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Sunday, May 24, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Summer Study Projects: Marx's Capital and David Harvey's Limits To Capital
Recently I became aware of the online course Reading Capital with David Harvey, a radical geographer and Marxist theoretician. The course lectures are delivered through either mp3 audio or various video formats. I downloaded the first two course sections and listened to them on a long drive to a temporary work detail location. After doing so I decided that I wanted to make another attempt at reading and understanding Karl Marx's classic "Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production", that is with David Harvey's assistance. Its tough book to read alone without some direction. There is also an online forum for the course, so one can even hopefully engage in discussion with others reading the text.
In I think the second lecture Harvey mentions that many people give up the attempt at a serious reading of Capital in the very tough third chapter. Come to think of it, thats about where I put it down about four years ago!
In I think the second lecture Harvey mentions that many people give up the attempt at a serious reading of Capital in the very tough third chapter. Come to think of it, thats about where I put it down about four years ago!
I also just ordered and received David Harvey's book Limits to Capital which is a book that attempts to put the theoretical ideas of Marx's Capital in today's historical context. Although I haven't seriously started reading the book, while scanning the pages to the 2006 edition I came upon an interesting factoid.
After Mexico began its program of neoliberal economic restructuring and privatization in 1988, twenty four Mexican billionaires appeared on Forbes' 1994 list of the world's wealthiest. Then of course the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed in the early 1990s. By 2005 Mexico had more billionaires than Saudi Arabia. NAFTA had the effect of massively restructuring the agricultural sector of Mexico's economy, turning small farming campesinos into wage workers. While some of this population was absorbed into the border zone "maquiladora" factories, many of these still could not compete with lower wage labor in China. Ultimately many of these people migrated to the United State to become cheap labor and treated as second class "illegal immigrants". This is one example of the process that Harvey calls "accumulation by dispossession". In the video below Harvey talks further about "accumulation by dispossession" in lecture 12 of the online course.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
What Was My Point About America's Memory Hole?
Oh, yeah, and this article by Chomsky published at Alternet (originally at TomDispatch) fits well with my previous post and commentary on America's easy forgetfullness about atrocities committed in our name.
American Amnesia: We Forget Our Atrocities Almost As Soon as We Commit Them
by Noam Chomsky
"The torture memos released by the White House elicited shock, indignation, and surprise. The shock and indignation are understandable. The surprise, less so.
For one thing, even without inquiry, it was reasonable to suppose that Guantanamo was a torture chamber. Why else send prisoners where they would be beyond the reach of the law -- a place, incidentally, that Washington is using in violation of a treaty forced on Cuba at the point of a gun? Security reasons were, of course, alleged, but they remain hard to take seriously. The same expectations held for the Bush administration's "black sites," or secret prisons, and for extraordinary rendition, and they were fulfilled."
More importantly, torture has been routinely practiced from the early days of the conquest of the national territory, and continued to be used as the imperial ventures of the "infant empire" -- as George Washington called the new republic -- extended to the Philippines, Haiti, and elsewhere. Keep in mind as well that torture was the least of the many crimes of aggression, terror, subversion, and economic strangulation that have darkened U.S. history, much as in the case of other great powers.
Accordingly, what's surprising is to see the reactions to the release of those Justice Department memos, even by some of the most eloquent and forthright critics of Bush malfeasance: Paul Krugman, for example, writing that we used to be "a nation of moral ideals" and never before Bush "have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for." To say the least, that common view reflects a rather slanted version of American history."
(continues at link)
American Amnesia: We Forget Our Atrocities Almost As Soon as We Commit Them
by Noam Chomsky
"The torture memos released by the White House elicited shock, indignation, and surprise. The shock and indignation are understandable. The surprise, less so.
For one thing, even without inquiry, it was reasonable to suppose that Guantanamo was a torture chamber. Why else send prisoners where they would be beyond the reach of the law -- a place, incidentally, that Washington is using in violation of a treaty forced on Cuba at the point of a gun? Security reasons were, of course, alleged, but they remain hard to take seriously. The same expectations held for the Bush administration's "black sites," or secret prisons, and for extraordinary rendition, and they were fulfilled."
More importantly, torture has been routinely practiced from the early days of the conquest of the national territory, and continued to be used as the imperial ventures of the "infant empire" -- as George Washington called the new republic -- extended to the Philippines, Haiti, and elsewhere. Keep in mind as well that torture was the least of the many crimes of aggression, terror, subversion, and economic strangulation that have darkened U.S. history, much as in the case of other great powers.
Accordingly, what's surprising is to see the reactions to the release of those Justice Department memos, even by some of the most eloquent and forthright critics of Bush malfeasance: Paul Krugman, for example, writing that we used to be "a nation of moral ideals" and never before Bush "have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for." To say the least, that common view reflects a rather slanted version of American history."
(continues at link)
The Mainstream Media is Not Even Coming Close to Reporting The Worst of It
On the May 19th edition of Democracy Now! Jeremy Scahill reports on prisoner abuse at Gitmo:
"And while much of the focus has been on the tactical use of torture at Guantanamo, almost no attention had been paid to a parallel force that was torturing prisoners in a variety of ways, including waterboarding them, and that is this riot squad of sorts that you referred to called the Immediate Reaction Force. The prisoners and their lawyers at Guantanamo call it the “Extreme Repression Force.”
And basically what this is is a thug squad that is used to mercilessly punish prisoners who show the slightest bit of resistance or who do things that technically they’re not supposed to do, infractions like having two Styrofoam cups in their cell instead of one.
Guards will call in this goon squad. They come in with their Darth Vader outfits, and they literally gang-beat prisoners. There are five men, generally, that are sent in. Each of them is assigned to one body part of the prisoner: the head, the left arm, the right arm, the left leg, the right leg. They go in, and they hogtie the prisoner, sometimes leaving them hogtied for hours on end. They douse them with chemical agents. They have put their heads in toilets and flushed the toilets repeatedly. They have urinated on the heads of prisoners. They’ve squeezed their testicles in the course of restraining them. They’ve taken the feces from one prisoner and smeared it in the face of another prisoner."
Left-Wing Wacko commentary:
If you only paid attention to reports in the corporate mainstream media, then you would likely think that the whole torture controversy is only about the water-boarding of a few high-level Al-Qaeda detainees that ended years ago. But of course it goes much deeper than that. There have been numerous incidents of torture, some resulting in death, in POW camps in Afghanistan, Iraq, and probably other places. Lets not forget about the extraordinary renditions to secret prisons run by repressive regimes and a whole host of other torture and extra-legal repression techniques that periodically come to light and then disappear down the memory hole. Kudos to Jeremy Scahill for dragging this scary shit into the light!
"And while much of the focus has been on the tactical use of torture at Guantanamo, almost no attention had been paid to a parallel force that was torturing prisoners in a variety of ways, including waterboarding them, and that is this riot squad of sorts that you referred to called the Immediate Reaction Force. The prisoners and their lawyers at Guantanamo call it the “Extreme Repression Force.”
And basically what this is is a thug squad that is used to mercilessly punish prisoners who show the slightest bit of resistance or who do things that technically they’re not supposed to do, infractions like having two Styrofoam cups in their cell instead of one.
Guards will call in this goon squad. They come in with their Darth Vader outfits, and they literally gang-beat prisoners. There are five men, generally, that are sent in. Each of them is assigned to one body part of the prisoner: the head, the left arm, the right arm, the left leg, the right leg. They go in, and they hogtie the prisoner, sometimes leaving them hogtied for hours on end. They douse them with chemical agents. They have put their heads in toilets and flushed the toilets repeatedly. They have urinated on the heads of prisoners. They’ve squeezed their testicles in the course of restraining them. They’ve taken the feces from one prisoner and smeared it in the face of another prisoner."
Left-Wing Wacko commentary:
If you only paid attention to reports in the corporate mainstream media, then you would likely think that the whole torture controversy is only about the water-boarding of a few high-level Al-Qaeda detainees that ended years ago. But of course it goes much deeper than that. There have been numerous incidents of torture, some resulting in death, in POW camps in Afghanistan, Iraq, and probably other places. Lets not forget about the extraordinary renditions to secret prisons run by repressive regimes and a whole host of other torture and extra-legal repression techniques that periodically come to light and then disappear down the memory hole. Kudos to Jeremy Scahill for dragging this scary shit into the light!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Deja Vu, U.S. Weapons Fall into the Hands of Insurgents Fighting U.S. Forces
From the May 20th edition of the New York Times:
Arms Sent by U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands
KABUL — Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces.
But military officials, arms analysts and dealers say it points to a worrisome possibility: With only spotty American and Afghan controls on the vast inventory of weapons and ammunition sent into Afghanistan during an eight-year conflict, poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied.
Left-Wing Wacko Commentary:
If any of this sounds familiar, there have been previous stories about this sort of thing occurring in the Iraq war as well. I am skeptical that the blame can be placed solely on Afghan or Iraqi "corruption". But it is noteworthy that U.S. imperialist forces are aligned with probably significant numbers of people who really don't believe in the cause that they are allegedly being supported in.
You know how right-wing ideologues always have complaints about why various U.S. war efforts go poorly? You know, things like "Our troops have to fight the enemy with one arm tied behind their backs" and which it is usually implied that it is liberal Democrats, or "political correctness" that has done the arm tyeing? Then there is the blaming of the allegedly "liberal" mainstream media or the American anti-war movement that in some way or the other has undermined the war effort. This rhetoric has been commonplace both during the Vietnam era and today during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Remember this story when you hear this bullshit in the future. A good rebuttal will be to remind the right-wing ideologue that the U.S. military was arming its own enemies! Ahh, the follies of empire!
Arms Sent by U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands
KABUL — Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces.
But military officials, arms analysts and dealers say it points to a worrisome possibility: With only spotty American and Afghan controls on the vast inventory of weapons and ammunition sent into Afghanistan during an eight-year conflict, poor discipline and outright corruption among Afghan forces may have helped insurgents stay supplied.
Left-Wing Wacko Commentary:
If any of this sounds familiar, there have been previous stories about this sort of thing occurring in the Iraq war as well. I am skeptical that the blame can be placed solely on Afghan or Iraqi "corruption". But it is noteworthy that U.S. imperialist forces are aligned with probably significant numbers of people who really don't believe in the cause that they are allegedly being supported in.
You know how right-wing ideologues always have complaints about why various U.S. war efforts go poorly? You know, things like "Our troops have to fight the enemy with one arm tied behind their backs" and which it is usually implied that it is liberal Democrats, or "political correctness" that has done the arm tyeing? Then there is the blaming of the allegedly "liberal" mainstream media or the American anti-war movement that in some way or the other has undermined the war effort. This rhetoric has been commonplace both during the Vietnam era and today during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Remember this story when you hear this bullshit in the future. A good rebuttal will be to remind the right-wing ideologue that the U.S. military was arming its own enemies! Ahh, the follies of empire!
Chomsky and Herman On Ideology
This is a favorite quote of mine:
The beauty of the democratic systems of thought control, as contrasted with their clumsy totalitarian counterparts, is that they operate by subtly establishing on a voluntary basis--aided by the force of nationalism and media control by substantial interests--presuppositions that set the limits of debate, rather than by imposing beliefs with a bludgeon...... Those who do not accept the fundamental principles of state propaganda are simply excluded from the debate (or if noticed, dismissed as "emotional," "irresponsible," etc.)."
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman
I suppose this quote by Chomsky and Herman also plays into the theme of this blog. Those who step outside of the limits of debate might also be termed "Left-Wing Wackos".
The beauty of the democratic systems of thought control, as contrasted with their clumsy totalitarian counterparts, is that they operate by subtly establishing on a voluntary basis--aided by the force of nationalism and media control by substantial interests--presuppositions that set the limits of debate, rather than by imposing beliefs with a bludgeon...... Those who do not accept the fundamental principles of state propaganda are simply excluded from the debate (or if noticed, dismissed as "emotional," "irresponsible," etc.)."
Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman
I suppose this quote by Chomsky and Herman also plays into the theme of this blog. Those who step outside of the limits of debate might also be termed "Left-Wing Wackos".
Monday, May 18, 2009
"Every Six Seconds a Child Dies of Hunger"; Yet Anti-Abortionists Hardly Seem to Notice
From Granma (Cuban Newspaper)
Every six seconds a child dies from hunger
"UNITED NATIONS. –Every six seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies of malnutrition, according to Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food. In a UN General Assembly session, the official also stated that there are 1 billion people going hungry in the world, the majority of them women and children, and that the dimensions of the global food crisis are far from having diminished this year."
"The expert indicated that the reasons for global hunger are marginalization, poverty, lack of land and decent employment, along with an unjust international trade system that has sparked a decrease in investment in agricultural projects over the last 30 years."
Meanwhile, here in the United States recently the anti-abortion idiots have amped up their noise level through the MM, mainly in response to the alleged controversy of pro-choice Obama speaking at Notre Dame's commencment. (YAWN)
But anyway, after listening to the anti-abortionists carry on for a little bit about "murdering babies" I have to wonder why the hell they don't pay more attention to the atrocity of millions of children suffering and dying of poverty?
Although I completely disagree with how anti-abortionists perceive the issue of abortion, I actually think that at least SOME of them are sincere in their moral beliefs that abortion actually is "murdering babies."
But I do have to wonder why is so little attention paid to the fact of so many children die of poverty, and why there are not calls for radical action to rectify these horrible conditions?
Every six seconds a child dies from hunger
"UNITED NATIONS. –Every six seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies of malnutrition, according to Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food. In a UN General Assembly session, the official also stated that there are 1 billion people going hungry in the world, the majority of them women and children, and that the dimensions of the global food crisis are far from having diminished this year."
"The expert indicated that the reasons for global hunger are marginalization, poverty, lack of land and decent employment, along with an unjust international trade system that has sparked a decrease in investment in agricultural projects over the last 30 years."
Meanwhile, here in the United States recently the anti-abortion idiots have amped up their noise level through the MM, mainly in response to the alleged controversy of pro-choice Obama speaking at Notre Dame's commencment. (YAWN)
But anyway, after listening to the anti-abortionists carry on for a little bit about "murdering babies" I have to wonder why the hell they don't pay more attention to the atrocity of millions of children suffering and dying of poverty?
Although I completely disagree with how anti-abortionists perceive the issue of abortion, I actually think that at least SOME of them are sincere in their moral beliefs that abortion actually is "murdering babies."
But I do have to wonder why is so little attention paid to the fact of so many children die of poverty, and why there are not calls for radical action to rectify these horrible conditions?
Employers Depress Wages, Not Immigrant Workers!
I would like to give a hat-tip to the blog Amerikanbeat for getting me started on this rant. So also check out what he has to say.Nothing annoys me more from the anti-"illegal"-immigrant worker rhetoric than the complaint that "illegal immigrants depress our wages". To paraphrase a caller I recently heard on a talk radio show, her voice dripping with contempt: "These illegal alien Mexicans come in here and will work for anything."
This is patentely absurd. Of course, being that human labor is a commodity to be bought and sold on the market under capitalism, the greater numbers of workers, and the more desperate they are for a wage, the stronger the downward pressure on wages. But the undocumented worker does not get up early in the morning and say to him or herself "I am just an illegal alien, therefore I will accept $5.00 per hour even though I probably could get $8.00 per hour."
Of course immigrant workers are perfectly willing to work for as high a wage as he/she can secure. I saw it for myself recently in a scene in the documentary Farmingville POV, where yes, immigrant workers turn down an offer for $7.00 and demand at least $10.00. (This is actually a pretty decent documentary, also available on Netflix).
It is of course the capitalist employers who depress wages whenever they are able to, given the conditions of the labor market, to maximize their profits. It is the illegal status of the immigrant worker that creates an even more unequal balance of power between employer and worker, undermining the latter's bargaining power. But lets be clear, it is the employer, not the worker who tries to pay as low a wage as possible given the circumstances. And it is the conditions of U.S. capitalism with its dehumanizing divisions of workers into legal vs. illegal that gives the bosses more power to depress wages.
So why on earth would you blame the relatively less powerful so-called "illegal immigrant" for depressing wages? It is simply absurd to blame them for not having all the social and political resources that comes with legal status to demand a higher wage. This kind of thinking is a testament to how dehumanizing patriotic- nationalist and bourgeois ideology is in destroying basic feelings of empathy and solidarity between people based on legal status, race and ethnicity. Makes me angry and sick!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Lenin must be finally buried! - Gorbachev
So be it! In my humble opinion the socialism of the future doesn't need any Lenin. Regardless of Lenin's contributions to Marxist theory and history, I always thought it was an embrace of the Great Man Theory of History to erect these big heroic statues, when Marxian socialism is supposed to be about the working class taking the initiative for its own liberation.
Oh yeah, and another thing, I just realized this article was dated to 2008. So I guess its old news, as is Lenin.
La Lucha Sigue! Si Se Puede! Tucson's May Day March for Worker and Immigrant Rights!
Today's May Day rally and march on the south side of Tucson was inspiring.
The opening rally was emceed by Isabel Garcia of Coalición de Derechos Humanos who was featured earlier this week on Democracy Now! and who did an excellent job of introducing speakers and speaking herself, seamlessly switching between English and Spanish. In her opening comments Isabel Garcia spoke about the history of May Day as a holiday of workers' struggles internationally, with its origins here in the U.S., and which has been intentionally purged from America's historical memory by capitalists and their state agents. She rightly noted that we have immigrant workers to thank for bring us back our May Day holiday.
Rally speeches, signs, and demands included union organization efforts at Food City, a just pro-immigrant pro-worker immigration reform, stopping the fascistic and repressive tactics of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio (or as they say Arpayaso/clown), passing the Employee Free Choice Act, demanding and end to state budget cuts in education, and other issues and demands.
The crowd was dominated by young enthusiastic Mexicano, Chicano, and other Latino youth who kept the march chants very lively. I think there is good reason to put allot of hope in the future of these young activists who are part of both a civil-rights and labor movement.
A high school group, named Movimiento and M.E.CH.A. passed around a Zine Ollin with short commentary and poetry. As they explained,
"Who We Are: We are young people from Tucson, organizing to create a positive environment free from injustices and oppression. We work to strengthen the power that our community has so that together we can declare ENOUGH of the attacks on our families."
All in all it was a pretty good turnout, and it raised my spirits in reminding me that there are always people fighting back for justice. La Lucha Sigue!
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