Re: [Marxism] K2 study guide

[Rakesh Bhandari]

Doesn't Harvey attempt to locate Marx's crisis theory in 
interdepartmental disproportionalities rather  than in insufficient 
production of a flow of surplus value? But perhaps we don't have to 
choose. Mattick Sr for example wrote (think here of that example where 
demand goes from 100 ships to 60 in the following year).

"Marx then showed how the double character of the commodity, as value and
use value, transforms even the apparent equilibrium of simple reproduction
into disequilibrium. Thus, for example, the wear and tear and replacement
of fixed capital can produce dislocations in the value-defined conditions
of exchange, destroying any possibility of equilibrated reproduction.
Without going into Marx's examples of the appearance of disproportionality
within simple reproduction, it here needs to be stressed only that they
apply exclusively to capitalist reproduction.

Once the capitalist form of reproduction is abolished, it is only a matter
of the volume of the expiring portion-expiring and therefore to be
reproduced in kind of fixed capital.. . varying in various successive
years. If it is very large in a certain year ... then it is certainly so
much smaller in the next year. The quantity of raw materials,
semi-finished products, and auxiliary materials. does not decrease in
consequence. Hence the aggregate production of means of production
would have to increase in the one case and decrease in the other. This can
be remedied only by a continuous relative overproduction. There must be on
the one hand a certain quantity of fixed capital produced in excess of
that which is directly required; on the other hand, and particularly,
there must be a supply of raw materials, etc., in excess of the direct
annual requirements... This sort of overproduction is tantamount to
control by society over the material means of its own reproduction. But
within capitalist society it is an element of anarchy."


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[Marxism] K2 study guide

[Rakesh Bhandari]

Grossman offered a profound disequilibrium interpretation of volume II, 
as Steve Palmer knows quite well (and please accept my profound thanks 
for your mighty contributions to the archive). By the way, J.R. Hicks 
came to a similar understanding of the special liabilities suffered by 
the capital goods industry due to fluctuating demand.


Say a community has a thousand ships, each lasting on average 20 years. 
So in simple reproduction 50 ships would have to be produced each year.
But what if the ships do not wear out at a regular rate?  So if 
something happened (war, new routes) that caused them to be destroyed, 
or wear out, more rapidly than usual, the demand for new ships would be 
disturbed. Also, if there have in the past been irregularities in the 
past in the rate of production of ships, so than an abnormally large 
proportion of the exiting proportion were built in certain particular 
years, the wearing out of those ships will likely be bunched.
In short, the demand for ships (and more generally products of the 
capital goods industry) is liable to fluctuate. The notoriously 
fluctuating demand for products of the capital goods industries is in 
fact probable one of the main causes of booms and slumps, and we can 
already see this in simple reproduction.
 Now consider  that community is no longer content with 1000 ships 
Population is increasing, trade is increasing. The number of ships 
needed begins to expand at, say, the 30 ships per year. So now the 
annual production would have to be 80 rather than 50 ships. We would go 
from 1000 to1030 to 1060.
But assume that rather than 1030 ships, the community demands 1050 
ships. That means annual production would have to go from 50 to 100 
ships. Now say in the following year the community only has need of 1060 
ships. That means the capital goods industry which had been built up to 
a capacity of 100 ships per year now only finds demand for 60 ships.
40% of the people in the ship building industry would now find 
themselves unemployed.
In years of bad trade it is the capital goods industry that is usually 
hardest hit.



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[Marxism] ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER

[JacDon]

Aug. 24, 2009 Issue #149
HUDSON VALLEY ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER
jac...@earthlink.net
 
‹ 
 
ALL ARTICLES: http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
 
CONTENTS
 
1.  OUR NEW GROUP ORGANIZES PROTESTS ‹ We gotta blow our  own horn once in a
while, so we take note of the fact that our new organization, Peace and
Social Progress Now!, is organizing two demonstrations Sept. 12 and Oct. 17,
and we'd like you with us.
 
2.  Editorial: HEALTHCARE IN CONSERVATIVE AMERICA ‹ The right wing
disruption at Town Hall healthcare meetings stimulated several thoughts
about politics in our society.
 
3.  THE U.S. AND THE COUP IN HONDURAS ‹ The Obama Administration said it
opposed the coup but has done next to nothing to back up its words with
deeds.
 
4.  INCIDENT AT A LOCAL HEALTHCARE FORUM ‹ A first-person report of a
disruptive Town Hall forum on healthcare in the Hudson Valley's Orange
County.
 
5.  THE BLUE DOG DAYS OF AUGUST ‹ The Blue Dogs parade as "fiscal
conservatives" and "moderates," but it's false advertising that the
mainstream press mindlessly echoes. In fact, they are the epitome of a
Washington captured by moneyed interests.
 
6.  THE REAL DEATH PANELS ‹ The best estimate of the annual death toll among
Americans of working age due to lack of insurance or under-insurance is at
least 20,000.
 
7.  PRISONHOUSE AMERICA ‹ With 5% of the world population, the U.S. and
state/local  prison and jail population, amounts to some 25% of the world's
incarcerated population.
 
8.  U.S. MILITARY BASES GROW IN LATIN AMERICA ‹ Colombia deal is a major
expansion of American military power in South America.
 
9.  TROY DAVIS WINS COURT DECISION ‹ Sitting on death row in Georgia, Troy
Davis has won a key victory against his own execution.
 
10. CLIMATE TALKS MOVE AT SNAIL'S PACE ‹ Global warming talks are moving so
slowly that "at this rate, we will not make it," said the UN¹s top climate
change official.
 
11. "CAP AND TRADE" WON'T HALT GLOBAL WARMING ‹ So writes progressive Hudson
Valley activist Steve Greenfield.
 
12. NINE ARRESTED AT END OF 3-DAY PEACE WALK ‹ They were apprehended after
walking onto the central-Wisconsin military base at Ft. McCoy to protest
war.
 
13. KEEP CHURCH AND STATE SEPARATE ‹ Liberals evidently worry less about
Church-State togetherness when Democrats advance "faith-based" programs.
 
14. ANOTHER WAR CRIME CHARGED TO ISRAEL ‹ This time it involves the shooting
deaths of 11 unarmed civilians (five women and four children) holding white
flags. 
 
15. THE 'PRISON' KNOWN AS GAZA ‹ There's a new UN report titled, "Locked In:
The Humanitarian Impact of Two Years of Blockade on the Gaza Strip."
 
16. THE CLASS IN THE CLASSROOM ‹ Who's kidding whom about a "classless"
American educational system?
 
17. WAR BY REMOTE CONTROL ‹ Robots in the sky and on the ground are
transforming warfare, and the U.S. military is rushing to recruit the new
warriors that never sleep and never bleed.
 
18. NEWS SHORTS ‹ Mental illness in U.S juvenile detention centers; corporal
punishment in American schools; attacks on homeless are called hate crimes;
record number of U.S. prisoners are serving life terms.
 
19. AMERICA'S UNJUST SEX LAWS ‹ America¹s sex-offender laws are the
strictest of any advanced democracy. Too strict, says this article.
 
20. THE WOODSTOCK (NY) FORUM ‹ Weekend meeting rejects  U.S. propensity to
"foment wars around the world and to manufacture, export and sell weapons."
 
21. "JUDEO-CHRISTIAN" FOREIGN POLICY? ‹ It is historically untrue that our
secular republic was founded upon a so-called Judeo-Christian (or any
religious) tradition.
 
22. U.S. GROUPS CHALLENGE TRAVEL BAN TO CUBA ‹ Hundreds of Americans
intentionally broke Washington's travel ban to Cuba this year. Right-on!
‹‹
ALL ARTICLES: http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
 




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Re: [Marxism] K2 Study Guide Re: to read?

[Bill O'Connor]

Steve Palmer  writes:

> Also, John Fox's "Understanding Capital Volume II", Progress Books,
> Toronto, 1985 is very helpful, particularly when confronting some of
> the more demanding passages on one's own. This is in the queue to
> appear at the MIA, but don't hold your breath ...

Why the holdup, is it for lack of volunteers to edit it?

-- 
In Solidarity,
Billy O'Connor


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[Marxism] K2 Study Guide Re: to read?

[Steve Palmer]

Also, John Fox's "Understanding Capital Volume II", Progress Books, Toronto, 
1985 is very helpful, particularly when confronting some of the more demanding 
passages on one's own. This is in the queue to appear at the MIA, but don't 
hold your breath ...

Steve

> >>
> > thanks for all the comments--I'm definitely a fan of
> David Harvey and have
> > read Volume 1 with his lectures and his Limits to
> Capital. Can you point me
> > to the MIA Volume 2 study guide?
> >
> 
> http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/guides/index.htm
> 
> -- 
> In Solidarity,
> Billy O'Connor
> 
> 
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> 


  


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[Marxism] MyLai

[Tom Cod]

Well, Lt. Calley apologized for the MyLai massacre, nothing yet from the US 
government about the war in general.  As to MyLai where 500 unarmed men women 
and children were gunned down, at least one story has it that "the order came 
from Abrams to liquidate Son My 4" as MyLai was also known. Abrams being the 
commander who had recently replaced Westmoreland at the time.
_
Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you.
http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackToSchool_Cashback_BTSCashback_1x1

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Re: [Marxism] to read?

[Tom Cod]

seriously, I mean, for example, what are securitized mortgages?  how does your 
mortgage get bundled and sold and traded en masse with others?  For years we 
heard about "derivatives" without ever hearing-as with "hedge funds" any 
explanation of what they exactly were-aside from glib comments of business 
reporters, to say nothing of the pitchman ravings of Kramer-until finally a few 
months ago these began to be explained as "side bets" on bonds where people 
with no insurable interest in the bond would buy insurance covering the face 
amount of the bond against default; a situation where they have a heavy 
material interest-the only material interest, actually, in default resulting in 
payout.  worthy of a casino, particularly where the amount of insurance 
coverage sold could exceed the value of the insured object exponentially when 
sold like the Brooklyn Bridge to numerous buyers.  If not as "Marxists" then as 
political people we should talk about stuff like this, why it's criminal and 
should be outlawed and put forth some kind of "program" around it.
More importantly are the circumstances of home lending.  This foreclosure 
crisis is supposed to deepen in the next year as a whole class of loans, not as 
bad as "sub-prime", but ones with variable interest are set to kick in to 
higher usorious rates.  Estimated that tens of millions of new foreclosures 
will result causing downward mobility for many more formerly "middle class" 
people.
_
Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. 
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Re: [Marxism] to read?

[Tom Cod]

Maybe then some of those so enamored of Capital and its take on the minutae of 
capitalism and the "dismal science" could provide some "popular" analysis and 
demystification of the current economic crisis as it seems that has been 
woefully missing from the Left; you get more of it from the NYT.  Seems like a 
burning need actually.

> From: bill...@gmail.com
> Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:34:40 -0400
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] to read?
> To: t...@hotmail.com
> 
> guava tree  writes:
> 
> > On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 4:15 AM, Ralph Johansen 
> > wrote:
> >
> >>  I'm now reading
> >> volume 2 for the first time, using the online MIA study guide which,
> >> while its authors recommended it for group study, seems useful for
> >> individual study. They supply the relevant textual references for the
> >> issues raised in the guide.
> >>
> > thanks for all the comments--I'm definitely a fan of David Harvey and have
> > read Volume 1 with his lectures and his Limits to Capital. Can you point me
> > to the MIA Volume 2 study guide?
> >
> 
> http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/guides/index.htm
> 
> -- 
> In Solidarity,
> Billy O'Connor
> 
> 
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_
With Windows Live, you can organize, edit, and share your photos.
http://www.windowslive.com/Desktop/PhotoGallery

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Re: [Marxism] to read?

[Bill O'Connor]

guava tree  writes:

> On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 4:15 AM, Ralph Johansen 
> wrote:
>
>>  I'm now reading
>> volume 2 for the first time, using the online MIA study guide which,
>> while its authors recommended it for group study, seems useful for
>> individual study. They supply the relevant textual references for the
>> issues raised in the guide.
>>
> thanks for all the comments--I'm definitely a fan of David Harvey and have
> read Volume 1 with his lectures and his Limits to Capital. Can you point me
> to the MIA Volume 2 study guide?
>

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/subject/guides/index.htm

-- 
In Solidarity,
Billy O'Connor


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Re: [Marxism] to read?

[Louis Proyect]

An old friend from my ill-spent Trotskyist youth who has embarked on a 
study of Capital sent me a copy of Anthony Brewer's guide that he 
recommends highly.


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Re: [Marxism] to read?

[guava tree]

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 4:15 AM, Ralph Johansen wrote:

>  I'm now reading
> volume 2 for the first time, using the online MIA study guide which,
> while its authors recommended it for group study, seems useful for
> individual study. They supply the relevant textual references for the
> issues raised in the guide.
>
>
thanks for all the comments--I'm definitely a fan of David Harvey and have
read Volume 1 with his lectures and his Limits to Capital. Can you point me
to the MIA Volume 2 study guide?










>
> 
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>

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[Marxism] urban farming

[Andrew Pollack]

Two new stories on this topic.
In this corner, a report on "The Urban Farmers of Havana":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8213617.stm
(found at kclabor.org/news.htm)
And in this corner, a column by a professor who owns an urban farming
corporation and thinks the phenomenon can be spread by the market in
sufficient quantity to solve the world's food crises (I can hear you
snickering out there!):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24Despommier.html?ref=opinion


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[Marxism] "The Beltway consensus: the Left is to blame for health care battle"

[Dennis Brasky]

>
>
> An intense media race is underway to see who will be the Bob Woodward of
> the Obama White House
> Glenn Greenwald
>
> http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/23/alter/index.html
>
>
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
> --
>

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[Marxism] Big bands on youtube (swing)

[Louis Proyect]

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/big-bands-on-youtube-swing/


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Re: [Marxism] to read?

[Lüko Willms]

Shane Mage (shm...@pipeline.com) wrote on 2009-08-24 at 09:00:35 in  
about Re: [Marxism] to read?:
> 
> 
> The "Grundrisse," as the last word in its title--"Rohentwurf"-- 
> declares, is not "meant" to be read at all.  It is just the rough  
> draft of Das Kapital.  Why read the rough draft when you have the  
> final (or nearly so) version?  Comparison with the perfected (Marx)  
> draft of vol.1 and the substantially worked out drafts (Engels) of  
> vols. 2 and 3 with the Grundrisse is a matter of academic literary  
> history only.

  While it is true that the "Grundrisse" is one of the draft versions of "Das 
Kapital", it is also true that it contains a number of discussions which have 
not found their way into the finished product, and which are worth reading, 
because of their content, not just as pieces of the work history being 
interesting only to researchers into Marx' life. 


Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany



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Re: [Marxism] Statement of defamed man known as "Lockerbie bomber"

[Lüko Willms]

Fred Feldman (ffeld...@bellatlantic.net) wrote on 2009-08-24 at 06:20:23 in  
about [Marxism] Statement of defamed man known as "Lockerbie bomber":
> 
> 
> Even more, perhaos he is even seen as 
> something of a martyr, for being persuaded by his government to attend 
> the Star Chamber in the first place, sacrificing his life so that his 
> country could be released from sanctions.

   That is how I see A-Megrahi: he sacrified his life, so that his nation could 
live. A most honorable man! 

   What I wonder, is why not more efforts were made to find out if the Jumbo 
Jet crashing at Lockerbie on December 21, 1988, did not fall victim to the 
same design failure as the one on the famous TWA 800 flight on July 17, 
1996, were finally this technical fault was verified, that a tank could leak 
and 
set free jet fuel to explode. 


> Barack Obama, the US president, described the release as a "mistake" and 
> said that al-Megrahi should be placed under house arrest on his return.

  For me, this is one of the major failures of Obama, a big disappointment to 
many who believed his words that he would take steer the USA into a 
different relation with the rest of the world, a relation based on mutual 
respect instead of the USA playing the master of the Universe. 


Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany



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Re: [Marxism] Paranoia over state surveillance

[Waistline2]

In a message dated 8/24/2009 11:35:29 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
meis...@xs4all.nl writes:

>I simply mentioned that I disagreed with you,
as many/most  others probably would if they had had the patience to read
your lengthy post  (23 August 14:38 EDT).<

Reply

Sorry.


WL. 
 


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[Marxism] Amnesty International on Leonard Peltier's Parole Denial

[Greg McDonald]

http://tinyurl.com/ltkfhd


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[Marxism] Massaging the message - Clinton, W Bush, Obama and the Rendon Group

[Dennis Brasky]

> <
> http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1822-continuity-ueber-alles-massaging-the-message-in-afghanistan.html
> >
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
> --
>

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[Marxism] The Racist Red-Baiting of Obama is About More than Race Alone

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22419


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[Marxism] More on Niall Ferguson from James Fallows (Atlantic Monthly editor)

[Louis Proyect]

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/08/ferguson_obama_and_felix_the_c.php
Ferguson, Obama, Felix the Cat -- and Pluto

17 Aug 2009 11:28 pm
Let me tell this one in order:

On August 11, last Tuesday, Niall Ferguson wrote an op-ed in the 
Financial Times whose theme was that Barack Obama reminded him of Felix 
the Cat? Why? "Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky."

Later that day, I did an item marveling at the column. Its final line 
was, " I look forward to Ferguson's discussing this over a beer with his 
Harvard colleague Henry Louis Gates."

Two days later, on August 13, I got an irritated note from Ferguson. Its 
subject line was "Rubbish." It included a quote from H.L. Gates saying 
that there was no problem with the Felix line -- the reported quote from 
Gates was "What a load of rubbish" -- and it ended with a request that I 
publish it. To be exact, a challenge: "I shall be interested to see if 
you post this on your blog."

Soon thereafter, I did indeed publish it. I sent Ferguson a note saying 
that I had done so, with the explanation that I took his note as a 
request that I share his views.

An hour later, he wrote back and requested that I remove the item from 
the Atlantic's site so that he could check further with Gates. Within 
minutes I did that, putting up this placeholder announcement instead. 
Since the original had been up for a while, it survived in many search 
caches. But I saw no reason to be difficult  -- or to pretend I didn't 
get Ferguson's "please take it down" note; so I complied.

Over the weekend, I didn't hear from Ferguson, and on the "life is 
short" policy resolved to let the matter drop.

Then this afternoon, I received a followup note -- sent jointly to me 
and Paul Krugman, who had written in a similar vein. In its entirety it 
says:

 Dear Paul and James,

 As you both took exception to my comparison of the President with 
Felix the Cat, my favorite cartoon character, implying it was racist and 
recommending I consult Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., I have now done 
so. He has taken the trouble to consult others in the field of 
African-American Studies, including our colleague Lawrence D. Bobo, the 
W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, and has written to me 
as follows:

 "None of us thought of Felix as black, unlike some of the 
racially-questionable caricatures Disney used.  Felix's blackness, like 
Mickey's and Minnie's, was like a suit of clothes, not a skin color. ... 
You are safe on this one."

 As he has made clear, you are free to publish this on your blogs. I 
hope that you will, and that you will also add an apology to me for the 
imputation of racism as well as, in Paul's case, the gratuitous and 
puerile accusation of "whining" (i.e., defending myself against a slur). 
I remain of the view that you took this line to avoid engaging with my 
central points that President Obama's administration has no visible plan 
for stabilizing the finances of the federal government even over ten 
years, and that Congress will likely impede whatever steps he may take 
in this direction.

 Yours,

 Niall Ferguson.

On the requested "apology": Sadly, No. I don't think and didn't say that 
Niall Ferguson is a racist. Probably like him, I lament the way 
indiscriminate use of that label -- or  "sexist," "anti-Semite," now 
"socialist" -- can shut down discussion. But there's no getting around 
the clumsiness of what he wrote. If Felix the Cat's blackness is a 
barely noticeable aspect of his identity, why on earth would anyone 
begin a comparison of Obama to Felix by saying "Felix was not only 
black"? Thought experiment: Suppose I wrote a column about Jackie Chan 
-- or Cabinet members Steven Chu and Eric Shinseki, or Yo-Yo Ma, or new 
PGA champion Y.E. Yang -- that began exactly the way Ferguson's did. 
"Jackie Chan reminds me of Pluto. One of the best-loved characters from 
the Disney studio, Pluto was not only yellow. He was also very, very 
likable."

I could go on to discuss policy aspects of Jackie Chan's controversial 
comments about democracy in China -- as Ferguson goes on to discuss 
Obama's problems with the budget deficit. But 99% of the readers would 
think, What the hell? And if asked what I was doing, I would not try to 
relitigate the case, as Ferguson is now doing in several venues, but 
would recognize that I'd blundered and back off. But apparently that's 
just me.

Paul Krugman on the same subject here.


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[Marxism] Paul Krugman versus Niall Ferguson

[Louis Proyect]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/black-cats/
August 17, 2009, 8:48 pm
Black cats

I really had no intention of writing more about Niall Ferguson. Regular 
readers may recall that he wrote an article in the Financial Times that 
began,

 President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the 
best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black. He 
was also very, very lucky. And that pretty much sums up the 44th 
president of the US …

I asked, are there no editors?

But Professor Ferguson demands that I (and James Fallows) print his 
response:

 As you both took exception to my comparison of the President with 
Felix the Cat, my favorite cartoon character, implying it was racist and 
recommending I consult Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., I have now done 
so. He has taken the trouble to consult others in the field of 
African-American Studies, including our colleague Lawrence D. Bobo, the 
W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, and has written to me 
as follows:

 “None of us thought of Felix as black, unlike some of the 
racially-questionable caricatures Disney used. Felix’s blackness, like 
Mickey’s and Minnie’s, was like a suit of clothes, not a skin color. … 
You are safe on this one.”

What can I say? While the Ferguson line was deeply offensive — everyone 
I know asked, “Did he really write that? Did the FT actually publish 
it?” — it never occurred to me that it had anything to do with the 
question of whether Felix the Cat was supposed to be African-American. 
The mind reels.

For the record, I don’t think that Professor Ferguson is a racist.

I think he’s a poseur.

I’m told that some of his straight historical work is very good. When it 
comes to economics, however, he hasn’t bothered to understand the 
basics, relying on snide comments and surface cleverness to convey the 
impression of wisdom. It’s all style, no comprehension of substance.

And this time he ended up choking on his own snark.

---

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article6806419.ece
August 23, 2009

Professor Paul Krugman at war with Niall Ferguson over inflation
America’s top liberal pundit is at loggerheads with a British don over 
how to save the world economy

One of them is a “poseur”. The other is “patronising”. One suffers from 
“verbal diarrhoea”. The other is a “whiner”.

A bust-up on the set of High School Musical 4 perhaps? A scrap behind 
the catwalk at a Milan fashion show? No. Those accusations were slung 
round in an increasingly bitter public row between two of the world’s 
most distinguished commentators on global finance and economics, 
professors Paul Krugman and Niall Ferguson, of Princeton and Harvard, 
respectively.

It started as an argument about bond prices. But last week it blew up 
into a row about racism, printing money, spending our way out of 
recession, and the fate of the global economy.

Academic spats can, of course, be famously catty. Ludwig Wittgenstein 
once tossed a poker at his fellow philosopher Karl Popper at a meeting 
of the Cambridge Moral Science Club as they argued about whether issues 
in philosophy were real or just linguistic puzzles. At least Krugman and 
Ferguson haven’t come to blows yet, although at their next meeting it 
might be better to hide the blunt instruments. Still, it is a long time 
since the academic world witnessed a dispute as gladiatorial as this one.

Henry Kissinger, who knows a bit about fights, both political and 
intellectual, once observed that the reason academic tussles were so 
vicious was “because the stakes are so small”. And although that is true 
in one sense — it doesn’t matter very much whether the professor from 
Princeton doesn’t like his rival from Harvard — it is wrong in another. 
The stakes in this row are pretty high.

The argument is about whether the huge stimulus programmes launched by 
governments around the world, and the way central banks are furiously 
printing money, are lifting the global economy out of recession. Or 
whether they are just teeing up the next crisis — hyper-inflation and an 
even worse economic collapse.

In a week in which it emerged that Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of 
England, wanted to print even more money, this is far more than an 
academic debate. It is about where long-term interest rates are going, 
and so whether mortgages will be affordable next year. It is about 
whether the glimmers of recovery seen now are about to be crushed by 
government spending.

“The deficits are stimulating the economy right now, but once the 
recovery starts they may choke it off,” said Stuart Thomson, a bond fund 
manager who controls assets of $100 billion at Ignis Asset Management. 
“That is what they are really arguing about.”

In short, it is about whether we are fixing the problems or whether we 
are just papering over the cracks, and so just storing up more trouble a 
few years down the road.

NO INTELLECTUAL cuts quite such a swagg

[Marxism] Chomsky responds to Ian Williams on Kosovo

[Louis Proyect]

(Go to url below for embedded links.)

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6363
Kosovo, East Timor, R2P, and Ian Williams
Noam Chomsky | August 17, 2009
Editor: John Feffer

In a discussion of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Foreign Policy In 
Focus, Ian Williams vehemently denies my uncontroversial observation, 
well-known to everyone familiar with the Kosovo events, that "NATO air 
raids on Serbia [beginning March 24 1999] actually precipitated the 
worst atrocities in Kosovo." He declares that this familiar observation 
"isn't only untrue but morally unpalatable in its spurious causality, 
like claiming that the British air raids on Germany precipitated the 
Nazi gas chambers."

Williams doesn't explain what he regards as untrue and morally 
offensive, so let us review carefully what he should certainly know 
well, and ask what might support his charges.

There is massive evidence about Kosovo in impeccable Western sources, 
never questioned. That includes two compilations of documents by the 
State Department, detailed reports of the Organization of Security and 
Cooperation in Europe Kosovo Verification Mission monitors, a British 
parliamentary inquiry, reports of NATO, the UN, and more. As I wrote in 
the paper on R2P to which Williams refers, the results are unequivocal: 
The worst atrocities began as the bombing started (to be precise, there 
was a slight increase a few days earlier when the monitors were 
withdrawn, over Serbian objections, in preparation for the bombings). On 
March 27, NATO Commander General Wesley Clark informed the press that 
the vicious Serbian reaction was "entirely predictable." He added 
shortly after that the sharp escalation of atrocities had been "fully 
anticipated" and was "not in any way" a concern of the political leadership.

Clark clarified the matter further in his memoirs. He reports that on 
March 6, 1999, he had informed Secretary of State Madeline Albright that 
if NATO proceeded to bomb Serbia, "almost certainly [the Serbs] will 
attack the civilian population," and NATO will be able to do nothing to 
prevent that reaction. Correspondingly, the Milosevic indictment kept to 
crimes after the bombing, with a single exception, which we know could 
not have offended the consciences of the United States, the United 
Kingdom, and their supporters, as discussed in my R2P paper.

We may ask, then, what is untrue and morally offensive in my repeating 
uncontroversial facts that Williams doesn't happen to like. Was it 
untrue and morally offensive, for example, for General Clark to inform 
the White House and the press that the bombing would precipitate the 
worst atrocities — correctly, as it quickly turned out?

Considerably more remarkable even than these apologetics for NATO is 
what Williams says about the crimes in East Timor at the same time. 
These crimes were far worse than anything reported in Kosovo prior to 
the NATO bombing, and had a background far more grotesque than anything 
claimed in the Balkans. He writes that "Chomsky quite rightly raised the 
question of why there was no intervention in East Timor." It would have 
been outlandish to raise that question, and I did not do so. Since 
Williams favors Holocaust analogies, it would be like raising the 
question of why Nazis didn't intervene to stop the slaughter of Jews by 
local forces in the regions they occupied.

The question doesn't arise, and for a simple reason: The United States 
and United Kingdom had been intervening for decades, providing decisive 
support for atrocities, and continued to do so right through the 
escalation of crimes in 1999, even after the vast destruction in early 
September. There was no secret about the reasons. In my R2P paper I 
quoted National Security Council advisor Sandy Berger who, after the 
September atrocities, dismissed the matter by saying "I don't think 
anybody ever articulated a doctrine which said that we ought to 
intervene wherever there's a humanitarian problem" — in this case, a 
"problem" we are directly expediting. Britain and Australia reacted the 
same way. As discussed further in the same paper, there would have been 
no need for any form of intervention: it would have been enough for the 
United States, United Kingdom, and their allies to have withdrawn their 
decisive participation in Indonesia's crimes. That was demonstrated a 
few days after Berger's dismissal of the "problem" when, under strong 
domestic and international pressure, Clinton finally informed the 
Indonesian generals that the game was over and they instantly withdrew, 
allowing a UN peacekeeping force to enter unopposed — a step that could 
have been taken at any time during the 25-year horror story.

It is understandable that Williams doesn't like to look at the blood on 
his hands, but it cannot be so simply washed or wished away.

If Williams really is uninformed about the topics he is addressing, he 
can find easily accessible sources that review them in some detail, 

[Marxism] Fallout over Israeli's call to boycott Israel

[Louis Proyect]

latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gordon20-2009aug20,0,1126906.story
Opinion
Boycott Israel
An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to 
save his country.

By Neve Gordon

August 20, 2009

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the 
push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn 
from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the 
world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed 
ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses 
cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to 
use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of 
apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

Not surprisingly, many Israelis -- even peaceniks -- aren't signing on. 
A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also 
brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its 
egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory 
position of approving a boycott of one's own nation.

It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on 
foreign governments, regional authorities, international social 
movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend 
cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in 
the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be 
saved from itself.

I say this because Israel has reached a historic crossroads, and times 
of crisis call for dramatic measures. I say this as a Jew who has chosen 
to raise his children in Israel, who has been a member of the Israeli 
peace camp for almost 30 years and who is deeply anxious about the 
country's future.

The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state. 
For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the 
Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. Within this region about 6 
million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this 
population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live 
in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups 
live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal 
systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic 
human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the 
occupied territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel.

The question that keeps me up at night, both as a parent and as a 
citizen, is how to ensure that my two children as well as the children 
of my Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime.

There are only two moral ways of achieving this goal.

The first is the one-state solution: offering citizenship to all 
Palestinians and thus establishing a bi-national democracy within the 
entire area controlled by Israel. Given the demographics, this would 
amount to the demise of Israel as a Jewish state; for most Israeli Jews, 
it is anathema.

The second means of ending our apartheid is through the two-state 
solution, which entails Israel's withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders 
(with possible one-for-one land swaps), the division of Jerusalem, and a 
recognition of the Palestinian right of return with the stipulation that 
only a limited number of the 4.5 million Palestinian refugees would be 
allowed to return to Israel, while the rest can return to the new 
Palestinian state.

Geographically, the one-state solution appears much more feasible 
because Jews and Palestinians are already totally enmeshed; indeed, "on 
the ground," the one-state solution (in an apartheid manifestation) is a 
reality.

Ideologically, the two-state solution is more realistic because fewer 
than 1% of Jews and only a minority of Palestinians support binationalism.

For now, despite the concrete difficulties, it makes more sense to alter 
the geographic realities than the ideological ones. If at some future 
date the two peoples decide to share a state, they can do so, but 
currently this is not something they want.

So if the two-state solution is the way to stop the apartheid state, 
then how does one achieve this goal?

I am convinced that outside pressure is the only answer. Over the last 
three decades, Jewish settlers in the occupied territories have 
dramatically increased their numbers. The myth of the united Jerusalem 
has led to the creation of an apartheid city where Palestinians aren't 
citizens and lack basic services. The Israeli peace camp has gradually 
dwindled so that today it is almost nonexistent, and Israeli politics 
are moving more and more to the extreme right.

It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid 
trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and 
condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have 
yielded no results, not even a settlement free

Re: [Marxism] Cockburn has a defender

[Louis Proyect]

Dennis Brasky wrote:
> On 8/23/09, Jewbonic  wrote:
>> Jewbonics has posted a new item, 'Alex Cockburn RIP? Naa'
>>
>> I come back from vacation, and what’s the latest? Apparently, Counterpunch
>> editor Alexander Cockburn is dead. According to mailing lists, leftist
>> bloggers,
>> and various writers within the vaguely Marxisant commentariat, a long,
>> winding
>> trudge on the path of moral decay—from defense of David Koresh, criticisms
>> of
>> the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, [...]
>>
>> You may view the latest post at
>> http://www.maxajl.com/?p=1795

I met Max Ajl, who must be in his late 20s or so, at the Left Forum in 
NYC last year. I think he means well but he has difficulty in seeing 
things in class terms. This is a side effect of the implosion of the 
"Marxist-Leninist" left in the 1980s. Young people today tend to be 
influenced strongly by anarchism, Counterpunch type anti-imperialism and 
other ideologies that filled a vacuum.


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Re: [Marxism] to read?

[Shane Mage]

On Aug 24, 2009, at 1:15 AM, Horse Badorties wrote:

>
> On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 8:51 PM, guava tree   
> wrote:
>
>> do people think reading volumes 2&3 of Capital is more valuable than
>> reading the Grundrisse?
>
>
> The Grundrisse is like the I Ching. It's not meant to be read from  
> beginning to end;
> it's meant to be opened at random and one passage read, and  
> meditated on
> throughout the day.


The "Grundrisse," as the last word in its title--"Rohentwurf"-- 
declares, is not "meant" to be read at all.  It is just the rough  
draft of Das Kapital.  Why read the rough draft when you have the  
final (or nearly so) version?  Comparison with the perfected (Marx)  
draft of vol.1 and the substantially worked out drafts (Engels) of  
vols. 2 and 3 with the Grundrisse is a matter of academic literary  
history only.


Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos


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Re: [Marxism] Advertisement (was: Union fires official for demanding equal pay for women)

[Andy Chambers]

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 8:12 AM, Lüko Willms wrote:
> Andy Chambers (achambers.h...@googlemail.com) wrote on 2009-08-23 at
> 23:57:19 in  about [Marxism] Union fires official for demanding equal pay for
> women:
>>
>>
>> councils from having to cut their budgets.
>> >
>> > advertisement
>> >
>> > Female workers are
>
>  I would be grateful if comrades would take some time to look over the texts
> they copy and paste from foreign sources and eliminate such stumbling
> blocks as hints to advertisements or to images which are not carried with the
> text.

My Apologies.  I'll do that in future

--
Andy


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Re: [Marxism] Race and Class Struggle in the US

[kersplebedeb]

An absolute must read on this subject:

Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat; by J. Sakai. [also 
available online at 
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/10/28/17790131.php]


Also:

False Nationalism False Internationalism, Class Contradictions in the 
Armed Struggle, by E. Tani and Kae Sera

Looking at the White Working Class Historically, by David Gilbert 
[available online at 
http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/profiles/lwwch.html]

When Race Burns Class: "Settlers Revisited", an interview with J. Sakai 
[available online at 
http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/books/raceburn.html]


Red Arnie wrote:
> Comrade Butler raised serious issues in his recent email about the  
> role of racism in the US class struggle.
>
> What works do readers recommend to analyze these issues?  I will make  
> a compendium from the reader's responses for this list.
>
> Arn Kawano
>
>
>
> 
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>
>
>   



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Re: [Marxism] Race and Class Struggle in the US

[Carrol Cox]

Barbara Jeanne Fields, "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States
of America," New Left Review, May/June 1990.

ICarrol



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[Marxism] New at Socialist Voice: Engels Biographies / Afghan Activist Condemns Occupation

[Ian Angus]

SOCIALIST VOICE
Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century
http://www.socialistvoice.ca

August 24, 2009

BOOK REVIEW: TWO ACCOUNTS OF ENGELS’ REVOLUTIONARY LIFE

After decades in which there was no life of Engels in print in
English, suddenly there are two, with different strengths. Neither is
perfect, but both will help to move Engels out of Marx’s shadow and
into centre stage where he belongs.

http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=534

* * * * * * * *

AFGHAN WOMEN’S RIGHTS LEADER SAYS FOREIGN TROOPS SHOULD LEAVE

Malalai Joya grew up in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan. She
returned to Afghanistan in 1998 to engage in the extremely dangerous
activity of conducting underground classes for girls. Female education
was banned by the misogynist Taliban, then in power. This makes her
assessment of Afghanistan today, more than seven years after it was
supposedly liberated by the US-led invasion, particularly damning.

http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=539

* * * * * * * *

Other recent articles:

ALBA, THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN, AND THE COUP IN HONDURAS
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=516

CLIMATE JUSTICE: RED IS THE NEW GREEN
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=526

HONDURAS COUP: TEMPLATE FOR A HEMISPHERIC ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=510

VENEZUELA: CLASS STRUGGLE INTENSIFIES OVER BATTLE FOR WORKERS' CONTROL
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=491

THE BEST DEFENCE IS TO DEEPEN THE REVOLUTION
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=501



* * * * * * * *

SOCIALIST VOICE
Web: http://www.socialistvoice.ca
Email: socialistvo...@sympatico.ca

Editors: Ian Angus, Roger Annis, John Riddell
Associate Editor: Mike Krebs

Readers are encouraged to forward or distribute Socialist Voice as
widely as possible.
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[Marxism] Statement of defamed man known as "Lockerbie bomber"

[Fred Feldman]

(This was submitted by Michael Karadjis to the US-based Green Left list.)

As anyone who has studied a little about this case knows well, not only 
was Al-Megrahi framed, but Libya as a whole was framed for this horiffic 
act, which it had nothing to do with. The entire "evidence" (something 
about him buying a particular brand of trousers) would have ben laughed 
out of virtually any court on earth, except the one he was convicted in. 
It is of course complicated by Libya's official "acceptance" of 
responsibility in 2001, a political act which Libya performed for no 
other reason than to get 16 years of totally unjust brutal sanctions 
lifted. The US and UK needed this bullshit "acceptance" (which even 
Gaddafi several years later stated was rubbish) to save face, having 
insisted on Libya's guilt all this time for purely political reasons.

Understanding the entire theatre of this unfortunate man's decade long 
imprisonment in Scotland is important in understanding the celebrations 
that have greeted his return to Libya. For the UK regime and its yellow 
media, these are celebrations of a mass murder, even though they know 
they lie as they make these hypocritical statements. The celebrations 
are nothing of the sort - they are celebrating the release of a 
political prisoner, unjustly "convicted" of a crime neither he nor his 
country had anything to do with. Even more, perhaos he is even seen as 
something of a martyr, for being persuaded by his government to attend 
the Star Chamber in the first place, sacrificing his life so that his 
country could be released from sanctions.

Meanwhile the families of the Lockerbie victims are further than ever 
from finding out the truth. What a miserable episode all round. Below 
his his statement upon his release:

Al-Megrahi statement in full
Upon leaving HM Prison Greenock en route back to Libya, Abdel Baset 
al-Megrahi issued the following statement through his lawyers:

I am obviously very relieved to be leaving my prison cell at last and 
returning to Libya, my homeland. I would like to first of all take the 
opportunity to extend my gratitude to the many people of Scotland, and 
elsewhere, who have sent me their good wishes.

I bear no ill will to the people of Scotland; indeed, it is one of my 
regrets that I have been unable to experience any meaningful aspect of 
Scottish life, or to see your country. To the staff in HM Prison 
Greenock, and before that at HM Prison Barlinnie, I wish to express 
thanks for the kindness that they were able to show me.

For those who assisted in my medical and nursing care; who tried to make 
my time here as comfortable as possible, I am of course grateful. My 
legal team has worked tirelessly on my behalf; I wish to thank Advocates 
Margaret Scott QC, Jamie Gilchrist QC, Shelagh McCall and Martin 
Richardson together with the team at Taylor & Kelly, for all of their 
gallant efforts in my bid to clear my name. I know they share, in no 
small measure, my disappointment about the abandonment of my appeal.

Many people, including the relatives of those who died in, and over, 
Lockerbie, are, I know, upset that my appeal has come to an end; that 
nothing more can be done about the circumstances surrounding the 
Lockerbie bombing. I share their frustration. I had most to gain and 
nothing to lose about the whole truth coming out - until my diagnosis of 
cancer.

To those victims' relatives who can bear to hear me say this: they 
continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they 
have suffered. To those who bear me ill will, I do not return that to 
you.

And, lastly, I must turn to my conviction and imprisonment. To be 
incarcerated in a far off land, completely alien to my way of life and 
culture has been not only been a shock but also a most profound 
dislocation for me personally and for my whole family.

I have had many burdens to overcome during my incarceration. I had to 
sit through a trial which I had been persuaded to attend on the basis 
that it would have been scrupulously fair. In my second, most recent, 
appeal I disputed such a description.

I had to endure a verdict being issued at the conclusion of that trial 
which is now characterised by my lawyers, and the Scottish Criminal 
Cases Review Commission, as unreasonable. To me, and to other right 
thinking people back at home in Libya, and in the international 
community, it is nothing short of a disgrace.

As a result of my surrender, and that judgment of the court, I had to 
spend over 10 years in prison. I cannot find words in my language or 
yours that give proper expression to the desolation I have felt. This 
horrible ordeal is not ended by my return to Libya.

It may never end for me until I die. Perhaps the only liberation for me 
will be death. And I say in the clearest possible terms, which I hope 
every person in every land will hear: all of this I have had to endure 
for something that I did not do.

The remaining days of my l

[Marxism] Cockburn has a defender

[Dennis Brasky]

On 8/23/09, Jewbonic  wrote:
>
> Jewbonics has posted a new item, 'Alex Cockburn RIP? Naa'
>
> I come back from vacation, and what’s the latest? Apparently, Counterpunch
> editor Alexander Cockburn is dead. According to mailing lists, leftist
> bloggers,
> and various writers within the vaguely Marxisant commentariat, a long,
> winding
> trudge on the path of moral decay—from defense of David Koresh, criticisms
> of
> the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, [...]
>
> You may view the latest post at
> http://www.maxajl.com/?p=1795
>
>
>
>

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[Marxism] US military asks more troops, sees deterioration in Afg.

[Fred Feldman]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/asia/24military.html

August 24, 2009
U.S. Military Says Its Force in Afghanistan Is Insufficient 
By HELENE COOPER
BAGRAM, Afghanistan - American military commanders with the NATO mission in
Afghanistan told President Obama's chief envoy to the region this weekend
that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their
limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.

The commanders emphasized problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban
insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new
influx of American troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the
father-and-son-led Haqqani network of militants has become the main source
of attacks against American troops and their Afghan allies.

The possibility that more troops will be needed in Afghanistan presents the
Obama administration with another problem in dealing with a nearly
eight-year war that has lost popularity at home, compounded by new questions
over the credibility of the Afghan government, which has just held an as-yet
inconclusive presidential election beset by complaints of fraud.

The assessments come as the top American commander in the country, Gen.
Stanley A. McChrystal, has been working to complete a major war strategy
review, and as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen,
described a worsening situation in Afghanistan despite the recent addition
of 17,000 American troops ordered by the Obama administration and the extra
security efforts surrounding the presidential election.

"I think it is serious and it is deteriorating," Admiral Mullen said Sunday
on CNN's "State of the Union" program. "The Taliban insurgency has gotten
better, more sophisticated, in their tactics." He added that General
McChrystal was still completing his review and had not yet requested
additional troops on top of the those added by Mr. Obama.

The American commanders in Afghanistan spoke this weekend with Richard C.
Holbrooke, Mr. Obama's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Over the past two days, Mr. Holbrooke visited all four regional command
centers in Afghanistan, and the message from all four followed similar
lines: while the additional American troops, along with smaller increases
from other NATO members, have had some benefit in the south, the numbers
remain below what commanders need. The total number of American soldiers and
Marines in Afghanistan is now about 57,000. It was unclear whether the
commanders told Mr. Holbrooke exactly how many additional troops might be
required.

Eastern Afghanistan, in particular, has been a trouble spot. On Sunday,
during Mr. Holbrooke's stop at the Bagram military base, Maj. Gen. Curtis
Scaparrotti, commander of the United States and NATO forces in eastern
Afghanistan, told him and visiting reporters that the Haqqani network was
expanding its reach. "We've seen that expansion, and that's part of what
we're fighting," he said. American commanders believe that the network,
whose leaders Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin have been linked to
Al Qaeda, are using sanctuaries in Pakistan to launch attacks against
American and Afghan forces.

The problems in Afghanistan have been aggravated by what the American
commanders call the Pakistani military's limited response to the threat of
militants based there. Although General Scaparrotti said that cooperation by
Pakistan and the United States against the militants had improved recently,
he stressed that it was important for the Pakistanis to keep up the
pressure, particularly after the reported killing of the leader of the
Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud. 

That echoed concerns from Obama administration officials who worry that with
the absence of Mr. Mehsud, who was the Pakistani government's enemy No. 1,
the military would shift its emphasis away from the tribal areas where the
Taliban and Al Qaeda operate. "They think it's 'game over,' " one senior
administration official said. "It's more like, 'game over, next level.' "

The White House has been concerned about declining support for the war among
the American public. After recent polls illustrating the decline, Admiral
Mullen and Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired general who is the ambassador to
Afghanistan, went on Sunday talk shows to discuss the direction of the
mission.

"I'm certainly aware of the criticality of support of the American people
for this war and in fact, any war," Admiral Mullen said on NBC's "Meet the
Press." "And so certainly the numbers are of concern. That said, the
president's given me and the American military a mission, and that focuses
on a new strategy, new leadership, and we're moving very much in that
direction."

He said, "I believe we've got to start to turn this thing around from a
security standpoint in the next 12 to 18 months."

Mr. Holbrooke visited regional command centers in Kandahar, Herat,
Mazar-i-Sharif and Bagram on Saturday and Sunday. Speaking to Afghan
re

[Marxism] What's new at Links: Green jobs, Venezuela, Honduras, Cory Aquino & the left, new Pakistan book, Malaysia, US health, population and climate

[glparramatta]

What's new at Links: Green jobs, Venezuela, Honduras, Cory Aquino & the 
left, new Pakistan book, Malaysia, US health, population and climate
* * *
Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - 
at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism

Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed 
(http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to
consider an article, please send it to li...@dsp.org.au

*Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/.

* * *


Lucas Aerospace -- When workers said `no' to military production,
`yes' to green jobs 

By *Rob Marsden
*August 22, 2009 -- /Socialist Resistance/ -- Today, the twin drivers of 
economic recession and the possibility of catastrophic climate change 
are beginning to push working people towards action. A series of 
small-scale but high-profile occupations of threatened factories, not 
just at Vestas wind turbine plant but also at Visteon car plant, where 
600 workers took on the might of Ford and won a greatly enhanced 
redundancy package, show what is possible. In the 1970s workers at 
Britain's Lucas Aerospace went even further. We look back at the lessons 
of Lucas Aerospace.

* Read more 


Photo essay: Venezuela's Comuna 'Renacer del Sur' -- people's power
in practice 

By *Peter Boyle*
August 20, 2009 -- At the base of the Bolivarian revolutionary process 
in Venezuela are some 30,000 communal councils. These are pictures of 
some of the people active in communal councils in poor barrios 
(neighbourhoods) in the south of the city of Valencia. They were taken 
in November 2008 when members of the Australian-Venezuela Solidarity 
Netwok brigade were hosted by the Comuna ``Renacer del Sur'' (Rebith of 
the South Commune).
Daniel Sanchez, a leader of the Rebirth of the South Commune, and Yoly 
Fernandez, a community organiser in Mission Mercal, Venezuela's 
subsidised food program, are touring Australia in August and September 
to explain how "people's power" is transforming their country and 
creating a new socialism of the 21st century.

* Read more 


Melbourne, August 28-29: Latin America Solidarity Conference 2009


People´s Power is changing the world
Latin America Solidarity Conference 2009
August 28-29, 2009 - Victorian Trades Hall, Melbourne, Australia
http://www.solidarityconference2009.org


Major cracks are appearing in the global capitalist system -- cracks 
that are being forced open by the tide of rebellions and revolutions 
across Latin America.

Read more 


Win a trip to Venezuela! Drawn on August 30, 2009


*Win a trip to **Venezuela**!
*

*...and strengthen the solidarity movement with **Venezuela**'s 
revolution* 

* Read more 


Honduras: pre-revolutionary situation? 

By *Ricardo Arturo Salgado*, translated by *Felipe Stuart **Cournoyer*
August 22, 2009 -- Pre-revolutionary situation? Some analyses of the 
situation in Honduras are fairly static. We have to differ with many 
local and foreign analysts who have tried to understand the situation in 
Honduras by imposing pre-existing parameters and by using basic concepts 
of the Marxist dialectic without any scientific criterion. Many have 
seen a failure of the Honduran grassroots resistance, failing to 
understand that historical materialism is not a mathematical formula 
where only variables change, but rather, a way to interpret reality 
objectively.

* Read more 


The Philippines left and Corazon Aquino 

By *Reihana Mohideen*
August 14, 2009 -- Former president of the Philippines Corazon Aquino 
died on August 1. Following the 1983 assassination of Benigno Aquino, 
her husband, Cory Aquino became the Philippine's leading bourgeois 
opposition figure to the US-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She stood 
against Marcos in the 1986 presidential election. After Marcos was 
proclaimed the winner of the blatantly rigged election, a mass uprising 
-- dubbed the ``people power revolution'' -- overthrew Marcos and Aquino 
became president. She was in office from 1986 to 1992.
The Philippines left's reaction to the death of Corazon Aquino has been 
intriguing.

* Read more 


Pakistan: Farooq Tariq's new book `Facing the Musharraf
Dictatorship' (free download) 

Below is spokesperson for the Labour Party Pakistan *Farooq Tariq*'s 
introduction to his new book, /Facing the Musharraf Dictatorship: An 
Activist's Narrative/. Following that is the preface b

Re: [Marxism] to read?

[Ralph Johansen]

guava tree wrote:

//do people think reading volumes 2&3 of Capital is more valuable than 
reading the Grundrisse?


David Harvey, who conducts a most helpful 13-class video course online 
on Capital volume 1 (which I recently took and thereby gained a much 
better understanding of the book), recommends going on from volume 1 to 
read both volumes 2 and 3. This is because they are organized 
sequentially: volume 1 takes up the production process of commodities 
under the system of capital accumulation, volume 2 deals with the 
circulation of capital and volume 3 develops from there the problems of 
the reinvestment and redistribution of capital surplus. I'm now reading 
volume 2 for the first time, using the online MIA study guide which, 
while its authors recommended it for group study, seems useful for 
individual study. They supply the relevant textual references for the 
issues raised in the guide.

Harvey's The Limits to Capital (New edition 2006) is in good part an 
exposition of volume 3 and its problems. It is difficult to sort out, 
according to Harvey, as to the functions - in the process of 
realization, mobilization and reinvestment of surplus and reproduction 
of capital - of interest, the credit system, financial innovation, the 
state and its institutional structures, and not least the failure of 
Marx to complete his analysis of the role of international trade - and 
how these factors contribute to and have helped to surmount the many 
barriers to the cumulative growth of capital - the overcoming of these 
barriers being absolutely essential to the perpetuation of the system.

Harvey lays out a lot of this very rapidly and succinctly in his CUNY 
lecture in November 2008 on The Enigma of Capital (available in audio 
form on Wikipedia). There he also briefly elaborates on the importance 
of the Grundrisse, which in its central parts also covers the notion of 
potential limits and barriers to the accumulation of capital, resulting 
crises and the manner in which they are transcended or circumvented. (Or 
not?)

Ralph


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