[Marxism] Re: Economists Seek to Fix a Defec t in Data That Overstates the Nation’s Vigor (NYT)
Matt Russo posted: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/economy/09econ.html?ref=business A widening gap between data and reality is distorting the government’s picture of the country’s economic health, overstating growth and productivity in ways that could affect the political debate on issues like trade, wages and job creation. = Maybe also oil... Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower By Terry Macalister Guardian Monday 9 November 2009 The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying. The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves. The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies. In particular they question the prediction in the last World Economic Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83m barrels a day to 105m barrels. External critics have frequently argued that this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and say the world has already passed its peak in oil production. Now the peak oil theory is gaining support at the heart of the global energy establishment. The IEA in 2005 was predicting oil supplies could rise as high as 120m barrels a day by 2030 although it was forced to reduce this gradually to 116m and then 105m last year, said the IEA source, who was unwilling to be identified for fear of reprisals inside the industry. The 120m figure always was nonsense but even today's number is much higher than can be justified and the IEA knows this. Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further... Full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Venezuela launches military operations on border to protect Coltan, fight drug trafficking
Coltan is extremely valuable and sought after mineral. And the resource at the centre of the Congo's bloody civil war. Which makes it an impressive find for a country like Venezuela, worth a lot, but must make them wish it was found somewhat *further* from the border with Colombia, and not in an area infested with paramilitaries Something else to add to the explosive mix that threatens to explode into war.. Venezuela Launches Military Operations on Border to Fight Drug Trafficking and Protect Coltan Reserve http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4920 Published on November 7th 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/images/2009/11/Carrizales_nov5_09.jpg Vice President and Defense Minister Ramon Carrizalez visiting the Coltan reserve on Thursday (YVKE) Mérida, November 6th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- On Thursday, Venezuela announced the expansion of military operations along its western border in order to fight drug trafficking and protect a recently discovered reserve of coltan from illegal mining. In what is titled Operation Blue Gold, 15,000 Air Force, Army, and Navy personnel will protect the coltan reserve, which straddles the states of Bolivar and Amazonas. The government announced the discovery of the Coltan reserve last month. It coincided with the announcement of a public investment plan for the coming year aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing. On Thursday, Vice President and Defense Minister Ramon Carrizalez visited the site of the reserve in an indigenous community called El Paloma, and said the troops would help combat drug trafficking and illegal armed groups in the region, in addition to protecting the reserve. “We have more than 15,000 men deployed along our western border, combating all the crimes that occur along the border, as you know, crimes which come from another country and are not ours,” said Carrizalez to reporters from the state television channel VTV. Carrizalez also displayed a sample of coltan in its unprocessed form, and explained that it is a highly coveted mineral because of its usefulness in satellites, missiles, computers, cellular phones, and other electronic devices. “It is a mineral of strategic character, and therefore it stimulates the imperial appetite and the appetite of the business people who seek to obtain maximum profit without giving importance to environmental damage or the destabilization of countries,” said Carrizalez. Carrizalez made specific reference to the civil war-plagued Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is estimated the world’s largest coltan reserves lie, and where Belgium and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) collaborated of the U.S. government to overthrow the first democratically elected prime minister in 1964. *Zulia, Tachira, and Apure States * Also on Thursday, Minister for Justice and Internal Affairs Tarek El-Aissami said 3,000 troops would be deployed to the Sierra de Perija region in the states of Tachira and Zulia in order to impede the passage of drug traffickers and eradicate the illicit cultivation of crops that are processed into illegal drugs. The sparsely populated and forested Sierra de Perijá is one of the most conflict-ridden regions of Venezuela. In addition to drug traffickers, it is suspected that illegal armed groups from Colombia travel in the region. Local indigenous peoples have protested coal mining and violent persecution by large estate owners, and accused the government of not granting them the land titles due to them by law. Last year, El-Aissami announced that the government plans to build five military bases in the Sierra de Perija region to fight drug trafficking and impede overflow fighting from the Colombian civil war. “The Bolivarian government has been assuming responsibility for the fight against illicit drug trafficking and its consequences. For this reason, for the third consecutive year, Venezuela was certified by the United Nations as one of the countries where there is no cultivation of plants with which illegal drugs are produced,” said El Aissami on Thursday. The minister also said the Armed Forces will deploy air and ground troops to the extensive, flat plains of Apure state to destroy illegal airplane landing strips that drug traffickers use to transport drugs from Colombia to the United States and Europe. Venezuela sustains anti-drug cooperation agreements with 37 countries and extradited suspected drug traffickers to Colombia, Italy, the United States, Belgium, and France last year. Drug seizures have increased by two thirds since Venezuela stopped collaborating with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in 2005 on suspicion that the DEA was spying. -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do
Re: [Marxism] Venezuela, Colombia and the threat of war in Latin America
The threat is actual. No kidding. Border incidents have already begun. 2009/11/10 Stuart Munckton stuartmunck...@gmail.com: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/817/42020 Venezuela, Colombia and the threat of war in Latin America Kiraz Janicke, Caracas 7 November 2009 *The possibility of an imperialist war in the Americas came a step closer on October 30, when Colombia and the United States finalised a 10-year accord. The agreement allows the US to hugely expand its military presence in the Latin American nation.* -- Néstor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autoría YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall
NY Times, November 9, 2009 Op-Ed Contributor 20 Years of Collapse By SLAVOJ ZIZEK TODAY is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During this time of reflection, it is common to emphasize the miraculous nature of the events that began that day: a dream seemed to come true, the Communist regimes collapsed like a house of cards, and the world suddenly changed in ways that had been inconceivable only a few months earlier. Who in Poland could ever have imagined free elections with Lech Walesa as president? However, when the sublime mist of the velvet revolutions was dispelled by the new democratic-capitalist reality, people reacted with an unavoidable disappointment that manifested itself, in turn, as nostalgia for the “good old” Communist times; as rightist, nationalist populism; and as renewed, belated anti-Communist paranoia. The first two reactions are easy to comprehend. The same rightists who decades ago were shouting, “Better dead than red!” are now often heard mumbling, “Better red than eating hamburgers.” But the Communist nostalgia should not be taken too seriously: far from expressing an actual wish to return to the gray Socialist reality, it is more a form of mourning, of gently getting rid of the past. As for the rise of the rightist populism, it is not an Eastern European specialty, but a common feature of all countries caught in the vortex of globalization. Much more interesting is the recent resurgence of anti-Communism from Hungary to Slovenia. During the autumn of 2006, large protests against the ruling Socialist Party paralyzed Hungary for weeks. Protesters linked the country’s economic crisis to its rule by successors of the Communist party. They denied the very legitimacy of the government, although it came to power through democratic elections. When the police went in to restore civil order, comparisons were drawn with the Soviet Army crushing the 1956 anti-Communist rebellion. This new anti-Communist scare even goes after symbols. In June 2008, Lithuania passed a law prohibiting the public display of Communist images like the hammer and sickle, as well as the playing of the Soviet anthem. In April 2009, the Polish government proposed expanding a ban on totalitarian propaganda to include Communist books, clothing and other items: one could even be arrested for wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt. No wonder that, in Slovenia, the main reproach of the populist right to the left is that it is the “force of continuity” with the old Communist regime. In such a suffocating atmosphere, new problems and challenges are reduced to the repetition of old struggles, up to the absurd claim (which sometimes arises in Poland and in Slovenia) that the advocacy of gay rights and legal abortion is part of a dark Communist plot to demoralize the nation. Where does this resurrection of anti-Communism draw its strength from? Why were the old ghosts resuscitated in nations where many young people don’t even remember the Communist times? The new anti-Communism provides a simple answer to the question: “If capitalism is really so much better than Socialism, why are our lives still miserable?” It is because, many believe, we are not really in capitalism: we do not yet have true democracy but only its deceiving mask, the same dark forces still pull the threads of power, a narrow sect of former Communists disguised as new owners and managers — nothing’s really changed, so we need another purge, the revolution has to be repeated ... What these belated anti-Communists fail to realize is that the image they provide of their society comes uncannily close to the most abused traditional leftist image of capitalism: a society in which formal democracy merely conceals the reign of a wealthy minority. In other words, the newly born anti-Communists don’t get that what they are denouncing as perverted pseudo-capitalism simply is capitalism. One can also argue that, when the Communist regimes collapsed, the disillusioned former Communists were effectively better suited to run the new capitalist economy than the populist dissidents. While the heroes of the anti-Communist protests continued to dwell in their dreams of a new society of justice, honesty and solidarity, the former Communists were able to ruthlessly accommodate themselves to the new capitalist rules and the new cruel world of market efficiency, inclusive of all the new and old dirty tricks and corruption. A further twist is added by those countries in which Communists allowed the explosion of capitalism, while retaining political power: they seem to be more capitalist than the Western liberal capitalists themselves. In a crazy double reversal, capitalism won over Communism, but the price paid for this victory is that Communists are now beating capitalism in its own terrain. This is why today’s China is so unsettling: capitalism has always seemed inextricably linked to democracy,
[Marxism] A speculative recovery?
http://wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/econ-n10.shtml Speculative recovery sows seeds of an even greater economic crash By Barry Grey 10 November 2009 Last Wednesday the Federal Reserve Board’s policy-making Federal Open Market Committee announced it was holding its target federal funds interest rate to the current level of zero to 0.25 percent. While that decision had been widely anticipated, there was much speculation that the Fed would employ language in its announcement to indicate that it would soon begin to raise interest rates. In the event, the Fed repeated its recent mantra of keeping interest rates “exceptionally low” for “an extended period of time.” A change in the formula from “an extended period of time” to “for some time” would have been seen as a signal that the Fed was preparing to shift from its policy of near-zero rates. The Fed’s signal of no early end to its extraordinarily cheap credit policy sent stock markets surging. Since the Fed announcement last Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has surged hundreds of points, despite Friday’s dire Labor Department report of an official US jobless rate of 10.2 percent. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 205 points, closing at a 13-month high of 10,227. This most recent surge in stock prices continued a trend that has emerged in recent weeks: stocks moved in close and inverse relation to the value of the dollar on world currency markets. Last Wednesday, the dollar fell the most in relation to the euro in two months. That trend continued Monday, with the dollar once again falling to $1.50 versus the euro. Also in keeping with recent trends, oil, gold and other commodities surged as stocks rose and the dollar fell. The connection between soaring asset prices and a falling dollar points to the extraordinarily speculative and unstable character of what is being called a global recovery from the financial crisis and recession of 2008 and early 2009. It is a recovery in corporate and bank profits and financial assets that is richly benefitting the most powerful financial interests in the US and around the world, even as joblessness and poverty soar and basic production remains mired in the deepest slump since the Great Depression. It is a “recovery” that is driven almost entirely by a surge in speculation in risky assets fuelled by the US government’s policy of virtually free credit for the major banks and a vast buildup of debt. As CNBC commentator Charles Gasparino put it in a November 6 column in the Wall Street Journal, “Interest rates are close to zero; in effect the Federal Reserve is subsidizing the risk-taking and bond trading that has allowed Goldman Sachs to produce billions in profits and that infamous $16 billion bonus pool (analysts say it could grow as high as $20 billion). The Treasury has lent banks money, guaranteed Wall Street’s debt and declared every firm to be a commercial bank… They are all ‘too big to fail’ and so free to trade as they please—on the taxpayer dime.” The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Morgan Stanley has concluded that the amount of cash circulating in the global economy is at its highest level by far since the firm began tracking it 30 years ago. This vast wave of hot money can find no profitable outlet in production, so it is being pumped into stock markets and speculation on commodity prices and currencies. The result is a colossal global asset bubble that must sooner or later burst. Here are some indications of the scale of this bubble: “Since its March 9 low, the Standard Poor’s 500 stock index has gained more than 50 percent. An index of stocks for 22 “emerging market” countries (including Brazil, China and India) has doubled from its recent low. Oil, now around $80 a barrel, has increased 150 percent from its recent low of $31. Gold is near an all-time high, around $1,090 an ounce.” (Robert J. Samuelson in Monday’s Washington Post). A central component of this policy is a tacit encouragement of the ongoing fall in the dollar. Ultimately, the decline in the dollar is dictated by the objective decline in the global position of American capitalism. The financial crash and ensuing global recession, which began in the US, have further eroded global confidence in the dollar as it has diminished the weight of US gross domestic product relative to global gross domestic product. This is a profoundly destabilizing factor in the world economy, which renders any recovery fragile and ultimately unsustainable. Increasingly, the unique role of the US dollar as the world’s major reserve and trading currency is being called into question. This was highlighted last Tuesday when India’s central bank announced it had purchased 200 metric tons of gold on offer by the International Monetary Fund. In making the announcement, India’s finance minister said that the US and European economies had “collapsed.” The Indian
Re: [Marxism] How the Stupak Amendment Radically Undermines Abortion Rights
On Nov 10, 2009, at 8:49 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: How the Stupak Amendment Radically Undermines Abortion Rights By Rachel Morris, Mother Jones Online Posted on November 10, 2009, Printed on November 10, 2009 http://www.alternet.org/story/143849/ Will health care reform come at the expense of abortion rights? The Democrats’ historic health care bill squeaked through the House on Saturday only after pro-life forces scored a major victory. Despite months of wrangling over the public option and the price tag, in the end the legislation’s fate turned on an eleventh-hour push by conservative Democrats to broaden the bill's existing limits on government funding of abortion, in the form of an amendment authored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.)... Now this is what is really notable: simply by *abstaining* on Stupak the Repugnicons would have killed the bill. Why didn't they? Because, I suggest, the word came down from the health-insurance industry lobbyists that the huge subsidies and captive consumers make this a good bill--for them. Only Kucinich among the Dumbocrats seems to have got the message--and voted NO! Shane Mage This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures. Herakleitos of Ephesos YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Economists Seek to Fix a Defect in Dat a That Overstates the Nation’s Vigor (NYT)
Can we get off this merry-go-round? Every time the spot price of oil doubles, the same old same old record gets played-- peak oil, shortages just around the corner, the US is applying pressure to the IEA according to unnamed sources. You think this might have anything to do with the fact that IEA has just lowered its estimates for consumption of oil over the next decade, the run-up in oil prices is part of another asset-bubble, and traders want to keep the prices up based on the bigger fool theory of capitalist reproduction? You think? - Original Message - From: Marv Gandall marvgand...@videotron.ca To: David Schanoes sartes...@earthlink.net Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 8:02 AM Subject: [Marxism] Re: Economists Seek to Fix a Defect in Data That Overstates the Nation’s Vigor (NYT) Matt Russo posted: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/economy/09econ.html?ref=business A widening gap between data and reality is distorting the government’s picture of the country’s economic health, overstating growth and productivity in ways that could affect the political debate on issues like trade, wages and job creation. = Maybe also oil... Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower By Terry Macalister Guardian Monday 9 November 2009 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Change in Putin's Russia, by Simon Pirani
Message forwarded in case you haven't seen it. -- From: Sébastien Budgen sebastien.bud...@wanadoo.fr Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 7:28 AM To: historicalmaterial...@yahoogroups.com Subject: [historicalmaterialism] Change in Putin's Russia, by Simon Pirani Dear friends, You are invited to two events to mark the publication of my book CHANGE IN PUTIN’S RUSSIA: POWER, MONEY AND PEOPLE this month by Pluto Press. On Thursday 3 December, at 6.30-8.30 pm, a BOOK LAUNCH will be held at the Calthorpe Arms, 252 Grays Inn Road, London WC1 (5 mins walk from Kings Cross, Russell Square and Chancery Lane tubes). All welcome! On Wednesday 2 December, at 7.0 pm, I will give a talk about the book, followed by discussion, at Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 (2 mins walk from Kings Cross tube). (Note. This is the place to hear a talk: there won’t be one at the book launch!) There is more information about the book here: www.powermoneyandpeople.com And you can order it from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Change-Putins-Russia-Power-People/dp/0745326900/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1256217505sr=8-1 Please pass this on to others who might be interested. Best wishes, Simon Pirani. Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/historicalmaterialism/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/historicalmaterialism/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: historicalmaterialism-dig...@yahoogroups.com historicalmaterialism-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: historicalmaterialism-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Comp Help Needed - Reverb In Online Spoken Videos - Cure?
At 16:45 10/11/09 -0500, Bill Quimby wrote: I find that many of the online videos I want to see - on YouTube for example, are recorded in class lecture halls with no sound absorption. The result is that the video sound has a high degree of reverb Actually the reason is because they placed the recording microphone somewhere in the room, rather than on the podium in front of the speaker's mouth (or equivalently, using a feed from the sound board). The sound quality was ruined before it even got digitized. Admittedly my computer has a very old - 10 years at least - sound card, and trashy speakers. This has nothing to do with your computer per se; it is an audio problem period. Is there anything I should do or can do to improve the sound quality on my end Not much, but I can make one suggestion. More of the reverberation you hear is at lower frequencies whereas most of the useful speech information is at higher frequencies. Frequencies below 300 Hz are unneeded for comprehension (as are frequencies above 3000 Hz, but that's not the issue). You can adjust the bass and treble controls, or even better use a graphic equalizer to eliminate frequencies that are not needed for comprehension. However that may be aesthetically unpleasing since the actual tone of the speaker's voice will be altered and sound tinny. Some computer sound driver software includes tone controls, but usually not. Some computer speakers have bass and treble controls. But the best solution is to run your computer's sound output into your stereo (or buy a cheap stereo amplifier for the purpose: you can just as well hook it up to cheap bookshelf speakers if you are not interested in music quality). If the stereo has a graphic equalizer that is even better. Otherwise turn down the bass all the way, and turn up the treble until you can't stand it anymore: that will give you the best clarity for speech purposes (but again, it will not sound natural). With an equalizer turn the lower frequencies (below about 300 or 500 Hz) all the way down. In the computer I'm using right now, I've plugged an 1/8 splitter into the audio output jack (a cheap adapter that sends the signal to two 1/8 jacks) and plug computer speakers into one, and the other goes to a cable to the aux. input of my stereo for when I'm listening to music. (Listening to music through average computer speakers means you miss all the deep bass!). - Jeff YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Iran and Saudi Arabia
Paula wrote: Inter-imperialist rivalries between Iran and Saudi Arabia play out in Yemen and fuel Shia-Sunni conflict: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8352783.stm For newcomers to Marxmail, please understand that Paula has a heterodox definition of imperialism and it is really not worth having an argument about since it lacks traction not only here, but on the left in general as well. Not to speak of the solar system. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall
I'm never sure what all fuss about Zizek is. He seems to me like the Hipster's Marxist, and a thoroughly obtuse one at that. Maybe someone on this list can explain the fascination with his ideas. ELB YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall
Ernest Leif wrote: I'm never sure what all fuss about Zizek is. He seems to me like the Hipster's Marxist, and a thoroughly obtuse one at that. Maybe someone on this list can explain the fascination with his ideas. Jeez, I have the same question. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall
[Hope the CR formatting doesn't get too hosed] With his clown suit off. It is an appropriate warning about the political direction taken by disillusion with capitalism and democracy in E. Europe. The excerpt below raises the most interesting questions: This is why today’s China is so unsettling: capitalism has always seemed inextricably linked to democracy, and faced with the explosion of capitalism in the People’s Republic, many analysts still assume that political democracy will inevitably assert itself. But what if this strain of authoritarian capitalism proves itself to be more efficient, more profitable, than our liberal capitalism? What if democracy is no longer the necessary and natural accompaniment of economic development, but its impediment? Actually there has never been any natural connection between modern democracy and capitalism. That illusion comes from 19th century Britain, where it was the capitalist, free trade Liberals, the lineal descendants of the 18th century Whig Dissident tradition, excluded from the spoils of Empire on religious grounds, crowded into the purely Little England capitalist industrial enterprises in order to make their way in the world, who also led the drive for extension of the suffrage. The great counter-example is none other than the homeland of democracy, itself, the United States before the Civil War, where the democracy under the figurehead of Andrew Jackson possessed a distinctly anticapitalist edge - and not uncoincidentially, in a seemingly curious role reversal, an anti-New England Yankee edge as well - the cousins of those same English Dissidents. In those days, to be called a capitalist was to have an insult hurled at one, to be considered someone who fed at the public trough for private gain. Hence the present case of the PRC is not really mysterious at all, if we hold to the perspective established after the Russian Revolution that we still very much live in the transition from capitalism to - well, it used to be called socialism, but by any other name it will still be the same rose in my eyes if we succeed in avoiding a civilizational catastrophe and build on relatively intact forces of production. In this context the PRC remains a transitional state and social formation even as the mode of production becomes more coherently capitalist (of a rather odd developmental type, if you compare it to the U.S. from the Civil War to the 1920's). It is this that Putin thinks of when he regrets the dissolution of the U.S.S.R.: that a Soviet Union intact would have been a far better environment for the restoration of the capitalist mode of production, than the farcical Made in U.S.A. mess he inherited - really, a shift from the incoherent forms of production, with elements part capitalist, part socialist without either being dominant, that characterized the U.S.S.R. in the past - no wonder it didn't work. In short, PRC type formations ARE the optimal way forward for the capitalist mode of production today and in the future - not uncoicidentially the leading imperialist countries, especially the U.S.A. and Britain, are trodding down the PRC path in their own way in a kind of bureaucratic state monopoly capitalism with Anglo characteristics (as the CCP leadership would tutor to them), including an evacuation of the real effectivity of the private property form otherwise misnomered neoliberal privitization - the present health care process in the U.S.A. being an excellent example. And in the case of the U.S.A. there is a hoary old tradition of state intervention to fall back on, dating back to the very foundation of the Federal Republic, with its now antediluvian, transitional (unbeknown to its founders) project for the creation of a synthetic state bourgeoisie out of the swarming, relatively undifferentiated mass of petit bourgeois dirt farmers, barter merchants, small proprietor shop manufacturers, land speculators, swindler - and huckster - settlers of every stripe - a sack of potatoes of truly continental scale. The lives of Jackson, Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, and John C. Calhoun (before this latter shifted to being the mouthpiece of the Slaveocracy in the 1830's) were the leading avatars of this process, and the Democratic Party they founded the chosen vehicle. A state and social formation that turned out to be transitional _to_ capitalism - the highest, final and 'most perfected' of all from the early modern epoch that opened with the triumph of the Dutch Revolt and the English Revolution in the 1640's - somehow managed to survive into the new transitional epoch. How these arbitrary juxtaposed strata, as if suddenly thrown together by an earthquake from sedimentary layers formed in distinctly different historical conditions, will interact will be very interesting to watch and, should there be some significant slippage, to hopefully act in as well. In this historical context the radical right reaction makes perfect sense, just as that of classical
Re: [Marxism] Comp Help Needed - Reverb In Online Spoken Videos - Cure?
Yes, that helped a lot! Thanks Les! - Bill Les Schaffer wrote: Bill Quimby wrote: Is there anything I should do or can do to improve the sound quality on my end i listen to this stuff with headphones and its not a problem... i think it would sound worse on speakers, since your room will also highlight the low frequency stuff that Jeff pointed out. Les YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/wquimby%40embarqmail.com YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Communism Cinema
Gilles d'Aymery wrote: Lou, The attached text file is an article in French on the importance of cinema in the history of communism, from Lenin on. It was written by a French historian and published in Le Monde. I don't know whether you can read in French. If not, perhaps you could post it to the List and ask whether a member would be willing to translate it (I can't due to time constraint). g. If any comrade can do a translation of this very promising article, please contact me or Gilles at aym...@ix.netcom.com. Here is how it starts: http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/article/2009/11/07/camera-faucille-et-marteau_1264255_3232.html CamÈra, faucille et marteau Par Antoine de Baecque LE MONDE | 07.11.09 Antoine de Baecque est historien. NÈ en 1962, il a travaillÈ sur les pratiques culturelles de la RÈvolution franÁaise ainsi que sur le cinÈma et le thÈ‚tre franÁais contemporains. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages, il est critique et Èditeur. Il a notamment coordonnÈ la Petite anthologie des Cahiers du cinÈma (avec la collaboration de Gabrielle Lucantonio). Dans ses Souvenirs, Anatoli Lounatcharski, commissaire du peuple ‡ l'instruction publique en 1917, Èvoque un entretien avec LÈnine : Vladimir Ilitch me dit que l'on s'efforcerait de faire quelque chose pour accroÓtre les moyens du dÈpartement cinÈma. Il souligna la nÈcessitÈ d'Ètablir une certaine proportion entre les films divertissants et les films scientifiques. Vladimir Ilitch me dit qu'il fallait s'engager dans la production de films nouveaux, pÈnÈtrÈs des idÈes communistes et reflÈtant l'activitÈ soviÈtique. ìVous devrez dÈvelopper et promouvoir un cinÈma sain dans les masses, dans les villes et encore plus dans les campagnes, me confia-t-il. Vous devez absolument vous souvenir que, de tous les arts, le plus important pour nous, c'est le cinÈma.î YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall
1. But what if this strain of authoritarian capitalism proves itself to be more efficient, more profitable, than our liberal capitalism? What if democracy is no longer the necessary and natural accompaniment of economic development, but its impediment? I quake at the truth of the above. But let them do their worst. Tis but their own grave-digging and whatnot. Or no? 2. Yeah Zizek for getting published in the NYT! Yeah us! We need more of this. Next one of us from the Marx-Mail massif! The very best, Max Clark http://clarkmax.blogspot.com p.s. absinthe is crucial to understanding van gogh. shit is legal again or something. just drank a bunch. word. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall
It's historical, isn't it? Sometimes the more authoritarian, sometimes the less. Sometimes the carrot, sometimes the stick. Sometimes small property feels safe and secure, other times it feels itself being upended, expelled, crushed, and the small property-holders rush out into the streets only too eager to complete the job big capitalism has initiated-- driving down wages below subsistence, marching off to war-- another way of driving wages below subsistence and incinerating the overproduced means of production at the same time. But I don't buy is that China represents a new paradigm for capitalism, which I think means for those who suggest it is so, that somehow the CCP, the State Council actually control the economy, and the market forces, rather than being controlled by them. I don't think that's the case-- certainly not in the export/import sector of the economy, certainly not in the special enterprise zones; certainly not in basic industry-- cement, steel, aluminum, etc. where overproduction has been officially acknowledged as the looming threat to economic stability. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] China: America's Head Servant?
The NLR makes another connection to the real world. -Matt http://www.newleftreview.org/A2809 Free, should be accessible. Beijing is well aware that further accumulation of foreign reserves is counterproductive, since it would increase the risk associated with the assets China already holds or else induce a shift to ever riskier ones. The government is also very aware of the need to reduce the country’s export dependence and stimulate the growth of domestic demand by increasing the working classes’ disposable income. Such a redirection of priorities has to involve moving resources and policy preferences away from the coastal cities to the rural hinterland, where protracted social marginalization and underconsumption have left ample room for improvement. But the vested interests that have taken root over several decades of export-led development make this a daunting task. Officials and entrepreneurs from the coastal provinces, who have become a powerful group capable of shaping the formation and implementation of central government policies, are so far adamant in their resistance to any such reorientation. This dominant faction of China’s elite, as exporters and creditors to the world economy, has established a symbiotic relation with the American ruling class, which has striven to maintain its domestic hegemony by securing the living standards of us citizens, as consumers and debtors to the world. Despite occasional squabbles, the two elite groups on either side of the Pacific share an interest in perpetuating their respective domestic status quos, as well as the current imbalance in the global economy. Unless there is a fundamental political realignment that shifts the balance of power from the coastal urban elite to forces that represent rural grassroots interests, China is likely to continue leading other Asian exporters in diligently serving—and being held hostage by—the us. The Anglo-Saxon establishment has recently become more respectful towards its Asian partners, inviting China to become a ‘stakeholder’ in a ‘ChiAmerican’ global order, or ‘g2’. What they mean is that China should not rock the boat, but should continue to help maintain American economic dominance (in return, perhaps, for more consideration of Beijing’s concerns over Tibet and Taiwan). This would enable Washington to buy precious time to secure its command over emergent sectors of the world economy through debt-financed government investment in green technology and other innovations, and hence remake its ailing supremacy into a green hegemony. This seems to be exactly what the Obama administration is betting on as its long-term response to the global crisis and declining American power. If China were to re-orient its developmental model and achieve greater balance between domestic consumption and exports, it could not only free itself from dependence on the collapsing us consumer market and addiction to risky us debt, but also benefit manufacturers in other Asian economies that are equally eager to escape these dangers. More importantly, if other emerging economies were to pursue a similar re-orientation and South–South trade were to deepen, then they could become one another’s consumers, ushering in a new age of autonomous and equitable growth in the global South. Until that happens, however, a recentring of global capitalism from West to East and from North to South in the aftermath of the global crisis remains little more than wishful thinking. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] What is 'left' about 'the left' in South Africa? | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
By *Dale T. McKinley* November 5, 2009 -- For several years now, but particularly since the ascendancy of Jacob Zuma and his South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) allies within both the African National Congress (ANC) and the state, ``the left'' in South Africa has come to be almost completely associated with (and presented as) the SACP, COSATU and, to a lesser extent, the ANC itself. Even though this state of affairs ignores a wide range of organisations and people that can stake a serious claim to being part of ``the left'', the fact is that contemporary politics in South Africa are dominated, in one way or another, by these three alliance partners. As such, it is a good time to pose a critically important question: What is ``left'' about ``the left'' in South Africa? Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1347 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 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall
Zizek is entertaining and defends in his own way the idea of revolution and the continued existence of History in a way that makes him attractive. His politics are muddled, but when he's in town I go to listen to him speak for the anecdotes-- if not all the ideas. I think upper-middle class grad students are the cornerstones of his fanbase. Even though what attracted to me was the fact that he was willing to defend 1789 and 1917 in a way that wasn't in vogue in the mainstream--- his analysis of the French Revolution and his adoration of Saint-Just, the ranting about the imposition of the Idea by the violence and will of a minority and his gross misrepresentations of Lenin (Louis wrote a good article on this) is a bit revolting. Closer to Bruno Bauer than Karl Marx. This article however was quite tolerable. On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 5:52 PM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: Ernest Leif wrote: I'm never sure what all fuss about Zizek is. He seems to me like the Hipster's Marxist, and a thoroughly obtuse one at that. Maybe someone on this list can explain the fascination with his ideas. Jeez, I have the same question. YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
