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871 Giddens distances from New Labour -- rank: 1000

The Chinese Party criticised Stalin's view that in different revolutionary periods the main blow should be so directed as to isolate the middle-of-the-road social and political forces of the time. It is not clear how much he was relying on Lenin for this, and how much the issue is confused with the Leninist emphasis on fighting opportunism within the progressive movement. Inevitably the battle of ideas may mean, as Marx and Engels said, they they spent much of their time fighting those apparentl ...

Document Size:	16473
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jul 28 15:43:27 PDT 1999

872 Another IMF loan for lucky Russia -- rank: 1000

Today the IMF is generously going to extend another loan to Russia. But the commentator on the BBC makes clear the inescapably dependent relationship that it locks Russia into. Sadly, he says Russian problems are too severe for Russia to be left alone, so the unfortunate IMF has no option but to be engaged. Nevertheless the conditions are severe. First of all there is no new money at all. The money will be kept in Washington, and merely used to repay the previous loan, to keep the debtor in chai ...

Document Size:	7274
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jul 27 23:06:02 PDT 1999

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

from the Guardian site http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/ Tuesday July 27, 1999 The Lord confronts the brothers Brigham by John Vidal 5.09am Rosy-fingered dawn in the east, deep peace on the Norfolk land, three crows heading west in a lazy flap and a meticulously planned Greenpeace raid on the third of Britain's seven GM farm trial sites is about to go horribly wrong. Little does Lord Melchett, Norfolk farmer and executive director of the environment group know, but - even as he and his coll ...

Document Size:	12681
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jul 26 23:45:39 PDT 1999

874 CAFOD calls for Global Intervention Fund -- rank: 1000

The politically conscious campaigning charities in the UK have taken a further step in challenging global finance capital. CAFOD, the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (in England and Wales), has published a report calling for a Global Intervention Fund to support third world countries under attack from currency speculators. The proposal is a dual one: the fund would be financed by a global transfer tax (Tobin tax). CAFOD's spokesperson, David Woodward, admitted that the Tobin tax idea had ...

Document Size:	6187
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jul 26 09:37:30 PDT 1999

875 Lenin: The Importance of Gold -- rank: 1000

At 09:06 25/07/99 +0100, I wrote: (thread title currency boards and Russia) some bold statements, the essence of which were correct, particularly about the situation in Russia today where there has to be an alternative to continued servitude to the IMF. If have been checking with my cooperative friend various references and using volume 9 of the 12 volume 1937 Selected Lenin, and the volume by Progress Publishers and Lawrence and Wishart 'Lenin on the Foreign Policy of the Soviet State'. I wrot ...

Document Size:	15857
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jul 25 15:30:30 PDT 1999

876 currency boards and Russia -- rank: 1000

At 13:03 24/07/99 -0400, Doug wrote: >Chris Burford wrote: > >>3. Failure to have a currency board, so that when the state had a deficit >>it printed more money. >> >>The last is the currency board debate. > >Yes, back to that. I thought of scanning & posting the New Palgrave >Dictionary of Money & Finance entry on currency boards, but >unfortunately it's written by Alan Walters, a former economic advisor >to Thatcher, and Steve Hanke, the Joh ...

Document Size:	14990
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sun Jul 25 01:06:48 PDT 1999

877 The complexity of working class consciousness -- rank: 1000

Kelley has quoted some more extracts, but the book title, "The Hidden Injuries of Class" has diverged as a thread to cover wider philosophies, so I have altered the title in this post to one of Sennett and Cobb's themes as I am picking it up. It incorrectly describes as class differences those between the class conscious working class and the educated working class, who call themselves middle class. The title is potentially patronising in that it appears to emphasise suffering, but the ...

Document Size:	8465
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Jul 24 11:43:15 PDT 1999

878 labor theory of value (o'connor) -- rank: 1000

At 15:34 23/07/99 -0800, you wrote: >labor theory of value: transformation problem. > >I never understood the fuss about the transformation problem. That sounds a healthy instinct. I agree with Jim O'Connor's subsequent remarks. Agonising over "the transformation problem" accepts the perspective of what Marx would call the vulgar economists. It assumes there is a problem, and bogs undialectical marxists into mechanically trying to equate value with prices without accepting the ...

Document Size:	6312
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Jul 24 09:11:42 PDT 1999

879 Vulnerabilities of Titoist economy -- rank: 1000

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. These criticism come from my friend who is in the Cooperative Movement and in the Labour Land Campaign. 1. Most crucially they did not operate a social market in freehold land. By this I mean a system as in Hong Kong, where the state owns the freehold, and c ...

Document Size:	6530
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Sat Jul 24 02:02:51 PDT 1999

880 Nato and the War against Yugoslavia -- rank: 1000

At 15:00 21/07/99 EDT, Elias deflected my riposte by writing >and from all religions I prefer the 12 gods of Olympus. They had one for >each occasion, from war making to drinking to fucking. And Zeus, their CEO >in modern parlance, was roaming around the plains of Greece looking for >his next affair. Surely. If we are to be religious we ought to be polytheistic. That way all the different facets of personal and solution life are represented in projected objects, can be acknowledged ...

Document Size:	18135
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Fri Jul 23 15:57:20 PDT 1999

881 hidden injuries of class -- rank: 1000

At 06:22 22/07/99 -0400, you wrote: >you will eventually find an expression of what sennett and cobb once >aptly called 'the hidden injuries of class'. indeed, i'd suggest a list >reading, since PLOP was such a plop. it's an oldie but goodie, i think, >and writing this post prompted me to have a look at it again with fresh >eyes, since i last read it completely in 1984 as a first yr college >student. the intro takes on new meaning, as i didn't quite understand much >of it ...

Document Size:	6958
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Thu Jul 22 15:56:49 PDT 1999

882 currency boards -- rank: 1000

At 11:36 21/07/99 -0400, Doug wrote: >If you set up a currency board, your central bank becomes little more >than a pretty building. By definition, you've given up all your >autonomy in monetary policy. Who in her right mind would keep dollars >in Argentina if, in the midst of a crisis, interest rates were >lowered to 200 basis points below comparable U.S. rates? And if you >change the parity level, you've broken your credibility bottle and >spilled its contents on the floor ...

Document Size:	6650
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jul 21 23:24:47 PDT 1999

883 currency boards -- rank: 1000

At 14:32 20/07/99 -0400, you wrote: >Oh yes, the present crisis in Argentina, with its much touted >currency board (i.e., effective dollarization), is a good negative >example of the relationship between a currency's value and national >productivity levels. Argentine industry is just no match for the >U.S., but it's adopted the U.S. currency as its standard. The effect >of this is to make Argentine products progressively more expensive on >world markets. Without the dollar p ...

Document Size:	8186
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Tue Jul 20 23:47:53 PDT 1999

884 Nato and the War against Yugoslavia -- rank: 1000

Elias has altered the title of the forwarded article, and that for a start is significant. The war was conducted in an imperialist way and should not be repeated. The argument over alternatives is important. However the war was not against Yugoslavia but against Serbian bourgeois nationalism in alliance with fascist groups relying on Christian Orthodox racism against muslims, with a plan to impose an apartheid solution, if necessary also in Montenegro and Macedonia. I hope Elias, writing from a ...

Document Size:	5747
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Wed Jul 21 00:03:21 PDT 1999

885 Ghana joins protests over gold sales -- rank: 1000

Sympathetic though I normally feel to political and economic demands of Africa I do not think we should support this demand, in material forwarded from the list STOP-IMF <stop-imf at essential.org> Hanging on to a declining metal for the sake of some jobs is a reform that is quite reformist. Economist in fact. The political gain of demonetising gold world wide moves the agenda forward for the control of the world economy and is far more progressive. Better to intensify demands for a devel ...

Document Size:	10810
Author:	Chris Burford
Date:	Mon Jul 19 23:50:16 PDT 1999