Re: [Marxism] Independent: Tsipras shows his Machiavellian streak
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. * Perhaps I am hopelessly naive, but I still hold out hope for young master Tsipras. I realize that he may be motivated now more by the desire to cling to power at any cost than to lead a transformative movement that liberates his suffering people's from the jackboot of German mercantilism, but nevertheless I feel as though if he was going to completely sell out he would have had the opportunity to do so years ago. He is still surrounded by a lot of people who will keep pushing him. Who knows, he and Tsakalatos may also be playing for time and trying to stabilize the situation a bit more before taking more decisive actions. And if all else fails, the objective conditions in Greece and the other so-called PIIGS will continue to call forth radical challenges. Everyone keeps saying that these defeats and betrayals will rebound to the radical right in Greece, but I doubt that. I think the left in Greece will continue to hold ideological hegemony. Reading about the solidarity networks and the way ordinary Greeks have gone out of their way to help the endless stream of refugees fleeing the aftermath of imperial carnage (like in that article I posted today about Lesvos) leaves me with a sense of hope for another day of struggle there... > 21 июля 2015 г., в 19:08, Louis Proyect написал(а): > >> On 7/21/15 6:49 PM, Shalva Eliava via Marxism wrote: >> >> >> >> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-debt-crisis-news-alexis-tsipras-shows-his-machiavellian-streak-in-a-purge-of-syriza-rebels-10399042.html > > Isn't becoming obvious that Tsipras has effectively split from Syriza? If > anything is to be salvaged, it will be a result of the Left Forum regrouping > and moving ahead with the Thessalonika Program. In a way, it would have been > clear if Tsipras had simply announced that he was joining PASOK or something > but in politics there is always a large element of self-deception. _ 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] Guardian: After Greece’s defeat, we need a new European movement against austerity
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. * ..."And yet I remain convinced that the struggle against a neoliberal Europe has gained valuable lessons from Syriza. It is not accidental that Syriza (alongside Podemos in Spain) has been the most effective leftist anti-establishment formation of recent decades. One of the criticisms made by the traditional left has been Syriza’s lack of emphasis on “the working-class struggle”. But it was precisely by moving beyond this narrow political constituency that Syriza was able to connect with the diverse and heterogeneous anti-austerity movement of Greece in 2011, and later to express the demands of this movement in an electoral programme. Bringing diverse groups under one banner and creating a dividing line between the people and the system has allowed Syriza to take office, and then to use its power to battle with neoliberalism at national and European level. Within Greece, Syriza succeeded not only in bringing together many different sections of the left, some of which were well past their expiry date – it also helped make them relevant for the majority of Greek people. On the European level, it has seriously challenged the dominance of the neoliberal narrative, and forged alliances across borders, inspiring an international movement of solidarity." http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/14/greece-defeat-european-movement-austerity _ 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] FT: Grexit remains the likely outcome of this sorry process
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. * Grexit remains the likely outcome of this sorry process FT.com July 19, 2015 12:54 pm Wolfgang Munchau Unless the economy behaves very differently than in the past, it will be trapped in a vicious circle ___ Alexis Tsipras should never have hired Yanis Varoufakis as his finance minister. Or he should have listened to him, and kept him on. But instead the Greek prime minister chose the worst of all options. He followed Mr Varoufakis’ advice of rejecting the offer of the creditors — until last week. But having done this, Mr Tsipras committed a critical error by rejecting Mr Varoufakis’ plan B for the moment when the country’s banks closed down: the immediate introduction of a parallel currency — IOUs issues by the Greek state but denominated in euros. A parallel currency would have allowed the Greeks to pay for their daily transactions when cash withdrawals were limited to €60 a day. A total economic collapse would have been avoided. But Mr Tsipras did not go for this, or indeed any other plan B. Instead he capitulated. At that point, he was no longer even in a position to choose a Grexit — a Greek exit from the eurozone. The economic precondition for a smooth departure would have been a primary surplus — before debt service — and an equivalent surplus in the private sector. Greece has no foreign exchange reserves. If the Greeks were to reintroduce the drachma, they would have had to pay for all of their imports with the foreign exchange earnings of their exports. These minimum preconditions were in place in March but not in July. So, like his predecessors, Mr Tsipras ended up with another very lousy bailout deal. And this one suffers from the same fundamental flaws as its predecessors. This leads me to conclude that Grexit remains the most likely ultimate outcome after all. There are three principal ways in which this can happen. The first is that a deal is simply not concluded. All that was agreed last week is for negotiations to start, plus some interim financing. A deal might fail because principal participants themselves are sceptical. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, says he will keep up his offer of a Grexit in his drawer, just in case the negotiations fail. Mr Tsipras denounced the agreement on several occasions last week. And the International Monetary Fund is telling us that the numbers do not add up, and that it will not sign unless the European creditors agree to debt relief. The Germans refuse any discussion on this subject, citing some trumped-up rules according to which eurozone countries are not allowed to default. This is legal hogwash, but I suppose the purpose is to describe new red lines in the negotiations. My hunch is that they will ultimately fudge a deal, but that will come — as it always does — with overwhelming collateral damage: less debt relief than needed, and more austerity than Greece can bear. A more likely Grexit scenario is that a programme is agreed and then fails. The Athens government may implement all the measures the creditors demand, but the economy fails to recover and debt targets remain elusive. Mr Tsipras already agreed last week that if this situation arose, he would pile on more austerity. So, unless the economy behaves in future in a very different way from the way it behaved in the past, it will remain trapped in a vicious circle for many years to come. At that point, Mr Tsipras, or his successor, could concede defeat and opt for a negotiated Grexit as the least painful option. Grexit could also be forced on them by the creditors. My own most likely Grexit scenario is a different one yet again. Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, hinted at this in his interview with the Financial Times last week when he said that he felt “something revolutionary” in the air. He is on to something. The most probable scenario for me is Grexit through insurrection. Give it another three years, and I would not be surprised to see Mr Tusk and his colleagues in the European Council having to entertain even more drastic action to quell a crisis. Greece is not quite at the point of insurrection yet — despite eight years of recession. Opinion polls still reflect a majority of the people in favour of keeping the euro. In real life people choose between a small number of political alternatives and settle for the one they think works best for the economy. They voted for Mr Tsipras and his Syriza party in January because the other parties failed to deliver. If Syriza fails to deliver, too, as it surely will, the Greeks will have no democratic choices left. Can Mr Tsipras
[Marxism] LOL
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://azvsas.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=50 -- - Amith _ 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] Independent: Tsipras shows his Machiavellian streak
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. * Only Shalva and Lou are gallantly keeping the thread going on Greece. The silence of other list members may indicate that they have sunk into something like despair. Certainly that is my situation. I want, though, to address the question was the Tsipras-Dragasakis coup inevitable? Certainly, I think that in broad front politics there will inevitably be a Tsipras and a Dragasakis. But what I maintain is that their victory is not inevitable. What was crucial, I think (from 15180.65 km away), was the failure of the Left Platform to develop an alternative Plan B. Kouvleakis puts the blame on Dragasakis for the absence of such a fall back strategy. But that is simply shifting the blame. Why would Dragasakis or Tsipras develop an alternative? Syriza I believe has split three times before and always to the Right. I think we have just seen the fourth split but Tsipras will not name it as one. He is fighting to be Syriza. But it will avail him little. He will become the Ramsay MacDonald or the Billy Hughes of Greek politics. In Australian terms he is the 'rat in the ranks'. & btw I think we have long passed the time when the Socialist Alliance should name him as such and admit the error of defending him from criticism. But perhaps that is just a residue of my Trotskyism. If I can get time away from struggling with Plato's theory of knowledge I will attempt to redeem my promise (threat?) to respond to the Callinicos-Kouvelakis debate. comradely Gary On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 9:08 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > On 7/21/15 6:49 PM, Shalva Eliava via Marxism wrote: > >> >> >> >> >> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-debt-crisis-news-alexis-tsipras-shows-his-machiavellian-streak-in-a-purge-of-syriza-rebels-10399042.html >> > > Isn't becoming obvious that Tsipras has effectively split from Syriza? If > anything is to be salvaged, it will be a result of the Left Forum > regrouping and moving ahead with the Thessalonika Program. In a way, it > would have been clear if Tsipras had simply announced that he was joining > PASOK or something but in politics there is always a large element of > self-deception. > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Independent's Wren-Lewis puts Greek bailout in perspective
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. * Well conceptualized: ..."Unfortunately, this was wishful thinking. The structural reforms were never going to have an immediate impact on the Greek economy. Acute austerity, on the other hand, had a completely predictable impact. GDP fell by 25 per cent and youth unemployment rose to 50 per cent. As the economy collapsed, the ability to repay the Troika decreased. All this stemmed from irresponsible decisions by French, German and other countries’ banks to lend to Greece. Imagine if the global financial crisis had been dealt with this way, with borrowers who couldn’t pay – US sub-prime borrowers, say – being lent money by the US government to pay off their debts. That might have kept US and UK banks solvent, but the problem would now be that taxpayers would not get their money back from these borrowers. Perhaps some would be made to attend self-improvement lessons and do community service – which would have had the same effect on their ability to pay as the “structural reforms” and austerity imposed on Greece. Eventually this might have led to heated debates in Congress, with some politicians saying it was time to revoke the US citizenship of the debtors." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/greece-debt-crisis-would-the-troika-keep-lending-if-the-country-had-a-subprime-mortgage-10399112.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] Independent: Tsipras shows his Machiavellian streak
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 7/21/15 6:49 PM, Shalva Eliava via Marxism wrote: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-debt-crisis-news-alexis-tsipras-shows-his-machiavellian-streak-in-a-purge-of-syriza-rebels-10399042.html Isn't becoming obvious that Tsipras has effectively split from Syriza? If anything is to be salvaged, it will be a result of the Left Forum regrouping and moving ahead with the Thessalonika Program. In a way, it would have been clear if Tsipras had simply announced that he was joining PASOK or something but in politics there is always a large element of self-deception. _ 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] Independent: Tsipras shows his Machiavellian streak
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.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greece-debt-crisis-news-alexis-tsipras-shows-his-machiavellian-streak-in-a-purge-of-syriza-rebels-10399042.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
[Marxism] Alexis Tsipras Transforms Himself as He Sells Greek Bailout Terms
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, July 21 2015 Alexis Tsipras Transforms Himself as He Sells Greek Bailout Terms By SUZANNE DALEY ATHENS — On the eve of his election in January, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece talked with pride about how his leftist Syriza party rejected “the mentality of establishment parties” and provided space for the diverse views of its members. But last week, Mr. Tsipras ousted members of his cabinet who had defied him by voting against the package of austerity measures that Greece’s European creditors had demanded as the price of new bailout negotiations. To Syriza members of Parliament who voted against that package and are threatening to oppose a second bill scheduled for a vote on Wednesday, Mr. Tsipras has made clear that he might call a new election and replace them with a slate of lawmakers loyal to him. If Mr. Tsipras was an idealistic young radical six months ago, dedicated to the overthrow of the Greek establishment and austerity policies, he is emerging from the showdown with the creditors as something else entirely: a popular, canny and pragmatic politician with a stake in the success of the very measures he came to power vowing to eradicate. Mr. Tsipras, 40, may still be refusing to wear a tie, but otherwise he has moved a long way toward the mainstream. In the process, he has defied what appeared to be European efforts to oust him, even as he has bowed to much of the agenda the creditors imposed on him. And now the question is whether he can create a new center of gravity in Greek politics, one focused not on ending austerity, but on carrying it out in a progressive way and restoring some sense of fairness and hope to a country that has been short on both. If he pulls it off, it will be a remarkable political transformation for himself and for Greece. Some Syriza supporters are shocked by the new Mr. Tsipras, who is conversant in the most minor details of the bailout he is negotiating and who argues on occasion that the deal might include some reforms that Greece badly needs. On television recently, Mr. Tsipras said that some pension changes would have been necessary with or without the demands of the country’s creditors. “I do not think that it is progressive political policy to send someone into retirement at 45 or 50,” he said. Aris Chatzistefanou, a left-wing journalist and documentarian who watched the hourlong televised interview with Mr. Tsipras and concluded that the prime minister, his face puffy from lack of sleep, had forgotten his youth. “That we can say for sure,” Mr. Chatzistefanou said. “The guy with the Che Guevara T-shirt, we lost him.” But others saw Mr. Tsipras becoming exactly what the country needs, a politician who will be able to build an even broader constituency now, pulling in more centrist voters, who are desperate to stay in the eurozone but sick of the country’s old political parties, which failed to prevent the burden of past austerity policies from falling on the poor and the salaried. “Tsipras is showing an incredible advantage as a politician,” said George Pleios, a media expert at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. “He is showing that he is able to speak the language of reform and the language of social justice. This is a formula that can turn him into a very important leader in Greece.” For now, Mr. Tsipras is fighting hard to prevent a wholesale fracturing of his party — a group that includes everything from those flirting with Trotskyism to some former representatives of the center-left — telling Syriza members that he needs them to stand with him. Political analysts say that the party has always tolerated dissent and that the moment is hard on Mr. Tsipras, who considers some of his more ardent critics to be good friends. But the risk of a Syriza breakup remains real, just as Mr. Tsipras prepares to embark on negotiations with Greece’s creditors on the details of the bailout — his nation’s third in five years — and on his demands for some relief from the Greek government’s debt load. Dissenters on the party’s left, including Yanis Varoufakis, his former financial minister, are showing no hint of backing down in their opposition to the creditor-imposed measures, which the nation had rejected in a referendum just days before Mr. Tsipras accepted them. A critical indicator of his problems within his party could come with the vote Wednesday on the second legislative package, which would speed regulatory changes in banking and overhaul the country’s civil justice system. As frustration on the left has grown, Mr. Tsipras might face more r
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: When the Internet’s ‘Moderators’ Are Anything But - The New York Times
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. * hehe. however, what ms. chen is describing sounds a lot like good old democratic impulse. 200,000 signatures in a relatively closed community? careful reading easily shows that the "abuse" didn't necessarily come from any of the signators. the clarion call against extremists sounds a lot like private cabals resenting the hallowed halls being overrun by the uninitiated masses. - Original Message - From: "Louis Proyect via Marxism" To: "Charles Faulkner" Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2015 7:29:22 AM Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: When the Internet’s ‘Moderators’ Are Anything But - The New York Times 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. * Uh-oh. Looks like the NY Times caught up with me. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/magazine/when-the-internets-moderators-are-anything-but.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/lacenaire%40comcast.net _ 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] Lenin 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. * on Dienstag, 21. Juli 2015 at 15:48, Egan, Daniel via Marxism wrote: > Can anyone direct me to a specific work in which Lenin states that > the party must be 'one step but only one ahead of the masses'? not directly this quote, but the "Ultraleftism, the Infantile Disorder" is along this lines Cheers, Lüko Willms _ 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: Scenes from Inside Aleppo: How Life Has Been Transformed by Rebel Rule | Vanity Fair
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[Marxism] After liberation of Aden: Towards re-emergence of independent South Yemen?
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. * Clip: "Except that these 'Hadi loyalists' are not waving the red, white and black tricolour of the Republic of Yemen. There is only a slight difference in the flag that is now ubiquitous across Aden and other parts of southern Yemen, but, to those who know its meaning, the triangular patch of blue and the solitary star mean one thing – these men are secessionists. "They are waving the flag of the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, more commonly known as South Yemen, once upon a time the Arab world's only Marxist state" Yemen’s road to separation looks increasingly likely By: Abubakr al-Shamahi Date of publication: 15 July, 2015 http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/politics/2015/7/15/yemens-road-to-separation-looks-increasingly-likely Will groups battling Houthi-Saleh forces in the south of Yemen work towards separation? In Yemen's southern port city of Aden, fighters often labelled in the international press as loyalists to the country's government-in-exile are revelling in victory. They've been able to pull off one of the first major reversals to the Houthi forces who, along with allied Yemeni army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, had looked likely to take the city. Now, the Houthi-Saleh forces have been cut off, trapped on the peninsula Aden's old city is situated in, and looking increasingly likely to wave the white flag in the city. A victory for President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi then, and a first step on the long bloody road to re-establish the authority of the Yemeni state over all parts of this conflict-ridden country. Except that these 'Hadi loyalists' are not waving the red, white and black tricolour of the Republic of Yemen. There is only a slight difference in the flag that is now ubiquitous across Aden and other parts of southern Yemen, but, to those who know its meaning, the triangular patch of blue and the solitary star mean one thing – these men are secessionists. They are waving the flag of the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, more commonly known as South Yemen, once upon a time the Arab world's only Marxist state, but one that only lasted for 23 years, before unity with North Yemen in 1990 led to the formation of the united Yemen that exists on tenterhooks today. Since Yemen's civil war in 1994, when Saleh put down an attempt by disaffected southern politicians to put an end to Yemen's unity experiment, disaffection in the south has risen, eventually coming to a head with the rise of the 'Southern Movement', Hirak, in 2007. Hirak was always a largely peaceful movement, priding itself as such, and using its civic nature to highlight what they regarded as the difference between themselves and the northerners of Yemen's mountainous interior. The rapid advance by the Houthi-Saleh forces on the south, and specifically Aden, was the last straw for Hirak. Southerners felt they had to defend their cities and towns against groups they saw as foreign invaders from the north. Now that they have picked those weapons up, and, with the aid of the Saudi-led coalition, are forcing the Houthi-Saleh forces out, it will be difficult to get them to simply put them down again. So what next? Will those same southern fighters, angry at the north, and largely fighting to defend their homes, risk their lives to support the government in the north of the country, if it ever gets to sending in ground forces to fight the Houthi-Saleh forces there? It is unlikely that they will risk losing their lives for a country that they do not regard as their own, and in areas where the Houthis and Saleh are far more entrenched than they are in the south. The war crimes committed in Aden by the Houthis and Saleh since early March, incidentally before the Saudi-led coalition began bombing Yemen, have merely proven to many southerners that the groups they perceive as 'northern forces' will never allow them to be out of their control. Hirak supporters may not have a particular affinity for Hadi, but he is a southerner, and his forcible removal after two years in office was more 'evidence' that northerners would not tolerate a southern figure in power. Even if, perhaps due to the southerners' inherent divisions, or a lack of international support, the southerners do not achieve secession, the hatred engendered in the past few months, following on from years of resentment, will not dissipate for a very long time. It is a hatred that may take a generation to remove, and a poor country like Yemen, that desperately needs to develop, the time may simply not be ther - See more at: http://www.alaraby.co.u
[Marxism] Fwd: When the Internet’s ‘Moderators’ Are Anything But - The New York Times
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. * Uh-oh. Looks like the NY Times caught up with me. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/magazine/when-the-internets-moderators-are-anything-but.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
[Marxism] Lenin 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. * Can anyone direct me to a specific work in which Lenin states that the party must be 'one step but only one ahead of the masses'? _ 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: Ecological Crisis and the Tragedy of the Commodity
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.counterpunch.org/2015/07/21/ecological-crisis-and-the-tragedy-of-the-commodity/ _ 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: Mythology, Barrel Bombs, and Human Rights Watch
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. * (Years from now, it will take a task force made up jointly of radical historians and clinical psychologists to make sense of the pro-Assad left, including Paul Larudee who wrote this monstrous apologia for mass murder.) That’s a lot of bombs and a lot of casualties, but no indication that “barrel” bombs are more deadly or indiscriminate than the usual gravity bombs in most air force arsenals around the world. Fighter-bomber aircraft may have sophisticated sighting equipment, but they move at hundreds of miles per hour. Helicopters that drop “barrel” bombs have the advantage of delivering them from a stationary position. “Barrel” bombs may be crude devices, but there is no evidence that they cause more casualties than conventional gravity bombs. full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/21/mythology-barrel-bombs-and-human-rights-watch/ _ 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: Bernie Out of the Closet: Sanders’ Longstanding Deal with the Democrats
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.counterpunch.org/2015/07/21/bernie-out-of-the-closet-sanders-longstanding-deal-with-the-democrats/ _ 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: Return to Homs - YouTube
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. * As it turns out, this documentary can be seen for $2.99. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuiFGECCmRw My review is here: http://louisproyect.org/2014/03/26/return-to-homs/ _ 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: Wolfgang Schäuble, the Hero of the Greek Austerity Crisis?
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. * (When I stated that Schauble was "veering to the left" by supporting Grexit, I was busting chops. In this article Dean Baker takes his proposal seriously, making it sound like the sort of thing you would hear from Alex Callinicos or Michael Roberts.) There are two major benefits from the Schäuble plan. First, it would put Greece in a position to restructure its debt. While there would be many battles with creditors over the extent and conditions of any write-downs, the immediate outcome would be to free Greece from the obligation to run large primary budget surpluses to pay interest on its debt. This could provide a substantial boost to its economy as money that would be flowing out of the country for debt service could instead be used for domestic purposes like sustaining infrastructure and paying for health care and pensions. The other major benefit would be that a lower valued currency would make Greek goods and services more competitive internationally. This should provide a substantial boost to its net exports, which would lead to growth and jobs. full: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31953-wolfgang-schauble-the-hero-of-the-greek-austerity-crisis _ 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: The scientist who put global warming on the map has terrifying news about sea level rise - 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. * http://www.salon.com/2015/07/20/the_scientist_who_put_global_warming_on_the_map_has_terrifying_news_about_sea_level_rise/ _ 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] Lesvos caring for syrian refugees
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/jul/21/lesvos-where-holiday-paradise-and-refugee-crisis-converge _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Terrorist kills 31 at Socialist Rally for Kobane in Turkey | Informed Comment
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. * Shouldn't Juan Cole be celebrating the fact that these future Marxist/Leninist terrorists were nipped in the bud...? Wasn't it just present terrorist on future terrorist violence?? > 21 июля 2015 г., в 8:13, Louis Proyect via Marxism > написал(а): > > 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.juancole.com/2015/07/terrorist-socialist-turkey.html > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/shalva.eliava%40outlook.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] When Activism Is Worth the Risk
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. * Chronicle of Higher Education, July 20, 2015 When Activism Is Worth the Risk Academics who champion causes may be gambling with their careers. But for some dedicated activists, the choice is clear. By Audrey Williams June Justin Hansford lives 10 minutes from Ferguson, Mo., where last summer a white policeman shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. The incident set off months of protests, as people from all walks of life took a stand against police brutality. Mr. Hansford, an assistant professor of law at Saint Louis University, just back from a conference in Washington, was among them. When he joined the law faculty at the university, in 2011, it never occurred to him to cast his causes aside: "I was an activist before I was a scholar, you could say." In the months since the unrest in Ferguson, Mr. Hansford has become a well-known face in the Black Lives Matter movement. He has served as a legal observer during protests, was once arrested and jailed overnight, and was a key organizer of #FergusonToGeneva, a delegation that frames police violence in the United States as a human-rights issue worthy of global attention. Mr. Hansford and others in the group accompanied Michael Brown’s family to Geneva in November to testify before the United Nations Committee Against Torture. "There’s a tradition of black scholar-activists who fought for justice," says Mr. Hansford, who studies human rights, legal ethics, legal history, and critical race theory. "This particular activism is almost like a calling for me." But he knows it could hinder his academic career. With issues of social justice dominating the national conversation, some academics identify as scholar-activists, a term typically used by those deeply involved in progressive causes. They take to the streets as part of protest movements, work alongside community organizers, and push for policy changes, applying their research to underserved communities. Yet balancing activism and scholarship can be risky, especially while on the tenure track. Scholar-activists must be ready to fend off the perception that their activism taints their scholarship, or that they’re going to indoctrinate students. Another challenge is time: Some academics struggle to contain their work in the community to do what’s needed to advance professionally. Juggling the two identities isn’t new, but the task seems tougher today. The crowd was perhaps thicker during and just after the civil-rights and political movements of the 1960s and ’70s, which drew in so many young people, future professors among them. Now activists are more visible, their protests or remarks potentially bringing unwanted attention on social media or cable news — and prompting complaints to universities. Meanwhile, the academic job market in many disciplines is tight. "We all know that the talented, well-educated young people who are getting Ph.D.s today are unlikely to secure tenure-track jobs," says Frances Fox Piven, a professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a longtime activist for the poor. "If they’re more insecure, they’re less confident. And they’re inevitably more eager to seek the approval of the people who are the senior academics who are going to make the judgments on whether they get the job, whether they get tenured, or whether they get promoted." Young academics may decide that now isn’t the time to give those committees an excuse to turn them down. Some give up their activism, for a while anyway. Others choose the hyphenated life, aware of the hazards but hopeful that if their scholarship measures up, their activism won’t count against them. Many look for ways to tie that work to their professional goals, optimistic that, at some point, their universities will acknowledge that. On an online forum for sociologists, someone recently asked if activism should count toward tenure, generating mostly responses that it should not. Still, institutions may find reasons to support scholar-activists, many of whom are women and people of color. Signaling to a new generation that engagement with social issues isn’t necessarily a career-killer could help in diversifying the faculty. Successful role models might be a draw for younger scholars. A sense of urgency, not a calculation of risk, has guided Mr. Hansford. "When the Mike Brown situation happened, there was no time for me to say, ‘Well, I’ll wait a year until I get tenure,’ " he says. His dean has not discouraged him. The decision on the assistant professor’s bid for tenure should co
[Marxism] INYT: Grim Future for Athens' homeless
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://tribune.com.pk/story/922489/taking-no-home-no-bathroom-no-life-grim-future-for-athens-homeless/ _ 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: Terrorist kills 31 at Socialist Rally for Kobane in Turkey | Informed Comment
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.juancole.com/2015/07/terrorist-socialist-turkey.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
[Marxism] Moscow Times: Russian Government Failing to Stem Rising Poverty
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.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/business/article/russian-government-failing-to-stem-rising-poverty/525858.html Moscow Times also reported recently that a debt crisis is looming in the Russian regions due to a series of unfunded mandates passed back in May of 2012: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/business/article/525723.html It seems the sanctions combined with other internal political-economic factors (Russia was on the verge of recession before the sanctions were imposed) are draining the honeypot that is used to keep key oligarchs and bureaucrats appeased. That in turn probably means less money is trickling down to the provinces, hence there is less money for local administrators to embezzle to maintain their opulent lifestyles (a la the end scene in Leviathan). Wage arrears for state employees have allegedly been growing along with strikes and protests in the regions (http://theconversation.com/russian-workers-wage-arrears-protests-send-putin-a-chilling-reminder-of-the-yeltsin-era-31660), so it's possible things could get interesting fast if the Russian economy takes a turn for the worst... _ 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: From intersection and interaction to a social and political alternative for Russia: Interview with Kirill Medvedev | LeftEast
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. * Yevgeniy Zhuravel interviews Kirill Medvedev, a Moscow-based poet, translator, and activist. He is the founder of the Arkady Kots band. YZ: Can you tell a bit about yourself and how did you became a leftist? It seems that in Russia till recently it was not a common political choice. KM: I became a self-conscious leftist at the beginning of the 2000s. There is a rather typical scenario for that generation of the Russian left, which emerged mostly from the Soviet intelligentsia of different levels of prosperity. Many of us were still able to spend our childhood under still rather comfortable conditions, so we were able to absorb the humanistic code of the Soviet intelligentsia, and then suddenly found ourselves in the historical hole of the 90s, when this code turned out to be not only redundant, but simply made survival difficult. Some of our parents had believed that shock therapy and total privatisation are the necessary stages on the way to democracy, others voted for the failed Communist Party, and some became quickly disappointed and depoliticised. The new left emerged from this trauma, but not out of a desire for revanche, but with the feeling that both nostalgia for Soviet times and jolly anti-Sovietism, which brought most of the intelligentsia to support Putin, are dead ends; that if one wants to be a citizen and a political subject, some hard work is required in order to build a new political culture and environment. Sometime during 2003-2004, I started getting an idea that maybe this thankless job—being part of the left—is not the worst way to spend the next decade or two. full: http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/from-intersection-and-interaction-to-a-social-and-political-alternative-for-russia-interview-with-kirill-medvedev/ _ 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: Anton Shekhovtsov's blog: A new book: Eurasianism and the European Far Right
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. * Introduction: Marlene Laruelle Chapter 1: Dangerous Liaisons? Eurasianism, European Far Right, and Putin’s Russia, Marlene Laruelle Part I: Alexander Dugin’s Trajectory: Mediating European Far Right to Russia Chapter 2: Alexander Dugin and the West European New Right, 1989–1994, Anton Shekhovtsov Chapter 3: Moscow State University’s Department of Sociology and the Climate of Opinion in Post-Soviet Russia, Vadim Rossman Part II: France, Italy, and Spain: Dugin’s European Cradles Chapter 4: A Long-Lasting Friendship. Alexander Dugin and the French Radical Right, Jean-Yves Camus Chapter 5: From Evola to Dugin: The Neo-Eurasianist Connection in Italy, Giovanni Savino Chapter 6: Arriba Eurasia? The Difficult Establishment of Neo-Eurasianism in Spain, Nicolas Lebourg Part III: Turkey, Hungary, and Greece: Dugin’s New Conquests Chapter 7: “Failed Exodus”: Dugin’s Networks in Turkey, Vügar İmanbeyli Chapter 8: Deciphering Eurasianism in Hungary: Narratives, Networks, and Lifestyles, Umut Korkut and Emel Akçali Chapter 9: The Dawning of Europe and Eurasia? The Greek Golden Dawn and its Transnational Links, Sofia Tipaldou Part IV: Conclusions: The European Far Right at Moscow’s Service? Chapter 10: Far-Right Election Observation Monitors in the Service of the Kremlin’s Foreign Policy, Anton Shekhovtsov http://anton-shekhovtsov.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/a-new-book-eurasianism-and-european-far.html#more _ 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] Islam and a Marxist approach to religion
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. * Islam and a Marxist approach to religion In light of the Islamophobic rallies on the weekend, and the support socialists give to Muslims in fighting this oppression, Erima Dall looks in depth in Solidarity magazine at Marxism, Islam and religion. Click the link to read the whole informative article, Marxism, Islam and religion. http://enpassant.com.au/2015/07/21/islam-and-the-marxist-approach-to-religion/ _ 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] Capitalist Soul Rises as Ho Chi Minh City Sheds Its Past
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, July 21 2015 Capitalist Soul Rises as Ho Chi Minh City Sheds Its Past By THOMAS FULLER HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Taking a puff from a hookah and a sip from her beer, Thuy Truong, a 29-year-old tech entrepreneur in a black cocktail dress, pondered the question: What were her thoughts on the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon? “Forty years ago?” she yelled over the body-rattling roar of nightclub music. “Who cares!” Four decades after the victory of Communist forces, the soul of this city, still known locally as Saigon, seems firmly planted in the present. For the young and increasingly affluent, Saigon is a city that does not want to look back, loves having fun and perhaps most of all is voraciously capitalistic. The apartment building where evacuees clambered up an outdoor staircase to board a C.I.A. helicopter in a chaotic rooftop operation, a scene captured in an iconic photograph, is now at the heart of a neighborhood filled with luxury shops selling $1,000 Rimowa suitcases and $2,000 Burberry suits. A newly paved walkway runs down the median of nearby Nguyen Hue Street, a magnet for teenagers on skateboards and in-line skaters who swoosh past a temporary display of photographs honoring a deceased senior official of the Communist Party. A statue of Ho Chi Minh, the Communist revolutionary leader, is sandwiched between a luxury hotel and a refurbished French colonial building that will soon house a Brooks Brothers store. Two-thirds of the Vietnamese population was born after the fall of Saigon and the reunification of Vietnam in 1975. Among the young there is gratefulness that they are coming of age now, when the country is at peace after so many centuries of wars, occupation and entanglements with foreign armies. “I feel lucky that I was born a long time after 1975,” said Tue Nghi, who at 22 has her own company that buys, refurbishes and sells homes. From a childhood of poverty and misfortune, Ms. Tue Nghi parlayed a small trading company into a thriving business, and now owns four cars and numerous houses. New money is everywhere in Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, because all the old money fled or was stripped away when the Communist North won the war. In the early years of a unified Vietnam, the government pursued disastrous experiments with collectivized farms and bans on private enterprise. The country’s leaders changed course around the time the Soviet Union collapsed, embracing the market economy, a pillar of the very system they had fought to defeat. Since then, Saigon, a freewheeling bastion of capitalism before 1975, has returned to its roots with vigor. Ralf Matthaes, a Canadian who arrived in Vietnam in 1993, remembers streets filled with “nothing but bicycles.” “If you saw a car you would actually stop and stare at it,” he said. Motorcycles have taken over the city streets now, and often the sidewalks. The roar of so many internal combustion engines in unison is the hallmark of a modern Vietnamese city and sounds like a giant wave crashing and rolling onto the shore. Gone are the Communist ethos of conformity and the shunning of ostentatiousness that came with it. A decade ago Mr. Matthaes, who manages a market research consultancy here, had a Vietnamese colleague who was so embarrassed by her BMW that she covered it with cardboard when colleagues came to her house. “That is one of the single largest changes,” he said. “Today you see people driving to a cafe and parking their car where everyone can see it. It’s gone from a society hiding its wealth to flaunting it.” If, for the Americans, the war here, in which 58,000 Americans and as many as three million Vietnamese died, was on some level about keeping Vietnam safe for capitalism, it turns out that they need not have worried. Capitalism here churns relentlessly, aided by what Ted Osius, the United States ambassador, calls “the most entrepreneurial people on earth.” Last year, 78 percent of registered companies in Ho Chi Minh City shut down, according to government statistics, as the country was emerging from a debt crisis. But the creation of new companies has since gathered pace; so far 26 percent more new companies have been formed this year than in the same period last year. City planners here speak approvingly of the intense competition and the constant cycle of corporate failure and rebirth. The name cards of government officials still say “Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” but their talking points would bring a smile to Adam Smith. “Weak companies will fail; that’s normal,” said Tran Anh Tuan, the
[Marxism] Fwd: Paul Mason and postcapitalism: utopian or scientific? | Michael Roberts Blog
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. * Paul Mason and postcapitalism: utopian or scientific? July 21, 2015 Leftist journalist and broadcaster, Paul Mason, has a new book out at the end of this month. It’s called ‘Postcapitalism’. I don’t have a copy but Mason has written a long article in the British newspaper, The Guardian, outlining his main arguments, http://gu.com/p/4ay9c Mason has been a doughty publiciser of labour struggles in his journalism and also offered on occasions a more theoretical and strategic analysis of where capitalism and labour is going. I think this book is an attempt to sum up his views. As Mason has some influence among labour activists in Britain and internationally, it’s worth considering what he has to say. Mason argues that capitalism is set to be replaced by ‘postcapitalism’ (not ‘socialism’, it seems). And this is for three reasons. First, there is an information revolution which is creating a society of abundance in information, making a virtually costless and labour saving economy. Second, this information revolution cannot be captured by the capitalist market and the big monopolies. And third, already the ‘post-capitalist’ mode of production, based on free ownership and cooperation in information, is emerging from within capitalism, just as capitalism emerged from within feudalism. Is Mason right? Does he make sense? full: https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/paul-mason-and-postcapitalism-utopian-or-scientific/ _ 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
