Re: [Marxism] Moderator's Note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Is there a struggle for self-determination in Kashmir? Yes.. Does Kashmir belong to Pakistan? No.. Has there been organised infiltration into Kashmir by the Pakistani ISI (funded and supported for long by the US) ? Yes.. So is the Indian state the sole problem with regard to Kashmir? No.. Are both the Indian and Pakistani states and US imperialism the problem? Yes.. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ 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] Moderator's Note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The question of ethnic nationalism needs to be put in its historical and political context while discussing the Indo-Pakistan relations, especially, when they are related to the Kashmir issue. While leaving aside some other geopolitical factors, the main stumbling block that has stood in normalizing the India-Pakistan relations has been the Unresolved Issue of Kashmir. But India, 'the greatest democracy in the world', has used its military force to crush the aspirations of the people of Indian-held Kashmir for self-determination for more than sixty years. That is, rejecting U.N. resolutions and efforts to that end. More than 700,000 Indian soldiers as an occupation force in Kashmir have done what they could to crush and terrorize Kashmiri people (Muslims) and their resistance against the Indian rule. More than 100,000 Kashmiris (mostly Muslims) thus far have fallen victim to the bullets and the terror of the Indian army. However, I am not going to say anything here on the crimes against humanity committed by the Indian State and its army in the Kashmir Valley. It is quite true to say that the Mumbai attacks did not help. Perhaps some readers may find my views relevant in such a connection when I discuss the major cause of the Indo-Pakistan conflict in one of my articles, entitled, ''The Kashmir issue and violence in the Indian subcontinent' ( http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/58537.html ) The Mumbai terrorist attack or any such misguided acts by some individuals or organizations to liberate Kashmir from the clutches of India were doomed to failure. There are substantial reasons for that. If anyone says that ordinary people under occupation and foreign oppression (Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc.) have no chance against the great powers then such an assertion can be shown to be faulty. The people of Vietnam had defeated the U.S. imperialism. The same can happen once again in Afghanistan. The human spirit that aspires to liberation lives and refuses to give in. ___ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/naskha3%40gmail.com > 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] Sarah Palin To Speak At A Fundraiser For A Socialist Canadian Hospital
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Go to the link http://thinkprogress.org/about/ to see what liberal pro-Democrat Party yuppies they are who run this site. These putzes probably think they are knocking out both Palin and socialized medicine with their article. Around 80% of Americans, when asked (as they almost never are) say they favor single-payer health, which is a step toward the only system that really works well: socialized medicine, unlike our capitalist ripoff system, which has utterly failed to do anything except line the pockets of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. David Sarah Palin To Speak At A Fundraiser For A Socialist Canadian Hospital By Lee Fang on Dec 11th, 2009 at 11:03 am http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/11/palin-canada-hospital/ According to the Hamilton Spectator, Sarah Palin has been contracted to speak at a fundraiser for the Juravinski Cancer Centre and St. Peter's Hospital in Canada. "This is quite the coup," said Gabe Macaluso, an organizer for the event. Palin might be surprised to learn that the hospital she is fundraising for runs counter to her professed beliefs: - St. Peter's Hospital is a public hospital within the national Canadian healthcare system. In Palin's worldview, universal, government-insured health care is "socialism." - St. Peter's Hospital performs abortions. Palin, a staunch anti-choice zealot, has protested outside of abortion clinics and has refused to denounce abortion clinic bombers as terrorists. - St. Peter's Hospital, through its Centre for Studies in Aging, offers "advanced directives." Palin tried to derail health reform earlier this year by falsely labeling advanced directive reimbursements as "death panels." Last month, Canadian comedian Mary Walsh asked Palin if she had "any words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so hard to try to diminish that kind of socialized medicine we have up there." Palin, clearly duped by the performance, responded that Canadians should rid themselves of their public health care system and take a privatized approach: PALIN: Well, my answer was too keep the faith. My answer was to keep the faith. Cause that common sense conservatism can be plugged-in there in Canada too. In fact, Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed. So thank you, keep the faith. Watch it: Will Palin chastise her socialized medicine hosts for having government-insured health care? In any case, the Spectator reports that Palin is being paid "around the ballpark" of $200,000 for the speech, the going rate for a Palin appearance. Organizers hope to sell 1,000 tickets at $200 a plate, but raise more from selling photos with her. 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] Meddling in Cuba continues under Obama
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I love the way it's not until paragraph 11, well after detours into a discussion of the sainted Yoani Sanchez, mentions of "hardline tactics" and "draconian laws," do we finally learn that the contractor in question entered Cuba on a tourist visa without proper documents. Five Cubans have already been in prison in the U.S. for more than 11 years, with the prospect of many more, for no more serious a violation than that. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com _ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ 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] History Channel venue for Howard Zinn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times, December 12, 2009 New Boss, Same as the Old Boss: Howard Zinn Traces Social Change By BRIAN STELTER In Howard Zinns new documentary, The People Speak, the actress Marisa Tomei is shown reading aloud an essay by a worker at a 19th-century textile mill in Lowell, Mass., who led other women to protest wage reductions and demand better working conditions. In the womans description of oppression at the hands of a company, Mr. Zinn, the left-wing historian, hears both past and present tense. She says the same thing of the 1830s that we hear today that you are at the mercy of your employer, Mr. Zinn said in an interview. So much of Mr. Zinns career, reflected in his Peoples History of the United States book, has been about the struggle for social change. With The People Speak, which has its premiere on the History Channel on Sunday (at 8 p.m., Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time), he is having a raft of celebrities recount that effort through the words of people who were there. Its the peoples point of view of history, said the actor Josh Brolin, an executive producer of the film. Onstage and on camera, Benjamin Bratt reads a farmers grievances during Shayss Rebellion. Matt Damon reads from The Grapes of Wrath. Morgan Freeman reads from The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, a speech by Frederick Douglass. Once you get the actors reading these things, it really brings the history alive, Mr. Damon said in an interview last month, amid a college tour to promote the film. Some of the readings, like Ms. Tomeis, are especially resonant now, given the perceptible anger in the country about banks and bailouts. Thats by design, Mr. Damon said. What they were up against oftentimes are exactly the same things were up against now. One scene in the two-hour film tells the story of an organizer who encouraged tenants to protest evictions during the Great Depression. Similarly, in the current economic downturn, Weve seen examples of people rebelling, Mr. Zinn, 87, said. Weve seen tenants rebelling against foreclosures. This is the kind of thing that happened in a much larger scale in the 1930s. He added, If this spreads the idea of fighting foreclosures, the idea of workers going on strike its possible this can lead into a larger movement for economic justice. The film most closely correlates with Mr. Zinns Voices of a Peoples History of the United States, a five-year-old compilation of primary-source material. The readings were selected from the book and recorded at sites across the country. At the performances there were a lot of readings that really struck a chord because of the way that people are feeling right now, Mr. Damon said. Other contributors included Viggo Mortensen, Sean Penn and Kerry Washington. Between readings, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend and other artists performed historical songs. The project appealed to the History Channel partly because primary sources are a real driving force for us right now, said Nancy Dubuc, the channels president and general manager. For History, People Speak is part of a big-event series strategy to increase viewership. In 2008 the channels eyewitness recounting of the Sept. 11 attacks, 102 Minutes That Changed America, set ratings records for it. More recently, History showed the 10-hour WWII in HD on five consecutive nights and drew an average of 2.4 million viewers per night. Next year History plans a 12-hour series called America: The Story of Us, which is intended to tell the entire history of the country, Ms. Dubuc said. The People Speak is more intimate. For the filmmakers it is about the fight for equality; Chris Moore, a producer, said the film embodies the phrase democracy is not a spectator sport. The filmmakers are developing school curriculum materials for the film and releasing an extended version on DVD. Im a big believer that history is not the story of millions, but that history is a million stories, Ms. Dubuc said. This illustrates that better than anything weve ever done. 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] Meddling in Cuba continues under Obama
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times, December 12, 2009 Cuba Detains a U.S. Contractor By MARC LACEY and GINGER THOMPSON HAVANA A United States government contract worker, who was distributing cellphones, laptops and other communications equipment in Cuba on behalf of the Obama administration, has been detained by the authorities here, American officials said Friday. The officials said the contractor, who works for a company based in the Washington suburbs, was detained Dec. 5. They said the United States Interests Section in Havana was awaiting Cubas response to a request for consular access to the man, who was not identified. The detention and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it threaten to reignite tensions between the countries at a time when both had promised to open new channels of engagement. American officials said they were encouraged that the Cubans had not publicized the detention, and they said they were hopeful that he might be quietly released. Cuba has allowed more citizens than ever to buy cellphones and computers, but even the limited access to digital technology that is available has created problems for the government. Cuban officials have shown particular concern about Yoani Sánchez, a prominent government critic who keeps in touch with thousands of followers with a blog and a Twitter account. Recently, the Cuban government denied Ms. Sánchez a visa to accept a prestigious journalism award in New York. President Obama has also made a guest appearance on her blog, sending written answers to questions she submitted to him. American programs to promote democracy in Cuba have also been the focus of intense debate in the United States. A 2006 report by the Government Accountability Office found that nearly all of the $74 million that the United States Agency for International Development spent on contracts to foster democracy in Cuba over the previous decade had been distributed, without competitive bidding or oversight, to Cuban-exile organizations in Miami rather than groups in Cuba itself. Groups financed by the program, the G.A.O. found, made questionable purchases, including cashmere sweaters and Godiva chocolates. In 2008, the Bush administration sought to overhaul the program, promising to award contracts to groups beyond those in Florida and to devote most of the budget to buying communications equipment to help expand Cubans access to information. The detention of the unidentified American contractor, some Cuba experts said, demonstrated that President Raúl Castro of Cuba had not abandoned the hard-line tactics used for years by his older brother, Fidel, to stifle dissent. Under Cubas draconian laws, said José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch, even the act of handing out cellphones to government critics can be considered a crime. Still, Mr. Vivanco and others said that the contractors covert conduct which included entering Cuba on a tourist visa without proper documents also raised questions about whether Mr. Obama would fulfill his promise to break with the confrontational tactics that Washington has employed toward Havana for five decades. President Obamas been different in some areas, said Phil Peters, a Cuba expert and a vice president of the Lexington Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. But most of his policy remains the Bush policy, and this is just another example of that. The detainee, officials said, was employed by Development Alternatives Inc., which had at least $391,000 in government contracts last year. Based in Bethesda, Md., the company is a kind of do-it-all development company that provides services to the United States government in countries around the world. Company officials did not respond Friday to requests for comment. On its Web site, the company describes the breadth of its activities, saying, We help hillside farmers raise their incomes in Haiti, strengthen the credit system for Moroccan entrepreneurs, harmonize natural resource use in the Philippines, mitigate conflict in Liberia, and foster responsive local governments in Serbia. It was unclear exactly what the companys employee was doing at the time he was detained. Cellphones and computers are available for sale in Cuba, prompting some to question why Cuba decided to crack down on an activity that has long been treated as more of an annoyance than a crime. When it comes to satellite phones, however, the Cubans have taken a far harder line. Mr. Obama had promised a more open relationship with Cuba, announcing not long after taking office that he would lift restrictions on travel to Cuba for Americans with relatives on the island. He has expanded cultural and academic exchanges between the United States and Cuba. And he began high-level talks on migration, drug traffic
Re: [Marxism] Moderator's Note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == > The India v. Pakistan rivalry, with its concomitant ethnic > nationalism, fosters strong emotions on both sides. Thus the lashing > out . I imagine the attacks on Mumbai did not help. But still > > G. Rakesh was born and raised in Silicon Valley and has about little identification with Indian nationalism as I've seen from someone with that ethnic background. His positions on Afghanistan may have something to do with this, but the larger problem is his seeming loss of a class perspective--particularly with respect to imperial power. 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] Moderator's Note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == L.P. wrote: It rather presents itself as the behavior of an intellectually unstable personality. The India v. Pakistan rivalry, with its concomitant ethnic nationalism, fosters strong emotions on both sides. Thus the lashing out . I imagine the attacks on Mumbai did not help. But still G. 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] Accepting peace prize, Obama makes case for unending war
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == My additional ruminations on the speech here and here: Obama on "Total War": http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-on-total-war.html Obama justifying civilian deaths: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/12/rethinking-obamas-speech.html As far as Kissinger, I think this summary from the Facebook Group "Rescind Obama's Peace Prize" is worth noting: The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to numerous warmongers and war criminals in the past, with Henry Kissinger perhaps the most notorious. But never before will the prize literally be handed to someone who is at that very moment escalating at least one (Afghanistan) and quite possibly two (Pakistan) wars he is responsible for, not to mention also occupying another country (Iraq) and providing vigorous support for the occupation of another (Palestine), and not to mention carrying out active economic warfare (blockades) against at least four countries (Cuba, Iran, Gaza, North Korea), one of which (Gaza) is perhaps the only country in history to be simultaneously occupied and blockaded. Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com _ Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222985/direct/01/ 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] Accepting peace prize, Obama makes case for unending war
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Someone over the past few days pointed out that Obama really had no choice but to say something like what he did... The president could hardly have accepted the award and remained silence about the escalation he had just ordered. And he wasn't going to discuss the specifics of that justification because they hold no water. So, Obama entered into the whispy realms of generalizations Human nature is such that...in some circumstances, force...duty to defend my country...etc., etc., etc. This, combined with the pontifications about peace and nonviolence made for a very strange presentation. ML 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] Accepting peace prize, Obama makes case for unending war
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hey, if Henry Kissinger can get a Nobel Peace Prize, anybody can get a Peace Prize and say anything. Next, Drs. Mengele and Kevorkian share the prize for medicine. - Original Message - From: "Nasir Khan" 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] Moderator's note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == > Mr Bhandari had shown himself to be an apologist and defender of > American imperialism's war of aggression and genocide in > Afghanistan. > > Neither could anyone be fooled by his anti-Pakistan propaganda, which > was more in the spirit of Hindutva fascists' anti-Muslim crusade > in India. > > It is somewhat strange that was on Marxism list. > I have been on the same mailing lists with Rakesh going back to the early 1990s when he was a graduate student much enamored of the "left" communist current that included Paul Mattick. He has the bad habit of adopting "sock puppet" persona on listserv's, most recently as "Abu Hartal", the diehard Obama supporter. He was unsubbed from Doug Henwood's list for using multiple identities, something Doug strongly objects to. I unsubbed Hartal/Bhandari from Marxmail after he became increasingly nasty. That left Bhandari with his sole identity, namely as himself. Quite honestly, I was not prepared for this latest bout of pro-imperialist statements, something that was not part of his track record. But somewhere along the line, he morphed into a liberal. I did not see it coming, except through his Hartal identity. Frankly, there's something about all this that defies a political analysis. It rather presents itself as the behavior of an intellectually unstable personality. 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] Accepting peace prize, Obama makes case for unending war
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In the most bellicose Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech within living memory, President Barack Obama made an argument Thursday in Oslo for ever-widening war and neo-colonial occupation, putting the world on notice that the American ruling elite intends to push ahead with its drive for global domination. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/pers-d11.shtml 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] Moderator's note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Mr Bhandari had shown himself to be an apologist and defender of American imperialism's war of aggression and genocide in Afghanistan. Neither could anyone be fooled by his anti-Pakistan propaganda, which was more in the spirit of Hindutva fascists' anti-Muslim crusade in India. It is somewhat strange that was on Marxism list. On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 1:48 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > I have removed Rakesh Bhandari from the list. His liberalism is clearly at > odds with our mission here. > > > > > > > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/naskha3%40gmail.com > 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] FROP again,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Leaving aside the question of aesthetics, [although some may be partial to collective farm # 147's cover of Prince with their version of "Little Red Harvester"], a tractor is not a THING at all when produced under capitalism. A tractor is produced, exists, functions in capitalism as a commodity, as a useful article and a value. And as a commodity it exists only to facilitate, enhance the aggrandizement of surplus value, to achieve expanded reproduction of capital. It is the tractor's social existence that makes mechanization's impact on Southern agriculture, on the existing relations of land tenure, so explosive. We agree that introduction of any individual machine is not the transformative factor. Any tractor might have, could have, and was in isolation deployed in Southern agriculture-- on a small scale, without disrupting the relations of land tenure. But the introduction of tractors on a mass scale, in order to reproduce, capture, expand the value contained in the production of the tractor cannot be sustained, supported, afforded, within those relations. It is precisely the conflict between the means of production and the relations of production that disrupts the reconstituted plantation relations, tenant farming, share-cropping, debt-peonage, of the South as the necessity of reproducing the value of the tractor cannot be satisfied within those relations. The tractor as a "good thing" independent of its commodity form simply does not exist under capitalism. As Marx remarks, the utiltiy of any object under capitalism is determined by the labor time necessary for its reproduction and with the abolition of capitalism, that relationship will be reversed, transcended, placed on its feet, where the determination of the social utility, of need, will drive the labor time expended on reproduction. The usefulness of the tractor does not exist independently of the production of the fuel necessary for its operation; of the production of the replacement parts necessary for its maintenance, and of the organization of labor required to operate the tractor, all of which are produced, and produced only, to expand upon the value already realized in their existence as commodities. When the mechanization of agriculture is introduced into the South, that organization is capital; that organization of labor is wage-labor. Consequently, the previous relations of land tenure are disrupted, damaged, more or less destroyed. Now the peculiarity of capitalism is, as Marx analyzed, wrote, time and time again, that capital does the same thing to itself-- it undermines its own social relation of production in the reproduction of itself as more capital. It does not undermine itself by the production of "good things," "beautiful things," "wonderful things." Capitalism undermines itself through the accumulation of capital, through expanded reproduction, through amplifying the productivity of labor in order to aggrandize relatively greater portions of surplus labor. Like I said at the getgo-- it's all about the commodity-- all about the conflict between usefulness and exchange. If you get that-- that first part of Capital-- if you get it from the first chapter and through the intended but unpublished 6th chapter-- you get it all, or at least, you can get it all. You can construct and reconstruct Marx's entire work from there. If you don't get it-- then you don't get it. - Original Message - From: To: "David Schanoes" Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 2:31 AM Subject: Re: [Marxism] FROP again, > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > >> > The tractor was a beautiful thing, setting into motion a complex series of > other events. The tractor - as mechanization, inaugurated the destruction > of a specific boundary of development of the organization of agricultural > production. Its importance is historical and well beyond reproduction of > value. Likewise the semi-conductor and clusters of new technology are > going to > change the world in a way never before possible: society will be freed > from > laboring as we have known it throughout all of human history. > > The tractor expressed a new material power injected into agricultural > production. The organization of agricultural production, as it has existed > was > disrupted and further expansion of the system of sharecropping came to an > end. Agricultural production would expand and developed based on the > quantitative additions of a new material power. The same applies to > chemical > fertilizers, however t
[Marxism] Cuban blogger's tale of mistreatment a lie
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/lamrani111209.html 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] Moderator's note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have removed Rakesh Bhandari from the list. His liberalism is clearly at odds with our mission here. 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
