Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] (no subject)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Goodbye to the export of surplus capital?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 surplus
[Marxism] Clueless commentariat's Egyptian coverage
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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] An Appeal from Verso Books - Help Us Revive Some Classics
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 / Proletarian
[Marxism] Socialist Voice: Struggle in Egypt
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Readers are encouraged to forward or distribute Socialist Voice as widely as possible. To subscribe, send a blank email to socialist-voice-subscr...@yahoogroups.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to socialist-voice-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com FEEDBACK: Socialist Voice welcomes questions, comments and debate on the articles we publish. Please use the `Feedback' box at the bottom of each article on our website. LINK DOESN'T WORK? Some email programs block links to websites. If clicking on a link in Socialist Voice doesn't work, try holding down the CTRL key as you click, or copy the link address into your browser. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Socialist Voice: Struggle in Egypt
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] (no subject)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] An Excellent Analysis of Empire: Reflecting on Cairo
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Grover Cleveland, Obama's Percursor?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Message: 10 Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 20:15:11 -0500 From: sandia sandia1...@gmail.com To: marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR Message-ID: AANLkTincNE8i6qQLSU1vYZeX=n1-vccxuyrncpqpv...@mail.gmail.com 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] World Trade Unions Mobilising for Democracy in Egypt: 8 February Action Day
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Politics the Super Bowl
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Statement of the Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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
Re: [Marxism] Politics the Super Bowl
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Sun, 6 Feb 2011 14:44:14 -0600 Gulf Mann gulfm...@gmail.com 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. Get Free Email with Video Mail Video Chat! http://www.juno.com/freeemail?refcd=JUTAGOUT1FREM0210 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] News briadcasts
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 !! Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Pent-up anger
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
== 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Causes of the collapse of USSR
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 ethanyo...@earthlink.netwrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/grega2728%40gmail.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Assange evidence falling apart - leaked report
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 gary.maclenn...@gmail.comwrote: == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/markalause%40gmail.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Sources?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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.”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/middleeast/06policy.html?_r=1ref=worldpagewanted=print 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sources?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 2/6/2011 7:57 PM, fesen joon wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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.”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/middleeast/06policy.html?_r=1ref=worldpagewanted=print 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Grover Cleveland, Obama's Percursor?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 russo.matth...@gmail.comwrote: 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sources?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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? Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sources?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sources?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Thoughts on the Egyptian Revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Thoughts on the Egyptian Revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] SOUTH JOURNAL: Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Wikileaks Effect
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 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 = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] PSUV: Socialist, Marxist, Bolivarian
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://venezuelatranslatingtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/02/fundamental-and-general-principles.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Thoughts on the Egyptian Revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Gary wrote: 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. Gary, You are right there is is a recurring infection but wrong to identify Israel as the actual source. The root cause of the instability is the marginalisation, underdevelopment and poverty of the region, which is itself an outcome fact that those who control, exploit and waste the immense resources of the area cannot and will not meet not even the most basic interests and aspirations of the majority of the peoples there. Were Israel to vanish tomorrow this fundamental problem would remain. However, within this empire of chaos, Israel performs a valuable function for the imperialist powers -- that of the wrecker of the dreams and hopes of the people of the region for a future free from imperialist domination. Just think of the role that Israeli aggression played in thwarting Nasser's Egypt and Arab nationalism, compared to its foul record of collaboration with the likes of the Mubaraks, the Hashemites, the Saudis and Pahlavis, not to mention its support for the apartheid regime in South Africa, the Mobutus, Kenyattas, Houphouët-Boignys, the Guatemalan dictatorship, etc. When I look at Israel today I am reminded of the role of the South African apartheid regime, much of whose violence and aggression against neighbouring countries like Mozambique etc was designed to prop up native stooges while instructing the local people on the futility of resisting imperialism and attempting to construct their own futures. Thus Israel's wars and aggression are not the source of the instability of the region, but part of the strategy of imperialism for managing and containing the struggles of the people of the region to control their own futures. You can be sure that if a progressive popular government were again to come to power in Egypt tomorrow, the first task the US and Europe, and by extension Israel, would set themselves would be the destruction of this government. I would also hardly describe Egypt as having been stable before the present outbreak. The façade of stability, such as it was, was based only on fear of the police, the state thugs and torturers, hardly on the ability of the state to meet any the aspirations of the people over whom the Mubarak ruled. Lastly, within the US, the Zionist lobby has surely serves a useful domestic purpose for the ruling class as a whole, in promoting a generally reactionary, pro-imperialist and racist tenor in US politics, while weeding out opponents of the same. Lajany Otum Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at:
