Re: [Marxism] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Joanne Gullion]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


After first blush, I find Michael to be pretty interesting and definitely 
witty.  I look forward to reading his posts.  Hope he sticks around.


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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


While I don't owe Michael Smith any apology for my previous remarks, I do 
think I owe the list a better explanation as to why  I said what I said and 
why  Michael is being a bit disingenuous with his remarks about language, 
and his remark that::

"Metrics are always interesting, but deltas are even more interesting. Which 
way are we going, on the Sweden/Franco axis? The trend looks pretty plain to 
me."

So now Michael thinks this issue is one of  "delta"-- change, and trend. 
Except remember the original post, that one that asked about the [growing] 
influence of the Christian right and its connection to fascism?  In his 
response to that post, he states that TREND is overrated; in that post, 
trend isn't the issue at all.  In fact there is no trend as the US already 
is, and has been, fascist.

I think I got that right, didn't I?

So what trend now are we supposed to be looking at, if in fact the product 
of that trend has already been achieved?  Does Michael want to claim that 
all fascisms are equal, but some are more fascist than others?

I have some questions:

Like did the fact that the Freikorps existed and was active during the 
Weimar Republic make the Germany of the Weimar Republic already fascist?

Like did the fact that the members of Freikorps shared membership and were 
in many cases completely absorbed into the fascist movement make the 
Freikorp THE fascist movement?

Like did the fact that the MNR govt. during its rule  in Bolivia 1952-1964 
used the police and the military to battle the miners make the MNR a fascist 
government?

There is a social movement attached to fascism; that social movement 
provides the muscle to lift fascism into power.  Like all muscle, it's 
bought and paid for in the pre-existing terms of capital accumulation.  That 
does NOT make all accumulation of capital  accumulation  on a fascist basis.

And with that "interior reasoning" now explained, I repeat that I don't 
think Mr. Smith knows what he's talking about.






- Original Message - 
From: "Michael Smith"  



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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


I'm not accusing you of a sin against language.  I'm stating you don't know 
your ass from a hole in the ground when evaluating social movements, 
relations of classes, forces of repression, forms of capitalist preservation 
and reproduction.

I think you are using language as an excuse, as a cover, to mask you real 
ignorance, and your real laziness in doing the grunt work required to 
actually know something before you talk about it.

Is that clear enough, simple enough, unequivocal enough for you?  because if 
not, I got plenty more

Take your sophistry home and tuck it back under your pillow.  Nobody's 
interested in it around here.

And I mean that with my sincere best wishes in all your future efforts.

- Original Message - 
From: "Michael Smith" 
>
> What's not very useful, I'd suggest, is to accuse one's
> interlocutors of sins against language, or to try and
> control the use of terms. Vague poorly-defined terms
> are what language practice is all about.
>
> 



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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Michael Smith]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:46:40 -0700
DW  wrote:
 
> is a "little bit fascist"
> like "a little bit pregnant?" 

There's one month pregnant, and there's nine months 
pregnant. How soon will the baby arrive? This is the 
kind of thoughtless rote analogy that darkens counsel.  

> Don't you think words, terms, have
> meaning? 

Of course they have, but it's amazing how people can 
sorta-kinda communicate even though they don't define 
the terms they use in the same way. Quite remarkable, 
really, and poorly understood.

"Fascist" can't mean just anything. It clearly 
doesn't belong to the same semantic field as "purple", 
for example, so using the term narrows the scope and 
brings to bear some concrete historical experience 
that we all know about. We're talking about politics, 
not painting, and Franco and Mussolini and Hitler are 
relevant. Was Huey Long relevant? Was Roosevelt? Is 
Obama?  
 
You & I have already identified a rather clear 
difference here, and a possibly interesting subject of 
inquiry. For me, more or less fascist is a gradient. 
For you -- if I've understood you correctly, and please 
set me right if I haven't -- it's an either/or. 

We might usefully explore this difference in 
understanding. Who knows where that could lead? 

What's not very useful, I'd suggest, is to accuse one's 
interlocutors of sins against language, or to try and 
control the use of terms. Vague poorly-defined terms 
are what language practice is all about. 
 
-- 

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

"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

Re: [Marxism] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[DW]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Perhaps all is Fascist and it's up to us to list, detail and otherwise prove
what is not Fascist? Anyone?

This is a preposterous discussion. Michael, is a "little bit fascist" like
"a little bit pregnant?" Don't you think words, terms, have meaning? Do you
like the term fascist for all-that-is-even-vaguely-repressive? Why do you
use the term? What do you consider 'Fascist'? Why do you use the term? Why
not just say "capitalist repression"? What not just "repressive"? Why are
you vested in this term that is so obviously not applicable, yet, to what is
going on in the US today?

David

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] UN Correspondents Association stands up to Zionist bullshit

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/06/18/flotilla-flap-un


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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Michael Smith]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:35:16 -0400
Mark Lause  wrote:
 
> I'd suggest that if Michael Smith thinks of fascism as something that
> exists "by degrees," he's got less an idea of what it is than my
> little spotted cat.  And the cat, at least, knows that tuna doesn't
> exist in degrees.

One would like to know whence proceeds Mark Lause's superior 
knowledge of these matters.  He clearly believes that fascism 
can't be a matter of "degrees"; but why is this so obviously the 
case?  

As for the cat -- let the cat speak for him- or herself. I'm not 
a cat, and couldn't play one on TV, but I would have said that 
tuna can certainly exist in degrees -- all the way from tuna 
tetrazzini to grilled tuna steaks and on to tuna carpaccio, for the 
ballsy among us. 

-- 

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

"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] [Fwd: Appeal against repression in Thailand

[glparramatta]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


http://links.org.au/node/1748

To sign this appeal, please email solidaritythail...@gmail.com 
.

June 20, 2010 -- For more than two months, the Red Shirts have mobilised 
with decisiveness and purpose in the streets of Bangkok to support their 
demands of democracy and social justice.

The government led by Abhisit Vejjajiva chose to respond to these 
demands with violence and repression. It committed a serious violation 
against human rights when it authorised the use of military hardware to 
dissolve the demonstrations. The result was extremely serious: there 
were at least 89 dead and nearly 2000 wounded.

Today, democratic rights are not respected: there are 99 arrest warrants 
against opponents. The places where most of the detainees are held are 
kept secret. The government has imposed censorship on the alternative 
media. The penalties incurred are especially severe: from 3 to 15 years 
for “lese majesty” to the death penalty for “terrorism”.

The Red Shirts are being treated by the government as if they were 
“terrorists”. It is a complex movement, but its members are mainly 
ordinary poor people whose most elementary political rights –like the 
respect due to the result of an election—have been ignored.

The Thai government can continue to repress the Thai people freely, 
because its constant violations against human rights have not been 
confronted by international solidarity and condemnation. We make a call 
to all progressive and democratic organizations to demand the end of the 
repression and the respect of fundamental rights in Thailand; to start 
an international campaign to obtain the freedom of political prisoners 
and the end of intimidation and inculpation of the Red Shirts.

We demand from the Thai government that it raises the State of Urgency 
and immediately re-establishes democratic freedoms in the country; that 
it ends the repression against the Red Shirts and that all prisoners are 
freed without any delay.

To sign this appeal, email solidaritythail...@gmail.com 
. For additional signatures, please 
visit http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article17803.

*First signatures:*

1. Samir ABI, General Secretary, Attac (Togo)

2. Gilbert ACHCAR, SOAS, Professor of the University of London (UK)

3. Christophe AGUITON, Researcher (France)

4. Osman AKINHAY, Writer and editor of Mesele Revue (Turkey)

5. Greg ALBO, Professor at the York University, Toronto (Canada)

6. Josep Maria ANTENTAS, Professor of sociology, Universitat Autonoma de 
Barcelona (Catalonia)

7. Daniel ANTONINI, International Secretary of PRCF (France)

8. Zely ARIANE, Spokesperson of KPRM-PRD (Indonesia)

9. Salvador LOPEZ ARNAL, Writer and Professor-tutor of Mathematics , 
UNED (Spain)

10. AU Loongyu, Editorial board member of China Labor Net (Hong Kong)

11. Walter BAIER, Coordinator of the European network Transform ! Editor 
of the magazine Transform !, Vienne (Austria)

12. Jean BATOU, Professor at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland)

13. Pierre BEAUDET, Professor at the University of Ottawa (Canada)

14. Walden BELLO, Member of the Congress, Akbayan representative 
(Philippines)

15. Paul BENEDEK, Thai Red Australia (Australia)

16. Olivier BESANCENOT, Spokesperson of NPA (France)

17. Hugo BLANCO, Director of « Lucha Indígena »¨, (Peru)

18. Saumen BOSE, Radical Socialist (India)

19. Tapan BOSE, Radical Socialist (India)

20. Peter Boyle, National Convener, Socialist Alliance (Australia)

21. Alex Callinicos, Professor, chair of European Studies at King’s 
College London (UK)

22. Porferia CARPINA, KASAMMAKA (Philippines)

23. Mabel CARUMBA, Mindanao Peoples’ Peace Movement (Philippines)

24. Kunal CHATTOPADHYAY, Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur 
University, Radical Socialist (India)

25. Kamal MITRA CHENOY, Chair, Centre for Comparative Politics & 
Political Theory, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru 
University, New Delhi (India)

26. Ashok CHOUDHARY, National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers 
(India)

27. Annick COUPÉ, Spokesperson of Union Syndicale Solidaires (France)

28. Cyc CUABO, ERDAC, Inc. (Philippines)

29. Lucile DAUMAS, Attac (Marocco)

30. Sushovan DHAR, Radical Socialist (India)

31. Jean-Michel DOLIVO, Lawyer and MP, Lausanne (Switzerland)

32. Jacques Fath, international head, PCF (France)

33. Paulina FERNANDEZ CHRISTLIEB, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de 
México (Mexico)

34. Carlos FERNANDEZ LIRIA, Professor of the Universidad Complutense de 
Madrid (Spain)

35. Mano GANESAN, Convener of Civil Monitoring Commission (Sri Lanka)

36. George GASTAUD, Philosopher, National Secretary of PRCF (France)

37. Franck GAUDICHAUD – University of Grenoble (France)

38.

Re: [Marxism] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Mark Lause wrote:
> 
> I'd suggest that if Michael Smith thinks of fascism as something that
> exists "by degrees," he's got less an idea of what it is than my
> little spotted cat.  And the cat, at least, knows that tuna doesn't
> exist in degrees.

Well, maybe he has a point. When my next door neighbor plays Billy Joel 
at full volume after 11, I feel that there is something fascist about 
that. Plus, Columbia University didn't give us a raise last year and 
probably won't give us more than 1 percent this year if we're lucky. 
God-damned fascists. Finally, my wife pinched my nose last night when I 
was snoring, waking me up which of course was her intention. I told her 
that she was another Mussolini.


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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Mark Lause]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


I'd suggest that if Michael Smith thinks of fascism as something that
exists "by degrees," he's got less an idea of what it is than my
little spotted cat.  And the cat, at least, knows that tuna doesn't
exist in degrees.

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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Michael Smith]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:31:36 -0400
"S. Artesian"  wrote:

> Not everything's fascist; not all the time.

Indeed not. Sweden is (still) less fascist than the US. 

But this practice of drawing bright lines seems ill-advised. 
Maybe it would be better to think of fascism as one of the 
axes of a multi-dimensional space. In terms of actual 
societies, Sweden in the 1970s is at -1 on that axis, 
and Franco's Spain is at +1.  Or +5. Or choose your own 
benchmarks. 

Metrics are always interesting, but deltas are even more 
interesting. Which way are we going, on the Sweden/Franco 
axis? The trend looks pretty plain to me. 

-- 

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

"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

Re: [Marxism] Herman/Peterson on Rwanda

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


glparramatta wrote:
> 
> Gerald Caplan responds to Herman/Peteron on Rwanda
> 
> http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65265

I see from Caplan's article that Christopher Black is one of their main 
"experts". Black is an utter moron in my opinion. His writings on Serbia 
are enough to make me want to sign up with the Henry Jackson Society.


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] Herman/Peterson on Rwanda

[glparramatta]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Gerald Caplan responds to Herman/Peteron on Rwanda

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/65265

glparramatta wrote:
> It's unlikely there will have been a direct response to this 
> genocide-denial conspiracy theory just yet. For more recent articles 
> you might like to explore Pambazuka News at http://tinyurl.com/2742xw9
>
>



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] Public relations tin ear

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


NY Times June 19, 2010
BP Chief Draws Outrage for Watching Yacht Race
By LIZ ROBBINS

BP officials on Saturday scrambled yet again to respond to another 
public relations challenge when their embattled chief executive, Tony 
Hayward, spent the day off the coast of England watching his yacht 
compete in one of the world’s largest races.

Two days after Mr. Hayward angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill with his 
refusal to provide details during testimony about the worst offshore oil 
spill in United States history, and one day after BP’s chairman said the 
chief executive would not be as involved in daily operations in the Gulf 
of Mexico, Mr. Hayward sparked new controversy from afar.

“He is having some rare private time with his son,” a BP spokeswoman, 
Sheila Williams, said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

But Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, who taped an interview 
for ABC’s “This Week,” called Mr. Hayward’s attendance at the race “part 
of a long line of P.R. gaffes and mistakes” that he has made.

“To quote Tony Hayward, he’s got his life back,” Mr. Emanuel said.

On May 31, six weeks after the spill began, Mr. Hayward uttered “I’d 
like my life back,” a comment that struck many in the gulf region as 
insensitive, and for which he eventually apologized.

On Saturday, Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, called Mr. 
Hayward’s yacht outing the “height of arrogance,” in an interview with 
Fox News.

“I can tell you that yacht ought to be here skimming and cleaning up a 
lot of the oil,” Mr. Shelby said. “He ought to be down here seeing what 
is really going on. Not in a cocoon somewhere.”

But Mr. Hayward’s role in the gulf became the topic of further 
speculation on Saturday, even as Ms. Williams, the BP spokeswoman, 
insisted that Mr. Hayward was still in charge of the company and the 
enormous cleanup operations.

“Tony receives regular updates from the gulf,” she said in an e-mail 
message.

On Friday, the chairman of the board of BP, Carl-Henric Svanberg, told 
the British TV network Sky News that Mr. Hayward would be “now handing 
over” the daily operations in the gulf to Robert Dudley, an American who 
joined BP as part of its acquisition of Amoco a decade ago.

On Saturday, BP tried to clarify what Mr. Svanberg had said about the 
transition of leadership in the gulf. “What he meant by ‘now,’ ” Ms. 
Williams said, was that “there would be a transition over to Bob over a 
period of time.”

“Obviously, Tony’s main priority remains overseeing all BP operations,” 
she said. “Over all, there will be some responsibilities handed over, 
but Tony will remain in full control until we have stopped the leak.”

When that might happen is not clear. Crude oil is flowing at a rate 
estimated between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil a day from the 
damaged well, and BP has been able to capture only a percentage of that 
with its current containment methods.

BP said it was aiming to stop the leak in August, when two relief wells 
it is drilling will intersect with the damaged one. The company said on 
Friday that it was ahead of schedule on one of the wells and within 200 
feet of the side of the damaged well, but that the drilling would 
proceed slower the closer it got.

Workers had captured 24,500 barrels of oil on Friday before shutting 
down the operation because of a malfunction on the vessel that is 
siphoning the oil from the leaking well — 1,000 fewer barrels than on 
Thursday. Operations restarted early Saturday.

By then, Mr. Hayward was already in Cowes on the southern coast of 
England for the J. P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, a 
yacht race around the Isle of Wight. A spokeswoman for the race said in 
an e-mail message “that a gentleman by the name of Tony Hayward is a 
co-owner of an entered boat called ‘Bob’ that was racing today, however 
his name did not appear on any crew list.”

The boat finished fourth in a class of 45 others.


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] Long Live Populist Pandering [was: RE: The fascist danger in the USA]

[Tom Cod]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


sorry about not fully doing the snip on the last one.

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] Long Live Populist Pandering [was: RE: The fascist danger in the USA]

[Tom Cod]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


exactly so, and such pedantry was also about buying into ruling class
pundits' complacent assertions that such regimes are merely military
dictatorships and not really fascist and thus really not so bad-and surely
not worse than the bogeyman of Stalinism-so why flip out like "ultra-lefts"
with their political theater of exaggeration etc.  Moreover, leaving that
aside, closer inspection reveals that these brutal regimes and their
supporters really did have a lot in common with the "fascists" of the 1930s
with they and their followers being open admirers of the same.  I remember
back in high school circa 1970 getting into a discussion with an exchange
student from Italy about the Greek Colonels and parroting our party line
that they weren't fascist.  The Italian comrade became completely
flabbergasted asserting that I had a complacent and pedantic attitude that
thought "military dictatorship" was merely just some other garden variety of
class dictatorship like "bourgois democracy" that we don't need to get too
bent out of shape  about.

On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 8:49 AM, Joaquín Bustelo wrote:

> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
>
>
> On 6/19/2010 12:02 AM, DW wrote:
> > I think Joaquin is simply pandering to populist lingo with his defense of
> > the term "Fascist".
>
> Well, like duh ...
>
> That was my point. That the meaning of words is socially determined, you
> can't just keep insisting that everyone else is wrong if they use a term
> more loosely than you, especially when "everyone else" includes 99% of
> the people that use the word.
>
> For example, I believe that "strictly speaking," you won't find a
> fascist movement in Latin America because such movements are a product
> of imperialist democracies. But it would be foolish to take up the
> cudgels against calling Pinochet or the Argentine gorillas "fascists"
> (just as it would be foolish to keep on explaining that the Argentine
> dictators weren't REALLY gorillas but members of the species homo
> sapiens and so on).
>
> The point of such polemics is really to establish and re-enforce the
> boundaries of the sect, or in this particular case, of the family of
> Trot sects. That's what it's really about.
>
>

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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Not to belabor this, but fascism isn't just repression; repressive laws.  It 
involves a certain social movement that has certain essential 
characteristics, like pulverizing independent actions of the working 
class... stuff like that.

It might the direction, might even be a default direction, but the actual 
movement needs to manifest itself.  There's a certain conjuncture to 
fascism.  Not everything's fascist; not all the time.


- Original Message - 
From: "Michael Smith" =
.net 



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] Iran and "anti-imperialism"

[Joseph Catron]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Bhaskar Sunkara
wrote:

And as a matter of fact ANSWER actually had solidarity protests *for
> the *Islamic
> Republic


Do you have a link or other citation for that? When it comes to such claims,
I prefer to see the relevant rhetoric for myself, then reach my own
conclusion.

-- 
"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

Re: [Marxism] Iran and "anti-imperialism"

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


And as a matter of fact ANSWER actually had solidarity protests *for
the *Islamic
Republic and MRZine continually publishes propaganda from that regime.  Bad
left politics gets a little worse than abstentionism.

On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 6:14 PM, S. Artesian wrote:


> abstentionism, which pretends to take no sides, is
> actually taking a side, the side of the Iranian government, the side of the
> status quo, the side of the anti-socialists who are against the fundamental
> needs of socialism for freedom of speech, assembly, association.
>
>
>

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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Michael Smith]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:19:19 -0400
"S. Artesian"  wrote:

> Is it just me, or do others think that if fascism were an
> accomplished fact of government... of ruling the social order, we
> wouldn't be posting to this list?  The list itself wouldn't exist?
> Many of us would no longer exist?

We'd be rounded up soon enough if we worried anybody. 

All the recent legal novelties grounded in "anti-terrorism" 
probably already provide adequate authority; and even if they 
didn't, it's obviously become quite easy to innovate further 
as needed. Bipartisan support for the Cop-In-Chief is pretty 
much guaranteed. 

Social conflict in the US has seldom gotten to the point where 
Nazi-style physical repression of purely ideological deviants 
is called for. Back during the Truman/McCarthy period, getting 
people fired from their jobs was sufficient; and even that is 
still remembered with horror as a kind of white-collar holocaust.  

On the other hand, the style of policing in some communities -- 
one might cite parts of New York and Los Angeles -- has become 
so overtly physical and repressive that it really does invite 
comparison with earlier regimes that we'd all agree were "Fascist".
(Was it ever not so, you ask? Good question.)

The Cop As Squadrist -- there's an essay waiting to be written.  

Not for the first time, I wonder whence springs this impulse 
to regard "Fascism" as something extreme and exceptional. Doesn't
it in fact seem to be the default direction of highly-developed 
capitalism?  

-- 

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

"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

Re: [Marxism] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Fascism is an accomplished fact now in th US?  Could you expound on that a 
bit, please?

Is it just me, or do others think that if fascism were an accomplished fact 
of government... of ruling the social order, we wouldn't be posting to this 
list?  The list itself wouldn't exist?  Many of us would no longer exist?


- Original Message - 
From: "Michael Smith" 
>
> Overrated. Fascism in the US is an accomplished fact now, or as near
> as dammit, but it hasn't been driven by these poor souls with their
> Bible dreams.



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] Paul Craig Roberts: defeatist or revolutionary?

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Charlie wrote:
> 
> It will be interesting to see whether CounterPunch carries this essay by 
> Paul Craig Roberts, which includes these remarks:
> 

Roberts also wrote:

The anomaly in the picture is that it is progressives who have been most 
determined to disarm the American people. What would the one hundred 
thousand do when withering fire is directed at them? Amerika's forces of 
"law and order" and conquest enjoy killing people. It doesn't matter if 
they are women and children. In fact, killing women and children is the 
way to win 30-year wars like the one we are one-third through in 
Afghanistan.

---

Weird stuff. Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury referring to 
"Amerika". Him and Chris Hedges are signs of the time, I suppose.


"Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the 
progress of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within 
the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring 
character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, 
and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in 
its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the 
nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the 
bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion 
of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of 
comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole."

Communist Manifesto


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] Iran and "anti-imperialism"

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


I don't know about yours, but my nose is neither filthy nor imperialist. 
And I don't know what world you're living in, but I'm living only in this 
world, this real single world of international capitalism..

I guess, no I don't guess, I know there's a social struggle going on in 
Iran.  Either that social struggle has real material roots in the mode of 
accumulation-- or the struggle is purely the invention of "imperialists." 
To uphold the latter is pure, and gross, idealism.  So my one world 
materialism tells me abstentionism, which pretends to take no sides, is 
actually taking a side, the side of the Iranian government, the side of the 
status quo, the side of the anti-socialists who are against the fundamental 
needs of socialism for freedom of speech, assembly, association.

This isn't an issue of contemplation or pondering.  It's an issue of class 
struggle.. Not taking a side is taking a side,  and playing the ideological 
race card  of  "socialist white man's burden" doesn't change that fact..

Might be nice to actually answer the questions, the real problems we 
confront along the paths of actual class struggle; might even clarify some 
issues-- rather than simply dismiss the questions as yet more imperialist 
manipulation.


Absolutely, the workers of Iran are capable of handling their own 
bourgeoisie so why is it that whenever the workers do move to do that, we 
get the crap about how they are being manipulated by imperialists?  Don't 
you think the workers of Iran are intelligent enough, politically aware 
enough to identify the pro-imperialists in their midst and develop a 
movement capable of opposing that imperialism and their own bourgeoisie once 
they  achieve those needs of freedom of speech, assembly, association?



- Original Message - 
From: "Mikhail Rodsky"  



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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Michael Smith]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:10:32 +0100
"Paul Flewers"  wrote:
 
> Can list members in the USA let those in other countries know what
> they think about the threat posed by the Christian Right

Overrated. Fascism in the US is an accomplished fact now, or as near 
as dammit, but it hasn't been driven by these poor souls with their 
Bible dreams.

The "Christian Right" is, however, a very useful bogeyman for 
liberals. It helps keep them in the Democratic Party. 

Hedges' piece is characteristic. I started laughing so hard 
on the first sentence -- "dismantle the intellectual and 
scientific rigor of the Enlightenment" -- that I may have 
given myself a minor hernia. 

The Republican Party? "Hijacked"? What a hoot. 
 
-- 

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

"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

Re: [Marxism] Paul Craig Roberts: defeatist or revolutionary?

[Charlie]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


CounterPunch did repost Roberts' amazing article:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts06182010.html

 - - - June 17:

It will be interesting to see whether CounterPunch carries this essay by 
Paul Craig Roberts, which includes these remarks:

...
"If progressives really desire direct confrontation with the evildoers 
who control our country, they will have to accept that the people must
be armed, trained, and have an understanding of who their enemy is.
...
Somehow I just can't see progressives getting this far. They would 
rather Americans be slaves of the state than armed.
I am not advocating armed rebellion, just pointing out an inconsistency 
in the progressives' position."

full item at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Progressives-want-direct-by-paul-craig-roberts-100617-822.html




Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Iran and "anti-imperialism"

[Mikhail Rodsky]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


S., we could ponder all of those things, or we could simply keep our filthy
imperialist noses out of it. I really don't understand why this is so hard
to consider. Why do 1st worldists feel that they have to play the "socialist
white man's burden" all the time? Are people in Iran not capable of dealing
with their own bourgeoisie? We should simply be against imperialism and let
them deal with their own house.

M.



> Yeah, but they're not going to keep out of it.  Does that mean then
> Marxists
> shouldn't support movements against repression because imperialists seek to
> use those movements for their own purposes?
>
> Where exactly does that leave Marxists?  Sitting on their hands, waiting,
> vainly, for a "perfect"  non-tainted movement to emerge?  That's never
> going
> to happen and to urge that is to do nothing other than copy sectarianism
> from an "anti-imperialist" perspective.
>
> Or worse... when workers strike against a "national revolutionary
> government"  and that government claims the strikers are "object allies of
> imperialism,"  should Marxists excuse, rationalize, support the suppression
> of those workers?
>
> When the police are turned loose on those workers should Marxists sit on
> their hands, applaud with one hand?  applaud with both hands?  or maybe
> close the hands into fists and defend the workers despite the accusations,
> and the possible reality of imperialist entanglement in the strike?
>
> Once we answer those questions then we'll be able to make a better
> distinction between Marxism and Kautskyism, between Marxists and
> Kautskyites..
>
>

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] Only worse

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


The strong, and strongest point JB makes is that if  BP is actually holding 
off on shutting off the flow of oil in order to preserve the future prospect 
of the well, it's delay and "strategy" are  incredibly irrational, putting 
the entire company [and other companies] at risk, the entire accumulated 
wealth of BP at risk for the sake of  an investment of some billions that 
won't be realized for years, in a world already awash [sorry to use that 
word in this situation] in oil, in the overproduction of oil.

Fine argument.

Except, nothing says the bourgeoisie make rational decisions.  Nothing says 
the bourgeoisie think clearly in short or long terms.  Nothing says the 
bourgeoisie really know how to measure risks and take the "rational" 
property preserving course.  Just look at the history of BP; look at the 
history leading up to the Texas City explosion.  Look at the decision making 
process leading up the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.  At each 
opportunity, the BP officers "thinking rationally" decided it was rational 
to risk the possibilty of blow out, death of personnel, and loss of the 
entire rig in order to save thousands and millions of dollars, and days or 
weeks of time.  Why did they do this?  Because "rational assessment" of 
risk, because the cost of "possible" damages, possible loss do not go to the 
bottom line until after the damages and loss are occur.

So... I don't know if BP is holding out or not.  I wish I could be as 
confident as JB in the "rationality" of profit accumulation that would make 
BP pull out all the stops in order to PUT IN all the stops in this case, but 
the historical evidence shows no such rationality exists.  And actually, all 
evidence indicates that the possibility of profit accumulation eliminates 
such rationality; that it trumps the probability of disaster.

I have no such confidence in BP's rationality.  Or Obama's.

- Original Message - 
From: "DW"  



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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Joseph Catron]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 8:47 AM, pat costello wrote:

Evangelicals include George Bush, Sara
> Palin, Erik Prince, the CEO of Blackwater/XE, a number of US Senators.
> Evangelicals are among the most ardent supporters of Israel.
>

This, and every use of the word "evangelical" which follows, is simplistic
nonsense. Evangelicalism is a theological tradition, not a political
tendency. Martin Luther King Jr. was an evangelical, as are the historically
black churches (the National Baptist Convention, the Church of God in
Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, etc.) and liberal
denominations (like the Mennonite Church USA, the United Methodist Church,
and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which does one the favor of
helpfully including the word in their name). Thursday's Freedom Flotilla
report-back in New York was hosted by the House of the Lord Pentecostal
Church, whose very evangelical Rev. Herbert Daughtry opened the event by
talking about his church's long history of supporting various freedom
struggles. Everyone reading this is, by definition, online; hence, no one
has any excuse to spout such rubbish. Wikipedia is our friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism

-- 
"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

Re: [Marxism] Only worse

[Waistline2]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


In a message dated 6/19/2010 9:25:47 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, 
_jbust...@bellsouth.net_ (mailto:jbust...@bellsouth.net)  writes: 
 
But the idea that Obama and friends would be willing to put up with the  
political cost, and BP the financial cost (half its market cap gone up in 
smoke,  downgrading of BP's credit rating, tens of billions of dollars in 
liability,  total trashing of BP's brand image) to keep one oil well in 
production 
is so  astonishingly blind as to stagger the imagination. 
 
What is it that makes comrades lurch to such outlandish propositions? 
 
Reply
 
Capital. 
 
There was no political cost on day one of the accident. By political cost  
is meant the shifting and realigning of political grouping in relationship 
to an  event. The accident is not really an accident. At this stage of the  
technology advance and the evolution of redundant safety systems we are 
dealing  with the social consequences of bourgeois property. As a class the 
bourgeoisie  conceives reality as a criminal. Simply because they long ago 
legalized their  crimes should not blind us to what we know is right. 
 
Folks are going to see things different, even comrades.  
 
This is not about one oil well but putting people in jail for crimes  
against humanity. If you can't send in the marines or an extraction team to get 
 
the corporate leaders and bring them to justice then send in a freaking team 
of  attorney's with proletarian back bone. Send in someone other than the 
clowns, or  rather clones of the bourgeois legal establishment. 
 
And yes, capital is a conspiracy. 
 
Capital does not come bouncing out of the English countryside as a jack in  
the box. Nor does it emerge out of the division of labor in society. 
Capital  grows out of the history of private property - politics, drench in 
murder 
and  mayhem beginning with the enslavement of our mothers. The division of 
labor  creeps into society as quantitative and qualitative changes in the 
means of  production. Private property as an institution is conspiracy, 
planning and  plotting to do bad deeds in order to have more than what one can 
consume. The  impulse driving gluttony - the foundation of private property, 
finds its  intellectual expression in conspiracy to do wrong and deprive 
someone of  something as a mode of accumulation. 
 
The glutton never sees the event that will destroy him. That is why he is  
called a glutton.  
 
WL. 


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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Jim Farmelant]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


 
On Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:34:16 -0400 Shane Mage 
writes:


> 
> On Jun 19, 2010, at 10:02 AM, Mark Lause wrote:
> >  Remember the 1916 argument that socialists needed to vote for  
> > Woodrow Wilson
> > because he "kept us out of war"?  The Left helped elect the 
> pompous
> > segregationist fossil, who had his second inauguration March 6, 
> 1917
> > and took us into the world war on April 6.
> 
> I don't "remember" that, because I never heard such a thing.  I 
> always  
> thought the Left (Socialist Party, IWW, anarchists) was either 
> firmly  
> behind Debs or against participation in elections.  Who among them 
> was  
> pro-Wilson?

The Socialist Party remained firmly antiwar, and
continued to be so when the US finally entered
the First World War.  However, there were
elements within the Party who broke away
to support Wilson like the writer Upton Sinclair.
Some of the pro-Wilson socialists were
awarded jobs within the Wilson Administration.

 
Jim Farmelant
http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant

> 
> 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)
> 
 
 

Refinance Now 4.0% FIXED!
$160,000 Mortgage for $633/mo. Free. No Obligation. Get 4 Quotes!
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4c1d127a52eb9b0bdem03vuc


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] Only worse

[DW]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Well...Les, you asking Joaquin "why?" leftists jump into conspiracy theories
about the Gulf disaster? We do sort of deal with this whenever 9/11 pops up.
I actually agree with everything Joaquín wrote on this issue of the Gulf
spill...he was pointedly correct on every aspect of this disaster. I almost
wish, however, he didn't raise it again since now we'll have a discussion
*again* about it (which I am contributing too by even commenting on 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] Only worse

[Les Schaffer]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Joaquín Bustelo wrote:

> What is it that makes comrades lurch to such outlandish propositions


i sure would like to hear Joaquín's answer to this question.

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

Re: [Marxism] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[pat costello]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


ML:

The punchline, though, is the leap from people shouting over abortion
to the blanket assertion that they are "definitely capable of
violence." I think that almost everybody's capable of violence and
that reactionaries always have been bullies.

me:

First of all, i did not "leap" from shouting over abortion to a
blanket assertion. My entire post was a prelude to my conclusion.

Second, it is not just an assertion that they are capable of violence.
They have bombed and set fire to abortion clinics, killed abortion
doctors and abortion clinic staff. Google Operation Rescue, Lambs of
Christ, the Christian Reconstructionist Movement, the Army of God. And
i don't think the Hutaree have actually been able to carry out any
attacks but not for late of wanting to:

http://www.hutaree.com/

Perhaps these are just a small part of the movement but many
evangelicals tacitly approve of them. (how do i know? I was raised in
a right-wing christian environment. it was in the air i breathed.)

Yes, there have been times when the right-wing carried out more
violent attacks and yes, they are not visibly moblized like the tea
party.

I think that is because, as a movement, they generally do not feel
disenfranchised; Why should they march on Washington? They can count
former presidents and national figures such as Billy Graham as members
of their club. If the day comes when they do feel disenfranchised and
their leaders call upon them to mobilize, then things may be
different. They prize obedience to authority.

The question of what to call them seems irrelevant to me. The real
question is whether they are they capable of coming together as a
movement in a significant way and "dominating" as they claim they want
to do. Hard to say but they should not be underestimated given the
kind of support they have within the government, military and
corporate world.


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] Circumcisions kill boys in South Africa

[Patrick Bond]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Sure, the outmoded strategies of patriarchal reproduction are reflected 
in a great many dubious practices known as 'cultural tradition'. In some 
societies these fade away with industrialisation. But in SA, after 
circumcision, a great many Xhosa lads were immediately integrated into 
world capitalism, primarily as the fodder sent to Johannesburg to dig 
out a big chunk of the world's gold supply . The name for this, 'the 
articulation of modes of production,' is our uneven and combined 
development of a special type. So many depraved social relations have 
sprung from this combination of the traditional leader and the world 
markets, and in the next few weeks, we're especially worried about one 
of these: xenophobia. Today's news has plenty of ugly warning signs, 
harking back to the May 2008 attacks, and to District 9's ruling class 
practices too.
 
>   


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] Only worse

[Joaquín Bustelo]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On 6/8/2010 3:09 PM, brad wrote:
> Joaquin wrote:
>> Yet with every successive attempt and failure, or at best, mostly
>> failure, the government and the industry show that they do not know what
>> they are doing.
> 
> This is to repeat the propaganda being spoon fed by the media.  They
> know exactly how to stop this (despite what Les says those on the Oil
> Drum say, a sight that continually uses left liberal fear to disarm
> the left IMO).  Waistline is correct, they are choosing not to stop it
> because they wish to save the well and make future, not to mention
> current, profits off of the well.  This reality is, as I mentioned
> last week, the clearest example of putting profits before people, and
> the environment that sustains us, in a long, long time.  The capacity
> of a strong left to grasp that reality and use it is all that is
> missing and is what makes this different from the civil rights
> moments.

Found this extraordinary assertion in purging the old messages and 
thought it should not go unremarked.

The argument that the blow out in the Macondo deep water oil field could 
be easily brought under control is not worth answering.

What is striking is this vision of capitalism as a conspiracy.

Did BP's greed and the government's failure to restrict and channel it 
lead to this catastrophe? No doubt.

But the idea that Obama and friends would be willing to put up with the 
political cost, and BP the financial cost (half its market cap gone up 
in smoke, downgrading of BP's credit rating, tens of billions of dollars 
in liability, total trashing of BP's brand image) to keep one oil well 
in production is so astonishingly blind as to stagger the imagination.

What is it that makes comrades lurch to such outlandish propositions?

Joaquin




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] Circumcisions kill boys in South Africa

[David Thorstad]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/africa/10350471.stm




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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Mark Lause]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


This isn't my area of expertise, but the Left can't be reduced to
organizations, and the Socialist returns fell of precipitously in the
1916 elections because a lot of the people who had supported Debs went
to Wilson.  These included legions of Single Taxers, Municipal
Ownership activists, and Progressives of all sorts...not the least
important of which to this list would be John Reed.

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] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Shane Mage]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==



On Jun 19, 2010, at 10:02 AM, Mark Lause wrote:
>  Remember the 1916 argument that socialists needed to vote for  
> Woodrow Wilson
> because he "kept us out of war"?  The Left helped elect the pompous
> segregationist fossil, who had his second inauguration March 6, 1917
> and took us into the world war on April 6.

I don't "remember" that, because I never heard such a thing.  I always  
thought the Left (Socialist Party, IWW, anarchists) was either firmly  
behind Debs or against participation in elections.  Who among them was  
pro-Wilson?

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] Ken Silverstein on the political economy of soccer and American odiousness

[Greg McDonald]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


> On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 8:30 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
>
>> http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/06/hbc-90007255
>> Why I Hate Landon Donovan


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5304289/ce/us/fifa-ax-us-slovenia-ref-wc?cc=5901&ver=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

Re: [Marxism] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[Mark Lause]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


I agree with everything Pat said, none of which mediates the points
that they are about as fascist as most "Marxist" English professors
are Marxists

The punchline, though, is the leap from people shouting over abortion
to the blanket assertion that they are "definitely capable of
violence."  I think that almost everybody's capable of violence and
that reactionaries always have been bullies.

But the bottom line is that political violence in the U.S. used to be
a hell of a lot more common than it is now.  And it used to be done by
organized public mobs of thugs rather than small groups of would be
militias, clinic bombers or homophobic yahoos.

Prattling about fascism disserves the movement on several levels

As Marxists, we should value precision and reserving the term
"fascist" for what's actually fascist should work.

More immediately, though, tossing the word into the mix is regularly
used to justify a desperate strategic alliance with liberalism to "buy
time."  "The people need to get it together," runs the argument, "but
we're not prepared now, so we have no choice but to vote for what we
can elect."  At this stage in the election cycle, the threat of a
Republican resurgence in Congress is used to justify voting
Democratic.  I was just listening to a Green Party official who voted
for Obama explain to me how necessary it was to buy time, because
McCain was going to just extend Bush's policies.

However, I first heard this in 1964, when the Left was "all the way
with LBJ" because if Goldwater got elected, we'd wind up at war in
Vietnam.

In fact, though, the argument is so old it predates fascism.  Remember
the 1916 argument that socialists needed to vote for Woodrow Wilson
because he "kept us out of war"?  The Left helped elect the pompous
segregationist fossil, who had his second inauguration March 6, 1917
and took us into the world war on April 6.

When will we learn?

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] BP

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Few days ago, I think Les was looking for info on BP's daily output, 
reserves, etc.

Friday [June 18] Wall Street Journal, in an article "Kremlin Ponders BP's 
Future in Russia" reports for 2009

BP daily output  3.998 million barrels of oil equivalent;  TNK-BP [Russia] 
944,000

Reserves BP: 18.3 billion BOE; TNK  3.6 billion

Revenues BP:  $13.955 billion; TNK $1.948 billion 



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 Silverstein on the political economy of soccer and American odiousness

[Greg McDonald]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 8:30 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/06/hbc-90007255
> Why I Hate Landon Donovan
>
> By Ken Silverstein
>
> I vowed not to write about the U.S. team again, but it’s really
> impossible not to.
>
> First, Landon Donovan is an ass. After the game he said the referee
> “stole” the game by denying the goal that would have put the U.S. up by 3-2.
>
> Yes, the referee blew the call in disallowing the goal by Maurice Edu,
> but the free kick on which that goal came resulted from a bad call
> against a Slovenia player. As the New York Times noted, “The foul that
> led to the free kick was another error by [the referee] Coulibaly.
> United States striker Jozy Altidore ran right into a Slovene defender
> and fell theatrically, fooling Coulibaly into blowing his whistle.”
>
> On balance, referees generally don’t win or lose games, as I have to
> remind my 10-year-old every time he throws a Donovan-like tantrum after
> a game his baseball team loses.
>
> Donovan also said, “My guess is there are not many teams in this
> tournament that could have done what we did and arguably won the game,”
> Donovan said. “That’s what the American spirit is all about.”
>
> Do what? The only thing that matters is the final score, which history
> will record as a tie. Donovan’s remarks are equivalent to Paul Pierce
> saying in an interview after last night’s Lakers-Celtics game, “My guess
> is there are not many teams who could have done what we did. We were
> beating the Lakers by 13 points in the second half.”
>
> Second, the press talked about how the Americans had scored an “upset
> draw” by beating “mighty England.” I doubt the media will see it this
> way, but shouldn’t today’s result therefore be deemed an “upset draw” by
> Slovenia, the smallest country that made the Cup?
>
> Consider these statistics, from the CIA World Factbook:
>
> United States, population:
>
> 310,232,863 (July 2010 est.) Country comparison to the world: 3
>
> GDP (purchasing power parity):
>
> $14.26 trillion (2009 est.) Country comparison to the world: 2
>
> Slovenia, population:
>
> 2,003,136 (July 2010 est.) Country comparison to the world: 145
>
> GDP (purchasing power parity): $55.84 billion (2009 est.) Country
> comparison to the world: 87
>
> And incidentally, “mighty” England isn’t looking so mighty at the
> moment. They ended up tied with Algeria.
>
> Yet tragically, it appears that the U.S. soccer team will continue to
> plague the Cup with its god-awful soccer into the second round. All it
> probably needs to do to advance is to beat Algeria, which will surely
> become, in the American media narrative, the Goliath versus the American
> David in that game.


Silverstein should bear in mind that Slovenia beat Russia to make it
into the cup. Which really begs the question. In futbol there is no
equation between economic status and prowess on the pitch, which is
one of the reasons international futbol is so exciting to watch.
Fielding a good national team has much more to do with a country's
indigenous soccer culture, such as the level of grassroots support for
the development of a home-grown league which in turn produces
high-quality players, as well as the ability to pull together a group
of individuals not accustomed to playing together and forging a
cohesive unit that functions as a whole greater than the sum of its
parts.

Currently, the rule of thumb for judging the quality of a national
team is based on its record in past competition and the number of its
players contracted by high-level club teams. Most of those teams are
located in Europe. The best leagues IMHO are in Spain and Italy. The
English premiership has steadily declined in quality over the past ten
years.

The MSL is a mediocre league, which is why the current USA squad,
perhaps the best ever, has more team members than before who play in
European leagues. Donovan in particular had an excellent run most
recently with Everton, of the English premiership.

The criticism directed against this particular referee is on the mark.
He was lousy from the first whistle. But as Silverstein points out, he
made bad calls on both sides. The ref for the previous game between
Serbia and Germany, however,  was much worse. The guy was card happy,
handing out yellows like pieces of candy during halloween.

On the whole, the refereeing in this particular cup has been quite exceptional.

The USA team will beat Algeria and make it to the second round, where
they will probably be eliminated.  Then we can all settle back for
some very serious play indeed.

Greg


Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/a

[Marxism] News from the nativism front

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Boston Globe June 18, 2010
Harvard student won’t face deportation
ICE defers action on illegal resident’s case

By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff  |  June 19, 2010

Eric Balderas, a 19-year-old Harvard biology student who became an 
international celebrity last week after being arrested for being in the 
United States unlawfully, is no longer facing deportation to Mexico, 
officials said last night.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency informed US Senator 
Richard Durbin of Illinois late yesterday that it would not pursue 
Balderas’s deportation, said Max Gleischman, a spokesman for Durbin. The 
Illinois Democrat had lobbied the agency on behalf of Balderas.

The soft-spoken Harvard sophomore’s arrest on June 7 as he tried to 
board an airplane back to Boston after visiting his mother in San 
Antonio triggered international outcry, support from Harvard officials, 
and a Facebook page with more than 5,500 people lobbying for him.

Balderas’s friends and supporters cheered the news last night. His 
parents had brought him here from Mexico when he was 4, and he was 
raised in San Antonio, where he was valedictorian of Highlands High 
School. He had feared being deported to a country he barely remembered, 
and hoped to become a cancer researcher one day. Balderas could not be 
reached for comment late last night after the decision was made.

“My reaction was hallelujah; I was just absolutely thrilled,’’ said his 
former history teacher, Jan Archer, in San Antonio. “It’s like somebody 
up there understands the situation and that he’s really a great person 
and the kind of people we want here in this country.’’

ICE spokesman Brian P. Hale confirmed in a statement that Balderas had 
been granted deferred action, a discretionary authority that federal 
immigration officials can use to halt a deportation based on the merits 
of an individual’s case.

An official with the Department of Homeland Security, who requested 
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said it 
was not immediately clear how long Balderas’s deferred action would 
last. Homeland Security oversees the immigration agency.

Balderas will be allowed to stay in the United States for a period of 
time, apply for a work permit, and continue his studies at Harvard. He 
could apply to renew the deferred action when it expires, the official said.

In the past, ICE has delayed the deportations of college students and 
other young people such as Walter Lara of Florida, a former college 
student from Argentina who won a temporary reprieve after a massive 
Internet-fueled campaign to prevent his deportation.

Balderas, who is spending the summer conducting research, was detained 
while trying to board an airplane in Texas using his Harvard student 
identification and his Mexican consular card. He had lost his passport 
from Mexico, and was ordered to appear in court for possible deportation.

His detention thrust him into the center of a national debate over 
illegal immigration. The Obama administration has pointed to his case 
and others as reason for Congress to create a path to legal residency 
for the estimated 12 million immigrants in the United States illegally.

But critics say it is unfair to allow people who broke the law to jump 
ahead of those who have waited for years to come to the United States 
legally. They say the economy still needs to find jobs for people who 
are US citizens or legal immigrants.

In April, Arizona passed the most restrictive immigration law in the 
country, allowing police to question the immigration status of anyone 
they reasonably suspect is here without papers.

Last month, the Massachusetts Senate followed suit with a battery of 
amendments that sought to restrict illegal immigrants’ access to 
government benefits and other services.

In an interview Thursday, Balderas appeared exhausted, tense, and 
fearful of being deported. After his arrest, he said, he felt helpless 
and even suicidal. He said he was grateful for the outpouring of 
support, but was eager just to work in the laboratory for the summer and 
to return to his studies.

“I can’t wait until this is past,’’ he said. “I just like being down in 
the lab, doing my thing.’’

Friends said he probably would continue his studies at Harvard and keep 
fighting for the Dream Act, proposed federal legislation that would 
allow immigrant youths in his predicament to apply for legal residency. 
Durbin is a cosponsor of the Dream Act, which has been pending since 2001.

In San Antonio, his former government teacher, Martie Enriquez, sighed 
in relief that Balderas would not immediately face deportation, but she 
worried that his troubles may not be over.

“I think that part of his nightmare is over,’’ she said. “But it’s

Re: [Marxism] Christian Fascism in the USA?

[pat costello]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


ML wrote:

Almost all of the people who think of themselves as born-agains and
evangelicals do
nothing politically except vote. There has never been a Christian
Right equivalent of the marches on Washington in terms of numbers,
social weight, etc.

Me:

True, many of them do nothing political except vote. Jesus will one
day descend from the clouds and smite the non-believers. While they
eagerly await the end of the world many of them will just keep apart
and not be tainted by this sinful world.

However, they are christian nationalists who believe in the Dominion
Theory or Dominionism:

"Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy
responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have
dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life
and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish."

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/11/151212/239


Their connections within the government, military and the corporate
world should not be discounted. Evangelicals include George Bush, Sara
Palin, Erik Prince, the CEO of Blackwater/XE, a number of US Senators.
Evangelicals are among the most ardent supporters of Israel. The US
military is full of people who literally see themselves as "soldiers
for christ". These are the soldiers being sent to Iraq and
Afghanistan:

"attorneys for Americans United found that at the Air Force Academy
there was "systematic and pervasive religious bias and intolerance at
the highest levels of the academy command structure."

This included pressuring cadets to undertake religious instruction and
proselytizing by faculty members in the classroom. In one instance,
cadets who declined to attend chapel after dinner were marched back to
their dormitories by upperclass cadet staff in what was dubbed a
"Heathen Flight."

http://www.antiwar.com/ips/berkowitz.php?articleid=6326




Their ideology dovetails perfectly with the goals of capitalism:
extreme laissez faire capitalism, anti-union, pro-war. Killing Muslims
for jesus is a fine thing.


Jeff Sharlett wrote a book about an evangelical organization that is
very influential in Washington:

"What’s most disturbing about it, though, is that we see that the sort
of fundamentalist front within the military and the Family, in fact,
are not two separate tracks, but very closely linked. Even the biggest
and sort of most militant group within the military, called Officers’
Christian Fellowship, 15,000 officers, when we traced it back and
looked at their history, we discovered that some of their seed money,
some of their early ideas, the organizing initiatives, all come from
the Family. So you see, in effect, that the Family is working in all
fronts, not just in Congress and in business and overseas, but also in
the military. So you take those ideas, and you put guns next to them,
and it becomes very frightening."

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/12/sharlet




A few years ago, I was walking with my then-adolescent daughter
towards an anti-war demonstration in Washington. A group of young men
surrounded us and began hectoring us, not about anti-war issues but
abortion rights. I suppose they assumed that any women at an anti-war
demo would have feminist and pro-abortion rights views and therefore
worthy of harassment. I do not doubt that they would have physically
assaulted us if we had been a bit more isolated.

I have no opinion on whether or not they should be called fascist but
they are definitely capable of violence and are united in their desire
to dominate.


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] Diary of an unemployed philosophy major

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


http://www.theawl.com/2010/06/diary-of-an-unemployed-class-of-10-philosophy-major-in-new-york-city-part-1


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] Comparisons between the USSR and the USA

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


In 1991, the Soviet Union suddenly evaporated.  The Cold War was over. 
Like many wars, it seemed to have an obvious winner and an obvious 
loser.  Nearly 20 years later, as the U.S. heads down the Soviet road to 
disaster -- even if the world can’t imagine what a bankrupt America 
might mean -- it’s far clearer that, in the titanic struggle of the two 
superpowers that we came to call the Cold War, there were actually two 
losers, and that, when the “second superpower” left the scene, the first 
was already heading for the exits, just ever so slowly and in a state of 
self-intoxicated self-congratulation.  Nearly every decision in 
Washington since then, including Barack Obama’s to expand both the 
Afghan War and the war on terror, has only made what, in 1991, was one 
possible path seem like fate itself.

Call up the Politburo in Washington.  We’re in trouble.

full: 
http://www.zcommunications.org/call-the-politburo-we-re-in-trouble-by-tom-engelhardt


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] Ken Silverstein on the political economy of soccer and American odiousness

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/06/hbc-90007255
Why I Hate Landon Donovan

By Ken Silverstein

I vowed not to write about the U.S. team again, but it’s really 
impossible not to.

First, Landon Donovan is an ass. After the game he said the referee 
“stole” the game by denying the goal that would have put the U.S. up by 3-2.

Yes, the referee blew the call in disallowing the goal by Maurice Edu, 
but the free kick on which that goal came resulted from a bad call 
against a Slovenia player. As the New York Times noted, “The foul that 
led to the free kick was another error by [the referee] Coulibaly. 
United States striker Jozy Altidore ran right into a Slovene defender 
and fell theatrically, fooling Coulibaly into blowing his whistle.”

On balance, referees generally don’t win or lose games, as I have to 
remind my 10-year-old every time he throws a Donovan-like tantrum after 
a game his baseball team loses.

Donovan also said, “My guess is there are not many teams in this 
tournament that could have done what we did and arguably won the game,” 
Donovan said. “That’s what the American spirit is all about.”

Do what? The only thing that matters is the final score, which history 
will record as a tie. Donovan’s remarks are equivalent to Paul Pierce 
saying in an interview after last night’s Lakers-Celtics game, “My guess 
is there are not many teams who could have done what we did. We were 
beating the Lakers by 13 points in the second half.”

Second, the press talked about how the Americans had scored an “upset 
draw” by beating “mighty England.” I doubt the media will see it this 
way, but shouldn’t today’s result therefore be deemed an “upset draw” by 
Slovenia, the smallest country that made the Cup?

Consider these statistics, from the CIA World Factbook:

United States, population:

310,232,863 (July 2010 est.) Country comparison to the world: 3

GDP (purchasing power parity):

$14.26 trillion (2009 est.) Country comparison to the world: 2

Slovenia, population:

2,003,136 (July 2010 est.) Country comparison to the world: 145

GDP (purchasing power parity): $55.84 billion (2009 est.) Country 
comparison to the world: 87

And incidentally, “mighty” England isn’t looking so mighty at the 
moment. They ended up tied with Algeria.

Yet tragically, it appears that the U.S. soccer team will continue to 
plague the Cup with its god-awful soccer into the second round. All it 
probably needs to do to advance is to beat Algeria, which will surely 
become, in the American media narrative, the Goliath versus the American 
David in that game.


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] Japan’s Far Right Blocks Screenings of ‘The Cove’

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


NY Times June 18, 2010
Japan’s Far Right Blocks Screenings of ‘The Cove’
By HIROKO TABUCHI

YOKOHAMA, Japan — “The Cove,” an Oscar-winning documentary about dolphin 
hunting in Japan, would seem to be a natural fit for movie theaters 
here, but so far the distributor has yet to find a single one that will 
screen the film.

And if Shuhei Nishimura and his compatriots on Japan’s nationalist 
fringe have their way, none ever will.

In a country that shudders at disharmony and remains wary of the far 
right’s violent history, the activists’ noisy rallies, online slanders, 
intimidating phone calls and veiled threats of violence are frightening 
theaters into canceling showings of “The Cove,” which not only depicts 
dolphin hunting in an unflattering light but also warns of high levels 
of mercury in fish, a disturbing disclosure in this seafood-loving nation.

It is a stark example as well of how public debate on topics deemed 
delicate here can be easily muffled by a small minority, the most vocal 
of whom are the country’s estimated 10,000 rightists who espouse 
hard-line stances in disputes against Tokyo’s neighbors.

Other areas that have been effectively made taboo by the right wing 
include Japan’s royal family, rights for ethnic minorities, Tokyo’s 
occupation of parts of Asia in the last century, the nation’s role in 
World War II and organized crime groups, many of which have close links 
with the far right.

Groups like Mr. Nishimura’s Society for the Restoration of Sovereignty, 
which has just a handful of core members, have recently made it their 
mission to counter international criticism of practices like whaling and 
dolphin hunting. In countless rallies, the society’s members have argued 
that the hunts are time-honored Japanese traditions that must be 
protected from Western condemnation, and “The Cove” is now their No. 1 
target.

“If you have any pride in your nation, do not show this film,” Mr. 
Nishimura bellowed through his loudspeakers at a protest in front of the 
Yokohama New Theater, with about 50 protesters with billboards and 
rising-sun flags in tow. “Will you poison Japan’s soul?”

“The Cove” features scenes, many of them filmed surreptitiously, of 
dolphin hunts in the village of Taiji, southwest of Tokyo. A group of 
activists led by Ric O’Barry, who trained dolphins for the television 
series “Flipper,” witness the violent hunts in a secluded lagoon, where 
fishermen corral dolphins, select a few to capture alive and use 
harpoons to stab the rest to death, turning the inlet crimson with their 
blood.

The killings, the activists charge, are driven by a lucrative trade in 
live dolphins for aquariums as well as a local market for dolphin meat, 
which is contaminated with mercury.

Commercial whaling has been outlawed worldwide since the mid-1980s, but 
the ban does not cover smaller marine mammals like dolphins. Japan kills 
about 13,000 dolphins a year, according to the Fisheries Agency, of 
which about 1,750 are captured in Taiji. Most of those killed in Taiji’s 
hunts are bottlenose dolphins, which are not endangered. The movie has 
raised passions in the United States, too, though of a far different 
sort. After some covert work by the movie’s producers — timed to 
coincide with the Oscar ceremonies — investigators raided a sushi 
restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif., in March and charged its owners with 
serving endangered Sei whale. After an apology, the restaurant soon 
closed its doors, apparently in an act of gustatory hara-kiri.

Advocates of free speech here have urged theaters to resist the threats 
and show the documentary, made by the American filmmaker Louie Psihoyos. 
Many Japanese are unaware that dolphin hunts take place here, where 
consumption of dolphin meat is rare, and critics say it is time for a 
public debate.

A few businesses are resisting the nationalists’ pressure. The Internet 
service company Niwango plans a free streaming of the film on Friday, 
though for only 2,000 viewers.

But three theaters canceled runs of the film in early June after Mr. 
Nishimura’s group warned on its Web site that it would stage 
demonstrations outside two theaters in central Tokyo. Twenty-three 
others are still mulling whether to show the film. Not one is currently 
screening it.

Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, the manager at Yokohama New Theater, said he was 
postponing screenings of the film. “Of course it upsets me,” he said, 
“but I must consider the trouble it would bring to my neighbors.”

Though the film was never slated for a blockbuster release in Japan, 
organizers now fear that there will be no run at all. “I had a sense of 
mission,” said Takeshi Kato, president of the film’s distributor in 
Japan, Unplugged. “I knew from the moment I watched it that this 

[Marxism] Mass Picket Condemning Israel’s Atta ck on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla!

[Greg McDonald]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Mass Picket Condemning Israel’s Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla!
Date:   
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Time:   
5:30am - 10:30am
Location:   
Port of Oakland
Description
Join the Labor and Community Picket of Israeli Zim Lines Ship
(Update: added Summary and Event Contacts, updated Endorsers)

Sunday, June 20 5:30 A.M (morning)
Port of Oakland, Berth 57, Middle Harbor Rd.

Protest Israel’s Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla!
Boycott Israeli Ships and Goods!
Lift the Blockade NOW – Let Gaza Live!
Bring Down Israel's Apartheid Wall!

Summary:

* We will gather at West Oakland BART (near 7th/Mandela Parkway) at
5AM in the parking lot to caravan and carpool to the site. The port
gate may be blocked off to cars so we may have to walk to the berth,
about one mile.

* BART does not run at 5AM on Sundays so arrange to get there by car,
bus, bike, etc. Contact number for carpool coordination listed below.

* Bring food, water, sunblock and hat.

Unions, labor federations and other organizations around the world
have condemned Israel’s deadly attack against the Gaza Freedom
Flotilla on May 31, 2010. Nine people were killed and dozens seriously
injured in the Israeli commando attack in international waters on
ships attempting to bring humanitarian cargo to the suffering and
blockaded people of Gaza. Six people aboard the ships are still
missing and presumed dead.

The Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a blatant act of
piracy on the high seas. No Israeli ship should now be allowed to
carry on trading activity any where in the world without facing picket
lines, protests and embargo. Dock workers in several countries
including South Africa, Norway, Sweden and Malaysia have declared that
they will refuse to handle Israeli cargo in the coming weeks.

We call on everyone who stands for justice and against occupation and
apartheid to join the June 20 picket at the Port of Oakland. This is a
moment of great opportunity. In San Francisco in 1984, a picket line
and refusal to unload cargo of a ship carrying South African cargo was
a key event in mobilizing the anti-apartheid movement worldwide.

Sponsored by: Labor / Community Committee in Solidarity with the
Palestinian People: Arab American Union Members Council, ANSWER- Act
Now to Stop War and End Racism, Palestine Youth Network, US Palestine
Community Network, Al Awda- Right to Return Coalition, Arab Youth
Organization, MECA-Middle East Children's Alliance, SJP-Students for
Justice in Palestine, AROC-Arab Resource and Organizing Center,
ISM-International Solidarity Movement, San Jose Peace and Justice
Center, International Socialist Organization, Peace and Freedom Party
- SF, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, Bay Area US Labor
Against the War, Bay Area Committee for Peace and Justice, Barrio
Unido, Movement for Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrant Workers,
National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupation,
Friends of Deir Ibzi’a, Socialist Viewpoint, FMLN in Northern
California, San Jose Justice for Palestinians, Code Pink – SF, World
Can’t Wait – SF, International Action Center, Skyline Against Cuts,
Industrial Workers of the World –SF, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian
Universalists Social Justice Committee, QUIT! - Queers Undermining
Israeli Terrorism, Fred Hirsch, Executive Board member of Plumbers &
Fitters Local 393, delegate to the South Bay AFL -CIO Labor Council,
and many labor activists in the Bay Area.
(list in formation - to endorse email: ekish...@yahoo.com)


Event Contacts:

Event information: www.transportworkers.org
www.answersf.org

For logistical information not covered in this email call: 415 -821-6545

National Lawyers Guild legal hotline: 415-285-1011

Sunday carpooling: 510-282-7032
christopher.cubil...@gmail.com

Cuban Workers Central CTC Backs Labor Boycott Of Israeli Ship In
Oakland California On June 20, 2010 Havana, June 18, 2010

To: Tim Paulson, Executive Director, San Francisco Labor Council
Robert McEllrath, President International Longshore and Warehouse
Union William Harvey, President Alameda Labor Council

The Cuban workers support the just protest of the workers and
community of the San Francisco Bay Area that will take place on June
20 against the cruel and inhumane blockade which the Israeli
government maintains in the Gaza Strip, depriving thousands of women,
children and men of the most basic rights, especially the right to
life.

Our people have lived for more than 50 years under an unjust and
abominable blockade by the United States government. Therefore, we
understand very well how the Palestinian people feel and we will
always be in solidarity with their just cause.

Today, we send you our most sincere support. Long Live the Solidarity
of the Working Class! End the Blockade o

Re: [Marxism] On your Marx

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Joel Cosgrove wrote:
> 
> 
> Who wrote this?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 

The article was unsigned.

Sent from my Macbook.


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: Sanhati Statement against arrest of activists in Lalgarh

[newsletter]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


June 17, 2010

We strongly condemn the detention and subsequent arrest of Nisha Biswas,
Manik Mandal and Kanishka Choudhury, activists from Kolkata who were
visiting Lalgarh to investigate the rampant human rights violation by the
police and paramilitary forces in those areas. The three activists, along
with three print and electronic media journalists, had been visiting the
Salboni-Lalgarh area since 14th June, documenting the atrocities and
destruction wreaked by the joint state and central forces and the armed
CPI(M) harmads who are backed by these same police forces. On 15th June,
all the six persons were detained by the joint forces from Lakshmanpur
village in Salboni. Along with them around fifty villagers were also
rounded up. Although the journalists were subsequently released, the three
activists were charged, together with seven villagers who are activists of
the Peoples’ Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), with violation of
Sec. 144 of the Criminal penal code, which has been in force in Lalgarh for
the past one year. We learn with great concern that when they were produced
in Midnapore court on 16th June, they were charged with multiple false
cases under various sections including waging war against the state,
criminal conspiracy and unlawful assembly, as a result of which they were
denied bail and remanded to 14 days jail custody, although the original
charge of violating Sec. 144 is a bailable one. We unequivocally condemn
this blatantly illegal act of human rights violation by the police and
demand the immediate release of the three persons.

This act by the police is also a marker of the situation in Lalgarh one
year after the entry of the joint forces into the area. For the past one
year, Sec. 144 has been in force in Lalgarh, which is unprecedented in the
history of independent India. Members of civil society have not been
allowed to enter Lalgarh during this time and repeated attempts have
resulted in detentions and arrest by the police. Lalgarh has become out of
bounds for citizens of India, in complete violation of the fundamental
right to the freedom of movement throughout the territory of India
enshrined in the Constitution. In this situation, the area has seen
unprecedented human rights violation by the state forces in the form of
killings, rapes, beatings, looting of household goods, indiscriminate
arrests and charging with false cases. Together with this has been the
rampage by the CPI(M) harmads, who have reenterd the area in the wake of
the security forces. In this backdrop the normal economic and social life
has completely broken down in the entire region. We note with profound
concern that the behaviour of the CRPF and other state forces have been
like that of a foreign occupying force, possibly worse, and provides a
taste of what Operation Green Hunt is doing to the adivasis over the entire
central Indian region. We think that the latest arrests of the activists is
the continuation of the intimidatory tactics by the government to break the
resolve of civil society to stand beside the struggle of the adivasis of
Lalgarh for dignity and justice, and demand their immediate release and the
withdrawal of the joint forces from the region.

Sanhati
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] On your Marx

[Joel Cosgrove]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Who wrote this?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 19, 2010, at 1:00 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> ==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==
>
>
> http://nplusonemag.com/intellectual-situation-your-marx
> The Intellectual Situation
> On Your Marx
> Neoliberalism on the rocks
>
> This article originally appeared in the Intellectual Situation of
> Issue 8 (“Recessional,” Fall 2009).
>


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