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511 Meaning of Kohl, Kohle and Bimbes -- rank: 1000

At 10:51 25/01/00 +0100, you wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: >> [an excellent account of the honourable Kohleone family, snipped ] >> "Kohl" colloquially in German also means "money", interestingly enough. >Chris, >sorry to correct you here, the word you mean is 'Kohle' (coal), but Kohl >literally means 'cabbage'. Intellectuals liked to play with that meaning of >his name at the early days of his reign. Now he is sometimes beeing referred >to as h ...

Document Size:	6330
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jan 25 15:45:37 PST 2000

512 German politics acquires sleazy tinge -- rank: 1000

More than a tinge!! For the leading party in the perfect artificially-constructed bourgeois democracy to go through this, shows that in every country bourgeois democracy is inherently vulnerable to capitalist influence. (Yes, yes, I know marxists have long known that already. The point however is that it has to learned by ordinary people from their own experience.) (Tonight also the miasmas of sleaze are coiling around New Labour in London, as Geoffrey Robinson, who has done considerable favours ...

Document Size:	6652
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jan 24 15:30:11 PST 2000

513 Real Political Economy -- rank: 1000

At 09:34 23/01/00 -0500, you wrote: >Here's an undrestated story from the New York Times on the cost of >running for political office: > >http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/personal/012300personal-politics.h tml > >Tom Lehman The financial costs and the financial risks of standing for election must be a significant mechanism leading to class bias in the supposedly neutral democratic system. Chris Burford London

Document Size:	5049
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 23 15:54:23 PST 2000

514 "Kosova revisionists let NATO off the hook" -- rank: 1000

I commend this article as a critique of the leftist line on Kosovo: Chris Burford London ___________________________ >From Green Left Weekly (Australia) Jan 19 2000 By Michael Karadjis “The massacres that never were”, ran the headline in the right-wing London Spectator. The article reported claims by journalist John Laughland that “only” hundreds of Albanians had been killed in Kosova during the NATO-Serbia war last year, rather than the figure of 10,000 estimated by the United Nations. Laugh ...

Document Size:	9950
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Jan 21 23:27:36 PST 2000

515 Putin in deal with Commies -- rank: 1000

At 11:11 20/01/00 -0500, you wrote: > >>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 01/20/00 12:34AM >>> > >The IMF suspended >lending to Russia in September and has called for better bankruptcy >legislation and other changes to the government's economic program. It has >released only one $640 million payment last year out of a total package of >$4.5 billion approved for Russia in 1999. > >As the government will be able to pay $3 billion in forei ...

Document Size:	8355
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jan 20 16:00:53 PST 2000

516 help -- rank: 1000

At 22:20 19/01/00 -0800, you wrote: >help I am glad Doug asked for details promptly, because I found this a bit disturbing. There is a theory in psychology that explains why a large crowd can stand watching someone being attacked and do nothing. People are more likely to get involved if there is *not* a large crowd. There is a massive crowd of watchers on this list, and the internet can be very impersonal while at other times creating the illusion of intimacy. Perhaps in future people seeking ...

Document Size:	4825
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jan 20 00:00:02 PST 2000

517 Democrazia Cristiana Tedesca -- rank: 1000

At 19:40 18/01/00 -0500, Michael Pollak wrote: > >On Tue, 18 Jan 2000, Doug Henwood wrote: > >> >> It's amazing to me to hear what makes for a political money scandal >> in Europe. What Kohl did is pretty much out in the open here in the >> U.S.A. > >I think the soul of such scandals is never the money so much as the >breaking of the law, no matter how trivial. So how about planning to lay a few trip wires? And then *not* forget all about it? BTW, in con ...

Document Size:	8259
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jan 19 14:45:21 PST 2000

518 Pinochet 'Could Have Faked Dementia' -- rank: 1000

The battle is not over. Emboldened by Lagos's win, people in Chile are preparing for the opportunity to try Pinochet if he is not extradited to Spain. The different laws of different countries are relevant in terms of the health grounds on which a person may be exempt from trial. Chilean law is less generous. Perhaps he had better stay in his gilded cage in London. Why is a plane flying in to help him back? [Perhaps there should be a retirement home on St Helena for people like him, Kohl, Yeltsi ...

Document Size:	6531
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jan 18 22:53:43 PST 2000

519 Democrazia Cristiana Tedesca -- rank: 1000

At 10:45 18/01/00 +0100, you wrote: >Chris asked: >> What left wing statement on the imprisonment of Egon Krenz would have been >> meaningful? >> >> I do not mean an abstractly correct marxist theoretical analysis. >Chris, >I dont think there can be anything like an 'abstractly correct marxist >theoretical analysis'. Either an marxist analysis is concrete or its not >marxist, but you actually mean empty propagandistic phrases? Oder? >> I mean in >& ...

Document Size:	6810
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jan 18 14:35:44 PST 2000

520 imprisonment of Egon Krenz -- rank: 1000

At 10:45 17/01/00 +0100, you wrote: >Chris, >the success of the march does not contradict my initial assesment: >- the PDS leadership has been acting like the deputy sheriffs for the >police, instead as opposing the police provocation. >- thus the PDS presented themself as a 'responsible' force, fit to rule in >Germany >- and capable of containing any left-wing forces. >Watch out for more symbolic and programmatic steps by the PDS to clean the >party of anything 'left' ...

Document Size:	5756
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jan 17 23:33:21 PST 2000

521 Narrow win in Chile against Pinochet -- rank: 1000

Sad to see such a sour response to the election victory of Lagos, by "Mr Grinker" (to return his courtesy). Presumably he needs rather heavy personalised sarcasm to conceal his view that the house arrest of Pinochet in London is reactionary and colonial. Prior to this arrest, it was hard for anyone in Chile to imagine that Pinochet could be put on trial. Indeed one of the arguments used in England for Pinochet's prompt release was that Chile had come to a compromise that involved buryi ...

Document Size:	8608
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jan 17 16:28:04 PST 2000

522 The imprisonment of Egon Krenz -- rank: 1000

The following statement is no doubt subject to criticism on dogmatic marxist grounds because it does not mention that the state is an instrument by which one class oppresses another. On the other hand the roughness of the justice must be apparent to all who are in the least way sympathetic to the case. It is well brought out by this statement of the PDS which appeals to an ideal of social justice, which of course can never fully exist anywhere under capitalism. The case also illustrates the impo ...

Document Size:	7428
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 16 23:51:39 PST 2000

523 Narrow win in Chile against Pinochet -- rank: 1000

With all the qualifications, it is heart warming news. Crowds in Santiago greeting Lagos started to chant for Pinochet to be put on trial. He repeated that Chilean courts were capable of doing this. Now the Chilean people may be able to settle accounts with fascism. The narrowness of the win, shows up how rigid is the left dogmatist position on the state exhibited by Carrol about Pinochet. The fact that Pinochet has been held in gilded house arrest in London for over a year, possibly to be relea ...

Document Size:	7829
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 16 23:42:09 PST 2000

524 Garzon asks to question Pinochet -- rank: 1000

At 12:10 16/01/00 -0600, Carrol wrote: >It is pretty obvious that while it does *nothing* to control fascists (since >most fascists are friends of the states that "enforce" this illusory law), it has >(among other disastrous results) seriously cramped the right of progressive >leaders of the world to attend international conferences. I prevented Castro's >appearance at the WTO conference in Seattle. The arrest of Pinochet in England >and the invasion of Panama to kidn ...

Document Size:	8439
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 16 16:05:47 PST 2000

525 Davos Bans Demonstration Jan 29 -- rank: 1000

This has become a powerful international movement. It looks as if soon it will not be possible to hold a world economic conference without major protests! The Swiss have now translated their letter on their web site, into English (below) Their web site has the letter 'O' of DAVOS in the form of a smoking bomb. This contrasts to the reasonableness of the letter to the Davos authorities. But is not inconsistent with the following item on the Guardian Breaking News Page. _________ Damage Linked to ...

Document Size:	11922
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jan 16 11:50:21 PST 2000