Re: [OPE-L] various

[Francisco Paulo Cipolla <cipolla@xxxxxxx>]

Maybe an electronic toast! Too bad we could not be together to celebrate!
Jerry I enjoy you writing the places you are going through. I will try to
check on a map.
Paulo

glevy@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Several brief interventions:
>
> 1) Re the length of the working day
>      The public debate on the 8 hour day occurred during Marx's
> lifetime and his theory of absolute surplus value could be seen, in
> part, as an intervention in that struggle and a reply to both
> reactionary opponents of the 8-hour-day and liberal and "utopian"
> advocates who justified support for the 8-hour-day in moral terms
> (i.e. what was "fair").
>
> 2) Re conspiracy theories and Marxism
>      A futher thought:  Marxists attempt to put the question of
> whether or not there are conspiracies in historical context.  For
> instance, they attempt to look for historical and structural
> patterns.  A couple of examples:  after the coup in Venezuela,
> most radicals (Marxists included) charged that the coup
> was planned by the US and the CIA, etc.  The US government, of
> course, denied any role or advance knowledge.  Even in the
> absence of "beyond a reasonable doubt" proof, radicals and
> Marxists were _right_ to make this claim (and further evidence to
> that effect has been revealed in the last couple of years).
> In other words, given the existing pattern and history of the
> US in terms of its relations with radical governments in Latin
> America that it dislikes, this claim was justified.  Another
> example:  in New York City, they are saying that the NYPD is going to
> have "random checks" of backpacks and bags of subway and
> mass transportation riders.  I will claim -- in the absence of
> any hard proof -- that the City _will_  nonetheless use this
> occasion to have _non_-random searches of people who fit
> their (racist and discriminatory) profile and/or radicals.
> In making this claim, I am not being paranoid.  Rather, this
> belief is informed by a _history_ of other occasions of
> police (and mayoral, and gubanatorial, and federal) abuse of
> civil liberties.
>
> 3)  Query
>     September 5 will be the ***TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF OPE-L!***
> Do you have any ideas about how we should celebrate that occasion?
>
> In solidarity, Jerry
> Peaks Island and Portland