Re: [Marxism] Bus workers union leader in Tehran

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> On Dec 19, 2017, at 6:14 AM, John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Is it possible for this to be raised in any unions and messages of protest
> sent?

FYI: 
http://www.itfglobal.org/en/news-events/press-releases/2017/august/itf-deeply-concerned-over-renewed-detention-of-iranian-trade-unionist/
 



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Re: [Marxism] Denzel Washington: ‘Criminal-In-Chief’ Obama ‘Tore Heart Out Of America’ – USA PRIDE

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> On Jan 22, 2018, at 12:07 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> http://www.usaprides.com/2018/01/10/denzel-washington-criminal-in-chief-obama-tore-heart-out-of-america/
>  
> 

Lol. Unimpeachable source there. This is from the same website:

Sylvester Stallone: ‘Pathetic’ Obama Is ‘Closet Homosexual Living A Lie’

Barack Obama is a “closet homosexual” who has “lived his whole pathetic life as 
a lie” according to Sylvester Stallone, who says “I have nothing against homos, 
but I can’t stand liars.”

“Everybody who is anybody in Chicago knows all about the real Barack Obama,” 
Stallone said on the set of Creed 2. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Chicago and 
the stories you hear about that guy – wow. It just disturbs me and concerns me 
that we had a liar and a fraud in control for eight years.“

Referring to President Trump’s “refreshing honesty“, Stallone said “At least we 
can trust the guy we have in there now. We know where we stand with him. With 
Obama we had a snake oil salesman, a total actor, working against our 
interests.”

http://www.usaprides.com/2018/01/14/sylvester-stallone-pathetic-obama-is-closet-homosexual-living-a-lie/

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Re: [Marxism] Denzel Washington: ‘Criminal-In-Chief’ Obama ‘Tore Heart Out Of America’ – USA PRIDE

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> On Jan 22, 2018, at 1:10 PM, MM  wrote:
> 
>> On Jan 22, 2018, at 12:07 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>> mailto:marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> http://www.usaprides.com/2018/01/10/denzel-washington-criminal-in-chief-obama-tore-heart-out-of-america/
>>  
>> 
And judging by the gazillion utterly credulous comments that piece has 
received, the one you posted the other day by Zeynap Tufekci seems dead on:

https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-issue-tech-turmoil-new-censorship/ 


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[Marxism] Who profits from the war in Afrin? - The Region

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"Turkey has been a leading international partner of Defence & Security 
Equipment International (DSEI), one of the world’s biggest arms fair, since 
2003. The role of Turkey in the world arm industry peaked when Kurdish 
civilians were being massacred during military operations in Kurdish populated 
eastern cities in 2015. In that very same year, while curfews were being 
administrated by the Turkish Armed Forces in the east, Turkey sent a large 
delegation to the DSEI fair. Turkey’s weapons maker Roketsan – a component of 
the Turkish Armed Forces – signed a contract with Lockheed Martin, the largest 
arms company in the world, to develop a new F-35 fighter jet missile for the 
United States armed forces.

“During those times, Turkey’s armoury was non-domestic and non-national. 
President Erdogan insisted that this ought to be overcome, and made explicit 
his goal “to completely rid the defence industry of foreign dependency by 
2023". This was also publicly announced in the media to motivate his supporters 
who could, in turn, help him gain more power against ‘foreign enemies’ as well 
as the so-called Kurdish ‘threats’ inside the country. But to be able to do 
that, Turkey would need to increase its capacity on arms exports, rather than 
arms imports.

"Since then, Turkey and Turkish-owned arms company Nurol have gone into 
partnership with British-owned defence giant BAE Systems to develop a new 
generation of fighter jets.

"During the negotiations, Turkey vehemently insisted on a maximum technology 
transfer, with full access to all source codes which would enable Ankara to 
make future modifications and upgrades on the aircraft. The Turkish government 
also demanded that only Turkish engineers and scientists be employed in 
aerodynamic design, body and engine production. Turkey even insisted on having 
access to all electronic, weapons and communications systems and if that wasn’t 
enough, they demanded a monopoly over flight tests as well.

"Despite the objections of the DSEI, Turkey achieved its requests, evidenced by 
the Turkish engineers and scientists who directly work on these weapons 
projects. Thus, the state-funded arms companies in Turkey have developed their 
own high technology war industry. Turkey is now on its way to producing its own 
planes, ships, tanks and now armed drones, usually in partnership with some of 
the world’s leading military companies.

...

"Every missile fired by Turkish Armed Forces and every tear gas capsule fired 
by Turkish police provide cash for Erdogan’s family and close supporters."


http://theregion.org/article/12608-who-profits-from-the-war-in-afrin 


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[Marxism] "Truth Decay" - Zeynep Tufekci and the Rand Corporation

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If comrades have not read the piece by Zeynep Tufekci that Louis posted a 
couple of weeks ago, they really should. Here’s the link again:

https://www.wired.com/story/free-speech-issue-tech-turmoil-new-censorship/ 


It turns out the Rand Corporation has undertaken a substantial piece of 
research on essentially the same issue (differing class loyalties 
notwithstanding), which was published around the same time as Tufekci’s piece. 
From the release:

“Over the past two decades, national political and civil discourse in the 
United States has been characterized by "Truth Decay," defined as a set of four 
interrelated trends: an increasing disagreement about facts and analytical 
interpretations of facts and data; a blurring of the line between opinion and 
fact; an increase in the relative volume, and resulting influence, of opinion 
and personal experience over fact; and lowered trust in formerly respected 
sources of factual information. These trends have many causes, but this report 
focuses on four: characteristics of human cognitive processing, such as 
cognitive bias; changes in the information system, including social media and 
the 24-hour news cycle; competing demands on the education system that diminish 
time spent on media literacy and critical thinking; and polarization, both 
political and demographic. The most damaging consequences of Truth Decay 
include the erosion of civil discourse, political paralysis, alienation and 
disengagement of individuals from political and civic institutions, and 
uncertainty over national policy.

“This report explores the causes and consequences of Truth Decay and how they 
are interrelated, and examines past eras of U.S. history to identify evidence 
of Truth Decay's four trends and observe similarities with and differences from 
the current period. It also outlines a research agenda, a strategy for 
investigating the causes of Truth Decay and determining what can be done to 
address its causes and consequences.”

From here (where you can also download the full report):

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2314.html 


When Zeynep Tufekci and the Rand Corporation are raising alarm bells about 
essentially the same thing, and invoking similar proximate causes for it, I 
think one can be assured that they’re both onto something pretty significant.
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Re: [Marxism] Compulsory Veils? Half of Iranians Say ‘No’ to Pillar of Revolution

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> On Feb 5, 2018, at 7:39 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> The office of Iran’s president on Sunday charged into the middle of one of 
> the most contentious debates over the character of the Islamic Republic, 
> suddenly releasing a three-year-old report showing that nearly half of 
> Iranians wanted an end to the requirement that women cover their heads in 
> public.


Well at least now we know where the missing $800 million from the Defense 
Logistics Agency ended up: they’ve been bribing 49.8% of Iranians to pretend to 
support the separation of church and state as part of their latest 
regime-change operation. It’s all going according to plan. And it only cost us 
$20 a head — quite a bargain as regime change operations go.

More seriously: I can hardly wait to see how the “anti-imperialist” 
islamophobes are going to try to spin their way out of this one.
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Re: [Marxism] Chris Hedges and Identity Politics

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> On Feb 7, 2018, at 6:58 PM, Jeff via Marxism  
> wrote:
> 
> On 2018-02-07 23:10, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:
>> 
>> But that's in the past. Hedges' being in the Putin/Assad camp tells me that
>> he has absolutely nothing useful to offer.
> 
> I am very sympathetic to John's reaction. But I can't quite endorse the logic 
> and implications of that statement.


Also deeply, viscerally sympathetic to John’s reaction, but also agree with 
Jeff.

I’ve always found Tony Cliff’s thoughts on this frustratingly helpful:

"You can stand on a picket line and next to you is a worker who makes racist 
comments. You can do one of three things. You can say, “I’m not standing with 
him on a picket line. I’m going home because there no one makes racist 
comments.” That is sectarianism because if “the emancipation of the working 
class is the act of the working class” I have to stand with him on a picket 
line.

“The other possibility is simply avoiding the question. Someone makes a racist 
comment and you pretend you haven’t heard and you say, “The weather is quite 
nice today!” That’s opportunism.

“The third position is that you argue with this person against racism, against 
the prevailing ideas of the ruling class. You argue and argue. If you convince 
him, excellent. But if you don’t, still when the scab lorry comes you link arms 
to stop the scabs because “the emancipation of the working class is the act of 
the working class.””

https://www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/works/2000/millennium/chap02.htm 


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[Marxism] Did Russian meddling swing the election? Does it matter?

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I take it as basically established beyond reasonable doubt that the Russian 
government or proxies took various actions with the purpose of influencing the 
outcome of the 2016 election, and of influencing U.S. political discourse more 
broadly — particularly to exacerbate social divisions and undermine people’s 
ability to know what is true. As I understand it, those efforts took place 
along three distinct trajectories:

1. hacking of sensitive / strategically important computers and strategic 
release of any goods obtained (e.g., Podesta emails)
2. targeted political advertisements on FB and maybe elsewhere (as reported on)
3. use of fake profiles on social media to plant stories, shape narratives, 
drive trends; these were either managed by actual humans or driven by AI bots

There may be some overlap between the second and third — the fake profiles were 
used to purchase ads — but the distinction seems worth making since a lot of 
the activity under number 3 seems to have been unrelated to 2.

I take it as similarly established that people connected to the Trump campaign 
most likely cooperated or colluded with them. Others might be interested in 
debating that; I’m not. If it isn’t true, I’ll eventually learn something that 
will change my opinion (since I don’t have a problem admitting when I’m wrong). 
But if there is exculpatory evidence like that in existence, I don’t think it’s 
public yet, so I don’t think it’s worth spending time on.

It also seems pretty clear to me that those efforts have had at least some 
impact on U.S. political debate, that they have succeeded to some degree in 
exacerbating existing divisions, and generally making a bunch of people who 
were already laboring under considerable misinformation and maleducation even 
less able to draw sound conclusions about what is true and what isn’t. Again, 
probably not worth debating at the moment, and I’m not interested in doing so.

What I’m far less sure about is whether those actions actually materially 
influenced the outcome of the election. And frankly I’m also a bit mystified 
that I haven’t seen anyone from the ranks of the establishment make what seems 
to me like an obvious point: that even if Russian meddling didn’t materially 
affect the outcome, the existence of the attempted collusion itself would leave 
Trump completely, fundamentally, radically compromised. It would invalidate 
whatever electoral mandate he might otherwise have claimed (since you can’t 
claim to have been legitimately elected if you didn’t tell the people who voted 
for you that you were colluding with a foreign power to influence the outcome 
of the election when they did so).

My question is this: Does anyone know what is the best available analysis of 
the likely impacts of those efforts on the election outcome? Of course, the 
mainstream “liberal” media and “intelligentsia" take it for granted that Trump 
won because of those efforts. A fair number of people on the left snearingly 
dismiss the possibility as ridiculous. Again, it seems to me pretty well 
established that there’s a huge problem either way — both for U.S. elites who 
are not well aligned with Trump, and for the rest of us, although for different 
reasons. Although I’m fully convinced of the attempt, I’m actually somewhat 
disinclined to believe it had a decisive impact on the result, although I 
certainly don’t rule it out. But I’d like to know more.
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Re: [Marxism] Did Russian meddling swing the election? Does it matter?

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> On Feb 26, 2018, at 11:13 PM, Mark Lause  wrote:
> 
> I tend to think the entire issue as much more important than we tend to 
> credit it. (But I tended to think that we underestimated the importance of 
> the impeachment question on Nixon, too.)  Although we can only guess based on 
> what we know, Trump's behavior makes him look guilty as hell, and I'd bet 
> that Mueller has serious evidence against him . . . and is currently working 
> to make the case watertight.


I agree with you that the issue as important — I think it’s incredibly 
important, no matter whether the outcome of the election was affected. I also 
tried to make clear that it seems to me beyond serious questions that Trump is 
guilty.

What I don’t understand is why the debate over it — at least, everything I’ve 
seen — has focused almost exclusively on whether it made a difference in the 
outcome of the election. Maddow et al take it as given — all legally obligatory 
caveats being observed — that the reason Trump’s seemingly obvious collusion is 
a problem is that it swung the election. Doug Henwood, for instance, talks like 
it’s mostly irrelevant because it couldn’t have done so. I’d like to read the 
best analysis that’s been done on its likely impact on the actual outcome of 
the election — mainly to know how to respond to people who make either Maddow’s 
or Henwood’s kinds of arguments. I do think it’s a big deal, no matter which of 
them is closer to the truth.
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Re: [Marxism] Putin takes aim at West with new array of Russian nuclear weapons that can't be intercepted

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> On Mar 1, 2018, at 10:02 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> We are fucked.

Thought experiment:

Which was the last calendar year in which we were not fucked?

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Re: [Marxism] the 1986 plane crash that killed Mozambique's Samora Machel - accident or assassination?

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> On Mar 2, 2018, at 11:44 AM, Dennis Brasky via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> http://www.ozy.com/flashback/the-mysterious-plane-crash-that-shook-apartheid-era-southern-africa/83830
>  
> 

This piece leaves considerably more doubt about Machel’s assassination than I 
think is really warranted. For people I know who were close to events 
surrounding his death, this short documentary film from several years ago 
settled once and for all any lingering doubts or questions: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9RWHhw5ai4 
. (Disclosure: I know the 
filmmaker. His work is, in my estimation, unimpeachable.)
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Re: [Marxism] Getting Better All the Time? - The New York Times

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> On Mar 4, 2018, at 12:29 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Two asshole Panglosses get taken down in the NY Times but not nearly as 
> viciously as they deserve:
> 
> Steven Pinker:
> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/books/review/steven-pinker-enlightenment-now.html
>  
> 
“Taken down”? Here’s how the Pinker review ends:

"Steven Pinker’s book is full of vigor and vim, and it sets out to inspire a 
similar energy in its readers.

"He cites one study of “negativity bias” that says a critic who pans a book “is 
perceived as more competent than a critic who praises it.” I will just have to 
take that risk: “Enlightenment Now” strikes me as an excellent book, lucidly 
written, timely, rich in data and eloquent in its championing of a rational 
humanism that is — it turns out — really  quite cool.”

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[Marxism] It’s time to give socialism a try - The Washington Post

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WaPo publishes (or at least allows to be published) an intelligent (if 
imperfect and incomplete) call for socialism:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-to-give-socialism-a-try/2018/03/06/c603a1b6-2164-11e8-86f6-54bfff693d2b_story.html
 


We are living in unusual times.

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Re: [Marxism] ‘The Game Done Changed’: Reconsidering ‘The Wire’ Amidst the Baltimore Uprising | The Nation

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> On Mar 12, 2018, at 10:25 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://www.thenation.com/article/game-done-changed-reconsidering-wire-amidst-baltimore-uprising/
>  
> 

This is another outstanding piece from Dave Zirin, and yet more confirmation 
that he is indeed “our most important sportswriter.”

It’s also a pretty powerful confirmation that there’s a lot wrong with “The 
Wire,” over and above all of the things that are wrong with David Simon.

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Re: [Marxism] The letter that Max Blumenthal’s lawyer sent to SPLC | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

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> On Mar 14, 2018, at 8:51 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://louisproyect.org/2018/03/15/the-letter-that-max-blumenthals-lawyer-sent-to-splc/
>  
> 

SPLC’s “explanation and apology":

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/09/update-multipolar-spin-how-fascists-operationalize-left-wing-resentment
 


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Re: [Marxism] How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions - The New York Times

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> On Mar 17, 2018, at 10:03 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> (It was not Putin who gave us Trump but an American reactionary billionaire.)


Not sure why Louis thinks these would be mutually exclusive causal factors, 
even if there were no record of links between them. And although such links may 
not yet have been robustly demonstrated, there’s been a fair amount of 
reporting suggesting they exist, e.g.:

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/211152/trump-data-analytics-russian-access
 


https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/01/19/more-evidence-of-a-connection-between-russia-and-cambridge-analytica/
 


In any case, Facebook has just “suspended” CA:

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/technology/378892-facebook-suspends-trump-linked-firm-cambridge-analytica
 



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Re: [Marxism] Christopher Wylie: Facebook account suspended, along with Dr. Aleksandr Hogan's and parent company of Cambridge Analytica - CBS News

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> On Mar 18, 2018, at 9:58 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christopher-wylie-cambridge-analytica-facebook-account-suspended/
>  
> 

Worth watching the embedded video from UK Channel 4 with interviews with Wylie 
here:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/17/1749859/-Cambridge-Analytica-Whistleblower-C-A-has-done-a-lot-of-harm-to-the-Democratic-Process
 



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[Marxism] Cambridge Analytica and Russian Bots Used the Same Strategy

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One of the big stories over the weekend was about the fact that the Trump 
campaign’s data firm, Cambridge Analytica, stole the Facebook data of millions 
of people in order to psychologically profile them for targeting.

The firm had secured a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer, the wealthy 
Republican donor, and wooed his political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, with the 
promise of tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and 
influence their behavior. But it did not have the data to make its new products 
work.

So the firm harvested private information from the Facebook profiles of more 
than 50 million users without their permission, according to former Cambridge 
employees, associates and documents, making it one of the largest data leaks in 
the social network’s history. The breach allowed the company to exploit the 
private social media activity of a huge swath of the American electorate, 
developing techniques that underpinned its work on President Trump’s campaign 
in 2016.

I’ll have more to say about all of that later, but in digging into this story, 
I found a very interesting connection. What Mueller and his team of 
investigators will be interested in is whether or not there was a connection 
between this voter profiling with the kind of intrusion into social media he 
has already included in recent indictments of Russians.

One clue that might merely be coincidence is the timing. Here is what we learn 
from the indictment:

Starting at least in or around 2014, Defendants and their co-conspirators began 
to track and study groups on U.S. social media sites dedicated to U.S. politics 
and social issues. In order to gauge the performance of various groups on 
social media sites, the ORGANIZATION tracked certain metrics like the group’s 
size, the frequency of content placed by the group, and the level of audience 
engagement with that content, such as the average number of comments or 
responses to a post.

According to Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower who is 
the main source for the article linked above, he met Steve Bannon in the fall 
of 2013 and by 2014 their work was underway.

But there is another confluence of events that is even more interesting. Back 
in October 2016, just days before the election, Joshua Green and Sasha 
Issenberg did some reporting on the Trump campaign and the work of Cambridge 
Analytica in particular. Here is how they described their strategy at the time:

Instead of expanding the electorate, Bannon and his team are trying to shrink 
it. “We have three major voter suppression operations under way,” says a senior 
official. They’re aimed at three groups Clinton needs to win overwhelmingly: 
idealistic white liberals, young women, and African Americans…

On Oct. 24, Trump’s team began placing spots on select African American radio 
stations. In San Antonio, a young staffer showed off a South Park-style 
animation he’d created of Clinton delivering the “super predator” line (using 
audio from her original 1996 sound bite), as cartoon text popped up around her: 
“Hillary Thinks African Americans are Super Predators.” The animation will be 
delivered to certain African American voters through Facebook “dark 
posts”—nonpublic posts whose viewership the campaign controls so that, as 
Parscale puts it, “only the people we want to see it, see it.” The aim is to 
depress Clinton’s vote total. “We know because we’ve modeled this,” says the 
official. “It will dramatically affect her ability to turn these people out.”

Those Facebook “dark posts” seem to be a favorite tool used by Parscale and the 
Cambridge Analytica consultants. I’d bet that we haven’t even seen the tip of 
the iceberg in terms of how those were used during the campaign. But compare 
the above to what the Mueller investigation included in their indictment of the 
Russian bots.

In or around the latter half of 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators, 
through their ORGANIZATION-controlled personas, began to encourage U.S. 
minority groups not to vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election or to vote 
for a third-party U.S. presidential candidate.

In other words, in the final stages of the 2016 election, both the Trump 
campaign and the Russian bots engaged in a voter suppression strategy with core 
Clinton supporters. Is it possible that was merely a coincidence? You tell me.


https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/03/19/cambridge-analytica-and-russian-bots-used-the-same-strategy/
 


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[Marxism] Robert Mercer’s Secret Adventure as a New Mexico Cop

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Robert Mercer really likes guns:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-28/robert-mercer-s-secret-adventure-as-a-new-mexico-cop
 



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[Marxism] Gun rights are about keeping white men on top - The Washington Post

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"Many of the individual laws that restricted the right to bear arms along 
racial lines remained on the books in various forms throughout the antebellum 
period. Even after the Civil War, when slavery ended and the 14th Amendment 
guaranteed equal protection under the law to African Americans, white men did 
their utmost to ensure that gun ownership remained their prerogative. The Ku 
Klux Klan was notorious for, among many other things, confiscating weapons 
owned by newly minted black U.S. citizens, and prohibiting black gun ownership 
became a pillar of Jim Crow legislation.

"Even with the advances of the civil rights movement in the 20th century and 
the end of Jim Crow, the prohibition on black gun ownership remains a de facto 
feature of modern-day law enforcement practice. When Black Panther Party 
members in California armed themselves in the 1960s to patrol communities 
abandoned by local law enforcement, the State Assembly passed legislation 
repealing an earlier law that allowed the open carry of firearms (a move the 
National Rifle Association supported). The 2015 police shooting of Philando 
Castile, who was killed in Minnesota as he followed proper protocol by 
announcing he had a legal handgun in his vehicle, is but the most notable 
example in recent years of the criminalization of legal black gun ownership. 
The fact that the NRA, an organization eager to join the fray at the slightest 
hint that gun rights might be infringed upon, did nothing in response to his 
death reveals its assumption that gun ownership is a white domain.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/03/09/gun-rights-are-about-keeping-white-men-on-top/
 




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Re: [Marxism] Newsbud versus Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

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> On Mar 30, 2018, at 2:51 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> full: 
> https://louisproyect.org/2018/03/30/newsbud-versus-vanessa-beeley-and-eva-bartlett/
>  
> 

It’s especially interesting to see Corbett coming out against Edmonds — they 
have collaborated fairly closely for many years. 
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Re: [Marxism] Harvard officials allegedly stole $110, 000 meant for students with disabilities - CSMonitor.com

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> On Mar 31, 2018, at 7:08 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2017/0301/Harvard-officials-allegedly-stole-110-000-meant-for-students-with-disabilities
>  
> 

Can we say, "Off with their heads!” without getting put on a list? Asking for a 
friend.
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Re: [Marxism] The Clear Connection Between Slavery And American Capitalism

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> On Apr 5, 2018, at 9:42 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> When I was young, this magazine used to bill itself as the "Capitalist Tool". 
> Now it has first-rate journalism from a left perspective.

Who would have imagined that outlets like Forbes and Teen Vogue would become 
sources of analysis that increasingly competes with - and maybe even 
occasionally beats - the likes of Jacobin and Verso? We’re living through 
bizarre times.

More seriously, though: How would one account for this phenomenon in 
materialist terms? Serious question. Are these symptoms of an unravelling 
ideological hegemony? Or indications of a deeper, tectonic - and maybe only 
nascent - reconfiguration of competing ruling class interests? It’s 
fascinating, but I’m at a loss.
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Re: [Marxism] exchange with Assadist

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> On Apr 6, 2018, at 10:16 PM, John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> However, he's getting a lot of pressure from the military
> establishment, the Israel lobby and the newly revived Neocons (one in the
> same?), to continue the war in Syria until Assad is removed and a puppet
> leader, suitable to us, Israel and Saudi Arabia, is installed.

“Suitable to us”? 

I think cde Gene has a guilty conscience. 
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Re: [Marxism] bellingcat - Open Source Survey of Alleged Chemical Attacks in Douma on 7th April 2018 - bellingcat

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> On Apr 12, 2018, at 8:28 AM, Greg McDonald via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Over on social media a prominent Green wrote, in response to my posting the
> article above, that since it is based on reports from white helmets it is
> not a credible objective source. I had my own response to that crap but
> since I’m not up on the white helmets controversy I’m interested in how
> well informed members of this group would respond.

Quote:

This report sets out fresh evidence of Russia’s campaign to mislead the public 
and undermine democratic institutions around the world. It reveals how the 
Russian government is  conducting a major multi-pronged propaganda campaign to 
spread false information about Syria’s humanitarian workers in an effort to 
cover up its role in some of the most heinous war crimes of our time.

New research shows that bots and trolls linked to Russia have reached an 
estimated 56 million people with tweets attacking Syria’s search and rescue 
organisation, the Syria Civil Defence – also known as the White Helmets – 
during ten key moments of 2016 and 2017.

Many of these smears are linked to efforts to promote false information about 
the sarin chemical attack of April 2017 in Khan Sheikhoun, which UN 
investigators concluded were carried out by Russia’s ally, the Syrian 
government of Bashar al-Assad.

…

The White Helmets are being killed for daring to operate outside the control of 
the Syrian regime and showing the world what is happening in Syria. Two hundred 
and ten volunteers have been killed since 2013 at the time of writing. Their 
centres and teams of volunteers have been hit by missiles, barrel bombs and 
artillery bombardment 238 times in just over 18 months between June 2016 and 
December 2017.

As frontline humanitarians, they are protected by International Humanitarian 
Law. Although they work exclusively in areas outside of government control, 
they have saved lives from all sides of the conflict, including that of 
government soldiers.

False accusations, abusive language and violent threats all chip away at the 
volunteers’ morale. However the vicious smearing of the White Helmets, 
especially false terrorism claims, are designed to undermine the evidence they 
collect and legitimise their killing.

Blogger Vanessa Beeley, at the heart of this Russian-backed disinformation 
campaign, has stated repeatedly in public that these humanitarians can be 
legally killed. “White Helmets are not getting it. We know they are terrorists. 
Makes them a legit target,” she said on Twitter.

…

The report finds:

• Online smears have received the highest state backing from Russia. Official 
channels RT and news site Sputnik News have repeatedly hosted fringe bloggers 
at the heart of the disinformation campaign, such as Vanessa Beeley

• Russia submitted a report by Beeley entitled “The White Helmets: fact or 
fiction” to the UN Security Council as evidence against the group

• Beeley and some of her followers are part of a cluster of users that tend to 
retweet the same critical content simultaneously – a solid indication of a 
coordinated disinformation campaign

• Fifty percent of the accounts analysed appear in at least one other Russian 
disinformation campaign, while 11 are on a public list of accounts known to be 
controlled by the most famous of Russian troll farms, the Internet Research 
Agency.


Full 46-page report available for download here: 
https://diary.thesyriacampaign.org/killing-the-truth/ 


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Re: [Marxism] They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption - The New York Times

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> On Apr 17, 2018, at 12:41 AM, Michael Yates via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> One of the most disgusting things the ANC, including Nelson Mandela, did was 
> their treatment of Winnie Mandela. She fought tooth and nail to get her 
> husband out of prison. And she never abandoned her commitment to a radical 
> transformation of South Africa. She was bold, outspoken, and unafraid. Yet 
> Nelson Mandela was hardly out of his prison clothes than he threw her under 
> the bus. He move steadily to the right, and he had to know of the grotesque 
> corruption of the ANC. How could he not have known? Winnie was accused of 
> myriad crimes, including murder. Only the people knew she was true to the 
> cause. She is the true hero in that marriage. I suppose that some will say, 
> as they said about Syriza, well, that is the best that could have been done. 
> To which I say, bullshit. Like Zapata, said, better to die on your feet than 
> live on your knees.

Sean Jacobs’ piece in Jacobin on Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela is 
essential reading for those interested in her life and legacy:

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/04/winnie-madikizela-mandela-anc-funeral-legacy 


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Re: [Marxism] Syria Controversy: Who Supports Assad in the Civil War?

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> On Apr 24, 2018, at 3:24 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> The direct link to Blumenthal's screed (the link under "here" didn't work).

You have to wonder whether Max is even vaguely aware of the contradiction 
between the title of his piece — "Syria Controversy: Don't Believe the Official 
Narrative” — and this self-promoting schlock from his accompanying biography:

"Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose 
articles and video documentaries have appeared in The New York Times, The Los 
Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Nation, The Guardian, The Independent Film 
Channel, The Huffington Post, Salon.com, Al Jazeera English and many other 
publications.”

Translation: “You should believe me because I’ve written for all these 
prestigious outlets — just don’t believe what they tell you about Syria.”

What an ass.

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Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] Sure, Unemployment Went Down - Because More People Left The Workforce

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> On May 7, 2018, at 10:43 AM, Michael Meeropol via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> the business press has ALWAYS been more honest —

Indeed. The business press is intended for the business class, not the plebs, 
and the business class needs to know what’s actually going on, not just the 
cover story. The NYTimes is responsible for the latter.



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[Marxism] We read every one of the 3, 517 Facebook ads bought by Russians. Their dominant strategy: Sowing racial discord

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"The Russian company charged with orchestrating a wide-ranging effort to meddle 
in the 2016 presidential election overwhelmingly focused its barrage of social 
media advertising on what is arguably America’s rawest political division: race.

"The roughly 3,500 Facebook ads were created by the Russian-based Internet 
Research Agency, which is at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 
February indictment of 13 Russians and three companies seeking to influence the 
election.

"While some ads focused on topics as banal as business promotion or Pokémon, 
the company consistently promoted ads designed to inflame race-related 
tensions. Some dealt with race directly; others dealt with issues fraught with 
racial and religious baggage such as ads focused on protests over policing, the 
debate over a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and relationships with the 
Muslim community."


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/05/11/what-we-found-facebook-ads-russians-accused-election-meddling/602319002/
 


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[Marxism] How Right is the Left? | Eurozine

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“The remarkable feature of the geopolitical turn in the western Left is the 
degree of its overlapping with the agenda of the far-right. Its most obvious 
appearance is the whole set of unifying concepts of the enemy. Those are United 
States, NATO, European Union, ‘corrupted’ elites and so forth. Although there 
are notable exceptions both on the Left and on the Right, anti-Americanism and 
Euroscepticism became a predominant trend on the both sides. Particularly 
noteworthy is the general correlation between the degree of anti-Americanism 
and anti-Semitism. The more anti-Americanism becomes the central part of the 
worldview, the clearer it shows its anti-Semitic connotations. As judged 
against the backdrop of the situation in Germany, this applies to the far Left 
at least as much as to the far Right. It is important not only to state their 
common enemies, but also to investigate the criteria used for their selection. 
I would argue that the bonding substance of this construct is anti-liberalism.

“This is not solely about hatred of the United States. As we can judge by the 
German Left, even hardened anti-Americanists were able to change their stance 
as soon as the White House was overtaken by an outspoken anti-liberal. The fact 
that this could be justified by some ‘geopolitical’ considerations only attests 
that the new turn in the western Left is not about geopolitics at all.

“The same applies to Russia. For the western Left the country was, under 
Yeltsin, not an inspiration. The true excitement was triggered first by 
Russia’s military adventures abroad, justified (and cheerfully accepted by the 
Left) as a part of the grand battle against western expansionism. The crucial 
thing is that, both in the case of Ukraine and Syria, Russia fought 
pro-democratic revolts aimed at bringing down dictatorship and defending civil 
liberties. It is no accident that the western Left was not moved by the Chechen 
war, although it was even more brutal than the both the war in Syria and 
Ukraine and could be somehow defended from the standpoint of international law 
(as far as Russia, still being an empire, at least acted within its 
internationally recognized boarders). We can be quite sure that if and when 
Russia becomes a normal, democratic and peaceful state it will also cease to be 
an inspiration for the international radical Left.

“The ‘geopolitical nature’ of the sympathies and aversions of this new 
red-brown coalition is determined by the single factor of anti-liberalism. 
‘Red-brown alliance’ is not a term which everyone will like. How legitimate it 
is? The alliance to which I refer is not limited to content-related overlaps, 
but has reached a degree of coordinated action. German leftists’ support of the 
rightwing detachments like Prizrak would be just one of many examples for such 
direct cooperation.” 


https://www.eurozine.com/how-right-is-the-left/
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Re: [Marxism] Trump Is Fulfilling Russia’s Dream of Splitting the Western Alliance

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> On Jun 8, 2018, at 2:03 PM, A.R. G via Marxism  
> wrote:
> 
> I wonder if others on the list might weigh in on the implications in this
> article that Trump, by stupidity or by design, is a player in this
> allegedly Duginist, pro-Russian plot.

I doubt it’s possible to know whether Trump’s involvement is by stupidity or by 
design — and I’m inclined to think that distinction breaks down when it finds 
itself in proximity to Trump — but I continue to be surprised that anyone 
claiming to be on the left has doubts about Putin’s / Dugin’s strategy of 
dividing the West. I have to wonder what people think his strategic objectives 
could possibly be, if not that.

Of course, that doesn’t negate the fact that the reaction to Putin’s strategy 
from the US ruling elite can only be described as hysterical.

But it’s kind of stunning that anyone on the left could see Russian plotting 
and Western hysteria as mutually exclusive, or even in tension.

The Atlantic just published something that traces a significant trajectory of 
Kremlin influence over Trump, via Manafort, that few people on the left have 
paid much attention to, despite an extensive body of evidence:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/the-astonishing-tale-of-the-man-mueller-calls-person-a/562217/
 


And here’s an interview with Wahid Azal, who knows both Dugin and the smelly 
esoteric milieu from which Dugin was spawned, in which he eventually gets 
around to explaining how undermining Western alliances serves Dugin’s goal of a 
new imperial “Eurasianism” (and which is worth listening to despite Azal’s 
obvious biases and weak politics):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rj6Aj6n-HM 


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[Marxism] Watch Putin Squirm

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Fascinating interview by Austrian journalist Armin Wolf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eombUQtyYiE 


Wolf is prepared, merciless and persistent, and does an excellent job coaxing 
Putin into exposing himself as the arrogant liar and shameless opportunist that 
he is. And the strain seems to be a bit too much even for Putin; his body 
language is particularly damning, and it’s hard not to think that fact will be 
obvious even to him when he reviews the tape.

Sadly most of the comments indicate how widespread the craving for blustery 
authoritarian rule is.
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Re: [Marxism] truckers' strikes

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> On Jun 16, 2018, at 1:12 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> In the last month there have been nationwide truckers' strikes in Brazil,
> China, Iran and Argentina.
> Have I missed any?

It was reported a couple of weeks ago that truckers in India were threatening 
to strike from this coming Monday:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/diesel-price-increase-truckers-body-to-go-on-strike-from-june-18/articleshow/64425464.cms
 

 


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Re: [Marxism] Opinion | The Millennial Socialists Are Coming - The New York Times

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> On Jul 1, 2018, at 6:41 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> We've come a long way from what Max Horkheimer once wrote:
> 
> "a revolutionary career does not lead to banquets and honorary titles, 
> interesting research and professorial wages. It leads to misery, disgrace, 
> ingratitude, prison and a voyage into the unknown, illuminated by only an 
> almost superhuman belief.”

It seems most likely that most of the dreams of most of those who are currently 
elated will eventually be crushed. But if the message of the hour is “This 
almost certainly isn’t going to work,” then surely it’s fair to ask whether the 
people who need to hear that message are more likely to hear it, and draw the 
right lessons, from people who’ve rolled up their sleeves and are down in the 
trench digging alongside them—with nothing but “an almost superhuman belief” to 
keep them going—or from people standing on the high road above them, looking 
down with a battle-weary and well-footnoted sneer.

Misery indeed. Oh, but for a little company.

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[Marxism] Neo-Nazis Flee Minnesota Capitol After Being Shut Out by Union Members and Anti-Fascists - IT'S GOING DOWN

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"The Twin Cities General Defense Committee led a “Rally against the Advocates 
of Race War” on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol was an unqualified 
success. We achieved all of our goals and then some. We denied a platform to 
the neo-Nazi, fascist, and white supremacist Alt-Right. This included our 
success in discouraging the Afrikkkaner neo-Nazi, Simon Roche, from even 
attending an event at which he was slated to speak. We drove a wedge between 
Trump supporters and those who are unambiguously members of the fascist right. 
We physically isolated the fascists and gave Trump supporters no choice but to 
choose which side they were on. This lead Drumpf organizers to publicly 
denounce these Nazis, separating themselves from the fascists who were 
attempting to organize their base. The successes of this action proves the 
strength in our movements.”


https://itsgoingdown.org/neo-nazis-flee-minnesota-capitol-after-being-shut-out-by-antifa/
 

 

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Re: [Marxism] Obama biography stirs controversy with tales of politics, sex and a rising star | US news | The Guardian

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> On May 7, 2017, at 6:30 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> … this book sounds like a must-read.

Surely there are cheaper emetics. I suspect this line provides all one could 
usefully glean from the book:

“While the crucible of self-creation had produced an ironclad will, the vessel 
was hollow at its core.” 

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[Marxism] Trump-Russia investiigation: Coverup is now part of it | McClatchy Washington Bureau

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"Investigators into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections are now 
also probing whether White House officials have engaged in a cover-up, 
according to members of Congress who were briefed Friday by Deputy Attorney 
General Rod Rosenstein.

"That avenue of investigation was added in recent weeks after assertions by 
former FBI Director James Comey that President Donald Trump had tried to 
dissuade him from pressing an investigation into the actions of Trump’s first 
national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, members of 
Congress said, though it was not clear whom that part of the probe might target.

"Even as members of Congress were mulling over the expansion of the case into 
possible cover-up, and its reclassification from counterintelligence to 
criminal, the scandal appeared to grow. The Washington Post reported Friday 
afternoon that federal investigators were looking at a senior White House 
official as a “significant person of interest.” The article did not identify 
the official, though it noted that the person was “someone close to the 
president.”"

Full: 
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article151565947.html
 


(NB: Clinton White House staffer Claude Taylor alleges that the “person of 
interest” is Jared K.)
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Re: [Marxism] We Know for Sure That Bread Is Unhealthy—for the Environment, at Least | Alternet

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> On May 31, 2017, at 9:36 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> The real takeaway from the article is the impact that nitrogen-based 
> fertilizer has on climate change.

On standard assumptions, NO2 contribution to warming is roughly 6% of total — 
not nothing, but small compared to that of CO2 and CH4:

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data 


CH4 (methane) is the greenhouse gas that urgently needs to be getting much more 
attention than it does, due to the combined impacts of the fracking boom (and 
the inherent impossibility of meaningfully controlling leaks from its sprawling 
supporting infrastructure) and the fact that the timescales conventionally used 
to estimate its contribution to warming are way off, seriously under-estimating 
its near- to mid-term effects:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-011-0061-5 


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Re: [Marxism] Trump and the Political Crisis for the US Capitalist Class

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> On Jun 1, 2017, at 10:34 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=13500 

A useful piece marred by this unhelpful slip: "With the developing anarchy in 
US capitalist politics…” 

What Reimann means is: "With the developing chaos in US capitalist politics…” 

Criticize the anarchists as much as you want, but don’t perpetuate their 
misrepresentation and slander by the forces of reaction.
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Re: [Marxism] British Capitalist Class, Corbyn and Momentum: Update from Britain

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> On Jul 9, 2017, at 1:40 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=13572 

Also worth noting Corbyn’s current polling:

"YouGov has released [pdf] its latest Westminster voting intention polling. And 
if you trust polls, it’s very good news for Labour. In line with the trend 
since the general election on 8 June, Labour is ahead. But the party under 
Corbyn has now set a new record; as the polling company has put Labour on 46% – 
its highest ever scoring in a YouGov poll.

"This now puts Labour 8% clear of the Tories (38%). But delve a little deeper, 
and the results make even better reading for Corbyn.”

From: 
https://www.thecanary.co/2017/07/07/jeremy-corbyn-just-set-new-record-labour-party-theresa-may-will-absolutely-furious/
 


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Re: [Marxism] MoA - Syria - The Alternet Grayzone Of Smug Turncoats - Blumenthal, Norton, Khalek

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> On Jul 11, 2017, at 2:41 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Heh-heh.
> 
> http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/07/syria-a-grayzone-of-opinionated-turncoats.html
>  
> 
Heh-heh indeed. They all deserve each other. I just wish they’d duke it out in 
a padded cell with no internet connection.

Mo[r]on of Alabama.

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Re: [Marxism] Bernie Sanders Obamacare Rally: Not Socialist | Fortune.com

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> On Jul 21, 2017, at 1:05 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Odd to see this in Fortune.

Nothing odd about this at all; the purpose of this piece is to distance Sanders 
from the term socialism and malign the latter—currently at record popularity 
among younger people—as “inextricably intertwined with the history of 
totalitarianism.” The stuff on banks reinforces this: they believe (or they 
want everyone else to believe) that socialism is necessarily centralized, 
top-down, monolithic, bureaucratic. 

The editors of Fortune magazine probably genuinely believe that capitalism can 
accommodate a fairly generous social democratic deal, if not now then in the 
fairly near future when the robots "really come into their own” (and if they 
don’t genuinely believe it, they believe it’s better if they pretend they do). 
Fortune also published a sympathetic piece on “universal basic income” a few 
weeks ago, and it helps make sense of this current one on Sanders and Obamacare:

Why Free Money for Everyone Is Silicon Valley’s Next Big Idea
http://fortune.com/2017/06/29/universal-basic-income-free-money-silicon-valley/ 


The editors of Fortune are happy to embrace welfare-stateism within the 
spectrum of possible capitalist dispensations. Of course, it's important to be 
“realistic” about what forms that can take—and they’re more than willing to be 
the judge of what’s “realistic," whenever that becomes necessary—but whatever 
you do, for heaven’s sake, don’t think sympathetically about “socialism.” All 
hell could break loose.
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Re: [Marxism] Trumka & Trump

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> On Aug 15, 2017, at 5:24 PM, John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Four or five corporate CEO's have resigned from Trump's Manufacturing
> Advisory Council out of protest against his de facto support for the white
> nationalists. Guess who's still on it: Rich Trumka, president of the
> AFL-CIO and Thea Lee, Trumka's chief of staff. So the corporate CEO's are
> more advanced than the AFL-CIO officials!~


Sam Stein on Twitter:

"NEW: AFL-CIO’s Trumka now “reassessing” his presence on Trump’s manufacturing 
council, his spox tells me"

https://twitter.com/samstein/status/897181199218749444

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Re: [Marxism] White Supremacist Support for Assad in Charlottesville (and Beyond) | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

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> On Aug 25, 2017, at 12:36 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://louisproyect.org/2017/08/25/white-supremacist-support-for-assad-in-charlottesville-and-beyond/
>  
> 


Good piece. One correction; you write:

“… and disaffection from the ANC in South Africa that had ordered cops to shoot 
17 striking workers to death in Marikana in 2012.”

Actually 34 killed, another 78 wounded:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marikana_killings 


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Re: [Marxism] Kap, Cops and Confederate Statues: a Better World Without Double Standards

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> On Sep 25, 2017, at 8:46 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> I don't know that much about Fotente but was struck by Serpico's praise of 
> the Black officer that asked him to speak at a rally for Kaepernick. What 
> would a left group do if a younger version of Serpico applied for membership? 
> Or this Black officer?


"CHICAGO — Two Chicago Police officers who kneeled while in uniform after being 
asked about President Donald Trump's blistering criticism of football players' 
decision to kneel during the National Anthem before games will be reprimanded, 
a department spokesman said Monday.”

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170925/englewood/police-officer-kneeling-protest-national-anthem
 


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Re: [Marxism] Callinicos: Syriza’s compromise won’t beat austerity

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On 29 Apr 2015, at 11:43 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
 wrote:

> On 4/29/15 5:18 PM, Dayne Goodwin via Marxism wrote:
>> The tactics pursued by the Syriza government are perfectly rational.
>> The deal Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis signed up to in
>> February committed it to continuing with the agreements made by
>> previous governments.
>> 
>> They included implementing neoliberal “reforms” and meeting debt
>> repayments in the hope of keeping money flowing in, particularly from
>> the European Central Bank (ECB) into the Greek banking system.
> 
> If this is the case, why does the bourgeois press continue to view Syriza as 
> an obstacle to its plans?

Erm… maybe to keep the pressure on the Greek - and by extension the global - 
working class? 

Or maybe you think the "bourgeois press" maintains a principled commitment to 
fairness and truthfulness?

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Re: [Marxism] Callinicos: Syriza’s compromise won’t beat austerity

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On 30 Apr 2015, at 12:43 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> If this was just about Greece, I'd say maybe so but Callinicos positions 
> himself in relationship to the governments of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and 
> Greece as a latter-day Trotsky in Coyoacan. In the 1930s at least the 
> Trotskyists had the excuse that Stalinist hegemony prevented them from 
> growing into mass parties, not that this was the sole problem. But what 
> exactly keeps Antarsya from becoming massive if it has the answers? 
> "Physician, heal thyself", Luke 4:23. 23.

I’m not defending Alex’s position, only pointing out that it’s perfectly 
consistent with continuing hostility towards Syriza from the mainstream press - 
especially given the dangers associated with a “good example” on the shores of 
Europe. That's essential to understand in order to appreciate the dilemma 
Tsipras et al face. And Alex isn’t the enemy.
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Re: [Marxism] My analysis of 2 contradictiry political messages in Rihanna; 's song "American Oxgyen"!

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On 02 May 2015, at 2:18 AM, Anthony Brain via Marxism 
 wrote:

> https://defendtrotskyism.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/why-rihannas-song-american-oxgyen-shows-the-potential-of-a-deepening-radicalziation-to-threaten-american-capitalism-despite-the-liberal-bourgeosie-using-the-song-to-contain-this-radicalziation/


There are valid insights here about the unfolding radicalisation of the 99+%, 
but I think your reading of the song and video involves a lot of wishful 
thinking. The gulf between the lylrics and the imagery is enormous, but the 
overall impression of the combination is an amorphous, depoliticised embrace of 
social tension as itself somehow a beautiful thing - a recasting of the 
"American Dream” from /actually getting ahead in life/, to /fighting against a 
repressive system in hopes of getting ahead/. It redeems police repression and 
war by making them vital, constitutive elements of the “New America”. Imagine 
how boring things would be without all this repression and imperial violence to 
fight against.

It’s a cunning ideological move by the ruling class, possibly buying them a few 
more months in which to loot in relative comfort and safety, before the methyl 
clathrates blow us all to hell.

She (more precisely, her producers) could have kept it much shorter:

“I love the smell of oppression in the morning.”


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[Marxism] Free Online Course: "Workers’ Rights in a Global Economy"

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GLU is offering a free online course on "Workers’ Rights in a Global Economy”: 
https://iversity.org/en/courses/workers-rights-in-a-global-economy 


Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u8dpMVfFh0 


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Re: [Marxism] misusing "civility"

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> On 08 May 2015, at 8:06 PM, George Snedeker via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> The May 4th issue of The Nation has a very good article by Joan Scott about 
> how college administrations are misusing the concept of civility to control 
> radical faculty. She gives several clear examples of this misuse of power. 
> Some faculty members buy into this logic. Civility is being used to limit 
> academic freedom including the denial of tenure. This article is a talk Scott 
> gave at the AAUP meeting.Some of the cases are shocking to say the least! 

Online here: http://www.thenation.com/article/204481/new-thought-police 


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Re: [Marxism] The Conference Manifesto - NYTimes.com

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> On 10 May 2015, at 8:09 PM, Ralph Johansen via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> … and when will I learn to shut up.

Please don’t.
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Re: [Marxism] Articles on migration - any recommendations?

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> On 20 May 2015, at 7:01 AM, Ken Hiebert via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> I am part of a discussion group that has decided to discuss migration,  
> sparked by the desperate attempts of people in Asia and the Mediterranean to 
> migrate.
> What articles would you recommend?

Hugely important topic. As a primer to the issues (not the politics), IOM’s 
2008 paper on "Migration and Climate Change":

http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2008/migration_climate.pdf 


I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I’m very confident Christian 
Parenti’s book Tropic of Chaos will be worth reading, and relevant:

http://www.christianparenti.com/tropic-of-chaos/ 



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Re: [Marxism] Query: "black bodies"

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> On 25 May 2015, at 4:20 AM, Joseph Catron via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> And I mean the common leftist euphemism for black people, not the
> theoretical electromagnetic devices.
> 
> Does anyone know the backstory of this odd wording: when and where it
> started, what the point was supposed to be, etc.?



I stand to be corrected, but I think the current usage traces most directly to 
Sander Gilman’s 1985 "Black bodies, white bodies: toward an iconography of 
female sexuality in late 19th-century art, medicine, and literature” 
(http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343468 ). 
Gilman hardly uses the phrase beyond the title, but the paper (and the phrase) 
became much more widely known through bell hooks’ reference to it in one 
chapter of her 1992 book, “Black Looks: Race and Representation” 
(http://www.amazon.com/Black-Looks-Representation-Bell-Hooks/dp/0896084337 
):

“Representations of black female bodies in contemporary popular culture rarely 
subvert or critique images of black female sexuality which were part of the 
cultural apparatus of 19th-century racism and which still shape perceptions 
today. Sander Gilman's essay, "Black Bodies, .' White Bodies: Toward an 
Iconography of Female Sexuality in Late Nineteenth-Century Art, Medicine, and 
Literature," calls attention to the way black presence in early North American 
society allowed whites to sexualize their world by projecting onto black bodies 
a narrative of sexualization disassociated from whiteness. Gilman documents the 
development of this image, commenting that "by the eighteenth cen- tury, the 
sexuality of the black, male and female, becomes an icon for deviant 
sexuality." He emphasizes that it is the black female body that is forced to 
serve as "an icon for black sexuality in general.”

The phrase had been used much earlier, but with a very different (although 
horrifically related) meaning, e.g.: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnlTHvJBeP0 


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Re: [Marxism] FIFA scandal

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On 30 May 2015, at 7:01 PM, Patrick Bond via Marxism 
 wrote:
> 
> … who enjoy the World Bank...

More than the World Cup?
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Re: [Marxism] Turkish elections: HDP mass election rally bombed; Australian socialists condemn the murderous attack

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> On 06 Jun 2015, at 3:13 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> I was vaguely aware of this party but had no idea that it had become so 
> influential. It is not just "left-wing". It is seen as Turkey's Syriza. My 
> wife just told me that her relative in Izmir thinks it can break the 
> two-party stranglehold on Turkish politics (Islamists vs. Kemalists.)

The stakes are very high. I know a few people within the party, who have been 
working all out for several months in hopes of ensuring they pass the 10% 
threshold. Polls have hovered between 9.5-10.5%, maybe trending slightly higher 
in the past month or so, although Turkish polling is notoriously unreliable. If 
they don’t pass 10%, AKP will quite possibly have the numbers necessary to push 
through some drastic constitutional changes that will have a devastating effect 
on opposition politics and the left. Apparently there have been police raids of 
polling stations and arrests of polling station workers in HDP areas just in 
the past few hours, but I don’t have reliable details yet.

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Re: [Marxism] The American pseudo-left and the Democratic Party - World Socialist Web Site

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> On 06 Jun 2015, at 8:07 PM, A.R. G via Marxism  
> wrote:
> 
> I think "left" blogger Louis Proyect should write a lengthy retort.


To what end? And for whose benefit?

https://xkcd.com/386/

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Re: [Marxism] Erdoğan’s win in Turkey heralds a surprising rise in the new left | Richard Seymour | Comment is free | The Guardian

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> On 08 Jun 2015, at 12:09 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/12/erdogan-turkey-president-surprising-rise-new-left
>  
> 

Richard’s piece contains some useful background, but it is from last year. 
Here’s what happened this time:

"Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has suffered his biggest setback in 
13 years of amassing power as voters denied his ruling party a parliamentary 
majority for the first time since 2002 and gave the country’s large Kurdish 
minority its biggest voice ever in national politics.

"The election result on Sunday, with almost all votes counted, appeared to 
wreck Erdoğan’s ambition of rewriting the constitution to establish himself as 
an all-powerful executive president. Erdoğan’s governing Justice and 
Development party, or AKP, won the election comfortably for the fourth time in 
a row, with around 41% of the vote, but that represented a steep fall in 
support from 49% in 2011, throwing the government of the country into great 
uncertainty.

"The vote was the first time in four general elections that support for Erdoğan 
decreased. The fall coupled with an election triumph for a new pro-Kurdish 
party meant it was unlikely that the AKP would be able to form a majority 
government, forcing it to negotiate a coalition, probably with extreme 
nationalists, or to call a fresh election if no parliamentary majority can be 
secured within six weeks.

"The new party, the HDP or Peoples’ Democratic party, largely representing the 
Kurds but also encompassing leftwing liberals, surpassed the steep 10% 
threshold for entering parliament to take more than 12% of the vote and around 
80 seats in the 550-strong chamber.

…

"Official results based on 99.9% of votes counted gave the AKP 41%, followed by 
the Republican People’s party (CHP) on 25%, the Nationalist Movement Party 
(MHP) on 16.5% and the HDP in fourth place with 13%.

"Turnout was at 86%."


Full: 
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/07/turkey-election-preliminary-results-erdogan-akp-party

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Re: [Marxism] Greek PM Alexis Tsipras faces partner's departure should he agree to EU terms over Greek debt crisis - People - News - The Independent

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> On 18 Jun 2015, at 10:48 PM, Joseph Catron via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> As I understand things - and someone correct me if I'm wrong - it was
> always pretty likely that if the KKE joined a coalition with Syriza,
> it would eventually face a choice between accepting harsh austerity
> measures, either imposed by the Troika or resulting from a Grexit, or
> rejecting them and bringing down the government. Or no?

The KKE refused even to meet with Syriza, so neither scenario was ever a 
possibility, let alone likely.
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[Marxism] 1968 SFSU Strike

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Can anyone recommend a good history / analysis of the protests at SFSU of 
1968/9?
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Re: [Marxism] I think it's the Greeks, Angela!

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> On 07 Jul 2015, at 2:52 PM, Levins, Richard via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Dear Michael, I could not open your latest post.Could you please resend?
> Dick
> 

I’m sure it was this:

http://starecat.com/i-think-its-the-greeks-angela-middle-finger-trojan/ 


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[Marxism] A Global Guide to State-Sponsored Trolling

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Journalist Nedim Turfent was reporting on a brutal counterterrorism operation 
in Turkey’s Kurdish region when he published video of soldiers standing over 
villagers, who were face down with their hands bound. Soon, odd messages 
seeking Turfent’s whereabouts began appearing on his Facebook page.

Then, Twitter accounts linked to Turkish counterterrorism units joined in, 
taunting locals with a single question—“Where is Nedim Turfent?”—as soldiers 
torched and raided more villages.

The threat was clear: Give him up, or you’re the next target.

That was in the spring of 2016. Within days, Turfent was in the military’s 
hands, and he was eventually charged with membership in a terrorist 
organization. An anonymous Twitter account capped off the social media manhunt 
by tweeting a picture of Turfent in custody, handcuffed and haggard. Then 
soldiers doused the office of his employer, Dicle News Agency, with gasoline 
and set it ablaze. Turfent remains behind bars.

Only a few years after Twitter and Facebook were celebrated as the spark for 
democratic movements worldwide, states and their proxies are hatching new forms 
of digitally enabled suppression that were unthinkable before the age of the 
social media giants, according to evidence collected from computer sleuths, 
researchers and documents across more than a dozen countries.

Combining virtual hate mobs, surveillance, misinformation, anonymous threats, 
and the invasion of victims’ privacy, states and political parties around the 
globe have created an increasingly aggressive online playbook that is difficult 
for the platforms to detect or counter.

Some regimes use techniques like those Russia deployed to influence the 2016 
U.S. presidential election, while others are riffing in homegrown ways. And an 
informal but burgeoning industry of bot brokers and trolls-for-hire has sprung 
up to assist. The efforts have succeeded in many cases, sending journalists 
into exile or effectively silencing online expression.

In Venezuela, prospective trolls sign up for Twitter and Instagram accounts at 
government-sanctioned kiosks in town squares and are rewarded for their 
participation with access to scarce food coupons, according to Venezuelan 
researcher Marianne Diaz of the group @DerechosDigitales. A self-described 
former troll in India says he was given a half-dozen Facebook accounts and 
eight cell phones after he joined a 300-person team that worked to intimidate 
opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And in Ecuador, contracting 
documents detail government payments to a public relations company that set up 
and ran a troll farm used to harass political opponents.

Many of those findings are contained in a report released this week by a global 
group of researchers that uncovered evidence of state-sponsored trolling in 
seven countries, and Bloomberg reporters documented additional examples in 
several others. The report is by the Institute for the Future, a non-partisan, 
foresight research and public policy group based in Palo Alto, California.


More: 
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-government-sponsored-cyber-militia-cookbook/




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Re: [Marxism] The Mask Of Anarchy Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley - Poem Hunter

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> On Jul 31, 2018, at 1:29 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> 'Rise like Lions after slumber
> In unvanquishable number-
> Shake your chains to earth like dew
> Which in sleep had fallen on you-
> Ye are many-they are few.'


Paul Foot gave a magnificent talk on Shelley in 1981, which includes an 
unforgettable reading parts of this poem (and others):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUFy3GlatL4 


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Re: [Marxism] After a New Massacre, Charges That ISIS Is Operating With Assad and the Russians

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> On Aug 10, 2018, at 5:57 PM, Chris Slee via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> The rebels are a mixed bag.


This kind of reckless, uncritical use of the phrase “the rebels” is just about 
the most toxic thing anyone on the left can say in regard to the Syrian 
conflct. It’s incredibly irresponsible; it’s also murderous of clear thinking, 
and completely malignant. It plays directly into the kind of “guilt by 
association” that has made peace activists, the White Helmets, and god knows 
how many others targets for extermination. 
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Re: [Marxism] After a New Massacre, Charges That ISIS Is Operating With Assad and the Russians

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> On Aug 10, 2018, at 7:13 PM, MM  wrote:
> 
>> On Aug 10, 2018, at 5:57 PM, Chris Slee via Marxism 
>> mailto:marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> The rebels are a mixed bag.
> 
> 
> This kind of reckless, uncritical use of the phrase “the rebels” is just 
> about the most toxic thing anyone on the left can say in regard to the Syrian 
> conflct. It’s incredibly irresponsible; it’s also murderous of clear 
> thinking, and completely malignant. It plays directly into the kind of “guilt 
> by association” that has made peace activists, the White Helmets, and god 
> knows how many others targets for extermination. 

Maybe this will help:

“The Kurds are a mixed bag.”

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Re: [Marxism] SCOTUS upholds Muslim Ban

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> On Jul 2, 2018, at 8:31 AM, Mark Lause via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Indeed!"Corporations are people,too."  But people are only people
> insofar as they can pay for it.  :-)
> 
> On Mon, Jul 2, 2018 at 8:20 AM, Michael Meeropol  > wrote:
> 
>> how about "discovering" that the 14th Amendment applied to CORPORATIONS!!

In fact, this monumentally consequential change in the meaning and application 
of the 14th amendment was not the result of the court’s decision in the case, 
but was the result of a now-infamous “headnote” from the court reporter, 
interpreting remarks supposedly made before the trial:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad_Co.#Headnote

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Re: [Marxism] China will buy Turkey on the cheap | Asia Times

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> On Aug 12, 2018, at 9:18 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> http://www.atimes.com/article/china-will-buy-turkey-on-the-cheap/ 
> 

This from another article on the same site, from November last year, caught my 
eye:

“As I wrote in [my] 2011 book How Civilizations Die and more recently in Asia 
Times, the Kurds are having twice as many children as ethnic Turks and will be 
a majority of Turkish citizens under 30 by the early 2040’s. That will collapse 
Erdogan’s dream of an Islamic Caliphate centered in Turkey. He will go to any 
length to postpone the demographic reckoning.”

http://www.atimes.com/article/hack-attempt-shows-erdogans-sense-existential-doom/


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Re: [Marxism] Hothouse Earth?

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> On Aug 13, 2018, at 6:59 PM, Ralph Johansen via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> I think calling this epoch "Capitalocene" instead of "Anthropocene" makes the 
> most sense, in line with the term "ecosocialist." In an ongoing struggle with 
> increasing direction towards essential systemic change, calling it for what 
> it is becomes important, historically and currently. "Anthropocene" doesn't 
> nail it, for obvious reasons. I sense that Ian Angus agrees, but it's not 
> mentioned here, and I'd like to know whether.

Ian addressed this a couple of years ago in his review of Jason Moore’s book:

http://climateandcapitalism.com/2016/09/26/anthropocene-or-capitalocene-misses-the-point/


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[Marxism] Bhaskar Sunkara has bought UK Tribune, George Orwell's magazine

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"The American owner of an influential socialist publication has purchased the 
UK magazine Tribune with the aim of providing a platform for reporting and 
analysing the ideological ideas behind Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

"Bhaskar Sunkara — the 29-year-old owner and editor of US publication Jacobin — 
confirmed to BuzzFeed News that he'd bought Tribune Publications earlier this 
year and was eyeing a chance to relaunch the magazine ahead of the UK Labour 
conference in September.

"The British socialist magazine was started by Labour MPs in the 1930s, and 
author George Orwell worked as the publication's literary editor and columnist 
for several years. In 2011, Tribune ceased printing with reports citing 
financial issues.”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/an-american-publisher-wants-to-unite-the-british-left-with



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[Marxism] Russian TV launches new Putin show as his ratings fall - Times of India

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"The previously unannounced show comes as Putin faces a record fall in his 
approval ratings as a result of a deeply unpopular pension reform that saw 
thousands of Russians take to the streets in protest."


https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/russian-tv-launches-new-putin-show-as-his-ratings-fall/articleshow/65662387.cms




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[Marxism] The ‘Final Offensive’ In Syria by Putin and Assad Suddenly Looks Like It’s On Hold

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Is anyone hearing anything else along these lines?

The ‘Final Offensive’ In Syria by Putin and Assad Suddenly Looks Like It’s On 
Hold
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-final-offensive-in-syria-by-putin-and-assad-suddenly-looks-like-its-on-hold

Also this from a few days ago:

Team Trump Warns Russia of ‘Total Economic Isolation’ Over Possible Syria 
Bloodbath
https://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-warns-russia-of-total-economic-isolation-over-possible-syria-bloodbath

mm


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[Marxism] China's digital dictatorship - "Leave no dark corner" - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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"China is building a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion 
citizens. For some, “social credit” will bring privileges — for others, 
punishment."

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/china-social-credit-a-model-citizen-in-a-digital-dictatorship/10200278


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Re: [Marxism] A world of tyrants and graves - Ilham Ahmed (NYT)

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> On Sep 21, 2018, at 6:14 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Chris Slee undermines support for the Rogava cause by using Marxmail as 
> nothing but a place to post about it.

Could not agree more. Habits die hard apparently. Except when they don’t die at 
all.
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[Marxism] Rifts Break Open at Facebook Over Kavanaugh Hearing - The New York Times

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"The internal turmoil at Facebook — described by six current and former 
employees and a review of internal posts — illustrates how divisions over Judge 
Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court have cascaded into unexpected 
places and split one of the world’s biggest tech companies.

"Mr. Kaplan’s show of support for Judge Kavanaugh hits a particularly sensitive 
spot for Facebook. It has been weathering claims from conservatives and Mr. 
Trump that Facebook is biased against right-wing websites and opinions. The 
company has denied this, saying it is a neutral platform that welcomes all 
perspectives. By showing up at Judge Kavanaugh’s side, Mr. Kaplan essentially 
appeared to choose a political side that goes against the views of Facebook’s 
largely liberal work force.

"The tensions add to a litany of other issues that have sapped employee morale. 
In the past few weeks alone, the company, based in Silicon Valley, has grappled 
with the departures of the co-founders of Instagram, the photo-sharing app 
owned by Facebook, plus the disclosure of its largest-ever data breach and 
continued scrutiny of disinformation across its network before the midterm 
elections.” 


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/technology/facebook-kavanaugh-nomination-kaplan.html
 



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Re: [Marxism] Voter suppression: Another tactic in Trump's drive for one-man rule

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> On Oct 16, 2018, at 7:20 PM, Joaquin Bustelo via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> If you look at what the Russians have actually been accused of doing in the 
> Mueller indictments, don't you think those involved would  already have been 
> terminated with extreme prejudice by Putin? Do you really think his 
> toleration for idiocy is limitless? Do you think his toleration for moronic 
> cretinism is limitless?

I’ve read some of the indictments, not all, and I’d like JB to offer some 
examples of what he has in mind here.

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Re: [Marxism] The-Opportunity-Costs-of-Socialism.pdf

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> On Oct 23, 2018, at 6:13 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Weird.



"But a look beyond the CEA’s hysterical rants against socialism’s supposedly 
totalitarian nature reveals that the White House accidentally makes a strong 
case for Medicare for All, which the paper describes as the “headline American 
socialist proposal.”

"After attempting to discredit single-payer healthcare programs—which multiple 
polls now show most Republicanvoters support—as “similar in spirit to Lenin and 
Mao,” the CEA produced a chart showing short wait times for seniors under the 
current U.S. healthcare system compared to those under the Canadian and Nordic 
systems.

"As Vox‘s Sarah Kliff notes, the CEA conveniently omits the fact that 
“America’s seniors are essentially in a single-payer system”: it’s called 
Medicare.

"“The Trump chart doesn’t say what the White House seems to think it says,” 
Kliff concludes. “It isn’t telling us that single-payer healthcare has long 
wait times. If anything, it says that it is possible to build a single-payer 
system with short wait times—and our Medicare program has already done it.””

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/10/buried-hilariously-stupid-white-house-attack-socialism-accidentally-strong-argument-medicare.html

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Re: [Marxism] Sussex Uni professor tweets ‘Israelis blew up Twin Towers’

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> On Nov 6, 2018, at 10:34 AM, Patrick Bond via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Yikes. In past years we could count on van der Pijl for solid structuralism, 
> even when thinking through agency, such as in/The Making of an Atlantic 
> Ruling Class /(Verso 1984)/... /or in helping me understand Alex Jones' 
> Bilderbergphobia: https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/bilderbergers-beware 
> 


I don’t understand the following paragraph in this piece, especially the second 
sentence from “… can be subsumed…”:

"Such elite networks are, Antonio Gramsci wrote in The Prison Notebooks, like 
“international political parties which operate within each nation with the full 
concentration of the international forces. But religion, Freemasonry, Rotary, 
Jews, etc., can be subsumed into the social category of ‘intellectuals’, whose 
function, on an international scale, is that of mediating the extremes, of 
‘socializing’ the technical discoveries which provide the impetus for all 
activities of leadership, of devising compromises between, and ways out of, 
extreme solutions.””

Can someone explain a bit more what Gramsci means here?

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[Marxism] The HQ2 Scam: How Amazon Used a Bidding War to Scrape Cities’ Data - In These Times

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"But the biggest suckers on HQ2 aren’t New York and Virginia; it’s the other 
236 cities that bid on a headquarters they were never going to get. Those bids 
didn’t just include the size of the bribe; they included a wealth of important 
data about plans for transportation, housing, education and workforce 
development. Amazon now has a treasure trove of non-public information about 
America’s future, in addition to knowing how much cash cities are willing to 
part with to land an Amazon facility. And it got all that, along with a giant 
PR benefit from the bidding war, for free.

"If you knew a city was going to build a road in a particular place, you could 
make a lot of money buying up the real estate there. Imagine that on a national 
scale and you can see how Amazon will grow far  wealthier from the data it 
collected than even the raw dollars extracted from HQ2’s big winners. In fact, 
this was the real reason Amazon orchestrated the whole charade.

"Amazon can now go back to every city that put in a bid and offer a warehouse 
or data center or satellite office for one of its 16 subsidiary companies. The 
company will have significant leverage in those negotiations, because the other 
side has already made an initial offer. Just as important, Amazon can set up 
operations with the foreknowledge of what cities have divulged to them. It can 
build its convenience stores or bookseller outlets where cities have planned 
rapid development and population growth. It can locate its warehouses where a 
new highway expansion is imminent. It can shift knowledge jobs to areas where 
universities will soon be built and high-tech education projects funded.

"It can even potentially sell this data to other companies who long for similar 
deals, or at least start up a new business line in negotiating deals between 
companies and municipal governments.

"Monetizing of this new data trove will yield untold billions of dollars in 
value. It will also embed Amazon deeper and deeper into American life, 
committing politicians at the state and federal level to become human shields 
for the company. For example, no senator from New York or Virginia, with Amazon 
in its backyard, will want to speak too loudly about Amazon’s monopoly 
attempts. And no mayor or city council member, eager to secure that next 
warehouse, will have much to say either."


http://inthesetimes.com/article/21571/the-hq2-scam-how-amazon-used-a-bidding-war-to-scrape-cities-data


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Re: [Marxism] Why Did CIA Turn Against Saudi Crown Prince MBS? It's More than Khashoggi

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> On Nov 20, 2018, at 12:04 PM, Tristan Sloughter via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> I skipped around the video to find what they say it is about. And it boils 
> down to the obvious, concern over MBS being wreckless.


Yes, it’s mostly speculation about the reasoning of the US intelligence 
services, masquerading as left politics. The most galling thing about it is 
that Norton seems perfectly comfortable entertaining the (obvious) suggestion 
that the turn against MBS is about regime preservation rather than regime 
change — something he seems to consider outrageous nonsense in relation to 
Assad in Syria.
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Re: [Marxism] Trans Ideology

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> On Nov 25, 2018, at 3:10 PM, Praxis Perhaps via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> What a reactionary piece!  What ever possessed you to post such a thing!

I’d like to echo Praxis Perhaps’ sentiment, and reiterate this question. I 
recognize that anything touching on gender or sexuality can be a prickly 
subject, and that we may have to grapple with uncomfortable questions in order 
to accommodate the full range of consensual human self-expression, but I’d also 
like to hear from Philip F. why he thought this vile, fear-baiting, reactionary 
diatribe deserved to be shared to the list without any critical introductory 
comment — or even why anyone might consider it to be any part of left discourse 
at all.

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Re: [Marxism] Trans Ideology

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> On Nov 26, 2018, at 12:57 AM, MM  wrote:
> 
>> On Nov 25, 2018, at 3:10 PM, Praxis Perhaps via Marxism 
>> mailto:marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> What a reactionary piece!  What ever possessed you to post such a thing!
> 
> I’d like to echo Praxis Perhaps’ sentiment, and reiterate this question. I 
> recognize that anything touching on gender or sexuality can be a prickly 
> subject, and that we may have to grapple with uncomfortable questions in 
> order to accommodate the full range of consensual human self-expression, but 
> I’d also like to hear from Philip F. why he thought this vile, fear-baiting, 
> reactionary diatribe deserved to be shared to the list without any critical 
> introductory comment — or even why anyone might consider it to be any part of 
> left discourse at all.

Philip F. has sent a response off-list that reflects a complete failure to 
engage with the critiques and clarifications that have been offered so far. 
Hopefully he’ll eventually gather his thoughts sufficiently to formulate a 
defense that he’s prepared to offer up before the critical glare of the full 
list. Absent that, this seems to be shaping up as one of those awful, 
cringeworthy moments in the history of the left, in which otherwise basically 
decent people end up defending horrifically ill-considered positions, for 
reasons that may remain forever obscure.
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Re: [Marxism] Feminist site established to challenge gender self-ID legislation in New Zealand

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> On Nov 26, 2018, at 1:40 AM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://speakupforwomen.nz/ 


From the site:

"Speak Up For Women is a diverse group of ordinary New Zealanders…” 

Here’s an awkward question: On what basis should people be allowed to 
“self-identify” as “ordinary”? Who gets to decide who counts as “ordinary”?

"Growing consciousness of the Holocaust in both academic scholarship and 
society in general became evident in the late 1970s and intensified in the 
1980s. Initially, important research focused on the different roles of Hitler, 
Nazi ideology, and the structure of the dictatorship in shaping the 
decision-making process that led to the Holocaust. Research also concentrated 
on the complicity of various professions and institutions in the Third Reich, 
and particularly on the SS. Still lacking was careful empirical study of how 
Nazi racial policy was also carried out by “ordinary” Germans.”

How Ordinary Germans Did It
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/06/20/how-ordinary-germans-did-it/


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Re: [Marxism] Trans Ideology

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> On Nov 26, 2018, at 6:34 AM, C. G. Estabrook  wrote:
> 
> Philip F.’s piece is a praiseworthy attempt to reject a false identity 
> politics substitute for class politics. 

Defending class politics over identity politics is a laudible and necessary 
undertaking; doing so in relation to gender and sexuality is inevitably 
fraught, especially when so many people are so profoundly disenfranchised, 
exploited and oppressed, and thus may be expected to rely more heavily on 
identity categories to provide at least some sense of orientation and 
stability. This piece makes no serious or good-faith attempt at articulating 
the relationship between sexuality and gender, and mis-uses scientific data by 
invoking a statistical regularity as carrying normative weight in resolving 
complex social and political questions. Far from being a “praiseworthy attempt” 
at an important task, it is an abysmal and lamentable failure — a vivid example 
of the reactionary abuse of science, whether intended or not.
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Re: [Marxism] Feminist site established to challenge gender self-ID legislation in New Zealand

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> On Nov 26, 2018, at 2:43 AM, Philip Ferguson  
> wrote:
> 
> So now feminists who defend women-only spaces are likened to Nazis or, at the 
> very least, Nazi enablers.
> 
> Unfortunately, this kind of nonsense pervades the responses to 
> gender-critical feminists although the most entitled of the biological males 
> who want access to women's spaces feel fairly unrestrained in issuing rape 
> threats, death threats, various other threats to gender-critical feminists, 
> try to get gender-critical feminists fired, censored, etc etc.
> 
> Why anyone on the left would want to enable this kind of behaviour directed 
> by biological males to women is odd indeed; although I guess women's rights 
> just comes way down the list of priorities for some left men, including a 
> load of the 'woke' ones.
> 
> Another site I'd recommend that defends women's rights and documents the 
> abuse (to put it mildly) that gener-critical feminists have been subject to 
> is Peak Trans: 
> https://www.peaktrans.org/ 
> 
> For some of the violent misogyny directed at gender-critical feminists by a 
> layer of trans, check out: 
> https://www.peaktrans.org/hate-from-trans-activists/ 
> 

All such bullying and harassment are toxic and should be vehemently opposed. 
But so should attempts at rationalizing traditional societal roles in the name 
of what’s “normal,” by claiming the space of “ordinary folks.” I realize this 
is unfamiliar and even uncomfortable terrain for many people, but it’s kind of 
astounding that someone who seems to see themselves as a thinker of the left 
could be so oblivious to the tyranny of inherited societal norms.
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Re: [Marxism] The Weird History of Gender-Segregated Bathrooms

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> On Nov 26, 2018, at 11:15 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> full: 
> https://www.livescience.com/54692-why-bathrooms-are-gender-segregated.html 
> 

And of course this:

"Bathroom bills like North Carolina's often reflect ideas about sex and safety, 
Cavanagh said. However, there are no documented instances of a transgender 
person attacking anyone in a public bathroom, she said. A survey published in 
the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy in 2013 did find, however, 
that 70 percent of the transgender respondents from the Washington, D.C., area 
had experienced harassment or assault in bathrooms, or had been denied access 
to facilities.”

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[Marxism] France's CGT union calls 48-hour energy strike in support of yellow vests | Reuters

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"France’s hard-left CGT trade union on Thursday called on its energy industry 
workers to walk out for a 48 hours from Dec. 13, saying it wanted to join 
forces with ‘yellow vest’ protesters.

"The CGT said President Emmanuel Macron’s long-term energy-transition plan 
would hurt jobs and increase France’s energy dependency on neighboring 
countries.

"It urged its workers at state-utility EDF, gas and power supplier Engie and 
all other companies in the sector to down tools. It had already called a 
24-hour strike, but said it was extending that."


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-protests-energy-strike/frances-cgt-union-calls-48-hour-energy-strike-in-support-of-yellow-vests-idUSKBN1O517X


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Re: [Marxism] (no subject)

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> On Dec 17, 2018, at 8:33 AM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/the-intolerance-of-transactivists/ 
> 

The failure of this post to deal with any of the substantial responses to the 
last one on this topic — responses countering the thread of “moral panic” that 
seems to run through this whole series of posts, and providing empirical data 
on the *overwhelming* predominance of violence against trans folks, as against 
the vanishingly rare cases of violence by “trans-pretenders” against “real 
women and girls” — does the credibility of both Whitmore and the Redline blog 
no favors. I think we all recognize there are strong feelings at play in this 
issue, but in the wake of those previous exchanges this piece comes across as 
incredibly obtuse and blinkered — not to mention incredibly callous.

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Re: [Marxism] The assault on gender-critical feminists

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> On Dec 19, 2018, at 7:42 AM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> What I find truly callous and cowardly is the preparedness of a swathe of
> male leftists to ignore this campaign and, in a number of cases, to
> actually help enable it.
> 
> The campaign itself is largely being conducted, of course, by biological
> males albeit ones who self-ID as women and even lesbians (albeit
> lesbians-with-penises-and-testicles).
> 
> Some of the men here really need to seriously look at themselves and their
> silence on this vicious - and misogynistic - campaign.  Take a look, for
> instance, at some of the material highlighted on the peaktrans site:
> https://www.peaktrans.org/ 

This is a deflection. No one here (as far as I’m aware) has even hinted at 
support for de-platforming, social media attacks, harassment, or anything 
similar, and at least some of us have been actively involved in struggles for 
women’s rights for many years. But all of the evidence offered by Whitmore et 
al — as unfortunate and even objectionable as some the reported behaviour may 
be — is still essentially anecdotal, and there’s been no acknowledgment at all 
of the overwhelming *statistical* counter-evidence. So this is just a 
continuation of the argument-from-moral-panic, with a dollop of ad hominem and 
identitarian moral policing thrown in for rhetorical good measure.
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Re: [Marxism] The assault on gender-critical feminists

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> On Dec 19, 2018, at 6:20 PM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> MM wrote:
> "But all of the evidence offered by Whitmore et al ? as unfortunate and
> even objectionable as some the reported behaviour may be ? is still
> essentially anecdotal. . ."
> 
> Are you serious???
> 
> The attacks on gender-critical feminists are all over the internet, all in
> the words of the new trans people doing it.
> 
> It is massively documented.
> 
> It's a long time since I've seen denial like this.
> 
> In 2018 it's bizarre that people can exhibit violent misogyny on this scale
> and someone dismiss what the misogynists themselves are saying on twitter,
> facebook, websites etc etc.  "Anecdeotal"?  Wow!
> 
> The Daphna Whitmore article simply scraped the surface of this campaign of
> hate.
> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/the-intolerance-of-transactivists/

Phil’s invocation of “misogyny” here is just opportunistic, as Tim Nelson has 
explained elsewhere. None of the abuse documented by Whitmore et al at the 
sources provided is aimed at women as such, but entirely at women who espouse a 
specific ideological position (and one that attempts to hide its own 
ideological basis, by implying that it is simply based on how things are in 
some supra-historical “natural” realm of “biological men” and “biological 
women.” That’s the kind of move someone like Dawkins or Pinker would make; it 
has no place on the left.

Second, “anecdotal” doesn’t mean “rare” — although the collection of evidence 
you’ve provided so far is indeed vanishingly small in the scheme of things: a 
tiny fraction of the instances of actual physical violence perpetrated against 
women daily by cis-men, for instance. But questions of rarity aside, the 
evidence in question is anecdotal insofar as it consists almost entirely (as 
far as I can tell) of instances and / or reports of individual cases of abuse, 
rather than statistical studies of broad trends. I don’t have any doubt that 
the sort of abuse on social media that you describe has increased dramatically 
in the past decade, because basically all forms of online abuse have increased 
dramatically in the past decade, and I doubt many researchers would find that 
particular form of online abuse to require a dedicated focus. That doesn’t mean 
the threats aren't disgusting; they are. But there is simply no comparison 
between such threats and the documented physical attacks against people 
identifying as trans-women at significant scale: brutal rapes and murders.

If there is evidence of such verbal threats translating into physical violence, 
it would be good to see it, and that would indeed be alarming and would demand 
urgent attention. But even a collection of really vile tweets doesn’t seem like 
the right point of focus when gender-non-conforming people are being brutally 
murdered in very significant numbers — and of course when voices ostensibly on 
the left seem to want us to ignore that violence and focus instead on verbal 
abuse that seems to find little if any expression in actual physical violence.
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Re: [Marxism] The assault on gender-critical feminists

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> On Dec 20, 2018, at 1:46 AM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> MM wants to blame the lesbians who are
> getting abused in this way and play it down in my view.

Adding “in my view” at the end doesn’t alter the fact that this is slanderous.
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[Marxism] Jordan Peterson on the Campaign for Trans Rights

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Unrelated to recent exchanges on the issue of trans rights and 
self-identification, I recently came across this very worthwhile piece on 
Jordan Peterson (probably the leading “organic intellectual” of 
neo-possibly-not-quite-fascism-at-least-not-yet, and the alt-right). I was 
struck by the structural parallel between Peterson’s treatment of the demands 
and actions of trans activists, and the way Phil has failed or refused to 
recognize the difference between verbal threats and no-platforming, on one 
hand, and actul physical assault and murder of people identifying as women, on 
the other:

"Peterson first came to international prominence when he publicly opposed 
Canada’s Bill C-16, which added gender expression and identity to the list of 
prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act. Peterson 
claimed that under the bill, he could be compelled to use a student’s preferred 
gender pronoun or face criminal prosecution, and suggested that social justice 
activists were promoting a totalitarian ideology. In fact, there was nothing in 
the bill that criminalized the failure to use people’s preferred gender 
pronouns (full text), and I share the belief that government legislation 
requiring people to use particular pronouns would be an infringement on civil 
liberties. But since that’s a position shared by Noam Chomsky and the ACLU, 
it’s not a particularly devastating criticism of the left. And when Peterson 
goes beyond the very narrow issue of compelled speech, his take on social 
justice isn’t much much more sensible than his lecture on Jungian archetypes in 
the story of the pancake-dragon.

Examine, for example, how in his Channel 4 interview Peterson talks about the 
“totalitarian” tendencies of the activists who tried to add gender identity to 
the human rights bill:

PETERSON: I did compare them to Mao … I was comparing them to the left-wing 
totalitarians. And I do believe they are left-wing totalitarians.

NEWMAN: Under Mao millions of people died!

PETERSON: Right!

NEWMAN: I mean there’s no comparison between Mao and a trans activist, is there?

PETERSON: Why not?

NEWMAN: Because trans activists aren’t killing millions of people!

PETERSON: The philosophy that’s guiding their utterances is the same philosophy.

NEWMAN: The consequences are …

PETERSON: Not yet!

NEWMAN: You’re saying that trans activists, …

PETERSON: No!

NEWMAN: Could leads to the deaths of millions of people.

PETERSON: No, I’m saying that the philosophy that drives their utterances is 
the same philosophy that already has driven us to the deaths of millions of 
people.

NEWMAN: Okay. Tell us how that philosophy is in any way comparable.

PETERSON: Sure. That’s no problem. The first thing is that their philosophy 
presumes that group identity is paramount. That’s the fundamental philosophy 
that drove the Soviet Union and Maoist China. And it’s the fundamental 
philosophy of the left-wing activists. It’s identity politics. It doesn’t 
matter who you are as an individual, it matters who you are in terms of your 
group identity.

While Cathy Newman was repeatedly unfair to Peterson’s views throughout the 
rest of the interview, here she was perfectly right to be confused: what 
Peterson is saying makes no sense. He wonders how there could be any difference 
between transgender activists and Mao’s China, then is told that the difference 
is millions of deaths, then denies that transgender activists are going to 
cause millions of deaths, then says they follow a totalitarian philosophy that 
drives people to mass murder. The reason he’s stuck here is that there’s no 
evidence the Canadian Human Rights Act is about to bring us a gulag 
archipelago, but that’s what his grandiose statements about left-wing 
totalitarianism imply will happen. So he must either allege Alberta is about to 
get its own Great Leap Forward or draw a distinction between Mao’s Red Guards 
and the University of Toronto LGBTQ center, neither of which he wants to commit 
to. So we get another heaping dish of Peterson waffle."

From: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve

As I’ve said before, the threats and abuse being directed against 
trans-reluctant feminists by some trans activists are appalling, and I think 
their use of no-platforming in such cases is totally counter-productive (which 
doesn’t mean I don’t ever support it in other instances). But the failure (or 
inability) to recognize the gulf between abuse and-no-platforming, on one hand, 
and physical assault and murder of people identifying as transwomen, on the 
other, can only damage the left.

My sense is that Phil honestly 

Re: [Marxism] On Tony Cliff and British SWP

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> On Dec 27, 2018, at 5:24 PM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> James Heartfield reviews Ian Birchall's biography of Cliff:
> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/4864/ 
> 

David Renton wrote a damning response to this review by Heartfield, which 
itself is nevertheless quite critical of the UK SWP (including in particular 
the appalling “comrade Delta” affair). Here’s the opening paragraph:

"JAMES HEARTFIELD’S REVIEW of Ian Birchall’s biography of Tony Cliff, founder 
of the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and therefore of the International 
Socialist Tendency, is a curious affair.1 Heartfield fails his readers by 
declining to situate himself in the story, as a champion of the changing 
perspectives of the late British Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), unique 
among British left groups in having evolved from Trotskyism first to a 
neither-left-nor-right iconoclasm and then to a pro-market libertarianism. So 
when for example the SWP and Cliff are criticized for having failed to guide 
the striking miners of 1984–5 in the direction of a ballot, American readers 
should be aware that a ballot was the demand of the Conservative Party, the 
Times and Telegraph newspapers, and of everyone opposed to the strike. No one 
dared go among the miners arguing that they were wrong, and should only strike 
at all after having paused, given up the initiative, and taken a postal vote, 
save for a few dozen brave souls from the Fulham and Chelsea branches of 
Heartfield’s own RCP. While it is possible to judge the worth of a 50 year 
political project to which thousands of people dedicated the best years of 
their lives solely through the eyes of a different, long-dead party which was 
always hostile to it, this is the method of the political necrophiliac. 
Heartfield’s judgment says little about what Cliff’s SWP did, or did not, 
achieve.”

Full: https://platypus1917.org/2014/04/01/cliffism-worth-reply-james-heartfield/

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[Marxism] Syria: Assessment and Prospects

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I’m not familiar with the speaker here (Dr. Zaineddin) but this Twitter thread 
offers a summary in English of what seems like a very important speech; 
hopefully others who know Arabic or who have been able to follow things more 
closely can weigh in with additional context or perspective:

[Quote:]

This is an excellent speech by @DrZaineddin on the current state of affairs in 
Syria. In this thread, I'll try to summarize the main points in English.

In the beginning, the Syrian people were struggling against a dictatorial 
regime and the regime's allies were supporting it from behind. Now the allies 
were forced to enter directly and fight the people on behalf of the regime.

To think that the situation is entirely in the hand of outside actors, and the 
internal decision of Syrians is now irrelevant, is wrong. The regime wanted to 
attack Idlib recently but it was the military preparations of the rebels which 
ultimately deterred the offensive.

In Ghouta and Daraa the regime used traitors/"frogs" to make the military 
conquest of rebel-held areas easier. In Idlib, all the rebels came together and 
decided to snuff out the people who wanted to reconcile with the regime. 100s 
were arrested.

After this, the morale of the regime fighters hit rock bottom, Hezbollah 
announced it wouldn't participate and ultimately the regime was forced to 
cancel the offensive. This was due to the internal resolve of Syrians.

The next point of discussion is the loss of territory by rebels. At one point 
they had 70% of Syria, today they have 15%. Someone could say: "if we didn't 
win when we had 70%, how can we hope to win with just 15%? The matter is 
decided and we lost.”

As for the loss of formerly besieged areas, the transfer of rebels from there 
to the North might be positive, because now they can get supplies and continue 
to fight. Also, note that the rebels having 15% doesn't mean the regime has 
85%. It has 54% and the rest is with SDF & IS.

Even this 54%, the regime doesn't have real power and control. Russia, Iran, 
Hezbollah, and 100s of various militias are the ones really in control on the 
ground. The actual regime has no ability to make decisions. In Aleppo, there 
are bloody battles and turf wars between the...

...various militias. In Daraa, the regime hasn't even entered the towns it 
recaptured yet. Thus, the regime's control of areas is mostly a mirage.

The rebels have 15% but it's not just Idlib, they also have most of Aleppo 
province and parts of other provinces. It's an area larger than some countries 
such as Qatar, Bahrain or UAE. If they invest in this area, they can enjoy the 
fruits of it.

The next topic is the international situation. Years ago, various countries 
gave statements saying "Assad must go" etc. Now many of those same countries 
are saying "Assad should stay" and are restoring diplomatic relations with the 
regime.

However, this is all a media mirage. If them saying "Assad must go" had no 
effect on whether Assad stays or goes, why would them saying the opposite have 
any effect? It's all just statements and doesn't translate to anything on the 
ground.

Plus, many countries were supporting Assad secretly and are now supporting him 
openly. This doesn't change anything. The Syrian people were the ones who 
decided that Assad must go, not any country, and these countries saying Assad 
should stay doesn't impact their decision.

Russia achieved military victories for the regime, but it failed in translating 
these into political victories. It tried to get the EU to recognize Assad and 
give the regime reconstruction money, but the Europeans refused because they 
know it was the regime that caused refugees.

The regime media made a big deal out of a few buses of refugees from Jordan 
returning to regime-held areas, but it wasn't more than a few dozen people and 
as soon as they arrived the men were arrested for military service. A few 1000 
returned from Lebanon and their fate was a…

...mix of arrest, execution, and homelessness, because the regime had either 
bombed their home or seized it and given it to a militia. There's international 
recognition that the refugee situation won't be solved as long as Assad is in 
power. Russia failed to change this.

Next point is the reduction in popular support for the revolution among 
Syrians. This is natural, after 8 years of war. The reduction was caused by the 
suffering inflicted by the regime, but also by mistakes and bad deeds done by 
some rebels.

The amount of suffering inflicted on the Syrian people over the last 8 years, 
if it was inflicted on a mountain, the mountain would have crumbled into dust. 
The re

Re: [Marxism] Julia Serrano on trans kids

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> On Jan 1, 2019, at 8:54 AM, Praxis Perhaps via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://medium.com/@juliaserano/detransition-desistance-and-disinformation-a-guide-for-understanding-transgender-children-993b7342946e


This is an extremely useful and thoughtful guide to these often fraught 
debates, and I’d encourage people to read it, especially since trans-phobic / 
-hostile attitudes seem to be insinuating themselves into some otherwise left 
spaces and discourses (or at least to be increasingly given overt expression). 
Here’s the author’s own description of why it was written:

“[L]ately, as transgender people have become more visible and have garnered 
increasing media scrutiny, trans-unaware politicians, pundits, and journalists 
have suddenly swooped in to weigh in on these important issues — issues that 
(conveniently) they themselves are not personally invested in. Some of these 
people have very clear anti-trans agendas. Others are (perhaps well-meaning) 
interlopers who believe that by simply reading a few research papers and 
interviewing a few people here and there, they can acquire an “objective 
understanding” about this complex subject that spans a half-century of history. 
And sadly, they often center their op-eds and think-pieces on an especially 
vulnerable segment of our community: transgender children.

"You’ve probably seen some of these articles. They raise concerns about “80% 
desistance,” and offer examples of trans people who have since 
“detransitioned,” and they will leave you with the impression that trans health 
practitioners are engaging in some kind of reckless sociological experiment. 
Whenever transgender people object to these misrepresentations or the old 
gatekeeper ideologies, these pundits and journalists will decry “transgender 
activists are attacking science!” without ever acknowledging the countless 
trans advocates, researchers, and health providers who actually agree with us 
on many of these matters.

"Rather than write a short pithy critique or rebuttal of the latest “children 
are at risk!” or “activists are out of hand!” article-du-jour, I decided to 
write this lengthy nuanced piece. It is intended to be a step-by-step guide for 
anyone interested, one that fills in all the holes, reads between the lines, 
and unpacks the many assumptions that riddle the typical op-ed or think-piece 
about transgender children.”


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Re: [Marxism] E. O. Wight

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> On Dec 31, 2018, at 7:58 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> On 12/30/18 9:36 PM, Jim Farmelant via Marxism wrote:
>> The sociologist Erik Olin Wright, who is known for his research on social 
>> class, and for his contributions to Analytical Marxism, is seriously ill 
>> with leukemia. He has been keeping a blog with updates on the course of his 
>> illness.
>> https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/erikolinwright/journal?fbclid=IwAR2bIey2Mx4vyPy3Ji4HL5FIVMx5uVFCpN1FdjwNMwpDnPrCcoAOy7dIHQo
>>  
>> 
> 
> I am very sorry to hear this. I have deep differences with Wright over his 
> support for China being "socialist" but he has been willing to debate these 
> issues when most acclaimed academics would just ignore a jerk like me.


Latest news:

"I can now give more definitive news about my medical situation. According to 
the latest indicators, I have three or four weeks left to live. There may be 
surprises of course, this happens. And I continue to make use of whatever chemo 
is left to fight the AML, but the fact of the matter is we have run out of 
options. And the doctors feel there are something like three or four weeks left.

"This means I've shifted into a different mode of operation. I told the doctors 
that my priorities are unequivocally to maximize the amount of energy I have, 
to be able to write, and enjoy my family in these last days.  But I do plan to 
write if I have the energy to do so. I'm happy to have visitors. But I can't 
plan and coordinate them. So I'm telling people to just come by for a short 
visit, even if there's overlaps with other people.  I suppose the one nice 
thing about this dreadful news is that I can drop the food restrictions that 
are concerned with food borne illnesses.  We're thus having a sushi banquet 
tonight. If my taste buds don't cooperate, I'll kill them! 

"Looking forward, I will continue the blog, but it will be a bit more 
intermittent, since I have other writing priorities that are more important.  
In particular, the letter to my grandchildren. If any significant change in my 
condition occurs, of course I will do a blog post on that."

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/erikolinwright/journal/view/id/5c2fdda4aed4c25e10b949bf

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Re: [Marxism] Britain exits the European Union and takes a sharp right turn (John Smith, author of Imperialism in the 21st Century)

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> On Jan 19, 2020, at 6:14 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
>> 
>> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/britain-exits-the-european-union-and-takes-a-sharp-right-turn/
> 
> This is the best analysis I've read.

Much of this is useful; a few things one could take issue with. But the 
following is complete hogwash (which doesn’t mean that Corbyn’s people didn’t 
also believe it; tragically it seems likely they did):

“[T]o the Labour left, ultra-low interest rates are not a flashing red light, 
but a green light inviting them to borrow vast amounts of money from those who 
have it, i.e. the super-rich. Yet history, e.g. Greece under Syriza, teaches 
that, when asked to lend money to a government they do not trust, capitalists 
are certain to demand a hefty risk premium, wrecking public finances and 
destroying reformist dreams.”

Governments that control the issuance of their own currency and that don’t 
carry significant foreign-currency-denominated debt don’t need capitalists’ 
money to spend. (Hint: that’s a conspicuous difference between the UK and 
Greece. The weather is another. And don’t get me started about the food. But I 
digress….). Even the WSJ belatedly and begrudgingly acknowledged this about the 
UK a few years ago:

“Among facts that take a stubbornly long time to sink in, here’s one: Countries 
that borrow in their own currencies never have to default on their debt.

“The last few months have tested this notion again. When the U.K. was about to 
vote on its membership of the European Union, some investors and analysts 
warned that scared foreigners could dump British sovereign bonds, driving the 
government's borrowing costs to skyrocket.

“They were wrong. The day after Brexit, gilt prices rose 3.5%.”

For a (much) more detailed explanation, see this blog post by Bill Mitchell:

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=34714


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Re: [Marxism] The Story of China’s Economic Rise Unfolds in Switzerland

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> On Jan 21, 2020, at 4:13 PM, Michael Meeropol via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> But is China an IMPERIALIST capitalist country or a NATIONALIST capitalist
> country ---



The closest look yet at Chinese economic engagement in Africa
By Kartik Jayaram, Omid Kassiri, and Irene Yuan Sun
McKinsey & Company
June 2017
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/the-closest-look-yet-at-chinese-economic-engagement-in-africa

…

In the eight African countries on which we focused, the number of Chinese-owned 
firms we identified was between two and nine times the number registered by 
China’s Ministry of Commerce, until now the largest database of Chinese firms 
in Africa. Extrapolated across the continent, our findings suggest there are 
more than 10,000 Chinese-owned firms operating in Africa today (Exhibit 2).

Around 90 percent of these firms are privately owned—calling into question the 
notion of a monolithic, state-coordinated investment drive by “China, Inc.” 
Although state-owned enterprises tend to be bigger, particularly in specific 
sectors such as energy and infrastructure, the sheer number of private Chinese 
firms working toward their own profit motives suggests that Chinese investment 
in Africa is a more market-driven phenomenon than is commonly understood.

Chinese firms operate across many sectors of the African economy. Nearly a 
third are involved in manufacturing, a quarter in services, and around a fifth 
each in trade and in construction and real estate. In manufacturing, we 
estimate that 12 percent of Africa’s industrial production—valued at some $500 
billion a year in total—is already handled by Chinese firms. In infrastructure, 
Chinese firms’ dominance is even more pronounced, and they claim nearly 50 
percent of Africa’s internationally contracted construction market.

The Chinese firms we talked to are mostly profitable. Nearly one-third reported 
2015 profit margins of more than 20 percent. They are also agile and quick to 
adapt to new opportunities. Except in a few countries such as Ethiopia, they 
are primarily focused on serving the needs of Africa’s fast-growing markets 
rather than on exports. An overwhelming 74 percent said they feel optimistic 
about the future. Reflecting this, most Chinese firms have made investments 
that represent a long-term commitment to Africa rather than trading or 
contracting activities.

At the Chinese companies we talked to, 89 percent of employees were African, 
adding up to nearly 300,000 jobs for African workers. Scaled up across all 
10,000 Chinese firms in Africa, this suggests that Chinese-owned business 
employ several million Africans. Moreover, nearly two-thirds of Chinese 
employers provided some kind of skills training. In companies engaged in 
construction and manufacturing, where skilled labor is a necessity, half offer 
apprenticeship training.

Half of Chinese firms had introduced a new product or service to the local 
market, and one-third had introduced a new technology. In some cases, Chinese 
firms had lowered prices for existing products and services by as much as 40 
percent through improved technology and efficiencies of scale. African 
government officials overseeing infrastructure development for their countries 
cited Chinese firms’ efficient cost structures and speedy delivery as major 
value adds.


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[Marxism] The 18th-Century Quaker Dwarf Who Challenged Slavery, Meat-Eating, and Racism

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“By the time he himself died, in 1759, Lay had eked out a strange and deeply 
principled life for himself in the Philadelphia area. He lived in a cave, made 
his own clothes, and walked everywhere. He had become a vegetarian and felt 
that animals, including horses, should not be exploited for their labor or 
their meat. In 1737 he published the revolutionary tract All Slaveholders That 
Keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates, a mixture of polemic, musings, and 
autobiography, put together in a curiously nonlinear, almost postmodern, 
format. (The publisher—Benjamin Franklin, a longtime, if a little wary, 
friend—chose to keep his own name off the text.) Despite his requests to be 
cremated, which would have been tantamount to paganism, Lay was buried in an 
unmarked grave close to his wife’s, in the Quaker burial ground.

“During his life and after his death, many people, Rediker says, thought of Lay 
as deranged. “[Historians] thought he was not sane, and this was a very 
effective way of putting him at the margins.” Ableism, too, seems to have 
factored in this general unwillingness to take him seriously. But some of those 
in the abolitionist movement did feel the need to celebrate this “Quaker 
comet,” as he came to be known. Benjamin Rush, one of his earliest biographers, 
said Lay was known to virtually everyone in Pennsylvania; his curious portrait 
was said to hang in many Philadelphia homes. This early abolitionist burned 
bright, and, despite his exclusion from many abolitionist narratives, refuses 
to be extinguished from history.” 


https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-18th-century-quaker-dwarf-who-challenged-slavery-meat-eating-and-racism


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Re: [Marxism] Watch: US Harvard law students walk out en mass as Israeli ambassador begins to justify Jewish settlements – Redress Information

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> On Feb 1, 2020, at 4:47 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://www.redressonline.com/2020/02/watch-us-harvard-law-students-walk-out-en-mass-as-israeli-ambassador-begins-to-justify-jewish-settlements/
>  
> 

This is beautiful, but just to be clear it happened in November:

Story: 
https://imemc.org/article/harvard-students-walk-out-en-masse-of-israeli-consul-general/

Video: https://twitter.com/raza_hamzah/status/1194692536725639168

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[Marxism] Who Will Win The 2020 Democratic Primary? | FiveThirtyEight

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Without having any illusions about the likelihood of a Sanders candidacy — let 
alone an electoral victory, and leaving aside entirely any question of carrying 
out an ambitiously social-democratic agenda if elected — one thing that’s quite 
striking in the polling data is that Biden has dropped significantly over the 
past couple of weeks in virtually all of the states where he has been ahead, 
with Sanders rising by a roughly equivalent amount in those same states:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-primary-forecast/



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Re: [Marxism] Who Will Win The 2020 Democratic Primary? | FiveThirtyEight

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> On Feb 3, 2020, at 6:55 PM, MM  wrote:
> 
> Without having any illusions about the likelihood of a Sanders candidacy — 
> let alone an electoral victory, and leaving aside entirely any question of 
> carrying out an ambitiously social-democratic agenda if elected — one thing 
> that’s quite striking in the polling data is that Biden has dropped 
> significantly over the past couple of weeks in virtually all of the states 
> where he has been ahead, with Sanders rising by a roughly equivalent amount 
> in those same states:
> 
> https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-primary-forecast/

Sorry, not the past couple of weeks but just the past few days. Misread the 
time scale.

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