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196 in aporia -- rank: 1000

At 25/10/01 14:03 -0700, you wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > > >You can spot initiates by those who slip the word "aporia" into > >their communications. > >Hey, people at Yale were doing that in the early 70s, influenced by >that crypto-Nazi, Paul de Man. > >Doug > >http://www.angelfire.com/biz/telospress/contents49.html >Seyla Benhabib: Modernity and the Aporias of Critical Theory. Her book, " >Critique, Norm and Utopia: A Study of the ...

Document Size:	5824
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 25 16:38:51 PDT 2001

197 Washington wobbles -- rank: 1000

BBC's influential Newsnight programme tonight reports a strong perception that the US administration is struggling with its Afghan campaign. Rumsfeld's contradictory statements about bin Laden sounded confused compared to Blair's apparent candour in stating that he will probably be killed. The Brits are preparing public opinion for British troops to go in for a long time, no doubt with casualites inevitable. By contrast the perception is that the US administration may not have prepared public op ...

Document Size:	6043
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 25 16:00:17 PDT 2001

198 Negri interview -- rank: 1000

At 24/10/01 18:15 -0500, Carroll wrote: >Thomas Seay wrote: > > > > <<It's this proposition, which derives from nothing > > and leads to nothing, > > which makes me think that _Empire_ is too frivolous to > > be worth a > > critique.>> > > > > Carrol, Have you even read the book? > > > >I read it, carefully, in January. I reread it twice, annotating it and >scribbling notes in August. At every single point where they m ...

Document Size:	6941
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 25 00:25:29 PDT 2001

199 Negri interview -- rank: 1000

Good statement, that clarifies a lot of things. The sense in which he is not against US hegemony is that he sees the struggle now as an internal one against capitalists within the Empire. In that sense it becomes even more important to clarify the difficult basis of unity between progressive forces in the rich heartlands of Empire and the multitude of people in the world as a whole. Such a pity that dogmatic ultra-leftism treats "Empire" as a mere commodity, a style accessory, to be ac ...

Document Size:	10997
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Oct 24 16:00:54 PDT 2001

200 The plan that wasn't serious -- rank: 1000

At 24/10/01 04:13 -0500, Lou Paulsen wrote: >-----Original Message----- >From: Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org> > > >Chris very much wants to see a 'serious plan' get put together, and he >writes: > > >The obstacle to a serious plan actually above all comes from > >ultra-leftists who imply that any plan would be a compromise with the > >existing power structures. Of course. But a strategy of "No Compromises" is > >also a plan tha ...

Document Size:	5319
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Oct 24 15:01:53 PDT 2001

201 The plan that wasn't there -- rank: 1000

At 23/10/01 23:35 +0000, you wrote: >>Like I've said many times, I oppose the current strategy. It kills and >>threatens lots of civilians, probably spares the actual perps, does >>little if anything to prevent future disasters, and makes us many >>enemies. I'd just like to make people realize that the no civilian death >>standard is impossible to meet anywhere but in fantasy. I'm not endorsing >>civilian death by saying that, either. >> >>Doug > ...

Document Size:	10414
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Oct 23 23:13:16 PDT 2001

202 No entry for Chinese capitalists? -- rank: 1000

Any confirmation of reports that Jiang Zemin's plan to admit capitalists to the Communist Party of China was dropped with deafening silence at the Central Committee in September? Chris Burford London

Document Size:	4697
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Oct 22 23:51:43 PDT 2001

203 Powell tilts hand to peace -- rank: 1000

This morning, the BBC amazingly reports an amiable remark by Powell that of course it would be in America's best interest if the war in Afghanistan is short. The USA has indeed got itself into such a difficult hole, with such impossible demands unless the other side is willing to negotiate, fast oncoming winter, and every day likely to report more civilian casualties or refugees, in such a fashion as to recruit ten more recurits for Al Quaida in the middle east, that there must have been a calcu ...

Document Size:	6655
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Oct 21 22:51:06 PDT 2001

204 Fw: a just war? -- rank: 1000

"One symptom, for example, is the renewed interest in and effectiveness of the concept of bellum justum, or "just war". This concept, ... has begun to reappear recently as a central narrative of political discussions, particularly in the wake of the Gulf War." "Empire" by Hardt and Negri page 12 Chris Burford London

Document Size:	4696
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Oct 21 13:08:22 PDT 2001

205 und das ist gut so! - in Berlin -- rank: 1000

Exit polls broadly confirmed by the first estimates show major changes in the politics of Berlin. The SPD has been proved right to shatter the Grand Coalition of CDU/SPD even at the cost of having to consider an alliance with the PDS. Already in national politics the lead of the SPD over the CDU that had been down to 1% had in the last week increased to 5%. But in Berlin (all figures compared to 1999) the SPD has leapt up from 22% to 31% (a gain of about 8%) This has been achieved with its new c ...

Document Size:	8653
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Oct 21 10:13:43 PDT 2001

206 Transparent disclosure by companies -- rank: 1000

Discussion on Bloomberg today was praising Nokia for keeping investors fully informed of any adverse impending news. It was argued that this helps the company take remedial action more quickly, and leads to greater stability, and to greater confidence by institutional, and other, investors. Commentator suggested that investors might start shaping their decisions by whether a company has a good disclosure policy. This little detail would be a major step towards modifying the capitalist laws of pr ...

Document Size:	5307
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Oct 21 08:45:31 PDT 2001

207 After they win... -- rank: 1000

At 20/10/01 14:18 -0400, Chip wrote: >Hi, > >I do not support priapic US-run military overreaction, but somewhat like Doug >Henwood, I support a UN-run police action. >What I have been arguing is that while the term fascism is abused, the Taliban >and ObL networks (and only those) are clerical fascist Islamic fundamentalist >movements, while the government of Saudi Arabia is running a reactionary >orthodox Islamic theocracy that is not accurately called clerical fascist. ...

Document Size:	7420
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Oct 20 15:58:56 PDT 2001

208 PDS push in Berlin -- rank: 1000

Opinion polls predict a further rise of 2% in the vote for the PDS, in Berlin as a whole, with it going up form 30% to 40% in the boroughs of the former East Berlin. Quite a good article from the Independent ahead the vote for mayor on Sunday: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=100268 Chris Burford London

Document Size:	4857
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Oct 19 16:12:00 PDT 2001

209 and they're in....... -- rank: 1000

Now we will learn whether ground troops with air logistical support can be any more humane than just bombing from 30.000 feet, as in the Kosovo war. It will be difficult in the first week or two to oppose this outright unless you want to argue from a pacifist position. Ground forces come closer to a policing operation, which is a more rational response to terrorism than war. But if anything they highlight the great gap between the goals of the "Coalition against Terror" and the miminu ...

Document Size:	5748
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 18 23:49:19 PDT 2001

210 Troops on the ground? -- rank: 1000

The politics of each war is different. Unlike the majority of active contributors on this list (and I do not know about the silent members) and like leftists such as Ken Livingstone, and some of the Guardian staff, I believed that if imperial troops were hovering around yugoslavia, it was essential that they justified their presence by preventing another massacre of muslims. I also believed that bourgeois nationalism could not be a progressive force to stop even deeper divisions in the unity of ...

Document Size:	7515
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Oct 18 00:32:12 PDT 2001