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286 [lbo-talk] when Empire loses it -- rank: 1000

Doug: 'I often wonder - just how much did Britain suffer from the decline of its empire?' It depends on what you mean by 'Britain' and what you mean by 'suffer'. It is quite complicated. The British ruling class seemed to suffer a great deal. If you read David Kynaston's history of the City of London, the collapse post-Second World War, the reduction of the City (our Wall Street) to a domestic market, and the suspension of convertibility were all doom-laden events. Not like what happened at the ...

Document Size:	7549
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jun 30 15:53:08 PDT 2010

287 [lbo-talk] Defend SpinWatch's right to free speech! -- rank: 1000

Michael Pollack: 'I wonder if you could sum up briefly what they are and what your view of them is. ' It is a bit difficult, since the SpinWatch website's right to free speech is under attack, as of two days ago, which is the more important thing. But since you ask, I think the project is flawed. The editor David Miller is a petty sectarian, whose site masquerades as an objective wikipedia style encyclopedia of corporate spin, but mere centimetres below the surface his own crazed prejudices - ag ...

Document Size:	5924
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jun 24 13:39:07 PDT 2010

288 [lbo-talk] Defend SpinWatch's right to free speech! -- rank: 1000

Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens' threat of legal action against Spinprofiles is an attack on free speech, and must be resisted. Meleagrou-Hitchens has worked with the Policy Exchange and the Centre for Social Cohesion (he is also Christopher Hitchens' son). The legal action - under Britain's illiberal libel laws - closes down the SpinProfiles internet service provider, so for now the site is hosted here(http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Main_Page) though editor David Miller promises to have ...

Document Size:	6990
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jun 24 07:00:30 PDT 2010

289 [lbo-talk] emerging CW: Gulf spill a "nothingburger" -- rank: 1000

Joanna: 'It remains to be seen how the finely dispersed oil makes its way up the food chain.' Well, it is a naturally occurring substance, and many micro-organisms thrive on it.

Document Size:	4878
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 29 22:46:51 PDT 2010

290 [lbo-talk] the shaneformagian problem -- rank: 1000

Shane: 'How often do I have to repeat the point?' ... until you start paying attention to what others are saying, instead of replying to what you think you are hearing? or ....you don't?

Document Size:	4852
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Jul 24 00:26:13 PDT 2010

291 [lbo-talk] transformation problem -- rank: 1000

Mike B: 'James, I think I'm mostly on the same page ' - for sure, there's no need for any violent disagreements over these theoretical issues, and yes, we are on the same page (but maybe in different volumes, I, or III). 'So I think when you use value in the sense you're talking about, as a centre of gravity underlying observed prices, you're really talking about prices-of-production.' You are right, but I don't believe that you can think of price-of-production as a real thing and value as not, ...

Document Size:	5652
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Jul 23 16:52:34 PDT 2010

292 [lbo-talk] Palestine Think Tank: Jeff Blankfort - Chomsky and Palestine: Asset or Liability? -- rank: 1000

Joel writes: "Israel's largest trading partner, if I am correct, is the EU, or to be more precise, European Union member states. European boycotts of Israeli products pose a larger threat than US boycotts of Israeli products. In Italy, two national supermarket chains decided to stop carrying goods made in the settlements, in May. It was a significant victory for Italian anti-occupation activists." But Italy's boycott campaign also took some unexpected turns. Giancarlo Desiderati, spoke ...

Document Size:	6066
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 22 10:35:43 PDT 2010

293 [lbo-talk] Palestine Think Tank: Jeff Blankfort - Chomsky and Palestine: Asset or Liability? -- rank: 1000

"weird implication in this formula that people's actions should be bound by their national identity" I don't think that is weird. It is Lenin's point in Nascent Trends of Imperialist Economism. Thinking that you could act without reference to your situation would be like saying that you can find your way around Gaza with a map of New York. All political goals are framed with reference to the thinking of those that they are addressed to. After all, nobody is proposing that Palestinians ...

Document Size:	5660
Author:	JAMES Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 22 08:22:16 PDT 2010

294 [lbo-talk] Palestine Think Tank: Jeff Blankfort - Chomsky and Palestine: Asset or Liability? -- rank: 1000

>* Apparently, Doug, James, Chomsky, et al, want Palestinians to fight an * >* abstraction called American imperialism rather than resist the * >* tangible things that control their everyday existences * ** Apparent to you, maybe, but cryptic to me. We were talking about the tactics to be adopted in the west, not in occupied Palestine. On Joseph's point, Tesco has been floated now, but it was founded by Jack Cohen, and in British eyes will always be a Jewish shop (legend has it that it ...

Document Size:	5976
Author:	JAMES Heartfield
Date:	Thu Jul 22 07:32:29 PDT 2010

295 [lbo-talk] boycotting over Israel -- rank: 1000

Gar asks me 'So are they picketing non-Jewish owned shops which carry Israeli goods as well? Or are they focusing on Jewish owned shops?' All the instances I have seen in the UK and Ireland are Marks and Spencers and Tesco's (i.e. Jewish -owned). I could not say that they haven't picketed other shops, but I can't find any instances of it.

Document Size:	4931
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 21 23:30:54 PDT 2010

296 [lbo-talk] Palestine Think Tank: Jeff Blankfort - Chomsky and Palestine: Asset or Liability? -- rank: 1000

Gar Lipow asks me: "Are the people supporting the boycott opposing boycotts of Jewish owned shops and especially the violence? Not just nominally but loudly? I happen to support BSD, in fact our local co-op was the first in the country to vote to stop carrying Israeli goods. But I really think it is part of the work of this type of movement to get a bit loud when vermin try to hijack it. And anyone who tries to transform a boycott of Israeli goods into an Anti-Semitic movement is vermin.&q ...

Document Size:	6759
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 21 15:37:44 PDT 2010

297 [lbo-talk] Palestine Think Tank: Jeff Blankfort - Chomsky and Palestine: Asset or Liability? -- rank: 1000

I must admit to being unfamiliar with Blankfort, but reading this article of his, he seems to be a horse's ass. It is creepy to go on about 'Jewish leftists' and 'within the tribe' ('tribe'?). But most clearly Blankfort is wrong when he says that the blame lies primarily with Israel not the US, and Chomsky is right when he says blame lies primarily with the US (and, I would add those other western allies). Further, Blankfort is tactically wrong about the boycott. Boycotts can work, but have some ...

Document Size:	5850
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 21 09:06:48 PDT 2010

298 [lbo-talk] transformation problem -- rank: 1000

When I was young, we used to read David Yaffe on this: http://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/yaffed/1974/valueandpriceinmarxcapital.htm Mike Beggs: "Isn't the essence-phenomena divide a little undialectical?" I don't think so. All of these philosophical categories tend to harden up into formal distinctions if you don't keep in mind that they are only moments in the flux, of course, so I would not say 'divide'. Still, without manifestation, there would be no possibility of mov ...

Document Size:	7088
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Jul 21 01:19:24 PDT 2010

299 [lbo-talk] on the transformation problem -- rank: 1000

You can go too far in separating the 'phenomenal' prices from the essential values. Value is real , even if we don't see it directly. Why would that be a surprise? You don't see sub-atomic particles directly, but infer them from evidence. Marx's logical reconstruction of the theory of prices, wages and profits turns around a relation much more real than the epiphenomenal fluctuations in prices, namely the substantial relations of exploiter and exploited, surplus value, which, while never being l ...

Document Size:	5358
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Jul 20 16:17:28 PDT 2010

300 [lbo-talk] Prince was right -- rank: 1000

Carrol: 'The inherent tendency is for prices to steadily go up and wages constantly go down. ' No, I think the inherent tendency is for prices including wages to go down - though with interruptions - according to Marx's schema of the declining value of labour power. the paradox is that as more things come within our purview, our wants get richer, so the music that once you would have had to scour record shops for, suddenly becomes available within not much more time than it takes for you to reme ...

Document Size:	5599
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Jul 10 17:00:33 PDT 2010