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18976 [lbo-talk] Ross on the Zaps -- rank: 1000

[One of the reasons I've gotten more skeptical about "changing the world without taking power" is the relatively small impact the Zapatistas have had on Mexico 11 years after they burst onto the scene. Here's a John Ross piece on them - with an interesting typo ("moat") in the last graf. But can you really build moats around your autonomous zones and keep out capitalism?] 11 Years After the Zapatistas Took San Cristobal de las Casas, This Colonial City has Become a NAFTA Them ...

Document Size:	14413
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 21 07:45:46 PST 2005

18977 [lbo-talk] Boycotting the unorganized? -- rank: 1000

Chuck0 wrote: >I'm sure that Liza ran across a few John Wayne anarchists. I've run >into more than a few John and Jane Wayne liberals, socialists, and >progressives. Are we talking about people's quirks and >personalities, or something essential to being an anarchist? Sometimes I wonder. For what a lot of anarchists and autonomists would call an Old Leftist, I've been pretty sympathetic to anarchism. It's a great antidote to the sclerotic tendencies in left thinking and organization. ...

Document Size:	5628
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 21 07:35:57 PST 2005

18978 [lbo-talk] Boycotting the unorganized? -- rank: 1000

John Lacny wrote: >if Munson the Lumpen ever got shot for crossing >someone's picketline, I would support the shooter over the cops who tried to >arrest the shooter. Do you think this sort of talk serves the labor movement? I'm on your side in this, and this still gives me the creeps. Doug

Document Size:	4853
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 21 07:17:48 PST 2005

18979 [lbo-talk] credit bubble -- rank: 1000

snit snat wrote: >At 09:56 AM 1/21/2005, Doug Henwood wrote: >>[Negative amortization mortgages strike me as a symptom of a >>serious credit bubble; here's some more > >what's a credit bubble? A time when loans are way too easy to get, driving asset prices to insane levels. E.g., the housing market, because all you need to qualify for a mortgage these days is a pulse. Doug

Document Size:	4838
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 21 07:08:25 PST 2005

18980 [lbo-talk] Boycotting the unorganized? -- rank: 1000

Paul wrote: >[A digression on digressions: I don't mean to be negative You're not being negative, but being negative is also something you needn't apologize for being now & then! >, but I don't understand what is it that gets us to digress into >arguments (and nasty ones!) over situations that we all agree are >"exceptions", at most. Good point. > Also people on this list are savvy, surely they saw that one >anecdote cited (which led to the wild discussion) might ...

Document Size:	5497
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 21 07:01:54 PST 2005

18981 [lbo-talk] credit bubble -- rank: 1000

[Negative amortization mortgages strike me as a symptom of a serious credit bubble; here's some more evidence. So Jordan, is a torrent of Caa paper nothing to worry about either?] New York Times - January 21, 2005 Best of All Possible Worlds? Bond Buyers Crave Yield but Show No Fear By FLOYD NORRIS IN the world bond market, all is sweetness and light. Companies with bad credit do not have to pay very much to borrow, and they have no trouble meeting their obligations. So lenders also do well. Moo ...

Document Size:	8655
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Jan 21 06:56:38 PST 2005

18982 [lbo-talk] lefties, fulfillment, happiness, cushy -- rank: 1000

Carrol Cox wrote: >One in >a thousand (or a million) is better than zero. Maybe not, if it encourages false hope!

Document Size:	4736
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 15:41:23 PST 2005

18983 [lbo-talk] Re: Boycotting the unorganized? -- rank: 1000

BklynMagus wrote: >Would any LBOster cross the picket line of Fred Phelps >to attend the funeral/memorial service of a queer who >died of AIDS? Fred Phelps is an evil creep who has nothing to do with organized labor. The best approach I've heard of to deal with Phelps was the gay bar in Ann Arbor that organized a fundraiser for either a gay or AIDS group at the same time as one of Phelps's actions. The longer Phelps's people stayed, the more money was raised for his enemies. Doug

Document Size:	5093
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 14:23:28 PST 2005

18984 [lbo-talk] Boycotting the unorganized? -- rank: 1000

ravi wrote: >Doug Henwood wrote: >> >> Hmm, well maybe I'd cross a picket line organized by a fascist union, >> if such a thing were to exist. But otherwise, "don't cross a picket >> line" is an axiom of solidarity, not some piece of rigid absolutism. >> If the workers ask you to do it, who are you to second-guess them? >> > >its the "otherwise"s, that you (and the other person... lacny?) mention >in passing, that's crucial ...

Document Size:	5616
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 13:50:40 PST 2005

18985 [lbo-talk] frontiers of financial innovation -- rank: 1000

Willy Greenfields wrote: > >We're way off track here: Doug said that taking out >>a negative amortization adjustable rate mortgage is >>like going to Vegas (or worse!). He's just plumb >>wrong. By a lot. > > >I think we're on different pages here. You seem to be >taking exception w/ Doug, believing that he takes >negative-amortization mortgagors as speculators or >dupes of a wicked finance industry. I'm inclined to >agree with him, but I'm trying t ...

Document Size:	6211
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 13:40:53 PST 2005

18986 [lbo-talk] frontiers of financial innovation -- rank: 1000

Charles Brown wrote: > I'm not saying do it, but could you specify what the fraud is in it ? Consciously running up debts with the intention of filing for bankruptcy. It's all about state of mind. But you know that, Charles - you're a lawyer! Doug

Document Size:	4834
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 13:36:23 PST 2005

18987 [lbo-talk] Boycotting the unorganized? -- rank: 1000

Chuck0 wrote: >I have every right to second guess them! A few years ago, Liza interviewed a campus antisweatshop activist who said that a lot of the anarchists on his campus were more John Wayne than Bakunin. At first I thought that was too harsh. I'm beginning to see his point. There's something deeply individualistic, in the bad sense, about this attitude. With this kind of attitude, you're going to get very small unions, if you get them at all. Doug

Document Size:	4991
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 13:35:29 PST 2005

18988 [lbo-talk] rosie awards -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >Doug: > > The piece has two co-authors, me and Christian Parenti. > > > >Sorry, it is in small print and I did not see it. But I still think the >piece is right on target. For a piece that appeared first in a journal almost no one has seen - Radical Society - it's gotten lots of attention, and several reprints too. We've gotten lots of (mostly positive) responses to it, too - from people who'd been bummed or burned by American-style activism. ...

Document Size:	5356
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 12:54:48 PST 2005

18989 [lbo-talk] rosie awards -- rank: 1000

Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: >Second. Her piece "Action Will Be Taken: Left Anti-Intellectualism and Its >Discontents" >http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featfeatherstone_activistismp.shtml >is brilliant. The piece has two co-authors, me and Christian Parenti. Doug

Document Size:	4791
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 09:53:38 PST 2005

18990 [lbo-talk] tasteless ad parody -- rank: 1000

<http://www.boreme.com/bm/JAN05/a/vw-suicide-bomber/fr.htm>

Document Size:	4559
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Jan 20 08:20:27 PST 2005