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856 Banking on the Balkans -- rank: 1000

If peace on NATO terms now looks likely, we should watch the economic fine print. Fischer continues to promote an aid plan from which capitalists will definitely benefit. The Guardian this Saturday had an article by Alex Brummer. The EU has provided aid of the order of $20 billion to the Balkans in the last 10 years. Now various European orgnisations are talking of a 10 year programme of rebuilding in the region of he order of $100 billion. Stiglitz, of the World Bank, has also talked of this fi ...

Document Size:	5538
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jun 3 15:53:54 PDT 1999

857 Comparing Mao to Hitler -- rank: 1000

At 16:14 01/06/99 -0400, you wrote: <large snip> >But on the question of Mao's alleged murder of 30 million of his fellow >citizens, the problem is a matter of logic rather than the mere absence >of evidence. > >Henry C.K. Liu > > It is problematic copying material from discussion on one list to another, and I cannot remember whether Brad de Long is on this list, and he may not consider it appropriate to pursue the question here, which certainly looks ahistorical to me ...

Document Size:	6714
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jun 3 00:11:19 PDT 1999

858 Euro on the slide -- rank: 1000

At the beginning of the year I welcomed the start of the euro. It smoothly unified 13 currencies (if I recall the number correctly). A triumph of technical management based of course on computer technology, comparable to the gentle docking of space stations. The class content of this process has of course been controlled by the ruling class, finance capitalism, but like all technical feats in history it is also a feat of human skill and ingenuity. It has massive potential implications for the de ...

Document Size:	6167
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jun 2 15:59:14 PDT 1999

859 Bosnia, Kosovo, prelude to Soviet Union -- rank: 1000

At 18:14 31/05/99 -0400, you wrote: >At 10:11 PM 5/31/99 +0100, you wrote: >>Paddy Ashdown, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in Britain has been >>successful in persuading Tony Blair to intervene in Kosovo, and then to >>promote the idea of ground troops. >> >>On Saturday he argued that Bosnia and Kosovo were mere preludes to the >>tasks of NATO with the forthcoming implosion of the former Soviet Union. > > >So British Liberal Democrats dream o ...

Document Size:	6514
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jun 1 15:30:52 PDT 1999

860 DISCUSSION LISTS -- rank: 1000

At 17:14 01/06/99 -0400, Max wrote: thread title RE: Civilian targets "legitimate" > C. Burford said: >> The Serbs report that in addition to the 30 civilian deaths on >Sunday, >there has been an attack on an apartment block in the south of >Serbia. They >say the deaths total 50 in the last two days. > > >There is also the report that NATO bombed a bridge in the middle >of 'market day,' then five or fifteen minutes later, when people >were trying to ...

Document Size:	6784
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jun 2 00:10:43 PDT 1999

861 Civilian targets "legitimate" -- rank: 1000

At 19:02 01/06/99 +1000, Rob wrote: first quoting myself: >>I was against the widening of the war to economic targets and I am against >>this further widening. But I would say to the many sincere, intelligent, >>informed , and committed left-wing subscbribers that it is not enough >>merely to oppose everything that western governments do as a matter of >>course. > >Not as a matter of course, no. I think for some in marxism space that was the position. And it h ...

Document Size:	6491
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jun 1 15:00:45 PDT 1999

862 FW: Update on Shays-Frank amendment -- rank: 1000

At 13:51 01/06/99 -0400, you wrote: >fyi > >teetering towards the peace camp, > >mbs > > >-----Original Message----- >From: McGlinchey, Daniel >[mailto:Daniel.McGlinchey at mail.house.gov] >Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 1:00 PM >To: 'daniel.mcglinchey at mail.house.gov' >Subject: Update on Shays-Frank amendment Peace has politics as well as war has politics. What is important is the politics. On this question it looks pretty progressive to me if the US would ...

Document Size:	5541
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jun 1 14:18:21 PDT 1999

863 Three pre-occupation theses on Kosovo- evaulating the results -- rank: 1000

At 11:20 31/07/99 -0400, you wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>The left opportunists could not respond to Leninist concept that it is >>sometimes true that >> >>"imperialism is progressive compared with pre-monopoly capitalism" > >Chris, is this the Marxist analogue of the new liberal imperialism >theorized by David Rieff et al? The Atlantic is a big ocean on these questions. We have different perspectives and different background cultures to refer ...

Document Size:	12900
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Jul 31 12:05:22 PDT 1999

864 Vulnerabilities of Titoist economy -- rank: 1000

At 12:32 30/07/99 -0400, Michael Hoover wrote: >> I would appreciate comments on these criticisms of the economic strategy of >> Titoist Yugoslavia as having left it vulnerable to centrifugal forces, >> internal and external, owing to the growing disparity in wealth between the >> different regions. >> Chris Burford > >Yugoslav 'market socialism' provided for worker participation in a >decentralized economy, availibility of Western-style consumer goods > ...

Document Size:	10045
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Jul 31 05:40:53 PDT 1999

865 Three pre-occupation theses on Kosovo- evaulating the results -- rank: 1000

At 10:33 30/07/99 -0400, Nathan Newman wrote: >Okay, since I jumped back into the Kosovo discussion, and since I missed the >discussions at the end of the war, I am curious how the anti-war folks have >reanalyzed certain predictions and views made at the beginning of the >bombing. Leninist-International run by Mark Jones, and Proyect's Marxism at Panix "Open to all views within Marxism" had to impose censorship. A glaring admission of defeat for bombast, while they continu ...

Document Size:	10373
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Jul 30 15:58:14 PDT 1999

866 Expropriating the Grand Hotel Pristina -- rank: 1000

BBC business program yesterday had a detailed discussion of the revolution in the management of the Grand Hotel, Pristina. The story line was roughly as follows. On the arrival of NATO troops it was still property of the Yugoslav state and run by Serb management. The KLA moved in and organised a non-stop party together with the Albanian staff. Quite sophisticated form of struggle. The legal ownership of the hotel is now alleged to be completely unclear. The Albanians claim it is a cooperative ru ...

Document Size:	5979
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 29 23:19:13 PDT 1999

867 London, New York jettison mutual status -- rank: 1000

Has Doug got a comment on this? In their original form companies are cooperatives and semi socialist or communist. British capitalism and imperialism have done very well for 200 years with the London Stock Exchange legally existing as a gentleman's club. This is about to be swept away by the latest technological revolution. It comes hard on reports that the New York Stock Exchange is going the same way. This week's Economist: + The NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE, a non-profit concern owned by its membe ...

Document Size:	9486
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 29 23:48:36 PDT 1999

868 Giddens distances from New Labour -- rank: 1000

At 10:55 29/07/99 -0400, you wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>The Third Way is treated as fit only for derision by some. > >You betcha. Speaking of which, I'm going to be interviewing that >renegade aristocrat, Tony Benn, on my radio show tonight at 5 PM NYC >time - WBAI, 99.5 FM. Finally, you can get the WBAI signal on >RealAudio now, at <http://www.wbaifree.org>. I'm sure there will be >some Third Way derision on tap. > >Doug Not Benn's fault that his ...

Document Size:	6643
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 29 15:38:08 PDT 1999

869 Protecing the City of London from Riot -- rank: 1000

Two police reports published yesterday shows a serious degree of alarm about how to protect the capitalist institutions of the City of London in "a new era of violent protest". They are preparing for another mass action on the first working day of 2000. So grave are the implications that the report by the Metropolitan Police clearly implies that the City police, who just look after the City of London, (one of the many historical anomalies of the City of London) can no longer protect th ...

Document Size:	11560
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 29 00:06:13 PDT 1999

870 ***** war in the English countryside -- rank: 1000

Although the Telegraph was delighted to report that the smug Lord Melchett. director of Greenpeace was in a Norwich cell on Tuesday night unable to join his family for an expensive holiday in Tanzania, after being refused police bail, the London Evening Standard on Wednesday reported the GM crop vandals being chastised with a feather. Food campaginer Martin Sharw was given a one-month suspended jail term. Three others, a gardener and two teachers were let off with a warning after claiming they d ...

Document Size:	6078
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jul 28 16:09:26 PDT 1999