[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] [UCE] Families of executed IRA Volunteers on Sinn Fein and the Police Service

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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*On March 3, 1991, pro-British terrorists of the Ulster Volunteer Force
attacked people drinking at Boyle’s Bar in the village of Cappagh in the
six counties (“Northern Ireland”).They shot dead four people, three of
whom were IRA members (Cappagh is a staunchly republican village).  Tommy
O’Sullivan (51) was the civilian and was in the bar; John Quinn (23),
Malcolm Nugent (20) and Dwayne O’Donnell (17) were the IRA Volunteers, who
were shot in a car arriving in the car park.  Local IRA leader Brian
Arthurs survived as patrons barricaded the doors when they heard shooting
outside.  This was one of the many occasions in which loyalist killers
collaborated with state forces.  The following statement has been released
by representatives of the families of the Cappagh Victims have released
this statement, as Sinn Fein has been embracing the Police Service of
Northern Ireland (PSNI), which is riddled with people involved in
collaboration with loyalist killers and is integral to the whole repressive
apparatus of the British state in the occupied part of Ireland. – P.F. *

*Statement by Representatives of Families of Cappagh Victims*

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[Marxism] 2019 Corona Virus: No to the Anti-Chinese Chauvinism in South Korea!

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Joint Statement with South Korean revolutionaries

English: 
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/2019-corona-virus-no-to-the-anti-chinese-chauvinism-in-south-korea/


Korean: 
https://www.thecommunists.net/home/%ED%95%9C%EA%B5%AD%EC%96%B4/2019-corona-virus-no-to-the-anti-chinese-chauvinism-in-south-korea/



//

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[Marxism] [UCE] We've been down this road before: Jesse Jackson, the Democrats and the left

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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"Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign was more radical than Sanders’ 2016
campaign, despite Jackson himself being a more conservative figure who had
long represented a Black entrepreneurial elite. Amidst a deep social crisis
that afflicted US society and African Americans in particular, Jackson was
catapulted to prominence by a powerful revolt against Reagan’s pro-war,
austerity policies. Jackson’s radical rhetoric was augmented by a loyal
band of followers. A large section of the left, principally Maoists and
ex-Maoists with origins in the New Left, provided not only foot soldiers
but skilled organisers with roots in Asian and Chicano communities, and in
anti-racist, anti-war, and women’s, lesbian and gay liberation movements.
The Rainbow Coalition was a pole of attraction to a fragmented left that
hoped to build a beachhead inside the Democrats and a base from which to
organise outside the Democrats.

By 1989, this project was in disarray. The mass anti-war and
anti-intervention rallies of the early 1980s were no more. Working class
resistance to the Reagan offensive and employers’ assault on living
standards had dissipated. Groups such as the League of Revolutionary
Socialists made peace with the Democrat machine and wound up any public
profile. Others withdrew from the Rainbow, but, demoralised, lacked any
capacity to rebuild a left on the outside.

The Jackson/Rainbow campaigns provide valuable lessons for those looking to
Bernie Sanders today. Firstly, the claim that it was possible to build
“independent politics” through the structures of the Rainbow proved to be a
myth. The Democratic Party will tolerate such efforts so long as they can
enlist new voters in Democrat caucuses and expand the party’s voter base.
However, the rationale for the Rainbow was to secure Jackson’s electoral
victory in the primaries. So long as the Rainbow Left worked towards that
end they were tolerated – even welcomed – within the Rainbow. Once the
Rainbow Left had served its purpose, it was cast aside. Having been locked
into the Democrats for five years, the Rainbow Left found itself locked out.

Secondly, the idea that the Rainbow could serve as a means to bring about a
realignment in US politics, either inside or outside the Democrats, was
mistaken. US politics was moving sharply to the right. Reagan was the front
man for neoliberalism, but Democrats such as Walter Mondale and Gary Hart
were willing accomplices. The Democrats’ rightward lurch, which began
before Reagan’s ascendency and continued in the 1990s under Clinton, was
driven by the declining profitability of US capitalism. Whereas Roosevelt’s
New Deal and Kennedy’s Great Society programs implemented a reform package
in response to the demands of the union and civil rights movements, the
Democrats could no longer accede to such demands while simultaneously
meeting the demands of big business. Moreover, the US ruling class had
forged a consensus that to maintain its imperial hegemony, it needed to
embark on a massive armaments program that could ensure its victory in the
Cold War.

Thirdly, the strategy pursued by the Rainbow Left, despite protestations to
the contrary, was fundamentally electoralist. While NCM groups shared an
analysis that the Democratic Party was a capitalist party that couldn’t be
reformed, a consensus also emerged that their decade-long engagement with
struggles of workers and the oppressed needed to be complemented by
electoral work that could win a larger audience for socialist ideas. For
some, electoral work came to be redefined as a form of “mass” work.
However, for the vast majority of Democrats, whether politicians or
volunteers, they are in it to win. They are not in it for mass organising
or left propaganda. Nor are they in it to disseminate arguments for
building a new party outside the Democrats.

A successful strategy for winning elections differs fundamentally from one
that can win strikes or build militant mass actions. Whereas strikes and
protest actions are directed at an opposing party and are manifestations of
class struggle and conflict, elections are a means to winning a vote from
the largest possible audience. The former involves taking risks, making
sacrifices and challenging the economic and political establishment; the
latter involves getting as many supporters as possible out to vote. Within
the time frame of an election and the rules of the game, an election
campaign by itself cannot transform mass consciousness. It can only relate
to existing consciousness. Inevitably, this requires adapting your
electoral platform to the prevailing mood of the electorate.

Roosevelt’s New Deal and Kennedy’s Great Soc

Re: [Marxism] A party of the left and historical materialism

[Anthony Boynton via Marxism]

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(In response to John Reiman's comments)

Historical materialism, in my view, means studying the real material
movement and development of human society, and continuous abstracting out
of that study the essential movement of society. This is the opposite of
taking a dead abstraction from some book, even some great books by some
great writers, and trying to impose it as a schema on living, breathing,
human history.

I think Marx's abstraction from history that the working class is the
revolutionary class in capitalist society remains valid today, but the
working class of the United States is fragmented by race, gender, region,
citizenship status, and a dozen other major impediments to uniting itself.

The vast majority of workers in the United States are not organized, not
even into unions. The really existing working class is not a class for
itself, and it is not even conscious that it is a class.

How can it achieve class consciousness? Well, part of that answer is
through the class struggle, even through the fragments of that struggle
like what we have seen in Black Lives Matter, Me-Too, the immigrant rights
movement, the various anti-war movements, and even the trade union
movement. All of these are fragmented parts of the working class struggle,
even when they are initiated and led by petty bourgeois individuals. The
student movement, which is showing some signs of life again in the United
States, is today also basically a working class movement (even if they are
mostly working class youth who would like to exit their own class.)

The other part of that answer lies in the activity of people on this list,
and others, who are part of the vanguard of human social consciousness.
True, we are not organized into anything that  could or should be called a
"vanguard party" (although some of us are members of hopelessly and
ridiculously deluded self-important sects), but we are nevertheless part of
that vanguard.

Historically, working class parties, and all revolutionary parties, start
out as parties of the conscious minority...the vanguard. Right now, most of
the people likely to be part of the vanguard of the next five to ten years
are out campaigning for Bernie Sanders.

Should we join them?

No. We should warn them about the wall they are going to hit, and offer
them another course of action for the time they pick themselves up, dust
themselves off, and start looking for a better way to fight.

That is historical materialism in my book, and I am pretty sure Marx,
Engels and the revolutionaries who followed after them would agree with me.

Anthony
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[Marxism] Fwd: THE ANTI-BLACKLIST COMMUNITY LOSES TWO TITANS

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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 Forwarded Message 
Subject:THE ANTI-BLACKLIST COMMUNITY LOSES TWO TITANS
Date:   Thu, 6 Feb 2020 16:38:05 -0800
From:   ed rampell <70holl...@gmail.com>



Dear Friends,

The Anti-Blacklist/HUAC/McCarthyism community and free speech champions 
everywhere have lost two of our historic giants. It has been widely 
reported that actor/producer *KIRK DOUGLAS* passed away at the age of 
103. It is gratifying that news reports have noted that Kirk played an 
important, courageous role in breaking the Hollywood Blacklist and cited 
1960’s /Spartacus /as probably his most iconic role.


As you likely know, it was with that epic movie that Kirk helped end the 
Blacklist by allowing screenwriter *DALTON TRUMBO*, one of the 
*HOLLYWOOD TEN *- who’d been banned from (openly) making movies since 
1947 - to publicly have screen credit. Just as *OTTO PREMINGER *bravely 
did that same year, for the Trumbo-scripted /Exodus/.


But what hasn’t been reported and you may not know is the significant 
role that Kirk and the Douglas family personally played in the 70^th 
Anniversary Commemoration of the Hollywood Blacklist held Oct. 27, 2017 
- the exact 70^th anniversary to the day when the first member of the 
Hollywood Ten, *JOHN HOWARD LAWSON*, testified before the House 
Un-American Activities Committee on Oct. 27, 1947. Kirk wrote a personal 
message for the Commemoration, that was read by his granddaughter, 
*KELSEY DOUGLAS*, to the almost 500 people gathered together to pay 
tribute to those persecuted by - and who resisted - the Tinseltown 
Inquisition. By doing so, Kirk, Kelsey and their team helped make the 
sold out event at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills, 
that went on to be repeatedly broadcast on nationwide TV, a huge success.


For that, we are eternally grateful to the Douglas family. I personally 
had the pleasure and honor of briefly meeting Kirk once with his wife 
*ANNE* at UCLA during the LA Times Festival of Books. I had the presence 
of mind to tell this legendary actor that he’d actually played his 
greatest role offscreen - by helping to break the Hollywood Blacklist. 
I’m also thankful that Kirk autographed a copy of his book /I Am 
Spartacus /for me.


The other giant the Anti-Blacklist/HUAC/McCarthyism community and First 
Amendment stalwarts lost this week is *LILA GARRETT*, who died Feb. 1 at 
age 94. Lila was reportedly the role model for *BARBRA STREISAND’S 
*character Katie Morosky, the fiery organizer in the 1973 movie /The Way 
We Were/, which of course dealt in part with the Hollywood Blacklist. 
Lila’s screen credits include /My Favorite Martian/, /Bewitched/, /The 
Addams Family/, /Get Smart /and many other productions. Lila became a 
fixture on the progressive radio scene, hosting the early Monday morning 
/Connect the Dots /program on L.A.’s Pacifica station, KPFK, 90.7 FM. 
Lila was also President of the L.A. Chapter of Americans for Democratic 
Action, and was the mother of casting director/actor *ELIZA ROBERTS*, 
married to actor *ERIC ROBERTS*.


The fact that both Kirk and Lila lived such long lives made me reflect 
on longevity, and I remembered something the blacklisted screenwriter 
*ROBERT LEES*, who lived to be more than 90, once told me during an 
interview. “Bobby” was earning $1,500 per week writing Abbott and 
Costello, et al, comedies, when HUAC subpoenaed him to testify, but he 
refused to save his lucrative career by becoming a fink. Bobby told me 
his secret to living to a ripe old age was:


“The fact that I didn’t betray my friends makes long life that much 
nicer to live… I’ve nothing to hate myself for. Thank god I did what I 
did [not informing]. You could even laugh at the blacklist; it was an 
adventure.”


Our sincerest condolences to the Garrett and Douglas families. Kirk 
Douglas and Lila Garrett will be remembered at the 70^th Anniversary 
Commemoration of the imprisonment of Dalton Trumbo and John Howard 
Lawson, followed by the incarceration of the rest of the Hollywood Ten, 
scheduled to take place June 19, 2020 at the Writers Guild of America 
Theater. (Details to be announced soon.)


Until then, the motto of everyone fighting for freedom of speech and 
human rights during these dark days is, to paraphrase Trumbo: 
“We’reSpartacus!”


Sincerely,

Ed Rampell, Coordinator Hollywood Blacklist 70th Anniversary Cinema Series

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Re: [Marxism] I t?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 2/6/20 7:00 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote:


https://www.labornotes.org/2020/02/teacher-strikes-boost-fight-racial-justice-schools
  Teacher Strikes Boost Fight for Racial Justice in Schools



First of all, Andrew and other comrades as well, you need to clip 
extraneous text just as you are reminded in every email.


Secondly, I specifically referred to workers getting involved in 
political struggles outside their bailiwick. The article above 
demonstrates that teachers oppose racism in their schools but I am not 
sure this is a sign that a proletarian socialist party is on the 
horizon. Teachers in urban public schools surely are confronted by 
"segregation, underfunding, and the criminalization of the students they 
teach—problems that hit Black and Latino students hardest." To do their 
job properly, they have to tackle broader questions to be sure. However, 
the indication is that the "vanguard" of the teachers nationwide favor 
Bernie Sanders for President, a logical choice given the state of the 
class struggle. Making a leap between that and launching a new party 
does not necessarily follow.

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Re: [Marxism] I t?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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https://www.labornotes.org/2020/02/teacher-strikes-boost-fight-racial-justice-schools
 Teacher Strikes Boost Fight for Racial Justice in Schools



On Thu, Feb 6, 2020 at 2:58 PM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> On 2/6/20 2:41 PM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:
> > It was just last spring that hundreds of carpenters - mainly apprentices
> -
> > rallied against a sellout contract in New York. There was even a campaign
> > towards a wildcat strike (which didn't get off the ground). Prior to
> that,
> > thousands of construction workers actually shut down central streets in
> > Manhattan in protest against a major nonunion construction project.
> >
> > In 1999, 2,000 carpenters did go on a wildcat strike in the SF Bay Area.
>
> There are strikes and there are strikes. When these carpenters get the
> wage they rightfully deserve, they will go back to the atomized
> existence that characterizes all of the blue collar/factory workers in
> the USA. When I see carpenters showing up at protests against ICE or at
> a cops out of the subways protest under their own union banner, I'll sit
> up and pay attention.
>
> What are the teachers doing now who were on a wildcat strike that Eric
> Blanc wrote a book about? Any sign of them doing anything except going
> to work each day and then returning home to look after family affairs?
>
> I am afraid John is susceptible to what Freud called projection, even
> though I generally have little use for his theories. As a young college
> student, just like most people who hooked up with Labor Notes, et al,
> John was radicalized by the war in Vietnam, read Karl Marx, and
> concluded that only the working class can lead the USA to socialism.
>
> Unfortunately, most carpenters don't travel that road. Just go out to
> Queens or New Jersey and find a bar where they hang out after work. See
> if you can get them interested in helping to launch a new party of the
> working-class. Don't blame me if they look at you as if you have
> two-heads. Not to speak of losing some teeth.
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[Marxism] OPCW Director-General repudiates Ian Henderson and "Alex"

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/2020/02/OPCW%20Director-General%E2%80%99s%20Statement%20on%20the%20Report%20of%20the%20Investigation%20into%20Possible%20Breaches%20of%20Confidentiality.pdf
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[Marxism] Moderator's note

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 2/6/20 2:34 PM, Andrew Stewart via Marxism wrote:


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Best regards,
Andrew Stewart
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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Why Hollywood Sucks: Sci-Fi Nightmares ‘Starship Troopers’ & ‘Children of Men’ Came True! | Washington Babylon

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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[Marxism] surprise election results in eastern Germany

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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From a reporter in eastern Germany:
Dear readers, yesterday there was a big bang in the German state of
Thuringia, which dominates all the news today. To tell the whole story, I
have to go into the background.

DIE LINKE had ruled in Thuringia for four years with the support of the SPD
and the Greens, and Bodo Ramelow was the first German prime minister of the
DIE LINKE party.
https://oaklandsocialist.com/2020/02/06/shock-in-provincial-german-elections/

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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Re: [Marxism] I t?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 2/6/20 2:41 PM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:

It was just last spring that hundreds of carpenters - mainly apprentices -
rallied against a sellout contract in New York. There was even a campaign
towards a wildcat strike (which didn't get off the ground). Prior to that,
thousands of construction workers actually shut down central streets in
Manhattan in protest against a major nonunion construction project.

In 1999, 2,000 carpenters did go on a wildcat strike in the SF Bay Area.


There are strikes and there are strikes. When these carpenters get the 
wage they rightfully deserve, they will go back to the atomized 
existence that characterizes all of the blue collar/factory workers in 
the USA. When I see carpenters showing up at protests against ICE or at 
a cops out of the subways protest under their own union banner, I'll sit 
up and pay attention.


What are the teachers doing now who were on a wildcat strike that Eric 
Blanc wrote a book about? Any sign of them doing anything except going 
to work each day and then returning home to look after family affairs?


I am afraid John is susceptible to what Freud called projection, even 
though I generally have little use for his theories. As a young college 
student, just like most people who hooked up with Labor Notes, et al, 
John was radicalized by the war in Vietnam, read Karl Marx, and 
concluded that only the working class can lead the USA to socialism.


Unfortunately, most carpenters don't travel that road. Just go out to 
Queens or New Jersey and find a bar where they hang out after work. See 
if you can get them interested in helping to launch a new party of the 
working-class. Don't blame me if they look at you as if you have 
two-heads. Not to speak of losing some teeth.

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Re: [Marxism] I t?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Louis makes several mistakes as well as unwarranted assumptions. He writes:
"In my entire life on the left, no
significant motion has been detected by construction workers except
maybe on May 8, 1970, in New York City when about 200 construction
workers were mobilized by the New York State AFL-CIO to attack some
1,000 college and high school students and others who were protesting
the Vietnam War."

It was just last spring that hundreds of carpenters - mainly apprentices -
rallied against a sellout contract in New York. There was even a campaign
towards a wildcat strike (which didn't get off the ground). Prior to that,
thousands of construction workers actually shut down central streets in
Manhattan in protest against a major nonunion construction project.

In 1999, 2,000 carpenters did go on a wildcat strike in the SF Bay Area.

And back in the early 1980s, my local passed a resolution in favor of a
labor party and authorized me to hold regular meetings of the Bay Area
Coalition for a Labor Party in our hall.

None of this means that carpenters, and construction workers in general,
will be in the lead of a movement to build a working class party, nor that
they will even be in the lead of a working class resurgence in general. Nor
does it even mean that blue collar workers will be in the lead. Hopefully,
Louis would agree with me that the US working class is composed of much
more than blue collar, manual workers. But Louis is simply much too
categorical in what he wrote.

It could be argued that these struggles I mention were just workers
fighting for their own narrow interests. Yes, in a way that's true. But who
among us would argue that it isn't out of exactly these struggles over
immediate interests that a wider, and more political struggle can develop?

Louis also writes: "John writes these things out of a deeply felt need to
be authentic." I'm glad he's a mind reader.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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Re: [Marxism] t?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party | Left Voice

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 2/6/20 1:41 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
I remember coming back from Albany in 2001 after a weekend I spent with 
my wife-to-be who was a graduate student. Across the aisle from me were 
4 guys whose conversation I eavesdropped on. They were all working for 
UPS and all they could talk about between Albany and NYC was whether he 
would run again in 2004. He was their guy.


I neglected to mention that their guy was Ralph Nader.
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[Marxism] These southern Utah sites were once off-limits to development. Now, Trump will auction the right to drill and graze there.

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Washington Post, Feb. 6, 2020
These southern Utah sites were once off-limits to development. Now, 
Trump will auction the right to drill and graze there.

By Sarah Kaplan and Juliet Eilperin

The Interior Department finalized plans Thursday that will permit 
drilling, mining and grazing in areas of southern Utah that had once 
been protected as two national monuments, sparking an outcry from tribal 
groups and conservationists.


The decision comes more than two years after Trump dramatically cut the 
size of the monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, and is 
likely to intensify a legal fight over the contested sites.


The expanses of wind-swept badlands, narrow slot canyons and towering 
rock formations are sacred to several Native American nations and prized 
by scientists and outdoor enthusiasts. Bears Ears contains tens of 
thousands of cultural artifacts and rare rock art. In the rock layers of 
Grand Staircase, researchers have unearthed 75 million-year-old dinosaur 
fossils.


But the lands also harbor significant amounts of oil, gas and coal the 
administration hopes to develop, as well as grazing land valued by local 
ranchers. Under the plan that went into effect Thursday, those areas are 
open to new mining claims and other kinds of development.


Officials from the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service who 
manage the lands have said the new plans balance the region’s economic 
interests against the need to safeguard natural and cultural wonders. 
Casey Hammond, the Interior Department’s acting assistant secretary for 
land and minerals management, noted that the areas excluded from 
monuments are still protected by federal environmental laws.


“We are advancing our goal to restore trust and be a good neighbor,” 
Hammond said Thursday.


The decision to overhaul what activities are permitted on large swaths 
of federal land in southern Utah comes as the Bureau of Land Management 
is eyeing much bigger changes to how it manages 245 million acres of 
public land across the country and the minerals buried underneath them.


In a letter obtained last month by The Washington Post, the BLM’s top 
Alaska official informed tribes that the agency is considering revamping 
how it writes its resource management plans to make it easier to log and 
extract energy from lands it oversees. The proposal aims to streamline 
environmental reviews, Chad Padgett wrote, to save taxpayer money and be 
more responsive to local needs.


Trump shrank this national monument to spur a mining boom. But will 
those lost protections yield real profits?


The 1906 Antiquities Act empowers a president to protect public lands of 
archaeological significance. President Bill Clinton first designated 
Grand Staircase-Escalante a national monument in 1996. President Barack 
Obama designated Bears Ears a national monument 20 years later.


Since the Interior Department redrew the monuments’ boundaries, Grand 
Staircase is half its former size and Bears Ears has shrunk by 85 percent.


A coalition of groups sued the administration immediately after 
President Trump announced the new boundaries. They argue that the act 
does not give a president the authority to revoke their predecessors’ 
national monument designations.


The Justice Department last year sought to have the two lawsuits 
dismissed, but a federal judge denied the motions and the cases are pending.


Several plaintiffs roundly criticized the administration for moving 
forward with management plans while the cases were still in court. But 
Hammond said Thursday that the Interior Department would not delay its 
decision to match a slow-moving legal process.


“If we stopped and waited for every piece of litigation to be resolved, 
we would never be able to do much of anything around here,” he said.


In developing the plan for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, Hammond said, 
the BLM consulted with Native American tribes and considered thousands 
of public comments.


But representatives from Utah Dine Bikeyah, a non-profit that led tribal 
efforts to secure protection for Bears Ears and is a lead plaintiff on 
the monuments lawsuits, called BLM’s outreach to tribes “insufficient.”


“We still have no idea why they removed protection from so many cultural 
resources,” said Gavin Noyes, the group’s executive director.


“The Trump administration ... built their plans on an unlawful 
foundation,” said Heidi McIntosh, managing attorney of the Rocky 
Mountain office of the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice. Her 
group is also party to the monuments lawsuit.


“This headlong spree to open up monument lands to extractive industries 
an

Re: [Marxism] t?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party | Left Voice

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 2/6/20 1:09 PM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote


It seems to me that this whole discussion is based on idealism rather than
historical materialism.

Different parties are based on different classes. In other words, a
material force. A new party of any significance in the US will be based on
a movement of the working class. That is what it will arise from. Instead
of considering how such a movement can develop and how it could lead to the
creation of a working class party, what we have is simply a replay of the
call of Socialist Alternative for a "new left party". In other words,
abandoning a class view of politics and instead adopting a view that we
socialists can build a party based on our ideas.


It depends on what you mean by the working class. You were a carpenter 
by trade before you retired. In my entire life on the left, no 
significant motion has been detected by construction workers except 
maybe on May 8, 1970, in New York City when about 200 construction 
workers were mobilized by the New York State AFL-CIO to attack some 
1,000 college and high school students and others who were protesting 
the Vietnam War.


Don't forget that many people on this list have been through the process 
of "colonizing" factories. I did it myself as a spot welder in 1978 and 
all I needed was one morning to realize that SWP leader Frank Lovell was 
bullshitting us when he said that there was a deeper working class 
radicalization going on back then than at any time in the 20th century.


It is about time we stopped with the "proletarian orientation" that 
looks for every little disturbance, like the workers who occupied 
Republic Windows and Doors in 2008. You'd think that the USA was 
Argentina from the feverish coverage in the Leninist press.


Except for the civil rights movement, all of the major movements in the 
USA since the time I was an undergraduate have been spearheaded by 
students or what Jack Barnes dismissed as "petty bourgeois". It was an 
engineer and unicycle rider named Ben Linder who went to Nicaragua in 
solidarity, not construction workers. In fact, the construction brigades 
that went to Nicaragua from NYC to build homes were made up of the 
"petty bourgeoisie".


John writes these things out of a deeply felt need to be authentic. 
Maybe in 20 years or so, construction workers, miners, auto workers, and 
teamsters will be ready to build that proletarian party that all of us 
would love to see. But in the meantime, I will back any 3rd party to the 
left of the DP.


I remember coming back from Albany in 2001 after a weekend I spent with 
my wife-to-be who was a graduate student. Across the aisle from me were 
4 guys whose conversation I eavesdropped on. They were all working for 
UPS and all they could talk about between Albany and NYC was whether he 
would run again in 2004. He was their guy.


History does not move in a straight line. I would drop my backing for 
the Green Party in a split second if I saw something developing that had 
anything close to John Reimann's fantasies. But until it materializes, 
I'll stick with real motion--warts and all.








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Re: [Marxism] It’s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party | Left Voice

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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I have read the book WE ARE INDIVISIBLE and believe that the STRUCTURE of
the indivisible movement(s) [plural!] forms the basis of what Mark
describes he tried to do in Ohio --- they are people who meet face to face
regularly --- their job is NOT just to run candidates - though they have
done that for sure -- but to PRESSURE people in office (and that includes
DEMS --- lots of local demonstrations are aimed at FORCING Dems to be more
resistant to the Republican agenda --- I would bet that is the reason the
so-called "moderate" Dems in the Senate voted for impeachment --- they
guessed that a vote against convicting Trump will hurt more than angering
Republicans --- Senator Doug JOnes clearly recognized that he owed his
election to black women and he needs them to tirelessly work for his
re-election if he is to stand a chance ---)

The book ends with a rather high quality democratic (small "d") reform
agenda --- doesn't come close to a truly radical economic and social agenda
but it is a way of channeling energy into something useful ---

I recommend that book highly -- it can be read in almost one sitting!
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Re: [Marxism] t?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party | Left Voice

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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It seems to me that this whole discussion is based on idealism rather than
historical materialism.

Different parties are based on different classes. In other words, a
material force. A new party of any significance in the US will be based on
a movement of the working class. That is what it will arise from. Instead
of considering how such a movement can develop and how it could lead to the
creation of a working class party, what we have is simply a replay of the
call of Socialist Alternative for a "new left party". In other words,
abandoning a class view of politics and instead adopting a view that we
socialists can build a party based on our ideas.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] It?s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside

[Anthony Boynton via Marxism]

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I think that this year is a good time to talk about building a third party
to the left of the Democrats, but it is not the time to actively organize
it. For, now supporting Howie Hawkins as a protest vote, or whoever the
Peace and Freedom Party in California runs, is the least evil option.

However, both the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party have
undemocratic internal structures and leaderships committed to preventing
them from challenging the Democrats or even to running robust slates of
candidates. In other words, neither is likely to be a vehicle for a
resurgence of the left.

However, I think the possibilities for the formation of a third party of
the left are growing rapidly. The Sandernista movement is its unlikely
incubator, but the millions of Sanders activists and voters, mostly young
people, will have to go through the experience of this election and the
hatred and sabotage against their campaign orchestrated by the Democratic
National Committee.

The DNC's failed attempt to steal Iowa from Sanders is a direct
continuation of Hillary Clinton's unprincipled campaign against Sanders in
2016. Does anyone doubt it will continue to escalate this year?

What will the Sanders do if he is robbed of the nomination?

Will he launch a third party himself? I think this is very unlikely, but
not impossible.

What will the Sandernistas do if Sanders is robbed of the nomination, and
then meekly decides to support Butttigieg, Klobuchar, Biden, Bloomberg or
whomever the DNC anoints (Hillary Clinton wouldn't mind the job)?

Will some of them set off on the path of building a third party?

I think that this is the most likely scenario for the emergence of a third
party of the left in the USA.

Of course, there is the very unlikely possibility that the Democrats will
actually nominate Sanders for president. In that case the emergence of such
a party will be off the table in the near term. The "new left" that is now
growing would move deeper into the Democratic Party. It would likely stay
there for at least the following four years if only electoral factors were
at work.

The biggest unknown however, is not in the electoral arena. Mass movements
of the working class lead to the formation of mass working class parties.
This is sort of an ABC of the history of class struggle. In recent years,
we have seen momentary and partial mass movements, immigrant rights, black
lives matter, occupy, Me Too, and even a noticeable revival of trade union
militancy as demonstrated by the ongoing series of teachers' strikes.

What happens on the streets will ultimately determine the possibilities for
forming a viable new party of the left in the United States.

Anthony
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Re: [Marxism] It’s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party | Left Voice

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

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Yeah, what I proposed, repeatedly, as a course of action for the Greens in
Ohio might well be common sense, but it's certainly NOT what advocates of
independent political action do.   If it had been, we'd be in a much
different place than we are today.

The Greens in all but a few states have repeatedly chosen not to do it.
And the leadership in those few states that have tried to build something
(New York and California, for examples) have been fine with a national
party dominated by paper parties.  That's been the case for a quarter of a
century.

And those who don't like the Greens because they don't label themselves as
a class party have accomplished even less.  Every time you hear someone
say, "why should we put anything into the Greens when we could invest in
building a labor party," you know they're not going to actually do
anything.  Most of them I've heard this from for years are currently
cheering spectators in the Democratic stadium.

And the socialists?  Well, they could have kept their own organizations and
acted together electorally.  They could have done this in 2016  or 2004 or
1992.  But not a one of them has taken any initiative on this over the last
fifty years, what chance is there that they're going to respond any
differently over the next decade or so.

There will be no party without new politics based on actually mobilizing
people--an electoral strategy that reflects the kind of movements we want
to build.  It's not being done.  And the corporate "social justice warrior"
model applied to electoral action will accomplish no more permanent gains
in electoral action than in the wider society.

Solidarity!
Mark L.
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[Marxism] Kirk Douglas, a Star of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Dies at 103

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Feb. 6, 2020
Kirk Douglas, a Star of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Dies at 103
By Robert Berkvist

Kirk Douglas, one of the last surviving movie stars from Hollywood’s 
golden age, whose rugged good looks and muscular intensity made him a 
commanding presence in celebrated films like “Lust for Life,” 
“Spartacus” and “Paths of Glory,” died on Wednesday at his home in 
Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 103.


His son the actor Michael Douglas announced the death in a statement on 
his Facebook page.


Mr. Douglas had made a long and difficult recovery from the effects of a 
severe stroke he suffered in 1996. In 2011, cane in hand, he came 
onstage at the Academy Awards ceremony, good-naturedly flirted with the 
co-host Anne Hathaway and jokingly stretched out his presentation of the 
Oscar for best supporting actress.


By then, and even more so as he approached 100 and largely dropped out 
of sight, he was one of the last flickering stars in a Hollywood 
firmament that few in Hollywood’s Kodak Theater on that Oscars evening 
could have known except through viewings of old movies now called 
classics. A vast number filling the hall had not even been born when he 
was at his screen-star peak, the 1950s and ’60s.


But in those years Kirk Douglas was as big a star as there was — a 
member of a pantheon of leading men, among them Burt Lancaster, Gregory 
Peck, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, who rose to fame in the postwar years.


And like the others he was instantly recognizable: the jutting jaw, the 
dimpled chin, the piercing gaze and the breaking voice, the last making 
him irresistible fodder for comedians who specialized in impressions.


Three Movies a Year

In his heyday Mr. Douglas appeared in as many as three movies a year, 
often delivering critically acclaimed performances. In his first 11 
years of film acting, he was nominated three times for the Academy Award 
for best actor.


He was known for manly roles, in westerns, war movies and Roman-era 
spectacles, most notably “Spartacus” (1960). But in 80 movies across a 
half-century he was equally at home on mean city streets, in smoky jazz 
clubs and, as Vincent van Gogh, amid the flowers of Arles in the south 
of France.


Many of his earlier films were forgettable — variations on well-worn 
Hollywood themes — and moviegoers were slow to recognize some of his 
best work. But when he found the right role, he proved he could be very 
good indeed.


Early on he was hailed for his performances as an unprincipled Hollywood 
producer, opposite Lana Turner, in “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952), 
and as van Gogh in “Lust for Life” (1956). Each brought an Oscar nomination.


Where to Stream ‘Spartacus’ and Other Great Kirk Douglas MoviesFeb. 5, 2020

Many critics thought he should have gotten more recognition for his work 
in two films in particular: Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” (1957), 
in which he played a French colonel in World War I trying vainly to 
prevent the execution of three innocent soldiers, and “Lonely Are the 
Brave” (1962), an offbeat western about an aging cowboy.


Early on Mr. Douglas created a niche for himself, specializing in 
characters with a hard edge and something a little unsavory about them. 
His scheming Hollywood producer in “The Bad and the Beautiful” was “a 
perfect Kirk Douglas-type bum,” Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote.


Mr. Douglas did not disagree. “I’ve always been attracted to characters 
who are part scoundrel,” he told The Times in an interview in 1984. “I 
don’t find virtue photogenic.”


Yet he often managed to win audiences’ sympathy for even the blackest of 
his characters by suggesting an element of weakness or torment beneath 
the surface.


“To me, acting is creating an illusion, showing tremendous discipline, 
not losing yourself in the character that you’re portraying,” he wrote 
in his best-selling autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son” (1988). “The actor 
never gets lost in the character he’s playing; the audience does.”


‘Going Over the Line’

The only time that discipline nearly cracked was during the filming of 
“Lust for Life.” “I felt myself going over the line, into the skin of 
van Gogh,” he wrote. “Not only did I look like him, I was the same age 
he had been when he committed suicide.” The experience was so 
frightening, he added, that for a long time he was reluctant to watch 
the film.


“While we were shooting,” he said, “I wore heavy shoes like the ones van 
Gogh wore. I always kept one untied, so that I would feel unkempt, off 
balance, in danger of tripping. It was loose; it gave him — and me — a 
shuffling gait.”


Most people who worked with Mr. Douglas were 

[Marxism] Trump’s ‘Red Meat’ SOTU Speech: US Political Crisis Now Deepens - CounterPunch.org

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By Jack Rasmus

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/06/trumps-red-meat-sotu-speech-us-political-crisis-now-deepens/
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[Marxism] Fw: Northern Syria's two wars (Green Left)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/northern-syrias-two-wars


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Re: [Marxism] It’s Time for the Left to Build a Force Outside the Democratic Party | Left Voice

[A.R. G via Marxism]

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"Some years back, when the Green party won over 104,000 votes in this
state, I put together a plan to organize and field teams that could cover
the state, establishing viable little groups where the vote was in double
digits and cultivating a statewide network that would circulate speakers
and engage in regular public forums and events. "

Presumably that is what every campaign does, and it requires money and
time. I don't get how it could be done without people to finance it.

On Wed, Feb 5, 2020, 11:48 PM Mark Lause  wrote:

> We seem to be so far down the rabbit hole of money-centered
> corporate-consumerist politics.   Raising money to open offices and hire
> canvassers is no alternative to a system based on that circular process.
> The alternative to running as Democrats is not running LIKE Democrats.
>
> A challenge to the structure of electoral politics has to be reflected in
> our practice, not just in abstract and aspirational terms.  What we need
> are politics based on people.  We need something with membership that will
> maintain some coherence between elections and generate recognizably good
> advocates that can run for office and--most importantly--plenty of
> volunteers to take the case to the wider society.  Some years back, when
> the Green party won over 104,000 votes in this state, I put together a plan
> to organize and field teams that could cover the state, establishing viable
> little groups where the vote was in double digits and cultivating a
> statewide network that would circulate speakers and engage in regular
> public forums and events.
>
> The old Socialists and other insurgents established membership bodies that
> amounted to roughly a tenth of their voting strength.  Out of over 104,000
> voters, we could have put together an organization of several thousand and,
> with the right work, been able to get a significantly higher vote total in
> the next election.   But the self-elected "leaders" feared something of
> which they would not be guaranteed control.  And the bulk of them have
> since slithered off to the Democrats.
>
> As I've pointed out repeatedly, there is no reason why various groups
> couldn't cobble together a united electoral front at the local, state,
> regional or national that could do something like this.  Make it
> people-focused and have confidence that good politics will always prevail
> in a fair fight out in the open.
>
>
>
>
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