[Marxism] Former Fukushima Governor Sato Eisaku blasts METI –TEPCO alliance

[Lajany Otum]

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Former Fukushima Governor Sato Eisaku Blasts METI –TEPCO Alliance: “Government 
must accept responsibility for defrauding the people”

Onuki Satoko

Translated by Julie Higashi

The explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has become an 
earthshaking situation, severely damaging the surrounding area. In addition, 
highly radioactive ocean water has been detected nearby. Sato Eisaku (佐藤栄佐久 age 
71), who at one point brought 17 nuclear power plants operated by the Tokyo 
Power Electric Company (TEPCO) to a halt, is indignant about the situation: 
“The 
root of all evil is the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the 
government.”

Every time I see news about the accident, I cannot help but feel anger rise in 
me. Some of the pundits have said, “This is an accident beyond all 
expectations. 
It is a natural disaster,” but do not be fooled. This accident was doomed to 
happen. In other words, it is a man-made disaster.

During my tenure as governor of Fukushima prefecture, I fought hard against 
METI, demanding a transparency guarantee on accident information and working to 
secure the prefectural government’s rights with regard to where nuclear plants 
are built. METI is supposed to supervise and instruct TEPCO so as to prevent 
TEPCO’s repeated tampering with and concealing of information, but instead, the 
two organizations have been working together. Judging from the news reports, I 
think the situation has not changed at all.

Sato, whose face remains calm as he speaks, lives in Koriyama City, Fukushima 
Prefecture. More than two weeks have passed since the earthquake, but the scars 
remain vivid, with the ruins of stone walls still littering the ground. Sato, 
initially a proponent of nuclear energy, became skeptical about Japan’s nuclear 
energy policy in 1989, the next year he became governor.

On January 6 of that year, we discovered that an accident had occurred in 
reactor unit 3 at the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Station. Part of a 
recirculation pump (for the reactor core coolant) had fallen off. However, 
TEPCO 
not only continued to operate the plant, even after the warning alarm had gone 
off at the end of the previous year, but the organization also concealed this 
fact. The prefectural and municipal governments were the last to receive this 
information. How can this be allowed to go unchallenged?

The people who need to receive this kind of information first and foremost are 
the locals. Through the vice governor, I fiercely protested to METI (then 
Ministry of International Trade and Industry, or MITI), but we received no 
response from them whatsoever.

Most members of the National Diet cannot touch Japan’s nuclear energy policy, 
because it is the Cabinet’s exclusive prerogative. Even the minister, who is in 
charge of the policy, is largely controlled by the government office. In other 
words, METI and the Cabinet’s Nuclear Energy Commission, the so-called “people 
of the nuclear power plant village,” decide the entire direction of policy. 
Neither politicians nor local governments where the power plants are built have 
any authority.

According to Sato, the government and the electric power company not only kept 
local municipalities in the dark about nuclear power plants but they also 
concealed evidence of an accident, which Sato terms, “8.29.” On August 29, 
2002, 
the Fukushima prefectural office received a fax from an informant inside the 
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA). It contained a terrifying message: 
“For many years, TEPCO has tampered with inspection records to cover up the 
malfunction of and cracks found in reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini 
nuclear plants.”

I immediately ordered my subordinate to investigate. We later found out that 
NISA had received the same information two years earlier but, instead of 
conducting any investigation, had simply routed the information to the 
concerned 
party, TEPCO.

At this point, my anger reached its peak. This is like the police and thieves 
working together. Until then, I had thought TEPCO was in cahoots with the 
government, but the real evil deep within the electric company, remained 
hidden. 
The ultimate problem is with METI and the government.

As a result of this scandal, the president of TEPCO and five top executives 
resigned. In April 2003, all the power plants TEPCO operated were forced to 
shut 
down their nuclear reactors (10 in Fukushima Prefecture and 7 in Niigata 
Prefecture; link). However, neither NISA nor METI received any punishment or 
ever accepted any responsibility. 


On the contrary, the manager of METI came to Futaba County, where the Fukushima 
Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is located, to distribute pamphlets that 
said,“Nuclear power plants 

Re: [Marxism] Decline and Fall of the WWP

[sobuadhaigh]

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DW wrote:

>I don't believe the WWP is 'falling' or is 'fallen'.. I think they 
*are*
>struggling with the few hundred members they do have …
>None of this proves a damn thing. Groups grow and shrink 
episodically,
>not because of the 'correctness' of their line. 

Actually things like membership numbers or popular vote 
totals (for those groups contesting elections) can mean a 
great deal if used as part of an overall historical analysis.
According to your estimate the WWP has not shrunken to only 
a hundred or so members but is holding on to two hundred 
militants and showing slight growth from new recruits.
I am not sure what you basing this on (any more than I 
am aware where Lou’s number came from) but lets use it 
as the starting point for discussion.

The WWP is 52 years old as a revolutionary party and 
that the political work begun by Sam Marcy and his 
supporters actually began 11 years earlier. As we 
all know the WWP took on the leading role in the 
organizing the big DC demos starting in the 
80’s over solidarity with El Salvador and in the 
coming decades (through the run up to the second 
Iraq War), hundreds of thousands of people participated 
in these mobilizations. At the time Marcy promulgated 
the Global Class War doctrine he confidently predicted 
that a movement based on such an ideological foundation 
would grow to millions world wide. Something is definitely 
not right for them or for any number of other groups 
slogging away for decades while remaining stagnant 
with tiny numbers and achieving no political traction 
among any appreciable sector of the American people.

>Groups grow and shrink episodically, not because of the 
'correctness' of their line

We are not talking about the fluctuations of the French 
Communist Party but rather groups that are so small 
there is really no room for them to “shrink.”  Even groups 
that are just ‘stagnant,’ especially now in a period of 
crises after crises with millions of people awakening 
to political life, are in a bad position and they can 
then either have the courage to admit it or pretend 
everything is fine .

At this point I can’t go on looking at WWP as a 
case study because I have no information on their 
actual numbers. Estimates are fine but they can 
only take you so far so forgive me if I jump to 
the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy & 
Socialism. The CCDS is unique in that they occasionally 
publish detailed membership numbers which   can serve 
as a model for most other communist/socialist parties 
regardless of ‘line.’ With that model I think it is 
possible to make a few observations on some of the 
challenges facing American revolutionaries as we 
face the future. 

By there figures the CCDS has an impressive geographical 
spread of members in 45 states in 2006 and 47 states in 
2008. However, a closer reading of the state breakdown 
reveals that 62% of their paid up members in 2006 lived 
in only four states: California, Illinois, Mass., and 
New York (189 out of 305 total). If one includes the 
combined number of paid up members and those with dues 
in arrears, the percentage rises to 66% (549 out of 803).

The numbers from 2008 show that while the number of paid 
up members has risen slightly (from 305 to 359) the total 
number of members has fallen sharply (from 830 to 489). 
The overwhelming concentration of those members in the 
same four states was the same at 67% for paid up members 
and 64% for the combined total.

The CCDS, by the numbers, is a stagnant organization at 
a time of tremendous political upheaval concentrated in 
only a few locations. Outside of those areas members 
are scattered in such small numbers over such great 
distances that it would be very difficult to work together 
and achieve any kind of presence in their communities with 
traditional organizing methods/programs/campaigns. 

Apart from the question of ‘line’ the CCDS exhibits many 
of the same traits as every other socialist/communist 
organization in the US.

•Members come from generational clusters corresponding 
to dramatic political upheavals in the US: The era of 
the Depression, the 1960’s, the struggles against Central 
American intervention in the 80’s, and now the latest 
crop of activists who became engaged in the aftermath 
of 9-11 and the 2nd Iraq War.

•Members are concentrated in a few of the largest 
urban areas although individual sympathizers live 
in small numbers throughout the US

•Even though dues are usually low, there is a 
widespread problem of people not paying or 
being significantly behind in their financial 
contributions.

•Although the numbers are small with substantial 
fluctuation, there is an absolute hard core whose 
commitment is lifelong no matter what the hardship 
or seeming irr

[Marxism] Goldstone and the Israelis–an analysis by Uri Avnery

[Juan Fajardo]

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http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/goldstone-and-the-israelis-an-analysis-by-uri-avnery

--
- Juan



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[Marxism] Swans Release: April 11, 2011

[Louis Proyect]

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Welcome to Swans Commentary  http://www.swans.com/  April 11, 2011

$$$ Many thanks to Ronald Horn for his generous financial contribution. $$$

Note from the Editors:   The US government avoided a shutdown this 
weekend in an 11th hour drama, agreeing to a 6-month budget with nominal 
cuts, and managing to avoid the silly (yet destructive) ideological hits 
to Planned Parenthood, the EPA, and the like. However, these battles 
were merely punted down the road and the silliness is sure to reach new 
lows when the negotiations resume. For a serious, non-silly analysis of 
what's wrong with our financials one should turn to our resident 
economist, Gilles d'Aymery, whose Martian blips explain the problems, 
starting with the obscene fact that the top 1% of Americans controls 
half of the wealth, and including keen insights from Michael Yates and 
an admission, from the mouth of the Mediator in Chief himself, that 
change will never happen from the top down. Time for outrage, indeed! 
For a primer on the implementation of real change, we turn to Michael 
Barker's article on Dr. Kurt Schock, who researches people power and 
nonviolent change; though as Barker points out, Schock misrepresents the 
US role in the "people's" uprising in Manila in February 1986. Louis 
Proyect, however, sets the historical record straight when it comes to 
the "Battle of Algiers" and the lessons of Yugoslavia. Circumstances 
allow us to publish these two excellent 2005 analyses, as well as his 
Marxist approach to the problems of aging that, unfortunately, is even 
more relevant today.


Political silliness is not only an American tradition. Fabio De Propris, 
who lives under the circus tent of Silvio Berlusconi, reviews a staged 
"reality" program televised courtesy of a president who happens to 
control three national channels. >From Silvio's fantasyland we travel to 
India courtesy of Peter Byrne and writer William Dalrymple, who examines 
the sacred facets of the country in his book "Nine Lives, In Search of 
the Sacred in Modern India." Isidor Saslav takes us to Chicago, the 
venue from which George Bernard Shaw conquered America, and Charles 
Marowitz transports us to dreamland, as he considers the many 
permutations of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Finally, turning from 
Shakespeare to another legend, Stendhal, Raju Peddada presents Part II 
of his repository of magnificence for the French writer, and we close 
with a letter to the editor on Francesca Saieva's tantalizing promise in 
the French Corner to further trace the evolution of Italo Calvino's 
commitment to civic values.


  # # # # #

All the articles and the Letters to the Editor can be freely accessed 
from Swans front page. Please go to:


http://www.swans.com/

You can also access our past issues at:

http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/past_issues.html

And you have access to almost 15 years of archives by date, author, and 
subject at:


http://www.swans.com/library/archives.html

Remember, what's free to you is not to us! To help our work financially 
please visit http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html


   # # # # #

Swans (aka Swans Commentary), ISSN: 1554-4915, is a bi-weekly non- 
commercial ad-free Web-only magazine which provides original content to 
its readers. We encourage pulp publications to republish Swans Work in 
print format. Please contact the publisher at . 
Please, do not repost Swans Work on the Web and other mailing lists: 
"Hypertext" links to any pages of Swans.com are authorized; however, 
republication of any part of this site, inlining, mirroring, and framing 
are expressly prohibited.


(You are receiving this E-mail notification for you have expressed your 
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-- Swans

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[Marxism] MRZine regular circulates anti-Semitic filth

[Louis Proyect]

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This is from the Sons of Malcolm blog of Sukant Chandan, a British 
citizen of Indian origin who has become quite the regular on MRZine:


"The US State Dept and its Jewish cadres have been agitating the 
Egyptian youth movement since 2008 according to many references 
published on the internet. So this is something the US has been working 
on. Not just exploited after the fact, but guided. True the millions 
didn’t take to the street for the love of America, but the millions 
don’t have any clear direction so the youth who have taken classes with 
America’s State Dept. Jews are giving them guidance. And if there’s no 
leadership that actually does raise the international issues, then those 
won’t be raised by the masses spontaneously."


full: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/mrzine-regular-circulates-anti-semitic-filth/



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Re: [Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[Mark Lause]

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On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 3:51 PM, Gary MacLennan
wrote to Lou Paulsen:

>
> Now you then go on to allege:
>
> 5. "so that imperialist theft isn't even a factor to be considered.".
>
> I won't speak for Lou but nowhere have I ever down played imperialist theft
> and I have not seen him do that either.
>
>
Nobody anywhere on this list has done this from what I've read.

It is the great straw man that must be rewoven again and again.

ML

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[Marxism] INDIA : Nagarik Mancha on the West Bengal Assembly Elections

[newsletter]

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April 6, 2011

by Nagarik Mancha

In the din surrounding the ensuing West Bengal Assembly Elections, 2011,
the voices from the margins seem wholly inconsequential. Attention is
hogged totally by the rival supporters of `Paribartan’ or `Pratyabartan‘.
Everything, except who gets democratically elected to the Writers’
Building, seems secondary at present. Whoever wins the elections, the
working communities apprehend, they will continue to suffer.

Will the election results significantly influence that which goes by the
name of `development’ these days?

Except some face-saving lip service, do the power-centric protagonists
really care about or do they have the political will to tackle problems
like benefits for workers of closed factories; rights of hawkers/street
vendors; implementation of employment guarantee scheme; rights of forest
dwellers and the implementation of the forest rights act; protection of
livelihood of the coastal fish workers; protection of environment in
coastal areas; establishment of the rights of tribals to their land, water
and forests; implementation of labour laws; pollution generated by the
sponge iron factories, stone quarries and stone crushing units; proper
rehabilitation of evicted people; recognition of the rights of sex workers
and several other issues of this kind?

[For the full articles, visit http://sanhati.com/articles/3430/]



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[Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[Suresh]

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Gary: You simply do not understand that
tyranny does not hold the ring against imperialism while the emancipatory
impulse can flourish.  It does the exact opposite.  Tyranny closes off the
space where people can grow to a socialist consciousness.


Suresh: This comes close to being a fact free statement. Tyranny closes off the 
space where people can grow to a socialist consciousness? Then why have all 
socialist revolutions occurred in repressive (but not too repressive) 
countries? 
Actually the prospects for the left are better in the Arab world if the 
situation stabilizes to one where there is somewhat greater press freedom and 
limited democratic reforms, but still enough of the heavy hand of the state to 
spur outrage. In other words, a situation not entirely different to the one 
that 
prevailed in Egypt prior to Mubarak's ouster, and which looks possibly to be 
re-establishing itself today. 


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[Marxism] Hasan Nasrollah's double standards

[fesen joon]

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"Some days ago on a mailing list one of those commentators that fancies
themselves a Marxist told me there are some motions underway in Iran, like
those in Turkey. Can you imagine someone saying the same about the
revolutionary movements underway in North African and Middle Eastern
countries? Can you imagine someone saying there have been motions underway
in those countries and getting away with it on a Marxist mailing list? This
is what I call the normalization of racism and denigration of a group of
oppressed people."

http://revolutionaryfesenjan.blogspot.com/2011/04/hasan-nasrollahs-double-standards.html

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Re: [Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[Matthew Russo]

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This excerpt from a BBC report at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13029165 got a chuckle out of me as I
thought of our poor Marcyites:

"Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said government forces had shot
down two rebel helicopters in the east but this also cannot been confirmed.

"He said: "A clear violation was committed by the rebels to [UN] resolution
1973 relating to the no-fly zone."

And NATO hastens to agree!

"Speaking in Brussels, Nato spokesman Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard
said that air strikes were also targeting government ammunition bunkers and
lines of communication.

"He cited as "an example of Nato impartiality" a report that a MiG 23 jet
flown by rebel forces had been intercepted and forced to land within minutes
of taking off from Benina Airfield near Benghazi on Saturday."

Yes, that Mig 23 was obviously off to commit humanitarian crimes!

There certainly is a U.S.-NATO War against Libya - the question is, which
Libya?  The answer may not be as simple as some of our more simple-minded
commentators would have us believe.  Looks like to me they don't want the
"rebels" to win, they want to de facto partition the country, and they WANT
TO KEEP THE GADHAFFI REGIME IN POWER, with or without the personage of
Muammar, in one part of the country.  Hence the "problem" of the demand for
Gadhaffi's ouster.

-Matt

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[Marxism] Series of Films by Al-Jazeera English on the Arab Spring

[Dan DiMaggio]

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It looks like Al-Jazeera English has made a series of seven one-hour
films on the Arab Spring, which will air on the channel over the next
few weeks. I believe (and hope) they can also be watched on their
website:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/general/2011/04/20114483425914466.html

Description from the website:
"As protest and revolution shake the Arab world, a new series of films
documents the Arab awakening.

Seven one-hour long programmes offer fresh insights into what happened
in the region and why, as well as into the lives unexpectedly altered
by events.

The first half of the series takes us behind the scenes of the
Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, with access to the people who made
them happen. It pieces together the jigsaw of events as they played
out in the media, in the corridors of power and on the ground.

The second half stands back from events to debate their place in
history, global politics and everyday life. We are surprised and
entertained to hear those in the know expose how Arab dictators have
held onto power for so long. And we are taken into the lives of people
across the region, as they reveal their hopes, fears and expectations
for the future."

Dan


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Re: [Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[Gary MacLennan]

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Hi Lou

I think I see the problem.  You write


 1. what a vicious and contemptible despot Qaddafi is,
2. and detailing all his crimes and explaining how great it will be when the
people string him up and get political freedom,

3. not omitting to debunk Gaddafi's anti-imperialism

4. Libya's oil has all been willingly given away to the imperialists


The problem is that points 1-4 happen to be true. However you do not seem to
have a strategy for dealing with them. Presumably you would promote
Qadhdhafi's anti-imperialism and all the rest would fall away.  I am certain
you would feel uneasy about the torture. But your denial of 3 would be
decisive would it not?

Now you then go on to allege:

5. "so that imperialist theft isn't even a factor to be considered.".

I won't speak for Lou but nowhere have I ever down played imperialist theft
and I have not seen him do that either.

However your biggest leap is to go from 1-5 to say that this is the case for
humanitarian imperialist intervention from A to Y".


But it is not Lou. Not now not ever.  To speak the truth to power; to
condemn exploitation and domination is not to prepare the way  for more.  As
always I detect the accursed hand of Nietzsche here and not Marx or
Rousseau.  It seems to me that you are dealing in shades of the will to
power and that has resulted in you bracketing off your conscience.

I insist that we cannot leave moral questions until another day.  But you do
and that is why you simply cannot understand how we can condemn tyranny and
not be for imperialist intervention. You simply do not understand that
tyranny does not hold the ring against imperialism while the emancipatory
impulse can flourish.  It does the exact opposite.  Tyranny closes off the
space where people can grow to a socialist consciousness.

comradely

Gary

>
>
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[Marxism] Icelanders Reject Deal to Repay U.K., Netherlands

[Anon Anon]

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hat tip to the Icelanders.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704641604576254661016938274.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

For the second time, Icelanders voted down a deal to repay Britain and the 
Netherlands billions of euros lost in the island nation's 2008 financial 
collapse—at once a bold popular rejection of the notion that taxpayers must 
bear the burden for bankers' woes and a risky outcome that will complicate 
Iceland's efforts to rejoin global markets.


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[Marxism] Maung Zarni's Responses on Current ICG Reports on Burma

[Phyo Win Latt]

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Don't Buy into Burma's Cosmetic Reforms
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/201141013120449738.html

*Outrageously Optimistic: The Intellectual Crisis of Reporting on Burma by
the International Crisis Group*
http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/4383-outrageously-optimistic.html

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[Marxism] Sit-in by undocumented students in Atlanta

[Joaquín Bustelo]

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This is a YouTube playlist of videos of the protest by undocumented 
students last Tuesday in Atlanta: 



Young people who came to the United States as children staged a 
protest in Atlanta on Tuesday against a ban on undocumented students 
attending the five leading state  universities.


Proclaiming themselves unafraid, they came out publicly as 
undocumented and urged other immigrsant youth without legal status to 
also come out of the shadows, to refuse to live in fear, and stand up 
for their rights and their dignity.


To the rest of us they appealed for our support, to be there with 
them but to respect their right to lead and speak.


These students, some as young as 18, gave deeply personal 
statements about what they have gone through and why they are coming out.


After the testimonies of undocumented students and statements of 
support from two prominent Black leaders in Atlanta, the students 
delivered a letter for the president of Georgia State demanding that he 
refuse to apply the odious apartheid rule against undocumented 
immigrants adopted last fall by the Board of Regents.


They then proceeded to stage a sit in on an adjoining street, 
blocking traffic just as the state of Georgia is blocking immigrant 
students from its universities. Seven were arrested. The details of 
their arrests, questioning by ICE, and release on bond are on the web 
site of the project they are associated with: .





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[Marxism] Student conference

[George Snedeker]

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Here is some information about an conforence for under graduate students that 
you may find of interest: 
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I'm writing to inform you about an international, undergraduate conference 
> to be held at the University of Alberta, August 17-20th. Please bring this 
> to the attention of undergrad students whom you think would be interested 
> in sharing their research with colleagues from across North America and 
> around the world. This event is sponsored by the University's Kule 
> Institute for Advanced Studies (KIAS). Student may apply for grants to 
> help offset the costs of travel and to pay for their accommodation on 
> campus. Full details can be found at:
>
> http://www.kias.ualberta.ca/KiasConferences.aspx
>
> The conference will take place at during both the International Fringe 
> Festival and the Labatt Blues Festival (see: 
> http://www.kias.ualberta.ca/KiasConferences/EdmontonFestivalCity.aspx) - 
> a good time to visit the city of Edmonton.
>
> For more info, contact Gillian Edwards: gillian.edwa...@ualberta.ca
>
> -
> KIAS Undergraduate Student Conference
> Tomorrow's Ideas, Now
>
> The KIAS international undergraduate student conference, Tomorrow's Ideas, 
> Now, will be a premier student conference for students working in the 
> Social Sciences, Humanities and Fine Arts. From August 17th to 20th, 2011, 
> undergraduate scholars and creative artists from around the world will 
> come together and participate with their peers from different institutions 
> and backgrounds. Working on the established KIAS research themes, students 
> will explore their research questions through essays, creative 
> performances, poster presentations, and much more.
>
> Hosted by the University of Alberta, a globally recognized 
> research-intensive university, conference participants will get the chance 
> to explore the beautiful U of A campus while broadening their research 
> background and gaining valuable life experiences. By bringing together the 
> top undergraduate scholars and creative artists, Tomorrow's Ideas, Now 
> will showcase the excellent work being done by undergraduates and 
> meaningfully enhance understanding of major contemporary issues.
>
> Students must apply for and be accepted to attend the conference; 
> applications will be judged based on the merit. Adjudication will be 
> carried out by University of Alberta's professors, giving participants an 
> academically refereedpaper for their CV.
>
> KIAS invites undergraduates working in areas of study related to the KIAS 
> research themes to read through the eligibility guidelines and application 
> process. We hope to see you there in August!
>
>
> 

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Re: [Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[Louis Proyect]

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On 4/10/11 1:40 PM, Lou Paulsen wrote:

With that minor quibble out of the way, let me say, Louis, that I
still don't have much of a clue what kind of thing YOU would write if
you were writing an article for mass readership making the case
against the US/NATO war.


It would probably read like what Tariq Ali wrote. He, unlike you, has 
had a stellar record of telling the left exactly what these torture 
states were about long before war was threatened. Read "A Clash of 
Fundamentalisms", especially the chapter on Iran, to get an idea of what 
I am talking about.




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Re: [Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[Lou Paulsen]

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On Apr 10, 2011, at 11:10 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> 
> On 4/10/11 11:53 AM, JacDon wrote:
>> Part 2: Libya today, and the Arab Uprisings.
> 
> Jack Smith is a supporter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) so 
> it is not surprising that he writes: "Col. Gaddafi is the perfect target, 
> having been demonized by the West for decades as an authoritarian..." Yes, 
> poor dear, being demonized for torturing people.  .
> 
> This really gets to the heart of the dishonesty of the Marcyites. There is 
> not a single word in Jack's article about torture, (etc)

Okay, to start off, the imperialists do not demonize anyone FOR torturing 
people. They demonize people and states in preparation for war. They demonize 
non-torturers they intend to attack, and they don't demonize torturers they 
intend to support and they torture themselves. 

With that minor quibble out of the way, let me say, Louis, that I still don't 
have much of a clue what kind of thing YOU would write if you were writing an 
article for mass readership making the case against the US/NATO war. I suppose 
it would start out in honest fashion as you see it explaining what a vicious 
and contemptible despot Gadhafi is, and detailing all his crimes and explaining 
how great it will be when the people string him up and get political freedom, 
not omitting to debunk Gadhafi's anti-imperialism and to assert that Libya's 
oil has all been willingly given away to the imperialists so that imperialist 
theft isn't even a factor to be considered.

Then, having made the case for humanitarian imperialist intervention from A to 
Y, you would stop and say that it's wrong to say Z, and that on the contrary we 
must get out and demonstrate against bombing or assassinating Gadhafi out of 
power, we must defend loyalist Libya against imperialism - why? Just "on 
principle?" In honor of Lenin's memory? I honestly don't know what you would 
say at that point. And do you think your article would make the demonstration 
larger, or smaller? 

Lou Paulsen




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[Marxism] The Revolutionary Marxist Aiming to Lead the NUS

[Dan Russell]

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8440413/Student-protests-The-Marxist-revolutionary-aiming-to-lead-the-NUS.html

Mark Bergfeld, a member of the hard-left Socialist Workers Party,
could capture the leadership of the National Union of Students this
week in an election described as "too close to call".

The result of a ballot of delegates representing five million
university, college and sixth form students is being announced at the
NUS's annual conference in Gateshead on Wednesday.

There are now fears the radicalisation of students over the imposition
of higher tuition fees and the subsequent mass protests which brought
chaos to central London, could hand victory to the 24-year-old
revolutionary socialist.

With a manifesto calling for students and trade unionists to work
together to topple the Cameron-Clegg 'regime' – one of his self-penned
slogans is "400 students can block a road, 400 train drivers can bring
a country to a halt" – Mr Bergfeld has tapped into a mood of growing
anger.

Mr Bergfeld is the most extreme of the four candidates seeking to
replace the outgoing NUS President Aaron Porter, a Labour supporter
who unexpectedly announced last February that he was standing down
after being widely criticised for being too moderate.

With observers describing the contest as impossible to predict Mr
Bergfeld himself acknowledges he could "slip through the middle".
Mr Porter's resignation opened the door for Mr Bergfeld, a member of
the NUS national executive council, to try and capture the leadership
and swing the union to the left.
His manifesto states: "Our union needs a sharp change of direction.
Under the spineless, dithering leadership of Aaron Porter, NUS has
called for students to give up on the fight against fees.

"But both the poll tax in Britain and the CPE in France were
overturned by mass protests after they had been voted into law."
Mr Bergfeld was one of those behind the occupation of Trafalgar Square
by hundreds of protesters following the 400,000-strong TUC march
against public spending cuts in central London last month.

It came at the end of a day in which black-clad anarchists rampaged
along Oxford Street and Piccadilly, throwing paint bombs, smashing
windows and targeting police officers with ammonia filled light bulbs
and fireworks stuffed with coins.

Mr Bergfeld said that the occupation was a totally peaceful
'celebration' and he accuses the Metropolitan Police of using violence
against protesters to clear the square.
His tactics have chimed with the new appetite for street protests.

Only last Thursday students, including supporters of Mr Bergfeld, were
continuing their campaign of direct action.
Around 20 activists splattered themselves with fake blood during a
peaceful sit-in outside the Westminster offices of the right wing
think tank, Policy Exchange, which has published studies backing the
Government's controversial reforms of the NHS.

Ben Beach, 21, one of those taking part, said: "We need someone like
Mark Bergfeld as president because the NUS needs to be a street
movement.
"Aaron Porter was willing to capitulate before the fight was even
started. Everything that has ever been won in this country has been
through strikes, occupations and street protests."

Mr Bergfeld, who studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the
University of Essex, where he was elected International Students
Officer, is a founding member of the Education Activists Network, one
of a number of organisations instrumental in planning the sit-ins,
occupations and demonstrations which have rocked university campuses
and town centres over the past six months.

He has described the invasion of Millbank tower, during which
thousands of students besieged the HQ of the Conservative Party last
November, as "brilliant".
Despite disturbing scenes which saw windows smashed and a fire
extinguisher thrown from the roof of the building, Mr Bergfeld refused
to condemn the students' actions, stating: "There was no violence
taking place and I don't condemn any action that was taken on that
protest."

In a recent interview he advocated the use of force to defeat the
Government, stating: "The Con-Dems are the real vandals so force is
legitimate to bring them down.
"What we want to see in this country is workers and students taking
mass action. We want a general strike in this country. We want
barricaded schools."

Mr Bergfeld was born near the German city of Cologne. His German
father Michael, a management consultant, and his American mother
Heather, a dentist, are liberal left-wingers who, in common with many
of the '68 generation – raised their son to question authority and
fight against society's ills.

Mr Bergfeld threw himself into activism from an early age. He attended
his first 

Re: [Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[Louis Proyect]

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On 4/10/11 11:53 AM, JacDon wrote:

Part 2: Libya today, and the Arab Uprisings.


Jack Smith is a supporter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation 
(PSL) so it is not surprising that he writes: "Col. Gaddafi is the 
perfect target, having been demonized by the West for decades as an 
authoritarian..." Yes, poor dear, being demonized for torturing people. 
Those rotten bastards at HRW. Don't they know it is okay to torture 
people if they are getting enough calories per day?


This really gets to the heart of the dishonesty of the Marcyites. There 
is not a single word in Jack's article about torture, expelling 
Palestinians, throwing "illegals" out of Libya, extraordinary renditions 
and all the rest. It is only about Qaddafi bending to neoliberalism 
after a promising start reducing poverty. This utter indifference to the 
right of a people to enjoy the same freedoms that the PSL or the WWP is 
amazing to behold. If the Ramsey Clark led coalitions were told by the 
Washington cops that they could not get a permit to protest because they 
were "un-American", can you imagine the howl of indignation that would 
go up (deservedly so)? But if a Libyan back in 1981 or so (long before 
Qaddafi made his turn to the West) wanted to publish a newspaper 
critical of the government, not only would he or she be denied that 
right, it was likely that they would be thrown in a rat-infested cell 
for a decade or so. This emphasis on calorie intake at the expense of 
democratic rights strikes me as both paternalistic and crypto-Stalinist. 
When Trotskyists would complain about the lack of freedom in the USSR, a 
typical rejoinder would be that there was no unemployment. Since Jack 
Smith was part of Carl Davidson's crew at the Guardian when Maoism still 
had some influence, I am not surprised that he would eventually find 
himself in the PSL orbit.



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[Marxism] The U.S.-NATO War against Libya

[JacDon]

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April 10, 2011, Issue #166
HUDSON VALLEY ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER
jac...@earthlink.net, P.O. Box 662, New Paltz, NY 12561
 
APRIL NEWSLETTER
ARTICLES AT http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
‹
CONTENTS:
Three-part article on THE U.S.-NATO WAR AGAINST LIBYA
Part 1 : Washington Responds to Geopolitical Crisis.
Part 2: Libya today, and the Arab Uprisings.
Part 3: The UN Resolution and Gaddafi's Opponents.
 
Plus
CHINA, RUSSIA AND THE LIBYA VOTE ‹ Why didn't they veto? What is the meaning
of the public spat between Russia's two top leaders over the vote?
 
CLIMATE CHANGE OR SYSTEM CHANGE? ‹ The U.S. insists it be recognized and
followed as the "world leader"  ‹ but its energy policies are leading the
world toward an ecological catastrophe.
 
AMERICA'S MOST DANGEROUS NUCLEAR PLANT.
 
AN INAPPROPRIATE TRUTH ‹ What two countries constitute the biggest "mortal
threat" to the United States?
 
LEONARD WEINGLASS 1933-2011
 
BIG CORPORATIONS AVOID TAXES ‹ Here are the 10 worst corporate tax avoiders.
 
And many more
ARTICLES AT http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
 




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Re: [Marxism] The Decline and Fall of WWP

[DW]

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I don't believe the WWP is 'falling' or is 'fallen'. As such, defined
by their history, the only 'hit' they took was the split of a 1/3 of
their group that formed the PSL, with almost the exact same politics.
The WWP has actually gone through a slight increase in membership,
most notably in the south of the US where you don't have a lot of
other leftists reporting on what is going on. I think they *are*
struggling with the few hundred members they do have and thus was part
of the reason they agreed to work with Socialist Action in UNAC and
build it. WWP remains a very small isolated group in the SF Bay Area,
however, albeit one of their members is very influential in the SF
labor movement. But I would challenge anyone to prove they have
'fallen' at least defined by the very small standard of the US left.

Secondly, PSL has been growing and is now as national in spread out as
WWP and probably bigger in terms of membership. I think PSL is almost
as big as ISO is in the SF Bay Area and certainly one of the biggest
groups in LA (more a 'region' than a city). PSL just completed their
new national headquarters in the Mission District of SF.

None of this proves a damn thing. Groups grow and shrink episodically,
not because of the 'correctness' of their line. Healy's infamous
Socialist Labour League recruited *thousands* based on a sectarian and
abstentionist approach to a lot of struggles. Means nothing, really.
All it means is groups can find niches from which they are able to
occasionally lead small or large struggles and be seen as vehicle for
youth radicalization, again, very episodically.

The real issue for me are these groups that have existed for so long
able to influence the class struggle and develop a leadership that can
see past the next demonstration...toward independent *political*
action?

DW


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[Marxism] Obama scales back Bush's plan to remove troops from Europe

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Obama is to the right of Bush on this one ...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704503104576250972103835748.html
U.S. to Keep Troops Longer in Europe
By STEPHEN FIDLER

BRUSSELS—The Obama administration has scaled down plans begun under
President George W. Bush to bring home two army brigades from Europe,
saying it intends only to remove one brigade, and will delay its
withdrawal until 2015, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

The decision will leave some 80,000 U.S. troops in Europe from 2015,
the year after U.S. troops are scheduled to end their combat mission
in Afghanistan. That is the highest number of U.S. troops on European
soil since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, said the senior
official. That's because many of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan
have been stationed in Europe.

In 2004, the U.S. announced plans to reduce forces in Europe, to
around 60,000 from 100,000, while Donald Rumsfeld was Defense
Secretary. The plans were put on hold in 2007 by the Bush
administration, soon after Mr. Rumsfeld was succeeded by current
secretary Robert Gates. That reflected disquiet among senior officers
that basing too many troops in the U.S. would keep them too far away
from potential trouble spots in Africa and the Middle East.

The plan was put under formal review when the Obama administration
came into office, and resulted in Friday's decision.

The brigade to be withdrawn will be a heavy army unit, yet to be
determined, based in Germany. It will keep three brigades in Europe:
one heavy brigade, one of Stryker armored vehicles, and an airborne
brigade. The U.S. will also move into Europe more CV-22 Osprey
aircraft to provide airlift for special-operations forces, more
Aegis-class ships to provide missile defense capabilities and set up
an air training unit in Poland, the U.S. official said.

The Army's Fifth Corps headquarters, which had been designated for
closure, will remain in Europe.

The senior official depicted the decision as a "strong commitment to
the security of Europe," and to the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. He said it the decision wasn't guided by concerns about
the impact of defense cuts in Europe.


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[Marxism] some video of April 9 demonstration in NYC

[Dayne Goodwin]

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(must see) Charles Barron, NY City Councilman speaking:




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[Marxism] William Shawcross: reactionary scum

[Louis Proyect]

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(Shawcross was a major critic of the Vietnam war who made a Hitchens 
type turn to the right. In this opinion piece, he supports the 
Bush-Obama policy of military tribunals for prisoners in Guantanamo.)


NY Times Op-Ed April 9, 2011
Lessons From Nuremberg
By WILLIAM SHAWCROSS

London

GEORGE ORWELL is usually a footsure guide across political 
battlegrounds. In late 1943, when the tide had turned in the Allies’ 
favor, he wrote about postwar trials. Oddly, he advocated Hitler and 
Mussolini slipping away. His verdict for them would not be death unless 
the Germans and Italians themselves carried out summary executions (as 
they eventually did in Mussolini’s case).


He wanted “no martyrizing, no St. Helena business.” Above all, he 
disdained the idea of a “solemn hypocritical ‘trial of war criminals,’ 
with all the slow cruel pageantry of the law, which after a lapse of 
time has so strange a way of focusing a romantic light on the accused 
and turning a scoundrel into a hero.”


For once Orwell missed his step. The Allies did stage a trial of the 
Nazi war criminals, at Nuremberg. (My father, Hartley, was the chief 
British prosecutor.) The trial had flaws. To some it will always seem to 
be “victors’ justice” and it can be called hypocritical in that the 
Soviet Union, guilty of many of its own crimes against humanity, was an 
equal partner with the democratic prosecutors and judges.


But, over all, it succeeded very well. It was solemn, as it should have 
been, and what Orwell called “the pageantry of the law” was neither 
cruel nor slow — the trial began in November 1945 (remarkably this was 
only six months after the German surrender) and was all over by the 
following October. Would that anything could be done so efficiently today.


Most of the Nazi defendants were found guilty and executed, others were 
given lesser sentences and some were acquitted. Orwell’s fear that they 
would later be cast in a romantic light and turned from scoundrels into 
heroes has not been realized. They are still seen as mass murderers.


Nuremberg not only dispatched justice swiftly, it also created a 
historical narrative that has survived. Robert H. Jackson, the chief 
American prosecutor and the driving force behind the trials, told 
President Harry S. Truman that he had assembled more than five million 
pages of evidence. The files of the SS alone needed six freight cars to 
carry them. Subsequently the tribunal published 11 volumes of documents 
and 20 volumes devoted to the proceedings alone. The eminent British 
historian Alan Bullock wrote of his excitement at reading through these 
records: whatever the arguments about justice, “from the point of view 
of the historian the Nuremberg trials were an absolutely unqualified 
wonder.” Nuremberg was essential in creating memory and senses of 
responsibility, in Germany itself and far beyond.


Nuremberg, lest we forget, was a military tribunal with civilian lawyers 
and it offered far fewer protections to the Nazis in the dock than the 
military commissions at Guantánamo will give to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed 
and his co-defendants in the 9/11 attacks. Military justice worked then 
and it can work again today.


This is not the place to repeat the fierce disputes over President 
Obama’s decision last week to prosecute Mr. Mohammed before a military 
commission instead of a civilian court. What they show above all is that 
there are no absolute truths; law is argument.


Many of the important Supreme Court decisions in the war on terrorism 
have been made by slim majorities, one way or another. In such 
complicated areas it is rare to find unanimity. This is not surprising. 
Indeed, such debate is a token of the vitality of American jurisprudence.


I understand why many people believe that in the hugely important, and 
hugely symbolic, case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, America would be best 
served by justice being dispensed in an open federal court. But United 
States military law should not be dismissed. It has a distinguished 
history dating back to 1775; every year military courts dispense justice 
to thousands of Americans. And don’t forget that the Qaeda detainees in 
Guantánamo will all be presumed innocent, their guilt must be proved 
beyond reasonable doubt, and each will have the right of appeal all the 
way to the Supreme Court.


As far as Al Qaeda and its associates are concerned, it does not make 
the slightest difference whether its members are tried in federal or 
military courts — Islamists regard each as equally illegitimate. As 
Anwar al-Awlaki, one of Al Qaeda’s most prominent ideologues today, has 
said, Muslims must not be forced to accept the rulings of Western 
courts; he insists that for Muslims to abide by Western laws is to live 

[Marxism] Hizbollah leader on Libyan revolt

[Louis Proyect]

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"Just as the peoples rebelled in Tunisia and Egypt, the Libyans did. A 
group of youth started at Benghazi, and they were confronted with 
bullets and murder. Then people rushed to embrace them, and the 
revolution moved from one city to another. There were demonstrations and 
civil disobedience, which were confronted with bullets, planes, and 
tanks. War was imposed on the peaceful and civil public revolution. What 
is going on in Libya is a war imposed by the regime on a people who 
wanted change without using arms.


"Hereupon, this people had the choice of self-defense without being an 
armed organization or having any military experience or enough weapons. 
War broke out against the Libyan people in the west and east. The 
planes, tanks, cannons, and rows of Katyusha-missile emplacements, which 
you and we have seen on television, remind us -- the Lebanese -- of the 
Israeli invasion in 1982 and of all of the Israeli wars. What Gaddafi is 
assailing his people with is the same as that of the previous Israeli 
war against Lebanon and Gaza. All of the noble in the world must condemn 
these great crimes committed by Gaddafi's regime. Besides, every person 
who can offer any kind of help to these rebellious people must do so in 
order to assist their steadfastness and tolerance of demolitions and 
massacres."


full: http://www.zcommunications.org/nasrallah-on-libya-by-stephen-shalom



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[Marxism] 2 Protesters Killed in Egypt’s Tahrir Square

[Louis Proyect]

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NY Times April 9, 2011
2 Protesters Killed in Egypt’s Tahrir Square
By LIAM STACK and MONA EL-NAGGAR

CAIRO — Egypt’s security forces shot and killed at least two protesters 
and wounded dozens before dawn Saturday in an attempt to disperse 
peaceful demonstrators spending the night in the capital’s iconic Tahrir 
Square, officials and witnesses said.


The crackdown was the most brutal since the overthrow of President Hosni 
Mubarak on Feb. 11 and since the military started running the country.


While the square seethed with anger and betrayal, several protest 
leaders issued restrained statements that appeared to be aimed at 
de-escalating the confrontation and heading off further violence.


Early Sunday, a military curfew ended with no confrontation as more than 
a thousand protesters remained in the square, even after the ruling 
military council had vowed to clear them out with “firmness and force.”


The military tried to play down the violence, denying that anyone had 
been killed, and to distance itself from it, insisting that those who 
had raided the square were police officers under the control of the 
Interior Ministry.


And in a page that could have been taken from Mr. Mubarak’s manual, the 
military also asserted that the protesters had been infiltrated by 
“thugs” and “outlaws.” A senior military officer said the troublemakers 
were sent by Mubarak loyalists.


But the army’s version of events was contradicted even by its own 
government: a report from the Ministry of Health said one person had died.


Doctors at the Qasr el-Aini Hospital backed witnesses’ reports that two 
people had been fatally shot on Saturday; they said they had also 
treated 35 people for injuries sustained in the clash. Human rights 
lawyers said 42 protesters had been detained and later interrogated on 
charges of violating the national curfew, and also of violating a ban on 
protests enacted by the cabinet on March 24.


The protest began Friday, when tens of thousands of people turned out in 
Tahrir Square to protest the military’s tactics, which activists said 
included the torture of protesters, the abuse of women and the detention 
of thousands of people. The protest was one of the largest since Mr. 
Mubarak was ousted.


As another night, another curfew and another possible confrontation 
approached on Saturday, protest leaders condemned the crackdown, but 
also offered words clearly intended to turn down the temperature in the 
square.


Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader and potential presidential 
candidate, posted a statement to his Facebook page that said: “The 
continuation of trust between the people and the army is a red line in 
order to protect the nation. Dialogue is the only alternative.”


The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized political force, which 
had endorsed the protest on Friday, issued a statement on Saturday under 
the heading, “The Army and the People Are One Hand,” a popular chant 
among protesters when they were calling on the military to take their 
side during the revolution.


“The union that happened between the army and the people during the 
great revolution must continue and be stronger,” the statement said.


The Coalition of Youth of the Revolution, an association of groups that 
had helped organize the revolution, said it would suspend any dialogue 
with the military until the crackdown was investigated and people were 
held accountable.


But a member of the coalition, Islam Lotfy, while saying that the group 
defended “everyone’s right to protest,” conceded that “we didn’t think 
it was the right time for a sit-in.”


Despite these messages, many remained in the square, setting up tents as 
night fell on Saturday and attesting to the decentralization of what had 
begun as, and in many ways still is, a people’s protest. And even the 
opposition leaders who issued conciliatory statements may be quietly 
counting on those in the square to turn up the political pressure on the 
military.


The army has been struggling for weeks to establish control in a country 
frustrated by increasing poverty and decades of strong-arm rule. It has 
announced new elections, a central demand of demonstrators, but has 
still faced labor protests and weekly demonstrations by those pushing it 
to move faster to make democratic changes. The accusations of rights 
abuses have led some protesters to say that they had overthrown a 
dictator but not the dictatorship.


There was evidence of that on Saturday morning, when gunfire was heard 
in downtown Cairo for over two hours as several thousand riot police 
officers, uniformed soldiers and military police officers stormed the 
square.


“It was raining bullets,” said Houssam, 26, who did not want to give his 
last name for s

Re: [Marxism] Decline and fall of state capitalist jargon?

[Louis Proyect]

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On 4/10/11 4:02 AM, Einde O'Callaghan wrote:

To a great extent the position on the "Russian Question" is today only a
minor issue, mainly of historical interest. For this reason, in my
opinion, all that needs to be emphasised by a revolutionary socialist
organisation is that the pre-1991 system in the Soviet Union had nothing
to do with socialism as we understand it, whatever it's historic origins.


Yeah, well, the real problem is the exclusively "state capitalist" 
analysis of Cuba found in the journals, from Sam Farber to Mike 
Gonzalez. This is an analysis that you might not have to agree with to 
join (as with the case of Paul LeBlanc) but has an ideological monopoly. 
Like it or not, that analysis stuck in my craw so much that I would 
never even consider joining Solidarity with the heavy play that Sam 
Farber got in their magazine. At least lately they have been opening up 
the pages to a different perspective. Not that I am going to join 
anything at this point at the age of 66 except maybe the AARP.



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[Marxism] Madonna, the Kabbalah cult and the Malawi fiasco

[Louis Proyect]

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-03/madonnas-kabbalah-disaster-in-malawi/


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[Marxism] Difficult period? Was: The Decline and Fall of WWP

[Lou Paulsen]

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On Apr 9, 2011, at 11:03 PM, sobuadha...@hushmail.com wrote:
( in my response to my assertion that it's been a "difficult period"

> 
> What I would expect in this 'difficult time'
> is that every existing leftist group should be
> experiencing growth (some more than others)
> and for new groups to be formed. Given the
> economic crash/disillusionment with Obama/
> hatred of political conservatism among public
> workers/ anxiety and impatience for Imperialist
> war/ any left wing organization just holding
> their current membership numbers or losing 
> members is doing something seriously wrong.
> 
> A case in point is the CPUSA. As has oft been 
> pointed out here, this is certainly not the most 
> dynamic organization on the left. Nevertheless, 
> the CP just announced they had recruited 1,500 
> new members online and I just also read where 
> their following on facebook took a huge leap upwards. 
> 
But is this your experience where you are (which I don't know, sorry)? Is this 
what is happening anywhere in the US? In fact, if you are right that this is a 
great time for Communist recruiting, then it ought to be even greater in 
Europe, where the level of class consciousness has been higher and socialist 
parties have had mass followings. 

But then yesterday, when I was at a big labor rally in Chicago where all of 
these new Communists would have gone, I didn't see them. ISO had the biggest 
group, but this is their national center and it was on a par with what they've 
had in recent years, As for the CPUSA, I didn't see any sign of their public 
presence. That doesn't mean they weren't there, of course - I'm sure that they 
were.

So maybe everyone is doing the same stupid things and wasting the great 
opportunity, but maybe you're mistaken about what a great period it's been to 
recruit to communism. In order to join a socialist party, you have to think (a) 
things are really bad; (b) solving the problems within the existing system is 
not possible; and (c) socialism is desirable and possible. As to point (c), 
really two points, I would say that for most people socialism has been "taken 
off the table" by the Calamity. (I may actually just start using that to refer 
to the destruction of the workers' states in the USSR/eastern Europe, the way 
Palestinians talk of the Nakba.) There has been a lot of despair and fatalism, 
particularly since 2003. Then for several years every ounce of hope went into 
the Obama campaign. These hopes have been getting systematically trampled upon 
for two years, but at the same time the right wing has been so horrible that it 
has drawn attention away from the executive branch, and the lessons that were 
being drawn at the rally yesterday from the podium were that we weren't good 
enough Democrats in 2010 but now we know how bad the Republicans are and 2012 
will be different.

So as a matter of fact, stepping back from the question of recruiting to mass 
parties and just looking at mass action at all, what has the picture been like 
in the last couple years? Have there been truly massive demonstrations for jobs 
and against Wall Street? I would say that for the most part people have been 
oscillating between the two poles of "Maybe Obama can do something" and "No, 
nothing can be done at all."

But the labor mobilizations of the last few weeks are a new factor, and I hope 
my comrade Fred Goldstein is right about what they mean (article posted here 
recently). 

Lou Paulsen

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Re: [Marxism] Decline and fall of state capitalist jargon?

[Einde O'Callaghan]

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On 10.04.2011 07:07, Tom O'Lincoln wrote:

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I went to the link DR provided and found this:


China and Cuba, like the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, have
nothing to do with socialism. We support the struggles of workers in
these countries against the bureaucratic ruling class.<


This may sort of represent a departure from the term "state capitalism"
but only in the sense that some abstract terminology has been
concretised. I've been associated with the international socialist
tendency for about 40 years, and we've used terms like "bureaucratic
ruling class" quite often in that tiime.

I've also been associated with the IST for about 35 years and I can only 
echo what Tom says above. Banging on about "state capitalism" or more 
specifically "bureaucratic state capitalism" has never been a feature of 
the tradition in my experience. And lots of loose "synonyms" have been 
used in discussions and agitational articles.


Acceptance of a state capitalist analysis has never been a condition of 
membership. Indeed when I joined I was an "orthodox" Trotskyist on the 
"Russian Question" - I joined because I was impressed by what the 
organisation was actually doing in the struggles I was involved in - but 
in the course of my own study I came to agree with the "bureaucratic 
state capitalist" analysis - leavened a bit by the analyses of Raya 
Dunayevskaya and CLR James. Nobody ever saw it as their duty to hammer 
"the party line" into me.


To a great extent the position on the "Russian Question" is today only 
a minor issue, mainly of historical interest. For this reason, in my 
opinion, all that needs to be emphasised by a revolutionary socialist 
organisation is that the pre-1991 system in the Soviet Union had nothing 
to do with socialism as we understand it, whatever it's historic origins.


Einde O'Callaghan


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