[PEN-L:7183] Mailradek

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

The "mailradek" project is a non-regular posting of subjective commentaries
on political themes. The "mailradek" texts have no  copyright and can be
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Address: Russia 117333 Moscow, Vavilova 48-237,

tel.: (095) 137 71 31, e-mail: kireev@xxxxxxxxxx

text no. 74

15.03.1999

What was the "green revolution" promising in the 50s?  First, it was
promising to industrialize the agriculture and cattle  breeding thanks to
the successes of scientific, technologic and  engineering practices;
especially the industrialization of the  agriculture would be successful
through elaborating new ways of the  tillage ground restoration and
fertilization. Second, that the optimal  plants will be introduced due to
the successes of biology, genetics and  new food technologies. These ideas
of the "green revolution" did really  pass the examination in the course of
the 60-s and proved to be  effective.

But a very few people can benefit from such effectivity now. The "green
revolution" methods have not been satisfactory enough in the light of the
recent population growth - more than 4 billions (and it will increase  up
to 6 billions very soon), because there's still a need to expand new fields
for crops, to use the fertilizers more and more, and there's no chance in
feeding 6 billion people without that. And since there will be more than 6
billions very soon it becomes clear that the "green revolution" fails, it's
clear there's a need for some other revolution of some other color. This
revolution may turn out to be really terrible. The contemporary data from
fieldwork studies shows: the industrial methods of the ground cultivation
finally lead to its inevitable destruction, however refined the methods of
the cultivation might be, and an increase in new fields of cultivation will
also provoke global disbalances. Definite climate difficulties do already
show there's a beginning of something of this sort, especially in
conjuction with other geophysical problems.

Recommendations given by "serious" biologists seem to be really strange.
Contrary to all achievements of our civilization ("green revolution" is
just one of them), contrary to the XX century's opinion on the agricultural
and agrarian population and its role in employment numbers, contrary to the
fact that the number of people in agriculture in the industrial countries
falls and falls, - contrary to all these facts some people like Zhores
Medvedev propose to accept the less industrial methods which seemingly can
keep the natural resourses untouched and to increase the number of people
employeed in the agricultural sector. It means to come back to the
situation from which the culture has been escaping during the last 150 years.

But some authors like Zhores Medvedev claim the market economy doesn't have
any mechanisms to stimulate such a process - a process of
de-industrialization in the agriculture and of the huge number of people to
work within the agricultural manual labour. They just claim it will
decrease the prime cost of the agricultural product, soften the employment
problem, and that fields and flora will suffer less. It means to jump into
the early agrarian civilization from the early industrial. That's what the
scientific-technical dreams of the XX century intellectuals have become.

Does it mean that intellectuals made a circle in their development and
returned to the pure conservatist positions? May be. But the data these
investigators show forces us to reflect on it anyway. And if the market
economy can't help in creating such an industrial, neo-early-agrarian newly
organized societies it will be done with the use of non-market mechanisms,
i.e. dictatorship. Imagine such a dictatorship: it looks like... the red
khmers. So, it's no solution. For there's only one solution: we do not need
these new billions of population. Those which already exist are quite
sufficient, I suppose.

V.B.

(to be continued with V.B.'s explanation of what he understands as a
demographic crisis)

A PROPOSAL FROM THE MOSCOW ANTI-WAR COMITTEE

we're giving a proposal for a concrete anti-war action, which is simple, it
 doesn't require a lot of work, it might be bright and effective. it's
against  the every country's participation in the war, so the aim is
concrete as well;  if we find a primary consensus about this, why not to
cooperate tactically and  to see what can be done at all?

1) the idea is: to make a sound piece composed of the explosions, air
sirens  etc. + the voice saying on the local language: "Russia (Holland,
Germany,  Hungary...) must keep out of the war!" it can be done with an
ordinary recorder  or special CDs.

2) the sound piece should be turned on as an announcement at the central
railroad stations in different cities. they use to announce different
things  about the people who are getting lost, how to meet etc. the station
employee  can be against your idea, so the advice is to have some sort of
an official  paper with, maybe a fake one. many people can listen to such
an announcement,  and it's a good media news to do it in one day all across
the Europe  (or the world?), at the symbolical places which provide a
connection between  countries.

3) there's a plenty of things to be done with the soundtrack later, for
example,  the Polish friends told they will intervene the official airwaves
with it, and  we in Moscow (Anti-war campaign) plan to enexpectedly turn
the dynamics on in  the crowded streets and squares. but this first step
will show if we can do  anything at all at the moment.

4) and, last, we have to clarify a theoretical problem: the action has been
 devised when the bombings started. the war continues, the people die, but
it's  no hot topic of the day anymore, it's not "trendy". the official
press sets an  agenda for a discussion, and our way is to set an
alternative discussion with  its own agenda.

finally, we can do a lot of exciting net reports this day! and to make a CD
 with the whole collection of international soundpieces. the people from
Warsaw,  Kiyev, Belorussia, Sochi, Romania, Novi Sad, Netherlads have
already agreed to  take part. we post this message to some lists as well
now. let's e-mail each  other, and we'll make a small tactical list for the
participants, for not to  overburden lists with technical problems.

 INFO: Krasnodar case continues. One of the prisoners, Maria Randina, is
released  and stays in Krasnodar, two others (including pregnant Larisa
Shiptsova) are in  the jail. The Moscow anarchist-syndicalist group refused
to participate in the  campaign for their release claimimg that Shiptsova's
ideological position is not  sufficiently correct. I think, this is loathsome.

An anti-fascist music festival "Rot Front" took place in Saint-Petesbourg
at  May 8-9 organized by the local "Knives and forks" and "Dolby systemu"
crews. It  was followed with the conference and anti-fascist demonstration.

A novel "Mud" by Dmitri Pimenov is published in Moscow by "Gileia"
publishing house.




Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)