from:"George Pennefather"




The deployment of the Ghurkhas in East Timor by London illustrates their 
use in disguising the aggressive nature of British imperialism. Since they are 
Asian they present an image of being on the side of the oppressed masses. It is 
like sending an ethnically Irish regiment of the British Army into Northern 
Ireland.
 
The Ghurkhas have a useful role, then, to play for imperialism. Perhaps US 
imperialism will create an ethnically Arab regiment of the US army for 
deployment in Iraq.
 
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Indonesia and Washington




The fact that Washington dithered over the East Timorese 
crisis and eventually backed an force entering Timor to stabilise the situation 
may be understood as a signal from Washington that East Timor is not at the top 
of its agenda. If one looks at the totally different way in which Washington 
hyped up the matter of the invasion of Iraq before it mounted its attack one can 
see that there is some justification for Jakarta concluding that Washington is 
not prepared to go as far as it can to establish East Timorese independence. One 
of the principal factors that may discourage Indonesian belligerence is the 
domestic turmoil it is itself facing. But then this may be a reason to use Timor 
to play the nationalist card. Indeed the anti-Australian mobilisation around the 
Australian embassy in Jakarta may support this thesis. 
 
The fact that Canberra is spearheading the invasion on the 
ground can be viewed as an another indication that Washington is not very 
serious concerning the establishment of East Timorese independence. Such 
ambiguity on the part of Washington can lead to worsening the problem. In the 
first place Jakarta may feel more encouraged to resist through the mounting of a 
guerrilla campaign through West Timor to get its way in part if not in full. On 
the other hand Canberra's confidence in its new role may be less strident  
because of the ambiguity created by Washington's apparent lack of resolve. All 
this can quite foreseeably lead to the situation becoming increasingly 
intricate, all encompassing and more dirty. And of course the Timorese 
masses will be the pawns in all this. Already Canberra has demonstrated at this 
early stage how the situation can easily spiral out of control with the Howard 
and Moore gaffes. All their statements have achieved is the increased alienation 
of Jakarta and perhaps of other powers in the region. Indeed the very trust that 
exists among ASEAN countries is the fact that Jakarta, a key member of ASEAN, 
has successfully urged some of these countries to send forces into East Timor as 
part of the UN force as a counterweight to Canberra's forces. This is an 
indication of the distrust among ASEAN of both the West and Australia and its 
kid brother New Zealand.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Hot Pursuit




Canberra's "hot pursuit" statement concerning invasions into West Timor 
ties in with the views I have expressed concerning the imperialist invasion of 
East Timor leading to the conflict widening to increasingly include all of 
Timor. As I have already said the situation is more complicated than it may 
appear and could lead to a very messy situation for Canberra.
 
The Australian's Defence Minister blunder is a further indication of how 
unprepared and inexperienced they are diplomatically and militarily for their 
new role as Washington rotweiler in the Indian/ Pacific region.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

Re: M-TH: Hot Pursuit


Hi Rob,

Your reply is appreciated. Dont think because I dont always reply I dont read any 
stfuff
you post.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/
G'day George,

Yep.  I have to agree.  Canberra is going with the military on tactics, and
with the Yanks on strategy.  0/2 for mine.  We're busy making something
that could have worked quite nicely into something that might well get very
ugly for all involved.

To torture an old Australian insult, if brains were dynamite, John Howard
still couldn't blow his nose.

Cheers,
Rob.

>Canberra's "hot pursuit" statement concerning invasions into West
>Timor  ties in with the views I have expressed concerning the imperialist
>invasion of  East Timor leading to the conflict widening to increasingly
>include all of  Timor. As I have already said the situation is more
>complicated than it may  appear and could lead to a very messy situation
>for Canberra.   The Australian's Defence Minister blunder is a further
>indication of how  unprepared and inexperienced they are diplomatically
>and militarily for their  new role as Washington rotweiler in the Indian/
>Pacific region.   Warm regards
>George Pennefather   Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
>http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/





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M-TH: The UN and Washington

1999-10-04 Thread George Pennefather




Washington's failure to pay the millions of dollars that it 
owes the UN is a deliberate strategy designed to keep the UN weak and thereby a 
pliant tool of Washington's ambitions. By keeping the UN week by starving it of 
badly needed funds the UN is  forced to allow NATO forces and Australian 
forces to do its job of work. This makes the UN ineffectual since it cannot 
really control forces under NATO and Australian command. In the past the UN was 
principally responsible for creating and organising the UN force. Such forces 
were mainly drawn from countries such as Sweden and Ireland --countries formally 
far removed from having any vested interests in the particular hotspot.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: South America

1999-10-04 Thread George Pennefather




Washington's perspective on South America.
 
Washington cannot allow South America to become increasingly 
strong and unified. Washington, then, is caught in a dilemma. This helps explain 
its schizoid foreign policy in relation to South America. On the one hand it 
does not desire South America to become so weak and divided that it turns into a 
chaotic wasteland such as virtually happened in sub-Saharan Africa. South 
America would then be of little strategic value to Washington. Consequently 
Washington has a vested interest in a relatively prosperous South America that 
does not become too prosperous, unified and strong "for its own good". Such a 
South America would pose a growing threat to Washington strategically and 
commercially. Washington's policy, then, is to support a contradictory economic 
and political development in South America. Consequently its prosperity tends to 
have an uneven and contradictory character. In this way it develops economically 
in a circumscribed way. Washington wants South American development to take a 
form that does not lead to an economically independent and united South America. 
This is why it engages in policies that prevent unity establishing itself in 
South America. This is why is does not encourage and even conspires to undermine 
any South American country that begins to assume an independent leadership role 
in South America conducive to promoting the independent and unified growth of 
South America. Consequently, as is commonly thought, Washington does not 
conspire against a more independent minded and dynamic regime merely because it 
threatens the commercial interests of American firms there. This undoubtedly 
comes into the equation. But it is not necessarily the principal concern.  
It conspires against them principally because of their more independent 
character. Washington must always seek to remove any conditions conducive to 
South America emerging as an economic and political rival to its class 
interests.It cannot tolerate the existence of an independent South American 
bourgeoisie at its doorstep.
 
Consequently America seeks to promote and yet retard South 
American economic and political development which is why it plays one 
regime off against another.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Indonesian collapse

1999-10-04 Thread George Pennefather




There is the danger that Indonesia will collapse and 
fragment. 
 
It is this danger and its adverse effects on Australia and 
New Zealand both in the context of its commercial and security interests. 
Australia's new and more active strategy entailing its leading a force into East 
Timor is aimed at seeking to assist, however modestly, in preventing the 
collapse of Indonesia from occurring. If Indonesia collapses it will fragment in 
such a way that the Indonesian armed forces will break into a variety of 
regional military worlordships each in combat with each other.
 
The principal reason that Australia has shifted away from 
splendid isolation and taken its armed forces into East Timor is danger of 
Indonesia collapsing. The interests of the East Timorese masses has little to do 
with their actions.

M-TH: China and Indonesia

1999-10-05 Thread George Pennefather




Russia and certainly China might have a vested 
interest in the disintegration of Indonesia. Certainly China might have an 
interest in somewhat assisting in Indonesian instability (and being seen to be 
assisting) as a means of increasing its leverage with regard to Washington 
concerning commercial relations as well as in relation to the issue of Taiwan 
etc.
 
Perhaps the instability generated by the break up of 
Indonesia might not suit China's especially as China itself could conceivably 
experience a somewhat similar process --Manchuria and Japan. However it might 
still be interested in mischief making in relation to Indonesia as a means of 
increasing its leverage.
 
It may also, despite its tiny participation in 
the UN force, like to see Australia getting into some difficulties in East Timor 
through a sustained even if moderate guerrilla war. It would hope to exploit 
this kind of difficulty for its own national interests.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Washington's anxieties

1999-10-07 Thread George Pennefather




The antagonism shown by Washington to both Iran and Iraq is 
further evidence that Washington does not  mount opposition to a power 
simply because it is state socialist,  or revolutionary socialist. Neither 
Iran nor Iraq  fit into any of these categories in any comprehensive sense. 
Washington has been antagonistic to both regimes because of the relative 
independence of these regimes. These are regimes that would seek to be establish 
themselves as regional powers. Consequently and such independence, no matter how 
moderate, is viewed as a challenge to Washington's imperialist interests. In a 
sense Washington, although a global power, is still weak in the sense that it 
cannot brook even relative national independence in the Middle East, Near East, 
Africa and South America. Washington feel threatened by any characteristics of 
independence shown by any powers in these parts of the world. This is why it has 
been so antagonistic to Libya too. The existence of a relatively independent 
political power in Africa or South America is a cause of anxiety in Washington. 
It fears that such powers can then proceed to establish a regional system of 
power independent of Washington --a pan African or South American unity that 
could then challenge Washington foreign policy.

M-TH: Washiington, Turkey and Iraq

1999-10-08 Thread George Pennefather




One of the reasons why Washington hammers away at Iraq is 
Turkey. Baghdad can exploit  the Kurdish question to undermine the Turkish 
state --a lynchpin in the NATO gameplan. Since Turkey is such a significant 
ingredient in America's policy for that region it cannot afford to tolerate the 
undermining or even weakening of the Turkish state in such a manner as to 
strengthen Iraq as a regional power --a power that subordinates Istanbul to its 
interests. As I indicated  in a previous posting the one thing Washington 
cannot tolerate is the existence of independent powers that do act as compliant 
agents for American imperialism.
 
If one independent power succeeds in establishing itself this 
can create a precedent for the development of other such power thereby 
increasing challenges to American hegemony. America's foreign policy is a 
feverish and relentless strategy to keep as many powers as possible subordinate 
to its interests. Consequently it struggles to divide and rule.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Torie and taxes

1999-10-08 Thread George Pennefather




The Tory Party Conference raises the issue of reduced 
taxation. This sounds very appealing to many British workers since the tax 
deducted from their wages is huge. To promise to reduce this taxation burden is 
a very populist demand that strikes a chord in the hearts and minds of many. 

 
But is it as good as it sounds?
 
If, say, income tax is to be reduced is this going to 
necessarily, in general, benefit the workers. Is it going to lead to a 
corresponding increase in take home pay?
 
A reduction in income tax means, on the face of it an 
increase in real wages. However if this happens wages increases negotiated or 
won through industrial action are going to be correspondingly less. Consequently 
any reductions in taxation will in the long run benefit the capitalist class 
leading to correspondingly increased profits rather than the working class. 

 
The entire idea of reduced taxation leading in the long run 
to increased wages is an ideological myth promoted both by the bourgeoisie and 
the bourgeois trade union leadership. Income tax is, if anything, is a deduction 
from surplus value and not a deduction from wages. 
 
Consequently the Tory Party's promise of tax reductions is a 
populist way of promising to reduce the state's deduction of surplus value from 
the profit of the capitalist class.Tax reductions may also mean a reduction in 
state that are of benefit to both the working class and the lumpen working 
class.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Cancelling 3rd world debt

1999-10-13 Thread George Pennefather




Can anyone fill us in on the matter of third world debt and Clinton's 
announcement that his administration is cancelling it. Is it genuine?
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Pakistan

1999-10-13 Thread George Pennefather




The apparent coup in Pakistan may lead to increased 
instability in the region. Apparently the general leading the coup who had been 
a member of the government but was later sacked espouses a more militant 
approach over Kashmir seems. Kashmir seems to have been one of the issues that 
led to his being sacked.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: The Boer War

1999-10-14 Thread George Pennefather




Just a short while ago the 100 year anniversary of the Boer occurred. It is 
a war is little discussed despite the importance Lenin seems attributed to it as 
a historic event.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Pakistan and the military

1999-10-14 Thread George Pennefather




The military coup in Pakistan is being essentially supported 
by Bhutto who is in exile in Britain. Clearly for venal pragmatic reasons she is 
prepared to support the undermining of formal democracy.
 
The military coup in Pakistan indicates that bourgeois 
democracy in Pakistan is a total sham. It is a sham in the sense that these 
democratic regimes are only exist because the military support them. In this 
sense such democratic regimes are hardly democratic in the sense that Gt Britain 
or France is.
 
In general democratic regimes in Pakistan are merely 
disguised forms by which the military rule. This is why a general can serve as a 
cabinet minister. The conditions for genuine formal bourgeois democracy do not, 
it would seem to me, exist as of yet in Pakistan.
 
The power of the military in Pakistan is an expression of the 
lack of cohesion and weakness of Pakistani capitalism. The military is the only 
really national  centralised organisation in Pakistan. Consequently it is 
forced to maintain power to stop Pakistan collapsing into anarchy. Clearly 
the social relations of production are not highly developed enough to allow for 
normal democratic conventions to obtain.
 
Washington is clearly watching events in Pakistan with alarm 
since the coup may signal the emergence of greater tension between India and 
Pakistan. It was hoped by Washington that the ousted Prime Minister would have 
succeeded in establishing a settlement with India over Kashmir --a source of so 
much India/Pakistan conflict. Anything that undermines the prospects of closer 
relations obtaining between these two countries suits Beijing's nationalist 
interests. Beijing could only but feel threatened by improving Indo-Pakistan 
relations. 
 
In the post-cold world it is not always in Washington's 
interests to support military regime's in less economically developed countries. 
A weak democratic regime can prove a more pliant tool than a stronger and more 
independent  regime. A more independent military regime may have been more 
actively encouraged in the past as part of a strategic effort to contain and 
weaken the Soviet Union. However in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet 
Union Washington's global strategy has been changing. 
 
The prevailing view is that the military coup was undertaken 
by a more stridently nationalist army which saw its credibility being undermined 
by the Prime Minister. Nothing could be further from the truth. The military 
coup was mounted because of the fear of the masses. The Pakistani economy has 
been going through a bad time. The ousted regime was correspondingly 
experiencing growing unpopularity.  The military, because of its existence as a 
national and relatively highly centralised institution with a widespread 
intelligence network, would know better that any other element in Pakistan what 
conditions among the mass of the population were like. So rather than wait for 
the Indonesian "virus" to strike the Pakistan military moved into position as a 
pre-emptive action.
 
The coup then contains within itself a contradiction. A 
contradiction between the domestic imperatives of Pakistani capitalism and the 
strategic imperatives of international capitalism. However the contradiction may 
be more apparent than real. The military regime may not be as belligerent 
towards India as seems to be commonly  thought. This is why Washington is 
being rather cautious about Pakistani events.
 
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Pakistan again

1999-10-14 Thread George Pennefather




The military coup that has just taken place in Pakistan may 
suit Beijing's interest. Beijing does not want to see any unity developing 
between Pakistan and India. Growing unity between the these two countries might 
pose a challenge to Beijing's status and influence in the region.

Re: M-TH: The Boer War

1999-10-15 Thread George Pennefather


Yes Chris I watched the last part of the series --missed the previous three parts. I 
never
realised that there was such an aspect of to the Boer war in the accentuated form it 
took.
The programme was quite interesting. It took the romance out of that war.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

The fact of British concentration camps for the Boers was known. Until I
saw Channel Four tonight I did not know that there were also conctration
camps for 120,000 blacks. One report quoted an order that tents were to be
reserved only for white concentration camps, not black.

The Boer war was a war against civilians, rather like Kosovo and East
Timor. It aimed to deprive the guerillas of their supporting population.

Having relied on the blacks to defeat the Boers, the British compromised in
the political settlement and left the question of enlarging the franchise
until after self rule was re-established for the Boer Republics.

What hypocrisy.

Chris Burford

London



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M-TH: INLA and drugs

1999-10-17 Thread George Pennefather





Can anyone explain to me the relationship between the INLA and the drugs 
issue. Paul Williams from the Sunday World claims the  INLA is essentially a 
gang of thugs involved in the drug scene from the point of view of pushing them 
and collecting protection. 
 
Yet if this is so it is hard to believe that up to a 1000 people attended 
the funeral of the murdered INLA man including prominent Provo fiugures. Can 
anybody explain this.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/
 
 
 
THE INLA has vowed to hunt down the drugs gang who slayed one of 
itsmembers in a bloody confrontation.Despite frantic efforts by 
gardai to stop simmering tensions exploding intoopen warfare, there are 
increasing fears that the republican group is aboutto launch a violent 
campaign against the drugs gang.

M-TH: Israel and UN

1999-10-24 Thread George Pennefather




The apparent likelihood that Israel's influence may increase 
to the level of eventually sitting on the Security Council is an attempt by 
Washington to increase the number of its friends sitting  on the Security 
Council. It may too be an accommodation made as a quid pro quo for some 
concession concerning the Middle East issue. 
 
It is ironical that a state that has been  in contravention 
to a UN resolution should be even considered for future admission to the 
Security Council by Washington when they it has bombed and sought to isolate 
Iraq because of its contravention of a UN resolution.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Colombia and Ireland

1999-10-25 Thread George Pennefather





In Colombia a civil war exists. It is a civil war that that 
has nothing to do with the promotion of the class interests of the working 
class. The FARC and the ELN are the principal guerrilla armies claiming to 
represent the interests of the masses. But there is little or no difference 
between these movements and the forces of the state. Both are merely different 
expressions of the interests of the bourgeoisie and thereby serve different 
functions in perpetuating the existence of that class.
 
The masses are merely pawns in the conflict between the 
different bourgeois political interests. The FARC and the ELN are petty 
bourgeois organisations that ultimately represent the interests of the 
bourgeoisie --analogous to the Provo IRA. Like the IRA they cannot and do not 
want to promote the class interests of the masses --however much they pretend 
otherwise. Like the IRA they are prepared to do a deal with the forces of the 
state in the interests of establishing a bourgeois settlement. The issue is the 
price at which they are prepared "to betray their principals" --as some might 
put it.
 
The essential difference between FARC/ELN and the bourgeois 
political forces centred in and around the Colombian state is not the essential 
bourgeois class interests which each in its own way sustains. The difference is 
a more derivative, perhaps even more superficial, one. FARC/ELN express 
bourgeois interests in a way that is more accommodating to the petty bourgeois 
masses on which their support is based. Consequently a bourgeois settlement must 
be one that includes conditions that in some partial way satisfy the needs of 
the peasant masses. This compromise, like the Good Friday Agreement, must be 
dressed up in bright colours in order to deceive, confuse and diffuse the 
Colombian masses to render it more possible to foist compromise on them. 
The success in implementing such a compromise allows the leadership of FARC/ELN 
to establish itself within the institution of the state in such a way that it 
can preserve its petty bourgeois interests as an integral part of the state. 

 
This is what Sinn Fein/IRA in Ireland have been striving to 
achieve. They are hoping that their petty bourgeois interests are sustained 
within the structures of the British state in a Northern Ireland Assembly, the 
Northern Ireland Executive and other state and para-state bodies. Consequently 
the economic sustenance of Sinn Fein/IRA petty bourgeois interests will 
shift its support (through its existence as a armed organisation) 
from  economic sources that may have been less than legitimate to more 
explicit economic support in the state. In this way it will have succeeded 
through compromise in shifting the economic source of its existence from outside 
the imperialist to inside it. In this way this petty bourgeois interest will 
have been successfully colonised by the state --by imperialism. The corporatist 
imperialist state will have further integrated interests that had existed 
outside it into its very imperialist statal being. In a previous period this 
same state largely colonised the British working class in a similar way --it 
cannibalises all that challenges it from the outside.
 
Ultimately both Sinn Fein/IRA and FARC/ELN seek are more 
sophisticated and subtle capitalist state that appears to encompass the 
interests of a variety of different petty bourgeois elements while essentially 
and effectively serving the interests of the bourgeoisie. They thereby seek to 
restructure the capitalist state investing it with a colonising 
capacity --colonisation through a corporatist strategy. In short the struggle of 
Sinn Fein/IRA and FARC/ELN is a pro-imperialist struggle for the restructuring 
of the capitalist state. To suggest that these political elements are 
revolutionary from the point of view of the masses merely invests them with a 
revolutionary mystique which belies the essential political interests which they 
express.

M-TH: China & North Korea




China's apparent rebuilding of more friendly relations with 
North Korea may form part of Beijing's strategy to use its developing relations 
with North Korea as a lever in any attempts by Washington to forge some kind of 
unity between North and South Korea. Strategically the re-unification of Korea 
as part of the Washington empire can cause alarm in Beijing. Given that 
relations between the US and North Korea appear to be improving it would seem 
that China is seeking to rebuild relations with North Korea as a counterweight 
to the strategic threat of any reunification.
 
North Korea, it would seem, hopes to exploit this rivalry 
between Beijing and Washington.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Fw: A new regular feature in LM magazine



- Original Message - 
From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.socialism.trotsky
Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 3:50 PM
Subject: A new regular feature in LM magazine


COLUMN: HOW TO SUSTAIN A MARRIAGE 
IN AN AGE OF DECLINING EXPECTATIONS

BY DR. FRANK FUREDI (TENURED SOCIOLOGIST)

Q: My husband is simply never home. He works until at least 9:00 P.M.
- and for six hours or so on either Saturday or Sunday - because he
says it's expected. Even though I have some household help, it's a
tremendous strain on me to raise two daughters, ages 1 1/2 and 4,
without a father around. On a recent Sunday, I was running a
102-degree fever, and he still went to the office. How can I cope with
this? 

A: You could tell him, quite seriously, that unless he can create more
time to be a husband and father, you and the children will be forced
to fire him. He needs to find a way to make clear to his employer
that, while he's willing to work overtime in emergencies, this
round-the-clock face time must end. Apart from what it's doing to his
family, his schedule is going to burn him out - if it hasn't already -
and make him a much less effective employee. Of course, the
possibility exists that even if his boss weren't pressuring him to put
in long hours, he would do so anyway because he's a workaholic. In
that case, you both need to figure out what he's trying to escape from
- like other addicts, workaholics are hiding from inner turmoil. It
could be the responsibilities of parenting two preschool-age children.
Clearly, it's time for a frank discussion of what each of you expects
from your marriage and what is missing. If that gets you nowhere, I'd
strongly suggest he carve out time in his schedule for marriage
counseling. Should you keep going on the way you're going, I foresee
disaster. 



--

Marxist discussion is at: www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html



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M-TH: Fw: Australian referendum



- Original Message - 
From: Eric Cartman Sr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.socialism.trotsky
Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: Australian referendum


In article <7v0d21$cpo$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
  Andy Lehrer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On November 6th Australians vote in a referendum on whether or not to
> abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. I'm wondering how the
> left in Australia is intervening? I understand from Green Left Weekly
> that the DSP is calling for a yes vote for a republic while the ISO
> is calling for a no vote "against the bosses' republic".

The ISO is voting to retain the British Queen as Australia's head of
state?  That deserves more publicity ...


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.



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M-TH: Gusmao and East Timor




The fact that Gusamao has apparently asked the remaining Indonesians 
settlers to stay in East Timor is an indication of the reactionary politics of 
this man. Again nationalism betrays the cause it is supposed to promote. He is 
only some days back in East Timor and already he is selling out. It would be 
interesting to hear from comrades on this list what the East Timorese resistance 
movement's programme is --more and more help from Washington I suppose.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Re: ORG: Colombia and Ireland




John: 1)Their political program and platform is not petty 
bourgeois.  They wantto implement a Soviet Union style command economy 
(or something morereformist) which certainly isn't in the interests of the 
Columbianbourgeoisie.  
 
George: Yeah! Sinn Fein/IRA said they wanted to implement a 
programme that would lead to the achievement of thirty two county independent 
Irish Republic. And look what they are doing now --begging to be let sit on a 
Northern Ireland Executive that will perpetuate and reinforce petition.
John: 2)The class composition of the FARC/ELN is not 
bourgeoisie.
 
George: This probable fact is neither here nor there. The 
class composition of the NAZI party in Germany was not in general bourgeois yet 
it represented the class interests of the German monopoly bourgeoisie.

John: The FARC is opposed by international and internal 
capital, whichfunds both the Columbian State and its rich landowners in 
their respectiveefforts to crush the FARC.  
 
George: Hitler was opposed by the British and American 
capitalist class which means that for you he was a revolutionary commie.
John: I think the only way in which you are correct in 
saying that they are"petty bourgeois" is to the extent that the FARC (less 
so the ELN)represent the interests of peasants.  However most 
revolutionary movements(which I am defining as popular class struggles 
directed against their ownruling class) have made extensive use of peasants, 
so I don't think thistakes anything away from the ELN/FARC.
 
George: But what are the interests of the peasants? There is 
no real future for the peasants. To suggest that the class interests of the 
peasants is being advanced by FARC is to say that FARC support the extinction of 
the peasantry since the Colombian peasantry have no future and are ultimately 
--like all peasantry-- doomed to extinction. Neither under capitalism nor 
communism is there any future for the peasantry. Communal based farming means an 
end to the peasantry. Consequently if the FARC are revolutionary then  
rather than protecting the interests of the peasantry they are, 
willy-nilly, seeking their extinction.
 
However since FARC are not revolutionary they are still 
promoting their extinction by their essential support for the bourgeoisie. At 
the moment they are engaged in peace talks with Pastrana which amounts to 
seeking a price at which it is  prepared to sell out the very peasants 
whose interests according to you they represent.
 
By pretending to represent the interests of the Colombian 
peasantry FARC are sowing illusions in the masses concerning the nature of 
capitalist society. Their programme is ipso facto utopian  in the sense 
that they are claiming that they can achieve a society that is unachievable --a 
society that sustains the existence of a peasantry. They are reactionary in the 
sense that they seek a return to the past --since it only in the past that the 
conditions for a burgeoning peasantry would have existed. By contrast 
revolutionaries look to the future --the establishment of communal social 
relations.
 
Either way they thereby promote the class interests of the 
bourgeoisie since they sow and reinforce illusion in the masses. Such illusion 
only serves to disarm the masses politically and ideologically and render them 
vulnerable to defeat by the bourgeoisie. Consequently by assisting in the defeat 
of the masses FARC's politics assist the bourgeoisie in its struggle 
against the masses. This means, then, that FARC's politics are essentially 
bourgeois. Whether FARC are aware of this or not is beside the point. FARC is 
not necessarily consciously and intentionally deceiving the masses. Many of its 
lading fiures may passionately believe that they are serving the interests of 
the masses. Indeed the more passionate they are about such illusions the more 
effective they may be in assisting the bourgeoisie in the political and 
ideological disarmament of the working class.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

Re: M-TH: Fw: Australian referendum


Kim

Who is the ISO

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/


Yes, the DSP is calling for a yes vote and also encouraging people write
on the ballot paper - by direct election.  The ISO is calling for a no
vote for the "bosses republic", which begs the question do they support a
bosses' constitutional monarchy.  They have seemed to miss the point that
the Queen is a fuedal anchronism.  






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M-TH: US elections




Given that the political programmes of the main political 
parties in the United States are increasingly converging on each other 
personality tends to become the key issue in elections. Image becomes all 
because there is hardly anything left to distinguish one bourgeois party from 
another. Under such circumstance the most marginal considerations and issues 
tend to become the issues on which an election result turns.
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Some Comments

Timor: An interesting point that seems to
have been omitted from any public discussion on the East Timorese
referendum is the displaced population. If as many East Timorese have been
displaced as has been claimed then the referendum on independence for East Timor
would have omitted a large percentage of the electorate from the referendum.
Many of these would have been in West Timorese camps or even holed up in the
East Timorese hills. I now wonder how reliable this referendum was.
Japan: "The vice minister of defence lost
his job last week after saying in a magazine interview that Japan should
consider arming itself with nuclear weapons. Yesterday, the government belatedly
muzzled Mr. Nishimura, pressuring him to cancel a press conference on the
issue."
Clearly as in the case of Australian members of the government
making extraordinary statement concerning the role of Australia as a regional
power Japan has been drawn into a similar scenario where a government minister
says publicly what much of the Japanese bourgeoisie are discussing
privately.
Clearly as I indicated in postings of mine on
East-Timorese developments, the interventionist role of Australia and the West
re. East Timorese generates problems for the respective bourgeoisies of leading
countries in the region that prompt developments that lead to complications.
It is clear that if the situation in Timor were to get
increasingly messy similar and even more unpredictable developments would
occur causing the situation to grow more difficult in which issues not otherwise
raised publicly would emerge. These tendencies are present as recent events
indicate and can lead to greater regional tension.
Argentinean elections: It is clear that the
election of the new Argentinean President is not going to lead to any
significant changes in Argentina. It is not as big a change as may be thought
when it is viewed in the context of the fact that the Peronists still control
Parliament etc.
The incoming President has no intentions of changing the
programme of cutbacks in state spending and privatisations that the outgoing
President instituted.
The incoming President puts the emphasis on eliminating
corruption etc. --the ethical politics of the so called "Blair Revolution" of
New Labour. But this means nothing in substance since it is impossible to
eliminate corruption under capitalism. Anyway corruption among the
bourgeoisie is of no real concern to the working class. Corruption among the
bourgeoisie is nothing more than a matter of how the cake gets divvied up among
the bourgeoisie. Bourgeois political parties promises to eliminate corruption
and to pursue ethical politics domestically and internationally is just a form
of the new bourgeois ideology that has been manufactured by the bourgeoisie.
As at least one commentator suggested what has happened
is that the politics stays put while the face is changed --image politics again.
A mere marginal change of no significance is now what elections turn on.
The Gulf: The Gulf states concerned
are apparently increasingly unhappy with the continued high profile presence of
US forces on their territory and along its coasts with the feeling that Iraq is
less a threat to them than formerly.
Clearly if Washington is forced to scale back its presence in
the Gulf it will become increasingly less able to maintain the no-fly zone over
Iraq etc. Its military ability in relation to both Iran and Iraq will have been
substantially diminished. It is clear then that international and regional
conditions are becoming increasingly favourable for Saddam in his efforts to get
a more satisfactory agreement with the West in place. Here is a case where
Washington may not get things quite as they would like. Washington may be forced
to negotiate with Saddam because of the threat of the relevant Gulf states
forcing a significant withdrawal of American forces from the region.
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

M-TH: Andre Gunar Frank & Marx

1999-11-01 Thread George Pennefather




 
I have been spending some time reading Andre Gundar Frank's 
book called Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America. It makes 
for interesting reading especially in the context of my interest in developments 
in Colombia.
 
I am drawn to the way in which he conceives capitalism as a 
global system and thereby as the valid unit of analysis.It is an indispensable 
perspective for any serious attempt to comprehend developments within the 
capitalist system. It is a view to which I have tended too eve if not in quite 
the same way.
 
I like the way Andre subjects the dualistic conception of the 
world to criticism. I too am of the view that one cannot dichotomise the social 
relations of production of a South American country and even a sub-Saharan 
African country. I am of the view that such economies exist within the world 
capitalist system and form "a component" of such a system.
 
However where I principally differ from Andre is in his gross 
omission of the principal categories of Marx's critique of political economy. 
The concepts of value, capital, equalisation of the rate of profit and the 
law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall are conspicuously absent from 
his critique. His relationship to Marx is an ambiguous one. It is never 
clear where Andre stands in relation to Marx's critique of political economy. 
Marxists but not Marx are explicitly subjected to criticism in his book.
 
I agree that there is some truth in the conception that the 
capitalist system of production consists of  centre and  periphery. I 
tend to agree that this centre, to exist, must have an underdeveloping 
periphery. However the central problem, in my view, is not the identification of 
this relationship. The central problem is the identification of the character of 
that relationship. The central task is the identification of how this 
relationship emerged and develops. In short it is critical that revolutionary 
communists outline the specific forms by which the centre/periphery relationship 
exists --the conditions for the existence and development of that 
relationship.
 
In Marx's Capital the general rate of profit, the 
equalisation of the rate of profit and the law of the tendency of the rate of 
profit to fall are principal social forms by which capital accumulates and 
expands. For Marx the law of the tendency of the rate of  profit to fall is 
the driving force behind the expanded reproduction of capital. It would seem to 
me that if Andre rejects these central aspects of Marx's critique then he should 
make it clear as to why he does. If he were to engage successfully in such a 
critique of Marx's Capital then the form in which he endeavours to outline the 
centre/periphery link or hierarchy  present itself in a more plausible 
light.
 
Now perhaps Andre has already completed such a critique. If 
he has then someone this list might inform me of this.
 
 
 
Warm regardsGeorge Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site 
athttp://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

Re: M-TH: Republic (and preamble) defeated...

1999-11-09 Thread George Pennefather


But Bob they also voted in a referendum on the same day against accepting the original
inhabitants, the Aborigines. as the original owners of Australia. As far as I know 
this is
the case --racism.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

>From the reports here in Sweden it appears that the real question appeared to be the
question of who would elect a president. The people or the parliment and because the
purposal declined the former many "republicans" elected to keep the old hag.

Much talk about the deep mistrust of politicans and politics in general.

Warm regards
Bob Malecki
- Original Message -
From: Bullimore / Kim Maree (COM) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 1999 2:40 AM
Subject: M-TH: Republic (and preamble) defeated...


> Although the final count is not in - due to postal votes etc, the republic
> was defeated in the November 6 referendum.  With 77.8% of the vote
> counted
> 45.3% Yes for Republic39.5% Yes to add preamble to constitution
> 54.7% No for Republic 60.5% No to preamble.
> To win the republic vote had to achieve a double majority.  That is
> to achieve constitutional change, the  majority of Australian voters and a
> majority of voters in a majority of the states (that is a majority must be
> won in at least 4 states) must agree to the changes.
>
> The preamble was resoundingly defeated by 60% of the vote.  This was a
> major slap in the face for the PM John Howard and Aden Ridgeway who
> drafted the preamble.  The preamble which was full of nationalistic
> jingoism, which our PM seems to love so much.
>
> It read (try not to throw up as you read it!!!):
> With hope in God, the Commonwealth of Australia is constituted as a
> democracy with a federal system of government to serve the common good.
> We the Australian people commit ourselves to this constitution: Proud that
> our national unity has been forged by Australians of many ancestries;
> Never forgetting the sacrifices of all who defended our country and our
> liberty in time of war; upholding freedom, tolerance, individual dignity
> and the rule of law; Honouring Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, the
> nation's first people, for their deep kinship with their lands and for
> their ancient and continuing cultues which enrich the life of our countryl
> Recognising the nation building contribution of generatins of immigrants;
> mindful of our responsibliltly to protec our unique environmentl;
> supportive of achievement as well as equality of opportunity for all; and
> valuing independence as dearly as the national spirit which binds us
> together in both adversity and success.
>
> The preamble was drafted without consultation (other than with the
> Democrats and Aden Ridgeway) to the people.  Originally it included the
> PM's favourite word "mateship" which offended a large number of people,
> especially women - mateship is a very male term which has its origins in
> the national identity myth of the bush battler and diggers at WW1.
> Eventually this was dropped reluctantly.
>
> The other main area of contention was with the wording in regard to
> Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people.  The favoured word by many
> Aboriginal people and leaders was "custodianship", which gives a more
> accurate reading of the relationship that Indigenous Australians have with
> their traditional lands.  Howard refused to use custodianship, because it
> could also imply ownership (and there for would be at odds with his view
> of the history of Australia - you know the Europeans really didn't steal
> the land from the Aboriginals or murder them or steal their children).
>
> The word "kinship" was suggested by the only Aboriginal in parliament Aden
> Ridgeway who is a member of the Democrats and is conservative.
> Ridgeway has lost a lot of standing with the grass roots membership of the
> Aboriginal community because of this.  He is seen by many as a "token"
> black.  The intersting thing is that Labor Aboriginal spokesperson, Daryl
> Melham has accussed him of just this today - something they have backed
> away from prior to this.
>
> comradely,
> Kim B
>
>
>
>  --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---



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Re: M-TH: Fwd: Roma Community Center "DROM"Kumanovo Appeal and Reports

1999-11-14 Thread George Pennefather




Thought you all might be interested in the Radio Program I did quite a while back on 
this
stuff.

Hi Bob,

Can I get onto this radio station of yours via the internet. Is your broadcast in 
English.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/



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M-TH: Cyprus

1999-11-16 Thread George Pennefather


Talks concerning partition in Cyprus are apparently starting again.

Can anyone tell me what this partition is all about? In whose interests is it that
partition continue? Why cannot both Turks and Greeks form one political community on
Cyprus?

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/



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M-TH: WTO and value

1999-11-16 Thread George Pennefather


The World Trade Organisation negotiations with China is clear evidence that the law of
value does not operate in an unadulterated fashion. It is evidence that there is no 
such
thing as free trade in any comprehensive sense. It would appear that there never has 
been
a
free exchange of commodities in any enduring sense. The law of value and the specific 
laws
of capital operate in an significantly adulterated way. The state has always played an
historically significant role in relation to the circulation of both commodities and
capital. Consequently to try to apply Capital to the contemporary world economic 
situation
in any pure way will simply produce conceptual abstraction. Marx's Capital cannot be 
used
as a naive model that can be naively used to provide a comprehensive understanding of 
the
capitalist economic system. Capital is a work of abstraction. This may explains how 
much
of Marx's political work even after he written Capital are in at least many cases free
from the form presented in Capital.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/






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Re: M-TH: Re: WTO and value -- the relevance of Capital

1999-01-16 Thread George Pennefather



>The World Trade Organisation negotiations with China is clear evidence
>that the law of
>value does not operate in an unadulterated fashion. It is evidence that
>there is no such
>thing as free trade in any comprehensive sense. It would appear that there
>never has been
>a
>free exchange of commodities in any enduring sense. The law of value and
>the specific laws
>of capital operate in an significantly adulterated way. The state has
>always played an
>historically significant role in relation to the circulation of both
>commodities and
>capital. Consequently to try to apply Capital to the contemporary world
>economic situation
>in any pure way will simply produce conceptual abstraction. Marx's Capital
>cannot be used
>as a naive model that can be naively used to provide a comprehensive
>understanding of the
>capitalist economic system. Capital is a work of abstraction. This may
>explains how much
>of Marx's political work even after he written Capital are in at least
>many cases free
>from the form presented in Capital.
>
>Warm regards
>George Pennefather


This might hold if Marx had ever restricted himself to the theoretical bits
of the first volume of Capital, or had not been aware of the relationship
between the laws determining the movement of capital and their empirical
manifestation, or had not intended to write sections of Capital dealing
with precisely these points. It might even hold if early, revolutionary
Soviet Marxists such as Preobrazhensky had not developed the relationship
between the operations of the law of value and an economic system in which
this law is significantly impaired, such as the proto-socialist Soviet
Union with its workers' state.

George: Can you provide us with a brief outline of P.'s conception of this?

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/



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Re: M-TH: China and law of value.

1999-01-16 Thread George Pennefather

- Original Message -
From: Dave Bedggood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 11:45 PM
Subject: M-TH: China and law of value.

The point about the law of value is that it is a law. Capital tries
its best to accumulate by reducing the value of commodities. Nation
states get in the road of the perfect operation of the LOV, but they
cannot prevent it from operating including its crisis effects. The
former USSR and China in breaking with the world market suspended the
LOV except for imports (a relatively small part of their economy).
What the reintroduction of the market does is to reassert the
operation of the LOV. Zhu's role has been to open up to the LOV in
order to force the state sector to compete so that his bureaucratic
caste can convert themselves in a new bourgeoisie.  His desperation
is shown in the concessions made by China to the US - half of
telecommunications opened up to the US and the US allowed to use
anti-dumping legislation against China for another 15 years  (David
Sanger, NYT 16 Nov).

What is interesting about this is not that it sheds new light on Marx
- all this stuff is old hat - but what it says about the
counter-revolution in China. For those of us who belief that the
degenerated or deformed workers state in China was progressive
because it replaced the LOV with state planning, it looks as if China
has reached the point of no return in the counter-revolution at
which the banking, insurance and communications industries will be
opened up to the global market.

George: You miss the very point I have been making. My point is that the WTO is 
evidence
that the LOV does not operate in a free and unadulterated form under capitalism.You 
seem
to suggest the opposite. The WTO is evidence that there is no free trade. If there was
free trade then China would not be seeking membership of it. The WTO is designed to
advance the interests of imperialist countries at the expense of underdeveloped 3rd 
world
countries by introducing discrimatory trading relations. My point is that the LOV never
operated freely for any enduring length of time. To attempt to analyse the world 
economy
purelyt on the basis of these laws merely leads to the proliferation of abstraction

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

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M-TH: Washington bombs

1999-01-16 Thread George Pennefather


The bombing of Serbia by the Washington led military coalition earlier this year may 
have
been meant as a warning to Russia not to step too far out of line. Certainly 
Washington's
bombing of Serbia is clear evidence that Washington is now prepared to  use such
aggression against a European power such as Serbia and may be prepared to use military 
air
power against Russia over Chechnya or some other matter/s.

It would seem that the bombing of Serbia was not merely executed to simply deal with
Belgrade. It would seem to have broader political and strategic implications --an
indication as to how far Washington is prepared to go to develop and maintain its kind 
of
world. The bombing of Serbia adds clout to the seriousness of Washington's diplomatic 
and
strategic programme. It is a way of telling the world to take Washington serious. In 
that
way the bombing was generally meant to underscore and strengthen American strategy and
corresponding diplomacy. It may have been that the subjugation of Belgrade was 
essentially
a subsidiary issue to the one of underscoring overall global American strategy 
--similar,
perhaps, in intent to nuking of Hiroshoma.


Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/



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M-TH: Washington and Moscow

1999-01-17 Thread George Pennefather


Washington's consideration as to whether to hold back on loans to Russia is of 
strategic
significance. Clearly there are a variety of interrelated reasons for any such 
decision.
It can be used as a lever to pressurise Russia to reform its banking system in a way 
that
increases its integration with Western banking. The actual investigation into the money
Russian money laundering scam ties in with this policy.

Then it can be linked with the Chechnya issue. Washington hints to Moscow that it may
create such linkage between the loans and Chechnya can be actually imposed or used as a
threat to pressurise Russia into yielding on the banks or some other matter. In short
Washington is seeking to increase its options as a means of forcing Russia to proceed 
in a
way that suits western capitalist interests.

If it suits Washington's interests it might try to turn the Chechen situation into
Russia's Kosova. Certainly Washington is positioning itself so that this may become a 
real
option that it can implement. However, as I already intimated, it can ignore this 
option
if Yeltsin is prepared to concede ground on other issues.

The point is that Washington is attempting to create as many options as it can to 
force as
much as it can, in the circumstances, from Russia. Washington is positioning itself so
that it can play the Chechen card is so wishes. Washington's seeks to exploit to the
maximum Russian embroilment in Chechnya.

As I said Washington is seeking to position itself to fully exploit the Chechen 
situation.
However it does not have as easy a ride here as it did with regard to Kosova. 
Washington's
options may be more restricted than they were over Kosova. Since Kosovo many members of
the UN are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of this Clinton doctrine.
Consequently they may be less reluctant to sanction measures against   Russian 
involvement
in Chechnya especially as the latter is a member of the Russian Federation. They are 
aware
that if Clinton's Kosovo policy is implemented in Chechnya then it may be implemented 
in
other cases that may more directly affect individual members of the UN. They are also
aware that this Clinton Doctrine has been reinforced by Kofi Amman when he said that 
the
UN should be able to intervene on humanitarian grounds in any sovereign state. The
significance of this statement by the UN Secretary General has not been fully 
appreciated
among the radical left. At the time he made this statement I drew attention to its
significance on the list but there little or no response.

The significance of Clinton's Kosova policy is only beginning to hit home now. 
Clinton's
Kosova policy is a basic declaration to the world that no longer is sovereignty a
universal fact. It is true that in actual fact this has always been the case -Vietnam. 
But
never before has it been stated so explicitly both in practice and in theory. Clinton's
Kosova policy represents a new twist in American imperialism's attempts to advance its
class interests. However Washington is still implementing this policy in a tentative 
way
since it is always fearful of it provoking a united front against Washington's growing
political and diplomatic power by other states. It has to thread with some caution.

Despite Russia apparent determination to bring Chchnea under its control Russia has 
made
concession to be included in a final document to be signed which involves ging the OSCE
both a political and humanitarian role in the Chechnea.The fact that Russia has made 
such
a concession even if it were to turn out to be a merely paper concession is an 
indication
of both Russian internal weakness and growing isolation from the West.


Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/





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M-TH: Visas and Ireland.

1999-11-22 Thread George Pennefather


In Ireland a new visa system is to be introduced which may mean that thousands of
immigrants
are to be allowed into Ireland from non-EU countries such as Africa, Asia, South
America and elsewhere

Clearly this system is being introduced as a means of supplying a tight labour market 
with
immigrant labour. It is not being done in the interests of the Asian and Black masses.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/




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M-TH: Meszaros book

1999-12-05 Thread George Pennefather


I have finally been able to get around to reading Meszaros book, Beyond Capital. Have 
you
any view about it or any suggestions to make for one about to embark on a reading of 
it.



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M-TH: Provo leadership and rank and file

1999-12-05 Thread George Pennefather


Well finally the Provos have bit the bullet and gotten right into bed with British
imperialism and its more obvious domestic agents --the various forms of Unionism.

Some radical elements confine their attack to the leadership of the Provos. Yet there 
is
hardly a mouse squeak from the ranks of Sinn Fein over this new development involving 
Sinn
Fein in a new six county government the purpose of which is the perpetuation of the
existence of the two state system in Ireland. If there is a distinction to be drawn
between the "revolutionary" rank and file of the movement and "the reactionary" 
leadership
then this surely would express itself in a form of organised rank and file opposition 
to
the leadership.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/



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Re: M-TH: Re: Meszaros book -- go for it!

1999-12-08 Thread George Pennefather


Hugh be a bit more specific. The stuff below says nothing.

So far the book seems to be saying nothing new and seems rather convoluted regarding 
what
it does say. It might contain the odd little interesting insight. However this is a
somewhat impressionistic conclusion

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/

Whatever you do don't be intimidated. Mezsaros is a nice bloke and has
clear, sensible stuff to say even if it's not all hunky-dory -- like his
views on the party, say. But treat the book like riding a fiery stallion!
Jump on, dig in your spurs and hold on for dear life. Then when you get
where he's taking you, hitch him to the rail, go into the pub, have a cold
one and think about it. Then just go back and look in detail at whatever
intrigued you most.

You don't often get such a blend of serious thought and enthusiastic
full-blooded hatred of capitalism.

It's a good book to have in the mixer if we want to make a lens that'll
focus the fuzzy wills at present floating around like will-o-the-wisps over
a marsh into something that'll fuse the power of the contradictions
beginning to explode with a powerful united conscious revolutionary will to
replace capitalism with socialism, in other words to dump imperialism and
replace it with first one or two, and then dozens of workers states.

So many of the left who are radicalizing by the second in the States are
still befuddled by such goals as Henwood's "weaker capitalism" -- as if we
could be content with crippling the beast. As if a dragon with its fangs
drawn and its clawed extremities chopped off, its eyes stuck out and its
back broken, would be any good to anybody. We don't need or want a dragon,
especially one that stank when it was "healthy" and will stink worse when
it's got rotting lumps of itself lying around the place. We want our Maiden
in Distress and her Hero (I'm thinking of Andromeda and Perseus, but each
to his own -- there's a nice statue of Andro at the Atheneum art gallery in
Helsinki by the way) to live happily after with the Grail churning out a
wealth of material and cultural goodies for them, and for that only
socialism will be good enough, not some Social-Democratic fuck-up that
sweeps a few crumbs to the masses for a couple of decades, crowing over the
taming of the dragon, but then lets the dragon get back to its old
maiden-eating habits as soon as it's re-grown its claws and fangs.

Cheers,

Hugh




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M-TH: Taxes and surplus value


In Ireland there is regular and frequent reference to the budget surplus that the
bourgeois state has experienced. The surplus is being presented as something that the
bourgeois state can almost be proud of. It is presented in the bourgeois media as an
indication of the prosperity of Irish society. In connection with this the media is
forever inculcating  the view that "the country" is awash with money. Then when the
government introduces measures that reduce income tax as a means of cutting into the
budget surplus its policy is viewed as a act of generosity on the part of the 
government.

The entire debate over the budget surplus and the economic condition of Ireland is
conducted within the superficial matrix outlined above. The entire debate  
misrepresents
the real character and significance of the current situation.

The budget surplus is not an achievement of the state. It merely means that that the 
state
is, if anything, over-taxing the economy. It merely means that the state is deducting 
too
much surplus value from the bourgeoisie. It is an indication of the inability of the 
state
and indeed its bourgeoisie to rationally plan under capitalism since these massive
surpluses were not intended.

Given the vastness of this unexpected surplus value in the form of state revenue there 
is
no question but that the state must release much of this revenue back to the source 
from
which it came --the valorisation process. For ideological and pragmatic political 
reasons
the government seeks to present any such return of surplus value as an act of caring
concern on the part of the government. Nothing could be further from the truth. All 
that
the surplus means is that the state has been over-taxing the capitalist economy and
consequently hindering the accelerated accumulation of capital within that economy. In
short the budget surplus is both an expression of the limited nature of the state's 
social
spending and the degree to which it is hindering rather than enhancing the development 
of
the capitalist economy.

When it returns much of this surplus it presents it as a return of surplus to the 
working
class. It suggests that the return of this surplus in the form of reductions in income 
tax
means increased living standards for the working class. What it does not explain is 
that
under the corporatism that obtains in Ireland any reduction in income tax to the 
working
class means a corresponding smaller increase in gross wages or salaries to the working
class. The result is that the net gain to the working class in lower income tax is
neutralised by the correspondingly diminished increase in gross wages going to the the
working class. The upshot is that the reduced income tax is merely a disguised way in
which surplus value is returned to the bourgeoisie.

Among the most oppressive aspect of the entire strategy for fooling the working class 
in
this way and presenting the increasing exploitation of the working class as liberation 
is
that in Ireland there no voice, let alone organisation, that highlights this fact. The
radical left in Ireland is totally incapable of providing such an ideological 
opposition.
Indeed, if anything, the left in Ireland is so bigoted that the kind of opinion offered
here would be vehemently suppressed by them. However on the internet is at present much
harder to engage in such censorship --although there have been, and are, conspicuous
attempts to achieve this on some mailing lists.


Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/












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M-TH: Degrees and the disadvantaged


Perhaps somebody can answer this question.

In Ireland there is a points system for degree  places in university. The number of 
points
a student gets is a function as to how well s/he does in the Leaving Certificate
Examination. However a system has been introduced whereby as much as 15% of places are
reserved for mature students. These are people over twenty five years of age who may 
not
have done their Leaving Cert or not done well enough in it to qualify for a place in a
uinversity college. They have also apparently reserved places in college for students 
from
disadvantaged areas who don't do well enough in their Leaving Cert to qualify for a 
degree
place.

Whatever about giving grants to disadvantaged pupils I cannot see any fairness, so to
speak, in this kind of system. Surely the bourgeoisie are undermining their own 
bourgeois
norms of justice and fairness by undermining academic achievement as a criterion as to 
who
should go to college to take degrees. Since there are only a limited number of degree
places in all the universities in Ireland this means that this modified system allows
students who did not do as well as others to gain a place in a university.

Can anybody explain why the bourgeois state is introducing such as system. It cannot be
because they care about the disadvantaged.

Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/



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M-TH: Geopolitics and the East


The increasing closer relations between the West and the Ukraine is a cause for Russian
anxiety. The more parts of what was, for all intents and purposes,  the  Soviet Empire
grow closer to the West the more Russian options are diminished. Such developments 
weaken
Russia's hand in its relationship to the West. Russia is concerned over the growing
eastward drive of Western control and influence. Clearly the ultimate goal of the West 
is
the subjugation of both Russia and China to western imperialist interests. If Russia 
and
China are reduced to mere minor powers in the East then Western imperialism will have
clear and distinct hegemony. Consequently this will reflect itself in a radical change 
of
foreign policy regionally and even globally.

In short if Russia and China are reduced to the status of minor regional powers the
character of international relations will take a new turn.

The role of Turkey is of decisive importance in the regional politics in this part of
Asia. Turkey has been apparently attempting to expand its power on the hinterland of 
what
once formed part of the Russian Empire. The distinct possibility of growing tension
emerging between Russia and Turkey exists. Both are competing over the same region. 
Turkey
has been lending its support to Georgia which has not been on the best of terms with
Russia. Washington hopes to exploit Turkish ambitions to expand its power into this 
part
of the East.

The point is that with the collapse of the Soviet Union the hinterlands of what once
formed part of the SU is now the source of tension and rivalry among various regional
powers --Russia, Turkey and the US. To a large the hotspots have changed their 
location.
In the past it was the Middle East now the frontlines have shifted further to the East 
to
the Caucasus.



Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/




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Re: M-TH: Re: Vote for Karl Marx!


How do you mean that Ghandi did not keep to his own principles of non-violence.
Warm regards
George Pennefather

Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/


> >"Real" Marxists would instead be trying to bump Nelson Mandela and Martin
> >Luther King up higher, along with Marx, and help keep Gandhi where he is.
 
> No offense to Mandela, King or Gandhi

Why not offend them? They are hardly great working class 
revolutionaries. I'd rather have Marx on his own than any of them 
three. Mandela is a bougeois nationalist who on gaining power did 
little for the great mass of the population who have not got any of 
the small benifits they were promised. The Reverend King is hardly 
the first name I would think of as a Marxist as representative of the 
black movement. What about Malcolm X, George Jackson, Angela Davis 
even Marcus Garvey. And Gandhi, well he couldn't even managed to keep 
to his own principles of non-violence never mind leading a 'real' 
Marxist revolution. 

I'm not greatly keen on the individualist Leonardo but Newton and 
Darwin were so bad in the context of their own society (and where 
is Freud and Nietzsche). Wasn't Einstein a supporter of dialectical 
materialism or is that just optomistic thinking on my part? Was he 
ever a member of a Marxist organisation in Germany?

And anyway if voting ever changed anthing they would ban it!

John. 


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M-TH: OSCE