Re: Asia should pool forces to stand up to US, says noted economist
Asia or Europe are big enough entities to take unilateral decisions to stop subsidising the USA by giving giving the USA free credit by using the US dollar as the main medium of international exchange. While something like an old fashioned currency board can be sharply inflexibile for a small economy facing a marked change in the competitiveness of its few exports, there is no reason why massive regional trading blocks should not take a decision to ensure liquidity for most exchange within their boarders, while keeping stricter account of exchange reserves they need to trade with the USA. Won't happen because the US won't let it happen--at least in Asia. It wants the dollar to dominate Asia, not the yen or an Asian basket of currencies. Divide and rule works well here. And this should be an object lesson in how imperialism actually works with the US at the top, inner core of developed country exploiters or not. And you better darn well believe it's all about financing the US empire and the parasite class that lives off it. Charles Jannuzi
Re: Business Week the Nineties
Title: Business Week Restates the Nineties Sparring with the American Way propagandists at SP's Business Week is a waste of time, IF YOU ASK ME. Of course American workers benefited. They became stock holders, too. That's why all their money went into Enron stock if they worked at Enron. BTW, is an ex-federal bureaucrat who now works at a typical defense contractor'labor'? They certainly own the stock of their own companies. Charles Jannuzi
Sacramento Education and Cultural Event to Support the Palestinian Struggle
Education and Cultural Event to Support the Palestinian Struggle at the Hart Center, 915 27th Street, Sacramento, CA. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. The program includes Michel Shehadeh, Director of the West Coast American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Laurie King-Irani, Editor, Middle East Research Information Project. Break the Silence Mural and Arts Project; and sale of arts, crafts and desserts. Fund raiser for Palestinians refugees. Sponsored by Grandmothers for Peace. Info: (916)448-7157. _ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
Japan in the world economy
Wall Street Journal, Apr. 24, 2002 New View of Japan Emerges As the Yen Keeps Dropping By ROBERT A. GUTH, MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS and CHARLES HUTZLER Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL With Japan's currency dropping like a stone lately, familiar howls of protest can be heard from some powerful players in the world economy. In the U.S., the Big Three auto makers are complaining about the profit windfall that a strong dollar-weak yen combination gives the likes of Honda Motor Co. China's textile and electronics exporters are lobbying their government to guard their competitiveness by cheapening the yuan, a move that could plunge Asia into a new round of debilitating financial instability. But what's most striking about this latest chapter in Japan's slow-motion economic collapse is an important shift in the way the world views Japan. For decades, when the yen has slipped too far, foreign policy makers have groused loudly about the unfair advantage it offered to Japanese companies. Now there's little of the usual protest from Washington and Beijing. Indeed, some Bush-administration officials have been saying privately that a cheap yen might not be such a bad thing, provided that the Japanese also embrace tough reforms. And the Chinese are showing no serious signs of weakening their own currency to counter the Japanese edge. The reasons for this equanimity say a lot about the way the world has changed since the postwar years, when Japan seemed poised to swamp the rest of the world in a tide of cheap exports. Japan may still be the world's second-largest economy, but it's a badly wounded giant, so feeble that it's dragging everybody else down. If the country's wobbly banking system implodes, it could trigger a global recession. The U.S. and China in particular are desperate to see Japan regain its footing, and there's a growing sense that an export-led recovery may already be cutting the odds of a full-blown crisis. For instance, exports are starting to jump, giving a boost to the electronics industry, a mainstay of the Japanese economy. Just as important, the pain inflicted on the U.S. and China by a soft yen is less than commonly assumed. World trade patterns have changed drastically in recent decades, as each of the three nations has focused on industries in which it enjoys a competitive advantage. In the case of Japan and the U.S., for instance, businesses in the two countries don't often compete head to head, outside of autos and a few other industries. The bottom line is I don't think [the yen] will have any significant long-term impact on us one way or the other, says Scott McNealy, chief executive of server maker Sun Microsystems Inc. It might on Japan, but not on Sun Microsystems. In a February letter to Big Three auto executives, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill laid out some of these themes. He rebuffed the industry's calls for a cheaper dollar, noting that the strong U.S. currency reflects the fact that America has performed extremely well and attracted foreign investment, driving up the dollar. Japan, on the other hand, has been performing far below its potential for a decade, he wrote. As for China, Japan continues to fuel development by providing capital for investment and a market for Chinese exports. From the standpoint of China's economic development, we need to see an early Japanese recovery, says Jiang Xiaojuan, economist at the government-backed Institute of Finance and Trade in Beijing. Daily Nudge Almost daily, Japanese officials are giving the yen a verbal nudge downward. The currency is now at 130 per dollar, 9.5% weaker than in September and off 28% from the 101-per-dollar level it hit in January 2000, during Japan's last, short-lived recovery. That's rendering Japanese products cheaper overseas and imports more expensive in Japan. There are early signs that the strategy is working, and that Japan may be heading for a mild, export-led upturn. Japan's trade surplus soared a seasonally adjusted 56% in March from February to 1.056 trillion yen ($8.1 billion), the government said this week, as exports rebounded and imports fell, a trend Japanese officials attributed to the currency swing. The trade windfall is trickling into Japan's domestic economy. Industrial production rose 1.2% in March from a month earlier. Deflation, which has led to near-record numbers of business bankruptcies and added to the bad loans crushing the banking system, shows tentative signs of easing. The wholesale price index fell 1.3% in March, improving from a drop of 1.4% in February and 1.5% in January. The optimists say Japan could begin growing again later this year, and even those who are frustrated by Japan's long resistance to reform say the very worst may be ending. Japan is beginning to show signs of stabilization as a consequence of the fact that the U.S. and Europe are beginning to firm, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress last week. In Need of a Lift Japan
Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
Greg Schofield: The Popular Front was one of the great modern innovations in effective political struggle of the working class, at the plain of how communists should work it relates directly to the Communist Manifesto applying the same principles to the specific question of anti-fascist struggle. It certainly was an innovation, although how great it was is another story entirely. Until the rise of Stalin, Marxism fought for class independence. The workers in late 19th century Germany maintained their own press, ran their own candidates and were hostile to any capitalist politician. It was this party that Lenin and the Bolsheviks sought to emulate, which is a fact understood by few self-appointed vanguards today. When giving an example of a vanguard in What is to be Done, Lenin cited Kautsky's party. In the Erfurt Program of 1892, Kautsky wrote: The interests of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are of so contrary a nature that in the long run they cannot be harmonized. Sooner or later in every capitalist country the participation of the working-class in politics must lead to the formation of an independent party, a labor party. The People's Front was an attempt to harmonze the interests of the workers and the progressive bourgeoisie, who supposedly would be united against those elements of the ruling class that opted for fascism. This analysis was anti-Marxist in its essence. The bourgeoisie has no real committment to democracy. When the Weimar Republic failed to defend capitalist property relations, it threw its support behind Hitler. Today outfits like Goldman-Sachs, my former employer, lavish millions of dollars on Republican and Democrat alike. If these two parties fail to maintain a stable environment for capitalist profits, corporate rulers will investigate outfits to the right starting with Pat Buchanan. The problem in Spain is that the left parties, including the CP and SP but the anarchists as well, did not want to upset the People's Front unity. So they reined in the revolutionary left. When the revolutionary left refused to be reined in, they shot its leaders like Andres Nin. People in Spain were willing to risk their lives for economic as well as political democracy. When they figured out that the People's Front was not willing to smash the old agrarian despotic class relations, they lost their fighting will. In a struggle against fascism, you have to have clearly defined class politics. Watering down social and economic demands leads to the triumph of fascism. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
AOL bombshell
(Reading this on top of the Enron fiasco, one has to begin to seriously wonder whether the 1990s economic expansion was just a mirage.) LA Times, April 24, 2002 AOL's $50-Billion Loss Is One From the Books By JAMES BATES, Times Staff Writer Sometime this afternoon AOL Time Warner Inc. probably will earn the dubious honor of spilling more red ink than any company in U.S. corporate history. With a quarterly loss expected to exceed $50 billion, in one fell swoop the world's biggest media company will lose more than the annual gross domestic product of Ecuador, Croatia, Uruguay, Kenya or Bulgaria. The loss--which is largely on paper and reflects new accounting rules--essentially acknowledges that the merger between Internet giant America Online Inc. and media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. has fallen dramatically short of expectations. Two years ago when the deal was announced, the two companies had a combined stock market value of $290 billion. Today, AOL Time Warner's stock is worth about $85 billion. It's an appalling number, bigger than the [gross domestic product] of some countries, said entertainment analyst Harold Vogel of Vogel Capital Management in New York. Most analysts will dismiss it and say it's now behind them and doesn't matter because it's noncash. But it's an admission of a humongous mistake. For the most part, Wall Street already has factored in the loss. AOL Time Warner's shares have fallen 41% this year, partly because the company telegraphed the eye-popping losses a few weeks ago and because of the slowdown in advertising that is hurting its properties. An AOL Time Warner spokesman declined to comment. The accounting losses are a morning-after hangover of the wild run-up in the stock market in the late 1990s. Many companies, including America Online, used their inflated stock to buy other companies. Now, new accounting rules set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board are forcing companies to more accurately state the fair market value of those acquired assets. Often, the result is huge write-offs. AOL Time Warner has said it expects its asset write-down to be $54 billion. The new rules have been especially tough on industries such as entertainment, technology and telecommunications. Their stocks were hyped in the '90s, when promise often meant more than profit. full: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-042402losses.story Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
A Menshevik's Revenge
The Telegraph, Apr. 24, 2002 Marx in the marketplace Michael Prowse reviews Marx's Revenge by Meghnad Desai. SOME books are more than the sum of their parts; others are less. Unhappily, Marx's Revenge, falls into the latter category. Many of the chapters are entertaining and instructive. Meghnad Desai, the Labour peer and LSE economist, is good at explaining complex ideas, and many readers will learn much from his analysis of two centuries of economic history. But the coherence of the book's central argument is more doubtful. The root problem is one that afflicts many nominally Left-wing intellectuals. Late in their careers they have come to appreciate the strength of the case for markets. Yet they also want to remain loyal to the ideals of their youth. In Desai's case, the problem is extreme: he once admired Marx sufficiently to devote years to the writing of textbooks on Marxian economics. He is now trying to show that one can revere both Marx and some of his sternest critics, such as Friedrich Hayek, the Austrian economist. The task is, let us say, challenging. When Desai refers to Marx's revenge, he has two different ideas in mind, neither of which will perturb investment bankers. He argues, first, that Marx has already had his revenge with respect to the likes of Lenin and Mao. They deserved to fail, he argues, because they ignored the master's warning that one type of social organisation can succeed another only when the former has exhausted its capacity for development. Capitalism had not exhausted its potential when the Bolsheviks seized power, and their project was thus always doomed. full: http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/04/21/bodes21 .xmlsSheet=/arts/2002/04/21/bomain.html Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
Re: Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
Louis this is more guilt by historical association. what happens in history is obviously complex, contradictory and all too often ironic. Simply making a simple reduction of the Popular Front to siding with the bourgeousie, is not about the Front at all but rather a more abstract question misplaced in this context. Confronted with a massive reactionary attack Dimitrov simple gave voice in clear style to creating not some limited and secartian united front (which had been semi-offcial policy since the year dot and is the only form of unity a sectarian the limited left can have) but forming a political unity in the mass of the population itself (ie by-passing the fomal unities which you seem intent on foiting on the Popular Front). Dimitrov did not speak of parties but classes and sections of classes (ie not the political representatives but the classes themselves) the role he pushed forward for communists was to be the rock upon what all else could be built. As I said the Australian experience while having many stalinist warts was explosive and at the rank and file level led to all soughts of people working together and putting ideological differences aside while hammering out a common platform loosely connected with the main anti-fascist thrust of the Front. Hence in this period there was an explosition of proletarian culture, education and mobilization, a magnet which drew in people from every concievable position from conservative Christians to truely liberal members of the bourgeoise, to shop-keepers and the destitute (ie the very sections and classes which Dimitrov identified and which CAME UNDER PROLETARIAN LEADERSHIP - which bureacrats worked hard to convert into CP power). And all of this when Stalin is painted as Uncle Joe all seeing and all knowing demi-god, where party bureacracies fought a long and later successful battle against THE VERY ELEMENTS UNLEASHED BY THE POPULAR FRONT staretgy. Contradiction, irony, complexity - no simple formula of Popular Front = collaboration. We can either explore our history to understand the complex interactions which produced Spain, or we can look for dynamics long hidden by the official position of Trotskism and Stalinism (which soon as possible and where-ever possible broke with the Popular Front). Louis to this you bring banalities, at best misdirected but all displaying no attempt to comprehend the policy as policy or the period of history as history. We cannot pluck out random examples and simply say, there is the proof, nor can we argue by mischaractisation (Popular Front proposed class collaboration). It simply does not work, it is part of our sectarian legacy (or should I say leprosy). And beyond all the complexity that were Spain it was not all that difficult to work out what was going on - but none of this involved the Popular Front as such, though all of it was dressed up in frontism. Stalin and Russian state policy wanted a bargaining chip in their geo-political chess board. To have such a chip they needed direct control over the governement of Republican Spain and they needed a Governement which posed no real class threat to the rest of Europe (this was repeated again in the Greek Civil war, arguably in Yugoslavia until Tito picked up his ball and left the game, and later still in China - I might add the the Prague Spring was directly inspired by the experience of the Popular Front and soviet-tanks showed how compatable this was with Russian foriegn policy). To this external desire, must be added the opportunist desires of a rising middle class in Spain some of which had radical representation in the CP, these sought for their own miscalculated benefit (as class representatives) to willingly fit into Russian policy strategies. The result was needless catstrophe. To attribute this disaster to a mere policy deviod of class context is not what I would call a materialist approach. The policy played a role but the class context made the policy. What I am saying the mass Popular Front was an invention of class history mouthed by Dimitrov, that there has been something of a conspiracy of silence in the left which is at odds that just in this period large numbers of workers identified with communism, read the works of Marx and Lernin, organisied autonomously in niegbourhoods, work places in art and cultural activities and is the historical shadow which we still inhabit butr will not recognise. We cannot copy Dimtrov or the Front as it was, but by God we can certainly learn from it if we are willing to learn. Put simply this critical idea (critical objectively to the history of the working class politically in the 20th century) has been slandered casually and ignored. We need to understand what actually went on the past if we are to have any hope of knowing what to do in the future. Greg --- Message Received --- From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002
French electoral dilemma
n° 12, 24-04-02 __ http://www.edu-irep.org - Le non-dit du dilemme électoral français What is left unsaid of French electoral dilemma http://www.edu-irep.org/actu.htm irép BP 26 94267 Fresnes Cedex France _ tél/fax: 33 1 4091 9997
RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
I don't understand your position of these issues, Louis. Are you opposed to cross-class alliances (such as the popular front that Dmitrov advocated)? but aren't a lot of the third-world causes you support organized as cross-class alliances? for example, wasn't Peron's movement a cross-class one? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Greg Schofield [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 7:11 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:25350] Re: Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists Louis this is more guilt by historical association. what happens in history is obviously complex, contradictory and all too often ironic. Simply making a simple reduction of the Popular Front to siding with the bourgeousie, is not about the Front at all but rather a more abstract question misplaced in this context. Confronted with a massive reactionary attack Dimitrov simple gave voice in clear style to creating not some limited and secartian united front (which had been semi-offcial policy since the year dot and is the only form of unity a sectarian the limited left can have) but forming a political unity in the mass of the population itself (ie by-passing the fomal unities which you seem intent on foiting on the Popular Front). Dimitrov did not speak of parties but classes and sections of classes (ie not the political representatives but the classes themselves) the role he pushed forward for communists was to be the rock upon what all else could be built. As I said the Australian experience while having many stalinist warts was explosive and at the rank and file level led to all soughts of people working together and putting ideological differences aside while hammering out a common platform loosely connected with the main anti-fascist thrust of the Front. Hence in this period there was an explosition of proletarian culture, education and mobilization, a magnet which drew in people from every concievable position from conservative Christians to truely liberal members of the bourgeoise, to shop-keepers and the destitute (ie the very sections and classes which Dimitrov identified and which CAME UNDER PROLETARIAN LEADERSHIP - which bureacrats worked hard to convert into CP power). And all of this when Stalin is painted as Uncle Joe all seeing and all knowing demi-god, where party bureacracies fought a long and later successful battle against THE VERY ELEMENTS UNLEASHED BY THE POPULAR FRONT staretgy. Contradiction, irony, complexity - no simple formula of Popular Front = collaboration. We can either explore our history to understand the complex interactions which produced Spain, or we can look for dynamics long hidden by the official position of Trotskism and Stalinism (which soon as possible and where-ever possible broke with the Popular Front). Louis to this you bring banalities, at best misdirected but all displaying no attempt to comprehend the policy as policy or the period of history as history. We cannot pluck out random examples and simply say, there is the proof, nor can we argue by mischaractisation (Popular Front proposed class collaboration). It simply does not work, it is part of our sectarian legacy (or should I say leprosy). And beyond all the complexity that were Spain it was not all that difficult to work out what was going on - but none of this involved the Popular Front as such, though all of it was dressed up in frontism. Stalin and Russian state policy wanted a bargaining chip in their geo-political chess board. To have such a chip they needed direct control over the governement of Republican Spain and they needed a Governement which posed no real class threat to the rest of Europe (this was repeated again in the Greek Civil war, arguably in Yugoslavia until Tito picked up his ball and left the game, and later still in China - I might add the the Prague Spring was directly inspired by the experience of the Popular Front and soviet-tanks showed how compatable this was with Russian foriegn policy). To this external desire, must be added the opportunist desires of a rising middle class in Spain some of which had radical representation in the CP, these sought for their own miscalculated benefit (as class representatives) to willingly fit into Russian policy strategies. The result was needless catstrophe. To attribute this disaster to a mere policy deviod of class context is not what I would call a materialist approach. The policy played a role but the class context made the policy. What I am saying the mass Popular Front was an invention of class history mouthed by Dimitrov, that there has been something of a conspiracy of silence in the left which is at odds that just in this period large numbers of workers identified with communism, read the works
Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
I don't understand your position of these issues, Louis. Are you opposed to cross-class alliances (such as the popular front that Dmitrov advocated)? but aren't a lot of the third-world causes you support organized as cross-class alliances? for example, wasn't Peron's movement a cross-class one? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine Peron's was the leader of something called the Labor Party of Argentina. It had all the class characteristics of the British Labor Party during the same period, which it was specificaly modeled on. In other words, it was committed to increasing the worker's share of the pie. There were bourgeois parties in Argentina, including the Radicals who trace their origins to the urban middle class of the early 1900s, and the party of the estancieros (ranchers) whose name I don't have handy. Marxists in Argentina had sharp differences over how to evaluate Peron's movement. I would side with those who argued it needed to be defended against imperialism, just as Hugo Chavez's today. In other words, if I were a Marxist in Argentina in the 1940s or in Venezuela today, I would have organized demonstrations against any coup attempt. By the same token, I would try to patiently explain to the masses that the only way that the social experiments of Peron and Chavez could be safeguarded was through a break with imperialism and the local compradors. Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
studying the dot.com bust
Lessons in Failure Univ. of Maryland Academic Seeks to Chronicle Dot-Com Bust Michael P. Bruno Washtech.com Staff Writer Wednesday, April 24, 2002; 9:56 AM David A. Kirsch loves failure, and he could be looking for you. Kirsch, a newly hired assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, has received a $300,500 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study and archive the boom and bust of the dot-com business era. I've always been attracted to lovable losers. Studying success is so obvious, it's so trite, said Kirsch, who has a doctorate in history of technology from Stanford University and has written a book on the elusive electric car. Those who got rich during the boom-and-bust years will have the resources to tell their side of the story, Kirsch said -- and likely blame someone else, you can bet. Instead of delving into the blame game of the dot-com era's high flyers, Kirsch wants to produce a history of the Internet working class. Starting from the bottom up, Kirsch is seeking lowly cube dwellers. He wants to hear the stories of software developers and sales agents, customer service representatives and their customers. In essence, his project hopes to chronicle the stories of dot-com workers who were caught up in the middle of the bubble, carrying out the risky and often fatal business plans. A lot of what's interesting is the history of failure, said Jesse H. Ausubel, a program director at the Sloan Foundation. The dot-com boom is one of the epic booms of business history. There really are only a handful on this scale. The Sloan Foundation, a 68-year-old nonprofit based in New York, is interested in preserving the raw material of history. It has backed archival projects on Charles Darwin, Thomas A. Edison, Kurt Godel and, most recently, the Internet. But the Internet era's digital nature could be its historical Achilles' heal, Ausubel said. If you think of past events, historians use relics, said Ausubel, who also is director of the program for the human environment and senior research associate at The Rockefeller University in New York City. Ausubel noted that the Internet era's relics -- e-mails, PowerPoint presentations and Web sites -- are intangible. If this stuff isn't captured soon, there's a very high probability it could be lost altogether. They're disappearing even as we speak. Every one of us hits dead links every day. This is one of the great contradictions of the dot-com era, Ausubel said. Kirsch's mandate is to create a permanent archive to be housed at the library at the University of Maryland at College Park. Kirsch specifically wants copies of dot-com business plans. These business plans are like the cathedrals of medieval Europe, Kirsch said. But he also will consider some offline relics. I've got one guy who has the lock and chain to lock up a Webvan warehouse. I know this stuff is out there, Kirsch said. Kirsch and Ausubel are hoping that people will heed the call to create the stuff of history. To gather archival material, Kirsch is working to launch bizplanarchive.org, and he is partnering with Nick Hall, an entrepreneur who created startupfailures.com. Yet, sounding eerily like the business plans of so many dot-bombs, Kirsch laughed as he acknowledged that his project faces tough hurdles. It is an experiment like a lot of those companies, he said. If the archive project doesn't work out, I'll have to convince a lot of people it was worth $300,000.
URGENT APPEAL from Students for Justice in Palestine, UC Berkeley
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 00:06:51 + From: Snehal Shingavi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [justiceinpalestine] URGENT APPEAL from Students for Justice in Palestine -- UC Berkeley To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mailing-List: list [EMAIL PROTECTED]; contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY *** Dear friends: As you may have heard, Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley helped to plan and organize a demonstration on April 9th, 2002 in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand that the University of California divest from all of its assets connected to Israel and the Israeli military. More than 1200 students participated in this rally and demonstration -- one of the most exciting events on Berkeley this semester. During the course of the demonstration, students and community members also took part in a non-violent sit-in in Wheeler Hall. Seventy-nine people were arrested for sitting-in. All face criminal charges; students will face student conduct charges. A few of the students may also face suspension for up to one year, according to the Office of Student Life at Berkeley. Furthermore, as a consequence of organizing the demonstration and sit-in, the University of California at Berkeley has decided to suspend Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as an organization on campus pending an investigation. This means, that as long as the investigation continues, SJP is functionally barred from holding events on campus, tabling, distributing literature, and organizing. It could also potentially mean that SJP may be banned as a student organization at Berkeley. Please note, that while the University of California is investigating and only considering suspension, these measures are a prelude to worse sanctions, not to mention only applied to SJP (even though many student groups have participated in and conducted civil disobedience on campus). These actions against SJP are unique and unjustified. No other student group that has participated in non-violent civil disobedience has been suspended and no students have faced charges of this severity in the past several years at UC Berkeley. We believe that this is a systematic attempt to silence pro-Palestinian voices on campus and to intimidate students from being activists. In fact, the policy that makes SJP subject to these charges (the Chancellor's so-called zero tolerance policy) was implemented only a few days before the protest, specifically to make SJP subject to higher standards and harsher consequences. It is also an attempt to attack one of the strongest pro-Palestinian student organizations in the country in order to make it easier to attack other pro-Palestinian students organizations across the country. We need your help. Please take a few moments and write to the Chancellor and the Student Judicial Affairs Office (addresses and phone information below) and tell them that you believe that these penalties are unwarranted and unjust. Especially at Berkeley, where there are memorials to Free Speech movement of the 1960s all over campus (the Mario Savio steps and the Free Speech Movement Café), these kinds of attacks on free speech and civil disobedience are not only an attempt to roll-back the activist gains won on this campus, but also in defiance of the universitys mission to promote free speech and debate. We have included some talking points below that you may want to include in your conversation or correspondence with the administration at UC Berkeley. Please do email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with any correspondence that you send so that we can keep a record of the letters that the administration receives. We urgently need your help. Please lend your support to pro-Palestinian student activists and activists who are fighting for social justice by letting the administration know that their actions are not supported by members of the community, students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Sincerely, Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please contact: Chancellor Robert Berdahl MAIL: 200 California Hall #1500 Berkeley, CA 94720-1500 TEL: (510) 642-7464 FAX: (510) 643-5499 Assistant Chancellor John Cummins EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] MAIL: Office of the Chancellor 200 California Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1500 TEL: (510) 642-7516 FAX: (510) 643-5499 Vice Chancellor Genaro Padilla EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] MAIL: Undergraduate Affairs 130 California Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-1504 TEL: (510) 642-6727 Student Judicial Affairs Officer Rajmaira EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 326 Sproul Hall Berkeley, CA 94720 TEL:(510) 643-9069 FAX:(510) 643-3133 TALKING POINTS 1) Students should not face charges or suspension for participating in non-violent civil disobedience. 2) Activists should be allowed, freely, to speak and protest on campus without harassment from the University or its officers. 3) Pro-Palestinian groups are unfairly targeted for higher
Re: RE: Re: Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
Or the Tercerista, in the FSLN? Daniel Ortega Saavedra - [ Translate this page ] ... cuyo seno Ortega desempeñó el cargo de coordinador. Miembro del grupo 'tercerista' del FSLN, la facción más moderada de las tres que lo conformaron durante ... http://www.gratisweb.com/ladron16/dortega.htm M.P. 4/24/02 8:51:21 AM, Devine, James [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I don't understand your position of these issues, Louis. Are you opposed to cross-class alliances (such as the popular front that Dmitrov advocated)? but aren't a lot of the third-world causes you support organized as cross-class alliances? for example, wasn't Peron's movement a cross-class one? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine -Original Message- From: Greg Schofield [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 7:11 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:25350] Re: Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists Louis this is more guilt by historical association. what happens in history is obviously complex, contradictory and all too often ironic. Simply making a simple reduction of the Popular Front to siding with the bourgeousie, is not about the Front at all but rather a more abstract question misplaced in this context. Confronted with a massive reactionary attack Dimitrov simple gave voice in clear style to creating not some limited and secartian united front (which had been semi-offcial policy since the year dot and is the only form of unity a sectarian the limited left can have) but forming a political unity in the mass of the population itself (ie by-passing the fomal unities which you seem intent on foiting on the Popular Front). Dimitrov did not speak of parties but classes and sections of classes (ie not the political representatives but the classes themselves) the role he pushed forward for communists was to be the rock upon what all else could be built. As I said the Australian experience while having many stalinist warts was explosive and at the rank and file level led to all soughts of people working together and putting ideological differences aside while hammering out a common platform loosely connected with the main anti-fascist thrust of the Front. Hence in this period there was an explosition of proletarian culture, education and mobilization, a magnet which drew in people from every concievable position from conservative Christians to truely liberal members of the bourgeoise, to shop-keepers and the destitute (ie the very sections and classes which Dimitrov identified and which CAME UNDER PROLETARIAN LEADERSHIP - which bureacrats worked hard to convert into CP power). And all of this when Stalin is painted as Uncle Joe all seeing and all knowing demi-god, where party bureacracies fought a long and later successful battle against THE VERY ELEMENTS UNLEASHED BY THE POPULAR FRONT staretgy. Contradiction, irony, complexity - no simple formula of Popular Front = collaboration. We can either explore our history to understand the complex interactions which produced Spain, or we can look for dynamics long hidden by the official position of Trotskism and Stalinism (which soon as possible and where-ever possible broke with the Popular Front). Louis to this you bring banalities, at best misdirected but all displaying no attempt to comprehend the policy as policy or the period of history as history. We cannot pluck out random examples and simply say, there is the proof, nor can we argue by mischaractisation (Popular Front proposed class collaboration). It simply does not work, it is part of our sectarian legacy (or should I say leprosy). And beyond all the complexity that were Spain it was not all that difficult to work out what was going on - but none of this involved the Popular Front as such, though all of it was dressed up in frontism. Stalin and Russian state policy wanted a bargaining chip in their geo-political chess board. To have such a chip they needed direct control over the governement of Republican Spain and they needed a Governement which posed no real class threat to the rest of Europe (this was repeated again in the Greek Civil war, arguably in Yugoslavia until Tito picked up his ball and left the game, and later still in China - I might add the the Prague Spring was directly inspired by the experience of the Popular Front and soviet-tanks showed how compatable this was with Russian foriegn policy). To this external desire, must be added the opportunist desires of a rising middle class in Spain some of which had radical representation in the CP, these sought for their own miscalculated benefit (as class representatives) to willingly fit into Russian policy strategies. The result was needless catstrophe. To attribute this disaster to a mere policy deviod of class context is not what I would call a
Entrevista de Marta Harnecker a Humberto Ortega (FSLN,Popular Frontists?)
http://www.google.com/search?q=tercerista+FSLNhl=enie=utf-8oe=utf-8start=10 sa=N Entrevista de Marta Harnecker a Humberto Ortega - [ Translate this page ] ... liberado por una acción del FSLN en 1974. Desde muy joven Humberto ... pasaba encabezara tendencia insurreccional o tercerista. Luego al darse la reunificación ... http://www.lahaine.f2s.com/Historia/ entrevmartahumbertofsln.htm Nicaragua: The sorry path of Sandinism ... a new period in its activity through its tercerista tendency (chronologically the third to emerge within the FSLN, enjoying the support of the Socialist ... http://www.sinistra.net/lib/upt/compro/liqa/ liqamcecee.html [PDF] GUERRILLA AUTOBIOGRAPHIES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATION IN ... File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML ... in the FSLN in 1975. The GPP believed - in contrast to the more urban Tendencia Proletaria , and the more pluralist and insurrectionary Tendencia Tercerista ... lasa.international.pitt.edu/LASA97/hawley.pdf International Trotskyist Review #2 - Resolution on Nicaragua ... different from this hope. The very Tercerista tendency on which these moderate ... positions the reunification of the FSLN had taken place?quickly revealed itself ... http://www.rwl-us.org/documents/itr2-5.htm INTERNACIONALES - [ Translate this page ] ... a los éxitos militares de la Tendencia Tercerista que comandaban. A nadie le extrañó ... cuando Sergio Ramírez propuso renovar el fsln en el congreso de 1995 ... http://www.brecha.com.uy/sic/n816/sandini.html Nicaragua 1978 - Introduction ... fought the North American intervention. At present, the FSLN is divided into three main factions: the Tercerista which is the most numerous, and which carried ... http://www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/ Nicaragua78eng/intro.htm Untitled - [ Translate this page ] ... respecto a su principal contendiente, Daniel Ortega, del FSLN. ... de la tendencia predominante en el sandinismo (la tercerista), y gobernó al país desde el 19 ... http://www.jornada.unam.mx/1996/oct96/961021/ nica.html Informaciones sobre el Congreso del Frente Sandinista de ... - [ Translate this page ] ... la identidad. En el 79, la tendencia tercerista fue la que trazo la estrategia de centro ... LT )Esto es sano para el FSLN. No es necesario un nuevo liderazgo? VT ... http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/47/287.html
Fwd: Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerilla Warfare,Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940-1990
--- Start of forwarded message --- From: Michael Pugliese [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: leftist_trainspotters [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Michael Pugliese Subject: Fwd: Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940-1990 Date: 4/24/02 10:11:11 AM Watching the Neighbors: Low- Intensity Conflict in Central America http://www.statecraft.org/chapter17.html Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940-1990 Watching the Neighbors: Low- Intensity Conflict in Central America Terrorism and Aid to the Political Police The outrage over the Beirut bombing of October 1983 prompted both the invasion of Grenada and the proliferation of U.S. covert counterterror operations. One of the provisions of the 1983 Anti-Terrorism Act was the renewal of overt police assistance. The object of the new legislation, unlike the stared objective of earlier programs, was explicitly political in nature: the violence to be opposed was political violence, political terrorism. For the first time, Congress approved a program explicitly aimed at better political policing overseasresponding to the popular sentiment against international terrorism that was fueled by the Reagan administration. The Reagan administration's renewal of major police assistance programs to counterinsurgency states began even before changes in the law were pushed through the way was opened tor the U.S. military to provide police assistance on a large scale simply by stressing the paramilitary nature of the police to be assisted and by redefining their primary tasks as essentially military in nature. The militarization of the Third World police, which had been a concealed consequence of U.S. assistance in the 1960s, was in the 1980s turned into a virtue: their militarized status made it possible to provide aid denied thus far to those forces stuck in the mold of the civil police tradition. A series of legislative initiatives facilitated the administration's broader objective: renewing an assistance program that could openly deal with nonmilitary police and intelligence agencies. At the top of the bill were initiatives promoted as part of the campaign against terrorism. The Anti- Terrorism Assistance Program (ATA) was approved by Congress in November 1983, its stated objective to enhance, through training and equipment, the ability of the law enforcement personnel of friendly foreign governments to deter and counter terrorism, with an emphasis on bomb detection and disposal, management of hostage situations physical security, and other matters relating to the detection, deterrence and prevention of acts of terrorism, the resolution of terrorist incidents and the apprehension of those involved in such acts.1 The initial appropriations were modest, a mere $5 million for each of the two subsequent fiscal years; this would be nearly doubled, to $9.8 million a year later.2 The increase was justified as a provision to improve airport security (a precaution about which no one could complain) and, for the first time, to permit the provision of certain commodities from the munitions list of military and police supplies requiring export clearance from the Department of Commerce.3 Considerable efforts were made by congressional human rights watchdogs in the 1980s to prevent an across-the- board revival of the defunct Public Safety program, wrapped in the flag of antiterrorism. Congress was to be notified in advance of countries programmed for assistance; respect for human rights was to be a factor in their eligibility and annual reporting On program activity was required.4 The act also limited overseas training by U.S. government personnel to no more than thirty consecutive daysapparently to prevent the repetition of the earlier cozy relationship of Public Safety's in- country advisers with foreign political police. Despite this, the ATA program appears to have been intended to maximize the opportunities to exert an influence very similar to that of its predecessor. The act required that training be provided almost exclusively in the United States, and it set out a three- stage program. Top security officers were first to attend a two-week seminar and visit a range of U. S. security agencies, from FBI to TEA and municipal police departments. A U.S. delegation was then to visit overseas counterparts and thrash out a detailed program. And, finally, foreign officers would begin training at establishments in the United States. Unlike Public Safety, when all began their instruction at Washington's International Police Academy (IPA), training would be provided by several agencies in many different placesa procedure that might reduce the clubbishness among participants but could also make monitoring the program more difficult.5 Within two years, Congress had been notified of the intention to develop programs with 70
David Landes etc.
I posted the interview with David Landes because to me it succinctly summarises a modern liberal attitude, showing both its strengths (for instance, rejection of the hullabaloo about globalisation and obsession with victim culture) and weaknesses (its misplaced faith in market economy as efficient and as a promotor of democracy, a lack of appreciation of real progress made in non-capitalist societies, an ideosyncratic view of history which lacks rigour in its comparisons, and a West is the best triumphalism). I translated it pretty literally, but it probably does not do full justice to the subtlety of Landes's turn of phrase. No matter. I was a little surprised when I first read the piece, because of the bluntness with which Landes expressed himself, but I found it very interesting also for that reason. At least Landes calls a spade a spade, without all sorts of caveats. Personally I respect Landes as a bona fide historian who offers bold hypotheses in the Popperian sense and rises some way above the particularist descriptivism or idle concept-mongering that plagues so much historical analysis. I thought at the time his book on the Unbound Prometheus was a great work, whatever may be its technical faults. I don't rate The wealth and poverty of nations the same way, but at least it does ask pertinent questions. Because we really do need to explain why rich countries are rich and poor countries are poor, and go beyond rhetoric or apologies. My personal view is that the anti-globalisation discourse derailed left-wing thought more than it improved it, and so I have some sympathy for Landes's sentiment. The real problem for the Left was to develop a profound understanding of the world economy and of imperialism in its contemporary setting, applying Marx's insights but going beyond Marx. But that didn't really happen all that much, bar a number of authors who did important work on it. With the demise of national liberation movements and the renewed confidence of Western governments in experiments with humanitarian interventions, the discourse about imperialism has dwindled, even though foreign intervention in the internal affairs of poor countries is more ferocious than before. If Paul Cockshott is to be believed, imperialism doesn't exist anymore, but I think that conclusion is far too hasty. Opposing e.g. Zionist aggression against Palestinians is a relatively simple and straightforward matter, but arriving at a profound understanding of modern-day imperialism is a more more complex undertaking. I confess I am still grappling with it intellectually, but I don't have a full-scale analysis (My scholarly studies came to an abrupt end in 1990, and I haven't had the chance yet to resume them, as I would like to do in the future some time). But nor does the bulk of the Dutch Left (I remigrated from New Zealand to the Netherlands seven years ago). If you ask a leftist here about what is the role of the Dutch government and Dutch business in the modern world, there are few who would be able to give you a detailed, comprehensive answer... leaving aside the political response to that. Marx once said something to the effect that capitalist crises would drum dialectics into people, perhaps the lived experience of imperialism will drum the concept into people...
illegal patenting
Drug Firm, FTC Settle Patent Dispute Agency Promises More Action Against Companies Illegally Trying to Block Generic Competition By Bill Brubaker Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 24, 2002; Page E03 The Federal Trade Commission for the first time has brought a case accusing a pharmaceuticals company of illegally registering a patent to protect one of its drugs from generic competition. But the agency yesterday announced a proposed settlement with Biovail Corp. of Toronto, which the FTC said improperly listed a patent with the Food and Drug Administration to prevent the marketing of a generic version of Biovail's blood pressure drug, Tiazac. Biovail agreed to the settlement without admitting any wrongdoing. FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris announced the settlement at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on prescription drug prices. Many patents on brand-name drugs will expire in the next few years, and some committee members and witnesses complained that drug companies are using loopholes in the law to extend their patents and keep lower-priced generics off the market. Joe Simons, who heads the FTC's bureau of competition, called the agreement a groundbreaking settlement that we believe will go a long way toward promoting competition in the pharmaceutical market and driving down drug prices for consumers. Biovail general counsel Kenneth C. Cancellara said in a telephone interview that his company did nothing wrong. The FTC has made an allegation that the FTC knows we always denied, he said. He noted that the generic version of Tiazac has not even received FDA approval. Cancellara said, You always settle cases where it's going to cost millions and millions of dollars to litigate. . . . Then there's always a cloud hanging over the entire situation. Litigation does that, no matter who's right or wrong. The Senate panel is considering legislation to amend the Hatch-Waxman Act, which governs drug patents, to prevent pharmaceutical companies from listing questionable patents and filing suit to block generic competition. The loopholes in the Hatch-Waxman Act are forcing state governments, seniors and businesses to spend hundreds of millions of dollars unnecessarily on brand-name prescription drugs, New Hamphire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) testified. Few other issues can rival the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs in terms of its impact on the health of our families, the bottom line of our businesses and the solvency of state budgets, she said. Muris pledged to take action against drugmakers that try to game the system, securing greater profits for themselves without providing a corresponding benefits to consumers. He said more charges involving illegal patent listings with the FDA can be expected. Gregory J. Glover, a lawyer representing the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, asserted that the Hatch-Waxman law does not need to be reformed. It is our position that the problem is small, Glover told the panel. What we have works so well that making changes will not benefit either party. . . . The word 'loophole' is in the eyes of the beholder. Glover added in a prepared statement that without the patent protections offered by the Hatch-Waxman law, There will be less innovation, fewer new drugs for generics to copy and, more important, fewer new drugs to enhance treatment for patients.
Far Out Budgeting
my latest. mbs http://www.epinet.org/Issuebriefs/ib176.html
dem. cent. Venezuela
dem. cent. Venezuela by Devine, James 23 April 2002 21:06 UTC ... Explaining why I described the idea of democratic centralism as coming from the Marxist tradition rather than from Leninism, I wrote: It's from Lenin, but much of what's been written on democratic centralism comes from his epigones (Stalinists, Trotskyists, etc.), who are within the broad tradition of Marxism. A lot of it also came from Kautsky, from whom Lenin learned his stuff (see WHAT IS TO BE DONE?) CB: Epigones are ? Are followers of Hal Draper his epigones ? Of course, while being an epigone isn't always a bad thing. Some of Draper's best work (his multi-volume book, KARL MARX'S THEORY OF REVOLUTION) is totally epigonic, i.e., involving lots and lots of quotes from Marx. (In fact, Draper tries to dig up _all_ quotes by Marx on any given subject.) Note that I'm referring to the _idea_ (or ideal) of democratic centralism here. The usual practice of democratic centralism, i.e., bureaucratic centralism, has been practiced by governments and private corporations for centuries. The basic idea of the Vatican's system of organization is bureaucratic centralism. ^^^ CB: When you use epigone to refer to Lenin's followers it seems to be a negative epithet. ^ I said: The phrase Leninist theory is quite ambiguous since it is a contested theory (even more than Marxist theory), with Lenin's epigones fighting over it. Even Lenin himself did not follow a consistent theory all through his career (see, for example, Tony Cliff's multi-volume book on Lenin [another bunch of epigonic quotes, BTW]). It's unclear that such a dynamically changing vision can or should be distilled into an ism. CB: It wasn't so ambiguous to Lenin that it prevented him from taking definite and effective action. This is a key principle of both Marx and Lenin: not to get caught up in academic style ambiguities so as to fail to unite theory with action. The ambiguities aren't academic: they can be found in Lenin's written work itself. The problem is that the nature of the definite and effective action that Lenin would have taken changed several times in his career, at least given the way his position changed on paper. (BTW, I don't see why ambiguities are academic. Are you saying that the law has no ambiguities?) CB: The best way to discuss this issue is for you to bring here which parts of Lenin's work you think are ambiguous. I would say the comparison with the law is a good way to make the point I am making. A significant difference between the law and most other academic subjects is that the law places much more emphasis on the unity between its theory and practice than most other academic social scientific fields. The greater emphasis on practice is reflected in one of the specific ways that the law deals with ambiguities. This is the subject of statutory construction. If a party asserts that some statutory language is ambiguous, the process is that the parties argue for one side of the ambiguity or the other based on principles of statutory construction, and then the judge decides. The result is always that the statute is interpreted as not ambiguous, and to have the meaning of one side of the ambiguities or the other. The point is that when there is more emphasis on action and practice than in the typical academic situation, there is more emphasis on resolving ambiguities, because ambiguity paralyzes action. Another legal concept can help here: presumptions. Presumptions are basically being certain for now. Unless evidence rebuts the presumption it is presumed to be true ( based on accumulated experience , i.e. it is a posteriori, not a priori) and acted upon with certainty of its truth. A presumption allows action in the face of ambiguity. ^^^ BTW, I can see no reason why Lenin's work should be idolized. After all, his main achievement in practice -- leading the Boshevik revolution -- was, in the end, basically a failure. The failure wasn't totally his fault, of course, but neither does he deserve all the credit for revolution. (The soviets workers, peasants, and soldiers had something to do with the latter.) CB: In what sense do you mean failure here ? Marx was also a failure , no ? Why would Hal Draper spend so much time quoting Marx, when he was a failure ? In fact, has there ever been a success in human history in the sense of the opposite of failure that you use it ? Name a success in human history. ^ CB:Actually, compared with most other theories in this area, Lenin's is relatively unambiguous. And certainly in the spirit of Leninism, it would be out of character to emphasize any ambiguities so as to reach the conclusion that there is just too much uncertainty about Lenin's ideas and theory that it cannot serve as a guide to our action. so the spirit of Leninism (a contested phrase, one that could be Stalinist, Trotskyist, or whatever) is to shelve all doubts, to
Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists by Louis Proyect 24 April 2002 12:32 Greg Schofield: The Popular Front was one of the great modern innovations in effective political struggle of the working class, at the plain of how communists should work it relates directly to the Communist Manifesto applying the same principles to the specific question of anti-fascist struggle. Lou: -clip-. In a struggle against fascism, you have to have clearly defined class politics. Watering down social and economic demands leads to the triumph of fascism. ^^ CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front.
Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front. Do you mean the Allies? I wouldn't exactly call the military alliance between Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt a Popular Front. It was a military alliance between sovereign nations. For that matter, I saw it as eminently principled for Stalin to have signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler (despite the costly illusions that arose out of this.) Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
Re: dem. cent. Venezuela
BTW, I can see no reason why Lenin's work should be idolized. After all, his main achievement in practice -- leading the Boshevik revolution -- was, in the end, basically a failure. The failure wasn't totally his fault, of course, but neither does he deserve all the credit for revolution. (The soviets workers, peasants, and soldiers had something to do with the latter.) CB: In what sense do you mean failure here ? ~~ Cf. Enrico Berlinguer in his speech to the Italian Commubist Party after the suppression of Solidarity in Poland in '82. This account below says it was the Afghan intervention. I read the report by Berlinguer in college. The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation of Ken Coates (from Socialist Register) reprinted it. http://www.search.org.au/news/sovunion1.htm ...he major break with the CPSU occurred after the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. In 1982 Berlinguer declared that the October revolution had exhausted its propulsive force. Until this period, Soviet subsidies continued to go to the PCI. In 1972 it was over US$5m, in 1976, it was US$6.5m. From the early 1980s subsidies were channelled to the pro-Soviet wing led by Cossutta, partly to finance the pro-Soviet newspaper Paese Sera. 4/24/02 11:00:43 AM, Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: dem. cent. Venezuela by Devine, James 23 April 2002 21:06 UTC ... Explaining why I described the idea of democratic centralism as coming from the Marxist tradition rather than from Leninism, I wrote: It's from Lenin, but much of what's been written on democratic centralism comes from his epigones (Stalinists, Trotskyists, etc.), who are within the broad tradition of Marxism. A lot of it also came from Kautsky, from whom Lenin learned his stuff (see WHAT IS TO BE DONE?) CB: Epigones are ? Are followers of Hal Draper his epigones ? Of course, while being an epigone isn't always a bad thing. Some of Draper's best work (his multi-volume book, KARL MARX'S THEORY OF REVOLUTION) is totally epigonic, i.e., involving lots and lots of quotes from Marx. (In fact, Draper tries to dig up _all_ quotes by Marx on any given subject.) Note that I'm referring to the _idea_ (or ideal) of democratic centralism here. The usual practice of democratic centralism, i.e., bureaucratic centralism, has been practiced by governments and private corporations for centuries. The basic idea of the Vatican's system of organization is bureaucratic centralism. ^^^ CB: When you use epigone to refer to Lenin's followers it seems to be a negative epithet. ^ I said: The phrase Leninist theory is quite ambiguous since it is a contested theory (even more than Marxist theory), with Lenin's epigones fighting over it. Even Lenin himself did not follow a consistent theory all through his career (see, for example, Tony Cliff's multi-volume book on Lenin [another bunch of epigonic quotes, BTW]). It's unclear that such a dynamically changing vision can or should be distilled into an ism. CB: It wasn't so ambiguous to Lenin that it prevented him from taking definite and effective action. This is a key principle of both Marx and Lenin: not to get caught up in academic style ambiguities so as to fail to unite theory with action. The ambiguities aren't academic: they can be found in Lenin's written work itself. The problem is that the nature of the definite and effective action that Lenin would have taken changed several times in his career, at least given the way his position changed on paper. (BTW, I don't see why ambiguities are academic. Are you saying that the law has no ambiguities?) CB: The best way to discuss this issue is for you to bring here which parts of Lenin's work you think are ambiguous. I would say the comparison with the law is a good way to make the point I am making. A significant difference between the law and most other academic subjects is that the law places much more emphasis on the unity between its theory and practice than most other academic social scientific fields. The greater emphasis on practice is reflected in one of the specific ways that the law deals with ambiguities. This is the subject of statutory construction. If a party asserts that some statutory language is ambiguous, the process is that the parties argue for one side of the ambiguity or the other based on principles of statutory construction, and then the judge decides. The result is always that the statute is interpreted as not ambiguous, and to have the meaning of one side of the ambiguities or the other. The point is that when there is more emphasis on action and practice than in the typical academic situation, there is more emphasis on resolving ambiguities, because ambiguity paralyzes action. Another legal concept can help here: presumptions. Presumptions are basically being certain for now. Unless evidence rebuts the presumption it is
Re: Instruments of Statecraft, etc
Thanks Michael, Very interesting book. Are you aware of any studies similar to this that cover distant neighbors such as Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and the like? Best, Sabri --- Original message -- snip Watching the Neighbors: Low- Intensity Conflict in Central America http://www.statecraft.org/chapter17.html Instruments of Statecraft: U.S. Guerilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940-1990 snip
Re: Re: dem. cent. Venezuela
Good post! For once, I see (some) wisdom on CB's side. Thouigh, politically, I'm with Jim. Anyway. Will google after work for, Bolivarian Circles. (I work from 1-9 p.m. lousy hrs...) For now, go to http://www.pww.org for a recent article on Chavez and the Venuelan CP. He spoke to their convention recently. And, read (like I haven't!) the Richard Gott book on Chavez from Verso. Michael Pugliese 4/24/02 11:00:43 AM, Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: dem. cent. Venezuela by Devine, James 23 April 2002 21:06 UTC ... Explaining why I described the idea of democratic centralism as coming from the Marxist tradition rather than from Leninism, I wrote: It's from Lenin, but much of what's been written on democratic centralism comes from his epigones (Stalinists, Trotskyists, etc.), who are within the broad tradition of Marxism. A lot of it also came from Kautsky, from whom Lenin learned his stuff (see WHAT IS TO BE DONE?) CB: Epigones are ? Are followers of Hal Draper his epigones ? Of course, while being an epigone isn't always a bad thing. Some of Draper's best work (his multi-volume book, KARL MARX'S THEORY OF REVOLUTION) is totally epigonic, i.e., involving lots and lots of quotes from Marx. (In fact, Draper tries to dig up _all_ quotes by Marx on any given subject.) Note that I'm referring to the _idea_ (or ideal) of democratic centralism here. The usual practice of democratic centralism, i.e., bureaucratic centralism, has been practiced by governments and private corporations for centuries. The basic idea of the Vatican's system of organization is bureaucratic centralism. ^^^ CB: When you use epigone to refer to Lenin's followers it seems to be a negative epithet. ^ I said: The phrase Leninist theory is quite ambiguous since it is a contested theory (even more than Marxist theory), with Lenin's epigones fighting over it. Even Lenin himself did not follow a consistent theory all through his career (see, for example, Tony Cliff's multi-volume book on Lenin [another bunch of epigonic quotes, BTW]). It's unclear that such a dynamically changing vision can or should be distilled into an ism. CB: It wasn't so ambiguous to Lenin that it prevented him from taking definite and effective action. This is a key principle of both Marx and Lenin: not to get caught up in academic style ambiguities so as to fail to unite theory with action. The ambiguities aren't academic: they can be found in Lenin's written work itself. The problem is that the nature of the definite and effective action that Lenin would have taken changed several times in his career, at least given the way his position changed on paper. (BTW, I don't see why ambiguities are academic. Are you saying that the law has no ambiguities?) CB: The best way to discuss this issue is for you to bring here which parts of Lenin's work you think are ambiguous. I would say the comparison with the law is a good way to make the point I am making. A significant difference between the law and most other academic subjects is that the law places much more emphasis on the unity between its theory and practice than most other academic social scientific fields. The greater emphasis on practice is reflected in one of the specific ways that the law deals with ambiguities. This is the subject of statutory construction. If a party asserts that some statutory language is ambiguous, the process is that the parties argue for one side of the ambiguity or the other based on principles of statutory construction, and then the judge decides. The result is always that the statute is interpreted as not ambiguous, and to have the meaning of one side of the ambiguities or the other. The point is that when there is more emphasis on action and practice than in the typical academic situation, there is more emphasis on resolving ambiguities, because ambiguity paralyzes action. Another legal concept can help here: presumptions. Presumptions are basically being certain for now. Unless evidence rebuts the presumption it is presumed to be true ( based on accumulated experience , i.e. it is a posteriori, not a priori) and acted upon with certainty of its truth. A presumption allows action in the face of ambiguity. ^^^ BTW, I can see no reason why Lenin's work should be idolized. After all, his main achievement in practice -- leading the Boshevik revolution -- was, in the end, basically a failure. The failure wasn't totally his fault, of course, but neither does he deserve all the credit for revolution. (The soviets workers, peasants, and soldiers had something to do with the latter.) CB: In what sense do you mean failure here ? Marx was also a failure , no ? Why would Hal Draper spend so much time quoting Marx, when he was a failure ? In fact, has there ever been a success in human history in the sense of the opposite of failure that you use it ? Name a success in human history. ^
Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
Re; the Stalin-Hitler Pact. See, Betrayal, by Wolfgang Leonhard. On the reaction in Western European CP's after the Pact was announced. Leonhard also has an interesting autobio of his youth in the CP. Published here by right-wing publisher under the title, Child of the Revolution. Michael Pugliese 4/24/02 11:37:43 AM, Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front. Do you mean the Allies? I wouldn't exactly call the military alliance between Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt a Popular Front. It was a military alliance between sovereign nations. For that matter, I saw it as eminently principled for Stalin to have signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler (despite the costly illusions that arose out of this.) Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
Re: studying the dot.com bust
Ian Murray wrote quoting someone/something else: Starting from the bottom up, Kirsch is seeking lowly cube dwellers. He wants to hear the stories of software developers and sales agents, customer service representatives and their customers. In essence, his project hopes to chronicle the stories of dot-com workers who were caught up in the middle of the bubble, carrying out the risky and often fatal business plans. my heart bleeds for these software developers and other opportunists who ran to .com's, demanding 5-figure sign-on bonuses, 6 figure salaries and stock/options to boot. NOT! i guess the people who write this material do not consider as human and hence worthy of mention those minimum wage workers who were suffering before, through and after the .com boom (while many of these lowly software developers were trading in options for porsche boxsters). fussell's term (from the book i recently mentioned on LBO: class) bottom out-of-sighters comes to mind (though he uses it for the homeless and destitute). i too am an ex internet startup software developer, soon to be a an internet startup software developer again. but dont feel too sorry for me. i haven't sold the european car yet, though i do pause a second before entering an expensive restaurant. ;-) --ravi
Re: Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front. Do you mean the Allies? I wouldn't exactly call the military alliance between Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt a Popular Front. It was a military alliance between sovereign nations. For that matter, I saw it as eminently principled for Stalin to have signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler (despite the costly illusions that arose out of this.) Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org I believe that yours is a correct and very principle position. Melvin P.
Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front. Do you mean the Allies? I wouldn't exactly call the military alliance between Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt a Popular Front. It was a military alliance between sovereign nations. For that matter, I saw it as eminently principled for Stalin to have signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler (despite the costly illusions that arose out of this.) Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org I agree. The difference between the response of the communist in the imperialist countries and the communist in the countries under attack by aggressive fascism demands somewhat different strategy and tactics. Mr. Stalin was faced with a specific world alignment and basically made the right calls. If one understood the Popular Front to mean surrender to the bourgeoisie, then that is on you. Why surrender anything to the bourgeoisie? Melvin P.
Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
In a message dated 4/24/2002 1:31:01 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Greg Schofield: The Popular Front was one of the great modern innovations in effective political struggle of the working class, at the plain of how communists should work it relates directly to the Communist Manifesto applying the same principles to the specific question of anti-fascist struggle. Lou: -clip-. In a struggle against fascism, you have to have clearly defined class politics. Watering down social and economic demands leads to the triumph of fascism. ^^ CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front. Fascism was defeated by the world proletariat brigade - a class. This class was under the leadership of Stalin and that is a historically recorded fact. The subsequent defeat and collapse of fascism throughout the world was connected to the turning point in World World II or as it is called by Marxist, the Second Imperialist World War and the battle for Stalingrad. Melvin P.
AOL: $54.2 Bln loss
Luckily for all of us, it is not real money. George Gilbert of Northern Technology Fund calls it AOL funny money. Sabri = Top Financial News 04/24 16:56 AOL Time Warner Posts Record $54.2 Bln 1st-Qtr Loss (Update2) By Aimee Picchi New York, April 24 (Bloomberg) -- AOL Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company, posted a first-quarter loss of $54.2 billion, the biggest in U.S. history, on $54.2 billion in costs related to America Online Inc.'s purchase last year of Time Warner Inc. The loss widened to $12.25 a share from $1.37 billion, or 31 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales rose 7.1 percent to $9.76 billion from $9.12 billion. AOL Time Warner wrote down the value of acquired assets after its stock fell 74 percent since the purchase was announced in January 2000. It twice lowered financial targets in the past year as America Online, once billed as the primary driver of the company's revenue and profit, seeks to reverse declining advertising sales and slowing subscriber growth. The loss is a recognition that AOL paid too much for Time Warner, said George Gilbert, who helps manage the Northern Technology Fund, before the results were released. If they paid for it in cash, it would be a real disaster, but they paid for it in AOL funny money. Gilbert's fund owns AOL Time Warner stock. The New York-based company lowered its forecast for growth in 2002 cash flow -- or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- to 5 percent to 9 percent, citing declines in America Online's advertising sales. Previously it had predicted cash flow growth of 8 percent to 12 percent. AOL Advertising Online advertising is a disappointment, Chief Executive- Elect Richard Parsons said on a conference call. He said the company expects America Online's ad sales to decline to between $1.8 billion and $2.2 billion in 2002 from $2.7 billion last year. AOL Time Warner said first-quarter cash flow declined 6.4 percent to $1.94 billion from $2.08 billion. The company's profit before amortization and other costs was 18 cents a share. On that basis, it exceeded the average analyst forecast for a profit of 14 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial/First Call. Shares of AOL Time Warner rose as much as $1.10, or 5.7 percent, to $20.40 in trading after the close of regular U.S. markets. It had risen 19 cents to $19.30 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen 40 percent so far this year.
H-S pact
[was: RE: [PEN-L:25368] Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists] Michael Pugliese writes: Re; the Stalin-Hitler Pact. See, Betrayal, by Wolfgang Leonhard. whatever one thinks of the H-S pact, it's a real sign of political immaturity that an organization has so much energy emotion investeed in foreign policy issues that the Pact would lead to such a shrinkage of membership. Similar can be said for Khruschev's secret speech: why was the CPUSA so flimsy that a mere criticism of Stalin would lead to rapid loss of its own membership? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
Defeat of fascism by popular front
At 24/04/02 14:37 -0400, Louis wrote: CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front. Do you mean the Allies? I wouldn't exactly call the military alliance between Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt a Popular Front. hasten by every means the establishment of a world People's Front of struggle against fascism and war Dimitrov The Popular Front December 1935 http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/ Chris Burford
The Relevance of Stalin
How is an analysis of Stalin going to help us understand the world today? History, of course, is important, especially when it is relevant, but in matters such as Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. the subject leads to too much emotional finger-pointing to lead to much. I recall that on one list -- not pen-l -- Henry Liu was called a fascist for suggesting that the Nazis had some economic accomplishments. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Obstruction of front in France
I rather share Michael's view that an abstract discussion about Stalin will not be very illuminating. However today it is not impossible that someone like Le Pen could get 35% of the votes in a run off against Chirac. Look how low the incumbent president's vote was in the first round. In this context I think it is more instructive to note what positions are being taken up now in France. Having contributed to a fragmentation of left wing votes in France in apparent disregard of the final outcome, this confused and confusing communique of Arlette Laguiller on the second round of the presidential elections (4/22 11 AM) illustrates how the actual result is unimportant to her. What is important is taking up a radical posture separate from others. Of course, having failed to form a front and thereby let in Le Pen, it is an even harder test for someone with Laguiller's sectarian background to find a basis for calling for the defeat of Le Pen. The idea of doing so while calling on left wing forces to provide leadership in the front, is conceptually impossible if you start from this position. Hence the confusion below where she is not calling for an abstension. But she is. I am not calling for an abstention during the second round of the presidential election. I call on all workers and particularly those who voted for Le Pen to not vote for him because in addition to being an enemy of those who work, he is also the proponent of an ideology that absolutely must be condemned . Many will be tempted to vote for Chirac in order to block Le Pen. But I dont think workers have an interest in allowing the election of Chirac to be seen as a veritable plebiscite among workers in support of all the reactionary measures that he could take in the future. Let us not forget that while not lauding Le Pen, Chirac will favorably take into consideration the electors who voted for Le Pen over those on the Left who voted for him. The workers must not fall into this trap. Chirac has every possibility of winning but this representative of Big Capital must not do so with the support of those whom he will oppress for 5 years. Indeed from this sectarian point of view it is even more important that the cream workers should not vote for Chirac, than that they should not vote for Le Pen. It was against this sort of sectarianism, which let in Hitler, that Dimitrov fought. Chris Burford
Re: studying the dot.com bust
i too am an ex internet startup software developer, soon to be a an internet startup software developer again. but dont feel too sorry for me. i haven't sold the european car yet, though i do pause a second before entering an expensive restaurant. ;-) -- ravi Let us be fair to most of the software engineers Ravi. It is true, they and some others who did the dirty work ran to .com companies opportunistically but after all they did the dirty work, however meaningless what they were doing may be. I know many who worked 12 hours or more per day and some of them did not end up with much when their options went worthless. By the way, what were they supposed to do? Start a proletarian revolution instead here in the US? What other option did they have other than selling their labor power as expensively as possible? I remember sitting in a conference room of an internet startup with some marketing professors form universities like Chicago, Stanford, etc. who did nothing but collected, or expected to collect, money from the options they were given of a firm whose business was to paint the on-line visa staments of individuals with personalized advertisements, depending on their past purchases. Very meaningful business, indeed. Well. What was I doing there, you think? Sabri
Re: Obstruction of front in France
On Thu, 25 Apr 2002 00:14:22 +0100, Chris Burford wrote: It was against this sort of sectarianism, which let in Hitler, that Dimitrov fought. This simply is not true. Hitler came to power because the German Communist Party indulged in a suicidal ultraleft politics.They refused to unite with the SP against the Nazis and even joined forces with the Nazis in a petition drive to remove an SP elected official. In contrast to the CP, the SP supported one bourgeois candidate after another to Stop Hitler. All the while, these bourgeois politicians were encouraging the fascists and using the cops against the workers movement. It is out of this utterly counter-productive later approach that the Popular Front emerges. The CP simply donned itself in the SP's used clothing. These two bastions of reformism maintained a Popular Front type politics from this period onwards with one brief spasm of leftist rhetoric from the CP shortly after the beginning of the cold war. Their tepid reformism accomplished nothing but the erosion of a once-powerful working class support. It has created a political vacuum that other forces on the left have filled, albeit with obvious problems. There is no reason for the LCR and the LO to have separate organizations, for example. They are right to oppose Jospin's reformism but they are wrong to claim that they are the true and sole representatives of the French working class. In any case, it is clear that you need socialist candidates who can make forceful criticisms of the system. The more forceful and effective they are, the more votes they will pull away from reformist parties. But if humanity is to have a future, capitalism must be overthrown. To take us toward that final confrontation, it is necessary to have a lot more socialists. That is why the Trotskyist election campaigns are important. -- Louis Proyect, [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 04/24/2002 Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org
Re: Obstruction of front in France
From Chris' mail: Chirac has every possibility of winning but this representative of Big Capital must not do so with the support of those whom he will oppress for 5 years. If she said that before the second round, and I have no reason to believe that Chris would give us wrong information, unless he is some kind of an agent, which I doubt, like Chris, she is stupid too, however confused she may be. My friends, let go off your obsessions. Sabri
Greens Promote German Militarism
Can anybody explain this, starting with, is it true? mbs === World Socialist Web Site, 4/24 Germanys Green Party demands a powerful professional army In the course of the current debate in Germany over the future of the countrys conscript army, the Green Party has emerged as the most vehement proponent of the re-emergence of German militarism and advocate of a professional army. In a thesis paper published in the Frankfurter Rundschau, Winfried Nachtwei, who represents the Greens in the Defence Committee of the German parliament, declared that for its international military interventions (in the jargon of the Greens: multilateral crisis-resolution) the German army requires highly professional and rapidly deployable forces. Current requirements can no longer be satisfied by a conscript army, they argue. To recall: in its election programme for the last elections in 1998 the Greens declared that their policy remained: The de-militarising of politicsup to the disbanding of the army and dissolution of NATO. This position was adopted entirely from the standpoint of the single individual who would no longer be required to undertake compulsory military service. Today leading members of the Greens unscrupulously combine demands for the abolition of conscription with the call for the construction of a powerful and reliable professional army capable of rapid international deployment. In his thesis paper, Nachtwei declares triumphantly: The mood has changed! For a long time, with its demand for the abolition of conscription, the Greens confronted a broad coalition of those advocates who positively idealised and even dogmatically defended this type of army. After changes of position by the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism, successor party to the East German Stalinist SED) and in particular the tactical change by the FDP (liberal Free Democratic Party), in the meantime high ranking (former) military personnel such as ex-army chief of staff Willmann have articulated fundamental doubts regarding a conscript army. They speak for a growing number of active officers. As if German history had not demonstrated the results of the ill-fated tradition of militarismfrom the Prussian military to fascismnow a growing number of active officers confirm Green policies. In many of his arguments Nachtwei finds himself on common ground with the general chief of staff of the German army, Harald Kujat: Thanks to conscriptionfrom the total of 293,000 German soldiers (February 2002) approximately 83,000 conscript soldiers and a third of management personnel, approximately 110,000 (37 percent) are not available for international deployment. In the case of the army as the main instrument for interventions in crisis situations as many as approximately 90,000 of 202,000 soldiers (44 percent) are not available. Together with personnel and finances, property and machinery, conscription absorbs billions in terms of costs. Nevertheless Germanys highest ranking officer does not want to do away with conscription altogether: Without conscription it would not be possible to recruit either the ranks necessary for intervention nor secure the new blood required for the regeneration of long-time serving and professional soldiers. It is not possible through other means to acquire the enormous potential of wide-ranging knowledge and abilities brought to the services by young recruits. Precursor of militarism Most of the thesis put forward by the Greens, however, takes up the central question: how is possible to improve the image of the German army in the population as a whole? Or to put it another way: what is necessary to free the army from existing taboos? ( Frankfurter Rundschau) Evidently the Greens realise that there is a broad feeling of mistrust and hostility towards the German militarya feeling which is now completely alien to the Greens themselves. For years ... the annual report by young officers in the army has referred to the low level of acceptance for conscription among young people The continually growing numbers of KDV [conscientious objectors] are to some considerable extent an answer to the lack of plausibility of conscription. The number of conscientious objectors has doubled since 1989/90. In 2001 this figure was the highest ever, at 182,420. This growing individual rejection of serving under arms is together with the justifiable anxiety of being drawn into combat in some foreign country an expressioneven though not fully politically articulatedof a growing opposition to the foreign and military policy of the German government. At the same time there is evidence that in the case of long-term voluntary serving soldiers (FWDL) the army often attracts the most backwards elements. Nachtwei commented on the repeated incidents of criminal acts by extreme right-wingers in the German army as follows: It is unquestionable that conscription also enables undesirable elements
Re: David Landes etc.
Jurriaan is right on the mark here. Jurriaan Bendien wrote: Opposing e.g. Zionist aggression against Palestinians is a relatively simple and straightforward matter, but arriving at a profound understanding of modern-day imperialism is a more more complex undertaking. I confess I am still grappling with it intellectually. Marx once said something to the effect that capitalist crises would drum dialectics into people, perhaps the lived experience of imperialism will drum the concept into people... -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
China-based IT firms climb up value chain
The Economic Times Tuesday, April 23, 2002 China-based IT firms climb up value chain REUTERS HONG KONG/SHANGHAI: China, whose vast and cheap labour force has long made it a manufacturing hub for global tech firms, is moving slowly up the industry value chain. From semiconductors to cellphones and software, foreign companies are increasingly shifting value-added functions such as research and development and marketing to China, which is eager to graduate beyond its role as the world's factory floor. You have to go where the music is played, said Peter Borger, president of Siemens Shanghai Mobile Communications, the German giant's 60 per cent-owned China joint venture. Siemens is transferring the Asia headquarters of its mobile business from Hong Kong to Shanghai, where its factory cranks out some 1.1-1.4m mobile phones a month. More significantly, Siemens plans to double the size of its RD staff in China from the current 250, Mr Borger said in an interview at Siemens' Shanghai plant. China as an RD centre will play an important role, like India for us, he said, noting that China will produce some 270,000 information technology graduates annually by '05. China's advancement beyond the design it abroad, make it in China, sell it abroad cycle comes partly from its surging power as a market in its own right. Already, China is the top buyer of cellphones and next year will surpass Japan for second place in personal computers. China is also gaining from the diffusion of high-tech know-how, much of it acquired from abroad, through its industries. It boasts a sizeable engineering workforce, including numerous returnees from overseas study, increasingly permeated by foreign business practices. In the southern city of Shenzhen, for example, US software giant Oracle is setting up an RD centre focusing exclusively on the market in China - which is trying to shed its status as a software backwater. The eastern city of Suzhou, meanwhile, has become like a suburb of Taipei, with some 3,000 Taiwanese firms having set up shop, including makers of high-end notebook computers. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Capital Spending
This article is short on details, but it supports my long-held view that capital spending during recessions is capital deepening; during expansions, capital widening. The article also quotes old URPE member, Dan Luria. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/24/business/24INVE.html -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Binary scheme of democracy and centralism
On 2002.04.25 03:00 AM, "Charles Brown" [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: dem. cent. Venezuela by Devine, James 23 April 2002 21:06 UTC ... Explaining why I described the idea of "democratic centralism" as coming from the "Marxist" tradition rather than from "Leninism," I wrote: It's from Lenin, but much of what's been written on "democratic centralism" comes from his epigones (Stalinists, Trotskyists, etc.), who are within the broad tradition of Marxism. A lot of it also came from Kautsky, from whom Lenin learned his stuff (see WHAT IS TO BE DONE?) CB: Epigones are ? Are followers of Hal Draper his epigones ? Of course, while being an epigone isn't always a bad thing. Some of Draper's best work (his multi-volume book, KARL MARX'S THEORY OF REVOLUTION) is totally epigonic, i.e., involving lots and lots of quotes from Marx. (In fact, Draper tries to dig up _all_ quotes by Marx on any given subject.) Note that I'm referring to the _idea_ (or ideal) of "democratic centralism" here. The usual practice of "democratic centralism," i.e., bureaucratic centralism, has been practiced by governments and private corporations for centuries. The basic idea of the Vatican's system of organization is bureaucratic centralism. ^^^ CB: When you use "epigone" to refer to Lenin's followers it seems to be a negative epithet. ^ I said: The phrase "Leninist theory" is quite ambiguous since it is a contested theory (even more than Marxist theory), with Lenin's epigones fighting over it. Even Lenin himself did not follow a consistent theory all through his career (see, for example, Tony Cliff's multi-volume book on Lenin [another bunch of epigonic quotes, BTW]). It's unclear that such a dynamically changing vision can or should be distilled into an "ism." CB: It wasn't so ambiguous to Lenin that it prevented him from taking definite and effective action. This is a key principle of both Marx and Lenin: not to get caught up in academic style "ambiguities" so as to fail to unite theory with action. The ambiguities aren't "academic": they can be found in Lenin's written work itself. The problem is that the nature of the "definite and effective action" that Lenin would have taken changed several times in his career, at least given the way his position changed on paper. (BTW, I don't see why ambiguities are "academic." Are you saying that the law has no ambiguities?) CB: The best way to discuss this issue is for you to bring here which parts of Lenin's work you think are ambiguous. I would say the comparison with the law is a good way to make the point I am making. A significant difference between the law and most other academic subjects is that the law places much more emphasis on the unity between its theory and practice than most other academic social scientific fields. The greater emphasis on practice is reflected in one of the specific ways that the law deals with ambiguities. This is the subject of statutory construction. If a party asserts that some statutory language is ambiguous, the process is that the parties argue for one side of the ambiguity or the other based on principles of statutory construction, and then the judge decides. The result is always that the statute is interpreted as not ambiguous, and to have the meaning of one side of the ambiguities or the other. The point is that when there is more emphasis on action and practice than in the typical academic situation, there is more emphasis on resolving ambiguities, because ambiguity paralyzes action. Another legal concept can help here: presumptions. Presumptions are basically "being certain for now". Unless evidence rebuts the presumption it is "presumed" to be true ( based on accumulated experience , i.e. it is a posteriori, not a priori) and acted upon with "certainty" of its truth. A presumption allows action in the face of "ambiguity". ^^^ BTW, I can see no reason why Lenin's work should be idolized. After all, his main achievement in practice -- leading the Boshevik revolution -- was, in the end, basically a failure. The failure wasn't totally his fault, of course, but neither does he deserve all the credit for revolution. (The soviets workers, peasants, and soldiers had something to do with the latter.) CB: In what sense do you mean "failure" here ? Marx was also a failure , no ? Why would Hal Draper spend so much time quoting Marx, when he was a failure ? In fact, has there ever been a "success" in human history in the sense of the opposite of failure that you use it ? Name a success in human history. ^ CB:Actually, compared with most other theories in this area, Lenin's is relatively unambiguous. And certainly in the spirit of Leninism, it would be out of character to emphasize any ambiguities so as to reach the conclusion that there is just too much uncertainty about Lenin's ideas and
Re: Regional planning and property rights
Is a law saying that I cannot grow marijuana on my land a taking? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Capital Spending
Okay, but if you can't measure capital, how do you measure -- or even define -- capital deepening? -Original Message- From: Michael Perelman To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 4/24/02 6:27 PM Subject: [PEN-L:25384] Capital Spending This article is short on details, but it supports my long-held view that capital spending during recessions is capital deepening; during expansions, capital widening. The article also quotes old URPE member, Dan Luria. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/24/business/24INVE.html -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: Regional planning and property rights
- Original Message - From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 6:59 PM Subject: [PEN-L:25386] Re: Regional planning and property rights Is a law saying that I cannot grow marijuana on my land a taking? -- === You should ask the attorney Richard Glen Boire. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ian
Re: Re: Regional planning and property rights
The American Law on takings is a Frankinsteinian abortion of distorted thinking that is spreading its tentacles beyond the US into other countries by the extraterritoriality of US law. The idea that property rights extends to the incorporation of expected profits in perpetuity is a US phantamasma born only in the minds of US perverted judges appointed by special interest property rights owners. It has little (actually no) basis in historic economic thought and the thought that the US could unilitaterally impose this stupid interpretation of property law not only on its close economic partners, such as Canada, but on the world, is obscene. That of course, does not suggest that the US will not inflict its obscene ideology on the rest of us. So what do we do? say? Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba Date sent: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 18:59:30 -0700 From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:[PEN-L:25386] Re: Regional planning and property rights Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Is a law saying that I cannot grow marijuana on my land a taking? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: AOL: $54.2 Bln loss
Maybe this story should be called adventures in fictitious capital. The loss is a recognition that AOL paid too much for Time Warner, said George Gilbert, who helps manage the Northern Technology Fund, before the results were released. If they paid for it in cash, it would be a real disaster, but they paid for it in AOL funny money. Gilbert's fund owns AOL Time Warner stock. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Re: Re: Regional planning and property rights
- Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 8:02 PM Subject: [PEN-L:25390] Re: Re: Regional planning and property rights The American Law on takings is a Frankinsteinian abortion of distorted thinking that is spreading its tentacles beyond the US into other countries by the extraterritoriality of US law. The idea that property rights extends to the incorporation of expected profits in perpetuity is a US phantamasma born only in the minds of US perverted judges appointed by special interest property rights owners. It has little (actually no) basis in historic economic thought and the thought that the US could unilitaterally impose this stupid interpretation of property law not only on its close economic partners, such as Canada, but on the world, is obscene. That of course, does not suggest that the US will not inflict its obscene ideology on the rest of us. So what do we do? say? Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba Blame Thomas Cooley. The limit...in these cases must be this: the regulations must have reference to the comfort, safety or welfare of society;...they must not, under pretence of regulation, take from the corporation any of the essential rights and privileges which the charter confers. In short, they must be police regulations in fact, and not amendments of the charter in curtailment of the corporate franchise. ['Constitutional Limitations', 1868] For a detailed look at how the doctrine was woven into economic thought and the shaping of the Institutionalist critiques of same one need only have a look at John Commons' 'The Legal Foundations of Capitalism.' International trade law has yet to have it's Morris Cohen and Robert Hale. Ian
Personal note to Michael Perelman
Michael, All of the mails sent to your address today came back with this: Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients: Recipient address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] So here is my response: 12:30 it is. I apologize from the rest for posting this to the list. Best, Sabri
Seagate, technological unemployment and the future of Asia?
http://www.feer.com The Tide Turns for Seagate Technology Technological change has forced the world's biggest disk-drive maker--one of Asia's largest private employers--to rethink the way it does business, with far-reaching consequences for the region By Neel Chowdhury/SINGAPORE and PENANG Issue cover-dated May 02, 2002 IN A FEAT AT ONCE marvellous and scary, the disk drives produced at Seagate Technology's sea-facing Penang factory are growing steadily smaller. From their toaster-oven size in the early 1980s to their videocassette proportions in the early 1990s to their mobile phone-sized girth today, the tens of millions of disk drives United States technology-giant Seagate is set to churn out from its Southeast Asian factories will be a fifth of the size they were two decades ago. To Seagate, the largest disk-drive manufacturer in the world, the ever-shrinking disk drive is a technological triumph, akin to the pride Intel takes in its ever-speedier semiconductors. But Seagate's shrinking disk drive also cruelly mimics both the company's and Southeast Asia's shrinking economic importance. For as Seagate's disk drives shrink, compressing ever more computer memory into a smaller silicon-encased space, they've also grown progressively cheaper in value, a commodification process that tore through Seagate's old business model and is now gnawing away at Southeast Asia's other ailing electronics industries. The human toll has already been crushing. In Malaysia Seagate has reduced its workforce from a peak of 24,000 in 1986-87 to roughly 5,500 today. In Thailand, where Seagate employed over 40,000 workers just four years ago, roughly 18,000 remain. And in Singapore, where the disk-drive giant set up its Asian beachhead in 1982 and where disk drives still rank among the island-state's top three export items, Seagate's workforce has declined from 20,000 in 1998 to roughly 9,000. You simply can't assemble disk drives any more with human hands, explains Gary Davis, a Kuala Lumpur-based technology consultant. You need the precision of machines. But it's plummeting disk-drive prices that more concisely conveys the crisis of commodification Seagate and Southeast Asia find themselves in. The average price per megabyte for hard-disk drives was $11.54 in 1988. Today the average price hovers between 5 and 15 U.S. cents. As the same technological commodification that has ravaged Seagate slowly infects other electronics industries, like the circuit-board business, where prices are also on a slippery slope, it could unleash a greater wave of economic destruction in the region. As much as 49.8% of Singapore's total exports in 2001 were electronics-related, according to data provided by Standard Poor's, in an economy where exports are equivalent to more than 150% of GDP. In Malaysia, where exports equate to 110% of GDP, electronics accounted for 42% of the nation's exports in 2001. In Thailand and the Philippines, both heavily export-driven as well, electronics account for 18% and 53% of total exports, respectively. Though China's threatening emergence as a global manufacturing centre has hogged headlines lately, the seeds of Southeast Asia's present problems were planted well before the Middle Kingdom's rise. Retooling Southeast Asia for a post-disk-drive future won't be easy. Two decades of technology-driven mass manufacturing may have endowed the region with First World physical infrastructure. Southeast Asia's wide roads, uninterrupted electricity, modern ports and airports are still several paces ahead of China's and several decades ahead of India's. But perhaps only tiny Singapore harnessed its superb infrastructure to attract the pool of wealthy consumers and professional experts needed to leapfrog into a predominantly service-oriented economy. Malaysia mirrors the region's dilemma. Only three in 1,000 Malaysians are engineers, most of them churned out of corporate institutions like University of Tenaga or University of Petronas rather than by conventional universities. Not surprisingly, just 5% of the jobs in multinational companies in Malaysia that employ 5,000 workers or more are of managerial status, according to the Penang-based Socio-Economic Environmental Research Institute. Concludes Terence Too, an economic researcher at the institute, The domestic economy is not strong enough to fully recover from the sudden collapse in the [technology] export market. The economic story that Seagate began in Southeast Asia wasn't supposed to turn out this way. When the company set up shop in Singapore in 1982, eventually spreading across Southeast Asia, its needs seemed to perfectly match the region's skills. It was a natural fit, says James Chirico Jr., the Singapore-based senior vice-president of Seagate's Asian operations. The infrastructure in Singapore was comparable to that of the U.S. But local wages, happily for Seagate, were not. Labour as a share of disk-drive cost, according to David McKendrick,
Re: AOL bombshell
AOL's $50-Billion Loss Is One From the Books Wow, I thought the recent NTT write-off of telecoms and start ups they paid too much for was huge. $50 billions dollars. You could fund both Argentina and Turkey for 5 years using IMF figures. If I were at AOL-Time-Warner I would get the movie division to start making a series of 100 Lethal Weapon sequels. And I'd get that Italian mad scientist to clone Danny Glover and Mel Gibson. CJannuzi
Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
Louis I believe you make the mistake of over identifying every thing that happened in the world communist movement as directly being an expression of Stalinism. Stalin was acting on contradictory forces, despite his claims to being all powerful he was more often then not a reactor to situations well beyond his control. The non-aggression pact flew in the face of the Popular Front and caused all soughts of problems precisely because the USSR dressed it up in frontist expressions, in reality it was a direct result of the macinations of great powers. Stalin found the allies completely passive in the face of German agression, he feared that the West was simply serving up the USSR to the Nazis and there was more than a grain of truth to this. Ironically it was the alliance with the USSR which brought the West into confrontation with Germany - however this had little to do with Stalin's motives as his unpreparedness for the Nazi attack in 1941 fully demonstrated (as a matter of state power Stalin was completely faithfull to the pact and desperate that the German's leave him alone - once again he demonstrated his niaviety and stupidity which underlaid his cunning ruthlessness). Again what does this have to do with the Popular Front? It is all perfectly understandable via international state alliances. As for Charles' statement that the Popular Front was (partly) responsible for the defeat of fascism, this is a reasonable reading of the period. Without the Front there was a real chance of the UK coming to permanent accord with Hitler - Churchill all too aware (he was an early and staunch admire of Nazism) that such a peace would bring about social revolution his position during the war can only be understand as his fear of the social results of making peace. Likewise it is difficult to imagine the resistence in europe without the communists and the links established prior to occupation by the Popular Front. hen again we could also mention the second front campaign, there were clear indications tht the western allies were only too willing to wait until Russia had ground down German power and in the process ground itself into the ground. There was tremendous pressure to open up the second front precisely so this would not come about. Of course it is difficult to rerun history and take out a vital element like the Popular Front, however, it is obvious the Front played a major role in shaping social and political attitudes, that it took decades to erode the power of the Popular Front and social demands which stemed from it and that the war may well have turned out very differently without it. Greg --- Message Received --- From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 14:37:43 -0400 Subject: [PEN-L:25364] Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists CB: On this issue, what about the fact that fascism _was_ defeated by the Popular Front. Do you mean the Allies? I wouldn't exactly call the military alliance between Stalin and Churchill and Roosevelt a Popular Front. It was a military alliance between sovereign nations. For that matter, I saw it as eminently principled for Stalin to have signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler (despite the costly illusions that arose out of this.) Louis Proyect Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org __ Greg Schofield Perth Australia [EMAIL PROTECTED] Modular And Integrated Design - programing power for all Lestec's MAID and LTMailer http://www.lestec.com.au also available at Amazon.com
Re: Japan in the world economy
Of course I don't expect much from either WSJ or BW when it comes to covering Asia seriously, but the article derails at sentence one. First, at 130 yen to the dollar, the yen looks to be stuck at a fairly high level still--what I predicted, the US would not like anything past 135 and the markets never bet against what they think or know the US wants. Second, O'Neill's little tiresome script comes straight from Clinton and Rubin: Japan shouldn't use a cheap yen to export its way out of a recession (and we'll bring the Japanese to their knees with a strong yen ). No, instead Japan should sell off its entire banking system to American interests. See, if you got nukes and bombers and aircraft carriers everyone has to take you seriously, no matter how stupid you actually are. The biggest miscalculation the Americans make though is thinking the national government here can 'restructure' and 'liberalize' and 'deregulate' from the top down by decree. It can't. The day the Americans own my Japanese bank is the day I put my yen in an Australian one (my insurance is already there). Charles Jannuzi
Re: Greens Promote German Militarism
Germany$BCT(B Green Party demands a powerful professional army In the course of the current debate in Germany over the future of the country$BCT(B conscript army, the Green Party has emerged as the most vehement proponent of the re-emergence of German militarism and advocate of a professional army. Some very right wing ideologies have had 'deep ecology' elements from way back. Perhaps this is a manisfestation of that. If I were a neo-Nazi I might find the Greens a pretty clever place to hide out actually. CJannuzi
Re: Re: Le Pen triumph thanks to ultra-leftists
Fascism was defeated by the world proletariat brigade - a class. This class was under the leadership of Stalin and that is a historically recorded fact. The subsequent defeat and collapse of fascism throughout the world was connected to the turning point in World World II or as it is called by Marxist, the Second Imperialist World War and the battle for Stalingrad. Melvin P. http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0106/1705.html. See, by Larry Ceplair, Under the shadow of war : Fascism, anti-Fascism, and Marxists, 1918-1939, Columbia Univ. Press, 1987. Thanked in the acknowledgements is Dorothy Healey, in the CPUSA till early '73 (see her great autobio. from Oxford Univ. Press), so anti-Communist seems a stretch to attach to Ceplair. Anti-Stalinist, yes.. http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/courses/faf/fafguide.htm Gluckstein, Donny The Nazis, capitalism and the working class Bookmarks, London 1999 Guérin, Daniel The brown plague: travels in late Weimar and early Nazi Germany Duke University Press, Durham, 1994 Mason, Tim Nazism, fascism and the working class Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995 Chifley HD8450.M3715 199 Barrett, Neil, A Bright Shining Star: The CPGB and Anti-Fascist Activism in the 1930s, Science Society 61 1997 pp. 10-26. Horn, Gerd-Rainer European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930s Oxford Univ Press 1996 Chifley HX238.H67 1996 Theories of fascism How accurate is it to talk about fascism as a general phenomenon? To what extent was fascism a product of the inter-war period? Is it possible to speak of a Marxist theory of fascism? Outline the distinctive features of different Marxists approaches to fascism. What are the main features of theories of totalitarianism? How useful are such theories? Why did they emerge during the 1950s? How seriously should we take fascist ideology as a system of arguments and an account of the world? Does value free social science exist? Is it possible to undertake a disinterested study of fascism? Reading Renton pp. 18-29, 44-76 Eatwell pp. 3-29; Payne pp. 441-495 Soucy, Robert French fascism: the second wave, 1933-1939 Yale University Press, New Haven 1995 pp. 1-25Chifley DC396.S66 1995 Gregor, A. James The faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century Yale University Press, New Haven 2000 pp. 1-18 Chifley JC491.G674 Additional Reading Griffin, Roger International fascism: theories, causes and the new consensus Oxford University Press, London 1998 Chifley JC481 .I63 Marxist Beetham, David Marxists in the face of Fascism Manchester University Press, Manchester 1983 Chifley JC481.M28 Guerin, Daniel Fascism and Big Business Pathfinder Press, New York 2000 pp. 23- 148 Chifley JC481.G813 Trotsky, Leon Fascism, Stalinism and the United Front Bookmarks, London 1989 Chifley DD240.T76 1989 Trotsky, Leon The struggle against fascism in Germany Penguin, Harmondsworth 1975 Chifley DD240.T74 Tasca, Angelo (A. Rossi) The rise of Italian fascism, 1918-1922 Methuen, London 1938 DG571.T353 1938 Togliatti, Palmiro Lectures on fascism International Publishers, New York 1976 Chifley JC481.T5813 1976 Influential, contemporary multi-factor approach Griffin, Roger The nature of fascism Pinter, London 1991 Chifley JC481.G696 Totalitarianism Mason, Paul T. Totalitarianism: temporary madness or permanent danger Heath, Lexington 1967 Chifley JC481.M295 advocates of totalitarianism framework Schapiro, Leonard Totalitarianism Pall Mall, London 1972 Chifley JC481.S3 Nolte, Ernst 'The Past That Will Not Pass: A Speech That Could be Written But not Delivered' in James Knowlton and Truett Cates (eds.) Forever in the shadow of Hitler?: original documents of the Historikerstreit, the controversy concerning the singularity of the Holocaust Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, N.J. 1993 , 18-23 on order. Nolte's essay triggered a major controversy ont he significance of Nazism. Nolte, Ernst 'Capitalism-Marxism-Fascism' Marxism, Fascism, and the Cold War Van Gorcum, Assen 1982 pp. 76-79 Chifley HX44.N5913 a foretaste of Nolte's 1986 position. Mommsen, Hans The concept of totalistarian dictatorship vs. the comparative theory of fascism. The case of National Socialism in Ernest A. Menze Totalitarianism reconsidered National University Publications, Port Washington 1981 pp. 146-166 Chifley JC481.T64 Kershaw, Ian The essense of Nazism: form of fascism, brand of totalitarianism or unique phenomenon in his The Nazi dictatorship : problems and perspectives of interpretation Arnold, London; 1993 3rd ed pp. 17-39 Chifley DD256.5.K47 1993 critique of totalitarianism framework Focus on ideology Sternhell, Zeev Fascist ideology in Walter Laqueur (ed.) Fascism: a readers guide Wildwood House, London 1976 pp. 325-408 Chifley JC481.F334 Sternhell, Zeev The birth of fascist ideology: from cultural rebellion to political revolution Princeton
NASDAQ wants to eat London
Nasdaq pushes to take over London Stock Exchange Share price rises as analysts predict bidding war in wake of US move Jill Treanor Thursday April 25, 2002 The Guardian Nasdaq, Wall Street's market for hi-tech companies, has mounted a fresh attempt to get the London Stock Exchange to agree to a friendly takeover, potentially forging the first truly international stock market. Advanced discussions, which have been on and off for 18 months, are understood to be taking place in the New York offices of Lazards, the investment bank which advises Nasdaq. Speculation on the new push by Nasdaq may now spark a bidding war for the LSE, evoking memories of events two years ago when the London exchange suffered the humiliation of a hostile bid by OM, its Swedish rival, which in turn was prompted by the bungled attempts at a merger with Germany's Deutsche Börse. Market experts predicted that Deutsche Börse would not be able to resist tabling its own bid if and when Nasdaq formally tables an offer. While it is far from certain that the negotiations with Nasdaq will be successful, clinching a deal would create the first powerful alliance between a European and US stock market, accelerating efforts by the world's leading exchanges to consolidate and reduce trading costs for big investors. City sources cautioned that substantial barriers stood in the way of any agreement, but this failed to prevent a sharp rise in the LSE's shares to 470p. The exchange is now valued at £1.3bn. Nasdaq is thought to need come up with an offer of more than 550p a share for the LSE, which demutualised only three years ago, and to prove to the exchange that it has enough financial fire power. The share price rise is expected to prompt the financial services authority, which now polices the behaviour of stock market quoted companies, to demand a clarifying statement as soon as today. The attempt by Nasdaq, which refused to comment yesterday, to clinch a deal comes at a time when both exchanges are facing harsh questions over their strategy. Nasdaq, which boomed during the dotcom craze, is under pressure after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Under new management, it has failed to achieve its ambitions to expand in Europe and is saddled with an arcane ownership structure which it hopes to change later this year. Meanwhile, the LSE suffered the embarrassment of losing out in the race to take over Liffe, London's futures exchange, with last year's auction for control won by its close European rival, Euronext. Investment bankers pointed out that since the first detailed approach by Nasdaq - dubbed Project Lincoln - in December 2000, the LSE's position was stronger in comparison with the hi-tech markets. That approach was made before Clara Furse was named as chief executive - although City sources say her position is vulnerable after the failure of the Liffe takeover talks. Yesterday, Ms Furse, addressing a business audience at the Institute of Directors, tried to brush off questions about takeovers involving the exchange. She said the exchange was the best performing in Europe, in a very strong position and insisted we are not for sale. Such comments failed to quell speculation about the structure of the talks with Nasdaq. It is understood that a combination of the exchanges would still allow the LSE to retain a large degree of autonomy. On the other hand, linking with Nasdaq would give the LSE a new route into the vast American capital markets. Coffee house beginning 1760: About 150 brokers, kicked out of the Royal Exchange in the City of London because of rowdiness, form a club at Jonathan's Coffee House where they meet to buy and sell shares 1773 : Jonathan's changes name to the London Stock Exchange 1801 : The coffee house closes so 11 brokers build a new exchange in Capel Court, on the site of a boxing saloon; LSE becomes a regulated stock market for the first time. 1986: Big Bang at the LSE abolishes the traditional system of stock jobbers and agency brokers, ushering in the era of electronic trading. 1998: April: Putative merger talks between Frankfurt's Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq spur the LSE into a panicky pan-European alliance with Deutsche and six other exchanges. 1999: February: LSE details demutualisation plan March: Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels bourses say they are to merge to create a new bourse called Euronext May: LSE and Deutsche Börse reveal plans to create a European mega-bourse called iX, which would include an alliance with Nasdaq. July: LSE shares start trad ing on a matched bargain basis. August: OM, operator of the Swedish bourse, bids for LSE September: LSE withdraws from iX merger to concentrate on fighting off OM bid; Euronext starts up in Brussels. November: OM bid fails 2000: December: Nasdaq's intentions towards the LSE become clearer. Under the name of Project Lincoln, the Americans propose that London be a third hub in Nasdaq 's grand plan to cre ate a 24-hour global equity market,
Re: Re: Re: Re: Regional planning and property rights
Greider (The Right and US Trade Law: Invalidating the 20th Century, The Nation, October 15, 2001) clarified all this very nicely. Bill Ian Murray wrote: - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 8:02 PM Subject: [PEN-L:25390] Re: Re: Regional planning and property rights The American Law on takings is a Frankinsteinian abortion of distorted thinking that is spreading its tentacles beyond the US into other countries by the extraterritoriality of US law. The idea that property rights extends to the incorporation of expected profits in perpetuity is a US phantamasma born only in the minds of US perverted judges appointed by special interest property rights owners. It has little (actually no) basis in historic economic thought and the thought that the US could unilitaterally impose this stupid interpretation of property law not only on its close economic partners, such as Canada, but on the world, is obscene. That of course, does not suggest that the US will not inflict its obscene ideology on the rest of us. So what do we do? say? Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba Blame Thomas Cooley. The limit...in these cases must be this: the regulations must have reference to the comfort, safety or welfare of society;...they must not, under pretence of regulation, take from the corporation any of the essential rights and privileges which the charter confers. In short, they must be police regulations in fact, and not amendments of the charter in curtailment of the corporate franchise. ['Constitutional Limitations', 1868] For a detailed look at how the doctrine was woven into economic thought and the shaping of the Institutionalist critiques of same one need only have a look at John Commons' 'The Legal Foundations of Capitalism.' International trade law has yet to have it's Morris Cohen and Robert Hale. Ian
