[Marxism] The Danger of Overcapacity

2009-12-27 Thread michael perelman
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While the US frittered away much of the stimulus on throwing money at 
banks, the Chinese actually created much more capacity.  Business Week 
used to do a good job of understanding real issues.  Here the new 
Bloomberg magazine notes that the extra capacity poses a risk to the 
West because China will now have to export more, creating a different 
sort of imbalance.

Roberts, Dexter. 2009. "China's 'Made in China' Problem: The Downside to 
Beijing's Huge Stimulus is a Glut of Factories and Output That May Spur 
Trade Frictions." Business Week (21 December): pp. 20-21. 
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_51/b4160020918482.htm?chan=magazine+channel_new+business

"While Beijing's $586 billion stimulus package has helped the mainland 
navigate the global financial crisis, there's a downside. Fixed asset 
investment -- money spent on factories, highways, and other big-ticket 
projects -- soared 40% in the first half and accounted for nearly all of 
the country's growth."

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

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


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Re: [Marxism] ReSocialism and the defense of public education: Shift toHealth

2009-12-27 Thread Mark Lause
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I don't think of these things in terms of groups at this point.  If we don't
start with the conclusion and work our way back through a rationalization,
different people applying a similar criteria in a rigorously materialist
fashion should come away with the same analysis.  I think it happens a lot
on this list.

When I have read more of what people post here, I'm generally pretty well
pleased with how well our Marxist approach works.

As to the health care issue, it's certainly true that we haven't had anyone
representing a real Left in the U.S. Congress for a long time and are likely
not to have one there for just as long.  However, all along  there have been
people trying to mobilize for single-payer or, at least, a public option,
and this happened with little reference to what a relatively smaller group
of Marxists had to say on the subject.

On the other hand, it does matter if Marxists line up behind Uncle Joe and
against those mobilizations, however small they have been.

ML

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Re: [Marxism] ReSocialism and the defense of public education: Shift toHealth

2009-12-27 Thread Ralph Johansen
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Carroll Cox wrote

That said, may I note that what radicals, marxist or otherwise, think of
this bill is utterly irrelevant to anything. The bill's chances are not
improved by the support of radicals, and it is not threatened by
opposition from radicals. Refere nes to "The Left" in the United states
are references to a non-existent entity. There are 10s of thousands (or
more) of individual leftists but no coherent left that can have any
impact on public affairs.
--

Carroll, I don't agree at all. That is a give-up position and one I've 
noticed you have brought out many times. My own experience is that I 
(and many others, I am convinced) glean what I regard as significant 
information from various news sources and left lists, I send them out to 
a list mainly composed of acquaintances whom I could characterize as 
mainly reformist Democrats, ex-Democrats or independent in political 
orientation, who may not be reading periodicals beyond maybe the Nation, 
Huffington Post, Progressive or other 'liberal' information sources. 
Where I don't think it might be obvious to the reader, in my comments I 
try to connect the dots to show as clearly as I can why the system of 
capital accumulation can't produce anything but further obfuscation and 
growing contradiction in the set of circumstances at issue.

It's becoming much easier to do this, the clearer that things appear to 
me, and as more people seem amenable to our point of view, and as almost 
patently outrageous events increasingly occur. I know that a number of 
other left friends, who read this and similar lists but may not 
contribute here, are doing the same, sending to liberal acquaintances 
who are experiencing obvious disconnects, whoever might seem reachable. 
I often get their mailings. I think we are relevant, and in some ways 
the main hope. If what we profess makes eminent sense to us. why should 
we not assume that it makes sense to others? I know that this is how I 
learn, and I'm positive, from seeing others' changing orientation, so do 
others. And this has always been so, but possibly more than ever now, 
when the nature of ruling class power is becoming ever more transparent 
and their legitimacy is more in question.

Ralph


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[Marxism] America's Secret Ice Castles, or Office Park Gulag

2009-12-27 Thread Greg McDonald
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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100104/stevens

According to this excellent article in the "Nation" magazine, written
by Jacqueline Stevens, the federal agency ICE is running a chain of
secret prisons inside the borders of the United States. What better
way to keep relatives, friends, and lawyers, in the dark about the
status of their disappeared clients or significant others? It'is like
a police bureaucrat's wet dream. Now you see them, now you don't.
It's a perfect set up for keeping people with ambiguous legal status
locked up until their cases can be resolved, but it also sets the
scene for abuse, torture, and possibly worse. Plus, it violates
certain international agreements on human rights to which the US
government is a signatory, allowing the Obama administration to treat
immigrants in a worse manner than the current treatment meted out to
terror suspects in Guantanamo. The article gives a detailed synchronic
account of what could best be described as an office park gulag, but
it fails to provide a diachronic account of its antecedents.

As I read this expose, it reminded me of similar treatment I had
experienced many years ago as an organizer for CISPES. More than
twenty years ago, I was one of hundreds who were arrested in a
blockade of the Federal Building in NYC  to protest the US war in El
Salvador, but that day only two of us were detained over night. To
keep our lawyers in the dark as to our whereabouts, we were shackled
to other inmates and shuttled from prison to prison in vans in the
middle of the night, and transferred from holding cell to holding
cell. We were neither fed nor were we allowed to sleep. We found space
on the floor of the group temporary cell, under the harsh lights which
were kept on 24 hours a day. This went on for only 36 hours or so,
until our lawyers located us and secured our release. In the meantime,
our FBI handlers tormented us psychologically, with sleep deprivation
and worse.

This is the exact same modus operandi used by ICE in their gulag
system to keep secret the status and location of detained immigrants
from people who are wondering why in the hell they were disappeared in
the first place. And we also find the same type of psychological and
physical torture. But while we were in its grips for only 36 hours,
the people currently caught up in this hell hole are being held for
weeks, sometimes months. The same treatment we received has now become
an institutionalized, off the books system. Kind of a paradox, I know,
but that's the best way I can describe it.

In the 1980's, we were on the receiving end of a large scale
COINTELPRO-type operation created by Reagan and enacted by the FBI.
For more than five years, the FBI, the CIA, and the police,
surveilled, interviewed and investigated more than 100,000 people in
59 cities.

But as was the case for CISPES and Salvadorans in the 1980's, so it is
the case today. Our Latino and Latina comrades suffered much more than
we ever did. Sure, I had my apartment broken into, and did that little
stint in jail, but I was never deported back to El Salvador, tortured,
and shot. The FBI would inform the Salvadoran National Guard when
certain Salvadorans would be arriving at the airport in San Salvador.
One wonders if something similar is occurring to immigrants who are
being processed and deported through this gulag system today.

Greg McDonald


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Re: [Marxism] ReSocialism and the defense of public education: Shift toHealth

2009-12-27 Thread Carrol Cox
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hari kumar wrote:
> Would someone (preferably at least one of the more dogmatic people here who
> insist that there is no value *at all* in the bill) explain to me what
> reforms are "acceptable" and what ones are not?

That is our hope -- tht it will be  of no value at all. The danger is
that it will do significant damage to health care. Among other things it
may be a cover for cutting the benefits of those retirees who,
presently, have insurance provided by their employer. States are
exploritg all possibilities for destroyign the retirement benefits of
retired teachers both in K-12 and universies.

That said, may I note that what radicals, marxist or otherwise, think of
this bill is utterly irrelevant to anything. The bill's chances are not
improved by the support of radicals, and it is not threatened by
opposition from radicals. Refere nes to "The Left" in the United states
are references to a non-existent entity. There are 10s of thousands (or
more) of individual leftists but no coherent left that can have any
impact on public affairs.

Carrol


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[Marxism] Pakistan: Special appeal for families of killed socialist activists

2009-12-27 Thread glparramatta
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 From http://links.org.au/node/1434

By *Farooq Tariq*,* Nasir Mansoor* and *Khalid Mahmood*

December 27, 2009 -- The Labour Party Pakistan has lost our four most
brilliant comrades, Abdul Salam, Najma Khanum, Rehana Kausar and Wahid
Baloch, in a road accident on December 13 near Ormara, Baloachistan.
They were in the coastal region, one of the most deprived areas of the
country, to organise the home-based women workers (HBWW). They held two
focus group meetings and a wider consultation on December 11, 12 and 13
in the port cities of Pasni and Gawadar. They also formed core groups
and clusters of local HBWW and planned to organise more meeting in the
region in month of January next year.

Comrades Abdul Salam, Najma Khanum, Rehana Kausar and Wahid Baloch were
dedicated members of the team who lost their lives for the cause of
downtrodden masses and were on mission until their last breath. Another
member of team, Mohammed Rafiq Baloch, central president National Trade
Union Federation, Pakistan (NTUF) survived but was severely injured in
the fatal accident.

Comrade Abdul Salam, Najma Khanum and Rehana Kausar were staff members
of the Labour Education Foundation (LEF). While Wahid Baloch was trade
union activist in industrial city of Hub and by profession he was a driver.

Abdul Salam, 29, was working as coordinator on peace, democracy and
trade union issues. He was also elected central finance secretary of the
NTUF in 2007. He was the secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan, Karachi
chapter for 2007-2009. Comrade Abdul Salam had initiated number of
awareness activities for trade union members, young students and
political activists. He conducted six regular monthly study circles on
social, economic and political issues in different localities of working
class. He was the guiding force behind his last initiative, a six-month
training course on labour laws for new and young trade union activists
with a view to build a team of committed workersto represent workers in
labour courts.

He was on the of editorial board of weekly /Mazdoor Jeddojehad/ for two
years. He was also a regular contributor in respect of articles to
/Mazdoor Jeddojehad/ in the Urdu and Pashto languages, and was the main
source for the LEF’s monthly /Newsletter/. He had translated a Pashto
novel of Noor Mohammed Tarakai into Urdu. He was a Pashto poet of good
repute and organiser of the “Jurs”, a progressive Pashto literary forum
in Karachi. He belonged to working-class family and started his career
as textile worker in Al Karam textile mill, where he was expelled from
job nine years ago because of trade union activities. He challenged the
management in court and won the case in October 2009.

Najma Khanum, 38, was a social activist and was the former local body's
councillor of the area, mainly comprising of working class people. She
had been a staff member of the LEF since 2003. She was the organiser of
home-based women workers. She was the leader of her community and always
at the forefront of all political, trade union and woman rights rallies
and demonstrations. She formed a women's theatre group for young girls
with the title of “Apna Theatre”, which means “Our Theatre”. Their
performances on May Day, Women's Day and on other important events were
always an important part of the program. She was also a former member of
Pakistan national women's field hockey squad. She served the LPP as
women's secretary of Karachi chapter for two years from 2007 to 2009.
She had been running the home-based women workers' cooperative in Yousuf
Ghoth for four years.

Rehana Kausar, 26, was one of the youngest staff members of the LEF. She
started work as a part-time teacher at an adult literacy centre in Gadap
town and become social mobiliser in 2006. She was very energetic and
committed to the cause and a great fighter. She was also an active
member of the LPP.

Wahid Baloch, 40, was a trade union activist and was sacked from his job
by the Bawani Air Products manufacturing company three years ago, where
he worked as a driver. His only crime was trying to form a union in the
factory. No factory was inclined to give him job in the Hub city
industrial area due to his union-related activities. He was involved in
all activities of the National Trade Union Federation and partly worked
as a driver with the NTUF.

All the comrades were from very poor and working-class families.

Comrade Abdul Salam leaves behind two little kids, a two and four year
old, and a young widow. Salam was the only one working. Najma leaves
behind three children but to some extent grown up, from 13 to 20 years
old, all are studying. Her husband has job with very little earnings,
living in a rented house. Driver Wahid Baloch leaves behind six young
kids, the eldest is only 1

[Marxism] Derek Sayer

2009-12-27 Thread Yavuz Tuyloglu
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Does anyone know the story of Derek Sayer? He is the author of the Violence
of Abstraction, the Great Arch (with Philip Corrigan), Capitalism and
Modernity. He moved on to postmodern stuff since 1990s. Did he become
somewhat disillusioned with Marx and/or Marxism? Was it a
personal/institutional grudge? Did he just "move on"? (no sarcasm or pun
intended in any of these questions).

Thank you,
Yavuz

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[Marxism] WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education

2009-12-27 Thread Harry Feldman
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I have a couple of questions for Joaquin.

 

When Marxists 'insist on the state fully funding the education of children
with the parents free to send their children to whatever school they chose',

-  Who determines what full funding is and on what basis?

-  If schools are resourced equitably, on what basis would parents
choose their children's schools?

-  Do you envision any geographical limitations on parents' choice?
If a parent in Eastern Samoa prefers a school in Maine, do we insist their
transport and living expenses be fully funded?

-  Do children have any role in school choice?

 

Regarding religious schools and home schooling, who would set 'certain
minimum standards' and on what basis?

 

Harry


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Re: [Marxism] ReSocialism and the defense of public education: Shift toHealth

2009-12-27 Thread Mark Lause
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Again, though, people who believe the Senate Bill's an improvement have yet
to enumerate how it would be so...other than saying that they think
such-and-such million more people will buy private health insurance because
it will be legally required.

The Democratic Party and its supporters wanted health care reform to do two
things: (1) insure those who don't have insurance; and, (2) force insurance
costs down by providing an alternative.  With really very minimal pressures,
they and their president did not argue the case very effectively, though
most of the population continued to support these goals.

With the Senate Bill, the Democrats and their supporters have conceded on
both of these points, ignoring both their public promises and public
opinion.  It will be a health care reform in name and image only.  Rather
like the administrations contribution to world peace...

ML

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[Marxism] Chuck Grimes comments on Cockburn (from LBO-Talk)

2009-12-27 Thread Leonardo Kosloff
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Hi Les,

 

I was wondering if you've heard of Piers Corbyn and his group in 
weatheraction.com, who dismiss global warming as 'non-sense' 
http://www.weatheraction.com/pages/pv.asp?p=wact10&fsize=0 .

 

Piers Corbyn is an astro-physicist and an ex-member of the Internationalist 
Socialist group and was quite active back in the day, it seems. Here's a video 
of him with a Russian meteorologist on the issue about those hacked e-mails,

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anHuOAXIl0M

 

Basically, the two things he claims there are that CO2 does not drive 
temperature and that temperatures have actually gone down in the last decade. 
And there's also an interview, apparently done by the Larouchites, here 

 

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/interviews/2007/3422piers_corbyn.html

 

...is he our climate Hitchens?
  
_
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[Marxism] Lecture & Discussion in Oakland, CA, January 3: US Health Care Reform

2009-12-27 Thread Smitty Word
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Lecture & Discussion in Oakland, California, January 3, 2010

US Health Care Reform:
 
Another Historic Moment in the Administration of the Nation’s Poverty  

Time: January 3, 2010, Sunday, 1:00 pm 

Location: Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609-1113 
Ph: (510) 595-7417 

Speaker: Joseph Patrick, co-editor of GegenStandpunkt (Germany) 

Just in time for Christmas, the Senate has passed its own version of
the healthcare reform bill, jumping yet another hurdle on the path to
“change” in the way Americans receive and pay for medical care. Yet
controversy continues to rage. On the one side, President Obama has
deemed the bill the single most significant piece of legislation since
the creation of Social Security, and many Democratic lawmakers have
solemnly declared that, despite the many bitter concessions they have
had to make, this is the moment of their legislative lifetimes. On the
other side, Republicans have expressed their utter revulsion at both
the substance of the bill and the manner of its construction. And on
the liberal left, there is disappointment and even disgust at how
politicians have once again failed to put an end to the scandal that is
the current American healthcare system.
 
Meanwhile, average citizens get to follow the ups and downs of the
negotiations in Congress, listen to the pleas and arguments of big and
small business, weigh the options and come to a conclusion about which
is worse: their current inability to pay for the most basic care or
their inability to pay for compulsory insurance, the risk of financial
ruin posed by a serious illness or by unbearable healthcare costs on
the companies that employ them? 

These people would do well to pay attention as to why, despite all
the rancor of the debate, elites on both sides of the aisle regard
healthcare reform to be so urgent. Without far-reaching change, two
things they regard to be much more important than the health of
individual citizens will face impending doom: the nation’s economy and
the solidity of the national budget. On that basis, the population’s
poor bill of health raises some urgent questions for the ruling class:
Is the health of the nation’s competitiveness in danger? Does the
illness of broad swathes of the population represent a disadvantage in
international competition that America can no longer afford? That
requires a solution. How to extend basic care to a greater portion of
the population without imposing unbearable costs on “the economy”,
i.e., the profits of employers, while making sure that America’s
premier growth industry can emerge stronger than ever? 

This gives us no reason for joy or even “cautious optimism,” but raises some 
unwelcome questions of a more fundamental kind: 

Why, right in the middle of the free market economy, is healthcare such a 
thoroughly governmental affair?What does the state take care of when it takes 
care of the “health of the nation” and why?Why is healthcare always considered 
too expensive and in constant need of reform?
The answers to these questions illustrate why the hopes for a
“historic moment” in the history of American healthcare are not only
woefully modest, but hopelessly wrongheaded. We invite you to come and
find out why.
Sponsored by: www.ruthlesscriticism.com
  




  

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Re: [Marxism] ReSocialism and the defense of public education: Shift toHealth

2009-12-27 Thread S. Artesian
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I'll try-- the current healthcare bill is to public healthcare  what charter 
schools, Bush's "No test left behind," and the Texas School Boards censoring 
of textbooks are to public education.

There is no ":reform"  worthy of the name contained in the healthcare bill. 
The bill is a disavowal of every person's need,  and a society's as a whole 
need, for access to proper medical care.


- Original Message - 
From: "hari kumar" 
 
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 3:14 PM
Subject: [Marxism] ReSocialism and the defense of public education: Shift 
toHealth


> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
>
>
>>
> Would someone (preferably at least one of the more dogmatic people here 
> who
> insist that there is no value *at all* in the bill) explain to me what
> reforms are "acceptable" and what ones are not?
>
> Hari Kuamr
> 



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Re: [Marxism] Chuck Grimes comments on Cockburn (from LBO-Talk)

2009-12-27 Thread Les Schaffer
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On 12/20/09 6:00 PM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
> > From AC, another quote indicating a problem with the physics of the AGW
> model:
>
> ``Greenhouse gasses in the cold upper atmosphere, even when warmed a bit
> by absorbed infrared, cannot possibly transfer heat to the warmer earth,

incredible ...
> and in fact radiate their absorbed heat into outer space[snip] ... 
> ' AC
>
> Cockburn has it exactly backward. The upper atmosphere does not transfer
> heat to the surface. It's the surface that heats the atmosphere.

the greenhouse effect is a little different from the blanket/insulator 
model .. in the case of cooler gases, they still can radiate energy to a 
warmer surface, it's just that they absorb from the surface more than 
they radiate ... the NET effect is that surface radiates to the atmosphere.

but look at the numbers: 492 W/m2 is radiated away by the earth's 
surface in the infrared, for comparison, only 235 W/m2 of solar 
radiation strikes the *top* of the atmosphere, while 324 W/m2 is 
radiated from the atmosphere back down to the earth's surface (cf. 
"sylas"). the NET energy IS radiated upwards, but without that CO2 (and 
H2O) absorption, the surface and atmosphere could run cooler.

i wonder how these clowns would explain the high temperatures on Venus ...

> I looked up this article and found it was disputed to near derision,
> especially among the math-physics crowd.

they make some serious errors. but also, the errors are very clever. for 
example, attacking the heat engine description of atmospheric physics. 
these guys know the right words to make their article SOUND serious. 
except they have completely non-understood the heat engine description.

these kinds of clever arguments WILL be effective in being distracting ...

by  the way, there ARE measurements of the radiation fluxes at the top 
of the atmosphere.

Les

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[Marxism] Forwarded message on Joe Sacco

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
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For some reason, this bounced from Pat Costello.

a pdf sample of the art can be downloaded at amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Footnotes-Gaza-Graphic-Joe-Sacco/dp/0805073477/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261947030&sr=1-3




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[Marxism] ReSocialism and the defense of public education: Shift to Health

2009-12-27 Thread hari kumar
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I am a bit confused:
The issues on education that were put by the opposing sections seemed both
respectful and mindful on both sides, of the distinction between reformist
steps and reovelutionary steps. While accepting that reformist measures are
at times, to be accepted by the revolutionary movement. Yet I see no
semblance of that un-emotive (and open-minded) tone in the current
discussion on the patently inadequate health bills.

Would someone (preferably at least one of the more dogmatic people here who
insist that there is no value *at all* in the bill) explain to me what
reforms are "acceptable" and what ones are not?

Hari Kuamr

>
>
>   6. Re:  WSWS:  (Thomas Bias)
>   7. Re:  WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education
>  (S. Artesian)
>

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Re: [Marxism] Moderator's note #2

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
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I am replying to the subject line which you suggested that it should be
dropped

2009/12/27 Louis Proyect 

> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
>
>
> Comrades are going to have to control their one and two line "snarky"
> posts to the list. This is not Usenet. It is a mailing list devoted to
> substantive and hopefully polished thought.
>
> 
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>



-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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[Marxism] Moderator's note #2

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
==
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Comrades are going to have to control their one and two line "snarky" 
posts to the list. This is not Usenet. It is a mailing list devoted to 
substantive and hopefully polished thought.


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Re: [Marxism] Best Candidates Suggest Themselves

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
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2009/12/27 brad bauerly 

> Surely there must be free public psychotherapy in this wonderful new health
> care bill if the CP supports it.
>
> Brad
>
> >
> > ___
> > Marxism mailing list
> > Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
> > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism
> >
> >
> > End of Marxism Digest, Vol 74, Issue 60
> > ***
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Brad A. Bauerly
> PhD Candidate
> Political Science
> York University
> Toronto, Canada
> 647-345-2072
> baue...@yorku.ca
> 
> Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at:
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/dgn.gcmn%40googlemail.com
>



-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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Re: [Marxism] Moderator's note

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
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Dear Comrade,
I have not implied anything like that.
As I said I am not able to go on with these debates.
I hope you understand.

2009/12/27 

> The Senate bill does not in my opinion merit a debate about reform and/or
> revolution.
>
> WL.
>
> 
> Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at:
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>



-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail

2009-12-27 Thread brad bauerly
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>
>
> Louis wrote of "an obsessed former subscriber" that he "is in the habit of
> sending his worthless opinions to various people. He really is need of some
> psychotherapy"
>
> If we pass the hat, maybe we can hire one for members who do the same
> thing.
>
>
> : - )
>
> ML
>
>
> --
>

Surely there must be free public psychotherapy in this wonderful new health
care bill if the CP supports it.

Brad

>
> ___
> Marxism mailing list
> Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism
>
>
> End of Marxism Digest, Vol 74, Issue 60
> ***
>



-- 
Brad A. Bauerly
PhD Candidate
Political Science
York University
Toronto, Canada
647-345-2072
baue...@yorku.ca

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Re: [Marxism] Moderator's note

2009-12-27 Thread waistline2
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In a message dated 12/27/2009 12:55:22 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
_dgn.g...@googlemail.com_ (mailto:dgn.g...@googlemail.com)  writes: 
 
>> The issue you raise would involve a debate about the dialectic of  
reform and revolution. It is very much on the agenda of the left world-wide.  
But, I am afraid, I do not see any sense in going on with these blind debates.  
So I am sorry if I cannot contribute to your enjoying yourself. << 
 
Reply 
 
Reform and revolution as a contradiction or the dialectic of reform and  
revolution, has caused us grief. Lenin's and Rosa L. writings on reform and  
revolution are outdated. The dialectic of reform is different from the 
dialectic  of revolution. Quantitative changes in the productive forces, 
expansion 
on  the old basis, generate reform movements. Qualitative changes in the  
productive forces, development on a new technological basis, create the  
impulse for social revolution. In real life things are never categorical, but  
this should not defect from presenting a proposition in clear terms.  
Revolutionaries cannot transform one into the other (reform into revolution) on 
 
the basis of correct thinking, correct program, correct political line, self  
organization of the proletariat, independence from the bourgeoisie, etc.
 
The Senate bill does not in my opinion merit a debate about reform and/or  
revolution. 
 
WL. 


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Re: [Marxism] Best Candidates Suggest Themselves

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
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2009/12/27 Mark Lause 

> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
>
>
> Louis wrote of "an obsessed former subscriber" that he "is in the habit of
> sending his worthless opinions to various people. He really is need of some
> psychotherapy"
>
> If we pass the hat, maybe we can hire one for members who do the same
> thing.
>
>
> : - )
>
> ML
> 
> Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
> Set your options at:
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/dgn.gcmn%40googlemail.com
>



-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Mark Lause
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Louis wrote of "an obsessed former subscriber" that he "is in the habit of
sending his worthless opinions to various people. He really is need of some
psychotherapy"

If we pass the hat, maybe we can hire one for members who do the same thing.


: - )

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Moderator's note

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
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2009/12/27 Jeff 

"For instance, one argument was over whether the proposed health care bill
is worse than the status quo and should therefore be opposed. But I'm still
waiting to hear a good discussion of the underlying principle: that any
change for the better should be "supported" in some sense. That is a more
general issue that obviously has widespread implications."

"Also there might be some miscommunication due to the meaning of words. S.
Artesian told Dogan exactly what "Liberalism" means. But Dogan is in Europe
and here the word "Liberal" does not refer to the left wing of the ruling
class but rather to the "moderate right" (the part that most strongly
believes in free-market capitalism and privatization) of the ruling class.
The Liberal party (VVD) in the Netherlands is the furthest to the right
among parties which have been in a government coalition in recent times.
Hence this use of name-calling may be raising the heat of the discussion
while fogging the issues. (Of course I have some names myself for people
like Dogan, but "liberal" isn't one of them!)."


Jeff,
First on the second paragraph: I do not use any term or conception that
circulates around and I do not care about how people describe themselves. I
rather look at what they say in the historical context, that it, in the
light of the imperialist stage of capitalism. I use Marxist terms. According
to Marx it does not make any sense to talk of liberalism to describe any
idea or movement or proposal that comes after 1848. And according to
Luxemburg's reading at latest after 1890s, indicating to the rise of the
imperialist stage of capitalism. Both the statement of Marx and the
statement of Luxemburg are universal statements. They apply universally. And
my reference to Luxemburg should be taken in this sense. Therefore, the try
to give a definition of "liberals" or "liberalism" by to describe any
contemporary movement, fraction of a party or idea according to my approach
is just wrong. Among academics people you describe are referred to as the
new-right. That might be a better term.

On the first paragraph: The issue you raise would involve a debate about the
dialectic of reform and revolution. It is very much on the agenda of the
left world-wide. But, I am afraid, I do not see any sense in going on with
these blind debates. So I am sorry if I cannot contribute to your enjoying
yourself. But do not hestitae to do so, even if at my cost.
---
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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Re: [Marxism] Moderator's note

2009-12-27 Thread Jeff
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At 10:50 27/12/09 -0500, Louis Proyect wrote:
>
>Let's drop this thread,
Well actually I'm rather enjoying reading this thread (though at the
expense of lonely Dogan) and I don't think the issues have been completely
explored since they touch on larger strategic issues.

For instance, one argument was over whether the proposed health care bill
is worse than the status quo and should therefore be opposed. But I'm still
waiting to hear a good discussion of the underlying principle: that any
change for the better should be "supported" in some sense. That is a more
general issue that obviously has widespread implications.

Also there might be some miscommunication due to the meaning of words. S.
Artesian told Dogan exactly what "Liberalism" means. But Dogan is in Europe
and here the word "Liberal" does not refer to the left wing of the ruling
class but rather to the "moderate right" (the part that most strongly
believes in free-market capitalism and privatization) of the ruling class.
The Liberal party (VVD) in the Netherlands is the furthest to the right
among parties which have been in a government coalition in recent times.
Hence this use of name-calling may be raising the heat of the discussion
while fogging the issues. (Of course I have some names myself for people
like Dogan, but "liberal" isn't one of them!).

- Jeff


 including the reference to Dogan's name in the 
>subject heading. Sayan, like Michael Pugliese, is one of those bizarre 
>personalities who has no existence outside of cyberspace. As such, 
>paying attention to his ravings gives him an importance he does not 
>deserve.



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[Marxism] End this derivate thread of the thread which was supposed to have ended 2 days ago.

2009-12-27 Thread S. Artesian
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Can we get a grip here?  Nobody on the list is advocating dismissal of 
anyone from the list over this thread.  Nobody.

Dogan received a bit of spam, as many of us have, from a former list member, 
a former member who was bounced not for his "liberalism," but for his 
disingenuousness.

That's the extent of it.


- Original Message - 
From: "Michael Perelman" 
To: "David Schanoes" 
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 11:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list


> >
> The problem does not seem to be Dogan, but the endlessness of the threads.
> -- 
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
> 



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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Michael Perelman
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I only met Dogan once.  He was opposed to the ideas that I was presenting, 
but we were able to engage each other productively.  I learned from the 
experience.

The problem does not seem to be Dogan, but the endlessness of the threads.
 -- 
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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[Marxism] A Walk in the Sun

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
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The only thing surprising about "Saving Private Ryan" is how 
conventional it is. I fully expected a much more "noir" vision of WWII 
along the lines of Oliver Stone's "Platoon." What I saw was an updated 
version of such 1950s classics as "A Walk in the Sun," written by Robert 
Rossen, the CP'er who named names.

"A Walk in the Sun," also known as "Salerno Beachhead," just about 
defines this genre. A group of GI's are out on a patrol and they get 
killed off one by one. The enemy is faceless and evil. Our soldiers, by 
the same token, are good boys who are just trying to get home. The 
reason that CP'ers were so adept at turning out this sort of patriotic 
pap is that they had bought into the myth of FDR's "fight for freedom." 
So patriotic were the CP'ers that they also backed the decision to 
intern Japanese-Americans.

full: http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/private_ryan.htm


NY Times, December 27, 2009
DVDs
A Grown-Up War Story for a Nation Weary of War
By DAVE KEHR

A WALK IN THE SUN

World War II was in its final stages when “A Walk in the Sun” was 
released in January 1945, and the film, in its honesty and ruefulness, 
already has the feel of a retrospective, postwar vision. The need for 
propaganda had passed — it was no longer necessary to convince audiences 
that the war was a cheerful romp, as in “This Is the Army” or “I Wanted 
Wings” — and certain things could now be acknowledged, like fear, panic 
and death.

Directed by Lewis Milestone from a well-received but now forgotten novel 
by Harry Brown, “A Walk in the Sun” follows a few members of an Army 
platoon as they land on the beach in Salerno, Italy, and make their way 
a few miles inland, where they are to blow up a bridge and take a 
farmhouse held by a German machine-gun crew. The action begins in the 
predawn darkness and ends in the blaze of noon; in between, war happens.

After the opening credits, a narrator (Burgess Meredith) introduces the 
main characters, who seem at first like the standard ethnic mix of a 
propaganda film: there’s the loquacious New Jersey Italian (Richard 
Conte), the wary New York Jew (George Tyne), the terse Midwestern farmer 
(Lloyd Bridges), the drawling Southern medical aide (Sterling Holloway).

When the platoon loses its lieutenant during the landing, leadership 
falls first to an inexperienced sergeant (Herbert Rudley) who cracks 
under the pressure. (The moment he falls to the ground and starts to 
sob, we know we’re in a different kind of war movie.) Command passes to 
the quiet, self-contained Sergeant Tyne (Dana Andrews), who carries on 
the best he can, leading by consensus rather than authority.

Fifteen years earlier Milestone had won an Oscar for directing “All 
Quiet on the Western Front,” an epic adaptation of Erich Maria 
Remarque’s pacifist novel of World War I. “A Walk in the Sun” is smaller 
in scale and less insistent on its universal humanism (the Germans here 
are only faceless killing machines), but it’s also less bombastic, 
shaped by small, ambiguous experiences rather than grand moral certainties.

Milestone, born Lev Milstein in 1895 in what is now Moldova, has long 
been a problem for critics. At its best his work is formally daring, 
almost to the point of slipping into avant-garde effects (like the 
bouncing ball close-ups of his 1931 version of “The Front Page”), and 
there is a dark, subversive sense of humor in films like “Hallelujah, 
I’m a Bum!” (1933) and “The General Died at Dawn” (1936). But his work 
could also seem blandly institutional, in prestige projects like the 
1952 version of “Les Miserables” and in overproduced entertainments like 
the Rat Pack vehicle “Ocean’s Eleven” (1960, from a script written by 
Mr. Brown and Charles Lederer).

One of his most consistently accomplished films, “A Walk in the Sun” 
walks a fine line between unassuming naturalism and high stylization, 
most effectively in Milestone’s handing of Brown’s concentrated, poetic 
dialogue (as adapted, almost word for word, by the screenwriter Robert 
Rossen). The use of repeated phrases (“You guys kill me,” “I’ve got the 
facts”), passed back and forth among the performers, gives the film a 
cadenced quality, a rhythm somewhere between a military march and the 
echoing absurdities of a Beckett play.

Because “A Walk in the Sun” was never properly registered for copyright, 
substandard public-domain versions have been flooding the home video 
market for decades. This new edition from VCI Entertainment has been 
authorized by Brown’s estate and boasts far better image and sound than 
previous releases, though details are still a bit soft, and contrast is 
low. Nevertheless the VCI release goes a long way toward restoring this 
remarkable film to its proper place in film his

Re: [Marxism] WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education

2009-12-27 Thread S. Artesian
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And I can telly without any question, the best thing I did for my daughters 
[the elder being 1 year old at the time, the younger still 6 years from 
conception] was to move to New York City where I knew they would be able to 
obtain a decent public education in the city school system [obviously this 
was a while ago], and would learn that most of the world is not white.

Yes, public schools are failing children-- but failing the most in areas 
blighted by the disaggregation of capitalism since the 1970s,  driven 
forward during the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama 
administrations.  Public schools are failing because the obligation to 
public education has been attacked.  And it has been attacked because 
providing an adequate public education for all is too expensive, too 
demanding for the bourgeoisie.

You can give your child the best education you can at home, perhaps better 
than most public schools, but that ability you have does nothing to address 
the SOCIAL problem of decaying public education-- your efforts don't address 
the social causes, and the  social remediations necessary, and requiring 
COLLECTIVE effort, to provide that education.

You may have the ability to provide home schooling-- most people do not, 
just as most people cannot provide adequate medical care for themselves; 
most people cannot maintain private adequate supplies of clean drinking 
water .

Nobody says your motivations and the motivations of those around you aren't 
positive, noble.  But those actions reflect an atomized, fragmented response 
that perpetuates the social decomposition that is made manifest in the 
declining quality of public education.

By the way, the best socialist leaders read tons of books, and because they 
read tons of books, many of them by dead guys, they were able to listen to 
"the masses," and distinguish noise from sense.

- Original Message - 
From: "Thomas Bias" 
" 
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education




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Re: [Marxism] WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education

2009-12-27 Thread Thomas Bias
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==


It's not a simple issue, to be sure. But I'll tell you without any question:
unschooling was the best thing for my daughter. You will NEVER convince me
otherwise, and the public schools in our district are well funded and have a
good reputation, even if they don't deserve it. And it's not just the
academics of it. And everywhere I look, I can see that the public schools
are failing the children, from one district to another. There are all kinds
of reasons for it, all kinds of complexities, and I'm not saying that
charter schools, private schools, parochial schools, or no schools are the
entire answer. I do know that my child couldn't wait until socialist
revolution to have the best possible education, and Linda and I determined
that what was best for her was to be educated at home, at her own pace. We
were right.

There is radicalization going on in the United States and in other
countries, and it is taking different and unexpected forms. Where I live, in
semirural northwestern New Jersey, we are seeing radical environmentalists
and unschoolers working together not only to stop environmental destruction
but to create new ways of building an economy based on sustainability and
benefit to the entire community. Maybe it isn't socialism, but it's pointing
in that direction, and we socialists need to be talking to these folks.
Their motivations are positive, and they are intelligent and reasonable. And
maybe they know a thing or two that we don't (and vice versa). Who knows?
Maybe radical unschooling will be the way children are educated in socialist
society. I for one won't live to see it, but I certainly wouldn't rule it
out. In any case, comrades, have a look at Gatto's books. Get to know some
of the unschooling families-they aren't hard to track down (talk to me
off-list, my e-mail is bia...@embarqmail.com).

Until we socialists get the idea that we DON'T have all the answers, no
matter how many books we can quote, we aren't going to get very far. The
best socialist leaders have always understood that the masses are far more
intelligent and creative than their leaders, and we need to do a lot more
listening to them, rather than to the dead guys of a century and a half ago.

Tom

-Original Message-
From: marxism-bounces+biastg=embarqmail@lists.econ.utah.edu
[mailto:marxism-bounces+biastg=embarqmail@lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf
Of S. Artesian
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 3:01 AM
To: Thomas Bias
Subject: Re: [Marxism] WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education




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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread S. Artesian
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==


Dogan,

A little bit more concrete understanding of the US would serve you well in 
this since it is specifically the political situation in the US you think 
you are analyzing.

"Liberalism"  as a political "agenda,"  rather than a school of economic 
thought, is the label attached, and self-attached, to and by a section of 
the bourgeoisie that supports government intervention, and changes in the 
content of government intervention,  in issues of social welfare, social 
justice, to mitigate the "worst" inequities in capitalism.

The "conservative" section of the bourgeoisie has made a career of attacking 
"liberals," the "liberal media,"  "liberal think tanks,"  liberal civil 
libertarians, blahblahblahblah.

Mark is stating that your support, and tortured rationalizations of the 
CPUSA's own right of center rationalizations and endorsements of the 
"healthcare" bill is a mark of "conservatism," a position that is actually 
less "progressive," and represents a greater retreat, than the positions of 
the liberal wing of the US bourgeoisie.

So... you don't grasp the content of Hegel's analysis of master and slave, 
you misrepresent, IMO,  Marx's and Engel's analysis of free trade, you are 
mistaken in your counterposing of "everyday politics" to "strategic 
thinking,"  and you misunderstand the CPUSA's position on everyday politics 
and strategic thinking since their everyday support of Obama is explicitly 
their strategic thinking.  And now you add to that a basic ignorance as to 
the characterizations of different political agendas of the bourgeoisie.

In the US, we would say "your're batting a thousand,"  which of course would 
mean, "you're batting zero.  You're  0 for 5, you're below the Mendoza line, 
you're wearing the golden sombrero, you're a weak stick,  a rally-killer, a 
sure out.

- Original Message - 
From: "Dogan Gocmen"  



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[Marxism] Arthur Koestler: a nasty piece of work

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
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(Considering Koestler's iconic status among hardened anti-Communists of 
the sort that edits this book review and the fact that the reviewer is a 
long-time conservative, the open acknowledgment of Koestler's creepy 
character should really tell you something.)


NY Times Book Review, December 27, 2009
Arthur Koestler, Man of Darkness
By CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL

KOESTLER
The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic.
By Michael Scammell
Illustrated. 689 pp. Random House. $35.

No other writer of the 20th century had Arthur Koestler’s knack for 
doing odd things, crossing paths with important people and being present 
when disaster struck. As a 27-year-old Communist he spent the famine 
winter of 1932-33 in Khar­kov, amid millions of starving Ukrainians. 
Rushing southward through France ahead of the invading Nazi armies in 
1940, he ran into the philosopher Walter Benjamin, who shared with him 
half the morphine tablets Benjamin would use, weeks later, to commit 
suicide. The Harvard drug guru Timothy Leary gave Koestler psilocybin in 
the mid-1960s, and Margaret Thatcher solicited his advice in her 1979 
election campaign. Simone de Beauvoir slept with him but came to hate 
him, and in a fictional portrait described a blazing intelligence and a 
personality capable of sweeping people off their feet.

Yet, although he wrote more than 30 books, Koestler is today known 
primarily, perhaps exclusively, as the author of “Darkness at Noon,” his 
gripping short novel of Stalinist coercion. The biographer Michael 
Scammell wants to put Koestler’s multifaceted intelligence back on 
display and to show that something more than frivolity or opportunism 
lay behind his ever-shifting preoccupations and allegiances. As a source 
of information, “Koestler,” the work of two decades, will never be 
surpassed. As an argument for the man’s importance, however, it must 
contend with the eccentricity of Koestler’s preoccupations and — 
although Scammell does not always seem to realize it — his vices.

Born in Budapest in 1905, Koestler grew up, he later said, “admired for 
my brains and detested for my character by teachers and schoolfellows 
alike.” His parents came from the cultured Jewish milieu of the Hapsburg 
twilight. They were at home in Vienna as well as Budapest, and 
financially well off until they were wiped out in the 1920s. Koestler’s 
Jewishness is a puzzle. He was a passionate Zionist, but his estimate of 
his Jewish contemporaries was low, almost anti-Semitic: they hadn’t “a 
single spark of true Bildung [cultivation], in Goethe’s sense of the 
word,” he complained. His hero was the dashing Zeev Jabotinsky, whose 
Revisionist Zionism would flow into the hard-line Irgun group in the 
1940s. Jabotinsky’s machismo offered Koestler, as Scammell insightfully 
puts it, “freedom from all those traits considered the hallmarks of a 
Jew.” Forsaking his education, Koestler moved to Palestine.

Allergic to the hard physical labor it took to make the desert bloom, 
Koestler didn’t last long. Before he left Palestine, though, he had 
proved himself a brilliant, versatile and indefatigable journalist, and 
when he returned to Europe, he was swept away by a new enthusiasm. He 
became a Communist. He traveled to the Soviet Union, posing as a 
“bourgeois” journalist undergoing a conversion, and closed his eyes to 
teeming beggars there, not to mention the famine. The Party needed 
Koestler in Paris, where he worked for the arch-­propagandist Willi 
Münzenberg. He promoted the Communist line in his journalism and books, 
particularly once the Spanish Civil War started.

Koestler was in Málaga when it fell to Franco in 1937. He was thrown in 
jail, where on some nights dozens of his fellow inmates were marched 
away to execution. Because his interrogators did not know he was an 
actual Communist, it was possible for the Party to secure his release 
through its front groups. Scammell is masterly on the role of these 
organizations, putatively just “antifascist” but run by steering 
committees taking orders from Moscow. They drummed up the campaign, a 
novelty at the time, for Koestler’s release, turning him into a European 
celebrity.

Prison changed Koestler. It did not bring him the spiritual blossoming 
that it brought to, say, Solzhenitsyn and Mandela, but it gave him 
insights about human character that Europe needed and lacked. “The 
consciousness of being confined acts like a slow poison, transforming 
the entire character,” he wrote. “Now it is beginning gradually to dawn 
on me what the slave mentality really is.” By then, the Moscow show 
trials were under way, with the Politburo member Nikolai Bukharin 
confessing in public to crimes he didn’t commit, and calling for his own 
execution. Koe

[Marxism] Moderator's note

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Let's drop this thread, including the reference to Dogan's name in the 
subject heading. Sayan, like Michael Pugliese, is one of those bizarre 
personalities who has no existence outside of cyberspace. As such, 
paying attention to his ravings gives him an importance he does not 
deserve.


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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Mark Lause
==
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==


Ah, so now I'm "illiterate" for using the term "liberal" for anything since
the 1890s.

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Dogan Gocmen wrote:
> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
> 
> 
> I received the email below this morning. I have just realised that Mr. was
> not courageous enough to send it to the mailing list.I am forwarding it. In
> the next email I will forward my reply.

Comrades should ignore email from Sayan Bhattacharyya  (aka ruthless 
critic). He is an obsessed former subscriber who is in the habit of 
sending his worthless opinions to various people. He really is need of 
some psychotherapy.


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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Greg McDonald
==
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==


This is just "Ruthless" on another jag; I received a similar email
from him before bhandari was purged. Apparently, he still has feelings
about being removed from the list for similar reasons, so he wants
others to share in that experience-- those he deems have committed
similar offenses, otherwise his own banishment would be perceived by
him as unfair.

G.


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[Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
==
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==


I am sorry. There was a problem with the forwarding of my reply to Mr.
president+n...@gmail.com  below.
Dogan
-- Forwarded message --
From: Dogan Gocmen 
Date: 2009/12/27
Subject: Re: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list
To: ok.president+n...@gmail.com 


2009/12/27 Ruthless Critic of All that Exists

>


"Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list"

From my paper: "The Nature and Paradoxes of Freedom"

"We are going to claim that liberals (and conservatives) take over the
above-described
spontaneous, that is, non-reflected or unconscious meaning of freedom
without any further
reflection and based on this draw a concept of freedom that may more
properly be called a
concept of domination and coercion rather than freedom, even though they
claim that they
define freedom of thought or opinion, freedom of action1 and as absence of
coercion.2 As
opposed to this view, we suggest that Marx and Engels reflect upon this
spontaneous meaning
critically because they reflect upon social relations in capitalist society
critically. This critical
approach, we suggest further, grasps the true meaning human relations in
their entirety and
therefore also the true nature of the concept of freedom."
Read more:
http://dogangocmen.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/freedom_nature_and_paradoxes.pdf

So please dismiss me, the Marxist Dogan, from Marxmail list.

Dogan Göcmen
http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/




-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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[Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Mark's illiteracy is below. He is obviously not aware that there is not
liberalism at least since 1890s as already Rosa Luxemburg indicated.
Dogan

-- Forwarded message --
From: Mark A. Lause 
Date: 2009/12/27
Subject: Re: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list
To: ok.president+n...@gmail.com , Dogan
Gocmen 


He's not a liberal.  He's CP.   And the position he's rationalizing is
actually to the right of the liberals

ML

- Original Message - From: "Ruthless Critic of All that Exists" <
ok.president+n...@gmail.com >
To: "Mark A. Lause" ; "Dogan Gocmen" <
dgn.g...@googlemail.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 2:54 AM
Subject: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list



 Mark Lause wrote:
>
> "For Dogan, this criterion is a settled question and requires no
> consideration of those petty everyday grubby little materialist
> considerations."
>
> Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list
>
>




-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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[Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


My reply to Mr. ok.president+n...@gmail.com
is below.

-- Forwarded message --
From: Ruthless Critic of All that Exists

>
Date: 2009/12/27
Subject: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list
To: "Mark A. Lause" , Dogan Gocmen <
dgn.g...@googlemail.com>


Mark Lause wrote:

"For Dogan, this criterion is a settled question and requires no
consideration of those petty everyday grubby little materialist
considerations."

Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list



-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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[Marxism] Fwd: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


I received the email below this morning. I have just realised that Mr. was
not courageous enough to send it to the mailing list.I am forwarding it. In
the next email I will forward my reply.
Dogan
-- Forwarded message --
From: Ruthless Critic of All that Exists

>
Date: 2009/12/27
Subject: Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list
To: "Mark A. Lause" , Dogan Gocmen <
dgn.g...@googlemail.com>


Mark Lause wrote:

"For Dogan, this criterion is a settled question and requires no
consideration of those petty everyday grubby little materialist
considerations."

Dismiss the liberal Dogan from MarxMail list



-- 
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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[Marxism] Joe Sacco book on Gaza massacres in 1956

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
==
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==


(Astonishingly, the right-leaning book review did not assign Daniel 
Pipes or Alan Dershowitz to review this.)

NY Times Book Review, December 27, 2009
‘They Planted Hatred in Our Hearts’
By PATRICK COCKBURN

FOOTNOTES IN GAZA
Written and illustrated by Joe Sacco
418 pp. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company. $29.95

Joe Sacco’s gripping, important book about two long-forgotten mass 
killings of Palestinians in Gaza stands out as one of the few 
contemporary works on the Israeli-Palestinian struggle likely to outlive 
the era in which they were written.

Sacco will find readers for “Footnotes in Gaza” far into the future 
because of the unique format and style of his comic-book narrative. He 
stands alone as a reporter-cartoonist because his ability to tell a 
story through his art is combined with investigative reporting of the 
highest quality.

His subject in this case is two massacres that happened more than half a 
century ago, stirred up little international attention and were 
forgotten outside the immediate circle of the victims. The killings took 
place during the Suez crisis of 1956, when the Israeli Army swept into 
the Gaza Strip, the great majority of whose inhabitants were Palestinian 
refugees. According to figures from the United Nations, 275 Palestinians 
were killed in the town of Khan Younis at the southern end of the strip 
on Nov. 3, and 111 died in Rafah, a few miles away on the Egyptian 
border, during a Nov. 12 operation by Israeli troops. Israel insisted 
that the Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces were still facing 
armed resistance. The Palestinians said all resistance had ceased by then.

Sacco makes the excellent point that such episodes are among the true 
building blocks of history. In this case, accounts of what happened were 
slow to seep out and were overshadowed by fresh developments in the Suez 
crisis. Sacco, whose reputation as a reporter-cartoonist was established 
with “Palestine” and “Safe Area Gorazde,” has rescued them from 
obscurity because they are “like innumerable historical tragedies over 
the ages that barely rate footnote status in the broad sweep of history 
— even though . . . they often contain the seeds of the grief and anger 
that shape present-day events.”

Governments and the news media alike forget that atrocities live on in 
the memory of those most immediately affected. Sacco records Abed 
El-Aziz El-Rantisi — a leader of Hamas (later killed by an Israeli 
missile), who in 1956 was 9 and living in Khan Younis — describing how 
his uncle was killed: “It left a wound in my heart that can never heal,” 
he says. “I’m telling you a story and I am almost crying. . . . They 
planted hatred in our hearts.”

The vividness and pace of Sacco’s drawings, combined with a highly 
informed and intelligent verbal narrative, work extremely well in 
telling the story. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how any other form 
of journalism could make these events so interesting. Many newspaper or 
television reporters understand that the roots of today’s crises lie in 
obscure, unpublicized events. But they also recognize that their news 
editors are most interested in what is new and are likely to dismiss 
diversions into history as journalistic self-indulgence liable to bore 
and confuse the audience.

In fact, “Footnotes in Gaza” springs from this editorial bias against 
history. In the spring of 2001, Sacco and Chris ­Hedges (formerly a 
foreign correspondent of The New York Times) were reporting for Harper’s 
Magazine about Palestinians in Khan Younis during the early months of 
the second Palestinian intifada. They believed the 1956 killings helped 
explain the violence almost 50 years later. Perhaps predictably, 
however, the paragraphs about the old massacre were cut.

American editors weren’t the only people who found their delving into 
history beside the point. When Sacco returned to Gaza to search for 
witnesses and survivors in 2002 and 2003, with Israeli forces still 
occupying the area, young Palestinians could not understand his interest 
in past events when there was so much contemporary violence.

Sacco’s pursuit of Palestinian and Israeli eyewitnesses as well as 
Israeli and United Nations documentation is relentless and impressive. 
He details the lives of those who help him, notably his fixer Abed, and 
brings to life two eras of the Gaza Strip, its towns packed with 
refugees in the early 1950s as they are today.

It was an atmosphere filled with hate. Few Israeli leaders showed any 
empathy for the Palestinian tragedy. But early in 1956, the Israeli 
chief of staff Moshe Dayan made a famous speech at the funeral of an 
Israeli commander killed on the border with Gaza. What, Dayan wondered, 
explained the Palestinians’ “ter

Re: [Marxism] Communist Party backs Senate health care "reform" bill

2009-12-27 Thread Mehmet Cagatay
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Dogan wrote:

"Mehmet, you know that I am one of the few Turkish Marxists (if not the only 
one) who produced well-researched Marxist papers against establishing 
"patriotic consciousness among working class." You know all my papers on this 
issue."

...

Dogan, you don't deserve a defamation as such. And I'm very sorry if you 
understand my last post in this vein. Actually it was an answer to the 
triviality written by S. Stark which got on my nerves. But you are right, 
anyone here unfamiliar to your works might think I was pointing my finger at 
you, so I should have been more clear. Sorry again. 

mç 


  


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[Marxism] Tim Costello, Trucker-Author Who Fought Globalization, Dies at 64

2009-12-27 Thread Louis Proyect
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==


NY Times, December 26, 2009
Tim Costello, Trucker-Author Who Fought Globalization, Dies at 64
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Tim Costello, a truck driver who became a labor advocate and theorist, 
the co-author of four books and the founder of an organization that 
fought globalization, died Dec. 4 at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 64.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his brother, Sean.

Mr. Costello was hailed by many academics and labor advocates as a bona 
fide worker-intellectual. A genial, mustached native of Boston, he drove 
fuel-delivery trucks, worked as a lobsterman, founded a group that 
battled against the fast-growing use of temporary workers and developed 
close links with labor advocates in China, Italy and Mexico.

His most notable book was “Globalization From Below: The Power of 
Solidarity” (2000), written with Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, which 
became a primer for labor advocates who argued that globalization was 
destroying jobs and reducing wages in the United States while exploiting 
workers in Asia.

During his two decades driving trucks — he was also a long-haul driver — 
Mr. Costello often used the back of his truck as a private study to read 
and write.

Mr. Costello was often several steps ahead of the rest of the labor 
movement. In 2005, he helped found Global Labor Strategies, which 
fostered cross-border alliances to fight to improve wages and working 
conditions in the face of downward pressures from companies moving jobs 
overseas. In 2007, when American and European business groups were 
battling China’s plans to adopt a law strengthening workers’ rights, Mr. 
Costello was a leading voice in countering corporate efforts to block 
the law.

“We called him Cosmic Tim because he seemed to be everywhere in the 
universe,” said James Green, a labor historian at the University of 
Massachusetts, Boston, who was a friend and professor of Mr. Costello. 
“He seemed to have trucked everywhere and read everything.”

Timothy Mark Costello was born in Boston on June 13, 1945. His father 
was the president of a union local that represented railway car welders. 
He was raised in Dedham, Mass., and graduated from the Huntington School 
for Boys in Boston in 1964. He attended Goddard College in Vermont 
before transferring to Franconia College in New Hampshire and the New 
School in New York, where he joined Students for a Democratic Society.

While in school in New York, he began driving oil trucks. In 1971, he 
moved back to Boston, without having finished college, and continued 
driving fuel-delivery trucks and, as he had in New York, writing and 
speaking out against corruption in the Teamsters union.

In the mid-1970s he traveled cross-country to study the recession’s 
effects on young workers, producing a book, “Common Sense for Hard 
Times,” with Mr. Brecher, his longtime co-author.

While in Boston, he switched trucking jobs to become a long-haul driver, 
often carrying loads to the Deep South and the Midwest. He enrolled at 
the University of Massachusetts, Boston, obtaining his bachelor’s degree 
there in 1990. He became a business agent for Local 285 of the Service 
Employees International Union, which represented hospital workers and 
janitors.

In 1999, he founded the Campaign on Contingent Work, which evolved into 
another organization he helped found, the North American Alliance for 
Fair Employment, a grouping of 65 organizations that opposed the growing 
use of temporary workers, who rarely had job security, health insurance 
or pensions.

With Mr. Brecher, he also wrote “Building Bridges: The Emerging 
Grassroots Coalition of Labor and Community” (1990) and “Global Village 
or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction From the Bottom Up” (1994).

In addition to his brother, Sean, of Belmont, Mass., he is survived by 
his wife, Susanne Rasmussen; his daughters Pia, of Cambridge, and 
Gillian, of Brooklyn; and two grandchildren.

Mr. Costello was low-key, his brother said, but he was forever battling 
for one cause or another. “He thought that if you’re on the left,” Sean 
Costello said, “you’ll be working at it for the rest of your life, and 
you may not be successful, but it would be worth the effort.”


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[Marxism] Christmas in Afghanistan

2009-12-27 Thread Greg McDonald
==
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==


http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul122643_christmas-in-afghanistan.html

Polish Radio
December 25, 2009

Christmas in Afghanistan
Hosted by Magdalena Jensen and Alicja Baczynska

-Those cluster bombs that Bogdan Klich believes are good and necessary
for Afghanistan and which the PO [Platforma Obywatelska] government
refused to sign a treat banning their use. The reasons are curious.
There is the business angle. Krasnik makes cluster bombs in Kielce and
the PO is a pro-business party and Radek Sikorski makes jokes about
having survived cluster bomb atttacks.
-If it's Afghanistan, then it doesn't matter because the victims are
only peasant children whose scorched flesh and corpses will not be
seen in Krakow's Bonarka City Centre this Christmas.
Instead the main media news item was the theft of the Arbeit Mach Frei
banner at the gates of Auschwitz, a crass theft but that did not
actually kill anybody unlike Saakashvili's blowing up of the Soviet
War Memorial in Kutaisi, killing a woman and child of 8.
-With NATO forces present at Camp Babylon the site wintnessed the
desecration and destruction of some of the world's most treasured
artifacts. But Poland was displeased.
The US did not dish out the construction contracts it wanted. At least
in Afghanistan the contruction of the TAPI pipeline will open up the
gas energy market, drive down prices and reduce dependence on Russia.
-The troops are dying for a war fought on shifting pretexts and
according to contradictory goals. First to get Al Qaida, who are no
longer in Afghanistan in force, then to save the women, then to defeat
the opium trade[I]n 2008 the TAPI pipeline scheme is agreed upon
and reinforcements needed in the areas around Kanfahar where most
troops are being killed because that's where the pipeline with go.

This week’s Diplomatic Bag is a holiday tribute to Poland’s soldiers
in Afghanistan, occupying the Ghazni province of the country under the
NATO ISAF mission and to soldiers fare from their families fighting in
conflicts around the globe this holiday season.

Comments
Karl Naylor

I suppose unlike Christmas in the First World War its more difficult
to enjoy the Festive season as the Taliban unlike the Kaiser's Army
won't be up for a game of football.

That's the problem with Muslims. They are more difficuly to win over
with WHAM strategies. Not least as large flying objects in the sky are
not likely to be Santa and his sleigh but B52 bombers.

Still its Christmas and with the families far from the troops it's
time to remember how safe they are, that their children won't have
arms and legs blown off by cluster munitions.

In a HRW report Fatally Flawed it was revealed how children were blown
up thinking unexploded bomblets or duds were toys to play with.

http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/us-afghanistan/Afghan1202-06.htm#P492_102247

"Afghans rely on wood for fuel, and they forage for it in the hills
and rural areas outside their villages. In early December, 9-year-old
Amin went to collect brush at the edge of the Jebrael field where
Arbrabrahim had died. A cluster bomblet exploded and killed him.

160 children sent to gather wood also frequent military bases, which
in Afghanistan generally have undefined and porous borders.

The suburbs of Herat lost several children to bomblets dropped on
these targets. Three children from Nawabad, for example, died while
collecting wood at Firqa #17 in Herat.

"Children are especially vulnerable to cluster bomblets because of
their curiosity. Arif, 14, and Sharif, 13, brothers from the Herat
suburb of Bag Nazer Gah, were injured while playing during an
excursion to the Firqa. Arif lost his leg to a bomblet."

Those cluster bombs that Bogdan Klich believes are good and necessary
for Afghanistan and which the PO government refused to sign a treat
banning their use. The reasons are curious.

There is the business angle. Krasnik makes cluster bombs in Kielce and
the PO is a pro-business party and Radek Sikorski makes jokes about
having survived cluster bomb atttacks.

Absurdly though Klich has tried to 'reason' in an interview with
Gazeta that cluster bombs were essential for defending Poland or land
controlled or occcupied by Polish troops.

'This isn't just a whim. We need those weapons to defend our
territory. In fact, a debate has been going on about this type of
munitions'.

'Our territory' could be interpreted in different ways. Dropping
clusters on Poland against an hypothetical Russian invasion would not
go down well with Belarusians or those living in Eastern Poland.

If it's Afghanistan, then it doesn't matter because the victims are
only peasant children whose scorched flesh and corpses will not be
seen in Krakow's Bonarka City Centre this Christmas.

Instead the main media news i

Re: [Marxism] Communist Party backs Senate health care "reform" bill

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


2009/12/27 Mehmet Cagatay 

>
"If I remember correctly, I told you before that I've never been a part of
socialist/communist organization except a few demonstrations here and there
in my university years. During the process of being acquainted with Marxist
classics I once decided to join CP of Turkey but immediately gave up the
idea after I learned from their program that we are supposed to establish
patriotic consciousness among working class."

Mehmet,
you know that I am one of the few Turkish Marxists (if not the only one) who
produced well-researched Marxist papers against establishing "patriotic
consciousness among working class." You know all my papers on this issue.
One of them (30 pages) deals with Marx's and Engels' approch to pariotism.
So there is no need to repeat them here.

Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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Re: [Marxism] Communist Party backs Senate health care "reform" bill

2009-12-27 Thread Dogan Gocmen
==
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==


2009/12/27 Mark Lause 

"This "method" is entirely consistent.  Determined not to be distracted by
those petty everyday considerations--like the actual subject under
discussion--the argument levitates (dialectically, of course) into
generalizations that mean absolutely nothing to any materialist without
those very considerations Dogan scorns."

Mark,
you are abviously not familiar with methodological questions and debates. To
be conserned with everday issues is entirely different from "everyday
understanding" of the world, society and the state. The former that is
sometimes called the "eveyday life" is an essential part of any consistent
Marxist theory and practice. The latter refers to the methodological debate
about how society can be grasped in its entire relations and be presented.
Remember Marx criticised classical political economists for relying on
everyday understanding when they described market relations. But he was very
much concerned with daily issues. So please do not confuse these two
different issues. I dealt with some of these issues in my paper: "Rosa
Luxemburg, the legacy of classical German philosophy and the fundamental
methodological questions of social and political theory". I quote here a
relevant bit. If you are intersted in you can go and read more to stop this
communication in dark:

"In this way the bourgeois science declares the “timidity of empirical
feeling to the only
principle of the research method” and undertakes an “industrious atomising
work”. This
approach creates a picture of social life that lets appear social relations
like in a mirror that is
broken to thousands of pieces. In her paper Im Rate der Gelehrten (“At the
Council of
Intellectuals”), in which she attacks Werner Sombart’s misuse of Marxian
theory, she says:
“this atomising work” is for bourgeois scientists “the safest way to
dissolve theoretically all
general social connections and to let disappear ‘scientifically’ capitalist
forest behind many
trees.” However, to do this, bourgeois scientists have to get rid of the
Hegelian ‘burden’. But
according to Luxemburg this is as vain as trying to stop time and progress
of history, because
generally speaking in science as well as in the development of society there
is no way back. As
I have already pointed out she thinks that the development and progress
neither in society nor in
science can be stopped."
Read further:
http://dogangocmen.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/rosa-luxemburg-and-classical-german-philosophy.pdf
.

Finally, I think I spent enough time in this debate and will not reply any
post anymore.

Dogan Göcmen
http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/

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Re: [Marxism] WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education

2009-12-27 Thread S. Artesian
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So... are we supposed to be against public education?  W aren't  against 
secular, non-religious, free education available to all children regardless 
of economic circumstance because the state will administer this education, 
any more than we are against universal, free, healthcare, with equal access 
granted to all, because the "state" will administer that program also.

We aren't against public health measures because the state administers that 
program.   We aren't against librairies because cities administer those.  We 
aren't against access to clean water because the state regulates that 
program.  On the contrary, we want to improve, expand, and defend these 
essential socially necessary programs from the depradations of private 
capital; from the demands for austerity; etc.  We argue for the primacy of 
public education, public health, public sanitation, public controlled 
drinking water supplies over and against privatization.

Marx attacks LaSalle's position not because it demands free public 
education, but because LaSalle uses the proposition to continue his 
glorification of the state, and mystify its connections to class.

I think we clearly need to defend those public services that are on short 
rations in the best of times, and the first to be attacked when the times 
aren't best.

As far as American education designed to defend and promote the interests of 
the enemy class, well yes & no.  It is the gutting of the education system 
that the ruling class sees as protecting its interests, not its ideological 
conscription into American firstism.

Why do we object to charter schools?  First, because many of them are simply 
scams.  Secondly, because they are inherently discriminatory, and are a step 
back from the essential social functions that supposedly represent the step 
forward that capitalism takes as a result of the social basis of production. 
Thirdly, because charter schools exist and survive due to public subsidies--  
the costs are not absorbed solely by the families of the students themselves 
but are absorbed by all.  Fourthly, because there is no way that charter 
schools can meet the needs of any but a small fraction of the student 
population.  Thus charter schools act as a feint, a diversion, will the 
federal, state, and city governments continue to allow public education to 
decay.

Private schooling, charter schooling, home schooling are the real 
ideological attacks on the obligation of society to provide free, quality 
education for all.


- Original Message - 
From: "Joaquin Bustelo" 
 
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2009 2:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] WSWS: Socialism and the defense of public education




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