date:20110206

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WALL STREET JOURNAL
LATIN AMERICA NEWS
FEBRUARY 4, 2011.

Argentine Comments Show Rift With U.S. 
By MATT MOFFETT 

BUENOS AIRESArgentina's relations with the U.S. hit a new bump as President 
Cristina Kirchner's foreign minister suggested that a U.S.-sponsored 
police-training program was teaching oppressive tactics to members of the 
Buenos Aires police force. 

Analysts said Héctor Timerman's comments partly reflect an undercurrent of 
frustration in the Kirchner government that President Barack Obama will be 
sidestepping Argentina during a visit to El Salvador, Brazil and Chile next 
month. The flap is also a sign of the growing political tensions between the 
leftist Mrs. Kirchner and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, a conservative who 
looms as a rival candidate ahead of October presidential elections. 

Mr. Timerman criticized Mr. Macri's decision to send two Buenos Aires police 
officers to the International Law Enforcement Academy in El Salvador. The 
academy is part of a global network of five academies established by President 
Bill Clinton in 1995 to improve coordination and training of foreign police in 
areas such as combating narcotics trafficking, money laundering and terrorism.

"As a [Buenos Aires resident] I'm frightened that Macri continues sending 
police to study 'antiterrorism' in courses taught and financed by the USA," Mr. 
Timerman wrote Wednesday on his Twitter account.

In subsequent comments to the local press, Mr. Timerman likened the Law 
Enforcement Academy to the U.S. Army's School of the Americas at Fort Benning, 
Ga., which trained a number of Latin American military officials who would 
later be implicated in human-rights abuses during the dictatorships that 
reigned during the 1970s and 1980s.

"In the past, they were dedicated to training the military in coup techniques 
and courses in torture and persecution of political enemies," Mr. Timerman 
said. "It seems to me that these are limits that we shouldn't cross."

Eugenio Burzaco, chief of the Buenos Aires metropolitan police, hit back at Mr. 
Timerman for a "foolish remark" that he said was insulting to the U.S., as well 
as to many other nations who send police to the academies. The El Salvador 
academy's website indicates that hundreds of law-enforcement officials from 
more than a score of countries in the hemisphere have received training there.

Mr. Burzaco said two members of Argentina's federal police are also training at 
the academy. Mr. Burazco said if Mr. Timerman's critique is correct, then "the 
federal government itself is sending [police] to a course where they supposedly 
torture." 

Federal Security Minister Nilda Garré denied that federal police had taken 
antiterrorism courses at the academy. 

Mr. Burzaco said terrorism training was essential for police in Buenos Aires, 
the site of bloody terrorist attacks in the 1990s against the Israeli Embassy 
and a Jewish community center. Neither the El Salvador academy nor the U.S. 
Embassy in Buenos Aires had any immediate comment.

The controversy comes amid Mr. Obama's move to skip Argentina on his planned 
regional visit in March, which critics of Mrs. Kirchner have seized on as a 
sign of Argentina's waning regional influence. While saying that relations 
between the U.S. and Argentina were "very good," Mr. Timerman previously 
suggested that Mr. Obama was skipping Argentina because Mrs. Kirchner was 
unwilling to compromise in areas such as trade and international security. 

The relationship between Argentina and the U.S. has been rocky during most of 
the eight years Mrs. Kirchner and her late husband and predecessor Nestor 
Kirchner have governed the country. 

But some analysts had said Mrs. Kirchner is more pragmatic than her late 
husband and that U.S.-Argentina relations would improve after his death from a 
heart attack in October. U.S. diplomats were encouraged that Mrs. Kirchner had 
worked during a summit of Latin American leaders in December to avoid 
condemnation of the U.S. over the WikiLeaks scandal. 

Write to Matt Moffett at matthew.moff...@wsj.com 



=
 WALTER LIPPMANN
 Los Angeles, California
 Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
 "Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
=


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[Marxism] Translation (Cuba): Assault on the highway

2011-02-06 Thread Marce Cameron

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>From new Cuba blog "Cuba's Socialist Renewal"
http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com
To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above

In this provocatively titled commentary, Ricardo Ronquillo Bello notes
that within a few years, if all goes according to plan, "almost half
of Cuba's GDP will come from non-state forms of management". It should
be noted that this refers to management, and not necessarily
ownership, of productive property.

For example, a hairdressing salon may be cooperatively or privately
managed, but the premises will still belong to the state, i.e. to the
municipal People's Power administration. Another example: Cuba's
socialist state is leasing, rent free on a long-term basis,
unproductive farmland, an arrangement known as usufruct. The Draft
Economic and Social Policy Guidelines explicitly state: "3. In the new
forms of non-state management, the concentration of ownership [of
productive property] in legal or natural entities shall not be
permitted."

While ruling out privatisation, the Cuban Communist Party leadership
is proposing to expand the cooperative and small-scale private
sectors. Cooperatives, small private businesses and the self-employed
will be able to lease state property (land or premises) and will pay
taxes. Their much greater contribution to production and services will
have to be incorporated into social planning, which will continue to
be "the principal means to direct the national economy" according to
the paragraph 1 of the Guidelines.

Link to translation:
http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/translation-assault-on-highway.html


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[Marxism] PSUV: Socialist, Marxist, Bolivarian

2011-02-06 Thread Owen Richards

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http://venezuelatranslatingtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/02/fundamental-and-general-principles.html



  

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[Marxism] SOUTH JOURNAL: Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Wikileaks Effect

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Mumia's take on these events won't be news to readers of Marxmail.

But they're certainly on the mark politically. Washington and the
U.S. media are trying to distance themselves from the Mubarak regime
now that it's final days approach. That may work for those who rely
on the US media and who have short memory spans, as most people in
the US certainly do. We're residents of the country where Henry Ford
famously said, "History is bunk". Washington and its allies in the
media, and on the ground in Egypt are doing whatever they can to
encourage memory loss. 

Not only that, they're furthermore trying to influence events on
the ground in the interests of maintaining as much stability as can
be maintained. In Israel the ruling class must be shaking in their
boots as they observe the tottering of reactionary regimes throughout
the Middle East. We are living in interesting and inspiring times!

I'm off to Havana tomorrow and plan to send out some reports on the
changes which are going on there.


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
==

THE WIKILEAKS EFFECT by Mumia Abu-Jamal
lchirino | February 4, 2011 at 4:32 pm 
URL: http://wp.me/pLgvg-do

As these words are being scribbled, U.S. 'allies' in the Middle East
are trembling.

From the streets of Tunis, to Alexandria, to Cairo, tens of thousands
are demanding not only democracy, but an end to their dictatorships
--dictatorships, by the way, armed and supported by the U.S. Empire.

What drove these people into the streets were the sickening
revelations of the puppetry, corruption and abject servility of their
leaders to U.S. and Western interests.

Many of these leaders, who've led for lifetimes, have amassed
enormous fortunes while generations of youth pass through their lives
jobless, unfulfilled and brutally bullied by the dictator's internal
police forces, usually composed of people trained, equipped (or both)
by U.S. agencies.

Wikileaks revealed American diplomatic cables reflecting U.S.
knowledge of and acquiescence to their puppet states corruption,
torture and brutality. They didn't care how cruel nor corrupt these
countries were, as long as they served U.S. interests -- i.e.,
"stability' -- or quiet in the face of U.S., Western or Israeli
aggression in the region.

Egypt receives billions of U.S bucks every year, to buttress its
dictatorship.

This spate of rebellions in Muslim states is especially important
given the recent news that many leaders were privately urging the
U.S. to attack Iran, for this shows well that few spoke for their
people. They spoke for a narrow, parasitical ruling clique.

If change comes to the region it won't be because of U.S. efforts,
but in spite of them.

--(c) '11 maj


=
 WALTER LIPPMANN
 Los Angeles, California
 Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
 "Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
=


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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Thoughts on the Egyptian Revolution

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Hi Lajany

thank you for the very thoughtful comment on my  post. I hope my tone came
across as tentative.  It was certainly meant to.  Now what do we agree on?
Quite a lot actually - above all we agree on the characterisation of Israel
as a settler nation beholden to a super power.  I would add here the
ideological important absence of the "mother country". What makes Zionist
colonialism unique is that after some prevarication it settled on the myth
that it constitutes a return

But where we part company is in the cost benefit analysis.  I am genuinely
puzzled by what goods accrue to the USA because of Israel.  The metaphor you
employ here of Israel as the "bedrock" tends I believe to somewhat mislead
you. Israel is anything but a bed rock.  Rather I tend to see it as
something like the source of recurring infections.  It is the guarantor of
continuing instability and war. Even when through bribery and corruption
leading Arab states are neutralised - rendered "stable" as the State Dept
would have it, the instability moves to another site and eventually even
stable entities like Egypt erupt into instability.

The loyalty of Israel to the US is by no means an eternal given.  Perhaps
the sinking of the USS Liberty was a 'tragic error' but there are other
signs that the Israelis are far from the grateful clients that the metaphor
of bedrock suggests.  An interesting parallel to consider here is the use
that Stalin made of communist movements in the countries he was allied to.
He had a bargaining chip against Roosevelt and Churchill because important
sections of their societies were primarily loyal to the Soviet Union.

Similarly with the Zionist entity, Netanyahu has significant elements within
the USA who are more loyal to him and Israel than to the USA. It seems to me
that Israeli leaders can and do use the Zionists within the USA to bully USA
politicians into prioritising the interests of Israel.

Though here you would probably deny my basic premise that there are Israeli
interests which are not the same as  American interests, even American
Imperial interests.

comradely regards

Gary

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Thoughts on the Egyptian Revolution

2011-02-06 Thread Lajany Otum

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Gary wrote:
> 

> Will the tail continue to wag the dog and will Netanyahu and the Zionist
> lobby remain in charge of what constitutes American interests?  It looks
> like it.  But I have difficulty in believing that this will always be the
> case. But first it would seem that the revolution must mature and really
> threaten American business, before the relationship with Tel Aviv comes
> under threat.
> 

I don't think Gary's formulation is at all accurate. The US is loyal to the 
Israeli state exactly because the Israeli state is loyal to the US in the way 
that no major Arab client or puppet regime can be, no matter how craven and 
servile. It is the fact that the very existence of Israeli state and society as 
a colonial outpost, against the will of the natives, depends in its entirety on 
the good will and largesse on the ruling imperial power of the day, Britain 
yesterday and the US today, that guarantees its utility as the bedrock of the 
imperial order in West Asia. By comparison, the Arab people (substitute any 
other semi-colonial peoples here), does not owe its existence to the imperial 
order and the puppet and client states which have been foisted upon it, but 
rather contains large majorities whose material interests are fundamentally at 
odds with the imperialist order, and who continue to live from day to day in 
spite of of that criminal order and its depredations. Egypt demonstrates this 
is 
the source of the instability and unreliability which is built into the 
foundations of the native puppet or client state, and why the US persistently 
regards the interests of its Israeli colonial garrison above those of even the 
most servile of its native clients in this important region. 

Samir Amin has also pointed out in Empire of Chaos that Britain first 
recognised 
the utility of a settler colony in the Arab regions in the 1860s, when faced 
with the attempt by Mohammed Ali to industrialise Egypt (cf the Meiji 
restoration in Japan) and remove it from the semi colonial and dependent status 
to which it had already been assigned by Britain and France. Israel, under 
Netanyahu and gang, continue to perform their assigned functions today, though 
in the service of the US. 

Lajany Otum. 

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Re: [Marxism] Sources?

2011-02-06 Thread Mina Khanlarzadeh

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==

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>
==
>

Angry Arab: "Did you say that about the protests in Iran?  And did you not
support groups in Iran (and Iraq) that even engage in car bombings? "

Who were the Iranian groups that engaged in car bombings that you and Angry
Arab seem to know and even claim that Hillary has backed them up too?
Juxtaposing
a vague statement about car bombs in Iran, next to a sentence about the
Iranian protesters is exercising weak and irresponsible rhetoric and "Glenn
Beck" kind of logic by those who have tried in the last two years to
discredit the movement of oppressed Iranian people.

Angry Arab also claimed that the US smuggled camera pens to Iran for Iranian
protesters and his sources were "somewhere and Fox news" and leftists had no
problem with such sources. This is called Glenn Beckism of leftists.

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Re: [Marxism] Sources?

2011-02-06 Thread Juan Fajardo


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On 2/6/2011 8:22 PM, Mina Khanlarzadeh wrote:

Oh really? No sources are needed? How did you figure out that it was done by
Iranian protesters or the Green Movement of Iran?



Who said it was done by the Green Mov't?

In any case, the question at issue was whether or not Clinton supported 
the attacks.  Do you say she -and, by extension, the Obama admin.- did not?


- Juan


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Re: [Marxism] Sources?

2011-02-06 Thread Mina Khanlarzadeh

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Oh really? No sources are needed? How did you figure out that it was done by
Iranian protesters or the Green Movement of Iran?

Angry Arab: "Did you say that about the protests in Iran?  And did you not
support groups in Iran (and Iraq) that even engage in car bombings? "

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

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Hi Mark

Well I suppose I ought to plead guilty to a tendency towards grand
philosophical statements. But really it was a gut feeling which I analysed.
I left the cinema feeling depressed.

I agree the movie was a plausible evocation in terms of the aesthetic
dimension.  It did look great and I agree that was a big plus.  Also I love
them thar old Protestant hymns and I were reared a Catholic in Northern
Ireland!

But I have come to the conclusion that there is something slick and sick
about the Coens and I tried to give voice to that.  I also enter a note that
here I have been very influenced by Comrade Proyect.

My reading of Mattie at the end of the film is debatable - granted. Perhaps
the brilliance of the acting of the younger Mattie bewildered me.

Maybe the feistiness survived. But the lines about Frank James were
unmotivated apart possibly from the fact that he did not stand up.  This was
a bad man, but then so was Younger. I thought it strange that we ended so
strongly with the Quantrill connection and the "lively times" that the old
men had had.

comradely

Gary

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Re: [Marxism] Grover Cleveland, Obama's Percursor?

2011-02-06 Thread Tom Cod

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C'mon, don't compare Obama to Wilson, surely he's not THAT bad.  Wilson was
a notorious KKK loving racist, back when the KKK was a major stakeholder in
the Democratic Party, who had a private screening of "Birth of a Nation"
held for him in the White House in 1915.  Even guys like Theodore Roosevelt
thought he was beyond the pale in that regard.  With the centennial of "The
Great War" coming upon us there will be plenty of opportunity to deconstruct
phony liberal icons like Wilson . . . and TR.  Back in those days the NAACP
actually viewed the Republicans as the "lesser evil" versus the vulgar
racist corrupt populism of "The Democracy" with its robust history going
back to the days of Jackson.

On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Matthew Russo wrote:

>
> 2) The closer analogy of Obama/Clinton is to Woodrow Wilson, a Southerner
> transplanted to the Northeast who began his political career as a New York
> Bourbon Democrat, but who obviously made a certain metamorphosis

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Re: [Marxism] Sources?

2011-02-06 Thread Juan Fajardo


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On 2/6/2011 7:57 PM, fesen joon wrote:

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What is the source of Angry Arab to claim that the protesters of Iran used
car bombing? I think most of the so called leftists do not lift a finger to
ask him for his sources as the mannerism against the Iranian victims is
considered anti-imperialism by them.

"“Revolutions have overthrown dictators in the name of democracy,” she
reminded her audience, “only to see the process hijacked by new autocrats
who use violence, deception and rigged elections to stay in
power.”"
Did you say that about the protests in Iran?  And did you not support groups
in Iran (and Iraq) that even engage in car bombings?  Or are car bombings an
acceptable tool of democratic change when perpetrated by your tools and
allies against a government that you oppose?

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/hillary-on-egypt.html



The reference to car bombings (not not, "car bombs") is clearly in 
relation to the assassination last November of Majid Shahriari, a member 
of the nuclear engineering faculty at the Shahid Beheshti University, 
hence no source need be asked for.


Assailants on motorcycles bombed his car, killing him and wounding his 
wife.  Hence, "car bombing."


- Juan


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[Marxism] Sources?

2011-02-06 Thread fesen joon

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What is the source of Angry Arab to claim that the protesters of Iran used
car bombing? I think most of the so called leftists do not lift a finger to
ask him for his sources as the mannerism against the Iranian victims is
considered anti-imperialism by them.

"“Revolutions have overthrown dictators in the name of democracy,” she
reminded her audience, “only to see the process hijacked by new autocrats
who use violence, deception and rigged elections to stay in
power.”"
Did you say that about the protests in Iran?  And did you not support groups
in Iran (and Iraq) that even engage in car bombings?  Or are car bombings an
acceptable tool of democratic change when perpetrated by your tools and
allies against a government that you oppose?

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/02/hillary-on-egypt.html

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

2011-02-06 Thread Mark Lause

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I admit that my criteria is weighed heavily for a plausible evocation of a
time, place and situation I've not experienced and am not likely to
experience.  As soon as that vision of Fort Smith came onto the screen, I
was predisposed to like it.  And the introduction of Mattie was a wonderful,
feisty and, to me, a very realistic character...  I certainly don't think we
can extrapolate such a movie about such people into some grand philosophical
statement about human nature.

After all, a flick about the Donner Party or the Franklin Expedition isn't
necessarily advocating cannibalism, is it?

But I think you misread the Mattie as depicted in the new movie.  As what
you call "an old maid," she was as headstrong as feisty as she was a kid.
What nice few lines at Frank James to close the movie.  I think nobody in
the theatre saw her moving Cogburn's body as anything simply acquisitive or
lacking in tenderness.

Still, I have a lot of affection for the old movie, too.

ML










On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 7:06 PM, Gary MacLennan wrote:

> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
>
>
> I opted for two hours or so of air conditioning to get away from the heat
> wave that has swept over Brisbane since the flood. So Let us be honest
> here,
> I read Lou’s review and the subsequent posts with great care.  But I sat
> down there quite prepared to enjoy the film.  I recently caught the
> original
> on cable and though it is not my favourite Western it is still pretty good.
>
>
>
>
> So how does the Coen Bros remake shape up (IMHO)?  Well it looks beautiful
> and has a great score.  The acting of the lead, Hailee Steinfeld, is
> astonishingly good. The film itself seems an odd mixture of the Revenge and
> the Professional Western.  Mattie wants to revenge her father, while all
> the
> other characters only move for money. But they do take a pride in being
> professional bushwhackers.
>
>
>
> So much for the aesthetics, what about the truth claims that the film makes
> about humanity and life?  And what about the ethics of the film?  Where is
> the moment of redemption or hope for humanity?  Well for me the film
> crashes
> out here.  This is yet another exercise in the discourse of “Humanity is a
> piece of shit”. I got the kind of feeling I get when I watch a Scorsese
> movie where even the gangsters are not likable.
>
>
>
> Cogburn’s redemptive moment when he saves Mattie’s life was undercut by the
> final scenes.  It seems he had saved her to become an embittered, crippled
> “old maid”.  All the wonderful liveliness of the young Mattie had leached
> away.  The gesture of having Cogburn's body relocated seems motivated not
> by
> tenderness as in the original film but by sheer acquisitiveness.
>
>
>
> In the Hathaway version Cogburn and Mattie forge a real friendship. She
> also
> bids a touching farewell to the Leboeuf character who dies saving her life.
>
>
>
> I thought about the post saying that “revolutions make people better’,
> which
> was on the list.  I thought of the courage and camaraderie of Tahrir Square
> and contrasted it with the hopeless nihilism of the Coen vision.  It is the
> absence of the hope for revolution that produces the kind of films the Coen
> Bros make and guarantees them an audience.
>
>
> comradely
>
>
> Gary
> 
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>

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[Marxism] Assange "evidence" falling apart - leaked report

2011-02-06 Thread Ben Ben

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Doesn't seem to have been widely reported:

New revelations show forensic investigators have failed to find DNA on a condom 
which prosecutors allege Mr Assange deliberately broke during intercourse. A 
second alleged victim said she woke to find Mr Assange having sex with her, but 
let him continue although she knew he wasn't wearing a condom.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-sex-file-on-wikileaks-founder-is-itself-leaked-2205083.html




  


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[Marxism] Fwd: Thoughts on the Egyptian Revolution

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The Angry Arab has been fretting about the possibility of stagnation in the
Egyptian Revolt. He argues or rather hints that the occupation of Tahrir
Square could become the be and end all of the strategy of the revolutionists
and that could prevent them from breaking out. Certainly the regime is
working closely with the Americans to undermine the revolution.  That is a
no brainer.

Yet these are still early days. the Egyptian Army seems to be continuing its
policy of not slaughtering the people,. but at the same time working to
clear the streets and to render as much assistance as they can to the regime
short of a brutal crackdown.  Thus they pushed the people in Tahrir square
but they met with determined resistance. There is a very moving photo of the
crowd five deep standing in front of the tanks.

This snip from debka.com is worth reading in this context:

*Our Cairo sources further report that the effort to restore normal activity
in the country was only partly successful. There were long lines outside the
banks which had been closed for most of last week. And when account-holders
finally reached a teller they were dismayed to find a $10,000 cap on
withdrawals. Many of the ATM cash machines shut down after a short time. The
markets reported deliveries of no more than 40 percent of their regular
produce.
The police presence was patchy, consisting mainly of traffic cops and
officers on the beat at markets and stores. The Interior Ministry's security
squads, the government's main law and order enforcers, were nowhere to be
seen on the streets of Cairo. They feared a settling of scores for their
brutal crackdown in the early stages of the protest.*

If the security squads remain scared of the people, then the revolution is
not yet in terminal trouble.

What of the role of America?  The initial reaction of the Americans can be
summed up with one word "Israel".  That was and still is the sole litmus
test.  What ever happens in Egypt must protect Israeli interests.  What of
American interests?  Recently Gen Petraeus half muttered that pro-Israeli
policies cost American lives. American lives though are cheap to the
American elite. However what of business interests?


Will the tail continue to wag the dog and will Netanyahu and the Zionist
lobby remain in charge of what constitutes American interests?  It looks
like it.  But I have difficulty in believing that this will always be the
case. But first it would seem that the revolution must mature and really
threaten American business, before the relationship with Tel Aviv comes
under threat.

comradely

Gary

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Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR

2011-02-06 Thread Greg Adler

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A modest proposal for deep background-so to speak-on the causes of the
collapse of the USSR
The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky
Greg Adler

On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 10:28 AM, Ethan Young wrote:

> ==
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> ==
>
>
> Moshe Lewin, author of ‘The Soviet Century‘ discusses the book with Sasha
> Lilly on the oral history radio show ‘Talking History‘. Listen here:
> http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/ind/atg-20051220-soviet-century-part1.mp3and
> http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/ind/atg-20051220-soviet-century-part2.mp3
> .
> On the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, we explore the legacy of
> the revolution with this conversation with Moshe Lewin, former collective
> farm worker and eminent scholar of Soviet social history (
> http://versouk.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/soviet-century-a-conversation-with-historian-moshe-lewin/
>
>
> 
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>

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[Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

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I opted for two hours or so of air conditioning to get away from the heat
wave that has swept over Brisbane since the flood. So Let us be honest here,
I read Lou’s review and the subsequent posts with great care.  But I sat
down there quite prepared to enjoy the film.  I recently caught the original
on cable and though it is not my favourite Western it is still pretty good.




So how does the Coen Bros remake shape up (IMHO)?  Well it looks beautiful
and has a great score.  The acting of the lead, Hailee Steinfeld, is
astonishingly good. The film itself seems an odd mixture of the Revenge and
the Professional Western.  Mattie wants to revenge her father, while all the
other characters only move for money. But they do take a pride in being
professional bushwhackers.



So much for the aesthetics, what about the truth claims that the film makes
about humanity and life?  And what about the ethics of the film?  Where is
the moment of redemption or hope for humanity?  Well for me the film crashes
out here.  This is yet another exercise in the discourse of “Humanity is a
piece of shit”. I got the kind of feeling I get when I watch a Scorsese
movie where even the gangsters are not likable.



Cogburn’s redemptive moment when he saves Mattie’s life was undercut by the
final scenes.  It seems he had saved her to become an embittered, crippled
“old maid”.  All the wonderful liveliness of the young Mattie had leached
away.  The gesture of having Cogburn's body relocated seems motivated not by
tenderness as in the original film but by sheer acquisitiveness.



In the Hathaway version Cogburn and Mattie forge a real friendship. She also
bids a touching farewell to the Leboeuf character who dies saving her life.



I thought about the post saying that “revolutions make people better’, which
was on the list.  I thought of the courage and camaraderie of Tahrir Square
and contrasted it with the hopeless nihilism of the Coen vision.  It is the
absence of the hope for revolution that produces the kind of films the Coen
Bros make and guarantees them an audience.


comradely


Gary

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[Marxism] Pent-up anger


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I know there's a lot of pent-up anger.  If you take a country like 
Egypt, where people are suppressed, when they get an opportunity, a real 
opportunity, like what happened in the wake of the revolt in Tunisia, 
they will do things, they will take to the streets, they will show just 
how angry they are, just as, when the peasants in China got a chance to 
get back at landlords, they did, in 1949 after the Communists took 
power.  In the United States, you wonder about that sometimes.  I'd like 
to think that would happen, but I'm not at all certain that it would. 
Those of us who want radical change have our work cut out for us here in 
this country. -- Michael D. Yates


full: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/yates060211.html


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[Marxism] News briadcasts

2011-02-06 Thread Paddy Apling

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The last ten days should surely show people in GB and USA howlittle you can
trust yourown countries TV news

Only al.jazeera has been broadcasting TRUTH across the world.

Those staying with the BBC or the equivalent in the USA, whatever they are
FOX news? - perhaps there are "somewhat better than that", but I am English
so am not familiar with USA TV.

But I DO Know about Britain - where the BBC take TONY BLAIR as the
"know-all" about Egypt.

I have not been able to contact my many friends in Egypt - but Al-Jazeera
is, I feel sure, doing its very best to show me their feelings...

Hurrah for the Egyptians - they are in the vanguard of the fight against the
tyranny of the
Imperilists, neo-cons, the unholy rich, or whatever else you want to call
them - the rich bastards who think they control the world.

The Egyptians are showing how shallow is their control.

Egyptians are the vanguard of the fight for a new world !!

TV now is useless - but the internet gives us REAL news - and HOPE !!









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Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR

2011-02-06 Thread Ethan Young

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Moshe Lewin, author of ‘The Soviet Century‘ discusses the book with Sasha Lilly 
on the oral history radio show ‘Talking History‘. Listen here: 
http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/ind/atg-20051220-soviet-century-part1.mp3 
and 
http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/ind/atg-20051220-soviet-century-part2.mp3. 
 

On the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, we explore the legacy of the 
revolution with this conversation with Moshe Lewin, former collective farm 
worker and eminent scholar of Soviet social history (a Professor Emeritus from 
the Univ. of Pennsylvania). This segment comes to us from a 2006 broadcast of 
Against the Grain. Sasha Lilly explores the following question with Prof. 
Lewin: “What was the nature of the Soviet system? Was it in fact socialist or 
something else? Did its failure illustrate the futility of attempts to envisage 
of life after capitalism or was the Soviet experience shaped by other factors 
specific to the former Tsarist Empire?"

http://versouk.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/soviet-century-a-conversation-with-historian-moshe-lewin/



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Re: [Marxism] Politics & the Super Bowl

2011-02-06 Thread Jim Farmelant

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On Sun, 6 Feb 2011 14:44:14 -0600 Gulf Mann  writes:
>

> Only 1 team in the NFL ain't owned by Rulingclass kazillionaires: 
> the Green
> Bay Packers, who instead are municipally owned by the citizens of 
> Green Bay.
> The Packers thus represent ordinary Workingclass stiffs, like the 
> big
> majority of Americans. Like us. They have the only valid claim of 
> being
> America's Team.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers)
the Packers's ownership arrangement
would be in violation of current NFL rules for any other franchise in the
league.
In the case of the Packers, they were grandfathered in when
the NFL set its current ownership rules back in the 1980s.

The Packers's ownership arrangement is structured so as to preclude them 
from ever being sold and moved to another city.  Something, which would
almost
certainly happen if they were, indeed, ever sold to a
Rulingclass kazillionaire.

Jim Farmelant
http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
www.foxymath.com
Learn or Review Basic Math

> 
> A further attraction with the Packers is that Green Bay is by far, 
> far, far
> the smallest city in the nation to field an NFL team. Imagine plucky 
> little
> Green Bay going up against the largest, wealthiest cities in the 
> land. It's
> a David vs. Goliath contest. In other words, no contest all all for 
> me to
> pick sides.
> 

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[Marxism] Statement of the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt

2011-02-06 Thread Einde O'Callaghan


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Statement of the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt

Glory to the martyrs! Victory to the revolution!

What is happening today is the largest popular revolution in the history 
of our country and of the entire Arab world. The sacrifice of our 
martyrs has built our revolution and we have broken through all the 
barriers of fear. We will not back down until the criminal ‘leaders’ and 
their criminal system is destroyed.


Mubarak’s departure is the first step, not the last step of the revolution

The handover of power to a dictatorship under Omar Suleiman, Ahmed 
Shafiq and other cronies of Mubarak is the continuation of the same 
system. Omar Suleiman is a friend of Israel and America, spends most of 
his time between Washington and Tel Aviv and is a servant who is 
faithful to their interests. Ahmed Shafik is a close friend of Mubarak 
and his colleague in the tyranny, oppression and plunder imposed on the 
Egyptian people.


The country’s wealth belongs to the people and must return to it

Over the past three decades this tyrannical regime corrupted the 
country’s largest estates to a small handful of business leaders and 
foreign companies. 100 families own more than 90% of the country’s 
wealth. They monopolize the wealth of the Egyptian people through 
policies of privatization, looting of power and the alliance with 
Capital. They have turned the majority of the Egyptian people to the 
poor, landless and unemployed.


Factories wrecked and sold dirt cheap must go back to the people

We want the nationalization of companies, land and property looted by 
this bunch. As long as our resources remain in their hands we will not 
be able to completely get rid of this system. Economic slavery is the 
other face of political tyranny. We will not be able to cope with 
unemployment and achieve a fair minimum wage for a decent living without 
restoring the wealth of the people from this gang.


We will not accept to be guard dogs of America and Israel

This system does not stand alone. Mubarak, as a dictator was a servant 
and client directly acting for the sake of the interests of America and 
Israel. Egypt acted as a colony of America, participated directly in the 
siege of the Palestinian people, made the Suez Canal and Egyptian 
airspace freezones for warships and fighter jets that destroyed and 
killed the Iraqi people and sold gas to Israel, dirt cheap, while 
stifling the Egyptian people by soring prices. Revolution must restore 
Egypt’s independence, dignity and leadership in the region.


The revolution is a popular revolution

This is not a revolution of the elite, political parties or religious 
groups. Egypt’s youth, students, workers and the poor are the owners of 
this revolution. In recent days a lot of elites, parties and so-called 
symbols have begun trying to ride the wave of revolution and hijack it 
from their rightful owners. The only symbols are the martyrs of our 
revolution and our young people who have been steadfast in the field. We 
will not allow them to take control of our revolution and claim that 
they represent us. We will choose to represent ourselves and represent 
the martyrs who were killed and their blood paid the price for the 
salvation of the system.


A people’s army is the army that protects the revolution

Everyone asks: “Is the army with the people or against them?”. The army 
is not a single block. The interests of soldiers and junior officers are 
the same as the interests of the masses. But the senior officers are 
Mubarak’s men, chosen carefully to protect his regime of corruption, 
wealth and tyranny. It is an integral part of the system.


This army is no longer the people’s army. This army is not the one which 
defeated the Zionist enemy in October 73. This army is closely 
associated with America and Israel. Its role is to protect Israel, not 
the people. Yes we want to win the soldiers for the revolution. But we 
must not be fooled by slogans that ‘the army is on our side’. The army 
will either suppress the demonstrations directly, or restructure the 
police to play this role.


Form revolutionary councils urgently

This revolution has surpassed our greatest expectations. Nobody expected 
to see these numbers. Nobody expected that Egyptians would be this brave 
in the face of the police. Nobody can say that we did not force the 
dictator to retreat. Nobody can say that a transformation did not happen 
in Middan el Tahrir.


What we need right now is to push for the socio-economic demands as part 
of our demands, so that the person sitting in his home knows that we are 
fighting for their rights. We need to organize ourselves into popular 
committees which elects its higher councils democratically, and from 
below. These councils must form a higher

[Marxism] Politics & the Super Bowl

2011-02-06 Thread Gulf Mann

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How do people decide which athletic team to root for? Most people prolly
root for the home team or the team closest to home or the team with which
they have some biographic connection. That's the majority way of deciding. A
part of the minority--the Ann Randites and their cousins--commit to
individual players they favor and side with them regardless of which team
they shirt up for. Another part of the minority, more rational, scientific,
and prolly gambling addicted, bet the Vegas line. It's head over heart for
them.

For me this Super Bowl, it's politics. NFL teams are all owned by
Rulingclass kazillionaires who use them as toys for amusement or as
investments to make $$$. If teams don't make $$$ or fail to amuse by losing
too much, Rulingclass kazillionaires either move them to a larger, more
profitable venue or sell them in disgust to another Rulingclass
kazillionaire looking for a play toy or a cash register.

Only 1 team in the NFL ain't owned by Rulingclass kazillionaires: the Green
Bay Packers, who instead are municipally owned by the citizens of Green Bay.
The Packers thus represent ordinary Workingclass stiffs, like the big
majority of Americans. Like us. They have the only valid claim of being
America's Team.

A further attraction with the Packers is that Green Bay is by far, far, far
the smallest city in the nation to field an NFL team. Imagine plucky little
Green Bay going up against the largest, wealthiest cities in the land. It's
a David vs. Goliath contest. In other words, no contest all all for me to
pick sides.

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[Marxism] World Trade Unions Mobilising for Democracy in Egypt: 8 February Action Day

2011-02-06 Thread Bonnie Weinstein


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World Trade Unions Mobilising for Democracy in Egypt: 8 February  
Action Day

International Trade Union Confederation
February 4, 2011
http://www.ituc-csi.org/world-trade-unions-mobilising-for.html?lang=en

Trade unions around the world will join a Day of Action for Democracy  
in Egypt on 8 February, following a decision by the ITUC General  
Council meeting in Brussels today. Unions will organise  
demonstrations at Egyptian embassies, and continue to press their  
governments to demand democratic transition in Egypt and to ensure  
that those responsible for the violent repression of peaceful  
demonstrations are brought to justice.


“We will continue to push the international community to put pressure  
on the regime of Hosni Mubarak to respect the wishes of the Egyptian  
people. Our support for Egypt’s independent trade unions and the  
other forces for democracy is unwavering, and we are determined that  
there shall be no impunity for the people responsible for the  
killings, assaults and intimidation of innocent people,” said ITUC  
General Secretary Sharan Burrow.


INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION GENERAL COUNCIL (ITUC)
REVISED DRAFT RESOLUTION ON EGYPT
Brussels, 2 – 4 February 201
http://www.ituc-csi.org/resolution-on-egypt.html

People across Egypt have risen in massive numbers to demand change,  
for democracy, justice, and fundamental rights and to insist on the  
end of the discredited Mubarak regime. Decades of repression,  
poverty, imprisonment of political opponents and violation of human  
rights including, through the imposition of state controlled  
organisations, the rights to freedom of association and collective  
bargaining have stifled social and economic progress, and denied  
social justice.


The ITUC expresses its full support and solidarity to the Egyptian  
people in their quest for respect for fundamental freedoms and rights  
and its deepest condolences to the many victims of the Mubarak  
regime’s violent repression of the legitimate protest actions which  
have taken place throughout the country. It pays tribute to all those  
who have stood up for democracy, and insists that human values must  
prevail over geopolitical and economic interests.


As in Tunisia and elsewhere, worsening unemployment, particularly  
amongst young people, has combined with resentment at the lack of  
political freedom to catalyse popular mobilisation against the  
regime. The ITUC salutes the independent trade union movement, which  
has stood at the forefront of the mobilisation, and recognises the  
critical role that the independent unions must play in putting Egypt  
on the path to genuine democracy and in ensuring social and economic  
justice for the Egyptian people.


The General Council:

INSTRUCTS the General Secretary to continue to closely monitor the  
situation in Egypt, and to assist the development of the independent  
trade union movement there;


REQUESTS all affiliates to call upon their governments to exert  
maximum international pressure for democratic transition in Egypt  
including full respect for freedom of association, collective  
bargaining and the other core labour standards; and,


FURTHER REQUESTS all affiliates and solidarity support organisations  
to assist in every possible way the development of genuine,  
independent trade unions in Egypt and their actions to promote  
democracy, social justice, equality and decent work. INSISTS that  
those responsible for ordering physical attacks, or who sought in any  
way to use force to prevent people from exercising their right to  
freedom of expression or to demonstrate must be brought to trial and  
cannot remain unpunished.




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Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR

2011-02-06 Thread Allan


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> Message: 10
> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 20:15:11 -0500
> From: sandia 
> To: marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
> Subject: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
> Message-ID:
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Can anyone point me toward reading material that surveys the causes of
> the fall of the USSR?

Check out this highly informative and very well-written book by Keeran 
and Kenny:


Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Roger Keeran, Thomas Kenny

iUniverse:

http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000181575







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Re: [Marxism] Grover Cleveland, Obama's Percursor?

2011-02-06 Thread Matthew Russo

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I had posted on this not too long ago, keying off a Cleveland reference by
Louis.  Note:

1) The phrase "Bourbon Democrats" refers to a late 19th century Federal
level coalition of "Redeemer" Southern landowners existing off the rents
gotten from Jim Crow structured share cropping, and a sector of the New York
bourgeoisie representing "old" mercantile and allied banking and urban
landlord money - who had long had ties to the previous Slavocracy, as well
as Tammany Hall  - the New York Bourbons factionally opposed to and being
eclipsed by the "new money" financial-industrial combines being organized by
such as JP Morgan and centered in the Republican Party.  These latter
finally triumphed in 1896 as the Bourbon position in the Democratic Party
collapsed with the nomination of William Jennings Bryan.

2) The closer analogy of Obama/Clinton is to Woodrow Wilson, a Southerner
transplanted to the Northeast who began his political career as a New York
Bourbon Democrat, but who obviously made a certain metamorphosis as Wilson
clearly ended up not opposed to "inflation, imperialism and subsidies to
business" in the shape of the First World War.  The key is the so-called
"Progressive movement" that gave its name to that era.  Wilson had one foot
firmly planted in the camp of finance, unified and modernized by the
creation of the Federal Reserve system, but the other was less steadily
planted upon a sector of bourgeois "progressives" such as Walther Lippmann
who had gone into the Democratic Party with the general Progressive exodus
from the Republicans via Theodore Roosevelt's' Bull Moose party in 1912.

Likewise Obama, in his ascending phase had one foot in finance capital, and
the other on the backs of progressive Democrats.  We see here how American
progressives have ever been the useful idiots of U.S. capitalist politics in
both the case of Wilson and Obama.  But there the analogy ends: whereas
Wilson in turning sharply Right could use the world war (and Red Scare) to
bind the progressives to himself, Obama (like the later Clinton) tends to
find his left foot dangling in midair, a condition much less stable that
that of the New Deal Democrats, a capitalist coalition of industrial capital
and landed property, with finance in subordination.   The New Deal therefore
is an exceptional episode in the history of a Democratic Party that now
seeks (in vain, I believe) to return to its origins.

Anybody read "The Democrats, a critical history", by Lance Selfa?

-Matt
---
I have been thinking about presidential comparisons with Obama.  The
closest I could imagine was Grover Cleveland's second administration.

Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who
opposed high tariffs, free silver, inflation, imperialism and subsidies
to business, farmers or veterans. His battles for political reform and
fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives.
Cleveland was tight with the bankers and the railroad.  Maybe he was not
so much in love with them as Obama, but it is still pretty disgusting.

Here are my notes from Matthew Josephson's The Politicos:

read more at:

http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/grover-cleveland-obamas-percursor/

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Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR

2011-02-06 Thread Einde O'Callaghan


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On 06.02.2011 02:15, sandia wrote:


Can anyone point me toward reading material that surveys the causes of
the fall of the USSR?

A good summary of the IST's state capitalist analysis is provided by 
Mike Haynes: Russia - Class and Power 1917-2000 (unfortunately out of 
print) - see http://www.amazon.com/Russia-Mike-Haynes/dp/189887686X


Einde O'Callaghan


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[Marxism] An Excellent Analysis of Empire: Reflecting on Cairo

2011-02-06 Thread michael perelman


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The United States, like Germany, came late to the empire business. It 
did not aspire to informal Empire, but rather went to great lengths to 
undermine the existing empires to open them up for US business.  Eric 
Louw tells the story very well:


Louw, P. Eric. 2010. Roots of the Pax Americana: Decolonization, 
Development, Democratization and Trade (Manchester: Manchester 
University Press).


In his account, the US was going to great lengths to undermine Britain's 
Empire, especially India, even when those powers were allies during the 
Second World War.  He attributes Chamberlain's behavior in Munich to a 
justifiable fear that dependence on US support in fighting the Nazis 
posed a greater threat to the empire than the Nazis themselves.  He 
shows that the US made good use of Gandhi in discrediting the British 
Empire.


Rather than going to the expense and trouble of maintaining a formal 
Empire, the US preferred finding compliant regimes in important venues. 
 For example, the US could have kept Cuba as a colony, but it got what 
it needed much more cheaply by keeping friendly governments in place. In 
contrast, Puerto Rico, which was much smaller, would not pose much 
trouble as a territory controlled by the US.


The book does not seem to be intended as a radical critique.  It does 
not discuss how this Pax (Pox) Americana proved to be a disaster, 
leaving people under the rule of Marcos, Mubarak, the Shah, and other 
such klepocrats and thugs I am anxiously waiting new chapter being 
written today in the streets of the Middle East.


--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

mperel...@csuchico.edu

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com


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[Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR

2011-02-06 Thread Michael Tucker

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When attempting to gather my thoughts on this issue I have found this article 
by Simon Clarke to be very useful. As an expert on Russia at Warwick University 
he has wriiten other books and material on the subject:

http://marxsite.com/ClarkeRussia.pdf 

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~syrbe/Publications.html

Mike Tucker

  

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Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR


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What Happened In Russia? a contribution to a discussion, December 11, 2000

by Ernest Tate

I'm sure I was not alone among socialists during the period of Gorbachev
and the final days of "peroistroika", thinking that this was perhaps the
opening phase of the "political revolution" and that the Russian working
class would not permit the bureaucracy to dismantle the gains of the
Russian Revolution. The idea of "political revolution", the need for the
working class to mobilize around a program of "workers control" to allow it
to realize its full creative possibility to overcome the crisis of
stagnation resulting from bureaucratic control, was an essential feature of
the analysis of the USSR developed by Leon Trotsky. This program for
political revolution, to which supporters of the "degenerated workers
state" theory subscribed, encompassed some of the demands of the bourgeois
democratic revolution such as freedom of speech and association, the right
to strike, demands for workers control around which the working class would
mobilize through workers councils, and wh! ich would pose the question of
"political power".

There is little evidence of political revolution in the processes of change
in Russia and Eastern Europe since the collapse. Rather , the drive for
change, especially political change, has tended to come from those layers
in society who are outside the organized working class.

Looking at some of the changes in Russia, especially in the decades before
Gorbachev, we can understand why. From Kruschev in the early 1960s, social
and economic changes under the bureaucracy began to cause its
disintegration. Despite Kruschev's claims that they would bypass the
standard of living of the capitalist countries, by the early 1970s targets
of the central plan for economic growth and labour productivity were not
met. Before 1960 rates of growth under the two five year plans were 14% and
11% a year, respectively, remarkably high when compared to Western
capitalist economies. Projecting this growth rate into the future, Kruschev
could, with some justification say the USSR would bypass capitalism. But
the reality was something else. During the 70s and 80s, the Russian growth
rate fell to under 4%, says David Lane in his book, The Rise and Fall of
State Socialism. (1) At the same time, important demographic shifts in the
population began to undermine the regime. Two thirds had become urban --
from 22,000,000 in 1922 to 186,800 in 1989. (2)

In 1950, the number of employees categorized as "non-productive", that is
non-manual employees, in such sectors as science, education, culture,
health, insurance and tourism, totalled 6,260,000. In the space of 17
years, that figure had jumped almost four times to 23,812,000. (3) It was
this demographic group that had the most important impact on the history of
the last twenty years. There was the rapid growth of television and other
means of communication. David Lane writes that , "The population's
expectations rose: a consumer mentality matured as did the
bourgeoisification of aspirations."(4)

"This led to a more wide-spread receptivity to alternate conceptions of
socialism at the same time as there was a pervasiveness of illegal as well
as private economic activity." Among petty -bourgeois layers in the society
there was an increase in the belief that they would capitalize their
special skills in a market relationship. "It was a mechanism to realize
intellectual capital in monetary terms." Lane says.(5)

In general, there had been a deterioration in the standard of living of
these layers, compared to the pre-war period. There is a lot of anecdotal
evidence of truck drivers earning much more that highly trained medical
specialists. Loyalty and solidarity with the regime began to break down,
especially among professionals, who had become disenchanted with their
status: they were in turn cultivated by the leadership. Lane gives data on
the sociological shift in the membership of the Communist Party from the
late Breznev period to Gorbachev, towards non-manual and professional
layers and the influx of these layers into the top leadership and a
simultaneous decline in the number of individuals from working-class
backgrounds.

"The implication here," he says, "is that a dual class structure was
developing in which 'intellectuals' and professionals had much potentially
to gain from a market-type system. They had marketable skills and were not
dependent on a 'nomenklatura' system."(6)

"It is undoubtedly the case," Lane says, "that the reform leadership of
Gorbachev shifted its political fulcrum of support away from the manual
working class and the traditional party and state bureaucracy to an
alliance with the more technologically inclined and modernizing forces of
the

Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR

2011-02-06 Thread Paul Flewers

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A book that's worth reading is Hillel Ticktin's Origins of the Crisis
in the USSR: Essays on the Political Economy of a Disintegrating
System (ME Sharpe, 1992).

Paul F


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Re: [Marxism] (no subject)

2011-02-06 Thread michael perelman

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> sandia wrote:
>> Can anyone point me toward reading material that surveys the causes
>> of the fall of the USSR?
>
Kotz, David M. and Fred Weir. 1997. Revolution From Above: The Demise
of the Soviet System (London: Routledge).



-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com


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Re: [Marxism] Socialist Voice: Struggle in Egypt


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On 2/6/11 11:12 AM, Ian Angus wrote:


HOW CAN WE DEFEND COMMUNITIES IN STRUGGLE?
By John Riddell
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=1418
The debates following the G20 protests in Toronto last June have
raised important questions about how activists can defend and expand
arenas of resistance to capitalism, at a time when the system’s power
seems overwhelming. Several articles in the latest issue of Upping the
Anti, a leading journal of anti-capitalist thought offer an
opportunity to discuss this question on a broader basis


From this article:

As I write, Egypt is in the grip of a people’s insurrectionary movement. 
Mass demonstrations took place aiming to overthrow of a brutal 
dictatorship and win democratic rights for the population. When 
attacked, the demonstrators found ways to resist and drove back the 
police. Protesters formed defence guards to prevent looting and property 
destruction. They forged bonds of solidarity with rank-and-file 
soldiers. It is not yet clear whether this movement will win or lose, 
but it has already made its mark in world history.


Conditions in Canada are far removed from those of Egypt. Yet whatever 
the fate of the mass movement there, it shows an effective approach to 
the challenge of state violence, aimed at rallying the immense majority 
in defence of human rights and avoiding needless provocations, while 
isolating and pushing back the forces of repression.


The Black Bloc, by contrast, did not rally broad forces around commonly 
shared democratic goals, did not challenge the cops’ trampling of 
democratic rights, and did not serve to defend the protesters against 
the G20 summit.



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[Marxism] Socialist Voice: Struggle in Egypt

2011-02-06 Thread Ian Angus

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SOCIALIST VOICE
Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century
http://www.socialistvoice.ca

February 6, 2011

THE STRUGGLE IN EGYPT SURGES AHEAD
By Ahmed Shawki
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=1424
The revolutionary uprising in Egypt marks a major turn in the world
struggle for political and social liberation. In this article,
International Socialist Review editor Ahmed Shawki reports from Cairo
on the mass demonstrations for democratic rights that shifted the
balance away from the violence of the regime.

HOW CAN WE DEFEND COMMUNITIES IN STRUGGLE?
By John Riddell
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=1418
The debates following the G20 protests in Toronto last June have
raised important questions about how activists can defend and expand
arenas of resistance to capitalism, at a time when the system’s power
seems overwhelming. Several articles in the latest issue of Upping the
Anti, a leading journal of anti-capitalist thought offer an
opportunity to discuss this question on a broader basis
+++

Other recent articles:

OAS DIPLOMAT DELIVERS SEARING INDICTMENT OF HAITI OCCUPATION REGIME
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=1413

PUTTING HUMANS BACK INTO SOCIALISM
Book review by Federico Fuentes
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=1402



SOCIALIST VOICE
Web: http://www.socialistvoice.ca
Email: socialistvo...@sympatico.ca

Editors: Ian Angus, Roger Annis, John Riddell

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[Marxism] An Appeal from Verso Books - Help Us Revive Some Classics

2011-02-06 Thread Sebastian Budgen


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Dear Comrades and Friends,

At Verso, we are engaged in a long term project to make all of our out- 
of-print back list titles available again — both on our new website,  
and on Amazon and in bookstores etc. We are making considerable  
progress, but some titles from the 1970s and 1980s are proving very  
difficult to track down.


As I am sure you will agree, now is politically a great time to put  
some these important books back into circulation so that younger  
generations of readers can have access to them — at the moment, they  
are rare and only available occasionally through second-hand  
booksellers.


If you have any of them on your bookshelves, we ask that you might  
consider donating one or more of the titles on the list below so that  
we may scan in the text to create a new print on demand edition (this  
digital printing innovation allows out of print titles to be sold on  
an individual basis as they are ordered, without the need for large  
print runs and warehousing.) In return, we'll send you a copy of the  
new edition, and one other Verso book of your choice.


Books need to be clean and in reasonably good condition with no pen or  
pencil markings inside. It doesn't matter if the pages have darkened  
slightly.


We have tried to include references to the most up to date edition of  
each title. The publication dates listed below may differ by a year or  
so from those printed in the actual book.


If you think you have one or more titles to donate, please send an  
email to cl...@versobooks.com with the following details:


Titile
ISBN
Binding (Hardcover / Paperback)
Publication year
Your full mailing address

Please allow us some time to collate responses and reply to your email.

Thank you in advance for your support.
All best wishes,
Clara
-
Clara Heyworth
Marketing Manager
Verso Books
20 Jay Street, Suite 1010
Brooklyn, NY 11201
T: 718-246-8160
C: 718-207-2308
E: cl...@versobooks.com
http://versobooks.com/
--

Abendroth / A Short History of the European Working-Class / ISBN-10:  
0902308475 / Paperback / 1972


Althusser / Essays in Self-Criticism / ISBN-10: 0902308874 /  
Hardcover / 1976


Arlacchi / Mafia Business / ISBN-10: 0860918920 / Paperback / 1987

Aronson / Jean Paul Sartre : Philosophy in the World / ISBN-10:  
0860910326 / Paperback / 1987


Aronson / Dialectics of Disaster / ISBN-10: 0860917754 / Paperback /  
1983


Bahro / From Red to Green / ISBN-10: 0860917606 / Paperback / 1984

Benn / Parliament, People And Power / ISBN-10: 0860917584 /  
Paperback / 1982


Bentley / Between Marx And Christ / ISBN-10: 0860917487 /  Paperback /  
1982


Bew & Patterson / British State and the Ulster Crisis / ISBN-10:  
0860918157 / Paperback / 1985


Bowles et al / Beyond the Wasteland / ISBN-10: 0860918238 /  
Paperback / 1984


Burchett / Shadows of Hiroshima / ISBN-10: 0860917835 / Paperback / 1983

Chen / China : Crossroads Socialism / ISBN-10: 0860917622 /  
Paperback / 1984


Claudin / Eurocommunism and Socialism / ISBN-10: 080527068X /  
Paperback / 1979


Colletti / From Rousseau to Lenin / ISBN-10: 0902308971 / Paperback /  
1976


Dabat & Lorenzano / Argentina / ISBN-10: 0860917908 / Paperback / 1984

Davis (ed) / Year Left 1 / ISBN-10: 0860911144 / Paperback / 1985

Day / The Crisis and the Crash / ISBN-10: 0860910385 / Hardcover / 1981

Debray / Conversations with Allende / ISBN-10: 0902308432 /  
Paperback / 1971


Dunkerley / Long War / ISBN-10: 0860918319 / Paperback / 1985

Eudes / Kapetanios / ISBN-10: 0902308823 / Paperback / 1972

Evans & Rowley / Red Brotherhood at War / ISBN-10: 0860915018 /  
Paperback / 1990


Farjoun et al / Laws Of Chaos / ISBN-10: 0860917681 / Paperback / 1987

Geras / Literature of Revolution / ISBN-10: 0860918599 / Paperback /  
1986


Godelier / Rationality and Irrationality in Economics / ISBN-10:  
0860917185 / Paperback / 1979


Habermas & Dews / Autonomy and Solidarity / ISBN-10: 0860915034 /  
Paperback / 1992


Halliday & Molyneux / Ethiopian Revolution / ISBN-10: 086091741X /  
Paperback / 1981


Hobsbawm / Forward March of Labour Halted? / ISBN-10: 0860917371 /  
Paperback / 1981


Johnstone / Politics of Euromissiles / ISBN-10: 0860917878 /  
Paperback / 1984


Katz / Herbert Marcuse / ISBN-10: 0860917509 / Paperback / 1982

Kavan / Freedom at a Price / ISBN-10: 0860911187 / Hardcover / 1985

Korsch / Marxism and Philosophy / ISBN-10: 090230884X / Paperback / 1972

Kula / Economic Theory of the Feudal System / ISBN-10: 0860918513 /  
2nd revised paperback edition / 1986


Lecourt / Marxism and Epistemology / Hardcover / ISBN-10: 0902308459 /  
1975


Lecourt / Proletaria

[Marxism] Clueless commentariat's Egyptian coverage

2011-02-06 Thread Marv Gandall

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Wallflowers at the Revolution
By FRANK RICH
New York Times
February 5, 2011

A month ago most Americans could not have picked Hosni Mubarak out of a police 
lineup. American foreign policy, even in Afghanistan, was all but invisible 
throughout the 2010 election season. Foreign aid is the only federal budget 
line that a clear-cut majority of Americans says should be cut. And so now — as 
the world’s most unstable neighborhood explodes before our eyes — does anyone 
seriously believe that most Americans are up to speed? Our government may be 
scrambling, but that’s nothing compared to its constituents. After a 
near-decade of fighting wars in the Arab world, we can still barely distinguish 
Sunni from Shia.

The live feed from Egypt is riveting. We can’t get enough of revolution video — 
even if, some nights, Middle West blizzards take precedence over Middle East 
battles on the networks’ evening news. But more often than not we have little 
or no context for what we’re watching. That’s the legacy of years of 
self-censored, superficial, provincial and at times Islamophobic coverage of 
the Arab world in a large swath of American news media. Even now we’re more 
likely to hear speculation about how many cents per gallon the day’s events 
might cost at the pump than to get an intimate look at the demonstrators’ lives.

Perhaps the most revealing window into America’s media-fed isolation from this 
crisis — small an example as it may seem — is the default assumption that the 
Egyptian uprising, like every other paroxysm in the region since the Green 
Revolution in Iran 18 months ago, must be powered by the twin American-born 
phenomena of Twitter and Facebook. Television news — at once threatened by the 
power of the Internet and fearful of appearing unhip — can’t get enough of this 
cliché.

Three days after riot police first used tear gas and water hoses to chase away 
crowds in Tahrir Square, CNN’s new prime-time headliner, Piers Morgan, declared 
that “the use of social media” was “the most fascinating aspect of this whole 
revolution.” On MSNBC that same night, Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed a teacher 
who had spent a year at the American school in Cairo. “They are all on 
Facebook,” she said of her former fifth-grade students. The fact that a 
sampling of fifth graders in the American school might be unrepresentative of, 
and wholly irrelevant to, the events unfolding in the streets of Cairo never 
entered the equation.

The social networking hype eventually had to subside for a simple reason: The 
Egyptian government pulled the plug on its four main Internet providers and yet 
the revolution only got stronger. “Let’s get a reality check here,” said Jim 
Clancy, a CNN International anchor, who broke through the bloviation on Jan. 29 
by noting that the biggest demonstrations to date occurred on a day when the 
Internet was down. “There wasn’t any Twitter. There wasn’t any Facebook,” he 
said. No less exasperated was another knowledgeable on-the-scene journalist, 
Richard Engel, who set the record straight on MSNBC in a satellite hook-up with 
Rachel Maddow. “This didn’t have anything to do with Twitter and Facebook,” he 
said. “This had to do with people’s dignity, people’s pride. People are not 
able to feed their families.”

No one would deny that social media do play a role in organizing, publicizing 
and empowering participants in political movements in the Middle East and 
elsewhere. But as Malcolm Gladwellwrote on The New Yorker’s Web site last week, 
“surely the least interesting fact” about the Egyptian protesters is that some 
of them “may (or may not) have at one point or another employed some of the 
tools of the new media to communicate with one another.” What’s important is 
“why they were driven to do it in the first place” — starting with the issues 
of human dignity and crushing poverty that Engel was trying to shove back to 
center stage.

Among cyber-intellectuals in America, a fascinating debate has broken out about 
whether social media can do as much harm as good in totalitarian states like 
Egypt. In his fiercely argued new book, “The Net Delusion,” Evgeny Morozov, a 
young scholar who was born in Belarus, challenges the conventional wisdom of 
what he calls “cyber-utopianism.” Among other mischievous facts, he reports 
that there were only 19,235 registered Twitter accounts in Iran (0.027 percent 
of the population) on the eve of what many American pundits rebranded its 
“Twitter Revolution.” More damning, Morozov also demonstrates how the digital 
tools so useful to citizens in a free society can be co-opted by tech-savvy 
dictators, police states and garden-variety autocrats to spread propaganda and 
to track (and arrest) conveniently networked dissidents, from Iran

[Marxism] NYT: America's Journeys With Strongmen

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("History is rich with precedents. In 1959, there was Fulgencio Batista of
Cuba, darling of American corporations and organized crime, fleeing with an
ill-gotten fortune of $300 million as Fidel Castro's troops reached Havana.")
===
This is a useful survey of SOME of the many dictators which Washington has
backed over the years. One could easily list dozens and dozens more. But if
one thing should be obvious, Washington's claims to support any kind of
democracy in foreign countries has no basis in historical experience.
Washington wants people who will do its bidding and protect US interests from
any troublesome demands by the local populations. Evan at this late hour,
Washington is still trying to find a way to prop up Mubarak and, failing that,
Mubarak's regime and his appointed lieutenants, as all reports in today's media
make entirely obvious.


Walter Lippmann
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
===

THE NEW YORK TIMES
February 5, 2011
America's Journeys With Strongmen
By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — If the United States is, as so many presidents have said in so many
speeches, the world's pre-eminent champion of democracy, then why does the drama
unfolding in Cairo seem so familiar?

A Washington-friendly dictator, propped up for decades by lavish American aid as
he oversees a regime noted for brutality, corruption and stagnation, finally
faces the wrath of his people. An American administration struggles over what
to say, what to do and what to expect if the strongman is toppled.

The agony of Hosni Mubarak's Egypt raises again the question of whether such a
pattern can ever be broken. More than mere misjudgment or duplicity is behind
it; the embrace of dictators has been so frequent over the last half-century
that it obviously results from hard-headed calculation.

Every country has both values and interests. Sometimes they coincide — for
example, promoting human rights can help combat terrorism — and sometimes they
conflict. What makes the United States stand out, perhaps, is how frequently
American officials proclaim their values to the world, setting themselves up for
charges of hypocrisy when a policy is expedient rather than idealistic.

Supporting Egypt's military-led regime over four decades, first under Anwar
el-Sadat and then Mr. Mubarak, offered strategic benefits to seven American
presidents. They got a staunch ally against Soviet expansionism, a critical
peace with Israel, a bulwark against Islamic radicalism, and a trade- and
tourist-friendly Egypt. What they did not get was a functioning Egyptian
democracy. The apocryphal comment about a foreign strongman often attributed to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt sums it up nicely: he may be a son of a bitch, but
he's our son of a bitch.

History is rich with precedents. In 1959, there was Fulgencio Batista of Cuba,
darling of American corporations and organized crime, fleeing with an ill-gotten
fortune of $300 million as Fidel Castro's troops reached Havana.

In 1979, it was Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran, abandoning the throne
in the face of a revolt two years after President Jimmy Carter toasted his
country as "an island of stability."

In 1986, the turn came for Ferdinand Marcos, ousted by the Philippines' People
Power movement five years after Vice President George H. W. Bush told him at a
luncheon: "We love your adherence to democratic principles and to the democratic
process."

The list could be extended. Since World War II, the White House, under the
management of both parties, has smiled on at least a couple of dozen despots.
("Friendly Dictators Trading Cards," marketed by a California publisher in the
1990s, featured "36 of America's most embarrassing allies.")

"It used to be anti-Communism," said David F. Schmitz, a historian at Whitman
College and author of two books on the American attachment to dictators. "Now
it's most often moderates who stand against radicalism in the world of Islam."

Mr. Schmitz deplores the phenomenon, which he believes has too often bought an
ersatz stability at a very high price. By backing an autocrat, he said, America
often ensures that "the political center gets destroyed, giving credence to
extremists' arguments and discrediting the U.S."

After all, the man who felled Batista, the virulently anti-American Mr. Castro,
is still in power more than 50 years later. Cuban-American relations produced a
brush with thermonuclear war in 1962, a permanently crippled Cuban economy and —
well, generations of successful anti-Castro politicians in Miami and beyond.

Iran, too, got mired in a new brand of undemocratic rule after the shah. The
United States still faces a hostile regime ruled by ay

[Marxism] Goodbye to the export of surplus capital?

2011-02-06 Thread Marv Gandall

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The financialization of Western economies, characterized by engineered low 
interest rates and speculative investment in stocks, bonds, and a bewildering 
array of derivative products, was an outgrowth of the shrinkage of profitable 
investment opportunities in the "real" economy of plant, equipment, 
infrastructure and other hard assets. Over the past three decades, the opening 
of new zones of exploitation in China, the former Soviet bloc, and the old 
colonial and semi-colonial sphere gave global capitalism a new lease on life by 
providing it with profitable new outlets for the export of surplus capital. 
Now, argue economists Michael Spence and Richard Dobbs, that surplus is rapidly 
disappearing as accelerating demand from China and other emerging economic 
powers begins to outstrip supply. They foresee a new era of scare capital, 
higher interest rates, capital controls ("hoarding"), and a resulting slowdown 
in global growth. Whatever its merits, beneath their thesis lies a familiar 
ideological subtext: that governments need to "act now" to slash public 
spending, lest "the fiscal deficits possible with recent low interest rates 
will not be as easily financed in the future, and could result in greater 
crowding out of private investment."

*   *   *

The era of cheap capital draws to a close
By Richard Dobbs and Michael Spence
Financial Times
January 31 2011 

The global economy faces a dilemma. Attempts to boost growth have lowered 
interest rates in advanced economies. The resulting hot money has moved 
exchange rates out of line with fundamentals, creating inflation and asset 
appreciation in the developing world. Accumulation of foreign reserves and the 
imposition of barriers to inward capital flows have begun to replace tariffs 
and quotas in the trade protectionism arsenals of governments.

Yet even as brewing currency wars threaten full-blown trade conflicts, we must 
remember one fact: this moment will not last. The 30-year era of progressively 
cheaper capital is nearing an end. The global economy will soon have to cope 
with too little capital, not too much. And worries about hot capital moving too 
quickly into emerging markets could soon be replaced by an era of financial 
protectionism – in which governments restrict outflows of capital as a defence 
against rising interest rates for corporations and consumers.

Since 1980 differences in the cost of capital in most countries have converged, 
as financial markets globalised and risk premiums in developing countries fell. 
Capital became plentiful, and long-term interest rates declined too – primarily 
as a result of falling investment in assets such as infrastructure and 
machinery. Global investment fell dramatically, creating a fall in the demand 
for capital substantially larger than the growth in supply created by Asian 
current account surpluses. In other words, the “saving glut” so often cited as 
a cause for low interest rates really resulted from a decline in global 
investment.

Today, however, this trend is reversing. Across Asia, Latin America, and 
Africa, rapid urbanisation is increasing the demand for roads, water, power, 
housing and factories. Global investment demand will now rise considerably up 
to 2030, reaching levels not seen since the postwar reconstruction of Europe 
and Japan.

The global appetite to save, however, is unlikely to rise in step, for several 
reasons. China plans to encourage more domestic consumption. Spending will rise 
as populations age. Even increased expenditure to address or adapt to climate 
change will play a part. As a result the world will soon enter a new era of 
scarce capital, and rising real long-term interest rates. Such rates will in 
turn constrain investment, and could ultimately slow global economic growth by 
as much as 1 per cent a year.

An era of sustained tighter capital will have significant implications. 
Governments should anticipate higher costs of debt, and act now to improve 
their public finances. The fiscal deficits possible with recent low interest 
rates will not be as easily financed in the future, and could result in greater 
crowding out of private investment.

Yet even with restrained public finances, there is still a very real danger 
that governments will quickly resort to financial protectionism to insulate 
their economies from rising capital costs. New rules could be introduced to 
stop state-insured banks or domestic pension funds lending and investing 
abroad, or to direct sovereign wealth funds to make only domestic investments. 
Such moves would be self-defeating for the global economy. Real interest rates 
would diverge between countries, meaning nations with big current account 
deficits would suffer lower growth. Savers in sur

[Marxism] (no subject)

2011-02-06 Thread Anon Anon

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sandia wrote:
> Can anyone point me toward reading material that surveys the causes 
> of the fall of the USSR?

Would recommend "Eternal Russia" By Jonathon Steele, excellent journalistic 
account.  It's been more than 10 years since i read it, but it really stuck in 
my mind as giving very detailed analysis of the Yeltsin-Gorbachev conflict and 
how this played out in the collapse (and by extension the role of the 
bureaucracy in bringing down the system).  Most available on google books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=HCZi--UtYdEC

Ken Jowitt's "New World Disorder: The Leninist Extinction" is, although not a 
Marxist text, very good on the internal political breakdown (as opposed to the 
mechanistic "command economy doesn't work so system breaks down" NYT analysis). 
Google books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Qip-UTnpvh8C

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[Marxism] Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood

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http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/feb/05/washingtons-secret-history-muslim-brotherhood/

Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood
Ian Johnson

As US-backed strongmen around North Africa and the Middle East are being
toppled or shaken by popular protests, Washington is grappling with a
crucial foreign-policy issue: how to deal with the powerful but opaque
Muslim Brotherhood. In Egypt, the Brotherhood has taken an increasingly
forceful part in the protests, issuing a statement Thursday calling for
Mubarak’s immediate resignation. And though it is far from clear what
role the Brotherhood would have should Mubarak step down, the Egyptian
president has been claiming it will take over. In any case, the movement
is likely to be a major player in any transitional government.

Journalists and pundits are already weighing in with advice on the
strengths and dangers of this 83-year-old Islamist movement, whose
various national branches are the most potent opposition force in
virtually all of these countries. Some wonder how the Brotherhood will
treat Israel, or if it really has renounced violence. Most—including the
Obama administration —seem to think that it is a movement the West can
do business with, even if the White House denies formal contacts.

If this discussion evokes a sense of déjà vu, this is because over the
past sixty years we have had it many times before, with almost identical
outcomes. Since the 1950s, the United States has secretly struck up
alliances with the Brotherhood or its offshoots on issues as diverse as
fighting communism and calming tensions among European Muslims. And if
we look to history, we can see a familiar pattern: each time, US leaders
have decided that the Brotherhood could be useful and tried to bend it
to America’s goals, and each time, maybe not surprisingly, the only
party that clearly has benefited has been the Brotherhood.

How can Americans be unaware of this history? Credit a mixture of
wishful thinking and a national obsession with secrecy, which has
shrouded the US government’s extensive dealings with the Brotherhood.

Consider President Eisenhower. In 1953, the year before the Brotherhood
was outlawed by Nasser, a covert US propaganda program headed by the US
Information Agency brought over three dozen Islamic scholars and civic
leaders mostly from Muslim countries for what officially was an academic
conference at Princeton University. The real reason behind the meeting
was an effort to impress the visitors with America’s spiritual and moral
strength, since it was thought that they could influence Muslims’
popular opinion better than their ossified rulers. The ultimate goal was
to promote an anti-Communist agenda in these newly independent
countries, many of which had Muslim majorities.

One of the leaders, according to Eisenhower’s appointment book, was “The
Honorable Saeed Ramahdan, Delegate of the Muslim Brothers.”* The person
in question (in more standard romanization, Said Ramadan), was the
son-in-law of the Brotherhood’s founder and at the time widely described
as the group’s “foreign minister.” (He was also the father of the
controversial Swiss scholar of Islam, Tariq Ramadan.)

Eisenhower officials knew what they were doing. In the battle against
communism, they figured that religion was a force that US could make use
of—the Soviet Union was atheist, while the United States supported
religious freedom. Central Intelligence Agency analyses of Said Ramadan
were quite blunt, calling him a “Phalangist” and a “fascist interested
in the grouping of individuals for power.” But the White House went
ahead and invited him anyway.

By the end of the decade, the CIA was overtly backing Ramadan. While
it’s too simple to call him a US agent, in the 1950s and 1960s the
United States supported him as he took over a mosque in Munich, kicking
out local Muslims to build what would become one of the Brotherhood’s
most important centers—a refuge for the beleaguered group during its
decades in the wilderness. In the end, the US didn’t reap much for its
efforts, as Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamist agenda
than fighting communism. In later years, he supported the Iranian
revolution and likely aided the flight of a pro-Teheran activist who
murdered one of the Shah’s diplomats in Washington.

Cooperation ebbed and flowed. During the Vietnam War, US attention was
focused elsewhere but with the start of the Soviet war in Afghanistan,
interest in cultivating Islamists picked up again. That period of
backing the mujahedeen— some of whom morphed into al-Qaeda—is
well-known, but Washington continued to flirt with Islamists, and
especially the Brotherhood.

In the years afte

Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR


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On 2/5/11 8:15 PM, sandia wrote:



Can anyone point me toward reading material that surveys the causes of
the fall of the USSR?

Thanks.



Kotz and Weir's "Russia's path from Gorbachev to Putin: the demise of 
the Soviet system" can be read (with the usual deletions) on Google Books.



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Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR