Re: [Marxism] 40-000-crabs-join-slew-of-animal-death-mysteries - is the revolution too late?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 1:23 AM, Mark Lause markala...@gmail.com wrote: It's certainly too late for the crabs. Maybe they failed to build a revolutionary movement capable of moving forward rather than sideways I try to joke...but it's out of nervousness at all this ML News flash just in from NPR: A red-winged black bird is holed up in a back room of a laundromat just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. According to reports, he briefly took a 54-year-old woman hostage before releasing her and barricading himself in the building. She described him as a male red-wing, about nine inches tall, with dried blood...(tharr be more) and grass stains on his feathers. She also said he seemed paranoid and disoriented, avoiding windows and repeating they're all dead man. They're all dead. 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] Andrew Cuomo bares his fangs
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 2011-01-06, at 12:52 PM, James Holstun wrote: As the Fiscal Policy Institute (http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/) has been arguing for decades, wealthy New Yorkers are shockingly under-taxed, since they have been engaging in skillful class struggle in Albany. From the FPI's latest report: In recent years, New York State has had the most unequal income of all 50 states...For the years 2006-2009, New York State has had the highest Gini index value among all states, indicating the greatest degree of inequality. In 2009, New York was followed by Connecticut, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida...New York City leads the 25 largest cities in the United States in inequality. It was followed in 2009 by Dallas, Chicago, Boston, and Houston. Given its degree of inequality, if New York City were a nation, it would rank 15th worst among 134 countries with respect to income concentration, in between Chile and Honduras. Wall Street, with its stratospheric profits and bonuses, sits within 15 miles of the Bronx—the nation’s poorest county. -- Grow Together or Pull Further Apart? Income Concentration Trends in New York, Fiscal Policy Institute, December 13, 2010 http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/FPI_GrowTogetherOrPullFurtherApart_20101213.pdf 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 logical choice for the Obama administration
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NY Times January 6, 2011 Business Background Defines Chief of Staff By ERIC LIPTON WASHINGTON — He is a top executive at JPMorgan Chase, where he is paid as much as $5 million a year and supervises the Washington lobbying efforts of the nation’s second-largest bank. He also serves on the board of directors at Boeing, the giant military contractor, and Abbott Laboratories, the global drug company, which has billions of dollars at stake in the overhaul of the health care system. And now William M. Daley, the son and brother of Chicago mayors and a behind-the-scenes political player himself, will hold one of the most powerful jobs in Washington: chief of staff in the White House, where he will help decide who gets into the Oval Office and what President Obama’s Capitol Hill agenda should be. Mr. Daley’s recruitment to Pennsylvania Avenue from the corporate boardroom is seen as a smart step by some in Washington, who argue that Mr. Obama has long needed a White House confidant who has the ear of the business community and a record of bipartisanship that might help the president negotiate with Republicans in Congress. “I think it’s a very, very strong choice,” said Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been a harsh critic of the Obama administration and provided financial support that helped Republicans take control of the House in the November elections. “Daley is a business person who understands politics.” Mr. Daley, or the corporations he has served in recent years, have worked aggressively behind the scenes to water down or defeat central elements of Mr. Obama’s agenda, opposing the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and elements of the health care bill. That record is among the reasons his appointment, announced by Mr. Obama on Thursday afternoon, has alarmed some of the president’s liberal supporters, who say that bringing Mr. Daley into the White House violates a commitment to curtail the sway of special interests. “As the chief of staff, he is the gatekeeper, and that means real power in Washington,” said Ellen S. Miller, co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation, which celebrated the move by Mr. Obama early in his presidency to release detailed logs of White House visitors and to impose restrictions on hiring lobbyists as aides. “Just about any way you look at it, it creates a huge potential for a conflict of interest.” The chief of staff job has sometimes been filled by corporate types, like Donald T. Regan, a top Wall Street executive and former Treasury secretary, who held the job in the Reagan administration. But more often, it goes to a political insider whose primary allegiance is to the president. Mr. Daley, 62, who is not close to Mr. Obama even though both consider Chicago their base, has a well-rounded résumé. He has been a lawyer in private practice, a bank president, a telecommunications company executive, a political strategist, a fund-raiser and campaign chief, a lobbyist for foreign corporations (he advocated on tax matters for Nestlé and a Canadian petroleum company) and the commerce secretary in the Clinton administration for three years. His brother, Richard M. Daley, is departing after six terms as mayor of Chicago, where his family has an almost royal status. Mr. Obama, during a ceremony in the East Room on Thursday, cited that long list of jobs as part of the reason he picked Mr. Daley. “Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job,” the president said, adding that he was “convinced that he’ll help us in our mission of growing our economy and moving America forward.” JPMorgan Chase has been Mr. Daley’s primary corporate home since 2004. He was hired, company officials said, as something of consolation prize to Chicago when Chase, which has its headquarters in New York, was taking over Bank One, which was based in Chicago. Chase executives, including Jamie Dimon, its chairman, wanted to bring in someone with Chicago connections who could smooth over relations with wealthy clients and corporations there. One Chase official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter, recalled, “A few bankers said we should hire a Bill Daley,” meaning someone with Chicago political connections and clout who could serve as a new public face for Chase. Mr. Dimon’s response was simple: “How about Bill Daley?” Mr. Daley started as chairman of Chase’s Midwest operations, but by 2007 he had expanded his portfolio, joining the bank’s senior leadership team as chief of its new Office of Corporate Social Responsibility, whose most important function was to oversee the company’s global lobbying efforts. At the time, Chase was trying to raise its
[Marxism] Glenn Greenwald on the new Obama appointees
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.salon.com/news/politics/democratic_party/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/01/07/daley Friday, Jan 7, 2011 07:08 ET Daley is a reflection, not a cause By Glenn Greenwald Few things interest me less at this point than royal court personnel changes. I actually agree with the pro-Obama/Democratic-Party-loyal commentators who insist it doesn't much matter who becomes White House Chief of Staff because it's Obama who drives administration policy. Obama didn't do what he did in the first two years because Rahm Emanuel was his Chief of Staff. That view has the causation reversed: he chose Emanuel for that position because that's who Obama is. Similarly, installing JP Morgan's Midwest Chairman, a Boeing director, and a long-time corporatist -- Bill Daley -- as a powerful underling replacing Emanuel isn't going to substantively change anything Obama does. It's just another reflection of the Obama presidency, its priorities and concerns, and its overarching allegiances. There's a section of my forthcoming book about the rule of law which examines the direct causal line between the vast number of Wall Street officials in key administration positions and the full-scale exemption from accountability which financial elites enjoy even for the most egregious lawbreaking. When you compile all of those appointments in one place, the absolute stranglehold large-scale corporate interests exert over virtually all realms of government policy is quite striking. But it's nothing more than what the economist Nouriel Roubini meant when he told the makers of the 2010 documentary Inside Job that Wall Street has captured the political system on the Democratic and the Republican side alike, or what Simon Johnson describes as The Quiet Coup: The government seems helpless, or unwilling, to act against elite business interests. Shipping in a JP Morgan executive to be White House Chief of Staff isn't a cause of any of this; it's just a nice symbol for what our political culture is, more than ever in the Era of Change. It's the other side of the revolving door that sent Peter Orszag to his multi-million-dollar a year reward at Citigroup for his 18 months in an administration which lavished that bank will all sorts of gifts. Getting exercised about Bill Daley's empowerment is like going to the beach and being angry that it's full of sand: this appointment is the inevitable by-product of the essence of Washington and of the Obama presidency. It's what they do and who they are. As Matt Stoller suggested, the most surprising thing about the Daley pick is that he has no Goldman Sachs experience. (clip) 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] Aflockalypse
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 'Aflockalypse': Here's Why We Should Really Be Concerned About the Huge Bird and Fish Die-off By Tara Lohan, AlterNet Posted on January 7, 2011, Printed on January 7, 2011 http://www.alternet.org/story/149440/ By now, we've all seen the news reports of the Aflockalypse. The New Year came in with a bang in Beebe, Arkansas when thousands of blackbirds fell from the sky. As news reports of the eerie incident spread, similar stories began surfacing all over the world: Massive fish kills by the thousands in Brazil, New Zealand, the Arkansas River and the Chesapeake; more bird deaths in Louisiana, Kentucky and Sweden; and tens of thousands of dead crabs (aptly named dead devil crabs) washing ashore in the U.K. 2011 seems to have gotten off to an ominous start, but so far no one credible has come up with a theory to link all these occurrences together. They appear to be mostly isolated catastrophes. Sadly, this kind of stuff happens a fair bit, and in our uber-connected world, it's getting easier and easier to share when they do. Although I do admit that some of the purported explanations thus far sound kind of far-fetched. The 100 or so dead jackdaws in Sweden were explained by a veterinarian to a local news outlet: Our main theory is that the birds were scared away because of the fireworks and landed on the road, but couldn't fly away from the stress and were hit by a car. One car? Really? I can't imagine being the driver who kills 100 birds simultaneously. But the other incidents, perhaps, have better explanations that are largely due to either weather (cold snap) or environmental factors (fireworks, lightening, disease). As for Britain's crabs -- well, it turns out that this is the third year in a row it has happened, which may or may not be comforting, depending on how you look at things. The only upside to these die-offs has been the rapt attention of readers, which is great; however, no offense to jackdaws and dead devil crabs, but there are a whole lot of other species on the brink that could use the publicity. For starters, the World Wide Fund for Nature (also known in the U.S. as the World Wildlife Fund) just released its top 10 list of endangered species: the tiger, polar bear, Pacific walrus, Magellanic penguin, leatherback turtle, Atlantic bluefin tuna, mountain gorilla, monarch butterfly, Javan rhino and the giant panda are the unlucky finalists. While one night of fireworks revelry may have offed a few thousands birds this year, the creatures on WWF's list are teetering on the edge of extinction thanks to decades, and in some cases centuries, of hard work by humans. Loss of habitat and poaching may claim our remaining 3,200 wild tigers, 720 mountain gorillas and 60 Javan rhinos. Polar bears, Pacific walruses and Magellanic penguins are losing out to climate change. We're doing in leatherback turtles, which have managed to survive on this earth for 100 million years, thanks to overfishing (they're often killed as bycatch), and their habitat is endangered by rising sea levels and temperatures. Bluefin look like they will be eaten into extinction in the form of sushi. Treehugger reported that, A single bluefin tuna just sold at auction for a new record price of 32.49 million yen in Tokyo. That's nearly $400,000 for a single fish, which means there is a pretty big monetary incentive for fishing them until they are wiped off the planet. Monarch butterflies and giant pandas can hang on only so long as we can protect their vital habitat. And these 10 are only the tip of the iceberg. A recent infographic on Mother Nature Network reveals that in the last 500 years, 900 species of plants and animals have gone extinct and 10,000 more are close to making that list. We've done the most damage, however, in the last 100 years. Biologically rich Ecuador has the most to lose, with 2,211 endangered species, but the U.S. is a close second (1,203 endangered species). Honeybees aren't officially designated as endangered, but the population of these essential pollinators is falling thanks to colony collapse disorder. A recent leaked EPA memo implicates the pesticide clothianidin as a contributor to honeybee die-offs, although sadly the EPA has yet to curb the chemical's use in the U.S. Bumblebees aren't faring much better, as a recent report concludes that four common species in the U.S. have declined by a startling 97 percent. According to the Center for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, three of the 25 British species of bumblebee are already extinct and half of the remainder have shown serious declines, often up to 70 percent, since around the 1970s, writes Sami Grover for Treehugger. Without these pollinators, we'll be incredibly short on food. If you follow the news, it's likely you've heard
Re: [Marxism] Aflockalypse
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Is it possible that the process of environmental destruction and species extinction has progressed to the point where quantitative change has or is about to become qualitative? If so, we will be entering an era of wars not for oil, but for water and against millions of refugees who will be fleeing flooded coasts and newly hostile climates. A new meaning for the phrase, socialism or barbarism. On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 9:39 AM, Louis Proyect unrepentantmarx...@gmail.comwrote: 'Aflockalypse': Here's Why We Should Really Be Concerned About the Huge Bird and Fish Die-off By Tara Lohan, AlterNet Posted on January 7, 2011, Printed on January 7, 2011 http://www.alternet.org/story/149440/ 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] Sanhati Update (Oct. - Dec. 2010)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Contents for the 28 December 2010 issue : (1) Some Aspects of Agricultural Investment in India: Part II. By Debarshi Das. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3114/. (2) The Flames of Narayanpatna. By CMAS. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3115/. (3) The Emperors New Cloak: Marxism, A Rights-based Approach, and Patnaik. By Ravi Kant. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3112/. (4) Wikileaks Beyond Wikileaks? By Saroj Giri. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3116/. (5) What does Business have to Say about Maoism? An Analysis of the FICCI Task Force Report on National Security Terrorism. By Rahul Varman. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3019/. (6) Sixth Letter from the Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities - Translated by Sanhati. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3020/. (7) Ordinary People, Extraordinary Movement: 25 Years of Struggle and Quest for Alternatives in Narmada Valley. By Madhuresh Kumar. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3014/. (8) A Note on the Current Political Situation: Some Issues and A Conclusion. By Randhir Singh. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/3016/. ## Contents for the 28 November 2010 issue : (1) Kashmir: Fact-Finding Report in a Season of Unabated Turmoil Parts I II - http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2976/. Part III - http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2987/. (2) Ganapathy on the Current Situation of the Revolutionary Movement and Contemporary Issues: An Interview http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2937/. (4) Principled versus Piecemeal Approach: Repeal of AFSPA, Troops Pullout or Ending War against our People. By Gautam Navlakha. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2913/. (5) Contemporary anti-displacement struggles and womens resistance: a commentary. By Shoma Sen. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2923/ (6) India: Whither Development, and for Whom? By Kobad Ghandy. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2921/. (7) The Modern Occupation. By Shashwat Sinha. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2918/. ## Contents for the 28 October 2010 issue : (1) Some Aspects of Agricultural Investment in India: Part I. By Debarshi Das. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2905/. (2) From the Killing Fields of Kashmir to the Finishing Line. By Gautam Navlakha. http://sanhati.com/articles/2873/. (3) The Political Geography of Special Economic Zones in India. By Partho Sarathi Ray. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2896/. (4) POSCO: Report by Mining Zone Peoples Solidarity Group and Commentary on Report. By Amit Basole and Shiv Sethi. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2883/. (5) Dams as Damocless Sword : Assams Rural Masses in a State of Shock - By Prakash Mahanta Hiren Gohain. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2884/. (6) The Domestic Worker Informal Sector: An Intersection of Caste, Religion, and Language. By Sindhu Menon. http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2898/ 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] Translation (Cuba): By one and all
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hi Marce, Your link to Sexto's essay is in untranslated Spanish. (?) Nat On Jan 6, 2011, at 4:21 PM, Marce Cameron wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above If you live, as I do, in a capitalist society, in which the essential function of the mass media is to disorient, distract and divide in the class interests of a tiny corporate elite (and to sell advertising space), imagine if you opened the paper and read, over your morning coffee, a commentary like Luis Sexto's below. You'd no doubt stare in disbelief and wonder if, by some magical device, you'd woken up in a kinder, saner society. Despite material constraints and much room for improvement, the basic function of Cuba's revolutionary press is to orient and inform. Increasingly, it is also to provoke and facilitate the striving for consensus on how to carry through the urgent and necessary renovation of Cuba's embattled socialist project. Such a consensus would be unthinkable in capitalist Australia where the social domination of a parasitic bourgeoisie rests on the political atomisation of the working people; where meaningful participation in politics has been reduced to ticking a ballot paper once every few years for one or another gang of pro-corporate politicians. Participation in the construction of a new and better society, the subject of Sexto's profound reflection, is of no interest whatsoever to the staff writers of the tabloids and broadsheets of the capitalist world. All they care about is sustaining the appearance, the fiction, of participation. That the masses believe in the illusion of democracy is what counts. In revolutionary Cuba it's the opposite: what matters is the substance of participation, since without an ever-greater real participation of the broad masses, not only in the carrying out of the tasks of the Revolution but in deciding what those tasks will be, there can be no progress towards socialism. Sexto's subtle, lyrical prose is difficult to translate. I hope my attempt does justice to the original. Link to translation: http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/columnas/coloquiando/2010-12-30/por-uno-y-por-todos/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/nat%40socialistviewpoint.org 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] This commie's favorite cowboy movies
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On December 30th, one Robert Knight (not the WBAI host) wrote this comment under my review of True Grit: “Sounds like communists just don’t know how to enjoy a good cowboy movie.” Off the top of my head, I named these cowboy movies as my favorites in response: 1. Shane 2. One-Eyed Jacks 3. Unforgiven 4. Magnificent Seven 5. Johnny Guitar 6. High Noon 7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 8. Ride the High Country 9. The Wild Bunch 10. McCabe and Mrs. Miller I have one more to add to the list, the infamous “Heaven’s Gate” that destroyed director Michael Cimino’s career and, according to Steven Bach’s book “Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven’s Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists” was responsible for the collapse of the production company launched by Charlie Chaplin and other actors in an attempt to control over film-making against the ham-fisted studio system. I want to say a few words about each of these movies, but want to explain right off the bat why there’s nothing by John Ford on the list. As for Ford, I respect his genius but I really have big problems with traditional “cowboy and Indians” movies. One of his greatest, according to critics and film scholars, is “The Searchers”, a film that is based loosely on the Comanche wars in Texas in the 1800s. According to most critics, it is a “revisionist” work that decries racism against the Indians. If I ever find the time to do a survey of popular and high culture (especially Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian”) on the Comanche wars, I will probably revisit this movie but will likely be less generous than other critics. There’s also Howard Hawks’s 1948 “Red River” that pits John Wayne, an ex-Confederate warrior, against Montgomery Clift in what some critics regard as a homoerotic story with the two men suggestively exchanging pistols at one point. Clift, of course, was a closeted homosexual. I saw the movie long ago and could not help but shake the feeling that it was cliché-ridden. This was probably a function of having seen so many cattle drive movies in the 1950s that were obviously derivative of Hawks’s movie, not to speak of the staple television shows of the time, including “Bonanza”. Let me start with “Heaven’s Gate”. This film was trashed mercilessly in the press when it came out in 1980. Vincent Canby of the NY Times wrote: The point of ”Heaven’s Gate” is that the rich will murder for the earth they don’t inherit, but since this is not enough to carry three hours and 45 minutes of screentime, ”Heaven’s Gate” keeps wandering off to look at scenery, to imitate bad art (my favorite shot in the film is Miss Huppert reenacting ”September Morn”) or to give us footnotes (not of the first freshness) to history, as when we are shown an early baseball game. There’s so much mandolin music in the movie you might suspect that there’s a musical gondolier anchored just off-screen, which, as it turns out, is not far from the truth. ”Heaven’s Gate” is something quite rare in movies these days – an unqualified disaster. The movie closed before I had a chance to see it, a victim of such reviews. I am not sure when I got around to seeing an abridged version, but I was anxious to see anything described in these terms: “the rich will murder the earth they don’t inherit”. The best way to describe “Heaven’s Gate” is as Cimino’s homage to Italian Marxist film: Visconti, Pasolini and Bertolucci. It is based on historical events, the Johnson County Range Wars that pitted ranchers against immigrant small farmers. Kris Kristofferson, who played a sheriff who crossed class lines to join the farmers, had this take on the movie’s failure at the box office: The film was about a dirty piece of American history that was the Johnson County Wars, where the money people, the Cattlemens’ Association, had a death list, had an army of mercenaries that was okayed by the US government to go in and wipe out these citizens that were supposedly poaching their cattle. They were primarily immigrants. Unfortunately the film came out right when Ronald Reagan came in office and it was – I remember Alexander Hague had a meeting of all the studio heads right before Michael’s film was screened and he said, “There will be no more films made with a negative view of American history, like ‘Heaven’s Gate’”. And there was 100 per cent negative reviews of – I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve done 82 films. The director’s cut (219 minutes) can be rented from Netflix today, thank goodness. Okay, proceeding to the rest. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/this-commies-favorite-cowboy-movies/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at:
Re: [Marxism] This commie's favorite cowboy movies
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis Proyect wrote: Off the top of my head, I named these cowboy movies as my favorites in response: -3. Jeremiah Johnson Redford, better than in Butch Cassidy -2. The Appaloosa 1966, Brando, even better than in One Eyed Jacks -1. Lonely are the Brave Dalton Trumbo, screenplay 0. The Big Countryrich vs. poor, sort of, class tensions, sort of others: Treasure of the Sierra Madre Hud The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (Wayne) Once Upon a Time in the West Valdez is Coming Les Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Mike Alewitz's FBI File
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Mike Alewitz has obtained his FBI file and has begun to circulate the documents via FACEBOOK in the hopes that it will help current activists who are under threat by the FBI. Roger Sheppard forwarded the documents to me from Mike with a request that I try to circulate them widely as possible. https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddrcgb43_452gdvfs3cf Should you wish to find out how to get your own FBI file, google Get My FBI File. Arthur Maglin Here's mine. Pretty funny and creepy at the same time: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/encounters-with-the-fbi/ I'm referring to the file, not me. 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] Building the ULA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://tomasoflatharta.com/2011/01/07/building-the-ula-reflections-on-the-past-and-proposals-for-the-future/ 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] Aflockalypse
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40961721/ns/us_news-environment/ In the past eight months, the USGS has logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North America and that's probably a dramatic undercount, White said. The list includes 900 some turkey vultures that seemed to drown and starve in the Florida Keys, 4,300 ducks killed by parasites in Minnesota, 1,500 salamanders done in by a virus in Idaho, 2,000 bats that died of rabies in Texas, and the still mysterious death of 2,750 sea birds in California. --- On average, 163 such events are reported to the federal government each year, according to USGS records. And there have been much larger die-offs than the 3,000 blackbirds in Arkansas. Twice in the summer of 1996, more than 100,000 ducks died of botulism in Canada. Depending on the species, these things don't even get reported, White said. --- The irony is that mass die-offs — usually of animals with large populations — are getting the attention while a larger but slower mass extinction of thousands of species because of human activity is ignored, Wilson said. On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 9:59 AM, Dennis Brasky dmozart1...@gmail.com wrote: Is it possible that the process of environmental destruction and species extinction has progressed to the point where quantitative change has or is about to become qualitative? If so, we will be entering an era of wars not for oil, but for water and against millions of refugees who will be fleeing flooded coasts and newly hostile climates. A new meaning for the phrase, socialism or barbarism. 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] Translation (Cuba): By one and all
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thanks Nat, apologies everyone. The correct link is here: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-by-one-and-all.html ** Hi Marce, Your link to Sexto's essay is in untranslated Spanish. (?) Nat 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] Translation (Cuba): By one and all
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Marce Cameron's Cuba Socialist Renewal blog is performing an exceptionally valuable service to all of us whose first language is English by bringing commentaries from the Cuban media out in English translation. Luis Sexto's articles from JUVENTUD REBELDE have been published for years in such sites as PROGRESO WEEKLY which is based in Miami, Karen Lee Wald's Cuba Inside Out, CubaNews and others. Many of these can be found at this location: http://tinyurl.com/lq6ack = WALTER LIPPMANN Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = 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] Mike Alewitz's FBI File
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A point of clarification: I began posting some of the files on Facebook, and people are welcome to check them out. However, I am not on some particular campaign to get these circulated. Given the source of such documents, they should always be approached with caution. Some of the more interesting parts of the files are the attached newspaper articles and documents that give a sense of movement life during the 1970s. I will be posting a bunch of that stuff shortly. Mike A Louis Proyect lnp3 at panix.com Fri Jan 7 15:10:27 MST 2011 Previous message: [Marxism] Mike Alewitz's FBI File Next message: [Marxism] This commie's favorite cowboy movies Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] Mike Alewitz has obtained his FBI file and has begun to circulate the documents via FACEBOOK in the hopes that it will help current activists who are under threat by the FBI. Roger Sheppard forwarded the documents to me from Mike with a request that I try to circulate them widely as possible. https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddrcgb43_452gdvfs3cf Should you wish to find out how to get your own FBI file, google Get My FBI File. Arthur Maglin Here's mine. Pretty funny and creepy at the same time: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/encounters-with-the-fbi/ I'm referring to the file, not me. 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] On Paul Samuleson as a tragic figure
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/varoufakis030111.html Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Globe Life Insurance $1* Buys $50,000 Life Insurance. Adults or Children. No Medical Exam. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d27c092cbb70b32298st02vuc 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] This commie's favorite cowboy movies
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Rio Bravo Three Godfathers The Long Riders The Wild Bunch Lonesome Dove (TV) Ride Lonesome Destry Rides Again Pale Rider High Plains Drifter The Furies Ride the High Country -- Comradely, Jay Rothermel 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 Government's Wildlife Hit Squad: Blackbird Killers Sent to Investigate Blackbird Deaths
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.counterpunch.org/rosenberg01052011.html The Government's Wildlife Hit Squad Blackbird Killers Sent to Investigate Blackbird Deaths By MARTHA ROSENBERG Do wildlife officials feel just a little hypocritical answering media questions about the New Year's Eve blackbird rain when they know they kill 200 times that amount a year as pests? In 2009 the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), part of USDA, says it poisoned 489,444 red-winged blackbirds in Texas and 461,669 in Louisiana. It also shot 4,217 blackbirds in California, 2,246 in North Dakota and 1,063 in Oregon according to its posted records. We won't even talk about the starlings, crows, ravens, doves, geese, owls (yes owls) hawks, pigeons, ducks, larks, woodpeckers and coots our tax dollars annihilated to benefit ranchers, farmers and other private interests. Or the squirrels, rabbits, badgers, bobcats, beavers, woodchucks, coyotes, opossums, raccoons and mountain lions. The he-men at the Wildlife Service also shot 29 great blue herons, 820 cattle egrets and 115 white-faced ibises in 2009, despite the known dangers of approaching shore birds. It's hard to know which is worse: government agencies like APHIS, Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry helping private rice farmers and landowners with our tax dollars. Or the scorched earth baiting of their rice fields with poison until blackbird populations are depleted, as LSU's Rice Research Station News puts it. APHIS even uses caged red-winged blackbirds as decoys to attract wild ones says Audubon magazine and pre-baits an area with unpoisoned food to ensure the most takers. Nor does the government's blackbird poison only kill blackbirds. APHIS makes sure that the poisoned banquet is especially tempting for wildlife by laying the food out in the spring. This attracts birds and other wildlife because food sources, especially insects, are limited in early spring, says the National Audubon Society. The poisoned rice also looks very tasty because the birds are migrating. The poisoned rice is a ready buffet for any bird to eat, but especially those who are tired and hungry from flying. The government used the chemical DRC-1339 to poison the over million blackbirds it killed in 2009, including in Louisiana. The avicide, called Starlicide causes irreversible kidney and heart damage says APHIS. A quiet and apparent painless death normally occurs 1-3 days following ingestion, writes an APHIS spokesman on the site, probably secure in the fact that his death won't take three days. Government wildlife officials may also feel hypocritical about the thousands of dead drum fish that appeared in the Arkansas River a few days before the red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky on New Year's Eve. That's because wildlife agencies also kill entire waterways of fish when it serves their purpose. Last year, Illinois wildlife officials poisoned 90 tons of goldfish, gizzard and shad in the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal with the chemical Rotenone, which suffocates fish, to support the sport fishing industry. A year earlier they poisoned tens of thousands of goldfish, koi, bass, crappie, catfish and sunfish/bluegill hybrids in Chicago's Lincoln Park to rehab the pond. Whether killing fish to save a pond or blackbirds to help farmers, government wildlife officials honor neither the public or trust in the Public Trust Doctrine they are sworn to. And wildlife has a lot more to fear than New Year's Eve. Martha Rosenberg can be reached at: martharosenb...@sbcglobal.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
[Marxism] Who you callin' a welfare queen?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1 Andrew Brooks ahbro...@rogers.com (905) 846-7138 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] Granma letter: Objective vs. subjective debate
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From new Cuba blog Cuba's Socialist Renewal http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or to receive email updates click on link above Previously I posted a translation of a letter to Granma titled The objective and subjective factors (see http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/granma-letter-objective-and-subjective.html). In this letter, A. Orama Munero argued that appeals to conscience alone would not solve Cuba's economic problems nor rescue socialist ethics. What is needed, among other things, is an opening to the cooperative sector and small-scale private initiative. He points out that objective factors — such as average salaries that are insufficient to cover all basic living expenses, thus compelling many Cubans to make ends meet by engaging in petty theft from the socialist state — condition people's ethical conduct. Put simply, if workers and their families can't live decently on their legitimate incomes then generalised petty corruption and the mentality that goes with it are inevitable. Orama Munero was responding to a letter in the previous Friday's edition of Granma, in which F. Fernando Gonzalez put forward more or less the opposite viewpoint. Since the biggest problems continue to be in the conscience of people, in their conduct, he argues that the solution is to be more demanding and exert more control. To privatise even the most insignificant branch of our economy would lead to the renunciation of socialism, he warns. Here we see the two poles in the national debate over the future of Cuba's socialist project. What one side in the debate sees as a cause the other sees as a consequence, thus the solutions proposed run in opposite directions. One side equates the socialist-oriented society with state ownership and management of almost the entire economy; the other starts from the premise that the socialist state's ownership of large-scale productive property that is already objectively socialised is sufficient to keep the forces of capitalist restoration in check. The Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines — which reflect the majority (if not unanimous) opinion of the Communist Party leadership — are consistent with the views expressed by A. Orama Munero in his April 16 letter. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/granma-letter-objective-vs-subjective.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-Thaxis] Fundamental difference: Caudwell critique's bourgeois concept of individual liberty
http://www.marxists.org/archive/caudwell/index.htm Christopher Caudwell 1938 Liberty A study in bourgeois illusion Source: “Studies in a Dying Culture,” first published 1938. Republished 1977 in “The Concept of Freedom,” Lawrence Wishart, London. Transcribed: by Dominic Tweedie; Proofed and corrected: by Guy Colvin, November 2005. Many will have heard a broadcast by H. G. Wells in which (commenting on the Soviet Union) he described it as a “great experiment which has but half fulfilled its promise,” it is still a “land without mental freedom.” There are also many essays of Bertrand Russell in which this philosopher explains the importance of liberty, how the enjoyment of liberty is the highest and most important goal of man. Fisher claims that the history of Europe during the last two or three centuries is simply the struggle for liberty. Continually and variously by artists, scientists, and philosophers alike, liberty is thus praised and man’s right to enjoy it imperiously asserted. I agree with this. Liberty does seem to me the most important of all generalised goods – such as justice, beauty, truth – that come so easily to our lips. And yet when freedom is discussed a strange thing is to be noticed. These men – artists, careful of words, scientists, investigators of the entities denoted by words, philosophers scrupulous about the relations between words and entities – never define precisely what they mean by freedom. They seem to assume that it is quite a clear concept, whose definition every one would agree about. Yet who does not know that liberty is a concept about whose nature men have quarrelled perhaps more than any other? The historic disputes concerning predestination, Karma, Free-Will, Moira, salvation by faith or works, determinism, Fate, Kismet, the categorical imperative, sufficient grace, occasionalism, Divine Providence, punishment and responsibility, have all been about the nature of man’s freedom of will and action. The Greeks, the Romans, the Buddhists, the Mahomedans, the Catholics, the Jansenists, and the Calvinists, have each had different ideas of liberty. Why, then, do all these bourgeois intellectuals assume that liberty is a clear concept, understood in the same way by all their hearers, and therefore needing no definition? Russell, for example, has spent his life finding a really satisfactory definition of number and even now it is disputed whether he has been successful. I can find in his writings no clear definition of what he means by liberty. Yet most people would have supposed that men are far more in agreement as to what is meant by a number, than what is meant by liberty. The indefinite use of the word can only mean either that they believe the meaning of the word invariant in history or that they use it in the contemporary bourgeois sense. If they believe the meaning invariant, it is strange that men have disputed so often about freedom. These intellectuals must surely be incapable of such a blunder. They must mean liberty as men in their situation experience it. That is, they must mean by liberty to have no more restrictions imposed upon them than they endure at that time. They do not – these Oxford dons or successful writers – want, for example, the restrictions of Fascism, that is quite clear. That would not be liberty. But at present, thank God, they are reasonably free. Now this conception of liberty is superficial, for not all their countrymen are in the same situation. A, an intellectual, with a good education, in possession of a modest income, with not too uncongenial friends, unable to afford a yacht, which he would like, but at least able to go to the winter sports, considers this (more or less) freedom. He would like that yacht, but still – he can write against Communism or Fascism or the existing system. Let us for the moment grant that A is free. I propose to analyse this statement more deeply in a moment, and show that it is partial. But let us for the moment grant that A enjoys liberty. Is B free? B is a sweated non-union shop-assistant of Houndsditch, working seven days of the week. He knows nothing of art, science, or philosophy. He has no culture except a few absurd prejudices, his elementary school education saw to that. He believes in the superiority of the English race, the King’s wisdom and loving-kindness to his subjects, the real existence of God, the Devil, Hell, and Sin, and the wickedness of sexual intercourse unless palliated by marriage. His knowledge of world events is derived from the News of the World, on other days he has no time to read the papers. He believes that when he dies he will (with luck) enter into eternal bliss. At present, however, his greatest dread is that by displeasing his employer in some trifle, he may become unemployed. B’s trouble is plainly lack of leisure in which to cultivate freedom. C does not suffer from this. He is an unemployed middle-aged man. He is free for 24 hours a day. He is free to go
[Marxism-Thaxis] Fundamental difference: Estranged Labour has individual life as its purpose; self-interested individual, etc.
The role of the existential sensibility in one's overall world view and trajectory is vital to understand, as well as the appropriation of the metaphysical/epistemological baggage to support one's projects. The modern period, which of course witnesses the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, the rebellion against feudal authority, clericalism, and metaphysics, and the emergence of the bourgeoisie, also sees the emergence of the individual as a self-conscious entity. ^^^ CB: Not surprising. The individual gets irritated or alienated out by capitalist estrangement .( See Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 on this alienation or estrangement process) Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. Karl Marx Estranged Labour http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm In estranging from man (1) nature, and (2) himself, his own active functions, his life activity, estranged labor estranges the species from man. It changes for him the life of the species into a means of individual life. First it estranges the life of the species and individual life, and secondly it makes individual life in its abstract form the purpose of the life of the species, likewise in its abstract and estranged form CB: Estrangement produces the modern self-interested individual type among masses, not just in the ruling class, the bourgeoisie. Thus, in trying to raise working class class consciousness, Marxism has relied, paradoxically , majorly on appeal to material self-interest of individuals as a _class_ . It is difficult to avoid this riddle given the generalization of pursuit of self-interest among the masses of workers by the estrangement process. The mythical American right of pursuit of happiness reflects this. Economics' rational man reflects this. I think this issue underlies a lot of what Ted Winslow on LBO-Talk essays constantly. The rational or selfish or self-interested individual who is only in elite classes down through other modes of production in history becomes general among masses , among the wretched of the earth, with capitalist estrangement. In a sense, it makes masses of workers petit bourgeois in their ideology. This is in the sense that the bourgeoisie ,of course, have an unabashed ideology of selfishness, material self interestedness, personal and individual greed. Justification , rationalization of rich people's greed is the first cause of the purveyance and mass supply of various abstract Individualisms or individual primacy or individual determinist theories etc among the intelligentsia (organic intellectuals) of bourgeois society ( Existentialism, Libertarianism, Reaganism, Tea Partying, positivism, economic rational man, Economic Robinsinades, Christian infinite individual Soul, Monotheism, Freudianism, Hollywood personality cults, (Individual) Survival television shows, etc.). The mass demand for these forms of consciousness, the mass consumption is generated by the Estranged Labour process ___ 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] What Would You Do With a Trillion Dollars?
What Would You Do With a Trillion Dollars? | CommonDreams.org www.commondreams.org PHILADELPHIA - January 6 - The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and National Priorities Project (NPP) are preparing to announce the six lucky winners of If I Had a Trillion Dollars (IHTD), a national video contest which asks young people to convey how they would spend the more than $1 tr ___ 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] The Not So Great Islamist Menace
The Not So Great Islamist Menace By Dan Gardner, ...Islamists? They were behind a grand total of one attack. Yes, one. Out of 294 attacks in Europe last year. Ottawa January 5, 2011 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/great+Islamist+menace/4058778/story.html See More The not so great Islamist menace www.ottawacitizen.com ___ 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] India
Book Review - India Calling - By Anand Giridharadas www.nytimes.com An exploration of fundamental changes in family and class relationships, and in the very idea of what it is to be Indian. ___ 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] Universal Races Congress 1911
This July will mark the centennial of the Universal Races Congress? Does anyone know of any scholarly commemorations in the works? ___ 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] On Paul Samuleson as a tragic figure
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/varoufakis030111.html Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math Browse the web faster. Download Chrome Browse the web as fast as you think. Give Google Chrome a try http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d27c0929e92e54aeacst05vuc ___ 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
