[Marxism] Marxist Interventions 2010 release
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/mi/2/2.htm Marxist Interventions is an on-line Australian journal. The articles in this issue focus on major controversies within and beyond the Australian left. Few issues have challenged the Australian left as much as the Howard Government's 1999 military intervention in East Timor. Contrary to the common view that the intervention was a humanitarian action forced on a reluctant government by popular pressure, Sam Pietsch analyses it as an imperialist use of military power to secure longstanding strategic interests of the Australian state. The intervention also enabled the Howard Government to increase military spending and act more aggressively to assert imperial power in the Southwest Pacific. Marxist strategies for change often centre on the potential of organised labour struggles. Yet labour is divided in many ways, including between leaders and the rank and file. The tradition to which Marxist Interventions belongs has long argued that the union rank and file has different interests to those of the labour bureaucracy. Robert Bollard's essay on the Great Strike of 1917 is a defence of our position, in response to critics such as conservative historian Jonathan Zeitlin. There is now an exhaustive literature about the global financial crisis. Australia's peculiar position remains a matter for somewhat puzzled debate. Ben Hillier looks closely at the effects of the crisis on the Australian economy. He considers how the relative stability of Chinese demand, the buoyancy of the housing market and the circumstances of the financial sector have so far insulated Australia from the carnage witnessed in Europe, Japan and the US. Since the article was completed, upheavals in Greece have showed how fragile the situation is. In March and April 2010, a major debate broke out in the Australian media over Anzac Day, featuring such issues as militarism, race and gender. Class differences in society have received relatively little attention. Kyla Cassells presents a comparative study of Anzac Day and Labor Day in Victoria between the World Wars, which explores how these days were used by Trades Hall, the Australian Labor Party, and the RSL to perpetuate political agendas. She also considers the contestation of these agendas by such groups as the Communist Party, women, and the unemployed. During 2008 and 2009, Muslims at RMIT University in Melbourne ran a successful and important campaign for the return of dedicated Muslim Prayer Rooms on campus. Because the campaign's central demand was for a religious space, much of the left dismissed the movement outright or even supported University management. This raises serious questions concerning the Australia left's clarity about racism. Katie Wood and Liam Ward consider the campaign and its lessons. 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] Marxist Interventions 2010
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == For an alternative analysis, which unfortuately the article below largely ignores (and while mentioned, does not provide the correct link) can be found at http://links.org.au/node/155 (The left and UN military intervention in East Timor). --- In greenleft_discuss...@yahoogroups.com, Tom O'Lincoln suar...@... wrote: http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/mi/2/2.htm Marxist Interventions is an Australian on-line journal. The articles in this issue focus on major controversies within and beyond the Australian left. Few issues have challenged the Australian left as much as the Howard Government's 1999 military intervention in East Timor. Contrary to the common view that the intervention was a humanitarian action forced on a reluctant government by popular pressure, Sam Pietsch analyses it as an imperialist use of military power to secure longstanding strategic interests of the Australian state. The intervention also enabled the Howard Government to increase military spending and act more aggressively to assert imperial 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] FoxConn workers in China
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I am near Shanghai. The Chinese press is critical of Foxconn -- part of a strategy to shift from a dependence on low wage sweatshops. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.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] Lori Berenson is free
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Who gives a damn if Peru's economy is booming? It's still capitalist, the majority of Peru's people are still poor. 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] India.
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Epoliticus seems to be obsessed with the CPI (Marxist). I have not mentioned it at all here. Propaganda, like confusion, is in the eyes of the beholder. The PCPA is not the same as the ³Maoist² leadership, from whose lairs the main utterances come. The ³Maoists² have not, to my mind, denied responsibility. The PCPA is a Maoist-backed group. About the fishplates: these are the joint bars that link the tracks. About 1.5 feet of the track had been ripped out of line. The driver had said there was a blast. There remains some confusion about that. On Dantewada, here are some views: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/india250510.html. Kishenji says that he is sorry, and then tells people not to travel by bus since most buses would have some security personnel on board. That¹s rum. In October 1990, the People¹s War Group (parent of the ³Maoist² party) set alight the Hyderabad-Warangal train. 45 passengers died. PWG hastily said they didn¹t do it, but four senior members said they did (for which see the HRW report from September 1992; as well, K. Balagopal¹s earlier assessment, ³The End of Spring?² Economic and Political Weekly, August 25, 1990). Vijay. PS: the historian and analyst, Dilip Simeon has written this about the PCPA denial: ³The denials coming from the PCPA and by the CPI (Maoist) are problematic. Firstly, there are several cases of Naxalites targetting civilians and civilian transport there are instances from Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand before and after the merger of the MCC and PWG to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004. Its is not new, in October 1990 the PWG burnt alive 45 passengers in Andhra. Secondly, Naxalism is not a monolith. There are over 45 different naxalite groups, which keep on splintering. Fragmentation is an in-built aspect of their politics. If the current leadership of the dominant group were to give up people¹s war¹, we may be certain that another splinter will emerge to resist their treachery¹ , keep up the armed struggle, etc. Third, once embarked upon a course of violent confrontation (and Jhargram is an area of naxal activity); it is inevitable that the believers in peoples war¹ will be suspect in any such event, especially since they have been known to be contemptuous of human life in the past. Fourth, there may be other groups and persons associated with the Maoists to some degree or other, who can act on their own. As stated before there is no monolithic control, this is especially true for organisations adhering to totalitarian ideologies. Fifth, it would be extremely difficult for anti Maoist groups to carry out clandestine operations to discredit them in an area which is their stronghold. Sixth, they may simply have made a mistake as they have done before, in Dantewada in 2005, for example, when a large number of tribals were blown up in a bus. Then the party apologised. These were not regular trains, they may have been targetting a goods train. But the mistake is too gruesome. In any case, what does a lie or two cost for groups that are convinced that the end justifies the means?² Vijay Prashad wrote: The Maoists have not taken responsibility for the attack, as yet. Their statements do not come immediately. They take a day or two. You are incorrect. The PCAPA has already stated that it is not responsible. If you had read the messages posted to this listserv, instead of gracing us with your presence in order to conduct pro-CPI(M) propaganda whenever an opportunity presented itself, then you would have noted Greg McDonald's post from earlier today: However, a spokesman for the group, Asit Mahato, denied any role, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. We were in no way involved. This is not our act, PTI quoted him as saying by phone. This statement was also reported in the Hindustan Times. With respect to the Dantewara attack, readers interested in objective reportage can obtain additional information at http://sanhati.com/articles/2408/. Epoliticus If fish plates are tie plates, upon which the actual rails rest, and which in turn rest upon the ties, or sleepers as they are called in British railroad jargon, then their removal should not have caused a catastrophic derailment. If fish plates are the plates that join sections of rail together, called angle bars in the US, then where did the story of :land mines come from? If fish plates are tie plates, upon which the actual rails rest, and which in turn rest upon the ties, or sleepers as they are called in British railroad jargon, then their removal should not have caused a catastrophic derailment. If fish plates are the plates that join sections of rail together, called angle bars in the US, then where did the story of :land mines come from? If fish plates are tie
[Marxism] Bush to Kirchner--the Best Way to Revitalize the Economy is through War
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/28/argentine-prime-bush-war/ 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] Bush to Kirchner--the Best Way to Revitalize the Economyis through War
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == And I thought Bush didn't know a thing about the economy and what kept business in business. I guess I have to withdraw my assertion that Bush is a complete idiot or rather modify it. Bush is a complete idiot who perfectly represents the needs of his class for belligerent idiocy. Short version, not just a moron, but a moron and a vicious motherfucker. Love child of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, inheriting his brains from his father, and his sunny disposition from his mother. Be governed accordingly. -Original Message - From: Greg McDonald gregm...@gmail.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] Ken MacLeod on a novel about Kantrovich
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This sounds like an important book. I'd want to know more about Gluschov, though (and hopefully will after I get the book), and what alternative he posed. Because Kantorovich's proposals on pricing reform were, as Mandel points out in Marxist Economic Theory, abstract suggestions to make then-popular market reforms more efficient. But those market reforms themselves didn't address the major problem: the frustration of planning by the restriction of far more basic and simple calculations, because the bureaucracy at each level was hiding information from itself (the central planners for instance, gave unrealistic orders to factory heads based on arbitrary decisions and the factory heads lied about their having fulfilled their part of the plan. And the workers were just told to shut up about the whole thing). Even with today's computing power, the Liberman reforms, which the Kantorovich proposals were meant to aid, would merely have provided feedback from more accurate pricing to a system headed back toward capitalism if the reforms were allowed to follow their own logic. And of course more accurate pricing even with the best computers was irrelevant to the anti-Liberman forces. What was missing was workers' control. And as Mandel points out there and elsewhere, the number of decisions needed to be made at each level of the economy once workers really control it are actually far fewer. Nonetheless, the TRILLIONS of trades made on the day of the stock exchanges' flash crash last month show once again that computing power is no longer an issue. Andy PS to Jim: the end of your comment got cut off when you sent it. 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] Ken MacLeod on a novel about Kantrovich
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == correction to previous: the trillions should have referred to dollar amounts; the trades were in the order of millions. Thus from Pam Martens' Counterpunch article on the episode: According to Mr. Duffy, there were 1.6 million (yes, million) contracts traded in the E-Mini SP 500 in the pivotal hour of 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. New York time Last week Reuters leaked an internal document from the CME showing that Waddell Reed has sold 75,000 contracts during that period with the suggestion that it might have triggered the plunge. Think of that: ONE firm alone had contracts for 75,000 stocks to trade in that hour. If we were using these computers even to track prices every day in order to have accurate inputs into an input-output table for the whole economy, could we possibly need all these contracts (or their nonmarket equivalent)? Not even a small fraction of them! On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 7:28 AM, Andrew Pollack acpolla...@gmail.com wrote: Nonetheless, the TRILLIONS of trades made on the day of the stock exchanges' flash crash last month show once again that computing power is no longer an issue. Andy 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] Generation Me
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2010/05/28/todays-college-students-more-likely-to-lack-empathy.html Today's College Students More Likely to Lack Empathy 'Generation Me' tends to be self-centered, competitive, U.S. research shows Posted: May 28, 2010 FRIDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) -- A three-decade analysis of prior research reveals that American college students are not quite as empathetic as they used to be. We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000, co-author Sara Konrath, a researcher at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, said in a news release. College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait. Konrath and her colleagues presented their findings this week in Boston at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science. A total of 72 studies conducted between 1979 and 2009 were included in the current review. The analysis indicated that relative to their late-1970s' counterparts, today's college students are less likely to make an effort to understand their friends' perspectives or to feel tenderness or concern for the less fortunate. Many people see the current group of college students -- sometimes called 'Generation Me' -- as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history, observed Konrath, who is also affiliated with the psychiatry department at the University of Rochester. The increase in exposure to media during this time period could be one factor, she said. Compared to 30 years ago, the average American now is exposed to three times as much nonwork-related information. In terms of media content, this generation of college students grew up with video games. And a growing body of research, including work done by my colleagues at Michigan, is establishing that exposure to violent media numbs people to the pain of others. Exposure to an increasingly hypercompetitive social environment might also contribute towards the apparent trend, the authors noted, as could a shift towards maintaining friendships online through social media sites, given that the ability to tune out and not respond when conversing online could translate into a learned behavior that in turn gets expressed face-to-face. 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] Sex and the City #2
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Me and my wife went to a press screening and didn't quite hate it. That's probably a function of having residual good will toward the four main characters. However, the movie has been blasted by the press in a way that has not been seen since Heaven's Gate or Ishtar. A lot of it is hypocritical complaining about the lavish life-style celebrated in the movie, as if the NY Times was not celebrating exactly that life-style on nearly every page. Here's a perceptive take by Matt Zoller Seitz: Sex and the City 2: Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is why they hate us. By Matt Zoller Seitz on 05/27/2010 A friend describes the Sex and the City films as Ladies' 'Star Wars.' The description isn't far off the mark -- not just because the TV series and the spinoff films are critic-proof revenue-generators, but also because Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her gal pals inhabit a universe so far removed from anything resembling reality that it might as well be science fiction. Picking up where the second film left off -- as if there were a story! -- Sex 2 revolves around Carrie's two-year-old and suddenly troubled marriage to the twice-divorced older hunk, Big (Chris Noth). And of course it features perfunctory detours into the lives of Carrie's best friends, Samantha (Kim Cattrall), who's over 50, still sexed-up, and ingesting dozens of vitamins a day; Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), who's struggling with a sexist boss and the demands of the domestic life that her work life forces her to neglect; and Charlotte (Kristin Davis), who's feeling beaten up by her life as a mom and worrying that her husband is about to have an affair with their big-titted Irish nanny. But really -- surprise! -- the film is all about the clothes, the food, and the real estate. Aside from a couple of moments that briefly remind you of the character- and acting-based charm that redeemed the series -- for instance, Miranda and Charlotte's drunken admissions that a lot of the time, being a parent flat-out sucks -- this film, like its predecessor, buries the smoldering embers of its nearly extinguished humanity beneath a mountain of gaudy baubles. full: http://www.ifc.com/news/2010/05/satc-2.php 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] Generation Me
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I've been saying for years that ideas and words don't measure these things. Until we have action--people in the streets--anecdotes about disaffection with capitalism are just that I'm also not (and never have been) that impressed with the political or other capacities of college students as a group... That said, I want to object to the glum generalizations this article presents...though it's very flattering to those of us produced by more empathetic days. The article on which this piece is based is online at http://sitemaker.umich.edu/skonrath/files/empathy_decline.pdf This presentation is not forthcoming with how it gathered data. They are probably doing surveys of some sort. It is evident that they did not do the research on the earlier years themselves and, therefore, probably did not do it the same way or ask the same questions. There's certainly no indication that they did so the same way. For example, are they doing this in groups, which will change how some of them answer. Even so, the meaning of words do shift over time and it's hard to say what people mean in their responses without knowing what they were actually asked. And this begs the question of whether students felt some social pressures earlier to answer the questions as if they experienced more empathy than they did. In fact, I note that the sampling in this case is based on having 63% of the sampling women. Going back some decades, women were expected to express more empathy than men. The survey, if that's what it was, probably measures the decline of this expectation more than anything else. 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
[Marxism] Strike in China Highlights Gap in Work ers’ Pay
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times May 28, 2010 Strike in China Highlights Gap in Workers’ Pay By KEITH BRADSHER and DAVID BARBOZA FOSHAN, China — After years of being pushed to work 12-hour days, six days a week on monotonous low-wage assembly line tasks, China’s workers are starting to push back. A strike at an enormous Honda transmission factory here in southeastern China has suddenly and unexpectedly turned into a symbol of this nation’s struggle with income inequality, rising inflation and soaring property prices that have put home ownership beyond the reach of all but the most affluent. And perhaps most remarkably, Chinese authorities let the strike happen — up to a point. In the kind of scene that more often plays out at strikes in America than at labor actions in China, print and television reporters from state-controlled media across the country have started covering the walkout here, even waiting outside the nearly deserted front gate on Thursday and Friday in hope of any news. All the Chinese reporters disappeared on Saturday morning, however, as the government, apparently nervous, suddenly imposed without explanation a blanket ban on domestic media coverage of the strike. A worker at a factory dormitory said on Saturday afternoon that the strike continued, and police were nowhere in sight at the factory or the dormitory. The authorities have been leery of letting the media report on labor disputes, fearing that it could encourage workers elsewhere to rebel. The new permissiveness, however temporary, coincides with growing sentiment among some officials and economists that Chinese workers deserve higher wages for their role in the country’s global export machine. And without higher incomes, hundreds of millions of Chinese will be unable to play their part in the domestic consumer spending boom on which this nation hopes to base its next round of economic growth. “This is all because there is a major political debate going on about how to deal with the nation’s growing income gap, and the need to do something about wages,” said Andreas Lauffs, a lawyer at Baker McKenzie who specializes in Chinese labor issues. If wages do rise, that could bring higher prices for Western consumers for goods as diverse as toys at Wal-Mart and iPads from Apple. The Chinese media may also have found it a little easier, politically, to cover this strike because Honda is a Japanese company, and anti-Japanese sentiment still simmers in China as a legacy of World War II. Certainly, the strike is hitting Honda hard, as the resulting shortage of transmissions and other engine parts has forced the company to halt production at all four of its assembly plants in China. Honda has an annual capacity of 650,000 cars and minivans in China, like Jazz subcompacts for export to Europe and Accord sedans for the Chinese market. Because Honda’s prices in China are similar to what it charges in the United States, the cars tend to be far out of reach financially for most of the workers who make them. A Honda spokeswoman declined to discuss specific issues in the strike negotiations. The intense media coverage may evoke historical memories of the 1980 shipyard strike in Gdansk, Poland, that gave rise to the Solidarity movement and paved the way for the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. But the reality here is much different. Instead of tens of thousands of grizzled and angry shipyard workers, the Honda strike involves about 1,900 mostly cheerful young people. And the employees interviewed say their goal is more money, not a larger political agenda. “If they give us 800 renminbi a month, we’ll go back to work right away,” said one young man, describing a pay increase that would add about $117 a month to an average pay that is now around $150 monthly. He said he had read on the Internet of considerably higher wages at other factories in China and expected Honda to match them with an immediate pay increase. Many workers at other factories in southeastern China already earn $300 a month, but they do so only through considerable overtime. And even that higher income is not enough to embark on the middle-class dream in China of owning a small apartment and subcompact car. Officially, though, the government is discouraging heavy reliance on overtime, and workers here said that Honda was not assigning much. The strikers said that Honda mainly hired recent graduates of high schools or vocational schools. And so, most are in their late teens or early 20s, representing a new generation of employees, many of whom had not been born when the Chinese authorities suppressed protests by students and workers in Tiananmen Square in 1989 — a watershed event whose 21st anniversary falls next
[Marxism] A Dutch guerrilla in Colombia
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times May 28, 2010 Dutch Guerrilla in Colombia Leaves Puzzling Trail By SIMON ROMERO BOGOTÁ, Colombia THE personnel file compiled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on Guerrilla No. 608372 seems mundane at first. It says she was born on Feb. 13, 1978, taught languages in Pereira and Manizales, and in 2002 joined the Antonio Nariño urban warfare cell in Bogotá, from which she received explosives training. A photograph shows an alluring young woman in a beret. Nom de guerre: Alexandra. But as a cache of documents captured by Colombian security forces from a guerrilla redoubt in 2009 confirms, this was no ordinary rebel. The file is a new piece of the puzzle surrounding the woman, whose real name is Tanja Nijmeijer and who is capturing the imagination of her adopted land, Colombia, and her home country, the Netherlands. “She’s one of the most fascinating figures in our long war, present at many of its critical junctures over the last decade,” said León Valencia, a former guerrilla here and one of the authors of a newly published book about Ms. Nijmeijer. The book and a separate documentary, which was broadcast this month on Dutch television, are adding to Ms. Nijmeijer’s complex tale, contending that the Dutch-born guerrilla is not only alive but has risen to the inner circle of the rebel group, known as the FARC, as a personal assistant to Víctor Suárez, a top commander better known as Mono Jojoy. Raised in the village of Denekamp in the north of the Netherlands, Ms. Nijmeijer took up radical politics as a student of Spanish in Groningen, a university city, where she joined its squatter scene. From there she went in search of adventure a decade ago to Colombia, then in the throes of the ugly war that continues at a reduced level of intensity to this day. After a short while, she chose a side, joined the FARC and in 2003 vanished into Colombia’s jungles. The world might never have heard of Ms. Nijmeijer, now 32. But Colombian soldiers chanced upon her diaries, handwritten in Dutch, in a FARC camp raided in 2007, which caused a sensation here that year, offering a rare window into daily life within the FARC. In some entries, she described the boredom of the guerrillas, living in the hinterlands, far from cities. In others, she longed for her family in the Netherlands. In yet others she described her sexual escapades with fellow rebels, while lambasting the domination of female recruits by their male commanders. Throughout her writings, she touched repeatedly on a theme that seemed to vex the rebels themselves: whether they stood for anything anymore, having evolved from their idealistic origins into a force that comfortably financed itself from the drug trade and survived by kidnappings, extortion and the forced recruitment of children as combatants. “How will it be when we take power?” Ms. Nijmeijer asked in one entry. “The wives of the commanders in Ferrari Testa Rossas with breast implants eating caviar?” Ms. Nijmeijer, then said to have adopted the code name “Eillen,” lamented that rank-and-file guerrillas like herself had to be content with the occasional treat of a bag of potato chips and bottle of soda pop. She bristled, “Sometimes I want to stop following orders from a bunch of sexists who try to kill birds with assault rifles.” Not much was heard from Ms. Nijmeijer after the disclosure of her writings, save for a video from 2005 obtained by Colombian officials and broadcast on television here. The images showed her in fatigues, flashing a smile and asking her parents to forgive her for disappearing into this country’s war. SIMILAR tales of adventurers from wealthy countries who move to Latin America to assist armed revolutionary movements rarely end well. For instance, New York’s Lori Berenson finally emerged this week from 14 years in Peruvian prisons for aiding a plot by the Túpac Amaru rebel group. Before that there was William Morgan, the Ohio-born gunrunner who fought with Fidel Castro before being executed as a traitor when the Cuban Revolution began eating its own. Ms. Nijmeijer’s odyssey from Dutch bourgeois comfort to remote Latin American encampments puzzles many, including her own family. “She’s a member of an organization that takes hostages and deals in drugs, there’s no denying that,” her aunt, Mariette Olde Dubbelink, said by telephone from Denekamp. “This is a very difficult situation for us,” said Ms. Dubbelink, who speaks on behalf of Ms. Nijmeijer’s family. “We don’t know if she is alive or not. That is the big question.” In January, Colombian military officials told Ms. Nijmeijer’s family that the FARC had mentioned in their radio communications a woman called Holanda. That was proof,
[Marxism] Lula to Obama: Drop Dead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Joaquín, A couple of weeks ago, Lula did an interview for Al Jazeera's English language station. In response to the reporters question of why Brazil is getting involved with Iran, he adamantly said: Don't think I'm traveling comfortably outside my home. But I lived the Iraq experience and Iraq was a lie, Iraq was a lie with the U.S. government saying there was chemical weapons there... Seeing Turkey, Brazil, and Iran broker a nuclear fuel swap agreement reminds me of the heyday of the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement). Of course, there's a difference: Turkey and Brazil are far more economically and politically significant today than the semi-colonial countries who navigated between the U.S. and Soviet Union during the Cold War. Lula may not be a leftist, we can hate him for sending U.N. blue helmets to Haiti, or for trampling over the land of Amazonian Indians, but his diplomatic gambit to prevent a U.S. and European assault on Iran deserves our respect. Similarly, Turkey, just as they denied the U.S. request to use their nation for basing in the Iraq War, has come out looking like a bastion of anti-imperialism. It's always interesting to see how the U.S. media deals with unorthodox situations where supposed allies act more independently than usual. There's typically a period of confusion and *obfuscation*, in which the intransigent partner's actions are downplayed or ridiculed, but not demonized outright. If things get bad enough, the latter option is resorted to. 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] Lula to Obama: Drop Dead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 5/29/10, Suresh borhyae...@yahoo.com wrote: Lula may not be a leftist, we can hate him for sending U.N. blue helmets to Haiti, or for trampling over the land of Amazonian Indians, but his diplomatic gambit to prevent a U.S. and European assault on Iran deserves our respect. Similarly, Turkey, just as they denied the U.S. request to use their nation for basing in the Iraq War, has come out looking like a bastion of anti-imperialism. Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but isn't this just further evidence of the decline in influence of the U.S. that Lula can speak so boldly and these countries can carry out this transactopm and the US really can do nothing about it? 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] Ken MacLeod on a novel about Kantrovich
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Sat, 29 May 2010 07:28:32 -0400 Andrew Pollack acpolla...@gmail.com writes: This sounds like an important book. I'd want to know more about Gluschov, though (and hopefully will after I get the book), and what alternative he posed. Because Kantorovich's proposals on pricing reform were, as Mandel points out in Marxist Economic Theory, abstract suggestions to make then-popular market reforms more efficient. But those market reforms themselves didn't address the major problem: the frustration of planning by the restriction of far more basic and simple calculations, because the bureaucracy at each level was hiding information from itself (the central planners for instance, gave unrealistic orders to factory heads based on arbitrary decisions and the factory heads lied about their having fulfilled their part of the plan. And the workers were just told to shut up about the whole thing). Even with today's computing power, the Liberman reforms, which the Kantorovich proposals were meant to aid, would merely have provided feedback from more accurate pricing to a system headed back toward capitalism if the reforms were allowed to follow their own logic. And of course more accurate pricing even with the best computers was irrelevant to the anti-Liberman forces. What was missing was workers' control. And as Mandel points out there and elsewhere, the number of decisions needed to be made at each level of the economy once workers really control it are actually far fewer. Nonetheless, the TRILLIONS of trades made on the day of the stock exchanges' flash crash last month show once again that computing power is no longer an issue. PS to Jim: the end of your comment got cut off when you sent it. I think I meant to say that Ken (and Paul Cockshott and others) in the comments following the blog make the point that Kantorovich developed some effective responses to von Mises and Hayek concerning the socialist calculation problem. And the comments of Ken, Paul, and the others, do suggest that Kantorovich's proposals could not have worked unless the Soviet Union had also implemented some degree of workers' control. Andrew's point about the Soviet burearcracy itself acting as a major impediment to the realization of rational economic point is one that Hayek and Mises would have concurred with. But as Andrew also points out the implementation of workers control in the Soviet Union would have offered an alternative to the neoliberal proposals of Hayek and Mises. And Hayek's contention that a centrallly planned state socialist economy like the former Soviet Union would be afflicted with the dispersal of unarticulated economic knowledge that would be unavailable to the planners is matched in capitalist economies by a similar dispersal of unarticulated economic knowledge among workers, which is likewise unavailable for use by capitalists. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant Penny Stock Jumping 2000% Sign up to the #1 voted penny stock newsletter for free today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4c012b6fa0c903d602m03vuc 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] Lula to Obama: Drop Dead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Give it time, comrades. Remember how a couple of years ago, many were talking about the euro replacing the dollar; and how the real reason from the US invasion of Iraq was that Iraq was threatening to switch to euros for oil payments? Remember how many were a-twitter over the trade agreements between Mercosul and the EU, with the EU representating a kindler gentler trading partner in comparison to the US? Now the EU, as a union, has agreed to accept IMF approval before it provides funds from its euro 750 billion emergency program to any member of the union requesting such funds. Remember just a couple of years ago when Brazil's banks stopped providing letters of credit and financing Brazil's exports and imports, preserving dollars, so much so that the central bank had to undertake direct lending to exporters, and the US Fed opened up a unrestricted currency swap line with Brazil's central bank to keep trade from cratering? Remember how China was going to rattle its Treasury holdings like a saber over the heads of the US and demand this and that blah blah blah? Maybe not. Maybe everybody forgets these things.Like they've forgotton about peak oil, and the looming shortages with oil at $300/barrel that were just around the corner as we're on the dowhill side of hydrocarbon supplies, sure we are. I guess amnesia is a critical component to capitalist reproduction. What is being uncovered in the current machinations is not the decline of the US vis-a-vis Brazil, or Europe, or China, but the previous myth of US hegemony; US unilateral ability to dictate all things to all countries at all times. And still, Lula funds and staffs the US/UN oppression of Haiti, along with Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia. I think Lula is acting upon the wishes of the Brazilian bourgeoisie who don't want to lose their markets when the US decides to light up the Persian Gulf again. You think we should applaud him, and his class, for that? For playing tweedle-dee to Obama's tweedle-dum? 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] [Fwd: Rally 6/4 for the IUE-CWA 81359 workers!]
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Forwarded Message From: Capital District Area Labor Federation cdalf.afl...@gmail.com Reply-To: cdalf.alf...@gmail.com Subject: Rally 6/4 for the IUE-CWA 81359 workers! Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 10:33:27 -0400 (EDT) Dear Jon, Over one year ago the wages of workers at IUE-CWA 81359 were cut by up to 50% and seniority rights destroyed. Now they are heading into contract negotiations with the same management team that broke the current contract. The workers, contract team and management at Momentive need to see the support of the Capital District Labor movement in this struggle. Over the past year Local 81359 members and leadership have been on every picket line and rally in force. Sometimes even bringing an enitre bus load! United We Stand, Divided We Fall! We need You! Friday June 4th anytime between 2-5pm. Click here for directions and to sign up. Everyone is invited to join the workers in celebrating afterwords at Costanzo's. Click here to unsubscribe 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] Who are the real crazies in our political culture?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Greenwald on Paul Who are the real crazies in our political culture? Source: salon.com One of the favorite self-affirming pastimes of establishment Democratic and Republican pundits is to mock anyone and everyone outside of the two-party mainstream as crazy, sick lunatics. That serves to bolster the two political parties as the sole arbiters of what is acceptable: anyone who meaningfully deviates from their orthodoxies are, by definition, fringe, crazy losers. Ron Paul is one of those most frequently smeared in that fashion, and even someone like Howard Dean, during those times when he stepped outside of mainstream orthodoxy, was similarlysmeared as literally insane, and still is. Last night, the crazy, hateful, fringe lunatic Ron Paul voted to repeal the Clinton-era Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy (or, more accurately, he voted to allow the Pentagon to repeal it if and when it chooses to) -- while26 normal, sane, upstanding, mainstream House Democrats voted to retain that bigoted policy. Paulexplained today that he changed his mind on DADTbecause gay constituents of his who were forced out of the military convinced him of the policy's wrongness -- how insane and evil he is! In 2003, the crank lunatic-monster Ron Paul vehemently opposed the invasion of Iraq, while countless sane, normal, upstanding, good- hearted Democrats -- including the current Vice President,Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Senate Majority Leader, House Majority Leader, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and many of the progressivepundits who love to scorn Ron Paul as insane --supported the monstrous attack on that country. In 2008, the sicko Ron Paul opposed the legalization of Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program and the granting of retroactive immunity to lawbreaking telecoms, while the Democratic Congress -- led by the current U.S. President, his Chief of Staff, the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the House, and the House Majority Leader -- overwhelmingly voted it into law. Paul, who apparently belongs in a mental hospital,vehemently condemned America's use of torture from the start, while many leading Democrats were silent (oreven supportive), and mainstream, sane ProgressiveNewsweek and MSNBC pundit Jonathan Alter wasexplicitly calling for its use. Compare Paul's February, 2010 emphatic condemnation of America's denial of habeas corpus, lawless detentions and presidential assassinations of U.S. citizens to what the current U.S. Government is doing. The crazed monster Ron Paul also opposes the war in Afghanistan, while the Democratic Congress continues to fund it and even to reject timetables for withdrawal. Paul is an outspoken opponent of the nation's insane, devastating and oppressive drug war -- that imprisons hundreds of thousands of Americans with a vastly disparate racial impact and continuously incinerates both billions of dollars and an array of basic liberties -- while virtually no Democrat dares speak against it. Paul crusades against limitless corporate control of government and extreme Federal Reserve secrecy, while the current administration works to preserve it. He was warning of the collapsing dollar and housing bubble at a time when our Nation's Bipartisan Cast of Geniuses were oblivious. In sum, behold the embodiment of clinical, certifiable insanity: anti-DADT, anti-Iraq-war, anti- illegal-domestic-surveillance, anti-drug-war, anti-secrecy, anti- corporatism, anti-telecom-immunity, anti-war-in-Afghanistan. There's no question that Ron Paul holds some views that are wrong, irrational and even odious. But that's true for just about every single politician in both major political parties (just look at the condition of the U.S. if you doubt that; and note how Ron Paul's anti- abortion views render him an Untouchable for progressives while Harry Reid's anti-abortion views permit him to be a Progressive hero and even Senate Majority Leader). My point isn't that Ron Paul is not crazy; it's that those who self-righteously apply that label to him and to others invariably embrace positions and support politicians at least as crazy. Indeed, those who support countless insane policies and/or who support politicians in their own party who do -- from the Iraq War to the Drug War, from warrantless eavesdropping and denial of habeas corpus to presidential assassinations and endless war in the Muslim world -- love to spit the crazy label at anyone who falls outside of the two-party establishment. * * * * * This behavior is partially driven by the adolescent/high-school version of authoritarianism (anyone who deviates from the popular cliques
[Marxism] The train derailment in West Bengal
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I might write a longer email about the complex relationship between the CPI(Maoist) and PCAPA. Note that I mentioned the denial of the PCAPA for the reason that many voices in the mainstream media have attributed the derailment to PCAPA. It is therefore of import to observe that PCAPA has denied involvement. Denials have also been issued by the CPI(Maoist) itself; BBC Hindi carried a report of a press statement of the CPI(Maoist). At any rate, you cannot in good faith continue to evade the question of the CPI(M). Why? Quaintly, it is not mentioned in much reportage regarding the derailment that the area from Saradiha to Khemashuli, where the derailment occurred, is not within the Maoist zone of influence although some reports do appear in Bengali media. Nor is it a base area of the CPI(Maoist) in the strict sense to the term. Jungal Mahal consists of a mural of zones of influence irrespective of attempts at oversimplification. In point of fact, the Saradiha area is a CPI(M) stronghold. It would be difficult for outsiders to commit such sabotage without the CPI(M)'s knowledge. One probable consequence of this derailment will be an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as was recently reported in the Times of India. In view of upcoming elections, various political elements will attempt to exploit the results of the investigation as leverage against their adversaries. In particular, the CPI(M) and Trinamool will continue to peddle rubbish with a view to gaining electoral advantage against each other. The Centre will attempt to use the CBI probe as leverage in order to discipline the Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M). There will be no closure for the victims. epoliticus 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] About the train incident in India
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Both the CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA have denied their involvement in the Friday train derailmenthttp://icawpi.org/en/peoples-resistance/statements/467-both-the-cpi-maoist-and-pcapa-have-denied-their-involvement-in-the-friday-train-derailment http://icawpi.org/en/peoples-resistance/statements/467-both-the-cpi-maoist-and-pcapa-have-denied-their-involvement-in-the-friday-train-derailmentYesterday's( 28 May 2010) Gnaneshwari Express and a goods train tragedy near Kharagpur in West Bengal in which 80 people were killed and 200 injured was attributed to CPI(Maoist) and Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) by the media. The media unscrupulously played false news stories blaming CPI (Maoist) and Peoples Committee for two days. Some political parties like Trinomial Congress and the ruling CPI(Marxist) also blamed these organisations without any verification. Significantly Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has declined to attribute the blame on the CPI (Maoist) and also announced that there was no evidence of any bomb blast in the incident. The Union Home Minister has ordered an enquiry to find out any possibility of sabotage. During the day the leaders of CPI (Maoist) clarified through a long statement that they were not responsible for the train tragedy and condemned any possible sabotage work if any force involved behind the incident. They have also expressed their condolences for the families of deceased. The PCAPA also clarified that their activists are not involved in this incident. They suspected the ruling CPI(Marxist) to have been involved in the sabotage desperately trying to tilt the public opinion against the fighting forces. Purposefully the media did not cover the statement issued by the CPI (Maoist) while playing the false stories and commentaries blaming the CPI (Maoist) for the incident. Some all India newspapers like The Hindu wrote editorials blaming the CPI (Maoist) for the incident. Many other newspapers wrote major articles decrying the CPI (Maoist) as terrorist attributing the blame on them. Now when the clarifications come from CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA, will these media houses withdraw their false stories and give the facts to the people? Will they regret for propagating the false news? These two days of false propaganda is made with a malicious intension of maligning the CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA. I attach here news reports covering the statement of clarification from the CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA by a section of newspapers in West Bengal. The same newspaper didn't cover it in their editions coming from all other cities. G N Saibaba Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) *Statement on Train(Jnaneswari Express) accident by the Maoists* The following report was published in the Bengali *Ananda Bazar Patrike* dt. 29 May 2010, page 7, Kolkata edition. It bore the caption 'Denying allegations about their involvement, the Maoists demand enquiry' and written by Prasun Acharyya. The statement was issued in the name of Aakash, the Maoist WB State Committee leader. On Friday night, the following statement was issued on behalf of the CPI(Maoist) WB State Committee. We are in no way involved in this incident. We did not carry out any explosion in the railway line. Killing innocent people by sabotaging railway line is not our agenda. When we carry out any action, there are always some specific reasons behind. We also acknowledge responsibility for that. Whenever we commit mistakes we admit it. However, responsibility is being placed on us now for an incident in which we are in no way involved. Accusing the CPI(Marxist) of putting blame on them the Maoists said The CPI(M) is haunted by the prospect of a landslide defeat in the coming municipal elections. Thus they have opted for a strategy of killing two birds with a single stone. On the one hand, attempts are being made to brand us as terrorists and thus isolate us from the people. On the other hand, they are seeking to prove that Mamata Banerjee is completely misfit as the railway minister. The Maoists did not directly state that the CPI(M) was involved in the incident. But what they said is: In the coming days also such unfortunate incidents can take place in order to malign Mamata and the Maoists. The WB State Committee of the Maoists strongly condemned this act and stated: This act deserves unequivocal condemnation. We are extending our sympathies to the members of the bereaved families. We also wish the speedy recovery of those who are injured. Meanwhile, the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities has accused the CPI(M) of being involved in it. In reply to a query, the Maoists said: We are not accountable for whatever one might say. We are not saying that the CPI(M) was involved in it. Let the railways make
Re: [Marxism] Lula to Obama: Drop Dead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks for the analysis, Artesian. Never doubted Lula's national capitalist inclinations and would never dream of applauding him, and his class, for that. I just found the inter-capitalist tensions interesting and telling about changing relationships. I think Lula is acting upon the wishes of the Brazilian bourgeoisie who don't want to lose their markets when the US decides to light up the Persian Gulf again. You think we should applaud him, and his class, for that? For playing tweedle-dee to Obama's tweedle-dum? Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/mtomas3%40hotmail.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] Lula to Obama: Drop Dead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I don't think there's any question but that we're seeing the impact of these internal tensions among the capitalists. And all of this is good. The austerity measures won't ultimately solve the problems and they'll keep pushing. As workers in some countries push back, the various countries are going to tend to want to impose whatever they think they can get away with... If this is even broadly correct, the American working class with it's neon kick me sign is going to make itself a remarkably obvious target. 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
[Marxism] About the train incident in India
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == *Both the CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA have denied their involvement in the Friday train derailment * http://icawpi.org/en/peoples-resistance/statements/467-both-the-cpi-maoist-and-pcapa-have-denied-their-involvement-in-the-friday-train-derailmentYesterday's( 28 May 2010) Gnaneshwari Express and a goods train tragedy near Kharagpur in West Bengal in which 80 people were killed and 200 injured was attributed to CPI(Maoist) and Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) by the media. The media unscrupulously played false news stories blaming CPI (Maoist) and Peoples Committee for two days. Some political parties like Trinomial Congress and the ruling CPI(Marxist) also blamed these organisations without any verification. Significantly Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has declined to attribute the blame on the CPI (Maoist) and also announced that there was no evidence of any bomb blast in the incident. The Union Home Minister has ordered an enquiry to find out any possibility of sabotage. During the day the leaders of CPI (Maoist) clarified through a long statement that they were not responsible for the train tragedy and condemned any possible sabotage work if any force involved behind the incident. They have also expressed their condolences for the families of deceased. The PCAPA also clarified that their activists are not involved in this incident. They suspected the ruling CPI(Marxist) to have been involved in the sabotage desperately trying to tilt the public opinion against the fighting forces. Purposefully the media did not cover the statement issued by the CPI (Maoist) while playing the false stories and commentaries blaming the CPI (Maoist) for the incident. Some all India newspapers like The Hindu wrote editorials blaming the CPI (Maoist) for the incident. Many other newspapers wrote major articles decrying the CPI (Maoist) as terrorist attributing the blame on them. Now when the clarifications come from CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA, will these media houses withdraw their false stories and give the facts to the people? Will they regret for propagating the false news? These two days of false propaganda is made with a malicious intension of maligning the CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA. I attach here news reports covering the statement of clarification from the CPI (Maoist) and PCAPA by a section of newspapers in West Bengal. The same newspaper didn't cover it in their editions coming from all other cities. G N Saibaba Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) *Statement on Train(Jnaneswari Express) accident by the Maoists* The following report was published in the Bengali *Ananda Bazar Patrike* dt. 29 May 2010, page 7, Kolkata edition. It bore the caption 'Denying allegations about their involvement, the Maoists demand enquiry' and written by Prasun Acharyya. The statement was issued in the name of Aakash, the Maoist WB State Committee leader. On Friday night, the following statement was issued on behalf of the CPI(Maoist) WB State Committee. We are in no way involved in this incident. We did not carry out any explosion in the railway line. Killing innocent people by sabotaging railway line is not our agenda. When we carry out any action, there are always some specific reasons behind. We also acknowledge responsibility for that. Whenever we commit mistakes we admit it. However, responsibility is being placed on us now for an incident in which we are in no way involved. Accusing the CPI(Marxist) of putting blame on them the Maoists said The CPI(M) is haunted by the prospect of a landslide defeat in the coming municipal elections. Thus they have opted for a strategy of killing two birds with a single stone. On the one hand, attempts are being made to brand us as terrorists and thus isolate us from the people. On the other hand, they are seeking to prove that Mamata Banerjee is completely misfit as the railway minister. The Maoists did not directly state that the CPI(M) was involved in the incident. But what they said is: In the coming days also such unfortunate incidents can take place in order to malign Mamata and the Maoists. The WB State Committee of the Maoists strongly condemned this act and stated: This act deserves unequivocal condemnation. We are extending our sympathies to the members of the bereaved families. We also wish the speedy recovery of those who are injured. Meanwhile, the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities has accused the CPI(M) of being involved in it. In reply to a query, the Maoists said: We are not accountable for whatever one might say. We are not saying that the CPI(M) was involved in it. Let the railways make enquiry. The members of our party have made investigation after the incident. It was the removal of fish plates that led to the accident.
[Marxism] Train in India.
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == RE: Confirming it, Com Khokan representing the State Committee leader Akash of CPI(Maoist) said, We are not at all involved in this incident. We do not kill innocent people. Fearing losing its rule, this is a ploy by CPI(M) to kill two birds with one stone. To paint the Maoists as terrorists and to declare the Railway minister, Mamata Banerjee as incapable. Even before this when the Rajdhani met with an accident, the State government pointed the finger on us. Our State Committee fully condemns this act. We share the pain with the families of the deceased and stand by them in this hour of grief. It is confusing. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are both CPIM. The former are the Maoists, the latter are the largest parliamentary Communist party. Com. Khokan, in an article posted by Christos Mais says that it is the CPIM, the parliamentary Communists, who did the bomb blast or removed the fishplates. Below, I have pasted a statement by the Politbureau member of the CPIM, Sitaram Yechury. See below, the statement by MP Sitaram Yechury. Rail Accident - Charges against the CPI(M) Date: 29 May 2010 Sitaram Yechury, Member, Polit Bureau of CPI(M) has issued the following statement from New Delhi: Instead of joining the collective efforts to provide relief and assistance to the victims of the recent ghastly rail accident in West Midnapore, sections of the pro-Trinamul Congress intellectuals in West Bengal have mounted an absurd and insidious charge against the CPI (M) and the Left Front Government that they conspired to cause this accident. This is reminiscent of Hitler and Nazi fascists setting the German Reichstag on fire and arresting Dimitrov, General Secretary of the Communist International on that charge. This was followed by a general witch-hunt against the Communists in Germany. What is more surprising is that the Union Railway Minister has virtually echoed similar charges against the CPI (M) and the Left Front Government in West Bengal. As the Railway Minister it is her basic duty, to be discharged under the oath of our Constitution that she took while assuming office, to inform the country about the Ministry¹s preliminary observations on the cause of the accident. She has rather chosen to shield the actual culprits by suggesting that the Maoists may not be behind the sabotage. This is indeed strange that she is saying all this while continuing to demand a CBI enquiry when the State Government has already initiated a CID enquiry. The Union Railway Minister continues to maintain that there was a blast that led to the accident, while the Union Home Minister has denied that possibility. It is clear that the Union Railway Minister is seeking to cover up for the serious lapses of her leadership in the Railway Ministry and its failings in this tragic episode. During the five months of this year the number of major Railway accidents has been more than in any calendar year since 1980. It is indeed tragic that instead of joining the country in the wake of a national tragedy these elements are cynically using the situation to further their petty partisan interests. All this is being done in order to influence public opinion on the eve of the municipality elections in West Bengal. The politically conscious people of West Bengal will surely see through this conspiracy and give a fitting rebuff to these diabolical designs. 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] Lula to Obama: Drop Dead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I think capitalism generally winds up digging the most where it finds the softest ground. You get some of the worst environmental policies and the worst industrial safety policies where the state of the labor movement and the public mind accepts it most readily. Public health always does better, even under that same state laws, in areas like northern Ohio where you have a labor movement with teeth and liberals in office than you have around here where they can keep the public discourse focused on putting the Ten Commandments on their lawns. If they do what they did at Love Canal, they have problems. If they do what they did at Fernald, they have people glowing in the dark bitching about gay marriage. What this observation means for the austerity measures is that they will probably make the cuts most viciously and deeply where people will accept them most readily. But we'll see 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] Marxism Digest, Vol 79, Issue 75
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Evets is Steve spelled backwards. HB Message: 1 Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 20:40:59 -0400 From: Louis Proyect l...@panix.com Subject: [Marxism] Packing a gun Music video performed by Dr Freaks Padded Cell, the band led by Steve Evets, the star of Ken Loach's Looking for Eric. With a guest performance by Mark E. Smith, the leader of The Fall, a band that Evets used to be a member of, along with perhaps 10,000 other Brits. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2694706650574639351# _ The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_3 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-Thaxis] Obama's grade on energy policy: F minus minus
Americans still don't have health care, the US military still occupies Iraq, its occupation of Afghanistan has expanded, and Obama pulled a real bonehead move earlier this year when he announced a reversal--a total boneheaded flipflop on offshore drilling--and gave the likes of T. Boone Pickens (oil industry hedge fund operator now) and Transocean (the company that owned and operated and leased Deepwater Horizon to BP), at least temporarily, a huge profit from capital gains. T. Boone was on CNN, but he didn't divulge that his hedge fund's most valuable holding was the company that gave us the Deepwater Horizon disaster. BTW Transocean is HQd in Geneva for tax purposes, but it is most thoroughly an American company. The clock is now ticking for the new commander in the buck stops here chief. There is enough oil in that resevoir that BP and Transocean were tapping into to poison all the oceans of the world. Hint: predator drones and the 10th mountain division aren't going to save our asses on this one. I'm wondering if Goldman Sachs isn't now trying to figure out if they should make artificial shorts on end of the world scenarios. http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=88985 T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman of Dallas-based BP Capital LLC, spoke with Bloomberg's Margaret Brennan yesterday about President Barack Obama's pledge to expand offshore oil and natural gas drilling and the outlook for U.S. energy policy. The president wants to permit exploration in parts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean not previously offered to companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., the country's largest energy producer. Naturally, T. Boone Pickens’s hedge fund is full of Oil Gas companies: No. 1: Transocean Inc. (RIG), Weightings: 12.76% - 345,980 Shares Transocean LTD., formerly Transocean Inc., is an international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. Transocean Inc. has a market cap of $27.78 billion; its shares were traded at around $86.38 with a P/E ratio of 7.6 and P/S ratio of 2.4. Transocean Inc. had an annual average earning growth of 22% over the past 10 years. http://streetauthority.com/a/how-obama-instantly-created-22-billion-investor-wealth-1244 The action added at least $1.5 billion in market value to the offshore drilling industry's major players. President George W. Bush might have been an oilman -- and, to be fair, he did try to open up some areas for drilling -- but it's Barack Obama who today snapped his fingers and added nearly $1 billion in market cap to Transocean (NYSE: RIG), the leading offshore drilling company. Transocean, for example, which operates 138 mobile offshore drilling rigs, grew its earnings from $0.22 a share in 2003 to an astonishing $12.48 last year, a gain of +5,572.7%. That's reflected in its historical earnings multiple, which is more than 40 times earnings for the past five years. That kind of earnings growth is possible again. The shares are up nearly +47% in the past year. Diamond Offshore has had similarly strong earnings growth, with an average price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of more than 30 during the past five years. http://www.onn.tv/daily-trading-ideas/transocean-ltd-nyse-rig-cash-secured-put/ The market tends to begin to price things in early. Yesterday, President Obama proposed opening drilling along Atlantic coastline, east of the Gulf of Mexico, and north of Alaska. Even if this proposal is approved, actual drilling would likely not take place for several years. The largest benefactors would likely be the offshore drilling industry, in which Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) has a large fleet of deep-water rigs and Jackups for shallow water. Since this would be more long term, the IGP has targeted a cash-secured put if you want to begin acquiring stock. RIG Cash-Secured Put Trade Details: RIG shares are trading at $88.24, up $1.86 today. http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Our-History-3.html 2000 2000 was a key year in Global Marine’s expansion of its ultra-deepwater fleet. In April, the Glomar C.R. Luigs arrived in the Gulf of Mexico and began drilling her first well for BHP Petroleum. In December, the Glomar Jack Ryan was completed and began drilling her first well in Trinidad under a three-year contract with ExxonMobil. 2001 Discoverer Spirit twice breaks the world water-depth record. 9,727 feet of water 9,687 feet of water. Discoverer Spirit sets world record for deepest subsea completion. 7,209 feet of water. Transocean Sedco Forex Inc. and RB Falcon Corporation combine to form the world's largest offshore drilling contractor. Global Marine and Santa Fe International merge to become GlobalSantaFe Corporation, the second largest drilling contractor in the world. Santa Fe executed contracts with PPL Shipyard PTE, Ltd. of Singapore for the construction of two high-performance jackup rigs and two ultra-deepwater semi-submersible rigs with options for additional drilling units. Construction began during the first
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Thailand
On Sat, 29 May 2010 11:07:54 +0900 CeJ jann...@gmail.com writes: I find some similarity between post-war developing Japan and current Thailand. Yes, the class war is real. Yes, it largely contests the future of the Thai national development state (which is doing better than Philippines or Indonesia, but is not keeping up with Malaysia, and has been left way behind by S. Korea and Taiwan). The red shirts resent a national development state that favors a handful of large cities and resort tourism. To some extent Japan pre-empted such a struggle by making sure to develop the countryside thoroughly. A coke machine by every rice paddy, if you will. In Japan wasn't land reform imposed by the American occupation under MacArthur? I don't see much potential in a movement that chooses as its leader a bourgeois entrepreneur and influence marketer who looks like a baby buddha. If the movement loses this puke, then I'll take another look. From what I can see what's been going on in Thailand is a class struggle accompanied by a split in that country's ruling economic and political elites. Besides the billionaire entrepreneur they had at least one general (who was assasinated) and apparently at least some degree of support within the country's security forces. When the government decided to suppress the red shirts, there were reports of clashes between different army and police units. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant CJ Penny Stock Jumping 2000% Sign up to the #1 voted penny stock newsletter for free today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4c012d57efb943d678m03vuc ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Thailand
JF: In Japan wasn't land reform imposed by the American occupation under MacArthur? This is what I've read from all the standard sources (like Reischauer). It seems to have created the Japanese equivalent of the Republican-voting dairy farmer of the MidAtlantic US. They hold a few rice paddies and vote for the conservative elements of what ever party prevails--usually LDP but also Komeito. From what I can see what's been going on in Thailand is a class struggle accompanied by a split in that country's ruling economic and political elites. Besides the billionaire entrepreneur they had at least one general (who was assasinated) and apparently at least some degree of support within the country's security forces. When the government decided to suppress the red shirts, there were reports of clashes between different army and police units. Yes, there was talk of a civil war, but I doubt it. I'm not even sure who killed the general. You have to remember that any government organ like security forces or military will draw heavily on the very sort of people who will identify with the red shirts. Also, any successful 'national development state' will recruit and indoctrinate people outside the current elite as the elite expands. So it would seem the establishment was split on what to do about the protests. But if I'm reading the situation right, the silence of the king means the anti-red elements did what most of the establishment supported, however reluctantly. In such a situation we see Thailand is not that different from S. Korea or Taiwan in its authoritarian approaches to dealing with dissent. I think another factor is unease over the economy because Thailand suffered a lot in the 96-98 crisis and the current global crisis looks to be still unfolding as a global crisis. Another factor to consider is the Muslims in the south. Thaksin's actions against them were brutal and creating far too much tension with Malaysia and Indonesia. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
