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1771 Gulf, Foot and Mouth, Child Protection -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 25 February 2001 The Gulf War ten years on Veterans of the Gulf War marched in Whitehall to protest government indifference to their suffering. The idea that the allied troops were victims rather than perpetrators of atrocities in the war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq can only take hold because of the subsequent failure of Western policy. Instead of ennobling the allied victors in the Gulf, the war exposed the bankruptcy of the West's policies in the Middle East. While George Bus ...

Document Size:	8732
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Feb 25 02:13:57 PST 2001

1772 delinking does not equal autarky (J O'Connor) -- rank: 1000

I'm confused - surely it was Lenin who more than any other twentieth century politician insisted upon the role of the subjective factor in history, while all around him took refuge in clap-trap about the objective trends of race and nation. In message <p04330114b6b5edf26637@[166.84.250.86]>, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> writes >Carrol Cox wrote: > >>That's about it. Your post reveals the voluntarism of much political >>thought that can't learn from Lenin. Yo ...

Document Size:	6151
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Feb 18 14:23:46 PST 2001

1773 delinking does not equal autarky (J O'Connor) -- rank: 1000

In message <p04330103b6b5cc588059@[166.84.250.86]>, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> writes >I dig absolutely, as someone once said, but how do you propose to go >about this? There's a good chance we'll see some social security >privatization, and we can't even imagine a public health insurance >scheme - so how do we take over the leading imperialist state? I suppose it depends on who you mean by 'we', but bear in mind that US workers already are the decisive force i ...

Document Size:	5780
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Feb 18 12:42:29 PST 2001

1774 UK economy, Brown & Blair, Holocaust -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 18 February 2001 Britain's Old New Economy The Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) assessment of the state of the economy, UK Competitiveness Indicators reveals that British capital investment is the lower than all its competitors in the Group of Seven leading industrial nation. The report rightly states 'evidence does not suggest that the UK is over-investing' - in fact investment stood at just 600 1995 dollars a year (p37). Despite the fact that regulatory constraints 'in ...

Document Size:	11832
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Feb 18 03:41:56 PST 2001

1775 The State of "Equality" (was Re: Tasteless site) -- rank: 1000

At a time when the elite stakes its claim to rule on the basis of generalised equality, I think it is right to expose the limitations of that slogan. However, in more recent times the ruling class has put ever more stress on the virtues of diversity. In the context of social polarisation generated through capitalism, the argument for diversity becomes an apology for social inequality. So, in a final reductio ad absurdem, prime minister Tony Blair announced his plan to abolish comprehensive educa ...

Document Size:	6060
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Feb 16 01:45:35 PST 2001

1776 Cowardly capitalist, Immigration -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 11 February 2001 Cowardly Capitalist Millionaire Richard Branson demanded compensation for his failed bid to take over the British lottery from incumbent rivals Camelot. Having accused Camelot's Directors of taking the people's lottery money to pay for their bloated salaries, Branson wants to raid the Lottery Commission's raffle-tin for a reported eight million pounds sterling - money that he said should only be spent on worthy causes. When he lost the bid last year Branson fulmi ...

Document Size:	8671
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Feb 11 03:21:37 PST 2001

1777 US recession, Steel, rail, teachers, Israel -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 4 February, 2001 US Recession: the Greens get their wish News of the low-level of consumer confidence in the US added to the evidence of big layoffs in the dot.com sector of an approaching recession in the US. The consumers got blamed for the slowdown both ways: for not buying enough, and for buying too much from abroad on credit. But only a few years ago the Federal Reserve concluded that the long period of growth in the US was the consequence of wages being held down by 'worker ...

Document Size:	12710
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Feb 3 13:19:35 PST 2001

1778 Marxism is a science -- rank: 1000

A friend of mine studied Popper in his philosophy degree and, fed up at not understanding him, got his number from international enquiries and rung him up to ask about it. (It was a while ago, he died, I think, a few years ago) 'Do they still read my book in England' said the little reedy voice on the other end, incredulous. Anyway, sad to say, Popper is not to be taken too seriously. His arguments are pretty standard cold war fare designed to give an a priori rejection of the Marxism that Poppe ...

Document Size:	8506
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Dec 31 10:45:07 PST 2001

1779 Marxism is a science -- rank: 1000

In message <000c01c191ee$6988c6e0$0a7ba8c0 at hellodolly.hellodolly>, Scott Martens <sm at kiera.com> writes >Marxism's objectivity is another matter, and a more difficult one. But >since I question the absolute objectivity of the hard sciences, it's hardly >a slight on Marxism to think it isn't any more objective than physics is. > I'm not sure from what you write what the problem is with objectivity. I think in the case of Marx, objectivity was an important question, i ...

Document Size:	5918
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Dec 31 07:56:16 PST 2001

1780 Islamic converts, Review of the Year -- rank: 1000

Jim, I'm sorry, I don't know the case that well, but I don't think I was trying to give a watertight account of every case of elite treason ever, only a trend. Do tell me more about Hannsen - did he just flip, was he making some weird point, or was he just in it for the money? In message <20011230.100110.-1827921.0.farmelantj at juno.com>, Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> writes > > >On Sun, 30 Dec 2001 13:15:00 +0000 James Heartfield ><Jim at heartfield.demon.co ...

Document Size:	7588
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Dec 31 03:04:32 PST 2001

1781 Marxism is a science -- rank: 1000

Marxism's claim to scientific status ought not to be so dogmatic as a demand that it must be accepted. After all, scientific thought is characterised by its provisional nature, religious thought by its absolute nature. When Marx himself talked of approaching the problem scientifically, he meant something like, thinking deeply about the matter in hand, i.e. not accepting the immediate appearance of things. As he says, lacking microscopes and such, one has to use the power of abstraction to captur ...

Document Size:	7692
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Dec 31 03:02:17 PST 2001

1782 Islamic converts, Review of the Year -- rank: 1000

The WEEK Ending 30 December 2001 GOING NATIVE Briton Richard Reid joined American Talib John Walker in the ranks of Islamic militants awaiting trial in the US. Reid, who converted to Islam in Brixton prison, had attempted to down an airliner with a home-made bomb in his shoe. Press comments on the American, British and French recruits to Islamic terror groups are full of horror at the treachery of western youth, but 'going native' is a long-established tradition. In the 1880s a revolt led by the ...

Document Size:	11346
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Dec 30 05:15:00 PST 2001

1783 Creative Britain, Europe -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 23 December 2001 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO 'CREATIVE BRITAIN'? This week the British government tried to close the file on two of their bigger blunders, the Millennium Dome and the re-build of the Wembley Stadium. Both were showcases for the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), undertaken when Chris Smith was the Culture Minister, both full of promise that turned to disaster. The importance of the DCMS to New Labour - it had been founded under the outgoing Tory administration ...

Document Size:	11310
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Dec 22 11:07:54 PST 2001

1784 Palestine report -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 9 December 2001 THERE IS NO TWO-STATE SOLUTION The Israeli Defence force destroyed Yasser Arafat's two-helicopter squad, marooning him in the West Bank, while attacking police and other Palestine Authority (PA) buildings in Gaza and Jenin. In cabinet the Sharon government declared the PA to be a terrorist organisation, widely interpreted as meaning that they would seek to overthrow Arafat, rather than tie him into a peace deal. According to Israel's spokesmen, the latest bombing ...

Document Size:	15124
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Dec 11 11:58:19 PST 2001

1785 Health, fanaticism -- rank: 1000

The WEEK ending 2 December 2001 HEALTH OF THE NATION? The Daily Express newspaper attacked globe-trotting prime minister Tony Blair's weakest flank, his apparent repulsion from the Britain's public life and people. 'WANTED Tony Blair, virtually missing from public life since September 11', read the banner headlines on 7 November. The weakness in the Express campaign, though, was that to make the case stick, they needed a domestic issue that all would agree had been neglected. The issue decided u ...

Document Size:	10213
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Dec 2 08:17:02 PST 2001