[Marxism] The Organ Theft Affair

[Dennis Brasky]

>
>
> Now Israelis Are Boycotting IKEA…
>
> by Kristoffer Larsson / August 27th, 2009
> http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/the-organ-theft-affair/
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>

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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China'shigh speed rail plans

[Nestor Gorojovsky]

No, my view is not exactly that of Moreno. However, maybe you refer to 
the dispute between the PRT and PST of those times on electoral tactics, 
etc.

Tom Cod escribió:
> Yes, they openly and contemptuously repudiated "trotskyism" in favor of their 
> version of "Guevaraism"  The view you espouse I think was that of Nahuel 
> Moreno and his faction of the PRT, a distinction the Wiki article on the PRT 
> missed.
> 
>> Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 16:14:47 -0300
>> From: nmg...@gmail.com
>> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re:
>> China'shigh speed rail plans
>> To: t...@hotmail.com
>>
>> I have also sent long commentaries on ERP to the list, long years ago.
>>
>> In a nutshell, ERP was never "Trotskyist" in any serious sense.


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[Marxism] food for thought - Drugs and Social Progress Since the Greeks

[Dennis Brasky]

>
>
>
>
> The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization, 101
>
> by Christy Rodgers / September 1st, 2009
>
> clip --
>
> Last year, a disenchanted classics major named D.C.A. Hillman published a
> book called *The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western
> Civilization*. It was his revenge on the academic community that had
> censored his thesis, forcing him to remove the section dealing with
> recreational drug use in Greek and Roman times in order to graduate.
>
> It’s a short but pithy book, aimed at the hypocrisy of the modern U.S.
> stance on (some) drugs as much as at the stuffy classicists who maintained,
> in the face of reams of textual evidence, according to Hillman, that “[the
> Romans] just wouldn’t do such a thing.” I’m not a classicist, but Hillman
> doesn’t have to work very hard to convince me that Rome’s pleasure-seekers
> didn’t just drink lots and lots of wine in those saturnalian romps of
> theirs.
>
> *The Chemical Muse* is a brief overview of the evidence that the ancient
> Greeks and Romans were both aware and tolerant of the use of psychoactive
> substances: opiates, cannabis and other plant-based drugs, while they
> simultaneously warned of the dangers of “poisoning” (what we would refer to
> as overdose) and prescribed precautionary remedies for it. In fact,
> according to Hillman, the only aspect of drug use that was criminal in these
> societies was the intentional poisoning of another person with a drug.
>
> Hillman is mostly interested in presenting his case from a civil
> libertarian standpoint; since our own imperfect understanding of civil
> liberties is largely derived from Classical society via the Enlightenment,
> he wonders how we can have descended to a position so much less enlightened
> in this regard than our primitive forebears in the ancient world.
>
> But in his defense of Greek and Roman recreational drug use, Hillman barely
> touches on what is to me, the heart of the matter: drugs may have stimulated
> the very visions and insights that gave early poets and philosophers levels
> of understanding that Western civilization has built on ever since, while
> systematically purging the parts of those understandings that didn’t gibe
> with any practice not useful to refining social control and/or increasing
> the production of profit. Hillman does make note of the pre-Socratics, chief
> among them Pythagoras and Empedocles, for whom mysticism and rigorous
> investigation of the natural world were no contradiction. He says: “the
> roots of Western philosophy reach deep into the fertile soil of the human
> imagination, where shamanism, divination, and narcotic experiences have held
> sway for thousands of years.” While this idea alone could easily be the
> subject of a book, Hillman is more interested in documenting classical
> references to drug use than to linking it to the production of important
> concepts and archetypes, from mathematics to theology.
>
> full --   <
> http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/drugs-and-social-progress-since-the-greeks/
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> The late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara said it well: “When I give food
> to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food,
> they call me a Communist.”
>
> --
>

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[Marxism] Paul Robeson: `The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery' | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

[glparramatta]

By *Harry Targ*

On September 4, 1949, an angry crowd surrounded the 20,000 friends of 
Paul Robeson who had come to hear him in an open-air concert at 
Peekskill, New York. After the event right-wing, anti-communist inspired 
mobs attacked supporters who were leaving the event. These attacks 
included smashing the windows of Pete Seeger’s automobile with several 
family members inside. Sixty years later we remember the great 
progressive Paul Robeson, his struggles for justice, and his refusal to 
bow to the politics of reaction.

Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1234

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



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[Marxism] PBS "History Detectives" Scottsboro Nine, ILD, James P. Cannon

[J Rothermel]

Check your listings. Very good.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/711_scottsboro.html


  “SCOTTSBORO BOYS’ STAMP


AIRING: Season 7, Episode 11
THE DETECTIVE: Gwen Wright
THE PLACE: Scottsboro, Alabama


THE CASE:

What is the connection between an inconspicuous black and white stamp 
purchased at an outdoor market and a landmark civil rights case? “Save 
the Scottsboro Boys” is printed on the stamp above nine black faces 
behind prison bars and two arms prying the bars apart. One arm bears the 
tattoo “ILD.” On the bottom of the stamp is printed “one cent.”

The Scottsboro Boys were falsely accused and convicted of raping two 
white girls in 1931 on a train near Scottsboro, Alabama. It took several 
appeals, two cases before the US Supreme Court, and nearly two decades 
before all nine finally walked free.

*History Detectives* delves into civil rights history and consults with 
a stamp expert to discover how a tiny penny stamp could make a 
difference in the young men’s courageous defense effort.




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[Marxism] Chomsky meets with Chavez in Venezuela

[Dennis Brasky]

>
>
> By Venezuelanalysis.com - Friday, 04 September 2009
>
> <
> http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/noam_chomsky_meets_with_chavez_in_venezuela.htm>
>
>
>
> Mérida, August 27th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- U.S. author, dissident
> intellectual, and Professor of Linguistics at the Massachussetts Institute
> of Technology Noam Chomsky met for the first time with Venezuelan President
> Hugo Chavez in Caracas and analyzed hemispheric politics during a nationally
> televised forum on Monday.
>
> Chomsky is well known in Venezuela for his critiques of U.S. imperialism
> and support for the progressive political changes underway in Venezuela and
> other Latin American countries in recent years. President Chavez regularly
> references Chomsky in speeches and makes widely publicized recommendations
> of Chomsky's 2003 book, *Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global
> Dominance*.
>
> "Hegemony or survival; we opt for survival," said Chavez in a press
> conference to welcome Chomsky.  He compared Chomsky's thesis to that of
> German socialist Rosa Luxemburg in the early 1900s, "Socialism or
> Barbarism," and referred to Chomsky as "one of the greatest defenders of
> peace, one of the greatest pioneers of a better world."
>
> Through an interpreter, Chomsky responded, "I write about peace and
> criticize the barriers to peace; that's easy. What's harder is to create a
> better world... and what's so exciting about at last visiting Venezuela is
> that I can see how a better world is being created."
>
> During Monday's forum, which was broadcast on the state television station
> VTV, Chomsky pointed out that the ongoing coup in Honduras, which began on
> June 28th, is the third coup the United States has supported in Latin
> America so far this century, following the coup against Chavez in 2002 and
> Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.
>
> The nearly finalized deal to allow the U.S. to increase its military
> presence on Colombian bases "is only part of a much broader effort to
> restore Washington's capacity for intervention," said Chomsky.
>
> According to Chomsky, the region has the capacity to unite and form a
> "peace zone" in which foreign militaries are forbidden to operate.
> "Venezuela can help to advance this proposal, but it cannot do it alone," he
> said.
>
> "The transformations that Venezuela is making toward the creation of
> another socio-economic model could have a global impact if these projects
> are successfully carried out," said the renowned author.
>
> Aporrea.org, a popular Venezuelan news and pro-revolution analysis website,
> described Chomsky as oriented toward "libertarian socialism" and "vehemently
> anti-Stalinist" in an introduction to a recent interview in which Chomsky
> said U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy will be similar to that of
> the second administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush.
>
> Chomsky addressed this issue during Monday's conference as well, commenting
> that Obama "could have much to offer Latin America if he wanted to, but
> hasn't given any signals that he does." He cited the U.S.'s indecisive
> posture toward the coup in Honduras as evidence.
>
> Chomsky also addressed the media and freedom of expression in the U.S. "In
> the United States the socio-economic system is designed so that the control
> over the media is in the hands of a minority who own large corporations...
> and the result is that the financial interests of those groups are always
> behind the so-called freedom of expression," he said.
>
> Chomsky said the growing disappointment with the Obama administration in
> the U.S. was predictable because the corporate media marketed Obama's
> presidential candidacy on the slogan of "Change We Can Believe In" but
> omitted concrete proposals for effective changes, and the Obama
> administration has since shown an incapacity to institute such changes.
>
> Chomsky was accompanied in Caracas by the co-founder of South End Press and
> ZMagazine and system operator of ZCom, Michael Albert, and the co-founder
> and editor of Venezuelanalysis.com, sociologist Gregory Wilpert.
>
> FOR VIDEO FOOTAGE CHECK;  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPVfRdLez4I
>
>
>
> The late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara said it well: “When I give food
> to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food,
> they call me a Communist.”
>
> --
>

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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China'shigh speed rail plans

[nada]

I appreciate Nestor's take on the ERP. First time I read anything he 
wrote on this. Santucho...any SWPers here remember if he was the guy who 
showed up at the SWP convention in 1973? At least he was NY I think. 
Very 'hush hush' and all that.

I agree about the ERP's Trotskyism. It was "episodic" and but they 
certainly were not "anti-Trotskyist". They view the world revolution in 
terms of unity of the all the radical workers states: Cuba, N. Korea, 
Vietnam and the armed left in Latin America and South America and the 
4th International in new sort of "5th International" opposed to Russian 
style communism.

We have much of their writings translated into English if anyone wants 
to read them. They are quite fascinating to get a handle on how the 
politics of their...revolutionary will...manifested their POV on paper. 
It's our "Trotskyism and Armed Struggle" section of the ETOL:

http://marxists.org/history/etol/document/argentina/prt/index.htm


David


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[Marxism] Establishing a maximum wage

[Pat Costello]

The Most Promising Push Yet for a Maximum Wage
August 23rd, 2009

Across the pond, in the UK, the idea of capping income is suddenly starting to 
make a respectable splash.

By Sam Pizzigati

The Great Depression gave us the minimum wage. Might we now see a “maximum 
wage,” thanks to the Great Recession? That prospect now seems to have entered 
into the realm of political possibility. Last week, in a top British daily, 100 
progressive luminaries published an open letter that has shoved the notion of a 
maximum wage onto the global public policy radar screen.

These 100 leaders — a group that included nationally known members of 
Parliament, Britain’s top labor union official, scholars, journalists, and 
widely respected human rights activists — called on the UK government to “take 
the moral lead” and establish a “High Pay Commission” to end the “unjust 
rewards” still relentlessly cascading into the pockets of Britain’s financial 
and corporate elite.

“Banking and executive remuneration packages have reached excessive levels,” 
read the open letter. “We believe now is the time for government to take 
decisive action.”

What sort of action? The High Pay Commission, the letter urged, “should 
consider proposals to restrict excessive remuneration” via “maximum wage ratios 
and bonus taxation.”

In Britain, as in the United States, billions in taxpayer dollars have gone to 
bail out banks whose top executives recklessly drove their enterprises straight 
into the ditch as they chased after personal pay windfalls. Those same banks, 
buoyed up by bailout subsidies, are now restuffing power-suit pockets.

Virtually every leading politician in the UK is “talking tough” against this 
new bonus binge. But in Britain, again as in the United States, the tough talk 
has generated little action.

Earlier this month, for instance,  Britain’s top bank regulator backed down on 
bonus restrictions announced this past February. The original rules would have 
mandated banks to defer two-thirds of all bonus outlays for three years. The 
new rules redefine that mandate into a “guidance” banks can park in some 
obscure file cabinet and ignore.

This continuing failure to challenge rewards at the top can only spell trouble, 
notes the organizer of last week’s call for a High Pay Commission.

“I think all of us understand that greed and excess fueled the economic crisis 
and brought down the whole economy,” explained Gavin Hayes, the general 
secretary of the London-based Compass think tank, on a BBC national broadcast. 
“Now is the right moment to rein in high pay. Otherwise months, years down the 
line, we could end up having another crash.”


full article:

http://extremeinequality.org/?p=181


  


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[Marxism] 679,000 homeless students

[J Rothermel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/education/06homeless.html?_r=1

excerpt:

"There were 679,000 homeless students reported in 2006-7, a total that 
surpassed one million by last spring, "

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — In the small trailer her family rented over the 
summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple 
outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try 
harder and bring her grades back up from the C’s she got last spring — a 
dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family 
was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel.


 


http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/09/06/us/06homeless.inline1.ready.html',%20'06homeless_inline1_ready',%20'width=720,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')>

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/09/06/us/06homelessCA02ready.html',%20'06homelessCA02ready',%20'width=720,height=600,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')>
 

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Katrina Crowell and her children, Charity Crowell and Elijah Carrington, 
who were homeless for part of the last school year. More Photos > 
 


Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that 
is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more 
than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has 
tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their 
responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for 
children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.

The instability can be ruinous to schooling, educators say, adding 
multiple moves and lost class time to the inherent distress of 
homelessness. And so in accord with federal law, the Buncombe County 
district , where Charity attends, 
provides special bus service to shelters, motels, doubled-up houses, 
trailer parks and RV campgrounds to help children stay in their familiar 
schools as the families move about.

Still, Charity said of her last semester, “I couldn’t go to sleep, I was 
worried about all the stuff,” and she often nodded off in class.

Charity and her brother, Elijah Carrington, 6, were among 239 children 
from homeless families in her district as of last June, an increase of 
80 percent over the year before, with indications this semester that as 
many or more will be enrolled in the months ahead.

While current national data are not available, the number of 
schoolchildren in homeless families appears to have risen by 75 percent 
to 100 percent in many districts over the last two years, according to 
Barbara Duffield, policy director of the National Association for the 
Education of Homeless Children and Youth , an 
advocacy group.

There were 679,000 homeless students reported in 2006-7, a total that 
surpassed one million by last spring, Ms. Duffield said.




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[Marxism] CfP: Call for Chapter Abstracts for the Book "The Internet & Surveillance"

[Christian Fuchs]

CfP: Call for Chapter Abstracts for the Book "The Internet & Surveillance"

PDF version of CfP: 
http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/CfP_Internet_Surveillance.pdf

Editors: Christian Fuchs, Kees Boersma, Anders Albrechtslund, Marisol 
Sandoval

Supported by COST: European Cooperation in Science and Technology, COST 
Action Living in Surveillance Societies (LiSS, IS0807), Working Group 2: 
Surveillance Technologies in Practice

Abstract submissions until October 15, 2009 (deadline) to 
christian.fu...@sbg.ac.at

The overall aim of this collected volume is to bring together 
contributions that show how surveillance works on the Internet and which 
risks are connected to Internet surveillance in general and surveillance 
connected to "web 2.0" and "social software" in particular.

The publication and publishing process is part of the COST Action 
"Living in Surveillance Societies" (LiSS) that is funded by the European 
Science Foundation (2009-2012, see 
http://w3.cost.esf.org/index.php?id=233&action_number=IS0807 for further 
information and details) and is a project by the LiSS working group 
"Surveillance Technologies in Practice". The editors are members of this 
working group.

Routledge has expressed interest in publishing this volume.

The collection of data for organizing bureaucratic and economic life is 
inherent in modern society. At the same time that privacy has been 
postulated as important value of modern society, privacy-threatening 
surveillance mechanisms have been structurally implemented and 
institutionalized in modern society. This collected volume explores 
perspectives on privacy, surveillance, and the 
privacy-surveillance-paradox in relation to the Internet.

Background

Many observers claim that the Internet has been transformed in the past 
years from a system that is primarily oriented on information provision 
into a system that is more oriented on communication and community 
building. The notions of "web 2.0", "social Software", and "social 
network(ing) sites" have emerged in this context. Web platforms such as 
Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Blogger, Rapidshare, 
Wordpress, Hi5, Flickr, Photobucket, Orkut, Skyrock, Twitter, YouPorn, 
PornHub, Youku, Orkut, Redtube, Friendster, Adultfriendfinder, 
Megavideo, Tagged, Tube8, Mediafire, Megaupload, Mixi, Livejournal, 
LinkedIn, Netlog, ThePirateBay, Orkut, XVideos, Metacafe, Digg, StudiVZ, 
etc are said to be typical for this transformation of the Internet. No 
matter if we agree that important transformations of the Internet have 
taken place or not, it is clear that a principle that underlies such 
platforms is the massive provision and storage of
personal data that are systematically evaluated, marketed, and used for 
targeting users with advertising. In a world of global economic 
competition, economic crisis, and fear of terrorism after 9/11, 
especially two kinds of actors are interested in accessing such personal 
data: corporations on the one hand and state institutions on the other 
hand. Will the Internet under the current societal conditions advance 
the intensification and extension of surveillance so that a coercive and 
totalitarian surveillance society that George Orwell would have only 
thought about in his worst dreams will emerge or not? Are there 
counter-tendencies? The contributions in this book deal with these 
topics by elaborating theoretical concepts and presenting the results of 
empirical case studies.

We are especially interested in papers that do not primarily discuss 
single examples, but attempt to discuss Internet surveillance from a 
broad perspective that takes into account societal contexts or that 
embed examples or case studies into the discussion of societal contexts.

Research Questions

Chapters could for example relate to one or more of the following questions:
* What is electronic surveillance? What are specific qualities of 
electronic surveillance on the Internet? How does Internet surveillance 
differ from other forms of surveillance?
* Which theories do we need for thinking about Internet & surveillance? 
How important (or how outdated) are the thoughts by Michel Foucault and 
George Orwell for studying surveillance on the Internet? How suitable 
are the theories of thinkers like Max Weber, Karl Marx, Anthony Giddens, 
and others for the analysis and conceptualization of Internet surveillance?
* What is the relationship of privacy and surveillance in respect to the 
Internet?
* What is privacy, how should it be defined, and how does it change in 
the age of the Internet?
* Is Internet surveillance a form of "new surveillance" (Gary Marx)? 
What are the differences and commonalities between Internet surveillance 
and concepts such as computer surveillance, dataveillance (Roger 
Clarke), the electronic panopticon (Mark Poster), electronic 
surveillance (David Lyon), the panoptic sort (Oscar H. Gandy), social 
Taylorism of surveillance (Frank Webster, Kevin Ro

[Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China's high speed rail plans

[Leonardo Kosloff]

True enough. The way I started was stupidly insensitive, careless, perhaps I’m 
rubbing the crap from other lists, environments, etc., perhaps Louis, putting 
it in nationalists terms now, or at least those of my barrio, Saavedra, this is 
an all too common, but bad, habit for us Argentines, or porteños, and you’re 
not used to it…yet.
 
I’ve been reading Marxmail posts, wow can’t even remember, couple years maybe, 
and the posts in your blog too, which I found quite helpful, let it be said. 
But I had read some of Néstor’s posts before and even the differences you had 
with them, the reason I haven’t and am not able to be more “active” is 
because…well, personal reasons of all sorts, studying, working, etc. etc., but 
I digress. 
 
I’ll try to make my views on the Universe a little clearer, evolving as they 
are, before we all die, but I can’t promise anything. I did say some if you 
plow thorugh my comments. Punching bag? No, I play futbol.
 
Néstor, I’m not living in Argentina at the moment, but I go, was going, 
somewhat often, we’ll see about it then, I’ll try to read the books you’ve 
suggested. Iñigo Carrera’s approach may be somewhat stale but:
 
Si vogliamo che tutto rimanga come é, bisogna che tutto cambi.
_
Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. 
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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China'shigh speed rail plans

[Tom Cod]

Yes, they openly and contemptuously repudiated "trotskyism" in favor of their 
version of "Guevaraism"  The view you espouse I think was that of Nahuel Moreno 
and his faction of the PRT, a distinction the Wiki article on the PRT missed.

> Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 16:14:47 -0300
> From: nmg...@gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: 
> China'shigh speed rail plans
> To: t...@hotmail.com
> 
> I have also sent long commentaries on ERP to the list, long years ago.
> 
> In a nutshell, ERP was never "Trotskyist" in any serious sense.
> 


_
With Windows Live, you can organize, edit, and share your photos.
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[Marxism] Tough times likely fuel bank heists

[c b]

September 7, 2009


Tough times likely fuel bank heists

Robberies down this year, but suburbs hit with rash of them

BY CHRISTINA HALL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

It's been a bad couple of weeks for banks in metro Detroit, authorities say.

And the recent series of holdups, largely at suburban banks, showed no
signs of slowing last week with yet another robbery Thursday at a
Comerica Bank in Roseville.

Aug. 18 was a particularly bad day: three holdups at three banks --
Huntington Bank in Clinton Township and two Charter One Banks, one in
Roseville, the other in Taylor.

Ray Roland, 34, who is accused of holding up the Huntington Bank, also
faces charges in a spree that included a TCF Bank in Eastpointe on
Aug. 17 and a National City Bank in Shelby Township on Aug. 19.

The most shocking robbery came Aug. 10, in which authorities say Ihab
Maslamani held a gun that may have been used in a murder to a
customer's head during a holdup at the Flagstar Bank in Harrison
Township.

"It could be family situations, but I think in this area, a lot could
be the economy," FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold said of what might
motivate robbers.

Authorities say the good news is that the number of bank, credit union
and savings and loan association robberies logged by the FBI during
the first six months of this year is down compared with the same
period last year. Nationally, there have been 2,776 robberies reported
through the end of June compared with 3,010 for the same period last
year. In Michigan, there have been 79 robberies in the first half of
this year compared with 130 during the first six months of 2008.

The number of bank robberies logged by the FBI in Wayne, Oakland and
Macomb counties also has been trending down. Authorities say the drop
could be in part because of the arrest of serial robbing suspects like
Alvin Murray, 52, who was known as the Heavy D Bandit and suspected of
robbing or trying to rob almost a dozen metro Detroit banks in a
two-month span last year.

"I think some of those sprees definitely did some damage," Berchtold said.

Yet authorities say they most fear a heist like the one in which
Maslamani is accused of holding a gun to a customer's head during a
bank robbery that occurred a day after police said he carjacked and
killed Matt Landry of Chesterfield Township.

A hostage situation during a bank holdup "would be the ultimate terror
that we would very much like to avoid if at all possible," said Jason
Korstange, director of corporate communications for TCF Bank. "It's
just a bad deal all over."


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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China's high speed rail plans

[Nestor Gorojovsky]

Yes, perhaps we started on the wrong foot.

I have never suggested that the transitional period should be capitalist 
just because it has to carry to end tasks that the bourgeoisie cannot 
take to their fulfillment.

And, Leonardo, though I am no Peronist, not at all, I am still further 
from anti-Peronists, including those who tend to stress that there has 
been no "structural" difference between the patterns of accumulation 
under Peronist economic policies and non-Peronist (in fact, 
anti-Peronist) policies. What is an economic policy, in the end, but a 
way to guide accumulation towards a certain point against another point?

Maybe some day we can have a talk, elsewhere, perhaps in Spanish, don´t 
know.

Leonardo Kosloff escribió:
> Louis Proyect wrote: "My main disagreement with Nestor is his tendency to 
> apply such examples 
> to Iran, China or other countries with nominally "anti-imperialist" 
> governments but at least he errs on the side of living reality rather 
> than quote-mongering from Marx."
>  
> Well, Louis, as always, I think that depends on the context. For example, 
> when the whole discussion starts to get embroiled with ‘Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, 
> agrees with me!’ –Néstor’s words, then should we not take a step back and see 
> what Marx said? Is it enough to invoke the theories of Lenin or Trotsky out 
> of nowhere? In fact, if you allow me the impudence, reading your posts on the 
> latest events on Iran, you quote Trotsky quite a bit yourself. Same goes for 
> when I talk to Stalinists who, and I suggest you experiment with this, can be 
> caught saying exactly what Marx was going crazy about in the Critique of the 
> Gotha Programme, a ‘political’ programme, and no, I’m not saying Néstor is 
> one of them.
>  
> So far the argument had been mainly centered, at least from my side, on the 
> (determinative) role of accumulation (forgive me, I have to say this here, 
> Marx said accumulation is ‘the’ independent variable,) is that orthodox, 
> economistic, dogmatic, determinist? Not if one takes Capital as a political 
> book, notwithstanding how Council Communists have made a religion out of this 
> outlook, I think. I certainly didn’t mean any of this to be an abstract 
> condemnation of the CCP, nor am I willing to abstract from the complications 
> and propose instead to engage in the demonization spectacle, and even 
> further, while I don’t accept, and think it is necessary to expressly reject, 
> Nestor’s framework about ‘using’ capitalism, the way I understand it, the 
> transitional period is capitalist, but then we have to measure how the 
> production process is progressively veering toward socialist society in terms 
> of productivity, organic composition of capital, labor relations, etc..
>  


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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China's high speed rail plans

[Louis Proyect]

Leonardo Kosloff wrote:
> But I’m starting to notice here, that Néstor and I perhaps started with the 
> left foot, so given the circumstances which I’m starting to feel out, and as 
> I take it, that he is man of struggle, I’ll try to keep the quotes to a 
> minimum, or just plagiarize them.
> Take a look at the Iñigo Carrera article, it’s not just Perón, there’s a 
> specific “pattern” to the expansive cycles in the agrarian sector, and their 
> respective political representatives, and when the contraction starts to 
> hurt, the blood starts to run. 

Nestor has been on Marxmail for 11 years since it began. And before that 
  he was on the dreadful mailing list that preceded it. I am familiar 
with his ideas and have not been shy about raising my differences with 
him as the need arises.

You, on the other hand, are new to the list and since you signed on you 
have been in one bitter exchange after another with Nextor. I think you 
would be better off establishing yourself with your own view on things 
rather than use Nestor as a punching bag. You should be able to write 
your own analysis of Aegentina or whatever without dragging Nestor into 
the fray.


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[Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China's high speed rail plans

[Leonardo Kosloff]

Louis Proyect wrote: "My main disagreement with Nestor is his tendency to apply 
such examples 
to Iran, China or other countries with nominally "anti-imperialist" 
governments but at least he errs on the side of living reality rather 
than quote-mongering from Marx."
 
Well, Louis, as always, I think that depends on the context. For example, when 
the whole discussion starts to get embroiled with ‘Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, agrees 
with me!’ –Néstor’s words, then should we not take a step back and see what 
Marx said? Is it enough to invoke the theories of Lenin or Trotsky out of 
nowhere? In fact, if you allow me the impudence, reading your posts on the 
latest events on Iran, you quote Trotsky quite a bit yourself. Same goes for 
when I talk to Stalinists who, and I suggest you experiment with this, can be 
caught saying exactly what Marx was going crazy about in the Critique of the 
Gotha Programme, a ‘political’ programme, and no, I’m not saying Néstor is one 
of them.
 
So far the argument had been mainly centered, at least from my side, on the 
(determinative) role of accumulation (forgive me, I have to say this here, Marx 
said accumulation is ‘the’ independent variable,) is that orthodox, 
economistic, dogmatic, determinist? Not if one takes Capital as a political 
book, notwithstanding how Council Communists have made a religion out of this 
outlook, I think. I certainly didn’t mean any of this to be an abstract 
condemnation of the CCP, nor am I willing to abstract from the complications 
and propose instead to engage in the demonization spectacle, and even further, 
while I don’t accept, and think it is necessary to expressly reject, Nestor’s 
framework about ‘using’ capitalism, the way I understand it, the transitional 
period is capitalist, but then we have to measure how the production process is 
progressively veering toward socialist society in terms of productivity, 
organic composition of capital, labor relations, etc..
 
But I’m starting to notice here, that Néstor and I perhaps started with the 
left foot, so given the circumstances which I’m starting to feel out, and as I 
take it, that he is man of struggle, I’ll try to keep the quotes to a minimum, 
or just plagiarize them.
Take a look at the Iñigo Carrera article, it’s not just Perón, there’s a 
specific “pattern” to the expansive cycles in the agrarian sector, and their 
respective political representatives, and when the contraction starts to hurt, 
the blood starts to run. 
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[Marxism] Total 10 Year Job Gains: Negative 203k

[Rakesh Bhandari]

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/09/total-10-year-job-gains-negative-203k/



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Re: [Marxism] What to do?

[Mark Lause]

Good for you, then.  My mistake on 2008.

The $64,000 question, of course, is how to go about building the
organization you're advocating.

ML


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Re: [Marxism] What to do?

[brad bauerly]

To activists in the US  it should be painfully obvious to them that there is
no hope for coalition building. It is either the Democrats or something
outside of power. I don't understand all the talk about die Linke etc. It is
kind of a waste of time. There will never be a coalition govenment between
the left and center in the US. This has its negative and positive attributes
but we need not spill a bunch of ink discussing why parlamentary coalitions
fail. The negative of this is that good activists get pulled foolishly into
the Democratic party only to be beaten down. As the old saying goes "the
Democratic party is where social movements go to die". Hopefully the very
recent past will convince most that this is no road for us to take.

The positive attributes of the deformed politics of the US is that a true
workers party could theoretically build a movement without having to govern
and thereby avoid the pitfalls of bourgeois democracy. Now, such a party has
not materialized but it could and it offers the best hope in the US IMO. It
is this specificity of US politics which opens up the possiblity to
transcend the old debate and to create the oppurtunity to do both party type
organizing and the 'patient' strategy, that one of the articles Bhuskar
posted puts forward, within one mass movement.

Brad

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Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution

[S. Artesian]

ML wrote:

We ARE all her descendants.  But we are also descendants of all her
female contemporaries who were making viable contributions to the gene
pool.

That's essentially a dead certainty.

ML


That is exactly correct.  There is a matrilineal line of descent that takes 
humans back to the most recent common ancestor.  This line is established, 
maintained in the mitochondrial DNA.

Tthe human genome, the "germ cell" DNA is the product of all the 
contributions to the gene pool.


- Original Message - 
From: "Mark Lause" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution




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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China's high speed rail plans

[Louis Proyect]

Leonardo Kosloff wrote:
> * when I say distributionist, I'm referring, daring as I am, to Marx's 
> Critique of the Gotha Programme:
>  
> "Vulgar socialism (and from it in turn a section of the democrats) has taken 
> over from the bourgeois economists the consideration and treatment of 
> distribution as independent of the mode of production and hence the 
> presentation of socialism as turning principally on distribution."

I don't think it is of much value to quote Karl Marx on the need for 
socialism.

After I saw "Crude", the movie about the legal case being pursued in 
Ecuador against Chevron, I was struck by how important the election of 
Rafael Correa was to indigenous peoples. Here was a president who was 
willing to take the side of the people against imperialism, despite his 
failure to live up to Lenin's example. In Latin America, such presidents 
are products of the class struggle. When Indians fight for their rights, 
the election of a Morales or a Correa is a victory. We should not sneer 
at these victories.

My main disagreement with Nestor is his tendency to apply such examples 
to Iran, China or other countries with nominally "anti-imperialist" 
governments but at least he errs on the side of living reality rather 
than quote-mongering from Marx.


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[Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China's high speed rail plans

[Leonardo Kosloff]

Ok, Néstor, when you have time, I'd appreciate you elaborate the ideological 
limits -indeed, ideology, in Marx and Engels' sense, is to turn everything 
upside down- of my anti-dialectical "juanbejustismo" (and for practical 
purposes, you're free to assume I'm Iñigo Carrera's "disciple",) vis á vis my 
allegations that you (and Lueko, to one degree or another,) so far have been 
indulging in idealist distributionist* reveries about the direction China is 
taking.

 

But please, take your time,-"que se bajen los cambios"- and be clear about it, 
no going off in a tangent, and no "mirror proofs" -by this I mean, justifying 
your position by saying you're right just like that- I beg you, so we can all 
learn about my onanist tendencies. No joke here, I think, in my humble opinion, 
marxmailers will benefit, and truly, I can't wait to get shook up.

 

* when I say distributionist, I'm referring, daring as I am, to Marx's Critique 
of the Gotha Programme:

 

"Vulgar socialism (and from it in turn a section of the democrats) has taken 
over from the bourgeois economists the consideration and treatment of 
distribution as independent of the mode of production and hence the 
presentation of socialism as turning principally on distribution."

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Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution

[Mark Lause]

If there are two discussions going on here, let's  separate them and
do one at a time.  I'm quite happy to discuss catastrophes, but they
have no more to do with mitochondrial DNA.\ than changing tires on a
bus

Every act of reproduction loses the mitochondrial DNA coming through
the father's side.  It doesn't matter how many kids the couple has,
the father isn't contributing anything that can convey his mother's
mitochondrial DNA into the process.  It's is always lost. No matter
how many times you try.  Then, too, you have to consider how few kids
are going to make it to breeding age.  An easily neglected factor
today, perhaps.

Still, what's being questioned here is the process of how this came to
be.  Those of us addressing this may or may not be explaining that in
a way that those uncomfortable with it can understand it.

But the outcome is what it is.  We share the identifiable traits of a
common female ancestor who lived in Africa at a certain period of
time.

If there's an alternative explanation that doesn't involve ouija
boards and channeling, I've never heard it.

ML


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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China'shigh speed rail plans

[Tom Cod]

What about the ERP?  Wikipedia has an article on them that I think includes 
links to YouTube stuff on them in Spanish.  they were at the heart of a heated 
faction fight within "the trotskyist movement" back in the 70s even though had 
summarily split from that at the time.  While they were largely wiped out, 
Shining Path had more success with this strategy in Peru until they too were 
ultimately defeated.  Then again, the demographics of Peru aren't the same as 
those of Argentina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Revolutionary_Army_%28Argentina%29



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Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution

[Mark Lause]

I'm not sure that what Shane's responding to as what I wrote is
actually what I wrote.  I don't, for example, understand how any of
this has to do with extinction or with speciation.

The mitochondrial DNA has nothing to do with the DNA in the cell's
nucleus that passes on genetic information.

In any event, we're talking about very tiny mutations.  Something like
a random bit of radiation knocks a piece in the DNA chain out of
place.  Or maybe it's just a mistake in replicating the DNA.  This is
almost always of the backup library of information for something like
how long your eyelashes should grow. And the mitochronrial DNA isn't
even in the nucleus where it matters anyway.

So changing a species or causing an extinction is RIGHT OUT.

But that tiny, discernible change gets passed on and genetic
researchers can read that. Let's say you have Change A in the
mitochondrial DNA of a woman in Africa living at a certain time.
Everyone alive today has that Change A.  That's all that "the
mitochrondrial Eve" means.

We ARE all her descendants.  But we are also descendants of all her
female contemporaries who were making viable contributions to the gene
pool.

That's essentially a dead certainty.

ML







On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 12:18 PM, S. Artesian wrote:
> Shane,
>
> You're just flat out wrong.  The mutation that produces sickle cell was not
> caused by the environmental pressure of malaria in Africa, despite the fact
> that the mutation yields some resistance to the infection.
>
> The mutation once produced was "Selected For" and survived due to sexual
> reproduction where the mutation could remain dormant and not kill all the
> people, which would make it more fatal than the malaria.
>
> No wonder you like eugenics.
>
>
> - Original Message -
> From: "Shane Mage" 
> To: "David Schanoes" 
> Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 12:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution
>
>
>
> 
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> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/markalause%40gmail.com
>


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[Marxism] Obama's tired of.....

[Greg McDonald]

http://tinyurl.com/ameg2k


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Re: [Marxism] What to do? [Early morn "Labor Day" thoughts]

[Louis Proyect]

Bhaskar Sunkara wrote:
> The same could be said of the Greens, except that primary campaign would
> be irrelevant.

The Greens are dead, mostly the result of tail-ending the Democrats.

> 
> But what is the Democratic Party?  Certainly it's largely neoliberal,
> bourgeois to
> say the least-- perhaps the world's second most enthusiastic major
> capitalist party.
> But is there not open primaries?  Can a party without dues and with open
> primaries even be called a party?

Btw, you need to clean up your email. These "stepladder" effects are 
strictly verboten.



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Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution

[S. Artesian]

Shane,

You're just flat out wrong.  The mutation that produces sickle cell was not 
caused by the environmental pressure of malaria in Africa, despite the fact 
that the mutation yields some resistance to the infection.

The mutation once produced was "Selected For" and survived due to sexual 
reproduction where the mutation could remain dormant and not kill all the 
people, which would make it more fatal than the malaria.

No wonder you like eugenics.


- Original Message - 
From: "Shane Mage" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution




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Re: [Marxism] What to do? [Early morn "Labor Day" thoughts]

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

The same could be said of the Greens, except that primary campaign would
be irrelevant.

But what is the Democratic Party?  Certainly it's largely neoliberal,
bourgeois to
say the least-- perhaps the world's second most enthusiastic major
capitalist party.
But is there not open primaries?  Can a party without dues and with open
primaries even be called a party?

Such an electoral campaign would be important logical step at some point.
An open, democratic, Marxist organization is obviously the more important
and immediate task.

Not that creating a viable party of opposition is *likely* to work, but I
don't see
how it's *possible* through the tactics that have been dominate on the
American left.

Louis Proyect:
Anybody who runs as a Democrat is unlikely to have "openly Marxist" views.

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Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution

[Shane Mage]

On Sep 7, 2009, at 10:49 AM, S. Artesian wrote:
>
> And the contradiction is crucial, because the hypothesis of
>> constancy for the rate of change in mitochondrial DNA depends on the
>> assumption of constancy in the environmental conditions determining
>> that rate of change...
>
> Just one point, mutations in mitochondrial DNA are not the product of
> changes in the environment.  These mutations are not "adaptations,"  
> they are
> not "selected." [Most mutations have nothing to do with the  
> environment].
> In mitochondrial DNA the mutations are random errors in internal
> replication, which since there is no exchange of genetic material  
> through
> sexual reproduction, form a "pristine" -- as they cannot be selected  
> for--
> "clock"  for determining the times of the deviation from, and the  
> origin of,
> the "template" mitochondrial DNA.
>
Mutations in mitochondrial DNA, like all other physical phenomena, are  
*caused*.  Random they may be with respect to the life-history of the  
individual organisms in which they occur, but the frequency with which  
they occur in a population is determined by causal factors in the  
environment.  If that frequency, that rate of change, is constant then  
the relevant environmental causality must also be constant.  And that  
assumption, in the present state of scientific and historical  
knowledge, is quite unsupportable.

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] What to do? [Early morn "Labor Day" thoughts]

[Louis Proyect]

Bhaskar Sunkara wrote:
> Maybe it's the naivety of youth, but I don't see why such an organization
> couldn't openly run candidates in Democratic primaries on an openly
> Marxist, oppositional platform for the sake of not a fantasy to "transform"
> or "push the Democrats left", but to reach out to progressive forces that
> are unfortunately held up in the Democratic camp?  (Whether we like it or
> not they are there.)

Anybody who runs as a Democrat is unlikely to have "openly Marxist" views.


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Re: [Marxism] Good critique of Walter Benn Michaels's NLR article

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

I was referring to the LRB article.  I stand corrected.  I still think there
are a few
coherent points in Michael's work, but it probably would be better for
someone
more nuanced and who has less open contempt for contemporary minority and
feminist movement to say it.

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 11:57 AM, Tyler Zimmer  wrote:

> >
> > No where is this insinuated. I can't understand how anyone could take
> that
> > reading from his article.
> >
>
> From his NLR piece entitled 'Against Diversity':
>
> “In 1947 –seven years before Brown v. Board of Education, sixteen years
> before The Feminine Mystique –the top fifth of American wage-earners made
> 43
> percent of the money earned in the US. Today that same quintile gets 50.5
> percent. The bottom fifth got 5 per cent of total income; today it gets 3.4
> percent. After half a century of anti-racism and feminism, the US today is
> a
> less equal society than was the racist, sexist society of Jim Crow.
> Furthermore, virtually all of the growth in equality has taken place since
> the Civil Rights Act of 1965- which means not only that the struggle
> against
> discrimination have failed to alleviate inequality, but that *they have
> been
> compatible with a radical expansion of it*. Indeed they have *helped to
> enable the increasing gulf* between rich and poor.”
>

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Re: [Marxism] What to do? [Early morn "Labor Day" thoughts]

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

I honestly don't think that our energies should be put toward electoral
efforts by third parties.
But there is no doubt that in the long-term a "party of the working class"
is an absolutely necessity.

Now I'm largely paraphrasing Larhs Lih and Mike Macnair, but such a party
would need to be both a vanguard and a mass party.
Kautsky (somewhat infamously) stated the need of the vanguard of the working
class and intellectuals to bring the "good news"
of socialism to workers, a mass party at the same time, because the party of
the working class should be democratic, open
and must clearly articulate its real platform (no modern Trotskyist
hide-behind-a-front-group nonsense).

The early SPD, which Lenin adapted to Russian circumstances (extreme state
repression, illegality) modeled and the Bolsheviks around,
 pioneered rallies, petitions, all things we take for granted this
adapted to the 21st century is an excellent model.
In addition to simple trade unions, workers' clubs, community organizations,
where all created on an openly working class, socialist basis.
The Black Panther Party's efforts (free breakfasts, community centers, etc)
is a more contemporary example of something similar to this.

Basically it would take a mass workers' movement, combined with the "merger"
of the socialist goal with a large chunk of that movement
to build a principled *party of opposition* (one that does not aspire to
ever manage the capitalist state or enter into coalition with capitalist
forces).

I don't think there is much hope in Green Party or Labor Party venture.
This isn't even to mention that due to restrictive electoral laws the 3rd
party
venture is nearly impossible in the United States.  For now building the
embryo of a broad Marxist organization would be a good start.

Maybe it's the naivety of youth, but I don't see why such an organization
couldn't openly run candidates in Democratic primaries on an openly
Marxist, oppositional platform for the sake of not a fantasy to "transform"
or "push the Democrats left", but to reach out to progressive forces that
are unfortunately held up in the Democratic camp?  (Whether we like it or
not they are there.)

*recommended:*

http://radicalebooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/revolutionary-strategy-by-mike-mcnair.html
http://theactivist.org/blog/the-current-relevance-of-an-old-debate
http://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1909/power/index.htm

I'm about to start up the BBQ, and I have no time to proof read this.  (and
I haven't put my contacts in yet.)

Apologizes,

Bhaskar

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 8:12 AM, Hunter Gray wrote:

>
> But, given the obvious dashing of hopes via the Obama administration and
> its spectacular downward spiral in conjunction with mounting crises on
> virtually every front, this general model, with a social justice
> constituency much, much broader than Labor alone, might now serve as a
> meaningful approach.  If it can develop and maintain some genuinely
> visionary radical positions and, somehow, overcome the oft lack of
> inter-union solidarity, endemic Leftist bickering, the problem of some
> liberal timidity, ego trips -- and other obstacles including co-opting
> efforts by the Democratic "establishment," it just might emerge as a potent,
> highly constructive force. 'Way down the pike, who knows what could develop
> from it in a realistic third-party  sense?
>

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Re: [Marxism] Good critique of Walter Benn Michaels's NLR article

[Tyler Zimmer]

>
> No where is this insinuated. I can't understand how anyone could take that
> reading from his article.
>

>From his NLR piece entitled 'Against Diversity':

“In 1947 –seven years before Brown v. Board of Education, sixteen years
before The Feminine Mystique –the top fifth of American wage-earners made 43
percent of the money earned in the US. Today that same quintile gets 50.5
percent. The bottom fifth got 5 per cent of total income; today it gets 3.4
percent. After half a century of anti-racism and feminism, the US today is a
less equal society than was the racist, sexist society of Jim Crow.
Furthermore, virtually all of the growth in equality has taken place since
the Civil Rights Act of 1965- which means not only that the struggle against
discrimination have failed to alleviate inequality, but that *they have been
compatible with a radical expansion of it*. Indeed they have *helped to
enable the increasing gulf* between rich and poor.”

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Bhaskar Sunkara 
wrote:
>
> This is probably a very valid point.  There should no question that the
> immigrant rights movements
> and organizing among other marginalized groups should be a primary focus
for
> Marxists right now.
>
> I despise when people dismiss the White working class as hopelessly
> reactionary, but there is no doubt in
>  my mind that the embryo of a mass movement would have to start in more
> fertile territory.
>
> As far as provocation goes if part of his essay challenged leftists who
have
> been seeing Obama, Hillary and Condi
> as mostly beneficiaries of the upheavals of the New Left and the
> post-political left, instead of  neoliberalism ethos.
> I think this is fundamentally correct.
>
> I was unaware of his stance on diversity in universities.  It sounds
arcane
> and reactionary.
>
> On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
>
> >
> > Basically he is an intellectual provocateur like Stanley Fish, who
> > enjoys stirring things up. I should mention that Living Marxism, the
> > magazine put out by the Spiked Online people, had the *same* analysis as
> > him and enjoyed the static it generated on the left. Why people should
> > take characters like WBM and Frank Furedi seriously is beyond me since
> > they don't take their own selves very seriously.
> >
> >
> 
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[Marxism] Marx in the Toronto Star

[brad bauerly]

 
 Marx and his ideas rise from the dustbin of history TheStar.com - Opinion -
Marx and his ideas rise from the dustbin of history
Profound understanding of capitalist dynamics has come to the fore during
the current crisis
September 07, 2009
*Leo Panitch
*Research chair in comparative political economy and distinguished research
professor of political science at York University

Workers of the world unite! A new message for Labour Day 2009?

What is the significance of the way not only John Maynard Keynes but even
Karl Marx has been brought back into fashion amidst the global economic
crisis? This is a question well worth pondering on the day that is
officially designated to celebrate the class that Marx saw as carrying the
promise – and the responsibility – of creating a better world.

Twenty years ago, many cast Marx's ideas into the dustbin of history along
with the statist Communist regimes that collapsed in 1989. Yet Marx, who
more than any 19th century liberal economist or philosopher insisted that
the state was an imposition on society and looked forward to it "withering
away" after a proletarian revolution, would have been the severest critic of
those regimes. As Joseph Schumpeter once said, there was as little in common
between Marx and Stalinism as there was between Jesus and the Inquisition.

In any case, as the globalization of capitalism quickened through the 1990s,
it actually became more fashionable than ever to quote Marx, especially on
how "the need for a constantly expanding market for its products chases the
bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe," creating in the process "a
world in its own image." But what was usually left out when the *Communist
Manifesto* was quoted in this way in the 1990s was Marx's prescience on
capitalist globalization "paving the way for more extensive and exhaustive
crises."

It has been this aspect of Marx's profound understanding of capitalist
dynamics that has come to the fore in the current crisis. It does indeed
seem to confirm that capitalism is like "the sorcerer who is no longer able
to control the powers of the netherworld whom he has called up by his
spells." But what is especially important to bear in mind on Labour Day is
that Marx, unlike many of those Marxist economists who make it their
business to predict economic crises, would have had no illusions that the
purely economic contradictions of capitalism would bring about a better
world.

Marx knew very well that capitalism, by its nature, fosters social
isolation, leaving "no other nexus between man and man than naked
self-interest, than callous cash payment." This creates passivity in the
face of personal crises, from factory layoffs to home foreclosures. So, too,
does this isolation impede communities of active, informed citizens from
coming together to advance radical alternatives.

Marx would look at this crisis from the perspective of what it would take
for workers to overcome this all-consuming social passivity. He saw the
trade unions developing in his own time as a step forward in relation to the
"immediate aim" of "the organization of the proletarians into a class" whose
"first task" would be "to win the battle for democracy." And Marx would
today encourage the formation of those types of collective identities,
associations and institutions through which people could redefine their
needs and develop their ambitions and capacities to fulfil them by winning
the battle for economic democracy. This is something no capitalist society
can ever become.

No such vision for enacting change has arisen from the labour movement in
this crisis, at least not so far. Nor is it likely to emerge from the
primarily defensive way trade unions are currently constituted. They do need
to resist employer pressures to make workers bear the burden of the crisis
in the public as well as the private sector. But their lack of ambition to
organize and represent all workers in all facets of their lives, not only in
terms of a narrow orientation to collective bargaining, is proving
increasingly debilitating.

It is significant that the Labour Day we celebrate today, legally
established in 1895 to occur on the first Monday of September, involved
Canada abjectly following what the U.S. government had done to avoid workers
there joining in the celebration of May Day as the international workers
holiday. This practice had been established in 1889 when the first congress
of the Second International (the successor to the First International
organized by Marx in the 1860s) called on workers everywhere to join in an
annual one-day strike on May 1. This date was chosen to coincide with the
timing of international protests against the bloody repression of workers in
Chicago in 1886 who had been campaigning for an eight-hour working day.

Unions in Canada, like those in the U.S., went along with politicians who
sought to replace the May Day that symbolized labour's insurgent history and

Re: [Marxism] Good critique of Walter Benn Michaels's NLR article

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

This is probably a very valid point.  There should no question that the
immigrant rights movements
and organizing among other marginalized groups should be a primary focus for
Marxists right now.

I despise when people dismiss the White working class as hopelessly
reactionary, but there is no doubt in
 my mind that the embryo of a mass movement would have to start in more
fertile territory.

As far as provocation goes if part of his essay challenged leftists who have
been seeing Obama, Hillary and Condi
as mostly beneficiaries of the upheavals of the New Left and the
post-political left, instead of  neoliberalism ethos.
I think this is fundamentally correct.

I was unaware of his stance on diversity in universities.  It sounds arcane
and reactionary.

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

>
> Basically he is an intellectual provocateur like Stanley Fish, who
> enjoys stirring things up. I should mention that Living Marxism, the
> magazine put out by the Spiked Online people, had the *same* analysis as
> him and enjoyed the static it generated on the left. Why people should
> take characters like WBM and Frank Furedi seriously is beyond me since
> they don't take their own selves very seriously.
>
>

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Re: [Marxism] [Pen-l] Life insurance now being bundled like subprime mortgages

[Gar Lipow]

On 9/6/09, Louis Proyect  wrote:
> NY Times, September 6, 2009
> Back to Business
> Wall Street Pursues Profit in Bundles of Life Insurance
> By JENNY ANDERSON

This takes an old (and disgusting) but profitable scam, and ruins it
to generate bubble. Industry has made money by taking out life
insurance on low paid workers, keeping it even after they leave the
company. It makes a profit because certain types of whole life are in
some ways tontines.

If someone with this type of whole life policy cashes it in before
they die, while some of the profit goes to the insurance company, a
bit goes into the investment fund the policy holders have joint rights
to.  Because most people with whole life do cash it in before they
die, someone who hold onto a whole life policy until death, and thus
gets the investment plus the payout wins financially or rather their
heirs do - getting a better payoff than investing the money
themselves. Even though whole life pays a worse return than combined
term plus saving the premium difference yourself, if you hang on to it
until you did your heirs profit because you can some of the money
invested on behalf of other premium holders. Since corporations can
afford to hang on the the policies until the insured die, they had a
pretty certain profit.

But if these firms start a bubble, and people who want to cash out
sell to them instead of surrendering policies to insurers,  then
nobody ends up with any one else's investment. Instead both death
benefits and  "cash value" for each insured have to be covered from
premiums and investments on that insured. And "dead peasant" insurance
will start having lower returns than standard investments.  A silver
lining?


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Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution

[S. Artesian]

Shane wrote:

And the contradiction is crucial, because the hypothesis of
> constancy for the rate of change in mitochondrial DNA depends on the
> assumption of constancy in the environmental conditions determining
> that rate of change, and such gradualism would guarantee the survival
> of more than one line unless the original population was too small for
> Darwinian speciation to occur in the first place.
___

Just one point, mutations in mitochondrial DNA are not the product of 
changes in the environment.  These mutations are not "adaptations," they are 
not "selected." [Most mutations have nothing to do with the environment]. 
In mitochondrial DNA the mutations are random errors in internal 
replication, which since there is no exchange of genetic material through 
sexual reproduction, form a "pristine" -- as they cannot be selected for--  
"clock"  for determining the times of the deviation from, and the origin of, 
the "template" mitochondrial DNA.

I don't know Shane-- first eugenics, and now environmental changes causing 
mitochondrial DNA mutation-- sounds more like Lamarck than Darwin to me--  
not that Lamarck didn't make important breakthroughs in evolution as an 
organic process.






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[Marxism] South Africa’s Poor Renew a Traditio n of Protest

[Louis Proyect]

NY Times, September 7, 2009
South Africa’s Poor Renew a Tradition of Protest
By BARRY BEARAK

SIYATHEMBA, South Africa — This country’s rituals of protest most often 
call for the burning of tires, the barricading of streets and the 
throwing of rocks. So when the municipal mayor here went to address the 
crowd after three days of such agitation, the police thought it best to 
take him into the stadium in a blast-resistant armored vehicle.

Chastened by the continuing turmoil, the mayor, Mabalane Tsotetsi, known 
as Lefty, penitently explained that all of the protesters’ complaints 
would be given his full attention. But by then official promises were a 
deflated currency, and rocks and bottles were again flying as he retreated.

The reasons for this community’s wrath — unleashed first in late July 
and again briefly a month later — were ruefully familiar to many South 
Africans. “Water, electricity, unemployment: nothing has gotten better,” 
said Lifu Nhlapo, 26, a leader of the protests here in Siyathemba, a 
township 50 miles east of Johannesburg. “We feel an anger, and when we 
are ignored, what else is there to do but take to the streets?”

Civil unrest among this nation’s poor has recently gotten worldwide 
attention, and is often portrayed as unhappiness with South Africa’s new 
president, Jacob Zuma. Actually, these so-called service delivery 
protests have gone on with regularity for a long time. They vary in 
intensity — mild, medium and hot — and their frequency seems to rise and 
fall without a predictable pattern.

Oddly enough, the protests can be seen as a measure of progress as well 
as frustration. Since the arrival of democracy 15 years ago, the 
percentages of households with access to piped water, a flush toilet or 
a connection to the power grid have notably increased. Those people left 
waiting are often angry, and so far their ire has not usually been 
directed at the president — who has been able to use the protests to his 
political advantage — but at municipal officials they consider uncaring, 
incompetent and corrupt.

“No one wants to be worse off than their neighbor,” said Kevin Allan, 
managing director of Municipal IQ, a company that monitors the 
performance of local government. “People get impatient.”

The places most ripe for unrest are neither the poorest communities nor 
those with the longest backlog in setting up services, he said. Most 
commonly, the protests are rooted in informal settlements that have 
sprung up near urban areas, where the poor who do not receive government 
services rub up against the poor who do.

Whatever the causes for the protests, the governing African National 
Congress appears to take them quite seriously. Party leaders have been 
dispatched to hot spots, where they usually end up investigating their 
fellow party members. Local government, like national government, is 
largely dominated by the A.N.C.

In Siyathemba, the emissary from on high was Mr. Zuma himself. On the 
afternoon of Aug. 4, his helicopter set down on a rocky soccer field, 
with bodyguards and a BMW waiting. He eventually proceeded to the town 
of Balfour, the seat of municipal government. Mayor Tsotetsi, at home at 
the time, rushed back to the office to meet his unannounced visitor. 
Commentators had a good laugh about that, presuming the mayor a 
goldbrick who likes to knock off early.

“There is no place that will be hidden from me,” Mr. Zuma announced, 
leaving the impression he was now a sort of caped superhero who would 
pop up wherever malingerers were not earning their government paychecks.

Though the president also denounced lawbreaking by protesters, his visit 
seemed an endorsement to those here who had vented their anger. “Zuma 
agrees with us, that all these mayors and councilors who are not 
performing have to go,” said Zakhele Maya, 26, another leader of the 
demonstrations.

Siyathemba has a population of about 6,000 and an unemployment rate of 
82 percent, more than triple the nation’s rate, according to official 
statistics. Most here live in shacks of corrugated metal, the roofs kept 
in place with strategically placed rocks. Many of the dwellings sag in 
the middle as if they were melting in the hot sun.

Clusters of shacks here look about the same, but some are settlements 
that have been “formalized,” which means that the hovels, however 
dilapidated, have electricity inside and a water tap and flush toilet 
nearby. Those people living in communities without this imprimatur must 
light their homes with kerosene or paraffin and wait in lines, pail in 
hand, at a single communal spigot.

“This is no way to live,” said Mercy Mbiza, 38. “We have to dig a pit 
for a toilet, and when it’s full, we dig another. They tell us we are on 
a waiting list to get services. Whether I will die first, I don’t know.”

Rumors — true or not — are dangerous combustibles in places like this. 
People are suspicious that money meant for them is being stolen or 
wasted by th

Re: [Marxism] Tweaking of DNA dating on human evolution

[Anthony Hartin]

>The way to think of this is to go back before the "Eve" and ask how
>those lines disappeared. Every time a new human is created, it'll have
>the mitochondrial DNA of its mother's mother and that of its father's
>mother isn't passed on. Every role of the dice loses 50%. So, over
>time, the probability of having "lines" disappear are much higher than
>surviving.

Thats only true if the father's mother only ever has one child - a boy. 
The number of descendants bearing a female ancestor's mitochondrial DNA 
must be, the average number of female offspring reaching child-bearing age 
produced by a mother (A) times the number of intervening generations (N).

The question is what is A? Its certainly something that varies over time 
and circumstances. If its not substantially bigger than 1, then one medium 
sized catastrophe has a good chance of wiping out a fairly large amount of
lines. Of course if its less than 1 then it just takes a certain amount 
of time to wipe out a line


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[Marxism] What's new at Links: `Seattle' in Copenhagen, S. Africa, Paraguay, Venezuela, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Victor Serge, Indonesia

[glparramatta]

What's new at Links: `Seattle' in Copenhagen, S. Africa, Paraguay, 
Venezuela, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Victor Serge, Indonesia

* * *
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/.

* * *


Call for a 'Seattle' approach to Copenhagen climate talks, Africans
demand reparations 

By *Patrick Bond*

September 5, 2009 -- Durban -- Here's a fairly simple choice: the global 
North would pay the hard-hit global South to deal with the climate 
crisis, either through the complicated, corrupt, controversial ``Clean 
Development Mechanism' (CDM), whose projects have plenty of damaging 
sideeffects to communities, or instead pay through other mechanisms that 
must provide financing quickly, transparently and decisively to achieve 
genuine income compensation plus renewable energy to the masses.
The Copenhagen climate summit in December is all about the former 
choice, because the power bloc in Europe and the US have put carbon 
trading at the core of their emissions reduction strategy, while the two 
largest emitters of carbon in the Third World, China and India, are the 
main beneficiaries of CDM financing.

* Read more 


`Amanzi Ngawethu' (water is ours); Health and environmental
victories for South African activist 

/On September 2 and 3, 2009, the Constitutional Court of South Africa 
will hear the final appeal in a case brought by five Soweto residents 
challenging Johannesburg's discriminatory prepaid water meter system. 
Their six-year legal battle would reaffirm the constitutional right to 
water for all South Africans. /

/Low-income communities in Johannesburg's townships do not have 
sufficient water resources and do not receive the same water services as 
residents in wealthier, often white, suburbs. Yet, the Bill of Rights of 
South Africa guarantees everyone's right to have access to sufficient 
water./

* Read more 


Paraguay: Change is still to come; The first year of Fernando Lugo's
government 

/ /

By *Adolfo Giméne*, translated by *Federico Fuentes *for /Links 
International Journal of Socialist Renewal/
August 14, 2009 -- Asunción -- The anniversary of the first year of 
Fernando Lugo's government coincided with a five-day national protest 
(August 10-15) organised by the United Popular Space (Espacio Unitario 
Popular, EUP), a coming together of many social organisations and left 
parties [1], with the support of figures from diverse political sectors, 
including the governor of the department of San Pedro, Jose Pakova 
Ledesma, from the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal 
Radical Auténtico, PLRA). [Lugo was elected president on April 20, 2008, 
but did not formally take office until August 15.]

* Read more 


Young Venezuelan revolutionary and environmentalist: `Tomorrow is
too late' 

August 23, 2009 -- Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network 
 national co-convenor *Frederico 
Fuentes* spoke to *Heryck Rangel* (pictured), an environmental activist 
and leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth (JPSUV), 
about the challenges that the global environment crisis poses for 
Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, and the planet. He also discussed the 
role of young people in Venezuela's revolution.

* Read more 


Suffering and struggle in rural China 

*/Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of Chinese Peasants./*
By Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao.
New York: Public Affairs 2006
Review by *John Riddell*
Is China killing the goose whose golden eggs have financed its economic 
upsurge? Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao pose this question in their gripping 
portrayal of the suffering and struggles of Chinese peasants today.

* Read more 


For people to people solidarity with Vietnam


By *Peter Boyle*
September 1, 2009 -- There has been a lot of media coverage in Australia 
around the August 31 return of the remains of the last two Australian 
armed forces personnel -- Canberra bomber pilots -- who were missing in 
action in the Vietnam War. But none of the articles put this in the 
context of the death and damage inflicted on the Vietnamese people by 
the United States and its ally Australia.Operating as part of the US Air 
Force's 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, Royal Aus

Re: [Marxism] Good critique of Walter Benn Michaels's NLR article

[Louis Proyect]

Bhaskar Sunkara wrote:
> No where is this insinuated. I can't understand how anyone could take that
> reading from his article.
> 

To repeat myself, WBM is a *very* slippery character. His prose is open 
to multiple interpretations, no doubt a function of his exposure to too 
many ALA conferences.

The other big problem is that he is fixated on campus politics. For him, 
the need to replace campus admissions based on race with one based on 
class is a kind of philosopher's stone. He just does not impress me as 
someone who has the whole gamut of the African-American experience in 
mind, just what is in his own backyard.

Black workers have been struggling for a more *diverse* workplace since 
the 1960s. In fact the very first affirmative action case heard by the 
Supreme Court involved workers in the aluminum industry in the Deep 
South. How does that not involve class? Or to be more specific, class 
distinctions within the working class.

The other thing worth noting is that WBM is not known as someone on the 
front lines when it comes to issues of war and peace, immigrant rights, etc.

Basically he is an intellectual provocateur like Stanley Fish, who 
enjoys stirring things up. I should mention that Living Marxism, the 
magazine put out by the Spiked Online people, had the *same* analysis as 
him and enjoyed the static it generated on the left. Why people should 
take characters like WBM and Frank Furedi seriously is beyond me since 
they don't take their own selves very seriously.



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[Marxism] What to do? [Early morn "Labor Day" thoughts]

[Hunter Gray]

 
This is geared toward a discussion of sorts on RBB. And it isn't my Labor day 
-- but it'll do as a handle for this:

Most of us are aware that third party efforts in this country, since the days 
of Debs and the pre-WW1 Socialist Party, have borne no fruit in the sense of 
really mass support.  They have, in many cases, generated creative ideas and 
their activists have often been important forces in building constructive 
dissent and, in the case of the Left, achieving many significant victories in 
many grassroots social justice pursuits. They do provide alternatives for those 
who, in good conscience, cannot support either of the two major parties.  But, 
bluntly, they haven't gotten to first base in meaningful political victories 
and achieving -- for better or worse, depending on the nature of the particular 
party -- systemic change. And, lately, they've just been very minor shadows.  
[Individual members continue to make activist contributions.]

 In 1991, a number of labor activists, including the late Tony Mazzocchi, 
Secretary-Treasurer of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union [now called 
PACE and tied, at least somewhat, to the Steelworkers union -- launched Labor 
Party Advocates. Though some long range hopes focused vaguely on a third party, 
the organization -- supported by some international unions, a range of local 
unions, and individuals [I was a member for years] -- saw its immediate role as 
hard-hitting advocacy, with an especial focus on the Democratic Party.  But, in 
the end, a paucity of real solidarity in the union world and the corrosive 
effects of superficial Clinton "reforms" saw Labor Party Advocates fail to 
catch real fire, and it gradually faded.

But, given the obvious dashing of hopes via the Obama administration and its 
spectacular downward spiral in conjunction with mounting crises on virtually 
every front, this general model, with a social justice constituency much, much 
broader than Labor alone, might now serve as a meaningful approach.  If it can 
develop and maintain some genuinely visionary radical positions and, somehow, 
overcome the oft lack of inter-union solidarity, endemic Leftist bickering, the 
problem of some liberal timidity, ego trips -- and other obstacles including 
co-opting efforts by the Democratic "establishment," it just might emerge as a 
potent, highly constructive force. 'Way down the pike, who knows what could 
develop from it in a realistic third-party  sense?

Solidarity,

Hunter [Hunter Bear]

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´ 
and Ohkwari' 

Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm 
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray: 
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

See Outlaw Trail: The Native as Organizer:
http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm
[Included in Visions & Voices: Native American Activism [2009]

And see Personal Narrative:
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm


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Re: [Marxism] Voting with feet, not commendable in Argentina Re: China's high speed rail plans

[Néstor Gorojovsky]

Socialist is where the workers are, Leonardo.

As to the different way in which I deal with others, and with you, let
us say that I don´t buy any form of na"iveness or ignorance on your
part. And if there is some of the latter, then I try to shake you so
as to make you discover that there exists something more than the
stale "juanbejustista" world of Iñigo Carrera (whom, BTW, I respect as
a serious researcher whose ideological limits, to put it mildly,
castrate however his results)

2009/9/6 Leonardo Kosloff :
>
> What's up Néstor? you forgot to tell Tom how ignorant he is, cambiaste la 
> yerba? (changed the yerba?)
>
>
>
> By the way, I'm looking here for the sentence where I said Montoneros was to 
> the 'LEFT' (with capitals) of Perón, but no good...maybe you can 
> dialectically materialize that for me, and yeah, how you mean left?, like, 
> say, the CCP is to the LEFT of Chinese workers?
>
>
>
> Abrazo!
>
> _
> 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
> 
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-- 

Néstor Gorojovsky
El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autoría


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