[Marxism] The cycle of profitability and the next recession
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/the-cycle-of-profitability-and-the-next-recession/ 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] moderator's note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I've posted my rebuttal on my blog : http://felisniger.blogspot.com/ If you don't want to burden the marxmail list, you can post comments there. And I am in complete agreement with Einde. We should start from where people actually are, but with a clear view to achieve complete collective emancipation. 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 beginning of the end of dollar hegemony
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Beginning of the End of Dollar Hegemony By RANDALL W. FORSYTH Barron's December 17 2010 When the monetary history of the year coming to an end is written decades from now, the headlines of European debt crisis and Federal Reserve's adoption of QE2 may turn out to be mere footnotes to the bigger story: 2010 could be a watershed marking the beginning of the end of the dollar-based, Western-centric monetary system. To be sure, suggestions that the system dubbed Bretton Woods II should be supplanted by a new regime began in 2009. China proposed the creation of a new, multinational currency for international transactions and as a reserve asset. This year, the idea of reform was advanced by World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who proposed in a widely read and commented-upon Financial Times op-ed piece a cooperative monetary system that reflects emerging economic conditions. That would include the dollar, the euro, the yen, the pound and the renminbi -- plus gold as an international reference point of market expectations about inflation, deflation and future currency values. Zoellick's November commentary followed the outbreak of the so-called currency wars, as Brazil's finance minster dubbed the tensions in the foreign-exchange markets resulting from Fed's liquidity expansion through the purchase of $600 billion of Treasury securities, dubbed QE2, for the second phase of quantitative easing. The downward pressure on the dollar from the surfeit of greenbacks was viewed by finance officials abroad from Asia to Europe as well as Latin America as tantamount to a competitive devaluation to boost the U.S. economy while beggaring its neighbors. The ire aroused internationally by QE2 has been compounded by events that demonstrate there really is no ready substitute for the dollar as an international reserve currency. The hope had been for the euro to provide a viable alternative to the dollar, and for a time the single currency seemed to growing into that role. Prior to the financial crisis of 2008-2009, for a time more global bonds were issued in euros than dollars. But the European sovereign debt crisis has resulted in what German Chancellor Angela Merkel called serial bailouts of first Greece last spring and now Ireland. The current crisis lays bare the contradictions that have beset the euro from the start: monetary union without fiscal union, not to mention nationalistic animosities going back decades, even centuries. How long the serial bailouts can paper over these things remains to be seen. Dissatisfied with the options of the dollar or the euro, the ascendant economic powers are essentially cutting out these middlemen. Just Wednesday, Micex, Russia's largest securities exchange, began trading in the ruble vs. the Chinese renminbi. It was largely symbolic given the volume traded was equal to about $700,000. More importantly, Russia and China have agreed to settle their bilateral trade of about $50 billion in their respective currencies. That means Chinese importers don't need to obtain dollars to buy oil from Russia. Nor does Russia need greenbacks to buy Chinese goods. The vast majority of international trade has been, and continues to be, conducted in dollars. Financial markets also are dominated by dollar instruments, even if they trade in London or Singapore or any number of financial centers around the world. But less so than before. It used to be that if an emerging market such as Brazil wanted to borrow, it would have to issue dollar-denominated bonds because of lack of international confidence in its currency, which had been devalued and replaced numerous times over the year. Now, Brazilian government bonds denominated in the real are so sought after by international investors for their double-digit yields in an appreciating currency that the government has put a tax on foreigners wanting to buy the securities. But the biggest development has been in the burgeoning in so-called dim-sum bonds -- securities denominated in renminbi by non-Chinese borrowers. Issuers include blue-chip U.S. corporations such as Caterpillar (ticker: CAT) and McDonald's (MCD.) That's a huge, but largely under-appreciated development. Because the rest of the world uses the dollar for transactions and a store of value, the U.S. has been able to take advantage of that. Indeed, the greenback is America's most successful export. So, Americans get the goods, allowing us to consume more than we produce, simply because the rest of the world wants our paper. That fuels the U.S. credit expansion that covers the gap between Americans' savings and U.S. investment, including for residential real estate. Without money from abroad, there would not have been
[Marxism] Contradictory US working class consciousness in the Great Depression
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Polling showed large majorities in favor of the Roosevelt administration, federal power over the states, spending on social programs, higher wages and controls on profits, tighter regulation of industry and agriculture, and public ownership of the energy and defence industries. At the same time, if these early polls are to be believed, only a tiny percentage of Americans described themselves as socialist, more, if forced to choose, would have opted for fascism rather than communism, most were hostile to unions even at the peak of the strike wave, and support for further spending waned as the federal deficit increased. -MG How a Different America Responded to the Great Depression by Jodie T. Allen, Senior Editor Pew Research Center December 14, 2010 Were confirmation needed that the American public is in a sour mood, the 2010 midterm elections provided it. As both pre-election and post-election surveys made clear, Americans are not only strongly dissatisfied with the state of the economy and the direction in which the country is headed, but with government efforts to improve them. As the Pew Research Center's analysis of exit poll data concluded, the outcome of this year's election represented a repudiation of the political status quo Fully 74% said they were either angry or dissatisfied with the federal government, and 73% disapproved of the job Congress is doing. This outlook is in interesting contrast with many of the public's views during the Great Depression of the 1930s, not only on economic, political and social issues, but also on the role of government in addressing them. Quite unlike today's public, what Depression-era Americans wanted from their government was, on many counts, more not less. And despite their far more dire economic straits, they remained more optimistic than today's public. Nor did average Americans then turn their ire upon their Groton-Harvard-educated president -- this despite his failure, over his first term in office, to bring a swift end to their hardship. FDR had his detractors but these tended to be fellow members of the social and economic elite. Still, as now, the public had some reservations about the stretch of government power and found little consensus on specific policies with which to tackle the nation's troubles. Broadly representative measures of public opinion during the first years of the Depression are not available -- the Gallup organization did not begin its regular polling operations until 1935. And in its early years of polling, Gallup asked few questions directly comparable with today's more standardized sets. Moreover, its samples were heavily male, relatively well off and overwhelmingly white. However, a combined data set of Gallup polls for the years 1936 and 1937, made available by the Roper Center, provides insight into the significant differences, but also notable similarities, between public opinion then and now. Bear in mind that while unemployment had receded from its 1933 peak, estimated at 24.9% by the economist Stanley Lebergott, it was still nearly 17% in 1936 and 14% in 1937. By contrast, today's unemployment situation is far less dismal. To be sure, despite substantial job gains in October, unemployment remains stubbornly high relative to the norm of recent decades and the ranks of the long-term unemployed have risen sharply in recent months. But the current 9.8% official government rate, as painful as it is to jobless workers and their families, remains far below the levels that prevailed during most of the 1930s. Still, despite their far higher and longer-lasting record of unemployment, Depression-era Americans remained hopeful for the future. About half (50%) expected general business conditions to improve over the next six months, while only 29% expected a worsening. And fully 60% thought that opportunities for getting ahead were better (45%) or at least as good (15%) as in their father's day. Today's public is far gloomier about the economic outlook: Only 35% in an October Pew Research Center survey expected better economic conditions by October 2011, while 16% expected a still weaker economy... However, the most striking difference between the 1930s and the present day is that, by the standards of today's political parlance, average Americans of the mid-1930s revealed downright socialistic tendencies in many of their views about the proper role of government. True, when asked to describe their political position, fewer than 2% of those surveyed were ready to describe themselves as socialist rather than as Republican, Democratic or independent. But by a lopsided margin of 54% to 34%, they expressed the opinion that if there were another depression (and
[Marxism] Marx wine quote
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The following quote has been widely attributed to Karl Marx: Be careful to trust the person who does not like wine. Can someone tell me in which work or correspondence this quote can be found? I distribute artisan wines from Northern California and fine wines from China. Cheers, Arn Kawano Work is the bane of the drinking class. Oscar Wilde 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] Marx wine quote
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Marx to the aid of the wine industry This gives a new angle to Marxist economics George Anthony 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] Marx wine quote
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I did a quick search of the Marxist Internet Archive, and I think this might be what you're looking for: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1866/letters/66_11_12.htm Marx To Francois Lafargue In Bordeaux London, November 1866 My sincere thanks for the wine. Being myself from a winegrowing region, and former owner of a vineyard, I know a good wine when I come across one. I even incline somewhat to old Luther’s view that a man who does not love wine will never be good for anything. (There are exceptions to every rule.) ... 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] Marx wine quote
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it. If I had to live my life over, I'd live over a saloon. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/wcfields163495.htmlhttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/w_c_fields_2.html#ixzz18UNF6x7d W. C. Fields http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/wcfields141730.html http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/w_c_fields_2.html#ixzz18UN3CXfF 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] M. Moore denounces latest WikiLie about Sicko
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 7:27 AM, Eli Stephens elishasteph...@hotmail.comwrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Everything in a WikiLeaked cable isn't true, and Michael Moore denounces the latest WikiLie to hit the news - the utterly false assertion that his movie Sicko was banned in Cuba: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-wikilies.html The leak is from the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, so the leak only proves that they are liars themselves. Wikileaks is merely printing their communications, thereby discrediting the source. 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] Major Media Ignore Veterans, along with Ellsberg and Hedges, Chained to WH Fence
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Black-Out in DC: Pay No Attention to Those Veterans Chained to the White House Fence By Dave Lindorff There was a black-out and a white-out Thursday and Friday as over a hundred US veterans opposed to US wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, and their civilian supporters, chained and tied themselves to the White House fence during an early snowstorm to say enough is enough. Washington Police arrested 135 of the protesters, in what is being called the largest mass detention in recent years. Among those arrested were Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who used to provide the president’s daily briefings, Daniel Ellsberg, who released the government’s Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration, and Chris Hedges, former war correspondent for the New York Times. No major US news media reported on the demonstration or the arrests. It was blacked out of the New York Times, blacked out of the Philadelphia Inquirer, blacked out in the Los Angeles Times, blacked out of the Wall Street Journal, and even blacked out of the capital’s local daily, the Washington Post. Making the media cover-up of the protest all the more outrageous was the fact that most news media did report on Friday, the day after the protest, the results of the latest poll of American attitudes towards the Afghanistan War, an ABC/Washington Post Poll which found that 60% of Americans now feel that war has “not been worth it.” That’s a big increase from the 53% who said they opposed the war in July. Clearly, any honest journalist and editor would see a news link between such a poll result and an anti-war protest at the White House led, for the first time in recent memory, by a veterans organization, the group Veterans for Peace, in which veterans of the nation’s wars actually put themselves on the line to be arrested to protest a current war. Friday was also the day that most news organizations were reporting on the much touted, but also much over-rated Pentagon report on the “progress” of the American war in Afghanistan--a report that claimed there was progress, but which was immediately contradicted by a CIA report that said the opposite. Again, any honest journalist and editor would see the publication of such a report as an appropriate place to mention the unusual opposition to the war by a group of veterans right outside the president’s office. For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent online alternative newspaper, please go to www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/345 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] Major Media Ignore Veterans, along with Ellsberg and Hedges, Chained to WH Fence
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Black-Out in DC: Pay No Attention to Those Veterans Chained to the White House Fence, By Dave Lindorff As long as its only 135 protesters arrested and perhaps a few thousand in the streets (and even with hundreds of thousands,they will spin it into inconsequence), we are unlikely to get any help from a fifth estate owned by the capitalist class. The movement to end wars will not be televised; at least not until it begins reflect mass sentiment in actual motion (that is one of the lessons that our enemy learned from Vietnam and the Vietnam syndrome). We're on our own. It's time we stop complaining about it and start uniting. Manuel 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] Gary Chapman dead at 58
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (I was a member of CPSR briefly, the group that Chapman headed. David Bellin, who co-wrote a book with Chapman that is mentioned below, was also a leader of CPSR. I can't remember his title but in any case he was also an early activist with Tecnica, a group that I was involved with. At one point Bellin asked Chapman to endorse some statement against contra funding, but he refused.) NY Times December 17, 2010 Gary Chapman, Internet Ethicist, Dies at 58 By KATIE HAFNER Gary Chapman, an educator, writer and widely recognized expert on the impact of high technology on society and public policy, died Tuesday while on a kayaking trip in Guatemala. He was 58. The cause was a heart attack, his family said. Further details were not immediately available. For seven years Mr. Chapman was the executive director of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit group concerned with the impact of technology on society. Under his guidance, it grew into an influential organization with international reach. In the 1980s, the group cast a particularly skeptical eye on the application of computers to decision-making in military systems and took a public stand against the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as Star Wars. Mr. Chapman was on the faculty of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. He also founded and directed the school’s 21st Century Project, which studies the social implications of information technology and telecommunications. Although not a computer scientist himself, and neither a champion nor a foe of technology per se, Mr. Chapman gave voice to many leaders in the field who struggled with the ethical implications of new technology. “He helped many distinguished computer scientists articulate their concerns,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington and a longtime colleague of Mr. Chapman’s. “He promoted an important dialogue between leaders in computer science and the broader public. It’s part of a very important tradition, and he played a key role.” Closer to home, Mr. Chapman also worked to bridge the so-called digital divide, the gulf between those with access to technology and those without. In 1995, his 21st Century Project helped bring computers and the Internet to low-income areas of Austin. “He made many people stop and ask hard questions about technology,” Mr. Rotenberg said. “Not just ‘Is it cool?’ but ‘Does it make our lives better, or more just? And does it make our world more secure?’ ” Gary Brent Chapman was born on Aug. 8, 1952, in Los Angeles. In the mid-1970s he was a medic with the Army Special Forces. After his military service Mr. Chapman attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, graduating in 1979 with a degree in political science. He was a Ph.D. student at Stanford University’s political science program in 1984, when he left to take the job at Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. “When word went around in the community of peace activists that we had hired a former Green Beret, eyebrows were raised everywhere,” said Severo Ornstein, a computer scientist and a founder of the organization. But through Mr. Chapman’s careful and original thinking on a variety of issues, Mr. Ornstein said, “the raised eyebrows were quickly defused.” With David Bellin, Mr. Chapman edited “Computers in Battle: Will They Work?” (Houghton Mifflin, 1987). As a senior lecturer at the University of Texas, Mr. Chapman taught graduate courses in technology policy. “Over the years, Gary mentored dozens of students, who went on to work in key policy areas,” said Sherri Greenberg, a fellow faculty member. Mr. Chapman’s survivors include his wife, Carol Flake Chapman; his father, Arthur S. Chapman, and stepmother, Pierrette Chapman, of Solvang, Calif.; and a half-brother, Duane Chapman, of Bakersfield, Calif. Although Mr. Chapman was known to colleagues as soft-spoken, he could be passionate when arguing a point. Eric Roberts, a computer science professor at Stanford, recalled that at a C.P.S.R. board meeting on the Stanford campus in 1988, Mr. Chapman banged his fist on the table to make his case. “Just at that moment we had an earthquake,” Professor Roberts said, “and we all thought, ‘He commands forces greater than we know.’ ” 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] Gary Chapman dead at 58
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 12/18/10 4:10 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (I was a member of CPSR briefly, the group that Chapman headed. David Bellin, who co-wrote a book with Chapman that is mentioned below, was also a leader of CPSR. I can't remember his title but in any case he was also an early activist with Tecnica, a group that I was involved with. At one point Bellin asked Chapman to endorse some statement against contra funding, but he refused.) Clarification: It was Bellin who was an activist in Tecnica, not Chapman who was obviously an anti-Communist. 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] Major Media Ignore Veterans, along with Ellsberg and Hedges, Chained to WH Fence
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Manuel Barrera wrote We're on our own. It's time we stop complaining about it and start uniting. -- Yes. You make the point about organizing. Here's a group that is doing so and putting themselves out there by getting arrested. And no media response. This is news, even a reality check. Maybe not a bad idea to let people on this list know that this is happening, even if no one else learns of it. Maybe they'll want to go and join 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] Writing to Lynne at Carswell- please spread this address around
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dear Friends and supporters of Lynne Stewart, Here's Lynne's new address. Please write immediately to express your solidarity. In solidarity, Jeff 510-268-9429 Subject: Re: Writing to Lynne at Carswell- please spread this address around Lynne Stewart #53504-054 FMC Carswell Federal Medical Center P.O. Box 27137 Fort Worth, TX 76127 __._,_.___ ,_._,___ 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] Major Media Ignore Veterans, along with Ellsberg and Hedges, Chained to WH Fence
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == D'accord, Ralph sorry, did not mean to imply the bravery of the Veterans for Peace, Ellsberg, and everyone else who has stood up even in the face of limited response is for naught. I/we stand with them at every opportunity. I only meant to point out that we should not count on the capitalist media punditocracy to help us. I believe the Gannetts, Turners, NYTs, et al. have learnt to use their pulpits (a) to make profits, (b) to support their sponsors in government, and (c) to feign objectivity so that they maximize their readerships in service to their class. I appreciate the need to make the point that this subjective propagandizing occurs. Manuel Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:04:56 -0800 From: mdriscol...@charter.net Subject: Re: [Marxism] Major Media Ignore Veterans, along with Ellsberg and Hedges, Chained to WH Fence To: mtom...@hotmail.com == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Manuel Barrera wrote We're on our own. It's time we stop complaining about it and start uniting. -- Yes. You make the point about organizing. Here's a group that is doing so and putting themselves out there by getting arrested. And no media response. This is news, even a reality check. Maybe not a bad idea to let people on this list know that this is happening, even if no one else learns of it. Maybe they'll want to go and join them. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/mtomas3%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] Bono bullshit, chapter 473
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 12/18/10 8:08 PM, Stuart Munckton wrote: From:rock...@aol.com The October 7 issue of *Forbes*, the magazine owned by Bono, featured a mutually fawning conversation between billionaire investor Warren Buffet and Jay Z. Buffet spoke animatedly about how he loves to get up every morning because every morning he gets to do what he loves to do. What exactly is that? Buffet described it this way to the *New York Times*: There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class that's making war and we're winning. Bono claims to be the champion of the world's poor. What's wrong with this picture? Look, I think that Bono and Buffett are pretty bad but it is important for the left not to quote people out of context. Buffett said this in the context of favoring a return to a more progressive income tax, not in the spirit of Atlas Shrugged. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html Everybody's Business In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning By BEN STEIN Published: November 26, 2006 NOT long ago, I had the pleasure of a lengthy meeting with one of the smartest men on the planet, Warren E. Buffett, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, in his unpretentious offices in Omaha. We talked of many things that, I hope, will inspire me for years to come. But one of the main subjects was taxes. Mr. Buffett, who probably does not feel sick when he sees his MasterCard bill in his mailbox the way I do, is at least as exercised about the tax system as I am. Put simply, the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don’t pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap. Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all. It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?” (clip) 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] Major Media Ignore Veterans, along with Ellsberg and Hedges, Chained to WH Fence
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Ralph: Maybe not a bad idea to let people on this list know that this is happening, even if no one else learns of it. Maybe they'll want to go and join them. Actually I did post about this event in advance of it happening. And if anyone wants to see the (far too brief) coverage it received on Democracy Now, here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfCaqqMyAfc By the way, as a wimpy West coaster, my hat is off to those who carried out this demonstration in such miserable conditions. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.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
[Marxism] Herodotus and Terrorism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Now that the US is tightening the financial noose around Assange, the New York Times has an editorial calling for the replacement of cash with electronic money. Kurke, Leslie. 1999. Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece (Princeton: Princeton University Press) describes how Herodotus saw money as a way to undermine hierarchies. Finally, the military agrees. Lipow, Jonathan. 2010. Turn In Your Bin Ladens. New York Times (18 December): p. A 23. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/opinion/18lipow.html?ref=opinion Nowadays, terrorist networks have become important users of cash. No organization understands this better than the United States military. During the early years of coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, American forces distributed cash liberally. From 2003 and 2008, about $19 billion in physical money was handed out to Iraqi suppliers and contractors. But the military has gradually realized that the anonymity of cash makes it easy for terrorists and insurgents to smuggle in money and make purchases without a trace. That’s why for the past few years the military has been striving to replace its cash transactions with electronic fund transfers and debit card payments in the hopes of achieving a “cashless battlefield,” in the words of Peter Kunkel, a former assistant secretary of the Army. Soon the government will be able to tell when a 7 year old buys some bubble gum. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 mperel...@csuchico.edu 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
[Marxism] Eric Foner: Obama Stumbles in Lincoln's Footsteps
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/08/barack-obama-abraham-lincoln (Fairly short so I'm just posting the whole thing) Obama stumbles in Lincoln's footsteps Before becoming president, Barack Obama was often likened to the great Abraham Lincoln – a comparison now threadbare Eric Foner, Guardian, 12/9/10 President Obama's tax deal with congressional Republicans may well turn out to be a defining moment in his presidency. This is less because of its content than what it tells us about Obama himself and his politics. During the 2008 campaign, many observers compared Obama with Abraham Lincoln. Obama encouraged this, announcing his candidacy in Springfield, Lincoln's home, and taking the oath of office on the bible Lincoln used in 1861. (He trumped his predecessor, however, by having two preachers speak at his inauguration. Lincoln managed to be sworn in twice without hearing from a single minister.) Many comparisons between Lincoln and Obama have no historical merit. One that has validity is that both made their national reputations through oratory rather than long careers of public service. Lincoln held no public office between 1849 and his election. Obama served briefly in the Illinois legislature and US Senate, but had no significant legislative accomplishment. It was speeches – of considerable eloquence and moral power – that propelled both into the national spotlight. Obama's rather petulant response to liberal critics of his tax deal, however, reveals a fundamental difference between the two men. Obama accuses liberals of being sanctimonious purists, more interested in staking out a principled position than getting things accomplished. Lincoln, too, faced critics on the left of his own party. Abolitionists, who agitated outside the political system, and Radical Republicans, who represented the abolitionist sensibility in politics, frequently criticised Lincoln for what they saw as his slowness in attacking slavery during the civil war. In 1864, one group of Radicals even sought to replace Lincoln with their own candidate, John C Frémont. Lincoln, however, was openminded, intellectually curious and willing to listen to critics in his own party – qualities Obama appears to lack. Lincoln met frequently in the White House with abolitionists and Radicals, and befriended Radicals like Charles Sumner and Owen Lovejoy. Obama has surrounded himself with yes men. Alternative views – on the economy, the nation's wars, etc – fail to penetrate his inner sanctum. Lincoln saw himself as part of a broad antislavery movement of which the Radicals were also a part. Obama has no personal or political connection to the labour movement, or even, although it seems counterintuitive, the civil rights movement – the seedbeds of modern Democratic party liberalism. Lincoln was not a Radical and never claimed to be one. But he recognised that on core moral issues, particularly the need to place slavery on the road to extinction, he and they shared common ground. Obama appears to view liberal critics as little more than an annoyance. He has never made clear what moral principles he is willing to fight for. Every major policy of Lincoln's regarding slavery during the civil war – military emancipation, enrolling black soldiers in the Union army, amending the constitution to abolish slavery, allowing some African-American men to vote – had first been staked out by abolitionists and Radicals. This is not why Lincoln adopted them, but it does reveal a capacity for growth that Obama has thus far failed to demonstrate. In the end, this may turn out to be the greatest disappointment of Obama's presidency. 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] Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
Hello MCLI Friends and Supporters, The newest issue of our quarterly newsletter is now online! In this December's *Human Rights Now!* you can read: -- a reflection on the Johannes Mehserle sentencing -- why we must Ratify CEDAW Now! -- a look into MCLI's work on the Bay Area's Toxic Traingle -- an update on the Universal Periodic Report of the U.S. in Geneva -- and much more... To read all of the articles go to www.mcli.org/newsletter. A PDF version of the newsletter is also attached. We think this is one of our best newsletters yet and hope you will too; we'd love to hear what you think, please don't hesitate to email us with suggestions or comments! Yours for Human Rights, The MCLI Staff [we make every effort to maintain an up-to-date distribution list, if you would like to no-longer receive MCLI emails, please let us know] -- Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute P.O. Box 673 Berkeley, CA 94703 Ph: 510-848-0599, Fax: 510-848-6008 m...@mcli.org, www.mcli.org ___ 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] JFP 12/17: WikiLeaks cables show why UN troops should leave Haiti
*Just Foreign Policy News December 17, 2010 * *Just Foreign Policy News on the Web:* http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/787http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=hHs4%2B1w6ZcbL3cEsya%2Bo8GQUuhdSTGIl [To receive just the Summary and a link to the web version, you can use this webform: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/switchdailynewshttp://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=OQxMoee6HovKzusrHzgrUGQUuhdSTGIl ] *Help Support Our Advocacy for Peace and Diplomacy* We're in our year-end fundraising drive. Can you help us with a donation of $15 or $20? http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donatehttp://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=hHs4%2B1w6ZcZJiV2G7F56%2BWQUuhdSTGIl *RT video: US wasted billions in Afghanistan* Just Foreign Policy tells RT: To claim progress is fundamentally misleading. There's no evidence that the quagmire has changed or that it will change anytime in the foreseeable future. http://rt.com/usa/news/usa-billions-afghanistan-nato-war/http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=aTk27sp9dScj5o9TZH7dwxtYEGYMQQ5q *Bogus Afghan Review Shows Need for Journalism on Classified Information* U.S. intelligence agencies say Pakistan remains unwilling to stop providing support and sanctuary for members of the Afghan Taliban. Experts inside and outside of the government think there is no reason to expect Pakistan's policy will change, because it is based on Pakistani perception of core national security interests and opposition to what the Pakistanis see as a pro-India U.S. policy in Afghanistan, which the U.S. has no plans to change. The clear implication of the intelligence agencies assessment is that the current U.S. war policy is doomed to costly failure. The reason that we know this is because news outlets like the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times report on classified information, and because of WikiLeaks. That's why the attacks on WikiLeaks are not only attacks on freedom of the press, but also attacks on the ability of the public to end the Afghanistan war and prevent new wars. http://www.truth-out.org/robert-naiman-bogus-afghan-review-shows-need-journalism-classified-information66027http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=jfv1bSRpoi3z2PIkhSvTWmQUuhdSTGIl *Jewish Voice for Peace Video: December10:TIAA-CREF Divest* On Human Rights Day, investors and supporters in 23 cities across the US told TIAA-CREF to divest from Caterpillar and other companies that profit from the Israeli occupation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzwEBGWvgRohttp://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=KFPa0%2B7kwVsEgpgKozjEU2QUuhdSTGIl * Afghanistan experts call for peace deal and exit strategy* Afghanistan experts with decades of experience in the country call on President Obama to change course and push for a peace settlement and exit strategy. Signers include: Scott Atran, Michael Cohen, Gilles Dorronsoro, Bernard Finel, Joshua Foust, Anatol Lieven, Ahmed Rashid, and Alex Strick van Linschoten. http://www.afghanistancalltoreason.com/http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=rdFr%2BtuIhT2UF7MfZvZpwmQUuhdSTGIl *Summary:* *U.S./Top News #12cf6be5251083b6_December1710f1* 1) One area of US foreign policy that the WikiLeaks cables help illuminate is the occupation of Haiti, writes Mark Weisbrot in the Guardian. In 2004, the country's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown through an effort led by the US. A UN Security Council resolution was passed just days after the coup, and UN forces, headed by Brazil, were sent to the country. The mission is still headed by Brazil, and has troops from other Latin American governments that are left of center, including Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay. The participation of these governments in the occupation of Haiti is a serious political contradiction, and it is getting worse. The WikiLeaks cables show the agenda of the US in Haiti remains basically the same as it was during the coup: prevent the emergence of a government independent of Washington. This is why UN troops are still occupying the country, more than six years after the coup, without any apparent mission other than replacing the hated Haitian army - which President Aristide had abolished - as a repressive force. This is a mission that costs over $500m a year, when the UN can't even raise a third of that to fight the epidemic that UN troops caused, or to provide clean water for Haitians. And now the UN is asking for an increase to over $850m to pay for UN troops. It is high time that the progressive governments of Latin America quit this occupation, which goes against their own principles and deeply-held beliefs, and is against the will of the Haitian people, Weisbrot argues. [Our petition calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of UN troops from Haiti is here: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/haitihttp://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2c=M5uXCYAXTrkUBINRHizbhWQUuhdSTGIl- JFP.] 2)
[Marxism-Thaxis] An Expat's Siberian Experience
An Expat's Siberian Experience by Sandy Krolick Club Orlov (December 07 2010) Another guest post by Sandy. There is something deliciously ironic in this story of a former American corporate efficiency expert transplanting himself to a place where time never goes any place special and patience is too cheap to meter - and being happy there! Here's the executive summary for all you TL;DR [Too Long; Didn't Read] hyper-efficient power web surfers: as you prepare to leave the US behind - whether physically (recommended) or just mentally - you should be ready to slough off your compulsively American old self and be prepared to grow yourselves a new, better-adapted, saner one. For the past five years I have made my home in Barnaul, a town in the Altai region of Siberia. Much about life here initially chafed against some deeply engrained cultural assumptions that I carried around with me. No matter how hard I've tried, sometimes I just couldn't quite fathom the alienness of the Russian perspective. I quickly became aware of an almost palpable sentiment that here in Siberia there is space enough, and time, for anything to occur - and a certain resiliency to carry one through it. The immense distances and open expanses provide spatial and temporal horizons that seem to recede forever. The endless boreal forests of the Siberian taiga and the barren steppes are not typical environments in the Western sense. They are not places. They have no frames of reference. These enormous expanses seemed to set the rhythm for much of the daily life here, which is often spent waiting countless hours, or walking endless kilometers, or just sitting there. Americans would never have the patience for any of it. Given this perspective, I found it curious that people here spent so much of their time crammed into very close quarters in the bustling city of Barnaul, located between Novosibirsk and the point where the borders of China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together amid the snow-capped ridges of the Altai mountains. How do you suppose people here experience personal space and time in their daily life? I will always remember my first of many trips around town in a public transport van called gazelle. Pleasantly named for its size, which is diminutive compared to a full-size city bus, gazelle accommodates as many as fourteen passengers, always uncomfortably. Although there are plenty of automobiles in town, the majority of people do not own vehicles or drive. Comfort is a term that Siberians do not appreciate as we do in America; it is not something they expect or particularly seek. They accept certain things as given. They can be rather disparaging of our American habit of whining over the lack of comfort. They see it as a weakness in our national character. The first time I climbed aboard a gazelle with my wife Anna, I suddenly found myself in very close quarters with about a dozen complete strangers. Keeping our heads down to avoid bashing them into the low ceiling, we took off like a shot through traffic barely before the door was closed. The other passengers took no notice of our assault on their space as we stumbled across their legs and packages to split between us the last remaining seat in the back of the van. Here, the phrase public intimacy takes on a new meaning: clearly, close physical proximity or bodily contact is not something Siberians shy away from - not in the gazelle, or the tram, or the bus, or the theatre. Our fellow riders seemed unfazed by their close quarters during this galloping ride through town, maintaining a stoic and formal outward appearance in the midst of this forced intimacy. I imagined this to be a hold-over from the Soviet era when there was little expectation of privacy. People seemed to understand the importance of keeping up a dispassionate public appearance, especially in close quarters. They were unruffled by the physical proximity. But their complete lack of emotional closeness or openness in such circumstances was a bit of a surprise. As an American, my first thought upon entering the womb of the gazelle was to introduce myself, and then to apologize for interrupting their ride, but luckily Anna stopped me before I had a chance to embarrass myself. The silence was deafening, with not a word exchanged among any of the accidental traveling companions. Even speaking with the person seated on your lap is kept to a minimum because others would be forced to listen to your conversation. The erupting blast of a cell phone's ring tone made everyone reach for their purse or pocket. The unlucky recipient answered, trying to speak softly and to end the conversation quickly. This was my first encounter with the different structure of personal space within the public domain of the city, and coping with the huge mismatch between it and my expectations became more and more difficult with each passing day. It wasn't just when taking public transportation that my conception of my personal space
