Re: [Marxism] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution
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 3/8/16 9:12 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote: In any case, comrades have to understand that this analysis is shared by a huge majority of the left with few people having a clue who Sam Marcy was. When he backed the Russian tanks against Hungarians fighting Stalinist oppression in 1956, he anticipated much of what can be read on CounterPunch on a daily basis. Not just there, but all over the place--like Stephen Cohen in the Nation, Patrick L. Smith in Salon, the LRB ad nauseam. As has always been the case, Stalinism, crypto-Stalinism, and liberal realpolitik are joined at the hip. In terms of crypto-Stalinism (ie. Marcyites) and liberal realpolitik being joined at the hip, Annis has just posted a Nation magazine article by James Carden on his website. It might have been written by Stephen Cohen, so closely it maps to the RT.com/Assadist agenda: "The new cold warriors who are the dominant voices within America’s military-media-think tank nexus seem to fear nothing more than the prospect of peace breaking out in Syria. Part of the reason for this is, of course, ideological, but it is hard not to draw the conclusion that they surmise, perhaps correctly, that if the next round of peace talks in Geneva, set for March 9, are met with success, then the prospects for the new cold war that they are so desperate to wage will be dealt a serious setback." https://newcoldwar.org/new-cold-warriors-bare-fangs-ahead-next-round-syria-peace-talks/ Annis identifies Carden as "a contributing writer at The Nation and the executive editor for the American Committee for East-West Accord." Now who can be against East-West accord? That's just the sort of thing that people like Cohen, Carden and Annis are for as long as means that Russia will have the freedom to bomb apartment buildings just as it did in Grozny. Any attempts by those being bombed to get their hands on anti-aircraft missiles would be a terrible escalation that brings us closer to WWIII, doncha know. In the interests of world peace, it is much better for cluster bombs, missiles and other forms of high explosives to keep the jihadist rabble at bay. Too bad that Annis neglects to mention that Carden is also a regular contributor to the American Conservative magazine where you can see his article praising "The ‘Good Society’ Realism of Zbigniew Brzezinski" (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-good-society-realism-of-zbigniew-brzezinski/). The article is an encomium to Zbigniew Brzezinski and the man who had the greatest influence on him--George Kennan. Surely you've heard of George Kennan? He was mentioned by Noam Chomsky as the author of State Department Policy Study 23, issued in 1948 that stated: "The U.S. has about 50 percent of the world’s wealth but only 6.3 percent of its population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security." Just the sort of guy we need to clasp hands with in the interests of peace. _ 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] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution
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. * Annis' piece of Stalinist drivel and apologia for mass murder is embarrassing, but also his entire premise that it is a "defeat" for the US by Russian diplomacy is absurd; as if the entire "peace process"/ceasefire, with all its limitations, were not precisely the joint work of the US and Russia and their essential *alliance* in Syria. Of course, our movement - the Syrian masses - are right to take advantage of the lull in mass killing due to the partial ceasefire to take to the streets in a massive sea of Revolution flags all over the country (which Annis, hilariously, tries to make out to be pro-ceasefire demonstrations!). However, the fact that Assad and Russia are still bombing and killing daily - albeit at a much lower rate - was *precisely* built into the US-Russia "ceasefire" guidelines, fully supported by both, which allow for certain groups to still get bombed; perhaps we don't like those groups, but as is well-known, Assad and Russia call everyone names like "terrorists", or "Nusra" or "ISIS" when they bomb them; so they basically have license to keep doing what they're doing, while the parts of the ceasefire pertaining to humanitarian relief from Assad's starvation sieges etc, are not honoured. Yet Annis tries to imagine that ceasefie is a "defeat for the US". What a joke. The US clearly told the Syrian opposition: if you don't sign on, you'll be targets; and if you hang out with the wrong crowd (so-called "terrorists"), you'll deserve what you're about to get. -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect via Marxism Sent: Wednesday, March 9, 2016 1:44 AM To: Michael Karadjis Subject: Re: [Marxism] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution _ 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] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution
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. * While I am as interested in gossip just as much as anyone else, the reference to Katrina vanden Heuvel as a "lush' is not appropriate on a list such as this. This kind of thing would be more appropriate when you are writing a biography and you want to make a rounded assessment of a life. Those who know me will recall that for much of my life I was a "lush' as well. Without suggesting that alcohol abuse is a good thing I remind you of something I read some years ago. Of the seven Americans who at that time were recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature, five were alcoholics, one was a problem drinker and the other was Pearl S. Buck. Interesting, but does it help us assess their work? ken h _ 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] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * One more thing. I got a chuckle out of this graf in Annis's CounterPunch article today: "The most detailed account of discord over the ceasefire in U.S. ruling circles was provided in the Wall St. Journal on February 23. Professor Stephen Cohen also spoke of this in his weekly interview on the John Batchelor radio program on March 2. Cohen says there is open discord within U.S. ruling circles between those prepared to live with a ceasefire and those who want to sink any such prospect." Unlike most people on the left, I've listened to WABC radio over the years mostly to monitor the right and for laughs. That is where Rush Limbaugh held forth until his ratings bottomed out. Batchelor is the station's resident intellectual and is very respectful of his mostly scholarly guests, including many on the left (but not too far left.) He has never had on a single African-American guest, however, in the 15 years I have been listening to him on and off. Nor anybody like Noam Chomsky. He is about as hard-core a Christian Zionist you are going to find. Malcolm Honlein, a major figure in the Israel lobby, is a frequent guest and the two have co-hosted shows from Israel when it was bombing Gaza. Apparently, Batchelor is one of those rightwingers like Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen who has a soft spot for Putin. Batchelor's style is not to offer much in the way of his own analysis but to allow guests like Cohen to go on at length answering friendly questions in the Charlie Rose style. Cohen is rather a sad case, in my view. I don't know about him but I've heard that Katrina vanden Heuvel is a lush. So I can imagine him and her going through the martinis at night. Unlike most professors emeriti, Cohen writes nothing nowadays and uses the Batchelor show to get out his ideas, such as they are. In his day, he wrote some brilliant stuff, including the Bukharin bio but now he strikes me as a shadow of his former self with a strange attraction to a thug like Putin. But then again this would not be the first time that the Nation magazine has had an orientation to the Kremlin. In the 1930s, it was effectively a Stalinist magazine and has now returned to its roots unfortunately. _ 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] Annis slanders the heroic Syrian Revolution
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 3/8/16 8:57 AM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote: It might also be worth examining Annis's trajectory over the years. Was he a Barnesite? Does he have much influence now? He has plenty of influence but not on Marxmail where he lurks. Using CounterPunch as a platform, he can join fellow Putinites such as Pepe Escobar, Mike Whitney, John Wight, and Andre Vltchek. Unlike them, he can throw around the Marxish references to Lenin, etc. But in terms of his trajectory, I would say that he is a stone-cold Marcyite, probably without even being fully aware that he is. One of the main symptoms is his affinity with Sam Williams, who was likely a member of Workers World based on his reference to Jon Britton on his blog: "It was in this period [the 1970s] that I met my friend and collaborator Jon Britton. With his help and encouragement, I began to write articles for the socialist press, though under a different name." (https://critiqueofcrisistheory.wordpress.com/about/) Britton was a really good guy, unlike his asshole brother Joel. Why he joined Workers World is an enduring mystery to me. In any case, comrades have to understand that this analysis is shared by a huge majority of the left with few people having a clue who Sam Marcy was. When he backed the Russian tanks against Hungarians fighting Stalinist oppression in 1956, he anticipated much of what can be read on CounterPunch on a daily basis. Not just there, but all over the place--like Stephen Cohen in the Nation, Patrick L. Smith in Salon, the LRB ad nauseam. As has always been the case, Stalinism, crypto-Stalinism, and liberal realpolitik are joined at the hip. _ 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
