[A-List] Greetings of the season

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

After today I'll be disappearing for a few weeks in order to catch up on
various things. Mark Jones has kindly been volunteered to look after things
in my absence.

The A-list has been functioning for a little over a year now, and in that
time it has developed into an important resource for the virtual
anti-imperialist community, in addition to more conventional academic use.
We began with approximately 50 subscribers, and we are now within spitting
range of 100. The growth has been organic, with newcomers appearing (and
sometimes disappearing) without any encouragement or invitation -- I assume
that list activity speaks for itself, in addition to our homepage. In
assuming the reins from Mark last spring, I have tried to build upon solid
foundations by making use of the archive facilities generously offered by
Hans Ehrbar at "Utahpia", selecting themed news items from the mainstream
press in order that important linkages can be made by list participants.
Since much of what goes on in internetland is US in orientation, there is a
distinctive European element to A-list activity, although that can and
should be developed further. I hope to do something about that in 2003.
Also, we have a good number of wider international interests represented,
including subscribers from Pakistan, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, Argentina,
South Africa, and Russia. I hope that we can build on this too -- it's great
to have subscribers from the South and the more the better. The more global,
the more truly internationalist our orientation, the more effective we will
be.

Already we have been promised certain things in the new year:

* A continuation of Mark Jones' notes on the Grundrisse
* A re-visitation of the socialist calculation debate

In addition to the normal news gathering service and editorial critique I
hope to add longer, more reflective analytical articles exploring issues
dear to my heart -- other listers are encouraged to do likewise.

In many ways all of the above is dependent on events well beyond our
control, and seemingly beyond anyone's control, given the announcements made
by the "moderate" General Powell today concerning Iraq's "breaches" of UN
resolutions (lucky old Indonesia and Israel). Some of the above could look a
lot like fiddling while Rome burns, and I think we need more analysis of the
kind often forwarded by Mark and Stan Goff and Louis Proyect. Since the
rationale behind this list is a political one, we are not meeting that
rationale if we fail to engage with events as staggeringly important as the
impending armageddon facing Iraq and its implications for US imperialism,
European Union, Russia and China and the inevitable knock-on effects this
will have upon the South, and the consequent blowback in the form of
increasing popular militancy. Then there is the related, ever-more urgent
dilemma posed by energy consumption, dwindling resources and ecological
degradation. Big questions needing some big answers and there is sufficient
artillery here for at least an effort to be made in that direction. I hope
that we can accomplish at least some of that in 2003.

Thank you once again for your participation, and I wish everyone a peaceful
holiday season.

Michael Keaney