[Marxism] Looking for Papers on the Construction of the Socialist Countryside in China

[Gurcan Efe Can]

Anyone who is interested in the theory and praxis of the Construction of the 
Socialist Countryside in China can contact me for a possible publication 
project (a book on the production of space in the Third World).

efe.can.gur...@umontreal.ca

- Rural Revolution (A Revoluton in the Revolution?) and construction of 
socialism in the Global South

- Dynamics and Structure of the Construction of the Socialist Countryside

- Revolutionary Theory and the Importance of the Countryside

- The Mao Zedong Though and Rural Struggles in today's China

- The Failures, Success and Potential of the Construction of the Socialist 
Countryside

- Critique of pseudo-Marxist urbanism and ouvrierism

 


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[Marxism] Looking for Papers on the Socialist Communes and Socialist Caracas Project(also the Cuban praxis of People's Councils)

[Gurcan Efe Can]

Looking for Papers on the Socialist Communes and Socialist Caracas Project(also 
the Cuban praxis of People's Councils)

Anyone who is interested in the socialist communes in Venezuela can contact me 
for a possible publication project (a book on the production of space in the 
Third World).

efe.can.gur...@umontreal.ca

This is an important topic that deserves deeper sociological and political 
inquiries:

- Where does this project stand with regard to the Marxist theory of revolution?

- Dynamics and Structure of the Communes

- Case Studies

- What are future challenges and possible orientations? 

- Comparaison with the People's Councils in Cuba

- Role of "rural" socialist communes and the revolutionary strategy (strategy 
of encircling the cities)

- The Significance and Challenges of the Socialist Caracas Project

- Role of socialist communes of the suburban areas and the revolutionary 
strategy (strategy of encircling the cities from the suburban)

- Possible orientations for a Revolutionary Strategy in the Global South (From 
China to Venezuela)

- Problematics such as dialectics of socialist centralisation-decentralisation, 
neo-liberal model of civil society versus the socialist model, resistance to 
civil coups of imperialism, state's role in the Venezuelan and Cuban praxis, 
the model of vanguard party...

- The importance of the Rural (thus "suburban") revolution in our century

- Critique of pseudo-Marxist urbanism and ouvrierism


etc



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Re: [Marxism] Energy and El Niño, Venezuela and Co lombia

[S. Artesian]

So here's what the IEA says for 2006:

Vz:  total electricity generation app 110,000 Gwh

Hydro-electric portion 70% (Colombia about 75%, Brazil 85%)

Consumption 80,773 GWh

Loss in distribution 24, 028 [perhaps David or Anthony can explain that 
number-- is it really Gwh lost in transmission and distribution?]

So that puts consumption [subtracting the amount lost in distribution from 
total production, assuming that's the right thing to do] right about 93% of 
production, with any minor change in the sources of hydro-electric 
generation having possible dramatic repercussions.

Somewhere along the line, foresight has to be employed, or as we used to 
say-- 6Ps

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance 



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Re: [Marxism] Greek Orthodox al Qaeda operative?

[Michael Smith]

On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:35:38 -0800
Matthew Russo  wrote:

> At my Japanese-English speech club here in San Francisco, I was struck by
> the themes of two speeches given by two of our Japanese members (in Japanese
> of course): Why don't Americans ever do "ayamari" (apologies) 

This surprises me. I would have said that a great deal 
of recent American public discourse consists of offering, 
or demanding, apologies. "I'm so sorry -- I let the fans 
down." 

Perhaps Japanese folks understand something a bit different 
by the term? 

-- 

Michael Smith
m...@smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com


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Re: [Marxism] Energy and El Niño, Venezuela and Co lombia

[S. Artesian]

Look, we need to get some numbers here-- in terms of increased power 
consumption in Venezuela.  Remember about soviets and electricity?  Well 
social revolution, social development takes a lot of juice, literally.  So 
the improved social welfare of more, rather than fewer people in Venezuela 
certainly increases the load on the grids, on the existing generating 
capacity.

I think those numbers will show significant increase in demand without 
significant increase in generating capacity.  Let's see what we can find.


- Original Message - 
From: "nada" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Energy and El Niño, Venezuela and Colombia


> Anthony, the blackouts have little to do with Venezuelan economic
> situation and I think you mis-read the Romero article.
>
> It was Romero that mentioned the lack of rainfall as a source of
> problems for the country's power failures, you imply he doesn't. In fact
> the problem is somewhat structural. 



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Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall

[Matthew Russo]

It is really telling to compare the PRC's capitalist development with that
of the U.S. from the latter 19th century - early 20th century, a meme often
found in the bourgeois press.

On the basis of a relativity high wage structure - an early spur to
mechanization - U.S manufacturing was primarily oriented towards development
of the internal market: agriculture and mineral extraction via the expansion
of the railroads and early mechanization of agriculture, the products of
these latter then exported on the world market.  It was only later in this
period that manufactured goods themselves became significant export items.
(One of my concrete tasks is to find exact numbers to confirm this).  The
major point is that this was overwhelmingly an independent development.
There was of course always foreign investment, but this was a secondary and
non-determinant component.  And when the United States accumulated monetary
reserves on these exports, these were in a gold standard currency, not
today's Chinese fiat pile.

The PRC path could not be more different.  It is also telling that leftist
or nationalist Chinese observers tend to concur with the dependent
development view of China:  The neo-Maoist Minqi Li (The Rise of China and
the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy - because neither China nor
anywhere else will rise as a successor hegemonic center, and I share his
long run optimism), Henry Liu (yeah, I know, I know) or the guy I posted
from NLR,  Ho-fung Hung (China: Americas' Head Servant?).

-Matt

--


Yes, I agree-- it's all historical, but the reference Zizek makes is
specifically to China.  I agree also that China is not a successor state to
the US in the configuration of advanced capitalism.

It, China's "new model capitalism,"  is based on the rather old cheap labor
model, more representative of capitalism in the 19th century, before the
massive application of machine power to production in the 2nd half of that
century.   And agriculture is conducted at a level of productivity far below
that of capitalism.

Doesn't mean every bourgeois doesn't drool over the prospects of having a
police state, but it does mean, IMO, China is facing tremendous social
upheaval and class struggle.

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[Marxism] [Jewbonics] Berlin Wall? Ni'lin Wall

[Dennis Brasky]

> Jewbonics has posted a new item, 'Berlin Wall? Ni'lin Wall'
>
>
>
> Beautiful.
>
> You may view the latest post at
> http://www.maxajl.com/?p=2430
>
>

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[Marxism] Energy and El Niño, Venezuela and Co lombia

[Anthony Boynton]

A very few words about the NYT Simon Romero bullshit about blackouts in
Venezuela. The NW corner of South America is like the west coast of North
America. Most electrical energy is hydroelectirc. El Niño has produced a
drought. This happens regualarly every 7 years or so, but is probably
worsening over time. There have been blackouts from Mexico south through
Colombia, and east into Venezuela. This has absolutely nothing to do with
Venezuelan, Mexican, or Colombian economic policy, except in the sense that
none of them are able to cope with El Niño or global warming.

There is very, very little chance of any war between Colombia and Venezuela
in the short term. However, there are real border tensions due to
paramilitary activity and recent mineral discoveries. Uribe and Chavez are
in love again - by which I mean they are patting each other on the back
today, after threatening each other yesterday.

Venezuela's military is in no condition to take on the USA (which is what a
war with Colombia would really be about) and the USA's military is stretched
very thin elsewhere. Colombia's miltary is designed for war agains tthe
FARC, not invading another country.

In the medium term however, war is a real and growing danger for the obvious
reaons: oil and natural gas.

Anthony

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Re: [Marxism] The Democratic Party is not for women

[Michael Perelman]

Then again, why should the women's movement be different from every other 
non-corporate interest that was sold out by this congress?
-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
michaelperelman.wordpress.com


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Re: [Marxism] Iran and Saudi Arabia

[Paula]

Louis wrote:
> 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.

When orthodox views don't get us anywhere, it's time to consider the 
heterodox.

Paula 



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[Marxism] "Poor Peoples Movements" and Indonesia

[Clinton Fernandes]

 
 
 

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Re: [Marxism] Greek Orthodox al Qaeda operative?

[S. Artesian]

What a s**tbag country this is, and Florida being one of the biggest bags.

- Original Message - 
From: "Louis Proyect" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 6:25 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Greek Orthodox al Qaeda operative?


(


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[Marxism] Greek Orthodox al Qaeda operative?

[Louis Proyect]

(Sikhs better keep their eyes open as well...)

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/tampa-police-marine-reservist-attacked-greek-priest-he-mistook-for/1050707
Priest's plea for help nets beating

By Alexandra Zayas and Demorris A. Lee, Times Staff Writers

Published Tuesday, November 10, 2009

TAMPA — Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the 
trunk of his car Monday evening when a bearded man in a robe approached him.

That man, a Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks 
little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions.

What the priest got instead, police say, was a tire iron to the head. 
Then he was chased for three blocks and pinned to the ground — as the 
Marine kept a 911 operator on the phone, saying he had captured a terrorist.

Police say Bruce offered several reasons to explain his actions:

The man tried to rob him.

The man grabbed Bruce's crotch and made an overt sexual advance in 
perfect English.

The man yelled "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," the same words 
some witnesses said the Fort Hood shooting suspect uttered last week.

"That's what they tell you right before they blow you up," police say 
Bruce told them.

Bruce ended up in jail, accused of aggravated battery with a deadly 
weapon. He was released Tuesday on $7,500 bail. Marakis ended up at the 
hospital with stitches. He told the police he didn't want to press 
charges, espousing biblical forgiveness.

But Tuesday, Bruce wasn't saying sorry.

• • •

The two men are a year apart in age, and a world apart in life experiences.

Father Michael Eaccarino of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in 
Tarpon Springs says Marakis, 29, entered a Greek monastery as a teenager 
and became a priest nine years ago. He is studying theology at Holy 
Cross, a Greek Orthodox school in Massachusetts, and traveled to Tarpon 
Springs two months ago to work on his master's thesis. He has taken a 
vow of celibacy.

Eaccarino says the visiting priest got lost Monday after ministering to 
the elderly in a nursing home.

Jasen Bruce, 28, enlisted as a reserve Marine as a teenager, was 
discharged honorably when he finished his contract, and enlisted again 
this March. He has never been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, a Marine 
Corps spokesman said. He got married last month in full dress uniform.

Bruce is a sales manager for APS Pharmacy in Palm Harbor. His blog 
entries tout the benefits of increasing testosterone and human growth 
hormones. He was charged with misdemeanor battery in 2007 for hopping 
over the bed of a tow truck and shoving its driver. He pleaded no contest.

Online photo galleries depict him flexing big muscles wearing little 
clothing.

An exterior surveillance video of Tuesday's chase captured the two men 
in motion, said Tampa Police Department spokeswoman Laura McElroy:

"You see a very short, small man running, and an enormous, large 
muscular man chasing after him."

This is what police say happened at 6:35 p.m. Monday:

The priest's GPS gave him the wrong directions, leading him off 
Interstate 275 and into downtown Tampa. He followed a line of cars into 
a garage at the Seaport Channelside condominium to ask for help.

He found Bruce, whose back was turned, bending over the trunk of his 
car, and he tapped his shoulder before saying, in broken English, 
"please" and "help."

That's when Bruce reached for the tire iron. Police say that by the end 
of the chase, he had hit the priest four times.

Hours after his release from Orient Road Jail on Tuesday, Bruce stood 
silently as his attorney, Jeff Brown, told his version:

The bearded man wearing a robe and sandals was clearly trespassing in 
the garage. In a sudden move, the stranger made a verbal sexual advance 
and grabbed Bruce's genitals. The Marine defended himself. And 
immediately, he called 911 as he chased him.

Brown said the police initially called the Marine a "hero" and said the 
priest was "mentally ill."

He called the police's account "one-sided" and said the department 
should investigate a sergeant he said made derogatory comments about the 
Marine's military background.

Police said that sergeant is, himself, a veteran. They say that the 
priest was disoriented when they found him at the corner of Madison and 
Meridian avenues, but a translator at Tampa General Hospital helped him 
communicate. And that the GPS corroborates the priest's story.

When police arrived at Bruce's apartment at 1:30 a.m., before they had 
mentioned charges, he had already called an attorney.

Television news stations showed the priest's photo on Tuesday and 
mentioned what the Marine said he did. If the priest had watched, he 
wouldn't have understood it.

He'd spent the day in great spirits, his fellow priest said. His main 
worry was that he inconvenienced the others who had to care for him. 
Then, a man named Jerry Theophilopoulos got in touch with him. He's a 
lawyer, speaks Greek and served as a former boa

[Marxism] Juriann Bendien on the "whip"

[Louis Proyect]

As far as I know Marx did not state the exact quote attributed to him, 
but he occasionally said something like it, referring to the "whip" 
imagery for example with reference to the German monarchy, in the 
Eighteenth Brumaire and in Capital.

The late Cyril Smith mentioned:

"In the first edition of Capital, in 1867, the following footnote appeared:

If, on the European continent, influences of capitalist production which 
destroy the human species ... were to continue to develop hand in hand 
with competition in the sizes of national armies, state security issues 
... etc, then rejuvenation of Europe may become possible with the use of 
a whip and through forced mixture with the Kalmyks, as Herzen ... has so 
emphatically foretold. (This gentleman with an ornate style of writing - 
to remark in passing - has discovered 'Russian' communism not inside 
Russia but instead in the work of Haxthausen, a councillor of the 
Prussian government.)" 
http://www.marx.org/reference/archive/smith-cyril/works/millenni/smith2a.htm

I don't have the first edition handy to check the quote.

It is also possible that the attribution is mixed up with Trotsky's 
comment in the History of the Russian Revolution:

"The laws of history have nothing in common with a pedantic schematism. 
Unevenness, the most general law of the historic process, reveals itself 
most sharply and complexly in the destiny of the backward countries. 
Under the whip of external necessity, their backward culture is 
compelled to make leaps."

The "whip" imagery has subsequently figured often in Marxist writings, 
in the sense of people being compelled to do things under the pressure 
of an oppressive external necessity.

J.






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Re: [Marxism] Mexican oil crisis; Venezuelan energy crisis, Cuba, etc.

[nada]

Of course I forgot to put my own thoughts on this.

A year and half ago I visited Mexico (with an American delegation that 
included Cynthia McKinney) to a conference on privatization sponsored by 
various energy unions in Latin America. In fact it was held at the SME 
headquarters, the one now occupied by the Federal Police in their 
attempt to break the union.

The move toward privatization was, then, the single biggest issue in 
Mexican politics. The corruption IS terrible and funds are siphoned away 
by both the rich and the corrupt union leaderships. The unions are 
affiliated to the PRI opposition. Unlike the independent SME, the oil 
unions are not influenced by the socialist left nor even the very 
reformist  PRD.

Militants in these unions presented PEMEX as not unlike PDVSA prior to 
Chavez and played the same role. As David S. notes, the main issue 
outside privatization and corruption is the obvious uninvestment in 
existing fields and the known new fields that exist in places like 
Chiapas. The demand of the militants is "more investment".

I don't know much about the derivatives of the industry or what PEMEX 
was playing with regards to them.

Venezuela and Brazil have very interesting and similar problems. The 
both have this incredibly vast hydro resources but both are sometimes 
hundreds, and in the case of Brazil, even thousands of miles from where 
their power exists. Bot countries get between 70% and 80% of their 
electricity from this renewable resource. They both are partly trying to 
solve the issue by running high voltage DC lines, or more of them, from 
the dams to cities. Both are also expanding these resources. Both are 
moving toward more local generation, either gas or nuclear. Brazil, for 
example, has remarkably few combined cycle gas turbines. I don't know 
why but probably over confidence in expanding hydro resources.

On Venezuela, the numbers PDVSA says they produce in oil is about 35% 
higher than international petroleum institutes say they do. And, there 
are now accusations that PDVSA is also under investing, albeit no where 
near the problem in Mexico. I read the mostly conservative energy 
industry web sites, like Energy Tribune, who, besides being climate 
change deniers, tend to down play any accomplishments by countries like 
Cuba and Venezuela when it comes to petroleum issues. But there is 
always some truth and finding that out is an important task.

I'll try to regularly contribute information here on energy issues like 
this.


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[Marxism] "We're Still Here, We Never Left"-2nd Anniversary of RAC's Food Program

[johnaimani]

(JAI:  RAC was formed as a response to the police riot in MacArthur Park on May 
Day 2007 that their intimidation will not deter us from working in our 
neighborhood for the human rights of all.)

Music Line up for 2 yr Anniversary  
 Film Screening "A Place Called Chiapas"

  Confirmed:
Leonel (Poemas) FOOD

 Seminars on: 
Tuberculosis
Handski  
DRINKS  
Housing Problems
Angustia
Aidge34  
MUSIC   
   Immigration Rights
DJ Skript


   Healthcare   

   
  
 

Two Years!  Every Sunday!  Rain or Shine!  "We're Still Here, We 
Never Left"


 You can join us every Sunday at 1:30 PM. Meet at the SE Corner 
of Wilshire and Parkview in MacArthur Park



 
Revolutionary Autonomous Communities' Food Program



The Revolutionary Autonomous Communities has created a food program where we 
are empowering ourselves and others to become self-sustainable. 

The Food Program is a mutual-aid project where people themselves are organizing 
and distributing food in their own neighborhoods. This is not charity, we do 
not believe that change will happen this way. This is self-empowerment, where 
working class neo-colonies are feeding themselves, and organizing to feed 
themselves. 

Since the first week of November, 2007, RAC has distibuted much needed 
grocieries to the needy workers of the area at times having served up to 200 
people.

You can join us every Sunday at 1:30 PM. Meet at the SE Corner of Wilshire and 
Parkview in MacArthur Park.

RAC Mission Statement:

We feel that this system is killing our people by what the corporations feed us 
or don't feed us. At the same time there is an abundance of healthy food that 
goes to waste. They would rather let food go to waste than allow the prices of 
food in the market to drop. Then they disconnect people (all indigenous and 
colonized people) from the land, which a free and independent people need to 
survive. They centralize power and resources in the hands of the few, this is 
how they keep oppressed people dependent on a white-supremacist, patriarchal, 
capitalist-imperialist system.

RAC's Food Program is a way that we can work with supporters and other 
organizations to feed healthy food to our communities. We want people to 
connect with each other, to pick up and distribute the food amongst themselves. 
We will support, help connect people and to supply whatever resources we can. 
Through this process our goal is to connect our communities and to take them 
back. Our overall goal is to regain our necessary connection to the land. We 
need land to survive, and the land belongs to us, not the colonizer. We want to 
relearn how to live off the land and how to truly be self-sustainable.


  " We're Still Here, We Never Left"
  

  
  
Revolutionary Autonomous Communities





Support our Food Program.

Help Pick Up Food.

Help Distribute Food in Your 
Neighborhood.

Donate to our Community 
Mutual-Aid Program.

Get Organized!

Take Back Our Communities and 
Take Back the Land!

All Power THROUGH the People!


   -Revolutionary Autonomous Communities


 
E-mail RAC: 

r...@lists.riseup.net

 

To donate to the RAC Food Program:  

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&h

Re: [Marxism] Mexican oil crisis; Venezuelan energy crisis, Cuba, etc.

[S. Artesian]

The Mexico article is interesting.  What happened to last year's future 
contracts for all of this year's output at $70/barrel?  Did the contracts 
all expire since August when oil broke the $70/barrel level?  Did Mexico 
hedge its position, and limit its own gains?  Were the contracts unwound 
before expiration on terms that provided Mexico with nothing.  Those are a 
few questions on the derivative side of this issue.

On the production side-- it's not just that Mexico hasn't invested in fields 
outside Cantarell-- it hasn't invested in Cantarell itself to maintain 
production levels.  Mexico has seen no decline in proven reserves  despite 
continuing to pump from Cantarell without such investment, so we're 
certainly not talking about an irreversible situation.  Of course, for 
Calderon and co. reversing means privatising and selling off the fields to 
the oil majors.

Venezuela-- I find the story troubling.. disruption of utilities, of 
supplies of electricity and water is too often the overture to the attempt 
to overthrow a left government by eroding and exhausting its popular 
support.


- Original Message - 
From: "nada" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 1:27 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Mexican oil crisis; Venezuelan energy crisis, Cuba, etc.




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[Marxism] Pakistan Rock Rails Against the West, Not the Taliban

[Louis Proyect]

NY Times, November 11, 2009, 1:59 pm
Pakistan Rock Rails Against the West, Not the Taliban
By ADAM B. ELLICK

While Pakistani journalists, playwrights and even moderate Islamic 
clerics have boldly condemned the Taliban, the nation’s pop music 
stars have yet to sing out against the group, which continues to 
claim responsibility for daily bombings.

The violence has no shortage of victims in addition to the dead: 
more than three million people have become refugees, and more than 
200 schools for girls have been destroyed. And the musicians I 
spoke to have suffered as well, which makes it all the more 
surprising that they are reluctant to criticize the militants.

Pakistani pop musicians once had two main ways to make money: live 
concerts and corporate sponsorships. But because of deteriorating 
security in the last two years, the concert scene — and the 
revenue that comes with it — has all but vanished.

Musicians are now relegated to televised performances. But in a 
nation where the West is often the villain, television stations 
and big businesses have little economic or political incentive to 
put their name on a musician with an anti-Taliban platform.

The result is a surge of bubble-gum stars who have become 
increasingly politicized. Some are churning out ambiguous, cheery 
lyrics urging their young fans to act against the nation’s woes. 
Others simply vilify the United States.

This video shows how many young Pakistanis have a different 
perspective on the problems in their homeland.

Go to: 
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/tuning-out-the-taliban-in-pakistan-pop
 
to see video.


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[Marxism] [Sanhati] Latest Articles at Sanhati

[Politicus E.]

Sanhati Update, 8 November 2009

1. The dangers are great, the possibilities immense: On the current
political struggle in India
By Saroj Giri  (Source - MRZine)
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1897/

2. Gurgaon workers unrest: Background, features, chronology, and
economic notes on India’s automobile industry
(Source - Gurgaon Workers News, November 2009 Issue)
http://sanhati.com/articles/1896/

3. Unemployment as a choice
By Deepankar Basu
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1895/

4. West Bengal Workers News
By Suvarup Saha (Translated from ShramikShakti, June-July 2009)
http://sanhati.com/workersnews/#3

5. Right to Food Campaign: Charter of demands, Rally outside
Parliament on November 26 2009
http://sanhati.com/news/1871/

6. What Is Maoism?
By Bernard D'Mello (Source - MRZine)
http://sanhati.com/articles/1898/

7.  The possibilities of civil society reaction to Chidambaram’s war and Lalgarh
By Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri
http://sanhati.com/dipanjan/#13

**

Sanhati Update, 23 October 2009

1. Primary Accumulation qua Development Terrorism
By Panayiotis T. Manolakos
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1845/

2. Labour’s right to run the State
By Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri
Source : Frontier.
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1847/

3. Legal regulation on surrogacy and reaffirming motherhood: Conflicts
and Contradictions
By Rukmini Sen
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1846/

4. Pricol Industries - Background notes on workers struggle and the
death of Roy George
http://sanhati.com/articles/1849/

5. The cold white light of truth has just gone out
By Biju Mathew.
Source : www.balagopal.org
http://sanhati.com/articles/1851/

6. The Media Question
A leaflet issued by Correspondence and Radical Notes
http://sanhati.com/articles/1865/

7. Workers update from closed Shikarpur tea-estate
By Ranajit Majumdar. Translated by Suvarup Saha.
Source : Sangbad Manthan July 2009 issue.
http://sanhati.com/aaj-kaal-porshu/#2

8. Myth of the Global Safety Net
By Jan Breman.
Source : New Left Review.
http://sanhati.com/articles/1854/


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Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall

[S. Artesian]

Yes, I agree-- it's all historical, but the reference Zizek makes is 
specifically to China.  I agree also that China is not a successor state to 
the US in the configuration of advanced capitalism.

It, China's "new model capitalism,"  is based on the rather old cheap labor 
model, more representative of capitalism in the 19th century, before the 
massive application of machine power to production in the 2nd half of that 
century.   And agriculture is conducted at a level of productivity far below 
that of capitalism.

Doesn't mean every bourgeois doesn't drool over the prospects of having a 
police state, but it does mean, IMO, China is facing tremendous social 
upheaval and class struggle.


- Original Message - 
From: "Matthew Russo" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall


>I certainly don't buy China or any other particular state as 
>"paradigmatic",
> in fact don't buy the concept itself.  By that same token also don't buy 
> the
> PRC as a "successor state" to U.S. imperialist hegemony.



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Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall

[Matthew Russo]

I certainly don't buy China or any other particular state as "paradigmatic",
in fact don't buy the concept itself.  By that same token also don't buy the
PRC as a "successor state" to U.S. imperialist hegemony.

But given capitalism as a historical mode of production, with epochs of rise
(17th-18th-early 19th centuries), zenith (latter 19th-WWI), and decline
(WWI-present), the relation of the capitalist mode of production to various
arrangements of the state institutions, both internal to the nation-state
and in international relations, is hardly as random as suggested. Capitalism
is not indifferent to those arrangements.  The history of capitalism shows
that certain configurations work out better than others in a certain epoch,
until they don't in another period.

-Matt

-

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.

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[Marxism] Survey Finds Deep Shift in the Makeup of Unions

[Bonnie Weinstein]

Survey Finds Deep Shift in the Makeup of Unions
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
November 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/business/11membership.html? 
ref=business

A study has found that just one in 10 union members is in  
manufacturing, while women account for more than 45 percent of the  
unionized work force.

The study, by the Center for Economic Policy Research, a Washington- 
based group, found that union membership is far less blue-collar and  
factory-based than in labor’s heyday, when the United Automobile  
Workers and the United Steelworkers dominated.

According to the study, “The Changing Face of Labor, 1983-2008,” just  
11 percent of union members work in manufacturing, down from nearly  
30 percent in the 1980s. Indeed, for the first time since the  
National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935, the percentage of  
factory workers who are in unions, 11.4 percent, has fallen below the  
percentage of all workers who are in unions — 12.4 percent last year.  
That is down from 35 percent in the 1950s. The membership of the  
U.A.W. has fallen to less than 500,000, from 1.5 million in 1979.

Many labor leaders argue that for unions to reverse their long-term  
decline, labor will need to win passage of federal legislation to  
make it easier to organize workers. And many labor leaders say that  
public-sector unions, like those representing teachers and municipal  
employees, which have grown rapidly in recent decades, should do more  
to back unionization efforts in the private sector.

The study found that white men represent just 38 percent of all union  
members and that women will come to represent more than half of all  
union members during the next decade.

About 48.9 percent of union members are in the public sector, up from  
34 percent in 1983. About 61 percent of unionized women are in the  
public sector, compared to 38 percent for men.

Elizabeth Shuler, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s new secretary treasurer, said  
she found the study encouraging because of the increased female  
membership in unions. “It shows that the diversity initiatives we’ve  
been pushing have made a difference,” she said. “Unions have been  
pushing hard to open their doors.”

To help reverse the decline of union membership in the private  
sector, she called for enacting the Employee Free Choice Act,  
legislation that would make it easier to unionize. Business groups  
have denounced the bill, saying it would raise costs and make it  
harder for companies to make a profit and add more workers.

The study found that 38 percent of union members had a four-year  
college degree or more, up from 20 percent in 1983. Just under half  
of female union members (49.4 percent) have at least a four-year  
degree, compared with 27.7 percent for male union members.

The report, written by John Schmitt and Kris Warner, said that  
Hispanics represented 12.2 percent of the unionized work force, up  
from 5.8 percent in 1983. Immigrants represent 12.6 percent of union  
members, up from 8.4 percent in 1994.

Mr. Schmitt said globalization was making it harder to unionize  
factory workers because “globalization makes for a much more credible  
threat to say, ‘We’re going to shut down this plant if you organize.’ ”

He saw a few bright spots for labor, particularly the Pacific states,  
where there has been moderate union growth.

“And there’s been growth among Latino, Asian and immigrant workers —  
so there is a little hope for the future,” he said.

Blacks represent 13 percent of the unionized work force, which has  
remained relatively steady over the last quarter-century. During that  
time, the unionization rate for blacks has fallen steeply, to 15.5  
percent, from 31.7 percent in 1983.

The typical union member is 45 years old, compared with 41 for the  
typical American worker. The age for both the typical union member  
and the typical worker is seven years older than a quarter-century ago.

According to the study, the most heavily unionized group was workers  
age 55 to 64 — 18.4 percent of them were in unions. The least  
unionized age group was 16- to 24-year-olds (5.7 percent were in  
unions.)

The percentage of men in unions has dropped sharply, to 14.5 percent  
in 2008, from 27.7 percent in 1983, while the percentage for women  
dropped more slowly, to 13 percent last year, from 18 percent in  
1983. For the work force over all, the percentage of workers in  
unions dropped to 12.4 percent last year, from 20.1 percent in 1983.



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[Marxism] re HELP!

[michael a. lebowitz]

Alan Woods was probably quoting Trotsky rather than Marx but I don't 
know the source.
In 'Beyond CAPITAL', I quoted Marx from 'The First Outline of the Civil 
War in France':

'The Communal organisation once firmly established on a national scale, 
the catastrophes it might still have to undergo would be sporadic 
slaveholders' insurrections, which, while for a moment interrupting the 
work of peaceful progress, would only accelerate the movement, by 
putting the sword into the hand of the Social Revolution.'

michael

-- 
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development'
Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H.
Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela
fax: 0212 5768274/0212 5777231
www.centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve
mlebo...@sfu.ca



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[Marxism] Mexican oil crisis; Venezuelan energy crisis, Cuba, etc.

[nada]

Some articles on the increasing problems of delivering reliable energy

MEXICO:
Mexico is currently facing one of the biggest economic recessions in the 
country’s two hundred-year history of independence. Some Mexican policy 
makers blame the economic crisis on this year’s decrease in tourism, 
while others attribute it to the continued dependence of the Mexican 
economy on the United States, pointing to its neighbor’s recession as a 
principal cause for the country’s woes. Nonetheless, Mexico’s plummet in 
oil production and the decline in the price of oil are two main 
contributors to its present economic downfall. While other countries 
have begun to pull out of the recession, it appears that the fall in oil 
production and prices have further led to an ongoing decline in Mexico’s 
economy, which the country’s planners are finding difficult to reverse.

Full: http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=2495


VENEZUELA:
Blackouts Plague Energy-Rich Venezuela
With oil revenues declining and the economy slowing, the shortages may 
have no quick fixes in sight. The government announced some emergency 
measures this week, including limits on imports of air-conditioning 
systems, rate increases for consumers of large amounts of power and the 
building of new gas-fired power plants, which would not be completed 
until the middle of the next decade.

Skepticism also persists over another plan — to develop a nuclear energy 
program — because it would require billions of dollars and extensive 
training of Venezuelan scientists at a time of budget shortfalls and 
falling oil production. Potential diplomatic resistance to Venezuela’s 
cooperation on nuclear matters with Iran could slow these ambitions 
further.

FULL: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/americas/11venez.html?_r=1&ref=world


CUBA/RUSSIA
Cuba, Russia Sign First Post-Soviet Oil Deal. Cuba and Russia signed an 
agreement Monday to allow Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft to 
explore for and produce oil in Cuba in their first post-Soviet oil pact.

"The contracts that were signed are tremendously important for Russia 
and Cuba, since they will guarantee cooperation over the next 25 years," 
said Nikolai Brunich, a Zarubezhneft official after inking the deal with 
the head of Cuba's state oil company Cubapetroleo (CUPET), Fidel Rivero.

Cuban authorities announced in October 2008 that Cuba had crude reserves 
of 21 billion barrels - more than double previous estimates.

A major Cuban oil find would be a tropical Cinderella story for the only 
communist country in the Americas.

FULL: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/AsiaOne%2BNews.html


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Re: [Marxism] HELP!

[David Picón Álvarez]

This is the quote I was thinking of, which does not exactly say the same 
thing, but is I believe close enough. It's from the preface to the Class 
Struggles in France: 
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/class-struggles-france/index.htm

"In a word: The revolution made progress, forged ahead, not by its immediate 
tragicomic achievements but, on the contrary, by the creation of a powerful,
united counterrevolution, by the creation of an opponent in combat with whom 
the party of overthrow ripened into a really revolutionary party."

--David.



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Re: [Marxism] HELP!

[S. Artesian]

Try the search function on the Marxist Internet Archive

I don't recall ever reading it in any of Marx's published works.
- Original Message - 
From: "David Picón Álvarez" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] HELP!


> 



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Re: [Marxism] A reason to support Zizek

[Mehmet Cagatay]

Alan Johnson writes:

"Even the Maoist Cultural Revolution—which killed between four hundred thousand 
and one million people, according to Jung Chang’s and Jon Halliday’s Mao: The 
Unknown Story..."

..

I recommend subscribers check out Mobo Gao's book "The Battle for China's Past: 
Mao and the Cultural Revolution" where he allocates a whole chapter to debunk 
the misleading distortions in the notorious book quoted by A. Johnson:

http://www.ebookee.com.cn/The-Battle-for-China-s-Past-Mao-and-the-Cultural-Revolution_256248.html


  


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Re: [Marxism] HELP!

[David Picón Álvarez]

I am almost certain I have read something like this, I'm now trying to find 
the source. What I remember went something like this:

That the revolution must create its own enemy, and its enemy, by its 
reaction, increases somehow the readiness or the capability of the 
revolutionaries to carry the struggle forward.

--David.



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[Marxism] HELP!

[Jeremias Zevi]

did marx ever say and where did he say:
"the revolution needs the whip of the counter-revolution to advance"??


i dont care about exact wording, but something along those lines?

many thanks and in sol
jeremiah
ps. i have this qouted from Alan Woods' "The Venezuelan Revolution: A
marxist perspectve" but without an actual place from marx, i do not want to
qoute this qoute...

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[Marxism] blog post: zion national park

[MICHAEL YATES]

Full at http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org

 

“Zion”: A fortress. An ideal religious community. A sanctuary. A perfect place. 
 Zion National Park is in that part of Utah known as “Dixie.” Brigham Young, 
looking both to consolidate his earthly empire and to begin cotton production, 
partly to make up for the lack of cotton fabric brought about by the Civil War, 
sent colonists into what is now the southwestern corner of the state. Later, 
Young build a summer home in the region’s largest settlement, St. George, which 
today is a city of nearly 80,000 people, its rapidly growing population driven 
in part by warm weather and proximity to Las Vegas.

 Like most of southern Utah, the landscape in Dixie is dramatic, nowhere 
more so than in Zion National Park. The great Zion Canyon dominates the park, 
carved deep into the sandstone by the Virgin River, which flows through the 
canyon at a very steep decline. The canyon itself is surrounded by sandstone 
cliffs that reach a height of more than 2,000 feet, making them the highest 
such cliffs in the world.

 The first Anglo to enter the canyon was Mormon settler Nephi Johnson. 
[Nephi is pronounced Neph-eye, and rhymes with Moroni, the angel who gave the 
golden tablets containing the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith and whose golden 
image adorns the top of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. Nephi is an 
important character in the Book of Mormon. According to the scriptures, he and 
his brother Laman came from Israel to the Americas, where they had a kind of 
Abel and Cain relationship. The followers and descendants of the bad brother, 
Laman, are called Lamanites. Mormons claimed that the Indians with whom they 
soon came into contact as they migrated west were Lamanites, no doubt 
justifying their treatment of native peoples, which included forced separation 
of Indian children from their parents and adoption and conversion by Mormon 
families.] Johnson’s Indian guide refused to enter what his people considered a 
sacred place, but Johnson traveled from the mouth of the canyon perhaps to The 
Narrows, where the space between the towering cliffs narrows dramatically, at 
point so small that a hiker can touch both walls with extended arms.


 
  

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[Marxism] Nice take-down of SuperFreakonomics

[Louis Proyect]

(Levitt and Dubner's first book was called Freakonomics, which can 
best be described as economics for the conventionally-minded under 
the guise of breaking with convention. Their latest book reviewed 
below has been hammered on the web and in print for a really 
stupid analysis of climate change.)

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/11/16/091116crbo_books_kolbert
Books
Hosed
Is there a quick fix for the climate?
by Elizabeth Kolbert November 16, 2009

“SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why 
Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance” (William Morrow; $29.99);
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

In the eighteen-sixties, the quickest, or at least the most 
popular, way to get around New York was in a horse-drawn 
streetcar. The horsecars, which operated on iron rails, offered a 
smoother ride than the horse-drawn omnibuses they replaced. (The 
Herald described the experience of travelling by omnibus as a form 
of “modern martyrdom.”) New Yorkers made some thirty-five million 
horsecar trips a year at the start of the decade. By 1870, that 
figure had tripled.

The standard horsecar, which seated twenty, was drawn by a pair of 
roans and ran sixteen hours a day. Each horse could work only a 
four-hour shift, so operating a single car required at least eight 
animals. Additional horses were needed if the route ran up a 
grade, or if the weather was hot. Horses were also employed to 
transport goods; as the amount of freight arriving at the city’s 
railroad terminals increased, so, too, did the number of horses 
needed to distribute it along local streets. By 1880, there were 
at least a hundred and fifty thousand horses living in New York, 
and probably a great many more. Each one relieved itself of, on 
average, twenty-two pounds of manure a day, meaning that the 
city’s production of horse droppings ran to at least forty-five 
thousand tons a month. George Waring, Jr., who served as the 
city’s Street Cleaning Commissioner, described Manhattan as 
stinking “with the emanations of putrefying organic matter.” 
Another observer wrote that the streets were “literally carpeted 
with a warm, brown matting . . . smelling to heaven.” In the early 
part of the century, farmers in the surrounding counties had been 
happy to pay for the city’s manure, which could be converted into 
rich fertilizer, but by the later part the market was so glutted 
that stable owners had to pay to have the stuff removed, with the 
result that it often accumulated in vacant lots, providing 
breeding grounds for flies.

The problem just kept piling up until, in the eighteen-nineties, 
it seemed virtually insurmountable. One commentator predicted that 
by 1930 horse manure would reach the level of Manhattan’s 
third-story windows. New York’s troubles were not New York’s 
alone; in 1894, the Times of London forecast that by the middle of 
the following century every street in the city would be buried 
under nine feet of manure. It was understood that flies were a 
transmission vector for disease, and a public-health crisis seemed 
imminent. When the world’s first international urban-planning 
conference was held, in 1898, it was dominated by discussion of 
the manure situation. Unable to agree upon any solutions—or to 
imagine cities without horses—the delegates broke up the meeting, 
which had been scheduled to last a week and a half, after just 
three days.

Then, almost overnight, the crisis passed. This was not brought 
about by regulation or by government policy. Instead, it was 
technological innovation that made the difference. With 
electrification and the development of the internal-combustion 
engine, there were new ways to move people and goods around. By 
1912, autos in New York outnumbered horses, and in 1917 the city’s 
last horse-drawn streetcar made its final run. All the anxieties 
about a metropolis inundated by ordure had been misplaced.

This story—call it the Parable of Horseshit—has been told many 
times, with varying aims. The latest iteration is offered by 
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, in their new book, 
“SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why 
Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance” (William Morrow; 
$29.99). According to Levitt and Dubner, the story’s message is a 
simple one: if, at any particular moment, things look bleak, it’s 
because people are seeing them the wrong way. “When the solution 
to a given problem doesn’t lie right before our eyes, it is easy 
to assume that no solution exists,” they write. “But history has 
shown again and again that such assumptions are wrong.”

Levitt and Dubner tell the horseshit story as a prelude to 
discussing climate change: “Just as equine activity once 
threatened to stomp out civilization, there is now a fear that 
human activity will do the same.” As usual, they say, the anxiety 
is unwarranted. First, the global-warming threat has been 
exaggerated; there is uncertainty about how,

[Marxism] Time to rev up the antiwar movement

[Louis Proyect]

NY Times, November 11, 2009
3 Top Obama Advisers Favor Adding Troops in Afghanistan
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Adm. Mike Mullen, 
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State 
Hillary Rodham Clinton are coalescing around a proposal to send 
30,000 or more additional American troops to Afghanistan, but 
President Obama remains unsatisfied with answers he has gotten 
about how vigorously the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan 
would help execute a new strategy, administration officials said 
Tuesday.

Mr. Obama is to consider four final options in a meeting with his 
national security team on Wednesday, his press secretary, Robert 
Gibbs, told reporters. The options outline different troop levels, 
other officials said, but they also assume different goals — 
including how much of Afghanistan the troops would seek to control 
— and different time frames and expectations for the training of 
Afghan security forces.

Three of the options call for specific levels of additional 
troops. The low-end option would add 20,000 to 25,000 troops, a 
middle option calls for about 30,000, and another embraces Gen. 
Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for roughly 40,000 more troops. 
Administration officials said that a fourth option was added only 
in the past few days. They declined to identify any troop level 
attached to it.

Mr. Gates, a Republican who served as President George W. Bush’s 
last defense secretary, and who commands considerable respect from 
the president, is expected to be pivotal in Mr. Obama’s decision. 
But administration officials cautioned that Mr. Obama had not yet 
made up his mind, and that other top advisers, among them Vice 
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the White House chief of staff, 
Rahm Emanuel, remained skeptical of the value of a buildup.

In the Situation Room meetings and other sessions, some officials 
have expressed deep reservations about President Hamid Karzai, who 
emerged the victor of a disputed Afghan election. They said there 
was no evidence that Mr. Karzai would carry through on promises to 
crack down on corruption or the drug trade or that his government 
was capable of training enough reliable Afghan troops and police 
officers for Mr. Obama to describe a credible exit strategy.

Officials said that although the president had no doubt about what 
large numbers of United States troops could achieve on their own 
in Afghanistan, he repeatedly asked questions during recent 
meetings on Afghanistan about whether a sizable American force 
might undercut the urgency of the preparations of the Afghan 
forces who are learning to stand up on their own.

“He’s simply not convinced yet that you can do a lasting 
counterinsurgency strategy if there is no one to hand it off to,” 
one participant said.

Mr. Obama, officials said, has expressed similar concerns about 
Pakistan’s willingness to attack Taliban leaders who are operating 
out of the Pakistani city of Quetta and commanding forces that are 
mounting attacks across the border in Afghanistan. While Pakistan 
has mounted military operations against some Taliban groups in 
recent weeks, one official noted, “it’s been focused on the 
Taliban who are targeting the Pakistani government, but not those 
who are running operations in Afghanistan.”

Mr. Obama himself seems to be hedging his bets, particularly on 
the performance of Mr. Karzai, who is considered by American 
officials to be an unreliable partner and is now widely derided in 
the White House. Mr. Obama told ABC News during an interview on 
Monday that given the weakness of the Karzai government in Kabul, 
his administration was seeking “provincial government actors that 
have legitimacy in the right now.”

Officials said that while Admiral Mullen and Mrs. Clinton were 
generally in sync with Mr. Gates in supporting an option of about 
30,000 troops, there were variations in their positions and they 
were not working in lock step. Admiral Mullen’s spokesman, Capt. 
John Kirby, said that the admiral was providing his advice to the 
president in private and would not comment. Geoff Morrell, the 
Pentagon press secretary, would not comment on Mr. Gates’s position.

A focus of Mr. Obama’s meeting on Wednesday with his national 
security advisers, officials said, will be to discuss some of 
their differences as well as those of the president’s other 
advisers. Officials also said there was a possibility that Mr. 
Obama might choose to phase in additional troops over time, with a 
schedule that depended on the timing of the arrival of any 
additional NATO troops and on how soon Afghan security forces 
would be able to do more on their own.

Officials said that no decision was expected from Mr. Obama on 
Wednesday, but that he would mull over the discussions at the 
meeting during a trip to Asia that begins Thursday. Mr. Obama is 
not due back in Washington until next Thursday. Officials 

Re: [Marxism] Zizek on the Berlin Wall

[Asad Haider]

> > > 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.
>

He is now a genuine hipster's Marxist, but his writing never strikes me as
too difficult to understand, provided you feel that issues like language are
important, and he has become popular among hipsters by trying very, very
hard to insult and offend them (and other American liberals). For some
reason, they just love him more because of this, even when it leads him to
say very, very stupid things. ("A leftist plea for Eurocentrism" don't
even joke about that!)

However, if you go back and look at his early work on cynicism, I believe
you will find a very useful contribution to the Marxist literature on
ideology. (Mainly in Sublime Object of Ideology.) He has been trying to
repeat that ever since.

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