Re: [Marxism] Rammstein: heartbeat on the left?

[Joonas Laine]

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On 01/20/2011 03:08 AM, Nick Fredman wrote:
> Re Tom O'Lincoln's article at
>
>  Thanks for that Tom, very interesting. From what I've heard of the
> band on the radio they seemed so over the top I assumed there was
> some self-parodic elements there, like a fair bit of metal/heavy
> rock.

Speaking as a person who listens to metal, also by bands whose politics
are pretty questionable (e.g. Norwegian black metal):

If heavy metal culture is about something, it's about transgression,
whether by means of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll (or their symbol, the
devil), death or flirting with whatever it takes to piss off the
mainstream - in other words, rebellion for its own sake, which is
underlined by the recurring phenomenon among fans of criticising bands
for "selling out", "going mainstream" etc. It's no wonder really that
someone has picked up fascist imagery or other dubious.

For those interested in reading about this stuff in general, I recommend
Deena Weinstein's 'Heavy metal. The music and its culture' (2nd ed.) and
Keith Kahn-Harris' 'Extreme metal. Music and life on the edge'.
Kahn-Harris, a left-liberal, has a blog at metaljew.org.

More directly re Tom's article: Kahn-Harris writes that it's a common
feature of metal bands' flirting with "dark powers" that a band takes
(or appears to take) it to the extreme, but at the last moment pulls
back from the responsibility it implies, "it's just music", "we're not a
political band". So for example the Norwegian band Darkthrone can tell
off critics because of their "jewish behaviour", but then justifying
this merely as "slang" that has nothing to do with politics..

For stuff on the net on extreme metal and the exterme right, see e.g.

http://roarofthemasses.blogspot.com/2010/12/black-metal-and-extreme-right-part-6.html

http://www.metaljew.org/weblog/2010/04/more-ambiguous-black-metal.html


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[Marxism] To start from consciousness of people as they are

[Joonas Laine]

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On 12/18/2010 01:16 PM, Einde O'Callaghan wrote:
> Once as a newly radicalised young man I had similar ideas to those 
> espoused by Dan. I've come to realise that while a measure of criticism 
> of religion, and particularly of organised religion, is essential for 
> Marxists, it's also essential to start from consciousness of people as 
> they are - that doesn't mean accepting reactionary ideas but it does 
> mean first entering into struggle on the side of the exploited and the 
> oppressed regardless of their abstract ideas on various topics that 
> aren't essential to the struggle at hand. In the course of common 
> struggle it will be possible to take up ideas that hold back the 
> struggle - including religious ideas or the influence of religious 
> leaders - and top get people to reconsider.

Well put. I have the exact same problem with my participation in the
trade union movement, where nationalism ("jobs for Finnish workers",
meaning "stop importing foreign workers, they're taking our jobs" etc.)
is very much on the agenda, with employer-imported cheap labour in
construction sites and shipyards from the poorer EU countries. The 5th
nuclear reactor here is being built by mostly foreign workers (Poland,
Estonia etc.), who live in an employer-built village of barracks in the
middle of a forest, isolated from the rest of society. Having no
permanent residence in Finland, most of them are not even allowed to
join the trade unions..

On the one hand you have to oppose this and demand that one should treat
workers as workers, not as nationals of this or that country, but you
have to make a compromise with how you go about doing it, because
playing what amounts to the racist card will lead to your isolation. Of
course there's no limits to where the self-martyrising attitudes - that
"everybody just pampers gays, immigrants and other minorites, and nobody
cares for the common worker anymore" - can go, and almost everything can
be said to be playing the racist card, but I find it difficult to
balance between ultra-leftism and opportunism (whatever they are in this
case).

I don't actually know what would be the correct line to follow with the
question of imported/posted labour. Almost a year ago I posted a lengthy
message here dealing with these questions, but nobody picked it up..
maybe I framed it wrong by asking for "materials" instead of just
discussion and experiences, but the essence of my quandary was this:

The questions I'm thinking is: to what lenghts should the local workers'
movement go in trying to get the imported workers join the common
front in struggle for same terms and wages for all for the same work..?
It feels that it cannot last forever. I think no worker (local or
imported) has the right to work for worse terms and wages than what the
local workers movement has gained, and the ones who do should be
attempted to be drawn into demanding these better terms for themselves
as well. In my opinion, a worker who works 7€ an hour doing
work that local workers get paid 12€ for has no right to do this.
Naturally the worker is not really in a position to dictate the terms of
his/her employment, so the local workers movement has to help and
support them.

But to what extent can they be said to have the same interests as the
local workers? What if the imported workers are happy to work for 7€/h
in a 12€/h job? What if they are not interested in joining [or in a
position to join.. does it make a difference?] the front struggling for
equal terms for all, equal terms meaning 12€/h for all instead of 7€/h
for all - let alone join the local union? I can well imagine that a
worker coming from a poorer country doesn't mind working for 7€/h here
if it's much more than he/she can get in his/her own country for the
same job [if they can get a job there in the first place], and
additionally as these subcontracts use the imported workers for
relatively short periods of time, they don't even plan on staying here
for very long.

The rest at:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2010-February/059969.html

Probably demanding the same wages and conditions would, for the
foreigners, mean that many of them will lose their jobs.

These are of course practical questions, and far short of socialist
revolution, but given the present condition of things, if your answers
to problems are on the level of "one solution revolution", you might
just as well drop out of the trade union movement.

How would you describe the situation, what is the big picture, and the
way forward? I don't mean in a particular sense, like "what is the
concrete solution to my problem here", but surely this is not a question
that applies only to Finland, I'm sure there's situations like this all
over the EU and the world. How is it 

Re: [Marxism] The New Anti-capitalist Party and Islamophobia

[Joonas Laine]

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Arthur Maglin wrote:
> This is a link to an interview article from Socialist Alternative in
> Australia which is politically aligned with the International
> Socialist Organization in the U.S. which covers the struggles within
> the French New Anticapitalist Party  around Islamophobia. 
> http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3028&Itemid=213

Here's some more info on the French vote to ban the burkha from last
summer's NY Times, in case someone (like myself) missed these details as
regards the left while it was happening:

---

The draft bill, only seven articles, passed by 335 votes to 1 in the
National Assembly, with mostly abstentions from the main opposition
Socialist Party, which was divided over how to respond to the popular bill.

[..]

Twenty legislators from the Socialist and Communist Parties voted for
the bill, including a prominent Socialist, Manuel Valls, and a
Communist, André Gerin, who was among the first to call for a ban. The
ban would apply to both the burqa, which covers the eyes, and the niqab,
more common in France, which leaves the eyes uncovered.

The sole opposing vote was cast by a former member of the governing
party, Daniel Garrigue, who supports a rival to President Nicolas
Sarkozy, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

[..]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/world/europe/14burqa.html?_r=1


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Re: [Marxism] Norwegian boss orders female staff to wear red bracelets when having their period

[Joonas Laine]

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> A few years ago, Norway was the only country in the world
> that had a majority of women in the cabinet--a historic
> first, I believe. During that time, the government, in a
> paroxysm of mothering run amok, decided to protect young
> males from possibly hurting themselves by banning 
> skateboarding (according to an article in the /New York
> Times /by Garrison Keillor).

Finland has had a majority of women in the government since 2007 (11 
ministers out of 20). Since last June the prime minister is a woman. The 
president has been a woman since 2000 (she's an ex-chair of the 
Organisation for Sexual Equality and an ex-lawyer for the blue-collar 
trade union confederation SAK).

The most recent issue of the feminist magazine Tulva wrote that despite 
the woman majority in the government not very much has been happening in 
terms of putting gender issues on the agenda. The president takes up 
these issues more frequently, but she's just a figurehead without too 
much real power (to initiate legislation etc).

-- 
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] The Horrible Swiss

[Joonas Laine]

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S. Artesian wrote:
> "All hail, then, the mob, the incarnation of progress"  James Connolly.
> 
> The referendum had nothing to do with calls for "direct democracy," nor does 
> it represent "mob rule."  This is a demonstration of the sentiment of the 
> "shopkeeper's" mentality.
> 
> Your conclusion does not follow from the "evidence" you present.  I'm 
> sticking with Connolly.

Seconded!

I'm 100 % sure that all kind of stupid prejudice will exist in a
socialist world, and I don't see how overthrowing the current mode of
production will prevent the possibility of e.g. the death penalty being
re-introduced by means of a referendum, or abortion rights taken away
the same way, or other shit like that.

These are political struggles that have to be fought and won, and which
can be lost as well, like now in Switzerland. But if Ireland and Greece
had the Swiss system in place, some interesting struggles could be won..


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Re: [Marxism] UN majority votes to accept execution of homosexuals

[Joonas Laine]

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David Thorstad wrote:
> http://news.pinkpaper.com/NewsStory/4319/18/11/2010/countries-vote-to-accept-execution-of-gays.aspx

Cuba is among the supporters of the amendment. The following list of
supporters of the amendment is from the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission website.

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh,
Belize, Benin, Botswana, Brunei Dar-Sala, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Cameroon, China, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti,
Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Indonesia,
Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali,
Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan,
Qatar, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia,
Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic,
Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of
Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/pressroom/pressrelease/1257.html

A UN summary of the discussion in the meeting:

"A proposed amendment (document A/C.3/65/L.65) would, in operative
paragraph six, replace the words “any discriminatory reason, including
sexual orientation” with the words “discriminatory reasons on any
basis”. [..]

"The representative of Benin, its main sponsor, on behalf of the African
Group, said the Group had repeatedly asked during informal negotiations
for language that would bring needed comprehensiveness to the draft
resolution.  Sexual discrimination had no legal foundation in any
international human rights instruments and there was no justification to
highlight it." [..]

"The representative of South Africa said that, with regard to the
amendment proposed by the African Group to provide comprehensive
non-discrimination, South Africa voted based on its belief in the
principle of non-discrimination on any grounds, including sexual
orientation.  South Africa was conscious of the fact that there was no
international agreement regarding the definition of sexual orientation,
and believed that there needed to be a formal process on the issue.
South Africa believed that they should define sexual orientation and
establish parameters under human rights law.  Until there was such a
discussion, there would be division, which had characterized the issue
over past years.

"The representative of Cuba said that it maintained its traditional
position against any form of discrimination and that Cuba had voted for
the amendment proposed by the African Group, which was sufficiently
general and comprehensive.  It related to all killings, including
executions on the grounds of sexual orientation."
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2010/gashc3997.doc.htm


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Re: [Marxism] Role of the Army

[Joonas Laine]

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Paul Flewers wrote:
> There has also been a recent trend in Europe to move away from
> conscription towards professional regular forces, although I can't
> recall off-hand in which countries it has been replaced. With the
> deployment of Nato forces abroad, for example in Afghanistan, a hardly
> popular war in Europe, the move away from conscription will probably
> increase. It will be interesting to know if any of the Nato countries
> involved in Afghanistan are using any conscripts as combat troops, as
> opposed to regulars.

As regards Finland (which still has a conscript army), it is involved in
Afghanistan along with Sweden. The Finnish media makes a lot of hay
about it every time "Finnish troops have been fired on in Afghanistan" -
jesus, is there a war going on there or what. Brief googling reveals
Swedish news to the same effect. The official line in Finland is that
Finland is not at war in Afghanistan, though e.g. the ex-commander of
the armed forces has said that it is.

As to Sweden, it decided to abolish consription last spring.

I don't remember how many soldiers Sweden has in Afghanistan, probably a
bit more than Finland; Finland has sent a few hundred there, all of whom
have chosen to go there voluntarily - officers included. More than 90%
of recently graduated officers are against making service abroad mandatory.

In Sweden, a bit more than 10 % of each male cohort goes through army
training, in Finland that's still 66 %. War time reserve used to be
around 750 000 (in a country of 5,3 million), nowadays it's 350 000 I
think, and there's been talk it probably will get lowered to 250 000
during the next 10 years. Finland is not a member of NATO, though it's
probably involved in every possible "partnership" that you can have with
NATO without being a full member.


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[Marxism] Far right gets 20 MPs in Swedish elections

[Joonas Laine]

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The far right Sweden Democrats climbed over the 4% threshold with 5,7% 
of the votes and 20 MPs in yesterday's parliamentary elections in 
Sweden.

Neither the ruling bourgeois coalition (49,3%; 172/349 seats) nor the 
Red-Green coalition (43,7%; 157/349 seats) got a majority, and both 
blocs have sworn not to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats, who now 
hold the balance. The bourgeois coalition has expressed interest in 
cooperating with the Greens (which is part of the Red-Green block, made 
up of the Social Democrats, Left Party and the Greens), though as I've 
understood so far the Greens have rejected the idea. Around 82% of the 
people cast their vote.

"An Islamic revolution akin to the one that swept through Iran in 1979 
could easily take place in Sweden, claims the second highest ranking 
member of the far-right Sweden Democrats".
http://www.thelocal.se/29086/20100917/

Sweden Democrat leader Jimmy Åkesson said last year that islam 
represents the greatest threat to Sweden since WW2.

---

Reinfeldt calls victory, vows to shun far-right
http://www.thelocal.se/29124/20100920/
Published: 20 Sep 10 01:10 CET

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt declared victory as near-final 
election results on Sunday showed his ruling Alliance coalition had the 
most votes in a hung parliament, where the Sweden Democrats could play 
kingmaker.

"The Moderate Party has won its strongest results since the right to 
vote was introduced," Reinfeldt exulted as a tally of 5,662 of Sweden's 
5,668 electoral districts handed his party 30 percent of the vote.

"We have received broad support tonight," he said, pointing out that the 
party had doubled its support since winning just 15 percent of the vote 
in 2002.

His centre-right coalition, which includes the Liberal, Centre and 
Christian Democrat parties, meanwhile secured 49.3 percent of the vote, 
or 172 of the 349 seats in parliament.

The coalition got the most votes in a hung parliament, where the 
far-right Sweden Democrats is expected to hold a key position and could 
play kingmaker.

"This is not the election result we had hoped for," Reinfeldt said, 
referring to the Sweden Democrats' entry into parliament for the first 
time, with 5.7 percent of the vote representing 20 seats.

"I have been clear...We will not cooperate with or be made dependent on 
the Sweden Democrats," he said, adding that he planned to turn to the 
Green Party, part of the opposition coalition, to seek broader 
parliamentary support.

Reinfeldt's first place finish spelled a decisive end to the rival 
Social Democrats' 80-year domination of Swedish politics and their role 
as caretakers of the country's famous cradle-to-grave welfare state.

That party saw its support shrink to just 30.9 percent in Sunday's 
election, according to the near-final results, down from 35.3 percent in 
2006, when its score was already one of its weakest on record.

The left-wing opposition coalition, made up of the Social Democrats and 
the Green and Left Parties, together garnered 43.7 percent of the vote, 
or 157 seats in parliament.

-- 
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] Why is gusano lover CIA stooge danan still on the list?

[Joonas Laine]

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Joaquín Bustelo wrote:
> On 9/18/2010 6:29 PM, danan wrote:
>> Sending 30 000 people to re-education camps,
> I don't subscribe to Marxmail to read CIA lies against Cuba.

I can understand if people who know what they're talking about are 
frustrated because what they consider CIA lies come up all the time. But 
people like me who don't know Cuba stuff so well - and thus can't tell 
which are the lies and which are real problems - are not helped by 
replies like this. Of course nobody has any responsibility to explain 
anything in any length, but if I'm ever going to discuss Cuba with 
someone who has some criticisms they've read in the press, I won't have 
the confidence to do that unless I know what I'm talking about. Nothing 
is more embarrassing than someone throwing some fact (or "fact") at you 
that you were totally unaware of, and so you're totally unprepared and 
can't say anything against it, apart from the argument that can be given 
in response to *any* criticism: Cuba is the victim of a ruthless 
blockade. You lose all credibility if that's all you can say.

No doubt the argument is true, but I would like to know in more detail 
what I'm defending, especially the more unpleasant things. It's not a 
condition to defend Cuba, but it is a condition of being able to do that 
in public. Feeling ambivalent and private sympathy from the sidelines is 
hardly the best way to do that.

Many people became totally disillusioned about the Soviet Union because 
they had believed what the CP press wrote about it. What a surprise then 
to find out that some 20 000 Finns were killed there in the 1930s, many 
of whom had fled the Finnish whites after the civil war, or later in the 
20s and 30s, in search of a better life. Does one respond to that that 
the USSR was a victim of ruthless pressure from the capitalist world, 
isolated etc..? That's true of course, but hardly a sufficient answer. 
I'm not saying anyone's doing that to Cuba on this list, but how can I 
know, if all I have is "Cuba is the victim of a ruthless blockade"?

I'm so totally fed up with the Finnish communist party newspaper's Cuba 
"reporting", because it's all about the health care and education all 
the time, and nothing else. Not that it's not important, but if that's 
ALL YOU GET, over and over again, year after year, you begin to wonder 
whether they really know anything at all. You just can't trust them to 
talk about the more complicated things as well, so what they write isn't 
worth shit in the long run. The kind of sunshine news they publish is 
good enough for keeping the faithful in line, but no good at all in 
trying to educate people to be able to defend Cuba in public.

I don't share Dan's view on things, but I think it's good he brought the 
questions up. I take it as a chance for us less knowledgeable to learn 
by seeing how the more knowledgeable on the list defeat him by means of 
elaborated and reasoned argument, so that I'll be able to do the same 
sometime in the future.


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Re: [Marxism] Libertad

[Joonas Laine]

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> I don't know any "Cuban workers" but I have tried to keep up
> with Cuban scholarship, including Julia Sweig's "Inside the
> Cuban Revolution". She accompanied Jeffrey Goldberg to Cuba
> and is very knowledgeable. I would recommend her "Cuba: What
> Everybody Needs to Know", a primer that you would probably
> find useful.

Can anyone recommend books that describe how the Cuban economy, planned 
and otherwise, works and has worked in the past..? It would help putting 
these recent changes into some context and make one able to gauge better 
what they mean, I think.

-- 
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] Marxism Digest, Vol 83, Issue 29

[Joonas Laine]

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oscardelabosca thecatholiccat:
> Don't know where you've been lately Dan but I doubt it is
> Cuba. They haven't been making sugar like that for a
> lnggg time. Perhaps since
> the revolution itself. Cuba is one of the few countries
> which has 100% food security. Agriculture is very 
> diversified. Cuba probably exports more doctors and health 
> care workers  than sugar.

I don't know how you define food security, but I had the impression that 
one of the main reasons behind the recent changes to improve 
productivity is that they could cut the amount of food they import 
sometime in the future.

"Cuba, with a population of a little over 11 million people, imports 
about 80% of its domestic food requirements. A number of measures are 
being taken to increase food production, chief among which is the 
allocation of fallow land to private individuals and groups, as well as 
the reduction of the amount of land devoted to sugar cane cultivation, 
but the country’s vulnerability to hurricanes and droughts, coupled with 
the increase in global food prices and the financial crisis, makes the 
path to national food security difficult."
http://www.wfp.org/countries/cuba

-- 
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] Fidel (acc. to Goldberg): "Cuban model doesn't work anymore"

[Joonas Laine]

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David Thorstad wrote:
>   Jay Moore wrote:
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/castro-i-meant-exactly-th_n_712420.html
> ==
> What in this piece shows that Fidel's comment (which he does not 
> challenge as reported) means the "exact opposite" of what he was quoted 
> as saying? He confirmed that he was supporting changes his brother Raúl 

FWIW, the official translation of his whole speech is included in this 
article:

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=29161


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[Marxism] Sweden Democrats might hold balance of power in Sept elections

[Joonas Laine]

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Seems possible that what took place in The Netherlands takes place in
Sweden as well in next month's election:

"One of the most conservative Dutch governments ever was in the offing
Sunday, with the conservative-liberal election winners of the VVD party
agreeing on a minority coalition with the centre-right Christian
Democrats and backed on a case-by-case basis by the far-right anti-Islam
Freedom Party of Geert Wilders."
http://euobserver.com/9/30571

Personally I think the Sweden Democrats are not likely to get anyone to
join with them, so the "only" thing they'll do is hold the balance. But
who knows.

---

Sweden Democrats hold balance of power: poll

Published: 3 Aug 10 08:09 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/28148/20100803/

The far-right Sweden Democrats have the backing of 6.5 percent of the
electorate and would hold the balance of power if an election were held
today, a new voter poll by Aftonbladet/United Minds shows.

The centre-left "red-green" coalition dropped 0.7 percentage points to
45 percent in the new poll, while the governing Alliance parties
received the backing of 45.9 percent of the electorate and retain their
slight lead.

The Social Democrats advanced slightly, gaining 1.4 points to 30.2
percent. The Moderates fell 0.6 points to 29.3 percent.

Support for the Liberal (Folkpartiet) and Christian Democrat parties
climbed, by 0.1 points to 6.9 percent, and 0.6 points to 5.5 percent
respectively.

All the Alliance parties polled above the four percent threshold for
parliamentary seats with the Centre Party dropping 0.6 points to 4.2
percent.

The opposition Green Party was the biggest loser in the poll dipping 1.3
points to 9 percent, with the Left Party falling 0.8 points to 5.8 percent.

The group "Other parties" made up the remaining 2.5 percent of those
surveyed.

United Minds interviewed 2,004 people between July 12th and August 1st
and asked the question: How would you vote if a general election were
held today?

Sweden's general election is due to be held on Sunday September 19th.

---

MPs support Sweden Democrats isolation: poll
Published: 4 Aug 10 08:58 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/28172/20100804/

Of the 148 Swedish members of parliament from across the party spectrum
interviewed in a new survey, 66 percent are prepared to cooperate across
the political blocs to ensure a stable government if the far-right
Sweden Democrats (SD) enter parliament.

The survey, commissioned by the Göteborg-Posten (GP) newspaper, comes
after a voter opinion poll published on Tuesday which indicates that the
anti-immigrant nationalist party held the support of 6.5 percent of the
electorate and could thus hold the balance of power after the September
general election.

Parliamentarians in favour of working to marginalise the Sweden
Democrats argue that parties should cooperate to prevent them from
attaining a possible kingmaker role.

But support is not unanimous with 19 percent ruling out a cooperation
across the blocs and 15 percent responding that they were uncertain on
what to do.

GP interviewed 148 of the 349 members of the Swedish parliament, the
Riksdag.

SD representatives have argued in response that the survey's results
indicate a lack of respect for the electorate.

"Many would feel let down, which I think would benefit us in the longer
term," William Petzäll, SD press secretary, said to GP.

The United Minds-Cint poll, published in the Aftonbladet daily on
Tuesday, handed the Sweden Democrats a record 6.5 percent support - well
above the four percent threshold for entering parliament.

The poll also indicated that nearly 46 percent of people intended to
vote for the ruling centre-right coalition while 45 percent said they
would vote for the centre-left opposition coalition, leaving neither
side able to attain a stable majority of parliamentary seats.

With less than a percentage point difference between the two main blocs,
SD, would likely hold the balance of power, observers said.

"It is probable that we will have a very messy parliamentary situation
after the election," Carl Melin of United Minds said.

All of Sweden's parliamentary parties have ruled out cooperating with
the Sweden Democrats, which has never held any parliamentary seats but
is represented in several municipalities across the country.



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Re: [Marxism] Wikileaks releases the Mother Lode

[Joonas Laine]

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I'll combine two of Anthony Hartin's mails.

Anthony Hartin wrote:
> "Wikileaks choosing to protect "genuine military secrets"..? What a wimp."
> 
> He is being intervied right now... you can access it from The Guardian 
> live blog. He (Assange) doesnt sound particularly soft. If some of these 
> reports name civilians by name, dont u think thats worth censoring given 
> the existence of US murder squads?

And

> In fact in his interview Assange just mentioned that 15,000 documents
> are being reviewed to establish whether they meet a harm minimization
> policy. He said,
>
> "By safe, I dont mean safe for the military, I mean safe for
> civillians"

I think withholding information to protect civilians etc. is legitimate,
but as I understood the Guardian article, withholding "genuine military
secrets" was APART FROM that.

Maybe it's a case of The Guardian channeling their own interpretation of
what withholding harmful information means.. after all, they've said:

"[T]he Guardian has taken care not to publish information that could
[..] expose unknown intelligence-gathering techniques or place coalition
forces in danger."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-explained-video


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[Marxism] Strike limitations in the UK?

[Joonas Laine]

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Below is an article from The Telegraph about the Confederation of 
British Industry's demand for tightening strike legislation. The story 
quotes TUC gen-sec Brendan Barber:

"The UK already has some of the toughest legal restrictions on the right 
to strike in the advanced world. Any further restrictions would almost 
certainly breach the UK's human rights obligations."

The article also mentions that "both British Airways and Network Rail 
have successfully used the courts to block strike action in recent 
months".

What kind of limitations are in place at the moment?

---

Strike ballot rules must be overhauled, says CBI
By Louisa Peacock
Published: 6:00AM BST 21 Jun 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/7842269/Strike-ballot-rules-must-be-overhauled-says-CBI.html

The CBI wants to raise the the level of support required for walkouts 
and is proposing that at least 40pc of the balloted workforce must vote, 
in addition to the majority voting for industrial action.

At present there is no minimum turnout required by law, meaning strikes 
can go ahead based on a relatively small number of "particularly active" 
union members, the CBI said.

The Civil Service strike in March over changes to redundancy payouts 
went ahead based on a 30pc turnout, while last June's Tube strikes 
attracted just 38pc of all union members' support, according to the 
business group. The Network Rail strike, due in April this year but 
which was deemed illegal by a High Court judge, saw only a third of 
balloted members vote.

John Cridland, CBI deputy director-general, said ahead of swingeing 
public spending cuts that could lead to hundreds of thousands of job 
losses, the Government must make it harder to strike based on the 
minority.

"It is inherently right that people have the right to withdraw their 
labour, but our view is there needs to be a pretty high bar if there is 
going to be a withdrawal," Mr Cridland said. "We've seen an increasing 
number of strikes in different sectors and industries. It's not about 
this this winter, it's about the next five years."

Despite the concerns, both British Airways and Network Rail have 
successfully used the courts to block strike action in recent months.

The CBI also urged the Government to cut the number of days employees 
can legally consult on redundancies from 90 to 30 days to reduce 
uncertainty for staff and allow workforces to respond quicker to falls 
in demand.

Unions were outraged at the proposals. Brendan Barber, TUC general 
secretary, said: "The UK already has some of the toughest legal 
restrictions on the right to strike in the advanced world. Any further 
restrictions would almost certainly breach the UK's human rights 
obligations."

-- 
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] Castro: Swastika has become Israel's banner

[Joonas Laine]

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Jim Farmelant wrote:
> It's not just the suppression of working class organizations,
> since that sort of thing has often occurred in bourgeois
> democracies, for instance, the United States. What, I
> think sets fascism apart, is that this suppression is
> carried out with little or no regards for the usual
> bourgeois norms concerning the rule of law.

In his discussion of the Finnish far-right nationalist movement in the
20s and 30s, the Finnish historian Matti Klinge notes that whereas a
part of the nationalist right was of the (perhaps more familiar) radical
"law-and-order" type fascism that opposed "rotten parliamentarism",
there was a "moderate" wing too, which pretty soon ditched dreams about
"Greater Finland" and irredentist propaganda on East Karelia and agaist
the Russians, but still wanted a strong leader who could intervene on
the part of the "whole people", e.g. when issues of "majority
dictatorship" were jeopardising the unity of the nation. The middle
classes (especially students) were to implement this change, as they
were seen to be above politics.

What these moderate fascists had in mind in particular was the need to
"heal the people" after the 1918 civil war between Reds and Whites,
where 1,2% of the population had perished. They were in favour of
large-scale nationalisations, and called their ideology "state
socialism" (and at some point "national socialism"). To effect this
"healing" they, instead of aiming to suppress the workers' organisations
(like their more radical colleagues, and the average Finnish bourgeois
politicians of the time), actually advocated that the social democrats
should be allowed to join the government; they also advocated benefits
for the workers to show that a unified nation state was in their
interest too. They didn't call for abolishing the parliament completely,
but wanted to complement it with corporatist structures. One of the main
ideologists of this group, Yrjö Ruutu, joined the social democrats in
1937, and, after the 2nd WW, the SKDL (the CP-led front organisation).


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[Marxism] Swedish dockworkers to start a week-long boycott of Israeli ships and goods

[Joonas Laine]

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Sweden to launch weeklong boycott on Israeli ships
Associated Press
Published:  06.05.10, 16:52 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3899301,00.html

[..]

Peter Annerback, a spokesman for the Swedish Port Workers Union which
has around 1,500 members, said workers are urged to refuse handling of
Israeli goods and ships during the June 15-24 boycott.

"If an Israeli ship would come we would just leave it be and not work on
it," Annerback said of the measures.

The union supports the organization "Ship to Gaza," which took part in
the flotilla headed for Gaza.

[..]

A blog has a translation of the union's press release:


The Swedish dockers’ union decides on a blockade against Israeli ships
and goods

Notification of a blockade on Israeli ships and Israeli goods

The Swedish Dockers’ Union has today notified its intention to enforce a
blockade on all Israeli ships and goods coming from or destined to
Israel that are handled by its members. The blockade will enter into
force on Tuesday June 15 at 00.00 hours and it will last to Thursday
June 24 at 24.00 hours.

The reason for this blockade is the unprecedented criminal agression
against the peaceful convoy Ship to Gaza. Several peace activists were
murdered by Israeli commando soldiers and the other participants were
detained without any justification.

The Swedish Dockers’ Union, which supports Ship to Gaza, wants through
this measure to protest against the Israeli government’s violation of
international law by agressing a convoy of peace activists and emergency
supplies to the population of Gaza, which is suffering an equally
illegal blockade.

The Swedish Dockers’ Union demands that those responsible for this
outrage be brought to justice, that Israel pays respect to international
law and that the blockade of Gaza be lifted immediately.

The Swedish Dockers’ Union calls on other trade unions and organisations
to take similar initiatives and calls for a general blockade of Israeli
goods until the rights of the Palestinian people are guaranteed and the
blockade of Gaza is lifted.


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Re: [Marxism] Ken MacLeod on a novel about Kantrovich

[Joonas Laine]

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Andrew Pollack wrote:
> If we were using these computers even to track prices every day in
> order to have accurate inputs into an input-output table for the whole
> economy, could we possibly need all these contracts (or their
> nonmarket equivalent)? Not even a small fraction of them!

How widely read BTW is Cockshott & Cottrell's 'Towards a New Socialism'
where they sketch out a fully planned computer based socialist economic
system..? And how widely is it regarded as a top work on that topic..?
I've read it and think it's good, though haven't heard of very many
books of the same kind.

(C & C's book can be found here: )
http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/


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Re: [Marxism] Maoists in Bastar, a sense of the record.

[Joonas Laine]

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Vijay Prashad wrote:
> Nirmalangshu Mukherji has written a very fine essay on the Maoist record in
> Bastar. Mukherji is a philosopher at the University of Delhi. Here he draws
> on the work of the Maoists themselves, and on two travelogues by
> sympathizers, one of whom is Arundhati Roy.
> 
> The Maoists have held a significant part of Bastar for decades. Roy and
> others consider that they have inaugurated an ³alternative development²
> path. Nirmalanghu assesses this based on their own documents: wages, health,
> education and so on.
> http://www.zcommunications.org/arms-over-people-by-nirmalangshu-mukherji

Below the author's conclusions. (Words in square brackets are in the
original, I have not added anything.)

"The basic picture is abundantly clear from maoist documents themselves.
In an act of palpable cowardice, the defeated maoist leadership from
Andhra and Bihar abandoned the struggling people there, and entered the
safe havens of Dandakaranya forests. Taking advantage of the historical
neglect and exploitation of the tribals by the state—the “root
cause”—the maoist leadership ensured the support of hapless tribals with
token welfare measures while directing most of the attention secretly to
construct guerrilla bases. In the process, they lured a large number of
tribal children with assurances of food and clothing. These children
have now grown into formidable militia and guerrilla forces. After
committing atrocious crimes in the name of “revolutionary violence”,
these youth brigades are now facing the wrath of the mighty Indian
state.  It is reasonable to infer that millions of tribals continue to
side with the maoists largely because their children are with them.

"Should the tribals now pay the price with their lives and livelihood
because of the evil designs of a handful of men such as Ganapathi,
Koteshwar Rao, Kobad Ghandy, Azad, and others in their politburo and
central committee? Whose vision is the Indian state supposed to satisfy,
Charu Majumdar’s or Gandhi’s? How does Mrs. Sonia Gandhi address the
“root cause” by attacking the tribals?

"The tribals can be saved only if

"A. The state dismantles Operation Green Hunt since its immediate
victims are unarmed tribals under mental and physical seize.[distress?
coercion?]

"B. The state announces total and universal amnesty to the young tribal
people in the militias and the PLGA—and a safe and concrete programme
for their rehabilitation—once they surrender (only) to a citizen’s body
comprising of individuals such as Yash Pal, Swami Agnivesh, Kuldip
Nayyar, Mohini Giri, Medha Patkar, Rajender Sacchar, Himanshu Kumar,
Binayak Sen, Jean Dreze, Aruna Roy, Vandana Shiva, and others.

"C. The essentially non-tribal leadership of CPI (Maoist) is brought to
justice for their crimes against humanity."


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Re: [Marxism] New Labour

[Joonas Laine]

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Einde O'Callaghan:
> Just to clarify: The affiliated trade unions have 50%
> (i.e., half) of the delegates at Labour Party Conferences.
> How these are selected varies from union to union, but
> most British trade unions do have some semblance of
> democracy. On a local level affiliated trade unions are 

I don't know what the situation is with the British trade union movement 
democracy, but I would just like to comment the "some semblance of 
democracy" stuff I think I saw in another message here as well.

Based on my experience in the Finnish Metal Workers Union (MWU), it is 
wishful thinking to pretend that the membership doesn't participate 
because there is no "real" democracy. No doubt participation could be 
easier, but somehow I'm a bit tired of this rhetoric that the workers 
would participate if only the leaders were not pissing them in the eye 
all the time and doing their best to hold the workers down or something. 
Forgive me for putting it as sharply as this, it's just to make the 
point..

An example: a few years ago the MWU leadership (social democrats, or 
SDs) was pushing for a massive merger, where the 165 000 member MWU was 
to be abolished and merged with several other unions to form a union of 
300 000 members. The SDs didn't have the 3/4 majority in the MWU council 
to abolish the union (a precondition for the merger), so they agreed to 
a membership vote - after all, why not: The hoped-for positive outcome 
for the leadership's initiative was their only way to pressure the 
left-wingers to accept the merger. If they lose the vote, it doesn't 
matter, they would've lost anyway, but if they win it, then they have a 
weapon against the lefts.

The leftwingers seized the moment because they've (we've) always wanted 
a membership vote, mostly on collective agreements, and now there was 
one on offer. So of course.

Last spring the vote was implemented. Every member got mailed a letter 
with the ticket, and they had to check one of the boxes, do you support 
MWU participation in the new industrial union, yes or no. With the 
ticket there was a pre-paid return envelope, so you just had to put the 
checked ticket in it and put it in the mailbox. Absolutely no cost for 
you. That's all. Whatever you might say about how the question was 
formulated (e.g. nothing on abolishing the MWU), in my very humble 
opinion taking part in the vote was not a question of unnecessary 
hurdles put in the way, or other difficulties. How much more easier can 
it be?

The participation rate was a pathetic 25% (normally in union elections 
the rate is around 50%), and of them a bit over half supported the 
leadership. The leftwingers had counted on member participation based on 
their healthy suspicion of what the leadership is up to.. but they 
miscalculated. In the decisive council meeting the leftwingers voted 
against the merger despite having originally agreed to respect the 
membership vote (because they had thought that of course they'd vote 
against the leadership now that they get the chance). It's beside the 
point that the leftwingers still did the right in voting against the 
merger; the point is they had counted on membership activity, and it 
failed.

MWU council members are workers from the bench (= no union 
functionaries). Everybody votes with the party of course, but they have 
to face the heat from the shop floor for what they vote for - in case 
the shop floor is interested, that is. I'm afraid they're not so 
interested as we often hope, and the SDs don't need so many dirty tricks 
to keep the membership down..

You don't need to hold down a person who's not trying to go anywhere. I 
think the picture the "they don't participate because there's no real 
democracy" formulation paints is a bit too rosy..

Joonas Laine
MWU branch 49

-- 
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] Question

[Joonas Laine]

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> Anyone know who writes the blog: "critique of crisis theory"?

Entry titled 'About me and this blog' is signed by Sam Williams.
http://critiqueofcrisistheory.wordpress.com/about/

--
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] Venezuela: Key socialist leader resigns

[Joonas Laine]

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> Key Venezuelan Socialist Leader Resigns
[..]
> Muller Rojas said that the revolutionary process over
> the last three months had been wretched... everything 
> that is going on isnt healthy for thee revolutionary
> process."

When I read this, I wondered what AMR referred to with "the last three 
months". Anyone have any ideas..?

-- 
jjonas @ nic.fi



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Re: [Marxism] Perry Anderson: "Two Revolutions" (Russia-China) in current NLR

[Joonas Laine]

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Fred Feldman wrote:
 > I think it is true that Anderson argues against treating the evolution of
> China just another version of the "fall of communism"/
> triumphant-counterrevolution narrative that tended for a long time to
> predominate in Western discussion of the course and destiny of the Chinese
> revolution

Not a direct connection, but I thought I'd post this as I don't recall
having seen it here before. This is from a UCPN-M leader Baburam
Bhattarai's interview made last October, where he outlines some ideas
the party has been hatching based on the failures of USSR and China in
this respect.

--

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Baburam Bhattarai
October 26, 2009
http://www.wprmbritain.org/?p=926#more-926

[..]

Now it is up to the revolutionaries of the 21st century to learn from
those lessons of the 20th century and develop a new concept of
proletarian democracy. Our party discussed this thoroughly and made a
review of the positive and negative aspects of revolution in the 20th
century. We came to the conclusion that though the basic concept of MLM
on state and democracy remains valid, because the Soviet apparatus was
no longer functional, when the Soviet state turned into a bureaucratic
state, and with the lesson of Mao’s experiment of Cultural Revolution
against that negative experience of the Soviet Union, we have to develop
the concept of proletarian democracy further. Our conclusion was that
basically we need more room for the masses of the people to supervise
and intervene in the state. If that will not happen then after the
revolution the initiative of the masses will be diminished, and only the
few of the bureaucratic elite will rule over the state in the name of
the proletariat and the revolution would not be carried further.

To check this we have to create certain mechanisms whereby the constant
mobilising of the masses and the constant vigilance and intervention of
the masses is ensured so the state doesn’t turn into a bureaucratic
state. To create such an institution one of the ideas is to provide
democracy as was practiced during the Paris Commune days, or to again go
towards the Soviet model of democracy, or draw lessons from the Cultural
Revolution. We want to take lessons from all these three experiences, so
our party’s conclusion was that within a socialist framework, within the
framework of the dictatorship of the proletariat, competition should be
organised among the masses of the people, so the masses will be
constantly energised and it will prevent only a few people having a
monopoly over the state.

This concept of competition within the framework of socialism, of
proletarian dictatorship, we have developed this basic concept. But this
is only a general concept, the actual mode of that competition we have
still to work out. Our general feeling is still under discussion, we
haven’t reached any final conclusion. But we have proposed multi-party
competition within the socialist framework. Why do we need many parties?
Though the proletarian class is one class, the proletarian consciousness
is different, there is uneven consciousness. If there is competition
among them then the most revolutionary section will be in a position to
lead this process through democratic means. All the masses of the
working class can be mobilised, and in such mode of constantly
mobilising the masses of people we will limit the chance of degeneration
of this democracy into a bureaucratic set-up. That’s why we are thinking
one of the options is to allow multi-party competition among the
proletarian and progressive classes within the framework of the
leadership of the proletariat and a socialist constitutional framework.

[..]


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[Marxism] Books on the First International

[Joonas Laine]

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Hi,

any recommendations for good histories of the First International..? I
know about the Stekloff book on MIA, but I was looking for something
that I could read on paper, and perhaps something that's more recent as
well.

Thanks!


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[Marxism] Chávez speech on the Fifth International

[Joonas Laine]

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Hi,

is the Chávez speech at the PSUV congress that mentions the Fifth
International available in English somewhere on the internet..?


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[Marxism] Question: Vlaams Belang and Herman Van Rompuy

[Joonas Laine]

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The Telegraph reports that the Belgian far right party Vlaams Belang's
Filip Dewinter has expressed support for the newly selected EU
"president" re his islamophobic views about Turkey's possible EU
membership. But the party's website has a press release where they state
that VB is/was opposed to Van Rompuy's candidacy. Could a
Dutch/Belgian/etc comrade clarify this..? Thanks!

The Telegraph article and VB press release pasted further below. Check
also this Euobserver's piece for what Van Rompuy actually said:

"Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe," Mr
Van Rompuy said during a meeting of the Council of Europe on the subject
of Turkey's possible entry into the EU, held in the Belgian parliament
on December, 2004. [..] "An expansion of the EU to include Turkey cannot
be considered as just another expansion as in the past. The universal
values which are in force in Europe, and which are also fundamental
values of Christianity, will lose vigour with the entry of a large
Islamic country such as Turkey[.]"

Belgian officials confirmed to this website that the speech was made,
but noted that the comments were made when in opposition.

http://euobserver.com/9/29016

---

EU president: Herman Van Rompuy opposes Turkey joining


Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's Prime Minister, has in the past spoken out
against Turkish EU membership because, he warned, it would dilute
Europe's Christian heritage.

His position on the issue is so strong that he has won the support of
Vlaams Belang, the controversial far-right Flemishh anti-immigrant party
in Belgium.

Speaking five years ago, as an opposition politician, Mr Rompuy, a
Christian Democrat, argued that Muslim Turkey could not be considered a
candidate for EU membership.

"Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe. An
expansion of the EU to include Turkey cannot be considered as just
another expansion as in the past," he said.

"The universal values which are in force in Europe, and which are
fundamental values of Christianity, will loose vigour with the entry of
a large Islamic country such as Turkey."

Filip Dewinter, a Vlaams Belang leader, said: "We are entirely in
agreement with Van Rompuy over this question and are convinced he will
defend this point of view as President of the EU. It is for this reason
we openly support him."

Mr Van Rompuy's opposition to Turkey is set to cement British and East
European opposition to him during Thursday's summit dinner to appoint a
President and Eu foreign minister.

---

Vlaams Belang Opposed to Candidacy Herman Van Rompuy
http://www.vlaamsbelang.org/56/81/

Klik hier voor de foto in originele afmetingen. 18.11.2009 - Belgian
Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy is being named as one of the top
candidates for the European presidency. An argument that is often heard,
is that “if Van Rompuy can govern a difficult country such as Belgian,
he surely is able to lead the European Union”. In Belgium, however,
things have not changed for the better under Van Rompuy’s rule. A few
examples.

For the first time in the political history of this country, there is a
Flemish minority in the federal government – which is undemocratic
because the rule of parity says that the federal government has to
consist of an equal amount of Flemings and Walloons.

The current government is also characterised by immobility: no progress
has been made concerning the state reform and the scission of the
electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, which is a big point of
contention between Flemings and Walloons for many years now. The
scission of the electoral district is also essential for future
elections to be legal, as ruled by the Constitutional Court. With regard
to immigration and asylum, Van Rompuy and his government have allowed
the start of a new, massive regularisation campaign. During the next
five years, it is expected that another 350.000 immigrants will enter
this country, through regularisation and family reunification.

In the European Parliament, Vlaams Belang MEP Philip Claeys stated that
“we do not need a colourless person who blindly obeys the European
Commission. What we need is a strong character, a real spokesperson for
the European people.”



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Re: [Marxism] Europe’s far right rises

[Joonas Laine]

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Nasir Khan wrote:
> The British National Party will be joined in the European parliament
> by far-right parties from across the continent. But how much support
> are fascists and racists really picking up? Tom Walker investigates
> 
>  http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Europe-s-far-right-rises

As regards Finland, this article reminds me of a piece on the CWI 
website last spring. There the author wrote about a pulp-mill having 
been "occupied" in Kemijärvi, but had they actually known anything about 
it, they would have had to write that 200-300 people walked (without 
permission) on to the production site and held a meeting in the lunch 
hall for an hour, after which they left.
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/04/2201.html

In the article at hand, the author writes:

"The Finnish Perussuomalaiset (‘True Finns’) is perhaps Europe’s 
strangest far-right party, winning its first seat on 10 per cent of the 
vote – up from just 1 per cent and no seats in 2004. Formerly the 
Finnish Rural Party, it strenuously denies being part of the far right 
and does not even advocate anti-immigration policies (probably because 
it doesn’t need to – Finland already has a no-immigration policy). Yet 
many of its members are openly racist, including former wrestler Tony 
Halme, one of its best known candidates, and the party’s name is based 
on the fact that it wants to put ‘true Finns first’. It advocates a sort 
of back-to-the-1950s set of policies and has most of its support base 
among pensioners."

I beg to differ.

- The party's support base is not among pensioners; on the contrary, as 
opposed to other parliamentary parties, it has *less* support among 
pensioners. The typical voter is a middle-aged middle-income working 
class man who lives in a small town. He has no party commitments but 
wants to cast a protest vote.

- The Finnish name of the party means "the basic/normal/average Finns", 
the-guy-on-the-street, so I don't know why the party has translated 
their name like that. It sounds much more nazi that they actually are 
IMO. Not that they're any good (they're a conservative nationalist 
party), I just think that bundling them together with Lega Nord or 
Jobbik as "far right" dilutes what "far right" really means.. just like 
not every right-wing phenomenon is necessarily fascist, or just like 
left-wing social democrats are not communists.

- Tony Halme hasn't been around for 3-4 years, and the best known 
candidates for the party are Timo Soini (MEP, the chairperson around 
whom everything turns) and Jussi Halla-aho (member of Helsinki city 
council).

- If there is anything far-right in the True Finns, it's Halla-aho and 
his disciples (who form a wing within the party that can truly be called 
far right). They are actually now fed up with the True Finns and are in 
the process of establishing a new party, Muutos 2011 (Change 2011) for 
the next parliamentary elections. Probably the True Finns chair Timo 
Soini is happy that they're gone, as Soini's anti-immigrant agenda is 
much more modest than Halla-aho and co's.

- If Timo Soini is "far right", then just what is Jussi Halla-aho?? In 
my opinion Soini is just a normal reactionary nationalist politician, 
and only Halla-aho can be characterised as far right with his anti-islam 
rhetoric etc.. if "far right" is to have any meaning that is. If the 
True Finns are far right, then what are Jobbik or BNP???

- The True Finns do advocate stricter immigration controls than other 
parties.

- I don't know where the author gets the "put 'true Finns first'" slogan 
from. Maybe there is such a slogan, but I haven't heard of it.


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[Marxism] Good books on 'transition from fordism to postfordism' debate?

[Joonas Laine]

Hi,

can anyone recommend good books on the debate about transition from 
fordist to postfordist capitalism that put it in some perspective (also 
globally), preferably with statistical information to make the points, 
instead of merely philosophising about changed perceptions people have 
towards their work etc..?

David Harvey's 'The condition of postmodernity' has some pretty good 
stuff in it (esp. pages 121-197), but it's already 20 years old, so if 
someone knows about more recent books that engage the postmodernists' 
claims about a fundamental paradigm change to knowledge-based 
capitalism, I would be grateful for any recommendations.


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