Re: [Marxism] Kemalists lead AKP in poll

[Lüko Willms]

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Louis Proyect (l...@panix.com) wrote on 2010-07-23 at 11:40:16 in  about 
[Marxism] Kemalists lead AKP in poll:
> 
> according to Sonar Arastirmas July 3-10 poll, which was 
> received by e-mail. 

  does that mean that this opinion poll was conducted via eMail? 


Cheers,  

Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany



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[Marxism] A Marxist Matrix?

[Louis Proyect]

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Slate Magazine
The Marxist Matrix
How to make sense of all those dreams-within-dreams in Inception.
By Jonah Weiner
Posted Wednesday, July 21, 2010, at 5:01 PM ET

About halfway through Inception, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur lifts an 
assault rifle and tries, unsuccessfully, to take out a group of 
attackers firing on him from a nearby rooftop. Arthur's teammate Eames 
nudges him to one side and tells him, with an audible smirk, "You 
mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling." He produces an 
enormous grenade launcher, takes aim, and gets the job done. As with 
many moments in Christopher Nolan's new blockbuster, this one requires 
some parsing. It seems that Eames conjures up his gargantuan gun on the 
spot, at his whim.

The grenade-launcher bit is a passing moment of comic relief, but it's 
also one of the few times in Inception where Nolan seems to depict a 
dream-world act of the sort we associate with actual dreaming—illogical, 
unbounded in creative potential, free from the drab tyranny of the real. 
Nobody in this film makes love to Megan Fox atop a dragon while his 
teeth fall out: The dreams here observe more or less tidy rules. A 
dreamer's experience of time, for instance, slows down in regular, 
calculable intervals as he drops deeper and deeper into unconsciousness. 
His innermost secrets are conveniently deposited—and readily 
locatable—within locked vaults. And the effects of waking-state factors 
like gravity and weather register with improbable intelligibility in a 
dream, so that if dozing-me is dunked into a bathtub, geysers of water 
will burst into whatever place dream-me occupies at that moment.

In Inception, when a dream goes nuts, that nuttiness is not its natural 
condition but rather a herald and catalyst of its breakdown and end, as 
in the scene where Ellen Page's Ariadne folds Paris onto itself—the sort 
of wild invention that Leonardo DiCaprio's Cobb warns her might alert a 
dreaming subject to foreign meddlers and thereby snap him back to 
consciousness. In Inception, a dreamer—or, to be precise, a dreamer 
jacked up with the unique cocktail of drugs that the extractors 
administer to their marks—is a pretty literal-minded type.

To hear several smart critics tell it, so is Christopher Nolan, to a 
fault. In a New York pan, David Edelstein called the director "too 
literal-minded, too caught up in ticktock logistics, to make a great, 
untethered dream movie." At his Chicago Sun-Times blog, a similarly 
scornful Jim Emerson wrote that the movie "reduces the complexity (and 
beauty and terror) of the human subconscious to the dimensions of a 
routine action movie or video game.'" In the New York Times, A.O. Scott 
wrote that the dreams in Inception were "often curiously pedestrian" (I, 
for one, wouldn't mind a few more ski-slope shootouts in my dream life) 
and that "Mr. Nolan's idea of the mind is too literal, too logical, too 
rule-bound to allow the full measure of madness—the risk of real 
confusion, of delirium, of ineffable ambiguity—that this subject 
requires." What connects these criticisms is a desire for the appearance 
on screen of an infinite, unfettered unconscious at work, a demand that 
Inception replicate, engage with, and deliver that radically unmoored 
feeling we get from a dream.

This is a not-unreasonable expectation to bring to a movie that boasts 
state-of-the-art special effects and whose director is known for his 
love of elaborate, disorienting mind games. Beneath that expectation, 
though, lies a tacit agreement that this is how dreams should be 
represented. Critics are right to identify Nolan's vision of dreams as 
somewhat literal-minded, but to call that a flaw in the film risks 
countering his literalism with essentialism. In Nolan's vision of 
dreams, did he fail to meet his subject's requirements, or did he put 
forward a grimly hamstrung, dystopian view that assails the optimistic 
idea that dreams are the mind's loony, liberated playground?

That dreams in Inception aren't normal dreams is a central plot point. 
The movie's exposition is passing and partial, but the rough idea is 
that, to better train soldiers, the military developed a technology 
through which dreams could be manipulated and shared—this technology 
eventually migrated to the private sector. When Cobb and his cohort 
enter a dream, they take the creative reins from their dreaming subject 
so as to better sift through and steward his subconscious—the tidier the 
dream, the easier it is to manage and mine it. I emerged from the film 
convinced that its dreams play out the way they do not because of a 
shortcoming on Nolan's part but because of a haunting and resonant 
choice he made.

At root, the movie presents a world in which corporate-capitalis

[Marxism] Why the economy sucks

[Louis Proyect]

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(This amounts to a Marxist underconsumption analysis, despite the 
author's pen name Hegelman.)

http://www.theawl.com/2010/07/the-economy-why-it-sucks

The Economy: Why It Sucks
by Carl Hegelman posted @1:40 PM

A sign indicating that the factory behind the gate on which it rests has 
been shutteredThe economy is terrible right now. Almost everybody seems 
to agree. The business community, as represented by the US Chamber of 
Commerce, the Business Roundtable and most Republicans, has some ideas 
as to how to fix it: cut taxes; reduce the deficit (!); rein in Big 
Government spending (except defense); stop over-regulating business so 
they can get on with business. The Democrats have their own idea: more 
stimulus, in the form of, for example, extending unemployment benefits. 
Who's right? If anybody?

As a corporate bond analyst, I get some perspective on this. My job is 
to analyze companies and try to figure out whether they can service 
their debt (pay interest and return the principal when it comes due), 
or, perhaps more often, how much of a loss their creditors (banks, 
bondholders, vendors, pensioners, etc) are going to take in the 
bankruptcy, and what the company is going to look like when it has 
screwed them all (except the lawyers and financiers) and emerges in a 
relatively debt-free state from Chapter 11. I spend a lot of time gazing 
at spreadsheets (in between ruminating over Solitaire, Hearts, Tetris 
and Bridge), corporate slide-shows and SEC filings. I listen to a lot of 
"earnings calls" (the conference calls given by management when their 
quarterly earnings numbers are released). I read the Financial Times 
every day. (Gave up the Journal a long time ago, fed up, finally, with 
the one-sidedness of its editorials).

There's a thread that runs through most of the calls I listen to: Demand 
is weak; we are responding by cutting the fat and becoming leaner and 
meaner; when demand picks up, we'll be in good shape.

Most of the companies I follow have a line in their income statements: 
Restructuring charges. When they close a plant and lay people off 
("headcount reductions"), they have to pay severance and, for instance, 
break leases. And that's what restructuring charges are all about. 
Granted, I don't follow upper-class companies like Exxon or IBM or 
Microsoft; but pretty much every US company I do follow has this line in 
its income statement. And even most of the blue-chips have probably 
taken these restructuring charges at some point in the past two or three 
years. Yes, even Microsoft ($290 million in the March quarter of 2009).

Just as an aside here, there's a reason for them breaking it out like 
that as a separate line-item in their expenses: that way, they can 
present it as a "one-time charge". Analysts like me are supposed to 
discount it in looking at their "real" underlying cash flow and in 
forecasting their financial futures. It's a one-time charge. Trouble is, 
it almost never is a one-time charge. That line, Restructuring Charges, 
appears, for most of my companies, every single quarter. Sometimes you 
begin to wonder what's left to restructure.

Most CEOs and CFOs on earnings calls are not taking the big-picture 
view. They're focused on the details of their own particular business. 
Still, I often ask myself if they see the connection that's staring you 
right in the face: when is "the consumer" going to start spending again? 
Well, maybe when you stop firing him.

This really seems to be the root of the problem here in the US, and 
these earnings calls are like a microcosm of the whole US economy. 
You've probably read a hundred times that consumers are responsible for 
about two-thirds of GDP. (In the last four quarters up to 3/31/2010 it 
was close to 71%). So if they don't have any spendable money because 
they've been fired (or are afraid they're going to be fired), demand 
will be weak.

In other words: If I fire everybody, then who is going to buy the stuff 
I make? You can see how this turns into a vicious circle.

A corollary of this whole phenomenon, incidentally, is this: Private 
enterprise "surplus" as a percentage of GDP has stayed at a pretty high 
level—about 25% over the 12 months to 3/31/10. That's well above the 
trough in the last really big recession in 1980, when it ran about 20%. 
At the same time, perhaps not surprisingly, corporate cash is at $1.8 
trillion, according to the Federal Reserve, which at 7% of assets is as 
high as it's been since the 1960s. There's probably another reason for 
that other than all the money they've saved by their "reductions in 
force": they're haunted by the ghost of the credit crunch, when cash was 
very hard to come by and you couldn't be sure your bank would survive. 
Still, there's obviousl

[Marxism] Cannonball, a movie about foreclosure

[Louis Proyect]

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http://trueslant.com/matthewnewton/

Dogtown Redux: ‘Cannonball’ Examines the Ills and Opportunities of The 
Great Recession
By MATTHEW NEWTON

Cannonball is a short film (go to link above to view) focused on a very 
specific side effect of The Great Recession: A glut of foreclosed homes 
in Fresno, California, and tons of empty swimming pools that have 
attracted legions of the city’s skateboarders. Armed with sump pumps and 
skate decks, the subjects in Cannonball provide a unique look at the 
nationwide fallout of the economic crisis. Instead of seeing the country 
through the eyes of those who have lost so much, we instead see the 
opportunities these losses have created.

It’s impossible to watch this film and not be reminded of the exploits 
of the Z-Boys (Tony Alva, Jay Adams, Stacy Peralta, etc.) skate crew, 
who took great advantage of the Los Angeles drought of the 1970s — as 
residents were forced to drain their pools — and subsequently 
invented/pioneered modern skateboarding culture. Produced by the 
gentlemen at California is a Place (Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari), 
Cannonball manages to tackle the tough subject of economic hardship in a 
compelling (and visually stunning) format. It’s a reminder of how 
important storytelling can be.


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[Marxism] The Upbeat Final Days and Busy Future of Harvey Pekar

[Louis Proyect]

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NY Times July 23, 2010
The Upbeat Final Days and Busy Future of Harvey Pekar
By DAVE ITZKOFF

Tara Seibel, a Cleveland cartoonist and graphic designer, has a 
particularly vivid memory of the last time she saw Harvey Pekar.

It was July 11, and she and Mr. Pekar, the writer and “American 
Splendor” creator, whom she describes as “the godfather of auto-bio 
comics,” had finished one of their regular afternoon meetings at a 
neighborhood cafe where they had been working on their latest 
collaboration. She dropped him off at a public library, where he had 
parked his car, then drove herself home.

She waited for him to phone her that night so they could continue their 
discussion, but Mr. Pekar never called; he was found dead early the next 
morning by his wife, Joyce Brabner.

Their collaboration, an illustrated essay that Mr. Pekar and Ms. Seibel 
wrote together and Ms. Seibel drew, will appear in the catalog for the 
exhibition “Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women,” which 
opens at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco on Oct. 1. It may be 
the last comic that Mr. Pekar helped write before he died, but it is 
just one of several works that will be released in the months to come.

Stories that he wrote for the Pekar Project — a Web comic that is 
illustrated in rotating installments by Ms. Seibel, Joseph Remnant, Rick 
Parker and Sean Pryor — are still to come, as is a 2011 graphic novel, 
“Cleveland,” that is being illustrated by Mr. Remnant. The Pekar 
Project, which appears in Smith Magazine, is also continuing to accept 
submissions for its Harvey Heads gallery, for which various artists have 
drawn Mr. Pekar to celebrate his 70th birthday last October. Though Mr. 
Pekar is often portrayed, even in his own comics, as an endearingly 
cantankerous and occasionally neurotic person, Ms. Seibel described him 
in a telephone interview as being cheerful in his final days.

“He just seemed so happy and so upbeat,” said Ms. Seibel, who worked 
with Mr. Pekar on comics that appeared in Newcity.com, The Cleveland 
Free Times, The Austin Chronicle and The Jewish Review of Books. “I’m 
not kidding.”

Ms. Seibel recalled Mr. Pekar as a fellow workaholic who accompanied her 
to used-book sales, became friendly with her husband and read stories to 
her children. Before Mr. Pekar’s death, she said, she spoke with him 
about Cleveland’s loss of another local celebrity, LeBron James, who 
announced on July 8 that he was signing with the Miami Heat. She said 
she told him that Mr. Remnant wrote on his Facebook page, “It’s O.K., 
Cleveland, you still have Harvey Pekar.”

“He just lit up,” Ms. Seibel said. “He was so excited about that. I 
think it really put him in a really good mood right away. He loved 
praise. He just ate it up. And it was no skin off my back to always pass 
compliments along to him. I’m sure that’s one of the reasons he liked to 
work with me.”

Recently, Ms. Seibel said of Mr. Pekar: “He was starting to complain 
about certain things aching here and there. It was getting harder for 
him to walk, I noticed. He had said that there was cancer that was back. 
But he didn’t know what type it was yet, he was waiting to find out.”

“But he was optimistic about it,” she said, adding that she was amazed 
at how well Mr. Pekar took the news, given how much milder difficulties 
could sometimes upset him.

“He could be sitting there worried, all rumpled up over $500” that he 
was waiting for, Ms. Seibel said, “versus having cancer. I was really 
surprised at how optimistic he was.”

Still, Ms. Seibel said, she did not expect to lose Mr. Pekar so quickly.

“We thought he was going to be around forever,” she said. “I was 
expecting to have him around for a lot longer.”

"He didn’t seem, like, real old," Ms. Seibel added. "He was kind of like 
a hipster."


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[Marxism] I read some Marx, and I liked it

[sandia]

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A play on Katy Perry's hit song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqJ9wxZ9L0&feature=player_embedded


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[Marxism] Villagers take to streets against Maoist bandhs

[Rajesh Roy]

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http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/24/stories/2010072461140500.htm

Kolkata: Disgruntled over regular bandhs and blockades called by Maoists in 
Jangalmahal (forested south-western part of West Bengal), thousands of 
villagers 
from more than 10 villages in Jhargram sub-division of Paschim Medinipur 
district took out a rally in the area on Friday.
They were protesting against the atrocities perpetrated on them by the 
Left-wing 
extremists and supporters of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi 
Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC).
They alleged that the Maoists and PSBJC supporters had beaten up both men and 
women from the villages when the latter refused to participate in a rally 
organised by the former.
A group of Maoists and PSBJC members had gone to Radhanagar village in the area 
on Wednesday night and asked the residents to participate in a protest rally 
against alleged police torture on women members of the Maoist-backed Nari Izzat 
Bachao Committee on Tuesday. Most of the villagers, however, refused to listen 
to the group and chased them away. The Maoists returned to the village on 
Thursday and allegedly beat up residents for daring to defy their order.
Saying that the incident points towards growing animosity against the Maoists 
in 
the region, Additional Superintendent of Police, Jhargram, said the people have 
“finally raised their voice against the prolonged suppression by the Maoists”.
“More than 5,000 people had gathered against torture by the Maoists as well as 
the regular digging up of roads, felling of trees and calling bandhs. They said 
they wanted to live in peace,” he added.




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[Marxism] Maoists kill headmaster: was {Villagers take to streets against Maoist bandhs}

[Rajesh Roy]

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http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/bengal-maoists-kill-headmaster-in-west-midnapore-39422


Kolkata:  Suspected Maoists shot dead the headmaster of a primary school in 
West 
Midnapore district of West Bengal for refusing to let his students join a 
pro-Maoist procession. 

Rabindranath Mahato was just leaving his Indraboni Primary School on Friday 
around 3 pm when six persons in three motorcycles swooped down on him, hacked 
at 
him with choppers and then shot him dead at point blank range. As fellow 
teachers and students fled in terror, the six youth left shouting pro-Maoist 
slogans.

Mahato's murder came two days after villagers at Radhanagar chased away 
activists of the pro-Maoist People's Committee against Police Atrocities 
(PCPA), 
who wanted the villagers to join a procession they were holding. 

On Friday, over 7000 residents of about six villages came together and held 
their own procession to protest against the strong arm tactics of the PCPA. The 
villagers complained of harassment of women as well by the PCPA.


While the villagers protest may have been a one-off incident, people are 
turning 
away from pro-Maoist groups, say the police. And as the isolation of the Maoist 
groups grows, they are taking to more killings of innocents like the headmaster 
of the primary school.


Read more 
at: 
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/bengal-maoists-kill-headmaster-in-west-midnapore-39422?cp




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[Marxism] Sorry, I wrote Democrats instead of Republicans

[michael perelman]

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I meant that the Greens were supposed to lobby the Republicans.
-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

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


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Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming

[DW]

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LProyect wrote:
"You really are a joke. Do you come up with this stuff on your own or is
this the Lambertiste education you got?"

You call this a serious response? Is this the education you got from from
your heros, the Cockranites? You wanna play 'bait the poster' now Louis?
Grow up or should we take everything you write as taken from a 12 year old?

My position on the NRC, and especially the ASME (not mentioned in the
Davis-Besse piece Louis posted) manufacturing and testing standards (the
links were provided in my essay) still stands. I'm not an uncritical
defender of NRC...the fact is that since TMI, Davis-Besse included, there
hasn't been a serious accident. Not a one with nuclear energy. Again...there
simply hasn't been a TMI-like accident largley because their regs work, even
with lackadaisical and/or complacency within the NRC. Despite what the
article notes, fairly accurately, very single failing IN the NRC has been
parsed out and brought to light BY the NRC or staffers therein. Far more
workers have died in fossil fuel plants, communities effected, etc because
of gas-turbines and coal plants than nuclear. IT is simply *safer* by far
living next to a nuclear plant (and yes, Vermont Yankee included) than any
fossil plant. The proof is in the real statistics on health and safety and
no serious anti-nuclear 'activist' can challange those facts (nor even
google-commandos like our sniveling Moderator...). If you think wind mills
and roof top solar can replace nuclear...go for it. See you under water in a
100 years. I want to end planetary climate change and nuclear, IMO, and that
of a lot more people, is one of the main ways to go to reduce carbon output
while *expanding* energy use around the world.

But the issue is what NRC regs, or type regs, and ASME Standards would do
for offshore oil drilling. Louis thinks, from his sniveling response, a big
"nothing". Of course he's ignorant of those regs since he clearly didn't
follow the links I provided. That the NRC/company (Duke energy) complacency
and failures at Davis-Besse were terrible and condemnable at very level, the
article fails to prove the bigger picture of the generalized success from a
health, safety and radiological POV of these same regs. I note that the best
way to proceed is to build a movement for public power where, even under the
capitalist mode of production, operations are at least that much more
transparent and profit it taken out of the picture. This clearly is still on
the agenda, as well as strengthening NRC regs where needed. If you read that
NRC report quoted in the article (as opposed to an anti-nuke writers
'interpretation' of it) you will find that such inspections of the inner
containment vessels are not signed off by multiple inspectors *including*
separately from the company.) At the end of the say, you still have to ask
*why* there hasn't been meltdowns and large radiological releases since TMI
in the US? Why? Anyone want to guess? It's a question of risk-assessment and
what we face as a planet. I've concluded, obviously, that nuclear energy is
the way to go. Slowly people like me are making gains winning those on the
Left to this viewpoint. The key is to be *open* to study things objectively
and discuss them in dispassioned way. We did this, sort of kind of, even, at
the recent Socialism 2010 conference in Oakland (lots of fun on that one).

We need to apply completely new regs to off shore oil drilling at every
level, from operations (we now learn that the fire alarm system was
intentionally bypassed! on the rig) to manufacturing of equipment. We need
to strengthen those and not just for exploratory/initial drilling projects
but for platforms that already exist...there are thousands of them. We can
condemn, as we should, these, the richest Oligarchy in the world and call
for their expropriation. But need..transitional forms of regulations..that
can be applied to the real-world privately owned enterprises that make up
this Oligarchy of Oil.  ASME is still the model to use, IMO.

David

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[Marxism] Israel feels threatened by human rights organizations and international law

[Dennis Brasky]

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*PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity) # 493, **July 23, 2010*
**

It is one thing to criticize the Geneva conventions or International
Humanitarian Law. It is utterly different to construe IHL itself and its
advocates as a threat to the existence of a state and to initiate a
systematic process of combating them.

Many details remain to be established about the Israeli commando assault on
the Mavi Marmara - the lead ship in a flotilla intent on carrying
humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip - in the early hours of May 31, 2010. But
whatever the investigation of the incident ultimately reveals, the killing
of nine activists is indicative of a dramatic recent transformation in
Israel's relationship to civil society organizations and international
humanitarian law itself.

With very few exceptions, direct and intentional attacks on aid workers or
human rights advocates have hitherto been largely the work of undisciplined
militias, ragged armies, criminal gangs, and police-states. The perpetrators
have included the Taliban, the Bosnian Serb army, Iraqi insurgents, and the
organizers of Latin America’s "dirty wars." Now, with the lethal raid on the
Mavi Marmara, Israel is following in their footsteps.

Israel’s deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon declared that "there is no
humanitarian crisis in Gaza" and that the flotilla was not, in fact, a
relief mission but "a provocation intended to delegitimize Israel". The
Israeli government press office even emailed copies of a Gaza restaurant
menu to reporters in an attempt to prove this point. And, after the attack,
Ayalon

called the flotilla an "armada of hate and violence in support of the Hamas
terror organization". Nothing could more clearly indicate the Israeli
government’s fear and demonization of civil society activists and of
international humanitarian law.* *

*Adapted from "Israel: the third strategic threat", written by Thomas Keenan
***

*and Eyal Weizman and published on line on June 7, 2010. See text at : ***

*
http://www.opendemocracy.net/thomas-keenan-eyal-weizman/israel-third-strategic-threat
*

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Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming

[Louis Proyect]

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DW wrote:
> 
> My position on the NRC, and especially the ASME (not mentioned in the
> Davis-Besse piece Louis posted) manufacturing and testing standards (the
> links were provided in my essay) still stands. I'm not an uncritical
> defender of NRC...the fact is that since TMI, Davis-Besse included, there
> hasn't been a serious accident. Not a one with nuclear energy. 

I'm still curious. Is this love affair with nuclear power something you 
devleoped on your own or is this a Lambertist orientation mirroring that 
of Frank Furedi's RCP? I have a feeling that it is your own idiosyncrasy 
since I can't find anything about the friendly atom on the Socialist 
Organizer website. I do note that you comrades have nothing about 
ecology there, so I guess there is something going on. Maybe you should 
add some content about the joys of hamburger and smoking. Have you 
considered unity negotiations with Spiked online? That might be a match 
made in heaven.


> Slowly people like me are making gains winning those on the
> Left to this viewpoint.

Except on Marxmail, I would say.


> 
> We need to apply completely new regs to off shore oil drilling at every
> level, from operations (we now learn that the fire alarm system was
> intentionally bypassed! on the rig) to manufacturing of equipment.

Who is we? The Socialist Organizer and the big bourgeoisie? Good luck, 
my friend.


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Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming

[DW]

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Louis, your baiting aside...Socialist Organizer, nor the Fourth
International (La Verite/La Verdad), has taken a position one way or another
on nuclear energy. Period. What you read about energy from me is *my*
position. Unlike some, you likely, view of socialist groups being overly
strident on the 'centralism' of 'democratic-centralism', we don't have any
such thing. In fact, if SO took a position against nuclear energy, I would
still hold forth my own position on the question, and it wouldn't raise an
eyebrow. The same is true with our international current. We are in fact
developing our position on the environment, something that has been
seriously lacking on our part.

However, I don't understand this ad homin attack on me, Louis. If you want
to discuss energy, ecology whatever, then discuss it. If you just want to
engage in mudslinging, leave me out of it. I'm sure the rest of the list
would agree.

David

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Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming

[Paddy Apling]

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-Original Message-
From: marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu
[mailto:marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu] On
Behalf Of Louis Proyect
Sent: 24 July 2010 7:54 PM
To: e.c.apl...@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming

DW wrote:
> 
> My position on the NRC, and especially the ASME (not mentioned in the
> Davis-Besse piece Louis posted) manufacturing and testing standards (the
> links were provided in my essay) still stands. I'm not an uncritical
> defender of NRC...the fact is that since TMI, Davis-Besse included, there
> hasn't been a serious accident. Not a one with nuclear energy. 

T which Lou wrote
I'm still curious. Is this love affair with nuclear power something you 
devleoped on your own or is this a Lambertist orientation mirroring that 
of Frank Furedi's RCP? 
[snip] 

> Slowly people like me are making gains winning those on the
> Left to this viewpoint.

Except on Marxmail, I would say.

[to which Paddy Apling responds]

I can't help saying, just before I leave for a holiday in Albertaand BC:
that is because, like on global warming, most of Marxmail still have closed
minds on these topics.

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com



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om




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[Marxism] Background to growing self-assertion of China's workers

[Fred Feldman]

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Although the URL leads to the interesting academic website The China Beat, I
found the item itself on the often valuable MRZine site, linked  to Monthly
Review and edited by the (I hope) unsinkable Yoshie Furuhashi.
Fred Feldman

http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=2285
Where to Begin: New Perspectives on Chinese Labor

July 2, 2010 in Where to Begin by The China Beat| 1 comment

By Mark W. Frazier

Studies of labor in China have taken an exciting turn in recent years with
the publication of numerous rich and revealing portraits of workers, their
jobs, and their place in Chinese politics and in the global economy. As
thousands of migrant workers employed in auto parts suppliers for Toyota and
Honda went on strike in May and June of 2010, some headlines heralded a
political coming of age for China's migrant workers. While it's too early to
assess the impact of these strikes, it is clear that migrant workers have
gained a level of organizational sophistication and political awareness to
make demands for higher wages, better working conditions, and in some cases,
elections for union representatives. All of the books cited below offer
readers who are new to the field of Chinese labor some perspective in which
to understand the strikes of 2010 and the broader place of Chinese labor in
the contemporary politics and society of China.

Frazier1A January 2010 London Review of Books article by Perry Anderson
hailed Ching Kwan Lee's Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt
and Sunbelt (University of California Press, 2007) with this accolade:
"Although quite different in mode and scale, in power nothing like it has
appeared since E.P. Thompson's Making of the English Working Class."
Thompson's 1966 classic on late 17th-, early 18th century England brought to
light the cultural contestation and repertoires of resistance as the moral
economy of artisans and their guilds gave way to the mass production and
mechanization of industrial capitalism. In Against the Law, C.K. Lee
explores the moral economies and resistance of Chinese workers in two
domains: first among the socialist working class in the state sector of the
Northeast (the "rustbelt"), where the dismantling of the iron rice bowl
brought an end to the social contract of job security and lifetime benefits,
including housing. Lee compares the unmaking of the state socialist working
class with the making of a new working class in the foreign-invested export
sector of the South (the "sunbelt"). Here, migrant workers invoke the
state's new labor legislation and pursue claims to rights protection and
equal citizenship, in the face of widespread legal and social discrimination
stemming from the household registration system (hukou).

In both the sunbelt and the rustbelt, protests remain highly "cellularized,"
or confined to groups of workers from the same factory who present to
employers and local governments demands that are specific to their
workplace, or their cohort within the factory (e.g., unpaid pensions, unpaid
wages, overtime violations, etc.). This localized pattern of labor protest,
and how it varies, is a common theme found throughout the field of Chinese
labor. Scholars such as Elizabeth Perry have shown how fragmentation, rather
than class formation, both facilitates labor protest and influences how the
state connects with and controls labor movements and their leadership.
William Hurst's The Chinese Worker After Socialism (Cambridge University
Press, 2009) offers a regional account to this story of working class
segmentation, showing how laid-off workers and their collective action is
based on the political economy of different regions of China. Like Lee,
Hurst provides illuminating details from interviews and fieldwork among
laid-off workers who invoke different patterns of collective action and
political symbols to press their demands.

While these accounts of the unmaking and remaking of Chinese labor in the
1990s rightly stress domestic political and economic forces, several recent
books have also pursued international or external factors driving this
process. These works show how China's openness to foreign investment brought
institutions that replaced Maoist or socialist labor practices with labor
law, employment contracts, and dispute resolution. Just how all of this
happened, and why it wasn't more politically explosive, are questions
addressed in Mary E. Gallagher's Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and
the Politics of Labor in China (Princeton University Press, 2005). Gallagher
shows that timing was everything: foreign direct investment coming to China
in the 1980s created a laboratory for the reform of labor practices, and in
the 1990s the politically sensitive reforms to China's domestic or
state-owned enterprise sector co

Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming

[Paddy Apling]

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Hallo Marxmai,

An addendum to my comment to Lou:

It would be a good idea for Marxmail listers to read this week's Newsletter
from the (British) Scientific Alliance, to which I subscribe, and which this
week deals with current perceptions and, particularly, on the obviously
coming Energy Crisis, and current (non) plans for dealing with it.

The link to ask for an e-mail copy pf their newsletter is
.

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com

-Original Message-
From: marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu
[mailto:marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu] On
Behalf Of DW
Sent: 24 July 2010 7:32 PM
To: e.c.apl...@btinternet.com
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming






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Re: [Marxism] Nuclear Energy Causes Global Warming

[Louis Proyect]

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http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/05/05-3

Feds Duck Nagging Problems with #1 Safety Rule at U.S. Nuclear Plants

Public officials, watchdogs seek investigation after NRC ignores fire 
experts’ warnings about risks at operating plants; modeling failure 
impacts new reactors too

DURHAM, NC - May 5, 2010 - Officials from five local governments near 
the Shearon Harris nuclear plant, and three watchdog groups, asked for a 
federal investigation into possible wrongdoing by the U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission involving the top safety issue at the nation’s 
reactors.  They say the NRC is ignoring its own safety regulations – and 
criticisms by numerous fire science experts – while attempting to bring 
scores of nuclear plants into compliance after over two decades of 
regulatory failure.

Beyond Nuclear, NC WARN and The Union of Concerned Scientists today 
filed a legal motion with the NRC’s Office of Inspector General.  They 
urged the OIG to issue an expedited “show cause” order directing NRC 
Chairman Gregory Jaczko to explain why his agency has allowed pilot 
programs by Progress Energy and Duke Energy to use risk calculations 
that failed, under required testing, to predict the ignition and spread 
of electrical fires.  The NRC is scheduled to grant license amendments 
to the Harris and Oconee nuclear plants very soon, which would bless 
them as finally achieving compliance.

The risk calculations, or fire “modeling,” are the scientific basis for 
a new regulatory plan intended to end years of controversy over the 
NRC's lack of enforcement.  The watchdog groups today sent the OIG 
extensive evidence that two international fire science panels, an 
industry trade association, a national testing lab and the NRC itself 
have found serious limitations that essentially render the models 
unreliable for safety decision-making.

"It looks more like smoke and mirrors than real fire safety," said David 
Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of 
Concerned Scientists, during a press teleconference today.  He said the 
NRC seems so focused on scheduling that they’re willing to ignore key 
safety issues. "The NRC received very critical comments from independent 
fire scientists, but rather than fixing those serious problems, the 
agency essentially ignored them in order to approve the pilot projects 
and move ahead with new plants. The NRC is letting the U.S. public down."

Fire is ranked by the NRC as the leading safety factor – 50 percent of 
overall risk – for a U.S. reactor meltdown.  Current regulations were 
developed in 1980 following a near-disaster caused by fire at the Browns 
Ferry plant in Alabama.  But most plant owners have never met those 
regulations, so the NRC recently allowed them to attempt compliance with 
the fire modeling scheme.

The watchdogs say the NRC is ignoring the modeling problems apparently 
in order to provide the illusion that fire safety problems are resolved. 
  The new “risk-informed” regulatory plan is optional for all existing 
plants and for new ones that might be built.  Electric cables are of 
particular concern because they, themselves, are leading fire hazards, 
and because they are essential so operators can


shut down and cool the reactor following an accident or sabotage.  The 
groups also say the new risk-based fire strategy is fundamentally flawed 
because it explicitly ignores security threats.

“No one can accurately predict the level of fire risk derived from an 
attack on a nuclear power plant,” said Paul Gunter, Director of Reactor 
Oversight Project for the Takoma Park, Maryland based anti-nuclear 
group, Beyond Nuclear.  “There is no reliable way to evaluate fire risks 
from sabotage because of the lack of data, the limited range of 
scenarios considered, and large uncertainties about human performance,” 
he said. “This is why we continue to call for stringent enforcement of 
physical fire protection features as included in the long-standing 
regulations.”

Gunter and NC WARN director Jim Warren met privately with NRC Chairman 
Jaczko in March.  But the agency head dismissed the firmly worded 
concerns of the fire science experts.  He also would not explain why NRC 
has directed the pilot plants to use fire models that have not been 
“verified and validated” as required by regulations.  Nor would he 
explain why the agency intends to grant license amendments even though 
the NRC has begun a three-year retesting of fire models that failed in 
earlier laboratory experiments.

Mayor Randy Voller of Pittsboro, a Harris plant neighbor, explained why 
he wants the OIG investigation:  “Local officials must speak out for 
public protection by looking forward – instead of reacting after 
disasters.  The Gulf oil tragedy show

[Marxism] Are recessions better for the right or the left?

[Louis Proyect]

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This is a contribution to the debate between Phil Gasper, a philosophy 
professor and long-time member of the International Socialist 
Organization (ISO), and Doug Henwood who really needs no introduction.

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/are-recessions-better-for-the-right-or-the-left/


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[Marxism] Senator Webb channels Walter Benn Michaels

[James Holstun]

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Jim Webb is tragically stupid here: he goes through an interesting argument 
that underlines the class oppression of white Southerners (the Scots Irish are 
his favorites--here appearing as "Irish Protestants"), and it's quite striking 
and convincing. He even talks about the ways in which the key class dynamic of 
the American South consisted of the white ruling class setting the black and 
white working classes against each other.


Then, when it comes time to point the way toward a resolution, what does he 
give us? An attack on Taft-Hartley, that would allow black and white and 
immigrant to organize economic equality by organizing labor in those hidebound 
"right-to-work" states? A review of those rare but bracing moments like the 
Southern Tenant Farmers Union that brought together poor blacks and whites 
together fighting against white agrarian capitalists? Some other vision of poor 
blacks and whites and immigrants coming together?


No, all he can find to complain about is "government-directed diversity 
programs" and the classic nonsensical capitalist ethic of "enabling opportunity 
for all." Webb's essay, like those of Walter Benn Michaels, help to explain why 
poor whites remain poor whites; poor blacks, poor blacks; and poor immigrants, 
poor immigrants.


For more hope, see Studs Terkel's interview with a former Klansman, C. P. Ellis:
http://www.bestcyrano.org/terkelEllisIntervu.htm



Where
 should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist 
those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity 
programs should end. 
Nondiscrimination laws should be applied 
equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The 
need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, 
both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in 
the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It
 can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not 
determine outcomes. 
Memo to my fellow politicians: Drop the 
Procrustean policies and allow harmony to invade the public mindset. 
Fairness will happen, and bitterness will fade away.
Mr. Webb, a Democrat, is a U.S. senator from Virginia.



> Message: 8
> Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:10:44 -0400
> From: Louis Proyect 
> Subject: [Marxism] Senator Webb channels Walter Benn Michaels
> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
>   
> Message-ID: <4c49f744.50...@panix.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703724104575379630952309408.html
> 
>
  

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Re: [Marxism] Senator Webb channels Walter Benn Michaels

[Louis Proyect]

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James Holstun wrote:

> 
> Jim Webb is tragically stupid here: he goes through an interesting
> argument that underlines the class oppression of white Southerners
> (the Scots Irish are his favorites--here appearing as "Irish
> Protestants"), and it's quite striking and convincing. He even talks
> about the ways in which the key class dynamic of the American South
> consisted of the white ruling class setting the black and white
> working classes against each other.
> 

I should have mentioned that I had an exchange with Walter Benn Michaels.

It started when I sent him a link to Jim Webb's article with the subject 
heading "You have found a disciple".

---

He wrote back:

If you really think I'm the slightest bit worried about diversity 
programs that favor everyone or anyone who's not white, you're truly not 
paying attention -- in any event, here's some more reactionary grist for 
your mill:




(I confess that I have not read it yet. Might get to it after I retire.)

---

My next email said:

Nice to get a rise out you. Most mandarins have the common sense to 
ignore me.

---

He concluded with "Point taken", sent from his IPhone.


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[Marxism] From the desk of Reuven Kaminer

[Louis Proyect]

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(This includes a discussion of the one-state solution being raised 
recently. I plan to write about this myself in a day or two.)

Unlimited Distribution Excuse Multiple Copies

 From the Desk of Reuven Kaminer   July 24, 2010

The Pearlman Affair

The GSS (General Security Services), or the Shin Bet, is the Israeli 
intelligence service apparatus devoted to the formulation and the 
execution of policies designed to perpetuate the repression against 
Palestinian Arabs, especially in the occupied Palestinian territories. 
However, the Palestinian Arabs, citizens of Israel, who comprise a fifth 
of the Israel’s population, are also objects of the GSS attention.

Israeli expansion, annexation and expropriation have been at the heart 
of government practice since the establishment of Israel in 1948. Even 
so, there have always been dangerous, extremist circles which operated 
to the right of the government. These circles constantly attacked the 
various governments for not being consistent in ousting the 
Palestinians. The settler right argued that the ruling circles do not 
have the courage of their Zionist convictions. In short, the government 
was faulted for hesitating to carry out the full maximum program – a 
land of Israel, without Arabs.

Since 1967, there has been a consistent increase in the numbers and 
varieties of right-wing extremist groups. Their main base is in the 
settlements, where they are routinely issued guns and other military 
equipment, for the ostensible reason of “fighting terror.” Some of them 
are distinguished writers and academics while there is no shortage of 
activists who are clearly as nutty as a fruit cake. Many are “nice” 
souls trying to implement values with which they have been imbued from 
childhood. But, the main point is that they are all convinced that full 
redemption is just around the corner - if the regime and the citizenry 
would only dare to get on with the job.

There are two matters that require our attention at this point. Firstly, 
the settlement framework means that there are literally thousands of gun 
toting fanatics who believe that the redemption is right around the 
corner. Most of them are deep within the interstices of the IDF and the 
settler communities. They are not law abiding citizens but an angry 
constituency who fears that even Netanyahu could sell them down the 
river. Secondly, what they are saying is not too far from the core 
beliefs of Israeli society. There may be tactical differences with the 
establishment, but the settlers have a surefire technique how to easily 
overcome mainstream hesitation. The settler vanguard knows that in case 
of any serious clash between the Arabs and the settlers, the majority of 
Jews will ignore the real causes, as they line up with their Jewish 
brethren fighting the good fight for “our” land.

Now, any government that does not want the settlers to be the ones to 
set the time to embroil it into a major confrontation is advised to keep 
its eyes and ears open. This is why we are all protected here in Israel, 
in addition to our nuclear devices and our NATO size army, by the GSS in 
general and specifically by its Jewish division (GSS-JD). In order to 
feel really secure and safe, let us recall that it was the criminal 
negligence of the security pros in this unit who ‘guarded” Yitshak Rabin 
in a fashion that made him easy prey for assassination by a right wing 
fanatic back in 1995.

Ha’aretz military correspondent, Amir Oren, informed his readers this 
week that the current head of the Jewish division of the GSS makes his 
home in a settlement on the east side of the green line.

This helps me to illustrate that there may be differences between the 
GSS detachment monitoring the Jewish extremists in matters of form, and 
style and discourse, but there is a lot of spiritual symbiosis between 
the Jewish division and the objects of its attention. It is this 
mutuality of goals and aspirations that is at the heart of the inability 
of the Jewish division to function with a semblance of efficiency. Again 
and again, their operations tend to end up in a farce and a debacle.

The main strategy of the ultra-right is to find and exploit every 
opportunity for violence, open or hidden, to attack, maim or even murder 
Palestinians who are guilty of being Palestinians. So the announcement 
at the end of last week that the GSS was holding one, Chaim Pearlman, 
for a number of murders and attempted murders might have been greeted 
with some satisfaction. But it became clear right from the start that 
the GSS-JD just cannot get anything straight. Pearlman it turns out is 
fully prepared for the arrest. He has the services of on call legal 
counsel and his experienced buddies have prepared him

Re: [Marxism] From the desk of Reuven Kaminer

[Greg McDonald]

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On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:


What does he mean when he says these settlers believe "redemption is
around the corner"?

Greg


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Re: [Marxism] From the desk of Reuven Kaminer

[Louis Proyect]

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Greg McDonald wrote:

> 
> What does he mean when he says these settlers believe "redemption is
> around the corner"?

The Moshiach is coming.


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[Marxism] Clancy Sigal: America Hooked on War and getting Poorer

[Greg McDonald]

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http://www.alternet.org/world/147567/america%3A_hooked_on_war_and_getting_poorer?page=entire


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Re: [Marxism] Clancy Sigal: America Hooked on War and getting Poorer

[Louis Proyect]

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Greg McDonald wrote:
> http://www.alternet.org/world/147567/america%3A_hooked_on_war_and_getting_poorer?page=entire
> 

I've been in touch with Clancy lately over some research he asked me to 
do for a screenplay he's working on, specifically the railroad strike in 
France in 1947.

Clancy is 84 and still going strong. His "Going Away" is a roman a clef 
about a CP'er leaving the USA during the witch hunt that is one of the 
best political novels I have ever read. After relocating to England, he 
hooked up with Doris Lessing who trashed him badly in "Golden Notebook".

We used to argue politics over email when we first met, mostly him 
bad-mouthing my hard left politics. I guess the Obama presidency has 
re-radicalized him based on this alternet piece.


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Re: [Marxism] Chavez: US and Colombia plan to attack Venezuela

[Stuart Munckton]

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Goligner writes:

President Chavez revealed that he had received similar letters from the same
source alerting him to dangerous threats. He received one right before the
capture of more than 100 Colombian paramilitaries in the outskirts of
Caracas that were part of an assassination plan against the Venezuelan head
of state, and another in 2002, just days before the coup d’etat that briefly
outsted him from power. “The letter warned of snipers and the coup”,
explained Chavez, “and it was right, the information was true, but we were
unable to act to prevent it”


And she  concludes: “These latest revelations evidence that a serious, and
unjustified conflict is brewing fast against Venezuela, a country with a
vibrant democracy and the largest oil reserves in the world. ”

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[Marxism] Comment from a Christian

[Louis Proyect]

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This guy is a fairly regular commenter on my blog. I am pretty jaded 
when it comes to Christian left, but he is usually worth reading. Here's 
his take on recessions and the right/left question.

===

Hope all are well.

Yesterday my neighbor and I were talking about the reported 46 million 
people living below the 'poverty level' in the United Stats. Then we 
compared the majority of this poverty to the real poverty that exists in 
the third world.

Today at a church picnic in Liberty State park we had a good view of 
lower Manhattan. A brother is involved in Meals for Wheels. They plan to 
forlough him once a month and the elderly he serves get no meals on that 
day. The City of Newark is even thinking of eliminating the program 
permanently. Across the river in Manhatan on this hot Saturday are 
elegant monuments to capitalism. I'd imagine the vast majority of the 
space lies vacant on Saturday as the workers are off. Yet there are 
people in the city with no electrical power, or no homes and cannot 
simply sit in these vast empty buildings to avoid the heat. The 
financial people can find the money to build their skyscrapers. The 
military can find it's money to build it's weapons. Even weapons, like 
the stealth bomber, that if we use it would bring about the 
extermination of all human life. Yet they are considering cutting food 
to the elderly? What will they eat? The world suffers not because of a 
lack of resources but because of the evil allocations of those resources.

Comrades we are in a war, never forget that. It is a spiritual war first 
and then a mental. Do not let them lull you into think that the state is 
secure. I tell you the United States is a tinder box and fury could 
ignite at any moment.

Who benefits more from a crisis the left or the right? I believe the 
answer would be the side that works the hardest. Look at the situation 
it is a now or never thing. I don't think there will be a world in 
thirty years if fundamental and permanent change does not come soon.

We are stronger than we think. We are fighting for the very survival of 
humanity. We fight for our children, our parents and fellow man. And we 
are fighting the worst of the worst. People who put possessions over 
human life. Cowards like Dick Cheney who refused to serve when his time 
came to fight, but who sent men to die. All the while sitting in his 
little bunker watching CNN. Cowards will melt in fear in a crisis the 
righteous will be strong. Dick and his ilk will run and hide when push 
comes to shove, just like Dick personally did and just like pigs act in 
general.

There is an invincibility to our righteousness. We are not asking for 
too much when we say that are elderly should not starve to death. We are 
not asking for too much when we say people should not live on garbage. 
We are not asking for too much when we say we should not spend billions 
on destruction and death. Keep the message simple, to the point, but 
above all get it out.

Love,

John Kaniecki



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[Marxism] AVSN: Colombia & United States threaten attack -- Stop the lies and aggression against Venezuela!

[glparramatta]

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A statement from the *Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network*

July 24, 2010 -- Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network -- On July 22, 
Venezuela broke off all diplomatic relations with Colombia and placed 
its national borders on high alert. This follows accusations made by the 
Colombian government that Venezuela is harbouring “terrorists” from the 
Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National 
Liberation Army (ELN), and hosting several “terrorist training camps” 
near the border region that divides the two countries.

At an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of American States in 
Washington on July 22, called for by Colombia, Colombia’s ambassador to 
the OAS, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, presented television and video images 
allegedly taken from computers confiscated during the Colombian 
military’s illegal invasion of Ecuadorian territory in March 2008, as 
well as some computer-generated maps and photographs of alleged members 
of the FARC, which he said were taken inside Venezuela. Hoyos called for 
“international intervention” in Venezuela, and gave a “30-day ultimatum”.

Five days earlier, US State Department spokesperson Phillip Crowley said 
the “possible” presence of “rebels in Venezuelan territory” had also 
been “worrying” his government for a long time.

These moves have all the hallmarks of justifying a pre-emptive strike on 
Venezuelan territory.

Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1805

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Re: [Marxism] FW: Comment from a Christian

[Manuel Barrera, PhD]

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


Christian wrote (via Louis):

> Who benefits more from a crisis the left or the right? I believe the
>  answer would be the side that works the hardest.
>

Amazing that a Christian would nail this answer and stab it in the heart!

I couldn't agree more--so much lamentation over the lack of forces and
vacuum of leadership. Louis has observed that if Leftists of all stripes
were to unite there would be tens of thousands involved. Even if we were at
each other's throats a good part of the time, but agreed to work together,
we would have an influence much larger than even those numbers (we
collectively have such a range of skills, experience, and that intangible
"chutzpah"  that we would organize "rings around" the Democrats, who, btw,
are always at each other's throats but seem to manage really well at
derailing mass sentiment). All it takes is the political will, something
about which we are very good at charging liberals  but never seem to get
over when it comes to our so-called differences.

Political will is what I would call Christian's argument about our "war"
being a "spiritual war first and then a mental." We are not meta-physicists,
but we are astute observers of behavior, especially political behavior. It
would be nice if we could change ours.

-- 
Manuel

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[Marxism] Fidel is back in combat uniform

[Fred Feldman]

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Well, it looks like Fidel is making himself combat-ready again. Sounds like
good news to me. 

This seems to be linked to the astounding variety of new wars that
Washington seems to be probing.  (Columbia-Venezuela, really US-Venezuela;
North Korea, with Hilary Clinton's fist-pumping war tour of South Korea;
Costa Rica-Nicaragua -- I admit this in the watch-that-space department, but
I can't imagine why else those US troops are there; and of course, the
perennial and rising threats against Iran -- which involve a major historic
challenge to US domination, in a quite senior partnership with its client
and very junior partner Israel, in the Middle East and South Asia.

One thing to get clearly and firmly that there is no sense at all in which
the US imperialist ruling class can accept the common left-liberal view that
the world has become multipolar and that's that. Ain't so. The United States
government still fights for the unipolar world under their exclusive
domination, which they imagined they had won with the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991. The period since then has been one of terrible and
embittering disappointment overall, but they are by no means giving up.

But I think Fidel is also entering the field in defense of the reforms of
Cuba's economy that Raul Castro has been advocating but has run into serious
obstruction and opposition from sections of the party and economic
management machine. Officials who have gotten used to supposedly
live-and-let-live arrangements with the workers on the principle that "We
pretend to pay you and you pretend to work? Deal?"

Among other things, I think Raul and Fidel (as a team, not as opposed
factions) are trying to bring the Cuban working class back into the position
of the central decisive productive force in Cuban life.  This is a deep
political battle. It won't end quickly.

Anyway, it's great that Fidel feels up to putting on his warrior uniform
again. Enough pajamas and jump suits. Mone of us will live forever. There's
a war on. This is a good example, and not just for Cubans.
Fred Feldman

latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-castro-return,0,5434313.story
Fidel Castro, back in green for first time in years, continues comeback


5:35 PM PDT, July 24, 2010

Advertisement 

CNN - Fidel Castro appeared publicly in his trademark olive green shirt on
Saturday for the first time since he fell ill and renounced power four years
ago, according to a state-run website.

Castro made his appearance in Artemisa, a town about an hour outside of
Havana, also making this his first reported trip outside the capital in four
years, according to the website Cubadebate.

A picture of the 83-year-old Castro also appeared on the site. Olive green
rebel fatigues were his signature uniform during his nearly 50 years of
rule.

State TV later showed him giving a speech to honor rebels killed 57 years
ago during the July 26 attack on an army barracks that ended in failure but
launched his revolution. He also put flowers on the the rebels tombs, video
showed.

Castro handed power to his brother in 2006 after undergoing intestinal
surgery and disappeared from public view. State media have published
occasional videos and photos of the historic leader wearing tracksuits.

Earlier this month, he re-emerged in public for the first time and has made
five appearances in closely controlled events, usually donning casual
checked shirts.

Speculation has grown over the possibility of his attending a mass rally in
central Cuba on Monday to commemorate the July 26 events.

Copyright CNN 2010.

Copyright C 2010, Tribune Interactive


 




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