[Marxism] Venezuela fact-finding mission reports on complex situation
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[Marxism] How Historic Flooding in the Midwest Could Fuel the Gulf of Mexico 'Dead Zone'
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[Marxism] Alliance of Middle East Socialists statement on Venezuela
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. * "The Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists would like to express its solidarity with the Venezuelan popular classes who are protesting against poverty and repression under the Maduro regime. We strongly oppose U.S. imperialist intervention and its favored political figure, Juan Guaido’s efforts to take control of the genuine popular desire for a better life. We also strongly oppose Russia’s military aid to Maduro’s brutal rule and China’s support for it. "As Middle Eastern socialists, we can identify with the experience of Venezuelans in many ways. In Iran, the Islamic Republic which has had strong ties with the Hugo Chavez government and now with the Maduro government, continues to repress progressive labor, feminist and other genuine popular protests and strikes by calling them “counter-revolutionary.” "After the rise of revolutionary uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011, The Chavez and then the Maduro governments sided with the dictatorial regimes and turned their backs on the popular movements. They blessed the Gaddafi and Assad regimes as “anti-imperialist” while these regimes were massacring their own people. In 2012 when the Assad regime was close to being toppled by the Syrian masses, the Venezuelan government provided hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil for the this regime. It also supported Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015" Read entire statement here: https://www.allianceofmesocialists.org/statement-of-solidarity-on-venezuela-from-alliance-of-middle-eastern-socialists/ -- *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black Jacobins" by C. L. R. James Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook _ 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] Gil Hodges and Tom Seaver: A Final Salute
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. * Gil Hodges and Tom Seaver: A Final Salute By George Vecsey March 27, 2019 With the Vietnam War dragging on, 1969 was not a good year for discussing the character-building value of the military. From a distance of half a century, however, it seems rather clear — at least to me — that the loopy young Mets franchise had its spine stiffened by two men trained by the United States Marines. Two of the steeliest people in the Mets clubhouse were Gil Hodges, the manager, and Tom Seaver, the pitcher, later known as The Franchise. Both could turn downright taut — eyes narrowing, jaws tightening, speech clipped — when reporters or broadcasters or fans or even Mets ballplayers acted as if these were the Same Old Mets. We reporters were the worst. I know I was conditioned to believe that the Mets were fun, but terminally hapless. Wipe that smile off your face, Mister. This is no laughing matter. Hodges had seen combat on Okinawa, while Seaver was a Marine reservist. Semper Fi. They staked out territory and they did not give it up. Hodges had been part of the Mets in the first goofy days, in spring training 1962, when Casey Stengel was filibustering to catch the public’s attention. Hodges was happy to be back from Los Angeles, in his wife’s home borough of Brooklyn, where he was beloved for his grand decade-plus with the Dodgers. His knee was shot, and Marvin Eugene Throneberry (check out the initials) became the regular first baseman and an immortal Met blunderer. The Mets were not adequate enough to benefit from Hodges’s Boys of Summer way of doing things. He became the manager of the Washington Senators for what some felt was an apprenticeship for the Mets’ job, which he was offered in 1968. Seaver arrived from the farm system in 1967, after growing up fast in the Marines and later learning the game under Rod Dedeaux at the University of Southern California. In some ways, Seaver was a normal young man in his early 20s — full of energy, a whooping laugh, pranks on teammates. He could also do The New York Times crossword puzzle and converse with writers. When he was playing, he did not bring up his time in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1962-63, but later he talked proudly about it. “I was a mediocre student,” Seaver recalled on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2011, at a ceremony in Manhattan honoring military veterans. “If it didn’t have a ball involved, I wasn’t much interested.” But the Marines sharpened his focus. “The principles that I learned in boot camp were the principles that I took to the mound,” he said. “Focus, dedication. I wouldn’t have made it without the Marine Corps.” Seaver mentioned a picture taken of him on the mound, locked into attention, during the playing of the national anthem. “You look at my feet, they’re in military position, absolutely,” he said. “That’s the discipline that was instilled in me. It’s a very important reason why I’m in Cooperstown.” It is not clear how much Seaver and Hodges discussed their Marine roots with each other. They had served under vastly different circumstances — Seaver stateside, Hodges facing incoming kamikaze pilots in the Pacific Theater. Hodges was a college boy from southern Indiana, noticeable because of his muscles. Stengel, on one of his franchise-building conversational rambles, once said that Hodges was so strong “he could squeeze your earbrows off.” Nobody knew what an earbrow was, and nobody wanted to ask. I had a mentor in the newspaper business who had been a young Columbia University dropout and baseball freak, sent to the island of Okinawa. There were rumors that a large young Marine on the island was a major league ballplayer. (The Dodgers had let Hodges play one game at third base in 1943 before he shipped out.) On Okinawa, my friend heard rumors that Hodges had been in hand-to-hand combat, but that rumor has been deflated by Mort Zachter, the author of “Gil Hodges: A Hall of Fame Life,” published in 2015. Hodges was awarded a Bronze Star, with the citation mentioning his duties supporting his commanding officer, in a dangerous zone, but there is no mention of his being in direct combat. He surely saw death all around him. When Hodges became a star with the Dodgers, he often went to the movies in his free time. A friend who accompanied him said Hodges would grow solemn if there was a scene of combat, and he would pray, “Amen,” at every fallen military person. Hodges carried his Marine steel in the manager’s uniform. When reporters made jokes he smiled weakly and politely, but he did not encourage levity or cynicism. Few players challenged Hodges, except
Re: [Marxism] Algerian activist criticizes NZ liberal women
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. * Reading the article it is not clear to me that the author took part in any public expression of solidarity with the Muslim community. If she did so, she could write an article Why I chose not to wear an Islamic scarf while protesting the attack on Muslims, or something to that effect. She could make her point without needing to criticize anyone else. More importantly, she could be speaking from within the solidarity movement and not as an outsider. It is my experience that some Middle Eastern leftists find it hard to be around anyone who is an observant Muslim. Eg. some Iranian exiles shied away from Palestine solidarity work because of their fears regarding Hamas. I no not know if the author of the article has this same difficulty. ken h _ 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] Facebook bans white nationalism from platform after pressure from civil rights groups
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[Marxism] A reply to Paul Le Blanc on the ISO crisis | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
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Re: [Marxism] Algerian activist criticises NZ liberal women wearing hijab as 'solidarity' re the mosque murders
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. * Totally agree with Michael. The whole "veil/scarf = oppression" narrative is ridiculous. This article by Lila Abu Lughod does a good job tearing it apart: https://org.uib.no/smi/seminars/Pensum/Abu-Lughod.pdf Amith R. Gupta On Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 2:12 AM mkaradjis 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. > * > > An extremely unfortunate article. > Of course we should all support women's struggles against compulsory > veiling. In Iran a female lawyer has just been sentenced to 38 years in > prison for defending women's rights activists, who wre protesting > compuslory veiling. > But women have the right to wear a scarf over their heads just as they have > a right not to. Much as I can understand where an Algrian activist is > coming from, the sentence "At the times of Al Qaeda and Daesch – i.e. when > no one in the world can pretend to ignore what happens to women who do not > conform – isn’t donning the veil somehow short sighted?" - is basically > conflating the wearing of a scarf with al-Qaida and Daesh! > Where I work in western Sydney, many Muslim teachers, and countless Muslim > students, wear a scarf. Many would rightly laugh me off if I told them they > were only wearing it due to oppression. Imagine what they would think if I > compared them to Daesh. I'd probably lose my job as a racist. At least I'd > like to hope so. > Michael > > On Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 2:44 PM Philip Ferguson 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. > > * > > > > "New Zealand Prime Minister Ms Jacinda Ardern, followed by other > officials > > (and then by ordinary citizens as well) saw it fit to wear a so-called > > Islamic head covering during their public functions. > > > > "We believe that there were many other symbols that could have been > chosen > > in order to comfort Muslim believers, than one which is contested the > world > > over by women of Muslim heritage, - believers and unbelievers alike. . . > . > > > > full at: > > > > > https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/open-letter-from-algerian-woman-activist-on-the-wearing-headscarves/ > > _ > > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > > Set your options at: > > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/mkaradjis%40gmail.com > > > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/amithrgupta%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] John Bellamy Foster on the 'Green New Deal'
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[Marxism] Interior Nominee Intervened to Block Report on Endangered Species
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, March 27, 2019 Interior Nominee Intervened to Block Report on Endangered Species By Eric Lipton WASHINGTON — After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service had a moment of celebration as they wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species, like the kit fox and the seaside sparrow. “Woohoo!” Patrice Ashfield, then a branch chief at Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters, wrote to her colleagues in August 2017. Their analysis found that two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants, a conclusion that could lead to tighter restrictions on use of the chemicals. But just before the team planned to make its findings public in November 2017, something unexpected happened: Top political appointees of the Interior Department, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, blocked the release and set in motion a new process intended to apply a much narrower standard to determine the risks from the pesticides. Leading that intervention was David Bernhardt, then the deputy secretary of the interior and a former lobbyist and oil-industry lawyer. In October 2017, he abruptly summoned staff members to the first of a rapid series of meetings in which the Fish and Wildlife Service was directed to take the new approach, one that pesticide makers and users had lobbied intensively to promote. Mr. Bernhardt is now President Trump’s nominee to become interior secretary. The Senate is scheduled to hold a hearing on his confirmation Thursday. This sequence of events is detailed in more than 84,000 pages of Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests by The New York Times and, separately, by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that sued the federal government to force it to complete the pesticide studies. The documents provide a case study of how the Trump administration has been using its power to second-guess or push aside conclusions reached by career professionals, particularly in the area of public health and the environment. The decision to block the release of the report represented a victory for the pesticide industry, which has industry allies and former executives sprinkled through the administration. Among those with the most at stake were Dow AgroSciences, a manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, which is used on dozens of fruits and vegetables, and FMC Corporation, a manufacturer of malathion, which is used against mosquitoes as well as chewing and sucking insects that attack a range of crops including tomatoes, strawberries and walnuts. Dow, which was recently renamed Corteva, donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration committee. E.P.A. and Interior Department records show that top pesticide industry executives had regular access to senior agency officials, pressing them to reconsider the way the federal government evaluates the threat pesticides cause to endangered species. A Dow spokesman said the shift in policy was unrelated to the $1 million contribution. The new approach will result in “a better understanding of where and how pesticides are being used,” said Gregg M. Schmidt, a Corteva spokesman. Spokesmen for FMC and Adama — the other primary makers of the pesticides being studied — as well as their lawyers and CropLife America, the trade group that represents them, declined to comment. Asked if Mr. Bernhardt’s intervention was appropriate or motivated by a desire to serve the industry’s interests, an Interior Department spokeswoman said his actions had been “governed solely by legitimate concerns regarding the legal sufficiency and policy.” Before he joined the Trump administration, Mr. Bernhardt worked as a lawyer and lobbyist representing clients including the oil and gas industry. He was frequently paid to challenge endangered species-related matters, including one involving a tiny silvery blue fish called the delta smelt whose protection by the federal government has resulted in limits on water use by California farmers. Agency records suggest Mr. Bernhardt, after having had only limited involvement in the issue, had nine meetings or calls on his schedule with Fish and Wildlife staff in October and November 2017, and helped write the letter saying the Interior Department was no longer prepared to release the draft. Wendy Cleland-Hamnett, the E.P.A. official at the time who ran the
[Marxism] The British Labour Party - The Largest Sect in the World
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[Marxism] Review of Bhaskar Sunkara's "Socialist Manifesto"
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. * (Good news. This brilliant take-down of Bhaskar Sunkara's "Socialist Manifesto" is not behind a paywall. Please share far and wide.) Bhaskar Sunkara’s Socialist Manifesto begins by entering an imaginary world. It’s 2018 and “you” are a die-hard fan of Jon Bon Jovi, “the most popular and critically acclaimed musician of this era.” So devoted are you to the singer-songwriter that you’ve found work at the pasta sauce factory his father owns in New Jersey. The job isn’t great, but it’s better than nothing. After a year, your wages rise from $15 an hour to $17, a 13 percent increase that fails to match your recent 25 percent increase in productivity; meanwhile your colleague Debra, who’s been working there for three years, is still only making $13 an hour. Your grievances lead to the formation of a union. Yet the rigors of the global sauce economy—low-wage competitors in India are fierce—strain the firm’s owners and its workers to the breaking point; though the union blocks management from issuing layoffs and extending the workday by an hour, things are bad regardless: “At the end of every day you’re physically and emotionally exhausted and unable to do the things outside of work you used to love.” full: https://www.bookforum.com/inprint/026_01/20823 _ 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] Iran Moves to Firm Its Influence in Syria
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. * WSJ, March 27, 2019 Iran Moves to Firm Its Influence in Syria by Raja Abdulrahim and Benoit Faucon MUHAYMIDA, Syria -- In Islamic State's former eastern Syrian stronghold, Iran is parlaying its military and economic might into a lasting foothold. On the heels of an Iranian military intervention that has helped bring President Bashar al-Assad to the edge of victory in Syria's eight-year war, Tehran is moving to cement its long-term influence in Syria by cultivating goodwill and winning converts to the Shiite Muslim sect. To Syrians battered by war, Iran is offering cash, food, Iranian ID cards, public services and free education. "The goal is to re-create the Persian empire," said Muneer al-Khalaf, a member of the City Council of Raqqa, Islamic State's once de facto capital. Iran's hearts-and-minds campaign undermines efforts by the U.S., Israel and Arab states to roll back Tehran's influence and force it out of Syria. It also comes as President Trump plans to shrink the U.S. military footprint in the country -- currently more than 2,000 troops -- after the battle to eliminate Islamic State-held territory was declared over on Saturday. U.S. officials said they aren't abandoning efforts to check Iran's activities in Syria. The U.S. plans to focus its intelligence gathering efforts on countering Tehran's strategy of creating a land corridor from Iran through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to help funnel weapons and fighters to its regional allies. Iran's influence campaign is aimed at Syria's majority Sunni Muslim population -- including in some former Islamic State strongholds -- that extends from the eastern Deir Ezzour province to the country's western border with Lebanon. The wooing of locals is evident in major cities like Albukamal, near the Iraqi border. There, from a Syrian police station now controlled by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps., or IRGC, Iranian forces distribute food and household items to the city's needy, according to a 24-year-old male resident from the nearby village of Jalaa. Along with the charity come offers to join the ranks of the Iranian militia and convert to the Shiite sect of the Islamic faith, he said. In return for enlisting, the men are promised a guard corps ID card -- allowing them to cross checkpoints without hassle -- and $200 a month. "From every family you find one or two people who have become Shiite," he said. "They say they do it so they can find jobs or they become Shiite so they can walk and no one bothers them." To incentivize Arab tribesmen in areas formerly controlled by Islamic State to convert to Shiism, Iran is granting cash subsidies, providing public services and free education, according to residents, a U.S. official and a person familiar with U.S. intelligence operations in the region. In cities and villages across the country's east and in parts of central Syria, the Iranian militia has taken over mosques and is sounding the Shiite call to prayer from the minarets. They set up shrines in places with religious historical significance, bought real estate under a contested property law, and opened Persian-language schools. "If you're a student, they offer a scholarship. If you're poor, they give you aid," said an aid worker in Qamishli, in northeast Syria. "Whatever your need is they fill it, just so you become Shiite." The Syrian government didn't respond to requests to comment. But for Mr. Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, Iran's conversion and resettlement campaign is less about tipping the sectarian scales and more about settling its debt to one of its main military backers in the country's conflict. "For Assad, it's a way to repay the Iranians and to make sure they won't let them down," said the person involved in U.S. intelligence operations in the region. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said his country's humanitarian efforts have no ulterior motive. "No one seeks to carry out religious propaganda and creating religious conflicts," he said. "Iran's efforts are fully in line with creating a peaceful climate necessary for calm and helping these people for their most basic needs." Residents from Deir Ezzour province liken Iran's strategy of wooing the younger generation to the same tactics of indoctrination once used by Islamic State. "Just like ISIS gave religious lessons to children after prayers, they are doing the same thing," said a father of two school-aged children, who said his village is now under control of Iranian militias. Many of his family and friends have converted to the Shiite sec
[Marxism] How Trump is on track for a 2020 landslide - POLITICO
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[Marxism] Down with the Israeli Attack on Gaza!
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. * A pro-Palestinian statement from Israel https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/down-with-the-israeli-attack-on-gaza/ -- Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG (Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net) www.rkob.net ak...@rkob.net Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314 --- Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _ 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
