Re: [Marxism] Stewart Alexander proposed as united third party spokesman

[Adam Richmond]

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Mark, I didn't find anything to indicate that Stewart Alexander is for a united 
party in the link you sent. Is there a proposal on the table he is raising? 


  

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[Marxism] Myths of liberal Zionism

[Philip Ferguson]

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Apologists for ‘war on terror’Tony Greenstein reviews Yitzhak Laor’s ‘The
myths of liberal Zionism’ Verso, 2009, pp192, £14.99

Yitzhak Laor is Israel’s greatest living poet. Largely unknown in the west,
he is a literary critic for Israel’s only liberal daily, *Ha’aretz*, and a
prominent dissident in his own right. In 1972 he and a friend became the
first two refuseniks, when they refused to do national service in the
occupied territories. For that he was jailed. When Laor won the Prime
Minister’s Prize for poetry in 1990, the then premier, Yitzhak Shamir,
refused to sign the official declaration.

*The myths of liberal Zionism *is a breathless surge of anger, a tirade
directed not only at what Zionism has created, but at the duplicity and
two-facedness of the west’s favourite Israeli literary ‘peaceniks’ - Amos
Oz, David Grossman and AB Yehoshua - who use their undeserved liberal
reputation in order to strengthen the racist Zionist project.

This book is the only one Laor has had published in English and his only
work of non-fiction. It begins with the only poem in the book, ‘A citizen of
the world’:

*We didn’t grow up where our fathers grew.
They didn’t grow up where their fathers grew.
We learned not to feel nostalgic
(we can feel nostalgic for any tombstone decided upon),
we don’t belong anywhere
(we shall belong with ease to anything when demanded),
we move across countries,
we sleep in fancy hotels,
we sleep in cold barns,
we love only to be loved,
we rape only to be remembered,
we enjoy only to register ownership,
destroying mainly villages,
declaring ownership then leaving,
hating peasants, mainly peasants
(if necessary, we’ll also cultivate the land).*

Unlike the literary peaceniks, Laor begins from an anti-racist and
implicitly anti-Zionist stance. Whereas for Oz, pre-1967 Israel, with its
expulsion of the native Palestinians and theft of their land is sacrosanct,
and the return of the refugees a forbidden topic, Laor accepts that the
origins of the occupation lie in 1948, not 1967.


Full article at:

http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004062

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[Marxism] Israel and apartheid

[Philip Ferguson]

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Gary McL wrote:
>Apartheid was more a way of regulating the dependence on black labour
and as it was a pre-modern denial of and a constraint on that dependence
it eventually had to go from the capitalist point of view as well as
that of the Boer Supremacists.


Hi Gary, good to be discussing stuff with you.

I disagree that apartheid was *pre-modern*.  I think it was very modern.  It
was the *necessary form* for capital accumulation in South Africa.  Without
cheap black labour mining would never have gotten off the ground there and
gold, diamond and coal mining were essential to the development of
capitalism in South Africa.

Once capitalism had developed to a certain point, however, apartheid became
a fetter.  But this wasn't the case until *at least* the 1970s, in fact
probably well into the 1980s.  There was certainly no *substantial section*
of South African capitalists prepared to get rid of it until the end of the
Cold War and the onset of economic probnlems that required the kind of
sweeping (neo-liberal) reforms that could only be achieved by the
deregulation of apartheid.

Many Boer supremacists never accepted this - in their case, the prejudices
were indeed pre-modern.

I think you make a good point, however, about apartheid not simply being
about cheap labour but being about the regulation of that labour.  But
super-exploitation always requires more than the usual amount of formal
regulation.

In Israel, right from the start, the idea was not to have a mass of
super-exploited Arab workers, but to drive the Arabs out and establish a
Zionist state for Zionist people (it was never simply a Jewish state for
Jewish people, because the Zionists didn't want anti-Zionist Jews either).

These differences between South Africa and Israel are not small ones - they
go to the very heart of the establishment of the Zionist state and apartheid
in South Africa.

Btw, in the Workers Party we tended to refer to Israel as an apartheid
state; it's something we've generally stopped doing over just the past year
or two because we've realised that the differences are quite important and
Marxism demands that we analyse each social formation in its specificity.
Some of us have read Moshe's paper as well and that confirmed why the Israel
is an apartheid state isn't really all that helpful an idea to promote.
However, none of us get uptight about it when people chant it at protests
and some of our comrades probably still chant it too.  Also the more
connected we've become with the PFLP, the more we've had to think through
issues such as that, whereas before we could be a bit lazy in our
formulations.

Lastly, hey, how about buying a nice PFLP t-shirt, complete with Leila
Khaled's signature.  See: http://wpnz-pflp-solidarity.blogspot.com/

Phil

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Re: [Marxism] Israel and apartheid

[Manuel Barrera]

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"in my experience, few people under 35 or thereabouts are particularly familiar 
with what apartheid means anyway.  I teach students from So I also think the 
term "Israel: an apartheid state" reflects the age of the existing left, rather 
than being useful for engaging the younger audience we so desperately need."

This is a point well-taken, but the point of the analogy of Israel and 
apartheid is that they are Racists and their Zionist state is Racist: it 
oppresses the Palestinian masses economically, socially, and 
politically--perhaps previously by exploiting them for their labor and now by 
excluding them economically and strangling them into submission. Engaging in 
precision is always important, but then that precision must be popularized and 
used to galvanize movement in defense of the oppressed. I am not totally 
convinced that this insistence on "precision" or the general hostility to 
making analogies to previous historical forms of racist experience among people 
of color is not simply so much chauvinism and "Western" impertinence.
Get over it.  

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Re: [Marxism] Can Technology Bring on a World Wide Social Revolution?

[Waistline2]

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>> The article by Kris Notaro sounded very promising, but was a  thorough 
disappointment and so is the case with the debate on the subject. I  wonder, 
why the issue got sidetracked from the beginning. Well, anyway, here is  my 
response: Technology is very much a social product and is an increasingly  
important agent of social change. Technology is only a tool and can not by  
itself bring about a social revolution. What is important is how it is 
deployed  and utilized - it is just a tool.<< 
 

Comment 
 
The article in question was very limited and seemed to lack a Marxist  
lens.  
 
I. 
 
Sorry you were disappointed with the discussion on the impact of a  
qualitatively new technology regime and/or cluster of embed technology In an  
existing configuration of means of production. Technology means - (in my use of 
 
the term), the technical-SCIENTIFIC features embed in tools, machines,  
energy source as these are deployed by human being. Generally modes of  
production are defined from two directions; property and configuration of means 
 of 
production. Feudalism = landed property and a period of transition  from  
handicraft to manufacture. Handicraft and manufacture are descriptions of  
technology regimes. Capitalism = bourgeois property and electro-mechanical or  
"industrial." 
 
The lgreat "technology revolution" or "revolution in the means of  
production" (the underlying meaning of social revolution) of the era of Marx 
was  
the industrial revolution. It is pretty much conceded that the industrial  
revolution was a REVOLUTION IN TECHNOLOGY and social revolution, qualitatively  
changing society. 
 
On the scale of history, leaps from one mode of production to another and  
political revolutions up to insurrection, clear the path for the emergence 
to  universality of a new technology regime. Political revolution is required 
to  sweep the old political regime away because they have been constituted 
based on  an old technology regime and is corresponding form of wealth - 
property. 
 
First, the qualitative change in the building books of the means of  
production, then the social consequence.  This is not to say that changes  in 
the 
form of wealth do not play a part by creating the condition for changes  in 
the form of property. In retrospect it was a change in the form of wealth  
from land to gold that began the break up of feudalism because the primary 
form  of wealth was landed property. However, it was the steam engine, or 
rather the  technology regime expressed in the steam engine that ushered in the 
epoch of  industrial-machine domination over agricultural relations. 
 
Again, we presuppose people in their material and subjective dimensions. It 
 is the human being/mind in its material subjective attributes that 
revolutionize  means of production. 
 
Actually, injecting a qualitatively new technology and new technology  
clusters into an existing system of production is the material factor driving - 
 
inspiring, fundamental, to social revolution, once we presuppose the 
existence  of human beings before means of production arise. The injection of 
new 
clusters  of technology into an existing system brings to an end, expansion 
of the system  on the old basis. Now expansion of the system - intensive and 
extensive, takes  place based on the new technology and more efficient 
forms of energy. Not all at  one time but inexorably. 
 
II. 
 
The basis on which society leaps - "begin transition," from one mode of  
production to another mode of production is predicated upon the emergence of  
qualitatively new means of production, rather than quantitative expansion of 
the  existing system. Quantitative expansion of the same properties 
defining a stage  of development of means of production cannot in itself 
produce a 
magical leap to  a new qualitative of means of production, or rather a 
qualitatively different  division of labor. The leap (transition) from one 
quality to another minimally  requires an alteration - subtracting or adding 
something qualitatively  different, to an existing structure of technology.  
The 
new quality of  technology is added quantitatively. 
 
Marx words ring prophetic. 
 
"At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of  
society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or - (this 
 
merely expresses the same thing in legal terms) with the property relations 
 within the framework of which they have operated up until then. From forms 
of  development of the productive forces these relations turn into their 
fetters.  Then begins an era of social revolution." 
 
The theoretical enigma was defining "At a certain stage of development,"  
which could not be defined without unraveling the proce

[Marxism] New Activist Newsletter

[JacDon]

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Aug. 26, 2010, Issue #161
ACTIVIST NEWSLETTER
 
ALL ARTICLES AT 
http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
 
1. "IT'S FREEDOM OF RELIGION ‹ YOU KNOW?" ‹ GOP politicians and their Tea
Party warriors are intentionally fanning the flames of anti-Muslim hatred in
their campaign against situating an Islamic community center two blocks from
Ground Zero. The purpose is to gain Republican votes in November, and the
American people may be falling for it.
 
2. BEYOND OBAMA, LIBERALISM AND THE  'PROFESSIONAL LEFT' ‹ What
did White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs actually mean when he blasted
the "professional left?" We critically examine the relationship between the
Democratic Party and its frustrated liberal wing.
 
3. THEY GO, OR OBAMA GOES ‹ Robert Scheer says sack Summers and Geithner and
bring in a new economic team that can ease the plight of the American people
and reverse the economic crisis.
 
4. THE GUNS OF AUGUST ‹ Historian Chalmers Johnson looks to the future and
observes the American Century fading away and the U.S. in decline but
militarily dangerous all the same.
 
5. "THE HURT LOCKER" ‹ Why did this undistinguished war movie win the 2010
Academy Award for Best Picture?
 
6. THE MYTH OF POST-RACIAL AMERICA ‹ America¹s real racial problems remain
mostly unaddressed despite the election of an African American president.
 
7. REDUCING DEFICITS THROUGH A WEALTH TAX ‹ Increasing taxes on the rich
will cut federal and state deficits. Here's how.
 
8. IRAN GAINING AS ARABS' OBAMA HOPES SINK ‹ Obama and U.S. popularity drop
sharply in the Arab world and "Iran may be reaping the benefits," writes Jim
Lobe.
 
9. OBAMA "DECIDEDLY MIXED" ON LIBERTIES ‹ ACLU rates the Obama
Administration record on civil liberties.
 
10. PRISON GERRYMANDERING ENDS IN NYS ‹ Inmates are no longer counted as
residents of the region where the prison is located, changing some
legislative districts.
 
ALL ARTICLES AT 
http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
 
 




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Re: [Marxism] Stewart Alexander proposed as united third party spokesman

[Manuel Barrera]

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> This looks quite promising and has been suggested as a good course. Any 
> thoughts from the list?
I for one would welcome a truly independent non-genuflecting to the Democrats 
and pro-working class platform campaign. I, too, would be interested to know if 
there was any support for a united national effort in which we all could help 
each other build a broader revolutionary current that can unify despite any 
differences. It would be nice to vote for not-just-any socialist (which, of 
course, I would do if there is no other choice), but one that represents a 
growing and united revolutionary movement.

Manuel
  

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[Marxism] Brecht in the West Bank

[David Thorstad]

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There's something not only ironic, but even obscene, about playing 
Brecht in occupied territory, but then again, it's no more obscene than 
playing him in Tel Aviv, since, as the article notes, all of Israeli 
society is implicated in the occupation.
David
==
>
>
>   Brecht in the West Bank: Israel’s major theaters going to the
>   settlements 
>
> *Posted:* August 25th, 2010 - http://www.promisedlandblog.com/?p=3385
>
> The first major theater hall in a West Bank settlement will open on 
> November 8th. The Ariel Culture Hall, located in the settlement of 
> Ariel (south of Nablus) will host major productions of leading Israeli 
> theaters, including Habima 
> , 
> Israel’s national theater, and Tel Aviv’s city theater, The Cameri 
> .
>
> According to Haaretz 
> ,
>  
> The Ariel Culture Hall will have 540 seats, and 40 million NIS (11 
> million USD) were spent on its construction. The Hall will open with 
> the Israeli adaptation of Piaf, a play by British Pem Gems on the life 
> of the famous singer, performed by the Beersheba theatre. Later this 
> year, Ariel will host Tel Aviv’s Cameri theatre’s Caucasian Chalk 
> Circle by Bertolt Brecht
>
> Some Israelis noticed a cruel irony in hosting a play dealing with 
> concept of justice and fair trial in a place where the majority of the 
> population have no rights, and is tried in military courts, without 
> due process 
> . 
> Arab-Israeli actor Yousef Sweid, who plays in “A railroad to 
> Damascus”, also scheduled to show in Ariel, told Haaretz that “I’m 
> opposed to it, but this is the first I heard about it and I’d like to 
> investigate the matter further.”
>
> Israeli journalist and blogger Ofri Ilani wrote in the leftwing group 
> blog Eretz Haemori  
> that this marks a new record in the whitewashing of the occupation’s 
> crimes:
>
> To what level of ridicule will the heads of the culture scene
> degrade (…) we had murders who talk about spiritualism, Arms
> dealers who play the piano and Military radio stations that play
> protest songs (…) but to recruit Brecht to legitimize the colonial
> project of [Ariel's mayor] Ron Nachman?
>
> But those voices are an exception. Most Israelis are blind to the 
> occupation, and Ariel – which sits literally in the heart of the West 
> bank – is by now an ordinary Israeli town, with a secular population, 
> not that different from the Israelis living in Tel Aviv’s suburbs. The 
> entire idea that one can separate “good” Israel west of the Green Line 
> from “bad” Israel lying to its east is ridiculous. Every aspect of 
> Israeli civilian life, from the economy through real estate to 
> culture, has something to do with the occupation.
>
> It seems that the heads of the major theaters in Israel were even 
> surprised somebody made a deal out of their recent bookings. A Habima 
> spokeswoman told Haaretz: “Habima is a national theater, and its 
> repertoire is supposed to suit the entire population.” Chairman of 
> Jerusalem’s Chan theater said that “Everybody is invited to watch the 
> shows. We don’t take side in the political question.”
>
> Bertolt Brecht, I think, would have loved this last one.
>
>

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Re: [Marxism] Ho Chi Minh Must be rolling

[Louis Proyect]

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On 8/26/2010 2:10 PM, Ron J wrote:
>
> Ho Chi Minh didn't have that much trouble with the US, if I recall.  It was 
> the US that had trouble with him.

That was when the USA was still seen in light of the WWII popular 
front.


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[Marxism] Iroquois -- whose economies and treaties are now under attack -- helped build NYC

[Hunter Gray]

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NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR  [AUGUST 26 2010]

By now I have done considerable posting on this matter that I summed up 
yesterday:  "The basic issue:  New York State, propelled very much by Bloomberg 
et al. and hungry for tax monies, is seeking to screw the Indians by attempting 
to undercut the much needed tribal tobacco enterprises -- and, in the process, 
by trying to break treaties of very long legal and moral standing -- while via 
Bloomberg's words, Natives are ridiculed, if not outrightly denigrated. 
And, again, silence, as nearly as I can see,  by liberal and left media outlets 
-- which, in other instances, would quite rightly be raising pure bloody hell." 
[H]

This post contains two dimensions:  One is older, going back into 2002 -- a 
note sent to me by our good friend, Bill Mandel, in response to my comments 
[herewith attached] on a news story about Mohawk ironworkers honored at a World 
Trade Center ceremony.  The second is an essentially good, contemporary piece  
from the Syracuse NY newspaper -- featuring, among others, Oren Lyons, 
traditional Onondaga [Iroquois] leader and well known internationally.

Subject: Re: [Redbadbear] Mohawk ironworkers to be honored at WTC ceremony 
[2002]

>From Bill Mandel to Hunter:

This business of our paths and interests crossing is fantastic. On pp.
381-2 of my book I write about a novel by my friend of half a century
ago, Prof. Robert Carver North of Stanford: "North reached real heights
in describing the local Indians. When asked how he was able to describe
so convincingly a totally different culture, he told me that he knew
Mohawks from upstate New York. He had worked with them as a high-iron
bridgebuilder, if my memory serves me correctly. His wife of those years
was a Native American, but her father was a Yale graduate."
[Bill  Mandel]
Note by Hunter Bear:

The high steel construction calling -- challenging, dangerous, meaningful,
well paid -- was a logical vocational extension of venturesome young
Mohawks, primarily [not exclusively] from the St. Regis [Akwesasne] and
Caughnawaga [Kahnawake] reservations/reserves  following the end of the fur
trade. That extraordinary commercial complex had drawn many Mohawks into the 
Columbia and Snake River country of the Far West -- from the latter 1700s
deep into the 19th century. There were several work ventures "out and yonder
in all directions" after the fur trade -- one of them being the "circus
Indian"  and "Wild West show" -- circuits.

High steel work for the Mohawks started when St. Regis men began working
with the Canadian Bridge Company in 1883 on a bridge near Cornwall.  Mohawks at 
Caughnawaga [Kahnawake] began in 1886 when the Victoria Tubular Bridge was 
built across a lower section of the St Lawrence River.  Many Mohawks were 
working on a new bridge across the St. Lawrence at Quebec City in 1907 when a 
large portion collapsed and several dozen workers were killed.

But, despite this tragic setback,  the note of positive resonance  vis-a-vis
high steel construction  had landed high and was planted deep in Mohawk
souls. They continued to enter high steel work in greater and greater
numbers -- rising to the very tops of the emerging skyscrapers in the
burgeoning cities in the United States and Canada.  And other Iroquois,
e.g., Onondaga, have certainly been much involved in this -- as well as
Natives from other and often northeastern tribes.

This has become great epic legend.

The Native high steel workers are always very good union men -- with very
good union families.  Tribal solidarity and Native solidarity and
Workingstiff solidarity!

And, no matter how much big urban residence -- New York metro, Rochester,
Buffalo, Montreal, Philadelphia and out to places like Chicago and the Bay
Area and Sea-Tac and Vancouver and many many more -- they always, like
virtually all Native people, maintain their primary commitment to their
respective tribal nations and cultures and their vital ties to  reservations
in the 'States and reserves in Canada.

And at the same time all of this has been proceeding, young Mohawks and
other Iroquois and other Natives have also, of course, been moving into
other lines of endeavour -- including a wide range of academically-trained
professions.

This certainly continues -- all of it -- with great momentum.

Although somewhat dated, one of the very best -- and most easily found --
studies of the Mohawks in high steel remains by that very name: Joseph
Mitchell's essay, "The Mohawks in High Steel,"  a major component of Edmund
Wilson's excellent book, Apologies to the Iroquois [New York:  Vintage
Books, 1960.]  Although it gives little of the historical background, it's a
fine discussion involving the still relatively contemporary and enduring
mid-20th century settin