[PEN-L] West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda

January 2, 2007 West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran's Nuclear Agenda By HELENE COOPER and STEVEN R. WEISMAN WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 — The United States and its allies in Europe, in a tacit acknowledgment that sanctions imposed by th

[PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda

Iran will stop itself because it is pursuing sectraian pro american policies in iraq and lebanon. Arab new year greeting: "May the flees of one thousand camels infest the ass of the person who screws up your year and may his arms grow too short to scratch his ass..." _

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

Two problems here: Can we still claim workers are the agents of their own emancipation when they let themselves be ruled by Stalin, Mao, etc.? In no socialist revolution has there been a successful revolution within the revolution, of the sort that Trotsky, et al. hoped for, against the burea

[PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda

On 1/2/07, soula avramidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Iran will stop itself because it is pursuing sectraian pro american policies in iraq and lebanon. If Washington thought that Tehran were pursuing pro-American policies in Iraq and Lebanon, it might give Iran a nuclear bomb or two, gift-wrapp

[PEN-L] Lessons for India as Russia Ups Ante

Lessons for India as Russia ups ante Vladimir Radyuhin India must adapt to the dramatically changed situation in the Russian market if it wants to get broader access to that country's vast oil and gas resources. New Delhi can no long

[PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda

There is more to this than meets the eye. An anti imperialist agenda requires a lining up of anti imperialist forces under more secular democratic and universal values. When so called divine victories are achieved in the south of Lebanon, one must also recall that there was little left to plough

[PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda

On 1/2/07, soula avramidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Iran would win if had not relied solely on the Shiites of the Arab world and made a concession by which it sacrificed Arab blood for the arrogance of Persian glory. Tehran's foreign policy has never solely relied on the Shi'is. As Iran's lo

[PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: [PEN-L] Re: West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda

maybe I was too quick, never really written such a lengthy response to anyone but you but let just reemphasize that there is a difference between tokenism and reall core issues such as the situation in iraq. but here it goes: Tehran's foreign policy has never solely relied on the Shi'is. Iran's

[PEN-L] software & intellectual property rights follies

ndrew Brown January 2, 2007 01:10 PM http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/andrew_brown/2007/01/microsoft_will_own_your_comput.html I see from the BBC's website that consumers "are being forced to wait until late January" for their copies of Windows Vista and my blood boils at such sloppy journal

[PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

A good point of departure. Needs clearer definitions of political Islam and Islamic fundamentalism (distinct but overlapping categories, in my opinion), more thought on what secularism means and what to do with it (e.g., what if people democratically reject secularism? ditch democracy in favor o

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: A good point of departure. Needs clearer definitions of political Islam and Islamic fundamentalism (distinct but overlapping categories, in my opinion), more thought on what secularism means and what to do with it (e.g., what if people democratically reject secularism? d

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

me: According to Draper (and I agree), Marx's theory of revolution can be summed up by the notion that the liberation of the working class can only be truly won by the working class itself. It's the principle of "collective self-liberation" and it has "a certain stability over fairly long periods

[PEN-L] liberalism vs. Marxism [was: death of liberalism]

On 1/1/07, Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: But the opposite of liberalism is illiberalism not fascism. Fascism is merely one variant of illiberalism, and so is Marxism. That is why many Marxists' tacit embrace of liberalism is unconvincing, for liberalism functions there as an ill-a

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/1/07, Mark Lause <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Solidarity! Isn't "solidarity" one of those "words that mean different things to different people rather than [to] things"? Hasn't it "been so used for so many different purposes that [it] no longer [has] any elasticity"? Look, there are NO imp

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

On 1/2/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > A good point of departure. Needs clearer definitions of political > Islam and Islamic fundamentalism (distinct but overlapping categories, > in my opinion), more thought on what secularism means and what to do > with it (

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

Jim Devine wrote: > > I'm afraid that the rich countries are in the process of downward > harmonization with the standards of the poor countries, an end to the > long period of global uneven development that divided the rich from > poor countries. The rich _people_ of course won't suffer much from

Re: [PEN-L] liberalism vs. Marxism [was: death of liberalism]

On 1/2/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 1/1/07, Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > But the opposite of liberalism is illiberalism not fascism. Fascism > is merely one variant of illiberalism, and so is Marxism. That is why > many Marxists' tacit embrace of liberalism is u

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

On Jan 2, 2007, at 11:34 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: The separation of church and state is a democratic demand if a majority or even a plurality demand it. But what if only a minority demand it, and a majority vote for Islamism as in the case of Iran during the referendum on the Iranian constit

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Carrol Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: That the core bourgeois democracies are moving (rather steadily) towards more authoritarian forms, and that this move will continue, isn't just possible but (a) it's happening and (b) will probably intensify unless new left forces mobilize (which s

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On Jan 2, 2007, at 1:00 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: The main threat to capitalism comes from forces that are not traditionally thought of as "the left" -- mainly Islamists, both populist and anti-populist kinds Eh? Iran isn't capitalist?

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

On 1/2/07, Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Jan 2, 2007, at 11:34 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > The separation of church and state is a democratic demand if a > majority or even a plurality demand it. But what if only a minority > demand it, and a majority vote for Islamism as in the

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Jan 2, 2007, at 1:00 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > The main threat to capitalism comes from forces that are not > traditionally thought of as "the left" -- mainly Islamists, both > populist and anti-populist kinds Eh? Iran isn't capitalist?

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

Jim Devine said, "Isn't 'solidarity' one of those 'words that mean different things to different people rather than [to] things'"? Hasn't it 'been so used for so many different purposes that [it] no longer [has] any elasticity'?" Maybe. Which is why I would never use it to make an argument or to

[PEN-L] An excuse for Presidents

They do have a reason for existing. When they die, postal employees get a day off. Carrol

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/1/07, Angelus Novus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: At a categorical level, the abolition of the commodity form entails the abolition of the proletariat. Yes. But that theoretical truth doesn't entail that a majority of workers will act on it or wage workers are more likely than other classes

[PEN-L] Kurdish (Hussein Tial) judge: Execution violated Iraqi law

Who cares... right? But it just goes to show... In the assassination biz, timing is everything. [JURIST] Rizgar Mohammed Amin [JURIST news archive], the Iraqi Kurdish judge who presided over the Saddam Hussein Dujail trial

[PEN-L] Socialism and religion: what Marx believed

(This is part 4 of a series on "Does Socialism Have a Future?". There will be two more installments on socialism and religion after this.) An excerpt from Chapter 11 ("Marxism and the Failed Critique of Religion") in Alexander Saxton's "Religion and the Human Prospect" can be read on the MRZine w

[PEN-L] Venezuela's Chavez Won't Renew TV Station's License

Venezuela's Chavez Won't Renew TV Station's License (Update4) By Alex Kennedy and Theresa Bradley Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he will shut down a private television station he

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Mark Lause <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Liberalism means one thing among people who call themselves liberals and something entirely different to people who call themselves libertarians. There are differences between self-identified liberals and libertarians in their conception of liber

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

Yoshie wrote: The guarantee of minority rights is rooted philosophically in liberalism and pluralism, not democracy per se. People can democratically choose to establish and maintain liberal democracy with commitment to pluralism, but what if they democratically reject liberalism and pluralism,

Re: [PEN-L] liberalism vs. Marxism [was: death of liberalism]

me: > but it's important to understand that Marxism favors a lot of liberal > values (though not all of them). But, in the Marxian view, these > values cannot truly be realized until after classes have been > abolished. To which we 21st centurians add, "and other social > structures of domination

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

Yoshie wrote, "There are differences between self-identified liberals and libertarians in their conception of liberalism in America, but they have a lot in common also, such as the idea of the Constitution guaranteeing the fundamental rights and liberties inalienable even if they go against the maj

Re: [PEN-L] An excuse for Presidents

On 1/2/07, Carrol Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: They do have a reason for existing. When they die, postal employees get a day off. also, we get a new subject who can legally appear on stamps! -- Jim Devine / "Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics.

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

On 1/2/07, Marvin Gandall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Yoshie wrote: > The guarantee of minority rights is rooted philosophically in > liberalism and pluralism, not democracy per se. People can > democratically choose to establish and maintain liberal democracy with > commitment to pluralism, but

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/1/07, Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Marxism does not utterly disdain the struggle for reforms of capitalism.< right. Premature anti-fascism is a preemptive reform of capitalism. In this struggle, in 2007 in the U.S., Marxists should use the term "fascism" liberally.< I'm af

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: The authoritarianism we've seen in recent years -- especially right after 911 -- was forcible only toward an unpopular minority and was generally accepted by the majority in the US. In many ways, it was akin to Cointelpro back during the 1970s, whi

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 1/2/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The authoritarianism we've seen in recent years -- especially right > after 911 -- was forcible only toward an unpopular minority and was > generally accepted by the majority in the US. In ma

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On 1/2/07, Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 1/2/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The authoritarianism we've seen in recent years -- especially right > > after 911 -- was forcible only toward an unpopular minority and wa

Re: [PEN-L] liberalism vs. Marxism [was: death of liberalism]

On 1/2/07, Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Marx's philosophy is a philosophy of freedom, not of justice (which is made clear, above all, by his critique of the Gotha Program), but the freedom he championed is not only not the same as that of liberalism but, at bottom, at odds with it,

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Mark Lause <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: As I've been saying, I have no interest in quibbling over words when the issue is really substance. When you discuss things like "the idea of checks and balances," you are making the entire question abstract Well, philosophy is necessarily a

Re: [PEN-L] liberalism vs. Marxism [was: death of liberalism]

On 1/2/07, Michael Hoover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ... In effect, [Marx's] though[t] fulfills liberalism, emerging out of liberal society to critique it, and develop understanding of the potential for a more historically progressive social system that would "go beyond" what liberalism offers a

[PEN-L] Just Foreign Policy News, January 2, 2007

Just Foreign Policy News January 2, 2007 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/ Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/donate.html Talk to Iran: Petition More than 40,000 have signed the Peace Action/Just Foreign Policy petition. Please sign/circulate i

Re: [PEN-L] liberalism vs. Marxism [was: death of liberalism]

On 1/2/07, Michael Hoover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: He [Marx] agreed, with Adam Smith, that more recent epochs were "progressive" in comparison to the past. I think the belief in "progressivism," unmistakable in many parts of Marx's writings, is one of the main problems in Marx's philosophy, t

[PEN-L] Patience (was death of liberalism)

We were all wrong when, accurately applying the label "tarbaby" to the adventures in Afghanistan & Iraq, we assumed that that disaster would in any way lead to a revival of the left in the u.s. We were correct to TRY for such a revival but we were wrong to hope for success and we are wrong now to i

[PEN-L] Heady Days for Defence Contractors

Market Place Heady Days for Makers of Weapons By LESLIE WAYNE Published: December 26, 2006 THESE are very good times for military contractors. Profits are up, their stocks are rising and Pentagon spending is reaching record levels. The only cloud might seem to be what the Democratic takeove

[PEN-L] New Great Ideas for Bush!

January 1, 2007 at 09:18:45 Changing the Game: Brainstorming Peace in Iraq by Colleen Turner Americans now overwhelmingly believe a change in Iraq strategy is needed regardless of their initial positions on the war. Unfortunately, the options currently proposed involve undesirable consequence

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

Yoshie, you are comparing the golden apples of liberal and libertarian rhetoric to the grubby oranges of state socialist reality. If you want to compare the comparable, compare the liberal/libertarian "idea" of the state to the Marxist "idea" of a very different kind of state (not just the same to

Re: [PEN-L] An excuse for Presidents

On Jan 2, 2007, at 10:52 AM, Carrol Cox wrote: They do have a reason for existing. When they die, postal employees get a day off. Carrol ex post facto

[PEN-L] Andrew Kliman's new book on Marx

Just Published, January 2007 RECLAIMING MARX'S "CAPITAL" A REFUTATION OF THE MYTH OF INCONSISTENCY by Andrew Kliman 250 pages, copyright 2007. Published by Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield. Part of Lexington's Raya Dunayevskaya Series in Marxism a

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

Yoshie wrote: There can be cases where your party is a junior supporter of the more or less secular government in power, which gets challenged by Islamists' electoral victory, mass revolts, or terrorist attacks, all of which have in fact happened in the Middle East, e.g., in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq

Re: [PEN-L] death of liberalism

On 1/2/07, Mark Lause <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Yoshie, you are comparing the golden apples of liberal and libertarian rhetoric to the grubby oranges of state socialist reality. If you want to compare the comparable, compare the liberal/libertarian "idea" of the state to the Marxist "idea" of a

Re: [PEN-L] Sad Sack Secularists

On 1/2/07, Marvin Gandall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Yoshie wrote: > There can be cases where your party is a junior supporter of the more > or less secular government in power, which gets challenged by > Islamists' electoral victory, mass revolts, or terrorist attacks, all > of which have in fa

[PEN-L] Global Warming Brings a 'Plague of Swans' upon the UK

Hmmm, and I thought it would be a sorority of swans... Recipe at the bottom. A plague of swans A series of mild winters and strict conservation laws mean their numbers are rising as never before. But the huge flocks are stripping rivers of vegetation, depleting fish stocks and threatening other

[PEN-L] Is There a Sunni Majority in Iraq?

Is There a Sunni Majority in Iraq? Iraqis By the Numbers By Faruq Ziada* http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2006%5C12%5C12-28%5Czopinionz%5C963.htm&dismode=x&ts=28/12/2006%2003:36:21%20%C3%A3 The United States based its policy on Iraq on two primary so-called facts: 1. The Su