[Marxism] Flying Goats and Black Squares, Charging Into the Future - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Marc Chagall was born in 1887 outside Vitebsk, moved to Paris in the 
years before World War I, and returned to Russia as revolution took 
hold. We don’t think of him as a politically engaged artist, and this 
show includes familiar, color-saturated compositions of lovers by the 
waterside, revelers celebrating Purim, and goats and cows flying through 
the air. But Chagall was enraptured by the promise of Communism — as you 
can see in “Onward, Onward” (1918), a rhapsodic painting on paper in 
which a jumping man in plaid trousers, his legs spanning the whole 
composition, bounds through a sky of brilliant blue into a glorious 
popular future. Look closely and you’ll see gridlines beneath the 
gouache; this work was enlarged to mural scale for Vitebsk’s celebration 
of the first anniversary of the revolution, captured in a filmstrip 
projected here. Chagall, the city’s art commissar, was in charge of the 
decorations.


full: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/arts/design/chagall-lissitzky-malevich-russian-avant-garde-jewish-museum.html

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[Marxism] Indefensible: Democracy, Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Rohini Hensman’s recently published Indefensible: Democracy, 
Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism is an important 
contribution to the debate that has divided the left since 2011, the 
year that Syria became a litmus test. For some, support for Bashar 
al-Assad became tantamount to backing Franco in the Spanish Civil War 
while others saw my perspective as lending support to the USA, Israel, 
Saudi Arabia and other reactionary states carrying out the same 
neoconservative foreign policy that turned Iraq into a failed state.


On practically all other questions, ranging from defending immigrant 
rights to opposing fracking, the left was fairly unified. The Green 
Party candidacy of Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka epitomized the 
contradictions roiling the left. Except for her appearance at an RT 
conference and his article hailing Assad’s electoral victory in 2014, 
there was little question that their campaign was a real alternative to 
both Trump and Clinton.


full: https://louisproyect.org/2018/09/14/18143/
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Re: [Marxism] Query

[Saman Sepehri via Marxism]

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Gilbert Achcar (ditto SOAS) is a good resource to tap.  Saeed Rahnema ( York U. 
Canada)Hamid Dabashi (though in NYC) can also be a resource.
S.
On Friday, September 14, 2018, 9:36:05 AM CDT, A.R. G via Marxism 
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Had some friends with good experiences at SOAS in the UK.

Absolutely sick that intelligent people like this are barred from joining
American universities while we have a complete moron in office.

Amith R. Gupta

On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 8:51 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> An Iranian leftist got in touch with me a few days ago:
>
> My proposal for PhD is going to be around either the cultural ideology of
> Neoliberalism, or a critical historical inquiry of the roots of
> Americanization. Is there any specific institution you may recommend to
> me (without the United States, because as you now, your Russian
> president has banned us from that sacred soil!) or a particular
> professor with a strong critical attitude, with which I can pursue my
> education?
>
> ---
>
> Since I don't have much familiarity with European universities, I'd
> appreciate getting recommendations from British comrades or those from
> other countries where there are universities with classes given in English.
> Email me: l...@panix.com.
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Re: [Marxism] Query

[A.R. G via Marxism]

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Had some friends with good experiences at SOAS in the UK.

Absolutely sick that intelligent people like this are barred from joining
American universities while we have a complete moron in office.

Amith R. Gupta

On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 8:51 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> An Iranian leftist got in touch with me a few days ago:
>
> My proposal for PhD is going to be around either the cultural ideology of
> Neoliberalism, or a critical historical inquiry of the roots of
> Americanization. Is there any specific institution you may recommend to
> me (without the United States, because as you now, your Russian
> president has banned us from that sacred soil!) or a particular
> professor with a strong critical attitude, with which I can pursue my
> education?
>
> ---
>
> Since I don't have much familiarity with European universities, I'd
> appreciate getting recommendations from British comrades or those from
> other countries where there are universities with classes given in English.
> Email me: l...@panix.com.
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[Marxism] Icarus Film Retrospective | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Beginning tonight and lasting through the 30th, the Metrograph theater 
in New York will be featuring an Icarus film retrospective. Icarus is a 
distribution company whose leading-edge, radical films are generally not 
available on Amazon, iTunes or other popular streaming services. I have 
been covering Icarus films for close to decades now and can attest to 
their tremendous value as uncompromising artistic and political statements.


https://louisproyect.org/2018/09/14/icarus-film-retrospective/
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[Marxism] Trump’s false claims about Puerto Rico are insulting. But they reveal a deeper truth.

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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Unlike most U.S. politicians, the president doesn’t even pretend to treat
the island equally.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/09/14/trumps-false-claims-about-puerto-rico-are-insulting-they-reveal-deeper-truth/
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[Marxism] Explaining Chomsky’s strange science: a reply to Randy Allen Harris | openDemocracy

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.opendemocracy.net/chris-knight/explaining-chomsky-s-strange-science-reply-to-randy-allen-harris
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[Marxism] Two new films

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/article-tiff-2018-riding-the-changing-experimental-tides-of-wavelengths/
 


Sergei Loznitsa’s new film The Trial is comprised entirely of archival footage 
of a show trial in Stalinist Russia and the street demonstrations surrounding 
it. The Ukrainian filmmaker has taken long days of testimony and statements 
from the 1930 trial and edited them down to two hours. The eight defendants, 
most of them engineering professors and economists, confess to masterminding a 
grand scheme to sabotage Soviet industry with foreign help right up to the 
level of the French prime minister.


……. Dead Souls, an eight-hour documentary interviewing survivors of Maoist 
indoctrination camps. Created by the Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, it is a good 
example of the way experimental approaches have infiltrated the documentary 
world – or how experimental filmmakers have turned to documentary approaches.
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[Marxism] Fwd: The full text & context of Corbyn's 'English irony' speech

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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 Forwarded Message 
Subject:The full text & context of Corbyn's 'English irony' speech
Date:   Fri, 14 Sep 2018 17:47:20 +
From:   Chris Knight 
To: cont...@redpepper.org.uk 



Hi,

In all the many media stories about ‘anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party, 
perhaps the most disturbing is the claim that Jeremy Corbyn himself is 
an anti-Semite.


The only alleged evidence for this is Corbyn’s use of the words ‘English 
irony’ during a speech in 2013. Here is that full speech, plus a summary 
of the events surrounding it.


Please read it and decide for yourself whether this really is evidence 
of Corbyn’s anti-Semitism://



*On 15 January 2013, the Palestinian Ambassador, Manuel Hassassian, said 
in a speech in Parliament: *


We, the Palestinians, the most highly educated and intellectual in
the Middle East, are still struggling for the basic right of
self-determination. What an irony. How long are we going to suffer
and be patient with Israel? *You know I’m reaching the conclusion
that the Jews are the children of God, the only children of God and
the Promised Land is being paid by God!***I *//*have started to
believe this because nobody is stopping Israel building its
messianic dream of Eretz Israel to the point I believe that maybe
God is on their side. Maybe God is partial on this issue.’(Richard
Millett, ‘Palestinian Ambassador to the UK: “I’ve started to believe
that the Jews are the only children of God”’

,
16 January, 2013.)

The pro-Israel blogger, Richard Millett, then challenged the ambassador 
over his statement.[1] Jeremy Corbyn witnessed the confrontation and, in 
a subsequent speech, chose to defend the ambassador in the face of what 
the Labour leader has since called 'deliberate misrepresentations by 
people for whom English was a first language, when it isn't for the 
ambassador.'


The following is a transcript of Jeremy's speech to the */Britain's 
Legacy in Palestine /*international conference organized by the 
Palestine Return Centre at Friends Meeting House, London, on Saturday 
January 19, 2013.



Jeremy's speech to 
the */Britain's Legacy in Palestine /*international conference organized 
by the Palestine Return Centre at Friends Meeting House, London, on 
Saturday January 19, 2013.



*/Jeremy Corbyn:/*

We'll be very brief because I've been asked to do seven minutes and I 
will try and stick to that.



Firstly I want to say a huge thank you to the Palestinian Return Centre 
for its establishment and its work over many years and for giving a very 
solid base of information, understanding and support for Palestinians 
and Palestinian history and the cause surrounding it.



Because it's actually very important that our supporters don't just go 
down the road demanding, as they must, freedom and justice of 
Palestinian people but have a serious understanding of how this 
oppression of Palestinian people came about and how the division of the 
people came about. Understanding history is something that guides people 
throughout their lives and it's why I'm absolutely passionate that if I 
had to have only one core subject on every school curriculum in every 
country in the world it would be history not anything else.


*
*

**For the other evening we had a meeting in Parliament in which Manuel 
made an incredibly powerful and passionate and effective speech about 
the history of Palestine and the rights the Palestinian people. This was 
dutifully recorded by the, thankfully silent, Zionists who were in the 
audience on that occasion; and then [they] came up and berated him 
afterwards for what he had said.[2]



They clearly had two problems. One is they don't want to study history 
and, secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, 
probably all their lives, they don't understand English irony either.



Manuel does understand English irony and uses it very very effectively. 
So I think they needed two lessons which we can perhaps help some with.**



We have to look at the period in 1917 when Balfour Declaration was 
written. At that time even the very farsighted and very smart people – 
and don't underestimate them in the Foreign Office – they could not have 
known that at the conclusion of the First World War would be the 
Versailles Conference it would be that sort of frankly abominable 
process where they sat around the table and calmly divided up the 
colonies of the 

[Marxism] Mass Demonstrations in Idlib against Regime and Russia (Collection of links)

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Friday 14 September impressive mass rallies in 83 cities and towns in 
the Greater Idlib region took place. FSA and HTS supporters and ordinary 
people all together without any conflict reported (those who deny HTS 
having a mass base should see these videos and pictures). There exist 
many videos and pictures. Those on Twitter can watch videos here (there 
exist certainly more):


https://twitter.com/i/status/1040641898476654599 (A Syria woman speaking 
in English, impressive!)


https://twitter.com/i/status/1040566517224615937 (OGN’s excellent Bilal 
Abdul Kareem in English)


https://twitter.com/i/status/1040657773510504450

https://twitter.com/i/status/1040679794478919682

https://twitter.com/i/status/1040577440974876672

https://twitter.com/i/status/1040573057612636161

https://twitter.com/i/status/1040668263347306496

https://twitter.com/Alqalqal/status/1040574264750075904

https://twitter.com/ThomasVLinge/status/1040581282323947523

https://youtu.be/19NrwV5qHME

Those interested in pictures (about 50) can contact me offline and I 
send them.


Interesting, it is reported that very little protests took place in the 
areas controlled by Zenki – a treacherous gang which fought against HTS 
in spring and which is said to collapse currently (see on them e.g. 
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/turkey-s-hidden-war-against-hts-in-idlib/ 
and 
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/syria-idlib-the-attack-of-the-astana-conspirators-could-be-repelled-thus-far/)


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Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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RKOB says:


"You say: "Its troop strength in Rojava had been reduced". But WHY had
Assads troop strength in Rojava been reduced? WHY did Assad not put
enough military troops to Rojava but very many to the other parts of the
country?! If Assads relations with the YPG would have been as bad as
with the FSA et al, he would have fought for control over the Kurdish

North of the country. But he did not."


Assad's priority was to hold onto the densely populated western part of Syria, 
including the major cities Damascus and Aleppo.  Hence he reduced his troop 
presence in northeastern Syria.


This made it relatively easy for the Rojava uprising to succeed.


Chris Slee



From: Marxism  on behalf of RKOB via 
Marxism 
Sent: Friday, 14 September 2018 9:49 PM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish 
occupation (Green Left Weekly)

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But comrade, look, your arguments lack inner logic.

We agree that has been no or very little violence in the "Rojava
Revolution" but very much violence in the Syrian Revolution.

Your explanation for this is: "Presumably the soldiers had no desire to
die for Assad. Hence they surrendered."

If that would be the explanation, one has to ask: why did the Assadist
soldiers have "no desire to die for Assad" in Rojava but, presumable,
had "very much desire to die for Assad" in the rest of the country?!

You say: "Its troop strength in Rojava had been reduced". But WHY had
Assads troop strength in Rojava been reduced? WHY did Assad not put
enough military troops to Rojava but very many to the other parts of the
country?! If Assads relations with the YPG would have been as bad as
with the FSA et al, he would have fought for control over the Kurdish
North of the country. But he did not.

No, comrade, your explanation simply lack any logic. It is obvious that
Assad always viewed the YPG as a qualitative lesser evil than the Syrian
Revolution and that his regime agreed in summer 2012 about handing over
this part of the country to the YPG. For that reason they have not too
much difficulties now to negotiate again.


Am 14.09.2018 um 12:14 schrieb Chris Slee:
> It is incorrect to say that "not a single shot [was] fired" in the July 2012 
> Rojava uprising.  There was some small-scale armed conflict in Derik and 
> Afrin.
>
> But it is true that opposition to the uprising was limited.  This was because 
> the Assadist army was fully occupied with the rebellion elsewhere in Syria.  
> Its troop strength in Rojava had been reduced.  Presumably the soldiers had 
> no desire to die for Assad.  Hence they surrendered.
>
> Regarding the events in the rest of the country, I said in my article that 
> there was a "popular uprising against the brutal dictatorship of Bashar 
> al-Assad". However Turkey and the Gulf states armed and funded reactionary 
> rebel groups.  This had the effect of, over time, changing the nature of the 
> rebellion.
>
> Chris Slee
>
>
>
>
> 
> From: Marxism  on behalf of RKOB via 
> Marxism 
> Sent: Friday, 14 September 2018 4:51 PM
> To: Chris Slee
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists 
> Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)
>
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>
> Let us leave aside our ideological differences for a moment and focus on
> simple facts.
>
> How do you explain that the regime fights with all its brutal might
> against the uprising people in Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa etc. and
> kills tens of thousands (or more) in 2011-12. But when there is an
> uprising in "Rojava", not a single shot is fired and the Assadist
> military just withdraws! You can not seriously claim that Assad had
> become a pacifist!
>
> So how can you call the events in "Rojava" a "revolution" and support it
> but the events in the rest of country not?!
>
>
>

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Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)

[Matthew Harvey via Marxism]

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> There are no “jihadists linked to al-Qaida” in Idlib, as anyone free of 
> post-9/11 “war on
> terror” ideology is well aware[.] 

I have nothing to say to anyone who says “there are no jihadists linked to” 
Al-Qaeda. Would you be more comfortable with the term Islamist or Salafist? As 
for the idea that jihadists are in Al-Qaeda or Al-Nusra (“HTS”) prisons for 
being jihadists, it is utterly surreal. Next thing you’ll be telling us that 
the Salafists are really misunderstood social democrats. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 14, 2018, at 1:15 AM, mkaradjis  wrote:
> 
> “This BBC article claims that the numbers of just Uighars numbers
> between 7,000 and 10,000 depending on the source. Of other ethnic
> fighters they say a “high concentration.”
> https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-45401474”.
> 
> That article, dated September 2018, also made the claim that
> “thousands have taken up arms against the government, including
> jihadists linked to al-Qaeda.” To have some credibility, media such as
> the BBC should at least keep up to date. There are no “jihadists
> linked to al-Qaida” in Idlib, as anyone free of post-9/11 “war on
> terror” ideology is well aware, unless they mean the handful of
> pro-Qaida, ex-Nusra folk in Hurras al-Din, many of whom are in HTS
> prisons.
> 
> Anyway, the article quotes Assadist MP Fares Shehabi that there are
> 10,000 Uighars in Idlib. Not sure if you consider a regime hack a
> credible source, but based on his assertion that there are 100,000
> “al-Qaida-linked” militants, my tendency would be to divide anything
> he says by about 100.
> 
> As for the “war on terror” style AFP article:
> 
> “This AFP article gives the number of just Uighar fighters (as opposed
> to them and their “families”) between 1 and several thousand. It also
> mentions high concentrations of Chechens.
> https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/foreign-fighters-syrias-idlib-face-last-stand-doc-18x6wz1”.
> 
> The BBC article said “several thousand” including their families. So
> about 1000 fighters is probably about right. It also corresponds
> better to what we hear on the ground. There are not exactly daily
> reports of huge numbers of Uighar fighters, though here and there
> there is reference to the TIP. Certainly nothing in the order of
> either HTS or its opponents.
> 
> Most estimates put HTS strength at about 10,000 fighters (that is also
> the number given in the BBC article by UN's special envoy for Syria,
> Staffan de Mistura, who erroneously claimed they were “associated with
> al-Qaeda.”
> 
> However, referring to these numbers, Ahmad Abazeid, a Turkey-based
> Syrian analyst, “says that figure is an exaggeration and the fighters
> number only a few thousand.”
> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/looming-battle-idlib-180908142026400.html
> 
> I’m not sure who is correct, but one thing for sure is that Nusra
> numbers were never estimated as any higher than 10,000, though given
> that HTS is a coalition of Nusra (now JFS) with 5 very small groups
> (not all jihadist), Lister’s 12,000 figure may be correct, but again I
> would urge caution given Abazeid’s analysis.
> 
> Overwhelmingly, these are Syrians, because when Nusra (now the core of
> HTS) and ISIS split in 2013, there was a very heavy divide between
> foreign fighters (overwhelmingly went with ISIS) and local fighters
> (overwhelmingly with Nusra); after all, Nusra resulted from a
> “Syrianisation” of this otherwise foreign invader force from Iraq.
> However, there are a small number of foreign fighters with HTS, mostly
> Arabs.
> 
> Nearly all other armed groups in Greater Idlib (ie, Idlib, southern
> and western Aleppo province, northern Hama and Latakia) are part of
> the National Front for Liberation (NFL) coalition, which includes the
> Free Idlib Army, which is itself a coalition of the major FSA groups
> in Idlib, and the Victory Army (Jaysh al-Nasr), another FSA coalition
> based in northern Hama. The NFL also includes Islamist groups like
> Ahrar al-Sham and many others.
> 
> According to Abazeid, “NFL is the biggest force [in Idlib] in terms of
> numbers and geographical presence and weaponry.” Most sources suggest
> it has some 30,000 fighters (some estimates are as high as 70,000).
> According to the article quoting Abazeid, he “also cast doubt on those
> estimates.” But the quote from him “casting doubt” is merely “But NFL
> is a local formation, not an organised army, and therefore it's
> difficult to estimate its numbers.”
> 
> That is very true: it is local; it is somewhat decentralised precisely
> because it is based directly in the communities and villages (as are
> most HTS cadre); 

Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)

[mkaradjis via Marxism]

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"I have nothing to say to anyone who says “there are no jihadists
linked to” Al-Qaeda. Would you be more comfortable with the term
Islamist or Salafist?"

Hmm, you seem to have missed the point. Of course we all call HTS a
"jihadist" organisation. The point is it is not "linked to al-Qaida",
that is just "war on terror" talk.

"As for the idea that jihadists are in Al-Qaeda or Al-Nusra (“HTS”)
prisons for being jihadists, it is utterly surreal." I'm not aware of
any "al-Qaida" prisons in Idlib, what I pointed out was that HTS
prisons (which you like to call "Nusra" prisons) have some al-Qaida
cadre in them. I didn't say they were in prison for being "jihadists",
I said they were in HTS/jihadist prison for being al-Qaida.

Let me know if you require any further clarification.
On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 5:26 PM Matthew Harvey  wrote:
>
> There are no “jihadists linked to al-Qaida” in Idlib, as anyone free of 
> post-9/11 “war on
> terror” ideology is well aware[.]
>
>
> I have nothing to say to anyone who says “there are no jihadists linked to” 
> Al-Qaeda. Would you be more comfortable with the term Islamist or Salafist? 
> As for the idea that jihadists are in Al-Qaeda or Al-Nusra (“HTS”) prisons 
> for being jihadists, it is utterly surreal. Next thing you’ll be telling us 
> that the Salafists are really misunderstood social democrats.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Sep 14, 2018, at 1:15 AM, mkaradjis  wrote:
>
> “This BBC article claims that the numbers of just Uighars numbers
> between 7,000 and 10,000 depending on the source. Of other ethnic
> fighters they say a “high concentration.”
> https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-45401474”.
>
> That article, dated September 2018, also made the claim that
> “thousands have taken up arms against the government, including
> jihadists linked to al-Qaeda.” To have some credibility, media such as
> the BBC should at least keep up to date. There are no “jihadists
> linked to al-Qaida” in Idlib, as anyone free of post-9/11 “war on
> terror” ideology is well aware, unless they mean the handful of
> pro-Qaida, ex-Nusra folk in Hurras al-Din, many of whom are in HTS
> prisons.
>
> Anyway, the article quotes Assadist MP Fares Shehabi that there are
> 10,000 Uighars in Idlib. Not sure if you consider a regime hack a
> credible source, but based on his assertion that there are 100,000
> “al-Qaida-linked” militants, my tendency would be to divide anything
> he says by about 100.
>
> As for the “war on terror” style AFP article:
>
> “This AFP article gives the number of just Uighar fighters (as opposed
> to them and their “families”) between 1 and several thousand. It also
> mentions high concentrations of Chechens.
> https://www.afp.com/en/news/23/foreign-fighters-syrias-idlib-face-last-stand-doc-18x6wz1”.
>
> The BBC article said “several thousand” including their families. So
> about 1000 fighters is probably about right. It also corresponds
> better to what we hear on the ground. There are not exactly daily
> reports of huge numbers of Uighar fighters, though here and there
> there is reference to the TIP. Certainly nothing in the order of
> either HTS or its opponents.
>
> Most estimates put HTS strength at about 10,000 fighters (that is also
> the number given in the BBC article by UN's special envoy for Syria,
> Staffan de Mistura, who erroneously claimed they were “associated with
> al-Qaeda.”
>
> However, referring to these numbers, Ahmad Abazeid, a Turkey-based
> Syrian analyst, “says that figure is an exaggeration and the fighters
> number only a few thousand.”
> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/looming-battle-idlib-180908142026400.html
>
> I’m not sure who is correct, but one thing for sure is that Nusra
> numbers were never estimated as any higher than 10,000, though given
> that HTS is a coalition of Nusra (now JFS) with 5 very small groups
> (not all jihadist), Lister’s 12,000 figure may be correct, but again I
> would urge caution given Abazeid’s analysis.
>
> Overwhelmingly, these are Syrians, because when Nusra (now the core of
> HTS) and ISIS split in 2013, there was a very heavy divide between
> foreign fighters (overwhelmingly went with ISIS) and local fighters
> (overwhelmingly with Nusra); after all, Nusra resulted from a
> “Syrianisation” of this otherwise foreign invader force from Iraq.
> However, there are a small number of foreign fighters with HTS, mostly
> Arabs.
>
> Nearly all other armed groups in Greater Idlib (ie, Idlib, southern
> and western Aleppo province, northern Hama and Latakia) are part of
> the National Front for Liberation (NFL) coalition, which includes the
> Free Idlib Army, which is 

Re: [Marxism] Stop blaming workers for Trump?s right-wing authoritarianism | Anita Waters | People's World

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Without commenting on the psychological aspects of this article, I will comment 
on another aspect: The widely reported studies that show that the income 
bracket for Trump voters tends to be higher than that for Clinton voters. 
Supposedly, this shows that workers did not support Trump. This is an example 
of how statistics can be so misused.

In the first place, the $50,000 cutoff bracket proves nothing whatsoever. There 
are millions of workers who make well over that. Likewise, there are petit 
bourgeois who make less.

Second, regardless of where one sets the bracket, this is a perfect example of 
how statistics can misrepresent a general phenomenon. That’s because the 
overwhelming majority of black and also of Latino voters voted for Clinton, and 
their incomes tend to be way lower than white incomes. So, the class 
differentiation is mixed with the racial/ethnic differentiation.

Nor is it just low wage white workers in the South who voted for Trump. I’ve 
discussed both online and in person with white construction workers - union 
workers - who voted for Trump and who support him to this day.

Let’s face it, nearly 75 years of tamping down class consciousness, of 
struggling to ostracize working class militants within the unions, of 
struggling to eliminate (as nearly as possible) the best fighting traditions of 
the labor movement — this has had an effect on the consciousness of millions of 
US workers. No, I’m not saying that the US working class is not the potentially 
revolutionary force in US society. But there are deep problems and confusions - 
to which the Workers World has contributed! To start to fix a problem, we first 
have to recognize it.

John Reimann

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[Marxism] The looming massacre in Idlib | SocialistWorker.org

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://socialistworker.org/2018/09/14/the-looming-massacre-in-idlib
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Re: [Marxism] Stop blaming workers for Trump?s right-wing authoritarianism | Anita Waters | People's World

[Jason via Marxism]

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I agree with John on this in general. When I see things like "Stop blaming
workers for Trump" what I see is "I want to really think about what's
happening in the world."

"Of course," if some comfortable middle class liberal is blaming "workers"
for Trump, that's stupid, but analysis that focused on rebutting what a few
liberals that lack influence think is not really an analysis.

On Fri, Sep 14, 2018 at 5:45 AM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> *
>
> Without commenting on the psychological aspects of this article, I will
> comment on another aspect: The widely reported studies that show that the
> income bracket for Trump voters tends to be higher than that for Clinton
> voters. Supposedly, this shows that workers did not support Trump. This is
> an example of how statistics can be so misused.
>
> In the first place, the $50,000 cutoff bracket proves nothing whatsoever.
> There are millions of workers who make well over that. Likewise, there are
> petit bourgeois who make less.
>
> Second, regardless of where one sets the bracket, this is a perfect
> example of how statistics can misrepresent a general phenomenon. That’s
> because the overwhelming majority of black and also of Latino voters voted
> for Clinton, and their incomes tend to be way lower than white incomes. So,
> the class differentiation is mixed with the racial/ethnic differentiation.
>
> Nor is it just low wage white workers in the South who voted for Trump.
> I’ve discussed both online and in person with white construction workers -
> union workers - who voted for Trump and who support him to this day.
>
> Let’s face it, nearly 75 years of tamping down class consciousness, of
> struggling to ostracize working class militants within the unions, of
> struggling to eliminate (as nearly as possible) the best fighting
> traditions of the labor movement — this has had an effect on the
> consciousness of millions of US workers. No, I’m not saying that the US
> working class is not the potentially revolutionary force in US society. But
> there are deep problems and confusions - to which the Workers World has
> contributed! To start to fix a problem, we first have to recognize it.
>
> John Reimann
>
> Sent from my iPad
> _
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[Marxism] Query

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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An Iranian leftist got in touch with me a few days ago:

My proposal for PhD is going to be around either the cultural ideology 
of Neoliberalism, or a critical historical inquiry of the roots of

Americanization. Is there any specific institution you may recommend to
me (without the United States, because as you now, your Russian
president has banned us from that sacred soil!) or a particular
professor with a strong critical attitude, with which I can pursue my
education?

---

Since I don't have much familiarity with European universities, I'd 
appreciate getting recommendations from British comrades or those from 
other countries where there are universities with classes given in 
English. Email me: l...@panix.com.

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[Marxism] French Soldiers Tortured Algerians, Macron Admits 6 Decades Later

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Sept. 14, 2018
French Soldiers Tortured Algerians, Macron Admits 6 Decades Later
By Adam Nossiter

PARIS — One of the ugliest unsolved crimes of France’s long-ago, 
quasi-colonial war in Algeria was finally laid to rest on Thursday, as 
President Emmanuel Macron recognized that the French Army had tortured 
and killed a youthful antiwar intellectual in 1957.


The death in custody of Maurice Audin, a 25-year-old mathematician, has 
for decades been a symbol of the French Army’s brutality during the 
Algerian War, much as the My Lai massacre became for the United States’ 
war in Vietnam. But unlike My Lai, which led to prosecutions, the Audin 
affair was never investigated.


There have been books, films and furtive late-life declarations by aging 
officers, but the mystery has never been solved. And until now, France 
had never admitted that it used torture in Algeria.


For 61 years, Mr. Audin’s widow, Josette has battled the French state to 
have her husband’s killing recognized as the murderous work of military 
torturers during a critical phase of the Algerian War.


On Thursday, Mr. Macron took responsibility for it, officially 
acknowledging for the first time the widespread use of torture by French 
forces in Algeria.


“It’s really a big, historic turning point for the history of France,” 
said Benjamin Stora, a leading historian of France’s relationship with 
Algeria. “It’s much bigger than the case of Maurice Audin. Macron spoke 
of a system that allowed torture, violence, crimes — a direct 
responsibility of the state. The case of Audin was emblematic, but this 
touches the whole history of colonization.”


Official France has had a complicated relationship with its recent past. 
It took decades for the French state to acknowledge its responsibility 
for collaborating with the Nazis in the genocide of the Jews during 
World War II, long after historians had made it irrefutably clear.


The Algerian War remains highly sensitive, as many veterans are still 
alive, as are millions of former French residents of Algeria and their 
children, the so-called “pieds noirs.” French politicians have trod 
gingerly.


As president, Nicolas Sarkozy never answered a 2007 letter from Ms. 
Audin demanding that the mystery of her husband’s death finally be 
unveiled. Mr. Macron himself created a ruckus during the 2017 
presidential campaign when he said, in a visit to Algiers, that French 
colonialism had been a “crime against humanity.”


Several historians compared Mr. Macron’s new declaration on torture in 
Algeria — he said the mathematician’s death was the result of a “legally 
established system” — to the 1995 speech by then-President Jacques 
Chirac taking French responsibility for a major roundup of Jews in 1942, 
the “Vel d’Hiv” roundup.


“The comparison is valid,” said the historian Raphaëlle Branche, who has 
written about the French Army’s use of torture during the Algerian War. 
“They both took as their jumping-off point a particular case to then 
speak of a global responsibility.”


Mr. Macron’s words were “extremely strong,” she said. “An official 
declaration recognizing that crimes were committed in Algeria is very 
important.”


The French president said he “recognized, in the name of the French 
Republic, that Maurice Audin was tortured and then executed, or tortured 
to death, by soldiers who arrested him at his home.” On Thursday he went 
to the home of Ms. Audin, now 87, in the Paris suburb of Bagnolet, 
hugged her and asked for forgiveness.


Mr. Audin was a reputedly brilliant professor at the Sciences University 
of Algiers, a communist who went to antiwar rallies but was not 
implicated in any violent acts of resistance. Late on the night of June 
11, 1957, when the city was in the throes of what became known as the 
Battle of Algiers, a struggle between French soldiers and Algerian 
independence fighters, French paratroopers burst into the Audin family’s 
apartment.


As Ms. Audin watched, the soldiers marched her husband down the stairs. 
He shouted, “Look after the children,” in reference to the couple’s 
three young children. She never saw him again.


Officially, the French Army insisted that Mr. Audin had run away while 
being transferred. But his body never turned up, and within a month his 
wife pursued a court case alleging murder. In 1958, the French classical 
historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet published a bombshell book with witness 
accounts of the young mathematician being tortured at the notorious 
El-Biar prison in Algiers. But amnesty laws and court judgments stifled 
any change in the story.


“You never stopped trying to have the truth 

Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)

[RKOB via Marxism]

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But comrade, look, your arguments lack inner logic.

We agree that has been no or very little violence in the "Rojava 
Revolution" but very much violence in the Syrian Revolution.


Your explanation for this is: "Presumably the soldiers had no desire to 
die for Assad. Hence they surrendered."


If that would be the explanation, one has to ask: why did the Assadist 
soldiers have "no desire to die for Assad" in Rojava but, presumable, 
had "very much desire to die for Assad" in the rest of the country?!


You say: "Its troop strength in Rojava had been reduced". But WHY had 
Assads troop strength in Rojava been reduced? WHY did Assad not put 
enough military troops to Rojava but very many to the other parts of the 
country?! If Assads relations with the YPG would have been as bad as 
with the FSA et al, he would have fought for control over the Kurdish 
North of the country. But he did not.


No, comrade, your explanation simply lack any logic. It is obvious that 
Assad always viewed the YPG as a qualitative lesser evil than the Syrian 
Revolution and that his regime agreed in summer 2012 about handing over 
this part of the country to the YPG. For that reason they have not too 
much difficulties now to negotiate again.



Am 14.09.2018 um 12:14 schrieb Chris Slee:

It is incorrect to say that "not a single shot [was] fired" in the July 2012 
Rojava uprising.  There was some small-scale armed conflict in Derik and Afrin.

But it is true that opposition to the uprising was limited.  This was because 
the Assadist army was fully occupied with the rebellion elsewhere in Syria.  
Its troop strength in Rojava had been reduced.  Presumably the soldiers had no 
desire to die for Assad.  Hence they surrendered.

Regarding the events in the rest of the country, I said in my article that there was a 
"popular uprising against the brutal dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad". However 
Turkey and the Gulf states armed and funded reactionary rebel groups.  This had the 
effect of, over time, changing the nature of the rebellion.

Chris Slee





From: Marxism  on behalf of RKOB via Marxism 

Sent: Friday, 14 September 2018 4:51 PM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish 
occupation (Green Left Weekly)

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Let us leave aside our ideological differences for a moment and focus on
simple facts.

How do you explain that the regime fights with all its brutal might
against the uprising people in Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa etc. and
kills tens of thousands (or more) in 2011-12. But when there is an
uprising in "Rojava", not a single shot is fired and the Assadist
military just withdraws! You can not seriously claim that Assad had
become a pacifist!

So how can you call the events in "Rojava" a "revolution" and support it
but the events in the rest of country not?!





--
Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
(Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net)
www.rkob.net
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Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314



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[Marxism] From CO2 to Methane, Trump’s Hurricane of Destruction

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/14/from-co2-to-methane-trumps-hurricane-of-destruction/
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Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Let us leave aside our ideological differences for a moment and focus on 
simple facts.


How do you explain that the regime fights with all its brutal might 
against the uprising people in Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa etc. and 
kills tens of thousands (or more) in 2011-12. But when there is an 
uprising in "Rojava", not a single shot is fired and the Assadist 
military just withdraws! You can not seriously claim that Assad had 
become a pacifist!


So how can you call the events in "Rojava" a "revolution" and support it 
but the events in the rest of country not?!



Am 14.09.2018 um 04:32 schrieb Nick Fredman via Marxism:

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The Revolution in Rojava book including its account of the uprising is
based on over 150 interviews within Rojava. The account of the uprising is
also based on reports from a Vice News team which reported from Rojava a
week after the uprising. The accounts of a deal with Assad all seem to come
from keyboard warriors in the US and Europe with no direct evidence of any
deals. You can disagree with the analysis of the authors or the positions
of the Apoist movement, fine, but smart-arse sneers about Bookhin don’t
really justify continued casual slanders made with little to no evidence of
fellow socialists over being handed Rojava for free, deals with Assad,
being armed by Assad, “ethnic cleansing” and the rest.

On Fri, 14 Sep 2018 at 11:43 am, Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:


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Extract from "Revolution in Rojava", p. 54:

'The Revolution begins in Kobani

'At 1 a.m. on the night of July 18-19, 2012, the YPG took control of the
roads leading in and out of Kobani city.  Inside the city, the majority of
the people, who supported the MGRK [Peoples Council of West Kurdistan],
occupied the state institutions.  "We had marked which buildings we should
take over", recalled Pelda Kobani, who participated that night, "which ones
were useful for the people, even bakeries" The people then assembled at the
regime army's strongpoint in Kobani, and a delegation informed the regime
soldiers, "if you give up your weapons, your security will be guaranteed".
The soldiers looked out over the mass of people, and seeing that they had
no alternative, they agreed; some returned to their families in the Arab
cities, while others preferred to remain in Kobani because they had lived
there for forty years.

'The state had no substantial military force", said Hanife Hisen.  "We
surrounded them...and they surrendered.  The regime could't send them any
reinforcements.  We didn't turn a single soldier over to the regime - we
just talked to them and called their families to come pick them up.  The
ones who wanted to join the FSA, we let them go to Turkey".  Heval Amer
points out that when the regime troops left, "we didn't let them take their
weapons.  So they left behind many, even heavy weapons".  Because the
liberation was bloodless, Hisen recalled, "people said the regime had
turned the weapons over to us.  But it's a lie".'



From: Marxism  on behalf of Chris
Slee via Marxism 
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2018 3:04:04 PM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists
Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)

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My source is the book "Revolution in Rojava", by Michael Knapp, Anja Flack
and Ercan Ayboga (Pluto Press 2016), p. 54-56.


They based their report mainly on interviews with people who participated
in these events.


Chris Slee



From: Marxism  on behalf of Louis
Proyect via Marxism 
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2018 10:37 AM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists
Turkish 

Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish occupation (Green Left Weekly)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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It is incorrect to say that "not a single shot [was] fired" in the July 2012 
Rojava uprising.  There was some small-scale armed conflict in Derik and Afrin.

But it is true that opposition to the uprising was limited.  This was because 
the Assadist army was fully occupied with the rebellion elsewhere in Syria.  
Its troop strength in Rojava had been reduced.  Presumably the soldiers had no 
desire to die for Assad.  Hence they surrendered.

Regarding the events in the rest of the country, I said in my article that 
there was a "popular uprising against the brutal dictatorship of Bashar 
al-Assad". However Turkey and the Gulf states armed and funded reactionary 
rebel groups.  This had the effect of, over time, changing the nature of the 
rebellion.

Chris Slee





From: Marxism  on behalf of RKOB via 
Marxism 
Sent: Friday, 14 September 2018 4:51 PM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Syria: Assad threatens Idlib while Afrin resists Turkish 
occupation (Green Left Weekly)

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Let us leave aside our ideological differences for a moment and focus on
simple facts.

How do you explain that the regime fights with all its brutal might
against the uprising people in Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa etc. and
kills tens of thousands (or more) in 2011-12. But when there is an
uprising in "Rojava", not a single shot is fired and the Assadist
military just withdraws! You can not seriously claim that Assad had
become a pacifist!

So how can you call the events in "Rojava" a "revolution" and support it
but the events in the rest of country not?!



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