Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * “This BBC article claims that the numbers of just Uighars numbers between 7,000 and 10,000 depending on the source. Of other ethnic fighters they say a “high concentration.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-45401474”. That article, dated September 2018, also made the claim that “thousands have taken up arms against the government, including jihadists linked to al-Qaeda.” To have some credibility, media such as the BBC should at least keep up to date. There are no “jihadists linked to al-Qaida” in Idlib, as anyone free of post-9/11 “war on terror” ideology is well aware, unless they mean the handful of pro-Qaida, ex-Nusra folk in Hurras al-Din, many of whom are in HTS prisons. Anyway, the article quotes Assadist MP Fares Shehabi that there are 10,000 Uighars in Idlib. Not sure if you consider a regime hack a credible source, but based on his assertion that there are 100,000 “al-Qaida-linked” militants, my tendency would be to divide anything he says by about 100. As for the “war on terror” style AFP article: “This AFP article gives the number of just Uighar fighters (as opposed to them and their “families”) between 1 and several thousand. It also mentions high concentrations of Chechens. https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/foreign-fighters-syrias-idlib-face-last-stand-doc-18x6wz1”. The BBC article said “several thousand” including their families. So about 1000 fighters is probably about right. It also corresponds better to what we hear on the ground. There are not exactly daily reports of huge numbers of Uighar fighters, though here and there there is reference to the TIP. Certainly nothing in the order of either HTS or its opponents. Most estimates put HTS strength at about 10,000 fighters (that is also the number given in the BBC article by UN's special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who erroneously claimed they were “associated with al-Qaeda.” However, referring to these numbers, Ahmad Abazeid, a Turkey-based Syrian analyst, “says that figure is an exaggeration and the fighters number only a few thousand.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/looming-battle-idlib-180908142026400.html I’m not sure who is correct, but one thing for sure is that Nusra numbers were never estimated as any higher than 10,000, though given that HTS is a coalition of Nusra (now JFS) with 5 very small groups (not all jihadist), Lister’s 12,000 figure may be correct, but again I would urge caution given Abazeid’s analysis. Overwhelmingly, these are Syrians, because when Nusra (now the core of HTS) and ISIS split in 2013, there was a very heavy divide between foreign fighters (overwhelmingly went with ISIS) and local fighters (overwhelmingly with Nusra); after all, Nusra resulted from a “Syrianisation” of this otherwise foreign invader force from Iraq. However, there are a small number of foreign fighters with HTS, mostly Arabs. Nearly all other armed groups in Greater Idlib (ie, Idlib, southern and western Aleppo province, northern Hama and Latakia) are part of the National Front for Liberation (NFL) coalition, which includes the Free Idlib Army, which is itself a coalition of the major FSA groups in Idlib, and the Victory Army (Jaysh al-Nasr), another FSA coalition based in northern Hama. The NFL also includes Islamist groups like Ahrar al-Sham and many others. According to Abazeid, “NFL is the biggest force [in Idlib] in terms of numbers and geographical presence and weaponry.” Most sources suggest it has some 30,000 fighters (some estimates are as high as 70,000). According to the article quoting Abazeid, he “also cast doubt on those estimates.” But the quote from him “casting doubt” is merely “But NFL is a local formation, not an organised army, and therefore it's difficult to estimate its numbers.” That is very true: it is local; it is somewhat decentralised precisely because it is based directly in the communities and villages (as are most HTS cadre); it is an entirely indigenous fighting force. And here’s the thing: the most entirely local, indigenous, Syrian fighting forces are the FSA, and the mainstream Islamist groups. Regardless of how one assesses the varying politics, they are literally the sons of the soil. Overwhelmingly, this is also true of the YPG, among Kurdish Syrians. But just as HTS has a component of foreign fighters, so does the YPG. It is well-known that even at a leadership level, some of the PYD are actually PKK (ie, from Turkey). And everywhere that they either liberated or conquered in Syria was blessed with a gigantic cult-of-personality style portrait of Ocalan, a Turkish citizen. Now, we are not obsessed with borders, and the Kurds can well
Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
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 Fri, 14 Sep 2018 at 12:43 pm, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > > So what in hell's name is going on with you people? Don't you realize > that you are morphing into an anarchist current? Why not go whole hog > and find some Bakuninites to fuse with in Australia? Well your problem apart from denial of any evidence you don’t like seems to be some lingering symptoms of ortho-Trotskyism like thinking formal program determines everything and an inability to understand solidarity and collaboration that doesn’t involve ideological conformity. Yes the Apoist in rejecting Stalinism have eclectically borrowed from Bookchin as well as other sources, but their practice doesn’t seem very different what what any socialist current could or should do in their varied circumstances. Sure it’s justified and useful to make informed as opposed to ignorant and dogmatic critiques of Apoism. I’ve mentioned Rahila Gupta on their feminism before. Whatever the justified critiques, we might, shocking as it might seem, actually learn something from people leading millions in an anti-capitalist movement, as well as by re-reading Lenin. A number of Australian anarchists do have better poisitions and practice on Syria, or on other issues, than a number of people with more impeccable Leninist qualifications on paper. For example it was welcome that some prominent Melbourne anarchists attended the recent large launch of the Victorian Socialists. The large local Kurdish left are I understand also supported of this electoral alliance, despite their opinions of Socialist Alternative’s opinions on Syria. All a bit complicated maybe but that’s life. > _ 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] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This BBC article claims that the numbers of just Uighars numbers between 7,000 and 10,000 depending on the source. Of other ethnic fighters they say a “high concentration.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-45401474 This AFP article gives the number of of just Uighar fighters (as opposed to them and their “families”) between 1 and several thousand. It also mentions high concentrations of Chechens. https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/foreign-fighters-syrias-idlib-face-last-stand-doc-18x6wz1 So I think “thousands” was a reasonable number. Now can you answer my question please? Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 13, 2018, at 10:00 PM, mkaradjis wrote: > > "thousands of foreign jihadists holed up in Idlib" > Matt, do you mind providing sources for this piece of (mis)information? > On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 4:41 AM Matt Harvey via Marxism > 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 YPG is a mercenary offering its services to the highest >> bidder." >> >> I'm agnostic verging on doubtful on the question of whether the Kurds >> represent a truly revolutionary force. (The Scoop Jackson's Society's >> trashing them is a vote in their favor though.) >> >> But referring to any indigenous Syrian force as mercenaries when their are >> thousands of foreign jihadists holed up in Idlib is either active hypocrisy >> or political projection. In your framework are they like the >> Internationalists who fought in Spain? I'm truly curious as to what armed >> faction you think does represent the "revolutionary masses in Syria" and >> who backs them. >> _ >> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm >> Set your options at: >> http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%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] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
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 9/13/18 10:32 PM, Nick Fredman via Marxism wrote: The Revolution in Rojava book including its account of the uprising is based on over 150 interviews within Rojava. The account of the uprising is also based on reports from a Vice News team which reported from Rojava a week after the uprising. The accounts of a deal with Assad all seem to come from keyboard warriors in the US and Europe with no direct evidence of any deals. You can disagree with the analysis of the authors or the positions of the Apoist movement, fine, but smart-arse sneers about Bookhin don’t really justify continued casual slanders made with little to no evidence of fellow socialists over being handed Rojava for free, deals with Assad, being armed by Assad, “ethnic cleansing” and the rest. You don't seem to get it. Bookchin has a completely different understanding of socialism than Marxists. In fact, he is openly hostile to Marxism as this online book indicates: Listen, Marxist! (https://www.marxists.org/archive/bookchin/1969/listen-marxist.htm) The worker becomes a revolutionary not by becoming more of a worker but by undoing his "workerness." And in this he is not alone; the same applies to the farmer, the student, the clerk, the soldier, the bureaucrat, the professional—and the Marxist. The worker is no less a "bourgeois" than the farmer, student, clerk, soldier, bureaucrat, professional—and Marxist. His "workerness" is the disease he is suffering from, the social affliction telescoped to individual dimensions. Lenin understood this in What Is to Be Done? but he smuggled in the old hierarchy under a red flag and some revolutionary verbiage. --- In the midst of a cataclysmic confrontation between the Syrian poor and a brutal family dynasty, the PYD chose to cut a deal with the regime to allow its utopian experiment to proceed. Long before the Syrian revolution began, I took apart Bookchin's anti-Marxist ideology: Bookchin's "libertarian municipalism" is offered as an alternative to the Marxist vision of a transformation of society led by the working-class. "Social ecology would embody its ethics in a politics of confederal municipalism, in which municipalities cojointly gain rights to self-governance through networks of confederal councils, to which towns and cities would send their mandated, recallable by delegates to adjust differences." Okay, let's see if we can get this right. Capitalism will be replaced by a more humane system through the incremental replacement of capitalist chunks of real estate by new egalitarian units. Today we have liberated Putney, Vermont and Madison, Wisconsin. Next week we have a shot at taking over Dallas, Texas. When all the towns and cities have been become liberated zones, we then celebrate our victory by eating dishes of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. full: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/economics/neo_utopian.htm So what in hell's name is going on with you people? Don't you realize that you are morphing into an anarchist current? Why not go whole hog and find some Bakuninites to fuse with in Australia? _ 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] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
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 Revolution in Rojava book including its account of the uprising is based on over 150 interviews within Rojava. The account of the uprising is also based on reports from a Vice News team which reported from Rojava a week after the uprising. The accounts of a deal with Assad all seem to come from keyboard warriors in the US and Europe with no direct evidence of any deals. You can disagree with the analysis of the authors or the positions of the Apoist movement, fine, but smart-arse sneers about Bookhin don’t really justify continued casual slanders made with little to no evidence of fellow socialists over being handed Rojava for free, deals with Assad, being armed by Assad, “ethnic cleansing” and the rest. On Fri, 14 Sep 2018 at 11:43 am, 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. > * > > Extract from "Revolution in Rojava", p. 54: > > 'The Revolution begins in Kobani > > 'At 1 a.m. on the night of July 18-19, 2012, the YPG took control of the > roads leading in and out of Kobani city. Inside the city, the majority of > the people, who supported the MGRK [Peoples Council of West Kurdistan], > occupied the state institutions. "We had marked which buildings we should > take over", recalled Pelda Kobani, who participated that night, "which ones > were useful for the people, even bakeries" The people then assembled at the > regime army's strongpoint in Kobani, and a delegation informed the regime > soldiers, "if you give up your weapons, your security will be guaranteed". > The soldiers looked out over the mass of people, and seeing that they had > no alternative, they agreed; some returned to their families in the Arab > cities, while others preferred to remain in Kobani because they had lived > there for forty years. > > 'The state had no substantial military force", said Hanife Hisen. "We > surrounded them...and they surrendered. The regime could't send them any > reinforcements. We didn't turn a single soldier over to the regime - we > just talked to them and called their families to come pick them up. The > ones who wanted to join the FSA, we let them go to Turkey". Heval Amer > points out that when the regime troops left, "we didn't let them take their > weapons. So they left behind many, even heavy weapons". Because the > liberation was bloodless, Hisen recalled, "people said the regime had > turned the weapons over to us. But it's a lie".' > > > > From: Marxism on behalf of Chris > Slee via Marxism > Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2018 3:04:04 PM > To: Chris Slee > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists > Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly) > > 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. > * > > My source is the book "Revolution in Rojava", by Michael Knapp, Anja Flack > and Ercan Ayboga (Pluto Press 2016), p. 54-56. > > > They based their report mainly on interviews with people who participated > in these events. > > > Chris Slee > > > > From: Marxism on behalf of Louis > Proyect via Marxism > Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2018 10:37 AM > To: Chris Slee > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists > Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly) > > 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 9/12/18 8:17 PM, Chris Slee via Marxism 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. > > * > > > > > > >
Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
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. * "thousands of foreign jihadists holed up in Idlib" Matt, do you mind providing sources for this piece of (mis)information? On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 4:41 AM Matt Harvey via Marxism 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 YPG is a mercenary offering its services to the highest > bidder." > > I'm agnostic verging on doubtful on the question of whether the Kurds > represent a truly revolutionary force. (The Scoop Jackson's Society's > trashing them is a vote in their favor though.) > > But referring to any indigenous Syrian force as mercenaries when their are > thousands of foreign jihadists holed up in Idlib is either active hypocrisy > or political projection. In your framework are they like the > Internationalists who fought in Spain? I'm truly curious as to what armed > faction you think does represent the "revolutionary masses in Syria" and > who backs them. > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%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] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
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 9/13/18 9:42 PM, Chris Slee via Marxism 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. * Extract from "Revolution in Rojava", p. 54: 'The Revolution begins in Kobani 'At 1 a.m. on the night of July 18-19, 2012, the YPG took control of the roads leading in and out of Kobani city. Inside the city, the majority of the people, who supported the MGRK [Peoples Council of West Kurdistan], occupied the state institutions. "We had marked which buildings we should take over", recalled Pelda Kobani, who participated that night, "which ones were useful for the people, even bakeries" The people then assembled at the regime army's strongpoint in Kobani, and a delegation informed the regime soldiers, "if you give up your weapons, your security will be guaranteed". The soldiers looked out over the mass of people, and seeing that they had no alternative, they agreed; some returned to their families in the Arab cities, while others preferred to remain in Kobani because they had lived there for forty years. 'The state had no substantial military force", said Hanife Hisen. "We surrounded them...and they surrendered. The regime could't send them any reinforcements. We didn't turn a single soldier over to the regime - we just talked to them and called their families to come pick them up. The ones who wanted to join the FSA, we let them go to Turkey". Heval Amer points out that when the regime troops left, "we didn't let them take their weapons. So they left behind many, even heavy weapons". Because the liberation was bloodless, Hisen recalled, "people said the regime had turned the weapons over to us. But it's a lie".' What an idyllic scene. One supposes that the lack of bloodshed had something to do with the fact that Assad never directed his military to shoot Kurds protesting against his dictatorship. Oh, I just remembered. They never were involved with the protests. They were too busy figuring out ways to implement Murray Bookchin's utopian socialist schemas. _ 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] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
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. * Extract from "Revolution in Rojava", p. 54: 'The Revolution begins in Kobani 'At 1 a.m. on the night of July 18-19, 2012, the YPG took control of the roads leading in and out of Kobani city. Inside the city, the majority of the people, who supported the MGRK [Peoples Council of West Kurdistan], occupied the state institutions. "We had marked which buildings we should take over", recalled Pelda Kobani, who participated that night, "which ones were useful for the people, even bakeries" The people then assembled at the regime army's strongpoint in Kobani, and a delegation informed the regime soldiers, "if you give up your weapons, your security will be guaranteed". The soldiers looked out over the mass of people, and seeing that they had no alternative, they agreed; some returned to their families in the Arab cities, while others preferred to remain in Kobani because they had lived there for forty years. 'The state had no substantial military force", said Hanife Hisen. "We surrounded them...and they surrendered. The regime could't send them any reinforcements. We didn't turn a single soldier over to the regime - we just talked to them and called their families to come pick them up. The ones who wanted to join the FSA, we let them go to Turkey". Heval Amer points out that when the regime troops left, "we didn't let them take their weapons. So they left behind many, even heavy weapons". Because the liberation was bloodless, Hisen recalled, "people said the regime had turned the weapons over to us. But it's a lie".' From: Marxism on behalf of Chris Slee via Marxism Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2018 3:04:04 PM To: Chris Slee Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly) 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. * My source is the book "Revolution in Rojava", by Michael Knapp, Anja Flack and Ercan Ayboga (Pluto Press 2016), p. 54-56. They based their report mainly on interviews with people who participated in these events. Chris Slee From: Marxism on behalf of Louis Proyect via Marxism Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2018 10:37 AM To: Chris Slee Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly) 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 9/12/18 8:17 PM, Chris Slee via Marxism 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. > * > > > https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/syria-assad-threatens-idlib-while-afrin-resists-turkish-occupation > From the article above: "In July 2012, an uprising occurred in three predominantly Kurdish cantons known collectively as Rojava in the Kurdish language. People surrounded the Assad regime’s military bases and called on the soldiers to surrender. In most cases, they did so. With regime forces stretched by fighting rebels on multiple fronts, those who resisted were quickly defeated." So what were the military bases that the Kurds surrounded and called upon soldiers to surrender? I seem to have trouble finding a reference to anything like that in Lexis-Nexis. Mostly, I find tons of references to Assad abandoning territory to Kurds in order to focus on killing the rebels that you people consider so politically backward compared to the acolytes of Murray Bookchin. I admit that I have not read all the hundreds of articles about Kurds and Assad in 2012 but the first 25 or so read like this: _ 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:
[Marxism] Seeking Human Generosity’s Origins in an Ape’s Gift to Another Ape - The New York Times
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.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/science/generosity-apes-bonobos.html _ 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] Class and Exclusion in Syria - RLS
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[Marxism] Black 47 | Luke Callinan | Culture Matters
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.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/films/item/2887-black-47 Sent from my iPhone _ 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 working class and the national struggle in Ireland, 1916-21
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. * `Written over 20 years ago and a lot of good stuff has appeared since, plus some primary sources have become available that were not easily accessible back in 1995 when I wrote this. However, I think it stands up pretty well: https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/the-working-class-and-the-national-struggle-1916-1921/ _ 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] More on soil fertility and carbon sequestration
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 have been commenting more and more on the issue of climate change, agriculture & grazing, and carbon sequestration (which is part of the climate change discussion AND healthy soil). Because of my last comments here I got 3 invitations to expand my comments on various socialist blogs. I got a few "nasties" from some militant vegans as well (though these stemmed from Facebook postings as one might expect). Anyway, as part of my own limited education on this I saw a link to an article by a PhD. agronomist and soil fertility expert Dr. Christine Jones from Australia on the leftist pro-rural folks/farming FB group, The Soil Alliance ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/soilalliance/ ). I have heard Dr. Jones speak on a lot of YouTube videos previously in the last year as everyone into soil fertility and restorative agriculture recommends her highly. But I never read anything by her, being the lazy person I am I just watched the videos. But Dave Riley posted the following essay to the Soil Alliance page. I thought it was singularly the best explanation of the relationship between proper agricultural methods of farming and CO2 sequestration I've ever read. If only because it not that long and highly educational for the non-ag person like me but because it covers everything from a scientific and engineering POV of why this question may be the biggest technological tool to fight climate change as part of any program to seriously fight against climate change, providing a living for anyone who applies these techniques and restores our soil to what they once were it there is. So it gets my ringing endorsement. If you are interested in how agricultural can sequester carbon while growing more food for our species in an eco-firendly way, you should read this essay. I left some comments on the FB page I linked to above if you are interested at all in specifics aspects I thought were not given enough space in Dr. Jone's essay. http://ecofarmingdaily.com/soil-restoration-5-core-principles/ --David Walters _ 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] Harvard's billion-dollar farmland fiasco
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.alainet.org/es/node/195306 One of the worlds major buyers of farmland is under fire for their involvement in land conflicts, environmental destruction and risky investments. A new report by GRAIN and Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos presents, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of Harvard Universitys controversial investments in global farmland. (in English) _ 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] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
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 YPG is a mercenary offering its services to the highest bidder." I'm agnostic verging on doubtful on the question of whether the Kurds represent a truly revolutionary force. (The Scoop Jackson's Society's trashing them is a vote in their favor though.) But referring to any indigenous Syrian force as mercenaries when their are thousands of foreign jihadists holed up in Idlib is either active hypocrisy or political projection. In your framework are they like the Internationalists who fought in Spain? I'm truly curious as to what armed faction you think does represent the "revolutionary masses in Syria" and who backs them. _ 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] Stop blaming workers for Trump’s right-wing authoritarianism | Anita Waters | People's World
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[Marxism] The “Dogs” of Democracy: Chuka Umunna Versus the Labour Membership
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[Marxism] Syria conflict: unanswered questions about the Douma 'chemical attack' | al-bab.com
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Re: [Marxism] Understanding the UAW fiasco in Tennessee
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[Marxism] North Carolina, Warned of Rising Seas, Chose to Favor Development
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times, Sept. 13, 2018 North Carolina, Warned of Rising Seas, Chose to Favor Development By John Schwartz and Richard Fausset As Hurricane Florence bears down on North Carolina, the state may face the consequences of policies minimizing the impact of climate change and allowing extensive development in vulnerable coastal areas. The approaching storm almost certainly gained destructive power from a warming climate, but a 2012 law, and subsequent actions by the state, effectively ordered state and local agencies that develop coastal policies to ignore scientific models showing an acceleration in the rise of sea levels. In the years since, development has continued with little regard to the long-term threat posed by rising sea levels. And the coastal region’s population and economy have boomed, growing by almost half in the last 20 years. The law, known as H.B. 819, was widely criticized and even ridiculed when it passed, but it was favored by the state’s business interests, which argued that it was needed to protect property values. Business leaders had been jolted by a state commission’s 2010 report saying that sea levels could rise as much as 39 inches by the year 2100, which would devastate the coast and swamp billions of dollars’ worth of real estate. Stanley Riggs, a retired research professor at East Carolina University who helped prepare the 2010 report, said that the research could have been used to tackle the difficult problems of development on the state’s delicate coast. “We were ready to step up to the plate and take a hard look at this long-term problem,” he said. “And we blew it.” Supporters of the bill, including David Rouzer, a member of the General Assembly at the time, incorrectly argued that the science of climate change and sea level rise could not be validated and their use in forming policy could have “a negative impact on coastal economies.” A pro-business group, NC-20, which lobbied for the measure, said its goal was to “demand responsible science concerning sea level rise,” but based part of its argument on inaccurate claims that “despite 80 years of man-made carbon dioxide increase, there is no acceleration in sea level rise.” Opponents, like Deborah K. Ross, a former member of the state legislature, said that turning a blind eye to the science of climate change was self-destructive. “In order to protect our people, our property and our environment, we need the most information that we can have, in order to mitigate risk,” she said. “When we ignore facts, we do it at our peril.” As Hurricane Florence bore down on Wednesday, residents and business owners boarded up homes and businesses up and down the North and South Carolina coasts. Tens of thousands of people headed inland after state and local officials ordered mandatory evacuations of low-lying coastal counties, where the National Hurricane Center has predicted a “life-threatening storm surge.” “We’ve said time and again, we know a lot of our coastal residents have ridden out storms before,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. “This should not be one of those storms. Don’t risk your life riding out a monster.” Storm-force winds are expected along the shore beginning on Thursday, and the storm is expected to crawl inland after that, drenching a wide area with extremely heavy rains. Both the volume and the geographic extent of those rains are likely to be 50 percent greater than if there had been no climate change, according to a team of climate scientists led by researchers at Stony Brook University. The North Carolina state legislature pushed back against the 2010 sea level warnings even though researchers and universities in the state have been at the forefront of the scientific work that produced them. Early versions of the 2012 bill even dictated how officials were allowed to forecast sea levels: Only historical data could be used, and not any computer models that showed that the rate of rise would be faster in the future than in the past — an approach that would seriously underestimate the effects of climate change. The final bill was softened a bit, but another factor helped shift policymaking in the same direction: The election of Pat McCrory as governor in 2012 meant that the Republican Party, which already dominated the legislature, now had total control of the state government, including the coastal resources commission, which was soon reshaped to be more friendly to business. Before the Republicans gained the upper hand, North Carolina was “a leader in really thoughtful coastal management,” said Geoffrey R. Gisler, a lawyer with
[Marxism] Salisbury novichok suspects say they were only visiting cathedral | UK news | The Guardian
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[Marxism] Internationalism after Empire | New Internationalist
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[Marxism] WHY BRITISH TROTSKYISTS SHOULD INTERVENE IN THE DEMONSTRATIONS CALLING FOR A GENERAL ELECTION! BY ANTHONY BRAIN! – Anthony Brain apply Trotskyism for today and tommrow!
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[Marxism] Race, Class, and Socialist Strategy – The Call
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[Marxism] Michael Moore Accused of Stiffing, Smearing Vendors: ‘All I Would Like Is to Be Paid’
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[Marxism] Counterpunch article by hard-core Assadist
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 9/13/18 7:44 AM, Jason Hicks via Marxism 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. * This is so unspeakably vile for Counterpunch to publish this. "A day prior, SANA reported on the collaboration between militants from the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the White Helmets to identify key locations, where sarin and chlorine gas has been shipped, to launch a potential chemical weapons attack." https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/12/idlib-youtube-and-the-war-on-information/ I commented on this at FB, where Jeff St. Clair and Joshua Frank could read it: Workers World Party member Julia Kassem claims that HTS and the White Helmets are setting up a false flag incident using chemical weapons in order to provoke Trump into launching strikes against regime and Russian forces. She cites the Syrian news agency SANA to back her up. RT.com has been running the same story. According to her, Youtube is in cahoots with HTS because it has removed the accounts of the Syrian Ministry of Defense, SANA News Agency, and the Syrian presidency. Does anybody think that at this point in the game that Donald Trump has any intentions of supporting HTS, the militia that was an al-Qaeda affiliate at one point? Apparently Julia Kassem does, referring to a Wikileak State Department cable that mentions al-Qaeda being "on our side". This is typical of Assadist propaganda that relies heavily on such cables to portray the USA and al-Qaeda as being allies. Obama authorized drone attacks that have killed key HTS leaders including: Ahmad Salama Mabruk (aka Abu Faraj al-Masri), a veteran al-Qaeda member with an extensive history at senior levels of the network; Khattab al-Qahtani, a senior al-Qaida official from the Persian Gulf region with reported ties to Osama bin Laden; and the elimination of Jaysh al-Fatah commander Usama Nammoura in Aleppo (aka Abu Omar Saraqeb). None of this matters to someone like Kassem. Over the past 7 years, the overwhelming majority of the left in the USA has effectively been propagating the same kind of Islamophobic support for Assad that Christopher Hitchens provided for Bush '43's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just yesterday we put up with the same old patriotic gore associated with 9/11. So odd that a self-proclaimed Palestinian solidarity activist like Kassem can be serving Assad in the same way that Hitchens served Bush. But that is what we are left with after 7 years of bad faith and conspiracy-mongering. _ 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] (no subject)
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This is so unspeakably vile for Counterpunch to publish this. "A day prior, SANA reported on the collaboration between militants from the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the White Helmets to identify key locations, where sarin and chlorine gas has been shipped, to launch a potential chemical weapons attack." https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/12/idlib-youtube-and-the-war-on-information/ _ 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] Deconstructing Woodward – LobeLog
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. * Although it focuses on the debates and decision-making in Trump’s White House, Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House devotes the first 50 pages to the familiar story of Trump’s campaign and the crucial role played by Steve Bannon as well as his big donors. Conspicuously absent however, is any reference to two of Trump’s biggest donors, namely, Sheldon Adelson and Bernard Marcus, who are also the board members of the Likudist Republican Jewish Committee. In fact, such omissions can be found aplenty in the book. For example, there is no mention of the Israel lobby’s efforts to influence Trump on the Iran nuclear deal or of the role of far-right John Bolton, who assumed the position of national security advisor in March 2018 while Woodward’s book was still in progress. Similarly, Woodward ignores the fact that Trump fired his initial secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, partly because of the latter’s support for the Iran nuclear deal. Incredibly, Woodward cites Trump’s statement on Tillerson’s firing while editing out the Iran reference. As a result, there is no discussion of why Trump replaced his national security advisor and secretary of state with more hawkish and virulently anti-Iran voices. Such gaps in explanation point to the author’s political agenda, which the media has seriously misrepresented as being anti-Trump. full: https://lobelog.com/deconstructing-woodward/ _ 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] bellingcat - Why Assad's Press Officer is Speaking at an Anti-ISIS Meeting in Washington, DC - bellingcat
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[Marxism] UN: One Millions Syrians forced to flee in past 6 months as Assad conquers rebel enclaves
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.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/syria-faces-unprecedented-levels-internal-displacement-180912115109060.html -- Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG (Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net) www.rkob.net ak...@rkob.net Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314 --- Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _ 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] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This book is a translation from the German-language original which I posses (Anja Flach / Ercan Ayboğa / Michael Knapp: Revolution in Rojava. Frauenbewegung und Kommunalismus zwischen Krieg und Embargo, VSA: Verlag Hamburg 2015). It is an uncritical Apoist publication with a preface and postscript by Cemil Bayık resp. Asya Abdullah (bother leaders of the PKK/YPG). By the way: In their contributions (17 pages combined), these two Apoist leaders write about the perspective of the revolution in Rojava and in the Middle East. They do not mention a single time the words "Assad", "Great Power" or "Imperialism/imperialist"! What a remarkable "coincidence"! The book quotes indeed people reporting about the encirclement of a an Assadist military base in Kobani on 18-19 July 2012. After negotiations, the Assadist military agreed to hand over the base. Part of the soldiers went home, the other part stayed in Kobani. It is characteristic that the whole taking over of the Kurdish areas by the YPG was completely unbloody - in opposite to the rest of Syria where the people rose up against the regime and a civil war started. This is because it was not a revolution but a secretly negotiated handover from the regime to the YPG (because the regime was forced to do so as it was under heavy pressure in the rest of the country where the people fought against the tyranny.) Of course, I do not want to deny that there have been contradictions between the Assad regime and the PKK/YPG. They collaborated until 1998, then Assad had to kick out Öcalan because Turkey threatened with war. But it is very evident that the Assad tyranny views the YPG as a "lesser evil" compared to the revolutionary masses in Syria. From its point of view the Assad regime is right as the present negotiations with the YPG demonstrate. The YPG is a mercenary offering its services to the highest bidder. -- Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG (Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net) www.rkob.net ak...@rkob.net Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314 --- Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _ 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
