[Marxism] Nov. 6 (NYC): Conference on Economic Crisis Left Response
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hi, Could you post this announcement? A program for the conference is now available online. Many thanks, Seth “THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND LEFT RESPONSES” A CONFERENCE CONVENED BY MARXIST-HUMANIST INITIATIVE http://www.marxist-humanist-initiative.org Saturday Nov. 6, 2010 - 9 am to 6 pm Pace University in lower Manhattan, New York City One Pace Plaza, Multipurpose Room CONFIRMED SPEAKERS Roslyn Wallach Bologh, Brendan Cooney, Walter Daum, Barry Finger, Mac Intosh, Anne Jaclard, Andrew Kliman, Paul Mattick, Fred Moseley, and Richard Wolff The conference program and speakers’ abstracts are now posted on the website http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/cc2010 Chances of a double-dip recession in the U.S. are increasing. The threat of government-debt defaults in Europe also indicates that the economic crisis of 2007-08 continues to have consequences. The U.S. government's efforts to prevent another Great Depression have left it saddled with a serious debt problem that could impede efforts to stabilize the economy for a long time to come. The future is especially uncertain, and the new normal may prove to be very difficult, economically and politically. For the Left to be prepared for what may happen and prepared to respond effectively, activity and organization will not be enough. We also need the organization of thought--and that is why we have convened this conference. In order to work out a viable response, one that doesn't merely react to and support the least-bad proposals offered by policymakers and mainstream thinkers, we need a clear and deep understanding of what has gone wrong with capitalism, and of the limits and pitfalls of proposed reforms. And we cannot take for granted that more progressive policies would in fact bring capitalism out of the crisis and restore jobs, economic growth, and stability. Wide-ranging dialogue on these topics is needed, not only so that all views can be heard but, above all, so that we can test different ideas in debate and work out answers to the questions we face. SPONSORS Pace University's Center for Community Action Research and Economics Department (Pace-Pleasantville campus), the Committee for a Conference on the Economic Crisis, Marxist-Humanist Initiative, League for the Revolutionary Party, Internationalist Perspective, and The New SPACE. PRE-REGISTRATION Pre-registration is required due to limited seating. To register, please go to the Crisis Conference page of MHI's website http://tinyurl.com/39kolox The registration fee is $20; $10 for students and low income individuals. The conference is free for Pace University students, faculty, and staff with valid ID, but they should register in advance by writing to m...@marxisthumanistinitiative.org. Registrants must check in by 9:15 a.m. The conference will start promptly at 9:30 am in the Multipurpose Room at 1 Pace Plaza. Enter on Spruce Street (the south side of the main building). DIRECTIONS TO THE CONFERENCE http://web.pace.edu/page.cfm?doc_id=16157 CONFERENCE WEBSITE http://econcrisisconference.wordpress.com TELEPHONE (888) 579-2245 E-MAIL m...@marxisthumanistinitiative.org 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] Reflections on the situation in France
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Wasn't the time to get demonstrations going outside the French embassy some weeks back? How do we always wind up so far behind the curve on these things? :-) ML 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] New book and launch events - 'Dispatches from the Dark Side' by Gareth Peirce
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NEW TITLE: DISPATCHES FROM THE DARK SIDE On Torture and the Death of Justice By GARETH PEIRCE Published 11 October 2010 - The great theme of her book and, arguably, her professional life too [is] that justice dies when the law is co-opted for political purposes. - Stuart Jeffries, Guardianhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/oct/12/gareth-peirce-fight-human-rights - EVENTS: Tuesday 2 November: Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London, W2 1QJ In discussion with the Guardian's legal affairs correspondent Afua Hirsch. Tickets: £12.50/10 early booking (£8 concessions - students/seniors). For more information and to buy tickets: http://frontlineclub.com/crm/civicrm/event/info?reset=1id=388 Friday 12 November: Stratford Circus, Theatre Square, Stratford, London, E15 1BX In conversation with former Guantanamo Bay detainee and human rights campaigner Moazzam Begg. Tickets: £6. For more information and to buy tickets: https://tickets.stratford-circus.com/online/seatSelect.asp?WSadmissions::admission::performance_id=B746941B-AA70-4C73-B442-81A55F5B6728 Thursday 18 November: Haldane Society, BPP Law School, 68 - 70 Red Lion Street, London WC1R 4NY Admission is FREE and open to everyone. £10 charge for legal practitioners requiring CPD points. More information here http://www.haldane.org/ - An acclaimed human-rights lawyer examines the British government's complicity in torture. The Obama administration, under some pressure from its antiwar base, has begun to release carefully selected evidence concerning the widespread use of torture in the War on Terror. In a set of devastating essays, Gareth Peirce argues that there needs to be a similar accounting of the British government's activities. Exploring the few cases that have come to light, such as those of Guantánamo detainees Shafiq Rasul and Binyam Mohamed, Peirce argues that they are evidence of a deeply entrenched culture of impunity toward the new suspect community in the UK-British Muslim nationals and residents. Peirce shows how the British New Labour government has colluded in a whole range of extrajudicial activities-rendition, internment without trial, torture-and has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal its actions: its devices for maintaining secrecy are probably more deep-rooted than those of any other comparable democracy. If the British government continues along this path, it will destroy much of the moral and legal fabric it claims to be protecting. --- Gareth Peirce represents individuals who are or have been the subject of rendition and torture, held in prisons in the UK on the basis of secret evidence, and interned in secret prisons abroad under regimes that continue to practice torture. Her many clients have included the Birmingham Six, Judith Ward, the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, and Moazzam Begg. She lives in London. - ISBN: 978 1 84467 619 4/ £9.99 / 160 pages --- For more information and to buy: http://www.versobooks.com/books/502-dispatches-from-the-dark-side -- Visit Verso's all-new website for blog updates, information on our upcoming events, news, reviews, publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.comhttp://www.versobooks.com/books/469-manituana Become a fan of Verso on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789 And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK 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] American style
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Yes, Rally Comrades has great material. Who writes those articles? They do make sense! I tried to subscribe just now, but the page gets broken, so I'll try again tomorrow, after I read the new essay you recommended, and I'll probably get back to you tomorrow. Reply Rally has an editorial board and an interesting process. For instance am article from Detroit about Detroit would start with an individual but include lengthy decision with comrades and go through several drafts. The intention is to describe some kind of logic and real motion amongst people in real time. The article is submitted to the editorial board for review. What is being reviewed is the class logic and dynamics of capital's breakdown from the standpoint of revolution in the means of production. A Detroit article would not simply talk about Detroit but areas of Michigan or the Rustbelt. Comments are made - written, and the article comes back to Detroit for rewrite and/or clarification. The purpose is striving to involve collectives rather than one individual. If the article is the product of one individual, the question is what is its purpose, no matter how good or accurate it may be. Individuals can submit articles and from time to time such article appear under the writer's name. I would never submit an article under my name for several reasons including first the wisdom of a collective and the material need - living process, to hold intact a league of revolutionaries. The LRNA is not a Leninist sect seeking to achieve cohesiveness based on some notion of democratic centralism. Cohesiveness is rooted in the American style and history. Plus, articles under your name are yours forever and no one wants to edit an individual. More often than not you are going to be wrong and violate a general theory premise of Marx. Then some comrade is going to ask, Why didn't you ask someone or get your article reviewed by other 'eyes' - I's? The only answer is always because I thought I was smarter than everyone else. I use Rally as a location beacon. No matter what part of America I move to, I can locate myself within a larger spontaneous motion of the American working class. WL. 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] NEW EDITION - MARX'S POLITICAL WRITINGS
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NEW TITLE: MARX'S POLITICAL WRITINGS VOLUMES 1-3 Volume 1: The Revolutions of 1848, Volume 2: Surveys From Exile, Volume 3: The First International and After By Karl Marx Edited by David Fernbach Published 4 October 2010 - EVENTS: V40/MARX'S POLITICAL WRITINGS IN 1970 AND 2010 To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Verso is publishing new editions of Marx's Political Writingshttp://www.versobooks.com/series_collections/13-marx%27s-political-writings. Join us at the Marx Memorial Library to launch the books with a talk from the editor, David Fernbach, on editing Marx in 1970 and 2010. Wednesday 10 November, 7-8.30pm, Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R ODU Admission is FREE, all welcome. - Karl Marx was not only the great theorist of capitalism, he was also a superb journalist, politician and historian. In these brand-new editions of Marx's Political Writings we are able to see the depth and range of his mature work from 1848 through to the end of his life, from the Communist Manifesto to The Class Struggles in France and The Critique of the Gotha Programme. Edited and introduced by David Fernbach, with a foreword by Tariq Ali. --- Karl Marx studied law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin, completing his doctorate in 1841. Expelled from Prussia in 1844, he took up residence first in Paris and then in London where, in 1867, he published his magnum opus Capital. A co- founder of the International Workingmen's Association in 1864, Marx died in London in 1883. - Volume 1: The Revolutions of 1848 ISBN: 978 1 84467 603 3/ £12.99 / 400 pages Volume 2: Surveys from Exile ISBN: 978 1 84467 607 1/ £12.99 / 400 pages Volume 3: The First International and After ISBN: 978 1 84467 605 7/ £12.99 / 400 pages --- For more information and to buy: http://www.versobooks.com/books/486-the-revolutions-of-1848 http://www.versobooks.com/books/489-surveys-from-exile http://www.versobooks.com/books/488-the-first-international-and-after -- Visit Verso's all-new website for blog updates, information on our upcoming events, news, reviews, publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.comhttp://www.versobooks.com/books/469-manituana Become a fan of Verso on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789 And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK 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] No double-dip
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The article doesn't say there won't be a double-dip, but rather that even if it does recover, the long term conflicts will remain. Corporate profits have indeed recovered, and indeed in certain industries, like semi-conductor fabrication, capital spending has increased and dramatically, to the point where overproduction is closing in again and prices of DRAM chips, and perhaps NAND, have peaked. Shipbuilding has once again been overbooked so we can expect to see freight rates falling and ships at anchor. Corporations in the US are sitting on over a trillion dollars in cash, and cash-like securities-- loading up through bond issuings, layoffs, improved profits, and restraints on capital spending. Between the 2Q 2009 and the 2Q 2010 NET property, plant, and equipment for US manufacturing declined from $1.273 trillion to $1.255 trillion, which indicates that depreciation and the liquidation of PPE is exceeding the rate of new investment. Capacity utilization rates are still below historic averages, so I don't expect to see another burst of capital spending acros the board in manufacturing. Will there be another dip? First off, the recovery has not brought the output back to pre-recession levels. Secondly, the recovery, like the post 2001-2003 recovery is being financed by dollar depreciation, wage reductions, restraints on spending... and the post 2003 recovery was the weakest on record in terms of job creation, rate of growth of output etc. So the real question just might be... what difference does a double dip make when recovery itself is simply a weaker form of contraction? - Original Message - From: robert mckee bobmcke...@yahoo.com To: sartes...@earthlink.net 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] Dean Baker: Surging Inventories Sustain Third-Quarter Growth
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.cepr.net/index.php/data-bytes/gdp-bytes/2010-10 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] Churchill's Empire
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Johann Hari was cited by Lou P, saying that 'Winston Churchill is rightly remembered for leading Britain through her finest hour -- but what if he also led the country through her most shameful hour? What if, in addition to rousing a nation to save the world from the Nazis, he fought for a raw white supremacism and a concentration camp network of his own? ... Can these clashing Churchills be reconciled? Do we live, at the same time, in the world he helped to save, and the world he helped to trash? ... So how can the two be reconciled? Was Churchill's moral opposition to Nazism a charade, masking the fact he was merely trying to defend the British Empire from a rival? ... If Churchill had only been interested in saving the Empire, he could probably have cut a deal with Hitler. ... In resisting the Nazis, he produced some of the richest prose-poetry in defence of freedom and democracy ever written. ... Ultimately, the words of the great and glorious Churchill who resisted dictatorship overwhelmed the works of the cruel and cramped Churchill who tried to impose it on the darker-skinned peoples of the world.' Hari falls into the trap like so many radicals when it comes to discussing Churchill. There was no contradiction between Churchill the arch-imperialist and racial supremacist and Churchill the wartime leader with his stirring speeches of resisting the Nazis. Churchill was one of the few British ruling-class figures who recognised that German imperialism in the late 1930s was going to explode violently across Europe and thus threaten British imperial interests by upsetting the political/economic/diplomatic balance of power which had served Britain so well for centuries. He knew that a clash was inevitable and approaching quickly, unlike some of his opponents who felt that war might be prevented or delayed. The problem facing Britain's ruling class was that there was a strong feeling against getting involved in another big war if it was presented as a crusade for God King and Country. Churchill, for all his patrician upbringing and manners, was shrewd enough to recognise that the war effort in Britain would only become popular and accepted by the masses if it was presented as a struggle for democracy and freedom. He knew how to play the populist card, using the slogans of the Popular Front, and this he did very effectively. Did he believe his own words about freedom and democracy? To some degree he did, even if only for Britain's population and not for that of the empire. He had worked politically within a bourgeois democracy for several decades, and he no doubt felt that it was a suitable way of running the political affairs of Britain. Had Britain been a more febrile place in its class relations, it may well have been different. He notoriously praised Mussolini long after Il Duce's brutalities were commonly known; even in the late 1930s he could write quite favourably about Hitler. Did Churchill find the Nazis repugnant? Many high bourgeois figures found the plebian Nazis unpleasant; how they regarded them otherwise depended upon whether such thugs were necessary to defeat the working class. They were not necessary in Britain, so he was able to look with disgust upon lower-class elements like the Nazis in other countries. Faced with the brutal evidence of the Nazis' crimes, Churchill was horrified, but then so were the top Nazi prisoners at Nuremburg when they had to observe the films of the very atrocities which they had set in motion. Churchill saw the Second World War as a quest to defend Britain's place in the world, and preserve its empire, by defeating its main European and Far Eastern rival. Germany and Japan were defeated, with a great deal of the work being done by the USA and the Soviet Union. Within three years of the war's end, the 'Jewel of the Crown' -- India -- was independent. Other colonies were to follow. The unofficial empire in Latin America had fallen to the dollar. Britain was bankrupted by the war effort, and Churchill himself was rejected convincingly by the electorate. An odd victory for him, I think. Paul F 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] People in Jail -- A Telling Comparison
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Reading a review of a new book on Stalin's purges on the H-Net Russia site, I found this which will be of interest to list members: ' In the Soviet Union in 1937, there were 1,196,369 prisoners out of a general population of 162,500,000, or 736 prisoners per 100,000 people. This ratio was lower than the 754 prisoners per 100,000 people in United States today!' So the number of people in jail in the USA today is larger both numerically and proportionally than in the Soviet Union at the height of Stalin's Terror. Paul F 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] Budrus; The Time that Remains
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 2 movies about Palestinian suffering and resistance. http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/budrus-the-time-that-remains/ 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] Who cares who wins the election? - an article hidden away on HuffPost
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The author of the blog post linked below, a leader of the Gay Liberation Network in Chicago, has been one of the leaders of the independent anti-imperialist movement here for years. He's a HuffPost blogger and his posts are usually featured on the Chicago page not this time though ... for some reason LP Who cares who wins the elections by Andy Thayer Either way, we will not win on November 2nd. Sure, party hangers-on hoping for sweetheart contracts and other favors care, and are working overtime using the issues we care about, and fears about what the other guy might do to us, to try to make us care who wins as well. But these party operatives have horses in these races that the vast majority of us don't, because when their candidates win, they will go back to screwing us the way they have before the elections. Take the race for Illinois's open U.S. Senate seat. On the one hand you have a friend of the people banker Democrat whose only major accomplishment to date was landing a job at the family bank (no doubt there was rough competition for that gig) and then handing out loans to mobsters before the whole thing went bust. He got his current entrée into statewide office largely because he's a fundraiser for and friend of the Obama administration, a repeat of that merit-based hire into the banking vice presidency. His opponent is a political chameleon who will say anything to get into office. Full post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-thayer/who-cares-who-wins-the-el_b_774265 .html 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] Who cares who wins the election? - an article hidden away on HuffPost
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 10/29/2010 2:50 PM, Lou Paulsen wrote: The author of the blog post linked below, a leader of the Gay Liberation Network in Chicago, has been one of the leaders of the independent anti-imperialist movement here for years. He's a HuffPost blogger and his posts are usually featured on the Chicago page not this time though ... for some reason LP Who cares who wins the elections by Andy Thayer Thayer urges a vote for the Greens. This makes me wonder. As bad as the Demogreens have been, is there any life left in the GP? I don't seem to recall the Greens urging a vote for Democrats on Tuesday. What is happening with them? 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] Habermas NYT op-ed piece on Islamophobia in Germany
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times October 28, 2010 Leadership and Leitkultur By JÜRGEN HABERMAS Frankfurt SINCE the end of August Germany has been roiled by waves of political turmoil over integration, multiculturalism and the role of the “Leitkultur,” or guiding national culture. This discourse is in turn reinforcing trends toward increasing xenophobia among the broader population. These trends have been apparent for many years in studies and survey data that show a quiet but growing hostility to immigrants. Yet it is as though they have only now found a voice: the usual stereotypes are being flushed out of the bars and onto the talk shows, and they are echoed by mainstream politicians who want to capture potential voters who are otherwise drifting off toward the right. Two events have given rise to a mixture of emotions that are no longer easy to locate on the scale from left to right — a book by a board member of Germany’s central bank and a recent speech by the German president. It all began with the advance release of provocative excerpts from “Germany Does Away With Itself,” a book that argues that the future of Germany is threatened by the wrong kind of immigrants, especially from Muslim countries. In the book, Thilo Sarrazin, a politician from the Social Democratic Party who sat on the Bundesbank board, develops proposals for demographic policies aimed at the Muslim population in Germany. He fuels discrimination against this minority with intelligence research from which he draws false biological conclusions that have gained unusually wide publicity. In sharp contrast to the initial spontaneous objections from major politicians, these theses have gained popular support. One poll found that more than a third of Germans agreed with Mr. Sarrazin’s prognosis that Germany was becoming “naturally more stupid on average” as a result of immigration from Muslim countries. After half-hearted responses in the press by a handful of psychologists who left the impression that there might be something to these claims after all, there was a certain shift in mood in the news media and among politicians toward Mr. Sarrazin. It took several weeks for Armin Nassehi, a respected sociologist, to take the pseudoscientific interpretation of the relevant statistics apart in a newspaper article. He demonstrated that Mr. Sarrazin adopted the kind of “naturalizing” interpretation of measured differences in intelligence that had already been scientifically discredited in the United States decades ago. But this de-emotionalizing introduction of objectivity into the discussion came too late. The poison that Mr. Sarrazin had released by reinforcing cultural hostility to immigrants with genetic arguments seemed to have taken root in popular prejudices. When Mr. Nassehi and Mr. Sarrazin appeared at the House of Literature in Munich, a mob atmosphere developed, with an educated middle-class audience refusing even to listen to objections to Mr. Sarrazin’s arguments. Amid the controversy, Mr. Sarrazin was forced to resign from the Bundesbank board. But his ouster, combined with the campaign against political correctness started by the right, only helped to strip his controversial arguments of their odious character. Criticism against him was perceived as an overreaction. Hadn’t the outraged chancellor, Angela Merkel, denounced the book without having read it? Wasn’t she now doing an about-face, by telling young members of her Christian Democratic Union party that multiculturalism was dead in Germany? And hadn’t the chairman of the Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel, the only prominent politician to counter the substance of Mr. Sarrazin’s claims with astute arguments, met with resistance from within his own party when he proposed expelling the unloved comrade? The second disturbing media event in recent weeks was the reaction to a speech by the newly elected German president, Christian Wulff. As the premier of Lower Saxony, Mr. Wulff had been the first to appoint a German woman of Turkish origin as a member of his cabinet. In his speech earlier this month on the anniversary of German unification, he took the liberty of reaffirming the commonplace notion, which former presidents had already affirmed, that not only Christianity and Judaism but “Islam also belongs in Germany.” After the speech the president received a standing ovation in the Bundestag from the assembled political notables. But the next day the conservative press homed in on his assertion about Islam’s place in Germany. The issue has since prompted a split within his own party, the Christian Democratic Union. It is true that, although the social integration of Turkish guest workers and their descendants has
[Marxism] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10292010.html Who says these days that in the last analysis, the only way to change the status quo and challenge the Money Power of Wall St is to overthrow the government by force? That isn’t some old Trotskyist lag like Louis Proyect, dozing on the dungheap of history like Odysseus’ lice-ridden old hound Argos, woofing with alarm as the shadow of a new idea darkens the threshold. --- This is the kindest thing I have heard from a Nation Magazine writer since Marc Cooper called me a prolific buffoon. I only wish I had place for it on my blog like Doug Henwood puts this on LBO: You're scum...sick and twisted...it's tragic you exist. - former Wall Street Journal executive editor Norman Pearlstine, who has gone on to great things at Time Inc. I should add that I spotted Alex's fulmination not 5 minutes after sending in $25 to the Counterpunch fund-drive. 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] Churchill's Empire
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == El 29/10/2010 01:31 p.m., Paul Flewers escribió: Within three years of the war's end, the 'Jewel of the Crown' -- India -- was independent. Other colonies were to follow. The unofficial empire in Latin America had fallen to the dollar. True as regards currency, not as regards the general political and economic scenario. One, at least, had temporarily escaped the grip of British imperialism without falling to dependency on US imperialism. He is famous (among Leftist Arg popular nationalists, at least) for having said in 1945 that Argentina should never be allowed to industrialize, lest all of Latin America would follow her. Arg popular nationalism, in those times, was strongly anti-British, as against the Arg Left, who were anti-US but mostly PRO-BRITISH. Argentina was, in many senses, the Latin American Jewel of the Crown. A representative of our ruling classes had declared, during an OFFICIAL mission to London -panicked at the (in fact baseless) fear that Britain would leave Arg to live on her own after the Ottawa Agreements- that we were, on every ground but on the economic one, the Sixth Dominion in the Commonwealth. 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Get your money back. - Original Message - From: Louis Proyect l...@panix.com 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 10/29/2010 4:00 PM, S. Artesian wrote: Get your money back. I would have given $50 for a tirade like that. As Howard Stern once said, I don't care what they say about me as long as they say something. Or was that Joan Rivers... 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] What about the Greens???
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, 2010-10-29 at 14:58 -0400, Louis Proyect wrote: I don't seem to recall the Greens urging a vote for Democrats on Tuesday. What is happening with them? I have no idea where the Greens are overall, but I have been supporting Howie Hawkins, the NY GP candidate for governor, who has been campaigning full time for the last month or so. He is very clear on not supporting Democrats. He is a Teamster UPS worker and a good example of a worker candidate running for office. He just stopped by the rail yard where I work today and I am sure he will get a good showing from my co-workers. The Albany alternative weekly just endorsed him. I think that he might surprise some people next Tuesday. Stay tuned. Jon Flanders http://metroland.typepad.com/blog/2010/10/howie-hawkins-for-governor.html Howie Hawkins for New York State Governor Carl Paladino represents what is perhaps most loathsome in politics these days-a rich, Albany insider trying to capitalize on fear, racism and bigotry to gain control of the government that already greatly benefits his business. This should be an easy endorsement for Andrew Cuomo, but sadly, it is not. Cuomo has avoided the press like the plague, danced away from issues during the one debate he agreed to participate in, run a campaign far to the right of the Democratic base he represents, and basically ignored minorities. We fear Cuomo has more sympathy for the corporations and real-estate interests that have funded his campaign than he does for the working-class New Yorker. We are also concerned about how his office has selectively pursued corruption cases against members of his own party. Yes, we could endorse Cuomo based on the horror we feel when we imagine Paladino in charge of the state, but let's be honest: Paladino has already dug his own grave with his hate speech, bizarre behavior and lack of real policy. Some might tell you that if you want to send Cuomo a message that you do not agree with his austerity budget, which will slash services to the needy and hurt the environment, you should vote Cuomo on the Working Families Party Line. But Cuomo won't get that message. He had the WFP on its knees fighting for survival, and the party signed off on his pledge, approving his austerity budget. This should be a vote based on hope, not on fear, and that is why Metroland endorses Howie Hawkins for governor of New York. Hawkins has the kind of progressive ideas that Andrew Cuomo needs to hear about. Hawkins' plan to reinstate the stock-transfer tax and use it to create a Works Progress Administration-like entity that would offer jobs to unemployed New Yorkers might seem like a pie-in-the-sky dream, but that is because progressives have let conservatives vilify them without pushing back. Hawkins has the kind of policy initiatives that progressives have been scared to mention for years. It is time to stand up and tell Democrats and Republicans that we have had enough of their ties to corporate interests, that we are sick with scandal fatigue and policy agendas that shift to meet the needs of lobbyists and campaign donors. If you want to send Cuomo a message that he is too far to the right, vote for Howie Hawkins 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Tallulah Bankhead I would have given $50 for a tirade like that. As Howard Stern once said, I don't care what they say about me as long as they say something. Or was that Joan Rivers... 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 10/29/2010 4:21 PM, S. Artesian wrote: Lou, For $50 I'll give a tirade that could blister the paint on a parking meter, that could raise a welt on a tombstone, that could bring tears to the eyes of zombie But anyway, good to hear you got your money's worth from that dribbling goober.. Go ahead, but send the money in to Counterpunch. http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Donations.html 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, 2010-10-29 at 16:25 -0400, Louis Proyect wrote: Go ahead, but send the money in to Counterpunch. http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Donations.html When I make my donation, I will be sure to tell CP that you sent me. Jon Flanders 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] American-style
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == WL, Thank you once again for your in-depth analysis of the American political scene. I get your basic point: the role of intellectual revolutionaries is to help the people in moving along what you call the line of march. Simply put, you see workers, who are displaced by advancing technological society, engaging in more and more of a struggle against the State; they cannot really get at corporate employers, so they will increasingly demand the satisfaction of their needs from the State. In this way, the economic struggle becomes a political struggle, and with the help of revolutionaries, the collective awareness is ultimately reached that it is necessary (for the satisfaction of human needs) to make the means of production public property. Is that the gist of it? I find it to be a novel and insightful perspective that I need to further consider? The manner in which Rally Comrades is organized and functions is fascinating, and I'm glad to hear that these kind of political-communal experiments are happening in America. As you know, America has its own history of Utopian experimentation, which may not be as bold or deep, generally speaking, as European-style alternative living and working circles, but there's a rich history here to be build on. I'm going to read the new essay on the politics of bipartisanship this afternoon, and post some comments asap. Naturally, I'm very interested to hear more about your class on America and the Marxist approach. What else can you tell me about it? glenn Marx economic determinism - (how revolution in means of production and corresponding political relations compel society to leaps to a new mode of production), 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == You don't understand, you have to send ME the money. Then you get the tirade. - Original Message - Go ahead, but send the money in to Counterpunch. 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] Ausgezeichnet !
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Jay Moore piein...@igc.org writes: David Harvey also has a new book out on Reading Capital, a spin-off I think from his online lecture series (which I found outstanding). Do you mean A Companion to Marx's Capital? I just ordered one: http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/A-Companion-to-Marxs-Capital -- In Solidarity, Billy O'Connor 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] American style
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == WL, Just finished The Politics of Bipartisanship. It's a brilliant Marxist analysis of American electoral politics, and that's EXACTLY what is needed right now in my opinion. I have some reservations about what is said regarding the necessity of a Third Party, but that's OK because the most important thing at this historical moment is that WE have this conversation, and bring forth a lot of perspectives that will help us move forward. I'm now reading Nelson Peery's Entering An epoch of Social Revolution, and I see that he has the right focus. Pleased to meet you on Marxmail, courtesy of Louis Proyect. glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/rain51%40hotmail.com 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == S. Artesian wrote: Get your money back. Lou replied: I would have given $50 for a tirade like that. As Howard Stern once said, I don't care what they say about me as long as they say something. Or was that Joan Rivers... Oscar Wilde: The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” I have to say though, that I wonder what these new ideas are that are supposed to alarm us old lags? Maybe eventually Mr Counter Punch will enlighten us. In any case he certainly has not done so todate. comradely Gary 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Some of these characters talk about new ideas the way Democrats talk about compromise and pragmatism. They are magic words to ward off the evil eye. ML 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] Who cares who wins the elections
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Greens remain, as they always have been...a mixed bag that varies tremendously from one part of the country to another. That is, they're like most really large radical clusterbunches in modern America (like the SDS, for one example). It's too bad Marxists haven't usually been sufficiently flexible to find ways to relate to them more successfully. On this group, though, the time for the GPUS may be long past, though the state and local parties may well be worth supporting, Howie in New York and the rather new wave of Greens in Illinois as examples ML 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] Who cares who wins the elections
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Mark, Yes, it is too bad that Marxists haven't related better to the Greens (as a whole). Why do you suppose that it? Do you think that the US Green Party even desires the end of Capitalism, or are they too much of a mixed bag for anyone to know? glenn == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Greens remain, as they always have been...a mixed bag that varies tremendously from one part of the country to another. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/rain51%40hotmail.com 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] A nice complement from Alexander Cockburn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What's need got to do with it? -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 5:37 PM You need money about as much as I do. 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] Why Capitalism Cannot be Tamed
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A little more than a year ago, I posted a note using football as a metaphor for the futility of effective regulation. http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/the-futility-of-financial-regulation-lessons-from-science-and-professional-football/ Some people dismissed the football metaphor. The Wall Street Journal today has a story about how people design new psychotropic drugs to get around regulation. It may be that these new drugs are more dangerous than banned drugs. In all likelihood, they can design these drugs faster than the government can make regulations. How in the world can regulators get ahead of financial industry or tax lawyers, even if the lobbyists were not writing the regulations or the tax codes. Whalen, Jeanne. 2010. In Quest for 'Legal High,' Chemists Outfox Law. Wall Street Journal (30 October). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704763904575550200845267526.html?mod=WSJ_World_LeadStory -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com 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] Who cares who wins the elections
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Some Greens advocate an end to capitalism and some don't. But that's the wrong starting point to understand these things. The radical dynamic comes from going into action independently. Most people most of the time are going be groping their way, but the chances of their contributing to moving society forward is much more possible than using the terminology of socialism to rationalize voting for capitalism. ML 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] Roma punks rise at right time
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == “My next guests are a gypsy punk rock band that have been called the world’s most visionary band”, US TV show host Jay Leno said when he introduced Gogol Bordello to close the October 13, 2010. *Jay Leno Show*. If “most visionary” is an exaggeration, Gogol Bordello could at least lay claim to being one of the most interesting and important acts in popular music right now. http://links.org.au/node/1961 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker 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-Thaxis] Hi, I'm a Tea-Partier
Hi, I'm a Tea-Partier www.youtube.com ___ 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] Basil Davidson obituary
I missed this in the summer. CB Basil Davidson obituary http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/09/basil-davidson-obituary Radical journalist and historian who charted the death throes of colonialism in Africa Basil Davidson Davidson found himself listed as a ‘prohibited immigrant’ in some white-ruled African countries. Photograph: Augusta Conchiglia Basil Davidson, who has died aged 95, was a radical journalist in the great anti-imperial tradition, and became a distinguished historian of pre-colonial Africa. An energetic and charismatic figure, he was dropped behind enemy lines during the second world war and joined that legendary band of British soldiers who fought with the partisans in Yugoslavia and in Italy. Years later, he was the first reporter to travel with the guerrillas fighting the Portuguese in Angola and Guinea-Bissau, and brought their struggle to the world's attention. For many years he was at the centre of the campaigns for Africa's liberation from colonialism and apartheid, endlessly addressing meetings and working on committees. Extremely tall and with a shock of white hair, and possessing the old-fashioned courtesy of the ex-army officer that he was – or even of the country gentleman that he eventually became after his move to the West Country – he was an unlikely figure at many of these often incoherent and sometimes sectarian events, usually run by student activists and exiles. Among his friends were the historians Thomas Hodgkin, EP Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. The Palestinian scholar Edward Said placed him in a select band of western artists and intellectuals with a sympathy and comprehension of foreign cultures that meant that they had in effect, crossed to the other side. Born in Bristol, Davidson left school at 16, determined to become a writer, though he first made his living by pasting advertisements for bananas on shop windows in the north of England. Moving to London, he found his way into journalism, working for the Economist and then as the diplomatic correspondent of the Star, a now defunct London evening paper. In the late 1930s he travelled widely in Italy and in central Europe, and his familiarity with its geography and his capacity to learn its languages made him an obvious candidate, when the war broke out, for the Special Operations Executive – seeking to undermine the Nazi regime from within. His self-reliance, and lack of interest in received wisdom, soon marked him out. When sent out to Budapest, to stimulate the resistance forces in Hungary, he crossed swords with the British ambassador, who ordered him to stop storing plastic explosives in the embassy cellar. In Cairo, he worked on plans to drop agents into Yugoslavia, first to the royalists and then, after much internal argument, to Tito's communist guerrillas. Davidson was eventually parachuted into Yugoslavia himself, to join the communists in the uncompromising territory of the Vojvodina, the plain of the Danube valley across from Hungary. There, his exceptional physical strength and bravery were tested to the utmost. When he returned to Yugoslavia at the end of the war, his companion on the visit, Kingsley Martin, editor of the New Statesman, recorded how as we entered the villages, people would run out crying 'Nicola, Nicola!' (Davidson's partisan name) and, after kissing him on the cheek, carry us both into their houses, where it was hard without offence to avoid getting drunk on Slivovitza. Davidson fought in Yugoslavia from August 1943 to November 1944, then transferred to the Ligurian hills of northern Italy. He and his partisan band seized Genoa before the arrival of American or British forces. The war years marked him for ever. He fell in love with the comradeship, the trust and the spiritual force of endurance in the service of an ideal that he found with the guerrilla fighters. The lessons he learned about the muddle of war were important for his later work in Africa. In Angola and Guinea-Bissau in the early 1970s, and in Eritrea almost 20 years later, he found those same life forces and loved them. The subjective nature of his response to this history in the making, to deep friendships made and lost, made very painful the eventual unravelling of so much that he believed in. The political lessons were less personally rewarding, since his willingness to collaborate with communists in battle would lead him in later life to be labelled by the Foreign Office as a dangerous fellow traveller. Davidson had never been attracted to Marxism, but his wartime experiences with Communist partisans coloured his general attitude towards the cold war struggle, first in Europe and later in Africa. If communists were prepared to fight against the Nazis, or later against South African apartheid and Portuguese colonialism, that caused him no problems. At the end of the war, a lieutenant-colonel awarded the Military Cross and twice mentioned in dispatches, he turned again to journalism, working first
