Re: [Marxism] BBC News - The curious survival of the US Communist Party
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26126325#story_continues_1 Three Democratic congressmen were secretly Communist Party members. Does anyone know who they were? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Moscow Needs a New Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign, Russian Historian Says
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == One of the darkest pages in Soviet and indeed Russian history was the anti-cosmopolitan campaign Stalin unleashed against everything Western in 1949, a campaign that ultimately focused on the Jews whom the Soviet dictator was planning to deport beyond the Urals at the time of his death. My understanding is that the deportation claim is a myth. I asked a leftist Russian friend of mine who emailed me that in 2002 and 2003 a well known anti-Soviet scholar, Gennadii Kostyrchenko, published essays disproving the myth. The author is very anti-Stalin and the essays caused quite a stir, but haven’t been refuted. I don’t speak Russian, but for anyone who does, these are the citations my friend sent me: Gennadii Kostyrchenko. Massovaia vysylka evreev. Proshchanie s mifom stalinskoi epokhi. _Lekhaim_ No. 22 (September, 2002). G.K., Deportatsiia - Mistifikatsiia. _Otechestvennaia istoriia_ 1 (2003). Even without speaking Russian, the title of the last essay is clear. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Ukraine Fascist MPs and Communist MP go at, the future of demcracy in Ukraine.
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeSE1OQ1WrA What role does the Communist Party of Ukraine play? There hasn’t been much commentary here about the CPU, although they have 32 members of Parliament, a little smaller than the Svoboda delegation. 1998 seemed to be the high point for the party, which received more than a quarter of the overall vote at the time. According to wikipedia, the CPU still believes in Marxism and the superiority of socialism over capitalism. A friend of mine was in Kiev over the summer and noted that the CPU headquarters was flying the red flag. He didn’t get the impression the party was particularly revolutionary and seemed pro-Russian. Any good resources to recommend? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] US and West are trampling on the world
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I’m not a fan of RT, but this op-ed piece gives a very different perspective from what we get in the NY Times. On the other hand, I find it entirely uncritical of Putin and the Russian oligarchs, who also have economic interests in Ukraine. http://on.rt.com/jitir2 Intellectuals standing ground on Ukrainian issue Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. As my plane left Dubai for Kiev, I began browsing through an endless pile of newspapers and magazines: from the New York Times to the Economist, from the Times to several Gulf-based and Turkish periodicals, as well as Spanish and German ones. The consensus on Putin being a villain was absolute. There were no dissident voices, but also, not surprisingly, no Russian intellectual voices. There were absolutely no editorials written by Russians attacking the Western destabilization of Ukraine and the destruction of its democratically elected government. It was also shocking how the Arabic and Turkish press was translating and reprinting all that appeared in the West. There were no clear, simple and logical explanations of what actually happened in Ukraine recently. That is, that the West, particularly the greedy and desperate EU, wanted to get its hands on the tremendous natural resources of the Ukraine, on its heavy industry and cheap but highly-educated work force. They offered a deal. A very bad deal, under which, European companies would be allowed to plunder the country, but Ukrainian people would not be even allowed to enter the EU, let alone seek employment there. The elected government rejected such farce. The West accelerated its support to ‘the opposition’, which included several clearly gangster forces, full of ultra-nationalists and Nazis. The legitimate government was overthrown. Crimea decided to leave such an illegitimate entity. People voted, democratically. Russia simply accepted the outcome…. continued Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Study of Ukrainian oligarchs
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The 112-page study is entitled “The Oligarchic Democracy: The Influence of Business Groups in Ukrainian Politics” by Stawomir Matuszak (September 2012) The study is online here: http://www.osw.waw.pl/sites/default/files/prace_42_en.pdf The author reports that the ten wealthiest businessmen in Ukraine are collectively worth $57.9 billion. Meanwhile, ordinary Ukrainians struggle to make ends meet. The author has plenty of interesting observations about the battles between the elites. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The end of Palestine?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Marv, thanks for posting the interview with Finkelstein. I would have missed it otherwise. It’s the most depressing analysis I’ve read in a while! When I was teaching at Hunter College High School and Norm was teaching at Hunter College, I invited him to give a talk to a club that I was advising called Progressive Forum. He gave a wonderful talk. Some pro-Israeli teachers came, but hadn’t done their homework so they were incapable of responding to his encyclopedic knowledge of the issue. One lamely read a section of a negative NY Times review of his book on the Holocaust Industry. Norm answered calmly and rationally. The students were very impressed, even the ones sympathetic to Israel. I have found that Finkelstein can be a bit inconsistent. A few years ago I heard him speak at the Judson Church, where he surprised everyone by saying the Israeli Lobby was growing weaker and the Palestinians were winning. Now he seems to be saying that the other side will get what they want. I also don’t quite get this dismissal of BDS. Maybe someone else can explain. Glenn Full: http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_end_of_palestine_an_interview_with_norman_g._finkelstein Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] British education secretary Michael Gove blasts classic sitcom Blackadder for spreading 'left wing myths' on war
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/01/03/michael-gove-blasts-blackadder-for-spreading-left-wing-myths Or for portraying the commanding officers a bit too accurately. If anyone hasn’t seen the WWI episodes of “Black Adder,” they’re priceless. Their view of the generals sending wave after wave of soldiers to senseless slaughter is not the history the Education Secretary wants promoted. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Why the US military should make the AK-47 its standard
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Why? Because I'm an A hole who doesn't think even a socialist US deserves an effective infantry and besides, I'm not really serious about making a revolution anyway. So, I don't care whether the young Americans that were drafted, economically or otherwise, have effective weapons in their hands and I don't care whether they are fending off Somali pirates or taking on Columbia drug lords or even guaranteeing the right of black teens to go to high school, I want their guns to jam at the critical moment. Clay Claiborne, Director Thanks, that clarifies things. I had forgotten that the purpose of the U.S. military was to guarantee the right of black teens to go to high school, or fend off Somali pirates. In any case, revolutionary defeatism is just so yesterday. Now I have to rethink my opposition to spending a trillion dollars a year on the military. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Why the US military should make the AK-47 its standard
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Why the US military should make the AK-47 its standard http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/12/why-us-military-should-make-ak-47-its.html You want U.S. imperialist troops to be well-armed? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Pandora's Promise on CNN Thursday
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == CNN will air the controversial documentary Thursday evening at 9 PM. http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/29/cnn-films-to-air-pandoras-promise-thursday-nov-7/ It’s ironic that this film is being shown at a time of significant expansion of oil and gas production in the U.S., and of course an increase in carbon emissions. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Petition on Expressive Activity at CUNY
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The City University of New York has decided that student protests against ROTC, the David Petraeus teaching appointment, and tuition hikes need to be punished and constrained. So last month campus security and NYPD arrested six students for demonstrating against Petraeus, last week the administration seized a room at CCNY that students have used for years as an organizing space, and soon after it suspended two CCNY student leaders. Now they're considering a policy on expressive activity that would severely restrict the rights of students, faculty and staff to leaflet, table, post flyers and hold demonstrations. This is a petition at Change.org asking the CUNY BoT to dismiss the proposed CUNY Policy on Expressive Activity: https://www.change.org/petitions/the-cuny-board-of-trustees-and-cuny-college-administrators-dismiss-the-proposed-cuny-policy-on-expressive-activity Please consider signing the petition and encouraging others to do so. Fraternally, Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Petition on Expressive Activity at CUNY
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I wonder about the semiotics of petitioning. Does it complement resistance? Or contradict it? A petition suggests that the addressee legitimately has the thing petitioned-for in his gift. Does one petition a thief to return stolen property? Other actions are planned to fight the criminalization of dissent at CUNY. The petition is just one way of publicizing the draft policy and gathering forces for other activities. There will likely be a protest at the BoT meeting when it schedules a vote on the policy. The faculty union -- the PSC -- is insisting that the policy be negotiated. There may also be legal challenges. I completely agree with the sentiments expressed about the trustees. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] How children of the world united at a Soviet school
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In 1933 a unique boarding school was set up in Russia to provide a home for the children of revolutionaries around the world - the children of Mao, Tito and La Pasionaria passed through its doors. It still exists, though few of its pupils today are foreign. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24285175 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] UN Reports Torture By Libyan Militias
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/world/africa/libya-27-tortured-to-death-in-jails-run-by-militias-un-report-says.html Some 8,000 detainees jailed since the eight-month civil war in 2011 are being held without due process, the report said, usually without access to lawyers and only occasional access to families. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Syria: What Revolution?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Eli: Isn't this the same article you posted to the listserv on September 29 at 9:22 AM? This is what you wrote at the time: As a counterpoint, comrades might want to read and think about this comprehensive article, from the Northstar, entitled What Revolution? http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=10229 I notice that the author doesn't spend much time substantiating his characterization of the Assad regime as a nationalist and progressive government. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Now I'm being accused of secretly being Scott Lucas!
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Clay, wouldn't you agree that this amounts to a compliment? Lucas is brilliant. For people not familiar with his work, visit and bookmark: http://eaworldview.com/ Scott Lucas wrote a book called The Betrayal of Dissent: Beyond Orwell, Hitchens and The New American Century, which I thought was very good. He opposed U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan and sharply rebuked people like Hitchens and Walzer who supported it. I looked at a few articles on his webpage. Some interesting commentary, but nothing I would call brilliant. What were you referring to? I'll look again. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Anti-Muslim pastor accidently burns 2000 Bibles
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Actually, this is a satire website. So the story isn't true, but it sounded pretty credible until I looked at the other stories, like Ted Cruz running for president of the Confederacy! “I’ve been praying for God’s forgiveness non-stop since this happened,” said Ingram. “I still feel like the Muslims are partially to blame for this. If we didn’t have to protest them, this wouldn’t have happened. They tricked us!” - See more at: http://www.newslo.com/fla-pastor-accidentally-burns-2000-bibles-in-protest-of-911-attacks/#sthash.O2dXBTZv.dpuf http://www.newslo.com/fla-pastor-accidentally-burns-2000-bibles-in-protest-of-911-attacks/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] please promote this event on Marxmail and elsewhere
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == https://www.facebook.com/events/543203132396107/ (There may be local rallies too. I'll forward any I find.) This is a rally in support of U.S. military intervention in Syria. Why would Marxmail promote this? The Facebook says: We support President Obama's decision to take a firm stand and action against the Assad regime, and we urge the US Congress to make the right decision and vote for intervention in Syria. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Leading Democrats, de Blasio Has Broad Support as Primary Nears
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I look forward to seeing him in City Hall just to have something to write about, just as Obama gave me plenty to work with in his first term. Of course, very few people outside of the MSNBC hosts and the CPUSA have illusions in him nowadays, so there's not much point in writing about him now. I appreciate reading anything you write about De Blasio. My union, PSC-CUNY, endorsed him and is making phone calls on his behalf. Where did you find out that his dad was a CP trade union organizer? (So was mine.) I suspect that a De Blasio administration will demonstrate very nicely the strength of the Marxist view of the state. There will quickly be a De Blasio Disappointment over contracts for municipal workers. John Liu estimates that it will take $8 billion to provide minimal retroactive raises for all 200,000 city employees. De Blasio's plan to raise taxes on those making over $500,000 by a mere .53% would raise only $530 million a year, to pay for expanded pre-K and after-school programs. There would be no money to pay for raises for city workers, not to mention making improvements in schools and other social services. NYC is one of the most unequal cities in the U.S., with more billionaires and millionaires than any other city, and where the richest 1% accrue 44% of all income. De Blasio poll numbers has risen on the basis of his talking about inequality, but he has no serious plan to change it. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Israel Grants Golan Height Oil License to Cheney-linked Company
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It appears as though Israel is taking advantage of the Syrian civil war: http://www.businessinsider.com/israel-grants-golan-heights-oil-license-2013-2 Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The New Nuclear Craze
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A few days before Bittman's anti-nuke commentary in the NYT appeared, Eduardo Porter wrote one: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/business/economy/coming-full-circle-in-energy.html?pagewanted=all Porter writes: The arithmetic is merciless. To make it likely that the world’s temperature will rise no more than 2 into the air from now through 2050 and only 75 billion tons after that, according to an authoritative new study in Britain. The United States Energy Information Administration forecasts that global energy consumption will grow 56 percent between now and 2040. Almost 80 percent of that energy demand will be satisfied by fossil fuels. Under this assumption, carbon emissions would rise to 45 billion tons a year in 2040, from 32 billion in 2011, and the world would blow past its carbon ceiling in fewer than 25 years. Porter argues that nuclear power is a viable, cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels. Should we make a distinction between nuclear energy under capitalism versus a post-capitalist world? The danger of nuclear proliferation, for instance, is real in a world of capitalist rivalry, but maybe not in a world of socialist cooperation. Is the anti-nuclear position an absolute one, or would it change under socialism/communism? And is there any evidence that nuclear power is as dangerous now than the use of fossil fuels? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Request for book recommendation
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Could people recommend a good book to read on the history of the Black Panther Party? I'm looking for a book that analyzes the rise and decline of the BPP, both the achievements and the internal weaknesses of the organization, as well as the fierce government repression. Thanks, Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Petraeus’s Pay for Part-Time CUNY Job, Criticized at $200,000, Drops to $1
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I suspect that CUNY officials and Petraeus had gotten wind that faculty and students were talking about having a demonstration against him at the beginning of the semester. Unfortunately, the main complaint from Lander and DiBlasio had been the outrageous salary CUNY had offered Petraeus, rather than the General having been responsible for establishing torture centers in Iraq and overseeing special forces assaults and drone attacks on civilians in Afghanistan. In other words, that he's a war criminal. Corey Robin, to his credit, did bring this up on his website, and provided a link to the BBC/Guardian documentary that provides solid evidence of Petraeus's crimes. Petraeus -- who's wealthy and is receiving a handsome salary from the investment firm KKR, in addition to his $200,000+ military pension -- doesn't need the CUNY money. By sacrificing it, he hopes to be free to get on with his main business, which is getting students on board to support a U.S. empire that's begun to show some cracks. Of course, part of supporting the empire is convincing students and the public to support high levels of military spending, which necessitates less money for higher education. Talk about a contradiction! Glenn (He shouldn't be teaching to begin with, but this is a victory of sorts. Typical that the NYT would not mention Corey Robin, a Brooklyn college professor who led this fight. Robin was also involved in the struggle to hold a meeting at his campus on BDS without inviting someone from the Israel lobby.) NY Times July 15, 2013 Petraeus’s Pay for Part-Time CUNY Job, Criticized at $200,000, Drops to $1 By ARIEL KAMINER Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Union Square protests
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == My wife and I were down in Union Square this afternoon to pick up some cheap wine at Trader Joe's when a sizable protest was taking place against the Zimmerman verdict--4 to 500 people, mostly Black. Greg Grandin just reported on FB that it has swelled to 1000. I urge New Yorkers to turn out. Let's keep the pressure on. I went to the 6 PM protest at Union Square, which then marched down Broadway, picking up people along the way. The march continued east and then back north. I thought there were as many as 10,000 people, mostly young (college age and '20's). Compared to the antiwar protests I've attended, this was far more integrated. The chanting was very spirited, and many motorists honked their horns in support. Lots of spectators could be seen clapping or shaking their heads in agreement. My favorite chant was: George Zimmerman: Guil - ty!, Stand Your Ground: Guil-ty! The Whole Damn System: Guil-ty! Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Dirty Wars
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Can someone point me to a left review of Jeremy Scahill's documentary Dirty Wars? I saw it on Saturday and found it compelling. It's an examination of the expanded role of the Joint Special Operations Command -- U.S. Special Forces -- in covert wars in an ever increasing number of countries. Scahill visits Gardez and learns of the killing of Afghan civilians by U.S. special forces. He moves on to Yemen to examine the U.S. targeted assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, and the killing a couple weeks later of his 16-year old son. The visuals and the interviews are all gripping. I thought a weakness of the film is the lack of much political analysis. Why is the Obama administration resorting more and more to the brutality of special forces and drone attacks? What are U.S. aims in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia (which Scahill also visits)? Without this context, the atrocities appear to be the result of simply bad policy. At points in the film, Scahill suggests that these dirty war tactics are a new development, but doesn't that ignore U.S. training of death squads in Central America in the 1980's and earlier assassination programs like Operation Phoenix in Vietnam (in which New School President Bob Kerrey led a unit that murdered innocent villagers)? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Dirty Wars
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I haven't seen the film but the book is pretty informative. It is true that the Dirty Wars have been going on for a while, but clearly something changed in the 1980s (as even the Counterpunch review had to admit.) Scahill does a good job of charting that development (at least in the quarter of it or so I've read so far.) And he barely mentions himself at all, if anyone doesn't like the personal angle that the film evidently takes. I didn't mind the film's personal angle at all. One of the strengths of the film is that Scahill treats the Afghanis and Yemenis he interviews as equals, people with deep feelings of loss and grief. You can't help but be moved by his interviews with the Gardez residents or with the father of Anwar al-Awlaki, whose son and grandson were both murdered by the U.S. military. The father explains how his son had initially opposed all acts of terrorism, but had shifted his views in response to the brutality of U.S. invasions and occupations. The teacher part of me would have liked a little more explanation about U.S. aggression, but that said, I would love students to see Dirty Wars. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] In History Departments, It’s Up With Capitalism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (The article's title is not accurate. What's involved is a focus on the system, not a celebration. For example, the Louis Hyman mentioned in the article is a very good leftie who I have exchanged email with over my discussion of his terrific history of consumer credit: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/debt/.) NY Times April 6, 2013 In History Departments, It’s Up With Capitalism I had the same reaction. Some of these professors, and some of the books cited, sound as though they would be very critical of capitalism. Is anyone here familiar with any of the books named in the article? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Scourge of the South
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://consortiumnews.com/2013/02/23/honoring-a-heroic-slavery-fighter/ It would be terrific to have a film on the life of Stevens. Katz does a great job of showing how admirable he was. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Zizek blasts Zero Dark Thirty
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis, are you telling me that the Cheka was bound by bourgeois notions of human rights in its task of uprooting counter-revolutionary subversion ? As the founder of the Red Army, Trotsky was more than ready to do anything to ensure the success of the revolution and all his speeches (and his memoir) abound in ruthless and harsh statements about the fate that awaits those who oppose Soviet power. Good for Trotsky, Dzerzhinsky and the Bolsheviks! No ruling class gives up power peacefully. The White armies in Russia used the most horrific terror against the Red Army and its supporters. They got what they deserved in return. The U.S. bourgeoisie has used -- and will use in the future -- all the violent means at its disposal to crush any opposition to its rule. Think of the murder of Fred Hampton and other Black Panthers. Think of the napalm, carpet bombing and Operation Phoenix in Vietnam. Revolutionary violence against a violent and oppressive system is justified. This is a great essay on Pacifism and Violence by Christopher Caudwell: http://www.marxists.org/archive/caudwell/1935/pacifism-violence.htm Fraternally, Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Why the ideas of Karl Marx are more relevant than ever in the 21st century
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The publicity Jacobin is getting/generating for Marxism and socialism is fantastic and anybody who doesn't see that or writes it off because it is affiliated with the YDSA are sectarian assholes. What is YDSA and how is Jacobin affiliated with it? Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Samir Amin on Mali
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I saw this on another listserv. It's a translation of what is published on a French left wing website: http://www.m-pep.org/spip.php?article3184#outil_sommaire_0 I was surprised by it. Isn't Amin considered a Marxist and published by Monthly Review? Here he says he condemns all military interventions by Western power in the countries of the South -- and then he proceeds to explain why he's making an exception when it comes to the French invasion of Mali. One of his arguments is that Hollande understands that France wouldn't benefit from the creation of a Sahelistan, with huge deposits of valuable resources, and therefore is moving to protect its own interests. Okay, but isn't Amin then just supporting his own bourgeoisie? Glenn -- MALI : Analysis by Samir Amin Text by Samir Amin published by the M’PEP with the author’s authorization. Samir Amin, a Franco-Egyptian economist, is the director of the Forum du Tiers-Monde. Jan. 23, 2013 I am one of those who out of principle condemn all military interventions by Western powers in the countries of the South, these interventions being by nature subject to the requirements of the deployment of control of the planet by the capital of the monopolies that dominate the system. Is the French intervention in Mali an exception to the rule? Yes and no. This is the reason why I call to support it, without nevertheless thinking the least in the world that it will provide the answer that is necessary to the continual decay of the economic, social and political conditions not only in Mali but in all the countries of the region, which is itself the product of the policies of the deployment of the capitalism of the monopolies of the imperialist triad (U.S., Europe, Japan) which are always at work, as it is at the root of the implantation of political Islam in the region. I. Reactionary political Islam, the enemy of the peoples concerned and the major ally of the strategies of the imperialist triad. (1) Political Islam – beyond the apparent variety of its expressions – is not a “movement of renaissance of religious faith” (whether you like that or not), but an arch-reactionary political force which condemns the peoples who are the final victims of the exercise of its power to regression in every way, making them thus incapable of responding positively to the challenges with which they are confronted. This power is not a brake on the continuation of the process of decay and pauperization which has been going on for three decades. On the contrary, it accentuates its movement, on which it feeds itself. Such is the fundamental reason for which the powers of the triad – such as they are and remain – see in it a strategic ally. The systematic support provided by these powers to reactionary political Islam has been and remains one of the major reasons for the “successes” that it has chalked up: the Talibans in Afghanistan, the FIS in Algeria, the “Islamists” in Somalia and the Sudan, those in Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere have all benefited from this support at a decisive moment for their seizure of local power. None of the components described as moderate of political Islam has ever truly dissociated itself from those who commit terrorist acts on the part of their so-called « Salafist » components. They have benefited and continue to benefit from “exile” in the countries of the Persian Gulf, when necessary. In Libya yesterday, in Syria still today they continue to be supported by these same powers of the triad. At the same time the exactions and the crimes that they commit are perfectly integrated into the talk that accompanies the strategy based on their support: they make it possible to give credence to the thesis of a “war of civilizations” which facilitates the “consensus” rallying of the peoples of the triad to the world project of the capital of the monopolies. The two lines of speech – democracy and the war on terrorism – complete themselves mutually in this strategy. You need a good deal of naivety to believe that the political Islam of some – described on account of this as “moderate” – would be soluble in democracy. There is of course a sharing out of chores between them and the “Salafists” who they say exceed them with a false naivety by their fanatic, criminal and even terrorist excesses. But their project is the same – an archaic theocracy that by definition is the polar opposite of even minimal democracy. II. Sahelistan, a project in the service of whose interests? De Gaulle had cherished the project of a “Great French Sahara.” But the tenacity of the Algerian National
[Marxism] Question about Mali
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I was wondering if Dan or others knew what the reaction of the French left has been to its government's deployment of 2500 troops in Mali. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The most important fish in the sea
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis: What a great review you've written of Franklin's book! Franklin has been a great example of the politically committed scholar. His books on Vietnam, the MIA-POW hoax, and prison writings have all been invaluable. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Jacobin critique of Lincoln
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://jacobinmag.com/2012/11/lincoln-against-the-radicals-2/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Spielberg's 'Lincoln': Passive Black Characters
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/opinion/in-spielbergs-lincoln-passive-black-characters.html?smid=fb-share Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] A Business Man Looks at Communism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == After Fred Koch made millions in the USSR in oil he came back founding John Birch and going after communists. This out of print book looks like an interesting read: http://www.amazon.com/business-man-looks-communism/dp/B0007EHFNY I guess you know that Fred Koch was the father of the infamous Charles and David Koch brothers. This is from Wikipedia on the dad: He claimed that the Democratic and Republican Parties were infiltrated by the Communist Party, and he supported Mussolini's suppression of communists. He wrote that The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America, and that Welfare was a secret plot to attract rural blacks to cities, where they would foment a vicious race war. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] How to read Zizek
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == And one of the enduring myths in Australia is the claim that returning veterans were spat on in the street. No-one has been able to provide convincing examples where this happened. The image of the returning vet being spit on by anti-war protesters is one of the enduring myths of the Vietnam War. Jerry Lembcke, a sociologist at Holy Cross and a former activist in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, wrote a book, The Splitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam, showing not only that there wasn't a single documented case of this happening, but that anti-war demonstrators welcomed veterans into the movement and were inspired by the protests of VVAW. It was the government that ignored the needs of returning soldiers, as was vividly portrayed in Born on the Fourth of July (my favorite Oliver Stone film). Lembcke's book in still in print: http://www.amazon.com/Spitting-Image-Memory-Legacy-Vietnam/dp/0814751474/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksie=UTF8qid=1347673132sr=1-1keywords=jerry+lembcke As for the NLF, I'm sure they weren't choir boys, but they didn't develop mass support among South Vietnamese peasant villagers by cutting off the arms of children. Repeating such a Hollywood myth is repugnant. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Amnesty Calls on UN to stop the US, Qatar and Turkey funding and arming Syria Rebels
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What amazes me about all these apologists for Putin, al-Assad, Qaddafi, Mugabe, Ahmadinejad et al is the way in which they have absorbed the authority-worshiping mindset of the typical small-town, Babbitt, registered Republican who has an American flag on their front-lawn. But it is channeled through a kind of bastardized vulgar Marxism. Instead of an American flag pin on their lapel, you see a Russian one. I think it was Bob Fitch who said that vulgar Marxism explains 90% of what's happening in the world. Maybe because vulgar Marxism at least wants to use class analysis. Are there classes with antagonistic interests in Russia, Syria, Libya, Zimbabwe, and Iran? The apologists don't seem that interested. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Marx's Racist Put-Down of Lassalle
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Of course we should be honest and up-front about any of Marx's failings (his personal treatment of his wife has always stuck in my craw, and in general he seems to have been a pretty miserable bastard). Perhaps I haven't read the right biographies, but the ones I've seen argue that Marx had a particularly close and warm relationship with Jenny and his children, who adored him. This includes Mary Gabriel's recent book, Love and Capital. This despite serious family problems of debt, ill health and the pressure of Marx's writing and political work. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Marx's Racist Put-Down of Lassalle
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In his brilliant book Marx at the Margins, author Kevin Anderson writes: In his often-cited letter, Marx also makes some very problematic personal remarks, referring to 'the Jewish nigger Lassalle' (der judische Nigger Lassalle) and writing as well that 'the impertinence of the fellow is also niggerlike (niggerhaft) (MECW 41, 389, 390). That Marx was capable of making such racist remarks in private should not obscure the fact that a major part of what had made him so angry with Lassalle was the latter's indifference to the Civil War and the issues of slavery and racism in America. (page 266, note 22) Marx wrote a great deal about the Civil War and the abolitionist cause, which he avidly supported. In an 1862 letter to Engels on the conduct of Northern military strategy, Marx predicted: The North will finally wage war seriously, adopt revolutionary methods, and overthrow the domination of the border state statement. A single nigger-regiment would have a remarkable effect on Southern nerves …. Anderson comments: In the block quote above, the term nigger-regiment is written in English in the middle of a German sentence. This is an instance of Marx using what today would be considered a very racist phrase to make an equally strong anti-racist point. Ironically, it is here that Marx makes his strongest case to date on the issue of Black troops, not only for military reasons, but also for political and psychological ones. Anderson notes that in the same month Marx wrote the letter quoted above, he also publishes several critiques of Lincoln's failure to abolish slavery. In short, Marx consistently took anti-racist positions, despite his unfortunate use of contemporary racist terms. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Even Muravchik's parents can't stand him
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Some Freedom House board members: Joshua Muravchik From Wikipedia: Muravchik is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he researches Middle East politics, democracy, and the history of socialism. He is also a patron of the Henry Jackson Society, which sponsors discussions and activities around the political legacy of Senator Henry Scoop Jackson. He describes himself as a neo-conservative, despite the disapproval of his social-democratic father and socialist mother. His father criticized his Heaven on earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism: Josh Muravchik’s father, Manny, eighty-five-years-old, breathing through oxygen tubes, [was] handing out his own two-page Xeroxed affirmation of socialism. Manny let the reader know that his own life, and that of Josh’s mother, would be impossible today absent the very sort of anti-market reforms—Medicare, rent-controlled apartments—for which they’d worked while Josh was still a pisher and toward which he sounded at best ambivalent today. Father told son that if there was utopian impulse to be feared, it was that messianic laissez-faire nonsense he must have picked up once he’d left home. You think your mother and I could survive in your perfect world, Mr. Capitalist Shill? His mother was too upset with his book to attend the discussion. In 2006, he called for the bombing of Iran in a Los Angeles Times op-ed entitled Bomb Iran. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Another defeat for labor
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The deal the workers ratified contained far-reaching concessions, including the wage freeze, a pension freeze for the more senior two-thirds of the workers and a steep increase in what the workers pay toward their health care insurance. It also called for a $3,100 ratification bonus, which union officials said Caterpillar agreed on Thursday to increase from $1,000. The worst aspect of this is the pension freeze, in which Caterpillar will stop contributing to the pension system. The workers will still get whatever pension benefits they've accumulated, but that's it. For those who still have years before they retire, it will mean a sharply reduced annual pension. An increasing number of companies, including many that are doing quite well, have frozen pensions. This is a one-sided class war. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] What's a good novel for 13-14 year olds?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Has anyone read Germinal by Zola? I confess that it was recommended to me in my 20's and i shied away from it as being heavy and depressing. So probably inappropriate. I found it quite good, not really depressing at all though a bit heavy, yes; the descriptive style can get a bit involved. That said, no, I wouldn't recommend it for the average 13--14-year-old either. This last point seems very important. Having taught junior high school, I'm fairly certain that the average 13-14 year old wouldn't be up to read Germinal, a 19th century novel of over 500 pages. I've seen higher level JHS students read and appreciate To Kill A Mockingbird, an anti-racist novel about Alabama in the 1930's. The way to introduce communism is to supplement the story of passive blacks and Atticus the liberal savior with sections from Robin Kelly's Hammer and the Hoe, which shows how black and white communists led sharecroppers and other workers in struggle. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Dark Knight Rises vs. The 99%
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://exiledonline.com/the-dark-knight-rises-vs-the-99/ A witty and observant review! Eileen Jones really nails the conservatism of the film. Full disclosure: I was at the midnight show Thursday evening with my daughter, who HAD to be there. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Info on Biden?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I'm a delegate to the AFT convention, where Joe Biden will be speaking next Sunday. The AFT has endorsed Obama for re-election. Can someone recommend articles critical of Biden that I could show to members of a progressive caucus? Thanks, Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] What a Palestinian Marxist thinks about the anti-imperialist Bashar al-Assad
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks for posting this Louis. I was happy to sign the petition to free Kaileh, whose clarity about the class nature of the Assad regime, and whose record of writing and sacrifice is so impressive. The wrong people are certainly in prison. Glenn Syria: Marxist intellectual arrested -- Free Salameh Kaileh! By Omar S. Dahi and Vijay Prashad April 26, 2012 --Jadaliyya -- At 2 am on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, the Palestinian-Syrian intellectual and activist Salameh Kaileh was arrested from his home “without explanation”, as his lawyer Anwar Bunni of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research put it. This is not Salameh Kaileh’s first time in a Syrian prison. He was a guest of the Assad family in its several jails for eight years and 11 days in the 1990s. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] This shit has to be stopped! Why isn't the US left raising hell over it???
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I'm confused by the question of why isn't the US left raising hell over the vicious killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas by U.S. border agents. The murder occurred almost two years ago, and there WERE demonstrations -- angry ones -- at the time: http://immigrantsandiego.org/2010/06/03/justice-for-anastasio-hernandez-rojas/ http://www.workers.org/2010/us/border_patrol_0617/ Of course, there should be more demonstrations now. Lenin argued that Marxist revolutionaries should be tribunes of the people, fighting against every act of oppression. That might be the start of a mature conversation of Marxism. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Barbara Foley: From Occupy to Revolution Video
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Barbara Foley: From Occupy to Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfTKT9o_CYg Thanks for posting this. What a fascinating talk and discussion at Occupy Boston. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Red Plenty
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Has anyone on the list read Robert C. Allen, From Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution (Princeton University Press, 2009)? This is from amazon.com: To say that history's greatest economic experiment--Soviet communism--was also its greatest economic failure is to say what many consider obvious. Here, in a startling reinterpretation, Robert Allen argues that the USSR was one of the most successful developing economies of the twentieth century. He reaches this provocative conclusion by recalculating national consumption and using economic, demographic, and computer simulation models to address the what if questions central to Soviet history. Moreover, by comparing Soviet performance not only with advanced but with less developed countries, he provides a meaningful context for its evaluation. http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Factory-Reinterpretation-Industrial-Revolution/dp/0691144311/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksie=UTF8qid=1330991494sr=1-1 Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Michael Moore to deliver major address at Left Forum 2012
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Well, you know he will. that's where he's going to wind up and he might as well scrape the arguments off his shoe and put them on display now rather than later . . . . Of course, the shrewd way for Moore to do this is to point to all the terrible things the Republican candidates are saying, and list the terrible things that Scott Walker and others have done, and conclude they have to be defeated. This way, he doesn't have to mention Obama at all. I forget who said that if the Republicans didn't exist the Democrats would have to create them, but she was was right. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Ron Paul profited from racist newsletter
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ron-paul-signed-off-on-racist-newsletters-sources-say/2012/01/20/gIQAvblFVQ_story.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] A disgusting pro-Obama Democratic front operation
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Among the speakers that day was a relatively unknown state senator – Barack Obama, who added a strong voice in opposition when it was not yet a popular position. It's interesting that this shameless call doesn't mention that: (a) President Obama has been a strong voice for more war in Afghanistan, tripling the number of occupying troops since he came to office, and expanding the war to Pakistan. (b) That his administration wanted to maintain a force of 20,000 in Iraq, but were thwarted by its inability to wrest immunity protection from the Iraqi government. Below is a commentary from another listserv that I thought made some good points. Glenn ___ 1. The U.S. has spent over a trillion dollars in Iraq since March, 2003, with almost 4500 soldiers killed and more than 32,000 wounded (20% with serious brain or spinal injuries). The result of all this huge expenditure of money and lives is: a. The overthrow of Hussein, Iran's main nemesis in the region, has strengthened Iran's position. b. The al-Maliki government, which the U.S. helped install, is an unreliable ally. It is friendly with Iran (and will soon be closing down the main base of MEK, an opposition force to the Iranian regime), it refuses to endorse sanctions against either Iran or Syria, and it has granted oil concessions to China and Russia. c. The U.S. wanted to keep 20,000 troops in Iraq, but the Iraqi Parliament has refused to grant the U.S. military immunity protection against lawsuits. The U.S. then asked for immunity for 3,000 troops, but this was denied as well. 2. Since Iraq has the third largest reserves of oil in the world, and borders Iran, the U.S. is not about to leave and allow an Iraqi-Iranian alliance. It plans to do the following: a. Leave 157 military personnel and 700 Pentagon contractors to train Iraqi forces in how to use and maintain U.S.-supplied weapons. b. The State Department will have a huge force of 16,000 personnel, including: 1. Hiring 5500 armed private security contractors to protect the massive 104-acre U.S. embassy, consulates in Basra and Arbil (the Kurdish capital) and various U.S. projects, as well as operate a fleet of helicopters, planes and armored vehicles. Senator John Kerry even questioned whether the U.S. was replacing a military presence with a private mercenary presence. (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/5500-mercs-to-protect-u-s-fortresses-in-iraq/) 2. Having 4500 general life support contractors needed to provide food, medical treatment, transportation and other services for State Department personnel. 3. Installing 6000 civilian personnel, which will include the largest CIA station in the world. c. The U.S. military will maintain at least 40,000 troops in the region (including 25,000 across the Iraqi border in Kuwait) within striking distance of Iran. Tens of thousands of soldiers will also be deployed in Qatar, Bahrain (which has a major U.S. naval base), Turkey, and Oman, as well as on navy ships in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced: So we will always have a force that will be present and that will deal with any threats from Iran. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Petition to prevent eviction of Palestinian Arab family
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is an on-line petition to support the struggle of the Al-Aju family in Ramle to stop an eviction attempt. The petition gives the details. They've received support from both Jewish and Arab activists. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/alaju/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Andrew Kliman and the failure of capitalist production
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Dec 8, 2011, at 6:23 PM, Gary MacLennan wrote: What does interest me is the political ramifications of each position. If one is an underconsumptionist then the way forward is relatively simple is it not? Inflate the economy; give the people money; defend trade unions etc.. But what if one is a classically orthodox Marxist? If the crisis is due to the TRPF, what is the leftist solution? I think I understand Roberts to say that the only solution for capital is to purge capital, that is to undergo a depression or deep recession. If you adhere to the TRPF analysis, why must there be a leftist solution to the capitalist crisis? Maybe there's only the capitalist solution, as Paul Mattick maintains in his book Business As Usual. Of course, we're talking about solutions within the framework of capitalism. If within that framework there's only the capitalist remedies available to stem the crisis -- and these only degrade the conditions of labor, or lead to imperialist war -- then the leftist solution is the abolition of capitalism. As you say, the political ramifications are interesting. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Two takes on Pinker
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks for posting the two articles. Fry makes an excellent point about Pinker avoiding the issue of structural violence -- which causes immense pain and suffering. But I was also wondering about Pinker's argument that deaths due to wars are decreasing. Is he referring to absolute numbers or percentages of the population? In absolute numbers, when you consider deaths in the two world wars, in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (in the millions), in the Iran-Iraq conflict and the Gulf Wars (also millions) and the Congo (5 to 6 million), it seems the death toll for the 20th century is far higher than that of previous centuries. And that's not even considering the mass repressions of places like Indonesia and Guatemala. Fry's point that the military's capacity for violence -- including nuclear -- is greater than ever seems incontrovertible. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] NYRB: Qatar
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is an interesting article about the hereditary monarchy of Qatar (the sponsor of Al Jazeera): http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/oct/27/strange-power-qatar/ The Qatar monarchy -- which allows no parliament or political parties -- was deeply involved in supporting the rebellions in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt, while welcoming the Saudi-led repression of the Shia-led revolt in Bahrain. Qatar houses the headquarters of US CENTCOM and assisted in the invasion of Iraq, while at the same time backing Hamas. This is from the article: 'Though little noted in the West, Qatar’s enthusiasm for the Libyan revolt had been on display from the outset. The emirate was instrumental in securing the support of the Arab League for the NATO intervention back in March, contributing its own military aircraft to the mission. It also gave $400 million to the rebels, helped them market Libyan oil out of Benghazi, and set up a TV station for them in Doha, the Qatari capital. Following the conquest of Bab al-Aziziya, however, it became clear that the Qataris were deeply involved on the ground as well. Not only did Qatar arm the rebels and set up training camps for them in Benghazi and in the Nafusa Mountains west of Tripoli; its own special forces—a hitherto unknown contingent—helped lead the August offensive on the capital. (Although Qatar’s military is one of the smallest in the Middle East, with just over 11,000 men, its special forces were trained by the French and other Western countries and appear to possess considerable skill.) The day the rebels captured Bab al-Aziziya, Mahmoud Jibril, the leader of Libya’s interim government, singled out Qatar for its far-reaching support, despite “all the doubts and threats.”' Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Michael Mulgrew
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I was half-watching Chris Matthews at 5pm interviewing someone by this name down at Zuccotti Park, who he identified as a school teacher--at least that's the part I caught. The guy, late 40s to early 50s, gave a pretty canny defense of the occupiers describing them as a social movement rather than a political movement. By that he meant that they were not interested in kowtowing to the Democrats nor the Republicans but were trying to transform the system. The show repeats at 7pm and this time I paid closer attention to the interview. It turns out that Mulgrew is the president of the UFT local in NYC, the one that Albert Shanker used to run and that has been in the DP's back pocket for centuries it seems. Something interesting is going on… The UFT has been working without a contract for two years now. Bloomberg unilaterally announced a two-year wage freeze and Mulgrew did nothing. The NYC school budget has been cut 17% over the last four years, resulting in larger class size (already the largest in NYS) and teacher excessing. Mulgrew sucks up to Cuomo and I'm sure the AFT will follow the NEA in endorsing Obama for re-election. At the 2010 AFT convention in Seattle -- which I was a delegate to -- the leadership (which includes Mulgrew, head of the largest local) invited Bill Gates to be their honorary speaker. The AFT Peace and Justice Caucus organized a walkout of about 80 people, pointing out that Gates had taken one anti-teacher stance after another and was no friend of ours. We were roundly booed by the majority of the delegates, because the leadership had told them we needed to be friendly to the billionaire. Since that time, Gates has proposed cutting most teacher salaries, while raising the pay of a few (merit pay). Mulgrew doesn't deserve to be in the same park as the OWS protestors. He's using them and will abandon OWS as soon as its convenient. Glenn P.S.: Mulgrew taught in a school for a year or two, and was handpicked by Randi Weingarten (who taught for less than that) to replace her. Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The NYT Oglesby obit
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == There were no surviving SDSes after the two post-split groups ended. PL's goal was to take over SDS by out-organizing the national leadership. They succeeded, but most everyone opposed to PL left with the national leadership's two factions, Weatherman RYM II, including the Independent Socialist Clubs and the unaffiliated Madison chapter. Ethan: I completely agree with you about Oglesby, the NYT and the nuttiness of the Weatherman. However, I was active in SDS at the time and I know that many chapters continued to thrive after the split. Most SDSers, including me, did not attend the '69 convention. Our chapter at Stony Brook -- which had scores of members and led demonstrations of hundreds against war research, military recruiters and in support of striking cafeteria workers -- pretty much ignored the split and continued our activities. We had people in the chapter who supported both sides of the split, and we sometimes acted like sectarian jerks, but in large measure we worked together as SDSers. In the fall of '69 -- after the split -- our SDS chapter organized busses to Washington, DC, to join a huge anti-war demonstration of hundreds of thousands. SDS organized a rally of some 5,000 people at the Labor Department in support of striking GE workers. When Nixon invaded Cambodia in 1970, SDS organized anti-war demonstrations on scores of campuses. From 1971 on, SDS and the anti-war movement in general began to fade. The bad publicity from the terrorist bombings by the Weatherman group certainly hurt. Coming from a working-class background, and needing to work in the cafeteria to pay for books and extras, the Worker-Student Alliance faction was attractive to me. I liked the idea of supporting labor struggles (I was one of the cafeteria strikers) and bringing anti-war ideas to workers. I vividly remember giving out anti-war leaflets to hundreds of white construction workers erecting buildings on campus, and although I feared I would get my ass kicked, it turned out to be a very positive experience. Fraternally, Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The NYT Oglesby obit
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It was not unusual for SDS officers to get a nasty send-off, as the group grew more radical year by year. The artificial generation gap in SDS was exploited by PL in its rule-or-ruin efforts, which in 1969 succeeded in splitting the group. I was in SDS in 1969. It's my recollection that the Worker Student Alliance/PL faction did not want SDS to split. It was the Weatherman and RYM factions that announced that PLP was expelled from SDS and then promptly walked out of the 1969 convention. Kirpatrick Sale was hostile to PL, but his book SDS makes it clear that it was the anti-WSA people who executed the split. I did a google search and found these descriptions of the '69 convention, which all describe how it was the Weatherman/RYM group who deliberately split SDS: 1. Documents from 1969 describing the schism: http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7v19n9b9/ 2. A lengthy Wikipedia entry that gives an account of the '69 convention: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Society#Climax_and_split:_1968.E2.80.931969 After the split, many chapters of SDS continued to function normally. At SUNY Stony Brook, where I was, we continued to have anti-war protests against military and CIA recruiters, to join national demonstrations in D.C. and to support a strike of campus cafeteria workers. The Weatherman dissolved their section of SDS within a few months of the convention, something Mark Rudd acknowledges in his book was a terrible mistake. The WSA-led SDS continued until 1974 and published New Left Notes. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Reich's NYT column
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Can someone suggest a good rebuttal to Robert Reich's column, The Limping Middle Class, in yesterday's NY Times? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/jobs-will-follow-a-strengthening-of-the-middle-class.html?_r=1partner=rssnytemc=rss Reich argues that capitalism's economic doldrums can be reversed by reviving the middle class through imposing higher taxes on the very wealthy, reducing inequality and maintaining strong labor unions. At the heart of his argument seems to be the belief that we're in a crisis of underconsumption rather than a crisis of profitability, as people like Michael Roberts and Paul Mattick, Jr. maintain. Reich also seems to ignore the fact that an increasing percentage of U.S. corporate profits come from abroad rather than at home. He also claims that the political power of the executive class can be overcome, which seems to ignore the reality that both major parties are more strongly in the grip of capital than ever before, which is saying a lot. His article was short on concrete proposals on how to revive middle class purchasing power, which he claims it the key to revitalizing the economy. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Question
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thank´s for the info. But we have a little problem. The email of Mr. Mattick at Adelphi has an auto-response. He´ll back to the University in Sept. Does anyone have his private email addres? You might want to contact the publisher of his book, Business As Usual: Reaktion Books Ltd 33 Great Sutton St London EC1V 0DX, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7253 1071 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7253 1208 If you have any comments or queries please email us: i...@reaktionbooks.co.uk Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The madness of Cesar Chavez
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I cut my teeth politically in 1967 working on the UFW grape boycott out on Long Island. Every weekend for months, a dozen of us would picket a supermarket and hand out flyers. Dolores Huerta even came to help out and thank us. I was a liberal politically, campaigning for Mel Dubin, the anti-war businessman from Brooklyn. But I listened -- without always agreeing -- to my radical friends in SDS, who told me about leftist Mexican farmworkers who thought that Chavez had substituted the grape boycott for workers stopping scabs in the fields. As someone else on our list mentioned, Chavez conducted hunger strikes against the violence -- physically confronting scabs -- of his own members. But I stilled believed in Chavez and Huerta. Years later, I began to read articles by people like Michael Yates and Frank Berdacke, who raised sharp criticism of Chavez's leadership. Finally, in 1982, Jeff Coplon wrote a two-part article in The Village Voice, which finally shattered the myth of Chavez for me once and for all. I found the articles online here: Part I: http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/spl/coplonchavez1vv84.pdf Part II: http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/spl/coplonchavez2vv84.pdf Coplon reported on the internal division in the UFW and Chavez's infatuation with Synanon founder Charles Dederich. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] contradictions
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == As I see it -- and as I've said before -- the problem here is the inability, or willful unwillingness, of Louis et al to distinguish the principle contradiction (U.S./NATO military aggression against a Third World country with some elements of political and economic independence from the Empire) from the secondary contradiction (Ghaddafii's dictatorship over the Libyan people). 1. Who determines what the main contradiction is? A Libyan rebel might see his principal enemy as the Gaddafi regime. 2. Is it possible to take a strict class line toward both contradictions? That is, support revolution against Gaddafi, be critical of the compromised bourgeois leadership in Benghazi, and oppose imperialist intervention? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Diane Ravitch op-ed piece on education reform
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It seems like Ravitch's big fear is that the emphasis on more and more teaching will weaken what she sees as the main mission of American education -- insuring that students understand that capitalism and capitalist democracy is the best possible system and that alien notions like class war, revolution, socialism, and communism should be rejected. I had intended to write the emphasis on more and more testing -- not teaching. Sorry for the typo. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Diane Ravitch op-ed piece on education reform
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Ravitch will always be connected in my mind with Albert Shanker, the anti-communist cold-warrior who supported the Vietnam War and led a racist strike in 1968. Ravitch worked at the New Leader magazine, associated with the SDUSA, Shanker's party. She is currently a board member of the Albert Shanker Institute, and received the UFT's John Dewey award in 2005. During his tenure as UFT and then AFT President (when I was a member of both), Shanker was a big proponent of guns AND butter, the belief that we could -- and should -- spend generously on the military and social programs at the same time. Shanker was a big supporter of Henry Scoop Jackson, the Washington State Democratic Senator from Boeing, known for his avid support for increased military spending. Ravitch is a perfect fit for the Albert Shanker Institute, devoted to promoting the glories of American democracy. The Institute's Education for Democracy statement -- signed by such luminaries as Ted Kennedy and war criminal Bob Kerry -- quotes a section of Ravitch's book, The Language Police, which blames American textbooks for being too critical of U.S. occupations and not anti-communist enough. Here's what Ravitch says: The textbooks published in the late 1990's do ... contain a coherent narrative. It is a story of cultural equivalence: All of the world's civilizations were great and glorious, all produced grand artistic, cultural, and material achievements, and now the world is growing more global and interconnected The textbooks sugercoat practices in non-Western cultures that they would condemn if done by Europeans or Americans. Seemingly, only Europeans and Americans were imperialistic. When non-European civilizations conquer new territories, the textbooks abandon their critical voice Some texts present Mao as a friendly, inclusive leader who listened to the peasants and won their support, just like our politicians. Most texts point out the Communist Party killed one million landlords and that at least 20 million Chinese people died because of a famine caused by Mao's disastrous Great Leap Forward. Some mention the humiliation of teachers and professionals during the Cultural Revolution. But it often seems as though these were just unfortunate events that occurred while Mao and the Communist Party were successfully transforming China into a modern industrialized society Students who read these texts might well conclude that the Chinese Communist program had its ups and downs, its good policies and its bad policies (just like ours), but overall produced great gains for the Chinese people. It seems like Ravitch's big fear is that the emphasis on more and more teaching will weaken what she sees as the main mission of American education -- insuring that students understand that capitalism and capitalist democracy is the best possible system and that alien notions like class war, revolution, socialism, and communism should be rejected. I don't see her as an ally of the left. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Worst Ever Carbon Emissions Leave Climate on the Brink
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 50 % chance of reaching a global average temperature increase of 4 C by 2100! that's pretty scary. capitalism seems incapable of generating the cooperation necessary to control carbon emissions. and the problems in the nuclear industry will increase reliance on fossil fuels. the full URL for the Guardian article is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/carbon-emissions-nuclearpower?intcmp=122 thanks for posting. glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Scheduled Downtime
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Just to satisfy my curiosity, how many people in the USA (and elsewhere for that matter) really believe in this 'rapture' business? Do any prominent people in leading political or economic positions, believe in this nonsense? I'll be at my computer on Sunday to read your replies. Paul F Paul, I'm not sure how many people in the U.S. believe the Rapture is happening tomorrow, but the Left Behind series of books prophesying the Rapture and Armageddon sold tens of millions of copies, repeatedly making the NY Times best sellers list. It was even made into a couple of straight-to-video movies. The rapture seems to a bedrock notion of Christian fundamentalism. I imagine all the born again politicians subscribe to it. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Madison Firefighters Prez Calls for General Strike
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Z_TVrBUtw Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Peter Pukeface
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Some residents argue that the town should be more businesslike, cutting other costs to offset the outlay for smaller classes. Peter P. Pulkkinen is one. A 40-year-old investment banker, he and his wife, Sarah, moved here in 2004 from the Upper East Side and their two oldest children are now in the first and third grades. He wants small classes for them. But rather than raise taxes, he would restrict teacher compensation— particularly their benefits. Yes, I was wondering how much investment banker Pukeface makes a year, and whether he'd like his own compensation -- probably many times that of a teacher -- to be restricted. The structural change I'd like to show Pukeface is probably not what he was thinking of. This is a nice response to the Times article (which, as usual, lustily joined in with the anti-teacher attack): http://www.printculture.com/index.php?itemid=2829 Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Grover Furr on K's lies?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Does anyone on this list have an opinion on Furr's revisionist history of the Soviet Union? I lack the kind of expert knowledge judging the book requires. I am not promoting Grover Furr's position or his book, first published in Russia in 2007. I'd simply like to read someone's take who knows more than I do.Grover Furr has a couple of long articles online in Cultural Logic. The following is from Furr. I haven't read Furr's book, but it received some kind words from Robert Thurston, professor of history at Miami University in Ohio. A few years ago, I read Thurston's book, Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia, which impressed me. It was based on his research in the newly opened Soviet archives. Thurston is very critical of the repression during the Stalin period, but he does challenge many of the conclusions of Cold War writers like Robert Conquest. Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] bye bye dictator
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == There is no party like the Russian Bolsheviks and no Lenin steeled in years of political struggles and relying on the experience of the 1905 revolution; the Arab workers will have to create their leadership in the head of the moment. Are there any functioning Marxist parties in Egypt? Do we know what they're saying and doing? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Divisions within the Egyptian ruling class
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/516/why-mubarak-is-out- Paul Amar's essay analyzes the divisions within the Egyptian ruling elite: splits between the military/ national capitalists and the crony capitalists allied with Gamal Nasser and foreign investors, and also divisions within the security apparatus, and even within the police. It appears that the later group (Gamal and the crony capitalists) has lost their Cabinet positions, while the first faction is in position to take power, possibly in alliance with some representatives of the mass movement. It will be interesting to see what, if any, material concessions are made to the mass movement, other than some opening of the electoral process. Put more simply: will there be even a small redistribution of wealth to benefit the unemployed and the poor (the majority of Egyptian society)? Glenn Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
