Re: [Marxism] Technical question
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. * Not sure if this is what you need, but I always use handbrake (works on Linux and OSX!) for ripping and it can include the subtitles: https://handbrake.fr/features.php _ 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: Associate Professor Sues Harvard Over Tenure Denial | WBUR
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. * Two years ago, Theidon went to the chairman of her department when she’d learned Harvard had denied her tenure. “And he was baffled, and suggested I go talk to the vice provost for diversity, Judith Singer,” Theidon said in a recent interview at the office of one her attorneys. Theidon said Singer soon met with her, but that the conversation left her feeling “stunned.” “I was told, among other things, ‘Kimberly, they discussed your political activities. You know, most people wait on those kinds of political activities until they have tenure,’ ” Theidon said. Theidon, who is an expert on sexual violence, says when Singer cited “political activities,” she meant Theidon’s defense of sexual assault victims at Harvard. Theidon was a vocal supporter on campus of the rights of survivors of sexual assault. full: http://www.wbur.org/2015/04/06/harvard-tenure-lawsuit-sexual-assault _ 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 reality today
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 wrote: On 4/6/15 2:19 PM, Roger Annis via Marxism wrote: Joseph neglects to mention that another of the first acts of the Rada following the governmental overthrow was to abolish the language law of 2012 which granted limited language rights on a localized basiss where there was determined to be sufficient local language speakers other than Ukrainian. Roger, this is really outrageous. You are repeating the RT.com talking points without even bothering to acknowledge that some of us have been putting them under microscope long before you became a subscriber Yes indeed, Roger's method is so blatant that it's breathtaking. He just repeats RT talking points, as you say, and denies, denies, denies anything else. Ukrainian famine? Support for the deportation of the Tatars on NewColdWar.org? Oppression of workers and peasants under Stalin? Whatever. So it's not surprising that he treats my article in the same way. He says I never mentioned what happened to the language law. What does it matter that I actually did talk about the language law: Left to itself, the complicated relations between Maidan, the new government, and Antimaidan would have resulted in some sort of accommodation. That is how things often have been since independence. And in the first days after the fall of Yanukovych, a move in this direction began. At first, in a spasm of bourgeois nationalism, the Rada irritated the Russian ethnic population by voting to repeal a language law from 2012, but the government immediately reconsidered, and then-Acting President Alexandr Turchynov vetoed the repeal. The government at first considered pushing aside those oligarchs based in east Ukraine who had backed the Party of Regions, but in a few days -- realizing the weakness of its support in that part of the country -- it reversed itself and sought deals with them. That's not a very glorious accommodation, and it reinforced the character of the new government as another government of the oligarchs. But at the same time, it was a concession to Antimaidan. (15) (http://www.communistvoice.org/49cUkraine.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] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Ukraine reality today
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. * Wrong, wrong re the language law reversal in Feb. 2014. The measure passed the Rada, it was then overturned by the newly-appointed 'interim' speaker of the Rada, Turchynov. The new rulers of the Rada got a little too ambitious for their own good. Their language law reversal was an embarassment for the international backers of the new regime, and the regime itself worried the Rada decision would stir up unforeseen consequences in the east. Prescient! The original adoption of the 2012 language law was hotly contested, including, in the grand tradition of the Rada, fist fights among deputies. A new essay on people of Russian descent in Ukraine is published (from a new book): http://newcoldwar.org/russians-in-ukraine-before-and-after-euromaidan/. Excerpt: Russians in Ukraine do not represent such a distinctive national group as other large minorities in other countries. The thing is that both contemporary Russians and Ukrainians (at least, inhabitants of the lands of the former Russian Empire, that is the majority of contemporary Ukraine) originate from the people of common (All-Russian, ‘Orthodox’) identity, where the differences between Great Russians (‘Russians’) and Little Russians (‘Ukrainians’) were rather of regional or sub-ethnic nature. I think that it would be more correct to consider Russians, alongside Ukrainians, to be a state-constituting nation of Ukraine within its 2013 borders, and not a national minority. It is worth noting that almost half of ethnic Ukrainians prefer to speak Russian in private life. RA Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2015 15:27:24 -0400 From: l...@panix.com To: rogeran...@hotmail.com; marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Ukraine reality today On 4/6/15 2:19 PM, Roger Annis via Marxism wrote: Joseph neglects to mention that another of the first acts of the Rada following the governmental overthrow was to abolish the language law of 2012 which granted limited language rights on a localized basiss where there was determined to be sufficient local language speakers other than Ukrainian. Roger, this is really outrageous. You are repeating the RT.com talking points without even bothering to acknowledge that some of us have been putting them under microscope long before you became a subscriber. Yes, some rightwinger proposed this but it was not passed. What if some Tea Party legislator proposed legislation to ban the teaching of evolution in Kentucky? It does not mean that it was an act, does it, if it is voted down? In terms of the language question, this is really the best way to understand it: https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/uilleam-blacker/no-real-threat-to-ukraine%E2%80%99s-russian-speakers-language-law-ban _ 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] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Ukraine reality today
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 4/6/15 5:41 PM, Roger Annis wrote: Wrong, wrong re the language law reversal in Feb. 2014. The measure passed the Rada, it was then overturned by the newly-appointed 'interim' speaker of the Rada, Turchynov. The new rulers of the Rada got a little too ambitious for their own good. Their language law reversal was an embarassment for the international backers of the new regime, and the regime itself worried the Rada decision would stir up unforeseen consequences in the east. Prescient! Yes, this is what happened. And since you neglected (or evaded) the more important question, let me repeat it. THERE WAS NEVER ANY DANGER TO RUSSIAN SPEAKERS EVEN IF THAT LAW HAD BEEN PASSED. Russians in Ukraine do not represent such a distinctive national group as other large minorities in other countries. The thing is that both contemporary Russians and Ukrainians (at least, inhabitants of the lands of the former Russian Empire, that is the majority of contemporary Ukraine) originate from the people of common (All-Russian, ‘Orthodox’) identity, where the differences between Great Russians (‘Russians’) and Little Russians (‘Ukrainians’) were rather of regional or sub-ethnic nature. Roger Annis and his tin ear. To speak of Little Russians today is really quite shocking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Russia Modern context Although originally Little Russia (Rus' Minor) was merely a geographic, linguistic and ethnological term, it is now archaic and its usage in the modern context to refer to the country Ukraine and the modern Ukrainian nation, its language, culture, etc., is considered an improper anachronism. Such usage is typically perceived as an imperialist view that the Ukrainian territory and people (Little Russians) belong to one, indivisible Russia.[16] Regardless of whether they are aware or not of its origin, today many Ukrainian nationalists consider the term to be disparaging, indicative of an older brother attitude,[citation needed] and of imperial Russian (and Soviet) suppression of the Ukrainian national idea. In particular, it has continued to be used in Russian national discourse, where modern Ukrainians are presented as a single people in a united Russian nation.[17] This added new hostility and disapproval of the term by some Ukrainians.[15] Little Russianness Some Ukrainian authors define Little Russianness (Ukrainian: малоросійство, malorosiystvo) as a provincial complex they see in parts of the Ukrainian community due to its lengthy existence within the Russian Empire and describe it as an indifferent, and sometimes a negative stance towards Ukrainian national-statehood traditions and aspirations, and often as active support of Russian culture and of Russian imperial policies.[18] Mykhailo Drahomanov, who used the terms Little Russia and Little Russian in his historical works,[14] applied the term Little Russianness to Russified Ukrainians, whose national character was formed under alien pressure and influence, and who consequently adopted predominantly the worse qualities of other nationalities and lost the better ones of their own.[18] Ukrainian conservative ideologue and politician Vyacheslav Lypynsky defined the term as the malaise of statelessness.[19] The same inferiority complex applied to the Ukrainians of Galicia with respect to Poland (gente ruthenus, natione polonus). The related term Magyarony applied to Magyarized Rusyns in Carpathian Ruthenia who advocated for the union of that region with Hungary.[18] Another criticized aspect labeled as Little Russianness is a stereotypical image of uneducated, rustic Ukrainians exhibiting little or no self-esteem. Examples of such characterization are popular Ukrainian singer and performer Andriy Danylko whose uncouth stage persona is an embodiment of this perception; Surzhyk-speaking Verka Serduchka has also been seen as perpetuating this demeaning image.[20][21] Danylko himself usually laughs off such criticism of his work and many art critics point instead towards the fact that his success with the Ukrainian public is rooted in an unquestionable authenticity of Danylko's artistic image.[22] _ 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] Intensifying attacks on the PFLP
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 snatching of Khalida Jarrar seems to be part of what the PFLP noted last October is an intensification of attacks on themcby the Israeli state: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/israels-intensifying-attacks-on-the-pflp/ A number of PFLP leaders have said that the Zionist regime is worried that yet another intifada is on its way. Phil _ 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: Syria, Chechnya, and the jihadist gambit | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant 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. * For the longest time now I’ve been making the point that Bashar al-Assad seems to have adopted Putin’s scorched earth military/political strategy in Chechnya. After reading the introduction to Jonathan Littell’s “Syrian Notebooks: Inside the Homs Uprising”, a new Verso book (good for them), I’ve discovered that there’s more there than just the near-genocidal blitzkrieg aspect. Remember how Bashar al-Assad released the jihadists from prison who would go on to provide the shock troops for ISIS? Well, it turns out that this was a gambit used in Chechnya as well: full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/04/06/syria-chechnya-and-the-jihadist-gambit/ _ 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] Bolivia's voters reaffirm 'process of change' but issue warnings to the governing MAS
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://lifeonleft.blogspot.ca/2015/04/bolivias-voters-reaffirm-process-of.ht ml Up to 90% of the electorate voted in Bolivias subnational elections March 29 for governors, mayors and departmental assembly and municipal council members throughout the country. These were the second such elections to be held since the new Constitution came into force in 2009, the first being in 2010. The Movement for Socialism (MAS)[1] once again emerged as the only party with national representation by far the major political force in Bolivia, and far ahead of the opposition parties, none of which has a significant presence in all nine departments. However, in some key contests the voters rebuffed the MAS candidates, most notably for governor in La Paz department and for mayor in the city of El Alto, the centre of the 2003-2005 upsurges and long considered a MAS bastion. Mixed results With 66% of the popular vote in the municipal elections, the MAS elected mayors in 225 of Bolivias 339 towns and cities, about the same result as in 2010. However, consistent with a pattern in recent years, the various opposition parties won in eight of the ten largest cities while the MAS gained only two, Sucre and Potosí. In the departmental legislative assemblies, the MAS deputies now hold a clear majority of seats in six departments, and a plurality in two others, while in Santa Cruz the party is only two seats from a plurality. Even in La Paz department the newly elected opposition governor will have to contend with a two-thirds MAS majority in the legislature. Although the official results are not yet available, the MAS did well in the municipal council elections, too. The results of elections in autonomous indigenous communities, which are conducted according to ancient usos y costumbres (customs and traditions), are not yet known. The MAS elected governors in four of the countrys nine departments and is leading in two other departments with runoff elections scheduled for May 3. (Under Bolivias election laws, a runoff is held when the candidates coming 1st and 2nd in the vote, with neither having 50% of the votes, are separated by fewer than 10 percentage points.) Opposition parties elected governors in three departments including Santa Cruz and Tarija, traditionally associated with the Media Luna (half moon) set of departments that participated in the unsuccessful 2008 revolt of the powerful landholder elite in the eastern lowlands. However, the major upsets for the MAS were in the department of La Paz, where Felix Patzi, an Aymara intellectual and minister of education in Evo Morales first government, was elected governor with a 20 percentage points advance over the MAS candidate, Felipa Huanca, a leader of the Bartolinas,[2] an indigenous and campesina (farmer) womens organization that is one of Bolivias major social movements. Patzi ran on the slate of Soberanía y Libertad (Sovereignty and Liberty - SOL.BO), a reconstruction of the Movimiento Sin Miedo (the fearless movement), which lost its party certification in the October 2014 elections when it won less than 3% of the national vote. SOL.BO also retained the mayoralty and a council majority in the city of La Paz, the countrys administrative capital. Particularly galling to the MAS was its defeat in the El Alto mayoralty by an Aymara woman, Soledad Chapetón of Unidad National (UN). The right-wing UN is Bolivias largest opposition party; its leader Samuel Doria Medina took 25% of the vote in last years presidential election. Chapetóns campaign emphasized her personal qualities, not the UN, but her election raises some questions as to why that party was able to capitalize on the MAS discredit in this particular instance. In fact, with the possible exception of governor-elect Felix Patzi in La Paz,[3] virtually all of the opposition candidates and parties in the subnational elections, can be said to be to the right of the MAS. This bears further examination, something beyond the scope of this article. More: http://lifeonleft.blogspot.ca/2015/04/bolivias-voters-reaffirm-process-of.ht ml or http://tinyurl.com/q8mqf58 _ 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] Class struggle in China, Vietnam
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. * Strikes proliferate in China as working class awakens http://news.yahoo.com/strikes-proliferate-china-working-class-awakens-063530403.html Thousands on strike in Vietnam over insurance law http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32142635 _ 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: Leaked Messages Allegedly Show Kremlin Paid for Le Pen to Endorse Crimea Annexation | VICE News
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 Russian hacking collective Anonymous International has leaked close to 40,000 text messages allegedly sent and received by a high-ranking Russian official that reference a potential financing deal between Russia and France's far-right National Front (FN) party in exchange for FN leader Marine Le Pen's public endorsement of Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014. The online French investigative journal Mediapart published the hacked text messages, which allegedly belong to Timur Prokopenko, head of Russia's internal affairs department. Last November, reports surfaced that the FN had secured a loan worth 9.46 million euros ($10.40 million) from Moscow's First Czech-Russian Bank (FCRB), adding to an earlier 2 million euro ($2.20 million) loan from Russia to FN-linked group Cotelec, which is run by Marine's father, FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. Cyprus-based Vernonsia Holdings Ltd, a company allegedly owned by a former member of the KGB, reportedly underwrote the loan to Cotelec. Marine Le Pen has denied any link between the loans and the party's position on Crimea, arguing that her party turned to Russia after it was shunned by French banks. French and European banks are notoriously timid about lending the FN money, and the anti-immigration political group found itself on the verge of bankruptcy in 2010. Last March, Le Pen publicly recognized the results of Crimea's referendum to break from Ukraine and formally join the Russian Federation. Le Pen's stance was at odds with the common position held by France and other Western countries, including the United States, which viewed the referendum as unlawful. The same day that Le Pen vocalized her support of the referendum, Prokopenko allegedly sent text messages to Konstantin Rykov, a pro-Putin blogger also known as Kostya, who, according to the hackers, had access to Le Pen. In the messages, the two men applaud Le Pen's endorsement, saying that the party leader has not betrayed our expectations. The two men agreed to find a way of thanking the French. full: https://news.vice.com/article/leaked-messages-allegedly-show-kremlin-paid-for-french-conservative-leader-to-endorse-crimea-annexation _ 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: Orion Magazine | Defending Darwin
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. * We live in a nation where public acceptance of evolution is the second lowest of thirty-four developed countries, just ahead of Turkey. Roughly half of Americans reject some aspect of evolution, believe the earth is less than ten thousand years old, and that humans coexisted with dinosaurs. Where I live, many believe evolution to be synonymous with atheism, and there are those who strongly feel I am teaching heresy to thousands of students. A local pastor, whom I’ve never met, wrote an article in The University Christian complaining that, not only was I teaching evolution and ignoring creationism, I was teaching it as a non-Christian, alternative religion. full: https://orionmagazine.org/article/defending-darwin/ _ 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] How poorly America treats low-income workers
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[Marxism] Fwd: Greece plan to release 3, 500 immigrants from asylum centres sets it on a collision course with Europe - Europe - World - The Independent
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[Marxism] Fwd: “We should recognize that there are other imperialisms”: A Marxist dissident explains what the left gets wrong about Russia - Salon.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. * Socialist activist Ilya Budraitkis tells Salon that it's time to abandon illusions about Putin's Russia Q: You say a lot of people buy into the Russian government’s propaganda on Ukraine. Here in the United States some parts of the left seem to have bought into this too. They think Maidan was basically a Nazi coup backed by Europe and the United States and they kind of ridicule the idea that Russia has inflamed the conflict by supporting the separatists in the East. Can you comment on that? A: Of course, both the pictures of what is happening there are very simplified. So firstly, it’s not true that it was a fascist coup in Ukraine because a “coup” is an action of a small, organized, armed group of people. [In Ukraine] the “coup” . . . had the clear support of hundreds of thousands of people. Even if you don’t like it you should recognize that it was a real huge movement with the big support of the population of Ukraine. I have no sympathy with the Ukrainian government that you have now, but for me it’s quite clear it can’t be reduced just to a Western plot. There were some deep social contradictions in Ukrainian society that led to this moment. Of course, in any situation like this you have the interests: American interests, European interests, Russian interests, and so on. But these interests can work effectively only if you already have some problems within the country. And that is true also for Crimea and the East of Ukraine; you also can’t say that it’s just the result of Russian military intervention. I knew very well even a few years ago what kind of feelings most people in Crimea had toward Russia. So for me it was clear that a total majority of them want to be part of Russia. It was clear for everyone 10 years ago, even 15 years ago, that you have some serious cultural split in Ukraine between the West and East. And of course what happened after Maidan with this language law from the new government, it was a kind of provocation. But at the same time you can’t imagine that this kind of terrible military confrontation that you have in Eastern Ukraine was possible without Russian participation. For those on the American Left who believe that there is some “anti-fascist” partisans operating in the East of Ukraine, I really recommend reading some books about other guerrilla movements, like Che Guevara or whatever they like. It’s the first [anti-fascist] partisan movement in the history, in Eastern Ukraine, which has more arms and more modern arms than the army who they confront. full: http://www.salon.com/2015/04/06/we_should_recognize_that_there_are_other_imperialisms_a_marxist_dissident_explains_what_the_left_gets_wrong_about_russia/ _ 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] Re Dangerousdays Ahead
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. * Please share this petition to President Obama to help Syriza, whether you believe in petitions or elections or not help the Greek government govern according to the dictates of the people who elected it http://wh.gov/iZEvS Peggy Dobbins _ 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] Leftist Borodai makes the case for an oligarch
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. * Alexander Borodai, former “prime minister” of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR), told a meeting of Russian nationalists recently that Rinat Akhmetov was supporting the DNR terrorists. The meeting was organized in Moscow on March 14 by Egor Prosvirin, editor of the “Sputnik and Pogrom” site, and a video of the proceeding was published on YouTube on March 26. According to the publication Chetvertaya Vlast (The Forth Estate), this is the first time a claim has been made so openly about the cooperation between the oligarch and the terrorists. When asked why Rinat Akhmetov’s property in the “people’s republics” has not yet been nationalized as promised earlier, Borodai said it would not be practical. “Let’s imagine that we did nationalize Mr. Akhmetov. The businesses that belong to Rinat Akhmetov located on the territory of DNR have been working all this time with amazing stability,” he explained. “Mr. Akhmetov, who all this time has been a pillar and a founder of Ukrainian politics, a man who informally has been practically ‘holding up’ Ukraine, finds the current situation advantageous. Let me explain why. He has a lots of enemies among the current Kyiv authorities and in the establishment. Well, Akhmetov finds it useful that businesses located on the territory of DNR are manufacturing. It is advantageous for him to have these products exported. They have to be shipped. Where? To Italy. And how? Through the ports. Which ones? The only port available for him is Mariupol.” full: http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/04/02/akhmetov-cooperating-with-donbas-terrorists-dnr-leader/ _ 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: ISIL’s Yarmouk offensive has profound implications | The National
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.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/isils-yarmouk-offensive-has-profound-implications _ 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] Taking Feminist Battle to China’s Streets, and Landing in Jail
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, Apr. 6 2015 Taking Feminist Battle to China’s Streets, and Landing in Jail By ANDREW JACOBS BEIJING — The young Chinese feminists shaved their heads to protest inequality in higher education and stormed men’s restrooms to highlight the indignities women face in their prolonged waits at public toilets. To publicize domestic violence, two prominent activists, Li Tingting and Wei Tingting, put on white wedding gowns, splashed them with red paint and marched through one of the capital’s most popular tourist districts chanting, “Yes to love, no to violence.” Media-savvy, fearless and well-connected to feminists outside China, the young activists over the last three years have taken their righteous indignation to the streets, pioneering a brand of guerrilla theater familiar in the West but largely unheard-of in this authoritarian nation. Now five of them — core members of China’s new feminist movement — sit in jail, accused of provoking social instability. One of the women, Wu Rongrong, 30, an AIDS activist, is said to be ailing after the police withheld the medication she takes for hepatitis. Another, Wang Man, 33, a gender researcher, was said to have had a mild heart attack while in custody. Lawyers for the detainees, who include Zheng Churan, 25, affectionately known as Big Rabbit, say the women have been subjected to near-constant interrogation. The detentions took place early last month on the eve of International Women’s Day as the women planned a public awareness campaign about sexual harassment on public transportation. Now, as security agents from Beijing fan out across the country hunting down the volunteers who took part in the women’s theatrical protests, many young feminists have gone into hiding. “We’re so afraid and confused,” said one of them, Xiao Meili, 26, who recently completed a 1,200-mile trek across China to draw attention to sexual violence. “We don’t understand what we did wrong to warrant such a ferocious backlash.” Despite government efforts to keep reporting of the crackdown out of the domestic news media, the jailing of the five women has not gone unnoticed here. Word has spread across college campuses, and more than 1,100 people took the risky step last week of adding their names to a petition demanding the women’s release. Outside China, campaigners have used Facebook and Twitter to publicize the detainees’ plight, and Western governments have been issuing statements to protest their incarceration. “If China is committed to advancing the rights of women, then it should be working to address the issues raised by these women’s rights activists — not silencing them,” said Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations. From Morocco to India to New York, supporters have been posting images of themselves wearing masks that bear the photos of the jailed women. Because two of the detainees are lesbian and another is bisexual, overseas gay rights organizations like All Out have jumped into the fray, collecting more than 85,000 signatures and popularizing the hashtag #freethefive on Twitter. As international attention to the women’s case mounts, some rights advocates see echoes of the public relations maelstrom surrounding the female Russian dissident group, Pussy Riot, whose members were arrested in 2012 for their protests against President Vladimir V. Putin. Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch, said the five jailed feminists have drawn far more international attention than the scores of Chinese activists who have been detained during the previous two years of an intensified government drive against political dissent. “Many people find it mind-boggling that the government of the second-largest economy and the world’s largest standing army is afraid of a group of women trying to draw attention to sexual harassment,” she said. “The combination of power and paranoia on display is very telling.” Analysts say the effort to quash China’s nascent feminist movement represents a dismal milestone in the Communist Party’s war on grass-roots activism, a campaign that has gained momentum since President Xi Jinping came to power in November 2012. Unlike the government critics and political reform advocates jailed in earlier sweeps, the five detained women confined their activities to matters like domestic violence and discrimination against people with H.I.V. — issues that the government claims to have also embraced. But rights advocates say security officials were evidently alarmed by the women’s skillful use of social media to organize volunteers, their
[Marxism] The Man Who Saved New York's Banks
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 Times obit of Victor Gotbaum: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/nyregion/victor-gotbaum-labor-leader-who-helped-save-new-york-from-bankruptcy-dies-at-93.html?_r=0 Discussion of his record as part of my analysis of city union bargaining and corruption: http://www.laborstandard.org/Vol1No2/DC37.htm _ 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
