Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin
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. * Louis is exaggerating and cherry picking, whether wilfully or not. Salih Muslim whatever faults he may have (and the PKK current seems to have clearer and more radical spokespeople than him), has never said "there can be no solution to the conflict in Syria without Bashar al-Assad remaining in power". Louis might be misremembering this article http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/10/syria-kurds-assad-solution-salih-muslim.html, from more than 3 years ago, in which he was briefly paraphrased as saying there could be "no solution without Assad". That seems to be a call for a negotiated solution. Whether or not you think this was utopian at that point, it's not the same as insisting Assad had to stay in power. In the two more recent articles Chris posted, he's paraphrased as being "fully in favour of Mr Assad and his government being replaced by a more acceptable alternative" in the first and quoted as saying "we are ready to fight Assad under a secular, democratic and civilian umbrella...Assad is falling no matter how long it takes, and the era of the Baath (Party) is gone, never to return". Louis might find Muslim's antipathy to extreme right Islamism disgusting, but when for example he's seen Kurd and poor Arab civilians in the Sheikh Masoud district of Aleppo attacked by chemical weapons by Islamist rebels maybe we should cut the guy a little slack. If some spokespeople of the PKK-current and their allies present too homogenous a picture of the rebels, it's also deluded to deny the reactionary nature of some of them, and also quite "Orientalist" to deny that a whole lot of people in Syria and the region who oppose Assad don't want reactionary Islamism in power. I'm currently reading Jonathon Littel's Syrian Notebooks, which is a moving and sympathetic first-hand account account of the rebels in Homs in early 2012, but in which Littel is disturbed to notice a creeping sectarianisation, which he's convinced in his more recent introduction and epilogue to have marginalised the progressive aspect of the rebellion. He puts the main blame on the regime but summarises the process as "transforming a popular, broad-based proletarian and peasant uprising into a sectarian civil war". On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 12:40 PM, Chris Slee via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > Louis Proyect may be referring to this article: > > http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria- > civil-war-kurdish-leader-says-collapse-of-assad-regime- > would-be-a-disaster-despite-its-10515922.html > > > > But see also this article: > > http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/News/30898/Saleh_Muslim_We_ > Are_Ready_Fight_Assad_Regime_Establish_Secular_State > > > > > > From: Louis Proyect > Sent: Wednesday, 11 January 2017 1:30 AM > To: Chris Slee; Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin > > On 1/10/17 8:19 PM, Chris Slee wrote: > > The interview with Yasser Munif is in some ways very good, but it is > > spoiled by his hostile attitude towards the PYD. > > Maybe he took exception to the PYD leader Salih Muslim saying that there > can be no solution to the conflict in Syria without Bashar al-Assad > remaining in power. As someone who supports Kurdish self-determination, > I found this utterance and others by this man utterly disgusting. > > -- > Support Louis Proyect biography project > https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the- > biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/nick.j. > fredman%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Syria and Leftwing Hasbara – P U L S E
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. * Detached from reality, hawkish Zionists will deny any evil inflicted by Israel on the Palestinians. When acknowledged, the evil will be justified as a collateral damage or a necessary step in the name of security and counterterrorism. Their denialism will frequently lead them to claims of forgery and fake (“Pallywood”) even in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary. Detached from reality, the Geo-Stalinist anti-Imperialist Left will deny any evil inflicted by Assad and his allies on the Syrian people. When acknowledged, the evil will be justified as a collateral damage or a necessary step in the name of security and counterterrorism. Their denialism will frequently lead them to claims of fabrication (“White Helmets’ soap opera, just to force NATO to intervene”), all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. full: https://pulsemedia.org/2017/01/10/syria-and-leftwing-hasbara/ -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin
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 1/10/17 8:40 PM, Chris Slee wrote: But see also this article: http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/News/30898/Saleh_Muslim_We_Are_Ready_Fight_Assad_Regime_Establish_Secular_State https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ In the article above, you find this: “We are not willing to fight Assad so that Syria falls into the hands of jihadis, who have destroyed everything and turned it into a bloodbath,” Muslim added. Once again, I find this disgusting. -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin
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. * Louis Proyect may be referring to this article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-kurdish-leader-says-collapse-of-assad-regime-would-be-a-disaster-despite-its-10515922.html But see also this article: http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/News/30898/Saleh_Muslim_We_Are_Ready_Fight_Assad_Regime_Establish_Secular_State From: Louis Proyect Sent: Wednesday, 11 January 2017 1:30 AM To: Chris Slee; Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin On 1/10/17 8:19 PM, Chris Slee wrote: > The interview with Yasser Munif is in some ways very good, but it is > spoiled by his hostile attitude towards the PYD. Maybe he took exception to the PYD leader Salih Muslim saying that there can be no solution to the conflict in Syria without Bashar al-Assad remaining in power. As someone who supports Kurdish self-determination, I found this utterance and others by this man utterly disgusting. -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin
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 1/10/17 8:19 PM, Chris Slee wrote: The interview with Yasser Munif is in some ways very good, but it is spoiled by his hostile attitude towards the PYD. Maybe he took exception to the PYD leader Salih Muslim saying that there can be no solution to the conflict in Syria without Bashar al-Assad remaining in power. As someone who supports Kurdish self-determination, I found this utterance and others by this man utterly disgusting. -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin
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. * for more on the diverse politics of Syrian and other Kurds see various posts at syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 8:19 PM, Chris Slee via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > The interview with Yasser Munif is in some ways very good, but it is > spoiled by his hostile attitude towards the PYD. > > > Munif claims that the PYD has "alliances...with the Russians and the > Syrian regime". He says that "The Syrian regime does not bomb them [the > PYD]". > > > In fact the Assad regime has bombed the PYD on a number of occasions. See > for example: > > http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/syrian-regime-attacks-sheikh-maqsoud > > > But it is true that the PYD tries, as far as possible, to avoid armed > clashes with the Assad regime forces. The PYD also wanted to avoid clashes > with the anti-Assad rebels. It tried to remain neutral. > > > However, some Turkish-backed rebel groups repeatedly attacked > PYD-controlled areas such as Sheikh Maqsoud, a predominantly Kurdish > neighbourhood of Aleppo. See for example: > > http://kurdishquestion.com/article/3132-138-civilians- > killed-912-wounded-in-sheikh-maqsoud-attacks > > > The problem is that some Syrian rebel groups have been coopted by Turkey > and used in its war against the PYD. Recently some rebels have > participated in the Turkish invasion of the northern part of Aleppo > province. > > > But not all rebel groups are lining up with Turkey. Some groups from the > very diverse "Free Syrian Army" tradition have joined the Syrian Democratic > Forces and are fighting alongside the YPG/YPJ. > > > > > > > > > From: Marxism on behalf of Louis > Proyect via Marxism > Sent: Monday, 9 January 2017 4:55 PM > To: Chris Slee > Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin > > 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. > * > > An important about face from Jacobin. > > https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/01/syria-war-crisis- > refugees-assad-dictatorship-arab-spring-intervention-russia/ > > > -- > Support Louis Proyect biography project > https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the- > biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ > > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/ > options/marxism/chris_w_slee%40hotmail.com > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/ > options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin
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 interview with Yasser Munif is in some ways very good, but it is spoiled by his hostile attitude towards the PYD. Munif claims that the PYD has "alliances...with the Russians and the Syrian regime". He says that "The Syrian regime does not bomb them [the PYD]". In fact the Assad regime has bombed the PYD on a number of occasions. See for example: http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/syrian-regime-attacks-sheikh-maqsoud But it is true that the PYD tries, as far as possible, to avoid armed clashes with the Assad regime forces. The PYD also wanted to avoid clashes with the anti-Assad rebels. It tried to remain neutral. However, some Turkish-backed rebel groups repeatedly attacked PYD-controlled areas such as Sheikh Maqsoud, a predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Aleppo. See for example: http://kurdishquestion.com/article/3132-138-civilians-killed-912-wounded-in-sheikh-maqsoud-attacks The problem is that some Syrian rebel groups have been coopted by Turkey and used in its war against the PYD. Recently some rebels have participated in the Turkish invasion of the northern part of Aleppo province. But not all rebel groups are lining up with Turkey. Some groups from the very diverse "Free Syrian Army" tradition have joined the Syrian Democratic Forces and are fighting alongside the YPG/YPJ. From: Marxism on behalf of Louis Proyect via Marxism Sent: Monday, 9 January 2017 4:55 PM To: Chris Slee Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Syria and the Left | Jacobin 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. * An important about face from Jacobin. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/01/syria-war-crisis-refugees-assad-dictatorship-arab-spring-intervention-russia/ -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/chris_w_slee%40hotmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline
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. * Firefighters black entire fleet of engines: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/01/11/firefighters-black-entire-unsafe-fleet/ Militant in America: 1998 interview with veteran shopfloor and marxist activist Fred Ferguson: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/01/11/from-the-vaults-militant-in-america-interview-with-fred-ferguson-1998/ Gattaca and the nervous nineties: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/from-the-vaults-gattaca-and-the-nervous-nineties/ Eirigi New Year statement 2017: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/eirigi-new-year-statement-2017/ Engels on Marx on the working day: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/engels-on-marx-on-the-working-day/ This is what workers resistance looks like: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/01/01/this-is-what-resistance-looks-like/ _ 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] [pen-l] Fwd: Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.pdf
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 1/10/17 7:03 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: Donald Trump paid prostituted to perform "golden showers" in the same bed in a 5-star hotel in Russia that the Obamas stayed in just to spot them. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984/Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.pdf So excited I didn't check for typos. It is "spite", not "spot" and "prostitutes", not "prostituted". -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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: Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.pdf
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. * Donald Trump paid prostituted to perform "golden showers" in the same bed in a 5-star hotel in Russia that the Obamas stayed in just to spot them. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984/Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.pdf -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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: Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him - CNNPolitics.com
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. * Trump never should have messed with the CIA. These guys are past masters of dirty tricks. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/10/politics/donald-trump-intelligence-report-russia/index.html -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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] Gilbert Achcar: No Enduring Peace in Syria Under Assad
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.tmimag.com/Continue-Reading.aspx?id=11 -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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] Fwd: Russia and the Left | New Politics
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 call the fans of Putin, Vladmirers. As for the "liberation" of Aleppo, I am reminded of Tacitus' 'ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant'. comradely Gary On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 11:09 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > In terms of Islamophobia and anti-LGBT repression, Russia makes the United > States look like Paradise. Male life expectancy in Russia is six years less > than in Brazil and a decade less than in Mexico; its spending on education > as a share of GDP is 80 percent that of Mexico and less than three quarters > that of Brazil.11 In terms of the size of the public sector, Russian > government spending as a percent of GDP is smaller than that of Japan, > Greece, the UK, and Spain (and its military spending is a far greater share > of its overall government spending than any of these countries).12 Neither > in practice nor in inspiration nor even in rhetoric does current-day Russia > reflect left values. > > So why then the left enthusiasm for Russia? > > For some, no doubt, it’s simply nostalgia. The U.S. Peace Council, a > slavish Moscow tool during the Cold War, fondly recalls the Soviet alliance > with the Baathist regime in Syria under Hafez al-Assad, and so perhaps it’s > a simple move to glorify Russian support today for the successor to the > Assad dynasty. (And thus the Peace Council’s awful propaganda trip to > Damascus and subsequent participation in Syrian-government sponsored > propaganda events.13) > > But wistful longing for the glory days of the Soviet Union doesn’t explain > most left attachment to Russia. Instead it’s the pernicious doctrine of > “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” that unfortunately has permeated large > sectors of the left. > > full: http://newpol.org/content/russia-and-left > > -- > Support Louis Proyect biography project > https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of- > socialist-louis-proyect#/ > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt > ions/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Twin Cities; Go North | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
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. * Two narrative films have come my way recently whose combined budget is probably less than 3 percent of what it cost to make La La Land but for my money are far more interesting films. One is titled “Twin Cities” and defies easy description. Even if writer/director Dave Ash is a Twin Cities resident, don’t expect it to be a warm and whimsical treatment of the region’s foibles a la Lake Woebegon. Or like fellow Twin Cities favorite sons Coen brothers whose trademark irony seems toothless compared to Ash, whose sensibility is a mixture of Kafka and Kierkegaard. The other is titled “Go North”, a post-apocalyptic tale inspired by “Lord of the Flies” that eschews the cheap thrills of the Road Warrior series in favor of a simple, even minimalist tale of survival in a world where children seek to build a new civilization based on the worst instincts of the one that has died. full: https://louisproyect.org/2017/01/10/twin-cities-go-north/ -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The Hunger Strike, the Protest Tactic of Gandhi, is Vexing Iran’s Penal Overseers
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. * (One hunger striker is serving a 15 year sentence for "insulting the sharia". And the Assadist left has the gumption to defend Iranian intervention in Syria as a way of defeating Islamic extremism? Madness, sheer madness.) NY Times, Jan. 10 2017 The Hunger Strike, the Protest Tactic of Gandhi, is Vexing Iran’s Penal Overseers By THOMAS ERDBRINK TEHRAN — The hunger strike, a pressure tactic of self-starvation used by political protesters around the world, is forcing Iran’s powerful judiciary to reconsider the conditions of at least one of its inmates after several started fasts that are leading to widespread support on social media. The exact number of hunger strikers in Iranian prisons is unclear, but according to human rights organizations and reports in local media outlets, seven inmates, sentenced for crimes against the state, have refused to eat for intervals ranging from several weeks to more than two months. Their backgrounds vary, but they include an antigovernment protester, a children’s rights activist, an ayatollah, a spiritual leader and a Lebanese computer technology specialist convicted of espionage. It is not possible to verify their conditions because of restrictions preventing foreign reporters from visiting Iranian prisons without permission. While some members of Iran’s Parliament have said on their social media accounts that they are investigating the reports, other officials have dismissed the hunger strikes as plots organized by foreign opposition groups. Conservative critics further argue that the extensive support for the hunger strikers seen on social media networks is an exaggeration created by automated messages. One of the inmates, Arash Sadeghi, stopped his strike last Tuesday, after the judiciary met his demand to temporarily release his imprisoned wife. She was transferred back to prison on Saturday, said the couple’s lawyer, Amir Raeesian. Refusing to eat to protest conditions in prison is illegal in Iran, but is not uncommon. However, the number of inmates now simultaneously fasting, in combination with a large social media campaign, is unusual in the country. It also providing a publicity platform for those in prison, Iranian analysts say. “The success is clearly motivating others to join,” said Nader Karimi Joni, a journalist close to the reformist factions in Iran. Two of the hunger strikers, Mr. Sadeghi and Ali Shariati, have been convicted of crimes against the state — charges that by Western standards would make them political prisoners. They went for nearly 70 days without food, advocates say, surviving on water and salts. Mr. Sadeghi received a 15-year sentence last year for offenses like “provoking protest gatherings,” “conniving with counterrevolutionaries against the system,” “making propaganda against the system,” “insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei” and “insulting the sharia,” his lawyer, Mr. Raeesian, said. The “system” is an Iranian ideological term for the country’s political establishment: a coterie of clerics, commanders and revolutionary comrades. Mr. Sadeghi’s sentence is lengthy even by Iranian standards, and reflects what rights activists regard as a new trend in which relatively unknown offenders receive long sentences, often as a warning to others. He began his fast on Oct. 24 after his wife, Golrokh Ebrahimi-Iraee, started serving a six-year prison term for an unpublished story found on her private computer about a woman watching a film about a stoning and burning a Quran in anger afterward. She was convicted on blasphemy charges. Mr. Shariati, 30, is serving a five-year sentence for his involvement in a 2014 protest supporting the female victims of acid attacks. He is demanding to be released. Their ordeals have galvanized supporters to highlight the hunger strikes on messaging platforms, using hashtags like #savearash and #sosali. Both became worldwide trending topics on Twitter. The use of the hunger strike in Iran has in some ways put the government in an embarrassing position, as it exalted the Northern Ireland hunger strikers who once vexed the British. The embassy of Britain in Tehran is on Bobby Sands Street, renamed for the Provisional I.R.A. member who was imprisoned in Northern Ireland and died in 1981 after refusing to eat for 66 days. An Iranian journalist, Reza Dehaki, a supporter of his country’s hunger strikes, noted that incongruity. “In the regulations for Iranian prisons, hunger strike is against the law, but we have a street named after #Bobby_Sands the most renowned person who went on hunger strike! #contradic
[Marxism] Fwd: Prensa Latina THE END OF IDEOLOGY IN CUBA?
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 End of Ideology in Cuba? By Arnold August. In 1960, the American sociologist and academic Daniel Bell (1919–2011) published /The End of Ideology/. It became a classic book in official political science. The publication was listed by /Times Literary Supplement/ as one of the 100 most influential non-fiction books in the second half of the 20th century. While there were other “end of ideologies” in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bell’s is considered the most authoritative. The many varieties that emerged from this school of thought have a common denominator. While not oversimplifying this important trend, for the purposes of this article one can say that it surfaced out of the perceived failures of both socialism in the former U.S.S.R. and capitalism in the West. It was born out of opposition to “extremism.” In November 1968, along with other political science students at McGill University in Montreal, I founded the Political Science Students Association. It organized a strike around two basic demands. The first was student participation on faculty hiring committees; the second, linked to this potential student empowerment, demanded a more inclusive faculty and curriculum. This would include writings other than by Daniel Bell (who, of course, was considered mandatory reading and enjoyed uncontested reference in political science), progressive social scientists and the works of Marx and Lenin. These were all excluded at the time. After a 10-day occupation and strike, the students’ demands were finally met by the university. Bell was blind to the inevitable uprisings that were about to take place in the U.S. among African-Americans shortly after his best-seller rolled off the press. These progressive struggles, like those of the Native peoples, who also revolted, have their origins in the Thirteen Colonies. In the 1960s, American students were also attracted to alternative ideologies and politics. In fact, the youth movement was omnipresent throughout North America and much of Europe. While this inclination in the 1960s was characterized by different left-wing political and ideological features, and experienced its ups and downs, it was the death knell for the End of Ideology hypothesis. However, Bell’s heritage keeps coming back to haunt us. In Cuba, in the last year or so, there has been a steady increase in the End of Ideology code words and buzz phrases emitted by some marginal Cuban bloggers and intellectuals. They were timid at first but became increasingly bold. To mention just a few: complaining of what they see as a “sterile dichotomy between socialism and capitalism”; advising Cuban revolutionaries to be “balanced and more profound in offering their criticism” of U.S. imperialism; opposing what they consider the extremist “Fidelista” and “anti-Castro” positions, placing both on the same footing; labelling those who are Marxist-Leninist or Fidelista as “extremists” or “fanatics”; writing about “two major fallacies of what it means to be a revolutionary in Cuba, from the left and right,” both being based on “exclusive dogma”; and, finally, asserting that “life is much more profound than even ideology.” Reading these pieces, my university days back in 1968 kept piercing through my thought process. How was it possible that we opposed the End of Ideology in the heart of capitalism yet now it rears its head in Cuba, of all places? One can argue that the opposition in Cuba is coming from the “left,” that is, from those who claim that they support the Revolution. Well, where else can it emerge if not from the so-called left? This is Cuba. Let us not forget that Bell had identified as a leftist. His opposition to ideology was ostensibly from the leftist outlook and not the right. This, after all, was how he won his credibility and credentials. Bell became disillusioned with socialism. He could not see an alternative so he decided to wage a struggle against both capitalism and socialism. His work is a reflection of his own personal/political predicament. Objectively, however, this so-called neutrality against extremes consists in throwing a life jacket in support of capitalism. It is no accident that he is so appreciated by the ruling elites of the West. I have always maintained that the most dangerous opposition to the Cuban Revolution comes from the so-called left, and not from the openly right Plattists, or annexationists. It is a cancer in Cuban society that, if left to grow without sharp ideological resistance, can influence the most naive, especially among youth, intellectuals and artists. When Bell wrote his es
[Marxism] Call for Papers ECREA Symposium Digital Democracy: Critical Perspectives in the Age of Big Data
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. * Call for Papers ECREA Symposium Digital Democracy: Critical Perspectives in the Age of Big Data 10-11 November 2017, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden Joint Conference of two ECREA Sections: Communication and Democracy; and Media Industries and Cultural Production Abstract Deadline 1 June 2017 Keynote speakers * Helen Kennedy (University of Sheffield) * Joseph Turow (University of Pennsylvania) * Mikkel Flyverbom (Copenhagen Business School) The coordinates of democracy, civic engagement and political participation are being fundamentally reconfigured in the context of digital media, Big Data and algorithmic culture, and so too are the media industries. This joint conference of the ECREA Communication and Democracy and Media Industries and Cultural Production Sections provides the opportunity to analyse and assess these changes. The constant need to measure and capture our behavior and attitudes has consequences for our political agency and subjectivities. What do big data and algorithmic culture mean in the context of democratic participation and engagement? What are the consequences of ubiquitous surveillance, preemptive policing and social bots for our understanding of democracy and exercise of civic rights? How do current discussions of political agency in the digital age compare to previous moments of disruption in terms of the introduction of media technologies? Big data and issues related to algorithmic governance have become a major topic of enquiry in the context of media industries as well. ‘Legacy media’ are trying to respond by integrating new digital services with their existing ones and new data-driven journalistic and media production practices emerge. This presents policy challenges, as, for example, public service media need to adapt to a situation in which data is increasingly commercialized. There are implications too for media workers in this new moment. In this context, we wish to explore issues related to the integration of Big Data and the media industries as well as online production, creativity and digital labour. During this section conference, we aim to engage with questions concerning datafication, media industries and (digital) democracy through addressing topics such as (but not limited to): * Political subjectivities and political agency in the age of Big Data * Political consequences of storing, processing and organizing of data * Civic engagement and political participation in times of Big Data * Surveillance and preemptive policing * Materiality and environmental issues of Big Data and algorithmic culture * New actors and discourses in the context of datafication * Democratic potential of Big Data and algorithmic culture * Algorithmic taste management in the media industries * Archives and archiving of cultural production and civic engagement * Media work and labour in datafied media industries * Data Journalism A YECREA workshop for PhD candidates and junior researchers will be organised. Details are going to be announced in early spring 2017. Submission details Please submit a 300-word abstract for individual proposals Panel proposals should include a 300-word panel rationale plus individual 200 word abstracts from a minimum of four speakers. All abstracts for individual as well as panel proposals should be submitted through: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ecreadigdem2017 Deadline for submission is 1 June 2017. Notifications of acceptance will be issued by 15 August 2017. Registration and Fees Early bird registration €50 (until 1 September 2017) Early bird reduced student fee €30 (until 1 September) Full fees €75 Reduced student fee €40 Organising Committee: Göran Bolin, Hanne Bruun, David Hesmondhalgh, Anne Kaun, Maria Michalis, Maria Kyriakidou, Fredrik Stiernstedt, Julie Uldam, Julia Velkova _ 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: Q&A with authors of book on scholarly activism
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.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/10/qa-authors-book-scholarly-activism -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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: [ufpj-activist] Chris Hedges on Russian "hacking"
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. * Gronowicz is one of the most loony, slanderous and reactionary members of the UFPJ email list. But the Hedges piece he shares is calm and dangerous and will be widely believed. -- Forwarded message -- From: anthony gronowicz Date: Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 8:18 AM Subject: [ufpj-activist] Chris Hedges on Russian "hacking" To: Ufpj-activist http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_real_purpose_of_the_ us_governments_report_on_alleged_hacking_by_russi _ 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: Hillary Clinton Helped Pave Way for Jared Kushner In the White House - The Daily Beast
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.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/09/hillary-clinton-helped-pave-way-for-jared-kushner-in-the-white-house.html -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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: Russia and the Left | New Politics
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 terms of Islamophobia and anti-LGBT repression, Russia makes the United States look like Paradise. Male life expectancy in Russia is six years less than in Brazil and a decade less than in Mexico; its spending on education as a share of GDP is 80 percent that of Mexico and less than three quarters that of Brazil.11 In terms of the size of the public sector, Russian government spending as a percent of GDP is smaller than that of Japan, Greece, the UK, and Spain (and its military spending is a far greater share of its overall government spending than any of these countries).12 Neither in practice nor in inspiration nor even in rhetoric does current-day Russia reflect left values. So why then the left enthusiasm for Russia? For some, no doubt, it’s simply nostalgia. The U.S. Peace Council, a slavish Moscow tool during the Cold War, fondly recalls the Soviet alliance with the Baathist regime in Syria under Hafez al-Assad, and so perhaps it’s a simple move to glorify Russian support today for the successor to the Assad dynasty. (And thus the Peace Council’s awful propaganda trip to Damascus and subsequent participation in Syrian-government sponsored propaganda events.13) But wistful longing for the glory days of the Soviet Union doesn’t explain most left attachment to Russia. Instead it’s the pernicious doctrine of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” that unfortunately has permeated large sectors of the left. full: http://newpol.org/content/russia-and-left -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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: Command and Control | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
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 reviewed a documentary that showed at the Film Forum in NYC in September that can now be seen on PBS at 9pm EST tonight. From my review: The film is directed by Robert Kenner and based on a 2014 book by Eric Schlosser titled “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety”. No, this is not Damascus, Syria (although people like Engdahl would likely jump to that conclusion) but Damascus, Arkansas, the site of a Titan II Missile Complex that had a disastrous fire caused by a minor accident on September 18, 1980. A single Titan II missile in the Damascus underground silo had a 9 megaton H-Bomb warhead that packed an explosive power three times as great as every bomb dropped during WWII, including those over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Its firestorm could cover 1000 square miles and a radiation plume much greater in distance. For comparison’s sake, a B-52 broke apart accidentally over Goldsboro, North Carolina on January 24, 1961, dropping two 4-megaton H-Bombs in the process. When searchers recovered one of the bombs, they were shocked to discover that three of the four safety devices had failed. This was according to a declassified document obtained by Schlosser and revealed in his book. So even if that was half the payload of the Damascus bomb, the death toll would have been over 100,000 while millions would have suffered debilitating chronic diseases from radiation exposure. Director Robert Kenner was able to get the approval of a Titan II museum in Green Valley, Arizona to use their facilities to recreate the seemingly trivial accident that could have killed hundreds of thousands of people in a couple of days. Using archival footage of the Damascus explosion mixed with recreations at the museum, you really feel as if you are there on the day of the fateful incident. full: https://louisproyect.org/2016/09/13/command-and-control/ -- Support Louis Proyect biography project https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/publish-the-biography-of-socialist-louis-proyect#/ _ 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