Re: [Marxism] Outside the Logic of the State: Dancing With Dangl
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == here is my take on Dangl's book http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46272 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] Outside the Logic of the State: Dancing With Dangl
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 3:22 AM, Fred Fuentes fred.fuen...@gmail.com wrote: here is my take on Dangl's book http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46272 Yet, Dangl also argues that while “working for a better world without a state” a “viable strategy” could be “supporting state-based programs, if they indeed help people achieve their long and short term goals”. The chapter on Venezuela best highlights what Dangl means. Correctly pointing out that the old, existing state “replicates the inequalities and challenges found in many other nations”, Dangl also notes that this state is attempting to, in the words of Sara Motta “create a new set of state institutions that bypass the traditional state, and distribute power in a democratic and participatory manner”. The explanation for this seeming contradiction is simple. First, Dangl confuses the difference between a movement — in this case the Bolivarian movement — winning government and controlling the state. When Chavez was first elected in 1998, he was elected as the head of a capitalist state. However, he and the movement very quickly realised that this state had not been created to benefit the majority, and that instead it was necessary to “give power to the people” to tackle poverty. And from the other review on Dangl: Dangl agrees with most observers that social movements have prospered and increased under the Chavez government in Venezuela, saying “a number of government initiatives and policies have empowered the grassroots in unprecedented ways and created space in which social movements can flex their muscles.” He visits health clinics, community radio stations, video collectives and, impressed as he is by what he sees, Dangl still wonders if “the Bolivarian Revolution can outlast Chavez.” A centralized system such as Venezuela’s also tends to breed patronage. Many analysts have taken note of this and attribute it to the country’s dependency on a single resource administered by the state: oil. The problem antedates Chavez by some eighty years, and it’s one he’s alternately used to his advantage and also attempted to resolve by organizing communal councils and other decentralizing structures. Unfortunately, as Dangl notes, there is an ongoing resistance to these attempts from within the Chavez government itself, and the majority of Venezuelans are dependent upon the government for some form of employment or assistance, making the development of autonomist movements very difficult. --clip- Seems to me that Dangl successfully characterizes the contradictions between the old state institutions in Venezuela and the new, grassroots, democratic, people power structures. And it would seem that he is also on the mark in his criticism of Correa especially, as well as Morales and Lula, as none of these governments have taken even the first step toward instituting the types of communal councils which Chavez has supported, much to the chagrin of a sizable portion of Chavez' own bureaucracy. In fact, it has been noted repeatedly, in the case of Correa, how the very process of democratic control of the Constuent Assembly was torpedoed by Correa himself, and this process has continued on in the governing style and clientelist policies of the Correa regime. In point of fact, Gustavo Larrea is presently spearheading a move to form a more democratic political party to challenge Correa from the left. Greg 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] Another reason to hate Facebook
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (Doesn't this idiot know about moderation?) NY Times Op-Ed November 29, 2010 Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt By JULIE ZHUO Palo Alto, Calif. THERE you are, peacefully reading an article or watching a video on the Internet. You finish, find it thought-provoking, and scroll down to the comments section to see what other people thought. And there, lurking among dozens of well-intentioned opinions, is a troll. “How much longer is the media going to milk this beyond tired story?” “These guys are frauds.” “Your idiocy is disturbing.” “We’re just trying to make the world a better place one brainwashed, ignorant idiot at a time.” These are the trollish comments, all from anonymous sources, that you could have found after reading a CNN article on the rescue of the Chilean miners. Trolling, defined as the act of posting inflammatory, derogatory or provocative messages in public forums, is a problem as old as the Internet itself, although its roots go much farther back. Even in the fourth century B.C., Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in his parable of the ring of Gyges. That mythical ring gave its owner the power of invisibility, and Plato observed that even a habitually just man who possessed such a ring would become a thief, knowing that he couldn’t be caught. Morality, Plato argues, comes from full disclosure; without accountability for our actions we would all behave unjustly. This certainly seems to be true for the anonymous trolls today. After Alexis Pilkington, a 17-year-old Long Island girl, committed suicide earlier this year, trolls descended on her online tribute page to post pictures of nooses, references to hangings and other hateful comments. A better-known example involves Nicole Catsouras, an 18-year-old who died in a car crash in California in 2006. Photographs of her badly disfigured body were posted on the Internet, where anonymous trolls set up fake tribute pages and in some cases e-mailed the photos to her parents with subject lines like “Hey, Daddy, I’m still alive.” Psychological research has proven again and again that anonymity increases unethical behavior. Road rage bubbles up in the relative anonymity of one’s car. And in the online world, which can offer total anonymity, the effect is even more pronounced. People — even ordinary, good people — often change their behavior in radical ways. There’s even a term for it: the online disinhibition effect. Many forums and online communities are looking for ways to strike back. Back in February, Engadget, a popular technology review blog, shut down its commenting system for a few days after it received a barrage of trollish comments on its iPad coverage. Many victims are turning to legislation. All 50 states now have stalking, bullying or harassment laws that explicitly include electronic forms of communication. Last year, Liskula Cohen, a former model, persuaded a New York judge to require Google to reveal the identity of an anonymous blogger who she felt had defamed her, and she has now filed a suit against the blogger. Last month, another former model, Carla Franklin, persuaded a judge to force YouTube to reveal the identity of a troll who made a disparaging comment about her on the video-sharing site. But the law by itself cannot do enough to disarm the Internet’s trolls. Content providers, social networking platforms and community sites must also do their part by rethinking the systems they have in place for user commentary so as to discourage — or disallow — anonymity. Reuters, for example, announced that it would start to block anonymous comments and require users to register with their names and e-mail addresses in an effort to curb “uncivil behavior.” Some may argue that denying Internet users the ability to post anonymously is a breach of their privacy and freedom of expression. But until the age of the Internet, anonymity was a rare thing. When someone spoke in public, his audience would naturally be able to see who was talking. Others point out that there’s no way to truly rid the Internet of anonymity. After all, names and e-mail addresses can be faked. And in any case many commenters write things that are rude or inflammatory under their real names. But raising barriers to posting bad comments is still a smart first step. Well-designed commenting systems should also aim to highlight thoughtful and valuable opinions while letting trollish ones sink into oblivion. The technology blog Gizmodo is trying an audition system for new commenters, under which their first few comments would be approved by a moderator or a trusted commenter to ensure quality before anybody else could see them. After a successful audition, commenters
Re: [Marxism] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Bastards. That's to be expected. Ecuador's (much-maligned) leftist government has apparently offered him asylum if needed. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ecuador+offers+WikiLeak+founder+Assange+residency+questions+asked/3902251/story.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] More fracking propaganda from Clifford Krauss
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (This guy might as well be on T. Boone Pickens's payroll.) NY Times November 29, 2010 Breaking Away From Coal By CLIFFORD KRAUSS HOUSTON — Progress Energy Carolinas, one of the South’s larger utilities, faced a dilemma last winter. Several of its coal-fired power plants were aging and needed scrubbers to reduce emissions and meet North Carolina pollution laws. Executives figured that even tougher regulations were coming from Washington, and overhauling 11 generators at four plants would have cost nearly $2 billion, which would have been passed on to the company’s 1.5 million electric customers. Plunging natural gas prices, however, offered Progress Energy an alternative that would save money and help it achieve pollution goals at the same time: scrapping the coal plants and replacing them with two gas plants over the next four years, at a cost of $1.5 billion. “It’s a turning point,” said Bill Johnson, chairman and chief executive of Progress Energy, the parent company. “We’ve been a coal-based generator for decades, and until a few years ago, we thought we would remain largely coal-based and nuclear until people started talking about carbon regulation. We decided we had to do something about it.” A lot of utilities are coming to a similar conclusion. Over the last year and a half, at least 10 power companies have announced plans to close more than three dozen of their oldest, least efficient coal-burning generators by 2019. A few are being replaced by new, more efficient coal plants, but many more are being replaced by gas-fired plants. Coal still accounts for about half of the country’s electrical power generation, compared with about a quarter for natural gas, but that ratio has been shifting gradually toward gas over the last decade or so. Gas burns cleaner than coal, helping utilities meet state and corporate goals for reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. Older coal plants, on the other hand, require expensive upgrades, including scrubbers and other controls, to meet coming compliance rules to reduce mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions. Energy specialists estimate that compliance with new federal regulations alone could require $70 billion of investments over the next decade for replacing or retrofitting the coal power fleet. Just as significant, gas prices have remained at depressed levels over the last two years after a two-thirds collapse from the 2008 economic tumult, while coal prices have increased by more than a third this year because of higher production costs linked to tougher regulations and increased demand from China. Many people in the industry believe that gas prices will stay relatively low because of the proliferation of gas drilling in shale fields across the country over the last five years. “Coal is losing its advantage incrementally to gas,” said Michael Zenker, a gas analyst at Barclays Capital, “and as long as gas prices stay as low as they have been, it’s going to continue indefinitely.” New gas generation capacity will outstrip new coal generation capacity by more than 30 percent through 2020, according to projections from the Energy Department. And Credit Suisse predicts that the replacement of coal plants by gas plants over the next seven years could lower annual demand for steam coal, which is burned for electricity, by 15 to 31 percent and increase demand for gas by 8 to 16 percent. “It has the potential to reshape energy consumption in the United States significantly and permanently,” said Dan Eggers, a Credit Suisse energy analyst. Although coal is also being replaced by nuclear and renewable energy sources in some places, energy specialists say that gas will be the main benefactor because of availability and cost. Since burning gas emits a fraction of the greenhouse gas of coal, environmentalists tend to favor the switch, although some worry that more gas drilling could pollute groundwater because of the chemicals used in breaking up shale rock. Pollution laws generally make gas more appealing than coal. Even as many states like Colorado and Michigan enacted stricter pollution laws, the Environmental Protection Agency last summer imposed new limits on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in 31 Eastern states and Washington by 2014. Under court order, the E.P.A. is due to set a national standard for mercury emissions next year that will be phased in over the next three years or so. The E.P.A. is also pressing for efficiency improvements at existing coal plants to lower carbon emissions linked to climate change. “The biggest challenge we face in this industry is this tsunami of regulatory requirements,” said Frank Prager, vice president for environmental
[Marxism] A critique of the use of social networking as a weapon of struggle
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n23/james-harkin/cyber-con 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] Leo Panitch on the Irish economic crisis
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.zcommunications.org/thousands-protest-irish-nightmare-economy-by-leo-panitch 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] In Defense of WikiLeaks!
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Tuesday, Nov 30, 2010 06:31 ET WikiLeaks reveals more than just government secrets By Glenn Greenwald http://www.salon.com/author/glenn_greenwald/index.html clip - The WikiLeaks disclosure has revealed not only numerous government secrets, but also the driving mentality of major factions in our political and media class. Simply put, there are few countries in the world with citizenries and especially media outlets more devoted to serving, protecting and venerating government authorities than the U.S. Indeed, I don't quite recall any entity producing as much bipartisan contempt across the American political spectrum as WikiLeaks has: as usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weaponhttp://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/08/hbc-90007562 . First we have the group demanding that Julian Assange be murdered without any charges, trial or due process. There was Sarah Palin on on Twitter illiterately accusing WikiLeakshttp://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/9251635779866625-- a stateless group run by an Australian citizen -- of treason; she thereafter took to her Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=465212788434to object that Julian Assange was not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders (she also lied by stating that he has blood on his hands: a claim which even the Pentagon admits is untruehttp://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/28/104404/officials-may-be-overstating-the.html). Townhall's John Hawkins has a column this morninghttp://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2010/11/30/5_reasons_the_cia_should_have_already_killed_julian_assange/page/full/entitled 5 Reasons The CIA Should Have Already Killed Julian Assange. That Assange should be treated as a traitor and murdered with no due process has been strongly suggested if not outright urged by the likes of Marc Theissenhttp://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/08/wikileaks_and_drone_strikes.html, Seth Lipsky http://www.nysun.com/editorials/wikileaks-and-the-war/87121/ (with Jeffrey Goldberg postinghttp://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/10/what-would-lincoln-have-done-about-julian-assange/65382/Lipsky's column and also illiterately accusing Assange of treasonhttp://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/on-treason-and-julian-assange/65437/), Jonah Goldberghttp://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/29/goldbergand, today, *The Wall Street Journal*http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704584804575644490285411052.html . The way in which so many political commentators so routinely and casually call for the eradication of human beings without a shred of due process is nothing short of demented. Recall Palin/McCain adviser Michael Goldfarb's recent complainthttp://the-reaction.blogspot.com/2010/11/glimpse-into-sick-twisted-and-anti.htmlthat the CIA failed to kill Ahmed Ghailani when he was in custody, or Glenn Reynolds' morning demand http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/110310/ -- in between sips of coffee -- that North Korea be destroyed with nuclear weapons (I say nuke ‘em. And not with just a few bombs). Without exception, all of these people cheered on the attack on Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 innocent human beings, yet their thirst for slaughter is literally insatiable. After a decade's worth of American invasions, bombings, occupations, checkpoint shootings, drone attacks, assassinations and civilian slaughter, the notion that the U.S. Government can and should murder whomever it wants is more frequent and unrestrained than ever. Those who demand that the U.S. Government take people's lives with no oversight or due process as though they're advocating changes in tax policy or mid-level personnel moves -- *eradicate him!*, they bellow from their seats in the Coliseum -- are just morally deranged barbarians. * *There's just no other accurate way to put it.* * These are usually the same people, of course, who brand themselves pro-life and Crusaders for the Sanctity of Human Life and/or who deride Islamic extremists for *their* disregard for human life. And the fact that this mindset is so widespread and mainstream is quite a reflection of how degraded American political cultural is. When WikiLeaks critics devote a fraction of their rage to this form of mainstream American thinking -- which, unlike anything WikiLeaks has done, has * actually* resulted in piles upon piles of corpses -- then their anti-WikiLeaks protestation should be taken more seriously, but not until then. full -- http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/30/wikileaks/index.html Send
Re: [Marxism] Wikileaks
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/30/2010 01:08 PM, Dan wrote: -On North Korea, Chinese Foreign Minister clearly states that the Chinese have little influence on what ges on in Pyongyang, that they profoundly distrust Kim Il-JUng, that they believe him to be an alcoholic, that they think he is firmly in charge of the military and that he alone makes the crucial decisions to provoke the West. China also believes that Kim Il-Jung wants to go down in the history books as a true nationalist and that his son who will succeed him, will be tasked with restoring good relations with the West. I assume you meant Kim Jong-Il? And that they don't seem to have any better material than the truely staggering contribution of ** (OK, supposedly private Manning) who gave them the Iraq War Diaries, the Afghanistan War diaries, the video of an incident in IRaq, the video of an incident in Afghanistan (as yet unpublished), the US emabssy cables and a mysterious last important database. Wikileaks released a lot of stuff before they became famous for the stuff mentioned above. None of it was so big, of course. Wikileaks, or some successor(s), will continue releasing leaked information on the Internet in the future. Their next big release will supposedly be leaked documents from major corporations. Tell me something big isn't happening, here. 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] The class-struggle in the EU
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On the EU front, I see several countries whose working classes have a long history of class struggle and militant trade-unionism, and where far-left-wing parties still garner around 5-15% of the vote. France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Britain, Sweden. Other peripheral countries (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, LAtvia, Lithuania) are forced into austerity policies, like the rest of us, but retain a different 'more nationalist ? more anti-imperialist ? outlook) due t the fact that they have only recently appeared n the stage. They concentrate on (real !) fears of being marginalized in the EU, f being forced into deals with the IMF that will begger them, of being once again the playthings of greater powers. As for France, Spain, µItaly, Germany, Britain and Sweden, the working-class, the unins know what they have to do : go on strike. They all have numerous examples, in their own history, of long-lasting but ultimately successful strikes. Now must be the time to forge alliances between the most radical unions of all those countries in rder to trigger a pan-European unlimited strike. The Spanish UGT and CGT, the Italian CUB and ISI, the French CGT, SUD and CNT, segments of the German IG Metall, segments of the British TUC, the Swedish SAC must start a concerted campaign against austerity policies in Europe that are directly organized by European corporate and banking interests. The problem is that many unions have been corrupted by European bosses to such an extent that they can no longer properly wage a class struggle. We must focus on building GRASSROOTS ties between Italian, Spanish, German, British, French and Swedish workers and unions. A general conference of militant European unions, with delegates SELECTED BY UNION MEMBERS from each union, should be convened (maybe to coincide with the G-20 meeting scheduled in Nice, France, in June). And a concerted effort should be made at scheduling strikes in different countries at the same time : railway workers going on strike in June at the same time in France, Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy. Manufacturing workers going on strike simultaneously in Stockholm, PAris and Barcelona. All building towards a massive Europe-wide general strike. The European capitalist bankers and industrialists are well organized to fight the class-war, now it's time for European workers to do the same. 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] A Serbian film
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I suppose you've all heard about a Serbian film by now, the most horrific, disturbing film ever made. Caused an out-roar when it was premiered in certain festivals in the US, in England, in Germany ... Amidst all the controversy, I've just watched a Serbian film. And it's true, it is a very disturbing film, but at the same time quite a challenging one, in terms of understanding the motivations of the Serbian directors. For the film is undoubtedly a serious effort and not some cheap production. The actors are major Serbian actors, the shots are slow, wide and are the product of much prior thinking in terms of colours, contrasts and atmosphere. But it is also incredibly horrific. Do not read further if you are easily disturbed. It is all centered around (very graphic) rape and features some scenes that many hard-core horror movie fans believe cross a boundary between what can and should be shown. Rape of women porn actresses followed by their murder (in a snuff movie), rape of the main character himself, rape by the bad guys of a newborn child who has just been delivered from his mother's womb, the main character being forced to rape his own 7-year old son, the main character's brother raping the main character's wife, the main character getting his revenge through raping his tormentors to death, rape of the ensuing dead bodies, and the final collective suicide of the narrator, his wife and their 7-year-old child (who have all been raped by someone they trusted). This is clearly extreme stuff. But this overwhelming representation of men raping defenseless victims before being raped themselves is a sign of the rage that inhabits young Serbian film directors. They clearly feel raped themselves and are desperately trying to show how a civil war that has evaporated like a bad dream still lingers on in the collective psyche. Nobody talks about it, it is all hush-hush, just like the seedy world of extreme pornography the main character unwittingly gets dragged into. People need to see the reality of rape, it has to be brought home in the most disturbing way possible, seems to be the thinking of those young Serbian directors. Actually, a Serbian film has become the new I dare you to watch it movie, ever since last week the British government ordered a whole 4:30 minutes of the film to be cut (the longest ever cut requested by the British gov. on a 18+ only movie). Serbian film directors know they have crossed a boundary, but the film is well-directed, the actors are good and the movie is high-quality. Every rape is graphic and yet never shows close-ups of the genitalia, only medium-shots of the raper raping his screaming victim (man, woman, child or newborn). As I said, difficult to stomach, and yet with a real, angry purpouse behind it. This being said, I would not recommend it to people who can be distressed by very sick/twisted/disturbing situations and images. 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] A Serbian film
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Maybe there is no other way to explain what the West and the local Quislings have done to Yugoslavian peoples by the West and their local allies in the name of Liberty (and profit earning...) Mass rapists of the worst kind. Dare you send a guided missile to wantonly impact at the crowded nursery of a hospital in Belgrade? Then watch such a film as the Serbian directors have produced. If you dare do the worst evil in real life, you should dare watch a lesser, fictional, evil. At least a single newborn is raped. Not dozens murdered, burnt, poisoned or worse. 2010/11/30 Dan d.koech...@wanadoo.fr: I suppose you've all heard about a Serbian film by now, the most horrific, disturbing film ever made. Caused an out-roar when it was premiered in certain festivals in the US, in England, in Germany ... Amidst all the controversy, I've just watched a Serbian film. And it's true, it is a very disturbing film, but at the same time quite a challenging one, in terms of understanding the motivations of the Serbian directors. For the film is undoubtedly a serious effort and not some cheap production. The actors are major Serbian actors, the shots are slow, wide and are the product of much prior thinking in terms of colours, contrasts and atmosphere. But it is also incredibly horrific. -- Néstor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autoría 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act The idea of an Australian citizen who lives in Europe being prosecuted for breaking a US domestic law is laughable. Well, at least it would be if the US gov't wasn't so powerful enough to arm-twist some European country into extraditing Assange, and so arrogant and corrupt enough to actually find him guilty. -- Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes ... known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. -- James Madison, Political Observations, 1795. 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] Stephen Colbert, the person, interviewed by Reddit
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I don't know about the rest of you, but I really like Stephen Colbert. Despite his regular gushing about the greatness of American soldiers, I like him rather more than John Stewart these days (who I have ambivalent feelings towards, as others here also do). See Colbert's question-and-answer session after his recent in-character speech before Congress for instance, if you don't believe me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxeIO4pW05s Anyway, he just gave an interview to Reddit (a decentralized news aggregate and forum of sorts). That is, he answered 11 questions posed by the site's community. Before what was the become the unfortunate Rally to Restore Sanity was even announced, the Reddit community organized a campaign to convince Colbert to hold a Restoring Truthiness rally in mockery of Beck's Restoring Honor rally, by donating money to a charity Colbert promotes (which gives money to public schools requesting funding for specific projects, mostly primary schools) in order to get his attention. It gives insight into his motives behind the show he puts on which mocks the personality-driven talk shows on American 24-hour news stations that are so big these days. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ee20j/stephen_colbert_has_answered_your_questions/ 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Intense Red intns...@golgotha.net wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == WikiLeaks founder could be charged under Espionage Act The idea of an Australian citizen who lives in Europe being prosecuted for breaking a US domestic law is laughable. Well, at least it would be if the US gov't wasn't so powerful enough to arm-twist some European country into extraditing Assange, and so arrogant and corrupt enough to actually find him guilty. It's completely laughable as was the article. If they can pick people up at random on the streets of Italy, they could certainly have gotten to Assange. That he has not been picked up and continues to speak openly suggests to me that either he is under the protection of someone with influence and is not a lone wolf, or that he is part of a disinformation campaign that merely serves to sensationalize things we already know. Sorry, but something is not adding up for me. If he's got information, why is he piecemealing it out? Isn't he afraid he might not be in a position to do so if he waits? And if it really is important information that the public should know about, might it not be prudent to release it all immediately? This is starting to resemble a publicity campaign for a new movie. Coming Soon to news outlets everywhere.. -- Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes ... known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. -- James Madison, Political Observations, 1795. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/kaliyuga%40wildblue.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Another reason to hate Facebook
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == No, Louis and the rest of you too old to recognize the power of online communication (yes, I know you're a programmer). All these anti-social networking (what amounts to) treatises illustrating the problems of twittering and facebooking doesn't really negate their power (interesting not much is said about blogging and online journalism--I guess some democratization of information is better than others). All that is clear is that social networking, just like email, websites, and even journalism before them are subject to the same laws of the class struggle and necessitate the same level of struggle for political freedoms as has always been the case since the invention of the printing press (or, for that matter, all those oral historians or scratches and gouges on rocks before that). Reading Harkin, one gets the impression (aside from the one where it seems he is interested in selling his book) that having a twitter account is just another device to have the state hound activists or that the state can render online organizing or distribution of information ineffectual with a click of a switch, so, therefore, social networking is just not all that. Why would these possibilities be a surprise to anyone, especially revolutionists? All that such potential repression of the freedom of political expression by extending it into cybersace say to me is that the struggle for political freedom is intimately bound up with an accessible and democratic Internet and, indeed, such a defense of democratic cybercommunication must be extended and linked to very real social phenomena taking place in the lives, especially of today's youth. I find it doubtful that the broad radicalization of youth is going to occur in opposition to social networking. I say that knowing full well that there may be a layer of young people who are hungry for radical political education who can be convinced that being anti-social networking is bad and that reading long blog tracts of real Marxist analysts is good. I believe we need a more palatable (not to me or to us) Marxist analysis of the tasks of fighting for political freedom in the contact of cyberdemocracy that can appeal to emerging radical youth, not some peevishness and haughty anti-facebook hating that may appeal to all us staid blowhards who feel just fine and comfortable with a book post in cyberform. 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 10:06 AM, Jay Moore piein...@igc.org wrote: Bastards. That's to be expected. Ecuador's (much-maligned) leftist government has apparently offered him asylum if needed. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ecuador+offers+WikiLeak+founder+Assange+residency+questions+asked/3902251/story.html Correa's government is about as leftist my left ass cheek. G. 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/30/2010 04:48 PM, MARGARET WYLES wrote: Sorry, but something is not adding up for me. If he's got information, why is he piecemealing it out? Isn't he afraid he might not be in a position to do so if he waits? And if it really is important information that the public should know about, might it not be prudent to release it all immediately? This is starting to resemble a publicity campaign for a new movie. Coming Soon to news outlets everywhere.. Publicity is exactly the point of releasing it piecemeal, as has been stated previously. Good! As for the problem of what might happen if Assange waits too long, Wikileaks has released a gigantic (as far as archives of text go) encrypted document called Insurance. All Assange or anyone he's told it to needs to do is release the password publicly and all the information contained is available at once. 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] Wikileaks
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Wikileaks, or some successor(s), will continue releasing leaked information on the Internet in the future. While listening to NPR today prattling on about theories of how to squelch Wikileaks, the idea that made me laugh was the suggestion the US gov't should seize their assets. These people just don't get the Internet. :-) But with that said, I have to wonder how the ruling class will try to deal with this. To me, net neutrality issues will be critical along with advocating the idea of the 'net as a commons that all have access to. -- It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. -- Voltaire 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 5:22 PM, Jeffrey Thomas Piercy sn...@mqduck.netwrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == As for the problem of what might happen if Assange waits too long, Wikileaks has released a gigantic (as far as archives of text go) encrypted document called Insurance. All Assange or anyone he's told it to needs to do is release the password publicly and all the information contained is available at once. So Assange is a publicity genius as well. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/kaliyuga%40wildblue.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Wikileaks
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/30/2010 05:23 PM, Intense Red wrote: While listening to NPR today prattling on about theories of how to squelch Wikileaks, the idea that made me laugh was the suggestion the US gov't should seize their assets. These people just don't get the Internet. :-) But with that said, I have to wonder how the ruling class will try to deal with this. To me, net neutrality issues will be critical along with advocating the idea of the 'net as a commons that all have access to. Net Neutrality is very important, but the death of even it won't change the fundamental rule of the Internet expressed by John Gilmore: The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. See also, the Streisand Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect The age where a piece of information can be removed from public accessibility is quite possibly over. 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/30/2010 05:30 PM, MARGARET WYLES wrote: As for the problem of what might happen if Assange waits too long, Wikileaks has released a gigantic (as far as archives of text go) encrypted document called Insurance. All Assange or anyone he's told it to needs to do is release the password publicly and all the information contained is available at once. So Assange is a publicity genius as well. Is that a bad thing? 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] Another reason to hate Facebook
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == No, Louis and the rest of you too old to recognize the power of online communication... Well, fortunately I'm not as old as Louis :-), but having started using the Internet in the mid-80s and using computers years before that, I'm certainly not of the Facebook generation. Here's the problem as I see it: Disseminating information is great, the 'net is good at that. But what about action? Sure, the 'net can be great for coordinating actions, prepping and working out logistics. But does it get people out into the streets? I think that is the critical question, since it seems the only thing that registers with the ruling class is uppity people out and protesting. I would argue that while the 'net is great for some things, it tends to have an *even* *greater* tendency to isolate people and to create armchair activists. Communities on the 'net are vaporous, while real humans getting together in real life is power waiting to be tapped. -- Income tax rate for the median American: 1955 - 7.4%, 1961 - 10.2%, 1997 - 16.9%, 2007 - 13.6%. Income tax rate for the 400 richest Americans: 1955 - 51.2%, 1961 - 42.4%, 1997 - 24.2%, 2007 - 16.6%. Tax the rich anyone? http://www.toomuchonline.org/art_charts_2010/apr12_taxes.png 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == They've not rounded up the people on this list yet, either. That doesn't mean we're individually in cahoots with some dire conspiracy, does it? 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 5:39 PM, Jeffrey Thomas Piercy sn...@mqduck.netwrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == So Assange is a publicity genius as well. Is that a bad thing? No, I'm just finding it hard to believe completely the official story of who he is and how he got the information. Throw in a clever publicity campaign and I just have to wonder. That's all. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/kaliyuga%40wildblue.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 7:21 PM, Mark Lause markala...@gmail.com wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == They've not rounded up the people on this list yet, either. That doesn't mean we're individually in cahoots with some dire conspiracy, does it? Okay, now I'm irritated. I never said anything about a conspiracy. I merely said I'm not sure I buy completely the official story because some things don't add up to me. I don't throw out my common sense and reasoning power when I read something in the paper - mainstream or otherwise. Have we not had enough experience with blatant lies to at least question what is served up to us without being labeled (and therefore dismissed) as a 'conspiracy theorist.' ML Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/kaliyuga%40wildblue.net Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Wait a minute... what does any of that matter? What matters are the documents, the content of the documents. - Original Message - From: MARGARET WYLES kaliy...@wildblue.net To: sartes...@earthlink.net Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 10:38 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange Okay, now I'm irritated. I never said anything about a conspiracy. I merely said I'm not sure I buy completely the official story because some things don't add up to me. I don't throw out my common sense and reasoning power when I read something in the paper - mainstream or otherwise. Have we not had enough experience with blatant lies to at least question what is served up to us without being labeled (and therefore dismissed) as a 'conspiracy theorist.' 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/30/2010 07:45 PM, S. Artesian wrote: Wait a minute... what does any of that matter? What matters are the documents, the content of the documents. It's a fair point that we have to remember to question the motive behind the documents being leaked, you have to grant Margaret Wyles that much. I just don't see the suspicious signs she does. Instead, I see a brave person doing the smartest and most savvy things he can in his situation. It's not like these leaks are covering up any even more damaging leaks. 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Margaret Wyles is a long-time truther is simply reflected the poisonous campaign of the 9/11 crowd against Julian Assange. She should be ashamed of herself frankly. 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == That's like saying Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to get a date with Jane Fonda. OK, it's not like saying THAT, but it's like saying something maybe a little like that. Here's what I think is the bigger issue: in the scheme of things these leaks don't count for much. The Pentagon Papers counted because the US had lost control of the battlefield. Here losing control of the battlefield, the carnage inflicted throughout the society, barely registers. Nobody's outraged who wasn't outraged before. Nobody's disgusted who wasn't disgusted before. Why is that? A: Because there is no draft B: Because everybody already knows that the lies are lies, torture is torture, etc. and one side thinks all of that is justified, or at the very worst, the few broken eggs needed to make the omelet. The other side-- the liberal conscience to which the exposures are supposed to appeal is... well, besides being an oxymoron, besides being conspicuous only in its absence, is simply powerless in the face of the machinery it helped create. This whole drama has been turned into another spectacular presentation of sound and fury signifying less than nothing. - Original Message - From: Jeffrey Thomas Piercy sn...@mqduck.net To: sartes...@earthlink.net Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 10:54 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 7:45 PM, S. Artesian sartes...@earthlink.netwrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Wait a minute... what does any of that matter? What matters are the documents, the content of the documents. - Yes and no. Suppose I uncover two series of love letters written by the husband of a friend of mine. One series is written to my friend, his wife. The other to a man 20 years his junior whom no one new anything about. Depending on my motivations, I can release one or the other of these and paint a very different portrait of the gentleman in question. From what I understand (and I'm very open to correction) there were no blockbuster revelations and that most of what has been revealed has been more embarassing than shocking. And I have to wonder why no embarassments have been attributed to the Israelis. Again, if you control the content and timing of what is being released you can direct the conversation any way you please. 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 8:22 PM, S. Artesian sartes...@earthlink.netwrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This whole drama has been turned into another spectacular presentation of sound and fury signifying less than nothing. Interesting observation. I forced myself to listen to Glen Beck's take on Assange and he said the funniest thing. On the one hand he said there was nothing new and that almost everything Wikileaks revealed he (Beck) had already disclosed while at the same time suggesting he (Assange not Beck) be tried for treason, seemingly untroubled by Assange's Australian citizenship or the irony of it all. And you are right. It's become a media circus with the focus on rape charges and Interpol involvement sidelining the content. BTW, is it customary for Interpol to make an announcement to the world ahead of actually making an arrest? 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] Wikileaks and the New Global Order
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == *Wikileaks and the New Global Order* The new WikiLeaks disclosures will help to dent many assumptions http://www.palestinechronicle.com/ *By Jonathan Cook** * The Wikileaks disclosure this week of confidential cables from United Statesembassies has been debated chiefly in terms either of the damage to Washington's reputation or of the questions it raises about national security and freedom of the press. The headlines aside, most of the information so far revealed from the 250,000 documents is hardly earth-shattering, even if it often runs starkly counter to the official narrative of the US as the benevolent global policeman, trying to maintain order amid an often unruly rabble of underlings. Is it really surprising that US officials appear to have been trying to spy on senior United Nations staff, and just about everyone else for that matter? Or that Israel has been lobbying strenuously for military action to be taken against Iran? Or even that Saudi Arabia feels threatened by an Iranian nuclear bomb? All of this was already largely understood; the leaks have simply provided official confirmation. The new disclosures, however, do provide a useful insight, captured in the very ordinariness of the diplomatic correspondence, into Washington's own sense of the limits on its global role -- an insight that was far less apparent in the previous Wikileaks revelations on the US army's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Underlying the gossip and analysis sent back to Washington is awareness from many US officials stationed abroad of quite how ineffective -- and often counter-productive -- much US foreign policy is. While the most powerful nation on earth is again shown to be more than capable of throwing its weight around in bullying fashion, a cynical resignation nonetheless shines through many of the cables, an implicit recognition that even the top dog has to recognise its limits. That is most starkly evident in the messages sent by the embassy in Pakistan, revealing the perception among local US officials that the country is largely impervious to US machinations and is in danger of falling entirely out the ambit of Washington's influence. In the cables sent from Tel Aviv, a similar fatalism reigns. The possibility that Israel might go it alone and attack Iran is contemplated as though it were an event Washington has no hope of preventing. US largesse of billions of dollars in annual aid and military assistance to Israel appears to confer zero leverage on its ally's policies. The same sense of US ineffectiveness is highlighted by the Wikileaks episode in another way. Once, in the pre-digital era, the most a whistleblower could hope to achieve was the disclosure of secret documents limited to his or her area of privileged access. Even then the affair could often be hushed up and make no lasting impact. Now, however, it seems the contents of almost the entire system of US official communications is vulnerable to exposure. And anyone with a computer has a permanent and easily disseminated record of the evidence. The impression of a world running out of American control has become a theme touching all our lives over the past decade. The US invented and exported financial deregulation, promising it to be the epitome of the new capitalism that was going to offer the world economic salvation. The result is a banking crisis that now threatens to topple the very governments in Europe who are Washington's closest allies. As the contagion of bad debt spreads through the system, we are likely to see a growing destabilisation of the Washington order across the globe. At the same time, the US army's invasions in the Middle East are stretching its financial and military muscle to tearing point, defining for a modern audience the problem of imperial over-reach. Here too the upheaval is offering potent possibilities to those who wish to challenge the current order. And then there is the biggest crisis facing Washington: of a gradually unfolding environmental catastrophe that has been caused chiefly by the same rush for world economic dominance that spawned the banking disaster. The scale of this problem is overawing most scientists, and starting to register with the public, even if it is still barely acknowledged beyond platitudes by US officials. The repercussions of ecological meltdown will be felt not just by polar bears and tribes living on islands. It will change the way we live -- and whether we live -- in ways that we cannot hope to foresee. At work here is a set of global forces that the US, in its hubris, believed it could tame and dominate in its own cynical interests. By the early 1990s that arrogance manifested itself in the claim of the end of history: the world's problems were about
[Marxism] Michael Lebowitz discusses the socialist alternative and human development | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Professor *Michael Lebowitz* discusses aspects of his book, /The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development/, at the Maritime Labour Center in Vancouver, British Columbia, on October 17, 2010. Full video at http://links.org.au/node/2019 * Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism Or join the Links Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I see, people who haven't risked very much at all to say they're on the side of the angels urge us to be suspicious of people who actually try to do something to help the angels because they really might not actually be all they seem to be What silliness! It's closer to the Monty Python fish-slapping dance than to Marxism. But it rather confirms my standing suspicion that the authorities are certainly seeding the 9/11 truthers with really, really, really dumb ideas... Maybe as a test of how gullible people are in large numbers ML PS: If I leak something, do I get a date with Jane Fonda? 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] Washington considers espionage charges against Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 12:02 AM ET Ecuador Retracts Assange Offer Al Jazeera reports: Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has dismissed an offer of residency that a lower level official made to the embattled founder of the online whistle-blower WikiLeaks. The offer by Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas on Monday has not been approved by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino -- or the president, Correa told reporters. Bastards. That's to be expected. Ecuador's (much-maligned) leftist government has apparently offered him asylum if needed. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ecuador+offers+WikiLeak+founder+Assange+residency+questions+asked/3902251/story.html Correa's government is about as leftist my left ass cheek. G. 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] Marx and the Anti Fascist Alliance [off beat WikiLeak]
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It wasn't very long ago and it wasn't in a galaxy far away ... The communists of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Red Army were allies in the great battle against the Roman Axis Powers. You really realise the Roman connection here in old Manchuria where the Japanese Neo-Roman buildings still stand. But General Ike Isenhower did a very rewarding deal with the centre of the Axis Powers, a good Roman Catholic boy he was. And General Douglas MacArthur accepted half of the gold stolen from China by the Japanese. Both men were subscribers to Time Magazine when Adolf Hitler was Man of the Year in 1938. So, it should come as no surprise that the renmant of the Free World despise the murdering arrogance of the USA. And in this time of 'global warming' a nation destroying attack is best effected through subterfuge - poetic justice indeed. Who could be surprised at a renewal of the old Alliance that took on Fascist domination and very nearly won if not for two signal acts of treason? Do we not realise that the USA is no longer the only country with atomic weapons? This is all a bit of a worry to me. Does it worry you? I am motivated to act. Are you? Can we co-operate? Now? Emergency Supplies: http://emergency.teambridge.net Lockdown Entertainment: http://aliennews.teambridge.net Best wishes for a survivable and even an ethically financially rewarding climate armageddon. paul sayers ## Changchun Film Studio http://teambridge.net Alien News from Deep Space http://aliennews.teambridge.net ## Senior Executive Producer UK = Ian Broughall, Lord of Jura http://samian.co.uk Executive Producer UK = Roger Ings, Strings Security Limited http://strings-security.co.uk Executive Producer, Russian Federeration =Alexander Medvedev, Chief of Stuff Executive Producer, China PRC (Jilin Province) Larry Wang Gang, Director Jilin Province Foreign Affairs Office Senior Producer, China PRC (Jilin Province) = Grace Lijuan Yang, Deputy Director Changchun City Foreign Affairs Office Key Strategic Partners = Pogues Armoury, British Army (film industry special effects) == == We are based within the film industry near the northern overland border into North Korea, near Russia, Japan, within China PRC, in a region that is becoming known as the North East Asian Co-Prosperity Co-Operative Sphere, or the Eastern Alliance. Our brief (as well as enteraining!) is to assist the Chinese authorities to police the porous northern North Korean border to guard against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We also promote North Korean made produce into the international market (through Chinese warehouses). == == 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] Revolutionary literature
What were Sartre's tacit assumptions ? Existentialism is sort of European libertarianism. So, maybe Sartre's individualist anthropology is a tacit assumption. On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 7:43 PM, Ralph Dumain rdum...@autodidactproject.org wrote: I believe that John Strachey cited Lawrence as an exemplar of the fascist unconscious, which I think is correct. In any case, Eagleton's futile exercise reminds me of how CLR James' ridiculed Sartre's conception of engaged literature in the late '40s / early '50s. Inter alia, James wrote that he didn't care about what political party an author belonged to; what mattered was the tacit assumptions embodied in the work itself. Of course, he was opposed to Popular Front historiography and Popular Front cultural criticism. On 11/29/2010 7:14 PM, Mason Akhnaten wrote: What does one want to focus on...the absence of genuinely revolutionary art, or that only radical conservatism could produce the most significant literature... Words like genuinely complicate the matter to no end. So perhaps concentrate on the most significant literature--and I think there are plenty of works of worldwide significance that certainly are not produced by radical conservatism. Yes, Brecht of course... I think Louis mentioned the surrealists and their milieu. I would think Lorca is agreed upon as one of the preeminent dramatists of 20th century Spain, and it would be improper to call him a conservative. It actually looks like many of the significant figures in 20th century theatre were not politically conservative--I would hope GB Shaw's image hasn't suffered in the academy, and then you have Harold Pinter more recently. It isn't that these playwrights must be 'genuinely revolutionary', the fact they are not conservative weakens Eagleton's claim. You can't really throw Upton Sinclair in there...seems doubtful than anyone would agree upon the man as one of the most significant in literature. If you do, may as well throw in Richard Wright or any number of second-rate literary figures. Obviously Orwell and Huxley do not have the same stature as Lawrence or Joyce, but their works are widely read and their works are often listed among the best of the century--and no one would call either of these men politically conservative. Perhaps the easiest thing to do would be look at one of those critics list of most significant authors and look at trends between academic popularity and political attitude. So, there may be some exceptions to Eagleton's sweeping statement, but a couple that have been named (Brecht and Lorca) are notable for the historical circumstances surrounding their development as authors. So perhaps a look at notable exceptions--and if there are trends amongst these exceptions--would be fruitful. [also, some of Pound's poetic works celebrate fascism- The Pisan Cantos, for example. it is not simply restricted to some speeches on Mussolini] On 11/29/10, c bcb31...@gmail.com wrote: M.F. Kalfat mf at kalfat.net In *Marxism and Literary Criticism*, Eagleton concludes a section entitled Base and Superstructure in chapter one, Literature and History with this: Whether those insights are in political terms ‘progressive’ or ‘reactionary’ (Conrad's are certainly the latter) is not the point – any more than it is to the point that most of the agreed major writers of the twentieth century – Yeats, Eliot, Pound, Lawrence – are political conservatives who each had truck with fascism. Marxist criticism, rather than apologising for that fact, explains it – sees that, *in the absence of genuinely revolutionary art*, only a radical conservativism, hostile like Marxism to the withered values of liberal bourgeois society, could produce the most significant literature. [emphasis added] Is it a case of total absence? Is it inevitable in a capitalist society? Could there be exceptions? Can you name some of these if any? For practical purposes, let's stick to modern literature. -- محمد فتحي كلفت Mahammad Fathy Kalfat ^^ CB: It would seem that genuinely revolutionary art might be hard to purvey very widely in capitalist society. You know the ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of its ruling classes and all that. Anyway Three Penny Opera by Bertolt Brecht ? The Jungle - Upton Sinclair ? ___ 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 mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
[Marxism-Thaxis] Capitalism and It's Discontents
Original Message - From: Tony B. To: Cy Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2010 12:53 PM Subject: Capitalism and It's Discontents Cy, Don't know whether you might be interested in this or not...it's a tiny-tad behind the 'times' ..but, really, not much. The piece was only ever published in our local 'Mayday' mag (Hamilton, couple thousand readers)...and I gots to thinking that it deserved a better fate. It might, in fact, serve as a nice overview of the present world economic crisisAnyways, if you care for it, it's yours for the website... Cheers, Tony PS I've here stitched the 3 parts together into one essay.. Capitalism and It's Discontents The Political Economy of Global Dispossession (Part One) Listening to the steady, hypnotic drone of the well-disciplined phalanxes of corporate and Wall Street apologists, one would never guess that the present crisis in American - indeed, global - capitalism is anything other than the unfolding of some, more or less, natural physical law. Just a quirk, a blip, a stumble, a curious aberration, an ineluctable 'storm' on the high seas of high finance. Just something the 'market' sometimes does. But then, hopefully, that is if one is not fatally in thrall to the spell cast by the high priests of 'classical' economics who, over the past three decades, have raised the 'free market' to the status of a secular religion, one wakes to remember the facts of the case. And the facts, in a nutshell, are these: Despite being an 'engine of technical innovation' and of having delivered a relative consumer 'paradise' to a minority subset of the world's population, capitalism, today, has done so at the expense of roughly 2.8 billion people who live on less than $2 a day; 1.2 billion of whom live on less than a dollar a day. It has done so at the expense of the 30,000 people (85% of whom are children under the age of 5) who die every day from starvation, malnutrition and easily treatable diseases - in short, of poverty, and whose preventable deaths would cost a trifling fraction of a per cent of the war (-crime) in Iraq, or of the funds just spent to rescue Wall Street from its own debt-pyramiding schemes. It has done so at the expense of deliberately ensnaring (as I'll discuss in Part Two) the entire Third World within a spider web of unsupportable - and ultimately unpayable - loans in what, effectively, amounts to a global loan-sharking operation of such staggering scale as to leave any respectable Mafia racketeer starry-eyed in wonder. It has done so at the expense of forging a dramatically increasing polarization of wealth - both beyond and within the core of the First World itself. It has done so at the expense of global security and peace through the creation and exponential growth of a state/private military-industrial complex that has finally achieved what Orwell only imagined - a culture, ideology and practice of endless war. It has done so at the expense of whatever limited domain of political democracy has ever been achieved in this tyranny-prone world. And it has done so at the expense - perhaps irredeemable - of the natural capital and life-support systems of the planet. Still, these constitute a mere representative sample of the obscenities inherent in an economic way of life whose essential structure of exploitation and concentration of oligarchical power is mostly obscured from view by a system of indoctrination (the media) that is integral to its very operation and continued existence. Occasionally, however, the curtain is, a la the Wizard of Oz, inadvertently drawn back to reveal the naked greed and parasitism of the whole shebang. Precisely such an opportunity has been afforded us by the present US financial meltdown, to which we now turn. Socialism For The Rich The US Treasury's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the two giant quasi-government enterprises that, together, hold over 80% of the home mortgages in the United States) in early September added a cool $5.3 trillion to the US government debt, effectively doubling it. The prime motivation for the takeover was not, however, to protect US mortgage holders (ha!) - millions of whom have already lost their homes with millions more likely to default over the coming year, and whose only 'bailout' so far has consisted of little more than some patronizing advice on 'how to refinance' their personal catastrophes - but was, instead, driven by the foreign central banks of the likes of China and Japan which hold $1.7 trillion of Fannie and Freddie's debt. These latter were showing signs of preparing to dump their holdings of said worthless paper (see 'Into the Abyss' , #37), an action which would have threatened a good part of the whole crazy process that sees foreign-held US dollars recycled back into the United States in order to finance the $800 billion per year US trade deficit (part and parcel of so-called 'dollar hegemony', more on that in Part Two). Without those foreign
[Marxism-Thaxis] Energy problem solved?
Subject: Re: [A-List] Energy problem solved? To: The A-List a-l...@lists.econ.utah.edu Message-ID: 20101127170719.92714685xtfgc...@mail.telepac.pt Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15 Presently hydrogen is obtained from methane (CH4). It's expensive to extract the four atoms of hydrogen from each methane molecule. No way to extract methane from water (H2O) because energy consumption (electricity) in electrolysis is more higher that energy proportionated by hydrogen. Therefore, the better solution is to use directly the fuel methane in Natural Gas Vehicles. The future of world transportation after the Hubbert Peak, when begin the depletion of oil, will be with compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) -- it's the better solution in the next decades. Jorge Figueiredo Citando Tony B. t...@cogeco.ca: GOOD POINT, TODD. ? ? - ORIGINAL MESSAGE - FROM: Todd Boyle TO: The A-List SENT: Friday, November 26, 2010 4:47 PM SUBJECT: Re: [A-List] Energy problem solved? What we need are technologies that provide liquid fuel from sunshine, not hydrogen gas which has to be maintaind under such high pressure or low temperatures the tanks are heavy. and dangerous.? it's really quite unsuited for any transportation except *maybe* heavy rail. And in fact there are technologies. For example palmoil plantations in Indonesia etc.? But you know what?? This is not our domain of expertise, and it has so many brilliant people working on it, our contribution here is zero.?? Meanwhile humanity plunges thru chaos and crisis and war, for the lack of understanding political economy which is so excellently understood here on A-List, Todd At 07:31 PM 11/25/2010, you wrote: But does it take more or less energy to produce the hydrogen than the energy the hydrogen provides? On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:52:17 -0500 Tony B. t...@cogeco.ca wrote: - Original Message - From: Brasscheck TV n...@brasschecktv.com To: Antony t...@cogeco.ca Sent: Thursday, November 25, 2010 5:26 AM Subject: Energy problem solved? Antony Water = Hydrogen and oxygen Hydrogen is a great fuel. What if you could make it at home, easily, cheaply, safely? You can. MIT has the patent. Our sister site Forbidden Knowledge TV let us in on the secret. Start your exploration here... Video: http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/page/724.html - Brasscheck P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and videos with friends and colleagues. That's how we grow. Thanks. ___ 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] Crises of Capitalism
Charles Brown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0feature=player_embedded RSA Animate - Crises of Capitalism www.youtube.com In this RSA Animate, renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane? This is based on a lecture at the RSA (www.theRSA.org). ___ 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] Stalin Wasn't Stallin (Gospel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvFRuio-3fI Stalin Wasn't Stallin' (Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet) www.youtube.com That's the original song from 1943, recorded by the a capella gospel group Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet. This song praises the efforts of the Soviets to stop Hitler and his armies and drive them back to Germany. ___ 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] Poverty Fuels Anger During General Strike in Portugal
Poverty Fuels Anger During General Strike in Portugal By Emilio Rappold Monsters and Critics Nov 24, 201 http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/features/article_1601310.php/Poverty-fuels-anger-during-general-strike-in-Portugal-News-Feature Lisbon - Fatima, 82, barely has enough to eat herself, yet she has come to distribute bread buns to pickets in front of a Lisbon post office to express her support for Wednesday's general strike in Portugal. 'I fully back the strike, because we are hungry,' she fumes. 'Two of my three sons have no job,' the petite woman complains. 'When did we last see such a situation in Portugal?' Anger over tightening economic conditions and the perception of a social injustice boosted support for the strike, the biggest in Portugal since 1988. 'This is without doubt the worst crisis' since the Carnation Revolution ended a four-decade, right-wing dictatorship in 1974, says Eugenio Fonseca, president of the Portuguese branch of the Catholic organization Caritas which comes to the aid of the poor. The number of people helped by Caritas soared by 30 per cent to more than 60,000 this year - and the organization says it does not have enough resources to attend to all those in need. About 600,000 Portuguese aged over 65 years are undernourished or even suffer from outright hunger, according to a recent study by the organization NutriAction. The social organization Banco Alimentar, which feeds about 240,000 people daily, says 27 per cent of the 10- million-strong population goes without eating at least one day per month. 'People are furious. They have no future perspectives,' Banco Alimentar head Isabel Jonet said. 'But the poor do not allow themselves to be manipulated,' she told the weekly Expresso. 'If the state tries to do that, it will get dangerous here,' she warned. There is not much hope of the situation improving soon, says Eva Gaspar, editor-in-chief of the economic newspaper Jornal de Negocios. 'The social situation is getting worse,' she told the German Press Agency dpa. 'We have a record unemployment (of over 10 per cent). But an even worse aspect is, that people remain unemployed for longer and longer periods.' 'And only about half of the jobless get financial support from the state,' Gaspar explained. One of the main reasons for the growth of poverty is an unfair taxation system, Caritas' Fonseca believes. While big companies and rich Portuguese often pay few taxes, Prime Minister Jose Socrates' government is trying to fix Portugal's economic woes by squeezing more money out of the poor and the middle classes, other critics complain. The strike was protesting an austerity budget aimed at restoring the confidence of financial markets amid concern that Portugal might need an international bailout similar to those requested by Greece and Ireland. The austerity budget, which is expected to get the definitive seal of approval from parliament on Friday, slashes public sector salaries by 5 per cent, freezes pensions, raises value added and income tax, and cuts social spending. Socrates' economic policies 'demand too many sacrifices from workers, while leaving out many (wealthy citizens) who could pay much more,' said Joao Proenca, leader of the trade union confederation UGT. 'I will only have soup for supper,' Fatima grumbled. 'Socrates should not sleep peacefully tonight.' ___ 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
