Re: [Marxism] Jerusalem Post: the 'Rachel Corrie' had been boarded
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Yeah, like that's going to happen. M. (a former UNITE HERE! organizer BTW) P.S. don't put too much faith in a business union. On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 1:56 AM, S. Artesian sartes...@earthlink.net wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Might be intersting if UNITE refused to staff British Airways' flights to Tel Aviv, no? - Original Message - From: Jay Moore piein...@igc.org Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/marcelthemaoist%40gmail.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Sex and the City 2
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Joaquín Bustelo wrote: Not only don't I find it funny, I don't understand how someone over the age of 12 might find it funny. Seems to be perennial, doesn't it, this question of humor? One hears it all the time -- I don't see how anybody finds X funny. Oddly, one seldom hears the exact counterpart line -- I don't see how anybody finds Y unfunny. We can all imagine somebody finding something unfunny that we find funny, but it's very hard to imagine finding something funny that we find unfunny. Interesting. The two positions tend to get overgeneralized. The person who finds X funny is said to have low tastes, or a bad character. The person who finds Y unfunny is said to have no sense of humor. -- Michael Smith m...@smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com Everyone has his favorite passage from the Theodosian Code. -- M I Finley 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] Dignity and Solidarity: A Gift From Edward Said
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == New Post: Dignity and Solidarity: A Gift From Edward Said http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/dignity-and-solidarity/ _ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendarocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5 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] Jerusalem Post: the 'Rachel Corrie' had been boarded
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have no faith whatsoever. I was being a bit sarcastic. - Original Message - From: Mikhail Rodsky marcelthemao...@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
[Marxism] Latino faces too dark for mural
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == ¡No quieren vernos ni pintados! Arizona School Asks That Black And Latino Faces On Mural Be Lightened http://www.mediaite.com/online/arizona-school-asks-that-black-and-latino-faces-on-mural-to-be-lightened/ When Arizona introduced its new immigration law, aimed toward battling illegal immigration, its many critics–including President Obama–angrily protested, claiming it was racist (or that it would encourage racism). Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vehemently denied it. Today, Arizona has once again made the news–and once again, it’s about racism. A group of artists who painted a public mural in Prescott, Ariz. has been asked to lighten the faces of the children depicted in the mural. R.E. Wall, director of the Prescott Downtown Mural Project, told the Daily Courier he and the other artists “heard regular racial slurs from the passengers of cars driving by” while they were working on the mural. The “Go on Green” mural covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, and it aims to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, and a Hispanic boy as the predominant figure. According to USA Today, Principal Jeff Lane said he asked Wall to make the children’s faces appear lighter, but solely for artistic reasons: “We asked them to fix the shading on the children’s faces,” he said. “We were looking at it from an artistic view. Nothing at all to do with race.” Furthermore, City Councilman Steve Blair reportedly led a campaign to have the mural removed entirely. According to the Daily Courier, Blair made several controversial remarks on his KYCA radio talk show: On his May 21 show, for instance, Blair said, “I am not a racist individual, but I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who’s president of the United States today and based upon the history of this community when I grew up, we had four black families – who I have been very good friends with for years – to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, ‘Why?’” Blair also said he is not a “a racist by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever people start talking about diversity, it’s a word I can’t stand.” Under pressure, Wall is altering the mural. But the racial dispute in Arizona, no doubt, is in full swing 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] Jerusalem Post: the 'Rachel Corrie' had been boarded
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Manuel Barrera wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hey Manuel: see that Rule #1 up there. when you reply to a post, you delete all the quoted text except what you really need to keep a discussion coherent. you just sent two messages in a row with the quoted text intact. please follow this simple rule. thanks Les 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] Israel's silicon army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100604/REVIEW/706039978/1008 Israel's silicon army by Spencer Ackerman As it retreats into greater indifference toward global opinion, Israel has come to rely on cynical appeals to American technophiles and evangelical Christians. Spencer Ackerman on Netanyahu’s last allies. (clip) Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor, the former aide to the US Iraq viceroy L Paul Bremer, and Saul Singer is a quintessential light airport read: a page-turner about how a country under external threat makes a virtue out of necessity. What makes Israel a good testing ground for a network of rechargeable electric-car batteries? The fact that its neighbours close their highways to Israeli motorists, and there’s not a lot of Israel to drive on. That spirit of defiance is similar to the one displayed by a Massachusetts man named David Khoury, who moved back to his family’s village in the West Bank to open a microbrewery as a demonstration of faith in the Palestinian economy. But the broader message of Start-Up Nation is more problematic. There’s a cliche-fueled narrative early on about how an uncredentialled Israeli whizkid made millions by selling online-payment giant PayPal a reliable algorithm for figuring out a potential client’s financial solvency. How did Shvat Shaked, who “didn’t have the brashness of an entrepreneur”, outperform titans of industry? “Hunting down terrorists,” he explains. Shaked’s detective skills taught him that the frequency of a person’s online footprints was a sign of reliability: like a terrorist, someone looking to game PayPal isn’t going to leave an extensive Googleable trail. That sort of anecdote forms the stock response to the book’s central question: why is the Israeli economy so dynamic? Their answer: because conditions of constant peril compel critical thinking in the military, and military service sets the tone for Israeli culture. The Israeli investor and “unofficial economic ambassador” Jon Medved presents the excited authors with a graph showing foreign business flowing into Israel during the Second Intifada. Singer and Senor are quick to inform us that he wasn’t suggesting “a correlation between violence in Israel and its attractiveness to investors”, because that would be absurd. What they show instead is that Israel can assert a kind of normality amidst perpetual war – with the help of the world’s premiere capitalists. Senor and Singer present no explicit political agenda, but their presumptions are that the status quo within Israel will continue. The trouble with their book from a business perspective is that there aren’t many countries that live under conditions analogous to Israel. To really embrace Start-Up Nation as a road map for achieving national economic vitality requires a willingness to believe that your society, too, is on the cusp of ever-present perpetual war, since relentless conflict is the only engine Start-Up Nation identifies for Israel’s success. Who would want to live under those conditions? Well, maybe there are people outside of Israel who believe such an unhappy fate confronts their country. Like the guy in the airport bookstore with his BlackBerry clipped to his braided belt. He’s not the most political guy in the world, but he thinks Israel is under attack from the Arabs, and that unlike the Arabs, the Israelis are Christian-friendly fellows who understand the value of the dollar. They’re not running around with their faces covered blowing up pizzerias, and he thinks they have to fight guys who do. He’s worried that this is the future of the United States. He’s worried that if it is, his small business may not survive. He’s worried that the socialist in the White House doesn’t understand that you enjoy peace only after winning victory. Whatever the authors’ intentions, Start-Up Nation is a book that presents Israel as safe for gentiles – or, at least, for those that can be persuaded to vote in Republican primaries. (clip) 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] Head of Israeli Military Intelligence, Lt. General Beavis Ben Butthead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == After skedaddling out of Lebanon with Hezbollah's antitank rockets sticking up their asses, and after the Keystone Kops Assassination Follies in Dubai, Israel has really outdone itself with its ham-handed response to the Gaza flotilla. Here are the latest fabrications from Israeli Military Intelligence Chief, Lt. General Beavis Ben Butthead: http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/idf-releases-apparently-doctored-audio-press-reports-as-fact/ http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/israeli-propaganda-photo-in-haaretz-of-man-wi We really need to acknowledge more forthrightly the vital role of ridicule in anti-Zionist struggle. 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] Letter to John Weeks
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hello, John I don't know if you remember me but I chaired the debate between you and Paul Berman just after the Sandinistas were voted out of office. Originally Michael Moore had agreed to debate Berman but I was persuaded that you would be a better choice because you were an expert. Worst decision of my life, I am afraid. I just took a look at your website (http://jweeks.org) that was announced on Jerry Levy's mailing list, a gathering place for Marxist economists. Out of curiosity, I went there and found a paper that you and your wife wrote in 1992 making the discovery that the FSLN was not really revolutionary socialist, like you--a professor emeritus--I suppose. It was the same argument I heard from James Petras around that time. One imagines that if you or him had been president of Nicaragua, then the country would have been saved. But leaving aside your politics, which someone described to me as Maoist (unfortunately after the event), the real question I have always had is why you were so unprepared. You winged it for 20 minutes or so, while the filthy Paul Berman had a well-prepared presentation. I remember it like yesterday, you informing an audience of solidarity activists that the FSLN was just like the PRI in Mexico--something in clear distinction to the cozy relationship the USA enjoyed with Mexico. Anyhow, I hope you are enjoying your professor emeritus status. My advice is to take up gardening or basket-weaving and turn down any invitations to speak at such debates in the future for the sake of the radicals who might mistakenly invite you. Yours truly, Louis Proyect 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] IDF faked photos
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/gaza-flotilla-how-israels-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-fakes-photos-of-seized-weapons/ 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. == Joaquín description of the Brazilian and Iranian nuclear industry is spot on, which is why there is there huge disconnect among the public and 'leaders' as to the reasons why both countries want a closed fuel cycle (to be fully closed they would have to recycle their spent fuel, another story, though) so they are not beholden to the US ability to withdraw technology and fuel once it is given. This was also one the reasons there was much opposition to the Indian 1-2-3 agreement within India by those that wanted to develop an *indigenous* nuclear fuel AND a reactor industry. It's why in large part they are using proven Russian reactors and not American ones. Why they are reluctant to use the S. Korean models because they are too close to the US...and thus those nasty strings. But Joaquín is very wrong about what he believes could be a bomb with low enriched uranium. In fact he's wrong about how 'easy' it is to fission U235 in low concentrations (LEU). There is an architecture to uranium placement and concentration that allows for fission to occur. Yes, the higher the concentration, he 'easier', rather faster, fission can occur. But it is actually a very difficult process to achieve. If you dumped a pile of LEU onto a barge and splashed it with a moderator...that is water...very pure, deminerialized water, you might be able to get a 'slow burn' of the U235 which would in essence be a sort of dirty weapon with very limited effect. But probably not. Fuel rods are designed and positioned to GET a reaction. Not getting a reaction is what happens when the water moderator (water is used to slow down the neutrons so they can collide with the U235 and cause fission) can't access the U235 in *exactly* the right way or the pellets are designed wrong; positioned wrong; of a wrong U235-U238 'mix' or are other wise out of alignment. As soon as the difference in fuel pellets in the rod changes, the reaction generally stops. If you piled in a few thousand tons of LEU in exactly the right proportion built to reactor specs and then figured out a way to dump water over them you would get a run-away reaction but they would not explode. This is where Joaquín is very wrong. The architecture of an A-bomb requires Highly Enriched Uranium (over 96%) to achieve not just the 'runaway fission reaction but one that does it so fast, so uncontrollable that you get an explosion. It's never been done. Scientists know this because of A-bomb development going back to the 1940s. 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] IDF faked photos
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The photographic evidence is of course absurd, but they aren't fake (though I chose to run with the story on The Activist). You can tell by the dates on the image tags that the cameras just weren't configured with the correct time and date settings. The activists aren't denying that there weren't small knives, night vision, etc. on the boat. On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com wrote: http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/gaza-flotilla-how-israels-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-fakes-photos-of-seized-weapons/ 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] IDF Faked Photos
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis Proyect wrote: http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/gaza-flotilla-how-israels-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-fakes-photos-of-seized-weapons/ This is hilarious. It is a spoof, though, isn't it? Some of us may not be Web aficionados in the know about such things. But if it's a spoof, why are there so many comments by people who take it seriously? If Israel actually presented these photos and claimed they were retrieved from the Zionist attack on the flotilla, where and when? The site itself didn't specify any of this, so one can only conclude it's dark humor. 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] Autopsies Suggest Flotilla Activists Shot Execution-Style at Close Range
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Posted by Joshua Hollandhttp://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/author/joshua-holland/at 6:45 pm June 4, 2010 Report: Autopsies Suggest Israelis Shot Flotilla Activists Execution-Style at Close Range So says the* Guardian*:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/gaza-flotilla-activists-autopsy-results?CMP=twt_gu Israel http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gazahttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gazaaid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range. Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today. The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine. The findings emerged as more survivors gave their accounts of the raids. Ismail Patel, the chairman of Leicester-based pro-Palestinian group Friends of al-Aqsa, who returned to Britain today, told how he witnessed some of the fatal shootings and claimed that Israel had operated a “shoot to kill policy”. He calculated that during the bloodiest part of the assault, Israeli commandos shot one person every minute. One man was fatally shot in the back of the head just two feet in front him and another was shot once between the eyes. He added that as well as the fatally wounded, 48 others were suffering from gunshot wounds and six activists remained missing, suggesting the death toll may increase. The new information about the manner and intensity of the killings undermines Israel’s insistence that its soldiers opened fire only in self defence and in response to attacks by the activists. full --- http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/04/report-autopsies-show-israelis-shot-flotilla-activists-repeatedly-in-head-at-point-blank-range/ 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] IDF Faked Photos
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 6/5/2010 9:42 AM, David Thorstad wrote: http://ibnkafkasobiterdicta.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/gaza-flotilla-how-israels-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-fakes-photos-of-seized-weapons/ If Israel actually presented these photos and claimed they were retrieved from the Zionist attack on the flotilla, where and when? Here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/israel-mfa/sets/ - Juan 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 6/5/2010 12:06 PM, S. Artesian wrote: And I have a different question: where in the history of the development of capitalism in Brazil do we see the processes that amount to the ill-defined at best notion of semi-colonialism? OK call it imperialist if you want. I'm still for Lula against the Americans and the Europeans. Joaquín 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] Latino faces too dark for mural
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == ¡No quieren vernos ni pintados! Arizona School Asks That Black And Latino Faces On Mural Be Lightened http://www.mediaite.com/online/arizona-school-asks-that-black-and-latino-faces-on-mural-to-be-lightened/ When Arizona introduced its new immigration law, aimed toward battling illegal immigration, its many critics–including President Obama–angrily protested, claiming it was racist (or that it would encourage racism). Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vehemently denied it. Today, Arizona has once again made the news–and once again, it’s about racism. A group of artists who painted a public mural in Prescott, Ariz. has been asked to lighten the faces of the children depicted in the mural. R.E. Wall, director of the Prescott Downtown Mural Project, told the Daily Courier he and the other artists “heard regular racial slurs from the passengers of cars driving by” while they were working on the mural. The “Go on Green” mural covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, and it aims to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, and a Hispanic boy as the predominant figure. According to USA Today, Principal Jeff Lane said he asked Wall to make the children’s faces appear lighter, but solely for artistic reasons: “We asked them to fix the shading on the children’s faces,” he said. “We were looking at it from an artistic view. Nothing at all to do with race.” Furthermore, City Councilman Steve Blair reportedly led a campaign to have the mural removed entirely. According to the Daily Courier, Blair made several controversial remarks on his KYCA radio talk show: On his May 21 show, for instance, Blair said, “I am not a racist individual, but I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who’s president of the United States today and based upon the history of this community when I grew up, we had four black families – who I have been very good friends with for years – to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, ‘Why?’” Blair also said he is not a “a racist by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever people start talking about diversity, it’s a word I can’t stand.” Under pressure, Wall is altering the mural. But the racial dispute in Arizona, no doubt, is in full swing 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 David's comments about achieving critical mass with LEU, I defer to his expertise. I did not mean to be taken literally about throwing together a pile of the stuff and in being an atom bomb as that is normally understood, and I failed to make that clear. Yet although it is not a bomb like Hiroshima, what I heard one physics geek explain recently, which is what my comment was based on, is that a properly configured nuclear pile could be made to blow up and scatter lethal amounts of radiation for miles around, citing Chernobyl and saying, in effect, imagine if you didn't do this by accident but *consciously* set out to create the biggest possible mess. He was arguing against the idea that less-than-almost-pure U-235 wasn't militarily useful in what he calls asymmetrical warfare. Perhaps David would be willing to evaluate whether this is a real-world scenario or scare propaganda. Joaquín 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] Jerusalem Post: the 'Rachel Corrie' had been boarded
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It was a mistake, this one is on purpose. simply be nice Manuel Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2010 08:44:38 -0400 From: schaf...@optonline.net Subject: Re: [Marxism] Jerusalem Post: the 'Rachel Corrie' had been boarded To: mtom...@hotmail.com == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Manuel Barrera wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hey Manuel: see that Rule #1 up there. when you reply to a post, you delete all the quoted text except what you really need to keep a discussion coherent. you just sent two messages in a row with the quoted text intact. please follow this simple rule. thanks Les 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
[Marxism] Long-time Zionist apologist upset with Israel
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Published on The New Republic (http://www.tnr.com) Operation Make the World Hate Us The assault on the 'Mavi Marmara' was wrong, and a gift to Israel's enemies. * Leon Wieseltier * June 3, 2010 | 11:16 am Israel does not need enemies: it has itself. Or more precisely: it has its government. The Netanyahu-Barak government has somehow found a way to lose the moral high ground, the all-important war for symbols and meanings, to Hamas. That is quite an accomplishment. Operation Make the World Hate Us, it might have been called. I leave it to others to make the operational criticisms of the Israeli action, and will say only that even my amateurish understanding of the tactical challenge posed by the interdiction of the boats suffices to suggest that there were other ways to do this. I also will not pretend to a perfect grasp of what happened on board the Mavi Marmara. I have pondered the videos that both sides have released, and concluded that the Israeli soldiers sliding down that rope had no intention of attacking the people on board and that the people on board had no way of being confident of this. I cannot expect Palestinians and their supporters to believe the best about the Israeli army. (This is what Israeli hardliners call “the restoration of deterrence.”) I do not doubt that some of the activists on the ship welcomed a confrontation with Israel, but the Israelis should not have obliged them. In any event, what took place on that deck looks to me like a tragic misunderstanding. Yet there was no reason to think that anything else would have transpired. The important point is that the killing of civilians on the Mavi Marmara—I understand that they were “armed” with metal bars and a knife, but still they were civilians, and soldiers are trained to respond unlethally to the recklessness of a mob—cannot be extenuated by reference to “asymmetrical warfare” and Israel’s right to defend itself. This was not warfare, at least of the physical sort. Israel was not under attack. A headline in The Washington Post yesterday reported that “Israel says Free Gaza Movement poses threat to Jewish state.” Such a claim is absurd. It is true that the movement has grown in recent years, and is now troublesome to Israel’s policy in Gaza; and it is also true that the Turkish charity that sponsored the “Freedom Flotilla” has ties to Islamicist groups. But this is hardly what Israel likes to call, in the Iranian context, and there quite plausibly, an “existential threat.” The extension of the definition of a security threat to include hostile activities that have little or no bearing upon security is an ominous development. full: http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/75287/operation-make-the-world-hate-us 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] Israeli savagery continues unabated
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Maryland native loses eye; shot with tear gas canister in Gaza Flotilla solidarity action 1 June 2010: A US solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister while standing peacefully in a demonstration at a West Bank checkpoint Monday. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, recovering from two surgeries which were necessary to remove her left eye, insert three metal plates, and wire her fractured jawbone together. Henochowicz was shot at one of the many global demonstrations held in protest of Israel’s murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters early Monday. 21-year old Henochowicz, a Maryland native, was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint Monday. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel. For further information, please contact: at Hadassah Hospital: Robin Brown 00972(0)548196551 Ellen Stark - Media Office 00972(0)546180056 Photographs can be found at: http://palsolidarity.org/2010/05/12604/ They clearly saw us, said Sören Johanssen, a Swedish ISM volunteer standing with Henochowicz. They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.” Henochowicz is an art student at the prestigious Cooper Union, located in East Village, Manhattan. She was at a demonstration near Qalandiya checkpoint terminal, located on the border between the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem.The demonstration was one of dozens across the United States, Europe and the Middle East protesting the Flotilla attack and calling for an end to the siege on Gaza. Tear gas canisters are commonly used against demonstrators in the occupied West Bank. In May 2009, the Israeli State Attorney's Office ordered Israeli Police to review its guidelines for dispersing demonstrators, following the death of a demonstrator, Bassem Abu Rahmah from Bil'in village, caused by a high velocity tear-gas projectile. Tear-gas canisters are meant to be used as a means of crowd dispersal, to be shot indirectly at demonstrators and from a distance. However, Israeli forces frequently shoot canisters directly at protesters and are not bound by a particular distance from which they can shoot. Israeli occupation forces boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships on the Freedom Flotilla at 5 a.m. this morning, opening fire on the hundreds of unarmed civilians aboard. No-one aboard the ships were carrying weapons of any kind, including for defense against a feared Israeli attack in international waters. At least 10 aid workers aboard the ship have been confirmed dead, with dozens more injured. The assault took place 70 miles off the Gaza coast in international waters, after the flotilla was surrounded by three Israeli warships. The Freedom Flotilla, carrying 700 human rights activists from over 40 countries and 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, was headed for the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli blockade on Gaza, combined with the illegal buffer zone, has put a stranglehold on the territory. 42% of Gazans are unemployed, and food insecurity hovers around 60% according to figures from the Palestine Centre for Human Rights. ### The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led non-violent resistance movement committed to ending Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land. We call for full compliance with all relevant UN resolutions and international law. For specific media inquires such as interview requests, photo usage, etc. please email the ISM Media Office at me...@palsolidarity.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ism-media-unsubscr...@googlegroups.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] Is Imperialism a different mode of production?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == s.artesian wrote: What's the big deal. Marx wrote like that. I wouldn't object to that as long as he remembered to clip extraneous text. 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] RT: US secretly paid media to spin news against Cuban Five
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Five Cuban men convicted on charges of espionage over ten years ago and put in prison may have been the victims of a smear campaign by the US government. http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-06-03/us-secret-media-cuba.html Of course I'm not shocked that such a thing could happen. What surprises me is that it apparently didn't take more than a FOIA request to uncover it. Kudos to the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five for doing the legwork on this one, but it's enough to make me wonder what consistent, disciplined investigation of the government - the kind of thing journalists would do, in my fantasy land - might uncover. Here's more media coverage, such as it is: http://www.freethefive.org/legalFront/FOIA/PressConferencePress60210.htm And here's the Committee's full dossier: http://www.freethefive.org -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. 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] How Germany became divided after WWII : Stalin didn’t do it
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (A discussion about the Berlin Wall broke out in the comments section of my blog posting on John Weeks. That inspired me to post an excellent review of Carolyn Eisenberg’s “Drawing the Line” from the Nation Magazine in 1996, when it was still readable. Nothing can substitute for reading Eisenberg’s book, but Kai Bird’s review comes close.) full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/how-germany-became-divided-after-wwii-stalin-didnt-do-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] Siezed and detained by Israel, US activist describes experiences
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The mistake is to assume that this a generalization about imperialism. It is no such thing - only a reference to a specific, and very peculiar, instance: Israel. The generalization concerns ideology and politics: Where is the center of Zionism - in Israel of the United States? I say it is in the U.S., and that U.S.-Israel form a political and ideological identity. Israel is the United States in the Middle East. Regardless of the road to the defeat of imperialism, Israel will never be defeated, the Zionist regime will never be on its last legs a la South Africa, so long as the above is true. To make the above not true, Zionism must be defeated in the USA, in its homeland, where it reflects the settler state legacy of the USA, and therefore everything retrograde and troglodyte about the USA in particular. That settler state legacy is actually in an important contradiction with the objective requirements for the continuation of US imperialism today, and the agony of the US-Israeli connection is a particular externalization and objectification of that contradiction. As this is a contradiction embedded in the very foundation of the USA, it is doubtful that US imperialism can overcome it, or break its special connection with Israel. -Matt On 6/4/2010 1:50 PM, Matthew Russo wrote: The bottom line: Israel will never be defeated in the Middle East so long as it is not defeated here in the U.S.A. The neocons are the intellectual and ideological core of the American Radical Right. I think the opposite is the case, not just in the Middle East but on a world scale. The idea that imperialism needs to be defeated in the imperialist countries first is a statement that imperialism will never be defeated, unless the last century or so is some weirdo bizarre aberration, that will be turned on its head. The ONLY hope for humanity is in the victory of the global South against the North. Joaqu?n 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] Is Imperialism a different mode of production?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Jun 5, 2010, at 6:52 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: Sounds about right. Too bad they are not interested in the concrete reality of relationships between countries like the USA and India involving the WTO, Bhopal, and other messy details. In asserting that the relationships are between *countries*, rather than among divergent and competing capitalist interests, aren't you begging the question, by asserting of the validity of the term imperialism as descriptive of geopolitical relations without reference to the categories of political economy defined and determined in Das Kapital? Shane Mage The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed. Joe Stack (1956-2010) 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] Is Imperialism a different mode of production?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On the other hand, maybe this will help:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAs8gN0j2Z8 So the challenge is to all those who think being for Lula against Europe and America has any meaning whatsoever when Lula himself is hardly against Europe, against America. 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] WAC Maan: The Lesson of the Flotilla Bloodbath: End the Occupation
Position paper of WAC-MAAN about the deaths on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza The Lesson of the Flotilla Bloodbath: End the Occupation WAC-MAAN, which organizes within its ranks both Jewish and Arab workers, strongly condemns the Israeli raid on the Freedom for Gaza flotilla, which has resulted in nine dead and dozens of wounded. Israel's attempt to divert the argument away from its blockade on Gaza, and over to the resistance that its troops encountered while attacking the flotilla, is futile and grotesque. As if soldiers sent to prevent civilians from breaking an unjust siege can be compared with 1.5 million Palestinians caught in a three-year humanitarian catastrophe! WAC holds that Israel's stubbornness, and its refusal to pay the price of peace-namely, an end to the occupation and recognition of the Palestinian people's right to a sovereign state-is the main reason for the continuing bloodshed. In its suffering, the Palestinian people's cause has become the banner of the international community. The international community agrees on the need to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by an Israeli withdrawal and the implementation of UN resolutions. Nevertheless, the powers that pull the strings in the region continue to put their narrow interests first. The American administration under Barack Obama at first proposed to bring about a dramatic change in American policy, but in effect it continues to support an axis of corrupt, dictatorial regimes. In the Palestinian arena, it deepens the schism between Fatah and Hamas by strengthening the regime of Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad. As for Hamas, which rules Gaza, it shows no concern for the real situation of the Palestinian people. Relying on support from Iran, it opts for total struggle against Israel and the pro-American regimes. In the view of the Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas axis, the campaign to remove the siege of Gaza translates into proof of the rightness of their cause. Israel has exploited the situation, postponing a solution to the conflict with the excuse that there is no partner for peace. The right-wing Netanyahu government refuses to make progress in negotiations, opposing any arrangement based on withdrawal to the 1967 borders and recognition of Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem. Seventeen years after signing the Oslo Accords, Israeli governments continue to act as if the bloody struggle could go on forever. They grind the PA into the dust, thus strengthening the radical axis. Today it is clear that Israel's aggressive policy has hurt the status of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. A change in Israeli policy has become a strategic American interest. However, Obama has avoided taking any practical step toward showing Israel that the rules have changed. There is a good chance that now, in the light of the flotilla attack, he will exploit Israel's new isolation to press Netanyahu into changing the composition of his government. Washington wants to see him at the head of a new coalition based on the Likud, Kadima and Labor. Yet the hope that such a step will bear fruit, enabling meaningful negotiations, is based on wishful thinking. In the past 17 years Israel has known many governments-of Labor, Likud and also Kadima. All failed the reality test. All avoided confronting the settlers. All entered negotiations with the PA as a mere delaying tactic to soften criticism from the West. WAC calls for broad-based international action that will force Israel to agree to the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, within the June 1967 borders. If the efforts of the current crisis focus on a compromise with Israel for investigating the flotilla attack, without bearing down on the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the region will continue to deteriorate. Israel's present dispute with Turkey, following the flotilla debacle, shows how slippery is the slope down which we slide. The Middle East is divided today between fundamentalist regimes and dictatorial, pro-American regimes. Between these stones its peoples are ground. Utterly missing, in the public discourse, are the oppression and poverty from which the workers suffer-whether in Egypt, where they demonstrate for a raise in the minimum wage, holding loaves of bread aloft before the parliament of Hosni Mubarak; or in Iran, where they struggle against privatization and joblessness under Ahmadinejad. In Turkey also the workers have gone to the streets in recent months, against privatization and unemployment. The workers of the Middle East do not have a party to represent them. Their voice is not heard. Israel too can hardly be said to seek the good of its citizens. It has no scruples about implementing a policy of privatization, cuts in social services and destruction of the social safety net, all for the benefit of a coterie of tycoons, the real string-pullers. In recent years the number of people who are both employed and poor
