[Marxism] VideoActiv: network of online video channels

[Ratbag Media]

VideoActiv is an experiment in aggregating radical video content and
showcasing it on the one web hub.

http://videoactiv.blogspot.com

The project is still in its early stages but the site already offers a
some  very useful video channels and concentrates much useful content.

Be sure to bookmark the site and promote it on your networks.

If you have suggestions for content: ratbagra...@gmail.com

dave riley

ps: we are experiencing problems with importing YouTube channels in
regard to finding worthwhile code. If anyone knows some good/working
channel embed code for YouTube, please let me know.
___
RatbagMedia
http://ratbagmedia.wikispaces.com
Phone:07 1805
Mobile: 0415040947
Emai: ratbagra...@gmail.com
Skype: ratbagradio
___


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Re: [Marxism] Shlomo Sand reinvents "the Jewish people"

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

"The project to found Israel as a settler state was and still is “a crime”,
said comrade Conrad. But that crime has resulted in the coming into being of
an Israeli Jewish, or Hebrew, nation and a working class solution must
recognise this reality. While comrade Conrad could envisage the necessity of
expelling recent Israeli settlers from the West Bank as part of an agreed
democratic settlement, it was out of the question to talk about uprooting
the Israeli Jewish people as a whole. The Israeli Jewish nation, like any
other, has the right to self-determination, so long as it is not exercised
at the expense of the oppression of other peoples.

The founding of the state of Israel resulted not only in the creation of an
Israeli nation, but a Palestinian nation too. So now there are two mutually
hostile nations contesting the same territory. Of course, if the two nations
were prepared to join together in a democratic, secular state, that would be
an excellent thing, but such a merger could only be achieved on a voluntary
basis and the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews reject it out of hand.
What is more, the Israeli state is “armed to the teeth and allied to the
US”, the most powerful imperialist country on earth. So how would it be
possible to attain a single state in current circumstances?

Comrade Conrad concluded by saying that we need to approach the whole
question from a different angle - taking the perspective of the Arab
revolution as our starting point. The working class “must win leadership of
the Arab nation” to achieve a democratic solution for the entire Middle
East. A voluntary merger of the Arab peoples under working class hegemony,
having defeated Zionism, would certainly grant the Israeli Jewish nation the
right to self-determination, including the right to form their own state."

http://cpgb.org.uk/worker/789/mapping.php

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 12:03 PM, Andrew Pollack wrote:

> And the notion that Palestinians SHOULDN'T return
> and that the current colonizers won't accept being a minority, flies
> in the face of a variety of historical examples, from Algeria to South
> Africa and so on. The main lesson of those examples being, of course,
> that the majority will find a way by whatever means it can to assert
> its rights.
> Andy Pollack
>
>

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[Marxism] Honduras Protest in DC on Monday

[Greg McDonald]

http://quotha.net/node/464


Protest against paid DC backers of Honduras coup Monday Oct 19
Fri, 10/16/2009 - 16:08 — AP
[Click here for pdf flier]

What?
A protest in front of the DC-based lobbying firm that has been hired
by the Honduran coup regime.

Why?
On June 28 the democratically elected President of Honduras Mr Manuel
Zelaya was kidnapped and exiled at gunpoint. Swiftly after, a coup
regime led by Mr Roberto Micheletti, illegally grabbed power. Since
that time there have been hundreds of human rights violations at the
hands of the military and police (under the orders of Mr Micheletti).

Hundreds of peasants, teachers, youth, and others opposed to the coup
have been arbitrarily beaten, jailed without due process, and a few
dozen have been charged with sedition. Fourteen Hondurans, among them
leaders of groups opposing the coup, have died as a result of police
repression or have been assassinated under circumstances that point to
the regime. Journalists have been threatened, attacked, and detained.
In its most egregious attempt at quieting the opposition to the coup,
Mr Micheletti suspended last month Hondurans’ freedoms of speech and
assembly, among others. The regime shut down two opposing media
outlets. What is happening in Honduras echoes a history of coups,
violence, and repression in Latin America that should not be repeated.

The coup regime of Honduras has hired the services of Chlopak,
Leonard, Schechter & Associates to clean up its image in the U.S. A
copy of the contract can be found on the Department of Justice’s web
site http://www.fara.gov/docs/5774-Exhibit-AB-20090918-7.pdf. It is
outrageous that in this day and age a US lobbying firm can take up the
case of an egregiously violent and repressive regime and serve as a
channel to U.S. politicians, newsmakers, and commentators. Chlopak’s
implicit endorsement of the regime’s record of human rights violations
is simply unacceptable. It requires a clear and concise response from
Hondurans and supporters in the DC area.

Where?
In front of the offices of Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates
1850 M Street NW, Washington, DC
Closest Metro Station: Dupont (Dupont South Exit)

When?
Monday, October 19, 2009, 12.30 - 1.30 PM

For questions:
Mario Ramos (en español)
mra...@porlademocracia.org / 301.842.4520

Sergio Moncada (in English)
smonc...@porlademocracia.org / 202.431.1729

Beth Geglia (in English)
bgeg...@gmail.com / 202.256.5263


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[Marxism] Conference in Moscow. Please, post

[lara crete]

Dear Louis,

I am still not in the List and have a problem to post anything as  
well. I communicated with Les and he kindly sent to me all the issues  
of List's digest since September 16, since  I was out of the system. I  
think that the information  which I have might be interesting either  
for the Marxmail List or for the Soviet_Legacy members. Would you help  
me to post it, of you'll find it interesting ? On the List would be  
better, for it came to me in Russian and Spanish. I will send to you  
in Spanish, but if you need, I will translated the Russian into  
English, what will  should reach even  the broader audience.

The title of Conference is: The Role of Masses and The Leader in the  
History. And it is dedicated to the 130-th birthday date of Stalin.  
Some quite good people are there, as far as I can understand names  
disclosed. The Chair and organizer  is the Georgian  Communist.
I have sent the same information to Les. It is pasted below now:

Thank you so very much,
comradely,
Lara Crete

INFORMACIÓN

Sobre convocatoria a la Conferencia Internacional Científico-Práctica

«El tiempo sobre el papel de las masas y la personalidad en la historia»

(dedicado al 130 aniversario del nacimiento de I. V. Stalin

Respetados compañeros y colegas!



El 25 de diciembre del 2009 (10.00-19.00) en Moscú, en el Instituto de  
Filosofía de la Academia de Ciencias de Rusia (2 piso, Salón Rojo) se  
planifica celebrar sobre la base científico- organizativa del  
seminario teórico-académico “Lecturas de Marx” que se desarrolla  
mensualmente a puertas abiertas en el Instituto de Filosofía de la  
Academia de Ciencias de Rusia conjuntamente con la organización social  
rusa «Científicos Rusos de Orientación Socialista» (CROS) la  
Conferencia Internacional científico-práctica «El tiempo sobre el  
papel de las masas y la personalidad en la historia», dedicado al 130  
aniversario del nacimiento I.V.Stalin.

Un de los aspectos conceptuales del tema escogido para la conferencia  
es la investigación dialéctica de la actividad teórica y estatal de  
I.V.Stalin, eminente teórico y práctico del Marxismo –Leninismo, su  
papel en la construcción del primer estado socialista y en la Victoria  
histórica del gran Pueblo Soviético en la Gran Guerra Patria de  
1941-1945.

Las solicitudes de participación deberán ser dirigidas al secretariado  
del comité organizador  antes del 1 de diciembre del 2009 (en ellas se  
indicará el nombre y apellidos, grado académico y títulos   
científicos, si se tienen; título de la exposición (10-15 min.) o de  
la intervención (5-7 min.), centro de trabajo, ocupación, dirección  
personal o del centro de trabajo, teléfonos, correo electrónico). Las  
solicitudes deberán dirigirse al e-mail centerm...@yandex.ru o por  
correo en forma escrita al Instituto de Filosofía de la Academia de  
Ciencias de Rusia, calle Volhonka 14. Moscú. 119992, a nombre de David  
Viktorovich Dzhohadze (tel. 8.916-965-56-96) o a nombre del  
copresidente del comité organizador Tamila Yósifovna Yabrova (Kiev),  
tel. 280-62-25; e-mail: marx-jour...@mail.ru o tamila_2...@mail.ru

Las personas que entreguen las solicitudes a tiempo serán incluidas en  
el Programa de la Conferencia.

No se cobrarán pagos de registro para participar en la conferencia  
científico-práctica.

Todos los gastos de transportación de los participantes que residan en  
otras ciudades o de los extranjeros (hasta y desde Moscú) correrán a  
cargo de los propios participantes de la conferencia. El Comité  
Organizativo no garantiza alojamiento en los hoteles.

Los materiales de la conferencia científico-práctica serán publicados  
conforme a las condiciones siguientes:

Las exposiciones e intervenciones deberán ajustarse estrictamente al  
tema de la conferencia y deberán tener un volumen de hasta 10 o 15  
páginas deberán indicar los nombres y apellidos, grado académico y  
títulos científicos (si se tienen), título de la exposición o de la  
intervención, centro de trabajo y ocupación, todo mecanografiado a 1  
espacio con caracteres Times New Roman, tamaño de fuente 12, las notas  
se indicarán en cada página, todas las sangrías serán de 2 cm (formato  
Word).  Las exposiciones e intervenciones se dirigirán en formato  
electrónico al comité organizador al e-mail: centerm...@yandex.ru o  
por correo en disquete, al cual se le adjuntará un ejemplar impreso
(con notas en cada página) a la dirección calle Instituto de Filosofía  
de la Academia de Ciencias de Rusia. Volhonka 14,  Moscú.119992, a  
nombre de D.V. Dzhohadze. Los materiales de la conferencia no se  
reseñan  ni se devuelven.

Usted podrá recibir una información más detallada acerca de los  
preparativos y la celebración de la Conferencia Científico-Práctica  
(composición del comité organizador, reglamento, participantes u otros  
detalles de carácter organizativo), en el Programa que se le entregará  
el día de apertura de la Conferencia.

Los informes que se pres

Re: [Marxism] Conference in Moscow. Please, post

[S. Artesian]

Sounds absolutely fascinating.  I can't think of any more crucial topic, 
particularly in Russia, at this time.  Will the discussion include analyses 
of other relationships between leaders and masses, like Mussolini and the 
Italian masses, FDR and the US masses, Vargas and the Brazilian masses, Mao 
and the Chinese masses, Sukarno and the Indonesian masses, Sihanouk and the 
Cambodian masses, Hitler and the German masses?  And let us not omit the 
Pope [any pope] and the Catholic Masses.

Has it really been 130 years?  It seems just like yesterday to me.  Gosh, 
how time flies...

- Original Message - 
From: "lara crete" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 10:20 AM
Subject: [Marxism] Conference in Moscow. Please, post



Dear Louis,

I am still not in the List and have a problem to post anything as
well. I communicated with Les and he kindly sent to me all the issues
of List's digest since September 16, since  I was out of the system. I
think that the information  which I have might be interesting either
for the Marxmail List or for the Soviet_Legacy members. Would you help
me to post it, of you'll find it interesting ? On the List would be
better, for it came to me in Russian and Spanish. I will send to you
in Spanish, but if you need, I will translated the Russian into
English, what will  should reach even  the broader audience.

The title of Conference is: The Role of Masses and The Leader in the
History. And it is dedicated to the 130-th birthday date of Stalin.
Some quite good people are there, as far as I can understand names
disclosed. The Chair and organizer  is the Georgian  Communist.
I have sent the same information to Les. It is pasted below now:




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[Marxism] On the new list

[lara crete]

Dear Louis,
I am trying to break with the information to the Marxmail or the new,  
the soviet_legacy list about the Conference in Moscow on December  
25,2009 , and am not sure from which side I should enter. ( The  
problem that I am still not on the list!)
If you have gotten already, please, forgive me my insistence. But I do  
believe that it can be valuable for any of two lists. I will  paste  
the information here only in Spanish.
Yet, it came to me in Russian and Spanish. So, if you will need it, I  
translate  Russian into English.
Thank you! Lara Crete

INFORMACIÓN

Sobre convocatoria a la Conferencia Internacional Científico-Práctica

«El tiempo sobre el papel de las masas y la personalidad en la historia»

(dedicado al 130 aniversario del nacimiento de I. V. Stalin)

Respetados compañeros y colegas!

El 25 de diciembre del 2009 (10.00-19.00) en Moscú, en el Instituto de  
Filosofía de la Academia de Ciencias de Rusia (2 piso, Salón Rojo) se  
planifica celebrar sobre la base científico- organizativa del  
seminario teórico-académico “Lecturas de Marx” que se desarrolla  
mensualmente a puertas abiertas en el Instituto de Filosofía de la  
Academia de Ciencias de Rusia conjuntamente con la organización social  
rusa «Científicos Rusos de Orientación Socialista» (CROS) la  
Conferencia Internacional científico-práctica «El tiempo sobre el  
papel de las masas y la personalidad en la historia», dedicado al 130  
aniversario del nacimiento I.V.Stalin.

Un de los aspectos conceptuales del tema escogido para la conferencia  
es la investigación dialéctica de la actividad teórica y estatal de  
I.V.Stalin, eminente teórico y práctico del Marxismo –Leninismo, su  
papel en la construcción del primer estado socialista y en la Victoria  
histórica del gran Pueblo Soviético en la Gran Guerra Patria de  
1941-1945.

Las solicitudes de participación deberán ser dirigidas al secretariado  
del comité organizador  antes del 1 de diciembre del 2009 (en ellas se  
indicará el nombre y apellidos, grado académico y títulos   
científicos, si se tienen; título de la exposición (10-15 min.) o de  
la intervención (5-7 min.), centro de trabajo, ocupación, dirección  
personal o del centro de trabajo, teléfonos, correo electrónico). Las  
solicitudes deberán dirigirse al e-mail centerm...@yandex.ru o por  
correo en forma escrita al Instituto de Filosofía de la Academia de  
Ciencias de Rusia, calle Volhonka 14. Moscú. 119992, a nombre de David  
Viktorovich Dzhohadze (tel. 8.916-965-56-96) o a nombre del  
copresidente del comité organizador Tamila Yósifovna Yabrova (Kiev),  
tel. 280-62-25; e-mail: marx-jour...@mail.ru o tamila_2...@mail.ru

Las personas que entreguen las solicitudes a tiempo serán incluidas en  
el Programa de la Conferencia.  No se cobrarán pagos de registro para  
participar en la conferencia científico-práctica.   
Todos los  
gastos de transportación de los participantes que residan en otras  
ciudades o de los extranjeros (hasta y desde Moscú) correrán a cargo  
de los propios participantes de la conferencia. El Comité Organizativo  
no garantiza alojamiento en los hoteles.

Los materiales de la conferencia científico-práctica serán publicados  
conforme a las condiciones siguientes:

Las exposiciones e intervenciones deberán ajustarse estrictamente al  
tema de la conferencia y deberán tener un volumen de hasta 10 o 15  
páginas deberán indicar los nombres y apellidos, grado académico y  
títulos científicos (si se tienen), título de la exposición o de la  
intervención, centro de trabajo y ocupación, todo mecanografiado a 1  
espacio con caracteres Times New Roman, tamaño de fuente 12, las notas  
se indicarán en cada página, todas las sangrías serán de 2 cm (formato  
Word).  Las exposiciones e intervenciones se dirigirán en formato  
electrónico al comité organizador al e-mail: centerm...@yandex.ru o  
por correo en disquete, al cual se le adjuntará un ejemplar impreso
(con notas en cada página) a la dirección calle Instituto de Filosofía  
de la Academia de Ciencias de Rusia. Volhonka 14,  Moscú.119992, a  
nombre de D.V. Dzhohadze. Los materiales de la conferencia no se  
reseñan  ni se devuelven.

Usted podrá recibir una información más detallada acerca de los  
preparativos y la celebración de la Conferencia Científico-Práctica  
(composición del comité organizador, reglamento, participantes u otros  
detalles de carácter organizativo), en el Programa que se le entregará  
el día de apertura de la Conferencia.

Los informes que se presenten podrán ser dirigidos para su publicación  
al redactor principal del “Periódico Económico-Filosófico” Alexei  
Petrovich Proskurin al e-mail econom...@mail.ru Tel. (495) 621-79-20,  
así como al e-mail marx-jour...@mail.ru de la revista internacional  
“El Marxismo y la Actualidad” o al e-mail de su redactora principal  
Tamila Jabrovaya Yósifovna, marx-jour...@

Re: [Marxism] On the new list

[Les Schaffer]

lara crete wrote:
> The problem that I am still not on the list!

Lara:

you ARE on the list: the problem of not receiving the digests is 
SEPARATE from being able to post to the list, which you are doing fine.

Les



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[Marxism] More on new Monk bio

[Louis Proyect]

The New York Times
October 17, 2009
Music
Misterioso No More: Book Debunks Image of a Jazz Giant
By BEN RATLIFF

Let’s say goodbye forever to an old jazz myth: Thelonious Monk as 
inexplicable mad genius.

Robin D. G. Kelley’s biography, “Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of 
an American Original,” just published by Free Press, is an omnibus of 
myth-busting. It holds the largest amount of helpful, uncaricatured 
information about Monk in one place and goes a long way to correct a 
reductive understanding of Monk as a person, if not necessarily Monk as 
an artist, that has persisted for more than 60 years.

In 1947 the photographer and occasional journalist William Gottlieb 
wrote an excited article for Down Beat magazine, suggesting that Monk — 
then 29 — was “the George Washington of be-bop,” although “few have ever 
seen him.” Several months later Blue Note issued a provocative news 
release with Monk’s first 78 r.p.m. record.

“A shy and elusive person,” it read, “Thelonious has been surrounded by 
an aura of mystery, but [it is] simply because he considers the piano 
the most important thing in his life and can become absorbed in 
composing that people, appointments and the world pass by unnoticed.” It 
went on, “Among musicians, Thelonious’s name is treated with respect and 
awe, for he is a strange person whose pianistics continue to baffle all 
who hear him.”

Monk’s records didn’t sell well immediately, but the myth did. In the 
years to come the character sketches of Monk snowballed into a 
generalized perception of him as aloof, mystical and somewhat childish. 
It’s a chicken-or-egg question, about Monk’s eccentric behavior versus 
how it was interpreted — but Mr. Kelley asserts that the “mystery” 
reputation became almost a professional liability. (In the late 1940s — 
while making some of the greatest recordings in all of jazz — he and his 
wife were destitute.) Monk sometimes tried to dispel the myth in 
interviews, but ultimately lost interest.

Nobody faults Monk for his musicianship anymore, and his harmonic 
language has been fully absorbed into jazz’s mainstream. But there are 
still questions. Why did his music sound that way, with crabbed chord 
voicings and brusque repetitions, somewhere between stride-piano-fulsome 
and bebop-jagged? Why did he come to a creative cul-de-sac in the 1960s, 
with so many indifferent performances and a falling-off in the output of 
new compositions?

What was the nature of his relationship with Baroness Pannonica de 
Koenigswarter, or Nica, his friend and occasional patron from 1954 until 
his death in 1982? Why did he get up and dance in circles during 
performances? And what exactly was his psychological condition?

Mr. Kelley, who has spent this week and last in New York in a run of 
events surrounding the book’s publication, has a list of refutations to 
make. “The main ones,” he said in an interview this week, “are that Monk 
was disengaged and unaware of his surroundings. I argue that he was 
incredibly engaged with his family, friends and music; he was in the 
business.

Two, that he and Nica had anything but a platonic relationship. I argue 
that he wasn’t as dependent on her as it seemed. Three, that 
descriptions of him as childlike and taciturn were completely wrong.”

Possibly most important of all the perceptions to combat, Mr. Kelley 
said, “was that Monk was an ‘artiste,’ a reclusive personality.”

“He wanted to get a hit,” Mr. Kelley continued. “He wanted to make 
money. It wasn’t about fame; it was about a working musician who 
believes that you could take a pure piece of music and get people to buy 
it.”

To prove his points over the 14 years spent researching and writing his 
book, Mr. Kelley, 47, a professor of history and American studies at the 
University of Southern California, resolved to humanize Monk. He traced 
Monk’s family back to his 18th-century ancestors in eastern North 
Carolina. But he also took advantage of some of the newer public 
resources in jazz scholarship, as well as some of its private troves.

He spoke to every one of Monk’s surviving relatives who knew him to talk 
about his character in general, his reactions to specific events in 
history and his career. (Other writers and researchers had talked to 
members of the Monk family, but none to so many.) Their comments create 
the binding glue of the book, a composite of how Monk saw the world, how 
and why he engaged and disengaged with it.

Mr. Kelley had rare access to some of the home tapes of jam sessions and 
conversations made by Nica. For a recounting of Monk’s public reception, 
he scoured not just the American jazz press but also black newspapers 
and publications from countries including Poland, Japan, Sweden and the 
Netherlands.

And he found valuable information in some sources that have only 
recently come to light: the papers of Teo Macero, one of Monk’s record 
producers, and of Mary Lou Williams, the jazz pianist; and in the 3,000 
hours of a

Re: [Marxism] IMF style austerity in the works for the USA? (S. Artesian)

[brad bauerly]

Part two of Leo Panitch interview on the dollar.
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4342

In it he confirms my statement that a decline in the dollar will bring about
at least somewhat of a decrease in unemployment but he agrees with
S.Artesian that it does not necessarily mean increased health of the US
economy due to the integration of US capital globally.  He also believes
that the US and other central banks *are* monitoring and controlling the
decline (which is still only down to the level it was at in 2007 before, as
S.Artesian rightly points out, it became the safest place to store value).
He also discusses the impact that this will have, or any further decline,
would have on the global south.  How this brings to the fore the fundamental
question of the globalization/export orientation policies that have
dominated the last few decades.  I am still a bit unsure where he is going
at the end with his list of transitional demands.  The part about how this
could bring fundamental questions to the table seemed a bit more interesting
and a place where revolutionaries could take up and expand on.

In Sol,

Brad

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[Marxism] Code Pink "protests" Obama with $30, 400 check for VIP dinner

[Charlie]

Supporters, protesters greet Obama in S.F.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 16, 2009 --  President Obama was met 
with cheers and jeers Thursday in his first visit to San Francisco as 
commander in chief.
...
"People in the Bay Area are very sensitive to the two critical issues 
right now - health care and Afghanistan - and they're unhappy on both 
fronts," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code 
Pink. "They want single-payer and they want an exit strategy."

Obama is backing health care reforms that include private and government 
insurance plans, while he is considering whether to send more troops to 
Afghanistan amid a Taliban insurgency.

Benjamin said she was disappointed Obama wasn't being seen outside 
high-priced political events.

"It would have been good for the president to hear from the Bay Area, 
and it would have helped to release his inner progressive," she said. 
"We know it's there somewhere. You just have to dig deep these days."

Jodie Evans, a co-founder of Code Pink, paid $30,400 for a pair of 
tickets to the VIP dinner, where she presented Obama with a petition 
from women in Afghanistan urging him not to send additional troops. 
Evans said she spent several minutes discussing the war there with the 
president and told him that the country's women "want a place at the 
table" in resolving the conflict.
...
Full story at 
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/16/MNR01A6HEF.DTL



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Re: [Marxism] Is Goldstone the tipping point for Israel?

[Nasir Khan]

The question of legitimacy of the Zionist State of Israel is an
academic one. Israel has the power of arms and power of propaganda at
its disposal. Its  colonizing project and its  Apartheid system have
powerful backers in the West. As long it controls the Washington
rulers through a  vast network of the  Israeli Lobby in the United
States,  Israel can manage some dissenting voices here and there. Such
voices have no impact on the objectives of the Zionist Israel. What
really matters is  the overwhelming military power and support of the
US imperialism for the  Zionist masters.

On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 5:05 AM, Dennis Brasky  wrote:
> http://mondoweiss.net/2009/10/is-goldstone-the-tipping-point.html
> 
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[Marxism] Ideologically Loaded Rhetoric of Mainstream Economics

[michael perelman]

A half-century ago, John Kenneth Galbraith had a marvelous description 
of the shaping of language regarding crises.

Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1958. The Affluent Society (Boston: Houghton 
Mifflin, 1998).

38: "Marx's reference to the "capitalist crisis" gave the word an 
ominous sound.  The word panic, which was a partial synonym a half 
century ago, was no more reassuring.  As a result, the word depression 
was gradually brought into use.  This had a softer tone; it implied a 
yielding of the fabric of business activity and not a crashing fall. 
During the great depression, the word depression acquired from the event 
described an even more unsatisfactory connotation.  Therefore, the word 
recession was substituted to connote an unfearsome fall in business 
activity.  But this term eventually acquired a foreboding quality and a 
recession in 1953-1954 was widely characterized as a rolling 
readjustment.  By the time of the Nixon administration, the innovative 
phrase "growth recession" was brought into use."

I am presently reading Reinhart and Rogoff's new book.

Reinhart, Carmen M. and Kenneth S. Rogoff. 2009. This Time Is Different: 
Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

The book is an encyclopedic study of crises through the lens of 
monetarism and public finance.  The authors also casually bandy about 
the expression, "financial repression," for any policy that 
inconveniences the financial system.

I wonder what the academic economics community would think of a book 
that routinely described economic policies in terms of labor repression. 
  I suspect that no matter what the quality of the book might be such 
language would automatically convict the author of unacceptable bias.

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com


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[Marxism] Internationale in Irish

[Matt Kelly]

Here's the Irish version:

http://beemp3.com/index.php?q=pol+mac

MATT.
---
'In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she  
receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons  
her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.' Proclamation of  
Independence, 1916.

'The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on  
the brain of the living.' Karl Marx, 1852.

a.marx...@gmail.com



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[Marxism] MASSIF [rough draft of an original poem]

[Max Clark]

http://clarkmax.blogspot.com/2009/10/massif-attempt-at-book-length.html

Read, re-read, and all of this slowly. Nods to any publishers are much valued. 
--Max Clark

'There always is a strange fascination about the bad verse great poets write in 
their youth.' --Paul de Man




  


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Re: [Marxism] Is Goldstone the tipping point for Israel?

[Gary MacLennan]

Nasir wrote:

> . Israel can manage some dissenting voices here and there. Such
> voices have no impact on the objectives of the Zionist Israel. What
> really matters is  the overwhelming military power and support of the
> US imperialism for the  Zionist masters.
>

Hi Nasir,

Well I think I am on the opposite side to you here.  Of course one can never
discount military might, but to give it the pe-eminence that I take you to
be giving it is surely an instance of "vulgar materialism".

What is crucial here for me is that the moral basis of the Zionist project
has dissipated.  This is perhaps most clearly to be seen in the case of the
decay of the kibbutz movement.

Of course Zionism was always a colonial movement that managed to present
itself as somehow "coming home". The Shoah lent an urgency and a moral gloss
to the project but the brutal realities of Zionism in practice have come
increasingly to be seen as a replay of the horrors of Nazi thuggery with
this time the Zionists as the perpetrators rather than the vicitms.

As the world recoils more and more in horror from the policies of the likes
of Barak, Livni and Netanyahu then Israel becomes more and more under threat
of accelerated internal decay and collapse.

I also take you to be saying that Israel directs US policy. Again I
disagree.  Israel is the tail and the US is very much the dog.  The taill
may be jerking around quite actively but the master is still very much in
control.

comradely regards

Gary

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[Marxism] A Serious Man; The Informant!

[Louis Proyect]

With the New York Film Critics Online annual awards meeting only a 
couple months away, I decided to make time in my busy schedule for some 
mainstream movies. Instead of my usual fare of strident leftwing 
documentaries and neorealist fictional movies from semi-peripheral 
countries, I decided to check out some of the Hollywood blockbusters now 
showing in New York. Of course, this does not mean going to something 
like “Couples Retreat”, which for me is an experience more dreaded than 
cataract surgery.

Instead I decided to check out the latest movies by “edgy” directors who 
started out as indies. I fully expected to dislike all of them but was 
pleasantly surprised by Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”, a 
movie that I will review separately in conjunction with an obscure movie 
about the General’s plot directed by G.W. Pabst, who was referred to 
knowingly in Basterds. As you may know, much of the action takes place 
in a Parisian movie theater commandeered by the Nazi high command that 
speaks reverentially of Pabst and actor Emil Jannings.

The other two did not pass muster. Stephen Soderberg’s “The Informant!” 
was based on a book about Mark Whitacre, a whistle blower who helped the 
FBI nail top executives at Archer-Daniels-Midland involved in 
price-fixing while he was embezzling millions from the company himself. 
Despite the nominally socio-economic backdrop, the movie is much more 
about Whitacre’s compulsive lying. If you liked Leonard DiCaprio in 
“Catch Me If You Can”, then you might like this one. I had no use for 
either film since the central characters were so off-putting and 
difficult to identify with. Why spend eleven dollars to see movies about 
characters that are so much like those who are running the country?

read full review: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/a-serious-man-the-informant/


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[Marxism] Large Hadron Collider: Swindle of the Century?

[jayroth6]

A fellow activist in Cleveland (http://twitter.com/tovX) forwarded this to me 
under the title 
"For Just This BS $6 bln is Stolen from Workers"


So these are the "great questions" that funding the LHC with dollars sweated 
and bled from workers worldwide was supposed to answer? There are people dying 
for want of food out here.


God sabotaged the LHC, say scientists

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/44291/181/

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0707/0707.1919v3.pdf




A couple of scientists reckon that God or time travellers broke the Large 
Hadron Collider. The duo, who are, remarkably, still walking the streets, have 
published a paper claiming that the world's largest particle accelerator, which 
failed a week after being switched on last September could have been broken by 
divine intervention or time agents from the future.

Holger Bech Nielsen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Masao 
Ninomiya from the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, say in 
their paper The Search for Effect of Influence from Future in Large Hadron 
Collider that "the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce 
with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would 
ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, 
like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather".

The two also speculate that God may have shut down the LHC to keep it from 
discovering the elusive Higg's Boson, or 'God particle'. For proof denies faith 
and without faith, God is nothing.

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Re: [Marxism] Large Hadron Collider: Swindle of the Century?

[Greg McDonald]

Maybe they're thinking of working up a scifi screenplay?

Greg McD


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Re: [Marxism] Large Hadron Collider: Swindle of the Century?

[Mark Lause]

If they work up a scifi series that's good enough, they could probably get
it canceled almost immediately.

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Large Hadron Collider: Swindle of the Century?

[Jeff]

At 20:25 17/10/09 -0400, jayroth6 wrote:
>A fellow activist in Cleveland (http://twitter.com/tovX) forwarded this to
me under the title 
>"For Just This BS $6 bln is Stolen from Workers"
The article pointed to in TGdaily is absolute bullshit. Trash. There's
certainly no talk about "god" by actual physicists or in the paper pointed
to (which is indeed a rather far-fetched paper). There are surely
hundreds/thousands of papers proposing experiments for the LHC which will
investigate some very fundamental physics.

>So these are the "great questions" that funding the LHC with dollars
sweated and bled from workers
I could hardly justify diverting this kind of money if it would otherwise
have gone to feeding the hungry. But suffice it to say that the amount of
actual scientific knowledge expected to be gained from this apparatus is
tremendously greater than would be gained from spending $1 trillion on a
human mission to Mars (as Bush pushed for). Even sending people to the moon
again would cost more than $6 billion (at today's prices), also having
almost no scientific value.

I hope that help's put the issue more in perspective.

- Jeff

> worldwide was supposed to answer? There are people dying for want of food
out here.
>
>
>God sabotaged the LHC, say scientists
>
>http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/44291/181/
>
>http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0707/0707.1919v3.pdf
>





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Re: [Marxism] Large Hadron Collider: Swindle of the Century?

[Shane Mage]

(thunderbolts .com)

Say What?
Oct 16, 2009

The Large Hadron Collider has met with a few unforeseen accidents.  
Could they be a bizarre case of sabotage?
Particle physicists began thinking about the Large Hadron Collider  
(LHC) early in the 1980s. The LHC's predecessor, the Large Electron  
Positron Collider (LEP) would soon be coming to the end of its useful  
life, and a higher energy device was needed to investigate the so- 
called Higgs boson, a yet to be seen component in the theory of  
quantum mechanics. However, it was in 1994 that the project was  
finally approved by the 20 nation membership of CERN, inaugurating the  
start of engineering and design work.

The LHC occupies a 27 kilometer long, circular tunnel, straddling the  
border between Switzerland and France. Its powerful electromagnets are  
designed to compress and accelerate a narrow stream of protons, split  
it into dual, counter-rotating beams, and then collide those beams  
head on. Full power to the magnets was scheduled for mid-2007, with  
the first collisions to begin shortly thereafter.

On March 27, 2007, one of the focusing magnets failed when a high- 
pressure test was conducted. A chain of events resulted in the 20-ton  
magnet shifting off its foundation, filling the tunnel with helium gas  
and dust, and causing damage to 24 other magnets. The accident has  
meant waiting an additional two years until November 2009 before they  
will restart the system.

At the time of the accident, Pier Oddone, Fermilab's director,  
admitted to being "dumbfounded" that they had missed a "simple balance  
of forces" in the design, as well as in four engineering reviews. This  
latest accident, while the most costly by far ($21 million for  
repairs), is not the first one visited on the LHC.

The alarm systems repeatedly generate false alarms, alarm avalanches,  
and incorrect alarms. Major project failures have occurred, resulting  
in the cancelation of physics experiments. Increasingly high computer  
resources have been required to remove signal noise. The design is so  
delicate it requires extreme quiet. A 600 kilowatt cryogenic  
compressor was accidentally destroyed. Fires have broken out.



These and numerous other delays and annoyances have caused two  
theoretical physicists to write a paper suggesting a reason. No one  
but one of the paper's authors, Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr  
Institute in Copenhagen, can put it more succinctly:

“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall  
have bad luck... Well, one could even almost say that we have a model  
for God.” It is their guess, said Dr. Nielsen, “that He rather hates  
Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.” In other words, either  
God or some other force in the future is sending negative influences  
back through time, so that the discovery of the Higgs boson can never  
take place.

Nielsen and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical  
Physics in Kyoto, Japan, are authors of several papers discussing this  
unorthodox theory: “Search for Future Influence From LHC,” for instance.



Influences from the future attempting to prevent something from taking  
place in the past—our present—to ensure the creation of that future?  
The discovery of the Higgs boson is, according to Nielsen and  
Ninomiya, so antithetical to the future's existence that the future is  
protecting itself by causing the machines capable of finding the  
particle to fail or never be built.

As mentioned in a previous Picture of the Day, it is not the intent of  
the Thunderbolts Project to unduly criticize those who earn their  
daily bread in the employ of University laboratories or government- 
backed research institutes. In this case, though, to have Dr. Nielson,  
one of the originators of string theory, and a respected theoretician,  
publish a paper that seriously considers time travel and clairvoyant  
effects from a preexisting future to be a reason for the failure of  
machines like the LHC smacks of irony.

Stephen Smith





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Re: [Marxism] Large Hadron Collider: Swindle of the Century?

[Mark Lause]

I find it hard to see money invested in science to be entirely wasteful.
And I think that sending people to the Moon is a great idea.

I've been working on a list for the last half century, in fact

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Internationale in Irish

[sobuadhaigh]

Matt, 
Thanks for posting that version
of the Internationale. But then again,
everything sounds better in Gaeilge
and here's proof:





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Re: [Marxism] self determination for oppressors

[Dennis Brasky]

On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 6:09 AM, Bhaskar Sunkara
wrote:

> "The project to found Israel as a settler state was and still is “a crime”,
> said comrade Conrad. But that crime has resulted in the coming into being
> of
> an Israeli Jewish, or Hebrew, nation and a working class solution must
> recognise this reality. While comrade Conrad could envisage the necessity
> of
> expelling recent Israeli settlers from the West Bank as part of an agreed
> democratic settlement, it was out of the question to talk about uprooting
> the Israeli Jewish people as a whole. The Israeli Jewish nation, like any
> other, has the right to self-determination, so long as it is not exercised
> at the expense of the oppression of other peoples.
>
>

Did the Afrikaaner community have the right of self-determination? Lenin
advocated this slogan for *oppressed* nations. It is a means to convince the
oppressed that the working class movement of the oppressor nation supports
their struggle, even if it includes separation. It is not a feel good
slogan.

If the Israeli Jews are offered self determination after the coming
socialist revolution, what form will that take? Won't it be a Jewish state
in Palestine - where the Palestinians would want their state? But the Jews
already have such a state, so why do they need a revolution? This would do
nothing to break away the Jewish working class from Zionism. On the
contrary, it is an unprincipled concession to it, one that the Palestinians
could never support. Any leftists advocating it would earn for themselves
distrust.

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[Marxism] Australian Socialist Alliance wins first local gov't seat

[Ratbag Media]

In a first for the Alliance, Sam Wainwright has been elected in
Fremantle, Perth. Western Australia.

You can read the report and s offer conrgratulations here:
http://samforhilton.blogspot.com/2009/10/victory-for-sam-by-100-votes.html

The only other succesful socialist campaign in Australia since the
forties was Stephen Jolley's  win  in Melbourne in 2004.The  SA also
did well at the 2004 Victorian Local Gov't elections but did not win a
seat.

dave riley


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