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14161 [lbo-talk] ruling class -- rank: 1000

tfast wrote: >AKA the state: a ruling committee of the Bourgeoisie? In Marx's original, it was just the executive branch that filled that role. The legislative branch is more contested terrain. Doug

Document Size:	4588
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 09:19:00 PST 2006

14162 [lbo-talk] ruling class -- rank: 1000

Carl Remick wrote: >That's because civilians are (usually) sensible enough not to ask >the armed forces to do anything they don't want to do. I thought the military didn't like the idea of invading Iraq. >Who wouldn't follow "orders" when they entail getting so much for so little? So far, 2,325 of them have died in Iraq, and 16,253 have been injured, according to my casualty widget. And uncounted numbers are suffering severe psychological damage. While that's a fraction of the ...

Document Size:	4989
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 09:13:27 PST 2006

14163 [lbo-talk] NYT on French unions -- rank: 1000

[This is pretty funny - they're soooo rigid, but they're also immensely popular. And all without gangsters. I wonder if anyone at the AFL-CIO is asking how the French unions can cause such trouble with just 8% density. Maybe it's all that red wine.] New York Times - March 29, 2006 Well Exercised and Supple, French Unions Flex Muscles By CRAIG S. SMITH PARIS, March 28 - Armed with hot dogs and baguettes, balloons, buttons, banners and, of course, gallons of red wine, France's major trade unions s ...

Document Size:	9799
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 09:02:54 PST 2006

14164 [lbo-talk] Fwd: [Working-Class] Apathy - A Common Enemy -- rank: 1000

[From the Working Class Studies list <working-class-studies.lists.ysu.edu>. Is it apathy, or is it genuine confusion about what can be done, with GM racking up $10 billion in losses? At the Left Forum in NYC a few weeks ago, I asked Marsha Niemeijer of Labor Notes what they'd do; reading LN, it sounds like all they need is more union democracy and more militancy, but little substantive about how they'd deal with the auto crisis. She sorta ducked the question, saying she's not an ecnomist. ...

Document Size:	22785
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 08:43:40 PST 2006

14165 [lbo-talk] the new McCain -- rank: 1000

Jim Devine wrote: > > The News and Advance of Lynchburg, VA cryptically reported yesterday >> that the Rev. Jerry Falwell "said McCain," who is speaking at Liberty >> University's May 14 graduation, > >am I alone to feel my skin crawl upon hearing the name "Lynch-burg"? I spent three years in Virginia, so I'm used to it. But we used to call it Lunchbag, and not out of fondness. Doug

Document Size:	4945
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 08:37:19 PST 2006

14166 [lbo-talk] FOMC -- rank: 1000

Jim Devine wrote: >Doesn't Gentle Ben have to prove (in the eyes of "Wall Street") that >he's no wimp compared to Al? To some degree - hawks still worry about his helicopter money remark during the deflation scare of 2002. (I'm doing this from memory, but after he said something about how the Fed could pump enough money into the economy to avoid a deflation, he was asked how - and alluding to a famous comment by Milton Friedman, he answered, by dropping it from helicopters.) But ...

Document Size:	5019
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 08:35:22 PST 2006

14167 [lbo-talk] the new McCain -- rank: 1000

<http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=156238> John and Jerry: The News and Advance of Lynchburg, VA cryptically reported yesterday that the Rev. Jerry Falwell "said McCain," who is speaking at Liberty University's May 14 graduation, "has expressed a willingness to support a Federal Marriage Amendment, an issue dear to conservative Christians." LINK This report caught our attention since McCain had sharply denounced a federal marriage amendment in 2004, callin ...

Document Size:	6550
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 07:24:52 PST 2006

14168 [lbo-talk] LA: A Dynasty, A City -- rank: 1000

Jerry Monaco wrote: >To what extent were ruling classes in the U.S. simply "rulers" of a >particular region, or city? How has that changed since 1905? Are >the owners of our society regionally based at all anymore? In New York, which is hardly typical, our local rulers are also nationally and globally engaged. So their vision of NYC's economy is as a major node of global financial and ideological flows, which ain't so great for all the locals. Doug

Document Size:	4987
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 07:09:37 PST 2006

14169 [lbo-talk] Pimping the working class. Was: LA demos something -- rank: 1000

B. wrote: >Chuck Grimes & Doug, > >Here's something amazing: about 3,000 people, mostly >students taking the day off school, marched in >downtown DALLAS today. And police even blocked off >some of the streets for them. Dallas, Texas. Wow. I've always heard that Texas was more immigrant-friendly than California. Is that true? Doug

Document Size:	5111
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 07:06:10 PST 2006

14170 [lbo-talk] ruling class -- rank: 1000

Jim Devine wrote: >BTW, I found C. Wright Mills' key -- and among Marxist sociologists, >famous -- footnote (from THE POWER ELITE) on-line. Here it is: > >'Ruling class' is a badly loaded phrase, 'Class' is an economic term; >'rule' a political one. The phrase, 'ruling class,' thus contains the >theory that an economic class rules politically. That short-cut theory >may or may not at time be true, but we do not want to carry that one >rather simple theory about in the ter ...

Document Size:	6486
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 07:04:04 PST 2006

14171 [lbo-talk] ruling class -- rank: 1000

Miles Jackson wrote: >Jim Devine wrote about my confusion concerning the ruling class: >> >> >>It's useful to distinguish between the "ruling class" and the >>"governing class" (or power elite) in order to clarify this. > >So according to this terminology, Doug's interested in the >psychology of the governing class/power elite, not the ruling class. >(It's strange to me how fuzzy the concept "ruling class" is on a >left-wing ...

Document Size:	5277
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 07:01:34 PST 2006

14172 [lbo-talk] Re: larry summers' hedge fund -- rank: 1000

Daniel Davies wrote: >The World Bank isn't all that much better; since big project lending >is right out of fashion, and there are very few other kinds of projects that >are worth lending to, it keeps trying to muscle its way into the aid business, >usually with bad results. My old pal Juliette Majot, one of the early 50 Years is Enough people, said when the WB was indeed about 50 years old, that the only mission they had left was commodifying nature. Now that the WB is over 60, mayb ...

Document Size:	5175
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 06:47:42 PST 2006

14173 [lbo-talk] FOMC -- rank: 1000

joanna wrote: >Doug Henwood wrote: > >>[this is more hawkish than expected (by the markets, not by me) - >>"further policy firming" are the magic words, carried over from the >>previous announcement, as was much of the 2nd graf] > >I'm surprised that you're not surprised. The rate hike had to >happen....but why the heavily hawkish signals...hikes as far as the >eye can see... > >Who are they trying to spook and why? Is it really inflation fears ...

Document Size:	5654
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Mar 29 06:44:47 PST 2006

14174 [lbo-talk] Resolution on immigrants' human rights -- rank: 1000

Joel Wendland wrote: >http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/3067/1/159/ > >Understanding Racism Today: an Interview with David Roediger >By Political Affairs And, don't forget: <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#050811> August 11, 2005 David Roediger, author of the classic Wages of Whiteness discusses his latest, Working Towards Whiteness, the story of the whitening of "new immigrants" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Document Size:	5353
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 28 12:04:05 PST 2006

14175 [lbo-talk] FOMC -- rank: 1000

[this is more hawkish than expected (by the markets, not by me) - "further policy firming" are the magic words, carried over from the previous announcement, as was much of the 2nd graf] <http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/press/monetary/2006/20060328/default.htm> Release Date: March 28, 2006 For immediate release The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to raise its target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4-3/4 percent. The slowing of the growth of rea ...

Document Size:	8254
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 28 11:58:03 PST 2006