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41611 Black freedom struggle and the CP's contributions [sic] -- rank: 1000

Andrew Kliman wrote: >I hope to reply to some other points Doug made soon, but for now, >here's a reply to just one. > >He wrote: "American Communists did many admirable things amidst >the many brutalities & idiocies that are all too well known ...." > >But Doug, it isn't true that their true history and legacy are >all that well known. Andrew, anyone who's drawn more than 3 or 4 breaths in the U.S. over the last 60 or 70 years is fully aware of the shortco ...

Document Size:	5421
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 13 07:09:39 PDT 1998

41612 class war redux? -- rank: 1000

[from Economic Notes, Labor Research Association, July/August 1998 <http://www.lra-ny.com> LABOR TRENDS It Could Be a New Day >From the general strikes in Puerto Rico and in the New York City construction industry, to the longest strike at General Motors in nearly 30 years, a new level of militancy and, more importantly, class awareness appears to be developing within the American labor movement. These protests reflect a confluence of two inter-related trends: pent-up anger in response ...

Document Size:	6542
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 19:37:45 PDT 1998

41613 Bell Atlantic -- rank: 1000

MScoleman at aol.com wrote: >Well, "great labor victories" are difficult to define and the subject of >eternal debate, HOWEVER, as to the contract, I picked up the points sheet when >I went in at midnight last night and it doesn't look bad. And frankly, we got >alot more for a 2 1/2 day strike this time than we got for 17 weeks in 1989. Hmm, I suspect this is why the reassurance machinery isn't in high gear. Greenspan wants the market lower, hoping it'll cool the real econ ...

Document Size:	5958
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 18:38:12 PDT 1998

41614 reassurance? -- rank: 1000

Shelvers at aol.com wrote: >reassurance machinery? What would one normally see? Pundits on TV assuring us that this is a short-term correction and people in it for the long term, etc. News clips of heroic small investors writing buy orders - or, today, clicking buy orders. What would Keynes: "The spectacle of modern investment markets has sometimes moved me towards the conclusion that to make the purchase of an investment permanent and indissoluble, like marriage, except by reason of de ...

Document Size:	6190
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 15:45:02 PDT 1998

41615 reassurance? -- rank: 1000

As I've been saying, I've been struck during the stock market's recent "turmoil" by the fact that the usual reassurance machinery hasn't gone into operation. But maybe my view is selective. Are other people seeing this/hearing this in the media? Doug

Document Size:	4518
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 15:15:36 PDT 1998

41616 Soft privatization -- rank: 1000

Carl Remick wrote: >Re "I don't happen to share the philosophy, but it is >a respectable one." > >This strikes me as an excessively generous estimation of libertarianism >-- unless "respectable" simply means internally logical. I find the >whole libertarian outlook solipsistic and creepy. That way lies Ayn >Rand and Margaret Thatcher. Chilling! I wish I could remember who said this, because s/he deserves credit, but on a little pop culture mailing list ...

Document Size:	5080
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 15:03:12 PDT 1998

41617 a real union summer -- rank: 1000

Shelvers at aol.com wrote: >Sorry, I've been gone for awhile. I just wondered what everyone's take is on >the three consecutive strike victories of the summer, Philly Transit, GM, and >now Bell Atlantic. > >Seems to me, when combined with the unexpectedly militant construction >workers' demo in NYC and the rank & file rebellion gurgling up at Northwest >Airlines that Greenspan & Co. are seeing exactly what they fear most--those >pesky and "increasingly confi ...

Document Size:	5707
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 13:12:11 PDT 1998

41618 Yuan -- rank: 1000

Seth Ackerman wrote: >Why is there such a discepancy between what "informed opinion" thinks of >the chances for a Chinese devaluation and what the world's investors >think? 1) "Informed opinion" is speaking of wish-fulfillment, not reality, and the markets are right. 2) The markets are populated with shallow opportunists who don't know yuan from tree ears, and "informed opinion" is right. As the late Ed Hart, of FNN, used to say, we'll know the answer in th ...

Document Size:	4783
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 12:46:25 PDT 1998

41619 Mark Jones, part 2 -- rank: 1000

[Mark Jones (cont.)] Why do you want to pretend that history never happened, except when it suits you? Why do even the academics, especially them, always take the easy way out: Lenin was a liar, a hypocrite, ate babies at breakfast, etc, his program was unconscionable irresponsibility or else deceit, and anyway life teaches that these utopian experiments always end badly et cetera... Lenin's utopic vision, like that of certain premarket societies, was based on a different relationship to the lan ...

Document Size:	22093
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 11:48:44 PDT 1998

41620 Mark Jones, part 1 -- rank: 1000

[This post from Mark Jones bounced because it was 33k, and the length limit on lbo-talk is 30k. I've divided it into two parts.] Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 14:27:17 +0100 From: Mark Jones <Jones_M at netcomuk.co.uk> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5b1 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: ru MIME-Version: 1.0 To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: Andrew Kliman was re: Efficiency References: <003801bdc5b7$592c3b80$dfa2fbd0 at default> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-En ...

Document Size:	19369
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 11:48:04 PDT 1998

41621 Gates - patenting music -- rank: 1000

from another list.... >Microsoft was recently (May 19, 1998) granted a United States patent >(#5,753,843) for a "System and Process for Composing Musical Sections" >(including 47 claims), this patent clearly pertaining to the algorithmic >generation of music. Computer Music Journal invited Laurie Spiegel to >write a guest editorial (below) about the implications of such patents. > > > >The abstract of the Microsoft patent describes: > > "A system ...

Document Size:	14006
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 11:05:31 PDT 1998

41622 Efficiency Theory -- rank: 1000

Max Sawicky wrote: >There you go. I've yet to meet a politician >advocating privatization who had a clue about >the economic case, such as it is, underlying >his advocacy. They are always reduced to >mantras about 'the market.' Since we take >the public interest seriously, I would argue, >we will always benefit if a topic engages the >public's attention beyond the superficial. > >These guys can be beaten in debate. The broader >politics, of course, depend on ...

Document Size:	5347
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 10:48:42 PDT 1998

41623 Julie Christie -- rank: 1000

Ok, so what's Julie Christie's story? First, I noticed an ad in New Left Review a few months back promoting a Communist Mannifesto event she was MC'ing. Then she shows up in David Macey's bio of Foucault as a frequent guest at MF's Paris pad ("where more than one visitor noticed the cannabis plants nestled among the petunias"); though she was there mainly because she was a friend of Foucault's long-time companion, Daniel Defert, Michel still "carefully prepared vegetarian meals&qu ...

Document Size:	5009
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 10:36:53 PDT 1998

41624 more calls... -- rank: 1000

Got two more calls fron journalists on the stock market this morning. The count is up to four now. At least a dead cat bounce is called for. Doug

Document Size:	4480
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 10:30:33 PDT 1998

41625 Black freedom struggle and the CP's contributions [sic] -- rank: 1000

Andrew Kliman wrote: >too much of the left is implicated in the failure of Stalinism, >not excluding the "independent" leftists who genuflect to >"mistakes"; I guess I'm caught up in this net, for some of the things I've said here recently. But I think the story of the CP(USA) is complex & contradictory. I don't understand why saying that American Communists did many admirable things amidst the many brutalities & idiocies that are all too well known is the eq ...

Document Size:	5660
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 12 09:56:38 PDT 1998