date:20090801

Never heard of this guy before, but look at this life.  Worthy of a decent
biography.

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

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Post

Tell me exactly where "majority rule" and "democracy" figured into the 
events in the USSR after 1928, or even before...

Majority of what? Democracy where? The party, in an economy that was 
characterized by Lenin as a "petty-producer" economy? In the 3rd 
International?

Plus there's more than majority rule and democracy going on there-- there 
was the isolation of the USSR, the defeat of the workers revolution in 
Germany, Hungary, etc.

That's the historical, material analysis that has to be undertaken when 
evaluating "isms" and "enemies"

- Original Message - 
From: 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 7:35 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Post




YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Venezuela: Class struggle heats up over battle for workers' control

I'm more optimistic than the article and I agree that if the popular
movement pressures the right-wing of the PSUV to build, genuine structural
changes, that we are looking at something more than caudilloism.I have hope
that this can happen, but the article is important since it reminds us that
the Chavez's regime is part "crony capitalism" with a segment of
the indigenous bourgeoisie and military elites benefiting greatly.  It also
exposes the "250,000 new cooperatives" claim.

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 9:41 PM, Darrel Furlotte
wrote:

> Prior to April 2002 I probably would have been in general agreement with
> what I was able to read of the article (before terminal fatigue set in
> because of its sectarian abstraction). The massive, popular resistance to
> the coup opened my eyes and mind about LEARNING what was happening in
> Venezuela. Fred's article is a real contribution to that process. These
> anarchist comrades (it doesn't matter that they are in Venezuela) don't
> seem
> to have had a similar experience. They still see "revolution" totally
> through 19th century ideological blinkers.
> Darrel

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Venezuela: Class struggle heats up ove r battle for workers' control

2009-08-01 Thread Darrel Furlotte

Prior to April 2002 I probably would have been in general agreement with 
what I was able to read of the article (before terminal fatigue set in 
because of its sectarian abstraction). The massive, popular resistance to 
the coup opened my eyes and mind about LEARNING what was happening in 
Venezuela. Fred's article is a real contribution to that process. These 
anarchist comrades (it doesn't matter that they are in Venezuela) don't seem 
to have had a similar experience. They still see "revolution" totally 
through 19th century ideological blinkers.
Darrel

--
From: "Bhaskar Sunkara" 
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 7:59 PM
To: "Darrel Furlotte" 
Subject: Re: [Marxism]Venezuela: Class struggle heats up over battle for 
workers' control

> While we are on the topic I would like to highly recommend this article:
> http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/the-revolution-delayed-10-years-of-hugo-chavezs-rule/
> It's by some anarchist comrades, but that doesn't mean their points can be
> lightly dismissed (they're Venezuelan).
>
> ~ Bhaskar
 



YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Venezuela: Class struggle heats up o ver battle for workers’ control

While we are on the topic I would like to highly recommend this article:
http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/the-revolution-delayed-10-years-of-hugo-chavezs-rule/
It's by some anarchist comrades, but that doesn't mean their points can be
lightly dismissed (they're Venezuelan).

~ Bhaskar

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Venezuela: Class struggle heats up o ver battle for workers’ control

2009-08-01 Thread nada

Singularly the most fascinating piece of news from Venezuela I've read 
in almost a year. I urge everyone to read the entire article.

David


YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Venezuela: Class struggle heats up o ver battle for workers’ control

2009-08-01 Thread Fred Fuentes

Venezuela: Class struggle heats up over battle for workers’ control

Federico Fuentes, Caracas
25 July 2009
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/804/41392

On July 22, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez again declared his
complete support for the proposal by industrial workers for a new
model of production based on workers’ control.

This push from Chavez, part of the socialist revolution, aims at
transforming Venezuela’s basic industry. However, it faces resistance
from within the state bureaucracy and the revolutionary movement.

Presenting his government’s “Plan Socialist Guayana 2009-2019”, Chavez
said the state-owned companies in basic industry have to be
transformed into “socialist companies”.

The plan was the result of several weeks of intense discussion among
revolutionary workers from the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana
(CVG). The CVG includes 15 state-owned companies in the industrial
Guayana region involved in steel, iron ore, mineral and aluminium
production.

The workers’ roundtables were established after a May 21 workshop,
where industrial workers raised radical proposals for the socialist
transformation of basic industry.

Chavez addressed the workshop in support of many of the proposals.

But events between the May 21 workshop and Chavez’s July 22 recent
announcement reveal much of the nature of the class struggle inside
revolutionary Venezuela.

Chavez’s announcement is part of an offensive launched after the
revolutionary forces won the February 15 referendum on the back of a
big organisational push that involved hundreds of thousands of people
in the campaign.

The vote was to amend the constitution to allow elected officials to
stand for re-election — allowing Chavez, the undisputed leader of the
Venezuelan revolution, to stand for president in 2012.

With oil revenue drying up due to the global economic crisis, the
government is using this new position of strength to tackle corruption
and bureaucracy, while increasing state control over strategic
economic sectors. This aims to ensure the poor are not made to pay for
the crisis.

Workers’ control

On May 21, Chavez publicly threw his lot in with the Guayana workers,
announcing his government’s granting of demands for better conditions
in state-owned companies and the nationalisation of a number of
private companies whose workers were involved in industrial disputes.

“When the working class roars, the capitalists tremble”, Chavez told the

To chants of “this is how you govern!”, Chavez announced his agreement
with a series of measures proposed by workers.

However, like an old train that begins to rattle loudly as it speeds
up, more right-wing sectors within the revolutionary movement also
began to tremble.

With each new attack against the political and economic power that the
capitalist class still holds in Venezuela — and uses to destabilise
the country — the revolution is also forced to confront internal
enemies.

The radical measures announced at the May 21 workshop were the result
of the workers discussion over the previous two days.

Chavez called on workers to wage an all-out struggle against the
“mafias” rife in the management of state companies.

Chavez then designated planning minister Jorge Giordani and labour
minister Maria Cristina Iglesias, who both played a key role in the
workshop, to follow up these decisions by establishing a series of
workers’ roundtables in the CVG industries.

The CVG complex is on the verge of collapse in large part due to the
privatisation push by pre-Chavez governments in the 1990s. State
companies were run down in preparation to be sold off cheaply.

In the Sidor steel plant, for example, the number of workers dropped
from more than 30,000 to less than 15,000 before it was privatised in
1998.

Chavez’s 1998 election stopped further privatisation. But the
government has had to confront large scale corruption within the CVG,
continued deterioration of machinery and, more recently, the sharp
drop in prices of aluminium and steel.
The plan drafted up by workers and given to Chavez on June 9 raised
the possibility of “converting the current structural crisis of
capitalism” into “an opportunity” for workers to move forward in “the
construction of socialism, by assuming in a direct manner, control
over production of the basic companies in the region”.

The report set out nine strategic lines — including workers’ control
of production; improvement of environmental and work conditions; and
public auditing of companies and projects.

Measures proposed include the election of managers and management
restructuring; collective decision-making by workers and local
communities; the creation of workers’ councils; and opening companies’
books.

The measures aim to achieve “direct control of production without
mediations by a bureaucratic structure”.

The report said such an experience of workers’ control would
undoubtedly act as an example for workers in “companies in the public
sector nationally, such as those l

[Marxism] Post

2009-08-01 Thread Waistline2

>> Well there's a real concrete, historical, materialist analysis. And it
includes the very important, never to be forgotten, "enemy of the people"
label.<<

Comment

In my late teens I was labeled "an enemy of the people" by a couple of gys
in the local Black Panther Party for about six months. Back then the BBP
had a huge sign outside its headquater house shouting "United Front Against
Fascism." I would visit the office on a regular basis because they always
manage to attrach absolutely beatufiul young women and I was dating one of
the girls. Don't get me wrong, our group have beautiful young women, but they
were like blood sisters and I have never had a desire to date my blood
sister.

I was an enemy of the people because off and on I would do day labor or
work in one of the factories for 3 - 5 months . . . . then hang out and when
broke get another job. Some of the brothers felt I was not revolutionaries
enough because I refuse to wear those stupid black leather jackets and "tam"
caps. Or adopt the "off the pig jargon."

We always felt the slogan "arm yourself or harm yourself" was sufficient.

Under Soviet conditions being an "enemy of the people" was not pleasant . .
. I suppose. People make choices about their politics.

See, when the state is the property owner, being late for work is against
crime or infringement against the state. Given the environment of the Stalin
era, one not familiar with the art of politics and real theory and how
party politics work, could end up in trouble.

I do not suffer from that problem. Party politics are simple to navigate if
one is honest and truly believes in democracy and majority will. When you
feel you are right and outvoted it is best to shut up, go to work and make
sure you do your job and party work. If all you want to do is argue and
find "fundamental principle differences with everything" you would find
yourself in trouble with the local party organization. Not so much out of
"irreconcilable differences" but because the workers do not like to meet over
45
minutes. If you argue too much and lengthen the meeting someone was going to
report you as an enemy of the people to get you put out of the meeting.

Then you end up in the gulag. :-)

Still arguing about nothing.

WL.

**A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy
steps!
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222846709x1201493018/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=115&bcd
=JulystepsfooterNO115)

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Barbara Epstein and MR

(posted to PEN-L by Doug Henwood)

I've just been informed (by someone who wants to remain anonymous) that 
Barbara Epstein resigned from the board of MR because of the nonsense 
that Yoshie has been posting to MRZine about Iran. When she made her 
complaints known to the board, they made it clear that they supported 
Yoshie's work, so Epstein felt that she had no choice but to quit. She's 
not interested in campaigning against what she still regards as a 
venerable institution, but she feels that Yoshie's position on Iran has 
so discredited the organization that she couldn't abide a formal 
association anymore.

Though I'm just the messenger on this, I completely agree with Epstein. 
Defending a regime that has jailed and killed thousands of socialists 
and Marxists is a disgraceful thing for a socialist/Marxist publication 
to do.

Doug


YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] The U.S. makes nothing but weapons of war

2009-08-01 Thread Pat Costello


http://jontaplin.com/2009/08/01/national-security-state/


If ever we needed evidence of the Cost of Empire, Floyd Norris’s scary chart of 
Durable Goods Production from the U.S. Economy is it.

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/07/31/business/20090801_CHARTS_GRAPHIC.html

We have so hollowed out our industrial plant that the only thing we are now 
producing is weapons of war. The great British Historian Arnold Toynbee’s 
theory about the decline of the Roman Empire has lessons for our current age.

The economy of the Empire was basically a Raubwirtschaft or plunder economy 
based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. The 
Empire relied on booty from conquered territories (this source of revenue 
ending, of course, with the end of Roman territorial expansion) or on a pattern 
of tax collection that drove small-scale farmers into destitution (and onto a 
dole that required even more exactions upon those who could not escape 
taxation), or into dependency upon a landed élite exempt from taxation. With 
the cessation of tribute from conquered territories, the full cost of their 
military machine had to be borne by the citizenry.

This I know. We cannot continue on this course of decline. While many of the 
elite escape taxation with their brilliant “tax shelter” accountants, the 
middle class (Rome’s “small scale farmers”) are being asked to shoulder the 
economic burden of empire.


  


YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Post: Common Sense Answers: anti-communism

2009-08-01 Thread Mark Lause

Note in the question that "capitalism" is the default and notably NOT
"totalitarian."  These are the sort of things peddled by various
conservative and neo-con education think-tanks.

ML


YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Capitalism, Communism and fascism

2009-08-01 Thread Lüko Willms

Rachel Ambler (ramb...@suddenlink.net) wrote on 2009-07-31 at 23:06:32 in  
about [Marxism] post:
> 
> 
> Consider the totalitarian ideologies - Fascism, Nazism, Communism. How 
much were they products of driving forces of industrialization, science, 
democratization, and Enlightenment thought, and how much were they 
departures from those forces?

  this is a meddle of terms belonging to very different areas. 

  Industrialisation refers to the actual material revolution of our productive 
apparatus, of how we produce our necessities and reproduce ourselves and 
our means of production of our necessities and means of production. 

  The development of science is driven by industrialisation and more 
generally by the needs to improve our ability to interact with nature (we 
humans are part of nature) to produce and reproduce our livelyhood -- one 
needs to understand the forces of nature we want to use and master to 
produce and reproduce our livelyhood and build machinery and so on to do it 
more efficiently. 

  With industrialisation in the feudal Europe of the Middle Ages came the 
bourgeois, who is an individual owner of some pieces of means of production 
(machines, buildings, land) as opposed to the feudal landlord who is a vassal 
of a greater feudal landlord who is a vassal of a larger feudal landlord and 
so on until they found a supreme commander of it, who no longer recognizes 
another master above him, except some god who is supposed to have given 
the command to this human and his children and grandchildren. This feudal 
order is actually the civil form of a centralised military organisation, 
passing 
control and command from the top to the bottom, which is supposed to 
defend the system and especially the toilers, whose surproduct is 
appropriated by the feudal masters, but which is actually used as the 
instrument of the ruling class to suppress the productive, working classes. 
See the various peasent revolts in England (1381) or Germany (1525). 
 
  Now the individual bourgeois aka capitalist has to expand his capital at the 
detriment of all his competitors, and this requires a different form of 
political 
order, which does reflect the individualistic aspect of the capitals situation 
as 
a fraction of all capital in the hand of one individual. It requires what they 
call democracy, but in the end this is also nothing else but the instrument of 
the rule of the ruling class over the working classes, those who produce all 
the wealth of this earth appropriated by the ruling class. 

  And capital has to expand. If it doesn't grow, it perishes. So it has the 
tendency on the one hand to draw more and more people into its workforce 
as proletarians, as the class which does produce all and owns none of its 
product, and which is free, also in the sense of being free from the control 
over its tools. 

   This is also a process which converts a originally artisanal process of 
producing our material production into one which is more and more a process 
encompassing _all_ of society, i.e. a more and more _collective_ form of 
producing our necessities -- and beyond, in trusts spanning the whole 
planet, and even among separate capitalist entities (see the notion of "just in 
time").  The process gets so much socialized that the watchdogs of capitalist 
property work to introduce artificially a competition into a process which has 
become a collective one long time ago. Private property is today nothing 
more but an obstacle to the rational organisation of our common collective 
production, worldwide. 

   So, capital can't exist without producing its own gravediggers, the 
proletarians, which at the same time represent this new collective form of 
producing (and distributing the product) encompassing more and more all of 
humanity, and not only the inhabitants of an isolated village. 
 
  This communality of our production, which is prevented from functioning 
only by a parcellised private property, has been called "communism", from 
the latin word for common. "Communism" was also the word to name the 
political movement of bringing this reality into the consciousness of the 
participants, and to organize the political will of a majority of humanity, and 
be it only within the confines of one single nation, to take state power into 
the hands of working people so that we could transform the way we work 
together, and bring it into conformity with the reality of the material 
production process. 

  One way how this contradiction between the productive forces and the 
production relations is visible today is in the difficulties of transforming 
products of artistic and scientific creativity into commodities so that they 
can 
be sold as commodities with individual capitalist enriching themselves by the 
product of artists and scientists. As long as it required the packaging of such 
products into a material form of books, or disks or CDs, this was easy, but in 
digital form it is so simple an

[Marxism] Post: Common Sense Answers: anti-communism

2009-08-01 Thread Waistline2


The word “communism” is scary. It has power (it generates fear and 
hatred),  inspires lifelong commitment, and arouses intense debate. Americans 
have 
strong  opinions about communism and most consider themselves 
anti-Communist. 
 
This anti-communism is puzzling. By definition communism is an economic  
system that benefits the vast majority. Webster's New Universal Unabridged  
Dictionary defines communism as an economic theory or system of the ownership 
of  all means of production (and distribution) by the community or society, 
with all  members of the community or society sharing in the work and the 
products.
 
Capitalism, on the other hand, is an economic system that benefits the few  
at the expense of the many. Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary  
defines capitalism as the economic system in which all or most of the means 
of  production and distribution, as land, factories, railroads, etc. are 
privately  owned and operated for profit, originally under fully competitive 
conditions: it  has been generally characterized by a tendency toward 
concentration of wealth,  and in its later phase, by the growth of great 
corporations, increased  governmental control, etc.
 
Myths about Communism
 
Anti-communism amongst most Americans is based in a misunderstanding  of 
communism and capitalism. Like other ideologies of the ruling class, such as  
white supremacy, anti-communism subverts the development of class 
consciousness  and ties the working class to the dominant class. The media, 
politicians,  educational establishments, religious institutions and other 
purveyors 
of ideas  have a full arsenal of anti-Communist myths and lies, including: 
(1) Capitalism  equals democracy, (2) Communism doesn't work, (3) Communism is 
the same as  Marxism. Let’s examine these misconceptions.
 
Myth # 1 That capitalism and democracy are one and the same. 
 
Democracy is a political system or a political form of the state. 
 
Capitalism is an economic system. To equate one with the other is like  
equating factories and religion, one is the economic basis of society, or the  
organization of human labor + machines + a external energy source. The other 
-  religion, is a belief system or in the realm of ideology and the 
superstructure. 
 
For instance, when we American’s speak about Jeffersonian democracy in our  
history, we means a country organized on the basis of the small and large 
land  holders or independent farmers with political rights as property 
holders. These  rights allows one to elect government officials and to own the 
means to publish  one views in newspapers. Hidden from view is the economic 
relations upon which  sits Jeffersonian democracy. These small and large 
landowners would include the  Slave Oligarchy, with all have the right to 
exchange 
their privately produced  products in the market place. Capitalist 
relations are the economic material  upon which was to sit a political form of 
democracy called Jeffersonian  democracy. 
 
The facts of American life after the Civil War and the defeat of the  
Reconstruction governments was that capitalism in agriculture existed with a  
political form of rule called fascism in the core areas of the South. From  
1890  up to the Civil Rights Movement was one of the darkest and most  brutal 
times in our post Civil War history, with very little to no democracy or  
democratic rights for the blacks. 
 
Today, by saying democracy and capitalism are the same, the U.S. is able to 
 make it appear that defense of democracy is defense of the U.S., and that 
the  United States has the right to impose its brand of democracy on the 
rest of the  world. The superstructure – the ideas, political system, legal 
system, religion  and culture – that arise on the basis of a particular 
economic system can vary  greatly in degrees of democracy. The capitalist 
country 
of Denmark, for example,  has a high level of democracy where people of all 
classes live more or less  comfortably. Nazi Germany was capitalist, as was 
South Africa with its brutal  apartheid system
 
The economic system with the greatest equality of wealth and income  
provides the strongest base for the highest level of democracy. The fullest  
expression of democracy can only arise on the basis of a communist economic  
system.
 
Myth #2 Communism doesn’t work. 
 
By the dictionary definition of communism no country in our lifetime has  
yet been able to establish a communist economic system. Countries like the  
Soviet Union and China where the proletariat came to power during the 
industrial  revolution and sought to establish communist economic systems, were 
unable to  achieve their goal. They were prevented from reaching full communism 
– in large  part — because the level of technology available at that time 
could not produce  the abundance necessary to provide for the material 
wellbeing of the whole  community. The Soviet Union was overthrown, the 
development of the me

[Marxism] Post: Common sense answers

2009-08-01 Thread Waistline2

>> Consider the totalitarian ideologies - Fascism, Nazism, Communism.  How 
much were they products of driving forces of industrialization, science,  
democratization, and Enlightenment thought, and how much were they departures  
from those forces? <<
 
All the aboves are actaully ideologies brought to life by the  
"Enlightenment." 
 
It is best to begin with standard definitions. 
 
1). Industrialization: the adoption of industrial methods of production and 
 manufacturing by a country or group, with all the associated changes in  
lifestyle, transport, and other aspects of society. 
 
Industrialization of industrial society is a type of organization of human  
labor capacity and society based on systems of machines operating on the 
basis  of mechanical motion or electro -mechanical  principles. Industrial  
production is distinct from hand labor (handicraft) or manufacture as the  
predominate mode of producing. Two basic junctures are pinpointed as signpost 
in  the development of industrial society: the steam engine and the internal  
combustion engine.  
 
The steam engine, factories and ocean-going ships opened up the era of  
industrial production. The machine was a revolutionary force that transformed  
society. 
 
2). Science: the study of the physical world and its manifestations,  
especially by using systematic observation and experiment 
Encarta ® World  English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft 
Corporation. All rights  reserved. (all initial definitions from this source). 
 
Science or the scientific method is the study and understanding of the law  
system peculiar to that which is under investigation. As industrialization  
develops - evolves, machine technique opens up a wide field for the 
utilization  of science in the process of production and for making labor more 
creative and  machines more intelligent.  Some call the rise of computers - the 
 
semi-conductor, the coming of the Second Industrial Revolution. 
 
3). Democratization: give government control to citizenry: to put a country 
 under the control of its citizens by allowing them to participate in 
government  or decision-making processes in a free and equal way 
Encarta ® World English  Dictionary © & 
 
Democracy exists and becomes sensible in comparison to hereditary rule;  
rule by birth right or the political system of monarchy.  Democracy is a  
society organization of engaging citizens - the individual, in self governing  
through the use of government institutions, stabilized by the state or the  
organization of military and police power.  In any society with economic  
classes democracy expresses and implements the political will and interest of  
the ruling economic class. In American society the dominant class is the  
capitalist class expressing the power and will of corporations, banks and  
financial institutions. 
 
Through different phases of our history democracy and democratic forms of  
society life have changed. For instance at the earliest period only white 
males  with property - primarily slave property, could take part in democratic 
rule at  the highest reaches of government. Democracy is a form of class 
rule. 
 
4). Enlightenment: The Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment,  
is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life  
centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the  
primary source and legitimacy for authority.[1] 
_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment) 
 
Industrialization or the transition from agricultural based life to machine 
 society meant the growth of science as the human sought to apply the laws 
of  mechanical motion towards the production of the material to sustain life 
and  reproduce society. 
 
5). Fascism: dictatorial movement: any movement, tendency, or ideology that 
 favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise,  
repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism 
Encarta ® World  English Dictionary 
 
Here fascism is articulated as a political ideology or point of view.  
Fascism in power, supplants democracy as the open terrorist dictatorship of the 
 
ruling commercial classes. Fascism in power is suppression of the 
democratic  rights of the citizens and endless wars of aggressions. Fascism in 
power 
is an  economic force and economic organization of society based on free 
enterprise -  private enterprise. Private enterprise or capitalism is “an 
economic system  based on the private ownership of the means of production and 
distribution of  goods, characterized by a free competitive market and 
motivation by profit.”  
Encarta ® World English Dictionary 
 
6). Nazism: Hitler’s philosophy: the philosophy of the German National  
Socialist Party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Central to it was a 
belief  in the inherent superiority of a supposed Aryan race. 
Encarta ® World  English Dictionary ©

[Marxism] International Economic Trends

Interesting report from the St. Louis Fed Reserve at:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/iet/20090801/iet.pdf

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] End of short unhappy life of "engagement" with Iran Re: Fred Feldman

2009-08-01 Thread lara crete

from Fred :
"More and more I suspect that the successful coup of sorts is taking  
place
not in Honduras (where the putschists are embattled) but in Washington
(where it is meeting no visible resistance, including from one of its
central targets, the current President".

The gruesome truth, Fred. Meanwhile, the coup which is taking place in  
Washington( where every coup is usually  taking place )  is spread  on  
the grandiose scale into the rest of the world. And we, here in the  
US, have a burning hope  for some resistance (to any coup,  in any  
part of the world!) would  grow strong enough  to help  our slumber in  
our "democracy"  to be interrupted. Somehow.Maybe. Meanwhile, Uncle  
Tom, the Uncle Sam's grandson, can enjoy the beers in the White House,  
memorizing lines from  his "intellectual speeches" to impress the  
world - wide  public with the American President, who ( a miracle!)
is capable of  speaking... The best of us are buried  under the  
unbearably heavy burden of guilt... Why? Because, the best of us are  
knowledgeable, well educated people, who  have learned during the  
course of self-education  that every coup in the world  takes the root  
in Washington. So, to take the root out, that's should be the  
Leninist' quest, I suppose.
comradely, Lara





YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] post

2009-08-01 Thread Dogan Gocmen

There is an insightful Article by Domenico Losurdo, entitled *Toward a
Critique of  the Category of Totalitarianism*,  in «Historical Materialism»,
no. 12, 2 (2004), pp. 25-55. This may help to leave behind all those
vulgarisms.

-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] post

Well there's a real concrete, historical, materialist analysis.  And it 
includes the very important, never to be forgotten, "enemy of the people" 
label.
- Original Message - 
From: 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 10:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] post

> Stalinism is not a theory but a practice
> Coined by the enemies of Socialism to discourage any more of it
> George Anthony

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] post

2009-08-01 Thread Midhurst14

This is an interesting idea
George Anthony

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] post

George Anthony:
Stalinism is not a theory but a practice
Coined by the enemies of Socialism to discourage any more of it.

**

Yes, completely right.  To think this man was so committed to discouraging
socialism he pretended to be a revolutionary for a lifetime to subvert it
from within!

http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1937/08/stalinism.htm

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] post

2009-08-01 Thread Midhurst14

Stalinism is not a theory but a practice
Coined by the enemies of Socialism to discourage any more of it
George Anthony

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] post thank you

2009-08-01 Thread Rachel Ambler

Thank you to everyone for your help with my topic. It feels better knowing that 
it wasn't just me thinking the topic was crazy. I've got a 97 in the class and 
I really don't want to blow it with this final! Your insights got the hamsters 
back on their wheels. I think I can find a way to pull everything in.

Thanks again!
Rachel.

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Queen of the birthers

Follow the money.  Who's bankrolling her? Bet it's the Mellons.

- Original Message - 
From: "Louis Proyect" 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 8:07 AM
Subject: [Marxism] Queen of the birthers

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-30/queen-of-the-birthers/p/

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] The next bubble

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/02/0081908
The next bubble:
Priming the markets for tomorrow's big crash

By Eric Janszen

A financial bubble is a market aberration manufactured by government, 
finance, and industry, a shared speculative hallucination and then a 
crash, followed by depression. Bubbles were once very rare—one every 
hundred years or so was enough to motivate politicians, bearing the 
post-bubble ire of their newly destitute citizenry, to enact legislation 
that would prevent subsequent occurrences. After the dust settled from 
the 1720 crash of the South Sea Bubble, for instance, British Parliament 
passed the Bubble Act to forbid “raising or pretending to raise a 
transferable stock.” For a century this law did much to prevent the 
formation of new speculative swellings.

Nowadays we barely pause between such bouts of insanity. The dot-com 
crash of the early 2000s should have been followed by decades of 
soul-searching; instead, even before the old bubble had fully deflated, 
a new mania began to take hold on the foundation of our long-standing 
American faith that the wide expansion of home ownership can produce 
social harmony and national economic well-being. Spurred by the actions 
of the Federal Reserve, financed by exotic credit derivatives and debt 
securitiztion, an already massive real estate sales-and-marketing 
program expanded to include the desperate issuance of mortgages to the 
poor and feckless, compounding their troubles and ours.

(clip)



YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] post

Her teacher was referring to *C*ommunism (Stalinism) not a model of
proletarian democracy.  The label "totalitarianism" is a staple of bourgeois
blather (used to denounce everything from the French Revolution to food
stamps), but as a denunciation of Stalinism it's perfectly acceptable.

YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Queen of the birthers

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-30/queen-of-the-birthers/p/

Queen of the Birthers
by Max Blumenthal
July 30, 2009 | 10:48pm

BS Top - Blumenthal Orly Taitz A new poll finds 58 percent of 
Republicans doubt Obama is American. Orly Taitz, the mastermind behind 
the Obama birth-certificate controversy, tells The Daily Beast’s Max 
Blumenthal why the president should be jailed and why Lou Dobbs is her 
biggest fan.

Almost as soon as Orly Taitz answered her cellphone, before I could even 
ask a single question, the leader of the movement determined to disprove 
President Obama’s American citizenship breathlessly told me the 
president was “connected” to 39 bogus Social Security numbers, including 
one for a deceased person born in 1890. “If Obama is not stopped, we 
will be in Nazi Germany!” Taitz, who has a thick Russian accent, 
shrieked. “Forgery is a criminal matter and he committed it. Obama 
should be in the Big House, not the White House!”

Since Taitz’s “birther” campaign began, in the summer of 2008, during 
the late stages of the Democratic primaries, the dentist, lawyer, and 
mother of three has begun winning friends in high places. Taitz told me 
excitedly that since she opened her Facebook account, she has had to 
hire a staff of five to process the thousands of friend requests she 
receives each week.

“Anybody who does not take Obama’s word at face value will be harassed 
by brownshirts like Rachel Maddow,” said Taitz.

Among those requesting her online friendship, Taitz said, are House 
Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA), and Republican 
National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. She has even received a 
request, she said, from someone saying they are Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu. “I personally checked [the request] and determined 
that it came from his office,” Taitz said.

Among Taitz’s “biggest supporters,” she said, is CNN anchor Lou Dobbs. 
“I did Lou’s radio show for half an hour and he was very understanding,” 
she told me. “He became a supporter and since then he became a supporter 
of the whole [Obama eligibility] issue.” Indeed, during the July 15 
broadcast of Dobbs’ radio show, he praised Taitz’s work, suggested Obama 
might be “undocumented,” and demanded the president “show the documents” 
to prove he was born in the United States.

When I spoke to Taitz, she had just finished taping an interview with 
The Colbert Report. By her own count, she has been interviewed by no 
fewer than 170 news outlets around the world. While she’s grateful for 
the exposure, the scrutiny of the media seems to have her in a 
persistent state of heightened exasperation.

“This is Nazi Germany! These are brownshirts in action!” Taitz exclaimed 
when asked about recent segments by Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and 
Jon Stewart mocking her campaign and questioning her credibility. 
“Anybody who does not take Obama’s word at face value will be harassed 
by brownshirts like Rachel Maddow.”

Taitz’s apparent view of present-day American life through the lens of 
World War II Europe may be due in part to her upbringing in the Soviet 
republic of Moldova and then in Israel, where she lived until she 
immigrated to the U.S. in 1987. Now a resident of Buena Park, 
California, Taitz said she feared Obama would transform her adopted 
country into a totalitarian state as soon as he stepped onto the 
national stage. Reading online discussions about Obama’s supposed plan 
to create a “civilian national security force” aroused Taitz’s early alarm.

“I realized that Obama was another Stalin—it’s a cross between Stalinist 
USSR and Nazi Germany,” she said.

After becoming transfixed by online conspiracy theories claiming Obama’s 
family had forged his birth certificate in Hawaii, Taitz snapped into 
action. She filed a lawsuit in June 2008 with California Secretary of 
State Debra Bowen demanding an investigation into Obama’s eligibility to 
serve as president. Taitz’s plaintiff in the case was Wiley Drake, an 
Orange County radio preacher and former second vice president of the 
Southern Baptist Convention who has acknowledged he once publicly prayed 
for Obama’s death.

The lawsuit went nowhere, but Taitz was undeterred. She barnstormed the 
country, from state to state, barging down the corridors of secretaries 
of state and federal law-enforcement officials, demanding they compel 
Obama to release his complete hospital birthing file, college records, 
and passport information. While accomplishing little of substance, 
Taitz’s campaign found symbolic support from Republican lawmakers from 
local statehouses to Capitol Hill.

In March, nine Republicans signed on to a so-called birther bill 
proposing that future presidential candidates must prove their 
citizenship before becoming eligible to campaign. The bill was modeled 
after a similar piece of legislation introduced by right-wing lawmakers 
in Missouri. One month later, after Taitz brought her campaign

[Marxism] Palestinian activist plans to sue Sacha Baron Cohen