[PEN-L:9652] WIREDness: Save or delete?
===> This appeared in the March issue of Perspective, a liberal magazine at Harvard. Time out to note what some students are actually thinking about. valis Occupied America Superhighway to Serfdom By Jedediah S. Purdy The unofficial cultural journal of technophiliacs, Wired offers a snapshot of the people who want to define the next century. The magazine moves through editorials, fawning interviews, and pious profiles to patch together a vision of imminent technological utopia. At the same time, in the sorts of polemics that smart high-schoolers level at their principals, Wired identifies The Enemy: people gauche enough to have jobs making things, people who worry about the integrity of communities, people attached to the antique idea of living in particular places. We should all pay attention: in the struggle for the future, the technophiliacs are winning. Surfing the Third Wave Wired never tires of reminding us of what Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, and the Tofflers have made a truism: we are now well into the "third great revolution" in human history. The first, students of Big History will recall, was the Neolithic move from nomadics to agriculture. That move has inspired much dissension in the past several centuries, first from Rousseau, more recently from would-be nomad Bruce Chatwin and a range of radical ecologists. The second, of course, was the Industrial Revolution, still notably ongoing in parts of the world but nonetheless officially obsolete. From Blake and Dickens through Marx to Wendell Berry, nearly everyone has had something bad to say about the harbinger of smokestacks and assembly lines. Now the Information Age is upon us--and the rules have changed. This time, no criticism is allowed, except from "whiners" and "losers." The future is set, Wired knows the plan, and resistance is futile. Of course, social prophecy is often empty. Wired is playing the same game as anyone who has ever wanted the world to be a particular way and made up a story about why it Has To Be So. Wired offers a glimpse at a world that one group, mostly young and male, mostly getting rich or dreaming of it, very much wants--and how they're trying to bring it about. Selling Out the Future The first hook for Wired readers is big, fast money. An obsession with the World Wide Web as a place to make one's fortune suffuses the magazine--from ads to articles, a frenzy for cash is the norm. The aim is what Wired merrily calls "the Sell Out," a new version of the oldest game of frontier economies. Develop a Web site that looks lucrative--as a source of advertising income, user fees, spin-off material, or whatever--and sell it to someone before its value is tested. Unlike any previous frontier game, except maybe the 1980s junk bond market, this one requires no resources but ingenuity. It represents the purest form of the cash-for-cleverness formulae that dominate the current economy. This is, according to Wired, "The Web Dream that smart kids across America--smart kids around the world--are dreaming." The point is instant wealth, won by being the one who cobbles together something marketable and sells it, rapidly, to the highest bidder. The Sell Out is also Buy Out, and somebody must be buying. The adolescent fantasy of easy money needs a flourishing adult capitalism, willing to buy up Web sites and other Internet commodities. That's why Wired is emphatically on the side of the global economy. This loyalty comes through in an obsequious interview with Texas economist Michael Cox, who has recently won attention for his willingness to claim that working people are better off now than they were twenty years ago. He does this repeatedly and to whoever will listen, insisting that anyone willing to follow the old formula of hard work and initiative can get rich in America. Cox calls "the most dangerous myth of all" the idea--propagated by such renegade myth-makers as the Census Bureau--that "the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and most of us are going nowhere." Debunker Cox warns that "This suggests that society should turn against the rich." Well. He said it. Rather than press Cox with the numbers behind the "myth," Wired's intrepid interviewer responds, "So by attacking the system you could end up with a marginalized nation, wedded to outdated and backward technology, say, like Britain in the 1970s?" Cox assents, pleased at being so well understood. This, like so much else in Wired, is weary stuff. The ide
[PEN-L:9651] Addition on Peru
My contact in Lima offers the following commentary on the MRTA in Lima: "I think in general, revolutionaries should be treated as such. I am very sad they all died. But these people took their action very seriously, they were prepared to kill both hostages and military. They knew what they were getting into and were prepared to die (they, better than anyone, knew the Peruvian military would leave no one alive). If one wants to honor them, they should be honored as fighters which is what they were. For my part, I think there could have been a peaceful solution with more innovative negotiation tactics and especially if an offer to find a peaceful solution to armed struggle in Peru would have been proferred. I also think armed struggle is completely counterproductive in Peru. The MRTA cannot win but they can provoke more repression from which the rest of the population will suffer. No one needs this. They cannot win because they will never get the support of the peasants/indigenous people from the Andes who will not follow their leadership nor their ideology. Peruvian peasant communities are very well organized (community by community, that is) and are unconvinced by the arguments of all those Leftists who have always come with promises and left - in the case of revolutionaries - death and suffering in their wake. This is why the MRTA is not in the mountains but the jungle where there are no peasant communities, for the most part. There is a great deal to be done in Peru but peaceful political organization is much more likely to be effective than violence. But what is needed is peaceful organization which is not guided blindly by ideology but includes a real understanding and respect for Peruvian popular sectors and what they really want now. Peru is not the country for messianic marxists, possessors of the truth and unwilling to listen to those they allegedly are trying to help." --from a progressive U.S. social scientist residing in Peru.
[PEN-L:9650] Re: Ports 'crossing the threshold of
Could someone fill me in? I must have missed the earlier posts about this. What is the URL for COSIPA's web site? What is COSIPA? What are the issues here? How is the state giving capital the keys to the plant? Etc. If an earlier posting covered this, could you please just tell me the subject it was listed under, so I can look it up? Thanks. >Posted on 24 Apr 1997 at 13:43:34 by TELEC List Distributor (011802) > >[PEN-L:9644] Ports "crossing the threshold of globalizat > >Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 10:43:07 -0700 (PDT) >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: D Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Forwarded message: >>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Apr 24 05:10 PDT 1997 >X-Authentication-Warning: sunrise.ccs.yorku.ca: lanfran owned process doing -bs >X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 08:05:51 -0400 >Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: Sam Lanfranco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Ports "crossing the threshold of globalization" >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII >Content-Length: 2667 > >In response to a LabourNet note: >>against the use of non-union casual labour at COSIPA's marine >>terminal. COSIPA's web site invites comments on "any doubts or >>suggestions" concerning its "new venture to cross the threshold of >>Globalisation" including "the new maritime terminal, its most recent > >Doug Henwood wrote: >> I'm a bit mystified by a port crossing a threshold of globalization. >> Ports are all about international trade, and always have been, no? >-- > >I assume that Doug is making a little joke here, but there is a deeper >point. As the famous Brando film "On The Waterfront" makes the point, >Docks and Ports have always been about two very different things. The >trade that passes through them is very international. > > But, much of the time, the production regime, and in particluar how labor >'fits in' at the port has been very 'local' in its structure and control. >Reflect on the labor regime on the ships that travel the seas. With 'flag >of convenience' shipping labor conditions range from excellent to >terrible. > >There is something going on at the level of the organization of work, and >rights of workers, at this point in time and it is probably an early >warning for things to follow. For the large shipping interests, two ports >in Sydney and London, or Hong Kong and San Francisco, are just two >platforms at opposite ends of the same 'plant'. Things are loaded here and >unloaded there - much like boxes switching assembly lines in a factory. > >What is new here is not that the goods being moved are for global trade. >Doug is right, they were always for global trade. What is new is that each >port facility is increasingly being looked at as just another workstation >in a global transportation plant. That they are 1000s of miles apart makes >no difference to those trying to organize them. The strategy is the same >as if they were simply different delivery gates at the same factory site. > >Capital, in the form of the owners of the fleets and the port terminals >undrestands that. The current struggles are helping drive the point home >to labour. As for the state - it seems to be standing at the factory gate >handing the keys to the fleet and port owners in a classic model of the >state as handmaiden to capital. > >Other than higher levels of organization on the part of global labor (part >of what Labornet and LABOR-L support) the only other quiet actor which >could play a stronger role is civil society organizations. I am not sure >what it will take for them (those resident in major port cities) to >realize what the game is here, what they have at risk, and where they >should be playing their hand. > >Sam Lanfranco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Marsh Feldman Phone: 401/874-5953 Community Planning, 204 Rodman Hall FAX: 401/874-5511 The University of Rhode Island Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kingston, RI 02881-0815
[PEN-L:9649] FW: BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1997 RELEASED TODAY: Labor productivity -- as measured by output per hour -- increased from 1994 to 1995 in 69 percent of the industries measured by BLS Industries measured were in manufacturing; transportation, communications, and utilities; trade; finance and services; and mining. Two new industries were included -- mobile homes and the U.S. Postal Service. Prices of goods imported into the United States declined for the third straight month in March, falling by 1.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, BLS reports (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). Using an experimental geometric mean index, BLS found that the CPI rose 0.3 percentage point less than the official price index in the year ended in March, the agency reports. BLS is likely to change parts of the CPI to a geometric mean approach after studying the results of its new experimental index over the rest of the year. Data will be released monthly, one week after the official CPI figures are published. If the agency decides to switch to a geometric mean method of calculating price changes, it has said it will not do so until early 1999, with notice to data users about such plans (Daily Labor Report, page D-3). Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss) told reporters that administration officials and budget committee chairmen "are within striking distrance" of reaching an agreement to balance the budget and should move swiftly to finalize the deal As negotiators try to hammer out the broad outlines of a budget deal with the administration, several Senate Republicans issued a warning not to sacrifice key GOP principles for the sake of an agreement. Included was "No legislative fix to the Consumer Price Index" The warning was in the form of a letter signed by Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex) and others. Gramm was particularly concerned about the possibility of budget negotiators reaching an agreement to reduce the CPI and using the resulting savings to boost funding for discretionary programs. Gramm said the CPI issue is "100 percent politically driven". He added that efforts to reduce the index are not being considered for the sake of accuracy as politicians claim, but for extra money to help boost spending for discretionary programs A CPI adjustment should be made outside of the budget talks by technicians at BLS or a commission comprised of nobel laureates, Gramm and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan) said (Daily Labor Report, page A-11; New York Times, page A1). Employment-based immigration rose significantly in fiscal year 1996, jumping from slightly more than 85,000 a year earlier to 117,499, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reports. The 38 percent increase brought the number of employment-based visas within 22,500 of the 140,000 annual cap on job-related immigration. INS says petitions for employment-based visas increased 20 percent between FY 1995 and 1996. INS reported earlier that employment-based immigration declined 16.1 percent in fiscal year 1994. The primary reason was a lack of demand for available visas. Fiscal year 1994 was the first time the new provisions of the immigration law reflected the true demand for professionals with advanced degrees (Daily Labor Report, page A-9). USA Today includes a page 1A graph that shows a changing pattern in health benefits. Change in enrollment of active employees in benefit plans by type of plan since 1993 are: preferred provider network -- 31 percent in 1996 compared with 27 percent in 1993; HMO -- 27 percent in 1996 compared with 19 percent in 1993; fee-for-service -- 23 percent in 1996 compared with 48 percent in 1993; and managed care with gatekeeper -- 19 percent in 1996 compared with 7 percent in 1993. Source of the data is a Foster Higgins National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.
[PEN-L:9648] Re: AOL4FREE incident
At 11:05 AM 4/24/97 -0700, you wrote: > >The DENVER POST actually carried a warning about the AOL4FREE virus in its >business section, citing someone in the U.S. Department of Energy as its >source. I myself cannot evaluate whether this is part of a hoax or a >myth, but I found it interesting that the POST is trying to be cyber-hip >by carrying prompt warnings about computer viruses. > >Steven Zahniser >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >P.S. Doesn't "cyber-hip" sound like a recently invented German word? I am forwarding the DOE transmittal re. AOL4FREE; the transmittal has their web site address. wojtek sokolowski __ > > wojtek sokolowski institute for policy studies johns hopkins university baltimore, md 21218 [EMAIL PROTECTED] voice: (410) 516-4056 fax: (410) 516-8233 ** REDUCE MENTAL POLLUTION - LOBOTOMIZE PUNDITS! ** +--+ |There is no such thing as society, only the individuals | |who constitute it. -Margaret Thatcher | | | | | |There is no such thing as government or corporations,| |only the individuals who lust for power and money.| | -no apologies to Margaret Thatcher | +--+
[PEN-L:9647] AOL4FREE incident
The DENVER POST actually carried a warning about the AOL4FREE virus in its business section, citing someone in the U.S. Department of Energy as its source. I myself cannot evaluate whether this is part of a hoax or a myth, but I found it interesting that the POST is trying to be cyber-hip by carrying prompt warnings about computer viruses. Steven Zahniser [EMAIL PROTECTED] P.S. Doesn't "cyber-hip" sound like a recently invented German word?
[PEN-L:9646] Mexico human Rights Sign-o Letter (re-sent). (fwd)
Forwarded message: Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 23:28:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Global Exchange <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mexico human Rights Sign-o Letter (re-sent). Dear list subscriber, PLEASE NOTE: In recent days our internet srver (Peacenet) has been experiencing delivery problems. We have been advised to send this message again. If you have already received this message please accept our apology and delete it. If not, read on. Global Exchange is circulating the following sign-on letter (in English and Spanish) to groups and individuals who are concerned with deteriorating human rights conditions in Mexico. If you can, please sign with your name and the name of your organization or institution. If you wish to have your organizational affiliation listed as `for identification purposes only`, please indicate so in your reply. Multiple names from the same signing organization are welcome. PLEASE REPLY TO: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Identify your message as: `Response to sign-on request`. Please send emailed `signatures` as soon as possible. It is not necessary to fax or post your signature, The final sign-on deadline is April 30th. Thank you, Ted Lewis Global Exchange Mexico Program Tel. (415) 255-7296 ext. 236 * To: President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon Lic. Emilio Chuayfett Chemor, Sec. of Gobernacion, Lic. Jorge Luis Madrazo Cuellar, Attorney General Lic. Cesar Lajud, Consul General of Mexico (San Francisco, CA) We the undersigned are deeply concerned about the situation that the people of Mexico are facing at this time. We are aware of the sharp rise in killings, kidnappings, forced evictions, jailings, and harassment of indigenous leaders, priests, teachers, and members of non- governmental organizations in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero and in the rest of the country. We are alarmed at the role of police, paramilitary groups associated with the ruling party, and landowners in the violent actions mentioned above. To put an end to the killing and harassment of the Mexican people and the growing militarization of the country -- especially the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Michoacan, and Mexico City we call for: 1. The immediate return of the Mexican Federal Army to its positions of December 1993 in Chiapas and the rest of the country. (This means the positions held before the invasion of rebel indigenous communities). 2. Respect for and immediate application of the accords on Indigenous Rights and Culture signed by the Federal Government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). Immediate action of the Commission on Verification and Follow-up as defined in these accords. Acceptance and introduction of the proposal for constitutional reforms concerning indigenous rights -- presented in November 1996 by the legislative Commission for Concord and Pacification (COCOPA) -- to the Congress of the Union. 3. The immediate liberation of the prisoners of the "Voz de Cerro Hueco", Mr. Benigno Guzman, Hilario Mesino*, and all Mexican political prisoners. 4. Free access in all Mexican territory and an end to harassment of civil observers and members of Mexican and international human rights organizations. We request a prompt reply in the form of a written response to the points raised above. Sincerely, *La Voz de Cerro Hueco is a political prisoner's organization made up of over 80 Zapatista supporters and members of other opposition political organizations. Benigno Guzman and Hilario Mesino are leaders of the Peasants Organization of the Southern Sierra (OCSS) and are accused by the government of affiliation with the People's Revolutionary Army (EPR). *** SPANISH VERSION FOLLOWS *** A: Presidente Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon Lic. Emilio Chuayfett Chemor, Sec. de Gobernacion, Lic. Jorge Luis Madrazo Cuellar, Procurador General de la Republica Sr. Cesar Lajud, Consul General de Mexico (San Francisco, CA) Los abajo firmantes, queremos manifestar nuestra gran preocupacion por la situacion del pueblo mexicano en estos momentos. Hemos visto el aumento de asesinatos desalojos, encarcelamientos, y hostigamiento a dirigentes indigenas, sacerdotes, maestros y miembros de organismos no gubernamentales en toda la Republica Mexicana, principalmente en los estados de Chiapas, Guerrero y Oaxaca. Nos alarma la creciente presencia de guardias blancas, grupos paramilitares, ganaderos, y elementos de seguridad publica involucrados en acciones violentas arriba mencionadas. Consternados por los asesinatos y hostigamientos que padecen el pueblo mexicano y por la creciente militarizacion en todo el pais, en especial en los estados de Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Michoacan y el Distrito Federal demandamos: 1. Regreso inmediato del Ejercito
[PEN-L:9645] Brief Comment on Civil Society
With respect to Mexico, newspaper columnist Luis Javier Garrido frequently poses the efforts to bring democracy to Mexico as a struggle between civil society and the PRI-government. Steven Zahniser [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:9644] Ports "crossing the threshold of globalization" (fwd)
Forwarded message: Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 08:05:51 -0400 Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Sam Lanfranco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Ports "crossing the threshold of globalization" To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In response to a LabourNet note: >against the use of non-union casual labour at COSIPA's marine >terminal. COSIPA's web site invites comments on "any doubts or >suggestions" concerning its "new venture to cross the threshold of >Globalisation" including "the new maritime terminal, its most recent Doug Henwood wrote: > I'm a bit mystified by a port crossing a threshold of globalization. > Ports are all about international trade, and always have been, no? -- I assume that Doug is making a little joke here, but there is a deeper point. As the famous Brando film "On The Waterfront" makes the point, Docks and Ports have always been about two very different things. The trade that passes through them is very international. But, much of the time, the production regime, and in particluar how labor 'fits in' at the port has been very 'local' in its structure and control. Reflect on the labor regime on the ships that travel the seas. With 'flag of convenience' shipping labor conditions range from excellent to terrible. There is something going on at the level of the organization of work, and rights of workers, at this point in time and it is probably an early warning for things to follow. For the large shipping interests, two ports in Sydney and London, or Hong Kong and San Francisco, are just two platforms at opposite ends of the same 'plant'. Things are loaded here and unloaded there - much like boxes switching assembly lines in a factory. What is new here is not that the goods being moved are for global trade. Doug is right, they were always for global trade. What is new is that each port facility is increasingly being looked at as just another workstation in a global transportation plant. That they are 1000s of miles apart makes no difference to those trying to organize them. The strategy is the same as if they were simply different delivery gates at the same factory site. Capital, in the form of the owners of the fleets and the port terminals undrestands that. The current struggles are helping drive the point home to labour. As for the state - it seems to be standing at the factory gate handing the keys to the fleet and port owners in a classic model of the state as handmaiden to capital. Other than higher levels of organization on the part of global labor (part of what Labornet and LABOR-L support) the only other quiet actor which could play a stronger role is civil society organizations. I am not sure what it will take for them (those resident in major port cities) to realize what the game is here, what they have at risk, and where they should be playing their hand. Sam Lanfranco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[PEN-L:9643] Forwarded mail...
Forwarded message: Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 08:22:33 -0400 Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Sam Lanfranco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] LABOR-L List Manager's Comment: Labor-L is posting the note from North-Holland/Elsevier Press. It has made it known to NH/E that LABOR-L subscribers view NH/E as a high cost source of information and look forward to much lower costs and electronic access. Of course, if anyone in LABOR-L has comments about North-Holland /Elsevier's own labour practices, we would be more than happy to provide them with feedback should feedback be warrented. It is the least we could do for them. --- North-Holland/Elsevier offers you an alerting service CONTENTS ALERT ECONOMICS Desktop delivery of Tables of Contents via E-mail of 33 refereed North-Holland Economics, Econometrics and Finance journals on a weekly basis. * quick and convenient access to over 2,100 refereed articles annually * provides keywords, JEL-codes and authors/affiliations * time-saving: only 5 minutes a week/ no charge Contents Alert Economics includes 33 journals among which: - Economic Letters - European Economic Review - Journal of Econometrics - Journal of Financial Economics - Journal of International Economics - Journal of Monetary Economics - Journal of Public Economics For a free subscription, simply send the following e-mail: TO: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUBJ.: SUBSCRIBE CASECON-C
[PEN-L:9642] Re: civil society -Reply
On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > In that capacity, the nonprofit sector has nothing to do with the role of > civil society envisioned by deTocqueville (and later Gramsci). The former > is merely an ancilliary mechanism of manufacturing public goods, the latter > -- the mechanism facilitating participatory democracy... >Louis Proyect: >The problem is that it *is* being confused throughout Latin America. >Fidel Castro made a speech not too long ago about the invasion of US >sponsored NGO's into Cuba. These NGO's are funded by elite >foundations and universities and have impeccable progressive >credentials in nearly all cases... Getting back to Cuba, these NGO's are >propogandizing heavily for a "mixed economy". They are for privatizing >much of the Cuban economy and their economic rationale is not that >different from the Reaganites... Louis, is there not a big contradiction there, regarding progressive credentials and neo-lib economic agenda? To avoid confusion on such matters, the comrades in the social movements and "Community-Based Organisations" (especially township civic associations) that I hang out with here in Johannesburg came up with the prefix "Working-Class" to "Civil Society" to delineate where they begin and the petty-bourgeois NGOs (like the one I'm based in) end. (A book on this I helped edit is by Mzwanele Mayekiso: _Township Politics: Civic Struggles for a New SA_, published by MR last year.) A bit of class analysis surely helps distinguish civil society (potentially good) from civilised society (real bad).
[PEN-L:9641] New Journal devoted to classical Marxism
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM: RESEARCH IN CRITICAL MARXIST THEORY Historical Materialism is a new journal which seeks to play a part in the recovery and renewal of the critical and explanatory potential of classical Marxism. Historical Materialism will provide a forum for: - The reappropriation and refinement of the classical Marxist tradition for emancipatory purposes. - A genuine and open dialogue between individuals working in different traditions of Marxism. - Interdisciplinary debate and communication on an international scale between graduates, researchers and academics. Historical Materialism wishes to encourage the new generation of Marxists. The advisory editors who support the project and will actively engage with this emergent intellectual community include: Elmar Altvater, Chris Arthur, Jarius Banaji, Werner Bonefeld, Robert Brenner, Simon Bromley, Peter Burnham, Gugliemo Carchedi, Andrew Chitty, Andrew Collier, Terry Eagleton, Gregory Elliot, Bob Fine, Heide Gerstenberger, John Haldon, Wolfgang-Fritz Haug, Michael Heinrich, John Holloway, Geoff Kay, Michael Lebowitz, Andrew Levine, Peter Linebaugh, Joe McCarney, Istvan Meszaros, Fred Mosely, Bertell Ollman, John O'Neill, Justin Rosenberg, Mark Rupert, Sean Sayers, Hazel Smith, Tony Smith, John Weeks, Chris Wickham, Ellen Meiksins Wood and others. Historical Materialism will be launched in Summer 1997 The first issue will feature articles by: ELLEN WOOD 'The Non-History of Capitalism' COLIN BARKER 'Reflections on Two Books by Ellen Wood' ESTHER LESLIE 'Woman&Ware, Craving&Corpse in Benjamin's Arcades Project' JOHN WEEKS 'The Law of Value and the Analysis of Underdevelopment' Plus contributions from Peter Linebaugh, Andrew Chitty, John Holloway, Gregory Elliot, Tony Smith and others. Subscribe Now! For annual subscription (two issues), send cheque or international money order payable to 'Historical Materialism' at the below address. Individuals: 10 pounds/ 20 US-dollar (airmail 25 US-dollar). Institutions: 30 pounds/ 60 US-dollar. You can also help to defend and develop historical materialism by distributing this e-mail and sending in abstracts or articles as well as shorter pieces of a provocative or exploratory nature. Historical Materialism 5 Gunton Road, London E5 9JT, UK. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:9640] Re: Peru
Argentine daily Clarin (http://www.clarin.com.ar) says that when the bomb went off under the indoor soccer room, two young women tried to surrender and shouted "Don't kill us" just before they were gunned down. Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, the leader, was unarmed and tried to flee up the stairs, but was also killed. The newspaper report says that he had two bullet wounds in the head. From this report, it certainly seems that several of the MRTistas were executed. According to one of the army participants in the attack, their orders were to shoot MRTistas whithout doubting (i.e. don't take prisoners). Fujimori stated that all MRTistas died as a result of the blast or in combat. Alan
[PEN-L:9639] Re: Peru
April 24, 1997 Doomed Young Rebel's Change of Heart Saved Lives of Hostages By JULIA PRESTON LIMA, Peru -- Moments after a thundering explosion signaled the beginning of the military raid to rescue the 72 hostages in the residence of the Japanese ambassador, a young guerrilla burst into the second-floor bedroom where several high-level government officials were held. Trembling, the rebel trained his rifle on Rodolfo Munante Sanguinetti, Peru's minister of agriculture, who was lying on the floor trying to protect himself from the falling plaster and flying shrapnel generated by the bomb blast. The guerrilla appeared ready to carry out a plan he had rehearsed perhaps two dozen times during the 126 days he and 13 others from the leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement had occupied the Japanese compound. The rebels had told their captives repeatedly that if government troops attacked, their orders were to kill the hostages and then, if necessary, themselves. The young man, a fierce-looking figure in his combat uniform, wrapped his finger around the trigger, Munante recounted Wednesday. Then, with a look of agony, he lowered his gun, turned around and walked out the door. Soon after, he and all the other guerrillas were dead. "He was going to shoot me," Munante said. "He could have done it. But he didn't." The daylight assault Tuesday that freed 71 hostages was a triumph of military planning and preparation. But in interviews Wednesday, several hostages suggested the raid's success also stemmed from the weakening of the rebels' determination and unity over four months of siege. Hostages have, at times, come to identify with their captors -- the so-called Stockholm syndrome. In this case, according to the hostages, the tables were turned and the captors began to soften toward their prisoners. The Tupac Amaru fighters' strategy of prolonging the impasse contributed to their undoing. They began to disagree among themselves, and over time appeared to let down their guard, the hostages said. The rebels had planned their attack on the ambassador's residence to last a few days. But as the government repeatedly refused to meet their demands, it turned into a four-month standoff, with an extraordinarily large number of captives, including Peruvian government officials and police officers and foreign diplomats. "We knew we were dealing, unfortunately, with a psychopath," said Carlos Blanco, a Peruvian congressman who was among the hostages freed in the raid, referring to Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, the leader of the Tupac Amaru movement. The bond among the hostages helped them to avoid panic when word filtered through to them, minutes before the military attack began, that they were about to be liberated. None of the hostages were willing to divulge who gave them advance notice of the raid and instructions to hit the floor and remain calm. "At first I thought it was a joke, another case of hostage humor," the Rev. Juan Julio Wicht, a Roman Catholic priest, said in an interview Wednesday. But then the explosion made the walls and ceilings of the mansion shake as in an earthquake. "There are no words to describe the noise, the dust, the bullet shells underfoot, the falling pieces of roof coming down from above," Wicht recalled. "I just started praying a little more." In the first days of the siege, said Jorge Gumucio, the Bolivian ambassador, Cerpa told the hostages that they would all be killed if President Alberto Fujimori sought to resolve the crisis by sending in soldiers. "Fujimori will have to take the blame for a massacre," Gumucio quoted the guerrilla commander as saying. But as time wore on Cerpa seemed to grow isolated from three other self-styled comandantes among the hostage-takers, including Roli Rojas Fernandez and two who went by the names Salvador and Tito, and from the younger rebels. Gumucio said he was able to observe a clear difference between the four older guerrillas, including Cerpa, and 10 others who appeared to be younger and less seasoned in the ways of armed warfare. "My personal belief is that Cerpa was ready to settle," Gumucio said in a televised interview Wednesday. But another guerrilla leader, Tito, once told him that he would not agree to end the occupation unless Fujimori released all 450 prisoners from the Tupac Amaru movement in Peruvian jails. "I didn't leave my family and my crops to come here and sell out to free three or four of our people and then go live in Cuba," Gumucio said Tito once told him angrily. "I came for my 450." Meanwhile, the younger rebels, who included several Peruvian Indians and two women, grew more interested over time in the habits and notions of the men they were guarding, several former hostages said. Munante told how he struck up a friendship with the rebel who eventually spared his life. While Munante said trust would be too strong a word to describe the relationship that developed, he adamantly declined to reveal the young man's war
[PEN-L:9638] Peru
Just received this through the A-infos list. I extracted the piece that touches upon the issues raised by Jim and myself. Alex ** Interview With Norma Velazco, European Spokeswoman For The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) Q: How do you explain the fact that during the storming of the residency, all 14 guerrillas were killed - including two teenage girls - whereas on the other side, only 2 soldiers and 1 hostage died? The goal of the MRTA commando was not to murder the embassy prisoners. They were determined to have their demands fulfilled while providing the maximum protection for the lives of their prisoners. There was a struggle between the members of the commando and the soldiers. But most of the members of the MRTA commando were only killed after the residency had been taken, they were most likely tortured as well. Their dead bodies have not yet been shown to the public. *
[PEN-L:9637] conference news from Canada
>From The Society fo Socialist Studies National Office: The conference on human etc. rights, planned for Winnipeg in November 1997, has been postponed/cancelled in order to encourage people to go to the APECRIN conference in Vancouver which will deal, among others, with the rights issue. For information, contact John Price: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Larry Kuhn extends an invitation to an online seminar on education and globalisation, to be held via Solinet. Contact him on [EMAIL PROTECTED] or access http://www.solinet.org Spread the word! Society for Socialist Studies c/o Jesse Vorst ** Question Authority! ** University College, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2M8 CANADA tel. 204-474-9119 (w) / 204-269-1365 (h, main) / 204-275-0474 (h, alt.) fax: 204-261-0021 (w) / time: central (GMT-UTC -6 winter, -5 summer) e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web site: http://www.ensu.ucalgary.ca/~terry/sss.html
