[PEN-L:7878] Re: Law of Value Information
Rob Schaap knows that I covered some of the same ground that he did in my book, Class Warfare in the Information Age. I am now working on a new project concerning the effect of intellectual property on the distribution of income. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7876] Human tragedies of the Asian financial crisis
Below are examples of human tragedies of the Asian financial crisis, the fruits of unregulated globalization. These tragedies occur almost daily all over Asia. South China Morning Post Thursday, June 10, 1999 Hong Kong Family die in murder-suicide ALEX LO Three boys and their parents were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide yesterday. The bodies of Ng Jo-yin, 12, Ng Ho-yin, 10, and Ng Chung-yin, 8, were found on a bed with their father, Ng Chung-kit, 42, and mother Lam Siu-ying, 39, in a Tin Shui Wai flat. The windows and doors of the flat were sealed and charcoal had been burned. Lam was lying to one side of the three boys, hemming them in against the wall, and Ng was lying across his wife and sons. A letter was left in the flat on the 18th floor of Shui Sum House on Tin Shui Estate. Firemen broke in after work colleagues called at the flat because Ng, a Regional Services Department cleaner, had been absent from his work since Monday. Yuen Long District Board member Chow Wing-kan said: "Mr Ng has been working as a grade two cleaner at a Sheung Shui market since early this year. "He had been unemployed since 1995 and found only temporary work from time to time. He came to me complaining about his livelihood and his children's education," said Mr Chow, who saw the bodies in the flat. "He and his family were very active and participated in district events and festivals. He had no bad habits that I know of, besides occasional gambling." Post-mortem examinations will be conducted today. Mr Chow said he saw the family "acting normally" on Monday night, returning home after a meal out. The mother was found in pyjamas, the eldest son in school uniform and the other two boys in T-shirts and pants. The two older sons were pupils at Ho Ming Primary School. The younger son attended Yeung Yat Lam Memorial School. Senior Inspector Poon Ka-yui from Yuen Long District Crime Squad said that forensic experts were examining the bodies. An incense burner was found in the room and all the windows were closed, with cloths and jeans used to seal the gaps. "The room and flat were very tidy. The bodies were neatly dressed," he said. FAMILY TRAGEDY Similar incidents October 19, 1998: Chan Lam Man-fong, 41, upset by her husband's affair with a mainland mistress, throws her two sons, 10 and six, out of a window before plunging 14 floors to her death in a Sheung Shui flat. September 1, 1998: Ex-policeman Wong Tak-lun, 30, kills himself and his two daughters, aged three and two, by directing fumes into his car parked at Bride's Pool Road, Luk Keng. May 4, 1998: Tsang Fong Ming-chu, 26, drowns her three-year-old daughter in a bath tub in her father's flat in Wong Tai Sin before leaping to her death in Tseung Kwan O. April 13, 1998: Medical doctor Betty Ng Yuk-ming, 47, injects her six-year-old son with poison before killing herself in their Happy Valley home. July 17, 1997: Bachelor Lam Ho-ming, 44, kills his elderly parents, aged 86 and 79, before jumping to his death from their Kennedy Town home. September 24, 1996: Unemployed Chan Ying-cheung, 41, survives a suicide pact in which his daughter, four; son, three; second wife, 29; his son from his first wife, 21; and two cousins, 32 and 40; were gassed at a Tsuen Wan flat. Chan is now held at the Siu Lam Psychiatrist Centre.
[PEN-L:7873] RE: Re: Re: Law of Value Information
Response: Under capitalism, the only "obscene" profit rate is that which is less than could have been gotten regardless of the real costs to real people. Under neoclassical paradigm: 1) the existing distributions of wealth, incomes, technology, information are assumed as GIVEN; this means that the existing order is assumed as a given with any comment on its unjustness being a "normative" question not within the purview of economics; 2) pure competition or near pure competition is assumed: freedom of entry/exit, no buyer or seller large enough to affect "market" price as a result of having influence over "market" supply and demand, homogeneous products, perfect information, perfect mobility of productive "factors" etc (the pure competition assumption is often lifted but selectively not to violate the fundamental contrived syllogism); 3) productive entities or "nations" specialize and trade according to "comparative advantage"; 4) economic agents are bounded "rational", calculating, competitive, maximizers or at least "satisficers", individualistic, egoistic, acquisitive; 5) market signals are sent and received through competitive markets, rationally interpreted and rationally acted upon; 6) concepts such as history, power, sexism, racism, class consciouness/interests, class nature of the State, imperialism etc are etherial, non-operationalizable and ad hoc factors not to be incorporated into any analysis of GENERAL dynamics and outcomes; 7) causality is linear and unidirectional with ultimate independent and dependent variables; 8) hysteresis and feedback effects (making undirectional causality, ultimate independent/dependent variables and ultimate singular outcomes in new equilibria impossible) are assumed away; 8) causes of changes in the ultimate "exogenous variables" are assumed not to be discussed and/or under the scope of inquiry of "economics"; dE--dD--dShortages\ /--dQd \ --dPrice/--Smaller--dPe--dQe dE--dS--dSurpluses/\-- dQs Surpluses Shortages So "exogenous" forces/variables-- endogenous equilibrating processes-- new equilibria in prices and quantities. All that challenges the contrived syllogisms and tautologies of the neoclassicals (in the real world such as sexism, racism, history, differential power, differential access to/enforcement of property rights, differential factor mobility, asymmetric information, commodified information meaning differential acces to and control over information, class nature of the state, etc) is summarily assumed away to construct the fantasy world of the neoclassical and to set up the intended (contrived)syllogisms: Efficiency =, unbridled/unregulated capitalism = ergo capitalism = efficiency, freedom etc... Neoliberalism is even worse in that the fetish for de jure and assuming away, ignoring or even denying the very different and contradictory de facto underneath the veneer/facade of de jure, and preaching "level playing field", "free competition", "free trade" etc, when assuming the GIVENS means assuming as GIVEN, monstrous inequalities that can only--inexorably--lead to widening further inequalities (de jure "free trade/competition" among highly unequal competitiors in competitive/trade regimes defined and run by and for the most powerful can only produce, de facto, anti-competition, anti "free trade/competition"), as in my favorite Brecht poem, what is assumed as GIVEN is the existing order, the existing power structures, the existing ideologies, the existing myths and lies, the existing asymmetries and the existing trajectories and trends in favor of the interests of the already obscenely wealthy and powerful. It is all bullshit with very ugly consequences and trajectories flowing from the policies and ideologies of imperialism and their neoclassical/neoliberal ideological/theoretical pimps. Jim Craven -Original Message- From: Henry C.K. Liu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 2:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:7868] Re: Re: Law of Value Information The four key elements in the issue of fair value in global trade are intellectual property (IP), technology, information and pricing. In classical exchange, price is determined by cost and demand which under free trade conditions will reach equilibrium to provide the optimum price and the largest sales. But free trade is a myth, and the US is the leading opponent of it in practice while being the leading proponent of it in rhetoric. The rationale for IP is that it is needed to subsidized the coming stream of new technology. But as the Microsoft anti-trust case had demonstrated, IP inhibits new technology more than it is generally recognized. The same is evident in medical drugs. The only arena this inhibition does not exist is in military technology where the technological imperative still governs. The fundamental criteria for a free market is the
[PEN-L:7871] charge for mirroring web site?
A commercial publisher wants to mirror our web site as part of what seems to be a course text based on a number of web sites. What is the appropriate charge for this? Thanks. Please reply off list to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] June Zaccone, National Jobs for All Coalition, 475 Riverside Dr., Ste. 832, NY, NY 10115 212-870-3449 http://www.njfac.org
[PEN-L:7869] Multiple Copies
Doug has complained, rightly, that he is being bombarded with multiple copies of Sid Shniad's postings, one copy of which I have been forwarding. It appears that we are both on Sid's distribution list. Now some of you have commented on how useful they are so I continued to forward them -- but in response to Doug's complaint I have decided not to forward any more. People who would still like to see them, I would suggest they e-mail Sid and ask to be put on his distribution list. His address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
[PEN-L:7867] so much for human capital theory
Supposedly education and technological competence explains the worsening distribution of income. What can we make of the following story? Document 1 of 2. Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 9, 1999, Wednesday, CONSTITUTION EDITION SECTION: Business; Pg. 18D LENGTH: 292 words SERIES: Home HEADLINE: Exec getting Initiative Award BYLINE: Sandra Chereb, Staff BODY: For decades, Jay Thiessens hid a painful secret as he built his machine- and-tool company from a mom-and-pop operation into a $ 5 million-a-year enterprise. During the day, he hid behind the role of a harried businessman. At night, his wife, Bonnie, would help him sort through the paperwork at the kitchen table, in the living room, or sometimes sitting up in bed. Other tasks he delegated to a core group of managers at BJ Machine Tool Co. , who had no idea their boss couldn't read. ''I worked for him for seven years and I had no clue,'' said Jack Sala, now the engineering manager for Truckee Precision, a BJ competitor. ''I was his general manager. He would bring legal stuff to me and say, 'You're better at legalese than me.' I never knew I was the only one reading them.'' Few people knew of his shame and most burning desire: to be able to read a simple bedtime story to his grandchildren. But he couldn't keep his illiteracy secret forever. ''It became too hard to continue to hide it,'' said Thiessens, who has begun to read at the age of 56. ''Since I made the decision to let everybody know, it's a big relief.'' Today, Thiessens will be honored in Washington as one of six national winners of the 1999 National Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award. Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MassMutual, the award recognizes small businesses that have triumphed over adversity. Last October, Thiessens found a tutor to instruct him for an hour a day, five days a week. He recently read his first book. It was slow going, but he finished it. He hopes his story will encourage others. ''There is no shame in not knowing how to read,'' said Bonnie Thiessens. ''The shame is not doing anything about it.'' -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7865] Re: Law of Value Information
Thank you Rob. I have been trying to get this discussion going for some time now. I would much rather be working on your idea than sniping about socialism. Rob Schaap wrote: G'day Pen-pals, Some deliberately simplified (eg the 'US versus the world' theme) speculations underpin this attempt to get a few ideas clear in my mind about the political economy of information and the world economy. I'm over-reaching a bit, but I'd love to know if any of this has legs. Let's begin by looking at US government agencies over the last few years. After that, we can look at some theoretical concerns (law of value and information as commodity) and see if we can link the former with the latter in satisfactory fashion. I actually discern a self-generated structural crisis in the convergence of telecommunications and computing - and it's all to do with contradictions between the essence of information and its form as commodity. The role of the US government (the FCC, the State Dept, trade representatives, the Legislature and the Executive) has been to coordinate (in almost inevitably uncoordinated manner) and mediate private sector interests and conflicts. Whether we're talking about US international policy in intellectual property (WIPO and bilateral actions, eg against China), trade (WTO OECD NAFTA), science, culture and media (ending the NWICO debate within UNESCO, by simply leaving it in 1985), or general 'liberalisation' stuff (from ATT's divestiture - and concomitant new opportunities - in 1982 to government-subsidised lobby groups within overseas policy communities) we always hear the same exhortations - free markets and, concomitantly, free flows of information (concomitant in US eyes, because information as a commodity is exhaustively covered by the trade category). They're arguing thus, and vociferously thus at that, because the world's largest telecompany (ATT), satellite company (Hughes), patented computer companies (IBM Apple), patented software company (Microsoft), internet companies (eg AOL Yahoo), and entertainment companies (Hollywood, Time-Warner, NewsCorp) are all American. All emerged in the US as commercial institutions, and all promote their own utilisation globally, and all depend entirely on IP protection in concert with unfettered access to global markets - and together they make up more than half of the US economy and more than half of its exports - and can be expected to constitute ever greater significance (that's what 'post-industrial' and 'information economy' mean, no?). The lobbying (within WIPO and the WTO - the MAI is back), threats (bullying tactics and ultimate dummy-spit at UNESCO, threatening Australia with a trade war if we don't take the protection off our culture industry), and bribes (China and MFN status) are all about protecting market power and entrenching initial advantage (the technology behind which did not come courtesy of the market at all, but from taxpayers through the military-industrial complex), have largely been very successful. America, with excess capacity plagueing its industrial sector, poverty stalking its agricultural sector, and a current account that staggers the imagination, NEEDS commoditised information - its current monopoly power over carriage and content is the only economic advantage it has, and they'll use anything, including their only strategic advantage (their military) to protect and promote it. But they have two problems - one immediate and one ultimate. Immediately, there is the problem of controlling information. This they must do as information does not fall easily into the category of commodities. It is not used up in the consumption (indeed, it is not consumed), it is not given up in exchange (the vendor leaves the transaction with both what he has sold and what he got for it), and transaction costs are near zero - in other words, information is not scarce in any traditional sense (ie that there ain't enough of it, for whatever reason, for everyone to have some), and can exact prices *only* through institutional power relations. Such relations affect all prices (as the institutionalists tell us), but they wholly determine the price set on an item of information. In light of this, the labour stored in an item of information and its dissemination can easily lose all relevance to the prices that can be charged for the product. To bring more physical commodities to market is to use up a commensurately more indirect labour power (ie a greater part of your equipment and raw materials) or to use more direct labour power. You can literally bring an infinite number of identical copies of any information item to market, and it costs you nothing extra. There is *no* pressure discernable in the realm of information that might move prices to gravitate around their exchange value while the legal and technological conditions pertain whereby that information can
[PEN-L:7864] Dropping Mao
I am getting ready leave for Australia. This whole debate does not seem to be going anywhere. Only about 5 people have really done all the communicating. The discussion is laced with insults. Also, I do not think that we need to concentrate so much on Mao. I am interesting in understanding the future trajectory of China, as well as other important economic matters, such as the future of the Asian crisis or its demise, what sort of political openings existing economic forces offer Pleaase, until I return, let us cease and desist this disucssion. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7860] Re: Re: 'ethnicity' (was homogeneity...)
Hi Carrol: Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: What is 'ethnicity'? What's the difference between it and 'race'? Between it and 'nationality'? I'm not sure myself about "ethnicity," but I would suggest that discussion of either ethnicity or nationality might more easily cross national lines than does discussion of 'race,' which I think has a different valence in almost every nation. I claim to know nothing about racism in nations other than the U.S., but I think it is crucially important to recognize that in the U.S. *no* situation is uncolored by racism: the black person (black man? black woman?) is *always* present in one way or another in u.s. society and culture, and this has been the case at least since the publication of those troublesome words about "all men are created equal" in the Declaration -- a statement which introduced an impossibly wrenching contradiction into all hierarchical relationships, but above all into the oppression and exploitation of blacks, first under slavery and then under various forms of segregation and ghettoization. I agree with this. So maybe when Americans say that "Japan is relatively homogenous," what the statement actually means is that "Japan doesn't have blacks"? Yoshie P.S. I also think that Morrison is right on the subject of blackness haunting whatever cultural product America has produced. P.P.S. I didn't know that you like Henry James also. It is astonishing that we never seem to like the same author (given how often I agree with you on most anything else).
[PEN-L:7858] Re: 'ethnicity' (was homogeneity...)
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: Michael Perelman wrote: It is just that ethnicities make conflict more likely -- What is 'ethnicity'? What's the difference between it and 'race'? Between it and 'nationality'? I'm not sure myself about "ethnicity," but I would suggest that discussion of either ethnicity or nationality might more easily cross national lines than does discussion of 'race,' which I think has a different valence in almost every nation. I claim to know nothing about racism in nations other than the U.S., but I think it is crucially important to recognize that in the U.S. *no* situation is uncolored by racism: the black person (black man? black woman?) is *always* present in one way or another in u.s. society and culture, and this has been the case at least since the publication of those troublesome words about "all men are created equal" in the Declaration -- a statement which introduced an impossibly wrenching contradiction into all hierarchical relationships, but above all into the oppression and exploitation of blacks, first under slavery and then under various forms of segregation and ghettoization. Not one black person, to my memory, appears in the collected fiction of Henry James, but no author's works are so permeated by the spectre of blackness. That is, the most important fact re any given page in his work is that no black person is there. This was also part of my queries some months ago re *Buffy*. Tony Morrison is very good on this, no matter how bad some of her politics may be. Incidentally, endless empirical arguments about whether a given event does or does not show racist elements obscure rather than reveal the centrality of racism in U.S. life. Carrol P.S. Try reading the *Portrait of a Lady* or *Wings of the Dove* asking yourself what would happen if there were as many American Blacks involved as there are Italians? (I say this even though I learned to read by reading James, and maugre his politics and his racism cannot but love every page of him. When one once learns to love a writer, no "facts" can change that.)
[PEN-L:7856] Re: China/Vietnam and the War Next Time
This is DeLong's "free" press. Louis Proyect wrote: China/Vietnam the War Next Time In June the Indochina Newsletter publishes a Special Teachers' Issue -- The ABC's of the Vietnam War. It contains a more realistic view of the war -- presented by scholars who have long studied that conflict. "The following narrative presents a perspective on the Vietnam War which at times challenges standard views of the war. It draws heavily on U.S. government sources -- particularly the Pentagon Papers -- and primary sources not readily available" THE ABC's OF THE VIETNAM WAR "...many people think the Vietnam war was between two countries, North Vietnam and South Vietnam, with the United States fighting on the side of South Vietnam. This view, however, ignores the history of the conflict and the history of the people of Vietnam." To me the "ABC's" is also a lessen in the operations of the CIA and how it, and later also the U.S. military, distorted what was happening. I am particularly concerned now as I see the media hype about Chinese "espionage," aimed at creating a new Cold War. This could lead to a new Vietnam-type war -- this time with China. Many might think that this is impossible or improbable -- they should be advised that at least until the early 1960's the CIA ran paramilitary and guerrilla operations against China. It was not until Nixon visited China that the U.S. adopted -- for a while a -- more rational policy. How long this can last, given current political realities, is questionable. DCI George Tenet announced in 1998 that he wanted to build more CIA overseas stations, run more operations, and he named China as one of the targets for those operations. As part of this build up, Congress has the CIA re-creating the "Mighty Wurlitzer," a massive worldwide media asset capable of distorting reality with misinformation, planted evidence and other techniques to distort and heat up world opinion about any CIA operational plan. Along with the Mighty Wurlitzer the CIA builds stronger paramilitary capabilities while downgrading analysis -- which challenge its own lies/intelligence. I should note my experience in CIA was in Vietnam. Ralph McGehee http://come.to/CIABASE Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:7854] Re: Re: RE: Mao on Intellectuals
Made "infamous" by your parody. See Michael, how the debate is once again dragged down to a low level? Henry C.K. Liu Brad De Long wrote: the infamous introduction to the "Red Book" by Lin Biao... Jim Craven So Mao's closest comrade-in-arms and designated successor during the late 1960s is "infamous." See Michael, we are making progress... Brad DeLong
[PEN-L:7852] Anti-War Demos in SF Wash. DC
Hi Pen-l, Well, I was at the Emergency Mobilization to End the War in Yugoslavia held June 5 in San Francisco and attended by about 5,000 people. Compared with the WSWS commentary below on the June 5 anti-war demo in Washington, DC (both sponsored by Ramsey Clark's International Action Center [IAC]), the SF demo (preceded by a two-mile march up Market St.) was decidedly more focused on anti-imperialism. Both demos, by the way, received no coverage in The Sacramento Bee, Northern California's leading daily newspaper. Speakers in SF included: Gloria La Riva of the IAC, just back from a visit with Ramsey Clark to Yugoslavia in which she produced a video, "NATO Targets,"; Michael Parenti, who criticized "liberal" and "progressive" support for the US/NATO attack that's successfully destroying Yugoslavia's industry in response to global excess capacity; anti-imperialist polemics from American men and women of Serbian, African, Anglo, Puerto Rican, Romani and Greek backgrounds who, in part, connected the US/NATO aggression against the people of Yugoslavia to the US government attack on the American people (specifically those of color bearing the brunt of the prison-industrial complex, police brutality and welfare reform). A few more observations about the SF demo. Organized labor, historically pro-imperialist, was noticeably absent from the SF demo. Also regrettable is the IAC's description as "pro-Serb" by some in the mainstream peace organizations. Last and all to the good, there were many young people selling the IAC's book, "NATO in the Balkans." I highly recommended it to all on Pen-l. Meanwhile, protests are continuing in Sacramento. An anti-war demo is planned on Friday, June 11 in front of the Memorial Auditorium on 16th and J St. from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Seth Sandronsky [EMAIL PROTECTED] WSWS : News Analysis : Europe : The Balkan Crisis Washington march protests NATO bombing of Yugoslavia By Martin McLaughlin 9 June 1999 Use this version to print Several thousand people marched to the Pentagon last Saturday to protest the continued US bombing of Yugoslavia. The demonstrators assembled near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC and marched across Memorial Bridge to the headquarters of the US Department of Defense. The demonstration was called by a number of peace, anti-war and Serbian-American groups several weeks ago, but took place one day after the announcement of the agreement by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to bow to NATO's terms for calling off the bombing. This announcement undoubtedly cutattendance at the protest, and many of the announced speakers, including three UScongressmen, failed to show up. By far the largest attendance was from the Serbian-American community. Hundreds wore buttons proclaiming Proud to be a Serb, carried Serbian flags or hand-lettered placards with slogans in Serbo-Croatian. Several men wore T-shirts identifying themselves as Serbian-American veterans of the US military, and members of a Serbian-American branch of the American Legion. At least four Serbian-Americans were among the dozens of speakers who addressed the crowd either before or after the march. Mila Lazarevich-Nolan, representing United Serbs of America, branded the US-NATO military action a war of deception, like Vietnam. She said that the Clinton administration was seeking to dismember a sovereign country in order to establish an American hegemony in the Balkans. Its goal was not peace, but capitulation. Ultimately, she warned, what remains of Serbia and Yugoslavia would face dissolution backed by the full force of military occupation. Another Serbian speaker, playwright Nadia Tasic, denounced the US criminal government and said its goal was the colonization of the former Yugoslavia. Our children will remember America as
[PEN-L:7862] Re: 'ethnicity' (was homogeneity...)
Yoshie, perhaps I overstepped the bounds of my understanding. I jumped into this discussion merely to mention an advantage that Japan had vis a vis the USSR. Homogeneity is, of course, a tricky subject -- as you Kelly and Angela -- have pointed out. Prejudice can be justified in terms of external characteristics, such as smelling bad, and then can turn into discrimination [as Henry mentioned]. Discrimination in terms of class, race or gender is bad. A society can probably run "well" (i.e., w/o too much inconvenience) when the object of discrimination do not join together as a force as was probably the case of gays until the last few decades. Ethinic or racial groups have a greater capcity to make themselves felt as a group and thus can more easily embroil society in disruptions. Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: Michael Perelman wrote: It is just that ethnicities make conflict more likely -- What is 'ethnicity'? What's the difference between it and 'race'? Between it and 'nationality'? Yoshie -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7850] 'ethnicity' (was homogeneity...)
Michael Perelman wrote: It is just that ethnicities make conflict more likely -- What is 'ethnicity'? What's the difference between it and 'race'? Between it and 'nationality'? Yoshie
[PEN-L:7846] Re: homogeneity - was Re: Comparing...
rc-am wrote:
1. the idea of japanese homogeneity is a well-contested one. identity and
homogeneity is as much a state doctrine of japanese nationalism as a
demographic statement - disentanglng the two is not that easy to do,
especially once you accept the premises that social division and
categorisation is only evident in 'ethnic differences' recognised by the
state;
I agree with what you say above.
2. by 'relative homogeneity' you clearly do not mean 'relatively
egalitarian',
Absolutely.
and there is a tendency to assume in this depiction that
conflict (and therefore expenditures of means of social control) only arises
when there are different ethnicities within the same nation-state;
No. Not only then. It is just that ethnicities make conflict more likely --
although they much just channel some fixed quantum of conflict onto an easy
target.
Recall what you said above about the constructed homogeneity. For example, in my
school we construct homogeneity along different lines -- where race does not
matter much, but teaching styles and ideologies do. You do not have to construct
homogeneity by excluding others [One Nation, etc.], but by coming closer to
recognizing a common humanity.
I think that I mentioned that the Japanese, from what I know are racist -- at
least my Japanese friends have told me so -- All Americans smell bad from eating
butter .
Anyway, thanks for the interesting note.
3. you've implied that it is the relative absence of 'other ethnicities'
which makes for the relative absence of social conflict. in the line of
causation then, and by implication, if there are no 'ethnic differences'
there is no conflict, and hence no need for repression. in a more emphatic
way, this is the foundational premise of racist groups like One Nation and
americanfront, and one which lends itself readily to the 'solution' of
separating 'races' as the logical approach to questions of social conflict.
some excerpts from Koichi Iwabuchi's, "Complicit exoticism: Japan and its
other"
the rest is at: http://kali.murdoch.edu.au/cntinuum/8.2/Iwabuchi.html
"Japan's constructed and celebrated unity has never been a monolith but is
precarious. However, debunking the myth of "Japaneseness" is quite different
from understanding the symbolic power of national identity. In spite of the
easily-known falsity of a unified "Japaneseness", and of the inequalities
which exist in the "real" national society, why and how are 'imagined
communities' (Anderson) maintained? The crucial issue here is how the
differences 'stitch up'...'into one identity' (Hall "Question" 299).
...
Purity cannot mark itself through itself. Only impurity marks purity.
...
As for Japan, in the path to Japan's modernisation, the emphasis on
"Japaneseness" has been crucial for the power bloc as a means of mobilising
the people. This strategic "Japaneseness" is something which maximises
national interests and minimises individualism, consisting of traits such as
loyalty to or devotion for the country.
As Gluck noted 'in the imagined West, people were incapable of loyalty and
filiality, and this was sufficient to define these traits as essentially
Japanese.'
('37)
Thus "the West" has been utilised to counter "undesirable" consequences of
modernisation such as the rise of individualism or labor unionism, which give
priority to people's rights. For example, it was when social movements like
labor unionism became popular in the '9'0s that ie (household) ideology was
intensively advocated
(Crawcour). This ideology stressed the traditional values of paternalism,
through which Japan itself and companies were compared with families.
Clearly, this myth of "Japaneseness" was utilised to repress people's demands
for "democracy" or human rights, by attributing social conflict and dissent
to western "disease". Through selective comparisons with key significant
Others, self-Orientalism also unmarks the exclusion of the voices of the
repressed such as minority groups like Ainu, Koreans and burakumin (Japanese
Untouchable) which make up four per cent of the population, and women or the
working class. By asserting "we Japanese" as opposed to "them, the
westerners", the discursively constructed "Japaneseness" is reified. Kano has
argued that the strength of the concept of "the Japanese" lies in its
all-inclusive meanings and that the concept of "the Japanese" implicitly
includes all aspects of land, inhabitants, language, race, ethnicity and the
nationality, all of
which have not been historically differentiated from each other (quoted in
Nishikawa 226-7). Any discourse of "Japaneseness" tends to start with taking
such an ambiguous definition of "the Japanese" for granted. Thus, Japan's
self-Orientalism has been quite selectively manipulative and repressive.
Self-Orientalism obscures the fact that Japan's particularism is actually
hegemonic within Japan. "The West" is
necessary for
[PEN-L:7842] Re: Law of Value Information
Rob, you might want to take a peek at this story by the Bob Kuttner. http://www.globe.com/dailyglobe2/157/oped/Housing_prices_are_hitting_the_roofP.shtml Although it's nice to be able to communicate with someone in Australia, cheaply by email, it does not really do much for more basic problems like housing. Or let's say tracking down a roofing contractor---if he doesn't want to be found. Most of this information-communication stuff is hype. What good can it possibly do unless unless there is some utility to it. Now I realize that for the mega corporations like the Big 3 automakers there is utility in communication-information in that world wide production can be co-ordinated, as in modular production schemes for automobiles. With as few as 5 modules being shipped into the USA from the lowest bidder to assemble a car. Of course this creates a whole new set of problems... Got anything you want to sell in the USA cheap, Rob? Your email pal, Tom L. Rob Schaap wrote: G'day Pen-pals, Some deliberately simplified (eg the 'US versus the world' theme) speculations underpin this attempt to get a few ideas clear in my mind about the political economy of information and the world economy. I'm over-reaching a bit, but I'd love to know if any of this has legs. Let's begin by looking at US government agencies over the last few years. After that, we can look at some theoretical concerns (law of value and information as commodity) and see if we can link the former with the latter in satisfactory fashion. I actually discern a self-generated structural crisis in the convergence of telecommunications and computing - and it's all to do with contradictions between the essence of information and its form as commodity. The role of the US government (the FCC, the State Dept, trade representatives, the Legislature and the Executive) has been to coordinate (in almost inevitably uncoordinated manner) and mediate private sector interests and conflicts. Whether we're talking about US international policy in intellectual property (WIPO and bilateral actions, eg against China), trade (WTO OECD NAFTA), science, culture and media (ending the NWICO debate within UNESCO, by simply leaving it in 1985), or general 'liberalisation' stuff (from ATT's divestiture - and concomitant new opportunities - in 1982 to government-subsidised lobby groups within overseas policy communities) we always hear the same exhortations - free markets and, concomitantly, free flows of information (concomitant in US eyes, because information as a commodity is exhaustively covered by the trade category). They're arguing thus, and vociferously thus at that, because the world's largest telecompany (ATT), satellite company (Hughes), patented computer companies (IBM Apple), patented software company (Microsoft), internet companies (eg AOL Yahoo), and entertainment companies (Hollywood, Time-Warner, NewsCorp) are all American. All emerged in the US as commercial institutions, and all promote their own utilisation globally, and all depend entirely on IP protection in concert with unfettered access to global markets - and together they make up more than half of the US economy and more than half of its exports - and can be expected to constitute ever greater significance (that's what 'post-industrial' and 'information economy' mean, no?). The lobbying (within WIPO and the WTO - the MAI is back), threats (bullying tactics and ultimate dummy-spit at UNESCO, threatening Australia with a trade war if we don't take the protection off our culture industry), and bribes (China and MFN status) are all about protecting market power and entrenching initial advantage (the technology behind which did not come courtesy of the market at all, but from taxpayers through the military-industrial complex), have largely been very successful. America, with excess capacity plagueing its industrial sector, poverty stalking its agricultural sector, and a current account that staggers the imagination, NEEDS commoditised information - its current monopoly power over carriage and content is the only economic advantage it has, and they'll use anything, including their only strategic advantage (their military) to protect and promote it. But they have two problems - one immediate and one ultimate. Immediately, there is the problem of controlling information. This they must do as information does not fall easily into the category of commodities. It is not used up in the consumption (indeed, it is not consumed), it is not given up in exchange (the vendor leaves the transaction with both what he has sold and what he got for it), and transaction costs are near zero - in other words, information is not scarce in any traditional sense (ie that there ain't enough of it, for whatever reason, for everyone to have some), and can exact prices *only* through institutional power relations. Such relations affect all prices (as
[PEN-L:7840] FWD: UPDATE: Military and Sexual Assault Study
Sorry, spoke too soon... Bill --- start of forwarded message --- Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 21:05:37 -0700 From: Christine Hansen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: The Miles Foundation Subject: UPDATE: Military and Sexual Assault Study Following a large volume of requests, the National Academy for Public Administration (NAPA) will publish the Executive Summary of its study of military criminal investigative organizations' response to sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual assault on its website, http://www.napawash.org, after June 21. Instructions relative to obtaining a complete copy of the study will be also be provided on the Internet site. Christine Hansen --- end of forwarded message ---
[PEN-L:7838] BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 1999 RELEASED TODAY: The revised seasonally adjusted annual rates of productivity change in the first quarter of 1999 were 4.1 percent in the business sector and 3.5 percent in the nonfarm business sector. In both sectors, the revised first-quarter gains in output were smaller than those reported initially, and the gains in hours were unchanged; therefore, the revisions decreased the first-quarter 1999 productivity gains. ... According to BLS, the average number of years employees stay at their jobs decreased to 3.6 years in 1998 from 3.8 years in 1996 (Wall Street Journal, "Work Week," page A1). Writing on the op-ed page of the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne Jr., a member of the staff, begins, "The United States has been conducting a great economic experiment. It involves keeping unemployment rates at a historical low over a long period. The results are in: Sustained low unemployment achieves the good results its advocates have always claimed it would. Not only that: We've kept unemployment low without experiencing an upsurge of inflation. ... Among the large beneficiaries of the low unemployment rates are young black men, according to a study by Richard B. Freeman of Harvard University and William M. Rogers at the College of William and Mary," who studied data for 14 metropolitan areas. ... application/ms-tnef
[PEN-L:7848] RE: Mao on Intellectuals
Isn't one of the methods of Maoism, criticism/self-criticism ? This would seem to encourage critical thinking rather than the opposite, as the anti-Maoists imply. And overall, Maoism is a profound criticism of all existing society, much more substantive criticism in thinking and action, than that of the bourgeois liberal intellectuals in general and in particular those here "criticizing" Maoism's alleged lack of critical thinking. Bourgeois liberal intellectuals are involved in apolegetics not criticism of capitalism. For example, calling capitalism "the affluent society" is an apolegetic, not critical, theme. Long live the People's Republic of China ! Charles Brown "Craven, Jim" [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/09/99 12:16PM Right on. If we can have a parody/caricature of Mao Zedong's thought via a parody of the infamous introduction to the "Red Book" by Lin Biao, as opposed to quoting and debating Mao directly, then let's have the substance of Mao Zedong's concepts from the pen of Mao himself rather than something ABOUT Mao. I cannot count the number of courses I took in school--mostly at the University of Minnesota--where one of the illustrious "scholars" would talk about/critique Marx without even one reference to original Marx or even one assignment to read Marx instead of ABOUT Marx from some hack publishing in Praeger Press or some other CIA front publisher. That is what led me to an intensive study of Marx: Why do they keep referring to/trashing Marx yet no actual examples of Marx's writings and revolutionary work to work from? I wondered why not quote and deal with the original work? When I was in the US Army, I once stood an IG inspection. Normally, there is a space for everything in the wall locker or foot locker with a small place in the wall locker for books (they didn't want us reading many books). I had a separate bookcase and in that bookcase I had Barry goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative", the Bible, the Koran, some poetry and the Communist Manifesto and volume I of Das Kapital. The IG looked at my books and turned bright red and got pissed. He said to me "What does uniform mean?" I said "Like everyone else, in accordance with regulations." He said: "Do you see anyone else here with his own bookcase, especially with books like THESE?" (pointing to Marx). I aske for permission to speak freely whic he granted. I said to him (I was very young then): "Sir, when I cam into the military I took an oath to defend, even with my life, The Constitution of the United States. Are you saying that I am supposed to defend the Constitution even with my life but I am not entitled to the rights in it including the right to read and think what I want?" He flew into a rage and said: "Get rid of these fucking books and bookcase right now, you hear me, right now." Well, I learned that some works they did not want me reading in the original; they only wanted me to read ABOUT Marx and other demons and then only at a superficial level guided by designated igeological hacks and grand priests of US imperial ideology. I learned quickly that imperialism is not about logic and consistency but rather about naked power as an instrument to determine, as Humpty Dumpty said in "Alice Though The Looking Glass", "what words mean", How to make a word mean so many things and "Which is to be master, that's all." Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let All Ideas Contend. Jim Craven -Original Message- From: Henry C.K. Liu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 7:36 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; marxism; leninist-international Subject: [PEN-L:7845] Mao on Intellectuals Mao Zedong THE CHINESE REVOLUTION AND THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY[*] December I939 3. The Different Sections of the Petty Bourgeoisie Other than the Peasantry The petty bourgeoisie, other than the peasantry, consists of the vast numbers of intellectuals, small tradesmen, handicraftsmen and professional people. Their status somewhat resembles that of the middle peasants, they all suffer under the oppression of imperialism, feudalism and the big bourgeoisie, and they are being driven ever nearer to bankruptcy or destitution. Hence these sections of the petty bourgeoisie constitute one of the motive forces of the revolution and are a reliable ally of the proletariat. Only under the leadership of the proletariat can they achieve their liberation. Let us now analyse the different sections of the petty bourgeoisie other than the peasantry. First, the intellectuals and student youth. They do not constitute a separate class or stratum. In present-day China most of them may page 322 be placed in the petty-bourgeois category, judging by their family origin, their living conditions and their political outlook. Their numbers have grown considerably during the
[PEN-L:7836] The Internet Anti-Fascist: Fri, 4 June 99 -- 3:43 (#271)
__ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 4 June 99 Vol. 3, Numbers 43 (#271) __ KOSOVO REBEL ARMY AN EXTREMIST ORGANIZATION: RUGOVA Agence Press France (14 May 99) Visiting moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova on Friday said the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was an "extremist" organization. "I am the leader of the Albanians of Kosovo in exil; as such I enjoy the support of people in the camps currently in Macedonia and Albania," said Rugova in an interview with Channel 4 television. But he added: "There is at the moment an extremist group who keeps criticizing me and that is regrettable," in a reference to the KLA. Rugova earlier Friday held talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on the second leg of a European tour aimed at reclaiming the mantle of Kosovar leadership. "My aim is to coordinate and to organise the political life of Kosovo because all the leaders are now outside Kosovo," he said after meeting Cook over breakfast. Rugova, speaking through an interpreter, told reporters he had met some senior figures and was trying to trace others who had been dispersed in several countries, notably Albania and Germany. He said the objective of his current tour of European capitals was to secure the return of the refugees to Kosovo as soon as possible, and he supported plans by the NATO allies for an international force in Kosovo. "It is important that there is an international and NATO presence," he said. Rugova was permitted to leave for Italy last week after reportedly being kept under house arrest in the Kosovo provincial capital Pristina by Belgrade since NATO launched its air campaign on March 24. But the head of the Kosovo Democratic League, who has stuck doggedly to a life-long commitment to non-violence, has seen his influence in the Kosovo crisis eclipsed by the armed separatist Kosovo Liberation Army. A spokesman for the KLA last week accused Rugova of acting as "an emissary" for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and denied that the moderate leader represented the ethnic Albanian people. A spokesman for the British premier -- who met Rugova for 30 minutes of talks -- said that the ethnic Albanian leadership was "somewhat disparate". "We have maintained strong links with Rugova but not to the exclusion of other elements," he added. Cook said he had assured the moderate ethnic Albanian leader of London's "resolve" to complete NATO's task "so that the people in the refugee camps can return and so Dr Rugova himself can return from exile." Rugova has already launched a counter-offensive to restore his standing among the displaced ethnic Albanians, saying in Germany Wednesday that independence for the Serbian province will continue to be his principal goal. He has also sought to repair damage done to his image, denying he had ever called on NATO to halt its air strikes against Yugoslavia, and defended the bombing as a vital means to pressure Belgrade. His reported remarks in late March caused dismay among Kosovar expatriates and allegations that he had sold out or was being manipulated by Belgrade. Rugova said in London, from where he was due to fly to Paris Friday, he hoped to visit some of the Kosovan refugee camps in the region soon. According to the UNHCR, more than 740,000 Kosovars have fled to neighbouring countries since March 24, the start of NATO bombing campaign on Yugoslavia. Rugova, who is to set up temporary home in Germany, has already been received by leading European politicians, including Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. He was also granted an audience by Pope John Paul II and held talks with Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin in Bonn. - U.S. NOT LIABLE TO INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ON YUGO ISSUES Extract from International Court of Justice proceedings on Yugoslav complaint against individual NATO nations: [The complete proceedings are at: http://www.icj-cij.org at /icjwww/idocket/iyall/iyall_cr/iyall_icr_toc.html] "Mr. ANDREWS: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, Members of the Court, as others have noted this afternoon, the Applicant's second presentation this morning did not remedy any of the fundamental weaknesses of its cases. Accordingly, my rebuttal will be brief. I will address three main points. "1. NO JURISDICTION BECAUSE OF THE UNITED STATES RESERVATION "First, as we have shown, the Court does not have jurisdiction over the Applicant's claims against the United States and therefore cannot indicate any provisional measures against the United States. "The United States entered a clear reservation to Article IX of the Genocide Convention. That
[PEN-L:7833] homogeneity - was Re: Comparing...
michael,
i think i know what you're saying, but at the same time there are
implications about the way you plot the issue that are worth thinking about a
little more critically.
1. the idea of japanese homogeneity is a well-contested one. identity and
homogeneity is as much a state doctrine of japanese nationalism as a
demographic statement - disentanglng the two is not that easy to do,
especially once you accept the premises that social division and
categorisation is only evident in 'ethnic differences' recognised by the
state;
2. by 'relative homogeneity' you clearly do not mean 'relatively
egalitarian', and there is a tendency to assume in this depiction that
conflict (and therefore expenditures of means of social control) only arises
when there are different ethnicities within the same nation-state;
3. you've implied that it is the relative absence of 'other ethnicities'
which makes for the relative absence of social conflict. in the line of
causation then, and by implication, if there are no 'ethnic differences'
there is no conflict, and hence no need for repression. in a more emphatic
way, this is the foundational premise of racist groups like One Nation and
americanfront, and one which lends itself readily to the 'solution' of
separating 'races' as the logical approach to questions of social conflict.
some excerpts from Koichi Iwabuchi's, "Complicit exoticism: Japan and its
other"
the rest is at: http://kali.murdoch.edu.au/cntinuum/8.2/Iwabuchi.html
"Japan's constructed and celebrated unity has never been a monolith but is
precarious. However, debunking the myth of "Japaneseness" is quite different
from understanding the symbolic power of national identity. In spite of the
easily-known falsity of a unified "Japaneseness", and of the inequalities
which exist in the "real" national society, why and how are 'imagined
communities' (Anderson) maintained? The crucial issue here is how the
differences 'stitch up'...'into one identity' (Hall "Question" 299).
Purity cannot mark itself through itself. Only impurity marks purity.
As for Japan, in the path to Japan's modernisation, the emphasis on
"Japaneseness" has been crucial for the power bloc as a means of mobilising
the people. This strategic "Japaneseness" is something which maximises
national interests and minimises individualism, consisting of traits such as
loyalty to or devotion for the country.
As Gluck noted 'in the imagined West, people were incapable of loyalty and
filiality, and this was sufficient to define these traits as essentially
Japanese.'
('37)
Thus "the West" has been utilised to counter "undesirable" consequences of
modernisation such as the rise of individualism or labor unionism, which give
priority to people's rights. For example, it was when social movements like
labor unionism became popular in the '9'0s that ie (household) ideology was
intensively advocated
(Crawcour). This ideology stressed the traditional values of paternalism,
through which Japan itself and companies were compared with families.
Clearly, this myth of "Japaneseness" was utilised to repress people's demands
for "democracy" or human rights, by attributing social conflict and dissent
to western "disease". Through selective comparisons with key significant
Others, self-Orientalism also unmarks the exclusion of the voices of the
repressed such as minority groups like Ainu, Koreans and burakumin (Japanese
Untouchable) which make up four per cent of the population, and women or the
working class. By asserting "we Japanese" as opposed to "them, the
westerners", the discursively constructed "Japaneseness" is reified. Kano has
argued that the strength of the concept of "the Japanese" lies in its
all-inclusive meanings and that the concept of "the Japanese" implicitly
includes all aspects of land, inhabitants, language, race, ethnicity and the
nationality, all of
which have not been historically differentiated from each other (quoted in
Nishikawa 226-7). Any discourse of "Japaneseness" tends to start with taking
such an ambiguous definition of "the Japanese" for granted. Thus, Japan's
self-Orientalism has been quite selectively manipulative and repressive.
Self-Orientalism obscures the fact that Japan's particularism is actually
hegemonic within Japan. "The West" is
necessary for Japan's "invention of tradition", the suppression of
heterogeneous voices within Japan, and the creation of a modern nation whose
people are loyal to "Japan". Self-Orientalism is a strategy of inclusion
through exclusion, and of exclusion through inclusion. Both strategies cannot
be separated from each other and work efficiently only when combined
together."
Angela
---
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
michael p wrote:
This meant that it did not have to waste its potential on bigotry. I
understand that Japan is as bad as the rest of the world in asserting
the superiority of its people, but the appointed inferiors in Japan are,
as I understanding
[PEN-L:7844] social fascism
My final comment on this issue for now:
In evaluating the decision of the German Communist Party and the Communist of the
1920's and 1930's to use the term "social fascist" to apply to some social democrats
( including, I think there was some reference to F.D. Roosevelt by this term) and
socialists, one must not overuse much of the historical hindsight which we now have.
The communists could not be imputed with knowing then that the Nazis would become the
world historic criminals against peace and humanity that they became. The originator
of fascism was Mussolini and his group in Italy. As bad as they were, one could not
readily foresee holocaustic Nazism as a "mutation" of Italian fascism.
Furthermore, consider that in this time period, the main literal "Fascists" were in
Italy and their founder. Mussolini HAD been a leader in the Socialist Party. The
original fascist was actually a sort of "social fascist". The communists were merely
using the evidence at hand to try to anticipate from where a new Mussolini would come.
The working class struggle was so popular at that time, that traitors and opportunists
such as Mussolini, who had demogogic "proworker" sounding raps were one of the best
potential sources for the bourgeoisie to find politicians to divert the working class
struggle and divide it.
It is in this context that the German Communists attitude toward the German Social
Democrats should be considered. The Nazis were a "socialist workers'" party too, all
kidding aside , ha ha. As I said before, the German Social Democrats had assasinated
Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebkneckt, the two heroic communists who led opposition to
the German Social Democratic Labor Party's betrayal of Marxism and opportunistic,
SOCIAL CHAUVINIST support for "their own capitalists" in WWI. The Nazis were unknown
, and certainly their later world historic crimes were not anymore readily foreseeable
than that the German Social Democrats might pull something like Mussolini was pulling.
Charles Brown
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/04/99 06:27PM
I don't see this discussion going anywhere (but luckily not into
invective), so I'm going to stop my contributions to it.
At 02:02 PM 6/4/99 -0400, you wrote:
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/04/99 12:12PM
Charles writes: I don't agree that "fascism" has lost value from overuse.
I would say it is underused and misapplied.
I guess we have to agree to disagree on that, but I'll summarize my
position: using the word "fascism" too much can be like referring to a
man's disrespectful and unwanted touching of a woman on a date as a form of
"rape." It devalues the word.
Charles: Or like the little boy who cried wolf. Yes, this is a pretty much a
common sense idea. It just doesn't apply to "fascism".
I wrote: What does calling the Governor of Michigan (Engler?) a "fascist"
say except that we don't like him?
Charles: That's "social fascist". You are using "fascist" loosely and not
the way I use it ( I specifically all Engler a "social fascist" because he
is not a full fascist) . Then you use your loose usage ("rhetoric" ?) as a
basis for saying all usage of these words is loose and so we shouldn't use
them.
I don't see how "social fascist" is somehow less full, somehow milder than
"fascist." To make it milder, why not call the bastard a "semi-fascist"?
(Going down this road, we could use Gore Vidal's insult of William F.
Buckley Jr., "pro crypto-Nazi." But that would be worse, since Nazism is
even worse than fascism and overuse of the term devalues it, as with the
US/NATO comparison of Milosevic to Hitler.)
Charles: I think I mentioned earlier in this thread the difference between
Engler and Hitler is that the former is not carrying out open , direct and
holocaustic terrorist rule. The cuts in social programs and racist policies
are the form of his assault on the working class, not direct death camps and
actual war. It is a "war" on the poor not with guns, but social policty.
This is aptly captured by SOCIAL fascist. And it has the value of continuing
the tradition from the 20's and 30's , which I prefer to connect to rather
than differentiate from. In other words, I see the communist historical
movement as something that the next generation of revolutionaries should
draw more from than is the trend right now, in this extreme revolutionary
slump.
The fact that some people inflate the meaning of fascism by conflating
political critique with insult does not stop me from using the word
precisely. As I said, otherwise, Gore Vidal will determine what words I can
use, Can't have that. We must have semantic self-determination in the
movement.
(((
Actually, my impression (which could be wrong) is that Engler is a
standard, garden variety, neo-liberal. Wouldn't it be great if
"neo-liberal" attained the negative connotations of "fascist" in peoples'
minds? I think that's where we should go. Even better, since "neo-liberal"
is jargon
[PEN-L:7821] THE WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA - De Angelis and Federici
THE WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA. ON WHOM ARE THE BOMBS FALLING? Massimo De Angelis and Silvia Federici As we are writing--June 7, 1999--in Kumanovo, Macedonia, the diplomats are negotiating the terms of the 'agreement" that is supposed to bring peace back to Yugoslavia. For many people this may signify the end of the war. This, however, is not our view. We believe that the war is not over, and the anti-war movement would be mistaken if it now folded up its tents and shifted its attention to a new issue. This is why this article, written at the peak of the bombings, is presented here in its original form. In our view, the analysis it provides, and the issues it raises are as valid today, when the talks seem to be of peace, as they were yesterday, when the bombs openly intended to destroy Yugoslavia were falling. It is an analysis that wants to contribute to the creation of an anti-war movement aware of long-term trends and patterns, and aiming not just to stop wars once they start, but to prevent their occurrence. i. Prologue at 5,000 metres From the cockpit of an F-16 flying at 5,000 meters, you can't see, nor smell, nor be sprayed with the blood of "collateral damage." The sensory reality of war has been detached, cleaned away from the "productive" activity of the warrior, as it has from the language of NATO's reports on the alleged "mistakes." Here we cannot fail to notice the institutional, racist cynicism of NATO, which weighs the lives of Serbian children and other civilians and finds them less important than those of Western" soldiers; as we are told that "collateral damage" is "a price worth paying" to force Milosevic to concede defeat with a minimum of politically unsustainable allied casualties. This is trading the human rights of some, in this case mostly innocent civilians, for the human rights of other, with NATO as the self-appointed judge of their relative value. ii. The (in)humanitarian war There is now mounting evidence that the justifications and aims given for the war against Yugoslavia are not credible, and far from protecting Kosovar Albanians the bombings have worsened their plight. We know for instance that -the Rambouillet Agreements was never meant to be accepted by the Yugoslavian government, as they were phrased in such a way as to ensure their rejection, demanding (among other things) that NATO have unlimited access to any part of Yugoslavia, by sea, air, and land, and be dispensed from any legal accountability (Pilger 1999). -on the eve of the first bombings, the Yugoslavian Parliament had approved a resolution accepting the restoration of Kosovo's autonomy, and the presence of a UN peace-keeping force to monitor its enforcement. -far from protecting the Kosovar Albanians the bombings have increased the rate of their expulsions, killed and terrorized many of them, including the large number of those who did remain in Kosovo, or fled from Kosovo into Serbia. -the health of Yugoslavian people, ethnic Albanians included, will continue for a long time to be damaged because of the devastation and contamination to which the Yugoslavian territory has been subjected, with the release in the air and ground of immense amounts of toxic substances, including depleted uranium (Depleated Uranium Education Project 1997). Indeed, as many critics have pointed out, if humanitarian reasons were the motive, then this war was a catastrophic failure. Moreover, how can we believe that NATO is fighting for the self-determination of the Albanian population in Kosovo, when it has denied the same right to the Palestinians and the Kurds (among others), and when the US has subverted every democratically elected government in the world whenever it has suited its needs? Or, as Mumia Abu-Jamal puts it, "Isn't it strange that these same powers have, for half a century or more, turned a blind eye to virtual holocausts throughout the charnel houses of Europe? Where were the Western powers when the Kurds have been savaged, herded and decimated by the border states of Turkey, Iraq and Iran? The fate of the Basques in the borders between France and Spain is, for all intents and purposes, off the table. National ethnic minorities continue to be treated like the trash of Euro-states; consider the Roma (so-called Gypsies) who are seen, perceived and treated as the `white niggers' of Europe. Even as we see NATO dropping metallic death on Serbia because of their mistreatment of "ethnic minorities," the cities and towns of Europe are doing all that they can to make immigration as difficult as possible for people seeking asylum." (Mumia Abu-Jamal 1999) Last but not least, not only has the NATO bombings dramatically increased the flood of refugees, now reaching more than one million; the knowledge that this disaster would inevitably happen was well available before the bombing started. Why then has NATO decided to pursue this strategy ? It is in answering this questions that we may find some hints on the reasons for
[PEN-L:7832] The Purge of Peng De-Huai
Much has been made of the purge of Marshal Peng De-huai at the Lushan Plenum in 1959 over his crticism of Mao regarding the Great Leap Forward. As summary of Peng life may shed some light. Born in 1896, Peng Dehuai was reported to be an unfilial, "angry young man," who received little education before he ran away from his stepmother at the age of nine. When he was nineteen, he led starving local people in robbing a rice granary. Peng joined a local warlord at an early age and enlisted in Tang Shengchih's Hunan Army as a private in 1914, two years after the 1911 Sun Yatsen bourgeois democratic revolution. Peng received training in Tang's indoctrination Battalion, and graduated to become a junior officer. His service to his warlord, including an unsuccessful effort in 1923 to assasinate the Governor of Hunan, led to his promotion as a battalion commander. In that role, he participated in the Nationalists' Northern Expedition under Chiang Kaishek. Peng fought against the Communists during the Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927. Two months later, he fought against Sun Yastsen's Naking Government for his warlord. In April, 1928, when Peng commanded a Hunan regiment, one of his Communist batalion commanders, Huang Kung -lueh, persuaded him to join the CCP. Instead of following order to suppress local Communist guerrillas, Peng staged the Pingchiang Uprising of July 22, 1928. It was not until December 1928 that Peng led the rennants of his Red 5th Corps to Chingkangshan, the Communist base at the end of the Long March. Peng had liitle experience with the peasant military tradition of guerrilla warfare before he join Mao. His personality, like several of his colleagues, was hot temper, outspoken, profane and well-versed in peasant invective. His experience and his later behavior reflected an understanding of, and an apparent preference for, the warlord military ethic and style. He understood the need for seizing cities. His attitude towards uneducated peasants, roving peasants bands, and guerrilla tactics was disdainful - a common and prevalent attitude among professional military men (including Chiang Kaishek and his generals) who consider peasant irregulars and local bandit-like guerrillars to be rabble, incapable of standing up to a disciplined modern army. Peng was essentially an anti-intellectual, regarding political commissars as interferring busibodies where military affairs are concerned. Peng's disdain for the Chinese peasant has been attributed by a hostile source as a curious form of self criticism that derived from an acute sensitivity to own own limited education. Yet Peng could communicate well with his troops. Indeed, Peng basked in praise from Mao who likened him to a historic hero general - Chanf Fei, crude, victorious and loyal. After November 1931, as vice chairman of the Central Soviet Revolutionary Military Council, Peng was at the core of leadership and was second in command to Marshal Chu De, father of the PLA, all through the War aagainst Japan. The death of Stalin in March 1953, the subsequent purge of Beria, and the Soviet decision to pursue a less aggressive Asia policy contributed to Chinese interest in negotiating the truth at Panmunjom in July 1953. Chinese losses of manpower and materiel in Korea had demonstrated the need for of modernization. The Korea War had changed the PLA markedly. Returned officers were sent to the new Advanced Military Institute in Nanjing where Marshal Liu Po-cheng taught them the lessons leared from Korea that had little relation Mao's doctrine of "peoples war." A golden era of Sino-soviet military cooperation renewed itself. Zhekov's zealous search for Soviet professional excellence encouraged a similar trend in China, which was heartily endorsed by Peng. Peng returned from Korea to a hero's welcome and become Defense Minister in September 1954 and began a vast program to regularize and professionalize the arm forces. While Party leaders were preoccupied with economic and political rationalization of the nation's development, the military was left alone to pursue its own course for six years, and it became isolated from national political issues. Peng represented a trend toward professional ethics and style, with itsa blend of Russian and warload features, over Mao's peasant model of military ethics and style. Moreover, Peng's rise represented a trend toward an erosion of the authority of the traditional "center." Peng was opposed to virtually all aspects of the Maoist military phillosophy. After July 1953, Peng made a major assault on the institutional foundation of the Maoist military line by ordering a 10-30% reduction in the militia. He abandoned all major elements of the Mao line in favor of the Soviet model. He set about abolishing the political commissar system, the Party committee system within the PLA and the doctrine of "people's war." He introduced ranks and hierarchies and Soviet organizaton, strategic and tactical
[PEN-L:7843] Mao on the THE CHINESE REVOLUTION
Mao Tse-tung THE CHINESE REVOLUTION AND THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY Written December I939 From the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung Foreign Languages Press Peking 1967 First Edition 1965 Second Printing 1967 Vol. II, pp. 305-34. (3) The imperialist powers have gained control of all the important trading ports in China by these unequal treaties and have marked off areas in many of these ports as concessions under their direct administration.[19] They have also gained control of China's customs foreign trade and communications (sea, land, inland water and air). Thus they have been able to dump their goods in China, turn her into a market for their industrial products, and at the same time subordinate her agriculture to their imperialist needs. (4) The imperialist powers operate many enterprises in both light and heavy industry in China in order to utilize her raw materials and cheap labour on the spot, and they thereby directly exert economic pressure on China's national industry and obstruct the development of her productive forces. (5) The imperialist powers monopolize China's banking and finance by extending loans to the Chinese government and establishing banks in China. Thus they have not only overwhelmed China's national capitalism in commodity competition, they have also secured a stranglehold on her banking and finance. (6) The imperialist powers have established a network of comprador and merchant-usurer exploitation right across China, from the trading ports to the remote hinterland, and have created a comprador and merchant-usurer class in their service, so as to facilitate their exploitation of the masses of the Chinese peasantry and other sections of the people. page 312 (7) The imperialist powers have made the feudal landlord class as well as the comprador class the main props of their rule in China. Imperialism "first allies itself with the ruling strata of the previous social structure, with the feudal lords and the trading and money lending bourgeoisie, against the majority of the people. Everywhere imperialism attempts to preserve and to perpetuate all those precapitalist forms of exploitation (especially in the villages) which serve as the basis for the existence of its reactionary allies".[20] "Imperialism, with all its financial and military might, is the force in China that supports, inspires, fosters and preserves the feudal survivals, together with their entire bureaucratic-militarist superstructure.''[21] (8) The imperialist powers supply the reactionary government with large quantities of munitions and a host of military advisers, in order to keep the warlords hghting among themselves and to suppress the Chinese people. (9) Furthermore, the imperialist powers have never slackened their efforts to poison the minds of the Chinese people. This is their policy of cultural aggression. And it is carried out through missionary work, through establishing hospitals and schools, publishing newspapers and inducing Chinese students to study abroad. Their aim is to train intellectuals who will serve their interests and to dupe the people. 3. THE TASKS OF THE CHINESE REVOLUTION Imperialism and the feudal landlord class being the chief enemies of the Chinese revolution at this stage, what are the present tasks of the revolution? Unquestionably, the main tasks are to strike at these two enemies, to carry out a national revolution to overthrow foreign imperialist oppression and a democratic revolution to overthrow feudal landlord oppression, the primary and foremost task being the national revolution to overthrow imperialism. These two great tasks are interrelated. Unless imperialist rule is overthrown, the rule of the feudal landlord class cannot be terminated, because imperialism is its main support. Conversely, unless help is given to the peasants in their struggle to overthrow the feudal landlord dass, it will be impossible to build powerful revolutionary contingents to overthrow imperialist rule, because the feudal landlord class is the main social base of imperialist rule in China and the peasantry is the main force in the Chinese revolution. Therefore the two fundamental tasks, the national revolution and the democratic revolution, are at once distinct and united. In fact, the two revolutionary tasks are already linked, since the main immediate task of the national revolution is to resist the Japanese imperialist invaders and since the democratic revolution must be accomplished in order to win the war. It is wrong to regard the national revolution and the democratic revolution as two entirely different stages of the revolution. page 319 4. THE MOTIVE FORCES OF THE
[PEN-L:7835] Zhu Under Pressure
SCMP Wednesday, June 9, 1999 Pressure on Zhu at leaders' meeting WILLY WO-LAP LAM Moderate and conservative factions are set to clash over economic and foreign policy at the annual leadership meeting in the northern seaside resort of Beidaihe. A party source said yesterday the position of Premier Zhu Rongji would be further exposed if Beijing failed to reach an agreement with the United States soon on China's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). "Beidaihe conferences usually start in late July or early August, and if a WTO agreement is wrapped up by then, Zhu can recommend more reform measures there," said the source. "However, much depends on the concessions on economic, trade and technological matters that Beijing is expecting from Washington." A senior US State Department official is due in Beijing soon to discuss ways to improve bilateral ties after the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Mr Zhu and senior aides, such as State Councillor Wu Yi, have sent subtle messages to Washington, the gist being that unless the US is willing to engage in give-and-take, reformist cadres might succumb to pressure from the conservative coalition. The party source said National People's Congress Chairman Li Peng had been particularly active building bridges to cadres in three government units deemed most opposed to the WTO - the ministries of agriculture, information industry and civil affairs. Moreover, Mr Zhu faces pressure to water down his programme to restructure inefficient large-scale state enterprises in three years. It is understood President Jiang Zemin might lend his support to cadres who argue that the deadline for reforming state enterprises should be extended by two years or more. During well-publicised talks on enterprise reform in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Wuhan, Hubei province, recently, Mr Jiang and proteges including Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo sounded much less aggressive on reform than Mr Zhu. Discussions on the outlines of the 10th Five Year Plan (2001-2005) will also dominate. Debates are expected on integration with the world market and private-sector growth. Relations with the US and Taiwan will top the diplomatic agenda.
[PEN-L:7853] Re: RE: Mao on Intellectuals
the infamous introduction to the "Red Book" by Lin Biao... Jim Craven So Mao's closest comrade-in-arms and designated successor during the late 1960s is "infamous." See Michael, we are making progress... Brad DeLong
[PEN-L:7859] RE: Re: RE: Mao on Intellectuals
Dear Professor DeLong: Sorry your "bozo filter" failed and that you had to suffer more of my polemics. I certainly do not wish to inflict my views/rhetoric with which anyone might be unwilling/unable to deal with. I say "infamous" introduction, because at the time, there was a debate in China--and outside China--about how toadylike and un-Marxist-Leninist any cult of personality is and, whether the introduction by Lin Biao really served the cause or himself. Now this raises a question: If Mao Zedong repudiated the cult of personality himself--he did repeatedly--and if Mao's writings say over and over that it is the masses, through ongoing class struggle, that are the makers of history and not "geniuses" or "Great Leaders", why would Mao "allow" that Intro to the "Red Book"? I think the answer can be partially found in an incident that took place during the Cultural Revolution when two contending groups, each of which claimed to be "genuine" Marxist Leninists and followers of "Mao Tse-tung thought" went to see Mao (train fares were abolished to allow people from the far corners of China to come to Beijing to make their representations). Each group said to Mao, you tell us, who are the genuine revolutionaries and followers of Mao Tse-tung thought. One word from Mao might have kindled one group and killed another. But Mao's answer, and there is some good documentation for this, was something to the effect Why are you here asking me who are the genuine revolutionaries? Take your views, your dazibao, your efforts and your service to the People and the People know and will decide, through concrete practice and results, who are the true revolutionaries and servants of the People. Some of the aspects of what some consider to be a "Cult of Personality" genuinely flowed from the masses and from genuine respect and affection for Mao and all of his sacrifices, energies, guidance and contributions to the liberation of China; this remains the case today in China. To attempt to "dictate" or suppress these feelings and sentiments, rather than letting mass actions, discussions and contending views flow, would have been contrary to the essence of what Mao was saying. In other words, to "dictate" that there will/should be no "cult of personality" would itself be an act of/reinforcing a cult of personality. Mao saw this contradiction clearly and wrote about it. Jim Craven -Original Message- From: Brad De Long [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 9:56 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:7853] Re: RE: Mao on Intellectuals the infamous introduction to the "Red Book" by Lin Biao... Jim Craven So Mao's closest comrade-in-arms and designated successor during the late 1960s is "infamous." See Michael, we are making progress... Brad DeLong
[PEN-L:7861] request from Tom Kruse
Dear PEN-L: I would like to look at syllabi in political economy at the upper level undergrad and graduate level; see what's being taught in the US nowadays. If you teach political economy, could you send me a syullabus (off list, to the address below)? Or if you have syllabi on the internet somwhere, could you send me an address? Many thanks. Tom Tom Kruse Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242, 500849 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7849] Re: Kosovar Attack on Gypsies Reveals Desire for Revenge (fromNYT)
Hi Katha:
Yoshie, you seem skeptical about the level of violence in Kosovo. you
seem to be saying the media is exaggerating it -- first to justify
intervention against Serbs, now to justify long-term presence to keep '
"barbarians" from killing each other. Is that really what you think? I
just want to be sure I'm getting your point.
As to the level of violence, the media did exaggerate it a great deal with
regard to Serbs (but till now have either kept silent or vastly
underreported it with regard to Albanians), using such inaccurate words as
'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing,' asking us to believe that Serbs are
killing or expelling all Albanians because they are Albanians.
The media coverage has distorted not simply the level but the nature of
violence, which the media like to portray as a matter of 'ancient ethnic
hatred,' not a question of politics. Who tried to beat up the Roma boy and
his father? All Albanians present in the camp? Or only those who have
either always subscribed to the KLA-type separatism or been propagandized
into adopting it in the course of war? The article suggests the former
("All Albanians are savage"), which we should reject.
Yoshie
[PEN-L:7863] Mao on Contraditions
Mao Zedong ON THE CORRECT HANDLING OF CONTRADICTIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE[*] February 27, 1957 "What should our policy be towards non-Marxist ideas? As far as unmistakable counter-revolutionaries and saboteurs of the socialist cause are concerned, the matter is easy, we simply deprive them of their freedom of speech. But incorrect ideas among the people are quite a different matter. Will it do to ban such ideas and deny them any opportunity for expression? Certainly not. It is not only futile but page 411 very harmful to use crude methods in dealing with ideological questions among the people, with questions about man's mental world. You may ban the expression of wrong ideas, but the ideas will still be there. On the other hand, if correct ideas are pampered in hothouses and never exposed to the elements and immunized against disease, they will not win out against erroneous ones. Therefore, it is only by employing the method of discussion, criticism and reasoning that we can really foster correct ideas and overcome wrong ones, and that we can really settle issues. It is inevitable that the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie will give expression to their own ideologies. It is inevitable that they will stubbornly assert themselves on political and ideological questions by every possible means. You cannot expect them to do otherwise. We should not use the method of suppression and prevent them from expressing themselves, but should allow them to do so and at the same time argue with them and direct appropriate criticism at them. Undoubtedly, we must criticize wrong ideas of every description. It certainly would not be right to refrain from criticism, look on while wrong ideas spread unchecked and allow them to dominate the field. Mistakes must be criticized and poisonous weeds fought wherever they crop up. However, such criticism should not be dogmatic, and the metaphysical method should not be used, but instead the effort should be made to apply the dialectical method. What is needed is scientific analysis and convincing argument. Dogmatic criticism settles nothing. We are against poisonous weeds of whatever kind, but we must carefully distinguish between what is really a poisonous weed and what is really a fragrant flower. Together with the masses of the people, we must learn to differentiate carefully between the two and use correct methods to fight the poisonous weeds. At the same time as we criticize dogmatism, we must direct our attention to criticizing revisionism. Revisionism, or Right opportunism, is a bourgeois trend of thought that is even more dangerous than dogmatism. The revisionists, the Right opportunists, pay lip-service to Marxism; they too attack "dogmatism". But what they are really attacking is the quintessence of Marxism. They oppose or distort materialism and dialectics, oppose or try to weaken the people's democratic dictatorship and the leading role of the Communist Party, and oppose or try to weaken socialist transformation and socialist construction. Even after the basic victory of our socialist revolution, there will still be a number of people in our society who vainly hope page 412 to restore the capitalist system and are sure to fight the working class on every front, including the ideological one. And their right-hand men in this struggle are the revisionists. Literally the two slogans -- let a hundred flowers blossom and let a hundred schools of thought contend -- have no class character; the proletariat can turn them to account, and so can the bourgeoisie or others. Different classes, strata and social groups each have their own views on what are fragrant flowers and what are poisonous weeds. Then, from the point of view of the masses, what should be the criteria today for distinguishing fragrant flowers from poisonous weeds? In their political activities, how should our people judge whether a person's words and deeds are right or wrong? On the basis of the principles of our Constitution, the will of the overwhelming majority of our people and the common political positions which have been proclaimed on various occasions by our political parties, we consider that, broadly speaking, the criteria should be as follows: (1) Words and deeds should help to unite, and not divide, the people of all our nationalities. (2) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to socialist transformation and socialist construction. (3) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, the people's democratic dictatorship. (4) They should help to consolidate, and not undermine or weaken, democratic centralism. (5) They should help to strengthen, and not shake off or weaken, the leadership of the Communist Party. (6) They should be beneficial, and not harmful, to international socialist unity and the unity of the peace-loving people of the world.
[PEN-L:7868] Re: Re: Law of Value Information
The four key elements in the issue of fair value in global trade are intellectual property (IP), technology, information and pricing. In classical exchange, price is determined by cost and demand which under free trade conditions will reach equilibrium to provide the optimum price and the largest sales. But free trade is a myth, and the US is the leading opponent of it in practice while being the leading proponent of it in rhetoric. The rationale for IP is that it is needed to subsidized the coming stream of new technology. But as the Microsoft anti-trust case had demonstrated, IP inhibits new technology more than it is generally recognized. The same is evident in medical drugs. The only arena this inhibition does not exist is in military technology where the technological imperative still governs. The fundamental criteria for a free market is the equal availability of information to all participants. When information is packaged and sold as commodities, free market becomes the casualty. Last year, I had the opportunity to exchange views with a former US Trade Representative during which I advances the notion that when two economies of uneven technological development trade, the concept of countervailing surplus in favor of the less advanced economy is just. Otherwise it would be structural economical imperialism. Needless to say, my view was politely noted but did not get very far. Happy to say, more and more developing nations are taking the view in their trade negotiations with more advanced countries. As for intellectual pirating, this is a serious and controversial issue. The reason it is so widely practiced by most less advanced economies, China being only the latest to join the club, early America participated until it became technologically matured as with Japan and Taiwan, is that there is a widespread view that the current intellectual property rights regime is not fair toward late comers. China, for example wants to claim retroactive IP rights on the compass, gunpowder , paper making, etc., for a period of 50 years starting now, to compensate for her loss due to the absence of an international IP regime during her epoch of high inventiveness. When a law is unjust, it invites widespread disobedience. How about an international affirmative action program for IP. IP amnesty for Third World for 50 years? It will speed up global development and the advanced economies will also benefit more than they will lose. As for predatory pricing, the world needs an obscene profit law that restrict profit to a reasonable say 20% of added incremental cost of production. This requirement can easily be factored into the pricing models of the MNCs. Henry C.K. Liu
[PEN-L:7872] Re: so much for human capital theory
Anecdotal stories sell newspapers and work great for talk show host. I've got a federal study of illiteracy and innumeracy done in the mid-90's kicking around somewhere---did you know that a certain percentage of people with graduate degrees are illiterate!(seriously) Then there are the poor folks who are bilingual illiterates... Your email pal, Tom L. michael wrote: Supposedly education and technological competence explains the worsening distribution of income. What can we make of the following story? Document 1 of 2. Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 9, 1999, Wednesday, CONSTITUTION EDITION SECTION: Business; Pg. 18D LENGTH: 292 words SERIES: Home HEADLINE: Exec getting Initiative Award BYLINE: Sandra Chereb, Staff BODY: For decades, Jay Thiessens hid a painful secret as he built his machine- and-tool company from a mom-and-pop operation into a $ 5 million-a-year enterprise. During the day, he hid behind the role of a harried businessman. At night, his wife, Bonnie, would help him sort through the paperwork at the kitchen table, in the living room, or sometimes sitting up in bed. Other tasks he delegated to a core group of managers at BJ Machine Tool Co. , who had no idea their boss couldn't read. ''I worked for him for seven years and I had no clue,'' said Jack Sala, now the engineering manager for Truckee Precision, a BJ competitor. ''I was his general manager. He would bring legal stuff to me and say, 'You're better at legalese than me.' I never knew I was the only one reading them.'' Few people knew of his shame and most burning desire: to be able to read a simple bedtime story to his grandchildren. But he couldn't keep his illiteracy secret forever. ''It became too hard to continue to hide it,'' said Thiessens, who has begun to read at the age of 56. ''Since I made the decision to let everybody know, it's a big relief.'' Today, Thiessens will be honored in Washington as one of six national winners of the 1999 National Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award. Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MassMutual, the award recognizes small businesses that have triumphed over adversity. Last October, Thiessens found a tutor to instruct him for an hour a day, five days a week. He recently read his first book. It was slow going, but he finished it. He hopes his story will encourage others. ''There is no shame in not knowing how to read,'' said Bonnie Thiessens. ''The shame is not doing anything about it.'' -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7874] Re: RE: Re: Re: Law of Value Information
Jim, I don't disagree in the larger perspective. My point was that the US does not even play according to her own rules, whether they are just or not. After the US sets up a game of "win I take, lose you give," she still needs to cheat. That is being kleptomaniacal. Henry "Craven, Jim" wrote: Response: Under capitalism, the only "obscene" profit rate is that which is less than could have been gotten regardless of the real costs to real people. Under neoclassical paradigm: 1) the existing distributions of wealth, incomes, technology, information are assumed as GIVEN; this means that the existing order is assumed as a given with any comment on its unjustness being a "normative" question not within the purview of economics; 2) pure competition or near pure competition is assumed: freedom of entry/exit, no buyer or seller large enough to affect "market" price as a result of having influence over "market" supply and demand, homogeneous products, perfect information, perfect mobility of productive "factors" etc (the pure competition assumption is often lifted but selectively not to violate the fundamental contrived syllogism); 3) productive entities or "nations" specialize and trade according to "comparative advantage"; 4) economic agents are bounded "rational", calculating, competitive, maximizers or at least "satisficers", individualistic, egoistic, acquisitive; 5) market signals are sent and received through competitive markets, rationally interpreted and rationally acted upon; 6) concepts such as history, power, sexism, racism, class consciouness/interests, class nature of the State, imperialism etc are etherial, non-operationalizable and ad hoc factors not to be incorporated into any analysis of GENERAL dynamics and outcomes; 7) causality is linear and unidirectional with ultimate independent and dependent variables; 8) hysteresis and feedback effects (making undirectional causality, ultimate independent/dependent variables and ultimate singular outcomes in new equilibria impossible) are assumed away; 8) causes of changes in the ultimate "exogenous variables" are assumed not to be discussed and/or under the scope of inquiry of "economics"; dE--dD--dShortages\ /--dQd \ --dPrice/--Smaller--dPe--dQe dE--dS--dSurpluses/\-- dQs Surpluses Shortages So "exogenous" forces/variables-- endogenous equilibrating processes-- new equilibria in prices and quantities. All that challenges the contrived syllogisms and tautologies of the neoclassicals (in the real world such as sexism, racism, history, differential power, differential access to/enforcement of property rights, differential factor mobility, asymmetric information, commodified information meaning differential acces to and control over information, class nature of the state, etc) is summarily assumed away to construct the fantasy world of the neoclassical and to set up the intended (contrived)syllogisms: Efficiency =, unbridled/unregulated capitalism = ... ergo capitalism = efficiency, freedom etc... Neoliberalism is even worse in that the fetish for de jure and assuming away, ignoring or even denying the very different and contradictory de facto underneath the veneer/facade of de jure, and preaching "level playing field", "free competition", "free trade" etc, when assuming the GIVENS means assuming as GIVEN, monstrous inequalities that can only--inexorably--lead to widening further inequalities (de jure "free trade/competition" among highly unequal competitiors in competitive/trade regimes defined and run by and for the most powerful can only produce, de facto, anti-competition, anti "free trade/competition"), as in my favorite Brecht poem, what is assumed as GIVEN is the existing order, the existing power structures, the existing ideologies, the existing myths and lies, the existing asymmetries and the existing trajectories and trends in favor of the interests of the already obscenely wealthy and powerful. It is all bullshit with very ugly consequences and trajectories flowing from the policies and ideologies of imperialism and their neoclassical/neoliberal ideological/theoretical pimps. Jim Craven -Original Message- From: Henry C.K. Liu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 2:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:7868] Re: Re: Law of Value Information The four key elements in the issue of fair value in global trade are intellectual property (IP), technology, information and pricing. In classical exchange, price is determined by cost and demand which under free trade conditions will reach equilibrium to provide the optimum price and the largest sales. But free trade is a myth, and the US is the leading opponent of it in practice while being the leading proponent of it in rhetoric. The rationale for IP is that it is needed to subsidized the
[PEN-L:7877] Re: Multiple Copies
Paul, I stoped forwarded the messages from Sid because you were. I think that they are valuable and that many people are not on his list. I would not forward all of them, but you are not either. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Doug has complained, rightly, that he is being bombarded with multiple copies of Sid Shniad's postings, one copy of which I have been forwarding. It appears that we are both on Sid's distribution list. Now some of you have commented on how useful they are so I continued to forward them -- but in response to Doug's complaint I have decided not to forward any more. People who would still like to see them, I would suggest they e-mail Sid and ask to be put on his distribution list. His address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7870] Re: so much for human capital theory
Mike, I think this one is easy. Workers need human capital. Capitalists have the other kind. (And I don't buy the standard line on HK either...) Peter michael perelman wrote: Supposedly education and technological competence explains the worsening distribution of income. What can we make of the following story? Document 1 of 2. Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Journal and Constitution June 9, 1999, Wednesday, CONSTITUTION EDITION SECTION: Business; Pg. 18D LENGTH: 292 words SERIES: Home HEADLINE: Exec getting Initiative Award BYLINE: Sandra Chereb, Staff BODY: For decades, Jay Thiessens hid a painful secret as he built his machine- and-tool company from a mom-and-pop operation into a $ 5 million-a-year enterprise. During the day, he hid behind the role of a harried businessman. At night, his wife, Bonnie, would help him sort through the paperwork at the kitchen table, in the living room, or sometimes sitting up in bed. Other tasks he delegated to a core group of managers at BJ Machine Tool Co. , who had no idea their boss couldn't read. ''I worked for him for seven years and I had no clue,'' said Jack Sala, now the engineering manager for Truckee Precision, a BJ competitor. ''I was his general manager. He would bring legal stuff to me and say, 'You're better at legalese than me.' I never knew I was the only one reading them.'' Few people knew of his shame and most burning desire: to be able to read a simple bedtime story to his grandchildren. But he couldn't keep his illiteracy secret forever. ''It became too hard to continue to hide it,'' said Thiessens, who has begun to read at the age of 56. ''Since I made the decision to let everybody know, it's a big relief.'' Today, Thiessens will be honored in Washington as one of six national winners of the 1999 National Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award. Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MassMutual, the award recognizes small businesses that have triumphed over adversity. Last October, Thiessens found a tutor to instruct him for an hour a day, five days a week. He recently read his first book. It was slow going, but he finished it. He hopes his story will encourage others. ''There is no shame in not knowing how to read,'' said Bonnie Thiessens. ''The shame is not doing anything about it.'' -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:7866] race ethnicity
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: What is 'ethnicity'? What's the difference between it and 'race'? Between it and 'nationality'? "Race" is supposedly biological. But most of the biology literature I've read indicates that, genetically speaking, different races have more variation among individual members than between those members and members of other races. In other words, "race" is basically subjective, a societally-created concept, rather than being based in biology. (For example, in the US, one can be counted as part of the "black race" even though only 1/10 of one's ancestry is "black." Why not count people as "white" even if they only have 1/10 white background? It's a culturally-made decision, reflecting a long history of oppression of blacks by whites.) This suggests that the word "race" should be replaced by "ethnicity," which is clearly a societal rather than biological concept. (It also suggests that the clumsy phrase "African-American," which emphasizes origin rather than biology, should replace "black," which seems a biological concept.) Now the difference between ethnicity and nationality seems much more difficult. Usually "nations" or "nationalities," but not all ethnicities, have some sort of mostly-unified national _territory_. The Jews could thus be seen as an ethnicity but not a nationality, until they got territory (Israel). We should remember that arguing about the meanings of words is a good way to waste time. If someone has better definitions than mine, all power to her or him. in a separate missive, Yoshie writes: So maybe when Americans say that "Japan is relatively homogenous," what the statement actually means is that "Japan doesn't have blacks"? Japan does have an indigenous minority, the Ainu. It also has large numbers of Korean workers, who as I understand it, lack the same citizenship rights as the ethnic Japanese. Also, people who are "part Korean" are treated as fully Korean by the ethnic Japanese. So in some ways they are similar to blacks in the US. In this light, I think that it's the ethnic Japanese population (not Japan) that is ethnically homogeneous, unlike the dominant population (i.e., white folks) in the US, who are a mix of Italian, Polish, English, German, Irish, etc., etc., in terms of background. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html Bombing DESTROYS human rights. Ground troops make things worse. US/NATO out of Serbia!
[PEN-L:7847] RE: Mao on Intellectuals
Right on. If we can have a parody/caricature of Mao Zedong's thought via a parody of the infamous introduction to the "Red Book" by Lin Biao, as opposed to quoting and debating Mao directly, then let's have the substance of Mao Zedong's concepts from the pen of Mao himself rather than something ABOUT Mao. I cannot count the number of courses I took in school--mostly at the University of Minnesota--where one of the illustrious "scholars" would talk about/critique Marx without even one reference to original Marx or even one assignment to read Marx instead of ABOUT Marx from some hack publishing in Praeger Press or some other CIA front publisher. That is what led me to an intensive study of Marx: Why do they keep referring to/trashing Marx yet no actual examples of Marx's writings and revolutionary work to work from? I wondered why not quote and deal with the original work? When I was in the US Army, I once stood an IG inspection. Normally, there is a space for everything in the wall locker or foot locker with a small place in the wall locker for books (they didn't want us reading many books). I had a separate bookcase and in that bookcase I had Barry goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative", the Bible, the Koran, some poetry and the Communist Manifesto and volume I of Das Kapital. The IG looked at my books and turned bright red and got pissed. He said to me "What does uniform mean?" I said "Like everyone else, in accordance with regulations." He said: "Do you see anyone else here with his own bookcase, especially with books like THESE?" (pointing to Marx). I aske for permission to speak freely whic he granted. I said to him (I was very young then): "Sir, when I cam into the military I took an oath to defend, even with my life, The Constitution of the United States. Are you saying that I am supposed to defend the Constitution even with my life but I am not entitled to the rights in it including the right to read and think what I want?" He flew into a rage and said: "Get rid of these fucking books and bookcase right now, you hear me, right now." Well, I learned that some works they did not want me reading in the original; they only wanted me to read ABOUT Marx and other demons and then only at a superficial level guided by designated igeological hacks and grand priests of US imperial ideology. I learned quickly that imperialism is not about logic and consistency but rather about naked power as an instrument to determine, as Humpty Dumpty said in "Alice Though The Looking Glass", "what words mean", How to make a word mean so many things and "Which is to be master, that's all." Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let All Ideas Contend. Jim Craven -Original Message- From: Henry C.K. Liu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 7:36 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; marxism; leninist-international Subject: [PEN-L:7845] Mao on Intellectuals Mao Zedong THE CHINESE REVOLUTION AND THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY[*] December I939 3. The Different Sections of the Petty Bourgeoisie Other than the Peasantry The petty bourgeoisie, other than the peasantry, consists of the vast numbers of intellectuals, small tradesmen, handicraftsmen and professional people. Their status somewhat resembles that of the middle peasants, they all suffer under the oppression of imperialism, feudalism and the big bourgeoisie, and they are being driven ever nearer to bankruptcy or destitution. Hence these sections of the petty bourgeoisie constitute one of the motive forces of the revolution and are a reliable ally of the proletariat. Only under the leadership of the proletariat can they achieve their liberation. Let us now analyse the different sections of the petty bourgeoisie other than the peasantry. First, the intellectuals and student youth. They do not constitute a separate class or stratum. In present-day China most of them may page 322 be placed in the petty-bourgeois category, judging by their family origin, their living conditions and their political outlook. Their numbers have grown considerably during the past few decades. Apart from that section of the intellectuals which has associated itself with the imperialists and the big bourgeoisie and works for them against the people, most intellectuals and students are oppressed by imperialism, feudalism and the big bourgeoisie, and live in fear of unemployment or of having to discontinue their studies. Therefore, they tend to be quite revolutionary. They are more or less equipped with bourgeois scientific knowledge, have a keen political sense and often play a vanguard role or serve as a link with the masses in the present stage of the revolutio. The movement of the Chinese students abroad before the revolution of 1911, the May 4th Movement of 1919, the May 30th Movement of 1925 and
[PEN-L:7855] Re: RE: Mao on Intellectuals
Thanks Rob. I take your point. Keynes seems to criticize some things too. but somehow, neither of them to lead us to overthrowing the system. I wonder if there is a further twist from sarcasm to irony in the love/hate relationship between liberals and capitalism. Are you saying Galbraith is a critic of capitalism ? Sort of like that other Yank, FD Roosevelt was ? Aren' they trying to save capitalism ? Let me take your point, and ask further, isn't this reformist critique, critique with the idea of saving the system , rather than radical critique to change it fundamentally ? Thus, ultimately Galbraith justifies the system fundamentally, by proposing correction that will make the system ok ? Take the passage below. I guess the sarcasm is lost on me. Could you explain to me how this is a criticism of capitalism and society on the same level as Mao Tse-tung's ? This thread ( or is that the other list?) has been on the lack of critical thinking in Maoism, implying that western liberals are more critical thinkers. My thought would be that Mao thinks more critically about capitalism than Galbraith ; and that Galbraith, in typcial liberal style, has a sort of split personality: "critic" yet apologist. Charles Brown Rob Schaap [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/09/99 01:17PM G'day Chas, I'm exercising some uncharacteristic good judgement and staying out of this debate, and I'm sure the day will come when I agree unreservedly with a Charles Brown post - mebbe tomorrow ... You write: And overall, Maoism is a profound criticism of all existing society, much more substantive criticism in thinking and action, than that of the bourgeois liberal intellectuals in general and in particular those here "criticizing" Maoism's alleged lack of critical thinking. Bourgeois liberal intellectuals are involved in apolegetics not criticism of capitalism. For example, calling capitalism "the affluent society" is an apolegetic, not critical, theme. Ever heard of sarcasm, Chas? Galbraith's *The Affluent Society* is a brilliant and timeless book, for mine - and he begins it thusly: 'Beyond doubt, wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding. The poor man has always a precise view of his problem: he hasn't enough and he needs more. The rich man can assume or imagine a much greater variety of ills and he will be correspondingly less certain of their remedy ... As with individuals so with nations.' And it justs keeps getting better after that. Hardly an apologetic, Chas! I'm for my bed. G'Night, Rob.
[PEN-L:7857] Fwd: Military and Sexual Assault Study
(I'm forwarding the following messages from PEN-L to M-Fem Lou's Marxism List.) Does anyone know of a good or interesting study or article about the UN or NATO "peacekeepers'" conduct toward local women in the countries where they have been stationed? Will the Balkans be turned into a place resembling Okinawa, whose economy has been distorted by the presence of US military bases? Will Balkan women find themselves in a situation where the only gainful employment will be to serve various needs and desires (including sexual ones) of "peacekeeping" soldiers? Or have they already, in Bosnia, Macedonia, etc.? Yoshie --- start of forwarded message --- Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 09:46:47 -0700 Organization: The Miles Foundation Subject: Military and Sexual Assault Study The National Academy for Public Administration is expected to release the study of military criminal investigative organizations response to sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual assault on or about June 15, 1999. Please contact NAPA at 202-347-3190 or 1120 G Street, NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20005 in order to place your name on the mailing list. Christine Hansen --- end of forwarded message --- --- start of forwarded message --- Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 21:05:37 -0700 From: Christine Hansen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: The Miles Foundation Subject: UPDATE: Military and Sexual Assault Study Following a large volume of requests, the National Academy for Public Administration (NAPA) will publish the Executive Summary of its study of military criminal investigative organizations' response to sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual assault on its website, http://www.napawash.org, after June 21. Instructions relative to obtaining a complete copy of the study will be also be provided on the Internet site. Christine Hansen --- end of forwarded message ---
[PEN-L:7845] Mao on Intellectuals
Mao Zedong THE CHINESE REVOLUTION AND THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY[*] December I939 3. The Different Sections of the Petty Bourgeoisie Other than the Peasantry The petty bourgeoisie, other than the peasantry, consists of the vast numbers of intellectuals, small tradesmen, handicraftsmen and professional people. Their status somewhat resembles that of the middle peasants, they all suffer under the oppression of imperialism, feudalism and the big bourgeoisie, and they are being driven ever nearer to bankruptcy or destitution. Hence these sections of the petty bourgeoisie constitute one of the motive forces of the revolution and are a reliable ally of the proletariat. Only under the leadership of the proletariat can they achieve their liberation. Let us now analyse the different sections of the petty bourgeoisie other than the peasantry. First, the intellectuals and student youth. They do not constitute a separate class or stratum. In present-day China most of them may page 322 be placed in the petty-bourgeois category, judging by their family origin, their living conditions and their political outlook. Their numbers have grown considerably during the past few decades. Apart from that section of the intellectuals which has associated itself with the imperialists and the big bourgeoisie and works for them against the people, most intellectuals and students are oppressed by imperialism, feudalism and the big bourgeoisie, and live in fear of unemployment or of having to discontinue their studies. Therefore, they tend to be quite revolutionary. They are more or less equipped with bourgeois scientific knowledge, have a keen political sense and often play a vanguard role or serve as a link with the masses in the present stage of the revolutio. The movement of the Chinese students abroad before the revolution of 1911, the May 4th Movement of 1919, the May 30th Movement of 1925 and the December 9th Movement of 1935 are striking proofs of this. In particular, the large numbers of more or less impoverished intellectuals can join hands with the workers and peasants in supporting or participating in the revolution. In China, it was among the intellectuals and young students that Marxist-Leninist ideology was first widely disseminated and accepted. The revolutionary forces cannot be successfully organized and revolutionary work cannot be successfully conducted without the participation of revolutionary intellectuals. But the intellectuals often tend to be subjective and individualistic, impractical in their thinking and irresolute in action until they have thrown themselves heart and soul into mass revolutionary struggles, or made up their minds to serve the interests of the masses and become one with them. Hence although the mass of revolutionary intellectuals in China can play a vanguard role or serve as a link with the masses, not all of them will remain revolutionaries to the end. Some will drop out of the revolutionary ranks at critical moments and become passive, while a few may even become enemies of the revolution. The intellectuals can overcome their shortcomings only in mass struggles over a long period.
[PEN-L:7839] FWD: Military and Sexual Assault Study
Thought this might be of interest... Bill --- start of forwarded message --- Date: Tue, 08 Jun 1999 09:46:47 -0700 Organization: The Miles Foundation Subject: Military and Sexual Assault Study The National Academy for Public Administration is expected to release the study of military criminal investigative organizations response to sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual assault on or about June 15, 1999. Please contact NAPA at 202-347-3190 or 1120 G Street, NW, Suite 850, Washington, DC 20005 in order to place your name on the mailing list. Christine Hansen --- end of forwarded message ---
[PEN-L:7837] Support Needed for Washington Students asking Mumia to speak at Graduation
- The following message is forwarded to you by Paul Zarembka [EMAIL PROTECTED] - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] STUDENTS AT EVERGREEN COLLEGE IN WASHINGTON STATE NEED SUPPORT Students at Evergreen College in Washington State are being intimidated and harrassed regarding their decision to have Mumia Abu-Jamal as the Honorary Speaker at their commencement ceremonies on June 11. Since that time Maureen Faulkner has taken out expensive newspaper ads urging people to boycott the graduation in protest of a "convicted cop killer" speaking there, or even to attend the ceremonies but then walk out when Mumia's portion of the event happens. Recently Ronald Reagan's son joined in the fray by condemning the students on his nationally broadcasted radio program, describing the students as thinking it is "cute" to have a cop killer as a speaker at their graduation ceremeony. Most college students graduating from institutions of higher learning have been instructed in the ways of critical and analytical thinking, yet when they speak out regarding controversial issues are told that they don't know the "facts", are trying to be "cute", etc. The only thing these students are guilty of is evaluating the case of Mumia vs. the System independently and feeling strongly enough about their conclusions to arrange for Mumia to have a key presence at these exercises. We are asking folks nationwide, and particularly in the Washington state area, to support these students in whatever way that they can. Those who can attend the exercises and give out information on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the reason why it is important to keep the "Voice of the Voiceless" ringing LOUD and CLEAR are STRONGLY URGED to do so. BACKGROUND INFO: From: Steve Bloom [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mumia controversy at Evergreen State College From: Sonja Sivesind [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- For Immediate Release Prison Action Committee The Evergreen State College Olympia, WA 98505 (360) 866 6000 ext 6879 Contact: Stephanie Guilloud or Summer Thomas - Controversy Surrounds Evergreen State College Graduation Ceremonies - Governor Gary Locke refuses to speak at 1999 Graduation because Mumia Abu-Jamal, US political prisoner on death row, chosen as Honorary Speaker In an attempt to stifle freedom of speech and student representation, Washington Governor Gary Locke decides to comply with the wishes of the state trooper association and law enforcement bodies rather than respect his decision to speak at the Evergreen State College. Details: Through months of meetings and process, the Graduation Committee chose to have two speakers at the June 11, 1999 Graduation Ceremonies at the Evergreen State College. Gary Locke was elected by the students in the fall but was mistakenly thought to have declined. During the confusion, Mumia was elected as the speaker and taped a thirteen-minute speech to be played at the event. Administrators unearthed the error, and Locke, once again, was invited to deliver the commencement address. He accepted the offer. In order to respect the students' vote for Mumia and the work that the death row inmate completed for the school, the committee decided to allow both speakers to be represented in the ceremonies. Last week, state troopers and local law enforcement associations pressured Locke to rescind his acceptance of the invitation to speak so as not to share the stage with the controversial figure. Who is Mumia?: Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning radio journalist who has written two books, Death Blossoms and Live from Death Row. Imprisoned and sentenced to death in 1982, Mumia continues to report not only on the significance of his case within the context of an unjust and racist prison system but also broader social justice issues that face struggling people in the US and around the world. The court proceedings that led to his conviction have been declared unconstitutional by many, including American Bar Association lawyer Stuart Taylor and international courts. The significance of choosing this man as graduation speaker: Evergreen chose to accept the unprecedented opportunity to hear this man speak at graduation. In an historic moment that denies particular people their rights to speak and be heard, Mumia represents the voice of struggle and strength despite the shackles of imprisonment. Committee members cited Mumia's reflections on education and freedom as parallel to the philosophy of Evergreen. The students also wish to publicize his case in order to raise public awareness of the case and the prison crisis in this country. Racism in death penalty sentencing is blatant and shocking. Selecting Mumia Abu-Jamal as the
[PEN-L:7834] PLA Russia Visit
South China Morning Post Wednesday, June 9, 1999 Top-level PLA visit to Russia sends Washington strong signal OLIVER CHOU The visit of a high-level PLA delegation to Russia is a strong signal from Beijing to Washington over the US-led Nato bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, according to analysts. General Zhang Wannian, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, led a delegation to Moscow on Monday. Analysts said the seniority of delegation members was unusual. General Zhang took with him a selection of PLA generals in charge of military intelligence, armaments, the navy and air force, as well as the regional commander of areas close to Russia. One military analyst said: "Beijing has kept a busy schedule for military exchanges in the past month, but none involves a Western power, except for the visit of the Australian Defence Minister. The Russian navy commander and deputy chief of staff were in the Chinese capital in the past two weeks." Another analyst added: "It is by far the most vocal gesture Beijing has sent to Washington since it suspended military exchanges with the United States after the embassy bombing. "The portfolios of delegation members, mainly in hardware and weaponry systems, suggest the tour is likely to yield substantive results, such as arms agreements. But there is no way to know how far Russia will really help." Xinhua reported that General Zhang would hold talks with Russian leaders, including Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, on bilateral co-operation and international security. In Moscow, the 71-year-old general said the Chinese-Russian strategic partnership was "in accordance with the fundamental interests of both countries and beneficial to the peace, stability and development of the Asia-Pacific region and the world".
