[Marxism] Comments on Raul Castro's Dec. 18 speech on changes
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I know that Raul's speech at the National Assembly is long. Quite unusual for him. Nonetheless, it is the most important political speech from the Cuban central leaders for quite a few years and the best available explanation and defense of the changes that are partly underway and those that are proposed. It deserves close study by everyone interested in the future of the Cuban revolution. The speech and addenda are available, among other places, in the translation by Marce Cameron, on the invaluable Cuba's Socialist Renewal website. I am going to make a number of loosely-connected points on this. Forgive the unsystematic form. For me study and thought about this are still in progress, although I have been roughly following the initial discussions and steps for several years, and have tended throughout to identify with Raul's views. Far from being primarily a retreat from policies directed toward socialism and adoption of policies directed (whether intentionally or not, necessarily or not) toward capitalism, the changes represent a concerted attempt to advance socialist perspectives and methods under fire. In the United States, the layoffs in Cuba are most often presented as though they were primarily aimed at industrial workers, at their jobs, and at reducing their real wages, and their social wage through a desperate competition for jobs among the workers. It is pretty natural for people in the US (and Canada) to view them that way. The Cuban leaders deny this. They insist that their goal is to raise wages and preserve the social wage while increasing the surplus produced by the working class well above the current level. They say the workers affected will go into other jobs, or establish independent self-employed operations. And the state recognizes its obligation to organize and otherwise aid this shift. Raul is insistent that tbe working class and the peasantry need to produce more surplus than they have been doing. Of course, at the word surplus, theoreticians of state capitalism will raise the cry of intensified exploitation. The only beneficiaries, they insist, can only be the section of the bureaucrats that support these measures. The only system in which this would not be true, they seem to me to argue, would be one based on workers' committees in the factories (and, in fact, ONLY workers' committees in the factories - everything else dilutes pure worker power). The reference to increasing the surplus simply means that workers and peasants have an obligation to not only provide for themselves and their families, but to increase the common wealth of society. In fact, I think the opposition to the new course is strongly rooted in the bureaucracy, among those who have done alright in the past period and see no reason to change anything except maybe for more moral exhortation and more use of the police to enforce legal norms. That is certainly indicated in Raul's speech. As for the workers, the changes have not been sprung on them suddenly. A long period of discussion and debate was organized around the proposals for layoffs and self-employment by the trade union federation. After weeks of discussion in factories and workplaces across Cuba, the federation felt on strong enough footing to take on the task of announcing the changes in its own name. From what I can tell from reports, the mood of the most workers about the new course seems to be one of cautious optimism. I only note here Raul (and Fidel's) constant insistence that Cuba's socialism is not just a moral ideal or the interests of the workers, but the ONLY way to preserve Cuba's independence and sovereignty. Raul also reaffirms that the long-term solution to Cuba's problems lies along the road of internationalism, and particularly efforts to advance toward a Latin Anerican and Caribbean economic union, and stresses the importance of ALBA in this context. I see no evidence that any substantial section of the state apparatus -- any substantial faction, tendency or trend -- advocates remodeling Cuba along the lines followed by China since the mid-1970s. That is, a massive opening of the economy to imperialist capital, privatization of large sectors of industry, free buying and selling of land in the countryside and cities, and the abolition of free medical care and education which had been at least formally guaranteed before the mid-70s. Under the concrete conditions that Cuba faces (which are far different from those confronting China in the past or today) this would lead to much deeper divisions among the people, the collapse of the revolution, and the re-subjection of Cuba to US domination We should also keep in mind the old Bolshevik slogan, which was aimed at rallying the working class during the civil war:
[Marxism] Juan Cole: White Terrorism
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.juancole.com/2011/01/white-terrorism.html White Terrorism Posted on 01/09/2011 by Juan Jared Lee Loughner, the assassin of Federal judge John M. Roll and five others and attempted assassin of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), was clearly mentally unstable. But the political themes of his instability were those of the American far Right. Loughner was acting politically even if he is not all there. He is said to have called out the names of his victims, such as Roll and Gifford, as he fired. As usual, when white people do these things, the mass media doesn’t call it terrorism. It is irrelevant that Loughner may (at this point we can only say “may”) have been a liberal years earlier in high school. If so, he changed. And among the concerns that came to dominate him as he moved to the Right was the illegitimacy of the “Second Constitution” (the 14th Amendment, which bestows citizenship on all those born in the US, a provision right-wingers in Arizona are trying to overturn at the state level). Loughner also thought that Federal funding for his own community college was unconstitutional, and he was thrown out for becoming violent over the issue. He obviously shared with the Arizona Right a fascination with firearms, and it is telling that a disturbed young man who had had brushes with the law was able to come by an automatic pistol. He is said to have used marijuana, but that says nothing about his politics; it could be consistent with a form of anti-government, right-wing Libertarianism. I don’t think we can take too seriously the list of books he said he liked, as a guide to his political thinking. They could just have been randomly pulled off some list of great books on the Web, since there is no coherence to the choices. The man who had most to do with Loughner after his arrest, Pima County Sherriff Clarence W. Dupnik, was clearly angered by what he heard from the assassin: “When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government, the anger, the hatred, the bigotry … it is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona, I think, has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” When Giffords helped pass the Health Care bill, according to Suzy Khimm, “extremists subsequently encouraged the public to throw bricks through the windows of lawmakers.” Giffords had to call the police once before when an attendee at one of her events dropped a gun. Giffords had complained ‘ in an MSNBC interview that a Sarah Palin graphic had depicted her district in the crosshair of a gun sight. “They’ve got to realize there are consequences to that,” she said. “The rhetoric is incredibly heated.” ‘ Palin Crosshairs The subtext of the angst over the shooting of Giffords is that in recent months Loughner was saying Tea-Party-like things about the Federal government. The violent language of “elimination,” “putting in the cross-hairs,” (as with Palin’s poster, above) “taking back,” “taking out,” to which members of that movement so often resort, has created a heated atmosphere that easily seeps into the unconscious of the mentally disturbed. That is Dupnik’s point. There apparently is some indication that Loughner had an accomplice, and his arrest and identification will shed a great deal more light on the motivations behind this political massacre. Did Loughner have a Rasputin? In some ways, the turn of Loughner to the themes of the American far right parallels what happened to Michael Enright, who slashed the throat of a Bangladeshi cab driver at the height of the campaign promoting hatred of Muslims launched last summer-fall by Rick Lazio and Rupert Murdoch. Everyone should have learned from that tragedy that heated rhetoric has consequences. Those right-wing bloggers who want to dismiss Loughner as merely disturbed are being hypocritical, since they won’t similarly dismiss obviously unstable Muslims who, like the so-called “Patriots” of the McVeigh stripe, sometimes turn violent. (Zacharias Moussawi, for instance, isn’t playing with a full set of backgammon dominoes, and blaming Islam for him is bizarre). In fact, the right-wing Muslim crackpots and the right-wing American crackpots are haunted by similar anxieties, about a powerful government in Washington undermining their localistic ideas of the good life. 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 hearty welcome to Cuba's Socialist Renewal
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Welcome to the Cuba's Socialist Renewal website and Merce Cameron, the creator and primaey translater. This is a big addition to the sources of information we have on Cuba. The website is attractively designed and eye-catching and the print style and contrast with the background are very kind to my aging eyes. But the thing I like best about CSR is its name and the bold public support to the direction being taken President Raul Castro and others. The clearest explanation and defense of these changes so far was Merce's translation of Raul's December 18 speech, available at the website,OTSKYO to the National Assembly and three segments that did not appear in the official version. My guess is that the great majority of US leftists see these changes, necessary or not, as steps backward toward capitalism and not, as I have come to do, as another piece of socialism of the 21st century. What Cuba should do will not be decided in the United States or any other country but Cuba. But more clarity and information are good things. The Cuba's Socialist Renewal website is already providing more of that. It will have a distinctive and important role to play. 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] Rep. Gifford not dead, doctor optimistic, Palin sends good wishes
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I kind of assume that this is not a deeply political event, or more correctly, I think that it is political only in a very deep sense. As for Palin, she has been sending her message to people like the killer for quite a while: Don't apologize. Reload! She's not referring to moose, although apologies to them would be appropriate. Fred Feldman Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition after being shot, 9-year-old and Judge dead BY Michael Mcauliff and James Gordon Meek In Washington and Larry Mcshane DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Originally Published:Saturday, January 8th 2011, 1:46 PM Updated: Saturday, January 8th 2011, 7:53 PM APPeople outside the Safeway in Tucson were shocked by the shooting of the Congresswoman. Popat/APJared Loughner is believed to be the shooter who fired on Giffords. Gabrielle Giffords (CLICK TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE SHOOTING.) Take our This was the act of one nut, civility will prevail. Americans have a lot of anger toward politicians, this could happen again. I I don't know. Related NewsRep. Gabrielle Giffords was a target of Sarah Palin, but is a moderate, gun-owning DemocratLupica: Palin shows she lacks real couragePalin: Every state should have immigration law like ArizonaPalin blames Obama for Arizona's anti-illegal immigration lawSarah Palin blasts Arizona boycotters; Austin, Tex., City Council approves ban of their ownSearch is on for 5 suspected illegal immigrants in Arizona deputy shootout Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords miraculously survived a point-blank gunshot to the head as a lone gunman killed six people Saturday during a routine voter meet-and-greet. Giffords and another 11 people were caught in the fatal fusillade after the cold-blooded killer opened fire without warning outside a Tucson grocery store on a sunny weekend morning. A 9-year-old girl was killed, while a federal judge and a Giffords staffer were also reported among the dead in a shooting that shook the nation. This is more than a tragedy for those involved, said President Obama. It is a tragedy for Arizona and a tragedy for our entire country. The shooter - identified as Jared Laughner, 22 - marched up to Giffords around 10 a.m. local time as she spoke to a local couple, aimed his handgun and fired from just a few feet away. Giffords, 40, had a bullet pass completely through her skull before she collapsed before horrified constituents. Witnesses said the shooter squeezed off as many as 20 shots before the carnage ended. She is in critical condition, said Peter Rhee, emergency director of trauma and emergency care surgery at University Medical Center in Tucson, after neurosurgeons worked on the three-term representative. I'm optimistic about her recovery, Rhee said. We cannot tell what kind of recovery, but I'm about as optimistic as you can get in this situation. Hospital officials said five people were in critical condition, while another five remained in surgery hours after the gory attack. Arizona Federal Court Judge John Roll and an unidentified aide to the Congresswoman were killed. Several other aides were apparently wounded as the gunman sprayed bullets across the L-shaped shopping center. Laughner was tackled by one of the attendees at the Congress at Your Corner event. He's in custody, said a federal law enforcement official in Washington. We don't have any motive right now. Giffords had promoted the scheduled public event on her Twitter account shortly before the gunfire started. My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now, she advised local voters. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind. The President labeled the attack an unspeakable tragedy, and offered his prayers for Giffords and her family. Gabby Giffords is a friend of mine, the President said, adding he would provide full federal cooperation to get to the bottom of the attack. Obama made a personal call to her astronaut husband. Giffords, a lifelong resident of Arizona, was targeted during her re-election campaign last year by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and opponents of health care reform. Palin, in identifying 20 vulnerable Democrats, actually created a map illustrating the targets with a gun sight on each district. The front door of Giffords' district office was also smashed last March, apparently over her support of health care. Rep. Steve Israel, D-L.I., made the connection between the shootings and the nation's oft-ugly political divide. This is both a personal tragedy and a tragic reminder that we cannot remain silent when political rhetoric turns violent, Israel said. Palin was among a plethora of politicians condemning the attack and sending condolences to the Giffords. My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle
[Marxism] John Burns' slobbering coverup for the invasion of Iraq
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Like most of what Glenn Greenwald writes, this is worth reading for many reasons. But I greatly appreciate the fact that the New York Times' icon John Burns has finally come to the attention of media critics. Back at the time of the Judith Miller crisis at tbe Times, I described Burns on this list as the pipe-smoking intellectual male's Judy Miller. I always thought that in a sense Judith Miller got a raw deal from the Times, even though she has ended up in the lower circle of hell where she belongs, since characters like Burns went untouched. I always sort of considered Miller a deserving victim of Maureen Dowd, who delights in journalistically dining on the flesh of ambitious, competitive professional women like herself. One message that came through in the Times coverage of their Miller fiasco was that any dame who takes Dowd's seat at a news conference will not see another sunrise -- at least as a Times employee. One difference between Miller and Burns is that Miller had a just the unfacts approach while Burns provides plenty of unfacts but also tries to pull at the heart-strings. The first time I became aware of this particular dsecular saint was on a TV nightly news broadcast on (I think) ABC, which I generally watched at that time. Burns came on to reveal a devastating scoop. Saddam was dissecting the bodies of oppositionists' children and selling them on the organs market. (Why he did not do this with the oppositionists themselves instead of or along with their children, was not explained, since the adult market organs was quite brisk and the oppositionists were his problem and not their children.) Burns interviewed a nameless couple exiled in Jordan, shrouded in darkness (Saddam's informants are everywhere was the idea, which was true, but indicated they probably knew about this couple since they had supposedly seized, dissected, and sold the organs of their children. But it also made it difficult for neighbors or friends to contradict any part of their story. The couple said that when they were living in Iraq, Saddam's cops had come to their home and seized their two (I recall) children, saying that their parts would be sold on the organ market. Of course, Burns' appearance helped him sell this VERY flimsy tale. He was basically lending his support to a Chalabi publicity stunt. With his rather haggard appearance, his deep and deeply sad eyes, and his scruffy beard, he certainly looked like someone who had suffered (which I believed) and identified with the suffering of others (not so fast, in my opinion). At any rate, Burns has gone on pushing a fictional version of the Iraq war, for instance repeatedly declaring, as a simple fact, that al-Sadr was a renegade cleric. Apparently he had proclaimed himself tbe Shiite Pope in order to excommunicate him. I suspect it was his brutal and crude attack on Julian Assange, presented as an objective news article,that began to draw attention to Burns' role. At any rate, the following article highlights his tear-jerking style of conveying falsehoods. Fred Feldman Tuesday, Jan 4, 2011 07:05 ET John Burns' ministering angels and liberators By Glenn Greenwald U.S. Marines help bring down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein in a square in central Baghdad in April 2004.In this week's New Yorker, Peter Maass -- who was in Iraq covering the war at the time -- examines the iconic, manufactured toppling of the Saddam statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square, an event the American media relentlessly exploited in April, 2003, to propagandize citizens into believing that Iraqis were gleeful over the U.S. invasion and that the war was a smashing success. Acknowledging that the episode demonstrated that American troops had taken over the center of Baghdad, Maas nonetheless explains that everything else the toppling was said to represent during repeated replays on television -- victory for America, the end of the war, joy throughout Iraq -- was a disservice to the truth. Working jointly with ProPublica on this investigation, Maass describes the hidden, indispensable role the U.S. military played in that event -- which has long been known -- though he convincingly argues that the primary culprit in this propaganda effort was the Americans media. That is who did more than anyone to wildly distort this event. As usual, the Watchdog Press not only happily ingests and trumpets pro-government propaganda, but does so even more enthusiastically and uncritically than government spokespeople themselves. The reason there's so little government censorship of the press in America is because it's totally unnecessary; why would the government even want to censor a media this compliant and subservient? Recall the derision heaped upon the media even by Bush's
[Marxism] Getting to Assange through Manning, by Glenn Greenwald
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == So now we learn why Washington is giving Bradley Manning a variant of the Guantanamo treatment (presumably formally non-violent in this case) of the Guantanamo treatment. The Obama administration and its co-conspirators in Congress, Sweden, Britain, and elsewhere actually seem to face heavier sledding every day on this operation, although whether the growing opposition worldwide is becoming strong enough to stay their hand is a big question mark. We should keep in mind that Washington appears to have convened a secret grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia to file charges against Assange and perhaps others. Grand juries are instruments of the prosecutors and serve theit purposes. An ordinary citizen like myself may sometimes get harassed to do jury duty, but never grand jury duty. That is for those the prosecutors trust. There have been revolts of the juries from time to time, but never (as far as I know) revolts of the grand juries. They indict those whom they are asked to indict. If the government does not retreat, therefore, Assange will be indicted as a matter of course. Nonetheless, the fact that the US is banking on Manning to make a prosecution of Assange credible. is already putting more of a spotlight on the treatment he is receiving in prison although he has not been convicted of any crime. Of course, such treatment in prison is supposed to serve as proof to the public and the potential jury pool that the accused is obviously a dangerous criminal. The imprisonment of Assange in Britain in solitary confinement had in part the same purpose. To establish for the public that this is a dangerous criminal (or terrorist if you prefer) without having to present any evidence or file any charges. By the way, when I submitted, a few posts back. the NY Times article on the significant victory represented by the judge rejecting the challenge to bail, I neglected to point out a significant admission by the British prosecutioe: The Times reporters stated: In dismissing the appeal by prosecutors, Judge Ounsley said he accepted arguments by the prosecution that many of those who were posting bail for Mr. Assange were doing so because they supported WikiLeaks and might regard absconding as a right and justified act to keep the beleaguered Web site running. Note that the reasons for keeping in prison and solitary confinement have nothing to do with the sex abuse accusations. The reason he must be under maximum security prison conditions, despite the fact that he is charged with no offense, is that he is the leader of Wikileaks and that Wikileaks supporters have helped provide bail money. By definitionm, supporters of Wikileaks, a presumptively criminal organization according to the British prosecutor, are capable of any crime in support of the cause. The Times suggests that the judge endorsed this argument (without quoting him) but it is clear that he rejected the claim that Assange's leadership of Wikileaks justifies his imprisonment. This highlights tbe point I have been trying to make for quite a while. The issue is not whether the accusations of sexual misconduct against Assange have any basis or not (and it must be stressed that there are no charges against him, and that the evidence made publlc so far, from a legal point of view, does not clearly establish a crime). Regardless of the intentions of the women who felt (not necessarily without reason) wronged by him, the actions of the Swedish and British governments in this case have exactly zero to do with breaking new ground in the fight against sexual abuse of women. They have everything to do with Wikileaks and the damage it has done to the sacred diplomatic secrecy of the imperialist states, the US above all. In these circumstances workers and other democratic-minded people have to stand unconditionally against all the government operations against Assange -- with no ifs, ands, or buts. Fred Feldman http://www.salon.com/news/wikileaks/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010 /12/16/wikileaks Getting to Assange through Manning By Glenn Greenwald AP Bradley Manning and Julian Assange (l to r). (updated below) In The New York Times this morning, Charlie Savage describes the latest thinking from the DOJ about how to criminally prosecute WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Federal investigators are are looking for evidence of any collusion between WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning -- trying to find out whether Mr. Assange encouraged or even helped the Army Private leak the documents -- and then charge him as a conspirator in the leak, not just as a passive recipient of the documents who then published them. To achieve this, it is particularly important to persuade Private Manning to testify against Mr. Assange. I want to make two
[Marxism] One Assange accuser has moved to Paletine, and may not be cooperating with Sweden authorities
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/assange-accuser-stops-cooperating-police/ One of the two Swedish women who have filed sex complaints against the founder of WikiLeaks has reportedly left Sweden and may no longer be cooperating with the criminal investigation. According to a report at Australian news site Crikey.com, Anna Ardin has moved to the Palestinian territories to volunteer with a Christian group working to reconcile Arabs and Israelis. Crikey.com reports: One source from Ardin’s old university of Uppsala reported rumors that she had stopped co-operating with the prosecution service several weeks ago, and that this was part of the reason for the long delay in proceeding with charges -- and what still appears to be an absence of charges. Ardin's blog shows that she has recently posted from the Palestinian territories. Her most recent blog posts make no mention of WikiLeaks or its founder, Julian Assange. Some of Ardin's most recent Tweets suggest sympathy for WikiLeaks. MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal -- belt them now! Ardin urged in a Tweet Wednesday, evidently referring to the cyber-attacks launched on those institutions after they severed their relationships with WikiLeaks. In a more recent Tweet, she complained of the media reports digging into her background. CIA agent, rabid feminist / Muslim lover, a Christian fundamentalist, flat fatally in love with a man, can you even be all [these things all] the time? she Tweeted in Swedish. Some news reports have linked Ardin to the CIA, based on her contact with anti-Castro groups in Cuba. Ardin wrote her master's thesis on these groups, while located in Havana and Miami. But others have questioned the validity of the connection. Crikey.com notes that Ardin, an avowed feminist, has taken criticism from many prominent feminists, who, perhaps surprisingly, appear to have sided against the female accuser and with the male accused. Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that women’s freedom was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up! Tweeted Naomi Klein. Feminist activist Naomi Wolf penned an article sarcastically congratulating Interpol for its commitment to engaging in global manhunts to arrest and prosecute men who behave like narcissistic jerks to women they are dating. SWEDEN WITHHOLDING DOCUMENTATION ON ASSANGE PROBE Assange's lawyer, renowned British advocate Mark Stephens, told CBS News Thursday that prosecutor Marianne Ny is staging a show trial, in reference to the politically motivated prosecutions of the Stalin-era Soviet Union. Stephens said not only have formal charges not been filed against Assange, but the prosecution has failed to provide him with any documentation relating to the investigation. As a result, he says it's impossible for him to begin crafting a defense. Stephens also said he believed recent news reports that Sweden is holding talks with the United States on whether Assange can be extradited to face charges under U.S. law. It's unclear what U.S. laws Assange could have broken with his release of U.S. State Department cables, as he is not a U.S. citizen and therefore not bound by U.S. treason laws, and his activites with WikiLeaks were carried out outside the U.S. 2. ASSANGE ACCUSER MAY HAVE CEASED CO-OPERATING By Guy Rundle Crikey (Australia) December 9, 2010 http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/09/rundle-r-pe-case-complainant-has-left-sweden-may-have-ceased-co-operating/ Anna Ardin, one of the two complainants in the rape and sexual assault case against WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, has left Sweden, and may have ceased actively co-operating with the Swedish prosecution service and her own lawyer, sources in Sweden told Crikey today. The move comes amid a growing campaign by leading Western feminists to question the investigation, and renewed confusion as to whether Sweden has actually issued charges against Assange. Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolf, and the European group Women Against Rape, have all made statements questioning the nature and purpose of the prosecution. Ardin, who also goes by the name Bernardin, has moved to the West Bank in the Palestinian Territories, as part of a Christian outreach group, aimed at bringing reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. She has moved to the small town of Yanoun, which sits close to Israel’s security/sequestration wall. Yanoun is constantly besieged by fundamentalist Jewish settlers, and international groups have frequently stationed themselves there. Attempts by Crikey to contact Ardin by phone, fax, email, and twitter were unsuccessful today. Ardin’s blog has restarted after a
Re: [Marxism] More Facts (Dirt) on Anna Ardin and how She Destroyed Assange Case Evidence Over And Over Again
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I just want to say that I think that David Thorstad has been basically on the right track this time. His references to an extreme form of feminism on the rape question is a legitimate opinion, though one open to debate, which we should have sometime but aren't having here. The heart of the question is to get that there is no case against Julian Assange --- no case at all, not a case justifying charges being filed, not a case justifying arrest, not a case justifyijng extradition, and not a case justifying trial and conviction. There is nothing there. One woman argues that she consented to sex with Assange, but the condom broke. She expressed concerns, but he talked her into continuing. And she has not contracted an STDs as a consequence. Could she have pulled away from him? No indication that she couldn't have done so. Did he give any indication of threatening her with violence if she did so. http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/: No, even according to her version, he sweet-talked her into continuing. And, has she oreserved the condom to prove that it actually broke during their sexual act? No indication so far that she did. So how can we even know whether the condom actually broke. A second woman says she was uncomfortable at first about having sex without a condom,. But she agreed and had sex with the WORLD FAMOUS PERSON. She argues that she has no responsibility for the decision to have sex without a condom. It was simply the pressure of the evil male. Thus this is rape of some sort. All of this has given rise to the myth that in Sweden it is illegal to have sex without a condom. All those cute Swedish babies tell a different story. But if it is not illegal to have sex without a condom, what does this case against Assange have in common with rape or sexual abuse. The whole case, to the extent that there is a case, is based on the idea that there must be a presumption of the man's guilt when a charge of rape is lodged against him, even on the most abstruse basis. The man must PROVE beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not tape the woman, in whatever the sense the term rape is given in the prosecution case, which is infinitely expandable. I suspect Sweden has no illusions that this is a winnable case. I think they see this as an opening to extradite Assange to the United States, provided the US can come up with a charge against him. Given the endlessly flexible US criminal law, I would be surprised if nothing can be found -- perhaps they can charge him with raping the United States. For their cooperation, the Swedish state and ruling class will receive whatever rewards are on offer. Fred Feldman 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] Crack appears in rulers' int'l front vs. Assange
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Australia Blames U.S. for Leaked CablesBy REUTERS Published: December 8, 2010 Sign In to E-Mail Print . Filed at 1:38 a.m. ET BRISBANE, Australia (Reuters) - The Australian government Wednesday blamed the United States, not the WikiLeaks founder, for the unauthorized release of about 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables and said those who originally leaked the documents were legally liable. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd also said the leaks raised questions over the adequacy of U.S. security over the cables. Mr (Julian) Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the U.S. diplomatic communications network, Rudd told Reuters in an interview. The Americans are responsible for that, said Rudd, who had been described in one leaked U.S. cable as a control freak. WikiLeaks founder Assange defended his Internet publishing site Wednesday, saying it was crucial to spreading democracy and likening himself to global media baron Rupert Murdoch in the quest to publish the truth. Assange has angered the United States and governments across the globe by publishing details of secret U.S. documents. The original source of the leak is unknown, though a U.S. Army private who worked as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Bradley Manning, has been charged by military authorities with unauthorized downloading of more than 150,000 State Department cables. U.S. officials have declined to say whether those cables are the same ones now being released by WikiLeaks. ASSANGE IN UK CUSTODY Assange was remanded in custody by a British court on Tuesday over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden. I think there are real questions to be asked about the adequacy of their (U.S.) security systems and the level of access that people have had to that material over a long period of time, said Rudd. The core responsibility, and therefore legal liability, goes to those individuals responsible for that initial unauthorized release, he said. In an opinion piece in Murdoch's The Australian newspaper, headlined Don't shoot the messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths, Assange said WikiLeaks deserved protection, not attacks. In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: 'In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win', wrote Assange. He cited the late Keith Murdoch, Rupert's father, who during World War One exposed the needless loss of Australian life at Gallipoli, where Australian troops under British command were slaughtered in a failed attack against the Turks. Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, Assange wrote. Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public. Assange made no comment about his arrest in Britain after Sweden issued a European Arrest Warrant for sex crimes allegations. Assange, 39, denies the charges, and was remanded in jail until a fresh hearing on December 14. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, referred to his upbringing in a small Australian country town, where people spoke their minds bluntly and distrusted big government. WikiLeaks was created around these core values, he wrote. He said WikiLeaks was set up as a way of using new technology to report the truth and said not one person had been harmed by any information published over the past four years. Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption, he wrote. Assange questioned why only WikiLeaks was under attack, when other media outlets like Britain's The Guardian, The New York Times and Germany's Der Spiegel had also published U.S. cables. There is a separate and secondary legal question...which is the legal liabilities of those responsible for the dissemination of that information, whether it's WikiLeaks, whether it's Reuters, or whether it is anybody else, said Rudd. WikiLeaks has vowed to continue releasing details of the secret U.S. documents it obtained. Monday, Rudd defended Australia's relations with China as robust after a WikiLeaks document showed he had advised Washington it might need to use force to contain Beijing. Another cable said Rudd was a control freak focused on the media. Rudd said Wednesday Australia would provide Assange with consular help in relation to the court hearings in Britain over his possible extradition to Sweden. Assange's UK lawyer, Mark Stephens, has said a renewed bail application would be made and that his client is fine. He said many people
[Marxism] Greenwald: The moral standards of Wikileaks critics
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010 06:02 ET -Glenn Greenwald The moral standards of WikiLeaks critics By Glenn Greenwald AP Julian Assange at a press conference in London on Oct. 23(updated below - Update II) Time's Joe Klein writes this about the WikiLeaks disclosures: I am tremendously concernced [sic] about the puerile eruptions of Julian Assange. . . . If a single foreign national is rounded up and put in jail because of a leaked cable, this entire, anarchic exercise in freedom stands as a human disaster. Assange is a criminal. He's the one who should be in jail. Do you have that principle down? If a single foreign national is rounded up and put in jail because of the WikiLeaks disclosure -- even a single one -- then the entire WikiLeaks enterprise is proven to be a disaster and Assange is a criminal who should be in jail. That's quite a rigorous moral standard. So let's apply it elsewhere: What about the most destructive anarchic exercise in 'freedom' the planet has known for at least a generation: the human disaster known as the attack on Iraq, which Klein supported? That didn't result in the imprisonment of a single foreign national, but rather the deaths of more than 100,000 innocent human beings, the displacement of millions more, and the destruction of a country of 26 million people. Are those who supported that anarchic exercise in 'freedom' -- or at least those responsible for its execution -- also criminals who should be in jail? How about the multiple journalists and other human beings whom the U.S. Government imprisoned (and continues to imprison) for years without charges -- and tortured -- including many whom the Government knew were completely innocent, while Klein assured the world that wasn't happening? How about those responsible for the war in Afghanistan (which Klein supports) with its checkpoint shootings of an amazing number of innocent Afghans and civilian slaughtering air strikes, or the use of cluster bombs in Yemen, or the civilian killing drones in Pakistan? Are those responsible for the sky-high corpses of innocent people from these actions also criminals who should be in jail? Continue reading I'm not singling out Klein here; his commentary is merely illustrative of what I'm finding truly stunning about the increasingly bloodthirsty two-minute hate session aimed at Julian Assange, also known as the new Osama bin Laden. The ringleaders of this hate ritual are advocates of -- and in some cases directly responsible for -- the world's deadliest and most lawless actions of the last decade. And they're demanding Assange's imprisonment, or his blood, in service of a Government that has perpetrated all of these abuses and, more so, to preserve a Wall of Secrecy which has enabled them. To accomplish that, they're actually advocating -- somehow with a straight face -- the theory that if a single innocent person is harmed by these disclosures, then it proves that Assange and WikiLeaks are evil monsters who deserve the worst fates one can conjure, all while they devote themselves to protecting and defending a secrecy regime that spawns at least as much human suffering and disaster as any single other force in the world. That is what the secrecy regime of the permanent National Security State has spawned. Meanwhile, in the real world (as opposed to the world of speculation, fantasy, and fear-mongering) there is no evidence -- zero -- that the WikiLeaks disclosures have harmed a single person. As McClatchy reported, they have exercised increasing levels of caution to protect innocent people. Even Robert Gates disdained hysterical warnings about the damage caused as significantly overwrought. But look at what WikiLeaks has revealed to the world: We viscerally saw the grotesque realities of our war in Iraq with the Apache attack video on innocent civilians and journalists in Baghdad -- and their small children -- as they desperately scurried for cover. We recently learned that the U.S. government adopted a formal policy of refusing to investigate the systematic human rights abuses of our new Iraqi client state, all of which took place under our deliberately blind eye. We learned of 15,000 additional civilian deaths caused by the war in Iraq that we didn't know of before. We learned -- as documented by The Washington Post's former Baghdad Bureau Chief -- how clear, deliberate and extensive were the lies of top Bush officials about that war as it was unfolding: Thanks to WikiLeaks, though, I now know the extent to which top American leaders lied, knowingly, to the American public, she wrote. In this latest WikiLeaks release -- probably the least informative of them all, at least so far -- we learned a great deal as well. Juan Cole today details the 10
[Marxism] Cujban CP official Oscar Martinex on new economic policy
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Cuba's Economic Reform: Interview with Oscar Martínez by Yunus Carrim Oscar Martínez is Deputy Head of the International Relations Department of the Cuban Communist Party. This interview was conducted during the South African Communist Party visit to Cuba this month. What is the nature of the economic problems Cuba is currently experiencing? In the context of our other problems, the US economic and financial blockade is hurting our economy more now. The blockade has been the main obstacle to our social and economic development over 48 years. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc, we lost our main trading partners. It was a severe blow from which we have not yet recovered. The 2008 global economic crisis also hit us hard. The price of nickel, a major export earner, has gone down. And we have had huge losses with the hurricanes. But also our productivity is too low. We need greater efficiency and more saving to ensure economic growth. We are a small country with limited resources. We need better organize our production, improve discipline, and update our economic model. We are importing far too much, especially food, and need to be more self-sufficient. We need to focus far more on agriculture. Food production has now become an issue of national security. Isn't the US blockade easing? In practical terms, no. The main aspects remain and overall the blockade has even got worse. Since 2009 there have been more prohibitions on companies doing business with Cuba. Yet 187 countries voted against the blockade in the UN General Assembly. Direct economic damages to Cuba since the blockade began in 1962 until December 2009, according to conservative estimates, surpass 154 billion US dollars. If this was calculated according to the present value of the US dollar, it would be about 239 billion dollars. But if you have economic problems how does it follow that you have to retrench half a million state workers? Especially since you're a socialist state? We are not retrenching. That's a capitalist term. We are not putting people out in the street. We are not going to leave them without social assistance. We are re-organising the workforce, not firing workers. We are directing them to other areas of work vital for the economy, mainly food production. We are making these changes as part of updating our economic model in order to ensure that our socialist system is sustainable on the basis of the rational and effective use of the workforce. The first phase will be concluded by the first quarter of 2011. As part of the process, we are giving people land, and helping them to make productive use of it. A significant section of this land is near the urban areas, where 80% of the working population lives. If this land is used to produce food, it will also reduce the fuel and transport costs because it's near the urban areas. We have too many bureaucrats and professionals, not enough artisans. We want to move people from just producing paper to areas of the economy in which they can be productive and contribute to the economy. We are trying to find new areas of work for them. As President Raul Castro says, 'We have to remove once and for all the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world where you can live without working'. If they do not accept work that the government directs them to, they can be self-employed. We have opened up 178 areas in which they can work. Over 2 years, the state will have to give up about a million workers. Are you going to re-skill the workers? And what areas are you opening up? Yes, we are going to fully support the workers to get new skills and other means to get started. Our higher educational institutions are also going to assist. Banks will help with loans. Our main priority, of course, is food production, with the emphasis on substitution of imports, but we also want to increase imports in certain areas. The new areas being opened are in tourism, trade and services, mainly. We are to allow more people to be self-employed as transport providers, bricklayers, stonemasons, plumbers, electricians, panel-beaters, shoe-repairers, hairdressers, shoe-makers, accountants and so on. We are also to allow people to have restaurants with up to 20 seats. Labour must be got from the owners' families, but they can also employ a limited number of people. Will there be a minimum wage for those employed and any restriction on the profits of the restaurant owners and others? Yes, there will be a minimum wage. These will be limited enterprises and they won't be able to make huge profits. We are introducing new redistributive taxes. In fact, new regulations related to this, including the modification of the tax system,
[Marxism] FBI creates, thwarts terrorist plot around allegedly angry teenager
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == SUNDAY, NOV 28, 2010 06:29 ET GLENN GREENWALD The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot By Glenn Greenwald (updated below) The FBI is obviously quite pleased with itself over its arrest of a 19-year-old Somali-American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who -- with months of encouragement, support and money from the FBI's own undercover agents -- allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon. Media accounts are almost uniformly trumpeting this event exactly as the FBI describes it. Loyalists of both parties are doing the same, with Democratic Party commentators proclaiming that this proves how great and effective Democrats are at stopping The Evil Terrorists, while right-wing polemicists point to this arrest as yet more proof that those menacing Muslims sure are violent and dangerous. What's missing from all of these celebrations is an iota of questioning or skepticism. All of the information about this episode -- all of it -- comes exclusively from an FBI affidavit filed in connection with a Criminal Complaint against Mohamud. As shocking and upsetting as this may be to some, FBI claims are sometimes one-sided, unreliable and even untrue, especially when such claims -- as here -- are uncorroborated and unexamined. That's why we have what we call trials before assuming guilt or even before believing that we know what happened: because the government doesn't always tell the complete truth, because they often skew reality, because things often look much different once the accused is permitted to present his own facts and subject the government's claims to scrutiny. The FBI affidavit -- as well as whatever its agents are whispering into the ears of reporters -- contains only those facts the FBI chose to include, but omits the ones it chose to exclude. And even the facts that are included are merely assertions at this point and thus may not be facts at all. It may very well be that the FBI successfully and within legal limits arrested a dangerous criminal intent on carrying out a serious Terrorist plot that would have killed many innocent people, in which case they deserve praise. Court-approved surveillance and use of undercover agents to infiltrate terrorist plots are legitimate tactics when used in accordance with the law. But it may also just as easily be the case that the FBI -- as they've done many times in the past -- found some very young, impressionable, disaffected, hapless, aimless, inept loner; created a plot it then persuaded/manipulated/entrapped him to join, essentially turning him into a Terrorist; and then patted itself on the back once it arrested him for having thwarted a Terrorist plot which, from start to finish, was entirely the FBI's own concoction. Having stopped a plot which it itself manufactured, the FBI then publicly touts -- and an uncritical media amplifies -- its success to the world, thus proving both that domestic Terrorism from Muslims is a serious threat and the Government's vast surveillance powers -- current and future new ones -- are necessary. There are numerous claims here that merit further scrutiny and questioning. First, the FBI was monitoring the email communications of this American citizen on U.S. soil for months (at least) with what appears to be the flimsiest basis: namely, that he was in email communication with someone in Northwest Pakistan, an area known to harbor terrorists (para. 5 of the FBI Affidavit). Is that enough to obtain court approval to eavesdrop on someone's calls and emails? I'm glad the FBI is only eavesdropping with court approval, if that's true, but certainly more should be required for judicial authorization than that. Communicating with someone in Northwest Pakistan is hardly reasonable grounds for suspicion. Second, in order not to be found to have entrapped someone into committing a crime, law enforcement agents want to be able to prove that, in the 1992 words of the Supreme Court, the accused was was independently predisposed to commit the crime for which he was arrested. To prove that, undercover agents are often careful to stress that the accused has multiple choices, and they then induce him into choosing with his own volition to commit the crime. In this case, that was achieved by the undercover FBI agent's allegedly advising Mohamud that there were at least five ways he could serve the cause of Islam (including by praying, studying engineering, raising funds to send overseas, or becoming operational), and Mohamud replied he wanted to be operational by using exploding a bomb (para. 35-37). But strangely, while all other conversations with Mohamud which the FBI summarizes were (according to the affidavit) recorded by numerous recording devices, this
[Marxism] (no subject)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == One point in tbis article, which underlines the Chinese regime's deep commitment to defend Nortth Korea, states: Its main priority is to prevent a sudden collapse of the North Korean regime, which it fears would send a flood of refugees into northeastern China and bring U.S. troops to its borders. It is worth noting that in this version, the main danger of US-South Korean victory to China is supposed to be the threat of illegal immigration of North Koreans, and only secondarily the presence of a US military client or US troops themselves on the Chinese border. The exact opposite is the case, to put it mildly. China's main concern remains the possibility of an imperialist military presence on its borders and this affects its policies not only on Korea, but on Tibet,. Afghanistan and elsewhere/ China is not primarily part of the US movement against the illegal immigrants, whatever (and I am sure there are many) discriminatory practices the regime may countenance. Fred Feldman WALL STREET JOURNAL * ASIA NEWS * NOVEMBER 26, 2010, 12:15 P.M. ET China Protests U.S.-South Korea Exercises By JEREMY PAGE DANDONG, China-China made its first official protest over plans by the U.S. and South Korea to hold joint military exercises involving the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in the Yellow Sea on Sunday. But Beijing's protest, in a statement from the Foreign Ministry Friday, was noticeably more restrained than when the U.S. announced similar plans, involving the same aircraft carrier, in July. The statement also appeared to offer all sides a face-saving compromise, by implying China did not oppose exercises outside its exclusive economic zone, a term of international maritime law that generally extends 200 nautical miles from a country's coast. The restrained language, and the apparent diplomatic get-out, could reflect China's concern that the North Korean crisis will overshadow a planned trip to Washington in January by President Hu Jintao. We hold a consistent and clear-cut stance on the issue, the statement quoted Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, as saying. We oppose any party to take any military actions in our exclusive economic zone without permission. The U.S. and South Korea announced the exercises Wednesday, after North Korea fired artillery at a South Korean island near their disputed maritime border, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians. At a routine briefing on Thursday, Mr. Hong had said only that China was concerned over reports about the joint exercises. The U.S. and South Korea have not said exactly where the exercises will take place, but one high-level South Korean official said they would be off South Korea's southwest coast, far from the disputed maritime border with North Korea. Back in July, Chinese officials said they opposed any military exercises in the entire Yellow Sea, and protested so vociferously that the U.S. and South Korea shifted their maneuvers to the Sea of Japan, east of South Korea. A train-station TV screen in Seoul shows smoke pouring from Yeonpyeong island Tuesday. Those exercises followed the sinking of a South Korean ship in March which killed 46 sailors and was blamed on North Korea by an international investigation, although China has refused to accept those findings. This time, the U.S. and South Korea are pressing ahead with their plans in what U.S. officials say is a strong signal not just to North Korea, but also to China, its old Communist ally and key sponsor. China sent three million volunteers to fight with the North in the 1950-53 Korean War, and is now the country's main aid donor and trade partner. But it is now coming under mounting pressure from world leaders to use its political and economic influence to rein in Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader. It is also facing renewed criticism from Chinese foreign-policy experts, journalists, and internet activists who question whether unqualified support for North Korea is still in China's interests. Beijing has so far refused to blame North Korea for Tuesday's artillery raid, although it has called for restraint from all sides and expressed regret for the four South Koreans who were killed. 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] Ex-Pres. Carter: North Korea' s consistent message the US
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == North Korea's consistent message to the U.S. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112305 808.html By Jimmy Carter Wednesday, November 24, 2010 No one can completely understand the motivations of the North Koreans, but it is entirely possible that their recent revelation of their uranium enrichment centrifuges and Pyongyang's shelling of a South Korean island Tuesday are designed to remind the world that they deserve respect in negotiations that will shape their future. Ultimately, the choice for the United States may be between diplomatic niceties and avoiding a catastrophic confrontation. This Story Jimmy Carter: North Korea's consistent message to the U.S. Editorial: North Korea's latest horror show Toles cartoon: Loud and clear Dealing effectively with North Korea has long challenged the United States. We know that the state religion of this secretive society is juche, which means self-reliance and avoidance of domination by others. The North's technological capabilities under conditions of severe sanctions and national poverty are surprising. Efforts to display its military capability through the shelling of Yeongpyeong and weapons tests provoke anger and a desire for retaliation. Meanwhile, our close diplomatic and military ties with South Korea make us compliant with its leaders' policies. The North has threatened armed conflict before. Nearly eight years ago, I wrote on this page about how in June 1994 President Kim Il Sung expelled International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors and proclaimed that spent fuel rods could be reprocessed into plutonium. Kim threatened to destroy Seoul if increasingly severe sanctions were imposed on his nation. Desiring to resolve the crisis through direct talks with the United States, Kim invited me to Pyongyang to discuss the outstanding issues. With approval from President Bill Clinton, I went, and reported the positive results of these one-on-one discussions to the White House. Direct negotiations ensued in Geneva between a U.S. special envoy and a North Korean delegation, resulting in an agreed framework that stopped North Korea's fuel-cell reprocessing and restored IAEA inspection for eight years. With evidence that Pyongyang was acquiring enriched uranium in violation of the agreed framework, President George W. Bush - who had already declared North Korea part of an axis of evil and a potential target - made discussions with North Korea contingent on its complete rejection of a nuclear explosives program and terminated monthly shipments of fuel oil. Subsequently, North Korea expelled nuclear inspectors and resumed reprocessing its fuel rods. It has acquired enough plutonium for perhaps seven nuclear weapons. Sporadic negotiations over the next few years among North Korea, the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia (the six parties) produced, in September 2005, an agreement that reaffirmed the basic premises of the 1994 accord. Its text included denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a pledge of non-aggression by the United States and steps to evolve a permanent peace agreement to replace the U.S.-North Korean-Chinese cease-fire that has been in effect since July 1953. Unfortunately, no substantive progress has been made since 2005, and the overall situation has been clouded by North Korea's development and testing of nuclear devices and medium- and long-range missiles, and military encounters with South Korea. North Korea insists on direct talks with the United States. Leaders in Pyongyang consider South Korea's armed forces to be controlled from Washington and maintain that South Korea was not party to the 1953 cease-fire. Since the Clinton administration, our country has negotiated through the six-party approach, largely avoiding substantive bilateral discussions, which would have excluded South Korea. This past July I was invited to return to Pyongyang to secure the release of an American, Aijalon Gomes, with the proviso that my visit would last long enough for substantive talks with top North Korean officials. They spelled out in detail their desire to develop a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and a permanent cease-fire, based on the 1994 agreements and the terms adopted by the six powers in September 2005. With no authority to mediate any disputes, I relayed this message to the State Department and White House. Chinese leaders indicated support of this bilateral discussion. North Korean officials have given the same message to other recent American visitors and have permitted access by nuclear experts to an advanced facility for purifying uranium. The same officials had made it clear to me that this array of centrifuges would be on the table for discussions with the
[Marxism] Real issues in threats to N. Kore
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == U.S. hands off North Korea! (editorial, Dec. 6, 2010, Militant weekly)) http://www.themilitant.com/2010/7446/744620.html Working people the world over shouldn't be taken in by the big-business media's portrayal of Pyongyang as the aggressor in the recent exchange of fire between North and South Korean forces. U.S. imperialism is to blame for the instability on the peninsula and in the broader region. It's Washington's policies that pose a constant threat to the people of Korea. The U.S. imperialists, along with their client regime in Seoul, have ceaselessly organized provocations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The November 23 artillery fire by the North Korean military took place as 70,000 South Korean troops, under U.S. command, were conducting massive military maneuvers simulating an invasion of the North from an island 10 miles off the North Korean coast. The imperialist call for worldwide condemnation of North Korea is the latest in what has been decades of military and economic aggression by Washington against the Korean people. It was Washington that imposed a partition between the north and the south after World War II. It was Washington, under UN cover, which went to war against Korea in 1950 after working people in the north carried out a socialist revolution. Washington has callously denied the North Korean people normal access to food, fuel, and financing to develop their economy. The Obama administration demands governments throughout the world punish North Korea for its nuclear program, while the U.S. government maintains the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, including weapons deployed in the northwest Pacific. Washington's military and economic provocations against Korea are of a piece with its stepped-up war in Afghanistan and attacks on the people of Pakistan. They are also of a piece with the attacks on workers' standard of living in the United States that are intensifying as the bosses try to shore up their profits amid a crisis-ridden capitalist system. Working people should demand an end to all sanctions against the Korean people and withdrawal of all U.S. troops, ships, and weapons-conventional and nuclear-from the Korean Peninsula and the Pacific. We should extend solidarity to the decades-long fight of the Korean people for reunification. 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 correctl, bottom-line position on where we gotta stand on Korea today
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The best single statement of our elementary duty in the current crisis comes, asdwho could imagine it would not, from Sarah Palin: This speaks to a bigger picture here that certainly scares me in terms of our national security policy. But obviously we've gotta stand with our North Korean allies.-Discussing Obama's foreign policy in an https://webmail.wpni.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.mediaite.com/ online/sarah-palin-confuses-whos-on-our-side-in-northsouth-korea/ interview with Glenn Beck, Nov. 24, 2010. Quoted by Jacob Weisberg in his running column on Palinisms on the Slate website. http://www.slate.com/id/2276101/ 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] Bolivian pres. rejects US warning on Iran ties
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Bolivian+president+rejects+warning+Iran+ ties/3866917/story.html#ixzz162aTwCmF Bolivia's President Evo Morales speaks during an agreement signing ceremony with the Organization of American States (OAS) at the presidential palace in La Paz, November 19, 2010. Photograph by: David Mercado, Reuters SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia - Bolivian President Evo Morales offered a testy retort Monday to visiting U.S. defence chief Robert Gates's warning about any nuclear dealings with Iran, saying Bolivia will ally with whomever it wants. Nobody will stop me from negotiating with any country, Morales said at the opening of a biannual conference of regional defence ministers attended by Gates. Bolivia, under my leadership, will have agreements and alliances with everyone, the leftist leader added. We have the right, and we have a culture of dialogue. Morales, who has signed several political and economic deals with Tehran and has tense relations with Washington, announced late last month that Bolivia has plans to build a nuclear plant with Iran's help, stressing the facility would be for peaceful purposes. On Sunday upon his arrival in Bolivia, Gates cautioned against the motives of Tehran, which the international community suspects is seeking to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear program, despite Iranian denials. I'm not sure the Iranians have an independent capability to help somebody build a civil nuclear capability. Their own capability has been under contract with the Russians for 20 years, Gates said. I don't really know what the Iranians are up to, to really tell you the truth, he said. Morales has visited Iran twice in as many years, while Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travelled to Bolivia in 2007 for the first visit by an Iranian president. Under Ahmadinejad, the Islamic republic has strengthened diplomatic ties with Latin America, and with Bolivia, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela in particular. Gates was due later Monday to address the conference, which is expected to address defence budgeting, disaster response and transparency in arms sales. C Copyright (c) AFP 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 Republic: Cuba is opening up, as America turns away
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This article helps us focus attention on the deep and fundamental irreconcilably of the US government and ruling circles toward Cuba, which is not primarily a product of the power of the Anti-Cuba mafia's lobby (the power of which would be much less if it had not received strong support from the US rulers for fifty years -- the same is true by the way of the Israel lobby). Nor is it simply a product of the gains of the Republicans in the last election. Washington's minimum demand of Cuba is complete capitulation to US economic and political domination -- through occupation, annexation -- formal or de facto -- or whatever else can defeat the Cuban revolution. Reforms such as those that have taken place recently are not acceptable because they offer no guarantee of accomplishing these goals. In fact, there is the real danger that they will accomplish some or all of the stated goals, and strengthen rather than weaken the society and state, and therefore lead to advances for the orientation toward building society. The revolution for independence and socialism is indivisible. But we should not forget that not even the restoration of capitalism alone, if that were possible, would not meet the demands of the US government, including the Obama administration. The central demand is the restoration of US control and US control ONLY. That is one reason why the US blockade makes a point not only of embargoing Cuba but of punishing or threatening to punish anyone who deals with Cuba. They want to intimidate other capitalist powers or other governments to attempt to get a piece of what they consider to be by right theidr exclusive action. We should not be surprised if efforts to intensify this aspect of the blockade are intensified in coming years. None of this suggests that we should stop fighting to end the blockade or win whatever modifications favorable to the Cuban people that we can. This is more important than ever because US aggression is on the upswing worldwide. Attempts by Cuba to defend its independence and sovereignty in such a context often become pretexts to tighten the blockade. Also the campaign against the blockade helps open the minds of millions who do not have common interests with the political and social forces that established and maintained the blockade. I think, however, that we may need a deeper grip on the centrality of the blockade to the state, government, and ruling class of the United States -- it is more central than it appears if we view it from the standpoint of ordinary business dealings, maneuvers in Congress, or the power of the Miami-based would-be counterrevolution. The centrality is the issue of accepting the Cuban revolution as viable and established, and that Washington has no right to challenge its existence. From this standpoint I tend to think that it will take big changes in the United States and the world to definitively defeat the blockade. That's why people who rush to proclaim that Cuba has restored capitalism or that the revolution is all but formally reversed are fleeing the field of a battle that is still raging. http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/79277/cuba-opening-america-relations# ?=cb=f1dbc81a0ab503relation=parent.parenttransport=fragmenttype=resizeh eight=21width=90 Cuba Is Opening Up, As America Turns Away Jim Sciutto Havana, CubaYou see them on stage, on passenger flights, and at trade fairs: Americans in Cuba legally, and hoping to travel here more often. The American Ballet Theater has just performed here for the first time in 50 years. It was a wildly popular performance, featuring two Cuban-American dancersJose Manuel Carreno and Xiomara Reyes, who was in Cuba for the first time since fleeing the country with her family 18 years ago. The willingness to share something makes a difference. Why wouldnt it make a difference? Reyes told me. How big that difference will be I dont know but I can say the willingness to share an experience is pretty important. The New York Philharmonic, too, just announced plans to travel to Cuba early next year, and several Cuban musicians, performing with Chucho Valdes, have also toured the United States recently. The American performers in Havana are part of a wider relaxation of person-to-person contacts between the two countries. Our flight from Miami was one of several daily, direct charters from the United States, filled with Cuban-Americans who since last year have been allowed to visit their relatives here. The airline we took, Sky King, flies twice a day and will soon add a third flight. At the Havana international trade fair, I saw dozens of American companies hawking their wares. Most are food suppliers, which are allowed to import under a 2001 exemption for agricultural
Re: [Marxism] Bolivian army declares itself socialist
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This sounds like a near unprecedented development in Latin America. I don't know of any other country there where the traditional army has come under the kind of popular pressure that would lead it to make such a declaration. I am not sure that even the Venezuelan army has done so. Of course, in Cuba and Nicaragua, the traditional armies were defeated and abolished and the replacing armies did at points make such declarations. (This did not happen during the regime of Gen. Torres in Bolivia in 1971, though Torres himself signed socialist declarations. Of course, on this list someone is bound to raise the example of Chiang Kai-shek signing up with the Comintern in 1926, but he did not do so as head of the army but as head of the Kuomintang, the traditional bourgeois-revolutionary party, and neither the army, the party or Chiang were required to declare for socialism to do so.) The Morales regime has had conflicts with sections of the army, which supported the separatist landlords and capitalist in the eastern part of the country. And the Bolivian revolution is in part the product of a mass uprising that defeated the military. At the same time, I know that the MAS and the broader stratum of pro-revolution activists in Bolivia have been pretty systematically participating in and propagandizing the army from the bottom up for some years now. One tell-tale sign will be how the US government and military respond to this development. At a certain point, for instance, the US government clearly decided that the Venezuelan army was no longer viable for their purposes (although I am sure they still do subversive work there as elsewhere). I very much doubt that we are at the end of the line as far as conflicts between sections of the army command-officer caste and the revolution. And I doubt that the Bolivian worker and peasant militias will be laying down their arms. But this is nonetheless a tribute -- regardless of any likely reluctance and two-faced pledges by the high command, which I cannot definitively judge from here -- the breadth and strength of the Bolivian process. And it is an extremely flimsy basis for unbridled attacks on the current leadership of the process in Bolivia. Fred Feldman 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] Greenwald: The real danger in the firing of Juan Williams
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Friday, Oct 22, 2010 08:23 ET Glenn Greenwald The real danger from NPR's firing of Juan Williams By Glenn Greenwald * The real danger from NPR's firing of Juan Williams (updated below) I'm still not quite over the most disgusting part of the Juan Williams spectacle yesterday: watching the very same people (on the Right and in the media) who remained silent about or vocally cheered on the viewpoint-based firings of Octavia Nasr, Helen Thomas, Rick Sanchez, Eason Jordan, Peter Arnett, Phil Donahue, Ashleigh Banfield, Bill Maher, Ward Churchill, Chas Freeman, Van Jones and so many others, spend all day yesterday wrapping themselves in the flag of free expression!!! and screeching about the perils and evils of firing journalists for expressing certain viewpoints. Even for someone who expects huge doses of principle-free hypocrisy -- as I do -- that behavior is really something to behold. And anyone doubting that there is a double standard when it comes to anti-Muslim speech should just compare the wailing backlash from most quarters over Williams' firing to the muted acquiescence or widespread approval of those other firings. But there's one point from all of this I really want to highlight. The principal reason the Williams firing resonated so much and provoked so much fury is that it threatens the preservation of one of the most important American mythologies: that Muslims are a Serious Threat to America and Americans. That fact is illustrated by a Washington Post Op-Ed today from Reuel Marc Gerecht, who is as standard and pure a neocon as exists: an Israel-centric, Iran-threatening, Weekly Standard and TNR writer, former CIA Middle East analyst, former American Enterprise Institute and current Defense of Democracies scholar, torture advocate, etc. etc. Gerecht hails Williams as a courageous dissident for expressing this truth: [W]hile his manner may have been clumsy, Williams was right to suggest that there is a troubling nexus between the modern Islamic identity and the embrace of terrorism as a holy act. Above all else, this fear-generating nexus is what must be protected at all costs. This is the troubling connection -- between Muslims and terrorism -- that Williams lent his liberal, NPR-sanctioned voice to legitimizing. And it is this fear-sustaining, anti-Muslim slander that NPR's firing of Williams threatened to delegitimize. That is why NPR's firing of Williams must be attacked with such force: because if it were allowed to stand, it would be an important step toward stigmatizing anti-Muslim animus in the same way that other forms of bigotry are now off-limits, and that, above all else, is what cannot happen, because anti-Muslim animus is too important to too many factions to allow it to be delegitimized. The Huffington Post's Jason Linkins explained the real significance of NPR's actions, the real reason it had to be attacked: Yesterday, NPR cashiered correspondent Juan Williams for doing something that had hitherto never been considered an offense in media circles: defaming Muslims. Up until now, you could lose your job for saying intemperate things about Jews and about Christians and about Matt Drudge. You could even lose a job for failing to defame Muslims. But we seem to be in undiscovered country at the moment. There are too many interests served by anti-Muslim fear-mongering to allow that to change. To start with, as a general proposition, it's vital that the American citizenry always be frightened of some external (and relatedly internal) threat. Nothing is easier, or more common, or more valuable, than inducing people to believe that one discrete minority group is filled with unique Evil, poses some serious menace to their Safety, and must be stopped at all costs. The more foreign-seeming that group is, the easier it is to sustain the propaganda campaign of fear. Sufficiently bombarded with this messaging, even well-intentioned people will dutifully walk around insisting that the selected group is a Dangerous Menace. The Muslims are currently the premier, featured threat which serves that purpose, following in the footsteps of the American-Japanese, the Communists, the Welfare-Stealing Racial Minorities, the Gays, and the Illegal Immigrants. Many of those same groups still serve this purpose, but their scariness loses its luster after decades of exploitation and periodically must be replaced by new ones. Muslims serve that role, and to ensure that continues, it is vital that anti-Muslim sentiments of the type Williams legitimized be shielded, protected and venerated -- not punished or stigmatized. Beyond the general need to ensure that Americans always fear an external Enemy, there are multiple functions which this specific Muslim-based
[Marxism] African Union call for air, naval blockade of Somalia-- escalation of US, EU imperialist aggression
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == * All Wires * U.S. * World * Politics * Entertainment * Tech Biz * Sports * Health * Oddities THURSDAY Oct 21, 2010 12:14 ET AU calls for air and naval blockade of Somalia By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press The African Union sought U.N. approval Thursday for a naval and air blockade of Somalia, as well as more troops and aid to fend off piracy and terrorism in the struggling Horn of Africa nation. The AU's commissioner for peace and security, Ramtane Lamamra, urged the U.N. Security Council to authorize a blockade while seeking far more international aid and a contingent of 20,000 AU-led troops, up from the current authorization of 8,000. He also asked the council to approve hiring up to 1,680 police. The AU peacekeeping force, operating under the U.N. mandate, now has about 6,000 troops. With Somalia lacking a fully functioning government since 1991, Lamamra called for a major escalation of troops and other resources to deter the pirates operating off the country's coast and the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab Islamist rebels who control much of Somalia. Specifically, Lamamra requested U.N. authorization for a naval blockade and a no-fly zone over Somalia to prevent the entry of foreign fighters into Somalia, as well as flights carrying shipments of weapons and ammunition to armed groups inside Somalia. Somali Foreign Minister Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim told the council his government fully supports the AU's strategy. The history of Somalia during the past two decades is not just doom and gloom, he said. In some places, he said, there is still peace and local businesses and extended families have worked to set up clinics, electricity, schools, telephones and running water despite the lack of central government. The council then met for several hours behind closed doors. Afterward, Uganda's U.N. Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda, the current council president, told reporters the council considers the AU's request for a blockade to be legitimate but the council's members would need to study it further. Lamamra also sought the 15-nation council's help in tightening international sanctions against Somalia, and in removing some of the underlying conditions that have led to a boom in piracy by doing something to tackle the illegal fishing and dumping of toxic substances and waste off the coast. And in unusually blunt language, the AU official criticized the collective strategy of nations for pursuing ineffective strategies. He said choice must be made, since the Somalis will not succeed in their efforts without the full support of Africa and the world. Somalia hasn't had a fully functioning government since 1991. The weak U.N.-backed government controls just a portion of the capital, Mogadishu, and few other areas. The U.S. and Italy are helping pay for training for government forces to take on militants. The international community can decide to pursue its current policy of limited engagement and halfhearted measures, in the false hope that the situation can be contained, Lamamra said. Or, he added, the international community can also decide it should step up its efforts. Lamamra welcomed a call to expanded action by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who spoke earlier before the council, the U.N.'s most powerful arm. Ban urged its members to take bold and courageous decisions need to build up the AU peacekeeping force. He praised the news that some Somali residents were benefiting from an offensive launched by Somali government troops last Sunday. The troops are trying to win back control of areas held by al-Shabab militants and have recorded some early successes, with militants fleeing from at least one town near the border with Kenya. Ban said reports that the residents of the town, Belet Hawo, were taking down the al-Shabab flags flying there and replacing them with Somali national flags are signs of the Somali people's yearning for peace and security. 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] Greenwald: Iran needs stern lessons in freedom
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html Wednesday, Oct 20, 2010 10:21 ET Iran needs stern lessons in freedom By Glenn Greenwald * Here is the latest Outrage of Evil from the Persian Hitlers: Iran's intelligence minister confirmed on Wednesday that two U.S. citizens detained for more than a year will face trial, news reports said. The two Americans will be tried, Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. We will hand any evidence we have to the judiciary. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on Tuesday that she had heard Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal would be tried on November 6 but she still hoped they would be released. It's high time that we teach those Iranians about democracy and freedom. All civilized people know that this is how a Free and Democratic Nation treats foreign detainees: The Obama administration has decided to continue to imprison without trials nearly 50 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba because a high-level task force has concluded that they are too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release, an administration official said on Thursday. * Continue reading It's hard to put into words how paranoid and conspiratorial those Iranians must be, thinking that Americans who covertly entered their country without authorization were there for purposes other than accidental tourism. What ever could have put such a bizarre idea into their heads? U.S. 'secret war' expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials. Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. . . . One advantage of using secret forces for such missions is that they rarely discuss their operations in public. For a Democratic president such as Obama, who is criticized from either side of the political spectrum for too much or too little aggression, the unacknowledged CIA drone attacks in Pakistan, along with unilateral U.S. raids in Somalia and joint operations in Yemen, provide politically useful tools. Obama, one senior military official said, has allowed things that the previous administration did not. Just because we're covertly infiltrating and interfering in virtually every Muslim country on the planet -- and just because we're actively aiding rebel groups inside their specific country -- is no reason to suspect Americans who illegally enter their country of espionage. That just goes without saying, and Americans would never harbor such untoward suspicions about Iranians caught illegally entering the United States. Of course, none of this is new. We previously witnessed the vast disparity in Freedom Values between the U.S. and Iran when the Persian Tyrants sparked a worldwide orgy of condemnation by holding an American journalist for a couple of months (after she was convicted in court of espionage) before an Iranian appellate tribunal ordered her release, in contrast to the way that the Leaders of the Free World imprisoned an Al Jazeera cameraman in Guantanamo without charges of any kind before swiftly releasing him after a mere seven years (along with numerous other incidents of due-process-free, years-long imprisonments of journalists in Iraq). It goes without saying that the Iranian justice system is a travesty and a farce, but at least they go through the pretense of due process before putting people in cages. * * * * * Speaking of our need to teach Iran and other tyrannical nations about the values of Freedom and Democracy, note the following items: (1) Electronic Frontier Foundation reports: Last Friday, in a brief filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Obama Administration continued the government's half-decade-long battle to ensure that no judge ever rules on the legality of the National Security Agency's warrantless dragnet surveillance program, a program first revealed in 2005 by the New York Times and detailed by technical documents provided by former ATT technician Mark Klein. . . . The government dedicates most of its brief to arguing the same thing it has been arguing for the past five years in every other warrantless wiretapping case: that any attempt by the courts to judge the legality of the alleged surveillance would violate the state secrets privilege and harm national security. I spent this morning reviewing what Democrats
[Marxism] China raises interest rates; world shudders
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I originally prepared this item for the Marxism List. Hence the references. I recall a year ago or so on the Marxism list, some discussion of the massive Chinese real estate and land property bubbles. Some one or maybe several comrades suggested that the would explode, creating perhaps an even worse catastrophe than the blowup of the US and allied financial bubbles, finally bringing down the vaunted Chinese economy, sort of like the Titanic tilting over and sliding slowly beneath the ice. Of course, China did succeed to a significant degree in dodging the financial-crisis bullet to a significant degree through substantial stimulus spending, aggressive use of nationalized industry sectors, and easing lending by a nationalized banking system. Well, it is beginning to look as though the Chinese government may dodge the property-bubble bullet also. They seem to be taking measures aimed at deflating it slowly instead of waiting till it blows up in their faces and then taking -- or being unable to take -- desperate measures as has been he practice in the United States and other imperialist and capitalist countries. Of course we don't know what will happen tomorrow. Maybe the Chinese economy will blow up just as many of the critics have expected -- sometimes again and again. But it may be that the Chinese combination of extensive private ownership and foreign investment with extensive nationalized sectors and intensive state intervention and planning hangs in there a bit better than some of us have foreseen. Even though the material for economic breakdowns and sharp social conflict continues to accumulate. Fred Feldman Tuesday, Oct 19, 2010 12:48 ET China raises interest rates; world shudders Krugman's rogue economic nation goes its own way again. But does that really make the world worse off? By Andrew Leonard China's shock decision to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Tuesday jolted world financial markets. Oil prices and stock markets fell, on the expectation that China's move would impede domestic economic growth, thus decreasing that nation's demand for commodities and possibly placing a drag on the larger global economy. China's reasons for the move are clear: After successfully emerging from the global recession through the combined powers of a huge stimulus and an artificially weak currency, China's economy has been growing like gangbusters, and inflation is on the rise. U.S. and European central bankers would likely do the exact same thing if faced with a similar inflationary push. But China is also determined to be aggressively proactive in avoiding a potential crash. In recent months, China's leaders taken strong measures to quash the kind of disastrous property bubble that blew up the U.S. economy From Bloomberg: Officials raised the reserve requirements for six banks for a two-month period, three people with knowledge of the matter said last week ... China will speed up the introduction of a trial property tax in some cities and then expand the levy to the whole country, the government said Sept. 29, without giving a timetable. The state also told commercial banks to stop offering loans to buyers of third homes and extended a 30 percent down payment requirement to all first-home buyers. Considering the effect a mere interest rate hike in China has on financial markets worldwide, it doesn't seem like a stretch to think that an actual Chinese economic crash would be bad news for the entire world. If U.S. government leaders had been able and willing to slam on the brakes when the U.S. property bubble was accelerating, perhaps the Great Recession could have been averted. * Continue reading But that's not how some critics see the move. Paul Krugman, who has been doubling down in recent days on his assertion that China is a rogue economic nation, argued immediately that China's interest rate hike is more evidence of the country's beggar-thy-neighbors policy. So, the United States is pursuing an expansionary domestic monetary policy, which increases overall world demand; however, a side consequence of this policy is a weaker dollar. China is pursuing a weak-yuan policy; to counter the inflationary domestic effects of that policy, it's pursuing a contractionary domestic monetary policy, reducing overall world demand. We're doing the right thing; they're making the world as a whole worse off. The whole world? I wonder whether Australia, and other commodity exporting nations in Africa and South America, would support that thesis. Chinese economic growth has been very good for their economies over the last ten years. Africa has enjoyed the best overall growth in many decades, in large part due to China. Yes, emerging markets
[Marxism] Media claims China has US 'over a barrel on rare-earrth minerals
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Another brouhaha about how wicked China is brutalizing the poor United States and friends is beginning to sweep the media. Apparently China -- the main producer of these elements today -- has in recent weeks been occasionally blocking shipments of these to Japan, Germany and the United States. I attach an interesting article about this which I found helpful to understanding what is taking place . On Salon, the usually legally sane Andrew Leonard flipped his lid: If true, China's move is flabbergasting. In the present politically charged climate of U.S.-China relations, it is hard to imagine a more provocative gesture. If China wanted to prove that it is indeed, as Paul Krugman charged in his column on Monday, a rogue economic nation, this is exactly how to go about it. I can't think of a better way to gin up bipartisan U.S. support for punitive tariffs against Chinese products than to engage in a selective blockade of rare earth minerals, mere weeks after attracting scads of negative attention for wielding exactly the same kind of heavy handed trade policy against Japan. The kindling necessary for a hot-burning trade war is already piled up and ready. China just threw a match on it. http://www.salon.com/technology/rare_earth_elements/index.html This is way overheated in my view, and it misses who has started this punchout. That's because he, like Paul Krugman, who has also been waving the hatchet against China for months (at least), operates in the framework of the view that China pursues selfish interests, while the US strives for what is best for everybody. It is possible that some Chinese officials, state agencies, and investors are aiming for a quick killing in this market. But more likely, this is a Chinese government response to the wave of denunciations of China that have swept US politics in the last few months. Congress has threatened sanctions. A completely bipartisan (from Pat Buchanan to Russell Feingold) politicazl campaign is being run against China. Threats of trade war are all over the place. And US imperialist allies are picking up on it. Krugman blames China for the world capitalist economic slowdown-recessionn-depression. In South Carolina one Tea Party candidate is seeking a congressional seat on the claim that China may be about to launch 1,000 nukes against the United States from Cuba. So the Chinese government is letting the world know that if the US tries to draw its allies into a sanctions regime against China, China will not be the only country to suffer -- giving the US a taste of what a Chinese sanctions regime against the US might feel like. By the way, I am betting at this point that no trade war will take place. For one thing, I think this tactic will probably increase the imperialist fear level. But I also think China is willing to make some concessions on the value of the yuan and so forth -- not what the US really demands but enough to cover a US retreat from the current anti-China frenzy. And of course, it goes without saying that China has no more right to order China around than it does Honduras or the Koreas. Fred Feldman http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20020177-503543.htm October 20, 2010 12:28 PM China Has U.S. Over a Barrel on Rare Earth Elements Posted by Global Post China's corner on the rare earth elements is causing some concern around the world. GlobalPost's David Case looks at how China's has the U.S. over a barrel on rare earths, which are a key ingredient in iPods, cell phones, hard drives and guided missiles. BOSTON, Mass. -- Rare earths. Suddenly you can barely visit a website without banner headlines screaming seemingly apocalyptic allegations about rare earths. Since late September, the Japanese have accused China of cutting off exports of rare earths. Prices worldwide are reportedly soaring. And now a 40 percent cut in China's rare earth exports has set off alarm bells in Germany [2], according to the New York Times. The paper continued, So great is the anxiety by the business community here that a special conference dedicated to the issue will be held next week in Berlin. And now it seems China will halt some of those mineral export to the United States as well. So what exactly are rare earths? And why should we really put down our iPhones and pay attention? First, a brief explanatory flashback: if your high school chemistry teacher was worth her salt, you may recall that rare earths are the seventeen elements that live mainly on a row beneath the rump periodic table. In one of science's great drawn-out dramas, 19th century chemists competed in a quest to isolate these elements. Their stubbornly similar atomic properties established some chemists' reputations, and gave the elements the (largely erroneous) reputation
[Marxism] GM to cut wages by half for 40% of workers at plant
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.themilitant.com/2010/7440/744004.html GM to begin cutting wages by half at auto plant in Michigan (front page) BY BRIAN WILLIAMS In its drive against members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, General Motors is slashing wages at its factory in Orion Township, Michigan. The agreement, which was approved by UAW officials October 3, calls for paying 60 percent of the plant's 1,550 workers their current wage of about $28 an hour and the rest of UAW members-some with many years at the plant, as well as new hires-$14 an hour. Eleven hundred workers are currently laid off at the Orion plant. As workers are called back, some will come back at their full wages, while others doing the same kind of work will be paid half the wages. Union members didn't get a chance to vote on the agreement, reported the Detroit Free Press. With labor costs drastically reduced, GM will move ahead on production of its Chevrolet subcompact small car as well as the 2012 Buick Verano compact sedan at Orion. Up to now its subcompact models have been produced at its plant in South Korea. Pointing to the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler last year, UAW assistant director Garry Bernath said the union had to make very difficult decisions to prevent the company from eliminating jobs. During this crisis, he told the New York Times, the UAW developed a new understanding of the realities in the 21st-century global auto industry. This latest concession comes prior to contract talks with the Big Three-GM, Ford, and Chrysler-which are set to open next year. Both the union and the company insist the Orion contract will not set a precedent. GM first succeeded in getting the union to accept a two-tier wage structure in 2007 when hourly pay for new hires was cut to $14 an hour. As GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009, the union accepted further cuts, including the suspension of cost-of-living increases, bonuses, and some holiday pay, along with a strike ban over the next six years. In 2007 GM got out of paying health-care costs for half a million retirees by transferring responsibility to a trust fund run by the union. These concessions further weaken the union, creating new divisions within the workforce The contract at the Orion Township plant comes a week after union workers at a GM stamping plant in Indianapolis defeated a proposed contract that would have cut unskilled workers' wages almost in half. 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] Ecuador: Air Force and Navy Reluctantly Backed President
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 10/10/10 8:59 AM, Greg McDonald wrote: This article makes it crystal-clear, Fred, that the situation at the airport was indeed a labor dispute, and a labor dispute only, and was not infiltrated by putschist elements, in contradistinction (maybe) with the Police revolt. This does not mean I don't think there was an attempted coup (possibly), but rather that the Armed Forces were not involved. Louis Proyect replied: Cops do not belong to the working class. Greg replied (as I was pretty sure he would): Whatever. The folks at the airport are not cops to begin with, Louis, but members of the Air Force, thus the distinction between the military and the cops. Louis is right to say that cops are not workers. Also the air force and the Navy in Ecuador are not working-class institutions. And their members are not workers while they are serving. Greg continues to join -- while wobbling back and forth on whether there was a coup -- the propaganda campaign to portray the air force and cops and navy as militant labor fighting for decent wages and working conditions denied them by the Correa government, el enemigo de la humanidad. This is propaganda -- and I assume, indeed am almost awed by, Greg's total sincerity in putting forward this ruinous view -- for the next coup attempt, which will almost certainly be presented as the armed forces rescuing the nation from Correa's misrule. It is propaganda for the next coup wherever it is presented, whether on the Marxism List or the Latin American media. Greg now assures us that there is no threat of a US-backed coup because Correa doesn't present any problem for imperialism. I have heard this song from left critics many times before -- about Allende, Goulart, Isabel Peron, Aristide, and others. Let's just say it is not a prediction to be relied on. Of course, even if a coup happens, even if it is successful, Greg does not have to acknowledge this. He can always just tell himself and us that a bunch of underpaid workers in uniform just seized the presidential palace and rid us of the tyrant. I assume Greg will continue to pick up whatever he finds lying around and throw it at Correa in five or ten posts a day. He has a constitutional right to pursue this obsession. I plan to pay no further attention. 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] Ecuador: Air Force and Navy Reluctantly Backed President
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It is clear that the claims that CONAIE and other opposition groups in Ecuador are bought agents of US imperialism has no substantial basis in fact and is pure speculation. It is also clear that Ecuador lacks the unified national front that has made advances possible and poses a strong obstacles to reactionary coups. Correa's failings probably contribute to that problem but I very much doubt he is the sole cause. There seems to be an array of leadership problems. Meanwhile, I fear that Greg is heading toward the deep end in his crusading against Correa. Now he suggests that we accept on the basis of one article and an alleged citation of Correa, that the armed forces and the cops were just poor working-stiffs, simply exercising their right to protest for better wages and working conditions, which are being denied them by the Correa government. What a pretty picture, where every prospect pleases, and only Correa is vile However, Marxists take a dimmer view of these special bodies of armed men when they injure the president, hold him prisoner, capture the minister of defense, surround the presidential palace and the legislature,shut down the airfields, shoot at the president as he is escaping and kill one of his guards. We tend to assume they are up to no good. Greg's version is good pr for the next coup attempt, which will probably be much better planned and executed. After all, if the recent unpleasantness was caused by Correa's oppressive denial of pay and perks to the armed forces, would they not be justified in rising up against the tyrant and freeing the nation from his savage grip. It would not be hard to present it that way. Now Greg insists, and I believe him, that CONAIE and other groups do not see the institutional role of the armed forces that way. If so, that shows CONAIE has learned some things from its two experiences with alliance with Gen. Lucio Gutierrez. He sold them out both times, and in short order. I think that repeating that course in the more polarized situation in Latin America today would likely be suicidal. But I am not addressing CONAIE's position here, but Greg's. It is Greg who has actually moved toward a position that could present the military establishment (just working folks oppressed and exploited like everybody else by the tyrant Correa) a part of what he regards (and may even be) the progressive movement against Correa's policies. Finally, it seems to me that Greg is not completely satisfied with his literary war against the Correa regime in Ecuador. He has now opened a second front against the regime of Evo Morales in Bolivia, where the relationship between the indigenous peoples and the government is radically different than in Ecuador. But Greg's contribution presemts them as identical. How long at this rate before we get the formal McDonald declaration of war against Cuba and Venezuela? Really, I have always tended to appreciate your posts, which usually, if not always, contain some valuable thoughts and information. But perhaps carried by some of the negative dynamics of argument on the list, you are arching out for not in a bad direction. I hope you can find it in your brain, heart, and spine to contain this process. Fred Feldman 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 note about the failed coup in Ecuador [coup attempts in ALBA states], by Atilio Boron
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Ecuador: Life brings surprises Posted: 04 Oct 2010 06:45 AM PDT A Note About the Failed Coup in Ecuador Atilio A. Boron Translation: David Brookbank Atilio A. Boron Translation: David Brookbank 1. What happened Thursday in Ecuador? There was an attempted coup d�etat. It was not, as various Latin America media reported, an �institutional crisis�, as if what happened had been a jurisdictional conflict between the executive and the legislature rather than an open insurrection by one branch of the executive, the National Police, whose members make up a small army of 40,000 men, against the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ecuador, who is none other than the legitimately elected president. Neither was it as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Arturo Valenzuela claimed, �an act of police insubordination�. Would it have been characterized this way if the equivalent of the Ecuadoran National Police in the U.S. had beaten and physically assaulted Barack Obama, injuring him? Or if they had kidnapped him and held him in custody for 12 hours in a police hospital until a special army commando unit liberated him following a fierce gun battle? Certainly not. But given that we are talking about a Latin American leader, what in the U.S. would sound like an intolerable aberration is made to appear like a schoolyard prank here. Correa injured Generally speaking, all the media oligopolies offered a distorted version of what occurred yesterday, carefully avoiding talking about an attempted coup. Instead they referred to it as a �police uprising� which, from any perspective, converts Thursday�s events into a relatively insignificant anecdote. It is an old rightwing ploy, always interested in minimizing the importance of the outrages committed by its supporters and magnifying the errors and problems of its adversaries. For that reason it is worth remembering the words of president Rafael Correa in the early hours of Friday morning when he characterized the events as a �conspiracy� to perpetrate a �coup d��tat�. A �conspiracy� because, as was more than evident on Thursday, there were other actors who demonstrated their support for the coup as it was underway: Was it not elements of the Ecuadoran Air Force � and not the National Police � that paralyzed the Quito International Airport and the small airfield used for regional flights? And were there not groups of politicians who took to the streets and plazas to support the coup leaders? Was not ex-president Lucio Gutierrez�s own lawyer one of the fanatics who tried to forcibly enter into the installations of Ecuador National Television? Didn�t Jaime Nebot, the mayor of Guayaquil and a major rival of President Correa, claim that this was a power struggle between an authoritarian, despotic character, Correa, and a sector of the police, mistaken in their methodology but justified in their complaints? This false equivalency between the two parties to the conflict was an indirect confession of his complacency about current events and his deep desire to be free of this � until now at least � unassailable political enemy. And don�t even mention the lamentable reversal by the �indigenous� movement Pachakutik, which in the middle of the crisis made public its call to the �indigenous movement, social movements, and democratic political organizations to form a united national front to demand the ouster of President Correa.� �Life brings surprises�, said Pedro Navaja; but it is not much of a surprise when one takes note of the generous aid that USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy have provided in the last few years to �empower� the Ecuadoran people via its parties and social movements. Conclusion: It was not a small isolated group within the police trying to carry out a coup, but rather a group of social and political actors at the service of the local oligarchy and imperialism, who will never forgive Correa for having ordered the removal of the US military base at Manta and the audit of Ecuador�s foreign debt and its incorporation into ALBA, among many other actions. Incidentally, the Ecuadoran police have for many years, like other forces in the region, been trained and supported by their US counterpart. Have they provided some sort of civic education or instruction regarding the necessary subordination of the armed forces and police to civilian authority? Apparently not. In reality, this makes clear the need to put an end, without further delay, to the �cooperation� between security forces in the majority of the countries in Latin America and the United States. It is already well-known what is taught in those courses. Rafael Correa at the moment of his rescue from the
[Marxism] Fidel Castro via Jeffrey Goldberg on Israel's right to exist
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The introductory comment is by Walter Lippmann, moderator of the indispensable CubaNews List. Fred Feldman Fidel has said he wasn't misquoted, but misunderstood. Goldberg has promised a longer, more comprehensive look at his visit with Fidel Castro. So far, we've not seen a transcript of their five hours of conversations but it should be fascinating reading, if and when it is at last made available) === THE ATLANTIC Fidel Castro and Israel's Right to Exist Sep 22 2010, 11:50 AM ET http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/fidel-castro-and-i sraels-right-to-exist/63369/ As I return to the subject of Fidel Castro and the many things he said to me on my recent visit to Havana, I'm struck again and again by a wonderful irony. Fidel is the icon of the global Left. The global Left today is thoroughly infiltrated by Israel-negationists, those people who have aligned themselves with hardcore Islamists and extreme-rightists to form a Red-Green-Brown front opposed to the existence of the world's only Jewish-majority country. It's a strange alliance, of course, in which to find self-described progressives, but hatred of Jewish national equality can do funny things to people's heads. But what's even stranger is that Fidel, this historic, iconic figure for global leftists, expresses nothing but sympathy for Jews, for the history of Jewish suffering, and even for the Jewish state. He doesn't have much love for its governments, but for the idea of Israel? Nothing but support. I asked him, during the course of our first conversation: Do you think the State of Israel, as a Jewish State, has a right to exist? Fidel Castro answered, Si, sin ninguna duda -- Yes, without a doubt. When I followed-up by asking if he -- or, more to the point, his brother's government -- would reestablish relations with Israel, he gave a simple procedural answer -- these things take time -- rather than a condemnation of the idea. He went on, as I detailed in an earlier post, to express great sympathy for persecuted Jews throughout history, but he also said -- and this is truly notable -- that he understands how such suffering could inform the decision-making of Israel's prime minister: Now, lets imagine that I were Netanyahu, Castro said, that I were there and I sat down to reason through (the issues facing Israel), I would remember that six million Jewish men and women, of all ages were exterminated in the concentration camps. He also -- and this, too, might be considered notable -- expressed great admiration for Netanyahu's father, Ben-Zion, the world's foremost historian of the Spanish Inquisition, and a hardline Likudnik, who is today 100 years old but still arguing for his beliefs (he is also one of the subjects of my recent cover story on Iran and Israel). Fidel expressed a desire to talk to Ben-Zion Netanyahu, saying that he was impressed by his character, his knowledge and his history. Can you imagine: A summit meeting between the 100-year-old Ben-Zion Netanyahu and the 84-year-old Fidel Castro? That would be a meeting to remember. Talk about a nightmare for the Eradicate-Israel coalition! I don't necessarily think the two men would agree on much, but Fidel Castro has surprised us lately. Maybe Ben-Zion Netanyahu would surprise us as well. 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] Antonina Pirozhkova, Engineer and Widow of Isaac Babel,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/world/europe/23pirozhkova.html?_r=1ref=obituaris Fred Feldman comments: Although I vaguely knew there had been a revolution in Russia once, my first direct contact with the event was not the writings of Lenin or Trotsky or Deutscher, but spending an afternoon reading Red Cavalry in my local public library. Already attracted to the worldwide hard-boiled school from Dostoevsky to Film Noir to Van Gogh's Potato Eaters to Dashiell Hammett and Louis Ferdinand Celine, I found that Red Cavalry added a note of inspiration. Ignorant and crude and even cruel human beings fighting to raise themselves out of miserable conditions of oppression and exploitation by any means necessary. When I hear people complain about the Cuban revolution, and the repression and so forth, I always tend to remember what the peoples of the USSR went through to make the gains they did. Compared to that, Cuba has been a walk in the park. Anyway I salute Babel's very productive and determined widow, regardless of what her political views were at the end, for a long life of activities that advanced world literature and human liberation. Worthy causes, to put it mildly. Antonina Pirozhkova, presente! Fred Feldman 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] Activist against Cuba embargo replies to 'Toronto Globe and Mail'
education and health care. Isaac Saney, an author and Cuba solidarity activist, has answered a recent editorial on the changes taking place there. Actual.ly the Globe and Mail's misrepresents the situation somewhat less than the Canadian 'National Post, which went so far as to claim that Cuba's free education and medical care vanished after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The text pf the Globe and Mail edit is appended to Saney's reply. Saney's letter is also good at describing the process that led to adoption of the measures, which were hardly suddenly dropped on the workers in a crushing blow like a brick dropped from an airplane. Fred Feldman While the government of President Raul Castro made the announcements, his older brother Fidel appeared to agree, recently telling an American journalist that the Cuban economy doesn't work. Mr. Castro later said he had been misinterpreted, but the comment could also be read as tacit support for Raul's reforms. An internal government document acknowledges the difficulty of this strategic transition, noting many businesses won't last because Cubans lack experience, drive and initiative to succeed in the private sector. While the Cuban government doesn't appear to have a strategy to help them make the transition, some Cubans may adapt more quickly than predicted. For years, Cubans have been forced to supplement their meagre state earnings and insufficient food rations by reselling stolen products on the black market - everything from cigars and cement to second-hand clothing. They already make exceptionally good capitalists. Cuba is still far from fully embracing the free market to the extent that China and Vietnam have. But these reforms are a welcome first step. 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 said
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In our recent conversation, Lenin agreed with me that it was Lester Young. I think that should settle the matter. Lenin seemed to like the Count Basie period the best, and his work with Billie Holiday. Fred Feldman 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] What If? Lenin and Trotsky: When to hold, when to fold.
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Paddy Appling wrote: This is all true Trotsky's role was marginal and eventually destructive Apart from his positive leadership of the Red Army, which he greatly over-exaggerated when believing they could defeat the German Army, rather than as Lenin insisted to agree the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, land which was subsequently recovered after WW2. Fred Feldman replies: Everyone is entitled to their opinion but everyone is not entitled to the facts that make them feel comfy. Patty Appling's description of Trotsky's role in the discussion that led up to the Brest-Litovsk is simply factually wrong. Trotsky was not the head of the army in 1918. There was no Red Army in 1918. There was only the remains of the Tsarist army. He did not overestimate the capacity of this army to resist. He knew it had none or almost none. He became foreign minister in the course of the negotiations with Germany. And also, Trotsky never opposed the treaty of Brest-Litovs, but favored it, He only was assigned to lead the organization of the Red Army after the Brest-Litovsk treaty. (Of course, this signals that Trotsky was not peripheral in the Bolshevik Party after the fusion after Lenin's return in 1917. The Bolshevik Party was not a cultish sect, where someone already tested in the mass movement of 1917 had to prove himself to the established leaders after the fusion. No, he became a central leader from the get-go, including in developing the strategy that led to the insurrection. The idea that he was peripheral to the Bolshevik Party is pure factional claptrap, which Stalin himself would have and, in fact, did reject as absurd in the years Paddy is talking There were three positions on the war in the Bolshevik leadership. One was led by Bukharin who favored aggressively continuing the war as a revolutionary war. Another was Lenin who was convinced that the defeated peasant-based army was done with the war and could not resume it. Trotsky had a third position, based on buying time in the negotiations for the German revolution to save the day. The Bukharin position -- was not unrelated to the later Bukharin-Zinoviev-Radek theory of the offensive which Lenin and Trotsky both fought in the Comintern. Lenin believed that it might take more time for the German revolution to develop to the point of taking power than Trotsky did, but he accepted Trotsky's position as a way of buying time for wearing down the Bukharin view, which had very wide support in the party, and Bukharin was even hinting at a split over it.. There's no doubt in my mind (or in Trotsky's to the end of his life) that Lenin's hard-boiled realism was proven correct, as against Trotsky's position and the Bukharin position, the latter of which would have been plain suicidal. At this time, of course, Stalin was a revolutionary and a Bolshevik as he had been since about 190l. Lars Lih in his ground-breaking Lenin Rediscovered: What is to be Done in context, in passing clearly disproves Trotsky's claim that Stalin's position was a half-Menshevik who dismissed the whole dispute as émigré squabbles, (a phrase Stalin actually lifted from Lenin's One Step Forward, Two Steps Back). Lih shows that Stalin was a 100 percent Lenin follower at this time, including considering the German Social Democratic Party as the model revolutionary party. Lih based himself in this on the work of Robert Duncan, the author of Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879-1929 who is apparently working on an epic biography of Stalin which I hope he gets to complete. I think Louis has to think about what we are getting into. Does avoiding the Trotsky-Stalin dispute mean that it is okay to say that Trotsky to a Japanese spy, but if you argue that Trotsky was not a Japanese spy, you are getting into the Trotsky-Stalin stuff and that's out. Or if Paddy says that Trotsky was the head of the Red Army in `1918 and that he argued that the Red Army which did not exist at the time was capable of defeating the Germans, that is AOK. But if you explain that these are unfacts, you are doing the Trotsky-Stalin thing. Or that if you say that Trotsky was peripheral in the Bolshevik Party after his group fused in 1917, that is fine. But if you point out evidence that this was not true, you are doing the Trotsky-Stalin thing and that is out. And by the way, if Trotsky was so peripheral, how did he get to be so destructive. Things are getting complicated, and there is only so much unfact I can stand, although I have generally supported not discussing Stalin-Trotsky stuff because the issues, in so far as they are relevant, can be discussed in current contexts and not just as old factional disputes. But that means to me that all sides in these disputes -- not just one of them -- should exercise
[Marxism] (no subject)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This assessment of the Turkish vote from Informed Comment seems pretty fair-minded to me. Although other factors will intervene, I suspect that the outcome is a sign that predictions that the voters would reject Erdogan and the militantly procapitalist and moderately pro-Islam JDP are probably not headed for the trash can in the next election, as some pollsters and others have wistfully predicted. Turkish secularism,' which always seemed to me to carry a strong does of obligatory state-worship, for instance by requiring that womem doff their head coverings in honor of the secular state while insisting on state control of Islamic religious institutions. Fred Feldman http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/8492.html Turkey's Constitutional Referendum Extends Range of Liberties Posted on September 13, 2010 by Juan The question in the American blogosphere seems to be whether the referendum on Turkey's constitutional changes was good for democracy or good for the sharia (the system of Muslim law, analogous to Roman Catholic canon law, against which the American right wing is now rallying). First of all, no one in Turkey is talking about implementing medieval Muslim laws, including the ruling Justice and Development Party- which does want fewer restrictions on the public role of religion in Turkey. The changes to the constitution just make it more difficult for the powers that be to marginalize believers. But to my knowledge, none of the amendments had anything to say about religion or religious law per se. Second of all, what are American evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics who want to ban abortion (even though there is no secular reason to do so) doing but trying to impose on all Americans their Christian sharia? The people most against the former seem to be all for the latter. Turkey has been run for decades as a secular semi-dictatorship in which the army was the guardian of the country's secular values, imposed from above. Turkish secularism is on the militant, French model, in which the government sees itself as an active critic of religious belief and institutions, rather than on the American model, where the government is supposed to be neutral. The army achieved this goal by monitoring officer cadets for signs that they might be religious and then summarily expelling them if they were found to be. One older Turkish intellectual who had been roped, as a university administrator, into assisting with such an expulsion, confessed to me his continued guilt about it. In other words, the Turkish officer corps has been the opposite of the American air force officers, where you pretty much have to be an evangelical Christian or you are hazed. The other institution that has been deployed actively to discriminate against believing Muslims seeking public roles is the judiciary. The referendum will make it harder for the army to police itself and keep out believers, by giving those expelled more rights of appeal. It will also weaken the autonomy of the judiciary. Admittedly, the latter step could prove pernicious, and there are legitimate concerns about it. Still, it should be remembered that the judiciary is largely staffed by judges already vetted to support the secular elite, and has often exercised its powers in the past on behalf of that elite. It is likely, it seems to me, that the outcome of these changes will in fact be a greater role for believing Muslims in Turkish political and public life. I can't see what is wrong with that, or how it is contrary to democracy. The old Kemalist system of secularism imposed from above by an urban, educated elite, in such a way as to marginalize much of Turkish society, accomplished good but also created inequities. Moreover, the constitution that is being amended was imposed by martial law. Letting the public weigh in on it, California style, restores a democratic character to at least some of it. Thus, the new constitution will allow much more in the way of union organizing by labor and restores the right to collective bargaining to public sector employees (though still not in the private sector). The generals who made the 1980 coup killed organized labor and the political left (which, ironically, paved the way for the Muslim-tinged right, on the analogy of the Christian Democrats in Germany, to come to power, since discontent had to go somewhere and it could not go left any more). So, ironically, it is not impossible that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has just given a at least some aid and comfort to Turkish leftist and labor movements, which could begin reviving over the next decade- providing a counter-weight to Erdogan's own more right-of-center emphases. And, many of the changes were asked for and endorsed by the European Union as a prerequisite
[Marxism] A brighter view of how the Cuban modelis changing
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == These two items show some of the range of discussion set off by the Goldberg interviews with Fidel Castro. It should be noted that Castro's response so far does not challenge the accuracy of Goldberg's quotations, whatever the Cuban leader may think about the political interpretations. There is no indication yet that Castro has any bones to pick with Goldberg about the quotes on Iran, which were heavily utilized it item 2 below, an editorial from the National Post of Canada. In contrast to the National Post, which for the most part simply gloats over Cuba's economic problems, proclaims victory, and gives gentle praise for his criticism of anti-Semitism, the article from the Guardian takes the thinking of the Castro and others more seriously, and doubts they are turning toward capitalism. Following are introductory comments by Walter Lippmann on the Cuba News list, which he moderates. They conclude with an excellent quotation from Fidel on economic conditions and economic thinking. Fred Feldman Fidel Castro has spoken before about mistakes made by the revolutionary government. Most famously he spoke five years ago at great length making many points, including: Here is a conclusion I’ve come to after many years: among all the errors we may have committed, the greatest of them all was that we believed that someone really knew something about socialism, or that someone actually knew how to build socialism. It seemed to be a sure fact, as well-known as the electrical system conceived by those who thought they were experts in electrical systems. Whenever they said: “That’s the formula”, we thought they knew. Just as if someone is a physician. You are not going to debate anemia, or intestinal problems, or any other condition with a physician; nobody argues with the physician. You can think that he is a good doctor or a bad one, you can follow his advice or not, but you won’t argue with him. Which of us would argue with a doctor, or a mathematician, or a historian, or an expert in literature or in any other subject? But we must be idiots if we think, for example, that economy is an exact and eternal science and that it existed since the days of Adam and Eve, and I offer my apologies to the thousands of economists in our country. All sense of dialectics is lost when someone believes that today’s economy is identical to the economy 50 or 100 or 150 years ago, or that it is identical to the one in Lenin’s day or to the time when Karl Marx lived. Revisionism is a thousand miles away from my mind and I truly revere Marx, Engels and Lenin. http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-11-17-2005.html === GUARDIAN Cuba: from communist to co-operative? Stephen Wilkinson guardian.co.uk Friday, September 10, 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/10/fidel-castro-cuba\-communist Fidel Castro's admission that Cuba isn't working doesn't mean a change to capitalism – far from it Fidel Castro's wry comment to US journalist Geoffrey Goldberg that Cuba's economic system isn't working has become an aside that has echoed round the world as columnists and commentators have seized upon it as the confession of a man preparing to meet his maker. However, as it is wont to do with Cuba, the world's media (especially that which is vehemently opposed to socialism) is perhaps reading a little too much into the comment. Fidel is a keen media watcher himself and seeing the attention his remark has received will surely be clarifying his views in the days to come, but you can be sure it will not be to say that capitalism is the answer. (Indeed, elsewhere in the Goldberg interview he told his interlocutor that he was still very much a dialectical materialist.) So what exactly did the old man say? To be specific: The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore, was his answer to being asked if he believed it was something still worth exporting. That is hardly an admission of total failure. He clearly thinks it worked once, and since he does not elaborate on the reasons why he thinks it doesn't work now, it is premature to assume that he is chucking in the towel. Nor can the statement be interpreted as him saying that socialism per se has failed – merely that Cuba's current model of it no longer fits the times. He has consistently held the view that there are as many models of socialism as there are countries that try it out. As a Marxist he believes that the particular circumstances of each society and the peculiarities of their histories affect the character of whatever politics they might have – be they communist or capitalist. What the statement really means is that he agrees with his
[Marxism] Afghans protest US Quran-burning that didn't happen
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Afghans Demonstrate Against US Quran-Burning That Never Happened Posted on September 12, 2010 by Juan http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/afghans-demonstrate-against-us-quran-burning .html Saturday witnessed a second wave of demonstrations against the threats by small American fundamentalist churches (especially the Dove Outreach group of some 50 in Gainesville, Fl.), to burn copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, on September 11. News that the planned bonfire of the scripture had been called off did not reach the provinces in time to avert the rallies, which were sparked in part by Taliban pamphleteering against the US. But it seems clear to me in any case that the threat of Quran-burning by a few dozen kooks in the US is only a pretext for these demonstrations, which inevitably are actually about the grievances of Afghans under foreign military occupation. That is why the story of the plans for burning the Quran has brought people into the streets in Aghanistan to protest in impressive numbers (in contrast to most other parts of the Muslim world, where there were no similarly-sized rallies). The largest demonstration on Saturday was held in Pul-i Alam, the capital of Logar province south of the national capital of Kabul. (For basic information about Logar, see this pdf file). Pajhwok News Agency reports that some 10,000 demonstrators assembled in the streets of Pul-i Alam. Protesters burned tires in the streets and sometimes torched shops. At one point the crowd, enraged, began moving toward the governor's mansion, and local police dispersed them, apparently by firing above their heads. The demonstrators briefly cut the road south linking the city to Pakistan. (Given that Pul-i Alam's population is only about 88,000, I find the 10,000 figure hard to credit unless the demonstration was planned out by the Taliban and protesters were bused in from the rural areas.) Logar, with a population of around 320,000, is about 2/3s Pushtun, with the rest being speakers of Dari Persian, whether Sunni Tajiks or Shiite Hazaras. Pajhwok maintains that in the Afghania Pass region of the Nejrab district in Kapisa Province just northeast of Kabul, some 6,000 protesters, including women, gathered from that and surrounding districts. They chanted anti-American and anti-Israel phrases. The agency interviewed a member of the provincial council from Afghania Pass, Haji Lutfullah Zakiri. He said that were the Quran to be desecrated by Americans, a large number of young men were ready to turn suicide bombers. He suggested that French NATO troops in the province of Kapisa would likely be assaulted first of all. (Again, 6,000 sounds to me like a large number to meet in a remote place). Courtesy afghandesk.com. A third rally was held in the central Parwan Province, in Koh-i Safi district, according to Pajhwok. About 1,500 people shouted Death to America and Death to Israel. The demonstrators released an ultimatum aimed at the United States, pledging a jihad or war against the United States if the Quran were defiled. Their resolution also threatened to set Americans ablaze in revenge for the burning of the Muslim scripture. Also just north of Kabul, Parwan is largely Tajik (Sunni Persian-speakers) and its residents fought the Taliban tooth and nail in the 1990s. My guess is that the small demonstration and threats were generated mainly by the Pashtuns, an ethnic minority in Parwan. AFP reports in Arabic on 3 demonstrations in the northern Badakhshan Province. In the provincial capital of Faizabad, about 600 demonstrators gathered. in the afternoon briefly. Another small demonstration of just a few hundred was held in a rural district of that province. The rallies come on the heels of large demonstrations launched after Friday prayers against the US in some 13 Afghan cities. The clashes left ten or eleven persons wounded, some of them taking police fire after radicals started throwing stones at the police. Some reports speak of one person having died.. Four policemen were wounded in the clashes. ABC News has video: 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] Small groups burned parts of Koran in NY, DC, Tenn. on 9/11
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Korans vandalized in New York, Washington on 9/11 anniversary http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/koran-pages-burn-911-anniversary/ By Raw Story Saturday, September 11th, 2010 -- 6:09 pm submit to reddit Stumble This! 114Share 0diggsdigg Korans vandalized in New York, Washington on 9/11 anniversary UPDATE: Two religious leaders at a recently-founded offshoot of the Baptist church burned Korans in a Tennessee back yard on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, reports the NBC affiliate in Nashville. WSMV reports: The Rev. Bob Old and the Rev. Danny Allen both had different reasons for burning the Muslim holy book, but they said it had nothing to do with whether or not a mosque was built near ground zero. It's about faith, it's about love, but you have to have the right book behind you. This is a book of hate, not a book of love, said Old while holding up a Quran. The two men said they burned the books to defend the United States Constitution and the American people. It's a move that has been denounced by Christian groups, politicians and even some of their family members. Story continues below... The TV station noted that Rev. Old's house was picketed by three women whose husbands are fighting overseas. I'm scared for my husband. I'm scared for my friends and everybody who protects us, one of the picketers said. ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS BELOW The Florida pastor who planned a Koran-burning on the anniversary of 9/11 swore on Saturday he would not ever burn the Muslim holy book, but that didn't stop others from picking up the pastor's mantle as Americans marked the ninth anniversary of the country's worst terrorist attack. At Ground Zero in New York City, an unidentified man was escorted away by police when he tore pages out of a Koran and set them alight during a protest, the New York Daily News reported. If they can burn American flags, I can burn the Koran, the man reportedly shouted. America should never be afraid to give their opinion. The Daily News said the man did not appear to be arrested. Meanwhile, a small group of conservative Christians tore some pages from a Koran in a protest outside the White House Saturday to denounce what they called the charade of Islam on the anniversary of 9/11. Part of why we're doing that, please hear me: the charade that Islam is a peaceful religion must end, said Randall Terry, a leading anti-abortion campaigner, and one of six people who took part in the protest. Another activist, Andrew Beacham, read out a few Koran passages calling for hatred towards Christians and Jews, and then ripped those pages from an English paperback edition of the Islamic holy book. He carefully put the torn pieces into a plastic bag, in order not to litter, and said: The only reason I will not burn it at the White House is because to burn anything on the Capitol grounds is a felony. Beacham, who describes himself as a leader of the right-wing conservative Tea Party from Indiana, added: The Twin Towers were taken down because of the Koran and other religious teachings. A few curious tourists stopped to watch the huddle outside the White House, while police took down the names of the participants but did not intervene. For his part, Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, appeared to have succumbed to intense attention from the media and senior US officials in announcing his church would not ever burn Korans. We will definitely not burn the Koran, no, he told NBC News. Not today, not ever. -- With a report from AFP 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 Spectre of Barbarism and its Alternative -- Mike Lebowitz
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The B u l l e t Socialist Project - home
Socialist Project . E-Bulletin No. 414
September 10, 2010
The Spectre of Barbarism and its Alternative
Michael A. Lebowitz
The following two documents are presentations made or prepared for different
purposes in Venezuela. The first ('The Spectre of Barbarism and its
Alternative: Eight Theses') was presented at a conference of Venezuelan
intellectuals organized by Centro Internacional Miranda (CIM) in Caracas on
'The New International Situation and Construction of Socialism in the 21st
Century' on 1 October 2009; this paper points to both the international
struggle and (peripherally on this occasion) the internal struggle. The
second intervention ('The Responsibility of Revolutionary Intellectuals in
Building Socialism') was presented at a CIM conference, 'Intellectuals,
Democracy and Socialism,' on 2 June 2009 - a conference in Caracas composed
largely of leading Venezuelan intellectuals which generated much controversy
because of public criticisms of 'the process' made there; despite my
statement that this presentation was 'general rather than specific to
Venezuela,' it nevertheless was declared to be as an attack on PSUV (Partido
Socialista Unido de Venezuela) by a Chavist faction linked to the oil
ministry.
I. The spectre of barbarism and its alternative: eight theses
Thesis One. The capitalist economic crisis is not over.
Make socialism fly
Make socialism fly - street art in Caracas. Photo from
nosabemosdisparar.blogspot.com.
Although the immediate financial crisis appears to have been resolved, all
of the underlying factors (which are the result of the overaccumulation to
which capitalism is prone and which made fictitious capital so vulnerable)
are still present. The incredible trade imbalance of the U.S. economy has
not been addressed; the unprecedented deficit of the U.S. federal budget is
rising; the over-extension of consumer credit hangs over the economy;
unemployment is rising and thus consumer confidence and spending is not
likely to return to previous heights; and, the general picture is one in
which the U.S. economy, the dominant economy in the world, will continue to
lose hegemony. When commentators stress signs of recovery, it is essential
to remember that this pattern differs not at all from that of 1929 to 1933 -
in other words, the period between the stock market crash and the bank
failures - a period before much of the depression of the 1930s. At best,
although capitalism itself may recover, the prospect is one of a significant
geographical restructuring of capital on an international basis, which will
require a painful adjustment for the U.S. economy - one which involves
acceptance of continued stagnation or decline of incomes for the mass of
people.
Thesis Two. The resource/food/water/climate/environment crisis is deepening.
All these elements are connected. There is a food crisis which reflects,
among other things, drought as the result of climate change and the
diversion of food for the production of biofuels. Despite the ability to
produce sufficient food at this time for the world, unequal distribution has
meant starvation for many and has been reflected in food riots over the
price of staple products like rice. There is a process of land grab
occurring in which countries such as China, India, South Korea and Saudi
Arabia are in the process of leasing land in Africa, Pakistan, and the
Philippines among other places for the purpose of securing food (especially
grain) and fuels. For example, Daewoo of South Korea took a 99 year lease on
3,000,000 acres of land in Madagascar (half of all arable land in the
country) for the purpose of producing corn and palm oil. Similarly, Pakistan
offered a half million hectares of land and promised Gulf investors that if
they signed up it would hire a security force of 100,000 to protect the
assets. A significant aspect of these contracts which secure arable land for
foreign investors is that it is a way of dealing with the impending crisis
of water shortage. And, this problem is becoming increasingly serious with
the melting of glaciers for example in Tibet and the Andes - which will
affect the availability of water not only for consumption and agriculture
but also for hydroelectric power. This problem, the problem of
over-expansion of economic activity in relation to existing resources under
capitalism, will only get worse as India and China in particular attempt to
emulate the consumption standards of the developed North.
Thesis Three. The current internal political correlation of forces in the
United States and other advanced capitalist countries is not favourable to
the advance of progressive forces.
Here we can simply note the recent rightwing victories in elections in
Re: [Marxism] Is Israel an apartheid state?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Manuel quoted me: Fred said: I want stress that I would have no trouble accepting the apartheid label (as a popular synonym for racist regime) if I was convinced that comrades really grasped that the Palestinians have a right to fight not just for a single-state Palestine solution, but for whatever they are strong enough to take in their native land. Manuel agrees with me, seemingly, and then complains: However, I always find it perplexing (read peeved) to hear self-professed revolutionists worrying whether popularizing a well-known sentiment (apartheid Israel) will somehow lead the Palestinian fighters and their allies to make a wrong turn because they seek to build popular support for their struggle on a world stage in terms comprehensible especially to the oppressed nationalities and nations never mind the privileged workers and students of imperialist countries. Fred responds: Where did I suggest that the apartheid Israel slogan would lead Palestinian fighters astray? Nowhere, although I admit that Palestinian fighters are not unique in the world in being incapable of making mistakes. No, my concern is with the international solidarity movement, where there are strong tendencies in many radical groups to see their pet one-state solutions as the only way forward, and partial steps as Bantustans, sell-outs, or hopeless concentration camps, with all these conclusions seen as flowing from the apartheid analysis. While Edmundsen claims to reject this kind of thinking, his comments about Gaza show that he nonetheless buys into it. I believe this is true not only in regard to Hamas but even the weak and disorganized PLO leadership in the West Bank, where the mass fight against the settlements is a fight to retrieve bits and pieces of territory for a potential Palestinian state, which the Israeli ruling class continues to block despite the alleged advantage of the Bantustans that would supposedly surely result. Israel has a ruling class, by the way, and it is not just all Jews, to put it mildly. The fact is that single state solutions (including the democratic secular state, logical and inevitable as they MAY prove to be as ultimate solutions, do not have a mass base today among either the Palestinians (most of whom think they are utopian at best) or the colonial-settler population. The fight has to begin from where the Palestinians are, from their real situation and consciousness their real level of unity, the strength or weakness of their alliances, and the strength of the enemy which is far from evaporating as yet. Many non-Palestinian radicals assume that Hamas rejects a two-state solution, favoring a united Islamic Israel, free of all Jews. But this militant position is yesterday's paper. Hamas clearly favors a two-state agreement. Of course, they do not believe this should involve only Gaza but also the West Bank, where they attempt, whether in the best way or not is beside the point in this context, to find some common ground with the PLO that wants to fight. It may be true, as Manuel speculates, that only the most implacable foes of Israel gain popular support in Palestine, but for them this is expressed in struggle, not in programmatic positions. There is no sign at all that the majority of the Palestinian population insists on a one state solution or nothing. All signs are to the contrary. Those who fight get support and sympathy. Those who seem to cave in GENERALLY (not absolutely and unanimously) are viewed with contempt. Edmundson suggests that Gaza cannot be independent in any sense because the Palestinians and Gazan are not strong enough to prevent Israeli violations of their borders and so forth. But this would apply as well to independent to independent North Vietnam or independent North Korea or even (future tense quite possibly) independent Iran which were not strong enough to prevent their territory from being invaded and attacked by the imperialist powers. Since Cuba could be blockaded militarily and is still b That's why I brought forward Arafat's 1975 (at the UN) perspective of establishing a state on any territory that can be liberated from Israel, which still seems sound to me. And counterposing such rhetorical final solutions to the partial struggles that go on and must go on today to assert Palestinian sovereignty wherever it can be asserted seems to me like complete sectarian nonsense. Fred Feldman 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] Tehran daily serializes Dobbs classic Teamster Rebellion
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Vol. 74/No. 33 August 30, 2010 Tehran daily serializes 'Teamster Rebellion' The Tehran daily Donya-e-Eqtesad (The World of Economics) is serializing the Farsi-language translation of Teamster Rebellion. The newspaper is sold at newsstands throughout Iran. In introducing the series, the paper wrote that Teamster Rebellion is written by Farrell Dobbs, an American communist. The book is published by Talaye Porsoo Publications and is devoted to the struggles of American workers. In the next few issues you will be reading parts of this book. The book tells the story of the militant 1934 strikes in the United States that built the industrial union movement in Minneapolis and helped pave the way for the CIO, recounted by a central leader of that battle. Each installment in the Tehran paper has a photo and caption. The book was originally published in English by Pathfinder. Editions in English, Farsi, Swedish, and Spanish are available from distributors listed on page 8 or pathfinderpress.com. -CINDY JAQUITH http://www.themilitant.com/2010/7433/743354.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] Greenwald on deeply democratic ruling on gay marriage
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is the best assessment I have seen of the decision on the gay marriage question in California. This was a profound decision, rooted in a clear understanding that the Bill of Rights is not up for a vote at every election go-round whether by referendum or other means. I am struck by its argument that constitutional rights cannot be cancelled out by fear campaigns, as in the current campaigns against mosques. The decision is well thought out politically, and, yes, as the New York Times reported, is aimed directly at Justice Anthony Kennedy, who seems eager today to establish himself as a faithful follower of the current Chief Justice. But I think he will find it hard to dodge thus sharply aimed bullet. The fact is that the decision focuses on the question which is decisive: Since the Supreme Court has decided that homosexuals -- gay or lesbians -- are not sexual outlaws, forbidden, subject to jailing, execution, stoning, etc., what is the basis for denying them any of the rights of other citizens? Without the outlawing of gay or lesbian sexual acts, what is the basis for rejecting marriage or any other ordinary human relation to gays and lesbians? Yet few if any anti-gay politicians today campaign for resuming the outlawing of gay or lesbian sexual acts. In Texas, it is true, the Republican Party has placed re-establishment of laws barring oral and anal sex into their platform, but even they did not demand that gay and lesbian sex per se be outlawed. And since the scope of the law applied to everybody, homosexual or heterosexual, it became a laughing stock. They did not have the guts to advocate outlawing gays per se. the only position that creates a credible basis for discrimination in other areas. This thoughtful contribution -- which does not try to ban prejudice or preference of any kind, does not insist on any prior change of hearts and minds as a precondition for rights of those denied them -- deserves to be studied and integrated more into our thinking. By the way, the fact that the right is pushing the rumor (the truth or falsity of which I don't much care about) that this judge is gay (see Saoon.com) is a measure of the weak position they find themselves in. Fred Feldman Monday, Aug 9, 2010 06:10 ET Marriage and the role of the state By Glenn Greenwald Marriage and the role of the state Ross Douthat uses his New York Times column today to put what he undoubtedly considers to be the most intellectual and humane face on the case against marriage equality. Without pointing to any concrete or empirical evidence, Douthat insists that lifelong heterosexual monogamy is objectively superior to all other forms of adult relationships: such arrangements are the ideal, he pronounces. He argues that equal treatment of same-sex marriages by secular institutions will make it impossible, even as a matter of debate and teaching, to maintain the rightful place of heterosexual monogamy as superior: The point of this ideal is not that other relationships have no value, or that only nuclear families can rear children successfully. Rather, it's that lifelong heterosexual monogamy at its best can offer something distinctive and remarkable -- a microcosm of civilization, and an organic connection between human generations -- that makes it worthy of distinctive recognition and support. . . . . If this newer order completely vanquishes the older marital ideal, then gay marriage will become not only acceptable but morally necessary. . . . But if we just accept this shift, we're giving up on one of the great ideas of Western civilization: the celebration of lifelong heterosexual monogamy as a unique and indispensable estate. That ideal is still worth honoring, and still worth striving to preserve. And preserving it ultimately requires some public acknowledgment that heterosexual unions and gay relationships are different: similar in emotional commitment, but distinct both in their challenges and their potential fruit. But based on Judge Walker's logic -- which suggests that any such distinction is bigoted and un-American -- I don't think a society that declares gay marriage to be a fundamental right will be capable of even entertaining this idea. This argument is radically wrong, and its two principal errors nicely highlight why the case against marriage equality is so misguided. First, the mere fact that the State does not use the mandates of law to enforce Principle X does not preclude Principle X from being advocated or even prevailing. Conversely, the fact that the State recognizes the right of an individual to choose to engage in Act Y does not mean Act Y will be accepted as equal. There are all sorts of things secular law permits which society nonetheless
[Marxism] No country for old men (was: anticommunist lie)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Louis wrote: Most of the people who have dominated this discussion are old men fighting ancient battles. I set up Marxmail in order to supersede this kind of pointless wrangling. Well, Louis, being only 65 (three years younger than myself), is certainly the natural person to lead the dynamic youth movement on the list. By the way, I think Louis should ban discussion of anything that happened more than 15 minutes ago. That way you could clear out both those experiencing short-term memory loss and those who retain long-term memory. Pretty much a clean sweep of the old farts. Fred 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] : anticommunist lie
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Grpver Furr responded to Mr. Mage: There was no Stalinshchina. You are repeating right-wing anticommunist lies. Louis wrote: I might have to throw some people off the list to put an end to this kind of nonsense. Fred Feldman comments It might seem more fair-minded to Louis to throw four or five people off the list, rather than just deal with the way Furr has bbeen functioning since he first appeared on the list. But I think that would be wrong. Grover shows no interest at all in any of the questions that get debated on the list. His interest is only in the Stalin-Trotsky questions, and that from a point of view that is quite outside established historical fact, not to mention totally alien to the curvature of space-time in the known universe. And while I have no desire to rehash these questions, I do not like being sort of backed into pretending, for the sake of politeness or to avoid unnecessary debates, that the question of the Moscow Trials and whether Trotsky was a spy for Japan is really just a big question mark that has in no way been resolved in the last 75 years. The issues Furr raises are ones that the moving finger of history has written about and moved on. I think we should move on with it, without unwriting the broad general conclusions that have been reached among very, very broad, and far from exclusively Trotskyist radical layers.. Furr continually wheedles and baits to draw us into those debates about settled matters, and that role is nothing but disruptive. I think he should be told to limit himself entirely to other subjects -- so far he has no other subject --or find someplace else to sell his wares. Fred Feldman 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] Cuba leader denounces punitive US treatment of jailed Cuban
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == JUVENTUD REBELDE Cuban National Assembly President Denounces Unexplained Punishment of Gerardo Hernández Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón said on Wednesday that the US government is responsible for the health condition of Cuban antiterrorist fighter Gerardo Hernández unfairly imprisoned in the United States and for obstructing justice Jorge L. Rodríguez González jorgel...@juventudrebelde.cu July 29, 2010 0:01:43 CDT Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón said on Wednesday that the US government is responsible for the health condition of Cuban antiterrorist fighter Gerardo Hernández unfairly imprisoned in the United States and for obstructing justice. Alarcón said that Hernández is prevented from communicating with his lawyers, being confined to a punishment cell of the prison of Victorville, California, without having committed any indiscipline. Alarcón explained that the US government knows about the health condition of Hernández, who have been requesting to be examined by doctors from April. Finally, he was attended on July 20 and doctors diagnosed several ailments that require treatment, said Alarcón to the national press at Havana's Convention Center, where the permanent commissions of the Parliament are meeting previous to the Fifth Ordinary Session of the Seventh Legislature of the People's Power National Assembly. Alarcón said that however, the next day, instead of taking Hernández to the clinic, he was sent to the hole, where he has no contact with the doctor or possibilities of receiving treatment. Apparently, the ailment is caused by a bacterium that, according to the physician, is circulating among inmates, some of whom have become seriously ill, and we're not sure if that's Gerardo's problem, since he hasn't had any test and was taken to the hole the day after the consultation, Alarcón stated. Alarcón added that it seems that Hernández also has problems with his blood pressure, something understandable because despite being only 45 years old, he has been imprisoned under harsh conditions for almost 12 years now. This is a very serious situation, said the Cuban National Assembly President, after explaining that in the hole, temperatures exceed the 350 C and that Gerardo Hernández is in a very small cell of two meters long by one meter wide, which he shares with another prisoner, and where ventilation is limited, since they breathe through a small hole located at the top of a wall. Alarcón also said that once again Washington is obstructing justice because it does not allow Hernández to communicate with his lawyers, just when he should be working on the arguments for his habeas corpus (appealing resource). The Cuban leader said that up to the moment the US Department of State is not answering to the demands made, while contacts are being made with Hernández' lawyers and in all directions to solve this situation. Gerardo Hernández is one of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in the United States for almost 12 years. The Cuban Five Gerardo Hernández, Ramon Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and René González, in a trial plagued with irregularities and held in a highly biased Miami court, were given harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to consecutive life terms plus 15 years. Gerardo Hernández was sentenced to two life terms. The five Cubans were working to uncover information about terrorist activities being planned and carried out against Cuba by ultra-rightwing organizations based in southern Florida with a long record of terrorist actions against Cuba and the Cuban people. When they turned their information over to authorities they were arrested and have been in jail ever since. PC: Cuban, National Assembly President, Ricardo Alarcón, US government, state of health, antiterrorist, fighter, Gerardo Hernández, United States, obstructing, justice, lawyers, hole, prison, Victorville, California, indiscipline, health condition, doctors, ailments, permanent, commissions, Parliament, Fifth Ordinary Session of the Seventh Legislature of the People's Power National Assembly, clinic, treatment, bacterium, prisoners, blood pressure condition, habeas corpus, US Department of State, demands 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] Chavez: ELN, FARC armed strategy not winning, and providing US excuse to intervene
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I think this is exactly right. A new strategy is needed to enable fighters to begin to reverse gains won by imperialism and the oligarchy in Colombia. The continuation of the armed struggle, in the face of the groups inability to break the political, military, and social stalemate has become a major opening not an obstacle for US iimperialism. At a certain point in El Salvador the rebel groups pursuing an armed strategy realized that continuing the fixed divisions of the civil war was only helping ARENA and the US. The battle in El Salvador remains pretty uphill as I see it, but the fact of the matter is they changed their strategy when, in fact, there was no other choice. I dont know whether FARC and the ELN will be able to change course (the government and Washington will do what they can to prevent them from doing so) But the fact remains that they have no choice. Fred Feldman COLOMBIA REPORTS Colombian guerrillas should 'reconsider' armed strategy: Chavez Saturday, 24 July 2010 08:54 Adriaan Alsema . http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/10980-colombian-guerrillas-sho uld-reconsider-armed-strategy-chavez.html Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called on Colombian guerrilla groups FARC and ELN to reconsider their armed strategy against the State. According to the leftist leader, the United States is using the guerrillas as an excuse to penetrate Colombia. Chavez, who broke ties with Colombia this week following allegations that Venezuelan authorities neglect to act on guerrilla presence on their territory, made the remarks at a forum of labor unionists in Caracas. I believe that the Colombian guerrillas should seriously consider what some of us have done. With all respect, the world today is not the same as in the 60s, Chavez said. According to the Venezuelan Head of State, guerrilla groups like FARC and ELN will not achieve political power by continuing their armed resistance. I don't think there are conditions in Colombia that allow them to take power in the foreseeable future. Instead, they have become the main excuse of the empire to penetrate Colombia deeply and from there attack Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba, Chavez added. Earlier on Friday, Chavez had said that the U.S. are using Colombia as an enclave of the empire and are looking for ways to attack Venezuela. There is no doubt in Latin America that the empire chose the most tense space ... to create the conditions for the break-out of an armed conflict that serves the interests of the empire in this part of South America, the leftist leader said on state television. The Venezuelan President on numerous occasions accused the U.S. of seeking military intervention in Venezuela. = WALTER LIPPMANN Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = __._,_.___ Reply mailto:walte...@earthlink.net?subject=colombia%20reports:%20Colombian%20gue rrillas%20should%20'reconsider'%20armed%20strategy:%20Chavez to sender | Reply mailto:cuban...@yahoogroups.com?subject=colombia%20reports:%20Colombian%20g uerrillas%20should%20'reconsider'%20armed%20strategy:%20Chavez to group | Reply http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJyNzgyaDVmBF9TAzk3Mz U5NzE0BGdycElkAzIxODIwMjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYzOTg1BG1zZ0lkAzExNjEwOQRzZWMDZn RyBHNsawNycGx5BHN0aW1lAzEyODAwMjEzNTU-?act=replymessageNum=116109 via web post | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJldDVjNjBjBF9TAzk3Mz U5NzE0BGdycElkAzIxODIwMjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYzOTg1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3 RpbWUDMTI4MDAyMTM1NQ-- Start a New Topic Messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/116109;_ylc=X3oDMTM4cmhsNGtm BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIxODIwMjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYzOTg1BG1zZ0lkAzExNjEw OQRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawN2dHBjBHN0aW1lAzEyODAwMjEzNTUEdHBjSWQDMTE2MTA5 in this topic (1) Recent Activity: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews;_ylc=X3oDMTJlaGswcDdrBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE 0BGdycElkAzIxODIwMjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYzOTg1BHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3RpbWU DMTI4MDAyMTM1NQ-- Visit Your Group To view the current thirty CubaNews messages: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/messages If this message was forwarded to you, subscription details may be found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ To unsubscribe from this CubaNews group, send an email to: cubanews-unsubscr...@yahoogroups. MARKETPLACE Stay http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=15ov4fg7m/M=493064.13983314.14041046.13298430/D =groups/S=1705063985:MKP1/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1280028556/L=09d69b48-978c-11df-8f39-9 344584fbd0c/B=9QcADNGDJGc-/J=1280021356055984/K=5zIU8V9J3u0qlN21idDXJw/A=606 0255/R=0/SIG=1194m4keh/*http
[Marxism] Background to growing self-assertion of China's workers
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Although the URL leads to the interesting academic website The China Beat, I found the item itself on the often valuable MRZine site, linked to Monthly Review and edited by the (I hope) unsinkable Yoshie Furuhashi. Fred Feldman http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=2285 Where to Begin: New Perspectives on Chinese Labor July 2, 2010 in Where to Begin by The China Beat| 1 comment By Mark W. Frazier Studies of labor in China have taken an exciting turn in recent years with the publication of numerous rich and revealing portraits of workers, their jobs, and their place in Chinese politics and in the global economy. As thousands of migrant workers employed in auto parts suppliers for Toyota and Honda went on strike in May and June of 2010, some headlines heralded a political coming of age for China's migrant workers. While it's too early to assess the impact of these strikes, it is clear that migrant workers have gained a level of organizational sophistication and political awareness to make demands for higher wages, better working conditions, and in some cases, elections for union representatives. All of the books cited below offer readers who are new to the field of Chinese labor some perspective in which to understand the strikes of 2010 and the broader place of Chinese labor in the contemporary politics and society of China. Frazier1A January 2010 London Review of Books article by Perry Anderson hailed Ching Kwan Lee's Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt (University of California Press, 2007) with this accolade: Although quite different in mode and scale, in power nothing like it has appeared since E.P. Thompson's Making of the English Working Class. Thompson's 1966 classic on late 17th-, early 18th century England brought to light the cultural contestation and repertoires of resistance as the moral economy of artisans and their guilds gave way to the mass production and mechanization of industrial capitalism. In Against the Law, C.K. Lee explores the moral economies and resistance of Chinese workers in two domains: first among the socialist working class in the state sector of the Northeast (the rustbelt), where the dismantling of the iron rice bowl brought an end to the social contract of job security and lifetime benefits, including housing. Lee compares the unmaking of the state socialist working class with the making of a new working class in the foreign-invested export sector of the South (the sunbelt). Here, migrant workers invoke the state's new labor legislation and pursue claims to rights protection and equal citizenship, in the face of widespread legal and social discrimination stemming from the household registration system (hukou). In both the sunbelt and the rustbelt, protests remain highly cellularized, or confined to groups of workers from the same factory who present to employers and local governments demands that are specific to their workplace, or their cohort within the factory (e.g., unpaid pensions, unpaid wages, overtime violations, etc.). This localized pattern of labor protest, and how it varies, is a common theme found throughout the field of Chinese labor. Scholars such as Elizabeth Perry have shown how fragmentation, rather than class formation, both facilitates labor protest and influences how the state connects with and controls labor movements and their leadership. William Hurst's The Chinese Worker After Socialism (Cambridge University Press, 2009) offers a regional account to this story of working class segmentation, showing how laid-off workers and their collective action is based on the political economy of different regions of China. Like Lee, Hurst provides illuminating details from interviews and fieldwork among laid-off workers who invoke different patterns of collective action and political symbols to press their demands. While these accounts of the unmaking and remaking of Chinese labor in the 1990s rightly stress domestic political and economic forces, several recent books have also pursued international or external factors driving this process. These works show how China's openness to foreign investment brought institutions that replaced Maoist or socialist labor practices with labor law, employment contracts, and dispute resolution. Just how all of this happened, and why it wasn't more politically explosive, are questions addressed in Mary E. Gallagher's Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China (Princeton University Press, 2005). Gallagher shows that timing was everything: foreign direct investment coming to China in the 1980s created a laboratory for the reform of labor practices, and in the 1990s the politically sensitive reforms to China's domestic or state-owned enterprise sector could
[Marxism] Fidel is back in combat uniform
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Well, it looks like Fidel is making himself combat-ready again. Sounds like good news to me. This seems to be linked to the astounding variety of new wars that Washington seems to be probing. (Columbia-Venezuela, really US-Venezuela; North Korea, with Hilary Clinton's fist-pumping war tour of South Korea; Costa Rica-Nicaragua -- I admit this in the watch-that-space department, but I can't imagine why else those US troops are there; and of course, the perennial and rising threats against Iran -- which involve a major historic challenge to US domination, in a quite senior partnership with its client and very junior partner Israel, in the Middle East and South Asia. One thing to get clearly and firmly that there is no sense at all in which the US imperialist ruling class can accept the common left-liberal view that the world has become multipolar and that's that. Ain't so. The United States government still fights for the unipolar world under their exclusive domination, which they imagined they had won with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The period since then has been one of terrible and embittering disappointment overall, but they are by no means giving up. But I think Fidel is also entering the field in defense of the reforms of Cuba's economy that Raul Castro has been advocating but has run into serious obstruction and opposition from sections of the party and economic management machine. Officials who have gotten used to supposedly live-and-let-live arrangements with the workers on the principle that We pretend to pay you and you pretend to work? Deal? Among other things, I think Raul and Fidel (as a team, not as opposed factions) are trying to bring the Cuban working class back into the position of the central decisive productive force in Cuban life. This is a deep political battle. It won't end quickly. Anyway, it's great that Fidel feels up to putting on his warrior uniform again. Enough pajamas and jump suits. Mone of us will live forever. There's a war on. This is a good example, and not just for Cubans. Fred Feldman latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-castro-return,0,5434313.story Fidel Castro, back in green for first time in years, continues comeback 5:35 PM PDT, July 24, 2010 Advertisement CNN - Fidel Castro appeared publicly in his trademark olive green shirt on Saturday for the first time since he fell ill and renounced power four years ago, according to a state-run website. Castro made his appearance in Artemisa, a town about an hour outside of Havana, also making this his first reported trip outside the capital in four years, according to the website Cubadebate. A picture of the 83-year-old Castro also appeared on the site. Olive green rebel fatigues were his signature uniform during his nearly 50 years of rule. State TV later showed him giving a speech to honor rebels killed 57 years ago during the July 26 attack on an army barracks that ended in failure but launched his revolution. He also put flowers on the the rebels tombs, video showed. Castro handed power to his brother in 2006 after undergoing intestinal surgery and disappeared from public view. State media have published occasional videos and photos of the historic leader wearing tracksuits. Earlier this month, he re-emerged in public for the first time and has made five appearances in closely controlled events, usually donning casual checked shirts. Speculation has grown over the possibility of his attending a mass rally in central Cuba on Monday to commemorate the July 26 events. Copyright CNN 2010. Copyright C 2010, Tribune Interactive 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] AP:Cuban Communst says party shouldn't kick him out
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == 7/13/10 Associated Press http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/13/1728946/cuban-communist-says-party-sho uldnt.html Cuban communist says Party shouldn't kick him out By WILL WEISSERT (AP) HAVANA - A prominent Cuban intellectual who publicly decried government corruption is fighting expulsion from the Communist Party, saying the punishment would hurt the country's global standing. Historian Esteban Morales was recently ordered removed by a party committee in Havana's Playa district, but lower-ranking members deemed the action too harsh and rejected it while Morales appeals. At issue is a blistering article he wrote in April declaring that corruption at the top of Cuba's government - not the meddling of opposition activists - is the greatest threat to the island's communist system. Morales posted a new article Monday on a leftist political website saying that if the response to his original work was intended to punish or making an example out of him, then it would reveal to the world how closed-minded the party leadership is. It sends a message to the revolutionary intelligentsia, the party faithful and the left in general that the party is going to be relentless with those it considers to have erred, even if they did so in good faith, he wrote on the leftist political site kaosenlared.net on Monday. Targeting him and potentially other whistle-blowers, Morales said, will discourage self-criticism by party members. He is demanding the party, finish getting the dead weight of bureaucracy off our backs ... and declare, as we have said, war without mercy against corruption. In his April article, Morales said some Cuban officials are preparing to divide the spoils if Cuba's political system disintegrates, like the shadowy oligarchs who emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. That work was surprising in its frankness and appeared on the state-run website of the National Artists and Writers Union of Cuba. It was removed a day after foreign media in Havana reported on it - but has subsequently been restored. Morales wrote then that corruption is much more dangerous than organized political dissent. Corruption is truly counterrevolutionary because it comes from within the government and the state apparatus, he wrote. 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] Against were you there? as a defense against rape charges
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is the only item I will submit on this matter, regardless of what anyone writes in response. Fred Feldman I think on the whole the Swiss court made the right decision. There had been too much prosecutorial-judicial messing around. I think the outcome reflects growing disgust in Europe with Guantanamo, etc. This has escalated somewhat with growing suggestions that no defendants should be extradited because how brutal and stacked against defendants the US criminal justice system is.. Lueko says, Were you there? I have read the then teenager's version of what happened, and it seems 100 percent plausible to me. The Polanski version sounds like a standard Hollywood cover story. Most rapes do not occur with cameras running and loads of witnesses. It is often a kind of private event. Sometimes jurors have to go with their judgments, which does not violate the presumption of innocence. If were you there? is the sure-fire answer to a rape charge, then rape is a get-out-of-jail-free ticket in every case. If were you there? is the standard, I cannot prove any rape has ever occurred in human history, since I have not committed any and never been present when one was committed by someone else. I repeat, I found the victim's version of events entirely credible and think she accurately describes what happened. In my opinion, taking a 13 year old girl into your home for a modeling assignment, stuffing her with drugs and alcohol, and having sex with her is sexual abuse of a child -- which ought to be a quite serious offense. David Thorstad's attempt to use the fact that the girl was not a virgin as evidence that she was not raped is...well, words fail me. People write, a rapist goes free! Sounds too much like the Daily News to me. I don't think every rape should be punished by the death penalty or life without parole, so I think people who have committed rape should OFTEN go free -- sooner or later. I don't think we should join the throw-the-key-away or kill em all and let God sort 'em out thread on crime in US bourgeois politics. The fact is that Polanski did more time in his two rounds of trouble than most rapists -- and not just rich ones -- ever do. Most of them never see the inside of a jail or even house arrest in a Swiss chalet. Polanski was convicted and sentenced very modestly for a serious abuse of a teenager -- a crime punishable by jail time, if you ask me. In the middle of his serving his sentence, the judge and prosecutor got together to prepare a new sentence. He fled. When he was arrested at the Swiss border, the court reasonably asked for the documents on this little operation and the US refused. As far as I can see the Swiss government was in the right at every point in this process: stopping him at the border, pursuing extradition proceedings, forcing the US to provide the evidence, and in making the decision it did under the circumstances. That doesn't mean that justice has been done in this case. The outcome shows the deepening worldwide discreditment of the US criminal justice system. Justice, howeverm is still a rare event. Polanski was never the victim in this case, but the victimizer. His former victim seems to have grown up and gotten past the trauma, but she is still the only victim in this case Meanwhile the very uphill fight against sexual and violent abuse of women and children goes on, quite uphill at the moment. Fred Feldman 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] Anti-death group says others abandon fight for Mumia Abu-Jamal;
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == **Please post widely to all local and national list serves** AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ABOLITIONIST COMMUNITY IN DEFENSE OF MUMIA ABU JAMAL FROM THE CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is appalled by the news that several individuals of leading anti-death penalty organizations have signed a confidential memorandum stating that the involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the U.S. coalition for abolition of the death penalty. The memo further argues that the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty should not highlight Mumia's case because doing so unnecessarily attracts our strongest opponents and alienates coalition partners at a time when we need to build alliances, not foster hatred and enmity. (http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/117) This memo was drafted on December 21, 2009, yet it only recently came to light following the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held on March 4 in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting, a telephone call came in from Mumia Abu-Jamal, and he addressed the audience. At this point, several members of U.S. abolitionist groups got up and walked out in protest. The Campaign to End the Death Penalty strongly condemns this action and completely disagrees with the approach to the anti-death penalty struggle that this memo puts forth. First of all, we unequivocally support and endorse Mumia Abu-Jamal in his struggle for justice. We believe in his innocence and see Mumia's case as fraught with many of the same injustices as other death penalty cases--racial bias, police misconduct and brutality, and prosecutorial and judicial prejudice. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on Pennsylvania's death row for the past 28 years and remains there because the courts, under pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police, have thwarted his efforts to win his freedom. From his prison cell, Mumia has galvanized an international movement of support towards his efforts to win justice. He has written numerous books and articles shedding light on our prison-industrial complex as well as other historical and current political issues. He is widely read, known and respected. His commentaries on prison radio are nothing short of brilliant. He has helped to educate millions of people about the true workings of the criminal justice system. But most importantly, he has been an inspiration to all those fighting to win abolition, lending his voice of hope, his encouragement and his unfaltering determination to our movement. So why would a delegation of U.S. abolitionists would get up and walk out of a meeting when Mumia addresses the audience? Shouldn't they have stood and applauded? The explanation for this reprehensible action is explained in the secret memo, which basically puts forth the argument that to have anything to do with Mumia's case ruins the chances of winning abolition of the death penalty. Why? Here is what the memo states, in part: The support of law enforcement officials is essential to achieving abolition in the United States. It is essential to the national abolition strategy of U.S. abolition activists and attorneys that we cultivate the voices of police, prosecutors and law enforcement experts to support our call for an end to the death penalty. This statement points to a very disturbing direction that we have observed in recent years among some organizations in the abolition movement--of compromising our message in order to win the support of conservatives. This has lead leading death penalty organizations to downplay the impact of race in the criminal justice system and to advocate reaching out to law enforcement as a means of winning abolition of the death penalty. Those who espouse this strategy ignore or downplay the role that police play in railroading many poor people and African Americans onto death row. They ignore the role that police, prosecutors and judges play as guardians of an unjust legal system that disproportionately targets the poor and people of color. The outcome of this strategy has led to the marginalization of prisoners like Mumia, whose voices from behind prison walls are so important in this fight. The individuals who drafted the memo go on to identify the voices that they seek to include: The voices of the Innocent, the voices of Victims and the voices of Law Enforcement are the most persuasive factors in changing public opinion and the views of decision-makers (politicians) and opinion leaders (the media). Continuing to shine a spotlight on Abu-Jamal, who has had so much public exposure for so many years, threatens to alienate these three most important partnership groups. We in the CEDP couldn't disagree more with this strategy. We believe the most persuasive factor in changing
[Marxism] Pseudo-insurrectionaries disrupt mass protest, give cover to state violence
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Well, that is how it looks to me from here. Probably a headline should more comprehensibly read Black Bloc. But I do not think we should focus simply on their anarchism, but on the trivial destructiveness that they attempt to pass off as an insurrection against the state. As revolutionary action, they have less positive and much more negative political impact than jaywalking or littering. Bad for business on a couple blocks for a few hours, but no impact at all on the state, except to strengthen its hand against the population. Fred Feldman Jun 26, 2010 By David Silverberg Toronto G20 protest turns violent, city venues in lockdown By David Silverberg. Toronto - What started as a large peaceful protest in downtown Toronto to rally against the G20 summit has suddenly turned violent. Police cars have been set ablaze, protesters hurled bricks and golf balls at windows and many Toronto venues are on lockdown. A portion of the G20 summit protesters in Toronto clashed with police Saturday afternoon, forcing Toronto Police to take control of downtown Toronto. At King and Bay streets, a Toronto Police vehicle has been set on fire. Along Yonge Street, various stores -- such as American Apparel and the Zanzibar strip club -- have had their windows broken by thrown objects. Looting has also been reported along Yonge Street. The security perimeter on Front Street has not been compromised, Toronto Police say. Black-clad protesters have dispersed across Toronto, wreaking havoc on a wide range of Toronto sites. The Yonge and College streets area are facing impacting damage; news report say protesters are also moving to University and College streets. Police are reportedly using tear gas right now at the University and College area, the Globe Mail reports. One Globe reporter recently liveblogged: Huge rubber bullet shot at cluster of photographers and me, missed but close. On CBC News, Toronto Police denied using any tear gas. The violent protest has forced Toronto attractions to shut their doors. The Eaton Centre, the Delta Chelsea Hotel, the Sheraton Hotel and the subway system between Bloor and St. George stations have been shut down. Hospitals, including Toronto General and Sick Kids', have also locked their doors. There is no streetcar service along College, Queen and Dundas streets. GO Transit is not coming into Toronto. Also, police headquarters at 40 College Street is on lockdown. As CTV reported: While protest organizers promised a family-friendly demonstration, a splinter group calling itself the 'Get off the Fence contingent' has announced plans to break away from the main group and challenge the heavy security cordon around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the G20 summit will begin Saturday afternoon. A common tactic for the so-called Black Bloc protesters includes smashing windows of banks or retail outlets, and then scampering back to their contingent in the larger crowd. Because they wear similar clothing, and balaclavas to cover their faces, police and media have difficulty identifying the suspects. Toronto's EMS confirms three people have been injured in the protests. It is unclear how many protesters have engaged in violent demonstrations. CP24 estimates the Yonge and College area have amassed around 400 protesters, although the news TV reporters couldn't confirm how many of those protesters are actively hurling objects at windows or confronting police. This is not protest, this is simply crime, Mayor David Miller told media. This is having an impact on streets of Toronto, and this is not acceptable...People should stay calm and support efforts of Toronto Police including all of their allies. President Obama, Prime Minister Harper and other heads of state are gathering at the Metro Convention Centre for this weekend's G20 summit. 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] Walter Lippmann's Amazon review of Peter Camejo's autobiography
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Walter Lippmann is a founder and the moderator of the invaluable CubaNews list. Fred Feldman Peter Camejo's wonderful memoir, June 17, 2010 By Walter Lippmann (Los Angeles, California)) This review is from: North Star: A Memoir (Paperback) Peter Camejo came to Madison, where I was a student at the University of Wisconsin, in 1962. He was on the national speaking tour in defense of Cuba described in the book. He was arguably the most effective socialist public speaker I've ever heard in person. The accounts written by Peter give the reader also a sense of his speaking ability, though hearing a sound recording would always give a much better sense. This book is one of the best I've seen describing that period by a participant who was part of many of the same groups and experiences I was. I recommend this book with immense enthusiasm. I was unable to put it down once I turned the first page. Peter recruited me to the Young Socialist Alliance. That led me to Los Angeles and joining the Socialist Workers Party in 1967, in which I remained until my involuntary departure in 1983. Those were wonderful years and I have no regrets about them whatsoever. My political work and commitment has always been connected with Cuba in one way or another, which is why I was ready to join what seemed to me a very serious group interested in actively defending Cuba in 1962. I was ready and Peter was there to recruit me. In the book he gives great descriptions of how Cuba influenced him personally and politically. I particularly like the way he went to Cuba and asked them challenging political questions. They didn't take offense, just calmly responded. Peter was always very much like that: never afraid of opinions he didn't agree with, always ready to discuss the issues with someone he hoped he could work with further. There's a nice photo of Peter which I took in 2002, along with a selection of his comments from the book which I found particularly relevant on a web-page I've created. You can find it by Googling the phrase: Lippmann+Camejo. Unlike so many others who spent time on the political left and ended up demoralized or who moved to the right, Peter stayed active and hopeful of a better world until his last breath. http://www.amazon.com/North-Star-Memoir-Peter-Camejo/dp/1931859922 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] Turkey suspends agreements with Israel
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Turkey Shelves Israeli Cooperation, Considers breaking off Ties; Israel Lobbies in Congress denounce Ankara Posted on June 16, 2010 by Juan [Cole] Members of the US Congress attacked Turkey on Wednesday for voting against the UN Security Council resolution imposing further sanctions on Iran, and for its heavy criticism of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) said, There will be a cost if Turkey stays on its present heading of growing closer to Iran and more antagonistic to the state of Israel. Pence said he was reconsidering whether to vote for a resolution condemning Turkey for the WW I era Armenian genocide. The Israel lobbies, after defending Turkey from Armenian complaints for decades, have all of a sudden discovered the Armenian holocaust now that Turkey is criticizing Israel. This change is important because passage of a congressional recognition of the genocide would open Turkey to lawsuits, whereby Armenian political groups could capture Turkish assets in the United States. On Turkish steps against Israel, NowLebanon reports: ' Ankara has not taken any practical steps on the matter yet, however, potential punitive measures include freezing military agreements that exceed $7 billion in worth, said the source. He also said that bilateral pilot training programs and intelligence exchanges would also be suspended, adding that Turkey will not send a new ambassador to Tel Aviv after it recalled the current one following last month's raid.' Turkey is angry that Israel refuses to apologize for its raid on the Turkish ships in Gaza aid convoy, which left 8 Turks and one American of Turkish origin dead. Turkey also wants an international inquiry, not an internal Israeli one. And, of course, Turkey insists on a lifting of the blockade of Gaza. In pressuring Israel on these matters, the Turkish government is playing chicken and risking a thoroughgoing rift with its ally. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has shelved 16 bilateral agreements and, as noted above, billions of dollars worth of joint weapons programs. If the government of PM Binyamin Netanyahu continues to refuse to cooperate with an interntional commission of inquiry, Turkey will not send a new ambassador to Tel Aviv. Turkey also intends to embarrass Israel with the European Union and in other international forums until it gets an apology. At the same time, Turkey insisted that a distinction should be made between inter-government relations and private commercial relations. It is leading no consumer boycott of Israeli goods in Turkey, and Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan warned Israel against boycotting Turkish companies. Some Israeli supermarket chains are boycotting Turkish produce. And, the Israeli public has already largely boycotted tourism in Turkey this year and the Netanyahu government is actively urging them to vacation within Israel, in keeping with its bunker mentality. Most of Turkey's foreign trade is with the European Union, the United States, and Russia, and Turkey does more business with Iran than with Israel, which is not among its top ten trading partners. Some have called Turkey's newfound interest in the Muslim Middle East neo-ottomanism. Congress should be careful not to over-reach in this intervention against Turkey on behalf of the Israel lobbies. Some 70 percent of resupply of US troops in Iraq is carried out through Incirlik Base in Turkey, and Turkey is part of the NATO force in Afghanistan. In the absence of good relations with Turkey, the United States would face significant logistical problems in the region. Erdogan's shelving of the bilateral agreements, and the potential cancellation of billiions in joint military equipment ventures, raise the question of whether Turkey is still a military ally of Israel. Until the blockade of Gaza is lifted and Israel apologizes to Turkey for the flotilla raid and the loss of Turkish life, Israel will become more isolated than ever before. While that isolation may suit the cult-like Likud Party, since it thrives on xenophobism and insularity, as well as on naked aggression, it cannot be good for Israel as a whole. http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/turkey-shelves-israeli-cooperation-considers -breaking-off-ties-israel-lobbies-in-congress-denounce-ankara.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] Who owns BP? Top holder is JPMorganChase. US corps own 35%
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Who Owns BP? Biggest Shareholder is JPMorgan Chase Saturday, June 12, 2010 In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP's stock value has plummeted, prompting news stories identifying the company's largest investors. Oddly enough, some media outlets have failed to identify the largest BP shareholder: the U.S. investment firm JPMorgan Chase. According to the European financial database Amadeus, JPMorgan Chase is the No. 1 holder of stock in BP. That distinction also has earned the Wall Street bank the title of Global Ultimate Owner of the oil giant, as it owns 28.34% of BP. Next, at 7.99%, is Legal and General Group, a British-based financial services company with assets of more than $350 billion. Another U.S. investment firm, BlackRock Inc., owns 7.1% of BP. Other owners include the governments of Kuwait, Norway, Singapore and China. Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Who_Owns_BP__Biggest_Shareholder _is_JPMorgan_Chase_100612 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] Helen Thomas and the moral failure of liberals
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In my opinion, I consider this the best expression I have seen of what was wrong with the wonderful and wonderfully brave Helen Thomas' comments. I never for a minute considered her an anti-semite of any kind--I have followed her news-conference work for a long time, but was uncomfortable with some of her responses. One thing Cook misses is when he suggests she reaponded to the question What should Israel do? with the response that Jews should get out of Palestine. She did not? Her answer was Get out of Palestine! -- a legitimate response. The existing state of Israel should get out of Palestine. When the interviewer responded, Where should they go? (a question that I assume was not aimed at entrapment, but simply a reflection of the argument that Israel equals the Jews and the Jews equal Israel. Feeling entrapped ub this framework she responded as quoted. Allow me to come partially to the defense of her view that they coi;d gp back to Poland and Russia and so forth. Richard Cohen insists that the Jewish victims of Hitler could not stay in Europe? Why not? Why could the Jewish communities of France, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Russia not have set out to rebuild the shattered Jewish communities of their countries. There were actually no obstacles except for the judgment of the imperialist rulers that the Jews must leave Europe, and that Palestine must be their homeland. This was the COMPLETING PHASE of the destruction of European Jewry, not some kind of liberation. It is horrible that such minor errors as Thomas made can finish your career in the United States, while racism against Latino remains an expression of true Americanism. And racism against Blacks, despite claims to the contary, remains the most deeply and unconditionally rooted of facts of life. Fred Feldman Helen Thomas and the moral failure of US liberals http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11332.shtml Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 10 June 2010 The ostracism of Helen Thomas, the doyenne of the White House press corps, over her comment that Jews should get the hell out of Palestine and go home to Poland, Germany, America and elsewhere is revealing in several ways. In spite of an apology, the 89-year-old has been summarily retired by the Hearst newspaper group, dropped by her agent, spurned by the White House, and denounced by long-time friends and colleagues. Thomas earned a reputation as a combative journalist, at least by American standards, with a succession of administrations over their Middle East policies, culminating in Bush officials boycotting her for her relentless criticisms of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. But the reaction to her latest remarks suggest that, if there is one topic in American public life on which the boundaries of what can and cannot be said are still tightly policed, it is Israel. Undoubtedly, Thomas' opinions, as she expressed them in an unguarded moment, were inappropriate and required an apology. It is true, as she says, that Palestine was occupied and the land taken from the Palestinians by Jewish immigrants with no right to it barring a Biblical title deed. But 62 years on from Israel's creation, most Jewish citizens have no home to go to in Poland and Germany -- or in Iraq and Yemen, for that matter. There is also an uncomfortable echo in her words of the chauvinism underpinning demands from some Jews -- and many Israelis -- that Palestinians should go home to the 22 Arab states. But Thomas did apologize and, after that, a line ought to have been drawn under the affair -- as it surely would have been had she made any other kind of faux pas. Instead, she has been denounced as an anti-Semite, even by her former friends. The reasoning of one, Lanny Davis, counsel to the White House in the Clinton administration, was typical. Davis, who said he previously considered himself a close friend, asked whether anyone would be protective of Helen's privileges and honors if she had been asking Blacks to return to Africa, or Native Americans to Asia and South America, from which they came 8,000 or more years ago? It is that widely-accepted analogy, appropriating the black and Native American experience in a wholly misguided way, that reveals in stark fashion the moral failure of American liberals. In their blindness to the current relations of power in the US, most critics of Thomas contribute to the very intolerance they claim to be challenging. Thomas is an Arab-American, of Lebanese descent, whose remarks were publicized in the immediate wake of Israel's lethal commando attack on a flotilla of aid ships trying to break the siege of Gaza. Unlike most Americans, who were half-wakened from their six-decade Middle East slumber by the killing of at least nine Turkish
[Marxism] Erdogan argues independent Turkey is good for US -- but US isn't buying
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == June 12, 2010 For Turkey, an Embrace of Iran Is a Matter of Building Bridges By SABRINA TAVERNISE ISTANBUL - Viewed from Washington, Turkey and Iran are strange bedfellows. One is a NATO member with a Constitution that mandates secularism, and the other, an Islamic republic whose nuclear program has been one of the most vexing foreign policy problems for the United States in recent years. So why have the two countries been locked in a clumsy embrace, with Turkey openly defying the United States last week by voting against imposing new sanctions on Iran? For the United States, the vote was a slap by a close ally that has prompted soul searching about Turkey. In London on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates mused that Turkey was moving eastward, a shift he attributed to the European Union's tepid response to Turkey's application to join it. That is a narrative that is gaining ground: Turkey, the East-West bridge, sided with the East because it had lost its way on its path to becoming more like the West. But many here do not see it that way. Turkey is not lost, they say, but simply disagrees with the United States over how to approach the problems in the Middle East. The Obama administration chooses sanctions, while Turkey believes cooperation has more of a chance of stopping Iran from building a bomb. To that end, it has actively negotiated with Tehran over its nuclear program. I would be appalled if Turkey cut itself off from the West and aligned with the Islamic world, but that's not what's happening, said Halil Berktay, a historian at Sabanci University. Turkey is saying, 'You've been talking about building bridges. This is the way to build them.' At the heart of the current friction is a fundamental disagreement over Iran and its intent. For the United States, Iran is a rogue state intent on building a bomb and crazy enough to use it. Turkey agrees that Iran is trying to develop the technology that would let it quickly build a weapon if it chose, but says Iran's leaders may be satisfied stopping at that. We believe that once we normalize relations with Iran, and it has relationships with other actors, it won't go for the bomb, said a Turkish official who works closely with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Besides, Turkish officials say, previous sets of sanctions have not worked with Iran, which continues to insist that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Part of Turkey's motivation in reaching out to Iran is based in realpolitik. Iran is Turkey's neighbor and also supplies the country with a fifth of its natural gas. The approach is also part of a broader policy of economic and political integration in the region that Turkey, under Mr. Erdogan, has pursued for nearly a decade. Iranians can travel to Turkey without a visa, as can Syrians, Iraqis, Russians and Georgians. More than a million Iranians travel to Turkey on vacation every year. A Turkish company built Tehran's main airport. The nuclear talks were part of that effort. They culminated in May in what Turkey, and its partner Brazil, said was a commitment by Iran to swap a portion of its low-enriched uranium with other countries. Iran would ship out part of its stockpile in exchange for a form of uranium less likely to be used for weapons. But American officials went ahead with sanctions anyway, saying the amount to be swapped under the agreement was no longer enough to stop Iran from making a bomb. Months ago Iran had negotiated a similar deal with the West, including the United States, but then backed away. At the time Iran had a smaller stockpile, and swapping material then would have deprived the country of enough fuel for a bomb for about a year. The prevailing sentiment in Washington is that the agreement is just another Iranian ploy and that Ankara has played into Tehran's hands, said Steven Cook, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. A Western diplomat added, The general feeling in Washington is that the Iranians really aren't going to negotiate away their nuclear program. Turkey says it fears a nuclear-armed Iran, because it would upset the balance of power between the two countries, but it also worries that the Obama administration's focus on sanctions - reminiscent of President George W. Bush's rush to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, some here say - will lead to war. The Western countries do things and Turkey pays the bill, said Sedat Laciner, director of the International Strategic Research Organization in Ankara. We don't want another Iraq. The Turkish official, meanwhile, explained the country's rationale for treating Iran with respect. We are saying, make them feel like they have something real to lose by going for a bomb, said the official, who
[Marxism] Anti-Iran resolution registers further US shift back to regime-change/war
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The following document and the perceptive comments by Prof. Mark Jensen were posted by him to the SNOW-NEWS list of United for Peace of Pierce County, Washington. I generally find Prof. Jensen's spadework on these matters to be an invaluable contribution and I recommend the list and its website to everyone. Fred Feldman Anti-Iran UNSC resolution 'theater' a step toward US regime change policy and/or war Despite the hype, anti-Iran Resolution 1929, (http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9713-news-a-analysis-irans -politics-and-economy-targeted-by-new-un-sanctions-resolution.html) voted 12-2-1 by U.N. Security Council on June 9, 2010, is neither an important Obama administration victory nor a serious intensification of pressure on Iran, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann said Wednesday. -- In an analysis arguing that the much-touted resolution is in fact very weak, the Leveretts argued that this is all political theater. -- No one in the Administration really believes that these sanctions will compel Tehran to alter is decision-making and behavior. -- But the Obama Administration is no longer interested in finding a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue -- if it ever was. -- As we predicted in a May 2009 Op-Ed in the *New York Times* -- before the Islamic Republic's controversial presidential election -- the Obama Administration has already 'checked the box' to show that engaging Iran doesn't work. -- Now it has started the process of 'checking the box' to show that the 'broadest and toughest' sanctions ever imposed on the Islamic Republic don't work. -- And that will leave the Obama Administration with no other options except formal adoption of regime change as the explicit goal of its Iran policy -- and/or military strikes against the Islamic Republic.[1] -- BACKGROUND: Since he left the National Security Council, Flynt Leverett has held positions first at the Brookings Institution, then with the New America Foundation. -- His wife, Hillary Mann Leverett, has more than 20 years of academic, legal, business, diplomatic, and policy experience working on Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and African issues. -- The Leveretts are advocates of a U.S.-Iranian grand bargain resolving all outstanding issues between them, which Iran proposed in May 2003 but that the U.S. spurned. -- For more on this, see our synopsis of Trita Parsi's *Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the U.S.* (Yale UP, 2007). (http://www.scribd.com/doc/16183657/Parsi-Treacherous-Alliance-2007-Synopsis ) --Mark] http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9727/ OBAMA'S CHARADE ON IRAN SANCTIONS By Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett The Race for Iran June 9, 2010 http://www.raceforiran.com/obama%E2%80%99s-charade-on-iran-sanctions Today, the United Nations Security Council will adopt a new resolution (see, here) imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran over its nuclear activities. Predictably, the Obama Administration is working to spin its victory in New York as both a great diplomatic achievement and a serious intensification of international pressure on Iran over the nuclear issue. It is neither. The resolution will be adopted by a Security Council that is more deeply divided over this resolution than over the three sanctions resolutions against Iran adopted by the Council while George W. Bush was in the White House. It is particularly significant that Brazil, Turkey, and Lebanon are refusing to support the resolution. In international political terms, this will very likely turn out to be a pyrrhic victory for the Obama Administration -- the Administration will win a narrow, tactical battle today, but at great cost to America's long term strategic position, in the Middle East and globally. Moreover, by any substantive criterion, the sanctions actually authorized in the resolution to be adopted today are remarkably weak -- for the Obama Administration, embarrassingly so (although you won't hear them admit it). In the main body of the resolution, there are, literally, no sanctions limiting the capacity of the Islamic Republic to produce and export hydrocarbons. The Obama Administration wanted energy sanctions, but China made clear that it would not support a resolution containing them. So they were not included in the final text. Likewise, there are no sanctions barring the extension of financial services, insurance, reinsurance, etc. to Iranian individuals and entities. In fact, the only mandatory measures in the resolution -- that is, measures which all member states will be obligated to apply -- are the following: --States will be required to block Iranian investments outside the Islamic Republic in uranium mining
[Marxism] Has Karzai 'lost faith' US win? Or has US decided to oust Karzai? Both?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == NEWS: NY Times reports in lead story that Hamid Karzai has 'lost faith' in West [Afghan President Harmid Karzai has lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan, according to the lead story in Saturday's *New York Times*.[1] -- Dexter Filkins reported on the abrupt resignation last week of Amrullah Saleh, director of the Afghan intelligence service, and Hanif Atmar, Karzai's interior minister. -- No longer believing that the Taliban can be defeated, Karzai has been maneuvering secretly to strike his own deal with the Taliban and the country's archrival, Pakistan, Filkins said. -- People close to the president say he began to lose confidence in the Americans last summer, after national elections in which independent monitors determined that nearly one million ballots had been stolen on Mr. Karzai's behalf. The rift worsened in December, when President Obama announced that he intended to begin reducing the number of American troops by the summer of 2011. -- COMMENT: The political inflection of this story and its prominent placement are highly suspect, as is often the case in *New York Times* stories based on anonymous sources, of which there are five here: a prominent Afghan with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity; a former senior Afghan official; a Western diplomat in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity; a senior NATO official; and a Western analyst in Kabul. -- When a hegemon's war is going badly, regime change by violent means in the proxy state often follow. -- NATO and the U.S. national security state are unlikely to change their polcies because of a change of heart on the part of Hamid Karzai. -- For more on Karzai, see our synopsis of Ahmed Rashid's *Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia* (Viking, 2008; rev. ed. 2009). (http://www.scribd.com/doc/27225014/Rashid-Descent-Into-Chaos-2008-Synopsis) According to Rashid, who knows him personally, Karzai, 53, considers the Taliban good people initially who were taken over by [Pakistan's] ISI and became a proxy [for Pakistan] (Rashid, p. 13). -- Karzai's designation as Afghan leader at a June 2002 Loya Jirga in Germany in June 2002 was engineered by the U.S. (Rashid, pp. 101-06 139-44). -- When invading Afghanistan, [t]he Americans had decided to give an unprecedented commitment to Karzai as the only Pashtun fighting the Taliban and a potential leader of the country (p. 86). --Mark] http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9726/ KARZAI IS SAID TO DOUBT WEST CAN DEFEAT TALIBAN By Dexter Filkins New York Times June 12, 2010 (posted Jun. 11) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/world/asia/12karzai.html KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two senior Afghan officials were showing President Hamid Karzai the evidence of the spectacular rocket attack on a nationwide peace conference earlier this month when Mr. Karzai told them that he believed the Taliban were not responsible. The president did not show any interest in the evidence -- none -- hetreated it like a piece of dirt, said Amrullah Saleh, then the director of the Afghan intelligence service. Mr. Saleh declined to discuss Mr. Karzai's reasoning in more detail. But a prominent Afghan with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Karzai suggested in the meeting that it might have been the Americans who carried it out. Minutes after the exchange, Mr. Saleh and the interior minister, Hanif Atmar, resigned -- the most dramatic defection from Mr. Karzai's government since he came to power nine years ago. Mr. Saleh and Mr. Atmar said they quit because Mr. Karzai made clear that he no longer considered them loyal. But underlying the tensions, according to Mr. Saleh and Afghan and Western officials, was something more profound: That Mr. Karzai had lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan. For that reason, Mr. Saleh and other officials said, Mr. Karzai has been pressing to strike his own deal with the Taliban and the country's archrival, Pakistan, the Taliban's longtime supporter. According to a former senior Afghan official, Mr. Karzai's maneuverings involve secret negotiations with the Taliban outside the purview of American and NATO officials. The president has lost his confidence in the capability of either the coalition or his own government to protect this country, Mr. Saleh said in an interview at his home. President Karzai has never announced that NATO will lose, but the way that he does not proudly own the campaign shows that he doesn't trust it is working. People close to the president say he began to lose confidence in the Americans last summer, after national elections
[Marxism] Rallies in Tel Aviv, around world against Gaza blockade
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/tel-aviv-protests-against-gaza-blockade-wave -of-protests-govt-condemnation.html ← Northern Ireland Condemns Israeli Raid on Rachel Corrie, “Completely unacceptable Use of Force” Tel Aviv Rally Against Gaza Blockade; Wave of Protests, Gov’t Condemnation Posted on June 6, 2010 by Juan Waves of protests and governmental denunciations against Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara relief vessel last Monday washed over the world, even as Israel raided and captured another aid vessel, the Rachel Corrie. The demonstrations, while widespread, did not typically involve more than a few thousand persons in each city. The firmness and frankness of the governmental condemnations were often the real story. Aljazeera English has video of the capture of the new ship: Israeli authorities declined to allow cement into Gaza. The Rachel Corrie had been bringing it for reconstruction purposes, but Israeli authorities say that Hamas can use it to construct barricades. In my view, the most important demonstration was the one held in Tel Aviv, sponsored by the Israeli Left, and consisting of some 6,000 activists. The horrific and also brain dead tactic of mounting suicide bombings against ordinary Israelis, adopted by some radical Palestinian groups in the first part of this decade, had killed the Israeli peace movement and given the Israeli Right the opportunity to capture the government and use its resources to intensively colonize Palestinian land. Despite what the US press keeps saying, a majority of Israelis has consistently supported trading land for peace in opinion polls. On Saturday, we heard once more from the decent Israeli left and center, who routinely call the ultra-orthodox who vote for Shas, a pillar of the Netanyahu government, “Taliban.” If the Palestinian leadership can restrain the radicals among them and go on cultivating non-violent tactics like the growing boycott of goods made by West Bank colonies, and preferring to import Turkish goods, they may finally have a winning formula. Anger remained deep in the Turkish public according to polling, with over 60% wanting stronger Turkish government action against Israel. One pollster said, “The public is in such a state that they almost want war against Israel.” Even more scary, some Turkish intelligence analysts and officers appear to be entertaining a conspiracy theory that Israeli intelligence, Mossad, is hand in glove with the Kurdish Workers Party (PPP) terrorist group in its bombings of eastern Turkey. In France, at least 17,000 protesters came out in various cities, including the capital, Paris. The Northern Ireland government also condemned the raid and the siege of the people of Gaza even as small rallies were held in Belfast. In Edinburgh, Scotland, as many as 5,000 protesters marched through the center of the city. And, the Scottish government issued a statement: “The Scottish Government condemns the Israeli authorities’ actions that resulted in the tragic loss of life on the Mavi Marmara,” the statement read. “We have added Scotland’s voice to that of the wider international community in condemning it, and calling for the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.” Then, the Swedish Port Workers Union announced that its members would boycott Israeli ships and goods during the third week in June. Thousands of protesters also came out in London. The satellite station Aljazeera English has video: Whereas protesters and their governments were on the same side in the UK, in Germany the rallies were mostly sponsored by immigrant Turkish and Arab groups. Thousands demonstrated peacefully in Germany cities, with the lead taken by the Turkish and Arab guest workers. . The demonstrations in themselves will have little impact on Israel’s policy toward the half-starved Gazans. After all, much larger demonstrations were unable to stop the 2003 invasion of Iraq or either the 2006 Lebanon War or the 2008-09 Gaza War. But the straightforward public condemnation of Israeli policies from so many highly placed governmental quarters strikes me as a new thing. And it could change policy. 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] Siezed and detained by Israel, US activist describes experiences
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The fact that Israel was forced, substantially under the pressure of the UN resolution demanding the release of all those seized in international waters by Israeli commandos, to release them rapidly is not just a victory ifor elementary human rights. It is a big blow Israel government attempts to impose their own version of the events, as a kind of attempted holocaust by people seeking to destroy Israel (that is, according to the Israeli government, the Jew), is facing direct challenges point by point. This is one of many accumulating examples. The point is not whether this forces the US to modify its policies (although this is happening to a limited degree, that is not the area where the most important changes are taking place. US policy will only change decisively as the accumulating changes and the rising re-mobilization of the Palestinians and their allies, including in Israel, makes the defeat of the Zionist, increasingly apartheid-like state, inevitable. For now, the test is how the motion around this crime changes the relationship of forces between the Palestinians and their pro-imperialist and imperialist foes. Fred Feldman http://www.salon.com/news/israel_flotilla_attack/index.html?story=/news/feat ure/2010/06/03/paul_larudee_flotilla_account Thursday, Jun 3, 2010 17:55 ET Captured and detained by Israel, an American tells his story After two days in an Israeli jail, 64-year-old Paul Larudee speaks out By Anika Anand Sixty-four-year-old Paul Larudee, an American citizen and longtime pro-Palestinian activist, was on board one of the ships carrying humanitarian relief to Gaza that was raided by the Israeli navy on Monday. He dove into the Mediterranean Sea, only to be captured and held in an Israeli prison for two days. This was not Larudee's first brush with Israeli authorities, but it was easily his most dramatic. He spoke with Salon about the raid and his captivity this afternoon from Greece, where he arrived after being released by Israel. At around 4 A.M. on Monday, Larudee's ship was boarded by as many as 500 Israeli soldiers. After the ship's captain called an alert, Larudee immediately walked out onto the deck and found that Israeli soldiers had broken the windows of the wheel house (the area where the captain controls the ship) in an attempt to take command of the vessel. As Larudee and several others tried to defend the wheel house, Israeli soldiers tased him twice so that he would back away from the area. He said he offered no resistance and just let his body go limp. I have never struck anyone in more than 20 years, he said. I was beaten. There is black and blue all over my body. They inflicted pain on me on a frequent basis because I did not recognize their authority. Everyone on all of the ships was completely unarmed, he said. However, on the Turkish ship -- where the civilian fatalities occurred -- some passengers clashed with the soldiers and tried to beat them up as they descended on the ship. (Larudee was on a different vessel.) But that is akin to what the passengers on the hijacked 9/11 did to hijackers who had taken the aircraft, he said. In other words, they resisted someone who was invading their ship. After some time, Larudee decided to jump off the ship and to try to swim away from the Israeli forces. I knew it would be a way to slow down what they were doing, he said. It caused the ship to stop for an hour or possibly longer and it kept another ship occupied for several hours actually. He hoped this would create a diversion that would allow another ship to make its way to Gaza with the humanitarian aid. It was worth doing that, but I paid a price for it. When the Israeli forces picked him up, Larudee said, he was severely beaten and tied to a mast at the stern of their ship. His legs and hands were bound as he was subjected to the hot sun in wet soaking clothes for four hours. He said his body almost went into shock from the extreme hot and cold conditions. The soldiers refused to release him unless he told them his name. He repeatedly refused, but said he would cooperate only if they released him from the mast. They finally agreed and took him below deck. For the remainder of the trip to the port, we got along fine, he said. When on land, Larudee was taken to the processing area, but refused to cooperate with authorities, who wanted him to say that he entered the country illegally. This happened at 18 miles at sea, which is well beyond their own territorial waters, or anyone's territorial waters, he said. We were in international waters. We weren't violating anyone's sovereignty or breaking any rules that we knew of, even by their standards. More beating ensued. Larudee, who again let his body go limp, said he was carried by nylon restraints
[Marxism] Singapore conference discusses role of overseas Chinese
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Conference discusses role of overseas Chinese Participants from 20 countries attend int’l gathering in Singapore The Militant Vol. 74/No. 21 May 31, 2010 http://www.themilitant.com/2010/7421/742150.html Conference discusses role of overseas Chinese Participants from 20 countries attend int’l gathering in Singapore (feature article) BY PATRICK BROWN AND BASKARAN APPU SINGAPORE—Emigration of millions of Chinese around the globe over the last two centuries was the focus of an international gathering here that drew almost 300 people from some 20 countries. The seventh international conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas (ISSCO) convened May 7 for three days of plenaries, panel discussions, and other activities. Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and the Chinese Heritage Centre, located on the university campus, were the sponsors of the conference along with ISSCO. Most participants came from countries in Asia, including China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. Others hailed from countries in Europe and North America, and from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Given the site of the conference and the substantial participation from across Southeast Asia, devepments in this region were a particular feature of the event. ISSCO held its founding conference in 1992 in San Francisco, noted Leo Suryadinata, ISSCO president and director of the Chinese Heritage Centre, at the opening session. Subsequent international conferences were held in Hong Kong in 1994, the Philippines in 1998, Taiwan in 2001, Denmark in 2004, and Beijing, China, in 2007. Numerous regional conferences have been organized as well, including in Cuba in 1999, South Africa in 2006, and most recently in New Zealand last year. Conference participants were welcomed by Grace Fu Hai Yien, senior minister of state in Singapore’s government. After keynote addresses by professors Philip Kuhn of Harvard University and Tan Chee Beng of the Chinese University of Hong Kong—given in English and Mandarin, respectively—participants got down to the main work of the conference: a series of some 70 panel discussions, conducted in English or Chinese. More than 200 papers were presented, some 90 of them in Chinese. Almost half of those were by participants from universities in China. Along with the formal sessions, one of the most valuable aspects of the gathering was the many hours of informal discussion and exchange that took place—over meals, cultural activities, and a post-conference tour of Singapore—among the participants who had come together from around the globe. Papers addressed a wide range of topics, from literary criticism and the changes in spoken Chinese among the diaspora, to the impact on overseas Chinese of industrial development and increasing class differentiation in China over the past two decades, to the conditions facing Chinese workers, small traders, students, capitalists, and others around the world, from Brunei to India, South Africa, and Peru. Chinese in Southeast Asia A number of panels looked at the substantial Chinese populations in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and more broadly in Southeast Asia. With a total population of around 560 million, the region is home to about 30 million ethnic Chinese—about three-quarters of all those who live outside China. The extent of Chinese settlement varies from country to country. About 29 percent of Malaysia’s population of 28 million is Chinese. In Indonesia, Chinese comprise some 3 percent of the country’s 240 million people. Most of the Chinese migrants to this region have come from the coastal regions in China’s south, including the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong (historically known as Canton), and Hainan Island. In many countries throughout the region, Chinese communities grew up over the centuries as trading outposts with settlers often subject to exclusionary laws and discriminatory practices, which today’s propertied classes find useful to adapt. In Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia, land purchase by those of Chinese descent continues to be limited, maintaining restrictions first imposed by the British and Dutch colonial powers. The Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia—which came to power through the slaughter of hundreds of thousands, and a bloodletting that targeted the Chinese minority in particular—lasted from 1965 to 1998. It forbade the teaching of Chinese and the public display of Chinese culture, among many other brutally repressive measures. Indonesia’s capitalist rulers, often acting through the military, have frequently set up the Chinese community, especially merchants, as
Re: [Marxism] Singapore conference discusses role of overseas Chinese,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Nada wrote: Anyway, I found odd that The Militant covered this conference, with no less than 3 reporters. Fred comments: I have to admit I found this one of the most unchallengeably un-odd things in the Militant. (I concede that, from a point of view, that is exactly what is odd about it.) It would have been good if more currents had attended. I assume they didn't know about it. I cannot imagine anything the Militant was doing that was worth more attention than this. The three reporters and their leadership status seem appropriate to me. Aside from the coverage of immigrant struggles, I find nothing in the Militant that is less odd and more appropriate than this. Perhaps the reason for the deviation from irrelevance is the comrade using the name BASKARAN APPU, which sounds to me like it reflects an origin in the Malaysian-Indonesian peninsula and archipelago. Of course, my linguistic skills are very crude, to put it mildly. Anyway this is the last thing in the Militant that I would call odd. The very fact that both David and I were interested, and not just to take potshots, indicates the contrary. Fred Feldman 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] No civil libertarians on today's Supreme Court -- Obama's warning is being acted on
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This bit of ex-post facto legislation by Congress and President Bush has been upheld by the entire bloc of liberals plus federalist (in the sense of federal government power freaks Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy. This is the first major decision since President Obama's endorsement of judicial restraint and deference to congressional decisions regardless of the constitutional provisions. Many have been worried about the possibility that Elena Kagan will be a kind of liberal swing vote on the Supreme Court. This should relieve their fears. The entire liberal wing of the court is now a swing vote.` Without their support this vote could not have gone for Roberts, Alito, and Kennedy. How Kagan will actually vote is hard to determine. I don't think her past record, colored by efforts to please her employers, tells us anything. Actually, she is not guaranteed to join the bloc of liberal swing voters, although her past record, insofar as there is one, does not guarantee anything concerning someone whose whole career has been about pleasing the authorities. Now, compared to the rest of us, she will be relatively free. But is freedom what she wants? Well, we will find out. At any rate, I think a fight against her in particular at this point is worth a plug nickel given the responsiveness of the current court liberals, including retiring John Paul Stevens, to Obama's signals. No one should imagine that this is limited to the current focus on sexual offenses. Not at all. It all depends on Congress. If you are sentenced to twenty years for murder (really, not so much less than a sexual offense, your term can be extended indefinitely unless the cops and judges are convinced you might do so again. If you were charged with robbing an apartment or mugging a passerby, how do you prove that you might not do so again. In fact, what we are confronted with is a society in which any offense against the law can be punished with a life sentence, if Congress so decides (and Congress will decide so if the ruling-class tabloids so rule, no matter what the ruling-class New York Times might mumble in protest. Imagine how enthused the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (well, many of them, I suspect) would be if Congress or the state legislature adopted such sentencing practices. According to our NEW, IMPROVED SUPREME COURT, any sentence for any offence can be a life sentence (and why not an ex post facto death penalty, I might add) if a legislative body and associated executive so decides. Were there no liberal heroes to stand up in this situation? There were two, I admit. Clarence Thomas and (on some aspects) Antonin Scalia. Those who want to have confidence in these defenders of what's left of our liberties have my permission to do so. For the rest, my advice to anybody who finds themselves threatened with arrest and prosecution for a particularly unpopular (in the media especially but also elsewhere} is simply RUN! What do you have to lose, when a sentence of thirty days or thirty years can become a life sentence (or more) at the discretion of your local legislative body. Fred Feldman Supreme Court rules 'sexually dangerous' inmates can be held in prison indefinitely By Michael Sheridan DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, May 17th 2010, 11:43 AM The Supreme Court has ruled that federal officials can keep prisoners it deems 'sexually dangerous' in jail, even after their prison terms have expired. Kyte/Getty The Supreme Court has ruled that federal officials can keep prisoners it deems 'sexually dangerous' in jail, even after their prison terms have expired. Take our Poll Sex Offenders in Prison Is it fair to keep someone incarcerated after their prison term has expired? Yes, depending on the crime. No, they've done their time. I don't know Related News * Articles * Supreme Court rules out life sentences without parole for juveniles who haven't killed someone Sex offenders can be kept in prison indefinitely if federal officials believe they could still be a threat, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The ruling supported the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2006, and authorized the civil commitment of sexually dangerous federal inmates. A federal civil-commitment statute authorizes the Department of Justice to detain a mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoner beyond the date the prisoner would otherwise be released, said Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote the majority opinion for the 7-2 ruling. It is a 'necessary and proper' means of exercising the federal authority that permits Congress to create federal criminal laws, to punish their violation, to imprison violators, to provide appropriately for those imprisoned
[Marxism] Equal Rights Progress for LGBT in Cuba (but some in legislature put up fight)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This article originally appeared on BBC, and was picked up by the Havana Times. I think it highlights the depth of the change as traditionally macho Cuban society moves, under the influence of the top layers of the government as well as progressive changes in public opinion. I tend to see the surfacing of opposition (and I shudder to think what the opinion of the Cuban Catholic hierarchy is) as a positive sign in this sense. If the change went without resistance, that would be (to me at least) an indication that the change might be merely cosmetic or administrative, and not going to the patriarchal/sexist roots of class society. I suspect that time will reveal that the resistance on this question is not unrelated to the resistance that Raul and others are running into in their initial efforts to rationalize and transform the economy around the axis of productive labor as the key to strengthening the position of the workers and peasants as the governing and politically dominant classes. These issues also go to the roots of the fight for socialism and human liberation, and therefore I strongly suspect that they are related and that neither can be termed, if I may coin a phrase, peripheral to the other. They are organic and inseparable parts of the package. I have attached two comments that were submitted to Havana Times by readers. The first, by Walter Lippmann, seems to me an excellent assessment of some aspects of the great significance of this conflict. The second, by a reader, is probably a good example of how supporters of LGBT rights stateside who are genuinely friendly to the Cuban revolution are responding to the surfacing of this clash. Fred Feldman Equal Rights Progress in Cuba Posted By the editor On May 14, 2010 @ 3:36 pm Fernando Ravsberg [1] HAVANA TIMES, May 14 - I'm not in Cuba at the moment, but I've been reading that currently the Day against Homophobia is being celebrated there. This is being organized by the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX), which is directed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro. However CENESEX is no longer the sole convener; new organizations have joined this effort. Those participating include the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), the National Council of the Visual Arts and the Center for the Prevention of AIDS. Yet opposition remains strong. In the latest interview that Mariela Castro granted to BBC Mundo, she explained that her father has always recommended she do things intelligently so that she has less resistance and wins more allies. She told us then that those people holding prejudices are without solid arguments; they lack logic and there is no rational behind them. What we want is that these people become capable of overcoming their prejudices with knowledge, or at least develop the capacity to respect the rights of others. The problem gets complicated when those who have prejudices also have power. What is certain it is that reform of the island's Family Code is being held up because incorporated in it was a paragraph that addresses the rights of people who are gay, transsexual or lesbian. I was told by an important Cuban legislator -who was indignant- that Mariela did a disfavor to this effort when she incorporated that issue. Presently, approval of this convention has been delayed though it regulates other truly important matters, such as the rights of the elderly. I hope I'm mistaken, but it seems that there are parliamentarians who are ready to do harm to the whole of society by holding up the approval of the Family Code to prevent people who are homosexual from being entitled to specific rights. It's not that the proposal being led by Mariela is radical by any means. On the issue of gay couples, for example, it does not contemplate marriages between them nor their right to adopt children; it only seeks the legal recognition of unions between people of the same sex. Curiously, some leading figures of the Communist Party are calling for moderation regarding the legislation on gay rights. These officials say they don't want to offend the Christian community. The reality, though, is that they should refer directly to the authorities of the Catholic Church. In fact, this Day Against Homophobia campaign includes members of Protestant churches among its organizers - groups such as the Martin Luther King Center, which is a Christian organization but non-fundamentalist when it comes to speaking out on homosexuality. CENESEX is truly managing to win allies, in addition to bringing recognition to the work of others who have also struggled for years so that all Cubans are entitled the same rights, regardless of their sexual preferences. This is why this year's principal
[Marxism] China exposes hypocrisy, decay of US on human rights
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Socialist Voice Marxist Perspectives for the 25th Century http://www.socialistvoice.ca/?p=1176 April 25, 2010 China Challenges U.S. Hypocrisy on Human Rights Introduction by Fred Feldman On March 5, 2010, the government of the People's Republic of China issued a detailed report entitled The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009. It is a unique document in world diplomatic history. The U.S. government annually issues reports on the human rights records of various countries. Almost invariably these are oppressed nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Washington always gives its imperialist allies a passing grade, and the State Department never fails to give the United States an A+. Some countries regularly receive bad grades: Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua. The ratings of other countries swing up and down. One that is receiving worse grades now, as its relations with the United States get more strained, is China. The actual level of political freedom among these countries varies widely, but this is not the basis of the selection. The real message from the U.S. government to the targeted country (and targeted is the right word) is: We have issues with you. Settle them to our satisfaction and you may get a better grade. Refuse to do as we demand of you, and these charges will be used to justify a hostile international campaign, subversion, sanctions, or even war. An example of how little Washington's talk about human rights has to do with political and cultural freedom is the shifting position of Washington on Honduras since the overthrow of President Zelaya. At first, the Obama administration claimed to oppose the coup, which was an embarrassment to Washington's democratic posturing, but now, since a rigged election was held, it has shifted to strongly defending the coup regime, even though attacks on democratic rights are rising and death squads have taken dozens of lives of oppositionists. Usually governments that are targeted by these reports make a minimal response. They deny or dismiss the charges, they denounce hypocrisy and intervention in their political affairs and then, at least publicly, they let the matter drop. But China's government had a more creative response. It noticed that, as in previous years, the [U.S.] reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China, but turn a blind eye to, or dodge and even cover up rampant human rights abuses on its own territory. So they prepared a thorough and carefully produced report on the human rights situation in the United States. They did not focus on refuting or confirming or correcting errors in any of the charges against China. Instead they focused on the deteriorating situation of democratic and social rights in the U.S. And they included a stern admonition to the U.S. government to clean up its act. The result is a powerful, well-documented, and actually chilling indictment, which deserves to be widely read and studied by as many people as possible. It is a real contribution from China to the work of fighters for social and political justice internationally, and especially, of course, in the United States. I have never seen this material put together in one concise, pamphlet-sized and readable package. The document includes sections on crime and violence, surveillance and secrecy, prison abuse including rape and the spread of AIDS, discrimination against Blacks and Latinos, attacks on women's rights, U.S. attempts to control and monopolize the Internet, unemployment, health care, the treatment of children, torture, and other matters. Two areas that were passed by were the death penalty, which both China and the United States use, and abortion rights, probably because of the Chinese government's reliance on obligatory abortion as a method of birth control. The report makes no effort to defend the practices of the Chinese state on any of these issues. I think this is positive, because it suggests that there may be room for improvement in the areas of political rights and social conditions there as well. The report concludes: We hereby advise the U.S. government to draw lessons from the history, put itself in a correct position, strive to improve its own human rights conditions and rectify its acts in the human rights field. + The following excerpts from the 8,000-word report, The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009, were selected by Fred Feldman from the English text published by Xinhua. Life, property, and personal security The United States ranks first in the world in terms of the number of privately-owned guns. According to the data from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
Re: [Marxism] We (us, not them) must tighten our belts
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dennis Brasky wrote: It would be helpful if comrades could include a URL link for others to post. Quite right. I had planned to do so but, in my typical ad/hd rush to send it out, forgot to paste the url onto the item. Here is the url: http://www.salon.com/news/us_economy/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2010/ 04/29/economic_sacrifice_open2010 Fred 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] Top insurers agree to stop cancelling policies of people who get sick
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == In the rum-up to the adoption of the new law, socialist and other critics insisted that it contained an unstated loophole reaffirming the right of insurance companies to cancel the policies of those who get ill, especially those with pre-existing conditions. The administration never acknowledged the existence of the alleged unstated loophole, and has since proceeded on the basis that such cancellations will be barred as the law comes into affect. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on insurance companies to drop these practices NOW. Since the bill was adopted, the administration, responding to a growing wave of public opinion, has pressured the insurance companies to reverse these policies with some apparent success. Of course the administration has a substantial combined carrot and stick gor gaining corporate acquiescence -- the substantial premiums, paid in significant part by the government, to be had from those who will have to get health insurance under the bill. Although I was a critic of the legislation, because its primary beneficiary was the insurance companies which act as financial parasites on the provision of health care, I did not believe that the unstated loophole existed and held that the legal interpretation of the bill offered by the administration since its passage was the correct one. The fight against the insurance companies by their victims over this issue, which is far from over, should be supported by socialists and other advocates of truly universal and affordable medical care. At this point, of course, to argue that their actions are legal because of the alleged unstated loophole would be to lend support to the insurance companies in defending their dirty practices. Participation in this fight on the side of those being denied their right to health care can be a way to put forward and re-start the fight for single-payer. The necessity for such a health-care system, to put it mildly, has not been removed by the adoption of this mixed bag of legislation which does not solve the fundamental problems. Fred Feldman http://open.salon.com/blog/doctorandmama/2010/04/28/health_care_reform_is_he re_insurers_forced_to_comply APRIL 28, 2010 3:24PM Health Care Reform Is Here: Insurers Forced to Comply Two major insurers, UnitedHealth Group Inc and WellPoint Inc, have announced that they will no longer terminate insurance coverage to policyholders who become sick. WellPoint was the first major insurer to announce their plans yesterday, after Reuters reported that the insurer had been preferentially terminating coverage to policyholders who became diagnosed with breast cancer. According to Reuters, Democrats pushed for action sooner after an April 22 Reuters report said WellPoint used computer algorithms to target women with breast cancer for an investigation, with the intent of canceling their healthcare policies. WellPoint has called the story inaccurate. Reuters has stood by the report. WellPoint will implement the new policy by May 1, 2010. UnitedHealth has implemented their new policy immediately. These actions represent the earliest major implementations of health care reform legislation passed last month. The deadline to end rescission, the practice of revoking coverage once a policyholder becomes ill, is September 23, 2010. Two other current practices, denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and capping lifetime payouts, are also required to meet the September deadline. __ Source: Reuters 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] We (us, not them) must tighten our belts
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Thursday, Apr 29, 2010 15:30 ET We (meaning you) must tighten our belts Who's getting sick of hearing millionaires lecture people on Medicare about making sacrifices? By Digby * Reuters/Larry Downing Peter Peterson This piece originally appeared at Digby's Hullabaloo. Dean Baker attended the Pete Peterson Social Security Destruction summit earlier today and made this important observation at the revolting sight of Peterson and Robert Rubin patting each other on the backs and demanding that everyone buckle down and sacrifice for the greater good: Peter Peterson and Robert Rubin are both enormously wealthy men. (They joked about dividing their lunch tab based on their net worth.) They are lecturing the country on the need to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits for retirees who have a tiny fraction of their wealth. Many of the victims of the cuts that they would push are people who are already struggling. This is so common among the ruling elite that people don't even recognize it anymore. Here's my favorite example from Mrs. Alan Greenspan way back in January of 2009: MSNBC commentator: ... The subtext of all of this [call to service] is hey Americans, you're gonna have to do your part too. There may be some sacrifices involved for you too. Do you think he's going to use his political capital to make those arguments and will it go beyond rhetoric? Andrea Mitchell: It does go beyond rhetoric. He needs to engage the American people in this joint venture. That's part of the call. That's part of what he needs to accomplish in his speech and in the days following the speech. He needs to make people feel that this is their venture as well and that people are going to need to be more patient and have to contribute and that there will have to be some sacrifice. * Continue reading And certainly, if he is serious about what he told the Washington Post last week, that he wants to take on entitlement reform, there will be greater sacrifice required from a nation already suffering from economic crisis --- to ask people to take a look at their health care and their other entitlements and realize that for the long term health and vitality of the country we're going to have to give up something that we already enjoy. As I noted at the time: Right. Old and sick people are going to have to give up something they enjoy. That's assuming they enjoy being able to eat and go to a doctor. Of course, Andrea Mitchell won't have to give up what she enjoys. She's a multi-millionaire. And her husband, Uncle Alan Greenspan, works for John Paulson. That's right. That John Paulson. This is the where the Village metaphor really hits home. Mrs. Greenspan and the rest of the Beltway insiders have all convinced themselves that their little village represents Real America. So when someone suggests that entitlements have to be cut for the common good, that seems like something that nobody should really squeal too much about since they don't know a single soul who will be even slightly inconvenienced by such a thing. S.S. is chump change to these people, not even really worth collecting (but just try to take it from them). Now, repealing their tax breaks -- that's the kind of sacrifice no self-respecting Real American should ever stand for. Here's Baker again: ... there are ways to get the long-term deficit down to size that don't involve nailing middle income and/or poor people. However, it would be hard to find two people who have benefited more from taxpayer handouts than these two individuals. Peter Peterson has been the recipient of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars through the fund manager's tax break. This tax break, which is also known as the carried interest tax deduction allows managers of hedge and equity funds to pay tax on their earnings at the 15 percent capital gains tax rate, instead of having it taxed as normal income. As a result, Peterson paid a lower tax rate on much of his earnings than tens of millions of people working as school teachers, fire fighters, and other middle income jobs. Peterson not only collected the money himself, he came to Washington in 2007 to lobby Congress when it debated ending the tax break. He apparently wanted to make sure that his friends would still be able to benefit from this tax break even after he had retired. After setting the country on a course for the current crisis with the policies he pushed as Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin went to work as a top executive at Citigroup. In this capacity, he earned $110 million before leaving the company in the middle of its 2008 meltdown. As we know, Citigroup was one of the major actors in the housing boom. It produced hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mortgage
[Marxism] In wake of new law, top insurer fights women with breast cancer
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Friday, Apr 23, 2010 18:30 ET Broadsheet Got breast cancer? Goodbye, health insurance A report alleges that WellPoint drops coverage for women recently diagnosed with the disease By Tracy Clark-Flory AP There comes a time in every ladyblogger's life when your capacity for shock and disgust plateaus. I like to call it Feminist Outrage Fatigue.T We all suffer it from time to time, and the only cure is something so backwards, despicable and downright evil that you are jolted out of your shoulder-shrugging apathy. Well, today I came across just such a news item -- one that reactivated the keyboard-banging, ALL-CAPS TYPING, forehead-slapping, eyeball-gouging, and all those other well-worn feminist blogger cliches. In an exclusive, Reuters reports that WellPoint, the largest health insurance provider in the United States, routinely drops female policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The company allegedly uses a computer algorithm that targets every policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer, says Reuters. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators. Then, WellPoint canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. On Friday, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded to the Reuters report by writing a letter urging WellPoint to immediately cease these practices and abandon your efforts to rescind health insurance coverage from patients who need it most. In response, WellPoint has come out swinging -- first, with a press release alleging factual errors in the Reuters piece and, second, with a letter in response to Sebelius. The insurer claims that it uses a program to catch conditions that policyholders likely knew about before applying for insurance, and said it does not single out women with breast cancer for rescission. Period. Neither press release offered an explanation for why a Congressional committee found that, when it comes to rescission in general, WellPoint was one of the worst offenders, as Reuters put it. * Continue reading Make of that what you will. What we know for sure is that the shady practice of rescission is not at all unusual. As Reuters explains, it has already been documented that tens of thousands of Americans lost their health insurance shortly after being diagnosed with life-threatening, expensive medical conditions. However, WellPoint's alleged focus on breast cancer patients is unique. If Reuter's report is indeed accurate, it's rather sickening that the insurer's CEO has earned plaudits for how her company improved the medical care and treatment of other policyholders with breast cancer. In her letter to WellPoint, Sebelius was careful to note that the practice described in this article will soon be illegal and that the Affordable Care Act specifically prohibits insurance companies from rescinding policies, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material fact. Unfortunately, many experts remain unconvinced that the healthcare bill will outlaw -- or even do much of anything to prevent -- rescission. 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] Raul Castro's April 4 speech to Young Communist League
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Even more important than the response to the latest propaganda campaigns against Cuba, in my opinion, is the president's description of the problems of bureaucratic and other forms of parasitism that are weakening the economy, undermine living standards, and threaten the basic accomplishments of the revolution.\ Fred Feldman http://machetera.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/raul-castros-address-to-cubas-youn g-communist-league/ Raúl Castros address to Cubas Young Communist League April 5, 2010 · 1 Comment Ive always loved the stories about the Cuban mambises, who, outgunned and outnumbered by their nineteenth century Spanish oppressors, resorted to a clever kind of weaponless warfare; that of wearing their enemy down by giving them false directions when lost, or harassing them during the night so they could not rest. While the Obamas and Estefans share Bloody Marys with the terrorist faithful on April 15th in Miami Beach, they might spare a thought for the historic futility of their efforts. Cubas youth will always outlast them. Young Cuban revolutionaries understand perfectly well that to preserve the Revolution and socialism, and to continue being dignified and free, they have many more years of struggle and sacrifices ahead of them Cuba does not fear lies nor does it kneel to pressure, conditions or impositions, from whichever direction. It defends itself with the truth, which always, sooner rather than later, ends up being known. Cuban President Raúl Castros keynote address to the Young Communist League, Havana, April 4, 2010 - español Edited by Machetera Compañeras, compañeros, delegates and guests, It has been a good Congress, which actually began last October with the open meetings attended by hundreds of thousands of young people and continued with the evaluation meetings conducted by organizations from the rank and file as well as the municipal and provincial committees where the agreements were shaped that would be adopted in these final sessions. If there is one thing weve had plenty of during the little over five years that have passed since Fidel made the closing speech at the Eighth Young Communist League (YCL) Congress, on December 5, 2004, its been work and challenges. This Congress has been held in the midst of one of the most vicious and concerted media campaigns launched against the Cuban Revolution in its fifty years of existence, an issue to which I will necessarily refer later on. Although I was unable to attend the meetings held prior to the Congress, I have been informed of the essentials of every one of them. I am aware that there has been little talk about achievements in order to focus on problems, looking internally and without spending more time than necessary on the analysis of external factors. Its a style that ought to permanently characterize the work of the YCL in contrast to those who tend to look for the mote in their neighbors eye instead of expending such an effort on their own tasks. It has been rewarding to listen to many young people directly linked to productive activities proudly and simply explaining the work theyre doing, barely mentioning the material difficulties and bureaucratic obstacles that affect them. Many of the shortcomings analyzed are not new; they have accompanied the organization for quite some time. The previous congresses adopted corresponding agreements and yet theyve been reiterated to a greater or lesser degree, which proves the lack of a systematic and thorough control of their completion. In this sense, it is fair and necessary to repeat something reiterated by comrades Machado and Lazo, who chaired many of the assemblies: the Party feels equally responsible for every flaw in the work of the YCL, most especially for the problems concerning the policy with cadres. We cannot permit that, once again, approved documents become dead letters or shelved like memoirs. They should be a guide for the everyday work of the National Bureau and for every member of the organization. You have already agreed on the basics, now you should act on them. Some are very critical about the youth of today while forgetting that once they themselves were young. It would be naïve to pretend that new generations are the same as those of the past. A wise proverb says: A man resembles his own time more than that of his parents. Cuban youth have always been willing to meet challenges. They have proven it in the recovery from damages caused by hurricanes, confronting the enemys provocations and defense-related tasks; I might mention many more examples. The average age of Congressional delegates is twenty-eight. All of them have grown up during these hard years of the Special Period and have participated in our peoples efforts
[Marxism] US shuts down websites from or about Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.juventudrebelde.co.cu/international/2008-03-06/scandalous-censori ng-of-cuban-websites-by-the-us-revealed/ Scandalous Censoring of Cuban Websites by the US Revealed The Juventud Rebelde newspaper published an article on Tuesday March 4, 2008 in The New York Times that reveals how the United Stats has blocked Internet websites of an English enterprise with the domain .com. Juventud Rebelde adds some questions and answers that the American newspaper fails to raise concerning this extraterritorial enforcement of US legislation By: Adam Liptak Email: 2008-03-06 | 12:33:16 EST Steve Marshall is an English travel agent. He lives in Spain and sells trips to Europeans who want to go to sunny places, including Cuba. In October, about 80 of his Websites stopped working, thanks to the United States government. The sites in English, French and Spanish had been online since 1998. Some, like www.cuba-hemingway.com, were literary. Others, like www.cuba-havanacity.com, discussed Cuban history and culture. Still others www.ciaocuba.com and www.bonjourcuba.com were purely commercial sites aimed at Italian and French tourists. I came to work in the morning, and we had no reservations at all, said Mr. Marshall by phone from the Canary Islands. We thought it was a technical problem. It turned out, though, that Mr. Marshalls Web sites had been put on a US Treasury Department blacklist and, as a consequence, his American domain name with the server eNom Inc., had been disabled. Mr. Marshall said eNom told him that it had done so after a call from the Treasury Department; the company, based in Bellevue, Wash., says it learned that the sites were on the blacklist through a blog. Either way, there is no disputing that eNom shut down Mr. Marshalls sites without notifying him and has refused to release the domain names to him. In effect, Mr. Marshall said, eNom has taken his property and interfered with his business. He has slowly rebuilt his Web business over the last several months, and now many of the same sites operate with the suffix .net rather than .com, through a European registry. His servers, he said, have been in the Bahamas all along. Mr. Marshall said he did not understand how Websites owned by a British national operating via a Spanish travel agency can be affected by US law. Worse, he said, these days not even a judge is required for the US government to censor online materials. A Treasury spokesman, John Rankin, referred a caller to a press release issued in December 2004, almost three years before eNom acted. It said Mr. Marshalls company had helped Americans evade restrictions on travel to Cuba and was a generator of resources that the Cuban regime uses to oppress its people. It added that American companies must not only stop doing business with the company but also freeze its assets, meaning that eNom did exactly what it was legally required to do. Mr. Marshall said he was uninterested in American tourists. They cant go anyway, he said. Peter L. Fitzgerald, a law professor at Stetson University in Florida who has studied the blacklist which the Treasury calls a list of specially designated nationals said its operation was quite mysterious. There really is no explanation or standard, he said, for why someone gets on the list. Susan Crawford, a visiting law professor at Yale and a leading authority on Internet law, said the fact that many large domain name registrars are based in the United States gives the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, control over a great deal of speech none of which may be actually hosted in the U.S., about the U.S. or conflicting with any U.S. rights. OFAC apparently has the power to order that this speech disappear, Professor Crawford said. The law under which the Treasury Department is acting has an exemption, known as the Berman Amendment, which seeks to protect information or informational materials. Mr. Marshalls Web sites, though ultimately commercial, would seem to qualify, and it is not clear why they appear on the list. Unlike Americans, who face significant restrictions on travel to Cuba, Europeans are free to go there, and many do. Charles S. Sims, a lawyer with Proskauer Rose in New York, said the Treasury Department might have gone too far in Mr. Marshalls case. The U.S can certainly criminalize the expenditure of money by U.S. citizens in Cuba, Mr. Sims said, but it doesnt properly have any jurisdiction over foreign sites that are not targeted at the U.S. and which are lawful under foreign law. Mr. Rankin, the Treasury spokesman, said Mr. Marshall was free to ask for a review of his case. If they want to be taken off the list, Mr. Rankin said, they should contact us
[Marxism] Fidel: Bill's approval was victory for Obama, gain for health care
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == GRANMA INTERNATIONAL Havana. March 25, 2010 http://tinyurl. http://tinyurl.com/yk78mlc com/yk78mlc Reflections of Fidel Health reform in the United States (Taken from CubaDebate) BARACK Obama is a fanatical believer in the imperialist capitalist system imposed by the United States on the world. God bless the United States, he ends his speeches. Some of his acts wounded the sensibility of world opinion, which viewed with sympathy the African-American candidates victory over that countrys extreme right-wing candidate. Basing himself on one of the worst economic crises that the world has ever seen, and the pain caused by young Americans who lost their lives or were injured or mutilated in his predecessors genocidal wars of conquest, he won the votes of the majority of 50% of Americans who deign to go to the polls in that democratic country. Out of an elemental sense of ethics, Obama should have abstained from accepting the Nobel Peace Prize when he had already decided to send 40,000 soldiers to an absurd war in the heart of Asia. The current administrations militarist policies, its plunder of natural resources and unequal exchange with the poor countries of the Third World are in no way different from those of its predecessors, almost all of them extremely right-wing, with some exceptions, throughout the past century. The anti-democratic document imposed at the Copenhagen Summit on the international community which had given credit to his promise to cooperate in the fight against climate change was another act that disappointed many people in the world. The United States, the largest issuer of greenhouse gases, was not willing to make the necessary sacrifices, despite the sweet words of its president beforehand. It would be interminable to list the contradictions between the ideas which the Cuban nation has defended at great sacrifice for half a century and the egotistic policies of that colossal empire. In spite of that, we harbor no antagonism toward Obama, much less toward the U.S. people. We believe that the health reform has been an important battle, and a success of his government. It would seem, however, to be something truly unusual, 234 years after the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, inspired by the ideas of the French encyclopedists, that the U.S. government has passed [a law for] medical attention for the vast majority of its citizens, something that Cuba achieved for its entire population half a century ago, despite the cruel and inhumane blockade imposed and still in effect by the most powerful country that ever existed. Before that, after almost half a century of independence and after a bloody war, Abraham Lincoln was able to attain legal freedom for slaves. On the other hand, I cannot stop thinking about a world in which more than one-third of the population lacks the medical attention and medicines essential to ensuring its health, a situation that will be aggravated as climate change and water and food scarcity become increasingly greater in a globalized world where the population is growing, forests are disappearing, agricultural land is diminishing, the air is becoming unbreathable, and in which the human species that inhabits it which emerged less than 200,000 years ago; in other words, 3.5 million years after the first forms of life emerged on the planet is running a real risk of disappearing as a species. Accepting that health reform signifies a success for the Obama government, the current U.S. president cannot ignore that climate change is a threat to health, and even worse, to the very existence of all the worlds nations, when the increase in temperatures beyond the critical limits that are in sight is melting the frozen waters of the glaciers, and the tens of millions of cubic kilometers stored in the enormous ice caps accumulated in the Antarctic, Greenland and Siberia will have melted within a few dozen years, leaving underwater all of the worlds port facilities and the lands where a large part of the global population now lives, feeds itself and works. Obama, the leaders of the free countries and their allies, their scientists and their sophisticated research centers know this; it is impossible for them not to know it. I understand the satisfaction in the presidential speech expressing and recognizing the contributions of the congress members and administration who made possible the miracle of health reform, which strengthens the governments position vis-à-vis the lobbyists and political mercenaries who are limiting the administrations faculties. It would be worse if those who engaged in torture, assassinations for hire, and genocide should reoccupy the U.S. government. As a person who is unquestionably
[Marxism] Another view of the health care legislation
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I think the very small and powerless far left in this country went way off the deep end in calling for the defeat of the health care bill. The basic argument is that it still leaves the insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry in the catbird seat, which is true. In fact, it is quite clear that today, in the existing relationship of class forces, no bill could have passed that did not do that. In calling for defeat of the bill, they demanded that Congress vote down: (a) barring immediately denying children insurance because of pre-existing or other illness (b) barring all other such denials within two years (3) adding 16 million people to Medicaid eligibility; (4) taking millions of people out of the category of uninsured. And a number of other like things. How can we call for defeating THIS when we today have absolutely no viable alternative. And in calling for defeating itself, we effectively rely on the ultrarightist (these days) Republican Party and the right-wing Democrats to win our victory for us. Our political influence is of course nil. It's a version of Alexander Cockburn's left-right alliance politics, in my opinion. Socialist Worker says you can't solve the medical crisis without taking the profits from the insurance companies and big pharma. True enough, but does anyone imagine that abolishing or defeating the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies was on the agenda in 2010? Not even single payer was possible in this period, and that would not make medical care anywhere near totally nonprofit. Medicare demands both big premiums and leaves people with sizable doctor bills. Should all these people be denied what they really do need now, under today's class struggle circumstances, because we know a better way. We insist on single payer or even socialism now and demand that anything less be REJECTED in a practical alliance with rightists who want to abolish all public health services, and who think that medical care is a privilege that must be earned making enough money to pay your own way. And we demand all or nothing at a time when the labor movement is prostrate, the women's and Black movements passive, and the immigrants trying to fight their way out of a legally tightening pariah position. This seems nuts to me. We seem to imagine that the defeat of this bill would have stimulated a huge increase in support for single payer, mobilizations, etc.-- kind of After the Tea Partiers, Us. On the contrary, the only political beneficiary would have been the right, and their arguments would have become even more the official mainstream than they are today. I am not saying we should have supported it. We have no members of congress. We have virtually no political influence. We could have objectively reported what was positive and negative, without starting to sound like Left Wing tea-partiers. (This JUST makes things worse! It's the end of the world!) Of course, there are bad and negative things in the legislation and we should explain them, but I think unhysterically is best. Trying to DEFEAT it was a mistake and a potentially discrediting one (although at this point our relative obscurity may serve as our best defense). A lot of scapegoating of Kucinich is going on. Actually, once his efforts to improve the bill had failed, he had no choice but to cross over and Obama's appeal just built him a bridge for a dignified exit. He could not have survived helping to defeat this bill in alliance with the far right. I've never been a fan of Kucinich but frankly the description of his vote as a great betrayal sounds like more left-wing hype to me. This does not make single-payer impossible. The obstacle to single payer above all is not legislation or even institutions but the relationship of class forces. I'm relieved there was enough sentiment and mobilization to soften some of the worst aspects of the bill (abortion) and keep in some of the better stuff. But positive changes in the class struggle will create new openings despite the institutional obstacles including this legislation. Part of this is the far left view that the ruling class is kind of plotting to make life unlivable in the United States, or as Louis Proyect puts it, to make us just like China or some other third world country. Leaving aside Louis' vendetta against the government of China, I would first point out that some third world countries are moving in the opposite direction of the United States in cultural, economic, and social areas -- upward and not downward. But more importantly, the rulers have every intention for the United States to stay imperialist and for wide layers of Americans to stay privileged relative to other peoples and to remain a base of support for US imperialism. This plan
[Marxism] NYT: Defying Global Slump, China Has Labor Shortage
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == February 27, 2010 Defying Global Slump, China Has Labor Shortage By KEITH BRADSHER GUANGZHOU, China - Just a year after laying off millions of factory workers, China is facing an increasingly acute labor shortage. As American workers struggle with near double-digit unemployment, unskilled factory workers here in China's industrial heartland are being offered signing bonuses. Factory wages have risen as much as 20 percent in recent months. Telemarketers are turning away potential customers because recruiters have fully booked them to cold-call people and offer them jobs. Some manufacturers, already weeks behind schedule because they can't find enough workers, are closing down production lines and considering raising prices. Such increases would most likely drive up the prices American consumers pay for all sorts of Chinese-made goods. Rising wages could also lead to greater inflation in China. In the past, inflation has sown social unrest. The immediate cause of the shortage is that millions of migrant workers who traveled home for the long lunar New Year earlier this month are not returning to the coast. Thanks to a half-trillion-dollar government stimulus program, jobs are being created in the interior. But many economists say the recent global downturn also obscured a longer-term trend: China has drained its once vast reserves of unemployed workers in rural areas and is running out of fresh laborers for its factories. Since China does not release reliable, timely statistics on employment, wages are considered the best barometer of labor shortages. And temp agencies here in Guangzhou raised their rate for factory workers this week to $1.17 an hour, from 95 cents an hour before the new year holiday. The rate was 80 cents an hour two years ago, before the global financial crisis temporarily depressed wages and demand. The dearth of returning migrants set off a desperate scramble this week to recruit the workers who did step off long-haul buses and trains returning from the interior. At a government-run employment center in downtown Guangzhou, employers seeking workers outnumbered job-hunters Thursday afternoon. Outside, Liang Huoqiao, a 22-year-old plastics worker, joined a small group of men and women studying a 40-foot-wide list of companies seeking workers. You can walk into any factory and get a job, he said. The official China Daily newspaper said on Thursday that surveys of employers showed that one in 12 migrant workers was not expected to return here to Guangdong Province. Cities farther north along China's coast are also running low on labor; Wenzhou alone posted a shortage of up to one million workers. Guangdong provincial officials announced on Wednesday that they were considering increasing the minimum wage, which varies by city and ranges from $113 to $146 a month. Higher wages could ease labor shortages by prompting factories to reduce their work forces. But many factories already pay well above the minimum wage. They are wary of further pay increases because it is not certain they can pass the increased costs on to their customers - in particular, strapped importers in the United States and the European Union. Rising wages suggest the re-emergence of a worker shortage that was becoming evident before the financial crisis. A government survey three years ago of 2,749 villages in 17 provinces found that in 74 percent of them, there was no one left behind who was fit to go work in city factories - the labor pool was dry. Mass layoffs in late 2008 and early 2009 because of the global financial crisis temporarily masked the developing shortage of industrial workers. But two powerful trends were still working to reduce the supply of young people headed for factories. For one, the Chinese government has rapidly expanded postsecondary education. Universities and other institutions of higher learning enrolled 6.4 million new students last year, compared to 5.7 million in 2007 and just 2.2 million in 2000. At the same time, China's birth rate has been sliding steadily ever since the introduction of the one child policy in 1977. Labor shortages have returned quickly in recent weeks as these long-term trends have collided with a recovery in overseas demand for Chinese goods. Far more jobs are available these days in China's interior. Government projects like rail and highway construction have absorbed millions of workers, particularly after Beijing allocated nearly $600 billion to economic stimulus spending in 2009 and 2010. Consumer spending is also rising briskly; auto sales more than doubled last month from a year before, and this has created many jobs in retailing, restaurants, hotels and other inland businesses. Even before the holiday, companies were struggling
[Marxism] Caring for pets left behind by the rapture
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This sounds like a necessary service. I know if I was a believer who expected to be saved, I would be very worried about what would happen to my cat. This item appeared on the uk-left network. Fred Caring for Pets Left Behind by the Rapture For a fee, this service will place your dog or cat in the home of a caring atheist on Judgment Day By Mike Di Paola BW Magazine * Many people in the U.S.-perhaps 20 million to 40 million-believe there will be a Second Coming in their lifetimes, followed by the Rapture . In this event, they say, the righteous will be spirited away to a better place while the godless remain on Earth. But what will become of all the pets? Bart Centre, 61, a retired retail executive in New Hampshire, says many people are troubled by this question, and he wants to help. He started a service called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets that promises to rescue and care for animals left behind by the saved. Promoted on the Web as the next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World, the service has attracted more than 100 clients, who pay $110 for a 10-year contract ($15 for each additional pet.) If the Rapture happens in that time, the pets left behind will have homes-with atheists. Centre has set up a national network of godless humans to carry out the mission. If you love your pets, I can't understand how you could not consider this, he says. Centre came up with the idea while working on his book, The Atheist Camel Chronicles, written under the pseudonym Dromedary Hump. In it, he says many unkind things about the devout and confesses that I'm trying to figure out how to cash in on this hysteria to supplement my income. Whatever motivates Centre, he has tapped into a source of genuine unease. Todd Strandberg, who founded a biblical prophecy Web site called raptureready.com that draws 250,000 unique visitors a month, agrees that Fido and Mittens are doomed. Pets don't have souls, so they'll remain on Earth. I don't see how they can be taken with you, he says. A lot of persons are concerned about their pets, but I don't know if they should necessarily trust atheists to take care of them. This paradox poses a challenge for Centre. He must reassure the Rapture crowd that his pet rescuers are wicked enough to be left behind but good enough to take proper care of the abandoned pets. Rescuers must sign an affidavit to affirm their disbelief in God-and they must also clear a criminal background check. We want people who have pets and are animal lovers, Centre says. They also must have the means to rescue and transport the animals in their charge. His network consists of 26 rescuers covering 22 states. They take this very seriously, Centre says. One of Centre's atheist recruits is Laura, a woman in her 30s who lives near the buckle of the Bible Belt in Oklahoma, and who prefers not to give her last name. She has two dogs of her own and has made a commitment to rescue four dogs and two cats when-if-the time comes. If it happens, my first thought will be, 'I've got work to do,' Laura says. The first thing I'll do is find out where I need to go exactly. The rescuers won't know the precise location of the animals until the Rapture arrives, at which time they will contact Centre for instructions. I've got to get to [the pets] within a maximum of 18 to 24 hours. We really don't want them to wait more than a day. A day she believes will never come. Centre doesn't think he will ever have to follow through on the service he offers. But he believes in virtuous acts. His Web site directs about $200 a month in proceeds from Google ads to food banks in Minnesota and New Hampshire. And to pet owners, he has already delivered something of great value: peace of mind, for just 92 cents a month. If we thought the Rapture was really going to happen, Centre says, obviously our rate structure would be much higher. __._,_.___ 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] China said to lead race to make clean energy
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == www.nytimes.com January 31, 2010 China Leading Global Race to Make Clean Energy By KEITH BRADSHER TIANJIN, China - China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China. Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, 'Made in China,' said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy. President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders - and I know you don't either, he told Congress. The United States and other countries are offering incentives to develop their own renewable energy industries, and Mr. Obama called for redoubling American efforts. Yet many Western and Chinese executives expect China to prevail in the energy-technology race. Multinational corporations are responding to the rapid growth of China's market by building big, state-of-the-art factories in China. Vestas of Denmark has just erected the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturing complex here in northeastern China, and transferred the technology to build the latest electronic controls and generators. You have to move fast with the market, said Jens Tommerup, the president of Vestas China. Nobody has ever seen such fast development in a wind market. Renewable energy industries here are adding jobs rapidly, reaching 1.12 million in 2008 and climbing by 100,000 a year, according to the government-backed Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association. Yet renewable energy may be doing more for China's economy than for the environment. Total power generation in China is on track to pass the United States in 2012 - and most of the added capacity will still be from coal. China intends for wind, solar and biomass energy to represent 8 percent of its electricity generation capacity by 2020. That compares with less than 4 percent now in China and the United States. Coal will still represent two-thirds of China's capacity in 2020, and nuclear and hydropower most of the rest. As China seeks to dominate energy-equipment exports, it has the advantage of being the world's largest market for power equipment. The government spends heavily to upgrade the electricity grid, committing $45 billion in 2009 alone. State-owned banks provide generous financing. China's top leaders are intensely focused on energy policy: on Wednesday, the government announced the creation of a National Energy Commission composed of cabinet ministers as a superministry led by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao himself. Regulators have set mandates for power generation companies to use more renewable energy. Generous subsidies for consumers to install their own solar panels or solar water heaters have produced flurries of activity on rooftops across China. China's biggest advantage may be its domestic demand for electricity, rising 15 percent a year. To meet demand in the coming decade, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency, China will need to add nearly nine times as much electricity generation capacity as the United States will. So while Americans are used to thinking of themselves as having the world's largest market in many industries, China's market for power equipment dwarfs that of the United States, even though the American market is more mature. That means Chinese producers enjoy enormous efficiencies from large-scale production. In the United States, power companies frequently face a choice between buying renewable energy equipment or continuing to operate fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have already been built and paid for. In China, power companies have to buy lots of new equipment anyway, and alternative energy, particularly wind and nuclear, is increasingly priced competitively. Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans - the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy - have also made a big difference. As in many other industries, China's low labor costs are an
[Marxism] Cuban doctors' battke for life in Haiti
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Believe it or not, Rush Limbaugh has actually claimed that Cuyba is doing nothing, zip for Haiti post-earthquake. And in case you doubt him, I checked. He considers Cuba's supposed refusal to aid Haiti a good example for the United States. Fred Feldman GRANMA INTERNATIONAL Havana. January 21, 2010 Cuban doctors waging arduous battle for life in Haiti http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2010/enero/juev21/cuban-doctors-haiti-ing.html PORT-AU-PRINCE.-Three new aftershocks were reported in this capital yesterday, including one of 6.1 magnitude, for a total of 88 such temblors related to the earthquake that struck the city on January 12, according to the Emergency Operations Center in the Dominican Republic. An AFP cable stated that at least four buildings collapsed without leaving victims. Just one week after the devastating earthquake, the arduous and humanitarian labors of the Cuban doctors in the Haitian capital now amount to more than 13,418 consultancies, with 1,078 operations, more than 550 of them considered major surgery. The Cuban doctors have also assisted 38 births. At this point, Cuba has two field hospitals in that long-suffering country, one of which was set up last Tuesday 60 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, and where 17 patients have undergone surgery. Doctors from Cuba, Spain, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Canada, among other nations, are working shoulder to shoulder on the humanitarian task of saving lives in the face of this colossal natural disaster. For its part, DPA reported that a humanitarian brigade from Nicaragua in Haiti rescued two young students trapped in the rubble of a university in the capital. The UN has stated that, to date, 121 survivors have been found and that there are still hopes of finding more people. (Translated by Granma International ) 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] Fidel Castro: We send doctorsd
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Has anyone yet seen a story about the US personnel rescuing anybody, treating anyone's illness, setting up a field hospital, helping people find shelter, caring for children? I have seen such stories even about Israeli personnel in Haiti. US? So far, none. No doubt once things settle a bit, they will set up kiosks where Haitians can (indeed, had better) buy health insurance. The following is from CubaNews. Fred Feldman Fidel Castro brings readers up to date with this essay with the facts as they have evolved on the ground in Haiti, and then placing these Haitian events into their historical context. But first a five-minute long National Public Radio NPR report from Haiti on the Cuban medical aid team. (There's one sentence of stupid political carping, but the rest of the report is exceptionally good.) LISTEN TO NPR REPORT: http://tinyurl.com/ycnrnfs === Reflections by Comrade Fidel http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2010/ing/f230110i.html WE SEND DOCTORS, NOT SOLDIERS. In my Reflection of January 14, two days after the catastrophe in Haiti, which destroyed that neighboring sister nation, I wrote: In the area of healthcare and others the Haitian people has received the cooperation of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded country. Approximately 400 doctors and healthcare workers are helping the Haitian people free of charge. Our doctors are working every day at 227 of the 237 communes of that country. On the other hand, no less than 400 young Haitians have been graduated as medical doctors in our country. They will now work alongside the reinforcement that traveled there yesterday to save lives in that critical situation. Thus, up to one thousand doctors and healthcare personnel can be mobilized without any special effort; and most are already there willing to cooperate with any other State that wishes to save Haitian lives and rehabilitate the injured. The head of our medical brigade has informed that 'the situation is difficult but we are already saving lives.' Hour after hour, day and night, the Cuban health professionals have started to work nonstop in the few facilities that were able to stand, in tents, and out in the parks or open-air spaces, since the population feared new aftershocks. The situation was far more serious than was originally thought. Tens of thousands of injured were clamoring for help in the streets of Port-au-Prince; innumerable persons laid, dead or alive, under the rubbled clay or adobe used in the construction of the houses where the overwhelming majority of the population lived. Buildings, even the most solid, collapsed. Besides, it was necessary to look for the Haitian doctors who had graduated at the Latin American Medicine School throughout all the destroyed neighborhoods. Many of them were affected, either directly or indirectly, by the tragedy. Some UN officials were trapped in their dormitories and tens of lives were lost, including the lives of several chiefs of MINUSTAH, a UN contingent. The fate of hundreds of other members of its staff was unknown. Haiti's Presidential Palace crumbled. Many public facilities, including several hospitals, were left in ruins. The catastrophe shocked the whole world, which was able to see what was going on through the images aired by the main international TV networks. Governments from everywhere in the planet announced they would be sending rescue experts, food, medicines, equipment and other resources. In conformity with the position publicly announced by Cuba, medical staff from different countries -namely Spain, Mexico, and Colombia, among others- worked very hard alongside our doctors at the facilities they had improvised. Organizations such as PAHO and other friendly countries like Venezuela and other nations supplied medicines and other resources. The impeccable behavior of Cuban professionals and their leaders was absolutely void of chauvinism and remained out of the limelight. Cuba, just as it had done under similar circumstances, when Hurricane Katrina caused huge devastation in the city of New Orleans and the lives of thousands of American citizens were in danger, offered to send a full medical brigade to cooperate with the people of the United States, a country that, as is well known, has vast resources. But at that moment what was needed were trained and well- equipped doctors to save lives. Given New Orleans geographical location, more than one thousand doctors of the Henry Reeve contingent mobilized and readied to leave for that city at any time of the day or the night, carrying with them the necessary medicines and equipment. It never crossed our mind that the President of that nation would reject the offer and let a number
[Marxism] Report on China role in Africa on Foreign Affairs site-
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Published on Foreign Affairs (http://www.foreignaffairs.com) Africas Eastern Promise What the West Can Learn From Chinese Investment in Africa Deborah Brautigam DEBORAH BRAUTIGAM is Associate Professor of International Development at American University and the author of The Dragons Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa. Last November, in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced a series of new pledges for Chinese assistance to African countries -- and in the process, made many observers in the West very uneasy. Westerners think they know what Africa needs to do in order to develop: liberalize markets, get prices right, promote democracy. And they think they know what China is doing there: offering huge no-strings-attached aid packages to resource-rich countries that prop up pariah regimes. But a closer look reveals a somewhat different story. Over the past few decades, China has managed to move hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty by combining state intervention with economic incentives to attract private investment -- the kind of experimentation that the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once described as crossing the river by feeling the stones. Today, China is feeling the stones again but this time in its economic engagement across Africa. Its current experiment in Africa mixes a hard-nosed but clear-eyed self-interest with the lessons of China's own successful development and of decades of its failed aid projects in Africa. The first prong of Beijing's efforts is to offer African states resource-backed development loans, an initiative inspired by its experience at home. In the late 1970s, eager for modern technology and infrastructure but with almost no foreign exchange, China leveraged its natural resources -- ample supplies of oil, coal, and other minerals -- to attract a market-rate $10 billion loan from Japan. China was to get new infrastructure and technology from Japan and repay it with shipments of oil and coal. In 1980, Japan began to finance six major railway, port, and hydropower projects, the first of many projects that used Japanese firms to help build China's transport corridors, coal mines, and power grids. Since 2004, China has concluded similar deals in at least seven resource-rich countries in Africa, for a total of nearly $14 billion. Reconstruction in war-battered Angola, for example, has been helped by three oil-backed loans from Beijing, under which Chinese companies have built roads, railways, hospitals, schools, and water systems. Nigeria took out two similar loans to finance projects that use gas to generate electricity. Chinese teams are building one hydropower project in the Republic of the Congo (to be repaid in oil) and another in Ghana (to be repaid in cocoa beans). So far, most of these loans have been issued by China's export credit agency, the Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank). Offered at market rates, they do not qualify as official foreign aid but nonetheless can help development. In poor, resource-rich countries, which are often cursed rather than blessed by their mineral wealth, resource-backed infrastructure loans can act as an agency of restraint and ensure that at least some of these countries' natural-resource wealth is spent on development investments. Of course, China's loans pose some risks for the African recipients, particularly if Chinese firms are awarded infrastructure contracts without competitive bidding or if prices for the resources, the basis of the loan repayments, are fixed in advance. There is always a risk that African governments will not maintain infrastructure investments and that the Chinese projects' environmental and social safeguards will be too lax. Chinese construction companies often bring in Chinese manpower -- on average about 20 percent of the total labor their projects require -- reducing opportunities for Africans. When they do employ locals, Chinese firms often offer low wages and low labor standards. But there are ways to mitigate these dangers. Under most of the agreements, the earnings from exports of natural resources are deposited directly into escrow accounts and their value is assessed at that moment, not fixed in advanced. This removes the potential for unfair pricing. Moreover, African governments are already driving harder and better-informed bargains. Angola required Chinese companies to subcontract 30 percent of the work to local firms and insisted that the Chinese solicit at least three bids for every project they planned to undertake. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will receive a $3 billion copper-backed loan from the Chinese government, which will help finance railways, roads, hospitals, and universities. According to
[Marxism] Jean Simmons, co-star of Spartacus, dies at 80
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The Spartacus tie-in is a clumsy attempt to make the event list-relevant, but I know of no where else to express my emotion at her passing. She was as talented an actress as Audrey Hepburn, as many solid performances showed, but, partly due to a genuinely modest personality, she lacked Hepburn's touch of charisma, quite vital to the making of big stars on stage or screen.. But I always enjoyed seeing her at work, including in stuff like The Robe (although I admit that the fact that her character she played had not converted to Christianity was an honorable characteristic that I missed when I watched the first Cinemascope film). I mourn her inevitable passing as I hope someone mourns mine. (Actually I hope for a memorial meeting where I can cadge free drinks.) Fred Feldman Jean Simmons, Actress, Dies at 80 By ALJEAN HARMETZ Published: January 23, 2010 Jean Simmons, the English actress who made the covers of Time and Life magazines by the time she was 20 and became a major midcentury star alongside strong leading men like Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Marlon Brando, often playing their demure helpmates, died on Friday at her home in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 80. Jean Simmons held a trophy in London after she was voted Britain's No. 1 film actress in 1950. The cause was lung cancer, according to Judy Page, her agent. Simmons is one of the most quietly commanding actresses Hollywood has ever trashed, the critic Pauline Kael wrote when reviewing her performance as the half-genuine, half-fraudulent revivalist preacher who succumbs to Burt Lancaster's con man in Elmer Gantry (1960). Indeed, she rarely found roles to match the talent so many colleagues and critics recognized in her, despite a dazzling start to her career. Plucked out of a dancing-school class at 14, Ms. Simmons appeared in three classic movies before her 19th birthday, typically eliciting adjectives like lovely, radiant and luminous in the reviews. She was Estella, the mocking girl who was raised to break men's hearts, in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946). She was the sensual native girl whom five Anglican nuns sought to civilize in a convent high in the Himalayas in Black Narcissus (1947). And after seeing Great Expectations, Olivier chose Ms. Simmons to play Ophelia to his title character in Hamlet (1948). At the time, however, Ms. Simmons was under contract to the British producer J. Arthur Rank, so Olivier interviewed dozens of other actresses before he was able to pry Ms. Simmons loose for 30 days of shooting. Her performance brought her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. I didn't even know what an Oscar was at the time, Ms. Simmons once said of her nomination. She would get only one other Academy Award nomination, for best actress, as the middle-aged housewife who runs away from her marriage in The Happy Ending (1969). Ms. Simmons came to Hollywood in the early 1950s after her contract was sold to Howard Hughes, a practice not uncommon at the time. Hughes, whose affairs with young actresses were notorious, wanted more of Ms. Simmons, then 22, than a celluloid image. And as one of the richest and most powerful men in Hollywood, he was accustomed to getting what he wanted, no matter that Ms. Simmons was newly married to the swashbuckling British actor Stewart Granger. In his autobiography, Sparks Fly Upward, Mr. Granger described a telephone conversation in which Hughes propositioned Ms Simmons. After Mr. Granger heard Hughes say, When are you going to get away from that goddamned husband of yours? I want to talk to you alone, honey, he grabbed the phone and shouted, Mr. Howard Bloody Hughes, you'll be sorry if you don't leave my wife alone! Hughes took his revenge by refusing to lend Ms. Simmons to the director William Wyler, who wanted her to star in Roman Holiday, the film that would bring Audrey Hepburn an Oscar and make her a star. And, according to the Granger memoir, when Ms. Simmons refused to sign a seven-year contract with RKO, the studio Hughes had bought in 1948, he threatened to put her in three lousy productions that would ruin her career. One of those movies, Angel Face (1952), a film noir directed by Otto Preminger and co-starring Robert Mitchum, was actually well received, with Ms. Simmons playing one of the genre's most beautiful killers. I had to do four pictures for Hughes, and then I was free, Ms. Simmons told the English newspaper The Guardian. I never signed a contract with a studio after. In her first movie after her contract with Hughes ended - Young Bess (1953) at MGM - Ms. Simmons starred as the spirited and headstrong young woman who would become queen of England. Young Bess was the first of two American movies in which Ms. Simmons played opposite Mr
[Marxism] Securing disaster in Haiti: Peter Hallward (from Links)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://links.org.au/node/1476 Securing disaster in Haiti By Peter Hallward January 21, 2010 -- Haitianalysis.com -- Nine days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, it's now clear that the initial phase of the US-led relief operation has conformed to the three fundamental tendencies that have shaped the more general course of the island's recent history.[1] It has adopted military priorities and strategies. It has sidelined Haiti's own leaders and government, and ignored the needs of the majority of its people. And it has proceeded in ways that reinforce the already harrowing gap between rich and poor. All three tendencies aren't just connected, they are mutually reinforcing. These same tendencies will continue to govern the imminent reconstruction effort as well, unless determined political action is taken to counteract them. I Haiti is not only one of the poorest countries in the world, it is also one of the most polarised and unequal in its disparities in wealth and access to political power.[2] A small clique of rich and well-connected families continues to dominate the country and its economy while more than half the population, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), survive on a household income of around 44 US cents per day.[3] Mass destitution has grown far more severe in recent decades. Starting in the 1970s, internationally imposed neoliberal adjustments and austerity measures finally succeeded in doing what no Haitian government had managed to do since winning independence in 1804: in order to set the country on the road towards economic development, they have driven large numbers of small farmers off their land and into densely crowded urban slums. A small minority of these internal refugees may be lucky enough to find sweatshop jobs that pay the lowest wages in the region. These wages currently average US$2 or $3 a day; in real terms they are worth less than a quarter of their 1980 value. Haiti's tiny elite owes its privileges to exclusion, exploitation and violence, and it is only violence that allows it to retain them. For much of the last century, Haiti's military and paramilitary forces (with substantial amounts of US support) were able to preserve these privileges on their own. Over the course of the 1980s, however, it started to look as if local military repression might no longer be up to the job. A massive and courageous popular mobilisation (known as Lavalas) culminated in 1990 with the landslide election victory of the liberation theologian Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti. Large numbers of ordinary people began to participate in the political system for the first time, and as political scientist Robert Fatton remembers, panic seized the dominant class. It dreaded living in close proximity to la populace and barricaded itself against Lavalas.[4] Nine months later, the army dealt with this popular threat in the time-honoured way, with a coup d'état. Over the next three years, around 4000 Aristide supporters were killed. However, when the US eventually allowed Aristide to return in October 1994, he took a surprising and unprecedented step: he abolished the army that had deposed him. As human rights lawyer Brian Concannon (director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti) observed a few years later, it is impossible to overestimate the impact of this accomplishment. It has been called the greatest human rights development in Haiti since emancipation, and is wildly popular.[5] In 2000, the Haitian electorate gave Aristide a second overwhelming mandate when his party (Fanmi Lavalas) won more than 90% of the seats in parliament. II More than anything else, what has happened in Haiti since 1990 should be understood as the progressive clarification of this basic dichotomy – democracy or the army. Unadulterated democracy might one day allow the interests of the numerical majority to prevail, and thereby challenge the privileges of the elite. In 2000, such a challenge became a genuine possibility: the overwhelming victory of Fanmi Lavalas, at all levels of government, raised the prospect of genuine political change in a context in which there was no obvious extra-political mechanism ― no army ― to prevent it. In order to avoid this outcome, the main strategy of Haiti's little ruling class has been to redefine political questions in terms of stability and security, and in particular the security of property and investments. Mere numbers may well win an election or sustain a popular movement but as everyone knows, only an army is equipped to deal with insecurity. The well-armed friend of Haiti that is the United States knows this better than anyone
[Marxism] SLATE: Why focus on securing Haiti, not helping Haitians
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == An excellent thought piece from SLATE. The strategic goal is inherent from the beginning, but evolves pragmatically along with desires to appear and even to be humanitarian. There is no unanimity or a single plot guiding all actions. Refer to how US policy evolved on Honduras. That is the pattern to watch here. A chilling tale, made more so because those who are committing this crime against humanity have no doubt that they are the only real humanitarians on the scene. (The Haitians themselves are not only not humanitarian, but barely human. Note Gates' view that air-droppimg aid will only cause riots. This is clearly a takeover aimed at restructuring Hsiti to meet US meeds more adequately than the Bad, Bad Haiti of the past. But to say this was the plan is an overstatement. The response is organic, and not entirely conscious.`One foot follows the other on a course that seems self-evident. Aristide, the legal president of the country, has suggested that he be allowed to return to the country to participate in rescue and recovery, at a time when the client government has effectively collapsed. I am sure this will be regarded, perhaps not openly, as a very divisive proposal. After all, the good Haitians rose up against Aristide and the US troop forced him to leave the country. HOORAY for democracy! I am convinced that, barring the defeat of the new US occupation which is evolving in Haiti, Aristide's return will not be permitted unless the US occupation thinks there is no other choice. Fred Feldman Why Did We Focus on Securing Haiti Rather Than Helping Haitians? Here are two possibilities, neither of them flattering. By Ben Ehrenreich Posted Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010, at 1:39 PM ET By the weekend, it was clear that something perverse was going on in Haiti, something savage and bestial in its lack of concern for human life. I'm not talking about the earthquake, and certainly not about the so-called looting, which I prefer to think of as the autonomously organized distribution of unjustly hoarded goods. I'm talking about the U.S. relief effort. For two days after the quake, despite almost unimaginable destruction, there were reasons to be optimistic. With a few notable exceptions-Pat Robertson and David Brooks among them-Americans reacted with extraordinary and unhesitating generosity of spirit and of purse. Port-au-Prince is not much farther from Washington, D.C., than, say, New Orleans, and the current president of the United States, unlike his predecessor, was quick to react to catastrophe. Taking advantage of our unique capacity to project power around the world, President Barack Obama pledged abundant aid and 10,000 troops. Troops? Port-au-Prince had been leveled by an earthquake, not a barbarian invasion, but, OK, troops. Maybe they could put down their rifles and, you know, carry stuff, make themselves useful. At least they could get there soon: The naval base at Guantanamo was barely 200 miles away. The Cubans, at least, would show up quickly. It wasn't until Friday, three days after the quake, that the supercarrier USS Carl Vinson, arrived-and promptly ran out of supplies. We have communications, we have some command and control, but we don't have much relief supplies to offer, admitted Rear Adm. Ted Branch. So what were they doing there? Command and control turned out to be the key words. The U.S. military did what the U.S. military does. Like a slow-witted, fearful giant, it built a wall around itself, commandeering the Port-au-Prince airport and constructing a mini-Green Zone. As thousands of tons of desperately needed food, water, and medical supplies piled up behind the airport fences-and thousands of corpses piled up outside them-Defense Secretary Robert Gates ruled out the possibility of using American aircraft to airdrop supplies: An airdrop is simply going to lead to riots, he said. The military's first priority was to build a structure for distribution and to provide security. (Four days and many deaths later, the United States began airdropping aid.) The TV networks and major papers gamely played along. Forget hunger, dehydration, gangrene, septicemia-the real concern was the security situation, the possibility of chaos, violence, looting. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of on-the-ground accounts from people who did not have to answer to editors described Haitians taking care of one another, digging through rubble with their bare hands, caring for injured loved ones-and strangers-in the absence of outside help. Even the evidence of looting documented something that looked more like mutual aid: The photograph that accompanied a Sunday New York Times article reporting pockets of violence and anarchy showed men standing atop the ruins of a store, tossing
[Marxism] Controversy over Avatar continues
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Just one point. The Times reports: 'In movies like Avatar, Ms. Newitz wrote, humans are the cause of alien oppression and distress, until a white man switches sides at the last minute, assimilating into the alien culture and becoming its savior.' It is not one individual hero that switches sides at the last moment but five. The advantage they offer is their knowledge of the character, weaponry, and strategies of the enemy, thus closing somewhat the gap between the two. What takes place in the invasion force is not simply the emergence of an individual savior but a split, and frankly there is little chance that a non-class more-or-less communistic formation with no knowledge of class struggle or irreconcilable social conflict, with which knowledge the invaders are drenched. For instance, the splitters know how to bring down helicopters and bring one along, and what takes place is a reminder of what a death trap helicopters are for soldiers, and what an appealing target they have been for resistance movements. It is as though a split could have taken place among Cortes' or Pizarro's forces, with the dissidents going over to the side of the indigenous. History might have gone somewhat differently. And without that the people, unprepared for the greed-driven savagery they were up against -- did not have a chance until they had the opportunity to learn -- the very very hard way -- the nature, character, and tools of the enemy. I thought it was a very fun movie, a very widely appealing anti-imperialist fantasy. Fred Feldman http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/movies/20avatar.html?hp January 20, 2010 You Saw What in 'Avatar'? Pass Those Glasses! By DAVE ITZKOFF If you thought that Avatar was just a high-tech movie about a big-hearted tough guy saving the beguiling natives of a distant moon, you might want to check the prescription on your 3-D glasses. Since its release in December, James Cameron's science-fiction epic has broken box office records and grabbed two Golden Globe awards for best director and best dramatic motion picture. But it has also found itself under fire from a growing list of interest groups, schools of thought and entire nations that have protested its message (as they see it), its morals (as they interpret them) and its philosophy (assuming it has one). Over the last month, it has been criticized by social and political conservatives who bristle at its depictions of religion and the use of military force; feminists who feel that the male avatar bodies are stronger and more muscular than their female counterparts; antismoking advocates who object to a character who lights up cigarettes; not to mention fans of Soviet-era Russian science fiction; the Chinese; and the Vatican. This week the authorities in China announced that the 2-D version of the film would be pulled from most theaters there to make way for a biography of Confucius. That so many groups have projected their issues onto Avatar suggests that it has burrowed into the cultural consciousness in a way that even its immodest director could not have anticipated. Its detractors agree that it is more than a humans-in-space odyssey - even if they do not agree on why that is so. Some of the ways people are reading it are significant of Cameron's intent, and some are just by-products of what people are thinking about, said Rebecca Keegan, the author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron. It's really become this Rorschach test for your personal interests and anxieties. The Avatar camp isn't endorsing any particular interpretation, but is happy to let others read the ink blots. Movies that work are movies that have themes that are bigger than their genre, Jon Landau, a producer of the film, said in a telephone interview. The theme is what you leave with and you leave the plot at the theater. Mr. Cameron might have opened the door to multiple readings with his declaration that Avatar was an environmental parable. In a news conference in London in December, he said he saw the movie as a broader metaphor, not so intensely politicized as some would make it, but rather that's how we treat the natural world as well. In a column for the Christian entertainment Web site movieguide.com, David Outten wrote that Avatar maligned capitalism, promoted animism over monotheism and overdramatized the possibility of environmental catastrophe on earth. At another site that offers a conservative critique of the entertainment industry, bighollywood.breitbart.com, John Nolte wrote that the film was a thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War. Not surprisingly, the religious overtones of Avatar were of interest in Vatican City
[Marxism] Facts contradict Pat Robertson's reactionary racist smear of Haiti
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Pat Robertson's smear of Haiti and the Haitian people reflects the burning hatred that the rulers of this country -- and that includes Robertson, though he is not in the top tiers -- have for the Haitian revolution against slavery and French rule. Which was inspired by the North American revolution against British rule, but even more by the French revolution I'm sure that despite his advanced years, he is working hard to reach billionaire status. Views like his are organic to the ruling class in this society. They are not at all by nature attached to the pseudo-rationalism servants of their interests like Barack Obama or Zbigniew Brzezinski. They think all kinds of crazy stuff. It is important to have the facts on claims like Robertson's, absurd as they might seem to those of us who have a certain distance from the world that many others inhabit. Voodoo, still the dominant version of Christianity among the Black masses of Haiti, is not a form of devil worship, and devil worship is simply the Christian term for identification with pre-Christian gods. (It is useful to get a grip on this to read Gore Vidal's Julian and Creation -- the first a full-scale literary classic, the latter quite good but more politically flawed -- a defense in part of the Aryans as the source of world civilization.) If we were working among workers (regardless of race), we would find a core who entertain or consider views like this although I am certain they are a minority (even among white workers, to whom this appeal is PRIMARILY directed.) I am submitting this with a second item, a letter to the major Minneapolis newspaper from a reader with sound solidarity instincts and a sense of humor. Fred Feldman '` It strikes me http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2010/01/13/haiti_satan_pact/print.html Haiti's pact with the devil myth 1. How Pat Robertson turned a country's origin myth into a cheap invocation of Satanism By Thomas Rogers Jan. 14, 2010 | One of the most callous reactions to the Haiti disaster thus far has come from televangelist Pat Robertson, who told viewers of his Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday morning that he knew the real reason for the quake: The country's long-standing pact with Satan. Something happened a long time ago in Haiti ... they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever ... and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince. True story. But is it a true story? We spoke with Andrew Apter, professor of history and anthopology at UCLA, about Haiti's voodoo traditions, the ignorance behind the evangelical community's distortions and the real cause of suffering in the third-world country. Is there any truth to what Pat Robertson is saying? Of course not! Haitians are Christians. Pat Robertson's language is the reductio ad absurdum of the Christian right. It's so absurd it's almost funny. This notion of a pact with the devil is basically an echo of an old colonial response to the successes of the 1790s Haitian revolution. What is this pact he's talking about? Part of the revolution mythology is that one of the revolution leaders sacrificed a pig in Bois Caïmin in a voodoo ceremony and made a contract with Petwo [Haitian voodoo spirits]. It may or may not be true, but to call that a pact with the devil is a gross misrepresentation of what voodoo is. It's about anything but the devil. He's imposing an evangelical religious order on a much more sophisticated practice, and he's turning it into a cheap invocation of Satanism. This is hate speech. It's saying these people are damned. It's a frequent theme among some Christians that Haiti is being punished for this supposed pact with the devil with extreme poverty and humanitarian crises. Tragically, many evangelical Christians in Haiti may actually, in their own extreme confusion and suffering and desperation, believe that God is punishing them. The reason Haiti is poor is because Europe imposed a blockade on trade after the slave revolt in 1804, and you have an extremely polarized class structure in which a few families stepped into the positions of the former colonial plantation owners. There has been a horrible cycle of plundering and autocracy within Haitian leadership. Why do you think this kind of obsession with Haitian voodoo persists? There's a fascination with all things voodoo, not only in New Orleans but also on TV, on shows like Bones, and it stems from the occupation of Haiti by the U.S. Marines in the first part of the 20th century. There were campaigns under certain Haitian governments in conjunction with the church to rout voodoo, but it didn't come close to working, because voodoo is part
[Marxism] Haiti's Cuban doctors mentioned by US media
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This came to Cuba News from Walter Teague whom many of us may remember for his Support-the-National Liberation Front efforts during the Vietnam War. Fred Feldman Friends, Just now, I saw the first real reporting on the presence and commendable work of the Cuban doctors in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on CNN TV. At 1:45 am, EST, Sunday, 1/17/10 CNN allowed a reporter to praise at length the Cuban doctors who were providing orderly, efficient, and quality medical treatment at the La Paz hospital. He contrasted it with the chaos and woefully inadequate circumstances elsewhere. Also, some reports are showing up on the web. For example: newstratitstimes Sunday, January 17, 2010, 03.41 PM http://tinyurl.com/yfh9ovd Cuban aid workers have taken charge of the De la Paz Hospital, since its doctors have not appeared after the quake. They complained of a lack of anaesthetica, serum, plaster, and orthopedic materials to conduct amputations or fix the broken bones. The injured were dying at the hospitals, they said. Meanwhile, many Haitians waited in a line to be treated by the Chinese doctors on the plaza in front of the building used to be the prime minister's office. 'Doctors and medicine are of great need here (..) I hope more rescue teams join us, said Hou Shike, a doctor with the Chinese rescue team.' Meanwhile, De la Paz Hospital is in operation thanks to the work of a Cuban brigade, while the Haitian directives and workers of that center are absent. Al Jazeera Port-Au-Prince, Jan. 15, 2010 (Xinhua) http://tinyurl.com/yjrbsl3 Sara Salas, a Cuban doctor now working in that hospital said that they need anesthesia, serum, plaster, and orthopedic materials to cut or stabilize the fractures of the patients. Walter Teague 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] FW: Edmond Kovacs is dead at 85
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == _ From: Leslie Evans [mailto:lbev...@earthlink.net] Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 2:21 AM To: Leslie Evans Subject: Edmond Kovacs is dead at 85 Edmond Kovacs, a lifelong socialist, died in Los Angeles today at the age of 85. He was born in Austria in April 1924. His father was a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Workers Party and took part in the Schutzbund uprising against the protofascist Dolfuss regime in 1934, during which Edmond at the age of ten carried messages to the front lines. At sixteen his family emigrated to the United States. After high school he joined the army, where he enrolled in the famed 10th Mountain Division, ski troops that underwent lengthy training in the Rocky Mountains before being dispatched to Italy in the last days of the war, in early 1945. Edmond took part in the assault on Riva Ridge, a 1500 foot vertical assault on a heavily fortified German position in which the ski troops rapelled up ropes with pitons, an approach the Germans had considered to be impossible. His unit took 50 percent casualties. Back in the United States he became a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party. Trained as a chemist, he worked in aircraft in Southern California until he was blacklisted during the McCarthy witchhunt. At that point his father taught him watch-making and thereafter he made his living operating a small jewelry store. Under the party name Theodore Edwards for many years he hosted a weekly radio broadcast on KPFK radio and was a frequent speaker at party forums. A crack shot and an athlete, on several occasions over the years he defended himself from armed gunmen who tried to rob his store, once defending his mother who was in the store at the time. The last of these episodes took place in 1983 when three anti-Castro Cubans entered his store in Glendale. Two of them drew pistols while a third began to pull a shotgun from under his coat. Already facing two drawn guns Edmond grabbed his own gun and shot it out with the robbers, killing one, wounding another, and holding the man with the shotgun until police arrived. The SWP, then in the early stages of its planned break from the Fourth International, was looking for grounds to expel older members who were unlikely to agree to its still unstated new policy. Edmond was the first victim, being put on trial in Los Angeles and expelled from the party over a sudden sympathy for the robbers. Afterward he was a founding member of Socialist Action, and later of Solidarity, in which he was still active at the time of his death. Until his late sixties he was a fine bicyclist, often going on hundred mile rides with other cyclists. His wife of some fifty years, Shirley Kovacs, died in late October, preceding Edmond by less than three months. Over the fall his breathing became extremely labored, which he attributed to asthma, from which he has suffered for many years. Finally, on January 12 he drove to his HMO, where he was hospitalized. An MRI revealed that he had a very large growth in his throat that was pressing on his airway. This proved to be a fast-growing cancer, which had also spread to his lungs. That night he lapsed into a coma from which he did not awaken. A small number of his friends gathered at his bedside this morning, and when his doctors confirmed that his situation was hopeless his breathing tube was withdrawn and he died. A fighter to the end, we saw that his heart continued to beat for ten minutes after he had stopped breathing. I first met Edmond in the fall of 1961 and was one of the few people who remained close to him in his last years. I will miss him greatly. Leslie Evans Los Angeles Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] In NYT, columnist Herbert blows a hole in insurance-care
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == The article referred to here can be found in today's nyt at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29herbert.html?_r=1hpw. One lesson from this is the reminder that whenever the rulers denounce people who supposedly have Cadillacs, their target is always the poor, officially defined today as the middle class. Just in case you are not up to date, the middle class is everybody who is not homeless or in maximum security prisons. Medium and minimum security, which may soon be redefined to include every jail program that doesn't include daily water-boarding, are middle class. So goes reform. Fred Feldman http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/12/29/health_care/print.html Distortions in the health care debate Bob Herbert explains the substantive progressive case against the Democrats' plan. Glenn Greenwald Dec. 29, 2009 | As I've documented before, the debate over the President's health care reform bill has come to resemble most political debates in the U.S.: dominated by ludicrous, obvious strawmen and bullying, manipulative tactics in lieu of substantive debate. Proponents of the bill have continuously claimed -- falsely -- that progressive opponents object to the bill because they're petulant purists who didn't get everything they want and are therefore willing to sacrifice expanded access to health care in pursuit of ideological dogma. We like to think we've come a long way since 2003, yet the health care debate is being shaped by the likes of The New Republic's Jonathan Chait and his fellow Beltway Democratic comrades reprising their standard, typical role of deriding anyone to their Left who opposes their President's plan as unSerious, unhinged losers who don't care about serious policy matters or progressive goals. When it's The New Republic -- whose self-proclaimed editorial mission is to re-make the Democratic Party in Joe Lieberman's image -- taking the lead in dictating what every Good, Serious Progressive must affirm (this bill is the greatest social achievement of our time), you know the debate has gone seriously awry. Today, The New York Times' Bob Herbert has an excellent column giving the lie to those tactics from the President's most loyal supporters. Herbert explains why the health care bill -- with its reliance on taxes on so-called Cadillac plans -- is far more likely to end up burdening the middle class and reducing health insurance coverage for tens of millions of people: In fact, it's a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care. Which is exactly what the tax is designed to do. . . . Within three years of its implementation, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax would apply to nearly 20 percent of all workers with employer-provided health coverage in the country, affecting some 31 million people. Within six years, according to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax would reach a fifth of all households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually. Those families can hardly be considered very wealthy. . . . The idea is that rather than fork over 40 percent in taxes on the amount by which policies exceed the threshold, employers (and individuals who purchase health insurance on their own) will have little choice but to ratchet down the quality of their health plans. . . . These lower-value plans would have higher out-of-pocket costs, thus increasing the very things that are so maddening to so many policyholders right now: higher and higher co-payments, soaring deductibles and so forth. . . . Proponents say this is a terrific way to hold down health care costs. If policyholders have to pay more out of their own pockets, they will be more careful -- that is to say, more reluctant -- to access health services. On the other hand, people with very serious illnesses will be saddled with much higher out-of-pocket costs. And a reluctance to seek treatment for something that might seem relatively minor at first could well have terrible (and terribly expensive) consequences in the long run. Herbert also explains why the central assumptions of the plan are patently unrealistic. There are substantive replies one can make to these claims, but Herbert's column demonstrates a truth that has been deliberately distorted by the President's defenders: the progressive case against the health care bill is not grounded in ideological purity or childish anger or any of the other deceitful strawmen that have been created. It is based on these substantive policy objections. Along with the extreme burden that will be imposed on those forced by penalty of law to purchase private insurance policies they cannot afford and do not want, the argument
[Marxism] 1, 300 activists converge on Cairo for Gaza freedom march
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/gazadelegation/2009/12/1300-activists-co nverge-cairo-we-are-blocked-we-will-not-be-st Code Pink Canadian Delegations to Gaza Coming up on December 31, 2009 is the Gaza Freedom March. Follow Canadian delegates David Heap and Wendy Goldsmith as they prepare and travel for the march, and join more than a thousand activists from around the word in an international action to open the borders to Gaza. For details of this initiative see: www.gazafreedommarch.org Following on the successful delegation of March 09 (which included rabble publisher, Kim Elliott), more than six further Code Pink delegations, including a delegation of Canadian Members of Parliament, traveled from Cairo to Gaza this summer to pressure the opening of Rafah border, and an end to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The border has effectively been closed since July 2007, when Israel imposed a blockade. Delegation members Kim Elliott, Sandra Ruch, Ehab Lotayef, Medea Benjamin, and Libby Davies have shared posts in this blog. For more on Code Pink's initiatives on Gaza, see: http://www.womensaynotowar.org/ 1300 Activists converge on Cairo: We are blocked but we will not be stopped By Wendy Goldsmith | December 27, 2009 Crowd of Gaza Freedom Marchers in Tahrir Square, Cairo (photo by Brandon Delyzer) 1300 Activists Converge on Cairo: We're Blocked But We Won't Be Stopped After two Gaza Freedom March actions and meetings today were shut down by Egyptian Police, over 1000 activists met outdoors tonight at Tahrir Square (our indoor meeting permit had been cancelled earlier). We are told that no buses will be allowed to leave Cairo with GFM participants headed for Gaza. However, at 7am tomorrow morning we will be at the garage where we were originally to depart from, ready to board buses to El Arish. Despite the setbacks, spirits are high and activists are willing to do what it takes to press for an end to the siege. Vive la France! The French Government has reportedly negotiated an agreement which will allow some 250 French marchers to travel to the border and cross into Gaza. Canadian participants are asking, What about our government? Where is the official support for our humanitarian mission? As different groups try diverse ways to get to Gaza and put pressure on authorities to ease restrictions, one thing is certain- things will continue to evolve quickly in the crowded, polluted chaos that is Cairo. 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 fight for Gaza in Cairo -- urgent message3
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Subject: latest report from Cairo distribute widely* urgent* by Wendy Goldsmith As Gaza Freedom Marchers continue to push the Egyptian Government to allow us to leave Cairo for El Arish, they are beginning to push back. This morning at 7am Freedom Marchers met at the garage where we were expecting to board buses headed to El Arish. Instead we were met by a large group of soldiers who turned every bus and taxi away. Until we reached a large crowd, the authorities were forceful, pushing peaceful demonstrators and trying to prevent the filming of the situation. Some of the Freedom Marchers then went to the French Embassy to offer to support to the 300 French delegates who had camped out at the embassy overnight following a dramatic die-in on the road that stopped traffic and lasted several hours. Ten Canadians entered the barricaded area where spirits were high but were told that if we entered we would not be permitted to leave. However, after approximately one hour the Canadian delegates were allowed out. The French delegates were awaiting an announcement from the Embassy which was to be delivered sometime this morning. Next, the decision was made to march to the UN World Trade Center Cairo to request assistance from the UN to plead our case to Egyptian Authorities. At noon, approximately 900 delegates gathered in song, dance and silent vigil. Holocaust survivor, 85 year old Hettie Epstein announced that she would begin a hunger strike as she sat among school supplies designated for children in Gaza. Five Canadians have agreed to join her and other internationals will undoubtedly come forward. The UN Square was quickly surrounded by police, and later by physical barricades as we continued to sing and dance to songs of peace. As security around us tightened, an American woman at the front of the barricade was assaulted by a police officer. She was punched in the face. This young woman was able to leave the barricaded area and indicated that she will go to the US embassy to ask for assistance. In addition, we received news that at the French Embassy a Canadian Citizen with dual UK citizenship had been detained by riot police and was being threatened with either detention for a minimum of five days or deportation immediately to the airport. Naomi Katharine Riches is trying to organize support in order to reduce the risk of the use of excessive force. The Canadian Embassy is now closed in Cairo. Local and international press are being turned away and refused entry into the barricaded area. Several Delegates have entered into discussions with representatives and will ask for UN assistance in negotiating with the Egyptian Government to allow us to proceed to the Rafah Border. Failing that, we will request that a smaller delegation of representatives from each country be allowed to pass to deliver the humanitarian items that have arrived from around the world. Finally, if the Egyptian Authorities will not agree to this we are asking that the UN assist in facilitating the transportation of the humanitarian aid without any delegates. Delegates have determined that they will hold the space at the UN World Trade Center for as long as possible, continuing to engage in non-violent acts of peace. To reply to this message, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox%2Freadmessage.phpt=1254865368153mid=1a2c8 bcG53b91c1dG13aeb09G0bcode=FA02S 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] Holocaust survivor, 85, begins hunger strike to open Gaza borders
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 28, 2009 Contact: Hedy Epstein h...@hedyepstein.com 85 year old Holocaust Survivor Hedy Epstein Begins Hunger Strike to Open Gaza Borders Hedy Epstein, the 85 year old Holocaust survivor and peace activist, announced that she will begin a hunger strike today as a response to the Egyptian government's refusal to allow the Gaza Freedom March participants into Gaza. Ms. Epstein was part of a delegation with participants from 43 countries that were to join Palestinians in a non-violent march from Northern Gaza towards the Erez border with Israel calling for the end of the illegal siege. Egypt is preventing the marchers from leaving Cairo, forcing them to search for alternative ways to make their voices heard. Ms. Epstein will remain outside the UN building at the World Trade Center (Cairo) - 1191 Cornish al-Nil, throughout today, accompanied by other hunger strikers. It is important to let the besieged Gazan people know they are not alone. I want to tell the people I meet in Gaza that I am a representative of many people in my city and in other places in the US who are outraged at what the US, Israeli and European governments are doing to the Palestinians and that our numbers are growing, Epstein said. In 1939, when Epstein was just 14, her parents found a way for her to escape the persecution, sending her on the Kindertransport to England. Epstein never saw her parents again; they perished in Auschwitz in 1942. After World War II, Epstein worked as a research analyst at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi doctors who performed medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. After moving to the US, Epstein became an activist for peace and social justice causes. Unlike most Holocaust survivors, one of the causes she has taken up is that of the Palestinian people. She has traveled to the West Bank, collected material aid and now she hopes to enter Gaza. For more information contact: Ann Wright, Egypt (19) 508-1493 Ziyaad Lunat, Egypt +20 191181340 Medea Benjamin, Egypt +20 18 956 1919 Ehab Lotayef, Egypt +20 17 638 To reply to this message, follow the link below: http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox%2Freadmessage.phpt=249108702068mid=1a2a49 aG53b91c1dG13ac92eG0bcode=FA02S 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] Will Obama press Dems to include abortion ban in insurance-bubble (health-care) billl?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What is being taught here once again is the impossibility of getting freebies without a genuine class movement challenging the rulers (not necessarily around the same issue -- while there was modest and significantg mobilization for Medicare, it was the combination of the civil rights and antiwar movements that put it and much else over the top. Looking back -- and I noted this a couple times earlier though it has certainly been driven home again -- there was never a significant chance of progressive medical-care legislation. It was almost certain that it would become a playground for reactionary operations of various kinds. This one -- the most actively opposed provision of the anti-health care, pro-insurance giants bill -- may not make it. More likely, Nelson and his centrist (and ALSO liberal) ally Obama will reach some kind of compromise that the liberals will allow to be forced down their throats for the cause of health care paid for by the recipients to the insurance companies. The sweeping abortion restriction instituted here should not be viewed as just another chipping away. I suspect this would become strong grounds for a Supreme Court majority to argue that Roe v. Wade was not a true precedent, since clearly it has never become the subject of a consensus (like the 1954 Supreme Court decision on formal racial segregation in schools -- which even Justices Scalia says was rightly decided) and the authorities feel empowered to attack it by all means at their disposal.+ You don't get something for nothing -- and from the standpoint of power, the labor movement (even broadly defined, as I favor because I believe the working class is the driving, sustaining force in all, to include the Black movement, the immigrant rights movement, the women's movement, and the antiwar efforts) has little or no mobilized, acting POWER in the situation today. When that changes, the debate on this issue will change very radically. Until then, it will not. And no one should imagine that the bill that is being prepared for passage -- and even less its defeat, which would definitely be positive on the whole in anything like its present form -- will settle the question for decades, because of the demoralizing effect of the victory for our enemies that is being registered thus far. A massive struggle of the oppressed and exploited -- of the whole proletariat, in all its varied forms and conditions -- will cut through the bureaucratic red tape being piled up to obstruct progress like a burning knife through butter. This does not mean of course that single-payer activists should not continue their day to day propaganda and activism. This is a necessary aspect of the development of the social conditions for advance. But the vanguard of the activists in this field are going to have to come to terms with the fact that, like it or not, whether the term offends or not, they are a vanguard, and, in the conditions that exist today, so are all the other people who join them in activities. Fred Feldman http://slatest.slate.com/Apps/SlatestApps/toolbar/print.aspx?id=2238985d Slate March 17 Abortion Key Issue for Democrats' Last Health Care Holdout Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson appears to be the sole Democratic holdout on health care reform, keeping Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid one senator shy of a filibuster-proof 60 votes. [W]ith the Great Health Care Debate of 2009 late in the fourth quarter, the whole game seems to be riding on Nelson, says the New York Times. Like Joe Lieberman before him, Nelson appears prepared to leverage his status to win concessions, particularly on abortion funding. He told a Nebraska radio station on Thursday that he can't support the bill as it stands because of its language on the thorny issue. As it is right now, without further modifications, it isn't sufficient, Nelson told the station, though he shied from specifics. Nelson's hesitations may ruin Reid's goal of passing health care reform by Christmas Eve. Read original story in The New York Times | Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/the-senates-game-changer/? hp 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] NYPD attack Times Square protest
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Video article http://is.gd/5bzTQ-/ NYPD officers are caught on tape attacking a protest for no reason other than face kerchiefs. If NYC Progressives had any sense of history, we'd be assembling hundreds of New Yorkers of all ages and castes at the Times Square precinct, wearing respectable clothing and face bandanas. 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] Salvadoran VP to visit Cuba -- first such contact in 48 years
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I see this as a sign that the new Salvadoran reformist regime, which (for reasons I can understand) has proceeded very cautiously, feels a bit emboldened. Of course, this is a regime that has a particularly steep stake in the fate of Zelaya and the popular mass-based movement inspired by the coup against this reformist leader. The fact that the new Salvadoran leadership judgesd that the period immediately after the Honduran election is a good time to affirm a certain level of solidarity with Cuba is significant about their read of the situation in Honduras. Should, I hope, make the US left take the New York Times/Washington Post coverage of the election success, which goes so far as to present his attempt to get whatever could be gotten from the imperialist-backed agreement as a decisive error, with the required grain of salt. I have always been fond of the Times' efforts to provide grist for division on the left -- they obviously have a somewhat higher opinion of our importance, right or wrong, than the media generally openly suggests. Fred Feldman MIAMI HERALD Salvadoran vice president flies to Havana; first top official to visit Cuba in 48 years Vice President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador flew to Cuba on Thursday at the invitation of the Cuban government, the Spanish news agency EFE reported. It is the first visit to Cuba made by a Salvadoran official after diplomatic relations between the two countries broken in 1961 were restored in June of this year. Sánchez, 65, is a historic leader of the Farabundo Martí Front of National Liberation (FMLN) and holds the title of Minister of Education. Neither his agenda nor the duration of his visit to Cuba were disclosed by the vice presidential office in San Salvador. However, the Cuban agency Prensa Latina reported he will meet with First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura and tour areas of economic and social interest. December 03, 2009 in The Americas | Permalink 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] Protest latest Afghan war step-up Wed 12/2 6pm Times Square
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == ISO, ANSWER and Workers World Party are among the groups backing this action. This action is now SET for tomorrow at 6pm since the new escalation is already underway. Fred Feldman The NYC War Resisters League joins with other anti-war groups in calling for a vigil in Times Square at 6 pm the day after President Obama makes his announcement about deployment of more troops into Afghanistan. The participating groups include Code Pink, Peace Action/NYS, IVAW, United for Peace Justice/NYC, Brooklyn For Peace. DATE: The day after Obamas announcement TIME: 6 pm PLACE: Times Square Military Recruiting Station LOCATION: between 43 44 Streets at Seventh Ave./Broadway A smaller group will also congregate at 6 pm at the downtown end of Union Square, on the steps at 14th Street near Broadway, for a vigil and leafleting. The latest weve heard is that Obama will make the announcement on Dec. 1. If so, the demonstration[s] would be on Dec. 2. For more information, please email us or call 718-768-7306. __._,_.___ Reply mailto:toddea...@optonline.net?subject=12/2%20WED:%20WRL%20in%20two%20day-a fter%20actions to sender | Reply mailto:620pe...@yahoogroups.com?subject=12/2%20WED:%20WRL%20in%20two%20day- after%20actions to group Messages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/620peace/message/6301;_ylc=X3oDMTM0cjc1bjNjBF 9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzcyMzQ2MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzU5MzM1BG1zZ0lkAzYzMDEEc2 VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDdnRwYwRzdGltZQMxMjU5NDI0ODcxBHRwY0lkAzYzMDE- in this topic (1) Recent Activity: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/620peace;_ylc=X3oDMTJlc3UwYWFrBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE 0BGdycElkAzcyMzQ2MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzU5MzM1BHNlYwN2dGwEc2xrA3ZnaHAEc3RpbWU DMTI1OTQyNDg3MA-- Visit Your Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/620peace/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJlbTdhN2YxBF9TAzk3Mz U5NzE0BGdycElkAzcyMzQ2MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzU5MzM1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA250cGMEc3 RpbWUDMTI1OTQyNDg3MQ-- Start a New Topic MARKETPLACE Going http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=14kcq8oj6/M=493064.13814333.13821539.13298430/D =groups/S=1705759335:MKP1/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1259432071/L=/B=2CIwFUSO5.w-/J=1259424 871544285/K=rhkvU2AfoYj11apn5qBjXA/A=5922843/R=0/SIG=11ckn2mo6/*http:/advisi on.webevents.yahoo.com/green/ Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living _ Going http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=14kvu827a/M=493064.13814537.13821737.10835568/D =groups/S=1705759335:MKP1/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1259432071/L=/B=2SIwFUSO5.w-/J=1259424 871544285/K=rhkvU2AfoYj11apn5qBjXA/A=5922843/R=0/SIG=11ckn2mo6/*http:/advisi on.webevents.yahoo.com/green/ Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJkNnZocGNlBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzcyM zQ2MTYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1NzU5MzM1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2dmcARzdGltZQMxMjU5NDI0ODcx Yahoo! Groups Switch to: mailto:620peace-traditio...@yahoogroups.com?subject=change%20delivery%20for mat:%20Traditional Text-Only, mailto:620peace-dig...@yahoogroups.com?subject=email%20delivery:%20Digest Daily Digest . mailto:620peace-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com?subject=unsubscribe Unsubscribe . http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Terms of Use . http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=7234616/grpspId=1705759335/msgId =6301/stime=1259424871/nc1=3848627/nc2=5689698/nc3=5922730 __,_._,___ 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] Honduras: Unequivocal signs of coming repression,
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Artesian writes: So is it official now? Can we all agree that the agreement negotiated by Shannon wasn't a victory? That it was a fraud? That Zelaya should have never signed it, and the fact that he did says a lot about his class allegiance? Maybe we can take another look and understand that the forces driving this conflict have far outstripped the issue of his presidency, and what the next steps must be? Maybe? Fred comments: What is Artesian arguing for? Allowing for traditional transitional doo-dads like Soviets that he may tack on, it is basically just another variant of Socialism Right This Minute -- or Bust! And since virtually no one in Honduras or, indeed, the world is fighting on this basis right now (partly because Socialism Right This Minute is not possible anywhere at this moment), he feels secure in his stance as The One Who Knows that the outcome will always be bust. Artesian suggests that those who support the approach taken by the Honduran popular movement on the restoration of Zelaya argued that the issue of his presidency was the driving force of the conflict. On the contrary, we have argued from the beginning that the issues far outstripped the issue of his presidency, being rooted in a developing popular revolt against the old Honduran order, and that they were international as well extending across Latin America and the Caribbean and beyond. What we did not and do not do was reject the call for the restoration of Zelaya, an elementary democratic demand that anyone who credibly claims roots in the Marxist tradition, should support as a reflex of a class position. Frankly, most of the left has actually done creditably on this one. Only the US Militant newspaper has abstained from the fight, arguing that the removal of Zelaya was not a military coup (like the State Department, although for their own vewy wevolutionary weasons) was simply a fight among the bourgeoisie. Washington's aim in the conflict was not to help install reaction but simply to establish a stable government. Thus the masses should stay out of this conflict and take no side. Artesian's position that the forces driving the conflict have far outstripped the issue of Zelaya's presidency, which was recognized from the beginning by almost all concerned, may represent a shamefaced version of the argument that the masses have no stake in the issue of Zelaya's presidency and should withdraw from the conflict over this. Unlike the Militant, which favors mere abstention, Artesian seems to suggest the current popular democratic national fight (which inevitably poses issues that go beyond this) should replaced by one, in Honduras and everywhere, now and always for socialism now. I also disagree with Artesian's denunciation for Zelaya for signing the most recent accords. I think he had no viable choice. A show of intransigeance on this would have accomplished nothing for the struggle, making Washington's shift to the side of the regime more smooth and reasonable-sounding here and abroad. 'It would have given some of his erstwhile allies in Europe and Latin America a chance to step away from him. The end effect of the agreement was to make it clear that the regime and the US government were blocking the restoration of elementary democratic norms. My default position on Zelaya is that he remains a bourgeois-nationalist, reform-oriented politician -- currently quite isolated on the currently visible bourgeois spectrum of his own country. He has said or done nothing since his overturn that requires me to change that, and nothing that justifies withdrawing support for his restoration. He has fought hard on the side of justice and democracy on this matter, thus doing the best -- somewhat surpassing the best actually -- that could have been expected of him. The agreement was not a victory, but also not a defeat. It registered diplomatic and political realities that had already taken shape in the previous battles. That a popular democratic national movement has taken shape that is still not strong enough to defeat the oligarchy and its gunmen. I would have preferred winning sooner, naturally, but I always had a sense that this struggle would go on beyond the date scheduled for the elections. I think this struggle -- not a nonexistent more advanced one that proclaimed Marxists suck out of their thumbs -- is the road forward for the people of Honduras today. 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] Fidel critiques Obama, sees more rightist govts. in LatAm
An exceptionally-timely discussion of the first Black president of the United States, the threats and challenges which Obama faces domestically, and his prospects internationally on the eve of his Asian tour. Notice the TONE which Fidel Castro is using to address the president of the United States in this. President Barack Hussein Obama has nothing to propose to the world today as the capitalist system he defends is itself in a profound crisis, one which can't be resolved on the basis of keeping the world safe for the private property system. Particularly important comments toward the end about the political situation in Latin America today, above all given the situation in Honduras. Fidel is clearly not optimistic about Latin America's short-term future, but he projects an intransigent response in self-defense by the peoples of Latin America. Walter Lippma Los Angeles, California == http://www.walterlippmann.com/fidel-castro-on-obama-a-science-fiction-story- 11-11-2009.doc == Reflections by comrade Fidel A SCIENCE FICTION STORY I very much regret to have to criticize Obama knowing that there are in that country other could-be presidents worse than him. I am aware that that position in the United States is today a major headache. The best example of this is the report in yesterday's edition of Granma that 237 US members of Congress, or 44%, are millionaires. This does not mean that every one of them is an incorrigible reactionary but it is extremely difficult that they feel like the many million Americans who do not have access to medical care, who are unemployed or who need to work very hard to earn their living. Of course, Obama himself is no beggar; he owns millions of dollars. He excelled as a professional and his command of language, his eloquence and intellect are unquestionable. Also, he was elected president despite his being an African American, a first time occurrence in the history of his country's racist society, which is enduring a profound international economic crisis of its own making. This is not about being an anti-American as the system and its huge media intend to label its adversaries. The American people are not the culprits but rather the victims of a system that is not only unsustainable but worse still: it is incompatible with the life of humanity. The smart and rebellious Obama who suffered humiliation and racism in his childhood and youth understands this, but the Obama educated by the system and committed to it and to the methods that took him to the US presidency cannot resist the temptation to pressure, to threaten and even to deceive others. He is a workaholic. Perhaps no other American president would dare to engage in such an intense program as he intends to carry out in the next eight days. According to plan, he will take an extensive tour of Alaska where he intends to address the troops stationed there. He will be visiting Japan, Singapore, the People's Republic of China and South Korea. He will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) and that of the Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN). He will hold talks with the Prime Minister of Japan and His Majesty Emperor Akihito in the land of the Rising Sun as well as with the prime ministers of Singapore and South Korea and the presidents of Indonesia Susilo Bambang, of Russia Dimitri Medvedev and of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao. He will be making speeches and giving press conferences. He will be carrying with him his nuclear briefcase, which we hope he will have no need to use during his hasty tour. His Security advisor has said that Obama will discuss with the president of Russia the continuance of the START-1 Treaty set to expire on December 5, 2009. There is no doubt that some reductions of the enormous nuclear arsenal will be agreed upon, albeit this will be of no consequence to world peace and economy. What is our distinguished friend planning to discuss during his intense journey? The White House has made its solemn announcement: climate change and economic recovery; nuclear disarmament and the Afghan war; and, the risks of war in Iran and in the People's Democratic Republic of Korea. There is plenty of material to produce a science fiction book. But, how can Obama unravel the problems of climate change when the position of his representatives during the preparatory meetings of the Copenhagen Summit on the greenhouse effect gas emissions was the worst among those of the industrialized and rich nations, both in Bangkok and Barcelona, because the United States chose not to sign the Kyoto Protocol and the oligarchy of that country is not willing to really cooperate. How can he contribute to the solution of the grave economic problems afflicting a large part of humanity when at the end of 2008 the total debt of the United States --including that of the
[Marxism] Felipe Stuart: comment on NYT edit on Honduras
Felipe Stuart is a comrade with many years of experience in Central America. The New York Times edit is reprinted in my previous post on this list. Fred Feldman Felipe Stuart comments: What the New York Times fails to acknowledge is that Washington's strategy of putting the coup regime and the Constitutional government of Honduras on the same plane of legitimacy is really the key to legitimize the coup -- at least among consumers of manufactured and manipulated opinion in the USA and other imperialist powers. This is central to Obama's exercize of Smartpower as Eva Golinger has to cogently explained in her website Postcards from the Revolution (http://www.chavezcode.com/). Smartpower is just a buzzword for an ageold ruling class strategy of saying one thing and doing another, or of gloving the iron fist with silk. Nevertheless, the Times clear statement that elections organized by the coup regime will not be reconized by the international community indicates the impasse that Clinton and Shannon's theatrics have reached in their Hondurastan. As President Zelaya Rosales has affirmed, supporters of democracy in their country will not accept an Afghan-style election designed to defraud the population and legitimize the coup. The only real way out of the Constitutional crisis will be the convoking of a Constituent Assembly to reform the Constitution and remove anti-democratic restrictions in this Carta Magna that the army crafted and imposed on the country. The thirst of the masses in Latin America for the right to full and ongoing participation in political life and public affairs can no longer be ignored. That is the lesson of Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua in recent years; and the lesson of the Honduran resistance movement that has become one of the major actors in Honduran politics. The resistance mounted against the coup since June 28 has led to greater unity, stamina, and policital saavy among popular movements. There is no going back to a pre coup alignment of class and social forces. No matter whether Zelaya is returned to the Casa Presidencial or not, the oligarchy has been weakened by its June 28 gamble. Emboldened or not by their exercize of repression and terror against the population, they now face a medium and longterm struggle with class adversaries who are much more aware and steeled in struggle. The class dictatorshop of oligarchs and military officers can only face the future in trepidation and soiled underpasnts. Today's editorial in the Mexico City daily La Jornada offers a very different analyisis from that of the NYTimes, much more reflective of democratic opinion in Latin America and the Caribbean region. South of the Rio Bravo the great fear is that the US has gained ground in a new offensive against Latin American unity and liberation, as evidenced by Obama's placing of US bases in [Colombia], continued efforts to strangle the Cuban revolution, and consolidation of its power and outreach from its aircraft carrier named USS Honduras. For those who read Spanish, you can call up the Jornada edit at http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/11/07/index.php?section=edito 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] A call for clarity on Afghanistan,
Louis Proyect submitted from Foreign Policy in Focus: How do we undo the damage we have subjected innocent Afghans to? Afghans themselves have the answers to that. Surveys have shown that a majority of Afghans want a complete disarmament of our warlord allies - essentially that the U.S. needs to take back the guns we put into the hands of the Northern Alliance and their private militias. Surveys have also shown that Afghans want war crimes tribunals to hold all the corrupt and criminal fundamentalists accountable in some sort of court, perhaps even the International Criminal Court (U.S. government officials shouldn't be exempt from this type of accountability either). With weapons, warlords, and U.S. troops gone, real democracy could potentially take root and pro-democracy forces could someday operate freely. The call for clarity is not quite met by this article, as this passage clearly demonstrates, although it makes many good points. How is the United States to take back the guns we put into the hands of the Northern Alliance and their private militias. How is this to be done without a US occupation and war not against the Pashto Taliban but against the Tajik-led Northern Alliance? And why just the Northern Alliance and its allies? Disarming them won't disarm the Taliban. Or the Karzai army. Or warlords not associated with the Northern Alliance. And almost all the arms in the hands of Afghan groups come directly or indirectly from the United States. Then the United States, presumably while carrying out immediate withdrawal must capture all the corrupt and criminal fundamentalists and carry them off to the Hague, where they can join all the other bad people in the world who are supposed to be held and tried there. Almost all those imprisoned there are products of foreign occupation and war, particularly in the former Yugoslavia. Perhaps instead the US should carry out airstrikes or targeted killings against the all the corrupt and criminal fundamentalists. Anyway this sounds like a formula not for the US ending the war, but for waging a different and even broader one to disarm some or all of the armed groups in the country and capture or kill their leaders. I think this is a product of the confused though brave and sincere politics of RAWA (Revolutionary Alliance of the Women of Afghanistan), which became known as a political force by its work in the refugee camps along the Pakistani border at the time of the US invasion. My impression is that this is a predominantly Pashto women's liberation organization. They may now have a stronger presence in Afghanistan as well. RAWA has always denounced US imperialism's crimes in Afghanistan including the 1981 invasion. But they have always presented US imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism as equal enemies. Hence the slogan, No negotiations with fundamentalists. In my opinion, their denunciations of imperialist invasion and occupation have always tended to slide over into suggestions that imperialism should be fighting a war for RAWA's purposes rather than its own. This is, of course, not a realistic perspective. Malalai Joya, whom I heard at the opening session of the overall excellent ISO Northeast Conference, is much more firmly rooted in the experiences that have turned millions of Afghan women and men against the US occupation and war. Her stance for immediate withdrawal was truly unconditional. She avoided attacks on Afghan Muslims for being deeply religious (fundamentalists) while dealing frankly with the crimes that the US, the Talibank, the government, and other warlord militias carry out against women. I hope her speech is reprinted soon in Socialist Worker, and issued as a pamphlet as well. Particularly because parts of her talk were unclear to me because of the unfamiliar accent and my hearing loss. Fred Feldman 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] Fight far from over in Honduras: Will pact allow Zelaya to use the bully pulpit?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091116/grandin Honduras: Solution or Stall? By Greg Grandin October 30, 2009 Honduran crisis may soon be over. Maybe. The leader of the coup government, Roberto Micheletti, agreed to a nine-point plan to end the country's political impasse, brokered by Thomas Shannon, the former US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Barack Obama's yet-to-be-confirmed ambassador to Brazil. The deal would return Manuel Zelaya, the democratically elected president deposed in a military coup four months ago, to office; in exchange, the international community will end Honduras' diplomatic isolation and recognize upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for November 29. Roberto Micheletti has agreed to a plan to end the country's political impasse. But the coup government is already looking for loopholes. Honduran Coup Regime in Crisis Honduras Greg Grandin: Those who seized power in June have polarized society, delegitimized political institutions and empowered social movements. Hardliners in the coup government, however, see a loophole in the accords, which gives the Honduran National Congress the power to approve or reject Zelaya's return. And no sooner was the ink dry on the accord when a top Micheletti advisor, Marcia Facusse de Villeda, told Bloomberg News that Zelaya won't be restored. In a barefaced admission that the coup government was trying to buy time, Facusse said that just by signing this agreement we already have the recognition of the international community for the elections. Another Micheletti aide, Arturo Corrales, said that since the congress is not in session, no vote on the agreement could be scheduled until after the elections. But such a calculated reading of the agreement will not play well with most countries, including the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the European Union, which have repeatedly called for restoration of Zelaya. Brazil--whose Tegucigalpa embassy has given Zelaya shelter since his dramatic surprise return to Honduras over a month ago--applauded Shannon's deal, yet made it clear Zelaya had to be reinstated. And in Honduras, the National Party, whose candidate is expected to win next month's vote, wants this crisis to be over. Its members in Congress may join with Liberal Party deputies loyal to Zelaya to approve the deal. The accord leaves unresolved the issue of whether the widespread human rights violations that have taken place since the coup will be investigated and prosecuted, only vaguely rejecting an amnesty for political crimes and calling for the establishment of a truth commission. More than a dozen Zelaya supporters have been executed over the last four months. Security forces have illegally detained nearly 10,000 people; police and soldiers have beaten protesters and gang-raped women. And the very idea of a negotiated solution to the crisis grants legitimacy to those provoked it. Still, if Zelaya were to be restored to the presidency, even just symbolically, to preside over the November elections and supervise a transfer of power to its winner, it would represent a significant victory for progressive forces in the hemisphere. Here's why: 1. The attempt by Micheletti and his backers--both in and out of Honduras--to justify the overthrow of Zelaya by claiming it was a constitutional transfer of power will have definitively failed. If this justification was allowed to go unchallenged, it would have set a dangerous precedent for the rest of Latin America. 2. Efforts to rally support for the coup under the banner of anti-leftism, or anti-Chavismo--much the way anti-communism served to unite conservatives during the Cold War--will likewise have failed. 3. It will confirm the political influence--and unity--of Latin America's progressive governments, particularly Brazil and Venezuela, which have taken the lead in demanding that the coup not stand--a position that aligned them with much of the rest of the world. 4. It will be an important push back for Republicans like South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and Otto Reich, who tried to use the crisis to push for a more hardline US policy against the left in Latin America. It is DeMint who has put the hold on Shannon's confirmation, as well as on the confirmation of Arturo Valenzuela, Obama's pick for Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. 5. It will hopefully help the Obama administration realize that in many Latin American countries, there is no alternative to working with the left. In Honduras, the violence of the coup government, as well as the fact that the extended crisis smoked out its less than savory supporters, like Reich, awoke not too pleasant memories of the Cold War. Reich recently penned an essay urging Obama to replicate Ronald Reagan's successful Latin American policy, which the Iran-Contra alum believed paved the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall. Many, however, remember too well
[Marxism] Is Turkey Leaving the West? (from Foreign Affairs)
I have recently subscribed to Foreign Affairs, which costs only $20 a year including access to the their website which includes much material from the influential (more so these days than in the first five years of Bush) Council on Foreign Relations. At any rate, despite the URLs I helpfully provide, you usually cannot access full articles without a subscription. Thus I will submit the full article when length permits. When the article is longer, as in many cases, I will submit a sufficient section to establish reasons to pay attention, and offer to send the full article to anyone who requests it.T This article confirms my strong conviction that the victory of the Islamist capitalist party reflected overall (and allowing for the possibility that these conservative or reactionary politicians may eventually rally around antiwoman measures, not without intense resistance from women and their allies we may be sure) a positive development in Turkey's politics. I think it is positive overall for instance that there is growing opposition to joining the European Union, which has been the axis of Turkey's governmental orientation for many years. Even though the breadth of this opposition includes those unwilling to admit cruelties of repression going back to the Armenians in the World War I period. Fred Feldman (http://www.foreignaffairs.com) Is Turkey Leaving the West? An Islamist Foreign Policy Puts Ankara at Odds With Its Former Allies Soner Cagaptay SONER CAGAPTAY is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is the author of Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who Is a Turk? In early October, Turkey disinvited Israel from Anatolian Eagle, an annual Turkish air force exercise that it had held with Israel, NATO, and the United States since the mid-1990s. It marked the first time Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) let its increasingly anti-Western rhetoric spill into its foreign policy strategy, and the move may suggest that Turkey's continued cooperation with the West is far from guaranteed. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister and the leader of the AKP, justified the decision by calling Israel a persecutor. But only a day after it dismissed Israel, Turkey invited Syria -- a known abuser of human rights -- to joint military exercises and announced the creation of a Strategic Cooperation Council with the Syrian regime. A mountain is moving in Turkish foreign policy, and the foundation of Turkey's 60-year-old military and political cooperation with the West may be eroding. Starting in 1946, when Turkey chose to ally itself with the West in the Cold War -- later sending troops to Korea and joining NATO -- successive Turkish governments have pursued close cooperation with the United States and Europe. Turkey viewed the Middle East and global politics through the lens of their own national security interests. This made cooperation possible, even with Israel, a state Turkey viewed as a democratic ally in a volatile region. The two countries shared similar security concerns, such as Syria's support for terror groups abroad -- radical Palestinian organizations in the case of Israel, and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. In 1998, when Ankara confronted Damascus over its support for the PKK, Turkish newspapers wrote headlines championing the Turkish-Israeli alliance: We will say 'shalom' to the Israelis on the Golan Heights, one read. The AKP, however, viewed Turkey's interests through a different lens -- one colored by a politicized take on religion, namely Islamism. Senior AKP officials called the 2004 U.S. offensive in Fallujah, Iraq, a genocide, and in February 2009, Erdogan compared Gaza to a concentration camp. But the AKP's foreign policy has not promoted sympathy toward all Muslim states. Rather, the party has promoted solidarity with Islamist, anti-Western regimes (Qatar and Sudan, for example) while dismissing secular, pro-Western Muslim governments (Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia). This two-pronged strategy is especially apparent in the Palestinian territories: at the same time that the AKP government has called on Western countries to recognize Hamas as the legitimate government of the Palestinian people, AKP officials have labeled Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the head of an illegitimate government. According to diplomats, Abbas' last visit to Ankara in July 2009 went terribly -- now, these diplomatic sources say, Abbas does not trust the AKP any more than he trusts Hamas. As the cancelled military exercises with Israel show, the AKP's moralistic foreign policy is not without inherent hypocrisies. An earlier example came last January, when, a day after Erdogan harangued Israeli President Shimon Peres, as well as Jews and Israelis, at the World Economic Forum for knowing well how to kill people, Turkey hosted the Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman
