Imperialism and Plagiarism

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Imperialism and Plagiarism



In June 2005, Retort published a book titled Afflicted Powers
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1844670317/102-2340885-2602514?v=glance&n=
283155>  with Verso. A shortened version of the main chapter -- titled
"Blood for Oil?" <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n08/reto01_.html>  -- was
pre-published in the April 21 issue of The London Review of Books. In these
works, the authors challenge the conventional wisdom and claim to advance a
new explanation for the recent Middle East wars.

^^^^^
CB: Among activist Marxists, conventional wisdom behind  the slogan "No
Blood for Oil" always meant no blood for raising oil company and Wall Street
profits ,which profits would go up with higher oil prices , no ? ; since
demand for oil is highly inelastic, I believe, and people aren't likely to
buy less oil when the prices go up. This slogan predates the current war
going back to the war of 1990 on Iraq. All your cited works are after 2000.
So, the movement Marxists didn't plagerize the notion of war there for
raising oil company profits. Nobody radical ever thought there were any wars
anywhere to lower the price of goods to the working class, but rather to
raise some big biz profits or protect their profiteering somewhere. Any
benefits to the working class would be coincidental to raising some profits
somewhere.




^^^^^^^