date:20181221

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Most of what Cockburn says is so obvious that anybody who occasionally
reads the newspaper could tell you that.

Then the idea that "Other sections of the US ruling class want to keep
troops in Syria"... This implies that there are sections that support
Trump's move. Please tell me who aside from Trump (and probably his family)
is supporting his move? We should be able to get a sense of that from the
main representatives/strategists. The editors of the three major newspapers
in the US - the Wall St. Journal, the NY Times and the Washington Post have
all denounced the decision. So has the SF Chronicle. As far as I can tell,
the entire top brass of the US military is opposed. The most important
think tank for the strategists of US capitalism - the Council on Foreign
Affairs - is appalled. I don't know of any significant figure in either of
the two parties who supports the decision. Even Lindsay Graham (!) has
denounced the move.

John Reimann

On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 6:29 PM Chris Slee  wrote:

> John Reimann dismisses Patrick Cockburn as "saying very little".
>
> I think Cockburn makes some good points.  He says the US troop withdrawal
> "makes it easier for the administration to revive the old US alliance with
> Turkey".
>
> Erdogan wants to invade northeast Syria.  The US troop presence there has
> been an obstacle.  Trump will remove this obstacle.
>
> After the fall of Mosul in 2014, the US became worried by the rise of
> ISIS, and began cooperating with the YPG and SDF to oppose it.
>
> Trump is now shifting back to the pre-2014 US policy of fully supporting
> the Turkish state against the Kurdish left.
>
> Other sections of the US ruling class want to keep troops in Syria, either
> because they still regard ISIS as a threat or for other reasons.  But Trump
> can plausibly claim that his policy is good for US imperialism, because it
> will restore good relations with Turkey, a very important ally.
>
> Chris Slee
> --
> *From:* Marxism  on behalf of John
> Reimann via Marxism 
> *Sent:* Saturday, 22 December 2018 5:10:06 AM
> *To:* Chris Slee
> *Subject:* Re: [Marxism] US withdrawal from Syria and myths of "regime
> change"
>
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> *
>
> I think Michael Karadjis for his extremely well documented commentary on
> the US involvement in Syria. A couple of additional points:
>
> At times the "opponents" of US imperialism point to the comment of one or
> another US official that Assad should go as proof of attempted regime
> change. Often, these same people claim to be Marxists. But it is a
> fundamental view of Marxism that a regime is no just one person. The head
> of state rules through an apparatus, and it is exactly that apparatus that
> US imperialism never ever even gave lip service to changing. Same with
> Egypt. Even when Obama called for Mubarak to step down, he never even
> implied that the apparatus that Mubarak had built up should be removed.
>
> This is totally different from Iraq, where Bush & Co. removed the entire
> Baath apparatus lock, stock and barrel. Now THAT was real regime change!
> (Of course, nowadays the US regime doesn't even want to remove the head of
> state in Syria, never mind his entire apparatus.)
>
> On the SDF: My understanding of them is that they are an unstable alliance
> of multiple different groups that has already had a tendency to fracture.
> It also seems to me that what holds them together is the cover of the US
> military. Once that is gone, it seems to me most likely that the SDF will
> tend to completely fall apart. That would leave it to the YPG, which I
> think is already the main component of the SDF, to do any fighting against
> a Turkish invasion. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if some
> forces in the SDF were to ally themselves with Turkey. And, as Michael
> seems to be saying, I think the YPG will call on Assad to enter the region;
> they will directly and openly align themselves with Assad. But, to repeat,
> it seems to me that the SDF overall will fragment and more or less cease to
> exist once the US leaves.
>
> As far what the "anti-imperialists" have to say: I've noticed that most of
> them maintain an embarrassed silence. I sent my article to a socialist
> discussion list which I'm on that has a couple of outspoken Assadists on
> it. Neither of them has raised his head above

[Marxism] Democracy Now discussion on will ISIS come back after a US troop withdrawal

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*AMY* *GOODMAN**:* Finally, before we go to break, Yazan, I wanted to ask
you about President Trump saying that ISIS has been destroyed, many people
calling this that George W. Bush moment when he said “mission accomplished”
in Iraq.

*YAZAN** AL-**SAADI**:* Yeah, I mean, it’s like—you know, it’s a very
Trumpian moment. I mean, he said it on Twitter. Wonderful, great.

I don’t think, I mean, whether—regardless if the U.S. remains or leaves,
what is the problem in battling ISIS is the same problem we’ve been seeing
since the start of the global war on terror 17 years ago. And you cannot
defeat extremism and terrorism with war. You need to offer alternatives.
You need to deal with the core issues that are driving these things, which
is political issues, social issues, economic issues—true liberation and
representation for the people and communities. And this is a major failure
we’re seeing, whether from, you know, the states—not just the U.S., I’m
talking about nation-states, internationally.

And the problem, as well, is that the global war on terror mentality,
discourse, ethos has been appropriated by a lot of governments worldwide.
And it’s been utterly destructive. I mean, I was thinking about it. There
is like a tragic reminiscence of like al-Qaeda. It seems like al-Qaeda was
a cup of tea compared to what we’re seeing today. And I do think we’re
going to see worse things tomorrow, because the key issues aren’t being
dealt with, and these powers that be are really not interested in dealing
with them, because this means a complete change of the *status quo*. This
means changing core issues, whether it’s discrimination, injustice—all
these things. So, they’re not interested. And actually, they benefit by
having this continual enemy. They always benefit, and we get screwed as
people.

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/20/trump_pledges_to_withdraw_us_ground
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Re: [Marxism] US withdrawal from Syria and myths of "regime change"

2018-12-21 Thread Chris Slee via Marxism

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John Reimann dismisses Patrick Cockburn as "saying very little".

I think Cockburn makes some good points.  He says the US troop withdrawal 
"makes it easier for the administration to revive the old US alliance with 
Turkey".

Erdogan wants to invade northeast Syria.  The US troop presence there has been 
an obstacle.  Trump will remove this obstacle.

After the fall of Mosul in 2014, the US became worried by the rise of ISIS, and 
began cooperating with the YPG and SDF to oppose it.

Trump is now shifting back to the pre-2014 US policy of fully supporting the 
Turkish state against the Kurdish left.

Other sections of the US ruling class want to keep troops in Syria, either 
because they still regard ISIS as a threat or for other reasons.  But Trump can 
plausibly claim that his policy is good for US imperialism, because it will 
restore good relations with Turkey, a very important ally.

Chris Slee

From: Marxism  on behalf of John Reimann 
via Marxism 
Sent: Saturday, 22 December 2018 5:10:06 AM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] US withdrawal from Syria and myths of "regime change"

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I think Michael Karadjis for his extremely well documented commentary on
the US involvement in Syria. A couple of additional points:

At times the "opponents" of US imperialism point to the comment of one or
another US official that Assad should go as proof of attempted regime
change. Often, these same people claim to be Marxists. But it is a
fundamental view of Marxism that a regime is no just one person. The head
of state rules through an apparatus, and it is exactly that apparatus that
US imperialism never ever even gave lip service to changing. Same with
Egypt. Even when Obama called for Mubarak to step down, he never even
implied that the apparatus that Mubarak had built up should be removed.

This is totally different from Iraq, where Bush & Co. removed the entire
Baath apparatus lock, stock and barrel. Now THAT was real regime change!
(Of course, nowadays the US regime doesn't even want to remove the head of
state in Syria, never mind his entire apparatus.)

On the SDF: My understanding of them is that they are an unstable alliance
of multiple different groups that has already had a tendency to fracture.
It also seems to me that what holds them together is the cover of the US
military. Once that is gone, it seems to me most likely that the SDF will
tend to completely fall apart. That would leave it to the YPG, which I
think is already the main component of the SDF, to do any fighting against
a Turkish invasion. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if some
forces in the SDF were to ally themselves with Turkey. And, as Michael
seems to be saying, I think the YPG will call on Assad to enter the region;
they will directly and openly align themselves with Assad. But, to repeat,
it seems to me that the SDF overall will fragment and more or less cease to
exist once the US leaves.

As far what the "anti-imperialists" have to say: I've noticed that most of
them maintain an embarrassed silence. I sent my article to a socialist
discussion list which I'm on that has a couple of outspoken Assadists on
it. Neither of them has raised his head above the parapet. Both Mintpress
and Globalresearch are saying this is a defeat for US imperialism, that it
shows the weakness of US imperialism. Beyond that, what Chossudovsky writes
on Global "Research"
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-trump-administration-isnt-ending-the-wars-in-syria-or-yemen-its-only-shifting-and-fighting-over-strategy/5663574
sounds very deep, but it's really incomprehensible. Max Blumenthal, UNAC,
and Veterans for Peace are silent on the issue. Ben Norton does an
interview with Patrick Coburn on the "Real" (sic) News (
https://therealnews.com/stories/medias-russia-obsession-obscures-how-trumps-syria-withdrawal-benefits-turkey-most?fbclid=IwAR0GRz8nHXBcmqOsJgFXPw8JlU8HfIfnq0Ly1AevcNpfco-gOIALfQgXaV8).
Both of them - especially Coburn - sound very learned and the latter talks
in a fair amount of detail about this and that, but when you put it all
together, he's basically saying very little except: (1) the withdrawal does
not benefit Russia (which is complete nonsense in my opinion; (2) turkey
will invade (duh!); (3) The YPG will turn to Assad (another duh).

John Reimann

--
*“In politics,

[Marxism] retired US Colonel Andrew Bacevich on the Mattis resignation

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You know, Mattis’s letter of resignation, that you quoted, when he talked
about his four decades of engagement with these matters, is very telling.
He represents the establishment’s perspective, that has evolved over the
course of those four decades. And for anyone who says—who looks at U.S.
policy over the past four decades, particularly in the Middle East, and
says, “Yeah, it’s really gone well,” then I would think that they would
view Mattis’s resignation as a disappointment.

.

That said, what they seem to not focus on is that the course that Mattis
represented—that is to say, the continuation of U.S. wars in the Middle
East that have produced nothing positive—that that supposed wisdom was not
going to, and has not and would not, produce anything positive, no matter
how long we persist.

…

You know, the fundamental question, it seems to me, is: Does the
continuation of these wars contribute—are they politically purposeful? Do
they contribute to some outcome that is either—that either advances U.S.
interests or is consistent with our ostensible moral values? And the
answer, of course, is no.

But again, it’s not as if Secretary Mattis, this supposed font of wisdom,
was offering any alternative, any course of action that would bring a
rationale to our policy in the Middle East that would cause these wars to
make strategic sense. Basically, he—and so much of the national security
establishment—wants to continue these wars, because, the truth is, they
can’t think of any alternative other than to, you know, press on.

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/21/andrew_bacevich_on_mattis_why_we
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[Marxism] Juan Cole - Mattis was no Shining Knight: From backing Yemen War to Whitewashing Khashoggi Murder

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https://www.juancole.com/2018/12/backing-whitewashing-khashoggi.html
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[Marxism] None of Us Deserve Citizenship – NY Times Opinion by Michelle Alexander

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/opinion/sunday/immigration-border-policy-citizenship.html

On what moral grounds can we deny others rights, privileges and
opportunities that we did not earn ourselves?

Late last month, 19-year-old Maryury Elizabeth Serrano-Hernandez reportedly

scaled
a wall along the United States-Mexico border while eight months pregnant
and gave birth within hours of placing her feet on American soil. She was
part of a widely publicized Central American caravan and traveled more than
2,000 miles from Honduras propelled by the dream of giving her new baby, as
well as her 3-year-old son, a life free from the violence and grinding
poverty she endured back home. She views her child’s birth in the United
States as a “big reward” for her courage, perseverance and faith. As she
explained

to
Univision, which documented parts of her family’s journey, “With faith in
God, I always said my son will be born there.”

For some Americans, Ms. Serrano-Hernandez’s story is nothing short of
heroic, given the suffering she endured and the extraordinary obstacles she
overcame to give her children a chance at a better life. For others, her
story represents everything that’s wrong with our immigration system.
The Border
Patrol said

that
Ms. Serrano-Hernandez and her family were released on their own
recognizance. Her newborn is, for many, just another “anchor baby,” proof
that a more aggressive and unforgiving approach to illegal immigration is
warranted and that Trump is right to call for an end to birthright
citizenship.

No matter what side of the debate one gravitates toward, stories like Ms.
Serrano-Hernandez’s highlight the moral quagmire that we’ve created by
treating the migration of desperately poor people as a problem that can
best be addressed by border walls, tear gas, detention camps, militarized
policing and mass deportation — except, of course, for the relative few,
truly “deserving” individuals who may be granted legal citizenship
(typically after years of waiting and hundreds or thousands of dollars in
attorney’s fees) if they can win asylum.

Questions abound: Does Ms. Serrano-Hernandez’s baby son deserve citizenship
because he was born here but not his 3-year-old sibling? Does everyone in
the family deserve citizenship now that one member has been born here? Or
does no one in the family deserve citizenship, even the baby, because the
parents crossed the border illegally?

Answering these questions may be easy legally, but they’re more difficult
morally. After all, none of us born here did anything to deserve our
citizenship. On what moral grounds can we deny others rights, privileges
and opportunities that we did not earn ourselves?

Jose Antonio Vargas’s powerful book “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented
Citizen” wrestles with the moral, emotional and psychological dimensions of
America’s perennial question: Who deserves citizenship? With remarkable
sensitivity to the extraordinarily wide range of people whose lives are
affected by our nation’s immigration policies, he writes from the
perspective of someone who was brought to this country illegally at the age
of 12 to live with his grandparents, leaving his mother in the Philippines.
Ever since his grandfather confessed to him, at age 16, that “you are not
supposed to be here,” he has battled deep feelings of unworthiness and has
striven to earn the right to belong. Yet no matter how much he achieved or
contributed — indeed, even after winning a Pulitzer Prize for journalism —
he still had the nagging feeling that he didn’t deserve to be here. Only
after being arrested near the border and held in a cell
with
a group of terrified undocumented boys who had been separated from their
families did he have an awakening: It was suddenly obvious to him that the
boys huddled near him deserved safety, security and a place they could call
home — a place where they could not only survive but also thrive. If they
deserved such a thing, he did too. “Home is not something I should have to
earn,” he wrote. It’s something we all have a right to.

Many people will sympathize with Mr. Vargas’s story but recoil at his bold
conclusion, as it seems to imply support for open borders — a position

[Marxism] The crisis of violence against women in Puerto Rico

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> In Puerto Rico a woman is murdered every 14 days. Twenty-four women were
> murdered at the hands of their intimate partners or exes in Puerto Rico in
> 2018 alone.
>
> The grim reality is that thousands of women in Puerto Rico suffer from
> aggression, intimidation or some type of expression of male violence daily,
> including physical, emotional and sexual violence. The statistics are
> frightening and continue to get worse with every passing day.
>
> In response to this crisis, the Colectiva Feminista en Construcción
> (Feminist Collective in Construction) has led the way in building a
> movement against gender-based violence in Puerto Rico.
>
> The lack of action on the part of the government has contributed to a
> great upsurge in gender-based violence in Puerto Rico. The violence is
> fueled by many factors in society, and there are many interrelated forms of
> violence.
>
> The public bankrolling of Fiscal Control Board, the body which is
> responsible for bankrupting the country, has contributed. So has the
> cutting of public services and resources, which plunges more people into
> poverty every day. The closing of hundreds of public schools and the
> elimination of gender studies programs has contributed to the violence —
> and it is, on its own, a form of violence. As we know well, where there is
> neoliberal austerity and growing inequality, violence against women
> increases.
>
> https://truthout.org/articles/the-epidemic-of-violence-against-women-in-puerto-rico/
>
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] Noam Chomsky says US should stay in Syria to protect the Kurds

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Regarding the points raised by RKOB:

All the nationalist leaders of the oppressed Kurdish people had a very
simple choice to make early on. They could make an appeal to and link up
with the working class in their respective countries (Turkey, Iran,
etc.) or not. It's entirely possible that none of them intended to end
up relying on US, or French, or any other imperialist power. But politics
has a funny way of sending leaders down a road that, at times, they never
intended to travel. Once they took the road of pure nationalism, minus a
class perspective and minus an international class perspective, and once
they'd traveled down that road for a time, then it was too late to go back.
They were forced to end up where they are - relying on one imperialist
power or another.

Well, that's a bit of an overreach. In the case of the PYD, I think what's
most likely is that they will end up relying on Assad, who's not exactly
the head of an imperialist power, but his government is no better.

Meanwhile, the PYD is also denying that that's where they are. Here's an
interesting comment from Salih Muslim, diplomatic relations co-chair of the
PYD:  “They [the US troops] weren’t here to protect us in any case. We rely
on our own strength and defense. We are at a point of legitimate self
defense. That much has never been lacking. It is their business to decide
whether they stay or go. Our interests coincided, we acted together, but we
never relied on them.” (See the full article here:
https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/muslim-we-didn-t-call-them-we-re-not-sending-them-away-31568?fbclid=IwAR3PVZl1xWNpU643hhUPd_5t42ezvY8bDzNFFNlY8Chgb5M6oe3tVGU3Fag
)

I think the comment is made for internal consumption as well as for
consumption of his international supporters, because it's clearly BS.

John Reimann
-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] Censored by Facebook – Souciant


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http://souciant.com/2018/12/censored-by-facebook/
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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: A short digression on Minister Louis Farrakhan | Washington Babylon

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I agree with the article. The white media doesn't criticize Farrakhan
because they mourn Malcolm or oppose homophobia. They oppose him because
the Nation offers something to Black America that their rotten system
doesn't.

On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 11:50 AM Andrew Stewart via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

> http://secure-web.cisco.com/1F7HM_HYNzKHHU4W4iuFGXUxSmsu2v-TLzjcIUNnQLl018REHN8ZCAX9-QQHLT6_BkTk0qEqL4G6Z6Nr03buSgzODBqYTb6BEeEKLrq-tlkl9Owej11azRh5BSCZol5PDTd1oz0H9LrXt7wAjFNvZE0wCoWwwvXRSv0VK21EXg27XmAvrajEhcWMitXQA7ecr-KF61nwmvotmlu8cAub7EB_4FbTP1r-MC0pHRLBgwPwQFzvqfywLTvWsfBXDJyKQ6OSk_6ysz7y-hEX1Bs8ajS1vYhyTGgcyE04f8_A8UMjg8pnpVhchUvQ4TNudiDpuuoheMoqz8_Ko-f0jJiCvKN965va2L4CGrwlDWnQP3sovymvKyiLeD6GwI6I8jKO1/http%3A%2F%2Fwashingtonbabylon.com%2Fshort-digression-farrakhan%2F
>
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] US withdrawal from Syria and myths of "regime change"

I think Michael Karadjis for his extremely well documented commentary on
the US involvement in Syria. A couple of additional points:

At times the "opponents" of US imperialism point to the comment of one or
another US official that Assad should go as proof of attempted regime
change. Often, these same people claim to be Marxists. But it is a
fundamental view of Marxism that a regime is no just one person. The head
of state rules through an apparatus, and it is exactly that apparatus that
US imperialism never ever even gave lip service to changing. Same with
Egypt. Even when Obama called for Mubarak to step down, he never even
implied that the apparatus that Mubarak had built up should be removed.

This is totally different from Iraq, where Bush & Co. removed the entire
Baath apparatus lock, stock and barrel. Now THAT was real regime change!
(Of course, nowadays the US regime doesn't even want to remove the head of
state in Syria, never mind his entire apparatus.)

On the SDF: My understanding of them is that they are an unstable alliance
of multiple different groups that has already had a tendency to fracture.
It also seems to me that what holds them together is the cover of the US
military. Once that is gone, it seems to me most likely that the SDF will
tend to completely fall apart. That would leave it to the YPG, which I
think is already the main component of the SDF, to do any fighting against
a Turkish invasion. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if some
forces in the SDF were to ally themselves with Turkey. And, as Michael
seems to be saying, I think the YPG will call on Assad to enter the region;
they will directly and openly align themselves with Assad. But, to repeat,
it seems to me that the SDF overall will fragment and more or less cease to
exist once the US leaves.

As far what the "anti-imperialists" have to say: I've noticed that most of
them maintain an embarrassed silence. I sent my article to a socialist
discussion list which I'm on that has a couple of outspoken Assadists on
it. Neither of them has raised his head above the parapet. Both Mintpress
and Globalresearch are saying this is a defeat for US imperialism, that it
shows the weakness of US imperialism. Beyond that, what Chossudovsky writes
on Global "Research"
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-trump-administration-isnt-ending-the-wars-in-syria-or-yemen-its-only-shifting-and-fighting-over-strategy/5663574
sounds very deep, but it's really incomprehensible. Max Blumenthal, UNAC,
and Veterans for Peace are silent on the issue. Ben Norton does an
interview with Patrick Coburn on the "Real" (sic) News (
https://therealnews.com/stories/medias-russia-obsession-obscures-how-trumps-syria-withdrawal-benefits-turkey-most?fbclid=IwAR0GRz8nHXBcmqOsJgFXPw8JlU8HfIfnq0Ly1AevcNpfco-gOIALfQgXaV8).
Both of them - especially Coburn - sound very learned and the latter talks
in a fair amount of detail about this and that, but when you put it all
together, he's basically saying very little except: (1) the withdrawal does
not benefit Russia (which is complete nonsense in my opinion; (2) turkey
will invade (duh!); (3) The YPG will turn to Assad (another duh).

John Reimann

--
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[Marxism] France’s Yellow Vests Reveal a Crisis of Mobility in All Its Forms


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NY Times, Dec. 21, 2018
France’s Yellow Vests Reveal a Crisis of Mobility in All Its Forms
By Michael Kimmelman

SENLIS, France — After more than a month of furious, antigovernment 
demonstrations across France, it is easy to forget that a gasoline tax 
set all this off.


A few cents per liter at the pump. A pebble in the sea of the French 
economy. A step to address climate change, according to President 
Emmanuel Macron.


Of course, that’s not how millions of workers who depend on their cars 
saw it.


Mobility is the story of globalization and its inequities. Mobility 
means more than trains, planes and automobiles, after all. It also 
includes social and economic mobility — being too poor to afford a car, 
being rich enough to transfer money out of the country. These are all 
inextricably linked. Weeks of protests by the Yellow Vests have made 
that clear.


Many of these protesters, predominantly white working poor and 
middle-class people who scrape by on their paychecks and pensions, live 
in what the author Christophe Guilluy has called “peripheral France.” 
The term is meant to imply both a state of being and the thousands of 
small, struggling cities, towns and rural districts beyond the 
inner-ring suburbs of places like Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon or Lille.


“As small businesses have been dying in these smaller cities and towns, 
people find themselves forced to seek jobs elsewhere and to shop even 
for basic goods in malls,” said Alexis Spire, a French sociologist. 
“They need cars to survive, because regional trains and buses have 
declined or no longer serve them. Once you begin to unpack the Yellow 
Vest phenomenon, the uprising is a lot about mobility.”


Experts have been drawing parallels between the Yellow Vests and the 
social rifts exposed by Donald J. Trump’s election in the United States 
and Britain’s plan to leave the European Union. But there are also 
larger trends at work in France, involving the evolution of cities, the 
impact of cars, and the geography of race and class — trends rooted in 
the postwar years.


In 1947, the book “Paris and the French Desert,” by a young geographer 
named Jean-François Gravier, helped inspire Charles de Gaulle to 
reorganize the country — decentralizing resources, redistributing 
industry, promoting regional cities and creating new towns linked by a 
nationwide web of publicly funded rail lines.


Modern, decentralized France spread a promise of prosperity and 
mobility. For decades, the promise was kept. Until it wasn’t.


As a handful of big cities thrived with globalization, France’s regional 
governments, saddled with more financial burdens, became caught in a 
vicious cycle. Capital disappeared along with factories and jobs. 
Revenues shrank, debts mounted and infrastructure declined.


Among the hardest hit services were the regional railways, run by the 
French rail company, SNCF, which overwhelmingly invested in high-speed 
trains that served the big, prospering cities and is now $56 billion in 
debt. With service atrophying, people need their cars.


The gasoline tax “exposed a profound cultural fracture,” said Olivier 
Galland, a director at the National Center for Scientific Research.


On a recent morning, I visited a highway roundabout at Senlis, in the 
northern region of Oise, where two dozen Yellow Vest protesters huddled 
around a trash-can fire, sipping cups of tomato soup. Passing drivers 
honked in sympathy.


It’s no accident that the movement takes its name from the Day-Glo vests 
that French motorists are required to keep in their vehicles. Like the 
fuel tax, the vests are a burden imposed on drivers by the state, and, 
for a population that has felt ignored, they also are an ideal, 
ready-made tool for getting noticed.


“The government makes us pay for these ourselves,” Valérie Lemaire, one 
of the protesters at the roundabout, said, pointing to her jacket and 
stamping her feet in the freezing mud. “We pay, pay, pay.”


Oise is peripheral France. It includes Senlis, a pretty, prosperous 
bedroom community. But it is also an area where deindustrialization and 
inadequate public transit have taken a toll.


Just across the road from the Yellow Vest encampment is a new Amazon 
depot, which offers warehouse jobs. This area used to have better-paying 
factories. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport — less than an hour’s drive 
to the south on the highway, depending on traffic — is the major 
employer these days. Creil, 15 minutes from Senlis, is a poor city of 
35,000 with a largely vacant downtown and blocks of public housing. It 
is home to many baggage handlers and airport security guards.


There’s no direct

Re: [Marxism] A short digression on Minister Louis Farrakhan | Washington Babylon

2018-12-21 Thread Ismail Lagardien via Marxism

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I read this... Commented on Twitter. It is sad. There were Germans who spoke 
highly of Hitler, and praised him for what he did "for the German people". 
There were Italians who praised Mussolini. Pol Pot had his supporters etc etc
Farrakhan is a dreadful human being, a bigot and a dangerous man. 

Dr Ismail LagardienVisiting ProfessorWits University School of Governance

Nihil humani a me alienum puto
 

On Friday, 21 December 2018, 18:51:07 GMT+2, Andrew Stewart via Marxism 
 wrote:  
 
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http://washingtonbabylon.com/short-digression-farrakhan/


Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
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Re: [Marxism] Why I?m Suing Max Blumenthal and Benjamin Norton ? Sulome Anderson ? Medium

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I'm not against it at all. She is absolutely doing the right thing. How
else can reporters like her protect herself? Simply combatting their lies
by writing the truth has zero effect. None. This is not a matter of a
political difference; this is a matter of agents of a repressive government
- the Putin regime - trying to silence a reporter. My only criticism of her
is that she's reluctant to do so.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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[Marxism] A short digression on Minister Louis Farrakhan | Washington Babylon

2018-12-21 Thread Andrew Stewart via Marxism

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http://washingtonbabylon.com/short-digression-farrakhan/


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[Marxism] Can the Working Class Change the World? | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist


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The cover for Michael Yates’s “Can the Working Class Change the World?” 
was a stroke of genius. Ralph Fasanella’s “The Great Strike (IWW Textile 
Strike, 1912)” sets the tone for a book that has deep roots in 
working-class struggles in the USA and that shares the artist’s 
solidarity with the people who take part in them. Fasanella’s father 
delivered ice to people in his Bronx neighborhood and his mother worked 
in a neighborhood dress shop drilling holes into buttons. In her spare 
time, she was an anti-fascist activist. The family’s experience informed 
his art just as Michael Yates’s working class roots and long career as a 
labor activist and educator shapes his latest book.


Many years ago when I was a Trotskyist activist, the party was consumed 
with how to reach working people. To be frank, we would have learned 
more from Michael’s books than reading Leon Trotsky especially given the 
life experience outlined in the opening paragraph of the preface:


BY ANY IMAGINABLE DEFINITION of the working class, I was born into it. 
Almost every member of my extended family—parents, grandparents, uncles, 
aunts, and cousins—were wage laborers. They mined coal, hauled steel, 
made plate glass, labored on construction sites and as office 
secretaries, served the wealthy as domestic workers, clerked in company 
stores, cleaned offices and homes, took in laundry, cooked on tugboats, 
even unloaded trucks laden with dynamite. I joined the labor force at 
twelve and have been in it ever since, delivering newspapers, serving as 
a night watchman at a state park, doing clerical work in a factory, 
grading papers for a professor, selling life insurance, teaching in 
colleges and universities, arbitrating labor disputes, consulting for 
attorneys, desk clerking at a hotel, editing a magazine and books.


full: 
https://louisproyect.org/2018/12/21/can-the-working-class-change-the-world/

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[Marxism] SDF: US withdrawal will leave military, political ‘vacuum’ in no


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The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued a statement on 
Thursday criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US 
forces from northeast Syria, warning the move will leave civilians “to 
the claws of enemy forces”.


“The decision to pull out will directly affect the efforts to fully rout 
the terrorist organization, and it will have dangerous repercussions 
that will affect the global stability and peace,” the SDF said in a 
statement, published online.


“It will also be disappointing to the people of the area for security 
and stability, as a pull out in such circumstances will lead to a 
condition of instability and insecurity, creating a political and 
military vacuum in the area, leaving the people to the claws of enemy 
forces.”


http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/201220183
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Re: [Marxism] Noam Chomsky says US should stay in Syria to protect the Kurds

2018-12-21 Thread RKOB via Marxism


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No doubt, this tells a lot about the "anti-imperialism" of a) Chomsky 
and b) the YPG/SDF.


By the way: the YPG/SDF sent yesterday two leaders to Paris to negotiate 
with Macron about getting support of French imperialism after the U.S. 
let them down (what a surprise! who could have seen this coming that the 
U.S. is no loyal supporter?!)


I am sure that the YPG/SDF will also intensify negotiations with Russian 
imperialism and the Assad regime.


They are always looking for a master to serve (in exchange for some 
concessions/material aid). The masters change, the rotten method remains 
the same.


Supporting the Syrian revolutionary masses from the beginning in 2011 
was never an option for them.


In itself, this is not surpring. We have seen the same bourgeois method 
with the Barzani's in Iraq etc. What is surprising (or may be not so 
much) is the Western and Russian Stalinist, libertarian and "Trotskyist" 
left which were praising them in all those years!


The oppressed Kurdish people have certainly not deserved such sell-outs 
and mercaneries like the YPG/SDF at their leadership! Hopefully they 
will push them aside and create a better leadership which will fight 
honestly for national self-determination of the Kurdish people - side on 
side with the popular masses in the Arab world fighting against 
oppression and dictatorships!


Am 21.12.2018 um 14:58 schrieb Louis Proyect via Marxism:

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http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/13cf816e-8e40-41c8-bb76-d453a3261d8b
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[Marxism] Rag Radio 2018-12-16 - Gilbert Shelton, Famed Freak Bros Artist, and Graphic Novel Publisher Paul Buhle


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https://archive.org/details/RagRadio2018-12-16-GilbertSheltonPaulBuhle
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[Marxism] Viktor Orban and Scott Walker: “Reconsider It!”


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This economic “development” strategy’s chief contradiction is it pushes 
labor to “vote” with their feet, as the late Albert O. Hirschman argued 
in his 1970 classic work on this subject. Both, Orban and Walker boast 
low-unemployment rates. Yet, their wage-suppression policies have both 
led to workers leave. Hungary’s emigration problem is well known, but 
few know that Wisconsin under Walker is in the top 10 states in the US 
that people exit. Working-age emigration both holds down unemployment 
rates, but eventually puts upward pressure on wages. What to do? If you 
are Viktor Orban, pass the “Slave Law” ensuring business has more labor 
hours at lower compensation, even though in the long run it pushes even 
more workers to move. If you are Scott Walker, bust unions (with 
anti-union “Right to Work” legislation) and legislate limitations on 
compensation increases to public workers (“Act 10,” the signature 
legislation suppressing public worker pay). After that, launch ad 
campaigns trying to attract young workers back from neighboring states 
your policies pushed out.


https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/21/viktor-orban-and-scott-walker-reconsider-it/
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[Marxism] Noam Chomsky says US should stay in Syria to protect the Kurds


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http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/13cf816e-8e40-41c8-bb76-d453a3261d8b
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[Marxism] All That Was Solid


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Economic historian Adam Tooze on a decade of shattered illusions and the 
limits of the neoliberal imagination.


https://jacobinmag.com/2018/12/all-that-was-solid
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[Marxism] Different perspectives, different objectives - Weekly Worker


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Part of an ongoing debate over Lars Lih's (and Eric Blanc, for that 
matter) claim that there was no difference between what Lenin was 
writing in 1905 and what he wrote in the April Theses, namely that the 
"democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry" was just 
an algebraic formulation consistent with socialist revolution. I should 
mention that Jack Barnes and the Australian DSP shared Lih's analysis.


https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1232/different-perspectives-different-objectives/
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[Marxism] US withdrawal from Syria and myths of "regime change"

2018-12-21 Thread mkaradjis via Marxism

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John: “this removal [of US troops] is a nod towards Erdogan, which means
pulling the rug out from under guess who... the PYD, who depend on US
forces to remain in power.”

Yes, it’s a nod towards Erdogan, and also towards Assad, and of course
towards the big ally of both, Trump’s friends in Russia, who of course
praised Trump’s decision


John points out rightly that “nowhere in the editorial is "removing Assad"
mentioned as a goal.”

Of course not, and of course it never has been a US goal. I suppose it is
no coincidence that Trump’s order to withdraw comes a few days after his
special envoy to Syria, Jim Jeffrey, declared that while the US wants to
see a regime in Damascus that is “fundamentally different,” nevertheless,
“it's not regime change” the US is seeking, “we're not trying to get rid of
Assad.”


However, I say “I suppose” because it is not as if this is the first time
the US declared it was not trying to get rid of Assad or carry out regime
change. Those statements have been going on for years (especially under
Trump, but also before). Of course, even before US leaders began declaring
this openly, “removing Assad” was never the US policy at any time, that was
only the figment of feverish alt-left and far-right imaginations, but let’s
just focus on the open declarations, because the interesting thing is that,
on every such occasion, the media pumped out the same discourse of
“surprise” and “policy reversal” and “no longer” (!) focused on regime
change (I wonder how many times you can “no longer” be doing something
you’re already “no longer” doing?).

-  In 2016, declaring that the US was “not seeking so-called regime
change as it is known in Syria,” Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry
added that the US and Russia see the conflict "fundamentally very similarly
."

-  In March 2017, Trump’s UN representative, Nikki Haley, declared
that the Trump administration was “no longer” focused on removing Assad
 “*the way the previous
administration was*.”

-  The same month, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary,
noted that “The United States has profound priorities in Syria and Iraq,
and we’ve made it clear that counterterrorism, particularly the defeat of
ISIS, is foremost among those priorities. With respect to Assad,

there is a political reality that we have to accept.”

-  In July 2017, then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson clarified
that the only fight in Syria is with ISIS
,
that Assad’s future is Russia’s issue
,
and he essentially called the regime allies: “We call upon all parties,
including the Syrian government and its allies, Syrian opposition forces,
and Coalition forces carrying out the battle to defeat ISIS, to avoid
conflict with one another

…”

-  Following the one-off US strike on an empty Assadist air-base
after Assad’s horrific chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib,
US National Security Advisor HR McMaster clarified that the US had no
concern with the fact that the base was being used to bomb Syrians again
the very next day, because harming Assad’s military capacities was not the
aim of the strike; and far from “regime change”, the US desired a “change
in *the nature of the Assad regime*

and its *behavior* in particular.” [note: not a change in the nature of the
regime, a change in the nature of the *Assad* regime].

-  Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s speech in January
 2018 focused
on supporting the Geneva process for a “political solution,” but now the US
no longer expected Assad to stand down at the beginning of a transition
phase as under early Obama, *or even at its end* as under late Obama;
rather, US policy was to wait for an eventual “free election” under Assad:
“The United States believes that free and transparent elections … will
result in the permanent departure

[Marxism] Democrats Just Blocked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Push For A Green New Deal Committee | HuffPost