[Marxism] Socialist Alliamce: Colombia must release Perez Bocerra! (a good example for needed defense effort)Colombia must free Joaquin Perez Becerra
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Colombia must free Joaquin Perez Becerra A statement from the Socialist Alliance in Australia May 14, 2011 The Socialist Alliance calls on the Colombian government to immediately release independent media activist Joaquin Perez Becerra, who is now facing charges of terrorism. Perez Becerra, a refugee from Colombia, is a Swedish citizen. We also call on the Swedish government to do its upmost to defend the rights of one of its citizens. Under Article 33(1) of the Geneva Convention, no refugee shall be returned in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. We also call on the Venezuelan government, which complied with Colombia's request to deport Perez Becerra to Colombia, to demand that Colombia respect the rights due to Perez Becerra under international conventions. Perez Becerra, a strong voice in defence of human rights in Colombia, was forced to leave Colombia in 1993 following the murder of his wife and constant death threats against him due to his membership in the Union Patriotica (UP). As a member of this democratic and legally registered party, Perez Becerra was elected city councillor in Corinto, Valle del Cauca. However, a state sponsored campaign of violence and terror against the UP resulted in the assassination of more than 4000 UP members. Seeking refuge in Sweden, Perez Becerra became a citizen in 2000 and renounced his Colombian citizenship. In Sweden, he helped to establish and became the director of the New Colombia News Agency (ANNCOL). With 800,000 daily visits, it was Colombia's fourth most widely read website until it was shut down days after his arrest. ANNCOL published statements and information sourced from numerous organisations in Colombia, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), exposing and denouncing human rights violations by the Colombian state and paramilitary organisations. For this work, the Colombian government has accused Perez Becerra of being the FARC's ambassador in Europe and conspiring in and helping finance terrorism Perez Becerra has repeatedly denied ever being a member of the FARC or any illegal organisation in Colombia or elsewhere. After fleeing to Sweden he never returned to Colombia. Colombia's former president, Alvaro Uribe, has charged that Perez Becerra and other human rights activists in exile aid terrorism. Uribe has said: Those criminals . and other bandits, who are Colombian professionals living over there in Sweden and other countries . all of them have to be finished off. These public accusations and threats are ominous indications that there is more at stake here than Perez Becerra's right to a fair trial. We also note that these recent events are part of an ongoing campaign to criminalise solidarity with Colombia's social movements. The Colombian government is internationally renowned for locking up and torturing political prisoners. There are more than 7500 political prisoners in Colombia, many of them denied the right to a fair trial and due process. We also note that many Venezuela solidarity organisations within Venezuela and internationally have expressed concern over the April 23 decision by Venezuelan authorities to arrest and deport Perez Becerra. Perez Becerra's deportation was the result of a request made directly by President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia to his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, following the issuing by Interpol in Bogota of a red alert for Perez Becerra's arrest. The request was made while Perez Becerra was aloft on a flight from Frankfurt to Caracas. Reports indicate that during the flight Santos was informed of every move made by Perez Becerra, even to the exact seat he was in, due to the presence of Colombian intelligence officers aboard the same plane. In response to Swedish authorities' questions as to why the Venezuelan government did not notify them about the arrest and deportation of one of Sweden's own citizens, Venezuela has asked why, if he was the subject of an Interpol warrant, Perez Becerra was not detained in Sweden, or Germany while he was travelling to Venezuela. Ramiro Orejuela, a lawyer acting for the Swedish government, has suggested that the red alert may have been issued only after Perez Becerra had boarded the plane in Frankfurt to Caracas, possibly as part of a plan to create a delicate diplomatic situation for Venezuelan officials. These and many other mysteries surrounding Perez Becerra's case strengthen Chavez's argument, made at the May Day march in Caracas, that they set a trap for him in order to get at me. All of this has to be placed in the context of
[Marxism] Arab reactionaries hire Blackwater chief to build private armies
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times May 14, 2011 Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder By MARK MAZZETTI and EMILY B. HAGER ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand. The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom. Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times. The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest or were challenged by pro-democracy demonstrations in its crowded labor camps or democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year. The U.A.E.’s rulers, viewing their own military as inadequate, also hope that the troops could blunt the regional aggression of Iran, the country’s biggest foe, the former employees said. The training camp, located on a sprawling Emirati base called Zayed Military City, is hidden behind concrete walls laced with barbed wire. Photographs show rows of identical yellow temporary buildings, used for barracks and mess halls, and a motor pool, which houses Humvees and fuel trucks. The Colombians, along with South African and other foreign troops, are trained by retired American soldiers and veterans of the German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion, according to the former employees and American officials. In outsourcing critical parts of their defense to mercenaries — the soldiers of choice for medieval kings, Italian Renaissance dukes and African dictators — the Emiratis have begun a new era in the boom in wartime contracting that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And by relying on a force largely created by Americans, they have introduced a volatile element in an already combustible region where the United States is widely viewed with suspicion. The United Arab Emirates — an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state — are closely allied with the United States, and American officials indicated that the battalion program had some support in Washington. “The gulf countries, and the U.A.E. in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help,” said one Obama administration official who knew of the operation. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.” Still, it is not clear whether the project has the United States’ official blessing. Legal experts and government officials said some of those involved with the battalion might be breaking federal laws that prohibit American citizens from training foreign troops if they did not secure a license from the State Department. Mark C. Toner, a spokesman for the department, would not confirm whether Mr. Prince’s company had obtained such a license, but he said the department was investigating to see if the training effort was in violation of American laws. Mr. Toner pointed out that Blackwater (which renamed itself Xe Services ) paid $42 million in fines last year for training foreign troops in Jordan and other countries over the years. The U.A.E.’s ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for Mr. Prince also did not comment. For Mr. Prince, the foreign battalion is a bold attempt at reinvention. He is hoping to build an empire in the desert, far from the trial lawyers, Congressional investigators and Justice Department officials he is convinced worked in league to portray Blackwater as reckless. He sold the company last year, but in April, a federal appeals court reopened the case against four Blackwater guards accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. To help fulfill his ambitions, Mr. Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, obtained another multimillion-dollar contract to protect a string of planned nuclear power
[Marxism] Leftist, Communist, Anarchist Bookstores in Madrid
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Can anyone recommend some? I would like to obtain the official Spanish language versions of Marx's Capital, various historical works on the Spanish workers movement and/or anarcho-syndicalism, as well as copies of the journal Viento Sur and Spanish-language books published by the local affiliate(s) of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. Is there any single bookstore to satisfy these wants, or a few where each can be satisfied? 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] 9 Killed as Israel Clashes With Palestinians on Four Borders
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times May 15, 2011 9 Killed as Israel Clashes With Palestinians on Four Borders By ETHAN BRONNER JERUSALEM — Israel’s borders erupted into deadly clashes on Sunday as thousands of Palestinians — marching from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank — confronted Israeli troops to mark the anniversary when Arabs mourn Israel’s creation. As many as nine Palestinians were reported killed and scores injured in the unprecedented wave of coordinated protests. The biggest confrontation took place on the Golan Heights when hundreds of Palestinians living in Syria breached a border fence and crowded into the village of Majdal Shams, waving Palestinian flags. Troops fired on the crowd, killing four of them. At the Lebanese border Israeli troops shot at hundreds of Palestinians trying to cross, killing four protesters and wounding dozens more, according to Lebanese officials. Every year in mid-May many Palestinians mark what they call Nakba, or the catastrophe, the anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 and the start of a war in which thousands of Palestinians lost their homes through expulsion and flight. But this is the first year that Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon tried to breach the Israeli military border in marches inspired by recent popular protests around the Arab world. Here too, word about the rallies was spread on social media sites. “The Palestinians are not less rebellious than other Arab peoples,” said Ali Baraka, a Hamas representative in Lebanon. Officials and analysts have argued that with peace talks broken down and plans for a request of the United Nations to declare Palestinian statehood in September, violence could return to define this conflict, which has been relatively quiet for the past two years. “This is war, we’re defending our country,” asserted Amjad Abu Taha, a 16-year-old from Bethlehem as he took part along with thousands in the West Bank city of Ramallah near the main military checkpoint to Israel. He held a cigarette in one hand and a rock in the other. Hundreds of Israeli troops using stun guns and tear gas roamed the area. In Gaza, a march toward Israel also resulted in Israeli troops shooting into the crowd and wounding dozens. The Hamas police stopped buses carrying protesters near the main crossing into Israel, but dozens of demonstrators walked on foot and reached a point closer to the Israeli border than they had reached in years. Later, in a separate incident, an 18-year-old Gazan near another part of the border fence was shot and killed by Israeli troops when, the Israeli military says, he was trying to plant an explosive. The chief Israeli military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said on Israel radio that he saw Iran’s fingerprints in the coordinated confrontations although he offered no evidence. Syria has a close alliance with Iran, as does Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon, and Hamas, which rules in Gaza. Yoni Ben-Menachem, Israel Radio’s chief Arab affairs analyst, said it seemed likely that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria was seeking to divert attention from his troubles caused by popular uprisings there in recent weeks by allowing confrontations on the Golan Heights for the first time in decades. “This way Syria makes its contribution to the Nakba day cause and Assad wins points by deflecting the media’s attention from what is happening inside Syria,” he added. Last week, in an interview with The New York Times, a top Syrian businessman and cousin of the president said, “If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel.” He urged the West to reduce pressure on the Syrian government. An Israeli military spokesman, Captain Barak Raz, said that Israeli troops at the Syrian border fired only at those infiltrators trying to damage the security barrier and equipment there. Some 13 Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded from thrown rocks. The day’s troubles began when an Israeli Arab truck driver rammed his truck into cars, a bus and pedestrians in Tel Aviv, killing one man and injuring more than a dozen others in what police described as a terrorist attack. Later, hundreds of Lebanese joined by Palestinians from more than nine refugee camps in Lebanon headed toward the border, around the town of Maroun al-Ras, Lebanon, scene of some of the worst fighting in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. They passed posters that had gone up the past week on highways in Lebanon. “People want to return to Palestine,” they read, in a play on the slogan made famous in Egypt and Tunisia, “People want the fall of the regime.” Though the Lebanese army tried to block them from arriving at the border,
[Marxism] Racism in Libya
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Libya's black refugees Caught in the middle The plight of black Africans trying to flee from Libya is dire—and worsening May 5th 2011 | SALLOUM | from the print edition COLD by night and blisteringly hot under the midday sun, the border crossing between Libya and Egypt at Salloum has become a bleak stopping point for Western journalists seeking a way to eastern Libya’s rebel stronghold of Benghazi, six hours’ drive to the west. But for refugees going the other way, Salloum is another even gloomier barrier on a long and often deadly flight from war. These migrants, almost all of them black Africans who found refuge from such places as Chad, Eritrea and Sudan’s ravaged Darfur region in Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya, say they are targets of rebels in the east, where they have all too often been mistaken for mercenaries in the pay of the colonel. Their journey to Libya’s border is perilous. Many say they have witnessed massacres of other black Africans. Even the wounded are not welcome. Ahmed Muhammad Zakaria, a 20-year-old Chadian living in Benghazi, was shot in the leg by rebels, but says people in the local hospital, rather than treat him, told him to go to Egypt. A ten-year-old boy infected with HIV from a blood transfusion in Libya was told that he and his family were no longer welcome in the rebel-held east. “Burn them all,” said one Benghazi native of the blacks fleeing Libya... Link: http://www.economist.com/node/18652159?story_id=18652159 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] Statements on Greece
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dear comrades and friends, During the General Strike on 11th May 2011 the Communist Party of Greece(marxist-leninist), Class March and the Militant Movement of Students had been the main (but not only) target of the police brutal attack along with another two political groups (EEK Trotskyites and OKDE), two grassroots workers unions (cooks waiters union and grassroots union of motorbike workers (couriers etc)), an anarchist group and some grassroots groups that are active in specific neighborhoods and areas concerned with mainly local issues. I have attached a statement of the Communist Party of Greece(marxist-leninist) along with statements of three of the militants injured during the brutal police attack. Their photographs where the signs of brutality are very visible can be found at: http://antigeitonies.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_14.html -- Christos Mais (Marxmail does not allow attachments. They are, however, included as text below) State terrorism will not prevail! The people’s struggle will win! Without any provocation or pretext the PASOK government attacked and bloodied the huge demonstration of May the 11th 2011 during the general strike in Athens. The government, scared of the “enemy people’s” rise, initiated an orgy of state violence and terrorism using its praetors, the riot police, against the demonstrators. Our block, as well as several other blocks, received an unprovoked and maniacal attack by the riot police, who surrounded the demonstration in order to dissolve it, and went on with relentless use of tear gas and savage beatings against workers, unemployed, young people and women. The result was that dozens of demonstrators were transferred to hospital with head injuries. One of them is in Intensive Care fighting for his life after being operated in the head. The message was clear. The government and their masters, the imperialists of the IMF and the EU, want to stop any popular resistance against the austerity measures. The people must stay in its corner terrified. We “must not” demonstrate, “must not” strike, “must not” fight back. We “must” accept with fatalism the butchering of our rights, our future, our lives and that of our children. But they cannot rule out the people’s struggle! The cruel reality that the people are forced to live urges them to the road of resistance. The only way to combat state terrorism and repression is to continue more resolutely and massively our resistance against the barbaric policy of an exploitative and unjust system. PUNISHMENT OF THE MURDEROUS POLICEMEN! DEMONSTRATIONS FREE OF POLICE! THE BARBAROUS POLICY OF GOVERNMENT – EU – IMF WILL BE OVERTHROWN WITH MASS STRUGGLES! May 12, 2011 Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist) “They wanted dead…” In one of the most peaceful marches of the last years I was “fortunate” to accept the special “protection” of the riot police, alongside dozens of other demonstrators, young men and women as well as senior citizens, who were protesting against the politics of poverty and misery. I participate at least 25 years in the popular movement. I have never seen such rage against us by the repressive forces. The strikes were aimed at our heads clearly wanting dead among us! These were their orders. This is democracy at our times of the PASOK government and the EU-IMF-ECB Memorandum. Everybody is entitled to his opinion provided he does not express it. Anyone expressing his opinion will be “protected” like me. It is clear that this government is in the service of our foreign “protectors” and so is unscrupulous and dangerous to the people. Sotiris Legas Pharmacist – Tradeunionist Former chairman of Ikaria Hospital Trade Union --- The demonstration in which I participated yesterday was met by brutal and murderous force by the riot police. There was at first a huge amount of tear gas and then the attack. We were lucky we didn’t have dead among us. This was a show of force against the people who are resisting against the austerity measures. They cannot terrorize us! We will continue on the path of struggle, the only way open for our people! Resistance in order to overthrow the austerity measures! Roula Sakka Chairman of 7th Athens IKA Hospital Trade Union -- I was marching with the Class March block chanting slogans against the antipopular politics of the government and its new austerity measures when on Panepistimiou Street we were surrounded on all sides by riot police and attacked without provocation with tear gas and truncheons aimed at our heads. In the ensuing chaos and the stampede I was hit on the head by a policeman. I sensed the blood running on my face. I
Re: [Marxism] Racism in Libya
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A very interesting insight into the behaviour of our beloved fighters for freedom... v Il giorno 15/mag/2011, alle ore 20.26, Suresh ha scritto: Libya's black refugees Caught in the middle The plight of black Africans trying to flee from Libya is dire—and worsening May 5th 2011 | SALLOUM | from the print edition These migrants, almost all of them black Africans who found refuge from such places as Chad, Eritrea and Sudan’s ravaged Darfur region in Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya, say they are targets of rebels in the east, where they have all too often been mistaken for mercenaries in the pay of the colonel. Their journey to Libya’s border is perilous. Many say they have witnessed massacres of other black Africans. Even the wounded are not welcome. Ahmed Muhammad Zakaria, a 20-year-old Chadian living in Benghazi, was shot in the leg by rebels, but says people in the local hospital, rather than treat him, told him to go to Egypt. A ten-year-old boy infected with HIV from a blood transfusion in Libya was told that he and his family were no longer welcome in the rebel-held east. “Burn them all,” said one Benghazi native of the blacks fleeing Libya... Link: http://www.economist.com/node/18652159?story_id=18652159 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] Venezuela and Colombia
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A few pennies worth. I don't have much time to follow debates on this list, although i try. I still have twenty unread digests in my mailbox which I will slog through, or skim through as I accumulate more. So, I will not address anything anyone has said directly. Since Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela he has balanced on a tightrope in the winds of the poorly organized plebian masses of Caracas, and the entrenched interests of the very corrupt military from which he rose, and the very small and reactionary Venezuelan upper petty bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie. The Venezuelan revolution did not bring the working class to power, it did not bring the peasantry to power, and it did not bring the plebians int he cities to power. It brought Hugo Chavez to power. Although many on this list will howl, scream and gnash their teeth when I say this, Chavez is a left nationalist Bonapartist, and the Venezuelan revolution was a democratic popular revoluiont, like the February Revolution in 1917 in Russia, and not a proletarian socialist revolution like the one that occurred in october of 1917 in Russia. I have critically supported Chavez, and still do against the United States and other imperialist attacks, but not when Chavez attacks the left, or the mass movement, and not when Chavez acts to strengthen imperialism or its puppets. Chavez's plicies towards Colombia have always vaciilated. When Alvaro Uribe came to power, Chavez and Uribe's honeymoon was painful to watch. They signed all sorts of trade deals, especially in the fields of natural gas and pipelines. Uribe, not Chavez, broke off the romance because he belieived that Chavez was having an affair with the FARC, too. Uribe was willing to provoke a war with Venezuela over the issue, and had the support of important players in the USA and in the Colombian ruling class. Ultimately, the business instincts of the biggest Colombian players, starting witht he family of the current President, got the better of the situation and the drums of war were silenced. Current President Juan Manuel Santos is interested in doing business. Period. He is the Calvin Coolidge of Colombia. What is good for business is good for the Santos family. And what is good for the Santos family, is good for Colombia. He has been conducting a non-stop friendship offensive with Venezuela and Ecuador since he announced his candidacy for President. What he is offering them is electricity to voercome shortages like those experienced last year during El Niño, which caused the largest rise in political opposition expereicned by Chavez since the failed coup. And he is offering natural gas, which will be shipped to Venezuela while pipelines are beingin constructed there. Once venezuela is able to ship its own natural gas to Caracas, Venezuelan natural gas will flow through Colombia to the newLNG teminals now being planned. From there it can be exported to anywhere int he Pacific. Guess where. Chavez has recently being catching ELN membes, FARC members, and recently the editor of ANCOL to send to Santos as oferrings of love. To be fair to Chavez, you have to look at the FARC and its relations with the Latin American left. While the FARC and ELN are not Sendero Luminoso, they both have a record of killing each other, and using violence or the threat of vilence against others in the Colombian left. Chavez tried to convince the FARC to come in from the cold and transform itself into an electoral political vehicle. The FARc was not convinced, no doubt their previous effort in the Union Patroitica and the answer to that by the Colombian bourgeoisie of assasinating thousands of UP leaders an dmilitants, helpee make up the FARC's mind. However, they may also have been influenced by the fact that they have become a big player int he drug business, from which they still dervie very subtstantial income. Coming in fromt he cold would certainly endanger the profits they now make. In any case, when the FARC blew off Chavez, Chavez may have felt he no longer had any obligation to protect them from the ruthless offensive of the United States and the Colombian military. In fact, FARC and ELN presence, real or imagined, were the primary excuses used by Uribe and his allies to bring the coutntires to the brink of war. if Chavez wants to avoid a repeat, he may very well want to get any freinds or representatives of these organizations out of his country. More later, Anthony 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] Video: Julian Assange speaking before the Cambridge Union Society, March 2011
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Julian Assange http://cus.org/connect/speaker-events/2011/julian-assange. CUS Connect. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011. 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] Leftist, Communist, Anarchist Bookstores in Madrid
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == You can try the traficantes de sueños for most of the below. It is located at Embajadores 35, Local 6 Barrio Lavapiés, not very far from the Atocha railway station. Opening times and other info you will find at their website http://www.traficantes.net/ I am not very sure about the official Capital versions though. Angelus Novus wrote: Can anyone recommend some? I would like to obtain the official Spanish language versions of Marx's Capital, various historical works on the Spanish workers movement and/or anarcho-syndicalism, as well as copies of the journal Viento Sur and Spanish-language books published by the local affiliate(s) of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. Is there any single bookstore to satisfy these wants, or a few where each can be satisfied? Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/cankerim76%40yahoo.co.uk 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] Racism in Libya,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I just posted an article dealing with anti-black racial supremacism in Libya. Please note I did not demonize the Libyan rebels. In fact, the bigotry they express is found throughout the Arab world. At the same time, it's obvious that Qadaffi's use of mercenaries, and his perceived aid to black Africans both internally and diplomatically, makes blacks anathema to many on the rebel side in Libya. It wouldn't be the first time that a tyrannical regime's relatively progressive features became a source of opposition every bit as much as it's more numerous regressive aspects. We saw this in the Iraqi civil war as well, when Palestinian refugees were assaulted in bloody pogroms in the country. There's no point in making excuses about it. For some reason Einde, instead of dealing with the facts in the article, decided to post a quote by Lenin. Personally, I'd rather deal with the concrete issues of nation, class, and anti-imperialism in Libya than seek recourse to the same old revolutionary catechisms. 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] Racism in Libya
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Of course I am with Einde on this one. Frankly Comrade Suresh et al are locked into finding everything bad they can about the rebels in Libya. This is to justify their support for Qadhdhafi. I am reminded somewhat here of Oscar Wilde's famous description of fox-hunting as the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable. Meanwhile the pro-revolt section of the list frankly have moved on. We condemn Western military intervention and acknowledge the right wing nature of the politics of those who appear to have come to the fore in the Benghazi camp. Again I recommend the approach here of comrades Proyect on this list, Richard Seymour at Lenin's tomb and As'ad Abu Khalil at the Angry Arab website. None of the terrible stuff that has emerged about the Benghazi leadership gainsays the truth that the infamous Qadhdhafi family by fighting tooth and nail for their privileges have enshrined the efficacy of the slaughter of unarmed protesters. Qadhdhafi's example has been followed eagerly by Bashar Assad in Syria and Saleh in the Yemen. Comrade Suresh would condemn Saleh I am sure but would reserve criticism of Assad, I suspect. Certainly MRzine does. Now Israel has come to the feast once more and murdered unarmed demonstrators. World condemnation would always have been muted but it is allowed to be even more so by the action of the Arab butchers in Syria, Libya, the Yemen, Oman and Bahrain. Meanwhile today's Guardian reports that Assad's cousin has begged the West to go easy on Assad regime in recognition of Syria's contribution to stability i.e. the Imperialist cause. MRzine will remain silent on this piece of evidence, just as they have maintained a discreet silence on the CIA's endorsement of the Qadhdhafi and Assad as people they could do business with. Meanwhile the Arab people who can think outside crude categories such as Our tyrant versus their tryrant can see that the Syria army which refuses to face up to the Israeli Army is quite prepared to shoot down unarmed civilians. That is the kind of filth that Comrade Suresh and MRzine are supporting because of an undialectical approach to the struggle against Imperialism. 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
Re: [Marxism] Racism in Libya,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 5/15/11 7:16 PM, Suresh wrote: For some reason Einde, instead of dealing with the facts in the article, decided to post a quote by Lenin. Personally, I'd rather deal with the concrete issues of nation, class, and anti-imperialism in Libya than seek recourse to the same old revolutionary catechisms. Well, what you posted was old news. Within a week after the Benghazi revolt, there were copious reports in the bourgeois press and uber-copious reports on the MRZine, Chossudovsky, Marcyite wing of the left about all this. It was in line with all the reports about the CIA connections, the monarchist flags, et al. If posting all this stuff was supposed to motivate opposing imperialist intervention, that was the equivalent of breaking down an open door--at least as far as this mailing list is concerned. Nobody supported western intervention even though I and others were slandered to this effect. Let's leave it at this. The Qaddafi dynasty looks like it is on its last legs. NATO bombing, rebel resilience and its own internal rot conspires to bring this to a conclusion. I should add those that who equated Qaddafi's militias to the Cuban efforts at the Bay of Pigs should probably have their heads examined. The New York Times May 14, 2011 Saturday Late Edition - Final Captive Soldiers Tell of Discord In Libyan Army By C. J. CHIVERS MISURATA, Libya -- The army and militias of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who for more than two months have fought rebels seeking to overthrow the Libyan leader, are undermined by self-serving officers, strained logistics and units hastily reinforced with untrained cadets, according to captured soldiers from their ranks. In interviews this week in a rebel-run detention center where more than 100 prisoners from the Libyan military are housed, the prisoners consistently described hardships in the field and officers who deceived or failed them. They spoke bitterly of their lot. While some showed signs of mistreatment or of making statements to ingratiate themselves with their captors, the accounts of their logistical and tactical problems portrayed a Libyan force suffering from growing problems in a war that began as a mismatch, settled into stalemate and has recently shown signs of rebel advance. On one hand, Libyan military units and militias went to war with clear material and organizational advantages, equipped with tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, rockets and vast stores of munitions. They arrived to battle with trained snipers and mortar, rocket and artillery crews. On the other, the Libyan Defense Ministry thickened the ranks with veterans recalled to duty in poor physical condition and cadets with almost no combat training or experience. Then, after facing weeks of airstrikes and a growing rebel force, some of these units were cut off, prisoners said, and officers betrayed the rank and file. ''The commanders told us, 'Stay here and we will be back with more ammunition,' '' said a cadet who claimed to have been pressed into service as an untrained infantryman last month, and was assigned to the fight for this city's center. ''But they did not come back, and the rebels surrounded us and we had to put down our weapons and quit.'' The prisoners' identities, which were provided by the interviewees, have been withheld to protect them and their families from retaliation. The cadet, who had a shaved head and slender hands protruding from a long black robe, described many forms of disappointment in the Qaddafi military. At the start of the war, he said, he was a second-year cadet, and was told by his instructors that he must go serve. His and his classmates' first mission, he said, was to search vehicles and check identification cards at one of the country's myriad checkpoints. There were 11 cadets at the gate of the town where he was assigned, he said. ''After a while they came and said 11 at the gate is too much,'' he said. ''And they took six of us and gave us Kalashnikovs and took us into Misurata.'' That was in April, when Misurata was the center of Libya's most pitched fight, a block-by-block contest that cost the lives of hundreds of men on both sides. Inside the city, he said, he found he was in an unknown neighborhood, hidden with others in an apartment building as rebel fighters pressed near and the Libyan Army's lines of logistics were slowly but persistently severed behind them. Other prisoners described constant deception by their officers. One prisoner, a member of the 32 Reinforced Brigade of Armed People, a unit often called elite and which is led by Khamis Qaddafi, one of Colonel Qaddafi's sons, said he was the third contingent of the brigade to be sent from
Re: [Marxism] Racism in Libya,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 16.05.2011 01:16, Suresh wrote: snip For some reason Einde, instead of dealing with the facts in the article, decided to post a quote by Lenin. Personally, I'd rather deal with the concrete issues of nation, class, and anti-imperialism in Libya than seek recourse to the same old revolutionary catechisms. I was responding to Vladimiro Giacche's one-liner, not to your post - which isn't exactly new news. Lenin's insight in to the nature of nationalist upheavals is relevant in this context. And equally relevant is his remark in the next paragraph: Whoever expects a “pure” social revolution will *never* live to see it. Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what revolution is. 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
[Marxism] Racism in Libya
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Einde and Lou Proyect: ...which isn't exactly new news. Suresh: This article is what, less than two weeks old, and it's old news? Give me a break. I'm not impressed by quotations from Lenin about the Irish from almost a hundred years ago. Let me repeat that: that quote is nearly a century old. I'm confident that Lenin would laugh at the notion that what he said at that time and place is gospel in the early 21st century. What was excusable for the proletariat then is not excusable now. Sorry. There was some historical explanation for backward prejudices amongst workers and peasants at the turn of the 20th century, perhaps. In 2011? There's none. I'm sorry, but I won't subordinate the rights of blacks in North Africa to the Arab (chauvinist) revolution. The fact is there is deep-seated racism against blacks and South Asians in the Arab world. And the rebellion in Libya, far from challenging this, is actually strengthening Arab supremacy. Which isn't surprising considering there's no progressive, let alone revolutionary, content in their uprising whatsoever. And nobody has provided any significant evidence to support the contrary. And dealing with what Louis said in particular... Louis Proyect: Let's leave it at this. The Qaddafi dynasty looks like it is on its last legs. NATO bombing, rebel resilience and its own internal rot conspires to bring this to a conclusion. Suresh: Here's the problem. If the government in Tripoli falls now, when it is suffering from NATO bombing, it will embolden the U.S. and it's British and French allies to launch new aggressions against Africa and the Middle East in the near future. Of course, the transitional regime in Benghazi couldn't care less if workers in Somalia or Iraq are sanctioned, bombed, and occupied tomorrow because they encouraged the efflorescence of American imperialism. All they care about is taking power and enriching themselves. They've made that abundantly clear by constantly prostrating themselves before Washington, London, and Paris. Guess what? Hardly anybody except Proyect's nemesis Yoshi Furuhashi thinks Qaddafi is progressive. We just don't fool ourselves into thinking there's some sort of social revolution going on here. There isn't. And six months, a year, and five years from now, the evidence will only accumulate to support that fact. We have one newly neo-liberal regime being replaced by another neo-liberal regime. Except the latter is coming in the wake of American, British, and French bombs. 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] West is going downhill and East is going uphill?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://revolutionaryfesenjan.blogspot.com/2011/05/west-is-going-downhill-and-east-is.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
