[Marxism] Haaretz: World powers see Assad as bulwark against Islamic State
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == World powers see Assad as bulwark against Islamic State Diplomatic map starting to break Syrian president’s way. http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.611914 By Zvi Bar'el | Aug. 22, 2014 | 2:28 AM After three years of war and the deaths of more than 170,000 people, Syrian President Bashar Assad is starting to sense a change not just on the Syrian front but in the international arena as well. Last week U.S. President Barack Obama referred to the liquidation of chemical weapons stockpiles as an important achievement, adding that “we are pressuring Assad to desist from committing atrocities against Syria’s population.” This formulation is interesting, in that it doesn’t include a demand for regime change. Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement was more pointed, indicating that Washington “would continue to provide political and financial support to aid the moderate opposition, helping those Syrians who opt for peace and oppose extremists.” The United States committed to supplying high-quality weapons to the Free Syrian Army, but these promises remained on paper, since there is no definition yet for what constitutes a “moderate” opposition. The strategic change is reflected in the United States and Europe now being more worried about the expansion of the Islamic State than the continued rule of Assad. Assad is increasingly perceived as a vital component in the struggle against the Islamic State. This conceptual change was discussed in recent talks between Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, the United States and Israel. The Saudi and Russian foreign ministers exchanged visits recently, and Saudi Arabia may now be ready to consider a reform in Syria which will allow Assad to remain in power. This amounts to a sea change in Saudi strategy, and some analysts suggest that such an agreement will include the installation of its protégé Saad al-Hariri as Lebanon’s president. This would allow Saudi Arabia an elegant exit from the Syrian quagmire. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi also discussed Syria in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sissi never demanded the removal of Assad who, in turn, has never criticized Egypt’s treatment of Hamas during the fighting in Gaza. Iran was among the first to support Egypt’s proposal for a cease-fire. Sissi may therefore join the Saudis in agreeing to Assad’s remaining in power. This is bad news for the Syrian opposition, whose American support is also shaky. This new axis is also aimed at neutralizing Qatar in the Syrian arena, where it enjoys great influence over Islamist militias. This may be what lies behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent description of a “new political horizon.” He apparently was not referring to the Palestinian issue but to the new informal alliance of Arab states which are concerned about the Islamic State, viewing Assad as a potential ally in a campaign against it. He could be figuring that harsh expressions against Hamas by Arab leaders, Israel’s diplomatic and military cooperation with Egypt, the new strategic outline presented by Saudi Arabia, threats to Jordan and Israeli concerns about militias overrunning Syria may form a basis for regional cooperation. Checkpoint economy “Hand over everything in your pockets!” ordered the armed guard manning the checkpoint outside the Syrian city of Idlib. The young student trying to get through gave the equivalent of eight dollars to the guard, who belonged to the jihadist group Nusra Front. The student didn’t complain, telling the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar that his uncle had paid eighty dollars a few days earlier. Such payments have become routine for Syrians. Everyone collects money at checkpoints, including the Syrian army, the Free Syrian Army militias, Nusra Front and the Islamic State. The most pleasant are the Syrian army, say some residents. “They usually only inspect your papers and inquire why you’re not mobilized, looking at documents exempting you from military service, if you have them,” said one citizen, adding that soldiers usually take the least money. The problem is that anyone traveling from Damascus to Idlib needs to pass through several checkpoints belonging to different groups, requiring sufficient cash in order to reach one’s destination safely. Citizens of Syria now require several maps. One is for finding out who rules what areas, while a more detailed map shows which militia controls which quarter or village. A third map describes bypass roads and routes for crossing into Turkey or Lebanon. These maps change daily. Thus, for example, militias from the Free Syrian Army just reached a truce with Kurdish militias in the northern city of Al-Hasakah, f
[Marxism] Venezuela unveils 'Hugo Chavez' shelter for Gazan children
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Venezuelan government has released images of the “Hugo Chavez” shelter, where incoming Palestinian child refugees of the Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip will be housed. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57168 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: "Quand la peur change de camp": Fathers of ISIS
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham. I tend not read "authorities" on ISIS that can't even get the name right. On Aug 22, 2014 11:04 AM, "Louis Proyect via Marxism" < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > The organization abbreviated as ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) is > not new in the region, nor is it a newfound expression of the crises > afflicting Arab societies at a moment of profound transformations, > initiated by 2011 revolutions. > > To the contrary, ISIS is the offspring of more than one father, and the > product of more than one longstanding and widespread sickness. The > organization’s explosive growth today is in fact the result of previously > existing, worsening conflicts that were caused by the different fathers. > > > full: http://vendredis-arabes.blogspot.fr/2014/08/fathers-of-isis.html > > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/clayclai% > 40gmail.com > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Israeli F-16 attacks Venezuela's humanitarian delegation to Gaza
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Venezuelan ambassador to Egypt, Juan Antonio Hernandez, said on August 20 that an Israeli aircraft attacked the Venezuelan humanitarian delegation in Rafah along the border post between Egypt and Palestine. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57167 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] 'No justice, no peace' – racist violence fuels anger
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Barry Sheppard “Hands up! Don't shoot!” This slogan was taken up by community protesters right after the murder of 18-year-old African American Michael Brown by police in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57165 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Oakland activist: How we blockaded the Israeli ship
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In an action that has reverberated around the world and inspired pro-Palestinian activists, five days of pickets by activists prevented a ship from the Israeli shipping company Zim Piraeus from unloading almost any of its cargo at the port of Oakland. Below is the account of a participant in the blockade, Oakland-based waterfront unionist and activist *Peter Turner*. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57158 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] South Africa eyewitness: New liberation forces debate post-apartheid future | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == By *Federico Fuentes*, Johannesburg August 23, 2014 -- Around 30 guests from across the globe and 120 shop stewards from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) met August 7-10, 2014, in Johannesburg to discuss the prospects and challenges of building a new, left political alternative to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the party of deceased national hero Nelson Mandela. This call by the country's largest trade union, with more than 400,000 members, has caused reverberations throughout the working class as a whole, and has led some in the media to describe the process as "likely to lead to the birth of a workers' party that will eventually challenge [the ANC] for power". NUMSA's challenge to the established status quo has also highlighted the many dangers and challenges it faces, perhaps most graphically illustrated by the murder of three of its shop stewards on the eve of the symposium. That NUMSA's call has received so much attention can be explained by the reality of South African society, 20 years after the fall of apartheid. Full article at http://links.org.au/node/4015 * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to linkssocial...@gmail.com *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in Links. *Comments welcome on all articles *Return daily for new articles Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Amnesty for Anslinger's Lawbreakers
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://stillhomeron.blogspot.com/2014/08/amnesty-for-anslingers-lawbreakers.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Quantum Gravity Expert Says “Philosophical Superficiality” Has Harmed Physics | Cross-Check, Scientific American Blog Network
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Horgan: You have written about the Greek thinker Anaximander. Who was he, and why do you find him interesting? Rovelli: He is the guy who understood that the Earth is a stone that floats in the middle of the Sky without falling down. He understood that the Sky is not just above out head: it is also under our feet. It surrounds us in every direction. He is the only one in the history of our planet who understood this, and convinced everybody else that this is the case. In fact, he has done much more than this, but this is his greatest achievement. I find him immensely interesting because he represents one of the main steps in the development of scientific thinking. He is a giant. full: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/08/21/quantum-gravity-expert-says-philosophical-superficiality-has-harmed-physics/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Chancellor Phyllis Wise Explains the Firing of Steven Salaita | The Academe Blog
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (By John K. Wilson, a co-editor of the American Association of University Professors’ Academe Blog.) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign chancellor Phyllis Wise has written an open letter to the campus (copied below) explaining her decision not to allow the hiring of Steven Salaita. The letter is an appalling attack on academic freedom and a rejection of the basic values that a university must stand for. Wise argues, “What we cannot and will not tolerate at the University of Illinois are personal and disrespectful words or actions that demean and abuse either viewpoints themselves or those who express them.” Of course, this standard is ridiculous: individuals should be free to say personal and “disrespectful” things about others (for example, everyone should be free to say that Wise’s argument here is both stupid and evil, without facing punishment from the respect police). Respect is not a fundamental value of any university, and being “disrespectful” is not an academic crime. But it’s notable that Salaita really didn’t say anything personal about anyone. So here Wise greatly expands the concept, declaring that not only persons but “viewpoints themselves” must be protected from any disrespectful words. I am puzzled as to exactly how a free university could possibly operate when no one is allowed to be disrespectful toward any viewpoint. Presumably, Wise will quickly act to fire anyone who has ever disrespected or demeaned Nazism, terrorism, racism, sexism, and homophobia. Since all “viewpoints” are protected, then biology professors must be fired for disrespecting creationism as false, along with any other professor who is found to believe or know anything. full: http://academeblog.org/2014/08/22/chancellor-phyllis-wise-explains-the-firing-of-steven-salaita/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Another murder of a Black man in St. Louis–how Abraham Lincoln responded | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://louisproyect.org/2014/08/22/another-murder-of-a-black-man-in-st-louis-how-abraham-lincoln-responded/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Gunning for Vandana Shiva » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == We are screwed and I am scared. Not scared in the sense of my personal well being. I suffer from congestive heart failure back in 2008, got a pace maker-defibrillator and subject to croak any moment. The discernible tremble that is source of my fear is the path of the social and political revolution, the development of a mass uprising and believing the American people can always be pulled from the brink of disastrous thinking and support of the ruling class. I am not sure how to characterize the American state. It is perhaps easier to describe different sides and aspects of the American state during different periods of history. I don’t particularly care for the word fascism, but we (revolutionaries from an era and epoch gone by) seem to be stuck with the word. On a side note I am the proud owner of your “The Antebellum Crisis & America’s First Bohemians” and “Race and Radicalism in the Union Army” and find both works to be a master stroke, reading with the touch of a mystery filled novel. Finally, I have just read the Introduction, first three chapters, chapter 10 and all the footnotes of Michael Heinrich’s “An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital. Then I just downloaded and read his “Crisis Theory, the Law of the Tendency of the Profit Rate to Fall, and Marx’s Studies in the 1870s” from Monthly Review. I found the last paragraph in Chapter 10 disturbing. Referencing Marx Capital Vol. 1 Chapter Thirty-Two: Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm Professor Heinrich writes in part, “In the passage excerpted above, Marx drew conclusions amount to a sort of historical determinism that are not justified by his categorical depiction. To that extent, the passage is more an expression of hope than analysis; revolutionary enthusiasm triumphed over the cool scholar. However, the depiction of the capitalist mode of production itself is not dependent upon these questionable conclusions. Capital (meaning the book ed.) still offers the best contribution to understanding the capitalist mode of production. But how and whether this mode of production will reach its end cannot be determined in advance. There are no certainties here, merely a struggle with a conclusion that is up for grabs.” “But how and whether this mode of production will reach its end cannot be determined in advance. There are no certainties here, merely a struggle with a conclusion that is up for grabs.” Did not Marx and Engels collaborate and write out for all to see, the general law of social revolution or stated better, the law system that governs the rise and decay of all modes of production in the 1859 “Contribution to a Critique of political Economy”? No one within Marxism of my - our – generation, question the ultimate and historical decay of the bourgeois mode of commodity production must take place, because production and distribution of the social product in a historically evolved mode of production is governed by a law system that says “changes in the building blocks of the technology regime and the environment of human development” causes a leap from one mode of production to the next. What has been questioned and debated is identifying the dynamic of causality defining the moment and specific properties compelling a leap (transition) from one mode of production to the next. Computers or the semi-conductor as architecture and motive force at the foundation of the building blocks of means of production is to industrial society what industrial society and the steam engine (and the technology regime implied in the steam engine) was to the society of manufacture. Further proof we have entered a new epoch of social revolution is the universal reevaluation and updating of Marx’s law systems outlining the general behavior of mode of production and the basic components driving growth, development and qualitative transition. The form of dialectics, pardon, materialist dialectics change with changes in our understanding of the movement of matter. What has this got to do with Ferguson and the murder of Michael Brown? Everything. Actually, Heinrich’s Chapter 1, “Capitalism and Marxism” avoids definitions and leave the reader wondering what is capitalism and Marxism. Personally, I would call capitalism the bourgeois mode of commodity production and then quote Engels explaining when the word capitalism became popular. Then, after quoting Engels, I would define Marxism as the “science of society” because that is what Engels called it in his “Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, Part 2: Materialism.” Read it for yourself (not you personally): “Secondly, Feu
[Marxism] Michael Specter teaches at Bard
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Wouldn't you just know it? Bard College hired GMO hustler Michael Specter as a Visiting Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies. http://www.bard.edu/academics/faculty/faculty.php?action=details&id=3232 I suppose that makes sense given that Stewart Resnick is on the board of trustees, the agribusiness billionaire who has diverted water from the commoners in Fiji and California to improve his bottom line and buy more politicians. When a college hires a big-time promoter of GMO to lecture on the environment, you just chalk that up as Leon Botstein's Wizard of Oz con artistry. Specter's latest article in the New Yorker is filled with howling journalistic double-dealing, like pooh-poohing claims about the problem of peasant suicides in India by saying that they are no worse than in France. As I pointed out in my CounterPunch article, France is a disaster for farmers as well. Every 2 days a French farmer kills himself because of worsening economic conditions. Who's next to be hired for Bard's environmental studies? Bjorn Lomberg to give a class on global warming? http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/22/gunning-for-vandana-shiva/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Gunning for Vandana Shiva » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis wrote: "Just a reminder. I am assuming that Manuel meant this as a reply to the list. Generally when you 'repl', the addresses will include the original poster (like me) and the list. But sometimes the list address is dropped. So always double-check before you hit 'send'. " No, I actually did mean to send just to you, Louis (note, I am sending to you and to the list here with adherence to the list's posting requirements to the best of my understanding); didn't see the need to post to everyone. But thanks for the information regardless. As is usually the case, many different writers or activists like Shiva are not "anointed" with correct Marxism and still write important and informative things that anyone interested in revolutionary change ought to consider. Thanks for the great contribution. Michael Specter is often viewed as annoying but "correct". I've always been wary of his often caustic approach that also seemed a bit self-serving. I appreciated the time you took to analyze his seemingly credible "evidence" for what it actually is. > Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 11:04:39 -0400 > From: l...@panix.com > To: mtom...@hotmail.com; marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Gunning for Vandana Shiva » CounterPunch: Tells > the Facts, Names the Names > > On 8/22/14 10:41 AM, Manuel Barrera wrote: > > Good article, Louis, but what exactly are Vandaya Shiva's credentials? > > I'm very glad to see this takedown of Specter, on journalistic and > > scientific merits. Couldn't happen to a more petulant brat. > > thanks > > Just a reminder. I am assuming that Manuel meant this as a reply to the > list. Generally when you "reply", the addresses will include the > original poster (like me) and the list. But sometimes the list address > is dropped. So always double-check before you hit "send". (The list > address is marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu. > > Vandana Shiva is a somewhat controversial figure. You can find all sorts > of attacks on her as being a Luddite, etc. on Wikipedia > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva). Back in 1996 I wrote her > off as a postmodernist icon because people like Alan Sokal and Meera > Nanda (an Indian scientist who backed the Narmada Dam) considered her > stress on "local knowledge" to be superstitious. After a couple of years > I figured out that Sokal and Nanda's grounding in Marxism was rather > weak even if Shiva had her own problems. > > I think her main value is as an activist and a critic of industrial > farming, not as a scientist per se. What she shares with Marxism is an > understanding that industrial farming is not the answer to the food > crisis. Where she differs is on the solution. Basically she has no > conception that as long as there is capitalism, industrial farming wil > prevail. She is a latter-day Gandhi when latter-day Bhagat Singh's and > M.N. Roy's are needed. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: "Quand la peur change de camp": Fathers of ISIS
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The organization abbreviated as ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) is not new in the region, nor is it a newfound expression of the crises afflicting Arab societies at a moment of profound transformations, initiated by 2011 revolutions. To the contrary, ISIS is the offspring of more than one father, and the product of more than one longstanding and widespread sickness. The organization’s explosive growth today is in fact the result of previously existing, worsening conflicts that were caused by the different fathers. full: http://vendredis-arabes.blogspot.fr/2014/08/fathers-of-isis.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Sweet Poison » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/22/sweet-poison/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: the roots of ferguson - bookforum.com / omnivore
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Multiple links... http://www.bookforum.com/blog/13600 Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Gunning for Vandana Shiva » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 8/22/14 10:41 AM, Manuel Barrera wrote: Good article, Louis, but what exactly are Vandaya Shiva's credentials? I'm very glad to see this takedown of Specter, on journalistic and scientific merits. Couldn't happen to a more petulant brat. thanks Just a reminder. I am assuming that Manuel meant this as a reply to the list. Generally when you "reply", the addresses will include the original poster (like me) and the list. But sometimes the list address is dropped. So always double-check before you hit "send". (The list address is marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu. Vandana Shiva is a somewhat controversial figure. You can find all sorts of attacks on her as being a Luddite, etc. on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva). Back in 1996 I wrote her off as a postmodernist icon because people like Alan Sokal and Meera Nanda (an Indian scientist who backed the Narmada Dam) considered her stress on "local knowledge" to be superstitious. After a couple of years I figured out that Sokal and Nanda's grounding in Marxism was rather weak even if Shiva had her own problems. I think her main value is as an activist and a critic of industrial farming, not as a scientist per se. What she shares with Marxism is an understanding that industrial farming is not the answer to the food crisis. Where she differs is on the solution. Basically she has no conception that as long as there is capitalism, industrial farming wil prevail. She is a latter-day Gandhi when latter-day Bhagat Singh's and M.N. Roy's are needed. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Gunning for Vandana Shiva » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Aug 22, 2014, at 9:14 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote: Perhaps nothing symbolizes the decline of the New Yorker magazine more than the hatchet job on Vandana Shiva that appears in the latest issue... full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/22/gunning-for-vandana- shiva/ Excellent article, Louis! Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Professional wrestlers
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Woke up around 1am last night and listened to some radio before going back to sleep. Leonard Lopate, one of the few reasons to listen to NPR, was interviewing Daniel O'Sullivan about the exploitation of pro wrestlers based on an article he wrote for Jacobin. I haven't read the article yet but surely will after listening to the interview. I was a huge pro wrestling fan when I was about 11 or 12 years old and may try to find the time to write about the difference between the "sport" when I was young and what exists today under Vince McMahon's monopoly rule but in the meantime urge you to read the article or listen to the interview (it is the last on the show): http://www.wnyc.org/story/the-leonard-lopate-show-2014-08-21/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Gunning for Vandana Shiva » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Perhaps nothing symbolizes the decline of the New Yorker magazine more than the hatchet job on Vandana Shiva that appears in the latest issue. Written by Michael Specter, the author of “Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress”, the article is a meretricious defense of genetically modified organisms (GMO) relying on one dodgy source after another. This is the same magazine whose reputation was at its apex when Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking articles on DDT appeared in 1962. If DDT was once a symbol of the destructive power of chemicals on the environment, GMO amounts to one of the biggest threats to food production today. It threatens to enrich powerful multinational corporations while turning farmers into indentured servants through the use of patented seeds. Furthermore, it threatens to unleash potentially calamitous results in farmlands through unintended mutations. Specter represents himself as a defender of science against irrational thinking. Since many activists regard Vandana Shiva as grounded in science, it is essential that he discredit her. For example, he mentions a book jacket that refers to her as “one of India’s leading physicists”. But when he asked her if she ever worked as a physicist, she invited him to “search for the answer on Google”. He asserts that he found nothing and furthermore that no such position was listed in her biography. Not that I would ever take an inflated publicity blurb that seriously to begin with (having read one too many of those for Slavoj Žižek), I wondered what being a physicist would have to do with GMO in the first place. Is a degree in particle physics necessary for understanding the transformation of vast portions of the Gulf of Mexico into a dead zone because of fertilizer-enriched algae? full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/22/gunning-for-vandana-shiva/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
