[Marxism] Cuba approves first lung cancer therapeutic vaccine
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-06-26-cuba-approves-first-therapeutic-vaccine-for-lung-cancer http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-06-26-cuba-approves-first-therapeutic-vaccine-for-lung-cancer Cuba approves first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer ** Jun 26 2008 07:46 Cuba has approved what is believed to be the world's first registered lung cancer vaccine and is offering it to Cuban and foreign patients in its hospitals. The therapeutic vaccine, CimaVax EGF, extends life with few side effects, and is another step in Cuba's expertise in biotechnology. It was unveiled on Monday at Havana's centre of molecular immunology. It has been shown to boost survival rates by an average of four to five months, and in some cases much longer. It does not prevent lung cancer. Unlike chemotherapy, CimaVax EGF is said to have few side effects because it is a modified protein that attacks only cancer cells. It's the first such vaccine registered in the world, said Gisela González, who headed the project begun in 1992. The drug is in various clinical trials, some in Canada and Britain, and is expected to be approved next in Peru. Several companies had been licensed to market the vaccine, but it will be made in Cuba, said González. It has been approved for trial in the United States but use there is at least two years away, she added. The vaccine triggers an immune response which, in addition to extending life, can ease symptoms such as difficulty breathing and lack of appetite. The idea was to maintain or consolidate the effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Tania Crombet, the centre's director of clinical investigations, said foreigners were welcome for treatment, though its cost had not yet been set. It's possible to provide this vaccine to any patient. Because it's available in Cuba, it's approved by the Cuban drug agency, so we can receive patients from outside. As well as helping the health services of other countries with its abundance of doctors, Cuba has used its clinics to draw thousands of overseas patients each year. Its scientists are respected by foreign peers as producing good results on tiny budgets. Fidel Castro championed biotechnology in the 1980s; by the 1990s Cuba had produced and marketed vaccines for meningitis B and hepatitis B. -- © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008 -- The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy? — Jarvis Cocker The basis of optimism is sheer terror — Oscar Wilde 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 myth of the Obama movement
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/08/hbc-90005592 The Myth of the Obama Movement By Ken Silverstein “Grass-Roots Battle Tests The Obama Movement,” ran a headline in the Washington Post yesterday atop an article that looked at why health care reform has bogged down. The story examined the work of activist Jeremy Bird, who “became one of the people most responsible for validating Obama’s campaign ethos: that grass-roots support can power government and shape legislation.” Wake up, people. There never was an Obama movement. There was merely a rhetorically gifted candidate who inspired a lot of people who should have known better (admittedly, it was easy to believe given the alternatives) and who foisted on to Obama their fondest hopes and desires, which were largely delusional. Now, Obama is disappointing them just as thoroughly as did Bill Clinton, the last candidate liberals stupidly fell in love with, and not just on healthcare but pretty much across the board. Yes, Obama was the best candidate and yes, he may even accomplish something decent here and there over the next four years. But let’s not talk about an Obama movement, because that’s a fantasy. What’s sad is how many liberal Obama supporters continue to believe and insist that he’s the real thing. One even hears progressives saying that health care reform would have worked out differently if only Tom Daschle had been confirmed as secretary of health and human services. Yes, Tom Daschle, the Democratic hack, industry advocate and tax cheat would have been able to get through health care reform, maybe even a single payer system. And you thought the Republicans lived in fantasyland. 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] Hugo Chavez and the private media
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22427 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] [Spa] The poor also cry
[I don´t have the time for a translation. But those who want to know what does primitive accumulation mean will find an example in the lines below.] Mensaje original Asunto: [alai-amlatina] Los pobres también lloran Fecha: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:36:52 -0500 De: ALAI-AmLatina alai-amlat...@alai.info Responder a: i...@alainet.org Para: alai-amlat...@listas.alainet.org - - - Servicio Informativo Alai-amlatina - - - Los pobres también lloran Jorge Majfud ALAI AMLATINA, 24/08/2009.- San Sebastián Nopalera, un pequeño pueblo de la Sierra de Oaxaca, sur de México, tiene cinco mil habitantes registrados pero allí sólo viven la mitad. Las tierras que antes daban café ahora a duras penas dan maíz y no hay brazos para sacarles más. Sus habitantes, casi todos mujeres y niños, sobreviven de la ayuda que envían sus hombres de las plantaciones de Estados Unidos. Como en una guerra entre dos países, cada año cien o doscientos migrantes vuelvan a Oaxaca en cofres funerarios. Los trabajos para los cuales están destinados son casi tan mortales como el cruce de la frontera. Pero no son mujeres todas las que se quedan ni son hombres todos los que se van. Como su hermano, un día María Isabel Vásquez Jiménez decidió irse al otro lado con la promesa de ayudar a su madre viuda y volver en tres años con el capital suficiente para iniciar un pequeño negocio. El 11 de febrero de 2009 la joven de 17 años salió de su pueblo y contactó un coyote en Putla de Guerrero que la ayudó a cruzar la frontera norte. Tres meses después, el 11 de mayo, encontró trabajo en un viñedo de la West Coast Grape Farming Company, cerca de Modesto, Califorina. Como María, los indígenas mexicanos que casi no hablan español en California son los hispanos que se dedican a la pizca, a pizcar, palabras que, como tantas otras miles del spanglish, fueron creadas con el material sustantivo del inglés —pick up, recoger— y moldeadas por la conjugación del castellano. Quizás nunca podamos imaginar los miedos de María al dejar su pueblo con tan pocos años y tan poco conocimiento del mundo exterior, sus nervios al llegar a Putla para contactar a un coyote, el vértigo y el cansancio de su paso por la ilegalidad. Quizás fue feliz alguno de los tres días que trabajó en la pizca. Casi sin dudas debió ser feliz descansando al lado de su novio, Florentino Bautista, otro inmigrante sin papeles con quien vivía y planeaba casarse antes de regresar a México en tres años. Pero algo salió mal. El 14 de mayo el termómetro marcó casi cuarenta grados centígrados a la sombra. Después de nueve horas bajo el sol despiojando retoños de las vides, María se sintió mareada. Tambaleándose, caminó hacia su novio y antes de llegar se desplomó. Florentino pidió ayuda y trató de reanimarla. El encargado le dijo que no se preocupara. Esos desmayos eran algo normal. —Aplícale un poco de alcohol y se le pasa—, le dijo Pero María seguía inconsciente. La pusieron en la camioneta que llevaba a la cuadrilla a sus casas y esperaron la hora de salida. Los paños de agua fría y las fricciones de alcohol no dieron resultado y el conductor de la camioneta decidió llevarla a un médico. María hervía de fiebre en los brazos asustados de su compañero. En el camino, Florentino recibió la llamada del encargado del viñedo, Raúl Martínez, recordándole que su novia era menor de edad, por lo cual en su declaración debía decir que se había desmayado haciendo ejercicio para mantenerse en forma. Llegaron a la clínica a las 5:15. Cuando los médicos contactaron que María tenía más temperatura de la que puede soportar un ser humano, la derivaron de urgencia al Lodi Memorial Hospital. Dos días después, María y su hijo de dos meses en el vientre murieron de insolación. El informe médico menciona un paro cardíaco. Su novio, Florentino, no ha vuelto a trabajar. Tampoco ha recibido ninguna llamada en su celular. Pero el fiscal de distrito, James Willett, ha acusado a María De Los Ángeles Colunga, propietaria de la compañía de trabajo, a Elías Armenta, director de seguridad y al supervisor Raúl Martínez por no haber provisto a los trabajadores de sombra y agua, por no poseer asistencia en caso de insolación y por mentir en el proceso. El gobierno de México, como es su costumbre, manifestó su preocupación por las injustas condiciones en que trabajan los mexicanos en Estados Unidos. También el gobernador de California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, lamentó la muerte de María. Al igual que María, alguna vez en su juventud Schwarzenegger fue un inmigrante ilegal, aunque su esfuerzo y sudor lo dejó en un gimnasio de Santa Monica, no en los campos de producción agrícola. El mundo lo conoce como el actor que en 1984 dio vida al cyborg The Terminator, el hombre-máquina enviado por las máquinas inteligentes del 2029 al año 1984 con el objetivo de terminar con la resistencia de los humanos eliminando al futuro líder guerrillero antes de nacer. En su remake hollywoodense de Herodes, la casi invencible máquina es
Re: [Marxism] K2 study guide
Reminds me of the cover of Fortune a few years back showing a raging storm and wave poised to hit shore with the article's theme being how capitalism always fluctuates and is inherently unstable with the fortunes of any particular company never being secure or predictable. I don't know that insight is unique to Marxism in any sense. Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:45:58 -0700 From: bhand...@berkeley.edu Subject: [Marxism] K2 study guide To: t...@hotmail.com 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. _ Windows Live: Make it easier for your friends to see what you’re up to on Facebook. http://windowslive.com/Campaign/SocialNetworking?ocid=PID23285::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:SI_SB_facebook:082009 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] Lockerbie issue moves Obama to extradite Posada to Venezuela
Well, shut my mouth and burn my britches! Lockerbie outrage moves Obama to extradite long-wanted CIA-terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela... Anti-War (Thomas Harrington): In a dramatic announcement made yesterday shortly after the President's arrival on Martha's Vineyard, the administration declared its intention to hand over Luis Posada Carriles, the widely acknowledged mastermind of the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 that killed 73 people in 1976, to the Venezuelan government for prosecution. According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, Obama's change of heart on the long-requested extradition of Posada, who was a citizen of Venezuela when he allegedly planned the crime, came after watching Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the convicted planner of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988, return home to a hero's welcome in Libya. The President was sickened to see this man who bears responsibility for ending the lives of hundreds of completely innocent people, and forever altering those of the many thousands that loved them, walk free. Feeling their pain made him acutely aware of just how unfair it was to continue to let Mr. Posada, who in addition to the Cubana bombing has been implicated in numerous assassinations and as many as 41 other terrorist bombings throughout the Caribbean and Central America, get up each day in Miami and sip his morning coffee in complete freedom. Since the declaration of the War on Terror in late 2001, the avowed goal of the US government has been to prosecute terrorists wherever they might be in the world. As former President George W. Bush put it in a speech before a joint session of Congress on September 20 of that year, It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated. Apparently, however, there was a large loophole in this policy for Posada and the many others like him assigned to use terrorist tactics on behalf of the US government or organizations backed by what is often termed the US intelligence community. A brief examination of Posada's career demonstrates just how large this loophole is. In addition to his role in planning the Cubana bombing in 1976, Posada worked for the Reagan White House supplying US-backed irregulars in Nicaragua and the armies of the Salvadoran and Honduran dictatorships with the arms they used to kill thousands of innocent civilians in the late 1980s. In the late 1990s, Posada directed a series of terrorist bombings in Cuba designed to cripple the growth of that nation's burgeoning tourist industry, attacks he took full credit for in a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times. Yet, despite his public admission of guilt in this and numerous other cases of terrorism, Posada lived a relatively unfettered life in the US. He did so, moreover, despite having been caught entering the country illegally, under an assumed name, sometime prior to 2005. In recent years judges have regularly deported Muslim immigrants for the slightest procedural infractions, but Posada was freed on bail by an immigration judge in Texas and allowed to return to Florida under house arrest in April 2007. A month later, US District Judge Kathleen Cardone in Miami dismissed all seven immigration charges against Posada. Though a grand jury in El Paso, Texas, recently issued a new set of indictments against Posada in relationship to the Cuban bombings and his entry into the US on a fraudulent passport, Posada remained a free man until President Obama's stunning announcement yesterday. Gibbs concluded his announcement with the following remarks. In the wake of September 11, it was frequently asked 'Why do they hate us?.' Many concluded that it was because they are jealous of our freedoms. We now know, however, that it is really because of the way we selectively condemn in others the types of murderous activities that we regularly license ourselves and our close allies to carry out with impunity. We believe that the extradition of Mr. Posada will be seen as a valuable first step in closing our enormous credibility gap around the issue of terror. http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=83280 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] Reasons to Read the Grundrisse (was to read)
On Aug 25, 2009, at 11:50 AM, turb...@aol.com wrote: Shane Mage wrote: 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... ...Any text that expresses a significant part of a thinker's thought processes is important to understanding his/her work. Of course it is. Which is why we need a properly annotated edition of Das Kapital in which the Grundrisse material would find its place in the footnotes and appendices. 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 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] Lockerbie issue moves Obama to extradite Posada to Venezuela
Pat Costello wrote: Well, shut my mouth and burn my britches! Lockerbie outrage moves Obama to extradite long-wanted CIA-terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela... Did Carl Davidson get invited up to Martha's Vineyard? Hmmm. 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] Any joke about Zardari is an offence in Pakistan
This following letter is now illegal in Pakistan From Tanveer Ansari | London Review of Books, Vol. 31, No. 15, August 6, 2009 Tariq Ali’s Diary notwithstanding, Asif Ali Zardari’s misdemeanours can no longer be satirised (LRB, 23 July). Helpless citizens who have been exchanging anti-Zardari jokes in which he is referred to as a dacoit, Mr Ten Per Cent, Mr Thirty Per Cent, as a US drone, a thief, a liar, a womaniser, a murderer, are to be deprived of this liberty. Rehman Malik, Zardari’s business associate, whose day job is to act as the country’s interior minister, has pushed through a new law that makes the circulation and transmission of ‘ill-motivated and concocted stories against the civilian leadership’ illegal; the authors of such stories will be ‘punished’. It is a truly atrocious law and a serious blow to what few civil liberties and modes of expression we have left. It is unbelievable that it should have been passed so quietly, without any opposition in the National Assembly. Spoofing, spamming, and having an email address registered to a name other than the one on your passport are also punishable with jail sentences. The real joke is that these measures will increase the circulation of satirical jokes a hundredfold: they will travel by word of mouth, as they did in the days before mobile phones and the internet. Those who have been texting Zardari directly will, sadly, now have to search for other means to communicate with their leader. This letter is now illegal. Whether articles such as Ali’s are also proscribed has yet to be determined. Meanwhile Muhammad Aslam, Benazir Bhutto’s former protocol officer and himself a lawyer, who was on guard duty on her jeep’s running board the day she was murdered, has publicly accused Rehman Malik, among others, of being a prime suspect in the case. Aslam has demanded that the police register a case against the interior minister. The worms are crawling out of the can, which might help explain the rush to introduce the new law. Tanveer Ansari Karachi 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] James Petras strikes again :-(
At 21:00 24/08/09 +0200, Nasir Khan wrote: [see [Marxism] The US War against Iraq: The Destruction of a Civilization] [full text: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-us-war-against-iraq/] by James Petras, Dissident Voice, August 21, 2009 The US seven-year war and occupation of Iraq is driven by several major political forces [including] the following (in order of importance). Unfortunately the quote ends there so you do not get Petras' list of political forces behind the Iraq war unless you go to the full article as I did. What you will find is exactly TWO items on his list (of why the US went to war in Iraq), which are, in order of importance: 1) What he calls The Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC), essentially referring to JEWS in the US government whose top priority was to advance Israels agenda. and (of less importance): 2) Civilian militarists (like Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney) who are NOT JEWISH. I'm sorry to boil it down to this, but that is just about what he says; I don't think that I misread it! My revulsion isn't just that his analysis is wrong, as most people reading this will recognize (but I'm not putting it beyond debate). I'm worried about the EFFECT of framing the issue in such terms which go beyond analysis and into ethnic identification of the enemy. That has a miseducational effect on the left (the majority of those who would be reading this) and misrepresents the legitimate positions of the left which oppose western imperialism without requiring (in the first instance) a distinction between the interests of the US and the Israeli ruling classes, let alone identifying the ethnicity of US government leaders. I don't want to be dogmatic and certainly an in-depth analysis of individuals/ideologues involved in government decisions can discuss all aspects of their background. But it is clearly troubling when one's analysis of a imperialist nation going to war requires an ethnic identification of the leaders who are considered responsible, especially when it is further stated that they are acting in the interests of a foreign power. Petras essentially says that, but being a leftist doesn't go so far as to call them disloyal or acting against the interests of the US as is openly charged by right-wing antiwar forces such as Paul Craig Roberts and Jeff Gates, whose columns have also been forwarded to this list by Nasir Khan, with equal disregard. BTW my objections here are not directed to Nasir Khan, the poster, who apparently doesn't read what's posted to the list (or if he does, he has essentially never reacted to what someone else has written). I assume he isn't reading this (but if you are, please prove me wrong!). I am worried about this form of discourse infecting the left, or even being seen as acceptable. There does exist, especially in the US, a right-wing antiwar movement (antiwar.com, Pat Buchanan, etc.) and they never fail to direct their anger against Israel. Indeed most of what they say about either the US government or Israel and their filthy wars is not unlike our own propaganda. But you can look a little deeper and they generally betray their identification of Zionism with Jews and an international link which is tantamount to the International Jewish Conspiracy theories of yesteryear. Unfortunately Petras seems to be walking the same ground. I say unfortunately because unlike the above listed individuals, I can see that Petras IS an actual leftist, so I consider this also a matter of embarrassment rather than just denouncing someone as an antisemite (as I will happily do with those right-wingers I mentioned). And there is a possibly legitimate debate about whether Israel led the US into the Iraq war as these right-wingers like to claim, but is also erroneously believed by some leftists. There was a debate over the role of the importance of the Israel lobby in determining US policy between Petras and Norman Finkelstein which is transcribed at: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11ar=978 The spectrum on this issue is described by the moderator as spanning views from Walt/Merscheimer to those of Noam Chomsky. While Petras is in the former camp, Finkelstein places himself in the middle of this spectrum (but I doubt Petras would give him any credit relative to Chomsky!). I think Finkelstein wins the debate (my own prejudice, perhaps) but in the course of the discussion, Petras even laments Finkelstein's blind spot, which is understandable given his ethnicity! I suppose that would also disqualify reasonable discussion of these issues by many members of this list. :-( Petras makes the extent of his views rather clear in this excerpt: I think it is impossible to deny this and say 'Well, you can't deduce policy from ethnic affiliations. Yes, you can! When that ethnic group puts forward a position that puts the primacy of a foreign government at the center of their foreign policy and prejudices the lives of thousands of Americans
Re: [Marxism] James Petras strikes again :-(
Jeff wrote: At 21:00 24/08/09 +0200, Nasir Khan wrote: [see [Marxism] The US War against Iraq: The Destruction of a Civilization] [full text: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-us-war-against-iraq/] by James Petras, Dissident Voice, August 21, 2009 The US seven-year war and occupation of Iraq is driven by several major political forces [including] the following (in order of importance). Unfortunately the quote ends there so you do not get Petras' list of political forces behind the Iraq war unless you go to the full article as I did. What you will find is exactly TWO items on his list (of why the US went to war in Iraq), which are, in order of importance: 1) What he calls The Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC), essentially referring to JEWS in the US government whose top priority was to advance Israel’s agenda. and (of less importance): 2) Civilian militarists (like Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney) who are NOT JEWISH. Petras is a total idiot. I think the big problem with him, Cockburn and any number of leftist personalities is that they are not challenged when they write this crap. Counterpunch does not have a place for comments and Petras has never been in a debate as far as I can tell. He issues his screeds from high on top of Mount Professor Emeritus and if you don't like what he is saying, tough. Counterpunch has something new, a Facebook for its readers. I don't plan to participate because I still hold Jeff St. Clair in some regard, even though he is like a battered wife to Cockburn. 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] Reasons to Read the Grundrisse (was to read)
Oh come on, Shane. You sound like a cranky alter-cocker. We read the Grundrisse for the same reason we read the economic-philosophic manuscripts, the Theories of Surplus Value, the German Ideology, the 18th Brumaire, etc.-- for the same reason we read Beethoven's sketchbooks; because it gives us insight into the development of the totality of the work. - Original Message - From: Shane Mage shm...@pipeline.com To: David Schanoes sartes...@earthlink.net Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 1:00 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Reasons to Read the Grundrisse (was to read) 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] K2 study guide
meaning? how does this differ from financial and cost accounting? Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:51:28 -0400 From: theguavat...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Marxism] K2 study guide To: t...@hotmail.com On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 12:41 PM, S. Artesian sartes...@earthlink.netwrote: In fact capitalism doesn't reproduce ships or on the basis of ships at all. Capitalism reproduces on the basis of value, for which the ship is the carrier, the transport, the mule. a point that one would grasp all the more if one has read chapter 6 of volume 2 of Capital: The Costs of Circulation and part three of this The costs of transportation, which I think is debated in that Marx says that transportation of goods does not add to their value. I think Harvey takes issue with this is limits to capital as do others, looking at the MIA study questions for volume 2 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/tcod%40hotmail.com _ Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online. http://windowslive.com/Campaign/SocialNetworking?ocid=PID23285::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:SI_SB_online:082009 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] K2 study guide
Ya know, this whole discussion to me is yet another reflection of the ossified in-group Talmudic view of certain Marxists who conceit themselves with the notion that nobody but them knows anything about economics and therefore the sine quo non is studying the works of a grand old man of the 19th Century, or that anyone who doesn't subscribe to and study the (schematic ironically) of dialectical materialism is mired in hidebound formalism. Actually a lot of people in society, whether through intuition or not, don't start from formal logic and have developed a fairly nuanced decision making process that starts from their own material interests: certainly the bosses have. _ With Windows Live, you can organize, edit, and share your photos. http://www.windowslive.com/Desktop/PhotoGallery 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] G.Zyuganov: Stop distorting the prewar history of the USSR!
On Aug 25, 2009, at 2:52 PM, lara crete wrote: ...the subject of the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty... Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty?? Everyone knows that the Hitler-Stalin pact, which Ribbentrop and Molotov had no more to do with than did the pens with which their hands were teleguided to sign it, provided Hitler the complicit Russian neutrality without which the Wehrmacht High Command could never have been persuaded to invade Poland and automatically set off the Anglo-French guarantee. 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 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] K2 study guide
On Aug 25, 2009, at 3:28 PM, guava tree wrote: and in this chapter of volume 2 you can find this paragraph: The productive capital invested in this industry imparts value to the transported products, partly by transferring value from the means of transportation, partly by adding value through the labour performed in transport. This last-named increment of value consists, as it does in all capitalist production, of a replacement of wages and of surplus- value. Exactly. 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 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] K2 study guide
David knows this better than I do. The railroad promoters got rich; the investors got burned. Railroads were bankrupt with regularity. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com 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] K2 study guide
In a message dated 8/25/2009 12:42:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, sartes...@earthlink.net writes: Equilibrium is accidental, not necessary, and as such is not an essential characteristic, either in its presence or absence, to the success or failure of capitalism. We can look at Rakesh ship example, and see, IMO, the problem. A hypothetical community is composed requiring a number of ships with last on average 20 years-- so simple reproduction required 50 ships would have to be reproduced each year.. and then the difficulties start. But this is not how capitalism reproduces. It does not reproduce, either successfully in expansion or unsuccessfully in contraction based on replacement rates. In fact capitalism doesn't reproduce ships or on the basis of ships at all. Capitalism reproduces on the basis of value, for which the ship is the carrier, the transport, the mule. Comment There are times when you are quite brilliant, which might be understood as dogmatic in insisting upon sticking to the point. Reproduction of an expanding value - on the basis of reproducing the bourgeois relations, took me a while to understand as the unwavering point of departure for Marxists. Agreed. Equilibrium is accidental, not necessary, and as such is not an essential characteristic, . . . . or practically possible. Equilibrium is a point of intersection only visible to the minds eye. Trying to convert a theory construction into a direct practical application and meaning is in itself fraught with danger. WL. 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] K2 study guide
Railroads in their inception and throughout their consolidation give us an early object lesson in the uses of fictitious capital.-sartesianAn entertaining take on this history, worthy of HBO's Deadwood are some recent biographies of Jay Gould and The Commodore Vanderbilt. Below is a review I wrote of a bio of Gould, Dark Genius of Wall Street, the Misunderstood [!] Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons: Helluva Guy [3 Stars]This entertaining volume reminds me of a book my mother bought decades ago by a descendant of Count Dracula that sought to rehabilitate his ancestor's reputation while cashing in on his notoriety. Thus in this work, Gould who was denounced in his day by even spokesmen of the conservative business community, to say nothing of labor activists, as an unscrupulous rogue, cutthroat, financial vampire and pirate is depicted as a misunderstood entreprenuer who did nothing that his rivals would not stoop to. While there may be more than a kernel of truth to that assertion, Gould's historical reputation as one of the most infamous incarnations of his day is backed by more than substantial evidence. Gould was a highly skilled financial operator who rose from humble roots in upstate New York, where after starting out as a surveyor's apprentice, he began his business career in the thuggish intrigues of the tanning industry. Thereafter, at the outset of the Civil War, he moved to the City where he quickly rose to take on some of the titans of business like Commodore Vanderbilt, who detested him. Unlike Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller and even Morgan, however, Gould dealt almost exclusively in stock and financial manipulations to build his fortunes with little regard for building up industry and the means of production. Thus he would acquire properties, like the Erie Railroad, and run them into the ground and dump them after they had been milked dry as cash cows. Needless to say, the interests of the rank and file workers of these enterprises meant little to him, commenting once during a labor dispute he was embroiled in with them, that he could hire half the working class to kill off the other half. In his financial and stock dealings he was known as the most skilled and unscrupulous operator of his day, the top dog of Wall Street, that even those who considered themselves his closest colleagues needed to watch their backs around. In that regard he would have made the Transylvanian noble blush; and no, he was not, as widely believed, Jewish, although he made a point of not gainsaying his Hebraic roots as he felt this added to the aura of mystery and fear around him that he found useful to his purposes. Most notable of his escapades was his attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 which almost collapsed the entire U.S. economy. Jay Gould was a predatory speculative capitalist who rightly makes latter day embodiments of this type like Boesky, Millken and Skilling seem like bumbling amateurs. Like them, he did from time to time face legal troubles, but unlike these financial pirates of today, he was usually able to, sometimes quite brazenly, in a way that is fortunately no longer tolerated, bribe judges and politicians to escape any significant consequence, although on one occasion he was forced to temoporarily decamp to New Jersey with much of his wealth in carpet bags after Vanderbilt and his rivals had outmaneuvered him in this game of graft in the New York courts. _ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCBpubl=WLHMTAGcrea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackToSchool_Cashback_BTSCashback_1x1 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] K2 study guide
I might take the opportunity to plug my book, Railroading Economics (Monthly Review). Also, a cheap price. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com 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] K2 study guide
Yet, sartesian, ships are not discarded simply to maintain the value proportions between the departments (they may of course be discarded due to moral or value depreciation as a result of competitive technological change, but that is another point). As viable technical means of production or use values, they are not scrapped simply so that the value of the output of Department I can be realized. Such a claim would be idealist to the extent that the physical properties of the means of production are ignored in economic theorizing. This is Marx's point: the accumulation process has both value and use value dimensions. Use value and the physical dimensions of production play an important role in Marx's theorizing. He emphasized this in his Critique of the Gotha Programme. Grossman brings this out in his dynamics book that Steve Palmer has heroically put in the MIA archive. As for the Grundrisse, the part that we call the Formen (the sections on precapitalist modes of production) need to be read critically in light of modern knowledge. As Maurice Bloch shows, German romantic nationalist assumptions creep into the discussions of the Germanic and Slavoic modes of production; and orientalist assumptions infect the theorization of the Asiatic Mode of Production. The Ethnological Notebooks are a better place to start. 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] to read?
Because the bourgeosie has granted the masses Google. http://www.google.com/search?client=operarls=enq=David+Harvey+capitalsourceid=operaie=utf-8oe=utf-8 http://davidharvey.org/ On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 5:19 PM, Jeffrey Thomas Piercy mqd...@mqduck.netwrote: Ralph Johansen wrote: David Harvey, who conducts a most helpful 13-class video course online on Capital volume 1 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] K2 study guide
I guess that means I better read the book. OK, give me a few days. - Original Message - From: Michael Perelman mich...@ecst.csuchico.edu To: David Schanoes sartes...@earthlink.net Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 9:09 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] K2 study guide On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 09:16:01PM +, Tom Cod wrote: It'd be interesting to hear what the retired railroad workers here think of it. I would also be interested. 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] Israel organ theft story gets legs
On Monday August 24 Pat Costello wrote: (In order to condemn it, they must at least aknowledge it. Since every insult to Isreal gets the same hysterical accusation of anti-semitism people must certainly become inured. Let's hope so, anyway.) Here's a different take on the ramifications of Bolstrom's organ theft article, which appeared yesterday on the Electronic Intifada website: Baseless organ theft accusations will not bring Israel to justice Matthew Cassel, The Electronic Intifada, 24 August 2009 On Friday I was invited to appear on Press TV (Iran's international English-language satellite channel) alongside Donald Bostrom, a Swedish journalist who authored the recent article about the Israeli army stealing the organs of young Palestinian men it had killed in 1992 during the first Palestinian intifada. I surprised the producers at Press TV who I don't think invited me to argue the article's legitimacy, but instead reaffirm its claims. After the show, a producer in Tehran thanked me and told me that it was nice to get someone from the other side. But I had to make it clear, that I was not from the other side as she meant it. I support uncovering human rights violations and war crimes wherever they occur, especially in Palestine, where I have worked for many years. I do believe Bostrom's intentions were to do much the same but that his process was highly irresponsible. The problem is not that he is accusing the State of Israel of wrongdoing, but that he is making accusations of what would amount to extremely serious war crimes while providing absolutely no evidence to support his claims. Rather than advancing the cause of Palestinian human rights, such behavior hurts the many organizations, journalists, activists and others working tirelessly to expose and document Israel's numerous violations of international law committed against Palestinians and people of other Arab nations in recent decades. For the rest of the story: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10730.shtml 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] Food imports by Mexico
I don't really know if this book has what you need S., I read it a few years ago... but the author might be someone who would know. The book is called Corn and Capitalism, by Arturo Warman, translated by Nancy L. Westrate, published by University of North Carolina Press in 2003 saludos, t -- Message: 20 Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:30:25 -0400 From: S. Artesian sartes...@earthlink.net Subject: Re: [Marxism] K2 study guide Only one problem, can't find the data on food imports by Mexico. Anybody have any suggestions on where to look? Would appreciate it. Thanks. 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
