[Marxism] Please keep Tony. Please!
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Leaders matter. What the ruling class wants and needs is not only a political leader with a program to continue and intensify the wealth shift from labour to capital but also to be able to implement it, and do so in a way that plucks the working class goose with the least hissing. Abbott is not that plucker. http://enpassant.com.au/2015/02/08/please-keep-tony-please/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Marxism Digest, Vol 136, Issue 13
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/7/15 11:57 AM, Ron J via Marxism wrote: Both sides are proxies for outside interests. US imperialism remains the primary threat to world peace, not a wannabe empire in Moscow. That's definitely true but for the average Ukrainian, Russia has been a threat to Ukrainian peace for 300 years. Except the people in Eastern Ukraine are, well, Ukrainian. Just don't like the NATO western imposed Kiev junta rulers so want to go their own way. Quite reasonable really. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Syriza and the poverty of philosophy | lives; running
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * For those of us who were until recently more sympathetic to Antarsya, the “other” left-wing coalition on Greece’s radical left, it is salutary to reflect on how well Syriza has done in the last month, and how poorly Antarsya has done by comparison. The justification for Antarsya’s separate existence goes something like the following: Antarsya, unlike Syriza, is a coalition of the parties that believe that Greece can only be saved by a revolutionary transformation of the state. Syriza, unlike Antarsya, equivocates on this issue, and on the connected questions of whether the Greek government should remain in Europe or whether it should agree to pay any of the debt to its international creditors. Those who vote for Antarsya are voting for a revolutionary alternative to capitalism and, in so doing, they keep alive the possibility of a revolutionary politics. Syriza by contrast is merely reformist; and likely to every bit as shabby in government as PASOK, Labour etc. Inevitably in the last election, Antarsya’s vote was squeezed to just 0.6% since the election became a referendum on the possibility of a left-wing government (which most politicised workers want), but by standing Antarsya has kept pressure on Syriza from the left. Its stance outside Syriza has all the benefits of being associated with a rising movement (the sales of Workers’ Solidarity the newspaper of one of Antarsya’s affiliates, have apparently never been so high), but none of the disadvantages of being associated with Syriza’s defeat, when that disappointment inevitably comes. Who makes the revolutionaries? Where this justification of Antarsya begins to fall down is with the assumption that the best alternative to a programme of reform is to offer a rival, programme of greater reforms. In this revolutionaries are different from reformists principally in that they ask for more. So Syriza offered Greek nationality to the children of all migrants; and, like a poker player, Antarsya “raised” them, by offering to legalise all immigrants in Greece. Syriza said that it would stop all the planned privatisations; Antarsya’s reply was to say that it would undo every privatisation in Greek history. Using elections to make revolutionaries is not about out-bidding your rival, it involves an explanation of both any government under capitalism has only limited power, and how those limits can be overcome (only through a direct conflict with the international capitalist class). It is at this point that Syriza comes over as politically more sophisticated than Antarsya, because it had an analysis of its own limits as a reforming government (the European powers will not allow us to write off more than a small portion of our debt), and an idea of how to get beyond that limit (on the basis of agitation from outside parliament keeping pressure on the government, and on the basis of support from the left outside Greece). full: https://livesrunning.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/syriza-and-the-poverty-of-philosophy/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Stream of Foreign Wealth Flows to Elite New York Real Estate - NYTimes.com
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A must read. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/nyregion/stream-of-foreign-wealth-flows-to-time-warner-condos.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’ | The Electronic Intifada
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 08 Feb 2015, at 6:32 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/alice-walker-disinvited-university-michigan-over-israel-comments I don’t think Walker deserves to be singled out for attack, but she has not always been the most unproblematic ally to the Palestinian people - for instance when she made these remarks in an interview with Hanan Chehata for Middle East Monitor a few years ago: HC: What lessons can the Palestinians learn from the South African struggle and the American Civil Rights movement in terms of how to succeed in their own struggle? Is Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) the right way to go forward, for example? AW: I am a big supporter of BDS. I frankly think that it is the best, absolutely the best way, because the Israeli government and people really love commerce and making money and so anything that interferes with that will get their attention at least. From: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/resources/interviews/3104-alice-walker-qgoing-through-israeli-checkpoints-is-like-going-back-in-time-to-american-civil-rights-struggleq _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] In this week's Red Wedge Magazine
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * In this week’s Red Wedge Magazine: The editorial from our first print issue, “Art + Revolution” http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/editorial/art-revolution Leila Abdelrazaq, Jennifer Camper, Molly Crabapple and Melanie West discuss Charllie Hebdo, Freedom and Imagery http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/interviews/freedom-and-imagery-a-discussion-on-charlie-hebdo Thomas Crane on “Ur-Fascism in American Sniper” http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/reviews/tracing-ur-fascism-in-american-sniper Danica Radoshevich on “Zombie Galleries? The German Ideology and the White Cube” http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/commentary/the-white-cube-and-the-german-ideology-gallery-space-as-bourgeois-farce Adam Turl on “Interrupting Disbelief: Narrative Conceptualism and Anti-Capitalist Studio Art” https://www.redwedgemagazine.com/essays/interrupting-disbelief-ilya-kabakov-narrative-conceptualism-and-anti-capitalist-studio-art “Arminius,” a poem by Anthony Squiers https://www.redwedgemagazine.com/poetry/arminius And this week in our blogs: Introducing Red Wedge Comix http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/red-wedge-comix/a-call-for-submissions Jase Short on “Science Fiction Mythologies” http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/the-ansible/science-fiction-mythologies Adam Turl on “Twelve Concerns for Anti-Capitalist Studio Art” http://www.redwedgemagazine.com/evicted-art-blog/post-title _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Saudi princes use Pakistan as a doormat
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * NY Times, Feb. 8 2015 For Saudis and Pakistan, a Bird of Contention By DECLAN WALSH For decades, royal Arab hunting expeditions have traveled to the far reaches of Pakistan in pursuit of the houbara bustard — a waddling, migratory bird whose meat, they believe, contains aphrodisiac powers. Little expense is spared for the elaborate winter hunts. Cargo planes fly tents and luxury jeeps into custom-built desert airstrips, followed by private jets carrying the kings and princes of Persian Gulf countries along with their precious charges: expensive hunting falcons that are used to kill the white-plumed houbara. This year’s hunt, however, has run into difficulty. It started in November, when the High Court in Baluchistan, the vast and tumultuous Pakistani province that is a favored hunting ground, canceled all foreign hunting permits in response to complaints from conservationists. Those experts say the houbara’s habitat, and perhaps the long-term survival of the species, which is already considered threatened, has been endangered by the ferocious pace of hunting. That legal order ballooned into a minor political crisis last week when a senior Saudi prince and his entourage landed in Baluchistan, attracting unusually critical media attention and a legal battle that is scheduled to reach the country’s Supreme Court in the coming days. Anger among conservationists was heightened by the fact that the prince — Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the governor of Tabuk province — along with his entourage had killed 2,100 houbara over 21 days during last year’s hunt, according to an official report leaked to the Pakistani news media, or about 20 times more than his allocated quota. Still, Prince Fahd faced little censure when he touched down in Dalbandin, a dusty town near the Afghan border on Wednesday, to be welcomed by a delegation led by a cabinet minister and including senior provincial officials. His reception was a testament, critics say, to the money-driven magnetism of Saudi influence in Pakistan, and the walk-on role of the humble bustard in cementing that relationship. “This is a clear admission of servility to the rich Arabs,” said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a physics professor and longtime critic of what he calls “Saudization” in Pakistan. “They come here, hunt with impunity, and are given police protection in spite of the fact that they are violating local laws.” The dispute has focused attention on a practice that started in the 1970s, when intensive hunting in the Persian Gulf nearly rendered the houbara extinct there, and with it a cherished tradition considered the sport of kings. As the houbara migrated from its breeding grounds in Siberia, newly enriched Persian Gulf royalty flocked to the deserts and fields of Pakistan, where they were welcomed with open arms by the country’s leaders. For the Pakistanis, the hunt has become an opportunity to earn money and engage in a form of soft diplomacy. Although only 29 foreigners have been permitted houbara licenses this year, according to press reports, they include some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the Middle East, including the kings of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the Emir of Kuwait and the ruler of Dubai. Their devotion to the houbara can seem mysterious to outsiders. The bird’s meat is bitter and stringy, and its supposed aphrodisiac properties are not supported by scientific evidence. But falcon hunting, and the pursuit of the houbara, occupy a romantic place in the Bedouin Arab culture. In Pakistan, the lavish nature of the winter hunts, which take place largely away from public scrutiny, have become the stuff of legend. In the early ’90s, it was reported, the Saudi king arrived in Pakistan with a retinue of dancing camels. To curry favor with local communities, the Arab hunters have built roads, schools, madrassas and mosques, as well as several international-standard airstrips in unlikely places. The only airport, at Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab Province, is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, the former ruler of Abu Dhabi. In recent times the hunts have also played a role, albeit unwitting, in the United States’s war against Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden took refuge at a houbara hunting camp in western Afghanistan in the late 1990s, by several accounts, at a time when the C.I.A. was plotting to assassinate him with a missile strike. The journalist Steve Coll wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Ghost Wars,” that American officials declined to take the shot, fearing that the Arab sheikh who was hosting Bin Laden would have
[Marxism] Fwd: Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’ | The Electronic Intifada
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/alice-walker-disinvited-university-michigan-over-israel-comments _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’ | The Electronic Intifada
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * For reasons that are beyond me, this story has been making the rounds on social media this morning. But note that it's a year and a half old (which doesn't mean it isn't worth noticing, if you didn't the first time). On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 11:32 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/alice- walker-disinvited-university-michigan-over-israel-comments -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Ukraine
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Calling this a proxy war is entirely too kind to Russia. Russian troops in Ukraine aren't proxies, they are Russian troops invading Ukraine, and on the US side, just talking about arming one side doesn't make them a proxy. My point about the 30's is not to make the point about whether the US or Britain was the biggest imperialist, it was to point out that among imperialist powers, it is often the up and coming power(s) that are demanding a bigger piece of the imperialist pie that is the main threat to peace. Wars are generally initiated to force a change, so the biggest threat to peace is generally the party demanding change, even if their demand is for a just peace. In Syria and Libya, pre-2011, the biggest threat to peace were the masses who showed they were now willing to go to the mattresses in the fight for justice. I think this is where the peace movements in the western countries have a problem with these revolutions. They break the peace and bring war so its easy for these Leftists to assume the US must be behind something terrible. Generally it is those that are comfortable in their positions that want peace at any price, because the price of the current un-just peace isn't too high for them. Clay Claiborne, Director Vietnam: American Holocaust http://VietnamAmericanHolocaust.com Linux Beach Productions Venice, CA 90291 (310) 581-1536 Read my blogs at the Linux Beach http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/ http://wlcentral.org/user/2965/track On Sat, Feb 7, 2015 at 2:59 PM, Ron J via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Poor analogy and as meaningless as the argument that the US client regime is all fascist. On Feb 7, 2015, at 5:45 PM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: On 2/7/15 2:23 PM, Ron J wrote: But this is about a lot more than the concerns of the average Ukrainian. Those concerns merely make it easier for the US supported government to manipulate Ukrainians to war. Funny thing here. Kim Scipes wrote about this stuff a few days ago ( http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/06/us-ukraine-and-russia-what-went-wrong), giving his nod to John Mearsheimer, the U. of Chicago realist: -Mearsheimer labeled Russia’s response highly understandable. Russia made clear this situation was categorically unacceptable. He said that if we wanted a good analogy, we should look at the US response to the Soviet Union’s placement of missiles in Cuba in 1962 or even the Monroe Doctrine itself, which he described as telling other world powers to stay out of our neighborhood, the entire Western Hemisphere.- That this appalling analogy has so much traction with the left makes me all the more committed to my stand on Ukraine. Think about it. Mearsheimer says that Russia has just as much right to control what happens on its borders or nearby as the USA had in Cuba. What kind of left can read this horseshit and pat itself on the back that an establishment figure has come over to our side. In reality, it is the left that has gone over to his side and don't you ever forget it. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/clayclai%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Putin as a continuation of Yeltsin
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * LRB, Vol. 37 No. 3 · 5 February 2015 First Person by Tony Wood ‘Sistema’, Power Networks and Informal Governance by Alena Ledeneva Cambridge, 327 pp, £19.99, February 2013, ISBN 978 0 521 12563 5 The Man without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen Granta, 314 pp, £9.99, January 2013, ISBN 978 1 84708 423 1 Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? by Karen Dawisha Simon and Schuster, 464 pp, £11.50, September 2014, ISBN 978 1 4767 9519 5 Nearly five thousand people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since April 2014; according to Ukrainian government figures, 514,000 have been internally displaced by the fighting, with another 233,000 applying for refugee status in Russia (9000 have sought asylum in the EU). Peace talks over the fate of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions have so far been fruitless, and the ceasefire nominally agreed in September has been patchy at best. The effects of the Ukraine crisis on Russia itself have been visible everywhere, from the thousands of refugees from Donetsk and Lugansk now resettling across Russia to the fresh graves quietly appearing in scattered villages, containing the remains of Russian conscripts killed in eastern Ukraine – casualties Moscow prefers not to acknowledge. (Some have even been retroactively discharged from the army, so that, for official purposes, they weren’t killed on active service.) Relations with the West have reached their lowest point in decades, and the combination of US-EU sanctions and plummeting oil prices has started to spread economic gloom. Between June and mid-December 2014 the ruble lost half its value – its downward path mirroring the slump in the price of oil, which went from $109 per barrel of Urals crude in June to $67 in December. All this has been exacerbated by the Kremlin’s self-destructive decisions. In August, Putin introduced retaliatory sanctions against countries that had mandated measures against Russia, the main effect of which has been drastically to reduce food imports and raise prices, helping to push inflation to an official level of 10 per cent, though some estimates put it at between 15 and 25 per cent. The country was already in recession when, in late December, the central bank forecast a further 5 per cent contraction of GDP in the course of this year. Some Russians have now taken to amending the patriotic slogan ‘Krym Nash’ – ‘Crimea is Ours’ – to ‘Krizis Nash’: ‘The Crisis is Ours.’ Yet so far Putin’s handling of the situation remains broadly popular in Russia. In fact one of the most striking things to emerge from the events of 2014 was the mismatch between the Putin government’s position domestically and internationally: surging neo-imperial popularity at home, virtual pariah status abroad. While the Western media is full of resurgent Cold War rhetoric, recent polls by the Levada Centre, one of the few independent research outfits remaining in Russia, show overwhelming support – 85 per cent – for the annexation of Crimea; they also show that in November 59 per cent thought the country was ‘moving in the right direction’, compared with 43 per cent last January. The solidity of this domestic consensus, however, is likely to be tested in the coming months by a combination of recession and rising prices, and the hostile international climate will narrow the regime’s options further. Putin’s presidential term runs until 2018, and the political landscape has been carefully swept clear of viable electoral alternatives, but his hold on power has begun to seem less unshakeable than it was a year ago. Any sense of how Putinism will fare – is it more likely to crack under external pressure than to erode from within, or will it do neither? – depends on the view one takes of the kind of regime it is. Since the early 2000s, a number of terms have been applied to the system over which Putin has presided. The Kremlin’s own ideologues have at different times called it ‘sovereign democracy’ or ‘managed democracy’ (to which Russian wits responded by saying that either adjective was to democracy what ‘electric’ is to ‘chair’). Scholars and journalists, inside and outside Russia, have opted for other labels: ‘competitive authoritarianism’, ‘virtual’ or ‘imitation democracy’, ‘militocracy’, ‘mafia state’. Medvedev’s chair-warming cameo between 2008 and 2012 added a new term to the lexicon – ‘tandemocracy’ – and for a moment seemed to raise the possibility of liberalisation. But with Putin reinstalled a cold front settled over Russia in the wake of mass protests in the winter of 2011-12, and the autocratic features of the system
[Marxism] Russia's so-called invasion of Ukraine
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The head of the Ukraine armed forces says that his army is not fighting Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. But what would he know? The Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper, is deepening its advocacy and fundraising for the far right in Ukraine. See my letter below to oneof its journalists. And President Obama is modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal in preparation for I-think-I-know-what. But I won't be fooled; I've got my eyes on the real story here: Russian aggression. RA Vancouver BC Feb 8, 2015 Hello Ms. Ferenc, For your information, I have published several articles tracking the Toronto Star's advocacy on behalf of the extreme right in Ukraine. My latest article was published in Counterpunch and in Rabble.ca on Jan 30: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2015/01/toronto-star-newspaper-running-extreme-right-ukraine I will be writing again on the subject as a result of the front-page article by Olivia Ward in yesterday's Star. Her article advocates fundraising for 'SOS Army' in Ukraine. This outfit has been providing arms and equipment to the Ukraine army, to the National Guard which is largely composed of volunteers from the extremist parties in Ukraine, and to the battalions that are the direct militias of the extreme right. Among the items funded by 'SOS Army' is technology for improved artillery sighting. The Ukraine army and militias have been conducting war crimes against the civilians of eastern Ukraine during the past nine months through indiscriminate artillery and rocket attacks against towns and cities. Those attacks have included the use of cluster weapons, as documented by the New York Times, Human Rights Watch and, most recently, the observer mission in Ukraine of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Regards, Roger Annis _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] SYRIZA Veroufakis Confessions of an Erratic Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/8/15 3:47 PM, James Creegan via Marxism wrote: This essay by the newly appointed Syriza economics minister is thoroughly confused in its exposition of Marx. It is, however, remarkably frank politically. It states that the socialist goal, while desirable, is impossible in our lifetime. Further, a continuing capitalist crisis in Europe can only redound to the advantage of the far right. Ergo: the only realistic goal is the restabilization of capitalism and the European Union, detestable though they may be. This in turn can only be accomplished by right-left, cross-class alliances, and by trying to convince the capitalist class, or elements thereof, that an economic strategy superior to their current austerity dogmas is the only way to save the existing order. There is never any mention of class struggle. These are not merely the musings of an academic. The essay is a pretty forthright statement of the politics of perhaps the most important member of the Syriza government, apart from Tsipras himself. What do people think? (Hope this post arrives in acceptable form) James, congratulations on getting up to snuff typographically. The politics of course are another question. Has there been the slightest indication at any point that the Syriza leadership is left-Keynesian? For that matter, Hugo Chavez has said pretty much the same thing even though Michael Lebowitz took exception to that. What we are dealing with is leftwing governments in Latin American and now in Greece, with Spain and possibly Ireland and Portugal in the wings, that do not have the rrrevolutionary program of sects like the CPGB, the British SWP or Creegan's old pals in the Spartacist League. It is the easiest thing in the world to draw up a revolutionary program. All you need is a basic knowledge of Marxism and a computer. Here, watch me do it in five minutes: The Proyectist League demands: 1. Nationalize the banks 2. Resolve unemployment by guaranteeing 40 hours pay for 30 hours of work. 3. Arm the workers to protect against fascist bands. 4. Withdraw from the EU and return to the drachma. 5. Make Leon Trotsky's birthday a national holiday. Just checked my watch. Only 4 minutes and 11 seconds. Pretty fucking good. This in essence is how the Trotskyist movement has functioned since its birth. It is to the mass movement, with a few exceptions like Hugo Blanco in Peru, what Roger Ebert was to film--its critic. When I was in the SWP in the 60s, we used to blame our small numbers and lack of influence on Stalinism. When Stalinism pretty much disappeared, we had nobody to blame but ourselves. Most people with political savvy came around to understanding that revolutions are not made by exposing the traitors like Alex Tsipras. They are made by leading struggles and winning *millions* of people to your side. That's what the July 26th Movement did in Cuba and what the FSLN tried to do in Nicaragua. The FSLN failed because its triumph occurred just around the time the Soviet Union was embracing capitalism. It is likely that Cuba would not have gotten as far as it did without Soviet help. For sectarians and ultraleftists, the relationship of class forces does not exist. If I sat down with Gary Kasparov and was playing white, with only a pawn taken while he was playing black with nothing but a king and three pawns, I could beat him. This is analogous to the situation that a country like Greece is dealing with but that does not matter to the sectarian Platonic idealists who think because they have the idea of October 1917 in their brain that by simply expressing it like saying Hocus-Pocus, alakazam, it will happen. Politics is not about what you say; it is about what you do. Creegan is not happy that Syriza is not living up to his favorite sect's ideals. Maybe if the CPGB could learn how to lead millions of people in struggle, we could take its critiques more seriously. Right now they deserve about the same thing the Spart got from the audience at the Syriza meeting the other night--peals of laughter. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] SYRIZA Veroufakis Confessions of an Erratic Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/8/15 4:24 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote: Has there been the slightest indication at any point that the Syriza leadership is left-Keynesian? For that matter, Hugo Chavez has said pretty much the same thing even though Michael Lebowitz took exception to that. Should read Has there been the slightest indication at any point that the Syriza leadership is anything but left-Keynesian? _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Italy in WW II
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I hope am straying too far from the mandate of this list, but i want to offer to an interested person a book on the resistance in WW II. It is in Italian, L'Altra Resistenza, La Guerra di liberazione a Trieste e nella Venezia Giulia. A cura di Pietro Spirito e Roberto Spazzali. Write to me off line at knhieb...@shaw.ca I check out the local thrift store as well as the free store at the garbage dump. It's amazing what you find. Some day, when I figure out how to put pictures on EBay, I might be able to sell these items. ken h _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’ | The Electronic Intifada
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * AW: I am a big supporter of BDS. I frankly think that it is the best, absolutely the best way, because the Israeli government and people really love commerce and making money and so anything that interferes with that will get their attention at least. It is problematic that leftists find this problematic. Any time Israel's greed and usurpation of resources is rightfully condemned it is immediately reduced to some kind of anti-Semitic canard. The Israel Lobby is too powerful -- this is the canard about Jews controlling the world! The US media is biased toward Israel and employs Zionist lobbyists -- this is the canard about Jews controlling the media! American financial establishments send billions to Israel in investment -- this is the canard about Jews controlling the banks! Jews in the United States are extroardinarily privileged and over-represented in all elite institutions -- this is the canard about Jews controlling America! Israel murdered over 500 children last summer -- this is a blood libel against the Jews! Virtually every condemnation of Israel, the American Jewish community, Zionism, its lobby, etc can easily be reduced to some sort of chauvinistic anti-Jewish remark. Stop the witch-hunt. Alice said nothing wrong. - Amith On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 12:20 PM, MM via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 08 Feb 2015, at 6:32 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/alice-walker-disinvited-university-michigan-over-israel-comments I don’t think Walker deserves to be singled out for attack, but she has not always been the most unproblematic ally to the Palestinian people - for instance when she made these remarks in an interview with Hanan Chehata for Middle East Monitor a few years ago: HC: What lessons can the Palestinians learn from the South African struggle and the American Civil Rights movement in terms of how to succeed in their own struggle? Is Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) the right way to go forward, for example? AW: I am a big supporter of BDS. I frankly think that it is the best, absolutely the best way, because the Israeli government and people really love commerce and making money and so anything that interferes with that will get their attention at least. From: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/resources/interviews/3104-alice-walker-qgoing-through-israeli-checkpoints-is-like-going-back-in-time-to-american-civil-rights-struggleq _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/amithrgupta%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The necessity of musical hallucinations
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://nautil.us/issue/20/creativity/the-necessity-of-musical-hallucinations _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Syriza and the poverty of philosophy | lives; running
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * full: https://livesrunning.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/syriza-and-the-poverty-of-philosophy/ All in all D. Renton refers to, about ANTARSYA, is a single page leaflet calling for vote for ANTARSYA! Extremely poor reference indeed. The rest is pure fiction: a caricatured political position of a fictive ANTARSYA made easy to reverse. But, accidentally, he did hit a point. ANTARSYA in several occasions is indeed calling for more advanced reforms, only these advanced reforms are the positions SYRIZA has abandoned. So ANTARSYA in those cases is just calling SYRIZA to implement its own program! The problem with this is not that ANTARSYA use in vain a non sophisticated (sic) confrontational rhetoric just to distinguish itself from SYRIZA as Renton thinks, but that recuperating oppositional rhetoric from SYRIZA's garbage bin, liquidates in bullets of isolated demands the transitional program it was striving to formulate and abandons any anti-capitalist perspective. Instead, ANTARSYA could draw a transitional thread out of every Keynesian fantasy of SYRIZA's govt. An exposition of that idea (if one might found it interesting) may be found at D.Bensaïd's Keynes, what next? here: http://www.danielbensaid.org/Keynes-et-apres?lang=fr (in french only) JA _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] SYRIZA Veroufakis Confessions of an Erratic Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This essay by the newly appointed Syriza economics minister is thoroughly confused in its exposition of Marx. It is, however, remarkably frank politically. It states that the socialist goal, while desirable, is impossible in our lifetime. Further, a continuing capitalist crisis in Europe can only redound to the advantage of the far right. Ergo: the only realistic goal is the restabilization of capitalism and the European Union, detestable though they may be. This in turn can only be accomplished by right-left, cross-class alliances, and by trying to convince the capitalist class, or elements thereof, that an economic strategy superior to their current austerity dogmas is the only way to save the existing order. There is never any mention of class struggle. These are not merely the musings of an academic. The essay is a pretty forthright statement of the politics of perhaps the most important member of the Syriza government, apart from Tsipras himself. What do people think? (Hope this post arrives in acceptable form) Jim Creegan _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] SYRIZA Veroufakis Confessions of an Erratic Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * True to form, you are once again evading the question with one of your indiscriminate, red-herring denunciations of Platonism, sectarianism etc, and guilt by association (e.g. that I belonged to the Spartacist League 30m years ago) Once again, the question is whether you agree with Varoufakis's assertions that attempting to go beyond capitalism is impossible, and the only course for Greece is to help stabilize capitalism and the EU by means of cross-class alliances and superior policy recommendations to the bourgeoisie? My own approach to the situation is most closely approximated by the article by Stavas-Michel at the following address: (although I know nothing of the work of his political group apart from what he says in the article). http://forum.permanent-revolution.org/ BTW: On what grounds to you characterize the Communist Party of Great Britain as a sect? They favor a multi-tendency party. They permit public disagreement by their members with the majority of the group. Their press is open to virtually all Marxist viewpoints, including yours. Otherwise, I couldn't write in the Weekly Worker, disagreeing with them as I do on so many important things. They publish articles by Lars Lih, who is trying to minimize the differences between Lenin and Kautsky Are they a sect merely because they are small? Because they are trying to organize in the name of Marxism and Communism independently of the reformist left? Jim Creegan On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 3:47 PM, James Creegan sectaria...@gmail.com wrote: This essay by the newly appointed Syriza economics minister is thoroughly confused in its exposition of Marx. It is, however, remarkably frank politically. It states that the socialist goal, while desirable, is impossible in our lifetime. Further, a continuing capitalist crisis in Europe can only redound to the advantage of the far right. Ergo: the only realistic goal is the restabilization of capitalism and the European Union, detestable though they may be. This in turn can only be accomplished by right-left, cross-class alliances, and by trying to convince the capitalist class, or elements thereof, that an economic strategy superior to their current austerity dogmas is the only way to save the existing order. There is never any mention of class struggle. These are not merely the musings of an academic. The essay is a pretty forthright statement of the politics of perhaps the most important member of the Syriza government, apart from Tsipras himself. What do people think? (Hope this post arrives in acceptable form) Jim Creegan _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] SYRIZA Veroufakis Confessions of an Erratic Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/8/15 5:28 PM, James Creegan via Marxism wrote: True to form, you are once again evading the question with one of your indiscriminate, red-herring denunciations of Platonism, sectarianism etc, and guilt by association (e.g. that I belonged to the Spartacist League 30m years ago) Once again, the question is whether you agree with Varoufakis's assertions that attempting to go beyond capitalism is impossible, and the only course for Greece is to help stabilize capitalism and the EU by means of cross-class alliances and superior policy recommendations to the bourgeoisie? Of course it is impossible for Greece to go beyond capitalism. Haven't you read Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, or Leon Trotsky? They didn't believe that socialism could be built in a single country. Even after 1917, the Bolsheviks only considered Russia to be a beachhead even if Lenin began to oscillate between that view and the view that would be more openly defended by Stalin. Here is Lenin's latest thinking: It is not easy for us, however, to keep going until the socialist revolution is victorious in more developed countries merely with the aid of this confidence, because economic necessity, especially under NEP, keeps the productivity of labour of the small and very small peasants at an extremely low level. Moreover, the international situation, too, threw Russia back and, by and large, reduced the labour productivity of the people to a level considerably below pre-war. The West-European capitalist powers, partly deliberately and partly unconsciously, did everything they could to throw us back, to utilise the elements of the Civil War in Russia in order to spread as much ruin in the country as possible. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1923/mar/02.htm Russia was a country with enormous resources and an immense battle-tested military but there is little doubt that unless victorious revolutions took place in a country like Germany, all would be lost. In fact, that is why Lenin and Trotsky made such bad mistakes in Germany. They were taking shortcuts that would backfire. That, of course, is a matter for another time. My own approach to the situation is most closely approximated by the article by Stavas-Michel at the following address: (although I know nothing of the work of his political group apart from what he says in the article). http://forum.permanent-revolution.org/ It has some features of a Kerensky type of government in a transitional period towards the decisive class confrontation in the struggle for power. Verbal Bolshevism. Five cents per word. BTW: On what grounds to you characterize the Communist Party of Great Britain as a sect? Any group in 2015 that festoons its website with hammers and sickles is a sect. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The Fire and the Spirit of Revolution: Germany 1918-1923
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Doug Enaa Greene on Germany's failed revolution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb5v8oJkOmo Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant http://www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math How Old Men Tighten Skin 63 Year Old Man Shares DIY Skin Tightening Method You Can Do From Home http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/54d7e95295bd369523c94st01vuc _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] SYRIZA Veroufakis Confessions of an Erratic Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Louis Proyect said: James, congratulations on getting up to snuff typographically. The politics of course are another question. Has there been the slightest indication at any point that the Syriza leadership is anything but left-Keynesian? For that matter, Hugo Chavez has said pretty much the same thing even though Michael Lebowitz took exception to that. What we are dealing with is leftwing governments in Latin American and now in Greece, with Spain and possibly Ireland and Portugal in the wings, that do not have the rrrevolutionary program of sects like the CPGB, the British SWP or Creegan's old pals in the Spartacist League. It is the easiest thing in the world to draw up a revolutionary program. All you need is a basic knowledge of Marxism and a computer. Here, watch me do it in five minutes: The Proyectist League demands: 1. Nationalize the banks 2. Resolve unemployment by guaranteeing 40 hours pay for 30 hours of work. 3. Arm the workers to protect against fascist bands. 4. Withdraw from the EU and return to the drachma. 5. Make Leon Trotsky's birthday a national holiday. Just checked my watch. Only 4 minutes and 11 seconds. Pretty fucking good. This in essence is how the Trotskyist movement has functioned since its birth. It is to the mass movement, with a few exceptions like Hugo Blanco in Peru, what Roger Ebert was to film--its critic. When I was in the SWP in the 60s, we used to blame our small numbers and lack of influence on Stalinism. When Stalinism pretty much disappeared, we had nobody to blame but ourselves. Most people with political savvy came around to understanding that revolutions are not made by exposing the traitors like Alex Tsipras. They are made by leading struggles and winning *millions* of people to your side. That's what the July 26th Movement did in Cuba and what the FSLN tried to do in Nicaragua. The FSLN failed because its triumph occurred just around the time the Soviet Union was embracing capitalism. It is likely that Cuba would not have gotten as far as it did without Soviet help. For sectarians and ultraleftists, the relationship of class forces does not exist. If I sat down with Gary Kasparov and was playing white, with only a pawn taken while he was playing black with nothing but a king and three pawns, I could beat him. This is analogous to the situation that a country like Greece is dealing with but that does not matter to the sectarian Platonic idealists who think because they have the idea of October 1917 in their brain that by simply expressing it like saying Hocus-Pocus, alakazam, it will happen. Politics is not about what you say; it is about what you do. Creegan is not happy that Syriza is not living up to his favorite sect's ideals. Maybe if the CPGB could learn how to lead millions of people in struggle, we could take its critiques more seriously. Right now they deserve about the same thing the Spart got from the audience at the Syriza meeting the other night--peals of laughter. Ken Hiebert replies: I think we can agree that the point of our activity is to lead struggles and to win millions of people to our side. That is what I understood the Transitional Program to be about, meeting people in their current struggles and attempting to make those struggles into a fundamental challenge to the capitalist system. Of course it is possible to use the Transitional Program in a ritualist way, without regard to what is happening in the class struggle,but I don't think that's what the Trotskyist movement has done, for the most part. Perhaps a good way to asses the Syriza government is precisely to what extent they are able to mobilize the Greek people in opposition to the austerity program and to what extent they are able to inspire struggles in other countries. If politics is the art of the possible, is Syriza doing all that is possible? What should we be doing? We must go through this experience with the movement in Greece, mobilizing in solidarity whenever we have the opportunity to do so. There will not be unanimity in our ranks in assessing the Syriza government. That's OK. Even if it's not OK, that's the way it will be. Let's try to have debate and discussion in such a way that it will be accessible to the many beyond our ranks who will be stirred by events in Greece. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Tsipras favours Greek jobless over creditors in defiant policy speech | World news | The Guardian
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/greece-prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-unveil-anti-austerity-plan-parliament _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] State capitalism in New Zealand
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * *State capitalism* is usually described as an economic system in which commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity is undertaken by the *state*, with management and organization of the means of production in a *capitalist* manner, including the system of capital accumulation, wage labor, and centralized management. - Wikipedia While the Wikipedia writer understands that state capitalism is a form of capitalism, this is not well understood on the New Zealand left. Much of this left, for instance, supports capitalism if the capitalist company is owned fully by the capitalist state. This left campaigned in favour of such ownership in the referendum on whether the government should be able to sell 49% of shares in a number of State-Owned Enterprises. But from the standpoint of the material interests of workers, how is being exploited by a company, functioning as a fully capitalist company, owned by the state preferable to being exploited by one 49% privately-owned, or even 100% privately-owned? Workers are no better off materially. In fact, when the state itself functions as a capitalist company it is more thorough - and more powerful - as the boss. The widespread left support for state capitalism in New Zealand also acts to disorient workers and retard the development of any meaningful class consciousness. It reinforces illusions in the nature of the state and of capitalism where the state itself acts as the personification of capital. SOEs: corporatised business as usual https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/soes-corporatised-business-as-usual/ Our asset lays off 125, threatens more https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/our-asset-lays-off-125-threatens-more/ What Solid Energy and Mainzeal reveal about private and state capitalism https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/neither-private-capitalism-nor-state-capitalism-but-workers-power-what-solid-energy-and-mainzeal-reveal-2/ State companies, capitalism and the left: a Marxist view https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/state-companies-capitalism-and-the-left-a-marxist-view/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Even most of the Liberal Party don't want Tony Abbott as Australia's Prime Minister
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Can we survive 19 more months of rabid neoliberalism, of overt and covert attempts to shift more wealth from labour to capital and of a thoroughly neoliberal Labor Party waiting in the wings with the same goal? The Australian Council of Trade Unions has called nationwide demonstrations on 4 March to defend our rights. Let's make this the first step in destroying this weak Liberal and National Party government and putting some social democratic spine into Labor. We need mass mobilisations to throw Abbott and his motley crew out and to move Labor to the left or to create a new left. Demonstrations and strikes are the way forward. http://enpassant.com.au/2015/02/09/even-most-of-the-liberal-party-dont-want-abbott/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] West coast dockworkers battling employers
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * West Coast port employers to slash shifts amid labor dispute Associated Press February 6, 2015 Companies that handle billions of dollars of cargo at West Coast seaports said Friday they will hire far fewer workers this weekend, the latest escalation in a contract dispute with dockworkers that threatens to shut down a vital link in U.S.-Asia trade. . . Congestion has been a huge issue at the West Coast’s 29 ports, where containers are taking two to three times longer than usual to clear dockside yards on their way to distribution warehouses. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has blamed employers, saying that they failed to manage the supply chain efficiently. The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies as well as port terminal operators, has said for months that workers have slowed their work by about 50 percent to gain bargaining leverage. . . While negotiators for the association and the dockworkers’ union met Friday in San Francisco, the shift cutting provoked a harsh response. “Closing down the ports over the weekend is a crazy way to treat customers that only adds to the industry-caused congestion and delays,” said union spokesman Craig Merrilees. Exporters, including farmers and cattle ranchers, say their goods are stalled on the docks — while importers of electronics, textiles, furniture, car parts and a range of other goods made in Asia also are affected by port congestion. . . http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/West-Coast-port-employers-to-slash-shifts-amid-6067430.php West Coast ports to reopen after weekend shutdown by Chris Woodyard USA TODAY February 8, 2015 LOS ANGELES — West Coast ports were expected to reopen to shipping Monday after a weekend shutdown that heightened labor tensions and hinted at the ongoing dispute's potential to sap billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. At the normally busy Port of Los Angeles, cranes sat idly perched over ships stacked high with containers during the weekend while other loaded vessels bobbed at anchor offshore. The terminal operators' decision to shut down ship movements at 29 West Coast ports affected not only goods such as cars, clothing, building materials and electronics from Asia, but also American agricultural exports. . . The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents dockworkers, says the move to shut the ports only made matters worse. The temporary closure came amid negotiations for a new contact. Employers are deliberately worsening the existing congestion crisis to gain the upper hand at the bargaining table, said union president Robert McEllrath in a statement. He disputed operators' assertions that the docks are clogged with cargo, saying photos prove there are acres of asphalt just waiting for the containers on those ships. But the terminal operators' association said it was no longer willing to pay top dollar to union members working at a snail's pace. After three months of union slowdowns, it makes no sense to pay extra for less work, said association spokesman Wade Gates in a statement. The reduced pace has needlessly brought West Coast ports to the brink of gridlock.. . http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/02/08/west-coast-ports-closure/23086097 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Fire and the Spirit of Revolution: Germany 1918-1923
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/8/15 5:54 PM, Jim Farmelant via Marxism wrote: Doug Enaa Greene on Germany's failed revolution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb5v8oJkOmo He got the March Action fiasco right but is quite lacking on the next fiasco where he overemphasizes the military/tactical as opposed to the political/strategic factors. Here is my take on that: The decision to launch a revolution in Germany in the Fall of 1923 was made in Moscow, not in Germany. Germany had definitely entered a pre-Revolutionary situation. French occupation of the Ruhr, unemployment, declining wages, hyperinflation and fascist provocations all added up to an explosive situation. The crisis was deepest in the heavily industrialized state of Saxony where a left-wing Socialist named Erich Zeigner headed the government. He was friendly with the Communists and made common cause with them. He called for expropriation of the capitalist class, arming of the workers and a proletarian dictatorship. This man, like thousands of others in the German workers movement, had a revolutionary socialist outlook but was condemned as a Menshevik in the Communist press. The united front overtures to Zeigner mostly consisted of escalating pressure to force him to accommodate to the maximum Communist program. The Bolshevik leaders were monitoring the situation carefully. Lenin at this point was bed-ridden with a stroke and virtually incommunicado. Any decisions that were to be made about an intervention in Germany would rest on Zinoviev, Stalin, Kamenev, Bukharin, Radek and Trotsky who were the key leaders in Lenin's absence. At a Politburo meeting on August 23, 1923 Germany's prospects were discussed. Trotsky was optimistic about victory and predicted that a showdown would occur in a matter of weeks. Zinvoiev was also optimistic, but was reluctant to commit to a timetable. Only Stalin voiced skepticism about an immanent uprising. A subcommittee was established to supervise the German revolution. Radek, who had only a year earlier made a batty proposal for an alliance with the ultraright, became the head of this group. The German revolution became the dominant theme of Russian politics from that moment on. Workers agreed to a wage freeze in order to help subsidize the German uprising. Women were asked at public meetings to donate their wedding rings and other valuables for the German cause. Revolutionary slogans were coined, like German Steam Hammer and Soviet Bread will Conquer the World! There was only slight problem. The head of the German Communist Party was simply not up to the task of leading a revolution and was the first to admit it. This cautious, phlegmatic functionary was a former trade union official and bore all the characteristics of this breed. He had been implicated in the failed ultraleft uprising of 1921 and was not eager to go out on a limb again. When Brandler got to Moscow, the Bolshevik leaders cornered him and pressured him into accepting their call for a revolutionary showdown. What was key in their calculations was the likelihood that a bold action by the Communist Party would inevitably galvanize the rest of the working class into action. Once again, an element of Blanquism had colored the thinking of the Bolshevik leaders. They assumed that the scenario that had occurred in Russia in 1917 would also occur in Germany. This was an unwarranted assumption that was fed by a combination of romanticism and despair. Romanticism about the prospects of a quick victory and despair over the USSR's deepening isolation. It was Zinoviev, the head of the Comintern, who was most self-deluded by the strength of the German Communist Party. He wrote in October 1923, in the cities the workers are definitely numerically superior and and the forthcoming German revolution will be a proletarian class revolution. The 22 million German workers who make up its army represent the cornerstone of the international proletariat. What Zinoviev didn't take into account was that while the working class may be united socially and economically, it was not necessarily united politically. This turned out to be a fatal miscalculation. Brandler was so swept up by the enthusiasm of the Bolshevik leaders that he joined with them in pumping up the numbers. In the end he went so far as to claim that the Communists could count on the active support of 50,000 to 60,000 proletarians in Saxony. The Bolshevik leaders finally wore Brandler down and he agreed to their plans, which involved the following: 1) The Communists would join Zeigner's government in Saxony as coalition partners and arm the
Re: [Marxism] Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’ | The Electronic Intifada
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I’m saying she hasn’t always been sufficiently disciplined in her utterances Maybe you should whip her then. Her utterance is fine unless someone like you is looking for a way to purposefully distort it and reduce it to an ethnic stereotype. Talking about government greed should not be seen as even remotely controversial, let alone for a government that has takes in billions each year to steal land. - Amith On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 12:29 AM, MM marxmai...@gmail.com wrote: On 08 Feb 2015, at 9:54 PM, A.R. G amithrgu...@gmail.com wrote: AW: I am a big supporter of BDS. I frankly think that it is the best, absolutely the best way, because the Israeli government and people really love commerce and making money and so anything that interferes with that will get their attention at least. It is problematic that leftists find this problematic. Any time Israel's greed and usurpation of resources is rightfully condemned it is immediately reduced to some kind of anti-Semitic canard. The Israel Lobby is too powerful -- this is the canard about Jews controlling the world! The US media is biased toward Israel and employs Zionist lobbyists -- this is the canard about Jews controlling the media! American financial establishments send billions to Israel in investment -- this is the canard about Jews controlling the banks! Jews in the United States are extroardinarily privileged and over-represented in all elite institutions -- this is the canard about Jews controlling America! Israel murdered over 500 children last summer -- this is a blood libel against the Jews! Virtually every condemnation of Israel, the American Jewish community, Zionism, its lobby, etc can easily be reduced to some sort of chauvinistic anti-Jewish remark. Stop the witch-hunt. Alice said nothing wrong. Disagree. There is an obvious and important difference between saying, the Israeli government and people really love commerce and making money” and saying, “as with any other country or people, the financial costs associated with BDS are more likely to have an impact than mere moral condemnation”. Each of your other examples is, in principle, subject to empirical verification; the fact that Zionist trolls would try to spin them is irrelevant. Walker’s remarks invoke an ethnic stereotype by suggesting that an essentially universal but distasteful human characteristic somehow applies uniquely to “the Israeli government and people”. If she’d spoken about resource grabs, that would be something else entirely; it invites specifics, and Israel clearly deserves aggressive condemnation in that regard. But it doesn’t fit the argument she was trying to make, so she fell back on an anti-Jewish trope that lurks in the nether regions of the minds of most of us, because we were socialised into it before we knew enough to resist. It was a lob-ball to the Zionist trolls, and we can’t afford to give them easy hits. I’m not suggesting Walker is a willful anti-Semite; I’m saying she hasn’t always been sufficiently disciplined in her utterances. It isn’t fair that we need to be, but it is the reality. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’ | The Electronic Intifada
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 09 Feb 2015, at 7:33 AM, A.R. G amithrgu...@gmail.com wrote: I’m saying she hasn’t always been sufficiently disciplined in her utterances Maybe you should whip her then. I’m going to ignore that. Her utterance is fine unless someone like you is looking for a way to purposefully distort it and reduce it to an ethnic stereotype. Talking about government greed should not be seen as even remotely controversial, let alone for a government that has takes in billions each year to steal land. She *should* have spoken about colonial-imperial greed and resource grabs, but she didn’t. She said, the Israeli government and people really love commerce and making money”. You can fantasise that I’m the enemy, but all you’ll accomplish is to make yourself - and therefore all of us - even more powerless and irrelevant. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Yassin al-Haj Saleh
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This is a new website for the Syrian leftist whose article Syria and the Left I posted here the other day. He is also the man who was interviewed in New Politics that MM linked to. http://www.yassinhs.com/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Alice Walker disinvited from University of Michigan over ‘Israel comments’ The Electronic Intifada
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/alice-walker-disinvited-university-michigan-over-israel-comments Louis, this news is almost 2 years old. It dates from March 2013. Einde O'Callaghan _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Turkish union mobilises thousands to rebuild Kobane
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * A statement http://www.birgun.net/news/view/12-bin-isci-kobanenin-yeniden-insasi-icin-gonulluyuz/13245 released by the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK) in Diyarbakir says the union has 12,000 members who have pledged their willingness to assist in the reconstruction of Kobanê following the offensive from ISIS which left much of the city in ruins. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/58225 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] SYRIZA Veroufakis Confessions of an Erratic Marxist
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/8/15 7:12 PM, James Creegan wrote: What would be the attitude of Veroufakis to any section of the Greek or Spanish people that dared to fancy itself capable of initiatives offensive to left-bourgeois sensibilities ? Is the comparison to Menshevism so farfetched here? Yes, it is. It is just a sign that you are walking around like the film comic figure Morgan with visions of Red Stars and hammers and sickles in his head. It is a fantasy world that you live in. By using the epithet Menshevik, a term that has little meaning outside Russian radical history, you are displaying an inability to deal with the real world in 2015. There are people in Greece with your politics. You have to ask yourself why they got so few votes. Is it possible that unlike 1917, when the Second International had hundreds of thousands of members throughout Europe, many of whom were ready to join the newly formed Communist Parties at the drop of a hat, Greece has different social and political characteristics? If you took the trouble to actually study recent Greek history, you would understand that in the period following the return to parliamentary democracy, both PASOK and New Democracy consciously built up a middle-class layer in the tourist and service industries as it sought to undermine the industrial working class. Entering the EU was part of that strategy. People voted for Syriza to a large degree because they still have illusions in the EU. In your mind, Greece is like Germany in 1921 when it is much more like Greece in 2015. Your problem is that you don't take the trouble to read serious Marxist analysis of contemporary Greece and are content to repeat the vacuous talking points of the ultraleft. Your attitude to the CPGB is also revealing. It appears that any group that attempts to associate itself with the historical legacy of Communism, or its symbols, is ipso facto a sect in the eyes of our unrepentant Marxist? Greeks who invoke memories of their civil war, or Spaniards who recall theirs, may disagree. JC Actually, you put it better than I ever could have. You advocate associating yourself with the historical legacy of Communism when I think that this is absolutely the wrong way to go. That is why I work with a website called North Star and not something called Proletarian Struggle adorned with pictures of Karl Marx, clenched fists, and red stars. In fact I created Marxmail in 1998 just to put as much distance as I could between the people I was trying to reach and people like you. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
