[Marxism] Fwd: The Moral Dysfunction of Assadism – P U L S E

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Even now, as We examine the justifications they use, regarding the 
civilian population being hit, they say “The Jihadis are using civilians 
as a human shield” or “The Jihadis are hiding among civil society”, just 
like the common Israeli citizen posting comments on the Internet, 
regarding these excuses as a good reason for bombing Gaza.


– Abed Abu-Shehade is a political activist from Yaffa (Jaffa) and a 
Palestinian citizen of Israel. This article was first published in 
Hebrew at Haokets. It was translated by Ofer Neiman.


full: 
https://pulsemedia.org/2017/01/07/the-moral-failure-of-assads-supporters/



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[Marxism] Fwd: Video of clashes and damage to buildings in Wadi Barada valley - Map of Syrian Civil war/ Global conflict in Syria - Syria news - syria.liveuamap.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://syria.liveuamap.com/en/2017/7-january-video-of-clashes-and-damage-to-buildings-in-wadi


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[Marxism] Fwd: List of armed formations, which joined the ceasefire in the Syrian Arab Republic on December 30, 2016 : Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation

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For the last 4 years at least, people like Patrick Cockburn have been 
claiming that there are only jihadists in Syria and that the "moderate 
opposition" does not exist (I don't care for that term but let's leave 
that aside for now). Here is the Kremlin's take on whether there is such 
an opposition.


http://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12107227%40egNews

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[Marxism] Democratically-chosen government?

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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I have had people say to me that it is hopeless to try and convince this or 
that person that I am arguing with.
In reply I say that I am not necessarily trying to convince that person.  
Rather I am hoping that someone else is reading my messages.
That's why I try to avoid expressions of anger or disdain.  I believe such 
messages make it harder for people to read and accept what I have to say.

I don't want to punish anyone for reading a message of mine.

If you must send angry messages, then you must.  But if you visualize someone 
coming onto the list just at the moment you are writing, someone who is new to 
the debate, you may find it easier to restrain yourself.

ken h
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[Marxism] Fwd: Russia, the Syrian Ceasefire, and the Unmaking of Peace – Splintered Eye

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However, once Russia had intervened they found that their goals were 
nearly impossible to achieve due to the conflicting nature of Assad’s 
allies. The Syrian army had been reduced to a fifth of its pre-2011 
size. Reflecting upon the state of the Syrian army, one Russian general 
wrote that Syrian soldiers were poorly motivated, corrupt and exhausted 
from the fighting. He went on to say that Russia would effectively have 
to re-build the entire army from scratch. What made matters more 
complicated for the Russian military was the fact that most of the 
fighting on behalf of the regime was being done by a series of different 
militias, private armies, and mercenaries. There was no overall command 
structure, and while each group had pledged allegiance to Assad, they 
weren’t taking orders from him, and each of the militias hated one 
another. This inter-militia rivalry cost the Syrian regime Palmyra in 
2015, when the two tribes entrusted with holding the city on behalf of 
the Assad regime, began fighting one another, which resulted in both 
groups pulling out and ISIS walking in.


There is a further division between the militias we need to take note 
off. Local Syrian and Palestinian tribes and groups, and International 
Shia Jihadis groups. The Syrian tribes are usually local to the areas 
they fight in, and their numbers vary. While they have pledged their 
loyalty to Assad personally, the Syrian regime does not control them, 
and this causes tension within the regime itself. In July 2016, the 
Tiger Force (Pro-Assad Tribal militia) captured Rammousa (outskirts of 
Aleppo) and re-took apartment complex 300, which use to house Syrian 
army officers and their families. Once they took the complex, despite 
efforts by the Syrian army to stop them, the Tiger Force began looting 
from the apartments and taking stuff that belonged to the officer’s 
families. They saw it as their reward for fighting, and the regime could 
do nothing to stop them. The Shia militias who come from Iraq, 
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Lebanon (including Hezbollah) do much of the 
actual fighting on behalf of the Assad regime, but as the Syrian 
militias, they do not take orders from Assad, rather they follow 
direction from Tehran. Iranian generals usually plan Syrian regime 
military efforts and almost never consult Syrian generals, only 
bothering to inform them when they need them to do something specifically.


full: 
https://splinteredeye.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/russia-the-syrian-ceasefire-and-the-unmaking-of-peace/



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[Marxism] Fwd: How it came to this – P U L S E

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://pulsemedia.org/2017/01/07/how-it-came-to-this/


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[Marxism] Fwd: Historians for Obama & the President’s Legacy

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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From two of America's outstanding labor historians.


http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=13083


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Re: [Marxism] Democratically-chosen government?

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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I have to agree with Richard (even though it's usually Louis who's telling
me to behave :)
On the UFPJ list, the standard reply of stalinoids to ANYTHING and
EVERYTHING with which they disagree is "how much did the CIA pay you to say
that?"
We can do better.

On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 1:08 PM, Richard Taylor via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Dear Louis Proyect,
>
> Let me begin by writing that I am a long time subscriber to your website.
> I have considerable respect for your work, your rigor, and your
> conviction.  On the matter of Syria, you have been a beacon of light from
> the onset.
>
> I do have one suggestion: tone down the personal vituperation that creeps
> into your postings.  For example, in your posting below, you conclude by
> writing, "I hope you are getting paid well enough by the Kremlin to assuage
> your conscience.”  This is completely gratuitous.  Let your robust argument
> do the talking.  By adding the last sentence, you deflect attention from
> your argument, and by the inclusion of the last sentence, you needlessly
> insinuate an ad hominem attack that no doubt surely inclines Mr. Hirthler
> to be even less disposed to consider your case.  However tempting it is to
> include ad hominem attacks, they have to be subordinated to the higher task
> of persuasion.
>
> Dick Taylor
> > On Jan 7, 2017, at 11:51 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
> >
> >   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> > *
> >
> > Jason Hirthler,
> >
> > In your Counterpunch article, you write about the ethnic cleansing of
> East Aleppo:
> >
> > "What else do you call it when a democratically-chosen government clears
> a city of an invading army?"
> >
> > Who in the fuck are you kidding?
> >
> > The current government in Syria owes its existence to a military coup
> that took place in 1970. After Hafez al-Assad died, his son Bashar became
> president with votes of 99.7% and 97.6% support in the 2000 and 2007
> elections, the sort of results that would turn Mayor Daley green with envy.
> Except they weren't actually elections. They were referenda on whether you
> support the only candidate running. You might be aware that Syria is a
> one-party state. If you are not aware of that fact, I might excuse you for
> being in over your head writing about Syria. If you are aware of that fact
> and despite that insist on writing such bilge, I hope you are getting paid
> well enough by the Kremlin to assuage your conscience.
> > _
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>
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Re: [Marxism] Democratically-chosen government?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 1/7/17 1:08 PM, Richard Taylor wrote:

Dear Louis Proyect,

Let me begin by writing that I am a long time subscriber to your
website.  I have considerable respect for your work, your rigor, and
your conviction.  On the matter of Syria, you have been a beacon of
light from the onset.

I do have one suggestion: tone down the personal vituperation that
creeps into your postings.  For example, in your posting below, you
conclude by writing, "I hope you are getting paid well enough by the
Kremlin to assuage your conscience.”  This is completely gratuitous.
Let your robust argument do the talking.  By adding the last
sentence, you deflect attention from your argument, and by the
inclusion of the last sentence, you needlessly insinuate an ad
hominem attack that no doubt surely inclines Mr. Hirthler to be even
less disposed to consider your case.  However tempting it is to
include ad hominem attacks, they have to be subordinated to the
higher task of persuasion.

Dick Taylor



Actually when I write a public flame like that, it is not with the 
purpose of changing the recipient's mind. It is only designed to keep my 
head from exploding.


Over the past 6 years, however, I have had *many* private exchanges with 
an entirely different tone and that has often changed peoples' minds. 
Truth be told, the main thing working against the Hirthler POV is just 
the sheer bestiality of the Syrian/Russian/Iranian blitzkrieg.

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Re: [Marxism] Democratically-chosen government?

[Richard Taylor via Marxism]

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Dear Louis Proyect,

Let me begin by writing that I am a long time subscriber to your website.  I 
have considerable respect for your work, your rigor, and your conviction.  On 
the matter of Syria, you have been a beacon of light from the onset.

I do have one suggestion: tone down the personal vituperation that creeps into 
your postings.  For example, in your posting below, you conclude by writing, "I 
hope you are getting paid well enough by the Kremlin to assuage your 
conscience.”  This is completely gratuitous.  Let your robust argument do the 
talking.  By adding the last sentence, you deflect attention from your 
argument, and by the inclusion of the last sentence, you needlessly insinuate 
an ad hominem attack that no doubt surely inclines Mr. Hirthler to be even less 
disposed to consider your case.  However tempting it is to include ad hominem 
attacks, they have to be subordinated to the higher task of persuasion. 

Dick Taylor
> On Jan 7, 2017, at 11:51 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
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> *
> 
> Jason Hirthler,
> 
> In your Counterpunch article, you write about the ethnic cleansing of East 
> Aleppo:
> 
> "What else do you call it when a democratically-chosen government clears a 
> city of an invading army?"
> 
> Who in the fuck are you kidding?
> 
> The current government in Syria owes its existence to a military coup that 
> took place in 1970. After Hafez al-Assad died, his son Bashar became 
> president with votes of 99.7% and 97.6% support in the 2000 and 2007 
> elections, the sort of results that would turn Mayor Daley green with envy. 
> Except they weren't actually elections. They were referenda on whether you 
> support the only candidate running. You might be aware that Syria is a 
> one-party state. If you are not aware of that fact, I might excuse you for 
> being in over your head writing about Syria. If you are aware of that fact 
> and despite that insist on writing such bilge, I hope you are getting paid 
> well enough by the Kremlin to assuage your conscience.
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
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[Marxism] Democratically-chosen government?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Jason Hirthler,

In your Counterpunch article, you write about the ethnic cleansing of 
East Aleppo:


"What else do you call it when a democratically-chosen government clears 
a city of an invading army?"


Who in the fuck are you kidding?

The current government in Syria owes its existence to a military coup 
that took place in 1970. After Hafez al-Assad died, his son Bashar 
became president with votes of 99.7% and 97.6% support in the 2000 and 
2007 elections, the sort of results that would turn Mayor Daley green 
with envy. Except they weren't actually elections. They were referenda 
on whether you support the only candidate running. You might be aware 
that Syria is a one-party state. If you are not aware of that fact, I 
might excuse you for being in over your head writing about Syria. If you 
are aware of that fact and despite that insist on writing such bilge, I 
hope you are getting paid well enough by the Kremlin to assuage your 
conscience.

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Lemisch's On Active Service Now Available Online | New Politics

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 1/7/17 9:05 AM, wytheh...@cox.net wrote:

So far as I can see, Louis, Jesse's article is available only if one uses 
Facebook or Google's clone of Facebook.  Wythe


This should work okay:

https://www.academia.edu/6507965/ON_ACTIVE_SERVICE_IN_WAR_AND_PEACE_POLITICS_AND_IDEOLOGY_IN_THE_AMERICAN_HISTORICAL_PROFESSION

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[Marxism] You're the puppet

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Bookforum, DEC/JAN 2017

You're the Puppet
A Russian journalist challenges the standard view of Vladimir Putin as a 
supervillain


by TONY WOOD

In the last few years, even as Russia and the West have become bitterly 
opposed on one issue after another—Snowden, Ukraine, Crimea, Syria, the 
hacking allegations—there has been general agreement between them on at 
least one thing: the absolute centrality of Vladimir Putin. In Russia, 
he dominates the political stage and the airwaves, and a decade and a 
half after he first won the presidency, he still enjoys approval ratings 
that would be the envy of most elected leaders: After the annexation of 
Crimea, they spiked to over 80 percent, where they have remained ever 
since. In the West, he has increasingly been portrayed as the most 
implacable foe of the US and its allies, a malevolent puppet master 
pulling the strings in a succession of crises and conflicts across the 
world. (In February 2014, after Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych 
unleashed the security forces against protesters on the Maidan, The 
Economist dubbed the ensuing street battles "Putin's inferno"; this past 
August, Senator Harry Reid demanded an FBI inquiry into Putin's apparent 
plan to tamper with the US elections.) For both sides, this one man has 
become all but inseparable from the policies and practices of the 
country he leads, receiving credit or blame in quantities usually 
reserved for minor deities or superheroes. When one of his advisers 
asserted, in October 2014, that "Russia is Putin. Russia exists only if 
there is Putin," Western policymakers and mainstream media might have 
objected to his sycophancy, but not his reasoning. Where Russia is 
concerned, it seems, all roads lead to Putin.


Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar flies in the face of this consensus in 
All the Kremlin's Men. "It is widely assumed that decisions in Russia 
are made by one man and one man alone," he writes. But for Zygar, "Putin 
is not one person. He (or it) is a huge collective mind." In other 
words, Putin's decisions reflect not so much the plans or whims of an 
individual as the outcome of factional battles among an extensive cast 
of characters. Not only is the focus on Putin himself misguided but, 
according to Zygar, there is no coherent strategy behind the Kremlin's 
actions at all. "It is logic that Putin-era Russia lacks," he writes. 
"Everything that happens is a tactical step, a real-time response to 
external stimuli devoid of an ultimate objective." Those looking for 
cunningly woven conspiracies, then, are in for a disappointment: Putin 
is more puppet than puppet master, his moves dictated by events and 
people beyond his control.


Click to enlarge
These iconoclastic arguments aren't the only reason All the Kremlin's 
Men became a best seller when it appeared in Russia last year: Written 
in a rather flat but accessible style, the book is based on the 
testimony of an impressive selection of key figures in contemporary 
Russian politics. (Zygar mentions at the outset having interviewed 
dozens of people over several years, who "as a rule . . . asked not to 
be quoted"; this, along with the book's sparse references, makes it hard 
to tell for sure where particular pieces of information have come from.) 
The level of access he seems to have enjoyed is unusual, given that he 
is hardly a Kremlin insider. A reporter for the business newspaper 
Kommersant in the 2000s—including spells as a foreign correspondent in 
the Middle East, Central Asia, and Ukraine—Zygar became the founding 
editor in chief of the liberal TV channel Dozhd ("Rain") in 2010 and 
remained there until 2015. The station is best known for its sympathetic 
coverage of the 2011–12 protests, in which thousands took to the streets 
in cities across Russia to call for fair elections and for a "Russia 
without Putin." (Since then Dozhd has come under increasing pressure 
from the authorities, being shut out from the country's cable networks 
in early 2014 and evicted from its offices that December.) Zygar's own 
sympathies are clear: He speaks admiringly of Yeltsin's free-market 
reforms, presenting Putin's rule as a sad reversal of much that had been 
achieved in the 1990s. But he differs from many of Putin's other liberal 
opponents in refusing to see this turn as the inevitable outcome of a 
dark KGB-led conspiracy. It was instead, he suggests, a highly 
contingent process, and one that Putin himself had not envisaged turning 
out this way.


Zygar provides a chronological narrative of the years from 2000 to 2015, 
structured around a series of individuals, with one personality 
dominating each 

[Marxism] Fwd: Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti Tells Robert Scheer: I Am Not a Beat! - Truthdig

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/poet_lawrence_ferlinghetti_tells_robert_scheer_i_am_not_a_beat_20170106


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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Farmer on Trial Defends Smuggling Migrants: ‘I Am a Frenchman.’

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Jan. 7 2017
Farmer on Trial Defends Smuggling Migrants: ‘I Am a Frenchman.’
By ADAM NOSSITER

The defendant, Cédric Herrou, 37, a slightly built olive farmer, did not 
deny that for months he had illegally spirited dozens of migrants 
through the remote mountain valley where he lives. He would do it again, 
he suggested.


Instead, when asked by a judge, “Why do you do all this?” Mr. Herrou 
turned the tables and questioned the humanity of France’s practice of 
rounding up and turning back Africans entering illegally from Italy in 
search of work and a better life. It was “ignoble,” he said.


“There are people dying on the side of the road,” Mr. Herrou replied. 
“It’s not right. There are children who are not safe. It is enraging to 
see children, at 2 in the morning, completely dehydrated.


“I am a Frenchman,” Mr. Herrou declared.

The trial, which began on Wednesday, is no ordinary one. It has been 
substantially covered by the French news media for its rich symbolism 
and for the way it neatly sums up the ambiguity of France’s policy 
toward the unceasing flow of migrants into Europe and the quandary they 
present.


France, foremost among European nations, prides itself on enlightened 
humanitarianism, fraternity and solidarity. And yet, perhaps first among 
them, too, it is struggling to reconcile those values with the pressing 
realities of a smaller, more globalized world, including fear of terrorism.


The contradictions are being played out in courtrooms, in politics and 
in farmers’ fields, on the sidewalks of Paris and in train stations from 
the Côte d’Azur to the northern port of Calais, where the government 
demolished a giant migrant camp in the fall.


On the one hand, politicians in this year’s presidential election are 
competing to see who can take the toughest line on securing France’s 
borders. Most are promising a crackdown on migrants, with admission 
reserved for clear-cut cases of political persecution. Terrorist 
attacks, including the one last summer in Nice that killed 85 people, 
have exacerbated anti-migrant sentiment.


But in these remote mountain valleys, where Jews fleeing the Nazis and 
the Vichy collaborators found refuge during World War II, Mr. Herrou has 
become something of a folk hero by leading a kind of loosely knit 
underground railroad to smuggle migrants north, many destined for 
Britain or Germany. His work has won him admiration for his resistance 
to the state and his stand that it is simply right to help one’s fellow 
man, woman or child.


Others in this region seem to agree. In the square outside the 
pastel-colored courthouse, hundreds of sympathizers gathered and 
shouted, “We are all children of immigrants!”


Mr. Herrou got a hero’s welcome as he descended the steep steps late in 
the evening, trailed by television cameras.


Inside, not even the prosecutor, Jean-Michel Prêtre, seemed to want him 
there and praised his cause as “noble.” He asked for an eight-month 
sentence, but quickly reassured the court that it should be suspended, 
“of course.”


Still, the law is the law.

“He’s demonstrated a manifest intention to violate the law,” Mr. Prêtre 
told the court. “One can criticize it, but it’s got to be applied.”


The verdict, which will be made by the panel of three judges who heard 
the case this week — there was no jury of peers — is scheduled to be 
announced on Feb. 10.


The appeal for leniency was both an acknowledgment of widespread 
discomfort with the law, as a well as recognition of Mr. Herrou’s 
growing status in the region around Nice and its mountainous 
backcountry, the Roya Valley.


Mr. Herrou was voted “Azuréen of the Year” last month by the readers of 
the leading local newspaper, Nice-Matin, to the fury of regional officials.


“I am Cédric,” read one of the placards in the crowd. “Long live the 
righteous of the Roya,” read another.


The courtroom on Wednesday was filled with people from the mountain — 
the men bearded and ponytailed, the women in duffel coats — who had come 
to support Mr. Herrou and who were convinced right was on their side.


The notion that Mr. Herrou is trying to uphold what he sees as basic 
French values, rather than violating the law, is much of the reason he 
appears to enjoy a considerable measure of popular support. The argument 
formed the essence of his lawyer’s defense strategy.


Remember the last word in the French Republic’s motto, “Liberté, 
Egalité, Fraternité,” his lawyer, Zia Oloumi, told the court.


“They are saying M. Herrou is endangering the Republic,” Mr. Oloumi told 
the three judges. “On the contrary, I think he is defending its values.


“You see,