[Marxism] Tsipras in Brussels; Milios resigns from Syriza Economic Policy Department

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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Greece in new reform pledge to Europe
by Danny Kemp with Alex Pigman
AFP, March 20

Brussels  - Greece agreed Friday to give creditors a new list of
reforms to get its bailout back on track after Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras held crunch talks with European leaders.

They agreed to finish work "as fast as possible" on completing
Greece's EU-IMF rescue programme, a statement said, to free up crucial
funds to help Athens avoid bankruptcy and a catastrophic exit from the
euro.

The radical left-wing Greek leader sat down for a three-hour meeting
with Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Francois Hollande and the
EU's top officials on the sidelines of a summit in Brussels.

"We have put the process back on track," a tired-looking Tsipras told
reporters after the talks.

Merkel -- who as leader of Europe's biggest economy has led efforts to
make Greece honour its commitments -- said she and Hollande were
"fully in line" with the agreement.

"The Greek prime minister declared that he is willing to present such
a list and that he will do so quickly," she told a press conference.

Greece's creditors agreed in February to extend its $240-billion-euro
($255 billion) bailout in exchange for promises of austerity reforms
by Tsipras's new hard-left government.

Athens wants the final seven-billion-euro tranche of the money to be
paid out now to stay afloat, but Brussels wants more evidence of its
commitment to the reforms.

Time was running out for Athens as Friday brings a key debt deadline
when Greece must pay 300 million euros to the IMF and redeem 1.6
billion euros in treasury bills.

"Greek authorities will have the ownership of the reforms and will
present a full list of specific reforms in the next days," said the
statement issued after the talks.

Hollande urged Greece "to be more precise in its reform proposals and
introduce them faster than planned."

Technical talks in Athens and Brussels which had largely stalled over
the seemingly insurmountable differences between the two sides will
continue as before, the statement added.
. . .



Tsipras’ economic policy architect resigns [Yannis or Giannis or 'John' Milios]
by Eric Maurice
euobserver
BRUSSELS, March 19

Giannis Milios, a member of Syriza’s central committee and long time
economic advisor to Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, resigned
Wednesday (18 March), on the eve of a crucial EU meeting in Brussels.

"Economic department, farewell. With gratitude for the regards, the
comradeship and trust," Milios wrote on his Twitter account, giving no
further explanation.

A professor of economic policy who defines himself as a Marxist,
Milios is considered one of the most loyal members of the left-wing
party.

His resignation is being seen a sign of a rift inside Syriza and the
government about the deal Tsipras will try to broker with EU leaders
in Brussels on Thursday and in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel on Monday (23 March).

Greece is currently locked in a political tussle with its euro
partners over what reforms it needs to undertake in return for the
next tranche of bailout money being released.

During the last election campaign, Milios suggested that Greece will
not meet its debt repayment if a Syria government did not find an
agreement with Greece’s Eurozone partners.

Early March, he co-wrote with two other Syriza economists a very
critical analysis of the 20 February agreement with the Eurogroup.

"It is clear that the new agreement is a truce, but truce is by no
means a tie. The agreement is a first step on slippery ground," wrote
Milios in the piece, whose title was "Syriza’s only choice: a radical
leap forward".

"The question that remains open is whether the government will insist
on superficially presenting the result of the negotiation as a
'victory', disregarding all the critical issues that emerged, or will
attempt to analyse in depth the conditions and the consequences of the
retreat as long as there is still time," added the analysis.

Milios and the other two economists then advised the government to
"bring back [instead] on the agenda our programmatic commitments to
redistribute income and power in favour of labour, to re-found the
welfare state, for democracy and participation in decision-making."

Milios announced his resignation hours after the Greek parliament
voted in a so-called humanitarian crisis bill providing free
electricity and food stamps to the poorest people.

He had been a strong advocate of the bill, which prompted a negative
reaction from the European commission technical team in Greece.

[Marxism] Samuel Charters, Foundational Scholar of the Blues, Dies at 85

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Mar. 19 2015
Samuel Charters, Foundational Scholar of the Blues, Dies at 85
By LARRY ROHTER

Samuel Charters, whose books and field research helped detonate the 
blues and folk music revival of the 1960s and ‘70s, died on Wednesday at 
his home in Arsta, Sweden. He was 85.


The cause was myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of bone marrow cancer, 
his daughter Mallay Occhiogrosso said.


When Mr. Charters’s first book, “The Country Blues,” was published at 
the tail end of the 1950s, the rural Southern blues of the pre-World War 
II period was a largely ignored genre. But the book caused a sensation 
among college students and aspiring folk performers, like Bob Dylan, and 
it created a tradition of blues scholarship to which Mr. Charters would 
continue to contribute with books like “The Roots of the Blues” and “The 
Legacy of the Blues.”


“We can mark the publication of ‘The Country Blues’ in the fall of 1959 
as a signal event in the history of the music,” the music historian Ted 
Gioia wrote in his book “The Delta Blues” (2008). As “the first extended 
history of traditional blues music,” he said, it was “a moment of 
recognition and legitimation, but even more of proselytization, 
introducing a whole generation to the neglected riches of an art form.”


Released in tandem with “The Country Blues,” which remains in print, was 
an album of the same name containing 14 songs, little known and almost 
impossible to find at the time, recorded in the 1920s and ‘30s by 
artists like Robert Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Willie McTell and 
Bukka White.


Mr. Dylan’s first album, recorded in 1961, included a version of Mr. 
White’s “Fixin’ to Die,” and within a decade other songs by the singers 
and guitarists whom Mr. Charters had highlighted were staples in the 
repertoires of blues and rock bands like the Allman Brothers, Canned 
Heat, Cream and the Rolling Stones.


Equally important, the aura of mystery Mr. Charters created around his 
subjects — where had they disappeared to? were they even alive? — 
encouraged readers to go out into the field themselves. John Fahey, Alan 
Wilson, Henry Vestine, Dick Waterman and other disciples tracked down 
vanished performers like Mr. White, Mr. Estes, Skip James and Son House, 
and their careers were revived. Their song catalogs were soon injected 
into folk and pop music.


“I always had the feeling that there were so few of us, and the work so 
vast,” Mr. Charters told Matthew Ismail, the author of the 2011 book 
“Blues Discovery.” “That’s why I wrote the books as I did, to 
romanticize the glamour of looking for old blues singers. I was saying: 
‘Help! This job is really big, and I really need lots of help!’ I really 
exaggerated this, but it worked. My God, I came back from a year in 
Europe and I found kids doing research in the South.”


Photo
"The Country Blues," edited by Samuel B. Charters. Credit RBF Records
Mr. Charters had himself succumbed to the lure of field work. In 1958 he 
went to the Bahamas to record the guitarist Joseph Spence (who would 
influence the Grateful Dead, Taj Mahal and others), and a year later he 
helped revive the career of the Texas guitarist Lightnin’ Hopkins. He 
pursued overlooked music and artists on four continents for the next 50 
years.


Throughout the 1960s, as the audience for the blues expanded 
exponentially, Mr. Charters continued to write about the music and to 
produce blues-based records for Folkways, Prestige, Vanguard and other 
labels. “The Poetry of the Blues,” with photographs by his wife, Ann 
Charters, was published in 1963, and “The Bluesmen” appeared in 1967; 
during that period he also wrote “Jazz New Orleans” and, with Leonard 
Kunstadt, “Jazz: A History of the New York Scene.”


By the mid-1960s, Mr. Charters had broadened his focus to include 
contemporary electric blues, producing a three-record anthology of new 
recordings called “Chicago: The Blues Today!” Songs from that 
collection, as well as from albums Mr. Charters produced for Junior 
Wells, Buddy Guy, James Cotton and Charlie Musselwhite, were covered by 
rock groups like Led Zeppelin and Steppenwolf and remained rock standards.


Samuel Barclay Charters IV was born in Pittsburgh on Aug. 1, 1929, to 
Samuel Barclay Charters III and the former Lillian Kelley. When he was a 
teenager the family moved to Sacramento, Calif., where his father worked 
as a railroad switch engineer. In writings and interviews, he recalled a 
childhood immersed in jazz and classical music. He dated his interest in 
the blues to hearing Bessie Smith’s recording of “Nobody Knows You When 
You’re Down and Out” when he was about 8 years old.


Aft

[Marxism] Fwd: Syria Comment » Archives The Kobani Model: Strengthening Kurdish-Arab Relations in Syria - Syria Comment

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/the-kobani-model-strengthening-kurdish-arab-relations-in-syria/
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[Marxism] Paris Commune

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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This week (Wed, March 18 to be precise) marked the 114th anniversary of the
beginning of the Paris Commune, a big event in radical working class
history:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/140th-anniversary-of-paris-commune/
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[Marxism] Fwd: ABEL FERRARA/CENSORSHIP BATTLE

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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CENSORSHIP BATTLE OVER ABEL FERRARA'S WELCOME TO NEW YORK

Distributor Edits Film Inspired By the Dominique Strauss-Kahn Case To Achieve
"ethically neutered" Version "appropriate for U.S. Audiences

New York, NY March 17th
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

As a filmmaker and a human being I detest the destruction of my film WELCOME TO
NEW YORK -- Abel Ferrara

Iconic independent filmmaker Abel Ferrara's latest film WELCOME TO NEW YORK
is at the center of a censorship lawsuit on the eve of its U.S. release March 
27th.
Ferrara wrote and directed this story, inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn 
case,
of a French politician on trial for sexually  assaulting a chambermaid in his 
New York
hotel room.  The film stars Gerard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset and is based on 
a
screenplay by Abel Ferrara and C.L. Zois.

The original director's cut of WELCOME TO NEW YORK was screened in Cannes
and has already opened in France, Italy and the U.K. Ferrara has gotten some of 
his
best reviews: "a startling accont of sex and power ... a work of ragged 
glory ..
Depardieu is the best he's been in year," Xan Brooks, The Guardian; "an important 
movie," MaryAnn Johansson, The Flick Filosopher; "Geniune, worthwhile attempt to
understand the darkest mysteries of manhood and power," Trevor Johnston, Time 
Out
London.

However, IFC Films, the U.S. distributor, is not releasing that acclaimed 
version.  Their
version has been re-cut and re-edited without Ferrara's participation or 
permission.
The film is now substantially different from th film that Ferrara made.  One of 
the most
egregious changes affects the entire naure of the rape in the film.  Originally 
it was depicted as occurring between the two main characters.  Now it is 
depicted as a
flashback, a memory of the chambermaid.  Ferrara is outraged: " The version 
being
released in the U.S. may lead views to think that maybe she imagined it.  It 
does not
respect the woman who was raped at all and the fact that my name is on this 
film is a
crime."

Ferrara has released the following statement:

"As a filmmaker and a human being, I detest the destruction of my film WELCOME 
TO
NEW YORK now being distributed by IFC and Wild Bunch and exhibited on Showtime
and in IFC Theatres.  Behind all these entities are individuals, in this case 
Arianna Bocco, Jonathan Sehring and Vicente Maraval, who feel they can deny my 
contractual
right of final cut, which is simply my freedom of expression.  Some people wear 
hoods and carry automatic weapons, others sit behind their desks but the attack 
and attempted suppression of the rights of the individual are the same.  I will 
defend the
right of  free speech till the  end and I ask all who believe, as I do, that they 
not support the showing of this film, on their networks, in their theatres, or 
wherever."

Risky, audacious but always honest, Abel Ferrara has been directing since 1979. 
Among hi many film credits are King of New York (New York Film selection 1990,)
Bad Lieutenant (one of Martin Scorsese's top 10 films of the 90's) and Mary 
(winner of the Grand Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival 2005.)

Regarding WELCOME TO NEW YORK Ferrara's official biographer, Brad Stevens,
asks "How can it stand that an accomplished director can have his work re-cut 
and
released without  his permission?  The producer and distributor have 
demonstrated a
flagrant disregard for Ferrara's artistic rights.  They should not have 
undertaken this
project if they weren't prepared to respect the integrity of the director.  If 
this is
allowed to happen, no filmmaker can be certain that their work will not be 
censored.
That is at the crux of this isuue: censorship."


Abel Ferrara is available for interviews.

Contact:   Dianne E. Collins
  917 442-3972
  dianne_e_coll...@hotmail.com




Dianne E. Collins 917 442-3972 dianne_e_coll...@hotmail.com


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Re: [Marxism] Germans Protest European Austerity Measures

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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DemocracyNow! March 19


Blockupy: Thousands Protest in Frankfurt Calling on Eurozone to
Dismantle "Laboratory for Austerity"

Watch Naomi Klein Address Blockupy Protest


 We speak with German climate justice activist Tadzio Mueller, who
took part in the Blockupy protest.
. . .
TADZIO MUELLER: Well, thank you very much for having me on the show.
The first thing to say is that there were two things that happened
yesterday. There were blockades of the opening of the new ECB tower
block.
. . .
So that’s what happened in the morning, and that’s where you saw the
major clashes, that also produced the images you probably saw on TV.
And then, in the afternoon, there was a rally and a major march. And
if there were maybe 5,000 or 6,000 at the blockades in the morning,
the rally and the march gathered up to about 30,000 people. So those
were kind of two sort of separate events. And the mood at the first
event, the blockades, was definitely very confrontational. But the
mood in the afternoon was very different. It was very colorful. It was
sunny. Folks were there from all over the continent. There was a real
sense of a Europeanization of the struggle from below against the
austerity diktats from above.
. . .
TADZIO MUELLER: . . .
When the Greeks voted for a different government, Syriza,
anti-austerity government, a few months ago, it became very clear that
European elites had a fight on their hand, whereas for many years it
seemed that they were able to push these austerity projects from the
top without much coordinated resistance or without resistance that
managed to occupy certain levers of power. When, on the 25th of
January, the Greek people voted for an anti-austerity government for
the first time, which at this point enjoys 70 to 80 percent support in
the Greek population, despite being in a very difficult situation—when
this new government, this new hope, came to power in Greece, European
elites realized now they had a real fight on their hands. And they’ve
been trying to strangle this new hope in Greece ever since.

And this is why the protests at the European Central Bank yesterday
were so tense and also filled with rage, because, on the one hand, you
had this supposedly grandiose opening of a new institution that says,
"Hey, we’re, you know, the sort of pinnacle of European integration
and of European capitalism," and at the same time, you’ve got this
massive assault on social movements, on workers, in the entire
European—in the entire eurozone, and especially the European
periphery, and there, foremost Greece. And that’s essentially the
connection that drove folks yesterday in large numbers to come and
protest and blockade the ECB in Frankfurt.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, in this last minute we have left, Tadzio, explain
what happened, the people who were injured and also the cars that were
set afire.

TADZIO MUELLER: OK. Now, there were these blockades, and it is true
that folks from the blockades were clearly out to engage the police.
And I think we can say that this actually—it’s understandable why
there is this rage. If you look at Greece, you’ve got youth
unemployment of 50 percent, you’ve got increase in suicides. It’s a
terrible situation. And folks in Europe were trying to express their
rage at the evacuation of democracy on the continent. However,
expressing rage is not the same as having a political strategy to
change the things that are actually causing the suffering that is
causing your rage. So, actually, there was a lot of rage in the street
in the morning, but in the afternoon and evening, that had been
transformed into a sense of hope, into a sense that we can lead a
European struggle from below against these institutions and maybe win.
So my hope would be, let’s not just focus on the burning cars, because
in fact what we need to focus on is the ECB and their policies,
because they’re burning the continent.
. . .


On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 6:52 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism
 wrote:
>
> NY Times, Mar. 19 2015
> Germans Protest European Austerity Measures
> By RHEA WESSEL and JACK EWING
>
> FRANKFURT — Protesters set cars on fire and clashed with police officers on
> Wednesday as they marched toward the European Central Bank’s new
> headquarters in a demonstration against austerity and capitalism that took
> on a markedly more heated tone than past protests.
> . . .

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[Marxism] FWD: Government Cancels Contract With Prison That Inmates Set on Fire

[Erik Toren via Marxism]

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-- Forwarded message --
From: ERIK TOREN 
Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 1:30 P

  Moter Jones 
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/prison-bureau-cancels-contract-willacy
Government Cancels Contract With Prison That Inmates Set on Fire

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Re: [Marxism] More wisdom from "center-left" Ukrainian pro-Russian activist Pavel Gubarev

[Jeff via Marxism]

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I looked a bit further into this matter when Roger Annis casually
admitted, that yes Pavel Gubarev had once been a neo-nazi, but don't worry
about it because he since drifted to the "left," winding up as a member of
the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine. I was interested in what this
person's politics actually were, beyond supporting Russian nationalism and
separation of Eastern Ukraine. So I thought it would be useful to look at
the politics of that party, one of the pro-separatist parties that has
"Socialist" in its name. Just how "left" are the pro-Russian forces in
this arena?

Well, rather than relying on what others say about them (which of course
can be biased and thus unreliable) I went right to the party's website,
which happens to be www.vitrenko.org, a site named after and dominated by
that party's founder and leader Natalia Vitrenko. But never mind that
detail. I can't read Russian so I used Google Translate which should be
activated if you click on the following link:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vitrenko.org%2F

Now, I realize computer translation is quite imperfect and can even
reverse the meaning of a sentence, so I would never take a single item
from such a translation as correctly reflecting the literal views of a
Russian writer. Rather, I was interested in browsing their site and seeing
just how much emphasis there is on socialism/communism or issues properly
associated with "the left" such as workers' struggles, class inequality,
and fighting for individual liberties and against the oppression of women
and cultural, ethnic, and gender minorities.

The short answer is: zero. As far as I could possibly tell, even following
the most promising links on that page, there is NOTHING at all "left" or
"socialist" about the so-called Progressive Socialist Party. But let me be
clear. I was looking for concern with or positions on issues *directly*
describing what we mean by "left," not indirect references such as talking
in favor of other "left" parties or individuals or opposition to the
right. This is an important point, because so much of what can get you
described as "left" or "right" depends on who you verbally support (or
oppose) and this can lead to circular reasoning, divorced from the basic
content. For instance, one might conclude A is left because it supports B
and C, B is left because it supports A and C, and C is left because it
supports A and B. But why were any called "left" in the first place? Only
because they have "socialist" or "worker" in their names? Or perhaps they
are seen as "left" because they oppose NATO and the rise of fascism?
Again, these are not exclusively left positions in and of themselves
(especially when it is a stinging denunciation of "fascists" who aren't!).

So, in looking at this one "left" party among the pro-Russian separatists
of Eastern Ukraine, I find what probably applies to that entire movement:
there is nothing "left" in the content of their politics. On the other
hand you'll have no trouble on that website finding right-wing traits such
as celebrating the orthodox church, patriotism (pro-Russian), and decrying
"Western liberal values" (individual liberties). People posting on this
list, who I DO believe are truly left, need to rethink their support to a
current that has no progressive content. And rethink whether Gubarev
actually migrated from neo-nazism to "leftism" or to a less derided corner
of the far-right.

- Jeff


On Thu, March 19, 2015 15:59, Thomas Campbell via Marxism wrote:
>
> As posted on his Facebook page today:
>
> https://www.facebook.com/pgubarev/posts/1071435022883242?fref=nf
>
> "On the question of what to do next with Ukraine, I reply:
> 1. Complete the affair with a military victory in Kiev, but better yet
> in Lvov.
> 2. Name the new country with an abbreviation: CNU -- the Country of New
> Russia and Ukraine.
> 3. [Implement] velvet Russification and soft imposition of the Russian
> political, cultural, and historical discourse. For at least fifty years.
> 4. Especially stubborn Nazis will have to be sent to the camps.
> 5. Incorporate CNU into Russia in 10-20 years."
>
> Sounds pretty "center-left" to me!


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[Marxism] Mexico: Bitter farmerworker strike in Baja California

[Steven L. Robinson via Marxism]

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http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-baja-farmworkers-protests-20150319-story.html
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[Marxism] Fwd: What You Need to Know about Venezuela | Jacobin

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By George Ciccariello-Maher

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/venezuela-maduro-us-executive-order/
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Re: [Marxism] Why are they targeting Sawant? | SocialistWorker.org

[Charles Faulkner via Marxism]

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to me it reads like a "they all stick together" kind of rant. 

isn't the real problem that the nul has capitalist solutions as part of their 
mission? i haven't followed her term but wouldn't that create a natural 
antagonism with a socialist council member? 


"Nothing wrong with the article in Socialist Worker, but i am guessing that 
Sawant will be very careful how she handles this." 
ken h 
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Re: [Marxism] Why are they targeting Sawant? | SocialistWorker.org

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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http://socialistworker.org/2015/03/17/why-are-they-targeting-sawant

Nothing wrong with the article in Socialist Worker, but i am guessing that 
Sawant will be very careful how she handles this.  Sawant has a broad audience, 
dare I say a mass audience.  And the Urban League probably still retains some 
authority from the civil rights movement.
Anyhow, let's watch how she handles this.
ken h
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[Marxism] David Harvey: On Syriza and Podemos

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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[Marxism] STOP the International Russian Conservative Forum!

[Thomas Campbell via Marxism]

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http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/stop-the-international-russian-conservative-forum/

The close ties between the Kremlin and many European far-right parties are
not a secret. The current Russian government’s warm friendship with Marine
le Pen has neither precluded official statements of “concern over the
growth of neo-nazism” in Ukraine or the Baltic States, nor prevented some
European leftists from voicing support, not only for Vladimir Putin’s
policies, but for his rhetoric as well. Just at the moment when politicians
from Die Linke or Jean-Luc Mélenchon express their disgust at the presence
in the Ukrainian government of some representatives of the far right, an
entire congress of European neo-fascist politicians will take place in
Saint Petersburg, with unofficial support from Dmitry Rogozin, Russian
Deputy of the Prime Minister.

On the 22nd of March, leaders and Members of the European Parliament from
the following parties will attend the “International Russian Conservative
Forum”:

Golden Dawn (Greece)

British National Party (UK)

Ataka (Bulgaria)

Forza Nuova (Italy)

Radical party (Serbia)

Party of Swedes (Sweden)

National Democratic Party (Germany)

…among other, similar parties. Some of the keynote speakers of the Congress
will include, Nick Griffin, former leader of the British National Party,
and Udo Voigt from the German NPD, who promised to present a
groundbreaking—and no doubt un-ironic—critique of ‘Ukrainian nationalism.’
On the Russian side, the primary organizer is the Rodina (“Motherland”)
Party, which enjoys unofficial connections with Deputy Prime Minister
Dmitry Rogozin. It seems that Kremlin officials have no problem endorsing
far-right parties who agree with their own policies, even while calling out
such extremists when they appear in the pro-Kiev camp.

The LeftEast editorial board calls for its local comrades and others to
express their protest against the decision of the Holiday Inn Hotel in St.
Petersburg and the Kremlin to allow this Congress to take place in the
Russian capital and in the premises of the hotel.

A way to express your indignation is to send an email to the international
and St Peterburg communication directors of the Holiday Inn Hotel, Genush
L. a...@hi-spb.com and Zoë Bird, InterContinental Hotels Group, Denham, UK,
zoe.b...@ihg.com along the following lines:

I am indignant that the Holiday Inn in St. Petersburg has decided to
provide a platform to this so-called “International Russian Conservative
Forum” (March 22th, 2015), which is in fact a forum of European Neo-Nazi
parties, no doubt chosen due to their support for Vladimir Putin’s external
and internal policy. The participation of such odious organizations as the
“Golden Dawn” (Greece), the National Democratic Party of Germany, the
Freedom Party (Austria), and the British National Party is an offense to
the feelings of St. Petersburg residents on the eve of the 70th anniversary
of Soviet victory over the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War.

I demand an immediate cancellation of the lease contract provided to the
organizers of the forum!

—

For more information in Russian and English – please follow this link:
http://www.rusimperia.info/news/id22235.html
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[Marxism] More wisdom from "center-left" Ukrainian pro-Russian activist Pavel Gubarev

[Thomas Campbell via Marxism]

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As posted on his Facebook page today:

https://www.facebook.com/pgubarev/posts/1071435022883242?fref=nf

"On the question of what to do next with Ukraine, I reply:
1. Complete the affair with a military victory in Kiev, but better yet in
Lvov.
2. Name the new country with an abbreviation: CNU -- the Country of New
Russia and Ukraine.
3. [Implement] velvet Russification and soft imposition of the Russian
political, cultural, and historical discourse. For at least fifty years.
4. Especially stubborn Nazis will have to be sent to the camps.
5. Incorporate CNU into Russia in 10-20 years."

Sounds pretty "center-left" to me!
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[Marxism] On the film 'Hunger'

[Sean Noonan via Marxism]

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Isn't the script an amalgam of Barry's Guerilla Days, O'Malley's On Another
Man's Wound, and Dan Breen's Fight for Irish Freedom?  In watching Wind
I was astonished by the deft ability of the screenwriting to bring episodes
from these different books together and weave it into a coherent narrative.

I'll 4th Louis, Gary and Phil on Hunger.  It isn't really a political film
at all, but rather an exercise is in grad school cultural studies.  How
many papers have been written on the body/water/bio-power of the Screw
using a squeegee to wipe of piss in H-Block for three solid minutes.
Somebody read Foucault and thought it was deep.

The one act play in the middle where the Priest and Sands are talking
suggests that the struggle is down to the individual will of the lone
individual (and ties back in the Sand's youth as a lone long distance
runner).  As we know in reality it was the life and death solidarity of the
blanket men in a shared struggle that gave the individual the strength to
carry out such tremendous acts of bravery and sacrifice.

The scene where the prisoners are at mass and instead of taking sacrements
they are all talking at once. For director Steve McQeen political
discussion and decision making is all glossalalia.  Compare this scene with
Loach's Land and Freedom and it is clear that there is no comparison.
McQeen's Sands is an isolated lone artist carving out his body to send a
message.

Shooting the screw as he brings his mum daisies in the old folks home and
then having him fall (back) into her lap as he is killed made me laugh out
loud. Was it supposed to be deep and meaningful.  It was so pretentious.
Besides what exactly is tragic about the end of screw?

The film Some Mother's Son's isn't didactically a left film (though the
director Terry George was in the INLA and did time in the H Blocks for
weapons possession). At the end, the mother is shown as being right for
taking her son off of the strike.  And yet, along the way and between the
lines George creates some space the viewer is able to see a left-republican
perspective on the struggle.

-- SN
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[Marxism] Valentin Rasputin, Russian Writer Who Led ‘Village Prose’ Movement, Dies at 77

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Mar. 19 2015
Valentin Rasputin, Russian Writer Who Led ‘Village Prose’ Movement, Dies 
at 77

By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY

MOSCOW — Valentin Rasputin, a patriarch of the so-called village prose 
writers who emerged in the Soviet Union in the 1960s to address moral 
and environmental issues and depict the remains of a rural Russia about 
to be consumed by industrialization, died here on Saturday. He was 77.


He died in a hospital one day short of his birthday after falling into a 
coma, the Russian Union of Writers said.


In a reflection of Mr. Rasputin’s stature, Patriarch Kirill I of the 
Russian Orthodox Church led his funeral service at Christ the Savior 
Cathedral in Moscow on Wednesday, and President Vladimir V. Putin paid 
his respects on Tuesday.


The inward-looking worldview that shaped Mr. Rasputin’s writings and 
public statements has in recent years been mirrored by the positions of 
Mr. Putin and the patriarch. Mr. Rasputin, who was baptized into the 
Russian Orthodox Church in 1980, had advocated the prosecution of 
members of Pussy Riot, the feminist collective that was tried for 
performing a “punk prayer” at the cathedral in 2012. In 2014, he signed 
a letter by writers in support of Mr. Putin’s annexation of Crimea.


“It seems there are no grounds to believe, but I believe that the West 
will not get its hands on Russia,” Mr. Rasputin said in a series of 
conversations that first appeared in the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya 
and were published in 2007 as a book called “Valentin Rasputin: Pain of 
the Soul.” “It’s not possible to drive all patriots to the grave, and 
there are more and more of them. And if they were driven to the grave, 
the coffins would rise upright and move to defend their lands.” He also 
defended Joseph Stalin.


In a flurry of commentary after his death, conservatives praised Mr. 
Rasputin as a keeper of the Russian soul, and liberals, even while 
praising his writing, expressed concern about his nationalist, Stalinist 
and anti-Semitic views. For example, he told The New York Times 
Magazine, in an interview published in 1990, that Jews bore 
responsibility for the terror that followed the Bolshevik Revolution and 
that “their guilt is great.”


Mr. Rasputin’s books sold millions of copies under communism, and toward 
the end of the Soviet era he received major state awards. But he and the 
other village prose writers, with their alternately romantic and brutal 
portraits of peasant life, were seen by some members of the Communist 
establishment as deviating from the socialist realism that the state 
usually demanded of artists and writers.


Valentin Grigoriyevich Rasputin was born on March 15, 1937, in the 
village of Ust-Uda in what is now the Irkutsk region. His parents, 
Grigory and Nina, were peasants. After completing primary school in the 
village of Atalanka, he had to travel, alone, to another town to 
continue his education in the hungry postwar years — an experience he 
portrayed in the story “French Lessons,” published in 1973.


His writing first attracted attention when he was a student at Irkutsk 
State University and wrote for a youth newspaper during the thaw begun 
by the Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev after Stalin’s death, when the 
bounds on expression were relaxed. He continued to work as a journalist 
after graduating in 1959.


But Khrushchev’s agricultural and industrial policies were also a death 
knell for traditional village life. The fate of Mr. Rasputin’s childhood 
villages became fodder for one of his most famous works, the 1976 novel 
“Farewell to Matyora.” The novel is about an island village on the 
Angara River that is about to be subsumed in the 1960s by construction 
of the Bratsk hydroelectric plant, and the elderly residents who try to 
resist resettlement and cannot adapt to city life.


After a vivid description of the beginning of spring in the opening 
chapter, Mr. Rasputin — an ardent environmentalist who fought to protect 
Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake — continues, 
“Everything was in place, but everything was wrong.”


Mr. Rasputin had difficulty working for years after being beaten by 
street thugs in Irkutsk in 1980. He returned with “The Fire” (1985), and 
then focused increasingly on essays that reflected his fears about the 
state of Russia under Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s reforms and, later, in the 
post-Soviet era.


He served in the Congress of People’s Deputies, a legislative body 
created by Mr. Gorbachev, from 1989 to 1990, and was appointed to the 
presidential council in 1990. But Mr. Rasputin quickly lashed out 
against Mr. Gorbachev and co-signed letters with natio

[Marxism] Putin's favorite Islamist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Mar. 19 2015
Chechen’s Ties to Putin Are Questioned Amid Nemtsov Murder Case
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

GROZNY, Russia — Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, 
has been at the center of intrigue surrounding the murder of Boris Y. 
Nemtsov, a prominent critic of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. 
So before a busy weekend that included a night out with the boys to 
watch cage fighting, Mr. Kadyrov wanted to clear something up: “I am 
utterly devoted to Vladimir Putin and ready until the end of my life to 
resist the enemies of Russia,” he wrote on Instagram.


The question these days is not so much Mr. Kadyrov’s fealty to Mr. 
Putin, his political patron, but whether Mr. Putin’s Faustian bargain to 
gain stability in Chechnya, where Russia fought two grisly wars to 
suppress Muslim separatists, has backfired, unleashing a violent and 
unpredictable despot.


Critics of Mr. Putin have warned that he has allowed Mr. Kadyrov, 38, to 
effectively create the Islamic republic that Chechen separatists had 
dreamed of — albeit one entirely reliant on Moscow for financial support 
and where Shariah law is selective, not absolute. And, they say, Mr. 
Kadyrov may now be seeking power and relevance far beyond his base in 
the jagged hills of the North Caucasus.


Unlike in other regions, where local security forces are subordinate to 
federal authorities, Mr. Kadyrov controls his own internal security 
troops, known as Kadyrovtsy. He is known for ruthlessly eliminating 
critics at home and abroad. And in Moscow, he is widely resented by the 
security services for being allowed to operate with impunity.


“The F.S.B. hate Ramzan because they are unable to control him,” Alexey 
Malashenko, an expert on the Caucasus at the Carnegie Moscow Center, 
said of the successor intelligence agency to the K.G.B. “He does 
whatever he wants, including in Moscow. Nobody can arrest members of his 
team if there is no agreement with Putin.”


Mr. Nemtsov had recently called attention to the dangers inherent in 
such a security arrangement. “I cannot understand what Putin expects 
when arming 20,000 Kadyrovtsy gathered today in the stadium in Grozny,” 
Mr. Nemtsov wrote in a Facebook post in December, after Mr. Kadyrov led 
his troops in chants of “God is great!” at a rally in the Chechen 
capital’s new soccer arena.


“What will happen next?” Mr. Nemtsov wrote. “The country is entering a 
crisis. There is not enough money for anything, including the support of 
regions. And the unspoken contract between Putin and Kadyrov — money in 
exchange for loyalty — ends. And where will 20,000 Kadyrovtsy go? What 
will they demand? How will they behave? When will they come to Moscow?”


While the authorities have produced no evidence that Mr. Kadyrov or 
anyone close to him ordered the Nemtsov killing, investigators have 
arrested five Chechen suspects, including a former deputy commander of 
one of Mr. Kadyrov’s security battalions. Even allies of Mr. Nemtsov who 
believe the Kremlin is behind his death say the investigation so far has 
exposed a dangerous rift between chiefs of the security services in 
Moscow and the brash Chechen leader.


The rift is of Mr. Putin’s making. For eight years, he has sanctioned 
Mr. Kadyrov’s iron-fisted rule while seemingly turning a blind eye to 
assassinations, torture and other human rights abuses. At the same time, 
the Kremlin bankrolled an expensive rebuilding effort that has 
transformed Grozny into a glittering Caucasian oasis, and allowed Mr. 
Kadyrov to amass his heavily armed personal militia.


The result, admirers and detractors agree, is an over-the-top political 
persona the likes of which Russia has never seen: Islamist warlord; 
Russian nationalist; and fierce Putin loyalist — at least for now.


Long tied to the killings of his personal rivals and critics, Mr. 
Kadyrov has emerged in recent months as one of the strongest backers of 
Mr. Putin’s policies in Ukraine, allowing fighters and weapons to flow 
from Chechnya to support the pro-Russian separatists. He was a leader of 
a huge “anti-Maidan” rally in Moscow to protest Ukraine’s shift toward 
Europe, and in January he led a mass demonstration in Grozny after the 
shootings at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French 
newspaper, denouncing the publication as anti-Muslim.


Posters proclaiming “We Love the Prophet Muhammad” now hang on buildings 
throughout the city.


On Saturday evening, Mr. Kadyrov was in his element, lounging on a plush 
high-backed sofa in the V.I.P. section of Grozny’s main sports arena, 
watching mixed martial arts fighters bloody one another in a metal cage.

[Marxism] Fwd: March 18, 1870: The Paris Commune is Established | The Nation

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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To the Nation's credit, they acknowledge that the magazine was hostile 
to the Paris Commune when E.L. Godkin was editor.


http://www.thenation.com/blog/201609/march-18-1870-paris-commune-established
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Re: [Marxism] Warnings Raised of a Greek Exit From the Euro

[Patrick Bond via Marxism]

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On 2015/03/19 04:03 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
... This week the German news media have helped make Mr. Varoufakis a 
lightning rod for populist anger by surfacing a two-year-old video in 
which he suggested that Greece should have simply defaulted on its 
debts in 2010 and told the German government to deal with the 
consequences. Mr. Varoufakis has said the video, in which he used a 
crude expression and extended his middle finger, is being taken out of 
context.


I'm 1/4 German so let me be biased for a moment. One of the very 
funniest pranks I've ever seen concerns this video, especially where the 
wonderful young punk who paint-shopped in the middle finger starts 
generalizing about German political attitudes. So typical of the NYT not 
to have pointed out - perhaps /noticed - /this hoaxing. The english 
subtitles start at the 3 minute mark. Do stick around to the end, to see 
the merits of superb studio work and raunchy anti-establishment 
politics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx-1LQu6mAE



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[Marxism] Netanyahu’s Win Is Good for Palestine

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times Op-Ed, Mar. 19 2015
Netanyahu’s Win Is Good for Palestine
By YOUSEF MUNAYYER

WASHINGTON — IF anyone doubted where Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the 
question of peace, the Israeli prime minister made himself clear just 
before Tuesday’s election, proclaiming that there would never be a 
Palestinian state on his watch. Then he decided to engage in a bit of 
fear-mongering against Palestinian citizens of Israel in hopes of 
driving his supporters to the polls. “The right-wing government is in 
danger,” Mr. Netanyahu announced on Election Day. “Arab voters are 
heading to the polling stations in droves.”


But Mr. Netanyahu’s victory is actually the best plausible outcome for 
those seeking to end Israel’s occupation. Indeed, I, as a Palestinian, 
breathed a sigh of relief when it became clear that his Likud Party had 
won the largest number of seats in the Knesset.


This might seem counterintuitive, but the political dynamics in Israel 
and internationally mean that another term with Mr. Netanyahu at the 
helm could actually hasten the end of Israel’s apartheid policies. The 
biggest losers in this election were those who made the argument that 
change could come from within Israel. It can’t and it won’t.


Israelis have grown very comfortable with the status quo. In a country 
that oversees a military occupation that affects millions of people, the 
biggest scandals aren’t about settlements, civilian deaths or hate 
crimes but rather mundane things like the price of cottage cheese and 
whether the prime minister’s wife embezzled bottle refunds.


For Israelis, there’s currently little cost to maintaining the 
occupation and re-electing leaders like Mr. Netanyahu. Raising the price 
of occupation is therefore the only hope of changing Israeli decision 
making. Economic sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s increased 
its international isolation and put pressure on the apartheid regime to 
negotiate. Once Israelis are forced to decide between perpetual 
occupation and being accepted in the international community, they may 
choose a more moderate leader who dismantles settlements and pursues 
peace, or they may choose to annex rather than relinquish land — 
provoking a confrontation with America and Europe. Either way, change 
will have to come from the outside.


The boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (B.D.S.) has thrived 
while Mr. Netanyahu has led Israel. He has become the internationally 
recognized face of Israeli intransigence, settlement building and brazen 
disregard for Palestinian human rights. But while Mr. Netanyahu has 
become synonymous with the occupation, he is in many ways a product of 
it. There are also entrenched political and economic interests that 
benefit from maintaining the status quo.


By monopolizing West Bank land and natural resources, Israel reaps the 
benefits of occupation with few costs. Settlements are a major state 
investment, and add both a geographic and political obstacle to peace 
since settlers play a key role in shaping Israeli politics and their 
interests cannot be ignored.


Mr. Netanyahu’s style has certainly heightened tensions and harmed 
relations with Israel’s allies. He has clashed with President Obama and 
thumbed his nose at the Democratic Party by helping to make Israel a 
partisan political issue in America. His most recent speech before a 
joint session of Congress, which 60 members of Congress boycotted, was 
merely the latest incident.


Replacing Mr. Netanyahu with his challenger, Isaac Herzog, would have 
slowed down the B.D.S. movement and halted pressure on Israel by 
creating the perception of change. A new prime minister would have 
kick-started a new “peace process” based on previous failed models that 
would inevitably fail again because of a lack of real pressure on Israel 
to change its deplorable behavior.


The re-election of Mr. Netanyahu provides clarity. Two years ago 
Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the maximum time left for a 
two-state solution was two years. Mr. Netanyahu officially declared it 
dead this week in order to drive right-wing voters to the polls. The 
two-state solution, which has seen more funerals than a reverend, exists 
today only as a talking point for self-interested, craven politicians to 
hide behind — not as a realistic basis for peace.


The old land-for-peace model must now be replaced with a 
rights-for-peace model. Palestinians must demand the right to live on 
their land, but also free movement, equal treatment under the law, due 
process, voting rights and freedom from discrimination.


Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election has convincingly proved that trusting 

[Marxism] Warnings Raised of a Greek Exit From the Euro

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Mar. 19 2015
Warnings Raised of a Greek Exit From the Euro
By LIZ ALDERMAN

PARIS — Just a few weeks ago, fears that Greece might exit the euro 
union subsided when Europe extended its financial bailout. But as a new 
war of words escalates between Athens and its creditors, talk of a 
“Grexit” is heating up.


In the last several days, European and American banks, think tanks and 
ratings agencies have issued a fresh round of warnings and studies 
calculating the damage to the currency union if Greece were to default 
on its debts or stop using the euro.


Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup body of European finance 
ministers, this week also raised the possibility of restricting the flow 
of money in and out of Greece to make sure the country has enough money 
to pay its debts.


Driving those concerns is an increasingly venomous standoff between 
Athens and nearly every other country in the 19-member currency union — 
especially Germany.


One of the main sticking points is Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s 
pushing ahead with an anti-austerity agenda that creditors say conflicts 
with pledges he made on Feb. 20 in winning an agreement to let Greece 
extend its 240 billion euro, or $254 billion, bailout program for four 
months. That deal was crucial to giving Greece the ability to unlock 
loan money it badly needs. But so far, no funds have been forthcoming.


On Wednesday, Greece’s Parliament approved a number of anti-poverty 
measures despite warnings from creditors that the legislation ran 
contrary to the overall package of changes Greece had agreed last month 
to adopt.


And it probably did not help Greece’s debt diplomacy that members of Mr. 
Tsipras’s Syriza party were among the thousands of European 
demonstrators in Frankfurt on Wednesday protesting, amid tear gas, 
European Central Bank policies.


Athens has become so politically isolated, even as its coffers run dry, 
that Mr. Tsipras will be trying to salvage relationships on Thursday and 
Friday in Brussels at a European Union summit meeting.


He has persuaded Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany; President François 
Hollande of France; the European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi; 
and others to discuss the Greek crisis directly with him. Whether he 
will clinch a deal to unlock funds and prevent a wider crisis remains to 
be seen.


Europe has “an overwhelming will to keep Greece in the eurozone,” Pierre 
Moscovici, the European Commission’s financial affairs chief, told a 
German newspaper this week. But, he added, “we won’t keep Greece in the 
eurozone at any price.”


European leaders have fast run out of patience with Greece, especially 
after Mr. Tsipras last week renewed demands that Germany pay Greece 
billions in reparations from World War II. And Greece’s outspoken 
finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has reportedly alienated some of his 
eurozone counterparts by changing his position several times during 
negotiations.


This week the German news media have helped make Mr. Varoufakis a 
lightning rod for populist anger by surfacing a two-year-old video in 
which he suggested that Greece should have simply defaulted on its debts 
in 2010 and told the German government to deal with the consequences. 
Mr. Varoufakis has said the video, in which he used a crude expression 
and extended his middle finger, is being taken out of context.


Members of Mr. Varoufakis’s Syriza party, meanwhile, are also agitated 
over a recent opulent photo shoot of him in the magazine Paris Match.


On Tuesday, Greece further angered its creditors by refusing to update 
them on progress it had made since the February deal to put in place 
economic changes required to free up around €7 billion in funds from 
Greece’s bailout program. Instead, Mr. Tsipras insisted on waiting to 
speak directly to Ms. Merkel and others about it in Brussels.


Without the bailout money, the Greek government has little cash left to 
meet payments owed to creditors for the rest of this month.


The government teeters precipitously close to a default. On Friday, 
Greece must reimburse €350 million in loans to the International 
Monetary Fund and roll over €1.6 billion in short-term debt.


Tax receipts have fallen by more than €1 billion since the Syriza party 
came to power in January. In the face of the cash squeeze, the state has 
said it might have to borrow money from national pension and farmers’ 
funds to avoid default, and withhold back payments owed to hospitals and 
other state entities.


Several of Greece’s largest companies are also privately complaining 
that the state has not paid them millions of euros owed for construct

[Marxism] Fwd: Why are they targeting Sawant? | SocialistWorker.org

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Kudos to the ISO for showing some solidarity.

http://socialistworker.org/2015/03/17/why-are-they-targeting-sawant
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[Marxism] Fwd: Dr. Cornel West Interview, Part 1 - David Letterman - YouTube

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyn-W4W6bHQ&list=PLZNV4DrfcAmHk88zdCZJ4nydI8NurqcvL
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[Marxism] Germans Protest European Austerity Measures

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Mar. 19 2015
Germans Protest European Austerity Measures
By RHEA WESSEL and JACK EWING

FRANKFURT — Protesters set cars on fire and clashed with police officers 
on Wednesday as they marched toward the European Central Bank’s new 
headquarters in a demonstration against austerity and capitalism that 
took on a markedly more heated tone than past protests.


The rally, organized by a group called Blockupy and German workers’ 
unions, drew thousands of people as the central bank inaugurated its new 
tower. In the morning, as a group of roughly 400 demonstrators tried to 
cross a bridge over the Main River and head toward the tower, they were 
blocked by the police. Smaller groups burned police cars, furniture, 
trash and bikes nearby. Hundreds of police officers in riot gear guarded 
an area around the bank, and officers sprayed tear gas at protesters who 
had been throwing rocks.


More than 200 demonstrators were injured by police bats and tear gas, 
Blockupy said, and the police said 94 officers were injured. “The 
violent acts of some activists were neither planned nor wanted,” said 
Frauke Loew, a Blockupy spokeswoman.


The size and intensity of the protests sent a strong signal that the 
German Blockupy movement was back after an earlier wave of activism 
petered out in 2012. But in contrast to the earlier, mostly mellow 
protests, there was a distinctly violent element on Wednesday, 
reflecting the political polarization that has built in the eurozone 
after four years of harsh cuts in government spending and astronomical 
unemployment in Greece and other troubled countries.


Blockupy is a left-wing alliance of dozens of activist groups from 
across Europe. Its members include one of the largest German labor 
unions, the United Service Union, known as Ver.di, and Syriza, the 
left-wing, anti-austerity Greek political party that is now leading the 
government in Athens.


The European Central Bank is one of Greece’s main creditors, and it is 
part of the so-called troika of international organizations that are 
supervising the Greek bailout program that the government of Prime 
Minister Alexis Tsipras is trying to renegotiate. The central bank, 
along with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, 
is widely blamed for imposing austerity measures on countries that have 
needed bailouts.


Rosina Sfyridou, a German of Greek descent who lives in Frankfurt and 
was among a small group carrying a Syriza flag near the Main River at 
midday, said she wanted to fight for democracy and social justice, and 
not only in Greece.


“The troika is making life difficult,” she said. “Schools are closing. 
Greeks can’t get proper health care. I have family there; we’re closer 
to the problem.”


Panagiotis Tsianakas, another German of Greek descent, headed to a 
central square to hear a speech by a Syriza representative, Giorgos 
Chondros. “The European finance ministers are brushing democracy to the 
side,” Mr. Tsianakas said.


Antagonism has been growing between Greece and Germany, Athens’s biggest 
European lender. “Our battle in Greece is a battle for all Europeans,” 
Mr. Chondros told a cheering crowd of about 8,000. “We need a European 
organization against austerity, and that organization has started here 
today.”


Employees of the central bank began moving into the new headquarters, 
which cost about $1.27 billion, near the end of last year. Away from 
downtown Frankfurt on a park-like site overlooking the Main River, the 
600-foot-high tinted-glass tower is a more potent symbol of the central 
bank’s power than the generic gray high-rise in central Frankfurt that 
it previously occupied.


The inauguration ceremony was scaled back in response to the protests. 
In addition, some European Central Bank employees were encouraged to 
work from home on Wednesday, though a central bank spokesman said the 
institution was “fully operational.”


Mario Draghi, president of the bank, acknowledged in a speech 
inaugurating the headquarters that European unity was being strained and 
that “people are going through very difficult times.”


As a European Union institution “that has played a central role 
throughout the crisis, the E.C.B. has become a focal point for those 
frustrated with this situation,” Mr. Draghi said in prepared remarks. 
“This may not be a fair charge — our action has been aimed precisely at 
cushioning the shocks suffered by the economy. But as the central bank 
of the whole euro area, we must listen very carefully to what all our 
citizens are saying.”


Since 2012, activists have occasionally handed out leaflets in front of 
the central bank’s headqua

[Marxism] Fwd: Photo of black U.Va. student leader, bloodied, renews debate about police and race @insidehighered

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/19/photo-black-uva-student-leader-bloodied-renews-debate-about-police-and-race
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[Marxism] Fwd: Is the U. of Oklahoma doing enough for the state's American Indian population? @insidehighered

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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American Indian and Alaska Native students have helped shape the 
treatment of minority students at OU. In 1994, when the first tepee 
incident took place, outrage from the American Indian community and 
scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights 
eventually prompted the university to revise its Student Code to include 
language on racial harassment.


Raising a tepee in front of the Bizzell Memorial Library marked the 
start of American Indian Heritage Week at the university. Each night of 
the celebrations, students from different campus organizations would 
hold a vigil and sleep in the tepee.


On March 14, 1994, when members of the American Indian Student 
Association held their vigil, six members of Phi Kappa Psi “ran around 
inside the tepee, shouting and slapping it. One man urinated on the 
tepee,” The Oklahoman reported. Two weeks later, someone spray painted 
the words “Navajos go home” on a statue of former university president 
William B. Bizzell.


full: 
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/19/u-oklahoma-doing-enough-states-american-indian-population

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[Marxism] Fwd: Professor Non Grata: Andrew Ross on Collusion and Delusion – The Conversation - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NYU Abu Dhabi is supposed to be in observance of the American 
Association of University Professors standards concerning academic 
freedom. What does it mean when the rights of the AAUP chapter 
president, of all people, are infringed in this manner? And what ominous 
signal does it send to the less-secure faculty members in Abu Dhabi, who 
already live and work with a significant degree of self-censorship?


In response to a query regarding speech protections at NYU’s Shanghai 
campus, Sexton declared that he had “no trouble distinguishing between 
rights of academic freedom and rights of political expression; these are 
two different things.” But he should be troubled, because the 
distinction makes no sense from an AAUP perspective. Extramural speech 
is one of the classes of speech that clearly fall under AAUP protection. 
Indeed, it is an obligation of the academic profession to share our 
knowledge and opinions with the general public, outside of the lecture 
hall and beyond the limited circulation of our academic journals. All 
professions have an implicit pact with the public (in return for the 
marketplace monopoly on their services), but academe is the only one 
that requires a broad umbrella of speech protections to keep up its end 
of the bargain.


full: 
http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2015/03/18/professor-non-grata-andrew-ross-on-collusion-and-delusion/

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[Marxism] Fwd: Open Letter Urging ‘Docunight’ to Cancel its Participation in Festival Sponsored by Israeli Government

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/21104/open-letter-urging-%E2%80%98docunight%E2%80%99-to-cancel-its-parti
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[Marxism] Fwd: Palestine, (un)Naturally – Mondoweiss

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By Steven Salaita

There’s a certain way to show that Israelis are fundamentally outsiders 
to the land, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t much resonate in the United 
States, in no small part because Americans are fundamentally outsiders 
to the land they occupy, as well.  I speak of olive trees, which 
exemplify the phrase “labor of love.”  The trees take years to bear 
fruit.  Once they do, though, they can provide for centuries.  The 
curved, cragged trees, blending into the tawny environs of surrounding 
earth, are ubiquitous throughout the West Bank and the Galilee, often 
arranged in captivating symmetry.  Nearly every Palestinian I know owns 
some type of olivewood icon.


Since 1967, Israel has bulldozed over 800,000 of them.  Settlers 
routinely destroy orchards, having uprooted over 11,000 olive trees last 
year alone.  Government officials cite practical reasons for the 
destruction, all of them involving the apocryphal word “security.”  Much 
of the time, however, they are simply being punitive.



full: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/03/palestine-unnaturally
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Re: [Marxism] On the film 'Hunger'

[Gary MacLennan via Marxism]

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for Phil [emphasis added]

comradely

Gary

So meet the boys from Kerry
And meet the boys form Clare
>From Dublin, Wicklow, Donegal
And the boys of old Kildare
Some came from a land beyond the sea
>From Boston and New York

*But the boys who beat the Black and TansWere the boys from the County Cork*

On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 5:58 AM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Like Gary (and Louis) I was appalled by this film.
>
> In fact, given the politics were largely stripped away, I felt it was a
> piece of unrelieved sadism I was watching on the screen.  I kept hoping it
> would pick up and we'd see something positive in it, but no it was just one
> continuous piece of relentless pain and misery.  A deeply anti-human film.
>
> How it won any awards is mind-boggling.
>
> I guess the film's miserabilism and all-round anti-humanity is what passes
> for 'realism' in film these days, at least among sufficient numbers of
> cognoscenti to provide it with a few awards.
>
> Have any half-decent films been made set in 'The Troubles' - I can only
> think of Loach's 'Hidden Agenda'.
>
> His 'Wind that Shakes the Barley' was quite good, but that was about the
> war for independence and civil war and I always thought it would have been
> better to set that in a city - especially Dublin - than rural Cork.
>
> Phil
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