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Les Schaffer | 1 Jul 01:06

Re: Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)

Einde O'Callaghan wrote:

> probably not such a bad thing as I believe that Calinicos' fields of 
> expertise do not extend to mathematics.

i have a little expertise in mathematics and couldn't understand even 
what is the subject of the discussion. maybe a philosophically minded 
Hegel-head can make this down to earth?

Les

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Eli Stephens | 1 Jul 01:34
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The coup in Honduras succeeds


Links and formatting in the original:
 http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/06/coup-in-honduras-succeeds.html

Why do I say that? It isn't over yet, events are still unfolding. The U.N. General Assembly voted by
acclamation today,
in a resolution sponsored by Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico and the United
States (!), among others, that it would not recognize any government
other than Zelaya's. But even if Zelaya returns to power, he has now given in on the key issue:

"I'm
not going to hold a constitutional assembly," he said. "And if I'm
offered the chance to stay in power, I won't. I'm going to serve my
four years."

What was the U.S. role in the coup? Given the outward opposition, you'd think the answer was "none." But it's
not so simple,
because the U.S. (in the person of Hillary Clinton and no doubt many
others) has been personally involved in "negotiations" between the
coup-makers and President Zelaya before the coup (and was still promoting
further "negotiations" after the coup). If the coup is reversed but
manages to "tame" Zelaya, did it achieve the end that the U.S. (and the
Honduran oligarchy) was after?

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

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Bhaskar Sunkara | 1 Jul 01:47
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Re: The coup in Honduras succeeds

I'm tempted to agree with you, but hasn't the coup increased the profile of
Chavez, united ALBA and further demonstrated that there is a bloc in Latin
America committed to breaking US hegemony?  Hasn't Chavez and company
benefited from the situation here?
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Mehmet Cagatay | 1 Jul 01:48
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Re: Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)


Alex Callinicos:

"I reference the reader here to Badiou's recently published English translation of Logic of Worlds
(Verso), wherein set theory is likewise arbitrarily and externally grafted over phenomena as diverse as
neo-classical painting and street manifestations."

...

Perhaps Mr. Callinicos didn't take the trouble to read Badiou's Being and Event vol.1, or he intentionally
misrepresents the reason behind Badiou's application of mathematics as a formalistic ground for his
philosophical edifice. Anyway, In the preface, after enumerating his four fundamental affirmations
which goes against what he calls as "flow of ordinary philosophy", Badiou briefly clarifies it as a
necessity to link them together in a coherent manner: 

"I attempted to argue for these theses and link them together in a coherent
manner: this much I have said. What is more, I placed a rather sophisticated mathematical apparatus at
their service. To think the infinity of pure multiples I took tools from Cantor's set theory. To think the
generic character of truths I turned to Godel and Cohen's profound thinking of what a 'part' of a multiple
is. And I supported this intervention of mathematical formalism with a radical thesis: insofar as being,
qua being, is nothing other than pure multiplicity, it is legitimate to say that ontology, the science of
being qua being, is nothing other than mathematics itself.

This intrusion of formalism placed me in a paradoxical position. It is well
known that for decades we have lived in an artificial opposition between
Anglo-American philosophy, which is supposedly rationalist, based on the
formal analysis of language and mathematized logic, and continental
philosophy, supposedly on the border of irrationalism, and based on a
literary and poetic sense of expression. Quite recently Sokal thought it
possible to show that 'continental' references to science, such as those of
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sabocat59 | 1 Jul 01:48
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Scahill on Honduras

A Few Thoughts on the Coup in Honduras
by Jeremy Scahill

There is a lot of great analysis circulating on the military coup against Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. I do not
see a need to re-invent the wheel. However, a few key things jump out at me. First, we know that the coup was
led by Gen. Romeo Vasquez, a graduate of the US Army School of the Americas. As we know very well from
history, these “graduates” maintain ties to the US military as they climb the military career
ladders in their respective countries. That is a major reason why the US trains these individuals. 

Secondly, the US has a fairly significant military presence in Honduras. Joint Task Force-Bravo is
located at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras. The base is home to some 550 US military personnel and more than 650
US and Honduran civilians:

They work in six different areas including the Joint Staff, Air Force Forces (612th Air Base Squadron),
Army Forces, Joint Security Forces and the Medical Element. 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, a US
Army South asset, is a tenant unit also based at Soto Cano. The J-Staff provides command and control for JTF-B.

The New York Times reports that “The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces,
counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America.”

Significantly, according to GlobalSecurity, “Soto Cano is a Honduran military installation and home
of the Honduran Air Force.”

This connection to the Air Force is particularly significant given this report in NarcoNews:

The head of the Air Force, Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996.  The
Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran crisis.  When the military refused to distribute
the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored on an Air Force base until citizens
accompanied by Zelaya rescued them.  Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an
Air Force base, where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.
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G K Milner | 1 Jul 01:56
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Re: Socialist Policy in World War Two


Dear Shane,
                  You certainly have a point.   The Fourth International's 
policy at the outbreak of World War Two was in many respects remarkably 
similar to that of the Comintern.   The war was characterised as an 
inter-imperialist war, and a revolutionary-defeatist position was adopted, 
as the Bolsheviks had done in 1914, at the outbreak of World War One.   When 
the Soviet Union was invaded in 1941, the Fourth International called for 
unconditional defence of the USSR, as a workers' state, and of course the 
Comintern parties changed their assessment of the war's imperialist 
character.

But I think you are a bit unfair on Mandel.   I don't have a copy here of 
Mandel's monograph on the Second World War, but I do have the text of a 
lecture he gave to a meeting in London in 1976 which deals with the role of 
Trotskyist groups in the European Resistances during the war.   In this 
lecture, Mandel outlines his overall analytical framework for understanding 
World War Two.   In my message I reproduced Mandel's framework more or less 
correctly, but I neglected to mention his fifth angle: that is the war in 
Asia waged by Japanese imperialism on China - a semi-colonial country.   As 
you correctly observe, the USSR was neutral in this conflict , which began 
several years before September 1939.

As I would see it, the colonial liberation movement in Asia had an 
independent dynamic throughout the war.   It is true that colonial 
independence movements in countries like Burma, Indonesia, and also India 
attempted to take advantage of the divisions between the competing 
imperialist powers, and they had every right to.   It's a complicated 
picture, but the result of the collapse of the European colonial powers 
before the onslaught of Japan's 'Hundred Days'; the short-sighted policies
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sabocat59 | 1 Jul 02:04
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Re: The coup in Honduras succeeds

Bhaskar Sunkara wrote:

'm tempted to agree with you, but hasn't the coup increased the profile of Chavez, united ALBA and further
demonstrated that there is a bloc in LatinAmerica committed to breaking US hegemony? Hasn't Chavez and
company benefited from the situation here?________________________

Chavez and company are not the only ones emboldened by the coup. As my friends in the FMLN are at pains to point
out, the ARENA party in EL Salvador and other right wing parties in central america and no doubt elsewhere
are quietly supporting the coup and perhaps hoping to enact the same play in their respective
territories. This is why the coup cannot be allowed to stand, regardless of whether or not Zelaya caves on
the referendum. 

Furthermore, Zelaya pushed too far too fast, mainly due to the fact that the popular movement in Honduras
was decimated in the late seventies and early eighties by dictators and death squads. It has not fully 
recovered from that body blow.  This is the problem with well-intentioned bourgeois politicians. They
have no sense of an analysis of the correlation of social forces. In this sense Zelaya is something of a
pendejo. 

Sorry to say. 

Greg
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Jim Farmelant | 1 Jul 03:20
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Re: Hegel on Mathematics (re: Badiou)


On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:06:49 -0400 Les Schaffer <schaffer <at> optonline.net>
writes:
> Einde O'Callaghan wrote:
> 
> > probably not such a bad thing as I believe that Calinicos' fields 
> of 
> > expertise do not extend to mathematics.
> 
> i have a little expertise in mathematics and couldn't understand 
> even 
> what is the subject of the discussion. maybe a philosophically 
> minded 
> Hegel-head can make this down to earth?

Bertrand Russell famously said that he had been
inclined towards a Hegelian idealism until
he bothered to read what Hegel wrote
about mathematics and decided that
Hegel wrote nothing but nonsense about that
subject and so Russell abandoned Hegelianism.

Jim Farmelant

> 
> Les
> 
>>
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Jim Farmelant | 1 Jul 03:24
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Re: The coup in Honduras succeeds


I am sort of reminded of Bill Clinton's "restoration"
of Aristide in Haiti, which while indeed restoring
him to office also had the effect of boxing him
in, in terms of the kinds of policies that he
could pursue afterwards.

Jim F.

On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:34:21 -0700 Eli Stephens
<elishastephens <at> hotmail.com> writes:
> 
> Links and formatting in the original:
>  http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009/06/coup-in-honduras-succeeds.html
> 
> Why do I say that? It isn't over yet, events are still unfolding. 
> The U.N. General Assembly voted by acclamation today,
>
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johnaimani | 1 Jul 03:26
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Fw: [apoc] ARREST OF GANG INTERVENTION LEADER ALEX SANCHEZ RAISES QUESTIONS, CONCERNS IN COMMUNITY


----- Original Message ----- 
From: robert smith 
To: anarchist-poc <at> yahoogroups.com ; 
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 3:14 PM
Subject: [apoc] ARREST OF GANG INTERVENTION LEADER ALEX SANCHEZ RAISES QUESTIONS, CONCERNS IN COMMUNITY

Arrest of Gang Intervention Leader Alex Sanchez Raises Questions, Concerns in Community

Today’s FBI arrest of Alex Sanchez, one of the most respected gang intervention leaders in the country,
has raised major concerns in Los Angeles and around the country. As his wife and children watched,
Sanchez, who leads Homies Unidos, a violence prevention and gang intervention organization with
offices in Los Angeles and El Salvador, was arrested and taken away by FBI agents this morning at his home in
Bellflower. The federal charges- being a “shotcaller (someone who manages narcotics operations) for
Mara Salvatrucha (MS) and conspiring to kill Walter Lacinos, an MS member shot and killed in El Salvador in
2006- have raised fears and great concerns among the many who’ve known and worked with Sanchez over the
years, including myself. 
First and foremost among the concerns in the community are concerns for Alex’s immediate safety. As a
former gang member who works to help others leave gang life, Alex faces great danger in whatever LA County
facility he’s held in-even if he’s put under Protective Custody (PC). Law enforcement authorities
have an axe of historic proportions (see Rampart scandal) to grind against Alex and some have
demonstrated a lethal propensity towards retribution. Known as “Pecetas”, those held under PC are
considered by many gang members to be informants and, therefore, legitimate targets for direct
retribution from gang members -and direct and indirect retribution from police. 

For more reasons than I have time to enumerate here, I for one do not believe the charges. Rather, I think that
these recent accusations are but the most recent in the long, rotten chain of attempts by law enforcement
officials to frame Alex, who was regularly beaten, framed, falsely arrested, deported and harassed by
the Los Angeles Police Department since founding Homies Unidos in 1998. First and foremost, I spent the
evening calling those who know and have worked most closely with him, and they ALL share that sense that, as
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