Re: [Marxism] Slow news day
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 23.01.2011 16:27, Marv Gandall wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > > http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE70M0QC20110123 > I'm sure that nobody on this list is surprised that the Turkey - sorry Turkel - Commission has given the Israeli "Defence" Force a clean bill of health. Einde O'Callaghan 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] HTML versus plain text?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 21.01.2011 13:39, Louis Proyect wrote: >> >> (God! How I wish Louis would get with the program and allow the rest of >> us to post HTML instead of text-only, even if he continues to insist on >> using emacs or whatever). >> > > Any thoughts on this from comrades? > I prefer plain text for email - I understand there are security issues with HTML - even if HTML is enabled I'll probably set things so that the text is displayed only as plain text. I see no particular advantage in HTML email. Einde O'Callaghan 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] YouTube - An Irishman abroad tells it like it is
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 19.12.2010 18:50, Bill Stephens wrote: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koY6kXhQDQo&feature=player_embedded > What this man has to say is much more important than any bullshit that Bono spouts. 1,256,557 views so far! Einde O'Callaghan 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] Bono bullshit, chapter 473
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 19.12.2010 10:26, Nick Fredman wrote: > > By associating with the major league tax avoider Forbes, Bono is not only > betraying the poor and oppressed, but the entire human race, as revealed by > the fearless Michael Moore ... > That Bono is a shit is no surprise to those of us who've followed his political statements over the decades. B9ono has always associated himself with those in power and has never ever been a radical of any sort and so it's pointless to talk of betrayal. Bono's up there with Mother Theresa as one of the greatest hypocritical pious shitbags of recent history. Einde O'Callaghan 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] re : moderator's note
n strategy - particularly when applied to the religion of one of the most oppressed sections of the population in the Western imperialist heartlands. Of course, when attempting to build links with oppressed people with strong religious views it's possible to make mistakes, to go to the other extreme of describing a particular religion as especially anti-capitalist or whatever. But the fact that leftists as individuals or organisations may have made errors in this direction in the past or in the present doesn't mean that the opposite attitude of refusing to work together with people who have strong religious views is a constructive one. Einde O'Callaghan P.S. I've written this to clarify the importance of this discussion, which is far too important for us in the European left to become a taboo topic on a Marxist list. As there are various traditions on the approach to religion on the left, it doesn't help to descend to hurling insults at each other. the point is to clarify where people are coming from and to fraternally (or sororally if you prefer) work out which traditions are a shackle on the further development of the struggle. 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] The struggle in Britain
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 14.12.2010 09:11, Gary MacLennan wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > I have been reading Richard Seymour's blog Lenin's tomb which Lou first > introduced me to on this list. Seymour is compulsory reading imho for > anyone trying to get a grasp of what is happening in London and the rest of > Britain. > > Today I had a discussion with an old friend from the Civil Liberties > Struggle here in Brisbane in the 1970s. He expressed the view that the > incident with the Royal Car was a mistake and very counter productive. I > have no way of known if that is correct or not from this distance. Initially > I had been inclined to take a similar view in that it handed the State a > propaganda weapon. But the situation is Britain is so serious that the > danger for the ruling class is that such attacks on privilege may actually > be normalised. At a certain stage in the struggle the people move ahead of > the leaders. That may be what is happening now. > The action against the royals' Rolls was a totally spontaneous action - I suspect something similar would have happened to any Rolls Royce that drove into the middle of a crowed escaping from a police riot. It's typical of this family's arrogance that they thought that they could drive through Central London in the middle of clashes between demonstrators and police without attracting the kind of attention they got. Apparently, Chaz even joked about getting through unscathed to guests attending a soirée at his palace shortly before the incident occurred! Einde O'Callaghan 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] Is Lou losing it too or What ever happened to the usual 'rot in hell' send ofl?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 14.12.2010 09:20, Gary MacLennan wrote: > > Official: U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke > dies<https://mail.google.com/news/afghanistan/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/12/13/us_obit_holbrooke> I get a 404 error message for that link! Einde O'callaghan 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] Lenin's Tomb on Hayek
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11.11.2010 16:57, Shane Mage wrote: > > On Nov 11, 2010, at 9:12 AM, Louis Proyect wrote: > > Richard Seymour wrote: "In chapter three of The Constitution of > Liberty, Hayek lays out of the neoliberal conception of 'progress'. In > this, he was consistent with previous rightist thought by conceiving > of 'progress' not as a movement toward a desired end, but as the > constant, rapid accumulation of capital in its various forms, with no > agreed end " > > There is nothing "neoliberal" about that--it is simply Marx's theory > of the driving force of capitalism, "accumulate, accumulate--that is > Moses and The Prophets" Well, what is "neoliberalism" other than "Kapitalismus pur", as we say here in Germany, without the concessions to the working class that were fought for and won by previous generations? Einde O'Callaghan Exklusiv: Neue E-Mail-Adresse @iPhone.de jetzt verfügbar! Sichern Sie sich jetzt ihre persönliche http://www.iphone.de/iphonemail/index.html?pid=10111947021 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] ISO opposes break with Democratic Party at Berkeley planning committee meeting
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 22.10.2010 01:25, Manuel Barrera wrote: > > Does anyone have more background on these > events?http://wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/berk-s29.shtml > ISO opposes break with Democratic Party at Berkeley planning committee meeting Without knowing the details of the event but knowing the source and their politics and methods, I would assume that the accusation arises from the fact that the ISO and other forces on the planning committee rejected a long list of demands drawn up by the SEP because they were inappropriate for the campaign. For the SEP and their co-thinkers this automatically makes them revisionist betrayers of the working class. End of story. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Trotsky’s Jewish Question
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 19.08.10 19:36, Adam Richmond wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From the Jewish Daily Forward via Heeb http://www.forward.com/articles/130174/ Trotsky’s Jewish Question Opinion By Robert S. Wistrich Robert S. Wistrich is director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of “A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad� (Random House). From Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_S._Wistrich>: 'Robert Solomon Wistrich (April 7, 1945-) is the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the head of the University's Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. Wistrich is "a leading scholar of the history of antisemitism."' Doesn't sound like a particularly "objective" observer of anything to do with socialist attitudes towards Zionism. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Harvard Divests from Israel
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 16.08.10 05:05, stansfield smith wrote: > > is there any other verification of this? I have not seen a word about this on > all the lists I am on that regularly send out emails about Palestine. I would > even think it would make it on yahoo news, as this is something major. For > some reason I cannot access Alandershowirz.com, but I assume he would have > already started a major counteract. Here: <http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=29747> and here: <http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-dumps-israel-etf-buys-turkey-etf-2010-8>, for instance. Einde O'callaghan 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] evolutionary psychology and socialism?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 08.08.10 04:58, L wrote: > > On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 7:58 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > >> For a wonderful puncturing of myths abut "genes," see this lecture by >> Richard Lewontin: >> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we4ZzjKxFHM >> >> > Hmm, that's a fascinating talk. But, even though true and factual (as far as > I know), I don't see how it fundamentally refutes (what little I know) about > evolutionary psychology. I suggest that you study the issue further since you admit that you know little about the subject. A good place to start might be "Alas poor Darwin" edited by Hilary and Steven Rose. The Roses are both Marxists, Steven being involved in brain research and Hilary being a sociologist of science. Stephen J.Gould, the noted evolutionary biologist and historian of science, was also highly critical of evolutionary psychology. In addition to Richard Lewontin other leftist scientists critical of EP include Richard Levins and Leon Kamin. If you look up those mentioned on Wikipedia you'll find extensive publications lists. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Photos from Detroit and Eastern Germany
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 14.07.10 17:23, FWC wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > >> Gulf Mann wrote: > >> Haunting archeological photos worth a look, but the short intros to each >> section contain glaring writing errors. > >> Frank Conway replied: > >> Your post seems to be missing a subject, a verb and an article or two. It >> should read "Those were haunting photos that are worth a look..." It would >> be better, too, to write out "introductions. > >> Gulf Mann wrote: > >> Small, Frank Conway, very small. > >> Einde O'Callaghan wrote: > >> This is a rather petty remark - there's absolutely nothing wrong with the >> sentence, grammatically or idiomatically - I speak as an English teacher. > > > Oh, really? So we are teaching kids to write in sentence fragments these > days? 'Just blurt any old thing out, kid, it ain't important anyway. We tried > communication but it never got us nowhere.' I guess it prepares them for > watching TV, with all those quick cuts they use nowadays, especially in kids' > programming. Lest they have time for critical thinking. In one ear and out > the next news cycle. > What a reactionary crock of elitist shit! I actually teach adults English as a foreign language and I'm speaking based on my experience as a teacher and somebody who's actually studied the way the English language works. Gulf's comment was quite idiomatic and perfectly understandable. The rest of your comments simply aren't worth considering but I do wonder what somebody with your views on education is actually doing frequenting a Marxist forum. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Photos from Detroit and Eastern Germany
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 13.07.10 05:05, FWC wrote: > > Gulf Mann wrote: > >> Haunting archeological photos worth a look, but the short intros>to each >> section contain glaring writing errors. > > Your post seems to be missing a subject, a verb and an article or two. It > should read "Those were haunting photos that are worth a look..." It would be > better, too, to write out "introductions." > This is a rather petty remark - there's absolutely nothing wrong with the sentence, grammatically or idiomatically - I speak as an English teacher. This list contains people from many countries and many of them are non-native speakers of English. Any minor errors they might make are irrelevant as long as they have something to say and the meaning is clear. But in the above case the content is clear and the grammar is totally unobjectionable. There are however a few minor errors (typically German errors) in the introductions to the pictures and it wasn't irrelevant that Gulf should mention it - actually I hope he passed on his comments to the authors of the texts. Einde O'Callaghan Einde O'Callaghan 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] Engels 1890s letters in German online?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 30.06.10 20:22, acpolla...@juno.com wrote: > Hmm, sounds like a job for Einde... :) > Actually Lüko has far more Marx/Engels texts in German at mlwerke.de than we have at MIA - I see it as a division of labour - not that I'm above borrowing texts from Lüko but only if he allows me to do so. Perhaps we can arrange to divide up the important correspondence that isn't yet online - I'm working on Marx's letters to Kugelmann and I've got Engels letters to Conrad Schmidt in the version published by Schmidt in Sozialistische Monatshefte as PDFs but haven't converted them to XHTML yet. Einde >> >>> Is there anywhere where Engels' late letters can be viewed in German >>> online? In particular the letter to Joseph Bloch of September 21, 1890, >>> and that to Walter Borgius on January 25, 1894? >>> 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] John Cleese rants--soccer v. football
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 27.06.10 22:52, ecto...@gmail.com wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > > > > Oh. The commentary stands. I just find it funny Brits get their knickers in a > bunch about a word they created and brought to the US. > In Britain the usual term used is football and soccer is relatively rare (even if it was originally a British coinage), often in contrast to "rugger" (i.e. rugby - another form of football - actually two forms - played in Britain). You still get conservative chauvinistic fuddy-duddies who rant on at great length about the "iniquities" and "barbarisms" of the "degenerate" form of "English" spoken in the former American colonies. Usually the very things they are complaining about were formerly commonly used in England and are often an older form which has fallen out of use in Britain. This attitude is one thing that Cleese is parodying - it's an aspect of his humour in general - the other thing he's getting at is the illogicality of calling the American sport "football" instead of perhaps "handball" or "mayhem" or something similar. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Zionist Federtion of Britain & English Defence League
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Apparently the Zionist Federation of Britain, which is organising a pro-Israel demo today, has welcomed the support of the English Defence League, which, to put it mildly, has close links with the British far right, including fascist organisations not exactly noted for their philo-semitism. I can only say: Birds of a feather ... Einde O'Callaghan 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] German president resigns
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == While our attention is rightfully on the events on the high seas in the eastern Mediterranean, we shouldn't completely ignore developments elsewhere. A significant one is the resignation of the German president, Horst Köhler, complaining of lack of respect for the office of president. The background is an interview he gave on the Whit weekend after a visit to Germkan troops in Afghanistan. In this interview Köhler admitted something that was until then a taboo subject in German politics. This is that German military intervention abroad is based on economic interests. The fairy tale presented normally is that all German military involvement abroad is based purely on humanitarian considereations. Since blurting out the truth in this interview Köhler has been under attack from all the political parties except DIE LINKE, who like the peace movement welcomed the fact that at last somebody had admited the real motives. Anyway the end result is that Köhler resigned today. See here <http://tinyurl.com/38sao4b> (in German) Einde O'Callaghan 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] Flotilla Atrocity
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 31.05.10 09:08, Emrah Goker wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Turkish TV is reporting 16 killed, based on unidentified Israeli resources. > The Islamic "Human Rights Foundation" (IHV with its Turkish abbreviation) > main organizer of the flotilla, was already receiving diplomatic flak from > Israel for "supporting terrorism". > This figure is also quoted in the New York Times: "Channel 10, a private station in Israel, quoted the Israeli Trade Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, as saying between 14 and 16 people had been killed." <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/middleeast/01flotilla.html?hp> Einde O'Callaghan 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] The Overwhelming Odds Against Darwin
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 19.05.10 13:49, Ken Ranney wrote: > > I don't see the problem. I said "Let us suppose that insects were > the most advanced living creatures", meaning that we were supposing > that life descended from them. I was simply referring to animals who > had no hemoglobin and who, in this supposition, could have been our > antecedents. If I may be permitted a small and picky point, > hemoglobin is also present in earthworms which are of course > invertebrates, though quite different from insects in other respects. > Earthworks have a more recent common ancestor with vertebrates than insects do. Haemoglobin and the mechanisms insect use for getting oxygen to the various parts of their bodyies are the result of different strategies for solving this problem. No insect would ever need to develop haemoglobin as insects have "solved" the problem using a different strategy. That this has follow-on results limiting the size of insects is irrelevant to the question of evolution. I think your use of this example reveals a lack of understanding of what evolution actually is. Einde O'Callaghan 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] The Overwhelming Odds Against Darwin
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 17.05.10 04:59, Shane Mage wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > > On May 16, 2010, at 8:56 PM, Ken Ranney wrote: >> >> Please do not confuse our paper with fundamentalist >> Christianity. The fact that Darwin was wrong does not mean that God, >> if indeed there is a God, created life. We simply do not know how >> life came into being. > > Then why not admit, *like Darwin* that we simply do not know in any > full sense the various mechanisms producing inheritable variation? > I agree with Shane here. IIRC Darwin "merely" observed that there was variation, that this variation was inherited and that there were differences in the survival rates of offspring over generations, leading eventually to speciation. He didn't now anything about the mechanisms since he knew nothing of the genetics of inheritance nd he had nothing to say about how variation occurred in nature. The genetics was unravelled by Mendel, who is rightly judged to be the father of modern genetics. This knowledge has been refined over the last century or so but we still don't know what the mechanisms governing variation of the genetic code or how the genetic code is "translated" into various individuals let, alone how it governs individual features despite the claims of many geneticists to have found the gene for this, that and the other. To blame all this on Darwin and say the fact that we don't understand the mechanisms proves that Darwin is wrong on the basis of some statistical analysis of the odds seems to me to be totally missing the point. But if it keeps people happily occupied, I don't suppose there's any great harm in it - unless it's being used to advance the creationist agenda. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 16.05.10 22:30, Louis Proyect wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Einde O'Callaghan wrote: >> Well there was the Holy Roman Empire, which was all in the German >> speaking parts of Europe - and for most of its existence it didn't have >> a particularly strong central power. Admittedly for a while in the Mddle >> Ages it included parts of what is now Italy. But in general historically >> an empire was a state whose head of state had the title emperor - it >> didn't necessarily have any external colonies. > > The real distinction is between precapitalist and capitalist empires, > but even within the category precapitalist there is nothing that Brazil > and the Ottoman Empire had in common. The Ottomans extracted tribute > across a 5000 mile spread and nearly penetrated into Western Europe. > That is of course one of the problems with the term imperialism since it means both pertaining to an empire (no matter what the mode of production - this being the everyday mening of the word) and a stage of capitalist development which in its initial phases was connected with territorial domination (as in the everyday sense of the word) but which continued to develop after the ending of the direct territorial occupation (at least in most cases) - this being the meaning in Marxist discourse (and for certain bourgeois economists too - e.g. Hobson). Einde O'Callaghan 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] Lenin's Imperialism, was: Question on the Far Right
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 16.05.10 21:58, Louis Proyect wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Tom Cod wrote: >> Brazil referred to itself this way not just metaphorically because of its >> immense size but also because from 1822-1889 it was presided over by a >> constitutional monarch denominated as an Emperor which Brazil had two of: >> Dom Pedro I and Dom Pedro II > > And what countries were part of its empire? Just because it called > itself an empire and the head of state was an emperor, this does not > make it an imperial power. France, Holland, Britain and the USA to a > lesser degree were imperial powers, not Brazil. > Well there was the Holy Roman Empire, which was all in the German speaking parts of Europe - and for most of its existence it didn't have a particularly strong central power. Admittedly for a while in the Mddle Ages it included parts of what is now Italy. But in general historically an empire was a state whose head of state had the title emperor - it didn't necessarily have any external colonies. Einde O'Callaghan 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] TV report on Dublin protest
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Television report on the protest in Dublin last night: <http://www.tv3.ie/shows.php?request=tonightwithvincentbrowne> Einde O'Callaghan 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] New Labour
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11.05.10 02:37, Ron Cohen wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > > In what way those are organic connections? membership? representation in > party conferences? participation in branches activities? there are > almost none of those. membership dropped to record low, branches are > empty, conferences are PR events with very little, if at all, working > class participation. the only "organic" connection, if you may call it > that, are TU donations, which are also bitterly opposed by the members - > e.g. the royal mail members of the CWU. > Just to clarify: The affiliated trade unions have 50% (i.e., half) of the delegates at Labour Party Conferences. How these are selected varies from union to union, but most British trade unions do have some semblance of democracy. On a local level affiliated trade unions are represented on the General Management Committees that run the constituency parties. This structure does mean that there are differences between the British Labour Party and the US Democratic Party - even if the ideology adopted by the party leaderships has similarities. Recognising the links between the Labour party and the unions isn't to say that entering the Labour Party is the way forward for the British Left - indeed the experience of recent decades is that when revolutionaries join the Labour Party the Labour Party changes them far more than they change the Labour Party. Einde O'Callaghan 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] DIE LINKE with 6% in the latest prognoses of the election result in North Rhine Westphalia
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11.05.10 00:49, Nestor Gorojovsky wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > >> >> I hope that answers your question. >> Einde O'Callaghan >> > > > Thoroughly. Thank you, Einde. > Victor Grossman's summary on the MRZine site is quite perceptive: <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/grossman100510.html> Einde O'Callaghan 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] Lenin's Tomb on the British vote
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 09.05.10 23:29, S. Artesian wrote: > > How does supporting something that doesn't even measure up to the politics, > the level of struggle of the popular front amount to favorable circumstance > for building resistance to cuts? > I'm sorry - I don't see how discussing what possibilities exist for organising resistance amounts to endorsement of any of the possible government combinations. Whether a Lib-Lab would be the best option for organising resistancve is something that I can't judge as I haven't been in Britain for over a decade and can't really judge what the state of the class is. But I still think that it is legitimate for lefitsts discuss which bourgeois government would offer the best constellation for organising resistance without being accused of being supporters of one of these constellations. Einde O'Callaghan Einde O'Callaghan 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] Lenin's Tomb on the British vote
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 09.05.10 21:38, S. Artesian wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Geez, that's disappointing. When push comes to shove, it appears comrade > Seymour can do no better than run back into Labor's arms. > > I wish I could say "unbelievable," but it's all too believable. > > Exactly how does even a mercilessly critical support of a Lib-Lab coalition > differ from a popular front? > > Guess what, only in that it would be less left-wing; less popular, and more > of a front. > On my reading of the article I don't think Richard is arguing for support for a Lib-Lab coalition but rather discussing out loud which of the obnoxious alternatives on offer would provide the most favourable circumstances for building resistance to the cuts that the ruling class will inevitably try to impose to make the workers pay for the bosses' crisis. But I'm sure that Richard will probably be able to defend himself better than I can. Einde O'Callaghan 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] DIE LINKE with 6% in the latest prognoses of the election result in North Rhine Westphalia
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == According to the latest prognoses DIE LINKE have got about 6% in the state elections in North Rhine Westphalia, the largest state in Germany. If this result holds up during the count the party will have about 12 seats in the next Landtag. Einde O'Callaghan 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] British Election
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 07.05.10 19:30, Steve Palmer wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Oh, the bourgeois-butt-kissing British 'left' again ... > > "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day" > > What exactly makes these lefties? > What is their position on the wars? At least Corbyn and Jackson have opposed the Iraq war and also, I think, Afghanistan - I'm not certain about the rest. > On the four 'anti-terrorism' acts introduced by the Labour government? Corbyn has a long and honourable history of opposing all "anti-terrorist" legislation - I'm not certain about the rest. > On immigration? > The ability of the cops to hold for 28 days before producing 'terror' > suspects in court? > The countless other acts which New Labour introduced to create a police state? > Continued occupation of Ireland and other colonies? > Corbyn was a supporter of the Troops Out Movement (Ireland) and supported the H Block hunger strikers. I'm not certain about the rest. > Ie, all those things us 'ultra-lefties' are concerned about. > > Or are they just 'not as bad as Brown', who is 'not as bad as Cameron' etc? > > Please do give us a robust defence of these champions of the working class, > standing in such robustly working-class districts as ... as ... as ... > Hampstead! > I knew Corbyn when I lived in North London and he could always be relied on to support strikes, immigrants threatened with deportation, campaigns against police repression. His one fatal flaw was and is his belief that you can actually achieve some sort of progressive change through the Labour Party. As for Glenda Jackson's constituency: Those who know anything about geography of North London will know that the constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn not only includes the relatively small bourgeois enclave of Hampstead Village but also large swathes of rundown working class housing estates - which are the traditional base of the Labour Party in that constituency - and Kilburn is one of the archetypical working class immigrant areas (mainly Irish). So knee-jerk reactions to the name Hampstead are not called for. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Moderator's note
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 22.04.10 00:35, Dan wrote: > > In Sate and Revolution, Lenin is engaged in countering both > Social-Democratic AND "anti-authoritarian" views. This two-prong aspect > is present throughout the text. He endeavours to find out Marx's views > on the State by examining his writings. In doing so, Lenin correctly > states that Marx considered the State to be a mechanism, brought about > by the material relationships of production, for a certain class to > exploit another. He then goes on to argue that the State apparatus must > be taken over because it cannot be destroyed until the specific mode of > production has not been superseeded with another. > I'm sorry - the second statement simply isn't true. Lenin followed Marx in believing that the capoitalist state had to be destroyed. He also followed Marx in believing that the capitalist state had to be replaced by a proletarian state during the period of transition that Marx and Engels had dubbed the "dictatorship of the proletariat". I begin to suspect that Dan has never read Lenin's State and Revolution (nor the wordks by Marx and Engels that are the basis of the exposition in S&R) and is relying on inaccurate summaries by opponents, otherwise whe wouldn't make such glaring errors. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 12.04.10 00:17, Louis Proyect wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > >> >> Not your most original contribution, but it fits quite well with their "hide >> behind front groups" and "con the working class towards socialism down the >> road with transitional demands" approach to politics. >> > > I would regard it as a major step forward if they dropped the > hammer-and-sickle, proletarian mumbo-jumbo in and of itself. > The British SWP has never used the hammer-and-sickle as an emblem. The fist-symbol used by the party was originally created by an SWP member for the first Tom Robinson Band album and then adopted by the party. When the group was called IS it used another fist emblem. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Open Letter to German Left Party (Die Linke) - from members lof the Israeli left
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11.04.10 06:30, Dennis Brasky wrote: Just to make clear, the letter addressed to DIE LINKE comes from members of teh Israeli left, which is what makes it significant. Einde O'Callaghan >> >> >> The decision to send this letter was taken following repeated reports of >> your party's actions on the situation in Israel/Palestine. The participation >> of senior members of your party in a January 2009 demonstration in Berlin in >> support of the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the existence and >> acceptance of a political working group within your party (Bundesarbeitkreis >> [BAK] Shalom) that clearly supports Israel's various military actions and >> disseminates militaristic and nationalistic propaganda, and the silence of a >> majority of senior party officials concerning the Israeli occupation policy >> clarified for us, amongst other things, the need for clear intervention on >> our part. . . . The state of Israel should not be rewarded for its >> occupation, its racist separation, and its war crimes. Only international >> policy which makes clear to Israel that violations of international law are >> not tolerated will succeed in promoting a just peace for all residents of >> this land. Several concrete demands that your party could promote include: * >> Cessation of all German arms exports to Israel. . . . * Blocking of the >> upgrade in trade relations between the European Union and Israel. . . . * >> Total prohibition of the import of Israeli goods made in part or whole in >> the occupied Palestinian territory (including East Jerusalem) to the EU. . . >> . * Support for trials of those who committed war crimes in Israel/Palestine >> and implementation of the recommendations in the Goldstone Report. * Support >> for civil society organizations and activists in Israel/Palestine, >> particularly for leaders of the popular and non-violent struggle against the >> Wall and settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. >> >> full - >> http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/left100410.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
Re: [Marxism] I am not making this up
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 28.03.10 16:58, S. Artesian wrote: > > Below: Complete text of an article from the WSJ of 3/26 that had my wife > [shiksa goddess] and myself roaring with laughter as I read it aloud at the > breakfast table, [my comments in brackets]: > Thanks for that - I also had a good laugh! Einde O'Callaghan 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] Perry Anderson idiocy on China
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > > Is it? Anderson's perspective may have seemed out of place, even > "pessimistic", on the heels of Seattle, but I'll still defend Renewals and > would argue that it has been largely vindiciated. Quoting Elliott's > excellent "Ends in Sight": > > A more balanced rejoinder to ‘Renewals’ came from > the French Trotskyist Gilbert Achcar. > Ehhhm - in case you didn't notice the piece posted by Louis is actually by the very same Gilbert Achcar. Einde O'Callaghan > On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 4:14 PM, Louis Proyect wrote: >> >> >> This is a good analysis: >> >> Issue 88 of INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM JOURNAL Published Autumn 2000 >> >> The 'historical pessimism' of Perry Anderson >> GILBERT ACHCAR >> 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] German 'Anti-Germans' At It Again
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Paul Flewers wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Einde O'Callaghan wrote about the Anti-Germans: > > 'In my opinion, what connects all of these with Zionism is the acceptance of > the old "völkisch" concept of race or nation - a concept they share also > with the Nazis - but unlike the Nazis for the Antideutschen the Germans are > a particularly despicable "race" - "self-hating" Germans, so to speak... For > them all Germans regardless of whether they fought Nazism or not, and > regardless of whether they were born or not, are guilty of the Holocaust and > have no right to criticise Israel, which for them is the representative of > all Jews. However they have recently moved towards a position where not even > Jews - or even Israeli Jews - are permitted to criticise Israel or its > government no matter what the Israeli government does.' > > Some questions come to my mind about these strange folk. Do they explain how > and why the Germans came to be eternal anti-Semites? How did other 'races' > or 'nations' come to be different in their attitude towards Jews? Do they > understand the consequences of their adopting racial politics? Have they > stated unto how many generations are the Germans to be condemned? Are the > German people actually redeemable, and if not what then? And if the > anti-Germans are indeed German, how did they manage to escape being eternal, > hard-wired anti-Semites? > To be quite honest, I haven't gone into the depths of what they call theorybecause it's like trying to swim in blancmange - an obscure mishmash of post-modernism und wilful obscurity. When confronted with their ideas I try to point out the absurdity of accepting the same categories as the extreme right in this discourse. And of ourse, I also point to the pracrical consequences of their apporach, which is essentially to end up supporting American imperialism using argumetns against German imperialism - neglecting the fact that in almost all issues German imperialism aligns itself with American imperialism anyway so they end up supporting German imperialism anyway - a result ypou could almost call dialectical, if it wasn't so absurd. > Now, if they think that Germans are indeed eternal Jew-haters, the logical > conclusion of anti-Germanism is that the Germans should be marooned on some > inaccessible island or otherwise quarantined. > I'm sure that some of them would take this position - indeed that would appear to be the implication of this "Gruppe Morgenthau" if they really stand by the position of their "mentor". Einde O'Callaghan 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] German 'Anti-Germans' At It Again
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
Paul Flewers wrote:
>
> This is an interesting piece on the bizarre antics of the German
> 'anti-Germans'.
>
> Of special interest is this: 'This [support for US Iraq and Afghan wars --
> PF] has led the Gruppe Morgenthau, an “anti-Nazi” group that vilifies
> “liberal” Israeli Jews, to call for the lifting of “anti-racist taboos”. The
> Anti-German newspaper Bahamas has praised Jean-Marie Le Pen of the French
> far right Front National for his “rational objections… to unlimited
> Islamisation”, and a Bahamas author - Martin Blumentritt - has described
> criticism of the West as “the propagation of a racial struggle against the
> ‘white race’”.
>
> It's fascinating that there is a 'Gruppe Morgenthau'; named after the US
> politician who recommended turning Germany into a giant farm after the
> Second World War, something which, if put into practice, would have meant
> his being a kind of Pol Pot avant la letter, destroying what was left of
> German culture after the depredations of Hitler and the damage caused by the
> war, not to mention finishing off the German working class, Hitler's first
> victim.
>
> If this report is accurate, one can see the trend of anti-Germans moving
> from the left to the right, into the realm of the Neo-Cons. That would not
> surprise me, they would be following the course set by the so-called decent
> Left in Britain and the USA.
>
> Can any of our German list members comment upon this?
>
I'm not familiar with the "Gruppe Morgenthau" but the "Antideutschen"
("Anti-Germans") run around on anti-fascist demonstrations with Israeli
flags and organise small counter-protests against peace demonstartiosn -
in Berlin they can often be seen "defending" the American Embassy during
peace anti-war demonstrations. I have long ceased to consider the more
extreme Antideutschen as anything to do with the left - except in the
sense of the fact taht some of their "theoreticians" once had some
left-wing "credentials".
However, their ideas do have quite a lot of influence on the autonomist
left and through this on sections of DIE LINKE that are influenced by
autonomist ideas.
In my opinion, what connects all of these with Zionism is the acceptance
of the old "völkisch" concept of race or nation - a concept they share
also with the Nazis - but unlike the Nazis for the Antideutschen the
Germans are a particularly despicable "race" - "self-hating" Germans, so
to speak. This is why a "Gruppe Morgenthau" is quite plausible for me.
For them all Germans regardless of whether they fought Nazism or not,
and regardless of whether they were born or not, are guilty of the
Holocaust and have no right to criticise Israel, which for them is the
representative of all Jews. However they have recently moved towards a
position where not even Jews - or even Israeli Jews - are permitted to
criticise Israel or its government no matter what the Israeli government
does.
This is the background to the recent campaign against Finkelstein and
earlier campaigns against Ilan Pappe and Felicia Langer. I'm sure that
if Noam Chomsky or Uri Avnery were to come to Germany, they would be
subjected to the same vilification by the Antideutschen and those
influenced by their ideas.
Einde O'Callaghan
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Re: [Marxism] Facebook
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Mark Lause wrote: > > These things are tools not "communities." > > The same's true of this email list. > I agree - we found Facebook very useful in the preparation for our blockades of the Nazis in Dresden last Saturday. When the state prosecutor tried to criminalise the movement ordering police raids of coordinating offices and bullying the Internet provider to shut down our organising website, we were able to use Facebook to keep one another informed and to organise resistance to this criminalisation process. We were also able to resp0ond quickly to developments. On teh day, of course, Facebook wasn't so useful. But it was possible to keep demonstrators informed using the new technology - mainly for me the WAP-ticker that kept us informed of what was happening at the other blockades and enabled people to avoid running into groups of fascist thugs by warning where they were. Other people were using Twitter, but I can't comment on that as I wasn't using it. Of course, using the technology was only a tool. Success depended on a lot of old-fashioned mobilising and networking, organising buses etc. An Internet campaign alone wouldn't have mobilised teh forces we needed. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Facebook
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis Proyect wrote: > I also learned that "Einde O'Callaghan commented on John Mullen's > status". That makes my day, knowing that. > Glad to know that I'm helping to make you happy. ;-) Einde 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] DAILY SHOW on socialist medicine....
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == brad bauerly wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Just so you know, those links to TV shows don't work outside the US. I usually have no problems when I watch clips from the Daily Show. This isn't the case with all American TV show links, but most do work. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Minimal philosophy reading list?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Rosa Lichtenstein wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > Except, comrades will find not one dialectical concept in such an account of > the evolution of the eye. > > And no wonder, they make not one ounce of sense. > Actually you'll find some very interesting discussions of dialectics in the writings of Stephen J. Gould, Lev Lewontin and Steven Rose - all practising biologists in different fields. Indeed IIRC one of Lewontin's books is called "The Dialectical Biologist" - I don't think you can get more direct than that! Einde O'Callaghan 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] fwd from Rosa Lichtenstein
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Erik Toren wrote: > > Where are the mods? > She's only been here for less than an hour, Erik! ;-) Einde O'Callaghan 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] Howard Zinn is dead
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Howard Zinn has just died of a heart attack at the age of 87. Einde O'Callaghan 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] 1st international
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Shane Mage wrote: > > On Jan 22, 2010, at 1:19 PM, Einde O'Callaghan wrote: >> Louis Proyect wrote: >> >>> At least with the Cliffites, >>> you get genuflection to the first 30 days of the Russian >>> revolution or something like that. >> Until 1928 the state remained a workers' state - although isolation >> necessarily led to distortions before that. >> > > > Why 1928? The Soviet State was still basically composed of veterans > of the 1917 proletarian revolution, and they were not eliminated until > the bloody 1935-1938 Purges > when a new class of bureaucrats were coopted into state and economic > power. > 1928-29 with the collectivisation of agriculture and the forced industrialisation of the First 5-Year Plan atomised the party and coincided with the destruction of the last opposition in the the party. This marked the shift from at least attempting to meet the consumption needs of the working class to the subordination of everything to accelerated accumulation. In the process both the working class and the proletariat were atomised. As for the veterans - increasingly the veterans were swamped by the new bureaucrats - even in Lenin's time most of teh state bureaucracy consisted of former Tsarist functionaries - the Lenin levy massively reduced the specific weight of the veterans in the party - and increasingly former Mensheviks were replacing Old Bolsheviks in important functions. And finally "social being determines consciousness" - acting as bureaucrats with little of no control from below leads to changes in consciousness among the bureaucrats, who no longer see the struggle for socialism as the conscious act of the working class. For the bureuacrats the workers become instruments of a ruling bureaucracy instead ocf actors in their own right. Of course such an upheaval didn't take palace all at once - it took over 10 years for the situation to stabilise again. That's a very crude summary - you can read about it in the literature, a lot of which is available online at MIA. Einde O'Callaghan P.S. As I said I've no desire to start another debate here about the origins of Stalinism. 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] [microsound] History of the Marxist internationals (part 1, the IWA)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == New Tet wrote: > > And we ought not to forget, either, the homophobia of one of > our own more prominent Socialists: > > "Understandable is the position of those who, deeply offended by > certain distasteful aspects of our public and private life, endeavor > to make the fullest use of the criminal code to remedy these evils > and wipe them off the face of the earth." --August Bebel > > http://www.marxists.org/archive/bebel/1898/01/13.htm > [It appears that in the heading of this MIA article Bebel is lauded as > a champion of gay rights!]; > The fact is that despite his personal feelings Bebel consistently opposed anti-gay legislation. Marx and Engels also made disparaging remarks not only about gays but also about blacks in their personal correspondence. These people weren't saints, but were products of their times. What we have to judge them on is their actions and their public statements, not their personal prejudices. Einde O'Callaghan 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] New Daniel Bensaid Archive at MIA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == sandia wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > >> We've got some more >> texts but would be grateful for any more in digital form, particularly >> from earlier in his career. > > Here is a well-known piece of his: > > http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj95/bensaid.htm > Thank you I've got that already and am working on it. Einde O'Callaghan 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] New Daniel Bensaid Archive at MIA
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Marxists' Internet Archive (MIA) has started an archive for texts written by the recently deceased Daniel Bensaid and published in English. The archive can be found at <http://www.marxists.org/archive/bensaid/index.htm>. We've got some more texts but would be grateful for any more in digital form, particularly from earlier in his career. Einde O'Callaghan (for MIA) 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] ...तो हम कभी नह ीं ठिठकेंगे
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == reyaz-ul-haque wrote: > > ...तो हम कà¤à¥€ नहीं > ठिठ> केंगे<http://hashiya.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post_7071.html> > *देश अपने गणतंतà¥à¤° के 60 वें > वरà¥à¤· में अपने ही नागरिकों के > खिलाफ छेड़े गठदरà¥à¤œà¤¨ > à¤à¤° से अधिक यà¥à¤¦à¥à¤§à¥‹à¤‚, लगà¤à¤— à¤à¤• > अघोषित आपातकाल, लाखों किसानी > आतà¥à¤®à¤¹à¤¤à¥à¤¯à¤¾à¤“ं और à¤à¤• > अदद इरोम शरà¥à¤®à¥€à¤²à¤¾ के साथ दाखिल > हो रहा ही. इरोम ने अपने अनशन के > दस वरà¥à¤·à¥‹à¤‚ में > इस लोकतंतà¥à¤° का रेशा-रेशा > उजागर किया है, किसी > अरà¥à¤¥à¤¶à¤¾à¤¸à¥à¤¤à¥à¤°à¥€, नेता, आनà¥à¤¦à¥‹à¤²à¤¨, > समाज विजà¥à¤žà¤¾à¤¨à¥€, ने नहीं किया > है. इस शानदार पà¥à¤°à¤¤à¤¿à¤°à¥‹à¤§ पर > शोमा चौधरी का यह > शानदार आलेख, तहलका > <http://www.blogger.com/goog_1140931888589> से > साà¤à¤¾à¤°<http://tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne051209irom_and.asp> > .* > Whatever about the loccasional post in Spanish, I'm afraid that this post in Hindi, Urdu or some other Indian language will defeat the vast majority of Marxmail readers. Einde O'Callaghan 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] state capitalism (was)Re: Conspiracy and History
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dayne Goodwin wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > i think the phrase "state capitalism" can be confusing because of its > various usages. > at least some of the usages are along these lines: > > * "state capitalism" is used in a general sense by many scholars and > journalists to describe a variety of capitalist societies where the state > owns/controls a big chunk of the economy. > > * "state capitalism" was a phrase used by Lenin to describe the > social-economic situation in 'Russia' in 1921-22 after Bolshevik government > survived counterrevolutionary civil war. Lenin also used the phrase in a > general theoretical sense as a description of the social-economic condition > transitional from capitalism to socialism. > > * In late 1940s, apparently independently from each other, Tony Cliff in UK > and partnership of Raya Dunayevskaya and CLR James in U.S. (from within the > Trotskyist tendency of the marxist movement) developed a distinctive > analysis that the USSR was a stabilized variant of capitalist society with > CP bureaucracy as the capitalist ruling class. The particular political > organizations built around their/this theory are called "state capitalist" > by both proponents and opponents. > > * now "state capitalism" is being used to describe societies, i.e. China, > where a 'socialist' state is fostering capitalism, privatization of the > economy I would maintiin that there is a connection between all four usages you refer to - it's encapsulated in the first usage, i.e. the state functioning as a capitalist. you could say in one sense that atate capitalism is "transitional", in the sense that it is an expression of the socialisation of production (as Engels described it in "Anti-Dühring" IIRC) butn under conditions where "bourgeois richt" is still dominant. Whether in any of the usages the society so described is really a society in transition from capitalism to socialism is the nub of the debate. Incidentally the political tendency associated with Tony Cliff never used the term exclusively to refer to the Soviet Union and its "clones" and "imitators" - that was described as "bureaucratic state capitalism" - for these theoreticians "state capitalism" (a fusion of state and capital) was a particular phase in the development of capitalism as described initially in particular in Bukharin's "Imperialism and World Economy". The writings on the late Chris Harman attempted to show how these tendencies continue - in a different form - under the so-called "withdrawal of the state from the economy" in the recent neoliberal phase associated with such phenomena as "globalisation" and "privatisation". It's not my intention here to start a debate on these issues here - I don't have the time to do so - just to clarify the issue of definition raised by Dayne G. Einde O'Callaghan 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] Engels' biography
Links to a number of reviews of Tristram Hunt's Engles biography, "The Frock-Coated Communist", have been posted in recent weeks. Now a review has appeared in the new International Socialism: An Engels for the bourgeoisie Issue: 124 Posted: 1 October 09 Katherine Connelly Tristram Hunt, The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels (Allen Lane, 2009), £25.00 Ten years ago Paul Foot wrote a review of Francis Wheen’s engaging and jovial, if somewhat lightweight, biography of Karl Marx. In the review he commented that while most dead left wingers are patronised and rehabilitated by the establishment, “detestation of Karl Marx…has persisted for over a hundred years”. Not so now. A systemic and global crisis of capitalism is so profound that previously smug free-marketeers are looking desperately for answers in the writings of two 19th century communists who said that capitalism is inherently unstable, that crisis is inevitable. The spectre of Marx, which for so long faced an academic wall of silence, is haunting the press, the universities, financial institutions and booklists. For one reviewer of Hunt’s book “the faddish return to Marx visible in sales of some of his books is mostly just a sign of loss of nerve”—embarrassing evidence of his class failing to keep a stiff upper lip. Just as governments have turned to state intervention (albeit to bail out the rich) after years of the mantra “there is no alternative” to laissez-faire capitalism, so we face an ideological somersault from establishment figures who are now writing about Marxism. Tristram Hunt is a product of this contradiction, and perhaps this is why the “contradictions of Hegelian proportions” in the public and private lives of Frederick Engels appeal to him and lie at the heart of his biography The rest at <http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=592&issue=124> Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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 real issue in the Polanski arrest
For me the real issue for me on the Polanski arrest at this particular point of time isn't whether he is innocent or guilty of rape - I have no truck with the type of behaviour he is accused of - or what attitude the woman he forced his attentions on under whatever circumstances while she was underage forgives him or not, but the fact that in country after country people can now be arrested on American warrants and deported to the USA to face the not so tender mercies of the US "justice" system without the substantive case being examined by a court before the deportation. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] American Girl homeless doll only $95 (hairbrush $7 extra)
Pat Costello wrote: > http://www.examiner.com/x-1022-Orlando-Parenting-Examiner~y2009m9d25-American-Girl-introduces-homeless-doll > This can only be described as sick, sick, sick! The commodification of homelessness at prices that the real homeless could never afford. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Cops attack demonstrators at G20 in Pittsburgh
S. Artesian wrote: > Pittsburgh. Other end of the state. > You're right - it's way past my bedtime here in Germany! ;-) > - Original Message ----- > From: "Einde O'Callaghan" > To: "David Schanoes" > Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 5:50 PM > Subject: [Marxism] Cops attack demonstrators at G20 in Philadelphia > > > > > YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/einde%40gmx.de > > > YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Cops attack demonstrators at G20 in Philadelphia
<http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Police_use_gas_to_disperse_G20_protesters.html?siteSect=143&sid=11265276&ty=ti> or <http://tinyurl.com/ybvfvw7> Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Germany's Die Linke shows the way for the left
Lüko Willms wrote: > > As the "doctor at the death bed of capitalism", as Hilferding explained. > The > "socialism" they dream of is the "socialism" of Willy Brandt. > The key question for Marxists in Germany is not whether DIE LINKE is reformist or not, but where Marxists should be active given the weakness of Marxism in Germany. My personal view is that they definitely should not be standing on the sidelines making abstract comments about how inadequate DIE LINKE is. That is a recipe for disaster analogous to the "Class against class!" rhetoric of Third-Period Stalinism - although on a lesser scale given that German Marxists today are not as entrenched in the working class as the KPD was. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Germany's Die Linke shows the way for the left
brad bauerly wrote: > I don't think it really is as simple as either Luko or Einde (sp?) make it > out to be. I haven't maintained that it's simple at all. As a matter of fact it's very difficult as a revolutionary to work out exactly what to do - this is something I know from practical experience intervening in the struggles of and in the party. But abstentionism isn't really an option. It is precisely because of the difficulties that I referred to a forthcoming analysis hwichz goes into the difficulties facing revolutionaries in depth. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Germany's Die Linke shows the way for the left
Lenin's Tomb wrote: > On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Einde O'Callaghan wrote: > >> I feel that both Richard and Lüko have an over-negative attitude to DIE >> LINKE. >> > > Ahem, ahem! It was *sarcasm*. > It must be living in Germany that does it - I'm obviously suffering from an irony deficit! However, I still recommend you - and everybody else - to read Oliver Nachtwey's excellent article in the next ISJ. Einde YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Germany's Die Linke shows the way for the left
Lüko Willms wrote: > > I'll vote for the Pirates next sunday. > Now that's a really r-r-r-r-revolutionary choice, Lüko, considering that both the deputy chairman and then the chairman have been heavily criticised for their openness to the extreme right after giving interviews to Junge Freiheit, a paper well known for its links with extreme right and even fascist politicians. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Germany's Die Linke shows the way for the left
Lenin's Tomb wrote: > On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 8:03 PM, Lüko Willms wrote: > >> The Partei Die Linke shows the way forward? Well, yes, back into bourgeois >> politics. >> > > Yeah, because the working masses have already *abandoned* bourgeois > politics, and the Linke wants to *trick* them back into that old shell > game. > I feel that both Richard and Lüko have an over-negative attitude to DIE LINKE. It is correct that the party is not THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE PARTY OF THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION but adopting an abstentionist attitude to the party is a not very productive way of intervening in the current crisis of German politics. I recommend both Richard and Lüko - and anybody else who is interested - to read the article by Oliver Nachtwey in the forthcoming issue of International Socialism Journal, which has just been translated into English by yours truly. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Victory for campaign against US missile bases in Central Europe
I don't think any comment is necessary: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8262050.stm> Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Texts against Religion
guava tree wrote: > here are some solid books from the 17th century: > Two interesting contemporary general discussions on religion: John Molyneux: More than opium - Marxism & religion <http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=456> Roland Boer: The full story: On Marxism & religion <http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=560> Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] marxist biographies
Mark Lause wrote: > The responses on this thread have so far centered on iconography. I > wonder what this tells us about the extent to which bits of Marxism > wind up subsumed back into the "great man" assumptions about history. > Actually several of the books I and others mentioned attempt to put certain well-known figures into their social and political context. While Soviet hagiographies may have tended to towards the "great man" assumptions I don't think this is necessarily true on non-soviet biographical works. In addition to those dealing with Marxists, which have been mentioned so far, I'd like to add Christopher Hill's biographies of Milton and Cromwell, E.P. Thompson's biography of William Morris and Maxime Rodinson's biography of Muhammad - all of these do indeed deal with major historical figures but they are much more than descriptions of the life of their respective "great man". Redwords has also published a series of short biographical writings cum cultural critiques of a number of major cultural figures - Rembrandt, Mozart, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Diego Rivera, William Blake and Shakespeare are the ones I recall. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Texts against Religion
Paul Papadeas wrote: > Comrades! > > What is a solid list of books that you recommend critiquing organized > religion and/or Christianity (Protestanism in general)- both from the past > and modern? > > I was thinking, Kautsky's Foundations of Christianity as a starter? > > Any help would be greatly appreciated! > I'd like to point out that Kautsky's book, like most Marxist writings on the subject, is an analysis of Christianity not an attack on religion. Marxists do indeed criticise religion but they also recognise why people turn to religion. Marx didn't just say that "Religion is the opium of the people" - meaning primarily that it served as a pain-killer since opium was the primary pain-killer of tha time long before aspirin, paracetamol and the other pain-killers used today. Having said that I would récommend Paul N. Siegel's book "The Meek and the Militant", which includes a chapter on Protestantism and another on more modern phenomena including "born-againism" and other modern sects. although the book pre-dates the modern pre-occupation with "Islamic fundamentalism" it does contain a good introduction to Islam, which IMHO is essential reading. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics
Tom Cod wrote: > and you've got to be a devotee of 'post-modern' dime novels to use CIA like > lingolike POTUS. > No, I'm just copying the abbreviation used by several other posters here because I didn't want to waste time writing it out in full. If the CIA use such terms it's news to me! My point is that outside the US not that many people are aware of the names of most US presidents other than the present one and perhaps his two predecessors. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics
Tom Cod wrote: > You're kidding, who could forget Dick Nixon? I'm afraid that a very Americo-centric statement - perhaps even generational even in the US. There are many people in Europe and elsewhere who have no idea who Richard Nixon was. Outside Britain most people don't even know who Margaret Thatcher was and Ronald Reagan is remembered an old film star at best. Do many Americans remember who was President of France, Chancellor of Germany or Prime Minister of Britain in 1968 - not to mention who was president of South Vietnam or prime minister of Israel or even prime minister of Canada or President of Mexico? George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, somebody called Roosevelt who apparently was president early in the century and again in the 1930s and during World War II and Kennedy - plus Clinton and Bush who are contemporary politicians - are the only American presidents most people remember. Einde O'Callaghan >> Coming back to Woodstock -- how many people dreaming of Woodstock >> and re-hearing its Music can tell who was POTUS then? > >> Cheers, >> Lüko Willms YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Totalitarianism and Mass Rape
Nestor Gorojovsky wrote: > Paddy Apling escribió: > >> Because of his first paragraphs, I will excuse Nestor for the last paragraph >> quoted above, because he has no experience of war > > Well, not of inter-imperialist war. That´s true. > > I know Paddy has that experience, so that I will refrain from any answer. > > But please remember, Paddy, that in my own country and in Latin America > in general, the limits between peace and war can be hazy from time to time. > I would also think that being a resident of Argentina you, Nestor, have experience of the class war (in the literal sense of the word) that by comparison makes the experience of most of us who live in the countries east and west of the North Atlantic fade into insignificance. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Totalitarianism and Mass Rape
waistli...@aol.com wrote: The Soviet armed forces should have not “looted� Germany? Why not? Why should Germany not have been “looted?� To save the German workers? Germany should have been liberated of an equivalent value equal to that in which she took from the Soviet workers as war aggressors. The German army was not filled with capitalist but workers. It is a fact that some Soviet tanks had to throw ammunition over board to fill tanks with “loot.� I do not think this act of “looting� - taking back by force of arms an equal value destroyed by the German fascists, is because of the Patriotic nature of the propaganda campaign to rally the people of the Soviet Union. I believe this was called justice by the men of the Soviet Army and the party was complicit in these actions. Whatever this position represents it has nothing in common with the politics of Lenin, the Bolsheviks or the early Comintern. During the first World War Lenin and the Bolsheviks demanded a peace without reparations or annexations. The Comintern (and teh KPD) opposed the Versailles Treatey among other reasons because it demanded reparations from Germany (i.e. from the whole German people, even though it was the German ruling class that was responsible for taking Germany into teh war) and because a weakening of German industry by removing whole factories also meant a weakening of the German proletariat. After 1945 the Soviet Union annexed those parts of Poland it had occupied under the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939 and "compensated" Polant by giving it an equivalent area of eastern Germany. The removal of factories was a form of reparations - which did indeed weaken the proletariat in the Soviet Zone and set back industry there by about a decade - the British, French and American zones were not subjected to reparations at all (although the French did initially want them and did take over control of Saarland with its coalfields for 10 years). All in all, these policies seem to have little in common with the communism of Lenin, the Bolsheviks and the early Comintern. One final comment, many of the factories dismantled weren't (or indeed couldn't) be reconstructed within the USSR and it simply rotted or rusted. And in one respect the former Soviet Zone (later the GDR) still hasn't recovered - on many sections of the railway system where there had been two sets of tracks (one in each direction) one set was removed and sent to the USSR. Very few of these tracks were ever replaced in GDR times and some of them have still not been replaced today although on those parts of the railway system that haven't been closed down (in the run-up to privatisation) there has been major investment since German reunification. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Totalitarianism and Mass Rape
Nestor Gorojovsky wrote: > Dogan Gocmen escribió: >> To claim that there was a mass rape of women of all age would require to >> show evidence and further qualification. Was is it for example an >> intentional act or a spontaneous act. That there were rapes of German women >> is known and people from east Germany say that. And this is surely not to >> deny. But if claim is made that is was intentionally and consciously >> organised to take revenge on German people this must be shown by evidences. >> > > The below goes for loot also: > > I have NOT stated that mass rape was "intentionally and consciously > organized to take revenge on German people". I haven´t even stated that > there was "a mass rape of women of all age". We agree in that there WAS > a wave of rapes. Period. This is enough. > > Had the war been waged as a war for the extension of socialism, officers > on the field, and every soldier to the last, would have had strict > political orders to repress rapists on the spot. Shootings included, if > necessary. It is politics that leads war, not the other way round. > > They did not have them. It is me who challenges you to produce evidence > to the contrary. > If I recall correctly, during the Russian Civil War, i.e. when the Red Army was under the political leadership of Trotsky, rape was strictly forbidden and harshly punished - up to and including the death penalty. Enforcing this was one of teh roles of the political commissars. When political commissars neglected their duties they were also subject to the harshest penalties - also including the death penalty. By 1945 this was no longer the case - I've come across no reports of soldiers who raped German women being punished for doing so. I've already quoted the article by Ilya Ehrenburg, one of the major propagandists in the Soviet war effort, where he describes Germans as "animals" - not Nazi Germans, not upper-class Germans, but all Germans. This isn't an example of internationalism - and when you describe your enemies as animals then treating them (or their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters) as sub-humans is almost inevitable - and rape (which has a lot to do with power and very little to do with sex as such) is a common consequence. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] "Totalitarianism"
waistli...@aol.com wrote: > No, I have not read Hegel either and have > no desire to because I read him several times and consider him insane. This statement seems to be contradictory - and not in the Hegelian sense. > That > is the contradcition. I read him and he makes no sense. But I stated > publicly years ago I believe all philosophy is a form of insanity. By > definition. > This insanity arises from the metabolic breach in man himself. Philosophy > is a form insanity. > It is difficult to see what this attitude has to do with Marxism in any sense of the word. IIll refrain from commenting on any of the rest of this posting. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Question for German comrades
Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: > A few days ago, one of the major unions in Germany said they wouldn't be > supporting any party in the upcoming general election. In the past, the > union supported the SPD. > > Where is Die Linke's union activity? Can anyone shed more light on this for > me. > *** > I don't mean for this to be a rehash of the many other threads on Die Linke, > just a question. Die LINKE does have some influence in the trade unions, mainly at the lower level, but the overwhelming majority of trade union officials were and still are connected with the SPD. The fact the the IGMetall, one of the bigger unions, has for the first time ever said it won't make a recommendation is a sign of a growing breach between the unions and the SPD, which can onyl be welcomed by socialists and activists. This decision was taken despite the fact that the head of teh union is a member of the national executive of the SPD and the majority of member of teh union executive are also SPD members. It was however among local officials of the IGMetall that one of the initiatives arose that led to the founding of the WASG, which fused with the PDS to form DIE LINKE. IGMetall is the engineering and metal-workers union. Another area where there is some support is in teh public sector workers union, ver.di. In the east a number of prominent trade union officials, some of them originally from the West, have joined DIE LINKE in the recent past. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Mob beats Chinese steel factory executive to death
Fred Feldman wrote: > http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-mob27-2009jul27,0,3235364.story > > Mob beats Chinese steel factory executive to death > Thousands of workers had gathered in northeastern rust belt city of Tonghua > to protest the takeover of their company and threatened layoffs. > July 27, 2009 > A report written from the perspective of the workers: Jilin: Manager beaten to death in steel privatisation battle Tue, 28 Jul 2009. 30,000 workers fighting for jobs and pensions in northeast China chinaworker.info reporters A fight against privatisation and asset-stripping by 30,000 steel workers and retired steel workers in northeastern Jilin province resulted in a boss getting beaten to death on Friday 24 July. The incident has attracted global publicity, as a sign of the explosive social tensions in China as the global capitalist crisis continues. It also undermines government attempts to portray violence in Xinjiang province as exceptional, and the work of outside forces. Around 10,000 workers and 20,000 retired workers have been protesting the sale of state-owned Tonghua Iron & Steel to the private Beijing-based Jianlong Steel Holding Company, which threatened drastic job cuts and loss of pension entitlements. Chen Guojun of Jianlong, the newly named ‘interim general manager’ of Tonghua was beaten to death by workers who had shut down the steel mill to prevent its take-over by Jianlong. Chen enraged a crowd of workers when he announced that staff numbers at Tonghua would be cut from 30,000 to 5,000. During the protest action on Friday 24 July, more than 3,000 workers kept riot police at bay for almost the whole day. The workers occupied the steel mill and also blocked a railway track, preventing supplies reaching the plant, and forcing the company to suspend production for 11 hours. About 100 people were injured in clashes with riot police, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said. “Chen disillusioned workers and provoked them by saying most of them would be laid off in three days,” said a Tonghua police officer named Wang, quoted in the state-run China Daily. “Chen, saying that a total number of 30,000 employees would be cut to 5,000, infuriated the crowd.” More at: <http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/799/> Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] Debate: How Should Anti-Imperialists Respond to Iran's Political Crisis?
Richard Fidler wrote: > Lou's comment below indicates that he clearly did not read the item he > criticizes: Here is some relevant text: > > To reiterate, for us in Canada, the central issue posed here is the > necessity of supporting Iran against imperialism - and that includes > supporting its government, headed by President Ahmedinejad, in that > confrontation. > > But we have no cause to take sides in the present dispute among Iran's > rulers. Nor do we have cause to condemn Iranians who have taken a > position for one side or the other. > So you are arguing that revolutionaries in teh west should abstain from supporting demands by popular movements for democratic demands - including the right of the working class to organise without fear of repression. It is precisely when the ruling class is split (as is the case in Iran) that opportunities arise for teh revolutionary movment. And do not workers in Iran deserve our support and solidarity as revolutionaries? It seems that some people have learned all the wrong lessons from teh experience of Stalinism. As lenin said when criticising socialsits who refused to support the Irish rising in 1916 a pristine pure confrontation between the working class on one side and the ruling class on the other without all sorts of confusing and confused petty bourgeois elements is something that will never happen. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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] July Days in China
Dayne Goodwin wrote: > from further down in the front page report: > > "When Mr. Chen returned to the plant, a large crowd of workers surrounded > his office and beat him unconscious, said a report issued by the Hong Kong > Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. > > "Outside the factory, mobs of workers stopped an ambulance and police from > entering the compound to rescue him. The thousands of riot police mobilized > by the authorities took hours to restore control." > In another report I've seen it mentioned that the executive was earning the equivalent of over €200,000 a year while the worker's monthly earnings were about €20 - how accurate those figures are or how they were calculated I don't know - but the proportions, even if they are only vaguely approximate, say a lot about China today. Einde O'Callaghan YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. 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
