tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-100372322024-02-20T09:45:50.744+02:00ARACHNEΔωρεάν περιαγωγή ανά το επιστητό. Οι λαθρεπιβάτες ευπρόσδεκτοιtaloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-61369897040533573592010-05-01T04:09:00.001+03:002010-05-01T04:10:46.056+03:00Greece: Driven into Crisis<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/greece-driven-into-crisis-by-ingo-schmidt">ZCommunications | Greece: Driven into Crisis | Ingo Schmidt</a>:<br /><br />T<blockquote>his is ironic inasmuch as the IMF, currently headed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn who served as finance minister in Lionel Jospin's socialist government from 1997 to 1999, recently relaxed its long-time opposition against capital controls. An IMF policy paper published in February 2010 declared that countries that have capital controls in place fared much better during the financial crisis than countries that did not have them. Moreover, IMF chief-economist Olivier Blanchard openly plays with the idea of raising the inflation target for central banks to give them more leeway for monetary policies and also to ease debt burdens at least to some extent. Not surprisingly, the European Central Bank (ECB), which has neoliberal monetarist principles enshrined in its statute, rejects this Keynesian brew served by French economists</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-37412211851320045902010-04-30T03:41:00.001+03:002010-04-30T03:42:08.028+03:00Mark Weisbrot, "Greece: Who Needs 'Success Estonian Style'?"<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/weisbrot280410.html">Mark Weisbrot, "Greece: Who Needs 'Success Estonian Style'"</a><br /><br /><blockquote>The European Union and the IMF have the money and the ability to engineer a recovery based on counter-cyclical policies in Greece as well as the Baltic states. If it involves a debt restructuring -- or even a haircut for the bondholders -- so be it. No government should accept policies that tell them they must bleed their economy for an indeterminate time before it can recover.</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-28848838536842027232010-04-28T03:13:00.001+03:002010-04-28T03:14:25.417+03:00The Ugly Math That Shows Why Saving Greece Is Mission Impossible<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_20-ht31zaLQ/S9d90OPIdqI/AAAAAAAAAVs/z-585ZlQacY/s1600/banrptgre.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 328px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_20-ht31zaLQ/S9d90OPIdqI/AAAAAAAAAVs/z-585ZlQacY/s400/banrptgre.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464975008965621410" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-mission-impossible-2010-4#greece-has-two-choices-both-are-going-to-hurt-markets-in-the-short-term-1">Here's The Ugly Math That Shows Why Saving Greece Is Mission Impossible</a>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-852444805880859152010-04-28T03:09:00.001+03:002010-04-28T03:09:51.010+03:00Rick Wolff: "Greece, Again: Demystifying 'National Debt'"<a href="http://www.rdwolff.com/">Rick Wolff</a>, @ <a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/">MRZine</a> <a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/wolff270410.html">"Greece, Again: Demystifying 'National Debt'"</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>"...Yet again, business leaders, politicians, academics, and media are blowing smoke around Greece's efforts to cope with "national debt" problems. Something far more important for the world than this small country's financial travails is at stake. Indeed, what is at stake affects us all. What is happening in Greece parallels developments everywhere; only details and timing vary...<br />...Today, the employer class is anxious that its long-successful use of national debts to avoid taxes is in difficulty. The risks of that indirect way to manipulate states into serving its class needs while charging the working classes have risen sharply. Employers now reckon that states must restore their credit worthiness first, before new lending can resume. And the way for states to do so -- in the employers' view -- is to levy more taxes on the working classes and/or cut state programs serving those classes. The alternative, taxing employers and the rich while cutting state supports for them, is largely omitted from public discussion.<br /><br />That is the meaning and content of today's Greek debt crisis and tomorrow's parallel crises in Ireland, Spain, and Portugal and future crises in most other capitalist economies. In each case, particular conditions and past histories will shape the specifics. Most important, the political organization and mobilization of the working classes will shape how far (and perhaps whether) those crises get resolved at the workers' expense."</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-89166807842548698242010-04-24T12:21:00.004+03:002010-04-24T12:25:19.529+03:00Rainer Kattel, "Should Greece Follow Estonia's Example?"<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/kattel220410.html">Rainer Kattel, "Should Greece Follow Estonia's Example?"</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>...Simply put, the eurozone assumed and still tacitly assumes either growing German wages or growing productivity in the rest of Europe. Neither has been the case.<br /><br />The Baltic economies with pegs, and with its insistence on keeping the pegs, have simply tied the noose around their own necks, trading monetary stability for, first, high financial fragility, and second, very probably long-term high unemployment and debt deflation in the private sector. This will probably result in waves of emigration, growing social problems, and the like. In other words, the costs have been shifted to the future, and they are more than likely to equal Greek troubles in fiscal terms. Estonia is Greece in disguise. It remains to be hoped that the EU and the IMF recognize that and refrain from simplistic fiscal retrenchment that makes problems only worse as the Greek domestic demand and, accordingly, government fiscal position will only weaken further. This results, as we have seen in Estonia, in real economic depression, which is GDP contraction in double digits.</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-15061613042634758922010-04-17T13:33:00.003+03:002010-04-17T13:36:51.698+03:00Pixel Armageddon"Pixels" by <a href="http://patrick-jean.allo-infopc.com/">Patrick Jean</a>:<br /><br /><object width="480" height="270"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xcv6dv_pixels-by-patrick-jean_creation"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xcv6dv_pixels-by-patrick-jean_creation" width="480" height="270" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-11568039453952708182010-02-24T03:31:00.000+02:002010-02-24T03:31:48.471+02:00Karl Marx on public debt<a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm">Karl Marx: Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Thirty-One</a>: <br /><br /><blockquote>...<span style="font-weight:bold;">The only part of the so-called national wealth that actually enters into the collective possessions of modern peoples is their national debt</span>. Hence, as a necessary consequence, the modern doctrine that a nation becomes the richer the more deeply it is in debt. Public credit becomes the credo of capital. And with the rise of national debt-making, want of faith in the national debt takes the place of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which may not be forgiven.<br /><br />The public debt becomes one of the most powerful levers of primitive accumulation. As with the stroke of an enchanter’s wand, it endows barren money with the power of breeding and thus turns it into capital, without the necessity of its exposing itself to the troubles and risks inseparable from its employment in industry or even in usury. The state-creditors actually give nothing away, for the sum lent is transformed into public bonds, easily negotiable, which go on functioning in their hands just as so much hard cash would. But further, apart from the class of lazy annuitants thus created, and from the improvised wealth of the financiers, middlemen between the government and the nation-as also apart from the tax-farmers, merchants, private manufacturers, to whom a good part of every national loan renders the service of a capital fallen from heaven-the national debt has given rise to joint-stock companies, to dealings in negotiable effects of all kinds, and to agiotage, in a word to stock-exchange gambling and the modern bankocracy.</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-8823016916070422832010-02-24T00:51:00.000+02:002010-02-24T00:52:34.037+02:00Zizek's JokeIncludes greek subs:<br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZtW-ZbqYjqw&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZtW-ZbqYjqw&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-13927196293256481792010-02-19T01:09:00.000+02:002010-02-19T01:09:44.875+02:00Mark Weisbrot, "Central Bank Independence: From Whom?"<a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/weisbrot180210.html">Mark Weisbrot: Central Bank Independence: From Whom?</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>There is no obvious reason why monetary policy -- the central bank's decisions with regard to interest rates and money supply -- is so different from other major policy decisions that it should be specially insulated from the electorate. There is no valid analogy, for example, to the independence of the judiciary -- which is based on a theory of separation of powers, or checks and balances, ostensibly to limit abuses of power or infringements on civil rights and liberties.<br /><br />The argument for an independent central bank is more purely an elitist argument. It really boils down to the idea that monetary policy is too important for the "uneducated" masses to have an influence over it.<br /><br />Ironically, the reality is quite the opposite: monetary policy is an area where pressure from the majority is sorely needed. There is a grand conflict of interest between the financial sector and the rest of society. </blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-26681536892103702802009-12-13T02:01:00.001+02:002009-12-13T03:34:36.239+02:00Is Democracy Good for the Poor?<blockquote>Many scholars claim that democracy improves the welfare of the poor. <a href="http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/ross/Is%20Democracy%20Good%20-%20AJPS.pdf">This article</a> uses data on infant and child mortality to challenge this claim. Cross-national studies tend to exclude from their samples nondemocratic states that have performed well; this leads to the mistaken inference that nondemocracies have worse records than democracies. Once these and other flaws are corrected, democracy has little or no effect on infant and child mortality rates. Democracies spend more money on education and health than nondemocracies, but these benefits seem to accrue to middle- and upper income groups.</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-60013041028809159892009-11-14T13:33:00.003+02:002009-11-14T13:43:36.357+02:00The spread of central bank political unaccountability<a href="http://www-management.wharton.upenn.edu/guillen/NewFolder/CBI.24.pdf">GLOBALIZATION PRESSURES AND THE STATE: THE WORLDWIDE SPREAD OF CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE</a> [pdf]<br /><br /><blockquote>"We predict that countries boost the independence of their central bank from the political power as their exposure to foreign trade, investment, and multilateral lending increases. We also model the cross-national dynamic process of diffusion of central bank independence by examining the impact of cohesive and role-equivalent trade relationships between countries. We test our hypotheses with information on 71 countries between 1990 and 2000, using both event-history modeling and fixed-effects panel-corrected regression. Controlling for domestic variables of a macroeconomic and political nature, we find empirical support for each our predictions. We conclude that globalization pressures have the effect of strengthening certain parts of the state at the expense of others, and raise concerns about the degree of democratic oversight of technocratic institutions."</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-34228550896442205202009-11-08T02:14:00.003+02:002009-11-08T02:35:48.697+02:003 views on the Crisis<span style="font-weight:bold;">David Harvey, The Crisis Today: Marxism 2009 July 15, 2009:</span><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YYQb0fthNfI&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YYQb0fthNfI&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Roots of the World Ecological Crisis</span><br />by John Bellamy Foster, October 29. 2009 (starts at ~17'):<br /><iframe src="http://www.cctv.org/stream-player-build?nid=83201" width="425" height="442" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tom Reifer, July 8 2009</span><br /><a href="http://www.tni.org//archives/act/19701">Histories of the Present: Giovanni Arrighi, the Longue Duree of Geohistorical Capitalism, and the Current Crisis</a>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-48429495579074448072009-09-29T23:50:00.002+03:002009-09-29T23:52:29.405+03:00A healthy recession<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/09/28/0904491106.abstract">Life and death during the Great Depression — PNAS</a>:<br /><blockquote>Correlation and regression analyses confirmed a significant negative effect of economic expansions on health gains. The evolution of population health during the years 1920–1940 confirms the counterintuitive hypothesis that, as in other historical periods and market economies, population health tends to evolve better during recessions than in expansions.</blockquote><br />This is not new: "<a href="http://econpapers.repec.org/article/tprqjecon/v_3A115_3Ay_3A2000_3Ai_3A2_3Ap_3A617-650.htm">Are Recessions Good For Your Health?</a>" The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2000:<br /><blockquote>Total mortality and eight of the ten sources of fatalities examined are shown to exhibit a procyclical fluctuation, with suicides representing an important exception. The variations are largest for those causes and age groups where behavioral responses are most plausible, and there is some evidence that the unfavorable health effects of temporary upturns are partially or fully offset if the economic growth is long-lasting</blockquote><br />Although the effect is apparently real, the <a href="http://jech.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/62/10/869">health benefits during recessions are unequally distributed</a> and <span style="font-weight:bold;">widen</span> the income induced health gap:<br /><blockquote>Self-rated health improved in absolute terms for all occupational groups even after the economic recession. However, the relative disparity increased between the top and middle occupational groups in men.</blockquote><br />The <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58G00T20090917">health debacles that occur during periods of rapid growth</a> are equally obvious:<br /><blockquote>Cancer casts a shadow over the villages in this region of China in southern Guangdong province, nestled among farmland contaminated by heavy metals used to make batteries, computer parts and other electronics devices.<br />Every year, an estimated 460,000 people die prematurely in China due to exposure to air and water pollution, according to a 2007 World Bank study. </blockquote>.<br /><br />...Thus adding a few more exhibits to the question of relevance of GDP as any sort of measure of human happiness, or the obviousness of the need for its incessant growth...taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-58285964644944043842009-09-15T02:20:00.007+03:002009-09-16T00:39:56.183+03:00Labor History / US<span style="font-style:italic;">In Memoriam: <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/15-4">Crystal Lee Sutton</a> ('Norma Rae'). Working Class Hero.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_20-ht31zaLQ/Sq7Qsf922ZI/AAAAAAAAAQg/eUCm3lMGnKc/s1600-h/0909toon500.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_20-ht31zaLQ/Sq7Qsf922ZI/AAAAAAAAAQg/eUCm3lMGnKc/s400/0909toon500.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381468067668089234" /></a><br />Ampersand: Labor History: <a href="http://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0909toon.html">A Brief History of Corporate Whining</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amptoons.com/">By B. Deutsch</a><br /><br />Some notes:<br /><br />1. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_v._Hunt">Commonwealth v. Hunt 1842</a><br />2. The <a href="http://libcom.org/library/us-thibodaux-massacre-1887">Thibodaux Massacre of 1887</a><br />3. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire">Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire</a> (I think this is what the 1912 cartoon refers to)<br />4. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppage_v._Kansas">Yellow Dog contracts</a> legal, 1915<br />5. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Labor_Amendment">Child Labor Amendment</a>, 1924<br />6. <a href="http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/flsa1938.htm">Fair Labor Standards Act</a>, 1938<br />7. <a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6196/">Equal Pay Act</a>, 1963<br />8. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_Safety_and_Health_Act">Occupational Safety and Health Act</a>, 1970<br />9. <a href="http://www.enewspf.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10103:us-labor-secretary-supports-employee-free-choice-act&catid=88888983:latest-national-news&Itemid=88889930">Today</a><br /><br />... All this to make a point: it was never easy and they always whined. Not to mention the fact that it always bears reminding that the US was the stage of a hard, bloody and bitter class struggle. And, hey! What do you know, <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2009/just_53_say_capitalism_better_than_socialism">the tide is turning</a>. I did not believe that I'd see the day when an <a href="http://www.capitalismalovestory.com/">overtly anti-capitalist documentary</a> would be poised to become a major box-office hit in the US, but things sure change fast:<br /><br /><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IhydyxRjujU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IhydyxRjujU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-45707048869363035352009-09-14T08:46:00.002+03:002009-09-14T11:12:51.341+03:00A Marxist History of the 20th centuryA Marxist History of the 20th Century. Narrated by Alan Woods, with Lal Khan, Ted Grant and Noam Chomsky. Produced by Heiko Khoo.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/86E246D3BB5E556A&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/86E246D3BB5E556A&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-47527140422415171012009-07-31T02:11:00.005+03:002009-07-31T02:49:31.028+03:00The aftereffects<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.isar.org/pubs/ST/STimages/Semipalatinsk2.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 326px; height: 468px;" src="http://www.isar.org/pubs/ST/STimages/Semipalatinsk2.jpeg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><blockquote>As is generally known, at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semipalatinsk_Test_Site">Semipalatinsk</a> Nuclear Tests Site (SNTS) in the republic of Kazakhstan, 456 nuclear tests were carried out from 1949 to 1989, including 111 atmospheric explosions between 1949 and 1963...<br />Because of those tests, according to the Kazakh government, approximately 1.6 million people suffered from the tests, and about 1.2 million people are still now troubled with <span style="font-weight: bold;">the aftereffects</span>...</blockquote><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jrr/47/SupplementA/A209/_pdf">Human Suffering Effects of Nuclear Tests at Semipalatinsk,Kazakhstan: Established On the Basis of Questionnaire Surveys</a></span> Kawano et al. J. Radiat. Res., 47, Suppl., A209–A217 (2006)<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.reportage-bygettyimages.com/#p=features/Under_A_Nuclear_Cloud"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">The aftereffects</span> (warning: link contains disturbing images)</span></a><br /></div><br /><br />Back to Kawano et al:<br /><br /><blockquote>…I believe that my parents, sister - they all died as a result of the nuclear tests. My grandson was born in 1990 having infantile cerebral palsy; we treated his disease for 10 years. In 2000 he died. I also believe that he became sick as a result of the nuclear tests and all people in the area are the victims of the nuclear tests. (Karauyl, M, 1946)<br /><br />…My daughter was born in 1970, she was also sick from the moment of birth, had dystrophy in feet and lower legs and she was a mentally defective child. She died in 1997. In 1976, my son was born also mentally defective; he is the 2nd category invalid. I think they all suffered [because we live close to] the nuclear test site. (Dolon, F, 1938)<br /><br />...When talking about the consequences of the nuclear explosions, there standing before my eyes is the image of my innocent daughter born in 1976, who became a victim of nuclear tests. She graduated from teachers’ training college and became a teacher. Her life had just begun, yet at the age of 20 she committed suicide. This is a result of nuclear tests. I curse the Soviet Union, which put the testing ground on Semipalatinsk soil. (Saryzhal, M, 1946)<br /><br />…People who used to swim in Irtysh River before had some skin disease. Later on it became clear that, especially in the testing ground area (epicenter), an increase in the number of invalid kids and people who committed suicide, and an increase in kinds of illnesses that people were not aware of, were due to the explosions. … (Karauyl, M, 1936)<br /><br />…I remembered every nuclear test, because we waited for them in fear. It seemed the earth would tumble down at any moment. Such fears have certainly affected our nerves. There are many mentally ill and mentally handicapped people in the village. … (Saryzhal, F, 1945)</blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">ibid</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.isar.org/pubs/ST/Semipalatinsk.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >The Monster of Semipalatinsk:</span></a></div><br /><br /><blockquote>Background radiation levels in the Atomkul district now reach more than 5,000 microroentgens per hour*. Nonetheless, the local people continue to pasture their livestock and grow crops there. A local shepherd told us that the military had warned him that he was grazing his flock on contaminated land, but since he had no dosimeter, he was unable to determine where it would be safe to pasture his animals. Supplying the population with dosimeters, however would not really solve the problem because they are being exposed to the strongest carcinogens, plutonium and americium, particulates of which are carried in the air and breathed by people and animals.</blockquote><br /><br />* "<a href="http://www.gallupindependent.com/1999-2001/4-27-01.html#anchor2">Prolonged exposure</a> to 150 microroentgens per hour is the borderline figure for serious health risk hazards. A reading of 1,000 microroentgens is more than 80 times the level of normal "background" radiation. "<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The whole Semipalatinsk project brought to you my that shining colossus of socialist compassion <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavrentiy_Beria">Lavrenty Beria</a>!</span>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-65848296228357248852009-07-21T02:55:00.001+03:002009-07-21T03:24:51.120+03:00Neo-Liberal Democracy: A Contradiction in Terms<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42337000/jpg/_42337051_thatcher_ap.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 203px; height: 152px;" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42337000/jpg/_42337051_thatcher_ap.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><blockquote>...<a href="http://www.spectrezine.org/global/neoliberal.htm">in its current form</a>, economic liberalism is perpetuating an inherently undemocratic hegemonic structure through an institutional and coercive manner that not even an authoritarian government could duplicate...</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-44801853981745432142009-07-10T15:15:00.003+03:002009-07-10T15:18:37.056+03:00He May Be a Communist<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AWeZ5SKXvj8&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AWeZ5SKXvj8&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Related: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare#Second_Red_Scare_.281947.E2.80.9357.29">Red Scare</a>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-63715387634500972992009-07-06T18:26:00.004+03:002009-07-06T21:14:10.292+03:00Interview: Hungary—“Where we went wrong”, GM Tamás<em><a href="http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=555">ISJ: GM Tamás</a>, a prominent Hungarian dissident and now professor of philosophy in Budapest, spoke to Chris Harman about developments in Eastern Europe since the fall of Stalinism.<br /><br /></em> <p></p><blockquote>What was important in hindsight was that in the first two years I spent in the highest chamber of my country as a lawmaker two million jobs were lost—and I don’t think I noticed. That is one of the greatest shames of my life. I don’t think it figured in political debates at that time. There were important debates concerning constitutional rights and republican versus monarchist symbols, fights over control of state radio and television. I won’t say political conflicts were not important but compared to the economic disaster they were of less importance, and we did not see the interdependence between the two. Why did the ruling class need the centralisation of media power? Because it was losing majority support from the population that were getting impoverished. We were totally naive and our discourse at the time was that of classic liberalism and pretty ineffective. This liberal party will probably now, and quite deservedly, disappear from parliament.</blockquote><p></p>...<br /><br /><blockquote>From the 1920s the Stalinist system—however monstrous, tyrannical and state capitalist it was—had through urbanisation and industrialisation created the livelihoods and life forms of hundreds of millions of people. They may have been disappointed and dissatisfied with the way of life but nevertheless it was theirs. And nobody had prepared them for what was to replace it. It was not something better, not something we might call “change”, but instead the end to economy as such. <p>In large parts of Eastern Europe and the Eurasian landmass there was the loss of what we knew of as civilisation, which was very much dependent on the state. The state has barely started to function again in Putin’s Russia—in a very unpleasant way—but it is starting to work regularly, making records, collecting revenue, paying civil servants, answering letters, receiving citizens with complaints. But in the early 1990s even that was not available: it was a total disaster. Meanwhile we, the froth at the top of it, were celebrating the triumph of freedom and openness and plurality and fantasy and pleasure and all that. That was frivolous, and I am deeply ashamed. </p></blockquote><p></p>...<br /><br /><blockquote>Soviet-type state capitalism was a commodity-producing, wage labour based, unequal, hierarchic, repressive money economy and a class society to outclass all class societies which was extremely efficient in suppressing proletarian resistance. Revolts against that regime have always been socialist revolutions, in 1956 the workers’ councils in Hungary, in 1968 the humanistic socialism in Czechoslovakia. Solidarność was in fact no trade union but a network of territorially organised workers’ councils which initially wanted a self-management proletarian republic of a self-governing people, before repression made it into a bitterly conservative, pessimistic and Catholic movement to disintegrate at the moment of political “victory”. The Central European style of “enlightened absolutism”, of top-down reforms devised by scientifically and philosophically trained elite planners has not changed since the 18th century. “Communist” economic planners were painlessly transmogrified into neoconservative monetarist planners. For them, in a characteristically positivist manner, “socialism” was but an error in economic calculus. Marginal utility seemed more “modern” than the labour theory of value—and bureaucrats go more willingly with the prevailing fashion than couturiers.</blockquote><a href="http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=555#123tamas_7" name="123tamas7"></a>...taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-38180253732373115342009-07-05T00:13:00.003+03:002009-07-05T00:20:15.711+03:00Ding a ding dang my dang a long ling longThis, I was looking for, for ages. "<a href="http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/ministry/jesus+built+my+hotrod_20093943.html">Jesus built my hot rod</a>", <a href="http://www.ministrymusic.org/">the Ministry</a>. Amphetamines in song form:<br /><br /><div><object width="420" height="339"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x1799j" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x1799j" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="339" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x1799j">Ministry Jesus Built My Hotrod</a></b><br /><i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/the-worms">the-worms</a></i></div>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-88632683568066584032009-06-27T02:08:00.006+03:002009-06-27T02:28:49.234+03:00It has fire in it already: a vietnamese war diary<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_20-ht31zaLQ/SkVWY7k80cI/AAAAAAAAAQY/k3liVXDqHnQ/s1600-h/tram_bw500.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_20-ht31zaLQ/SkVWY7k80cI/AAAAAAAAAQY/k3liVXDqHnQ/s400/tram_bw500.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351778718509224386" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">July 25, 1968</span>: <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Oh, my God. How hateful the war is. And the more hate, the more the devils are eager to fight. Why do they enjoy shooting and killing good people like us? How can they have the heart to kill all those youngsters who love life, who are struggling and living for so many hopes?</span><br /><br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6492819">In December 1969</a>, Frederick Whitehurst was stationed in Quang Ngai province, in what was then South Vietnam. Assigned to the 635th Military Intelligence Detachment near Duc Pho, he was burning captured enemy documents that seemed to have no military value.<br />...<br />"I'm throwing things in there and they're burning, and over my left shoulder, and I remember this, Nguyen Trung Hieu was looking at the diary and said, 'Fred, don't burn this. It has fire in it already,'" Whitehurst says.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/thuytram/">The diary was that of 27-year-old Dang Thuy Tram</a>.</blockquote>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-74600983113129084552009-06-26T02:57:00.005+03:002009-06-26T03:35:46.711+03:00various cool music videos<a href="http://www.letigreworld.com/sweepstakes/index.html">Le Tigre</a> - Deceptacon<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EU1CDSP7FRk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EU1CDSP7FRk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br><br />Le Tigre - All That Glitters<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pEPyLIpzywA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pEPyLIpzywA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_Kill">Bikini Kill</a> - Rebel Girl (αφιερωμένο στην ΚΟΕ)<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mZxxhxjgnC0&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mZxxhxjgnC0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladytron">Ladytron</a> - Seventeen <br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ncl7New1czM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ncl7New1czM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinic_(band)">Clinic</a> - If you could read your mind<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zgez1yQPm7o&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zgez1yQPm7o&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horrors">The Horrors</a> - "Sheena Is a Parasite"<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cor3wjbS4Gg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cor3wjbS4Gg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />Peaches and Iggy - Kick it<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNbyHivdPls&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pNbyHivdPls&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-77252792611057294712009-06-24T01:12:00.003+03:002009-06-24T01:23:38.142+03:00Massacre (and victory) in Bagua, Peru<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D--_jZ6KHpw&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D--_jZ6KHpw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">More-info: MADRE INDÍGENA HABLA AL PRESIDENTE ALAN GARCIA PEREZ MASACRE EN BAGUA TRADUCCION SUBTITULADA<br />A native mother who is in pain for the lost of her people talks in her language and she has the right to be listened and understood around the world: " Listen please president Alan Garcia, you are responsible because you have exterminated us, you are killing us, you are selling us. You are the terrorist. We defend our territory from armament Our only weapon of defense is just arrows and sticks, that aren't long range and they aren´t meant to kill like you did with us. You exterminated us using armament, bullets, helicopters and killed our brothers, sisters, students, teachers, sons... Alan we ask you to come over here to our territory to pay the debts you have to us. Alan, you sell our country, you sell our people, you sell our natural resources, gold, oil, water, air You pollute our environment and so you will leave us even poorer as you can see us now.. this is how we are and how we are left. We, the awajón-wampis people haven´t elected you to exterminate us, but to help us, to provide us with education for the kids you killed now. We aren´t taking your private property, we haven´t killed your kids or family, you already exterminated us and now we have NOTHING!". </span></blockquote><br /><br />The background: <a href="http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6200">Trade Agreement Kills Amazon Indians</a><br />The jungle massacre: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-jungle-massacre-perus-tribal-chief-flees-country-1702172.html">Peru's tribal chief flees country</a><br />A first hand account: <a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ben-powless/2009/06/massacre-peru-trip-amazon-brings-answers-and-more-questions">Massacre in Peru: A trip into the Amazon brings answers and more questions</a><br /><a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47242">Families of Dead Native Protesters Tell Their Stories</a><br /><br />But all of this was not in vain: <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/carlsen06222009.html">Victory in the Amazon</a>taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-47817926503025808452009-06-01T03:16:00.005+03:002009-06-03T01:52:39.569+03:00Rosa, dead yet pleased. Or is she?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/marxists/rosa-luxemburg-90-anniversary-4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 250px;" src="http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/marxists/rosa-luxemburg-90-anniversary-4.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />During <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,624880,00.html">an interview (not quite friendly at that) with Oscar Lafontaine</a>, leader of Die Linke (the party of the German left), which is polling near double digits, words were heard from a German parliamentary leader's lips that hadn't been heard much in the area since... ooh I don't know... the late 1910s?<br /><br /><blockquote>SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your Left Party colleague Sahra Wagenknecht does not want to fix capitalism; she wants to overthrow it. What do you think?<br /><br />Lafontaine: The entire Left Party sees it that way. We want to overthrow capitalism.<br /><br />SPIEGEL ONLINE: How would that be possible?<br /><br />Lafontaine: We will change the economic order. That begins with regulating international financial markets. When we first put this subject on the agenda, our critics were still in the process of rolling out the red carpet for financial capitalism. Financial capitalism has failed. We need to democratize the economy. The workforce needs to have a far greater say in their companies than has been the case so far.</blockquote><br /><br />Not too far away, a few days after the interview, a mystically minded radical, were such a beast to exist, might believe that Rosa Luxemburg transcended her spaciotemporal confines, to guide <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,627626,00.html">the rediscovery of her mutilated and tortured corpse</a> (a testament by itself of the stark reality of the "socialism or barbarism" dilemma she posed). She was happy to hear from the living again.<br /><br />... Or was it despair, that <a href="http://news.ert.gr/en/22632-stis-28-maiou-stin-ert-to-debate.htm">in a country far away</a>, the political heirs of those <a href="http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_0_23/05/2009_107431">complicit in her murder</a>, are abusing her words, squeezing them into a PR campaign that turns the sharpness of her dilemma into a blunt pre-electoral trick? Was that what made her turn so violently in her grave that Dr. Tsokos, noticed the sound coming from the cellar and ran downstairs to check?<br /><br />Who knows...taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10037232.post-59529797169899188282009-05-26T02:32:00.003+03:002009-05-26T02:55:39.670+03:00Birth rate myths<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/3084041411_f367ae0672.jpg?v=0"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 474px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/3084041411_f367ae0672.jpg?v=0" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><blockquote>...three deeply misleading assumptions about demographic trends have become lodged in the public mind. The first is that mass migration into Europe, legal and illegal, combined with an eroding native population base, is transforming the ethnic, cultural, and religious identity of the continent. The second assumption, which is related to the first, is that Europe’s native population is in steady and serious decline from a falling birthrate, and that the aging population will place intolerable demands on governments to maintain public pension and health systems. The third is that population growth in the developing world will continue at a high rate. Allowing for the uncertainty of all population projections, the most recent data indicate that all of these assumptions are highly questionable and that they are not a reliable basis for serious policy decisions...</blockquote><br /><br />From <a href="http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=519403">The World's New Numbers</a> by Martin Walker. See also <a href="http://histologion-gr.blogspot.com/2008/05/0508.html">this</a> [in Greek, first part] for pretty much the same points. <br />Also in the news: <a href="http://www.blnz.com/news/2009/01/13/France_leads_Europe_birth_rates_7954.html">France</a>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/21/birth-rate-increase">UK</a>, <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2423804/Birth-rates-at-highest-level-in-nearly-20-years">NZ</a>, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8057326.stm">US</a>, <a href="http://www.business24-7.ae/Articles/2009/5/Pages/19052009/05192009_a8b9e4e7923a4bbbb59ab336cf61637d.aspx">UAE</a>, <a href="http://www.nrcu.gov.ua/index.php?id=148&listid=91505">Ukraine</a>...taloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13680864841710474232noreply@blogger.com1