[Marxism] New book on the Australian Labor Party
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Rick Kuhn and Tom Bramble have just published a book through Cambridge University Press entitled Labor's Conflict: Big Business, Workers and the Politics of Class. This is a history of the Australian Labor Party from its formation through to this year's federal election seen from the perspective of the ALP's changing relationship with business and the working class and unions. More details can be found at: http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521138048 If you'd like a copy you can order online and receive a 20% discount: 1. Go to www.cambridge.edu.au 2. Search for 'Labor's Conflict' 3. Add to your basket 4. Enter discount code LABOR10 at the checkout The following book launches are taking place, please RSVP as indicated if you would like to attend. Perth, to be launched by Rob Lambert, Winthrop Professor of Labour Studies, UWA Business School at the Co-op Bookshop, University of Western Australia Thursday 18 November 5:00pm for 5:30pm start RSVP to (08) 6488 2069 or u...@coop-bookshop.com.au by 17 November Canberra to be launched by David Pope, the political cartoonist of the Canberra Times at the Co-op Bookshop, Australian National University Tuesday 23 November 5:00 for 5:30 pm start RSVP essential by 19 November to a...@coop-bookshop.com.au or (02) 6249-6244. Melbourne to be launched by Dean Mighell, Victorian state secretary and National President of the Electrical Trades Union at Readings Bookshop, 309 Lygon Street, Carlton Wednesday 24 November, 6pm for 6.30pm start RSVP to Readings on (03) 9347 6633 Sydney to be launched by Frank Stilwell, Professor of Political Economy at Sydney University at Abbey's Bookshop, 131 York Street, Sydney. Wednesday 1 December, 5:30 for 6:00 pm start RSVP by 26 November to (02) 9264 3111 or dav...@abbeys.com.au. Brisbane to be launched by Raymond Evans, Adjunct Professor at the School of Humanities, Griffith University at Avid Reader, 193 Boundary Street, West End Thursday 2 December, 6:00 for 6:30pm start RSVP (07) 3846 3422 or eve...@avidreader.com.au 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] MAJOR NYC EVENT WITH SLAVOJ ZIZEK
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == BESTSELLING TITLE: LIVING IN THE END TIMES By SLAVOJ ZIZEK Published 21 April 2010 **MAJOR NYC EVENT** Monday 8 November, 7pm, The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York Slavoj Zizek will be making a major New York City appearance at Cooper Union to discuss his most recent book Living in End Times, in which he reveals the signs of the coming apocalypse and identifies the terminal crisis of global capitalism. For more information and to buy tickets go to http://livingintheendtimes-julie.eventbrite.com Tickets: $10 student price / $20 regular price. Booking is essential. Regular admission includes a FREE copy of Living in the End Times. - Zizek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation. New Yorker A great provocateur... Zizek writes with passion and an aphoristic energy that is spellbinding. Los Angeles Times The most dangerous philosopher in the West. New Republic - Zizek analyzes the end of the world at the hands of the four riders of the apocalypse. There should no longer be any doubt: global capitalism is fast approaching its terminal crisis. Slavoj Zizek has identified the four horsemen of this coming apocalypse: the worldwide ecological crisis; imbalances within the economic system; the biogenetic revolution; and exploding social divisions and ruptures. But, he asks, if the end of capitalism seems to many like the end of the world, how is it possible for Western society to face up to the end times? In a major new analysis of our global situation, Slavoj Zizek argues that our collective responses to economic Armageddon correspond to the stages of grief: ideological denial, explosions of anger and attempts at bargaining, followed by depression and withdrawal. After passing through this zero-point, we can begin to perceive the crisis as a chance for a new beginning. Or, as Mao Zedong put it, There is great disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent. Slavoj Zizek shows the cultural and political forms of these stages of ideological avoidance and political protest, from New Age obscurantism to violent religious fundamentalism. Concluding with a compelling argument for the return of a Marxian critique of political economy, Zizek also divines the wellsprings of a potentially communist culture-from literary utopias like Kafka's community of mice to the collective of freak outcasts in the TV series Heroes. --- Slavoj Zizek is today's most controversial public intellectual. His work traverses the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political theory, taking in film, popular culture, and literature to provide acute analyses of the complexities of contemporary ideology as well as a serious and sophisticated philosophy. The author of over 30 books, Slavoj Zizek's provocative prose has challenged a generation of activists and intellectuals. His latest book is Living in the End Timeshttp://www.versobooks.com/books/482-living-in-the-end-times. Called the Elvis of cultural theory and the greatest intellectual high since anti-Oedipus Zizek's work has appeared in the The New York Times, the New Yorker and The Guardian, and he has appeared in Astra Taylor's feature length films Zizek! and Examined Life. He is a professor at the European Graduate School, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. - ISBN: 978 1 84467 598 2 / $29.95 / 432 pages --- For more information and to buy: http://www.versobooks.com/books/482-482-living-in-the-end-times -- Visit Verso's all-new website for blog updates, information on our upcoming events, news, reviews, publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.comhttp://www.versobooks.com/books/469-manituana Become a fan of Verso on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Verso-Books-UK/122064538789 And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooksUK 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] Tempest in a teapot
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/303/02/20101105_kourkoulakos_panitch_exchange_web.htm 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://harpers.org/archive/2010/10/hbc-90007761 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Call me a sideline moralist, but I'm more interested in the democratic struggles by - say - the oppressed (and slaughtered) people of Falluja than inside the most murderous army in the world. (I also wouldn't forget that the russian one was a DEFEATED army. This matter of fact could be a help in understanding the priorities..) If we are sideline moralists about the problems of the world if we are socialists attempting to change the world, there is nothing like ultraleft scorn on the democratic struggles by the oppressed to completely alienate them from socialism did lenin and trotsky point out that the sailors of the aurora were nothing more than murderous participants on an imperialist warship? 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == How exactly how ought socialists, in the United States, approach organizing in the military? By emphasizing to the service members that they are in a reactionary institution killing civilians and freedom fighters? Or to join with them in the struggles that they have already started? I will remind you that we don't have a massive, ongoing, on-the-streets antiwar movement that has a mass character like in the 1960s and 70s. 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It also has to do with WHY we want the working class not to be able to be split along ethnic, religious and racial lines... as well as sexual orientation and gender identification status. Not only for the end in itself...equal rights, but also to prepare the working class, in this case, service members not to fall for the divisions capitalism foists on the population. 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] France and China
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == China, buoyed by its pool of cheap and exploited labour force from the backward provinces, is getting to enjoy its new found role as Capitalist bully. After offering to help pay for Greece's debt in exchange for Greek shipyards and naval facilities, they now come to Sarkozy. Contracts galore are showering. AREVA is to build a mega Plutonium-recyclcing plant in China (16 000 tons ! No less !), Airbus is to deliver 40 planes, French space and satellite technology is to be transfered, French insurance giant Matmut/MMA is to fuse with its Chinese counterpart (thus creating the largest insurance firm in the world)... China acknowledges France for what it is : a minor nation, whose credibility rests entirely on its military technology engineering (with civilian by-products) and nuclear physicists. And its export of prestigious wines that might interest the fabled 400 million strong newly emerging middle-class in China. As China presses its political advantage as a net purveyor of goods (net creditor in exchanges), it will soon clash with the US of A, IMHO. Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama last year, but he has made it clear that he will not do so in the future. With this new visit to France, China is really making a political point : a) China is not to be criticized for its human rights record and b) China now has the clout to actively participate in world governance. Actually, the situation is the same as under Mao, except that he had the capital (slave workers), but was excluded from participation in the Soviet-led CARECOM. Isn't it good that Capitalism has finally prevailed and that China is now able to use its work force to actually dictate its wishes ? Actually, Mao would have been overjoyed with recent happenings. Mao always wanted to propel China in the limelight (An A-bomb ! that's what we need ! I don't car how much it costs, but I want an A-bomb! he famously shrieked in 1953). Actually, China has the best of both worlds. A 500 million work force AND the experience of widely skewing numbers and withholding information. Under Mao, 75% of the population was dying of hunger (reduced to eating the bark off trees) and yet outsiders saw nothing but an inspiring Socialist experience where the Chinese working class really imposes dictatorship of the proletariat. 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Vladimiro, in my opinion you are viewing this in a denunciatory and moralistic point of view. that's not a revolutionary tactic... its a liberal tactic. Besides, not all military members are killers... gays have often been found on the frontlines, but are have been historically concentrated in non-combat roles, particularly medics. Most do a tour or two of duty and then are discharged. Most aren't in it for the longterm. Most will return to the normal occupations of the working class along with their experiences. Should straight soliders learn that it's perfectly acceptable to castigate homosexuals? Should gay people learn that they are powerless to resist castigation? With the economic draft most have very few choices out of poverty or for education. LGBT are subject to many more pressures in the military due to the likelihood of isolation. Getting dishonorably discharged can be a brutal and crushing way to rejoin civilian life. Revolutionaries during the Vietnam war didn't castigate returning veterans who where fighting a revolutionary civil war didn't castigate and denounce soldiers. That is exactly what the Rightwing in the US has tried to portray has having happened. We helped to organize veterans... the government used them brutally. Their rage contributed to the antiwar mobilizations and toward the building of mass support to end the war. Would you like to go to a meeting of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and suggest that they are murderers and should therefore be ashamed? 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It's one thing for soldiers and veterans to come back and use their experience to tell the truth. We're not liberal moralizers. We defend the right of participation in the military, among other reasons, because it's often the best chance the poor have of getting anywhere different in this society. It's the key to an education, to a decent job, to the kind of future that some on this list may well be taking for granted. 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] Gay US service(wo)men
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I cant' believe that you guys are still fooling around with whether gay people should be allowed to serve in the US Army. The answer is of course YES. Gay soldiers should be allowed to get hit by Kalashinkov (or M-16) fire. What makes them cleverer than heterosexuals, Blacks, women, Irish, Indians, Asians, and any other recognized group that has enlisted ? Homosexuals are just as prejudiced against other groups as Blacks, Women, Indians, Irish, Texans, etc. They will slaughter when commanded to do so. Over a 100 000 civilian casualties in the Iraq war, and the Afghan war is rapidly approaching the same number... 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == IMO that's exactly the reason we don't defend participation in the military-- because it's a chance to get a good job or an education. That's the line the armed forces uses to recruit and the history is that after recruitment those opportunities are not available for the overwhelming majority othe rank and file. We don't defend participation in the military at all. We oppose discrimination everywhere. - Original Message - From: Mark Lause markala...@gmail.com To: sartes...@earthlink.net Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 5:29 PM We defend the right of participation in the military, among other reasons, because it's often the best chance the poor have of getting anywhere different in this society. It's the key to an education, to a decent job, to the kind of future that some on this list may well be taking for granted. 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == That's THEM telling the truthnot nonmilitary haranguing them with their judgements. 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Excuse me MArk but I beg to disagree. participation in the military, among other reasons, [is] often the best chance the poor have of getting anywhere different in this society. It's the key to an education, to a decent job, to the kind of future that some on this list may well be taking for granted. No, killing people can never be excused, even though it brings short-term money in. And all those soldiers will NOT get a decent job and diplomas when they come back. That is a lie. They will not get the equivalent of the GI Bill of 1945 enabling them to go to college for free. That is a lie. They will return with nothing to show for killing 60,000 to 120,000 civilians in Irak (give or take). 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] What is so hard to understand?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Look, we want to see this kind of bullshit come to an end. All this talk about how imperialist the army is is preaching to the choir. We are dealing with a different social ill. http://www.workers.org/2006/us/gay-soldier-0126/ Gay soldier discharged for being beaten By David Hoskins Published Jan 22, 2006 11:15 AM A 19-year-old Army private, Kyle Lawson, was physically assaulted and threatened for being gay at the Fort Huachuca Army Base in Arizona. The Army discharged Lawson after a fellow soldier violently beat him. Lawson suffered a broken nose in the attack. His attacker—Pvt. Zacharias Pierre—reportedly used an anti-gay epithet during the attack. Lawson was later threatened at knifepoint by another soldier. Lawson’s sexual orientation had been revealed by an acquaintance at an October 2005 battalion party. Fearful for his life, Pvt. Lawson began to sleep on a cot in his drill sergeant’s office. Local police originally charged Pierre with felony assault. Police reports confirm that the attack on Lawson was unprovoked. Fort Huachuca officials used military regulations to take control of the case away from the Sierra Vista police. The officials promptly dropped the felony assault charges after the case was successfully transferred to military jurisdiction. Media reports indicate that Pierre has received little more than a slap on the wrist for attacking Lawson. Officials have refused to comment on why the initial charges were dropped or what actions were taken. The army claims that the knife threat is “unsubstantiated” and has refused to further investigate the incident. Patricia Kutteles, the mother of a soldier killed by other members of the military in 1999 for dating a transsexual woman, has spoken out against the Army’s foot-dragging. She criticized military policy regulating service members’ sexual orientation, saying, “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ impacts every service member—gay and straight alike—by creating a weapon to end careers and endanger service members through accusations, finger-pointing and rumor.” “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is the 1993 law that prevents lesbian, gay and bisexual GIs from being open about their sexuality. The law punishes those whose sexual orientation is revealed with the threat of discharge. Proponents of the law insist that it also protects service members who are harassed because of their perceived sexual orientation. The events at Fort Huachuca prove that claims of harassment prevention are mere lip-service as violent intimidation is still condoned by military officials and fueled by the Pentagon’s anti-gay policies. The brutal death of Kutteles’ son, Army Pvt. Barry Winchell, prompted the Pentagon to outline more concrete proposals supposedly aimed at curbing harassment based on sexual orientation. In 2000 the Pentagon released its so-called anti-harassment plan. Almost five years later violent harassment still occurs with impunity. Openly gay Massachusetts Congress person Barney Frank wrote to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Shoomaker demanding answers for why Lawson’s attacker has gone unpunished. Military officials have failed to offer a full account and justification of their actions. Pvt. Lawson’s story indicates that homophobic and anti-trans violence is still condoned and tolerated. The military remains an unsafe environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans GIs who live in constant fear of ridicule, discharge, assault and even murder. 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The military has always been the only chance for social advancement in a Capitalist society for members of the proletariat. Since 1815, a few British, French, German and US common soldiers have been able (promotion through the ranks) to attain positions as officers. And these newly-promoted officers have had the strategic insight to win quite a few battles, thus creating the legend of promotion through the ranks. The truth is that in the US, British, French and German armies (I happen to know a few American, French, British and German soldiers), promotion is nowadays granted on diplomas and on social status. Courage under fire will only get you this far. Who your parents were will get you promoted to any position within the armed forces of the Us, Britain, France or Germany. That is the plain truth, however difficult it may be for aspiring heroes... Maybe disaffected US troops will start a mutiny and demand recognition for their hardships. Maybe they will join the tea-partiers ? Maybe ? 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] End of the Age of Obama
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content/end-age-obama End of the Age of Obama by BAR executive editor Glen Ford The Democrats’ defeat could turn into legislative disaster if President Obama continues to follow his “bipartisan” impulses. Obama’s past determination to find common cause with Republicans spells catastrophe under the infinitely less favorable terms of the new Congress. “We can only hope that the Republicans are so consumed with destroy-Obama fervor that they reject his entreaties to bipartisan collaboration,” and rush to gridlock. “No one should have doubted that the forces of white supremacy would regroup after the 2008 anomaly.” Let us pray (figuratively or literally) for gridlock, because all else is disaster. The best outcome that could result from Tuesday’s Democratic debacle is that the Republicans overreach and, in their white nationalist triumphalism, make it impossible for President Obama and congressional Democrats to reach an accommodation with rampaging reaction and racism. The phony racial narrative of 2008 has been undone with the abrupt termination of the Age of Obama. After two short years, the illusion of a post-racial society has gone the way of all mirages – poof! – and we are forced to behold the United States as it actually exists. Barack Obama’s totally predictable failure to lead the nation on a transformative path all but guaranteed that the United States would revert to default mode: rule by a plutocracy backed by a white electoral base intent on cutting off their own noses to spite Black and brown faces. The white nationalist backlash to the actual reality of a Black-led government – exemplified by but much larger than the Tea Party – was a reversion to type. Only 43 percent of whites voted for Obama in 2008, despite general recoil at what the Republicans had wrought under George Bush. In large swaths of the Deep South, the white vote for Obama registered in the single digits and low teens. No one should have doubted that the forces of white supremacy would regroup after the 2008 anomaly, or that the Republicans, the White Man’s Party, would employ the racist tools and strategies that have kept them in the White House for 20 of the last 30 years. “After two short years, the illusion of a post-racial society has gone the way of all mirages.” There was every reason to expect that many whites would reflexively scapegoat Blacks and browns in the wake of the economic meltdown of 2008 unless there were some countervailing rallying call for mobilization around a larger, socially cohesive national mission: a massive jobs and public works program. President Obama, the corporate Democrat, chose instead to transfer trillions in public wealth to Wall Street, the salient act of his tenure that overwhelmed – and, in much of the public’s perception, was conflated with – his wholly inadequate stimulus effort. The long and revelatory health care grind showed Obama’s eagerness to deal in the dark with the hated insurance and drug companies, to concoct a plan that essentially requires everyone to pay for private insurance. Even in friendly quarters, the glow was gone from his presidency, while the billionaire Koch brothers and Rupert Murdock fanned the flames of race hatred through their Tea Party “movement.” Progressives, of course, had no movement, having opted to become Obama’s groveling left flank, instead. The corporate media wonder what will become of any future Obama initiatives with the House under firm Republican control and the Senate only nominally in Democratic hands. But, from a progressive standpoint, any new Obama initiatives should be feared like the plague. Even with Democrats in charge of both chambers of Congress, Obama persisted in attempting to forge a grand coalition with Republicans, which they steadfastly rebuffed. If he continues true to form in the next, much more troglodyte Congress – and there is no reason to think Obama won’t try – we will witness a repeat of the Clinton years, when a Democratic president oversaw passage of NAFTA, welfare reform, vast expansion of the prison Gulag, and deregulation of Wall Street. “From a progressive standpoint, any new Obama initiatives should be dreaded like the plague.” Obama had his own plans to go down in history as the president that “reined in” so-called entitlements: Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. On his own initiative, he caused the creation of a deficit cutting commission whose recommendations are due, next month. The president planned for commission members to threaten entitlements, whereupon he would position himself as the Great Compromiser and Conciliator, further weakening the safety net while pretending to salvage
Re: [Marxism] What is so hard to understand?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Exactly. We oppose discrimination. We defend those who are attacked because of their race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation. It's not that complicated. Besides, how often do you see me agreeing with Lou? Me agreeing with Vlad? Hell, me agreeing with anybody? - Original Message - From: Louis Proyect l...@panix.com Look, we want to see this kind of bullshit come to an end. All this talk about how imperialist the army is is preaching to the choir. We are dealing with a different social ill. 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] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In early 1970, I took part in a sit-in with 6 others at Harper's Magazine, to protest their homophobic article with the then acceptable (to most heteros) slurs used against Gays. Few progressives spoke out then in support of our protest, or condemned the liberal Harper's for their homophobic article. This recent cartoon in the same Harper's, sent mistakenly by David Thorstad, is just an update and continuation of efforts by the same liberal bigotted thinking people, who really want to keep Gays at an inferior status. A marxist should point out that the U. S. reactionaries who claimed they were the big supporters of freedom and rights, were shown around this discrimination against Gays, as being the actual hypocritical liars that they are - and that they can be exposed as, that, to many people. And to tie in that these same reactionaries promote the use of militarism, that benefits merchants of deaths and not humanity, including harming those in military uniform - is the position I believe that should be the focus and not giving support to those in power who want to continue to support that Gays and Lesbians are inferior and should be discriminated against. Discrimination is wrong. David Thorstad is wrong for refusing to understand this. From: sartes...@earthlink.net Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 16:45:11 -0400 Subject: Re: [Marxism] Great cartoon spoofing gays in the military Yes,there are ironies. But it comes down to a simple question: Do Marxists oppose discrimination, prejudice wherever it appears? Did we oppose segregating African-Americans in the armed forces? Yes. Did we oppose discriminating against African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, women in police departments? In schools? In government positions? Do we oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation? 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] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Army is the enemy of the people. Whether an external threat or an internal threat, the Army will always do its duty as loyal servant to those who yield power (privileges). It is the basic hierarchical structure of the armed forces we object to. I mean we, Libertarian Marxists, not we, anything goes as long as it remotely resembles Lenin Marxists. The Army is a harmful institution that is purposefully disjointed from the people, and purposefully entrusted with powerful weapons to subdue the people. If you can't see that, you are blind. 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] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Take it easy, Dan. That's hardly the point of disagreement. Nobody is arguing for the capitalist military. We are simply against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation anywhere it's practiced and certainly everywhere it is institutionalized. That's all there is to this. - Original Message - From: Dan d.koech...@wanadoo.fr 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] Pledge to America [Bank of] by those populist small town, non-elite Republicans
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From the Financial Times of 4 November. Opening salvo from Spencer Bachus, a potential Republican chair of the House Financial Services Committee, targets bank regulators who seek to curb banks' proprietary trading. Mr. Bachus says that the ban on such trading, known as the Volcker Rule that was included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law will impose substantial costs on the American economy and market participants while yielding doubtful benefits. Implementation of the rules may spark a mass exodus of clients from US banks to banks based abroad. Bachus is concerned that shareholders of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase will be hurt because the banks will be less profitable. _ Isn't that touching? Isn't that just so main street as opposed to the elitist Wall Street pandering of the established Democrats? Gosh, oh gee willikers, the next thing you know, Sarah Palin will writing letters to the MMS office demanding that deepwater drilling be allowed to go forth unimpeded by those messy, costly, profit-killing safety regulations. I'd like to say that a good portion of the American electorate is a bunch of suckers and saps, but that would be too generous. Actually the electorate reminds me more of the audience at a World Wrestling Enterprise smackdown-- so excited by sight of the steroid juiced goons breaking chairs over each other's heads, that they decide to break the chairs over their own heads. 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] News from France
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I bear interesting news from France. The various General Meetings of All Workers in the Locality (the French term used so as not to use the word Workers' Council) have decided to meet at a General Meeting of General Meetings (which they could have better described as a General Meeting of Workers Councils, but that's just me and the French Language). Anyway, the result is low intensity disruption, a metaphor drawn from low-intensity warfare, and which includes diverse forms of sabotage and economic disruption. Today, Thursday, airplane pilots and air stewards(esses) went on strike for an hour, baggage handlers went on strike for another two hours, bus drivers (to the airports) went on strike for another three hours. At the same time, refuse collectors went on strike for the day, four fuel depots were blocked for a few hours, and students blocked highways to major cities. This is all part of the low-intensity sabotage idea propounded by the NPA. Which I find great, despite my previous clashes with the self-same party. But anyway, this federation of workers' councils, despite its insignificance in terms of numbers, is a real token achievement for the French working class. What it shows is that working class militancy is still loathe to recognize defeat and is casting about for new ways to block the economy. Thus, the pension revolt is entering a stage of working class withdrawal, accompanied by many actions of working class defiance. The only problem is that the aim is to hold out until 2012, meaning that voting for socialists will solve the issues in 2012. A big mistake for the French working class, as such future heavies as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, current head of the IMF and future head of the French Socialist Party, ... wants all OCDE states to reduce foreign debt by four GDP points over the coming two years ... 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] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 6:26 PM, Dan d.koech...@wanadoo.fr wrote: The Army is the enemy of the people. For goodness sake, the armed forces are a pretty critical variable in any societal transformation, forward as well as backward, and stabilization whichever direction. The People have no hope if The Army is always and by definition the enemy of the people. Does someone think 'the proletarian state' is sans army? How then could they be for the working class as the ruling class? This is why trusting peace and justice to a spirit above or the spirit within is always just smelling the incense whoever buys it for or from the guru. -- Margaret Powell Dobbins www.PeggyDobbins.net Sociology a form of Art 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] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I thought that the argument was 1. If the army is (generally, in all but the most revolutionary circumstances - i.e. the Red army under Trotsky) the enemy of the people. 2. How could anyone, of any gender or sexual preference, be defended if they choose to join? What happens AFTER they join is a totally different question. Not an unimportant one, no - but let's try to deal with first things first. - Bill Peggy Dobbins wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 6:26 PM, Dan d.koech...@wanadoo.fr wrote: The Army is the enemy of the people. For goodness sake, the armed forces are a pretty critical variable in any societal transformation, forward as well as backward, and stabilization whichever direction. The People have no hope if The Army is always and by definition the enemy of the people. Does someone think 'the proletarian state' is sans army? How then could they be for the working class as the ruling class? This is why trusting peace and justice to a spirit above or the spirit within is always just smelling the incense whoever buys it for or from the guru. 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] News from France
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dan said: The only problem is that the aim is to hold out until 2012, meaning that voting for socialists will solve the issues in 2012. A big mistake for the French working class, as such future heavies as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, current head of the IMF and future head of the French Socialist Party, ... wants all OCDE states to reduce foreign debt by four GDP points over the coming two years ... This hold out may be what the social democrats would like, but there is much that can happen in two years of established workers' councils meeting regularly and engaging in worker activism. I can only hope these ongoing council meetings take on an ever more political turn and continued organizing. Who knows, perhaps these councils will bring forward new and more militant leaders as a counterforce to the bureaucratic labor officials? 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] My notes from Joel Geier talk on the Economic Crisis ( from Oct 30, ISO event, Marxist Day School )
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == These are my notes from the talk by Joel Geier on The Economic Crisis : We're in the fourth year of an International Capitalist Crisis. There has been an enormous human toll : unemployment, poverty, misery, etc. This has produced a political and ideological crisis. People are looking for a cause, looking to Marxism. The 3 key ideas of Marxist Crisis Theory and apply them to the current crisis : Overproduction, Falling Rate of Profit Credit. Marx's theories on crisis are really embedded in the ideas of Capitalist Production. Crisis are embedded in the system of Capitalism. Marxism views crisis as inherent in the dynamics of Capitalist production. Capitalism is prone to crisis. Resolution of crisis often produce more crisis. Booms and busts are part of Capitalism : Growth recession come out of its laws of motion, social classes---producing goods for sale for profit not human need through a competitive, archaic system -- to get as much market share to reinvest or competitors will drive them out of business. Businesses must make the cheapest products. As production expands, the market does not expand as much. Because of the class relations of Capitalism, workers wages, their buying power is not equal to growth and expansion of production. The Capitalist takes surplus value, profit. With the expansion of production, there isn't the buying power. The market can't grow as quickly because the system is production for profit. This is the Crisis of Overproduction. There are too many good produced to make a profit. ( Before Capitalism, there was crisis due to underproduction of use values. Crisis became one of overproduction when commodity production became generalized. ) Every so often (8, 10 or 12 years ) there is a crisis of overproduction of exchange values-- of what goods can be sold for a profit. There can be big booms short recessions or small booms big recessions. Its a Realization Crisis -- the Capitalist can't realize the profits because of restriction or collapse of the market. Unused capacity, people need but can't buy. Fall of the Rate of Profit Profit. It is profit that drives the system. Fall in profit rates are built into the accumulation process. Its for the accumulation process. Marx : Production for production sake; accumulation for accumulation sake . You must re-invest capital. Reinvest in new technology, produce better, cheaper. Take market share. You're forced to compete or you'll go bust. This concentrates capital in greater amounts. Microsoft, Goggle, Exxon, Walmart, etc. Destruction of capital produces greater crisis.Increasing productivity. As capital accumulates, there is a decrease in the rate of profit. This changes the organic composition of capital. Means of production grow faster than labor dues, wages. Profit doesn't come from machines. It comes from the humans who run the machines. Humans--living labor--transfer dead labor into commodities. Their unpaid labor is the source of profits. This produces a tendency for the rate of profit to fall. On the basis of total capital, profits profits start to fall, its based on surplus labor capital produces. If the profit rate falls, why build a new factory. It disrupts the process of capital formation. Lay off people. Then they can't buy stuff. Retail sales fall. More layoffs. They can't pay mortgages. Downward spiral of Capitalism in crisis. Capital has the means to overcome this : Rise in rate of surplus value : rise in hours, cut wages, increase productivity, increase exploitation, cut taxes on capital --- more profit, cheapening of element of constant capital. Competitor goes out of business, buy him out. Extend the market to areas where there is a decrease in the level of organic capital. Credit Crisis Credit is key to Capitalist Production. Every business has to borrow money. Without credit, can't have circulation of commodities. Credit exacerbates the boom / bust cycle. Credit brings together savings of Capital, loan out. Extend credit to consumers, then they can buy things. Debt bubble. It intensifies the bust. Credit is the source of fictitious capital, which is the creation of credit, of money with no new values created. Called asset bubbles. A stock trading at $ 50. It then goes to $ 100. No real value created. Not creating, selling any new goods. Sell houses, flip it. Money changed. When you get a crisis. It appears on the surface as a credit crisis. They're not. If people are laid off, they can't make mortgage payments, appears as credit crisis. The economy is doing well, people making payments on what they borrow. GM not doing well, maybe you should sell stock. Banks --- bring in credit. Pay me. Draws in credit. As credit being
Re: [Marxism] My notes from Joel Geier talk on the Economic Crisis (from Oct 30, ISO event, Marxist Day School )
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks for this Carol. There will be audio/video of the full day school available in the near future. I will post the link. -aaron Sent via BlackBerry by ATT -Original Message- From: Carol Brown caroltheart...@aol.com Sender: marxism-bounces+amaral1871=gmail@lists.econ.utah.edu Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:07:07 To: aaron amaralamaral1...@gmail.com Reply-To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism] My notes from Joel Geier talk on the Economic Crisis ( from Oct 30, ISO event, Marxist Day School ) == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == These are my notes from the talk by Joel Geier on The Economic Crisis : We're in the fourth year of an International Capitalist Crisis. There has been an enormous human toll : unemployment, poverty, misery, etc. This has produced a political and ideological crisis. People are looking for a cause, looking to Marxism. The 3 key ideas of Marxist Crisis Theory and apply them to the current crisis : Overproduction, Falling Rate of Profit Credit. Marx's theories on crisis are really embedded in the ideas of Capitalist Production. Crisis are embedded in the system of Capitalism. Marxism views crisis as inherent in the dynamics of Capitalist production. Capitalism is prone to crisis. Resolution of crisis often produce more crisis. Booms and busts are part of Capitalism : Growth recession come out of its laws of motion, social classes---producing goods for sale for profit not human need through a competitive, archaic system -- to get as much market share to reinvest or competitors will drive them out of business. Businesses must make the cheapest products. As production expands, the market does not expand as much. Because of the class relations of Capitalism, workers wages, their buying power is not equal to growth and expansion of production. The Capitalist takes surplus value, profit. With the expansion of production, there isn't the buying power. The market can't grow as quickly because the system is production for profit. This is the Crisis of Overproduction. There are too many good produced to make a profit. ( Before Capitalism, there was crisis due to underproduction of use values. Crisis became one of overproduction when commodity production became generalized. ) Every so often (8, 10 or 12 years ) there is a crisis of overproduction of exchange values-- of what goods can be sold for a profit. There can be big booms short recessions or small booms big recessions. Its a Realization Crisis -- the Capitalist can't realize the profits because of restriction or collapse of the market. Unused capacity, people need but can't buy. Fall of the Rate of Profit Profit. It is profit that drives the system. Fall in profit rates are built into the accumulation process. Its for the accumulation process. Marx : Production for production sake; accumulation for accumulation sake . You must re-invest capital. Reinvest in new technology, produce better, cheaper. Take market share. You're forced to compete or you'll go bust. This concentrates capital in greater amounts. Microsoft, Goggle, Exxon, Walmart, etc. Destruction of capital produces greater crisis.Increasing productivity. As capital accumulates, there is a decrease in the rate of profit. This changes the organic composition of capital. Means of production grow faster than labor dues, wages. Profit doesn't come from machines. It comes from the humans who run the machines. Humans--living labor--transfer dead labor into commodities. Their unpaid labor is the source of profits. This produces a tendency for the rate of profit to fall. On the basis of total capital, profits profits start to fall, its based on surplus labor capital produces. If the profit rate falls, why build a new factory. It disrupts the process of capital formation. Lay off people. Then they can't buy stuff. Retail sales fall. More layoffs. They can't pay mortgages. Downward spiral of Capitalism in crisis. Capital has the means to overcome this : Rise in rate of surplus value : rise in hours, cut wages, increase productivity, increase exploitation, cut taxes on capital --- more profit, cheapening of element of constant capital. Competitor goes out of business, buy him out. Extend the market to areas where there is a decrease in the level of organic capital. Credit Crisis Credit is key to Capitalist Production. Every business has to borrow money. Without credit, can't have circulation of commodities. Credit exacerbates the boom / bust cycle. Credit
[Marxism] Greens outpoll Working Familes Party in Albany County
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Forwarded Message From: dunleam...@aol.com Andrew M. Cuomo (WOR) . . . . . . 2,964 (3.07%) Howie Hawkins (GRN) . . . . . . . 2,989 (3.10%) Though basically a dead heat - and the paper ballots could switch 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] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Bill, you ask how anyone joining the army could be defended. Defended in what way? If Blacks are subject to organized racism by white enlistees, as they were for most this country's history...you wouldn't defend them? Really? In Vietnam this was a major cause of the break down of the US army under pressure from the Vietnamese. No one asked if the Blacks who were organizing against racism there were drafted or enlisted. Also, during the March 4th budget cut battle we worked with many young men and women who had been in the armed forces or were about to enlist or WERE enlisted and did so for a variety of reason, the biggest, obviously, being economic as the economy simply sucks and they could finish their education on the government's dime if they joined up. Most didn't want to go to fight, most wanted to be stationed in the US and so on. It spanned the gamut of reasons and rationalizations. Of course I would try to discuss the issue but there it is. They were as militant as anyone. I talked with a young ISOer at the recent Statewide Conference Against the Budget Cuts. African-American he became radicalized in the Navy. Should he not of been 'defended' because he originally enlisted? He is a phenomically intellegent young Marxist who probably wouldn't be one had he not had that experience. I'm not arguing FOR enlisting, I'm just not willing to help them compose their letters of request to join the Tea Party like some of you seem to. I think most of you who rush to condemnation had ought to walk in their footsteps a bit first, or at least be in the same room with some of the people who sign up and *listen* to them before lecturing... 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
Re: [Marxism] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == For goodness' sake. What's so bloody hard about this? Capitalist employers are oppressing the people, and probably have more deaths to their name (malnutrition, famine, etc) than the armies of the world put together. Yet I haven't seen people saying how fighting for equal access to jobs (capitalist jobs under capitalist employers) for women, gays, people of race X, or religion Y, is a bad thing. The army is yet another employer. People join the army for largely the same reasons why they join another employer. They need to alienate their labour in order to obtain the means of subsistence. It's hierarchical, what a shock. I guess capitalist concerns are examples of egalitarianism. No-one got fired for arguing with the boss outside the military, ever. A bit of perspective. --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
Re: [Marxism] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 7:10 PM, DW dwalters...@gmail.com wrote: I talked with a young ISOer at the recent Statewide Conference Against the Budget Cuts. African-American he became radicalized in the Navy. Should he not of been 'defended' because he originally enlisted? He is a phenomically intellegent young Marxist who probably wouldn't be one had he not had that experience. I'm not arguing FOR enlisting, I'm just not willing to help them compose their letters of request to join the Tea Party like some of you seem to. I think most of you who rush to condemnation had ought to walk in their footsteps a bit first, or at least be in the same room with some of the people who sign up and *listen* to them before lecturing... Well said. I've talked to young people who enlisted, who said being in the military was a hell of a lot better than being homeless and unemployed. I totally understand. With education costs increasing over twice the overall inflation rate since 1970 VA benefits are the only option for those wishing to pursue post secondary education. During some of the hard times I've been through, had I not been over aged I would have went back in. Adam correctly reminded us all of the positive response that returning Vietnam vets, my self included, received from anti war activists. Until we have a society with guaranteed employment, at a liveable wage, with the right to unionize, or a minimum income, the military will continue to be an attractive option for many. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/kenmor1968%40gmail.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Sartesian said: Exactly, again. It cannot be any simpler. We oppose discrimination. Period. Unequivocally. All the time. It seems Marxist economic theory may result in erudite economies of thought as well. Careful, Sartie, I may have to yell, Right On!right on. 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] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == We play by rules not of their making. We all survive by selling our labor to capitalism is all of a fabric. If you work in a car factory, if you teach, if you deliver the mail, if you work on technology...all of it's there to serve the system. We oppose discrimination based on idioitic and invidious distinctions in all these areas and the fact that all of them are part of the fabric of capitalism isn't decisive to us. 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] Cops baton attack huge student demo in Dublin
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == éirígí Slams Spin, Lies Censorship éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac An Mhaistír has slammed the misrepresentation of yesterday’s [Wednesday] student-led demonstration in Dublin. Around 25,000 people took to the streets of the capital yesterday to protest against the possibility of the reintroduction of fees for third level education in December’s Twenty-Six County budget. Mac An Mhaistír said: “The coverage of yesterday’s demonstration and the comments of many prominent individuals have completely ignored the violent actions of the Garda, of which there is plentiful evidence. “Blood flowed on the streets of Dublin yesterday as a result of Garda baton charges, yet the corporate media and establishment politicians have chosen to focus solely on the actions and alleged actions of students. “What we witnessed in Dublin was the complete inability of the Garda, particularly its Public Order Unit, to deal with any form of protest that is not completely submissive. This has been seen before, in Rossport and elsewhere, where acts of peaceful civil disobedience have been met with violence on the part of the Gardaí.” Mac An Mhaistír also dismissed claims that éirígí was somehow involved in ‘hijacking’ yesterday’s demonstration. “éirígí activists, among them students and people from the teaching profession, took part in yesterday’s demonstration as an act of solidarity and in support of the demands for a free and fair education system. To suggest otherwise is a ludicrous act of scaremongering and one that is completely without foundation.” Mac An Mhaistír continued: “Education, including further and third level education, is a right that should be universally available to all citizens free of charge. The reintroduction of fees, even means tested ones, would be a regressive step towards an education system that, at its higher echelons, provides only for the wealthy in society. This cannot be allowed to happen.” ENDS 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] Role of the Army
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Even a blind pig finds an acorn every once in awhile. - Original Message - From: Manuel Barrera mtom...@hotmail.com To: sartes...@earthlink.net Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 11:31 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Role of the Army 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-Thaxis] Election Day Thoughts
On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 12:48 AM, CeJ jann...@gmail.com wrote: The turning over of the House of Reps to the Republicans demonstrates clearly one thing (to me at least): That American voters, as diverse as they are, tend to prefer the incoherence of the Republicans to the incoherence of the Democrats. CB: For now. And definitely for the last thirty years. The Republicans and the rightwing have been dominant for thirty years. They have been made dominant by the majority of US voters. It's scary. Sort of low grade fever fascism. The incoherence of the Republicans is the idea that they stand for 'fiscal responsibility' while they plan to spend even more of the federal budgets on the military, intelligence and 'national security'--indeed the Republicans announced that the day of the election. The incoherence of the Democrats is that they would talk about the need to reduce military spending while going along with the budgets the national security bureaucracy asks for year after year--and then adding to them with an expanded 'mission' in Afghanistan. The incoherence of the Republicans is that they would of course consult with key allies in major foreign policy decisions but announce to their supporters in the US that no one but Americans influenced foreign policy. The incoherence of the Democrats is that they would make a big deal about consulting key allies, go ahead and act more or less unilaterally, and then give speeches about how the US has a responsibility to consult key allies and pretend that the US obeys by international laws. The incoherence of the Republicans is signing on to crap 'health care coverage' patterned after the state of Mass. (the success of a Republican governor there) while saying that America and Americans have the best health care in the world and don't need major reform. The incoherence of the Democrats is saying it's tragic that up to 80 million Americans don't have access to health insurance and even health care (because they lack insurance) and then going on to sign onto crap coverage patterned after the Republican crap plan piloted in the stae of Mass. I could go on, but I think the point is: The Republicans are much better at selling the imperialist fantasy vision of America at the center of the world, America right or wrong, America the chosen people with a godly mission to make the rest of the world more like America--not because Americans want that but the rest of the world wants it and needs it. It's hard to make much of mid-term elections when so few people actually vote in them. It's the presidential elections where you see so much of the fantasy machine cranked up to a level beyond human capacity to absorb it (the last best hope of mankind rests on one man's shoulders, ladies and gentlement I give you Prophet and Messiah, the next President of the US). The religion of America really is America (which is an ideology as circular as it is incoherent), and until something comes along to shatter that, I'm afraid the world's only superpower can't enjoy OECD levels of anything, while it drags its key OECD allies and satellites down with it. The Republican H of R won't be able to turn back the clock and revert America back to the mortgage securities and commodities speculation bubbles of 2000-2008. The question is where will it and a mostly willing Democratic Senate and WH take the US in dealing with the bad economy and the unviable fiscal situation? CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Analysis Election 2010: Right-wing glow will be brief
Election 2010: Right-wing glow will be brief http://peoplesworld.org/election-2010-right-wing-glow-will-be-brief/ assets/Uploads/_resampled/CroppedImage6060-sam.jpg by: Sam Webb November 3 2010 tags: elections, ultra-right, Republicans, Congress, Obama Nov2 The political calculus of the Republican Party over the past two years has been simple: frustrate the president's agenda and especially his economic plans. Then blame the White House for the meager recovery, near double-digit unemployment, and exploding federal deficit. A poorly performing economy and jobless recovery, the GOP leadership believed, would hurt Obama and his party at the polls in 2010 - especially when combined with fear-mongering about the deficit and intrusive government, appeals to racism, male supremacy and nativism, and unrelenting vilification of the president. Last night's election results proved them right. Enough people let their frustrations get the best of them, gave in to their worst demons, and bought into the right-wing spin to turn the midterm elections into a major victory for right-wing extremism. With the unemployment rate stuck at 10 percent and the federal deficit at a record level, the political ground was fertile for a right-wing comeback, especially when you throw in truly unprecedented amounts of money funding Republican candidates and their demagogy. Had the unemployment rate been 7 percent and falling, and had the economy showed more tangible signs of revival, the outcome would have been very different. Probably the Republicans and the tea party candidates would have registered some gains, but nothing on the scale that they did. But the ugly economic reality on the ground has left millions in dire straights, confused and angry, and looking in all the wrong places for someone to blame. Yesterday, their wrath was turned on the president and his party - the party in power - whom they held responsible for the economic mess. The House of Representatives went Republican by a large margin, while the Senate retained a razor-thin Democratic majority. And a number of key governorships went Republican too. All of which gives right-wing extremism in its Republican and tea party guises a new lease on life. The terrain of struggle has shifted in their favor. Momentum and initiative for the time being is in their hands. Expect congressional Republicans to go on the offensive and press their advantage. They will claim a popular mandate to roll back big government and Obamacare, restore fiscal integrity and give free rein to the animal spirits of entrepreneurial capitalism. In practical terms this will translate into a renewed assault on the rights, regulations, protections and entitlements that have been one of the two underpinnings of what we call The American Dream. Its other underpinning is a dynamic economy that provides a living wage, a secure job, and retirement security for American workers, but that is also crumbling under the weight of financialization, corporate globalization and, not least, right-wing extremism. The Republican victory last night will only hasten this great unraveling. And what they can't accomplish now, Republican strategists expect will be doable in 2012, when, according to their script, the GOP wins control of every branch of government. The Democrats, including the president, had a hand in this debacle. In hindsight, it seems like Obama's biggest mistakes were to stabilize the financial system in the way that he did - bailing out Wall Street, to make health care reform his top priority, and to settle on a smaller stimulus package that did not bring down unemployment levels sufficiently to win public support for his efforts. Nevertheless, whatever the administration's failings (and ours as well), they should not obscure the fact that right-wing extremism is the main obstacle to social and economic progress. The Republican Party has moved far to the right in spirit, policies and makeup compared to the Reagan era. It has a pronounced authoritarian streak. And its singular aim over the past two years, with its tea party cousins, has been to bring down the Obama administration. Don't think that will change going forward. Assisting the Republican/tea party movement in these midterm elections were major sections of corporate capital. Obama's tax, health care, environmental and financial reform initiatives didn't sit well with the corporate elite. Nor did they like his stimulus bill or talk of a second stimulus. They want government intervention only when it's a tool to maintain an unfettered capitalist economy and its class structure. Some small reforms are OK by them, but nothing that challenges the wealth and prerogatives of the top layers of our society. Finance capital and capital in general aren't tethered to either party, but their comfort level with the Republicans is high. During the campaign they lavished GOP candidates with nearly unlimited amounts of money. And last night
[Marxism-Thaxis] Now What?
Now What? by James Howard Kunstler Comment on current events by the author of The Long Emergency (2005) kunstler.com (October 31 2010) On Tuesday, when the Republican Party and its Tea Party chump-proxies re-conquer the sin-drenched bizarro universe of the US congress, they'll have to re-assume ownership of the stickiest web of frauds and swindles ever run in human history - and chances are the victory will blow up in their supernaturally suntanned, Botox-smoothed faces. But don't cry for John Boehner, Barack Obama. The President and his Democrats may have inherited this clusterfuck from the feckless George Bush but they flubbed every chance to mitigate any part of it, ranging from their failure to restore the rule of law in banking (by prosecuting the executives of major banks who oversaw the systematic swindle), to mis-directing our dwindling resources toward ends (such as shovel-ready new super-highways) that won't promote a credible future for this society, to misleading the public in the fantasy that alt-energy will offset the disruptions of peak oil (and allow us to keep running suburbia, the US Military, and WalMart by other means). It's really too late for both parties. They're unreformable. They've squandered their legitimacy just as the US enters the fat heart of the long emergency. Neither of them have a plan, or even a single idea that isn't a dodge or a grift. Both parties tout a recovery that is just a cover story for accounting chicanery and statistical lies aimed at concealing the criminally-engineered national bankruptcy that they presided over in split shifts. Both parties are overwhelmingly made up of bagmen for the companies that looted America. Alas, the damage is now so pervasive in money matters that the federal government could be toast as a viable enterprise, even if a new party or two spontaneously rose up out of the ruins of a plundered democracy. Anyway, one of them will not be the Tea Party, with its incoherent agenda and moron cadres who seek to put Jesus back in the US constitution, where he never was in the first place - though they don't know that. Nor is there any party on the left or even in the center with a clue or a moral compass. Its just one of those tragic moments in history - like 1850s America, when a strange vacuum of thought occupied the heart of political life, and the scene was cluttered up with mere place-holders like Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. (Can you state a single idea or position, these political ciphers advanced?) Where we stand now is on the cusp of another giant step into the abyss, since the latest storm of Foreclosure-Gate suggests pretty strongly that mega-tons of mortgage-backed securities are assured of blowing up, as well as the sundry derivatives of these things (CDOs, CDOs-squared, plus the massive fetid matter infesting the alternative cosmos of credit default swaps). If you follow the media-of-record like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, you would have to conclude that there is no extant plausible notion among financial leaders as to how the fiasco of botched mortgage-and-title documentation can be resolved. After three weeks of emerging events around this debacle, the consensus among the power brokers is to pretend that there's no problem, that the issue of missing, forged, post-dated, trashed, or non-existent paper related to claims on property can just be put aside, brushed under the rug, glossed over, ignored. Let me tell you something: this problem is not going away. At the very least it is going to paralyze the real estate industry for as far ahead as anyone can see. For another thing, it could force the disclosure of what the banks are holding in their vaults in the way of worthless paper and expose their insolvency. For still another thing, it could lead to rafts of lawsuits that would additionally shove the banks toward collapse, demolish the claims that underlie our currency, call into question the meaning of property ownership per se that is the basis of Anglo-American law, and tie up the court system until kingdom come. In any case, every pension fund, state government, and insurance operation would be crippled. I could go on but you get the picture ... This might all sound extreme, but I repeat: nobody with any authority in this land has proposed a plausible way out. By the way, I haven't even touched on the totally insane but now accepted practices of the Federal Reserve attempting to stage manage the velocity of money by so-called quantitative easing - aka the US writing checks to itself - because even that nonsense assumes that everything else remains more or less stable. This is what the two major parties can look forward to as we swing around into the Yuletide season and then into 2011. The proud winners of seats in congress and the senate might as well put on clown suits and little pointed hats on Wednesday morning and drive around the Washington monument in toy
[Marxism-Thaxis] World Youth Festival to be held in South Africa
World Youth Festival to be held in South Africa by: Pepe Lozano November 1 2010 tags: peace, solidarity, jobs, South Africa, students, youth 17thwfys520x300 Thousands of youth and students from countries across the globe will convene in South Africa Dec. 13-21, to participate in the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students. The festival will take place in Johannesburg. A U.S. preparatory committee and delegation is in formation. Jordan Farrar, 27, is a leader with the Young Communist League USA from Baltimore and has been organizing youth in the U.S. to make the journey. The YCL is one of several groups expected to participate in the event. In the past, peace, civil rights, student and youth from the labor movement have participated. He said he's super excited to attend the festival. Jobs, the economy, voting rights, education, LGBT rights and health care are some of the issues Farrar is expected to raise during the festival.. These are our rights, not a privilege, he said. There are so many issues and we need better representation in order for us to speak up and get our voices heard, he said. It's really tough for young people to start their career due to the economy right now, not to mention the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Farrar said he's also very excited about the U.S. delegation's ability to carry on the positive and inspiring tradition of representing the diverse trends in the U.S. youth movement in South Africa. The U.S. is perceived as carrying a lot of baggage, however this is our time as young people to show the world that we want change, peace and justice, he said. Despite the negative attention Obama might receive overseas these days we believe his administration is making small steps to really advance the lives of ordinary working people and youth. The new administration is laying stepping stones in the rights of working people here and abroad, said Farrar. The main international group that organizes the festival every four or five years is the World Federation of Democratic Youth, formed in 1945 during World War II to fight against fascism. At the time young people representing the allied nations came together consisting of more than 30 million youth from 63 countries. One of their main goals was to build an anti-imperialist front for world peace that culminated in the first World Festival of Youth and Students in 1947 in Prague. Since then the festival has symbolized the tradition of the the struggle for youth rights from most countries on the planet. Under the slogan Youth Unite! Forward For Lasting Peace, the festival is an open event for all young people worldwide, of all political and religious beliefs, cultural or geographical backgrounds. Wheather a member of college campus group, a community organization or a youth chapter of the labor movement, the festival aims to reach broad sectors of the youth and student movement in every corner of the planet. In an online appeal to young people of the world the World Federation of Democratic Youth says the festival is in part a process where youth can unite and fight for public, free, quality and democratic education, for the right to employment with full labor rights, for democratic rights, for the right to free access to health care, sports and culture, for the protection of the environment, for a decent life, for friendship, solidarity and peace among all people of the world. The last three festivals were held in Venezuela (2005), Algeria (2001) and Cuba (1997). Farrar says there are currently about 30 young people signed up representing different states nationwide including several college campuses. For those interested in learning more about the festival he said to visit the U.S. National Preparatory Committee's website, which also has a link to a Facebook page. Post your comment Comments are moderated. See guidelines here. Your name Your website URL Comments ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Snake gives 'virgin birth' to extraordinary babies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9139000/9139971.stm Snake gives 'virgin birth' to extraordinary babies By Matt Walker Editor, Earth News A baby boa constrictor born via immaculate conception (image: Warren Booth) Snakes without fathers: one of the unusual baby boas A female boa constrictor snake has given birth to two litters of extraordinary offspring. Evidence suggests the mother snake has had multiple virgin births, producing 22 baby snakes that have no father. More than that, the genetic make-up of the baby snakes is unlike any previously recorded among vertebrates, the group which includes almost all animals with a backbone. Details are published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Our finding up-ends decades of scientific theory on reptile reproduction Biologist Dr Warren Booth Virgin births do occur among animals. Many invertebrates, such as insects, can produce offspring asexually, without ever having mated. They usually do this by cloning themselves, producing genetically identical offspring. But among vertebrate animals, it remains a novelty, having been documented among less than 0.1% of vertebrate species. In 2006, scientists discovered that two komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), the world's largest lizard species, had produced eggs that developed without being fertilised by sperm - a process called parthenogenesis. Then in 2007, other scientists found that captive female hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo) could also reproduce without having sex. But vertebrates generally reproduce sexually. Not including genetic material from the father - essentially having just a single biological parent - reduces genetic diversity and makes it more difficult for organisms to adapt to, for example, changed environmental conditions or the emergence of a new disease. Novel beginnings Now, a team of scientists and snake experts based in the US has identified the first case of a boa snake having a virgin birth. Although parthenogenesis has been documented in a few snake species, our findings are truly novel for a number of reasons, says Dr Warren Booth of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, US. He led the team that made the latest discovery, and also worked with the researchers who documented a virgin birth in a hammerhead shark. VIRGIN BIRTHS A parthenogenic Komodo dragon hatching from its egg (Ian Stephen) Many smaller invertebrate species embrace asexual reproduction, but almost all higher animals require sex to reproduce On the rare occasions they do not, they usually give birth asexually via a process known as parthenogenesis Read about how the world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, was discovered to be able to give birth to fatherless babies (pictured above) Read about how a hammerhead shark also had an extremely rare 'virgin birth' The female [boa] has had not one virgin birth, but actually two, in spite of being housed with and observed to be courted by multiple males. All offspring are female. The offspring share only half the mother's genetic make-up, he told the BBC. What is more, the female snake in question has produced offspring the like of which have never been seen before. Special babies In the two years following 2007, the captive-born female Boa constrictor produced two litters of live offspring, at the same time as being housed with four male snakes. First impressions suggested there was something special about these babies: all were female and all had a particular, rare caramel colouration. This colour is a rare recessive genetic trait, which is carried by the mother but not by any of the potential fathers. So Dr Booth and colleagues conducted a series of genetic tests on the snakes to solve the enigma. What they found was astonishing. DNA fingerprinting revealed that the offspring had a number of genetic differences from any of their potential fathers, which ruled out all the males as sires of the litter. That confirmed the first instance of a known virgin birth among boa snakes. Half clones All the offspring also had very unusual sex chromosomes. Sex chromosomes are packages of DNA that drive the development of sexual characteristics; they essentially make animals genetically male or genetically female. Humans for example have X or Y sex chromosomes; females have two X chromosomes and males have a combination of an X and a Y chromosome. In place of X and Y, snakes and many other reptiles have Z and W chromosomes. In all snakes, ZZ produces males and ZW produces females. Bizarrely, all the snakes in these litters were WW. This was further proof that the snakes inherited all their genetic material from their mother, as only females carry the W chromosome. Essentially they are half clones of their mother, says Dr Booth. That is because the baby snakes have inherited two copies of one half of their mother's chromosomes, including one W chromosome. SNAKES King cobra Learn more about
