[Marxism-Thaxis] parallels between Le Pen and Hitler
Interesting comparison fowarded to me by a French teacher friend from French e-mail lists. Looks too close to be accidental: Le Pen, 2002 : "Je suis socialement à gauche, économiquement de droite et nationalement de France !" Hitler, 1932 (congrès annuel du NSDAP) : "Notre National-Socialisme est le futur de l'Allemagne. Bien que ce futur soit économiquement résolument à droite, nos coeurs resteront à gauche. Mais par dessus tout, jamais nous n'oublierons que nous sommes allemands" ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Leche, papa y ALCA
If these posts were a contribution to exchanges on thaxis they would be most valuable. However it appears that thaxis has just been put on the list of "Undisclosed recipients" I think this will harm the list, and make its revovery as a place for serious open marxist argument indoubt. Chris Burford
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Leche, papa y ALCA
At 30/04/02 20:39 -0400, you wrote: >I have had mixed feelings concerning whether or not to permit >such posts on to the list. The list gets lots of spam that I invariably >reject, but these posts do appear to be at least very broadly >within the parameters of the list. But if people feel >that they are of no interest, I will in future reject them. > >Jim Farmelant I think the posts probably *are* of interest, and I regret I cannot read them. I suspect like other list members I have been hesitant to object to these posts because it is so valuable to have a list that is genuinely international. The trouble is not one of language but of dialogue. If people just copy a communication to a series of lists (undisclosed recipients) it does not generate the culture of the individual list by an actual exchange. The list become a bulletin board, where the nature of the readership is almost irrelevant. If thaxis has a niche, it is as an arena for serious theoretical argument between people of different backgrounds about the theory of the application of marxist methods to current struggles. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Karl Popper and Analytical Marxism
This is about the struggle in the superstructure, but requires rather detailed knowledge of current participants for anyone to intervene on. I do not know Alan Carling's position but you imply it includes one that is critical of dialectics. It may not be surprising therefore that he has not seen the opportunity or the attraction of making a quick reply to your subtle letter. Generally I have assumed that Analytic Marxism was a product of the pressure of bourgeois ideology on the left in the superstructure and an attempt to avoid McCarthyite repression. This post would explain how impassioned opponents of the law of value and dialectical materialism have been on various lists: a passion that seems oddly in contrast to their apparent openness and reasonableness on other things. Surprisingly someone got expelled, admittedly for being rather clumsy about it, from the marxism and sciences list for opposing these attacks on dialectical materialism. In order to engage with the issues Jim raises, I would need to know key points from Popper's essay "What is Dialectic?" to which Jim refers. I try to keep a few texts of the loathsome Popper for reference in an argument but I have not got this one. However a google search for "Popper What is Dialectic" produced these passages from an email discussion: >I interpret Popper to be making this argument: > >Hegel's dialectic depends on contradiction, but contradiction is >impermissible in science, therefore Hegelian doctrine is not >compatible with science. and this quote >from Karl R. Popper's _The >Open Society and Its Enemies_ (Volume 2: Hegel and Marx; The Rise of >Oracular Philosophy: Chapter 12. Hegel and The New Tribalism). > >[Hegel] taught that Kant was quite right in pointing out the antimonies, >but that he was wrong to worry about them. It just lies in the nature of >reason that it must contradict itself, Hegel asserted; and it is not a >weakness of our human faculties, but it is the very essence of all >rationality that it must work with contradictions and antimonies; for this >is just the way in which reason _develops_. Hegel asserted that Kant had >analysed reason as if it were something static; that he forgot that mankind >develops, and with it, our social heritage. But what we are pleased to >call our own reason is nothing but the product of this social heritage, of >the historical development of the social group in which we live, the >nation. This development proceeds _dialectically_, that is to say, in a >three-beat rhythm. First a _thesis_ is proffered; but it will produce >criticism, it will be contradicted by opponents who assert its opposite, an >_antithesis_; and in the conflict of these views, a _synthesis_ is >attained, that is to say, a kind of unity of opposites, a compromise or a >reconciliation on a higher level. The synthesis absorbs, as it were, the >two original opposite positions, by superseding them; it reduces them to >components of itself, thereby negating, elevating, and preserving them. >And once the synthesis has been established, the whole process can repeat >itself on a higher level tha has now been reached. That is, in brief, the >three-beat rhythm of progress which Hegel called the 'dialectic triad'. >I am quite prepared to admit that this is not a bad description of >the way in which a critical discussion, and therefore also scientific >thought, may sometimes progress. For all criticism consists in pointing >out some contradictions or discrepancies, and scientific progress consists >largely in the elimination of contradictions wherever we find them. This >means, however, that science proceeds on the assumption that >_contradictions are impermissible and avoidable_, so that the discovery of >a contradiction forces the scientist to make every attempt to eliminate it; >and indeed, once a contradiction is admitted, all science must collapse. >But Hegel derives a very different lesson from his dialectic triad. Since >contradictions are the means by which science progresses, he concludes that >contradictions are not only permissible and unavoidable but also highly >desirable. From this it would seem that at his best Popper is criticising the idealism inherent in Hegel on which he has a point. But presumably the fear of loss of tenure would make it difficult for members of philosphy departments in the USA to give a comprehensive answer. Even know this pressure is apparent in email marxism where lists may at best be only agnostic about key features of marxism such as dialectical materialism and the law of value (if they are not crudely and undialectically dogmatic) Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Re: Stephen Jay Gould, Biologist and Theorist on Evolution,Dies at 60
At 20/05/02 16:21 -0400, Charles Brown wrote: >Stephen Jay Gould, Biologist and Theorist on Evolution, Dies at 60 >By CAROL KAESUK YOON Widespread sadness and respect on a number of left leaning email lists, and I appreciate Charles and others posting obituaries here and elsewhere. However the tended to write essays rather than major declarations of political principle, did he not? His strategy seems to have been more like the West Indian land snail, which the BBC says he often used to illustrate his work. I wonder though, with a little more time, what some of us would say were his contributions to a more marxist view of the natural and human world. Or what one essay most clearly applies a marxist approach in a constructive way, which has wider applicability in the 21st century. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Fw: Stephen Jay Gould is dead
At 20/05/02 17:09 -0400, you wrote: >NY Times, May 20, 2002 > >Stephen Jay Gould, Biologist and Theorist on Evolution, Dies at 60 >By CAROL KAESUK YOON Thank you Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Steven Rose on Stephen J Gould
Stephen J Gould http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0%2C4273%2C4418543%2C00.html World-renowned, popularising palaeontologist who, controversially, revised Darwin's theories and took a political stand on science Steven Rose Guardian Wednesday May 22, 2002 Profesor Stephen Jay Gould, who has died of cancer aged 60, was an unlikely figure to have been canonised in his lifetime by the US Congress, which named him as one of America's "living legends". A palaeontologist, he was based for most of his life at the museum of comparative zoology (MCZ) at Harvard, where, since 1982, he had been Alexander Agassiz professor of zoology. But he was best known to the public through his unbroken sequence of 300 monthly essays in Natural History magazine, which began in 1974 and ended only last year; they were republished in a seemingly unending stream of books, translated into dozens of languages and bought by their hundreds of thousands. A stylish writer, Gould characterised each essay by deriving a seemingly abstruse point in natural history or palaeontology via a sideways look at a novel, a building, or, often, a reference to his lifelong enthusiasm for baseball. He once illuminated the peculiar evolutionary phenomenon in which more recently evolved species within a family group steadily decrease in size by comparing it to how the manufacturers of Hershey bars avoided price rises by making the bars smaller while keeping the costs the same. As a scientific essayist, Gould's only peers were "Darwin's bulldog", Thomas Huxley, in the 19th century and JBS Haldane in the 1930s and 40s. The comparison with Haldane is apt in two further ways; both made fundamental contributions to evolutionary theory, and both were politically engaged both within science and in the broader political arena. Gould's critique of the pseudoscience of claims concerning the inheritance of intelligence, developed in one of his best-known books, The Mismeasure Of Man (1981), became a major source for anti-racist campaigners. But Gould was no mere word-spinner; as a major public intellectual and powerful public speaker, he could be seen at demonstrations and on picket lines, especially during the 1960s and 70s. This was the birth of what became known as the radical science movement (Science for the People), initially in response to the Vietnam war. The movement, and Gould along with it, later became embroiled in the cultural fights that raged around the publication, in 1975, of EO Wilson's Sociobiology, the forerunner to today's evolutionary psychology, and seen by many as offering a scientific validation for social inequalities in class, gender and race. Some saw this as a specifically Harvard-based battle, as Gould occupied the MCZ basement and his colleague, and sometimes co-author, Richard Lewontin, the first floor - with Wilson sandwiched between them on the ground floor. Wilson became distinctly uneasy when entering the elevator in case he might have to confront Gould, Lewontin or any of their student supporters. However, for Gould the issues were never just about politics, but also about a different view of the mechanisms and processes of evolution, a view that reached its clearest expression in his last and greatest book, The Structure Of Evolutionary Theory - at more than 1,400 pages, the greatest in every sense - which was published only last month. This is the most comprehensive statement of Gould's Darwinian revisionism, a revisionism that began in graduate school when he and fellow student Niles Eldredge developed their critique of one of Darwin's central theses, that of gradual evolutionary change. To the concern of his many friends and supporters, who had argued that speciation was likely to occur by abrupt transitions, Darwin had insisted that "nature does not make leaps". Gould and Eldredge re-addressed this question, pointing out that the fossil record was one of millions of years of stasis, punctuated by relatively brief periods of rapid change - hence punctuated equilibrium. To Gould's fury, as a loyal child of Darwin, the theory was misappropriated by creationists, whom he attacked with characteristic vigour. However, in one of his most recent books, Rocks Of Ages (1999), he attempted to come to terms with a religion more reconciled to science, reversing the proposition of rendering unto Caesar by allowing religion its independent domain. But punctuated equilibrium made many traditional evolutionists unhappy too; they saw it as evidence of Gould's alleged Marxism - revolution rather than evolution. Orthodox biologists also tended to resent the insouciance with which Gould upstaged them. Lecturing at the Royal Society, in London in the 1970s, he treated the assembled grandees to an account of the architecture of the San Marco cathedral, in Venice, in order to make the point that many seemingly adaptive features of an organism are, in fact, the byproduc
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Gerry Healy
At 23/06/02 15:44 +0100, you wrote:
website:
http://mysite.freeserve.com/whatnext
"The Rise and Fall of Gerry Healy" by
Bob Pitt is now available on the What Next? website. It is an expanded
version of the original series that appeared in Workers
News many years ago, and includes a new Preface in which the
author argues, powerfully and persuasively, that the whole thing is in
fact complete nonsense and nobody should pay any attention to a word he
says in it.
Would those who come from a Trotskyist background agree with the general
criticisms here about the tendency to take Trotsky's later writings and
use them mechanically to argue for catastrophism today? Otherwise the
question of Gerry Healy, as the preface suggests, is not very
important.
I have only bothered to read the preface and the last paragraph but the
preface does not emphasis the other mechanical ahistorical application of
late Trotsky that the present crisis is a crisis of revolutionary
leadership. That was almost certainly also behind Healy's self-importance
and self-indulgence.
Presumably those still loyal to the Trotskyist tradition may, unlike Bob
Pitt, uphold the role of the party, but do they believe in catastrophism
and do they believe in the crisis of leadership argument?
I clip the preface from the website:-
Preface
IT'S NOT very often an author begins a book by urging readers to
disregard virtually everything that is written in it, but
this is one of those rare occasions. Let me explain.
"The Rise and Fall of Gerry Healy" was first published as a
series of articles in the paper Workers News, beginning in
1989, shortly after Healy's death. Having spent a couple of years in the
Workers Revolutionary Party in the late 1970s,
and having been influenced by its politics over a much longer period, I
was concerned to find an explanation for the
implosion of that organisation in 1985. The conclusion I drew was that
the underlying cause of the WRP's collapse was
Healy's contempt for the basic political principles of Trotskyism.
This, I would argue, was not an entirely stupid conclusion. Reading
through the multi-volume Pathfinder collection of
Trotsky's Writings you cannot but be struck by the political intelligence
at work there, and by the gulf that separates
Trotsky's method from Healy's. The best of Trotsky's writings (his
articles on the rise of Nazism in Germany are a case in
point) represent a serious attempt to grapple with the complexities of
the political situation, in order to reach an
objective analysis and outline a practical strategy a method which
contrasts sharply with the subjective fantasy and
ultra-left bombast which usually characterised Healy's approach.
Towards the end of his life, it is true, Trotsky did tend to lose his
political grip. The perspectives that inform the
Transitional Programme imminent economic collapse, the redundancy of
bourgeois democracy and the threat of
fascism as the only alternative to socialism, the expectation that
revolutionary conflict was about to break out, and so on
certainly provided the basis for the catastrophism that was a feature
of Healy's political outlook throughout his career.
However, as I have argued elsewhere ("The Transitional Programme and
the Tasks of Marxist Today", What Next?,
No.11, 1998) Trotsky's false analysis is understandable as a response to
the developments he confronted in the 1930s.
He was guilty only of mistaking a particularly unstable phase in the
development of capitalism for the terminal crisis of
the system, and would would undoubtedly have reassessed his perspectives
had he lived to do so. Healy, on the other
hand, continued to parrot these predictions in circumstances where
economic expansion, the stability of parliamentary
democracy and the distant prospect of revolutionary struggle were
self-evident facts.
Having said that, I don't think that an adequate critique of Healy's
politics is to be found by counterposing Trotskyist
orthodoxy to Healy's combination of infantile leftism and right
opportunism, as this biographical study does. These
days, I would reject much of the Leninist-Trotskyist tradition, which I
think serves as an encouragement to sectarianism.
As far as political activity in Britain at the present time is concerned,
I believe the method of Marx and Engels, with
their emphasis on the need for Marxists to participate in existing
working class organisations, has far more relevance
than the party-building fetishism that distinguishes the various
Trotskyist groupings, rendering them irrelevant, disruptive
or both. From that standpoint, I would now look more favourably on the
experience of the Healy Group in the 1950s,
when it did at least try to work in the the broad labour movement. My
criticisms of the Healyites' political practice in that
period would now be from the right. Whereas in "The Rise and Fall of
Gerry Healy" I condemn them for liquidationism,
my present view would be that they weren't liquidationist enoug
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Pledge Declared Unconstitutional
At 26/06/02 15:39 -0400, you wrote: >Pledge Declared Unconstitutional > >By DAVID KRAVETS >Associated Press Writer > >SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ¯ A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the >Pledge of Allegiance is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and >cannot be recited in schools. And the Supreme Court has taken some decisions recently indicating unease about the death penalty. Can barbarism be temporarily on the retreat in some areas of the USA, or is this an illusion? Oath taking by childen sounds a bit fascistic to me. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] What do you do with an unemployed devil?
At 30/07/02 19:40 -0400, you wrote: >I am glad to here that secularization is continuing to make >progress in the UK. The US remains much more >besotted with religion than the UK, with the most >reactionary varieties of evangelical Protestantism >taking center stage, especially in the political >arena. But even here, signs of progress exist, >and the more recent studies of the religious >preferences of Americans now find up to >15 percent reporting to have no religious >preference, which is much higher than just a few years ago. So progress >takes place even in the US, albeit at >a slower pace. > >Now I understand that in the Church of England, there >exists a liberal modernist wing, who not only question >literalist readings of Scripture and of church dogmas, >but some of whom are even willing to suggest in >public, that the idea of God may be just a metaphor. >While in the US, undoubtedly some of the most >liberal clerics may hold such views, few will risk >expressing them in public (former Episcopalian >bishop Spong of New Jersey, being one of the >few exceptions). > >Jim Farmelant Yes, one of the blessings of living in England. I think part of the explanation is sociological. The USA has a much higher rate of internal migration, and religous communities may form a role as a substitute for kinship circles. It would also explain the crassness and smugness of ideas associated with the religious right in the USA. When socialising superficially it is better to imply what nice people you all are and to bond together even more by being opposed to outsiders, especially if they can be identified as evil. The idea that evil in a theological sense is part of the fabric of ordinary life would not be very reassuring. Even worse that psychologically we project our own evil onto others. The religion in England is to watch proletarian soap operas where treachery is usually eventually dramatically punished, and provides something to gossip about at work the next day thereby strenthening affiliation. The settings of the most popular are specifically working class: East Enders and Coronation Street. I am sure they will not have been syndicated in the USA. For one thing you would not be able to understand the English. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxist Utahpia
Even this flippant article could not help reporting some of the arguments of those it tries to mock. And for what? For being so foolish as to think there are higher values than being selfish? But how could the human race be where it is without cooperation? An even though the systems of production show great inequalities of power, they also often show great creativity through cooperation. Often for individuals the real heroism is for long periods simply to survive. As was said on another list: "humility, forbearance and rugged but selfless combativity" And the internet class on Capital was for me very hard and very rigorous, a unique experience. Basically it is a question of whether we have faith not just in individuals but in the cooperative powers of the great mass of people, all made up of individuals, each with humour, and a degree of selfishness, but also with humility, forebearance, and selfless willingness to struggle for a better life. Chris Burford London. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxist Utahpia
At 22/12/02 16:31 +0100, you wrote: Chris B wrote: Even this flippant article could not help reporting some of the arguments of those it tries to mock. And for what? For being so foolish as to think there are higher values than being selfish? But how could the human race be where it is without cooperation? An even though the systems of production show great inequalities of power, they also often show great creativity through cooperation. Basically it is a question of whether we have faith not just in individuals but in the cooperative powers of the great mass of people, all made up of individuals, each with humour, and a degree of selfishness, but also with humility, forebearance, and selfless willingness to struggle for a better life. Not really "the great mass of people", Chris, but the working-class worldwide. We do disagree but I suspect we disagree less than may appear on this. I regard the ideology of the working class as heavily penetrated by the ideology of other classes and strata. Therefore in talking about those who are truly working class by their position in the relations of production, they will not have all the qualities that make them the revolutionary force in society. Also individuals from other classes and strata may contribute. In particular the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, and most of the intelligentsia are all progressive allies. 90% of the population of the world? Therefore I read your statement as correct abstractly, mine as correct concretely. I certainly agree that within the progressive massive of working people, there should be class analysis and analysis of particular lines, policies and tactics, as to whether they benefit of harm the long term goal. But this is a old chestnut. I like your email address. Cheers Chris ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History
At 18/01/03 17:48 -0500, you wrote: Much of the book *Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History* by Helena Sheehan can be found online at http://www.comms.dcu.ie/sheehanh/mxphsc.htm I see the cover note says: Essentially this work is about the shifting nexus of science, philosophy and politics within marxism. Considering Marx used the term ideology critically, and marxism claims to be a method of representing what is actually going on, although with class implications, what is the overarching concept of marxism within which she discusses this "shifting nexus"? Or is the shifting nexus so much part of the wider shifting nexus that she is merely looking at how it affected those who called themselves marxist? Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Christopher Hill obituary
Thank you. I last saw him in the church commemorating the anniversary of the Putney Debates. A wonderful historian. Chris Burford London At 26/02/03 06:15 -0500, you wrote: (From London Times -- Hill died Monday) Christopher Hill Historian and Master of Balliol College whose influential writings on 17th-century change were imbued with his Marxist beliefs A former communist who became Master of Balliol College, Oxford, Christopher Hill had an unparalleled command of the history of 17th-century England. His books on the period, such as Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution (1965) and The World Turned Upside Down (1972), broke new ground by placing ideological and radical causes above the high political questions and contingencies. A pioneer of "history from below", Hill used his immense knowledge of writing, poetry, diaries and pamphlets to give a Marxist explanation for the events of the mid 17th century. He argued that the period saw a "revolution", which he compared to the events of 1789 and 1917. Hill was a member of the Communist Party until 1957, and eight years after his resignation he became Master of Balliol, having been a Fellow there for more than 25 years. After he retired in 1978, he http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-591156,00.html Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] What Does the Pentagon See in 'Battle of Algiers'?(NY Times)
How can we have a materialist, rather than a moralistic, response to the likelihood of torture? As the USA again turns down a demand from France to internationalise the occupation of Iraq, the conflict, the desperation, and the resort to torture, attibutable or unattributable, by surrogates, will get worse. The trouble is that many people accept that in desperate situations brutality and torture will occur. They are in that sense, materialists. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Saddam's capture, Bush's victory?
some good points on the background to Saddam's capture by James Heartfield. My initial attempt - Bush appeared to be unusually cautious in his victory televison broadcast, which seemed to be crafted towards Iraqis rather than US electors. That is at least one achievement of Saddam's resistance and that of the wider Iraqi people. But if the allied invasion of Iraq was illegal, so was the capture of its leader. Behind the repeated degrading images of the prisoner with his mouth being examined and his hair in disarray - worse than images that caused indignation when it was US military who had been captured and paraded in front of the cameras - was the question of whether this means total victory. Bush was wise to say ``The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq", presumably excluding allied troops from ever being the perpetrators or provokers of violence themselves. The trial will have to be on the grounds of crimes against humanity rather than being on the wrong side in geopolitics. Saddam would have much to reveal. And the worse crimes were in the context of conflict and instability - as so often happens in history - in which the US and the west had a major part - the war against Iran, where Iraq was the ally of the US, and the events after Iraq's defeat in which the Saddam regime brutally supressed an uprising. Yes according to the prevailing conventions of international law for Iraq to invade Kuwait was a breach of sovereignty, but in the context of the history of Mesopotamia over thousands of years it was hardly illogical. For Britain and the US to invade in the 21st century required them to show, that unlike the majority of the Security Council they turned out to be right about WMD if you accept the questionable logic on which Blair persuaded Bush to debate with the UN. Presumably in preparation for an authoritative trial the Bush administration will have to hope that second level commanders will reveal many details of WMD more shocking than battlefield chemical weapons. At his news conference Maj Gen Odierno revealed that he thought that it unlikely that Saddam had been personally directing the (increasingly effective) resistance to the allied occupation. That presumably reflects the prevailing view among the top levels of the US military in Iraq and may be very significant. After the inital psychological blow of Saddam's capture to those personally loyal to him, it is even possible that his capture will lead to a more sustained campaign of military resistance against the occupying forces and the imposition of a US led finance capitalist economy. For some Saddam will be a martyr and hero, but his capture may make it in fact easier for all Iraqi nationalists to network on the basis of anti-Americanism rather than support for the old regime. An American rout in Iraq is still possible, however much it will be smoothed over in the polite language of diplomatic exchanges between the leading imperialist powers, who are all positioning themselves carefully today in the way they phrase their enthusiasm for the capture of Saddam. There are no ideal standards of justice that stand above material history, whether identified by Kant or not. Concepts of justice are shaped by the balance of forces and are only partially independent of material interest. But from the point of view of the democratic material interests of the working people of the world although basic bourgeois legal rights are an important defence against naked class oppression, what is even more important in this context is that the US administration aided by its loyal allies such as Britain should not be able to impose their will on a population through shock and awe. Ironically and hopefully the most important result of the capture of Saddam might be that the working people of Iraq can find a basis for uniting their diverse interests in favour of genuine independence and sovereignty. The assassination of Iraqis cooperating with the allied occupation will be a test of whether such a unity can emerge, and unfortunately suggests that even if the invasion ends in a rout for the occupying forces, it will be Iraqis who will pay the biggest price. If we see some equivalent of "black on black violence" developing, as in the last days of the apartheid regime, we should ask what forces are behind that, and why did it come about in the first place, when the people of the two historic rivers need to be able to live in peace together, and engage in economic activity and rule their own lives without being dominated by superpowers or global finance capitalist corporations. Initial thoughts. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Monthly Review on Ralph Miliband
Edward Miliband > http://eucenter.wisc.edu/Calendar/Spring02/miliband.htm http://www.ces.fas.harvard.edu/people/affiliates/Miliband.html http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0FQP/4623_132/97994175/p1/article.jhtml http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0FQP/4652_132/107835490/p1/article.jhtml http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2004/press_02_04.cfm http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1131947,00.html Interesting exercise suggested by Doug's question. Sorry to imitate Michael Pugliese's Google method, but at least I have laid them out clearly. To my mind it illustrates that "New Labour" is not a modified genetic inheritance, nor a moral failing. It is the selective application of the methods of working of the intelligentsia of large finance capitalist corporations to left-centre politics. It is about planning long term, taking finance very seriously, and using the latest methods of finding out public views and attitudes to implement the principle that politics is the art of the possible. Some of the idealism has not gone, it is just that its application is so pragmatic that it does not show. Everything is about quietly dominating the agenda by all sorts of manouevres each one of which is opportunistic. But George Brown has not had a bad performance out of the leaders of the major capitalist economies over the last few years. His use of Edward Miliband probably reflects his strategic sense of the need to keep Britain's links with the USA constantly under review, rather than committing to the European agenda. In turn would anyone like to give a more American comment on say the last link, less than a week old, about the significance of the shifts in the Democratic primary contest, and how Edward Miliband goes about interpreting them. Chris Burford London - Original Message - From: "Doug Henwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 12:18 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Monthly Review on Ralph Miliband > Jim Farmelant wrote: > > >Does Doug or anybody else here know about the political > >histories of Miliband's sons? In other words were they > >always Blair-type "Third Way" guys or did they go through > >a period of being radical leftists? Did their father > >ever comment publicly on his sons' politics? > > I knew Edward when he was in NYC sometime around 1990 - he was an > intern at The Nation and stuck around for a while afterwards. He was > - and assume he still is - a very likeable and intelligent fellow and > I really liked talking with him. His politics then were pretty left - > to the left of The Nation - so his Blairification came later. I've > heard from mutual friends that he was much more tortured by the > compromises he's made than his brother David, whom I met once or > twice, and was even then more obviously ambitious and conventional. > > Edward - who was universally "Eddie" then - did tell an amusing > anecdote about how his father never cursed, citing Trotsky's dictum > that the working class should behave according to the highest > standards. Edward did a pretty funny imitation of Ralph's "drat" > after stubbing his toe or some such. > > Doug > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] "the communist class"
- Original Message - From: "Jim Farmelant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Melvin P. in his posts on Marxmail > has often written about what he calls the "communist > class" which is apparently an emerging class of > people who are being displaced from any significant > role in production by technological changes under > late capitalism. This class seems not unlike > the lumpenproletariat that Marx had written > about but unlike the latter, Melvin P. sees it > as a growing class and one that will become > increasingly revolutionary as time goes by. Without reading Melvin's posts in detail, it seems to me that this concept has a grain of reality to it. IF you consider that Marx's analysis of historical materialism did not put in place a rigid sequence from capitalism to socialism and from socialism to communism. I have been persuaded that the logic of the way Marx critiqued the Gotha Programme, implies that the socialist stage of communism, is nevertheless a form of capitalism (but with the working class in the political ascendant). We have been used to seeing the capitalist west and the supposedly socialist east as counterposed, but maybe they are both transitional stages on the path to communism. As the sources of production become ever more abundant, increasing numbers of people wish to define their lives no longer as wage slaves, and a small proportion have the luxury of actually being able to do so, eg with part time work. Even when most of your income comes from paid employment, if you live substantially within your means and rely on non-commodity forms of social wealth increasingly for well-being, you are proportionately less a wage slave, and more a person whose prime want is work - socially meaningful collaborative interaction. It lacks the discipline of the lash of proletarian existence, but it is more socially responsible than the existence of the lumpen proletariat. The internet harbours people who have this experience. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Milibands feature article
(UK) Guardian has a feature length article on the Milibands. Mainly on father, Ralph. "It is occasionally noted as a minor political irony that a figure such as Ralph Miliband should be the father of one of Blair's most valued lieutenants - and also of one of Gordon Brown's: this month, David's equally precocious brother Ed, who is 34, started work as chairman of the Treasury's council of economic advisers. That the two brothers have ended up on opposite sides of the Blair-Brown divide has also been of intermittent interest to political diarists. But Ed and David, practitioners of a more wary politics than their father, almost never speak publicly about him. They declined to be quoted for this article." http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,9061,1157093,00.html Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Sartre
I need to review a clinical psychiatric book that draws theoretical inspiration from some of Sartre's formulas about subject and object. I am writing to ask for advice on what reservations are there about Sartre's philosophical approach. I feel uneasy about him, despite his left wing claims, and I cannot remember why. I would appreciate comments that are philosophical rather than political for this purpose. Many thanks Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] "The lasting legacy of Marx's ideas"
>From report in Morning Star (UK) linked to the Communist Party of Britain, of a talk on the 121st anniversary of the death of Karl Marx Mar 14 1883 at Marx Memorial Library last month by Dr John Callow: "There are few grounds on which to suppose that the age of Marx has passed us by and many on which to conclude that it has still yet to come." "The grand sweep and creative power of Marx's thought, though often unacknowledged, extends today into almost every sphere of human life. Without him, it is practically impossible to conceive of - yet alone to explain - the forces of health care, education, and the alleviation of want. His vocabulary has, to an extent become our vocabulary In this light, rather than having failed, Marx has almost become the victim of his own success. So many of his core beliefs that he championed - his opposition to racism, poverty and oppression, both at home and abroad - which seemed so strange or impractical during an age of European empires, have now become firmly incorporated within the mainstream fabric of our own society. Furthermore, it is no longer difficult to envisage a world where the essential needs of food, clean water and housing, together with the provision of health care, education and social security during times of misfortune or old age could be freely available fo all, without exception. We have the means and knowledge available. All that is required for these simple things, so very difficult to achieve, is our unity, strength and pride." Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Intelligentsia and Empire - in Iraq and the world
igentsia that their blundering intervention has marginalised. In terms of the themes of this thread title: globally I suggest there is little doubt that the growing intelligentsia of the world is interventionist in other countries, provided that intervention is done with discretion (eg that is the position of people like Clare Short and Robin Cook in the UK who opposed the war). Within Iraq, rather than our taking sides between different radical elements, because we do not have the luxury - rather the appalling burden - of our lives being on the front line - of considering which strata and classes objectively and subjectively different political organisations may have their main strength in. For example neither the Iraqi Communist Party not the Workers Communist Party of Iraq are proposing an immediate struggle for socialist revolution, and that implies some degree of compromise with non-socialist forces. But I would suspect that the ICP has somewhat more connections with more privileged members of the intelligentsia with links with old class structures, while people adhering to the WCPI, by its name alone at least, would be more linked with less privileged members of the intelligentsia. Hopefully, however important their differences, they can argue and discuss with one another in practice. The revolutionary intelligentsia is a complicated animal. Remember that Lenin's father was a state bureaucrat who was thereby nominally noble. Remember that the League of Communists who commissioned the Communist Manifesto from Marx, were not so much proletarian, but mainly from a petty bourgeois, artisan, stratum of society that had been thrown onto the defensive by the developments of capitalism. What immediate stance towards developments in Iraq should be taken by the 10% of the intelligentsia of the world, who are radical, revolutionary, or at least progressive, over and against Empire? People's initiative is limited by circumstance, opportunity, and consciousness, but broadly I assume something along the following lines. That the progressive intelligentsia, and progressive class forces, in the hegemonic countries of the US, UK and other members of the coalition, should support broadly anything that gets their troops rapidly out of Iraq, and should support a near and middle east peace settlement. The progressive intelligentsia and class forces within Iraq should try to make alliances which preserve the possibility of national resistance to economic domination at the whims of global, especially US, finance capitalism, and preserves some measure of bourgeois liberal human rights, including in the status of women, and democratic accountability especially of the need for production to resume based on social cooperation and social foresight. That non-violent ways of resolving conflicts should as much as possible of course be employed, and solidarity be promoted, if necessary by a federal structure, to preserve the possibilities of cooperation between the different communities and religious groupings of Iraq. That outside forces should only come by invitation, to complement the bodies of armed force which have the sanction and support of the community, from states that can supply forces sensitive to the culture and values of the local people. That reparations should be paid. Even at the expense of diverting all resources of further capitalist development in the imperialist heartlands of the USA and the UK, towards the near and middle east and particularly Iraq, for the purposes of a democratic reconstruction building up from the bottom by stabilising the immediate lives of ordinary working people. Reparations should be paid. It would not just be a moral gesture to assuage the guilt of liberals in the imperialist heartlands. It would be an important precedent for humankind. Chris Burford London PS Note in concentrating on the intelligentsia I do not intend to ignore billions of people whose class position is clearly that of the working class, the lumpen proletariat, or the lower petty bourgeoisie and peasantry. But the intelligentsia is a particularly crucial and contradictory stratum who articulate political positions, and the radical classes themselves globally are now linked through the radical intelligentsia, as the global anti-capitalist agenda that was running so strongly up to September 2001, showed. Nevertheless I accept there are of course important differences of emphasis, and I look forward to other, contrasting, contributions. ----- Original Message - From: "Chris Burford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "The A-List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "PEN-L List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2004 9:15 AM Subject: [A-List] bring back the Ba'ath water!! > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 12:12 PM > Subject: [A-List] Iraq: the quagmire deepens > > > > > LUCY BANNERMAN > > T
[Marxism-Thaxis] Re: [A-List] Re: R2I Problems Arise in the Hands of the Untrained Torturer
Yes, very revealing article in the Guardian on Saturday On May 3rd, commenting on the debate about the Mirror photographs, I wrote on PEN-L :- >> This morning the Mirror stands by the overall story but shades its world exclusive by saying that the soldiers who provided the pictures say they are authentic and emphasising a beating. My guess is that this leaves the Mirror, which was a passionate opponent of the war, convinced that there is a real story here, but keeping open the possibility that the picture was a re-enactment by disgusted members of the regiment of something that actually happened. Even though the imperialist philosophy of the British contingent to the Coalition, is that they are much better at peacekeeping than the Yanks, two bits of evidence make me believe the stories. 1. A couple of years ago I met a man in his thirties on a language course whose job involved preparing British armed forces to withstand torture. So they had to bark humiliating orders at them and keep them awake a long time and cold etc. One of the techniques was to to mock them sexually. I remember thinking at the time that presumably this was regarded as psychologically very stressful and intrusive but would not cause actual injury. 2. A few weeks ago a group of half a dozen British detainees were released from Guantanamo and told their stories. A very credible mature islamic prisoner described how female prostitutes were used to masturbate younger male prisoners, who appeared to be very disturbed by this abuse of their religious principles and sense of personal identity. The older prisoners would joke about this, but to the younger prisoners it was actually rape. These bits of evidence suggest that within the British army and the US army, rape and sexual humiliation in its various forms is considered not really torture but a softening up process particularly suitable for muslims, who are considered to be rather backward sexually. It leaves out of the picture what the military intelligence actually do to prisoners, once they have encouraged the squaddies to have a little bit of fun with them. It seems entirely credible that within certain sections of the British army photographs of a similar nature have been circulated. This probably provides a cover for more serious torture. Either way it is a disastrous imperialist strategy in the 21st century. << Chris Burford London - Original Message - From: "David McDonald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "The A-List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 3:57 PM Subject: [A-List] Re: R2I,Problems Arise in the Hands of the Untrained Torturer > Has anyone seen this list of "50-odd" techniques? All the ones I've > heard about sound like torture to me. > > David McDonald > > > UK forces taught torture methods > David Leigh > Saturday May 8, 2004 > The Guardian > > --clip-- > > >The US commander in charge of military jails in Iraq, Major General > Geoffrey > Miller, has confirmed that a battery of 50-odd special "coercive > techniques" > can be used against enemy detainees. The general, who previously ran the > prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, said his main role was to extract as much > intelligence as possible.< > > --clip-- > > > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Re: The U.S. defeat in Fallujah
- Original Message - From: "Lil Joe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2004 > Brilliant! Yes, in particular ... > U.S. is withdrawing from its most advanced positions within Fallujah, > leaving the entire city in the hands of the rebels, except for a couple > of vehicle checkpoints, because, of course, the most salient thing to > notice about this new Fallujah Brigade or Fallujah Army is that *it does > not exist.* Allowing for probable interventions by Al Qaeda, and growing alienation and fury among the Shia community, the pattern of guerrilla resistance to the invasion is broadly along the lines of a document of the Iraqi security forces dating to January 2003, which was discovered after the invasion in March. It has been given little publicity or attention by the western media. Of course. There are literally tens of thousands of highly capable patriotic people in Iraq whose interests do not lie with the complete overthrow of the former society, but who would no doubt admit that there was repression. Ironically for the invaders, the capture of Saddam Hussein makes it much easier for these elements even if they were members of the Baath party to cooperate with those who were against Hussein, in a very clear common cause. The article that has been forwarded to this list, also points out that members of the Baathist intelligentsia will be the very people to lubricate and accelerate the process whereby the occupiers are induced to handover power as rapidly as possible to the only forces that can ensure stable bodies of armed men in place with a degree of popular acceptance. ie the nearest thing to a stable state structure from a marxist point of view. The Iraqi people can police themselves. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] It may be one of the most extraordinary defeats in history
> And BTW Patrick Cockburn likewise argues that the US > has essentially lost the war in Iraq. > The Independent on Sunday, 02 May 2004 > It may be one of the most extraordinary defeats in history. Yes. My intuition too. And of world historical significance perhaps even greater than the defeat in Vietnam. Is is too early to ask why, in marxist terms? Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Fw: [Marxism-Thaxis] A Marxist analysis of the history of psychoanalysis
I can't see that this got through first time. Sorry if this ends up as a duplication. CB - Original Message - From: "Chris Burford" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 8:43 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] A Marxist analysis of the history of psychoanalysis > I am far from being a card-carrying Freudian, but I am interested in > psychological and not purely chemical treatments of psychosis. > > What is marxist about this article? > > I would expect a marxist approach to psychoanalysis to be materialist > and to be dialectical. > > The article grudgingly notes at the end > > > > while neuroscience -- in > > the form of M.R.I. (or magnetic resonance imaging tests) > > evidence of unconscious mental processes -- has been > > confirming basic tenets of analytic thought. The final > > verdict is not in, and as one plain-spoken, assuredly > > un-Freudian thinker once said, ''It ain't over till it's > > over.'' > > > Did no one see in the May issue of Scientific American > the article by Mark Solms summarising the new brain evidence that > Freud's theories should not be dismissed? > > The title was too populist for me: "Freud Returns". > > Correct that scientific thinking has shifted radically in the last 100 > years to take it for granted that humans are intelligent animals and > will react in a number of ways unconsciously. > > However it summarised the developing neuronal data in terms of a > number of drives linked with specific transmitters in the brain. That > sounds to me rather (recti)linear whereas by 1921 Freud was looking > for a dynamic metapsychology, and was not just restricted to drive > theory. > > What sounds like a thoughtful book, judging from the interview with > the author recently on NPR, Richard Panek, scientific contributor to > the New York Times (?) is > > The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden > Universes > Viking Books July 2004 > > But as for this review, is Merkin or Zaretsky a marxist, and if so in > what sense? > > Regards > > Chris Burford > > BTW in one of Freud's last lectures he expressed himself guardedly > about the state centralised socialist movements of his time, but > carefully avoided dismissing marxism. > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: Fw: [Marxism-Thaxis] A Marxist analysis of the history ofpsychoanalysis
Thanks very much for the leads. It now makes more sense. It is nevertheless an appallingly bad review in my humble opinion. I assume that it is more part of the reviewer's personal memoir on depression, much marked by frustration and irritability, and almost certainly a personal experience psychotherapy that did not help, than pure anti-communist vindictiveness against an author, Zaretsky, who could be called a Marxist, and whose 1976 book, according to Google, with the interesting and, I suggest, topical title of "Capitalism, the family & personal life" is available second hand apparently for only $2.95. Contrast this with the reflective non-sectarian tone of one of the science correspondents of the New York Times, Richard Panek, who has had psychotherapy himself, according to a NPR interview I listened to about the book he has just published called The Invisible Century Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes (Penguin USA June 2004) Possibly Daphne Merkin tried psychodynamic psychotherapy, as I did, at a time of intersecting crises, which is perhaps not the best time for this approach, but once you have waded through the splenetic historical garbage of her personal opinions, the summary of what Zaretsky is saying is wholly inadequate. > More troubling is that, for all its wide-ranging references and > evenhanded sorting out of clashing views, Zaretsky's account is haunted by the > ghosts of Max Weber and Antonio Gramsci as much as by those of Josef Breuer > and Melanie Klein. With the fall of the Leninist approach to marxism, it is hardly serious to dismiss a Gramscian approach, particularly if it links with Weber. And concepts of the Fordist and post-Fordist organisation of society, while not specifically marxist, are important sociological concepts. You hardly have to be a marxist these days to acknowledge that the ways of organising the economy have a pervasive effect on human behaviour, interactions, attitudes and prevailing beliefs. To consider Freud and the influence of his followers against the background of the vast economic, social and ideological changes of the last century is possibly very interesting. But for this reviewer even an "evenhanded sorting out of clashing views" is another source of irritation and frustration! Chris Burford - Original Message - From: "Jim Farmelant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 11:56 PM Subject: Re: Fw: [Marxism-Thaxis] A Marxist analysis of the history ofpsychoanalysis > > Well, the book by Eli Zaretsky, as I understand it, is supposed to > be a Marxist analysis of the history of psychoanalysis. I don't > think that the NY Times book review of it is in any sense Marxist, > although the reviewer, Daphne Merkin, regards the book to be Marxist. > Professor Zaretsky was a founder and editor of the journal, > Socialist Revolution and has continued to be a contributer to > various leftist and socialist journals including New Left Review > and New Politics. (See his CV at: > http://www.newschool.edu/gf/history/faculty/zaretsky/EliZaretskyCV.pdf). ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Patrick Cockburn on Fallujah
This looks insightful to me. I am not sure if I am muddling him up with someone else. But the question that comes to my mind, is whether this article needs to be regarded as an opportunist adjustment of his position to adapt to the latest balance of forces, or a concrete insightful analysis from a consistent principled position. How do you distinguish? Chris Burford - Original Message - From: "Jim Farmelant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 1:27 AM Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Patrick Cockburn on Fallujah Likely to Prove as Disappointing to US as the Capture of Saddam Crushing Fallujah Will Not End the Iraq War By PATRICK COCKBURN The belligerent trumpetings of the US Marines bode ill for Fallujah. Sgt Major Carlton W Kent, the senior enlisted marine in Iraq, told troops that the battle would be no different from Iwo Jima. In an analogy the Pentagon may not relish, he recalled the Tet offensive in Vietnam in 1968 and added: "This is another Hue city." American voters last week never seemed to take on board the extent of the US military failure in Iraq. The rebel control of Fallujah, half an hour's drive from Baghdad, was the most evident symbol of this. It was as if a British government in London had been forced to watch as an enemy force occupied Reading for six months. The US army ceded control of much of western Iraq during the Sunni uprising last April. Its failure to recover fully from this setback underlines the extent to which the US as a military power has proved itself much weaker than the rest of the world had assumed before the invasion of Iraq last year. There is no doubt that the US can recapture Fallujah, if only by blowing most of it up. But this is unlikely to have much of an effect on the guerrilla war in central and northern Iraq which continues to escalate. It is still unclear how far the rebels will stand and fight against the massed firepower of the marines and the US air force. They know they are far more effective in launching pin-prick attacks with roadside bombs and suicide bombers. The recapture of Fallujah is likely to be as disappointing in terms of ending the resistance as was the capture of Saddam Hussein last December or the hand-over of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government at the end of June. Each event was billed as a success which would tip the balance towards the US. Instead the fighting got bloodier and more widespread. There should be no mystery about why this is happening. All countries object to being occupied. Foreign invasions provoke nationalist resistance. This has happened with extraordinary speed in Iraq because of the ineptitude of the US civil and military commanders, but in the long term it would have happened anyway. The US in Iraq has always behaved as if the resistance was fomented by foreign powers or adherents of Saddam Hussein. A lesson of the ground war last year was that few Iraqis were prepared to get killed for their old leader. Earlier this year I asked American helicopter pilots operating from a base near Fallujah whom they thought they were fighting. They said firmly that they were at war with "FFs" and "FRLs". These turned out to be Foreign Fighters and Former Regime Loyalists. One of the pilots added nervously that there seemed to be a third somewhat shadowy group "who want us to go home". The US and the British are trying to seize Fallujah and the central Euphrates cities . These may have been the original heartlands of the rebellion, but today there are guerrilla attacks in every Sunni region in Iraq. US and interim government control of Baghdad is limited. One of the strangest justifications for the attack on Fallujah is that it will allow an election to take place. This would only be true if the Sunni rebellion was a mirage and was entirely the work of FFs and FRLs oppressing a local population yearning to break free. A much more likely result of an increase in the fighting is a boycott of the election by the Sunnis. Even if they do vote then there is no reason to suppose that the guerrillas will stop fighting any more than the IRA laid down its arms despite numerous elections in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s. The election will take place in January and voting will be heavy because Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shia religious leader, wants the Shia to show at the polls that they are 60 per cent of the population. The Kurds, who total another 20 per cent, will also take part. But Sistani has made clear ever since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein that he is against the occupation and has steadfastly refused to meet American officials. The Sunni, another 20 per cent of the population, have shown that they are strong enough to destabilise Iraq just as long as they want to. (The Kurds, with a similar proportion of the population, were able to destabilise
[Marxism-Thaxis] Marx and gender
There is a seminar at the LSE this Saturday afternoon on Marxism and gender including Terrell Carver, which has attracted a lot of interest. I have pulled out my annotated notes on Marx's comments on Wagner, and promptly lost them. I wanted to refer to clues about Marx's ideas of "human nature" and to what extent his ideas are compatible with a sophisticated rather than a crude model of evolutionary psychology. Can anyone quickly give a link, or a brief summary of what they think Marx was saying in this late manuscript, plus any current edition which might be available in London? Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Threads and strings
Your links, and Hans Ehrbar's http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/bhaskar/1996-10-21.081/msg00045.htm were particularly helpful and made many further connections with my experience. It seems none of us has appetite for sustained e-mail rallies of arguments anymore. But perhaps the "discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx" involves an unteasing of many crossing threads, including also those, as Jim implied in his Christmas greeting, originating before Marx. The physicists try to argue that the universe is held together by strings. I suspect this is a self-perpetuating mathematical conceit which has momentum because it generates endless papers for publication without requiring any necessary connection with reality. The study of human experience is however much more arguably a matter of innumerable overlapping *threads*. These cross in space and time, linked in the minds ultimately of innumerable individuals, by which the fabric of history is woven; including the mutually accepted exploitation of individuals and classes? This is a fabric composed of real people who survived real lives, however much their imaginations may have fluttered away from reality. That may also be an essential aspect of how as a species we endure and multiply for the time being at least? The mathematicians can continue to tie their strings in knots if they get funding for it, but the crossing and linking of threads makes up our civil society? Chris Burford - Original Message - From: "Bob Hentges" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired" Sent: Sunday, December 26, 2004 8:48 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Faust Word and Deed On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 07:52:25 +, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Was it on this list several years ago that there was a discussion with this as thread title? If so when, so I can check it? All the discussions mentioning Faust, I could find in various archives are these: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/1997-April/002984.html http://www.mail-archive.com/marxism-thaxis@buo319b.econ.utah.edu/msg00500.html http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w32/msg00321.htm And that's about it. I do hope this helps you, even thought I am not sure at all. Friendly -- Bob Hentges a.k.a. maradong http://bob.hentges.lu/ Jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ 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] Lisbon Earthquake 1755
It occurs to me that the Aceh earthquake and its consequences will have a comparable impact to that of the "great Lisbon earthquake" of 1755 in influencing the European enlightenment and the push for bourgeois democracy. http://nisee.berkeley.edu/lisbon/ Although not the strongest or most deadly earthquake in human history, the 1755 Lisbon earthquake's impact, not only on Portugal but on all of Europe, was profound and lasting. Depictions of the earthquake in art and literature can be found in several European countries, and these were produced and reproduced for centuries following the event, which came to be known as "The Great Lisbon Earthquake." << Other good discussion. Then this conclusion > The extensive number of renderings of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake found throughout Europe demonstrate the traumatic effect the disaster had on the continent. Depictions of the Lisbon earthquake were created, copied, and widely distributed and discussed throughout all of southern, western and central Europe. Whether created by the new desire to investigate, record, and understand the earthquake in natural rather than strictly metaphysical terms, or created by the more sensational desire to report on human calamity, these depictions indicate that the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 represents a watershed event in European history. << The earthquake appears to have been probably of the order of Richter 9 and to have been associated with widespread tsunami's. Voltaire refers to it in his widely-read Candide. The civil society that will be united by this latest earthquake however is global and not merely European, and that has something to do with the development of the means of production. Chris Burford ___ 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] Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up'
Powerful argument for what Marx described in his 1864 inaugural address to the Working Men's International Association, as the political economy of the working class - "social production controlled by social foresight". Coming through the media almost continuously now in drip feed style. Judgement decade, judgement century, for the private owners of the means of production. Chris Burford - Original Message - From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired'" Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 4:58 PM Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up' http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1447921,00.html Two-thirds of world's resources 'used up' Tim Radford, science editor Wednesday March 30, 2005 The Guardian The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. The study contains what its authors call "a stark warning" for the entire world. The wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged. In effect, one species is now a hazard to the other 10 million or so on the planet, and to itself. "Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says. The report, prepared in Washington under the supervision of a board chaired by Robert Watson, the British-born chief scientist at the World Bank and a former scientific adviser to the White House, will be launched today at the Royal Society in London. ___ 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] Ossetians
And on another subject .. "What is to be done with the Ossetians, of whom the Transcaucasian Ossetians are becoming assimilated (but are as yet by no means wholly assimilated) by the Georgians, while the Cis-Caucasian Ossetians are partly being assimilated by the Russians and partly continuing to develop and are creating their own literature? How are they to be "organized" into a single national union?" from a *relatively* reflective work 1913 by Joseph Stalin, reported this week to have come from an Ossetian family heritage. Later of course he was associated with wholesale brutal population movements. Centralised socialism seems to have left numerous cultural and ethnic conflicts that have exploded after its fall, as if the population had no innoculation about how to handle them. This happened in relatively unstalinist Yugoslavia too. Uncomfortable to accept, but capitalism seems to be better at breaking down the polarisations of ethnic, cultural and gender oppression into a fine calculus of financial disadvantage. Disadvantaged communities get strangled by mass migration of young people out of them, and the world is covered by great urban metropolises which have to learn to be tolerant up to a point. Or am I being too pessimistic here? Chris Burford ___ 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] Ossetians
I take the argument below. Part of Russia's motivation now in Georgia is that the west did not respect the status of Kosovo as part of Serbia. But I was really thinking of wider argument about the different economic speeds of development in the different parts of the Yugoslav Federation. Large capitalist states seem to be able to disguise very large transfers of capital between different regions without it becoming the source of nationalistic or regional conflict. This goes for federal Germany, the EU, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Culturally it seems that the socialist states did not get to grips with the reality of racist friction but covered it over with an ideology of common good, which was then subject to attack as hypocrisy. - just my impressions. Chris Burford London - Original Message - From: "CeJ" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 12:54 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Ossetians | CB>>Centralised socialism seems to have left numerous cultural and | ethnic conflicts that have exploded after its fall, as if the | population had no innoculation about how to handle them. | | This happened in relatively unstalinist Yugoslavia too.<< | | If capitalist Europe--namely Austria, Germany, and US/NATO--hadn't | aided Slovenia to break away from Yugoslavia, in violation of | international law, Yugoslavian law and sovereignty, as well as taboos | about the use of power after WW II--Yugoslavia might well not have | become the bloody mess it turned into. Once Slovenia was able to break | away by force, the Croats got going in full force, and by then it was | too late. | | I'm not sure what it says about socialism but it seems fairly typical | of world capitalism as dominated by the US and its European allies. | | 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 ___ 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] Babylonia - Mesopotamia
| CB: What were Herodotus's claims about the sexual practices ? Did I | miss that ? I don't know. Presumably this could be tracked down on the internet, eventually but would probably generate a lot of spam. I have no great differences with Shane's comments. The basic argument in this collaborative exhibition in Berlin, was about the various components to the disrepect and ignorance shown by the European tradition to the populations of the middle East, and the associated myths or embellished stories. Chris Burford - Original Message - From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 9:39 PM Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Babylonia - Mesopotamia | | | Well I was only in Berlin and Charlie, I guess, was not there either. | | Thanks for clarifying the conventional spelling of the name of | Herodotus | in English. I was really skimming through that part of the exhibition, | and | it was rather post-modernist in flavour. What I am certain of, is that | German scholars, under the eye of colleagues from the Louvre and the | British Museum, would not assert that the claims of Herodotus about | sexual | practices in the middle east, are unsubstantiated, if they are | substantiated. | | ^ | CB: What were Herodotus's claims about the sexual practices ? Did I | miss that ? | | | | | This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com | | ___ | Marxism-Thaxis mailing list | Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu | To change your options or unsubscribe go to: | http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis 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] Ecuador Giving U.S. Air Base the Boot
| a new economic reality. With major projects underway in Manta by the | Venezuelan government and a Hong Kong company, the U.S. dollars don't | amount to much. Interesting. Independent of and in addition to, sympathy for the political aims of Venezuela, are we seeing here under later monopolistic capitalism, the importance of extremely large blocs of capital, which can withstand fluctuations in profitability. The fact that those blocs are closely tied to, and in fact coordinated by, central state policy, adds to the coherence of this argument. Venzuela, China. Chris Burford London - Original Message - From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 9:32 PM Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Ecuador Giving U.S. Air Base the Boot | Ecuador Giving U.S. Air Base the Boot | By Joshua Partlow | Washington Post Foreign Service | Thursday, September 4, 2008; A06 | | MANTA, Ecuador -- When U.S. officers stationed in this humid coastal | city give reasons they should continue their decade-old airborne | surveillance mission, they talk not only about fighting drug runners | on the open seas but about the $71 million they've spent to renovate | and maintain the city's airport, and the $6.5 million they inject | each year into the local economy. | | But the government of Ecuador has decided, and Washington has | apparently agreed, that one of the most important foreign outposts in | the United States' war on drugs will close. The 450 U.S. Air Force | personnel and contractors stationed at a military base that shares | the airport's runway will be leaving next year. | | This decision reflects both the prevailing political climate here -- | standing up to the United States tends to be widely popular -- and a | new economic reality. With major projects underway in Manta by the | Venezuelan government and a Hong Kong company, the U.S. dollars don't | amount to much. | | President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela stood alongside President Rafael | Correa of Ecuador in July to announce a jointly financed $6 billion | oil refinery to be constructed on the outskirts of Manta. And Hong | Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings has begun building what will be | among the largest deep-water ports on the west coast of South | America, a $523 million project with piers, cranes, tuna-boat | terminals, roads, and the capacity to eventually handle 1.6 million | shipping containers a year at the continent's closest point to Asia. | | "The U.S. stopped being the benchmark of what is good for Latin | America," said Gustavo Larrea, Ecuador's security minister. "Because | Latin America did everything that the U.S. asked it to do and wasn't | able to get out of poverty, the North American myth lost political | weight." | | In the waning days of the Bush administration, governments in Latin | America are rejecting many U.S.-funded programs, particularly anti- | narcotics efforts, with rhetoric championing sovereignty and | denouncing "imperialism" from the north. | | In Venezuela, anti-drug officials say, cooperation with the U.S. Drug | Enforcement Administration has deteriorated sharply. In Bolivia, coca | farmers decided in June to expel the U.S. Agency for International | Development from part of the country amid accusations that it was | conspiring against President Evo Morales. | | The pushback resonates well politically in many parts of Latin | America, where U.S. policies are often seen as security-obsessed Cold | War vestiges or bitter economic pills forced down the throats of | unwilling governments. | | The leading spokesman of such anti-Americanism is Chávez, but other | South American leaders often join in. | | During his campaign for president, Correa said he would not renew a | 10-year agreement reached with the United States in November 1999 | that allowed the U.S. military to operate from the base at Manta. In | late July, Ecuador's Foreign Ministry officially notified the United | States that it must evacuate by November of next year. | | The air base serves as a launching pad for surveillance flights over | the Pacific Ocean to spot seaborne drug traffic and over Colombia to | spot unauthorized planes. According to U.S. figures, the missions | resulted in the seizure of about 230 tons of cocaine in 2007. | | Whether the Americans stay or go "is a political thing," said Air | Force Lt. Col. Robert Leonard, who recently completed a tour as | commander of the U.S. contingent in Manta. "I don't think it's | necessarily tied to our successes or the impact to the local folks. | It's just a political thing." | | But Ecuadoran officials say there is little benefit in the base. For | one, their country is a minor player in the Andean world of coca and | cocaine production. And the U.S. surveillance flights do nothing to | help them uncover dru
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Republicans mock everyday people
Aggressive contempt is a common feature of right-wing populist politics. Just holding a sense of democratic self-respect is a struggle. The text below, presumably by Obama's aides, seems to me not a bad partial answer to one aspect of that attack. (It is all cheeful fun if you are a competitive "hocky mum" rooting for your own kids, and putting on a bit of lipstick, but actually it is highly competitive and aggressive, when people need to cooperate together to face the global challenges, and take control of our lives again.) Psychological violence is the preparation for annihilating the importance of other people, the needs of 2/3 of the population, (some of whom may be seduced into the cheerful good clean fun of rooting for your own immediately family as if it is just a game of ice hockey.) Chris Burford London - Original Message - From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 7:52 PM Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Republicans mock everyday people | Charles -- | | Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention | attacking ordinary people? | | With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and | actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service | and organizing. | | Our convention was different. We gave the stage to everyday Americans | who hunger for change and stepped up to make phone calls, knock on | doors, and raise money in small amounts in their communities. | | You may have missed it, but we also showed the country a video with the | faces and voices of those organizers, volunteers, and donors from every | corner of the country. | | What you didn't hear from the Republicans at their convention is a | single new idea about how to make the healthcare system work, get our | economy moving for the middle class, or improve education. | | Just attacks -- on me, and on you. | | But what the McCain attack squad doesn't understand is that people like | you -- who devote part of their busy lives to organizing and building | their communities -- have the power to change this country. | | With your help, that's exactly what we're going to do. | | Thank you, | | Barack | | | | -Original Message- | From: David Plouffe | Subject: What you just saw | | Dear Charles -- | | I wasn't planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw what | I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a | response. | | I saw John McCain's attack squad of negative, cynical politicians. They | lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for being a | part of this campaign. | | But worst of all -- and this deserves to be noted -- they insulted the | very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our political | process. | | You know that despite what John McCain and his attack squad say, | everyday people have the power to build something extraordinary when we | come together. | | Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack's | experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more | than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and | been left behind when the local steel plants closed. | | Let's clarify something for them right now. | | Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch | politicians and their failed policies. | | And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions | of people have found that by coming together in their local communities | they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign | has been about from the beginning. | | Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America's | promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community | organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's | suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it's | happening today in church basements and community centers and living | rooms across America. | | Meanwhile, we still haven't gotten a single idea during the entire | Republican convention about the economy and how to lift a middle class | so harmed by the Bush-McCain policies. | | It's now clear that John McCain's campaign has decided that desperate | lies and personal attacks -- on Barack Obama and on you -- are the only | way they can earn a third term for the Bush policies that McCain has | supported more than 90 percent of the time. | | But you can send a crystal clear message. | | | | Thank you for joining more than 2 million ordinary Americans who refuse | to be silenced. | | David | | David Plouffe | Campaign Manager | Obama for America | | | | This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com | | ___ | Marxism-Thaxis mailing list | Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.uta
[Marxism-Thaxis] Centralization of credit
Are latest developments a move towards the centralization of credit if only out of recognition of how interconnected the national and global credit system is, even if the precise words of the Communist Manifesto have not been implemented in the direct mechanical and unequivocal way that was envisaged in 1948 - "Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. " Of course everything depends on the balance of power, initiative and influence, over the new bipartisan arrangements. For whom? - is this all being done - remains a key question, and will be disputed territory. Chris Burford London - Original Message - From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 6:18 PM Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Abroad, Bailout Is Seen as a Detour From Capitalism | Abroad, Bailout Is Seen as a Detour From Capitalism | By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ | September 18, 2008 | http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/business/worldbusiness/18rescue.html?ref=b | usiness | | PARIS ‹ Is the United States no longer the global beacon of unfettered, | free-market capitalism? | | In extending a last-minute $85 billion lifeline to A.I.G., the troubled | insurer, Washington has not only turned away from decades of rhetoric about | the virtues of the free market and the dangers of government intervention, | it has also likely undercut future American efforts to promote such policies | abroad. | | ³I fear the government has passed the point of no return,² said Ron Chernow, | a leading American financial historian. ³We have the irony of a free-market | administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration | would never have been doing in its wildest dreams.² | | While they acknowledge the shock of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the | bailout package for A.I.G. on top of earlier government support for Bear | Stearns, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac has stunned even European policy makers | accustomed to government intervention in the economy. | | ³For opponents of free markets in Europe and elsewhere, this is a wonderful | opportunity to invoke the American example,² said Mario Monti, the former | antitrust chief at the European Commission. ³They will say that even the | standard-bearer of the market economy, the United States negates its | fundamental principles in its behavior.² | | Mr. Monti noted that past financial crises in Asia, Russia, and Mexico | brought government to the fore, ³but this is the first time it¹s in the | heart of capitalism, which is enormously more damaging in terms of the | credibility of the market economy.² | | In France, where the government has long supported the creation of national | champions and worked actively to protect select companies from the threat of | foreign takeover, politicians were quick to point out the paradox of what is | essentially the nationalization of the largest American insurance company. | | ³Today the actions of American policy makers illustrate the need for | economic patriotism,² said Bernard Carayon, a lawmaker of President Nicolas | Sarkozy¹s center-right governing party, UMP. ³I congratulate them.² | | For the ³evangelists of the market this is a painful lesson,² he added. | | We¹re entering ³an era where we have much more regulation and where the | public and the private sector will mix much more.² | | In Asia, the Washington-led bailouts have stirred bitter memories of the | very different approach the United States government and the International | Monetary Fund pushed during the economic crises there a decade ago. | | When the I.M.F. pledged $20 billion to help South Korea survive the Asian | financial crisis of the late 1990s, one of the conditions it imposed was | that the Korean government allow ailing banks and other companies to | collapse rather than bail them out, recalls Yung Chul Park, a professor of | economics at Korea University in Seoul who was deeply involved in the | negotiations with the I.M.F. | | While Mr. Park says the current crisis is different ‹ it¹s global rather | than restricted to one region like Asia ‹ ³Washington is following a | different script this time.² | | ³I understand why they do it,² he added. ³But they¹ve lost credibility to | some extent in pushing for opening up overseas markets to foreign | competition and liberalizing economies.² | | The ramifications of the rescue of A.I.G. will be felt for years within the | United States, too, not just abroad. | | That¹s because it was a very different kind of company than Fannie Mae or | Freddie Mac, which enjoyed government sponsorship as mortgage finance | providers, or Bear Stearns, which was regulated by the federal government. | | ³This was an insurance company that wasn¹t federally regulated,² said Gary | Gensler, who served as a top official in the Treasury Department during the | Clinton adm
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] PEAK OIL: A TURNING FOR MANKIND
I'd certainly agree with Mark that this is a very important issue, and I am convinced by the arguments Mark has shared that we have reached the peak of the availability of oil stock. Major changes in the relative price (labour value) of raw materials make problems with the circulation of the capitalist system likely until a readjustment occurs. I am wondering though whether one factor that makes the oil shortage likely to increase capitalist instability is that the USA is going to lose its great competitive advantage of cheap oil. Chris Burford At 20/05/01 18:03 +0100, you wrote: >Colin J. Campbell >The fundamental driver of the 20th Century's economic prosperity has been >an abundant supply of cheap oil. At first, it came largely from the United >States as it opened up its extensive territories with dynamic capitalism >and technological prowess. But U.S. discovery peaked around 1930, which >inevitably led to a corresponding peak in production some forty years >later. The focus of supply then shifted to the Middle East, as its vast >resources were tapped by the international companies. They however soon >lost their control in a series of expropriations as the host governments >sought a greater share of the proceeds. In 1973, some Middle East >governments used their control of oil as a weapon in their conflict with >Israel's occupation of Palestine, giving rise to the First Oil Shock that >rocked the world. The international companies, anticipating these >pressures, had successfully diversified their supply before the shock, >bringing in new productive provinces in Alaska, the North Sea, Africa and >elsewhere. These deposits were more difficult and costly to exploit, but >production was rapidly stepped up when control of the traditional sources >was lost. In part that was made possible by great technological advances >in everything from seismic surveys to drilling. Geochemistry and better >geological understanding made it possible to identify the productive >trends, once the essential data had been gathered. The new knowledge >showed both where oil was and where it was not, reducing the scope for >good surprises. The industry found and produced the expensive and >difficult oil from the new provinces at the maximum rate possible, leaving >the control of the abundant, cheap and easy oil in the hands of the Middle >East OPEC countries. The latter were accordingly forced into a swing role, >making up the difference between world demand and what the other countries >could produce. It was contrary to normal economic practice and concealed >the gradual impact of depletion, growing shortage and rising cost, which >would otherwise have alerted us to what was happening. But these new >provinces faced the same depletion pattern that had already been >demonstrated in the United States. The larger fields, which are found and >exploited first, gave a natural discovery peak. Advances in technology and >operating efficiency also reduced the time-lag from discovery to the >corresponding production peaks. Whereas it took the United States forty >years, the North Sea, which is now at peak, did it in just twenty-seven. > >//cont at http://hubbert.mines.edu/news/Campbell_01-2.pdf ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Observer on US Foreign Policy
At 20/05/01 16:31 -0600, Hans wrote: >I doubt whether Bush and his advisors even see the threats >to the US position which Rob was outlining. Much of what >they do shows that they are captives of their own right-wing >ideology. I.e., if they fully understood what they were >doing they might, as rational human beings, not choose to do >it. Ideology can nevertheless be a consistent and in some >sick ways rational guide to action. If there is any >rationality in Bush's recent policy decisions, it may go >along the following lines: > >(1) The USA is no longer the strongest economic nation but >still by far the strongest military nation. I wonder about this suggestion that the USA is no longer the strongest economic nation. I agree its position could take a nose dive, but I bet it will be able to maintain its slight competitive advantage over rivals like Europe and Japan. This outcome could be finely balanced. It could be argued that the anti-missile defence system is a new version of what was essential economic warfare against the old Soviet Union - forcing it into an arms race which it could not afford. What Bush lacks is the ideology of Clinton, which was also useful. It gave a unifying ideological veil to other capitalist countries as human rights justification for accepting US hegemony. Now the USA under Bush is seriously putting that consensus in danger. The prize might be that no bloc can stand out against it. By pushing ahead with the anti-missile shield, the USA will force reluctant allies to buy into a subordinate position within this system. Further, while protecting itself from "rogue states" it will have the technology also to mount laser attacks on errant opponents. (This would fit in with the US fantasies during the Kosovo war - attack from as high up as possible). Incidentally a week or two ago the head of the House of Lord committee on "Defence", a former Conservative minister of defence, spoke on Newsnight about the secret identiry of the enemy against which the anti-missile shield is aimed. He said although the talk is about rogue states, actually really "it is about China". This is much bigger than defending the straits of Taiwan. This is about whether the 21st century like the 20th, will be the century of the USA. Given a few decades, only China has the power to challenge the USA in the size of its economy. The battle is on to see whether the USA can gather its subordinates around it, or whether Russia and China can play their cards cleverly enought for the swing powers in the world to take sneaky opportunities to weaken the USA. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Observer on US Foreign Policy
At 22/05/01 13:29 -0400 >People's Daily. 16 May 2001, updated at 18:04 (GMT+8). China's State >Security Strategy Considered from Perspective of US Strategic Trend. >through implementation of the US concept of value Very interesting formulation. I would like to know more about this analysis. Does it combine links with the Marxian law of value, with a formulation used in anti-hegemonistic discussions? >Although ideology and the concept of value are not the main points of US >strategic realism, they are an important tool for mobilizing various >domestic forces to serve its strategic target and embody consensus. >Therefore, it is inevitable that the United States continues to apply >pressure on China by using problems such as human rights, democracy and >freedom. Very interesting and sophisticated article. Chris Burford Lonon ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] British election
Tactical voting is on the rise despite the continuation of Britain's first-past-the-post system for our main elections, since 1992. There is a strong desire to vote against the Conservatives even now. http://www.tacticalvoter.net/ gives information about the best chances of beating the Conservative candidate. For people who do not want to vote against their party they can be paired with someone who will vote for their party where it has a the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate. Perhaps people could pass this on to other potential British voters. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] British election: Socialist Alliance
from another list >in the case of UK, where the risk of a conservative victory is too >-small, it would be better to fight for left wing alternatives to Labour, >-instead of tactical votes. Do you think a left wing party (like the >-Alliance in New Zealand for instance) could achieve 10-15% of the national >-votes? As for the Socialist Alliance type of option, their politics taken in abstract are much more attractive, but as a tactic in an election dominated by the first-past-the-post system I am doubtful at this stage whether much is gained in trying to get them 10% of the vote in even a few constituencies. The message about increasing income tax would come over better by voting Liberal Democrat. Remember in evaluating the Socialist Alliance as a tactic and a strategy in Britain in this election, that part of the momentum for Socialist Alliance comes from smaller marxist organisations that really put energy into it, not because it is the best way of building a progressive united front against capitalism now, but because it may help them recruit to their vanguard organisations. Is that unfair? Comments from that standpoint welcomed. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Regional structures in the UK
At 05/06/01 08:26 +0100, you wrote: >The development of regionalism within the UK constitutes an institutional >attempt to further divide the working class. It also reinforces parochialism >among the working class. Instead growing solidarity between the workers in >different regions it will tend to accentuate difference. It will tend to >reinforce a local or regional patriotism from which the working class have >nothing to gain. > >Karl That assumes that the British state is your unit for revolution. It is quite possible for all of the British Isles to join essentially a European federal state and ally for the control and overthrow of capitalism both within it and globally. The global equation is the more important. A strong Europe is needed to ally with China, Japan and Russia to undermine US hegemonism. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] uneven and combined development in Grundrisse
How strong is the evidence that Trotsky's "Law of uneven and combined development can trace its origins back to the Grundrisse? From PEN-L >thinking about uneven and combined development dates further back, at >least to Marx's Grundrisse (1857-58), where unevenness represents the >condition for a transition from one declining mode of production to >another rising, more progressive mode Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Burnley
What take do you have on this despite the disadvantage of being several thousand miles away? I am several hundred miles away. The only thing I can see obvious is that 1) it is briefly very hot in England 2) the British National Party have been targeting specific consitutuencies in the election. 3) The Conservative Party cannot afford to mop up some of the racist right wing vote. Chris Burford London At 03/07/01 12:25 -0400, you wrote: >http://www.guardian.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,0-512568,00.html > > >The Guardian (UK) > >June 26, 2001 > >Years of Harmony Wrecked in Days > >Extremists blamed as whites and Asians run riot in Burnley > >By Angelique Chrisafis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Past the shattered traffic lights, torched cars and the >shell of a petrol-bombed pub, a white man in his 20s ran >down the road, shouting: "Racists have put it on the >internet - 'If you love your country come to Burnley'. The >bloody bastards." > >An Asian man shrugged. "Welcome to Sarajevo," he said. > >Police were on the streets of Burnley, in Lancashire, again >last night following three consecutive evenings of racial >violence, culminating on Sunday night with the petrol >bombing of a pub and skirmishes between 200 whites and >Asians armed with bricks and hammers. These included some >whites allegedly making Nazi salutes and shouting: "Niggers >out." > >Local whites and Asians, who have no history of racial >tension, said racists were coming from others areas to >incite violence. They said the local community, which had >always been racially integrated, was falling apart. Asian >cab drivers yesterday went on strike. Several white people, >some with mixed race grandchildren, said they would never >use an Asian shop again. "We weren't racists before, but we >are now," said one woman who claimed she had watched "a >group of pakis" set fire to a pub on Sunday night. Both >whites and Asians said they had no faith in the police. > >"It is absolute madness. That is the only word to describe >it," said Shahid Malik, a local representative of the >commission for racial equality. "The only winners are the >British National Party, the National Front and Combat 18. >They have got what they wanted. The overt racial violence we >had not seen in Burnley before has begun and community >relations have been dealt a very severe blow. It's going to >take a long time to repair it." > > >Surprise vote > >Burnley is a mill town, 30 miles from Oldham, the scene of >last month's race riots. But Burnley, with a 6% ethnic >minority population of mainly Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, >had no history of racial violence until last weekend. The >narrow streets of stone terraces had always been integrated. > >But the BNP gained a surprise 11.2% of the vote at the >general election and local Asians were angry that a "Save >your Country" banner belonging to the party was allowed to >hang from a prominent industrial chimney after the election. > >Lancashire police said the disturbances were sparked early >on Saturday morning. Bricks and stones were thrown between >whites and Asians after an Asian family asked white >neighbours in the Stoneyholme area to turn down their music. >An off-duty Asian taxi driver who got out of his car to >remonstrate was hit in the face, suffering a fractured >cheekbone. > >The following night, after Asians debated whether the police >could have arrived sooner to the scene of the attack on the >taxi driver, gangs of Asians gathered and bricks were thrown >between whites and Asians before 15 windows of the Duke of >York pub in Stoneyholme were smashed. > >A third night of more serious rioting began on Sunday at 6pm >when rumours reached Asians that the perpetrators of racist >attacks were gathering in a local pub and planning to go >into Daneshouse, the area of Burnley with the largest >population of Asians. By pub closing time, at least 50 >whites and around 200 Asians had gathered in the Daneshouse >and Duke Bar areas, prepared to defend them selves. A wall >of riot police ran down the middle of a main road in an >attempt to keep the two groups apart. The windows of white >and Asian businesses were smashed. Cars were overturned and >torched, bricks were thrown, and the windows of local shops >including a newsagent and a sex shop were smashed. The Duke >of York pub was firebombed and burnt to a shell at 10:45pm. >The landlady had closed the pub five hours earlier fearing >an attack. > >Chief Superintendent John Knowles, of Lancashire police, >said there was no evidence of BNP involvement. He told local >co
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Burnley
At 05/07/01 11:26 -0400, Charles Brown wrote: >The report may be sensational, and I don't have an idea whether this is >isolated and very atypical or not. It sounds atrocious, and sad. > >However, overall, in the long run ( the very long historical long run ) , >there is a certain balancing reciprocity in response to the British going >all over the world during the empire. What goes around comes around. >People from all over the world are drawn to Britain. Think how many people >speak English. The numbers are likely to start equalling the native >British , and disturb them. What is the percentage of Asians and others in >the pop. ? No one really knows whether these events are going to become typical. At least there has been an Anti-Nazi League demonstration. (Although I have a lot of reservations about the SWP (UK) they have been consistent in supporting the ANL in physically confronting the fascists, and that blocks the blitzkrieg shock effect.) To my surprise I have been unable to check the proportion of the population of England and the UK that are not British born, or some other definition. I believe it is a bit lower than in Germany. An underlying factor in the particularity of these contradictions in Burnley is that there is also a divide in England between the prosperous south east, with its service economy, and the north with its declingin manufacturing economy. This Asian community migrated to the wrong region 20 or 30 years ago. London is very much a multi-cultural and international city except in its more prosperous parts, and they are getting penetrated too. Sociological studies seem pretty reliable that racism is less where there are mixed communities. It is worse in areas like East Anglia. The point you are making about imperialism rings a bell: I can confirm that Lenin argued in "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" "one of the speical features of imperialism connected with the facts we are describing [this is in section VIII, The Parasitism and Decay of Capitalism] is the decline in emigration from imperialist countries and the increase in immigration into these countries from the more backward countries where lower wages are paid." I do not agree with all of Lenin's analysis as being applicable today, but this point is certainly relevant. What England, Europe, and probably the US cannot cater for is that on demographic grounds the existing population is going to need the immigration of tens of millions of foreigners to staff the caring jobs in their old age, if they are not to suffer a marked decline in their standard of living. It will also be rather useful for counteracting the falling rate of profit for the capitalists as well, but insecure youth in England realise that immigration may not stop at Asians. Perhaps we should discuss Hardt and Negri's "Empire" on this list? Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Oldham, Burnley & Bradford
emerged last night that much of the trouble was orchestrated by >people who travelled to Bradford from across Britain. > >Describing how a group of white men had began hurling the insults at a >group of Asian men, Tahir Hussein, 28, said: 'The whole thing kicked off >with some white lads calling us Pakis. >... > Earlier, I watched as a white man was set upon by a gang and stabbed in > the back in Thornton Road. >As he toppled his torn T-shirt exposed a gaping wound; the knife had >gouged a huge hole in his back. Even as he lay on the ground, the mob >still managed to dish out more kicks before mounted police chased them away. While this particularly incident may have been rough justice, and the white man may even have been innocent, it is quite possible that the Asian youth of the north of England will network, and ensure that no National Front members dare show their face without a very heavy and very expensive police presence. Perhaps only this will force the state authorities to deal with the risk of resurgent fascism as strongly as is necessary. (Of course ensuring a socialist coordinated development of the economy on a national and indeed global level, may take the servants of finance capital a little longer.) Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Oldham, Burnley & Bradford
Labour Club burned down in Manningham suburb of Bradford. Probably signifies bitter hatred by some Asian youth at what they see as the racism and complacency of the Labour Party establishment locally. Some no doubt see the Labour Part as an imperialist and racist party. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Fw: Internet and Porn
There is a three-sided battle over the internet, between control by capitalist forces, anarchists, and by genuinely democratic forces. Generally we should side with the anarchists against the capitalists. But while I agree with much of what Karl is saying, when you hear that 250,000 people subscribed to a child pornography website, whose ringleaders were recently arrested in the USA, it is hard to resist the idea of some sort of coercive state or global power, even though this story may have been hyped up for exactly the motives that Karl describes. About tolerance and lack of state controls, whether on the internet or not, I agree the thrust of many of the arguments against censorship and drug controls. We need to put more emphasis on people being helped to take control of managing the spectrum of risky drugs of recreation and dependence, from caffeine up. We also need people to take responsibility for themselves and others about the risks and rewards of sexual intimacy. But the assumptions should not be that of atomised civil society composed of just a mass of inviduals with their own bourgeois right, but of participation in interdependent human communities. And I strongly suggest there should be a distinction between the control of actions that are exploratory and without financial motive, and those that are linked or potentially linked to capitalist exploitation. Chris Burford London At 08/08/01 16:16 +0100, you wrote: >The constant attack on the circulation of commodities in the form of >pornography >on the internet is a device to build up a climate conducive to controlling and >regulating the internet in the interests of capital. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] FW: seminar on Serge
At 16/08/01 01:42 -0700, you wrote: >Centre for Research and Education «Praxis» >International Conference >VICTOR SERGE AND ANTI-TOTALITARIAN SOCIALISM >Moscow, 29-30 September 2001 > >The conference is timed to coincide with the publication in Russian of the >book From Revolution to Totalitarianism: Memoirs of a Revolutionary by >Victor Serge, the political activist, thinker and writer, fighter for >social liberation. > >The conference will discuss a wide range of issues related to Victor >Serge's activies, literary works, and ideological-political legacy. > >Suggested discussion topics: >1. Victor Serge as a participant in revolutionary movements. >European and Russian anarchism. Russian revolution of 1917-21. >Contradictions of the Bolshevik dictatorship. World revolution and the >Comintern. Evaluation and analysis of revolution's experience. Critique and >defense of Bolshevism. > >2. V. Serge and bureaucratic counter-revolution in USSR. >Struggle against Stalinism. Analysis of revolution's totalitarian >degeneration. Nature of totalitarianism. > >3. V. Serge's conception of Socialism. >Socialism and freedom. Strengths and limits of Marxism. Anti-dogmatism, >necessity for renovation of socialist theory and practice. Search for >political alternative to capitalism and totalitarianism. > >4. Literature in the age of revolution and counter-revolution. Social and >psychological problems of the epoch in Serge's literary work. > >5. Actuality of Victor Serge's legacy. >Serge and present-day Russia. Left anti-totalitarianism alternative today. >Prospects of democratic and libertarian socialism. > >The languages of the conference are Russian, English and French. > >To participate please apply by 5.09.01 to Centre «Praxis»: Fax: (095) >292-65-11 (mark your fax clearly "Box 385". E-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. > >In your letter please include your full name, date of birth, passport >number, place of work, and the theme of proposed paper (please enclose >photocopy of first page of your passport). Please indicate if you intend to >extend your visit beyond the days of the conference. We need these details >in order to write you a letter of invitation in the form necessary for you >to receive a Russian visa. > >(ends) Obviously most of us will not be able to travel to Russia to for this seminar, but I welcome this announcement. Although people or a Trotskyist orientation may feel that it will prove what they know already, there is a lot to be said for stepping over the polarised historical argument between "Stalinism" and "Trotskyism" and trying to understand the choices that apparently lay in front of revolutionaries and radicals at the time. But what is totalitarianism? This is a category that is used often to equate Stalin with Hitler. But the more historical evidence comes to light about how the state worked in Germany and Russia in the 30's the more it is possible to see that all the actors were playing complex roles in which the leader was also constrained by (maybe unspoken) assumptions on the range of his authority. Or will some accuse me of another round of liberal apologetics for Stalinism? Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] How Spinozist was Marx?
o more complete knowledge, his metaphysical model had no place for time. Spinoza was clearly influenced by the development of philosophical thought, but according to Hampshire had no sense of human society being shaped and altered by history. Thus he could not be a forerunner of ideas of historical materialism. Spinoza was rigorous enough to avoid the great philosophical compromise between religion and scientific experimentation: that God created the universe at the beginning, and scientists merely discover the objective workings of that universe. Spinoza ruled out an act of initial creation. Therefore if change were to come about, that would have to be through developments in the eternally pulsating nature of reality itself. I would suggest that his mathematical, timeless model actually prepares the ground for such a theoretical development, which was superior to the compromise of the Deists and their predecessors. Although Spinoza is an important and progressive contributor to ideas of bourgeois right, he interprets right as virtually synonymous with power. Therefore he has a materialist approach to the struggle of interests that make up the state. He also assumes that all humans have some power. However he sees no historical progressive role for a working class, and has an ambivalent attitude to the multitude. But perhaps Marx's ideas about classes were more complex than some of his followers imply. Spinoza's ontology is consistent with a universe made up of layered semi-permanent units, in conformity with modern complexity theory. So IMHO is Marx's perspective. A fine human being, who was ahead of his time in seeing the implications of bourgeois society at its best. But despite the fact that he had no sense of historical development, still less of historical materialism, he was also very much a product of his historical era. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] History of U.S. working class problems by Anthony
At 22/08/01 15:00 -0400, you forwarded such an admirable analysis of the objective historical factors limiting the progressive consciousness of the working class in the USA that I thought it was going to be impossible to make any comment at all. As the volume of this list falls, IMO, the quality rises. I just hope people have the faith to continue submitting quality posts even if at less frequent intervals. But I would make a comment on the following: >However, this story may be at its end. Globalization, the transcendent >victory of US imperialism, is undermining the economic basis of privilege >for the imperialist working class. > >Now they will fight to maintain their privileges. That fight undoubtedly >will split them: one sector will side with the proimperialist petty >bourgeoisie in an effort to return to the past. Pat Buchanon. > >Another sector will ally with the oppressed, and more oppressed workers. >They will turn against imperialism. > >This was the split that emerged briefly in the 1960's and early 70's, that >will - in my opinion - become the demarcation line of the class struggle in >the USA in this new century. I doubt if the contradictions will lead to a neat split, or anything even recognisable as a split, which might help progressive people side with the more progressive social forces. Perhaps the article theoretically has a gap on the difficult question of how the working class in an imperialist country like the USA or Britain, benefit from its global position. That certainly is in danger, (for example concretely say for car producers). But my sense of the global balance of economic forces is that overall the workers of the imperialist countries will continue to benefit much more than those of the capital poor countries. I see instead a mixed collection of trends of struggle in a country like the USA that will increasingly take up global agendas and challenge their government, at first not very successfully, because it cannot easily make their demands sound popular. Of course on the environment Bush immediately taps into a lot of narrow self interest of US workers (linked to their small producer past) when he says that what comes first is the US economy. There will be theoretical struggles in which the USA finds it increasingly difficult to define a global leadership role in the era after the end of the Cold War and the politics of Jessie Helms. These will impact indirectly. There will be the legal challenges to corporate America which take individal rights to their logical limits, which actually have to become social rights. And we can now see that the militant demonstrations now focussed against global capitalism, are likely to continue, propelled by people who are not the core of the working class, but may be idealist church goers, or idealist lumpen proletariat, who are on the fringes of the capitalist system. That is scrappy, and obviously not with the benefit of direct experience of the USA. I think there is rightly a temptation to point to some positive way forward. I am sure it exists, but it is more complicated than this essay could cover. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Globalisation of capital
At 25/08/01 01:42 +0100, Karl wrote: >Much of the radical left insist that there is no such phenomenon as >globalisation. They claim that it is merely a propaganda ploy advanced by the >bourgeoisie. They argue that capitalism has not been restructured in such >a way >that the contradiction between the capital relation and the nation state has >become much more accentuated. I think this is a good way to pinpoint one of the errors. Now that it is very difficult to envisage even social democracy in one country, let alone socialism in one country, it is ironical that it is people from a trotskyist background who seem to argue most dogmatically that it is reformist to campaign for any radical reforms globally. For them the only true revolutionary stance is to keep eyes fixed on a revolutionary overthrow of the state within each individual country. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Re: [Marxism-Thaxis]Sorge
At 25/08/01 09:43 -0700, you wrote: >-Original Message- >From: Michael Pugliese <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: leftist_trainspotters Subject: The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee > > > > Richard Sorge, plz. give the list a quick lesson the first Richard >Sorge. > >Was he part of the "Red Orchestra." My knowledge of that "spy ring" is > >hella' weak. > >Michael Pugliese, aka Google Virus! ;-) > >No known antidote. Yes, but Michael, Google helps with this too! When I visited the Stasi headquarters in Berlin in 1991 (I had not visited East Germany before) I wanted to get some idea of how the Stasi had operated. There was a minor cult about Richard Sorge, which I thought probably had some implications for distancing the organisation from Stalin. They also had a minor cult about Djerzhinsky, including tiny miniaturised books of his autobiography. My impression was that this was consistent with the Stasi in its last ten years at least, avoiding the most violent excesses of how the "dictatorship of the proletariat" was practised in socialist countries. My understanding is that Sorge was a brave spy, and the suggestion is that Stalin did not pay enough attention to his warnings of German attack, and did not try hard enough to get the Japanese to release him rather than execute him. But I do not know how those accusations could be proved. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Castro speech in Durban
I think we are seeing the emergence of a new configuration of progressive world politics. This speech from Castro obviously would not be accepted as a leadership call by most of the countries in the world, but it is a prophetic clarion call. It will help shape the development of the movement. We should look for a new pattern as the world settles down after the collapse of the Soviet bloc socialist camp. Previous progressive configurations were the international united front against fascism, the movement of the socialist camp and colonial peoples against colonialism and imperialism, and the international peace movement. The present developments are highly constrained by the fact that of course in almost all countries in the world the government is either the direct tool of the exploiting classes, or heavily influenced by the need to meet their interests. Newertheless inspite of and in some cases because of these material interests, a new configuration is now emerging. It is striking how in the first few months of Bush's blundering presidency, the social democratic representatives of European capital have moved forward to signal their separate interests from those of the USA: most strikingly on the environment, but recently, however hopelessly, by sponsoring an initiative in the Middle East, (which Europe would never have contemplated on its own, since the collapse of its influence with the Suez fiasco). The statement of apology by Joschkar Fischer for the crimes of Germany against Africa at the World Congress against Racism, is at an individual level no doubt a sincere and progressive step. *But* it is also not isolated from the fact that German and French capital know they must cooperate closely and make joint initiatives if they are to progress in the world market. Europe does not want to pay billions of euros in reparations to Africa, but it suits the Europeans to continue talking with the post-colonialist countries at the international conference on racism, while leaving the USA to problematise itself, and take advantage of the weakened bargaining position of the USA and the third world countries. It is therefore very interesting that shortly after Castro's speech, Schroeder signalled a readiness together with the French to discuss issues like the Tobin tax. Because of inter-imperialist rivalry (a neglected branch of marxism) we are seeing the possibility of a new international progressive alignment emerge, which may wish for a variety of materialist reasons, to respond to the growing demands of the global multitude. Chris Burford London At 05/09/01 09:16 -0400, you wrote: >Key address by Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of >Cuba at the World Conference against racism, racial discrimination, >xenophobia and related intolerance Durban, South Africa. > >September 1, 2001 > >Excellencies: > >Delegates and guests: ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] "America loses taste for 'zero tolerance'"
Can this really be true? Is the fascist tendency in US civil society on the retreat, even in Texas, under the presidency of G.W. Bush?? http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,548903,00.html Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Virus free???
This looks potentially an extremely interesting enclosure, but in the present climate of enhanced internet virus terrorism I think I am being vigilant and not paranoid, in asking Is it virus free? Chris Burford At 25/09/01 15:21 -0400, you wrote: >Dear Comrades, > Here is something that I hope you will find useful in the Great > Debate about how to react to the Sept. ll tragedy. >Bertell Ollman > > >__ >Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. >Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape! >http://shopnow.netscape.com/ > >Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at >http://webmail.netscape.com/ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] World money (Explanation for sudden torrent)
(I thought that like old soldiers, it had just quietly faded away.) Well one of the themes that have caught my eye on PEN-L and the A-list where marxist theory should be able to illuminate major global issues is about what Marx called world money. We are seeing Argentina and Japan devalue. Most of the lackeys of finance capital are just hoping that the US economy will start to expand again soon, financed by even more free credit from the rest of the world. I know it is shockingly reformist (and just prove to the real marxists on this list, what a Menshevik I have always been) but there has got to be a better way. Chris Burford London At 11/01/02 14:33 +, you wrote: >G'day Thaxalotls, > >Just got word from listmaestro Hans that there'd been some problems with the >list's technical settings. All's well now, and we should be back to a normal >pulserate henceforth. > >So, might the world economy be on the upswing, or not? Are we amidst a >profitability and investment crisis, or is the system climbing out of some >exogenous problems? > >And how do we make sense of Uncle Sam's apparently naked unilateral and >ambitious foreign policy (I see they're now giving notice that the nuclear >testing moratorium might be next to go)? Presidential self-legitimation-via- >bloody-populist-sabre-rattling? A hegemon rendered uncompetitive in its >extraction and manufacturing sectors by its strong dollar and weak foreign >consumption projections, fighting for control of depleting energy >reserves? A >sectarian struggle within Islam (neo-Wahhibism v. current institutional >elites) >threatening the North's institutional ties with the Islamic world's >compradorial >classes? A hegemon's attempt at a military-keynesian response to >profitability >and investment crises? The next step in a domestic project to rid the ruling >class of irksome democratic structures, processes and expectations? A >combination of some of those? None of the above? > >And id India's ruling class bent on exploiting and exacerbating nationalistic >sentiment to quiet a proletariat hurting under the regime of 'globalising' >restructuring and make a play for international significance in the new world >disorder? How dangerous is this subcontinental stand-off? > >Anyway, plenty to discuss, if discussants there be. > >Best to all, >Rob. > > >- >This message was sent from the University of Canberra >using Endymion MailMan. >http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ > > > >___ >Marxism-Thaxis mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To change your options or unsubscribe go to: >http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] "involved in direct production"
At 24/01/02 11:55 -0500, Melvin wrote: >Data as in what portion of the automative workforce is >white-collar versus blue-collar and how has the ratio changed in the past 50 >years? For example during the 80s roughly 17 of 100 workers were white >collar and today the figure is roughly 35 of 100. This means that the portion >involved in direct production has fallen dramatically (One request - that you alter the title of your post to specify the content, if you receive the digest) I thought I would take this up because the letter appears to come from a lot of direct experience (sorry if I am making assumptions but of course we are all working largely blind about each other) I think this term is worth unpacking. Marxist literature can use production in two ways: production of surplus value (in this case a school teacher can be productive if it is a private school), and production of "products of labour" in general. The rapid change being pointed out here is that 1) increasingly complex means of production form a larger proportion of the total products of labo(u)r of a modern society. 2) in the work place fewer workers are being employed mainly for their muscle power . There is always some combination of brain and muscle in work, though I suppose a convict turning a water wheel is closest to pure muscle power. But someone working at a computer terminal uses muscle power as well as brain to coordinate the work. The muscular work may not take someone to the point of physical muscular exhaustion but it can be very demanding in terms of the body as well as the mind, as repetitive strain injury shows. 3) is there an issue behind the labels "blue collar" and "white collar" about a) perceived and financial status b) how much the individual has creativity and initiative over how to carry out their work. With the working people having increasing aspirations materially and culturally, what might be called a blue collar job could be one in which the worker has some degree of creative self respect. On the other hand a white collar job could be one in which checks and monitoring, even if tactfully done by computer programmes, restricts the amount of individualistic creativity that the worker can use considerably. The conditions of work repeatedly divide workers, but perhaps there is more flexibility now which could be the basis of new respect and solidarity across large sections of working people, whether they would have been called blue collar or white collar in the past. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Clones soon from production line?
Maybe this will get capital investing again:- http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns1863 ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Communism not reform
At 01/02/02 13:54 +, you wrote: >But Karl. == >Isn't banging cans a class action in the circumstances? In fact was it not the middle strata who were banging the pots and pans? That is class struggle too, even if they were not the steel workers militia armed with AK47's. Class struggle tends not to come in abstractly neat packages. Chris Burford London >And what is a political strike - the withdrawal of labourpower from the >workforce, the denial of labour for bosses' exploitation - but a class action? >Don't be an ideological snob who thinks you know more of the answers than >others. >People take the appropriate action to the level of their experience and >understanding. >That is how they learn revolutionary politics, not from lectures or texts. >Hopefully they will not go down the disastrous blind alleys that the >elitist Communists "led" the working class in the last century, in their >arrogant belief that theory came from above and outside the experience of >the working class. They were thus rejecting the very basis of marxism. > > >Greetings from Brian -- ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Consciousness - material and dialectic
From an article in the latest New Scientist, by Susan Greenfield, Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford A justification for a marxist, and also, to be provocative, a post modernist theory of consciousness: Chris Burford London .. The best way to begin to explain consciousness is to draw up a shopping list of the features or properties we expect. Then neuroscientists can go back to their labs and see how the brain could deliver. First, I don't believe we should be looking for one special brain region. Many regions are active while you are awake, but as you become unconscious, they all shut down in a fairly uniform way. When someone has been anaesthetised, there's no one region that lights up or gets extinguished. There is no single specialised "centre for consciousness". Secondly, although consciousness comes from more than one brain area, at any one moment you have only one consciousness. The world seems of a piece. So we can expand the first item on the list to say that while consciousness is distributed all over the brain, somehow the activities of the different regions are coordinated. And if there's no special centre or neurons for consciousness then the neurons and areas that generate it must do other jobs as well. The physical manifestation of consciousness must be something that happens in or to ordinary brain cells at certain times, but not others. Also on my shopping list is the notion that the more complex the brain the deeper the consciousness. The idea of degrees of consciousness helps answer questions such as when a fetus becomes conscious, and which other animals are conscious. I can't see a physical Rubicon when the brain of a developing fetus changes suddenly, nor any obvious cut-off in the animal kingdom between a nervous system that generates consciousness and one that does not. We should think instead of a continuum: a rat is conscious but not as conscious as a dog; a dog is conscious but not as conscious as a primate; and so on. Even an ant will have a tiny modicum of consciousness. If you think of consciousness like this-as something that varies by degree-there are two interesting consequences. The first is that we may be more conscious at some times than at others, hence our experience of states of "heightened awareness", and the conviction that we can "raise" or "deepen" our consciousness. The second, crucial consequence is that we will have finally converted consciousness from a qualitative to a quantitative phenomenon. We can then look for a measure of the depth of our consciousness as it varies from one moment to the next, and search the brain for something that contracts or expands with it. I think that the most logical place to look is in very large networks-"assemblies"-of brain cells. You're born with pretty much all the brain cells you'll ever have, but as you mature these cells develop more interconnecting branches. Our brains are incredibly plastic, and these connections grow and change with every experience. Babies evaluate the world in purely sensory terms-how sweet, how fast, how cold, how loud. But gradually these abstract sensations coalesce into people and objects with meaning and associations. It's these personal connections and associations that I think of as the "mind". The mind is your personalised brain, which allows you to see the world in terms of what you have experienced already. Even if you're a clone-that is, an identical twin-your mind will be unique. You see the world in terms of things that have happened to you alone. If we see a familiar person, our visual system activates a "hub" of brain cells that corresponds not only to the shapes, movements and colours of a face, but to all the associations set up in our mind by our experiences of that person. That can all happen without our being aware of it. Consciousness, I believe, is generated as this active, hard-wired hub corrals huge numbers of other brain cells around it to form a vast working assembly that lasts for just a trice. The image I have is like throwing a stone into a puddle, producing ripples of consciousness. We now know the brain to be capable of forming such highly transient assemblies. Amiram Grinvald at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, has shown that in response to a flash of light, as many as 10 million brain cells become active together, coordinated into a working assembly that lasts for less than a quarter of a second-exactly the space and time scales I think we should be exploring. The assembly will be slightly different every time. Partly it will depend upon the size and strength of the stimulation of the hub, but also on the levels of a variety of chemical messengers-neurotransmitters-which change moment by moment. These transmitters "modulate" the activity of large groups o
[Marxism-Thaxis] Flooded civilisations and HM
cal materialism, but only a simplistic linear model of mechanical inevitability. Rather in some ways it strengthens HM. The picture is consisent with the creative abilities of human collective production which could have emerged in many more sites in the world than we at present know. It suggests that there are many different forms of cooperative association in social production than the capitalist mode. It suggests that trade, and perhaps not just barter, could have occurred over tens of thousands of years but that the capitalist mode of production may be an even smaller proportion of human civilisation than we thought. It suggests a probabilistic reinterpretation of historical materialism: that a sequence of development may be possible and may occur, but almost for random reasons some pathways may be shut off, for others to emerge later. Some patterns will be more stable than others. None of this undermines, indeed rather strengthens, a core marxist perspective that social production, mystified under capitalism, can and should be brought again under conscious social control, and by the working people. Chris Burford London
[Marxism-Thaxis] Re: On the necessity of socialism
find ways, beginning with our own publications and >forums, to make socialism a household word in our country and invest it >with a new urgency, a new necessity. > >Clearly, socialism is not on labor's and the people's action agenda either >now or in the near term. No one should think that at their next union >meeting, they should offer a resolution to establish socialism by the end >of the decade in order to insure the survival of humanity and nature! > >Our main emphasis now and for the foreseeable future is on the immediate >struggles of the working class and people against the right danger. That >was the direction that we set at our convention last summer and it is all >the more imperative now. These last three paragraphs seem to me to be contradictory and confusing for party members trying to implement them, although they contain points that all could agree with. My reservations are that it sounds very much like old politically left wing drudgery to concentrate on the "immediate struggles" of the working class and the struggle against the "right danger". This would leave members forever feeling they and the people they support will be the underdogs. My hunch is that it is not necessary to promote "socialism" as a household word at this stage, but rather to promote a pluralist consensus about socially and environmentally conscious production, cooperation and respect for peoples rights. That reframing of the question gives a better chance of breaking out of the left ghetto, of die hard members of a party with a stake in a section of the trade union movement. I fear this will come over as an attack on the CPUSA in my rather fumbled attempt to move beyond unase about what seemed a bit of a bland article. It is not necessary for everyone to agree on every formula for contributions like this statement of the CPUSA to be progressive. I am sure it is. I hope we are well past attacking a particular organisation. The CPUSA is neither like to collapse totally within a year nor to quadruple in size. But some of the points on which I have tentatively taken issue with this statement, may be worth the comments of others?? Thanks for the forward. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Nash: A Beautiful Mind
The film about John Forbes Nash, a mathematician who won a Nobel Prize for economics, and succumbed to a schizophrenic illness, has just gone on release in the UK. Generally the reviews by the broadsheets are somewhat askance perhaps because Ron Howard is not known as a challenging or pretentious director. But IMO it is much more than a Happy Days version of schizophrenia, and does get to some of the subtler psychological and cognitive processes that can end up with someone caught in a schizophrenic pattern of being. The question I wanted to ask on this list is that the programme notes quote Nash as saying "There is a crystalline architecture to the universe we can only glimpse". Has any one seen any discussion around this film that might illuminate his attitude of mind here, or has anyone read the biography by Sylvia Nasar? I doubt very much that there was any conscious influence of marxism - rather the reverse - but his Nobel Prize appears to have been of a type that that was a forerunner of complexity theory - seeing more complicated patterns than common sense at first perceives, in the interaction of animals, birds, homo economicus. (In fact his contribution undermined the original crudities of purely selfish game theory in economics.) The idea of a scarcely visible crystalline architecture to the universe, and also of dramatic changes if we can only glimse it has something in common with marxism, and if you agree with the marxist analysis, the actual structure of the universe. It is also possibly consistent with Roy Bhaskar's theory of layering. The vulnerability of human beings to schizophrenic breakdowns may be linked among other things to an openness to these mysteries, which can also lead the individual to have a shaky hold on conventional social reality. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Nash: A Beautiful Mind
At 03/03/02 15:12 -0500, you wrote: > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 03/03/02 02:31PM >>> > > >It should be noted that game theory that the Analytic Marxists, >especially the economist John Roemer and the social scientist >Jon Elster have attempted to use game theory for the purpose >of elucidating certain Marxian concepts. For example, Roemer >has sought to develop a theory of exploitation based on game >theoretic concepts that would replace Marx's labor theory of >value. Analytic Marxists have attempted to use game theory >for understanding how and under what conditions class solidarity >and class consciousness can develop. Even those Marxists >of a more orthodox inclination (than the Analytic Marxists) have >found game theory to be useful for such things as elucidating >Marx's law of falling profit rates. > >Jim F. > > >^^ > >Charles: Game theory sounds like a heuristic. If I understand the term correctly, it would certainly better be treated as a heuristic. I think the paradox of game theory is that it started off as a highly reductionist model. But as soon as it starts to get elaborated, other connections have to be taken into account. Nash's insight into economic came from giving a mathematical analysis to the problem of how four young male friends could all get a girl friend. In essence mathematical models that are at least little bit sensitive have to address the reality that economic activity is a complex social activity, whatever the private ownership of the means of production. It also appears from the remark I quoted, that he has a sense of the changing nature of reality, and also its layered complex structure, which is in essence a dialectical and materialist approach. His weakness and his strength was that instead of a flexible intelligence about emotional human interaction, he imposed simplistic rules which alienated him from the rest of the human capital. around him, and perpetuated his isolation. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Re: Monkey think, monkey do
I am toying with the image that consciousness is something that emerges out of a quantum foam (as it were) of billions of unconscious and semi-conscious experiences, and that what is regarded as consciousness is very much shaped by social expectations of what as an individual one should feel and be able to talk about, as well as what one is able to focus on doing. This could be very compatible with the marxist approach to the theory of knowledge - that practice, especially social practice, is the ultimate determinant, and that what we discuss as consciousness is highly socially determined and influenced by material conditions of reproduction. Perhaps these comments are a stretch from what Charles has posted here, but this study suggests there is no impenetrible barrier between human consciousness and that of other sentient beings. The informal title though appears to imply that just by thinking one can do. In fact the study emphasises practice. The monkey learned by modelling the movement repetitively at first until the brain activity was able to send a strong enough signal for the effect to be produced directly without the use of a mechanical effectively mouse-like attachment that was at first used to move one coloured sphere to chase another (if I remember the television item correctly) The more knowledge accumulates the more obvious marxism seems to me to become. Chris Burford At 14/03/02 12:11 -0500, you wrote: >Monkey think, monkey do > >Primate with brain implant moves cursor just by thinking >"www.msnbc.com/news/723526.asp" > >MSNBC NEWS SERVICES > >March 13 - A monkey with a fingernail-size brain implant moved a cursor on >a computer screen just by thinking - the latest in a series of experiments >that have raised hopes that paralyzed people might one day be able to >control complex devices with their minds ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism & the Fantastic - Call for Papers
Fantastic or Phantastic? "Die Natur dieser Beduerfnisse, ob sie z.B. dem Magen oder der Phantasie entspringen, aendert nichts an der Sache." Phantasie = imagination. Capital, third sentence. "It is not the point whether the nature of these needs (which commodities satisfy) spring from the stomach or the imagination." Chris Burford London At 15/03/02 00:09 -0800, Sebastian Budgen wrote: >Call for papers: > >The journal _Historical Materialism: research in critical Marxist >theory_ is aiming to publish a symposium on the theme of 'Marxism and >the Fantastic', and we are looking for papers interrogating this >topic in any fruitful way. We are open to consideration of 'the >fantastic' in psychological terms, but we are particularly interested >in discussions of the non-real, the fantastic in arts and literature. > >Marxist theory has long engaged with modernist movements such as >surrealism. In addition, there is already a body of Marxist theory >engaging with science fiction, as exemplified in the work of Darko >Suvin, Fredric Jameson and Carl Freedman. However, there is as yet no >body of Marxist work which systematically engages with _the >fantastic_ more generally conceived, either perceiving science >fiction as a subset of the fantastic, or opposed to it. We would like >to make a start at filling that gap. > >Possible topics for consideration include, but are not limited to, >the following. > >Specific movements, including surrealism; 'magic realism'; fairy >tales; modern generic fantasy; ghost stories; et al. > >The work of specific authors, such as Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Delaney, et al. > >Fantasy and film, including readings of specific works. > >Psychological aspects of the fantastic, including 'the uncanny'. > >Book reviews, of any relevant works (fiction or non-fiction). > >Marxism and utopia/dystopia. > >Pieces can be reviews or review essays (between 2,000 and 6,000 >words), 'interventions' (pieces between 4,000 and 7,000 words, which >have some licence to be more polemical and exploratory), and essays >(between 6,000 and 10,000 words). > >_Historical Materialism_ is an open and non-sectarian journal: >however, it is unapologetically Marxist. While we therefore welcome >work from any of the many traditions of Marxist theory, research >undertaken from (say) a left poststructuralist perspective would not >be suitable for our symposium. > >The deadline for submissions to this symposium is regrettably soon - >mid-May, and sooner if possible. > >If you would like any more information, or would like to submit any >work, please contact China Mieville on [EMAIL PROTECTED] >-- > > > > >___ >Marxism-Thaxis mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To change your options or unsubscribe go to: >http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Re: Monkey think, monkey do
At 15/03/02 15:34 -0500, you wrote: >Chris, > >I guess it has long been known that the brain , like other nerve impulses, >has electronic messages. So, I guess this is " just" a translation of the >brain's electronic message into an electronic message that the computer >can read. It is technically very sophisticated, but conceptually it does >not break previous understandings, maybe ? > >Charles Perhaps we really need to read the detail of the article. I attach the abstract below. But to respond to your point I really assumed that the study showed a little more than a direct transfer of an electrical impulse in the brain to an electrical impulse that controlled one light that successfully chased another light. The abstract refers to 7-30 neurones. But my understanding was that the study required a period of time in which the monkey chased the lights (red chased by blue, or the other way round) by means of its hand pushing a mechanical device like a computer mouse pushing a pointer around a screen. What was happening to the neurones during this period of time is what I ask myself. I think through practice the neurones were organizing themselves into a group that together would give a sufficiently strong signal that it could be picked up by an artificial electrical device. Organizing themselves? Remember that each neurone on average has 1000 neurones connected with it each increasing or reducing its level of excitability and likelihood of depolarising with the passage of an electrical current. So I think the study is more complex than that they have just connected a wire to a neurone in a primate brain, because that is easy. They have done that to a cluster of 7-30 neurones, but what is important is that this cluster, through social practice, has learned to coordinate its activities to produce the ability to chase a red light with a blue light. Note how I am dodging the question of intentionality, and will, - the cluster of neurones have organised themselves. We are I think talking about self-organizing systems. The brain is a self-organizing system that enables human beings to reproduce as a species through social practice. Monkey's too. We do not need a special neuronal system for will, in another part of the brain. We need according to this experiment, clusters of neurones that can "teach themselves" so to speak, "learn to associate" so to speak, or just associate, a pattern of firing in connection with an outcome. Note also that these neurones which can trigger the signal to move the blue light, must be getting feedback from sensory clusters of neurones that are recognising when the blue light successfully covers the red light. So we are getting close in a materialist way of exposing the ghost in the machine. There is no ghost in the machine, only self organising systems. The spectres that haunt the world are at a higher level of complexity. Regards Chris B >Brain-machine interface: Instant neural control >of a movement signal > >MIJAIL D. SERRUYA1, NICHOLAS G. HATSOPOULOS1,*, LIAM PANINSKI1,*, >MATTHEW R. FELLOWS1 & JOHN P. DONOGHUE1 > >1 Department of Neuroscience, Box 1953, Brown University, Providence, >Rhode Island 02912, >USA >e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >* Present addresses: Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, >University of Chicago, >Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA (N.G.H.); Center for Neural Science, New York >University, New >York, New York 10003, USA (L.P.) > > >The activity of motor cortex (MI) neurons conveys movement intent >sufficiently well to be used as a control signal to operate artificial >devices, >but until now this has called for extensive training or has been confined to a >limited movement repertoire. Here we show how activity from a few (730) >MI neurons can be decoded into a signal that a monkey is able to use >immediately to move a computer cursor to any new position in its workspace >(14° 14° visual angle). Our results, which are based on recordings made by >an electrode array that is suitable for human use, indicate that neurally >based >control of movement may eventually be feasible in paralysed humans. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Women changing the world
Demographers have been meeting at the United Nations this week to contemplate and confirm the evidence that women in their hundreds of millions in the developing countries, perhaps their billions, are apparently taking decisions to have smaller families. In a reminder that economics originally meant the management of the household, these decisions are the most momentous for the future of this species on this planet. Taken outside the sphere of commodity exchange they have enormous implications for the size of the total mass of labour power available as a commodity by the end of this century, and the pressures on the natural use values of the environment. Besides these facts, 9-11 and the shape of the current global recession, are insignificant economic blips. Chris Burford London ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism & the Fantastic - Call for Papers
At 16/03/02 12:00 +, Russ wrote: Indeed! As I recall this comes straight out of German Romantic philosophy, or at least as articulated by Coleridge in his outstanding plagiarism of same. And, if I remember rightly, Fantasy fo Coleridge was a higher order of thought, a sort of organic product of the mind, thoughts produced from synthesising baser mental processes. Just done a search and realised I'm talking bollocks! Getting confused between Fantasy and the Fancy, but isn't Marx's phrase sometimes translated as springing from the Fancy? Anyway, here's Coleridge on the matter: from Biographia Literaria, Chapter 13 [ON THE IMAGINATION, OR THE ESEMPLASTIC(1) POWER] . . . The IMAGINATION, then, I consider either as primary, or secondary. The primary IMAGINATION I hold to be the living power and prime agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM. The secondary I consider as an echo of the former, co-existing with the conscious will, yet still as identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate; or where this process is rendered impossible, yet still, at all events, it struggles to idealize and to unify. It is essentially vital, even as all objects (as objects) are essentially fixed and dead. FANCY, on the contrary, has no other counters to play with but fixities and definites. The fancy is indeed no other than a mode of memory emancipated from the order of time and space, and blended with, and modified by that empirical phenomenon of the will which we express by the word CHOICE. But equally with the ordinary memory it must receive all its materials ready made from the law of association. . . . ., Getting confused, and even talking bollocks, can be creative. Collective learning can be serendipitous. Clearly Coleridge was using these concepts in a specialised way, whichever way round. I have being trying search too, and have double checked that fancy as a deceiving elf, is Keats. What your cross reference does is to put into a wider context a number of ideas that were around in Marx's culture. Fancy apparently in scholastic philosophy did have a connotation of fantasy, but it also has a more modern connotation of caprice. The needs of die Phantasie (imagination) that Marx said could well be what commodities satisfy, are not necessarily limited to the caprice of the consumer society but could be deeper needs of the imagination. The standard translation of Vol 1 Capital by Moore and Aveling does indeed give "fancy". But the translation by Ben Fowkes gives "imagination", more accurately. But Phantasie perhaps lies on a continuum of blurred European cultural concepts. This exchange emphasises for me a doubt I have about the whole structure of Capital which is built up on an analysis of the atomised commodity, revealing by degrees all the aspects of its social context. Marx sets out his propositions at the beginning of Capital. A commodity involves a concept of needs and satisfaction. He supplies a reference to a text of 1696 referring to Desire, and Want. In order to understand how Marx's focussed critique of commodity exchange interacts with a wider society, I think we do have to look at the wider categories that he took as already posited. And having just watched a brilliant BBC2 programme about Freud's nephew Edward Bernays and the creation of mass desire in the service of US capitalism, I think it is even more important that we can talk about the over-arching concepts. Does anyone know anything about Bernays? Chris
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Study Researches Europe's Founders
At 21/03/02 13:29 -0500, you wrote: > > Study Researches Europe's Founders > > Friday April 20 3:54 PM ET > > > By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer > > > > EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) - Modern Europeans, and maybe > > populations in other parts of the world, are descended > > from no more than a few hundred Africans who left > > their homeland as recently as 25,000 years ago, new > > research suggests. That is a quite extraordinarily early date. The idea of a small genetic bottleneck is not so controversial but a date as early as this, after the cultural revolution had started, is incompatible with most other assumptions - that modern humankind reached Europe about 100,000 years ago. I see the report is dated April 20 2001. Where did it come from and has it been supported subsequently? Regards Chris ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Coup in Venezuela:
At 12/04/02 11:29 -0400, you wrote: >Coup in Venezuela: It sounds as if by yesterday the battle was lost. How could the risk of this fall have been avoided? Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Chavez returns
Welcome scenes on CNN of the return of Chavez to the Presidential Palace. The situation obviously still remains dangerous. In terms of how the risk of such coups against radical democratic governments should be avoided, I note that An "Imminent Coup in Venezuela" written by Gregory Wilpert on 10th April argued Chavez' greatest failure, from a progressive point of view, probably lies in his relatively autocratic style, which is why many of his former supporters have become alienated from his government. Whenever someone opposed his policies he has tended to reject them and cast them out of his government circle. The result has been a consistent loss of a relatively broad political spectrum of government leadership and a significant turn-over in his cabinet, making stable and consistent policy implementation quite difficult. This loss of broad-based support has made itself felt particularly strongly during the recent crises, making Chavez look more isolated than he might otherwise be. Other than his party supporters, who are quite significant in number and come mostly from the poor "barrios," the progressive sectors of civil society have been neglected by Chavez and have thus not been active. Instead, the conservative sectors of civil society, such as the chamber of commerce and the old guard union leadership are among the main mobilizers of civil society. There is now talk of "middle class" leaving Venzuela, and presumably capital is fleeing even more rapidly out of the country. On the other hand it was the determination of his supporters who demonstrated outside the presidential palace yesterday, and the determination of the presidential guard not to give up without a fight to the death, that probably led to the resignation of the imposed president Carmona within one day. These are traditional qualities of the "proletariat", courage and resolution in crisis. The situation is a contradiction, and should be analysed as a contradiction. The forces of Chavez would have every right now to impose a dictatorship of the proletariat, hopefully nuanced in the way Hal Draper has argued, as emergency dicatatorial powers. There are already reports that the events of the last few days have exposed who is a true friend of Chavez and who is not. There must be scores to settle. At the same time the return to the palace must have been the result of some deals and compromises. It may be a good sign that Chavez resisted the temptation to make an immediate revolutionary statement outside the palace. I agree with Louis Proyect's reservations about the concept of civil society. It too is a contradiction. Originally used in a somewhat negative sense by Marx, it has been used by Gramscian supporters as a potentially positive arena for struggle. IMO Wilpert uses it in a dialectical sense referring to progressive and conservative attitudes to civil society. The good news of this year is that militant street demonstations in Argentina and Venezuela can force the fall of a government. The bad news is that the balance of forces in the world overwhelmingly favours finance capital and its supporters in each country. A progressive regime needs both a resolute core of supporters, and the ability to defuse the opposition, if not win over the great majority of the population. That IMO opinion points to the need for an agenda that is not exclusively socialist, but is "new democratic", embracing civil rights issues but from a progressive social perspective. Let us hope Chavez can stay and this has an impact on the global balance of forces. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Land
At 14/04/02 12:57 +0200, Hugh wrote: > The key might well be the land question. If Chavez pushes through a real > land reform and even (which is most unlikely) nationalizes the land, then > all hell will break loose all over the continent. I presume Hugh's intervention was mainly for the benefit of Dave and others, since he thinks certain things will go over my head. But could he say more, (for the benefit of others) about the interesting question of land? While it is a rather special category of the forces of production, the increasingly intense processes of globalisation perhaps give it a new signficance. What is its relation to bourgeois democratic and to socialist revolutions? And concretely why would all hell break loose over south America if there was a real land reform? Do the masses really want their own land even when they are living in cities? How would the nationalisation of land differ from a radical land redistribution? Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Chavez: US-Latin breach
from IHT more evidence for the importance of analysing contradictions among the bourgeoisie. U.S.-Latin breach over Chavez Larry Rohter The New York Times Tuesday, April 16, 2002 SANTIAGO Venezuela's neighbors helped pave the way for President Hugo Chavez's stunning return to power by refusing to accept the legitimacy of the coup that overthrew him and by threatening to impose sanctions, Latin American diplomats say. The efforts opened a breach between the United States and its democratic allies in the Western Hemisphere. Chavez pledged Sunday to help reconcile the deep political divisions - within the ranks of the military, in the business and labor sectors and at Venezuela's state-run oil company - that ignited the most serious political crisis in his tumultuous three-year presidency. "I am issuing a call for understanding," he said after he resumed his presidential powers in a predawn ceremony in the presidential palace, two days after being forced from office. Until last week, the United States had adopted a policy of restraint, apparently content to let the Chavez government collapse under its growing unpopularity. There were no obvious U.S. fingerprints on the plot that unseated Chavez, unlike coups in Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973, for example. But Latin American countries are now left with the impression that the Bush administration is selective in its support for democracy. Chavez's supporters, on the other hand, took heart from an outpouring of criticism by other Latin American governments over the way he was deposed. The initial alarm around the region grew after the military-backed interim president, Pedro Carmona, dissolved Congress and talked of holding presidential elections only after a year had passed - measures that appeared to contravene the existing constitution. "I have been and am a critic of many of the characteristics of the government of Hugo Chavez," said President Alejandro Toledo of Peru. But he added, "We are not defending the democratic characteristics of a particular government, we are defending the principle of the rule of law." In contrast, the United States refused to characterize the initial removal of Chavez as a coup at all, arguing that he had brought his downfall upon himself. "The government suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people," which "led very quickly to a combustible situation in which Chavez resigned," Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said Friday. Meeting in Washington on Saturday and Sunday, the Organization of American States approved a resolution condemning "the alteration of the constitutional order" in Venezuela and invoked a new "Democratic Charter" approved last September in Lima. That measure is one of several recent regional initiatives that create mechanisms, including sanctions, to isolate and punish governments that take power through nondemocratic means. After lobbying behind the scenes for softer language, the United States also voted for the measure. "It was necessary to act energetically and decisively in defense of democratic principles, with or without the support of the United States, or lose credibility," a South American ambassador said Sunday. As Toledo's remarks indicate, Chavez's leftist populism and his tendency toward demagoguery seem to make most of Latin America's elected leaders uncomfortable. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil has been quoted as calling Chavez an "unconscious authoritarian," and both Colombia and Peru have persistently complained of his support for forces set on undermining their governments. But the notion of permitting the armed forces of any Latin American country to resume their past role as ultimate arbiter, able to make and unmake elected presidents at will, is even more unpalatable. The strongest statements of condemnation of Chavez's ouster came from countries like Argentina, Paraguay and Peru, which have long histories of military interventions and dictatorships themselves. "This is not an impression, it's the verification of a coup in Venezuela that I hope has a democratic resolution," President Eduardo Duhalde of Argentina, who came to office in January under questionable circumstances, said on Friday. On Saturday he said it was "not good news for the Americas when military coups once again overthrow governments elected by the people." ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Chavez returns
At 15/04/02 12:26 -0400, Charles wrote: >There is now talk of "middle class" leaving Venzuela, and presumably >capital is fleeing even more rapidly out of the country. > > > >CB: And moving where ? To Miami, with all the fascist trash kicked out >by Latin American revolutions ? True this may be an impediment, but capital itself haemorrhages very fast when the bourgeoisie no longer want to keep their money in a country. No regime can safely ignore this, as Argentina found. >Charles: The qualitative leap is that mass, militant street demonstrations >can PROTECT AND SAVE a truly democratic government. This is historic. Yes. The article I am also posting about the position taken by the Organisation of American States shows that norms of civil society, even right wing norms, may be important to allow an environment in which militant street demonstrations can save a government. I too salute the proletarian audacity of the core supporters of Chavez. The reason why he was wise to call for national unity however, is that a serious analysis of a balance of forces requires you to look at the sectors of the population that you are not winning over, and are leaving for your opponents to recruit. That is why, IMO and without direct knowledge of the country of course, I think that the most successful political programme is one that will be national democratic in character and not just a socialist dictatorship of workers and poor peasants, as Dave B implies. (That does *not* mean that the issue of power and security can be ignored.) Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] The exchange value of currencies
The organic composition of capital is the measure of the exchange value of currencies. Is this a correct application of marxism? Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] The exchange value of currencies
At 17/04/02 00:04 -0700, you wrote: >Whether that interpretation is corret or not depends on >whether you are talking about Capitalism (in which case >no) or Socialism (then prob. OK). > >The issue is credit and how it affect the general price >level ... and thereby the puchasing poer of money. > >I think Marxism looks more at this "purchasing power" >(ie value) as what money is - not money by itself. > > >Chris Warren > > The organic composition of capital is the measure of >the exchange value of > > currencies. I am wondering if this is the wrong way round. Perhaps it should be The exchange value of currencies is the measure of the relative organic composition of capital. Chris Burford ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
