see too many examples but please 
try to include a sentence or two introducing a link when you send a link 
to the list.)



As a relative newcomer on the list, I don’t know whether this has been 
suggested before, but it would be nice if there were an obligation / 
expectation to post at least a short excerpt, or a sentence or two 
summary or justification, when forwarding a link to the list. I’m always 
surprised how many come through with nothing. I’m not going to say it’s 
necessarily rude, but it does seem to indicate a lack of concern for 
others’ time, attention and bandwidth.


I’d make an exception for the moderator; just maintaining the list earns 
you some leeway. But for others, it seems too easy to just lazily throw 
links at the list without bothering to give any indication as to why. It 
seems narcissistic and inconsiderate - at least when it becomes the norm 
rather than an occasionaly exception.




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[Marxism] The regional and world powers unite their efforts to save Assad

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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The regional and world powers unite their efforts to save Assad

By Sam Hamad

15-11-2015: The Vienna talks are simply a diplomatic continuation of the 
counter-revolutionary war. This is what the Axis (Russia and Iran) are 
proposing - and the UN is accepting:


The Assad regime, an entity which now exists solely as an 
exterminationist, sectarianised rump, full of apparatuses that have for 
the last four years determined themselves to the purposes of mass 
murder, ethnic cleansing, mass rape, mass torture etc., propped up 
solely by Iran and Russia, will remain in place. It controls 25% of 
Syria.


The figurehead, Assad, a criminal butcher responsible for *every single* 
death in and refugee from Syria on account of him launching this war on 
Syrians after refusing to cede power following a popular peaceful 
uprising, will remain as president in an 8 month 'transition period'.


During this magical 8 month transition period, the Axis and the Western 
imperialist forces will come together to fight not just Daesh and Jabhat 
an-Nusra (both of which to the majority of Syrians are much less worse 
than Assad and his allies, as if it has to be a choice), but any other 
rebel force they deem to be 'terrorists'. This will mean every rebel 
force that doesn't accede to the imperialistic will of Russia and Iran.


After this 8 month transition period, there will be elections in which 
Bashar al-Assad will be allowed to run. Indeed, he and the Axis will be 
arranging them.


And they expect Syrians to accept this. This is what is meant by 
'peace' - the destruction of the Syrian revolution and the triumph of 
counter-revolutionary terror and imperialism.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/OccupySyria/permalink/915584345202045/

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria rebels, activists denounce IS attack on Paris - Yahoo News

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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Declaration by 49 Syrian rebel factions condemning Paris massacre: 
https://cutpi.com/14r
Clip:"The revolutionary brigades and factions in Syria condemn in 
the strongest terms these criminal attacks that are against the teaching 
of all religions and human values. We consider these terrorist acts not 
to be different from what the Syrian people have been enduring and 
suffering every day for the past five years, both originated from the 
same source the Assad regime and his affiliate Da’esh (ISIS)."


A Letter of Condolence From the People of Douma to the People of France: 
http://tinyurl.com/oekpgpt
(Douma City, Damascus country-side, the most bombed-out, starved 
terrorised ghetto on Earth)


Ahrar al Sham: "The only possible reaction to the despicable acts of 
terror in Paris is total and unequivocal condemnation" 
https://twitter.com/LabibAlNahhas



-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 1:32 PM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria rebels,activists denounce IS attack on 
Paris - Yahoo News


Dozens of Syrian rebel groups on Saturday strongly denounced the Islamic
State jihadist group's attacks on Paris as "against human values" in a
joint online statement.

Forty-nine armed factions in Syria, including the powerful Jaish
al-Islam rebel groups, condemned "in the strongest terms" IS's
coordinated assault in Paris that killed at least 129 people.

full:
http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rebels-activists-denounce-attack-paris-231706004.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&soc_trk=tw
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