Re: [Marxism] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Grossman is referring to the conceptually isolated capitalism..., and is identifying nothing other than one aspect of the formation of the general average rate of profit based on the difference between cost price and price of production, itself derived from the socially necessary labor time for reproduction. Real capitalism, of course, is not so conceptually isolated. Grossman's conceptual isolation does not exactly translate into an advanced COUNTRY as an entire COUNTRY making a surplus profit at the cost of a less advanced COUNTRY is a conceptual reification. Profits don't accrue to countries, are not extracted from countries, but from the social organization of labor, from classes and to classes. I love Grossman too, just not this part. Lenin is hardly a punching bag, hardly the old down on his luck defenseless rummy forced back into the ring in order to burnish the credentials and skills of some young blood well on his way to becoming another rummy for the profit of handlers, agents, managers. Lenin's pamphlet is indeed a superficial analysis of what occurred in the transition from the formal to the real domination of capital, but if we grant that it is that, then it behooves the Leninists to cease and desist from raising it up like Moses raising up the tablets from god on his way back to the idol worshippers. One of the elements of this theory of imperialism according to Lenin is that more and more the advanced countries are rentier capitalists, living off the debt service imposed upon the less advanced countries. Well let's look at that. Let's just take something relatively unimportant to the finance capital/imperialism theory like. like US banks. So where do US banks have their greatest exposure? To the debt and debt service of the less-developed countries? Not hardly. That exposure is to the European Union. Exposure of the 5 largest US banks-- JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman, Morgan Stanley to French and German debt instruments alone equals 25% of their tier 1 capital; for the EU as a whole the exposure is 81% of tier 1 capital. So exactly how dependent is finance capital on the revenue streams from the less developed countries? Doesn't mean the bourgeoisie don't immiserate, impoverish, destroy any and every manifestation of progress, social development that does manage to emerge in these countries-- but the bourgeoisie are doing exactly the same thing at home, except at home it looks different-- it involves penetrating every aspect of social reproduction with debt in order to decompose the standards of living into a revenue stream for finance, insurance and real estate. Greg hits on a critical point-- you can't get it both ways-- you can't be talking about superprofits being distributed to the working class when the rates of profits are declining-- particularly when that decline has propelled the bourgeoisie into all sorts of attacks on the home working class.. Actually you can get it both ways, but only in the neck. - Original Message - From: Louis Proyect l...@panix.com It seems once again that Lenin's pamphlet, written mostly to explain the origins of WWI, is being used as a punching bag. In my view, there is nobody more committed to Marx's method than Henryk Grossman who wrote the following: In effect price formation on the world market is governed by the same principles that apply under a conceptually isolated capitalism. The latter anyway is merely a theoretical model; the world market, as a unity of specific national economies, is something real and concrete. Today the prices of the most important raw materials and final products are determined internationally, in the world market. We are no longer confronted by a national level of prices but a level determined on the world market. In a conceptually isolated capitalism entrepreneurs with an above average technology make a surplus profit (a rate of profit above the average) when they sell their commodities at socially average prices. Likewise on the world market, the technologically advanced countries *make a surplus profit at the cost of the technologically less developed ones*. 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On May 16, 2010, at 10:43 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: In my view, there is nobody more committed to Marx's method than Henryk Grossman who wrote the following: In effect price formation on the world market is governed by the same principles that apply under a conceptually isolated capitalism. The latter anyway is merely a theoretical model; the world market, as a unity of specific national economies, is something real and concrete. Today the prices of the most important raw materials and final products are determined internationally, in the world market. We are no longer confronted by a national level of prices but a level determined on the world market. In a conceptually isolated capitalism entrepreneurs with an above average technology make a surplus profit (a rate of profit above the average) when they sell their commodities at socially average prices. Likewise on the world market, the technologically advanced countries *make a surplus profit at the cost of the technologically less developed ones*. In a global, as in a partial, conceptually isolated capitalism it is not *countries* but *innovating capitals* that gain surplus profit-- as an above-average share of the total surplus value produced in their respective industries. The surplus is necessarily eliminated over time as the innovative techniques are adopted by competitors. Intellectual property rights slow the process of equalization, transforming surplus profits into temporary monopoly rents, but never for very long. Surplus-profit supplying innovations, like computer chips, are quickly transformed into commodities that over time provide, on the average, only average profits. Imperialism is only mercantilism writ large. Shane Mage This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures. Herakleitos of Ephesos 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Shane Mage wrote: Surplus-profit supplying innovations, like computer chips, are quickly transformed into commodities that over time provide, on the average, only average profits. In the long run, we are all dead. JM Keynes 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == S. Artesian wrote: Grossman's conceptual isolation does not exactly translate into an advanced COUNTRY as an entire COUNTRY making a surplus profit at the cost of a less advanced COUNTRY is a conceptual reification. Profits don't accrue to countries, are not extracted from countries, but from the social organization of labor, from classes and to classes. Henryk Grossman: The conflict of interests remains the basic aspect in the sense that the whole function of world monopolies lies in the national enrichment of some economies at the cost of others. full: http://www.marxists.org/archive/grossman/1929/breakdown/ch03.htm 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 5/16/2010 10:43 AM, Louis Proyect quoted: on the world market, the technologically advanced countries *make a surplus profit at the cost of the technologically less developed ones*. I would add that what Louis quotes is orthodox Marxist economics of the purest water. See: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch14.htm Capitals invested in foreign trade can yield a higher rate of profit, because, in the first place, there is competition with commodities produced in other countries with inferior production facilities, so that the more advanced country sells its goods above their value even though cheaper than the competing countries The favoured country recovers more labour in exchange for less labour... 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Yes, I know, I've read Grossman and I like Grossman, as I've said. I don't agree with that, as I've said. The bourgeoisie are always beggaring their neighbors, and each other, advanced, less advanced, backward, etc. You can find 10 more quotes from Grossman and I won't agree with any of those on this issue. There are not now, nor have there ever been world monopolies. The monopolies that do exist, exist only in the class organization, i.e. the class of capitalists monopolize as a class the means of production as private property in order to produce and reproduce the exchange of the means of production with wage-labor. This is the valorisation process of capital. Regarding monopolies and their existence and funtioning in the US, I strongly recommend ]The Great Merger Movement in American Business, 1895-1904[ by Naomi R. Lamoreaux [what a great name, no?] If we a bit deeper into the historical origins of the less developed nations, you find that the very creation of the less developed nation itself is a product of imperialism, as the landowners, and nascent bourgeoisie in, for examples, the decomposing vice-royalties of Spain in the Americas raise the banner of a nation against the Spanish monarchist-mercantilist alliance, after initially rallying to that alliance after Napoleon's invasion. In Brazil, it's even more clear, as Brazil becomes the empire for the Portuguese monarchy, saved from Napoleon, of course, by the British navy. Of course. In actual modern development, we can look at the penetration by the advance countries into the production of resources in the less advanced countries and see perhaps more clearly where the theories of imperialism miss the boat. Look at the US ownership and control of the mines in Mexico. When the miners of Cananea went on strike in 1906, their grievances included opposition to the abuse by US foremen, the dual wage scale that paid US workers double [at least double] the wages of Mexican workers. and the 8 hour workday. The miners had been in communication with organizers of the US Western Federation of Miners, and of course the Partido Liberal Mexicano. Certainly sections of the landowners and nascent bourgeoisie in Mexico looked covetously upon these mines and employed the ideology of nationalism, supporting the strikers, to advance their own interests-- even Madero, especially Madero, adopted such a stance. Didn't change the fact that Madero wasn't being exploited, the landowners weren't being exploited, the bourgeoisie weren't being exploited; only the labor of the Mexican workers was being exploited. Didn't stop Magon of the PLM from identifying Madero as a traitor to the cause of freedom, which characterization Madero's presidency absolutely confirmed. Mexico wasn't being denied 'its' wealth, since the wealth of the mines only existed in its production, as an exchange value, as the product of wage-labor. The exploitation of Mexico by the US was then, and is now, the mask obscuring the real class relations that reproduce exploitation. Doesn't mean the US workers in Mexico weren't privileged. Absolutely were. As a matter of fact, around the same time, US personnel employed on Mexican railroads went on strike in an attempt to pre-empt the training of Mexican workers as train dispatchers, and... the use of the Spanish language in the transmission of train orders, bulletin orders, and other instructions. But that again only shows that the privilege of the US workers was based upon, and in resistance to not Mexico but Mexican wage-workers. - Original Message - From: Louis Proyect l...@panix.com Henryk Grossman: The conflict of interests remains the basic aspect in the sense that the whole function of world monopolies lies in the national enrichment of some economies at the cost of others. 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == And again, this is not unique to foreign trade, but happens throughout the entire spectrum of capital's exchanges. It is, once again, the variance between the cost of production, and production prices. - Original Message - From: Joaquín Bustelo jbust...@bellsouth.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 5/16/2010 12:31 PM, S. Artesian wrote: There are not now, nor have there ever been world monopolies. Huh? What do you call Microsoft Windows, a highly competitive product? How did Microsoft generate so much profit with (relatively) modest amounts of labor? Similarly, what are we to make of Intel's domination of the i386 breed of processors, including now the 64-bit extension of the platform actually developed by AMD? Joaquín 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == S. Artesian wrote: If we a bit deeper into the historical origins of the less developed nations, you find that the very creation of the less developed nation itself is a product of imperialism, as the landowners, and nascent bourgeoisie in, for examples, the decomposing vice-royalties of Spain in the Americas raise the banner of a nation against the Spanish monarchist-mercantilist alliance, after initially rallying to that alliance after Napoleon's invasion. In Brazil, it's even more clear, as Brazil becomes the empire for the Portuguese monarchy, saved from Napoleon, of course, by the British navy. Of course. Brazil as empire? I don't think I agree with this. Anyhow, I am not going to say any more on this for the time being since I plan to be writing a much longer post on Kemal, the USSR and reactionary anti-imperialism as a response to Loren Goldner's article that will have some bearing on all this. 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I call them capitalist enterprises of incredible concentration and centralization; I call them dominant players in the markets. They do not monopolize the markets, or at least cannot maintain such monopolies without engendering competition which both Microsoft and Intel have done; nor do their dominant positions support the monopoly capitalist theories that somehow these monopolies are exempt from, or abrogate the laws of value and the conflicts and contradictions of the valorisation process of capital as capital. Intel's market share is about 50% of microprocessor sales. And its, and the semiconductor industry as whole, extremely high organic composition of capital has not spared it from overproduction, collapsing prices, the asymptotic convergence of cost price, and production prices, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, etc. The enduring strength of Intel is not in its manipulation of markets, its supremacy over the law of value, but in its continuous reproduction of a reduced cost of production, which gives it the leverage to compete unfairly, bribe, bully, etc. its customers to the detriment of competitors. JB's views, IMO, can lead to a liberal narrative where the problem with capitalism is in abuse, in unfair advantage... etc., not in its organization of capital, as the aggrandizement of wage-labor-- hence the view that advanced countries are robbing less advanced countries. - Original Message - From: Joaquín Bustelo jbust...@bellsouth.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 5/16/2010 12:59 PM, S. Artesian wrote: Intel's market share is about 50% of microprocessor sales. And its, and the semiconductor industry as whole, extremely high organic composition of capital has not spared it from overproduction, collapsing prices, the asymptotic convergence of cost price, and production prices, the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, etc. Have you looked at the quarterly results and market capitalization of these companies over time? OK, call it incredible concentration and dominant players, it amounts to the same thing. A rose by any other name... As for microprocessor sales in general, I don't know where those figures come from. But in the x86 market, here are the most recent numbers I've found. IDC reports x86 processor demand grew by record levels in Q4 2009, as shipments jumped by 31.1 percent sequentially. During the same quarter, AMD managed to recover some of its lost share. Intel's market share was 80.5 percent, while AMD managed to grab 19.4 percent AMD's mobile processor market share also jumped from 10.2 to 12.7 percent during 2009. Although AMD introduced several new mobile processors, the effort was nowhere near to come close to Intel http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17406/1/ Elsewhere I saw that Intel's gross margin for the most recent quarter was 65 percent, compared to AMD's 47%. Of course, technically Intel doesn't have a monopoly in the x86 processor market, it is only the senior partner in a duopoly. Joaquín 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == You are correct for shares of the 86 market; my numbers were for all microprocessors sales from the Semiconductor Industry Association. It might have read the numbers incorrectly, so I'll go back and check. In the meantime, let's use the numbers from fudzilla [christ, who thinks up these names]. In any case, call it dominant, call it super dominant, you can call it a monopoly if you like, but a rose by all it's names is still a capitalist rose, which generates its expansion through the exploitation of wage-labor, and realizes the advantages it has in that exploitation in the divergence between cost price and the price of production. Nothing in that divergence has anything to do with Intel exploiting nations, countries, colonies, etc. Labor costs in advanced semiconductor fabrication amount to, according to the WSJ, about 1% of costs. The point is nothing in the generation of a monopoly abrogates the basis for valorisation of capital. The notions of parasitism, unequal exchange, rentier capitalism, bribery of the working class, based on the super-exploitation of countries as countries really doesn't hold up. The advanced countries do not dedicate the majority, or even a substantive minority, of their investment in less advanced countries, but rather, in other advanced countries. Profit contributions follow that same pattern. In response to Louis: Brazil literally called itself empire, when the Portuguese monarchy was transported there by the Brits. That was what I was referring to. Loren and I are both looking forward to the article on Kemal and the USSR, and the aid given to the nationalists at the expense of the communists. Anyway, I'll be out of the country awhile so I'll try to follow the discussion, but probably won't be able to provide my usual sparkling contributions. Nice to read and hear JB sounding like is usual self. Hope he feels like his usual self. - Original Message - From: Joaquín Bustelo jbust...@bellsouth.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Speaking of electronics and the law of value, here is an article by Guido Starosta, a colleague of Juan Iñigo Carrera, on the Global Value Chain (GVC) approach, a sort of Wallersteinian theory that purportedly addresses the problems of competition in global chains of electronics production: The Changing Dynamics of Value production and ‘Capture’ in theElectronics Global Value Chain: A Marxian Perspective http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/PEI/publications/wp/documents/Starosta01-09.pdf Let me quote what the aim of the article is, which is elaborated further on by developing how Marxtreated capitals of different sizes, and how the simpler form of the law of value is actually unfoldedin what mistakenly, as I see it, became the monopoly capital era: Two major weaknesses can be observed in this account (Starosta, 2008b). First, whilst thereis no doubt that some firms have more power than others to ‘capture’ value (and hence have ahigher rate of profit) this is simply an empirical fact that requires explanation. Surely, the GVCapproach attempts to ground the differentiation of ‘value-capturing’ capacities in the exclusivepossession of ‘scarce assets’ by lead firms. But this analytically displaces the phenomenon to beexplained one step further. For why is it that certain capitals systematically have a greater potentialto appropriate scarce assets whilst others have no access to those means of capitalist competition?Perhaps one could argue that lead firms possess the magnitude of capital or access to financialresources necessary to generate their own barriers to entry, whilst lesser chain members do not(Rutherford and Holmes, 2008). But this will not do the trick either. It simply begs the question ofwhy in certain branches of the division of social labour capitals of a particularly restrictedmagnitude systematically prevail despite the general tendency for the concentration andcentralisation of capital characterising capitalist production. In a nutshell, one of the centralproblems with the GVC’s ‘theory of value capture’ is that it actually assumes what needs to beexplained, i.e. the systematic differentiation of capitals of stratified valorisation capacities. Second, the GVC approach fails to grasp the relations among individual capitals beyond their immediate appearances. It is thereby unable to uncover the content of the phenomenon under investigation behind its outward manifestations and actually inverts the latter into the very cause of the phenomenon itself. Thus, it sees the constitution of commodity chains as essentially governed by direct social relations of command (or maybe co-operation). This overlooks the essentially indirect nature of the general social relation that regulates capitalist society, namely, the generalised production and exchange of commodities. A proper explanation of the social constitution of GVC should therefore show why the indirect establishment of the general unity of the division of labour through the commodity-form becomes eventually mediated by relatively enduring direct social relations on particular nodes of the overall process of social production. Building on the Marxian law of value, the following section offers such an alternative account of the content and form of GVC. I will come back to this in a couple days (?) when I have more time. But thanks for keeping the discussion respectful, and by the way Joaquin, thanks for the link to the Silvio Rodriguez' blog. _ Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_2 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Brazil referred to itself this way not just metaphorically because of its immense size but also because from 1822-1889 it was presided over by a constitutional monarch denominated as an Emperor which Brazil had two of: Dom Pedro I and Dom Pedro II Lou: Brazil as empire? I don't think I agree with this. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/tomcod3%40gmail.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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Tom Cod wrote: Brazil referred to itself this way not just metaphorically because of its immense size but also because from 1822-1889 it was presided over by a constitutional monarch denominated as an Emperor which Brazil had two of: Dom Pedro I and Dom Pedro II And what countries were part of its empire? Just because it called itself an empire and the head of state was an emperor, this does not make it an imperial power. France, Holland, Britain and the USA to a lesser degree were imperial powers, not Brazil. 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == We had Emperor Norton in San Francisco. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I think that's right, leaving aside the issue of the indigenous peoples. The far western US region, excluding the Pacific Coast, (the cowboy west) often refers to itself in this same manner as Inland Empire etc.; the difference there being it actually is an internal part of what we would recognize as an imperialist power. I think the reference made was to Brazil's historical name during that period, not to a marxist designation, but your point is well taken nonetheless. On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 12:58 PM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: And what countries were part of its empire? Just because it called itself an empire and the head of state was an emperor, this does not make it an imperial power. France, Holland, Britain and the USA to a lesser degree were imperial powers, not Brazil. 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 16.05.10 21:58, Louis Proyect wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Tom Cod wrote: Brazil referred to itself this way not just metaphorically because of its immense size but also because from 1822-1889 it was presided over by a constitutional monarch denominated as an Emperor which Brazil had two of: Dom Pedro I and Dom Pedro II And what countries were part of its empire? Just because it called itself an empire and the head of state was an emperor, this does not make it an imperial power. France, Holland, Britain and the USA to a lesser degree were imperial powers, not Brazil. Well there was the Holy Roman Empire, which was all in the German speaking parts of Europe - and for most of its existence it didn't have a particularly strong central power. Admittedly for a while in the Mddle Ages it included parts of what is now Italy. But in general historically an empire was a state whose head of state had the title emperor - it didn't necessarily have any external colonies. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Einde O'Callaghan wrote: Well there was the Holy Roman Empire, which was all in the German speaking parts of Europe - and for most of its existence it didn't have a particularly strong central power. Admittedly for a while in the Mddle Ages it included parts of what is now Italy. But in general historically an empire was a state whose head of state had the title emperor - it didn't necessarily have any external colonies. The real distinction is between precapitalist and capitalist empires, but even within the category precapitalist there is nothing that Brazil and the Ottoman Empire had in common. The Ottomans extracted tribute across a 5000 mile spread and nearly penetrated into Western Europe. 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 16.05.10 22:30, Louis Proyect wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Einde O'Callaghan wrote: Well there was the Holy Roman Empire, which was all in the German speaking parts of Europe - and for most of its existence it didn't have a particularly strong central power. Admittedly for a while in the Mddle Ages it included parts of what is now Italy. But in general historically an empire was a state whose head of state had the title emperor - it didn't necessarily have any external colonies. The real distinction is between precapitalist and capitalist empires, but even within the category precapitalist there is nothing that Brazil and the Ottoman Empire had in common. The Ottomans extracted tribute across a 5000 mile spread and nearly penetrated into Western Europe. That is of course one of the problems with the term imperialism since it means both pertaining to an empire (no matter what the mode of production - this being the everyday mening of the word) and a stage of capitalist development which in its initial phases was connected with territorial domination (as in the everyday sense of the word) but which continued to develop after the ending of the direct territorial occupation (at least in most cases) - this being the meaning in Marxist discourse (and for certain bourgeois economists too - e.g. Hobson). Einde O'Callaghan 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == don´t blame anyone but utter charlatans for speaking of this Imperial trait of Brazil from distant lands. I guess the Brazilian subscribers to the list haven´t answered yet (or maybe they won´t at all) because they are too busy ROTFAL. Tom Cod escribió: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Brazil referred to itself this way not just metaphorically because of its immense size but also because from 1822-1889 it was presided over by a constitutional monarch denominated as an Emperor which Brazil had two of: Dom Pedro I and Dom Pedro II Lou: Brazil as empire? I don't think I agree with this. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/tomcod3%40gmail.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/nmgoro%40gmail.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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == why is that type of personal attack appropriate to this discussion? ignorant maybe, but charlatan? On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 4:04 PM, Nestor Gorojovsky nmg...@gmail.com wrote: don´t blame anyone but utter charlatans for speaking of this Imperial trait of Brazil from distant lands. I guess the Brazilian subscribers to the list haven´t answered yet (or maybe they won´t at all) because they are too busy ROTFAL. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/tomcod3%40gmail.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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == just for the record, no one here said Brazil was an empire, rather they commented on its being having been named one, so go ahead and bad mouth us and all the secondary school students who noticed that. Maybe you should pay closer to the thread before you so arrogantly defame people. On Sun, May 16, 2010 at 4:04 PM, Nestor Gorojovsky nmg...@gmail.com wrote: don´t blame anyone but utter charlatans for speaking of this Imperial trait of Brazil from distant lands. I guess the Brazilian subscribers to the list haven´t answered yet (or maybe they won´t at all) because they are too busy ROTFAL. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/tomcod3%40gmail.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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == S. Artesian writes: Nothing in that divergence has anything to do with Intel exploiting nations, countries, colonies, etc. Labor costs in advanced semiconductor fabrication amount to, according to the WSJ, about 1% of costs. The point is nothing in the generation of a monopoly abrogates the basis for valorisation of capital. It seems to me that one cannot consider the profits obtained by, say, Intel in isolation from the broader and ultimately global systems of resource extraction and labour exploitation into which every North American, Japanese etc, corporation is integrated. For instance, the high tech sector which is epitomised by Intel, sits atop a food chain which reaches all the way down into the (now rapidly depleting) forests of darkest Africa: The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formally Zaire, is complex, complicated by the struggle for power over the country's vast resources by actors within and outside Congo. In recent years, one particular mineral, coltan, has been at the center of the fight. The precious ore is mined in rebel-controlled areas at the expense of national parks and depletion of wildlife. Coltan is a key element in cell phones, computer chips, nuclear reactors, and PlayStations. The market for the mineral has greatly increased in recent years, exacerbating conflict in Congo. See: http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/congo-coltan.htm 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