Racism and Fascism in Austria
Concrete evidence of racism and fascist trends in Austria - In view of the debate about Haider, I think the list should consider the facts and the arguments in the below. It was forwarded to me by the National Civil Rights Movement (started last year in Britain as a result of a number of cases of police acquiescence in racism). It is from National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) Web site: http://www.ncadc.demon.co.uk/ Quoting Amnesty International, Austria. Chris Burford London The report covers incidents that happened before the current government was sworn in. But human rights organisations fear that the rise of the far right has given expression to passive racism in Austria. Rampant racism against Immigration detainees by Austrian police exposed Black detainees kicked, beaten and punched, says Amnesty Kate Connolly in Vienna: Saturday March 25, 2000 Austrian police have been accused of seriously flouting human rights, abusing their powers and using brutal language and behaviour in their treatment of foreigners, in a report released by Amnesty International in Vienna yesterday. The damning account said a strong inbuilt racism existed within the police force. The report was published on the same day as a 31-year-old police officer appeared before a Vienna court charged with grevious bodily harm over the beating of a young black African man. The policeman is alleged to have hit the 18-year-old around the genitals with a baseball bat before arresting him in September last year on suspicion of drugs possession. The Amnesty report said detainees were often denied access to lawyers, doctors or friends, and foreigners, particularly black Africans, had been beaten unconscious for not showing police their papers. The focal point of Amnesty's allegations is the case of Marcus Omofuma, a Nigerian asylum seeker, 25, who died while being deported from Vienna to Sofia in May last year. He was bound and gagged "like a mummy stuck to the seat" by the three officers who accompanied him, and arrived unconscious in Sofia where doctors pronounced him dead. No charges were brought. "Investigations into police ill-treatment have been slow, lacking in thoroughness and often inconclusive," said Mr Patzelt. Often, when complaints were made, the police brought counter-charges and more often than not won. Illegal raids on asylum homes were also being regularly reported, he said, citing an incident which occurred after the report was completed, in January this year, when police raided the home of black Africans in Traiskirchen. "One hundred and forty police stormed the home looking for drugs but nothing was found," he said. "They then carried out painful anal searches, simply because there was some suspicion that there might be drugs there. All you need is a black face to be considered suspicious." In what is being seen as a timely move, the EU has chosen to base its new racism monitoring centre in Vienna. "It wasn't placed here because Austria is seen as being racist," insisted EU spokesman John Kellock, "but if it steps out of line, we'll haul them over the coals." The Freedom party and People's party are the only government parties in the EU not to have signed up to the EU's charter against racism because their policies contravene some of the clauses. Fears that intolerance is on the rise in Austria increased this week when the head of the evangelical church, Bishop Gertraud Knoll, said she was going into hiding with her three children because she could no longer stand the violent and sexually abusive letters delivered to her home in Burgenland. Bishop Knoll, 41, has been a staunch critic of the Freedom party and its racist politics for years. Amnesty International Press Release 24 March 2000 In November 1998, Dr C, a black Austrian citizen, was stopped by police after reversing his car into a one-way street and was asked "Why are you driving the wrong way, Nigger?" The police officers reportedly pushed Dr C into a bush of thorns, beat him unconscious, handcuffed him and continued to beat him after he regained consciousness. Dr C's wife claims one of the police officers shouted to his colleague; "Make him lame until he can no longer walk". After being arrested, Dr C was so badly beaten, he was taken to hospital where he spent 11 days recovering. Police officers entered a Chinese restaurant in July 1998 and demanded identity papers from employees. The cook, a Chinese national, was reportedly dragged out of the kitchen, beaten and put into a headlock for not producing his papers. >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: the expression "political economy"
The term 'international political economy' is/was used by international political scientists like Susan Strange - their use of the the term is almost entirely unrelated to its use by Smith or Marxians or Buchanan (in case things weren't confusing enought). Barnet Wagman email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy"
Usually today people use the term when they are writing are the margins of neo-classical economics (that includes Buchanan). Barnet Wagman wrote: > The term 'international political economy' is/was used by international > political scientists like Susan Strange - their use of the the term is > almost entirely unrelated to its use by Smith or Marxians or Buchanan > (in case things weren't confusing enought). > > Barnet Wagman > > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy"
That is not the case in Canada. Here it is more usually associated with the left nationalist. Rod Michael Perelman wrote: > Usually today people use the term when they are writing are the margins of > neo-classical economics (that includes Buchanan). > > Barnet Wagman wrote: > > > The term 'international political economy' is/was used by international > > political scientists like Susan Strange - their use of the the term is > > almost entirely unrelated to its use by Smith or Marxians or Buchanan > > (in case things weren't confusing enought). > > > > Barnet Wagman > > > > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
Re: Re: the expression "political economy"
Michael Perelman quoted the following passage from Marshall's *The Economics
of Industry*:
>The Economics of Industry (1879), p. 2: "The
> nation used to be called 'the Body Politic'. So long as this phrase was in
> common use, men thought of the interests of the whole nation when they used
> the
> word 'Political'; and then 'Political Economy' served well enough as a name
> for
> the science. But now 'political interests' generally mean the interests of
> only
> some part or parts of the nation; so it seems best to drop the name 'Political
> Economy', and to speak simply of {italics} Economic Science, or more
> shortly,
> Economics".
As this passage itself indicates, Marshall did not intend by this change to
give "economics" the meaning it currently has. His intent was to retain the
older meaning of "political economy" as a "moral science".
Marshall's relation to "neo-classical economics" understood as "Benthamite
economics" is very complex.
He was a very serious and perceptive student not only of Marx but of Kant
and Hegel. Hegel, for instance, is mentioned as one of the two main
influences (the other is Herbert Spencer) on the "substance of the views
expressed in" the *Principles* (Preface). In his essay on Marshall, Keynes
quotes him as having once said of Kant "'Kant my guide the only man I ever
worshipped" and as having pointed to Hegel's *Philosophy of History* as a
key influence "finally determining the course of his life". (Keynes,
Collected Writings, vol. X, p. 172)
These influences show up in a number of essential ways in Marshall's
economics. For instance, Marshall takes a "dialectical" view of social
interdependence. This underpins his conception of "caeteris paribus" and
his use of the term "normal".
Keynes points to this In his essay (see particularly pp. 185-7 and 196-7)
It was, he claims, the basis of Marshall's distinction "between the objects
and methods of the mathematical sciences and those of the social sciences"
(p. 197) and constituted "the profundity of his [Marshall's] insight into
the true character of his subject in its highest and most useful
developments" (p. 188).
Another illustration of this influence, an illustration connected to this
first one, is Marshall's Marxist treatment of labour in capitalism as
"alienated" labour and his view that those who do it would be able, if the
conditions of their labour were appropriately transformed, to develop into
what Marx (following Hegel) called "universally developed individuals".
These ideas are rooted in a theory of ethics (taken over from Kant and
Hegel) which treats values as objective and knowable and, on this basis,
treats the human "will" as potentially, to use Hegel's language, a "will
proper" and a "universal will" i.e. as a will whose content, unlike the
content of other animal wills, in ultimately fully open to
self-determination by reason. (A "will proper" is a will fully open to
self-determination; a "universal will" is a will whose content derives
entirely from knowledge of the good reached through reason.)
Here are passages in which Marshall treats capitalist labour as alienated
labour:
"man ought to work in order to live, his life, physical, moral, and mental,
should be strengthened and made full by his work. But what if his inner
life be almost crushed by his work? Is there not then suggested a terrible
truth by the term working man, when applied to the unskilled labourer a
man whose occupation tends in a greater or less degree to make him live for
little save for that work that is a burden to bear?" (Marshall, *Memorials
of Alfred Marshall*, p. 108)
"in the world's history there has been no waste product, so much more
important than all others, that it has a right to be called THE Waste
Product. It is the higher abilities of many of the working classes; the
latent, the undeveloped, the choked-up and wasted faculties for higher work,
that for lack of opportunity have come to nothing." (*Memorials*, p. 229)
In another essay, "The Future of the Working Classes" (Memorials pp.
109-118), he sets out the conditions which would be required for all persons
to develop into "gentlemen" (his term for Marx's idea of the "universally
developed individual" - a term suggestive of the fact that, in contrast to
Marx, Marshall's version of the idea was not free of sexism).
The reason Marshall gives for the change of name from "political economy" to
"economics" is consistent with all this and indicates as well his wish to
retain the meaning which Aristotle had given to the rational form of
acquisition. Economics was to be understood as a "moral science" concerned
with the "health" of "the body Politic". Its object was to insure the
provision to all members of the community of the material means of a "good
life" and, as part of this, to investigate how to organize this provision
(organize what Marx calls the "realm of necessity") so as to make the work
required to accomplish it compatible with the ultim
Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy"
At 10:34 AM 04/08/2000 -0500, you wrote: >The term 'international political economy' is/was used by international >political scientists like Susan Strange - their use of the the term is >almost entirely unrelated to its use by Smith or Marxians or Buchanan >(in case things weren't confusing enought). how do they use the term? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine/JDevine.html
Re: Marshall
a very interesting post! Ted Winslow writes: > These influences show up in a number of essential ways in Marshall's economics. For instance, Marshall takes a "dialectical" view of social interdependence. This underpins his conception of "caeteris paribus" and his use of the term "normal".< I don't get how concepts like "ceteris paribus" and "normal" jibe with dialectics, which involve a process in which ceteris is never paribus and today's "normal" is always different from yesterday's. How does equilibrium (which seems a central concept to Marshall) fit in with dialectics? later on: >In another essay, "The Future of the Working Classes" (Memorials pp. 109-118), he sets out the conditions which would be required for all persons to develop into "gentlemen" (his term for Marx's idea of the "universally developed individual" - a term suggestive of the fact that, in contrast to Marx, Marshall's version of the idea was not free of sexism).< also notice that Marshall implies that disalienation involves workers becoming like a gentleperson, while Marx would see the gentry as themselves alienated (in a different way than workers, natch). Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine/JDevine.html
Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy" (fwd)
>Usually today people use the term when they are writing are the margins >of >neo-classical economics (that includes Buchanan). >Barnet Wagman wrote: >> The term 'international political economy' is/was used by international >> political scientists like Susan Strange - their use of the the term is >> almost entirely unrelated to its use by Smith or Marxians or Buchanan >> (in case things weren't confusing enought). > >> Barnet Wagman > > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Barnet, I agree, but I will make some general comments.. first, there is no general consensus among political or social scientists (broadly defined) about what "international political economy" means to begin with. Just as there are "international political scientists" such as Susan Strange, there are "international economists" such as Paul Krugman, so I don't see the point (though, I would say, Krugman is much worse than Strange, may be because of my diciplinary bias). Conceptual problems exist in every dicipline of social science, including economics, not only in political science. At a first glance, I should say, we have more "critical theorists" in political science, sociology, anthropology etc..than people have in economics. Economics is relatively a more conservative social science when it comes to discussion of "certain" issues. second, you are talking about how Susan Strange's use of "international political economy" is unrelated to its use by Smith, Buchanan etc... This is true and normal (by virtue of historical facts) because neither Smith nor Buchanan attempted to formulate an "exact" definition of this concept. I don't remember Smith writing in 17th century Britain, at a mercantalist capitalist period, and still mentioning the global dimensions of capitalism in some systemic way, that some of us do in IPE "today". What he meant was still packed in classical economic terms. Differently, IPE is relatively a new dicipline that has aimed to abridge the gap between economics and politics. Of course, there are different standpoints within IPE, which is what I am gonna talk about.. Third, what we mean when we mean by "political economy" in "any" dicipline, I find the term "world system" analytically more useful than "international political economy" or "political economy" per se. The reason for that is the latter still assumes that we are living in an inter-state system, not in a world system. It further expects, given free trade, all societies will automatically follow the western model of capitalist development, ignoring global hierarchies within the system. hence, it is implicitly biased in favor neo-classical economics or free market orthodoxy. Even, imperialism is seen, in these accounts, preparing the "conditions" for capitalism, and "westernizing" and "modernizing" the rest of world. This is not the problem of "political scientists" or other diciplines of social science, Barnet. the problem stems from the economics dicipline it self, a dicipline that is "still" less critical and conscious of its hypothetical assumptions compared to other social sciences, whether it is Buchanan or Smith type (actually, Lenin was one of the first who saw the problems with orthodox, free market marxism, together with brilliant Gramsci around those times) On the contrary, the concept "world system" (or even "international political economy") was first invented and heavily used by political scientists, political economists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians, not economists per se! Inter-paradigmatic communication is much stronger within those diciplines in terms of how their diciplines relate to one another. For economists, on the contary, the world is always economics "versus" other social sciences, and the rest is a bunch of cultural sciences. Any serious attempt comes from other diciplines to abridge the gap between economics and politics. for example, Wallerstein is not an economist, but he provides one of the most systemic analysis of modern capitalism, who can at least escape from the "margins" of neo-classical economy by still being a political economist. I strongly tend to believe his "sociology" background enriches his understanding of political economy. Mine Doyran Phd Student Political Science [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- >Michael Perelman >Economics Department >California State University >Chico, CA 95929 >Tel. 530-898-5321 >E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: Marshall
Equilibrium might have been a central concept with Marshall but he was aware that there might not be one under certain cost conditions. Telser says of Marshall: "This conclusion, together with Marshall's well-known statement that a seller might not lower his price 'for fear of spoiling the market' is strong evidence of his sophisticated comprehension of the nature of a competitive equilibrium." (p. 53 of A Theory of efficient cooperation and competition) Jim Devine wrote: > a very interesting post! > > Ted Winslow writes: > These influences show up in a number of essential > ways in Marshall's economics. For instance, Marshall takes a "dialectical" > view of social interdependence. This underpins his conception of "caeteris > paribus" and his use of the term "normal".< > > I don't get how concepts like "ceteris paribus" and "normal" jibe with > dialectics, which involve a process in which ceteris is never paribus and > today's "normal" is always different from yesterday's. How does equilibrium > (which seems a central concept to Marshall) fit in with dialectics? > > later on: >In another essay, "The Future of the Working Classes" (Memorials > pp. 109-118), he sets out the conditions which would be required for all > persons to develop into "gentlemen" (his term for Marx's idea of the > "universally developed individual" - a term suggestive of the fact that, in > contrast to Marx, Marshall's version of the idea was not free of sexism).< > > also notice that Marshall implies that disalienation involves workers > becoming like a gentleperson, while Marx would see the gentry as themselves > alienated (in a different way than workers, natch). > > Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine/JDevine.html
Re: Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy" (fwd)
>That is not the case in Canada. Here it is more usually associated with >the >left nationalist. very true point, Rod! I have always beleived that there is something interesting to look at in canadian leftism, eventhough canada is one of the core capitalist powers. Once, the left was associated with "almost" the same meanings in Turkey too. third world nationalist, anti-imperialist, socialist, progressive, anti-fascist, radically welfare, avant-garde, bla, bla, bla...we were very much influenced by european type leftism (certain brands), and the organic ruling classes by french and german type capitalism. thus, historically speaking, neo-classsical economy and political liberalism of anglo saxon type are alien to us. This is changing, however, within the last 30 years or so due to the incresing US hegemony and market capitalism...though i strongly reject that it should be a model for us however inevitable it seems in the first place.. cheers, Mine Michael Perelman wrote: > Usually today people use the term when they are writing are the margins of > neo-classical economics (that includes Buchanan). > > Barnet Wagman wrote: > > > The term 'international political economy' is/was used by international > > political scientists like Susan Strange - their use of the the term is > > almost entirely unrelated to its use by Smith or Marxians or Buchanan > > (in case things weren't confusing enought). > > > > Barnet Wagman > > > > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
Re: the expression "political economy"
Ted Winslow wrote: Ted's description of Marshall seems to follow Keynes's description of Marshall. Keynes's Marshall is an attractive figure. The real Marshall was not. While he would, in his earlier years and even from time to time in the Principles, make idealistic statements about labor, he was not pro labor. Marshall, Alfred. 1925. Memorials of Alfred Marshall, Alfred Pigou, ed., p. 400 letters on a strike by engineering workers for an 8-hour-day in 1897 "I want these people to be beaten at all costs: the complete destruction of unions would be as heavy a price as it is possible to conceive, but I think it is not too high a price." As I mentioned in the last note, Marshall was instrumental in formalizing economics, because he resented people from other fields interjecting themselves into economic debates. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy"
Michael wrote: > Usually today people use the term when they are writing are the margins of > neo-classical economics (that includes Buchanan). > I have always liked Branko Horvats definition of political economy as "a fusion of economic and political theory into one single social theory." In Canada, as Rod indicates, it has taken a very special meaning as indicated in this quote from Wally Clement and Glen Williams, edicated collection _The New Canadian Political Economy_. "while political economy is based on a tradition that investigates the relationship between economy and politics as they affect the social and cultural life of societies, within political economy there have been divergent tendencies. Broadly, the liberal political economy tradition has placed determinate weight on the political system and markets, while the Marxist tradition grants primacy to the economic system and classes. Such facile statements, however, underplay the complexity of positions within each tradition. Political economy at its strongest has focused on processes whereby social change is located in the historical interaction of the economic, political, cultural, and ideological conflict." [1989: 6-7] Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
Re: Re: Marshall
Jim Devine understands what Marshall was about. Yes, he wanted labor to improve, but improvement meant becoming more middle-class. Keynes, Marshall, and Smith all had a similar vision of labor becoming assimilated into the middle-class. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: the expression "political economy" (fwd)
Ted, why are you "radicalizing" Marshall and Keynes? In the final analysis, they are fundamentally different from Marx? aren't they? Mine Ted wrote: Another illustration of this influence, an illustration connected to this first one, is Marshall's Marxist treatment of labour in capitalism as "alienated" labour and his view that those who do it would be able, if the conditions of their labour were appropriately transformed, to develop into what Marx (following Hegel) called "universally developed individuals". These ideas are rooted in a theory of ethics (taken over from Kant and Hegel) which treats values as objective and knowable and, on this basis, treats the human "will" as potentially, to use Hegel's language, a "will proper" and a "universal will" i.e. as a will whose content, unlike the content of other animal wills, in ultimately fully open to self-determination by reason. (A "will proper" is a will fully open to self-determination; a "universal will" is a will whose content derives entirely from knowledge of the good reached through reason.) Here are passages in which Marshall treats capitalist labour as alienated labour: "man ought to work in order to live, his life, physical, moral, and mental, should be strengthened and made full by his work. But what if his inner life be almost crushed by his work? Is there not then suggested a terrible truth by the term working man, when applied to the unskilled labourer a man whose occupation tends in a greater or less degree to make him live for little save for that work that is a burden to bear?" (Marshall, *Memorials of Alfred Marshall*, p. 108) "in the world's history there has been no waste product, so much more important than all others, that it has a right to be called THE Waste Product. It is the higher abilities of many of the working classes; the latent, the undeveloped, the choked-up and wasted faculties for higher work, that for lack of opportunity have come to nothing." (*Memorials*, p. 229) In another essay, "The Future of the Working Classes" (Memorials pp. 109-118), he sets out the conditions which would be required for all persons to develop into "gentlemen" (his term for Marx's idea of the "universally developed individual" - a term suggestive of the fact that, in contrast to Marx, Marshall's version of the idea was not free of sexism). The reason Marshall gives for the change of name from "political economy" to "economics" is consistent with all this and indicates as well his wish to retain the meaning which Aristotle had given to the rational form of acquisition. Economics was to be understood as a "moral science" concerned with the "health" of "the body Politic". Its object was to insure the provision to all members of the community of the material means of a "good life" and, as part of this, to investigate how to organize this provision (organize what Marx calls the "realm of necessity") so as to make the work required to accomplish it compatible with the ultimate end. This required, for instance, that work in the realm of necessity not be alienated labour, that it be work which both developed and required universal capacities. It also required that it take up a minimal amount of time so as to maximize the time available for "the realm of freedom" where activities were ends-in-themselves rather than means, i.e. where they were "art" in Kant's sense of "production through freedom, i.e. through a will that places reason at the basis of its actions" (*Critique of Judgment*, p. 145). Keynes was also insistent that economics was a "moral science" in this sense having as its concern the health of the body Politic (see, e.g., Collected Writings, vol. XIV, pp. 297 and 300). This is the meaning of his claim that in an ideal world organized on the basis of "the most sure and certain principles of religion and traditional virtue" (IX, p. 330), economists would be "humble, competent people, on a level with dentists". "But, chiefly, do not let us overestimate the importance of the economic problem, or sacrifice to its supposed necessities other matters of greater and more permanent significance. It should be a matter for specialists - like dentistry. If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as a humble, competent people, on a level with dentists, that would be splendid!" (IX, p. 332) As was true of other changes Marshall made to language, the change from "political economy" to "economics" was, I suspect, a response to Marx. Specifically it was a response to Marx's treatment of "political economists" as "representing their [capitalists'] *scientific* screed and form of existence". Marshall's substitution of the word "waiting" for the word "abstinence" is likely another example of such a change. He was responding to the ridicule Marx heaped on Senior's substitution of the latter word for the word "capital". Marx had called this "an unparalleled example of the discoveries of vulgar economics!" Capital, vol.
Re: the expression "political economy"
The term, political economy, grew out of the earlier turn, economy, which meant the management of an estate. In the 17th century, Montechretian wrote the first book using the term political economy. He meant managing not just a single estate, but the whole state. It was not so much that it was political, as Paul suggests the modern usage implies. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Michael wrote: > > > Usually today people use the term when they are writing are the margins of > > neo-classical economics (that includes Buchanan). > > > > I have always liked Branko Horvats definition of political economy > as "a fusion of economic and political theory into one single social > theory." > > In Canada, as Rod indicates, it has taken a very special meaning > as indicated in this quote from Wally Clement and Glen Williams, > edicated collection _The New Canadian Political Economy_. > > "while political economy is based on a tradition that investigates > the relationship between economy and politics as they affect the > social and cultural life of societies, within political economy there > have been divergent tendencies. Broadly, the liberal political > economy tradition has placed determinate weight on the political > system and markets, while the Marxist tradition grants primacy to > the economic system and classes. Such facile statements, > however, underplay the complexity of positions within each > tradition. Political economy at its strongest has focused on > processes whereby social change is located in the historical > interaction of the economic, political, cultural, and ideological > conflict." [1989: 6-7] > > Paul Phillips, > Economics, > University of Manitoba -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: past and future of multilateral institutions (fwd)
-- Forwarded message -- Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2000 01:09:54 -0400 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: past and future of multilateral institutions Those interested in the April 16 demo might also benefit from something I accidentally unearthed the other day: Samir Amin, "Fifty Years is Enough, " a fifty-page special in Monthly Review (April 1995), re-analysing the Bretton Woods institutions in the context of postwar capitalist dynamics (and American economic dominance), and assessing possible avenues of (feasible) reform. This reading and other considerations make me hope that April 16thers will also direct their attention to the panoply of forces to which the WB/IMF are themselves subject: -- key congressional committees and other state bodies that influence/determine WB/IMF policies -- conservative congressmen (some of whom see even the WB/IMF as bastions of liberal internationalism)(and who withold funding from the United Nations and its agencies) --key lobbyists and lobbying firms, which construct and sustain the connection between the corporate world and the American state and congress -- identifying those that have allowed particular corporate interests to be favored by the multilaterals - right-wing think tanks that have furthered conservative/pro-corporate international policies - embassies of countries that have been especially complicit in mismanaging their resources, enacting harsh policies, agreeing to ecologically damaging forms of exploitation, etc. - perhaps the headquarters or local office of a corporation or two -- who have somehow been involved in or profited from particular WB/IMF policies. When one thinks of even these local manifestations of the corporate-political networks that oil the gears and pull the strings... the World Bank and IMF seem more than ever the easy targets -- but are they the most essential? For an example of REALLY bad guys at work (in a slightly different domain), consider the following, from the Washgington Post: The Second Amendment, Going Global By Kathi Austin Sunday, March 26, 2000; Page B01 Seventeen months ago, in the aftermath of gory civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia and conflicts in neighboring countries that had left more than 250,000 people dead, the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) decided to try something unprecedented: It announced a three-year moratorium in all 16 member nations on the export, import and manufacture of small arms. Since most of the guns came from outside the region--and because ECOWAS had insufficient money and technical expertise to implement a ban--the West Africans appealed to the international community for help. The United States was among the governments that agreed to contribute, pledging $200,000 toward the moratorium and $1 million more for measures to support conflict resolution. These were modest, even minimal grants. But they didn't get past Sen. Jesse Helms. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a longtime ally of the National Rifle Association, invoked a provision of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act to block the funding. In an Aug. 24, 1999, letter to the U.S. Agency for International Development, Helms explained his opposition: "The Small-Arms Moratorium project proposes using U.S. taxpayers' money (among other things) to lobby or promote policies in foreign countries that may very well be a violation of the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution--if the federal government attempted such activities here at home." The proposed aid, Helms wrote, was "nothing less than a brazen international expansion of the President and Vice President's domestic gun control agenda." I've been documenting conflict in Africa firsthand for 12 years, and it's not clear to me what the Second Amendment has to do with blood-soaked Sierra Leone. What does seem clear is that blocking support to ECOWAS was a warning shot in the American gun lobby's plans to go global. The NRA, its allies and affiliates are campaigning against what they describe as a worldwide conspiracy of gun snatchers. The immediate goal appears to be frightening American gun owners, thereby raising money and membership at home. But there is a broader result: thwarting international attempts to contain the spread and misuse of small arms. The most sensational atrocities in the West African wars may have been amputations, carried out with machetes and knives. But the bulk of the killings were committed with rifles, machine guns and semiautomatics--far more efficient instruments of death. There are about 500 million of these cheap, durable and readily available small arms circulating in the worl
London: Electronic Cultural Atlas June Meeting (fwd)
> From: Jack Owens, Idaho State University > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ** > > ANNOUNCEMENT > > The Electronic Atlas Cultural Initiative Conference > > British Library, London > June 26-28, 2000 > > Additional Meetings of ECAI Tech, ECAI Editors, and Special > topics groups: June 23-25 > Workshops: June 29-30 > > Registration is now open at the ECAI website > (www.ias.berkeley.edu/ecai/) for the June Meeting of ECAI. > > Accommodation information can also be found at this site. > > ECAI > > The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) is an > international research project [www.ecai.org] aimed at the creation of > distributed, spatially referenced, GIS-style cultural databases which can > be accessed across the Internet from a common front-end software. > > The ECAI project (initiated in 1997 and headed by Professor Lewis > Lancaster, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of > California at Berkeley), constitutes a new dimension in academic research, > applications of digital and networked technologies and > international collaboration. At present approximately 300 area specialists > from ECAI Regional Teams* in conjunction with ECAI Technical Teams, are > producing an interactive electronic atlas of the world from which selected > data from regions, eras, and disciplines can be accessed. > > ECAI is planning to extend its geographical focus into Europe, > the Middle East and Africa. It has therefore asked the British > Library to host its 2000 conference and, over the following months, > experts in all fields in Britain will be approached to attend and form > their own Regional Teams for all aspects of British, European, Middle > Eastern and African history and culture. > > ECAI 2000 at The British Library will be an exciting and > important forum. > > There will be a reception on Monday 26 June 2000 to celebrate > ECAI's aims and achievements, attended by the UK Government Minister for > Arts and Libraries, Alan Howerth. > > ECAI is an exemplar of international collaboration being used to > harness expertise worldwide in order to increase public access to the > world's culture and history via the Internet. > >
further reflections on the connection between economics, social,political and ideological. new book: From Earth Spirits to Sky Gods (fwd)
excellent book in Marxian psychology from a world systemic perspective.. I am sure it will help our discussion on political economy.. Mine -- Prof. Chris Chase Dunn wrote: of relevance for comparing world-systems is a new book by Bruce Lerro _From Earthspirits to Sky Gods: The Socioecological Origins Of Monotheism, Individualism And Hyperabstract Reasoning From The Stone Age To The Axial Iron Age_ Lexington Press, 2000. What is the difference between a spell and a prayer? Why do the gods replace the goddesses in the creation myths of the ancient world? Why does monotheism replace animism and polytheism at least among the upper classes in some state societies? This book is an attempt to a) link the sociohistorical school of psychology, led by the marxian psychologist, Vygotsky to macrosociology b) apply Vygotsky's cooperative theory of learning to tribal, archaic and ancient societies in a way similar to Luria's study of the effect of industrialization on the cognitive processes of workers and peasants c) extend and deepen Marx and Engels' theory of religion by suggesting that magic, unlike religion, is not a sign of alienation, but an expression of egalitarian relations in some pre-state societies. d) to historicize both Mead and Piaget, by arguing that both Mead's chararacteristics self and Piaget's stages of cognitive development have an origin in history and are not universally present.
Re: Re: Re: Marshall
As far as Marshall's politics are concerned. He was firmly in the British liberal tradition of charity towards his social inferiors. And resented it when workers spoke for themselves. As far as dialectics and Marshall are concerned. In a sense there is a dialectic in Marshall. He is one of the few economists of his time who took seriously the interaction of supply and demand. Most of his contemporaries tried to reduce everything to subjective utility evaluations. And if supply was considered it was a static given upon which demand acted. Rod Michael Perelman wrote: > Jim Devine understands what Marshall was about. Yes, he wanted labor to improve, > but improvement meant becoming more middle-class. Keynes, Marshall, and Smith > all had a similar vision of labor becoming assimilated into the middle-class. > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
Re: the expression "political economy"
>As I mentioned in the last note, Marshall was instrumental in formalizing economics, >because he resented people from other fields interjecting themselves into economic >debates. >-- >Michael Perelman Thank goodness he's not subbed to PEN-L. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
Re: Re: Re: Re: Marshall
Michael has urged looking at the Greek meaning of economic to understand the meaning of political economy. We should also look at the Greek root of politics. It derives from polis. And doesn't necessarily carry the meanings inherent in the modern word political. Rod -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
Re: Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy" (fwd)
>In Canada, as Rod indicates, it has taken a very special meaning >as indicated in this quote from Wally Clement and Glen Williams, >edicated collection _The New Canadian Political Economy_. >"while political economy is based on a tradition that investigates >the relationship between economy and politics as they affect the >social and cultural life of societies, within political economy there >have been divergent tendencies. Broadly, the liberal political >economy tradition has placed determinate weight on the political >system and markets, while the Marxist tradition grants primacy to >the economic system and classes. Such facile statements, >however, underplay the complexity of positions within each >tradition. Political economy at its strongest has focused on >processes whereby social change is located in the historical >interaction of the economic, political, cultural, and ideological >conflict." [1989: 6-7] Paul, I liked the definition. There is a lot of potentional in the Marxist tradition to explore the dialectical interaction of economics, politics, cultural and ideological. I don't know if the authors would agree with me, but this is what Marx would do as a critical theorist. However,as you know, there are some Marxists in the Marxist tradition who uncritically subcribe to the notions of "orthodox" economics and free market capitalism. This, I would charecterize as economic determinism, has interesting commonalities with liberal economics since it treats capitalism somewhat theologically and mechanistically. The typical "theory of stages" argument says that we should let the market forces operate untill capitalism unleashes itself. Any intervention in markets is seen as postponing the collapse of capitalism. so as the argument goes, this tradition still emphasizes the primacy of economic laws rather than revolutionary unity of theory and practice, which is so central to Marx's thinking. is such a distortion of Marx unique to economics dicipline in general? I have not seen, for example, such a religious reliance on markets in other diciplinary discussions on political economy of capitalism Mine >Paul Phillips, >Economics, >University of Manitoba
Re: genome news
A Marxist sociologist Steve Rosenthal replies to those who think that there is no problem with studying genome. This is the "real" side of Wilson, not the progressive Wilson as he is perceived by some. >Steve Rosenthal > > How Science is Perverted to Build Fascism: > A Marxist Critique of E.O. Wilson's > Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. > > For twenty-five years Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson has put > forward the idea that it is human nature to be fascist. In his > latest book Consilience (an archaic word that means combining), > Wilson insists that sociobiology must be imposed on all academic > disciplines. > > E.O. Wilson is a Harvard professor emeritus of entomology, the study > of insects. In the 1970s he updated the old social Darwinist > ideology that human societies are shaped by the biological nature of > humans. Just as the nature of ants creates colonies of queens, > drones, workers, and slaves, the nature of humans creates racism, > sexism, patriotism, wars, religion, and class exploitation. Wilson > used this "revelation" to argue that efforts to fight against racism, > sexism, and imperialism go against human nature and are thus > exceedingly difficult, and to claim that communism is unscientific > and cannot work. Wilson proudly says of himself, "At my core, I am a > social conservative, a loyalist. I cherish traditional institutions, > the more venerable and ritual-laden the better." > > Wilson put these arguments into Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, > published in 1975 by Harvard University Press and widely promoted by > the popular media. Many natural and social scientists exposed human > sociobiology as an unscientific attempt to defend the capitalist > status quo as natural and unchangeable. > > Because of these sharp critiques, Wilson reinvented himself as an > environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. A quarter century > and five books later, Wilson today poses as a reasonable advocate of > genetic and cultural "co-evolution" and as a proponent of > genetic/environmental interaction. He pretends to reject biological > determinism, social Darwinism, and eugenics. The ruling class has > extolled Consilience as the crowning achievement of a visionary elder > statesman of capitalist science. The New York Times and The Wall > Street Journal lavishly praised his call for the subjugation of the > social sciences and the humanities to the natural sciences, and for > the elevation of his pseudo-science to state religion. The Atlantic > Monthly interviewed Wilson and published excerpts of Consilience. > > The unifying concept of Consilience is human nature. According to > Wilson, human nature "is the_hereditary regularities of mental > development that bias cultural evolution in one direction_and thus > connect the genes to culture" (p. 164). Therefore, in all human > societies we favor our own family, ethnic and religious group, > impose male dominance, create hierarchies of status, rank, and wealth > and rules for inheritance, promote the territorial expansion and > defense of our society, and enter into contractual agreements (pp. > 168-172). Recycling the main ideological assertions of Sociobiology, > Wilson claims that racism, religious hatred, sexism, and war are not > inevitable features of capitalism, but universal traits of our > genetically evolved human nature. > > The natural sciences, Wilson claims, have discovered these truths, > and the social sciences and the humanities must adopt them in order > to achieve "consilience." Cognitive neuroscience, human behavioral > genetics, evolutionary biology, and the environmental sciences are > the four "bridges of consilience" from the natural sciences to the > social sciences and humanities. Only "consilience" can rescue social > scientists and humanists from "the pits of Marxism" and postmodernist > relativism. > > To illustrate "consilience," Wilson interprets the 1994 genocide in > Rwanda. He writes that it was partly an example of "ethnic rivalry > run amuck," reflecting our genetically based tribal instincts. It > also had a "deeper cause, rooted in environment and demography." > Population growth outstripped the carrying capacity of the land. "The > teenage soldiers of the Hutu and Tutsi then set out to solve the > population problem in the most direct possible way." And, Wilson > concludes, "Rwanda is a microcosm of the world" (pp. 287-88). > > Consider what Wilson omits from his analysis. Hutus and Tutsis > intermarried centuries ago, and there is no biological distinction > between them. European colonialists arbitrarily created an ethnic > distinction and used the Tutsi minority to impose indirect rule on the > Hutu majority. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank > imposed agricultural and financial reforms that shifted land use from > subsistence food production to export crops such as coffee. > Environmental scientists and
Re: Re: genome news
>A Marxist sociologist Steve Rosenthal replies to those who think >that there is no problem >with studying genome. > > >Mine Aysen Doyran >PhD Student >Department of Political Science >SUNY at Albany >Nelson A. Rockefeller College >135 Western Ave.; Milne 102 >Albany, NY 1 > > Because of these sharp critiques, Wilson reinvented himself as an > environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. Serious critics of Wilson don't make such an accusation because it is false. One can be--and Wilson always has been--both a sociobiologist and an environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. And a critique of sociobiology is not an argument against trying to use knowledge about our genes to cure and prevent diseases... Brad DeLong
Which Way to a New American Radicalism?
[In 1956 the American left faced many of the same problems it faces today. The 1950s were a period of political retreat accompanied by a boom that showed no signs of slowing down. A discussion broke out in the pages of the radical National Guardian newspaper about the relevance of Marxism to the new situation. Harry Braverman responded to the Guardian in the pages of the American Socialist in a manner that would seem relevant to our situation today which presents the American left with many of the same sorts of imponderables. Braverman and co-editor Bert Cochran had split with the American Trotskyist movement over perspectives following WWII. The party leadership held the view--alluded to in Harry's article--that "The end of World War Two was firmly expected to produce a return to the depression of the thirties." As a corollary, the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party would recruit thousands if not millions of trade unionists to its ranks and overthrow the capitalist system. Ironically, the Cochranite faction not only included the most seasoned trade union militants, but also the most talented Marxist economists starting with Braverman and Cochran themselves. The American Socialist was probably the first Marxist publication to reject the kind of "depression era" mentality that characterized groups like the SWP as well as the naked revisionism of groups like the Communist Party and the new left ideologues who would soon make an appearance. The magazine not only featured perceptive economic analysis from Braverman and Cochran, but those from other traditions such as the ex-CP'er William Mandel and "council communist" Paul Mattick. For the new Marxist left which we need so urgently in this country, those are the kinds of standards we should aspire to.] American Socialist, April 1956 The prolonged period of full employment has shaken the Left's confidence in Marxist economics, and given rise to all sorts of "coalitionist" notions in politics. This discussion of socialist perspectives sets forth a program for the coming period. Which Way to a New American Radicalism? by Harry Braverman BY this time, the fact that the American Left has suffered a serious decomposition--in numbers, spirit, organization, and ideology--is no longer anybody's private secret. The problem is being discussed from time to time in periodicals and organizations of the Left, and even those groups which try hardest to maintain an outward demeanor of calm and unruffled composure show signs of a shaken confidence. As an important example of such recent discussions, the two series of articles in the National Guardian by Tabitha Petran represented a healthy reaction against shortcomings of the American radical movement which have weakened it in its present crisis. The Communist Party took a heavy and well-deserved slugging for its long-time penchant for dealing in slogans and maneuvers without regard for their basic soundness; for its failure to base its work, these many years, upon a serious and sustained advocacy of socialism in America; for its latest hapless adventure in the form of a so-called "coalition policy"-- this last being nothing but a fancy name for a pathetic attempt to become a tail on a capitalist donkey. It is widely understood that some of the major causes for the Left's decline were outside its own control: the stabilization and expansion of the capitalist economy after World War II, and the red-scare hysteria connected with the cold war. No tactical recipes can drastically change our situation, and infuse glowing health and rapid growth. But what such a discussion can produce, if it is honestly and fearlessly pursued, is a renewal of perspective, with- Out which no movement can thrive, and a set of tactics which can meet the most pressing present problems, restore a secure footing and balance, and open the way for progress on a small scale today and on a larger scale when the situation in the country is more favorable. MUCH of the discussion has rightly centered around prospects for the U. S. economy. Many reasons been adduced, both on the Left and elsewhere, why we can no longer expect any serious economic debacle in America. Government intervention and stabilizers, production, new industries, have all figured in the argument. But undoubtedly the weightiest of all considerations has gone unmentioned: the conservatism of the human mind. Much economic reasoning that passes itself off as based on deep and technical cogitation rests on no than the difficulty on the part of the reasoner of conceiving a sharp turn in a situation which has continued without break for a relatively long period of time. Realism is a quality of thinking much to be admired and striven after, but where it lacks an essential leavening of flexibility and dynamism it tends to see the future as a simple indefinite continuation of the seemingly solid and impressive trends of the present. In an epoch which is subject to sharp changes--without notice-
Re: Re: genome news (fwd)
Brad,can you please read the rest of Steve's post, or the sentence that prior to the sentence you cite? since Steve is not here, I can not talk on behalf of him, but his work is an excellent piece in Marxian sociology. moreover, it is a serious critique of socio-biological assumptions about human nature and biological determinism of Wilson. the man (wilson) is briefly saying that capitalism, sexim and racism are in our genes, which is what almost all the socio-biologists fundamentally share theoretically (Pearson, DAwkins, Lynn, Rushton, etc...).Racism is not "accidental" to socio-biological assumptions; on the contrary, it is very intrinsic. Steve wrote: >> Because of these sharp critiques, Wilson reinvented himself as an >> environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. You replied: >Serious critics of Wilson don't make such an accusation because it is >false. One can be--and Wilson always has been--both a sociobiologist this is not an accusation, Brad!; this is what Wilson says. Below *is* real Wilson, not the enviromentalist Wilson you are talking about. I have fought with folks elsewhere who tend to give a progresive reading of Wilson, but this is *not* Wilson. Marxists should solve the problem of socio-biology because this is completely an an ideological science. Wilson is racist, sexist and anti-labor..see below.. Steve wrote: >The unifying concept of Consilience is human nature. According to >Wilson, human nature "is the_hereditary regularities of mental >development that bias cultural evolution in one direction_and thus >connect the genes to culture" (p. 164). Therefore, in all human >societies we favor our own family, ethnic and religious group, >impose male dominance, create hierarchies of status, rank, and wealth >and rules for inheritance, promote the territorial expansion and >defense of our society, and enter into contractual agreements (pp. >168-172). Recycling the main ideological assertions of Sociobiology, >Wilson claims that racism, religious hatred, sexism, and war are not >inevitable features of capitalism, but universal traits of our >genetically evolved human nature. I wrote: >A Marxist sociologist Steve Rosenthal replies to those who think >that there is no problem >with studying genome. > > >Mine Aysen Doyran >PhD Student >Department of Political Science >SUNY at Albany >Nelson A. Rockefeller College >135 Western Ave.; Milne 102 >Albany, NY 1
Bolivia under Martial Law!
All, Bad news from Bolivia. Seth Sandronsky Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 Subject: URGENT MESSAGE FROM JIM SHULTZ/Bolivia under Martial Law! Dear Friends: Just a few hours ago Bolivia was declared under martial law. People are being arrested, the army is occupying the streets, human rights offices are being invaded by government agents, radio stations are being closed by the military and huge sections of the city have had their electrical power cut (I had to leave home to find a computer that was still charged to write this). The situation is grave and we need help to get the story out. Please share the brief article below as far and wide as you can with anyone who will publish or broadcast it. My own media list is in a computer which I can't access. For the time being I can still be reached at 591-4-290-725. I will try to send updates as the situation allows. Please do not worry for our safety, my family and I are fine and keeping well away from the violence. IF YOU RESPOND, PLEASE RESPOND TO THE E-MAIL BELOW, NOT THE RETURN ON THIS ONE. -Jim Shultz The Democracy Center <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> **BOLIVIA UNDER MARTIAL LAW** As of 10 am Saturday morning Bolivia was declared under martial law by President Hugo Banzer. The drastic move comes at the end of a week of protests, general strikes, and transportation blockages that have left major areas of the country at a virtual standstill. It also follows, by just hours, the surprise announcement by state officials yesterday afternoon that the government would concede to the protests' main demands, to break a widely-despised contract under which the city of Cochabamba's public water system was sold off to foreign investors last year. The concession was quickly reversed by the national government, and the local governor resigned, explaining that he didn't want to take responsibility for bloodshed that might result. Banzer, who ruled Bolivia as a dictator from 1971-78, has taken an action that suspends almost all civil rights, disallows gatherings of more than four people and puts severe limits on freedom of the press. One after another, local radio stations have been taken over by military forces or forced off the air. Reporters have been arrested The neighborhood where most of the city's broadcast antennas are located had its power shut off at approximately noon local time. Through the night police searched homes for members of the widely-backed water protests, arresting as many as twenty. The local police chief has been instated by the President as governor of the state. Blockades erected by farmers in rural areas continue across the country, cutting off some cities from food and transportation. Large crowds of angry residents, many armed with sticks and rocks are massing on the city's center where confrontations with military and police are escalating. * * * * - End Forwarded Message - __ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Bolivia declares emergency over protests - April 8, 2000
You have to scroll down a bit to get to the story, but it's worth reading. Steve Subject: CNN.com - Bolivia declares emergency over protests - April 8, 2000 http://cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/04/08/bolivia.emergency.reut/index.html Title: CNN.com - Bolivia declares emergency over protests - April 8, 2000 Click HereClick Here Miami jury awards nearly $13 million in tobacco lawsuit Play video Watch more CNN VIDEO world > americas CNN Sites CNN CNNfn CNNSI myCNN AllPolitics Languages myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Free E-mail | Feedback CNN Sites CNN CNNfn CNNSI myCNN AllPolitics Languages Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNfn.com The Web WORLDTOP STORIES Voters in Bosnia lead off a weekend of elections around the globe Starvation stalks East Africa as drought drags on Bolivia declares emergency over protests White House announces Clinton-Barak summit Russian tanker detained on suspicion of smuggling Iraqi oil Spy papers at center of Kohl scandal divide Germans (MORE) TOP STORIES Voters in Bosnia lead off a weekend of elections around the globe Bolivia declares emergency over protests White House announces Clinton-Barak summit After 85 years, prom fever hits Oklahoma high school (MORE) BUSINESS Nasdaq posts record gainIdeas for your moneyCNNfn revamps mutual fund section (MORE) MARKETS 4:30pm ET, 4/7DJIA2.801.40 NAS178.894446.45 S&P15.011516.35 SPORTS Sampras loses Davis Cup match; Agassi wins Ailing O'Neal might miss Saturday's Lakers game Kevin Brown out 3-4 weeks with broken finger (MORE) All Scoreboards WEATHER Enter your U.S. Zip:Click here for U.S. States or world cities U.S.Reno expects to move next week to return Elian Gonzalez to his father POLITICSSenate passes $1.83 trillion budget blueprint TECHNOLOGYMicrosoft offers a peek at new operating systems ENTERTAINMENTReview: An unengaging 'Rules' HEALTHStudy links brain damage in Gulf War vets to nerve gas exposure TRAVELSpring/summer travel planner: Soak in Old World ambiance, new technology FOODDiabetic-friendly diner serves up sugarless, low-carb meals ARTS & STYLEToeless pantyhose step into the scene BOOKSPublishing turns new page with instant books (MORE HEADLINES) MAINPAGE WORLD africa americas asia pacific europe middle east U.S. LOCAL POLITICS WEATHER BUSINESS SPORTS TECHNOLOGY SPACE HEALTH ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS TRAVEL FOOD ARTS & STYLE NATURE IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS myCNN Headline News brief news quiz daily almanac MULTIMEDIA: video video archive audio multimedia showcase more services E-MAIL: Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists. Enter your address: DISCUSSION: message boards chat feedback CNN WEB SITES: AsiaNow Spanish Portuguese Italian Swedish Norwegian Danish Japanese FASTER ACCESS: europe TIME INC. SITES: Go To ... Time.com People Money Fortune EW CNN NETWORKS: more networks transcripts Turner distribution SITE INFO: help contents search ad info jobs WEB SERVICES: Keyword Title Author Bolivia declares emergency over protests Protesters protect their faces from tear gas fired by national police who dispersed thousands of demonstrators in Cochabamba, Bolivia, during protests against the raise in water rates April 8, 2000 Web posted at: 6:53 p.m. EDT (2253 GMT) LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) -- Bolivia's government put the landlocked Andean nation of 8 million people under a state of emergency Saturday, after it was rocked for a week by protests over pending waterworks projects and legislation. "We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state of emergency to protect law and order," President Hugo Banzer said in a message delivered by Information Minister Ronald MacLean at the government palace. The state of emergency giving Banzer special powers to deploy police and the military will be in place for 90 days. It was announced Friday night to avoid damaging "the efforts for social dialogue" and assure "that the great effort towards economic reactivation is not set back further," MacLean read. The move has to be ratified by Congress, in which the ruling party controls the majority. Bolivia has been hit by protests in
Re: Re: Re: genome news (fwd)
>Brad,can you please read the rest of Steve's post, or the sentence that >prior to the sentence you cite? since Steve is not here, I can not talk >on behalf of him, but his work is an excellent piece in Marxian sociology. >Steve wrote: > >>> Because of these sharp >critiques, Wilson reinvented himself as an > >> environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. If it is an excellent piece of Marxian sociology, why does it make false claims about Wilson's intellectual development? Either Steve does not know enough about E.O. Wilson to know that he was always *both* a sociobiologist and an environmentalist--in which I have better things to spend my time reading, things written by people who have done their homework--or Steve knows that he is lying when he claims that Wilson's environmentalism is an intellectual re-make--in which case I have better things to spend my time reading, things written by people who don't lie to me. Brad DeLong
Re: the expression "political economy"
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I have always liked Branko Horvats definition of political economy > as "a fusion of economic and political theory into one single social > theory." This implies that they were ever separate. The allocation of resources is obviously the most political of acts, and the aim of economics seems to have been above all to conceal this fact. One cannot fuse or join what were never separate. Carrol See Ellen Meiksins Wood, *Democracy against Capitalism*, Chapter 1, "The Separation of the 'Economic' and the 'Political" in Capitalism"
Re: Re: Re: Re: genome news (fwd)
> > >Steve wrote: > > > >>> Because of these sharp > >critiques, Wilson reinvented himself as an > > >> environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. > Brad replied: > >If it is an excellent piece of Marxian sociology, why does it make > >false claims about Wilson's intellectual development? > > >Either Steve does not know enough about E.O. Wilson to know that >he > >was always *both* a sociobiologist and an environmentalist--in >which > >I have better things to spend my time reading, things written by > >people who have done their homework--or Steve knows that he is >lying > >when he claims that Wilson's environmentalism is an intellectual > >re-make--in which case I have better things to spend my time >reading, > >things written by people who don't lie to me. > Brad, please know what you are saying. Nobody is a lier about Wilson's intellectual development here. Steve is DOCUMENTING passages from Wilson's book. Accordingly, he CITES Wilson who says that human nature "is the_hereditary regularities of mental development that bias cultural evolution in one direction_and thus connect the genes to culture" (p. 164). well, how do you interpret this? just a naive bio-diversity or an objective scientific statement?If you agree with what Wilson says, there is no point in continuing this debate because my reading of him is that he is obviously racist. This is because Wilson is reducing cultural and other social differences to genes, and then reconstructing and universalizing an hypothetical theory of human nature, which is completely false and ideological. Human beings are *not* determined by their genes. They are shaped by the social, cultural, ideological and political-economic environment they live in. As cross-cultural anthropological studies further proves that many societies such as tribal bands, small communities, ancient groupings did not have the same perceptions of masculinity and feminity that we have today. these are socio-historical constructions, sex roles, broadly defined, not genetic givens. the socio-biological claim that people differ because they differ genetically is called RACISM, which is what Wilson does eventually. thus, i don't understand why you support the man! -- Mine Aysen Doyran PhD Student Department of Political Science SUNY at Albany Nelson A. Rockefeller College 135 Western Ave.; Milne 102 Albany, NY 1
Re: Re: Re: the expression "political economy"
Mine asks: > > Ted, why are you "radicalizing" Marshall and Keynes? In the final > analysis, they are fundamentally different from Marx? aren't they? > I don't think the study of ideas in general or of the history of ideas in particular is an intellectual version of World Wide Wrestling. I'm just trying to show as best I can what the ideas of Marshall and Keynes actually were. The strikes me as an important preliminary to deciding whether they are ideas we should ourselves adopt. For these purposes, the category "bourgeois thinker" is not merely not helpful it's disabling since it prevents us from examining ideas with what Keynes and Gadamer call "good will". Ted -- Ted WinslowE-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Division of Social Science VOICE: (416) 736-5054 York UniversityFAX: (416) 736-5615 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario CANADA M3J 1P3
Of Steve Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: genome news (fwd)
For the record, the Steve referred to below is Steve Rosenthal, not me... Steve (The "PEN Steve") Stephen Philion Lecturer/PhD Candidate Department of Sociology 2424 Maile Way Social Sciences Bldg. # 247 Honolulu, HI 96822 On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Mine Aysen Doyran wrote: > > > > > >Steve wrote: > > > > > >>> Because of these sharp > > >critiques, Wilson reinvented himself as an > > > >> environmentalist concerned about bio-diversity. > > > > Brad replied: > > > >If it is an excellent piece of Marxian sociology, why does it make > > >false claims about Wilson's intellectual development? > > > > >Either Steve does not know enough about E.O. Wilson to know that >he > > >was always *both* a sociobiologist and an environmentalist--in >which > > >I have better things to spend my time reading, things written by > > >people who have done their homework--or Steve knows that he is >lying > > >when he claims that Wilson's environmentalism is an intellectual > > >re-make--in which case I have better things to spend my time >reading, > > >things written by people who don't lie to me. > > > > Brad, please know what you are saying. Nobody is a lier about Wilson's > intellectual development here. Steve is DOCUMENTING passages from Wilson's > book. Accordingly, he CITES Wilson who says that human nature "is > the_hereditary regularities of mental development that bias cultural evolution > in one direction_and thus connect the genes to culture" (p. 164). well, how do > you interpret this? just a naive bio-diversity or an objective scientific > statement?If you agree with what Wilson says, there is no point in continuing > this debate because my reading of him is that he is obviously racist. This is > because Wilson is reducing cultural and other social differences to genes, and > then reconstructing and universalizing an hypothetical theory of human nature, > which is completely false and ideological. Human beings are *not* determined by > their genes. They are shaped by the social, cultural, ideological and > political-economic environment they live in. As cross-cultural anthropological > studies further proves that many societies such as tribal bands, small > communities, ancient groupings did not have the same perceptions of masculinity > and feminity that we have today. these are socio-historical constructions, sex > roles, broadly defined, not genetic givens. the socio-biological claim that > people differ because they differ genetically is called RACISM, which is what > Wilson does eventually. thus, i don't understand why you support the man! > > > -- > > Mine Aysen Doyran > PhD Student > Department of Political Science > SUNY at Albany > Nelson A. Rockefeller College > 135 Western Ave.; Milne 102 > Albany, NY 1 > >
Re: Re: Re: Re: genome news (fwd)
>On Sun, 9 Apr 2000, Mine Aysen Doyran wrote: >>the socio-biological claim that people differ because they differ >>genetically is called RACISM, which is what Wilson does eventually. >This is the crux of the matter. If one supposes that culture is >determined >by genes, then one is left explaining cultural differences in terms of >genetic differences. Different cultures, different people. If you claim >that there are different types of people, you are making a racist >argument. >Andrew this is *exactly* Wilson! finally somebody has attempted to challenge socio-biology. i appreciate your contribution Andy!! where have you been lately? My problem is that why is this person popular among leftists so much given that he is a self-proclaimed anti-marxist. What makes Wilson so attractive and appealing to some people? and why? this the heart of the matter that seems worth looking at. why are the marxists critical of socio-biology are minority in every forum i have been to, and forced to declare their own scientific status? I get from your reading that there are "fundamental" problems with socio-biology? so one can not be, in principle, progressive and socio-biologist? am i right? Mine
