Re: [Marxism] Syria's Unfinished Revolution

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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Ashley Smith says that "...the PYD never extended solidarity to the revolution, 
preferring to consolidate their own one-party state".

Firstly, Smith is incorrect when he describes Rojava as a "one-party state".  
Referring to the local council elections held in northern Syria in 2017, Joseph 
Daher reports that: "The elections included 21 parties that represented Kurds, 
Arabs, Christians and Assyrians from Rojava, with more than 12,000 candidates". 
 (Syria After the Uprisings, p. 180)

It is true that the PYD has at times carried out repressive measures against 
opposition parties, but this to be expected in a society at war and under siege 
(cf. Russia 1918, Cuba today).

Secondly, the PYD aims to make a democratic revolution, but considers that much 
of the rebel movement is anti-democratic.  There are some quite reactionary 
rebel groups (religiously sectarian and/or ethnically chauvinist) which are 
hated and feared by religious and ethnic minorities.  The PYD does not see such 
groups as revolutionary.

Chris Slee


From: Marxism  on behalf of Louis Proyect 
via Marxism 
Sent: Thursday, 2 January 2020 2:36:03 AM
To: Chris Slee 
Subject: [Marxism] Syria's Unfinished Revolution

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Ashley Smith reviews:

Syria After the Uprisings:
The Political Economy of State Resilience
By Joseph Daher
Haymarket Books, 2019, 386 pages, $29 paperback.

https://solidarity-us.org/atc/204/syria-unfinished-rev/
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[Marxism] The 22 Convention: Make Women Great Again™

[MM via Marxism]

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Not The Onion:

"Women today are being taught to act more like men. Where has that led us? 
Skyrocketing rates of divorce, depression, dysfunction, and America at the #1 
spot in the world for single motherhood. No longer will you have to give in to 
toxic bullying feminist dogma and go against your ancient, biological nature as 
a woman.

…

"Hiding under a mask of fake progress, feminism today has become a radical 
assault on all forms of positive femininity - you know, the one hard coded into 
your DNA. Through an onslaught of anti-feminine propaganda spanning 
generations, women today have been pushed to act like men and DENY their own 
feminine nature. This has left millions of women feeling unhappy, confused, 
frustrated, and hopeless.  At The 22 Convention, you will learn the truth that 
unhealthy militant feminists have been hiding from you your entire life."

https://22convention.com/



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[Marxism] Jordan Peterson finds readers in China

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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Jordan Peterson finds an unlikely readership in China, even after censors 
stripped away entire sections of his book

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-jordan-peterson-found-an-unlikely-readership-in-china-even-after/
 


“Many Chinese young people hate political correctness, such as the idea of 
feminism and equality for all,” said Wei Jianfeng, a prominent online writer 
who has praised Mr. Peterson’s book on social media. ”Mr. Peterson stands out, 
telling people that he’s tired of these baizuo, too,” he said, using a Chinese 
epithet for people they see as naive foreign liberals. Canada’s Prime Minister 
is high on that list.
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[Marxism] Interview with Danish anti-imperialist and former bank robber

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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*In 1991, you were sentenced to ten years in prison because of your
anti-imperialist activities. Now, 25 years later, you have written a book
titled **The Global Perspective: Reflections on Imperialism and Resistance**.
Has nothing changed?*

Everything has changed in order to stay the same: The industrialization of
the Global South and the global chains of production have intensified
imperialism. Superprofits for capital have increased, while the. . .

full at:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/07/11/interview-with-danish-anti-imperialist/
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[Marxism] Che's Marx/Engels reading list

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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Che was an avid reader and student of the founders of scientific
socialism.  At the end of his short political biography of Marx and Engels,
Che presents. . .

full at:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/16/che-guevara-recommends-ches-marxengels-reading-list/
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[Marxism] YPJ commander Washukani: A free woman means a free society (ANF)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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https://anfenglishmobile.com/women/ypj-commander-washukani-a-free-woman-means-a-free-society-40481
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Re: [Marxism] 100 Years of U.S. Communism

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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I can't believe Wald left out Cannon's History, the bulk of which is at:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/ltrindex.htm
 See also Bryan Palmer's biography of Cannon.


>
>
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[Marxism] Hospitals and Schools Are Being Bombed in Syria. A U.N. Inquiry Is Limited. We Took a Deeper Look. - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Best seen at NYT website for graphics.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/31/world/middleeast/syria-united-nations-investigation.html
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[Marxism] 100 Years of U.S. Communism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By Alan Wald.

https://solidarity-us.org/atc/204/us-cp-at-100/
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[Marxism] Syria's Unfinished Revolution

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Ashley Smith reviews:

Syria After the Uprisings:
The Political Economy of State Resilience
By Joseph Daher
Haymarket Books, 2019, 386 pages, $29 paperback.

https://solidarity-us.org/atc/204/syria-unfinished-rev/
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[Marxism] Dr. Manhattan is a Cop: "Watchmen" and Frantz Fanon - Los Angeles Review of Books

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/dr-manhattan-cop-watchmen-frantz-fanon/
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[Marxism] Science Panel Staffed With Trump Appointees Says E.P.A. Rollbacks Lack Scientific Rigor

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Jan. 1, 2020
Science Panel Staffed With Trump Appointees Says E.P.A. Rollbacks Lack 
Scientific Rigor

By Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman

WASHINGTON — A top panel of government-appointed scientists, many of 
them hand-selected by the Trump administration, said on Tuesday that 
three of President Trump’s most far-reaching and scrutinized proposals 
to weaken major environmental regulations are at odds with established 
science.


Draft letters posted online Tuesday by the Environmental Protection 
Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board, which is responsible for evaluating 
the scientific integrity of the agency’s regulations, took aim at the 
Trump administration’s rewrite of an Obama-era regulation of waterways, 
an Obama-era effort to curb planet-warming vehicle tailpipe emissions 
and a plan to limit scientific data that can be used to draft health 
regulations.


In each case, the 41 scientists on a board — many of whom were appointed 
by Trump administration officials to replace scientists named by the 
Obama administration — found the regulatory changes flew in the face of 
science.


A forthcoming rule on water pollution “neglects established science” by 
“failing to acknowledge watershed systems,” the scientists said. They 
found “no scientific justification” for excluding certain bodies of 
water from protection under the new regulations.


They saw “significant weaknesses in the scientific analysis of the 
proposed rule” to roll back vehicle emission standards, a centerpiece of 
the Obama administration’s effort to combat climate change.


As for the proposal to limit scientific data in health regulations, the 
scientists wrote that “key considerations that should inform the 
proposed rule have been omitted from the proposal or presented without 
analysis.”


The letters come as the Trump administration contends with mounting 
criticism that its policies have ignored, distorted or marginalized 
scientific data at the expense of the environment, public health and 
legal obligations.


Legal experts said the advisory body’s opinion could undermine the Trump 
administration’s rollbacks in the courts. “The courts basically say if 
you’re going to ignore the advice of your own experts you have to have 
really good reasons for that,” said Patrick Parenteau, a professor of 
law with the Vermont Law School. “And not just policy reasons but 
reasons that go to the merits of what the critiques are saying.”


Many scientists on the advisory board were selected by Trump 
administration officials early in the administration, as President Trump 
sought to move forward with an aggressive agenda of weakening 
environmental regulations. During the first year of the Trump 
administration, more than a quarter of the academic scientists on the 
panel departed or were dismissed, and many were replaced by scientists 
with industry ties who were perceived as likely to be more friendly to 
the industries that the E.P.A. regulates.


“We are trying to give the E.P.A. the best science it can in order to 
make decisions,” said Dr. Michael Honeycutt, the new head of the 
E.P.A.’s scientific advisory board, who had a reputation at the Texas 
Council on Environmental Quality for supporting policies that were more 
lax than those pushed by the federal government.


“We’re all scientists,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “I’ve never 
worked with a group of people more dedicated to trying to get the 
science right. We take this very seriously.”


Corry Schiermeyer, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., said on Tuesday that 
the agency “always appreciates and respects the work and advice” of the 
scientific advisory board, while noting that Tuesday’s letters are 
drafts and could still be revised.


Some early critics of the Trump administration’s purge of the 
advisory-panel members said on Tuesday that their judgments may have 
been misplaced. Chris Zarba, who previously served as director of the 
E.P.A. science panel, credited the group for insisting on doing a 
comprehensive review of E.P.A. rules and said the work the group did 
points to the importance of the board remaining independent.


“It certainly looks like they were raising some very serious issues. I 
give them credit so far for stepping up and putting science first,” Mr. 
Zarba said.


Peter Wilcoxen, professor of public administration at Syracuse 
University, said he took the criticism as a hopeful sign. “The people on 
the board, regardless of what their affiliation was when they were 
appointed to it, took their role of trying to have the agency do the 
best science possible seriously. They weren’t on there just to try to 
politically steer 

[Marxism] From the Brig to Mar-a-Lago, Former Navy SEAL Capitalizes on Newfound Fame

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Jan. 1, 2020
From the Brig to Mar-a-Lago, Former Navy SEAL Capitalizes on Newfound Fame
By Dave Philipps

A year ago, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher was wearing 
drab prison scrubs at a brig near San Diego, facing murder charges that 
could have sent him to prison for the rest of his life. Now he is 
modeling his own lifestyle clothing brand, endorsing nutrition 
supplements and positioning himself as a conservative influencer with 
close ties to the man who helped clear him — President Trump.


Chief Gallagher was acquitted this summer of charges that he shot at 
civilians and killed a wounded captive with a knife while serving as a 
platoon leader in Iraq. The punishment for his lone conviction — posing 
for a grisly trophy photo with the dead captive’s body — was reversed 
this fall by President Trump, who has repeatedly praised him. At a 
political rally in Florida, he called him “one of the ultimate fighters.”


Now, Chief Gallagher is using his controversial past as a springboard to 
social media followers and branding opportunities. Beyond repping coffee 
beans and protein shakes, he is making appearances at influential 
conservative gatherings and rubbing elbows with Mr. Trump’s inner circle 
at Mar-a-Lago.


Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, 
who has openly criticized Chief Gallagher, said that the square-jawed, 
blue-eyed SEAL has been a valuable political weapon for the Trump 
administration.


“Trump is a master of casting, and Gallagher is a perfect fit,” said Mr. 
Rieckhoff, who now hosts the Angry Americans podcast. “He’s handsome, 
he’s heroic, he’s got a beautiful wife. He’s a Rambo version of the same 
story Trump has been telling over and over: The deep state is trying to 
screw you, the media is bad, and the rich people don’t understand you. 
But I’ll stick up for you.”


The partnership is valuable for Chief Gallagher, too, Mr. Rieckhoff 
said, because in raising his profile in conservative circles, he can 
cash in on book deals, speaking engagements and other business 
opportunities.


Chief Gallagher has appeared regularly on Fox News and other outlets, 
but declined through his lawyer to speak with The New York Times about 
his current projects. In an email, his lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said: 
“Chief Gallagher is happy to respond to inquiries by legitimate 
journalists looking to publish factual pieces, but has no time for 
propagandists who put out knowingly false statements masquerading as fact.”


On Instagram, the chief and his wife have been outspoken, touting both 
the president and the various consumer products they are backing. (Their 
Instagram account has twice blocked a New York Times correspondent who 
has covered his case over the past year.)


“Brotherhood isn’t just a statement, it’s a way of life,” Chief 
Gallagher said in a statement explaining his apparel line, called Salty 
Frog Gear. Described as a “coastal lifestyle brand with an edge,” it 
features T-shirts that read “stay salty,” and hooded sweatshirts, with a 
custom front pocket designed to hold a beer bottle.


Following the lead of many micro influencers, Chief Gallagher’s 
Instagram account has also endorsed veteran-owned coffee beans and 
muscle-building supplements with macabre names like Double Tap and Total 
War. Like a sponsored athlete of the world’s most dangerous sport, he 
regularly shows off the logos and clothing of a number of right-wing 
veterans’ groups that push a distinct brand of patriotism, including an 
apparel brand run by the SEAL veteran who made the knife Chief Gallagher 
was accused of using to kill a captive. Along with all sorts of items 
emblazoned with the logo “KILL BAD DUDES,” the site sells a 
“Waterboarding Instructor” shirt.


Chief Gallagher and his wife have also set up an online shop selling 
T-shirts that mock the Navy and the SEALs who testified against him in 
court, calling them “mean girls.”


Chief Gallagher’s lawyer said the SEAL was writing a book about his 
career, but declined to provide details about whether he had signed a 
publishing deal or with whom.


To be sure, Chief Gallagher is hardly the first Navy SEAL to market his 
past. So many SEALs have published war stories and booked public 
speaking gigs in recent years that the satirical news site, The Onion, 
published an article announcing “Navy Forms Elite New SEAL Team to Write 
Best-Selling Tell-All Books.”


But Chief Gallagher is the first to do it in the wake of a war crime 
court-martial, and the only one who has sought to tie his public persona 
so closely to a political party and a divisive commander in chief.