Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
--- sartesian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Chris, You gave a better answer when you earlier when you said you didn't know. Assuming want Kashmiris want or don't want is exactly not the issue. The issue is the material determinants of the struggle, the history of the conflict in the area and what the resolution requires. True. And I don't know the issue very well. But what I see going on is Pakistan (or elements within Pakistan) and the international mujahedin trying to worsen -- and prolong -- an already bad situation. (They seem to like to do this kind of thing a lot.) I don't know about India, but in this part of the world, national determination movements are usually actually a small minority of crazed nationalists being manipulated by cynical politicians. The USSR national-determination-movemented itself out of existence 13 years ago, and everybody is worse off. So I am quite skeptical in general. __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
The Sarajevo Of Iraq
OutlookIndia.com Web | Jul 23, 2004 OPINION The Sarajevo Of Iraq In the ongoing crisis in Iraq, one factor has remained unchanged: the loyalty of the Kurds to Washington. And the worsening Kurdish-Arab friction. DILIP HIRO http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040723fname=hirosid=1 Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Hi Ravi, you wrote: --- ravi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i do not know about fighters, but definitely quite a few kashmiris have been killed in kashmir by indian forces. a simple search on amnesty.org for 'kashmir' yields multiple pages and reports of abuse and murder perpetrated by the indian govt and armed forces. --- It's counterinsurgency war -- the main victims in counterinsurgency war are always civilian. It's probably the most brutal form of warfare there is. I don't know about the state of the Indian Army, but most of the horrors against civilians in Chechnya (leavinf aside the tricky question of how to define the term civilian) are the result of terrified and trigger-happy drafted soldiers who want to get home alive and therefore shoot first and ask questions later. --- BBC What started as essentially an indigenous popular uprising in BBC Indian-administered Kashmir has in the last 12 years undergone BBC major changes. BBC ... BBC some of the groups that were in the forefront of the BBC armed insurgency in 1989 - particularly the pro-independence BBC Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) - have receded into the BBC background. --- Sounds like Chechnya to me. I would go as far as to say that anytime the international mujaheedin start to figure prominantly in a conflict, it has almost certainly been hijacked. __ Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
Housing bust.
Aren't there some benefits to the working class for people to be able to buy houses for less ? Charles ^ by Devine, James July 25, 2004 GRETCHEN MORGENSON Housing Bust: It Won't Be Pretty LET the stock market slide. Let the bond market sink. As long as home prices keep rocking, it's easy for Americans to feel fat and happy. But what happens when the run-up in housing prices loses steam, or worse? The implications are sobering, not only for homeowners but also for the economy as a whole. With the growth rate for home prices starting to slow, now may be the time to ponder what a bear market in real estate may bring. A recent study by two economists at Goldman Sachs provides some answers. For now, prices are still climbing over all. The average home price in the nation rose 7.71 percent in the 12 months ended in March. But the first three months of this year showed far slower growth than previous periods. Prices rose only 0.96 percent, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which keeps an eye on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The last time housing prices grew by less than 1 percent in a quarter was in the spring of 1998. More ominous, six states showed declines in housing prices in the first quarter: Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. No state had price declines in the previous quarter. -clip
Sino-Russian military exercises
BTW I think he makes too much of the use of the word comrade. Comrade has about as much political meaning in Russia as sir does in English. PRC: Renmin Wang Article Views Upcoming Sino-Russian Military Exercises Beijing Renmin Wang WWW-Text in Chinese 09 Jul 04 [Article appearing on Renmin Wang homepage by Russian-based correspondent, Lu Yansong, and contributing correspondent Gu Xiaoqing: Huanqiu Shibao: China and Russia To Hold Their First-ever Bilateral Military Exercise] The Chinese and Russian armed forces both have glorious histories, and they are also important forces in maintaining world peace and stability today. As a major aspect of the Sino-Russian strategic cooperative partnership, cooperation between their armed forces is continually deepening. On 6 July, PRC Central Military Commission [CMC] Vice Chairman Guo Boxiong and Russian Minister of National Defense Ivanov signed a memorandum in Moscow on holding joint Sino-Russian military exercises. This means that the Chinese and Russian armed forces will hold their historic first bilateral joint military exercise. China and Russia Will Stage Higher Scale Military Exercises The weather in Moscow in early July is beautiful and the scene is pleasant. At the invitation of Russian Minister of National Defense Ivanov, CMC Vice Chairman Colonel General Guo Boxiong is heading a delegation on a five-day official visit to Russia. Although the military delegation's activities are low key, the journalists could see from their chest badges that it includes many well-known generals, such as Beijing Military Region Commander General Zhu Qi, Second Artillery Corps Political Commissar Lieutenant General Peng Xiaofeng, Navy Deputy Commander Vice Admiral Wang Yucheng, Air Force Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Wang Chaoqun, and CMC General Office Deputy Director Major General Wang Guanzhong. The Ministry of National Defense building in central Moscow appeared particularly grand on the morning of 6 July. When the Chinese military delegation's cars arrived at the building, Defense Minister Ivanov was awaiting them in the hall on the first floor. After a brief welcoming ceremony, the leaders of the two armed forces held formal talks. During the talks, Guo Boxiong stated that along with the development of Sino-Russian relations, exchanges and cooperation between their armed forces are being stepped up all the time, and relations between their armed forces are developing in healthy and steady fashion. Ivanov stated that Russian-Chinese military relations are now developing extremely smoothly, and Russia is satisfied at this. After the talks ended, leaders of the two armed forces signed a memorandum on holding joint Sino-Russian military exercises. Ivanov told reporters: We have already instructed the two general staff departments to prepare for the joint exercise. Guo Boxiong said for his part that the signing of the memorandum is an important step in the development of Sino-Russian military relations. Since there is some time to go before the joint exercises are held, the two sides did not reveal the details. According to the Russian media, the joint exercises will start next year. According to the analysis of Russian military experts, since the Russians call this a higher scale exercise, the number of troops participating will not be too small. As for the exercise location, since the western section of the Sino-Russian border is only 50 km long and very mountainous, it is not a good place for mobility and spreading out, so the eastern section of the border would be more suitable. At present the eastern section of the border is on the Chinese side the defense zone of Shenyang Military Region, while on the Russian side it is the defense zone of the Far East Military District and Siberian Military District. Russian military figures hold the view that it is most likely that Shenyang Military Region and the Far East Military District will assign units to the exercise. Judging by joint exercises held by China and Russia with foreign armies in recent years, antiterrorism will be the primary option for exercise content. Conditions are Ripe for Success in Sino-Russian Military Exercises Since the founding of new China, the People's Liberation Army [PLA] has never held a bilateral military exercise with Soviet (Russian) forces. According to reports, the Soviet, Chinese, and DPRK held a multilateral exercise in the Soviet coastal region in 1958. China never held a joint exercise with a foreign army for 44 years after that. China and Kyrgyzstan held a joint antiterrorism exercise codenamed 01 in Xinjiang in October 2002, thus raising the curtain on joint exercises between China and foreign forces. In August 2003, members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization held a joint antiterrorism exercise codenamed Union-2003 on the Kazakhstan-China border. When the Russian armed forces held their
Trade union president: a Kerry loss might be better for labor
Dissent From Labor SEIU Chief Says the Democrats Lack Fresh Ideas Stern Asserts That a Kerry Win Could Set Back Efforts to Reform the Party By David S. Broder Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 27, 2004; Page A13 BOSTON, July 26 -- Breaking sharply with the enforced harmony of the Democratic National Convention, the president of the largest AFL-CIO union said Monday that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off in the long run if Sen. John F. Kerry loses the election. Andrew L. Stern, the head of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in an interview with The Washington Post that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are in deep crisis, devoid of new ideas and working with archaic structures. Stern argued that Kerry's election might stifle needed reform within the party and the labor movement. He said he still believes that Kerry overall would make a better president than President Bush, and his union has poured huge resources into that effort. But he contends that Kerry's election would have the effect of slowing the evolution of the dialogue within the party. Asked whether if Kerry became president it would help or hurt those internal party deliberations, Stern said, I think it hurts. Stern's dissatisfaction with the AFL-CIO and the Democratic Party is not new, but his decision to voice his frustration on the opening day of a carefully scripted convention was an unwelcome surprise to Kerry's convention managers, who had been proclaiming their delight at the absence of any internal conflicts. Speaking of the effort to create new political and union organizations, Stern said, I don't know if it would survive with a Democratic president, because Kerry, like former president Bill Clinton, would use the party for his own political benefit and labor leaders would become partners of the new establishment. It is a hollow party, Stern said, adding that if John Kerry becomes president, it hurts chances of reforming the Democrats and organized labor. Stern is perhaps the most outspoken of the leaders of four or five unions that have been talking about breaking away from the AFL-CIO to form some kind of new workers movement. In the struggle for the Democratic nomination last winter, Stern's union, along with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), delivered an early endorsement to former Vermont governor Howard H. Dean -- a step that solidified Dean's status as the early favorite for the nomination. Later in the day, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney told The Post that Stern's attitude is not justified. Sweeney, also a product of the SEIU, the largest and fastest-growing union in the AFL-CIO, said the process of change is already underway within labor, adding that he is impressed with the unity and solidarity of Democratic support for Kerry. I'm optimistic about the future of the Democratic Party, he said. Stern made it clear that his complaints long preceded Kerry's nomination. He said that when Clinton was president, he demonstrated how little he cared for the Democratic Party. Calling the former president the greatest fundraiser of his time, Stern asked: If you think the Democratic Party is valuable, why would you leave it bankrupt? Other elected officials are equally indifferent to the party, he said, adding that if Kerry is elected he would smother any effort to give it more intellectual heft and organizational muscle. The SEIU, representing health care and nursing home workers, state and local employees and janitors among its 1.6 million members, is part of a coalition of liberal, feminist and environmental organizations working in an alliance called Americans Coming Together. ACT has raised more than $85 million, according to fundraiser Harold Ickes, and hopes to reach $130 million by November. Most of the money is being spent in targeted areas to register and turn out the vote of people believed to be likely to support Kerry. Stern said the SEIU has put about $65 million in union resources into efforts to elect Kerry and other worker-friendly Democrats, the bulk of it directly aimed at labor efforts in behalf of the senator from Massachusetts. But Stern complained that motivating blue-collar families who have not voted in the past is being impeded because Kerry and the Democrats have declined to address what he calls the Wal-Mart economy, a system in which he says employers deliberately keep wages so low and hours so short that workers are forced to turn to state Medicaid programs for their families' health care. He also criticized what he called the vagueness of the Democratic platform on trade issues. Sweeney said he thinks both complaints are off base. He said Kerry has offered a very specific health plan with real benefits for working families. And he said he is confident that, despite his history as a supporter of liberal trade agreements, Kerry is sincere in promising to include
Michael Moore defends Kerry's vote in favor of war
SNAPSHOT 'Fahrenheit 9/11' fans welcome hero to hotbed By Yvonne Abraham, Boston Globe Staff | July 27, 2004 The man of the hour was more than an hour late. A group of veterans and soldiers' families waited for Michael Moore in a North End park yesterday, chatting, eating pizza, checking their watches. The bomb-throwing filmmaker had been due at 11, and they were all looking forward to meeting him, and to thanking him for his movie ''Fahrenheit 9/11. The film had gotten the antiwar message out to millions of people, they said. (clip) He had come to town during the convention, Moore said, ''to encourage Democrats to have a backbone. He was not endorsing politicians, he said, though he did defend presumptive nominee John F. Kerry's vote in favor of war in Iraq. (Moore argued that Kerry was betrayed by what Moore calls the Bush administration's false case for war.) full: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/07/27/fahrenheit_911_fans_welcome_hero_to_hotbed/ -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
Marvin Gandall wrote: social democratic governments are now commonplace, of course. Which raises the question: what keeps the unions wedded to these parties despite their repeated disappointments with them? The traditional left answer is that the workers lack sufficient consciousness of the nature of their party leadership and program, which I don't think is altogether true. I think they know quite well what they are voting for when they vote for these parties. Unfortunately, knowing that Kerry is inimical to the interests of working people does not stop the bureaucracy from backing the DP. This is not a question of intellect, but will. Stern's words are remarkable, but I doubt if he would ever put his clout behind a labor party, let alone backing Nader. In any case, if a Kerry administration is forced to preside over deep cuts to Social Security and other social programs, it's difficult not to see the same struggle emerging within the DP, with the left opposition coming from the SEIU-ACSFME-Dean-Kucinich axis which formed during the primaries. I don't think the US labour movement is THAT exceptional, is it?) Of course, in 2008, Kucinich will run as a progressive candidate in the DP primaries and waste everybody's time. That is, of course, except for the political whores like Jeff Cohen who will work for him and others like him. There's always good money to be made in telling people TINA. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
if a Kerry administration is forced to preside over deep cuts to Social Security and other social programs ? nothing will force a Kerry Administration to cut Social Security. There is nothing wrong with Social Security. At 09:39 AM 7/27/2004 -0400, you wrote: (A pretty remarkable public indictment of the program and leadership of the Democratic party by the SEIU's Andy Stern on the eve of its convention. The SEIU is one of the major contributors to the DP, and this suggests there could be blood on the party floor if Kerry loses -- and perhaps even if he wins, Stern's remarks notwithstanding. It could be a repeat, for example, of what happened in Ontario after the NDP formed a one-term government in 1990-95. The public sector unions and the Canadian Auto Workers under Buzz Hargrove led a bitter internal fight against the Bob Rae government which introduced an austerity program, including a wage freeze and collective bargaining rollbacks in response to pressure from the bond market. These post-election battles between the beleaguered unions and austerity-minded social democratic governments are now commonplace, of course. Which raises the question: what keeps the unions wedded to these parties despite their repeated disappointments with them? The traditional left answer is that the workers lack sufficient consciousness of the nature of their party leadership and program, which I don't think is altogether true. I think they know quite well what they are voting for when they vote for these parties. In any case, if a Kerry administration is forced to preside over deep cuts to Social Security and other social programs, it's difficult not to see the same struggle emerging within the DP, with the left opposition coming from the SEIU-ACSFME-Dean-Kucinich axis which formed during the primaries. I don't think the US labour movement is THAT exceptional, is it?) SEIU Chief Says The Democrats Lack Fresh Ideas Stern Asserts That a Kerry Win Could Set Back Efforts to Reform the Party By David S. Broder Washington Post Tuesday, July 27, 2004; Page A13 BOSTON, July 26 -- Breaking sharply with the enforced harmony of the Democratic National Convention, the president of the largest AFL-CIO union said Monday that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off in the long run if Sen. John F. Kerry loses the election. Andrew L. Stern, the head of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in an interview with The Washington Post that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are in deep crisis, devoid of new ideas and working with archaic structures. Stern argued that Kerry's election might stifle needed reform within the party and the labor movement. He said he still believes that Kerry overall would make a better president than President Bush, and his union has poured huge resources into that effort. But he contends that Kerry's election would have the effect of slowing the evolution of the dialogue within the party. Asked whether if Kerry became president it would help or hurt those internal party deliberations, Stern said, I think it hurts. Stern's dissatisfaction with the AFL-CIO and the Democratic Party is not new, but his decision to voice his frustration on the opening day of a carefully scripted convention was an unwelcome surprise to Kerry's convention managers, who had been proclaiming their delight at the absence of any internal conflicts. Speaking of the effort to create new political and union organizations, Stern said, I don't know if it would survive with a Democratic president, because Kerry, like former president Bill Clinton, would use the party for his own political benefit and labor leaders would become partners of the new establishment. It is a hollow party, Stern said, adding that if John Kerry becomes president, it hurts chances of reforming the Democrats and organized labor. Stern is perhaps the most outspoken of the leaders of four or five unions that have been talking about breaking away from the AFL-CIO to form some kind of new workers movement. In the struggle for the Democratic nomination last winter, Stern's union, along with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), delivered an early endorsement to former Vermont governor Howard H. Dean -- a step that solidified Dean's status as the early favorite for the nomination. Later in the day, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney told The Post that Stern's attitude is not justified. Sweeney, also a product of the SEIU, the largest and fastest-growing union in the AFL-CIO, said the process of change is already underway within labor, adding that he is impressed with the unity and solidarity of Democratic support for Kerry. I'm optimistic about the future of the Democratic Party, he said. Stern made it clear that his complaints long preceded Kerry's nomination. He said that when Clinton was president, he demonstrated how little he cared for the Democratic Party.
Presbyterians Divest from the Israeli Occupation
Presbyterians Divest from the Israeli Occupation (the first US church -- and so far the largest membership organization -- to embark upon divestment from the Israeli occupation): http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/07/presbyterians-divest-from-israeli.html -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
-Original Message- From: Robert Naiman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Jul 27, 2004 10:18 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] An emerging labor-led left in the DP? if a Kerry administration is forced to preside over deep cuts to Social Security and other social programs ? nothing will force a Kerry Administration to cut Social Security. There is nothing wrong with Social Security. __ Just because Social Security is financially sound does not mean it won't be cut, and cut by a Dem or a Rep. The force, and force there will be, comes from Wall Street because Wall Street wants the business. Will the words of disaffection from the SEIU leaders are remarkable, the remarkable resides in the growing restlessness of the rank and file. That rank and file can and will suppport a labor party if such a party is aggressive in articulating working class interests as interests of all, including those workers outside the US.
Re: India's HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn't
Anthony D'Costa wrote: There are two main national languages: Hindi and English. A good number of people don't speak either. But they tend to be from rural areas from the non-Hindi belt. my experience differs somewhat from this assessment. i am from madras which is definitely from the non-hindi belt, but is hardly rural. the number of people who speak hindi in madras (or at least used to, when i lived there 15 years ago) is/was restricted to the north indian population and children from the privileged class, enrolled in central board schools, who are forced to learn the language as part of the curriculum. and even that is a stretch... i studied in such a school myself and graduated without even a passing knowledge of the language. not one person in my vast array of relatives (in the region) can speak hindi and these are people from the middle or upper classes. with the advent of popular hindi television, some of this may have changed, though that process of subtle imposition of the language (starting with the national programming in the 80s) had itself been subverted in the 90s through the dubbing of such programmes in regional languages. we may not see a repeat of the fiery demonstrations that madras witnessed a few decades ago, against the imposition of hindi by the centre, but it may be a safe bet to suggest that the majority of the people from the region may prefer english over hindi, if a common language is to be enforced. the other regions of southern india (karnataka and andhra pradesh in particular) may not have a history of such militant opposition to hindi. --ravi
Re: India's HDI Improves, Ranking Doesn't
Chris Doss wrote: Given that knowledge of English is so low and the absence of a national language (I guess), what is the lingua franca in India? I mean, is there any language that people anywhere in India would be able to communicate in (like Russian in the fSU)? Without that, I imagine it would be very difficult to have a united country. facetious nothing unites like hate. and for that there is pakistan and/or muslims. the common language i share with my indian spouse is english. but not to worry with respect to commonality... advice from some relatives/acquaintances on both sides struck a common chord: marry someone soon, but just don't marry a muslim! even one of the those american boys/girls is ok... /facetious --ravi
Nader raises hell at Harvard
Published on Friday, July 23, 2004 Nader Campaigns in Science Center By JOSHUA P. ROGERS Harvard Crimson Staff Writer As Boston geared up for the Democratic National Convention, independent candidate Ralph Nader crashed the party with a spirited rally on Friday afternoon in the Science Center. The event, sponsored by the Harvard Socialist Alternative, featured five speakers and culminated with a 45-minute address by Nader to a motley crowd of over 500. His speech addressed why he is running for president and what is wrong with U.S. politics. Naders most obvious complaint was that the creeping increase of corporate influence in government is turning the United States into a de facto dictatorship. The two major parties are running this country into the ground for corporate campaign contributions, Nader said. George W. Bush is a giant corporation disguised as a human being residing in the White House, and his administration was marinated in oil. Nader's ridiculing of his incumbent opponent drew loud roars from the fiercely anti-Bush attendees, many of whom were lured inside the rally by a demonstrator on the plaza outside the Science Center, where a disgruntled old man, crowned by multi-colored balloons, yelled Fuck Bush! to help publicize the rally. But in addition to criticizing the Bush administration, Nader marshaled evidence that Kerry does not support a liberal constituency. Hes for the war and wants to stay in Iraq, he toes the Sharon party line, hes for corporate globalization, the WTO and NAFTA, and he voted for the PATRIOT Actthe greatest single assault on civil liberties in the countrys history, Nader said. He also faulted Harvard University for being a processing center for giant corporations. Nader cited a statistic that 95 percent of the people in his Harvard Law School class are now representing corporations while only 5 percent are representing civic interests. Polluters have the lawyers, but people with respiratory diseases dont have many lawyers, Nader said. He also criticized the system that perpetuates a two-party duopoly, and in the question-and-answer session following the speech, he supported an instant runoff system instead of the current indirect elections. The 200-year-old electoral college system ensures that winner takes all, Nader said. Voters go for the least-worst and demand nothing because they fear the worst. Nader also criticized the lack of choice in local and state electionsa trend he said has spread to the national level due to redistricting. Ninety-five percent of voters are in a one-party-dominated or nominally opposed district, Nader said. Of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, only 25 are competitive. Election implies selection! In addition to describing why he was running for president, Nader explained why he had chosen Peter Camejo, a member of the socially responsible investment movement, as his running mate, using anecdotes from Camejos past and noting what he thinks Camejo brings to the election. Hes Latino, and weve never had a Latino candidate for V.P.he speaks Spanish beautifully, Nader said. During the question and answer session, Nader fielded several queries concerning his role in the election of 2000 and whether he believes his current campaign weakens that of John F. Kerry, the Democratic candidate. How can you sleep at night with the blood of the soldiers who died in Iraq on your hands? an audience member shouted out. Nader responded by stating that he is certain that Bush is self-destructing, and that those who live in states where Democrats are expected to win by a wide margin should vote Nader/Camejo. Bush is a one-term president, Nader said. Kerry is swinging and missing for four months, but Bush is swinging and socking himself. After Nader finished answering questions, a Nader spokesperson attempted to raise money from the crowd for the campaignwhich he claims does not accept any corporate donations. Im looking for a $1,000 hero, the spokesperson said. No such hero stepped forward, although two individuals came forward to donate $500 each. The Nader campaign representatives passed buckets around the crowd looking for additional donations, and autographed copies of Naders book, Crashing the Party, were available for $75 each at the end of the question and answer session. Staff writer Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
international income comparisons, etc
In relation to questions raised by Paul on HDI, etc, a friend has directed me to a recent piece by Robert Wade in New Political Economy. I assume it's in the following issue: Volume 9, Number 2, June 2004 SPECIAL ISSUE: INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY AND DEVELOPMENT Articles Introduction: Globalisation, Governance and Development, Graham Harrison On the Causes of Increasing World Poverty and Inequality, or Why the Matthew Effect Prevails, Robert Hunter Wade What the World Bank Means by Poverty Reduction, and Why it Matters, Paul Cammack Examining the Ideas of Globalisation and Development Critically: What Role for Political Economy?, Ben Fine 'Truth', 'Efficiency' and Multilateral Institutions: A Political Economy of Development Economics, Alice Sindzingre The International Monetary Fund and Civil Society, Ben Thirkell-White Pro-Poor Politics and the New Political Economy of Stabilisation, Paul Mosley Michael A. Lebowitz Professor Emeritus Economics Department Simon Fraser University Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at Residencias Anauco Suites Departamento 601 Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 Caracas, Venezuela (58-212) 573-4111 fax: (58-212) 573-7724
China frees whistle-blower
The Hindu Thursday, Jul 22, 2004 China frees whistle-blower Beijing: The Chinese military surgeon who exposed the Government's cover-up of the SARS crisis was released on Tuesday after seven weeks of political re-education'', his family said. Jiang Yanyong (72), a semi-retired general in the People's Liberation Army, had been detained at a secret location where he was forced to undergo daily study sessions aimed to make him renounce a critical letter he had written about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. It was unclear whether he had signed a letter of contrition to secure his freedom. Dr. Jiang's family said he was in good health, but forbidden to talk to the media without the prior approval of his superiors at the No. 301 military hospital in Beijing. Dr. Jiang and his wife, Hua Zhongwei, were detained on June 1 while going to the U.S. embassy, where they were applying for visas to visit their California-based daughter. They were among dozens of dissenters who were removed from public view or held under house arrest in the run-up to the politically sensitive 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4. Mrs. Hua and most of the others were released within two weeks, but Dr. Jiang was held for what sympathisers called `brainwashing,' which would have required authorisation by Jiang Zemin, the head of the military. - Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Democratic Party 527's
See How They Fund By David S. Bernstein, Boston Phoenix. Posted July 27, 2004. One year ago, conventional political wisdom held that the Democratic presidential nominee would be in trouble right now. After spending all his cash in a tough primary battle, the thinking went, the candidate would have to spend April through June scrambling to raise money for the general campaign. In the meantime, Bush's team would be free to use that three-month window to define the Democrats' front-runner through attack ads the latter couldn't afford to counter. Things turned out differently: the attack ads flung at Senator John Kerry have not gone unanswered. In fact, in addition to Kerry's own ads, more than $15 million of political advertising has run in the past three months, most of it bashing Bush, most of it in key battleground stateswithout costing the Kerry campaign a dime. The ads have been created and paid for by organizations known as 527s, named for the tax-code section that defines them. These groups do not fall under Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations, as long as they limit their activities; most significantly, they cannot support a candidate directly or coordinate their efforts with a candidate's campaign. They can, however, accept contributions of unlimited size, from anybody. Depending on your perspective, this is either an unsavory back-door maneuver around campaign-finance reform, or an exciting new outlet for political discourse. Either way, it's probably a big reason why John Kerry entered July in a dead heat in the polls despite the tens of millions of dollars spent on negative advertising against himand one of the reasons why Bush's favorability ratings are at an all-time low. The best-known of these 527s is probably the MoveOn.org Voter Fund, formed last September by the progressive California-based MoveOn.org; its most recent television ad, running in Ohio, blames George W. Bush for losing American jobs to outsourcing. The most ambitious group, however, is an interrelated trio planning to spend more than $100 million on this election: Americans Coming Together (ACT), the Media Fund, and Joint Victory Campaign 2004, all operating out of Washington, DC. Its TV and radio ads include No Oil Company Left Behind and Bush and Halliburton. Another Washington group, New Democrat Network, is taking in and spending about a million dollars a month. Among its projects is an effort to recruit Hispanic voters into the Democratic Party. For the young and hip, there's Music for America and PunkVoter. Several well-known political-action committees, or PACs, have started separate 527s (such as EMILY's List Non-Federal Fund, and Sierra Club Voter Education Fund). And there are issue-specific 527s, including one focused on labor (Voices for Working Families), one devoted to decriminalizing marijuana (Marijuana Policy Project Political Fund), and several committed to environmental issues (League of Conservation Voters, Environment 2004, State Conservation Voters Fund). In all, more than a hundred 527s filed a quarterly report with the IRS by the July 15 deadline. The people funding these 527s, with millions of their own dollars, are arguably the Democrats' 2004 MVPs. Yet with the exception of financier George Soros, who has contributed a total of $12,481,250 in the past 18 months and who has been called to task in no uncertain terms by the GOP, they remain surprisingly unknown to the public and uncovered by the media. The Phoenix has compiled a list of 12 donors (see below) who chipped in more than $1 million each during the first 18 months of the current campaign cyclethe start of 2003 through the end of Juneto Democratic-leaning 527s. Collectively, this dozen has donated just over $50 million. They include a range of people, from the business elite (George Soros, Lewis Cullman) to the glitterati (Stephen Bing, Susie Tompkins Buell), from the well-born (Anne Getty Earhart, Alida Rockefeller Messinger, Linda Pritzker) to the self-made (Andrew Rappaport, Marcy Carsey, Agnes Varis). There's even a drug-reformer billionaire (Peter Lewis)and an environmentalist (John A. Harris). Thanks largely to their largesse, 527s are, and will continue to be, major players in the 2004 campaign. The 527s are independent. I'm not familiar with what their plans are, says Democratic heavy-hitter Alan D. Solomont, of Boston, a major fundraiser for the Kerry campaign. What they're doing, I think is terrific. full: http://www.alternet.org/election04/19351/
OFFLIST re international income comparisons, etc
At 11:14 AM 7/27/2004 -0400, you wrote: In relation to questions raised by Paul on HDI, etc, a friend has directed me to a recent piece by Robert Wade in New Political Economy. I assume it's in the following issue: Thanks very much, I will look for it and will also try to comment a bit more in a couple of days. Did your friend have any other comments or views on the discussion - not many people follow this. Paul
Apologies for OFFLIST re international income comparisons, etc
Sorry, egg on my face. At 12:04 PM 7/27/2004 -0400, you wrote: At 11:14 AM 7/27/2004 -0400, you wrote: In relation to questions raised by Paul on HDI, etc, a friend has directed me to a recent piece by Robert Wade in New Political Economy. I assume it's in the following issue: Thanks very much, I will look for it and will also try to comment a bit more in a couple of days. Did your friend have any other comments or views on the discussion - not many people follow this. Paul
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
if a Kerry administration is forced to preside over deep cuts to Social Security and other social programs ? nothing will force a Kerry Administration to cut Social Security. There is nothing wrong with Social Security. Me: that's right. There's nothing wrong with SS. jdevine
100 million Chinese suffer iodine deficiency
People's Daily Online Life UPDATED: 14:01, July 27, 2004 Some 100 million Chinese continue to suffer iodine deficiency China's plan to eradicate iodine deficiency disorders by 2000 has been frustrated by chronic shortages of the indispensable element in some areas, health authorities said at a recent meeting. The Chinese government launched a program in 1993 to eliminate iodine deficiency throughout the country by 2000. It has not yet been successful, as four provinces, two autonomous regions and one municipality failed to reach the goal, said Liu Jiayi, an official of disease control with the Ministry of Health. Liu characterized the seven areas which have yet to stamp out the problem -- Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Gansu, Hainan and Chongqing -- as being located in remote sections of the country. China has reset its goal, planning to provide enough of the element to everyone in the iodine-deficient areas within five years. Around 100 million people in China, or some eight percent of the population, suffer from a deficiency of iodine. About two million newly born infants in the country face the threat of iodine deficiency every year. It is generally believed that iodized salt provides the most economic and effective way of distributing iodine. But high shipping costs have hindered the promotion of iodized salt in remote areas, said Lin Jiahua, deputy general manager of the China National Salt Industry Corporation. Lin said that iodized salt distribution networks still cannot cover some key iodine-deficient areas. Health education is also necessary to promote the use of iodized salt, Lin said, as people in some iodine-lack areas are accustomed to crude salt and might not choose iodized salt even ifthe product is available. Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
Louis Proyect wrote: Unfortunately, knowing that Kerry is inimical to the interests of working people does not stop the bureaucracy from backing the DP. --- This raises the question of the relationship between the labour base and the labour bureaucracy. The conventional wisdom on the left, expressed by Proyect, is that there is a sharp separation between the two, with the bureacracy seen as an alien force which has imposed an alien program on the unions. In fact, the local and national labour full-timers I've met have seemed a lot less alien to the working class than left-wing intellectuals who regularly denounce them. For the most part, with the exception perhaps of the research, legal, and communications departments, they've risen organically from within the working class -- elected or appointed to union positions after having been rank-and-file activists and strike leaders. Sure, some have been corrupted and have literally sold out their members in exhange for a few perks from management and many betray the same social prejudices as their members, but in most cases the conservatism of union leaders usually stems from an often quite realistic assessment of the balance of forces between their organizations and the employers, rather than any inherent venality or spinelessness. Their compromises and retreats are not infrequently reluctant and in contradiction to their original intent to engage in confrontation. In most cases, they are able to win the support of their members at ratification and other meetings because they reflect the cautious mood and instincts of their base, and they often do this in debate with more militant oppositionists who are present in every major local. Kerry and the DP and labour leaderships are inimical to the interests of working people, if you solely define their interests, as Proyect and other disaffected intellectuals seem to, in terms of the overthrow of capitalism, and see the workers' continued support for the system and the pro-capitalist parties as a product of false consciousness rather than the (historically unexpected) material improvement in their working and living conditions. Within this context, the workers, especially those in trade unions, perceive the Democrats, with some reason, as more sympathetic to the Republicans in terms of collective bargaining rights, minimum wage and employment standards, unemployment relief, social programs, and other economic and social issues of concern to them. Left intellectuals, whose living conditions and interests may be very different, may not think this counts for much and that the Democrats are only only marginally better than the Republicans in terms of the big picture, but to workers struggling to maintain their living standards, these issues are of more than marginal importance, and it is their own experience of the two parties -- as much as the exhortations of the union leaders -- which explains their stubborn refusal to buy the argument that the Democrats are inimical to the interests of working people. I think there will first have to be a major change in the way most people, especially in the cities, experience the system and the two parties for them to even begin to entertain that notion. Marv Gandall
labor theory of value?
from MSN Jubak's Journal The high cost of do-it-yourself cost-cutting Lower prices mask a bitter truth: The customer still pays, but with time and frustration. A company that can cut prices without alienating its public could be a great buy. By Jim Jubak I was thinking about Adam Smith as I waited on hold to schedule what would turn out to be the sixth unsuccessful attempt to fix my high-speed Internet service. More than two centuries ago, Smith wrote in "The Wealth of Nations:" "The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it." Smith was trying to explain why the same thing sells for such different prices in different places. But Smiths emphasis on the toil and trouble of acquiring a thing also explains why our current statistical measures of price inflation right now fail to capture the full cost of a thing or service. If you look at the full toil-and-trouble cost, instead of just the price tag in dollars, you can see not only why inflation feels higher than the official measure, but also why it is in fact higher. Smiths 18th century point of view also reveals the growing do-it-yourself nature of todays corporate cost-cutting. And that, in turn, points the way toward an expanded strategy for picking stocks in the current inflation environment Dollar costs arent the whole story The measures of inflation that Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve use to set interest rates and monetary policy, which are the instruments of the moment for directing the course of the economy, are based on price calculated in dollars. That captures the amount of money that we pay for things. But it doesnt capture another, increasingly important, feature of cost in the current economy: the nonmonetary "toil and trouble" it takes to acquire that thing. As an increasingly important part of their cost-cutting efforts, companies are making consumers work harder and harder to buy goods and services from them. That often results in cost savings to the company, some of which they pass on to consumers. Measured just in dollars, that makes prices lower. But measured by Smiths full toil-and-trouble accounting, those lower cash prices actually disguise a jump in total cost to the consumer. Troubling lesson Let me show you what I mean using the example of the difference in price between buying an airline ticket now and 10 years ago, measured solely in price and measured by Smiths total toil and trouble, price and consumer effort, standard. Say that 10 years ago you bought a ticket to fly, one-way, from San Francisco to New York for $300. Today, its easy to find a one-way flight on one of the low-cost carriers for around $140. So the cost of a ticket from San Francisco to New York is $160 less than it was a decade ago. That 53% decrease in cost sure helps keep the official inflation numbers down. But the picture isnt as favorable if you look at the full toil-and-trouble cost. Ten years ago, my flight on a full-fare carrier would have departed from San Francisco International. Today, theres a good chance Id be flying from the Oakland airport. That shift is likely to add a good 20 minutes to my travel time and, if I take a cab, $15 to $20 to my taxi fare. Because the low-cost carriers at Oakland are so popular, the airport is operating way beyond its designed capacity and lines for checking in can be as long as the Golden Gate Bridge. The wait, even if you factor out delays for new security measures, is certainly longer than it was a decade ago at San Francisco International. Remember travel agents? They once booked flights for you after consulting their computerized data bases. Today, we do it ourselves. The cost of paying that travel agent was paid by the airline (and passed along to the consumer in the ticket price). Today, the airline doesnt pay that cost (or pass it along to the consumer). Instead, we "save" the money by doing the work ourselves. Even when you add the full toil-and-trouble costs, todays airline ticket represents a considerable bargain compared to the full cost of a ticket a decade ago. But the difference isnt as big as it seems to be when you simply compare dollar prices. Whats your toil worth? You can find examples just about anywhere you look in the economy and in your daily life -- and most of them dont work out to be as much in the consumers favor as my airline example. Its at work at the rental-car counter when the company decides to hire one less person to process reservations. The company cuts costs and you wind up waiting in line a little longer. Or how about the company, perhaps a cable TV company, that decides to staff its help desk with just enough people to make most customers wait four to six minutes, on average, and then wait again to talk to a "real" technician. Or
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
Marvin Gandall wrote: In fact, the local and national labour full-timers I've met have seemed a lot less alien to the working class than left-wing intellectuals who regularly denounce them. This might be related to the fact that you were a trade union functionary for over 25 years. Sure, some have been corrupted and have literally sold out their members in exhange for a few perks from management and many betray the same social prejudices as their members, but in most cases the conservatism of union leaders usually stems from an often quite realistic assessment of the balance of forces between their organizations and the employers, rather than any inherent venality or spinelessness. Yes, why rock the boat especially when there's conventions in Miami, golf, restaurant outings on the union expense account, etc. at risk. Their compromises and retreats are not infrequently reluctant and in contradiction to their original intent to engage in confrontation. In most cases, they are able to win the support of their members at ratification and other meetings because they reflect the cautious mood and instincts of their base, and they often do this in debate with more militant oppositionists who are present in every major local. This is what used to be called business unionism. It was the calling card of Gompers's AFL. The CIO was set up to transcend this kind of reformism, but eventually became corrupted itself as the Cold War and post-WWII prosperity ensued. It obviously is in crisis now since the economic base for traditional high-wage union jobs have evaporated. Instead of coming up with a bold new vision for recruiting new members and challenging the 2-party system, the trade union bureaucrats would rather see the ship sink than challenge the status quo. Kerry and the DP and labour leaderships are inimical to the interests of working people, if you solely define their interests, as Proyect and other disaffected intellectuals seem to, in terms of the overthrow of capitalism, and see the workers' continued support for the system and the pro-capitalist parties as a product of false consciousness rather than the (historically unexpected) material improvement in their working and living conditions. Even on the basis of material improvement, the AFL-CIO has been a failure. Wages have stagnated and job insecurity remains very high. This can only change through class struggle, just as the success of the early CIO proves. Sitting down at the same table with the John Kerrys of the world will not cut it. Within this context, the workers, especially those in trade unions, perceive the Democrats, with some reason, as more sympathetic to the Republicans in terms of collective bargaining rights, minimum wage and employment standards, unemployment relief, social programs, and other economic and social issues of concern to them. Yes, the Democrats are more sympathetic. But Mussolini was also better than Hitler. Left intellectuals, whose living conditions and interests may be very different, may not think this counts for much and that the Democrats are only only marginally better than the Republicans in terms of the big picture, but to workers struggling to maintain their living standards, these issues are of more than marginal importance, and it is their own experience of the two parties -- as much as the exhortations of the union leaders -- which explains their stubborn refusal to buy the argument that the Democrats are inimical to the interests of working people. Gus Hall used to say the same thing with much more conviction. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
There is no need to get personal! On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 01:36:31PM -0400, Louis Proyect wrote: This might be related to the fact that you were a trade union functionary for over 25 years. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
Michael Perelman wrote: There is no need to get personal! Well, I was highly insulted by all that stuff about intellectuals. How dare anybody refer to me in those terms. If he was not referring to me, then all is forgiven. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
by Marvin Gandall -clip- -- which explains their stubborn refusal to buy the argument that the Democrats are inimical to the interests of working people. I think there will first have to be a major change in the way most people, especially in the cities, experience the system and the two parties for them to even begin to entertain that notion. ^ This might be true, but how would we explain so many working people voting for Republicans ? Charles
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
I didn't know that there were intellectuals on this list. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Louis Proyect Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 11:03 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] An emerging labor-led left in the DP? Michael Perelman wrote: There is no need to get personal! Well, I was highly insulted by all that stuff about intellectuals. How dare anybody refer to me in those terms. If he was not referring to me, then all is forgiven. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
dean baker vs. the dot com and the tulip bubbles
Notices whom they choose as counterweights to Dean and Shiller, the defenders of the dot.com and tulip bubbles. The Perils of Predicting Financial Bubbles By EDUARDO PORTER New York Times Published: July 25, 2004 HOUSING prices will plunge. Now. This is the conclusion of a growing troupe of economists, who warn that the surge in home prices over the past few years is pumping up a housing bubble that is doomed to implode, prompting a dramatic decline that could cost the economy trillions of dollars in lost wealth. The end result will be a loss of $2 to $3 trillion in housing wealth, and a downturn that is even worse than the fallout from the stock market crash, wrote Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic Policy Research. But maybe not. Even as the housing market has set more warning bells a-clang, some bubble-skeptic economists dismiss the idea that housing prices are due for a pop. Sure, home prices are high, they say. They might decline somewhat to adjust to rising interest rates. But nothing justifies an uncontrolled plunge. The argument is likely to continue - regardless of what actually happens to the price of homes - because the argument doesn't really have much to do with housing prices. It is about fundamentally different views of how markets operate. Housing prices have indeed soared. Stoked by some of the lowest interest rates in history, home prices in Los Angeles rose 18 percent in the last year. In Miami, they jumped 14 percent. But do these amount to bubbles? Robert Shiller, the famed Yale economist and bubble-ologist who predicted the end of the dot-com stock boom in his book Irrational Exuberance, argues that they do. He explains that bubbles are created when the prices of assets are fueled by psychological rather than economic considerations. From apartments in New York to tulips in 17th-century Holland, a bubble is born when people lose sight of the fundamental value of an asset and are willing to pay whatever it takes because they see that prices have risen like crazy and assume they will continue to do so. People get excited about price increases and start behaving differently, Mr. Shiller says. After all, he says, bubbles always pop. Like a Ponzi scheme, a bubble will survive only as long as the herd believes in ever-rising prices. If something pricks this faith, if no next buyer is willing to pay more, the herd will run and the bubble will deflate catastrophically. Take the stock market. From 1996 and to 1999 the price of tech stocks in the Standard Poor's index rose nearly sevenfold, goaded by dot-com enthusiasts who claimed that a new economy with much improved qualities justified prices previously believed to be impossible. Then the herd turned around. By mid-2001, tech stocks had fallen back by 70 percent. But despite these dramatic upheavals, not everybody is convinced that bubbles even exist. Peter Garber, a global strategist at Deutsche Bank, believes that psychological explanations like herd behavior are a deus ex machina invoked by economists who do not properly understand the economic underpinnings of the market. Mr. Garber argues that from the Dutch tulip craze to the stock market boom of a few years ago, soaring prices have been justified by economic fundamentals - be it the earning potential of rare tulips or stocks. Some of the arguments backing the tech boom ultimately proved to be flawed, he acknowledges, but the analysis holding stock prices up - that productivity had reached a new level and companies would be able to capture this in higher profits - was reasonable. When stock prices fell, it was because of changes in this underlying business landscape. Another bubble-skeptic is Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of the fabled Dow 36,000, which was published in 1999 when the Dow Jones index was around 11,000. Mr. Hassett says there is an ideological component to the belief in bubbles. Liberals, who tend to believe that government must step in to protect people from market imperfections, will likely see more of them. Conservatives, who like their markets unfettered, will see less. In any case, it's difficult to predict when bubbles may burst. The Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan, was three years early when he said stocks were irrationally exuberant in 1996. According to Laurence H. Meyer, a governor at the Fed during the rise and pop of the dot-com bubble, Mr. Greenspan gleaned from the experience an undisputable rule to spot asset price effervescence: if stock prices come crashing down by 40 percent or more, it means there was indeed a bubble, and it just burst. You don't know until its over, Mr. Meyer says. Or at least until it's too late to intervene and avoid it. Mr. Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute thinks housing prices will be pretty much O.K. He acknowledges there might be some bubble dynamics at play in some regions. But he argues
The Corporation
http://www.chireader.com/movies/archives/2004/0704/072304.html Unsafe at Any Size The Corporation Directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott Written by Joel Bakan, Harold Crooks, and Achbar Narrated by Mikela J. Mikael. Rating * * * * Masterpiece By Jonathan Rosenbaum A month ago I attended back-to-back press screenings of two major documentaries, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Corporation, which finally opened here last week. Though it would have broken with industry protocol to have said so at the time, before both movies had opened, it was clear that The Corporation -- a 2003 Canadian film by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan -- was a better film, and second looks at both movies has only confirmed this impression. Michael Moore's movie probably startles people who rely mostly on TV for their news, but The Corporation will shock even those who keep close track of newspapers and magazines. In fact, it goes beyond shocking in obliging us to ask ourselves how far we're all prepared to go in our defense of capitalism. Far enough to jeopardize our health and the survival of the planet? Maybe not, but at the moment it's corporations that appear to have the power to decide. And the stories this film uses to demonstrate that are chilling. I'm reminded of Vladimir Nabokov's description of the spark that led to Lolita: As far as I can recall, the initial shiver of inspiration was somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: the sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage. This riveting cinematic essay includes no less than 40 talking heads, ranging from writers such as Noam Chomsky, Milton Friedman, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, and Howard Zinn to CEOs such as Ray Anderson (of Interface, the world's largest commercial carpet manufacturer), Sam Gibara (Goodyear Tire), Robert Keyes (Canadian Council for International Business), Chris Komisarjevsky (Burson-Marsteller Worldwide), and Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (Royal Dutch/Shell). The wide variety of voices -- roughly a quarter of which belong to women -- and the cogent narration, written by Harold Crooks and Achbar, make for a highly entertaining and instructive look at a subject that's rarely discussed in detail. Michael Moore's presence in both films suggests that they should be regarded as complementary. The Corporation is more intellectual and nuanced, Fahrenheit 9/11 more emotional and direct. The Corporation is more interested in concepts, Fahrenheit 9/11 in personalities. Both are unambiguously leftist and activist. The Corporation is much harder to describe, which may be why it isn't receiving the media attention lavished on Fahrenheit 9/11. Yet what it has to say about the future of the planet and the way we live is even more compelling. I can't think of another documentary that's taught me as much as this one. I hadn't known, for example, that the song Happy Birthday is owned by Time Warner (which expects to be paid every time it's sung in a movie), that for a spell Bechtel controlled the use of water in Bolivia's third-largest city (the contract even prohibited collecting rainwater), that one can legally patent anything that's alive except for a human being (including genes and microbes), that Fanta Orange was created because Coca-Cola wanted to do business in Nazi Germany (where IBM punch cards were used to collate information on concentration-camp prisoners), or that, according to a recent U.S. Treasury report, in one week alone 57 American corporations were fined for trading with official enemies of the U.S., including terrorists. This 145-minute movie may not send us out of the theater with the kind of simple directive Fahrenheit 9/11 did in implicitly urging us to vote a president out of office, but it doesn't encourage us to accept our situation either. It also shows us how activism has already made a difference -- how massive street demonstrations in Bolivia eventually gave Bolivians free access to water again and how residents in Arcata, California, managed to block more chain restaurants from moving in. The Corporation refuses to limit its argument to sound-bite problems with sound-bite solutions. It starts out with a hilarious critique of the use of one sound-bite term, bad apple, when discussing corporate malfeasance. (The same criticism could be made of its use in discussions of torture at Abu Ghraib.) We see a dozen routine, glib examples of its use before the narrator asks, What's wrong with this picture? Can't we pick a better metaphor? After summoning up a host of alternatives -- including jigsaw, sports team, family unit, telephone system, eagle, big fish, and Frankenstein monster -- the film plunges into a fascinating account of how corporations as we know them today were developed by lawyers from the mid-19th through the early 20th centuries. It ties corporate growth to the Industrial
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
Charles Brown wrote: by Marvin Gandall -clip- -- which explains their stubborn refusal to buy the argument that the Democrats are inimical to the interests of working people. I think there will first have to be a major change in the way most people, especially in the cities, experience the system and the two parties for them to even begin to entertain that notion. ^ This might be true, but how would we explain so many working people voting for Republicans ? Charles --- The US consists mostly of working people, and the two parties are almost equally divided within the voting electorate. So one would expect to see working people forming the base of the major parties. I think this is now true of all capitalist democracies. Most union households are for the Democrats as they are for the social-democrats abroad. But union density in the US is smaller and has been declining steadily. That would explain the lesser weight of the unions in the DP than in the social democratic parties, although this gap can be exaggerated. Women and minorities are the other pillars on which the DP is built. I'm not surprised so many white male workers have crossed to the Republicans in the past three decades, in reaction to the rise of the black, women's, anti(Vietnam)war, and gay movements. The Republicans, as the natural repository for these racist, sexist, chauvinist, and homophobic sentiments were quick to exploit this reactionary fear and insecurity. Workers in the more rural and largely non-union Southern and Midwestern parts of the country increasingly came to identify the cities with these movements, with decadence, liberalism, unions, and the Democratic party. It may be also that, in a long period of stagnating or falling real wages, the Republican mantra of lower taxes also resonated with the least union-conscious and educated part of the American working class, the part most vulnerable to Republican demagogey that most government spending was being directed at black and Hispanic welfare cheats in the inner cities. Finally, I think there is some validity to the criticism that the Democrats have failed to sufficiently differentiate themselves from the Republicans, but I don't think this is the primary reason for the political division in the US working class. I think the underlying social and economic developments alluded to above have been more decisive, and the Democratic leadership has been adapting to rather than leading the corresponding shift to the right of white male workers. Marv Gandall
dean baker vs. the dot com and the tulip bubbles
by Perelman, Michael -clip- Mr. Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute thinks housing prices will be pretty much O.K. He acknowledges there might be some bubble dynamics at play in some regions. But he argues that for the most part people are paying more for homes because their incomes are higher and interest rates are lower, reducing the cost to own a home. ^ CB: Sounds like he is saying people are paying more for homes because the cost of them is less. Isn't the market theory of prices supposed to be determined by supply and demand ? Yet supply of houses is not less, and demand is not more, so why higher prices , by that theory ?
Re: dean baker vs. the dot com and the tulip bubbles
He is saying that lower interest rates higher incomes increase demand. In itself that is reasonable, but the question is whether it is enough to explain the soaring costs of housing. If you know nothing about economics you have to choose between Dean Baker someone who predicted a 36,000 NASDAQ On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 03:48:50PM -0400, Charles Brown wrote: by Perelman, Michael -clip- Mr. Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute thinks housing prices will be pretty much O.K. He acknowledges there might be some bubble dynamics at play in some regions. But he argues that for the most part people are paying more for homes because their incomes are higher and interest rates are lower, reducing the cost to own a home. ^ CB: Sounds like he is saying people are paying more for homes because the cost of them is less. Isn't the market theory of prices supposed to be determined by supply and demand ? Yet supply of houses is not less, and demand is not more, so why higher prices , by that theory ? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
Marvin Gandall wrote: Most union households are for the Democrats as they are for the social-democrats abroad. But union density in the US is smaller and has been declining steadily. That would explain the lesser weight of the unions in the DP than in the social democratic parties, although this gap can be exaggerated. Women and minorities are the other pillars on which the DP is built. The Democratic Party is not the same thing as a social democratic party. It is a bourgeois party with no organic connections to the trade union movement, nor any committment to socialism even on a verbal basis. In Canada, the closest thing to the Democrats is the Liberal Party upon whose behalf Pierre Trudeau ruled Canada with the same kind of sleazy charm as Bill Clinton a few years later. We need something like the NDP in the USA, with warts and all. The DP is not that party. The DP was started by slaveowner Andy Jackson in the early 1800s and represented the big bourgeoisie for its entire history. For a brief time, starting with FDR and ending with LBJ, it made concessions to trade unionists because they threatened to break with the party. Now that the rust belt has gutted the social, political and economic power of the trade unions and now that the USSR no longer exists as a possible threat to capitalist hegemony, both capitalist parties feel freer to return to their roots. In the case of the DP, it means returning to Woodrow Wilson. For the RP, it means returning to Herbert Hoover. I'm not surprised so many white male workers have crossed to the Republicans in the past three decades, in reaction to the rise of the black, women's, anti(Vietnam)war, and gay movements. If the trade union movement paid less attention to the aristocracy of labor and more to the people who worked at Walmart, etc., it would not have to worry about such defections. A cashier at Walmart could care less about Queer Eye For the Straight Guy. Finally, I think there is some validity to the criticism that the Democrats have failed to sufficiently differentiate themselves from the Republicans, but I don't think this is the primary reason for the political division in the US working class. I think the underlying social and economic developments alluded to above have been more decisive, and the Democratic leadership has been adapting to rather than leading the corresponding shift to the right of white male workers. Continuing adaptation will lead to the utter destruction of the trade unions, such as they are. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: Cuba: siempre con combate
Chris wrote: Does Russia still export cars to Cuba? Putin has been trying to reestablish strong ties between the two countries. The newer cars seem to be imports from countries other than either Russia or the US -- most were Japanese cars. I didnt find much interest among Cubans from many different sectors to want to even talk about Russia let alone have improved relations. I spent a day with a Cuban professor of economics, and every time I tried to bring up the subject of Russia or Soviet economic models and such, she would just roll her eyes in utter disgust. In general, it seems to me Cubans do not feel they benefited from their relationship with the Soviet Union and then after whatever it was they did have, they were dropped like a hot potato. I think the Soviet Union did provide a very extensive mechanism to distribute Cuban goods and services within Cuba and beyond, and the low point in Cubas economic history in 1994 was the absence of a system to distribute goods. Production was not the problem in 1994. Cuba has since solved this distribution problem with the blues! :) These are actually blue uniformed workers who are involved in the Cuban goods distribution process...and trade of all kind. Diane
Re: Cuba: Dealing with the dollar
Ulhas wrote: Diane Monaco wrote: There are three -- actually four if you include the euro that is now accepted at a few tourist locations in Havana -- currencies used in Cuba: the Cuban peso, the convertible peso (equivalent to the dollar), and dollars. All three of these currencies circulate freely in Cuba. How far Cuba can be regarded as an independent and socialist nation-state, if there is extensive dollarisation of Cuban economy? I'm not sure what independent really means, but Cuba is communist/socialist in the mechanisms it uses to attempt to ensure that the means of producing goods and services are owned by the community as a whole, and that all citizens enjoy social/economic equality. Dollarization is a mechanism that Cuba is forced to use to circumvent the US embargo against Cuba on all trade including basic necessities to facilitate the acquisition the goods and services in sufficient amounts for all its citizens. Diane
Re: An emerging labor-led left in the DP?
I appreciate Michael's intent to keep order, although I didn't especially mind your barb; I've seen you much less restrained. But I don't understand your angry reply. Why is it ok for you to call me a trade union functionary for 25 years (actually 20, I was previously a steward in the Steelworkers and an SEIU organizer) and then take umbrage at my including you within the intelligensia? I didn't mean this latter to be insulting but descriptive, incidentally; I was a doctoral student before going into industry, so that could describe my background equally well. For certain, my experience negotiating and administering contracts and contact with trade unionists at all levels has been critical in shaping my views. Why do you suppose your immersion in the New York left intellectual milieu has not had a similar effect on your own, but so what? I take that into account in weighing your contributions, but still think your arguments have to be dealt with on their merits. I trust you feel the same way. Marv Gandall - Original Message - From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 2:03 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] An emerging labor-led left in the DP? Michael Perelman wrote: There is no need to get personal! Well, I was highly insulted by all that stuff about intellectuals. How dare anybody refer to me in those terms. If he was not referring to me, then all is forgiven. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
Re: HDI, GNP and the PPP factor
Michael wrote: Economics is all about measuring in measurable. I was reading this week about scientific racism in Victorian England, where people tried to develop mathematical measures of how close various peoples came to being Africans. These measures showed the Irish were almost Black. Such matters were taken very seriously and the time. The English tried very hard to make the Irish, umm, English, but the English in Ireland just kept on becoming Irish no matter what they did -- until, of course, the Elizabethans. Oppression of the Irish people really accelerated with the Elizabethans, and by the time the Victorians rolled around, the oppression was well established. Throughout the history of Ireland, invader after invader came and eventually absorbed themselves into the native population of Ireland. They ALL became Irish. First it was the Celts who were actually very friendly invaders from the beginning. Then the Vikings came, less friendly at first but eventually joined the Celts and became Irish. The last of the more hostile Normans, came, fought, conquered, and then became Irish. The Anglos (Old English) also adopted Gaelic practices until the Tudors and specifically the Elizabethans began to give landed titles in Ireland in exchange for the abandonment of Gaelic governing customs and culture. The Elizabethans also established presidencies for crying out loud in Connaught and Munster -- something like Wales. But the worst and most detrimental practice to the Irish was an ethnic cleansing style colonization in Ulster and Munster. Diane Kathleen O'Ciardha Monaco :)
Owning Up to Abortion
Owning Up to Abortion By BARBARA EHRENREICH Published: July 22, 2004 The New York Times Abortion is legal - it's just not supposed to be mentioned or acknowledged as an acceptable option. An article in The Times on Sunday, Television's Most Persistent Taboo, reported that a Viacom-owned channel is refusing to run the episodes of a soap opera in which the teenage heroine chooses to abort. Even Six Feet Under, which is fearless in its treatment of sexual diversity, burdens abortion with terrible guilt. Where are those liberal media when you need them? You can blame a lot of folks, from media bigwigs to bishops, if we lose our reproductive rights, but it's the women who shrink from acknowledging their own abortions who really irk me. Increasingly, for example, the possibility of abortion is built right into the process of prenatal care. Testing for fetal defects can now detect over 450 conditions, many potentially fatal or debilitating. Doctors may advise the screening tests, insurance companies often pay for them, and many couples (no hard numbers exist) are deciding to abort their imperfect fetuses. The trouble is, not all of the women who are exercising their right to choose in these cases are willing to admit that that's what they are doing. Kate Hoffman, for example, who aborted a fetus with Down syndrome, was quoted in The Times on June 20 as saying: I don't look at it as though I had an abortion, even though that is technically what it is. There's a difference. I wanted this baby. Or go to the Web site for A Heartbreaking Choice, a group that provides support for women whose fetuses are deemed defective, and you find Mom complaining of having to have her abortion in an ordinary abortion clinic: I resented the fact that I had to be there with all these girls that did not want their babies. Kate and Mom: You've been through a hellish experience, but unless I'm missing something, you didn't want your babies either. A baby, yes, but not the particular baby you happened to be carrying. The prejudice is widespread that a termination for medical reasons is somehow on a higher moral plane than a run-of-the-mill abortion. In a 1999 survey of Floridians, for example, 82 percent supported legal abortion in the case of birth defects, compared with about 40 percent in situations where the woman simply could not afford to raise another child. But what makes it morally more congenial to kill a particular defective fetus than to kill whatever fetus happens to come along, on an equal opportunity basis? Medically informed terminations are already catching heat from disability rights groups, and, indeed, some of the conditions for which people are currently choosing abortion, like deafness or dwarfism, seem a little sketchy to me. I'll still defend the right to choose abortion in these cases, even if it isn't the choice I'd make for myself. It would be unfair, though, to pick on the women who are in denial about aborting defective fetuses. At least 30 million American women have had abortions since the procedure was legalized, mostly for the kind of reasons that anti-abortion people dismiss as convenience - a number that amounts to about 40 percent of American women. Yet in a 2003 survey conducted by a pro-choice group, only 30 percent of women were unambivalently pro-choice, suggesting that there may be an appalling number of women who are willing to deny others the right that they once freely exercised themselves. Honesty begins at home, so I should acknowledge that I had two abortions during my all-too-fertile years. You can call me a bad woman, but not a bad mother. I was a dollar-a-word freelancer and my husband a warehouse worker, so it was all we could do to support the existing children at a grubby lower-middle-class level. And when it comes to my children - the actual extrauterine ones, that is - I was, and remain, a lioness. Choice can be easy, as it was in my case, or truly agonizing. But assuming the fetal position is not an appropriate response. Sartre called this bad faith, meaning something worse than duplicity: a fundamental denial of freedom and the responsibility that it entails. Time to take your thumbs out of your mouths, ladies, and speak up for your rights. The freedoms that we exercise but do not acknowledge are easily taken away.
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Louis wrote: Moreover, it is a mistake to lump all the Kurds together. The Workers Party in Turkey never cut deals with imperialism, while the Iranian Kurds were allied with the USSR at one point, until Stalin's typically cynical double-dealing forced them to look elsewhere. Of course, the Iraqi Kurdish leadership is utterly bankrupt. That being said, the Kurds are an oppressed nationality. Period. I agree with you, Louis. However, I have personally met many Kurds, Russians, and Iranians who have very close ties with each other, and they seem unified on some level. The Kurdish language is based on Persian and is part of the Indo-European language group. The Indo-European language family group includes Russian, Kurdish, Farsi, Pashto, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Ancient Persian, Greek, Latin, French, English, Celtic languages. I have also found that many members of these specific Indo-European language groups -- including Kurds -- find it very important to be aware of their Ancient parent (proto) Indo-European language/people origins -- an ancient Indo-European people referred to as Aryans. Turkish (the Altaic family), and Arabic-Hebrew (both from the Afro-Asiatic family) are part of entirely different language groups. That being said and I agree again with you, the Kurds are an oppressed nationality. Period. Diane
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Ulhas Joglekar wrote: ravi wrote: Let there be self-determination everywhere, from Bejing toHavana. in a general sense, why not? Surely, Cuban leadership (and this is only an example)should offer self-determination to Cubans before it demands demands self-determination for Kashmiris? i think if i understand you correctly, you are commenting on the hypocrisy of cuban support for kashmiris. that may be valid. can i infer further that you do not disagree with the content of their call: i.e., the kashmiri people deserve the right of self-determination? --ravi
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Chris Doss wrote: It's counterinsurgency war -- the main victims in counterinsurgency war are always civilian. It's probably the most brutal form of warfare there is. I don't know about the state of the Indian Army, but most of the horrors against civilians in Chechnya (leavinf aside the tricky question of how to define the term civilian) are the result of terrified and trigger-happy drafted soldiers who want to get home alive and therefore shoot first and ask questions later. BBC What started as essentially an indigenous popular uprising in BBC Indian-administered Kashmir has in the last 12 years undergone BBC major changes. Sounds like Chechnya to me. I would go as far as to say that anytime the international mujaheedin start to figure prominantly in a conflict, it has almost certainly been hijacked. that may be true, but would you then agree with BBC's assessment that it started as an essentially indigenous and popular uprising? if so, that is all the more reason to ask the people. counterinsurgency warfare might be a dirty business (and i doubt you condone it), but it is all the more dirty when the actions are partially aimed at silencing the people or denying them a voice. --ravi
Re: Owning Up to Abortion
Ehrenreich's pieces have all been very sharp. Very sharp. Makes you wonder would it would be right to have a media open to all points of view all of the time. On the other hand, did anybody see Scott Simon's smarmy WSJ review of F911. The journal must have toned it down, because it implies that Simon vowed never to allow Moore on his show -- even though that was not in the article. His main point is Moore's inaccuracy. If he only applied the same standards to gov't and corp. officials, I would be happy. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Owning Up to Abortion
The Pro-Choice movement made a fundamental mistake from the beginning -- by calling themselves pro-choice instead of pro-abortion. You can't win major political and cultural battles by being shame-faced, which is what the pro-choice label is. Some on this list will remember the late Lisa Rogers, whose political slogan on this issue was (if I remember correctly, in all-caps): IN A JAR, DADDIO, IN A JAR. Abortion is merely a method birth control, not a moral issue. When the pro-choice movement gets pushed to the wall and elements of it decide to fight back, their fundamental assumptions will be (a) abortion is a technical matter, not a moral choice and (b) the way to achieve abortion rights is to create so much social disruption that the only way to settle things down will be to make the pro-life movement an object of universal contempt. Carrol
Hassett
Hassett of Dow -- not NASDAQ as I carelessly wrote earlier -- 36,000 fame also has an outrageous column in the WSJ describing Kerry's wild eyed fiscal spending plans. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
It's a Hollow Party
It's a Hollow Party (SEIU President Andy Stern calls the Democratic Party a party of stale ideas, expressing discontent that the activist base of the party will be in a weak bargaining position vis-a-vis the party elite after the election -- what if SEIU spent $65 million it's wasting on the John Kerry campaign on an initiative that would build up working-class bases of power independent of the Democratic Party?): http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/07/its-hollow-party.html -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Hassett
Michael Perelman wrote: Hassett of Dow -- not NASDAQ as I carelessly wrote earlier -- 36,000 fame also has an outrageous column in the WSJ describing Kerry's wild eyed fiscal spending plans. Aww, come on Michael. To be outrageous by WSJ op-ed standards it would have to Be Hermann Goering high on speed! Carrol
Re: Hassett
I was wondering: what are Kerry's wild eyed fiscal spending plans? a chicken in every pot, I hope, or at least pot in every chicken. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Carrol Cox Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 4:39 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Hassett Michael Perelman wrote: Hassett of Dow -- not NASDAQ as I carelessly wrote earlier -- 36,000 fame also has an outrageous column in the WSJ describing Kerry's wild eyed fiscal spending plans. Aww, come on Michael. To be outrageous by WSJ op-ed standards it would have to Be Hermann Goering high on speed! Carrol
dean baker vs. the dot com and the tulip bubbles
Oh , I see what you mean on demand. People are paying more for homes, because the cost of money is down ? How long can the cost of money stay down in a creditor class dominion ? How long ? Not long ? They $hall overcome. Then again who is selling the houses ? Is Dean Baker of Univ of Mich ? Charles by Michael Perelman He is saying that lower interest rates higher incomes increase demand. In itself that is reasonable, but the question is whether it is enough to explain the soaring costs of housing. If you know nothing about economics you have to choose between Dean Baker someone who predicted a 36,000 NASDAQ On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 03:48:50PM -0400, Charles Brown wrote: by Perelman, Michael -clip- Mr. Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute thinks housing prices will be pretty much O.K. He acknowledges there might be some bubble dynamics at play in some regions. But he argues that for the most part people are paying more for homes because their incomes are higher and interest rates are lower, reducing the cost to own a home. ^ CB: Sounds like he is saying people are paying more for homes because the cost of them is less. Isn't the market theory of prices supposed to be determined by supply and demand ? Yet supply of houses is not less, and demand is not more, so why higher prices , by that theory ?
Re: dean baker vs. the dot com and the tulip bubbles
Dean did his Ph.D. at U-Mich. Taught at Bucknell for a while, worked at EPI for a while, then started his own think tank: http://www.cepr.net Lots of good stuff there. mbs -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Charles Brown Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 8:08 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: dean baker vs. the dot com and the tulip bubbles Oh , I see what you mean on demand. People are paying more for homes, because the cost of money is down ? How long can the cost of money stay down in a creditor class dominion ? How long ? Not long ? They $hall overcome. Then again who is selling the houses ? Is Dean Baker of Univ of Mich ? Charles by Michael Perelman He is saying that lower interest rates higher incomes increase demand. In itself that is reasonable, but the question is whether it is enough to explain the soaring costs of housing. If you know nothing about economics you have to choose between Dean Baker someone who predicted a 36,000 NASDAQ On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 03:48:50PM -0400, Charles Brown wrote: by Perelman, Michael -clip- Mr. Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute thinks housing prices will be pretty much O.K. He acknowledges there might be some bubble dynamics at play in some regions. But he argues that for the most part people are paying more for homes because their incomes are higher and interest rates are lower, reducing the cost to own a home. ^ CB: Sounds like he is saying people are paying more for homes because the cost of them is less. Isn't the market theory of prices supposed to be determined by supply and demand ? Yet supply of houses is not less, and demand is not more, so why higher prices , by that theory ?
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
raviwrote: i think if i understand you correctly, you are commenting on the hypocrisy of cuban support for kashmiris. that may be valid. can i infer further that you do not disagree with the content of their call: i.e., the kashmiri people deserve the right of self-determination? No, I don't agree. Kashmir is a part of India.India has been partitioned once with disastrous consequences. Do you want more partitions? Is anybody on the Left demanding right of self-determination for Tibet or Xinjiang? Why should it be different for Kashmir? Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: A critical look at Michael Moore
Date:Mon, 26 Jul 2004 19:26:38 -0400 From:Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: A critical look at Michael Moore (clip) Considering the fact that Gibson had plans at one point to bankroll Fahrenheit 9/11, this does not seem so far-fetched. Moore's next project will deal with the health-care crisis in the USA. One can only hope that he zeros in on the corporate greed of the pharmaceutical industry. That would be a useful metaphor for the crisis of the system as a whole. Such hopes may not be in vain, for in the final analysis Moore--despite all his flaws--is one of us. Marxism list: www.marxmail.org -- Louis, I am glad that Michael Moore will focus next on U.S. health care. Without that knowledge, I wrote this Internet piece about him hosting a reality TV show dealing with the trend of U.S. workers sans health care. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/July2004/Sandronsky0712.htm Seth _ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
Re: Thomas Frank op-ed piece
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/23/04 4:19 PM Michael Hoover wrote: responses to my initial post conveyed, by and large, varying degrees of maximalism, making quantitative leap from my modest suggestion all the way to presidential electoral politics (by such measures *all attempts will fail), pervasive problem imo... The questions of what we can do to improve local governance and what we can do to change national politics shouldn't be put in terms of minimalist vs. maximalist programs, I believe, because it is not the case that you can make even minimal changes in foreign policy by taking the city halls. Even if the Green Party were to succeed in electing Green mayors in all cities in the United States, for instance, an impact of such a dramatic change in local politics on US foreign policy won't be even minimalist -- it will be practically zero. The thing is that it is possible for us to make a lot more changes for better at the local level either by building the Green Party, or taking over local Democratic parties, or pursuing some other measures (we have viable tactics and successful models of various sorts here, lacking only in enough activists willing to put in time and energy), and we should be doing what we can, but taking on national politics is qualitatively (rather than quantitatively) different from working on local politics, and here we can use some innovative ideas. Yoshie have been away from computers for several days and this thread has gone bye bye, in any event, comment above re. greens electing green mayors in all u.s. cities is itself maximalist, such thing would never happen and one could make persuasive case that it wouldn't be good idea anyway, but were this to miraculously occur, national and international u.s. politics would be qualitatively different as one would not happen without other... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
... Kashmir is a part of India. India has been partitioned once with disastrous consequences. ... Ulhas I don't know much about this subject, but isn't a lot of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan? so isn't that section part of Pakistan, a country which has already been partitioned twice with disastrous consequences? wouldn't it be best if both India and Pakistan gave up their claims to the areas that the other controls? why does India want the Pakistan-controlled area of Kashmir? why does Pakistan want the India-controlled area? jd
New book on ruling class by Paul Kivel
May I recommend that Pen-l folks take a serious look at a new book by a friend and colleague. Paul Kivel's book is not only an excellent description of the ruling elite and how it rules but is also focused on empowering people by looking at organizing possibilities. I've already put it on reserve for my classes. David Landes Economics, City College of San Francisco You call this a DEMOCRACY? Who Benefits, Who Pays and Who Really Decides? BY PAUL KIVEL ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALBERTO LEDESMA New from THE APEX PRESS 777 United Nations Plaza Suite 3C New York, NY 10017 Phone/Fax: 1-800-316-2739 A PENETRATING LOOK AT THE U.S. RULING CLASS-a rich and powerful portion of the population who own tremendous amounts of wealth and who benefit from the way that decisions get made in this country.A look as well at an even smaller group, the power elite-7,000 to 10,000 (predominately)white men-who make many of the decisions that affect our everyday lives. Most of the time they decide, they and ruling class benefit, and we pay in our wages, our taxes, our health, the quality of our housing, and often with our lives. The book is carefully researched and referenced, and filled with numerous examples and illustrations. It is an indispensable resource for every person concerned about the undemocratic concentration of wealth and power in our society. Advance Praise PAUL KIVEL HAS DONE IT AGAIN by exploding another myth about our troubled land-the nation that we Americans call middle class. Instead he shows us how we are ruled by a handful of top dogs and what we must do if we want to get those dogs out of our lives. Hurray! - Jim Hightower, author of Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush and other works of political subversion PAUL KIVEL'S COURAGE to identify the structure of the ruling class and the impact of its power is a gift to all of us who seek justice and equality. This book should be a required text in classrooms throughout the country. - Suzanne Pharr, author of In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation and former director of the Highlander Research and Education Center PAUL KIVEL HAS WRITTEN AN ACCESSIBLE FIELD GUIDE to our country's power elite-and how they rule the rest of us. ...All citizens should read this book to better understand the powerful forces that distort our democracy and misshape the quality of our lives in a thousand different ways. - Chuck Collins, co-author (with Bill Gates, Sr.) of Wealth and Our Commonwealth and co-founder of United for a Fair Economy Paul Kivel is an activist, trainer, writer, and violence prevention educator. His Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice won the Gustavus Myers Award for best human rights book in 1996. You call this a DEMOCRACY? Who Benefits, Who Pays and Who Really Decides? BY PAUL KIVEL CONTENTS Preface Where Are You in the Class System? Introduction A Short History of the U.S. Ruling Class What Is a Ruling Class? What Does the Economic Structure of the U.S. Look Like? Why Does Wealth Matter? How Do They Rule? The Constitution, Corporations and the Courts How Does the Power Elite Communicate? How Do They Stay in Power? How Do Members of the Ruling Class Increase Their Wealth? Preserving Their Wealth Passing on Their Wealth Protecting Themselves and Their Families Financially Protecting Their Power How Do Members of the Ruling Class Feel About Being Rich? Why Don't We See Them? The Ruling Class and the Buffer Zone Philanthropy Why We Don't Focus Attention on the Ruling Class: The Role of the Mass Media Distractions Who Decides? Who Benefits? Who Pays? Which Side Are You On? Assessing Public Policy Issues and Political Candidates Beyond Survival-Getting Together Resistance Globalize Hope Resources Endnotes, Glossary, Bibliography, Videography, Magazines, Organizations and Website Resources Index You call this a DEMOCRACY? ORDER FORM Please send the following number of copies of You Call This a Democracy? ___ cop(y)ies @ $17.95 ea. (paperback) $ ___ cop(y)ies @ $29.95 ea. (hardcover) $ Add shipping ($4 for the 1st book; $1 each additional book) $ TOTAL ENCLOSED $ Enclosed is my check/money order in the amount above. Charge my: Visa MasterCard American Express ___Discover Card Number:___ Expiration Date:_ Signature:___ Phone Number:_ SHIP TO: Name Address:___ City:_ State:___ZIP: Please complete the order form and send to: The Apex Press, P.O. Box 337, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520 PhoPhonePPhone/Fax: 1-800-316-2739Phone/Fax: 1-800-316-2739Phone/Fax: 1-800-316-2739OWER __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more
Re: Thomas Frank op-ed piece
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/23/04 6:14 PM The reason I don't push for working through local Democratic parties is that the Green Party has already shown that it can elect its own candidates for local offices, so why bother trying the second best now? But, all the arguments in favor of concentrating on local politics that are advanced now here and elsewhere, I think, come with a subtext: you, leftists, had better work on only local issues like zoning -- leave big national and international issues like war and peace to the Democratic Party, because you can't win presidency immediately anyway. To the contrary, war years are especially important years when leftists need to make interventions in national politics, including mounting electoral challenges through presidential elections. The question is how exactly to do that effectively, knowing that our candidate won't become the next POTUS. Yoshie i've not suggested working through local dem branches as such nor working only on local issues... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Israel pushing for Kurdish state?
Devine, James wrote: I don't know much about this subject, but isn't a lot of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan? Yes, about a third of Kashmir is controlled by Pakistan. wouldn't it be best if both India and Pakistan gave up their claims to the areas that the other controls? Yes. India willing to accept the Line of Control (LOC) as the international border, but Pakistan isn't. why does India want the Pakistan-controlled area of Kashmir? The Simla Agreement of 1972 between India and Pakistan was meant to convert the LOC into the international boundary. why does Pakistan want the India-controlled area? For Pakistan, it's a logical extension of the Two Nation Theory,i.e. that Hindus and Muslims are separate nations. India and the Indian Left don't accept the Two Nation Theory. Ulhas Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partner online Go to: http://yahoo.shaadi.com/india-matrimony
Re: Hassett
How much would all of these promises cost? Let's begin with the biggest proposal. The only existing score for the health plan was provided by Kenneth Thorpe, a former Clinton official and Emory University professor. He at first placed the cost of Mr. Kerry's health plan alone at about $1 trillion. Mr. Thorpe subsequently revised the figure downward to $653 billion to account for some rather mysterious savings, apparently because the health plan's vague statements concerning prevention will yield miraculously precise lower expenses in later years. The higher number is more reasonable. But starting with the lower number, the National Taxpayers' Union Foundation recently estimated that Mr. Kerry's proposals would increase government spending by $226 billion in his first year in office. That's about $2,000 per American family, or 10% of the federal budget. While the report did not include a 10-year score, the construction of one is hardly rocket science. My own calculations suggest that the total costs of Mr. Kerry's proposals would be at least $2 trillion from 2005 to 2014. On Tue, Jul 27, 2004 at 04:58:50PM -0700, Devine, James wrote: I was wondering: what are Kerry's wild eyed fiscal spending plans? a chicken in every pot, I hope, or at least pot in every chicken. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Carrol Cox Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 4:39 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Hassett Michael Perelman wrote: Hassett of Dow -- not NASDAQ as I carelessly wrote earlier -- 36,000 fame also has an outrageous column in the WSJ describing Kerry's wild eyed fiscal spending plans. Aww, come on Michael. To be outrageous by WSJ op-ed standards it would have to Be Hermann Goering high on speed! Carrol -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Re: Thomas Frank op-ed piece
At 9:19 PM -0400 7/27/04, Michael Hoover wrote: i've not suggested working through local dem branches as such nor working only on local issues... michael hoover What you originally suggested is the following: At 3:27 PM -0400 7/19/04, Michael Hoover wrote: maybe the three million or so people who voted for nader in 2000 should take control of local democratic executive committees, use structure in place to recruit candidates, slag off on dems who suck, use available funds to issue policy statements and press releases one after another, show up at public and government meetings, control of county dem mechanisms might lead to control of state dem parties... Presumably, leftists who follow your suggestion will be working on local issues first of all till they succeed in wresting the control of the Democratic Party at the state level. At 9:10 PM -0400 7/27/04, Michael Hoover wrote: greens electing green mayors in all u.s. cities is itself maximalist That's more of a figure of speech than anything else, but conversations here indicate that we sure do live in the age of diminishing expectations, which in itself gives people fewer reasons to spend time on political activism. -- Yoshie * Critical Montages: http://montages.blogspot.com/ * Greens for Nader: http://greensfornader.net/ * Bring Them Home Now! http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/ * Calendars of Events in Columbus: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html, http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php, http://www.cpanews.org/ * Student International Forum: http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/ * Committee for Justice in Palestine: http://www.osudivest.org/ * Al-Awda-Ohio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio * Solidarity: http://www.solidarity-us.org/
Re: Thomas Frank op-ed piece
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/27/04 11:17 PM Presumably, leftists who follow your suggestion will be working on local issues first of all till they succeed in wresting the control of the Democratic Party at the state level. At 9:10 PM -0400 7/27/04, Michael Hoover wrote: greens electing green mayors in all u.s. cities is itself maximalist That's more of a figure of speech than anything else, but conversations here indicate that we sure do live in the age of diminishing expectations, which in itself gives people fewer reasons to spend time on political activism. -- Yoshie re. localism and diminishing expectatons, nothing i've posted here points to either, no one's going to pursue it anyway... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
Re: Democratic Party 527's
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/27/04 11:59 AM was expecting to read about jet airplanes given post header, and then to find out that rob reiner was not among leading contributors to 527 orgs, well, my disappointment runneth over... michael hoover -- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.
