Re: Re: RE: Re: Doug tells the truth..........................
At 17/05/02 00:28 -0400, you wrote: Where the fuck did this come from? And why is it dated Nov 24 2002? Doug The letter from Mark Jones quoted by Max was originally sent on Fri, 23 Nov 2001 16:04:31 + Although Max sent a number of posts on this thread on 26 Nov I can find no record of this post then, nor any post by him dated 24 November. Max clearly has a problem with his date line now as the recent post comes up also on my email list as 24 Nov 200*2* However on the web page it is posted as 17 May 2002 02:43 UTC Virus? Serendipity? Political Freudian slip? Gremlin's human or otherwise? I am sure Michael will want this thread closed for content, as he did in November, but perhaps Max can clarify where the technical problem is. Chris Burford
Re: Doug tells the truth
I am sure Michael will want this thread closed for content, as he did in November, but perhaps Max can clarify where the technical problem is. Chris Burford Such things happen every now and then. Virus is definitely one possibility, a very long and very slow trip with delays around the world is another, unintentionally saving a message as draft after deciding not to send and not deleting it is another, as it is possible to trigger it unintentionally later, you name it. There is too much about this virtual world that we don't know. No matter what, I think Chris is right: this is a technical issue. Best, Sabri
Mexican GDP falls by 2%
Mexican GDP falls by 2% By John Authers in Mexico City Published: May 15 2002 23:54 | Last Updated: May 16 2002 00:00 [Mexico] Mexico's gross domestic product fell by 2 per cent in the first quarter year-on-year, significantly worse than the expected drop of 1.31 per cent, and raised fears that the Mexican economy has not yet started to follow the US out of recession. GDP also fell by 0.25 per cent compared to the final quarter of last year, against government predictions there would be a slight rise after five consecutive quarters of decline. The treasury ministry noted that this drop was much less than the 0.81 per cent fall suffered during the fourth quarter, but the continued downward trend disappointed the market. Seasonal factors explained some of the decline. Easter week, when many Mexicans take vacations, fell in the first quarter of this year, meaning there were several fewer working days.
BLS Daily Report
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2002: RELEASED TODAY: Regional and state unemployment rates were generally stable from March to April, but were higher than a year earlier. All four regions reported little or no change from March, and 42 states and the District of Columbia recorded shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The national jobless rate rose to 6.0 percent in April. Nonfarm employment decreased in 33 states. Mass layoff events totaled 1,669 in the first quarter of 2002 and resulted in job losses for 301,181 workers, a decline from the 2,700 events and 541,410 job losses in the fourth quarter of 2001, according to figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Both the number of layoff events and the number of separations were lower than in the same quarter a year earlier, BLS said (Daily Labor Report, page D-3). U.S. consumer sentiment rose in early May as improvement in the stock market, better economic data, and relative calm in the Mideast helped lift consumers' assessment of current conditions and future hopes. The University of Michigan's preliminary May consumer sentiment index rose to 96.0 from a final 93.0 in April, market sources said today. Forecasts were for a drop to 92.7 after a larger-than-expected fall in the prior month. The data are released directly to market subscribers only and were obtained by Reuters (Reuters, http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2002-05-17-consumer-sentiment.htm). America's trade deficit showed a slight improvement in March as sales of American products overseas outpaced an increase in imports, which were driven higher by the biggest one-month jump in crude oil prices in almost 12 years. The Commerce Department reported today that the March deficit narrowed to $31.6 billion. That was a 0.4 percent improvement over the February gap of $31.8 billion, which had been the biggest imbalance in 10 months. The strength came in a 0.6 percent rise in exports of goods and services, led by gains in foreign demand for commercial aircraft, American-made autos and auto parts, and computers (Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press, http://www.nandotimes.com/business/story/404743p-3224446c.html). New claims filed with state agencies for Unemployment Insurance benefits climbed 2,000 to a total of 418,000 during the week ended May 11, the Employment and Training Administration says (Daily Labor Report, page D-1; The Washington Post, page E2). Home builders broke ground in April on the smallest number of projects in 6 months, a sign the housing market is slowing a bit (The Washington Post, page E2). The economy is recovering, but it isn't completely out of the woods yet, writes Patrick Barta, in The Wall Street Journal (page A2). The Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose 2,000 to 418,000 in the week ended Saturday. Meanwhile, the number of continuing claims for people already getting jobless benefits grew 82,000, to a 19-year high of 3.86 million in the week ended May 4. Jobless claims are well below the levels of September, when the economy was much weaker and claims briefly surpassed 500,000. But they are moving in the wrong direction, and they are still high enough to suggest a rising unemployment rate. Economists estimate that initial claims would need to drop to at lease 375,000 before the jobless rate started falling again (The Wall Street Journal, page A2). application/ms-tnef
RE: RE: Hetero Depts
duly noted, but they link to the White House, the Fed, NBER, and Brookings. and they don't link to EPI or any other left thing. not good. mbs s rollins college/winter park florida, six member dept includes: charles rock eric schutz (who was - and may still be - on pen-l, check out his 2001 book 'markets and power: 21st century command economy') kenna taylor michael hoover
Truthout
Saw LP's note and took a look at this. Screamingly obviously a Dem Party site, but not your ordinary DP thingy. They post stuff from Cynthia McKinney, including her comments on Mumia. Cynthia's looking pretty good these days, what with the brouhaha now about 'what Bush knew.' Note -- many of the booshwah funders LP notes also fund my employer. God love 'em. mbs * http://www.MaxSpeak.Org BLOG: http://www.MaxSpeak.Org/gm/index.htm
Re: Truthout
Max writes: Note -- many of the booshwah funders LP notes also fund my employer. God love 'em. Max, do you love them too? Just kidding. By the way, a very close friend, even closer to me than my brother, is a major new economy capitalist back home, and I love him. Best, Sabri
Re: Big bourgeoisie funding of alternate media onthe Internet
Speaking of which...Danny Schechter (The Media Dissector), one of the proprietor of Globalvision (which produced the TV show South Africa Now during the 1980s) and Mediachannel.org, was a delegate at the World Economic Forum in NYC this past Feb. Not a correspondent covering it, but a full-fledged delegate. Doug
Gates' $$ in Big Pharma
[The Wall Street Journal] May 17, 2002 [Image]HEALTH Gates Foundation Buys Stakes in Drug Makers By DAVID BANK and REBECCA BUCKMAN Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has purchased shares in nine big pharmaceutical FOUNDATION'S MOVES companies valued at nearly $205 million -- an investment likely to attract attention more for its symbolism than its size. ¥ Gates Fights Malnutrition With The foundation, the nation's largest with an Cheese, Ketchup and endowment of $24.2 billion from Microsoft Corp.Other Fortified Food Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, already is a Items3 major force in international health issues,05/09/02 contributing $555 million in 2000 alone to global health programs. The organization has ¥ Gates Brings His emerged as a prominent voice in the debate overBusiness Sensibilities how to supply cheaper drugs for AIDS and other to Efforts to diseases to poor countries. At times, it has Vaccinate the World's assumed the role of a broker between poor Poor4 nations and drug companies.12/03/01 Now, as an investor in Merck Co., Pfizer ¥ The Gates Foundation Inc., Johnson Johnson and others, the Gates Answers Plea of Annan foundation has a financial interest in common With $100 Million with makers of AIDS drugs, diagnostic tools, Pledge5 vaccines and other drugs. The stock purchases are a new type of investment for the 06/20/01 foundation: In the past it held primarily bonds [Image] and other nonequity investments. ¥ Gates Foundation Seeks to Bring Vaccine Joe Cerrell, a spokesman for the Seattle-based to Africa With Gates foundation, says the stock investments, Incentives for Drug reported this week in a Securities and ExchangeFirms6 Commission filing, are independent of the 05/31/01 foundation's programs. The stocks were chosen by Michael Larson, a money manager who has considerable discretion in selecting investments for the foundation and for Mr. COMPANIES Gates personally, through an entity called [Image] Cascade Investment LLC. Mr. Larson, through a [Image] spokesman, declined to comment about the Dow Jones, Reuters rationale. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) PRICE 55.31 The foundation's investments in Big Pharma CHANGE -0.43 could spur controversy, given Mr. Gates' U.S. dollars1:55 p.m. staunch support of strict intellectual-property protections for drugs in poor countries. Mr. Gates' stance on intellectual property is as [Image] important to Microsoft's software business as [Image] it is to drugmakers.* At Market Close [Image] The impression people have, because of the types of projects Gates has funded and because of his Microsoft background, is that he has an ax to grind on the intellectual-property front, says James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, who works with African officials to obtain low-cost drugs. Poor countries have sometimes threatened to seize patents in order to produce affordable generic drugs for sick citizens, making the field of intellectual-property law a flash point between pharmaceutical companies and poor countries. At a meeting in Africa last year, Mr. Love says he was struck by fears of officials from Botswana and elsewhere that pressing for access to generic drugs could jeopardize their chances for contributions. They thought it would alienate the Gates foundation and they thought that was a problem, Mr. Love says. [Image]A report issued last year by the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, chaired by economist Jeffrey Sachs, made a strong defense of intellectual-property protection as critical to continued investment in drug research and development. The Gates foundation was a major sponsor of the commission. Other people involved with the issue say medical progress in poor countries depends on incentives for drug makers, and the Gates foundation is balancing the tradeoffs responsibly. For every major killer of the poor, we need better drugs, better diagnostics and better vaccines, says Richard Feachem,
Re: Gates' $$ in Big Pharma
Eugene Coyle wrote: FOUNDATION'S MOVES companies valued at nearly $205 million -- an investment likely to attract attention more for its symbolism than its size. ¥ Gates Fights Malnutrition With The foundation, the nation's largest with an Cheese, Ketchup and endowment of $24.2 billion from Microsoft Corp.Other Fortified Food Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, already is a Items3 major force in international health issues,05/09/02 contributing $555 million in 2000 alone to global health programs. The organization has ¥ Gates Brings His emerged as a prominent voice in the debate overBusiness Sensibilities how to supply cheaper drugs for AIDS and other to Efforts to diseases to poor countries. At times, it has Vaccinate the World's assumed the role of a broker between poor Poor4 nations and drug companies.12/03/01 Now, as an investor in Merck Co., Pfizer ¥ The Gates Foundation Inc., Johnson Johnson and others, the Gates Answers Plea of Annan foundation has a financial interest in common With $100 Million You probably have a Windows machine - otherwise I'd recommend a couple of nice text-cleaning utilities for the Macintosh, TextSpresso annd Ungarbleit. Doug
substance and rationality
Robert writes: I would track back the idea that there are separate rationalities ['western' and (to me mysterious) 'others'] primarily to a paper written for UNESCO by Levi Strauss about 1952. Robert, Let me help you a bit so that we can mobilize some others to say what they think/know about this. When I talk about western rationality, I have some western microeconomics books, like the one by Hall Varian, some western game theory books, like the one by Fundenberg and Tirole, etc, in mind. It seems that in all of such books, there is the assumption that human beings are rational. But, when I read these books, which are quite mathematical, I come to the conclusion that from chapter to chapter their definition of rationality changes. So I find this concept of rationality quite mysterious, although, like you, I find this concept of others quite mysterious as well. As a friend, who is a subscriber of this list, and hence, who can identify himself if he reads this post and then so chooses, said: Debates about human nature are unproductive since we have no conclusive proof about what constitutes human nature. It is my view that human nature is a historically and geographically varying probability distribution. So any attempt to define it is no better an attempt than throwing a dart to a dart board at a given time and then claiming that whatever the properties of that point on the board, those are the properties of the entire dart board for all times. However, it is possible to talk about the mean, variance and higher moments of this distribution at any given time and at certain times, such as ours, their geographical variation can be slow. But when I say western rationality, I have a very specific thing in mind. It is the rationality our neoclassical economists talk about, not the western rationality of Weber, Wallerstein and the like, about which I know very little. I don't know what this rationality is and have doubts that our economist friends can come up with a universally accepted definition of it but most likely it is something related to this thing called Nash equilibrium. Let us see if this bait will catch any fish. Best, Sabri
Re: Big bourgeoisie funding of alternate media on the Internet
I found Lou's piece very interesting. He mentioned Soros as a funder. He is all over the place, isn't he? He funded a very good anti-drug-war initiative in California and some very reactionary politics abroad. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Big bourgeoisie funding of alternate media on the Internet
Some of you might have noticed an expose of truthout.org on Counterpunch this week. It was written by Jacob Levitch, who is described as an online editor. Truthout.org wrote what amounts to a defense of the IDF in line with Jared Israel's latest garbage about how the terror stopped when Jenin was under siege. My only contact with Truthout.org was their daily spamming of Hunter Gray's email list with material that should be self-evident to any radical. Jacob wrote: Truthout's editor, Marc Ash, claims the publication has no organizational affiliations and is entirely reader-supported -- though five staffers, and the server power necessary to support a quarter-million users, don't come cheap. Given its incessant showcasing of Beltway Democrats -- even career hacks like Daschle and Gephardt get flattering headlines whenever they say anything remotely progressive -- I've sometimes wondered whether it's actually a James Carville-style undercover operation, aimed at cajoling Naderites back into the Democratic fold. (Suggestively, of all the questions I asked Ash about Truthout's history, purpose, and funding, the only one he was willing to answer was whether the publication is connected in some way with the Democratic Party. It is not, he said, and I'll take him at his word -- though I suspect a list of contributors might make interesting reading.) http://www.counterpunch.org/levitch0514.html In a subsequent exchange with Jacob, I learned the following: --Soros' Open Society Institute gave $10,000 to the Independent Media Center in 2000 --It also dispensed $95,000 to Independent Media Institute in 2000 (www.soros.org/osi grants database), the outfit that publishes AlterNet. Meanwhile, I stumbled across a new alternative website today that is based in Great Britain. It is called www.opendemocracy.net and has the same look and feel as many of these other left-leaning websites. You can find links to articles by Robert McChesney on Making Media Democratic and lots of other legitimate items. McChesney is a Monthly Review editor and a long-standing advocate of grass-roots democracy, especially in media. You can also find an idiotic piece on Russian railroads that would lead the innocent reader to believe that the country is finally working its way out of the disaster wrought by world capitalism and its local stooges: Now, with the economy growing fast again, the trains are full once more, the impromptu feasts have reappeared and the Russians are once more indulging their genius for making themselves at home wherever they find themselves, carving private spaces out of public ones. http://www.opendemocracy.net/forum/document_details.asp?CatID=4DocID=1349 When you go to the Who funds OpenDemocracy page, you'll discover that Monty Python alumnus John Cleese (who subsequently became the millionaire founder of a corporate motivational consulting firm) is a backer. So are the following: The Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust The Atlantic Philanthropies Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation The Charles E Chadwyck-Healey Charitable Trust The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation The Ford Foundation The Marmot Trust The New World Foundation The Open Trust The David Elaine Potter Charitable Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust The Tedworth Charitable Trust The Rockefellers, Fords and Bank of Sweden I'm sure you've heard of. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation owns 1/3 of the shares in Municipal and General (MG), generally regarded as the grandfather of the unit trust industry in Great Britain. In 1998 it managed more than 318 billion pounds in assets in 32 unit trusts and four investment trusts. When you go to the page that identifies the people in charge, you'll come across some names that can be described as anything but alternative. My comments are interspersed in parentheses: Board of Directors include: Tim Stevenson Vice-Chairman Former Chief Executive of Burmah Castrol plc. Non-executive director of Department for Education and Employment. (Big oil product conglomerate.) John Jackson - Non-executive Director Chairman of Celltech plc, the Hilton Group plc, Wyndeham Press plc and Mishcon de Reya. Chairs the Countryside Alliance. (Hilton Group is the hotel chain. The Countryside Alliance is a Tory-backed formation that is trying to keep fox-hunting alive in Great Britain.) Editors include: Todd Gitlin North Americas Professor of Culture, Journalism and Sociology at New York University. Author of Inside Prime Time, and The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars. (social democratic warhawk) Roger Scruton consultant editor A philosopher, he is author of over twenty books including On Hunting, England: an Elegy, and The Aesthetics of Architecture. Co-founder of Horsells Farm Enterprises, a consultancy providing innovative solutions to the problems of the rural economy. The New York Times, March 23, 2002, Saturday, Late Edition - Final
Re: substance and rationality
Well. Wrong number again. As an archives reader this happens sometimes, if you participate only in two lists. Max, You are not the only one who screwed up. As Jim said, most likely this is an indication of an early onset of Alzheimer's, or who knows, maybe Parkinson's, as we suspect of our Prime Minister Ecevit. Except that I am 36 years younger than him. By the looks of it, he is going to leave us soon and it will be another turmoil back home, as well as your home. Best, Sabri
Terry Eagleton
History gets the last laugh Capitalists were triumphant when they saw off socialism. But will they live to regret it? Terry Eagleton Saturday May 18, 2002 The Guardian One of the darker ironies of the 20th century is that socialism proved to be least possible where it was most necessary. To go socialist, you need material resources, democratic traditions, cooperative neighbours, a flourishing civil society, an educated populace; and it was just these vital ingredients of the project which colonialism had denied to its premodern, poverty-stricken clients. As a result, one bitter irony bred another: the effort to build socialism in these dismal conditions led straight to Stalinism, and a bid for freedom twisted inexorably into its monstrous opposite. The present century looks set to be dominated by a rather different sort of irony. Capitalism greeted the millennium with one arm brandishing The Wealth of Nations and one foot triumphantly planted on the corpse of its socialist rival; yet scarcely had the century turned before this victory began to look suspiciously pyrrhic. Indeed, we may yet see the capitalist world glancing nostalgically back at the socialist project it screwed so effectively. Socialism, after all, is out to expropriate the propertied classes, not to exterminate them. Its weapons are general strikes and mass struggle, not anthrax and dirty nuclear bombs. Its aim is for people to live in plenty, not for them to scavenge their scanty grub from war-scarred urban deserts. Socialism was the last chance we had of defeating terrorism by transforming the conditions which give birth to it; and those who helped to send it packing - not least those among them whose offices are rather high off the ground - ought to be licking their lips for the taste of ashes. Could it be, then, that in defeating socialism, capitalism will turn out to have undone itself into the bargain? What if those who run the show have turned up their noses at the one thing that might have guaranteed their survival, physically if not politically? Marx described the working class as capitalism's gravediggers; but to see these useful functionaries off the premises may simply be to end up digging your own grave. For the wretched of the earth have not of course retired; they have simply changed address. Whereas Marx looked for them in the slums of Bradford and the Bronx, they are now to be found in the souks of Tripoli and Damascus; and it is smallpox, not storming the Winter Palace, that some of them have in mind. To this extent, The Communist Manifesto has been both challenged and vindicated. It was right to predict that poverty and wealth would polarise sharply on a global scale; and it was right, too, that the dispossessed would rise up against their rulers as a result; it was just thinking more of mills than the World Trade Centre, trade unions rather than typhoid. But if Marx really was wrong about the working class, then this is bad news for the transnational corporations, since what one might see as having stepped into their shoes then has the savagery of despair, not the confidence of collective strength. Those who announce that Marx's industrial proletariat has sunk without trace should be reaching for the anti-radiation tablets, not for the champagne. A few years back, there was much dust and heat about the end of history. What this portentous phrase meant was that since capitalism was the only game in town, significant political conflicts were now as passé as sideburns. This is both obtuse and untrue, but that's not the point: we knew that much before September 11. It is rather that we now have dramatic evidence that the end of history might eventually spell the end of history in a rather less metaphysical sense. The fact that capitalism now has no real rivals in the official political arena is precisely what causes the unofficial rancour that can blow enormous holes in it, including nuclear ones. Socialism may have seemed a dark threat to those with most to lose from it, but at least it is a secular, historically-minded, thoroughly modern creed, a bastard offspring of liberal enlightenment. It has a deep-rooted contempt for political terrorism, whether it denounces it as immoral or just petty-bourgeois. Unlike fundamentalism, whether of the Texan or Taliban variety, it doesn't dismiss alternative life-styles or symbolist poetry or a cellarful of chianti; it just inquires why these things somehow always end up in the hands of a few. Unlike fundamentalism, too, it is earth-bound and iconoclastic, sceptical of high-minded ideals and absolutes. The same might be said of American pragmatism, which always preferred turning a fast buck to brooding on the infinite. But the more terrorism occupies the space vacated by socialism, the less pragmatic America is bound to become. Indeed, it may well end up defending itself from Islamic fundamentalists by becoming every bit as fearful of freedom as they are, in which case it
Indian Parliament passes free education bill
HindustanTimes.com Wednesday, May 15, 2002 Free education Bill passed HT Correspondent (New Delhi, May 14) The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the 93rd Constitution Amendment Bill to provide for free and compulsory education to children between six years and 14 years of age. In spite of queries about existing guarantees on the right to education to children up to 14 years of age, the House gave its approval to the amendment by the required majority. There were 164 votes in favour and none against. Several members persisted in their queries regarding the fate of Supreme Court rulings that the right already existed under constitutional provisions. Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said the amendment passed today was now a law. The Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha, was supported by the Opposition which raised queries about the scope of the law and the funds needed to implement it. Dr Joshi said the allocation of Rs 9,800 crore for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the current year was based on realistic estimate. The process of shifting the financial burden on the states would be slow. The minister said the law was needed as court judgements could get superseded in the course of time. He said the required notification to put into force the law would be issued without delay. Funds were always a problem and personally he supported the suggestion that a part of taxes could be kept apart for education. Send your feedback at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997. Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior permission.
UK imperialist birth rate slumps
The Office for National Statistics released provisional figures for last year showing the fertility rate sank to 1.64 children per woman, compared with a peak of 2.93 in 1964. The latest figures were well below the average family size of 2.1 children per woman needed for the population to replace itself in the long term without inward migration. Inward immigration is a feature of imperialism. In terms of reproducing the whole society economically it is an absolute necessity not just in Britain but in western European generally, whatever the populist prejudices of people like Fortujn, Stoiber, or Le Pen. Chris Burford
Re: The World We're In by Will Hutton
At 16/05/02 08:19 -0400, you wrote: Chris Burford: However the Marshall Aid programme after the war shifted capital back to western Europe and produced an increase in the use values available for the local population. Capitalism can continue even with a redistribution of capitalism and of the circulation of commodities. (Consider Marx's argument in Wages, Price, and Profit against Citizen Weston) Although we come from very different standpoints I think we are arguing seriously over central questions of the global economy. I do not want to disrespect Louis Proyect's argument below by cutting it into lots of pieces, but certain of the connections which Louis states are somehow in my opinion the wrong way round. I am therefore going to explain the differences I have with them. The Marshall Plan was necessary to jump start capitalist expansion in devastated post-WWII Europe. I would not however put it that way. Capitalism would have prevailed in post WWII Europe whereever there was not a socialist revolution. That is because the main means of exchange was that of commodities, and although barter existed for a time, money soon returned everywhere. The majority of the working people had nothing to sell but their labour power. The dominant mode of production was already capitalist. What the Marshall Aid plan was necessary to do was *political*: to protect western Europe from going Communist. If we apply a counterfactual argument to this - what would have happened in western Europe had there been no Marshall Aid plan? - the work force would have been as impoverished as say in Indonesia today. The only future for people trying to better themselves in Europe would have been to try to migrate to the USA or being one of a narrow body of exploiters within their own country, vulnerable to revolution. What the Marshall Aid plan did was to kick start the recovery of western European imperialism, as a substantial centre of capital, capable of owning its own means of production. It also made limited concessions to create a workforce relatively privileged on a world scale able and to provide a mass market for new consumer products. This political compromise successfully stabilised capitalism in western Europe. However, capitalism is flourishing throughout the third world, so what is the point of a Marshall Plan? Capitalism was flourishing in impoverished western Europe post WWII anyway. An impoverished skilled workforce was fine for this purpose. The difference which makes it questionable whether a Marshall Plan is needed now for the third world is a political one. The urgency of a Marshall Aid plan is much less strong because there is no threat from the Soviet Bloc as a rival pole of attraction. Ten years ago the global sado neo-liberals we saying that Africa might as well have dropped off the map. Nowadays under pressure of concern about AIDS, there is some feeling in capitalist circles that there has to be a policy for Africa. But basically what they are talking about is patronising charity. Bush in Monterrey was therefore updating the hard nosed neo-liberal plans by suggesting a minuscule Marshall Aid plan for the rest of the world, and entirely tied to whether their means of production were neatly tied up, packaged and labelled for expropriation by global finance capital. Perhaps you are recommending something entirely different, like direct grants from G-7 countries to allow places like Jamaica and the Congo to build up health care, education, public transportation, etc., since that's really what's needed, after all. Basically I am not coming from an initial stance of recommending something. I want to see what is going on in front of our eyes, and look for what openings there are for change. But if we could articulate a global vision I certainly would not limit my view of what is really needed to health care, education, public transportation. What is needed is that the resources of the world should be owned by the people of the world! I would rather see the global anti-capitalist movement cohere around agitational slogans for peace and justice, so long as they are used to illustrate this perspective. [And I have been very clear that even this would not be global socialism. It would arguably be a sort of new democratic global campaign, which might make it easier to proceed to socialism in some individual countries without them being held to ransom by international finance capital. But my assumption is that part of the transition to socialism over the coming next decades is going to have to take place at the global level. In seeking a broad united front for these goals please note that does not necessarily imply going for the lowest common denominator. In some senses it means raising our sights. 'We only want the earth', with scientific consciousness, is a profoundly revolutionary in its implications. To expect something like this would be
