Re: [Marxism] Dipping my toe into Nordic Noir. "So when you read the Martin Beck series you may wonder: how do "committed Marxists" write crime fiction?"

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An old meditation on CRIME FICTION:Sjöwall and Wahlöö.
Back in the day.

CRIME FICTION:Sjöwall and Wahlöö: Marxism and crime fiction

"But Sjöwall and Wahlöö occupy a special place in crime fiction not
only for their approach to plotting and character but they, more than
any other novelists you can possibly find, were willing to market a
shared CV that registered them as committed Marxists.
"So when you read the Martin Beck series you may wonder: how do
"committed Marxists" write crime fiction?"

https://leftclickblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/wahloo-sjowall-marxism-and-crime.html

dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] Planet of the Humans backlash,

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I am reminded of Don Fitz's review of Ozzie Zehner's 'Green illusions:
The dirty secrets of clean energy and the future of environmentalism',
which was also published in LINKS here in Australia in 2014.
http://links.org.au/node/3750
In it , Fitz wrote this, which I agree with:

:"At several points the author (ie:Zehner) implies, but does not
clearly state, what might be the fundamental theses for building an
environmental society:
1. Reducing CO2 enough to avoid environmental catastrophe requires a
massive (not a small) reduction in the use of fossil fuels.
2. Such a reduction in use of fossil fuels requires a large decrease
in industrial production.
3. Current capitalist society is so permeated by the production of
useless and destructive stuff that it is possible to decrease
industrial production simultaneous with an increase in the quality of
life globally."

Fitz has pursued the perspective in other articles he has
written...like this one: 'Should socialists support degrowth?'
https://climateandcapitalism.com/2013/03/25/should-socialists-support-degrowth-2/
Don Fitz: “Rather than being dismissive toward ongoing struggles
against growth, socialists should enthusiastically participate and
point to their anti-capitalist essence.”

Nonetheless, it seems to me, that what Fitz is arguing is a very long
way from the politics advocated in 'Planet of the Humans'...even if we
take into account the developments (significant changes in costs and
efficiencies) in wind and solar technology over the past decade.
I don't want to enter a debate about the film as there is plenty of
that to go around. But de-growthing the economy has to be recognised
as an ecosocialist essential and you can't do that without replacing
capitalism otherwise you fall victim to populationist arguments.

dave riley

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[Marxism] For all 'Sanderistas' out there: Bernie campaign inspires radical movement.

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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/green-left-issue-1256
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Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] Thoughts triggered by ex-ISOers seeing the light | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

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I think it is important to argue that the Democratic Party is a bourgeois
party.
I'd hope that that was self evident.
But then, the dynamic behind the Sanders' campaign and  its platform thrust
cannot be ignored. It is no good tut tutting and preaching purity.
Same here in Australia with both the Coalition ...and the Australian Labor
Party, which Lenin called 'a liberal bourgeois party'.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/jun/13.htm
BOTH bourgeois parties.
I think the problem is -- and many Bernie adherents aren't clarifying this
point -- that there is a difference between a set (as in chronic)
orientation  towards the Democrats (like a strategy as was the CPUSA's
approach) and a tactical orientation.
I think you can characterise  the challenge presented by Canada's New
Democratic Party similarly.
Even 'social democratic' parties are/were(if they still exist)  'liberal
bourgeois' or 'bourgeois workers parties' -- but they still have been
places for struggle, but only in various political contexts.
It is not principle but tactics that should rule.
I would not touch the ALP here in Australia with a 10 foot barge pole,  but
during the period 1971-75 inside the party there was an axis of struggle
that could not be ignored.
Ditto Bernie or the British Labour Party today.
...and tomorrow is another day.
By the late 80s when  the Australian Communist Party suicided and buried
its corpse inside the party, the ALP was definitely neoliberalism
personified and the CPA served as left cover for a major capitalist project.
The problem lies, of course, in the threat that membership of these
formations may function as an infection and your once-upon-a-time socialist
activist morphs into a bourgeois  apparatchik.
Loyalty can be a perverse master.


dave riley
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[Marxism] Sunburnt Country Living : comics gallery

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This is a gallery of bushfire and climate change comics generated in the
satirical collage workshop of Dave Riley during the time when so much of
Australia caught on fire.

https://www.slideshare.net/ratbagradio/sunburnt-country-living
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[Marxism] The Australian Fires

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I feel guilty that here where I live -- near the coast in South East
Queensland -- the weather is currently benign.
No fires about me. The air cannot be seen nor snorted.
Coffee in the pot and a flushing toilet.
A long way from the conflagrations to the south and west of the continent.
Getting my head around this crisis is very difficult. I may be a climate
change proponent of long standing, but if you asked me a few weeks back
that our Summer would burn like this I'd have called you an apocalyptic
nutter.
We are in January by only a few days.
As for the incompetent circus performed by (prime minister) Morrison...I
can only think of what happened to Mussolini if the Australian people ever
accepted lynching as a lifestyle choice.

Marx wrote, "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is
profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real
conditions of life, and his relations with his kind."

Here the melt is very real.


dave riley
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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Re: The dark side of plant-based food – it’s more about money than you may think

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I'll try those links again. Those innocuous links again.

http://secure-web.cisco.com/1WogJVve8VPtLVUFD9xoMGAapg8YM1egRWOGhTA0j_C6AU_YGGR_dsg7dSrwPMZoJUVCP64T7q1ljQAJVlt903ZRLQcyRJYKh2C2E_-OnkbJWGMVe4Ixx7osTRBqEvUmYOJt6qEWNjLgmjPfhEzXNx-4pERQ_ndChvA3KfJa7pcGpMMsr37RTBwh4Hi454_kehOXLW7ObRsynygPhtRceSpY4lQ27xVjsvXOPDGKBuFlepMJKWeZ19wCP70SVxTnSa149Mm-knqJpSaohRFZbh14UaK5TMEtO2vK90ogi16bfQ5zB13ZEA9_m0gMXpe2eHxXrXc2g7GIQvMqwiKAkJcVcS_xNtyBzqIHRalKNUaB64iR2k8dDq4MXL6pqw2f6DSNyTB5JrR6CmhLmPCzAIg/http%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fthe-dark-side-of-plant-based-food-its-more-about-money-than-you-may-think-127272

And
https://secure-web.cisco.com/1Or0TDxchbnGJTjpTIuTqo5TyQfDO7yURwUi2XlydK5ZV1cIPP4LoSAEoZELBglUAwemURdbZBcmHj3o3RIsjPmdTFYc8vtwMFw3_nky7fVjyNKZu4JLQB6FbU9fYG3cc7YTFZV5d4jPOvQo2ELLK15MvzyRBd04YnKIeo5OTCao6fkpq0fsbchvdboIFGdhRR0vJu_xe6AVET_ZBK-B8r5sa5sEc6rMt2uwyYXP3ZIWeIh6bDDng1Jh9gaS-FvDSeptnJxVHoHcVaj0_qa_hhZav2zxFSEvGW5oDpyUbr2H-evS0sxPa_kBO0mlDeB0L1v70IcSRpmW91fjuWtUE9zhTh9WkkEnggioZgEyRi_T0j6GYwtFgDNKTX0oeCbmO/https%3A%2F%2Fmonthlyreview.org%2F2016%2F12%2F01%2Fmarx-as-a-food-theorist%2F

On Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 3:43 PM Ratbag Media  wrote:
>
> Spot on!

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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] The dark side of plant-based food – it’s more about money than you may think

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Spot on!

The abstracted idealised pro-Vegan advocacy is so often devoid of
material content. This is worsened by deploying  the tactic of
shopping choices.

"The result is that today, private interest and political prejudices
often hide behind the grandest talk of “ethical” diets and planetary
sustainability even as the consequences may be nutritional
deficiencies, biodiversity-destroying monocultures and the erosion of
food sovereignty."

"For all the warm talk, global food policy is really an alliance of
industry and capital intent on both controlling and distorting food
production. We should recall Marx’s warnings against allowing the
interests of corporations and private profit to decide what we should
eat."

http://secure-web.cisco.com/1swoRDUJwpCEvU-fnAYJb-ri6rM9QAl2GSZrLonSBs5xq3Cem8kfe4W35hzyySV3EQAHe8QcqE4FJ6i0yzBtfnxvsBza98Un7LDK_msokkqWxQZFpLZA5nRgkfu9YL1GJRSuvSBID188T4dy65L6pprQaoRwfH0WCAUpdeX1FnpP_smWtGKRzWINHueo62RRS3sW_emF3amUl57lZsmO97_s-tHgbJ5yi9BZevCiT6VCnetZbMzt65ba0WcNqC8XeniHNebLXo8aMy9wC56U3vj5la57LMihq7vK1uFD0TLkoKoAPexTDHRBSWBT-lB31BWm-tJ4AalklBX94Ls1OaUqvi4ugka_31Am7L3A98cloQe-Eyyuc2_axUhuy6jm0gaaW7D4cxSenLNGixnRcXIucGQ-AsDolx4wSh_VNq8A/http%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fthe-dark-side-of-plant-based-food-its-more-about-money-than-you-may-think-127272

Foster's excellent contribution about Marx and food (linked to in the
article) , is another useful antidote.

Monthly Review | Marx as a Food Theorist
https://secure-web.cisco.com/1MTOydMnRPRLmcS6ugwGcnAunIevUiVKxEza-umqjMPATyFsBVLb7imjalwdAciXVyIVp9_KOX7KxIiytuv2eQMZDZq0yYR8maQlgVTnAAwWXJzyJ4QdK0J3yot_8QXLibEqUCaadzf0XihsLleVS8e5ZLaXHdDXxgKGcxthOARrWXhfpjJcogNoYan5Cwm-0sW1Y0unJY5Zp_JVGw_U6HzonFiQlwttVzxdvhByn-1MFczTpknvRDAZ5R9mAfcb6C6qioUoZcp_0JJ6gpSzuDY05r1TWZtUS-7E7nNlLDGuq3kRJq4BMtsFEik-yXNj_EIXjDRT9TqOT8zn6w8zJRUMu-ebyxgcB_7N8fm8V70EhTddWL5onV2ntv2BrFHOy/https%3A%2F%2Fmonthlyreview.org%2F2016%2F12%2F01%2Fmarx-as-a-food-theorist%2F


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Re: [Marxism] Are belching cows really driving climate change?

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The article is about soil carbon. Without it there is not much excuse for
active plant life to be had nor means to retain moisture.
Here in  Australia, soil carbon levels have dropped by up to half of
pre-agricultural levels in many areas because of activities such as
cultivation, stubble burning or removal and overgrazing.
Worldwide,  cultivated soils have maybe  lost between 50 and 70 percent of
their original carbon stock.
A good place to start thinking about soil carbon and sustainable
agriculture practices of a region  is to monitor SOC (or SOM) -- Soil
Organic Carbon -- levels in the soil.

Here's what the journal 'Nature' says about carbon in soils:

"The amount of C in soil represents a substantial portion of the carbon
found in terrestrial ecosystems of the planet. Total C in terrestrial
ecosystems is approximately 3170 gigatons (GT; 1 GT = 1 petagram = 1
billion metric tons). Of this amount, nearly 80% (2500 GT) is found in soil
(Lal 2008). Soil carbon can be either organic (1550 GT) or inorganic carbon
(950 GT). The latter consists of elemental carbon and carbonate materials
such as calcite, dolomite, and gypsum (Lal 2004). The amount of carbon
found in living plants and animals is comparatively small relative to that
found in soil (560 GT). The soil carbon pool is approximately 3.1 times
larger than the atmospheric pool of 800 GT (Oelkers & Cole 2008). Only the
ocean has a larger carbon pool, at about 38,400 GT of C, mostly in
inorganic forms (Houghton 2007)."
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/soil-carbon-storage-84223790/

As the GLW article points out, there is a perverted discussion being
sponsored about the ecology of carbon as it is biased towards reductionism.

dave riley

On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 2:11 PM Ratbag Media  wrote:

>
>
> https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/are-cow-farts-really-driving-climate-change
>
> "The debate about agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gases has been
> perverted. Methane is not the important issue — nitrate fertilisers and
> soil carbon loss are the important issues."
>
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[Marxism] Are belching cows really driving climate change?

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This is no minor point, given the obscurantism being engineered about the
role of livestock in agriculture -- a distraction that suits the fossil
fuel corps and undermines the impetus of the movement against climate
change by exaggerating consumption politics and blaming family farmers.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/are-cow-farts-really-driving-climate-change

"The debate about agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gases has been
perverted. Methane is not the important issue — nitrate fertilisers and
soil carbon loss are the important issues."
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[Marxism] Commodity Farming, labor productivity and surplus labor: Gunnar Rungren

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Gunnar Rungren offers some very salient comments on options for
productivity of smallholder farming under conditions of slashed fossil
fuel usage. Is it a fantasy or are we doomed to industrial scale
production?

"By and large, it is impossible to disentangle agriculture from
society at large and as long as farming is mainly operating as a
producer of commodities it will inevitably follow the logic of
industrialization with ever increasing labor productivity, be it
driven by fossil fuel, solar energy produced hydrogen or wood gas. If
farming is seen as something else, as planetary stewardship,
maintenance of ecosystem or cultural services or as a lifestyle then
the logic of labor productivity plays out differently, which is
clearly visible even in our oil-soaked universe. "

http://gardenearth.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-peasant-and-washing-machine.html
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Re: [Marxism] What, or whom, will we eat? | Richard Seymour on Patreon

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 I think this critique is very relevant to Richard Seymour's argument
and bares taking on board:

Ian Angus on Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore:

"Most of the chapters are textbook examples of reification — treating
social relationships as things, as objects to be bought and sold.
Throughout A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, complex
social-metabolic processes and relationships are reduced to things
that capitalists use. Capital is just money. Energy is just fuel.
Agriculture and farming are just food and calories. Nature is just raw
materials and other inputs to production. The complex subject of
social reproduction and the oppression of women in capitalist society
is reduced to care. There is no dialectic here, only an unrelenting
emphasis on cheapness, as if understanding capitalist development is
simply a matter of determining whether the price is right."

https://climateandcapitalism.com/2018/01/10/do-cheap-things-explain-capitalism/

This ready reification approach is a major discombobulation in the
climate change movement.

I think it is the same mistake that Vegans -- especially 'Vegan-prone'
Marxists -- make.

That is, reducing so much of the environmental issue to an ahistorical
take on the exploitation and death of animals at the hands of human
society.



dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] Agriculture: The Worst Mistake Humans Ever Made

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I'd be very wary about ruling that 'agriculture' is/was an advance on
hunter gathering. Aside from the fact that both systems so often
co-exist in the same region (such as Central America during the time
of the Maya culture), in places like New Guinea agriculture was
embraced initially 7,000 – 10,000 years ago.
http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p53311/pdf/history.pdf
But it used to be argued that across the Torres Strait --despite the
example --  Australian aborigines chose not to farm, when in fact they
were the first farmers on the planet.
Indeed, when you look at the phenomenon of agriculture it all depends
on what is at hand in way of plants...and access to water.
And how you manage it.
Across the Mediterranean, it's tempting to rule that the agricultural
protocols that grew out of the Fertile Crescent were an ecological
disaster.  A feature that even Frederick Engels noted.This was the
price paid for successive civilisations.
Was it the wheat and olives or was it the plough?
Similarly, you cannot separate the supposed difference between the
agricultural and 'hunter gatherer'  lifestyle without reference to
changes in climate.Nor can you infer that the 'hunter gatherer' didn't
know what their patch of existence was capable of.
In that sense 'agriculture' isn't so much an 'invention' but an extension.
A different approach to stewardship.
The real question, I guess, isn't so much the invention of
agriculture, but the invention of surplus.
In my region -- in Gubi Gubi country -- it is very clear that the land
was bountiful and the culture rich. That there was no reason to
ratchet up the demands made of the landscape.
Disaster struck, of course, and I can stand on the beach here and look
out to where that tragedy began -- where the Brits first arrived to
this place then invaded.
But let's get this clear: aside from the gun, what savaged the Gubi
Gubi economy was disease. Then the dispossession.
What's happening now -- across Australia --  is an attempt to embrace
Aboriginal landcare practices. This may be as a small movement at the
moment but  with fire management, for instance, there is a major
deference. There is also a major debate growing around the traditional
practice of indigenous management of river systems.
You can't  live in a land for 60,000+ years without knowing what's what.
Indeed, there is no future -- no future -- for Australian agriculture
without learning  -- and applying --from the Aboriginal tradition of
what was supposedly 'hunter gathering'.

dave riley





dave riley
.

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Re: [Marxism] Agriculture: The Worst Mistake Humans Ever Made

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Things may not be as they seem...
Bruce Pascoe's wonderful book, "Dark Emu --Aboriginal Australia and
the Birth of Agriculture" is turning the hunter/gatherer assumption on
its head.
https://is.gd/lf4xh8
..which further research  confirms.
I think  the 'birth of agriculture' as a lifestyle, cannot be reduced
down to a generic judgement as it is an embrace ruled by history.
The 'mistake' made isn't the agriculture but the way the food was
grown. And that's as true today as it was thousands of years ago.
The Polynesian/Micronesian sweet potato/yam culture and  the
traditional “Milpa” system of the Americas were ecologically kosher
and sustainable.
The complication of the shift is the continuing problem posed by  the
dependency and fertility loss inherent in monocultures and the cutting
down of trees for fire and cooking.
Soil disturbance through the invention and use of the plough has to be
seen as a key mistake.
That, and maybe the embrace of grains as the core carbohydrate source.
Today that is still a major environmental headache -- these grains.
Annuals that they are.
That agriculture is marked down because it is vulnerable to drought,
weather vagaries and overpopulation is addressed by various means in
the history of agriculture. And Mike Davis points out in  'Late
Victorian Holocausts' -- you cannot separate the 21st century
hindsight view of agriculture from  the onslaught of capitalism and
imperialism.
Even in Marx's take on metabolic rift, a driving dynamic was the
separation of town and country that began the process of closing off
cyclical renewal.


dave riley

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[Marxism] [UCE] Re: Who is Bertolt Brecht? and Why We Should Care in our Dark Times | Anthony Squiers | Culture Matters

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Anyone interested, should read this study:
Peter Brooker, "Bertolt Brecht: Dialectics, Poetry, Politics"
https://is.gd/aRYouz

Truly the best I've read on Brecht in way of grasping the engineered
relationship between cultural production and consciousness. In
Brooker's sense -- not that he argued it -- Brecht's approach is
closer to 'The Pedagogy of the Oppressed' (Paulo Freire) than simple
didacticism.

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] different views on veganism and meat eating (Green Left Weekly)

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The GLW headline for the interview ("'Our target is the system, not
farmers') isn't  what  was actually said.

Tactically, and how this argument pans out in rural Australia,  rhetoric
doesn't cut it.

The actual full quote from the interview from Kristin Leigh is this:
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/vegan-rising-our-target-system-not-farmers

"It is not the farmers who are the target.

"Places where animals are bred, harmed and killed for food are where the
highest numbers of exploited animals are, so that makes farms the target.

"It is irrelevant whether or not there is a home or farmer on the property;
activists are going to where the animals are to show their suffering and
help people make the connection between them and the food on their plates.

"No one is going to the front doors and living rooms of the farmers. We
have no interest in targeting those individuals. We are targeting the
system itself. "
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Re: [Marxism] A Green New Deal Must Prioritize Regenerative Agriculture

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The recent laws pending  in New Zealand  is not the way to proceed.
https://theconversation.com/nz-introduces-groundbreaking-zero-carbon-bill-including-targets-for-agricultural-methane-116724
Putting it on farmers to fix their emissions themselves won't work.
They are too much contaisned by the market and debt.

As the original article argues:
"This transformative vision for the future of agriculture is possible,
but only within the context of a national paradigm shift with the full
backing and resources of the state. We don’t have time for individual
farmers to adopt regenerative practices on a case-by-case basis. The
2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is very clear:
In order to keep the consequences of global warming from becoming
irrevocably cataclysmic, we need to reduce emissions by 45 percent by
2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. That will be
extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, without converting our
country’s nearly 1 billion acres of farmland into a deep carbon
sink.:"
https://truthout.org/articles/a-green-new-deal-must-prioritize-regenerative-agriculture/?utm_source=sharebuttons_medium=facebook_campaign=mashshare
The same one-approach  ruled by imperatives misses the dynamic we have
to foster.

As this article on New Zealand regenerative agriculture  points out :
http://www.fao.org/3/a-bt439e.pdf
"New Zealand has had one of the world’s highest rates of agricultural
land intensification over recent decades (Ministry for the
Environment, 2017).Over the last fifteen years dairy farming in
particular has intensified beyond natural and environmental limits
through imported feed, fertiliser and irrigation. This intensive form
of farming has caused increases in production but carries associated
environmental problems with rising greenhouse gas emission, increasing
water pollution and decreasing biodiversity.
"Greg Hart,a regenerative farmer from Hawke’s Bay,reflects on these
environmental issues: “We have a very clear understanding that where
it’s all heading is not working”.
"It is also a heavily debt laden model. New Zealand dairy farmers are
among the most highly indebted in the world with around eight thousand
farmers collectively holding around $38 billion worth of debt. This
has led to high levels of strain among rural communities.
"Steve Broughton, one of the regenerators,says: “There are a lot of
stressed out, depressed farmers out there”.Greg characterises the
situation like this: “There are two paths laid out in front of us now,
one is that business as usual path which is leading to a climate
change disaster whereas we do have another option of going down a more
eco-friendly system that is in balance of nature"

dave riley

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[Marxism] What’s going on in Venezuela?... Chronicle of a Failed Intervention

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This is excellent: and a useful resource for helping Marxmail subscribers
build their solidarity campaign.


In the first months of 2019, after apparently becoming part of Donald
> Trump’s Anti-Socialist presidential campaign for 2020, Venezuela was the
> object of a barrage of confusing and unprecedented political maneuvers
> designed to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro. In this video
> report, produced by the Venezuelan community media collective Tatuy Tv, you
> will see the events of those tumultuous days in five phases. From the
> self-proclaimed president and “humanitarian aid” to the massive nationwide
> blackout, this Chronicle of a Failed Intervention lays out what is really
> happening in Venezuela and what we can expect in the months to come.
>

VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7viapfnWD8=1s
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[Marxism] Venezuela: Despite the crisis, Chavez’s legacy endures

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Frederico Fuentes direct from Venezuela.

> "These issues were raised by activists, many of whom continue to identify
> with Chavismo, a political movement of the poor that — contrary to
> misconceptions in the media and even on the left — continues to include
> millions in its ranks and maintains the same self-critical stance and
> diversity of views it always has.
>
> It is perhaps here where Chávez’s greatest legacy can be found.
>
> Traditionally marginalised, Venezuela’s popular classes exploded onto the
> political scene in the late 1980s and dev.. See more
> 
>

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/venezuela-despite-crisis-chavez%E2%80%99s-legacy-endures
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Re: [Marxism] Letter to the ISO membership

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"Certainly, there is a shared understanding among all that the only future
for the ISO begins with a frank and searching discussion. So regardless of
what the future brings, the main goal of Socialist Worker in the coming
weeks is to be of service to current and former ISO members and the wider
left by providing a platform for socialists to grapple with the many issues
that have led us to this point."

http://socialistworker.org/2019/03/19/a-message-to-our-readers

On Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 5:44 AM Ratbag Media  wrote:

> The International Socialist Organization’s Steering Committee sent this
> letter to members about a deep crisis in the ISO. We are sharing it
> publicly here on *SW*. We have edited it slightly to be published on a
> public website and have added updated information
>
> http://socialistworker.org/2019/03/15/letter-to-the-iso-membership
>
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[Marxism] Letter to the ISO membership

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The International Socialist Organization’s Steering Committee sent this
letter to members about a deep crisis in the ISO. We are sharing it
publicly here on *SW*. We have edited it slightly to be published on a
public website and have added updated information

http://socialistworker.org/2019/03/15/letter-to-the-iso-membership
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Re: [Marxism] ISO (and Mike Gonzalez) on Venezuela,

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I think this article has not be noted here so far, but it is a very
useful read -- especially in the context of  same ole Gonzalez-speak.:

Venezuela — Interview with Stalin Pérez Borges: “It will be very
difficult to defeat us.”
http://links.org.au/venezuela-stalin-perez-borges-luchas-difficult-defeat-us

Stalin Pérez Borges is a union leader and veteran socialist militant.
He is currently a member of LUCHAS (acronym for Unitarian Unionist
Chavista League, and also ‘Struggles’ in Spanish) and of the
Bolivarian Socialist Workers’ Central (CBST) Advisory Council.
Intersecciones spoke to Pérez Borges about the current crisis in
Venezuela. The original Spanish version was published on February 7.
Translated by Pedro Alvarez from Aporrea

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Re: [Marxism] Che

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TRY THIS --A NETWORK OF LINKS:

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=016552148803725866338%3Altqdhghfa5w=CHE+GUEVERA=Search=links.org.au%2F=www.google.com%2F=2938j922700j11
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Re: [Marxism] Excellent critique of New Trans ideology by Australian feminist,

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I think Andrew Stewart's excellent and considered reply to Philip
Ferguson's  sharing of  a transphobic POV needs to be celebrated.

GLW also has extensively covered the debate in support of transgender
& intersex rights.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/topics/transgender-intersex-rights

I think it's a no-brainer...as to the side you should be on.

Sharing anti-trans politics (in the context of education debates in
Australia) needs a lot more substance  than what Andrew rightly calls
'straw men' arguments offered via Ferguson's link..

Pseudo-headings about 'Trans Ideology'  don't cut it, Phil.

For those interested in the topic, I recommend this site for an up
close  & personal POV about, what I'd call, reality -- rather than be
ruled by phobic notions:
http://www.howtobeagirlpodcast.com/

dave riley
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[Marxism] Could Victorian Socialists be about to make history?

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Australia has not had a socialist parliamentarian, at the state or federal
level, since the 1940s. But this may change at the November 24 Victorian
state election.

Victorian Socialists was formed earlier this year as a coalition of
socialist groups, including the Socialist Alliance, to bring a real
left-wing voice to parliament.

Many of those involved in Victorian Socialists have commented on how
historic this project is. None can remember a socialist election campaign
as big in recent decades.

The party has more than 1300 members and hundreds of volunteers who have
been campaigning on a weekly basis.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/could-victorian-socialists-be-about-make-history
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Re: [Marxism] How to (do) ranching right,

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I get mightily peeved about anti-cattle rhetoric  in regard to climate
change.It is warping the climate change movement's cutting edge and
perverting its focus.
If you actually do your homework, the story is very different .
Here's a very good summary of why the spin/shibboleth is based on
inaccurate information:
https://theconversation.com/yes-eating-meat-affects-the-environment-but-cows-are-not-killing-the-climate-94968

"A healthy portion of meat’s bad rap centers on the assertion that
livestock is the largest source of greenhouse gases worldwide[In the
US]All of agriculture accounted for a total of 9 percent. All of animal
agriculture contributes less than half of this amount, representing 3.9
percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. That’s very different from
claiming livestock represents as much or more than transportationWhy
the misconception? In 2006 the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization published a study titled “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” which
received widespread international attention. It stated that livestock
produced a staggering 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The agency drew a startling conclusion: Livestock was doing more to harm
the climate than all modes of transportation combined.This latter claim was
wrong, and has since been corrected by Henning Steinfeld, the report’s
senior author... To its credit, the FAO immediately owned up to its error.
Unfortunately, the agency’s initial claim that livestock was responsible
for the lion’s share of world greenhouse gas emissions had already received
wide coverage. To this day, we struggle to “unring” the bell..."

As for the cynical attack on sequence farming/regenerative grazing  --
aside from the drought proofing and soil fertility gains, the whole concept
is , I think, the ONLY way to restore rangeland landscapes so that they
recover some role in mitigating climate change effects. The research folder
is building up that registers how much carbon -- and methane -- this
approach can sequester. If you want to read more about this, here's good
place to start6:
http://soilalliance.blogspot.com/
Much better than relying on 'The Guardian'
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[Marxism] Sustainable Agriculture vs. Corporate Greed -- Review by Fred Magdoff.

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BOOK REVIEW BY Fred Magdoff

Sustainable Agriculture vs. Corporate Greed dissects the problems that
farmers face, some of the social and ecological issues associated with
large scale farming (including the takeover of land from small and
medium scale farms), the various organizations resisting these trends,
and possible alternatives. While the authors are Australian and many
of the examples they use are from that country, much of what is
discussed applies to other countries and there is some attention to
other parts of the world and the global scene as a whole.

http://climateandcapitalism.com/2017/10/24/sustainable-agriculture-versus-corporate-greed
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: The Popular Front Didn’t Work,

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What do you think of the Popular Front period here in Queensland
(Australia) , Gary  ---tactically blessed, as it was, by the refusal
of the Australian Labor Party to work with communists.
Maybe it is the best example of the community  work of the CPA --
Communist Party of Australia -- later warped by the impact of the war
economy and further industrial changes?

We actually did have a bona fide 'Red North'.

Any review of the period, in Australia,  is a great  lessen in
community organizing and a slap in the face of later penchants for
sectarianisms.

Did the regional CPAers pull their punches? Personally I don't think
so. And the Fred Paterson legacy lives on as an aspiration to match..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Paterson

legacy

dave riley
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[Marxism] The Green Revolution: Effects in Asia and implications for Africa

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Alan Broughton reviews the history and impacts of the Green Revolution
to destroy a few myths:

"It is a myth propagated by corporations that there is no alternative
to chemical fertilisers, pesticides, hybrid seeds and genetic
modification in order to feed people. The only truth is that there is
no alternative for the increasing profitability of the corporations.
There are countless examples from around the world, including Africa,
of sustainably high yields without the need for chemicals, “improved
seeds”, or compromise to the health of the environment and consumers.
“Blindness to these alternatives is not proof of their non-existence.
It is merely a reflection of the blindness” (Shiva 2001, p. 251). '


Read more
http://soilalliance.blogspot.com.au/2017/09/the-green-revolution-effects-in-asia.html

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[Marxism] Fwd: SW:Did socialism fail in Venezuela?

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Seriously folks is this contradictory or what?

https://socialistworker.org/2017/06/07/did-socialism-fail-in-venezuela

I'd be embarrassed to publish stuff like this. Especially in the
current context of real time conflict...

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: We Know for Sure That Bread Is Unhealthy—for the Environment, at Least | Alternet

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Actually nitrogen is a key agricultural question that not only sabotages
the 'green revolution' gloss but challenges all industrial agriculture
precepts. It is the unsustainable 'energy' (like coal) exploited to over
feed the soils of the capitalist world.It destroys soils, and when it runs
off into catchments it kills seas.
A key factor (but not the main one) destroying the Great Barrier Reef is
Nitrogen run off.
The whole N:P:K obsession is also being challenged by a shortage of
Phosphorous. This is why in some countries agricultural scientists are
experimenting with harvesting human urine as whizz has plenty of K.
While Methane and Carbon emanated by agriculture can be greatly reduced by
changing grazing and horticulture protocols to improve the microbial
content of soil, free use of Nitrogen --as in chemical  fertilizers -- has
to stop pro tem. Agriculture needs to be weaned.

For a better take on agriculture check out the Soil Alliance that a gropiup
of socialsits run here in Australia.

http://soilalliance.blogspot.com.au/

dave riley
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[Marxism] Fwd: Feral Animals

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There are a few complications in the Australian context.

* The mega fauna died off probably with the drying of the land and that
leaves an ecological gap.Indeed eveidence suggests that aborigines
co-existed with native mega fauna for thousands of years. The primary
predator thereafter, the dingo, was introduced from Asia by, probably,
indigenous peoples.The last key predator -- the Tasmanian Tiger ( a
marsupial) died off in the early 20th century.
* Because Australian soils are dry and tend to be crusty that are prone to
erosion especially with the onset of frequent drought. Many -- if not all
-- feral species drive that process -- especially the cloven foot ones.
* The scale of the problem is massive: over 200 million rabbits, close to
500,000 camels, 2.6 million goats, feral cat numbers cannot be estimated
but there are maybe over 7 million foxes, 24 million feral pigs, 200
million cane toadsetc.Here pigs are taking young lambs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_Australia
* Re-wilding is also an urgent need here -- and therein is located many
environment campaigns protecting bushland from logging, aboriginal sacred
sites & traditional country, dams, clearing, CSG mining, coal mining, etc.
But Elena has captured a major contradiction  in that pristine no longer
exits as the invasion of these pests sabotages many -- if not all --
efforts.
* Recent research on dingo/kangaroo interaction is exciting in way of
culling numbers that may threaten farm land.
* But farming per se has hugely impacted on ecology. Since the white
invasion land clearing and grain production  has sponsored the explosion in
parrot numbers and no doubt led to  more kangaroos and wallabies in the
landscape. The role of bushfire is a hotly debated topicand herein lies
a contradiction: feral water buffalo seem to play an advantageous role in
reducing fires across the tropical north Savannah in the absence of
larger(as in mega fauna) or living indigenous ruminants. Indeed the major
'ruminant' in Australia is probably termites.

dave riley
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[Marxism] Feral Animals

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Elena Garcia tackles the festering impact of feral animals on the
Australia's ecology.
New on 'Soil Alliance'...

"Feral animals like camels, goats, rabbits, dogs, cats, foxes, buffalo,
deer, pigs, and horses, and introduced weeds, continue to push native
animals to extinction, erode and destroy our grasslands, forests and
riparian zones so our waterways silt up; bare the topsoil for erosion by
overgrazing; and directly or indirectly eat or compete with our native
animals and plants and our livestock industry. They are an increasing
threat to farming viabilityAny attempt to have this debate has been
controlled up to now by sentimentalists and animal liberationists who have
hijacked any attempt to stop the extinctions of our native animals and
protect our environment and regulate humane feral animal control. We need
to strip the sentimentality out of the debate and stop worrying about
eating Wilbur, Bambi, Thumper, Pussy, Buck and White Fang, Reynard, Thowra
and Storm, or exporting them to people happy to eat or use them, and
instead see clearly that if we do not manage our land we will be left with
a desert, whether we personally choose to eat or use these animals or not."



https://soilalliance.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/harvesting-ferals.html
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[Marxism] Agricultural expropriation: Making money from farmers

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Alan Broughton's new essay looks at the impact of trade liberalisation and
other neo-liberal policies on farm income and food security.It is an
excellent over view of the current challenges bearing down on the working
farmer.
***

> "There is money to be made in farming, but not by the farmers. This paper
> examines the reasons why farmers around the world are poor and there are a
> billion hungry people. The terms of trade for farmers continually declines
> and farmers are forced off the land. Governments and international bodies
> advocate further deregulation and trade liberalisation and greater use of
> technology, yet these policies have undoubtedly failed in their stated aims
> of increasing food security and rural prosperity. The beneficiaries have
> only been the agribusiness corporations which have been instrumental in the
> design of the new order of agricultural production. "


***
Agricultural expropriation: Making money from farmers
http://soilalliance.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/agricultural-
expropriation-making-money.html

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] SOIL ALLIANCE resource hub

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I'm not saying eat chicken rather than beef or beef rather than
pork..or animals rather than beans. I'm not talking about consumption
so much as ecology.

If you review the carbon farming figures they are impressive as
regards drawing down atmospheric carbon. And given that even if we
ceased the output of most of our carbon emissions today we'd still be
stuck with the ever rising impact of those that have been  pumped out
so much over the last 200 years.

That's the nub of the issue. Not only are our agricultural systems
unsustainable but they are potentially one of the best tools we have
on hand to CONSCIOUSLY reverse some of the climate consequences that
have already registered.

What that means for CONSUMPTION is an open question...but we really do
need to begin the transition NOW.

Simple measures are things like moving livestock back into
horticultural areas  to feed on crop residues and adjusting grazing
habitats in line with rotational protocols. This latter aspect is
taking off in Australia, North America and parts of Africa. the added
advantage is that grasses survive droughts better because the elevated
SOC and aquifers hold more water.

Crucial to that is the business of what's called 'rewilding'  -- where
sections of farms are returned to ungrazed native vegetation cover.
This can  also be akin to the various agroforestry approaches like
Silvopasture. However, the main rationale is to sustain diversity and
reverse species loss while fostering habitats and species that service
productive agriculture and grazing.



dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] SOIL ALLIANCE resource hub

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Assuming the figures are correct, or at least close enough to actual
consumption, these interactive graphs are fascinating.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/what-the-world-eats/
Source: the FAO.

If you have an interactive fiddle and go back in time along the cross
bar, you'll note that beef consumption has been pretty stable in
countries like the US but it is chicken that has really grown in
patronage. In Australia the 'other meat' I guess refers to lamb which
we used to eat a lot of --and still do by international standards
outside the Middle East.

Understandably.

Elsewhere the nutritional story varies.

So a reality check is warranted.

Do we all eat too much meat? We certainly eat too much seafood as that
is a finite resource with very few fish stocks currently sustainable.

The real growth has been in sugar and fat consumption -- in part
allied to the rise in processed food.

As an aside, among regenerative agriculturalists the big boogey in
terms of environmental impact isn't the herbivore but the plough.
Woody Guthrie and the Grapes of Wrath remind is that the Dust
Bowl/Dirty Thirties  was an environmental crisis that may soon be
replayed with more telling consequence as the recent Californian
Drought suggests.

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] SOIL ALLIANCE resource hub

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Just on the healthy soils question...

David Walters writes:"It shows truly the only way the soil can be
conserved and made healthy again (which, folks, REQUIRES cow herds to
return to the land and thus our necessary consumption of them)."

There is a lot of hype being generated about this phenomenon of carbon
sequestration by herbivores so it warrants a careful embrace. Soil
health and carbon sequestration are always going to be victimized by
drought and limited rainfall --as well as events like bushfire or wild
fire.

This is the nub of so many carbon trading debates: can you put a price
on it? Can it deliver year in your out?

Indeed, the Carbon Coalition (primarily made up of graziers)  here in
Australia tends to be dominated by some anti-green right wingers who
argue that we don't need the other stuff, as carbon farming can save
the planet.

A lot of bovine celebration literature -- like 'Cows Save The Planet'
(by Judith Schwartz) -- promotes a similar  fix-it.

There is a big discussion that needs to be had out among
agriculturalists in regard to land use and sustainability . But it is
proceeding. A reason why it is kicking in is that the soil friendly
option is cheaper with fewer inputs and less frequent  interventions..

Aiding this trend has been a revolution in soil science (driven by new
microscopic techniques)  which is changing the way we view dirt and
its inhabitants. Indeed, a good remaking of agriculture's day to day
should be 'microbe farming' -- which applies equally to
paddock,orchard and produce bed.

The complication is that the 'Green Revolution' horticulture doesn't
cut the sustainability mustard. And THAT, rather than the
biochemistry,  is the crux of GM tensions.

What that means for farming isn't quite clear, or self evident, as
some sort of mass scale transition is required.

New Agroecology techniques --supported by academic research --  are
having impacts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology
such that it isn't a simple business of presuming  a sudden sharp turn
to organic agriculture is our one option. Indeed, 'organic' labeling
can be a sort of obscurantism that  fosters a marketing niche rather
than building awareness the sort of rural changes that we need to put
in place.

And the 'don't eat meat' mantra is simply destructive to discourse,
especially between city and countryside, as it is to undermining the
platform of the climate change movement.

I think the Socialist Alliance here in Australia has a pretty good
Agricultural Policy that tries to tackle some of the main issues. It
is well worth a read.
https://socialist-alliance.org/policy/environment-natural-resources/agriculture
It is a pretty good summary of  some of the key changes required if we
are to recover soil health..

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] SOIL ALLIANCE resource hub

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Hang on!  'Meat' is a commodity like everything else. You may as well
suggest  that  (I'm suggesting as well) ' with a limited planet that
there is no need to restrict'  grain consumption or soya beans or rice
or corn or yams  or whatever.

Making a fetish of one element in the food chain obscures the
ecological reality.

My argument is that  meat production is related to 'meat's' relevance
to the environment...and THAT relates to its consumption. That's a
basic principle of human evolution: we eat what we can get.
Whether we kill or harvest it isn't the point. In rangelands the norm
has been to grow meat and eat it BECAUSE horticulture is not an easy
fit there. They are brittle landscapes.

Every landscape needs animals. It is a ecological fact. And landscapes
have evolved in tandem with animals -- even our human farms.

As it happens, here in Australia the homo sapiens currently share a
continental space where there are  74 million sheep to 23.5 million
people with a further beef herd  of 13.4 million head.

Is that too much grazing?

As for your confusing comment:

"The only reason why people in the rich countries can eat so much meat
is that they also consume the share of the people in the poor
countries, and that they pump fossil water using fossil fuels etc. "

 I don't have the consumption figures on hand for all the 'rich
countries'  but in the USA  the main meat suppliers of imported beef
into the US are Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

They aren't 'poor countries'.

http://beef2live.com/story-beef-imports-country-year-date-0-107548

As well as the US, Australia's primary export market for beef is
China, Korea and Japan...and the rise in meat consumption
internationally is being registered in the 'poor countries' generally.

So I don't get you point at all.

Of note is that most Australian lamb exports go to the Middle East
http://www.mla.com.au/Prices-markets/Market-news/How-did-2015-fare-for-Australian-lamb-exports-12012015

As for the question of meat consumption per se...indigenous peoples
diets are  various but here in Australia, as much as I can
research,aborigines generally ate more meat -- from various animals --
than the current Australian intake . In the Americas  the Plains
Indians  no doubt ate more meat than their East Coast cousins and the
Inuit of the north  were/are dependent on hunting for meat.

But that varies of course around the planet.Look at legume driven
India, for instance. That proves that meat consumption in large
quantities isn't  nutritionally essential. But no society has existed
without using meat or animal products such as milk or hides.

However I'm suggesting that large herbivores in most environments may
indeed be an ecological necessity.

Just as other animals -- pigs, poultry and the like -- may be
essential recyclers that consume AND STORE in their flesh what would
otherwise be wasted.

Yesterday's rotting fruits become tomorrow's bacon.

dave riley



On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 3:59 PM,   wrote:

> you are basically saying: if we do it right, we can produce so much with
> a limited planet that there is no need to restrict meat consumption, even if
> we are 7-9 billion people, and even if climate change drastically
> reduces what can be grown where.
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Re: [Marxism] SOIL ALLIANCE resource hub

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I'm not aware that 'cheap' meats were being defended...
But grazing animals and husbandry -- certainly are.
Since the core  debate lies at the belly of herbivores there is a
complication in that some eco-socialists and agro ecologists advocate
MORE herbivores being grazed  under regenerative/rotational protocols.
The argument for this is complicated in way of carbon sequestration
and soil renewal, but  in locales like Australia the debate is also
referenced by the long lost role of megafauna as it relates to
bushfires and a drying continent, drought and vegetative cover.
This is especially true of the northern section of the continent.
While I agree with Hans' argument for mixed agroecology the nub of the
debate is that in rangelands -- tallgrass and shortgrass prairies,
desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals,
steppes, and tundras--
which cover something like 50% of the planet's land surface,
horticulture --aside from 'grass farming' -- isn't feasible.
Intensive grazing may be disastrous, but rotational grazing is not as
it replicates the ecological impact of  indigenous grazing herds.
The site carries a lot of information about this prospect., especially
in regards to the consolidation of soil carbon:SOC.
The presumption that we can simply replace rangeland grazing with
horticulture is not feasible in most of these regions. However,
complex integration of grazing and grain production is practical  in
many areas so long as the stalk is returned to the soil (as in
'straw'). In similar mode, domestic animals should be a source of most
of our fertilizers for horticulture and that presumes not only their
presence in the landscape, but active management of their wastes.
This leads into the ongoing impact of  Inorganic Chemical Nitrogenous
Fertilizer on the planet -- on waterways, run off, sustainable soil
health,plant nutrition, energy use (in their production) and the
looming phosphorus shortage.
Reducing the discussion to 'meat' -- for or against -- obscures a much
more significant reality and one that is disparaged by 'Cowspiracy'
obscurantism.
But the worse consequence of all is the argument that by not eating
meat -- or engaging in husbandry -- we can save the planet from
climate change. That trend in the climate change movement is
disastrous as it deflects attention from the main drivers of
greenhouse gases --energy production, transport ... in effect,
capitalism.
Instead, the cows are scapegoated.

dave riley


On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 10:45 AM,   wrote:

> The Soil Alliance are very good at criticizing corporate land grabs
> which drive small farmers off the land, and other profiteering from
> environmental crisis.  I fully agree with them there.  But I think they
> are wrong to defend meat consumption and cheap meat, by the reasoning
> that meat must be cheap so that the working class can eat meat.  The
> planet is simply not big enough to give everybody their daily
> hamburgers.  The increasing cultural aversion against meat is a good
> thing and not a "consumption shibboleth."
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[Marxism] SOIL ALLIANCE resource hub

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The SOIL ALLIANCE hub project was launched this year to foster a
radical perspective on  food and fibre production and consumption.

'Soil Alliance seeks to promote  an ongoing  dialogue between rural
and urban based workers of the soil as well as among those who consume
the food and fibre the soil produces. It hopes to  provide news and
analysis in order to encourage and facilitate collaboration among
farming, ecology, locally grown, food movement and climate change
activists.'

In the context of the current trend to impose consumption shibboleths
on agriculture, the SOIL ALLIANCE  tries to capture some of the
reality of working the soil in the face of climate change impacts and
contemporary capitalism.

http://soilalliance.blogspot.com.au/

Recent posts:

Millions face drought and famine in Southern Africa...
Stopping land clearing and replanting trees could help keep Australia cool ...
Venezuela: Slave labour or just growing more food?...
On the Frontline: Climate Change & Rural Communities...
Monsanto Losing Millions as Farmers in India Plant indigenous seed..
Diana Rodgers: Meat is Magnificent: Water, Carbon,...
Fix farming by junking the corporate model
Rural Workers: AUDIO
Water under attack : Reports
Organic Farmers Are Not Anti-Science, but Genetic Engineers often are...
Hunger in Venezuela? A look beyond the spin
Why changing our diet won't save the Earth
Nature is neglected in this election campaign
The effects on soil biology of agricultural chemicals...
Plant varieties: Why are we losing them?
Land grabbing – A new colonialism
Carbon Sequestration on Land – the Government’s Greenhouse Gas Policy
Ruminant livestock and greenhouse gases

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Re: [Marxism] Marat/Sade on TV

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Peter Weiss wasn't keen on the 'theatre of cruelty' take on Marat/Sade
in Peter Brook's film -- nor on the translation, especially of the
song lyrics as translated and adpated by poet Geoffrey Skelton.

I think the Artaudian indulgence distracts from the play's theme...but
the musical score,by Richard Peaslee, is great.

However, his other works are very interesting and increasingly aligned
especially his magnum opus, 'The Aesthetics of Resistance'.

More accessible however, is his Vietnam travel opiece, 'Notes on the
Cultural Life of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.'

For those into CPSU history, his 'Trotsky in Exile' was a significant
contribution...that upset the Soviets.

But his creative mix is various as not only was Weiss a long time
friend of Hermann Hess, greatly influenced by surrealist imagery (in
his writing , film and paintings) but he was also  dramaturg under
Irwin Pisactor with a keen heads up for 'documentary theatre'.

His adaption of the  Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials  with 'The
Investigation. Oratorio In 11 Cantos' is  emotionally
challenging.Since it is taken from court transcripts, I think his
handling of the material is amazing.

In the mix is the influence of Bertolt Brecht and, like Harold Pinter,
 Samuel Beckett...and his strong parallels to the work of  the
documentary theatre of Rolf Hochhuth ('The Representative')  and
Heinar Kipphardt ( "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer").



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[Marxism] [pen-l] Fwd: Debates within ecosocialism: John Bellamy Foster, Jason Moore and CNS | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

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I don't know about all this...

I think 'metabolic rift' is EXTREMELY useful as a means to continue
the dialectical materialism of of Stephen Jay Gould and the
Dialectical Biologists.
Indeed I think it grounds all the business about historical
materialism which so often is ruled by supposition and second
guessing...and so often arrogantly schematic by Marxian wannabees.
Ecological  and other sciences in the Soviet Union did outlast --for a
time -- the Stalinist purges/censoring --as exemplified by the
perspective of the historical psychology of Lev Vygotsky and Alexander
Luria and the Soviet's advances in physics...and ecology.

Indeed, getting back to Foster, the whole metabolic rift argument
merges with the current dynamic of not only the green movement but
climate science. While Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis is rooted in a lot
of idealism, if the Marxist movement had been  more attuned to ecology
back when it was first proposed, we could have negotiated a sharper
ecosocialist shift than what we have been treated  from within the
green movement.

Indeed Barry Commoner is way outside the Marxist lazy bones on this
issue... 'We' missed the boat.

To now denigate Foster seems petty as he makes very clear that the
tradition he embraces is rooted in biology and paleontology and
ecology...and not Marxmail.

'Metabolic Rift' is a great way to comprehend the fossil fueling and
organic thieving of capitalism -- especially when so many seek to
divert attention to ethicism. I don't think it is an argument
promoting 'balance' -- a boutique greenoid buzz term -- so much as a
process ruled by the give and take of exploitation and the necessity
of organic return.

It is the same dynamic that drives Engel's 'Dialectics of Nature' .

Whatever may be Foster's other positions being here ruled on  --
personal depreciation  is hardly an argument re the main game.

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] Can livestock fix man-made deserts?

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I am a developing a website hub focused  on soil based agriculture -- and
'microbe farming' --  that often explores rotational grazing
http://soilalliance.blogspot.com.au/
I strongly recommend Alan Broughton's recent paper on 'Ruminant livestock
and green house gases'
http://soilalliance.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/ruminant-livestock-and-greenhouse-gases.html
It is a great summary of the role of livestock in soil recovery and climate
gas sequestration.

For those looking for a referenced summary of the methodology in the face
of much activity blaming cattle for climate change(as in the absurd
'Cowspiracy')  I recommend 'Letter to a Vegetarian Nation'  by Sheldon
Frith.
http://www.regenerateland.com/2015/12/03/letter-to-a-vegetarian-nation-or-we-should-eat-meat/


dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] "Stopping Tump: The Chicago Model"

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As regards this:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18968/how-to-stop-trump-the-chicago-model
Thanks so much for sharing ,Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo .
I was thinking this list was indulging in protest bashing and turning
into a platform for  winging old fogies...


This far away -- here in Australia -- the Chicago VICTORY resonated as
a collective multi racial, youthful, militant and articulate rebellion
against Trump's agenda.

This was an event of major significance.

It's not about a relentless tactic: pro or con.  It's about winning a
political point and mobilising (remember that verb) a new layer of
activists in the context of the here and now.

And to sign on with  the politics of Rachel Maddow in order to bash
Sanders' left flank...Well, that aint my cup of tea.




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[Marxism] Greens get relating to Sanders right (when so many Marxists look away)

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Physician Jill Stein, who is seeking the Green Party’s nomination for
president in 2016, has called Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Democratic presidential
campaign “*wonderful*” and stated that the Green Party “*will not attack
that campaign.*”

Jill Sten: “*But unfortunately he is in a party that has a track record for
basically sabotaging its rebels. It has done a good job of doing that in
the past from Dennis Kucinich to Jesse Jackson to Howard Dean, whether they
use a PR campaign like the ‘Dean’s scream’ to bring down the Dean
candidacy. Also Jesse Jackson was sabotaged by a PR by the DNC. The
Democratic Party has its ways of reigning people in if they try to rebel.
The bottom line is that we are in political system in the U.S., which is
funded by predatory banks and fossil fueled giants and war profiteers. So,
we really need to reject that system, we say to reject the lesser evil so
we can stand up and really fight for the greater good.*”

In a Monday interview on New England Public Radio, Stein said
,
“*What’s been happening in the Democratic Party is you’ll have a good
candidate who will run, but then the candidate gets reabsorbed and the
campaign becomes reabsorbed back into the Democratic Party. So it’s kind of
a fake left while the party becomes more corporatist, more militarist, and
continues to march to the right.*”

She called the grassroots movement that Sanders has tapped into a “
*rebellion*” that “*can’t simply be passed on to Hillary Clinton.*”
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Re: [Marxism] From socialism to eco-socialism. (Was: Investment, investment, investment)

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All these issues are taken up in Climate & Capitalism frequently:

http://climateandcapitalism.com/

But I'd add a few comments:

(1) One of the complications of the 'nationalisation' demand is that power
industries  targeted are not ensconced in an expanding market as there is a
profit damaging shift to renewables. In effect you'd take over zombie
capital. We do need renewables but the key reclamation is the grid and not
the power stations. And even there, there is a community shift to localised
energy production that is outside the national grid. So 'nationalisation'
kinda doesn't say it all.It obscures the reality.
(2) '*Green illusions: The dirty secrets of clean energy and the future of
environmentalism', *by Ozzie Zehner tackles the consumption issue with some
good research.
http://links.org.au/node/3750
(3) The challenge with green politics is engineering demands that will
mobilize millions --that register in consciousness and suggest activity.
And that's a hard ask. In part that's why  the scam carbon tax or market
registers because it seems concrete.
(4) While we want a huge investment in renewables and public transport we
want that from the state.  We also need retrofitting of housing for
sustainabilityetc But unless we can sponsor the jobs growth in  new
climate/sustainability industries you won't win the 'reduce consumption'
argument without the job security in place.
(5) That said: I think there is another focus that socialist tend to
neglect -- and this is being debated in GLW at the moment. We neglect
agriculture. The Socalist Alliance has  a very good ag policy platform:
http://socialist-alliance.org/sites/default/files/policy/Agriculture.pdf
But i reckon  another demand we can bandy about is to raise the national soil
organic matter (SOM)  by a clear percentile. France has just adopted a 0.4%
target per year
https://theconversation.com/france-has-a-great-plan-for-its-soil-and-its-not-just-about-wine-47335
Indeed if there is any 'reform' campaign that can impact on pace of the
climate change express train it lies with fiddling with agriculture rather
than projecting immediate changes to consumption. After all you can still
produce junk with solar energy. The food and agriculture focus also opens
up a whole sway of alliances such as with outfits like La Via Campesina and
draws folks attention toward the collective -- Ist and 3rd world -- nature
of the climate challenge
http://viacampesina.org/en/

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] Amid crisis, Sanders takes aim at 'billionaire class'

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Everything folk are saying about Bernie Sanders is probably very true.
He aint ridgy didge. Of course: this is the Democratic Party.
But that is missing the point -- the tacticial point.
He just won in New Hampshire
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/61056
...and there is a conversation going on that you/we have to engage
with. Say whatever you like about Sanders (I do) but it behoves us not
to sit on our hands or denigrate from the sidelines.
Formula-by-numbers propaganda does not cut the mustard.
Under the Sanders banner is all those MILLIONS of people you want
to/we want to build a socialist option among...or even (god forbid) a
broad left party.
And i say that not because he is simply a Democrat populist -- but
because he has moved the dialogue a tad outside the constraints of
neoliberalism and austerity.
That he calls himself a 'socialist' -- while a handicap -- is also a
handy and useful plus.
"You want to talk about REAL socialism...!"
What if Sanders had stood as an independent...or for the Green Party?
Done the Camejo/ Nader thing? Even with the same politics? The same
rhetoric?
Would he be so much the persona non grata?
And where does the Sanders groundswell go when whatever happens?
Seriously: where?

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[Marxism] Amid crisis, Sanders takes aim at 'billionaire class'

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Further on the Bernie business...I reckon this article in the latest
GLW is real smart and keenly nuanced.




Despite his array of progressive policies, Sanders has critics on the
left who disagree with his position on key issues — such as foreign
policy (where Sanders takes a less anti-establishment line than in
other areas), gun control and his handling of racial issues, such as
the Black Lives Matter movement and calls for reparations over
slavery.

There is also debate among forces to the left of the Democrats about
whether running for the Democrats is a suitable strategy for a
socialist and over the nature and limits of Sanders' “socialism”.

Sanders is definitely not advocating a socialist revolution. His
politics are better understood as broadly social democratic — hoping
to alleviate the ills of capitalism without overthrowing capitalism.
His support for some of the key aspects of the US empire is an example
of that distinction.

But the effect he is having on US politics is profound, and is
creating a powerful pole pulling political discourse — at least as far
as it relates to the Democratic race — to the left.

One of the main criticisms of the Occupy movement was that it failed
to develop a political vehicle to achieve change. It seems much of
that Occupy spirit has found a political expression in Sanders,
although the limits of that home if it remains within the
corporate-controlled Democrats are clearly real.

Sanders' campaign builds on the class-consciousness that Occupy
restarted in US society. Speaking in Iowa, Sanders said: “The American
people are saying no to a rigged economy. They no longer want to see
an economy in which the average American works longer hours for low
wages while almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1%.”



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Re: [Marxism] Mike Alewitz on Bernie Sanders

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Manuel Barrera  writes: "Heatwaves rising from the desert always seem
like an oasis.'

..only if you think that the Sanders phenomenon has no cause  in real
angst and suffering. It is a symptom of the everyday experience of
millions  -- most of whom would not be able to make the transition, on
their own, to  relating to another alternative left voice.
If Sanders had remained an 'independent' -- of course that may indeed
be a different challenge with an easier tactical passage.

But inside the DEMs...!?

That's your problem, stateside.

But that Sanders poses as a socialist and projects a sort of crude and
erratic  class divide  -- in the context of the US Presidential  Game
Show :  that has to be very significant.
That has to be a plus because, despite what ever his preferences,
Sanders unleashes and inspires forces  that may later find him,and his
party allegiance, wanting.

What happens 'if'/when he backs Clinton?  Where does that momentum and
frustration go?

It won't default to a bunch of wannabe 'we-told-you-so' outfits who
did not go through the Sanders experience with them.

It will instead  be demoralised.

And the promise fades because the 'real' socialists  could not harness it.

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] Murray Bookchin

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With this Bookchin angst in play I have to ask, "would you prefer that
the Kurds in their millions signed on with Enver Hoxha instead? Or
that they cannot liberate themselves as a people unless they get the
theory right (according the e-listing Marxmailers)?"

Lambasting an abstracted 'Bookchin' has no traction in the real world
of Turkish or Kurdish politics.

LINK: 'In defence of Murray Bookchin': http://links.org.au/node/3573

QUOTE:"Despite my political disagreement with anarchism and my
criticisms of his philosophy, Bookchin is one of my heroes. He devoted
his life to the cause of the liberation of humanity. Much of his
writing on society and ecology was brilliant, and deserves to be read
carefully by ecosocialists and everyone else who realises that we can
only save the world by radically changing society.

"While his efforts to enunciate a coherent revolutionary world view
didn’t succeed, at least he tried – in contrast to the shallow
thinkers who resorted to insults instead of reason. He’ll be read and
remembered when their books just gather dust.

"That’s why 'Recovering Bookchin' is an important book. It’s less
critical than it could be, but it is nevertheless an impressive effort
to rehabilitate Bookchin’s reputation, and to make his views
accessible to a new generation of left-green activists."


dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] Terry Jones' Barbarians

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Terry Jones is still engaged and active and is the only Python that
keenly addresses political issues especially the Iraq War against
which he was extremely articulate.
Relevant to the here and now is his excellent video history of the
Crusades (1995).

Of note is, in his retelling of history,  the creative and original
means he and his collaborator -- Phil Grabsky  -- employ to make such
great didactic TV.
Always humorous.
Grabsky is  a very significant documentary film maker.

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Re: [Marxism] background on the Philippines left

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Here is a lot more information about the re-alignments of the
Philippines  left from GLW.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/search/apachesolr_search/Philippines%20left
I'm sure Andrew Pollack is seeding the question of the CPP's
assassination campaign of its ex members following on from Philip
Ferguson's disdain for the brutal facts.

Jose Maria Sison is a nice enough guy as I  showed him and his partner
around my home town of Brisbane and chaired his local meetings back in
the mid eighties.. He also writes pretty good poetry.

But the complication is that he ordered the killing of fellow left activists...

For Ferguson to cover for Sison on that point  is obscene.

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Re: [Marxism] . . . and some great speeches

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I'm  not trying to take the piss -- but  Philip Ferguson's enthusiasm
for the POV of   éirígi in Ireland and the PFLP in  Palestine is
undermined by the fact that these outfits -- despite the massive
struggles logged over the past decades in their countries -- are
marginal to the here and now of what can be/is being done.
If we could be so lucky to have experienced such popular militancy.
Surely that's a problem? A political problem.
Here we have two populations who have been actively engaged in the
rigors of struggle, and these outfits aren't playing  a leading role.
That's not the Lenin way, surely?
Compare that to the dynamics of the struggle politics in Latin
America or the role of the  Kurdistan Workers' Party in the Middle
East...and you have to think that maybe -- just maybe -- there is a
tactical problem in play.
I'm sure that éirígi and the PFLP are dedicated revolutionaries...but
the significance of core rev orgs plugging away at the coal face with
their own program of 'join us'  and we'll lead the revolt may have
entered its use-by date.
Proven by...where is this strategy  working?
In Palestine? In the Six Counties?
Not that I can see.
I'm not saying I have an option to share. But I DO SAY that looking to
these outfits to LEARN may be mistake.
Much as I absolutely respect them...

dave riley

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[Marxism] Some red baiting of the New South Wales Greens

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"The head of the NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union has emerged as the
likely candidate to represent the Greens in the key Sydney seat of
Grayndler.

"The potential move of Labor's longtime Grayndler MP Anthony Albanese
into neighbouring Barton has moved the inner-west electorate to the
top of the Greens' target list at the next election.

"Jim Casey, a former member of the International Socialist
Organisation and state secretary of the FBEU has declared his
candidacy for preselection in a YouTube video.Bruce Knobloch,
another former member of the International Socialist movement and a
member of Greens senator Lee Rhiannon's "eastern bloc" grouping, had
declared himself a candidate through the "Bruce Knobloch for
Grayndler" website.

"But he will now contest preselection for the seat of Sydney, held by
Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek."


Read more: 
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greens-front-runner-for-anthony-albaneses-seat-of-grayndler-emerges-as-fire-union-boss-jim-casey-20151104-gkqfat.html#ixzz3qZeLv6I3
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[Marxism] The Bernie Sanders Challenge?

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"The central question, however, is not Sanders himself but how the
process evolves, and particularly what conclusions his legion of
supporters draws from this experience. The key question Socialist
Alternative members have been raising at local People for Bernie
meetings and mass rallies is: how will we actually achieve the bold
progressive demands that have galvanized people into action? Or to put
it another way: what does a real political revolution against the
billionaires look like?"

The Bernie Sanders Challenge
http://www.socialismtoday.org/193/sanders.html
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Re: [Marxism] With those sorts of policies, Justin Trudeau is clearly unelectable I tell you, unelectable

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Gary MacLennan writes: "Here at home, it is only the refusal of the Greens
to break from neo-liberalism that protects the ALP's left flank."

And Gary is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. ...and you know, that's a great political
tragedy because folk don't see that.

Remember the old adage: 'Neither left nor right, but green!'

What a load of tactical carp that proved to be.

dave riley
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Racism and the “Overhunting” hypothesis | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant

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A quick review of the literature relative to Australia reflects the debate
although here the climate shift was very palpable during time of human
habitation.In the Australian context the argument jumps upon the indigenous
use of fire as a major hunting tool and cause of megafauna displacement.
However, I’m addicted to the problem of why the big critters were
supposedly selectively killed off before the smaller ones were hunted? By
that logic the elephant or the giraffe should not have survived the
development of homo sapiens.
Recent research on the human diet going way back also suggests that the
consumption of starches was more significant that previous indications
suggests –and even current studies of hunter gatherers or tribal peoples,
suggest that hunting for meat is not the basis of these cuisines. It takes
too much effort and encompasses so many maybes.
In over 200 years of European occupancy of Australia — the massive fauna
extinctions that have occurred aren’t due to conscious killings of targeted
species but habitat loss and consequent changes in ecology. The megafauna
would not have survived this…That begs the question of the role of fire
here — but fire was deployed here not to kill species but to husband them,
as it is built into the renewal of the landscape.
The much more recent occupation(1200-1300 AD) of New Zealand by the Maori
surely led to the killing off of the Moa and other large birds (megafauna)
— both from direct hunting and maybe the introduction of the Pacific Rat.
But then so too were smaller species driven to extinction there–in all 51
bird species.
This summary is useful:
http://austhrutime.com/marsupial_megafauna_extinction.htm


dave riley
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[Marxism] Australian politics...

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'Tis so ironic that the Abbott government should face a comeuppance over
the issue of folk having sex and cohabiting with one another. Who saw that
coming?
To add to the fall out, the Abbottoirs seem determined to dig their own
hole deeper.
When you look at it from one step away from the coal face who today
unconditionally supports the Abbott government? The mining industry and
climate change deniers. Religious and moral fundamentalists. Even those
with a keener austerity agenda must realize that the 'shock and awe' push,
so much the rage early on in the government's tenure, has floundered.
What sustains the government is racism -- a racism aided and abetted by the
ALP -- over the issues of refugees, 'national security' and aboriginal
disenfranchisement.
Even the big business media has begun to turn on Abbott.
That suggests, to me anyway, that what's missing from the options on the
table is a clear offer from the ALP that it can drive austerity and remake
industrial relations so that profits can be jigged up. Penalty rates come
to mind. Further welfare and health 'reforms'. A new way to package
tertiary education at our collective expense. A quickening of corporatism
and asset sell offs. And an emissions green wash that will still protect
the mining and power profiteers while allowing open slather Coal Seam Gas
mining.
On this last point, the Abbottoirs have painted themselves into a corner.
While the folk of this land tend to be patient  resilient, another horror
Summer like the last three on the weather and bush fire front is sure to
feed a keen angst. That the context of the UN Climate Conference occurs as
our Summer begins is not in Abbott's favor.
Nonetheless, the continuing break up of Australian electoral politics and
drift away from the duopoly ensures that there will surely be wild cards in
the mix. Not voting Abbott doesn't necessarily mean voting Greens or ALP.
The racism driven shift of the discourse to the right has surely had an
impact on the protest vote. That Abbott -- and Shorten, for that matter --
has been so right wing has suppressed a coarser conservative surge and for
now we haven't a true UKIP phenomenon among us.Just a gaggle of right wing
outfits playing boutique funny buggers.
Nonetheless, that the Maritime Union of Australia has won a bit of a
victory on the waterfront, changes the dynamic --as do the mobilizations
around same sex marriage and the attempt to close remote aboriginal
communities in Western Australia. The anti-CSG movement is still a potent
regional force.
Indeed our collective fatal flaw is racism.That's the divide that is
sapping our solidarity.Its potency for savage harm is clear over the antics
of the ALP lefts on the issue of boat turn backs.Clearly any left wing
pretensions are sabotaged and made complicit when concessions are made to
this racist push.Indeed, like the 1984 federal ALP conference that backed
uranium mining, this year's conference result may prove to be a watershed
moment for 'stay-in-and-fight' ALPers.
Their, and their party's, progressive credentials have been gutted.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of apologists.


dave riley
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[Marxism] AUDIO interview with Jim McIllroy: 'The Australian Socialist Alliance'.

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I recorded a phone interview with Jim Mcillroy for my podcast segment
published by  the Scottish Socialist Party. The topic is the
Australian Socialist Alliance.

Local podcast link
http://ratbagradio.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/blather-vox-pop-party-activist.html
Scottish Socialist Voice podcast site  (podcast episode goes out maybe
Tuesday, Glasgow time)
https://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/category/media/podcast/
Mp3 file direct
https://googledrive.com/host/0B7ju1_UYizz8czAySjVUSlVxVzQ/20150803%20McIlroy.mp3

In the background are the sounds of  my neighborhood -- especially
rainbow lorikeets.
A lorikeet looks like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_lorikeet



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Re: [Marxism] Socialist Alliance statement: Greece: This is a coup cancel the debt!

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Louis Proyect wrote:In fact, at the risk of damaging their reputation by
my endorsement, my views on Greece have largely been shaped by Socialist
Alliance analysis and reporting, particularly from Dick Nichols. '

The complication with the whole Greek debate is that it was bound to happen
anyway.If not now...it was a case of when -- because SYRIZA's success was
sure to congeal so many tactical issues and any mistakes, disastrous turns,
suspect manoeuvrings, or whatever would only serve to  agitate many on the
offshore left into rushing to  pass sentence.

I think the Alliance has been very considerate of the fluidity and
complexity of the situation as well as the broader dynamics. I think it a
pretty good statement that serves to anchor the party's perspectives and
promote ongoing solidarity work.

When you are out and about in places like Melbourne -- after *Athens* and
*Thessaloniki*, Melbourne has the third-largest Greek-speaking population
in the world -- with Oxi! GLW covers , I'm sure there is plenty of
discussion to be had on the street.

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[Marxism] The Lucky Country: transcript and audio

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From Australian to Scotland.   Here's the transcript and audio of my recent
podcast on Australian racism which goes out in a regular SSP Socialist
Voices' package.

 http://leftclickblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/the-lucky-country.html

The SSP media site is here:
https://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/category/media/


In today’s Socialist Voices, we have SSP Co Spokes people, Sandra Webster
and Colin Fox, Sandra on Paisley’s Sma Shot and Colin on the SNP’s strange
relationship with the monarchy. We have Don Mackeen on racism in the USA,
the confederate flag and of course the awful terrorist events in Charleston
last week.  We have Dr Bruce Scott speaking about Mental distress from a
socialist perspective; We have blogger and transgender woman, Amber Daniels
on her experiences, Matthew Geraghty on our democratic deficit, Australian
Socialist Alliance member Dave Riley on “the Lucky Country,” SNP activist,
Debra Torrance with a very emotional plea about the terrible events in the
Mediterranean, Calum Martin on the SSP alternative to the Council Tax – the
much fairer Scottish Service Tax and Aiden O’Rourke with a suggestion for
the SSP…


dave riley
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[Marxism] “Sexual Abuse… It’s Not Just In Aboriginal Communities”

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PADDY GIBSON -- Researcher from the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning
-- in this 2 part interview explores the reality of the Northern Territory
Intervention and the spin being generated over the closure of communities
in Western Australia.He also explains the significance of  the widespread
protest movement that has developed in response to the threatened  WA
closures.

I URGE you to listen to both audio interviews. Set time aside -- they're
short --or download the files because Gibson cuts through the bullshit to
explore the horrendous reality of the existence currently being imposed on
Aboriginal Australia and especially on Aboriginal children.

Gibson also offers a POV that undermines the ready liberal facade that
seeks to sweeten the current brutality of what's happening.

CAAMA (out of Alice Springs) is a great media resource that warrants your
attention.

http://caama.com.au/sexual-abuse-its-not-just-in-aboriginal-communities


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Re: [Marxism] Cyclones in both seas: huge cyclone demolishes Vanuatu.

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What we need -- not only for Australia but also for our whole region -- is
a national disaster management strategy so that emergency services -- fire
fighters, electricians, health personnel, temporary housing pods,
carpenters, builders, etc -- can be quickly and strategically deployed no
questions asked. Aligned that with a volunteer army akin to the Country
Fire Authority and ready use of the wasteful imperialistic indulgence known
as the Australian Defence Forces.

Indeed the 'army' et al needs to be retrained as a civil defence force
whose primary role is disaster management.. . and NOT war.

And a set plan that shields the victims from financial duress from either
mortgages, bank loans, unemployment alleviated or the collapse of small
business turnover. The welfare payment system at the moment is simply an
extension of the brutality of Newstart. Thereafter we need a corp of
engineers and an on-call and mobile workforce that can rebuild destroyed
housing and infrastructure in any region effected.

We also need state run insurance offices that put the victim ahead of the
profit motive, underwritten by the government itself. And an ongoing plan
to engineer defences against these extreme weather events.

Implicit is an acceptance that we are facing a climate change emergency
where these extreme weather events -- bushfire, storm, cyclone, flood,  --
are now routine *and to be expected.*

We either do that or abandon huge swathes of the country to the changing
elementsand where I live on the coast line, that's precisely what they
are considering so long as working people bear the brunt of the shift.It's
supposedly between us and our insurance company. Pity about the family
home.You're on your own and under neo-lib-think infrastructure builds
aren't an option.

Meanwhile across the Pacific:


   - Valparaiso fire: thousands evacuated as blaze threatens Chilean city
   
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/14/valparaiso-fire-thousands-evacuated-as-blaze-threatens-chilean-city
   The Greater Valparaíso
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Valpara%C3%ADso metropolitan area,
   including the neighbouring cities of Viña del Mar
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi%C3%B1a_del_Mar, Concón
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conc%C3%B3n, Quilpué
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilpu%C3%A9 andVilla Alemana
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Alemana, is the second largest in
   the country (803,683 inhabitants).

And on the Indian Ocean:

   - Cyclone Olwyn: Recovery efforts hampered as critical infrastructure
   knocked out in Carnarvon
   
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-14/carnarvon-critical-after-cyclone-olwyn/6319666
:

The cyclone follows a number of natural disasters that have wreaked havoc
 on Carnarvon in recent years, including a devastating flood in December
 2010 and January 2011 that caused $90 million damage.
 Before the 2010-2011 floods, they'd just gone through a huge drought, Mr
 Brandenburg said.
 Then there was a locust plague and then we had bushfires in 2012 so lots
 of crops were damaged.
 It's just been one after the other, now we've got the cyclone on top.
 It's a real struggle out there for the growers at this point in time, the
 last four to five years have been pretty horrendous.The impact of
 Cyclone Olwyn comes just days after growers celebrated the arrival of a
 historic river flow, following more than 12 months of drought.
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[Marxism] Latest Blathers: satirical talk audio

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The Blather lives here
http://ratbagradio.blogspot.com.au/
and where any good online audio is shared to the proletarian masses...

On average 'The Blather' is a 3 minute long meditation in satire-speak
that seeks to put the world to right.

Listen online or download...or subscribe.

Web home
http://ratbagradio.blogspot.com.au/
On iTunes
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Recently blathered:

*Terra Australis Proprietary Limited (on privatisation)
*You can take comfort in my presence.(on re-incarnation)
*Through my own fault (on federal budgets)
*Mr Spermatozoon finds a home (on sex)
*The Discreet Charm of Bosses (on the bourgeoisie)
*Every home should have one (on sexism)
*Coming Out (on being a socialist)
*Trespassers Prosecuted (on refugees)
*(If it could) a foetus speaks (on abortion)
*Keeping us safe from marauding queue jumpers (on refugees)
*The bit what's left (on profit and surplus value)
*Reconciliation (on racism)
*The Blather attends G20 (out and about in the G20 meetup)
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[Marxism] Un-Australin Online Quiz

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In the wake of the recent hostage incident in Sydney and in response
to the Islamophobic backlash , this graphic is proving popular:
http://www.punchratbag.org/2014/12/un-australian-online-quiz.html
I like it because it puts any respondent in an impossible position to
sustain any rationale for  their bigotry.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KfslfjfjSyQ/VJDrjaz01rI/H44/_16NXfAEW9g/s1600/20141217UnAustralian.jpg
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[Marxism] RatbagMedia is back

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'The Blather' podcast is surviving its rejig and can be found (and
subscribed to) at a few places online. Nothing over 10 minutes in
length with a 3 minute average for the satirical talk audio generated,
composed and verbally executed by Dave Riley. In the mix, a few
interviews -- both real and imagined.

*'The Blather' home page
http://ratbagradio.blogspot.com.au/

*'The Blather' on iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-blather/id102569297?mt=2

*'The Blather' on Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/dave-riley-15/

*'The Blather' on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/punchratbag

where it pairs up with  'Mr Punch  Prof Ratbaggy [Emeritus]' : home
of comics and mixed  graphic wares. Images generated from the same
stable as 'the Blather'
http://www.punchratbag.org/p/political-satire.html

*'The Blather' on Radio4All
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/search/

Also some notes on contemporary podcasting (that don't mention Walter Benjamin)
http://leftclickblog.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Podcasting

...but this one  does:

* 'Some notes on Walter Benjamin's essay -- The Work of Art in the Age
of Mechanical Reproduction'
http://leftclickblog.blogspot.com.au/2008/11/some-notes-on-watler-benjamins-essay.html
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Re: [Marxism] NYRB review of Naomi Klein

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CC:Socialists can't just criticize neoliberal and liberal responses.
We must actively support and build the movements that are confronting
the climate crisis.


What ecosocialists can learn from Naomi Klein
http://climateandcapitalism.com/2014/11/23/ecosocialists-can-learn-naomi-klein/
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Re: [Marxism] NYRB review of Naomi Klein

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The level of myopia flagged by some of the purists who seek to
denigrate Klein's perspective amazes me.

The ready penchant for 'one solution/revolution' is just indulgent
phrase mongering. The core question that Klein's book asks is what are
we going to do? and  how are we going to do it?

Asks...that's it's main contribution given that capitalism is THE problem.

That's the debate, the discussion right there. Now if we have an
agreement that the problem IS CAPITALISM  then we are way way ahead in
the green movement -- ideologically -- than we've been for yonks.

To argue that Klein isn't up to the task (whereas we Marxists are)
merely serves to marginalise the socialist revolutionary left. The
fact is that the Marxist left generally IS NOT up to the task because
it treats climate change as a sideline issue.

So what does that confront us with, what sort of program do we need to
generate  and promote?

You gotta have a revolution or else!' is not that program. In effect
a good bit of that essential program is embedded in Klein's book. She
may skirt some of the DIY but at least she has the guts to argue that
we are being screwed because of what is generic to  capitalism.

I think  Richard Smith's Climate Crisis, the Deindustrialization
Imperative and the Jobs vs. Environment Dilemma is an excellent
response to Klein, but even there he is standing on her shoulders, so
to speak, and using her POV to advance the discussion.

 
.http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27226-climate-crisis-the-deindustrialization-imperative-and-the-jobs-vs-environment-dilemma

Theres' this whole new discussion opening up that seeks to transcend
the social democratic program being proffered by the green parties
because these reformist greens are wedded to capitalism. Indeed, the
penny is dropping that they are -- or may indeed be --part of the
problem and NOT the solution.

Klein's book is reflective of that.





dave riley
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[Marxism] 'The Blather' is back: satirical talk audio

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I've re-activated my old podcast habits and 'The Blather' is back.

http://ratbagradio.blogspot.com.au/

Audio monologues and dialogues with some interviews occasionally thrown
into the mix.

*The Blather* is satirical talk audio generated, composed and verbally
executed by Dave Riley. It has , on occasion, been taken up by a couple of
radio stations.

Related is PunchRatbag where graphic montages and collages are pieced
together

http://www.punchratbag.org/
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Re: [Marxism] Further on Scotland

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I haven't the latest confirmed figures for other  pro-independence
parties but as folk abandon the Labour Party in Scotland and the
further independence dynamic kicks in:

SNP Membership Now at 100,000 Members!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alan/snp-membership-now-at-10-members_b_5935416.html

Bit there are these October 1st estimates:

http://socialistyes.tumblr.com/post/98883050447/scottish-national-party-membership-reached-75-000

Scottish National Party membership reached 75,000 today, tripling in
size since the referendum and becoming the United kingdom's 3rd
largest party. 75,000 members in a country of 5.3 million - compare
that with the UK-wide Conservative Party (2nd largest UK party) and
their 134,000 paying members in a country of 64.1 million.
Scottish Greens on last check last week had 6000 members, tripling in
size also since the referendum. It is very likely that number is
somewhere over 7500 at the time of writing this.
The Scottish Socialist Party membership on last check last week had
2100 members since the referendum and this is likely to have risen
above the 3000 mark since.
Scottish Labour do not release their membership figures but based on
publicly available financial records, demographics, pricing schemes
and guess work, they are estimated to have around 6000 paying
members.


ALSO: in the wake of the result (Sept 21st):

SENIOR SNP MSPs want to fight the next General Election on a joint
pro-independence platform with the Greens and the Scottish Socialist
Party.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/three-snp-msps-say-lets-fight-election-as-yes-alliance.25379994


dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] Further on Scotland

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Women for Independence Conference

'Women are recognising we have power ... the question is what are we
going to do with it?'
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/women-are-recognising-we-have-power-the-question-is-what-are-we-going-to-do-with-it.25506717
The venue was changed three times, as more women signed up to come
and each space was revealed to be not big enough.In the end,
yesterday, 1000 women converged on a church hall in Perth for the
first Women for Independence conferenceOut of the Yes campaign has
come a new expression of feminism, a new women's movement. Whole new
Women For Independence groups have formed, and hundreds of women have
joined.

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[Marxism] Membership surge: Green Party of England and Wales

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Green Surge: Membership of the Green Party up 45% in 2014 alone
http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/10/03/green-surge-membership-of-the-green-party-up-45-in-2014-alone/

Consistently polling at over 10% among 16-24 year olds, the Young
Greens have not held back from challenging the establishment, calling
for free education, affordable and publicly-owned transport, an end to
migrant-bashing and a halt to the continual attacks on young people.
The youth of Britain have been at the sharp end of austerity, and are
increasingly realising that none of the other parties have stood up to
the huge hike in tuition fees, cuts to youth services and EMA and the
dire lack of cheap housing for 'Generation Rent'.

The Young Greens' 100% growth this year is testament to a sea-change
going on in politics. New groups are springing up across the country
every week, campaigning on the issues that really matter to this
generation but that are ignored by the mainstream parties. We look
forward to next year's General Election, in which dozens of Young
Greens are expected to stand.

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Re: [Marxism] Further on Scotland

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Here are a few  references:

   - Scottish National party (SNP) SNP poised to become one of UK's largest
   political parties
   
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/22/snp-poised-become-largest-political-parties
   - A quick note on party memberships in the UK
   
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/adam-ramsay/quick-note-on-party-memberships-in-uk
   - The referendum has transformed Scotland. Labour should be afraid.
   (cites 2000 growth for the SSP)
   
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/adam-ramsay/quick-note-on-party-memberships-in-uk
   - Thousands join pro-independence parties following referendum (early
   figs for SSP: 1700)
   
http://news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/news/293040-thousands-join-pro-independence-snp-greens-and-ssp-after-referendum/

I got latest SSP growth figures by direct contact with SSP members.

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[Marxism] COMICS -- Political satire: collages/montages

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Since I'm upping my attention to making satirical graphics, herss' the
growing archive:
http://www.punchratbag.org/p/political-satire.html

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Re: [Marxism] Scottish radical independence campaigner on the Yes surge

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A lot of the seeming angst over Scottish independence seems ruled by a
sort of nationalist schematism.I find the purported 'left' arguments
for 'No' absolutely depressing, primarily because it is clear that the
Scottish secessionist dynamic is driven by a very keen rejection of
austerity and neoliberalism in the context of striving for something
better -- options open to debate.
It wasn't forgone that that would be its driver...but there you have it.
And the more Cameron and co intervene...the more that feature of
'Englishness' is exposed..Voting No! is voting for the status quo.

Aside from any number of possible theoretical arguments that could be
had, about nationalism and the bourgeois state, I'm wondering how the
unfolding Scottish experience relates to the question of Localism.
Localism has a core anarchism thread running through it --and
generally has been an abject failure despite its cooperative pretences
-- but I'm wondering if there's not a new localism in the mix?
Indeed if you strip the Scottish impetus of its nationalist rhetoric
aren't you getting a localised response to austerity?

Bernadette McAliskey hammers this point home ..and I think she has an
argument that warrants consideration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGddHDoOeno

My experience of Marxism and Marxists --post sixties anyway -- is that
they don't do 'local' very well at all. Indeed you can see the excuses
embedded for this failure in some of the left No! arguments over
Scottish independence.But go check your history books: a lot of
Marxian successes in the past were localised experiences, esp from
among ye olde Stalinist parties.

Here in Australia some of the Communist Party's major success in terms
of popular support occurred in regional areas.
I'm not saying I have a novel  POV nor am I offering a new template. I
am saying that we should watch the Scottish events with that aspect in
mind, rather than simply be blinkered by any coarse take on
nationalism.

dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] English radicals in support of Scottish independence

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Richard Fidler: Neil Davidson ... the correct standpoint of revolutionary
socialist strategy...:

http://www.socialistproject.org/the-left/for-a-yes-vote-without-illusions-on-the-scottish-independence-referendum/

You mean obscurantist correctness like this:

We need to begin with what I regard as fundamental principles. Socialists
cannot be nationalists for any nation, but especially not their own, *even
if their nation is oppressed*. What they can do is support certain national
movements and demands, up to and including secession. The basis for
deciding which-if any to support in any given situation is political, which
is not to say that it can be determined by the blunt instrument of the
'oppressed/oppressor' formula: there are situations where even oppressed
nationalities cannot be supported if their objectives are essentially part
of a greater imperialist strategy, as was the case for Pan-Slavism in 1848,
for Serbia in 1914 and for the Iraqi Kurds today. And Scotland is not, and
has never been, an oppressed nation.

As one commentator to Davidson's piece quite rightly wrote about his
argumentation:'For a yes vote without any illusions there is any point
voting yes?'

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Re: [Marxism] Scottish independence

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Richard Fidler: Neil Davidson ... the correct standpoint of revolutionary
socialist strategy...:

http://www.socialistproject.org/the-left/for-a-yes-vote-without-illusions-on-the-scottish-independence-referendum/

You mean obscurantist correctness like this:

We need to begin with what I regard as fundamental principles. Socialists
cannot be nationalists for any nation, but especially not their own, even
if their nation is oppressed. What they can do is support certain national
movements and demands, up to and including secession. The basis for
deciding which-if any to support in any given situation is political, which
is not to say that it can be determined by the blunt instrument of the
'oppressed/oppressor' formula: there are situations where even oppressed
nationalities cannot be supported if their objectives are essentially part
of a greater imperialist strategy, as was the case for Pan-Slavism in 1848,
for Serbia in 1914 and for the Iraqi Kurds today. And Scotland is not, and
has never been, an oppressed nation.

As one commentator to Davidson's piece quite rightly wrote about his
argumentation:'For a yes vote without any illusions there is any point
voting yes?'

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Re: [Marxism] Feedback on Cancer, Politics and Capitalism

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The problems with the august 'China Study' are many: sloppy citations,
cherry-picked references, omission of data that contradicted the thesis,
and recommendations that went beyond the data.
DENISE MINGER's critique of 'THE CHINA STUDY' is sharp and warrants reading
before accepting Campbell's  argument in toto..
http://rawfoodsos.com/the-china-study/.
There's a lot of discussion about nutrition today but relying on T. Colin
Campbell is complicated by the vegan or vegetarian POV as 'The China Study'
has been deployed as a core argument against the consumption of  animal
products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_product,So there's  more in
play than what seems to be.

The jury is still out on this questiona question that is constantly
being held hostage  to  ethics rather than nutrition.

Not eating dead animals  may be a preference...but let's not layer that
penchant with justifications  that abhors scrutiny...and  The China Study'
warrants scrutiny.

dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] The film On the Waterfront and working class studies

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I don't like 'On the Waterfront' at all. I think it overblown and
melodramatic and extremely 'Method' indulgent. So I fail to see the
obsession.

A much more interesting film is  the later 'The Hustler'(1961) which
kinda rounds off the HUAC stuff and embraces a sort of nihilism.  I
think it's truer both of the writer/director , Robert Rossen, and the
times than Waterfront's pretensions. (I also think Piper Laurie's
perfomance/role is one of the great acting offerings in film drama.)

There's' a brutal tragedy at the heart of 'The Hustler'  (Rosen's for
one) that 'Waterfront' tries to side step or dim by dint of rhetoric.
Afterall, I think, 'Waterfront' self asserts the good life of good
people doing good deeds when 'The Hustler' stays in struggling
reality.

If you want a handle on the period of the fifties I reckon the Film
Noir stuff is much more reflective of the real world than a lot of the
other films. Esp the B grade noir.

 Seriously folks -- when you get to 'East of Eden' -- his next film --
you have to wonder what planet Kazan was on. And if Kazan wasn't
HUAC'ed who'd bother? Thats' it's marketing niche, right?

Kazan gave the American people melodrama to suit the fifties backlash.

Cross the Atlantic and instead you get burgeoning 'kitchen sink' stuff
and the core dialogue in say, Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger' is at the
heart of that fifties angst.

CLIPThere aren't any good, brave causes left. If the big bang does
come, and we all get killed off, it won't be in aid of the
old-fashioned grand design. It'll just be for the Brave
New-nothing-very-much-thank-you. About as pointless and inglorious as
stepping in front of a bus. /CLIP

'This Sporting Life' , 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning', 'A Taste
of Honey' , 'The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner'...

Even 'Sweet Smell of Success'  (1957)-- classic US noir -- is much
better at its business of judging capitalism than 'On the Waterfront'.

dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] Where to now for 'Bust the Budget' in Australia?

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I'm not in the business of denigrating the Greens. I think Gary is right
that our Greens are  not  a neo-liberal project in the sense that the LNP
and the ALP definitely are.

But that said, what's the likely strength  of this  left around Greenland
and Bandt ? Esp given that on the major disputes it has rolled over for
the sake of consensus...and chooses to ignore spectral pragmatism of the
Tasmanian option.

The recent NSW members meeting organised to discuss the Milne refusal to
block the Abbott budget
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-greens-branded-awesomely-stupid-over-moves-to-block-supply-20140606-39ojp.html
suggests that the momentum is not strong given that the core budget issue
was a biggy when this fuel tax debate is really just fallout
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greens-in-turmoil-as-grassroots-members-push-for-new-fuel-tax-backflip-20140702-3b8tn.html

But the consequence is that the Greens have lost traction on the left
because -- as Andrew Wilkie has bluntly said, Labor and the Greens have
been huffing and puffing against the budget but when it came to the crunch
and an opportunity to put words into actions, they sided with the
government.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/56744

That's absolutely true. -- and people KNOW it. Even Greens members.

This isn't a  longed for opening to the Left '..not yet, anyway.But it
does suggest that there is motion to the left of the Greens that is
unwilling to be drawn into their electoralist framework...and , in a sense,
they've lost their carte blanche. Indeed if it wasn't for their steady
state hold on the refugee issue their credibility would be much less at the
moment.

But with over  10,000 members  the 'Greens' aren't something to ignore or
dismiss:
Membership figures for the Greens, seen by *The Age*, show that the party
grew from 1538 members in 1998-99 to 10,429 in 2009-10. The party's
membership is dwarfed by Labor, which says it had 37,500 members in
2009-10, but the ALP's membership is in decline, especially since its most
recent peak, around the time of Kevin Rudd's election, when there were just
under 50,000 members.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/greens-membership-tops-1-as-labor-feels-the-heat-20110221-1b2i3.html#ixzz36s17T794

..and many people turn to the Greens as
their initial political engagement beyond the main parties. And as Rudolf
Bahro said, 'The Greens are the last hesitation to socialism. --and even
with all this neo-liberal pressure I think thats;' still absolutely true.

Ultimately, the Greens' core conundrum is strategic. How do they
move forward and impact on Australian politics?  While we may know the
answer to that , the tactical reality hasn't registered more generally.
 The Greens have chosen to align themselves with either of the main parties
rather than turn to and consistently rely on the streets and the
mobilisations...and that's been the steady trajectory played
out variously in different states.

The tragedy is that in my experience I can cite past ALP MPs
and senators who were day to day very much more supportive of the mass
movements, of protest actions outside parliament, of campaign committees
and organisations, of trade unions, than the Greens gang are today. So I
think we need to consider the Greens in a broader historical threshold
of radicalism as 'NOT being Liberal or ALP' or NOT neo-liberal  isn't
really the  criteria we should be held hostage to... As a
left alternative to Laborism they are a failed project...already.

dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] Where to now for 'Bust the Budget' in Australia?

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Gary, you're so right:The Greens were faced with an open goal after the
budget, and they should have called the Labor Party's bluff, and forced
them to be the only ones to pass the supply bills.

If the Greens had done that -- and identified so strongly with the rest of
us -- they would have been made electorally  and their '3rd Party' fortunes
would have been guaranteed. So I reckon we just had a 'moment' in
Australian politics that will still be played out over the next few years.
IF the Greens had rejected the budget in toto there would have been a major
shift in the groundswell but instead they sided with the bosses.

As the front office spin goes:The Greens are the only party to be powered
from the bottom-up, engaging members and supporters every step of the way.
We have the courage to stand with you to create a more caring society...
It looks a tad hallow at the moment, even hypocritical.

The other element in the mix is a discernable  shift within some trade
unions. It isn't huge  -- not yet anyway --  but its' clear that the ranks
are a bit cheesed off that many of their officials have been mum over the
budget and have merely channeled  Bill Shorten's platitudes.At last
weekends rally here in Brisbane there was a flagged trade union presence --
esp ETU, MUA, CPSU and NTEU. And what was really interesting was that this
recent platform was way to the left of the one last time and the attendees'
responses were absolutely in sync with it.

Talk about hanging on every word!

There was no organised Greens presence either -- unlike last time.

The anger  is very tangible...and my reading is that folk are in a sort
of campaign mode as they realize that one-off rallies are insufficient to
the task before us. Maybe we had advantages here in Brisbane in terms of
the coalition that's leading this, but we know that the 2003 Iraq
protest syndrome haunts the movements -- the one-off thing followed by
abatement. The complication this time around is that we
aren't confronted with an offshore issue -- but a massive change to our
collective every day lives and the future both of ourselves and of our
 children. Its' even a bit more than a 'hip pocket' response as the budget
brutality seeds so much of our existence.

And having just recently ridded the chambers in most states of the ALP
calling those dogs back isn't really cause for excitement --neither
nationally nor in any state like Queensland.

So folk are facing a conundrum...at the same time as the chronic cynicism
and anti-politics attitudes pervades the population, the community has to
deal with the complication  of 'what is to be done?'  if we can't rely to
the pollies to do itYes: not even the Greens!

Of course in the sweep of things -- the neoliberal arc stretching back to
Hawke and Keating,back 30 years,  herein we have a bit of a fight back mood
that not only threatens the Laborist consensus but maybe the Greens carte
blanche. How that plays out is sure to be interesting. What potential is
there for industrial action? What campaign forms will be engineered? What
sectors will sign up to activity? How much leeway has Labor (or the Greens
for that matter) got to sabotage a more radical edge to this and an extra-
parliamentary dynamic?

Of course, any motion around this undermines the racism embedding in the
refugee push...which is a kingpin of the federal government ideological
credibility.The racism   Labor and LNP helped create may not be sufficient
to prop  them up among what should have been loyal sectors of
the population. But I expect we'll get a lot more of the asylum boat
shebang in Howard style mode.

dave riley

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[Marxism] Interview with Damian Alegria - FMLN representative in Salvadoran Congress

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Informative and useful interview conducted by Warwick fry:

Damian Alegria  talks about the trajectory of the FMLN under the presidency
of Salvador Sanchez Ceren...

http://vensol.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/interview-with-damian-alegria-fmln.html

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Re: [Marxism] Towards a Marxist Animalism » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

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 I suggest that a much better materialist take on the Animalist issues is
carried in John Berger's 'Why look at animals?

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/gustafson/FILM%20161.F08/readings/berger.animals%202.pdf

As Berger points out domesticated animals are an extension of human culture
and production which also means that their existence is contained and
determined by that relationship. Contemporary cows, sheep, pet dogs,and
horses, etc are artefacts of our ongoing social and economic  existence.
Despite what may be the analogies in terms of exploitation, 'liberation' of
such animals (an act only humans can offer these creatures  as they can't
usually do it themselves) is tantamount to the negation of their existence.

While a domestic pig may  revert and become a boor, and a dog may return to
the feral pack(although I don't know how chihuahuas are gonna get on in the
wilds) -- in effect we are sponsoring ferality separate from the
determinants of nature. 'Liberation' of animals is no way analogous to the
'liberation' of humans...It's a obscene take on Marxism to try to marry the
two perspectives as at Marxism's core is the collective self actualization
of humans by their own activity.

Is that 'anthropocentric'? I guess it is if you are into name calling --
but then to angst over that misses the core holistic materialism in
Marxism, its empowering ecology.

We can DECIDE not to eat or keep animals -- but that's our choice as a
culture and a species.It is not a political imperative-- just a question of
ethics -- determined by our own social and economic relations not by
considerations  inherently animalist. Just as  abortion is not an ethical
question for Marxists but one determined by our own social, gender and
economic relations.

The problem with an animalist perspective is that it is an ethical
construct and as a topic of debate within Marxism I find its argument
suspect. Nonetheless, comprehending the recent rise on animalist ethics is
a fascinating historical topic as it certainly does reflect how much our
food  has been commodified and produced under conditions of increased
exploitation both of other animals(eg:factory farming of poultry, feedlot
beef,etc)  and of nature (eg: GMOs, nitrate leaching, pesticides,etc). So
it's roots are tangible and have concrete substance in the  productive
process. Indeed 13% of Americans claim they're vegetarian.

[For the wrap up world wide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country]

Another aspect that bugs me is the suggestion, like some Nirvana focused
Buddhist, that the moral statue of socialism rises the more Vegan it
becomes.I have a problem with that because  it pursues  a crude reading of
Marx which c hooses  to celebrate civilization  as being a higher human
condition than 'primitive' hunter gatherer societies. Ye olde Marxist
historical hierarchy thing.The presumed staircase. A tick box approach to
judging social systems where any one short of socialism is inherently
better for humans than the mode that preceded it.. But the hunter gatherer
relationship with nature and animals especially -- was not like
contemporary animalist beliefs at all.  Animals were exploited for food or
fibre. These societies were beholden to Nature and in sync with its
tolerances and sustainability but that' was never  equated with the tenets
of modern animalist  thought which idealises what  our attitude to animals
should be.

Of relevance is the seeming contradictory growth of  Veganism in Israel
despite the Occupation
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.557912
and this recent published clincher, again in Haretz:The Nazis were Vegans
too
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.597597
which raises a  lot of 'ethical' questions.

On the materialist question of whether we no longer need to keep animals in
captivity -- I'm very much on the side of affirmation because a sustainable
agricultural system has to be  dependent on animal inputs otherwise we must
persevere with fossil sources for traction and fertiliser.(Good example of
the options: Cuban agriculture during the 'Special Period')


And Marx saw this clearly when he raised the question of the Metabolic
Rift.--grain, fruit and veg production  need animal inputs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_rift



dave riley

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Re: [Marxism] An Unexpected Reason Americans Are Overweight | Alternet

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While I'm sure that growth hormones and such are problematical, a
complication with the obesity debate is that it is often skewed by US food
production habits. While the yankees may be the fattest population on the
planet that is changing as a recent Lancet report confirms.

http://www.sciencecodex.com/the_lancet_most_comprehensive_global_study_to_date_shows_obesity_rates_climbing_worldwide-134543

Worldwide, there has been a startling increase in rates of obesity and
overweight in both adults (28% increase) and children (up by 47%) in the
past 33 years, with the number of overweight and obese people rising from
857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013, according to a major new
analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, published in The
Lancet.
However, the rates vary widely throughout the world with more than half of
the world's 671 million obese individuals living in just ten countries--the
USA (more than 13%), China and India (15% combined), Russia, Brazil,
Mexico, Egypt, Germany , Pakistan, and Indonesia, and (listed in order of
number of obese individuals).
Over the past three decades, the highest rises in obesity levels among
women have been in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Honduras and Bahrain, and
among men in New Zealand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the USA.
In high-income countries, some of the highest increases in adult obesity
prevalence have been in the USA (where roughly a third of the adult
population are obese), Australia (where 28% of men and 30% of women are
obese), and the UK (where around a quarter of the adult population are
obese).

My point is that explaining this international phenomenon isn't an easy
call, reduced to a few epidemiological elements. That the rise dovetails
with the victories of neoliberalist ideology is an interesting association.

As one commentator remarked:

Commenting on the implications of the study, Professor Klim McPherson from
Oxford University in the UK writes, An appropriate rebalancing of the
primal needs of humans with food availability is essential, which would
entail curtailing many aspects of production and marketing for food
industries. To prevent unsustainable health consequences, BMI needs to
return to what it was 30 years ago. Lobstein calculated that to reduce BMI
to 1980 levels in the UK would require an 8% reduction in consumption
across the country, costing the food industry roughly £8*7 billion per
year.

And that, in itself, tells us heaps about the needs of capitalism to not
only engorge us, but foster addictions...separate from issues of industrial
 agriculture.

Another feature I think is that with its control over every aspect of our
menu, capitalism has alienated us from our food and the wisdom of
'traditional diets' have been lost. Increasing commodification of  food has
reduced it to so many 'stared' or featured components. and the holistic
wisdom of a whole cuisine is  being lost. This begins to explain why
indigenous people suffer massive rates of diabetes, heart disease and
obesity in transiting from their traditional tucker to the western diet.
The same phenomenon is being recorded as the Mediterranean diet ('diets'
actually) loses traction in Mediterranean countries.
See background Here:http://dietamediterranea.com/
Indeed when you consider traditional diets -- diets that have some generic
standing measured in hundreds if not thousands of years -- they don't
necessary have many  'components' in common. How much meat, the amount of
starch, or fiber, of seafood, of whatever...varies so much -- ethnicity to
ethnicity/culture to culture, region to region.

I think the food ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan does have a useful argument
 when he merges acculturation, diet, environment and genetics.You only have
to consider lactose intolerance as a marker of this prospect., and then
note that the folk like the Turkish peoples, worked around their 30%
penchant by inventing yogurt and how that product is deployed in meals, as
their neighbours may use wine or olives or vinegar. Those of us from a
Celtic background come from a cuisine contained by milk, potatoes, and
oatmeal for three hundred years and from all accounts did pretty well until
the supplies dried up...and we all know  about the famine.

But get a load of this. Indians may be diabetes prone (another genetic
marker) but:

India is bracing for a massive surge in type 2 diabetes, with credible
estimates putting the number of sufferers in the next 20 years at more than
100 million. It is a frightening phenomenon that threatens to overwhelm the
country's health system, according to a leading diabetes specialist in
India. Between them, India and China now have more than half of the world's
type 2 diabetics.