Search LBO-Talk Archives

1171 Hong Kong social land managment -- rank: 1000

At 07:38 PM 11/10/98 -0500, Henry Liu wrote: >Thatcher built up HK's image as a free market mecca to please American ideology. It is very interesting to put the picture together again more objectively. As I understand it, no one is saying that Hong Kong is not capitalist. But we all got beaten with the story of the virtues of the little tigers. 1998 has buried the old story. We have to write a better one. Chris Burford London.

Document Size:	5052
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 10 23:22:48 PST 1998

1172 Gingrich falls -- rank: 1000

At 10:14 AM 11/8/98 -0500, LP (Louis Proyect) wrote: >Chris Burford: >>In the meantime LP has no way tactical way forward for the working class >>and democratic (small d) forces to accumulate strength. > >Of course I have ideas about how to move the class struggle forward. They >center on mass actions independent of the boss parties. I too prefer campaigns whose initiative is not dependent of bourgeois parties. The lines of demarcation however are that it is demonstrably ...

Document Size:	18157
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 10 15:46:01 PST 1998

1173 Hong Kong social land managment -- rank: 1000

I have checked with my source. He says that although some leases lasted as long as 99 or 75 years, from the 1950's leases became shorter. But the point is that even existing leases have to come before the auctions if there is to be a change of usage. This system picks up revenue for the government from property prices which rise with economic development, and puts the government* in a stronger position for further social urban planning. Chris Burford London. * For LP's continued shock, in this ...

Document Size:	4995
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 10 15:45:41 PST 1998

1174 Clintonism -- rank: 1000

This Sunday, one of the best of the reporters in the Observer-Guardian group of newspapers Ed Vulliamy, in the course of analysing Gingrich's fall, dug up a piece by US News and World Report, with unfortunate timing in January, claiming that Clintonism had changed America. He then highlighted an argument that "Clintonism is power negotiation. Clintonism is negotiation." This certainly is echoed in Blair, for whom the fine calculation of political forces is a matter of principle. It app ...

Document Size:	4956
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 10 15:43:08 PST 1998

1175 Hang Seng thru 10,000 -- rank: 1000

Comments on Enzo's post follow it. At 09:18 AM 11/9/98 +0800, you wrote: >-----Original Message----- >From: Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org> >Date: Monday, November 09, 1998 8:23 AM > > >>I need more information about exactly how the market in land works. I >>suspect that even if all land is formally owned by the state, some features >>of the market, are equivalents to capitalist procedures in states where >>there is private property in land. Pe ...

Document Size:	10262
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 8 23:18:15 PST 1998

1176 Hang Seng thru 10,000 -- rank: 1000

At 08:26 AM 11/8/98 -0500, Michael Hoover wrote: a number of statistics showing sharp capitalist exploitation in Hong Kong. I doubt if Mike is arguing that the rise in the stockexchange is solely due to an intensification of exploitation of workers, though that has almost certainly happened in response to the recession. I need more information about exactly how the market in land works. I suspect that even if all land is formally owned by the state, some features of the market, are equivalents t ...

Document Size:	5531
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 8 15:44:19 PST 1998

1177 Gingrich falls -- rank: 1000

I wish to put a question to Nathan Newman at the end of this post so I hope at least he will skim down to the end. I am glad to see him join the debate. But first the degree of progress in Louis Proyect's post of At 02:44 PM 11/7/98 -0500 And then Doug Henwood's more analytical comments on this thread. >Chris Burford: >>I would put the much more interesting challenge to Louis: does he accept >>that the prospects for a revolution in the near future in the US are slim? > >I ha ...

Document Size:	18368
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 8 01:38:24 PST 1998

1178 Gingrich falls -- rank: 1000

At 08:30 AM 11/7/98 -0500, Louis Proyect wrote: that "contradictions within the ruling class" is "marxist jargon" and only applicable to a contradiction of the magnitude of that between > northern industrialists >versus the slaveowning class, which sounds to me like a contradiction *between* two ruling classes. Of course it is not compulsory to attempt to be a marxist. Nor is it compulsory to expect to find contradictions within phenomena, even if one wants to proclaim ...

Document Size:	9530
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Nov 7 11:24:09 PST 1998

1179 Tobacco -- rank: 1000

The NY Stock Exchange rose on the Mid-Term election results. Does anyone know what happened to tobacco shares? Chris Burford London.

Document Size:	4485
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Nov 7 11:10:35 PST 1998

1180 Gingrich falls -- rank: 1000

I was expecting something more analytical, about contradictions within the ruling class and their representatives. Perhaps it is all in Steve's attachment, which does not convert automatically, and has no programme specified to read it. Perhaps though it is too early until Gingrich's successor is confirmed to see if the resignation marks any shift, and I expect US subscribers to have access to more of that information. What does "pragmatic conservatism" mean, under its necessarily vagu ...

Document Size:	9324
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Nov 7 00:08:49 PST 1998

1181 Gingrich falls -- rank: 1000

House Speaker Newt Gingrich will not run for another term as speaker and has decided to resign his suburban Atlanta seat in Congress, sources tell CNN. Gingrich was delivering the news to his GOP House colleagues in a conference call Friday night, sources tell CNN Is this true? What does it mean? Good night. London time. Chris Burford

Document Size:	4842
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Nov 6 15:49:22 PST 1998

1182 Do you hate Clinton? -- rank: 1000

At 09:23 AM 11/4/98 -0500, NIles wrote: >>I suggest the relative success of the Democrats does make a difference, as >>the election victory of Blair last year made a difference > >To who? And how? Do Blair and Clinton represent critical movement toward >the elimination of poverty, No ecological restoration, No the abolition of >private property, No anti-authoritarian governance, No an end to whiteism? No >Usually, discussions about the "difference" that elect ...

Document Size:	6929
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Nov 4 11:47:15 PST 1998

1183 Do you hate Clinton? -- rank: 1000

I suggest the relative success of the Democrats does make a difference, as the election victory of Blair last year made a difference. Attempts to analyse those differences and the opportunities that arise from them should not be censored by dogmatic assertions that such discussion is automatically and by definition tailist. It is fine on a personal level to hate Clinton, but to be limited in one's political approach to a belief that it is a matter of principle to hate particular representatives ...

Document Size:	6904
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Nov 4 00:23:51 PST 1998

1184 Hang Seng remains over 10,000 -- rank: 1000

Far from collapsing back again, or being hit by severe profit taking, the Hang Seng is now today 300 points above 10,000. Mark Jones and Louis Proyect may try to evade the point on which they heaped such scorn, but if Louis denounces the argument as "idiocy" he speaks presumably with as much authority and rashness, as when he informed this list that there is no such thing as neo-lberalism. As for Mark's reference to my quotation from Lenin about the importance of analysising contradict ...

Document Size:	13034
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 3 00:25:30 PST 1998

1185 Hang Seng remains over 10,000 -- rank: 1000

I am not sure when the Hong Kong Stock Exchange closes, but this morning GMT, after the weekend, there was no massive fall in the Hang Seng. Only light profit taking, down 16 points with the index at 10,139. Certainly helped by global stabilisation and the reduction in dollar interest rates, this is nevertheless a level 50% above the August low. Point made, comrade? (Note that I have never said that there is not a severe recession in Hong Kong, nor that Hong Kong capitalism is particularly gentl ...

Document Size:	6058
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Nov 2 00:13:01 PST 1998