Re: [Marxism] Eric Olin Wright's farewell

[Gary MacLennan via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Thanks for posting this Lou. I hope when my turn comes I can exhibit as
much courage and dignity as Eric did

comradely

Gary


Virus-free.
www.avg.com

<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 8:20 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
> *
>
>
> https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/erikolinwright/journal/view/id/5c425a8fec10033749f6d10c
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at:
> https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com
>
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Is China a model for a New Green Deal? | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

On January 14th, Dean Baker wrote an article for Truthout titled “The 
Green New Deal Is Happening in China” that poses important questions for 
the left. Since the article is focused exclusively on reducing 
greenhouse gases to the exclusion of any other “green” problem areas, 
can we assume that climate change is the be-all and end-all of the 
environmentalist left? It also leads to the broader question of China’s 
relevance to the left. If it is in the vanguard of the fight against 
climate change, then can we conclude that Xi Jinping might be 
legitimately described as socialist? As the American democratic 
socialist left has committed considerable energy behind the call for a 
Green New Deal, can we look at the Communist Party in China as an ally 
of the left?


full: 
https://louisproyect.org/2019/01/20/is-china-a-model-for-a-new-green-deal/

_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Prison Reform Giant Michelle Alexander: Time to Break Silence on Palestine

[A.R. G via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opinion/sunday/martin-luther-king-palestine-israel.html

This is a pretty big development. Michelle Alexander is calling out
everyone on the Left that has been quiet about Palestine. There are some
hiccups in the article (including downplaying the comparison between South
Africa and Palestine, and validating the notion that anti-Semitism is a
potential problem among those involved in Palestine advocacy) but overall
it is a strong piece and does not, for example, skimp on the relevance of
the Palestinian refugees.

MA chose MLK Jr. Day to come out with the piece. I personally interpret
this as a rebuke to recent attempts by Zionist groups to suppress prominent
black rights advocates who have openly supported Palestine, including the
smearing of Marc Lamont Hill, the attempt to dishonor Angela Davis at a
Birmingham civil rights museum, the "anti-Semitism" canards being slung at
Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, and the digging-up-dirt around Alice
Walker. No doubt this may result in MA being placed in the cross-hairs.

Some additional commentary from MondoWeiss:
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/01/alexander-progressives-palestine/

Amith R. Gupta
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] There’s Nothing Wrong With Open Borders

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

NY Times Op-Ed, Jan. 20, 2019
There’s Nothing Wrong With Open Borders
By Farhad Manjoo

The internet expands the bounds of acceptable discourse, so ideas 
considered out of bounds not long ago now rocket toward widespread 
acceptability. See: cannabis legalization, government-run health care, 
white nationalism and, of course, the flat-earthers.


Yet there’s one political shore that remains stubbornly beyond the 
horizon. It’s an idea almost nobody in mainstream politics will address, 
other than to hurl the label as a bloody cudgel.


I’m talking about opening up America’s borders to everyone who wants to 
move here.


Imagine not just opposing President Trump’s wall but also opposing the 
nation’s cruel and expensive immigration and border-security apparatus 
in its entirety. Imagine radically shifting our stance toward outsiders 
from one of suspicion to one of warm embrace. Imagine that if you passed 
a minimal background check, you’d be free to live, work, pay taxes and 
die in the United States. Imagine moving from Nigeria to Nebraska as 
freely as one might move from Massachusetts to Maine.


There’s a witheringly obvious moral, economic, strategic and cultural 
case for open borders, and we have a political opportunity to push it. 
As Democrats jockey for the presidency, there’s room for a brave 
politician to oppose President Trump’s racist immigration rhetoric not 
just by fighting his wall and calling for the abolishment of I.C.E. but 
also by making a proactive and affirmative case for the vast expansion 
of immigration.


It would be a change from the stale politics of the modern era, in which 
both parties agreed on the supposed wisdom of “border security” and 
assumed that immigrants were to be feared.


As an immigrant, this idea confounds me. My family came to the United 
States from our native South Africa in the late 1980s. After jumping 
through lots of expensive and confusing legal hoops, we became citizens 
in 2000. Obviously, it was a blessing: In rescuing me from a society in 
which people of my color were systematically oppressed, America has 
given me a chance at liberty.


But why had I deserved that chance, while so many others back home — 
because their parents lacked certain skills, money or luck — were denied it?


When you see the immigration system up close, you’re confronted with its 
bottomless unfairness. The system assumes that people born outside our 
borders are less deserving of basic rights than those inside. My 
native-born American friends did not seem to me to warrant any more 
dignity than my South African ones; according to this nation’s founding 
documents, we were all created equal. Yet by mere accident of geography, 
some were given freedom, and others were denied it.


“When you start to think about it, a system of closed borders begins to 
feel very much like a system of feudal privilege,” said Reece Jones, a 
professor of geography at the University of Hawaii who argues that 
Democrats should take up the mantle of open borders. “It’s the same idea 
that there’s some sort of hereditary rights to privilege based on where 
you were born.”


I admit the politics here are perilous. Although America’s borders were 
open for much of its history — if your ancestors came here voluntarily, 
there’s a good chance it was thanks to open borders — restrictions on 
immigration are now baked so deeply into our political culture that any 
talk of loosening them sparks anger.


People worry that immigrants will bring crime, even though stats show 
immigrants are no more dangerous than natives. People worry they’ll take 
jobs away from native workers, even though most studies suggests that 
immigration is a profound benefit to the economy, and there’s little 
evidence it hurts native workers. And if we worry that they’ll hoover up 
welfare benefits, we can impose residency requirements for them.


But these are all defensive arguments, and when you’re on defense, 
you’re losing. For opponents of the president’s xenophobic policies, a 
better plan is to make the affirmative case for a lot more immigrants.


Economically and strategically, open borders isn’t just a good plan — 
it’s the only chance we’ve got. America is an aging nation with a 
stagnant population. We have ample land to house lots more people, but 
we are increasingly short of workers. And on the global stage, we face 
two colossi — India and China — which, with their billions, are 
projected to outstrip American economic hegemony within two decades.


How will we ever compete with such giants? The same way we always have: 
by inviting the world’s most enthusiastic and creative people — 

[Marxism] Why Infants May Be More Likely to Die in America Than Cuba

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

(Despite its cavils, an important piece.)

NY Times Op-Ed, Jan. 20, 2019
Why Infants May Be More Likely to Die in America Than Cuba
By Nicholas Kristof

HAVANA — Claudia Fernández, 29, is an accountant whose stomach bulges 
with her first child, a girl, who is due in April.


Fernández lives in a cramped apartment on a potholed street and can’t 
afford a car. She also gets by without a meaningful vote or the right to 
speak freely about politics. Yet the paradox of Cuba is this: Her baby 
appears more likely to survive than if she were born in the United States.


Cuba is poor and repressive with a dysfunctional economy, but in health 
care it does an impressive job that the United States could learn from. 
According to official statistics (about which, as we’ll see, there is 
some debate), the infant mortality rate in Cuba is only 4.0 deaths per 
1,000 live births. In the United States, it’s 5.9.


In other words, an American infant is, by official statistics, almost 50 
percent more likely to die than a Cuban infant. By my calculations, that 
means that 7,500 American kids die each year because we don’t have as 
good an infant mortality rate as Cuba reports.


How is this possible? Well, remember that it may not be. The figures 
should be taken with a dose of skepticism. Still, there’s no doubt that 
a major strength of the Cuban system is that it assures universal 
access. Cuba has the Medicare for All that many Americans dream about.


“Cuba’s example is important since for decades ‘health care for all’ has 
been more than a slogan there,” said Dr. Paul Farmer, the legendary 
globe-trotting founder of Partners in Health. “Cuban families aren’t 
ruined financially by catastrophic illness or injury, as happens so 
often elsewhere in the neighborhood.”


In Havana, I shadowed a grass-roots doctor, Lisett Rodríguez, as she 
paid a house call on Fernández — and it was the 20th time Dr. Rodríguez 
had dropped in on Fernández’s apartment to examine her over the six 
months of her pregnancy. That’s on top of 14 visits that Fernández made 
to the doctor’s office, in addition to pregnancy consultations Fernández 
held with a dentist, a psychologist and a nutritionist.


This was all free, like the rest of the medical and dental system. It’s 
also notable that Cuba achieves excellent health outcomes even though 
the American trade and financial embargo badly damages the economy and 
restricts access to medical equipment.


Fernández has received more attention than normal because she has 
hypothyroidism, making her pregnancy higher risk than average. Over the 
course of a more typical Cuban pregnancy, a woman might make 10 office 
visits and receive eight home visits.


Thirty-four visits, or even 18, may be overkill, but this certainly is 
preferable to the care common in, say, Texas, where one-third of 
pregnant women don’t get a single prenatal checkup in the first trimester.


Missing a prenatal checkup is much less likely in Cuba because of a 
system of front-line clinics called consultorios. These clinics, staffed 
by a single doctor and nurse, are often run down and poorly equipped, 
but they make health care readily available: Doctors live upstairs and 
are on hand after hours in emergencies.


They are also part of the neighborhood. Dr. Rodríguez and her nurse know 
the 907 people they are responsible for from their consultorio: As I 
walked with Dr. Rodríguez on the street, neighbors stopped her and asked 
her about their complaints. This proximity and convenience, and not just 
the lack of fees, make Cuba’s medical system accessible.


“It helps that the doctor is close, because transportation would be a 
problem,” Fernández told me.


Home visits are also a chance to reach elderly and disabled people and 
to coach dysfunctional families, such as those wracked by alcoholism (a 
common problem), and to work on prevention. During Dr. Rodríguez’s 
visits to Fernández, for example, they discuss breast-feeding and how to 
make the home safe for the baby.


“It’s no secret that most health problems can be resolved at the 
primary-care level by the doctor, nurse or health worker nearest you,” 
said Gail Reed, the American executive editor of the health journal 
Medicc Review, which focuses on Cuban health care. “So, there is 
something to be said for Cuba’s building of a national primary-care 
network that posts health professionals in neighborhoods nationwide.”


Each consultorio doctor is supposed to see every person in the area at 
least once a year, if not for a formal physical then at least to take 
blood pressure.


All this is possible because Cuba overflows with doctors — it has three 

[Marxism] Glaciers Are Retreating. Millions Rely on Their Water. - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

(Best seen on the NYT for the graphics.)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/15/climate/melting-glaciers-globally.html
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Assad emerges victorious in a shattered nation | Financial Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

https://www.ft.com/content/be2e629a-1a7a-11e9-b93e-f4351a53f1c3
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] “Russia’s ‘anti-fascist’ fascism is not a far-away, exotic reality.” It’s here | People and Nature

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2019/01/20/russias-anti-fascist-fascism-is-not-a-far-away-exotic-reality-its-here/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] The unity of the capitalist economy and state - A systematic-dialectical exposition of the capitalist system

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

Open access book.

https://brill.com/view/title/38778?
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] What's the alternative to factory farms?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

https://climateandcapitalism.com/2019/01/20/whats-the-alternative-to-factory-farms/
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Who is more dangerous: El Chapo or Carlos Slim? | Michael Massing | Opinion | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  POSTING RULES & NOTES  
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/20/el-chapo-or-carlos-slim-who-is-more-dangerous
_
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at: 
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com