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Sayan Bhattacharyya | 1 Apr 02:11
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Re: Poland or, a socialism that never was (Juventud Rebelde)

On 3/31/07, Joaquin Bustelo <jbustelo <at> bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>
> There simply are no social forces that can serve as a basis for a
> political
> movement to return to cold-war-era bureaucratic socialism.

I understand that.

My point, however, is this.  There are many, many people in these countries
(anyone born before  1983 or  so, say) who have  living memory of the
social advantages that socialism provided (such as guaranteed employment,
health care, etc) which have now been swept away by capitalist onslaught.

True, this socialism was also accompanied by bureaurucratism and silencing
of free speech and thought, which obviously hasn't left pleasant memories.

But why would people be incapable of dissociating the two, i.e. see that the
bureaucratic restrictions on freedom are not an inevitable accompaniment to
the social gains of socialism?

Wouldn't it be logical to suppose that a significant number of people in
these countries would be capable of making this dissociation, and  would
agitate for a socialism free from bureaucratic restraints on freedom --
driven by the living memory of the gains of socialism?

For some reason, that does not seem to be happening.

Of course, it does not happen in the USA or other advanced capitalist
countries either. But these countries never enjoyed the social gains
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g.maclennan | 1 Apr 02:15
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Re: Re: Is it April 6th?

Hi Greg

I don't think either of us have much time for predictions about dates etc.  The real point is, as you would
agree I'm sure, that we could be on the brink of another war.

More and more Bush & Co are turning out to be as bad as we said and say they are, and that is genuinely disturbing.

The suffering in the ME from the Palestinians drowning in a flood of shite to those who are being water
boarded by the Americans is truly almost beyond contemplation and yet an attack on Iran will mean that it
will all get worse.

Meanwhile those who are inflicting this suffering on other human beings constantly prattle on about God
and claim to be the good guys.

All deeply sickening.

best regards

Gary

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Carrol Cox | 1 Apr 03:13
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Re: Lt. Col.Stuart Counch:" The Conscience of the Colonel"(WSJ, excerpts)


Joaquin Bustelo wrote:
> 
> And then there's the other forty-some presidents, and the entire history of
> this nation. Creating a colonial settler state and building it up to be the
> imperialist top dog can only be done through genocide, torture,
> dispossession, and various other unpleasant things. W. is the very paragon
> of an American, the embodiment of Americanism.

>From a book review in the Guardian (the radical one) back in '66 or so,
the first sentence has studk in my head. I don't remember the book or
anything else about the review: "Born in the blood of Indians, built on
the bones of slaves, fattened on the riches of the entire earth, the
American experiment should be labelled a failure and destroyed to make
room for humanity."

Carrol

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Sukla Sen | 1 Apr 03:15
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Sacrifice of Truth in Nandigram

Belated
Sacrifice of Truth in Nandigram*

Apoorva Anand
<resistanceever <at> yahoo.co.in>

The ‘logic’ of the CPIM and the (West Bengal) State
police under its control for launching an all-out
attack on the villagers of Nandigram who had
completely
cut themselves off from the State to counter its
anticipated move to dispossess and displace them is
extremely clear. The State cannot tolerate the refusal
of the people to be ruled by it. That is precisely why
it makes use of its sovereign power to demonstrate and
establish its supremacy or hegemony. In this
particular regard, the State presumably governed by
Leftist ideology has acted no different – not at all.
The main reason for worry here is that the CPIM has
completely forgotten that it is not a wing of the
State the way the police or any other administrative
department is. One may, however, retort that hardly
anywhere in the world wherever the Communist party has
come to power has bothered to keep a distance between
itself and the State. Rather it looks upon the State
as an instrument for its own expansion.

Why the people of Nandigram could not trust the
“assurance” given by the Chief Minister?  One has to
keep in mind that this is the very people who had
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Jon Flanders | 1 Apr 03:54
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Portland Oregon Anarchists Burn Soldier Effigy

A dangerous turn of events.

Jon Flanders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecp8ZCC3tB8

http://stangoff.com/?p=485#comment-64163

--

-- 
Some recent photos:
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/flanders290107.html
http://picasaweb.google.com/jonflan

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Fred Feldman | 1 Apr 04:34

Facing demands that Mahdi army resume patrols, Sadr calls for mass protest of occupation

I have been off-line for seven days getting the computer repaired and
updated by my friend and indispensable computer mage Gus Horowitz.

Apologies to Dave Walters, whose comments on my question to him about Cuba
and Socialism in One Country I have just read.  I will probably respond
after I have read the other comments in that thread.

This story highlights the failure of the "surge" to heighten US control in
Baghdad, and Iraq more generally.  Basically the "surge" has been aimed at
selling the occupation as an actual or at least potential success to US
public opinion.  At great cost in lives, it nonetheless seems to be mostly
about image and pr.
Fred Feldman

March 31, 2007
Shiite Cleric Condemns U.S. as His Militia Takes to Streets 
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, March 30 - Religious leaders commanded by the Shiite cleric Moktada
al-Sadr delivered a searing speech at Friday Prayer condemning the American
presence in Iraq, while militiamen loyal to Mr. Sadr engaged in street
battles against Iraqi Army soldiers in southwestern Baghdad, signaling a
possible resurgence of the militia.

Mr. Sadr has ordered the Mahdi Army, the militia he controls, to lie low
during the early days of the new Baghdad security plan so as not to provoke
a direct confrontation with the Americans. With the speech on Friday, which
the religious leaders attributed to Mr. Sadr, it appeared that he was
continuing to walk a tightrope, not openly defying American and Iraqi
government attempts to secure the capital, but still sharply criticizing the
United States presence in Iraq.
(Continue reading)

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Sayan Bhattacharyya | 1 Apr 04:55
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NYT: Cuba and Venezuela, the Odd Couple

[...]

Venezuela has oil to spare and sends Cuba almost 100,000 subsidized
barrels of it a day. It also plans to send 100,000 poor Venezuelans to
Cuba on all-expense-paid vacations.

But what can Cubans do for Hugo Chávez?

Clearly, they can serve as revolutionary models, but not in the heroic
way they did back in the 1960s, when Venezuela had the kind of
moderate democracy that Cuban guerrillas tried secretly to help
overthrow.

These days, with Mr. Chávez a much-valued ally, the Cubans are left to
helping in matters of military advice, offering lessons in how to run
a socialist-inspired educational curriculum — and conducting projects
that promote human interchange, like installing a few million light
bulbs and offering medical assistance in Caracas slums.

One problem, though, is that the interchange is sometimes too
revealing. A few weeks ago, three Cubans lugging bags of light bulbs
showed up at this reporter's home here, and the more they spoke about
their experiences in Venezuela, the more it became apparent how
different the two countries were.  [...]

Full: <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/weekinreview/01romero.html?ref=weekinreview>

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Fred Feldman | 1 Apr 05:38

NYT: Britain adopts conciliatory tone with Iran (was: April 6)


The reason so many people think that they know not only that the US will
attack Iran, but the date certain (including the honorable Scott Ritter and
various shadier Russian journalists and present and former generals, etc.)
is that they all assume that the arrogance of the Bush administration is a
direct measure of its power in the world today.  This has never been true,
and never less true than today.

The weakness and vulnerability of the US occupation of Iraq is increasing.
The "surge" in Baghdad is shaping up as a non-defeat only to the extent that
confrontation is avoided with the Shia.  There is no reason to believe that
it will change the situation in Sunni communities, except insofar as they
contribute to ethnic cleansing.
To the extent that they "win" confrontations, their victories are worth
exactly as much as the "victory" in Fallujah was worth -- and this time
everyone knows it.

It is becoming harder almost daily for Washington to attack Iran with any
hope of real immediate success, not to mention victory.  This does not rule
out an attack.  
Washington faces the fact that the vast unpopularity of the occupation in
Iraq has enabled Iran to strengthen its position there and in Lebanon as
well.

But the prospects for success in smashing Iran are in sharp decline, and
they were never all that high.

The peak of the illusion that Iran was a pushover for the US military came
with the short-lived US imperialist euphoria after taking Baghdad from
Saddam's retreating and dissolving forces.  And that was probably the moment
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michael a. lebowitz | 1 Apr 05:38
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re NYT: Cuba and Venezuela, the Odd Couple

More of the idiocy of the NYT's Simon Romero! Of course, the Cubans 
here have a hard time adjusting--- going from the probably the safest 
country to the world to one of the most dangerous! (Who wouldn't?) 
So, what else was the point of this incoherent article... and Sayan's 
point in posting it?
	michael
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela.
NOTE NEW PHONE NUMBERS
Can be reached at
Residencias Anauco Suites
Departamento 601
Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1
Caracas, Venezuela
(58-212) 573-6333, 571-1520, 571-3820 (or hotel cell: 0412-200-7540)
fax: (58-212) 573-7724

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Sayan Bhattacharyya | 1 Apr 05:59
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Re: re NYT: Cuba and Venezuela, the Odd Couple

On 3/31/07, michael a. lebowitz <mlebowit <at> sfu.ca> wrote:

> More of the idiocy of the NYT's Simon Romero! Of course, the Cubans
> here have a hard time adjusting--- going from the probably the safest
> country to the world to one of the most dangerous! (Who wouldn't?)
> So, what else was the point of this incoherent article... and Sayan's
> point in posting it?

I found the following parts interesting (especially the comment that
one of Chavez's "key allies" is encouraging Venezuelans to buy SUVs),
and wanted to see the comments of those more familiar with Venezuela
than I am:

"Few Venezuelans were shocked last month when a key ally of [Chavez],
Gov. Luís Acosta Carlez, of Carabobo State, publicly defended the
right of Venezuelan "revolutionaries" to own a Hummer, an increasingly
popular vehicle in an economy that has been growing 10 percent a year
as a result of high international oil prices.

"If we earn money, we can do it," Mr. Acosta said.

Additional subsidies of natural gas and electricity effectively
encourage consumption, allowing Venezuela easily to outpace other
major Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina in per capita
energy usage.

Perhaps that explains why it was thousands of Cubans, not Venezuelans,
who enlisted to install new bulbs across the country. Or perhaps it
was that the bulbs themselves carried a revolutionary cachet.
Venezuelan manufacturers, who have been stymied by price and currency
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Gmane