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691 alternative to IPRs -- rank: 1000

This looks simultaneously both utopian and highly subversive. Much capital now competes for relative surplus value, enjoying a relative monopoly before a new method of production becomes widespread in the market. On a global scale I have argued this is inherent in the process of unequal exchange from less technologically developed countries to more technologically developed countries. Does this paper have any sense of the social context of the private ownership of the means of production, or is ...

Document Size:	8465
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Nov 18 23:35:29 PST 1999

692 "NAFTA for Africa" -- rank: 1000

recipients of list STOP-IMF <stop-imf at essential.org> received a post from the 50 Years is Enough campaign >ACTION ALERT: OPPOSE CBI AND NAFTA FOR AFRICA > >As many of you are aware, both the House and the Senate have passed >versions of H.R. 434, the "African Growth and Opportunity Act," dubbed >"NAFTA for Africa" by its critics. The Senate version has attached NAFTA >expansion to Central America and the Caribbean, otherwise known as "CBI - > ...

Document Size:	7731
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Nov 18 23:20:47 PST 1999

693 Soros in Kosovo joint venture with World Bank -- rank: 1000

At 12:41 17/11/99 -0500, you wrote: >[If the name includes "Open Society," it must be Soros. From the >World Bank's daily clipping service.] > >KOSOVO SECURES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FUNDS. >The World Bank and the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS) yesterday etc. To say that Soros has a dual character is an understatement. On the positive side he genuinely wants to use his speculative wealth to shift resources back to eastern Europe. The proposals as summarised here ...

Document Size:	5861
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Nov 17 15:37:04 PST 1999

694 Clinton - and Blair -- rank: 1000

>I think >he had a real program in mind the first two years, but since Novermber 94, >only opportunism remains > >Jacob Segal There is a riddle here behind his successes and his weaknesses: I suggest that Clinton, and Blair, who has clearly been consciously influenced by him, make opportunism a scientific, professional method. I sugggest this may turn out to be progressive for reasons other than the ones Clinton and Blair consciously claim. We should not judge them just by their c ...

Document Size:	5615
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 16 15:04:03 PST 1999

695 Livingstone unstoppable in London? -- rank: 1000

>>Keep on arguing? > >Why not? We New Yorkers love to argue. > >Doug So I have noticed! The first attempt by Tony Blair to import mayoral contexts to enliven democracy, looks as if it is going to be uncomfortably lively for him. Chris Burford London __________ Alan Travis and Ewen MacAskill Tuesday November 16, 1999 The Guardian Ken Livingstone's bid to become the first directly elected mayor of London now appears unstoppable as long as his name appears on the ballot paper next ...

Document Size:	9463
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Nov 15 23:24:26 PST 1999

696 protest Rudy -- rank: 1000

At 16:05 15/11/99 -0500, you wrote: >>Giuliani Fundraiser Tues 11/16/99 8 PM >>Minskoff Theater 200 West 45 St. NYC >> >>New York City's anti-art, anti-people, anti-free speech Mayor >>will be hosting a fundraiser for a few hundred of his wealthiest >>supporters and accessories in crime. Please feel free to join the >>anti-Giuliani party outside and to pass this message on to others >>who might be interested. >> >>Robert Lederman, Presi ...

Document Size:	5437
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Nov 15 16:09:25 PST 1999

697 Latest on Kosovo death toll -- rank: 1000

Yesterday's Guardian had a letter from Peter Hain signed in his capacity as Minister of State at the Foreign Office on the report in the Guardian of the press converence by Carla del Ponte, reported in an article in the NY Times which was forwarded to this list. "Your story on Kosovo graves uses a statement by the chief prosecutor of the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, that only 2,108 bodies have been exhumed so far to imply than many fewer died o ...

Document Size:	10166
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 14 13:56:08 PST 1999

698 progressive elements of the big bourgeoisie -- rank: 1000

Ah, Carrol has been reading my posts again. How inconsistent, since he has vowed to stop doing so a dozen times. What is consistent however is his dealing with views he considers incorrect not by direct criticism, but by personal innuendo. This does not clarify debate but accentuates a definition of politics in terms of a sort of pecking order, who is in and who is not. It complements Louis Proyect's sectarian use of boycotts. Still a challenge is useful even if Carrol was not direct enough to p ...

Document Size:	6688
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Nov 12 00:13:22 PST 1999

699 Chechnya - a far off country -- rank: 1000

At 09:36 10/11/99 +0200, you wrote: >>I too really wonder which planet you are on. Not only have your failed to >>say what could be done about Chechnya, despite the example of East Timor, >>but on your own continent you have failed to comment on whether the UN >>peace keeping force in Sierra Leone is progressive > >It is not. I think we can say we have clarified differences to quite a degree. You are opposed to UN intervention in a country like Sierra Leone. You are ...

Document Size:	5834
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Nov 10 22:36:27 PST 1999

700 Centralization of e-mail capital -- rank: 1000

How much hype is there in this press release from eGroups? The predictions about e-mail communications are interesting. Presumably the claim is that the ability to send a typed message with your logal or photo will become a favourite way of communicating in the US, and will be simpler than the web. Presumably voice recognition would make this even friendlier. In Britain, BT at last is going to introduce lower connection charges for the internet, although not the free local calls many subscribers ...

Document Size:	12339
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 9 23:10:04 PST 1999

701 Chechnya - a far off country -- rank: 1000

At 11:09 09/11/99 +0200, you wrote: >>It includes for example the international united front against fascism from >>1941-1945 in which the socialist camp did not lose its indepenendence and >>made many gains. > >Judging from the above, we have so little common ground there's not much >point in pursuing this debate. What "united front" are you talking about? >What was the "socialist" camp and what were the gains? Sometimes polemics cannot reach a ...

Document Size:	5635
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 9 13:11:25 PST 1999

702 Chechnya - a far off country -- rank: 1000

At 09:05 09/11/99 +0200, you wrote: >This could run and run... > >>Do you not agree with this argument then: >> >>"To carry on a war for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie, a >>war which is a hundred times more difficult, protracted and complicated >>than the most stubborn of ordinary wars between states, and to refuse >>beforehand to manoeuvre, to utilize the conflict of interests (even though >>temprorary) among one's enemied, to ...

Document Size:	8522
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Nov 9 00:25:33 PST 1999

703 Chechnya - a far off country -- rank: 1000

At 14:39 08/11/99 +0200, Russell G wrote: >>Why do you oppose them? > >Supporting sanctions campaigns does not make sense. How can imperialist >states be expected to play an anti-imperialist role? Do you not agree with this argument then: "To carry on a war for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie, a war which is a hundred times more difficult, protracted and complicated than the most stubborn of ordinary wars between states, and to refuse beforehand to manoeuvre, ...

Document Size:	9010
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Nov 8 15:58:48 PST 1999

704 Chechnya - a far off country -- rank: 1000

I am disappointed, Russell, that you did not specifically comment on the progressive nature of sending a UN peace keeping force to Sierra Leone, since it is on your continent. >I believe I was talking about the uses of international sanctions which I >oppose and don't believe ever liberated anyone. Why do you oppose them? And why do you say they never liberated anyone? While the struggle of a people internally is probably the most decisive factor, apartheid would have gone on for another 1 ...

Document Size:	7987
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Nov 7 12:25:26 PST 1999

705 Chechnya - a far off country -- rank: 1000

At 06:57 06/11/99 +0200, Russell Grinker wrote: >Chris Burford wrote >>Yes, if I remember correctly, unlike the South African Communist Party, and >>Chomsky, you were not in favour of the west interfering financially to >>support the people of East Timor. > >Sorry, I'll check out the general line next time before I comment. I thought you had criticised the call by Blade Nzimande for action to support the people of East Timor, or associated yourself with that position. ...

Document Size:	9005
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Nov 6 00:17:05 PST 1999