From papadop at peak.org Sun Mar 1 13:21:26 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Sun Mar 1 13:22:05 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama's War-Continuing "Withdrawal" Plan Message-ID: http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/8324-orwell-in-babylon-obamas-war-continuing-qwithdrawalq-plan.html Orwell in Babylon: Obama's War-Continuing "Withdrawal" Plan Saturday, 28 February 2009 13:11 by Chris Floyd It would be superfluous in us to point out that a plan to "end" a war which includes the continued garrisoning of up to 50,000 troops in a hostile land is, in reality, a continuation of that war, not its cessation. To produce such a plan and claim that it "ends" a war is the precise equivalent of, say, relieving one's bladder on the back of one's neighbor and telling him that the liquid is actually life-giving rain. But this is exactly what we are going to get from the Obama Administation in Iraq. Word has now come from on high that is, from "senior administration officials" using "respectable newspapers" as wholly uncritical conduits for government spin that President Obama has reached a grand compromise with his generals (or rather, the generals and Pentagon poobahs he has inherited and eagerly retained from George W. Bush) on a plan to withdraw some American troops from the country that the United States destroyed in an unprovoked war of aggression. Obama had wanted a 16-month timetable for the partial withdrawal; his potential campaign rival in 2012, General David Petraeus, wanted 23 months; so, with Solomonic wisdom, they have now split the difference, and will withdraw a portion of the American troops in 19 months instead. But the plan clearly envisions a substantial and essentially permanent American military presence in Iraq, dominating the politics and policy of this key oil nation which was of course one of the chief war aims of the military aggressors in the Bush Administration all along. By implementing his war continuation plan, Obama will complete the work of Bush and his militarist clique. From the New York Times: Even with the withdrawal order, Mr. Obama plans to leave behind a residual force of tens of thousands of troops to continue training Iraqi security forces, hunt down foreign terrorist cells and guard American institutions... And a "senior military officer" dispatched to pipe the spin to the Los Angeles Times added another potential role for the remaining American troops: fighting Iraq's war for it. He was also refreshingly frank on the plan's ultimate intentions: The senior officer said the troops also could help protect Iraq from outside attack, something the Iraqis cannot yet do. "When President Obama said we were going to get out within 16 months, some people heard, 'get out,' and everyone's gone. But that is not going to happen," the officer said. No indeed, that is "not going to happen." One of the most remarkable aspects of Obama's "war lite" plan is its brazen and absolute disregard for the agreement signed between the United States and the supposedly sovereign Iraqi government guaranteeing the complete withdrawal of all American troops by the end of 2011. Of course, this "agreement" was always considered a farce by everyone except for the American corporate media, which kept reporting on the "tough negotiations," as if the pact would have any actual meaning in the real world. The agreement was vitiated by escape clauses allowing the Iraqi government to "request" a continued American military presence after the 2011 deadline; and considering that any Iraqi government in place in 2011 will be helplessly dependent on American guns and money to maintain its power, such a "request" has always been a dead certainty. So I suppose we must at least admire the Obama Administration's candor in dropping all pretense that U.S. forces are going to leave Iraq at any time in the foreseeable future. But the hypocrisy the literally murderous hypocrisy of claiming that this plan "leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war," as Obama asserted in his State of the Union speech, is sickening. It does no such thing, and he knows it. Instead, it entrenches the United States more and more deeply in a "counter-insurgency" war on behalf of whichever clique or faction of sectarian parties in Iraq is the most effective in adhering to America's dominationist agenda in the region. It sends an apparently endless stream of American troops to die and, in even greater numbers, to kill in a criminal action that has helped bankrupt our own country while sending waves of violent instability and extremism around the world. It will further enfilth a cesspool of corruption and war profiteering that has already reached staggering, world-historical proportions. All of this is what the Obama-Petraeus plan will do. But what it won't do is "end this war" "responsibly" or otherwise. When Obama says it will as he said last night to a rapt national audience he is, quite simply, and very deliberately, lying. From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sun Mar 1 22:26:30 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon Mar 2 00:15:00 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: Important announcement Message-ID: <041201c99b0e$ea6980c0$5bad57ca@jfos> Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil, plus the condition of the economy, The Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience. ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Mon Mar 2 03:14:44 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Mon Mar 2 03:43:28 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Australia: Full agenda for World at a Crossroads conference - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century | Links Message-ID: <49ABBFA4.40608@greenleft.org.au> World at a Crossroads - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century Easter 2009, April 10-13 Venue: Sydney Girls High School, Sydney REGISTER NOW AT www.worldatacrossroads.org/register FULL CONFERENCE AGENDA The full conference agenda is inserted below, or visit the following links to view the various topic streams: * Global economic crisis http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/economiccrisis * Climate change & environmental crisis http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/envirostream * Latin American revolution: alternatives to capitalism http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/latinamerica * Resisting imperialism & war http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/warandimperialism * Struggles in Asia and Africa http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/asiaandafrica * Australian radical history & politics http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/australianradicalhistoryandpolitics * Left unity: alliances, movement building & revolutionary organisation http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/leftunity * Marxist fundamentals http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/marxistfundamentals Full agenda and speakers at http://links.org.au/node/918 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090302/0200c0ec/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 2 09:19:19 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 2 09:17:28 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Free Trade Agreements contribute to financial & other crises [OWINFS] Message-ID: <49ABDCD7.26562.D5C3A183@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> While the financial crisis and its consequences are spreading around the world and even the most erstwhile `free market? governments are discussing how to re-regulate the financial sector, `free trade? agreements continue extreme deregulation of the financial industry. ThIS OWINFS Article discusses following: Expansion of financial conglomerates Deregulation of foreign banks FTAs deregulate more than GATS FTAs stop capital controls The dangerous mix of FTAs and BITs FTAs forgotten during financial reforms WHAT WE DEMAND: * All negotiations in financial services in GATS and FTAs have to be stopped. * Countries should be permitted to reverse their existing GATS and FTA liberalisation commitments of financial services (a roll back). * Countries are permitted to take all necessary measures to prevent financial, social and environmental crises without retaliation threats based on GATS and FTA rules. * Financial services and capital liberalisation are to be taken out of the WTO and all FTAs. Financial services need to be regulated to urgently support the shaping of sustainable societies - including by serving the poorest communities first fyi-Janet ==================== http://banglapraxis.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/free-trade-agreements- contribute-to-financial-and-other-crises/ http://www.normangirvan.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/somos-ftas- and-the-financial-crisis.doc Our World is Not for Sale [OWINFS] website currently under construction Free Trade Agreements contribute to financial and other crises Ads by Google Myriam Vander Stichele February 2009 Our World is not for Sale Network While the financial crisis and its consequences are spreading around the world and even the most erstwhile `free market? governments are discussing how to re-regulate the financial sector, `free trade? agreements continue extreme deregulation of the financial industry. The terms of these agreements prohibit countries from reforming their financial sector so as to remedy the financial, economic, environmental, food and social crises now growing, and from ensuring that finance is directed towards the transformation to sustainable societies. Deregulation and liberalisation of financial services is part of the many bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) that are currently being negotiated or have been implemented over the last years. For instance, the EU-Caribbean Economic Partnership agreement (EPA) exemplifies the model that the EU seeks to impose during all current FTA and EPA negotiations. Some FTAs include a `review clause? which is a commitment to (further) deregulate and liberalise (financial) services through new negotiations at a certain point in time, without public or parliamentary scrutiny. Expansion of financial conglomerates Under the rules of the services agreement (General Agreement on Trade in Services or "GATS") in the World Trade Organization (WTO), developing countries can choose whether or not to liberalise or deregulate financial services. But a GATS rule determines that an FTA that covers services must include substantial liberalisation and deregulation commitments although developing countries can liberalise somewhat less than developed countries. EU and US negotiators - in close coordination with their financial service industries - have been very keen to secure new deregulated access for their once profitable financial industry (Citigroup profits in 2004 were US$ 17bn). Some existing FTAs have almost 10 pages of commitments and rules on financial services. These rules require that developing countries must admit the presence of all kinds of foreign banks, insurance companies and other financial operators and their services ...regardless of whether regulation and supervision, or consumer protection, is established or not. Deregulation of foreign banks While requiring that countries admit more foreign banks and other financials services, the FTAs simultaneously impose the same restrictions on how governments may regulate financial services and their providers as seen in GATS, unless exemptions were made at the time of negotiation: * allowing 100% foreign ownership of financial operators and the financial sector; * no restrictions on the size and number of financial operators, nor on the volume of their financial transactions; * foreign financial operators have to be treated at least as favourable as domestic financial operators. As a result, many measures that are necessary to prevent a financial crisis violate these rules. One such preventive measure is to limit the size of a bank and the volume of its financial transactions, so that it cannot become "too big to fail" - and thus does not need to be bailed out with taxpayer money. FTA rules also disregard that foreign financial operators behave differently. Foreign banks tend to target the more profitable, rich clients and provide less credit to farmers and small producers, especially in times of a financial crisis. This undermines food production and economic development. FTAs do not allow host governments to pre-screen foreign financial service investors - for instance to exclude foreign banks that mainly finance socially and environmentally destructive projects or companies, and to only admit those banks that serve their societies. FTAs deregulate more than GATS FTAs contain more rules that deregulate financial services than GATS. For instance, countries are required to permit any new foreign financial service within their territory in those financial sectors they liberalised under NAFTA or an FTA with the EU (Chile, Mexico, Caribbean countries). This means that very risky financial products such as speculative derivative trading can be introduced- a practise which contributed significantly to the financial crisis. Although agreements often contain some exceptions for `prudential? regulation, it is left to trade tribunals to decide what policies are protected. FTAs therefore can make it very difficult for countries to ban speculation in food prices through banning trade in food derivatives that contribute to the food crisis. Moreover, the EU seeks to impose through its FTAs, the implementation of many non-binding international norms for financial regulators in developing countries. Yet, these norms completely failed to prevent the financial crisis, and most developing countries have had no say in their design. FTAs stop capital controls During a financial crisis, or in order to prevent it, it is important that countries are able to control capital inflows and outflows, which mainly move through banks. Yet, the FTA model employed by both the EU and the US requires countries to remove restrictions on capital movement and facilitate cross-border capital flows. In the EU- Caribbean EPA, no restrictions on capital transfers between residents of the signatory countries are permitted, not even on large capital account transfers related to investments. Only in "exceptional circumstances" are countries allowed to stop destabilising capital transfers. Also, any prudential measures taken to stop capital or trade flows that are financially destabilising are restricted by many conditions, which undermines many domestic policies to protect economies and societies. The dangerous mix of FTAs and BITs What is often forgotten is that foreign financial investors that enter a country under an FTA, can use already existing bilateral investment agreements (BITs) to sue host governments that introduce new social or environmental regulations. For instance, Argentina has been sued by more then 30 companies for its measures taken during its financial crisis (2000-2001). Foreign investors have already used a BIT to sue South Africa for its policies to reverse the legacy of apartheid and increase black ownership in the mining sector, which could also happen in the financial sector. FTAs forgotten during financial reforms None of the current official discussions about reforms of the financial sector take into account how FTAs and the WTO?s GATS further liberalise and deregulate the financial sector. Nor do these reform discussions focus on establishing rules to shift finance to productive rather than speculative ends or to halt investment in companies and projects that are socially and environmentally disruptive. In order to stop the financial sector?s contribution to the world?s food, climate/environmental and social crises, the extreme deregulation and market opening by FTAs and GATS must be reversed WHAT WE DEMAND: * All negotiations in financial services in GATS and FTAs have to be stopped. * Countries should be permitted to reverse their existing GATS and FTA liberalisation commitments of financial services (a roll back). * Countries are permitted to take all necessary measures to prevent financial, social and environmental crises without retaliation threats based on GATS and FTA rules. * Financial services and capital liberalisation are to be taken out of the WTO and all FTAs. Financial services need to be regulated to urgently support the shaping of sustainable societies - including by serving the poorest communities first ================ From papadop at peak.org Mon Mar 2 13:24:24 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Mon Mar 2 13:25:08 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Robertt Parry: CAN YOU TRUST THE REPUBLICANS? Message-ID: http://consortiumnews.com/2009/022709.html By Robert Parry February 27, 2009 *Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' are also available there. Or go to Amazon.com. ########### If you watch the pundits on cable news or read the big-name newspaper columnists, you will find a general consensus that the national Republicans are returning to their core principles in their near-unanimous opposition to President Barack Obama's stimulus bill and other proposals. Share this article Republicans are taken at their word when they claim to be motivated by ideological consistency in opposing Obama's "big government" solutions to America's economic troubles, not by a political desire to strangle Obama's presidency in the cradle. Despite this Washington "conventional wisdom," there is a growing sense across the United States that the Republicans are lying about their motivations, that their real reason for trying to obstruct Obama is not principle but political opportunism, that they want the President to fail so they can succeed at the polls. One of the most telling responses to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll was what people said in answering Question 44: "Do you think [Republicans] opposed [the stimulus bill] mostly because they thought it would be bad for the economy or mostly for political reasons?" Sixty-three percent of respondents cited "political reasons" and only 29 percent believed the "not good for the economy" explanation from the Republicans. This two-to-one margin suggests that the Republicans are suffering from a serious credibility gap. Public incredulity also was a common reaction to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican response to President Obama's Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress. Jindal didn't seem to have much to offer that would address the severity of America's economic crisis. However, in a moment of candor, Jindal acknowledged that the Republicans of the George W. Bush era had failed to live up to their promises of fiscal restraint. "You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline and personal responsibility," Jindal said. "Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust, and rightly so." But something bigger may be afoot than Jindal's notion that some well-meaning Republicans went to the big city of Washington and lost their ideological bearings. In my three decades as a Washington-based journalist, what I have witnessed is a Republican Party that has grown increasingly arrogant about its ability to twist reality into any shape of its choosing -- and to get lots of gullible people to go along. As a reporter, I was familiar with the typical political spin and the occasional outright lie. But the Republican Party that emerged from the post-Watergate era was building its own right-wing media infrastructure that took deception to new heights, unabashedly declaring that up is down and then punishing anyone who disagreed. The Lefever Case On a personal level, I first encountered this technique of cognitive dissonance in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan appointed Ernest Lefever as assistant secretary of state for human rights. The post had been created by President Jimmy Carter to make human rights a higher priority. Reagan was hostile to the concept, viewing right-wing dictators in Latin America and the Third World as vital allies in the Cold War. However, instead of junking the human rights position, Reagan selected someone who was anathema to the human rights community. Reagan simply declared that Ernest Lefever was a great advocate of human rights. Even as it became clear that Lefever had cozy ties to the apartheid government of South Africa and other repressive regimes, it was difficult for the mainstream press to contest Reagan's bald-faced assertion that Lefever was pro-human rights. Though the right-wing media infrastructure and its anti-journalism attack groups were at relatively early stages of development, any mainstream journalist who challenged Reagan's Orwellian twist on the phrase "human rights" could expect to be targeted for public attack for "liberal bias." It was easier to just go along. In 1981, as an Associated Press reporter, I was one of a handful of journalists who helped expose Lefever's fondness for white European colonizers of black Africa. In his writings, he had stressed the beneficence of the white conquerors and lamented the barbarism of the black natives. When I interviewed members of Lefever's family, they recalled some of his personal comments that they regarded as racist. Finally, in the face of mounting evidence that the proposed human-rights coordinator appeared to consider some people more human than others, the Reagan administration was forced to withdraw Lefever's nomination. He was replaced by a bright, young neoconservative named Elliott Abrams. Abrams easily won confirmation though he, too, had a selective view of human rights. When I interviewed him at the State Department early in his tenure, he minimized the atrocities committed by U.S.-backed regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala, two countries where soldiers and right-wing paramilitary groups tortured and murdered hundreds of victims a week. By comparison, Abrams said the human rights situation in Nicaragua was worse, even though there were far, far fewer political killings. Abrams argued that the leftist Nicaraguan government was guilty of worse human rights violations because it suppressed some opposition media and political groups (some of which we learned later were getting covert U.S. funding with the goal of destabilizing and overthrowing the Nicaraguan government). In other words, even in those early days of the Reagan era, key operatives were confident that they could get away with mind-boggling double standards and word games. They realized that the mainstream press was limited in its ability -- or its courage -- to call them out on their lies. This proved to be a key recognition as the Right solidified its domination of Washington. As the right-wing media expanded to include everything from book publishing, magazines and newspapers to radio, TV and eventually the Internet, "perception management" became the watchword of the Republican image-manipulators. [For details, see Robert Parry's Lost History.] The Iran-Contra Experience Sometimes the brazenness of the lying went over the top. For example, as the Iran-Contra scandal began to unravel in October 1986 -- when a contra supply plane was shot down over Nicaragua -- President Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush and Elliott Abrams (who had moved on to be assistant secretary of state for Latin America) denied that the plane had any connection to the U.S. government. After that lie collapsed and the arms-money-and-hostages scandal blew up, Abrams pled guilty to misleading Congress (although he was pardoned in the final days of George H.W. Bush's presidency). Reagan and Bush largely escaped the scandal's legal fallout thanks to the aggressive counterattacks by Republicans and their right-wing media allies against Iran-Contra investigators, particularly special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh. The cover-up also was helped along by many cowardly Democrats and much of the mainstream news media. [See Parry's Secrecy & Privilege.] What the Right-Wing Machine showed was that it could make big scandals -- like Iran-Contra, Iraqgate, contra-cocaine trafficking, etc. -- small or even redefine them as not scandals at all. Yet when Democrats were in power, little scandals -- like Bill Clinton's Whitewater deal and the Travel Office firings -- could be made large. Some controversies, such as Al Gore's apocryphal "I invented the Internet" boast, could be made out of whole cloth. To a troubling degree, reality became whatever the Republicans and the Right said it was, a faux reality that set the stage for the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush. Bush's image itself was mostly a media fiction, that he was a regular guy, just like the rest of us, when in truth he was a privileged plutocrat whose previous failures had been bailed out by his father's rich friends. After Bush became President -- and especially after 9/11 -- the Right wrapped him in a protective cult of personality that tolerated no skepticism. Bush grew even more arrogant about his ability to make up any reality and compel the American people to go along. So, when Bush and his neocon advisers -- with Elliott Abrams back in a key role on the National Security Council -- had their hearts set on invading Iraq, a staunchly supportive right-wing media and a thoroughly co-opted mainstream press let him get away with one of the most preposterous cases for war in modern history. According to Bush, Iraq and its secular ruler Saddam Hussein possessed large caches of WMD and were prepared to share these dangerous weapons with the Islamic fundamentalists of al-Qaeda. None of this made any sense to objective experts, who knew that Iraq had been largely stripped of its WMD and that Hussein hated Islamic extremists like Osama bin Laden. But Bush and his media allies said it was true, so -- within Official Washington at least -- it became true. And pity anyone who didn't go along. Arms-control expert Scott Ritter was smeared as a traitor; United Nations inspectors who searched Iraqi sites and found no WMD evidence were mocked as incompetent buffoons; U.S. intelligence officers who doubted the evidence were marginalized; the Dixie Chicks, whose lead singer criticized Bush's war plans at a March 2003 concert, were subjected to boycotts and death threats. Then, when the U.S. invasion force also found no WMD, Bush simply rewrote the history. In July 2003, he began claiming that he had no choice but to invade because Saddam Hussein had refused to let the UN inspectors in. Washington's courtier press corps stood mute in the face of this lie that became a Bush favorite through the last days of his presidency. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Bush Still Lies About Iraqi Inspections."] Democracy Promotion After the Iraq-WMD rationale finally became untenable, the U.S. news media accepted a new claim -- that Bush and the neoconservatives wanted to bring democracy to the Middle East. Supposedly, Bush and the neocons so loved democracy that they were ready to conquer Arab countries and kill countless thousands of inhabitants so democracy could be planted. This new excuse was elevated to the level of uncontestable conventional wisdom, especially after President Bush's second inaugural address which recited the words "freedom" and "liberty" over and over again. No big-name journalist ever stopped to ask the question why, if Bush and the neocons were such great lovers of democracy, they would have seized power in Election 2000 after losing the popular vote and only after getting Republican cronies on the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the counting of votes in Florida. Nor did the sycophantic Washington press corps wonder aloud about the contradiction between loving democracy and the stated aim of Karl Rove and other Bush strategists, establishing "a permanent Republican majority" in Washington, with the Democrats kept around as a cosmetic appendage to give the false appearance of a democratic system. Given the disdain that Bush, Rove and the neocons had for democracy at home, it made little sense to believe that they actually were invading countries halfway around the world for the cause of democracy. Indeed, when democratic elections went the "wrong" way -- as happened with Hamas's victory in the Palestinian territories -- the Bush administration didn't hesitate to punish the voters for their erroneous judgments. Bush also didn't push too hard for democracy among his friends in the Saudi royal family or other autocratic Arab regimes. Despite all this evidence that "love of democracy" was not a truthful explanation, the Washington press corps continued to disdain alternative (far more plausible) rationales for Bush's policies. Dumped into the "conspiracy theory" bin, therefore, were suggestions that Bush and the neocons invaded Iraq to project American power east of Suez, or to secure oil supplies, or to eliminate one of Israel's key enemies. By transforming Iraq into a U.S. military platform, Bush and the neocons also could seek regime change against other Israeli adversaries, such as Iran and Syria, with the ultimate goal of weakening closer-in enemies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. Of course, such Realpolitik explanations would not have sold too well with the American people. So the Washington press corps put on blinders and focused only on what the Bush administration claimed were the war justifications: Iraq's WMD and the noble cause of spreading democracy. FISCAL RESTRAINT? Back home, Bush and his Republicans also made a mockery of their alleged commitment to fiscal responsibility, both regarding the exploding federal deficit and the vast sums of government money shelled out in no-bid contracts to well-connected corporations, like Dick Cheney's old firm, Halliburton. Rather than a true free market, the Bush administration -- with the help of a Republican-controlled Congress -- oversaw an era of crony capitalism that would have put Ferdinand Marcos to shame. After inheriting a federal government with a nearly balanced budget and years of projected surpluses, Bush rewarded his wealthy friends with huge tax cuts and further pared back regulation of the financial sector, allowing bankers and executives to lavish themselves with multi-million-dollar bonuses and extravagant lifestyles. By the time Bush left office, the budget deficit had soared to over $1 trillion with oceans of red ink as far as the eye could see, a corrupt Wall Street was in freefall, and millions of Americans had lost their life savings, their jobs and their homes. At that point, only the most gullible Americans could believe any of the explanations coming from George W. Bush and other Republicans. Nearly everything they had claimed over the years had turned out to be a lie. Nevertheless, old Washington habits die hard. When President Barack Obama stepped forward with a giant stimulus plan of spending and tax cuts aimed at preventing Bush's severe recession from morphing into a depression, congressional Republicans demanded that he scrap much of the spending in favor of more tax cuts. The Republicans also insisted that they were motivated not by a desire to sabotage Obama's presidency -- and thus hasten their restoration of power -- but by their deeply held principle of fiscal restraint and their commitment to small government. It wasn't about power; they said, it was about principle. Though one might have thought the Washington press corps finally might have had enough of this decades-old Republican ploy of self-serving explanations, pundits and journalists alike again fell into line; the near-unanimous GOP opposition to Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan was motivated by a determination to return to core principles, these Washington insiders agreed. However, the broader American public was far less credulous. As the recent opinion poll showed, the respondents broke two-to-one in favor of judging the Republican motivation as politics, not principle. Surely in the months ahead, the powerful right-wing media will do its best to restore Republican credibility and wear down Obama's -- and much of the mainstream U.S. press corps will likely go along. But at least for now, most of the American people appear to see through the latest rationalizations and the lies. From ptuffley at xtra.co.nz Mon Mar 2 14:51:06 2009 From: ptuffley at xtra.co.nz (Peter Tuffley) Date: Mon Mar 2 14:51:34 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Robertt Parry: CAN YOU TRUST THE REPUBLICANS? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > > > But at least for now, most of the American people appear to see > through the latest rationalizations and the lies. "At least for now" looks like a necessary caveat. The effect of salutory lessons from the disgrace of Nixon seem to have worn off long ago, and no doubt the same will be true of any lessons from the 8 years of W. Which suggests that it may be only a matter of time before an even bigger crook than W gets into the White House. Peter From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Mon Mar 2 15:39:21 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon Mar 2 15:39:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: [S] age of stupid Message-ID: <019e01c99b90$1d1d1190$13ad57ca@jfos> " We created this problem. Always progress, progress, progress. Always demanding more and more from the planet". The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, which will have its world premiere in London on March 15th 2009 and then be released in UK cinemas on March 20th 2009, followed by other countries. Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at ?archive? footage from 2007 and asking: why didn?t we stop climate change when we had the chance? also Fernand Pareau, 82-year old French mountain guide (documentary); Jeh Wadia, starting a low-cost airline in India (documentary;) Alvin DuVernay, Shell oil man who rescued 100 people after Hurricane Katrina (documentary); Layefa Malemi, living in Shell?s most profitable oil region in Nigeria (documentary); Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud, two Iraqi refugee kids trying to find their brother (documentary;) & Piers Guy, a windfarm developer fighting the anti windfarm lobby in England (documentary) http://www.ageofstupid.net General Enquiries hello@ageofstupid.net Press Enquiries Alex Sayer at Rogers & Cowan ASayer@rogersandcowan.com +44 (0) 20 3048 0485 International Distribution Celluloid Dreams. Alessandro Raja: alessandro@celluloid-dreams.com Post: 2 Rue Turgot, 75009 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 4970 0370. Fax: +33 1 4970 0371 http://www.celluloid-dreams.com video trailer http://vimeo.com/2992103 CARBON JACKBOOT ? Carbon Dioxide Emissions 48 flights, 124,000 miles 68,100 Kg Co2 Food for 1,277 meals 13,400 KgCo2 Train trips, 23,612 miles 4,100 Kg Co2 Boat trips, 497 miles 3,200 Kg Co2 Cameras, computers, tapes, CDs etc 2,800 Kg Co2 Heating two offices ( pretty cold) 1,100 Kg Co2 2 helicopter flights, 105 minutes 735 Kg Co2 Car trips, 2400 miles 740 Kg Co2 Tubes & buses, 1,480 miles 95 Kg Co2 Bicycle & walking trips,13,100 miles 0 Kg Co2 Electricity (green supplier) 0 Kg Co2 TOTAL 94,270 Kg Co2 Equivalent to * 8 British people for 1 year * 4 American people for 1 year * 1000 Tanzanians people for 1 year * 91 people living sustainably for 1 year * 1 of Piers? big turbines for 6 days * Recycling 910,000 bottles * 15 British homes for 1 year * 18 American cars for 1 year * 185 gas patio-heaters for one month Release Date Australia July: premiere July: cinema release (date TBC) RELATED http://www.wakeupfreakout.org/wakeup.html leo@wakeupfreakout.org Wake Up, Freak Out ? then Get a Grip It?s much, much later than you think Tipping point ahead. This really isn?t about polar bears any more. At this very moment, the fate of civilization itself hangs in the balance. It turns out that the way we have been calculating the future impacts of climate change up to now has been missing1 a really important2 piece of the picture.3 It seems we are now dangerously close to the tipping point in the world's climate system4; this is the point of no return, after which truly catastrophic changes become inevitable.5 Think of it like this: For the past three million years, our planet?s climate has always been in one or the other of two stable states, with small changes in solar radiation providing the energy to push us from one to the other. When we are in this cooler dip, the planet has an ice age; when we are in the warmer one, the planet?s climate is very much as it is now, and has been throughout the whole of human history6. The problem is that our use of fossil fuels is pushing us further and further out of our little stable dip and up the far slope of this hill. The tipping point is the point at which we cross the peak of the hill, and we no longer need to keep pushing to keep the planet moving towards a much hotter place; it will just keep rolling onwards all on its own. This tipping point exists because of a set of positive feedbacks in the climate systems, mechanisms that can amplify the effects of man-made warming and lead to runaway change. First, there is the Albedo Effect. White surfaces reflect more solar radiation than dark surfaces, so as global warming from greenhouse gases melts ice and snow7, it leaves behind dark ocean or land; those surfaces now absorb more solar radiation than before - so adding to warming, which melts more ice and snow, and so on8. Uncondensed water vapour is actually a more important greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Although we aren't actually emitting much water vapour directly, as the planet warms, evaporation rates increase, raising humidity and thickening the Earth?s thermal blanket9, which in turn raises temperatures10, further increasing evaporation - etc11. Normally, about half the CO2 emitted each year from human activities is re-absorbed by a combination of forests, plankton, and the ocean itself12. But the ocean surface is becoming more and more acidic as concentrations of CO2 dissolved in it rise. At the same time the water temperature at the surface is also going up, forming a layer of warm, acidic water that is spreading across the ocean surface, killing off the plankton that lock CO2 out of the atmosphere13. Worse, warm water holds less CO2 than cold water14, so as it heats up it actually starts releasing some of the CO215 it had previously absorbed16. Just like marine ecosystems, land-based eco-systems normally act as carbon sinks, taking carbon from the atmosphere and using it for growth. But as these eco-systems heat up, their balance is upset; plants become less and less effective at taking in CO217, while micro-organisms in the soil become more and more effective at putting it out18 ? causing the eco-system as a whole to go from being a carbon sink19 to being a carbon source20. Eventually, as temperatures rise and rains fail, forests dry out, so when fires start, they don?t get put out21. All of the forest?s stored carbon goes up in smoke, adding to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which increases warming22, which further degrades23 the carbon sinks24. Up in Siberia, an area of frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined that we call the permafrost is melting, and as it melts, it releases huge quantities of methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a short lifespan in the atmosphere - but while there it has a warming effect more than 20 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. The more methane is released, the more it adds to warming25, so the more the permafrost melts26, and the more methane is released?27 Unfortunately the arctic tundra is not the only place with large stores of frozen Methane. Lurking under the sea bed there may be as much as 10 trillion tons of Methane stored as frozen crystals at sites around the world. If we raise ocean temperatures by enough - and nobody knows how much is enough - we could trigger the sudden release of this stored methane into the atmosphere.28 The last time this happened29, global temperatures rose abruptly by 10 degrees30. So these are some of the feedback mechanisms31 that explain why our global climate system has a tipping point32. Each feedback in the system has its own internal tipping point, and it is the relationships within this complex, mutually reinforcing system, that have been missing from our climate prediction models33. So far we have pushed up global temperatures by only about 0.8 C - but because of the 40 or 50 year time lag between emissions and temperature rise, the emissions already in the atmosphere commit us to raising temperatures by around another 0.6 degrees over the coming decades34 - which could easily place us right at the peak of the hill ? or even over it. If we do pass this critical threshold, global temperatures could soar by as much as 6 degrees. If this happens, the natural world will suffer a mass extinction event which will wipe out the majority of the plants and animals with which we currently share the planet35 - although there will be a lot more rats, flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes as the world's ecosystems go into meltdown. The first human impacts will come in the form of steeply declining access to fresh water, as rainfall patterns change, glacier-fed rivers dry up36, and rising sea levels contaminate aquifers. As crops fail37, forests burn38, deserts spread39 and coastal regions flood permanently, people will start to pack up their things in their billions and move on in search of a better life elsewhere40. But where? 'Humanity' may survive this. But what will 'humanity' mean in a world where countries which remain habitable ? like Britain ? use most of our remaining resources fighting to keep out the starving millions who can no longer live in their own countries because of what we have done? The world is awash with weapons; enough firearms to arm one in every seven human beings on the planet41. As the Earth's ability to support the huge numbers of people alive today dwindles, we will not die peacefully42 in our sleep43. OK, here?s the good news: None of this is inevitable ? yet. This is not the time to panic, or to despair. This is the time to act ? while we still can. We need to recognize that there is a huge question mark over whether governments and corporations44 are capable of responding to this threat in the time we have left. They have had 20 years already ? but still have less than nothing to show for it. This is because they remain committed to a doctrine that prioritises endless short-term economic growth45 over the survival of human life on earth. There is no great mystery about what we need to do to reduce emissions in line with the science; we simply need to consume less. But that is out of the question in a society which is founded on the ever-increasing consumption of materials and energy. Nobody has all of the answers; but we do know that this is not the only way to live, and given that it is almost certainly going to kill us all46, we had better start looking urgently at some of the alternatives. It is now very clear that in order to actually win the fight against climate change, making big changes to the way we each live our own lives is not going to be enough; we?re also going to have to actively confront powerful vested interests who will stop at nothing to prevent the changes we need from taking place. We have to be more than just consumers. These are extraordinary times. Preventing runaway global warming is the single most important task in all of human history ? and it has fallen to us to do it. If we don?t, then everything else we work to achieve in our lives will be destroyed, or become meaningless. Those who came before us didn't know about this problem, and those who come after will be powerless to do anything about it. But for us, there's still time! We'd better get a move on though. 1 Hart, J. and Torn, M. S, (2006) 'Missing feedbacks, asymmetric uncertainties, and the underestimation of future warming', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702737104 2 Brovkin, V., Cox, P. & Sheffer, M. (2006) ?Positive feedback between global warming and atmospheric CO2 concentration inferred from past climate change?, Geophysical Research Letters, vol 33, p L10702 3 Backman, J. et al. (2006) 'Subtropical Arctic Ocean temperatures during the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum', Nature 441, 610-613 DOI:10.1038/nature04668 4 Lenton, T. M., Held., H. et al. (2008) ?Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system?, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0705414105 5 Hansen et al. (2006) 'Global temperature change', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p14288 6 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, Eden Project Books, London 7 Stroeve, J. (2007) ?Arctic Sea Ice Decline: Faster than Forecast??, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 9, 01362, 2007, European Geosciences Union 2007 Ref-ID: 1607-7962/gra/EGU2007-A-01362 8 D?ry, S. J., and Brown,R. D. (2007), ?Recent Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent trends and implications for the snow-albedo feedback?, Geophysical Research Letters, vol.34, L22504, doi:10.1029/2007GL031474 9 Santer et al. (2007) ?Identification of human-induced changes in atmospheric moisture content?, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.104, no.39 15248?15253, doi:10.1073:pnas.0702872104 10 Philopona, R. et al. (2005) ?Anthropogenic greenhouse forcing and strong water vapor feedback increase temperature in Europe?, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L19809, doi:10.1029/2005GL023624 11 Soden, Brian J. (2005) ?An Assessment of Climate Feedbacks in Coupled Ocean?Atmosphere Models?, JOURNAL OF CLIMATE, VOLUME 19, 3354, American Meterological Society 12 Friedlingstein, P. (2008) ?A steep road to climate stabilization?, Nature 451, 297-298 (17 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06593 13 Gregg, W. W. et al. (2003), ?Ocean primary production and climate: Global decadal changes?, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 15, 1809, doi:10.1029/2003GL016889, 2003 14 Le Quere, C., et al. (2007) 'Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink due to recent climate change', Science, 316 (5832), 1735-1738 15 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.145-149, Eden Project Books, London 16 Schuster, U., and A. J. Watson (2007), ?A variable and decreasing sink for atmospheric CO2 in the North Atlantic?, Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, C11006, doi:10.1029/2006JC003941 17 Knorr, W. et al. (2007) 'Impact of terrestrial biosphere carbon exchanges on the anomalous CO2 increase in 2002-2003', Geophysical Research letters, Vol.34, L09703, DOI:10.1029/2006GL029019 18 Lenton, T. M. (2000). "Land and ocean carbon cycle feedback effects on global warming in a simple Earth system model.", Tellus 52B, 1159-1188, doi:10.1034/j.1600-0889.2000.01104.x. 19 Cox, P. M. et al. (2003) 'Strong carbon cycle feedbacks in a climate model with interactive CO2 and sulphate aerosols', Geophysical Research letters, Vol.30, no.9, 1479, DOI:10.1029/2003GL016867 20 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.124-132, Eden Project Books, London 21 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.120-123, Eden Project Books, London 22 Susan E. Page, Florian Siegert (2002) ?The amount of carbon released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997?, Nature, vol 420, p 61, doi:10.1038/nature01131 23 Canadel, J. G. et al. (2007) 'Contributions to accelerating atmospheric CO2 growth from economic activity, carbon intensity, and efficiency of natural sinks', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702737104 24 Friedlingstein, P. (2008) ?A steep road to climate stabilization?, Nature 451, 297-298 (17 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06593 25 Zimov, S. et al. (2006) ?Permafrost and the Global Carbon Budget?, Science, Vol.312. no.5780, pp. 1612 ? 1613, DOI: 10.1126/science.1128908 26 Walter, K. et al. (2006) 'Methane bubbling from Siberian thaw lakes as a positive feedback to climate warming', Nature, vol 443, p71 27 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.133-143, Eden Project Books, London 28 Leifer, I. et al. (2006) ?Natural marine seepage blowout: Contribution to atmospheric methane?, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, vol.20 doi:10.1029/2005GB002668 29 Hansen, J. et al. (2007) 'Dangerous human-made interference with climate: a GISS modelE study', Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 2287?2312, 2007 30 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.150-161, Eden Project Books, London 31 Knorr, W. et al. (2007) 'Impact of terrestrial biosphere carbon exchanges on the anomalous CO2 increase in 2002-2003', Geophysical Research letters, Vol.34, L09703, DOI:10.1029/2006GL029019 32 Hansen, J. (2008) ?Tipping point: Perspective of a climatologist? in E. Fearn and K.H. Redford (eds) The state of the wild 2008 ? A global portrait of wildlife, wildlands and oceans, Wildlife Conservation Society/Island Press 33 Lenton, T. M., Held., H. et al. (2008) ?Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system?, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0705414105 34 Hansen, J. et al. (2005) 'Earth's energy imbalance: Confirmation and Implications', Science, June 2005, Vol. 308. no.5727, pp.1431-1435 35 Mayhew, P. J. et al. (2008) ?A long term association between global temperature and biodiversity, origination and extinction in the fossil record?, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol.275 no.1630: pp. 47-53. London: Royal Society 36 Barnett, T. P. et al. (2005) 'Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions', Nature, Vol.438, 17, DOI:10.1038/nature04141 37 Ainsworth, E. (2007) ?Rice Production in a Changing Climate: A Meta-analysis of Responses to Elevated Carbon Dioxide and Elevated Ozone Concentration?, Global Change Biology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01594.x 38 Running, Steven W. (2006) ?Is Global Warming Causing More, Larger Wildfires??, Science, Vol.313. no.5789, pp. 927 ? 928, DOI: 10.1126/science.1130370 39 Scholze, M. et al. (2006) 'A climate-change risk analysis for world ecosystems', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI/10.1073/pnas.0601816103 40 Christian Aid (2007) Human Tide: The Real Migration Crisis, Christian Aid, London 41 Small Arms Survey, Geneva (2007) Small Arms Survey 2007, Cambridge University Press 42 Mabey, N. (2008) Whitehall Papers no. 69:Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate Changed World, Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, Routledge 43 Smith, D. & Vivekananda, J. (2007) A Climate of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change, Peace and War, International Alert, London 44 Dunlop, I. (2007) 'Corporate governance and responsibility', comments at University of Technology Sydney book launch, 5 Dec 2007 45 David Woodward and Andrew Simms (2006) Growth isn?t working, New Economics Foundation, London 46 Lynas, M. (2007) Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, National Geographic Society London From papadop at peak.org Mon Mar 2 15:58:26 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Mon Mar 2 15:58:52 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] "Enemy combatant" indicted to block S.Ct review Message-ID: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/marr-m02.shtml World Socialist Web Site 2 March 2009 In a cynical bid to prevent the US Supreme Court from ruling on the Bush administration's practice of imprisoning US citizens and legal residents of the United States as "enemy combatants," without charges or trials, the Obama Justice Department has brought criminal charges against the last individual held in the US on this basis, Salehn Kahla al-Marri. In a two-page indictment unsealed on Friday in Peoria, Illinois, federal prosecutors charged al-Marri with providing material resources and support to al Qaeda and with conspiring with others to do so. The brief indictment presented no evidence to support these allegations. On the same day, Acting Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler filed a motion in the US Supreme Court urging it to drop al-Marri's case on the grounds that the criminal indictment rendered moot the challenge to the constitutionality of his earlier imprisonment without charges. Al-Marri, a Qatari student, arrived in the US on September 10, 2001 the day before the 9/11 attacks on a legal student visa to study for a master's degree in computer sciences. He was arrested in December 2001 at his home in Peoria, where he lived with his wife and five children. He was subsequently held as an alleged material witness to the attacks, and then charged on unrelated counts of credit card fraud and making false statements. He insisted on his innocence and was prepared to confront the charges at trial. However, in June 2003, on the eve an evidentiary hearing in which his attorneys were going to challenge evidence on the grounds that it had been extracted through torture, the Bush administration suddenly declared him an "enemy combatant" and transported him to a Navy Brig in South Carolina, where he has been held in solitary confinement ever since. He was held incommunicado for over a year. While imprisoned at the brig, al-Marri was subjected to torture and other abuse and has been prevented from seeing his family for nearly six years. Al-Marri's lawyers have reported that this prolonged cruel and abusive punishment has left their client mentally unstable. Al-Marri's lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to review a 5-to-4 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit last July upholding the Bush administration's assertion of near-dictatorial powers of the president to detain anyone, including US citizens, without charges or trials merely by designating them as "enemy combatants." This narrow decision overturned a ruling by a three-judge appeals court panel in June of last year. The earlier decision rejected the administration's claim to such sweeping powers and compared its position to that of military dictatorships and to the practices of King George III that precipitated the American Revolution. The Obama administration's action in the al-Marri case is almost identical to that of the Bush administration in the case of Jose Padilla, the US citizen detained at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in May 2002 upon returning on a flight from Pakistan. Padilla was publicly accused of being part of a "dirty bomb" attack and held, like al-Marri, as a material witness in the September 11 attacks. When his lawyer filed a motion challenging his detention, President Bush signed an executive order declaring him an enemy combatant. He was seized by the military and held without charge in the same Navy brig as al-Marri for three and a half years. A challenge to Padilla's imprisonment was rejected by the same fourth circuit court of appeals, which held that in time of war, the US president as commander-in-chief has the power to throw anyone in prison without charges on his mere say-so that they are enemy combatants. The court ruled that these prisoners may be held until the end of hostilities without access to lawyers or court review. In 2005, two days before the government was required to submit its brief to the Supreme Court in response to a challenge to this reactionary ruling, the Bush administration brought criminal charges similar to those now being leveled against al-Marri conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism while making no attempt whatsoever to substantiate its previous sensational allegations about a dirty bomb plot. The Bush administration then -- just as the Obama administration now -- feared that the Supreme Court might find itself compelled to rule that the President of the United States does not have the power to effectively lock US citizens and legal residents in jail and throw away the key without ever publicly charging them or allowing them to confront their accusers in a court of law. In both cases al-Marri and Padilla the government has bowed to the Constitution in the individual instances by bringing them before a court only in order to preserve the right it has arrogated to itself to carry out the same extra-constitutional imprisonment of others in the future. In response to the government's action last week, al-Marri's attorney, Jonathan Hafetz of the ACLU National Security Project, welcomed the indictment against his client, declaring, "This case is now finally where it belongs: in a legitimate court." He went on, however, to condemn the Obama Justice Department's attempt to prevent any challenge in the Supreme Court to the extraordinary powers asserted under the Bush administration. "Despite this indictment, the Obama administration has yet to renounce the government's asserted authority to imprison legal residents and US citizens without charge or trial," Hafetz said. "We will continue to pursue Mr. al-Marri's case before the Supreme Court to make sure that no American citizen or lawful resident will ever again be subjected to such treatment. It is important that the Court hears Mr. al-Marri's case and rejects, once and for all, the notion that any president has the sweeping authority to deprive individuals living in the United States of their most basic constitutional rights by designating them enemy combatants.'" Hafetz argued that the Supreme Court should rule on the claim of presidential power to detain people without charges "so it will not happen in the future." Many legal observers expect that the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court will take the same position in relation to al-Marri's case -- as they did to Padilla's -- that the government's filing of criminal charges rendered the challenge to its previous trampling on the most basic constitutional rights a moot point. Only three justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter argued that the high court should have heard the Padilla case, despite Padilla's transfer to civilian custody. They insisted that the case "raises a question of profound importance to the nation." Jonathan Freiman, a lawyer who represented Padilla, condemned the Justice Department's action in the al-Marri case as "a calculated political move to avoid taking a position" in front of the Supreme Court. "What the Bush administration did with Padilla, the Obama administration is trying to do with al-Marri," Freiman told the Associated Press." Transferring al-Marri out of the brig is the right thing to do. Moving to dismiss the case is not." The Obama Justice Department's position in the al-Marri case is of a piece with a series of similar actions in which the administration has gone into court to uphold the Bush administration's policies against constitutional challenges. The administration went into federal court in February to defend the position of the Bush administration in response to a suit filed by four individuals held for six years without charges at the US prison camp at Bagram air base in Afghanistan. Like its predecessor, the Obama administration argued that the detainees had no right to challenge their imprisonment in US courts. Twice last month, Justice Department lawyers used the same "state secrets" argument as the Bush administration in seeking the dismissal of lawsuits. The use of the state secrets privilege is aimed at killing a case before evidence can even be heard on the grounds that its disclosure would endanger national security. The first case involved the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program of seizing suspects and transporting them to foreign countries to be tortured. The second concerned the National Security Agency's illegal domestic wiretapping operation. A federal appeals court in San Francisco Friday rejected this argument in the second case, which involves the illegal bugging of two US attorneys and an Islamic charity in Oregon. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that lawyers in the case could be granted access to secret documents under secure conditions. In this case, as in others, the invocation of the state secrets privilege is spurious. Evidence of illegal wiretapping was exposed by the government itself with its inadvertent release of a document proving NSA spying on the charity and its lawyers. The ruling means that the Obama administration may be compelled to defend Bush's criminal domestic spying operation in a court of law. Before that happens, however, the Justice Department will appeal the appellate decision, perhaps all the way to the Supreme Court. Moreover, the Obama administration appears set to stonewall the court on any release of evidence. As the AP reported, "Government lawyers signaled they would continue fighting to keep the information secret, setting up a new showdown between the courts and the White House over national security." It is becoming more evident with each passing day that the Obama administration, far from inaugurating some sweeping change from the criminal policies of the previous administration, is determined to retain intact the extra-constitutional and quasi-police-state powers assumed by the Bush White House. From papadop at peak.org Mon Mar 2 16:08:22 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Mon Mar 2 16:08:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] CIA DESTROYED 92 INTERVIEW TAPES Message-ID: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7919579.stm BBC (London) Monday, 2 March 2009 The tapes were an issue in the trial of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui The Central intelligence Agency (CIA) has destroyed 92 tapes of interviews conducted with terror suspects, a US government lawyer has admitted. The agency had previously said that it had destroyed only two tapes. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a lawsuit against the CIA to seek details of the interrogations of terror suspects. Techniques involved are understood to have included water-boarding, which the Obama administration says is torture. The acknowledgment of the 92 destroyed tapes came in a letter sent to the judge presiding over the ACLU lawsuit. "The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," the letter by acting US Attorney Lev Dassin, obtained by the BBC, said. "Ninety-two videotapes were destroyed." CLASSIFIED? The letter, dated 2 March, said the CIA was gathering more details for the lawsuit, such as a list of the destroyed records, any secondary accounts describing what was on the destroyed tapes, and the identities of those who may have viewed or possessed the recordings before their destruction. CIA 'ENHANCED INTERROGATION' TECHNIQUES WATER-BOARDING: prisoner bound, with cellophane wrapped round his head. Water is poured onto his face and is said to produce a fear of drowning COLD CELL: prisoner made to stand naked in a cold, though not freezing, cell and doused with water STANDING: Prisoners stand for 40 hours and more, shackled to the floor BELLY SLAP: a hard slap to the stomach with an open hand. This is designed to be painful but not to cause injury Source: Described to ABC News by un-named CIA agents in 2005 Government lawyers said some of the information may be classified. "The CIA intends to produce all of the information requested to the court and to produce as much information as possible on the public record to the plaintiffs," the letter said. In 2005 a judge ordered the preservation of all evidence regarding the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. In December 2007, the CIA revealed that two tapes from interviews had been destroyed five months after the ruling. But the agency said the ruling did not apply to the destroyed tapes, as they concerned interrogations that took place before the suspects had been transferred to Guantanamo. The agency's chief said the recordings had been made in 2002 as an internal check, and had been erased because they no longer had an intelligence value and could permit identification of CIA officers. In January 2008, the justice department launched an investigation to answer questions over the tapes. Tapes were a contentious issue during the trial of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who was jailed for his part in the attacks. Prosecutors initially claimed there were no recordings of his interrogation, but then acknowledged video and audio tapes had been made. From siamdave at yahoo.ca Mon Mar 2 19:10:41 2009 From: siamdave at yahoo.ca (Dave Patterson) Date: Mon Mar 2 19:10:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: [S] age of stupid In-Reply-To: <019e01c99b90$1d1d1190$13ad57ca@jfos> References: <019e01c99b90$1d1d1190$13ad57ca@jfos> Message-ID: <200903031010410125.00575A7C@smtp-adsl.totonline.net> When you consider the massive and blatant theft that has been going on in this country and most western countries due to letting banks create our money supply, you don't need to look ahead 50 years to talk about an age of stupidity. Moomoo baabaa. *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 09-03-03 at 10:39 AM john foster wrote: " We created this problem. Always progress, progress, progress. Always demanding more and more from the planet". The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, which will have its world premiere in London on March 15th 2009 and then be released in UK cinemas on March 20th 2009, followed by other countries. Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at “archive” footage from 2007 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? also Fernand Pareau, 82-year old French mountain guide (documentary); Jeh Wadia, starting a low-cost airline in India (documentary;) Alvin DuVernay, Shell oil man who rescued 100 people after Hurricane Katrina (documentary); Layefa Malemi, living in Shell’s most profitable oil region in Nigeria (documentary); Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud, two Iraqi refugee kids trying to find their brother (documentary;) & Piers Guy, a windfarm developer fighting the anti windfarm lobby in England (documentary) http://www.ageofstupid.net General Enquiries hello@ageofstupid.net Press Enquiries Alex Sayer at Rogers & Cowan ASayer@rogersandcowan.com +44 (0) 20 3048 0485 International Distribution Celluloid Dreams. Alessandro Raja: alessandro@celluloid-dreams.com Post: 2 Rue Turgot, 75009 Paris, France. Tel: +33 1 4970 0370. Fax: +33 1 4970 0371 http://www.celluloid-dreams.com video trailer http://vimeo.com/2992103 CARBON JACKBOOT ? Carbon Dioxide Emissions 48 flights, 124,000 miles 68,100 Kg Co2 Food for 1,277 meals 13,400 KgCo2 Train trips, 23,612 miles 4,100 Kg Co2 Boat trips, 497 miles 3,200 Kg Co2 Cameras, computers, tapes, CDs etc 2,800 Kg Co2 Heating two offices ( pretty cold) 1,100 Kg Co2 2 helicopter flights, 105 minutes 735 Kg Co2 Car trips, 2400 miles 740 Kg Co2 Tubes & buses, 1,480 miles 95 Kg Co2 Bicycle & walking trips,13,100 miles 0 Kg Co2 Electricity (green supplier) 0 Kg Co2 TOTAL 94,270 Kg Co2 Equivalent to * 8 British people for 1 year * 4 American people for 1 year * 1000 Tanzanians people for 1 year * 91 people living sustainably for 1 year * 1 of Piers’ big turbines for 6 days * Recycling 910,000 bottles * 15 British homes for 1 year * 18 American cars for 1 year * 185 gas patio-heaters for one month Release Date Australia July: premiere July: cinema release (date TBC) RELATED http://www.wakeupfreakout.org/wakeup.html leo@wakeupfreakout.org Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip It’s much, much later than you think Tipping point ahead. This really isn’t about polar bears any more. At this very moment, the fate of civilization itself hangs in the balance. It turns out that the way we have been calculating the future impacts of climate change up to now has been missing1 a really important2 piece of the picture.3 It seems we are now dangerously close to the tipping point in the world's climate system4; this is the point of no return, after which truly catastrophic changes become inevitable.5 Think of it like this: For the past three million years, our planet’s climate has always been in one or the other of two stable states, with small changes in solar radiation providing the energy to push us from one to the other. When we are in this cooler dip, the planet has an ice age; when we are in the warmer one, the planet’s climate is very much as it is now, and has been throughout the whole of human history6. The problem is that our use of fossil fuels is pushing us further and further out of our little stable dip and up the far slope of this hill. The tipping point is the point at which we cross the peak of the hill, and we no longer need to keep pushing to keep the planet moving towards a much hotter place; it will just keep rolling onwards all on its own. This tipping point exists because of a set of positive feedbacks in the climate systems, mechanisms that can amplify the effects of man-made warming and lead to runaway change. First, there is the Albedo Effect. White surfaces reflect more solar radiation than dark surfaces, so as global warming from greenhouse gases melts ice and snow7, it leaves behind dark ocean or land; those surfaces now absorb more solar radiation than before - so adding to warming, which melts more ice and snow, and so on8. Uncondensed water vapour is actually a more important greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Although we aren't actually emitting much water vapour directly, as the planet warms, evaporation rates increase, raising humidity and thickening the Earth’s thermal blanket9, which in turn raises temperatures10, further increasing evaporation - etc11. Normally, about half the CO2 emitted each year from human activities is re-absorbed by a combination of forests, plankton, and the ocean itself12. But the ocean surface is becoming more and more acidic as concentrations of CO2 dissolved in it rise. At the same time the water temperature at the surface is also going up, forming a layer of warm, acidic water that is spreading across the ocean surface, killing off the plankton that lock CO2 out of the atmosphere13. Worse, warm water holds less CO2 than cold water14, so as it heats up it actually starts releasing some of the CO215 it had previously absorbed16. Just like marine ecosystems, land-based eco-systems normally act as carbon sinks, taking carbon from the atmosphere and using it for growth. But as these eco-systems heat up, their balance is upset; plants become less and less effective at taking in CO217, while micro-organisms in the soil become more and more effective at putting it out18 – causing the eco-system as a whole to go from being a carbon sink19 to being a carbon source20. Eventually, as temperatures rise and rains fail, forests dry out, so when fires start, they don’t get put out21. All of the forest’s stored carbon goes up in smoke, adding to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which increases warming22, which further degrades23 the carbon sinks24. Up in Siberia, an area of frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined that we call the permafrost is melting, and as it melts, it releases huge quantities of methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a short lifespan in the atmosphere - but while there it has a warming effect more than 20 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. The more methane is released, the more it adds to warming25, so the more the permafrost melts26, and the more methane is released…27 Unfortunately the arctic tundra is not the only place with large stores of frozen Methane. Lurking under the sea bed there may be as much as 10 trillion tons of Methane stored as frozen crystals at sites around the world. If we raise ocean temperatures by enough - and nobody knows how much is enough - we could trigger the sudden release of this stored methane into the atmosphere.28 The last time this happened29, global temperatures rose abruptly by 10 degrees30. So these are some of the feedback mechanisms31 that explain why our global climate system has a tipping point32. Each feedback in the system has its own internal tipping point, and it is the relationships within this complex, mutually reinforcing system, that have been missing from our climate prediction models33. So far we have pushed up global temperatures by only about 0.8 C - but because of the 40 or 50 year time lag between emissions and temperature rise, the emissions already in the atmosphere commit us to raising temperatures by around another 0.6 degrees over the coming decades34 - which could easily place us right at the peak of the hill – or even over it. If we do pass this critical threshold, global temperatures could soar by as much as 6 degrees. If this happens, the natural world will suffer a mass extinction event which will wipe out the majority of the plants and animals with which we currently share the planet35 - although there will be a lot more rats, flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes as the world's ecosystems go into meltdown. The first human impacts will come in the form of steeply declining access to fresh water, as rainfall patterns change, glacier-fed rivers dry up36, and rising sea levels contaminate aquifers. As crops fail37, forests burn38, deserts spread39 and coastal regions flood permanently, people will start to pack up their things in their billions and move on in search of a better life elsewhere40. But where? 'Humanity' may survive this. But what will 'humanity' mean in a world where countries which remain habitable – like Britain – use most of our remaining resources fighting to keep out the starving millions who can no longer live in their own countries because of what we have done? The world is awash with weapons; enough firearms to arm one in every seven human beings on the planet41. As the Earth's ability to support the huge numbers of people alive today dwindles, we will not die peacefully42 in our sleep43. OK, here’s the good news: None of this is inevitable – yet. This is not the time to panic, or to despair. This is the time to act – while we still can. We need to recognize that there is a huge question mark over whether governments and corporations44 are capable of responding to this threat in the time we have left. They have had 20 years already – but still have less than nothing to show for it. This is because they remain committed to a doctrine that prioritises endless short-term economic growth45 over the survival of human life on earth. There is no great mystery about what we need to do to reduce emissions in line with the science; we simply need to consume less. But that is out of the question in a society which is founded on the ever-increasing consumption of materials and energy. Nobody has all of the answers; but we do know that this is not the only way to live, and given that it is almost certainly going to kill us all46, we had better start looking urgently at some of the alternatives. It is now very clear that in order to actually win the fight against climate change, making big changes to the way we each live our own lives is not going to be enough; we’re also going to have to actively confront powerful vested interests who will stop at nothing to prevent the changes we need from taking place. We have to be more than just consumers. These are extraordinary times. Preventing runaway global warming is the single most important task in all of human history – and it has fallen to us to do it. If we don’t, then everything else we work to achieve in our lives will be destroyed, or become meaningless. Those who came before us didn't know about this problem, and those who come after will be powerless to do anything about it. But for us, there's still time! We'd better get a move on though. 1 Hart, J. and Torn, M. S, (2006) 'Missing feedbacks, asymmetric uncertainties, and the underestimation of future warming', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702737104 2 Brovkin, V., Cox, P. & Sheffer, M. (2006) ‘Positive feedback between global warming and atmospheric CO2 concentration inferred from past climate change’, Geophysical Research Letters, vol 33, p L10702 3 Backman, J. et al. (2006) 'Subtropical Arctic Ocean temperatures during the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum', Nature 441, 610-613 DOI:10.1038/nature04668 4 Lenton, T. M., Held., H. et al. (2008) ‘Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0705414105 5 Hansen et al. (2006) 'Global temperature change', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p14288 6 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, Eden Project Books, London 7 Stroeve, J. (2007) ‘Arctic Sea Ice Decline: Faster than Forecast?’, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 9, 01362, 2007, European Geosciences Union 2007 Ref-ID: 1607-7962/gra/EGU2007-A-01362 8 Déry, S. J., and Brown,R. D. (2007), ‘Recent Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent trends and implications for the snow-albedo feedback’, Geophysical Research Letters, vol.34, L22504, doi:10.1029/2007GL031474 9 Santer et al. (2007) ‘Identification of human-induced changes in atmospheric moisture content’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.104, no.39 15248–15253, doi:10.1073:pnas.0702872104 10 Philopona, R. et al. (2005) ‘Anthropogenic greenhouse forcing and strong water vapor feedback increase temperature in Europe’, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L19809, doi:10.1029/2005GL023624 11 Soden, Brian J. (2005) ‘An Assessment of Climate Feedbacks in Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Models’, JOURNAL OF CLIMATE, VOLUME 19, 3354, American Meterological Society 12 Friedlingstein, P. (2008) ‘A steep road to climate stabilization’, Nature 451, 297-298 (17 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06593 13 Gregg, W. W. et al. (2003), ‘Ocean primary production and climate: Global decadal changes’, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 15, 1809, doi:10.1029/2003GL016889, 2003 14 Le Quere, C., et al. (2007) 'Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink due to recent climate change', Science, 316 (5832), 1735-1738 15 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.145-149, Eden Project Books, London 16 Schuster, U., and A. J. Watson (2007), ‘A variable and decreasing sink for atmospheric CO2 in the North Atlantic’, Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, C11006, doi:10.1029/2006JC003941 17 Knorr, W. et al. (2007) 'Impact of terrestrial biosphere carbon exchanges on the anomalous CO2 increase in 2002-2003', Geophysical Research letters, Vol.34, L09703, DOI:10.1029/2006GL029019 18 Lenton, T. M. (2000). "Land and ocean carbon cycle feedback effects on global warming in a simple Earth system model.", Tellus 52B, 1159-1188, doi:10.1034/j.1600-0889.2000.01104.x. 19 Cox, P. M. et al. (2003) 'Strong carbon cycle feedbacks in a climate model with interactive CO2 and sulphate aerosols', Geophysical Research letters, Vol.30, no.9, 1479, DOI:10.1029/2003GL016867 20 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.124-132, Eden Project Books, London 21 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.120-123, Eden Project Books, London 22 Susan E. Page, Florian Siegert (2002) ‘The amount of carbon released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997’, Nature, vol 420, p 61, doi:10.1038/nature01131 23 Canadel, J. G. et al. (2007) 'Contributions to accelerating atmospheric CO2 growth from economic activity, carbon intensity, and efficiency of natural sinks', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0702737104 24 Friedlingstein, P. (2008) ‘A steep road to climate stabilization’, Nature 451, 297-298 (17 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06593 25 Zimov, S. et al. (2006) ‘Permafrost and the Global Carbon Budget‘, Science, Vol.312. no.5780, pp. 1612 – 1613, DOI: 10.1126/science.1128908 26 Walter, K. et al. (2006) 'Methane bubbling from Siberian thaw lakes as a positive feedback to climate warming', Nature, vol 443, p71 27 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.133-143, Eden Project Books, London 28 Leifer, I. et al. (2006) ‘Natural marine seepage blowout: Contribution to atmospheric methane’, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, vol.20 doi:10.1029/2005GB002668 29 Hansen, J. et al. (2007) 'Dangerous human-made interference with climate: a GISS modelE study', Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 2287–2312, 2007 30 Pearce, F. (2007) The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take her Revenge for Climate Change, pp.150-161, Eden Project Books, London 31 Knorr, W. et al. (2007) 'Impact of terrestrial biosphere carbon exchanges on the anomalous CO2 increase in 2002-2003', Geophysical Research letters, Vol.34, L09703, DOI:10.1029/2006GL029019 32 Hansen, J. (2008) “Tipping point: Perspective of a climatologist” in E. Fearn and K.H. Redford (eds) The state of the wild 2008 – A global portrait of wildlife, wildlands and oceans, Wildlife Conservation Society/Island Press 33 Lenton, T. M., Held., H. et al. (2008) ‘Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0705414105 34 Hansen, J. et al. (2005) 'Earth's energy imbalance: Confirmation and Implications', Science, June 2005, Vol. 308. no.5727, pp.1431-1435 35 Mayhew, P. J. et al. (2008) ‘A long term association between global temperature and biodiversity, origination and extinction in the fossil record’, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol.275 no.1630: pp. 47-53. London: Royal Society 36 Barnett, T. P. et al. (2005) 'Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions', Nature, Vol.438, 17, DOI:10.1038/nature04141 37 Ainsworth, E. (2007) ‘Rice Production in a Changing Climate: A Meta-analysis of Responses to Elevated Carbon Dioxide and Elevated Ozone Concentration’, Global Change Biology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01594.x 38 Running, Steven W. (2006) ‘Is Global Warming Causing More, Larger Wildfires?’, Science, Vol.313. no.5789, pp. 927 – 928, DOI: 10.1126/science.1130370 39 Scholze, M. et al. (2006) 'A climate-change risk analysis for world ecosystems', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI/10.1073/pnas.0601816103 40 Christian Aid (2007) Human Tide: The Real Migration Crisis, Christian Aid, London 41 Small Arms Survey, Geneva (2007) Small Arms Survey 2007, Cambridge University Press 42 Mabey, N. (2008) Whitehall Papers no. 69:Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate Changed World, Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, Routledge 43 Smith, D. & Vivekananda, J. (2007) A Climate of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change, Peace and War, International Alert, London 44 Dunlop, I. (2007) 'Corporate governance and responsibility', comments at University of Technology Sydney book launch, 5 Dec 2007 45 David Woodward and Andrew Simms (2006) Growth isn’t working, New Economics Foundation, London 46 Lynas, M. (2007) Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, National Geographic Society London _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.5/1979 - Release Date: 03/01/09 17:46:00 From creuss at bluewin.ch Tue Mar 3 06:58:06 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Tue Mar 3 07:00:01 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: [S] age of stupid Message-ID: > When you consider the massive and blatant theft that has been going on in > this country and most western countries due to letting banks create our > money supply, you don't need to look ahead 50 years to talk about an age > of stupidity. Moomoo baabaa. And this stupidity was _manufactured_, like the banking crash itself... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAEwGqd12cs Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From papadop at peak.org Tue Mar 3 08:48:11 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Tue Mar 3 08:48:53 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] MINUTES FROM A TORTURERS' MEETING AT Gitmo Message-ID: http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=12360 Diary Entry by Valtin (http://www.opednews.com/author/diary/author8156.html) * Valtin is a pseudonym. I am a psychologist living in Northern California. I have taught History of Psychology, and also have worked clinically with torture refugees. I have most recently been active in the fight tochange the policy of the American Psychological Association regarding the participation of psychologists in national security interrogations,where the use of torture and abusive conditions of imprisonment have been well documented. ########### The following document constitutes the minutes from a meeting held at Guantanamo in early autumn, 2002. The meeting discussed illegal torture methods and how to cover them up. :::::::: What follows below was transcribed from a PDF of the original document (or a copy of same), posted on the website of Senator Carl Levin, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. It, along with a wealth of other documentation, was used in preparing the SASC's highly critical report late last year on interrogations and detainee treatment, which concluded that high officials bore responsibility for the mistreatment and torture of prisoners under U.S. control. The document below constitutes the minutes from a meeting held at Guantanamo in early autumn, 2002. It is presented with minimal editorial comment, as I believe it speaks for itself. So far as I know, no other transcription of this document, minus certain excerpts, has ever been published or posted before. It is done so here as a public service, to promote the position that prosecution of the government's torture crimes is of paramount importance. Cast of characters: Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, the Staff Judge Advocate at Guantanamo; Lt. Col. Jerald Phifer, who sent a memo to Maj. Gen. Michael E. Dunlavey, Commander of Joint Task Force (JTF) 170, requesting approval for more "severe interrogation techniques" (Dunleavy told a superior that Phifer was his "point of contact" on interrogation matters); Major John Leso, a military psychologist, who was present at the torture interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani(Leso, like Major Burney in the minutes, were members of the Behavioral Science Consultation Team [BSCT] -- Burney is reportedly a psychiatrist -- last month, the Convening Authority of Military Commissions at Guantanamo dropped the charges against al-Qahtani, concluding his treatment amounted to torture); Dave Becker, representing the Defense Intelligence Agency; and John Fredman, then chief counsel to the CIA's counter-terrorism center. I'd like to make only two observations that I think are relevant at this point. One, it is clear that coercive interrogations amounting to torture had already begun at Guantanamo prior to this October 2002 meeting. In the document itself, the participants have a general discussion recalling how prisoner "063", Mohammed al-Qahtani, "has responded to certain types of deprivation and psychological stressors," indicating, perhaps, that al-Qahtani was some kind of experimental test case. (H/T to Trudy Bond, who noted this fact in an article published at Counterpunch earlier this year.) Secondly, it struck me when transcribing these minutes the degree to which John Fredman, the CIA legal counsel and rep to this meeting, dominated the discussion. All the participants seem to bow to his authority, especially on legal issues, with Lt. Col. Beaver chiming in as well. While the BSCT members -- who are the medical professionals present -- appear to criticize "fear-based" interrogations techniques at the beginning of the meeting, in favor of rapport-building, as well as abusive environmental "approaches," as the discussion veers more and more to propositions regarding blatant torture, like the "wet towel" (waterboarding) technique, nary a protest is heard from these individuals, who have by their actions disavowed the ethics of their medical and/or psychological professions. One final note: the acronym LEA refers to Law Enforcement Agency, and basically refers to the FBI. The acronym SERE, which appears throughout, refers to the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape program found in the various military branches. Meant to inoculate U.S. servicemen against the rigors of enemy capture and torture, Sen. Levin's investigation documented the various ways in which SERE methods were reverse-engineered to provide torture techniques for use by the military and CIA on prisoners held under U.S. control. So far as we know, the first approach by the Defense Department (specifically, by DoD Chief Counsel William J. Haynes, II) to the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, parent department for SERE, regarding information on SERE techniques, was in December 2001, well before any legal memo by Bush's Office of Legal Counsel allowing (illegally) for abusive treatment of detainees. There can be no alibi that DoD was following legal advice or protected by presidential order at that point in time. Re transcription: I have tried to follow as much as possible the layout, spelling, punctuation, and font emphasis of the original. Bullets have been changed to asterisks, arrows to long dashes. All brackets and parentheses are as in original, unless otherwise indicated. Counter Resistance Strategy Meeting Minutes Persons in Attendance: COL Cummings, LTC Phifer, CDR Bridges, LTC Beaver, MAJ Burney, MAJ Leso, Dave Becker, John Fredman, 1LT Seek, SPC Pimentel The following notes were taken during the aforementioned meeting at 1340 on October 2, 2002. All questions and comments have been paraphrased: BSCT Description of SERE Psych Training (MAJ Burney and MAJ Leso) * Identify trained resisters * Al Qaeda Training * Methods to overcome resistance * Rapport building (approach proven to yield positive results) * Friendly approach (approach proven to yield positive results) * Fear Based Approaches are unreliable, ineffective in almost all cases * What's more effective than fear based strategies are camp-wide environmental stratetgies designed to disrupt cohesion and communication among detainees * Environment should foster dependence and compliance LTC Phifer: Harsh techniques used on our service members have worked and will work on some, what about those? MAJ Leso: Force is risky, and may be ineffective due to the detainees' frame of reference. They are used to seeing much more barbaric treatment. Becker: Agreed. -- At this point a discussion about ISN 63 [Mohammed al-Qahtani] ensued, recalling how he has responded to certain types of deprivation and psychological stressors. After short discussion the BSCT continued to address the overall manipulation of the detainees' environment. BSCT continued: * Psychological stressors are extremely effective (ie, sleep deprivation, withholding food, isolation, loss of time) COL Cummings: We can't do sleep deprivation LTC Beaver: Yes, we can -- with approval. * Disrupting the normal camp operations is vital. We need to create an environment of "controlled chaos" LTC Beaver: We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross -- added by transcriber] is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques. We must have the support of the DOD. Becker: We have had many reports from Bagram about sleep deprivation being used. LTC Beaver: True, but officially it is not happening. It is not being reported officially. The ICRC is a serious concern. They will be in and out, scrutinizing our operations, unless they are displeased and decide to protest and leave. This would draw a lot of negative attention. COL Cummings: The new PSYOP plan has been passed up the chain LTC Beaver: It's at J3 at SOUTHCOM. Fredman: The DOJ has provided much guidance on this issue. The CIA is not held to the same rules as the military. In the past when the ICRC has made a big deal about certain detainees, the DOD has "moved" them away from the attention of the ICRC. Upon questioning from the ICRC about their whereabouts, the DOD's response has repeatedly been that the detainee merited no status under the Geneva Convention. The CIA has employed aggressive techniques on less than a handful of suspects since 9/11. Under the Torture Convention, torture has been prohibited by international law, but the language of the statutes is written vaguely. Severe mental and physical pain is prohibited. The mental part is explained as poorly as the physical. Severe physical pain described as anything causing permanent damage to major organs or body parts. Mental torture described as anything leading to permanent, profound damage to the senses or personality. It is basically subject to perception. If the detainee dies you're doing it wrong. So far, the techniques we have addressed have not proven to produce these types of results, which in a way challenges what the BSCT paper says about not being able to prove whether these techniques will lead to permanent damage. Everything on the BSCT white paper is legal from a civilian standpoint. [Any questions of severe weather or temperature conditions should be deferred to medical staff.] Any of the techniques that lie on the harshest end of the spectrum must be performed by a highly trained individual. Medical personnel should be present to treat any possible accidents. The CIA operates without military intervention. When the CIA has wanted to use more aggressive techniques in the past, the FBI has pulled their personnel from theatre. In those rare instances, aggressive techniques have proven very helpful. LTC Beaver: We will need documentation to protect us Fredman: Yes, if someone dies while aggressive techniques are being used, regardless of cause of death, the backlash of attention would be extremely detrimental. Everything must be approved and documented. Becker: LEA personnel will not participate in harsh techniques LTC Beaver: There is no legal reason why LEA personnel cannot participate in these operations -- At this point a discussion about whether or not to video tape the aggressive sessions, or interrogations at all ensued. Becker: Videotapes are subject to too much scrutiny in court. We don't want the LEA people in aggressive sessions anyway. LTC Beaver: LEA choice not to participate in these types of interrogations is more ethical and moral as opposed to legal. Fredman: The videotaping of even totally legal techniques will look "ugly". Becker: (Agreed) Fredman: The Torture Convention prohibits torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. The US did not sign up on the second part, because of the 8th amendment (cruel and unusual punishment), but we did sign the part about torture. This gives us more license to use more controversial techniques. LTC Beaver: Does SERE employ the "wet towel" technique? Fredman: If a well-trained individual is used to perform [sic] this technique it can feel like you're drowning. The lymphatic system will react as if you're suffocating, but your body will not cease to function. It is very effective to identify phobias and use them (ie, insects, snakes, claustrophobia). The level of resistance is directly related to person's experience. MAJ Burney: Whether or not significant stress occurs lies in the eye of the beholder. The burden of proof is the big issue. It is very difficult to disprove someone else's PTSD. Fredman: These techniques need involvement from interrogators, psych, medical, legal, etc. Becker: Would we blanket approval or would it be case by case? Fredman: The CIA makes the call internally on most of the types of techniques found in the BSCT paper, and this discussion. Significantly harsh techniques are approved through the DOJ. LTC Phifer: Who approves ours? The CG? SOUTHCOM CG? Fredman: Does the Geneva Convention apply? The CIA rallied for it not to. LTC Phifer: Can we get DOJ opinion about these topics on paper? LTC Beaver: Will it go from DOJ to DOD? LTC Phifer: Can we get to see a CIA request to use advanced aggressive techniques? Fredman: Yes, but we can't provide you with a copy. You will probably be able to look at it. An example of a different perspective on torture is Turkey. In Turkey they say that interrogation at all, or anything you do to that results in the subject betraying his comrades is torture. LTC Beaver: In the BSCT paper it says something about "imminent threat of death",... Fredman The threat of death is also subject to scrutiny, and should be handled on a case by case basis. Mock executions don't work as well as friendly approaches, like letting someone write a letter home, or providing them with an extra book. Becker: I like the part about ambient noise. -- At this point a discussion about the ways to manipulate the environment ensued, and the following ideas were offered: * Medical visits should be scheduled randomly, rather than on a set system * Let detainee rest just long enough to fall asleep and wake him up about every thirty minutes and tell him it's time to pray again * More meals per day induce loss of time * Truth serum; even though it may not actually work, it does have a placebo effect. Meeting ended at 1450. *********** The Immediate Aftermath It is worth noting some of the administrative responses to this meeting. On October 11, a week after the Counter Resistance Strategy Meeting, LTC Jerald Phifer wrote a request to Major General Michael B. Dunleavy, Commander at Guantanamo, requesting use of Counter-Resistance Strategy techniques. He divided them into three categories of intensity. Category I included direct approach and rapport building techniques, but also false identification of national identity of the interrogator, yelling at the detainee, and "techniques of deception." Category II techniques included use of stress position, isolation up to 30 days, light/auditory deprivation, 20 hour interrogations, nudity, hooding, and use of phobias "to induce stress." Category III techniques included the "wet towel" (waterboarding) treatment, threats of death to the prisoner or his family, and exposure to cold. On the same day, the Staff Judge Advocate at Guantanamo, LTC Diane E. Beaver, wrote a legal brief that concluded "the proposed strategies do not violate federal law." She did suggest, though, that Category II and III techniques undergo further legal review "prior to their commencement." Still on the same day, Maj. Gen. Dunleavy wrote a memo to the Commander of U.S. Southern Command asking for approval of the techniques. He concluded, without exception, that "these techniques do not violate U.S. or international laws. On October 25, 2002, General James T. Hill, Commander at SOUTHCOM, forwarded the request to use the techniques to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While he worried about the legality of some of th Category III techniques, particularly the death threats, he urged them to consider that he wanted "to have as many options as possible at my disposal." A few days after that, on October 28, 2002, Mark Fallon, Deputy Commander at Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF) sent a memo to a colleague. He was uneasy about what he had read in the Counter Resistance Strategy Meeting Minutes. He told his colleague the comments of Beaver and others "looks like the kinds of stuff Congressional hearings are made of." The techniques "seem to stretch beyond the bounds of legal propriety." Quotes from LTC Beaver regarding things that are not being reported give the appearance of impropriety.... Talk of "wet towel treatments" which results in the lymphatic gland reacting as if you are suffocating, would in my opinion; shock the conscience of any legal body looking at using the results of the interrogations or possibly even the interrogators. Someone needs to be considering how history will look back at this. If you wish to repost this essay you can download a .txt file In another ambitious and possibly precedent-setting case, lawyer Murray Klippenstein is representing three villagers from the valley of Intag in northwestern Ecuador who are suing Copper Mesa Mining Corporation (TSX:CUX) and the Toronto Stock Exchange. They allege that company directors and the TMX Group have not done enough to reduce the risk of harm being faced by farmers and community leaders in Intag who have faced violent threats and attacks for opposition to a large open-pit copper mine in their pristine cloud forests. Still, they hope to go further. "What is happening in Intag is illustrative of a wider problem," a summary of the legal claim states, "the corporate and financial unaccountability of the Canadian mining industry." So while the case uses established legal principles, the plaintiffs hope it will lead to long-awaited legal reforms to help better control thousands of Canadian financed projects abroad. fyi-janet ========================= Canadian Mining Firm Financed Violence in Ecuador: Lawsuit TMX Group denies claim. Win could affect thousands of other projects by Canadian companies. View full article and comments here http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/03/03/CanMining/ By Jennifer Moore jenmoore0901@gmail.com Published: March 3, 2009 TheTyee.ca "Financing being raised in Canada is travelling across borders to do harm," said lawyer Murray Klippenstein by phone from his office in Toronto. "We want to find out if our legal system can respond to this." Klippenstein is perhaps best known for his representation of the estate and family of native activist Dudley George, who was shot and killed by police in Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario in 1995. This lawsuit revealed deep political involvement from the premier's office and resulted in a landmark public inquiry. In another ambitious and possibly precedent-setting case, Klippenstein is representing three villagers from the valley of Intag in northwestern Ecuador who are suing Copper Mesa Mining Corporation (TSX:CUX) and the Toronto Stock Exchange. They allege that company directors and the TMX Group have not done enough to reduce the risk of harm being faced by farmers and community leaders in Intag who have faced violent threats and attacks for opposition to a large open- pit copper mine in their pristine cloud forests. Still, they hope to go further. "What is happening in Intag is illustrative of a wider problem," a summary of the legal claim states, "the corporate and financial unaccountability of the Canadian mining industry." So while the case uses established legal principles, the plaintiffs hope it will lead to long-awaited legal reforms to help better control thousands of Canadian financed projects abroad. Klippenstein, who said he "has learned to go miles on very little," acknowledges the "staggering financial mismatch" and says that companies have hundreds of millions of dollars to gain, so it won't surprise him if they spend tens of millions on the case. He also anticipates years of counterattacks, including motions and appeals on technicalities. But he emphasized that the basics of the case are straightforward. "There's a simple fundamental legal point that you shouldn't harm somebody and that you shouldn't use your money to hire someone who you know is likely to do harm." Conflict escalates Marcia Ram?rez is secretary of the Intag Community Development Committee. She lives near the end of the road in an isolated village in one of the most biodiverse places on earth. Her community of Chalguayaco Alto sits at the crossroads of two biodiversity hotspots, the Tumbes-Choc?-Magdalena and the Tropical Andes. "It isn't fair," she told The Tyee, "that a foreign company can come here and contract people who attack us for defending our rights, for wanting to live in a healthy environment, for defending our land and our water." She added, "We'd like the stock exchange to listen to us and to understand that we've been very hurt by one of their companies." Now 25 years old, the fight against large scale copper mining has marked daily life for the diplomatic and dedicated leader since she was about 12. Broad-based opposition to large scale copper mining arose when a Japanese company was initially carrying out mineral exploration a short distance away. When the company released its Environmental Impact Assessment report for the proposed mine, the news that four communities would be displaced, as well as massive deforestation, local desertification, river contamination and harm to endangered species sparked vociferous opposition that persists. Since Copper Mesa, who has a strategic alliance with the giant Rio Tinto, took over the project in 2004, new issues have emerged with apparent attempts to break the opposition. Now land trafficking, threats of violence, as well as relatively high-paying job offers have been driving a wedge between neighbours and families in these rural communities. "But," commented Ram?rez, "what most hurt is when they came... with armed men and sprayed us with gas." In early December 2006, over 50 heavily armed security guards, mostly ex-soldiers, were hired to reach company concessions and set up camp. Local residents had been tipped off and gathered along the narrow dirt road that the company-hired trucks would have to pass. When they arrived, Ram?rez and others tried to urge the armed men to turn around. But instead, the security agents sprayed tear gas into their faces from only a metre away and fired their weapons into the air, injuring one man, also a plaintiff in the case. When the residents didn't back down, the guards finally retreated. The incident was caught on film by a European student researching the controversy and is retold as part of the recent film Under Rich Earth by director Malcolm Rogge that debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It has also been denounced in a complaint to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Prior warning Canadian authorities were warned that such an incident could arise. On March 8th, 2005, three months before Copper Mesa (then Ascendant Copper) was listed on the TSX, County Mayor Auki Titua?a wrote to the Finance and Audit Committee of the Toronto Stock Exchange: "We consider it to be appropriate and fair that before accepting open "trade" of Ascendant Copper Corporation's stocks in the Stock Market, you evaluate in depth the "new" company's merits..." Included in his list of 14 concerns were lack of prior community consultation, lack of legally required municipal approval, violation of a municipal ordinance that declares the area an "Ecological County," as well as attempts to foster divisions as a "means to achieve company profits against the citizen's will and at a cost of the loss of unique biodiversity in our territory." Then in May, Carlos Zorrilla, executive director of the Ecological Defense and Conservation of Intag (DECOIN), travelled to Ottawa to present a complaint to the Department of Foreign Affairs claiming that Copper Mesa had violated the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Mining Watch and Friends of the Earth Canada supported the claim. "I'm here," he says in a press release, "because Canadians need to understand the real risk of violence that is emerging as a result of this company's activities." He added, "The Canadian government must take action to curb the excesses of Canadian mining companies operating and exploring overseas." The complaint was withdrawn after eight months when it was apparent that the appropriate authorities would not apply the relevant procedures. The legal summary notes that "the TSX stock market listing of Copper Mesa has allowed the company to obtain over $25 million in capital funds -- some of which paid for the armed attackers" in December 2006. Carolyn Quick, director of corporate communications for the TMX Group, told The Tyee her firm considers the case to be "entirely without merit" and that they will "vigorously defend this position." She would give no further comment about the letter from Mayor Titua?a nor the complaint made to DFAIT. No one from Copper Mesa was available to speak with The Tyee. Globalization of legal accountability Another challenge in holding companies to account in Canada, where the bulk of the world's mining companies are based, are complicated corporate structures that criss-cross continents. "By dispersing their actions across borders and saying that 'Well, we didn't do that in Canada or Ecuador, that decision was made in the U.S.,' they can evade accountability. The courts can respond and say 'Take this case somewhere else,'" says Klippenstein. Copper Mesa whose headquarters in Colorado, "has connections to some nine different legal jurisdictions, making it difficult to identify which jurisdiction is the proper one in which to hold the corporation accountable," says the legal summary of the case. The former website of Copper Mesa (then Ascendant Copper) acknowledged that its corporate structure makes suing directors difficult: "All of the directors of Ascendant and substantially all of their assets and those of Ascendant are located outside of Canada. It may not be possible for purchasers of securities being qualified for distribution under this prospectus to effect service of process within Canada upon directors who reside outside of Canada..." It is for this reason that the lawsuit focuses on decisions allegedly made in Ontario. 'Establish clear legal norms in Canada' However, one possible advantage for rural residents of Intag preparing for a lengthy legal battle on tricky Canadian territory is that they are not alone in their concern. Their broader goals for legal regulations of Canadian mining companies echo what the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and other civil society groups have already been saying. While Carlos Zorrilla was in Ottawa in 2005, the SCFAIT was writing its 14th report, which recommended that the government "Establish clear legal norms in Canada to ensure that Canadian companies and residents are held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies." The government responded saying that it "will continue to examine the best practices of other states attempting to address the accountability of businesses for activities conducted abroad." But it has yet to implement mandatory rules. Still Klippenstein is hopeful in the face of tough odds. "One has to trust in the promise of a certain amount of fairness and independence that the justice system can provide. It has been shown that powerful people can be brought to kneel this way before." It took eight years of legal proceedings before a public inquiry was called in the Dudley George case. They never even made it to court, but a long list of recommendations was implemented. Ram?rez is also optimistic that they have a chance at justice through Canadian courts as part of their fight to leave Intag's cloud forests intact. She points out the variety of sustainable development projects that they have been working on as alternatives to large scale mining, including community owned watersheds, a mixed mini-hydroelectric company, as well as agricultural and tourism initiatives. She urges Canadians to see the benefits: "We want future generations to have what we have." From netcfs at shaw.ca Tue Mar 3 15:29:51 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Tue Mar 3 15:29:45 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for funding Message-ID: <1236122991.6026.30.camel@localhost> Dear Mai-notters: I monitor the traffic and the contrent of the posts on Mai-Not and find that you are a pretty lively group. But I see that only one of you, Dion Giles, to name him, (thank you, Dion, your can$ 25 came safely) has contributed anything to the costs of running the list. I'll let you think about that a little, then send again guidelines about how to contribute. All the best, and keep on plodding. Yves -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090303/1bbe0503/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Tue Mar 3 18:56:46 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Tue Mar 3 18:54:33 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for funding In-Reply-To: <1236122991.6026.30.camel@localhost> References: <1236122991.6026.30.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <49ADB5AE.8012.DCFAA97B@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Hello Yves: Can you send us the address for contributions to costs of managing the list. all the best and with appreciation for your dedication to mai-not, janet On 3 Mar 2009 at 15:29, Yves Bajard wrote: From: Yves Bajard To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Date sent: Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:29:51 -0800 Copies to: Dee Subject: [Mai-not] Call for funding Send reply to: A renewed Mai-Not Dear Mai-notters: I monitor the traffic and the contrent of the posts on Mai-Not and find that you are a pretty lively group. But I see that only one of you, Dion Giles, to name him, (thank you, Dion, your can$ 25 came safely) has contributed anything to the costs of running the list. I'll let you think about that a little, then send again guidelines about how to contribute. All the best, and keep on plodding. Yves From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Tue Mar 3 18:57:25 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue Mar 3 19:37:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: John Bellamy Foster, Michael Lebowitz on Marx, economic crisis, Venezuela, Philippines, Pakistan, Caribbean strikes, Marx the ecologist, Tamils, Zimbabwe Message-ID: <49ADEE15.5010802@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: John Bellamy Foster, Michael Lebowitz on Marx, economic crisis, Venezuela, Philippines, Pakistan, Caribbean strikes, Marx the ecologist, Tamils, Zimbabwe * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * John Bellamy Foster: `A whole different kind of struggle is emerging' John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, recently published by Monthly Review Press. This interview was conducted by Mike Whitney and first appeared at Dissident Voice. It has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with Whitney's permission. * Read more `Let us rediscover Marx' -- Two talks on Michael Lebowitz's `Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class' By Michael A. Lebowitz [Michael Lebowitz will be a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia, on April 10-12, 2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and Green Left Weekly. Visit http://www.worldATACrossroads.org for full agenda and to book your tickets.] February 16, 2009 -- It is well known that when Karl Marx heard what people calling themselves Marxists were saying, he commented, ``all I know is that I am not a Marxist''. It is not as well known, however, that Marx had little respect for disciples in general. A theory disintegrates, he said, when disciples try to ``explain away'' problems in the theory -- when they engage in ``crass empiricism'', use ``phrases in a scholastic way'', and employ ``cunning argument'' to support the theory. A theory disintegrates, he said, when the point of departure of the disciples is ``no longer reality'' but the theory that the master produced. * Read more Economic crisis: Skyrocketing unemployment in Asia hits women and young people hardest By Reihana Mohideen [Reihana Mohideen will be a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia, on April 10-12, 2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and Green Left Weekly. Visit http://www.worldATACrossroads.org for full agenda and to book your tickets.] February 23, 2009 -- Recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports on global and regional employment trends paint a stark picture of rapidly increasing unemployment in 2008; the situation is expected to worsen in 2009 with the prediction of massive job losses. The message is clear: workers and the poor are already paying heavily for the capitalist economic crisis. Especially hard hit are working-class and poor women and young people. * Read more Venezuela: Referendum victory advances process of change By Chris Kerr Caracas, February 20, 2009 -- "Today we opened wide the gates of the future ... Truth against lies [and] the dignity of the homeland has triumphed", Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez insisted to tens of thousands of celebrating supporters after Venezuelans voted to amend the constitution to end term limits on all elected politicians -- allowing Chavez to stand for re-election in 2012.'' ``Venezuela will not return to its past of indignity", Chavez stated, referring to the four decades of alternating rule by two corrupt parties that followed the overthrow of a military dictatorship in 1958. * Read more Pakistan: Punjab provincial government deposed; PPP resorts to dictatorial measures By Farooq Tariq Lahore, February 27, 2009 -- The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership has a problem on its hands. There are not many ways to defend the governor of Punjab's ruling on February 25, which imposed a two-month suspension of the Punjab Assembly. The most respected and moderate leader of PPP and chairperson of the Senate, Mian Raza Rubani, justified the decision by saying that it was necessary to stop the ``prevailing state of anarchy''. * Read more General strike shakes France's Caribbean colonies Introduction by Richard Fidler February 26, 2009 -- Life on the Left -- The general strike in two French colonies in the Caribbean is firm, with no end in sight. It began in Guadeloupe on January 20 and spread to neighbouring Martinique on February 5 as a protest against the high cost of living and, more generally, the gross inequality between the conditions of the black population and a tiny white elite, descendants of slaveholders, who control most industry and agriculture. * Read more Karl Marx the ecologist By Simon Butler February 21, 2009 -- As the world economy spirals down into its deepest crisis since the great depression, the writings of Karl Marx have made a return to the top seller lists in bookstores. In his native Germany, the sales of Marx's works have trebled. His theories have been treated with contempt by conservative economists and historians. Yet, in the context of the latest economic downturn, even a few mainstream economists have been compelled to ask whether Marx was right after all. Marx argued that capitalism is inherently unstable, fraught with contradictions and prone to deep crises. Only a move to a democratic socialist society, where ordinary people are empowered to make the key decisions about the economy and society themselves, can open the path to genuine freedom and liberation. * Read more Australian Tamils call for ceasefire in Sri Lanka -- sign the crisis statement In an attempt to put an urgent stop to the humanitarian catastrophe, a group of young Tamil Australians have written a Sri Lankan Crisis Statement for the wider Australian community to sign. * Read more Venezuela: A balance sheet of the constitutional referendum victory By Gonzalo Villanueva Venezuela's February 15 constitutional amendment referendum, which proposed to modify the existing constitution to allow politicians to stand for re-election without restrictions, was triumphant. However, the referendum was more than a legal amendment - the removal of term limits - it was a political issue: to continue the revolutionary project or not? The Venezuelan people have convincingly signalled their desire to continue with the Bolivarian process, under the leadership of Hugo Chavez. The victory undoubtedly opens a path to advance and deepen the Bolivarian Revolution. * Read more Australia: Full agenda for World at a Crossroads conference - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century World at a Crossroads - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century Sydney, Australia, April 10-13 * Read more A spectre haunts imperialism ... a rebirth of the left By Kavita Krishnan [Kavita Krishnan will be a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia, on April 10-12, 2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and Green Left Weekly. Visit http://www.worldATACrossroads.org for full agenda and to book your tickets.] February 25, 2009 -- The people of the United States (through their vote for US President Barack Obama and ``change'') and Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi alike may have given George W. Bush (and all he stood for) the boot - but India's Congress Party wants to give Bush the Bharat Ratna![1] Congress Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, addressing the annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), declared, "Give Bharat Ratna to Bush. I don't know what the rules are but I will officially do something." * Read more Zimbabwe socialists: Fight for fresh elections under a new people-driven constitution! February 6, 2009 -- The International Socialist Organisation Zimbabwe (ISOZ) has consistently argued for the last few years that the poor and working people would pay dearly if they naively followed the false calls for "change" championed by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its imperialist-supported civic society allies, and subordinated their organisations to the same. * Read more * Read more Philippines: 'We need system change', says military rebel By Peter Boyle February 19, 2009 -- Major Jason Aquino is one of the 28 officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines charged with allegedly attempting a mutiny in February 2006. Aquino was detained on February 22 that year and held incommunicado in a windowless cell for five months. I met Major Aquino and several other detained rebel officers in Camp Aguinaldo in early February 2009. They were all outspoken against the grossly corrupt government of Philippines President Gloria Arroyo, and their years of incarceration (as yet without being convicted of a single crime) have only deepened their politicisation. But Major Aquino -- who has studied the speeches and writings of Fidel Castro and read everything he can get his hands on about the revolution in Venezuela led by Hugo Chavez -- wanted to make it clear a that he was "not a reformist". * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 _______________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090304/1ed71dbd/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Tue Mar 3 21:45:15 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Tue Mar 3 21:45:37 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] DoJ Memos said Bush had UNLIMITED POWER to prosecure war, Message-ID: http://mathaba.net/news/print25.shtml?cmd[40]=i-42-7f6e99988bf604bd6a99 DoJ Memos Gave Bush Total Power Posted: 2009/03/03 Secret Justice Department memos asserted that President George W. Bush had unlimited power to prosecute the `war on terror` on American soil. by Jason Leopold (Consortium News) http://www.consortiumnews.com -- Jason Leopold has launched his own Web site, The Public Record, at www.pubrecord.org. Lawyers for George W. Bush's Justice Department asserted that the President had unlimited powers to prosecute the war on terror on American soil and could ignore constitutional rights, including First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press and Fourth Amendment requirements for search warrants, according to nine secret memos just released. The memos related to opinions drafted by John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel, a powerful agency that advises the President on the extent of his powers under the Constitution. In perhaps the most controversial of the memos, dated Oct. 23, 2001, and entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States, Yoo said Bushs war powers allowed him to put restrictions on freedom of the press and freedom of speech. "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote. "The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically." The memo concluded that "that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations. The Fourth Amendment states that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. The memo said Bush had the legal authority to order searches and seizures without warrants against individuals that he judged to be terrorists. "We do not think a military commander carrying out a raid on a terrorist cell would be required to demonstrate probable cause or to obtain a warrant," said the memo, which was prepared by Yoo for then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Defense Department attorney William Haynes. Another OLC attorney, Robert Delahunty, was identified as a co-author of the memo. "We think that the better view is that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to domestic military operations designed to deter and prevent future terrorist attacks." In effect, the newly released memos make clear that as some critics have long maintained President Bush viewed his post 9/11 powers as Commander in Chief as plenary or unfettered. What made the war on terror especially problematic in a constitutional Republic was that the conflict had no limits in time or space. In other words, theoretically, the conflict would go on forever and the supposed front lines could be inside the United States as well as around the world. Renouncing Yoos Memos Just three months before Bush exited the White House, Stephen Bradbury, as acting chief of the OLC, renounced the Oct. 23, 2001, legal opinion in a memorandum for the files that called Yoos opinion about suspending First Amendment protections as unnecessary and "overbroad and general and not sufficiently grounded in the particular circumstance of a concrete scenario." In an Oct. 6, 2008, memo, Bradbury wrote that Yoos legal opinion states several specific propositions that are either incorrect or highly questionable. But Bradbury attempted to justify or forgive Yoos controversial opinion by explaining that it was the product of an extraordinary period in the history of the Nation: the immediate aftermath of the attacks of 9/11. The Oct. 23, 2001, memorandum represents a departure, although perhaps for understandable reasons, from the preferred practice of OLC to render formal opinions only with respect to specific and concrete policy proposals and not to undertake a general survey of a broad area of the law or to address general or amorphous hypothetical scenarios that implicate difficult questions of law, Bradbury wrote. Bradbury identified five controversial points contained in Yoos Oct. 23, 2001, memo and wrote that appropriate caution should be exercised before relying in any respect on the memorandum as a precedent of OLC, and that the particular propositions identified should not be treated as authoritative. It was unclear what prompted Bradbury to draft the memo to the file, although his work along with Yoos and that of Yoos boss, Jay Bybee, was the subject of an internal Justice Department investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility, which completed its still-classified report late last year. Bradbury wrote another memo five days before Bush left office in January in which he once again repudiated Yoo's legal opinions. It would appear that this memo was in response to the OPR report. Bradbury said in the Jan. 15 memo that the flawed theories by Yoo in no way should be interpreted to mean that Justice Department lawyers did not "satisfy" professional standards. Rather, Bradbury wrote "in the wake of the atrocities of 9/11, when policy makers, fearing that additional catastrophic terrorist attacks were imminent, strived to employ all lawful means to protect the Nation." Another of the released memos dated March 13, 2002 and signed by Bybee, then assistant attorney general at the OLC said Bush had the authority to transfer suspected terrorists to other countries without concern for whether they would be tortured. Bybee's memo was written one month after Bush suspended Geneva Conventions protections for al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. Although such transfers might violate our treaty obligations if extradition is to a country where torture is likely... To fully shield our personnel from criminal liability, it is important that the United States not enter in an agreement with a foreign country, explicitly or implicitly, to transfer a detainee to that country for the purpose of having the individual tortured," Bybee wrote. "So long as the United States does not intend for a detainee to be tortured post-transfer, however, no criminal liability will attach to a transfer even if the foreign country receiving the detainee does torture him," Bybee wrote. Bybee's memo said a 1998 law that prohibited the United States from handing over prisoners to countries that engaged in torture was not valid because it interfered with the President's constitutional powers. Bybee is now a federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Military Commissions Another OLC memo dated April 8, 2002, said Bush did not need approval from Congress to hold military commissions to prosecute alleged terrorists. However, the Supreme Court shot down that theory and declared military commissions illegal because Congress did not explicitly approve them. Congress did pass the Military Commissions Act in 2006 to prosecute detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. In releasing the memos on Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder said "Americans deserve a government that operates with transparency and openness. It is my goal to make OLC opinions available when possible while still protecting national security information and ensuring robust internal executive branch debate and decision-making." In a speech before the Jewish Council of Public Affairs in Washington, Holder said that "too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties. Not only is that school of thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good." Jameel Jaffer, the director of the American Civil Liberties Unions National Security Project, said the memos released Monday essentially argue that the President has a blank check to disregard the Constitution during wartime, not only on foreign battlefields, but also inside the United States. We hope todays release is a first step, because dozens of other OLC memos, including memos that provided the basis for the Bush administration's torture and warrantless wiretapping policies, are still being withheld, said Jaffer, whose organization has tried to obtain the memos under the Freedom of Information Act. In order to truly turn the page on a lawless era, these memos should be released immediately, he said. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who plans a hearing on Wednesday to discuss the formation of a truth commission to probe the Bush administrations policies, said the newly released legal opinions regarding national security remain of great concern. From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Tue Mar 3 22:09:20 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Tue Mar 3 22:19:51 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: DUBLIN - "Bono" Outside Dept. of Finance Singing Justification for the Rich Avoiding Paying Tax as the Irish Economy Implodes! Message-ID: <011501c99c91$40a42520$7ead57ca@jfos> Recently U2 as a corporate entity moved to Holland to avoid playing taxes in Ireland. All band members are resident in Ireland. Presently the Irish economy implodes, rich bankers walk away with huge bonuses from banks bailed out by the public purse, teachers are being cut from schools, buses taken off the street, thousands dismissed from their jobs and levys placed on those still in work. On the eve of U2's latest multimillion record launch "No Line on the Horizon", we accompanied "Bono" to the Department of Finance to sing his justification for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer! With excellent timing the gig was gatecrashed by the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan TD. *Check out the vidclip (7mins) of Bono outside the Dept of Finance Feb 25th 2009 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/91294 *"How Ireland Went Bust - Autopsy for the Celtic Tiger" - Harry Browne http://www.counterpunch.org/browne02192009.html Lyrics (tune - " I Still Don't Know What I'm Looking For") I have paid highest fees I have moved overseas Only to pay less tax Only to pay less tax I have run I have crawled I've done so much you'd be appalled You'd be appalled Only to pay less tax But I still haven't learned about democracy No I still haven't learned about democracy I know avoiding tax ain't fair It's just because I'm a millionaire I don't need to pay like you No I won't pay like you Cause I still haven't learned about democracy But I still haven't learned about democracy You paid your tax and you Laid the blame Carried the burden Of my shame Of my shame You know I'm still running Cause I still haven't learned about democracy No I still haven't learned about democracy But I still haven't learned about democracy But I still haven't learned about democracy... ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Thu Mar 5 08:44:22 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Thu Mar 5 08:46:31 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] How Close the Bush Bullet by Robert Parry [re Bush's assault on America's constitutional Republic ] Message-ID: <49AFC926.1673.E51A404C@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Earlier this decade when some of us warned that George W. Bush was behaving more like an incipient dictator than the leader of a constitutional republic, we were dismissed as alarmists, left- wingers, traitors and a host of less printable epithets. But it is now increasingly clear that President Bush and his top advisers viewed the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to implement a series of right-wing legal theories that secretly granted Bush unlimited power to act lawlessly and outside the traditional parameters of the U.S. Constitution..... According to his administration's secret legal memos released Monday, Bush could waive all meaningful constitutional rights of citizens, including the First Amendment's protections on free speech and a free press..... The article goes on to describe how Bush attempted to undermine the sixth amendment as well and concludes: Bush's assault on America's constitutional Republic may have been more aggressive than many of us imagined. It was a bullet that came close to the heart of a dream dating back to 1776. --Robert Parry [see bio at end of article] fyi-janet =================================== http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/04-15 Published on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 by Consortium News How Close the Bush Bullet by Robert Parry Earlier this decade when some of us warned that George W. Bush was behaving more like an incipient dictator than the leader of a constitutional republic, we were dismissed as alarmists, left- wingers, traitors and a host of less printable epithets. But it is now increasingly clear that President Bush and his top advisers viewed the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to implement a series of right-wing legal theories that secretly granted Bush unlimited power to act lawlessly and outside the traditional parameters of the U.S. Constitution. These theories held that at a time of war - even one as vaguely defined as the "war on terror" - Bush's powers as Commander in Chief were "plenary," or total. And since the conflict against terrorism had no boundaries in time or space, his unfettered powers would exist everywhere and essentially forever. According to his administration's secret legal memos released Monday, Bush could waive all meaningful constitutional rights of citizens, including the First Amendment's protections on free speech and a free press. John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department's powerful Office of Legal Counsel - which advises a President on the limits of his constitutional powers - declared that Bush could void the First Amendment if he deemed it necessary to fight terrorism. "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote in an Oct. 23, 2001, memo entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States." Yoo then added ominously, "The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically." What was particularly stunning about Yoo's reference to waiving the First Amendment - a pillar of American democracy - was his cavalier attitude. He tossed the paragraph into a memo focused on stripping Americans of their Fourth Amendment "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." While saying that Bush could order spying on and military attacks against U.S. domestic targets at his own discretion as Commander in Chief, Yoo added, almost in passing, that the President also could abrogate the rights of free speech and a free press. Wiping Out Public Trials Another Yoo memo, dated June 27, 2002, essentially voided the Sixth Amendment and a federal law guaranteeing Americans the right to public trials. In the memo, Yoo asserted that Bush had the power to declare American citizens "enemy combatants" and detain them indefinitely. "The President's power to detain enemy combatants, including U.S. citizens, is based on his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief," Yoo wrote, adding that "Congress may no more regulate the President's ability to detain enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements on the battlefield." Yoo acknowledged that in "war on terror" cases, an "enemy combatant" may have no formal connection to an enemy group, may have no weapon, and may have no discernable plan for carrying out a terrorist attack. In other words, an "enemy combatant" could be anyone that Bush so designated. Under Yoo's analysis, an alleged "enemy combatant" would have no legal recourse, since Bush's Commander in Chief powers trumped even habeas corpus requirements that the government must show cause for imprisoning someone. Further, this opinion wasn't just hypothesizing; it provided the legal basis for indefinitely detaining U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. Though the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately issued a narrow 5-4 decision overturning Bush's supposed right to deny habeas corpus and punish "enemy combatants" through his own military court system, many of Yoo's concepts survived in the Military Commissions Act, which was passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2006. While the law appears on the surface to target only non-citizens, fine print deep in the legislation makes clear that the Bush administration still was asserting its power to detain U.S. citizens who were viewed as aiding and abetting foreign enemies and to punish those citizens through military commissions that denied normal due- process rights to defendants. "Any person is punishable as a principal under this chapter who commits an offense punishable by this chapter, or aids, abets, counsels, commands, or procures its commission," the law states, adding that "any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States ... shall be punished as a military commission ... may direct." The reference to people acting "in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States" would not apply to Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda but would cover American citizens. The Military Commissions Act remains in effect to this day, although President Barack Obama has vowed not to apply it, favoring use of regular civilian or military courts. Loss of First Amendment Though some of us have cited Bush's determination to override key constitutional protections for years (see, for instance, our book Neck Deep), few critics - including me - thought to include the notion that Bush was interested in suspending the First Amendment. The significance of Yoo's throwaway paragraph about throwing away the First Amendment is that it suggests that the Bush administration intended as early as October 2001 to act against journalists and citizens who were viewed as undermining Bush's "war on terror" through public comments or disclosures. As a right-wing legal scholar, Yoo surely shared the Right's knee- jerk animosity toward past reporting on the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War's Pentagon Papers, as well as contempt for Americans who demonstrated against the Vietnam War. But his First Amendment reference also may have reflected the thinking of senior Bush aides in those early days of the "war on terror" as they collaborated with Yoo in formulating his legal opinions. In his 2006 book War by Other Means, Yoo describes his participation in frequent White House meetings regarding what "other means" should receive a legal stamp of approval. Yoo said the "meetings were usually chaired by Alberto Gonzales," then White House counsel, and involved Vice President Dick Cheney's legal counsel, David Addington. So, a seemingly incongruous reference to overriding the First Amendment - in a memo centered on overriding the Fourth Amendment - could be explained by the desire of White House officials to have some legal cover for actions aimed at journalists who were exposing secrets or whose reporting might weaken the national resolve behind Bush's actions. It also suggests that Bush's critics who exercised their free speech rights in challenging his "war on terror" could have become targets of special government operations justified under Bush's Commander in Chief powers. In other words, Bush's assault on America's constitutional Republic may have been more aggressive than many of us imagined. It was a bullet that came close to the heart of a dream dating back to 1776. ? 2009 Consortium News Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat. His two previous books are Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'. From ptuffley at xtra.co.nz Thu Mar 5 13:15:20 2009 From: ptuffley at xtra.co.nz (Peter Tuffley) Date: Thu Mar 5 13:15:58 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] How Close the Bush Bullet by Robert Parry [re Bush's assault on America's constitutional Republic ] In-Reply-To: <49AFC926.1673.E51A404C@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <49AFC926.1673.E51A404C@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <00360D26-D8DA-4C6D-B8CA-030545949726@xtra.co.nz> On 6/03/2009, at 5:44 AM, Janet M Eaton wrote: > > Earlier this decade when some of us warned that George W. Bush was > behaving more like an incipient dictator than the leader of a > constitutional republic, we were dismissed as alarmists, left- > wingers, traitors and a host of less printable epithets. > > But it is now increasingly clear that President Bush and his top > advisers viewed the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to implement a > series of right-wing legal theories that secretly granted Bush > unlimited power to act lawlessly and outside the traditional > parameters of the U.S. Constitution..... > Like Nixon, only worse. Depressingly, one has to recognise that there will probably come a time when this lesson of the Bush2 years will be forgotten, and the White House will be inhabited by an even greater criminal. God help the world if by that time the hegemonistic capacity of the US has not been destroyed. If that destruction results from the current economic meltdown, it will have been well worth the pain. Peter From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Thu Mar 5 16:36:46 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Thu Mar 5 17:12:06 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Is A Major War A Possibility In 2009? The Historical Antecedents Message-ID: <019201c99df8$72286530$4bad57ca@jfos> A little lengthy, but definitely worth the effort overall ...IMHO. Contains some important historical and current insights. John Is A Major War A Possibility In 2009? The Historical Antecedents by Dr. Frederic F. Clairmont Global Research, February 27, 2009 In these lectures I shall venture to answer some of the queries made regarding the prospects of a major war . The notes to these lectures were scribbled over time in the corner of the living room. There are two large standing lamps that illuminate the copy book that I am using to scribble these lines. The thin light black pen is gliding effortlessly over the paper. It is one of my inseparable companions. It is Made in China as well as the copy book with squared paper. One of my Associates raised the question the other night: is there any manufactured products that American capitalism can produce that China cannot produce better and in greater quantities and considerably cheaper? This is not fanciful speculation. It therefore follows whether American capitalism in its current state of indebtedness, mass impoverishment and financial disintegration will be able to compete internationally. Or put it another way: how and by what means will it pay for its imports, for what it consumes? Will it be able - on present evidence it is not - to shave and ultimately to eliminate its trade deficit by exporting more than it imports? Further, can the dollar be an acceptable medium of payment and exchange given the battering to which it has been unrelentingly subjected for many years? The observation by Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Greenback is worth less than used toilet paper is ungracious, but it is shared by many leading spirits in the world of finance capitalism. In subsequent lectures we shall explore the ramifications of these issues. Suffice it to say that it is a matter of life and death that takes us into the deepest reaches of the conflictual contradictions within world capitalism and the imperialist lethal that I have will give you more than an idea of what is meant when we say that China has become the industrial hub of our planet; as well as an idea of what we mean when we speak of financial imbalances. Of that more later. The Ramifications Some of you have evoked the possibility of a world conflict in the course of 2009.. I shan't say that this prediction is far-fetched; or remote. Doubtless, many of you do not mean a regional conflict as in Ossetia and Gaza . Nor do I exclude the possibility of the US / Israel on Iran . In the making of war, madness can never be excluded. Let us keep in mind that the US caste oligarchy (USCO) and its trillion dollar militarist appendage is at war on several front in areas engulfing tens of thousands of kilometers: It is pursuing a war in Gaza via its surrogate; it is pursuing a war in Iraq; and of course it is escalating its military drive in Afghanistan; it has extended its killing fields to Pakistan. Recall that Pakistan has a frontier of 2,500 kms with Afghanistan . Such a possibility cannot be ignored. How does one approach the subject? What is the most appropriate method? I am aware that itemizing the potential flashpoints gives us individual dots but the dots are not connected. They remain separate and cannot provide an insight of the detonator. I am sympathetic to your speculation. The historian must select his facts This is a matter of personal choice. But how and to what purpose he selects his facts stems from his principle of selectivity that is a part of a process of abstraction. His selection and his interpretation of events are thereby conditioned by his ideological and philosophical predilections. His class affiliations. His personal experience. One may itemize a list but itemizing single events do not give us a handle to comprehend these complex phenomena.. The assassination of Kronprinz Franz Josef by a young Serb nationalist was certainly the detonator but it tells us very little without disentangling the complex of nationalist convulsions and economic and dynastic rivalries that shredded the vitals of the world economy. Nor can we ignore the military naval buildup of the German empire that challenged the centuries old supremacy of the Royal Navy. As David Lloyd George - the shrewdest of imperial artisans and a paramount Hatchet man the Great War noted : "if 1914 had not come when it did it would have inevitably come later". The key words are 'come later'. What Lloyd George had in mind was that the power politics of finance capitalism and imperialism, and the carnage it irrepressibly incubated, was inherent in the evolution of world capitalism given its ceaseless lunge for territorial and financial spheres of aggrandizement. And its wars were confirmatory. The Arms Race. Many of you have emphasized the fact that the USCO is likely to boost expenditures to offset the fall in demand in the private sector thereby raising the level of employment. It is not a new recipe but the thesis has a defect in the present context of international relations. The U S CO is already spending more than twice or three times what the rest of the world is spending on arms. SIPRI in Stockholm that you'll find on the Internet provides the exact numbers. But I am not momentarily concerned with such numbers. The USCO and its military lackeys has been at war since 1945 non- stop. And that includes its role in the Chinese Civil War that ended in 1949, in Indochina since 1945, in Korea , in Iraq twice over.etc. Its colonial wars fought exclusively against peoples of colour have driven the US economy into a state of bankruptcy. At the latest count, it has 250 military bases outside the United States . It is spending more than it earns. It is the world's biggest mendicant. It is spending other people's borrowed money. In Iraq alone, according to the figures of Stiglitz, the number is $3.5 trillion and the wars are not yet over. In these wars it has slaughtered millions. It is fighting wars in Iraq , Afghanistan , Pakistan and Israel 's attack against Gaza , as in Lebanon , was inconceivable without US support. This is a banality. Let me say that the phosphor bombs used in Gaza were made in Virginia . The uranium enriched artillery shells were manufactured in Tennessee . The bombers were F-18's of American fabrication. Gaza was one more testing ground for its weapons of mass slaughter. That makes four wars. Some are right to stress that wars, preparations of wars, boosts output and employment. What matters here is the nature of the output and its related employment impact. It is unproductive and does not add to productive capacity. This was certainly the case of Hitler's Third Reich in which arms outlays provided a booster that eliminated the ranks of the jobless. And of course the jobless could always find jobs in the Wehrmacht subsequently transformed into cannon fodder. This was true of the U K from 1937 onwards. As you recognize the changes wrought by FDR's New Deal , admirable but illusory in several ways, did not curtail the Great Depression. What did the job was massive public sector war expenditures bankrolled by debt. Let me repeat that what ended that satanic slump triggered in 29 was the advent of World War 2. Can it therefore be suggested that war and preparations for war offers a 'final solution' for achieving full employment? In the case of the US capitalism the answer is unequivocally no. War expenditures - bankrolled by foreign borrowing and ever swelling debt holes - sets the stage for endemic corruption, national indebtedness and bankruptcy and all its innumerable toxic corollaries. The debts of American capitalism - Federal, corporate and household - will never be repaid. They cannot be repaid. With the economy imploding daily USCO does not have the wherewithal to repay its debts. Frankenstein defaults are on the horizon. One may contend that it raises the revenues of the arms producers. In what sectors is this true? In what individual enterprises does this hold? If you take pains to examine the share prices of all of the big arms producers i.e. Lockheed at the Standard & Poor's and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) you'll find that their revenues and profits have tumbled as have their share prices . Given the capital intensity of modern arms output the labour inputs required i.e. employment is sharply reduced. Productivity, (ratio of inputs to outputs) has risen sharply resulting in a cutback in labour requirements with collateral falls in wages. I believe you'll find that for the most part their balance sheets have been battered although perhaps not as bad as the financial sector .The conclusion appears obvious: stimulus plans, or pumping the prime as it was earlier called, will obviously not do the trick. I return again to the estimates of Stiglitz. In Iraq alone, it is spending $3.5 trillion. Where is the money coming from? By borrowing. As I said repeatedly in these lectures the world capitalist economy has entered into a deflationary stagnationary phase , or defstag as I've called it. The USCO is living off borrowed time and other people's borrowed money, a parasitical binge that is sustained by 70% of the world's savings, palpably unsustainable even over the short haul. Israel and the Middle East . I suspect that some are correct to surmise that Gaza is too small an area to be considered the likely detonator of a major world conflict. Size, however, is not the only benchmark. Serbia in 1914 was also a very exiguous geo-demographic area. But it provided the detonator and is therefore not the only factor in play; it is the larger forces that are set in motion. Gaza and Israel are segments of a .larger empire writhing in its final apoplexy. The goal of the US/Israeli onslaught is to obliterate Hamas as its onslaught in Lebanon was to eliminate the Hezbollah. They failed miserably. The citizens of the Zio-fascist state applauded the rape of the Gazans. And here we come not to abstract forces but the role of individuals in history. Netanyahu an outright exponent of unrelenting Arab exterminism has succeeded in climbing the greasy pole of a state that itself is riven by ethnic and class divisions. . His speech in Davos, like that of Olmert , is more than the howlings of a politico bent on the destruction of Arabs, and what his fascist cronies call Hamastan. His utterances, like that of Lieberman, could be translated into reality. Netanyahu/ Lieberman could demolish the entire Middle East and that includes the Hebrew sate. . And by that I mean it could lead to the unmaking of Mr. Obama and , I daresay , to his political destruction given the unquestioned reach of the Zionist lobbies. Mr. Obama is a fragile politician and the untamed capitalist convulsions, nationally and internationally, will shove him into raging cross currents. We know who the Netanyahu/Lieberman duo is . There is nothing nebulous in their blueprint. "My highest priority" Netanyahu thunders "is Iran ". Need we say more? Has Obama plumbed the meaning of that statement? There is nothing cryptic about it. The duo's unrivaled standing in the Zionist lobbies and in the dominant spheres of the USCO the US is high. Hence we cannot ignore the possibility that in their desperation they could trigger a wider war. Such a course could not be confined to the region. The goal of US imperialism, conflated with that of Israel , is the destruction of Iran , the ally of both Hamas and Hezbollah. This is not speculation. It is stated policy. The Iranian prime minister has pushed his pawns. The game has started. The launching of their satellite into space injects into our calculations new and terrible variables. Can Israel reconcile itself to coexist with Hamas and an increasingly militant anti-American and anti-Zionist world? The change in tone of the Arab world seen in the unambiguous article of a member of the Saudi Royal family - and a powerful intellect - in The Financial Times - suggest a turning of the tide. The Arab street is a reality. It is angry and getting angrier with each passing day. It is unemployed. It is poverty stricken but Al Jazzera with a 140 million viewers reaches them. A stooge like Mahmoud Abbas is a ghost and his power is eviscerated. He too was in Davos and his speech like that of Karzai was written by his American touts. The Israeli leadership sounded out Bush (whose administration turned them down) for overflying Iraq to bomb Iran 's nuclear facilities. It appeared in The New York Times. They were turned down by the Bush cabal not because of humanitarian reasons but because they understood for once the far-reaching consequences. You will also recall H. Clinton current mistress of State Department had the gall to proclaim that she would obliterate Iran during her electoral jousts. It is not the moment to discuss the implications of that projected genocidal act. The position of Bush and Obama on the attack against Iran are identical. Iran has made it clear that it intends to pursue nuclear enrichment for civilian purposes and Russia will complete this year the building of the nuclear facility at Bukwear. In chess, it is not sufficient to decide what your is but to foresee that of your opponent . Let me proceed to a no less significant flashpoint. The relationship between China and the USA which have scaled new heights of trade tensions despite the mellifluous babbling to the contrary.. Protectionism or call it economic nationalism if you prefer in a multiplicity of guises is omnipresent. And that I shall deal with presently. China and the US Before I proceed, however, to examine whether mounting trade and payment tensions could lead to a deadly military confrontation we should remind ourselves of the nature of the trade rivalries and weapons deployed in those economic wars in the thirties. The speech of the Chinese president lambasting the United in Davos , as did Putin, is indicative of the drift of economic war. Davos is the pivot of globalization. It is the cockpit of corporate power, of world leaders and aspiring leaders. Davos underlined the penurious fragility of financial institutions once regarded as the bedrock of the system. Words as stability and confidence have been wiped out from their slate. The debacle of U B S and of The City and the ongoing tremours in Wall Street , matched by such spectacular swindlers as Madoff and Stanford The anger can no longer be dissimulated nor more than it can be concealed in the mass labour demonstrations in Paris and all French cities and in the neo-colony of Guadeloupe. The tensions are mounting. They go beyond beggar-my-neighbour policies first created by Joan Robinson of Cambridge University in the thirties'. No where was the nature of these conflicts more clearly delineated than by Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the Cunard Steamship Company (April 1935) at a moment when the Great Depression raged. Its relevance to our times is all too obvious: "We are going through a war.The arms that are being employed are not battleships, armies, aircraft, but tariffs, quotas and currencies. No international monetary standard is recognized, and every time that a tariff, quota or a currency varies, one is confronted with a manoeuvre, a hostile manoeuvre, a war manoeuvre. The worst of all is the reluctance to admit officially the existence of a state of war." Capitalism as the present crisis lumbers on is no longer able clamber out of its defstag pit. A predicament that worsens by the hour. The war for world markets and market shares continues at an undiminished tempo. This is mirrored in the relative economic performance of the United States and China that has become the hub of world manufacturing. The USCO in contrast is caught in the throes of the dis-accumulation of capital and a rapidly wilting industrial base. As in the U K, its once mighty industrial base has been hollowed out. Let us cast a glance at these numbers to grasp their divergences and which highlights the tensions that could lead to war. 8. What the numbers say: These comparative figures are indicative. Recall that China has now shoved aside Germany in world GDP rating tables to become the third world largest country. Preceded by Japan and the USA . With the crumbling of indebted Japanese capitalism hovering at zero growth rates it is set to shovel Japan into the backwaters of history. Let us deal first with some of the major indicators (2008) of the USA and compare them with China : USA : G D P (0.9%); Trade Balance ( -$833bn); Current Account Balance ( -$697bn); Industrial production ( -7.8%) CHINA : GDP (9.1%) ; T B ( + $295BN); C A B ($371bn.);)+ I P (5.7%) These numbers highlight their mounting economic disparities. I must confess at this point that I am not sure that in the near future the abyss will ever be bridged Let us focus simply on the foreign trade sector. U S. imports are growing faster than its exports. The US capitalism is in a downward deflationary spiral that bears similarities with Japan 's so-called 'lost decade' in the 1980s.. True, China 's growth is adversely affected by the world slump, but it is growing several times faster than the US . Compound growth rates are at once constructive and destructive forces . This is a point you'll recall that I noted in my discussion of the US balance of payments in my book on Cuba and I would suggest that you consult that section again. The ratio of its imports to its exports is about 1:5 That gap is unbridgeable.. Hence the USCO must borrow to finance its imports. Borrowing is debt. And debt must be repaid at compound interest rates or defaulted.. China recycles its trade surplus by buying US securities and Treasury bonds. This is a familiar story. Whether the Chinese political elite will continue to recycle their foreign exchange earnings to prop up US deficits remains problematical. American capitalism has been the world';/s biggest debtor for more than two decades. Its biggest lender is China . The size of the figures are important. China 's almost $2,000 bn in foreign exchange reserves are the world's largest. Much of these reserves are being directed to the purchase of U S Treasuries. ` According to the estimates of Brad Selser the real figure is nearer $2,300bn.. or equivalent to $1,600 for every Chinese citizen. Of this sum about $1,700bn is invested in dollar assets, making China the biggest creditor of American capitalism and the single largest purchaser of US Treasury bonds. It is entirely addicted and dependent on Chinese money. Never in its history has the USCO been so dependent on any foreign creditor. The opposition within the leading echelons of China's power elite are aware that such massive capital flows going to a stricken economy, that is in the throes of an ever deepening crisis and with low-yielding dollar assets, is perilous. China has already lost billions And this is so given the depreciating dollar stemming from its rising level of indebtedness, low savings, zero interest rates and a GDP that hovers around zero . Without this avalanche of Chinese money the USCO would not be able to pursue its militarist expansion abroad. But what we can say is that the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency which has conferred extravagant power ( that was the designation of de Gaulle on US imperialism can obviously not endure. Chinese misgivings are present but they have made a pact with the devil and can do little to alter this state of affairs. "Except for US Treasuries what can you hold" asks Luo Ping, a director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission. "You don't hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. US Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China , it is the only option". This in my view is the tragedy of China 's power elite presiding over a capitalist economy that has shed all pretences of being socialist. It is deliberate policy choice that reveals its class and ideological alignments. They have already paid a terrible price for such a policy choice of being the savior and supreme benefactor of American capitalism. . With capitalism's crisis now howling in its agony and the dollar's continued slide the costs to the Chinese workers and peasants that the Chinese elite have long ceased to represent the losses to China rise to even greater heights. To put it in non-technical jargon the masters of China 's money box has so much money that it does not know where to invest that money save in wretchedly low yielding US Treasuries. The battle over exchange rates is fought on the killing fields of foreign exchange markets. The Big Mac Index To understand, in my view why there can be no amicable resolution of the Sino-American trade war and rivalry it is well that we should say a few words on the nature of foreign exchange markets. That is where money is bought and sold and is the object of ferocious speculation on international markets. Money we must not forget is the commodity of commodities . It is the King of commodities. The market on which these money transactions are carried out is the Forex market. In a very illuminating but non-technical language we perceive that the index of The Economist is based on the idea of purchasing power parity (PPP). This says that currencies should trade at a the rate that makes the price of goods the same in all countries. The Big Mac that costs $3.54 cents in the USA becomes the benchmark for evaluating whether another currency is under-valued or over-valued. In China , the price of the Big Mac is $1.83. Thus it is 40% cheaper. In Switzerland ( we use foreign exchange rates prevailing on a specific date) $5.75 i.e. it is 60% higher. This is the crude test of undervaluation or overvaluation. Hence the conclusion we draw - (and I repeat that this is not only the basis of comparison for measuring foreign exchange disparities but it is certainly the simplest and the most ingenious) is that China's Renminbi or Yuan is 40% higher than the Greenback which gives supposedly gives it an export trade advantage by the calculus of the US Treasury .The U S government has already imposed tariffs on China, and accuses it of currency manipulation. A charge that we hear with a grain of salt given the fact that US government and all its works has never been a custodian of morality. . The problem of China 's competitive advantage goes of course beyond foreign exchange rates . Comparative wage labour rates are no less important. China 's wage rate in manufacturing is 10% that of the US rate. But we are not only dealing with a disparity in labour costs. Let us add that China 's industrial productivity has been remarkable . China as you are aware is present in all world markets and its foreign trade and direct investment has rocketed in the last decade strikingly so in Latin America and Africa, Australia all Asian markets ,not to speak of Russia . A single example clinches what I am saying. The Chinese/Venezuelan economic development fund will now double from $6bn to $12bn in just over a year. The role of the USCO, the European Union and Japan are of peripheral importance in Venezuela . The conquest of world markets and market share is continuing at unstoppable speeds. The leading ten capitalist countries are already in recession. Let there be no ambiguity on this score. The goal of China 's policy makers and their capitalists is market aggrandizement . Dynamics of Overproduction . One of the traits of the current defstag, and I don't exaggerate when I use that word, means that there are too many goods chasing too few buyers, too much money chasing too few profitable investment outlays, too many workers chasing too few jobs; too many banks chasing too few impoverished savers and depositors. etc. This is true not only of capitalism's current cyclical slump but applies to all facets of the crisis. The essence of the crisis of capitalism is overproduction. Or over-accumulation. What is overproduction? What are its properties? At what stage in the cycle of capital-accumulation does it emerge? What is its cyclical duration? What is its role in capitalism's business cycle? Milton Friedman , one of the major propagandists of free market fundamentalism and a vulgar apologist of capitalism , put this succinctly when he shoved aside the nostrum of social responsibility on the part of the capitalist: " a company's only responsibility is to increase profits for shareholders". Capitalism defines the relationship between a possessing / exploiting class whose incomes are profits, dividends and rents, and an exploited propertyless class whose income is wages. It defines the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. Hence capitalism's overriding objective, its alpha and omega, and the masters of capital is not the provision of goods and services to the workers it exploits. That is a surface phenomenon. That is a fetishism. The goal of capital accumulation is to expand and ensure an ever rising mass of profits for a class of propertied owners. The overriding goal is profit and profit maximization. Overproduction is thus not an aberration of the system but inherent in its operation. And this goes back to the beginnings of capitalism's first Great Depression of 1873, as noted by the Royal Commissioners in their final report. in words that are superbly relevant to the crash of 1929 and our present slump.: "We think that.over-production has been one of the most prominent features of the course of trade during recent years; and that the depression under which we are now suffering may be partially explained by this fact....The remarkable feature of the present situation, and that which in our opinion distinguishes it from all previous periods of depression, is the length of time during which this over-production has continued .We are satisfied that in recent years, and more particularly in the years during which the depression of trade has prevailed , the production of commodities generally, and the accumulation of capital in this country, have been proceeding at a rate more rapid than the increase of population." The insight of these findings underscore not merely the nature , genesis and rationale of the business cycle that we shall explore in subsequent lectures , but its relevance and kinship to other great depressions that have devastated world capitalism such as the Great Depression of 1929 and the current economic depression we are now traversing. What it is important to recall are the consequences of that great depression that lasted , with its rises and falls, until the start of the 1890s. The Emergence of Monopoly and Its Implications Capitalism and its class rule is a system driven by competition. This is true at all phases of its growth. The period from 1873 to 1914 that ushered in the great carnage saw the structural changes in capitalism from its competitive to monopolistic phase. Competition kills competition. Or , as Marx would have said, one capitalist kills another capitalist. The Great Depression gave a spur to the concentration and centralization of capital that Marx had analyzed with such trenchancy. It saw the rise of the Trust and the Cartels. The names of Rockefeller, Buchanan - the tobacco king, Krupp, Vanderbilt , Morgan, Carnegie epitomized the face of capital. These were not simply what President Theodore Roosevelt called 'the malefactors of Great Wealth'. This was the new phase of monopolistic capitalism stemming from accelerated competition within and between nation states , and the falling rate of profit. More and more competition led to excess capacity and its corollary cut-throat prices, a drop in wholesale and retail prices descriptive of the deflationary stage. This opened the belligerent quest for privileged spheres of investment and foreign trade. Monopolistic capitalism fuelled the drive to imperialism. The period opened the floodgates to what George Bernard Shaw called ,at the time of the Boer War, the age of The Merchants of Death. You will recall what President Eisenhower in his Farewell address called the Military/Industrial Complex. and what generated an enormous body of literature. The formulas was novel but its substance was not.. The reality of this phenomenon was vigorously present in its concentrated form in the decades leading up to the Great War. Arms manufacturers as Krupp and Siemens and Mercedes Benz in Germany , Vickers-Armstrong and Rolls Royce in the U K , Creusot-Schneider in France and Mitsubishi in Japan symbolized the linkages of the Merchants of Death and State Power. Almost 70% of all the artillery pieces and shells used by the Kaiser's army, not to speak of the steel that went to the massive build up of the German Navy since 1890, were produced by Krupp. The House of Krupp became enmeshed with the Hohenzollerns through ties of marriage. Such was the muscle of imperialist matrimonial interconnectivity. Drive to Colonial Expansion I have explored this process in much greater detail in my work on The Rise and Fall of Economic Liberalism. During the 1870s and 1880s and after five million square miles of African territory, with populations exceeding 60 millions were grabbed and subjected to European imperial rule. In Asia ,during the same decade, the U K annexed Burma and brought under its control the Malay peninsula and Baluchistan . France began the breakup of China by annexing Annam and Tonkin . The industrial tycoon and parliamentarian, Joseph Chamberlain called for protectionism at home as well as "to create new markets " abroad. He raised his glass to the simultaneous toast of: "Commerce and Empire, because, gentlemen, the Empire, to parody a celebrated expression is Commerce." This is the meshing of Big Capital and Big bourgeois politics. The battles of imperialism were leading to conflict and war. Chamberlain again in a speech before the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce in 1896 he noted: "If we had remained passive .the largest part of the African continent would have remained occupied by our commercial rivals.Through our colonial policy as soon as we acquire and develop a territory, we develop it as the agents of civilization, for the growth of world trade". Note the terminology. The rape and pillage of Africa and colonial conquests were rationalized in the name of civilization or 'la mission civilisatrice ' and the French called it. For the colonizers and the colonized words have different meanings or as Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) declared: "you can always spit in the face of the colonialists and they'll call it rain." Imperialism has pursued its policies using the same labels in the ensuing decades. In our time the US conquest of Afghanistan is labeled 'Enduring Freedom'. What we witnessed at the end of the 19th century was the expansion and clash of national capitalisms. This is how it was propounded by Cecil Rhodes, one of the leading architects of British imperialism in Africa : "I was in the East End of London yesterday and attended a meeting of the unemployed. I listened to the wild speeches, which were just a cry for 'bread', 'bread', and on my way home I pondered over the scene and became more than ever convinced of the importance of imperialism.My cherished idea is a solution for the social problem ,i.e., in order to save the 40 million inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands for settling the surplus population, to provide new market for the goods produced in the factories and the mines. The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question. If you want to avoid civil war, you must become imperialists." By ' solution' of the civil war he meant the class war between capitalists and workers, the exploiters and the exploited spawning socialist revolutions. Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) incarnated the racist and expansionist thrusts of imperil conquest as well as the inter-dependence of the State and British capitalism. By its very essence imperialism was the quintessence of racialism. " We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the slave(sic) labour that is available from the natives of the colonies. I contend that we are the first race in the world , and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible." Let me add as a footnote that the statement was made in 1896 , the same year that the Durand Line was drawn by the British Raj that demarcated the 2,300 kms frontier of British India [ now Pakistan ] and Afghanistan . Political power and colonial conquest moved in easy concert. Rhodes was Prime Minister of the Cape colony, and Managing Director of the British South Africa Company. A reportage of The Times noted that there was hardly a single member of Parliament that were not stockholders in his company. Nor is this surprising given the congenial rapport between the political elite and the business elite and the luscious pickings that were available. It was the interconnectivity of one hand scratching another. He had become one of the biggest tycoons of all times, with Chamberlain one of his most powerful political backers. . He was the founder of De Beers ( backed with the funds of Lord Rothschild) which, at its zenith, marketed around 90% of the world's rough diamonds. Success depended on 'law and order' and on 'slave labour, ' as he called it, that marched hand in hand with the mass expropriation of African land A process that had the legal backing of the Glen Grey Act of which understandably he was one of the drafters. Indeed, in the imperial order of things the borderline between slave labour and free labour was always fuzzy, point that Rhodes readily grasped. The expansionist drives of Rhodes and his cronies in the Colonial Office was the major catalyst of the Boer War (1899-1902). Historical processes cannot be abstracted from the role of the individual in history and its major actors. It's for this reason that I have singled merely the British Empire and three of its major statesmen: Cecil Rhodes, Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) and Lloyd George (1862-1945) in the shaping of British imperialism, one of the most obnoxious and criminal constructs of all times, that incubated, with its other imperial accomplices, the Holocaust that was the Great War. Suffice it to say that imperialism and all of its projects, designs and expansionists blueprints were inseparable from racial oppression. And indeed many of you will recall the Nazi-like branding of the Chinese people by Lord Curzon (1912) as "a moribund and decadent race". That coming from a country that imposed the Opium trade on the quasi-colonial Chinese empire. Imperialism was the Godfather of imperialism and you have not forgotten Hitler's great admiration for British rule in India articulated once again the eve of his war against the Sov iet Union .. "The Soviet Union ", he declared,. "will become our India ". The trio exhibited par excellence the meshing of business, politics and the imperial drive for conquests. Chamberlain's family was the founder of one of the largest machine tool factories in the U K producing around 75% of the country's metallic screws. As the master of the Colonial Office, which opened up for him the mightiest of personal El Dorado's, he used his portfolio to push British business interests into every corner of the planet and that of course embraced his firm's products. This was the perfect example of the case of State power being dovetailed to interests of individual capitalists. Chamberlain was an intimate friend and business associate of Rhodes and hence their uninhibited racialism ran on parallel lines conferring an ideological coherence to the British ruling class. This reminds me of a portrait I saw a long time ago in the National Gallery that showed Queen Victoria presenting a bible to a kneeling half-naked African chief. The lashes of imperial rule were supposedly mitigated by the balms of Christianity. As George Bernard Shaw once said, colonialists picked the pockets of the Blacks, gave them a few rags to cover their nakedness, and then sent missionaries to reduce them to Christianity. "I believe that the British race" Chamberlain boasted, "is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen.It is not enough to occupy great spaces unless you can make the best of them. It is the duty of the landlord to develop his estate." The inference was all too apparent: since the British Empire was the world's biggest landlord it required the cheap undifferentiated labour of its colonial subjects to work for the prosperity and profits of the superior race of white masters. His fanatic pursuit to intensify the exploitation of Africa (and Asia as well) , earned him the sobriquet of Joseph Africanus. The promise of the superior imperial race that the untrammeled rape of the colonial peoples would, - the mechanism of how this was to be achieved was never spelt out - trickle down to British working peoples proved to be one of the supreme hoaxes in the history of British capitalism. To be sure, the mega-profits gouged from subsistence labour power was 'mouth-watering' as many apparatchiks of the Colonial Office boasted, but few were the crumbs that drifted into the bellies of the British workers. Writing in his War Memoirs (Vol.1 1933), at the apex of another great economic collapse, Lloyd George found no need for persiflage glimpsed in his depiction of the phony 'social peace' of the Edwardian epoch. "It was becoming evident to discerning eyes that the Party and the Parliamentary system were unequal to the task of coping with grave issues rapidly becoming graver.The shadow of unemployment was rising ominously above the horizon. Our international rivals were forging ahead at a great rate and jeopardizing our hold on the markets of the world. There was an arrest of that expansion of our trade of an earlier epoch.our working population, crushed into dingy and mean streets with no assurance that they would not be deprived of their daily bread by ill-health or trade fluctuations, were becoming sullen with discontent." What is this last sentence other than the unacknowledged lingo of the class war.? Lloyd George was never a radical. Despite his anodyne welfare state reforms( based on the Bismarck Ian model) that even earned him the plaudits of the Kaiser he was wedded, like the vicious anti-labour repressionists of the German ruling class, to the perpetuation of the existing social property order, the arms race and imperialist expansion abroad. He became one of the most virulent proponents of empire matched by his no less vociferous support for the Great War. Lloyd George, a tireless war monger, not only fanned the flames of war, but was one of the most unbendable advocates (like his close crony Winston Churchill) of military intervention (1918-21) of the Russian revolution. Which true to form he caricatured as 'the greatest scourge that has ever afflicted humanity'. We are not concerned to examine the sheer stupidity of that utterance but merely to remark that it came from a paramount politico that was one of the leading criminal instigators that engineered the grimmest mass slaughter that humanity had ever witnessed. A remark emanating from a criminal who according to the diary of his wife "who insisted on reserving the right, as David puts it, to bomb niggers."[1] In large measure a war against an emergent state that unique among members of the Second International (1889-1916) that opposed the war and whose rallying cry was : Bread and Peace. A ruthless war of intervention (a term coined by the British Foreign Office) that cost millions of lives (in addition to that of Great War) with famines and its horrendous political sequels. The British government, and recall that he was Prime Minister, bankrolled 70% of the cost of this intervention. His blood gurgling cry: "kill them, ill them now" was symptomatic not merely of the man and his class but of the direction of imperialism." "I shall always remain an implacable enemy of the Bolsheviks up to the end of my life" A promise kept but which , not surprisingly, finds no mention in his War Memoirs. The wars for conquest of world markets and their repercussions were stated with terrible clarity by The Saturday Review (1897) premonitory of things to come,. tantamount to a declaration of war. It took economic and political analysis one giant step forward in contrast to the hollowed out constructs of Marshalian economics and the waffling of Fabian thinking: "Is there a mine to exploit, a railway to build, a native to be converted from breadfruit to tinned meat the German and the Englishman are struggling to be first. A million petty disputes build-up the greater cause of war the world has ever seen. If Germany were extinguished tomorrow, the day after tomorrow there is not an Englishman in the world who would not be richer. Nations have fought for years over a city or a right of succession; must they not fight for two hundred and fifty million pounds sterling of yearly commerce"? Prophetic it was and indeed just 17 years, and 40 million butchered, were needed to test the validity of this blood-drenched belligerent utterance. Within the land of The Saturday Review , whose cataclysmic outcome was utterly inconceivable, 6 million out of 10 million were conscripted; around 750,000 killed; 1.7 million wounded; 160,000 wives lost their husbands; 300,000 children lost their fathers. On the ideological front The Great War had wiped out the vestiges of laisser-faire and economic liberalism. The Encroaching Net The headlong drive that pushed the European powers to imperialist conquests was no less true for the United States and Japan . Imperialism is therefore the ultimate globalization of capital accumulation on a world scale in its moment of crisis and upheaval. Since the Meiji Restoration (1868), indeed in just three decades, Japanese capitalism had surged at a dazzling tempo into a vigorous industrial and world trading nation unrelentingly pursuing overseas expansion and colonial conquests. In Japan , the big trading corporations such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itoh, Marubeni, Sumitomo and others, collectively known as the Zaibatsus, with their trading arms the Soga Shoshas, were metamorphosed into the leading echelons of Japanese imperialism. Together with the military (the gumbatsu) they became the spearhead of colonial expansion with the occupation of Formosa that plunged Japan into the orbit of imperialism. In 1895, this was followed by the conquest of Korea and the invasion of southern Manchuria . The stage was set for yet another imperialist war between Czarist Russia and Japan , culminating in Russia 's crushing defeat in 1905 in the Battle of Tsushima Bay and the grabbing of Sakhalin . We might add in parenthesis that this defeat spawned the Russian Revolution (1905), that shaped subsequent events. Historically significant, as you observe, was the bunching of events. The re-division of colonies, quasi-colonies and spheres of influence were now being settled by wars of ballooning intensity. A mightier but still embryonic imperial force had now staked its claims to the cornucopia of empire. "This is our Manifest Destiny", boasted Theodore Roosevelt. "We are now a world power and the glory of our race and nation have not reached the end of our road, and we must push on". The effete and inglorious Spanish Empire , that had endured for 500 years ,was busted in 1898 - a venture completed in a couple of weeks - with the grabbing of its colonies, notably its crown jewels Cuba and the Philippines. This marked a further phase in the re-division of the world market that brought the approaching Armageddon one step closer. The Versailles Treaty The end of the Great War was not the "war to end all wars" as Woodrow Wilson fatuously declared. The yearnings of a return to an imagined normality by laisser faire nostalgics were dashed. It signaled not the end of imperialism but its escalation to yet higher and more destructive phases with Fascism its most racialist and politico-economic format. After Versailles (1919) the world map was given the chop.. The Habsburgs, the Romanovs, the Hohenzollerns and the Ottomans were bulldozed into the ditch of history. Germany was now a vanquished nation stripped of Alsace Lorraine and its colonies. Of crucial militaro/industrial strategic importance , however, was that the unreconstructed bureaucracy, its financial and militarist establishment and the powerful national bourgeoisie - the central components of class rule - were still intact. A revolutionary Russia , whose leadership had resolutely opposed the war turned the war into a battering ram for an assault on the Tsarist autocracy. In so doing, it severed its links with imperialism and the national chauvinism of social democracy and oriented its thrust to the building of a socialist order , and the obliteration of the colonial/capitalist/ imperialist survivals. Clemenceau encapsulated the tragic moment of truth when he lugubriously confessed: "We have won the war but we are broke." The older surviving colonial empires , France and the U K, were bled white thrashing on the brink of financial bankruptcy. Their foreign exchange and gold reserves were deployed to pay for the war. In addition they were now confronted with rising labour agitation on the domestic front , and sustained mass rebellions in India and Indochina , their two greatest colonial crown jewels. Thorstein Veblen and John Maynard Keynes . Lloyd George may not have said that "we shall squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak" but what he did say was similar to what 'Tiger' Clemenceau was thinking: "We must have the uttermost farthing, and we shall search their pockets for it." The question of reparations to be gouged from Weimar Germany was one of the burning issues of international relations and imperialist bickering. It was here that John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) acquired international celebrity by his opposition to the provisions of the Treaty in The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) that focused on the implications of reparations. I shall deal at this point with one of the most effective counterblasts to J M Ks pamphlet that came from an American academic whose very short book review appeared in an obscure American publication in 1920. In but three pages Thorstein Veblen ( (1857-1929) hammered home the point that J M K (who participated at the Paris Conference as a member of the British delegation) had sedulously avoided the central issue of the Treaty. Before I proceed, however, let me add that Veblen was an acute theorist and observer of American capitalism during the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons ( (1890-1914). At no point however was he an active adversary of the. system. He never believed that an alternative project in class and property relations was feasible. In that sense, he was never a radical. Nor did he condemn the rapacities of the American empire notably those committed by such colonial-predator politicos as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in the Americas . Nor did he support the struggle for the emancipation of the American negro as the militant young scholar Du Bois was doing. Nor for that matter did he publicly manifest any sympathies for the American socialist movement under the leadership of Eugene Debs. He was a rebel to be sure. What I have said is not to demean his stature as a thinker and his contribution to American letters and economics. The Great War, as with many others,pushed him into a sharper and more questioning mode of thought, and the same was true of Keynes. It was a catalyst that occurred in the autumn of his life. In that review published in The Political Science Quarterly (1920), a year after the publication of J M Ks pamphlet, he luminously saw what was the reality that the Treaty had concealed that Keynes had ignored. It was an inspired piece of criticism drafted at a moment when the corrupt and war enriched USCO had plunged into the apoplexy of anti-progressive and anti-Bolshevik hysteria. In his impressionistic overview The Treaty (which he always capitalized) was the antithesis of democracy and nothing more than a screen of 'diplomatic verbiage' It brings to mind Jacques Attali's description of the Davos World Economic Forum as 'le bavardage'. Behind the 'verbiage' however was the unseen butcher's knife of the imperialist victors. It was the screen alright in what Veblen called sarcastically 'the Elder Statesmen of the Great Powers' who, in his view, continued "their pursuit of political chicanery and imperialist aggrandizement". In so doing, Veblen brought imperialism's reality into the epicenter of international relations. The onus of Keynes's criticism was The Treaty's adverse contractionary impact on Germany 's output, employment and consumers' effective demand. This in Veblen view was the shadow and not the substance. It ignored the far wider geo-strategic and political and ideological consequences that were in play. By the spring of 1919, when The Treaty negotiations had struck their grand climacteric, the War of Intervention to destroy the Russian revolution was also at its highest pitch. The Bolsheviks were battling the armies of 21 nations in addition to the white forces led by Generals Kolchak (1874-1920), Wrangel (1878-1928). Kornilov (1870-1918), Denikin (1872-1947). Veblen made the incisive point that revealed the cutting-edge of his reasoning. "But for all their vulpine secrecy, the temper and purpose of that hidden conclave of political hucksters were already becoming evident to outsiders a year ago.The Treaty is therefore designed to indicate that the most binding provision of The Treaty ( and of The League) is an unrecorded clause by the governments of the great powers that are banded together for the suppression of Soviet Russia." Note his stylistic mutation. No longer are they referred to deferentially as The Elder Statesmen but as a bunch of hucksters. Such a forthright analysis required a great deal of moral fortitude at a time when more than nine-tenths of American academics were quivering in their cloisters , hunkered down under the whip lash of a brutal police state in everything but name. Veblen was one of the very rare voices, another was Lincoln Steffens, who saw the onslaughts against the emergent socialist country as one of the greatest mistakes and injustices of all times. Central to his critique was that Keynes was blinkered in failing to perceive that the Conclave's goal was the destruction of Bolshevism that shaped the design of The Treaty. Anti-Bolshevism and the preservation of the status quo ante was the cementing force that united Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George. Orlando, the Italian, had been shunted off to the sidelines with Lloyd George derisively depicting him as "as a morsel of mouldy spaghetti.". In demolishing the constructs of Keynes , a life long anti-Soviet and anti-communist, Veblen did not fail to draw the inference that the Bolshevik/ imperialist confrontation had now become a war to the death. It therefore followed, then, "that Bolshevism is a menace to absentee ownership. At the same time, the present economic and social order rests on absentee ownership." Absentee ownership was nothing more than a euphemism to describe the capitalist mode of production, distribution and exchange. He also saw that Keynes had deliberately omitted the central role assigned to a resurgent Germany as the battering ram of the counter-revolution. Veblen was of course wrong in stating that 'the hucksters' were waging a surreptitious war against a resurgent Russia . By the end of 1917, it was a covert war deploying vast armies. The Whites were even contemptuously labeled by Lloyd George, Churchill, the Foreign office as 'our mercenaries'. Bolshevism and the revolutionary labour movements that surfaced during the Second International (1889-1916) were not historic aberrations. They were the outgrowths of capitalism's convulsions and crises. Veblen was surely not oblivious that Rosa Luxembourg (1871-1919) and Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919), the two legendary German social democrats were hostile to the war for which they paid the ultimate price. They were arrested and murdered by right wing militarists of the Reichswehr. As was the German social democratic leader Leo Jogiches (1867-1919). The year 1919 is a pivotal year in the history of social democracy, The Treaty and imperialism. It was the end of an ignoble chapter in the history of social democracy battered in a sea of social chauvinism and opportunism. And the opening chapter of Fascism as the savior of Big Capital and the established order. Soviet Russia, soon to be re-baptized the Soviet Union, and Germany had now become the pivotal actors in the historic drama now unfolding : the former casting its revolutionary reach across the planet; the latter the chosen bulwark of counter-revolution. In Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, what Veblen's 'hucksters' of Versailles were seeking had made its appearance as a benediction. In 1932, the Fuhrer addressing his S S Praetorian Guard roared that "the streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. The Soviet Union is threatening us with her might and the republic is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order."[2] This was Veblen's vision but he did not live to see its purgatorial crystallization. -0o0o0o0- Frederic F. Clairmont is a prominent Canadian academic and researcher who for many years was a permanent senior economics affairs officer at the United Nations Economics Commission for Africa and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He taught at the University of Kings College and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. His classic work is The Rise and Fall of Economic Liberalism and his latest book is: Cuba and Venezuela: The Nemeses of Imperialism published by Citizens International in Penang, Malaysia. He is a a frequent contributor to Le Monde Diplomatique and The Economic and Political Weekly. Frederic F. Clairmont is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Subscribe to the Global Research E-Newsletter Spread the word! Forward to a friend! ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ by Dr. Frederic F. Clairmont Global Research, February 27, 2009 - 2009-02-26 Email this article to a friend Print this article In these lectures I shall venture to answer some of the queries made regarding the prospects of a major war . The notes to these lectures were scribbled over time in the corner of the living room. There are two large standing lamps that illuminate the copy book that I am using to scribble these lines. The thin light black pen is gliding effortlessly over the paper. It is one of my inseparable companions. It is Made in China as well as the copy book with squared paper. One of my Associates raised the question the other night: is there any manufactured products that American capitalism can produce that China cannot produce better and in greater quantities and considerably cheaper? This is not fanciful speculation. It therefore follows whether American capitalism in its current state of indebtedness, mass impoverishment and financial disintegration will be able to compete internationally. Or put it another way: how and by what means will it pay for its imports, for what it consumes? Will it be able - on present evidence it is not - to shave and ultimately to eliminate its trade deficit by exporting more than it imports? Further, can the dollar be an acceptable medium of payment and exchange given the battering to which it has been unrelentingly subjected for many years? The observation by Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Greenback is worth less than used toilet paper is ungracious, but it is shared by many leading spirits in the world of finance capitalism. In subsequent lectures we shall explore the ramifications of these issues. Suffice it to say that it is a matter of life and death that takes us into the deepest reaches of the conflictual contradictions within world capitalism and the imperialist lethal that I have will give you more than an idea of what is meant when we say that China has become the industrial hub of our planet; as well as an idea of what we mean when we speak of financial imbalances. Of that more later. The Ramifications Some of you have evoked the possibility of a world conflict in the course of 2009.. I shan't say that this prediction is far-fetched; or remote. Doubtless, many of you do not mean a regional conflict as in Ossetia and Gaza . Nor do I exclude the possibility of the US / Israel on Iran . In the making of war, madness can never be excluded. Let us keep in mind that the US caste oligarchy (USCO) and its trillion dollar militarist appendage is at war on several front in areas engulfing tens of thousands of kilometers: It is pursuing a war in Gaza via its surrogate; it is pursuing a war in Iraq; and of course it is escalating its military drive in Afghanistan; it has extended its killing fields to Pakistan. Recall that Pakistan has a frontier of 2,500 kms with Afghanistan . Such a possibility cannot be ignored. How does one approach the subject? What is the most appropriate method? I am aware that itemizing the potential flashpoints gives us individual dots but the dots are not connected. They remain separate and cannot provide an insight of the detonator. I am sympathetic to your speculation. The historian must select his facts This is a matter of personal choice. But how and to what purpose he selects his facts stems from his principle of selectivity that is a part of a process of abstraction. His selection and his interpretation of events are thereby conditioned by his ideological and philosophical predilections. His class affiliations. His personal experience. One may itemize a list but itemizing single events do not give us a handle to comprehend these complex phenomena.. The assassination of Kronprinz Franz Josef by a young Serb nationalist was certainly the detonator but it tells us very little without disentangling the complex of nationalist convulsions and economic and dynastic rivalries that shredded the vitals of the world economy. Nor can we ignore the military naval buildup of the German empire that challenged the centuries old supremacy of the Royal Navy. As David Lloyd George - the shrewdest of imperial artisans and a paramount Hatchet man the Great War noted : "if 1914 had not come when it did it would have inevitably come later". The key words are 'come later'. What Lloyd George had in mind was that the power politics of finance capitalism and imperialism, and the carnage it irrepressibly incubated, was inherent in the evolution of world capitalism given its ceaseless lunge for territorial and financial spheres of aggrandizement. And its wars were confirmatory. The Arms Race. Many of you have emphasized the fact that the USCO is likely to boost expenditures to offset the fall in demand in the private sector thereby raising the level of employment. It is not a new recipe but the thesis has a defect in the present context of international relations. The U S CO is already spending more than twice or three times what the rest of the world is spending on arms. SIPRI in Stockholm that you'll find on the Internet provides the exact numbers. But I am not momentarily concerned with such numbers. The USCO and its military lackeys has been at war since 1945 non- stop. And that includes its role in the Chinese Civil War that ended in 1949, in Indochina since 1945, in Korea , in Iraq twice over.etc. Its colonial wars fought exclusively against peoples of colour have driven the US economy into a state of bankruptcy. At the latest count, it has 250 military bases outside the United States . It is spending more than it earns. It is the world's biggest mendicant. It is spending other people's borrowed money. In Iraq alone, according to the figures of Stiglitz, the number is $3.5 trillion and the wars are not yet over. In these wars it has slaughtered millions. It is fighting wars in Iraq , Afghanistan , Pakistan and Israel 's attack against Gaza , as in Lebanon , was inconceivable without US support. This is a banality. Let me say that the phosphor bombs used in Gaza were made in Virginia . The uranium enriched artillery shells were manufactured in Tennessee . The bombers were F-18's of American fabrication. Gaza was one more testing ground for its weapons of mass slaughter. That makes four wars. Some are right to stress that wars, preparations of wars, boosts output and employment. What matters here is the nature of the output and its related employment impact. It is unproductive and does not add to productive capacity. This was certainly the case of Hitler's Third Reich in which arms outlays provided a booster that eliminated the ranks of the jobless. And of course the jobless could always find jobs in the Wehrmacht subsequently transformed into cannon fodder. This was true of the U K from 1937 onwards. As you recognize the changes wrought by FDR's New Deal , admirable but illusory in several ways, did not curtail the Great Depression. What did the job was massive public sector war expenditures bankrolled by debt. Let me repeat that what ended that satanic slump triggered in 29 was the advent of World War 2. Can it therefore be suggested that war and preparations for war offers a 'final solution' for achieving full employment? In the case of the US capitalism the answer is unequivocally no. War expenditures - bankrolled by foreign borrowing and ever swelling debt holes - sets the stage for endemic corruption, national indebtedness and bankruptcy and all its innumerable toxic corollaries. The debts of American capitalism - Federal, corporate and household - will never be repaid. They cannot be repaid. With the economy imploding daily USCO does not have the wherewithal to repay its debts. Frankenstein defaults are on the horizon. One may contend that it raises the revenues of the arms producers. In what sectors is this true? In what individual enterprises does this hold? If you take pains to examine the share prices of all of the big arms producers i.e. Lockheed at the Standard & Poor's and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) you'll find that their revenues and profits have tumbled as have their share prices . Given the capital intensity of modern arms output the labour inputs required i.e. employment is sharply reduced. Productivity, (ratio of inputs to outputs) has risen sharply resulting in a cutback in labour requirements with collateral falls in wages. I believe you'll find that for the most part their balance sheets have been battered although perhaps not as bad as the financial sector .The conclusion appears obvious: stimulus plans, or pumping the prime as it was earlier called, will obviously not do the trick. I return again to the estimates of Stiglitz. In Iraq alone, it is spending $3.5 trillion. Where is the money coming from? By borrowing. As I said repeatedly in these lectures the world capitalist economy has entered into a deflationary stagnationary phase , or defstag as I've called it. The USCO is living off borrowed time and other people's borrowed money, a parasitical binge that is sustained by 70% of the world's savings, palpably unsustainable even over the short haul. Israel and the Middle East . I suspect that some are correct to surmise that Gaza is too small an area to be considered the likely detonator of a major world conflict. Size, however, is not the only benchmark. Serbia in 1914 was also a very exiguous geo-demographic area. But it provided the detonator and is therefore not the only factor in play; it is the larger forces that are set in motion. Gaza and Israel are segments of a .larger empire writhing in its final apoplexy. The goal of the US/Israeli onslaught is to obliterate Hamas as its onslaught in Lebanon was to eliminate the Hezbollah. They failed miserably. The citizens of the Zio-fascist state applauded the rape of the Gazans. And here we come not to abstract forces but the role of individuals in history. Netanyahu an outright exponent of unrelenting Arab exterminism has succeeded in climbing the greasy pole of a state that itself is riven by ethnic and class divisions. . His speech in Davos, like that of Olmert , is more than the howlings of a politico bent on the destruction of Arabs, and what his fascist cronies call Hamastan. His utterances, like that of Lieberman, could be translated into reality. Netanyahu/ Lieberman could demolish the entire Middle East and that includes the Hebrew sate. . And by that I mean it could lead to the unmaking of Mr. Obama and , I daresay , to his political destruction given the unquestioned reach of the Zionist lobbies. Mr. Obama is a fragile politician and the untamed capitalist convulsions, nationally and internationally, will shove him into raging cross currents. We know who the Netanyahu/Lieberman duo is . There is nothing nebulous in their blueprint. "My highest priority" Netanyahu thunders "is Iran ". Need we say more? Has Obama plumbed the meaning of that statement? There is nothing cryptic about it. The duo's unrivaled standing in the Zionist lobbies and in the dominant spheres of the USCO the US is high. Hence we cannot ignore the possibility that in their desperation they could trigger a wider war. Such a course could not be confined to the region. The goal of US imperialism, conflated with that of Israel , is the destruction of Iran , the ally of both Hamas and Hezbollah. This is not speculation. It is stated policy. The Iranian prime minister has pushed his pawns. The game has started. The launching of their satellite into space injects into our calculations new and terrible variables. Can Israel reconcile itself to coexist with Hamas and an increasingly militant anti-American and anti-Zionist world? The change in tone of the Arab world seen in the unambiguous article of a member of the Saudi Royal family - and a powerful intellect - in The Financial Times - suggest a turning of the tide. The Arab street is a reality. It is angry and getting angrier with each passing day. It is unemployed. It is poverty stricken but Al Jazzera with a 140 million viewers reaches them. A stooge like Mahmoud Abbas is a ghost and his power is eviscerated. He too was in Davos and his speech like that of Karzai was written by his American touts. The Israeli leadership sounded out Bush (whose administration turned them down) for overflying Iraq to bomb Iran 's nuclear facilities. It appeared in The New York Times. They were turned down by the Bush cabal not because of humanitarian reasons but because they understood for once the far-reaching consequences. You will also recall H. Clinton current mistress of State Department had the gall to proclaim that she would obliterate Iran during her electoral jousts. It is not the moment to discuss the implications of that projected genocidal act. The position of Bush and Obama on the attack against Iran are identical. Iran has made it clear that it intends to pursue nuclear enrichment for civilian purposes and Russia will complete this year the building of the nuclear facility at Bukwear. In chess, it is not sufficient to decide what your is but to foresee that of your opponent . Let me proceed to a no less significant flashpoint. The relationship between China and the USA which have scaled new heights of trade tensions despite the mellifluous babbling to the contrary.. Protectionism or call it economic nationalism if you prefer in a multiplicity of guises is omnipresent. And that I shall deal with presently. China and the US Before I proceed, however, to examine whether mounting trade and payment tensions could lead to a deadly military confrontation we should remind ourselves of the nature of the trade rivalries and weapons deployed in those economic wars in the thirties. The speech of the Chinese president lambasting the United in Davos , as did Putin, is indicative of the drift of economic war. Davos is the pivot of globalization. It is the cockpit of corporate power, of world leaders and aspiring leaders. Davos underlined the penurious fragility of financial institutions once regarded as the bedrock of the system. Words as stability and confidence have been wiped out from their slate. The debacle of U B S and of The City and the ongoing tremours in Wall Street , matched by such spectacular swindlers as Madoff and Stanford The anger can no longer be dissimulated nor more than it can be concealed in the mass labour demonstrations in Paris and all French cities and in the neo-colony of Guadeloupe. The tensions are mounting. They go beyond beggar-my-neighbour policies first created by Joan Robinson of Cambridge University in the thirties'. No where was the nature of these conflicts more clearly delineated than by Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the Cunard Steamship Company (April 1935) at a moment when the Great Depression raged. Its relevance to our times is all too obvious: "We are going through a war.The arms that are being employed are not battleships, armies, aircraft, but tariffs, quotas and currencies. No international monetary standard is recognized, and every time that a tariff, quota or a currency varies, one is confronted with a manoeuvre, a hostile manoeuvre, a war manoeuvre. The worst of all is the reluctance to admit officially the existence of a state of war." Capitalism as the present crisis lumbers on is no longer able clamber out of its defstag pit. A predicament that worsens by the hour. The war for world markets and market shares continues at an undiminished tempo. This is mirrored in the relative economic performance of the United States and China that has become the hub of world manufacturing. The USCO in contrast is caught in the throes of the dis-accumulation of capital and a rapidly wilting industrial base. As in the U K, its once mighty industrial base has been hollowed out. Let us cast a glance at these numbers to grasp their divergences and which highlights the tensions that could lead to war. 8. What the numbers say: These comparative figures are indicative. Recall that China has now shoved aside Germany in world GDP rating tables to become the third world largest country. Preceded by Japan and the USA . With the crumbling of indebted Japanese capitalism hovering at zero growth rates it is set to shovel Japan into the backwaters of history. Let us deal first with some of the major indicators (2008) of the USA and compare them with China : USA : G D P (0.9%); Trade Balance ( -$833bn); Current Account Balance ( -$697bn); Industrial production ( -7.8%) CHINA : GDP (9.1%) ; T B ( + $295BN); C A B ($371bn.);)+ I P (5.7%) These numbers highlight their mounting economic disparities. I must confess at this point that I am not sure that in the near future the abyss will ever be bridged Let us focus simply on the foreign trade sector. U S. imports are growing faster than its exports. The US capitalism is in a downward deflationary spiral that bears similarities with Japan 's so-called 'lost decade' in the 1980s.. True, China 's growth is adversely affected by the world slump, but it is growing several times faster than the US . Compound growth rates are at once constructive and destructive forces . This is a point you'll recall that I noted in my discussion of the US balance of payments in my book on Cuba and I would suggest that you consult that section again. The ratio of its imports to its exports is about 1:5 That gap is unbridgeable.. Hence the USCO must borrow to finance its imports. Borrowing is debt. And debt must be repaid at compound interest rates or defaulted.. China recycles its trade surplus by buying US securities and Treasury bonds. This is a familiar story. Whether the Chinese political elite will continue to recycle their foreign exchange earnings to prop up US deficits remains problematical. American capitalism has been the world';/s biggest debtor for more than two decades. Its biggest lender is China . The size of the figures are important. China 's almost $2,000 bn in foreign exchange reserves are the world's largest. Much of these reserves are being directed to the purchase of U S Treasuries. ` According to the estimates of Brad Selser the real figure is nearer $2,300bn.. or equivalent to $1,600 for every Chinese citizen. Of this sum about $1,700bn is invested in dollar assets, making China the biggest creditor of American capitalism and the single largest purchaser of US Treasury bonds. It is entirely addicted and dependent on Chinese money. Never in its history has the USCO been so dependent on any foreign creditor. The opposition within the leading echelons of China's power elite are aware that such massive capital flows going to a stricken economy, that is in the throes of an ever deepening crisis and with low-yielding dollar assets, is perilous. China has already lost billions And this is so given the depreciating dollar stemming from its rising level of indebtedness, low savings, zero interest rates and a GDP that hovers around zero . Without this avalanche of Chinese money the USCO would not be able to pursue its militarist expansion abroad. But what we can say is that the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency which has conferred extravagant power ( that was the designation of de Gaulle on US imperialism can obviously not endure. Chinese misgivings are present but they have made a pact with the devil and can do little to alter this state of affairs. "Except for US Treasuries what can you hold" asks Luo Ping, a director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission. "You don't hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. US Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China , it is the only option". This in my view is the tragedy of China 's power elite presiding over a capitalist economy that has shed all pretences of being socialist. It is deliberate policy choice that reveals its class and ideological alignments. They have already paid a terrible price for such a policy choice of being the savior and supreme benefactor of American capitalism. . With capitalism's crisis now howling in its agony and the dollar's continued slide the costs to the Chinese workers and peasants that the Chinese elite have long ceased to represent the losses to China rise to even greater heights. To put it in non-technical jargon the masters of China 's money box has so much money that it does not know where to invest that money save in wretchedly low yielding US Treasuries. The battle over exchange rates is fought on the killing fields of foreign exchange markets. The Big Mac Index To understand, in my view why there can be no amicable resolution of the Sino-American trade war and rivalry it is well that we should say a few words on the nature of foreign exchange markets. That is where money is bought and sold and is the object of ferocious speculation on international markets. Money we must not forget is the commodity of commodities . It is the King of commodities. The market on which these money transactions are carried out is the Forex market. In a very illuminating but non-technical language we perceive that the index of The Economist is based on the idea of purchasing power parity (PPP). This says that currencies should trade at a the rate that makes the price of goods the same in all countries. The Big Mac that costs $3.54 cents in the USA becomes the benchmark for evaluating whether another currency is under-valued or over-valued. In China , the price of the Big Mac is $1.83. Thus it is 40% cheaper. In Switzerland ( we use foreign exchange rates prevailing on a specific date) $5.75 i.e. it is 60% higher. This is the crude test of undervaluation or overvaluation. Hence the conclusion we draw - (and I repeat that this is not only the basis of comparison for measuring foreign exchange disparities but it is certainly the simplest and the most ingenious) is that China's Renminbi or Yuan is 40% higher than the Greenback which gives supposedly gives it an export trade advantage by the calculus of the US Treasury .The U S government has already imposed tariffs on China, and accuses it of currency manipulation. A charge that we hear with a grain of salt given the fact that US government and all its works has never been a custodian of morality. . The problem of China 's competitive advantage goes of course beyond foreign exchange rates . Comparative wage labour rates are no less important. China 's wage rate in manufacturing is 10% that of the US rate. But we are not only dealing with a disparity in labour costs. Let us add that China 's industrial productivity has been remarkable . China as you are aware is present in all world markets and its foreign trade and direct investment has rocketed in the last decade strikingly so in Latin America and Africa, Australia all Asian markets ,not to speak of Russia . A single example clinches what I am saying. The Chinese/Venezuelan economic development fund will now double from $6bn to $12bn in just over a year. The role of the USCO, the European Union and Japan are of peripheral importance in Venezuela . The conquest of world markets and market share is continuing at unstoppable speeds. The leading ten capitalist countries are already in recession. Let there be no ambiguity on this score. The goal of China 's policy makers and their capitalists is market aggrandizement . Dynamics of Overproduction . One of the traits of the current defstag, and I don't exaggerate when I use that word, means that there are too many goods chasing too few buyers, too much money chasing too few profitable investment outlays, too many workers chasing too few jobs; too many banks chasing too few impoverished savers and depositors. etc. This is true not only of capitalism's current cyclical slump but applies to all facets of the crisis. The essence of the crisis of capitalism is overproduction. Or over-accumulation. What is overproduction? What are its properties? At what stage in the cycle of capital-accumulation does it emerge? What is its cyclical duration? What is its role in capitalism's business cycle? Milton Friedman , one of the major propagandists of free market fundamentalism and a vulgar apologist of capitalism , put this succinctly when he shoved aside the nostrum of social responsibility on the part of the capitalist: " a company's only responsibility is to increase profits for shareholders". Capitalism defines the relationship between a possessing / exploiting class whose incomes are profits, dividends and rents, and an exploited propertyless class whose income is wages. It defines the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. Hence capitalism's overriding objective, its alpha and omega, and the masters of capital is not the provision of goods and services to the workers it exploits. That is a surface phenomenon. That is a fetishism. The goal of capital accumulation is to expand and ensure an ever rising mass of profits for a class of propertied owners. The overriding goal is profit and profit maximization. Overproduction is thus not an aberration of the system but inherent in its operation. And this goes back to the beginnings of capitalism's first Great Depression of 1873, as noted by the Royal Commissioners in their final report. in words that are superbly relevant to the crash of 1929 and our present slump.: "We think that.over-production has been one of the most prominent features of the course of trade during recent years; and that the depression under which we are now suffering may be partially explained by this fact....The remarkable feature of the present situation, and that which in our opinion distinguishes it from all previous periods of depression, is the length of time during which this over-production has continued .We are satisfied that in recent years, and more particularly in the years during which the depression of trade has prevailed , the production of commodities generally, and the accumulation of capital in this country, have been proceeding at a rate more rapid than the increase of population." The insight of these findings underscore not merely the nature , genesis and rationale of the business cycle that we shall explore in subsequent lectures , but its relevance and kinship to other great depressions that have devastated world capitalism such as the Great Depression of 1929 and the current economic depression we are now traversing. What it is important to recall are the consequences of that great depression that lasted , with its rises and falls, until the start of the 1890s. The Emergence of Monopoly and Its Implications Capitalism and its class rule is a system driven by competition. This is true at all phases of its growth. The period from 1873 to 1914 that ushered in the great carnage saw the structural changes in capitalism from its competitive to monopolistic phase. Competition kills competition. Or , as Marx would have said, one capitalist kills another capitalist. The Great Depression gave a spur to the concentration and centralization of capital that Marx had analyzed with such trenchancy. It saw the rise of the Trust and the Cartels. The names of Rockefeller, Buchanan - the tobacco king, Krupp, Vanderbilt , Morgan, Carnegie epitomized the face of capital. These were not simply what President Theodore Roosevelt called 'the malefactors of Great Wealth'. This was the new phase of monopolistic capitalism stemming from accelerated competition within and between nation states , and the falling rate of profit. More and more competition led to excess capacity and its corollary cut-throat prices, a drop in wholesale and retail prices descriptive of the deflationary stage. This opened the belligerent quest for privileged spheres of investment and foreign trade. Monopolistic capitalism fuelled the drive to imperialism. The period opened the floodgates to what George Bernard Shaw called ,at the time of the Boer War, the age of The Merchants of Death. You will recall what President Eisenhower in his Farewell address called the Military/Industrial Complex. and what generated an enormous body of literature. The formulas was novel but its substance was not.. The reality of this phenomenon was vigorously present in its concentrated form in the decades leading up to the Great War. Arms manufacturers as Krupp and Siemens and Mercedes Benz in Germany , Vickers-Armstrong and Rolls Royce in the U K , Creusot-Schneider in France and Mitsubishi in Japan symbolized the linkages of the Merchants of Death and State Power. Almost 70% of all the artillery pieces and shells used by the Kaiser's army, not to speak of the steel that went to the massive build up of the German Navy since 1890, were produced by Krupp. The House of Krupp became enmeshed with the Hohenzollerns through ties of marriage. Such was the muscle of imperialist matrimonial interconnectivity. Drive to Colonial Expansion I have explored this process in much greater detail in my work on The Rise and Fall of Economic Liberalism. During the 1870s and 1880s and after five million square miles of African territory, with populations exceeding 60 millions were grabbed and subjected to European imperial rule. In Asia ,during the same decade, the U K annexed Burma and brought under its control the Malay peninsula and Baluchistan . France began the breakup of China by annexing Annam and Tonkin . The industrial tycoon and parliamentarian, Joseph Chamberlain called for protectionism at home as well as "to create new markets " abroad. He raised his glass to the simultaneous toast of: "Commerce and Empire, because, gentlemen, the Empire, to parody a celebrated expression is Commerce." This is the meshing of Big Capital and Big bourgeois politics. The battles of imperialism were leading to conflict and war. Chamberlain again in a speech before the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce in 1896 he noted: "If we had remained passive .the largest part of the African continent would have remained occupied by our commercial rivals.Through our colonial policy as soon as we acquire and develop a territory, we develop it as the agents of civilization, for the growth of world trade". Note the terminology. The rape and pillage of Africa and colonial conquests were rationalized in the name of civilization or 'la mission civilisatrice ' and the French called it. For the colonizers and the colonized words have different meanings or as Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) declared: "you can always spit in the face of the colonialists and they'll call it rain." Imperialism has pursued its policies using the same labels in the ensuing decades. In our time the US conquest of Afghanistan is labeled 'Enduring Freedom'. What we witnessed at the end of the 19th century was the expansion and clash of national capitalisms. This is how it was propounded by Cecil Rhodes, one of the leading architects of British imperialism in Africa : "I was in the East End of London yesterday and attended a meeting of the unemployed. I listened to the wild speeches, which were just a cry for 'bread', 'bread', and on my way home I pondered over the scene and became more than ever convinced of the importance of imperialism.My cherished idea is a solution for the social problem ,i.e., in order to save the 40 million inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, we colonial statesmen must acquire new lands for settling the surplus population, to provide new market for the goods produced in the factories and the mines. The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question. If you want to avoid civil war, you must become imperialists." By ' solution' of the civil war he meant the class war between capitalists and workers, the exploiters and the exploited spawning socialist revolutions. Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) incarnated the racist and expansionist thrusts of imperil conquest as well as the inter-dependence of the State and British capitalism. By its very essence imperialism was the quintessence of racialism. " We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the slave(sic) labour that is available from the natives of the colonies. I contend that we are the first race in the world , and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible." Let me add as a footnote that the statement was made in 1896 , the same year that the Durand Line was drawn by the British Raj that demarcated the 2,300 kms frontier of British India [ now Pakistan ] and Afghanistan . Political power and colonial conquest moved in easy concert. Rhodes was Prime Minister of the Cape colony, and Managing Director of the British South Africa Company. A reportage of The Times noted that there was hardly a single member of Parliament that were not stockholders in his company. Nor is this surprising given the congenial rapport between the political elite and the business elite and the luscious pickings that were available. It was the interconnectivity of one hand scratching another. He had become one of the biggest tycoons of all times, with Chamberlain one of his most powerful political backers. . He was the founder of De Beers ( backed with the funds of Lord Rothschild) which, at its zenith, marketed around 90% of the world's rough diamonds. Success depended on 'law and order' and on 'slave labour, ' as he called it, that marched hand in hand with the mass expropriation of African land A process that had the legal backing of the Glen Grey Act of which understandably he was one of the drafters. Indeed, in the imperial order of things the borderline between slave labour and free labour was always fuzzy, point that Rhodes readily grasped. The expansionist drives of Rhodes and his cronies in the Colonial Office was the major catalyst of the Boer War (1899-1902). Historical processes cannot be abstracted from the role of the individual in history and its major actors. It's for this reason that I have singled merely the British Empire and three of its major statesmen: Cecil Rhodes, Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) and Lloyd George (1862-1945) in the shaping of British imperialism, one of the most obnoxious and criminal constructs of all times, that incubated, with its other imperial accomplices, the Holocaust that was the Great War. Suffice it to say that imperialism and all of its projects, designs and expansionists blueprints were inseparable from racial oppression. And indeed many of you will recall the Nazi-like branding of the Chinese people by Lord Curzon (1912) as "a moribund and decadent race". That coming from a country that imposed the Opium trade on the quasi-colonial Chinese empire. Imperialism was the Godfather of imperialism and you have not forgotten Hitler's great admiration for British rule in India articulated once again the eve of his war against the Sov iet Union .. "The Soviet Union ", he declared,. "will become our India ". The trio exhibited par excellence the meshing of business, politics and the imperial drive for conquests. Chamberlain's family was the founder of one of the largest machine tool factories in the U K producing around 75% of the country's metallic screws. As the master of the Colonial Office, which opened up for him the mightiest of personal El Dorado's, he used his portfolio to push British business interests into every corner of the planet and that of course embraced his firm's products. This was the perfect example of the case of State power being dovetailed to interests of individual capitalists. Chamberlain was an intimate friend and business associate of Rhodes and hence their uninhibited racialism ran on parallel lines conferring an ideological coherence to the British ruling class. This reminds me of a portrait I saw a long time ago in the National Gallery that showed Queen Victoria presenting a bible to a kneeling half-naked African chief. The lashes of imperial rule were supposedly mitigated by the balms of Christianity. As George Bernard Shaw once said, colonialists picked the pockets of the Blacks, gave them a few rags to cover their nakedness, and then sent missionaries to reduce them to Christianity. "I believe that the British race" Chamberlain boasted, "is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen.It is not enough to occupy great spaces unless you can make the best of them. It is the duty of the landlord to develop his estate." The inference was all too apparent: since the British Empire was the world's biggest landlord it required the cheap undifferentiated labour of its colonial subjects to work for the prosperity and profits of the superior race of white masters. His fanatic pursuit to intensify the exploitation of Africa (and Asia as well) , earned him the sobriquet of Joseph Africanus. The promise of the superior imperial race that the untrammeled rape of the colonial peoples would, - the mechanism of how this was to be achieved was never spelt out - trickle down to British working peoples proved to be one of the supreme hoaxes in the history of British capitalism. To be sure, the mega-profits gouged from subsistence labour power was 'mouth-watering' as many apparatchiks of the Colonial Office boasted, but few were the crumbs that drifted into the bellies of the British workers. Writing in his War Memoirs (Vol.1 1933), at the apex of another great economic collapse, Lloyd George found no need for persiflage glimpsed in his depiction of the phony 'social peace' of the Edwardian epoch. "It was becoming evident to discerning eyes that the Party and the Parliamentary system were unequal to the task of coping with grave issues rapidly becoming graver.The shadow of unemployment was rising ominously above the horizon. Our international rivals were forging ahead at a great rate and jeopardizing our hold on the markets of the world. There was an arrest of that expansion of our trade of an earlier epoch.our working population, crushed into dingy and mean streets with no assurance that they would not be deprived of their daily bread by ill-health or trade fluctuations, were becoming sullen with discontent." What is this last sentence other than the unacknowledged lingo of the class war.? Lloyd George was never a radical. Despite his anodyne welfare state reforms( based on the Bismarck Ian model) that even earned him the plaudits of the Kaiser he was wedded, like the vicious anti-labour repressionists of the German ruling class, to the perpetuation of the existing social property order, the arms race and imperialist expansion abroad. He became one of the most virulent proponents of empire matched by his no less vociferous support for the Great War. Lloyd George, a tireless war monger, not only fanned the flames of war, but was one of the most unbendable advocates (like his close crony Winston Churchill) of military intervention (1918-21) of the Russian revolution. Which true to form he caricatured as 'the greatest scourge that has ever afflicted humanity'. We are not concerned to examine the sheer stupidity of that utterance but merely to remark that it came from a paramount politico that was one of the leading criminal instigators that engineered the grimmest mass slaughter that humanity had ever witnessed. A remark emanating from a criminal who according to the diary of his wife "who insisted on reserving the right, as David puts it, to bomb niggers."[1] In large measure a war against an emergent state that unique among members of the Second International (1889-1916) that opposed the war and whose rallying cry was : Bread and Peace. A ruthless war of intervention (a term coined by the British Foreign Office) that cost millions of lives (in addition to that of Great War) with famines and its horrendous political sequels. The British government, and recall that he was Prime Minister, bankrolled 70% of the cost of this intervention. His blood gurgling cry: "kill them, ill them now" was symptomatic not merely of the man and his class but of the direction of imperialism." "I shall always remain an implacable enemy of the Bolsheviks up to the end of my life" A promise kept but which , not surprisingly, finds no mention in his War Memoirs. The wars for conquest of world markets and their repercussions were stated with terrible clarity by The Saturday Review (1897) premonitory of things to come,. tantamount to a declaration of war. It took economic and political analysis one giant step forward in contrast to the hollowed out constructs of Marshalian economics and the waffling of Fabian thinking: "Is there a mine to exploit, a railway to build, a native to be converted from breadfruit to tinned meat the German and the Englishman are struggling to be first. A million petty disputes build-up the greater cause of war the world has ever seen. If Germany were extinguished tomorrow, the day after tomorrow there is not an Englishman in the world who would not be richer. Nations have fought for years over a city or a right of succession; must they not fight for two hundred and fifty million pounds sterling of yearly commerce"? Prophetic it was and indeed just 17 years, and 40 million butchered, were needed to test the validity of this blood-drenched belligerent utterance. Within the land of The Saturday Review , whose cataclysmic outcome was utterly inconceivable, 6 million out of 10 million were conscripted; around 750,000 killed; 1.7 million wounded; 160,000 wives lost their husbands; 300,000 children lost their fathers. On the ideological front The Great War had wiped out the vestiges of laisser-faire and economic liberalism. The Encroaching Net The headlong drive that pushed the European powers to imperialist conquests was no less true for the United States and Japan . Imperialism is therefore the ultimate globalization of capital accumulation on a world scale in its moment of crisis and upheaval. Since the Meiji Restoration (1868), indeed in just three decades, Japanese capitalism had surged at a dazzling tempo into a vigorous industrial and world trading nation unrelentingly pursuing overseas expansion and colonial conquests. In Japan , the big trading corporations such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Itoh, Marubeni, Sumitomo and others, collectively known as the Zaibatsus, with their trading arms the Soga Shoshas, were metamorphosed into the leading echelons of Japanese imperialism. Together with the military (the gumbatsu) they became the spearhead of colonial expansion with the occupation of Formosa that plunged Japan into the orbit of imperialism. In 1895, this was followed by the conquest of Korea and the invasion of southern Manchuria . The stage was set for yet another imperialist war between Czarist Russia and Japan , culminating in Russia 's crushing defeat in 1905 in the Battle of Tsushima Bay and the grabbing of Sakhalin . We might add in parenthesis that this defeat spawned the Russian Revolution (1905), that shaped subsequent events. Historically significant, as you observe, was the bunching of events. The re-division of colonies, quasi-colonies and spheres of influence were now being settled by wars of ballooning intensity. A mightier but still embryonic imperial force had now staked its claims to the cornucopia of empire. "This is our Manifest Destiny", boasted Theodore Roosevelt. "We are now a world power and the glory of our race and nation have not reached the end of our road, and we must push on". The effete and inglorious Spanish Empire , that had endured for 500 years ,was busted in 1898 - a venture completed in a couple of weeks - with the grabbing of its colonies, notably its crown jewels Cuba and the Philippines. This marked a further phase in the re-division of the world market that brought the approaching Armageddon one step closer. The Versailles Treaty The end of the Great War was not the "war to end all wars" as Woodrow Wilson fatuously declared. The yearnings of a return to an imagined normality by laisser faire nostalgics were dashed. It signaled not the end of imperialism but its escalation to yet higher and more destructive phases with Fascism its most racialist and politico-economic format. After Versailles (1919) the world map was given the chop.. The Habsburgs, the Romanovs, the Hohenzollerns and the Ottomans were bulldozed into the ditch of history. Germany was now a vanquished nation stripped of Alsace Lorraine and its colonies. Of crucial militaro/industrial strategic importance , however, was that the unreconstructed bureaucracy, its financial and militarist establishment and the powerful national bourgeoisie - the central components of class rule - were still intact. A revolutionary Russia , whose leadership had resolutely opposed the war turned the war into a battering ram for an assault on the Tsarist autocracy. In so doing, it severed its links with imperialism and the national chauvinism of social democracy and oriented its thrust to the building of a socialist order , and the obliteration of the colonial/capitalist/ imperialist survivals. Clemenceau encapsulated the tragic moment of truth when he lugubriously confessed: "We have won the war but we are broke." The older surviving colonial empires , France and the U K, were bled white thrashing on the brink of financial bankruptcy. Their foreign exchange and gold reserves were deployed to pay for the war. In addition they were now confronted with rising labour agitation on the domestic front , and sustained mass rebellions in India and Indochina , their two greatest colonial crown jewels. Thorstein Veblen and John Maynard Keynes . Lloyd George may not have said that "we shall squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak" but what he did say was similar to what 'Tiger' Clemenceau was thinking: "We must have the uttermost farthing, and we shall search their pockets for it." The question of reparations to be gouged from Weimar Germany was one of the burning issues of international relations and imperialist bickering. It was here that John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) acquired international celebrity by his opposition to the provisions of the Treaty in The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) that focused on the implications of reparations. I shall deal at this point with one of the most effective counterblasts to J M Ks pamphlet that came from an American academic whose very short book review appeared in an obscure American publication in 1920. In but three pages Thorstein Veblen ( (1857-1929) hammered home the point that J M K (who participated at the Paris Conference as a member of the British delegation) had sedulously avoided the central issue of the Treaty. Before I proceed, however, let me add that Veblen was an acute theorist and observer of American capitalism during the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons ( (1890-1914). At no point however was he an active adversary of the. system. He never believed that an alternative project in class and property relations was feasible. In that sense, he was never a radical. Nor did he condemn the rapacities of the American empire notably those committed by such colonial-predator politicos as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in the Americas . Nor did he support the struggle for the emancipation of the American negro as the militant young scholar Du Bois was doing. Nor for that matter did he publicly manifest any sympathies for the American socialist movement under the leadership of Eugene Debs. He was a rebel to be sure. What I have said is not to demean his stature as a thinker and his contribution to American letters and economics. The Great War, as with many others,pushed him into a sharper and more questioning mode of thought, and the same was true of Keynes. It was a catalyst that occurred in the autumn of his life. In that review published in The Political Science Quarterly (1920), a year after the publication of J M Ks pamphlet, he luminously saw what was the reality that the Treaty had concealed that Keynes had ignored. It was an inspired piece of criticism drafted at a moment when the corrupt and war enriched USCO had plunged into the apoplexy of anti-progressive and anti-Bolshevik hysteria. In his impressionistic overview The Treaty (which he always capitalized) was the antithesis of democracy and nothing more than a screen of 'diplomatic verbiage' It brings to mind Jacques Attali's description of the Davos World Economic Forum as 'le bavardage'. Behind the 'verbiage' however was the unseen butcher's knife of the imperialist victors. It was the screen alright in what Veblen called sarcastically 'the Elder Statesmen of the Great Powers' who, in his view, continued "their pursuit of political chicanery and imperialist aggrandizement". In so doing, Veblen brought imperialism's reality into the epicenter of international relations. The onus of Keynes's criticism was The Treaty's adverse contractionary impact on Germany 's output, employment and consumers' effective demand. This in Veblen view was the shadow and not the substance. It ignored the far wider geo-strategic and political and ideological consequences that were in play. By the spring of 1919, when The Treaty negotiations had struck their grand climacteric, the War of Intervention to destroy the Russian revolution was also at its highest pitch. The Bolsheviks were battling the armies of 21 nations in addition to the white forces led by Generals Kolchak (1874-1920), Wrangel (1878-1928). Kornilov (1870-1918), Denikin (1872-1947). Veblen made the incisive point that revealed the cutting-edge of his reasoning. "But for all their vulpine secrecy, the temper and purpose of that hidden conclave of political hucksters were already becoming evident to outsiders a year ago.The Treaty is therefore designed to indicate that the most binding provision of The Treaty ( and of The League) is an unrecorded clause by the governments of the great powers that are banded together for the suppression of Soviet Russia." Note his stylistic mutation. No longer are they referred to deferentially as The Elder Statesmen but as a bunch of hucksters. Such a forthright analysis required a great deal of moral fortitude at a time when more than nine-tenths of American academics were quivering in their cloisters , hunkered down under the whip lash of a brutal police state in everything but name. Veblen was one of the very rare voices, another was Lincoln Steffens, who saw the onslaughts against the emergent socialist country as one of the greatest mistakes and injustices of all times. Central to his critique was that Keynes was blinkered in failing to perceive that the Conclave's goal was the destruction of Bolshevism that shaped the design of The Treaty. Anti-Bolshevism and the preservation of the status quo ante was the cementing force that united Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George. Orlando, the Italian, had been shunted off to the sidelines with Lloyd George derisively depicting him as "as a morsel of mouldy spaghetti.". In demolishing the constructs of Keynes , a life long anti-Soviet and anti-communist, Veblen did not fail to draw the inference that the Bolshevik/ imperialist confrontation had now become a war to the death. It therefore followed, then, "that Bolshevism is a menace to absentee ownership. At the same time, the present economic and social order rests on absentee ownership." Absentee ownership was nothing more than a euphemism to describe the capitalist mode of production, distribution and exchange. He also saw that Keynes had deliberately omitted the central role assigned to a resurgent Germany as the battering ram of the counter-revolution. Veblen was of course wrong in stating that 'the hucksters' were waging a surreptitious war against a resurgent Russia . By the end of 1917, it was a covert war deploying vast armies. The Whites were even contemptuously labeled by Lloyd George, Churchill, the Foreign office as 'our mercenaries'. Bolshevism and the revolutionary labour movements that surfaced during the Second International (1889-1916) were not historic aberrations. They were the outgrowths of capitalism's convulsions and crises. Veblen was surely not oblivious that Rosa Luxembourg (1871-1919) and Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919), the two legendary German social democrats were hostile to the war for which they paid the ultimate price. They were arrested and murdered by right wing militarists of the Reichswehr. As was the German social democratic leader Leo Jogiches (1867-1919). The year 1919 is a pivotal year in the history of social democracy, The Treaty and imperialism. It was the end of an ignoble chapter in the history of social democracy battered in a sea of social chauvinism and opportunism. And the opening chapter of Fascism as the savior of Big Capital and the established order. Soviet Russia, soon to be re-baptized the Soviet Union, and Germany had now become the pivotal actors in the historic drama now unfolding : the former casting its revolutionary reach across the planet; the latter the chosen bulwark of counter-revolution. In Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, what Veblen's 'hucksters' of Versailles were seeking had made its appearance as a benediction. In 1932, the Fuhrer addressing his S S Praetorian Guard roared that "the streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. The Soviet Union is threatening us with her might and the republic is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order."[2] This was Veblen's vision but he did not live to see its purgatorial crystallization. Frederic F. Clairmont is a prominent Canadian academic and researcher who for many years was a permanent senior economics affairs officer at the United Nations Economics Commission for Africa and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He taught at the University of Kings College and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. His classic work is The Rise and Fall of Economic Liberalism and his latest book is: Cuba and Venezuela: The Nemeses of Imperialism published by Citizens International in Penang, Malaysia. He is a a frequent contributor to Le Monde Diplomatique and The Economic and Political Weekly. Frederic F. Clairmont is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Frederic F. Clairmont -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please support Global Research Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers. Your endorsement is greatly appreciated Subscribe to the Global Research E-Newsletter Spread the word! Forward to a friend! ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Fri Mar 6 01:33:25 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Fri Mar 6 01:59:31 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Pamphlet: Comrades in arms: Women in the Russian Revolution | Links Message-ID: <49B0EDE5.6020503@greenleft.org.au> To mark International Women's Day, /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ is publishing an excerpt from Resistance Books' /Comrades in arms: Women in the Russian Revolution/, by Kathy Fairfax, and making available the entire pamphlet to download in PDF format. By *Kathy Fairfax* The popular image of the Russian Revolution is of a revolution made by men. Ask the person in the street to name a figure from the Russian Revolution and most could come up with Lenin, Stalin, maybe Trotsky. A few might have heard of Zinoviev, Kamenev or Bukharin. But how many would name Kollontai, Armand or Krupskaya? How many know of the women who helped make revolution in Russia? How many know about the thousands of female Bolsheviks who marched through the streets of Petrograd in 1917 or shouted revolutionary speeches to cheering crowds or wrote and distributed pamphlets calling for revolution? In fact, women revolutionaries inspired the working class the world over and inaugurated a new era in world history. Excerpt and download at http://links.org.au/node/934 Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 From creuss at bluewin.ch Fri Mar 6 10:54:55 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Fri Mar 6 10:57:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama, the Teleprompter Puppet Message-ID: So this is the genius who can speak in whole sentences, huh? <> Now that's a change we can believe in! And here's Obama without a teleprompter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws --- http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090305/pl_politico/19663;_ylt=ArwZfFQuQ4M AVWRpBqgcNtms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFhY3IyOHM3BHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl9tb3N0X3BvcHVsYXIEc 2xrA29iYW1hMzlzc2FmZQ-- Obama's safety net: the TelePrompter Carol E. Lee Thu Mar 5, 1:04 pm ET President Barack Obama doesn't go anywhere without his TelePrompter. The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president's prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks. Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House's stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks. Obama's reliance on the teleprompter is unusual - not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small. After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no such luck. His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face. And it is a startling sight to see such sleek, modern technology set against the mahogany doors and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the East Room or the marble columns of the Grand Foyer. "It's just something presidents haven't done," said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential historian who has held court in the White House since December 1975. "It's jarring to the eye. In a way, it stands in the middle between the audience and the president because his eye is on the teleprompter." Just how much of a crutch the teleprompter has become for Obama was on sharp display during his latest commerce secretary announcement. The president spoke from a teleprompter in the ornate Indian Treaty Room for a few minutes. Then Gov. Gary Locke stepped to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper for reference. The president's teleprompter also elicited some uncomfortable laughter after he announced Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice for Health and Human Services secretary. "Kathy," Obama said, turning the podium over to Sebelius, who waited at the microphone for an awkward few seconds while the teleprompters were lowered to the floor and the television cameras rolled. Obama has relied on a teleprompter through even the shortest announcements and when repeating the same lines on his economic stimulus plan that he's been saying for months - whereas past presidents have mostly worked off of notes on the podium except during major speeches, such as the State of the Union. Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for George W. Bush, said while it's entirely a matter of personal style, using a teleprompter at these smaller events has its drawbacks. "It removes you from the audience in the room," Fleischer said. When speaking from notes, Fleischer said, the president can pick up his head and make eye contact with those in the audience, as opposed to focusing on the teleprompter to his left and right. Bush, Fleischer added, "would use the teleprompter for his major big events, but when he would travel around the country or do events, he would almost always work off of large index cards." The White House says Obama's point of reference is insignificant. "Whether one uses note cards or a teleprompter, the American people are a lot more concerned about the plans relayed than the method of delivery. This is not always true of the media," said Bill Burton, deputy press secretary. Obama has never tried to hide his use of a teleprompter. It was a mainstay during the final months of his campaign. He brought it to county fairs and campaign rallies alike - and once had it set up in the ring at a rodeo. In a break from his routine, Obama did not use a teleprompter during his pre-Inauguration speech at a factory in Bedford Heights, Ohio - and his delivery seemed to suffer. He paused too long at parts. He accentuated the wrong words. And overall he sounded hesitant and halting as he spoke from the prepared remarks on the podium. As president, the stakes in what he says are higher. Governing is not campaigning, and, as a former first-term senator, Obama has not held a previous elected position where his words carried even close to this level of influence. "In this kind of environment, you don't want to make mistakes - on the economy you're talking about doing things that affect the markets," Kumar said. But be it extra precaution, style or a mental crutch, Obama has shown in the past that he needs the teleprompter. And while he still has his prepared remarks placed on the podium in a leather folder, the White House has shown no sign of trying to wean him off of it. Before Obama entered a room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Wednesday to announce his crackdown on defense contracts, a CNN reporter asked an Obama aide if the teleprompter could be moved further away from the podium or lowered. The answer was an unequivocal 'no.' "He uses them to death," a television crewmember who also covered the White House under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush said of the teleprompter. "The problem is, he never looks at you. He's looking left, right, left, right - not at the camera. It's almost like he's not making eye contact with the American people." Wednesday's event posed another scenario photographers and television crews have to work around. Obama had five others join him at the announcement, including Sen. John McCain. The takeaway shot was of Obama and McCain. But the teleprompter on Obama's left was almost directly in front of McCain. "You couldn't get a good angle on him with McCain," said a White House photographer who also covered Bush. "So if there's someone else important in the frame, it's hard to get a shot without the teleprompter." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sat Mar 7 15:56:27 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat Mar 7 16:03:41 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth Message-ID: <015c01c99f81$534a5df0$5fad57ca@jfos> Please check some facts and sign the petition below. They started four wars after 9/11 which killed 10 Aussies. Afghanistan, Iraq, never ending 'War on Terror,' and the War on citizens' freedom and rights. We need justice now, which is long due. It is for our victims' families' sake as well as so many others who have got killed, mamed, and so forth. Please refer to these sites for facts. We were all lied to, but it's about time to wake up. Patriots Question 9/11 http://patriotsquestion911.com/?? Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth http://www.ae911truth.org/??? Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice http://stj911.org/index.html?? Pilots for 9/11 Truth http://pilotsfor911truth.org/? ? Fire Fighters for 9-11 Truth http://firefightersfor911truth.org/? Lawyers for 9/11 Truth http://lawyersfor911truth.blogspot.com/?? Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth http://rl911truth.org/?? Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth http://www.mp911truth.org/?? Also, you can watch Councillor Fujita questioning 9/11 at the National Diet of Japan here, Part 1/2/3/4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOF_pXW84io http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o68Kn-jsIpM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1WkfkvkX2E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzerWupzvio POLITICAL LEADERS FOR 9/11 TRUTH LAUNCHED Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth (pl911truth.com) is today being launched as the latest formal group calling for a new investigation into the events of September 11, 2001. The organization is headed by Councilor (Senator) Yukihisa Fujita of Japan and former Senator Karen Johnson of Arizona. This initiative is formed around a petition asking President Obama "to authorize a new, truly independent, investigation to determine what happened on 9/11." Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth thus joins other concerned citizens' groups calling for a new investigation, including Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Firefighters for 9/11 Truth, Lawyers for 9/11 Truth, Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth, Pilots for 9/11 Truth, Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth, Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, and Veterans for 9/11 Truth. Independent researchers from these professions have established beyond any reasonable doubt that the official account of 9/11 is false and that the official investigations have been cover-up operations. Senator Yukihisa Fujita explains the new initiative: "Thus far there has been no response from political leaders in Washington or in other capitals around the world. Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth has been formed to encourage such a response." The organization is being launched with 20 charter members, including a former US governor, a former US senator, former US representatives, and former and present members of the British, German, Japanese, Norwegian, and European parliaments. Charter member Robert Bowman, former head of the "Star Wars" program, explains the continuing relevance of the issue: "The 9/11 Tragedy has been used as the excuse for two deadly wars of aggression, for taking away our rights, and for committing war crimes that have undermined America's reputation. Only by exposing the truth about 9/11 can we end this madness." Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth invites other people who hold, or have held, a political office---whether elected or appointed, whether municipal, state, provincial, national, or international--- to sign the petition at pl911truth.com. Senator Johnson sums it up: "The organization believes that the truth about 9/11 needs to be exposed now---not in 50 years as a footnote in the history books---so the policies that have been based on the Bush-Cheney administration's interpretation of the 9/11 attacks can be changed." Contact: Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth pl911truth.com ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sat Mar 7 17:10:26 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat Mar 7 17:10:35 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: Financial Fools Day April 1st Message-ID: <01c601c99f8a$aab658b0$5fad57ca@jfos> The following article points to yet another example of how the civil rights of 'ordinary' people (ie, Working- and lower Middle-Class citizens, including photojournalists) are being eroded and denied under the rubric of poorly-drafted 'anti-terrorist' legislation. How long before Australian politicians of either or both dominant political parties ram thru OUR parliaments and Senate similar legislation that enables Police and other 'security' forces to 'manage' (CONTROL) public demonstrations against costly and illegal wars-of-aggression against 'terrorists' (it used to be 'Communists'!) and the taking away of their livelihoods, houses and any superannuation, small savings or investments they may have struggled to put aside for emergencies or retirement? Scarey stuff, given that it is being enacted in that bastion of 'British Justice' and 'Democracy' - the City of London ... a key centre of global neo-liberal and neo-colonial, economic finance and trade! John http://www.counterpunch.org/dickinson03062009.html Weekend Edition March 6-8 , 2009 Camera-Shy Coppers On Financial Fools Day By MICHAEL DICKINSON When veteran peace activist Hugh Romney aka Wavy Gravy travelled America in the late 1960's with the Hog Farm Hippie Collective protesting the Vietnam War, he said he had a surefire way to stop the police from beating them at demonstrations. "We'd whip out a bunch of cameras and they'd immediately start behaving themselves." A good idea. The police don't like to be seen as sadistic bullies. Cameras show what happens. But as we near the end of the first decade of the 21st century, is an aimed camera still a deterrent to police brutality in America? It's certainly not so in Britain any more. Following an amendment to Section 76 of the United Kingdom's Counter Terrorism Act, if you so much as point your lens at a copper in Blighty these days you're likely to find you and your camera under arrest. The new amendment, which came into law on February 16th makes it an offence to 'collect or make a record of information about members of the armed forces, intelligence services and the police force, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.' 'Record' includes a 'photographic or electronic record.' Prime Minister Gordon Brown supports the police in their right to restrict photography if the need arises. "The law applies to photographers as it does to anybody else in a public place," he said. "There may be situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations or raise security considerations." On the day the amendment became law some 200 photographers gathered outside Scotland Yard's headquarters in London to protest that the law could be misused to stop any pictures from being taken - especially images involving police abuse and behaviour at demonstrations. "This law makes it much more difficult to photograph any kind of public demonstration or riot," said Marc Vallee, a protester and photographer. "The police are already suspicious of photographers and this just gives them more ammunition to stop us at our work." Intimidation by police in Britain of photojournalists has been on the increase with surveillance cameras turned on them at political demonstrations; the demanding of name and address from photographers despite their showing of presscards, and innumerable occasions when police officers have demanded photographs to be deleted. Under the new law officers may allow photographers to keep taking pictures in some cases, or ask them to stop and threaten them with arrest in others. Those who refuse to stop after a warning face arrest and the possibility of detention for several days without charge, followed by unspecified fines or up to 10 years in prison. Metropolitan Police Federation's chairman Peter Smyth admitted in a press release that Section 76: "is open to wide interpretation or, rather, misinterpretation.poorly-drafted anti-terrorist legislation could be used to justify unwarranted interference in their (press photographer's) lawful activities." Just recently the Chief British Superintendent of the Metropolitan police's Public Order Branch, David Hartshorn, announced that police are preparing for a "summer of rage" when victims from the economic downturn who have lost their jobs, homes or savings will take to the streets in violent mass protests to demonstrate and vent their anger against against banks and headquarters of multinational companies and other financial institutions. He pinpointed the kick-start for trouble to begin as a demonstration planned in the city of London to coincide with the G20 meeting of world leaders of industrial nations in early April. The event, dubbed 'Financial Fools Day', is likely to cause mass disruption as thousands of demonstrators try to block traffic and buildings as they demonstrate against the financial system in the heart of the City. One of the visiting world leaders will be Barak Obama. Perhaps it was his election slogan that helped to inspire this manifesto of the protestors: MELTDOWN MANIFESTO Can we oust the bankers from power? Can we get rid of the corrupt politicians in their pay? Can we guarantee everyone a job, a home, a future? Can we establish government by the people, for the people, of the people? Can we abolish all borders and be patriots for our planet? Can we all live sustainably and stop climate chaos? Can we make capitalism history? YES WE CAN! Needless to say police are on full alert and will be out in huge numbers on the day. The new amendment to Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act will be a great help to them to cover up evidence of their violence and brutality. By the end of the day they expect to have the archive shelves of Scotland Yard groaning with cameras, and the cells filled with bruised and groaning photographers, wishing they'd used their mobile phones to record events instead. Former head of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington recently accused the British - as well as the U.S. government -- of exploiting the fear of terrorism and trying to bring in laws that restrict civil liberties. The amendment to Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act, along with Home Office plans to expand powers for police and security services to monitor email, telephone and internet activity, makes Gordon Brown's New Labour Britain a strong candidate for the world's number one Big Brother state. Michael Dickinson lives in Istanbul. He can be found at http://money-free.ning.com/ or at michaelyabanji@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From dale_young at telus.net Sat Mar 7 19:59:37 2009 From: dale_young at telus.net (Dale Young) Date: Sat Mar 7 20:01:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed Message-ID: <49B342A9.6050909@telus.net> For all you asked, I just received the following message about Ed Deak: Ed is still in hospital -- with a bag which annoys him. He is to have tests on Monday and if all is well he hopes to go home Wednesday. Or not. If not he may have to go to Kamloops because he has developed some other problems. However he is cheerful . Thats' all I have heard for now. Dale From papadop at peak.org Sun Mar 8 08:35:27 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Sun Mar 8 08:36:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Courting condi Message-ID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courting_Condi I saw a film last night ah-ha !! Brit filmmaker produces hilarious fantasy creation about musician and admirer of Condi who falls crazily in love and determines to woo her. After six years he sheds his blinkers. M From papadop at peak.org Sun Mar 8 09:04:04 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Sun Mar 8 09:04:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] USSupreme Court Puts Off Decision on Indefinite Detention Message-ID: http://www.truthout.org/030709A Supreme Court Puts Off Decision on Indefinite Detention Saturday 07 March 2009 by: Robert Barnes and Carrie Johnson | Visit article original @ The Washington Post Justices: indictment made issue moot. The Supreme Court yesterday vacated a lower court's ruling that the president has the right to indefinitely detain a legal U.S. resident as a terrorism suspect, and put off a decision on one of the most expansive legal claims of the Bush administration. The justices did not rule on the merits of the decision but, instead, said it is moot now that the Obama administration has indicted suspected al-Qaeda agent Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri and said it would move him from a Navy brig to the federal court system. The Supreme Court had been scheduled to hear Marri's case next month. He has been in prison for nearly six years. The court's action relieves the new administration of having to either endorse or repudiate the Bush administration's assertion that the president may use the military to detain those legally in the country but accused of being enemy combatants without charging them with a crime. While civil libertarians and human rights groups have pressed the Justice Department to renounce counterterrorism positions adopted in the Bush years, President Obama's team has indicated that it plans to move slowly on whether to discard those positions. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has denounced waterboarding as "torture" and has indicated a determination to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but government lawyers have rejected invitations from federal judges to reverse course in several ongoing court disputes. The new administration was not eager to take a stand on the legal issues surrounding Marri, 43, a Qatari national. Bush officials said Marri was part of a sleeper al-Qaeda cell intent on mass murder and disrupting the banking system, but they lacked the kind of evidence against him that a federal court would require. Just before Marri was to be tried on fraud charges in 2003, President George W. Bush ordered him transferred to military custody, and he has been in the Navy brig in South Carolina since. Last summer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond agreed with the Bush administration that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress gave the president the power to indefinitely hold terrorism suspects under military guard, even if they were in the country legally. But after the Supreme Court accepted Marri's case for review, the Justice Department decided last week to move Marri to the purview of the federal courts, and he was charged with conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists. Marri's attorneys asked the justices to hear the case anyway, saying it was important for them to decide that neither the congressional resolution nor the Constitution gives the president such powers. But the government said the issues were now hypothetical. To prove that it was not trying to "preserve its victory while evading review," it said it would not object to the court wiping out the 4th Circuit's decision. That is what the court did yesterday, without elaboration or recorded dissent. Marri's attorneys accepted the half-loaf. Although they would have preferred a ruling reversing the lower court, "the Supreme Court nonetheless took an important step today" by vacating the decision, said Jonathan Hafetz, a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project and lead counsel in Marri's case. "We trust that the Obama administration will not repeat the abuses of the Bush administration having now chosen to prosecute Mr. al-Marri in federal court rather than defend the Bush administration's actions in this case," he said. With Marri's indictment, there is now no one held as an enemy combatant in the United States. And despite the attention and court battles that the issue has garnered, only two others have been so designated since the 2001 attacks. Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen once accused of planning to detonate a dirty bomb in this country, was eventually moved to civilian court and convicted of lesser charges. Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, was held for almost three years by the military without charges. He was later released and sent to his native Saudi Arabia. The Marri case is only one of the Bush administration war-on-terror court controversies that the new administration is now faced with either embracing or reversing, as civil libertarians remind Obama of some of his campaign rhetoric about what he called the excesses of his predecessor. Still, the new team at Justice last month asserted a state secrets defense in a case that revolves around CIA rendition of terrorism suspects to countries where they allegedly faced torture. Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that "the attorney general has directed senior department officials to review all state secrets' cases to ensure the privilege is only invoked in legally appropriate circumstances." Separately, government lawyers rebuffed a pointed request by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco to weigh in on whether an intelligence-gathering law that Congress passed last year gives the attorney general too much power to bestow retroactive legal immunity on telecommunications firms that helped authorities engage in warrantless surveillance on U.S. citizens. A department spokesman said last week that the 2008 legislation is "the law of the land, and, as such, the Department of Justice defends it in court." The department also is squaring off against the judge in another case, involving the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which alleges it was the target of illegal government electronic surveillance. Walker has ordered the Justice Department, which is defending the National Security Agency in the case, to develop a plan for proceeding, but government lawyers are balking at the idea that sensitive materials could be shared with lawyers representing the charity. From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Sun Mar 8 23:48:24 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (diongiles1@aapt.net.au) Date: Sun Mar 8 23:48:23 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed Message-ID: <380-2200931964824725@M2W034.mail2web.com> Anyone who would like to send a Get Well card might best address to Ed at home, as there is still doubt about whether he will be going home straight away or on to Kamloops. The Deaks' home address is Box 9, Big Lake Ranch PO, BC, V0L 1G0 , Canada Dion Giles Original Message: ----------------- From: Dale Young dale_young@telus.net Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:59:37 -0800 To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed For all you asked, I just received the following message about Ed Deak: Ed is still in hospital -- with a bag which annoys him. He is to have tests on Monday and if all is well he hopes to go home Wednesday. Or not. If not he may have to go to Kamloops because he has developed some other problems. However he is cheerful . Thats' all I have heard for now. Dale _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web From netcfs at shaw.ca Mon Mar 9 00:54:12 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Mon Mar 9 00:54:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions Message-ID: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> Dear Mai-notters Given the enthusiasm and the many requests for ways to contribute to the operation of Mai-not,Here is what can be done: For all countries allowing transfers of dollars to Canada, please write a money order or a cheque or a draft of the amount ylu want to contribute and send it to Dee Shoolingin Treasurer, NetCFS 692 Charlotte St. Duncan B.C. Canada V9L 2V6 For those who live in countries where such transfers are not possible, well try to get Canadian dollars in cash and run the risk of sending that in a well stuffed envelope. Or if you dare not do that (probably illegal), stay put and (optionally) try to find ways to help the NetCFS locally. Just send me an e-mail with your ideas about how you can imagine ways to help. And if you don't know what the NetCFS is and are curious, just visit our website at http://www.globalproblematique.net Best regards and thanks in advance. Yves Bajard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090309/17ae520b/attachment.html From siamdave at yahoo.ca Mon Mar 9 03:15:36 2009 From: siamdave at yahoo.ca (Dave Patterson) Date: Mon Mar 9 03:16:02 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Global Financial Meltdown: Forces beyond our control? Or the biggest Sting ever? In-Reply-To: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> References: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <200903091715360421.0183B25D@smtp-adsl.totonline.net> Global Financial Meltdown: Forces beyond our control? Or the biggest Sting ever? by Dave Patterson March 2009 To listen to the news these days, with its endless stories of yet more tragedies amongst 'we the people', you would think it was all just some inevitable unfolding of history, some kind of natural disaster that happens every now and then that we can do nothing about, but just have to grit our teeth and get through it, like the big ice storm a few years ago, or the recent tsunami that took so many lives around the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean, or the hurricanes that regularly strike around the Gulf of Mexico, and etc. Every day we hear on the news more stories of the latest victims, and how our noble governments are trying their very best to steer our ships of state through these troubled waters. Like so much of what we hear on the news, this is all one step short of what is really going on in our lives, in the world around us. The stories of human tragedies amongst we the little people are true enough - but what they are lying about is the 'natural disaster' aspect of it all. These tragedies we read of, the job losses, the loss of huge amounts of money and property by 'average' citizens, need not have happened at all. What we are really seeing is the biggest sting ever perpetrated in history, conducted by the elite who control our society, using the vehicles of the banks and governments and media they control to feed us all the basic sting story of unforeseen, unforeseeable, unprecedented natural disaster, whilst behind the scenes and even brazenly in the open in front of our mesmerized eyes transferring vast amounts of the wealth produced by the working people of the world into their own private coffers in the name of dealing with this 'disaster', and using the fear and uncertainty to impose debts that our children and their children will be paying off, to these same scamsters, for decades to come. As with any sting, there are many marks and few scamsters, and we could stop them if we just stood up together and said we are not going to allow this theft. We are going to take the lot of you, put you on public trial for vast fraud, take our money and countries back, and send you all to jail for the rest of your lives. We could. The question is, will we? If most of us continue to sit in front of the televisions and believe the sting 'terrible tragedy nobody could have seen it coming!!' stories they feed us every day, it is unlikely that any uprising will occur - what can you do about a 'natural unpreventable disaster' except do your share, shoulder to shoulder, to stand strongly against the forces of nature, and rebuild our society together? But if you turn off the television, and turn on your brain, and realise what a huge scam this whole thing really is, and the brazen theft of not only your money but the money of your children and grandchildren who will be paying these fraudulent debts for generations - then maybe you will find the strength and wisdom to do what is really necessary - stand up and say No More!!! - take control of your democracy, take back your money from those who are stealing it in front of your very faces, and send all of them to jail for the rest of their lives. Manic Depressive People Can Be Helped - So Can Manic Depressive Economies Our 'modern' economy has all the symptoms of someone with manic-depressive disorder, bouncing between periods of great exuberance followed by periods of depression. This is somewhat misleadingly referred to by our 'experts' (economists, financial leaders, business commentators, etc) who influence the policies under which our economy operates as the 'boom-bust business cycle', as if they are, with their great learning, pontificating some great Law of Nature that cannot be changed or challenged but only dealt with as best we all can when the regular cyclical disasters such as we are facing today fall upon us. But these modern priests of the god mammon speak falsely, whether from ignorance or perfidy, and such disasters need not occur at all. Think of automobiles - we could remove all road rules and policemen, and call the resulting carnage a 'law of nature' as people do what comes naturally - or we can choose to say that letting people do as they wish on our highways does not qualify as an immutable law of nature, and this carnage is not acceptable in a civilized society looking out for all of its citizens rather than letting the few crazies behave as they wish, and can be minimized, and do so. And we could do the same with things economic, if we wanted to. We could choose sanity over insanity, a stable economy over a roller coaster casino economy that is great fun and very profitable for the few and highly precarious and periodically disastrous for the many, if 'we' (as in 'We the People') understood what was happening with our economy, and the choices available as to whether we allow this manic-depressive 'business' cycle to be the norm, or whether we choose to run our economy in a more stable way, to legislate the psychotic drivers who make life precarious for everyone off of our national financial highway. It is simply a matter of political will - however, unfortunately for most of us, currently the decisions that determine what happens in 'our' economy - the actual manifestations of 'political will' - are in the hands of a select group of people who prefer this manic-depressive cycle and thus ensure that our financial system and laws enable this 'business cycle' rather than control it, as they make a lot of money from it in either stage. Also, collectively, of course, the same people, as the ones with the money, pretty much manage the overall direction of our market-oriented 'everything for sale to the highest bidder, including politicians' society, with 'we the people', with far too little money to be purchasing the services of these highest of the high rollers, reduced to 'choosing' between Banker Bob and Lawyer Lois every few years then sitting back in front of our televisions to see what they are doing, with no real power to influence anything between 'elections'. The same people, via the same purchasing power, also control the media, and thus ensure we don't get any real information about what is going on with either the financial policies or the enabling political decisions, or other options that might jeopardize their power. With considerable success, it must be said, as few of 'we the people' seem to have any real idea of what is happening with our economy, or that we could do something about these destructive cycles, and don't take to the streets in protest at the great theft of our wealth engineered by the current policies, which are very much policies of choice rather than necessity, choices which are very good for the few, and very bad for the many. But if you would like to see your society on a somewhat more even keel financially than this boom-bust-bubble roller coaster thing they pretend is some kind of law-of-nature 'business cycle', read on. If the sight of pension funds vanishing in the market maelstrom troubles you, or the hundreds of thousands of job losses we are seeing as the economy contracts, or the thought of the government going even deeper into debt, for which your children will surely be paying for decades to come if the status quo is not challenged, or you think there should be a better way to organise things than watching the price of oil and housing and the stock market and even your currency bouncing around like ping pong balls as the global speculators play unhindered in our societies, read on. There are indeed other ways to run our economy, other much more stable ways, than having Mad Uncle Milton, and Steve and Mark and Jim and the others in their gang, at the wheel. If you want it, you can have it. But you'll have to demand it and then take it, for it is certain that the captains of the good ship Midas the Golden Goose surely won't surrender their positions without a serious struggle. - and the rest here - http://www.rudemacedon.ca/greatest-sting-ever.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090309/7025f0e5/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 07:52:59 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 9 07:55:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed In-Reply-To: <380-2200931964824725@M2W034.mail2web.com> References: <380-2200931964824725@M2W034.mail2web.com> Message-ID: <49B5031B.26274.F94DDC6D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Thanks to Dale for the update and to Dion for the address. Will get a card off right away. Ed has made a huge mark on mai-not list and his stories are embedded in our memories for sure - he is a remarkable surivor of fascism and tyranny, and full of the best kind of passionate intensity to make the world a better place. Is there any way we could do something collectively from mai-not list for Ed at this time? e.g. I think I have majority of his posts over the past decade somewhere in my pegasus files and they are probably on Yves server somewhere. Some of his stories should be accumulated and bound for posterity. Not sure if we could identify the best of Ed on mai-not e.g. or something like that?? What if some of us who have some of his posts go through them and post some of the best- and then put a collection together for him to see that we have truly appreciated his input over the yearsl Just a thought !! I also admit I have not been able to read all mai- not posts lately so may have missed suggetions of a similar nature. take care all the best, janet e.g. in looking back at some of his 2003 posts I found the following which while not one of his personal stories is indicative of his contributions to mai-not. I'll look for some of his personal stories of surviving the war and how it shaped him for life- There are also his stories e.g. about the US airforce planes overhead en route to war on Iraq. ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 07:34:23 -0800 To: mai-not@flora.org From: Ed Deak Subject: [MAI-NOT] Interesting quotes for the new year ____________________________________________________________________ "All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be very true, 'the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust one.' Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor." St. Jerome ____________________________________________________________________ "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its lowest level in 50 years.'" Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable." Simone De Beauvoir, The Coming of Age, 1970 ____________________________________________________________________ "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift ____________________________________________________________________ "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ____________________________________________________________________ "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." Montesquieu ____________________________________________________________________ "What seems to be forgotten is that you can't build a country on tax cuts." Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Canadian, socioeconomic concerns coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its lowest level in 50 years." Greg deGroot-Maggetti, socioeconomic concerns coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift ____________________________________________________________________ "I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty." Imelda Marcos, 1987 ____________________________________________________________________ "Rich folks always talks hard times." Lillian Smith, Strange Fruit, 1944 ____________________________________________________________________ "When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money." Alice Adams, Listening to Billie, 1978 ____________________________________________________________________ "When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him whose." Don Marquis, Journalist ____________________________________________________________________ "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the Earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system." Preamble to the IWW Constitution ____________________________________________________________________ "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live." Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Footnote (1848), written in collaboration with Karl Marx. ____________________________________________________________________ "Classism and greed are making insignificant all other kinds of isms." Ruby Dee, in Brian Lanker, I dream a World ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ====================== On 9 Mar 2009 at 2:48, diongiles1@aapt.net.au wrote: From: "diongiles1@aapt.net.au" To: dale_young@telus.net, mai-not@globalproblematique.net Date sent: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 02:48:24 -0400 Subject: RE: [Mai-not] News about Ed Copies to: Send reply to: diongiles1@aapt.net.au, A renewed Mai-Not Anyone who would like to send a Get Well card might best address to Ed at home, as there is still doubt about whether he will be going home straight away or on to Kamloops. The Deaks' home address is Box 9, Big Lake Ranch PO, BC, V0L 1G0 , Canada Dion Giles Original Message: ----------------- From: Dale Young dale_young@telus.net Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:59:37 -0800 To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed For all you asked, I just received the following message about Ed Deak: Ed is still in hospital -- with a bag which annoys him. He is to have tests on Monday and if all is well he hopes to go home Wednesday. Or not. If not he may have to go to Kamloops because he has developed some other problems. However he is cheerful . Thats' all I have heard for now. Dale _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 08:04:45 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 9 08:06:53 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions In-Reply-To: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> References: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <49B505DD.16385.F958A2F8@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Do we make the cheque out to Dee Shooligan, NetCFS or simply to NetCFS ? all the best, janet I have a cheque ready to go but thought I'd better check with you re to whom to make it payable? On 9 Mar 2009 at 0:54, Yves Bajard wrote: From: Yves Bajard To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Date sent: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:54:12 -0700 Copies to: Dee Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions Send reply to: A renewed Mai-Not Dear Mai-notters Given the enthusiasm and the many requests for ways to contribute to the operation of Mai-not,Here is what can be done: For all countries allowing transfers of dollars to Canada, please write a money order or a cheque or a draft of the amount ylu want to contribute and send it to Dee Shoolingin Treasurer, NetCFS 692 Charlotte St. Duncan B.C. Canada V9L 2V6 For those who live in countries where such transfers are not possible, well try to get Canadian dollars in cash and run the risk of sending that in a well stuffed envelope. Or if you dare not do that (probably illegal), stay put and (optionally) try to find ways to help the NetCFS locally. Just send me an e-mail with your ideas about how you can imagine ways to help. And if you don't know what the NetCFS is and are curious, just visit our website at http://www.globalproblematique.net Best regards and thanks in advance. Yves Bajard From netcfs at shaw.ca Mon Mar 9 10:10:36 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Mon Mar 9 10:10:48 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions In-Reply-To: <49B505DD.16385.F958A2F8@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> <49B505DD.16385.F958A2F8@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <1236618636.4230.4.camel@localhost> Cheque or what ever else is to be made to the NetCFS. Thanks for asking, Janet,. Yves Le lundi 09 mars 2009 ? 12:04 -0300, Janet M Eaton a ?crit : > Do we make the cheque out to Dee Shooligan, NetCFS or simply to > NetCFS ? > > all the best, > janet > > I have a cheque ready to go but thought I'd better check with you re > to whom to make it payable? > > > On 9 Mar 2009 at 0:54, Yves Bajard wrote: > > From: Yves Bajard > To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net > Date sent: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:54:12 -0700 > Copies to: Dee > Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions > Send reply to: A renewed Mai-Not > > > > > > Dear Mai-notters > > Given the enthusiasm and the many requests for ways to contribute to > the operation of Mai-not,Here is what can be done: > > For all countries allowing transfers of dollars to Canada, please > write a money order or a cheque or a draft of the amount ylu want to > contribute and send it to > > Dee Shoolingin > Treasurer, NetCFS > 692 Charlotte St. > Duncan B.C. > Canada V9L 2V6 > > For those who live in countries where such transfers are not > possible, well try to get Canadian dollars in cash and run the risk > of sending that in a well stuffed envelope. Or if you dare not do > that (probably illegal), stay put and (optionally) try to find ways > to help the NetCFS locally. Just send me an e-mail with your ideas > about how you can imagine ways to help. > > And if you don't know what the NetCFS is and are curious, just visit > our website at http://www.globalproblematique.net > > Best regards and thanks in advance. > > Yves Bajard > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090309/fb4922d3/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 10:28:26 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 9 10:30:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions In-Reply-To: <1236618636.4230.4.camel@localhost> References: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost>, <49B505DD.16385.F958A2F8@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca>, <1236618636.4230.4.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <49B5278A.910.F9DC2D0B@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> thanks Yves- I have a small cheque to NetCFS in an envelop to be posted later today- with appreciation for your tremendous service over the years to mai-not list. all the best, janet On 9 Mar 2009 at 10:10, Yves Bajard wrote: Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Call for contributions From: Yves Bajard To: jmeaton@ns.sympatico.ca, A renewed Mai-Not Date sent: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:10:36 -0700 Cheque or what ever else is to be made to the NetCFS. Thanks for asking, Janet,. Yves Le lundi 09 mars 2009 ? 12:04 -0300, Janet M Eaton a ?crit : Do we make the cheque out to Dee Shooligan, NetCFS or simply to NetCFS ? all the best, janet I have a cheque ready to go but thought I'd better check with you re to whom to make it payable? On 9 Mar 2009 at 0:54, Yves Bajard wrote: From: Yves Bajard To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Date sent: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:54:12 -0700 Copies to: Dee Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions Send reply to: A renewed Mai-Not Dear Mai-notters Given the enthusiasm and the many requests for ways to contribute to the operation of Mai-not,Here is what can be done: For all countries allowing transfers of dollars to Canada, please write a money order or a cheque or a draft of the amount ylu want to contribute and send it to Dee Shoolingin Treasurer, NetCFS 692 Charlotte St. Duncan B.C. Canada V9L 2V6 For those who live in countries where such transfers are not possible, well try to get Canadian dollars in cash and run the risk of sending that in a well stuffed envelope. Or if you dare not do that (probably illegal), stay put and (optionally) try to find ways to help the NetCFS locally. Just send me an e-mail with your ideas about how you can imagine ways to help. And if you don't know what the NetCFS is and are curious, just visit our website at http://www.globalproblematique.net Best regards and thanks in advance. Yves Bajard _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From d_a_d at telusplanet.net Mon Mar 9 11:31:32 2009 From: d_a_d at telusplanet.net (David A Davidson) Date: Mon Mar 9 11:31:37 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions In-Reply-To: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> References: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <7D579D75220B4BA0B68CE0ADDF535DCA@davidson> Thanks Ives, a cheque has been sent to you today. I appreciate your work for this list. David _____ From: mai-not-bounces@globalproblematique.net [mailto:mai-not-bounces@globalproblematique.net] On Behalf Of Yves Bajard Sent: March 9, 2009 1:54 AM To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Cc: Dee Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions Dear Mai-notters Given the enthusiasm and the many requests for ways to contribute to the operation of Mai-not,Here is what can be done: For all countries allowing transfers of dollars to Canada, please write a money order or a cheque or a draft of the amount ylu want to contribute and send it to Dee Shoolingin Treasurer, NetCFS 692 Charlotte St. Duncan B.C. Canada V9L 2V6 For those who live in countries where such transfers are not possible, well try to get Canadian dollars in cash and run the risk of sending that in a well stuffed envelope. Or if you dare not do that (probably illegal), stay put and (optionally) try to find ways to help the NetCFS locally. Just send me an e-mail with your ideas about how you can imagine ways to help. And if you don't know what the NetCFS is and are curious, just visit our website at http://www.globalproblematique.net Best regards and thanks in advance. Yves Bajard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090309/19b2547e/attachment-0001.html From d_a_d at telusplanet.net Mon Mar 9 11:38:38 2009 From: d_a_d at telusplanet.net (David A Davidson) Date: Mon Mar 9 11:38:48 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed In-Reply-To: <49B5031B.26274.F94DDC6D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <380-2200931964824725@M2W034.mail2web.com> <49B5031B.26274.F94DDC6D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <7960860436F8435E8B4E2C2B14C574C5@davidson> This is a capital idea Janet. I am sorry that I have not kept all of the quotes from Ed, but I am sure that there are many of them around on some of the hard drives that people have saved. Ed is truly one of a kind man, and I wish him well in the future. He and I are the same age and I appreciate what he is going through at the present time. David Davidson -----Original Message----- From: mai-not-bounces@globalproblematique.net [mailto:mai-not-bounces@globalproblematique.net] On Behalf Of Janet M Eaton Sent: March 9, 2009 8:53 AM To: diongiles1@aapt.net.au; A renewed Mai-Not Subject: RE: [Mai-not] News about Ed Thanks to Dale for the update and to Dion for the address. Will get a card off right away. Ed has made a huge mark on mai-not list and his stories are embedded in our memories for sure - he is a remarkable surivor of fascism and tyranny, and full of the best kind of passionate intensity to make the world a better place. Is there any way we could do something collectively from mai-not list for Ed at this time? e.g. I think I have majority of his posts over the past decade somewhere in my pegasus files and they are probably on Yves server somewhere. Some of his stories should be accumulated and bound for posterity. Not sure if we could identify the best of Ed on mai-not e.g. or something like that?? What if some of us who have some of his posts go through them and post some of the best- and then put a collection together for him to see that we have truly appreciated his input over the yearsl Just a thought !! I also admit I have not been able to read all mai- not posts lately so may have missed suggetions of a similar nature. take care all the best, janet e.g. in looking back at some of his 2003 posts I found the following which while not one of his personal stories is indicative of his contributions to mai-not. I'll look for some of his personal stories of surviving the war and how it shaped him for life- There are also his stories e.g. about the US airforce planes overhead en route to war on Iraq. ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 07:34:23 -0800 To: mai-not@flora.org From: Ed Deak Subject: [MAI-NOT] Interesting quotes for the new year ____________________________________________________________________ "All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be very true, 'the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust one.' Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor." St. Jerome ____________________________________________________________________ "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its lowest level in 50 years.'" Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable." Simone De Beauvoir, The Coming of Age, 1970 ____________________________________________________________________ "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift ____________________________________________________________________ "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ____________________________________________________________________ "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." Montesquieu ____________________________________________________________________ "What seems to be forgotten is that you can't build a country on tax cuts." Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Canadian, socioeconomic concerns coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its lowest level in 50 years." Greg deGroot-Maggetti, socioeconomic concerns coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift ____________________________________________________________________ "I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty." Imelda Marcos, 1987 ____________________________________________________________________ "Rich folks always talks hard times." Lillian Smith, Strange Fruit, 1944 ____________________________________________________________________ "When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money." Alice Adams, Listening to Billie, 1978 ____________________________________________________________________ "When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him whose." Don Marquis, Journalist ____________________________________________________________________ "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the Earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system." Preamble to the IWW Constitution ____________________________________________________________________ "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live." Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Footnote (1848), written in collaboration with Karl Marx. ____________________________________________________________________ "Classism and greed are making insignificant all other kinds of isms." Ruby Dee, in Brian Lanker, I dream a World ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ====================== On 9 Mar 2009 at 2:48, diongiles1@aapt.net.au wrote: From: "diongiles1@aapt.net.au" To: dale_young@telus.net, mai-not@globalproblematique.net Date sent: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 02:48:24 -0400 Subject: RE: [Mai-not] News about Ed Copies to: Send reply to: diongiles1@aapt.net.au, A renewed Mai-Not Anyone who would like to send a Get Well card might best address to Ed at home, as there is still doubt about whether he will be going home straight away or on to Kamloops. The Deaks' home address is Box 9, Big Lake Ranch PO, BC, V0L 1G0 , Canada Dion Giles Original Message: ----------------- From: Dale Young dale_young@telus.net Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:59:37 -0800 To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed For all you asked, I just received the following message about Ed Deak: Ed is still in hospital -- with a bag which annoys him. He is to have tests on Monday and if all is well he hopes to go home Wednesday. Or not. If not he may have to go to Kamloops because he has developed some other problems. However he is cheerful . Thats' all I have heard for now. Dale _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From netcfs at shaw.ca Mon Mar 9 14:40:52 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Mon Mar 9 14:41:03 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed In-Reply-To: <49B5031B.26274.F94DDC6D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <380-2200931964824725@M2W034.mail2web.com> <49B5031B.26274.F94DDC6D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <1236634852.4230.11.camel@localhost> Fine, Janet. I have all Ed's posts (and everyone else'sx) in the archives of the list since I took over.. I don't have much timeat prtesenty but anyone from the list can access the archives at http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/. If anyone among you (would be good if several took the challenge and worked as a team on that I would be very happy to place the result (edited, arranged, made presentable and interesting) on the web with a URL which the Mai-Notters would share. We could even manage to have a printed copy for Martha if she would prefer it to web-reading.. Keep me posted on this task. I may have sone ideas, and could help, even though I am not idel these days, far from it. All the best Yves and Le lundi 09 mars 2009 ? 11:52 -0300, Janet M Eaton a ?crit : > Thanks to Dale for the update and to Dion for the address. Will get a > card off right away. Ed has made a huge mark on mai-not list and his > stories are embedded in our memories for sure - he is a remarkable > surivor of fascism and tyranny, and full of the best kind of > passionate intensity to make the world a better place. > > Is there any way we could do something collectively from mai-not list > for Ed at this time? e.g. I think I have majority of his posts over > the past decade somewhere in my pegasus files and they are probably > on Yves server somewhere. > > Some of his stories should be accumulated and bound for posterity. > Not sure if we could identify the best of Ed on mai-not e.g. or > something like that?? > > What if some of us who have some of his posts go through them and > post some of the best- and then put a collection together for him to > see that we have truly appreciated his input over the yearsl > > Just a thought !! I also admit I have not been able to read all mai- > not posts lately so may have missed suggetions of a similar nature. > > > take care > all the best, > janet > > > e.g. in looking back at some of his 2003 posts I found the following > which while not one of his personal stories is indicative of his > contributions to mai-not. I'll look for some of his personal stories > of surviving the war and how it shaped him for life- > There are also his stories e.g. about the US airforce planes overhead > en route to war on Iraq. > > ------- Forwarded message follows ------- > Date sent: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 07:34:23 -0800 > To: mai-not@flora.org > From: Ed Deak > Subject: [MAI-NOT] Interesting quotes for the new year > > > ____________________________________________________________________ > > "All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, > another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be > very true, 'the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust > one.' Opulence is always the result of theft, if not > committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor." > St. Jerome > ____________________________________________________________________ > "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the > hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps > there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. > In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, > `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its > lowest level in 50 years.'" > Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 > ____________________________________________________________________ > "Society cares for the individual only so far as he is > profitable." Simone De Beauvoir, The Coming of Age, 1970 > ____________________________________________________________________ > "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to > conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift > ____________________________________________________________________ > "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in > the determination of each citizen to defend it. > Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his > share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure." > Albert Einstein (1879-1955) > ____________________________________________________________________ > "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to > the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." > Montesquieu > ____________________________________________________________________ > "What seems to be forgotten is that you can't build > a country on tax cuts." > Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Canadian, socioeconomic concerns > coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 > ____________________________________________________________________ > "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the > hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps > there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. > In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, > `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its > lowest level in 50 years." Greg deGroot-Maggetti, socioeconomic > concerns coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 > ____________________________________________________________________ > "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to > conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift > ____________________________________________________________________ > "I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one > thousand and sixty." Imelda Marcos, 1987 > ____________________________________________________________________ > "Rich folks always talks hard times." > Lillian Smith, Strange Fruit, 1944 > ____________________________________________________________________ > "When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you > really mean rich people keeping their money." > Alice Adams, Listening to Billie, 1978 > ____________________________________________________________________ > "When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, > ask him whose." Don Marquis, Journalist > ____________________________________________________________________ > "The working class and the employing class have nothing in > common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want > are found among millions of working people and the few, who > make up the employing class, have all the good things of > life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until > the workers of the world organize as a class, take > possession of the Earth and the machinery of production, and > abolish the wage system." Preamble to the IWW Constitution > ____________________________________________________________________ > "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, > owners of the means of social production and employers of > wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage > laborers who, having no means of production of their own, > are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live." > Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, > Footnote (1848), written in collaboration with Karl Marx. > ____________________________________________________________________ > "Classism and greed are making insignificant all other kinds > of isms." Ruby Dee, in Brian Lanker, I dream a World > ____________________________________________________________________ > > ____________________________________________________________________ > > > ====================== > > > On 9 Mar 2009 at 2:48, diongiles1@aapt.net.au wrote: > > From: "diongiles1@aapt.net.au" > To: dale_young@telus.net, mai-not@globalproblematique.net > Date sent: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 02:48:24 -0400 > Subject: RE: [Mai-not] News about Ed > Copies to: Send reply to: diongiles1@aapt.net.au, > A renewed Mai-Not > > > > Anyone who would like to send a Get Well card might best address to > Ed at > home, as there is still doubt about whether he will be going home > straight > away or on to Kamloops. > The Deaks' home address is > > Box 9, Big Lake Ranch PO, BC, V0L 1G0 , Canada > > Dion Giles > > Original Message: > ----------------- > From: Dale Young dale_young@telus.net > Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:59:37 -0800 > To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net > Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed > > > > For all you asked, I just received the following message about Ed > Deak: > > > Ed is still in hospital -- with a bag which annoys him. He is to > have > tests on Monday and if all is well he hopes to go home Wednesday. Or > > not. If not he may have to go to Kamloops because he has developed > some other problems. However he is cheerful . > > Thats' all I have heard for now. > Dale > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > mail2web - Check your email from the web at > http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090309/183450b5/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 15:31:00 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 9 15:33:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed In-Reply-To: <1236634852.4230.11.camel@localhost> References: <380-2200931964824725@M2W034.mail2web.com>, <49B5031B.26274.F94DDC6D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca>, <1236634852.4230.11.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <49B56E74.26694.FAF130E0@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Dear Yves Sounds great - like you, I don't have a lot of time but am quite willing over course of a few weeks to work on scanning through and identifying some posts which fill the bill. If others can too that would be useful - we could search different years - I seem to have posts with Eds name on from ca. 2002 onward. I like your ideas about how you could assist by putting an edited version up on the web- that would be great and a lovely tribute to our stalwart compatriot and all to see !! take care all janet ============== On 9 Mar 2009 at 14:40, Yves Bajard wrote: Subject: RE: [Mai-not] News about Ed From: Yves Bajard To: jmeaton@ns.sympatico.ca, A renewed Mai-Not Copies to: diongiles1@aapt.net.au Date sent: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:40:52 -0700 Fine, Janet. I have all Ed's posts (and everyone else'sx) in the archives of the list since I took over.. I don't have much timeat prtesenty but anyone from the list can access the archives at http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/. If anyone among you (would be good if several took the challenge and worked as a team on that I would be very happy to place the result (edited, arranged, made presentable and interesting)on the web with a URL which the Mai-Notters would share. We could even manage to have a printed copy for Martha if she would prefer it to web-reading.. Keep me posted on this task. I may have sone ideas, and could help, even though I am not idel these days, far from it. All the best Yves and Le lundi 09 mars 2009 ? 11:52 -0300, Janet M Eaton a ?crit : Thanks to Dale for the update and to Dion for the address. Will get a card off right away. Ed has made a huge mark on mai-not list and his stories are embedded in our memories for sure - he is a remarkable surivor of fascism and tyranny, and full of the best kind of passionate intensity to make the world a better place. Is there any way we could do something collectively from mai-not list for Ed at this time? e.g. I think I have majority of his posts over the past decade somewhere in my pegasus files and they are probably on Yves server somewhere. Some of his stories should be accumulated and bound for posterity. Not sure if we could identify the best of Ed on mai-not e.g. or something like that?? What if some of us who have some of his posts go through them and post some of the best- and then put a collection together for him to see that we have truly appreciated his input over the yearsl Just a thought !! I also admit I have not been able to read all mai- not posts lately so may have missed suggetions of a similar nature. take care all the best, janet e.g. in looking back at some of his 2003 posts I found the following which while not one of his personal stories is indicative of his contributions to mai-not. I'll look for some of his personal stories of surviving the war and how it shaped him for life- There are also his stories e.g. about the US airforce planes overhead en route to war on Iraq. ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 07:34:23 -0800 To: mai-not@flora.org From: Ed Deak Subject: [MAI-NOT] Interesting quotes for the new year ____________________________________________________________________ "All riches come from iniquity, and unless one has lost, another cannot gain. Hence that common opinion seems to be very true, 'the rich man is unjust, or the heir to an unjust one.' Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor." St. Jerome ____________________________________________________________________ "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its lowest level in 50 years.'" Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable." Simone De Beauvoir, The Coming of Age, 1970 ____________________________________________________________________ "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift ____________________________________________________________________ "The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) ____________________________________________________________________ "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." Montesquieu ____________________________________________________________________ "What seems to be forgotten is that you can't build a country on tax cuts." Greg deGroot-Maggetti, Canadian, socioeconomic concerns coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness --- these were the hallmarks of social Canada during the great Depression. Perhaps there is no coincidence that the same conditions exist today. In his budget speech last February, Paul Martin proudly proclaimed, `federal government spending, as a percentage of GDP, is at its lowest level in 50 years." Greg deGroot-Maggetti, socioeconomic concerns coordinator for Citizens for Public Justice, 2000 ____________________________________________________________________ "Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want." Jonathan Swift ____________________________________________________________________ "I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty." Imelda Marcos, 1987 ____________________________________________________________________ "Rich folks always talks hard times." Lillian Smith, Strange Fruit, 1944 ____________________________________________________________________ "When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money." Alice Adams, Listening to Billie, 1978 ____________________________________________________________________ "When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him whose." Don Marquis, Journalist ____________________________________________________________________ "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the Earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system." Preamble to the IWW Constitution ____________________________________________________________________ "By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live." Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Footnote (1848), written in collaboration with Karl Marx. ____________________________________________________________________ "Classism and greed are making insignificant all other kinds of isms." Ruby Dee, in Brian Lanker, I dream a World ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ====================== On 9 Mar 2009 at 2:48, diongiles1@aapt.net.au wrote: From: "diongiles1@aapt.net.au" To: dale_young@telus.net, mai-not@globalproblematique.net Date sent: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 02:48:24 -0400 Subject: RE: [Mai-not] News about Ed Copies to: Send reply to: diongiles1@aapt.net.au, A renewed Mai-Not Anyone who would like to send a Get Well card might best address to Ed at home, as there is still doubt about whether he will be going home straight away or on to Kamloops. The Deaks' home address is Box 9, Big Lake Ranch PO, BC, V0L 1G0 , Canada Dion Giles Original Message: ----------------- From: Dale Young dale_young@telus.net Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:59:37 -0800 To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Subject: [Mai-not] News about Ed For all you asked, I just received the following message about Ed Deak: Ed is still in hospital -- with a bag which annoys him. He is to have tests on Monday and if all is well he hopes to go home Wednesday. Or not. If not he may have to go to Kamloops because he has developed some other problems. However he is cheerful . Thats' all I have heard for now. Dale _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 16:00:26 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 9 16:02:31 2009 Subject: Ed Deak 2002 [MAI-NOT] The end of democracy. Message-ID: <49B5755A.20601.FB0C218B@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Just found this piece in my large directory on 'unmasking the myths of global capitalism' where some of my research for a book in the works for several years "Unmaksing the Myths of Globalization - Reframing our World" is housed - here is classic Ed on the End of Democracy !! Presient words as always ! all the best, janet ========================= Date sent: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 09:14:41 -0800 To: mai-not@flora.org From: Ed Deak Subject: [MAI-NOT] The end of democracy. The following public notice came on another list and as the topics are of universal interest, I am enclosing my reply and take on the proceedings. Esquimalt is on Vancouver Island, adjacent to Victoria, which is the capital of BC. The falsehoods of neo classical theory can not be fixed with band aids. Cheers, Ed (Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC, Canada) Sunday, March 24th the Esquimalt Juan de Fuca NDP Federal Riding Association is sponsoring a discussion on "Markets and Social Democracy-Are They Compatible?" at Metchosin Community House*, 4430 Happy Valley Road, from 2-4:00 p.m. Admission by donation (to cover the rent and refreshments). It?s open to the public so feel free to bring a non-member if you know anyone who would be interested. On Sunday, April 28th the topic will be: "The Economy and the Environment: What Is Sustainable?" and on Sunday, May 26th it will be: "A Wellness Model of Society: How Would It Work ?" >From Ed: A series of wrong definitions make this debate an exercise in futility because of changing paradigms and deliberate fraud in the theory of the currently accepted concept of economics. What we have now is a horse and buggy economic belief system trying to operate with the traffic on super highways. 1. The neo classical definition of economic efficiency is fraudulent. On account of this we have no legally and logically measurable and acceptable value systems, therefore we have no definition of the concept of what "market" is. E.g. Can we accept the stock and currency markets and any realistic and acceptable concept of the markets? If yes how and why? 2. With the deregulation of the banks any traditionally, realistically, or legally acceptable concept of money ceased to exist., therefore we no longer have money, or a monetary system, but a pyramid scam forced on society by governments. Today?s money not an instrument of barter, but a licence issued by the banks for energy/resource control for the benefit of a special interest sector, while society at large is responsible for the convertibility and acceptance of that imaginary licence, regardless of consequences. In other words, society at large is not permitted to enjoy the benefits of resource conversion, but is forced to deliver them to the creators of a sector friendly, imaginary licence represented by non existing capital. E.g. Foreign investment is worthless hot air until converted into resources. Therefore I submit that : Because and when money ceased to exist, markets also have. We don?t have a market economy, but a governing system ruled by the manipulation of perceived markets, withe values infinitely corrupted by deregulated money creation. 3. With the loss of the control of the money creation process and supply, democracy, including social democracy, also ceased to exist. What we have now is not democracy, but the electoral process and governments controlled by imaginary capital for the benefit of a sector. 4. I also submit that human labour does not cost anything to an economy, in spite of neo classical theories, because the survival needs of human beings are unalienable human rights that must be delivered . Therefore, if we don?t have acceptable values of human labour, we can not possible have any realistic market values. . 5. On the sustainability of economy.vs environment. The only legally acceptable purpose of an economy must be the supply of the needs of society with the least resource/energy inputs. This means total co operation between sectors and the environment. 6. As all forms of competition demand ever increasing physical inputs economic competition can not possible cut, only raise and transfer costs on other sectors and the environment. This is the purpose of competition to begin with. The vast majority of environmental damage is caused by the demands of competition forced on society by pyramid scam of the stock and money markets. The realistic needs of society can be supplied with a fraction of the present physical inputs, which makes sustainability a realistic goal. This can be proven scientifically. I know the scientists who have been working on it for years, can do it and have all the figures at their fingertips. Conclusion: Under the present economic theory and monetary system, that permit the creation of perceived power into the hands of a self appointed sector not only social democracy , but democracy and any realistic form of market economy are impossible dreams With the correct definition and enforcement of economic efficiency, democracy and environmental sustainability can be achieved automatically. Cheers, Ed (Ed Deak, Big Lake) From netcfs at shaw.ca Mon Mar 9 16:43:26 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Mon Mar 9 16:43:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] [Fwd: About Cheques and cash] Message-ID: <1236642206.4230.12.camel@localhost> -------- Message transf?r? -------- De: Dee ?: yves@bajard.net Sujet: About Cheques and cash Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:21:34 -0800 Hi Yves "Janet M Eaton" asks: Do we make the cheque out to Dee Shoolingin, NetCFS or simply to NetCFS ? Please reply or advise on next call for contributions: Make cheque out payable to: Networking for a Common Future in Sustainability Society On the Reference Line note: NetCFS MAI-Not Mail to: NetCFS C/O Dee Shoolingin 692 Charlotte Street, Duncan, B.C. Canada V9L 2V^ Do not put "Treasurer" or any other money clues in the address. Cheques in your national currency to the equivalent of the Canadian dollar amount will work safer than cash in the mail. But we do prefer Canadian dollars. Dee Shoolingin -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090309/6e8d6027/attachment.html From ptuffley at xtra.co.nz Mon Mar 9 16:46:30 2009 From: ptuffley at xtra.co.nz (Peter Tuffley) Date: Mon Mar 9 16:47:11 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions In-Reply-To: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> References: <1236585252.24734.38.camel@localhost> Message-ID: Hi Yves Is it possible to do an electronic fund transfer? If so, what are the relevant account details? (Send the details off-list if you'd prefer the info not to be made generally known.) Regards Peter I'm writing about this off-list bec On 9/03/2009, at 8:54 PM, Yves Bajard wrote: > > Dear Mai-notters > > Given the enthusiasm and the many requests for ways to contribute to > the operation of Mai-not,Here is what can be done: > > For all countries allowing transfers of dollars to Canada, please > write a money order or a cheque or a draft of the amount ylu want to > contribute and send it to > > Dee Shoolingin > Treasurer, NetCFS > 692 Charlotte St. > Duncan B.C. > Canada V9L 2V6 > > For those who live in countries where such transfers are not > possible, well try to get Canadian dollars in cash and run the risk > of sending that in a well stuffed envelope. Or if you dare not do > that (probably illegal), stay put and (optionally) try to find ways > to help the NetCFS locally. Just send me an e-mail with your ideas > about how you can imagine ways to help. > > And if you don't know what the NetCFS is and are curious, just visit > our website at http://www.globalproblematique.net > > Best regards and thanks in advance. > > Yves Bajard > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090310/04bace97/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 18:01:49 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 9 18:04:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Thomas Friedman finally gets it "The Inflection Is Near? " Message-ID: <49B591CD.11580.FB7B411D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Let?s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it?s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall - when Mother Nature and the market both said: "No more." "Just as a few lonely economists warned us we were living beyond our financial means and overdrawing our financial assets, scientists are warning us that we?re living beyond our ecological means and overdrawing our natural assets," argues Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. But, he cautioned, as environmentalists have pointed out: "Mother Nature doesn?t do bailouts." One of those who has been warning me of this for a long time is Paul Gilding, the Australian environmental business expert. He has a name for this moment - when both Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once - "The Great Disruption." ---Thomas Friedman fyi-janet Could you ever have imagined Thomas Friedman talking about Fr. Greed? ===================== Thomas Friedman has gotten the message. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08friedman.html The Inflection Is Near? By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: March 7, 2009 New York Times Sometimes the satirical newspaper The Onion is so right on, I can?t resist quoting from it. Consider this faux article from June 2005 about America?s addiction to Chinese exports: "FENGHUA, China - Chen Hsien, an employee of Fenghua Ningbo Plastic Works Ltd., a plastics factory that manufactures lightweight household items for Western markets, expressed his disbelief Monday over the "sheer amount of [garbage] Americans will buy. Often, when we?re assigned a new order for, say, `salad shooters,? I will say to myself, `There?s no way that anyone will ever buy these.? ... One month later, we will receive an order for the same product, but three times the quantity. How can anyone have a need for such useless [garbage]? I hear that Americans can buy anything they want, and I believe it, judging from the things I?ve made for them," Chen said. "And I also hear that, when they no longer want an item, they simply throw it away. So wasteful and contemptible." Let?s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it?s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall - when Mother Nature and the market both said: "No more." We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ... We can?t do this anymore. "We created a way of raising standards of living that we can?t possibly pass on to our children," said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks - water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land - and not by generating renewable flows. "You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior," added Romm. "But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, `This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...? Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy." Over a billion people today suffer from water scarcity; deforestation in the tropics destroys an area the size of Greece every year - more than 25 million acres; more than half of the world?s fisheries are over-fished or fished at their limit. "Just as a few lonely economists warned us we were living beyond our financial means and overdrawing our financial assets, scientists are warning us that we?re living beyond our ecological means and overdrawing our natural assets," argues Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. But, he cautioned, as environmentalists have pointed out: "Mother Nature doesn?t do bailouts." One of those who has been warning me of this for a long time is Paul Gilding, the Australian environmental business expert. He has a name for this moment - when both Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once - "The Great Disruption." "We are taking a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder," he wrote me. "No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply." We must have growth, but we must grow in a different way. For starters, economies need to transition to the concept of net-zero, whereby buildings, cars, factories and homes are designed not only to generate as much energy as they use but to be infinitely recyclable in as many parts as possible. Let?s grow by creating flows rather than plundering more stocks. Gilding says he?s actually an optimist. So am I. People are already using this economic slowdown to retool and reorient economies. Germany, Britain, China and the U.S. have all used stimulus bills to make huge new investments in clean power. South Korea?s new national paradigm for development is called: "Low carbon, green growth." Who knew? People are realizing we need more than incremental changes - and we?re seeing the first stirrings of growth in smarter, more efficient, more responsible ways. In the meantime, says Gilding, take notes: "When we look back, 2008 will be a momentous year in human history. Our children and grandchildren will ask us, `What was it like? What were you doing when it started to fall apart? What did you think? What did you do?? " Often in the middle of something momentous, we can?t see its significance. But for me there is no doubt: 2008 will be the marker - the year when `The Great Disruption? began. ------- End of forwarded message ------- From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Mon Mar 9 18:09:31 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon Mar 9 21:10:14 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: [S] Where the cheats have no shame: U-owetaxes-2 Message-ID: <043101c9a136$17881530$73ad57ca@jfos> Excerpt: " ... any close scrutiny of his background reveals him as a middle-class brat whose quasi-proletarian poses (such as the ?four Irish boys from the northside of Dublin? shout-out at the Obama pre-inaugural bash) earn sniggers of scorn in his hometown. Still, it?s a worthwhile activity, a little mental exercise, to take his world-hugging poses at face value just long enough to demolish them with a little truth-- starting with the fact that he avoids tax in his own beleaguered country, and that rich people who avoid tax are part of the global problem, not the global solution." Bono: "All the Corporate Entities Do It" Where the Cheats Have No Shame By HARRY BROWNE Entries have already been pouring in to the ?rewrite a U2 song? competition in honour of the group?s Irish tax-exile status, as described here on Counterpunch by Eamonn McCann. ?Where the Streets Have No Name? has been recast as ?Where the Cheats Have No Shame?, ?Angel of Harlem? as ?Arrangement in Holland? -- and those are just the entries from my house. http://www.counterpunch.org/browne02272009.html But CounterPunchers are rarely less than fair, so we just had to read more when we saw this news intro on page-one of today?s Irish Times: ?U2 singer Bono says he was ?stung? and ?hurt? by criticism of the band moving part of its business to the Netherlands to lessen its tax burden.? Oh, Bono, dear Bono. Is that a tear I see in your eye, behind the wraparound shades? No, maybe not. As the interview with Bono in the newspaper demonstrates yet again, this is indeed a man entirely without shame. And also not too well endowed in the smarts department. His main excuse -- all the other corporate entities were doing it -- is a childish abdication of moral responsibility. And as another excuse he adds, ?I can?t speak up without betraying my relationship with the band? -- i.e. maybe this wasn?t really my idea but I?ve got to stick with my greedy pals. Well, that?s just low. But let?s allow Bono to speak for himself. Tax avoidance, he says, is how Ireland got rich: " I can understand how people outside the country wouldn?t understand how Ireland got to its prosperity, but everybody in Ireland knows that there are some very clever people in the Government and in the Revenue who created a financial architecture that prospered the entire nation -- it was a way of attracting people to this country who wouldn?t normally do business here. And the financial services brought billions of dollars every year directly to the exchequer. " There?s at least half-truth in what he?s saying: helping rich foreign companies avoid taxes was indeed part of the story of the Celtic Tiger. But Bono is leaving out the moral of the story, something else that ?everybody in Ireland knows?: now that this get-rich-quick scheme has collapsed, Ireland is getting poor as precipitously quickly as any country in the developed world. So Bono is justifying U2?s tax-avoidance by comparing it to the Irish ?financial architecture? that is now justly regarded as a national scandal, part of what brought more than 100,000 people on to Dublin?s streets to protest last weekend. Oops. It?s worth explaining in a little more detail why the same sort of tax tourism that lured the global financial services industry to Dublin actually drove part of U2?s business away to the Netherlands. Ireland has famously had, since 1969, an artists? tax exemption, whereby Irish residents? earnings from artistic work (published work, not performance) were not liable to tax. Given the aggressive business mentality of U2 and their manager, Paul McGuinness, it can safely be assumed this exemption was part of the attraction of remaining in Dublin through all their years of international superstardom. Three years ago, however, the government (under some popular pressure in which Bono?s name featured prominently as a hate-figure) capped the exemption at 250,000 euro annually, a threshold that would be a distant dream for the vast majority of writers, painters and musicians, but that was of immediate concern to U2. The group responded by relocating its music-publishing arm to Amsterdam, where its royalties would be taxed at just 5 per cent. This is a horror of hypocrisy only if you take all of Bono?s moralising seriously. But let?s allow him to complete that thought about tax-dodging: " What?s actually hypocritical is the idea that then you couldn?t use a financial services centre in Holland. The real question people need to ask about Ireland?s tax policy is: ?Was the nation a net gain benefactor?? and of course it was -- hugely so. So there was no hypocrisy for me -- we?re just part of a system that has benefited the nation greatly?" So tax avoidance is an act of patriotism, even when you?re taking money out of the country, because as an international activity it was broadly to Ireland?s benefit. You know, Bono should really stick to the stonewalling strategy of his band-mate, The Edge, who just says (in the same interview) ?it?s our own private thing. We do business all over the world? and we are totally tax compliant.? Edge also quietly notes that in light of the recession the group?s ambitious local property development plans are being viewed with, ahem, ?a colder eye.? But Bono?s special charm is that he doesn?t know when to shut up, at least when he?s got full control of the microphone. (Debates are another matter, and he dodges them as efficiently as he does those taxes.) In truth, there are worse tax offenders than U2. Many of Ireland?s super-rich are, unlike U2, not Irish residents for tax purposes, taking advantage of a rule that says if they live here for less than half the year they are not liable to Irish taxation on their income. Until this year they could take advantage of a ?Cinderella? loophole that said if they got out of the country by midnight on a given day, that day would not count as one in Ireland for the tax calculation -- so the private jets were kept busy with late flights. Don?t expect the country?s largest newspaper group, Independent News and Media, to get too exercised about this: its boss, Tony O?Reilly, ?lives? in the Bahamas. Nonetheless, U2 make a fantastic target, precisely, as Bono says, ?because of my mouth.? Of course any close scrutiny of his pronouncements on world affairs reveals him as a ruling-class mouthpiece, who makes the problems of global poverty even worse by suggesting that Western leaders are on the verge of solving them, with just a little push from Bono. (How very much more hollow that notion seems in 2009.) And any close scrutiny of his background reveals him as a middle-class brat whose quasi-proletarian poses (such as the ?four Irish boys from the northside of Dublin? shout-out at the Obama pre-inaugural bash) earn sniggers of scorn in his hometown. Still, it?s a worthwhile activity, a little mental exercise, to take his world-hugging poses at face value just long enough to demolish them with a little truth-- starting with the fact that he avoids tax in his own beleaguered country, and that rich people who avoid tax are part of the global problem, not the global solution. By the way, CounterPunch doesn?t pay me enough to listen to the new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon, released in Ireland today and already all over the airwaves, along with interviews with the fans who camped out for days to get the first copies. (It comes in five different ?editions?, God help us.) Credit is due, however, to the Irish Times, which even as it plasters its print and online editions with U2 branding (including samples from the album), also includes a few critical words from its excellent blogger Jim Carroll. He briefly notes the group?s corporate sins, then adds: ?But those are human transgressions. For musical transgressions, you have to head to the new album,? which he calls ?blustery, burpy, over-cooked melodrama.? It?s an album, Carroll writes, to ?fill stadiums, newspapers, radio stations, web sites, quarterly target spreadsheets, bank balances, pension funds and investment opportunities in the tech sector.? Carroll doesn?t say so, but reading his list it?s some small comfort to consider that as all those other icons of neoliberalism are smashed amidst the current turmoil, Bono and U2 could be among the victims. There really is a song competition, by way. See debtireland.org for details, and for a video featuring the Irish finance minister telling a protester, charmingly, ?you?ll have to take that up with Mr Bono.? Harry Browne lectures in the School of Media at Dublin Institute of Technology and is author of CounterPunch?s Hammered by the Irish. Contact harry.browne@gmail.com MORE: How Ireland went bust http://www.counterpunch.org/browne02192009.html + http://www.counterpunch.org/mccann02262009.html The best response to one of those breathless Bono appeals for uplift came at a Glasgow gig when he hushed the audience to reverent silence before starting slowly to clap. "Every time I clap my hands,? he whispered into the microphone, ?a child in Africa dies...? A voice responded in broad Glasgow accent: "Well, fucking stop doin' it then.? All of which is mere intro to lyrics (by Bono impersonator Paul O?Toole) sung outside the Dail (parliament) in Dublin on Wednesday, at a follow-up- demo organized by the Debt and Development Coalition Ireland. I want to run, my money to hide I want build paper walls and keep it inside I want to seek shelter from income tax pain Where the accounts have no names See my tax bill disappear without a trace Where the accounts have no names Where the accounts have no names Where the accounts have no names Where the accounts have no names Keeping our fortune is something we love Something we love And when we go there, we go without you Revenue we don?t do Ireland is bankrupt and though it?s going bust Our well paid accountants made sure it don?t affect us They showed us a place to avoid all the pain Where the accounts have no names Where the accounts have no names Where the accounts have no names Avoiding tax is something we love Something we love And when we go there, we forget about you Revenue we don?t do Tax demands turn to rust We?ve used the law and left on the wind Left on the wind On the subject of tax our love turns to rust See our dosh is in trusts Dosh is in trusts And when we go there, we forget about you Revenue we don?t do -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090310/6f2d43e0/attachment.html From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Tue Mar 10 00:16:27 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (diongiles1@aapt.net.au) Date: Tue Mar 10 00:16:34 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Call for contributions Message-ID: <380-22009321071627365@M2W041.mail2web.com> I tried sending bank drafts until it became a nightmare as banks progressively abandoned service to the ordinary customer and focused on servicing large scale predatory crooks. There were escalating fees both to the sender to get a draft and to the recipient to convert the draft into actual money. Now I've settled for changing money into Canadian currency at a Bureau de Change on the rare occasions when I am in the PerthCBD, and enclosing the currency in a letter (important to ensure that there is a paper or card barrier between the money and the envelope, as the urban myth has it that pilferers detect money and steal it. The better change bureaus extract a great deal less from the transaction than the thieving bankers - indeed the charge is more or less commensurate with the service as their primary business is with human beings not corporations. I'll be in London on the way home to the WA furnace on Saturday and will grab some more Canadian notes while there. Dion Giles Original Message: ----------------- From: Peter Tuffley ptuffley@xtra.co.nz Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:46:30 +1300 To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Call for contributions Hi Yves Is it possible to do an electronic fund transfer? If so, what are the relevant account details? (Send the details off-list if you'd prefer the info not to be made generally known.) Regards Peter I'm writing about this off-list bec On 9/03/2009, at 8:54 PM, Yves Bajard wrote: > > Dear Mai-notters > > Given the enthusiasm and the many requests for ways to contribute to > the operation of Mai-not,Here is what can be done: > > For all countries allowing transfers of dollars to Canada, please > write a money order or a cheque or a draft of the amount ylu want to > contribute and send it to > > Dee Shoolingin > Treasurer, NetCFS > 692 Charlotte St. > Duncan B.C. > Canada V9L 2V6 > > For those who live in countries where such transfers are not > possible, well try to get Canadian dollars in cash and run the risk > of sending that in a well stuffed envelope. Or if you dare not do > that (probably illegal), stay put and (optionally) try to find ways > to help the NetCFS locally. Just send me an e-mail with your ideas > about how you can imagine ways to help. > > And if you don't know what the NetCFS is and are curious, just visit > our website at http://www.globalproblematique.net > > Best regards and thanks in advance. > > Yves Bajard > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------- myhosting.com - Premium Microsoft? Windows? and Linux web and application hosting - http://link.myhosting.com/myhosting From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Tue Mar 10 00:20:49 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (diongiles1@aapt.net.au) Date: Tue Mar 10 00:21:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] [Fwd: About Cheques and cash] Message-ID: <380-22009321072049671@M2W028.mail2web.com> "Do not put "Treasurer" or any other money clues in the address." Good point. Hadn't thought of that. Dion Giles -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com ? What can On Demand Business Solutions do for you? http://link.mail2web.com/Business/SharePoint From netcfs at shaw.ca Tue Mar 10 01:01:21 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Tue Mar 10 01:01:29 2009 Subject: [Fwd: Policy Re: [Mai-not] Call for contributions] Message-ID: <1236672081.4230.36.camel@localhost> -------- Message transf?r? -------- De: Dee ?: yves@bajard.net Sujet: Policy Re: [Mai-not] Call for contributions Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:27:17 -0800 Hi Yves >From :[Fwd: Re: [Mai-not] Call for contributions] Peter Tuffley asks: Is it possible to do an electronic fund transfer? If so, what are the relevant account details? ======== A Policy Decision motion. We can ratify at our next meeting of the Board. Whereas: It is more expensive to us then if they send us Australian or US dollars, or any other currency by their own cheques in their local currency. If they wire from their bank they will pay to convert to Canadian dollars plus the wire fee at their end. At our end we get it sent to our Credit Union that will arrange with a bank to route it to the Credit Union's wire arrangement and the bank fee is inflated to us. We also could set up a wire account with that international currency exchange but the sender will still pay a large wire fee. We pay a fee at this end a bit less than the bank/CU route. The cheapest way is to send their cheque in the sender's local currency. If sending $25.00 Canadian dollars, get a free estimate from the sender's bank (by telephone) of what that sending day's exchange rate's equivalent and fee, in local money and send that equivalent amount. Say it works out to Australian $32.67 round it off up to a few extra dollars to say Au$ 35.00 on the cheque. We will suffer any difference at our end and thank you for your contribution. If the rate changes by the time we get it - it will be up or down but so what. We pay the exchange at our end, thank you. This is not a business, we are a Not-For-Profit operation. I will so move. Dee Shoolingin Treasurer NetCFS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090310/aa27d8f6/attachment.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Tue Mar 10 04:35:09 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Tue Mar 10 04:37:37 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Ed Deak's writings on history Message-ID: I think Janet's idea is great, and of course it's a vast amount of work to wade through literally hundreds of his postings. For a quick start, I have compiled some about history, from 2004 on (only the 1st being from 2001), i.e. from my internal disk (at the moment, I don't have quick access to older files, although I have stored everything since Ed invited me to Mai-Not, about 10 years ago). As you can see, just this small sample on 1 topic is already 43 pages, and there's much more on economy... Btw, what happened to Ed's "memoirs" on paper? It's a pity he didn't find a journo or someone like that to write down his life & insights in one structured book, it certainly could have filled more than one volume. Regards, Chris -------------- next part -------------- Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 20:43:52 -0700 To: mai-not@flora.org From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [MAI-NOT] The Nazi Hydra and the vanishing state > >Yes, Hitler's assent into the office of the Chanchelor was meet with a big yawn >for the most part. In those days news clips were commonly shown before a movie. >Hitler's take over of the Chancelor Office was not the lead news story. The lead >story was of a horse show followed by a news story on alpine sking. > Too many give the false impression that fascism is only associated with the >extremes of the later phase of the Nazis. Nor has there ever been 2 fascist >governments with the same policies. The extreme racism of the Nazis was not >central to either Italy or Franco's Spain. > In my thinking the important common elements in all 3 of the fascist >governments was a top down revolution and corporate rule. There are others of >course but these two I would single out as being of paramount importance. The >fascist take overs even in Chile during the late 60s came at troubling economic >times, and the fascist sought to preserve the ruling class. > ============================================================================ ========= This is correct, but the realities are a bit more complicated. E.g. Racism and anti-Semitism have been entrenched in Europe forever. It was and may still be a way of life in many parts. All Hitler had done was to make it official and legal with the support of the majority. Before going any further I have to emphasize that if I'd be supporting fascism, or any form of dictatorship, I wouldn't bother with economics, or to be on this list. However, there's a lot of misinformation going on in history books, mostly for propaganda reasons, or based on the personal prejudice of the writers. Then there are the cold, hard facts that may be very unpopular under any regime. Nazism, fascism, communism etc. have always been the inevitable "effects" and not "causes" of the misused control of energy by ruling classes, basic outlets for the desperation by oppressed peoples who had nothing to lose. The fact they too were misuses of energy is the simple proof that the world never had an efficient, or effective economic system anywhere and all theories have always been and still are the faith based mechanisms for the transfer of increased costs. There's no point in debating the effects without trying to find the causes. For the most part European nazism and fascism were the results of the bitterness against the Versailles Treaty which literally forced people to follow demagogues on either side. It was not Hitler who started WW2, but French PM Jacques Clemenceau 20 years before him. Europe was bled out and in deep depression 10 years before the rest of the world. Hungary was forced into WW1 on the orders of the Austrians and lost 750,000 men between the ages of 18-45 from a population of 21 million. Then 2/3 of the country was simply cut off and given to others, breaking economic systems, corridors and lines built up over 1000 years, creating millions of refugees and then had to pay huge war reparations to the victors. How would Australia look after losing 750,000 young men in 4 years? The corporations may have had certain influence, but generally the economic systems were still based on small business, trade guild, local exchange, closed system, national economy principles. People had very little contact with big corporations and the main tenor of nazi/fascist propaganda always claimed that they were against them and on the side of the little guy. The biggest political influences were the military, Churches and the still very strong aristocracies and the self appointed governments. Elections were a farce. The vast majority of Europe never had any democratic traditions and loved dictatorships, as they didn't have to think. One of the main arguments of the communists was that people didn't have to choose, which made them free to vote for one party. May sound crazy, but true. The conditions in pre nazi Germany have been very well described by William Shirer's "The rise and fall of the Third Reich". There was hunger, unemployment, destitution everywhere. After Hitler took over Germany became the envy of Europe, regardless of what is being said now. I was only 6 at the time of the takeover, but I remember very well the conversations by adults and articles in the following years. Also, I was listening to Germans and Austrians for 3 years after the war. They weren't complaining. There was little in common between fascist/nazi rules, as usual with any kind of political allies anywhere. They hated and distrusted each other, especially at the common people level. Racism again. Albeit the same applied to British vs. Americans vs. Soviets and so on in every alliance throughout history. Every political ideology is different in every country even between the North/South/East/West parts of the same country. The Northern Germans have nothing in common with the South, the same as in the USA, or East vs. West in Canada. The Bavarians hated the nazis, the Prussians loved them. The Austrians and Hungarians hated everybody and everybody hated the Italians. There was constant trouble and stress between the Axis armies in the front lines, beating each other up in the recreation areas, pubs etc. The same with the Western Allies. Much of the propaganda campaign was directed at national populations, trying to convince them that the other members of the Axis were human beings. In Africa so many Italians went over to the British that they sent back thousands of them. There was joke going around: What are the 3 most useless things on Earth? Men's breasts, the Pope's manhood and the Italian army. Hungary has been under Austrian rule from 1686 till 1919, fought 2 unsuccessful wars of freedom and distrusted Germans all the way. Although we were full blown satellites and fighting with the nazis in Russia, the first nazi occupation of Hungary happened on March 20, 44. Most of the Hungarian govt. were high tanking military people, who knew by then that the war was lost. The Germans feared that they will make separate peace with the Allies and permit British occupation through the Balkans, where Tito ruled. This nazi occupation was very friendly, except for Jews, as that's when the deportations started. Up to that time Jews have been discriminated against and had to wear yellow stars, but there were no mass murders and such. We saw the German troops, but they didn't really interfere with anything. Apart from the increased air raids life went on as usual. What most people find incredible is that during those first months of nazi occupation the top members of the Hungarian nazi party were in jail and the party itself was outlawed, it's papers and propaganda messages were illegal. At one time, in the summer of 44, I worked as an auxiliary policeman for a few weeks and one of our jobs was to remove all nazi posters stuck up during the night and to collect fliers thrown out by Allied planes. Both were considered equally anti-Hungarian. (An interesting side note here. As we found out later, many of the Allied propaganda leaflets were in reality thrown out from German/Hungarian aircraft to cause anti-Allies sentiments. I remember one with the headline: "Chevalier meglakolt" "Chevalier paid for it" It featured a caricature of the actor Maurice Chevalier with his straw hat and claimed that the Allies executed him for entertaining German troops.) When we were in the frontlines in East Germany with the Hungarian army, at one time we almost got into a private war with the German command. We were the rearguard of the rearguard for our division and just broke out of Soviet encirclement, with only 30 of us left from 100. The Germans wanted to put us right back in the line without food, or sleep. We captured a German captain at gunpoint and marched him across a village called Siegesdorf to his command headquarters, then moved into and were holed up in a couple of houses across the street with a dozen machineguns pointed at the Commandant's office, while the some Wehrmacht troops were pointing their guns at us. Finally they allowed us to go. Such events were quite common. In March 45 when some of the Hungarian troops refused to fight against the British near Hannover and went over, we were disarmed and made into working troops, building tanktraps and foxholes in the daytime, marching in the night. Our guards were our own officers. One of my friends was in the regiment that went over to the British. They had better officers, who talked it over with the men and decided that they came to fight Russians and had no problem with the Brits. When the Hungarian army at the Carpathian Mountains capitulated to the Soviets in Oct 44 the Horthy govt. also wanted to capitulate to prevent the destruction of the country. It was Sunday, Oct. 15 1945. When I heard the news on the radio around noon, I packed a few things into a rucksack, said goodbye to my crying family and went off West on my bicycle to join up with the Germans, as I had no intention of staying under Soviet occupation. After I crossed the Danube to the Buda side of the city I saw a couple of guys in German uniforms, but speaking Hungarian. They were lying behind a machinegun pointing toward the city. A few others in civilian clothes with black armbands with gold skull and crossbones and rifles were standing in the gateway of a fancy villa across from the funicular railway station. I asked who they were and they said they were Hungarian patriots who didn't want to capitulate to the Russians, but wanted to fight on. I asked them where I could join and they sent me into the villa, where they asked me a few questions and I was out on the street with an old Belgian rifle. As I found out later they were the start of the nazi takeover, but in reality it was a very popular uprising, with people pouring in to join in the fight against the Russians. At one time we went to a nearby army hospital full of wounded for some medical supplies and when the soldiers found out who we were many of them broke down crying, clutching our hands and thanking us, joined by the doctors and nurses. The remainder of the country was full of refugees by then and the brutality and atrocities committed by the Soviet troops were well known, so it was obvious that the majority of people didn't want any part of it. The first German troops and tanks started pouring in by nightfall and we were cheering them on as the sparks werre flying from the tank tracks on the pavement. The nazi leaders, including the top man, Ferenc Szalas, were released from prison that night, the Germans stormed the castle of Buda in the morning, the Hungarian government were arrested and the last 6 months of nazi rule started. I stayed with that gang for a couple of days, but by then I found out who the head people were and could see that there was something very skewed. Then we heard that they started rounding up the Jews and rifling their apartments, so I excused myself and went home. Luckily, I haven't used that rifle, never even heard a shot fired in the whole time and so my conscience was clean. Brainwashed as we were, there were still limits to what most people wanted and robbery and murder wasn't part of it. Unfortunately, 3 weeks later the Russians fired into our suburb North of Budapest on about Nov. 5 , the school was closed and the next day I joined the Army, 6 days after I passed the legal age limit of 17 1/2. Would I do it again? Having been a brainwashed kid and received 5 years of military training by then, it was the obvious thing to do at the time. However, even with all my experience since then, under the same circumstances I would probably still do it again. I have seen enough of nazi brutality, have been sentenced to death by them, have lost many kids from my school, including one of my best friends in the gaschambers of Auschwitz, but for sheer inhumanity and sick criminal, murder and rape gangsterism nothing could touch the Soviets. No people should go through the barbarism committed by their Hungarian satellite government until the uprising of 1956. I don't think I would have survived very long anyway, so it didn't make much difference who put the rope around my neck. One of the most interesting aspect of my post war experience was that in spite of the extreme hardships in the bombed out cities, the starvation, etc. people were not complaining against the nazis in Germany and Austria. I was in that amputee hospital for over a year, full of young men who have lost, sometimes both legs and were crippled for life, yet nobody whined, cursed, or complained over what Hitler had done to them. In spite of the starvation and the hopelessness of our situation the general atmosphere was full of jokes and laughter. Later I was working and living with ex-SS, mostly draftees from East European ethnic German communities, in Austria and England for up to 8 years. They have lost everything, many of their families were butchered by the Serbs or Poles, yet they didn't complain, just accepted their fate. We have an old Austrian living nearby, a Canadian citizen, who was in the Wehrmacht for 6 years and has seen everything, suffered incredibly, yet who still thinks that Hitler was the greatest man who ever lived and how good life was under the nazis. This was also the general tenor of postwar conversation: "Hitler was allright, but those around him......! " It is very simplistic to talk about nazism, or any other "ism", without asking first: What makes people go for them and why? Having spent a lifetime searching for the answer the only one I found was that people are scared and want security. The support for dictatorships is the wish for the return to the womb. The desperate wish to believe in something that will give them power over others by joining the right side. The perennial hope for energy theft as the road to economic efficiency and survival. As long as the division of resources/energy is built on faith based theories, there's no hope for democracy, self determination or any betterment. One of these days I'll forward a piece I have written on what it was like in the last months inside Hitler's Thousand Year Empire for us lost Magyars. Cheers, Ed (Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC, Canada) ============================================================================ ======= -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 15:40:27 -0800 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Gore Vidal: Iran next, then who? Vidal is wrong on the peaceful intentions of post war USSR. For one thing, a large percentage of the Soviet dead were caused by their own GPU and Cheka. He wasn't there and, like many intellectuals, keep on repeating popular fables, but I was and have seen and knew what was going on on both sides, because in the DP camps we always had people who where constantly moving across the borders, before the Iron Curtain was built. Stalin was out to conquer Europe from the day WW 2 ended, helped along with the communist parties in all Western countries, who were feeding him information on everything. The DP camps were full of spies and so called "Angels of Death", (Halalangyal in Hungarian) whose job was to entice refugees to return, with exact instructions on where to go, who to see. I was even told whom to contact in my community to join the Communist Party and escape any kind of repercussions and examinations. Almost fell for it, but then we caught on that the kids who went home were never seen by the families, so that was the end of my homesickness. A little story on the Angels of Death, many of whom signed their own death warrants on either side. When I was on the Russian front my battalion commander was a captain called Pataki. The same name the Governor of New York State has, or used to have. ( It means "From the brook, or creek) He was a brutal, stupid, sadistic moron, hated by everybody. When I was living in DP Camp 1000 in Wels, Austria, in 1946-47, we used to have smugglers etc, coming through all the time, asking for a bed for the night. A guy about my age stayed in the room one night and as we were exchanging news, it turned out that he was in my battalion and knew Pataki. "Well- he said - captain Pataki won't be kicking anybody around any more. He's suckling the fish at the bottom of Gmunden Lake" (In Hungarian "szoptatja a halakat a to feneken") Apparently, Pataki went back to Hungary and was sent out as an Angel of Death to escape imprisonment. When the Hungarians at the Ebensee camp, which was a nazi KZ camp before, found out who he was, they took him up on a cliff overlooking the lake, tied some boulders on his legs and threw him in. Life was very cheap in those days and many of these jerks ended up like that. But to return to the correct version of history, quite a bit different from wishful, politically correct, thinking ....................... As soon as some form of order was established, the Soviet occupied territories and countries reinstated the draft and rearmament under the command of captured and brainwashed officers and NCOs. All my friends and schoolmates were called up as soon as they reached military age. Even those who were serving in the former nazi armies, like me, who joined up at 17, when they reached 21. A friend of mine, still alive, I just spoke to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago, was POW in England, but was called up into the new Red Army when he repatriated. They were looking for me too. There was no such thing in those countries as "conscientious objectors" or "draft dodgers". People who objected to the draft officially became "deserters" with a potential death sentence over their heads. Because I wasn't there they beat up my mother. They dismantled and moved all arms manufacturing and much of the heavy industries to the USSR. Even in the '50s, one could buy Russian made German motorcycles, like BMW copies in Vancouver. The production of arms never stopped, restarted and increased at full blast . I have known and worked with former German, Austrian and Hungarian POWs, who were instrument and armament specialists, machinists and heavy duty mechanics, who spent their captive years in Russia and Siberia, on the rebuilding of captured German tanks, artillery etc. and mothballing them by the thousands on Siberian lands. Czechoslovakia was the only occupied country that turned communist through elections and as trusted allies, were permitted to keep their industries. They were manufacturing German fighter planes, like the Messerschmidt Bf 109 and the Junkers 87 Stukas for anti tank purposes continuously, for years after the war, many of them ending up in Israel. Meanwhile the US Army was nowhere. The soldiers were loafing around, having a good time with the chocolate and nylon hungry local girls. Their daily rations even included condoms, very highly valued on the black markets. I was working at a US Army depot in Austria for a year, and in the 3 years I spent in the US zones, but have never seen or heard of any troop movements, combat exercises, maneuvers. Never saw any soldiers marching with guns, apart from the odd sentry. There were large junkyards, clearly seen from the roads and trains, full of discarded, rusting tanks, artillery and vehicles. In the 3 years I've never heard of a military airport and have never seen a US plane flying by, although the Russians were only 20-30 km away. With the well known Russian troop movements and preparedness, we were waiting for an invasion every day and were ready to make a run for it, going South into the mountains and couldn't figure out what was wrong with the Americans for ignoring what was going on next door, across the Danube. The change came with the Berlin blockade and subsequent airlift in 1948, that woke up the Allies. That was when the Cold War really started with the panic caused by the blockade. That's how I got to England myself. We were desperate to get out of Europe and find a home, but nobody wanted us. The funny thing was, that Poles and Ukrainians who were serving in the German nazi army were welcome anywhere, because they were members of the UN Nations. Basically they were traitors to their own countries, but they were getting fantastic UNRRA food parcels every month, whereas we "ex enemy nations" and ex soldiers were dirt. I tried to come to Canada in 1947-48, but when I admitted that I was an ex soldier, they kicked me out. As I was young enough to deny it and had my school papers with me, I decided to lie my way out the next time and just say that I was a civilian refugee and a poor, lost student. But then the Brits woke up and started recruiting ex soldiers, even non war criminal fighting SS, up to the age of 35, ostensibly to work in the coal mines and on farms. I applied and was in England within a few weeks. I was stationed 5 miles outside Cambridge with 5 others, 4 of them ex SS. 1 of them from Sudetenland, 1 from Poland, 1 from Romania and a German civilian from Hungary, who was our cook. That's when the other Allies woke up and started screaming that the Brits were taking the "cream" of the refugees. The Brits laughed and told them , tough luck, you didn't want them so we took them. That was also, when many abandoned airfields in England were rejuvenated. There were at least 6 or more around Cambridge, Newmarket, Royston half of them for the US Airforce, flying B 29s, B36s. The RAF were flying mostly jet fighters like Vampires, Meteors and later Swifts and Canberra bombers. They were over our heads all the time, driving us up the wall with the constant noise. There were a number of USAF personnel, in their uniforms, in most of my classes and the city was full of them on wekends. But that was long after the war ended and not right away and rattling sabres, as Vidal and others claim . But then, much of written history is wishful thinking and propaganda, so it isn't always popular to having been an eye witness and tell the truth ! I still would like to see the evidence of these repeated claims, on where the US Army and Airforce were in Austria between 1945-48, that the Russians got so scared of them that they had to rearm with tears in their eyes, depriving their peoples of food and clothing. I know where they were. Using their ration condoms in Austrian beds, while the girls were munching on their chocolates, but they sure as hell weren't in any kind of fighting mood, or situation. We looked at them as bad jokes, not as an army. If the Russians had made a move, they would have run like rabbits. Cheers, Ed. ============================================================================ ======================== At 09:18 AM 29/01/2005 -0600, you wrote: >Gore Vidal: Iran next, then who? >George Bush's apparent desire to create a state of perpetual war spells >disaster > >23 January 2005 >http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=603697 > > > Last week, courtesy of Seymour Hersh and The New Yorker, we learned that > a long-held prediction of mine had come true. American forces have been > operating inside Iran, thus extending yet further the President's "war on > terror". > >There is no war, other than the one the President unilaterally is waging >against a weak Congress and weak countries with oil. It's true that >Congress has given the President certain unusual powers, but as only >Congress has the constitutional power to declare war, he is not, as he >keeps yapping, a wartime president. Hence his conviction that he can lock >anyone up, foreigner or native, and send them off to Guantanamo without >due process of law. > >This is simply a Bush war. It has nothing to do with the American people. >And we were not in danger from weapons of mass destruction. The danger is >an Administration that has fallen in love with war because of the special >powers war gives the Administration to rid itself of the Bill of Rights >and lock up dissenters. We've had some scary times in the past but nothing >to compare with this. So what do we have to look forward to? > >A disaster, in short. Iran/Persia represents a brilliant culture, one of >the greatest the planet has ever known. They do have atomic weapons, and >that is why our rulers are pretending that they are longing to blow us up >- because we have liberty and freedom and democracy and are so prosperous. >(None of these things do we actually have, but this is the official line >that we are asked to believe.) > >The Iranians have a lot of oil, of course, and a lot of enemies among the >neocons, who have pretty much taken over the Pentagon. The President >doesn't seem to understand what is happening, but if he does he's >seriously culpable. So here we are, in the middle of the unfinished Iraq >tragedy, and the President, in his inaugural address, is serenely >declaring war on the rest of the world. Instead of talking about how the >hell we get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, we are talking about going into Iran. > >Here we are headed for absolute disaster, yet the American public has no >weapons left, legally. If an American citizen were really in trouble - I >ask in all seriousness - to whom would he turn? He can't go to his >Congressman, because he's helping out GM or whoever paid for his election. >He can't turn to the executive branch, because they now run concentration >camps and don't like dissent. The courts are pretty expensive and the >higher courts are, shall we say, not on our side. > >No one has explained why, if Saddam Hussein had all these weapons - which >he did not have - why he would have wanted to blow us up. We know why >Osama bin Laden hit us. He sent us a lot of unpleasant letters and wrote a >long list of things saying why, for religious reasons. He is a religious >zealot. And he was doing a religious job. We're doing a job for the oil >and gas business. They're the people who are making a lot of money out of >all this. Heaven knows how it will end, but we, the American people, are >going to be the losers. > >Symbolically, it's interesting that regions of the US are rejecting Darwin >and evolution. I can see why. We have a substantial minority in the US >that hasn't advanced much beyond the baboon. These ignorant folk are full >of hatred, which is why they are currently rejecting evolution and going >back to the stone age with torture, killing innocent people, attacking >countries that have done us no harm. This is insupportable. > >In a recent TV programme that we lucky Americans were shown of previous >inaugural addresses, our former President Franklin D Roosevelt spoke of >Social Security, something he invented for us. Yet his successor, Harry >Truman, starts talking about a terrible enemy. In effect, he is starting >the Cold War. Roosevelt had made certain arrangements with Stalin and the >USSR, which could have kept the world quite peaceful and avoided the Cold >War, but Truman was having none of it. He had been convinced by certain >people who had made a lot of money out of the war that we should be >forever armed, in order to wage perpetual war for perpetual peace. > >So there we are, on top of the world, militarily and economically. We have >the atomic bomb, and here is Harry Truman saying in 1948 that we've got to >watch out there - there's this godless nation intent on world conquest. > >But the Russians didn't want anything very much then, except to recover >the 20 million people they had lost in the Second World War. They weren't >going anywhere at that time, but we saw to it that over time they became >frightened and heavily armed. We made them active enemies, and we've been >creating enemies ever since. Now we are going to take on one billion >Muslims. Brilliant. One billion people who will really deeply and truly >hate us. And it will take several generations for us to bring them around, >if possible. > >George Bush doesn't compare with previous presidents. He doesn't come from >any established system that we've ever tried before. He wasn't elected the >first time and perhaps not truly the second time. Certainly, he was not >elected on any issues, like the morality of the war or the wisdom of the >war, or the techniques that we used in waging that war. > >I would have thought that, at the moment since about 56 per cent of the >people think we should never have gone to war with Iraq and those numbers >were indeed rising as we approached the election, we would have voted >against this President. Instead of talking about the war, we were talking >about abortion and homosexual marriage. What great topics to be discussing >for a great people on the march with atomic weapons! There was so much >else to talk about, but neither Bush nor John Kerry were going to do so >because they both approved of the war, and their advisers - or certainly >Kerry's - had told them to do so. No wonder people don't care to vote. >They seldom have much to vote for. But often a lot to vote against. > >There was a huge, unrepresented anti-war party at the last election. We, >as a people, have generally believed in minding our own business, not in >attacking other countries - "enough to do at home" and all that. But we >now have a government that is not remotely a democracy but we're trying to >export it elsewhere. I suppose that on the ground democracy is a nice >word. We treat it like ketchup. Put it on everything. We're bringing it to >Iraq, we say. > >The result, once more, is perpetual war for perpetual peace. The spirit of >Harry Truman marches on. After war with Iran, who's next? Russia? Or >someone else? God help us if we make China angry. There are a great many >more of them than of us. > >This war will end in our defeat, and that is why I want us to get out of >it as soon as possible. I want us to try and bring the troops home and try >and invent a more realistic education system because I am convinced that >democracy, too, may one day come to the US, and I want us to be alive to >celebrate it. >-- >------------------ > >War remains the decisive human failure. > - John Kenneth Galbraith > >Jonathan > >web site at: > >http://elegant-technology.com >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 07:31:33 -0700 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Throwing a boulder in the pond (This message will probably not be welcome) My wife and I have discovered that the world was going downhill over 30 years ago. So we brought some very poor land in a very harsh climate and spent by now 26 years working out practical, very comfortable, but sustainable systems and life styles. Which we can prove very easily. Even on this list, both Dion and Jonathan have been here and seen what we have built and done. The problem is that nobody is interested to learn, or interested to continue our work. We've been trying to give away, free, a quarter of a million dollars worth of property, equipment, tools, workshops, art studios, for over 2 years, with the proviso that we can stay here until the end, but nobody wants it. Not even young people who were born next door and know how to live off the land with minimum monetary inputs. So, you'll have to forgive me when I pay little attention to young, healthy people living in cities and talking endlessly about theories, without any practical experience, or intent to do something about it. Like Marx, who would have done anything for the working class, except join it. Cheers, Ed, ============================================================================ ======================= At 08:28 PM 14/04/2005 -0400, you wrote: >Yves, > >Your boulder in the pond is most welcome. But the problem you (we) face is >to break the hegemony of those among us who sow despair and refute hope. > >If people are told over and over again that peak oil or global warming or >some other problem really is the inevitable end of everything, how can you >be surprised that they don't organize to fight for a better world? > >Those who would have us believe that our fate is sealed are working for >the powers-that-be, consciously or not. Don't be diverted into debating >them. Just politely ignore them. > >The rest of us need to discuss ways to improve the lives of the majority >and put power back in their hands. Unfortunately, the increasing >difficulty of living over the past 20 years or so has left many of us >lacking in both energy and imagination. There are many people out in the >world who are frustrated and angry with their stunted and thwarted lives. >We, a would-be populist intelligentsia, have so far failed even to help >them formulate a coherent set of demands. > >Perhaps the best place to begin is to recount the small ways we each as >individuals try to resist being reduced to a worker/consumer zombie. How >can we succeed better at this? Can we inspire others? Let us resolve to >not let anyone tell us that our efforts are puny or futile. We need to >banish oppression from this little corner of existence so that we can each >grow stronger. > >À demain. >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 19:45:54 -0700 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: [SPAM] Re: [Mai-not] Throwing a boulder in the pond (This message will probably not be welcome) With due respect, Yves, you're jumping the gun and going a bit too far by stating that we gave up on society and you have no evidence to prove that our work might be "negative", or "passive" in any way. What is more "passive" talking about things, or working on solutions in practical ways ? One of the main reasons for our coming out here was to work out systems and methods of surviving under harsh conditions and on poor land, listed on official maps as "not suitable for agricultural production". In other words, this is a positive input, especially for people who might be interested in practical answers and not theories. I'm sick of philosophical claptrap, reading and debating self confessed anarchists and the quotings of Marx and other prophets. I haven't read the "Economic hit man" as I can't afford either the book, or the time to read it. What he says is nothing new, only the confirmation of long held suspicions and known facts. What I've read from him on this and other lists are enough to understand what he's talking about and to realize that he was only following the teachings of neoclassical market economics. Period. There's nothing more to debate on this subject. Now, to clear the air once and for all, let me put you fully into the picture. I'm a trained artist, world class in graphics, but never could make a living at it. So I apprenticed as a cabinetmaker at the age of 28 and later was in the custom furniture business in Vancouver for 22 years. It was a business with a 90% bankruptcy rate in the first year. We survived, but just barely. Meantime, as a designer and maker, I had the opportunity to meet and have long conversations with some of the big wheels of business. Their ignorance and moral corruption shocked the hell out of me, especially, because they had the lives of thousands in their hands and handled them with total contempt. This is worse today, and will lead to a major disaster. Again these actions have and are being legalized and sanctified by economic theories. So why isn't this simple fact being broadcast ? By the way, I could have made a fortune with painting their portraits, but could never lower myself to do it and rather remained poor. Meanwhile, I found my survival in long distance car rallies, where I became a top liner and Canadian team captain for Nissan. It may be funny to contemplate that I enjoyed sitting in a car at 150 kph on logging roads carved into the side of cliffs, while doing endless calculations to 4 decimals, but I hated business so badly, that I was ready to risk my life to get away from it for a day or two, or even a few hours. It was from my winnings that we could buy our first house, after having lived in it and paid rent for 6 years. By 1968 I was burned out and couldn't handle it any more. It was then that I went back to my art and started thinking about leaving the city, but we couldn't afford it. My wife bought this land in 1975 with an inheritance from her parents, as she could see that the city was killing me. It took us 4 years to find somebody to buy my shop, although, as it turned out we never got paid for it, through a legal loophole covering limited companies, encouraging legalized theft. So, we were out here in 1979, started building a large house, planning to do some organic farming and artwork, when we found out that we won't get paid. A year later the galleries that carried my work went bellyup in the recession, the most lucrative one, where I could make $200. a day, a lot of money those days, was bought by a Hong Kong company who immediately fired all Canadian artists. All of a sudden we were penniless, sitting out here in the bush. So, the 3 of us, with our son still in highschool, were living in 3 small cabins, totalling 300 sq. ft for 8 1/2 years. No electricity, no refrigeration, no phone for 8 1/2, no running water for 14 years. To survive, I was teaching nightschool classes, coming home sometimes at 1 or 1:30 am, then getting up at 5:30 so our son could catch the schoolbus at 7. I went out pine cone picking, one of the worst jobs in existence, worked in construction camps and was building custom furniture with a small generator, with my tablesaw out in the open in the middle of the night in a blizzard, as there was no room for the saw inside the shop. In 1987, when I was 60, I collected a double hernia on my right side and a single one on the left while working as a carpenter on a local school construction, lifting heavy weights. Meanwhile, I was carrying on with my historical and later my economic research, discovering by 1985 that neoclassical economics were a fraud, something you highly educated people still are reluctant to touch, or seemingly dare to admit. Could you please explain why ? What is so sacrosanct about it that nobody dares to mention the subject, but keep on moaning and groaning about its effects ? Also, between 1985 and 91 I researched the question of economic efficiency, and established the only unbreakable definition with the help of highly placed scientist friends. Do you know anybody personally, whose original work has ever been used in PhD dissertations and remains unbroken and unbreakable ? Some scientists called it on the level of Einstein's relativity theory, with the difference that I have developed it to help people and the environment, not to travel to the stars. Have you, or anybody on this or any other list, ever forwarded it anywhere for debate ? Why is the "Hit man" more important for discussion than the solution to our economic mess? A few months ago I offered my 60 odd pages of notes to anybody who'd be interested to preserve them, before I threw them out. 2 people asked for them. Where were you, Yves ? It is too late now. When I first wrote my Principle, David Suzuki wrote to me that I was correct, but nobody will dare to take it up. He was right. Could you please explain why not? The fact that you academic people studiously ignore simple facts doesn't bother me on the personal level, as I have no use for the glorification of anybody, especially of myself. I'm very happy being what I am and need no pats on the shoulder. What does bother me is that we are daily confronted with the everlasting yammerings of people who are describing the effects of criminal theories, without any effort to look for the causes, while millions are dying and the solution is at our fingertips. Why ? Why diverting the issue into dead end subjects? But let's go back to our personal histories. While we were living in sardine cans and later when we moved into our house on Christmas day 1987, we invented and developed dozens of systems, gadgets, tools that people can use for survival and making their lives easier. Among the many, have you ever seen a chimney sweeping machine, or a firehose washer used by fore departments ? I haven't myself until I designed and made them. Now at 78, and 77 we're up at 6 and go to bed at 11, still working 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Never had a holiday for 50 years. We built our house ourselves from the ground up and are still building it, after 26 years, penny by penny, as we can afford it. We built the furniture, painted the pictures on the walls and carved the sculptures. We built machinery and equipment. All of the highest quality. How many do you know who can do all this ? I'm just starting to build a tandem axle stock trailer and a sorting corral for our animals. In the meantime we're also working on our artwork. What is "passive" about all this? On the financial side, our sole income is our subsidized old age pensions, amounting to about $22,000 Can per year. From this, because of the BSE crisis, which we as organic farmers did not cause, we're spending $4000. on our animals. We could get rid of them tomorrow and save all that money, but our conscience, as food producers, doesn't permit it. So we spend it and consider it the rent we have to pay to be able to live here. Where is the "passive" in these actions? Shall I carry on ? I won't because I couldn't be bothered to waste any more time on such crap, but I just got fed up to the gills listening to patronizing lectures on what I should read, or do. I've been on this list since its beginning, 8 years ago, but now you're most welcome to pull the plug on my subscription, before I do it myself. Frankly, my friend, I'm sick and tired of all this and don't give a damn what happens to my subscription , or even to this list. You have done a great job taking it over and maintaining it, and we're thankful, but ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, All the best, Ed. ============================================================================ ============================ At 09:04 AM 16/04/2005 -0700, you wrote: >Ed Deak and the other Mai-Not passivists: > >In reply to your post of Friday, April 15, 2005 at 07:31 -0700, >reproduced below, let me say the following: >1. Your wife and you "discovered that the world was going downhill over >30 years ago" Therefore, you focuses for the past 26 years on t6he >development of a sustainable existence in a small ranch near Williams >Lake, BC, on very poor land and under a harsh climate. > >Fine. You retreated into the outer part of society and in a way, >isolated yourself from the outer world (except for your participation in >Mai-Not ant other lists, your network of Hungarian friends and a few >articles in the GoldRiver news paper. > >You have concluded long ago that the collapse is inevitable. And you >steadily say that nothing can be done because "the problem is that >nobody is interested to learn, or interested to continue our work" > > >I discovered as well as you but somewhat earlier (1966) that the way we >were doing things in society led us to collapse. And instead of >retreating on a small farm and try to survive on my own, I did not, as >you did, give up on the future or retreat for the time being into a >sustainable wilderness in quasi isolation. And you know it. > >We respect (and like) each other, and I listen to you, Ed, but I do not >accept your conclusions. If anything. such an attitude precipitates the >collapse. > >Therefore, I am trying. And you negative input in my latest attempt to >trigger some constructive reaction from those among us who may still >want to try is really a blow below the belt. > >You conclude on an incomplete basis and by giving up bring others to >despair as well..Your experience in Big Lake is very much worth >attention, but instead of stating bluntly that nobody wants to learn, >you might examine whether there are other ways to reach people than >trying to give away, free, a quarter of a million dollars worth of >property, equipment, tools, workshops, art studios, for over 2 years, >with the proviso that we can stay here until the end,.. etc > >I am stil trying to open a path that might bring a sufficient number of >people in a sufficient number of locales to actually inform themselves >about what is happening to us all, in clear, simple ways, starting from >issues that affect them directly.. > >This is difficult and I already faced many setbacks, but I keep on, with >a limited team in Victoria and an active discussion on the Internet on >qa list I host at the NCFS called Issues. It progresses. > >So, why give up? And, if you can get your hands on a book published late >last year, called "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins. >It is worth reading. > >I will ask for permission to broadcast a few of the books last pages and >start a review of the book on the Internet. John Perkins is still too >"American", and not international enough, but there is something there.. > >See you one day, Ed.. > >Yves >.================ > > My wife and I have discovered that the world was going downhill over 30 > > years ago. So we brought some very poor land in a very harsh climate and > > spent by now 26 years working out practical, very comfortable, but > > sustainable systems and life styles. Which we can prove very easily. Even > > on this list, both Dion and Jonathan have been here and seen what we have > > built and done. > > > > The problem is that nobody is interested to learn, or interested to > > continue our work. We've been trying to give away, free, a quarter of a > > million dollars worth of property, equipment, tools, workshops, art > > studios, for over 2 years, with the proviso that we can stay here until > the > > end, but nobody wants it. Not even young people who were born next door > and > > know how to live off the land with minimum monetary inputs. > > > > So, you'll have to forgive me when I pay little attention to young, > healthy > > people living in cities and talking endlessly about theories, without any > > practical experience, or intent to do something about it. > > > > Like Marx, who would have done anything for the working class, except > join it. > > > > Cheers, Ed, > > > >=========================================================================== >======================== > > > > > > > > At 08:28 PM 14/04/2005 -0400, you wrote: > > >Yves, > > > > > >Your boulder in the pond is most welcome. But the problem you (we) > face is > > >to break the hegemony of those among us who sow despair and refute hope. > > > > > >If people are told over and over again that peak oil or global warming or > > >some other problem really is the inevitable end of everything, how can > you > > >be surprised that they don't organize to fight for a better world? > > > > > >Those who would have us believe that our fate is sealed are working for > > >the powers-that-be, consciously or not. Don't be diverted into debating > > >them. Just politely ignore them. > > > > > >The rest of us need to discuss ways to improve the lives of the majority > > >and put power back in their hands. Unfortunately, the increasing > > >difficulty of living over the past 20 years or so has left many of us > > >lacking in both energy and imagination. There are many people out in the > > >world who are frustrated and angry with their stunted and thwarted lives. > > >We, a would-be populist intelligentsia, have so far failed even to help > > >them formulate a coherent set of demands. > > > > > >Perhaps the best place to begin is to recount the small ways we each as > > >individuals try to resist being reduced to a worker/consumer zombie. How > > >can we succeed better at this? Can we inspire others? Let us resolve to > > >not let anyone tell us that our efforts are puny or futile. We need to > > >banish oppression from this little corner of existence so that we can > each > > >grow stronger. > > > > > >À demain. > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:42:48 -0800 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: The Paristinian State This guy is nuts. I'm not excusing the idiocy of French authorities, first of all for importing them as cheap labour, then treating them as cheap humans, but to ask for a separate state for them within France is nonsense. How? By expelling local communities who have been living in areas for a thousand years ? The Treaty of Versailles was and still is a good example of what happens when established communities are broken up and handed over to other states. My wife was born in Transylvania, which was Hungarian and independent Hungarian during the Turkish wars, for over a thousand years. All of a sudden, they were handed to Romania and became aliens in their own homes, forced to learn a strange language, treated like these imported Muslims are treated now in France. The same happened to the Sudeten Germans etc. etc. leading to and causing WW2. Hitler was only the spark that ignited the pile of garbage dumped on the world by stupid politicians. Will these idiots ever learn ? Cheers, Ed. At 03:16 PM 13/11/2005 +0100, you wrote: >[Considering Ariel Ultra's earlier call for French Jews to "return" to Israel, > articles like this one make you wonder who may be fomenting the "riots"...] > > >http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47285 > >French solution: Paristinian state > > By Joseph Farah > Posted: November 8, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern > © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com > >OK, enough is enough. > >It's clear France is no longer in control of its population. > >It's clear millions within its borders are struggling for freedom and >independence. > >It's clear that these people are not rioting for the sake of rioting, they are >responding to oppression from French authorities. > >It's clear that their uprising cannot be met with state violence, because that >would only lead to a cycle of violence. > >It's clear that these freedom-fighters - whom I have dubbed "Paristinians" - >want a state of their own. > >It's clear that the international community must force France to the >negotiating table with these freedom fighters to begin the peace process that >will inevitably lead to the creation of an autonomous, independent state of >"Paristine." > >If it's good enough for Israel, it's good enough for the French surrender >monkeys who have been leaders of the global movement to force the Jewish state >into appeasement of terrorists. > >We've got to stop referring to this "intifada" in France as "riots." This is a >movement for self-determination. This is a movement for independence. This >is a >movement for freedom from imperialism. > >The analogy is apt. > >That's not "FrËre Jacques" they're singing in France. It's "Fire Jacques." > >The president of France can see the cinder in the eye of others, but is >missing >the beam in his own. > >What's good for the goose liver is good for the gander liver. > >The chicken cordon bleu has come home to roost. > >It's time for France to stop the hypocrisy. > >It's time for the French to take a dose of the medicine they have been handing >out to the Jews of Israel. > >It's time to end the apartheid within its population. It's time for France to >stop treating those poor, Muslim immigrants as second-class citizens. It's >time >to accept the only permanent solution that can address the root problem in >French society - the recognition of the Paristinians as a legitimate >negotiating partner. > >Enough rubber bullets! > >Enough police repression! > >Enough calls for restraint! > >Enough with the threats! > >Before this cycle of violence spreads throughout all of Europe, France >needs to >do the right thing. > >The French have been speaking out of both sides of their mouths for too long. >They've been speaking out of both of their nostrils for too long, too. If >appeasement was the solution in Iraq, it's the solution for the "Paristinian" >revolt. If appeasement was the solution for Hitler, it's the solution for the >"Paristinian" revolt. If appeasement was the solution for Israel in dealing >with its "Palestinian" problem, it's the solution for France's "Paristinian" >uprising. > >As I mentioned yesterday in my column, if France has these kinds of systemic >problems with its Muslim population, then it is time to partition France. It's >time for an independent Muslim state to be created. After all, isn't that what >France and other European nations have determined is the proper solution for >Israel? > >These are not just riots. This is an intifada - just like the one begun in >2000 >within and around Israel. > >France and other countries, including the United States, have demanded that >Israel meet those attacks with land concessions to the rioters and suicide >bombers. That is the only viable, long-term solution, they say. They claim >this >violence will never cease until those oppressed by Israel are granted an >independent, autonomous state of their own. > >Why should the solution be any different in France? > >Stop the violence! Now - not at a snail's pace. The time has come to begin >talks with the "Paristinians" about their own future homeland of "Paristine." > > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 07:33:44 -0800 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Widen's outrageous excuse for habeas vote The senator should also be reminded that POWs also have rights by the Geneva Convention. Western Allied POWs during WW2 were not locked up in small cages, or interrogated for months, or tortured. They weren't compelled to give away military secrets. Medical personnel were permitted to pick up wounded under the red cross flag from between the lines. The only atrocities against POWs happened in the US held POW compounds after the war, when thousands of Germans and satellite POWs died of starvation and mistreatment . And, of course, right through the war on the Russian front on both sides, because the USSR wasn't signatory to Geneva and this resulted in the mistreatment and starvation and mass murder of POWs. The problem with the Gitmo prisoners is that they are not recognized by the Americans as POWs and are basically in the same limbo situation as the Soviet's political prisoners were, declared as "non - persons". Looks like they must be copying the Soviets is every way. Cheers, Ed. At 07:51 PM 13/11/2005 -0800, you wrote: > >From Eugene Hope Marston relays the outrageous news that Widen doesn't >want Gitmo detainees to have " more rights" than military personnel. > >As I've already commented in my previous postings since early Friday, this >shows Widen to be in need of replacement as senior Senator for Oregon. He >should hear at the soonest - and without ambiguity - >from his constitutents and from others. > > > >From hmarston@epud.net Sun Nov 13 19:26:01 2005 > > >Several Eugene folks met with Ron Wyden over the weekend, to find out why >he jumped the fence to support the Graham amendment last Thursday, denying >rights to detainees to challenge why they're being held (habeas corpus). >He gave us a very right-wing sounding answer - that he didn't want >detainees to have "more rights" than military personnel. To which, >Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) says, >"Detainees do not get more rights. Not even close. The military get court >martial with tons of rights, charges, rules of evidence, attorneys and >appeals to civilian courts and habeas." > >If you haven't already faxed a letter to Senator Wyden, demanding that he >change his vote on Monday -- when Senator Bingaman plans to introduce an >amendment to fix what the Graham amendment broke -- please send a fax >today: >http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/bordc/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1 >508 >ttp://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/bordc/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=15 >08> > >Attached is a list of talking points, created from information provided by >a CCR attorney who, last night, was on her way to Cuba to provide legal >support for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. She provided the following two >quotes, which she thinks reflect the most common situation at Guantanamo: > >Jan. 2005 WSJ: "American commanders acknowledge that many prisoners >shouldn't have been locked up here in the first place because they weren't >dangerous and didn't know anything of value. "Sometimes, we just didn't >get the right folks,' says Brg. Gen. Jay Hood, Guantanamo current >commander." > >Oct. 2004, Deputy commander of Guantanamo, Gen. Martin Lucenti: "Most of >these guys weren't fighting. They were running." > >======== >Save Habeas Corpus Rights of Guantanamo Detainees > >On Thursday, November 10, the Senate voted 49-42 in favor of Senator >Lindsey Graham's amendment to the Defense spending bill. Five >Democrats--Senators Joseph Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Kent >Conrad, and Ron Wyden--voted with most Republicans in support. >Republicans who voted against it were Arlen Specter, John Sununu, Lincoln >Chafee, and Gordon Smith. (See >ense.html> > >http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Senate_RollVote_Congress_Defe >nse.html> > >for a list of how your senators voted. Nine senators were absent.) > >If Senator Graham's amendment is attached to the final spending bill, it >would deny Guantanamo detainees their right to file habeas corpus >petitions. That right was upheld in 2004 by the U.S. Supreme Court (Rasul >v. Bush). The writ of habeas corpus is a basic legal right recognized for >centuries all over the world, which we must preserve for detainees in U.S. >custody, just as we would demand that right for U.S. prisoners held by >other countries. > >As you know, many men who have spent years in detention at Guantanamo Bay >were sold to the U.S. military by bounty hunters. More than a hundred >detainees are on hunger strikes because of the hopelessness of their >situations. > >There may be a second vote on the amendment the week of November 14. >Please contact your senators right now and urge them to support any effort >to remove the part of Senator Graham's amendment banning Guantanamo >prisoners from filing writs of habeas corpus in court. Send a free fax at >a fax at >http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/bordc/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY= >1508 > >http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/bordc/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1508> >. Thanks for all you do. > >Bill of Rights Defense Committee > >Web: www.bordc.org >http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=54330380&url_num=4&url=h >ttp://www.bordc.org> >Email: info@bordc.org Phone: >413-582-0110 Fax: 413-582-0116 > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:59:55 -0800 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] *** MI5 Rejected Killing Hitler A group of German patriots wanted to remove Hitler before WW2 and sent an emissary to Britain to ask for recognition from the Chamberlain govt. but were refused. They had all the military etc, ready, but without that recognition they couldn't proceed. The guy saw Churchill, who was then out of govt. and had no powers, or right to promise anything. I have a book on this, with all the names and details, but right now I can't remember the author, or title. If anybody's really interested, I can do a detailed search among hundreds of books all over the place. Cheers, Ed. At 10:03 AM 13/01/2007, you wrote: >[Any similarities with "the Hitler of the Tigris" (as long as he was "useful") > would be merely coincidental...] > > >http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/AntiSemi/10292.htm > >Report: British agent offered to bomb Hitler > > By Ynetnews January 9, 2007 > >According to a report Tuesday in the London Times, a British secret agent >who offered to blow up Adolf Hitler at the height of the Second World War >was dissuaded from carrying out the assassination by MI5. > >The report was based on newly released documents from the war. > >The report said that the offer to kill Hitler in a suicide mission was made >by Eddie Chapman, a professional criminal and safe-breaker who was trained >by the Nazis as a spy and went on to become one of Britain's most >successful double agents, codenamed Agent Zigzag. > >When the Nazis invaded the Channel Islands in June 1940, Chapman was >recruited by the German military intelligence while he was serving a >sentence in Jersey prison near France for burglary. Chapman arrived in >Britain in December 1941 and immediately went over to MI5, the British >security service. > >During his investigation in MI5, the 27 year-old Chapman said he was >interested in returning to Germany as a double agent, and that he wanted to >kill Hitler during a Nazi rally using explosives. > >Documents which have been classified since the war have recently become >accessible, and reveal a conversation between Chapman and British officer >Ronnie Reed. > >During their conversation, Reed warned Chapman that any attempt to kill >Hitler would be suicidal. "Whether or not you succeeded, you would be >liquidated immediately," he said, to which Chapman replied, "Ah, but what a >way out." > >According to the documents, Chapman told Reed that his German commander, an >officer he knew only as "Dr. Graumann," had promised to take him to a Nazi >rally if he completed his mission in Britain successfully, and place him >"in the first or second row," near Hitler's podium. > >'British government preferred Hitler alive' > >"He believes I am pro-Nazi," Chapman told Reed. "I believe Dr. Graumann >will keep his promise. Then I will assassinate Hitler... with my knowledge >of explosives and incendiary material, it should be possible." > >Reed told his superiors at MI5 about Chapman's offer. "He can think of no >better way of leaving this life than to have his name prominently featured >throughout the world's press, and to be immortalized in history books for >all time," he said. > >The Times pointed out that the offer would certainly have been brought to >the attention of the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who took a >personal interest in the Zigzag case. However, the offer to kill Hitler was >rejected for reasons that have never been fully explained. > >British historian Professor M.R.D. Foot believed that the decision may have >been due to a number of factors, including Britain's longstanding policy >against assassinating foreign heads of state, and a mistrust of Chapman. > >"SOE (Special Operations Executive) hatched a plot to assassinate Hitler in >1944, but that, too, was rejected," Foot said. > >"Partly because it was believed to be impossible to get an armed agent into >Hitler's presence, and partly because it was thought that Hitler was more >useful alive than dead, since at that point his strategy was clearly so >erratic," he continued. > >According to the report, Chapman returned to Germany as a double agent, but >was expressly told "not to undertake any wild enterprises" by his British >spymaster, Colonel Tommy "Tar" Robertson. > >MI5 has now released 1,800 pages of documents from the Chapman case which >were transferred to the National Archives last month. Chapman survived the >war, received a pardon for his crimes prior to the war, and died in 1997. > > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >-- >Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.1.410 / Virus Database: 268.16.6/617 - Release Date: 05/01/2007 _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:24:39 -0700 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: [Mai-not] Re: Versailles reparations (was Re: common denominator = I grew up in the shadow of Versailles enhanced by the Great Depression. On top of the huge reparations, my native Hungary, established in 896, over 1000 years before, was cut up and 2/3 of it was given to new, artificially created countries, with over 3 million Hungarians locked up in Romania alone, including my wife's family. The poverty was unbelievable, with huge numbers of refugees from the cut off areas dumped into the country, many living in railway boxcars for years. People collapsed unconscious, from hunger, in city streets. We were going to elementary schools barefoot, as soon as the weather permitted it and there were 96 kids in my Grade 1 class alone. Our whole education was based on hate, how we'll go to war and kill all those who took our country and when Hitler came on the scene, bringing Germany out of the depression in a few months, he became the idol of the whole Europe and our government jumped on his crazy bandwagon, following him into disaster and oblivion. Now my helper is here and I have to go to do some real work. Incidentally, Maynard Keynes was another one who predicted the disastrous consequences of Versailles. Cheers, Ed. At 07:54 AM 10/08/2007, you wrote: > > Buuuuuttttttt - Germany is currently one of the wealthiest countries in > > the world ...... > >Hardly the merit of reparations... Btw, the debt of Germany today is around >1500 Billion Euro (64% of the GDP), that's 18100 ¤ per capita. In other >words, many inhabitants would have to work nearly a year just to pay off >the debt. > >Chris > > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >-- >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.6/938 >- Release Date: 05/08/2007 4:16 PM _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:50:30 -0700 To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] The Versailles legacy Dion, Your assessment is basically correct,. Hungary was part of the Austria empire and fought 2 wars against it in 1703 and 1848.... The Hungarian government resigned when Austria attacked Serbia etc. but Hungarian troops were forced to fight, losing about 750,000 men between the ages of 18 and 45, if my memory serves right, 47% of that age group and on top of it, it was Hungary that was cut up and lost 2/3 of its territory, given to artificially created countries, like Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and "Great Romania", causing huge hardships all over with ethnic etc. problems. In short Versailles was a crime on top of crime. I have to go now, my helper is here. Cheers, Ed., At 10:51 PM 10/08/2007, Dion Giles wrote: >Until quite recently I went along with the story >that World War I was an imperial struggle >between Tweedledee and Tweedledum and that >Versailles was merely the victors grabbing all they could from the vanquished. > >That changed when I went to the trouble of finding out what actually happened. > >** Serbia was at peace. Austria attacked Serbia >on the pretext that some gangster had got his >needings from rival gangsters in Sarajevo. > >**Germany backed Austrian aggression. > >**Russia was at peace. Germany attacked Russia. > >**Luxembourg was at peace. Germany invaded Luxembourg. > >**Belgium was at peace. Germany invaded Belgium. > >**France was at peace. Germany attacked France (but never made it to Paris). > >**Germany was engaged in aggression. Britain >attacked Germany on the side of one of Germany’s victims - Belgium. > >**The USA was at peace. Germany attacked its >shipping, eventually bringing America into the war against it. > >These are some of the actual initiating events, >shorn of the wordy geopolitical excuses with >which aggressors invariably flood the media and the history books. > >At Versailles, Germany was presented with the >bill for a minuscule fraction of the damage its >aggression had brought about. Sure it was >because the others had won militarily that they >could do it. Likewise, Al Capone wouldn't have >done time at Alcatraz if the Feds’ forces had >not been stronger than Capone’s. Only victors >can impose penalties – the question is whether the penalties are just. > >Of course the Versailles penalty fell on all >Germans including those who were innocent – who >hadn't supported the Kaiser’s aggression in >thought, word or deed, would have sheltered >deserters and escaped POWs, or who merely went >through the motions of fighting because they had no alternative. > >But those very numerous [1] decent German people >were the victims of those who ran up such a huge >national debt - those who (like Field Marshal >von Schlieffen) planned and (like Corporal Adolf >Hitler) enthusiastically executed their >aggressive war of conquest or who maintained a supportive home front. > >Was Versailles too harsh? A thousand Germanys >wouldn't have had the resources to pay the full >account. Perhaps it wasn't harsh enough, as it >left Germany able quickly to rearm and attack >Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Serbia (again!), >Belgium (again!), Albania, Holland, Denmark, >Norway, France and a slew of other countries that were at peace. > >None of those whose criminality caused and >maintained the aggression of 1914-18 are alive >today and nothing they did is the fault of the >current German nation (otherwise we'd have to >accept the blame for the arch-thug Charlemagne >or his criminal predecessors in ancient Rome). > >The real injustice of Versailles was not against >Germany but against the peoples of the countries >such as those in the Balkans which were either >neutral or colonial vassals of Austria and which >had their borders re-set without the courtesy of >consultation, let alone referenda of the people >affected. And perhaps the most disgraceful >injustice was against Japan. Japan (as one of >the victors!) proposed at Versailles the following: > >“The equality of nations being a basic principle >of the League of Nations, the High Contracting >Parties agree to accord as soon as possible to >all alien nationals of states, members of the >League, equal and just treatment in every >respect making no distinction, either in law or >in fact, on account of their race or nationality.” > >This obtained decisive majority support but was >disallowed because it violated consensus (one of >the least democratic means of deciding >anything). It could not be accepted because it >upset a very vociferous participant that had the >backing of the British Empire and the compliance >of America. The fly in the ointment was Australia. > >The Australian government could not countenance >anything that threatened the “white Australia >policy” which governed immigration. Australian >PM Billy Hughes – the third-worst PM in history >after Bob Menzies and John Howard – ranted and >raved, the Japanese delegation lost out and had >to return home with disastrous loss of face. > >The outcome was that internationalist forces >lost their ascendancy in Japan in favour of the >criminal classes – and we've all seen the >outcome of THAT little Aussie triumph! > >Dion Giles >Western Australia > >[1] Hitler was appalled by the apathy and >anti-war sentiment he found when he was invalided home from the Somme. > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.6/938 >- Release Date: 05/08/2007 4:16 PM _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:20:40 -0700 To: A renewed Mai-Not , mai-not@globalproblematique.net From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: Versailles reparations (was Re: common denominator = propaganda (Re: [Mai-not] America's new) My native Hungary, established on the same location for over 1000 years, was left with 1/3 of its territory, with millions of ethnics, like my wife's family in Transylvania, cut off and handed over to other, artificially created countries by the Treaty of Trianon, part of the Versailles crime wave. Had to pay huge reparations for a war the country didn't start, but lost some 47% of its men between the ages of 18 and 45, forced to fight a die for their foreign, Austrian colonizing rulers. I grew up in that mess and remember the conditions very vividly. In short, Versailles was the cause and origin of the rise of Hitler and WW2, yet the silly buggers still haven't learned their lesson, now making the same mistakes on much larger scales, endangering the survival of the human race. Cheers, Ed. PS: When the Euro became a reality, in the early 90s, German monies started flowing into Canada, in efforts to get rid of the soon to be worthless junk, jacking up land prices in this area by 1000% alone. At the same time Hong Kong money started inflating city real estate, preventing young Canadians to buy land and houses. We bought a small bungalow in Vancouver for $6.500 in 1966, today it would cost about half million. We paid $30,000 for our 120 acres in 1975 , now they would be about 10 times the price, while our cattle prices, controlled by a corporate conspiracy, are half of what they were 10 years ago. About ,72 cents a pound for prime calves, while store prices are going up every week. So much for the great economic and political minds all over the world. To hell with the lot ! At 06:07 AM 10/08/2007, Christoph Reuss wrote: > > My problem with the Versailles argument is that while it (the treaty) was > > an admittedly harsh punitive measure it was still in keeping with the > > shopworn practice of exacting indemnities following an unjust war > >No, the extent of the Versailles reparations was absolutely "thru the roof" >and unique in history. The demands went up to 296 Billion Reichsmarks >(106,000 tons of gold, about 80% of all gold ever mined on the planet!), >and in the end, Germany managed to pay 68 Billion Reichsmarks (over 24,300 >tons of gold, today around 360 Billion Euro). For comparison, the >reparations that Germany demanded from France after the 1870/71 war >(started and lost by France) was 4 Billion Reichsmarks. > >Additionally, Germany had to give away most of its merchant fleet, >20% of its industrial production areas, 80% of its ore mining resources, >1/3 of its coal mining, 1/4 of its grain and potato production capacity, >and had to uninstall and give away much of its industrial and railroad >infrastructure including railroad carriages. Needless to say, its >colonies were gone too. > >The payments were so vast that Germany had to take up loans from American >banks, which were suddenly demanded back in the economic crisis in 1930, >so virtually all German banks went bankrupt in 1931, leading to 6 million >unemployed, many of whom ended up voting for Hitler. Germany will pay >back the rest of the loans until 2010! > >And the racket will go on also in other forms. As French president >Mitterrand quipped about the Euro introduction, which made Germany lose >billions through currency conversions alone: "The Euro currency, that's >Versailles without a war." > >Chris > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >-- >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.6/938 - Release Date: >05/08/2007 4:16 PM _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:10:37 -0800 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Challenge settler state's "right to exist" Whether Israel has a right to exist, or not, regardless of all the hot airm, it exists and will stay existing. I would be the last to be an apologist for the long line of crimes committed by a long line of Israeli governments and military, but let's use our heads for a change, and look at the real picture, which also includes the crimes of the neighbouring nations and the so called "leaders" of the Palestinians, who are playing a disgusting game with the lives of their own peoples for ideological and religious reasons. The forced displacement of peoples has been going on through history and the post war years are the best examples. East Prussia was depopulated and Poland was shifted West by hundreds of km. forcing the uprooting of millions, including of Poles in the areas grabbed by the Soviets. Millions of Germans were forced to leave all their possessions behind and were frozen, or massacred on the winter roads by "freedom fighters". The same happened in the Sudetenland. I've spent 3 war months in Silezia and have seen the prosperous villages and farms people were forced to leave behind, with the clothes on their backs. In the nights we could see the burning villages all around us, set on fire by the Russians to light up the dark. It was standard procedure. Also have spent about 3 weeks in Sudetenland, all German for centuries, full of prosperous farms and small manufacturing businesses , especially in the glass art, beautiful and untouched by the war. The horror stories the uprooted inhabitants had to endure, while marching on the roads, from the hands of the Czech "resistance" that was strangely silent in the war years, but woke up after the fighting was over and were killing disarmed troops and refugees, while the Russians laughed their heads off, has been documented in many books and articles. My wife was leading a horse and wagon for weeks , in worn out city shoes, over Austrian Alpine passes, starving, freezing and machinegunned by US fighter bombers. Later, her family and I were voluntary refugees, who refused to be repatriated to the Soviets. There were millions of refugees in Germany and Austria, living in camps, bombed out buildings, starving, in rags, under the worst conditions. I was living in camp conditions, without any furniture, not even a decent bed, no privacy and even the elementary human needs for 5 out of the 6 postwar years, both in Austria and England. So I need no lectures about the plight of refugees. But all we wanted was a new, real home somewhere and slowly we spread out all over the world. Are we, or our children and grandchildren, still supposed to call ourselves "refugees" and carry on with hate and murder campaigns? There haven't been any refugee camps in Germany for decades and the grandchildren of the displaced Silezians and Prussians are not permitted, or intent to send rockets into Poland and the Czech Republic, 60 odd years after their ancestors have been torn up and sent packing. So, why the Palestinians? Why were they hijacking dozens of planes, all over the world, ultimately forcing on the present bodysearch hysteria at all airports . I flew a few times in the 60s , the last time in 1968, and all we had to do was present our tickets and walk on the planes. But the PLO has changed all this 20-30 years after they were evicted from their homes, and in lands and continents that had nothing to do with it. Then, thanks to their brethren in the neighboring countries, instead of permitting them to settle and live like human beings, they're still forcing them to consider themselves "refugees" 3-4 generations later, and to live like animals in "refuge camps", to "prove the point" that their lands have been stolen. What are 1.5 million are doing and are forced to live in the dump of GAZA and why ? What is the point their and the leaders of their cousins are trying to prove ? How long is this madness on all sides is permitted to carry on, blessed by their priesthoods, as the will of God ? Cheers, Ed. At 02:41 PM 04/01/2009, you wrote: >I think Chris is right about this. > >Problem for Palestinians is that the alternative Fatah accepts the >settler state's "right to exist". In the daily media propaganda, >violence and rejecting Israel's "right to exist" are coupled. Yet >the rational approach seems to be to reject and challenge the right >of the settler state to exist (as once a state has a right to exist >it has a right to defend its continuation using whatever means it >can which include military) - but not to reject meeting violence >with violence in the way that Hezbollah met it. > >While rejecting and challenging the right of the state of Israel to >exist neither violence nor non-violence should be elevated to an >overall aim - however, random violence directed against citizens >based on place of residence is not meeting violence with violence >(justified if it works) but competing with the enemy in terrorising >Jill and Joe public (never justified). Any Israeli who supports >Israel's troops, its racist "law of return" and its supposedly >God-given right to exclude Palestinian exiles from their homeland >richly deserves whatever rocketry comes his way, but rockets are >not fitted with questionnaires and lie detectors. If Hamas was >serious about meeting violence with violence it would keep all >rockets under wraps until enough, and sophisticated enough, rockets >were accumulated for a sudden and devastating blitzkrieg against the >atomic weapons facility at Dimona. > >Dion Giles >Western Australia > > >At 23:02 04/01/2009, Chris Reuss wrote: > >> > If Hamas and the rocketeers were to accept and press for a democratic >> > solution of this type, their tactics would change overnight. >> >>Hamas was set up by Israel to play out the secular PLO against religious >>nutcases (after all, the zionists need a partner!) and to recruit terrorists >>to use as a scapegoat (can't have rational Arabs making legitimate demands, >>but need evil mad terrorists that can only be killed off). But even >>considering this, this rocketeering looks like a classic false-flag >>operation -- what better pretext for the ongoing carnage could Israel get? >>(Random rockets landing in a field are much better than bus bombings, as >>they cost no lives, but serve as a pretext for "backlash" nonetheless.) >>And why would genuine rocketeers pose for press photos in plain daylight? >> >>Chris >> >> >> >>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >>"igve". >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Mai-not mailing list >>Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >>http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1873 - Release Date: >1/3/2009 2:14 PM _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Tue Mar 10 04:42:12 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Tue Mar 10 04:44:52 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Ed Deak's Economic Efficiency Priciple Message-ID: Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 07:20:06 -0700 To: mai-not@globalproblematique.net From: Ed Deak Subject: [Mai-not] Article in and letter to the Independent ============================================================================= October 9, 2006 Earth's ecological debt crisis: mankind's 'borrowing' from nature hits new record Today is a bleak day for the environment, the day of the year when mankind over-exploits the world's resources - the day when, like a borrower 'maxing out' on credit cards, we start living beyond our ecological means. http://news.in dependent.co.uk/environment/article1822171.ece ============================================================================= To: letters@independent.co.uk Subject: Earth's ecological debt crisis. Dear Editor, I discovered in 1985 that the then and still used, neoclassical definition of economic efficiency was fraudulent and will destroy humanity, unless something is done. So are the published, and flaunted, GDP, Growth and Productivity figures, where everything is calculated as credit, without any debits . This means that the more we waste and destroy, the richer we become, at least in the sick minds of neoclassical economists, and their warped followers, which now include all the governments on Earth, owned and controlled by the multinational corporate mafia. I followed this up for the following six years, consulting with scientists, and other independent thinkers, and developed a scientifically correct definition, which has now been featured on many worldwide economic forums, including several by the World Bank , it is on google, used in PhD dissertations and remains unbroken. The main points are : Wealth is the temporary control of energy. Wealth can not be created, only taken from other sectors, the environment, or the future. If wealth could be created, we wouldn't have crime and wars and any need for faith based ideologies. Costs can not be cut, only transferred on other sectors, the environment, or the future. All economic activities are bound by the highschool versions of four well known physical laws. the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics and Newton's Laws on Speed and Reaction. With bank deregulation money ceased to exist as an instrument of exchange and became a licence for the control of energy, issued by a special interest sector for its own benefit, while transferring the liabilities on the environment and society at large The Principle was developed from about 65 pages of handwritten notes, mostly single sentence, short definitions and laws, reduced to a single page and copyrighted in 1991, to establish the date, not for monetary purposes. You're welcome to publish it. As English was my 5th language, I asked a professional writer friend to go over the text and make certain it can be understood by anybody with Grade 4 education, as incomprehensible, convoluted academic texts can easily be used to mislead the public into following crazy and criminal theories. Like the neoclassical theory that may have been started as a mistake, but has now become the biggest crime wave in human history and still growing. Far bigger and destroying more than the crimes of Hitler, Stalin and Mao put together. The enclosed copy has the same wording that was submitted for copyright in 1991. No, I have no intention to write a book. Copies of my notes are in the possession of several friends and whatever they want to do with them is of no further interest to me. Ed Deak, Box 9, Big Lake Ranch P.O. , B.C. V0L 1G0 Canada. Phone : 250 243 2263. A PRINCIPLE FOR THE APPLICATION OF PHYSICAL EFFICIENCY TO ECONOMICS. By Ed Deak. "THE REAL, OR PHYSICAL COSTS OF A PRODUCT, OR SERVICE ARE CONSTANT." An efficient product contains physically efficient or ideal amounts of energy and matter, regardless of numerical or monetary considerations. Monetary "cost efficiency" can not exist outside the concepts of physical efficiency and becomes cost transfer on other sectors. Therefore it is not efficiency but temporary convenience. 1. Everything and everybody on earth is bound by physical laws. 2. The science, planning and the acts of production are based on physical laws, therefore economic principles must also follow them. 3. "Matter and energy can not be destroyed, only transformed". Both began in and continue into eternity, therefore monetary costs are momentary "subtotals" in continuous columns, without the possibility of "bottom lines". Our environmental and human disasters are caused by arbitrarily located subtotals falsely used as bottom lines by special interests, leaving unaccounted liabilities. 4. Because of the eternal qualities of matter and energy, we don't know the cost of anything and ignorantly use subtotals, i.e.the monetary costs of extraction, to create delusions of well being. 5. In physics "Efficiency is the most output for the least energy input".(Energy=matter). Economists conveniently substituted the word "money" for "energy", which permits the predetermination of equations and causes environmental and human destruction. 6. Measuring instruments and parameters must be permanently defined and of constant values, protected by agreements and laws. 7. Monetary value can not be permanently defined. Money is a speculative commodity under special interest control, an asset to the holder and liability to the issuer. It is infinitely and unpredictably variable, with corrupted conversions. Therefore its use as economic measure is contradictory, unscientific, immoral and illegal. 8. The premise that huge production runs etc. are "cost efficient" is false, because it refers only to perceptions of temporary monetary benefits to special sectors, while transferring real and monetary costs on others through erroneous, or fraudulent accounting. 9. In physics "Mass increases with speed", i.e. to double the speed of a boat,the energy input may have to be squared. The speedup of production also uses inefficient inputs of capital, energy/matter and creates cost transfers on the environment and humanity. 10."For every action there's an equal reaction". Overcapitalized massproduction creates temporary benefits to a few with the distribution of research, development & administration costs, but multiplies transferred costs in inefficient, forced urbanization, pollution, enslavement, health & mental problems, violence, crime, stress, time & capital waste from commuting, taxation, etc. ad infinitum. 11.The "Gross Domestic Product" and "Productivity" are false concepts to permit the accounting of liabilities as assets. 12.Our economic systems are based on the misuse of words, concepts, mathematics and accounting. No sane person wishes to go back to primitivism or musclepower, but there must be new, democratically controlled determination of when, how far and for whose benefit convenience may, or must overrule the concepts of true efficiency within the recovery capacity of the environment and humanity. Copyright 1991 by Ed Deak, Box 9, Big Lake Ranch PO. BC. VOL 1GO, Canada. Phones:(250) 243-2263, Fax: (250) 243 2171, Email: thinker@uniserve.com ============================================================================ ============ _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From creuss at bluewin.ch Tue Mar 10 04:45:14 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Tue Mar 10 04:47:40 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Ed Deak on Medicine and Cancer Message-ID: What a sad irony of fate that Ed is now caught in the very treadmill of medicine that he detested, and even in the effects of economic madness (privatization of hospitals) that he so aptly criticized. The vicious chemical toxins he was exposed to in Britain have certainly paved the road to his cancer, but I'm afraid the high consumption of red meat also took its toll, this being a major risk factor for colon cancer. The lesson here is that homeopathy is not enough, but a careful diet is necessary to keep oneself out of the pharma-industrial complex. Let's hope that his docs didn't read his writings! Chris Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 17:26:57 -0700 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] Things that will never happen I fully believe that all various the medical professions should get together and figure out, with respect for each other, what works for what and whom. I can assure you I didn't imagine my paralysis and homepathy pulled me through. That's all I'm interested in. When Marta cracked her pelvis 2 years ago and her shoulder recently, she made remarkable recoveries, proven by CT scans, using only the fraudulent homeopathic remedies. When we came to Canada in 1955, I had, as we found out later, 2 herniated vertebraes in my lower back and was in great pain. Couldn't even put on my socks and shoes. All the doctors could do for me, as later with my heavy metal poisoning, were pain killers. Until a German guy I was working with suggested I should see a chiropractor, or "Knochenarzt", as he put it. Never heard of them before in Europe, or England, but when I saw my first one and many others later, they always pulled me through, on and off ever, since. Luckily no problems for the past 10 or so years. Chiropractic was then despised by medical doctors. The wife of a doctor customer of mine was in constant pain, but didn't dare to see one, lest the profession came back on her husband. I met her years later, after she divorced the guy and married somebody else . She was seeing a chiropractor regularly, and no more pain. Now doctors and even orthopedic and neuro specialists suggest to people to seek chiropractic help. Our chiropractor can now go to the hospital and look at the charts and xray and CT pictures of patients. And this is how it should be, with all . By the way, when I became paralyzed 5 1/2 years ago, my son and his wife demanded that I should go under "medical care", and they called my practitioner, calling her dirty names. I told them, very nicely on email I still have, so I can prove everything, explaining that I don't give, or take, any orders to, or from anybody and would like to give my homeopath a chance. They haven't spoken to me since and as far I'm concerned, good riddance. Whenever there's some controversial court case, necessitating the calling of "expert" and "scientist" witnesses, both sides can hire the best, to knock down the "scientific theories" of the others. It is also "science" that gave us the GM seeds, and the DU ammo, the neoclassical market economy theory and the 9,000 official deaths caused by prescription medications in Canada every year. I other words, I prefer logic, and practical experience to theories and words. I'm still working on a posting for Duane on some unexplainable things, but Spring is a hectic time on the ranch and I'm beginning to feel my years. Cheers, Ed. At 03:17 PM 09/05/2008, you wrote: >Ed Deak wrote: > > Who cares. as long as it works ? I never argue with success. > >Success of the yeast vitamin pills or of homeopathic placebos? ;-) >Where's homeopathy's success against the still booming major illnesses? >How many amalgam-poisoned, e.g., have been cured by homeopathy? >Millions are waiting, but this dream doesn't materialize... >It's homeopathic success, so to speak. > > > > E.g. It would take an army of physicists with the latest computers to > > figure out the highest speed a racing car can go around a > complicated track. > > Semi literate racing drivers can calculate it , under a great variety > > of conditions and situations, in fractions of seconds through the > > seat of their pants, time after time, hour after hour. > > > > How do they do it? How do other sport figures, or master > > marksmen, calculate the trajectory of balls and bullets? > >With a neural network. (Their brain learns to estimate things without >consciously thinking about them.) The latest computers try to emulate >this principle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network > >But this has nothing to do with homeopathy, like the vitamin pills... > >--- > >Yves Bajard wrote: > > Although I have been branded a so-called > > Predator and accused of bajardocentrism, I happen to be a scientist with > > some doubts about the use of the famous phrase:" scientifically proven" > >Well, if one believes that a rainforest gorilla can tell humanity how to >solve civilization's problems, then it's only consistent to also believe >in voodoo stuff like water memory. But then you should also be able to >answer my question on why tap water isn't lethal (highly potent medicine). > >Cheers, >Chris > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >-- >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG. >Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.8/1414 - Release Date: >04/05/2008 12:31 PM _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:22:55 -0800 To: A renewed Mai-Not From: Ed Deak Subject: Re: [Mai-not] somatic vs social cancer The most important thing about cancer that its mainly a manmade illness, caused by pollution. 50 years ago 2% of the population had cancer, we only heard about it once in a blue moon, there were no cancers in children, or breast cancers to speak of. The first we heard of leukemia was in the early 50s, when we were still in England, in our mid twenties, and the papers reported that Red Skelton brought his little boy over to show him some of the world, before he died of a "rare, incurable form of cancer, called leukemia" Nobody ever heard of anything like it and it wasn't because of the lack of discovery potential. In my 17 years and 11 years of schooling in Hungary, I knew 2 kids who died, neither of them from cancer. The first we heard of breast cancer was either in the late 60s, or early 70s, when we were already in our forties and a neighbour lady across the street in Vancouver came down and died from it. Now something like 30 or 40% of women get it. Perhaps it would be a good idea to take an objective look at the causes, before trying to figure out the cures. Of course, that may not be business friendly, or globally competitive. Cheers, Ed. ============================================================================ ========================== At 03:49 PM 17/01/2007, you wrote: > >Hi > >Caused quite a bit of a buzz in both threshhold >research and medical circles. Interesting thing >about the breakthrough is that newscasters have >been hinting that big pharma might not be >interested in commercially producing this quite >interesting cure because DCA is not patented >with, therefore, a potentially limited bottomline!!! > >Talk of a social cancer and a captively quiescent Dr. Govt.!!!!! > >John >===================== > >http://www.s >ciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070116134001.htm > > > > >Small Molecule Offers Big Hope Against Cancer > > > >Science Daily ? >DCA is an odourless, colourless, inexpensive, >relatively non-toxic, small molecule. And >researchers at the University of Alberta believe >it may soon be used as an effective treatment for many forms of cancer. > >Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U >of A Department of Medicine, has shown that >dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in >several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors. > >Michelakis and his colleagues, including >post-doctoral fellow Dr. Sebastian Bonnet, have >published the results of their research in the journal Cancer Cell. > >Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades >to treat children with inborn errors of >metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases. >Mitochondria, the energy producing units in >cells, have been connected with cancer since the >1930s, when researchers first noticed that these >organelles dysfunction when cancer is present. > >Until recently, researchers believed that >cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently >damaged and that this damage is the result, not >the cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis >questioned this belief and began testing DCA, >which activates a critical mitochondrial enzyme, >as a way to "revive" cancer-affected mitochondria. > >The results astounded him. > >Michelakis and his colleagues found that DCA >normalized the mitochondrial function in many >cancers, showing that their function was >actively suppressed by the cancer but was not permanently damaged by it. > >More importantly, they found that the >normalization of mitochondrial function resulted >in a significant decrease in tumor growth both >in test tubes and in animal models. Also, they >noted that DCA, unlike most currently used >chemotherapies, did not have any effects on normal, non-cancerous tissues. > >"I think DCA can be selective for cancer because >it attacks a fundamental process in cancer >development that is unique to cancer cells," >Michelakis said. "Cancer cells actively suppress >their mitochondria, which alters their >metabolism, and this appears to offer cancer >cells a significant advantage in growth compared >to normal cells, as well as protection from many >standard chemotherapies. Because mitochondria >regulate cell death--or apoptosis--cancer cells >can thus achieve resistance to apoptosis, and >this appears to be reversed by DCA." > >"One of the really exciting things about this >compound is that it might be able to treat many >different forms of cancer, because all forms of >cancer suppress mitochondrial function; in fact, >this is why most cancers can be detected by >tests like PET (positron emission tomography), >which detects the unique metabolic profile of >cancer compared to normal cells," added >Michelakis, the Canada Research Chair in Pulmonary Hypertension. >Another encouraging thing about DCA is that, >being so small, it is easily absorbed in the >body, and, after oral intake, it can reach areas >in the body that other drugs cannot, making it >possible to treat brain cancers, for example. > >Also, because DCA has been used in both healthy >people and sick patients with mitochondrial >diseases, researchers already know that it is a >relatively non-toxic molecule that can be >immediately tested in patients with cancer. > >Furthermore, the DCA compound is not patented >and not owned by any pharmaceutical company, >and, therefore, would likely be an inexpensive >drug to administer, Michelakis added. > >However, as DCA is not patented, Michelakis is >concerned that it may be difficult to find >funding from private investors to test DCA in >clinical trials. He is grateful for the support >he has already received from publicly funded >agencies, such as the Canadian Institutes for >Health Research (CIHR), and he is hopeful such >support will continue and allow him to conduct >clinical trials of DCA on cancer patients. > >"This preliminary research is encouraging and >offers hope to thousands of Canadians and all >those around the world who are afflicted by >cancer, as it accelerates our understanding of >and action around targeted cancer treatments," >said Dr. Philip Branton, Scientic Director of the CIHR Institute of Cancer. > >Michelakis's research is currently funded by the >CIHR, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the >Canada Research Chairs program, and the Alberta >Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. > >Note: This story has been adapted from a news >release issued by University of Alberta. > > >John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) >jomut@yahoo.com >chakane@hotmail.com >http://www.geocities.com/jomut > > >Looking for earth-friendly autos? >BHNlYwNtYWlsdGFncwRzbGsDZ3JlZW5jZW50ZXI->Browse >Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > >Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.1.410 / Virus Database: 268.16.6/617 - Release Date: 05/01/2007 _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Wed Mar 11 04:24:19 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (diongiles1@aapt.net.au) Date: Wed Mar 11 04:24:55 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Profile of Michael Ignatieff Message-ID: <380-220093311112419342@M2W043.mail2web.com> Professor Fletcher is a bit naive if he rates Kevin Rudd as any sort of liberal intellectual, but compared with the hordes of ill-willed politicians who can barely manage to grunt I guess even Rudd seems to have a mind. Dion Giles =========================================== The philosopher politician Will another liberal intellectual lead a party to power, this time in Canada? Fred Fletcher profiles Michael Ignatieff http://inside.org.au/the-philosopher/ [Fred Fletcher is University Professor Emeritus of Political Science at York University and Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia. In 2007, was Visiting Professor at the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology] WHEN BARRACK OBAMA met Michael Ignatieff, Canada's new opposition leader, on a recent working visit to Ottawa, the president is reported to have opened the conversation by saying, "I've read your stuff." This, of course, is a standard form of greeting among published authors and academics, underlining the fact that both are former professors and public intellectuals, as well as fellow graduates of Harvard University. If Ignatieff succeeds in defeating Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper and leading the Liberal Party to power after the next election, he will join three other liberal intellectuals - Obama, Kevin Rudd and Britain's Gordon Brown - who are heads of government. Soon after Ignatieff was appointed leader, he disappeared from public view for three weeks because, according to a spokesperson, he was putting the finishing touches on his latest book. The book, True Patriot Love: Four Generations in Search of Canada, to be published in late April, can be seen as a companion to his acclaimed 1998 book, The Russian Album. Where the earlier book traced his roots on his father's side, mixing family memoir with broader social commentary, his new book deals with his maternal side, a family of Scots-Canadian intellectuals. Even more than Obama, Ignatieff's family background and personal reflections are on the public record. With sixteen books and nine honorary doctorates under his belt, Ignatieff is by no means the first intellectual to lead a major Canadian political party. But he is by far the best known. Unlike Pierre Trudeau, who led Liberal governments from 1968 to 1984 and was often called Canada's "philosopher king," Ignatieff has lived outside the country for most of his adult life. After making his name as a journalist, broadcaster and academic in Britain and the United States, Ignatieff resigned suddenly from a prestigious position at Harvard - as director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy - and accepted a visiting position at the University of Toronto. A few months later, in January 2006, he was elected MP for a Toronto constituency, having won preselection when all the other candidates were declared ineligible. He was re-elected last October, and by December he was interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. His leadership is to be confirmed at a party convention in May. Ignatieff's swift rise to the leadership of the centrist Liberal Party, which has held power for nearly seven out of every ten years since 1900, partly reflects the fact that the previous party leader, Stephane Dion - himself a professor of political science - failed to capture the public imagination, not least because of his shaky grasp of spoken English. Fluency in French and English is now a political necessity for national party leaders in Canada but it remains unclear how well Ignatieff, who has a house in Provence and speaks French elegantly, will connect with Canadian voters. To date, Ignatieff's background - descendant of Russian aristocrats and Scots-Canadian stock - does not seem to have been much of an issue with the public. The recent successes of other liberal intellectuals in politics, particularly Obama's, might herald a new era of political discourse in which a former Oxford fellow and Harvard professor doesn't have to hide his intellect behind a six-pack. As opposition leader, he is close to power, but much will depend on public acceptance of a cosmopolitan public intellectual as a potential national leader. As he wrote in his 1994 book, Blood and Belonging, "If anyone has a claim to being a cosmopolitan, it must be me." In a country not known for its reverence for academics, at least among English-speaking Canadians, the life of a party leader who (in the view of a few cynics) has written more books than some members of parliament have read will not be without challenges. Although he worked for Trudeau in 1968, served briefly as a national youth organiser for the Liberal Party and signalled his interest in politics in the yearbook of Toronto's Upper Canada College, Canada's elite private boy's school, Ignatieff has spent most of his life observing, aloof from the battle. As he approached his sixtieth birthday, however, it appears that the observer wanted to have a more direct influence on policy. WHILE IGNATIEFF may have been ready to enter the political fray, what seems to have brought him back to Canada was active recruitment by a group of influential Liberals concerned about the future of what they consider to be Canada's natural governing party. Torn apart by scandal, regional differences and personal rivalries, the Liberals needed renewal. Like the key members of his staff, Ignatieff is an outsider with an insider background. He made his name abroad, but his father was a Canadian diplomat with strong connections to political and intellectual elites in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. As a thinker, Ignatieff seems to have been influenced more by the British philosopher Isaiah Berlin than by his education at the University of Toronto and at Harvard. Indeed, Ignatieff's politics have been described as "left-liberal in the Isaiah Berlin sense," and in 1998, he published an award-winning biography, Isaiah Berlin: A Life. Like Trudeau and other Canadian Liberal thinkers, Ignatieff is comfortable with many of Berlin's central beliefs: the importance of individual freedom, equality of opportunity, preference for pragmatic rather than utopian goals, the need to seek balance between competing rights and values, and a commitment to communitarian values combined with a concern that active government must do no harm. The concept of balance plays an important role in Ignatieff's writings. In The Needs of Strangers (1984), he explores the philosophical conflict between individualism and communitarianism. In The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in the Age of Terror (2004) he seeks to balance the values of security and liberty. His willingness to consider extraordinary measures in time of crisis proved to be controversial among human rights activists, though he denies allegations that he would countenance torture. This pattern of thought seems to have led Ignatieff to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq - a position, based on his concern for minority rights, that he later recanted as he observed the aftermath of the US action. His concern for human rights also led him into controversy over the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006. He first showed a lack of concern over civilian casualties and then suggested they might be a war crime, losing support on all sides. However, he has been consistent in his support of Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan. These aspects of his thinking on foreign policy have provided considerable ammunition for his critics on the left, despite his long-standing defence of human rights and his opposition to ethnic nationalism. On domestic policy, his principles are less clear. In a 2006 article ## http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20060904_132689_132689 ## in the Canadian magazine Maclean's, Ignatieff set out some of his core political beliefs about Canada: "Canadians have created a distinctively progressive political culture in North America. We believe in universal rights of access to publicly funded health care; we believe in the protection of group rights to language; in group rights to self-determination for Aboriginal peoples; we believe in equality rights for all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation, including rights to marriage. Strong majorities of Canadians believe that while abortion should be rare, it should be a protected right for all women. In addition, Canadians do not support capital punishment, and we do not believe in a constitutionally protected right to bear arms. We also maintain that human freedom is best protected in a market economy where risk taking is rewarded, taxes are kept competitive, and the public finances are managed prudently to avoid burdening future generations with debt. We believe, finally, that we are stewards of our land, air and water and have an obligation to hand these treasures on to the next generation redeemed and renewed. "I am in politics to defend and develop this progressive achievement." This passage illustrates Ignatieff's commitment to balancing individualism and community interests and places him in the middle of the Liberal Party spectrum. In the current economic crisis, Ignatieff has pushed for a large and rapid stimulus package, with a nod to prudent spending and a longer term plan for a return to balance budgets. When the minority Conservative government presented a budget that reflected these principles in January, he and the Liberal caucus supported it, permitting the Conservatives to retain power in the face of opposition from the two smaller parties. Overall, his views appear to place Ignatieff squarely in the middle of the Liberal Party spectrum, a leader who can balance the social justice preferences of progressive Liberals, usually called "welfare Liberals," and the more conservative Liberals, generally styled "business Liberals." As a result, Ignatieff has been criticised for moving the party to the right, away from the stronger welfare and environmental commitments of his predecessor. Perhaps he is best described as a conservative progressive or a progressive conservative. In terms of personal priorities, he could reasonably be placed in the more conservative wing of the Australian Labor Party. The consensus of the Ottawa commentariat is that Ignatieff is learning the language of politics and that he managed his first big challenge as leader - a parliamentary crisis in late 2008 - adroitly. He has already surrounded himself with an experienced staff and has embarked on the difficult task of rebuilding the Liberal Party, whose divisions had become more apparent in opposition and whose fund-raising capacity had fallen far behind that of the Conservatives. National polls indicate that Ignatieff's leadership has improved the Liberal Party's public standing significantly. While still far from majority numbers, some polls now show support for Liberals and Conservatives to be quite close, a swing of nearly 10 per cent. In one recent poll, Ignatieff was the only leader who had a net positive personal rating: 43 positive and 32 negative. Because his support is relatively strong in all age groups and in all regions except the prime minister's Conservative stronghold in Alberta, analysts believe Ignatieff's support has the most growth potential. One source of his popularity is that he has successfully toned down the political rhetoric in Ottawa and has been credited with making political discourse more civil after a period of raucous partisanship, much as Kevin Rudd was able to do when he became Labor leader. Yet although Ignatieff has high name recognition, Canadian voters do not have a clear sense of the man, despite the wide publication of his personal and professional thoughts. It is too soon to say how well his measured and academic style will hold up in the bear pit of Canadian political debate. He may well benefit from the fact that his chief opponents are also inclined to be rather wonkish in their public discourse. If he is not comfortable with manure on his boots, as one commentator recently suggested, that is equally true of Prime Minister Harper. In his campaign appearance in the last few months, Ignatieff has sought to connect with voters at the level of policy, discussing farm subsidies in rural areas rather than trying to make himself into a cowboy. In electoral terms, however, he will have to cope with the perils of being a public intellectual. When his academic and philosophical writings are compared with those of Prime Minister Harper, who has also written a considerable amount on policy issues, will his public standing suffer? Will the fact that Harper is writing a book on ice hockey, Canada's most popular sport, make Ignatieff's work seem effete and elitist? Certainly, the Conservative "war room" is gearing up for a rhetorical attack on the new leader. The kind of opposition research pioneered in the US has been imported to Canada and Conservative strategists concede that they are closely monitoring his public statements and comparing them with what he has said and written in the past. Commenting on this, Ignatieff said: "I am trembling in my shoes. I am quaking." In Canada, at least, where George W. Bush was massively unpopular, it is a good thing he did not say: "Bring it on!" More like President Obama, Ignatieff seems prepared to listen and debate. . http://inside.org.au/the-philosopher/ -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com - Microsoft? Exchange solutions from a leading provider - http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Wed Mar 11 04:48:02 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Wed Mar 11 04:51:23 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Harvey Kaye: We Americans Should Embrace Our Radical History [3-9-09] Message-ID: <49B77AC2.14158.2F13F5D@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> The following resolution and argument was prepared at the invitation of the Yale Political Union (YPU). An organization composed of Yale student political groups from across the political spectrum, the YPU is the oldest collegiate debating society in America. Presented on February 25, 2009, the resolution passed by a margin of 2 to 1. In his 1939 book - "It Is Later Than You Think: The Need for a Militant Democracy" - Max Lerner proffered: "The basic story in the American past, the only story ultimately worth the telling, is the story of the struggle between the creative and the frustrating elements in the American democratic adventure." With those words in mind....... I ...urge this assembly to resolve that, "We Americans should embrace our radical history" - and as FDR himself averred - "make the nation radical for a generation." fyi-janet ============================ http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/66569.html Roundup: Historians' Take Harvey Kaye: Americans Should Embrace Their Radical History Source: http://www.ourfuture.org (blog) (3-9-09) [Harvey J. Kaye is Professor of Social Change and Development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the author of "Thomas Paine and the Promise of America" (Hill & Wang, 2005). He is currently writing "The Four Freedoms and the Promise of America."] The following resolution and argument was prepared at the invitation of the Yale Political Union (YPU). An organization composed of Yale student political groups from across the political spectrum, the YPU is the oldest collegiate debating society in America. Presented on February 25, 2009, the resolution passed by a margin of 2 to 1. In his 1939 book - "It Is Later Than You Think: The Need for a Militant Democracy" - Max Lerner proffered: "The basic story in the American past, the only story ultimately worth the telling, is the story of the struggle between the creative and the frustrating elements in the American democratic adventure." With those words in mind, I move that: "Americans Should Embrace their Radical History." And to second the resolution, I call upon a voice from 1930, one of America?s finest voices, the voice of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a man destined to become the greatest president of the twentieth century. Looking back on 10 years of conservative-Republican presidential administration and what they had wrought - an intensifying economic crisis and spreading human misery that would come to be known as the Great Depression - FDR, who was then the Governor of New York State, said: "There is no question in my mind that it is time for the country to become fairly radical for a generation." And do we not see what Roosevelt saw then? We have experienced three decades of conservative ascendance and power. Three decades, in which well-funded conservative movements, and ambitious and determined political and economic elites, secured power and subordinated the public good to corporate priorities, enriched the rich at the expense of working people, hollowed out the nation?s economy and public infrastructure, and harnessed religion and patriotism to the pursuit of power and wealth. In short, we have endured thirty years of rightwing political reaction and class war from above intended to undo or undermine the progressive advances of the 1930s and 1960s. Plus, if all that were not enough, we have suffered eight years of a presidency - the presidency of George W. Bush - marked not only by the tragedies of 9/11, war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and the collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minnesota, but also by assaults on our civil liberties, the denigration of human rights, breaches in the wall separating church and state, tax cuts for the wealthy, a campaign to privatize Social Security, continued corporate attacks on labor unions, and the pursuit of a politics of fear and loathing - all of which has not only led us to the brink of economic and social catastrophe, but also effectively placed the American dream and the nation?s exceptional purpose and promise under siege. We clearly see the consequences of conservative rule or, more accurately, misrule - not to mention, liberal deference to it. I therefore urge this assembly to resolve that, "We Americans should embrace our radical history" - and as FDR himself averred - "make the nation radical for a generation." I do so not only because the circumstances we confront demand a radical response, but also because to do otherwise would be to deny who we are. Our shared past calls on us to do so. Our own historical longings urge us to do so. And Americans yet to be await our determination in doing so. Let us start by recalling our history and reminding ourselves who we are - a by no means simple or easy task. For as ruling classes have been ever wont to do, America?s own powers that be have regularly sought to control the telling of the past in favor of controlling the present and the future. I could take you through a long list of New Right initiatives - from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush - intended to determine the shape and content of American memory, consciousness, and imagination. But let?s just consider the popular little volume and video - Rediscovering God in America - authored and produced by one of America?s smartest and most prominent conservatives, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Therein, Gingrich, a PhD in History, takes us on a walking tour of Washington DC - a walking tour in which he guides us around the Mall to discuss both the monuments and the figures they memorialize. Sounds nice, right? But there?s more to it. Along the way Gingrich presents a narrative of U.S. history that attributes America?s founding, survival, and progress to Divine will, to our unceasing faith in and devotion to God, and to our having sustained God?s and religion?s presence in the public square. Fair enough, you might say. However, after bizarrely and vehemently warning that "There is no attack on American culture more destructive and more historically dishonest than the secular left?s relentless effort to drive God out of the public square," Gingrich not only discounts or ignores the fact that most of the leading Founders were deists not Christians and that - in one of the most revolutionary acts of the age - they wrote a "Godless Constitution" which provided for the separation of church and state. He also somehow neglects to mention that those originally most determined to assure that separation included not just the usual suspects, but also Christian evangelicals. Nevertheless - with all due respect to God and the faithful among us - we must remember who we are, for as Wilson Carey McWilliams proffered twenty-five years ago: "A people?s memory sets the measure of its political freedom. The old times give us models and standards by which to judge our time; what has been suggests what might have been and may yet be. Remembering lifts us out of bondage to the present, and political recollection calls us back from the specialization of everyday existence, allowing us to see ourselves as a people sharing a heritage and a public life." So let us not forget that we are the descendants of Revolutionaries - of men and women who, inspired by an immigrant working-class pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, through words such as "The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth," "We have it in our power to begin the world over again," and "These are the times that try men?s souls," not only turned their colonial rebellion into a war for independence, but also transformed themselves into a nation of citizens, not subjects; endowed their new nation with exceptional purpose and promise; and launched a world-historic experiment in extending and deepening freedom, equality, and democracy. Let us not forget that we are the descendants of generations of radicals - of men and women, native-born and immigrant, who, struggled not only to realize the American dream, but also to expand the "We" in "We the People." Recognizing the contradictions between the nation?s ideals and realities - and rejecting the notion that the American experiment had reached its limits - evangelicals, workingmen?s advocates, freethinkers, slaves and abolitionists, suffragists, populists, labor unionists, socialists, anarchists, and progressives, respectively, dissented from their established churches; pressed for the rights of workingmen; insisted on the separation of church and state; resisted their masters; demanded an end to slavery; campaigned for the equality of women; challenged the power of property and officialdom; and together made the nineteenth century an age not only of growth, expansion, conflict, and the accumulation of capital, but also of militant democracy. And let us not forget that we are the children and grandchildren of America?s most progressive generation, the men and women who confronted the Great Depression and the Second World War - the men and women who not only made the "We" in "We the People" all the more inclusive, but also subjected big business to public account and regulation; empowered government to address the needs of working people; organized labor unions; fought for their rights; established Social Security; expanded the nation?s public infrastructure; refurbished its physical environment; and defeated the tyrannies of German fascism and Japanese imperialism. And you yourselves are the children of a generation who - for all of our many faults and failings - marched for civil rights, pursued the vision of a Great Society, challenged cultural prohibitions and inhibitions, pushed open institutional doors for women and people of color, and protested an imperial war in Southeast Asia. Admittedly, we made mistakes, regrettable mistakes. But we also made America better and more promising in the process. Finally, let us never forget that we are the descendants of Americans who - confronting seemingly overwhelming crises in the 1770s, 1860s, and 1930s and `40s - not only rescued the United States from division, defeat, and devastation, but also succeeded, against great odds and expectations, in extending and deepening freedom, equality, and democracy further than they had ever reached before. Still, I do not argue that we "should embrace our radical history" merely because we owe it to past generations to do so - though that in itself is a good, strong, and compelling reason to do so. I further contend that we should embrace our radical history, because we owe it to ourselves - and, ultimately, to Americans yet to come - to do so As our greatest democratic poet Walt Whitman rightly saw it: "There must be continual additions to our great experiment of how much liberty society will bear." Or, even better, as the progressive journalist Henry Demarest Lloyd put it a century ago - in words that I believe you will immediately grasp: "The price of liberty is something more than eternal vigilance. There must also be eternal advance. We can save the rights we have inherited from our fathers only by winning new ones to bequeath our children." Those words do speak to you - don?t they? You know why? Because you are Americans - and no less so than any previous generation of Americans, you - all of us - remain radicals at heart. Yes, the likes of Newsweek editor Jon Meacham tell us that "America remains a center-right nation." And yes, former Reagan speechwriter and now Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan has very graciously reminded us that our newly-inaugurated President Obama "would be most unwise to rouse the sleeping giant that is conservatism." But such talk ignores or denies what we ourselves feel and have been feeling for some time.... While we may not yet fully recognize it, we ourselves continue to feel the radical impulse and democratic imperative that generations of Americans, through their struggles, passed on to us - or better said, endowed or imbued us with. Truly, we never stopped feeling them. Ask yourselves this: Why was it that in the midst of the seemingly most conservative political era since the 1920s, Americans passionately sought to recall, honor, celebrate, and engage, America's most revolutionary and progressive generations - the nation?s Founders and the so-called Greatest Generation and its greatest leader, FDR? Most of you are probably too young to remember the mid 1990s explosion of interest in the likes of Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and yes, Paine - an explosion of interest that editors and academics alike somewhat dismissively referred to as "Founders? Chic." And you may also be too young to remember the even grander explosion of interest in FDR and the young men and women of the Great Depression who went on to fight the Second World War - an explosion of interest that turned books like Tom Brokaw?s The Greatest Generation into bestsellers and films like Steven Spielberg?s Saving Private Ryan into blockbuster hits; that made television series such as HBO?s Band of Brothers and Ken Burns? The War major events; and that instigated innumerable popular gatherings around the country. Indeed, an explosion of interest that led us to erect two new grand monuments in the very heart of the nation?s capital: one to Franklin Rosevelt and the other to the 16,000,000 veterans of World War II. But even if you do remember those developments, you may not have critically considered what they represented. And you would not have been alone in not doing so. Consider the phenomenal interest in the Greatest Generation and its greatest leader. While commentators marveled at its scale and intensity, they never seemed to grasp the most profound meaning of it all. Discussing the New Deal as merely a massive program of economic recovery and the Second World War as just a series of vast military struggles - and describing Americans? expressions of admiration and affection as if it were all one big farewell party - mainstream media folk never really appreciated or acknowledged either the radical- democratic achievements of the men and women of the 1930s and 1940s or the radical-democratic anxieties and yearnings that motivated the popular desire to thank, honor, and celebrate the generation that was passing away. In fact, many a conservative - after decrying that FDR didn?t even deserve a monument - used the interest in and admiration for the Greatest Generation as an opportunity to attack the Sixties Generation for challenging the nation?s political and cultural order and opposing the war in Vietnam. And sadly enough, leftists did little better. They either belittled the attention to the wartime generation as nothing more than nostalgia, media hype, and the commercialization of the past or - in a somewhat paranoid fashion - charged that government and media were orchestrating a campaign to eradicate the nation's "Vietnam syndrome" in favor of new "imperial adventures." Such critics - right and left - never really considered the connection between what Americans were experiencing and what they might actually have been trying to say and do. We, however, should not fail to consider it. Recall that in November 1992, Americans - despite the nation?s victories in the very long Cold War and the very brief Gulf War - turned out the Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush in favor of Democrat Bill Clinton, the presidential candidate who not only emphasized "change," but also promised to address the needs of middle- and working-class families by, among other things, investing in the nation?s already crumbling public infrastructure, protecting the environment, and establishing a system of universal national health care. Of course, if Americans truly were expecting renewed liberalism, they were to be sadly disappointed, for Clinton quickly betrayed those who had worked to place him in office by making his first priority the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, an initiative proposed by Republicans and promoted by big corporations. And we know what happened next. In the wake of NAFTA?s passage and the death of the promised progressive endeavors, Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich, took control of both houses of Congress for the first time in forty years. Change and growth ensued, but not always or exactly the sort hoped for in 1992. In addition to learning of "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans and genocidal civil wars in Africa, Americans witnessed accelerating globalization, persistent corporate "downsizing," the further deregulation of capital and privatization of public goods and services, the steady erosion of the nation?s industrial base and decay of its public infrastructure, continuing assaults on labor, increasing concentration of wealth, intensifying material insecurities, the termination of Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the growth of illegal immigration, virulent "culture wars," the emergence of rightwing militias, foreign and domestic terrorist attacks, burnings of black churches, killings at family-planning clinics, the impeachment of a president, and a quite possibly stolen presidential election in 2000. Never get nostalgic about the 1990s! Politicians and pundits of every sort described Americans as deeply divided, angry, and cynical, and Americans surely had substantial cause to feel that way. And yet they did not - at least not in the fashion asserted by all the media talk and images. More serious studies showed that while Americans felt anxious, resentful, and even pessimistic, they not only continued to subscribe to both the "American creed of liberty, equality, and democracy" and the "melting pot theory of national identity." They also continued to believe - even while recognizing that Americans had far from always lived up to them - that those very ideals and aspirations defined what it meant to be an American. In other words, Americans still possessed a shared understanding of and commitment to the nation?s historic purpose and promise - though they did wonder seriously about its prospects and possibilities What politicians and pundits missed - or tried to obscure - about the popular desire and effort to reconnect with the Founders and the Greatest Generation was that Americans were doing exactly what Americans have always done when they sense that the American dream and the nation?s historic purpose and promise are in jeopardy. Almost, instinctively, they were looking back - back to those who originally and most powerfully expressed what it meant to be an American - most particularly to those who, facing crises themselves, made the United States radically freer, more equal, and more democratic in the process. Even after thirty years of conservative and corporate rule - even after concerted efforts to make us forget, or at least confuse us about our history and what it has to say to us - we, too, not only yearn to redeem America?s purpose and promise. We also find ourselves looking back and reaching out to America?s Revolutionary and radical pasts. The task however - a task made all the more urgent by the crisis we face - is to embrace it. And perhaps we are not so far from doing just that... In fact, maybe the resolution before us is not as fantastic as it seems... For if we look closely, we might well see that Americans are already reaching out to grab hold of and embrace their radical history. We might well see that instead of simply saying "We Americans should embrace our radical history," we should actually be leaning into it and saying: "YES, We Americans should embrace our radical history." Or - to quote a recently popular refrain - "Yes, we can." Now don?t get me wrong. I am not calling Barack Obama a radical. I?ll leave that to Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin (or to her smarter body-double, Tina Fey). Nevertheless, something critical, something progressive - and possibly even radical - seems to be happening. Think back five weeks - to January 20th - to the inauguration of our new president. Inaugurations are always historic occasions, especially when one party replaces another. But this time it was historic in an even grander sense, for Americans had elected a black man to their nation?s highest office. Of course, racism persists. But the day that Barack Obama took the oath of office was not simply a break with the past. It was truly a day of transcendence. Looking from the Mall up to the Capitol - either standing there in the cold or watching on television - Americans, not only African Americans, but all Americans, had reason to take pride and even shed tears of joy. And yet, perhaps there was even more going on than that - that is, more than the talking-head politicians, pundits, and presidential scholars pointed out to us. Here?s what I mean... Shift the vantage point and look out on the Mall from the Capitol as our new president did. Now if Newt Gingrich - or the Reverend Rick Warren - were talking to us, they would tell us that we were witnessing the American people assembled together in the presence of the Almighty. But I saw something else that day - and maybe many of you did, too. I saw something that made me think that as much as Obama?s ascendance to the presidency represented a radical break with the past, it also represented something oh-so-very American, and yet again, in that very way, something also truly radical and truly promising. I saw two million Americans gathered together amidst monuments and memorials that testify not so much to God?s beneficence - or, at least, not to that alone - but all the more to our persistent aspirations and perennial efforts to extend and deepen freedom, equality, and democracy. I saw two million Americans - in all their wonderful diversity - celebrating their democratic lives, peering into the future with hope and expectation, and pressing up against monuments and memorials that render nothing less than a grand narrative of revolution and radicalism. There they were - there we were - standing beneath a monument to a man who led a revolutionary army; chaired a constitutional convention that announced to the world that here in the United States "We the People" rule; and served as the first president of a pioneering democratic republic. There they were, standing before a memorial to the man who wrote the words declaring "all men are created equal." There they were, standing in front of a monument to the man who - leading the Union through a bloody Civil War - proclaimed a "new birth of freedom" and called on his fellow citizens to devote themselves to assuring that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." There they were, standing by a memorial to the man who - in the very toughest of times - articulated our grandest and most radical aspirations in terms of four essential freedoms: "Freedom of speech and expression... Freedom of worship... Freedom from want... Freedom from Fear..." And closer in, there they were at a memorial to our parents and grandparents, Americans who, in their many millions, fought and labored for those Four Freedoms. One could almost hear Marian Anderson singing God Bless America and Martin Luther King, Jr., pronouncing "I Have a Dream," from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. And if that were not enough, we actually heard our new president essentially calling them all forth to stand with us. He spoke of our revolutionary and radical pasts. He spoke of America?s continuing purpose and promise. And he spoke of what we needed to do by reciting the words that Washington ordered read to his troops on that cold and fateful Christmas eve in 1776 - words of Thomas Paine from his revolutionary pamphlet, The Crisis: "Let it be told to the future world... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]." Again, I am not saying that Obama himself is a radical - Hell, he used Paine?s words, but never mentioned Paine?s name! But really, the point isn?t whether Obama is or isn?t a radical. It?s that we ourselves need to be. Only then might we make him the great democratic president that we require. And even more crucially, only then - in the best of our traditions - might we redeem America?s purpose and promise and make an even greater nation for ourselves and for those who follow us. We have much to do. In addition to repairing the damage to the Constitution of the past eight years, we must enact the Employee Free Choice Act, establish universal health care, re-appropriate the wealth appropriated from working people, invest in new technologies, refurbish our public spaces and national infrastructure, democratize corporations, and pursue a New Deal on immigration. Propelled by the memory and legacy of those who came before us, the yearnings and aspirations we ourselves feel, and the responsibility we have to those yet to come, we can pursue not only recovery and reconstruction, but also the making of a freer, more equal, and more democratic America. So - leaning into it, and saying it as I should have said it to begin with - I call on this House to join me in resolving that "We Americans SHOULD EMBRACE our radical history." Posted on Monday, March 9, 2009 at 11:00 PM ============================================ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Wed Mar 11 16:54:33 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Wed Mar 11 16:55:04 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: The Dictionary of American Empire-Speak Message-ID: <00af01c9a2a4$bab944d0$7cad57ca@jfos> Excerpt: "Sometimes, it's the everyday things, the ones that fly below the radar, that matter. Here, according to Bloomberg News, is part of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's recent testimony on the Afghan War before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "U.S. goals in Afghanistan must be 'modest, realistic,' and 'above all, there must be an Afghan face on this war,' Gates said. 'The Afghan people must believe this is their war and we are there to help them. If they think we are there for our own purposes, then we will go the way of every other foreign army that has been in Afghanistan.'" Now, in our world, a statement like this seems so obvious, so reasonable as to be beyond comment. And yet, stop a moment and think about this part of it: "there must be an Afghan face on this war." U.S. military and civilian officials used an equivalent phrase in 2005-2006 when things were going really, really wrong in Iraq. It was then commonplace -- and no less unremarked upon -- for them to urgently suggest that an "Iraqi face" be put on events there. Evidently back in vogue for a different war, the phrase is revelatory -- (snip) It's hardly surprising that the Secretary of Defense would pick up such a phrase, part of Washington's everyday arsenal of words and images when it comes to geopolitics, power, and war." Full article at http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175040/the_dictionary_of_american_empire_speak ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Wed Mar 11 17:35:46 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Wed Mar 11 17:36:18 2009 Subject: [S] [Mai-not] Profile of Michael Ignatieff References: <380-220093311112419342@M2W043.mail2web.com> Message-ID: <013a01c9a2aa$7ca26f90$7cad57ca@jfos> if only he had a concern that 'a market economy' must do no harm.! John Foster Victoria, Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 10:24 PM Subject: [S] [Mai-not] Profile of Michael Ignatieff > Professor Fletcher is a bit naive if he rates Kevin Rudd as any sort of > liberal intellectual, but compared with the hordes of ill-willed > politicians who can barely manage to grunt I guess even Rudd seems to have > a mind. > > Dion Giles > =========================================== > > The philosopher politician > > Will another liberal intellectual lead a party to power, this time in > Canada? > Fred Fletcher profiles Michael Ignatieff > > http://inside.org.au/the-philosopher/ > > [Fred Fletcher is University Professor Emeritus of Political Science at > York University and Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of > Journalism > at the University of British Columbia. In 2007, was Visiting Professor at > the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology] > > > > WHEN BARRACK OBAMA met Michael Ignatieff, Canada's new opposition leader, > on a recent working visit to Ottawa, the president is reported to have > opened the conversation by saying, "I've read your stuff." This, of > course, > is a standard form of greeting among published authors and academics, > underlining the fact that both are former professors and public > intellectuals, as well as fellow graduates of Harvard University. > > If Ignatieff succeeds in defeating Conservative prime minister Stephen > Harper and leading the Liberal Party to power after the next election, he > will join three other liberal intellectuals - Obama, Kevin Rudd and > Britain's Gordon Brown - who are heads of government. > > Soon after Ignatieff was appointed leader, he disappeared from public view > for three weeks because, according to a spokesperson, he was putting the > finishing touches on his latest book. The book, True Patriot Love: Four > Generations in Search of Canada, to be published in late April, can be > seen > as a companion to his acclaimed 1998 book, The Russian Album. Where the > earlier book traced his roots on his father's side, mixing family memoir > with broader social commentary, his new book deals with his maternal side, > a family of Scots-Canadian intellectuals. Even more than Obama, > Ignatieff's > family background and personal reflections are on the public record. > > With sixteen books and nine honorary doctorates under his belt, Ignatieff > is by no means the first intellectual to lead a major Canadian political > party. But he is by far the best known. Unlike Pierre Trudeau, who led > Liberal governments from 1968 to 1984 and was often called Canada's > "philosopher king," Ignatieff has lived outside the country for most of > his > adult life. > > After making his name as a journalist, broadcaster and academic in Britain > and the United States, Ignatieff resigned suddenly from a prestigious > position at Harvard - as director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights > Policy - and accepted a visiting position at the University of Toronto. A > few months later, in January 2006, he was elected MP for a Toronto > constituency, having won preselection when all the other candidates were > declared ineligible. He was re-elected last October, and by December he > was > interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. His leadership is to be > confirmed at a party convention in May. > > Ignatieff's swift rise to the leadership of the centrist Liberal Party, > which has held power for nearly seven out of every ten years since 1900, > partly reflects the fact that the previous party leader, Stephane Dion - > himself a professor of political science - failed to capture the public > imagination, not least because of his shaky grasp of spoken English. > Fluency in French and English is now a political necessity for national > party leaders in Canada but it remains unclear how well Ignatieff, who has > a house in Provence and speaks French elegantly, will connect with > Canadian > voters. To date, Ignatieff's background - descendant of Russian > aristocrats > and Scots-Canadian stock - does not seem to have been much of an issue > with > the public. > > The recent successes of other liberal intellectuals in politics, > particularly Obama's, might herald a new era of political discourse in > which a former Oxford fellow and Harvard professor doesn't have to hide > his > intellect behind a six-pack. As opposition leader, he is close to power, > but much will depend on public acceptance of a cosmopolitan public > intellectual as a potential national leader. As he wrote in his 1994 book, > Blood and Belonging, "If anyone has a claim to being a cosmopolitan, it > must be me." > > In a country not known for its reverence for academics, at least among > English-speaking Canadians, the life of a party leader who (in the view of > a few cynics) has written more books than some members of parliament have > read will not be without challenges. Although he worked for Trudeau in > 1968, served briefly as a national youth organiser for the Liberal Party > and signalled his interest in politics in the yearbook of Toronto's Upper > Canada College, Canada's elite private boy's school, Ignatieff has spent > most of his life observing, aloof from the battle. As he approached his > sixtieth birthday, however, it appears that the observer wanted to have a > more direct influence on policy. > > WHILE IGNATIEFF may have been ready to enter the political fray, what > seems > to have brought him back to Canada was active recruitment by a group of > influential Liberals concerned about the future of what they consider to > be > Canada's natural governing party. Torn apart by scandal, regional > differences and personal rivalries, the Liberals needed renewal. Like the > key members of his staff, Ignatieff is an outsider with an insider > background. He made his name abroad, but his father was a Canadian > diplomat > with strong connections to political and intellectual elites in Ottawa, > Toronto and Montreal. > > As a thinker, Ignatieff seems to have been influenced more by the British > philosopher Isaiah Berlin than by his education at the University of > Toronto and at Harvard. Indeed, Ignatieff's politics have been described > as > "left-liberal in the Isaiah Berlin sense," and in 1998, he published an > award-winning biography, Isaiah Berlin: A Life. Like Trudeau and other > Canadian Liberal thinkers, Ignatieff is comfortable with many of Berlin's > central beliefs: the importance of individual freedom, equality of > opportunity, preference for pragmatic rather than utopian goals, the need > to seek balance between competing rights and values, and a commitment to > communitarian values combined with a concern that active government must > do > no harm. > > The concept of balance plays an important role in Ignatieff's writings. In > The Needs of Strangers (1984), he explores the philosophical conflict > between individualism and communitarianism. In The Lesser Evil: Political > Ethics in the Age of Terror (2004) he seeks to balance the values of > security and liberty. His willingness to consider extraordinary measures > in > time of crisis proved to be controversial among human rights activists, > though he denies allegations that he would countenance torture. > > This pattern of thought seems to have led Ignatieff to support the 2003 > invasion of Iraq - a position, based on his concern for minority rights, > that he later recanted as he observed the aftermath of the US action. His > concern for human rights also led him into controversy over the Israeli > invasion of Lebanon in 2006. He first showed a lack of concern over > civilian casualties and then suggested they might be a war crime, losing > support on all sides. However, he has been consistent in his support of > Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan. These aspects of his > thinking > on foreign policy have provided considerable ammunition for his critics on > the left, despite his long-standing defence of human rights and his > opposition to ethnic nationalism. > > On domestic policy, his principles are less clear. In a 2006 article > > ## > > http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20060904_132689_132689 > > ## > > in the Canadian magazine Maclean's, Ignatieff set out some of his core > political beliefs about Canada: > > "Canadians have created a distinctively progressive political culture in > North America. We believe in universal rights of access to publicly funded > health care; we believe in the protection of group rights to language; in > group rights to self-determination for Aboriginal peoples; we believe in > equality rights for all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation, > including rights to marriage. Strong majorities of Canadians believe that > while abortion should be rare, it should be a protected right for all > women. In addition, Canadians do not support capital punishment, and we do > not believe in a constitutionally protected right to bear arms. We also > maintain that human freedom is best protected in a market economy where > risk taking is rewarded, taxes are kept competitive, and the public > finances are managed prudently to avoid burdening future generations with > debt. We believe, finally, that we are stewards of our land, air and water > and have an obligation to hand these treasures on to the next generation > redeemed and renewed. > > "I am in politics to defend and develop this progressive achievement." > > This passage illustrates Ignatieff's commitment to balancing individualism > and community interests and places him in the middle of the Liberal Party > spectrum. In the current economic crisis, Ignatieff has pushed for a large > and rapid stimulus package, with a nod to prudent spending and a longer > term plan for a return to balance budgets. When the minority Conservative > government presented a budget that reflected these principles in January, > he and the Liberal caucus supported it, permitting the Conservatives to > retain power in the face of opposition from the two smaller parties. > > Overall, his views appear to place Ignatieff squarely in the middle of the > Liberal Party spectrum, a leader who can balance the social justice > preferences of progressive Liberals, usually called "welfare Liberals," > and > the more conservative Liberals, generally styled "business Liberals." As a > result, Ignatieff has been criticised for moving the party to the right, > away from the stronger welfare and environmental commitments of his > predecessor. Perhaps he is best described as a conservative progressive or > a progressive conservative. In terms of personal priorities, he could > reasonably be placed in the more conservative wing of the Australian Labor > Party. > > The consensus of the Ottawa commentariat is that Ignatieff is learning the > language of politics and that he managed his first big challenge as leader > - a parliamentary crisis in late 2008 - adroitly. He has already > surrounded > himself with an experienced staff and has embarked on the difficult task > of > rebuilding the Liberal Party, whose divisions had become more apparent in > opposition and whose fund-raising capacity had fallen far behind that of > the Conservatives. > > National polls indicate that Ignatieff's leadership has improved the > Liberal Party's public standing significantly. While still far from > majority numbers, some polls now show support for Liberals and > Conservatives to be quite close, a swing of nearly 10 per cent. In one > recent poll, Ignatieff was the only leader who had a net positive personal > rating: 43 positive and 32 negative. Because his support is relatively > strong in all age groups and in all regions except the prime minister's > Conservative stronghold in Alberta, analysts believe Ignatieff's support > has the most growth potential. One source of his popularity is that he has > successfully toned down the political rhetoric in Ottawa and has been > credited with making political discourse more civil after a period of > raucous partisanship, much as Kevin Rudd was able to do when he became > Labor leader. > > Yet although Ignatieff has high name recognition, Canadian voters do not > have a clear sense of the man, despite the wide publication of his > personal > and professional thoughts. It is too soon to say how well his measured and > academic style will hold up in the bear pit of Canadian political debate. > He may well benefit from the fact that his chief opponents are also > inclined to be rather wonkish in their public discourse. If he is not > comfortable with manure on his boots, as one commentator recently > suggested, that is equally true of Prime Minister Harper. In his campaign > appearance in the last few months, Ignatieff has sought to connect with > voters at the level of policy, discussing farm subsidies in rural areas > rather than trying to make himself into a cowboy. > > In electoral terms, however, he will have to cope with the perils of being > a public intellectual. When his academic and philosophical writings are > compared with those of Prime Minister Harper, who has also written a > considerable amount on policy issues, will his public standing suffer? > Will > the fact that Harper is writing a book on ice hockey, Canada's most > popular > sport, make Ignatieff's work seem effete and elitist? > > Certainly, the Conservative "war room" is gearing up for a rhetorical > attack on the new leader. The kind of opposition research pioneered in the > US has been imported to Canada and Conservative strategists concede that > they are closely monitoring his public statements and comparing them with > what he has said and written in the past. Commenting on this, Ignatieff > said: "I am trembling in my shoes. I am quaking." > > In Canada, at least, where George W. Bush was massively unpopular, it is a > good thing he did not say: "Bring it on!" More like President Obama, > Ignatieff seems prepared to listen and debate. . > > > > http://inside.org.au/the-philosopher/ > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > mail2web.com - Microsoft? Exchange solutions from a leading provider - > http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.557 / Virus Database: 270.11.9/1993 - Release Date: > 10/03/2009 7:19 AM > From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Wed Mar 11 22:24:18 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Wed Mar 11 22:53:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Lessons of Great Depression; Women in Russian Revolution; John Bellamy Foster; Water crisis; Michael Lebowitz; El Salvador Message-ID: <49B89C82.2010002@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Lessons of Great Depression; Women in Russian Revolution; John Bellamy Foster; Water crisis; Michael Lebowitz; El Salvador * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Lessons from the past: The Great Depression and the Communist Party of Australia By Dave Holmes [This is an excerpt from the new pamphlet, Meltdown! A socialist view of the capitalist crisis, by Resistance Books. Meltdown! features essays by John Bellamy Foster, Phil Hearse, Adam Hanieh, Lee Sustar and others. Purchase a copy from Resistance Books .] The current economic crisis is a fundamental crisis of the world capitalist system. British socialist Phil Hearse calls it the "third slump" in the history of the capitalism (the other two being the Great Depression of the 1930s and the 1974-75 sharp downturn). And the levels of mass distress may yet come to rival the 1930s. * Read more Pamphlet: Comrades in arms: Women in the Russian Revolution To mark International Women's Day, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is publishing an excerpt from Resistance Books' Comrades in arms: Women in the Russian Revolution, by Kathy Fairfax, and making available the entire pamphlet to download in PDF format. * Read more John Bellamy Foster: A failed system -- The world crisis of capitalist globalisation and its impact on China By John Bellamy Foster John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is coauthor, with Fred Magdoff, of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (Monthly Review Press, January 2009) among numerous other works. This article was originally a presentation delivered to the International Conference on the Critique of Capital in the Era of Globalization, Suzhou University, Suzhou, China, January 11, 2009. It appeared in the March edition of Monthly Review and is posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with John Bellamy Foster's permission. * Read more Sydney, April 10-12 (Easter), 2009: World at a Crossroads - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century World At a Crossroads: Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century * Read more Animation: `Closed Zone', by Yoni Goldman, the animator of `Waltz with Bashir' Despite declarations that it has "disengaged" from the Gaza Strip, Israel maintains control of the Strip's overland border crossings, territorial waters and air space. This includes substantial, albeit indirect, control of the Rafah Crossing. During the past 18 months, Israel tightened its closure of Gaza, almost completely restricting the passage of goods and people both to and from the Strip. These policies punish innocent civilians with the goal of exerting pressure on the [elected] Hamas government, violating the rights of 1.5 million people who seek only to live ordinary lives -- to be reunited with family, to pursue higher education, to receive quality medical treatment and to earn a living. * Read more Market madness: `Oversupply' of water tanks during a record water crisis! By Dave Holmes Melbourne, February 26, 2009 -- Australian plastics manufacturer Nylex has been placed in the hands of receivers. Nylex is a well-known name -- the company produces the iconic Esky, water tanks, wheelie bins, hose and garden fittings and interior trimmings for car manufacturers. According to the February 13 Melbourne Age, "The drought and a government rebate stimulated demand for water tanks, but oversupply pushed down prices and demand collapsed after substantial rain in Queensland and NSW." * Read more Michael Lebowitz: The path to human development -- capitalism or socialism? The following is the preface to an important article in the March 2009 issue of Monthly Review by Michael Lebowitz, entitled "The path to human development: capitalism or socialism?". Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal encourages its readers to follow the link below to the full article. Michael Lebowitz will be a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia, on April 10-12, 2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and Green Left Weekly. Visit http://www.worldATACrossroads.org for full agenda and to book your tickets. By Michael A. Lebowitz If we believe in people, if we believe that the goal of a human society must be that of "ensuring overall human development", our choice is clear: socialism or barbarism. * Read more El Salvador's left poised for election victory: FMLN promises a people-centred government By Erica Thompson February 26, 2009 -- Committee in Solidarity of the People of El Salvador (CISPES) -- Polls on the March 15 presidential vote show the election will likely open a new progressive chapter in El Salvador's long, violent history of war and dictatorships with a victory by the left-wing FMLN, which is promising to build a people-centred government. But the right is not taking its impending defeat lightly; it has been orchestrating a massive fear campaign and has worked feverishly to secure corporate-driven development contracts before its rule is set to expire. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 _______________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090312/0be04e7a/attachment.html From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Wed Mar 11 23:47:58 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Wed Mar 11 23:48:21 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] The doublespeak of the discredited IMF | Links Message-ID: <49B8B01E.7030306@greenleft.org.au> By *Eric Toussaint* and *Damien Millet, *translated by *Christine Pagnoulle* and *Judith Harris* March 12, 2009 -- The international crisis that erupted in the summer of 2008 demolished all the neoliberal dogmas and exposed the deception behind them. Unable to deny their failure, the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) claim they no longer uphold the set of neoliberal policies known as the ``Washington Consensus??. Yet, discredited though they may be, these two institutions are using the international crisis to return to the limelight. For decades they have enforced the deregulation measures and structural adjustment programs that have led to the current /impasse/. After this total fiasco the WB and the IMF must now account for their decisions before world opinion. Full article at http://links.org.au/node/947 Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Thu Mar 12 07:28:10 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Thu Mar 12 07:29:00 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Seymour Hersh describes 'executive assassination ring' [Reuters March 11 ] Message-ID: <49B8F1CA.21539.8A72C2C@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> At a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota last night with Seymour Hersh, Walter Mondale and Political Scientist Larry Jacobs as interviewer, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination ring." At the end of one answer by Hersh about how these things tend to happen, Jacobs asked: "And do they continue to happen to this day?" Replied Hersh: "Yuh. After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen. "Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ... "Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths..... "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us. fyi-janet ============================= http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investig ative_reporter_seymour_hersh_describes_executive_ assassination_ring Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh describes 'executive assassination ring' By Eric Black | Published Wed, Mar 11 2009 11:17 am REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad Journalist Seymour Hersh speaking in Doha at an Al Jazeera forum on the media in 2007. At a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota last night, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an "executive assassination ring." Hersh spoke with great confidence about these findings from his current reporting, which he hasn't written about yet. In an email exchange afterward, Hersh said that his statements were "an honest response to a question" from the event's moderator, U of M Political Scientist Larry Jacobs and "not something I wanted to dwell about in public." Hersh didn't take back the statements, which he said arise from reporting he is doing for a book, but that it might be a year or two before he has what he needs on the topic to be "effective...that is, empirical, for even the most skeptical." The evening of great conversation, featuring Walter Mondale and Hersh, moderated by Jacobs and titled "America's Constitutional Crisis," looked to be a mostly historical review of events that have tested our Constitution, by a journalist and a high government officials who had experience with many of the crises. And it was mostly historical, and a great conversation, in which Hersh and Mondale talked about the patterns by which presidents seem to get intoxicated by executive power, frustrated by the limitations on that power from Congress and the public, drawn into improper covert actions that exceed their constitutional powers, in the belief that they can get results and will never be found out. Despite a few references to the Founding Fathers, the history was mostly recent, starting with the Viethnam War with much of it arising from the George W. Bush administration, which both men roundly denounced. At the end of one answer by Hersh about how these things tend to happen, Jacobs asked: "And do they continue to happen to this day?" Replied Hersh: "Yuh. After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet. That does happen. "Right now, today, there was a story in the New York Times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense. They reported directly to him. ... "Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths. "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us. "It's complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It's a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you've heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized. "In many cases, they were the best and the brightest. Really, no exaggerations. Really fine guys that went in to do the kind of necessary jobs that they think you need to do to protect America. And then they find themselves torturing people. "I've had people say to me -- five years ago, I had one say: 'What do you call it when you interrogate somebody and you leave them bleeding and they don't get any medical committee and two days later he dies. Is that murder? What happens if I get before a committee?' "But they're not gonna get before a committee." Hersh, the best-known investigative reporter of his generation, writes about these kinds of issues for The New Yorker. He has written often about JSOC, including, last July that: "Under the Bush Administration's interpretation of the law, clandestine military activities, unlike covert C.I.A. operations, do not need to be depicted in a Finding, because the President has a constitutional right to command combat forces in the field without congressional interference." ("Finding" refers to a special document that a president must issue, although not make public, to authorize covert CIA actions.) Here is a tape of the full Mondale-Hersh-Jacobs colloquy, a little over an hour, without the audience Q and A. If you want to look for the Hersh statement quoted above, it's about at the 7:30 mark. The rest of the evening was, as expected, full of worry and wisdom and quite a bit of Bush-bashing. Jacobs walked the two elder statesmen through their experiences of: The My Lai massacre, which Hersh first revealed publicly and which he last night called "the end of innocence about us and war." The Pentagon Papers case, which Mondale called the best example of the "government's potential for vast public deception." Henry Kissinger's secret dealings, mostly relating to the Vietnam War. (Hersh, who has written volumes about Kissinger, said that he will always believe that whereas ordinary people count sheep to fall asleep, Kissinger "has to count burned and maimed Cambodian babies.") The Church Committee investigation of CIA and FBI abuses, in which Mondale played a major role. (He talked about the fact that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, not only spied on Martin Luther King but literally tried to drive him to suicide.) The Iran Contra scandal. (Hersh said the Reagan administration came to office with a clear goal of finding a way to finance covert actions, such as the funding of the Nicaraguan Contras, without appropriations so that Congress wouldn't know about them. Mondale noted that Reagan had signed a law barring further aid to the Contras, then participated in a scheme to keep the aid flowing. Hersh said that two key veterans of Iran-Contra, Dick Cheney and national security official Elliot Abrams, were reunited in the George W. Bush White House and decided that the key lesson from Iran-Contra was that too many people in the administration knew about it.) And the Bush-Cheney years. (Said Hersh: "The contempt for Congress in the Bush-Cheney White House was extaordinary." Said Mondale of his successor, Cheney and his inner circle: "they ran a government within the government." Hersh added: "Eight or nine neoconservatives took over our country." Mondale said that the precedents of abuse of vice presidential power by Cheney would remain "like a loaded pistol that you leave on the dining room table.") Jacobs pressed both men on the question of whether the frequent abuses of power show that the Constitution fails, because these things keep happening, or whether it works, because these things keep coming to light. Mondale stuck with the happy answer. "The system has come through again and again," he said. Presidents always think they will get away with it, but eventually reporters like Hersh bring things to light, the public "starts smelling this stuff," the courts and the Congress get involved. Presidents "always, in the long run, find out that the system is stronger than they are." Hersh seemed more troubled by the repetitions of the pattern. The "beautiful thing about our system" is that eventually we get new leaders, he said. "The evil twosome, Cheney and Bush, left," Hersh said. But he also said "it's really amazing to me that we manage to get such bad leadership, so consistently." And he added that both the press and the public let down their guard in the aftermath of 9/11. "The major newspapers joined the [Bush] team," Hersh said. Top editors passed the message to investigative reporters not to "pick holes" in what Bush was doing. Violations of the Bill of Rights happened in the plain sight of the public. It it was not only tolerated, but Bush was re-elected. And even Mondale admitted that one of his greatest successes, laws reforming the FBI and CIA in the aftermath of the Church Committee, were supposed to fix the problem so that "we would never have these problems again in the lifetime of anyone alive at the time, but of course we did." -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 9684 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090312/4ce6c3da/--0003.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 23766 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090312/4ce6c3da/--0004.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 167 bytes Desc: "AVG certification" Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090312/4ce6c3da/--0005.obj From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Thu Mar 12 08:54:24 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Thu Mar 12 08:53:29 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Canada-Colombia FTA: What's Wrong with it? Panel with Columbian Sen. Robledo, Laura Carlson & Peter Julian Ottawa U Mar 24 Message-ID: <49B90600.4283.8F5F155@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> The Free trade Agreement that Canada and Colombia signed in November 2008 will soon be debated in our House of Commons. Is Canada helping or hurting human rights in Latin America, with this deal? Join us for an evening of discussion and find out..... What?s Wrong with the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement? March 24, 2009 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. University of Ottawa Desmarais Hall 3120 55 Laurier Ave. East (between Waller and Nicholas Streets) Parking South of Laurier, enter off Nicholas $8.50 parking flat rate - exact change or credit card only Featuring: Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo Castillo, 2nd Term Senator of the Republic of Colombia, (2002 - 2006 and 2006- 2010) for the Polo Democratico Alternativa, has done an exhaustive study on the impacts of free trade agreements in Colombia. Senator Robledo?s speech will be in Spanish with translation to English provided. Questions will be taken in English, French, Spanish. Commentary by: oVictor Baez Mosqueira Secretary General of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) -a view from the region. oLaura Carlsen Political analyst on US policies toward the Americas Director, Interamerican Resource Centre (based in Mexico) a view from the US. oPeter Julian Critic on International Trade, New Democratic Party of Canada Sponsored by: Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) PLACS- Program of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Carleton University School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa SK;nh*cope-225 N:\INTERNATIONAL\KATZ\2009\Documents\What's wrong with Canada-Colombia FTA flyer ENG.doc From McPogo at aol.com Thu Mar 12 17:45:37 2009 From: McPogo at aol.com (McPogo@aol.com) Date: Thu Mar 12 17:46:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Cheney supervised 'assassination ring'? Message-ID: (http://www.presstv.com/default.aspx) _http://www.presstv.com_ (http://www.presstv.com) Cheney supervised 'assassination ring'? Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:50:49 GMT Former US vice president Dick Cheney Seymour Hersh says an 'executive assassination ring' in the US military was in direct contact with the Bush administration's second-in-command. Hersh, an esteemed investigative reporter, quite unintentionally dropped the bombshell during a "Great Conversations" event at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday that centered on Nixon-style abuses of executive power by succeeding US leaders. According to Hersh, former Vice President Dick Cheney condoned and was informed about the operations carried out by the alleged covert unit, which he dubbed an "executive assassination ring." In response to a question by the event's moderator on instances of intelligence activities in grey areas of the law, like the Watergate scandal -- which encompass a range of abuses of law including campaign fraud, political espionage and improper tax audits that eventually led to the resignation of the 37th US president, Richard Nixon, -- Hersh explained two cases of active operations throughout the Bush administration. "After 9/11, [the CIA] was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state; without any legal authority for it," the legendary reporter replied. Seymour Hersh won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1970 for exposing the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. Referring to a New York Times article published on Tuesday that mentioned the Joint Special Operations Command, Hersh explained that it was yet another "special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently." "Congress has no oversight of it "It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. With an almost unlimited authority under Bush, "they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us," the Pulitzer Prize winner mused. In an emailed statement Hersh later said he had not planned to touch on his new unpublished findings, saying it would take a few years to gather the required proof and substance. ZHD/MMN -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090312/e2a6b478/attachment.html From McPogo at aol.com Thu Mar 12 17:57:40 2009 From: McPogo at aol.com (McPogo@aol.com) Date: Thu Mar 12 17:58:12 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Penny Mac? They Hardly Changed the Name? Message-ID: Penny Mac is apparently a new mortgage Company put together by a dozen or so senior executives from ruined Freddie Mac. These guys walk with their huge bonuses for a failed business giant, and now set things up so they can buy up properties for next to nothing. How much greed is enough for American "businessmen"? _http://forum.brokeroutpost.com/loans/forum/2/211032.htm_ (http://forum.brokeroutpost.com/loans/forum/2/211032.htm) Anyone see this new mortgage company Penny MAC? ITs formed by the ex-Countrywide CEO, and they want to buy bad loans and restructure them. Wonder if they will have wholesale side?? BlackRock Sponsoring New Mortgage Firm Monday March 24, 12:14 pm ET Former Countrywide Mortgage Lending Exec Heads Firm Targeting Troubled _Mortgages_ (http://forum.brokeroutpost.com/loans/forum/2/211032.htm#) LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The former president and chief operating officer of Countrywide Financial Corp. will run a new mortgage company unveiled Monday to acquire and restructure distressed mortgages. Stanford Kurland, who left Countrywide in late 2006, will head the new venture backed by investment management firms BlackRock Inc. and Highfields Capital Management. ADVERTISEMENT The new company, Private National Mortgage, also known as PennyMac, intends to help borrowers restructure loans so they can avoid foreclosure and maintain payments. Mortgage delinquency and default rates have risen rapidly since the middle of 2007, leading to a growing number of foreclosures. Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender and servicer, lost about $1.6 billion in the last six months of 2007 as higher defaults forced the lender to boost its provisions for anticipated losses. Earlier this year, Bank of America Corp. agreed to acquire Countrywide for about $4 billion in stock. Kurland will serve as chairman and chief executive officer of PennyMac. He spent nearly three decades with _Countrywide_ (http://forum.brokeroutpost.com/loans/forum/2/211032.htm#) in a number of executive positions. PennyMac will raise capital from private investors, acquire loans from financial institutions seeking to reduce their mortgage exposures, and seek to create value for both borrowers and investors through loan servicing. "We are pleased to sponsor PennyMac, a company that seeks to bring patient capital to the unprecedented distress in residential mortgages," said Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock chairman and CEO. Jonathon S. Jacobson, Highfields co-founder and senior managing director, said he expects the volume of bank-held, non-performing mortgages will grow dramatically over the next three years. "PennyMac will be extraordinarily well-positioned as both a buyer and servicer of these assets," he said. Kurland said the new company will have an advantage because it's unburdened by a legacy portfolio and has the flexibility to offer unique solutions to individual borrowers. PennyMac's loan servicing activities will be managed through a proprietary servicing operation based in Southern California. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090312/c34d3add/attachment.html From McPogo at aol.com Fri Mar 13 15:37:22 2009 From: McPogo at aol.com (McPogo@aol.com) Date: Fri Mar 13 15:36:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] DON' T LIESS das BABY-FLUSSPFERD STERBEN! - DON'T LET The BABY HIPPO DIE! Message-ID: Es war mit gro?er Bedr?ngnis, dass wir den Weltnachrichtenartikel auf dem m?glichen Schicksal eines neuen Babyflu?pferds an Ihrem Zoo lasen! Wenn die Tierart von den un?berlegten Menschen zerst?rt ist, um den Planeten sollte der un?berlegte Personal an Ihrem Zoo, die verantwortlich sind, gefeuert werden! Wenn dieses Flusspferd euthanized, dann verspreche ich, jeder, das ich in Ontario, wei? Kanada zu erkl?ren ?ber dieses Verbrechen und stelle sicher, dass sie nie Ihre Stadt oder umgebenden Anziehungskr?fte besuchen! Es ist die Verantwortlichkeit Ihrer Regierungsbeamten und die Zoobeamten, zum oben smarten und eines wechselnden Hauses f?r dieses Flusspferd zu finden, das sie so unvorsichtig begriffen werden durften und getragen worden an solch einem Zoo, klingt er eher wie ein Ausrottunglager - diese Methode scheint, zu Ihrer Kultur leicht zu kommen! Ich habe auch das USA und Schweizer die Welttier-Kapital ?ber diesen Gr?uel au?erdem gemeldet! "It was with great distress that we read the world news article on the possible fate of a new baby hippo at your zoo! With animal species being destroyed by thoughtless humans around the planet the thoughtless staff at your zoo who are in charge should be fired! If that hippo is euthanized, then I promise to tell everyone I know in Ontario, Canada about this outrage and make sure they never visit your town or surrounding attractions! It is the responsibility of your government officials and zoo officials to smarten up and find an alternate home for this hippo they so carelessly allowed to be conceived and born at such a zoo, it sounds more like an extermination camp - that method seems to come easily to your culture! I have also notified the U.S.A. and Swiss World Wildlife Funds about this abomination as well!" Mr & Mrs. Paul McLean 1303 Third Avenue East Owen Sound, Ontario N4K 2L8 CANADA AOL WORLD NEWS Baby Hippo Unlikely to Be Fed to Big Cats Source: CBC News Posted: 03/13/09 3:58PM Filed Under: _Weird News_ (http://news.aol.ca/weird-news) The lions and tigers at the Basel Zoo in Switzerland may be licking their chops, but they probably won't get to sink their teeth into baby hippopotamus flesh, zoo officials said Friday. Photo Gallery AP Photo/Keystone, Andreas Frossard, File Animals in the News In this Nov. 12, 2008 file photo Hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius) baby Farasi, born on Nov. 6, 2008, is seen in its enclosure along with mother Helvetia in the zoo in Basel, Switzerland. A Swiss zoo on Friday March 13 2009 rejected fears that a baby hippopotamus could be put down and fed to the tigers because of lack of space. Basel Zoo said hippo Farasi, which was born in November and has since become one of its star attractions, will stay in the zoo until a place is found for him elsewhere. (javascript:void(0);) Officials at the zoo denied media reports on Friday that they were preparing to euthanize a baby hippo, Farasi, and throw his 100 kilogram carcass to the big cats. "There are rare cases in which we have to kill an animal" and feed it to carnivores, zoo spokeswoman Tanja Dietrich told the Associated Press on Friday. But it's unlikely to become an option for Farasi, Dietrich said, and will only be used after "all else has failed." The hippo, which was born in November, has become a celebrity in Switzerland and was voted "Swiss of the Year" for 2008 in the local media. But not long after Farasi's birth, Dietrich was quoted saying there was a lack of space at the zoo and that the institution policy is to euthanize surplus animals or put them into predators' cages as food. "If we don't find a good place, he might be killed and eaten by other animals in the zoo," Dietrich was quoted as saying by English-language news service Swissinfo in late November. European zoos do not regulate their animals' reproduction in the same way as most North American zoos. In Europe, zoo officials prefer to let animals reproduce as they would in the wild rather than sterilizing them or using birth control, Dietrich said. The policy can lead to a surplus of animals at Europe's 4,000 zoos, requiring many facilities to find space elsewhere or ultimately euthanize the animals. 'Crazy to throw away the meat' "Animals die in nature," Gerald Dick, director of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums told the Wall Street Journal. Dick said it would "be crazy to throw away the meat" if an animal in captivity had to die. Dietrich said no decision about Farasi's future will be made until he is weaned from his mother in about 10 months. But after that, the zoo will not be big enough to house three hippos, two of which would be males. Two male hippos are rarely kept together in the same zoo because they try to dominate the herd, even in a small space with limited breeding opportunities. Farasi has been placed on a surplus animal list for other European zoos to consider. "We're confident we'll find a place for him," Dietrich said. Of the seven previous offspring from Farasi's mother, Helvetia, six have been given to other zoos due to a lack of space and to avoid inbreeding, she said. But about 18,500 zoo animals are added to the European list annually, according to the British animal rights group, Captive Animals Protection Society. Basel Zoo has previously stated it is only willing to send Farasi to another zoological facility. The national circus, Circus Royal, has offered to take the hippo rather than let it be put down. Animal rights groups have also called on the zoo to send the baby hippo to a reserve in Africa. Critics of the public outcry about Farasi note that animals are regularly killed at European zoos and rarely result in the kind of attention being given to the baby hippo. With files from the Associated Press -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090313/4ed8a6ff/attachment.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Sat Mar 14 05:36:37 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sat Mar 14 05:39:26 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] DON' T LIESS das BABY-FLUSSPFERD STERBEN! - DON'T LET The Message-ID: Now get a grip! Didn't you see that your own article says that the zoo will place the Hippo in another zoo and NOT kill it. > If that hippo is euthanized, then I promise > to tell everyone I know in Ontario, Canada about this outrage and make > sure they never visit your town or surrounding attractions! It is the > responsibility of your government officials During the last 3 years, Canada killed over a million baby seals in very barbaric ways (skinning them alive and letting them die over an hour in their blood) for a fistful of dollars, not giving a damn about worldwide protests, nor even about their own (paper-tiger) "laws" on "humane" culling (an oxymoron to begin with). So you have to boycott every Canadian product, service and place -- pretty difficult living in Canada... How hypocritical can you get? > it sounds more like an extermination camp - that method > seems to come easily to your culture! Can you provide a list of Swiss extermination camps please? Or just shut up with your BS, before making an ass of yourself. > I have also notified the U.S.A. Yeah right, this shining example of humane behavior... Make sure they bomb Switzerland back to the stone age for a hoax about baby Hippo... "They threw Hippo's incubator to the floor!" Sounds like another "skoll the troll" has made it to Mai-Not... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Sat Mar 14 06:53:05 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Sat Mar 14 06:52:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Obama Readiness to Militarize Drugwar-Amy Goodman M13 + 4 related items re SPP context Message-ID: <49BB8C91.10652.12D35C7A@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Recent Amy goodman Interview and some related references on the Merida Iniatiative and militarization of the drug war and its context in the SPP and deep integration. fyi-janet ============================ INDEX: [1] Interview Excerpt from Amy Goodman GOODMAN Obama Signals Readiness to Further Militarize Drug War with Potential Deployment of National Guard to Mexico Border Democracy Now The War and Peace Report March 13, 2009 Excerpt on the NAFTA connection [2] A Primer on Plan Mexico "Merida Initiative" H.R. 6028 globalexchange.org [3] The "Merida Initiative" Signed into Law Will Lead to the Militarization of Mexico and U.S.-Mexico Relations A Primer on Plan Mexico by Laura Carlsen | May 5, 2008 Updated July 10, 2008 Exceprt the NAFTA Connection [4] Quote from John Foster's Beyond NAFTA: The Security and Prosperity Partnership [post Montebello] [5] Drug War Doublespeak Laura Carlsen | March 9, 2009 ============= [1] Any goodman Interview: Obama Signals Readiness to Further Militarize Drug War with Potential Deployment of National Guard to Mexico Border Democracy Now The War and Peace Report March 13, 2009 http://i3.democracynow.org/2009/3/13/obama_signals_readiness_to_furthe r_militarize SUMMARY: President Obama is considering deploying National Guard troops along the border with Mexico in response to the escalating drug war. More than 7,000 people have been killed in Mexico in drug-related violence in the last year. Much of the drug-related violence in Mexico has been fueled by the ability of drug cartels to purchase AK-47 assault rifles and other arms in the United States. We host a roundtable discussion with Laura Carlsen of the Center for International Policy, NYU professor and author Greg Grandin, and Paul Helmke of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. [includes rush transcript] GUESTS: Laura Carlsen, director of the Mexico City-based Americas Policy Program of the Center for International Policy. Her latest article is called "Drug War Doublespeak." [See references below] Greg Grandin, professor of Latin American history at NYU and author of Empire?s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism. His forthcoming book is Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford?s Forgotten Jungle City. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. EXCERPT on NAFTA and neoliberal link with drug wars etc. AMY GOODMAN: Greg Grandin is also with this, a professor of Latin American history at New York University, NYU, here in New York, just down the road. Can you put the policy of the US with Mexico in context, overall, in Latin America right now? GREG GRANDIN: Well, the logic context is two things. One is the rise of the left throughout most of South America, in which the US has lost influence in what used to be called its backyard. But it also-and the reason for the rise of the left is the second part of the context, and that?s the absolute failure of economic policies, starting with NAFTA and even before, what?s generally known as neoliberalism or the Washington Consensus. All the drug war is is a crystallization, in a lot of ways, of all of the pressures brought to bear on the Mexican state by privatization, by deregulation, through the opening of the economy. In some ways, you see a direct relationship between the recession of the state, particularly in northern Mexico, and the vacuum created, which is filled by the cartels. Society, no less than nature, abhors a vacuum. And in many ways, the cartels have functioned as the state, and they tax businesses, they create infrastructure, they provide jobs. The money raised-the money, the profits by narcotics industry in Mexico, billions of dollars-some estimates are $30 billion a year-are injected into Mexican banks. They keep Mexican banks afloat. So, in many ways, what you?re seeing here with the drug wars in Mexico is a death match between different sectors of elites trying to assume state powers. And when Felipe Calderon took power and came to office in 2006, he declared a war on drugs, and he sent troops into Juarez and other cities in the north, and that?s what kicked off this cycle of violence. It?s nowhere close to being a failed state. That is hysteria. I think that?s right. But there is a serious crisis in Mexico. And the larger conflict-context, of course, is that a hundred years ago-we?re coming up on the hundredth anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, and so I guess what?s called a failed state now, back then, was called a revolution. So I think Mexicans are acutely aware that. JUAN GONZALEZ: And Greg, you mentioned when Felipe Calderon came to office. Obviously, we tend to forget that he was elected in perhaps the most controversial election in Mexican history, a very, very close margin against a leftist candidate, Lopez Obrador. Is there some concern that this increase in militarization, both within Mexico and now possibly from the United States side of the border, will have some impact on the continuing political dynamic within Mexico? GREG GRANDIN: Oh, I think there?s a clear concern that the Mexican state, the promise of democratization that happened with the election of PAN and Vicente Fox two cycles back has not been delivered, that there?s-that both main political-that all three main political parties, the PAN, the PRI and the PRD, are losing its ability to channel dissent and protest and popular aspirations through the political process. And you see the growth of social movements and protest, not just in Chiapas, of course, with the Zapatistas, but we saw Oaxaca, saw the crisis in Oaxaca. And we saw a lot of the rhetoric of the war on drugs and the war on terror being used to repress dissent in Oaxaca. And in Chihuahua, people protesting the privatization of water and other natural resources have been locked up and have been physically repressed under the aegis of the war on terror and the war on drugs. So you?re seeing a kind of synergy of all of these different crises coming together in Mexico. SEE ALSO ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [2] http://www.globalexchange.org/countr...xico/5666.html The Bush Administration Has Put Its Proposal to Militarize Mexico into the Upcoming Iraq Supplemental Bill A Primer on Plan Mexico "Merida Initiative" H.R. 6028 On Oct. 22, 2007 President Bush announced the $1.4 billion dollar "Merida Initiative," security aid package to Mexico and Central America. The initiative has fatal flaws in its strategy; instead of leading to a stable binational relationship and peaceful border communities, its military approach will escalate drug-related violence and human rights abuses. What is Plan Mexico? Plan Mexico, or the Merida Initiative, was presented after months of anticipation and hermetic negotiations as a three-year, $1.4 billion "Regional Security Cooperation Initiative." Members of the U.S. Congress immediately complained that the Bush administration provided no information to congressional committee members until the deal was done. Under the rubric of "Counter Narcotics, Counter Terrorism, and Border Security" the initiative would allocate $205.5 million for the Mexican Armed Forces. Over 40% of the entire packet goes to defense companies for the purchase of eight Bell helicopters (at $13 million each, with training, maintenance, and special equipment) for the Mexican Army and two CASA 235 maritime patrol planes (at $50 million each, with maintenance) for the country's Navy. Most of the $132.5 million allocated to Mexican law enforcement agencies also lines the pockets of defense companies for purchase of surveillance, inspection, and security equipment, and training. The Mexican Federal Police Force receives most of this funding, with Customs, Immigration, and Communications receiving the remainder. The rest of the 2008 appropriations request is comprised of $112 million in the "Rule of Law" category for the Mexican Attorney General's Office and the criminal justice system. This money is earmarked for software and training in case-tracking and centralizing data. The initiative would also give $12.9 million to the infamous Mexican Intelligence Service (CISEN) for investigations, forensics equipment, counterterrorism work, and to other agencies including the Migration Institute for establishment of a database on immigrants. The U.S. government allots $37 million of the packet to itself for administrative costs. The "Merida Initiative" received its name from a meeting between Presidents Bush and Calderon in Merida, on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, in March 2007. The official story is that President Calderon, already committed to a "war on drugs" that relies heavily on the use of the army in supply interdiction, requested U.S. assistance at the Merida meeting and, after negotiations on the details, the U.S. government acceded. This bill passed in the House of Representatives http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6028 Jun 10, 2008: This bill passed in the House of Representatives by roll call vote. The vote was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short and pass the bill, needing a two-thirds majority. The totals were 311 Ayes, 106 Nays, 16 Present/Not Voting. __________________ H.R. 6028: 110th CongressThis is a bill in the U.S. Congress originating in the House of Representatives ("H.R."). A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate and then be signed by the President before it becomes law. Bill numbers restart from 1 every two years. Each two-year cycle is called a session of Congress. This bill was created in the 110th Congress, in 2007-2008. The titles of bills are written by the bill's sponsor and are a part of the legislation itself. GovTrack does not editorialize bill summaries. 2007-2008 Merida Initiative to Combat Illicit Narcotics and Reduce Organized Crime Authorization Act of 2008 To authorize law enforcement and security assistance, and assistance to enhance the rule of law and strengthen civilian institutions, for Mexico and the countries of Central America, and for other purposes. <><><><><><> 3] The "Merida Initiative" Signed into Law Will Lead to the Militarization of Mexico and U.S.-Mexico Relations A Primer on Plan Mexico Laura Carlsen | May 5, 2008 Updated July 10, 2008 EXCERPT The NAFTA Connection The "Merida Initiative" received its name from a meeting between Presidents Bush and Calderon in Merida, on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, in March 2007. The official story is that President Calderon, already committed to a "war on drugs" that relies heavily on the use of the army in supply interdiction, requested U.S. assistance at the Merida meeting and, after negotiations on the details, the U.S. government acceded. With the emphasis on counter-narcotics efforts, in the lead-up to the October announcement of the package, both governments marshaled studies and statistics to support the contradictory thesis that drug- trafficking and related violence in Mexico had reached a crisis point, and that Calderon's offensive against the drug cartels was working. This is not the real story of the plan's origins. The Bush administration's concept of a joint security strategy for North America goes back at least as far as the creation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) as an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).4 When the three North American leaders met in Waco, Texas in March of 2005, they put into motion a secretive process of negotiations between members of the executive branches and representatives of large corporations to facilitate cross-border business and create a shared security perimeter. Subsequent meetings, including the April 2008 trilateral summit in New Orleans, extended these goals amid mounting criticism.5 Through the SPP, the Bush administration has sought to push its North American trade partners into a common front that would assume shared responsibility for protecting the United States from terrorist threats, promoting and protecting the free-trade economic model, and bolstering U.S. global control, especially in Latin America where the State Department sees a growing threat due to the election of center- left governments. While international cooperation to confront terrorism is a laudable and necessary aim, the Bush national security strategy6 entails serious violations of national sovereignty for its partner countries, increased risk of being targeted as U.S. military allies, and threats to civil liberties for citizens in all three countries. Moreover the counterterrorism model, exemplified by the invasion of Iraq, has by all accounts created a rise in instability and terrorist activity worldwide. Extending the concept of North American economic integration into national security matters through the closed-door SPP raises grave questions about how security is defined and who does the defining. Thomas Shannon, sub-secretary of Western Hemisphere affairs for the State Department put it bluntly in a speech on April 8, saying that the SPP "understands North America as a shared economic space and that as a shared economic space we need to protect it, and that we need to understand that we don't protect this economic space only at our frontiers, that it has to be protected more broadly throughout North America. And as we have worked through the Security and Prosperity Partnership to improve our commercial and trading relationship, we have also worked to improve our security cooperation. To a certain extent, we're armoring NAFTA."7 The SPP effort seeks to lock in policies that do not have consensus and have not been debated among the public and within Congress. Citizen groups in all three countries have called for a halt to SPP talks due to the lack of labor, environmental, and civilian representation, and transparency to the public. On the security front, the Bush administration's concept of military-based rather than diplomacy- and social policy-based security is strongly questioned in the United States and outright rejected among the vast majority of Mexicans and Canadians. In this context, instead of reviewing policies and opening them up to public debate, the Bush administration has launched its boldest advance yet within the SPP context-Plan Mexico. Speculation was that the plan would be announced at the Montebello SPP meeting in August of 2007, but perhaps because of the presence of SPP protestors at that meeting President Bush delayed the official unveiling of the "Merida Initiative" several months. However, the last two SPP meetings have included discussions of Plan Mexico and the State Department has been clear about its crucial role within the overall SPP economic and security framework. It is important to understand the roots of Plan Mexico in the Bush administration's deep integration agenda. The plan implies much more than a temporary aid program for fighting drug cartels. It structurally revamps the basis of the binational relationship in ways meant to permanently emphasize military aspects over much-needed development aid and modifications in trade and investment policy. The scope of the Regional Security Cooperation Initiative demonstrates that it goes far beyond a joint war on drugs and cements into place failed policies on immigration enforcement, militarization of the border, economic integration policies, counterterrorism attacks on civil liberties, and the intromission of security forces into social policy and international diplomacy. To do this, the outgoing Bush administration has relied on the support of two economically dependent allies to try to assure that its policies will be irreversible under a Democratic presidency in the United States.8 <><><><><><><><><> 4] Quote from John Foster's Beyond NAFTA: The Security and Prosperity Partnership [ p7] http://www.canadians.org/DI/documents/NAFTA_SPP_Foster.pdf DEBATE IN MEXICO While debate in the USA focuses on job losses, border security and immigration, debate in Mexico has different dimensions. Mexican commentators noted that while press coverage of the 2007 trinational summit was limited in the USA, it was extensive in Mexico. Perhaps the most profound difference in attitude is the point of view articulated by former diplomat Gustavo Iruegas. His emphasis has been principally on the security dimensions of the pact and implications for the historic orientation of Mexican foreign and security policy. Speaking in Ottawa on the eve of the Montebello meeting, he stated simply `Mexico has no enemies?. To become entangled in theSPP implicates Mexico as an enemy of US enemies, something which he believed Mexico was best advised to avoid. Further, the SPP has already led to increased militarization of the Mexican state and society. While it has a negative effect on Mexico?s freedom of action internationally, the pact also has implications domestically, in terms of US intervention in Mexico?s internal affairs, by what Iruegas terms `Plan Mexico?, a northern equivalent of the US anti-narco-trafficking `Plan Colombia?.18 Analyst Miguel Picard of the Centro de Investigaciones Econo?micas y Politicas de Accio?n Communitaria agrees with Iruegas that the SPP opens Mexico to greater US intervention, and makes both Canadian and Mexican borders potentially open to incursions by the US armed forces when there is a perceived terrorist threat. <><><><><><> [5] Drug War Doublespeak by Laura Carlsen | March 9, 2009 Americas Program Column http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5935 Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) americas.irc- online.org Through late February and early March, a blitzkrieg of declarations from U.S. government and military officials and pundits hit the media, claiming that Mexico was alternately at risk of being a failed state, on the verge of civil war, losing control of its territory, and posing a threat to U.S. national security. In the same breath, we're told that President Calderon with the aid of the U.S. government is winning the war on drugs, significantly weakening organized crime, and restoring order and legality. None of these claims is true. Instead they are critical elements in waging the hypocritical drug war in Mexico. Drug-war doublespeak pervades and defines the U.S.-Mexico relationship today. The discourse aims not to win the war on drugs, but to assure funding and public support for the military model of combating illegal drug trafficking, despite the losses and overwhelming evidence that current strategies are not working. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: WPM$5487.PM$ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 19442 bytes Desc: Mail message body Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090314/e109a76e/WPM5487-0001.obj From duanebehrens at cox.net Sat Mar 14 06:55:02 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Sat Mar 14 07:17:32 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Downsize Defense Budget Message-ID: <20090314095502.Y2TSJ.126229.imail@fed1rmwml44> Hey Obama, Downsize This: 25% Slash for Defense Spending Needed Now By Maya Schenwar, TruthOut.org. Posted March 2, 2009. With so many social programs desperately in need of better funding, progressive leaders are making a push to go after Pentagon budgets. As President Obama released his budget outline for fiscal year 2010 on Thursday, recommending about $664 billion in defense funding, a determined group of progressive Congress members and activists pushed for a marked change in the way the US spends those dollars. Led by Rep. Barney Frank, the group advocates a 25 percent cut in military spending, to be accomplished by eliminating wasteful and obsolete programs, reducing active nuclear warheads and withdrawing from Iraq in an efficient and timely manner. The Obama administration's budget allocates $534 billion in general defense funds for fiscal year (FY) 2010: an inflation-adjusted increase of about 2.1 percent over the amount appropriated by Congress last year, according to an analysis by Travis Sharp at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation. It's a smaller increase than previous years have seen, according to Sharp, but nevertheless continues the trend of a swelling defense budget. An additional $130 billion is requested for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama's budget outline excludes funding for nuclear weapons and non- Defense Department military costs which, according to Sharp's analysis, totaled around $23 billion for FY 2009. Military spending has more than doubled in the past eight years; it now tops $700 billion and sucks up about 40 percent of US tax dollars. According to Frank, bloated defense funding is crowding out domestic priorities. "The logic is irrefutable," Frank said at a forum on Wednesday, where he discussed his proposal to chop off a quarter of the defense budget. "If we are not able to get military spending under control, if we are not able to break the trend that's now there, we will not be able to respond to important domestic needs." Frank was joined by Congress members Barbara Lee, Keith Ellison, Dennis Kucinich and Lynn Woolsey at Wednesday's meeting. Lee emphasized the benefits of reducing military spending, including more money for education, health care and homeland security. She also pointed to some obvious targets to slash: stale Cold War-era programs that somehow never made it to the chopping block. "It has been eighteen years since the collapse of the Soviet Union," Lee said in a statement. "I find it mind-boggling and inexcusable that nearly two decades later, the Pentagon continues to waste tens of billions of dollars buying outdated, Cold War-era weaponry for a national security threat that no longer exists." The flood of dollars toward obsolete systems is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cutting weapons purchases, according to Craig Jennings, federal fiscal policy analyst with the nonprofit OMB Watch. Substantially reducing the Pentagon budget will necessitate a meaty cost-benefit analysis, discarding appropriations that just aren't worth it. "Congress needs to ask the critical question, 'Are defense expenditures meeting the needs of the nation?'" Jennings told Truthout. "In other words, does the F-22 make us so much safer from present-day threats like al-Qaeda that it's worth expending tens of billions of dollars on? Do we really need $4 billion stealth naval destroyers? What is more ultimately harmful to the health of the nation: 46 million people without health insurance or the threat of intercontinental ballistic missile launches from North Korea? These are questions that Congress - Democratic and Republican - have consistently failed to pose. While Frank's specific plan may not be the right solution, the very fact that he's broaching the taboo subject of substantial cuts to military spending is very encouraging." Just trimming the fat - cutting obsolete programs, reducing nuclear arsenals and eliminating wasteful spending - would save more than $60 billion, according to Erik Leaver, policy outreach director for Foreign Policy in Focus. Also, withdrawing from Iraq could substantially reduce the defense budget. Obama has said that the withdrawal will help to curb the deficit, and despite a troop build-up in Afghanistan, he's probably right, according to Jennings, who estimates that the number of troops in Afghanistan will be about one third of the number currently in Iraq. However, withdrawal has its costs, too. Procurement and maintenance costs for equipment will continue as long as some troops remain in Iraq, and transporting soldiers and equipment home will add to the tab, according to Leaver. He also notes that the transportation of supplies is more expensive in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Moreover, any plan to reduce the defense budget must take into account President Obama's plans to expand the Army and Marines by nearly 100,000 troops. Growing the military not only increases short- term spending, but it racks up long-term veteran-related costs. According to Leaver, an enlarged military creates a "hidden cost" as well. "With a larger-sized military, President Obama or other future presidents may be tempted to use them more liberally in combat missions," Leaver told Truthout. "As we've seen with Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, what seems like a 'cakewalk' often turns into a military and fiscal disaster." Thus, Representative Frank and his colleagues are suggesting a fundamentally different direction: a reconceptualization of the Defense Department as a smaller, more limited enterprise. The transformation won't happen overnight, but it is far from doomed, according to Sharp. "While I think it is pretty unlikely that Frank's proposal will go anywhere this year, Frank himself has said that he wants this to be a long-term project, not a one-time effort," Sharp told Truthout. Changes in the defense-budgeting process may pave the way for reductions - or at least bring more scrutiny to skyrocketing military expenditures, according to Sharp. Departing from the Bush administration's general strategy of submitting supplemental spending bills throughout the year to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama budget requests the whole year's funding up front, though it remains in supplemental form, separate from the general budget. The Bush administration tended to request war funds in partial-year segments, obscuring the full cost of the war. The Obama administration has said that in future years, it will dispense with supplementals for war funding, forcing policymakers to weigh it alongside other priorities in the general budget. Experts commend the switch, calling it a boon for transparency. "This may seem like a small change, but it is an enormous improvement over the Bush administration, which insisted until the bitter end that it could not present its war budget at the beginning of the year even though it was required by law," Sharp told Truthout. "If war supplementals are submitted at the beginning of the year and eventually phased out, it will improve congressional oversight and allow policymakers to perform better long-term planning. It also will present a clearer picture to the American public of what the country spends in Iraq and Afghanistan." Revealing the true cost of Iraq and Afghanistan would not only bring home the amount of money the "war on terror" is costing taxpayers. Squeezing defense money through the same funnel as comparably meager domestic allocations could potentially force a reassessment of America's priorities. However, even that hard comparison might not have enough oomph to knock Congress out of defense-budget overdrive. "When it comes to military spending, Congress tends to treat those expenditures as 'free money,' in that they are not in direct competition with other, non-defense program spending," Jennings said. Thus, according to Rep. Frank, the cost-benefit analysis needs to be spelled out not only for Congress but for the American people. "If we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy," Frank wrote in an op- ed in The Nation earlier this month. "I do not think it will be hard to make it clear to Americans that their well-being is far more endangered by a proposal for substantial reductions in Medicare, Social Security or other important domestic areas than it would be by canceling weapons systems that have no justification from any threat we are likely to face." Signs may bode well for a serious consideration of Frank's proposal. The fact that the American people elected a president who objected to the invasion of Iraq, coupled with an economic crisis that sheds disapproving light on any wasteful spending, could fuel a new push to reexamine military excess. The Obama administration's moves toward defense-budget transparency could open new eyes to that budget's immensity. Plus, the very presence of an open discussion of the military budget's size is a positive signal, according to Sharp. "One notable thing about Frank's plan is that it represents a return to public debate about recalibrating and reducing defense spending," Sharp said. "It was politically taboo to discuss reducing or rearranging Pentagon spending requests in the years after September 11. Any member of Congress who dared to publicly question larger defense budgets risked being called unpatriotic, 'soft' on terrorism, or worse. Now, seven years later, it seems things slowly are returning to normal." See more stories tagged with: obama, defense spending Maya Schenwar is a Chicago-based freelance writer and an editor for Publications International.============= From papadop at peak.org Sat Mar 14 13:19:46 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Sat Mar 14 13:21:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] How to Discourage the Speaking of Truth to Power Message-ID: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4754 FOREIGN POLICY --- March 2009 How to Discourage the Speaking of Truth to Power By Paul R. Pillar *Paul R. Pillar is a 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency and a visiting professor at Georgetown University. The damage done by the Chas Freeman saga. The aborted appointment of Charles "Chas" Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council inflicts multiple costs on the U.S. national interest, some of which Freeman enumerated in characteristically lucid fashion in his withdrawal statement (reproduced at The Cable). The affair demonstrates anew the strength of the taboo against open and candid discussion in the United States of policy involving Israel. It thus perpetuates damage from U.S. policies in the Middle East formed without benefit of such discussion. It also perpetuates damage to the ultimate interests of Israel itself, where, ironically, no comparable taboo prevails. Not least, the Freeman matter demonstrates the power of calumny and misrepresentation to kill something as desirable as the appointment of an experienced and insightful public servant. Less immediately apparent but also serious is the damage to objectivity and professionalism in the U.S. intelligence community. Intelligence officers can see through the smoke screens thrown up by Freeman's attackers, involving Saudi donations or out-of-context comments about China, and perceive the affair as exactly what it is: the enforcement of political orthodoxy about U.S. policy toward Israel. (If any intelligence officers could not perceive this, they would be abysmally poor analysts.) The message to intelligence officers is clear: Their work will be acceptable only if it conforms to dominant policy views. This standard is exactly the opposite of what a professional and impartial intelligence service should provide. The application of this or any other litmus test regarding policy views to the filling of an intelligence position is contrary to the very nature of intelligence, which does not make policy. It is contrary to the concept that good intelligence officers are bright, perceptive, creative, and committed people -- and thus are bound to have their own views on policy, including foreign policy -- but do not let those personal views intrude into the performance of their jobs. That concept applies both to career intelligence officers and to anyone appointed to senior positions from the outside, a la Freeman. (The difference is that those from the outside have had earlier opportunities to express their policy views in public.) Americans place heavy expectations on their intelligence officers to save them from the follies of their elected leaders, and from the public's own delusions or inattention. Those expectations became enormous in recent years because of the Iraq war, which the Bush administration had sold to the public through an assiduous campaign that involved the twisting and selective exploitation of intelligence. As the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 and 2005, I saw firsthand how the intelligence community was expected to make judgments that others would use as a politically convenient substitute for making their own judgments about policy, to articulate details about those judgments that others did not make time to absorb, to resist the excesses of a propagandizing administration that others did not resist, to convey politically inconvenient truths to the public while others who were much better positioned to speak publicly did not convey them, to force water down the throat of a policymaking horse that not only did not want to drink but did not even want to be led to the water, and to call the horse to account while it was stomping on the intelligence community's chest with its hooves. A fundamental impediment to the intelligence community's meeting such expectations is that it is as much a part of the executive branch, commanded by the president, as those who make policy. It is extremely difficult to try to perform the sort of miracle work that those who have soured on the Iraq war have come to expect from intelligence officers without becoming vulnerable to the charge -- which we also heard repeatedly in recent years from proponents of the war -- that officers who begin to sound out of step with the administration's message are pursuing their own policy agenda. This is why there is a long history in the United States of intelligence bending to policy imperatives, even in environments less intense than the one the Bush administration created regarding Iraq. The intelligence community needs all the encouragement it can get -- not just retrospective recriminations -- to exercise any independence at all. The Freeman affair gives it the opposite of such encouragement. If even a former ambassador, speaking out as a private citizen, has crossed a line rendering him ineligible for service in the intelligence community, the lines constraining those already within the intelligence bureaucracy are several times more confining. And the confining has to do not just with public statements but with privately rendered judgments. The main impact of this affair on intelligence work is not likely to involve the Arab-Israeli dispute, even though it is what concerns those who shot down Freeman. The most important facts and patterns about that tragic conflict are an open book; we don't need the National Intelligence Council to tell us the implications of continued expansion of Israeli settlements, the consequences of rockets fired at Israelis, or the effects of unending occupation on the emotions of those under occupation. The main effects will instead come, perhaps subtly and invisibly, with other issues on which a dominant policy imperative emerges -- such as the Iraq war, though not necessarily with as intense an environment as what the Bush administration created to sell that initiative. The effects will consist of intelligence officers being at least marginally less willing than they otherwise would be to challenge the ethos surrounding the policy and to point out ways in which the policy might be misguided. Some such policies will be misguided, will come a cropper, and will lead to the usual recriminations about how intelligence failed. When that happens, those in Congress and elsewhere who acquiesced in the character assassination of Chas Freeman -- or even worse, participated in it -- should ponder two things about intelligence. First, they should ask how they could expect intelligence officers to show superlative courage in bucking political orthodoxy when they showed so little themselves. Second, they should reflect on how their own pusillanimity in the face of the lobby that gunned down Freeman has made it even less likely that intelligence officers will be able to muster such courage in the future. From dale_young at telus.net Sat Mar 14 14:24:23 2009 From: dale_young at telus.net (Dale Young) Date: Sat Mar 14 14:26:55 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Ed Deak home Message-ID: <49BC2087.8060503@telus.net> Hi all, Just a note to let you know that Ed Deak is home from hospital, is back at his computer, and promises to "be back in my full obnoxious self in a few days"! Cheers, Dale From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Sun Mar 15 10:16:17 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Sun Mar 15 10:15:00 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] PM lets fly on Liberals, Obama in closed speech Message-ID: <49BD0DB1.7351.18B3BFD4@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> In a speech meant for sympathetic ears only, Prime Minister Stephen Harper blamed Canada's economic woes on "unconservative" U.S. consumers, chided President Barack Obama's economic policies and complained the courts and government are full of liberals. Speaking to a crowd of conservatives, Harper warned that liberals are lurking everywhere, and that the Liberal party can't be trusted to run Canada again. Harper said only true conservatism could turn the economy around, and pointed to the U.S. as having abandoned those values. fyi-janet http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/602320 PM lets fly on Liberals, Obama in closed speech Mar 14, 2009 04:30 AM Richard J. Brennan OTTAWA BUREAU Toronto Star OTTAWA - In a speech meant for sympathetic ears only, Prime Minister Stephen Harper blamed Canada's economic woes on "unconservative" U.S. consumers, chided President Barack Obama's economic policies and complained the courts and government are full of liberals. Speaking to a crowd of conservatives, Harper warned that liberals are lurking everywhere, and that the Liberal party can't be trusted to run Canada again. In public speeches since his party was nearly toppled in November, Harper has been careful not to be too critical of others, especially Obama, but Thursday he let his hair down during an address the Prime Minister's Office tried to keep from the media. A recording of it was later circulated among a number of media outlets, including the Star. In part, Harper was hoping to convince some of the diehard Tory supporters at a conference organized by the Manning Institute for Building Democracy that he hasn't lost his way, even though his government is going billions of dollars into debt to fight the recession. "Just imagine how different things would have been if the Liberal left had remained in power over the past three years ... imagine how many Liberal insiders and ideologues would now be in the Senate, the courts and countless other federal institutions and agencies. I should say how many more," he said to laughter and applause. Harper said only true conservatism could turn the economy around, and pointed to the U.S. as having abandoned those values. "We are in a global recession principally - and we have to face this - because a lot of people on Wall Street, because a lot of people in the private sector more generally -homeowners or consumers - pushed or bought into a very unconservative idea that they could live beyond their means," he said. Harper appeared critical of Obama's stimulus package, which raises taxes on earnings of more than $250,000 a year, adding that Canadians could have expected nothing less from the Liberals. "They didn't tell you the taxes they would raise - we are seeing that in the States now - but they wouldn't have brought in any tax reductions at all." ------- End of forwarded message ------- From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 16 09:18:07 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 16 09:17:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] New civil society website Rethinkingfinance.org + Belem Statement on Finance Message-ID: <49BE518F.20969.1DA4D9DB@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> This New civil society website, Rethinkingfinance.org, which includes the Bretton Woods Project, Focus on the Global South, Anne Pettifor's Detonation blog, Eurodad ie.55 NGOs from 18 European countries working on issues related to debt, development finance and poverty reduction. See also following statement from Belem inserted below particularly the policy demands which address the need for a fundamental paradigm shift in the financial system. http://www.choike.org/campaigns/camp.php?5 For a new economic and social model1 Let?s put finance in its place! Call for the signature of NGOs, trade unions and social movements Belem, February the 1st of 2009 [Also available in other languages] all the best, janet ===================================== An international group of civil society organisations has launched a new website: http://www.rethinkingfinance. org You can email suggestions, ideas, comments, and other observations to info@rethinkingfinance.org What we do The global financial and economic system is in crisis. Existing economic policies and institutions have overseen an economic system scarred by high levels of poverty and inequality, which is contributing to an environmental catastrophe. Blind faith in the virtues of markets, and inadequate public control, regulation and accountability of finance are at the heart of the financial crisis. Before the financial crisis, people across the world and in Britain were already suffering from the effects of rising food prices, inadequate essential services and the threat of climate chaos. There can be no return to business as usual. Fundamental change is needed. The question is whether the policy makers in charge are able and willing to reform the current global financial architecture in the right direction and to a sufficiently fundamental degree. So far, official reform proposals are moderate at best and the decision process lacks transparency and excludes many countries and large parts of society. Rethinking finance addresses these shortcomings. It puts forward alternative ideas and analyses, provides information about and comments on latest events, and gives an overview of civil society and other peoples' activities. Rethinking finance is a website of several international civil society organisations and individuals that contribute to its content, keeping it a place of lively debate and up to date information. Who we are Bretton Woods Project The Bretton Woods Project works is a networker, information-provider, media informant and watchdog to scrutinise and influence the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Through briefings, reports and the bimonthly digest Bretton Woods Update, it monitors projects, policy reforms and the overall management of the Bretton Woods institutions with special emphasis on environmental and social concerns. By encouraging information exchange and debate, it seeks to move the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and IMF) away from simplistic approaches to development. Read more... Casino Crash Casino Crash is an initiative of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands and the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington DC, USA. The aim of the blog is to provide a space for critical analysis of the financial crisis. TNI and IPS, made up of academic scholars from around the world, have long been warning of the dangers of the financial bubble. Read more... Debtonation Debtonation is a blog about the financial crisis written by Ann Pettifor, author and analyst of the global financial system, and co- author of the Green New Deal. She predicted an Anglo-American debt- deflationary crisis back in 2003, and is known for her work on sovereign debt and international finance, including Jubilee 2000. Currently she is a fellow of the new economics foundation and director of Advocacy International. Read more... Eurodad EURODAD (European Network on Debt and Development) is a network of 55 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 18 European countries working on issues related to debt, development finance and poverty reduction. The Eurodad network offers a great platform for exploring issues, collecting intelligence and ideas, and undertaking collective advocacy. The network has recently focussed on multilateral debt cancellation, debt sustainability, aid quality, conditionality and harmonisation, and export credit debts. Work is continuing on these issues and increased attention is being given to illegitimate debt and to tracking aid spending by the different European countries. The main institutions targeted by the Eurodad network are European governments, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Read More.. Focus on the Global South Focus on the Global South combines policy research, advocacy, activism and grassroots capacity building in order to generate critical analysis and encourage debates on national and international policies related to corporate-led globalisation, neo-liberalism and militarisation. Its overall goals are to: dismantle oppressive economic and political structures and institutions; to create liberating structures and institutions; to promote demilitarisation and peace-building, instead of conflict. These three goals are brought together in the paradigm of deglobalisation. This term describes the transformation of the global economy from one centred around the needs of transnational corporations to one that focuses on the needs of people, communities and nations and in which the capacities of local and national economies are strengthened. Read more... <><><><><><><><><><><><> http://www.choike.org/campaigns/camp.php?5 For a new economic and social model1 Let?s put finance in its place! Call for the signature of NGOs, trade unions and social movements Belem, February the 1st of 2009 The financial crisis is a systemic crisis that emerges in the context of global crises (climate, food, energy, social...) and of a new balance of power. It results from 30 years of transfer of income from labour towards capital. This tendency should be reversed. This crisis is the consequence of a capitalist system of production based on laissez-faire and fed by short term accumulation of profits by a minority, unequal redistribution of wealth, an unfair trade system, the perpetration and accumulation of irresponsible, ecological and illegitimate debt, natural resource plunder and the privatization of public services. This crisis affects the whole humanity, first of all the most vulnerable (workers, jobless, farmers, migrants, women...) and Southern countries, which are the victims of a crisis for which they are not at all responsible. The resources to get out of the crisis merely burden the public with the losses in order to save, with no real public benefit, a financial system that is at the root of the current cataclysm. Where are the resources for the populations which are the victims of the crisis? The world not only needs regulations, but also a new paradigm which puts the financial system at the service of a new international democratic system based on the satisfaction of human rights, decent work, food sovereignty, respect for the environment, cultural diversity, the social and solidarity economy and a new concept of wealth. Therefore, we demand to: [] Put a reformed and democratised United Nations at the heart of the financial system reform, as the G20 is not the legitimate forum to resolve this systemic crisis. [] Establish international permanent and binding mechanisms of control over capital flows. [] Implement an international monetary system based on a new system of reserves, including the creation of regional reserve currencies in order to end the current supremacy of the dollar and to ensure international financial stability. [] Implement a global mechanism of state and citizen control of banks and financial institutions. Financial intermediation should be recognised as a public service that is guaranteed to all citizens in the world and should be taken out of free trade agreements. [] Prohibit hedge funds and over the counter markets, where derivatives and other toxic products are exchanged without any public control. [] Eradicate speculation on commodities, first of all food and energy, by implementing public mechanisms of price stabilisation. [] Dismantle tax havens, sanction their users (individuals, companies, banks and financial intermediates) and create an international tax organisation to combat tax competition and evasion. [] Cancel unsustainable and illegitimate debt of impoverished countries and establish a system of democratic, accountable, fair sovereign borrowing and lending that serves sustainable and equitable development. [] Establish a new international system of wealth sharing by implementing a progressive tax system at the national level and by creating global taxes (on financial transactions, polluting activities and high income) to finance global public goods. We call on NGOs, trade unions and social movements to converge in order to create a citizen struggle in favour of this new model. We urge them to mobilize all over the world, in particular in the face of the G20, from March 28th onwards. ATTENTION: This call will be submitted to G20 finance ministers ahead of their meetings 13 and 14 March. We invite organisations to sign on before the 2 March in order to be included in the submitted list of signatories. >>> See over 550 signatories Call Financial Crisis WSF 2009 (.pdf) 1 This call is the result of a series of seminars at the World Social Forum 2009 in Belem, which involved among others : Action Aid, Attac, BankTrack, CADTM, CCFD, CEDLA, CNCD, CRID, Eurodad, Global alternatives Forum, IBON, International WG on Trade-Finance Linkages, LATINDADD, Networkers South-North, NIGD, SOMO, Tax Justice Network, Transform!, OWINFS, War on Want, World Council of Churches. From creuss at bluewin.ch Mon Mar 16 15:03:45 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Mon Mar 16 15:06:38 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] DON' T LIESS das BABY-FLUSSPFERD STERBEN! - DON'T LET The ... Message-ID: What's this zio-racist doing on Mai-Not, anyway? He'll wage an all-out boycott for 1 hippo, but not for millions of baby seals. How I love those double standards... Chris McPogo@aol.com wrote: > > Screw you! > > I have fought against the seal slaughter for years as well. What have you > done except shoot your shitty mouth off about a real issue. It's easy for >a zoo > to say they will "place" the animal somewhere else but obviously someone in > the know felt there was enough risk of the other outcome to notify the >media. > If I wrong, then no harm done, but if I was right then at least I tried >to do > something. What about you...f-face? > As for euthanasia and camps get my drift, some well placed Swiss were in > bed with many Nazis of that time, take a history lesson! > > Get a life! From radred at ix.netcom.com Wed Mar 18 15:32:22 2009 From: radred at ix.netcom.com (Carol) Date: Wed Mar 18 15:33:03 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] LISTEN UP! Audio: Regulating Wireless Radiation Message-ID: <33239814.1237415542794.JavaMail.root@elwamui-lapwing.atl.sa.earthlink.net> This week's program from the estimable and invaluable "Your Own Health and Fitness," broadcast on KPFA yesterday (3/17/09). You can listen to it until Tuesday 3/24 before the next program, which airs at 1 pm EST, 4 pm PST. Regulating Wireless Radiation: Environmental consultant Cindy Sage of Sage EMF Design, lead author with David Carpenter of the Bioinitiative Report, discusses how Europe is responding to the current science about the dangers associated with microwave, wireless, and cellphone radiation. Resources: [go to the website for all the live links] Bioinitiative Report at www.bioinitiative.org; Collaborative on Health and the Environment EMF Working Group at www.healthandenvironment.org/ working_groups/emf; Resources on radiation and resources on health politics. Also on the website: actions [links on website] to take to prevent Obama's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program from hinging on wireless technology (sign a letter to Obama, submit comments by April 13, and/or participate in an online public forum. And more... From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Wed Mar 18 23:36:20 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Thu Mar 19 00:04:41 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Pakistan, Malaysia, IMF, Arabic, Bolivia, The Sixties, Cars & jobs & environment, Karl Marx, China, Guadeloupe victory Message-ID: <49C1E7E4.2080208@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Pakistan, Malaysia, IMF, Arabic, Bolivia, The Sixties, Cars & jobs & environment, Karl Marx, China, Guadeloupe victory * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Pakistan: Victory for Pakistan's Long March [Farooq Tariq is a leader of the Labour Party Pakistan. A representative of the LPP will be attending the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia, April 10-12. For more information, or to book tickets, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org. Below are a collection of some of Farooq's regular reports on the situation in Pakistan over the past week. Thanks to Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific for making the reports available (more are available there) to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal.] By Peter Boyle and Farooq Tariq March 16, 2009 -- Mass resistance to the Peoples Party of Pakistan (PPP) government's attempt to suppress a massive people's movement for the restoration of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry appears to have triumphed after a massive showdown in the streets of Lahore yesterday. * Read more Sydney, April 10-12 (Easter), 2009: World at a Crossroads - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century World At a Crossroads: Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century * Read more Malaysia: Socialist Party MPs bare all [M. Sarawathy, a representative of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, will be attending the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia, April 10-12, 2009. For more information, or to book tickets, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org.] March 12, 2009 -- Prior to the March 8, 2008, polls, nobody could have predicted that the then unregistered Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM, Socialist Party of Malaysia) would see two of its leaders elected to the national parliament and the Selangor state assembly respectively. Not only were they elected, but its candidate for the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat Dr D Jeyakumar (right) had also defeated the formidable incumbent of three decades, Malaysian Indian Congress president S Samy Vellu. * Read more The doublespeak of the discredited IMF By Eric Toussaint and Damien Millet, translated by Christine Pagnoulle and Judith Harris March 12, 2009 -- The international crisis that erupted in the summer of 2008 demolished all the neoliberal dogmas and exposed the deception behind them. Unable to deny their failure, the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) claim they no longer uphold the set of neoliberal policies known as the ``Washington Consensus''. Yet, discredited though they may be, these two institutions are using the international crisis to return to the limelight. For decades they have enforced the deregulation measures and structural adjustment programs that have led to the current impasse. After this total fiasco the WB and the IMF must now account for their decisions before world opinion. * Read more The Flame, March 2009 -- Green Left Weekly's Arabic-language supplement With the help of Socialist Alliance members in the growing Sudanese community in Australia, Green Left Weekly -- Australia's leading socialist newspaper -- is publishing a regular Arabic language supplement. The Flame will cover news from the Arabic-speaking world as well as news and issues from within Australia. The editor-in-chief will be Soubhi Iskander, a comrade who has endured years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the repressive government in Sudan. * Read more Bolivia: `More of the same'? Or a break with `traditions'? The MAS: a paradoxical case of democratisation By Herv? Do Alto, translated for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal by Gonzalo Villanueva with Do Alto's permission. It was first published in Le Monde diplomatique (Bolivian edition) Febrero 2009, n? 11, pp. 6-8. The Santos Ramirez affaire marked, undoubtedly, a shift in the social perception of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). [In February, Santos Ramirez, a former head of the state energy company YPFB, and former head of the Senate from 2006-2007, was charged with corruption and faces a lengthy prison sentence of up to eight years.] * Read more Available for download: Barry Sheppard's The Party: The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988: A Political Memoir -- The Sixties Barry Sheppard was a member of the US Socialist Workers Party for 28 years, and a central leader for most of that time. This is the first of two volumes recounting his life in the party. It is a case study in the inspiration and difficulties involved in building the nucleus of a revolutionary socialist party. This book covers from 1960 to 1973, the period of radicalisation known as "The Sixties". Walking picket lines for Black civil rights, helping to organise the anti-Vietnam War movement, interviewing Malcolm X, meeting with US soldiers in Vietnam, defending the Cuban Revolution, collaborating with socialists worldwide including in Australia, India, France and Japan -- Barry Sheppard has lived a life enriched by contact with and involvement in popular struggles around the world. * Read more Paul M. Sweezy: Cars and cities -- `automobilisation' and the `automobile-industrial complex' By Paul M. Sweezy [This classic essay first appeared in Monthly Review, vol. 24, no. 11 (April 1973). It has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the permission of Monthly Review.] * Read more The best way to protect auto industry jobs is to stop making cars By Don Fitz and Tim Kaminski In the days when there was an Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union (OCAW), its St Louis business agent, Bob Tibbs senior, enjoyed coming to Green Party events. He would tell us that his union knew how bad nuclear powerplants were and that it would be happy to get rid of them if workers would be guaranteed jobs of equal pay in other industries. That's "social unionism". The union looked beyond wages and working conditions - it asked if what it was producing truly benefited humanity. Social unionism is most needed in times of crisis. The automobile industry is truly in crisis. According to the February 14, 2009, Wall Street Journal, car sales have dropped to a 30-year low. In November and December, 2008, Ford, General Motors (GM) and Chrysler went to Washington, whining that without tens of billions of dollars in government handouts they would go belly up. * Read more Marx is back! Karl Marx and his contribution to the socialist tradition The ideas of Karl Marx -- that class society creates great wealth for the few at the expense of the many -- ring truer every day. Brian Jones, a member of the International Socialist Organization of the United States, examines Marx's revolutionary ideas in the following three articles. These articles first appeared in Socialist Worker, newspaper of the International Socialist Organization of the United States. They have been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission of Socialist Worker. * Read more China: `We feel like we are serving prison sentences', say factory workers for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft and IBM By Charles Kernaghan [This is an excerpt from the introduction and executive summary of a report released by the National Labor Committee in February 2009, High Tech Misery in China: The Dehumanization of Young Workers Producing Our Computer Keyboards.] "I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tools we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user...The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." -- Bill Gates ``We feel like we are serving prison sentences." -- factory worker making Microsoft keyboards * Read more `First Victory' in Guadeloupe general strike; Movement spreads to other French colonies By Richard Fidler March 8, 2009 -- The general strike in Guadeloupe ended March 4, when an accord was signed between the LKP Strike Collective and the local governments, the employers' federation and the French government that granted the strikers their top 20 immediate demands and provided for continued negotiations on the remaining 126 mid-term and long-term demands. The LKP, or Lihannaj Kont Pwofitasyon - Collective Against Super-exploitation, is a coalition of 49 unions and grassroots organisations. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090319/4aa61cb6/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Thu Mar 19 07:59:04 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Thu Mar 19 08:01:48 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Letter to Harper re "Stop Ads on CBC Radio" + Response from MP Brison [re FRIENDS of Public Broadcasting Campaign] Message-ID: <49C23388.26319.2CD274C2@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> [1] My letter to Harper cc'ed to numerous Ministers sent via Friends of Public Broadcasting website [2] Response from Liberal MP Scott Brison [3] Friends of Public Broadcasting info. fyi-janet ====================================. [1] Right Hon. Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada 80 Wellington Street Ontario Ottawa K1A 0A2 Dear Prime Minister Harper, I have listened to CBC radio for over thirty years and among the many reasons I enjoy CBC radio are not having to listen to commercials and knowing it is a public service. I listened recently with great interest to videos aired on the fiftieth anniversary of CBC radio which articulated the imperatives of a public radio service not driven by commercial interests. These arguments are all the more important today as the global economy collapses and corporate enterprises including radio, television and newspaper companies subject to the rules of the market place collapse. In these perilous times Canadians must have access to public radio service to keep us informed, to have input into debate as the flaws and failures of the corporate global economic system become apparent and to be able to access important security broadcasts at a time in history when security is being redefined with so many faces. The CBC in its early days helped to generate vibrant discussions across the county - and we must ensure that it does so into the future. The hallmarks of a public system demand that commercial interests do not direct programming or the essential service; however once there is a foot in the door that does begin to happen. Your government is out of step with Canadians concerns and with the present international perspectives on progressive responses demanded by the global issues we face. One of the imperatives is a strong public broadcaster which does not weaken its mandate by corporate influence and annoying ads which degenerate the service. I hope you agree that putting ads on CBC Radio will lead to the deterioration of this valuable public service and that you will address this issue immediately by ensuring that CBC radio does not succumb to such a destructive policy for a needed public service. Sincerely, Janet M. Eaton 133 Main St. Wolfville Nova Scotia B4P 1C2 cc: <><><><><> [2] On 19 Mar 2009 at 7:45, Hon. Scott Brison wrote: From: "Hon. Scott Brison" To: Subject: CBC Date sent: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:45:12 -0300 Thank you for your letter concerning the Government's recent comments about the possibility of allowing the CBC/Radio-Canada to air advertising. As you know, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, James Moore, appeared before members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on February 9th and implied that he was open to the idea of allowing the CBC/Radio-Canada to broadcast advertising as a means of generating additional revenues. The Liberal Party believes that advertising is not an appropriate solution to the problem of funding the national broadcaster, and that the role and mandate of the CBC/Radio-Canada must be preserved. Minister Moore?s comments show he is improvising policy and still fails to grasp the broadcasting issue; otherwise, he would have realized that Canadians who listen to public radio do not want advertising. CBC/Radio-Canada executives have said they do not intend to broadcast advertising and plan to raise additional funds by other means. The Liberal Party has the utmost respect for the national broadcaster and will do its part to ensure that advertising is not aired on public radio. Furthermore, we will work to obtain a firm commitment from the Conservative government to ensure that CBC/Radio-Canada receives adequate government funding. Once again, thank you for informing me of your opinion on this important issue. Sincerely, Scott Member of Parliament Kings-Hants www.brison.ca (902) 542-4010 (902) 542-4184 <><><><><><><><><> [3] Date sent: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:38:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Ian Morrison - FRIENDS To: jmeaton@ns.sympatico.ca Subject: Thank you for taking action Thank you very much for sending your letter.? For your records a copy of your message is attached. Please help us spread the word about this campaign by sending a note to your friends and family asking them to watch the 'Stop Ads on CBC Radio" video at www.friends.ca. Regards, Ian Morrison Spokesperson FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting PLEASE TAKE ACTION !! JME ? ------- Forwarded message follows ------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 1040 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090319/d20cf141/--0002.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: AdsonRadiowebHarper47315.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 77173 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090319/d20cf141/AdsonRadiowebHarper47315-0001.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 167 bytes Desc: "AVG certification" Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090319/d20cf141/--0003.obj From duanebehrens at cox.net Thu Mar 19 13:16:45 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Thu Mar 19 13:17:09 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] The President's Visit Message-ID: <20090319161645.0KK2Z.212793.imail@fed1rmwml32> >From my AutoCad class, I'm looking out from a building on Wilshire, toward 3rd St. to the north - the president's motorcade route. I can only see its intersection with Bixel, a minor cross street. Even here, barricades are set up on both sides of the street and there are four (yes, four) stationed on Bixel to either side of 3rd St. A large air force helicopter flew overhead a few minutes ago and landed on a nearby building. What a show. After lunch I stepped into the large elevator to return to my class. The elevator was crowded. A couple of the passengers were discussing how they might get into the Town Hall meeting this afternoon. I quietly said, "If you get in, ask Obama when he's going to open an independent investigation into 9/11." The man laughed softly and responded, "Hell, I think he knows - hell, we ALL know - what happened that day. But if he starts getting into that he won't be able to make other important changes . . . . " "Yeah, I know," I countered. "It's as if we're all expected to pretend that nothing happened that day, expected to pretend that our own government didn't murder 3,000 of our fellow citizens on 9/11." "That's IT, man - that's exactly it," was his immediate response. And guess what? Out of perhaps 12 people in that elevator, all but 2 or 3 nodded their head in tacit agreement. That wouldn't have happened 5 years ago. It certainly made my day. It was a thing to see. . . . Duane Behrens -- http://perzuki.smugmug.com/ From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Thu Mar 19 21:27:06 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Thu Mar 19 21:29:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Who's Obama Proving to Be? by Murray Dobbin March 18th Message-ID: <49C2F0EA.7270.2FB6904A@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Barack Obama is in the difficult and contradictory position of being a president who wants to do good in a position that requires him ultimately to serve the U.S. economic elite and maintain America's military dominance of the planet..... Obama's domestic agenda will only be possible if the legions of people who got him elected go out and "make him do it." (Changing his position on Iraq is a whole other question.) Those already planning to stop him are enormously powerful and determined, even if for the moment they are somewhat humbled by the crisis they created (Obama's popularity is around 60 per cent; Republicans, 26). The wealthy are not amused at losing billions and are in no mood to lose even more. But there are signs that the people inspired by the message of hope are still engaged and gearing up for the fight ahead. Its outcome will have huge implications not only for the U.S. but also for Canada and all the English speaking developed nations where the Chicago Boys' denigration of government held such powerful sway. fyi-janet ------------------------------------ Who's Obama Proving to Be? He's the (reluctant) imperial president. By Murray Dobbin March 18, 2009 TheTyee.ca Barack Obama is in the difficult and contradictory position of being a president who wants to do good in a position that requires him ultimately to serve the U.S. economic elite and maintain America's military dominance of the planet. The outcome of the contradiction is unpredictable and depends to a large extent on whether or not those mobilized to get him elected -- especially young people -- can re- mobilize for a protracted and difficult struggle. This contradiction is revealed when we contrast Obama's Iraq policy, for example, with his efforts to implement a progressive agenda domestically. Ironically, the latter ultimately depends on the former simply because America's wealth and government revenue depend on oil and the U.S. cannot afford to ignore the world's second largest supply of the stuff. Well before Obama was elected, the end of corporate globalization was already beginning to play itself out. The economic crisis, a global catastrophe, signals the end of America's reliance on its transnational corporations' dominance of globalization. And the end of America's parallel dependence on the phony wealth of the casino economy. Many people have pointed out that "government is back" -- that is, we are entering a new era of activist, interventionist government. But this means that borders are back, too, because globalization was characterized by both the shrinking of government and the melting away of borders. Giant corporations effectively replaced governments as the dominant institution of the era. Now it is clear that many of these giants are breathing their last breaths or will end up much diminished versions of their former selves. This will demand that the U.S. government be even more aggressive internationally in the medium and long run. Despite Obama's efforts to re-engage with allies in the developed world and back away from U.S. unilateralism, he will, sooner or later, have to turn to protectionism and to maintain the U.S.'s aggressive defence of its "national interests" around the world. A very useful crisis But leaving the darker side of his agenda aside for the moment, let's look at Obama's domestic agenda and how he intends to sell it. Obama, in a strategic move loaded with delicious irony, is using the right's strategy of the 'useful crisis' (what Naomi Klein calls the shock doctrine) against them -- using the economic crisis to rewrite the purpose of government and bring it back to an activist and interventionist role much faster than anyone could have imagined -- or indeed could have accomplished in the absence of a crisis. It is arguable that without this crisis, democracy would have continued what seemed to be its inexorable decline. Before we examine the good stuff Obama is doing courtesy of the crisis, let's be clear: there are strict limits to what he can accomplish. Not only is he not challenging the precepts of U.S. capitalism and empire, he intends to try to save them and ensure their dominance. Obama is after all a capitalist. So both economically and politically he must play the role of an imperial president. To save capitalism, he has to save the banks and insurance companies; to save the empire he must continue the military dominance of the Middle East. And that means the continued occupation of Iraq. Government no longer villain Many commentators have expressed extreme scepticism regarding Obama's intentions, warning that he has set expectations so high with his "Yes we can" campaign that disappointment and renewed political cynicism are almost inevitable. Maybe. But some of Obama's initiatives are truly fundamental shifts from 'the government is your enemy' period launched by Ronald Reagan in 1980. Here's a few of them. Obama has in mind a cap and trade plan estimated to raise $650 billion from corporations over 10 years. He is rolling back the obscene tax cuts for the wealthy (and increasing the highest tax rate from 35 to 39.6 per cent and increasing capital gains taxes). This frees up $60 billion a year. At the same time he will remove10 million low income Americans from the income tax rolls altogether with his "Making Work Pay" tax deduction for 150 million working individuals and families. His plans to reform health care will cost hundreds of billions and keep the U.S. in trillion dollar deficits for years. But again, Obama takes advantage of his "bail out the banks" initiative. How can the wealthy complain about deficits when their man Bush drove them through the roof and the bailout will benefit them the most? A labour president? In another bit of brilliant strategizing, Obama is "pairing" tax increases on corporations and the wealthy with benefits for the poor and middle class: if Congress balks at the tax increases, they automatically kill benefits for millions of hard-pressed (and pissed- off) voters. For example, his planned $117 billion assistance for college students will be partially funded by eliminating subsidies to banks making student loans. Half the revenue for his initial $634 billion for health care reform will come from placing limits on charitable and mortgage interest deductions for high income earners. Most of the rest will be found by reducing Medicare payments to private insurers. Obama is also planning a number of other pro-labour moves that most working people had given up on years ago: increasing the federal minimum wage to $9.50 (from $7.25 as of this July); legislating seven paid sick days a year (millions currently have no sick leave at all); and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit -- one of the country's few effective anti-poverty programs. But the flip side of the imperial presidency is not nearly so pretty. Obama has no plans to slash the military's colossal military budget, now nearing $700 billion -- more than all other countries' budgets combined. Millions of Americans voted for Obama at least in part because they believed he would really get them out of Iraq. He regularly denounced the war and called the continuing occupation a "violation of international law." But his recent statement on the war suggests that the occupation -- and its goal of controlling Iraqi oil -- will continue. Obama's plan to keep 50,000 U.S. troops in the country "to advise Iraqi forces and protect U.S. interests" and to continue the expansion of over 50 military bases does not bode well for a genuine withdrawal, his promises notwithstanding. Also, while working and middle-class Americans will clearly benefit from several hundreds of billions more spent on education, health care, and progressive tax cuts, the bank and insurance company bailout essentially rewards the most destructive business behaviour in the history of U.S. capitalism. Ultimately it will cost close to two trillion dollars. The spending gap -- like the growing income gap which is never mentioned -- is huge. He'll need grassroots support So there you have it. Obama, who I think is as a good a person as could be elected in the U.S. at this time, has a plan to re-establish an activist role for government in the U.S. using the economic crisis and Americans' distrust of the "market" but protecting his back by doing what any U.S. president has to do. Namely, protect the capitalist financial system and maintain the empire. And he is brilliant at executing it, so far. But I would go further. He is actually counting on something few other presidents since FDR have counted on: a robust democracy. Implied in this ambitious agenda is a page from Franklin D. Roosevelt's play book. In conversation with A. Philip Randolph, a legendary black union leader, Roosevelt said he agreed with everything Randolph said needed to be done. Then he said, "But I would ask one thing of you, Mr. Randolph, and that is go out and make me do it." And he and the union movement did, the result being the famous Wager Act creating the legal right to organize a union and bargain collectively. Obama's domestic agenda will only be possible if the legions of people who got him elected go out and "make him do it." (Changing his position on Iraq is a whole other question.) Those already planning to stop him are enormously powerful and determined, even if for the moment they are somewhat humbled by the crisis they created (Obama's popularity is around 60 per cent; Republicans, 26). The wealthy are not amused at losing billions and are in no mood to lose even more. But there are signs that the people inspired by the message of hope are still engaged and gearing up for the fight ahead. Its outcome will have huge implications not only for the U.S. but also for Canada and all the English speaking developed nations where the Chicago Boys' denigration of government held such powerful sway. ------- End of forwarded message ------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 9297 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090320/66dfafc0/-.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 11365 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090320/66dfafc0/--0001.obj -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 167 bytes Desc: "AVG certification" Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090320/66dfafc0/--0002.obj From jomut at yahoo.com Fri Mar 20 13:36:25 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Fri Mar 20 13:36:55 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Re: Who's Obama Proving to Be? by Murray Dobbin March 18th Message-ID: <324374.97629.qm@web31103.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi, ? Great commentary by Murray as usual.? I do not think that Patrick Bond would agree with him on the cap and trade issue, as this, according to his research and analysis, has been a dismal failure. ? John ==================== --- On Fri, 3/20/09, Janet M Eaton wrote: From: Janet M Eaton Subject: [Mai-not] Who's Obama Proving to Be? by Murray Dobbin March 18th To: "a renewed Mai-Not" Date: Friday, March 20, 2009, 4:27 AM Barack Obama is in the difficult and contradictory position of being a president who wants to do good in a position that requires him ultimately to serve the U.S. economic elite and maintain America's military dominance of the planet..... Obama's domestic agenda will only be possible if the legions of people who got him elected go out and "make him do it." (Changing his position on Iraq is a whole other question.) Those already planning to stop him are enormously powerful and determined, even if for the moment they are somewhat humbled by the crisis they created (Obama's popularity is around 60 per cent; Republicans, 26). The wealthy are not amused at losing billions and are in no mood to lose even more. But there are signs that the people inspired by the message of hope are still engaged and gearing up for the fight ahead. Its outcome will have huge implications not only for the U.S. but also for Canada and all the English speaking developed nations where the Chicago Boys' denigration of government held such powerful sway.? fyi-janet ------------------------------------ Who's Obama Proving to Be? He's the (reluctant) imperial president. By Murray Dobbin March 18, 2009 TheTyee.ca Barack Obama is in the difficult and contradictory position of being a president who wants to do good in a position that requires him ultimately to serve the U.S. economic elite and maintain America's military dominance of the planet. The outcome of the contradiction is unpredictable and depends to a large extent on whether or not those mobilized to get him elected -- especially young people -- can re- mobilize for a protracted and difficult struggle. This contradiction is revealed when we contrast Obama's Iraq policy, for example, with his efforts to implement a progressive agenda domestically. Ironically, the latter ultimately depends on the former simply because America's wealth and government revenue depend on oil and the U.S. cannot afford to ignore the world's second largest supply of the stuff. Well before Obama was elected, the end of corporate globalization was already beginning to play itself out. The economic crisis, a global catastrophe, signals the end of America's reliance on its transnational corporations' dominance of globalization. And the end of America's parallel dependence on the phony wealth of the casino economy. Many people have pointed out that "government is back" -- that is, we are entering a new era of activist, interventionist government. But this means that borders are back, too, because globalization was characterized by both the shrinking of government and the melting away of borders. Giant corporations effectively replaced governments as the dominant institution of the era. Now it is clear that many of these giants are breathing their last breaths or will end up much diminished versions of their former selves. This will demand that the U.S. government be even more aggressive internationally in the medium and long run. Despite Obama's efforts to re-engage with allies in the developed world and back away from U.S. unilateralism, he will, sooner or later, have to turn to protectionism and to maintain the U.S.'s aggressive defence of its "national interests" around the world. A very useful crisis But leaving the darker side of his agenda aside for the moment, let's look at Obama's domestic agenda and how he intends to sell it. Obama, in a strategic move loaded with delicious irony, is using the right's strategy of the 'useful crisis' (what Naomi Klein calls the shock doctrine) against them -- using the economic crisis to rewrite the purpose of government and bring it back to an activist and interventionist role much faster than anyone could have imagined -- or indeed could have accomplished in the absence of a crisis. It is arguable that without this crisis, democracy would have continued what seemed to be its inexorable decline. Before we examine the good stuff Obama is doing courtesy of the crisis, let's be clear: there are strict limits to what he can accomplish. Not only is he not challenging the precepts of U.S. capitalism and empire, he intends to try to save them and ensure their dominance. Obama is after all a capitalist. So both economically and politically he must play the role of an imperial president. To save capitalism, he has to save the banks and insurance companies; to save the empire he must continue the military dominance of the Middle East. And that means the continued occupation of Iraq. Government no longer villain Many commentators have expressed extreme scepticism regarding Obama's intentions, warning that he has set expectations so high with his "Yes we can" campaign that disappointment and renewed political cynicism are almost inevitable. Maybe. But some of Obama's initiatives are truly fundamental shifts from 'the government is your enemy' period launched by Ronald Reagan in 1980. Here's a few of them. Obama has in mind a cap and trade plan estimated to raise $650 billion from corporations over 10 years. He is rolling back the obscene tax cuts for the wealthy (and increasing the highest tax rate from 35 to 39.6 per cent and increasing capital gains taxes). This frees up $60 billion a year. At the same time he will remove10 million low income Americans from the income tax rolls altogether with his "Making Work Pay" tax deduction for 150 million working individuals and families. His plans to reform health care will cost hundreds of billions and keep the U.S. in trillion dollar deficits for years. But again, Obama takes advantage of his "bail out the banks" initiative. How can the wealthy complain about deficits when their man Bush drove them through the roof and the bailout will benefit them the most? A labour president? In another bit of brilliant strategizing, Obama is "pairing" tax increases on corporations and the wealthy with benefits for the poor and middle class: if Congress balks at the tax increases, they automatically kill benefits for millions of hard-pressed (and pissed- off) voters. For example, his planned $117 billion assistance for college students will be partially funded by eliminating subsidies to banks making student loans. Half the revenue for his initial $634 billion for health care reform will come from placing limits on charitable and mortgage interest deductions for high income earners. Most of the rest will be found by reducing Medicare payments to private insurers. Obama is also planning a number of other pro-labour moves that most working people had given up on years ago: increasing the federal minimum wage to $9.50 (from $7.25 as of this July); legislating seven paid sick days a year (millions currently have no sick leave at all); and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit -- one of the country's few effective anti-poverty programs. But the flip side of the imperial presidency is not nearly so pretty. Obama has no plans to slash the military's colossal military budget, now nearing $700 billion -- more than all other countries' budgets combined. Millions of Americans voted for Obama at least in part because they believed he would really get them out of Iraq. He regularly denounced the war and called the continuing occupation a "violation of international law." But his recent statement on the war suggests that the occupation -- and its goal of controlling Iraqi oil -- will continue. Obama's plan to keep 50,000 U.S. troops in the country "to advise Iraqi forces and protect U.S. interests" and to continue the expansion of over 50 military bases does not bode well for a genuine withdrawal, his promises notwithstanding. Also, while working and middle-class Americans will clearly benefit from several hundreds of billions more spent on education, health care, and progressive tax cuts, the bank and insurance company bailout essentially rewards the most destructive business behaviour in the history of U.S. capitalism. Ultimately it will cost close to two trillion dollars. The spending gap -- like the growing income gap which is never mentioned -- is huge. He'll need grassroots support So there you have it. Obama, who I think is as a good a person as could be elected in the U.S. at this time, has a plan to re-establish an activist role for government in the U.S. using the economic crisis and Americans' distrust of the "market" but protecting his back by doing what any U.S. president has to do. Namely, protect the capitalist financial system and maintain the empire. And he is brilliant at executing it, so far. But I would go further. He is actually counting on something few other presidents since FDR have counted on: a robust democracy. Implied in this ambitious agenda is a page from Franklin D. Roosevelt's play book. In conversation with A. Philip Randolph, a legendary black union leader, Roosevelt said he agreed with everything Randolph said needed to be done. Then he said, "But I would ask one thing of you, Mr. Randolph, and that is go out and make me do it." And he and the union movement did, the result being the famous Wager Act creating the legal right to organize a union and bargain collectively. Obama's domestic agenda will only be possible if the legions of people who got him elected go out and "make him do it." (Changing his position on Iraq is a whole other question.) Those already planning to stop him are enormously powerful and determined, even if for the moment they are somewhat humbled by the crisis they created (Obama's popularity is around 60 per cent; Republicans, 26). The wealthy are not amused at losing billions and are in no mood to lose even more. But there are signs that the people inspired by the message of hope are still engaged and gearing up for the fight ahead. Its outcome will have huge implications not only for the U.S. but also for Canada and all the English speaking developed nations where the Chicago Boys' denigration of government held such powerful sway. ------- End of forwarded message ------- -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090320/f321faf4/attachment.html From papadop at peak.org Fri Mar 20 20:57:55 2009 From: papadop at peak.org (MichaelP) Date: Fri Mar 20 20:59:19 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Brit anti-war MP banned from Canada Message-ID: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7954923.stm MP Galloway is banned from Canada George Galloway Mr Galloway's comments on Iraq led to his expulsion from the Labour Party George Galloway, a British member of Parliament, has been banned from Canada on security grounds, the country's immigration service has confirmed. Mr Galloway, a Respect Party MP, said the ban was "idiotic" and he would look at legal action to try to overturn it. British media reported the decision was due to his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there. The anti-war MP was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 because of his outspoken comments on the Iraq war. Mr Galloway said he was not prepared to accept what he described as an "inexplicable decision" and indicated he would challenge it with all means at his disposal. "This has further vindicated the anti-war movement's contention that unjust wars abroad will end up consuming the very liberties that make us who we are," he said. "All right-thinking Canadians, whether they agree with me or not, will oppose this outrageous decision." 'MOCK TRIAL' A spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada confirmed the MP would not be allowed into the country on national security grounds. He said the decision had been taken by border security officials "based on a number of factors" in accordance with the country's immigration act. Mr Galloway had been due to speak at a public forum, Resisting War from Gaza to Kandahar, in Toronto on 30 March. In 2006 he was detained "on grounds of national security" at Cairo airport after heading to Egypt to attend a "mock trial" of then PM Tony Blair and then US President George Bush. Mr Galloway became the figurehead for the anti-war Respect party after being expelled from Labour. His expulsion followed comments on the Iraq war which Labour chairman Ian McCartney said "incited foreign forces to rise up against British troops". The party acted following a number of TV interviews, including one in which Mr Galloway accused Tony Blair and President Bush of acting "like wolves" in invading Iraq. Mr Galloway said it had been a "politically motivated kangaroo court". From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Sat Mar 21 19:44:27 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Sat Mar 21 19:46:49 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] 'Globalization From Below' Tackles the 'Great Recession' by Brecher, Smith, Costello Message-ID: <49C57BDB.16445.39A54AA5@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Summary : The anti-globalization/global justice/globalization-from-below movement developed in response to the expansive phase of globalization and neoliberalism. Now the global economy has entered the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. The financial crisis has turned out to be the start of a cascade of other economic crises that are reshaping the global economy.. Current leaders of the world's nations have utterly failed to develop a solution. Can globalization from below really provide an alternative solution to the great recession? It has already started to do so. A landmark was the meeting of a group of social movements and NGOs in October, 2008 on the occasion of the Asia-Europe People's Forum in Beijing that developed a sketch for a "transitional program for radical economic transformation. The basic vision of the "Bejing" Declaration is summed up in its title: "The global economic crisis: An historic opportunity for transformation." Its goal ..is not to shore up the status quo and return to the destructive form of globalization that preceded the crisis. Its objective is almost the opposite of the eight-trillion-dollars-and-counting of bail-outs.. It aims to provide "a transitional program for radical economic transformation" to a "different kind of political and economic order." "Transitional program" may sound like antiquated socialist rhetoric - a call to take state power and nationalize industry. But both the goals and the methods are very different. Indeed, the Declaration points a path between merely reestablishing the status quo and assuming that actions must be "revolutionary or nothing." ...even under the domination of globalization from above, people have been developing alternatives within the world's nooks and crannies. The unfolding economic crisis provides the opportunity "to put into the public domain some of the inspiring and feasible alternatives many of us have been working on for decades." The goal linking these alternatives is "the well-being of people and the planet." And that requires a focus not primarily on restoring the financial system, but first and foremost [a focus on] on the great human and environmental crisis the world is facing in relation to food, climate, and energy..... The current economic crisis creates opportunity for transformation, the Declaration argues, because it severely weakens the power of the US, the EU, and the IMF, World Bank, and WTO. It undermines the legitimacy of the neo-liberal paradigm. And, where global pseudo-consensus once asserted that "there is no alternative" to liberal capitalism, the future of capitalism is now becoming an open question. fyi-janet ===================================== http://www.mail- archive.com/sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg73872.html Published on Monday, January 26, 2009 by CommonDreams.org 'Globalization From Below' Tackles the 'Great Recession' by Jeremy Brecher, Brendan Smith, and Tim Costello [As tens of thousands of activists from around the world gather in Belem, Brazil for the World Social Forum, social movements everywhere are debating how to respond to the ever-deepening economic crisis. This article is excerpted from the longer Discussion Paper "GLOBALIZATION FROM BELOW" TACKLES THE "GREAT RECESSION" prepared by Global Labor Strategies. ] At the pit of the Great Depression in 1930, an American country music group named the Carter Family recorded a song called The Worried Man Blues. It began: "I went down to the river and I lay down to sleep When I woke up there were shackles on my feet." Though many subsequent verses describe the horrific outcome, there is no explanation of what had happened or why - just an awakening to a seemingly endless catastrophe. The song immediately became an unprecedented national hit. It's hard to imagine that its success didn't have something to do with capturing the sense of being the helpless victim of incomprehensible disaster that so many felt in the face of the Great Depression. The seemingly sudden collapse of the global economy in 2008 has similarly left millions, indeed billions of people all over the world victims of a catastrophe that appears both inexplicable and unending. But what's now being dubbed the "Great Recession" is neither incomprehensible nor irremediable. On the contrary, it can be understood as an expectable result of a capitalism that has been globalized and at the same time "freed" by neoliberalism of control in the public interest. The economic globalization that transformed the world at the turn of the century promised, according to its advocates, a glorious vista of prosperity that would provide unprecedented economic growth and raise billions of people out of poverty. In practice it generated personal and national insecurity, growing inequality, and a race to the bottom in which every community, nation, and workgroup had to reduce its social, environmental, and labor conditions to that of its most impoverished competitor. But economic globalization also gave birth to a new convergence of global social forces that opposed this kind of globalization. People all over the world fought back against this "globalization from above" with their own "globalization from below." They used asymmetrical strategies of linking across the borders of nations and constituencies to become a counter power to the advocates of globalization. They created a movement - variously known as the global justice movement, the anti-globalization movement, global civil society, or as we call it, "globalization from below" -- that some in the media even characterized as "the world's other superpower." The anti-globalization/global justice/globalization-from-below movement developed in response to the expansive phase of globalization and neoliberalism. Now the global economy has entered the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. The financial crisis has turned out to be the start of a cascade of other economic crises that are reshaping the global economy as definitively as an earthquake reshapes a city. Current leaders of the world's nations have utterly failed to develop a solution. The likely impact of their failure on ordinary people around the world is incalculable. The advocates of globalization from above propounded as an article of faith that markets are self-regulating and that all would be for the best in the best of all possible worlds if only governments, labor unions, citizens organizations, and the unruly mob let them alone to do their thing. The times they are a-changing. US government officials long known as market fundamentalists seize banks, buy mortgage and insurance companies, and commit $7.7 trillion - half of the US annual product -- to government intervention in financial markets. The Clintonite "moderates" who once gutted the social safety net and sacrificed commitments to jobs programs in order to build up budget surpluses now propose vast public works programs financed by budget deficits. The IMF, scourge of "irresponsible" countries that didn't balance their budgets, advocates a trillion-plus dollars in global government deficits and claims to have replaced "structural adjustment conditionalities" with condition-free loans. These programs may well fail in halting the downward spiral of the global economy. But they open the door to new forms of more social and public economy. That's one reason conservatives normally oppose them - and one indicator of how serious the present crisis really is. The economic crisis makes it possible to put proposals on the table that have long been ruled inadmissible. While economists have asserted with great confidence that one after another trillion dollar "solution" would save the global economy, one after another has failed, raising the specter that it cannot be saved in its present form. Peter Boon and Simon Johnson of the website baselinescenario.com recently raised that possibility in the Wall Street Journal. They note that economists generally believe even the Great Depression of the 1930s could have been stopped by proper monetary policy. But, Boon and Johnson argue, governments may simply not be able to prevent such huge deflationary spirals. "Perhaps the events of 1929 produced an unstoppable whirlwind of deleveraging which no set of policy measures would truly be able to prevent." Their implication seems evident: The same could be true today. The multi-trillion dollar rescues and bail-outs so far just attempt - possibly futilely -- to save the status quo. But what can we do if the status quo can't be saved? Can globalization from below really provide an alternative solution to the great recession? It has already started to do so. A landmark was the meeting of a group of social movements and NGOs in October, 2008 on the occasion of the Asia-Europe People's Forum in Beijing that developed a sketch for a "transitional program for radical economic transformation." The "Beijing Declaration" laid out alternatives that are "practical and immediately feasible" that put the "well-being of people and the planet at their center." This requires "democratic control over financial and economic institutions." It includes proposals for finance, taxation, public spending and investment, international trade and finance, environment, and agriculture and industry. It provides a brilliant first expression of a globalization-from-below alternative to the failures of globalization from above. The basic vision of the Declaration is summed up in its title: "The global economic crisis: An historic opportunity for transformation." Its goal, in other words, is not to shore up the status quo and return to the destructive form of globalization that preceded the crisis. Its objective is almost the opposite of the eight-trillion-dollars-and-counting of bail-outs, rescues, and subsidies provided to business in recent months by the world's governments. It aims instead to provide "a transitional program for radical economic transformation" to a "different kind of political and economic order." "Transitional program" may sound like antiquated socialist rhetoric - a call to take state power and nationalize industry. But both the goals and the methods are very different. Indeed, the Declaration points a path between merely reestablishing the status quo and assuming that actions must be "revolutionary or nothing." No "maximalism" here. "To capture people's attention and support" the Declaration argues, proposals must be "practical and immediately feasible." That is possible because, even under the domination of globalization from above, people have been developing alternatives within the world's nooks and crannies. The unfolding economic crisis provides the opportunity "to put into the public domain some of the inspiring and feasible alternatives many of us have been working on for decades." The goal linking these alternatives is "the well-being of people and the planet." And that requires a focus not primarily on restoring the financial system, but first and foremost on the great human and environmental crisis the world is facing in relation to food, climate, and energy. Such common human interests are not the principal concerns of the people and institutions that now call the shots in national governments or the global economy. The "well-being of people and the planet" will not be achieved by economic jiggering. Instead, "democratic control over financial and economic institutions are required." The vision of such democratic control, however, is not of either a centralized national or a centralized global economy. It is closer to what Walden Bello elsewhere described as the "co-existence" of a variety of "international organizations, agreements and regional groupings" that would allow "a more fluid, less structured, more pluralistic world with multiple checks and balances" in which nations and communities can "carve out the space to develop based on their values, their rhythms, and the strategies of their choice." The current economic crisis creates opportunity for transformation, the Declaration argues, because it severely weakens the power of the US, the EU, and the IMF, World Bank, and WTO. It undermines the legitimacy of the neo-liberal paradigm. And, where global pseudo-consensus once asserted that "there is no alternative" to liberal capitalism, the future of capitalism is now becoming an open question. Of course, this moment can also be seized by "fascist, right wing populist, xenophobic groups" who will try to "take advantage of people's fear and anger for reactionary ends." What is the agency for pursuing constructive alternatives and resisting destructive ones? It starts with the "powerful movements against neo-liberalism" that have been built over past decades. These will grow along with public anger at the abuse of public funds for private subsidy, the crises of food, energy, and the environment, and the deepening recession. As social movements from around the world converge in Belem, Brazil at the end of January for the World Social Forum, they will be in a position to take the next step toward realizing their potential as the world's "other superpower." Indeed, it is the convergence of the already existing networks and understandings of globalization from below with the new outrage at what neo-liberalism has done to the world that provides the opportunity to show that another world is indeed possible. Tim Costello, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith are the co-founders of Global Labor Strategies, a resource center providing research and analysis on globalization, trade and labor issues. GLS staff have published many previous reports on a variety of labor-related issues, including Outsource This! American Workers, the Jobs Deficit, and the Fair Globalization Solution, Contingent Workers Fight For Fairness, and Fight Where You Stand!: Why Globalization Matters in Your Community and Workplace. They have also written and produced the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Global Village or Global Pillage? GLS has offices in New York, Boston, and Montevideo, Uruguay. For more on GLS visit: www.laborstrategies.blogs.com or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: WPM$5CF6.PM$ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 3001 bytes Desc: Mail message body Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090321/0c22b66d/WPM5CF6.obj From thinker at thelakebc.ca Sun Mar 22 11:57:48 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Sun Mar 22 10:58:42 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] 'Globalization From Below' Tackles the 'Great Recession' by Brecher, Smith, Costello In-Reply-To: <49C57BDB.16445.39A54AA5@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <49C57BDB.16445.39A54AA5@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <200903221758.n2MHwDgM022023@karma.reboot.ca> First of all, many thanks for all the kind messages I've received over the past weeks. I've been at home now for the past 9 days and am getting better and stronger every day. It will be a long recovery , but we're working at it . Thanks to all of you ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was great to read about this Belem conference, hopefully an indication and sign of at least some awakening by people around the world that there's something terribly wrong and unless something is done, the world is facing a terrible disaster. The last mill is just closing down here in Williams Lake. I'm enclosing an article of mine that appeared in the Jan issue of the Nova Scotia farming magazine Rural Delivery and my latest column in the Gold River Record. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================================================================================== Rural Delivery. Now we have the so called financial crisis that could be leading into a depression, some of us have been born and grown up in. I've studied this problem since 1982, have seen it coming and tried to warn about it for many years, brought on by the fraudulent theory of Chicago School, Friedmanite market economics, now taught just about exclusively in our and the world's universities. This garbage science is now causing the biggest crime wave in human history, and no politicians, governments, or even the independent media dare to question it. Why ? Are we really in a crisis, or are these events a long planned takeover of the world's economy and the setting up of a global, corporate dictatorship ? This is something only a few people know for certain, but the historical precedents are all there, with the best example being the starving, depressed Germany in 1933, booming and the envy of the rest of Europe within months after big business put Hitler into power. Deregulation by Reagan, in Canada's case by Mulroney in 1991, gave banks the right to create imaginary capital from the air, which in turn handed a certain special interest sector virtually unlimited licence to take control of the world's resources, food and oil supplies etc. The destruction of the family farm system, also of small scale, efficient, locally based manufacturing and other forms of private enterprise are part of this plan for the elimination of all possibilities of self sufficiency, with so called "competition" forcing people into mega cities, specialization, incompetence and total reliance on the masters of the universe for survival. Look up the control by Cargill of the world's grain and the Canadian beef markets. We received an average of $. 83 cents for our beautiful calves, something like 60-70 % of what we were getting 10 years ago, losing money on every pound. Ranchers are going broke all around, while prices in the stores are rising every day, through the control of the supplies and price fixing by multinational agribiz corporations. Yet, our governments just ignore these criminal activities, most likely on the advice of their economists, as it might hurt the feelings and profit demands of "wealth creating foreign investors" . Bank deregulation has tremendously inflated the world's money, especially US dollar supply, feeding the benefits into the hands of the Lords, giving them the power to buy up and destroy anything and anybody. Now they're in complete control of the world's resources all life depends on and can permit this corrupted monetary system to crash and be replaced by something else with some new name. Like the Amero? They have nothing to lose, because they control the resources, the strings will again be in their hands and can do what they want. A depression would force a desperate humanity to beg for dictatorial controls to survive and now there's also a lot of talk in certain circles about the microchipping of babies at birth to give them instant education, programmed for certain jobs, and what our brainwashed economists call "efficiency". Could I be wrong about this ? I sincerely hope so and I also hope to live to see humanity waking up and taking control under a reconstituted democratic system to wipe out these criminals, starting with the examination of what is being taught in our universities as so called "economics" ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: record@cablerocket.com Subject: Fiat lux # 228 Fiat lux # 228 March 21, 2009. Democracies are not knocked over by barbarians. They usually self destruct, because people love dictatorships as it frees them from thinking and decision making. We can watch this process going on and on in our everyday lives, silently permitting a vicious gang of criminals to take over the world, forcing and blackmailing people into submission through the control of our economies. This international gang may be called VIPs and "powerful" business leaders, but are no better than any mafia bosses. The Mafia rules through the control of illegal substances, while this other gang is using the control of food and all other legitimate economic activities, aided and supported by universities and by bought and paid for political parties and politicians. Nostalgia and the crying over past "good times" and the "good old days" is not part of my repertoire, but we should know that past so we can learn and avoid its failures and mistakes. And we don't have to go back very far to see what is happening and how people are gradually enslaved into believing that everything is going well in the world and we never had it better, because there still are millions of us who have seen what the real world could and should be. We came to Canada, after seven years in England, in 1955, crossed the country by motorcycle, from Montreal to Vancouver in four weeks at a total cost of $206. eating well and sleeping in comfortable beds every night. I was always interested in woodwork, but never had a chance to get into it fully, so I was lucky when my first job in Vancouver was in a kitchen cabinet factory at $1.35 per hour.. Union carpenters were making around $2/hr then and electricians, probably the highest paid trade at the time , about $2.20. Meanwhile, I also started taking nightschool woodworking classes under and old English cabinetmaker by the name of Creswell Rickard, a top man in the profession When I was laid off in Nov. 1955, Mr Rickard offered me and kind of unofficial apprenticeship at .75 cents and hour, which was then the minimum wage. My wife was making about the same in various odd jobs. But our rent for two rooms was $35./mo., or weekly grocery bill, and we like our food, having experienced years of starvation and short rations in Europe, was under $20. We could easily afford to have a small, Hillman Minx car with gas around .27 cents per gallon and so on and on. There were no homeless sleeping in the streets, no foodbanks until the first one opened in Edmonton in 1981, the soupkitchens could easily handle the demands. When later I had my own shop at Cambie and 7th, the whole area to Main St. and many other areas around the city was jammed with all kinds of small industries, manufacturing the greatest variety of products and paying decent wages to all their employees. There were no part time jobs, unless somebody wanted one and one breadwinner per family was enough. We bought our first bungalow in the Killarney area for about $6,000 in 1967 for $500. down and $45./mo. Just about anybody could afford their own homes, or learn all the trades imaginable. A VW Beetle was around $1,200, a Morris Minor about $1,300, most American cars in the $2,000 plus range. Even in 1975 I could buy a new Dodge Tradesman 200 van with all kinds of extras for $5,600. Higher paid business executives were making around $25,000/yr and when somebody was paid $50,000 it was almost like a gift from heaven. So, what happened? The would be masters of the world were already then working underground on their long term plans to take control, collectivize and colonize everything and everybody. Anybody with a computer can find the origins and the participants of these big business, secret societies, like the Bilderbergers that originated in 1954, or the Trilaterals set up by the Rockefellers who thought that there was too much democracy that had to be stopped, plus of others, with their closely guarded, secret meetings that permit no journalists or other observers to report on their plans for world control. All ruling classes in history always relied on priesthoods to legitimize and bless their conquests, colonizations and often mass murder in the name of gods, the new rulers needed a new priesthood and found them in the persons of weirdo economists. With their and the collaboration of bought and paid for politicians, who were only too pleased to withdraw the necessary funds, they took control of the economics and many other, even science departments of universities and turned them into propaganda machines preaching the fraudulent theories and concepts of neoclassical market economics, pushing so called "free trade" and "globalization", all in the name of "wealth creation" and "prosperity". And we got them in spades. In the past 35 years, since these criminals gradually took control of our and the world's economies, we now have an over 1,000 percent inflation of our living costs, while wages hardly doubled, or even gone down. The minimum wage is a cruel joke and two breadwinners per family are hardly enough,. Thousands of industries and millions of well paid jobs have been destroyed, the family farm system, one of the original forms of free, private enterprise, is being wiped out and collectivized in the best Soviet fashion. Our local and national economies are being taken over and controlled from head offices hidden in tax havens, with executives stealing tens of millions from the public's pockets, while campaigning for more taxcuts and less government so they can rule without any interference in their criminal plans. The most amazing aspect of these totally unbelievable criminal actions is that people just accept them without a whimper, on the advice of so called "economists", preaching them that there's no other way and this is the road to "prosperity", while returning the governments who are selling the land from under their feet , into more and more power . From duanebehrens at cox.net Sun Mar 22 11:12:05 2009 From: duanebehrens at cox.net (Duane Behrens) Date: Sun Mar 22 11:12:36 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] 'Globalization From Below' Tackles the 'Great Recession' by Brecher, Smith, Costello In-Reply-To: <200903221758.n2MHwDgM022023@karma.reboot.ca> Message-ID: <20090322141205.BSP5K.287909.imail@fed1rmwml42> How cool is that? HAH! :-) Thanks, Ed. Welcome back. Duane ---- Ed Deak wrote: ============= First of all, many thanks for all the kind messages I've received over the past weeks. I've been at home now for the past 9 days and am getting better and stronger every day. It will be a long recovery , but we're working at it . Thanks to all of you ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was great to read about this Belem conference, hopefully an indication and sign of at least some awakening by people around the world that there's something terribly wrong and unless something is done, the world is facing a terrible disaster. The last mill is just closing down here in Williams Lake. I'm enclosing an article of mine that appeared in the Jan issue of the Nova Scotia farming magazine Rural Delivery and my latest column in the Gold River Record. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================================================================================== Rural Delivery. Now we have the so called financial crisis that could be leading into a depression, some of us have been born and grown up in. I've studied this problem since 1982, have seen it coming and tried to warn about it for many years, brought on by the fraudulent theory of Chicago School, Friedmanite market economics, now taught just about exclusively in our and the world's universities. This garbage science is now causing the biggest crime wave in human history, and no politicians, governments, or even the independent media dare to question it. Why ? Are we really in a crisis, or are these events a long planned takeover of the world's economy and the setting up of a global, corporate dictatorship ? This is something only a few people know for certain, but the historical precedents are all there, with the best example being the starving, depressed Germany in 1933, booming and the envy of the rest of Europe within months after big business put Hitler into power. Deregulation by Reagan, in Canada's case by Mulroney in 1991, gave banks the right to create imaginary capital from the air, which in turn handed a certain special interest sector virtually unlimited licence to take control of the world's resources, food and oil supplies etc. The destruction of the family farm system, also of small scale, efficient, locally based manufacturing and other forms of private enterprise are part of this plan for the elimination of all possibilities of self sufficiency, with so called "competition" forcing people into mega cities, specialization, incompetence and total reliance on the masters of the universe for survival. Look up the control by Cargill of the world's grain and the Canadian beef markets. We received an average of $. 83 cents for our beautiful calves, something like 60-70 % of what we were getting 10 years ago, losing money on every pound. Ranchers are going broke all around, while prices in the stores are rising every day, through the control of the supplies and price fixing by multinational agribiz corporations. Yet, our governments just ignore these criminal activities, most likely on the advice of their economists, as it might hurt the feelings and profit demands of "wealth creating foreign investors" . Bank deregulation has tremendously inflated the world's money, especially US dollar supply, feeding the benefits into the hands of the Lords, giving them the power to buy up and destroy anything and anybody. Now they're in complete control of the world's resources all life depends on and can permit this corrupted monetary system to crash and be replaced by something else with some new name. Like the Amero? They have nothing to lose, because they control the resources, the strings will again be in their hands and can do what they want. A depression would force a desperate humanity to beg for dictatorial controls to survive and now there's also a lot of talk in certain circles about the microchipping of babies at birth to give them instant education, programmed for certain jobs, and what our brainwashed economists call "efficiency". Could I be wrong about this ? I sincerely hope so and I also hope to live to see humanity waking up and taking control under a reconstituted democratic system to wipe out these criminals, starting with the examination of what is being taught in our universities as so called "economics" ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: record@cablerocket.com Subject: Fiat lux # 228 Fiat lux # 228 March 21, 2009. Democracies are not knocked over by barbarians. They usually self destruct, because people love dictatorships as it frees them from thinking and decision making. We can watch this process going on and on in our everyday lives, silently permitting a vicious gang of criminals to take over the world, forcing and blackmailing people into submission through the control of our economies. This international gang may be called VIPs and "powerful" business leaders, but are no better than any mafia bosses. The Mafia rules through the control of illegal substances, while this other gang is using the control of food and all other legitimate economic activities, aided and supported by universities and by bought and paid for political parties and politicians. Nostalgia and the crying over past "good times" and the "good old days" is not part of my repertoire, but we should know that past so we can learn and avoid its failures and mistakes. And we don't have to go back very far to see what is happening and how people are gradually enslaved into believing that everything is going well in the world and we never had it better, because there still are millions of us who have seen what the real world could and should be. We came to Canada, after seven years in England, in 1955, crossed the country by motorcycle, from Montreal to Vancouver in four weeks at a total cost of $206. eating well and sleeping in comfortable beds every night. I was always interested in woodwork, but never had a chance to get into it fully, so I was lucky when my first job in Vancouver was in a kitchen cabinet factory at $1.35 per hour.. Union carpenters were making around $2/hr then and electricians, probably the highest paid trade at the time , about $2.20. Meanwhile, I also started taking nightschool woodworking classes under and old English cabinetmaker by the name of Creswell Rickard, a top man in the profession When I was laid off in Nov. 1955, Mr Rickard offered me and kind of unofficial apprenticeship at .75 cents and hour, which was then the minimum wage. My wife was making about the same in various odd jobs. But our rent for two rooms was $35./mo., or weekly grocery bill, and we like our food, having experienced years of starvation and short rations in Europe, was under $20. We could easily afford to have a small, Hillman Minx car with gas around .27 cents per gallon and so on and on. There were no homeless sleeping in the streets, no foodbanks until the first one opened in Edmonton in 1981, the soupkitchens could easily handle the demands. When later I had my own shop at Cambie and 7th, the whole area to Main St. and many other areas around the city was jammed with all kinds of small industries, manufacturing the greatest variety of products and paying decent wages to all their employees. There were no part time jobs, unless somebody wanted one and one breadwinner per family was enough. We bought our first bungalow in the Killarney area for about $6,000 in 1967 for $500. down and $45./mo. Just about anybody could afford their own homes, or learn all the trades imaginable. A VW Beetle was around $1,200, a Morris Minor about $1,300, most American cars in the $2,000 plus range. Even in 1975 I could buy a new Dodge Tradesman 200 van with all kinds of extras for $5,600. Higher paid business executives were making around $25,000/yr and when somebody was paid $50,000 it was almost like a gift from heaven. So, what happened? The would be masters of the world were already then working underground on their long term plans to take control, collectivize and colonize everything and everybody. Anybody with a computer can find the origins and the participants of these big business, secret societies, like the Bilderbergers that originated in 1954, or the Trilaterals set up by the Rockefellers who thought that there was too much democracy that had to be stopped, plus of others, with their closely guarded, secret meetings that permit no journalists or other observers to report on their plans for world control. All ruling classes in history always relied on priesthoods to legitimize and bless their conquests, colonizations and often mass murder in the name of gods, the new rulers needed a new priesthood and found them in the persons of weirdo economists. With their and the collaboration of bought and paid for politicians, who were only too pleased to withdraw the necessary funds, they took control of the economics and many other, even science departments of universities and turned them into propaganda machines preaching the fraudulent theories and concepts of neoclassical market economics, pushing so called "free trade" and "globalization", all in the name of "wealth creation" and "prosperity". And we got them in spades. In the past 35 years, since these criminals gradually took control of our and the world's economies, we now have an over 1,000 percent inflation of our living costs, while wages hardly doubled, or even gone down. The minimum wage is a cruel joke and two breadwinners per family are hardly enough,. Thousands of industries and millions of well paid jobs have been destroyed, the family farm system, one of the original forms of free, private enterprise, is being wiped out and collectivized in the best Soviet fashion. Our local and national economies are being taken over and controlled from head offices hidden in tax havens, with executives stealing tens of millions from the public's pockets, while campaigning for more taxcuts and less government so they can rule without any interference in their criminal plans. The most amazing aspect of these totally unbelievable criminal actions is that people just accept them without a whimper, on the advice of so called "economists", preaching them that there's no other way and this is the road to "prosperity", while returning the governments who are selling the land from under their feet , into more and more power . _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -- http://perzuki.smugmug.com/ From McPogo at aol.com Mon Mar 23 04:28:25 2009 From: McPogo at aol.com (McPogo@aol.com) Date: Mon Mar 23 04:29:17 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Canadian Stopped for 'Stealing American Jobs' Message-ID: American Isolationism is no new behaviour. They did it before entering WW1 after all the real fighting occurred, same as WW11 (the rest of the Allies had been fighting Fascism for over 2 years before Pearl Harbour, if that hadn't happened who even knows if they would have joined?) , every recession, and now big time in this one. We should can NAFTA, start charging them big time for energy and resources and let them continue to think they are the only people in the world who are suffering. Don't forget it was greedy American firms that set the world up for this disaster in the first place. Plenty of individual Americans living way beyond their means as well. They (not all, but obviously a large percentage) are a self-centered, power-hungry bunch who are just getting a taste of what they have put large parts of the world through for decades. Most of them also have an abominable lack of knowledge/education of how the world operates. They are not entitled to anything, any more than the rest of us, they've just bullied their way through international affairs for a century. Now the goose has come home to roost. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Canadian Stopped for 'Stealing American Jobs' Source: CBC News Posted: 03/17/09 3:57PM Filed Under: _Canada_ (http://news.aol.ca/canada) A B.C. sales representative who markets equestrian products in Canada was barred from crossing the U.S. border to attend a trade show last month by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who accused him of trying to steal American jobs. News That Stunned Us (javascript:void(0);) _Back to Poll Results_ (javascript:void(0)) Do you think 'Buy America' is breeding fear of Canadians? Yes 77% No 23% Total Votes: 1580 "He looked at me, and in a yelling voice he said, 'You're friggin' stealing jobs away from American citizens,' and I tried telling him that I wasn't," Joel Borsteinas told CBC News. Borsteinas, a Canadian citizen, said he's been in business for 15 years, acting as a middleman between U.S. and Canadian suppliers of western wear and equestrian products and Canadian retailers who want to stock the products. He said he goes to the U.S. half a dozen times a year, to attend trade shows and meet with suppliers who want him to market their products to retailers north of the border. They pay him a commission for every Canadian order he sends to them. Photo Gallery Alex Wong/Getty Images The Day in Photos U.S. first lady Michelle Obama (2nd-L) chats with actress Fran Drescher (L) and R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys (3rd-L) as she greets women leaders in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, prior to her visit to Anacostia High School, March 19, 2009 in Washington, DC. The first lady met with women at the top of their fields before dispatching them to speak to students at local schools on dreams achieving and career goals to mark the Women's History Month. (javascript:void(0);) 1 of 787 PHOTOS On Feb. 26, Borsteinas said, he was on his way to a trade show in Oregon when he was pulled over at the border and questioned for an hour before being refused entry. He said he's never been stopped at the border before, and he said he always tells the truth about where he is going and why. "Anybody that buys off an American distribution company or an American manufacturer company has some sort of a liaison in Canada," said Borsteinas. 'I'm creating American jobs' "I'm creating American jobs. The (U.S.) companies that I actually work for ? I have been in touch with them all ? and they still think that this is absolutely crazy." Borsteinas said the border officer who refused to allow him entry to the U.S. was the supervisor on duty at the time, at the Sumas crossing in southwestern B.C. "I said, 'Well I don't actually bring the products in. I just write the orders. It's all in Canada,' " said Borsteinas. Photo Gallery AP Photo/Gerald Herbert President Obama President Barack Obama, left, appears on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank, Calif. Thursday, March 19, 2009. Leno queried Obama about difficult issues ? including AIG's executive bonuses and criticism of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ? but with minor exception allowed the president to answer without challenge. (javascript:void(0);) 1 of 251 PHOTOS "He says, 'Oh you are a consultant then.' I says, 'No ? I'm just a salesman. I sell to Canadian stores.' And he says 'Nope, you are a consultant,'" said Borsteinas. "Once again, he says 'You are stealing jobs away from us.'" Borsteinas said he was then fingerprinted and sent back into Canada. The border officer warned him if he tried to enter the U.S. on business again, he should expect to be prosecuted. "He said if I ever come down to the U.S. again with the intentions of working, I will be arrested," said Borsteinas. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection says attending a U.S. trade show is not grounds for an officer to refuse entry to a salesperson representing U.S. companies in Canada. He said such representatives would only be breaking the rules if they tried to peddle the products on U.S. soil. "If they do all of their business in Canada, that's fine," said chief customs and border protection officer Thomas Schreiber. "If they are going down for a trade show, a business meeting, to go over a sales strategy with their umbrella corporation ? that's a permissible activity." Comments warrant complaint: U.S. border rep Schreiber also said border officers aren't supposed to accuse anyone of trying to steal American jobs. "We would not be encouraging officers to editorialize on current events," said Schreiber. "There is no targeting of business people. There is no American protectionism, if you will. "If there is a traveller that thinks the questioning is inappropriate or unprofessional, whatever that questioning, we encourage them to report that," he added. "The wagons get circled pretty quick when there's a downturn like this," said Craig Williams, vice-president of the B.C. division of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), Canada's largest trade and industry association. Williams said CME members tend to encounter more difficulties at the U.S. border when there is an economic slowdown. He said the current discussion in Washington about "Buy America" provisions doesn't help. 'Buy America' spreading fear "I think it is part of an undercurrent of 'Buy America' that is happening in the United States right now," said Williams. "Unfortunately, it seems to be some of the sentiment that's coming out of the average guy on the street down there ? as their family members are losing jobs or they are having cutbacks or they read the newspaper every night. It's very discouraging ? and I think it sets a tone of fear." "I just hope its not a precursor for more," he added. U.S. immigration lawyer David Andersson said Borsteinas may still face problems trying to cross the border again, because he has now been flagged in the system. "If he didn't cross the border and his molecules stayed north of the 49th parallel, he would be fine, of course," said Andersson. Still, he said, Canadians paid by U.S. companies ? even if it's commissions earned in Canada ? could be found to be "working" in the U.S., if a border officer decided to interpret the rules that way. "There are people who are breaking regulations and rules and policy every day of every minute of the year," Andersson said. "[Border officers] are not immune to the news every day that comes out that thousands if not millions of Americans are losing their jobs ? so that if they become sensitized to that issue, it would be of course understandable, and that's probably what happened in this case." To Borsteinas, however, it's more personal. "It does affect my business," he said. "It doesn't matter if someone can email me the information that I'm going down to look at. It's still not the same as being there and meeting people and shaking hands." Borsteinas said he's now afraid to try to cross again. Ironically, he said, his U.S suppliers will be hurt by lost sales in Canada if he isn't able to carry on with the business he spent years building. "Every time I take an order for a product ? somebody has to pack it, build it, ship it, and that all adds hours of work in the U.S. factories," he said. "I'm selling American product. And I'm working harder than I ever have at promoting these companies." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090323/799bc707/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Mon Mar 23 23:21:26 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Mon Mar 23 23:24:13 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy Message-ID: <011201c9ac49$136fe4a0$56ad57ca@jfos> Toward a new sustainable economy Robert Costanza [University of Vermont, USA] Copyright: Robert Costanza, 2009 The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. The financial world is, in essence, a set of markers for goods, services, and risks in the real world and when those markers are allowed to deviate too far from reality, "adjustments" must ultimately follow and crisis and panic can ensue. To solve this and future financial crisis requires that we reconnect the markers with reality. What are our real assets and how valuable are they? To do this requires both a new vision of what the economy is and what it is for, proper and comprehensive accounting of real assets, and new institutions that use the market in its proper role of servant rather than master. The mainstream vision of the economy is based on a number of assumptions that were created during a period when the world was still relatively empty of humans and their built infrastructure. In this "empty world" context, built capital was the limiting factor, while natural capital and social capital were abundant. It made sense, in that context, not to worry too much about environmental and social "externalities" since they could be assumed to be relatively small and ultimately solvable. It made sense to focus on the growth of the market economy, as measured by GDP, as a primary means to improve human welfare. It made sense, in that context, to think of the economy as only marketed goods and services and to think of the goal as increasing the amount of these goods and services produced and consumed. But the world has changed dramatically. We now live in a world relatively full of humans and their built capital infrastructure. In this new context, we have to first remember that the goal of the economy is to sustainably improve human well-being and quality of life. We have to remember that material consumption and GDP are merely means to that end, not ends in themselves. We have to recognize, as both ancient wisdom and new psychological research tell us, that material consumption beyond real need can actually reduce well-being. We have to better understand what really does contribute to sustainable human well-being, and recognize the substantial contributions of natural and social capital, which are now the limiting factors in many countries. We have to be able to distinguish between real poverty in terms of low quality of life, and merely low monetary income. Ultimately we have to create a new model of the economy and development that acknowledges this new full world context and vision. This new model of development would be based clearly on the goal of sustainable human well-being. It would use measures of progress that clearly acknowledge this goal. It would acknowledge the importance of ecological sustainability, social fairness, and real economic efficiency. Ecological sustainability implies recognizing that natural and social capital are not infinitely substitutable for built and human capital, and that real biophysical limits exist to the expansion of the market economy. Social fairness implies recognizing that the distribution of wealth is an important determinant of social capital and quality of life. The conventional model has bought into the assumption that the best way to improve welfare is through growth in marketed consumption as measured by GDP. This focus on growth has not improved overall societal welfare and explicit attention to distribution issues is sorely needed. As Robert Frank has argued in his latest book: Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class, economic growth beyond a certain point sets up a "positional arms race" that changes the consumption context and forces everyone to consume too much of positional goods (like houses and cars) at the expense of non-marketed, non-positional goods and services from natural and social capital. For example, this drive to consume more positional goods leads people to reach beyond their means to purchase ever larger and more expensive houses, fueling the housing bubble. It also fuels increasing inequality of income which actually reduces overall societal well-being, not just for the poor, but across the income spectrum. Real economic efficiency implies including all resources that affect sustainable human well-being in the allocation system, not just marketed goods and services. Our current market allocation system excludes most non-marketed natural and social capital assets and services that are critical contributors to human well-being. The current economic model ignores this and therefore does not achieve real economic efficiency. A new, sustainable ecological economic model would measure and include the contributions of natural and social capital and could better approximate real economic efficiency. The new model would also acknowledge that a complex range of property rights regimes are necessary to adequately manage the full range of resources that contribute to human well-being. For example, most natural and social capital assets are public goods. Making them private property does not work well. On the other hand, leaving them as open access resources (with no property rights) does not work well either. What is needed is a third way to propertize these resources without privatizing them. Several new (and old) common property rights systems have been proposed to achieve this goal, including various forms of common property trusts. The role of government also needs to be reinvented. In addition to government's role in regulating and policing the private market economy, it has a significant role to play in expanding the "commons sector", that can propertize and manage non-marketed natural and social capital assets. It also has a major role as facilitator of societal development of a shared vision of what a sustainable and desirable future would look like. As Tom Prugh, myself, and Herman Daly have argued in our book "The Local Politics of Global Sustainability," strong democracy based on developing a shared vision is an essential prerequisite to building a sustainable and desirable future. Conclusion The long term solution to the financial crisis is therefore to move beyond the "growth at all costs" economic model to a model that recognizes the real costs and benefits of growth. We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, over-consumption, and the current economic model and create a more sustainable and desirable future that focuses on quality of life rather than merely quantity of consumption. It will not be easy; it will require a new vision, new measures, and new institutions. It will require a redesign of our entire society. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to. Robert.Costanza@uvm.edu ________________________________ SUGGESTED CITATION: Robert Costanza, "Toward a new sustainable economy", real-world economics review, issue no. 49, 12 March 2009, pp. 20-21, http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue49/Costanza49.pdf ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From netcfs at shaw.ca Tue Mar 24 01:00:24 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Tue Mar 24 01:00:56 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy In-Reply-To: <011201c9ac49$136fe4a0$56ad57ca@jfos> References: <011201c9ac49$136fe4a0$56ad57ca@jfos> Message-ID: <1237881624.4540.76.camel@localhost> Dear Mai-Notters: I take the following quotes from John Foster's message of March 24 at 17:21 +1100, 1. "The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. 2. (a) new model of development would be based clearly on the goal of sustainable human well-being. It would use measures of progress that clearly acknowledge this goal. It would acknowledge the importance of ecological sustainability, social fairness, and real economic efficiency. Ecological sustainability implies recognizing that natural and social capital are not infinitely substitutable for built and human capital, and that real biophysical limits exist to the expansion of the market economy. 3. The long term solution to the financial crisis is therefore to move beyond the "growth at all costs" economic model to a model that recognizes the real costs and benefits of growth. 4. We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, over-consumption, and the current economic model and create a more sustainable and desirable future that focuses on quality of life rather than merely quantity of consumption. 5. It will not be easy; it will require a new vision, new measures, and new institutions. It will require a redesign of our entire society. 6. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to. My comments: 1. Quotes 3.,4., 5., and 6., are from Robert Costanza's conclusion. 2. The key questions and comments that come to my mind after reading the paper and extracting the quotes are: * re Quote 5: How is he proposing to do that? If you are in agreement with this requirement, how do you propose to do it? * In Quote 4 : why does Robert Costanza chose the verb "can" and not "must"? Because I know that if we don't do that our "civilization" has had it in the very short term, historically speaking. The sequence is rather than his "we can", "we must, but can we? There is no time to waste, the necessary technologies, management and communication methods exist, but they are under the control of persons or organizations that are apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the problems as they are within a human context of public anaesthesia, indifference and/or despair. These two aspects of the problem are the first and major obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? How, where and when? * Quotes 3 and 6 are in my opinion motherhood and apple pie. * The question then is: does anyone among you have an idea about how to respond to the ways these two obstacles can effectively be overcome before it is too late? Good night, It is 1.00 AM in my part of the world Yves Bajard (as a person, not as a list owner or moderator or whatever you want to call me) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090324/bc015a86/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Tue Mar 24 20:17:11 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Tue Mar 24 20:17:57 2009 Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy References: <011201c9ac49$136fe4a0$56ad57ca@jfos> <1237881624.4540.76.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <004f01c9acf8$3118b720$41ad57ca@jfos> "There is no time to waste, the necessary technologies, management and communication methods exist, but they are under the control of persons or organizations that are apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the problems as they are within a human context of public anaesthesia, indifference and/or despair. These two aspects of the problem are the first and major obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? How, where and when?" Who can do that? - Those whose livelihoods and families are in immanent jeopardy/danger/peril from the pernicious system and its beneficiaries. How, where and when? - Only by taking organised, collective, direct action to remove from office those who continue to benefit or profit most from the dominant mode of production and distribution extant. Where? - Wherever adequate numbers of those who are adversely impacted by the latest 'crisis' in the global(ised) Capitalist system reach the conclusion that they must 'act now' to protect their livelihoods ('jobs', careers etc.), their homes, their public schools, public hospitals, public transport networks and communities from the predations of those intent upon continuing their exploitation and ab-use of the natural and social capital currently under their ill-gotten ownership or control. When? - As soon as sufficient numbers of the working class and so-called 'middle class' sheeple hurt badly enough to trigger mass public rallies, demonstrations, withdrawl of their labour and refusal to consume the governmental and corporate ideologies, products, commodities and credit facilities thrust upon them. With Western politicians, corporate types, religious 'leaders' and the great bulk of academics all part of the problem, the dearth of socially progressive leadership to date has enabled the exploiters/predators to thrive ... thus far. However I am firmly of the belief that from the increase in organised and spontaneous resistance or dissent we are about to witness will emerge new leaders capable of showing the way towards a more humane, just, rational and sustainable future for humankind. Bear in mind, at all times, however, that such a 'utopian' scenario cannot and will not be achieved without a prolonged and bitter struggle. And should you happen to be lucky enough to survive the maelstrom, remember that the revolution MUST be made PERMANENT or ONGOING, if the mass of the 'ordinary' (working class)people and our beautiful but increasingly fragile planet, and the myriad other species it contains, are to survive. john foster Victoria, Australia. ----- Original Message ----- From: Yves Bajard To: A renewed Mai-Not Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:00 PM Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy Dear Mai-Notters: I take the following quotes from John Foster's message of March 24 at 17:21 +1100, 1. "The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. 2. (a) new model of development would be based clearly on the goal of sustainable human well-being. It would use measures of progress that clearly acknowledge this goal. It would acknowledge the importance of ecological sustainability, social fairness, and real economic efficiency. Ecological sustainability implies recognizing that natural and social capital are not infinitely substitutable for built and human capital, and that real biophysical limits exist to the expansion of the market economy. 3. The long term solution to the financial crisis is therefore to move beyond the "growth at all costs" economic model to a model that recognizes the real costs and benefits of growth. 4. We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, over-consumption, and the current economic model and create a more sustainable and desirable future that focuses on quality of life rather than merely quantity of consumption. 5. It will not be easy; it will require a new vision, new measures, and new institutions. It will require a redesign of our entire society. 6. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to. My comments: 1. Quotes 3.,4., 5., and 6., are from Robert Costanza's conclusion. 2. The key questions and comments that come to my mind after reading the paper and extracting the quotes are: a.. re Quote 5: How is he proposing to do that? If you are in agreement with this requirement, how do you propose to do it? b.. In Quote 4 : why does Robert Costanza chose the verb "can" and not "must"? Because I know that if we don't do that our "civilization" has had it in the very short term, historically speaking. The sequence is rather than his "we can", "we must, but can we? There is no time to waste, the necessary technologies, management and communication methods exist, but they are under the control of persons or organizations that are apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the problems as they are within a human context of public anaesthesia, indifference and/or despair. These two aspects of the problem are the first and major obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? How, where and when? c.. Quotes 3 and 6 are in my opinion motherhood and apple pie. d.. The question then is: does anyone among you have an idea about how to respond to the ways these two obstacles can effectively be overcome before it is too late? Good night, It is 1.00 AM in my part of the world Yves Bajard (as a person, not as a list owner or moderator or whatever you want to call me) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.278 / Virus Database: 270.11.27/2021 - Release Date: 03/24/09 16:00:00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090325/d890b6dd/attachment.html From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Tue Mar 24 22:33:17 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue Mar 24 23:14:17 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Kasrils on Apartheid Israel; Robert Brenner; Pakistan; El Salvador; Martinique; Darfur; S. Africa; Zimbabwe debate; Ireland Message-ID: <49C9C21D.8090808@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Kasrils on Apartheid Israel; Robert Brenner; Pakistan; El Salvador; Martinique; Darfur; S. Africa; Zimbabwe debate; Ireland * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Who said nearly 50 years ago that Israel was an apartheid state? By Ronnie Kasrils "...a colonial racist mentality which rationalised the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australasia, in Africa from Namibia to the Congo and elsewhere, most clearly has its parallels in Palestine." March 17, 2009 -- At the onset of international "Israel Apartheid Week" in solidarity with the embattled Palestinian people, I want to start by quoting a South African who emphatically stated as far back as 1963 that "Israel is an apartheid state". Those were not the words of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu or Joe Slovo, but were uttered by none other than the architect of apartheid itself, racist Prime Minister Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd. * Read more Robert Brenner: A Marxist explanation for the current capitalist economic crisis Marxist economist Robert Brenner was interviewed by Seongjin Jeong for Hankyoreh, one of South Korea's leading daily newspapers. The interview was published on January 22, 2009. * Read more Pakistan: Eyewitness report -- `the power of the state was helpless in front of the power of the street' [Ammar Ali Jan, youth secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan in Lahore (LPP), will be one of several international guests at the the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia, April 10-12. For more information, or to book tickets, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org .] By Ammar Ali Jan Lahore, March 16, 2009 -- We all are ecstatic about what happened in Lahore on the March 15, 2009. This day will be remembered as one where the power of the state seemed helpless in front of the power of the street. The most crucial moment during the day was the battle at the GPO that galvanised the entire city into action. The scene of almost 150 people battling a repressive police and forcing it to retreat will remain in the collective memory of our nation for a very long time to come. * Read more El Salvador: FMLN president-elect promises `to benefit the poor'; Chavez congratulates Funes March 15, 2009 -- Telesur -- The president-elect of El Salvador Mauricio Funes, together with his supporters, celebrated the victory in the elections held today in this Central American country, giving a speech in which he said that with their vote the people had signed "a new accord on peace and reconciliation". * Read more Sydney, April 10-12 (Easter), 2009: World at a Crossroads - Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century World At a Crossroads: Fighting for Socialism in the 21st Century * Read more Venezuela: Confronting capitalism's crisis with more revolution By Manuel Sanchez Caracas, March 14, 2009 -- In some countries, the severe crisis of capitalism has resulted in a realignment of respective governments with the imperialist powers -- and the adoption of different forms of cut backs that affect the living conditions of the majority. In the Venezuela, the opposite is occurring. * Read more LPP: 'A new Pakistan is emerging' Statement issued by Labour Party Pakistan (LPP) at a press conference in Lahore addressed by LPP spokesperson Farooq Tariq, in the company of Ammar Ali Jan, LPP Lahore youth secretary, secretary LPP Punjab Imtiaz Choudry, Lahore LPP committee member Rana Ashraf, secretary Carpet Workers' Union Niaz Khan and Kashif Aslam of the Progressive Youth Front. * Read more 250,000th visit to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal At some time just before midnight on March 19, 2009, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal received its 250,000th visit since records began being kept on April 4, 2008. Almost 343,000 articles were read in that period. Don't YOU miss an article, subscribe at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 . * Read more Martinique general strike ends in victory: Mobilisations, victories in overseas colonies set example for French workers By Richard Fidler March 18, 2009 -- A 38-day general strike in the Caribbean colony of Martinique ended March 14 with the signing of a protocol between the government and the February 5 Collective, a coalition of trade unions and other social movements named after the day the strike began. The agreement grants the coalition's key demands. About 20,000 people celebrated the historic victory in a march through the streets. * Read more Let Darfurian and Sudanese voices be heard By Kevin Funk and Steven Fake March 9, 2009 -- When the Save Darfur Coalition held a rally on April 30, 2006, drawing thousands to Washington DC, it was a watershed for Darfur activism in the US. Save Darfur's advocacy efforts enjoyed a moment in the sun, the culmination of an aggressive and well-funded media campaign. Yet the rally also symbolised another, less-reported aspect of Darfur activism in the US: the tendency to marginalise Darfurian and Sudanese voices. * Read more South Africa: A critique of the ANC and COPE election manifestos On April 22, 2009, South African voters go to the polls to elect a new national government. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) government will be opposed by a new split-away group, the Congress of the People (COPE), led by former ANC leaders opposed to the current ANC leader Jacob Zuma. Below, the Anti-Privatisation Forum's Dale McKinley assesses their policies. * Read more Concerned African Scholars: Reflections on Mahmood Mamdani's 'Lessons of Zimbabwe' [Below is the introduction to a special issue of the Concerned African Scholars debating prominent African intellectual Mahmood Mamdani's views on the regime of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. It contains links to the various contributions and to the table of contents. Interested readers are encouraged to explore the linked articles thoroughly. * Read more Irish left responses to recent armed attacks in northern Ireland By Kerry Fitzpatrick Belfast, March 13, 2009 -- The killing of two British soldiers and a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer by Irish republicans opposed to the peace process have threatened to destabilise the political situation in the six counties in the north of Ireland still claimed by Britain. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 _______________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090325/4dc87d4e/attachment.html From netcfs at shaw.ca Wed Mar 25 11:18:56 2009 From: netcfs at shaw.ca (Yves Bajard) Date: Wed Mar 25 11:19:24 2009 Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy In-Reply-To: <004f01c9acf8$3118b720$41ad57ca@jfos> References: <011201c9ac49$136fe4a0$56ad57ca@jfos> <1237881624.4540.76.camel@localhost> <004f01c9acf8$3118b720$41ad57ca@jfos> Message-ID: <1238005136.15482.48.camel@localhost> Re John Foster's reply to my recent message, on Wednesday March 25, 2009 at 14:17 +1100 for which I thank him. I leave it below, for easier reference. There are quite a few of his points with which I cannot agree. Not knowing him at all does not help me responding, but I'll try. I had made a few comments and raised a few questions about the Robert Costanza's article he proposed to us all: And in reply, John proposes answers to the questions I had raised: 1. My question: Who can do that? - John's answer: Those whose livelihoods and families are in immanent jeopardy/danger/peril from the pernicious system and its beneficiaries My comment: Ok, Then, it should be all of us, Mai-Notters and others, some 6.8 Billion of us, minus a few irreductible stalwarts But my question is: who among all of these will actually trigger the change of rate in the engines of Society and direction at the helm(there are actually several "helms") around the world that will place us all on a sound path where everyone can live adequately without destroying more among our fellow humans and in the ecological context than has already been destroyed? Please thing about it, and try to be specific in you answer (to yourself or to the list as you like). 2 My question: How, where and when? - John's answer: Only by taking organised, collective, direct action to remove from office those who continue to benefit or profit most from the dominant mode of production and distribution extant. My comment: Who then are those who will replace those that have collectively been removed from their office? And is the problem limited to a new more just "mode of production and distribution" ? And how is the "collective, direct action" going to be organized. launched and managed? By whom, and on the basis of what criteria will this happen? When can it begin? Who will trigger this proces? and how can it be carried out without increasing the damage already made to the ecosystems (and to the parts of society which will be engaged in or submitted to the "direct action"?? By the way, what will this "direct action" consist of? 3. My question: Where? - John's answer: Wherever adequate numbers of those who are adversely impacted by the latest 'crisis' in the global(ised) Capitalist system reach the conclusion that they must 'act now' to protect their livelihoods ('jobs', careers etc.), their homes, their public schools, public hospitals, public transport networks and communities from the predations of those intent upon continuing their exploitation and ab-use of the natural and social capital currently under their ill-gotten ownership or control. My comment: In other words: anywhere and everywhere. In any event, what does he mean by "adequate numbers"? and again, the problem is not the crisis weare experiencing now, but the causes of that crisis.. We need to dig deeper. His is a typical old-marxist reply.. No account taken fo the overload of the planet by our species. 4. My question: When? - John's answer: As soon as sufficient numbers of the working class and so-called 'middle class' sheeple hurt badly enough to trigger mass public rallies, demonstrations, withdrawl of their labour and refusal to consume the governmental and corporate ideologies, products, commodities and credit facilities thrust upon them. My comment: same as for question 4 5. John's final points: With Western politicians, corporate types, religious 'leaders' and the great bulk of academics all part of the problem, the dearth of socially progressive leadership to date has enabled the exploiters/predators to thrive ... thus far. However I am firmly of the belief that from the increase in organised and spontaneous resistance or dissent we are about to witness will emerge new leaders capable of showing the way towards a more humane, just, rational and sustainable future for humankind. Bear in mind, at all times, however, that such a 'utopian' scenario cannot and will not be achieved without a prolonged and bitter struggle. And should you happen to be lucky enough to survive the maelstrom, remember that the revolution MUST be made PERMANENT or ONGOING, if the mass of the 'ordinary' (working class)people and our beautiful but increasingly fragile planet, and the myriad other species it contains, are to survive. My comment: It is too easy to focus on specific groups of sinners, and to look at one self as pure and innocent. WE are ALL part of the problem, because just because we live in this society, we are a mix of predators and of predators. We all "thrive" relatively to poorer people. And I don't know for john, but however low my level of comfort may be, it is still superior by far to a Kenyan sawmill worker, and street sweeper in Bangladesh and the likes. John's use of words such as "maelstrom", "revolution", " prolonged and bitter struggle" suggests that he sees that the transition can only be brought about by fighting. Has he thought or tried to assess the cost of such fights to (1) the fighting parties, (b) the others, and (c) the ecological context? With the fact that * we live in a socio-economic- and cultural model that was first conceived in rough form twelve thousand years ago, when the world population was somewhere between one and ten million, * we are now 6.8 billion still growing * and th model has been perfected though time to where it stands now is there a chance in Hell for anybody to survive the conflict which he advocates? For your reflection, all of you.. Best regards, Yves Bajard ======================== John's integral text of his reply to my statements ============== > There is no time to waste, the necessary > technologies, management and communication methods exist, but > they are under the control of persons or organizations that > are > apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the problems as they > are within a human context of public anaesthesia, indifference > and/or despair. These two aspects of the problem are the first > and major obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? > How, where and when?" > > Who can do that? - Those whose livelihoods and families are in > immanent jeopardy/danger/peril from the pernicious system and its > beneficiaries. > > How, where and when? - Only by taking organised, collective, direct > action to remove from office those who continue to benefit or profit > most from the dominant mode of production and distribution extant. > > Where? - Wherever adequate numbers of those who are adversely impacted > by the latest 'crisis' in the global(ised) Capitalist system reach the > conclusion that they must 'act now' to protect their livelihoods > ('jobs', careers etc.), their homes, their public schools, public > hospitals, public transport networks and communities from the > predations of those intent upon continuing their exploitation > and ab-use of the natural and social capital currently under their > ill-gotten ownership or control. > > When? - As soon as sufficient numbers of the working class and > so-called 'middle class' sheeple hurt badly enough to trigger mass > public rallies, demonstrations, withdrawl of their labour and refusal > to consume the governmental and corporate ideologies, products, > commodities and credit facilities thrust upon them. > > With Western politicians, corporate types, religious 'leaders' and the > great bulk of academics all part of the problem, the dearth of > socially progressive leadership to date has enabled the > exploiters/predators to thrive ... thus far. However I am firmly of > the belief that from the increase in organised and spontaneous > resistance or dissent we are about to witness will emerge new leaders > capable of showing the way towards a more humane, just, rational and > sustainable future for humankind. > > Bear in mind, at all times, however, that such a 'utopian' scenario > cannot and will not be achieved without a prolonged and bitter > struggle. And should you happen to be lucky enough to survive the > maelstrom, remember that the revolution MUST be made PERMANENT or > ONGOING, if the mass of the 'ordinary' (working class)people and our > beautiful but increasingly fragile planet, and the myriad other > species it contains, are to survive. > > john foster > Victoria, Australia. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Yves Bajard > To: A renewed Mai-Not > Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:00 PM > Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable > economy > > > Dear Mai-Notters: > > I take the following quotes from John Foster's message of > March 24 at 17:21 +1100, > > 1. "The current financial meltdown is the result of > under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market > capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental > problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology > are not consistent with what we now know about the real state > of the world. > > 2. (a) new model of development would be based clearly on the > goal of sustainable human well-being. It would use measures of > progress that clearly acknowledge this goal. It would > acknowledge the importance of ecological sustainability, > social fairness, and real economic efficiency. Ecological > sustainability implies recognizing that natural and social > capital are not infinitely substitutable for built and human > capital, and that real biophysical limits exist to the > expansion of the market economy. > > 3. The long term solution to the financial crisis is therefore > to move beyond the "growth at all costs" economic model to a > model that recognizes the real costs and benefits of growth. > > 4. We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, > over-consumption, and the current economic model and create a > more sustainable and desirable future that focuses on quality > of life rather than merely quantity of consumption. > > 5. It will not be easy; it will require a new vision, new > measures, and new institutions. It will require a redesign of > our entire society. > > 6. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this > addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to. > > My comments: > > 1. Quotes 3.,4., 5., and 6., are from Robert Costanza's > conclusion. > > 2. The key questions and comments that come to my mind after > reading the paper and extracting the quotes are: > * re Quote 5: How is he proposing to do that? If you are > in agreement with this requirement, how do you propose > to do it? > * In Quote 4 : why does Robert Costanza chose the verb > "can" and not "must"? Because I know that if we don't > do that our "civilization" has had it in the very > short term, historically speaking. The sequence is > rather than his "we can", "we must, but can we? There > is no time to waste, the necessary technologies, > management and communication methods exist, but they > are under the control of persons or organizations that > are apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the > problems as they are within a human context of public > anaesthesia, indifference and/or despair. These two > aspects of the problem are the first and major > obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? > How, where and when? > * Quotes 3 and 6 are in my opinion motherhood and apple > pie. > * The question then is: does anyone among you have an > idea about how to respond to the ways these two > obstacles can effectively be overcome before it is too > late? > > Good night, It is 1.00 AM in my part of the world > > Yves Bajard (as a person, not as a list owner or moderator or > whatever you want to call me) > > > ______________________________________________________________ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.278 / Virus Database: 270.11.27/2021 - Release > Date: 03/24/09 16:00:00 > > _______________________________________________ > Mai-not mailing list > Mai-not@globalproblematique.net > http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090325/21f20ede/attachment-0001.html From thinker at thelakebc.ca Wed Mar 25 16:10:42 2009 From: thinker at thelakebc.ca (Ed Deak) Date: Wed Mar 25 15:11:28 2009 Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy In-Reply-To: <1238005136.15482.48.camel@localhost> References: <011201c9ac49$136fe4a0$56ad57ca@jfos> <1237881624.4540.76.camel@localhost> <004f01c9acf8$3118b720$41ad57ca@jfos> <1238005136.15482.48.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <200903252211.n2PMB1iC007868@karma.reboot.ca> Since 1985, when I first discovered that the still used definition, and law, of economic efficiency as "The biggest profits for the lowest monetary inputs" was fraud that already then was causing the biggest crime wave in human history, my main interest has been the establishment of an economic system based on physical laws, which couldn't be used, or distorted into environmental and human enslavement and destruction, as they apply equally tto and on any and everybody. As the survival of all life forms, for every second of their existence, depends on the conversion of resources into energy, what we call "wealth" is the temporary control of energy. Although I never really thought about this before, having read this exchange, I would say that democracy could also be defined in physical terms, as something like "Individual, or public control, over the distribution of energy". Right now, and under all imperial, or fascist systems the distribution always has been and still is in the hands of power elites, who skim off and steal the most benefits and the real purpose of democracy should be the prevention of this thievery. However it can never be achieved under any ideological, or ideology based economic theory or system, because they can all be distorted into the legalization of crimes. As we can witness it in our daily lives today, with the biggest thievery and crime wave going on under our eyes, legalized and enforced by fraudulent theories students are brainwashed with in our universities and called "sciences". Cheers, Ed. At 10:18 AM 25/03/2009, you wrote: >Re John Foster's reply to my recent message, on Wednesday March 25, >2009 at 14:17 +1100 for which I thank him. >I leave it below, for easier reference. > >There are quite a few of his points with which I cannot agree. Not >knowing him at all does not help me responding, but I'll try. > >I had made a few comments and raised a few questions about the >Robert Costanza's article he proposed to us all: > >And in reply, John proposes answers to the questions I had raised: > >1. My question: Who can do that? - > >John's answer: Those whose livelihoods and families are in immanent >jeopardy/danger/peril from the pernicious system and its beneficiaries > >My comment: Ok, Then, it should be all of us, Mai-Notters and >others, some 6.8 Billion of us, minus a few irreductible >stalwarts But my question is: who among all of these will actually >trigger the change of rate in the engines of Society and direction >at the helm(there are actually several "helms") around the world >that will place us all on a sound path where everyone can live >adequately without destroying more among our fellow humans and in >the ecological context than has already been destroyed? Please thing >about it, and try to be specific in you answer (to yourself or to >the list as you like). > > >2 My question: How, where and when? - > >John's answer: Only by taking organised, collective, direct action >to remove from office those who continue to benefit or profit most >from the dominant mode of production and distribution extant. > >My comment: Who then are those who will replace those that have >collectively been removed from their office? And is the problem >limited to a new more just "mode of production and distribution" ? >And how is the "collective, direct action" going to be organized. >launched and managed? By whom, and on the basis of what criteria >will this happen? When can it begin? Who will trigger this proces? >and how can it be carried out without increasing the damage already >made to the ecosystems (and to the parts of society which will be >engaged in or submitted to the "direct action"?? By the way, what >will this "direct action" consist of? > >3. My question: Where? - > >John's answer: Wherever adequate numbers of those who are adversely >impacted by the latest 'crisis' in the global(ised) Capitalist >system reach the conclusion that they must 'act now' to protect >their livelihoods ('jobs', careers etc.), their homes, their public >schools, public hospitals, public transport networks and >communities from the predations of those intent upon continuing >their exploitation and ab-use of the natural and social capital >currently under their ill-gotten ownership or control. > >My comment: In other words: anywhere and everywhere. In any event, >what does he mean by "adequate numbers"? and again, the problem is >not the crisis weare experiencing now, but the causes of that >crisis.. We need to dig deeper. His is a typical old-marxist reply.. >No account taken fo the overload of the planet by our species. > >4. My question: When? - > >John's answer: As soon as sufficient numbers of the working class >and so-called 'middle class' sheeple hurt badly enough to trigger >mass public rallies, demonstrations, withdrawl of their labour and >refusal to consume the governmental and corporate ideologies, >products, commodities and credit facilities thrust upon them. > >My comment: same as for question 4 > >5. John's final points: With Western politicians, corporate types, >religious 'leaders' and the great bulk of academics all part of the >problem, the dearth of socially progressive leadership to date has >enabled the exploiters/predators to thrive ... thus far. However I >am firmly of the belief that from the increase in organised and >spontaneous resistance or dissent we are about to witness will >emerge new leaders capable of showing the way towards a more humane, >just, rational and sustainable future for humankind. > >Bear in mind, at all times, however, that such a 'utopian' scenario >cannot and will not be achieved without a prolonged and bitter >struggle. And should you happen to be lucky enough to survive the >maelstrom, remember that the revolution MUST be made PERMANENT or >ONGOING, if the mass of the 'ordinary' (working class)people and our >beautiful but increasingly fragile planet, and the myriad other >species it contains, are to survive. > >My comment: It is too easy to focus on specific groups of sinners, >and to look at one self as pure and innocent. WE are ALL part of the >problem, because just because we live in this society, we are a mix >of predators and of predators. We all "thrive" relatively to poorer >people. And I don't know for john, but however low my level of >comfort may be, it is still superior by far to a Kenyan sawmill >worker, and street sweeper in Bangladesh and the likes. > >John's use of words such as "maelstrom", "revolution", " prolonged >and bitter struggle" suggests that he sees that the transition can >only be brought about by fighting. Has he thought or tried to >assess the cost of such fights to (1) the fighting parties, (b) the >others, and (c) the ecological context? With the fact that > * we live in a socio-economic- and cultural model that was first > conceived in rough form twelve thousand years ago, when the world > population was somewhere between one and ten million, > * we are now 6.8 billion still growing > * and th model has been perfected though time to where it stands now > >is there a chance in Hell for anybody to survive the conflict which >he advocates? > >For your reflection, all of you.. >Best regards, > >Yves Bajard > > >======================== John's integral text of his reply to my >statements ============== > >> There is no time to waste, the necessary >> technologies, management and communication methods exist, but >> they are under the control of persons or organizations that are >> apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the problems as they >> are within a human context of public anaesthesia, indifference >> and/or despair. These two aspects of the problem are the first >> and major obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? >> How, where and when?" >> >>Who can do that? - Those whose livelihoods and families are in >>immanent jeopardy/danger/peril from the pernicious system and its >>beneficiaries. >> >>How, where and when? - Only by taking organised, collective, direct >>action to remove from office those who continue to benefit or >>profit most from the dominant mode of production and distribution extant. >> >>Where? - Wherever adequate numbers of those who are adversely >>impacted by the latest 'crisis' in the global(ised) Capitalist >>system reach the conclusion that they must 'act now' to protect >>their livelihoods ('jobs', careers etc.), their homes, their public >>schools, public hospitals, public transport networks and >>communities from the predations of those intent upon continuing >>their exploitation and ab-use of the natural and social capital >>currently under their ill-gotten ownership or control. >> >>When? - As soon as sufficient numbers of the working class and >>so-called 'middle class' sheeple hurt badly enough to trigger mass >>public rallies, demonstrations, withdrawl of their labour and >>refusal to consume the governmental and corporate ideologies, >>products, commodities and credit facilities thrust upon them. >> >>With Western politicians, corporate types, religious 'leaders' and >>the great bulk of academics all part of the problem, the dearth of >>socially progressive leadership to date has enabled the >>exploiters/predators to thrive ... thus far. However I am firmly of >>the belief that from the increase in organised and spontaneous >>resistance or dissent we are about to witness will emerge new >>leaders capable of showing the way towards a more humane, just, >>rational and sustainable future for humankind. >> >>Bear in mind, at all times, however, that such a 'utopian' scenario >>cannot and will not be achieved without a prolonged and bitter >>struggle. And should you happen to be lucky enough to survive the >>maelstrom, remember that the revolution MUST be made PERMANENT or >>ONGOING, if the mass of the 'ordinary' (working class)people and >>our beautiful but increasingly fragile planet, and the myriad other >>species it contains, are to survive. >> >>john foster >>Victoria, Australia. >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: Yves Bajard >>To: A renewed Mai-Not >>Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:00 PM >>Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy >> >> >>Dear Mai-Notters: >> >>I take the following quotes from John Foster's message of March 24 >>at 17:21 +1100, >> >>1. "The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated >>markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and >>unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the >>underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with >>what we now know about the real state of the world. >> >>2. (a) new model of development would be based clearly on the goal >>of sustainable human well-being. It would use measures of progress >>that clearly acknowledge this goal. It would acknowledge the >>importance of ecological sustainability, social fairness, and real >>economic efficiency. Ecological sustainability implies recognizing >>that natural and social capital are not infinitely substitutable >>for built and human capital, and that real biophysical limits exist >>to the expansion of the market economy. >> >>3. The long term solution to the financial crisis is therefore to >>move beyond the "growth at all costs" economic model to a model >>that recognizes the real costs and benefits of growth. >> >>4. We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, over-consumption, >>and the current economic model and create a more sustainable and >>desirable future that focuses on quality of life rather than merely >>quantity of consumption. >> >>5. It will not be easy; it will require a new vision, new measures, >>and new institutions. It will require a redesign of our entire society. >> >>6. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this >>addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to. >> >>My comments: >> >>1. Quotes 3.,4., 5., and 6., are from Robert Costanza's conclusion. >> >>2. The key questions and comments that come to my mind after >>reading the paper and extracting the quotes are: >>re Quote 5: How is he proposing to do that? If you are in agreement >>with this requirement, how do you propose to do it? >>In Quote 4 : why does Robert Costanza chose the verb "can" and not >>"must"? Because I know that if we don't do that our "civilization" >>has had it in the very short term, historically speaking. The >>sequence is rather than his "we can", "we must, but can we? There >>is no time to waste, the necessary technologies, management and >>communication methods exist, but they are under the control of >>persons or organizations that are apparently unable or unwilling to >>tackle the problems as they are within a human context of public >>anaesthesia, indifference and/or despair. These two aspects of the >>problem are the first and major obstacles that need to be overcome. >>Who can do that? How, where and when? >>Quotes 3 and 6 are in my opinion motherhood and apple pie. >>The question then is: does anyone among you have an idea about how >>to respond to the ways these two obstacles can effectively be >>overcome before it is too late? >>Good night, It is 1.00 AM in my part of the world >> >>Yves Bajard (as a person, not as a list owner or moderator or >>whatever you want to call me) >> >> >>---------- >> >> >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Mai-not mailing list >>Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >>http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not >> >> >> >>---------- >> >> >> >> >> >>No virus found in this incoming message. >>Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >>Version: 8.5.278 / Virus Database: 270.11.27/2021 - Release Date: >>03/24/09 16:00:00 >> >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>Mai-not mailing list >>Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >>http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not > > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.238 / Virus Database: 270.11.28/2022 - Release Date: >03/25/09 07:16:00 From creuss at bluewin.ch Thu Mar 26 07:35:56 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Thu Mar 26 07:38:44 2009 Subject: Democracy vs. Thievery (was Re: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy) Message-ID: Dear Ed, I'm so glad you're back on the list and completely restored. :-D > I would say that democracy could also be defined in > physical terms, as something like "Individual, or public control, > over the distribution of energy". > > Right now, and under all imperial, or fascist systems the > distribution always has been and still is in the hands of power > elites, who skim off and steal the most benefits and the real purpose > of democracy should be the prevention of this thievery. The problem is that democracy only works on the level of nation-state (and lower levels), but globalization causes transnational corporations and conglomerates (mainly: EU) to take control over nation-states' decisions, so the politicians of nation-states, and even direct-democratic votes, become mere puppets of decision-makers abroad. We have seen it here where the recent votes on international issues were subject to EU blackmail, determining the outcome against the will of the people. (E.g., the "vote" is on whether we want to be reduced to the economic level of Romania and Bulgaria. Brussels simply connects this to the treaties with all Western EU countries, i.e. the blackmail is that either we vote YES or we'll be isolated from our neighboring countries! Neither we nor our neighbors want this, but Brussels dictates this. We're not even an EU member, but we're dictated from Brussels anyway.) The next vote will be on the introduction of biometric passports, and again the blackmail is that "TINA" -- or else, we'll lose freedom to travel and the "essential" Schengen/Dublin treaty... This way, democracy (both direct and representative) becomes a mockery. You can "vote" but you don't really have a choice to prevent the thievery. Cheers, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Thu Mar 26 08:09:32 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Thu Mar 26 08:10:03 2009 Subject: Democracy vs. Thievery (was Re: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090326150933.43623132AB@fep04.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> The standardisation that Chris has described doesn't stop nation-states from breaking out in a DOWNWARD direction -- it is only the setting of higher standards such as the governance standards of Switzerland which is the only democracy in Europe that is being standardised out. Britain, a caste-ridden social backwater, is setting new standards downwards in the direction of a police state with the introduction of exit controls (cf. Stasi East Germany). This is described in the Daily Smelly which, Tory though it is, is the only news outlet in Britain that seems game to tell of it. On exiting Britain a couple of weeks ago I saw it in action - an extra barrier has sprung up at Heathrow for leaving travellers of all nationalities including British to show their passports a FOURTH time on the way through, not for airport security - the securocrat at the barrier informed me - but for exit control and surveillance. See the description of the new police state scheme at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4987415/All-travel-plans-to-be-tracked-by-Government.html Only a population that has for centuries (ever since 1066?) raised obsequiousness to an art form would cop it. I doubt if it would pass muster even in America. Dion Giles At 23:35 26/03/2009, Criss Reuss wrote: >Dear Ed, > >I'm so glad you're back on the list and completely restored. :-D > > > I would say that democracy could also be defined in > > physical terms, as something like "Individual, or public control, > > over the distribution of energy". > > > > Right now, and under all imperial, or fascist systems the > > distribution always has been and still is in the hands of power > > elites, who skim off and steal the most benefits and the real purpose > > of democracy should be the prevention of this thievery. > >The problem is that democracy only works on the level of nation-state >(and lower levels), but globalization causes transnational corporations >and conglomerates (mainly: EU) to take control over nation-states' >decisions, so the politicians of nation-states, and even direct-democratic >votes, become mere puppets of decision-makers abroad. We have seen it >here where the recent votes on international issues were subject to >EU blackmail, determining the outcome against the will of the people. > >(E.g., the "vote" is on whether we want to be reduced to the economic >level of Romania and Bulgaria. Brussels simply connects this to the >treaties with all Western EU countries, i.e. the blackmail is that >either we vote YES or we'll be isolated from our neighboring countries! >Neither we nor our neighbors want this, but Brussels dictates this. >We're not even an EU member, but we're dictated from Brussels anyway.) > >The next vote will be on the introduction of biometric passports, and >again the blackmail is that "TINA" -- or else, we'll lose freedom to travel >and the "essential" Schengen/Dublin treaty... > >This way, democracy (both direct and representative) becomes a mockery. >You can "vote" but you don't really have a choice to prevent the thievery. > >Cheers, >Chris > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From creuss at bluewin.ch Thu Mar 26 11:47:19 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Thu Mar 26 11:50:17 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Soros made Billions off the "Crisis" Message-ID: This reminds me of that joke about Rummy: Q: How did Rummy KNOW that Saddam has WMDs? A: Rummy still had the receipts! And how did Soros KNOW the big crash was coming (and how to gain)....? Well, the crash was "the culminating point of [Soros'] life's work"! In other words, he MANUFACTURED the crash, in order to gain from it... (makes sense for "the man who broke the bank of England" long ago already!) Chris http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164771/Im-having-good-cri sis-says-hedge-fund-manager-1billion-world-plunged-recession.html 'I'm having a very good crisis,' says Soros as hedge fund managers make billions off recession By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 5:13 PM on 25th March 2009 George Soros said the current economic crisis has been the culmination of his life's work A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been 'stimulating' and the culmination of his life's work. George Soros, who predicted the global financial crisis twice before, was one of the few people to anticipate and prepare for the current economic collapse. Mr Soros said his prediction meant he was better able to brace his Quantum investment fund against the gloabal storm. But other investors failed to take notice of his prediction and his decision to come out of retirement in 2007 to manage the fund made him $US2.9 billion. And while the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the 78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year. 'It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life?s work,' he told national newspaper The Australian. Soros is one of 25, top hedge fund managers from across Wall Street who have defied the credit crunch crisis to reap a total of $11.6billion (?7.9bn) last year. The managers made their profit by trading above the pain in the markets, according to Institutional Investor?s Alpha Magazine. Former maths professor James H. Simons, who has made billions in hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, earned $2.5 billion running computer-driven trading strategies. And John A. Paulson, who made his fortune by betting against the housing market, came in second earning $2 billion. Big hitters: John Paulson and James H Simons were part of a group of 25 hedge fund managers who make a total of $11.6bn The managers made the profit in a year when losses were recorded at two of every three hedge funds and when hedge funds lost an average of 18 percent, according to the New York Times. Two of the three managers who tied for ninth place, at $250 million, are based in Britain and include David Harding of Winton Capital and Alan Howard of Brevan Howard Asset Management. Another Brevan Howard employee Christopher Rokos also made the list. The profit comes at a time when the U.S Government is scrutinising Wall Street pay and when hedge funds are facing proposals for new taxes on their gains. Despite the global financial crisis, the combined pay of the top 25 hedge fund managers still managed to top every year before 2006. Mr. Paulson said his pay was high, partly because he is the largest investor in his fund and that he did not receive a bonus. He said the the pensions, endowments and other institutions which invest in his fund do not object to the profits he and his team make. 'In a year when all their other investments lost money, we?re like an oasis,' he said in the Times. 'We have investors who were invested with Madoff, and they can?t thank me enough.' Alpha Magazine's 2008 Top Moneymakers 1 - James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp, $2.5 billion 2 - John Paulson, Paulson & Co, $2 billion 3 - John Arnold, Centaurus Energy, $1.5 billion 4 - George Soros, Soros Fund Management, $1.1 billion 5 - Raymond Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, $780 million 6 - Bruce Kovner, Caxton Associates, $640 million 7 - David Shaw, D.E. Shaw & Co, $275 million 8 - Stanley Druckenmiller, Duquesne Capital Management, $260 million 9 - (tie) David Harding, Winton Capital Management, $250 million 9 - (tie) Alan Howard, Brevan Howard Asset Management, $250 million 9 - (tie) John Taylor Jr, FX Concepts, $250 million Profiles for hedge fund managers ranked 12 through 25 will be available tomorrow: 12 - James Chanos, Kynikos Associates 13 - Michael Platt, BlueCrest Capital Management 14 - Roy Niederhoffer, R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management 15 - John Horseman, Horseman Capital Management 16 - Paul Touradji, Touradji Capital Management 17 - Henry Laufer, Renaissance Technologies Corp. 18 - Kenneth Tropin, Graham Capital Management 19 - (tie) Pierre Andurand, Dennis Crema, BlueGold Capital Management 19 - (tie) Christopher Rokos, Brevan Howard Asset Management 22 - (tie) Christian Baha, Superfund 22 - (tie) Christian Levett, Clive Capital 24 - William Dunn, Dunn Capital Management 25 - Andrew Hoine, Paulson & Co. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From diongiles1 at aapt.net.au Thu Mar 26 16:31:49 2009 From: diongiles1 at aapt.net.au (Dion Giles) Date: Thu Mar 26 16:32:59 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Soros made Billions off the "Crisis" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090326233150.A9D9312DD6@fep08.mfe.bur.connect.com.au> Not one of these 27 parasites has created one brass cent's worth of value. No goods. No services. Only grabbing. No economic theory, not neoliberal, not Keynsian, not any other variant which is not based on matching income to value personally created is anything other than pure self-serving codswallop. Dion Giles At 03:47 27/03/2009, you wrote: >This reminds me of that joke about Rummy: > > Q: How did Rummy KNOW that Saddam has WMDs? > A: Rummy still had the receipts! > >And how did Soros KNOW the big crash was coming (and how to gain)....? >Well, the crash was "the culminating point of [Soros'] life's work"! >In other words, he MANUFACTURED the crash, in order to gain from it... >(makes sense for "the man who broke the bank of England" long ago already!) > >Chris > > >http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1164771/Im-having-good-cri >sis-says-hedge-fund-manager-1billion-world-plunged-recession.html > > >'I'm having a very good crisis,' says Soros as hedge fund managers make >billions off recession > > By Mail Foreign Service > Last updated at 5:13 PM on 25th March 2009 > >George Soros said the current economic crisis has been the culmination of >his life's work > >A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the >financial crisis has been 'stimulating' and the culmination of his life's >work. > >George Soros, who predicted the global financial crisis twice before, was >one of the few people to anticipate and prepare for the current economic >collapse. > >Mr Soros said his prediction meant he was better able to brace his Quantum >investment fund against the gloabal storm. > >But other investors failed to take notice of his prediction and his >decision to come out of retirement in 2007 to manage the fund made him >$US2.9 billion. > >And while the financial crisis continued to deepen across the globe, the >78-year-old still managed to make $1.1 billion last year. > >'It is, in a way, the culminating point of my life?s work,' he told >national newspaper The Australian. > >Soros is one of 25, top hedge fund managers from across Wall Street who >have defied the credit crunch crisis to reap a total of $11.6billion >(?7.9bn) last year. > >The managers made their profit by trading above the pain in the markets, >according to Institutional Investor?s Alpha Magazine. > >Former maths professor James H. Simons, who has made billions in hedge >fund Renaissance Technologies, earned $2.5 billion running computer-driven >trading strategies. > >And John A. Paulson, who made his fortune by betting against the housing >market, came in second earning $2 billion. > >Big hitters: John Paulson and James H Simons were part of a group of 25 >hedge fund managers who make a total of $11.6bn > >The managers made the profit in a year when losses were recorded at two of >every three hedge funds and when hedge funds lost an average of 18 percent, >according to the New York Times. > >Two of the three managers who tied for ninth place, at $250 million, are >based in Britain and include David Harding of Winton Capital and Alan >Howard of Brevan Howard Asset Management. > >Another Brevan Howard employee Christopher Rokos also made the list. >The profit comes at a time when the U.S Government is scrutinising Wall >Street pay and when hedge funds are facing proposals for new taxes on their >gains. > >Despite the global financial crisis, the combined pay of the top 25 hedge >fund managers still managed to top every year before 2006. > >Mr. Paulson said his pay was high, partly because he is the largest >investor in his fund and that he did not receive a bonus. > >He said the the pensions, endowments and other institutions which invest in >his fund do not object to the profits he and his team make. > >'In a year when all their other investments lost money, we?re like an >oasis,' he said in the Times. > >'We have investors who were invested with Madoff, and they can?t thank me >enough.' > > >Alpha Magazine's 2008 Top Moneymakers > >1 - James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp, $2.5 billion >2 - John Paulson, Paulson & Co, $2 billion >3 - John Arnold, Centaurus Energy, $1.5 billion >4 - George Soros, Soros Fund Management, $1.1 billion >5 - Raymond Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, $780 million >6 - Bruce Kovner, Caxton Associates, $640 million >7 - David Shaw, D.E. Shaw & Co, $275 million >8 - Stanley Druckenmiller, Duquesne Capital Management, $260 million >9 - (tie) David Harding, Winton Capital Management, $250 million >9 - (tie) Alan Howard, Brevan Howard Asset Management, $250 million >9 - (tie) John Taylor Jr, FX Concepts, $250 million > >Profiles for hedge fund managers ranked 12 through 25 will be available >tomorrow: >12 - James Chanos, Kynikos Associates >13 - Michael Platt, BlueCrest Capital Management >14 - Roy Niederhoffer, R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management >15 - John Horseman, Horseman Capital Management >16 - Paul Touradji, Touradji Capital Management >17 - Henry Laufer, Renaissance Technologies Corp. >18 - Kenneth Tropin, Graham Capital Management >19 - (tie) Pierre Andurand, Dennis Crema, BlueGold Capital Management >19 - (tie) Christopher Rokos, Brevan Howard Asset Management >22 - (tie) Christian Baha, Superfund >22 - (tie) Christian Levett, Clive Capital >24 - William Dunn, Dunn Capital Management >25 - Andrew Hoine, Paulson & Co. > > > > > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword >"igve". > > > >_______________________________________________ >Mai-not mailing list >Mai-not@globalproblematique.net >http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not From creuss at bluewin.ch Fri Mar 27 07:39:23 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Fri Mar 27 07:42:06 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] ADL furious over WashPost Cartoon Message-ID: The Universal Press Syndicate defended Oliphant and the Washington Post refused to retract the cartoon. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Oliphant_IsraelGaza_cartoon_called_hideously_a ntiSemitic_0325.html Oliphant Israel-Gaza cartoon called 'hideously anti-Semitic' Jeremy Gantz Published: Wednesday March 25, 2009 The latest cartoon by the most widely syndicated political cartoonist in the world has raised the ire of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism. The ADL's director called the syndicated cartoon, published Wednesday and reprinted below, "hideously anti-Semitic." "Pat Oliphant's outlandish and offensive use of the Star of David in combination with Nazi-like imagery is hideously anti-Semitic," Abraham Foxman said in a statement released Wednesday. "It employs Nazi imagery by portraying Israel as a jack-booted, goose-stepping headless apparition. The implication is of an Israeli policy without a head or a heart." As of late Wednesday, Oliphant had not responded publicly to the ADL's criticism of the cartoon. Israel in late December launched a three-week offensive in Gaza which left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and countless of homes destroyed. The offensive was a retaliation for Palestine rocket attacks on Israeli territory. Rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli military responses have occurred sporadically since the end of the offensive. On Monday, a United Nations expert called called for a probe to assess if the Israeli forces could differentiate between civilian and military targets in Gaza. A U.S. State Department spokesman called that official's views "biased." The cartoon by the Pulitzer-Prize winning Australian native was published by the Washington Post, Slate, and Yahoo! News, among other publications and websites. Oliphant, who has published 20 books collecting his drawings, is no stranger to controversy, having once said that political correctness "drives me crazy." His cartoons upset the Asian American Journalists Association in 2001 and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in 2005. But while Oliphant's work has made him enemies, it has also won him accolades: He has won the National Cartoonist Society Editorial Cartoon Award, along with a Pulitzer. Oliphant's cartoon comes barely one month after a New York Post cartoon depicting a dead chimp triggered protests. Protesters believed the chimp represented President Barack Obama and demanded the newspaper be shut down. Post Publisher Rupert Murdoch later apologized for the cartoon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From ptuffley at xtra.co.nz Fri Mar 27 08:03:41 2009 From: ptuffley at xtra.co.nz (Peter Tuffley) Date: Fri Mar 27 08:04:50 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] ADL furious over WashPost Cartoon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2B5B36D9-DA28-4EFF-93F9-9ADD7030F3D4@xtra.co.nz> On 28/03/2009, at 3:39 AM, Christoph Reuss wrote: > The Universal Press Syndicate defended Oliphant and the Washington > Post > refused to retract the cartoon. > > http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Oliphant_IsraelGaza_cartoon_called_hideously_a > ntiSemitic_0325.html > > Oliphant Israel-Gaza cartoon called 'hideously anti-Semitic' > Ah, the Zionazis' hoary old fallacy: "anitzionist=antisemitic"... P From fresch at ica.net Fri Mar 27 10:38:41 2009 From: fresch at ica.net (Fred Schneider) Date: Fri Mar 27 10:39:00 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd.: "New Green Deal or Not: Industrial Capitalism Is Assured Death" Message-ID: <20090327173840.C9CC8BB2A3@sendmail.ica.net> Forwarded message: March 26, 2009 By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/ CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org (Earth) -- Ecological Internet is pleased to announce the second issue of their "New Earth Rising" e-zine, entitled "Ecological Sustainability, the Growth Machine, and the Financial Crisis" at http://www.newearthrising.org/ . There, nearly a dozen authors explore the implications of the current economic crisis for the survival of the Earth and all her creatures, including humans. In the lead article, entitled "New Green Deal or Not: Industrial Capitalism Is Assured Death"[1], the e-zine's editor, Dr. Glen Barry, critically examines New Green Deal proposals that supposedly will solve climate change while providing jobs. He concludes their focus upon economic stimulus to promote more economic growth, without reining in consumption, human population, natural resource use and ecosystem destruction, will make things worse. The e-zine arose from his earlier critically acclaimed "Earth Meanders" essay series. "Nothing grows forever. It is amazing how few recognize economic decline as the inevitable outcome of an economy based upon growth at the expense of natural ecosystems. Required green policies, such as ending the use of coal and old forest logging, must occur regardless if they create or destroy jobs, just to maintain being," says Dr. Barry. Other articles note local actions to "raise the barn" to weatherize buildings, note the threat to life from speculative capitalism, look forward to a simpler less consumptive life as industrialism ends, and several others intriguing aspects of the economic system as a subset of ecology. These biocentric policy prescriptions come as emerging science reveals that some 24% of land is being permanently degraded[2], Arctic ice caps are set to disappear, and the Amazon is dying releasing its carbon. The Earth is on the verge of ecological collapse and all of our shared survivals are threatened. Only rigorous ecological protection and restoration, and moving our economy to a steady state, can save us now. ### MORE ### Dr. Barry continues, "Renewable energy is about more than jobs. It is about saving a habitable Earth. We must all be for green jobs and a new green deal, but only if their implementation is embedded within policies to strip capitalism of its speculative and industrial excesses. We must understand that no amount of green jobs will allow conspicuous consumption to continue." Ecological Internet is now accepting submissions for the June 2009 issue: "Ecological Sustainability, Freedom and the Stewardship Revolution". We will be academically discussing what may be necessary to save being -- weighing the pros and cons of a "Stewardship Revolution" -- an agrarian, decentralized insurgent revolutionary response to averting full ecological collapse and death of humanity. [1] http://www.newearthrising.org/2009/03/continued- industrial-capitalism-is-assured-death.asp [2] One Quarter Of The World's Population Depends On Degrading Land -- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090320092249.htm ### ENDS ### DISCUSS RELEASE: http://www.ecoearth.info/blog/2009/03/release_new_earth_rising_as_gl.asp ECOLOGICAL INTERNET IS ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER! Find EI on facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Ecological-Internet/84943913664 Follow EI on twitter: http://twitter.com/ecointernet ECOLOGICAL INTERNET'S MOST RECENT ACTION ALERT: Action Alert: Call on U.S. Government to Halt Ecologically Misguided Support for Large Scale Biofuel http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=corn_biofuel ###ENDS### Ecological Internet provides the world's largest and most used climate and environment portals at http://www.climateark.org/ and http://www.ecoearth.info/ . Dr. Glen Barry is a leading global spokesperson on behalf of environmental sustainability policy. He frequently conducts interviews on the latest climate, forest and water policy developments and can be reached at: glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org My home page: "http://home.ica.net/~fresch/index.htm" ======================================== Fred Schneider, 905-279-7199, Fax: same, call first! #37-425 Meadows Blvd. Mississauga, ON, L4Z 1N3 From d_a_d at telusplanet.net Fri Mar 27 10:43:33 2009 From: d_a_d at telusplanet.net (David A Davidson) Date: Fri Mar 27 10:43:58 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] ADL furious over WashPost Cartoon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 67293 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090327/fcd61b61/attachment-0001.gif -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 1107 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090327/fcd61b61/attachment-0001.jpe From creuss at bluewin.ch Fri Mar 27 16:08:51 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Fri Mar 27 16:11:33 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] "Bankers hanging from lampposts" Message-ID: <> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/03/26/anarchists-warn-this-is-just-the-start-as-we-track-down-fred-the-shred-115875-21227971/ Anarchists warn 'This is just the start' as we track down Fred the Shred Exclusive by Martin Fricker and Maggie Barry 26/03/2009 Bank bosses feared more violence last night after a vigilante gang attacked the home of disgraced RBS boss Fred the Shred Goodwin. The sinister group, calling itself Bank Bosses Are Criminals, warned: "This is just the start." They hurled bricks through windows at the former chief executive's ?3million property and damaged his ?80,000 Mercedes. After the attack the Mirror tracked down a shaken Sir Fred, who fled abroad after refusing to hand over his ?16.9million pension. He told us: "I am aware of what has happened thanks but I'm not making any comment just now." Speaking from his overseas bolt-hole, he said he had "reflected" on the outcry his huge payout caused. And he added: "I don't mean to be rude but I'm not speaking to anyone. I think it's best for me not to say anything. I am limited to what I can say contractually. "Having reflected on it all, there will be no comment at this time. I don't want to get into a conversation about it." Sir Fred has already taken his two children out of school amid safety fears. And last night other senior bankers were beefing up security as fears of more attacks grew. The vigilantes smashed three downstairs windows and two car windows at 4.30am. Half an hour later they sent an email to media organisations. It read: "Fred Goodwin's Edinburgh house was attacked this morning. "We are angry that rich people are paying themselves a huge amount and living in luxury while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless. "This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning." Police said the statement was signed "Moira McLeod". The attack happened despite RBS paying ?290 a month for security at Sir Fred's home - even though he's no longer an employee. Police arrived within minutes but the anarchists had fled. It is believed they climbed electric gates to carry out the attack. Scene-of-crime officers and two detectives were at the property yesterday and police were also scouring CCTV footage. A spokesman said: "We take very seriously any planned attack on any individual or their property." Gordon Brown said: "There can be no excuse for breaking the law." Police are investigating whether the attack is linked to anti-capitalist demonstrations planned for the G20 summit in London. Internet flyers titled "Storm the Banks" have been circulated ahead of next week's meeting and violence is feared in the capital from this weekend. One of the groups is led by university professor Chris Knight, 66, who has warned bankers to stay out of town and vowed to "meet violence with violence". He said: "We are going to be hanging a lot of people like Fred the Shred from lampposts on April Fool's Day and I can only say let's hope they are just effigies. "To be honest, if he winds us up any more I'm afraid there will be real bankers hanging from lampposts and let's hope that that doesn't have to happen." The meeting of world leaders will be at ExCel in Docklands a week today. But with more marches planned, police are preparing for a week of chaos. The cost of extra policing will be around ?7.2million. Yesterday's attack on Sir Fred's home wasn't the first time he has been targeted. This year protesters put up banners outside calling him Scumbag Millionaire. And neighbours had little sympathy for him yesterday. Pensioner Eileen Montgomery said: "I wouldn't like it but he deserves it for all the lives he has ruined. "I have been terribly affected. I have lost all the interest I depend on to live. What he has done is disgraceful." Computer scientist Lawrence Barton added: "I have some sympathy with the people who are annoyed at what he has done." And another neighbour said: "I feel sorry for his family but emotions are running very high." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri Mar 27 17:23:46 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Fri Mar 27 17:24:15 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: [S] Rockefeller Declares War on Free Internet Message-ID: <006201c9af3b$773c6db0$08ad57ca@jfos> ----- Original Message ----- To: 911Truth Australia Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:56 PM Subject: [S] Rockefeller Declares War on Free Internet Rockefeller Declares War on Free Internet Paul Bondarovski | War Is Crime March 24, 2009 http://www.wariscrime.com/2009/03/24/video/rockefeller-declares-war-on-free-internet/ When a Rockefeller says something publicly, you can bet he doesn¡¯t just express his humble personal opinion but speaks on behalf of the Family. You can also be sure that his every word reflects a decision already made, corresponding measures defined, and detailed instructions on their implementation sent to the stooges at the lower levels of the pyramid. So when on March 18, 2009, the US senator Jay Rockefeller claimed that the internet is the biggest threat to US national security and that ¡°it should not exist,¡± it was not just his point of view, it was an instruction: let the long prepared war on the free internet begin! Nothing is and ever was a bigger threat to US national and the whole world security than the Rockefellers themselves. The alternative media, which have grown from strength to strength on the internet in recent years, make this fact more and more evident. The free internet is a fast growing threat to the power of these very inventors and absolute world champions of organized crime. Not the internet in general, as Jay Rockefeller claims. It is the internet of free, independent and uncensored opinions that they would prefer to have ¡°never invented.¡± To simply switch the entire World Wide Web off is virtually impossible ¡ª the bankers and the military would be the first losers. This is why, to end up with the alternative online media, the world elite have long been financing the development of a highly restrictive and fully controlled by the New World Order ¡°authorities¡± Internet 2. The project was founded in 1996 and is now ready for implementation. It¡¯s the decision to launch it before the end of this year that Jay Rockefeller had the dubious honor and the obvious pleasure to announce. The threat to the free internet is now real and should not be underestimated. This is why an international team of Truthers have recently started The Dot Connector ¡ª the first PRINTED magazine, which combines internet blogging experience with that of the ¡°good old¡± traditional press. CLICK HERE to check it out, download the two free premier issues (zip-compressed PDF), and subscribe to the printed editions, which start from the next issue 3. Do it before too late, that is, NOW! And attention, there will be no more online PDF editions! Jay Rockefeller: Internet should have never existed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct9xzXUQLuY -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090328/10f9e3fe/attachment.html From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri Mar 27 22:22:14 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Fri Mar 27 22:25:12 2009 Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy References: <011201c9ac49$136fe4a0$56ad57ca@jfos><1237881624.4540.76.camel@localhost><004f01c9acf8$3118b720$41ad57ca@jfos> <1238005136.15482.48.camel@localhost> Message-ID: <01ec01c9af65$7fdbaab0$08ad57ca@jfos> Greetings Yves! My apologies for delay in responding immediately to your post of March 26. I am not a 'Marxist' (whatever that means these days) however despite the many limitations and weaknesses in his seminal historical analysis and predictions regarding the most likely outcome for Capitalism, I nevertheless consider his explication of the politico-economic class relations and social divide under that particular mode of social production, distribution and exchange as irrefutable. Also irrefutable is his observation that (to paraphrase him) 'The history of all civilisations hitherto is the history of class struggle.' That is to say, every one of the ancient/preceding civilisations and modes of production he had studied (and he studied most if not all of them) was characterised by structural inequality in the form of political and economic domination of the great bulk of their citizens by an elite, non-working, minority who ruled over them, exploiting their labour through (primarily) ideological means and, whenever this momentarily failed, through the use of brute physical force. Now irrespective of which particular words or concepts each of us select to describe our contemporary world, there can be little doubt or refutation of the fact that all of the so-called advanced 'rich countries' AND the so-called under-developed or developing 'poor countries' are also characterized by gross structural inequalities and a raft of similar politico-economic and social 'crises'. These result from the contradictions endemic to the 'most advanced' - and for some 'victorious' - mode of social production, distribution and exchange, viz, 'Free Market' or Neo-liberal Capitalism. The beginning of our current global malaise can be traced back to the 'halcyon' few decades immediately following the appalling waste and destruction of the SECOND World War. With greatly enhanced technological advances in all economic spheres, the world was soon awash with a mind-boggling array of labour-saving devices and luxury goods. Indeed new markets had to be quickly created or 'opened up' and the finance sector freed up to enable millions worldwide to gain access to easy credit with which to enjoy this bonanza of material consumer goods and services. Here was the beginning of an acceleration of the process of globalisation. In the 'rich countries' of the West, all this resulted in the push by organised labour to obtain a greater share of this 'bonanza' and how the giant trans-national corporations met the demands for better wages and conditions by exporting their manufacturing activities to so-called Third World, 'cheap labour' countries. Many of these countries were run by corrupt and amoral individuals and families (in The Phillipines, Indonesia and Chile for example) who demonstrated no qualms in ruthlessly exploiting their country's huge human and natural resources in order to enrich themselves. Moreover, emboldened by a new post-war spirit of freedom and democracy, long and bitter struggles were waged by the peoples of Algeria, India, Malaya, North Korea, North Viet Nam, and various African nations to free themselves of exploitation and expropriation of their country's wealth by their former imperial-colonial masters, Some, such as the people of the South-Western Pacific island of Bougainville, drove off their British-Australian exploiters with little more than bows and arrows, in the face of Australian Government supplied, U$ manufactured, helicopter gunships. "John's use of words such as "maelstrom", "revolution", " prolonged and bitter struggle" suggests that he sees that the transition can only be brought about by fighting." History also records, Yves, that another irrefutable reality is that those with great wealth and privilege have never given up their ill-gotten treasures and luxuries voluntarily. Indeed the 'alternative', critical history books and research papers are replete with explications of prolonged and bitter struggles, uprisings, revolutions and political-social maelstroms, as millions of 'ordinary ('working class') folk have continued to fight for a better life for themselves and their families. And with 'The Market' flooded with a surfeit of small arms, such struggles continue to this very day ... around the globe. Moreover, despite their generally restricted opportunities for formal high-level education, the 'ordinary' peoples of the world appreciate the high probability that one of the 'options' those with enormous wealth and power have exercised on previous occasions, in order to protect and preserve THEIR system of Capital Accumulation, is to trigger military conflict and mass destruction on a global scale. Such a repeat scenario grows more and more plausible as the dominant and 'emerging' superpower states and their 'competitive' trans-national corporations and financiers struggle among themselves to secure both access and price control over the dwindling supplies of hydro-carbon based fuels, reliance upon which to maintain their modern mode of production and armed forces is increasingly critical. John ----- Original Message ----- From: Yves Bajard To: A renewed Mai-Not Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 5:18 AM Subject: [S] Re: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy Re John Foster's reply to my recent message, on Wednesday March 25, 2009 at 14:17 +1100 for which I thank him. I leave it below, for easier reference. There are quite a few of his points with which I cannot agree. Not knowing him at all does not help me responding, but I'll try. I had made a few comments and raised a few questions about the Robert Costanza's article he proposed to us all: And in reply, John proposes answers to the questions I had raised: 1. My question: Who can do that? - John's answer: Those whose livelihoods and families are in immanent jeopardy/danger/peril from the pernicious system and its beneficiaries My comment: Ok, Then, it should be all of us, Mai-Notters and others, some 6.8 Billion of us, minus a few irreductible stalwarts But my question is: who among all of these will actually trigger the change of rate in the engines of Society and direction at the helm(there are actually several "helms") around the world that will place us all on a sound path where everyone can live adequately without destroying more among our fellow humans and in the ecological context than has already been destroyed? Please thing about it, and try to be specific in you answer (to yourself or to the list as you like). 2 My question: How, where and when? - John's answer: Only by taking organised, collective, direct action to remove from office those who continue to benefit or profit most from the dominant mode of production and distribution extant. My comment: Who then are those who will replace those that have collectively been removed from their office? And is the problem limited to a new more just "mode of production and distribution" ? And how is the "collective, direct action" going to be organized. launched and managed? By whom, and on the basis of what criteria will this happen? When can it begin? Who will trigger this proces? and how can it be carried out without increasing the damage already made to the ecosystems (and to the parts of society which will be engaged in or submitted to the "direct action"?? By the way, what will this "direct action" consist of? 3. My question: Where? - John's answer: Wherever adequate numbers of those who are adversely impacted by the latest 'crisis' in the global(ised) Capitalist system reach the conclusion that they must 'act now' to protect their livelihoods ('jobs', careers etc.), their homes, their public schools, public hospitals, public transport networks and communities from the predations of those intent upon continuing their exploitation and ab-use of the natural and social capital currently under their ill-gotten ownership or control. My comment: In other words: anywhere and everywhere. In any event, what does he mean by "adequate numbers"? and again, the problem is not the crisis weare experiencing now, but the causes of that crisis.. We need to dig deeper. His is a typical old-marxist reply.. No account taken fo the overload of the planet by our species. 4. My question: When? - John's answer: As soon as sufficient numbers of the working class and so-called 'middle class' sheeple hurt badly enough to trigger mass public rallies, demonstrations, withdrawl of their labour and refusal to consume the governmental and corporate ideologies, products, commodities and credit facilities thrust upon them. My comment: same as for question 4 5. John's final points: With Western politicians, corporate types, religious 'leaders' and the great bulk of academics all part of the problem, the dearth of socially progressive leadership to date has enabled the exploiters/predators to thrive ... thus far. However I am firmly of the belief that from the increase in organised and spontaneous resistance or dissent we are about to witness will emerge new leaders capable of showing the way towards a more humane, just, rational and sustainable future for humankind. Bear in mind, at all times, however, that such a 'utopian' scenario cannot and will not be achieved without a prolonged and bitter struggle. And should you happen to be lucky enough to survive the maelstrom, remember that the revolution MUST be made PERMANENT or ONGOING, if the mass of the 'ordinary' (working class)people and our beautiful but increasingly fragile planet, and the myriad other species it contains, are to survive. My comment: It is too easy to focus on specific groups of sinners, and to look at one self as pure and innocent. WE are ALL part of the problem, because just because we live in this society, we are a mix of predators and of predators. We all "thrive" relatively to poorer people. And I don't know for john, but however low my level of comfort may be, it is still superior by far to a Kenyan sawmill worker, and street sweeper in Bangladesh and the likes. John's use of words such as "maelstrom", "revolution", " prolonged and bitter struggle" suggests that he sees that the transition can only be brought about by fighting. Has he thought or tried to assess the cost of such fights to (1) the fighting parties, (b) the others, and (c) the ecological context? With the fact that a.. we live in a socio-economic- and cultural model that was first conceived in rough form twelve thousand years ago, when the world population was somewhere between one and ten million, b.. we are now 6.8 billion still growing c.. and th model has been perfected though time to where it stands now is there a chance in Hell for anybody to survive the conflict which he advocates? For your reflection, all of you.. Best regards, Yves Bajard ======================== John's integral text of his reply to my statements ============== There is no time to waste, the necessary technologies, management and communication methods exist, but they are under the control of persons or organizations that are apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the problems as they are within a human context of public anaesthesia, indifference and/or despair. These two aspects of the problem are the first and major obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? How, where and when?" Who can do that? - Those whose livelihoods and families are in immanent jeopardy/danger/peril from the pernicious system and its beneficiaries. How, where and when? - Only by taking organised, collective, direct action to remove from office those who continue to benefit or profit most from the dominant mode of production and distribution extant. Where? - Wherever adequate numbers of those who are adversely impacted by the latest 'crisis' in the global(ised) Capitalist system reach the conclusion that they must 'act now' to protect their livelihoods ('jobs', careers etc.), their homes, their public schools, public hospitals, public transport networks and communities from the predations of those intent upon continuing their exploitation and ab-use of the natural and social capital currently under their ill-gotten ownership or control. When? - As soon as sufficient numbers of the working class and so-called 'middle class' sheeple hurt badly enough to trigger mass public rallies, demonstrations, withdrawl of their labour and refusal to consume the governmental and corporate ideologies, products, commodities and credit facilities thrust upon them. With Western politicians, corporate types, religious 'leaders' and the great bulk of academics all part of the problem, the dearth of socially progressive leadership to date has enabled the exploiters/predators to thrive ... thus far. However I am firmly of the belief that from the increase in organised and spontaneous resistance or dissent we are about to witness will emerge new leaders capable of showing the way towards a more humane, just, rational and sustainable future for humankind. Bear in mind, at all times, however, that such a 'utopian' scenario cannot and will not be achieved without a prolonged and bitter struggle. And should you happen to be lucky enough to survive the maelstrom, remember that the revolution MUST be made PERMANENT or ONGOING, if the mass of the 'ordinary' (working class)people and our beautiful but increasingly fragile planet, and the myriad other species it contains, are to survive. john foster Victoria, Australia. ----- Original Message ----- From: Yves Bajard To: A renewed Mai-Not Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:00 PM Subject: [S] Re: [Mai-not] Fwd: Toward a new sustainable economy Dear Mai-Notters: I take the following quotes from John Foster's message of March 24 at 17:21 +1100, 1. "The current financial meltdown is the result of under-regulated markets built on an ideology of free market capitalism and unlimited economic growth. The fundamental problem is that the underlying assumptions of this ideology are not consistent with what we now know about the real state of the world. 2. (a) new model of development would be based clearly on the goal of sustainable human well-being. It would use measures of progress that clearly acknowledge this goal. It would acknowledge the importance of ecological sustainability, social fairness, and real economic efficiency. Ecological sustainability implies recognizing that natural and social capital are not infinitely substitutable for built and human capital, and that real biophysical limits exist to the expansion of the market economy. 3. The long term solution to the financial crisis is therefore to move beyond the "growth at all costs" economic model to a model that recognizes the real costs and benefits of growth. 4. We can break our addiction to fossil fuels, over-consumption, and the current economic model and create a more sustainable and desirable future that focuses on quality of life rather than merely quantity of consumption. 5. It will not be easy; it will require a new vision, new measures, and new institutions. It will require a redesign of our entire society. 6. But it is not a sacrifice of quality of life to break this addiction. Quite the contrary, it is a sacrifice not to. My comments: 1. Quotes 3.,4., 5., and 6., are from Robert Costanza's conclusion. 2. The key questions and comments that come to my mind after reading the paper and extracting the quotes are: a.. re Quote 5: How is he proposing to do that? If you are in agreement with this requirement, how do you propose to do it? b.. In Quote 4 : why does Robert Costanza chose the verb "can" and not "must"? Because I know that if we don't do that our "civilization" has had it in the very short term, historically speaking. The sequence is rather than his "we can", "we must, but can we? There is no time to waste, the necessary technologies, management and communication methods exist, but they are under the control of persons or organizations that are apparently unable or unwilling to tackle the problems as they are within a human context of public anaesthesia, indifference and/or despair. These two aspects of the problem are the first and major obstacles that need to be overcome. Who can do that? How, where and when? c.. Quotes 3 and 6 are in my opinion motherhood and apple pie. d.. The question then is: does anyone among you have an idea about how to respond to the ways these two obstacles can effectively be overcome before it is too late? Good night, It is 1.00 AM in my part of the world Yves Bajard (as a person, not as a list owner or moderator or whatever you want to call me) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Mai-not mailing list Mai-not@globalproblematique.net http://www.globalproblematique.net/mailman/listinfo/mai-not -------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. 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URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090328/a6678d3a/attachment-0001.html From creuss at bluewin.ch Sat Mar 28 05:44:42 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sat Mar 28 05:47:30 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Zio-Racists' Man-Hunt backfires Message-ID: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2009/March/m iddleeast_March540.xml§ion=middleeast&col= Settlers attack Israeli police disguised as Arabs (AP) 28 March 2009 JERUSALEM -An Israeli police spokesman says his officers were attacked by Jewish settlers in the West Bank. According to the Israeli media, the police were disguised as Arabs. Spokesman Dany Peleg told the Associated Press Saturday that settlers threw stones at officers and attempted to run them over near a Jewish outpost in the West Bank. Five settlers were placed under house arrest. Israeli media reported Saturday that the police disguised themselves as Arabs to apprehend Jewish settlers known for attacking Palestinians. They did not say what the police were wearing. Peleg would not comment on the disguise. News of the incident emerged after a local court criticized the police for putting their men at risk. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri Mar 27 22:58:13 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat Mar 28 16:33:07 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fw: [S] Truth Sucks In Disneyland Message-ID: <00f901c9affd$79a03920$85ad57ca@jfos> Five Reasons Why Americans Won't Resist By Mickey Z. From: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22281.htm March 24, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Protest (American, definitely not a verb): Wait for UFPJ or ANSWER to stage a parade (I mean, demonstration) on a weekend afternoon so no one misses work or school or in any way disrupts the flow of commerce. Don't make a sign; the organizers will make one for you. March in an orderly fashion, be polite to the occupying army (I mean, cops), and be sure to stay in designated free speech zones. Blame the Republicans. Wear costumes. Make puppets. Exclude anarchists. Hold a candlelight vigil. Sign a petition. Chant. Vote for a Democrat and hope for change. Need I continue? With the stakes never higher than they are now, why aren't activists ramping up the pressure and looking beyond tactics that are allowed by those in power? Here are my five guesses: 1. We are trained to believe that nothing major is wrong. Global warming? Economic meltdown? Epidemics of preventable diseases? Slavery, genocide, ecocide? You name it and we're ready to downplay it. We're Americans, goddammit, we'll figure out a way to fix it. When the going gets tough, we'll call the experts. 2. We are trained to leave it to experts. Rather than worry our little heads over why more than 100 plant and animal species go extinct each day, we rely on experts. Instead of learning what a "collateralized-debt obligation" is and how it contributed to the current economic depression, just let the professionals handle the mess. Besides, such delegation frees up much more time to watch TV and update our Facebook pages. 3. We are trained to embrace non-violence. All the real heroes would never raise a fist in anger: Jesus, MLK, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, etc. Sure, the government and its corporate owners are taking away all our rights and all our money. They're poisoning our air, water, and food while crafting laws that make prison a looming possibility, but the moment we contemplate anything more than a non-violent response, we become worse than any of them. Ain't that right? 4. We feel too damn privileged to risk prison (or worse). The average Gaza resident doesn't have the luxury of wondering if their resistance could result in arrest and thus perhaps ruin their reputation. The average American? Well, that's a different story. I can't defy insane laws designed to squash protest. I might get arrested and that means close proximity to all those scary criminals and it also means hurting my chances of landing a good job and maybe even losing all my respectable friends. I mean, I'm an activist and all but that's asking way too much. Who do you think I am, Mandela? 5. We're fuckin' cowards. Our acquiescence in a disturbingly broad range of areas-access to health care, tolerance for voting irregularities, directly funding the Israeli war machine, stomaching the groupthink behind saluting a flag, etc. etc. etc.-appears to have no limits. Americans love to talk the talk about being fearless and tough but when ordered to remove our shoes before going through airport security, it's "yes sir" all the way. We know things have passed the proverbial tipping point and that immediate action is 100% needed and justified, but we're far too spineless to do anything that might get us in trouble. Somehow, it's more terrifying for any of us to face down a cop than it is to contemplate the total destruction of our earthly eco-system. If it's true that action expresses priorities, we American activists aren't overly concerned about the future. We now return to our regularly scheduled slate of left wing articles. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net Comment YES - EXACTLY. And to make matters worse, when our only hope is to act as a collective, we are at the mercy of "LEFT WING ORGANISATIONS", all of which are UNDEMOCRATIC hierarchies that reflect the corporate model and are infested with people who work for the establishment and are on its payroll to monitor and influence the actions of "the left" through these organisations in which the upper levels of management (those who make the decisions behind closed doors and then - make those decisions again in a more "open and inclusive" show-meeting), whether or not they are on the establishment payroll, have reached a comfortable equilibrium with the establishment. Rock the boat - that serves to round up the dissent into one place - but don't rock it too much. Thus, they serve a two-fold purpose, a steam-valve on the pressure cooker and a ring through the nose of the bull. They are the stewards of the left who appoint stewards at demonstrations - I mean parades - and guide the focus of dissent. It's pathetic! I have been watching this process, suffering in it, screaming against it for 28 years - I KNOW! Allen L. Jasson | 03.24.09 - 5:08 am | # ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Fri Mar 27 22:47:40 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat Mar 28 16:33:08 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Baghdad's water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion Message-ID: <00ef01c9affd$70da4830$85ad57ca@jfos> Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Baghdad's water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion Sewage and trash pollute a waterway that sits along a squatters' camp in Baghdad, Iraq. By Matthew Schofield | McClatchy Newspapers BAGHDAD - The stench of human waste is enough to tell Falah abu Hasan that his drinking water is bad. His infant daughter Fatma's continuous illnesses and his own constant nausea confirm it. "We are the poor. No one cares if we get sick and die," he said. "But someone should do something about the water. It is dirty. It brings disease." Everybody complains about the water in Baghdad, and few are willing to risk drinking it from the tap. Six years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, 36 percent of Baghdad's drinking water is unsafe, according to the Iraqi Environment Ministry - in a good month. In a bad month, it's 90 percent. Cholera broke out last summer, and officials fear another outbreak this year. "Even if the water is good today, no one would trust it," grocer Hussein Jawad said. He said that about 40 percent of his business was selling bottled drinking water, crates of which he's stacked 7 feet high on the sidewalk. "We've learned to be afraid." The irony of bad water is lost on few here. When the city was founded 1,200 years ago, it was named Baghdad al Zawhaa, "Baghdad the Garden," because water was plentiful. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers formed the boundaries of Mesopotamia and fed the fields in the cradle of civilization. Baghdad still draws its water from the Tigris, but even that legendary source is problematic. President Jalal Talabani flew to Turkey this week to discuss the diminishing water flow, because Turkey has dammed the river. Syria and Iran have dammed its tributaries. Environment Minister Nirmeen Uthman said Iraqi waste-treatment systems were obsolete, and that the concentration of waste being poured into the Tigris had increased. It's simple math: less river water, more concentrated waste. Each year the river is dirtier. "Our most recent studies show the color is wrong, the smell is wrong, the pressure is wrong," she said. "And that was a good month, a very good month." The list of reasons for the unclean water sounds like the recent history of this war-ravaged country. The saying goes: "Iraq was busy with the sword and the flag." Baghdad's water network was due to be upgraded in 1984, but Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran instead. Then he invaded Kuwait. The U.S. bombing campaign that forced Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait damaged the water system and cut the resources needed to fix it. A decade of international economic sanctions impoverished Iraq, and the water got worse. The U.S.-led invasion six years ago led to wide looting of offices and the abandonment of purification systems. During the sectarian and terrorist strife that followed, it was impossible to start improvements or repairs, much less complete them. Baghdad had to hire security personnel even for water projects. The U.S. military's troop buildup starting in late 2007 also took its toll: One water pipeline was delayed for nine months because the U.S. built a blast wall across its path. Since 2003, 500 city engineers have been killed, suspending hundreds of project plans, according to Hakeem Abdulzahra, Baghdad's chief spokesman. Finding personnel to replace the dead also is never easy, he said. During the war, displaced people flooded the capital, constructed shoddy new homes or camped out in abandoned government offices. They dug down and tapped city pipes, often using pumps to find water supplies. As a result, 6 million people use Baghdad water daily, but only 5 million of them use it legally. "These people make quality control very difficult," Abdulzahra said. Take Falah abu Hasan, who's among 625 families squatting in the old air force offices in central Baghdad, one of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of illegal settlements around the city. In the absence of adequate sewers, squatters run pipes from their bathrooms into the street, turning it into a standing cesspool. The water lines are poorly sealed, and as the pressure goes down, raw sewage mixes with drinking water, not only for the squatters but also for anyone who relies on that water main. Looking at a block-long pool of dirty, trash-filled water, Hasan said that when pumps were in use to obtain city water, he'd seen the pools of sewage drop. Ihsan Jaafar, Iraq's director of public health, said the water had been bad for years but that it now carried cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis and other diseases. "Clean water would be one of the biggest improvements in quality of life in Iraq," he said. "The people of the Mujamaa (illegal settlements) are the most vulnerable in our society. We must protect them, but they cannot live this way." The city has a 10-year, $6 billion plan to fix the problem, which involves shutting down the squatters' settlements. However, there's fear that shutting down the settlements would force families onto the street and reignite sectarian fighting; the settlements are a recruiting ground for Shiite Muslim militias. So step one in the repairs for the city water department is putting together a security force. "We fight, as if we were in the army, to bring people clean water and take away sewage," Abdulzahra said. Imam Mahnood al Bayati, a clergyman and a former engineer who's worked on water systems, said that providing clean drinking water was a central goal for Baghdad, for Iraq and even for Islamic religious practice. "We can't even pray without water," he said in an interview at the Hajia Sidaa Mosque. "Before we pray, we must clean ourselves . . . ," he said, chuckling, wondering whether it's even possible to perform an ablution with Baghdad water these days. "Well, the Quran allows us, if there is no water to clean with, to use the sand of the desert. There's still plenty of that." MORE FROM MCCLATCHY Commentary: Baghdad is better, but for how long? 5 years after Iraq's 'liberation,' there are worms in the water Joy in Baghdad: Its soccer teams are playing again Baghdad's water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion Iraqis find hope in their history - 5,000 years of it ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sat Mar 28 17:15:14 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat Mar 28 17:15:44 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Welcome to Pipelineistan Message-ID: <016e01c9b003$6fa514d0$85ad57ca@jfos> Excerpt: "Global financial crisis or not, oil and natural gas are the long-term keys to an inexorable transfer of economic power from the West to Asia. Those who control Pipelineistan -- and despite all the dreaming and planning that's gone on there, it's unlikely to be Washington -- will have the upper hand in whatever's to come, and there's not a terrorist in the world, or even a long war, that can change that. (snip) Already in 1999, watching NATO and the United States aggressively expand into the distant Balkans, Beijing identified this new game for what it was: a developing energy war. And at stake were the oil and natural gas reserves of what Americans would soon be calling the "arc of instability," a vast span of lands extending from North Africa to the Chinese border. No less important would be the routes pipelines would take in bringing the energy buried in those lands to the West. Where they would be built, the countries they would cross, would determine much in the world to come. And this was where the empire of U.S. military bases (think, for instance, Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo) met Pipelineistan (represented, way back in 1999, by the AMBO pipeline). (snip) As for Camp Bondsteel, it was the "enduring" military base that Washington gained from the wars for the remains of Yugoslavia. It would be the largest overseas base the U.S. had built since the Vietnam War. Halliburton's subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) would, with the Army Corps of Engineers, put it up on 400 hectares of farmland near the Macedonian border in southern Kosovo. Think of it as a user-friendly, five-star version of Guantanamo with perks for those stationed there that included Thai massage and loads of junk food. Bondsteel is the Balkan equivalent of a giant immobile aircraft carrier, capable of exercising surveillance not only over the Balkans but also over Turkey and the Black Sea region (considered in the neocon-speak of the Bush years "the new interface" between the "Euro-Atlantic community" and the "Greater Middle East"). (snip) Welcome, then, to Pipelineistan! Whether we like it or not, in good times and bad, it's a reasonable bet that we're all going to be Pipeline tourists. So, go with the flow. Learn the crucial acronyms, keep an eye out for what happens to all those U.S. bases across the oil heartlands of the planet, watch where the pipelines are being built, and do your best to keep tabs on the next set of monster Chinese energy deals and fabulous coups by Russia's Gazprom. ... while you're at it, consider this just the first postcard sent off from our tour of Pipelineistan. We'll be back (to slightly adapt a quote from the Terminator). Think of this as a door opening onto a future in which what flows where and to whom may turn out to be the most important question on the planet." Full article at http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175050/pepe_escobar_welcome_to_pipelineistan ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sat Mar 28 17:50:27 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat Mar 28 17:50:58 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Post-9/11 Economic Windfalls for Arms Manufacturers Message-ID: <01a001c9b008$5a8a9bb0$85ad57ca@jfos> Post-9/11 Economic Windfalls for Arms Manufacturers, Foreign Policy In Focus Issue Brief, Volume 7, No. 10, by Michelle Ciarrocca, September 2002. (PDF) Lots more at http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports.html john foster Victoria, Australia ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sat Mar 28 22:28:22 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sat Mar 28 22:28:51 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: Flim-Flam Obama Message-ID: <02cd01c9b02f$2db4b9a0$85ad57ca@jfos> "Beneath claims of allegiance to "free market" ideals and "private enterprise," the administration's "bank rescue" design - recently described by former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich as a continuation of "the most expensive tax-supported fiasco in history"- boils down to a traditional exercise in Wall Street welfare: socialism for the rich, market discipline and capitalism for the rest of us. As Reich notes, the plan threatens to weaken "the public's confidence that its money isn't being thrown down a rathole," potentially undermining Obama's ability to undertake "other ambitious undertakings such as health care or education or the environment." http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20987 ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From creuss at bluewin.ch Sun Mar 29 09:38:22 2009 From: creuss at bluewin.ch (Christoph Reuss) Date: Sun Mar 29 09:41:14 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Israel's Security Advisor a "Threat to U$ Security" Message-ID: http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-3657-0-23-23--.html Netanyahu embraces threat to US security Published on 03-18-2009 Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has tapped a former spy feared by the United States as his national security advisor. Sources close to Netanyahu have confirmed that Uzi Arad will be Israel's next national security adviser, The Washington Times reported Tuesday. The former Mossad chief has been denied entry into the United States during the past two years based on the grounds that he is a security risk. Arad was implicated in the indictment of former Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to providing classified information about Iran to two employees of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The future Israeli national security advisor has admitted that he has not been able to obtain a United States visa despite pressure from influential Israeli and American individuals. "The director general of the Israel Foreign Ministry did tell his American counterparts that there has been no cause to deny me a visa," he told The Washington Times. According to Israeli and US officials, Arad has been denied a US visa since June 2007 under section 212 3(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The legislation permits consular officers and the US Justice Department to prohibit those who may seek "to violate any law of the United States relating to espionage or sabotage" from entering the country. Arad was a member of the Israeli spy service for more than two decades beginning in 1975. Since then he has also served as Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser and as a contact for intelligence operations with the CIA. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". From jfos at vic.australis.com.au Sun Mar 29 15:40:12 2009 From: jfos at vic.australis.com.au (john foster) Date: Sun Mar 29 15:40:44 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Fwd: A Second 9/11 in Slow Motion Message-ID: <00e901c9b0bf$53d6adb0$89ad57ca@jfos> Excerpt: "In my neighborhood, back in those fateful September days in 2001, you could hear the sirens, see the jets streak overhead, catch the acrid smell of the towers and everything chemical in them burning, and like the rest of America, watch those apocalyptic-looking scenes of the towers collapsing in clouds of ash and smoke again and again. But if the look then was apocalyptic, the damage, however grim, was limited. This time around there's no dust, no ash, no acrid smell, no sirens, no jets, and no brave rescuers either. And yet the effect might, sooner or later, be far more apocalyptic and the lives swallowed up far greater. This time, of course, the fanatical extremists were homegrown. Their "caves" were on Wall Street. They hijacked our economy and did their level best to take down our world. (snip) For the perpetrators, who have, at worst, gone home pocketing their millions, there will be no retribution. No invasions will be launched, no missiles shot into homes or hideouts. None of them will be pursued to their lairs, or kidnapped off the streets of New York, or from their palatial mansions, or apartments, or estates. None will be spirited to foreign lands to be imprisoned and tortured. None will be labeled "enemy combatants." Quite the opposite, in 9/11, The Sequel, the U.S. government is willing to pay many of them and their institutions in the multi-billions for their time and further efforts. In the second 9/11, all the pain and torture is in the neighborhood. Full article at ... http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175049/a_second_9_11_in_slow_motion ------------------------------------------------------ Provided by Australis http://www.australis.com.au/ From jomut at yahoo.com Mon Mar 30 13:29:53 2009 From: jomut at yahoo.com (John Mutambirwa) Date: Mon Mar 30 13:30:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] yell peril! Message-ID: <867099.19145.qm@web31101.mail.mud.yahoo.com> John Mutambirwa (Dreaming Awake) jomut@yahoo.com chakane@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/jomut ? Hi, ? Friend of mine just sent me some info about a vast computer snooping exercise that the Chinese?have been using to hack into computers worldwide. Chances are that other govts have and avail themselves of?like intrusions into the wired community but the scale to which this is the case is not yet well known. ? OOPs! Dunno whether it is I or someone else typing and sending out this message!! ? John ====================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090330/d086ba93/attachment.html From jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca Mon Mar 30 16:41:49 2009 From: jmeaton at ns.sympatico.ca (Janet M Eaton) Date: Mon Mar 30 16:41:10 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Petition Save the CBC - pressure is building! Message-ID: <49D12E8D.1672.675488F1@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/?cl=211696231&v=3123 I've just signed on to this petition ! Please consider !! all the best, janet ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:28:19 -0700 From: Murray Dobbin To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: fwd: Save the CBC - pressure is building! From: "Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org" Date: March 30, 2009 1:45:54 AM PDT (CA) Subject: Save the CBC - pressure is building! Update - In the last 72 hours almost 50,000 Canadians have signed the petition to Save the CBC! Let's up the pressure to 100,000 -- If you haven't signed or forwarded the email yet, here it is below: Dear friends, ?From: "Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org" ??????? Date: March 30, 2009 1:45:54 AM PDT (CA) ??????? Subject: Save the CBC - pressure is building! Update - In the last 72 hours almost 50,000 Canadians have signed the petition to Save the CBC! Let's up the pressure to 100,000 -- If you haven't signed or forwarded the email yet, here it is below: Dear friends, The government is forcing the CBC to drastically cut 800 staff and programming. We urgently need a massive public outcry to Save the CBC: Sign the petition! http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/?cl=211696231&v=3123 Canada?s media networks have all been slammed by the recession. But the government is reportedly considering bailouts for its friends at private companies CTV and CanWest, while forcing the CBC and Radio Canada to drastically cut 800 staff and programming. Our CBC is a national treasure, and a pillar of public-interest journalism in a country whose media is owned by a few large firms. We won?t hear an outcry from their media outlets, and the CBC is too principled to use its megaphone to make the case for itself. We are the only voice the CBC has. We urgently need a massive public outcry to Save the CBC, click below to sign the petition. The government is weak and falling in the polls and enough outrage can make the difference. Parliamentarians have promised to deliver the petition directly in the House of Commons, and we'll even fly a plane and banner over Parliament Hill with the message! Sign now, and forward this email to everyone who might care about this: http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc The number of signatures on the petition will be crucial to the effectiveness of the campaign, so let?s get everyone who cares about the CBC and Radio Canada to sign. The CBC is facing a budget shortfall that amounts to just $6 per Canadian, but its request to the government for a bridging loan to cover this was denied. The deep cuts the CBC is making will damage the organization across the board, and they will not be the last. If we don?t stand up for the CBC now, it stands to die a death by a thousand cuts. Harper?s minority government is politically vulnerable and falling in the polls - public outrage could turn the government around on this, but it has to happen now. Let's move quickly. With hope, Ricken, Lisa-Marie, Laryn and the whole Avaaz Canada team. PS - here are some links for more info on this: An excellent web resource for information and action on the CBC, including the government's consideration of bailouts of CanWest and other companies: http://www.friends.ca/ The Star reports on how opposition parties accuse Harper of using the recession as an excuse to gut the CBC: http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/608591 Union says Harper government strangling CBC: http://www.cjad.com/news/565/899819 Ian Morrison: Stephen Harper?s hidden agenda for the CBC: http://www.straight.com/article-206164/ian-morrison-stephen- harper%3F%3Fs-hidden-agenda-cbc A crisis of identity - A reader letter to the Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090327.COLETTS27- 1/TPStory/Comment ------- End of forwarded message ------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: - Type: application/octet-stream Size: 167 bytes Desc: "AVG certification" Url : http://www.globalproblematique.net/pipermail/mai-not/attachments/20090330/a4529d90/--0005.obj From ptuffley at xtra.co.nz Mon Mar 30 18:39:52 2009 From: ptuffley at xtra.co.nz (Peter Tuffley) Date: Mon Mar 30 18:40:39 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] Petition Save the CBC - pressure is building! In-Reply-To: <49D12E8D.1672.675488F1@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> References: <49D12E8D.1672.675488F1@jmeaton.ns.sympatico.ca> Message-ID: <3599F2B5-7B69-4002-8B1F-0CE29594B91C@xtra.co.nz> On 31/03/2009, at 12:41 PM, Janet M Eaton wrote: > http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/?cl=211696231&v=3123 > I've just signed on to this petition ! > Please consider !! > Will signatures by sympathetic non-Canadians be considered? All the best Peter From glparramatta at greenleft.org.au Tue Mar 31 21:25:14 2009 From: glparramatta at greenleft.org.au (glparramatta) Date: Tue Mar 31 22:01:32 2009 Subject: [Mai-not] What's new at Links: Socialism conference, Nepal, Malaysia, John Bellamy Foster, Venezuela, Thailand, Hadash, France, economics, India, Darwin Message-ID: <49D2ECA9.4000503@greenleft.org.au> What's new at Links: Socialism conference, Nepal, Malaysia, John Bellamy Foster, Venezuela, Thailand, Hadash, France, economics, India, Darwin * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to links@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links/. * * * Sydney, April 10-12, 2009: `World at a Crossroads' 21st century socialism conference day-by-day agenda World at a Crossroads: Fighting for socialism in the 21st Century Easter 2009, April 10-12, Sydney Venue: Sydney Girls High School World At A Crossroads is a conference that brings together hundreds of socialists, progressive activists and Marxist thinkers from around Australia, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and North America in dozens of panel presentations and workshops dealing with the urgent questions that confront us all: war, imperialism, food security, racism, workers' rights, sexism, the media and culture. * Read more Eyewitness reports from the Nepal's revolution By Ben Peterson [The following are a series first-hand reports from Nepal, by Australian socialist activist Ben Peterson. First impressions and adventures in Nepal March 6, 2009 -- And here I am. After too long speculating from the sidelines (and sidelines 10,000 kilometresm away) I have finally arrived in the land of Mountains and Maoists. On Tuesday night at about 10 pm, I landed in Kathmandu to see with my own eyes the processes unfolding here. * Read more Malaysian socialists' logo deemed 'violent', PSM warns of return to Mahathir-style repression [M. Sarawathy, a representative of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, will be attending the World at a Crossroads conference in Sydney, Australia, April 10-12, 2009. For more information, or to book tickets, visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org .] March 19, 2009 -- Poor PSM (Parti Sosialis Malaysia, Malaysian Socialist Party)! Obstacles after obstacles the Parti Socialis Malaysia has had to face before it could be officially recognised as a political party. The latest hitch is expected to make its recognition more elusive -- the authorities are now saying that the party's logo, a white-coloured clenched fist against a red backdrop, has "connotations of violence" and is "morally unsuitable". * Read more John Bellamy Foster on the economic and ecological crises: `The common denominator is capitalism' John Bellamy Foster interviewed by Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Green Left Weekly's Ruth RatcliffeA 20-minute interview recorded with a handheld cam in Oregon, USA, in February 2009. John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthy Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is co-author, with Fred Magdoff, of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (Monthly Review Press, January 2009) among numerous other works. Foster discusses the global economic crisis, its implications for the world and particularly the Australian economy. He also discusses the ecological crisis and the potential for revolutionary change. * Watch at http://links.org.au/node/963 Venezuela: Mass organisation, unity increases as revolution deepens; Coca-Cola plant replaced with `socialist commune' By Federico Fuentes March 21, 2009 -- "This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich", proclaimed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on February 28, as he ordered soldiers to take over two rice-processing plants owned by Venezuelan food and drink giant Empresas Polar. The move was made in order to ensure that the company was producing products subjected to the government-imposed price controls that aim to protect the poor from the affects of global price rises and inflation. * Read more Thailand: Class war for democracy By Giles Ji Ungpakorn March 21, 2009 -- The current dispensation in Thailand is based on a political reaction to stem and reverse some of the populist measures of the deposed prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who himself was a neoliberal with a few pro-poor schemes. Even this was unacceptable to the elites who used the courts, the military and the monarchy to depose him and institute an anti-democratic constitution which protects their privileges. But now that Thaksin is gone, a grassroots movement of the poor is emerging to challenge the hold of the elites, the military and the monarchy over Thailand. * Read more PSUV document: Crack in the accumulation of world capitalism (march towards the global depression) The following document was produced by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) national leadership. It has been translated from the Spanish-language original by Federico Fuentes for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. On March 21, all PSUV battalions met to discuss the document, together with an article written by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez . The day after, Chavez announced his government's anti-crisis measures. The document is significant not only for what it says, but also because it is the beginning of a mass discussion on how to confront the crisis in Venezuela in the lead-up to the PSUV's August congress. * Read more Israel: An interview with Hadash MP and communist Dov Khenin March 8, 2009 -- Dov Khenin is a member of Israel's parliament (the Knesset) representing Hadash, the alliance led by the Communist Party of Israel. In November 2008, Khenin stood as mayoral candidate for Israel's biggest city Tel Aviv, where he received almost 35% of the vote. Dov Khenin talks to the editors of the British socialist journal 21st Century Socialism about the Middle East conflict and prospects for a renewal of the left in Israel. He also discusses the issues to be overcome in a negotiated Middle East settlement, international solidarity with the Palestinian people and the need for socialism in the 21st century. * Read more Another left is possible: The protests in France and the New Anti-Capitalist Party March 23, 2009 -- It would be wrong to see the massively successful protest actions in France on March 19 as distant and exotic, of no particular relevance to us here in Canada. With the economic meltdown heralding a new political era, and with most of the country's left and social movements still stunned and disoriented following their embrace of the misguided and failed Liberal Party-led coalition plan, the French experience is instructive and inspiring. * Read more The economic crisis: Whose fault is it, and how can it be overcome? By Aleksandr Buzgalin and Andrey Kolganov, translated by Renfrey Clarke for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal March 23, 2009 -- The period at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 was notable for a whole range of developments. Two of them, however, seem to the authors to be not only closely interconnected, but also of symbolic importance: a genuinely profound economic crisis broke out, and along with it, sharply increased interest came to be shown in the works of Karl Marx. Over many years, various Marxists spoke of the crisis of capitalism at such length that the great majority of analysts ceased to take them seriously. The situation thus recalled the old story of the shepherd boy who continually cried "Wolf! Wolf!" even though there was no wolf there. But one day, the wolf actually appeared ... * Read more India needs a genuine Third Front, not an opportunist alliance By the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation [CPI (ML) Liberation representative Kavita Krishnan will be a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia, on April 10-12, 2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and Green Left Weekly. Visit http://www.worldATACrossroads.org for full agenda and to book your tickets.] March 17, 2009 -- On the eve of the Lok Sabha (national lower house of parliament) polls, which will be held in five phases between April 16 and May 13, the launch of a ``Third Front'' spearheaded by the efforts of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI (M) (the Communist Party of India-Marxist) has been announced. The front, it is claimed, is a non-Congress party, non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front committed to ``alternate policies''. * Read more Review: A materialist critique of pseudo-science Review by Duroyan Fertl Critique of Intelligent Design: Materialism versus Creationism from Antiquity to the Present By John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark & Richard York Monthly Review Press, 2008 240 pages March 13, 2009 -- In recent decades a form of militant creationism -- masquerading as science under the name of "Intelligent Design" -- has gone on the offensive, promoting the teaching of biblical creationism in schools, and carrying out a broader "wedge strategy", aimed at transforming the place and nature of science in society. Critique of Intelligent Design: Materialism versus Creationism from Antiquity to the Present, is almost overdue in this respect. It traces the rise of the "design" phenomenon, and its relationship to conservative, right-wing politics, and places it in the context of a 2500-year-long debate between materialism and creationism that lies at the heart of Western civilisation. * Read more * * * Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. 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