http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php The James Petras Website Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:30:32 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss092 petras.james@gmail.com petras.james@gmail.com es As far back as the early 1920’s, Lenin urged the nascent Turkish communist to sacrifice their revolutionary independence and to support Attaturk; his successor, Joseph Stalin encouraged the Chinese communists to subordinate their revolutionary movement to the nationalist party led by Chiang Kai Chek. Mao Tse Tung prioritized coalitions ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1741&c=1 Political advances alternate with sharp reversals as popular movements compete for power with resurgent ruling class-directed mass mobilizations. Breakdowns in the financial and productive systems, the flight of capital and the demise of ruling class regimes are followed by strong capitalist-led economic recovery, the resurgence of business-led movements and ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1740&c=1 Chury: Good day Petras, how's it going... Petras: It's a good day here in nature, but it seems to me an unhappy day in relation to the latest declarations of President Chávez. Chury: That's the question I was just about to ask you... Petras: Here all the bourgeois press is giving lots ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1739&c=1 This article is to be published in the Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol.39, No.1. feb 2009 Introduction: The Historical Context It is said that for every British officer in India, there were fifty Sikhs, Gurkhas, Muslims and Hindus in the British Colonial Army. The European conquest of Africa and Asia was directed ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1738&c=1 Following in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez’ successful negotiations in late December 2007 and early January 2008 that led to the FARC’s unilateral freeing of 4 captives, Sarkozy announced his determination to become directly involved in freeing Ingrid, even if it meant risking a trip into Colombia’s jungle and climbing ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1737&c=1 Over a period of 60 years he organized peasant movements, rural communities and, when all legal democratic channels were effectively (and brutally) closed, he built the most powerful sustained guerrilla army and supporting underground militias in Latin America. The FARC at its peak between 1999-2005 numbered nearly 20,000 fighters, several ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1736&c=1 Imperialist leaders have to create a visible and highly charged emotional sense of injustice and righteousness to secure national cohesion and overcome the natural opposition to early death, destruction and disruption of civilian life and to the brutal regimentation that goes with submission to absolutist rule by the military. The ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1735&c=1 Both Allende and Chavez share many strategic goals and embrace policies favoring the working class, peasantry and the urban poor. They also pursued programs regaining national control over the strategic sectors of the economy, redistributing land (agrarian reform), reallocating budgetary expenditures in favor of social programs for the poor ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1734&c=1 General Petraeus: “President Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders promised to end their support for the special groups but the nefarious activities of the Quds Force have continued.” Senator Joseph Lieberman: “Is it fair to say that the Iranian-backed special groups are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1733&c=1 ‘The world’s poor countries will spend about $38.7 billion dollars importing cereals this year, double the amount they paid two years ago for the same amounts and a 57% increase from 2007.’ Quote from US Senator Byron Dorgan at the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UN FAO) Financial Times, ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1732&c=1 One predominantly based on military conquests, involving direct invasions, proxy invading armies and subsidized separatist military forces; and the other predominantly based on large-scale, long-term economic penetration via a combination of investments, loans, credits and trade in which ‘market’ power and the superiority (greater productivity) in the means of production ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1731&c=1 Introduction For Reverend Wright was not merely ‘commenting’ on an ethical omission of our day but raising fundamental principles about the behavior of states, the role of individual conscience in the face of crimes against humanity and the need to give name and take action in the face of ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1730&c=1 Venezuela plays the major role in sharply reducing the price of oil for the poorest countries in the Caribbean region and Central America , thus substantially aiding them in their balance of payments, without attaching any ‘strings’ to this vital assistance. Venezuela has been in the forefront in supporting ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1729&c=1 Earlier, during his Sunday radio program ‘Alo Presidente’, in which I was an invited guest, he followed up with an announcement that he was sending ground, air and sea forces to the Venezuelan frontier with Colombia. Uribe’s cross-border attack was meant to probe the political ‘will’ of Ecuador and Venezuela to ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1728&c=1 The strategy of the Jewish state is the complete Zionization of Palestine, the takeover of land, water, offshore gas (estimated to be worth $4 billion dollars) and other economic resources and the total dispossession of the Palestinian people. Tel Aviv’s tactics have included daily military assaults, giant walls ghettoizing entire ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1727&c=1 Likewise major social movements emerge, expand from local or regional power bases to significant actors on the national political scene, play a major role in dispatching right-wing regimes, support and even enter governmental coalitions and then decline, especially if they fail to achieve any of the minimum demands of their ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1726&c=1 In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible…Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness…Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them. (George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” in ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1725&c=1 Then came the Romans and the Hellenized Jews put me in a flower garden where they drank wine and expounded on the virtues of the Stoics and ridiculed the Tribal tales of their elders and the bearded Rabbis. When the Macabees rose and ransacked the homes and gardens of the Philo-Hellenes, ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1724&c=1 Introduction On questions of the Iraq war, the escalation of US military forces in Iraq (the ‘Surge’) and military action against Iran, most Jewish Americans differ from the leaders of the major American Jewish organizations. Most liberal, progressive or radical Jewish commentators have emphasized these differences to argue, “most American ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1723&c=1 December 10, 2007 Your dramatic and highly publicized intervention has focused world public opinion on the prisoners held by the FARC, but you failed to mention the plight of the Colombian government’s political prisoners, tortured and brutalized by a President, whose many closest Congressional associates are awaiting trial for their long-term ... http://www.lahaine.org/petras/index.php?p=1722&c=1