Re: [Marxism] Debunking Makhno
See also http://www.isreview.org/issues/53/makhno.shtml And of course type Makhno in the Search function at marxists.org for more. On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 2:19 PM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: http://www.marxist.com/who-was-makhno-and-what-did-he-stand-for.htm YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Polanski
Here I go again, the French Council Comunist/Libertarian Marxist, with my very own two cents' worth of social commentary. 1) Polanski is officially a French citizen, which explains why France is so upset about his arrest. 2) Polanski is sort of caught up in the midst of a major France/Switzerland row at the moment. Sarkozy wants to end tax evasion and has demanded the Swiss government give up the names of all French citizens who give their money to Swiss banks. Given that, since the 18th century, Switzerland has always attracted the money from 'tax-weary' French citizens (about 60% of all the money held by Swiss banks comes from France), it is no wonder that Sarkozy's insistance on transpirency would cause a great uproar. 3) Polanski has a chalet in Gstaat in Switzerland, and he goes there every winter. He has never been arrested before by the Swiss authorities. 4) The Swiss chose to arrest him during an international Film Festival, instead of waiting for his annual winter retreat. 5) He had sex with a 13-year-old back in 1977 (he was then 42, he is now 77). He consistently maintained that he was unaware of the girl's true age when he had sew with her. The victim, Samantha Gardner, has publicly forgiven him, has withdrawn all charges (in 2003) and has even expressed dismay at his recent arrest in Switzerland. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Polanski
On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 2:07 PM, Daniel Koechlin d.koech...@wanadoo.fr wrote: 5) He had sex with a 13-year-old back in 1977 (he was then 42, he is now 77). He consistently maintained that he was unaware of the girl's true age when he had sew with her. The victim, Samantha Gardner, has publicly forgiven him, has withdrawn all charges (in 2003) and has even expressed dismay at his recent arrest in Switzerland. As far as the case is concerned, based on the victim's testimony to a grand jury, she stated to Polanski in numerous occasions that she *did not* consent to any type of sexual intercourse. Whether aware or not of her real age, Polanski committee rape. Erik Toren YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] crime
This remark is a banal provocation, obviously. By the way, is the permissible number of postings per day to Marx-mail three? Or is it five? epoliticus I am not a Leninist, but I do consider myself a Marxist. I profoundly distrust any so-called Marxist-Leninist who starts screaming : CHILD MOLESTER ! PERVERT ! MONSTER ! Because, I know that such Marxist-Leninists are devoid of all ethical thinking and are merely pursuing a strategy of appealling to the 'real' working classe's 'basic sentiments', in order to further a proleterian world-view. Mao was an awful tyrant. In order to reach the top of the Chinese Communist Party, he , either, betrayed his friends to the Kuomintang, or had them confess and executed them on trumped-up charges . He had four wives, two of which he cynically caused to be killed in order to re-marry. Mao was truly a despicable example of a human being. Preoccupied only by himself and how he could out-wit the other members of the Politburo. Stalin was an extremely clever paranoid individual, who distrusted everybody (he had his life-long, trusted, family doctor executed a few months before his own death), and routinely signed death-warrants calling for the execution of tens of thousands of peasents. Trotsky was a blood-thirsty... ah, no, wait... I promised never again to criticize Trotsky and Lenin on this list. I'm sorry... YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Universal Health Care
Imagine if the East India Company became the pereniel dictatorship of Britain. And, btw, that Code of Hammer Abbey. Real cute ML YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Polanski (bis)
Let's get back to basics 1) Polanski acknowledged the fact that he had sex with a minor (of 13) in 1977. 2) Polanski's wife was murdered by Charles Manson's gang in 1969. 3) In 1977, he voluntarily spent 48 days in a mental hospital, as ordered by a Californian judge, to ascertain his true mental status. 4) In 1977, he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex but declared that he did not know the true age of the young girl when he had sex with her. 5) When I understood that I could not get an impartial trial in California, says Polanski, I decided to move to France on 1st February 1978. 6) He subsequently renounced his American citizenship and adopted French citizenship. 6) In 2003, he received an oscar for his film The Pianist (a film on the Holocaust), but was unable to come to the US to claim it. 7) The victim, Samantha Gardner, has publicly forgiven him and has withdrawn all charges. 8) This caused the Californian judge, Espinoza, to amend the charges in the international warrant to one of misdemeanour. 9) Switzerland and France are presently engaged in a war of words over tax evasion. Obama seems to be taking the side of Switzerland and of minimising the risks posed by tax evasion. This is in line with major US interests who have voided last week's G20 summit in Pittburgh of any punch. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Suicides in France Put Focus on Workplace
NYTimes article (Wed., Sept. 30) via CNBC website: http://www.cnbc.com/id/33088681 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Polanski
I don't care if you call be a breast-beating liberal, though I dislike liberalism as much as anyone. But, more to the point: You know Ian, take your breast-beating liberalism somewhere else, because all you are doing is equivocating over the language of the law. Did the court find that he had consensual intercourse? If the justice system is bogus, corrupt, sentencing people to rape camp etc. then it's bogus corrupt and who gives a rat's ass about what the court found? Hence why I said through a fair trial. Proper legal process should, I would have thought, be something that Marxists should defend. [hey, by the way, Ian/Shane got any daughters? Ask them how they feel about poor persecuted Polanski], That's not even worth responding to - that sort of argument has been used in the 'how would you feel if a black man raped your daughter', or a 'how would you feel if one of your family was in the WTC' context. If she doesn't want to proceed, that's fine. OK, as I said I don't care. But stop this bullshit about defending an artist, I certainly not defending someone on the basis of their being an artist, as should be clear from my earlier post. 1) he did force a child to have sex with him No, that is what he is *charged* with. 2) he did plea bargain It looks that way, but we have no way of knowing on what basis the plea bargaining proceeded, if that indeed was why the other charges were dropped. 3) he did plead guilty To sex with a minor, not to non-statutory rape. 5) the only reason this is news, the only reason Woody Allen [although not you, I'm sure you're sincere] signed a petition is because Polanski is part of a wealthy elite Agreed. So tell me, why should the treatment of Polanski be any different than the treatment of Mike Tyson? It shouldn't. He had his defenders as well. I'll listen to any of those people if they are also prepared to come to the defence of a non-celebrity, non-artist, blue collar worker, or unemployed person, or illegal immigrant faced with comparable circumstances. Solidarity, Ian YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The past and future of the [Oz] Left
This analysis by Guy Rundle from on-line paper 'Crikey' is in response to a recent series of articles run by the mainstream conservative print newspaper 'The Australian' about thinkers on the Left. I thought it provided a good summary. Shane ...The global Left looked at its lowest ebb in the 1990s. In fact it a globally unified Left had died in the 1970s, the victim of failure on every front. The USSR had failed to liberalise and develop after Khruschev, and was a stagnant and seemingly permanent monolith. By the later 70s, Maos cultural revolution had come to be seen as less a triumph of proletarian culture than a process of chaos and destruction. The Western experiments in counterculture had largely collapsed, into heroin and hippie entrepreneurship. Finally, the social democratic parties in the West had retreated from such plans as they had to extend the transformation of the market economy... http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/28/rundle-the-slow-death-of-the-unified-left/?source=cmailer YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] culture
My favorite American author is ... mmh .. let me see now ... Thoreau ? (Walden, but I find the first part, Economy, boring), and Steinbeck ? (The Grapes of Wrath, Tortilla flat and Of mice and men), the guy who wrote Gravity's rainbow (I'm too drunk to remember his name) and maybe, Philip Roth. Contemporary French literature in on a downward trend, and, since the 80s, is clearly surpassed by US literature. They lack adventurousness. New ideas come from the US. I would like to add that American TV series (Dexter, Prison Break, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Weeds, Gray's Anatomy, ... ) now have a great influence on the way French people see themselves. These series are expertly crafted so as to make the audience eager to find out what is going to happen in the next episode. At the same time, they disseminate typically US ideas and concepts, such as guns/revenge/family/work hard for your family/be tough/poker/beware of conmen/your spouse will always support you/check who your kids associate with/all problems can be overcome/be positive/... and more guns. French kids (12-19) are so flooded with American TV series that it has become ingrained in their psyches. Girls talk about : the real ONE, love truely destined for me, that I musn't let go by, otherwise, it will never come again. There is this guy, that I am MEANT to meet. We will fall in love because it is DESTINED to happen. And boys think : I must be smart, I must be tough, tough as nails. I must overcome my adversaries, come what may. Girls want someone tough. Already, American TV has destroyed many traditional aspects of French culture. Take Halloween (in French, la toussaint). Normaly, la toussaint (Halloween) is a time when families buy flowers and go to the cemeteries and remember the deceased. Not anymore. Now, French kids go knocking from door to door, stating un bonbon ou je te jette un sort (A sweat or I will curse you). I myself am not a defender of traditional French culture. Like all cultures, it has its bad sides. And maybe a universal American tough guy culture is preferable. The problem is, it is definetely skewed against socialism. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Victim's Words: Samantha Geimer
I am stunned that someone on this list would defend the rape of a child (or any woman) simply because the rapist is an elite movie director who has suffered some tragic events. The victim does not get to decide that rape is something that we can just let slide. At no age is rape acceptable. If the victim had been 40 it would still be heinous. And besides, this woman came to her conclusion after a settlement, i.e. money. A million dollars or so could buy a lot of forgiveness. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Victim's Words: Samantha Geimer
From: Pat Costello pt_coste...@yahoo.com I am stunned that someone on this list would defend the rape of a child (or any woman) simply because the rapist is an elite movie director who has suffered some tragic events. I don't know who is doing that. Solidarity, Ian YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] watching the Right
I have been indulging in some watching of the right wing intelligentsia at work. this has primarily been in the field of Indigenous-White relations in Australia. In particular I have been tracking the work of the New Right -Peter Sutton, Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton. The home from home for this trio is Rupert Murdoch's flag ship The Australian, which I force myself to read from time to time. Which is why I came to be reading the paper yesterday. On the same page as an article by Peter Sutton, I noticed a column by Janet Albrechsten. (Wikipedia has a good entry on her). The headline Beware socialist snake-oil vendors- Today's purportedly new and progressive ideas are in fact regressive and have failed us before. Well that kick started the adrenaline! What was interesting apart from the near mad tendency to blame the financial crisis on governments using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to pursue well meaning social goals that delivered disastrous consequences was her almost conceding the ground on moral criticisms of capitalism. She mentions in particular here the Moore film. I don't have time to explore this fully but what I think is at work is that folk like Alebrechsten fear that conservatives will be split off from the radical right by moral critiques of capitalism. Will return to this theme when I have the time. Back to marking! regards Gary YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Gore Vidal interview in the Times
Actually, I think of him as a classic bourgeois radical...almost in the Gilded Age sense of the term. In fact, I can almost hear him sitting around a Boston tea room and discussing Bellamy's LOOKING BACKWARD and his arguments for a smarter, more rational world. : - ) The wooly thinking is much a function of his long self-exile abroad than his politics. ML YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] culture
If you think American TV has destroyed French culture, imagine the impact it's had here... If we get one more forensic-based crime-stopper law-and-order techie-as-cowboy-hero show, I'm going to watch nothing more than documentaries. Most of them are about Hitler, who was apparently a bad man and an occultist...or bigfoot...or ghost hunting. (I note that tonights Ghosthunters on the SciFi channel will have Meatloaf as a guest.) The best thing about television is that it drives people back to reading I hope ML YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Victim's Words: Samantha Geimer
I am stunned that someone on this list would defend the rape Have I defended a rape? I have given the right of the victim of the crime to speak. You apparently disagree with her conclusions to have her own say in the matter for the greater good of the bourgeois courts. The judge proved his inability to honor the plea agreement. And a million dollars, or what ever she negotiated, probably helped her more that his jailing. The question here is who decides. Does the court deserve a second chance, despite the victim's opinion. Adam YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Yankees
Americans like to think in terms of first causes. This is due to their historical grounding in the bible (the word of God). Once they have established a principle, they like to follow it to its ultimate conclusion, however grotesque the results. That's why they have guns (because of the right to bear arms), the death penalty (he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword) and no health care (a guy must work heard to earn his living, health is not included, BECAUSE health is a matter of personal choice). That's why 90% of Americans believe in God, as compared to 45% of European people. The Americans are decidedly anti-dialectic. They are rigid, uncompromising and tough. And therefore, they LOVE the law. The constituion says this ... The constitution says that ... Such and such a legal thing means this ... Authority means this ... Civil rights means that ... They are a nation of lawyers. And such a mindset is so easy to manipulate. You just need Fox news and CNN. Just lead people from first causes to logical conclusions. Polanski had sex with a minor thirty years ago... ERGO... He must be sentenced in California... ERGO... he must be extradited... ERGO... And what about the fat cats who feed themselves while poor people starve ? That is not news-worthy. Nobody is asking for Obama to be trialed for crimes against humanity. That just doesn't fit with the American mindset. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Yankees
From: Daniel Koechlin d.koech...@wanadoo.fr The Americans are decidedly anti-dialectic. And that statement isn't? A European here, and I'm not convinced the distinction is quite as you put it. Though maybe a useful way to think about it is the distinction between procedural and distributive justice. And yet I think these analyses of culture tend to be a bit, if not anti-dialectic, certainly non-materialist. A culture is not an expression of some national absolute spirit in development or some such, but it must derive from material causes. Not so? --David. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] [Fwd: On the Kraft/Terrabusi conflict] (quickly translated)
Discomfort, surprise, unease, and confusion. The public call of the United States for the national and provincial authorities to reach an appropriate solution to the situation of the Kraft Foods Company, with its base of north american capital, has sounded an alarm to the government of Cristina Kirchner and has thrown a blanket of doubt onto the future of serpentine, bilateral relations with Washington. One day after this diplomatic call was put out by the administration of Barack Obama, and in an atmosphere of social tension--with workers' marches in distinct points of the country and with the conflict still unresolved--the Pink House abruptly suspended yesterday a scheduled meeting between the Head of the Cabinet, Anibal Fernandez, and the North American Ambassador to Buenos Aires, Vilma Socorro Martinez. The meeting was scheduled for 11 o'clock yesterday, according to Fernandez' office, and had been arranged between the parties ten days before with the objective of opening a channel for dialogue between the embassy and one of the principal cabinet ministers. But at 9:30 it was cancelled. The official explanation of the Government was that the head of the Cabinet received a call from President Kirchner, and was forced to modify his schedule to go to the residence in Olivos. The peculiar part of this case is that the minister shares an office with the Head of State, and literally works side by side with the President. This has no relation to the Kraft case, was the first statement given by ministry spokespersons. Meanwhile, in the north american embassy there reigned the usual prudence with respect to diplomatic ruptures. The embassy does not comment on the details of the ambassador's schedule or that of other functionaries, was the concise explanation offered to LA NACION by the north american diplomatic corps. In the subtle language of diplomacy, this signifies that Washington has decided to take the most deliberate measures to evaluate the impact of the first gesture by Martinez in Argentina, that, to be sure, had strong political transcendence. By evening, the Pink House sought to smooth over the rupture and said that the head of the Cabinet would communicate during the work day with the embassy to schedule a new date for the meeting with Martinez, which is still undefined. Kraft Foods had reached a boiling point with the dismissal of 157 employees, which then led to more forceful measures that included the workers' takeover of the plant in General Pacheco for more than 20 days, and their subsequent ousting with repressive force by the police, leaving a dozen injured and 70 detained. Faced with this scenario, the embassy expressed yesterday its concern to the Government for the future of the company, and the day before yesterday it made public that its intention was to protect north american investments that has been a source of employment for 155,000 argentines. In diplomatic jargon, this represents a loud and comprehensive signal of the White House's concern faced with eventual outbreaks of union conflict in other businesses represented by north american capital. The delivery of this north american gesture was the first official mission by Martinez in Argentina, after having arrived there less than one month ago. Last night, the uncertainty of future bilateral relations worked its way to the Foreign Ministry. The present Minister, Jorge Taiana, expressed concern among his colleagues for the tone of the north american complaint, according to sources among his most intimate circle. The uneasiness is responding, more than anything else, to the open expectations created by the progressive profile of Ambassador Martinez, with which it was hoped to arrive at a more empathetic understanding, in order to overcome the ruptures which has characterized relations with the White House since the ascension to power of Christina Kirchner. Yesterday, the Government stated officially that it would not accept pressure from the north american embassy to resolve the conflict of the ex-Terrabusi, and declared that the diplomatic representation can only establish the difficult situation which the company is going through. The Minister of Labor, Carlos Tomada, explained the situation. All of our ambassadors, when there are expressed interests of argentine businesses, intervene only to verify the case, but not to apply pressure or intervene directly, not like that, affirmed the functionary. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Yankees
Daniel K. wrote: Americans like to think in terms of first causes. This is due to their historical grounding in the bible (the word of God). Once they have established a principle, they like to follow it to its ultimate conclusion, however grotesque the results. That's why they have guns (because of the right to bear arms), the death penalty (he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword) and no health care (a guy must work heard to earn his living, health is not included, BECAUSE health is a matter of personal choice). That's why 90% of Americans believe in God, as compared to 45% of European people. The Americans are decidedly anti-dialectic. They are rigid, uncompromising and tough. And therefore, they LOVE the law. The constituion says this ... The constitution says that ... Such and such a legal thing means this ... Authority means this ... Civil rights means that ... They are a nation of lawyers. And such a mindset is so easy to manipulate. You just need Fox news and CNN. Just lead people from first causes to logical conclusions. Polanski had sex with a minor thirty years ago... ERGO... He must be sentenced in California... ERGO... he must be extradited... ERGO... And what about the fat cats who feed themselves while poor people starve ? That is not news-worthy. Nobody is asking for Obama to be trialed for crimes against humanity. That just doesn't fit with the American mindset. YawnTell us something we don't know...Preacher Man. If you want to preach to the converted, you better have something to say, otherwise you're just filling the space with dead air. Greg McD YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] In Other News...
Thanks to Greg for translating the article posted by Nestor. There were events of importance in the world apart from the spectacle surrounding Polanski. For one thing, continuing the work of his predecessor, Obama [his face rapidly changing to resemble that of Ronald Reagan] followed through on the investigation of the legal status of workers employed by the Los Angeles based American Apparel. The company decided to resolve the issue by firing 1800 workers. Most of those fired, reported the New York Times, were women; many the sole support for their families. Meet the internal maquiladora, same as the external maquiladora. The owner of the company, Dov Charney was busy assuring investors that the firings would not impact business as production was already down due to the recession. Oh, happy synchronicity-- firing the workers brings the company into compliance with the demands of the Dept. of Homeland Security, and.. right sizes the company in these difficult times. Who says markets aren't efficient? Meanwhile, John T. Morton, Asst. Sec. of Homeland Security, and in charge of the Immigration and Customs sector [ICE] stated: Now all manner of companies face the very real possibility that the government, using our basic civil power, is going to come knocking at the door. Isn't that wonderful? Wonder how the US Chamber of Commerce feels about that. Actually, I don't. But I do wonder why ICE has such all encompassing power-- currently the dept. has initiated audits of the employment records of 645 companies-- but OSHA seems to have so little. OK, I lied again. I don't wonder, I know why. Meanwhile... the Census Bureau reported that the TARP and stimulus programs are working just as intended as poverty rates rose in 31 states and DC in 2008, with children particularly hard hit. Poverty rates for children in poverty rose in 26 states and DC. Trent Lott isn't worried, as Mississippi kept its pole position as number one with a bullet in the poverty derby with a rate of 21.2% of the population existing below the poverty line. Way to go, Trent! Give us a rebel yell! Meanwhile, Venezuela will issue 3 billion dollars in bonds, denominated in US currency in an attempt to soak up some dollars in the system and close the gap, hopefully, between the offical rate of exchange and the real, street rate of exchange. The issue is being managed by Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. So nice of Hugo to throw a little business to these two hard-pressed financial corporations Meanwhile, I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, or parade on anybody's green shoots, but the FDIC admitted its insurance fund is tapped out after only 95 banks have failed so far this year, and will ask for pre-payment by member banks of premiums due over the next 3 years. Each bank remitting the amount in full before January 1, will receive a Get Out of Jail Free card, endorsed by Sheila Bair and countersigned by Ben Bernacke. In other news, none of it good for the old FDIC insurance fund, the IMF expects write downs of another 1.5 trillion dollars, bringing the estimated total to 3.4 trillion dollars. Of that 3.4, 2.8 trillion in losses belong to banks. IMF also estimates that US banks have written down 60% of its non-performing troubled assets, but the European Union has written off only 40 percent. Do the math and the estimates yield totals of $900 billion in losses for US banks, and $1.9 trillion in losses for European banks. What was it Brody said to Quint in Jaws? You're gonna need a bigger boat. Note to Ben Bernacke-- keep those open ended credit swap lines in place for awhile. The IMF is way too optimistic, and way underestimating the exposure of US banks to bad loans; to commercial real estate; construction companies; private equity corporations; to commercial mortgage backed securities; to bad credit card debt. Me, ever the one to look on the bright side, think the remaining exposure is about twice what the IMF estimates, and US banks are nowhere near the 60% level. Sorry, Sheila, perhaps you should get the 4th and 5th years prepaid while your at it. Tell the banks to think of it as. as a loan? No, they don't do much of that anymore. As an asset? Nah... hey tell them to think of it as a collateralized debt obligation, since you could post as collateral all those assets you absorbed as part of the deals persuading bad banks to take over worse banks. Then keep the money, and give the assets right back to the banks, so we can start all over again. Meanwhile, CIT is facing, again, bankruptcy, again. This primary source of credit for small and medium and enterprises, for financing inventory and purchase-- for factoring, is going down, and the third time is not the charm. Not to worry, companies start reporting 3rd quarter results soon and the street is abuzz with talk of major companies, and major numbers of companies, exceeding analysts'
[Marxism] WSJ Article on Kraft-Argentina
Labor Crisis in Argentina Fuels Economic Worries Kraft Workers' Case Prompts Protests, and Puts Leftist Government in a Dilemma as Ties to Unions Fail to Calm Demonstrations By TAOS TURNER and MATT MOFFETT BUENOS AIRES -- A labor battle at a Kraft Foods Inc. factory is causing disruption on the streets here and raising concerns about further union unrest at a time of economic distress. Protesting what they call wrongful dismissals by the Northfield, Ill., food company, a group of Kraft workers had occupied the plant in a suburb of the Argentine capital for three weeks until they were forcibly removed by police executing a court order this past Friday. The expulsion of the workers has sparked a series of street protests in recent days by the Kraft workers' union and its supporters. The protests have snarled the capital's traffic, in an echo of the turmoil that racked the city during Argentina's 2001-02 economic collapse. The labor unrest is a big headache for leftist President Cristina Kirchner at a time when Argentina's unemployment and poverty are rising because of the global economic crisis. Official government statistics put unemployment at 8.8%, but private economists say it is closer to 11%. While official data put poverty at 13.9%, some economists say the true number easily surpasses 30%. Street protests by unemployed workers -- albeit much larger than the current demonstrations -- contributed to the downfall of several governments that came before Mrs. Kirchner's and that of her husband and predecessor, Néstor. But several years of economic growth, along with the Kirchners' political adeptness, allowed the government to co-opt many union leaders, as well as leaders of groups of unemployed workers known as piqueteros. In the case of Kraft, the workers on the plant floor seem to have peeled away from their pro-government union leaders. Kraft is trapped involuntarily in a political conflict between the traditional union leadership and more radical, lower-level representatives, said Federico Thomsen, an economic and political analyst in Buenos Aires. That leaves Mrs. Kirchner's leftist government in a dilemma, because she styles herself as a progressive and has been highly critical of the repressive measures against demonstrators taken by previous governments. The government fears that if you call in the police you can end up with deaths on your hands, so that fear prohibits the government from acting, Mr. Thomsen said. The conflict started in July, when Kraft workers sought paid leave and enhanced hygiene measures amid a burgeoning swine-flu epidemic, according to a Kraft spokesman. The spokesman says there were never any cases of the H1N1 flu at the plant, and the company took added hygienic measures. On July 3, workers surrounded Kraft's administrative building and blocked 70 of its employees from leaving. Kraft filed a criminal claim against the workers and eventually decided to fire 156 employees it says were involved in the matter. The factory has a total of 2,700 employees. Union members say Kraft owed the employees severance packages, while the company says it was legally justified in firing them without benefits. The company has since offered severance packages to 70 of those workers. Workers occupied and almost completely shut down Kraft's factory for three weeks until police forced them out last week. Argentine businesses are afraid other unions might follow the example of those at Kraft. We're worried about this, said Hector Mendez, head of the Argentine Industrial Union, a business group, in a radio interview on Tuesday. These radical groups aren't doing any good for anybody. People are extremely irritated and there's an enormous amount of tension. The U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires said it had been in touch with the government on the matter, though it wasn't involved in negotiations. In a statement, the embassy said it supports the full application of labor rights and protections, as well as respect for property rights. The embassy is pleased that the Kraft plant is now operating again. U.S. companies employ 155,000 Argentine workers, the embassy said YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Stieg Larsson remembered
Stieg Larsson remembered The speech given by his partner Eva Gabrielsson to the Observatorio contra la Violencia Domestica y de Genero FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 Good evening all representatives of /Observatorio contra la Violencia Domestica y de Genero/. Ladies and gentlemen, As you already may know, Stieg Larsson was not interested in public attention about himself as a private person. To become a media celebrity was for him unthinkable. Writing just for money as a mainstream journalist or commercial author was his very nightmare. He did not want to be visible like that. Stieg Larsson wanted to make people and societies visible. When I met Stieg Larsson in 1972 he defined himself as a feminist. This was unusual. He saw the situation of women at an early age and never stopped seeing it. Stieg Larsson's actions and his views of the world, can mainly be understood from a perspective of women's rights. However, his concern was all violence against people who are branded wrong at some wrong point in time. Sooner or later we might all be affected since we all belong to some minority. This is barbarism with a high risk factor, since it can erode civilisation from within. One example is from Autumn 2003, when Cecilia Englund worked with Stieg at Expo on a book entitled The Debate on Honorary Killings, where parallels were drawn between the almost simultaneous murders of a kurdish woman named Fadime Sahindal and a Swedish model named Melissa Nordell. Sahindal's murder was described as an honorary killing and something foreign to Swedish culture. Nordell's murder was - just an ordinary murder. Stieg called them sisters in death, both victims of the same patriarchal behaviour to control through violence. To view this as a question of culture only opened the door towards racism or endless research about ethnicity. While women would continue to be battered and killed. The book's subtitle was consequently Feminism or Racism. This is what Stieg Larsson said in this anthology: The forms of oppression differ - but not the cause of oppression. The forms vary dramatically between Sicilian honorary murders, burning widows in India or battering of girlfriends and wives on Saturdays nights in Sweden. The culture does not explain the underlying causes as to why the women of the world are being murdered, disfigured, circumcised, beaten and forced into different forms of ritual behaviour decided by men - the causes being that men in patriarchal societies oppress women. This is a systematic violence against women - for this is exactly what it is about - and would be described as such, if violence of the same proportions were directed against trade unionists, jews or handicapped people. Feminism and anti-racism are two sides of the same coin. None of them must be implemented at the other's expense. Stieg Larsson wanted to make all these dangers visible. The Millennium crime novel trilogy is a new way of making discrimination and violence against women visible. I am sorry that the illusion of Sweden as a just and equal society happened to be shattered in the process. Millennium shows that Sweden is as good - or as bad - as other countries and by no means perfect. This is all for the better. We need good maps of reality in our journey through life, and not illusions. The castles of our dreams can otherwize become our mental prisons. As the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote: Tell me how you lived your dream in some place, and I'll tell you who you are Finally: This prize of the Observatorio is most unusual in general. It is also most unusual in particular. I wish to underline, that is the first award ever given for Stieg Larsson's question of the heart - women and womens' situation in our patriarchal societies. He would be honoured by being in the same company as the four earlier award winners. Nothing would please him more, than knowing that this inner meaning of Millennium has been seen, listened to and understood, and now made visible once more, in yet another way - by this prize from /Observatorio contra la Violencia Domestica y de Genero/, today. On behalf of my lifelong partner, lover and best friend, Stieg Larsson - the man who loved women - thank you very much. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/54145,news,stieg-larsson-remembered-by-eva-gabrielsson YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Michael Moore: Capitalism has proven it's failed
On 9/29/09, waistli...@aol.com waistli...@aol.com wrote: Communists and socialist are faced with a challenge; If you guys are so smart what kind of system do you propose and how will it generally operate? CB: True, but maybe we should dispense with these names in our mass work, and take up Michael Moore's terminology. Reply I do not do mass media work. Michael Moore does what he does, he makes movies and I do not. Nor does any of my comrades. Our sphere of work is amongst a layer of the workers, who 99% are not anti-communist. In fact most have not a clue as to what the word means. ^^^ So, this layer of workers is asking a sophisticated question, a question about the system, to the communists and socialists if you guys are so smart what kind of system do you propose and how will it operate generally operate ?, but they do not have a clue as to what the word communist means ? That doesn't ring true. First of all , you have been talking to them for a while, so they already have heard of the term communist. Then it is certain that you have already clued them into some of its meaning. Finally, they gotta be a bit , if not rabidly, anti-communist because they have lived in this country for all their lives, and they are asking you, a communist, a challenging question, as you put it. ^^^ The literary petty bourgeois intellectual pretty much fall outside of my sphere of work - by choice. Well, preachers, lawyers, judges, journalists, accountants, politicians, city officials, students, professors and all sorts of other literary petty bourgeois intellectuals don't fall outside the sphere of work of your comrades in Detroit when they are trying fighting for poor people's rights to water, housing . When I work with your comrades fighting for water as a human right for low-income Detroiters or stopping the evictions of a bunch of people in an apartment building in Highland Park, with me representing the tenants, or Welfare Rights in general they deal with all kinds of literary petty bourgeois intellectuals. I see Maureen and Marian working with them all the time. They use more Michael Moore type terminology in their mass work. We have some ideas about mass work and mass literature, which 99.9% does not include the mass media, if I understand your use of this term. ^ Actually, if you look I didn't say mass _media_. I said just mass work. The monopoly media is very corrupt on these issues. That's part of why Moore's breakthrough in it , saying we need to replace capitalism with democracy, is so extraordinary ^ In your mass media work - as an individual, it is totally to your discretion how to identify yourself. I am not a spokesperson for any organization, although I belong to several. As a communist, I advocate economic communism and every energy is geared towards winning the individual to the cause of communism and rearing the next generation of communist in America. Ok , but like the Bolivarians in Venezuela, the terminology used by the next generation might be more like Michael Moore's In the moment I have always fought for the objectives of the moment under the banner victory to the workers in their current struggle. For instance, most folks understood I was some kind of communists something in my trade union work. When the issue was a strike I deal with the strike rather than theories and ideology of communism. In my personal contact with individuals I make an assessment of what kind of literature and propaganda is appropriate to the moment. Actually, 99% of my work - for the past 40 years, deal with real struggles, with only one assignment in the mass media. What creates a communist ideological polarity, as a precondition to a political polarity, is an organization dedicated to that. WL. I didn't say mass _media_, although Michael Moore's opens up a possibility of addressing even the mass media in terms such as replace capitalism with democracy ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Michael Moore: Capitalism has proven it's failed
So, this layer of workers is asking a sophisticated question, a question about the system, to the communists and socialists if you guys are so smart what kind of system do you propose and how will it operate generally operate ?, but they do not have a clue as to what the word communist means ? That doesn't ring true. First of all , you have been talking to them for a while, so they already have heard of the term communist. Comment You miss the point. The point is “what is the solution.” I will try and write clearer. Other layers of the workers ask the same question. Take health care. “How will universal health care be paid for.” Another layer of the workers do not care how something is paid for and simply want access to socially necessary means of life. *** When I work with your comrades fighting for water as a human right for low-income Detroiters or stopping the evictions of a bunch of people in an apartment building in Highland Park, with me representing the tenants, or Welfare Rights in general they deal with all kinds of literary petty bourgeois intellectuals. Comment I speak for myself and myself only. I meet all kinds of people as a way of life. My “baby” - choice of work, is literature production with others. Here is an example. Both of us were involved in the last city election. The literature I passed out for that election was non-communist, because the candidate I was supporting is not a communist. However, after the election and during it I was involved in other activity where I could utilize a revolutionary press and Marxists literature. ** Actually, if you look I didn't say mass _media_. I said just mass work. The monopoly media is very corrupt on these issues. That's part of why Moore's breakthrough in it , saying we need to replace capitalism with democracy, is so extraordinary. Comment Without question Moore’s movie as mass media is extraordinary. Because we were speaking of a movie opening nationwide I took the conversation to be about mass media. I do not do work in the mass media. How one identify themselves and their terminology is personal with political connotations. If you choose to speak in terms of other countries that is fine. All of us are not the same and going to approach things different. My goal is to seek out those individuals interested in revolutionary thought. When I was a young man the writings of Engel’s changed my life. I have a feeling Engel’s will impact this generation of young people the same way. Will be back in Detroit to stay in two weeks. WL. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Michael Moore: Capitalism has proven it's failed
On 9/30/09, waistli...@aol.com waistli...@aol.com wrote: So, this layer of workers is asking a sophisticated question, a question about the system, to the communists and socialists if you guys are so smart what kind of system do you propose and how will it operate generally operate ?, but they do not have a clue as to what the word communist means ? That doesn't ring true. First of all , you have been talking to them for a while, so they already have heard of the term communist. Comment You miss the point. The point is “what is the solution.” I will try and write clearer. Other layers of the workers ask the same question. Take health care. “How will universal health care be paid for.” Another layer of the workers do not care how something is paid for and simply want access to socially necessary means of life. *** There is more than one point. There are roughly two big aspects. Is the system broken or evil in Moore's terminology ? They have to be convinced that that is true before they look to the second aspect, what is the solution. Moore is making a big step in massively broadcasting the claim that the first aspect is true When I work with your comrades fighting for water as a human right for low-income Detroiters or stopping the evictions of a bunch of people in an apartment building in Highland Park, with me representing the tenants, or Welfare Rights in general they deal with all kinds of literary petty bourgeois intellectuals. Comment I speak for myself and myself only. I meet all kinds of people as a way of life. My “baby” - choice of work, is literature production with others. Here is an example. Both of us were involved in the last city election. The literature I passed out for that election was non-communist, because the candidate I was supporting is not a communist. However, after the election and during it I was involved in other activity where I could utilize a revolutionary press and Marxists literature. ** I was responding to your reference to your comrades. Actually, if you look I didn't say mass _media_. I said just mass work. The monopoly media is very corrupt on these issues. That's part of why Moore's breakthrough in it , saying we need to replace capitalism with democracy, is so extraordinary. Comment Without question Moore’s movie as mass media is extraordinary. Because we were speaking of a movie opening nationwide I took the conversation to be about mass media. I do not do work in the mass media. How one identify themselves and their terminology is personal with political connotations. If you choose to speak in terms of other countries that is fine. All of us are not the same and going to approach things different. My goal is to seek out those individuals interested in revolutionary thought. When I was a young man the writings of Engel’s changed my life. I have a feeling Engel’s will impact this generation of young people the same way. Will be back in Detroit to stay in two weeks. WL. I am not adverse to seeking out individuals interested in revolutionary thought at all. They are not large in number these days, so there is plenty of time to do both that and reaching out to larger numbers at the level of Moore's. I was being a bit, well, semi-comic like Moore when I said throw over entirely to Moore-ism and that he is our Lenin (smile) Give me a call when you are here. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] The Waxing and Waning of Americ a’s Political Right
The New York Times / September 29, 2009 Books of The Times The Waxing and Waning of America’s Political Right By JACKSON LEARS THE DEATH OF CONSERVATISM By Sam Tanenhaus 123 pages. Random House. $17. One puzzling feature of American politics is that the people who call themselves conservatives seldom want to conserve anything. The modern conservative movement promotes radical transformation while ignoring classical conservative ideas — for example, Edmund Burke’s respect for established institutions and customs, for continuity with tradition and for incremental change. The recent history of the American right, writes Sam Tanenhaus, involves the triumph of “movement conservatism” over the Burkean version. In his view “the paradox of the modern Right” is that “its drive for power has steered it onto a path that has become profoundly and defiantly un-conservative,” and that has finally led to electoral disaster, political irrelevance and “rigor mortis.” clip “The Death of Conservatism” is a persuasive intellectual history of the right, but it omits a lot of institutional history and ignores money and power altogether. A fuller history would have paid attention to Lewis F. Powell Jr.’s 1971 memorandum to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “Attack on the American Free Enterprise System.” Powell, soon to be a Supreme Court justice, urged friends of capitalism to retake command of public discourse by financing think tanks, reshaping mass media and seeking influence in universities and the judiciary. This did happen in the decades to follow. What had once been far-right fantasies — abolishing welfare, privatizing Social Security, deregulating banking, embracing preventive war — became legitimate policy positions, emanating from institutions that cost a lot of money to maintain: the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Fox News Network, as well as numerous corporate lobbying organizations and university professorships. Money talked. None of this ideological infrastructure has disappeared. Whether the Obama administration can stand up to its power remains to be seen. Despite popular support for a robust public option in health care coverage and even a single-payer system, the airwaves are pervaded by the buzzwords of the market — competition, incentives, consumer choice. Foreign policy, too, remains dominated by right-wing assumptions. Whatever President Obama’s intentions (and it would be a mistake to underestimate him), he will find the imperial presidency difficult to repudiate. The bureaucratic labyrinths of the national security state will be dismantled no more easily than the hundreds of American military bases around the world, many of them shrouded in secrecy. Nor will it be easy to challenge the assumptions that underlie empire: the humanitarian dreams of interventionists in Mr. Obama’s own party and the relentless Republican demands for toughness. Here as elsewhere, the right wields far more power than its weak popular support warrants. Reports of its death have been exaggerated. Jackson Lears is editor in chief of Raritan: A Quarterly Review and the author, most recently, of “Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920.” Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
