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781 Moral Blindness of Serb "liberals" -- rank: 1000

At 15:19 29/03/99 -0500, you wrote: >At 08:03 PM 3/29/99 +0100, Chris Burford wrote: >>Yesterday the vice-president was interviewed by Sky television, and said >>there is not one village in Kosovo that has been emptied by Serb forces. He >>said he would take the interviewer to see! >> >>Such departure from reality is not accidental. > > >Reality? What reality? Have you actually been on the grounds as an eye >witness, or you consider what the governm ...

Document Size:	8732
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Mar 29 14:41:47 PST 1999

782 Moral Blindness of Serb "liberals" -- rank: 1000

Yes an interesting article fowarded by Nathan. What is emerging is that talking with Serbs is like talking with white South Africans during the era of apartheid. Of course there were nice liberal English speaking ones, not like the nasty Afrikaner ones who ran the brutal police. They regarded themselves as very international. They regretted the excesses of their regime but they regretted more that how the international community regarded them as pariahs. The were active lobbyists for the mainten ...

Document Size:	6634
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Mar 29 11:03:57 PST 1999

783 Why doesn't the Left have a real vision? -- rank: 1000

Because the "left" prefers to be oppositional. It prefers to be sectarian. It uses ideas to separate itself morally from the rest of the population. It uses the Communist Manifesto in its coffee table edition. It is moralistic rather than scientific. It shits, as you were shat upon, on people for considering reforms, because that is not revolutionary enough. It prefers revolutionary cycnicism. It ignores the hundreds of thousands of good people trying to change the world. Its real cont ...

Document Size:	5305
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 28 23:06:42 PST 1999

784 Noam Chomksy on Kosovo (FWD) -- rank: 1000

At 13:58 28/03/99 -0500, you wrote: >Noam Chomsky wrote: > >>Apart from the UK (by now, about as much >>of an independent actor as the Ukraine was in the pre-Gorbachev >>years) > >Ha. How does this play in Britain? Is Britain's tagging along with the U.S. >in these aerial riots seen as humiliating or evidence of imperial rebirth? > >Doug I am glad to say that opinion in Britain seems to be more strongly behind the action than in the USA. Opinion polls in t ...

Document Size:	10629
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 28 14:16:24 PST 1999

785 Amnesty International on Kosovo -- rank: 1000

An expose of the lying chauvinism of the Serbian "marxists" who just happen to forget to call for their troops to get out of Kosovo. Thanks to Nathan for pointing out this site http://www.igc.org/igc/pn/hg/kosova.html Chris Burford London ___________________________________________________________ A Legacy of Resentment from KOSOVO: Which way now? an Amnesty International Briefing (AI Index: EUR 70/59/98) The ethnic Albanian community makes up more than 90 per cent of Kosovo's populat ...

Document Size:	8629
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 28 12:31:16 PST 1999

786 Yugoslavia -- rank: 1000

At 12:40 28/03/99 -0300, Marko Ajdaric" <marko at lutacontinua.zzn.com> wrote: > > >Our site A Luta Contiinua http://come.to/luta > >is already featuring 80 entries against NATO aggressions to Yugoslavia. > >Please, do forward. > >Give us the chance to say things are not the way Mr. Clinton says. Well *are* things the way Mr Clinton says? Is it possible that NATO is correct today, that 1/2 million Kosovans have been displaced? Further that the only interpret ...

Document Size:	11046
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 28 10:08:42 PST 1999

787 Why Yugoslavia? Why Military Attacks? -- rank: 1000

At 20:51 26/03/99 -0500, Yoshie wrote: >Why is the US government doing all this? > >1. To prevent people (esp. Americans & Europeans) from questioning the >continuation & enlargement of the NATO. > >2. To get the American public used to the idea & reality of sending troops >abroad even in a context where it is impossible to claim a 'quick, >painless, and decisive' victory. > >3. To secure the Balkans as militarily strategic areas under the US/NATO >co ...

Document Size:	7678
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Mar 26 23:39:18 PST 1999

788 Protest against the Bombing -- rank: 1000

At 11:19 26/03/99 -0500, you wrote: >Margaret wrote: > >>Yes, they are selective, and disgustingly so. But what >>are we to do then? It's despicable, as you imply, that >>the US establishment doesn't really give a rat's >>backside for anything but the wealthy. But isn't it >>even worse to let positively _every_one suffer? >>Surely ameliorating the lives of a few for the wrong >>reasons is better -- at least for those few! -- than >>letting ...

Document Size:	6921
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Mar 26 15:52:06 PST 1999

789 PDS against NATO attack -- rank: 1000

Yesterday Gregor Gysi, head of the PDS group in the Bundestag, criticised Germany's participation in the NATO attacks on Serbia. I caught one argument that there can be no solution to this conflict without involving the Russians. This is probably true, but that does not mean that the Russians need to have a veto on military actions to be involved in the negotiations. dpa appears to be describing a constitutional appeal. Does anyone have a fuller summary of the PDS position? Chris Burford London ...

Document Size:	7995
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 25 22:51:24 PST 1999

790 Protest against the Bombing -- rank: 1000

At 15:20 25/03/99 -0500, you wrote: >At 01:41 PM 3/25/99 -0500, you wrote: >>Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>) wrote: >> >>>In Columbus, Ohio, we had a protest against the US/NATO bombing of Serbia & >>>Kosovo today. >> >>I'm curious. I hardly ever these days play the >>apologist for US imperialism, but the attacks on Serbia >>-- regardless of true motivation! -- seem at least to >>be directed at the right target. ...

Document Size:	7472
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Mar 25 16:37:36 PST 1999

791 "You were just too noisy, Oskar" -- rank: 1000

I think the points below are an argument as to why Gordon Brown in marginally more marxist than Oskar Lafontaine. It is not marxist to ignore the balance of forces. Chris Burford London At 12:49 24/03/99 -0500, you wrote: >That's the New Statesman's take on Lafontaine's demise. I found the >article -- by Christopher Huhne, a former business editor of the >Independent, who's now group managing director and chief economist at >the credit rating agency Fitch IBCA -- bleakly amusing. H ...

Document Size:	6320
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Mar 24 16:10:25 PST 1999

792 Tax credit for all in work -- rank: 1000

Today's Financial Times reports that Gordon Brown intends to integrate the benefits system and the tax system with a tax credit for all in work. Because of the size of the computer problem this will only be brought in next century. It is consistent with the New Labour aim of breaking down the division between better off workers, who regard themselves as middle class, and recipients of benefits who are caught in a poverty trap and may be stigmatized as idle. It will be seen by the traditional lef ...

Document Size:	5295
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Mar 22 14:19:32 PST 1999

793 Blair on Reforming the EU -- rank: 1000

Blair puts loyalty to capitalism above shows of loyalty to democracy. But within that, I suggest it is arguable that he does expect European capitalism to be socially accountable. Chris Burford London >From the Guardian: >>>> The Prime Minister appeared more amused than angry mid-week when Mr Hague and Mr Major endorsed a reform proposal on Europe launched in the Commons the previous day by Tony Benn. Why not start greater democratisation at home, Mr Benn suggested, and allow MPs ...

Document Size:	5269
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 21 15:57:27 PST 1999

794 ECB and interest rates -- rank: 1000

At 17:14 19/03/99 -0800, Jim O'Connor wrote: >Top ten reasons why ECB won't cut interest rates: >3. ECB will not be a party to making Germany another consumer of last >resort. Unlike the U.S. trade deficit, which influences the dollar/yen/mark >rates very little, a European trade deficit would push the Euro down, down. Yes. Why? Chris Burford London

Document Size:	4841
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 21 01:09:18 PST 1999

795 Germany: Tax Reforms Pass -- rank: 1000

At 11:39 20/03/99 -0600, >>From Reuters > >3/20/99 > >GERMANY: TAX REFORMS PASS >The upper house of Parliament, ignoring industry opposition, passed tax >reform measures that had been drafted by Oskar Lafontaine, who quit as >Finance Minister after a power struggle with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. >The legislation, already approved by the lower house, introduces tax cuts >for families and small companies and requires employers to make social >security contrib ...

Document Size:	5717
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Mar 21 01:15:55 PST 1999