Search LBO-Talk Archives

1411 [lbo-talk] Democracy and rights -- rank: 1000

Luke: "In human societies, we find that a high degree of kin altruism is a universal, and we also find that reciprocal altruism is a universal." Not amongst the Ik people of Uganda, see Colin Turnbull, Mountain People, Touchstone, 1987 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20040820/5de4d6b7/attachment.htm>

Document Size:	4953
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Aug 20 15:45:07 PDT 2004

1412 [lbo-talk] Left (was Left/Venezuela) -- rank: 1000

Arguing with Yoshie, Nathan writes: 'I'm always curious when I hear that anyone who works inside the Dems lacks theory or a strategy' I am curious, too. What is the strategy of working within the Democratic Party - move it leftwards to achieve reforms through the state; force a split between the more advanced workers and the reactionary leadership; expose the inability of reformist policies by putting them in power? 'Working inside the Dems' implies working to some distinctive purpose than the m ...

Document Size:	8472
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Aug 18 11:00:54 PDT 2004

1413 [lbo-talk] Left/Venezuela -- rank: 1000

Yoshie, to the point as ever: 'what's the point of "theory" if you are using it, like David Harvey, only to construct an elaborate rationalization for campaigning for the Democratic Party?' Well, yes, but that was rather my point. The interesting thing about Harvey is that he reconciles a very pessimistic interpretation of the prospects for capitalism with a throughly reformist outlook. (That's a reversal of the long-standing association between economic optimism and political reformis ...

Document Size:	5610
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Aug 17 12:36:18 PDT 2004

1414 [lbo-talk] Left/Venezuela -- rank: 1000

What's wrong with the left, and what's going on in Venezuela seem to me to be two inter-related debates. I though that this from Chavez looks like an important acknowledgement of where we are: > I don't >accept that we are living in a period of proletarian revolutions. All that >must be revised. Bit this sounds like a recipe for philistinism to me >I believe it's better to die in battle, rather than hold aloft a >very revolutionary and very pure banner, and do nothing ... That pos ...

Document Size:	6571
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Aug 17 09:24:11 PDT 2004

1415 [lbo-talk] This will make you laugh -- rank: 1000

http://home.comcast.net/~fjelstad/thisland.swf

Document Size:	4647
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Aug 9 01:40:35 PDT 2004

1416 [lbo-talk] Children Act, Big Brother -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 7 August 2004 CHILD-CENTRED SOCIETY On 30 July Michael John-Charles was sentenced to three years imprisonment for the manslaughter of Vipula Prasanna, whom he beat violently for stepping on his five-year old son's foot. On 6 August the General Medical Council found Paediatrician David Southall guilty of professional misconduct for his insistence to police that David Clark had murdered his babies: Southall based his clinical judgement on no more evidence than a television intervie ...

Document Size:	9137
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Aug 8 01:44:05 PDT 2004

1417 [lbo-talk] Re: lbo-talk Digest, Vol 8, Issue 13 -- rank: 1000

Doug asked "What's the standard advice on drinking during pregnancy outside the U.S.? Here, the standard is not a drop for all nine months. I'm guessing it's not so strict elsewhere. Anyone know?" Socially disapproved of, but no militant promotion of no-drinking policy. I am guessing if you asked that you would be told to lay off, but it wasn't intrusive when my daughters were in their mother's womb. But my late mother told me that in the 1960s women were 'confined' for two weeks prior ...

Document Size:	5613
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Aug 3 01:52:02 PDT 2004

1418 [lbo-talk] Re MSF & Kerry -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 1 August 2004 MEDECINS AVEC FRONTIERES The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) decision to withdraw from Afghanistan symbolised the growing clash between the aid organisations (or Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs) and national governments, particularly the US government. MSF, which has prided itself in giving humanitarian aid regardless of political constraints, accuses the US government of compromising their independence. 'MSF denounces attempts to use humanitari ...

Document Size:	9509
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Aug 3 01:32:29 PDT 2004

1419 [lbo-talk] Smiling at three months? -- rank: 1000

Chris Doss 'My son smiled ... when he was 3 months old' That's just grimacing with wind

Document Size:	4579
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Aug 2 07:16:43 PDT 2004

1420 [lbo-talk] anti-war, Said -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 28 September 2003 The Limits of the Anti-War sentiment Last week the Liberal Democrats won the Brent East bye-election from Labour. According to party leader Charles Kennedy the victory owed much to the Liberals' 'anti-war' stance (in fact the party supported British troops once the shooting started). No doubt the constant trickle of doubt over the government's strategy in the press, and in Lord Hutton's enquiry into the suicide of Dr David Kelly, has entrenched disillusionment w ...

Document Size:	9184
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 28 06:05:13 PDT 2003

1421 [lbo-talk] Empire, Divorce -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 21 September 2003 A NEW AMERICAN EMPIRE? To its critics the US looks like a new Empire bent on world domination. But reactions to the difficulties in Iraq are beginning to look like the latest evidence of waning American power. Criticisms of President George W Bush's Iraq policy are mounting on left and right. In September's Foreign Affairs, Clinton apparatchiks Madeleine Albright and James P Rubin stick the knife into Washington's 'failed diplomacy'. Meanwhile the 'neo-con' cham ...

Document Size:	8237
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 21 05:58:48 PDT 2003

1422 [lbo-talk] DANCING THE CANCÚN -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 14 September 2003 DANCING THE CANCÚN World Trade Organisation talks at Cancún in Mexico were gripped by drama outside after Korean Farmers' leader Lee killed himself in protest at global trade rules; inside talks were deadlocked as the emerging Group of 21 nations demanded America and Europe stop subsidising agricultural exports. The Group of 21 is led by Brazil, China and India, and has seized the moral high ground from more developed countries, by demanding that they too must l ...

Document Size:	8768
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 14 05:27:12 PDT 2003

1423 [lbo-talk] not the 70s -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 7 September 2003 NO RETURN TO THE 1970s The Confederation of British Industry's Digby Jones warns that unions are undermining the country's labour-market 'advantage' over its European rivals, and threatening success. In a surprise move, the Tony Blair's government accepted a proposal from the Trade Union Congress that unions should be part of an official 'public service forum' - prompting accusations that this was a return to the days of beer and sandwiches at Downing Street, whe ...

Document Size:	8630
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 7 07:41:23 PDT 2003

1424 [lbo-talk] Madrid -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 26 October 2003 BUDDY CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? The Madrid conference called to solicit donors to the reconstruction of Iraq failed to raise the World Bank target of $34 billion. The conference, organised by the US and its Iraqi administration, was sabotaged by German and French refusal to pay. 'I think these two countries would have better served the cause of the international community if they had accepted to make additional financial contributions,' a bad-tempered Colin Powell tol ...

Document Size:	7167
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Oct 26 02:43:36 PST 2003

1425 [lbo-talk] 'Yob-culture', Chinese space flight -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 19 October 2003 WELL-BEHAVED BRITAIN The British government this week published a snapshot survey of 'anti-social behaviour' reported across the country in a single day. The results indicate just how orderly and well-behaved a country Britain is. The survey of reported low-level criminal offences such as rowdiness, littering drunkenness and vandalism suggested that annually there are around 16 million such incidents regarded by people who experience them as serious enough to repo ...

Document Size:	10992
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Oct 18 09:13:34 PDT 2003