Re: [Marxism] To V.C.

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I completely agree with Dave. Louis, making this type of threat is
ridiculous, no matter how vague it is.

Further, I don't see why this list has to continually be used for all sorts
of personal beefs you have, but whatever, I suppose it is what it is and if
you think that's the best use of it, then so be it - it's your list. But
it's unfortunate because this list has been of real use to many of us over
the years, despite that.

I should, by the way, add that I am a grad student in Sociology at NYU,
where Vivek is a professor. But that's really neither here nor there.

DCQ wrote:

"This sounds like a threat. Scratch that. It is a threat. Rudeness is one
thing; threats are something else entirely.

Retract it, clarify what you meant, and apologize, or go ahead and unsub
me."

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[Marxism] Peter Olney reviews Jane McAlevey's Raising Expectations

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I think this review by Peter Olney of Jane McAlevey's book "Raising
Expectations" has a lot to say in terms of the tasks of the left right now.
http://stansburyforum.com/raising-expectations/

Excerpt:
"It took Harry Bridges and his band of left-wing agitators 20 years to
build enough strength on the Pacific waterfront to ignite the general
maritime strike in 1934 that led to a West Coast dockworkers union that is
today’s ILWU. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union survives and
prospers to this day because of the legacy of the Communist and labor left
that McAlevey points to. Permanent revitalization of working class
movements will require a similar long term and organic commitment of people
and modern day institutions that have the roots and organic ties that
McAlevey references in the Epilogue."

- Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Anti-union thugs vs. NYU student activists

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Thanks to whoever posted the link to the video from Tuesday's
demonstration at NYU, organized by a group I'm active in, the NYU
Student Labor Action Movement. Here's some more info.

*please forward widely*
Anti-Union Thugs Threaten to Assault NYU Students at Rally for Justice
Company Owned by NYU Law School Trustee Daniel Straus Sends Goon Squad
to Intimidate Students and Workers at NYU

Video here: Anti-Union Thugs Threaten to Assault NYU Student at Rally
for Justice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TtzG_j2i4

On Tuesday, NYU's Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) organized a
rally (http://nyunews.com/index.php/2012/09/12/protest/) in solidarity
with nursing home workers on strike against efforts to slash their
benefits. These workers work at nursing homes owned by Daniel Straus,
a member of the Executive Committee of the NYU Law School Board of
Trustees and a major NYU donor. Straus gives over $1 million a year to
endow the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice
at the Law School.

Our peaceful rally was marred by anti-union thugs who yelled
homophobic slurs at us and verbally threatened to assault NYU
students. They promised one student they would "knock him out" and
"find him" after the rally. Unbelievable? Yes. But here's the video:
Anti-Union Thugs Threaten to Assault NYU Student at Rally for Justice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TtzG_j2i4

Many of these anti-union thugs claimed to be nursing home workers, yet
when asked which nursing home they worked in, they pointed to the
building behind them - the Straus Institute! And when asked what their
signs, which read, "SLAM Doesn't Speak for Us", meant, none of them
could tell us what SLAM stood for.

No student should be threatened like that on their own campus -
especially not by people getting paid by a leader of the NYU community
like Daniel Straus.

These actions underscore just how far Straus is willing to go in his
campaign to slash the benefits of nursing home workers in Connecticut,
and to prevent workers elsewhere from joining a union. The National
Labor Relations Board has ruled that Straus's company's actions in
Connecticut are illegal (http://www.seiu1199ne.org/2012/08/16/2047/),
and they have taken his company to court in pursuit of an injunction
(http://www.seiu1199ne.org/2012/09/08/breaking-news-nlrb-seeks-injunction-against-healthbridge-to-block-illegal-cuts/)
to bring the workers back and restore the health care benefits,
pensions, and sick days that were taken away from them. Yet none of
this seems to have deterred Straus and his company.

We in the Student Labor Action Movement will not be intimidated by the
presence of hired thugs on our campus. We will continue to seek
justice for the striking nursing home workers of SEIU 1199 and to
expose the hypocrisy of Daniel Straus, who funds an Institute for Law
and Justice even as he breaks the law and commits injustices against
workers.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Share this message and the video of Straus's thugs intimidating NYU
students standing for workers' rights FAR and WIDE!

2. Send an e-mail to NYU President Sexton -  john.sex...@nyu.edu - and
Dean Revesz of NYU Law School - richard.rev...@nyu.edu - demanding
that they publicly condemn Straus for sending these thugs to campus to
intimidate students. Even better, call them: Sexton's numbers not
listed, but Revesz is at (212) 998-6000.

3. Sign a petition
(http://www.change.org/petitions/nyu-remove-daniel-straus-from-the-law-school-board-of-trustees)
demanding that Daniel Straus be removed from the NYU Law School Board
of Trustees for his violations of workers' rights and his company's
intimidation tactics at NYU.

3. Come to a Student Labor Action Movement
(https://www.facebook.com/nyuSLAM) planning meeting to plan a
response: Thursday, 8pm, NYU Sociology Department Conference Room (295
Lafayette St., 4th floor, near the corner of Houston & Lafayette)

4. Come to our press conference/rally next week to condemn Straus's
intimidation tactics and demand that he stop breaking the law and
provide justice for nursing home workers. Time/date TBA.

5. Questions? Want to get more involved? E-mail nyus...@gmail.com. And
like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/nyuSLAM).

More info on the nursing home workers' struggle for justice from Daniel Straus:
NYU Law Trustee Funds Justice Institute, Locks Out Workers (The
Nation) - 
http://www.thenation.com/blog/169413/nyu-law-trustee-funds-justice-institute-locks-out-workers
NLRB Orders Reinstatement and Back Pay for Healthbridge Strikers (SEIU
1199) - http://www.seiu1199ne.org/2012/08/16/2047/
Know Your Trustees: Daniel E. Straus (NYU Local) -
http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2012/03/19/know-your-trustees-daniel-e-straus/
Strike Against Healthbridge Nursing Homes in Con

[Marxism] Republic Windows & Doors Workers Re-Occupy Factory

[Dan DiMaggio]

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The workers who occupied the Republic Windows & Doors factory in 2008 have
occupied their factory again, after their new employer threatened to shut
down:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-republic-windows-redux-workers-occupy-goose-island-plant-20120223,0,4716311.story

Apparently the workers are demanding the opportunity to explore buying the
plant themselves:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120223/NEWS05/120229886/republic-windows-workers-reoccupy-plant-after-shutdown

You can see news about their previous occupation here:
http://www.ueunion.org/ue_republic.html

You can also watch a movie about their previous occupation, Workers'
Republic, here: http://workersrepublic.tv/

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Re: [Marxism] Debate over Occupy tactics: an invented controversy

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Scott wrote, "Vandalism is adventurism, you say, could not vandalism also
be propaganda?
I'm not talking about smashing windows, but scrawling a message on one ..."

Scott, is this the type of propagandist vandalism you're referring to, from
last semester's "This Is Not a New School Occupation" New School Occupation?

http://gawker.com/5862033/new-school-occupation-pits-student-against-student/gallery/1
http://nyulocal.com/city/2011/11/28/occupation-at-new-school-meets-its-demise/

Just wondering ...

- Dan

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[Marxism] Bloomberg: If I had it my way, I'd cut half of NYC teachers and double class sizes

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This is absolutely disgusting. Billionaire Bloomberg is so out of touch
with the reality of schools that he thinks the best solution would be to
cut the number of teachers in half and double class sizes. Hopefully this
adds lots of fuel to the fire for Occupy the DOE and OWS generally.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/01/bloomberg-if-i-had-it-my-way-id-dump-half-of-nycs-teachers/
(see video, with quotes from Bloomberg in the link above)

Bloomberg: If I Had It My Way I’d Dump Half Of NYC’s Teachers

Mayor Stuns Many At MIT Speech, Says He'd Greatly Enlarge Class Size, Too

December 1, 2011 10:01 PM

*NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)* — It’s a jaw-dropping prescription for fixing city
schools.

“Professor” Michael Bloomberg said Thursday he would accomplish more with
less by slashing the teaching staff in
half—
and that’s just the beginning, reports CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.

He looked like he was from another planet when he dressed as a hippie for a
political show, but the mayor’s blueprint for fixing city schools have some
asking “what was he smoking?”

“If I had the ability to just design the system and say ex cathedra this is
what we’re going to do you would cut the number of teachers in half and
weed out all the bad ones,” Bloomberg said.

That’s right. The mayor told people at a Massachusetts Institute of
Technology conference it would be far better to run city schools with way
fewer people. And, by the way, on the billionaire’s perfect planet that
would mean cramming more kids into each
classroom
.

“And double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for the
students,” Bloomberg said.

Andrea Spencer is dean of the School of Education at Pace University.

“When I heard the statement I was really shocked,” Spencer said. “There is
absolutely no evidence to suggest that half of the teachers in any system
are ineffective. What there is evidence to support is the fact that larger
classes really place detriments in the way of learning.”

But “Professor” Bloomberg is sticking to his views.

“The best thing you can do is put the best teacher you can possibly find
and afford in front of the classroom and if you have to have fewer because
there’s only a certain number of dollars to go around, I’m in favor of
that,” Bloomberg said.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said he put the
mayor’s latest views on teaching in the same category of his decision to
appoint a former magazine editor with no teaching experience to be schools
chancellor
.

“So the mayor thinks this is a good idea, in high schools to have class
size in high schools of 70 kids. Clearly the mayor has never taught,” said
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

“And probably the mayor’s having another Cathie Black moment.”

The mayor also said he’s given teachers a 105 percent raise since he took
office. Mulgrew said maybe the mayor should have stopped in at a math class
while he was at MIT.

In lamenting the
qualityof
teachers, the mayor claimed they come from the bottom 20 percent of
their class and not the best schools.

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[Marxism] Important New York Magazine article on OWS

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hi all,

This long piece from New York Magazine on Occupy Wall Street and some of
its central leaders (who are young activists in their teens, 20s, and 30s)
is well worth-reading. It does a good job going through some of the
dilemmas facing the movement - like its relationship to the Democratic
Party; the demands question; the relationship between reforms and the
struggle for radical change; leadership in the movement; and more. There is
also a fascinating section on Jesse Jackson's efforts to steer OWS into the
Democratic Party.

Here's the link:
http://nymag.com/news/politics/occupy-wall-street-2011-12/

- Dan

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[Marxism] Video of police attack on CUNY protesters tonight

[Dan DiMaggio]

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(Actually CUNY Public Safety aided by the NYPD)

This is the overhead view of what went on inside:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czi4Htwti44

Demonstrators try to have a peaceful assembly inside, outside of the Board
of Trustees public hearing they've been excluded from. At the 3:50 mark,
they are attacked by baton-wielding police/public safety.

See also this ABC news video for footage of arrests: http://abclocal.go.com/
wabc/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Fnew_york&id=8440696

- Dan

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[Marxism] CUNY Students Protesting Tuition Hikes Beaten and Arrested

[Dan DiMaggio]

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NY Times:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/arrests-in-tuition-protest-at-baruch-college/

I was at this protest tonight. We started in Madison Square Park with about
500 students, mostly Latino and African-American, from various CUNY
schools, with support from some other campuses (NYU - my school, New
School, Fordham, etc.). It was one of the most spirited rallies I've ever
seen, with numerous speeches via the People's Mic demanding high quality,
affordable (or free!) higher education for all working class students.
CUNY's Board of Trustees is voting on tuition hikes of $300/year for the
next 5 years.

Then we marched on the sidewalks to Baruch College, where the Board of
Trustees was meeting. We held a speakout outside, and then about 100
students attempted to go inside to attend the public hearing. CUNY cops
barred them from doing so, batons at the ready. They then started pushing
students with them. Eventually students sat down, only to be beaten with
batons. It was horrific to watch from the outside, where hundreds of
protesters remained, and started banging on windows. Somewhere between 15
and 25 arrests were made.

Note that the NY Times article above falsely reports that students pushed
through police barricades to get into the building. That is absolutely
false. The barricades were in the streets; we had unimpeded access to the
building. And almost all of those who went inside were CUNY students
carrying IDs, with the right to enter the building!

Finally, there will be a massive demonstration next Monday, November 28th,
outside of the Board of Trustees meeting, in response both to the tuition
hikes and to police violence against student demonstrators. We will
probably gather again at 3pm at Madison Square Park and march over, though
that plan may change.

Also if there are any students on this list organizing in the OWS movement
who want to build links among students nationally or internationally,
please get in touch with me off-list. I am heavily involved in New York
City student organizing, and we would very much like to deepen our
connections with others across the country and world.

- Dan

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[Marxism] Brief report from Liberty Square / Zuccotti Park

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I was at Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) this afternoon, for the first time
since Monday night's eviction. Many hundreds of people were there. Meetings
taking place in all corners. Elders from the civil rights movement holding
a press conference to "share the light" with a new generation of activists.
Others debriefing about what we've accomplished so far and where to go from
here. Random marches happening inside the park, around the park, and from
the park to god knows where. Leader of France's New Anti-Capitalist Party
Olivier Besancenot interviewing activists to spread the message in France.
Meanwhile, there is a drum circle uptown outside Bloomberg's townhouse.

Since I think a lot of people are under the impression that political life
at the park itself is over, it was extremely exciting to see all the
activity that is STILL happening down there. Police have barricades all
around the park, but there are two entrances, and it doesn't seem to be
deterring the activity *too* much.

Once again: You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.

- Dan

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[Marxism] OWS TV Ad

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This is fantastic:
http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/05/8657432-occupy-reaches-into-living-rooms-through-new-tv-ad

- Dan

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Re: [Marxism] geographic depth of the Occupy movement

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Regarding Occupy movements in New York, there is even an Occupy
Poughkeepsie - no small achievement!

See their Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Poughkeepsie/261800210525632

Dan

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[Marxism] Occupy Wall St. at the Welfare Office

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This type of thing needs to be done by many more people:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/occupy_wall_street/2011/10/12/2011-10-12_occupy_161st_st_protesters_outreach_at_welfare_line.html

- Dan

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[Marxism] Robert Reich skeptical about ability of Dems to co-opt OWS

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://www.nationofchange.org/wall-street-occupiers-and-democratic-party-1318084743

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[Marxism] Egyptian Activist Speaks at Occupy Wall St. in Washington Square

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This was brilliant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y

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[Marxism] NY Times editorial board supports Occupy Wall Street

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This editorial from the NY Times editorial board will run in Sunday's
edition of the paper:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/opinion/sunday/protesters-against-wall-street.html

Of course their actual coverage has largely been atrocious.

- Dan

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[Marxism] Help fund the Occupied Wall Street Journal

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Today thousands were in Washington Square Park for an OWS general assembly
meeting. I focused on passing out thousands of copies of the 2nd edition of
the Occupied Wall Street Journal. I couldn't give them out fast enough - not
just to people there for the rally, but to anyone and everyone. The paper is
a real tool for the movement. This edition features articles by Naomi Klein
and Chris Hedges, as well as a poem by rapper (and prominent Obama critic)
Lupe Fiasco on the front page. They are aiming to put out a national edition
- but the number of copies depends on how much money they can raise.

I would like to see this paper grow and be able to continue to publish,
especially given how awful the coverage in the corporate media has been.
If you would like to make a donation to the paper, you can do so here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/610964639/occupy-wall-street-media

If you would like to donate in general to Occupy Wall Street, you can do so
here: http://nycga.cc/donate/

In solidarity,
Dan

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[Marxism] NYTimes more interested in what protesters' fashion than cause

[Dan DiMaggio]

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The New York Times is run by some of the biggest idiots on the planet. While
they had a big picture of yesterday's demo on the front page, and an article
on labor's participation in Occupy Wall Street by Steven Greenhouse, there
was very little mention of the actual details of yesterday's massive protest
in New York. Even worse, there was no coverage of the student walkouts and
big labor and community march on the New York Times website.

It's not that they didn't cover the protest though. They sent a reporter and
a photographer out - to take pictures for a story on "What to Wear to a
Protest."

Sadly, my picture made it into this slideshow:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/10/06/fashion/20111006PROTEST-2.html

I hate these people.

No matter. A better world is possible.

Solidarity,
Dan

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[Marxism] Video of student walkout from NYU and New School

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This should give a sense of the size of the walkouts yesterday - I'm
guessing around 2,000 marched from Washington Square Park down to Foley
Square in New York. What's most significant about this number is that we had
absolutely no clue it would be this big (and it was minimally organized,
honestly - primarily through Facebook, make of it what you will) ...
Something is definitely happening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJpzx9IqU4

- Dan

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[Marxism] Walkouts at CUNYs, SUNYs, NYU, Columbia, New School Wednesday

[Dan DiMaggio]

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We'll see how big these end up being ...

Links to Facebook events at:
http://nystudentsrising.org/?p=160
and
http://nystudentsrising.org/?p=138

and all over the country: http://occupycolleges.org/

Dan (of NYU)

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[Marxism] Daily News Reporter on Saturday's Arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This is a good account from a Daily News reporter of the arrests on the
Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, which she witnessed up close. Of note is that
the cops threatened to arrest her despite her press credentials, and did
actually arrest a NY Times reporter (and undoubtedly other journalists I'm
unaware of ...):

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/10/03/2011-10-03_i_almost_got_arrested_at_the_occupy_wall_street_protests_daily_news_editor_tells.html

- Dan

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[Marxism] TWU Blasts City for Putting Occupy Wall St. Arrestees on Buses

[Dan DiMaggio]

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"The Transport Workers
Union
will
go to court Monday to try to stop the city from forcing bus drivers to
transport Wall Street 
protesters
arrested by the
NYPD,
the Daily News has learned...
"TWU Local 100 supports the protesters on Wall Street and takes great
offense that the mayor and NYPD have ordered operators to transport citizens
who were exercising their constitutional right to protest - and shouldn't
have been arrested in the first place," Samuelsen said Sunday night.

Full:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/10/03/2011-10-03_twu_blasts_city.html

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[Marxism] Video of Brooklyn Bridge march yesterday

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hey,

This is a good video of the Brooklyn Bridge march yesterday, giving a sense
of how the cops backed down and allowed protesters to take the road, after
they had started on the pedestrian walkway - only to kettle them and arrest
700:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fockzr7rXys

- Dan

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[Marxism] Police arrest 400 protesters on Brooklyn Bridge (after allowing them to march)

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hey,

The New York Times finally has a decent piece on today's Occupy Wall Street
demonstration. The latest version of it pretty squarely pins the blame on
the NYPD for the arrests of 400 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, making it
clear that they basically allowed the march to take the bridge, and then
surrounded marchers with orange nets about 1/3 of the way up. Who knows what
version will make it into tomorrow's paper:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/police-arresting-protesters-on-brooklyn-bridge

The arrestees include a NYTimes freelance reporter, Natasha Lennard.

It's also worth mentioning that over 20,000 people were watching the live
stream of the march between about 4:30 and 6pm EST, while the arrests were
happening.

- Dan

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[Marxism] Bloomberg on Occupy Wall Street

[Dan DiMaggio]

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It's worth reading this nonsense from Mayor Bloomberg.
I just returned from what I would estimate was a 2,000-strong rally at
NYPD headquarters against police brutality of Occupy Wall Street
protesters and the general repression of the right to assembly in NYC
in recent years. It was quite spirited and inspiring. A number of
union leaders spoke about upcoming demonstrations they are organizing.
This movement, for all its flaws, definitely has some legs. Others who
were at the demo may want to chime in.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/09/mayor_bloomberg_28.php
Mayor Bloomberg: "We'll See" If The City Will Let Occupy Wall Street Continue
By Harry Siegel Fri., Sep. 30 2011 at 8:59 AM Comments (27)


New Yorkers need "to help the banks" was Mayor Michael Bloomberg's
message to the Occupy Wall Street crowd in his weekly radio appearance
on the John Gambling show.
"The protesters are protesting against people who make $40-50,000 a
year and are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line,"
Bloomberg said, presumably meaning service workers on Wall Street,
adding that "we all" share blame for taking on too much risk, not just
the financial industry.

"And people in this day and age need support for their employers. If
the banks don't go out and make loans we will not come out of our
economic problems, we will not have jobs so anything we can do that's
responsible to help the banks do that is what we need."

Asked if there's an "end-game" for the protesters and if they will be
allowed to stay in Zuccotti Park, which is privately owned but open to
the public, Bloomberg said, "We'll see.

"You know people have a right to protest but we also have to make sure
that people who don't want to protest can go down the streets
unmolested. We have to make sure that while you can say what you want
to say, people who want to say something very different have a right
to say that as well. That's what's great about this country."

Warning of "other societal concerns," offering sanitation as his
example without elaborating, he then skipped down memory lane and away
from the question to recall protests on Wall St. during the Vietnam
War. His conclusion: "when the Vietnam vets came back we didn't treat
them the way they deserve to be treated."


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[Marxism] Amazon.com warehouse workers complain of brutal conditions

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I'm not sure if this was ever posted to the list, but it's a must-read:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917,0,7937001,full.story

The journalist exposes how Amazon relies on temps to staff its warehouses,
promising them full-time work (which it seems they have about a 1 in 100
shot of getting) while forcing them to work at ludicrous speeds in
suffocating heat, stationing ambulances outside the warehouse for workers
who get sick rather than open the doors (because of the fear of theft -
human life is obviously less valuable than the multitude of commodities in
the warehouse).

Please share this article widely - given that the majority of the country
has probably bought something from Amazon, I think it is a real eye-opener
that can education people about the conditions facing U.S. workers.

Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Occupy Wall Street

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I would estimate the crowd at between 500 and 1,000 from 1-3pm by Bowling
Green. Whether it grew after that (once the march started) I can't say,
though from the most credible reports I've seen I highly doubt it. I think
"thousands" is inaccurate.

Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Marxist contrarians on the British riots

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Louis Thiemann wrote,
"Could someone direct me to a serious critique on Zizek's thought?"

This piece, "Slavoj Zizek's Failed Encounter With Leninism," is good:
http://links.org.au/node/1500

- Dan


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[Marxism] The Power of Nonsense: Slavoj Zizek's Left-Fascist Farce

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I appreciated this article on Zizek from the latest issue of Jacobin
magazine. The issue also has an article by Zizek himself. This makes
it one of the more interesting magazines on the left, since it appears
to be cultivating a space for debate.

http://jacobinmag.com/summer-2011/the-power-of-nonsense/

Excerpt:

Žižek is busy utterly recasting Marxism as a kind of linksfaschismus –
an anti-capitalist radicalism that has been unmoored from
self-emancipation, democracy, and reason and re-attached to Terror,
Dictatorship and an eternal, absolute and universal “Truth” capable of
being known only by an elite, and understood, he tells us, following
Badiou, never as Istina (truth as adequacy to the facts) but always as
Pravda – “the absolute Truth also designating the ethically committed
ideal Order of the Good.”

Getting Marx Wrong

In “The Jacobin Spirit” Žižek “Marxified” his argument for terror and
dictatorship by radically misconstruing what “Marx’s key insight” was.
He claimed Marx understood political democracy to be a mere
“democratic illusion” because without economic equality political
democracy can only be a tool of the ruling class, a part of the state
apparatus and therefore our “main enemy.” This gets Marx totally
wrong. And getting Marx right is not merely an academic exercise.
Looking back, what is at stake are those 100 million Communist corpses
memorialized by Vasily Grossman in Forever Flowing, with their “crazed
eyes; smashed kidneys; skull[s] pierced by a bullet; rotting infected,
gangrenous toes; and scurvy racked corpses in log-cabin, dugout
morgues.” Looking forward, what is at stake is the possibility of the
Left creating more corpses.

Marx’s key insight did indeed concern the relation between the social
question and political democracy, but rather than counterpoise the two
as Žižek does, Marx’s revolution in thought was, precisely, to
integrate them on the social ground of popular self-emancipation.
Žižek denies the very possibility of self-emancipation, so can see
only a clash between the social question and political democracy. He
seeks to resolve that clash by using terror and dictatorship to impose
“Communism.” That is what he means by “The Jacobin Spirit.”


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[Marxism] Obama Admin Debates Fake Fight on Economy

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This article from the New York Times outlines the thinking currently
dominating the White House as it gears up for the 2012 elections. They
are committed to either passing small measures, like patent protection
or free trade agreements, which they think can pass Congress, or to
waging fake fights over other small-ball proposals to expose the
Republicans. Bold proposals have been ruled out, as has any stimulus.
Their main concern is independent, moderate voters ... and whatever
business interests the concern over these voters always seems to
shade.

The payoff: "Administration officials, frustrated by the intransigence
of House Republicans, have increasingly concluded that the best thing
Mr. Obama can do for the economy may be winning a second term, with a
mandate to advance his ideas on deficit reduction, entitlement
changes, housing policy and other issues."

Obama 2012 - Hope to reduce the deficit and change entitlements!

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/us/politics/14econ.html

Dan


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[Marxism] David Harvey on the riots: Feral capitalism hits the streets

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Brilliant piece from David Harvey:

http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=5207

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Re: [Marxism] Ready to Vote for Mitt Romney

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Cockburn writes, "Under W. Bush’s two terms the spirit of opposition
throve; the antiwar movement flourished; the labor movement was
active; blacks militant.  Amid a brilliant campaign mounted  by the
AFL-CIO, Bush’s hopes to gut social programs were dead within months
of the start of his second term  in 2004.  But since 2008 a Democratic
president has neutralized all these constituencies."

What a strange rewriting of history from Cockburn, who documented in
great detail on Counterpunch how the "Anybody But Bush" virus weakened
the left throughout Bush's presidency.

Wasn't it during the late 1990s, during Clinton's second term, that we
saw the rise of the anti-globalization movement, student
anti-sweatshop and living wage campaigns, the Labor Party, Ralph
Nader's Green Party campaign, and more - all of which fed in part into
the anti-war movement in 2001-2003? That's at least how I remember it.

I can't envision the left in this country remaining silent for 5 more
years, assuming Obama wins a second term. A lot of the people
politicized during the Bush years are only now either learning or
remembering what life is like under a Democratic president. If Romney
wins, that might short circuit that process, although there's no
simple formula.

This is obvious, but the key variable is working to build a viable,
sustainable, independent left, not hoping that either outcome will
magically produce that.

Dan


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Re: [Marxism] Leaves from a debt ceiling notebook

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Tristan wrote, "Though the assertion that they [the SEP] are "the only group
with a working class
orientation" is also what I get from the SWP too it seems, hehe."

Let's be clear: Basically *every* group on the left - even when it is one
that is significantly better than the SWP and SEP - thinks it is "the only
group with a working class orientation." Some of them just insist on writing
it explicitly in their articles where they focus on criticizing others on
the left. It's all nonsense, since a "working class orientation" requires
more than just a correct program (although often the groups that shriek the
loudest about their "working class orientation" are the most sectarian and
hence have the least working class orientation in practice ... go figure).

John - I agree that it was useful that Jay posted some notes from the World
Socialist Website's articles, and they are often useful as anyone on this
list will tell you. What is not useful though is the nonsense about how the
ISO is supposedly sowing illusions in the Democratic Party and is the
equivalent of The Nation magazine (a significant part of whose existence
involves a living off of sowing illusions in the Democratic Party). Some
people on this list have more familiarity with the politics of the Socialist
Equality Party than others and therefore use shorthand to complain about
their sectarianism (meaning their unfair representations and denunciations
of the rest of the socialist left and their claim that they are the only
group with a working class orientation), whereas this might seem like
condescension to you.

Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Unions vs. the Good Guys at Delta Airlines

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Here is a link to an article with more details on what Michael was pointing
out:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/05/139014981/faa-deal-puts-off-reckoning-on-delta-other-issues

Excerpt:

But while the FAA shutdown has ended for now, the underlying issues remain,
which is why Congress has had to pass a series of temporary extensions
rather than a long-term measure. And the biggest issue is a union dispute.

At its heart is a ruling by a rather obscure federal authority — the
National Mediation Board. Last year, the board ruled that unions trying to
organize airline employees would need only a majority of those voting in
determining whether to unionize. That ruling reversed several decades of
precedent, says Michael LeRoy, a professor of labor relations at the
University of Illinois.

"Under the prior rule, which had been in existence for decades," he said,
"it was necessary for a union to win a majority of all the employees in the
defined bargaining unit. That meant a nonvoter essentially voted no. That is
how nonparticipation was counted."

The Obama administration changed that rule so that the only votes that are
counted are the votes that are cast. Republicans don't like the new rule and
want to use the FAA reauthorization to overturn it.

The major airlines are all unionized, except for Delta, where flight
attendants and ground crews have been unsuccessfully trying to organize for
years, LeRoy said.

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[Marxism] That trucker driver you flipped off? Let me tell you his story

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/126619568.html

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Re: [Marxism] Keith Olbermann: "Into the ttreets"

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Apparently the Obama administration lives in an alternate universe,
where Valerie Jarrett can claim that "the other important point that
the president made and will be contained in this bill if it is in fact
passed, is he did not want to bring down the deficit on the backs of
people who couldn`t afford it, senior citizens, disabled, poor,
working families." Undoubtedly this will be an Obama 2012 talking
point, even though it bears no relation to reality.

Here's a statement from Bernie Sanders on the deficit deal, making the
exact opposite point:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after
voting against what he called "an extremely unfair" deficit-reduction
package:

"I believe that Vermonters and people across the country are extremely
dismayed that all of the burden for deficit reduction will fall on the
backs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the
poor.  This extremely unfair agreement does not ask the wealthiest
people in this country, most of whom are doing extremely well, or
large profitable corporations to contribute one penny.  This is not
only immoral, it is bad economic policy and will cost us hundreds of
thousands of jobs.

"It is impossible at this point to determine exactly what programs
will be cut or by how much.  That will be determined later in the
committee process and I will do everything I can to defend priorities
important to Vermont.  What we can say, however, is that vitally
important programs for Vermont, like LIHEAP, education, Head Start,
child care, community health centers, the MILC program for dairy
farmers, Pell grants for college students, nutrition programs,
environmental protection, affordable housing, community action
agencies, small business loans and many other programs will be on the
chopping block.

"Further, the so-called deficit reduction super committee of six
senators and six House members will have the power to make devastating
cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans.

"All of us understand that the current deficit situation is
unsustainable and that we need responsible action to address it.  It
is unconscionable, however, that this agreement would place the entire
burden on working families and some of the most vulnerable people in
our country."


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Re: [Marxism] Ralph Nader, What Will this Chronically Disillusioned, Delusional Democrat do in 2012?

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Pinchy Way wrote,
"Mark, you see an identity of purpose between yourself and Nader, but
Nader doesn't. You think that he is trying to destroy the Democrats
and move the country forward, but Nader doesn't support that. You
don't seem to get that though? You seem to think that Nader is out
there working to build alternative structure when he definitely is
not. He hasn't done any of this work, and it is no accident. He
doesn't want to lead in building a Movement outside the two party
system Permanently. He merely wants to pressure pressure pressure the
Democrats to move away from their current hardcore centrism."

Pinchy, have you ever heard of dialectics?

By the way I'm happy to have helped write this before the 2008
elections: 
http://socialistminnesota.org/2007/12/17/why-ralph-nader-should-run-for-president-in-2008/

Snidely yours,
Dan


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[Marxism] Greenwald on Sharpton, MSNBC, and journalistic standards

[Dan DiMaggio]

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The latest from "Democratic hack" Glenn Greenwald, on Al Sharpton's
vow on 60 Minutes to never criticize President Obama:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/07/27/sharpton

"How can a media outlet such as MSNBC that purports to be presenting
political journalism possibly employ someone as a journalist -- even
an opinion journalist -- who publicly and categorically pledges never
to criticize the President of the United States under any
circumstances?  That would be like hiring a physician who vows never
to treat any diseases, or employing an auto mechanic who pledges never
to fix any cars, or retaining a pollster who swears never to make any
findings about public opinion.  Holding people in political power
accountable is the prime function -- the defining feature -- of a
journalist, including a pundit; if you expressly and publicly vow
never to do that, how can you possibly be credibly presented as being
one?  And how can the political analysis of someone who takes this
pledge possibly be trusted as sincerely held, let alone accurate?
Note that this vow was not from three years ago; it was from two
months ago."

- Dan


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Re: [Marxism] Class Dismissed

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Manuel wrote: "But, then, talking about what is to be done would more than
likely not get their works published by those bastions of "free academic
thought", the publishing companies. It is . . .useful . . .to "admire a
problem" and dismiss solutions as either non-academic or "empiricist"."

Yes, like that giant bourgeois publishing house Monthly Review Press.

Dan

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[Marxism] Financial Sector Helps Obama Score Big Money for Re-Election

[Dan DiMaggio]

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>From the Center for Responsive Politics:

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/07/financial-sector-helps-barack-obama.html

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Re: [Marxism] Why Cenk Uygur left MSNBC after refusing to "tone it down"

[Dan DiMaggio]

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We need to start holding street demos, etc. to get Al-Jazeera English on
cable.

Dan

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[Marxism] Why an Elizabeth Warren Run for the Senate is a Terrible Idea

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Good, detailed piece here from Naked Capitalism:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/why-liberals-are-lame-part-3-why-a-warren-run-for-senate-is-a-bad-idea.html

The end:

The key message to Warren is that Obama and the Democratic party are
decidedly not on her side, and she has deluded herself if she now believes
otherwise. To wed her star to theirs is not an enhancement but a diminution.
We’ve written in past posts why a Senate bid would not advance her aims. In
the pay to play system, she’d not raise enough money (due to a certain
dearth of heavyweight corporate contributions) to get on any interesting
committees. And most important, she’d still have to back a party and a
President whose vision is in large measure at odds with hers.

March Wheeler confirms our
views
:

What the people hailing a possible Warren run are arguing, effectively, is
that the consolation prize for the banks having beat her on CFPB should be
junior membership in a body that–as Dick Durbin has told us–the banks own.

Even putting aside the power of the banking lobby in the Senate, under what
model would Senator Warren be effective championing progressive values, or
even just “protect[ing] the agency she’s built”? Even assuming the Democrats
kept the same number of seats they currently have on the Senate Banking
Committee, even assuming Democratic leadership has already promised her the
seat that Herb Kohl’s retirement will open up, that will still make her one
of just three progressives (the other two being Jeff Merkley and Sherrod
Brown) on a committee that has long been actively working against her CFPB
candidacy. Even assuming Democrats keep the Senate, how amenable is Chairman
Tim Johnson–a bank-owned hack–going to be to Warren’s ideas? If Richard
Shelby were Chair, it’d be even worse.

And what about Warren’s effectiveness in the Senate as a whole–that body,
under Democratic leadership, where good ideas go to die? Name a progressive
Senator who has been able to do much to champion progressive ideas there?
Sanders? Franken? Whitehouse? Sherrod Brown? I love all those guys, and like
Sanders and especially Franken, Warren would presumably be able to leverage
her public support to push some ideas through. But are any of them more
effective at championing progressive values than Warren was before her White
House gig, when she regularly appeared on the media and excoriated the banks
in terms that made sense to real people?

Yet naive progressive groups continue to back failed causes. The Progressive
Campaign Change Committee had proudly announced that it is pushing a Warren
Senate bid and has raised
$15,000,
which is probably enough to buy 5 minutes of TV time. Why don’t they spend
their firepower on viable ideas rather than ones that serve the craven
interests of the Administration, which is to render Warren irrelevant?

We Yankees have a saying: “Fool me once, shame on thee. Fool me twice, shame
on me.” Warren is too good to continue to be this Administration’s pawn.
It’s high time she wakes up and smells the coffee.

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Re: [Marxism] Payment for services rendered

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Open Secrets says the Obama administration will release the names of its
bundlers, the extremely wealthy and well-connected people who are leading
much of his campaign's fundraising effort by talking to their extremely
wealthy and well-connected friends.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/07/obama-campaign-confirms-it-will-rel.html

In Obama-speak, these people are far eclipsed by the "small dollar, everyday
people," of course. Another article reported that the Obama campaign said
that 98% of donors gave less than $250, and the average contribution was
$69. I suppose we can wait for the actual statistics, which Open Secrets
will immediately analyze, but ... if you do the math on that one, I think
you'll pretty quickly come to the conclusion that most of the money is
coming from big donors.

I'm not trained in statistics, so I can't do the math (at all), but, for
example, if 98 people gave an average of $50 each, that would be $4900. To
get an average contribution of $69 (for 100 donors), the other 2 out of
those 100 would have to give $1000 each, meaning 2% of donors would be
responsible for 29% of the money raised. Now, since Obama has *routinely*
been holding dinners priced at $30,000, I think you can see how these donors
might be responsible for a disproportionate amount of money here .

Please correct or improve my math if it's wrong.

Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Die Linke has the Sexiest Member of Parliament

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I agree with Joonas and Einde - this garbage has no place being posted on a
Marxism list like this. It's no wonder so few women post here or participate
in this list.

It would be positive if the moderator made clear that this is entirely
unwelcome.

Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Egyptian Socialist Party: Political perspectives for Egyptian socialism

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Thanks for the posts on these developments. Do you know what forces
make up the Egyptian Socialist Party? Is it different from the
Coalition of Socialist Forces mentioned in the other article you
linked to - http://links.org.au/node/2308 - ?

Thanks for any info.

Dan


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[Marxism] Lars Lih's new biography on Lenin now available

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hi everyone,

I thought you'd all be interested to know that Lars Lih's new biography of
Lenin is now available. I just received it in the mail and am hoping to read
it soon.

Here's the link to it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenin-Reaktion-Books-Critical-Lives/dp/1861897936

Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Outsourced workers on strike in Brazil

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hi Caio,

Thanks for the post - I think it is exactly the type of post that belongs on
a list like Marxmail and it would be good to see more of it. And even if
others don't respond, I'm sure plenty of people read it and appreciate you
sharing the info.

Regarding outsourcing in the U.S., it's a nightmare, and in many ways not
different from Brazil it sounds like. Over the past two decades, for
example, most of the universities (along with many other institutions) have
outsourced their janitorial and security operations to subcontractors who
often pay poverty wages, force workers to work part-time shifts (thereby
making them ineligible for health care benefits, or unable to afford them),
and routinely force them to work in rough working conditions. This allows
the universities to then shift the blame for any low wages and abuses of
workers to the subcontractors - who then can conveniently say the university
isn't paying them enough. In other words, no one is to blame.

There have been campaigns at a number of American universities over the past
dozen or so years to force them to pay janitors and other workers a living
wage or institute a basic code of conduct. And SEIU (the Service Employees
Union) has waged a number of important struggles to unionize workers or
bring up their standards. There have also been debates over whether to call
for these jobs to be brought back "in house" (meaning no longer outsourced),
so that the universities would then be held directly responsible for their
working conditions. SEIU has largely accepted outsourcing, since they find
it preferable to deal with big subcontracting firms who operate throughout
the city. For example, at Harvard SEIU actually supported (or at least did
not oppose) the outsourcing of security operations to a subcontracting (I
believe it was Allied Security), whereas a lot of activists - not to mention
the remaining in-house security guards! - supported bringing all the jobs
in-house, which also makes it easier to organize solidarity or a collective
contract across an entire university, rather than having separate employers
for each sector of workers, which is a brilliant (and disgusting) strategy
devised by capital to divide workers and weaken their bargaining power.

In fact, there is a big campaign at the University of Chicago now to protest
the university's decision to fire all the housekeepers there and replace
them with outsourced workers: http://www.keephousekeepers.com/

And there have been I think 5 sit-ins over the past few weeks demanding a
living wage for campus workers, including at William & Mary University:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Support-a-Living-Wage-for-WM-Workers/159584754058324/

You can read more at:
http://southernlaborstudies.org/2011/04/29/usas-launches-student-sit-ins-nationwide/
and:
http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/5-sit-ins-in-6-school-days/

In solidarity,
Dan

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Re: [Marxism] Lars Lih on Kautsky's 'Republic and social democracy in France'

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Thanks for the suggestions Wayne - here are the links in the MIA (I think) -

Liebknecht's "No Compromise, No Political Trading" (also translated as "No
Compromises, No Electoral Agreements"):
http://www.marxists.org/archive/liebknecht-w/1899/nocomp/index.htm

Lenin's preface: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/dec/00.htm

- Dan

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[Marxism] Al-Jazeera English covering Bin Laden's death

[Dan DiMaggio]

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To anyone who is being tortured watching the U.S. news about Bin Laden's
death, just a reminder that Al-Jazeera English streams live:
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

Infinitely better than listening to George Stephanopolous or Wolf Blitzer or
Anderson Cooper ...

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[Marxism] Eric Schlosser: Why being a foodie isn't elitist

[Dan DiMaggio]

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I'm not a "foodie," but this is a really good op-ed from Eric Schlosser,
author of Fast Food Nation, in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-being-a-foodie-isnt-elitist/2011/04/27/AFeWsnFF_print.html

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Re: [Marxism] Bill Fletcher still peddling snake oil on the DP

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Fletcher writes, "What existed? Well, from the beginning he was a corporate
candidate. We knew that. The question was not whether he was one but the
extent to which his views could be shifted in order to take progressive,
non- corporate stands."

Exactly ... In the opposite sense that Fletcher means it in.

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[Marxism] Tim Hetherington's film Restrepo can be watched on Netflix Instant

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hi everyone,

Tim Hetherington, who co-made the documentary Restrepo, was killed along
with Chris Hondros, another photographer, in Misurata today. If anyone wants
to watch Restrepo, which gives an important and honest glimpse at the
futility of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, it's available on Netflix
Instant: http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Restrepo/70129360#height1896

Louis and I both wrote reviews of the film:

Here's mine: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/restrepo/

And Louis': http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/restrepo-2/

Dan

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Re: [Marxism] A better ruling class?

[Dan DiMaggio]

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The S&P, in downgrading its outlook for the U.S. to negative, said
that one reason for the deterioration was the Obama-GOP "compromise"
to extend the Bush tax cuts, the Washington Post reports -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sandp-lowers-its-outlook-on-us-debt-stocks-decline-sharply/2011/04/18/AFfg7QzD_story.html?hpid=z1


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[Marxism] Can someone explain what the Syrian Communist Party is?

[Dan DiMaggio]

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MRZine has published this pro-Assad crap from the Syrian Communist
Party: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/syria180411.html

On a serious note: What is the Syrian Communist Party and what does it
represent?

The piece contains this amazing paragraph, among others: "The mass
media of the countries that are at the heart of imperialism, as well
as of the reactionary pro-imperialist Arab regimes, lost no time in
beginning a fierce media war against Syria, distorting and
exaggerating facts and publishing lies, employing as their mouthpieces
suspicious characters whose names mean nothing to the Syrian people.
Unfortunately, the Syrian government's media have not been what they
should have been at such a critical moment.  In this kind of
circumstance, you must tell the truth, not make things look prettier
than they are; telling the truth would increase the confidence of the
public and strengthen their resolve to thwart the plot."

Dan


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[Marxism] Disgusting MRZine filth on Libya

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Here's a great link that has been put up on MRZine:
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=821

Absolute filth. Yes, clearly the rebels in Libya are just CIA puppets and,
you know, have no connections with the wave of protests sweeping the entire
region around them.

I really have trouble lowering my expectations sometimes ...

Dan

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

[Dan DiMaggio]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dan


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

[Dan DiMaggio]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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[Marxism] Temps do much of the dangerous work at Japanese nuclear plants

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/world/asia/10workers.html
April 9, 2011
Japanese Workers Braved Radiation for a Temp Job
By HIROKO TABUCHI

KAZO, Japan — The ground started to buck at the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant, and Masayuki Ishizawa could scarcely stay on his
feet. Helmet in hand, he ran from a workers’ standby room outside the
plant’s No. 3 reactor, near where he and a group of workers had been
doing repair work. He saw a chimney and crane swaying like weeds.
Everybody was shouting in a panic, he recalled.

Mr. Ishizawa, 55, raced to the plant’s central gate. But a security
guard would not let him out of the complex. A long line of cars had
formed at the gate, and some drivers were blaring their horns. “Show
me your IDs,” Mr. Ishizawa remembered the guard saying, insisting that
he follow the correct sign-out procedure. And where, the guard
demanded, were his supervisors?

“What are you saying?” Mr. Ishizawa said he shouted at the guard. He
looked over his shoulder and saw a dark shadow on the horizon, out at
sea, he said. He shouted again: “Don’t you know a tsunami is coming?”

Mr. Ishizawa, who was finally allowed to leave, is not a nuclear
specialist; he is not even an employee of the Tokyo Electric Power
Company, the operator of the crippled plant. He is one of thousands of
untrained, itinerant, temporary laborers who handle the bulk of the
dangerous work at nuclear power plants here and in other countries,
lured by the higher wages offered for working with radiation.
Collectively, these contractors were exposed to levels of radiation
about 16 times as high as the levels faced by Tokyo Electric employees
last year, according to Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency,
which regulates the industry. These workers remain vital to efforts to
contain the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plants.

They are emblematic of Japan’s two-tiered work force, with an elite
class of highly paid employees at top companies and a subclass of
laborers who work for less pay, have less job security and receive
fewer benefits. Such labor practices have both endangered the health
of these workers and undermined safety at Japan’s 55 nuclear reactors,
critics charge.

“This is the hidden world of nuclear power,” said Yuko Fujita, a
former physics professor at Keio University in Tokyo and a longtime
campaigner for improved labor conditions in the nuclear industry.
“Wherever there are hazardous conditions, these laborers are told to
go. It is dangerous for them, and it is dangerous for nuclear safety.”

Of roughly 83,000 workers at Japan’s 18 commercial nuclear power
plants, 88 percent were contract workers in the year that ended in
March 2010, the nuclear agency said. At the Fukushima Daiichi plant,
89 percent of the 10,303 workers during that period were contractors.
In Japan’s nuclear industry, the elite are operators like Tokyo
Electric and the manufacturers that build and help maintain the plants
like Toshiba and Hitachi. But under those companies are contractors,
subcontractors and sub-subcontractors — with wages, benefits and
protection against radiation dwindling with each step down the ladder.

Interviews with about a half-dozen past and current workers at
Fukushima Daiichi and other plants paint a bleak picture of workers on
the nuclear circuit: battling intense heat as they clean off radiation
from the reactors’ drywells and spent-fuel pools using mops and rags,
clearing the way for inspectors, technicians and Tokyo Electric
employees, and working in the cold to fill drums with contaminated
waste.

Some workers are hired from construction sites, and some are local
farmers looking for extra income. Yet others are hired by local
gangsters, according to a number of workers who did not want to give
their names.

They spoke of the constant fear of getting fired, trying to hide
injuries to avoid trouble for their employers, carrying skin-colored
adhesive bandages to cover up cuts and bruises.

In the most dangerous places, current and former workers said,
radiation levels would be so high that workers would take turns
approaching a valve just to open it, turning it for a few seconds
before a supervisor with a stopwatch ordered the job to be handed off
to the next person. Similar work would be required at the Fukushima
Daiichi plant now, where the three reactors in operation at the time
of the earthquake shut down automatically, workers say.

“Your first priority is to avoid pan-ku,” said one current worker at
the Fukushima Daini plant, using a Japanese expression based on the
English word puncture. Workers use the term to describe their
dosimeter, which measures radiation exposure, from reaching the daily
cumulative limit of 50 millisieverts. “Once you reach the limit, there
is no more

[Marxism] The U.S.-Saudi Libya Deal

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD02Ak01.html

*Exposed: The US-Saudi Libya deal*
By Pepe Escobar

You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is
the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the
House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently
confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the
go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy
movement in their neighbor in exchange for a "yes" vote by the Arab League
for a no-fly zone over Libya - the main rationale that led to United Nations
Security Council resolution 1973.

The revelation came from two different diplomats, a European and a member of
the BRIC group, and was made separately to a US scholar and Asia Times
Online. According to diplomatic protocol, their names cannot be disclosed.
One of the diplomats said, "This is the reason why we could not support
resolution 1973. We were arguing that Libya, Bahrain and Yemen were similar
cases, and calling for a fact-finding mission. We maintain our official
position that the resolution is not clear, and may be interpreted in a
belligerent manner."

As Asia Times Online has reported, a full Arab League endorsement of a
no-fly zone is a myth. Of the 22 full members, only 11 were present at the
voting. Six of them were Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, the
US-supported club of Gulf kingdoms/sheikhdoms, of which Saudi Arabia is the
top dog. Syria and Algeria were against it. Saudi Arabia only had to
"seduce" three other members to get the vote.

Translation: only nine out of 22 members of the Arab League voted for the
no-fly zone. The vote was essentially a House of Saud-led operation, with
Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa keen to polish his CV with
Washington with an eye to become the next Egyptian President.

Thus, in the beginning, there was the great 2011 Arab revolt. Then,
inexorably, came the US-Saudi counter-revolution

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[Marxism] RIP Manning Marable

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/manning-marable-african-american-studies-scholar-has-died-at-60/

April 1, 2011, 3:58 pm

Manning Marable, African-American Studies Scholar, Has Died at 60

By LARRY ROHTER

Manning Marable, the author of a long-awaited new biography of Malcolm
X to be published Monday and director of the Institute for Research in
African American Studies at Columbia University, died Friday at the
age of 60, his wife, Leith Mullings, has confirmed.

He had been hospitalized with pneumonia last month, and last summer
had a double lung transplant meant to relieve him of sarcoidosis, a
lung disease from which he had suffered for a quarter century.

A full obituary will appear later.


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[Marxism] TARP Special Inspector General: Bailout Failed Main Street

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This is a pretty damn powerful indictment of the Obama administration
and the banks' control over the government. From the op-ed page of
today's NYTimes, written by the special inspector general of the TARP
program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/opinion/30barofsky.html

March 29, 2011
Where the Bailout Went Wrong
By NEIL M. BAROFSKY

Washington

TWO and a half years ago, Congress passed the legislation that bailed
out the country’s banks. The government has declared its mission
accomplished, calling the program remarkably effective “by any
objective measure.” On my last day as the special inspector general of
the bailout program, I regret to say that I strongly disagree. The
bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program,
failed to meet some of its most important goals.

>From the perspective of the largest financial institutions, the
glowing assessment is warranted: billions of dollars in taxpayer money
allowed institutions that were on the brink of collapse not only to
survive but even to flourish. These banks now enjoy record profits and
the seemingly permanent competitive advantage that accompanies being
deemed “too big to fail.”

Though there is no question that the country benefited by avoiding a
meltdown of the financial system, this cannot be the only yardstick by
which TARP’s legacy is measured. The legislation that created TARP,
the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, had far broader goals,
including protecting home values and preserving homeownership.

These Main Street-oriented goals were not, as the Treasury Department
is now suggesting, mere window dressing that needed only to be taken
“into account.” Rather, they were a central part of the compromise
with reluctant members of Congress to cast a vote that in many cases
proved to be political suicide.

The act’s emphasis on preserving homeownership was particularly vital
to passage. Congress was told that TARP would be used to purchase up
to $700 billion of mortgages, and, to obtain the necessary votes,
Treasury promised that it would modify those mortgages to assist
struggling homeowners. Indeed, the act expressly directs the
department to do just that.

But it has done little to abide by this legislative bargain. Almost
immediately, as permitted by the broad language of the act, Treasury’s
plan for TARP shifted from the purchase of mortgages to the infusion
of hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation’s largest financial
institutions, a shift that came with the express promise that it would
restore lending.

Treasury, however, provided the money to banks with no effective
policy or effort to compel the extension of credit. There were no
strings attached: no requirement or even incentive to increase lending
to home buyers, and against our strong recommendation, not even a
request that banks report how they used TARP funds. It was only in
April of last year, in response to recommendations from our office,
that Treasury asked banks to provide that information, well after the
largest banks had already repaid their loans. It was therefore no
surprise that lending did not increase but rather continued to decline
well into the recovery. (In my job as special inspector general I
could not bring about the changes I thought were needed — I could only
make recommendations to the Treasury Department.)

Meanwhile, the act’s goal of helping struggling homeowners was shelved
until February 2009, when the Home Affordable Modification Program was
announced with the promise to help up to four million families with
mortgage modifications.

That program has been a colossal failure, with far fewer permanent
modifications (540,000) than modifications that have failed and been
canceled (over 800,000). This is the well-chronicled result of the
rush to get the program started, major program design flaws like the
failure to remedy mortgage servicers’ favoring of foreclosure over
permanent modifications, and a refusal to hold those abysmally
performing mortgage servicers accountable for their disregard of
program guidelines. As the program flounders, foreclosures continue to
mount, with 8 million to 13 million filings forecast over the
program’s lifetime.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has acknowledged that the program
“won’t come close” to fulfilling its original expectations, that its
incentives are not “powerful enough” and that the mortgage servicers
are “still doing a terribly inadequate job.” But Treasury officials
refuse to address these shortfalls. Instead they continue to
stubbornly maintain that the program is a success and needs no
material change, effectively assuring that Treasury’s most specific
Main Street promise will not be honored.

Finally, the country was assured that regulatory reform would addre

[Marxism] Chavez offers support to Syrian leader amid unrest

[Dan DiMaggio]

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MRZine also appears to have a video up from Telesur showing pro-Assad
demonstrations. You know, in addition to having great articles like,
"Al-Jazeera: Island of Pro-Empire Intrigue."

Assad is such a humanist that he doesn't even allow people in Syria to use
Facebook because of the alienation that it can produce.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/venezuelas-chavez-offers-supports-to-syrian-leader-amid-protests-blames-us-for-unrest/2011/03/26/AFFCkteB_story.html
Venezuela's Chavez Offers Support to Syrian Leader Amid Protests, Blames
U.S. for Unrest"

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed support for Syria’s president on
Saturday, calling him a “humanist” and a “brother” facing a wave of violent
protests backed by the United States and its allies.

Chavez’s support for President Bashar Assad follows his defense of Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi, who is fighting rebels backed by international
airstrikes.

Venezuela’s socialist leader accused Washington of fomenting the protests in
Syria as a pretext for Libya-style airstrikes.

“Now some supposed political protest movements have begun (in Syria), a few
deaths ... and now they are accusing the president of killing his people and
later the Yankees will come to bomb the people to save them,” Chavez said in
a televised speech

Assad, who opponents have called a repressive autocrat, “is a humanist,
doctor, educated in London, in no way an extremist; he is a man of great
human sensitivity,” said Chavez. “We salute him from here.”

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[Marxism] Wisconsin GOP demands access to professor's e-mails after blog entry criticizing Republicans

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hi,

This is a pretty frightening attack on academic freedom which you may
or may not be aware of: a University of Wisconsin history professor,
William Cronon, wrote a blog entry titled,
"Who’s Really Behind Recent Republican Legislation in Wisconsin and
Elsewhere? (Hint: It Didn’t Start Here)" -
http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/15/alec/

The blog entry details the working of the American Legislative
Exchange Council, a conservative group whose "goal for the past forty
years," Cronon writes, "has been to draft 'model bills' that
conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website
claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000
pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18%
of these bills are enacted into law." Apparently his blog entry took
off and was read by half a million people, journalists, etc. Cronon
also wrote a NYTimes op-ed that appeared on March 22:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/opinion/22cronon.html

The Wisconsin Republican Party then filed a state open records request
to get access to his personal e-mail to examine what went into writing
the piece:

"Under Wisconsin open records law, we are requesting copies of the
following items:

Copies of all emails into and out of Prof. William Cronon's state
email account from January 1, 2011 to present which reference any of
the following terms: Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective
bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper,
Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther
Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or
Mary Bell.

We are making this request under Chapter 19.32 of the Wisconsin state
statutes, through the Open Records law. Specifically, we would like to
cite the following section of Wis. Stat. 19.32 (2) that defines a
public record as "anything recorded or preserved that has been created
or is being kept by the agency. This includes tapes, films, charts,
photographs, computer printouts, etc.""


The issue is detailed at Talking Points Memo:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/03/my_worlds_collide.php

Professor Cronon wrote a response here:
http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/24/open-records-attack-on-academic-freedom/
He writes, "The timing of Mr. Thompson’s request surely means that it
is a response to my blog posting about the American Legislative
Exchange Council, since I have never before been the subject of an
Open Records request, and nothing in my prior professional life has
ever attracted this kind of attention from the Republican Party. It
doesn’t take a great leap of logic to infer that Mr. Thompson and his
colleagues aren’t particularly eager to have a state university
professor asking awkward questions about the dealings of state
Republicans with the American Legislative Exchange Council. This open
records request apparently seemed to Mr. Thompson to be a good way to
discourage me from sticking my nose in places he doesn’t think it
belongs."

Just trying to pass the word along.

Dan


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Re: [Marxism] NYT shills for Bahraini monarch

[Dan DiMaggio]

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So Bronner interviewed an investment banker, a doctor, and the culture
minister? Are all Sunnis in Bahrain investment bankers, doctors, or
government ministers?

What a courageous piece of journalism.

Dan

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[Marxism] A Plan to Power the Planet with 100% Renewables (Scientific American)

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030

A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables

Wind, water and solar technologies can provide 100 percent of the
world's energy, eliminating all fossil fuels. Here's how ...


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[Marxism] Greenwald on Bradley Manning and "aiding the enemy"

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Another brilliant piece by Glenn Greenwald:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/03/03/manning/index.html

Excerpt:

... the Military Judges' Handbook specifically requires that if this
["aiding the enemy"] theory is used -- that one has "aided the enemy"
through "indirect" transmission via leaks to a newspaper -- then it
must be proven that the "communication was intended to reach the
enemy." None of the other ways of violating this provision contain an
intent element; recognizing how extreme it is to prosecute someone for
"aiding the enemy" who does nothing more than leak to a media outlet,
this is the only means of violating Article 104 that imposes an intent
requirement.

But does anyone actually believe that Manning's intent was to ensure
receipt of this material by the Taliban, as opposed to exposing for
the public what he believed to be serious American wrongdoing and to
trigger reforms? Indeed, in the purported chat logs between Manning
and government informant Adrian Lamo, Lamo asked Manning why he didn't
sell this information to a foreign government and get rich off it, and
this is how Manning replied:

because it's public data. . . . it belongs in the public domain
-information should be free - it belongs in the public domain -
because another state would just take advantage of the information…
try and get some edge - if its out in the open . . . it should be a
public good

This prosecution theory would convert acts of whistle-blowing into a
hanging offense.


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[Marxism] How a Harvard-Tied Firm Used Academics & Elite Media To Rehab Qaddafi's Image

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/libya-qaddafi-monitor-group

>From Libya With Love:
How a US consulting firm used American academics to rehab Muammar
Qaddafi’s image.

— By David Corn and Siddhartha Mahanta

In February 2007 Harvard professor Joseph Nye Jr., who developed the
concept of "soft power," visited Libya and sipped tea for three hours
with Muammar Qaddafi. Months later, he penned an elegant description
of the chat for The New Republic, reporting that Qaddafi had been
interested in discussing "direct democracy." Nye noted that "there is
no doubt that" the Libyan autocrat "acts differently on the world
stage today than he did in decades past. And the fact that he took so
much time to discuss ideas—including soft power—with a visiting
professor suggests that he is actively seeking a new strategy." The
article struck a hopeful tone: that there was a new Qaddafi. It also
noted that Nye had gone to Libya "at the invitation of the Monitor
Group, a consulting company that is helping Libya open itself to the
global economy."

Nye did not disclose all. He had actually traveled to Tripoli as a
paid consultant of the Monitor Group (a relationship he disclosed in
an email to Mother Jones), and the firm was working under a $3
million-per-year contract with Libya. Monitor, a Boston-based
consulting firm with ties to the Harvard Business School, had been
retained, according to internal documents obtained by a Libyan
dissident group, not to promote economic development, but "to enhance
the profile of Libya and Muammar Qadhafi." So The New Republic
published an article sympathetic to Qaddafi that had been written by a
prominent American intellectual paid by a firm that was being
compensated by Libya to burnish the dictator's image.




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[Marxism] United Left Alliance Expects to Win 4 Seats in Irish Parliament

[Dan DiMaggio]

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The Socialist Party of Ireland's Joe Higgins was elected to the Irish
Parliament (the Dail) on the United Left Alliance ticket, and expects at
least three other ULA candidates to join him to form a "relentless,
unremitting opposition" in the next Dail:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0226/breaking57.html
Higgins expects four seats for ULA

Elected Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins expects United Left Alliance
candidates to gain four seats, with the possibility of a fifth, allowing it
to form a "relentless, unremitting opposition" in the next Dáil.

Mr Higgins, who was elected on the third count in Dublin West, expects his
Socialist Party colleague Clare Daly to be elected in Dublin North, with
possible gains for the ULA in Dublin South Central and Tipperary South.
Richard Boyd Barrett is fighting for the last seat in Dún Laoghaire.

Speaking at the Dublin West count centre in Coolmine, Mr Higgins said he was
pleased with "the new advances made today for the socialist alternative".

He described it as a new development in Irish politics and said the
Socialist Party would be discussions with fellow ULA candidates about
forming a new movement.

"Obviously there will be many discussions but we in the Socialist Party
would be of a mind that there is a huge vacuum on the left. There is a need
for a new movement to represent the working class in its widest sense - the
public sector, the private sector, pensioners and young people.

"We will now set our minds to that with our colleagues in the United Left
Alliance and others about launching a new movement," he said. "We will be
putting up the real opposition and the real alternative, not just inside the
Dáil, but outside as well. I anticipate movements of people power, movements
of workers, movements in communities in opposition to new attacks that will
come - perhaps water charges, perhaps a home tax - that these new parties
are committed to, which are all simply more burdens on working class
people."

Mr Higgins was the third candidate to be elected in Dublin West, following
Labour's Joan Burton, who was elected on the first count, and Fine Gael's
Leo Varadkar who was elected on the second count. Fianna Fáil's Brian
Lenihan is poised to take the fourth and final seat.

Mr Higgins said it would be "a monstrous betrayal" were ULA candidates to
offer support to the Fine Gael government. "No way would we contemplate any
such thing."

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[Marxism] How striking workers helped inspire Egypt's revolt

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Egypt's Cauldron of Revolt
It was striking workers that first inspired the Egyptian uprising. And
they're still at it.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/16/egypt_s_cauldron_of_revolt?page=full
BY ANAND GOPAL | FEBRUARY 16, 2011

CAIRO — In the sprawling factories of El-Mahalla el-Kubra, a gritty,
industrial town a few hours' drive north of Cairo, lies what many say is the
heart of the Egyptian revolution. "This is our Sidi Bouzid," says Muhammad
Marai, a labor activist, referring to the town in Tunisia where a frustrated
street vendor set himself on fire, sparking the revolution there.

Indeed, the roots of the mass uprising that swept dictator Hosni Mubarak
from power lie in the central role this dust-swept company town played years
ago in sparking workers' strikes and grassroots movements countrywide. And
it is the symbolic core of the latest shift in the revolution: a wave of
strikes meant to tackle social and economic inequities, which has brought
parts of Egypt to a standstill.

Here in Mahalla's smog-beaten, faded yellow factories and textile mills, a
series of workers' strikes demanding better pay and benefits erupted in
2006. The actions, in a country where large demonstrations were rare and
independent labor organizing remains illegal, galvanized a youth movement
that played a key role in eventually toppling Mubarak.

More than 24,000 workers at dozens of state-owned and private textile mills,
in particular the mammoth Egypt Spinning and Weaving plant, went on strike
and occupied factories for six days in 2006, winning a pay raise and some
health benefits. Similar actions took place in 2007.

Then, on April 6, 2008, thousands joined protesting workers in one of the
town's central squares, a frenetic array of vegetable stalls and shouting
street vendors. "At first, there were only a few of us," said Marai. "We
chanted 'Down, down with Hosni Mubarak!' and people started joining us."

Within hours, the protest had grown to thousands and riveted the country.
Incredibly, demonstrators pulled down a poster of Mubarak and stomped on it;
some clashed with the police and torched vehicles. Such images had not been
seen in Egypt for almost 30 years and shook the government to its core,
according to former officials.

The workers immediately won concessions -- as they had in the strikes of
2006 and 2007 -- including bonuses and pay hikes. The success spawned a
Facebook group, the April 6 Youth Movement, which has played a prominent
part in the current uprising, and inspired a strike wave over the next two
years.

"After Mahalla in 2008, the first weaknesses in the regime appeared," says
Gamal Eid of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. "Nothing was
the same in Egypt after that."

Perhaps most importantly, the Mahalla strikes birthed a new opposition
movement as socialists, left-wing lawyers, and Internet activists forged
lasting links with labor leaders and facilitated connections between
factories. The U.S. Embassy observed at the time that "in Mahalla, a new
organic opposition force bubbled to the surface, defying current political
labels, and apparently not affiliated with the [Muslim Brotherhood]. This
may require the government to change its script," according to a classified
document released by WikiLeaks.

In recent weeks, Mahalla workers joined a nationwide general strike that
started on Feb. 9 and likely tilted momentum in favor of the Tahrir Square
protesters and hastened Mubarak's fall two days later. "The workers have
tremendous power to change society," says Kamal al-Fayumi, a labor leader
who works at a power station and has been imprisoned a number of times for
his activities. "When we entered the picture, it signaled the end for
Mubarak."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/16/egypt_s_cauldron_of_revolt?page=full>

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Re: [Marxism] A challenge to mechanical anti-imperialism (Chavez on Egypt)

[Dan DiMaggio]

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here's a summary what Chavez has said so far, for what it's worth:

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5968
"Venezuela's Chavez Calls for Non-Interference in Egypt"
by Tamara Pearson

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[Marxism] David Sirota on Obama's appointment of Immelt (GE CEO)

[Dan DiMaggio]

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This was posted as a note on Facebook by David Sirota, so I'm pasting the
whole thing.
Businessweek: Investors Tout Immelt As Vehicle for Corporations to Sculpt
Obama's Economic Policy
by David Sirota  on Tuesday, February
1, 2011 at 12:30pm
As I've long maintained, the business press is often the best place to get
the real story about what's going on in American politics. That's because
it's focused almost exclusively on telling its investor-readers how to make
money, rather than on the political media's manufactured red-versus-blue
story lines - story lines that distract us from our transpartisan oligarchy.
A particularly good example of the value of the business press in telling
the real political story comes from the latest issue of
Businessweek
.

After a week of the political press corps in Washington telling us how
"pro-business" President Obama is for appointing General Electric CEO Jeff
Immelt to a top White House position, Businessweek lets us know what those
in the know think this is really all about: Profits, corporate control and
insider information. Check out this excerpt:

To some investors, [Immelt] taking the role is practically a fiduciary duty.
Stephen Hoedt, a Cleveland-based analyst for Key Private Bank, whose parent
company owns 17 million GE shares, says Immelt may be *"able to affect
policy at the highest level."* Brian James, co-head of research at fund
manager Loomis Sayles, says he hopes Immelt, a Republican, gets *"some
insights into what's going to impact GE coming out from Washington,"* adding
"this appointment simply can't be bad for GE."...

Given the uncertainty in GE's home market, not to mention opportunities to
participate in earmarked projects and policy debates, Sterne Agee analyst
Nick Heymann argues, Washington is a good place for Immelt to be. *"This is
where the opportunities to influence are,"* he says.

So there it is. Unlike our political elite who try to portray everything as
a grand story of good and evil, of statesmen and Great Men, the people with
Big Money on the line are open about what this appointment really is:
Namely, the institutionalization of corporate influence - the kind that
likely means bigger profits for job outsourcing firms like General Electric.
As they say, Immelt's new job will likely provide a current CEO with power
to shape the policy that governs his company, as well as exclusive advanced
(read: insider) knowledge of those policies.

This is exactly why I've said on my radio show that for Obama the Immelt
appointment isn't about creating jobs. How could it be, considering GE has
been one of the biggest outsourcers in America? No, for Obama this is about
cold hard cash - and campaign contributions in specific. In putting a
sitting CEO* inside the economic apparatus of the government, he is
broadcasting to corporate America that they now have a direct conduit to
policymaking - with the unstated by strongly implied suggestion that the
conduit is open to those with the resources to pay up in 2012.

In that sense, I guess Obama has achieved a modicum of the transparency he
promised: He has fully formalized the pay-to-play corruption that was once
hidden from view, but is now right out in the open.
* NOTE: It's one thing for a White House to hire someone who leaves his/her
job as an executive to work full-time in the government. That's bad enough
(think: Dick Cheney). But it's quite another thing to take a sitting CEO and
make him/her *simultaneously* a top White House economic policymaker. The
dual roles - CEO and government policymaker - define the phrase "conflict of
interest."

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[Marxism] Question on the activism/legacy of Hal Draper

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Hi everyone,

For awhile I've been trying to think through questions relating to the
current organization of the socialist movement in the U.S., and why we all
seem trapped inside these tiny, mutually competing, impermeable groups. I
really appreciated the analysis of Hal Draper in "The Anatomy of the
Micro-Sect" and elsewhere - and would highly recommend people read that.
However, when I've tried to draw on Draper and quote some of his insights in
pieces I've written, often the response I get is along the lines of:

- He had a few good points, BUT:
1) He was just an intellectual, who withdrew from the movements and just
wrote about Marx

and/or

2) He sounds like a cynic - what did he ever build? (i.e. isn't it better to
be in a "sect" than to end up like Draper)

My question is whether people on this list could tell me more about Draper's
political activism and how you would respond to those points, because they
are used to undermine the arguments he makes, which I happen to largely
agree with, based on my own independent experiences of 7 years inside one of
the small socialist groups today.

For those who haven't read "The Anatomy of the Micro-Sect," it's at:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1973/xx/microsect.htm

Also, have there ever been any biographies written about Hal Draper?

Thanks,
Dan

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[Marxism] Must-see comedy: Sam Webb on Obama's State of the Union

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://peoplesworld.org/state-of-the-union-and-openings-for-progress/

State of the Union and Openings for Progress
by Sam Webb

President Obama soberly looked at the state of the nation earlier this week,
outlined new challenges facing the country, and forcefully presented several
new initiatives to restructure and renew the economy.

Combined with his success in the "lame-duck" congressional session, the
acclaimed speech in Tucson and the successful summit with Hu Jintao, the
president has enhanced his standing considerably since the November defeat
of his party. He is the front-runner for the presidency in 2012, which is
driving right-wing extremists and sections of capital into a frenzy.

etc.

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Re: [Marxism] Egyptian workers form new union

[Dan DiMaggio]

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Dan wrote, "I hope theirs is a genuine striving for proletarian freedom and
that the
time has come to try experimenting Workers' Councils in a few
neighborhoods, and that this declaration is not just the sectarian
manifestation of some "socialist party".

Well, their declaration has now been lauded by that tiny sect known as the
AFL-CIO:

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/01/31/afl-cio-global-unions-applaud-new-egyptian-labor-movement/

I'm not sure if that meets your standards or not.

- Dan

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[Marxism] Egyptian workers form new union

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://solidaritymagazine.org/2011/01/egyptian-workers-form-new-union/

Egyptian workers form new union

Jan 30th, 2011 by solidaritymagazine

The TUC has received the following press release from the independent
trade union organisation CTUWS, whose website has been blocked by the
Egyptian government as part of the repression of dissent in Egypt.
Press Release

Date: Sunday, 30 January 2011

Today, representatives of the Egyptian labor movement, made up of the
independent Egyptian trade unions of workers in real estate tax
collection, the retirees, the technical health professionals and
representatives of the important industrial areas in Egypt: Helwan,
Mahalla al-Kubra, the tenth of Ramadan city, Sadat City and workers
from the various industrial and economic sectors such as: garment &
textiles, metals industry, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry,
government employees, iron and steel, automotive, etc… agreed to hold
a press conference at 3:30pm this afternoon in Tahrir Square next to
Omar Effendi Company store in downtown Cairo to announce the
organization of the new Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and to
announce the formation of committees in all factories and enterprises
to protect, defend them and to set a date for a general strike. And to
emphasize that the labor movement is in the heart and soul of the
Egyptian Peoples’ revolution and its emphasis on the support for the
six requirements as demanded by the Egyptian People’s Revolution. To
emphasize the economic and democratic demands voiced by the
independent labor movement through thousands of strikes, sit-ins and
protests by Egyptian workers in the past years.

Translation of original in Arabic into English

For more information about the CTUWS, the Centre for Trade Unions and
Workers Services, an independent NGO in Egypt, see this Oxfam report.


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[Marxism] The dictatorship of the market makes Mubarak look pathetic in comparison

[Dan DiMaggio]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/world/middleeast/29egypt-economy.html

Unrest Worries Credit Raters. So Does Calming It.

By LIZ ALDERMAN

Published: January 28, 2011

DAVOS, Switzerland — As the turmoil gripping much of the Arab world
reached a critical pitch in Egypt on Friday, the possible economic
fallout was on the minds of credit ratings agencies monitoring the
situation from thousands of miles away, and they did not like what
they saw. But the warnings they issued are themselves raising
eyebrows.

Fitch Ratings said on Friday that it was putting a “negative” outlook
on Egypt, as protesters there clashed with security forces and defied
curfews, raising questions about the country’s political stability.
That warning came on the heels of a report by Standard & Poor’s saying
that the upheaval in Tunisia, where mass protests drove the longtime
president from office, risked creating “downward ratings pressures” on
other governments in the region, if leaders tried to calm social
unrest with “populist” spending on tax cuts, subsidies, and public
sector jobs.




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[Marxism] Astute comment from NYTimes reader on Egypt / Iraq

[Dan DiMaggio]

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"Too bad George Bush couldn't hold his horses in 2003. We'd be seeing a
popular uprising against Sadaaam right now ... one that did not cost
billions and billions of dollars, a hundred thousand lives, and one that did
not invite in foreign terrorists and give the citizenry cause to hate us
forever "

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/world/middleeast/29unrest.html?sort=recommended

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