Re: [Marxism] NPA 'down under'?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I wrote: That said, I think that the Socialist Alliance in Brisbane is pretty much useless. It's better elsewhere, but yeah. I should probably retract that statement. The current issue of Green Left Weekly is a lot better in its Queensland coverage, and the previous one isn't too bad either. Coal Seam Gas articles: Queensland ‘world epicentre of pollution’ http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46199 Farmers to ‘lock the gates’ on mining companies http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46263 Are QLD and NSW the new gasland? http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46273 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] Zodiac Actor Placed on Terrorist List for supporting Gasland documentary
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/zodiac-actor-terror-list-drilling-method/ 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] Poison Playtime
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Correct. Why then is it OK to support a regime which plans to do the same thing but calls itself socialist because it plans to redirect some of the accrued revenue to working people? Greg On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 7:21 PM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/poison_playtime_QwebQnOhMRcKmchxQufQGN Poison Playtime Peru lead-smelt suit could hit NY mogul By CHUCK BENNETT Last Updated: 7:25 AM, November 22, 2010 Billionaire industrialist Ira Rennert may have a legal problem big enough to match his East End house, say lawyers preparing a massive lawsuit against his mining interests. The likely plaintiffs in the case against the Brooklyn-born Rennert -- whose 66,000-square-foot mansion in Sagaponack is the nation's largest single residence -- would be as many as 3,000 Peruvian kids suffering from blood poisoning allegedly caused by a lead-smelting operation he invested heavily in, the lawyers said. Ira Rennert, one of the worst scumbags in the capitalist class: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/captalist-pig-of-the-month/ 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 American Dream - A Dream Denied
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
Last evening I recorded BBC2's showing of the subject title, (to be shown
again on BBC on Tuesday (or rather Wednesday !!) at 2.00 a.m. GMT, and have
reviewed it this morning:
and conclude it contains much that must be a revelation to many born since
WW2 in UK (or elsewhere) and an upset to their acceptance of the
establishment view of the US and its world policies (i.e its supposed basis
of support of human freedom and democracy).
Most of it was just a rehash of events inscribed in the memory of my long
life-time's experience and opposition to the US government and its racism
(the Negros = the separated units of the US Army and USAAF in UK and Italy),
the aboriginal tribes of north America [Red Indians], the Gays (=Homos),
and its world-wide interventions on behalf of every disgusting right-wing
dictatorship (Phillipines, Chile, etc. etc) it believed to be under threat
of communism; but new to me, despite my involvement in the fight against
the war in Vietnam - was concerning those involved in the Weatherman
campaign
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_%28organization%29.
Presumably my hatred of all the US government has always represented was
what prevented me learning of this (perhaps naive, but surely justified)
direct-action organisation, derived from student activism.
It is ironic that the BBC has decided to show this programme here just when
student activism against the imposition of increased fees in higher
education (with its sub-texts of make the bankers pay, end the wars in
the Middle East, etc.) - when this reminder of the darker aspects of
American Imperialism is, for once, likely to find an audience ready to think
deeply and wonder - about both home and foreign affairs - the question of
whose side are we on !!. (At least the showing was during prime time -
though on the elitist channel of BBC2 - {what were the mass looking at on
ITV or satellite, I wonder ?? - this I have NOT researched !}
The programme is not available on BBC iPlayer - but is to be repeated late
on Tuesday evening (02.00 GMT Weds).
Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com
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[Marxism] A trailer for Our Story, an important presentation by Mustafa Barghouthi,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Israeli Occupation Archive has posted 1 new item(s): * Mustafa Barghouthi: Our Story ___ Mustafa Barghouthi: Our Story http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-11-27/mustafa-barghouthi-our-story-video/ A trailer for Our Story, an important presentation by Mustafa Barghouthi, documenting Palestinian history, the Occupation, the dispossession and displacement of the Palestinian people by Israel from 1948 to the present day. ___ 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] Cujban CP official Oscar Martinex on new economic policy
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Cuba's Economic Reform: Interview with Oscar Martínez by Yunus Carrim Oscar Martínez is Deputy Head of the International Relations Department of the Cuban Communist Party. This interview was conducted during the South African Communist Party visit to Cuba this month. What is the nature of the economic problems Cuba is currently experiencing? In the context of our other problems, the US economic and financial blockade is hurting our economy more now. The blockade has been the main obstacle to our social and economic development over 48 years. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc, we lost our main trading partners. It was a severe blow from which we have not yet recovered. The 2008 global economic crisis also hit us hard. The price of nickel, a major export earner, has gone down. And we have had huge losses with the hurricanes. But also our productivity is too low. We need greater efficiency and more saving to ensure economic growth. We are a small country with limited resources. We need better organize our production, improve discipline, and update our economic model. We are importing far too much, especially food, and need to be more self-sufficient. We need to focus far more on agriculture. Food production has now become an issue of national security. Isn't the US blockade easing? In practical terms, no. The main aspects remain and overall the blockade has even got worse. Since 2009 there have been more prohibitions on companies doing business with Cuba. Yet 187 countries voted against the blockade in the UN General Assembly. Direct economic damages to Cuba since the blockade began in 1962 until December 2009, according to conservative estimates, surpass 154 billion US dollars. If this was calculated according to the present value of the US dollar, it would be about 239 billion dollars. But if you have economic problems how does it follow that you have to retrench half a million state workers? Especially since you're a socialist state? We are not retrenching. That's a capitalist term. We are not putting people out in the street. We are not going to leave them without social assistance. We are re-organising the workforce, not firing workers. We are directing them to other areas of work vital for the economy, mainly food production. We are making these changes as part of updating our economic model in order to ensure that our socialist system is sustainable on the basis of the rational and effective use of the workforce. The first phase will be concluded by the first quarter of 2011. As part of the process, we are giving people land, and helping them to make productive use of it. A significant section of this land is near the urban areas, where 80% of the working population lives. If this land is used to produce food, it will also reduce the fuel and transport costs because it's near the urban areas. We have too many bureaucrats and professionals, not enough artisans. We want to move people from just producing paper to areas of the economy in which they can be productive and contribute to the economy. We are trying to find new areas of work for them. As President Raul Castro says, 'We have to remove once and for all the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where you can live without working'. If they do not accept work that the government directs them to, they can be self-employed. We have opened up 178 areas in which they can work. Over 2 years, the state will have to give up about a million workers. Are you going to re-skill the workers? And what areas are you opening up? Yes, we are going to fully support the workers to get new skills and other means to get started. Our higher educational institutions are also going to assist. Banks will help with loans. Our main priority, of course, is food production, with the emphasis on substitution of imports, but we also want to increase imports in certain areas. The new areas being opened are in tourism, trade and services, mainly. We are to allow more people to be self-employed as transport providers, bricklayers, stonemasons, plumbers, electricians, panel-beaters, shoe-repairers, hairdressers, shoe-makers, accountants and so on. We are also to allow people to have restaurants with up to 20 seats. Labour must be got from the owners' families, but they can also employ a limited number of people. Will there be a minimum wage for those employed and any restriction on the profits of the restaurant owners and others? Yes, there will be a minimum wage. These will be limited enterprises and they won't be able to make huge profits. We are introducing new redistributive taxes. In fact, new regulations related to this, including the modification of the tax system,
[Marxism] The Horrible Swiss
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == And further proof, if any is needed, that naive calls for more direct democracy cannot be a demand of any real left. Calls for direct democracy under capitalist conditions means just one thing: mob rule. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11857438?print=true Swiss voters have accepted a referendum proposal for the automatic expulsion of non-Swiss citizens for certain crimes, an exit poll suggests. 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 Horrible Swiss
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == No, you can have stupid decisions come out of any arrangement. 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] The Horrible Swiss
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/28/10 10:45 AM, Angelus Novus wrote: And further proof, if any is needed, that naive calls for more direct democracy cannot be a demand of any real left. Calls for direct democracy under capitalist conditions means just one thing: mob rule. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11857438?print=true Swiss voters have accepted a referendum proposal for the automatic expulsion of non-Swiss citizens for certain crimes, an exit poll suggests. Not available from Netflix, but there are 6 used dvd's on amazon.com for 6.99. A really great movie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Chocolate Bread and Chocolate (Italian: Pane e cioccolata) is a 1974 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Franco Brusati. This film chronicles the misadventures of an Italian immigrant to Switzerland and is representative of the commedia all'italiana film genre. Like many southern Europeans of the period (1960s to early 1970s), Nino Garofalo (Nino Manfredi) is a migrant guest worker from Naples, working as a waiter in Switzerland. He loses his work permit when he is caught urinating in public, so he begins to lead a clandestine life in Switzerland. At first he is supported by Elena, a Greek woman. Then he befriends an Italian industrialist, relocated to Switzerland because of financial problems. The industrialist takes him under his wing, only to commit suicide when he squanders his last savings. Nino is constrained to find shelter with a group of clandestine Neapolitans living in a chicken coop, together with the same chickens they tend to in order to survive. Captivated by the idyllic vision of a group of young blonde, Swiss youths, he decides to dye his hair and pass himself off as a local. In a bar, when rooting for the Italian national football team during its transmission, he is found out after celebrating a goal scored by Fabio Capello. He is arrested and deported. He embarks on a train and finds himself in a cabin filled with returning Italian guest workers. Amid the songs of sun and sea, he is seen having second thoughts. He gets off at the first stop: better life as an illegal immigrant than a life of misery. 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] A shockingly bad movie
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I am working my way through a bunch of screeners I get from the pr department of major Hollywood studios around this time of the year as a member of NYFCO. They are supposedly the cream of the crop that are put forward as award winners. I have no idea how Inception got an 87 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There is more drama in the average Saturday morning cartoon show. 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 Horrible Swiss
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == S. Artesian wrote: All hail, then, the mob, the incarnation of progress James Connolly. The referendum had nothing to do with calls for direct democracy, nor does it represent mob rule. This is a demonstration of the sentiment of the shopkeeper's mentality. Your conclusion does not follow from the evidence you present. I'm sticking with Connolly. Seconded! I'm 100 % sure that all kind of stupid prejudice will exist in a socialist world, and I don't see how overthrowing the current mode of production will prevent the possibility of e.g. the death penalty being re-introduced by means of a referendum, or abortion rights taken away the same way, or other shit like that. These are political struggles that have to be fought and won, and which can be lost as well, like now in Switzerland. But if Ireland and Greece had the Swiss system in place, some interesting struggles could be won.. 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] Real issues in threats to N. Kore, [random thoughts on all this]
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Fred, thanks for posting this. It seems the Militant squirms a bit here. Since the 'first shot' was fired by the DPRK, as that country noted in it's declaration, it's hard to argue the 'provocation' was a justifiable reason to start shooting, knowing only what I do from the media. Did it have the indended effect on the ROK? Unless the DPRK wanted a closer shot at starting a war, then yes, it did. Secondly, now the US, hitherto *abstaining* from these troop maneuvers, is sending it a truncated air-craft carrier battle group to *back up* the ROK forces. Seems the DPRK actions only had the intention of bringing direct US intervention there on a higher level. I think this is a bad thing, not a good thing. Thirdly, the ROK forces are NOT commanded by the US. This is false. ROK forces are independent within in the parameter of US-ROK relations, albeit they always have US military observers as consultants. My thoughts on this: Interestingly, the pro-smash-DPRK Republicans want the US *out* of the ROK for the moment. They want a military response by the S. Korean forces who are at least several generations ahead of the North in military hardware and technique (despite being outnumbered by them about 3 to 1 across the board). Chuck Devore, the Orange County, CA Tea-Party Republican Assemblyman is advocating this on his blog as are a few others. They see it essentially as an Israel vs Egypt scenario, circa 1967. They see a US presence for the moment as one of *hindering* the South in a response to the North. Probably aimed at Obama believing, falsely, that Obama would take a softer approach. DeVores view is my pledge when I was in the US Army was to defend the Constitution, not Seoul, South Korea. The 'danger' to the South comes from an array of very upgraded SCUDs that exist and are targeted at Seoul ( and other cities in the South). The South's counter-response, or, likely pre-emptive response, as everyone knows, is to take out these pre-targeted rockets and, the mostly obsolete N. Korean Air force. In case people doubt the importance of Seoul, consider that about half the population of the ROK lives in the Greater Seoul Metropolitian Area. That's 24 million people. The entire basis of current S. Korean politics toward the North that the regime in the North is now on a slide toward disintegration. They have various scenarios on how to deal with this including outright invasion to hasten the process in a more 'controlled' manner. It is highly likely that very secret negotiations take place between the Chinese and S. Koreans on what is to be done should Korea be reunified on the basis of the ROC political economy. The PRC doesn't want ROC troops on their border, obviously. They probably want the economy, however, to help them in investment capital in this, the old Rust Belt of China. The Russians are not thrilled about it either (as it would bring them within about 60 miles from their main Pacific port, Vladivostok). With the ROC comes the US Navy and Airforce. The S. Koreans have tentively figured and publicly discussed that it would cost them up to 1 trillion USD to reunify and throughly integrate the north with the south under their hegemony. After the clear economic failure of German unification 20 years ago, they 'pulled back' from a more easy wishful thinking on reunification with sections of the ROC ruling class having second thoughts about 'reunification' altogether. But Korean 'national will' on both sides of the border, unlike with the old FDR/GDR is for unification. No one really speaks out against it. And the DPRK got nukes, albeit its likely they are not 'weaponized' (made compact and light enough to deliver to the enemy). Altogether a f*cked up situation. David 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] A shockingly bad movie
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I suspect it got 87% because everyone who went to see it, including the critics, like it so much. I did not go see it because I hate 'dream movies' (same with time loop movies, can't stand 'em) although I see almost all science-fiction films out there (the B movie was essentially applied to 1950s sci-fi movies playing second billing at the local one-show movie house). A REALLY BAD movie is Skyline. It was SO bad, that I actually walked out about 3/4 of the way through. I almost never do that. A movie like this is bad from it's own perceptive. It fails to deliver on and expected promise (Aliens invade LA, kill eat everyone, The End). B movies *can* work if it doesn't pretend to be something they are not, like 'profound' 'insightful' 'creative' etc. Skyline fails at every level (not to mention shitty actors who are mostly castoffs from B TV shows in this case). A worthwhile B movie is sort of like Faster with The Rock in the starting role. He utters, maybe, 10 full sentences from start to finish, uses a .357 magnum revolver and *that is what you expect* so it works from the first second to the last. Plus an interesting plot twist thrown in. I always go to first showings so I can pay half prices and never feel really ripped off. An A movie that is a failed B movie is 3 Days with quite a good professional acting line-up starting with Russel Crowe who, finally, has his American accent down to where it's not a distraction. It was also filmed in Pittsburgh, PA. Any movie shot on location always a good sign (except, of course, if it's shot in L.A. the entire city of which LOOKS like a studio backlot). Unfortunately this 'break innocent person out of prison' film fails, is very long winded and loses sight of itself about the angst of having an innocent spouse/friend/buddy incarcerated for a crime they didn't commit. I say skip it. David 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] Cujban CP official Oscar Martinex on new economic policy
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Oscar Martínez said:... But also our productivity is too low. We need greater efficiency and more saving to ensure economic growth. We are a small country with limited resources. We need better organize our production, improve discipline, and update our economic model. We are importing far too much, especially food, and need to be more self-sufficient. We need to focus far more on agriculture. Food production has now become an issue of national security. Yes, isn't that whole socialism [or even close to socialism] in one country thing a bear (sic)? I used to believe that being a great example of what could be done was a great point of departure in showing people interested in socialism that at least there was one country where capitalism had been overturned And there were revolutionary internationalists at the helm who could and should be emulated. I believe that still to be true. However, I believe the epoch in which such exemplars are a sufficient guide to action is (or at least in process of) passing. At some point, swimming in a sea of mud just to survive is simply an exercise for the dying. Cuban leaders and their pretenders in Venezuela and Bolivia, while not complacent, seem stuck in their perceived roles as example to others. However, the Cuban people are a truly conscious (in their majority at least) people with great intellectual, programmatic, and organizational wealth in the 50+ years of struggle against insurmountable odds. Is providing doctors, teachers, even soldiers to countries in need really the best way to defend the revolution? The metaphors have to change; no more swimming in mud. To find ways for a socialist state to survive economically using the language and tactics more akin to radical trade unionists fighting for better conditions within a capitalist system illustrates the futility of trying to hang on (as if the laws of the class struggle are somehow immune and not simply exacerbated within a worker's state). What the world needs is a nation of organizers--proletarian internationalist activists, international party builders--not excellent stewards of dismal resources in one island in the sun. The Cuban example is powerful not in its defeat of capital within its borders, but in its potential capacity to galvanize the world working class. To think otherwise is selling the Cuban revolution short at best and confining itself into a stalinist bureaucratic quagmire of isolationism at worst. Being a person of color, I have spent a lifetime learning and then simply knowing that I would have to do better than my privileged counterparts just even to be acknowledged. I turned that reality into an understanding that it would Never matter what I could individually accomplish as doing so would never bring me anything but grudging tolerance and ultimate rejection regardless. I say this simply to point out that no matter how sterling our efforts or those of our comrades (e.g., in Cuba), such great examples will Never suffice because the kernel of our strivings is a society corrupt in its evolution no matter how material the history from which it spawned. There really is only one outcome that will bring any of us peace; and it is not finding and simply defending our own little piece of heaven. The materialist dialectic indicates that out of the contradictions of class exploitation will come the conditions for proletarian usurpation of the world of privilege and inhumanity. But that usurpation is Never inevitable as history has shown; at least not without the ultimately dialectical intervention of revolutionary leadership. That leadership, to be sure, will be born of that same proletariat who began as a class tied to survival with the meager means it was/is provided by the liars, cheats, and hoarders of the world wealth but that will finally become the liberators of the world from the scourge of privilege with want. For such a leadership to emerge, we must go beyond examples to action; from fending for oneself in a revolutionary fashion to driving the example forward and fomenting it not with zealous emulation but with helping to empower, galvanize, and organize the rest of us in every corner of this globe. 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 shockingly bad movie
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/28/10 12:46 PM, DW wrote: I suspect it got 87% because everyone who went to see it, including the critics, like it so much. Isn't this a tautology? 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 shockingly bad movie
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I actually paid for that schlock. We walked out after the first hour. I now actually question the sanity of anyone who tells me they enjoyed it. Sent from my iPhone 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] Film studies philosophy babble
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Comrades might remember my blog post about dropping a documentary class at Columbia. http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/dropping-a-film-class-at-columbia-university/ Basically I expected some kind of survey class about the development of the genre but was instead force-fed the professor's critical theory approach which revolved around the question whether such films convey reality or not. Her approach was a mixture of Derrida and Social Text post-Marxism, very much not to my taste. It turns out that the film department at Columbia is fairly ripe with this stuff, based on an article in today's NYT magazine: November 26, 2010 The Professor of Micropopularity By CARLO ROTELLA ON A MONDAY evening in September, James Schamus and a dozen students in his graduate seminar in film theory at Columbia University were discussing the dialogues of Plato. Each participant who spoke called on the next speaker, and Schamus gave the group plenty of leeway to tussle with the text, but every once in a while he raised his hand and intervened to guide the conversation. The course was called Seeing Narrative, and the discussion centered on Plato’s skepticism about the ability of any visible thing to represent ideal truth — a skepticism that, say, a bunch of beautiful images strung together in a movie could communicate the perfect, invisible idea of Beauty. Schamus, in bow tie and jacket, his mobile face alight with intentness, said: “In Plato, the philosopher’s job is to love knowledge, logos, but it’s always corporealized, and the body fools your senses, your perceptions. The soul is invisible and doesn’t change, and it wants to connect to other such invisible, unchanging things” — including Truth and Beauty in their ideal forms — “but it’s trapped in a body that’s always taking it to visible things that are never the same.” full: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/magazine/28Schamus-t.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
[Marxism] an asshole economist chimes in on how to get the economy going
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In today's New York Times there is an article discussing the suggestions of various thinkers on what might sustain a growing economy in the future. (David Segal, Some Very Creative Economic Fix-Its) Here is what one New York University economist had to say: _ Perhaps we are entering the era of the self-starter. Prof. Andrew aplin of New York University thinks so. He begins with the premise that in the coming global economy some people will succeed and others will not, and income inequality will grow. While it’s noble to focus on how to spread wealth around, he says that it might be wiser to think of ways the poor and middle class could cater to the economy’s biggest winners. “Unfortunately, there will be income inequality,” he says, “but enough people will make money that those who don’t would do well, in as much as they understand the needs of that group.” He says he expects a rise in what he call “artisanal services,” like cooks, nutritionists, small-scale farmers. He sees services emerging that aid the wealthy at the intersection of health and genetic science. He imagines a rise in technology services, too — experts who keep clients current about technology which can advance their interests in business, in the media, on search engines and so on. Professor Caplin worries that this concept might be caricatured as “cater to the rich.” But he suggested that this country could use a lot more non-judgmental thinking about the future of the United States economy. Any argument on that subject that starts with the word “should,” he said, is not nearly as useful as one that starts with “could” and has a firm grasp on “is.” “If you start with ‘should’ you get arguments where nobody makes any sense and where you can claim that some people are good and other people are bad,” he said, referring to recent skirmishes over Fed policy, deficits and other contentious topics. “With that sleight of hand you’ve ensured that you will not discuss anything of substance. You’ve just lined up two camps to fire at one another.” __ Is it time to take all neoclassical economists into the woods and shoot 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
Re: [Marxism] an asshole economist chimes in on how to get the economy going
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/28/10 2:05 PM, MICHAEL YATES wrote: Is it time to take all neoclassical economists into the woods and shoot them? They should be hung by their feet from the limbs of a tree and beaten with sticks until snot comes pouring out of their nose. That's what angry peasants did to Mussolini at the end of WWII. 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 Last Train Home
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is the time of year when I am inundated with screeners from the public relations department of both major and minor production companies that are meant to help members of New York Film Critics Online select winners in various categories at our annual meeting in December. Unlike most critics, I am far more interested in “minor” than “major” when it comes to films. As a reminder of why this is the case, I finished watching “Inception” this morning, an onerous task. It simply amazes me that this piece of garbage received 85 percent “fresh” ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. But then again, this is a country that elects George W. Bush and Barack Obama president. My approach will be to report on the films in the order that they presumably interest my readers and me. Those who are regular readers will not be surprised that documentaries go to the head of the pack. Today I will be writing about “Last Train Home”, a movie about migrant workers in China and will get to “Waste Land”, “William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe”, and “A Film Unfinished” (about a Nazi film made in a concentration camp) later this week. Those are my kinds of movies, not the twerp Leonard DiCaprio bouncing off the walls in a CGI orchestrated dream. “Last Train Home” is the latest movie that departs from the globalization-is -wonderful ideology of Thomas Friedman, Jagdish Bhagwati, and other prophets of neoliberalism. Some are fictional, such as “Blind Shaft”, a movie about miners forced to work in virtual slavery. Others are documentaries like “Still Life” that depict the loss of livelihood and ties to the land that the Three Gorges Dam posed. Directed by a Canadian Lixin Fan, whose last film “Up the Yangtze” explored the same issues as “Still Life”, “Last Train Home” focuses on a single family whose life has been torn apart by China’s rapid industrialization. Changhua Zhan and his wife Suqin Chen both work on sewing machines in a typical export-oriented factory in the Guangdong province. Each New Year’s holiday, they take a train back to their rural village to see their teenaged daughter Qin Zhang and her younger brother Yang Zhang. This is not as easy as it seems since there are far more people trying to get a ticket than are available. The train station is a sea of humanity with cops and soldiers trying to keep order. Although the film does not comment on why this is the case (it sticks to a cinéma vérité format), it strikes this reviewer as the likely outcome of a society that no longer places much emphasis on public transportation as it once did. (There are signs that this is beginning to change recently, but one doubts that it will have any impact on the poorer migrant workers for a while.) full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/last-train-home/ 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] an asshole economist chimes in on how to get the economy going
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It was already time to do that in 1973, when the Chicago Boys turned Chile into their personal laboratory for evisceration of any and all forms of social progress. - Original Message - On 11/28/10 2:05 PM, MICHAEL YATES wrote: Is it time to take all neoclassical economists into the woods and shoot 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] PhD Student Position in Marxist Communication Studies
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Uppsala University hereby declares the following position to be open for application: PhD position in Media and Communication Studies at the Department of Informatics and Media as of January 1st, 2011. The candidate is supposed to participate in the department’s ongoing research in the field of web 2.0/social media/social networking sites economic online surveillance/Internet prosumer labour. Therefore applicants with a solid background in the combination of the following areas are solicited to apply: critical media and communication studies, Critical Theory, critical political economy, critical political economy of media, ICTs and communication; Internet studies, surveillance and privacy studies, critical advertising and consumer culture studies. Qualifications: master’s degree (candidates with any suited disciplinary and interdisciplinary background are welcome to apply), excellent command of written and spoken English. The application should include a) an application form including a copy of a degree certificate that proves the applicant’s eligibility for studies at the research level in Media and Communication Studies; b) a CV; c) a copy of the master's thesis (additional works related to the advertised position’s topic may also be included); d) an outline of experience in and motivation for conducting research in the advertised research field (minimum: 1000 words) Education at the research level has a duration of five years, of which the first year is financed with a scholarship (utbildningsbidrag) and the four following years with employment as PhD candidate. PhD candidates are expected to conduct their education at the research level by working full time and by participating actively in the activities of the department. Obligatory administrative and teaching duties at the department may not exceed 20 % of full-time. The application form and instructions in English are available from: http://www.uppdok.uadm.uu.se/blanketter/BLfoant.pdf http://www.uppdok.uadm.uu.se/blanketter/BLfo-enginstr.pdf More information about PhD studies at Uppsala University and at the Faculty of Social Sciences are available at: http://www.uu.se/en/node76 http://www.doktorandhandboken.nu (click on the link “English”) http://info.uu.se/uadm/dokument.nsf http://regler.uu.se/ Uppsala University cannot cover travel and accommodation costs for short-listed candidates, who are invited for a job interview. Uppsala University is striving to promote equality and gender balance. The majority of employees are men, therefore women are encouraged to apply for positions. Information about the employment, Professor for Media and Communication Studies: Christian Fuchs (christian.fu...@im.uu.se): +46 18 471 1019; Head of the Department and Professor Mats Edenius: +46 18 471 11 76. Representatives from the Union are: Anders Grundström, Saco-rådet, tel. +46 18-471 53 80, Carin Söderhäll, TCO/ST tel. +46 18-471 19 96 och Stefan Djurström, Seko, tel. +46 18-471 33 15. The application should be sent, not later than December 3, 2010, preferably by e-mail to registra...@uu.se, or by fax +46-184712000, or by mail to Registrar’s Office, Uppsala University, Box 256, SE-751 05 UPPSALA, Sweden. In any correspondence, please use the reference number UFV-PA 2010/2775. -- Prof. Christian Fuchs Chair in Media and Communication Studies Institutionen för informatik och media / Department of Informatics and Media Studies Uppsala University Kyrkogårdsgatan 10 Box 513 751 20 Uppsala Sweden christian.fu...@im.uu.se Tel +46 (0) 18 471 1019 http://fuchs.uti.at http://www.im.uu.se NetPolitics Blog: http://fuchs.uti.at/blog Editor of: tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation | Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society: http://www.triple-c.at 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] 2 Pieces About RAC-LA's 3rd Anniversary
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Revolutionary Autonomous Communities Sup- Original Message - From: rac-la_support...@yahoogroups.com To: rac-la_support...@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2010 2:41 AM Subject: [RAC-LA_supporters] Digest Number 139 Messages In This Digest (2 Messages) 1. LA Activist.com:Article about RAC LA 3 year anniversary From: Tierra Y Libertad 2. R.A.C. LA on KPFK From: Tierra Y Libertad Messages 1. LA Activist.com:Article about RAC LA 3 year anniversary Posted by: Tierra Y Libertad fightbac...@yahoo.com fightbackla Sat Nov 27, 2010 7:43 pm (PST) http://www.laactivist.com/2010/11/20/westlake-community-group-celebrates-anniversary-gives-aid-in-macarthur-park/ Back to top Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post Messages in this topic (1) 2. R.A.C. LA on KPFK Posted by: Tierra Y Libertad fightbac...@yahoo.com fightbackla Sun Nov 28, 2010 2:20 am (PST) The interview from last week aired this past thursday, Its in Spanish and can be access through the archive. air date below La entrevista de la semana pasada se toco este jueves pasado. Se puede oir el programa atraves del archivo. El programa de la fecha abajo M http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/index.php?shokey=infopac Thursday, November 25, 2010 9:00 pm Informativo Pacifica EDICION ESPECIAL-DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIAS COMO LA RECUERDAN LOS PUEBLOS INDIGENAS. REPORTAJE ESPECIAL POBREZA Y SOLIDARIDAD EN LOS ANGELES. Listen to the podcast 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] Swans Release: November 29, 2010
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The first two films based on Stieg Larsson's novels are available on Netflix and are well worth the trouble to watch, but make sure you watch them in chronological order. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo should be viewed first. Lisbeth Salander is my hero. The trailers can be viewed here: http://marywhipplereviews.com/books/?p=10755 Greg On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 7:27 PM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: The culture corner is bursting with creativity, from film noir enthusiast Jonah Raskin's anticipation of the upcoming movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; Peter Byrne's examination of the unstable afterlife and metamorphosis of artist Paul Gauguin; Fabio De Propris's look at the world-wide embrace of American pop culture, which lives on even while the country's clout diminishes at home and abroad; and le coin français, with offerings from Marie Rennard, Christian Cottard, Simone Alié-Daram, and Alfred Jarry. We conclude with the poetry of Guido Monte and Maxwell Clark, and as always, your letters. 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] Swans Release: November 29, 2010
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/28/10 9:36 PM, Greg McDonald wrote: The first two films based on Stieg Larsson's novels are available on Netflix and are well worth the trouble to watch, but make sure you watch them in chronological order. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo should be viewed first. Lisbeth Salander is my hero. The trailers can be viewed here: http://marywhipplereviews.com/books/?p=10755 Yes, I saw this the other day as an award screener and recommend it highly. I have resisted the Stieg Larsson hoopla since it reminds me too much of the Harry Potter deal but the movie really is quite good and even makes me want to read the novel. 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] FBI creates, thwarts terrorist plot around allegedly angry teenager
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == SUNDAY, NOV 28, 2010 06:29 ET GLENN GREENWALD The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot By Glenn Greenwald (updated below) The FBI is obviously quite pleased with itself over its arrest of a 19-year-old Somali-American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who -- with months of encouragement, support and money from the FBI's own undercover agents -- allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon. Media accounts are almost uniformly trumpeting this event exactly as the FBI describes it. Loyalists of both parties are doing the same, with Democratic Party commentators proclaiming that this proves how great and effective Democrats are at stopping The Evil Terrorists, while right-wing polemicists point to this arrest as yet more proof that those menacing Muslims sure are violent and dangerous. What's missing from all of these celebrations is an iota of questioning or skepticism. All of the information about this episode -- all of it -- comes exclusively from an FBI affidavit filed in connection with a Criminal Complaint against Mohamud. As shocking and upsetting as this may be to some, FBI claims are sometimes one-sided, unreliable and even untrue, especially when such claims -- as here -- are uncorroborated and unexamined. That's why we have what we call trials before assuming guilt or even before believing that we know what happened: because the government doesn't always tell the complete truth, because they often skew reality, because things often look much different once the accused is permitted to present his own facts and subject the government's claims to scrutiny. The FBI affidavit -- as well as whatever its agents are whispering into the ears of reporters -- contains only those facts the FBI chose to include, but omits the ones it chose to exclude. And even the facts that are included are merely assertions at this point and thus may not be facts at all. It may very well be that the FBI successfully and within legal limits arrested a dangerous criminal intent on carrying out a serious Terrorist plot that would have killed many innocent people, in which case they deserve praise. Court-approved surveillance and use of undercover agents to infiltrate terrorist plots are legitimate tactics when used in accordance with the law. But it may also just as easily be the case that the FBI -- as they've done many times in the past -- found some very young, impressionable, disaffected, hapless, aimless, inept loner; created a plot it then persuaded/manipulated/entrapped him to join, essentially turning him into a Terrorist; and then patted itself on the back once it arrested him for having thwarted a Terrorist plot which, from start to finish, was entirely the FBI's own concoction. Having stopped a plot which it itself manufactured, the FBI then publicly touts -- and an uncritical media amplifies -- its success to the world, thus proving both that domestic Terrorism from Muslims is a serious threat and the Government's vast surveillance powers -- current and future new ones -- are necessary. There are numerous claims here that merit further scrutiny and questioning. First, the FBI was monitoring the email communications of this American citizen on U.S. soil for months (at least) with what appears to be the flimsiest basis: namely, that he was in email communication with someone in Northwest Pakistan, an area known to harbor terrorists (para. 5 of the FBI Affidavit). Is that enough to obtain court approval to eavesdrop on someone's calls and emails? I'm glad the FBI is only eavesdropping with court approval, if that's true, but certainly more should be required for judicial authorization than that. Communicating with someone in Northwest Pakistan is hardly reasonable grounds for suspicion. Second, in order not to be found to have entrapped someone into committing a crime, law enforcement agents want to be able to prove that, in the 1992 words of the Supreme Court, the accused was was independently predisposed to commit the crime for which he was arrested. To prove that, undercover agents are often careful to stress that the accused has multiple choices, and they then induce him into choosing with his own volition to commit the crime. In this case, that was achieved by the undercover FBI agent's allegedly advising Mohamud that there were at least five ways he could serve the cause of Islam (including by praying, studying engineering, raising funds to send overseas, or becoming operational), and Mohamud replied he wanted to be operational by using exploding a bomb (para. 35-37). But strangely, while all other conversations with Mohamud which the FBI summarizes were (according to the affidavit) recorded by numerous recording devices, this
[Marxism] Re FBI creates, thwarts terrorist plot around allegedly angry teenager
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This was sent to me by Mike Munk of Portland A Portlander who spoke with members of the local Somalian community about the kid reports here: http://agonist.org/mmeo/20101127/the_portland_bomber which also links to the FBI docs. 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's new at Links: Cancun climate talks, Ireland, Thailand, Ban the burqa?, China, oil, Hilferding's Finanz Kapital
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What's new at Links: Cancun climate talks, Ireland, Thailand, Ban the burqa?, China, oil, Hilferding's Finanz Kapital * * * *For more reliable delivery of new content, please subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 * You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to li...@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in Links. * * * Battlelines drawn for Cancun climate summit: `Nature has no price!' http://links.org.au/node/2011 By *Simon Butler* November 22, 2010 -- If at first you don't succeed, redefine success. This phrase has become the unofficial motto of this year's United Nations climate conference in Cancun, Mexico. Just out from Cancun, which runs over November 29 to December 10, there is little hope of meaningful progress. Yet key players have sought to throw a shroud of official optimism over the looming failure. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2011 Ireland: Fianna Fail/Greens cave in to EU/IMF on `bailout'; Left vows to fight austerity http://links.org.au/node/2009 November 23, 2010 -*- *The public finances of the 26-county state [Ireland] will, for the next three years at least, be subject to regular reviews by external monitors working on behalf of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU) and the British and Swedish governments. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2009 Cancun climate summit should not be `Copenhagen Accord Part II', says Bolivia http://links.org.au/node/2015 Statement by the *Plurinational State of Bolivia* November 27, 2010 -- At the next meeting of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 16), which begins November 29 in Cancun, Mexico, the 192 member states must agree on a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2015 Why calls for a ban on the wearing of the burqa help the racists http://links.org.au/node/2013 By *Pip Hinman * I do not support women being forced to wear the burqa. I see it as one manifestation of the myriad of ways women are oppressed in this patriarchal society. Having said that, I want to make it clear that I do not support a ban on the wearing of a burqa. Banning the wearing of a burqa would simply mean that the person who wears it -- voluntarily or otherwise -- is criminalised. It would not, as some female supporters of the ban argue, help women extricate themselves from patriarchal control over their lives. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2013 Australia: A community says no to racist burqa bans http://links.org.au/node/2012 By *Peter Boyle*, Sydney November 26, 2010 -- All around the Western world, far-right groups (some with neo-Nazi orgins and links) are gaining political ground through an orchestrated campaign against Muslim communities. By spreading fear and hatred against recent immigrant communities from Muslim countries these groups have tapped into well-resourced post-9/11 war propaganda campaigns initiated by rulers of the world's richest and most powerful states. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2012 Thailand: Six months on, emboldened Red Shirts raise new slogans; Interview with Sombat Boonngamanong http://links.org.au/node/2014 By *Lee Yu Kyung*, Bangkok November 26, 2010 -- Sombat Boonngamanong (42) is a man with a sunny smile, wearing a red shirt. After the April-May crackdown on the pro-democracy Red Shirts at Ratchprasong in central Bangkok, which killed more than 90 -- mostly civilians -- the Red Shirts briefly disappeared from the public eye while developing their outrage further but silently. It didn't take long for the Red Shirts to renew their campaign in public, to which Sombat has contributed significantly by encouraging that their silent anger be expressed in fun and festive street performances. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/2014 The left cannot ignore China's achievements, but neither can it be too celebratory http://links.org.au/node/2010 By*Michael Karadjis* November 24, 2010 -- I strongly agree with Reihana Mohideen (The left cannot ignore China's achievement in poverty reduction http://links.org.au/node/1941http://links.org.au/node/1941), that the left cannot simply ignore China's impressive achievements in poverty reduction and other related social development. I also agree very
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Did Vladimir Lenin Predict The Banking Disaster Of 2008?
In a message dated 11/28/2010 2:27:18 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, _jann...@gmail.com_ (mailto:jann...@gmail.com) writes: What you haven't done is make any coherent argument that would convince me that the substance has changed that much during the past 130 years. Of course there are those who have made the quantitative argument but you didn't do that either here. CJ Reply Substance of what? Finance capital remains fianance capital but it is not the financial industrial capital of the time of Lenin. Here's something from 2002. WL. The dangers of derivatives By Henry C K Liu Recession in advanced economies, induced by the oil shock of 1973, pushed transnational banks to find borrowers in developing economies to accommodate petro-dollar recycling. That marked the beginning of finance globalization which, among other trends, replaced foreign aid with foreign loans to developing countries. In the beginning, the petro-dollar recycling was merely to compensate the developing nations for the sudden rise in oil prices. Later, the surplus oil money not absorbed by Western markets was pushed on beguiled Third World governments as petro-dollar loans for development, leading the developing world into a bottomless abyss of foreign debt. Not only was the anticipated growth in the developing world not realized by foreign-debt-driven exports, debt repayment became increasingly punitive on the domestic economies as lender nations adopted anti-inflationary measures by the end of the 1970s. Negotiations between borrowing countries and major international bank creditors were intermediated by International Monetary Fund (IMF) endorsement of structural adjustment (austerity) programs in borrowing countries that spelled reduced government social spending, currency devaluation and export promotion policies that distorted and reversed domestic development. Domestic austerity became the ticket to new foreign loans for servicing old foreign loans, and the servicing of the new loans in turn required more domestic austerity, driving Third World economies toward a downward spiral of accelerating contraction and deeper foreign indebtedness. But the oppressive pressure from the IMF in the 1980s was not anywhere near as severe as that after the financial crises of the 1990s. The financial crises faced by newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in the 1990s were significantly different from the foreign debt crises in the developing countries in the previous decade. Different forms of foreign funds flowed to different recipients in developing countries during the two periods. More importantly, derivatives emerged as an integral part of funds flow in the 1990s. Derivatives played an unprecedented key role in the Asian financial crisis of 1997, alongside the growth of fund flows to Asian NIEs, as part of financial globalization in unregulated global foreign exchange, capital and debt markets. Derivatives facilitate the growth in private fund flows by unbundling the risks associated with financial vehicles, such as bank loans, stocks, bonds and direct physical investment, and reallocating the risks more efficiently by expanding the distribution and the level of aggregate risk. They also facilitate efforts by many financial entities to raise their risk-to-capital ratios to dodge regulatory safeguards, manipulate accounting rules and evade taxation. Foreign exchange forwards and swaps are used to hedge against floating exchange rates as well as to speculate on fixed exchange rate vulnerability, while total return swaps (TRS) are used to capture carry trade profit from interest rate differential between pegged currencies. Structured notes, also known as hybrid instruments, which are the combination of a credit market instrument, such as a bond or note, with a derivative such as an option or futures-like contract, are used to circumvent accounting rules and prudential regulations in order to offer investors higher, though riskier, returns. Viewed at the macroeconomic level, derivatives first make the economy more susceptible to financial crisis and then quicken and deepen the downturn once the crisis begins. Since investors can only be seduced to higher risk by raising the return on higher risk, the quest for high return raises the aggregate risk in the financial system. But investors always demand a profit above their risk exposure which will leave some residual risk unfunded in the financial system. It is in fact a socialization of unfunded risk with a privatization of the incremental commensurate returns. (_http://www.atimes.com/global-econ/DE23Dj01.html_ (http://www.atimes.com/global-econ/DE23Dj01.html) ) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marx on the proletariat as ruling class
Peggy Powell Dobbins Sociology as an Art Form www.peggydobbins.net I don't really try to contribute to speculation about how the state withers into communist society with the disappearance of class antagonisms. I would never conflate the state with the people. I guess you are referring to the cpussr's line late in their bloom, not implying I confuse them. You will enjoy Mr I-phone's program: i had to back tap because it changed to voided when I tapped cpussr, and now for cpussr gives no replacement found in a, yes, pink balloon. I had more to say in reply to waistline, but art divinely intervenes: hold, enough as wasn't it someone's ghost who said? P Nov 27, 2010, at 1:07 PM, waistli...@aol.com wrote: The question then arises: What transformation will the state undergo in communist society? In other words, what social functions will remain in existence there that are analogous to present state functions? This question can only be answered scientifically, and one does not get a flea-hop nearer to the problem by a thousand-fold combination of the word 'people' with the word 'state'. ___ 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] Did Vladimir Lenin Predict The Banking Disaster Of 2008
Substance of what? Finance capital remains fianance capital but it is not the financial industrial capital of the time of Lenin. Here's something from 2002. WL. Do you even read your own posts? You are the one who used the word 'substance'. I merely echoed it in my reply. Again what you haven't done is shown how capital has pushed into a new ontological category. Warren Buffett warned about the dangers of the newer derivatives, and then bet billions on them because he didn't want to get left out of the drive for 20% plus profits. The whole notion of derivative is not new at all. CJ ___ 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
