Re: [Marxism] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Great idea about a daily. I agree about WSWS. I refer to it regularly and have for years, despite the self-reverential sectarian flourish at the end of most posts. I'm often astonished at how very good, and detailed, are its analyses, particularly economic. I know of no comparable online Marxist news/current affairs source that has the calibre of writers and thinkers needed for a successful non-party project like this. I often forward or link to their posts on a range of topics on Australian news and political blogs and email lists. And I use their arguments and facts in debate. GLW and equivalent socialist news sources in Australia simply have little to contribute to the education or enlightenment of many engaged leftists and thus remain largely unread and uninfluential after decades of opportunity to become sources of information, ideas and arguments about stuff that people don't already know. That's to a large extent to do with the fact that the self-imposed intellectual pool from which the socialist sects draw their writers and analyses is so small and narrow and not very skilled. You reap what you sow. 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] On Geronimo Pratt and Julio Butler
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
I didn't know G Pratt well. I knew Julio Butler, the man whose testimony sent
G to prison, much better.
However, I did know G well enough--and he knew me and thought well enough of
the work I was doing at LA City College with the largest BSU in Southern
California (maybe the whole state) and with the Black Student's Alliance, the
BSA, the mother-body of all So Cal BSUs to give my older brother--just back
from Viet Nam--a .38 and told him to watch over me, which he did.
As for Julio, when I first came to Calif as a 10th grader, we lived on Lucerne
just off Adams. Around the corner was a beauty parlor, Mr Julio's ran by a
man, Julio (with a hard 'J'--Joo-lio). There were 6 kids and my mother and
step-father (who passed away within a couple of years here from a stroke)
living in a one bedroom apt. In my 11th grade, moved, quite by chance, to a
quadra-plex 3 blocks away on Hillcrest. Julio lived directly above us. He was
a man who was quite courteous to my mother and all of us.
Again, by chance, I became involved in the founding and the expansion of the
LACC-BSU and, some way, Julio found himself w the Panthers. Specifically, what
I remember them calling Section 3 A near Adams and Montclair, near Johnnie's
Pastrami, an all nite take out that's been there since I been here. I was
invited by Julio to give some political education sessions there. It was
mainly Mao and it was the ideology of the times. The Red Book. On
Contradiction. On Protracted Warfare.
Then the beef w the US organization heated up and Bunchy and John Huggins were
killed at UCLA and--looking backward and only from the outside looking in--I
believe that a power struggle began erupting in LA between G and Julio. This
is what I think.
Now, when I said that Julio was courteous, that did not go to say that he was a
nice man. He was cruel and vicious. There was one night, in particular, I
came to visit my mother and when she opened the door, I could tell something
was wrong. It didn't take long for me to find out what was happening. The
sounds of a beating could be clearly heard. My mother said, Son, do
something. They gon' kill somebody. I went up the stairs and knocked on his
door. He opened the little hole in the door and saw it was me and let me in.
He was carrying a pistol in his right hand. On the floor kneeling were two men
with their hands clasped to their heads ('surrender' style). They showed signs
of a pretty bad beating. Blood on their shirts and directly in front of them.
They were being hit in that position. There were two other men, who looked
like Panthers who I didn't know. Who I did know was one of the 'detainees',
Felix, who lived across the street and who had gone to Dorsey High w me. 'Fee'
was a good 'red devil' (barbituite) dropping friend of mine. I turned to Julio
and asked What's going on? He replied I think we got ourselves some US
Niggers who we caught outside. I said, Julio, you know that's Felix from
across the street. Fee was so loaded he probably didn't feel the ass-whipping
he was getting until the next day. Julio feigned surprise, Damn, that is
Felix, he said. He let them go.
Here's my take. In the beating Julio, was showing the Panthers that he was
'for real'. There was a war brewing between the two, him and G, and he was
trying to line up his men behind him.
About the testimony that sent G to jail: I don't think that Julio entered the
Panthers as an agent. I believe, before the hairdressing thing, that he had
been a Deputy Sheriff. But he lived too close, for too long, for him--fixing
hair-- to have been the police all along. What I think happened was that the
shit got dangereous and Julio, being a spiteful SOB, wanted to make sure that
if he got it, then G would also get it. By a poison pill in the shape of a
poison pen. I believe he wrote out a letter describing the Santa Monica
shootings placing G there. He wrote To be opened upon my death and gave it
to a trusted friend, probably a cop. The cop being a cop opened it and turned
it over and the rest is his-story, as they say.
In 1998, I put on a play regarding the 1992 Civil Disturbances witha half-black
and half-Korean cast. I opened the show at FAME (a huge LA black church). I
ran into Julio there. He was head of security for the church. I went up to
him and said, Julio, what about this G thing. He gave a kind of a
self-satisfied smirk and responded, All I can say is what my father taught me.
He said, 'A lie can go around the world 3 times and still never catch up to
the truth'. Period. That was it. I hadn't seen him since before G's trial
had taken place and did not seen him since. I am given to understand that he
died some
Re: [Marxism] WWP on Floods, tornadoes social revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 12:01 AM, jay rothermel jayrother...@gmail.com wrote: So they embrace fads, urban gardening, recycling, bicycling, electric cars, and solar power for their homes and dog houses. They embrace green ideas because they do not see the working class today [in North America, Northern Europe, or Northern Africa] as offering any ideas or proposals that will change the world. -- Just because the trends cited above are not yet collective aspects of public policy does not mean they should be pooh-poohed. Rather, such individualistic acts of breaking away from the norm should be applauded and encouraged precisely because they presage a different way of living in relation to the natural world. I'm sure the Cubans involved in large-scale urban permaculture would not see urban gardening as a fad, nor would those urban proletariat around the world who bicycle because they cannot afford cars. Of course, mass transit should be collective policy everywhere, as should urban permaculture. In terms of biking, however, I'm hard-pressed to see it as a fad in any sense of the term. I bike 80 to 100 miles a week, largely because I'm an occupational athlete and I need to maintain my body in top shape for my work. In addition, multiple scientific studies have demonstrated that aerobic exercise is beneficial for physical health as well as for emotional well-being. Nothing like a good stress-busting endorphin rush at the end of the work day. Commuting 15 miles on a bike in an urban area dense with vehicular traffic only loses me about 20 minutes or so of commute time. While everyone else is getting stressed out, fuming passive-aggressively in their cars, I'm whisking along, passing huge lines of cars stalled in traffic. I have no illusions that my individual efforts are in themselves a solution to global warming. I bike commute because I like it, and it also saves on gas money. Greg McDonald 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] Peru_ Anti-mining protests erupt before poll
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Corporate media outlets claim Peru’s mining boom is doing wonders for the country’s economy, creating opportunities an making everybody richer. Quite a few Peruvians, mostly situated in the bubble-world of Lima’s wealthy areas, have been drinking the neoliberal kool-aid. Someone must have forgotten to tell those troublesome recalcitrants out in the provinces that the despoliation of their lands is good for them. Big protests erupted during April in Arequipa and in late May in the neighbouring Puno province. These pitted local communities against foreign mining corporations and Peru's security forces. http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/47820 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] (no subject)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Jay wrote: The article, if one reads it, says 50% within 10 years and that the purpose was not to obtain foreign capital, Libya having plenty of its own from the petroleum industry, but to obtain foreign expertise to reduce dependency on oil and gas. Sounds similar to what Cuba has done/is doing. Yes, it did say 50% within 10 years, but 100% ultimately. 100% straight away would be completely unrealistic I'm sure. But what are yo saying Jay? That selling off the economy when you don't even need to raise cash is somehow OK? They were doing it because they'd made an ideological decision that had nothing to do with protecting the family silver. They said they'd sell the lot and you can be sure the Gaddafi family were going to be *further* enriched in the process. The sons were already well aquainted with the multimillionaire lifestyle and as for the father's bodyguard of beautiful blonde women, I don't think that came cheap. It's just bizarre to compare what Gadaffi was planning to what Cuba is doing. Cuba, poor and broke, has been forced to look at making changes, which I'm not defending by the way, but Libya, according to that article and plenty of other evidence besides, was planning it when it had no need for capital!!! Don't you see a slight difference there? In any case, there's some pretty funky logic operating here: Gaddafi's Libya is going more towards neo-liberalism. So let's support imperialist intervention -- or support the local flunkies on the ground, which amounts to the same thing -- so that they can get to that goal faster. I don't see it. Well that logic would be pretty funky as you put it, if in fact that was what anyone here was doing but I think you'll struggle to find a single line posted on this list advocating that anyone support imperialist intervention or its local flunkies on the ground, as I am sure you are already well aware. All that anyone has said is that Gaddafi's regime is a brutal one that cannot be supported. It had made its peace with the West. It just turns out that the West hadn't entirely made its peace with Gaddafi - presumably because he was deemed an expendable liability). But most importantly, we are saying that the origins of the Libyan rebellion were essentially the same as those in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere so that, despite the movement having been coopted by ex-Gadaffi regime leaders and other pro-Western figures, the situation there has to be understood in the context of that legitimate right to rise up against oppression, rather than be damned simply because Gadaffi once talked left and has now come under NATO attack. If the West had a left to speak of, the Libyan resistance might have turned to it for support. That it didn't speaks more about our failure in the West than it does of the Libyans who rose up, got gunned down, and turned to help where it was offered. We are under no illusions about the West's intention to roll back the Arab revolution. I am under no illusion that ther will not be opportunists and staunch supporters of the West who will try to rise to the top of these movements. But none of that invalidates the Libyan people's right to rebel. Cheers, John 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] The IMF's Spring?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Great article, comrade Vijay. I agree with Páez that delinking from the $ is crucial; the first step to doing so would be exchange controls (a move that cost his Pedro his ministry when it led to a huge backlash by Quito capital). Ecuador also led the way on defaulting on its foreign debt of $10 billion in 2009, on Odious Debt grounds. Just one friendly amendment: where you argue this - DSK had to deal with two major challenges to the Fund: (1) the lack of democracy in the management at the Fund, (2) the discredited ideology of the Fund I would say there were two bigger ones: the IMF needed more money, as it was in the red and had fired 15% of the staff and started selling gold by late 2008; and it needed borrowers (by the time of the 2008 AGM in Washington, it was jokingly referred to as the Turkish Monetary Fund because all its big borrowers had repaid early). The crisis was a godsend, as was a committee chaired by the South African finance minister, Trevor Manuel, which recommended a massive new Special Drawing Rights issuance that ultimately boosted IMF capacity by $750 billion within a year. (Yup, Manuel may replace DSK if they look beyond Europe: http://imfboss.org/2011/05/24/candidate-assessment-is-manuel-the-man-to-manage-the-imf-by-patrick-bond/#more-290 ) And that gave the IMF the confidence to zigzag back from its year of promoting quasi-Keynesian measures in a few middle-income states (e.g. a 180 degree reversal in South Africa) to business as usual. Last week I reviewed the recent record of the IMF In North Africa and Palestine, and it is rather predictably neolib: http://www.palestine.rosalux.org/news/37588/economic-attacks-against-arab-democracy.html Economic attacks against Arab democracy by Patrick Bond 1. Washington’s seeding of the Arab democratic revolution An incident two and a half years ago in Carthage spoke volumes about power politics and economic ideology. As he was given the country’s main honour, the Order of the Tunisian Republic, on account of his “contribution to the reinforcement of economic development at the global level,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn returned the favour, offering the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali a warm embrace, which turned out to be the kiss of death. “Economic policy adopted here is a sound policy and is the best model for many emerging countries,” said Strauss-Kahn. “Our discussions confirmed that we share many of the same views on Tunisia’s achievements and main challenges. Tunisia is making impressive progress in its reform agenda and its prospects are favorable.”1 In late May 2011, just days after Strauss-Kahn resigned in disgrace after New York police charged him with sexual predation against an African hotel cleaning worker, the IMF outlined a new set of opportunities in Tunisia and neighboring countries: “The spark ignited by the death of Mohammed Bouazizi has irretrievably changed the future course of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). But each country will change in its own way and at its own speed. Nor will they necessarily have a common political or economic model when they reach their destination.”2 In reality, ‘the model’ for each is indeed ‘common’ in Washington’s eyes: neoliberalism. And moreover, there appears to be very little difference in what is being advocated to Arab democrats today and what was advocated to Arab dictators yesterday. For in September 2010, IMF Survey Magazine praised Ben Ali for his commitment “to reduce tax rates on businesses and to offset those reductions by increasing the standard Value Added Tax (VAT) rate.” 3 Mohammed Bouazizi was an informal street trader, and the police overturned his fruit cart a few weeks later, on December 27, presumably because he was not contributing to Value Added Tax with his survivalist business. (There may have been other reasons, but this is typically the rationale offered by authorities for disrupting street traders across the world.)4 If the IMF leadership praised the dictatorship, insisted on austerity and advocated squeezing poor people for more taxes, what business does it have today in giving similar advice to Tunisia, or anywhere in the Middle East and North Africa, or for that matter Europe or anywhere at all? What can we learn about IMF thinking in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, as well as Palestine? FULL VERSION: http://www.palestine.rosalux.org/news/37588/economic-attacks-against-arab-democracy.html *** Patrick Bond’s report follows a week of consultation in Gaza and the West Bank (16-22 May 2011) while based at TIDA-Gaza, during which a great many Palestinians and TIDA staff were generous with their hospitality, time and insights. Patrick
[Marxism] Syria and Hizballah
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1737/syria-and-hizballah Jun 02 2011 by Khalid Saghieh [This article is written by Khalid Saghieh and translated by Assaf Khoury*] Translator's Introduction Up until a few months ago, Hizballah could legitimately claim pride of place in the Arab anti-imperialist camp. Hizballah was the only Arab force that repeatedly stymied the powerful Israeli military and never caved in. Over a period of nearly two decades, it was the most stubborn obstacle to imperialist domination of the Middle East. In more recent years, to its credit, Hizballah embraced an inclusiveness it had shunned in earlier times. It shed its earlier visceral enmity of left secular groups and parties, however fitfully, and welcomed their support, both inside and outside Lebanon. The recent revolutionary upheaval shaking the Arab world has given rise to a new powerful contender, the massive and largely decentralized mobilization of hundreds of thousands openly defying despotic rulers. It introduces an irreversible re-ordering of political forces, from Morocco to Bahrain and from Syria to Yemen, whose ultimate outcome is too early to predict. Friends and foes have therefore closely monitored Hizballah's positioning relative to the tectonic shifts affecting the Middle Eastern political landscape. Hassan Nasrallah, Hizballah's secretary-general, has publicly praised the uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain – but not in Syria. May 25 is Liberation Day in Lebanon. (On May 25, 2000, the Israeli army was forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.) It is an occasion for speech-making, and staking positions and counter-positions, in the perpetual carousel of Lebanese politics. Given Hizballah's history and reliance on Syria, there was perhaps no surprise in Nasrallah's devoting some 10 minutes of his hour-long speech to defend the Syrian regime. Nonetheless, there was also disappointment in his inability to at least acknowledge a Syrian revolt that is riding and continuing the revolutionary wave sweeping across Arab lands. The article below appeared in Arabic, as an editorial in the Beirut daily al-Akhbar of May 26, and reflects this sentiment of disappointment. Its author, Khalid Saghieh, is al-Akhbar's managing editor. The significance of al-Akhbar is that it is decidedly left-wing and normally the most supportive of Hizballah of the three major Arabic-language dailies in Beirut] Syria and Hizballah by Khalid Saghieh There would be no surprise if anyone said that Hizballah is not a reformist party. It does not have a reform program in Lebanon, nor does it campaign in support of fundamental reforms promoted by any of its allies. When it felt secure there would be no internal attempt to reduce or eliminate it as a resistance movement, Hizballah did not insist on getting its fair share in the government or even taking part in it. Hizballah does not therefore belong to the “democracy-first” camp. As a party, its priority is resistance to Israel, for which it is willing to sacrifice many aspects of democratic principles, if these are in contradiction with its role as a resistance movement. All of this is well known and amply demonstrated by Hizballah's history. Hizballah, the party that succeeded in liberating the land in May 2000 and in withstanding the Israeli onslaught in July-August 2006, is the same party that did not hesitate to confront its internal enemies in May 2008 by force of arms. In the latter case, there were internal and external forces colluding to curtail Hizballah as a resistance movement. Hizballah put an end to these attempts using means contrary to accepted norms of democracy, by besieging several Beirut neighborhoods and forcibly disarming its opponents. It is true that Hizballah prefers that the country be ruled by a majority that supports it as a resistance movement. However, it will not relinquish its function as a resistance, even if it cannot secure the support of such a majority. If this is Hizballah's view on issues of reform and democracy in Lebanon, it stands to reason that it holds a similar view on events in Syria. Hizballah will not abandon a friend or an ally that does not abide by rules of democracy. It would therefore be naive to expect Hizballah to support the toppling of the regime in Syria. Those who have been so eager to bestow a romantic aura on Hizballah, as a disciplined liberation movement, should try to restrain their ardor a little, in fairness to Hizballah's self-definition as a resistance, first and foremost, if only to avoid facing countless disappointments in months ahead. That said, it seems that
Re: [Marxism] (no subject)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It would be very nice if one were able to distinguish between the Libyan people with their right to rebel against a repressive dictator and those who have sold their souls to the imperialist devils in a way that undermines any semblance of national independence for a Third World country. That's no doubt possible in the abstract, but it's hard in the real world. In the article Louis recommended from the ISO's International Socialist Review (which on the whole is quite a good article) the authors distinguish between two key poles in the Libyan opposition: (1) the students and youth of the February 17th Movement and (2) the National Transitional Council dominated by ex-Gaddafi regime members and CIA-types. However, when I go to the Website of the February 17th Movement to see, they too are all gung-ho about the NATO intervention and bombing campaign. The Tunisian, Egyptian, and Yemeni students and youth spearheading those popular revolts never called for an intervention in their countries -- and rightly so. There is something smelly about this Libyan revolt, although no doubt there are some honest rebels in it somewhere. jay On 6/4/2011 7:45 AM, johnedmund...@paradise.net.nz wrote: == Jay wrote: The article, if one reads it, says 50% within 10 years and that the purpose was not to obtain foreign capital, Libya having plenty of its own from the petroleum industry, but to obtain foreign expertise to reduce dependency on oil and gas. Sounds similar to what Cuba has done/is doing. Yes, it did say 50% within 10 years, but 100% ultimately. 100% straight away would be completely unrealistic I'm sure. But what are yo saying Jay? That selling off the economy when you don't even need to raise cash is somehow OK? They were doing it because they'd made an ideological decision that had nothing to do with protecting the family silver. They said they'd sell the lot and you can be sure the Gaddafi family were going to be *further* enriched in the process. The sons were already well aquainted with the multimillionaire lifestyle and as for the father's bodyguard of beautiful blonde women, I don't think that came cheap. It's just bizarre to compare what Gadaffi was planning to what Cuba is doing. Cuba, poor and broke, has been forced to look at making changes, which I'm not defending by the way, but Libya, according to that article and plenty of other evidence besides, was planning it when it had no need for capital!!! Don't you see a slight difference there? In any case, there's some pretty funky logic operating here: Gaddafi's Libya is going more towards neo-liberalism. So let's support imperialist intervention -- or support the local flunkies on the ground, which amounts to the same thing -- so that they can get to that goal faster. I don't see it. Well that logic would be pretty funky as you put it, if in fact that was what anyone here was doing but I think you'll struggle to find a single line posted on this list advocating that anyone support imperialist intervention or its local flunkies on the ground, as I am sure you are already well aware. All that anyone has said is that Gaddafi's regime is a brutal one that cannot be supported. It had made its peace with the West. It just turns out that the West hadn't entirely made its peace with Gaddafi - presumably because he was deemed an expendable liability). But most importantly, we are saying that the origins of the Libyan rebellion were essentially the same as those in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere so that, despite the movement having been coopted by ex-Gadaffi regime leaders and other pro-Western figures, the situation there has to be understood in the context of that legitimate right to rise up against oppression, rather than be damned simply because Gadaffi once talked left and has now come under NATO attack. If the West had a left to speak of, the Libyan resistance might have turned to it for support. That it didn't speaks more about our failure in the West than it does of the Libyans who rose up, got gunned down, and turned to help where it was offered. We are under no illusions about the West's intention to roll back the Arab revolution. I am under no illusion that ther will not be opportunists and staunch supporters of the West who will try to rise to the top of these movements. But none of that invalidates the Libyan people's right to rebel. Cheers, John 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] Ray Bryant, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 79
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times June 3, 2011 Ray Bryant, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 79 By NATE CHINEN Ray Bryant, a jazz pianist whose sensitivity and easy authority made him a busy accompanist and a successful solo artist, beginning in the mid-1950s, died on Thursday. He was 79. His wife of 20 years, Claude Bryant, said he died at New York Hospital Queens after a long illness. He lived in Jackson Heights, Queens. Mr. Bryant had a firm touch and an unshakable sense of time, notably in his left hand, which he often used to build a bedrock vamp. Even in a bebop setting, he favored the ringing tonalities of the gospel church. And he was sumptuously at home with the blues, as a style and a sensibility but never as an affectation. All of this contributed to his accomplishment as a solo pianist. His first solo piano album was “Alone With the Blues,” in 1958, and he went on to make a handful of others, including “Alone at Montreux,” “Solo Flight” and “Montreux ’77.” His most recent release, “In the Back Room,” was yet another solo album, recorded live at Rutgers University and released on the Evening Star label in 2008. Raphael Homer Bryant was born on Dec. 24, 1931, in Philadelphia, and made his name in that city during its considerable postwar jazz boom. Along with his brother, Tommy, a bassist, he played in the house band at the Blue Note Club in Philadelphia, which had a steady flow of major talent dropping in from New York. (Charlie Parker and Miles Davis were among the musicians they played with there.) In short order Mr. Bryant had plenty of prominent sideman work, both with and without his brother. One early measure of his ascent was the album “Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant,” released on Columbia in 1955. It was a splashy introduction for him as well as for Ms. Carter, the imposingly gifted jazz singer. It was soon followed by “The Ray Bryant Trio” (Prestige), an accomplished album that introduced Mr. Bryant’s composition “Blues Changes,” with its distinctive chord progression. That song would become a staple of the jazz literature, if less of a proven standard than “Cubano Chant,” the sprightly Afro-Cuban fanfare that Mr. Bryant recorded under his own name and in bands led by the drummers Art Blakey, Art Taylor and Jo Jones. Mr. Bryant had several hit songs early in his solo career, beginning with “Little Susie,” an original blues that he recorded both for the Signature label and for Columbia. In 1960 he reached No. 30 on the Billboard chart with a novelty song called “The Madison Time,” rushed into production to capitalize on a dance craze. (The song has had a durable afterlife, appearing on the soundtrack to the 1988 movie “Hairspray,” and in the recent Broadway musical production.) He later broke into the Top 100 with a cover of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe,” released just a few months after the original, in 1967. But Mr. Bryant’s legacy never rested on his chart success or his nimble response to popular trends. It can be discerned throughout his own discography and in some of his work as a sideman, notably with the singers Carmen McRae and Jimmy Rushing, and on albums like Dizzy Gillespie’s “Sonny Side Up,” on Verve. “After Hours,” a track on that album, begins with Mr. Bryant and his brother playing a textbook slow-drag blues. Along with his wife, Mr. Bryant is survived by a son, Raphael Bryant Jr.; a daughter, Gina; three grandchildren; and two brothers, Leonard and Lynwood. Mr. Bryant’s sister, Vera Eubanks, is the mother of several prominent jazz musicians: Robin Eubanks, a trombonist; Kevin Eubanks, the guitarist and former bandleader on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno”; and Duane Eubanks, a trumpeter. 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] Alabama new anti-immigrant law harsher than Arizona's
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times June 3, 2011 In Alabama, a Harsh Bill for Residents Here Illegally By JULIA PRESTON Alabama has passed a sweeping bill to crack down on illegal immigrants that both supporters and opponents call the toughest of its kind in the country, going well beyond a law Arizona passed last year that caused a furor there. The measure was passed by large margins in the Alabama Senate and the House, both Republican-controlled, in votes on Thursday. Governor Robert Bentley, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill into law. “Alabama is now the new No. 1 state for immigration enforcement,” said Kris Kobach, a constitutional lawyer who is secretary of state in Kansas. He has helped write many state bills to curtail illegal immigration, including Alabama’s. “This bill invites discrimination into every aspect of the lives of people in Alabama,” said Cecillia Wang, director of the immigrants’ rights project of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has brought legal challenges against several state immigration-control laws. Calling Alabama’s bill “outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional,” Ms. Wang said, “We will take action if the governor signs it.” The Alabama bill includes a provision similar to one that stirred controversy in Arizona, authorizing state and local police officers to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop based on a “reasonable suspicion” the person is an illegal immigrant. Federal courts have suspended most of that Arizona law. Alabama’s bill goes beyond Arizona’s. It bars illegal immigrants from enrolling in any public college after high school. It obliges public schools to determine the immigration status of all students, requiring parents of foreign-born students to report the immigration status of their children. The bill requires Alabama’s public schools to publish figures on the number of immigrants — both legal and illegal — who are enrolled and on any costs associated with the education of illegal immigrant children. The bill, known as H.B. 56, also makes it a crime to knowingly rent housing to an illegal immigrant. It bars businesses from taking tax deductions on wages paid to unauthorized immigrants. “This is a jobs-creation bill for Americans,” said Representative Micky Hammon, a Republican who was a chief sponsor of the bill. “We really want to prevent illegal immigrants from coming to Alabama and to prevent those who are here from putting down roots,” he said. The Alabama bill comes at the end of a legislative season when many states wrestled with immigration crackdown proposals. Measures focusing only on enforcement failed in 16 states, according to a tally by the National Immigration Forum in Washington, a group opposing such laws. In May, Georgia adopted a tough enforcement law, which civil rights groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to stop. Proponents of state immigration enforcement laws won a major victory last week when the Supreme Court upheld a 2007 law in Arizona imposing penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Alabama’s law includes some provisions similar to the Arizona statute that courts rejected as incursions on legal terrain reserved for the federal government. But Michael Hethmon, general counsel of the Immigration Reform Law Institute in Washington, said the Alabama bill was a compendium of measures against illegal immigrants that his group had tested in other states. Mr. Hethmon’s group is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to reduce immigration. The bill requires all Alabama employers to use a federal system, E-Verify, to confirm the legal status of all workers. The measure also makes it a state crime for an immigrant to fail to carry a document proving legal status, and makes it a crime for anyone to transport an illegal immigrant. 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] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Rose: GLW and equivalent socialist news sources in Australia simply have little to contribute to the education or enlightenment of many engaged leftists and thus remain largely unread and uninfluential after decades of opportunity to become sources of information, ideas and arguments about stuff that people don't already know. Is this based on anything other than your own impressions, or maybe prejudices? In terms of readership, several thousand people still read it on paper each week, and GLW has appeared regularly in the top 10 of the politics and culture category of the Hitwise web rankings of Australian sites a few times, and has topped it. In terms of mainstream recognition as the left publication, I just checked the Factiva database, and the string green left weekly appears 398 times in Australian news items collated there since 1993. A further 637 items contain the term green left, which of course could refer to a number of things, but glancing at the first summary page of hits many of these also refer to GLW (e.g. a 1998 letter to The Australian from the the then federal minister of communications: AFTER reading 'PM turns back to our future' (9/12/97) on the Federal Government's industry statement, I seriously wondered whether the sub-editors had mistakenly replaced a Green Left editorial for the real thing.) The term world socialist website (or web site) appears 43 times. More anecdotally, when I taught at a regional university, students would often cite GLW, and the library was happy to take a sub. Not to mention the feedback one gets from thousands of people after staffing stalls for 20 years. WSWS has some OK analyses but you have to wonder how good a contribution a publication makes when the associated political project is barking mad. It's design is probably better then GLW's, if a little too slick and corporate looking for my taste, but GLW is doing a lot better in incorporating multimedia. Good luck to Louis' idea of a broad socialist news site, but while a good and useful left publication doesn't necessarily need an organisation, it does sort of beg the question of one. GLW's online profile, for one, is I'm pretty sure due to its physical activist/street presence. Even just for this reason, I'm not for junking a print version, but rather see a gradual wind down as the better option, and would see even for some years hence the usefulness of printing a weekly broadsheet with say a major article or too and highlights of what's online, to hand out at stalls and events and so on. 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] Bucket Shops
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == a little different. In an option as I understand it, one must exercise the same to buy at a preset price. This exists elsewhere. I'll give you 100 bucks to keep your car for sale to me for 2000 bucks for a certain period. In this scenario, in particular the CDS, insurance policies were sold against the default of mortgage securities to third parties who held no interest in the same. Like me buying fire insurance in someone's house even though I don't have an insurable interest in the same. Guy defaults on his mortgage, not only does bank lose the principal, but that bank or another institution has to pay out to a third party, who suffered no loss, another similar amount. collapse of realty prices comes along and the whole house of cards comes crashing down, aggravated by clever bears who saw money to be made, particularly out of the subprime stuff that was virtually predestined to fail. Yeah, it does differ from traditional short sales or selling short scams where stocks are borrowed in kind from a seller with a promise to be paid back in the same form and then cashed out with a view to a decline in price; then the paper is rebought at rock bottom prices and tendered back to the lender to settle the debt for big profit. Stories of colorful characters like Jay Gould and Daniel Drew exist who did that to their own companies when they decided they were through with them, stuff that is illegal today and which were glaring examples of what was called even in those days financial piracy showing how often capitalists much less to advance industry and the forces of production as they claimed they did. Drew is the guy from whom the term watering stock comes from. In the 1820s before entering Wall St., he worked as a cattle driver bringing herds down from upstate to the city. He'd stop off around Harlem, then a nearby rural hamlet, and water em up before they hit the scales downtown. His downfall came in a big overreach when he tried to do that to Commodore Vanderbilt-supposedly a big infrastructure guy-circa 1870 who bankrupted him by pumping his entire fortune in keeping his stock prices up. On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 7:13 PM, DW dwalters...@gmail.com wrote: Interesting. The way they are described it sounds like a form of simple stock options which amount to the same thing, betting on the performance of the stock, or the spread between the current price and a future price (up or down). David 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] Tornado kills 4 in Massachusetts
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have been in Chico for 40 years. We had a small tornado nearby once before. We have had 2 in the last 2 weeks. Not much damage, but, even so, the increase in frequency is striking. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Provocation against Palestinians on Jerusalem day
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Provocation against Palestinians on Jerusalem day By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, Jerusalem, 3 June 2011 As thousands of right-wing Israeli settlers descended on Jerusalem to celebrate the so-called unification of the city this week, Palestinian residents of occupied East Jerusalem were confronted by extreme provocations and the stark reality that their city remains very much divided. http://electronicintifada.net/content/provocation-against-palestinians-jerusalem-day/10040 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] Haleh Sahabi
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://revolutionaryfesenjan.blogspot.com/2011/06/situation-in-iran-part-two-haleh-sahabi.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Manuel: 'hubris we tend to see even on this list (WSWS has some ok analysis... cries for the need of a publication that can draw a much wider readership and writership' I don't think my lack of enthusiasm for the WSWS is hubris. If it wasn't clear I simply meant that whatever good writing is there it's matched by a number of other socialist sites, and I'm not sure why some see the WSWS as particularly brilliant (I'm all for professional-grade design, writing and editing though, and if the post-Healyites have acquired these skills in disproportionate measure through whatever means and despite bat-shit craziness, and maybe I can't separate the online crisp sentences and erudite film reviews from glazed eyed and foam-specked people I've seen in live action, sure, emulate their good socialist journalism). I agree with your broader point, *but* I'd add that the history of left publishing seems to show a tension between broadness and commitment. While a broad radical left publication like the old US Guardian and Tariq Al's efforts in the last 60s and early 70s can flourish in a period of upturn, they seem difficult to sustain otherwise. Green Left, for its part, was set up as a non-party paper in 1991, with non-members on staff and many non-member contributors, supporters and distributors. That was difficult to maintain at the initial level, but the form and the intention is still there, and the reality too to some extent with a broader range of contributors and reprints than many if not most socialist publications. I should have noted before that this broadness is part of GLW's readership and influence - even if Rose and some others on the far left sourly deny the existence of this readership and influence - as well as activist commitment . Many people, not just hardened Bolsheviks or those with experience of such, *expect* a paper to have a line in every article though. Recently GL printed/posted an opinion supporting intervention in Libya, and one comment was along the lines of how dare GL support the blood-soaked imperialists, etc, with an editor patiently responding as often happens that no we don't, but we publish debate and a range of views on the left, etc. So there's a tension there, which GLW has in the main used creatively, though can't resolve, at least until the broader party that the broader paper has always been meant to encourage can come about. This project of course has had its ups and down, to say the least, but the potential is still there, in a better form than the Greens (see, for example, the Tasmanian Greens recent support for a neo-liberal budget, as part of the government there). 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] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Furthermore, the publication should include accounts of real life in this economic crisis, because every worker who loses her or his job, every family facing home foreclosure, every returning veteran, every sick person trying to pay medical bills has a name, a face, relationships with friends and family, maybe marriages and romantic relationships. There are things that can't be measured with statistics. There are ways that this economic crisis affects people that have to do with emotions like anger, fear, humiliation, anxiety, rejection; I could continue. There are also things that people are doing to try to survive. In the blog that I was assigned to write for my website development class, I have attempted to express what economic dislocation has meant for me and my family. You can read it at http://thomasbias.wordpress.com. I hope that the proposed publication can connect the economic numbers of this crisis with real people and convey just how terrible it is to endure it. Tom -Original Message- From: marxism-bounces+tgbias=ptd@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu [mailto:marxism-bounces+tgbias=ptd@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Louis Proyect Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2011 11:08 AM To: tgb...@ptd.net Subject: Re: [Marxism] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I think that the publication should be seen in a from below sense that groups like Solidarity and the ISO advocate. 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] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:43:01 -0400 Louis Proyect l...@panix.com writes: On 6/4/11 4:41 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: Don't be surprised if people with long experience as professional journalists don't pitch in on this. That's what happens when you post just after waking up from a nap. I meant to say, Don't be surprised if people with long experience as professional journalists pitch in on this. There are probably more than a few would be Chris Hedges types out there among professional journalists who would probably jump at the opportunity to contribute to such a venture. I think it would defeat the purpose of such a venture to have just professional journalists involved, but in addition to contributing their own pieces, they can also help by setting standards for quality writing and editing which can be followed by the nonprofessional journalists who would be essential for this publication to succeed. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math 2550% Penny Stock Gains? Our last pick exploded 2550% - Join our newsletter for free picks! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4dead0d1af6398241est05vuc 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] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is a good time to think about digital publishing. Newspapers around the world are going out of business in droves and a few are surviving by going digital. In Australia, even the major dailies are recognising that the the dead-tree business model is uneconomic and are moving into iPad apps, with paywalls just around the corner. To take the News Corporation empire as an example, The Wall Street Journal has developed a model that is being extended worldwide. The media barons are getting excited about a future without massive printing presses, industrial premises and workforces, and paper costs, but they're worried about whether they can make money from it. Staff at the big newspaper publishers are being trained in digital publishing, and Fairfax Media (Sydney Morning Herald, Age, etc) is trying to outsource most of its production. There will still be papers, but in ever declining numbers, and they will be printed on facilities shared or contracted by the various stables. The problem for the media business is how to get people to pay for what's on offer when so much better stuff is free on the web. Why read The Australian's international section on your smartphone when you can get The Guardian, Le Monde or Al Jazeera just as easily? The opportunity for the left is that publishing is no longer an expensive proposition, particularly with skilled volunteer labour, and the Marxists Internet Archive shows what can be done in that department. The WSWS was well ahead of the curve on this, perhaps as a matter of necessity when most of their volunteer paper sellers departed, so it has carved out some space. E-books are another area of massive change. For the left, the Marxists Internet Archive led the way in making a huge number of works available, but e-readers and smartphones open up even more opportunity, and Manybooks will distribute just about anything free. Amazon, I believe, will take on self-published e-books. And don't worry Nick, Ben and others, no one except a few even smaller sects on the Australian left wants Green Left's niche. You and others have worked hard for it and are comfortable in it, and it's all yours, so you can relax. Ed Lewis 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] Reflections on the World Socialist Web Site
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Ed Lewis: And don't worry Nick, Ben and others, no one except a few even smaller sects on the Australian left wants Green Left's niche. You and others have worked hard for it and are comfortable in it, and it's all yours, so you can relax. Don't worry Ed, I've never been worried about anything you opine (nor have I expressed any particular worry, or feelings of being relaxed or comfortable, in this discussion, so don't tell me what I think and feel if you don't mind). As a matter of fact, though, the considerable number of non-Socialist Alliance people who write articles for and letters to, and want their events listed in and pay for advertising in GLW seem interested in its niche. What Australian broad left publications exactly are you comparing GLW unfavourably to in this regard? But you've never let facts facts get in the way of a smug jibe have you Ed? Rather than hackneyed generalities about the web taken over from print and all socialist group being sects, I think a more concrete discussion of how print media, which are not yet redundant, can be used by the as well as electronic media, and how socialist organisation best relates to socialist media today, is more useful. 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] Bucket Shops
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Some more history, courtesy of the Catholic Church. Slater, T. (1912). Speculation. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved June 5, 2011 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14211a.htm The result is that in practice speculation deserves all the evil reputation which attaches to the word. The contention, then, of producers and consumers that speculation has a disastrous effect on real business transactions seems to be well grounded. They maintain that speculators denaturalize prices. These should be regulated, and are naturally regulated, by the varying costs of production and by the mutual interaction of supply and demand; but the artificial dealings of speculators tend to fix prices without reference to those natural factors. Hence, producers and consumers are robbed by clever men, who manipulate the markets in their own interests, produce nothing, perform no useful social service, and are parasites on commerce. In Germany the Exchange Law of June, 1896, forbade gambling in options and futures in agricultural produce, and after a severe struggle with the Berlin Exchange the Government succeeded in maintaining the law. A similar law was passed in Austria in January, 1903. America and Great Britain as yet have no special laws on the matter, though more measures than one have been proposed to Congress. The great difficulty of distinguishing between transactions for effective delivery and mere time-bargains, and the ease with which positive laws on the matter could be evaded, have checked the tendency to positive legislation. In England the existing laws against gambling and fraud have been found sufficiently effective to provide a remedy for cases of special importance. 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
