[Marxism] Super-neocon: "Let Assad win"
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. * If you gave a word association test to the average pro-Assad leftist, asking them for the first name that pops into their head when they hear the words "warmongering neocon", they will likely respond "Max Boot". It is a sign of the unanimity among the Democratic Party and Republican Party establishments that not a single member advocates "regime change" today. Washington Post, March 9, 2018 To save Syrians, let Assad win By Max Boot Bashar al-Assad’s ongoing assault on the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta is a war crime that has already killed more than 900 civilians. But while it’s easy to condemn this “brutal campaign,” as the White House has dutifully done, it’s hard to know what to do about it. A U.N.-brokered cease-fire is being predictably ignored. A small humanitarian relief convoy finally made it through, but its arrival will not stop the slaughter. In 2012, I joined many others in calling for the United States to enforce a no-fly zone to stop the rain of Assad’s barbaric “barrel bombs” and to provide aid to the Free Syrian Army to overthrow him. A lot more people might be alive today if President Barack Obama had listened, and a strategic and humanitarian disaster might have been averted. But, although right six years ago, I no longer think that advice makes sense now. Russia got involved in Syria in 2015, and the United States can’t attack Russian aircraft without risking a war. Thanks to Russian and Iranian aid, Assad is no longer on the verge of defeat. His position is more secure than ever, and it’s only a matter of time before he reconquers most of Syria. Using U.S. airpower to aid the embattled people of Ghouta might make us feel good, but it would not save lives. Even if we could ground Russian aircraft — a big if — pro-regime forces would simply use artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems to pulverize the city. U.S. intervention would only prolong the agony. The way to save lives, I’ve sadly concluded, is to let Assad win as quickly as possible. Aleppo was a charnel house in 2016. But now that it has fallen to Assad’s forces, pictures are circulating of civilians strolling through its rebuilt public park. It’s terrible that they have to live under Assad, but at least they’re alive. Tyranny is preferable to endless and useless war. I once would have been sympathetic to the plan put forward by American Enterprise Institute fellow Kenneth Pollack to aid Syrian rebel groups to bleed the Iranians and Russians. No longer. Such aid makes sense when, as in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the rebels have a realistic chance to prevail. It’s not right, however, to use Syrians as cannon fodder in a great power rivalry when they have no hope of winning. That’s not to suggest that there is nothing the United States can do. We can try to bargain with Moscow to restrain Assad’s brutality in return for an end to U.S. opposition to his regime, and we can maintain the taboo against the use of weapons of mass destruction. In April, President Trump launched cruise missiles against a Syrian airfield in response to a sarin-gas attack by Assad’s forces. This year, there have been at least seven reports of Assad using chlorine gas. Trump should launch airstrikes against the responsible Syrian units — as he is reportedly considering — even though it would do little to ameliorate the larger horrors of the conflict. The most important thing the United States can do now is to stand with our Kurdish and Arab partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces that liberated northeastern Syria from the Islamic State. The Kurds control about 25 percent of Syria’s territory, and there is a U.S. military presence 2,000 strong to aid them and prevent the Islamic State from returning. The Turkish government is not happy about this. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sent the Turkish army, working with Syrian allies, to attack the Kurdish-held town of Afrin in northwestern Syria. Erdogan sees no difference between the Syrian Kurds in the YPG (People’s Protection Units) and the Turkish Kurds in the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), whom he has long regarded as domestic subversives and mortal enemies. Trump should cut a deal with Erdogan: The YPG will sever all support for the PKK in return for the Turks pulling back. As long as the YPG sticks to this bargain, the United States will use its airpower and advisers to defend the Syrian Kurdish enclave east of the Euphrates River, just as it committed after the 1991 Gulf War to defend the Iraqi Kurds. Turkey wasn’t happy with that decision but has learned that it can live with, and happily trade with,
[Marxism] Fwd: The Lessons of West Virginia
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[Marxism] Fwd: Never Mind the North Korea Meeting, Trump Was Just Babbling
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[Marxism] Ongoing strikes and women's struggles in Iran
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. * From the Alliance of Middle East Socialists March 8, 2018 Ten weeks after a wave of nationwide popular demonstration called for the overthrow of the Iranian regime and an end to its military intervention in the region, the uprising is continuing in a different form: Multiple labor strikes, labor actions, women’s protests against the compulsory hijab and other discriminatory laws, actions by families of political prisoners, Sufi Dervishes, and environmental protests. The state has also stiffened its crackdown on women activists, workers, environmental activists and Sufis. Several detainees, including a professor and environmental activist, Kavous Seyed Emami, a Sufi Dervish, Mohammad Raji, and young protesters such as Sina Ghanbari and Vahid Heydari have been killed in state custody, and their deaths have been attributed to “committing suicide.” In this article, I would like to focus on labor protests, women’s protests, and ways in which international socialists and progressives might be able to express their solidarity with them. *I. Labor Protests/Strikes Everywhere* Currently various labor protests and strikes in steel, sugarcane, oil and petrochemicals, machinery production as well as telecommunications, railways, construction, transportation, education, healthcare, municipal services, and carrying of cargo (by porters) are taking place on a daily basis.The protests also involve retirees, the young unemployed, and the disabled. These labor actions are mostly demanding the payment of back wages and benefits (anywhere from one month to two years) and oppose the lack of job security in an economy in which the majority of those employed are contract-employees with few or no benefits. The employers are mostly either directly part of the state and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other parastatal foundations, or indirectly related to the state in the form of contractors. The protests have mostly taken place in the province of Khuzestan in the south. Khuzestan is one of Iran’s industrial centers, has a majority Arab population and has been experiencing severe environmental problems related to the drying up of bodies of water and marshes caused by government policies aimed at maximizing short-term profits and the monopolization of resources for the capital and the provinces of Central Iran. Strikes and labor protests are also taking place in the provinces of Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Lorestan, Isfahan, Fars, Markazi and Tehran as well as others. The most prominent strikes are currently the following: 1. National Steel strike in Ahvaz, Khuzestan over the non-payment of wages/benefits involves 4000 workers and is in its seventeenth day. On Thursday, March 1, security police attacked the homes of ten workers, arrested them for “illegal” protest activities and later set a $10,000 bail for each. The strikers have been marching around the city of Ahvaz to demand their release and have been joined by their wives and other family members at a protest in front of the state house. 2. The Haft-Tapeh Sugarcane strike in Khuzestan over the non-payment of wages/benefits and the precarious conditions of contract workers and day laborers. This strike also demands the legalization of independent unions. It involves several thousand workers, including retirees and has faced multiple attacks by security forces as well as arrests of workers. The Haft Tapeh workers have been some of the most militant during the past several years. 3. The Hepco machine workers’ strike in Arak, Central Province, over the non-payment of wages/benefits, massive lay offs (reducing the number of employees from 4000 to 1000) and a major cut in production *II. How to Express Solidarity with Iranian Labor and Women’s Struggles?* For those socialists and progressives who wish to express their solidarity with these struggles, while also opposing any imperialist intervention in Iran, here are some ways in which you can make a difference: 1. If you know someone who speaks Persian, ask them to help you follow the website of the *Free Union of Iranian Workers* which has been the best at reporting current labor struggles there. Go to http://ettehad-e.com/ You can also go to the weblog of the *Association of Electrical and Metal Workers of Kermanshah*: anjomanbfk.blogfa.com or the website of the *Tehran Vahed Bus Workers Syndicate* http://vahedsyndica.com/ You can also contact the *International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran* which is an organization of socialist and labor activists based in
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: White ex-cop arrested for beating, choking black jaywalking suspect | New York Post
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. * It’s not enough to fire these bastards (and that rarely happens – they’re just reassigned to desk duty for a month or so until the scandal blows over). They must be prosecuted and if found guilty, do serious jail time. Next is forcing killer cops to pay the entire financial settlement for their victims out of their individual bank accounts and out of their local police budget and not have the taxpayer pick up the tab for their crimes. Take their house, their savings accounts, their college savings for their kids, their grocery money - everything. If that means that some will have to be laid off, maybe that might get through to some about the bullshit "blue wall of silence" which is another way to say complicity with murder! https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/06/house-passes-bill-force-lawmakers-pay-their-own-sexual-harassment-settlements/311023002/ On Fri, Mar 9, 2018 at 10:28 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism > > > https://nypost.com/2018/03/09/ex-cop-who-beat-the-s-t-out-of > -jaywalk-suspect-busted-for-assault/ _ 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] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Russia’s Greatest Problem in Syria: Its Ally, President Assad
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times, March 9, 2018 Russia’s Greatest Problem in Syria: Its Ally, President Assad By NEIL MacFARQUHAR MOSCOW — Sitting down with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria late last year, a senior Kremlin envoy described the benefits to come as Moscow shepherded the Syrian conflict toward a political settlement, particularly in rebuilding the war-ravaged country. But Mr. Assad cut the Russian off, asking why, with the Syrian government so close to victory, a political solution was necessary at all, according to a senior Arab diplomat who was briefed on the meeting. Nearly two and a half years after he intervened militarily to prop up Mr. Assad, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia finds himself stuck in Syria, not quite able to find a solution despite having declared “mission accomplished” on at least three occasions. While Mr. Putin’s military intervention established the Kremlin as a major player in the Middle East for the first time in decades, extricating Russia from Syria is proving far more difficult than he envisaged. The problem is that Moscow has effectively tied its fortunes to those of Mr. Assad, with limited room to maneuver. Mr. Putin can neither withdraw nor push real political change in Syria without risking the collapse of the Assad government, which would jeopardize both the effort to diminish American influence in the region and Mr. Putin’s own prestige. Mr. Assad, well aware of his leverage, resists Russian attempts toward compromise with the Syrian opposition. In that unhappy equilibrium, the war drags on with unknown consequences for Moscow. As the most powerful outside actor, Russia is increasingly blamed for the misery visited on Syrian civilians. On Tuesday, United Nations investigators released a report that for the first time linked the Russian Air Force to a possible war crime, when a military fighter jet executed a series of attacks in November on the town of Al Atarib, west of Aleppo, killing at least 84 people and wounding more than 150. Throughout Syria, the volatile mix of forces — including Russian mercenaries whose fate is causing headaches at home — risks amplifying the violence and deepening Russia’s involvement. At the same time, a developing competition with Iran over reconstruction contracts risks eroding their alliance. The differences with Damascus were starkly evident at a Middle East conclave in Moscow in late February. Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister, opened a two-day meeting at the Valdai Discussion Club, perhaps Russia’s most prestigious international foreign policy forum, with a rosy assessment of the Russian-led effort to unite the fractious Syrian parties in negotiations to end the war. The Syrian government expressed zero interest. In a speech, one of Mr. Assad’s closest advisers, Bouthaina Shaaban, omitted all mention of a negotiated settlement. Instead, she said repeatedly that Damascus would soon declare a “final victory” that she said had been delayed by American and Turkish aid to the opposition. Russia expressed overt frustration. Even the Valdai position paper put out beforehand chided the Syrian position, saying that “part of the government elite may have greater hopes for military victory than the dividends that negotiations would eventually pay.” “This military victory is an illusion; you cannot win this battle,” said Vitaly V. Naumkin, the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences and a trusted Russian government adviser on Middle East matters. In Moscow, Middle East experts and military analysts noted that divisions within the Russian government, particularly within the Ministry of Defense, contribute to the gap between Russia and Syria. A dovish faction wants to pocket the military’s enhanced prestige and get out, seeing the defeat of the Islamic State militant group last year as a missed exit. The more hawkish sorts see advantages for Russia in Syria’s remaining an open wound. On the professional level, officers are rotated in every three months, gaining battlefield experience, promotions and higher pay. The conflict has also provided a showcase for Russian weapons, the country’s most important export after oil. Russia is also wrestling to contain differences with Iran and Turkey. Strategically, Moscow and Tehran see eye to eye in terms of preserving the existing Syrian government. They maintain a symbiotic military relationship as well, with Russia owning the skies while Iran fields around 60,000 fighters who form the spine of the regime’s ground forces. Yet cracks are appearing, as the
[Marxism] Fwd: Saudi Prince: Turkey, Iran & Extremists are ME "Triangle of Evil"
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[Marxism] Fwd: The Young Karl Marx: a Film for Our Time?
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[Marxism] Fwd: The World Market, 'North-South' relations, and neoliberalism | MR Online
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[Marxism] Fwd: UNAM 2 – Europe’s single currency | Michael Roberts Blog
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. * As Sergio Camara, Marxist economist at the Metropolitan University of Mexico (UAM), said in his commentary on my presentation at the UNAM session, we must distinguish between the underlying trends in capitalism globally and specific features for Europe. Many Keynesians blame the euro for the euro crisis, but the crisis of the currency was really a crisis of capitalism in general. The global crisis of capitalism took a particular form in the Eurozone because of the currency union. The debts being built up by the south with the north were exposed in the crash and sparked the ‘euro crisis’, but only after the global financial crash. full: https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/unam-2-europes-single-currency/ _ 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] rank-and-file leadership in WVa strike
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/2018/03/08/us/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html?rref=collection%2Fissuecollection%2Ftodays-new-york-times _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Insidious Philanthropy
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. * By Paul Buhle. https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/09/insidious-philanthropy/ _ 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] rank-and-file leadership in WVa strike
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 3/9/18 8:20 AM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/us/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html?rref=collection%2Fissuecollection%2Ftodays-new-york-times I predicted what the NY Times worried about in the above article before the West Virginia teacher's strike. https://louisproyect.org/2018/02/28/mark-janus-vs-afscme-and-the-need-for-a-real-trade-union-movement/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: The left and East Ghouta | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * While reports filter out of East Ghouta about suffering on a massive scale reminiscent of the siege of Leningrad in 1941, some on the left support Assad’s war crimes because they see them as necessary for winning the war on terror just as Germans supported the war on Bolshevism back then. Three of Assad’s leading defenders are associated with Alternet’s Gray Zone, a project initiated by Max Blumenthal who was soon joined by Ben Norton and Rania Khalek in churning out talking points for the Baathist dictatorship. Perhaps the rumor mill’s whispers are correct that the Gray Zone has gotten the axe. That would explain why the three have used other mediums to defend a harsh but necessary siege. full: https://louisproyect.org/2018/03/09/the-left-and-east-ghouta/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: White ex-cop arrested for beating, choking black jaywalking suspect | New York Post
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[Marxism] Fwd: Mexican leftist leads by 13.6 points in presidency race: opinion poll | Article [AMP] | Reuters
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[Marxism] Fwd: How the West got rich and modern capitalism was born | PBS NewsHour
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[Marxism] Fwd: The End of Cheap Nature? - The Center for the Humanities
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 event took place unfortunately on the same night a brutal snowstorm hit NYC. Fortunately you can now watch the video recording. https://www.centerforthehumanities.org/programming/the-end-of-cheap-nature _ 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
