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Eli Stephens | 3 Feb 23:55
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"200" dead in Syria - but who were they?

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Today's news from Syria "informs" (or misinforms, depending on what the
actual facts are) us that 200 "people" were killed in the Syrian city of
Homs by a government assault using tanks and machine guns. I've written
before about the "source" of this "information," which is basically an
organization based in London. But let's assume for the moment that this
information is completely true and ask a few more questions:

1) Who were these people? If you've been watching the same news as I have
for the past few days, you've seen pictures of the rebels armed with all
sorts of weapons including RPGs. Were these 200 people armed rebels, or
"unarmed innocent civilians"? The article wants us to believe the latter,
since there is no hint whatsoever in the article that an armed rebellion in
progress. Every reference in the article is simply to "people" who were
killed. Far more likely, however, is that is was mostly, or perhaps
exclusively, armed rebels who were killed. Now I am completely in support of
the right to armed rebellion. However, people who take up arms can expect to
be met with force, and whatever reason there is to condemn the government
against which they are taking up arms, the fact that that government
responded with force can hardly be a reason for additional condemnation.

2) Were there any government forces killed? If a battle of this magnitude
took place, chances are high that they did. However, since AP's only source
for this story is the anti-government opposition, and since that opposition
has every reason to portray the deaths as a one-sided affair, it's not
surprising that no such deaths are reported. The opposition does
periodically make claims (backed up by the Syrian government) that
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Eli Stephens | 3 Feb 23:53
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The big lie on Iran continues

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The media still insists that Iran "hasn't decided" whether to "break out"
and make a nuclear bomb. But that is a lie. Iran has REPEATEDLY said that it
HAS decided - NOT to build a bomb.

Details: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2012/02/big-lie-on-iran-continues.html

Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com

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vildan iyigungor | 3 Feb 21:56
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differernt mail address

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my new mail address

iyigungor <at> hotmail.com

thank you

--

-- 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vildan İyigüngör
Marmara University
Faculty of Communications
Nışantaşı Kampusu
34365 İstanbul / Türkiye
+90 212 2330447  Int 136
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MARIAN BRAIN | 3 Feb 21:13

Anthony Brain analyzes what re-nationalization of U.S. steel owned plant/plants within Serbia means for what remains of Serbian Stalinist Bureaucracy and Serb Working Class?

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The re-nationalization of U.S. Steel in Smederevo, 80 KM East of Belgrade shows how the Serbian Stalinist
Bureaucracy could utilize collapse of Capitalist elements within workers' states like Serbia to regain
some of their privileges. Workers
can play on these contradictions to weaken the Capitalist elements (and potentially for Trotskyists
(wanting the working class to re-assert themselves independent from the Stalinists)show in practice
the power of our class when we fight decisively. It was mass workers pressures which partly explains why
U.S. Steel plant/plants being re-nationalized with U.S. Steel planning to close them with 20,000 jobs
being potentially lost in a town/city of 115,000 residents. 
 
 
The Capitalist elements and conciliationist elements are trying to re-privatize those steel
plant/plants as this Xinhua article shows.  There could be maneuvers by Bureaucrats trying to pillage
off Imperialist loans by coning them that they pushing through the Capitalist inroads quickly of what the
Bureaucrats and workers tolerate.  This may be harder as Imperialism has not the capital it had after
1989 where they allocated their money to advance attempted Capitalist restoration in Eastern Europe and
ex-Soviet states.  This may play into the hands of those Bureaucrats who want to maintain the workers’
states as they can only maintain their privileges and income from the State.   
 
 
These new upheavals in Eastern Europe could catch up with the incipient Political Revolutions of 1989 now
being supplemented with a struggle against Capitalist elements.  Trotskyists have a chance to play an
historic role of implanting our programmer and strategy of Political Revolution with social
consequences.  
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MARIAN BRAIN | 3 Feb 21:11

Anthony Brain has seen an Xinhua article about re-Nationalization of steel/plants reversing U.S. Steel privitization!

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-02/01/c_122637130.htm
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Louis Proyect | 3 Feb 20:51
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Obama's Big Shtick

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http://www.harpers.org/archive/2012/02/hbc-90008437
February 3, 1:58 PM, 2012
Obama’s Big Shtick

By Barry C. Lynn

Barry C. Lynn is the author of Cornered: The New Monopoly 
Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction. He directs the 
Markets, Enterprise, and Resiliency Initiative at the New America 
Foundation. His feature “Killing the Competition: How the New 
Monopolies Are Destroying Open Markets,” appears in the February 
2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine, and is excerpted here on 
Harpers.org. A previous article, “Breaking the Chain: The 
antitrust case against Wal-Mart” (July 2006), is available for 
free here.

In December, President Obama did something very rare among today’s 
politicians—he acknowledged that America’s history did not begin 
with the New Deal. In a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, the 
president led his audience all the way back to the grand campaign 
of 1912, when debate centered on who would rule our government, 
the plutocrats or the people.

Obama chose Osawatomie because it was there that Theodore 
Roosevelt took his first step toward abandoning the Republican 
Party to run as a Progressive, supposedly to battle the powers
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Louis Proyect | 3 Feb 20:32
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Re: Paul Le Blanc responds to Pham Binh's ....

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On 2/3/2012 2:17 PM, Kevin J. Murphy wrote:
> Hi Louis,
>
> What exactly is point of bringing up the "Stalinicos" insult ten years later? You know there was bad blood between
> ISO and SWP, so what? Alex supported my book on the Deutscher committee precisely because he does not
harbor the
> same sort pettiness that continues to haunt you. Believe or not, I actually have no ill-will toward you because
> of the ancient APST battles and even agree with much of what you have to say about the modern caricatures of Leninism.
> You the miss the larger picture, however. It's not about you and your "advice" to active socialists trying
to connect
> with those who really want to build an alternative. If you could reign in your gargantuan ego a bit and get
off your
> ass, there probably is a place for you in this project, just as there is for Paul L. You probably prefer the curmudgeon
> pontifications from the sidelines as it's all so safe and easy. What a waste.
>
>
> Comradely,
> Kevin Murphy

Dear Comrade Murphy,

How nice to hear from you. The last encounter was when you had 
Einde send a message to Marxmail about you winning the Deutscher 
prize, rubbing it in my face so to speak.

The point in bringing up the "Stalinicos" business is almost
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Louis Proyect | 3 Feb 20:12
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After Wisconsin

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Counterpunch Weekend Edition February 3-5, 2012

Labor Fights Back
After Wisconsin
by MICHAEL YATES

The most important thing that has taken place since Wisconsin is 
another uprising, the phenomenal Occupy Wall Street (OWS). It 
began in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park in September 2011 and spread 
rapidly to more than 2,600 towns and cities around the world. With 
OWS, the anger over growing inequality and the political power of 
the rich that has been bubbling under the surface for the past 
several years has finally burst into the open. Suddenly, 
everything seems different, and a political opening for more 
radical thinking and acting is certainly at hand.

One especially important opening is the possible alliance between 
those who are organizing OWS efforts and the labor movement. 
Workers are the 99 percent, and their organization as workers 
within the OWS framework could help to transform an uprising into 
a movement for a radical transformation of what is a sick and 
dehumanizing social system. Most OWS organizers, participants, and 
supporters are members of the working class, and thousands of 
rank-and-file union members have participated in and offered 
material aid to OWS. No doubt, the Wisconsin uprising helped 
prepare working people for OWS. Jon Flanders, one of the authors
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Louis Proyect | 3 Feb 20:02
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Apologizing, Cancer Group Reverses Planned Parenthood Decision

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NY Times February 3, 2012
Apologizing, Cancer Group Reverses Planned Parenthood Decision
By PAM BELLUCK

The nation’s pre-eminent breast cancer advocacy group, the Susan 
G. Komen for the Cure foundation, apologized on Friday for its 
decision to cut most of its financing to Planned Parenthood for 
breast cancer screening and said it would again make Planned 
Parenthood eligible for those grants.

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions 
that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving 
women’s lives,” Nancy G. Brinker, Komen’s chief executive, said in 
a statement posted on the organization’s Web site. The statement 
added, “We will continue to fund existing grants, including those 
of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for 
future grants.”

The reversal comes in the face of an enormous furor over the 
decision and widespread complaints that the Komen foundation was 
tying breast cancer to the abortion issue. Comments on social 
networks like Twitter raged about the move, and donations, 
including a $250,000 matching grant from Mayor Michael R. 
Bloomberg of New York City, poured into Planned Parenthood, 
allowing it to compensate for the $700,000 in Komen money that 
would have been cut.
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VersoMail Verso | 3 Feb 19:10
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FRANK BARDACKE - TRAMPLING OUT THE VINTAGE (NEW FROM VERSO)

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NEW TITLE:

TRAMPLING OUT THE VINTAGE: CESAR CHAVEZ AND THE TWO SOULS OF THE UNITED FARM WORKERS

By FRANK BARDACKE

PUBLISHED: 21 November 2011

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“An...intelligent, thorough history. [Chavez's] truth is marching on” – ECONOMIST
http://www.economist.com/node/21540221

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A dramatic new history of Cesar Chavez and the rise and fall of the United Farm Workers.
The slogan “Yes we can” – in the form “¡Sí Se Puede!” - doesn’t originate with Barack
Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. It goes back more than four decades to the heyday of the United Farm
Workers, an organization that at its height won many labor victories, secured collective bargaining
rights for California farm workers and became a major voice for the Latino community, which was
previously excluded from national politics. The UFW was once a transformative political force of a kind
now largely lost in contemporary America.
TRAMPLING OUT THE VINTAGE is the authoritative account of the rise and fall of the United Farm Workers and
its most famous and controversial leader, Cesar Chavez. Based on many years of interviews—with farm
workers, organizers, and the opponents and friends of the UFW—the book tells a story of collective
action and empowerment rich in evocative detail and stirring human interest. Beginning with the
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Ian Angus | 3 Feb 17:30
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Help Wanted -- Barry Commoner article

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I am trying to find a copy of an article by Barry Commoner that appeared in the 
January 1988 issue of Utne Reader.

No library that I have access to has Utne reader that far back.

Can anyone help?

Ian Angus

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