Re: SV: M-TH: Chechnya - the revolutionary answer
Well I am hardly with Dave or Chris on this stuff. Positive to self determination but defeatist between Moscow and the Islamic Fundamentalists. However Rob raises and interesting question in that the west who have "supported" Yeltsin in lack of anything else now are faced with a real dilema. And the main imperialist powers (especially Germany and the US) might find themselves in and escalating rivalry over this stuff. Yes indeed Bob! The shelf-life of "The West" is best before the next escalation of inter-imperialist rivalry. And how much longer will people be able to call on "The West" to sort out regional conflicts? Perhaps honesty might be a better solution- simply call on the US to crack the whip and be done with it! Russell __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
Re: M-TH: Whither the Family
Chris wrote I think I agree with much of the thrust of the posts by John and Simon. If I understand them correctly they are both criticising the social and psychological effects of capitalism. I think this is a very important area of criticism of late capitalist society, and is essential for the battle for ideological hegemony of socialist ideas. Oh dear! I am personally (and politically) horrified that this is what you think I (or Simon) was arguing. I cannot find a single part of the above that I would ever say. I was criticising the economic effects of capitalism. The social and especially the psychological effects I was trying to avoid completely. The idea of late capitalism smacks of Mandel and Sweezy and the Trotskites which I would want to distance myself from and 'the battle for ideological hegemony of socialist ideas' is the mumbo-jumbo of Gramskism which I am equally uninfluenced by. To be consistent with Marx's terminology I would not say "private production" here. I would say "outside the realm of commodity production". Domestic work was always outside the realm of commdoity production the point about domestic work under captialism is it moves from being 'a public, socially necessary industry' to being separated from social production. Under capitalism the concrete labour of an individual becomes directly social only so far as the product ofthat labour aquires an exchange value. This is all part of the "social life process" of our species. Only a subset of these activities are organised through commodity exchange, and only a subset of this subset are organised for the production of surplus value by capital Yes, I have pointed out that there is a limited scope for indirectly sociallising domesic work as Marx points out when discussing unproductive labour. But domestic labour in the home does not even fall into this category as it is not even exchanged for revenue as the work of a cook or laundress is. No the distinction is not that capitalism is about the material, and socialists are about the spiritual. Who said it was? Or is this just a rhetorical flourish on a different topic. I don't know about Simon but I am not sure your reply to the same conversation. How spiritual is WORLD SOCIALISM for you Simon? :-) John (who is look forward to a material communism) --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
M-TH: Bulgaria
The New York Times, November 11, 1999, Thursday, Late Edition - Final In Bulgaria, 10 Years of Misery By Blagovesta Doncheva; Blagovesta Doncheva is a translator. SOFIA, Bulgaria We here in Bulgaria have had democracy since 1989. What has happened during these last 10 years? The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are successfully devouring Bulgarian industry. They have insisted on the privatization of Bulgaria's plants and factories. In many cases, the Bulgarian government, which diligently follows the I.M.F.'s advice, sold these factories to powerful foreign corporations. And these corporations often liquidated the businesses (a new way to fight the competition!). What is the result? Hordes of unemployed workers, beggars in the streets, old people digging in rubbish containers for some rag or moldy piece of bread. Our social fabric is falling apart. Before 1989, Bulgaria was a socialist state: free medical care and education for everyone. Mothers and the elderly received other aid and privileges. Now, since the fall of Communism, I see more and more children who have dropped out of public school. Their parents cannot provide them with shoes and clothes, never mind textbooks and paper. Things are no better for the elderly. In 1989, my friend's mother's pension had been about 105 leva a month. Now it is 46 leva a month, a little more than $24. There are many people, especially those who are older than 30, who are not working. Nobody needs them; nobody offers work to them. The job offers in the newspapers repeatedly demand that applicants be no more than 30 years old. And even if you are under 30, what do you get? You have the chance to slave for 12 hours for next to nothing for a newly hatched business. In January, the last remnants of our socialized state will be taken away. The government will no longer subsidize train tickets for students, the elderly and mothers with children. This means that people will be forced to stay either in the towns or in the villages, which will hurt active pensioners and the unemployed. Now, they add to their meager family incomes through some occasional jobs in the towns, or they go to the village and grow vegetables and fruit for the winter in their fathers' gardens. It made economic sense when they were traveling by train at half price. After the new year, it will be senseless. We are undergoing untold hardships, yet George Soros, the financier, eggs us on, telling us to open our boundaries, make ourselves an open society. But we in Bulgaria have learned the hard way what those pretty slogans mean. It means killing the industry that is managing to stay alive in Bulgaria. Turkish imports are flooding the market. Socks made in Bulgaria are selling for 1 leva; I have seen Turkish socks, selling for half a leva. So soon we will have only Turkish socks, and no jobs. Lots of low-quality food products and other goods flow freely into Bulgaria, undermining the efforts of local producers. I have a cousin who has a small farm with four cows. He hasn't been able to sell his calves for two successive years. He is crushed. The companies that buy veal explain that they prefer to work with the frozen meat imported from Greece at low prices, ready to be stuffed and turned into salami or sausages. What is the West offering us in return for this misery? What is the great attraction for a foreign corporation in a devastated country? The cheap labor and national resources! So much for open boundaries. So much for an open society. I personally live in misery, but I can still manage. It is the sight of the old men and women digging into the rubbish containers that is breaking my heart. Before the fall of Communism, I and many others believed that the Communist government was lying about the United States of America. We thought all its warnings about America were simply propaganda. And from 1989 to 1993, I was a democratic activist. That was before I understood the true work of the I.M.F. or the World Bank or the transnational corporations and their policy of expansion. We fell for the seductive talk about democracy and openness. Now 10 years later, I wish we hadn't. Copyright© 1999, LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved. --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
Re: M-TH: Bulgaria
Just for the record: I wonder how this got reprinted in NYT, as it originally appeared two months or so ago as part of "An Open Letter to Serbian Opposition" (also posted on J. Israel's emperor'snewclothes site). A couple of friends (me incl) tried to contact Ms Doncheva - in vain (if anyone is interested in the full text - mail over the weekend). The problem is, how to analyse the failure of 45 years of "socialism" and the failure of 10 years of post-socialism, and what's to be done NEXT? By the way, Charles, can you provide an URL or smth - is this the *whole* publication, or just an extract/quote? I somehow can't trust this outburst of eureka US-santimentality in the otherwise oh-so-cool NYT - especially with Clinton's pending visit in Bg... Of course, could be just my paranoia in a timeos-danaos-et-clinton-ferentes kinda key. Best wishes, Lena -Original Message- From: Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 11 Íîåìâðè 1999 ã. 23:30 Subject: M-TH: Bulgaria The New York Times, November 11, 1999, Thursday, Late Edition - Final In Bulgaria, 10 Years of Misery By Blagovesta Doncheva; Blagovesta Doncheva is a translator. SOFIA, Bulgaria --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
