The Mustard Seed

Just saw this picture passing a news stand.

Oh shit, click on the pic to read the New York Times article.

Hey everyone.  So I’m starting a new podcasting segment every Friday (or around every Friday) where I share some music that you all might like.  Each Friday podcast should have around a minute or so introduction wiht around 13 to 17 minutes worth of music (around three to four songs).  Hope ya’ll enjoy.

[Update: Finally got it working, here's the links to the artists I selected]

Blue Scholars

The Coup

Bambu & Do D.A.T. (and please Just Do DAT!)

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

Aruni Kashyap blogs on the recent repression by the Indian government on the people of India:

Manoj Deka’s brutal murder by Asam police in the name of counter insurgency operation holds multiple shocking implications about current politics in Assam. Manoj Deka was a senior leader of the Communist Party of India, Assam and held the post of the Morigaon district CPI General Secretary.

[Hat Tip: Bhupinder]

From one worker to another. I’m with you my sisters and brothers!

Hossam blogs:

650,000 public sector workers went on strike in Britain yesterday and today in dispute over pay… Extensive reports with photos by Socialist Worker could be found here… Comrade Ady also has some videos… Below are some pix of the strikers I took in Brighton, marching through downtown…

Elation

Mourning

John Mullen (France) interviewed feminist and Marxist Lindsay German of the SWP:

Des camarades des Marxistes Unitaires, et de Socialisme International sont allés à Londres pour l’université d’été du Socialist Workers Party. Ils en ont profité pour interviewer Lindsay German, camarade du SWP, et une des dirigeantes principales de la large alliance antiguerre qui a été construite au Royaume Uni. Voici l’interview :

Nous avons interviewé Lindsey GERMAN, coordonnatrice nationale de la Stop the War Coalition, féministe et socialiste révolutionnaire et auteur de plusieurs livres dont Material Girls : Women, Men and Work (2007) et Sex, Class and Socialism (1998).

Tolaab Mokwama (Egypt) blogs:

ارفع صوتك
ياللي حابس بين ضلوعك
قهرك ونار خوفك وجوعك
ياللي غرقان بين دموعك
كل ده..وكاتم في صوتك
ارفع..ارفع
ارفع صـوتك

Al-Negem Al-Ahmar (Egypt) posts some music.

Pauly (U.S.) blogs:

In Glenn Beck’s column on CNN today he writes about “What’s Right with America.” I’m not sure if he forgot to submit this in time for the Fourth or what, but whatever the case may be he lists a few things:

Left Punch (Norway) blogs on the reasons why Norway should not be in Afganistan:

Det finnes ingen rettferdig grunn til at Norge skal krige i Afghanstan. Ingen. Det finnes heller ingen sterk opionion som støtter krigen, heller tvert imot. Så godt som rundt halve befolkningen har ved hver eneste meningsmåling vært imot Norges deltakelse, selv om politikerne har gjort alt for å kamuflere sitt væpna angrep og brudd på folkeretten, ved å hevde at edle motiver står bak. Ja, de skjøtter ingen ting denne gjengen, i sitt forsøk på å rettferdiggjøre sin krig: “kvinnefrigjøring” og “kamp mot fundamentalisme”; forsvarskrig(forsvar for USA mot Afghanistan!) og stabilisering……

CF (France) blogs on Lindsay German’s new article on refuting bourgouis feminist theory:

Lindsey German est une féministe qui défend sans concessions les idées du marxisme révolutionnaire. Elle a écrit notamment pour réfuter la théorie de la patriarchie selon laquelle l’oppression de la femme existe indépendamment de l’exploitation de classe. Pour créer une société où l’oppression basée sur le genre n’existe pas, il faut abolir l’exploitation basée sur la classe.

Lenin (U.K.) blogs:

The history of anti-imperialist insurgency is predictably littered with demonic imagery. The foes of empire are invariably barbarised, and of course this is as true of the Iraqi resistance as it once was of the Mau Mau. But the Mau Mau were considered uniquely evil, unlike other enemies of the British Empire such as the Communists in Malaysia, even though the suppression of the latter was almost as brutal. The Mau Mau was a movement that the British could only consider a recrudescence of African savagery and tribalism. Louis Leakey’s 1954 book, Defeating Mau Mau, described the movement as an essentially religious one, a debased version of Christianity, that had attempted to usurp legitimate grievances for its own unspecified (but nefarious) ends. Those grievances, for Leakey, did not call into question the supposition that “European civilization” or “the white man was superior”, but rather confirmed it. The grievances had only arisen as a result of the civilizing impact of whitey, so the argument went. The settler leaders, who relied on the labour of the Kikuyu on the ‘White Highlands’, were certainly convinced of their innate superiority, and were enraged by the resistance to their dominance.

Keith Watermelon (U.K.) blogs:

To be serious for a moment though, we’re facing quite possibly the deepest economic crisis the world has seen since the 1930s. Rising inflation (in reality 10-15% this year) and the credit crucnch means that many people are facing the stark choice between paying their fuel bills and buying food. And what’s our government got to say by way of a solution - waste less food. Who knows what further pearls of wisdom could come next from the government that, let’s be clear, is responsible for the economy being fucked?

Hossam (Egypt) blogs:

It was exciting to learn from the Greek comrades during Marxism 2008 about the strike wave that is engulfing their country at the moment, and exchange stories and experiences about what’s going on in Egypt and Greece in terms of the industrial action… The workers, students and civil servants on both sides of the Mediterranean are raising hell… Below are excerpts from an ISJ interview with Comrade Panas Garganas, the editor of the Greek newspaper Workers Solidarity…

Snowball (U.K.) quotes Mark Steel on Barak Obama:

There’s no way of saying this without sounding a bit pretentious, but I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. And the most instructive person I met may have been a frail old black woman in a newsagents, who picked up a newspaper with a photo of Barack Obama on it, and thrust it under my nose.

“See him,” she said, “He’s in town today – Barack Obama, in town today.” And she had such a gleam of pride I wondered whether he was her son. When you’re used to British politicians this behaviour seems staggering. Supposing you were the most imaginative person in the world, creator of award-winning science fiction full of planets run by giant centipedes and made out of beetroot, you still wouldn’t be able to imagine anyone gleefully grabbing a stranger and saying “She’s in town today – Hazel Blears,” even if she was their daughter.

Lebanese Socialist (Lebanon) blogs:

The biggest winner by far is Nasrallah. The man has surrounded himself with something of a superhuman aura in the eyes of millions in the Arab world. For the past eight years he has delivered nothing but success to his constituency.

Now he boasts of a long record: getting the Israelis to leave South Lebanon in 2000, the prisoner exchange of 2004, the Israeli defeat of 2006, and more recently the overpowering of his opponents in Lebanese domestic politics in May.

Dave (The Void) (U.K.) blogs:

Marx was an atheist, yes, and believed that in a rational, human society, most people would ultimately turn away from religion of their own free will.  But to Marx, the enemy was not religion itself, but a world which makes religion necessary.  This is precisely the opposite of the Richard Dawkinsian obsession with blaming all the world’s real, material problems on the irrational ideas in some people’s heads.

thr (Austrailia) blogs:

The Age, Melbourne’s leading broadsheet newspaper, has an undeserved reputation for leaning to the left. In reality, the paper adopts a series of often meaningless causes in a tokenistic fashion (such as its support for ‘Earth Day’). It is harder to find articles on class struggle, or imperialism, or with an anti-corporate message, or anything else that is recognisably ‘left’. On the contrary - if we examine the glossier sections of the paper (particularly the lift-outs and magazines) - the paper is filled with expensive consumer items (and not merely as ads) presumably pitched to well-heeled, middle-aged bourgeois types who are happy to regard themselves as ‘progressive’.

Speaking of which, his new reading group blog is up and it is covering Mao’s paper “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People”:

The text in question is a speech delivered by Mao (which can be found here). Jack Stephens, author of The Mustard Seed blog, has kindly provided an introduction:

The speech “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People” was given in Feb. of 1957 to the 11th Session of the Supreme State Conference which was held in Peking. The main purpose of the speech was in response to the Hungarian Uprising the year earlier and why the uprising happened and how one could be avoided in China. While Mao was obviously misguided in his belief that the uprising (done by Communist party cadres and revolutionaries against Stalinism) there were some key points in Mao’s speech that can be looked at today.

Mustafa (Egypt) blogs on the teachers demand for better pay and rights:

اقام الموظفين الاداريين بوزارة التربية والتعليم امس مؤتمرا صحفيا فى مركز هشان مبارك للاعلان عن مطالبهم فى مساواتهم بكادر المعلمين ، وياتى المؤتمر بعد العديد من الوقفات الاحتجاية التى اقامتها رابطة لجنة الدفاع عن الاداريين وهى اللجنة التى تطالب بحقوق جميع العاملين بوزارة التربية والتعليم فى مصر. واوضح الاستاذ فوزى عبد الفتاح رئيس الرابطة عن ان العملية التعليمية لا يقوم بها المدرس بمفردة ولكن هناك كتيبة من الموظفين الاداريين التى تشرف وتتابع الطلاب ولذلك فمن حقنا المساواة مع المعلمين فى الكادر خاصة لان ارتفاع الاسعار يتزامن مع تدنى اجورنا الهزيلة التى لا تكفينا للمعيشة . وكنا قد طالبنا اكثر من مرة الوزارة تعديل وضعنا ولكنهم قالوا انتظروا صدور قانون الوظيفة العامة الذى سيحسن احوالكم وانتظرنا ولم يحدث شيئا . وبعد معاناة طويلة مع وزير التربية والتعلم وافق على منحنا كادرا موازيا للمعلمين ولكن للاسف وزير مالية رفض اعتماد الاموال بحجة اننا نأخذ مكافأة امتحانات! مع العلم ان مكافأة الامتحانت هى فى الواقع اجر مقابل عمل وليست مكافأة كما يوحى اسمها ولا نعرف لماذا هذا التعنت معنا .

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

BrownFemiPower blogs:

I’ve seen with my own two eyes right on this blog exactly how productive conversations with white women can be. I’ve seen incredible love and support and questions and challenges and answers and gotten insane amounts of help from white women.

I’ve also seen right on this blog (and in blog land in general) exactly how unproductive conversations with white women can be. I mean, how many times will radical women of color organizers be called “intersectionalists” before somebody finally figures it out?

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

Ann blogs:

When many people think of queer youth, the image of white boys and girls comes to mind. The voices of black and brown queer youth are silenced; the faces of black and brown queer youth are invisible. Black and brown queer youth are desparately seeking their own space to love—-and be loved. To be accepted and not marginalised; to be respected, not rejected. To be understood. Not hated, not feared. They are cultural refugees, wandering, searching, longing for an indentity and yearning to belong.

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

ShineThePath blogs on the latest controversy involing the Obama campaing and the New Yorker:

So why has the The New Yorkers’ cover art coming under heavy criticism when it simply is poking fun at all the right-wing racist attacks against the Obamas? Attacks which the Obama campaign had to create their own website to defend themselves from the campaign. They’ve had to tell you his father wasn’t a Muslim, he was an Atheist. That he, himself, didn’t go to a Madrassa. He threw his pastor under the boss for the sake of appearance, had to to denounce Louis Farrakhan, had to tell Black fathers in Bill Cosby-esque “get-your-shit-together” patriarchal uncle tom tone to be personally responsible just to seek the approval of white America. The reason why the Obama camp is trying to squash The New Yorker cover article is to really get rid of race from the agenda of discussion in this campaign altogether. Obama doesn’t want race brought up, and he sees it as only a harmful element in his campaign. So rather than dealing with race and white supremacy, he has only talked about a post-racial society.

[Hat Tip: Mike E.]

Originally posted on The Blog and the Bullet.

Vidrohi blogs:

The recent military operations by Frontier Corps (FC) on the religious extremist groups around Peshawar led to a series of debates and discussion amongst the CMKP members regarding the position to be adopted on the question of Taliban and religious-extremists. The conclusion of the debate has been summarised by Ali Jan that is being presented as follows with minor editions

Sweatshop Labor and Your Browns

On UPS sweatshop clothing.

DOLE Doesn’

t Want to Increase Wages

A link to a KMU (a radical union in the Philippines) article on DOLE’s exploitation in the Philippines.

You Gotta Be Soft, Man

On UPS management violating the rights of full-time workers.

Chapter three, titled “Money, or the Circulation of Commodities” is the last chapter in the Part 1 called “Commodities and Money.” David Harvey went over the entire chapter for his lecture as he said it was the most difficult chapter to comprehend and that most people who quite, or almost quite, reading Capital, Vol. 1 almost always do it at or around reading chapter three.

However, despite its reputation for being hard (which it is, let me tell you) one can actually easily work through it be going at it step by step and by keeping in mind Marx’s main argument for a particular section you are reading.  With that, one realizes Marx’s argument in chapter three is quite simple.  The make-up of the chapter essentially goes like this, in the first part Marx goes over the value of money, in the second part he goes over it as a means of circulation, and then he ends by describing it as a universal equivalent on the world market.

The main structure of chapter three is similar to the previous two chapters in Capital.

One of the interesting points from the lecture and from chapter three is Marx’s explanation of money on the world market and how money is essentially based on imaginary forms, not based on actual gold.  This is kinda complicated to explain out right but he leads up to it by first explaining the measure of value of money in the market (sec. 1), then by explaining the means of circulation of commodities and money in the market (sec. 2), them by explaining money (sec. 3) and how money (the universal equivalent of all commodities) went from physical gold to essentially paper money (partly due to the convenience of paper money in everyday transactions); which leads to one of the interesting things about Harvey’s lecture on section three part B in chapter three on world money.

The nation-state itself plays an important role in the management and regulation of the money system.  At first by regulating gold to regulate inflation and deflation, then by backing up paper money and metallic tokens (creation of the state) with gold, and then by removing the gold back up and allowing the speculation of money.  But, once on the world market the state essentially losses all control of the regulation of its own money.

In 1973 the world market de-metalized its money.  Because of this speculators and economists still wanted to associated currencies around the world with certain commodities (like it had done with gold).  At first, Harvey says, there was talk of the Petro-dollar being the new standard, money in relation to oil.  But soon the oil crisis of the 1970s destroyed this thought.

Now, to find out the worth of money (which is essentially worthless peices of paper and metal) currency speculators and economists look at the productivity of a whole national economy (i.e., unemployment rates, stock market, accumulation of capital, national debt, trade balances, etc., etc.) and compares this outlook with other national economies across the global market.  While there is some type of control the state can exert over its currency there is a fiction of a national economy.  There is no national economy as the national economy is also based on the performance of other national economies that are connected to that economy.  If China is in a slump trade to the U.S. will fall which in turn would cause a rise in prices and other adverse affects in the U.S., etc.  So while there is a “national” economy it is also dependent on the international market.

There is an imaginary understanding of money now.  States collect massive amounts of data on money through statistics.  In order to understand the value of money statistics comes up with all sorts of mathematical equations and comparisons in order to give money value.  For example, statistics on GDP, GNP, collected on certain countries by the IMF or the World Bank.  Speculators step in and debate on what measures are right and what measures are wrong in the measurement of value of certain currencies, hence why George Soros was able to make a billion or so dollars within only a few days be speculating the British Sterling against that of the Euro.

Marx would essentially argue all of this is due to the masking of the true value of money over the decades by the market.  Marx states many times in Capital “We imagine it to be like this…” and “We imagine it to be like that…”  The reason why Marx talks so much about the imagined world of the capitalist market is because the capitalist market depends on imagination, the imaginary things are socially necessary, we can’t get rid of them within capitalism.

Image from:
celsias

While individual citizens get shitted on by the government.  The New York Times reports:

Alarmed by the sharply eroding confidence in the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, the Bush administration on Sunday asked Congress to approve a sweeping rescue package that would give officials the power to inject billions of federal dollars into the beleaguered companies through investments and loans.

…

While senior Democratic and Republican officials in successive administrations have for many years repeatedly denied that the trillions of dollars of debt the companies issued is guaranteed, the package, if adopted, would bring the Treasury closer than ever to exposing taxpayers to potentially huge new liabilities. The two companies could face significant new losses this year as the wave of housing foreclosures continues.

From Clive Crook’s blog:

Covering the agencies’ losses on their loans and guarantees is going to require an actual outlay, which will fall on taxpayers. You could plausibly call the rest – namely, bringing these “government-sponsored enterprises” explicitly inside the public sector – just a bookkeeping entry. But what an entry! It would surely shake financial markets, raise the government’s cost of funding and put heavy downward pressure on the dollar. Meanwhile, the turmoil impedes or paralyses the GSEs in their crucial life-support role for the housing market.

So we can afford “socialism” for mutli-billion dollar corporations but not the masses?

So we’ve got corporations divesting capital from America and interjecting it into developing countries, further exploited Third World peoples and causing Americans to loose good paying jobs, we’ve got gas ready to hit $6 a gallon within the next half year, and there was a near food riot in Milwaukee plus a 20% increase in demand for food at food banks.

The only reason why most of the American petty-bourgeoisie and proletariat are able to afford certain amenities is through exploiting the labor-power of Third World workers.  We’re all going to hell in a gift-wrapped hand basked made by a young Cambodian child for 5 cents (via Nike).

Cross-posted from The Blog and the Bullet.

Farfahinne blogs on a speech she attended in London during the Marxism 2008 festival sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party:

Alex Callinicos, is a leading figure on the left internationally and a major Marxist theoretician. He is a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and has participated in every major anti-capitalist mobilization since Seattle.
his talk was very interesting, it was titled : the Permanent Revolution in the Middle East. one of the most important things he said, that the struggle of the Palestinian People is not limited to the Palestinians themselves. It’s a broader one that involves the struggle of workers against the Arab Local Regimes who are the agents of Israel and imperialism. the conflict’s way out is the permanent Revolution that breaks the bounderies of individual societies.

Originally posted at The Blog and the Bullet.

Rebecca blogs:

I’m a bit late to this one too, but it warrants some angry words. Unsurprisingly, both the London Pride organisers and the Metropolitan Police have issued public apologies for the incident at last week’s event where trans women were denied access to the women’s bathroom and threatened with arrest. The London Pride apology can be seen here; the police apology can be seen here. And unfortunately, I have to say that I’m pretty unimpressed with either of them.