Re: [Marxism] Viewpoint magazine on imperialism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * And then there is Patrick Higgins who describes Trump's "you have to take out their families" campaign as Trump striking "a posture against Hillary Clinton’s full throated support of liberal imperialism": https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/02/01/enemy-home-u-s-imperialism-syria/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Viewpoint magazine on imperialism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I now see that Webber's article on Academia.edu is actually from the Viewpoint issue as well. On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 11:08 AM, Fred Murphywrote: > ... > Meanwhile from another quarter, this just in - > https://www.academia.edu/35821191/From_Nuestra_Am%C3% > A9rica_to_Abya_Yala_Notes_on_Imperialism_and_Anti- > imperialism_in_Latin_America_across_Centuries > > *WeltTrends* 136 Februar 2018 >> >> Im November 2001 fasste der Chefökonom von Goldman Sachs die vier >> „Schwellenländer“ Brasilien, Russland, Indien und China unter dem Akronym >> BRICS zusammen. Aus der finanzstrategischen Überlegung wurde eine >> politische der vier Staaten. Sie schlossen sich zu einer Gruppe zusammen, >> später kam Südafrika hinzu. Jährlich finden Treffen statt, auf denen nicht >> nur Positionen abgestimmt, sondern auch Institutionen aufgebaut werden. Im >> *Thema* des Februar-Heftes wird eine kritische Bilanz der BRICS gezogen, >> die deutlich macht, dass diese Gruppe trotz innerer Spannungen ein Pol der >> multipolaren Welt ist. >> > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Viewpoint magazine on imperialism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * My quibble with the sub- characterization of the BRICS is that it implies they act on behalf of one or another major or full-fledged imperialist power, whereas they are mainly acting out of their own self-interest, albeit in contexts where they are not the strongest powers. Well Fred, what, in this sense, is an "imperialist power"? A country, and indeed one led by a con-man president such as Donald J Trump? And from the standpoint of the BRICS, what is "their" self-interest? Who's 'they'? If the leading capitalist blocs (neoliberal, financial and export mining in my South African case) controlling a state are perfectly happy to endorse BRICS as sub-imperial within a world system from which they derive maximum profits and hide their wealth (as was the case until the 'Zupta' power bloc went out of control on corruption around five years ago), then sub-impi is what we can call it. So isn't it more satisfying, politically and intellectually, to consider the broader imperial project of accumulation through global corporate power relations, and assess each conjunctural situation on its own merits? a German journal, out today http://welttrends.de/ Weltmächte im Wartestand? /WeltTrends/ WeltTrends 136 Februar 2018 South Africa suffers political-economic poisoning from its BRICS membership By Patrick Bond The emergence of an alliance between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in 2010 signaled enormous potential for a new political arrangement to challenge Western hegemony. The reality, however, has disappointed constituencies, especially in the most unequal and troubled of the five countries, South Africa, where leaderships talks left but walks right. *** Jacob Zuma will likely exit the South African presidency earlier than the next national elections, due within fifteen months. He will leave, presumably, with certain guarantees against prosecution for large-scale corruption. He also must give sufficient time to his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, to erase the electorate’s memory of the so-called ‘Zupta’ networks combining Zuma’s cronies with the three Gupta brothers, who are Indian immigrants. Their ‘state capture’ strategy since Zuma took power in 2009 included a luxurious family wedding in 2013 that notoriously violated immigration and airport security regulations; the costs were paid from agricultural support meant for black farmers in the Free State province. Nearly €1 billion per year was lost to Zupta looting, according to the former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.[1] (To be sure, that is a small fraction of the €15 billion lost annually to overcharging on state procurement contracts by what is the world’s most corrupt business elite, Johannesburg’s, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers polling.)[2] Just before the December holiday break, Ramaphosa’s party presidential acceptance speech at the African National Congress (ANC) convention followed a tight election with former African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who if victorious was widely expected to pardon her ex-husband Jacob. Ramaphosa graciously thanked Zuma for promoting the 2012 National Development Plan (NDP) and providing four million South Africans with free AIDS medicines. Indeed, the latter accomplishment helped raise life expectancy by 12 years from the early 2000s trough of 52. But the Treatment Action Campaign’s world-historic battle against Big Pharmacorp profiteering and President Thabo Mbeki’s AIDS denialism had already been won largely without Zuma’s visible assistance back in 2004. Ramaphosa himself will proudly enforce the NDP in coming years, as he was its co-author. Lacking climate-change consciousness, the NDP’s top priority infrastructure commitment is a €55 billion rail line, mainly to export 18 billion tons of coal, entailing 50 major projects of which 14 have already begun.[3] The rail agency, Transnet, has a €4.2 billion credit from China to finance Chinese-made locomotives that are sufficiently strong to carry 3 kilometre-long coal trains, though corruption is already a major problem with the acquisitions.[4] Zuma’s desired €100 billion purchase of eight nuclear energy reactors from Rosatom is now highly unlikely thanks to Pretoria’s worsening debt crisis, so that really leaves just one accomplishment as his legacy: annual networking with leaders in Beijing, Brasilia, Delhi and Moscow. BRICS reforms? Conventional wisdom, as expressed by foreign policy scholar Oscar van Heerden in late 2017, is that Zuma “ensured our ascendency into the BRICS Geo-Strategic grouping, made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China:
Re: [Marxism] Viewpoint magazine on imperialism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A lot of names there new to me, which is good. One, recommended by friends, is "Selections from Theoretical Preliminaries to the Study of the Impact of Social Thought on the National Liberation Movement (1973)," Mahdi Amel and Brahim El Guabli: https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/02/01/selections-theoretical-preliminaries-study-impact-social-thought-national-liberation-movement-1973/ Also some great old names, like Ian Birchall. And there's this: The Origins of Anti-Imperial Marxism: Rediscovering the Polish Socialist Party by Eric Blanc https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/02/01/origins-anti-imperial-marxism-rediscovering-polish-socialist-party/ Which I guess is to be read after or along with his reassessment of Luxemburg in Historical Materialism. And then there's this: Notes on Libya by Max Ajl https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/02/01/notes-on-libya/ A quick skim of a very long article leaves the impression that Max is still giving "anti-imperialists a free pass, but that deserves to be more thoroughly assessed (including because the article is a review of the latest book by Horace Campbell, a significant figure. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Viewpoint magazine on imperialism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * My quibble with the sub- characterization of the BRICs is that it implies they act on behalf of one or another major or full-fledged imperialist power, whereas they are mainly acting out of their own self-interest, albeit in contexts where they are not the strongest powers. Who, for example, would Russia be “subbing” for in Syria? Who is China or South Africa subbing for in Africa? On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 10:25 AM Patrick Bondwrote: > ... we may want to take up the question of whether the Russian - > and broader BRICS agenda (which will be on display when their > head-of-states-summit comes here to Johannesburg in late July) for that > matter - is better described not as anti- or inter- ... but as > sub-imperialist. > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Viewpoint magazine on imperialism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2018/02/02 05:14 PM, Fred Murphy via Marxism wrote: ... For example, the lead article by Salar Mohandesi at https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/02/01/the-specificity-of-imperialism/ “Limiting imperialism only to the “West,” or even just the United States, tends to obscure the imperialism of those states often combatting that imperialism. Of course, there are enormous differences between, for example, U.S. and Russian imperialism, which become especially important when considering the struggles on the ground today, but the fact remains that for those who call themselves socialists, the ultimate objective must remain the abolition of both, not the defense of one against the other. Hear hear. Ah, but there arise the dilemma of whether a country fighting on a specific geographic terrain (Russia in Syria) for specific territorial and geopolitical reasons is genuinely anti- or perhaps inter-imperialist... or whether this conjunctural battle occurs within - not against - the broader imperial project of accumulation through global corporate power relations. The latter I consider 'imperialism' proper, no matter the conjunctures in specific sites. Which means we may want to take up the question of whether the Russian - and broader BRICS agenda (which will be on display when their head-of-states-summit comes here to Johannesburg in late July) for that matter - is better described not as anti- or inter- ... but as sub-imperialist. More soon as this debate percolates, here and there. Patrick _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Viewpoint magazine on imperialism
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A great many interesting and provocative essays in the new issue of Viewpoint - https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/02/01/issue-6-imperialism/ For example, the lead article by Salar Mohandesi at https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/02/01/the-specificity-of-imperialism/ “Limiting imperialism only to the “West,” or even just the United States, tends to obscure the imperialism of those states often combatting that imperialism. Of course, there are enormous differences between, for example, U.S. and Russian imperialism, which become especially important when considering the struggles on the ground today, but the fact remains that for those who call themselves socialists, the ultimate objective must remain the abolition of both, not the defense of one against the other. “This point must be emphasized, since there is a tendency among some on the left today to defend whatever regime opposes the United States, whether it be Iran, Syria, North Korea, or Russia. The underlying concerns animating this response are often very real: a desire to block the violence of U.S. imperialism, a genuine commitment to peace in war-torn regions, or an urgent need to counter most of the domestic left, which still tends to implicitly or explicitly support U.S. imperialism. Nevertheless, whatever its motivations, this kind of anti-imperialism runs the risk of substituting antagonistic relations between the classes comprising a state with the antagonistic relations between nation-states. With classes homogenized, and class struggle downplayed, or even erased, the subject of liberation becomes the nation-state itself, not the working classes. At its extreme, this kind of thinking can lead to supporting authoritarian states founded on the destruction of the left and the repression of workers’ self-activity because they are said to be embarking on an autonomous, anti-imperialist path of development in the face of “Western” imperialist depredations.” _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com