Bulletin N°507
Subject: ON RECOGNIZING PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR, PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
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13 November 2011
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
It was that profound Harvard scholar, Dr. Henry Kissinger, who first pointed out in his early scholarly work on the age of Metternich (entitled The World Restored) that if you had never heard of the existence of an elephant, you no doubt would be unable to recognize one when you saw it. In this vein I embarked on my readings about revolutionary periods from the past, to see what they looked like.
Last Friday evening I went with my family to one of the innumerable pizza restaurants in our town, Grenoble. The occasion, we invented, was the once-in-a-millennium date of 11/11/11. After we ordered our dinner, my 15-year-old daughter asked me what I've been reading lately. I explained that I had just finished Machiavelli's The Prince (1532) and was now reading Babeuf's Manifesto of the Equals (April 1796) and his defense at the sedition trial in 1797 which ended with his execution. Upon request, I gave my daughter a brief description of Machiavelli's 16th-century equivalent of the "Shock-and-Awe" doctrine, employed by the US military today in order to elicit co-operation, just as it was prescribe for use by the Renaissance Tyrant, Lorenzo il Magnifico.
This discussion of violent force grew pretty ugly, and my wife changed the subject before the pizza arrived. Then my daughter asked me about Babeuf: why was he executed by the First Republic of France? I explained that Babeuf was interested in applying the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (who had lived briefly down the street from the pizza restaurant where we were sitting). He had written a song that was popular in cafés across Paris, and was a member of "The Conspiracy of Equals" which had been infiltrated by the police. Babeuf's song Mourant de faim, mourant de froid ("Dying of Hunger, Dying of Cold"), set to a popular tune, began to be sung in Paris cafés, with immense applause; and reports circulated that the disaffected troops of the French Revolutionary Army were ready to join an insurrection against the government. It was also Babeuf who claimed that food, like the sunshine, should be enjoyed by all people. Ideas such as these would cost him his life . . . . [Note: I was unable to find the lyrics of Babeuf's song, nor was I able to find the 18th-century tune to which it was sung, despite a diligent search on Google.]
Meanwhile our pizza was served by an attractive young lady, and after an enjoyable meal with delightful small talk, my daughter roller skated home with us. We had to conclude that the Fifth Republic was more tolerant than the First in the sphere of "mental concepts" (as David Harvey would remark), but in the sphere of "social relationships" gross inequality remains the "norm" in France as elsewhere.
It is understood by most economists that wars serve as investment opportunities, a mechanism of last resort to pump public monies into private pockets (for the next cycle of production --the production of profits, that is!-- as rebuilding that which was destroyed gladly offers). International wars have served a second function, as well; they have been used to avert civil wars and to absorb the "surplus population" in times of high unemployment, channeling violence away from resistance to class oppression and toward an adventure with foreign conflict. This may sound too cynical to believe, but I think today cynicism is no longer a major obstacle to an understanding of political economy in contemporary terms.
During my recent re-reading of Richard Cobb's wonderfully insightful social history of The People and the Police and Peter Kropotkin's The Great French Revolution, I came across the voice of Marie-Antoinette, who had a complete grasp of these conveniences of international warfare. "Instead of a civil war, wrote her husband, Louis XVI, on 14 December 1791, "we shall have war abroad." On the same day, Marie-Antoinette wrote to her friend Fersen, describing the activities of the bourgeois Girondins in the Assembly who were pressing for war: "The fools! They do not see that they are playing our game." (Albert Soboul, A Short History of the French Revolution, p. 79) The trick, understood by Marat and by Robespierre, as well, was to divert popular attention away from the Monarchy by rallying a national defense. By encouraging the central European monarchies to invade France, fear was generated and revolutionary demands were dropped. Kropotkin describes the situation of May-June 1793 in these words:
Answer #1
Farmer Heiko on the Greek debt crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnEUTsAyXSU
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Université de Grenoble-3
Director of Research
Université de Paris-10
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
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A.
from Les jardins d'utopies :
Date: 3 November 2011
Subject: Report from yesterday's General Assembly at the Jardins d'Utopies campus occupation and Professor Feeley's response.
http://www.citylocalnews.com/grenoble-education/2011/11/03/un-des-deux-jardins-de-l-utopie-du-campus-a-ete-rase/
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At 23:50 02/11/2011, Jardins d'Utopie wrote:
Bonsoir a tous
Voici la liste des personnes qui se sont inscrite pour se tenir au courant et participer au soutien des jardins d'utopies. (pardon a ceux dont j'ai mal lu leur écriture et qui ne recevront rien...)
Pour s'en servir, on utilisera la fonction "répondre a tous" du dernier mel reçu vu que des personnes seront peut-être rajouté par la suite.
On se retrouve vendredi prochain (le 4 novembre) a 12h au jardin de la BU droit-lettre ou dans le grand espace de la fac de Stendhal s'il pleut (juste a coté).
Voici une modeste restitution des discussions et proposition du rassemblement de ce mercredi midi :
Replanter inlassablement et rendre l'action visible avec des panneaux --> ce qui a été très bien fait aujourd'hui, super!
Organiser une journée/soirée animé et festive a coté des jardins
Thibault est le responsable légale de l'association, pour éviter qu'il subisse des attaque en justice, il été décider de dissoudre l'association, l'opération est en cours
"On est dans un contexte mondiale "occupy", une attaque en justice peut être un bénéfice car ouverture d'une tribune, procès politique..."
Lancer un évènement que je nomerais "sème ton campus" ou "retourne ton campus" avec appel de personnes extérieur genre collectif de chomeur et autre...
Replanter des arbres fruitiers qu'on achèterais avec une cotiz de 0,50 ou 1€ symbolique dans une caisse de soutien
Inviter tout les membres des différends jardins de grenoble pour cette occasion (ou une autre)
Faire un texte de pétition
... je n'étais pas attentif a 100% il n'y a vraiment pas tout et le reste est a faire ...
Quelques infos a donner :
Lorsque qu'on est allé sur le jardin rasé on a croisé 2 encravatés (des hauts-placés mais je ne sais pas quel est leurs poste ni qui il sont) qui nous on sorti quelques remarques genre "vous n'êtes pas démocratique, avez-vous consulté les étudiants et la fac pour ouvrir ces jardins?" "On a fait ça dans l'intérêt des étudiants, pour qu'il n'y ait pas d'espace privé sur le campus" "une action en justice est lancé contre vous"
Une d'entre nous a discuté avec une personne qui bossait sur le campus. Cette personne fait partie de la société ISS (qui travail sur le créneau de l'entretien, espace vert, nettoyage, bâtiment...) une entreprise privé employé par l'université et qui a exécuté la destruction du jardin. Cette ordre a été donné par le directeur de l'UMPF (Spalanzani) et a fait l'object d'une convention de travail, comme c'est la règle pour tout travail demandé a un prestataire extérieur.
Il est possible qu'il passe nous voir demain a 17h (le rendez-vous jardinage hebdomadaire), mais je ne garanti absolument pas
(j'ai déjà peur de déformer les propos avec ma mémoire foireuse et que ça soit mal interprété)
D'ici vendredi et pour les semaines à venir, Que germes les graines de notre insoumission!
Qui rase nos jardins récolte la colère!
Rémi
A+
Francis Feeley
____________________
B.
from Reader Supported News :
Date: 5 November 2011
Subject: Revolutionary Pacifism as a tactics, and not a strategy.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/287-124/8264-can-revolutionary-pacifism-deliver-peace
by Noam Chomsky
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C.
fromOccupy Oakland :
Date: 3 November 2011
Subject: Reports on "Occupy Oakland"
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D.
from RSN :
Date: 2 November 2011
Subject: Noam Chomsky Speaks to Occupy Boston.
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E.
from Jim O'Brien :
Date: 2 November 2011
Subject: HAW Notes 11-2-11: Links to recent articles of interest.
"A Saturday at 'Occupy Wall Street'"
http://williamlkatz.com/a-saturday-at-occupy-wall-street
By William Loren Katz, on his blog, posted October 31
"'Occupy' Protests: Not Tahir Yet"
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/10/2011102310496156395.html
By Mark LeVine, Alhjazeera, posted October 27
The author teaches history at the University of California Irvine
"The New-York Historical Society Sinks to New Low with a Black-Tie Gala for Henry Kissinger"
http://hnn.us/articles/new-york-historical-society-sinks-new-low-black-tie-gala-henry-kissinger
By Jesse Lemisch, History News Network, posted October 24
The author is an emeritus history professor at John Jay College, CUNY
"Imperialism and Democracy: White House or Liberty Square"
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/10/imperialism-and-democracy-white-house-or-liberty-square
By James Petras, DissidentVoice.org, posted October 24
a historical discussion
"The Victory of Popular Resistance in Occupied Iraq"
http://warisacrime.org/content/victory-popular-resistance-occupied-iraq
By Nicolas J. Davies, War Is a Crime.org, posted October 22
"The Son of Africa Claims a Continent's Crown Jewels"
http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/the-son-of-africa-claims-a-continents-crown-jewels
By John Pilger, JohnPilger.com, posted October 20
"America: With God on Our Side"
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/16/opinion/la-oe-bacevich-american-exceptionalism-20111016
By Andrew J. Bacevich, Los Angeles Times, posted October 16
The author teaches history and international relations at Boston University
"SOS" (Remarks at Occupy Youngstown, October 15)
http://www.firstofthemonth.org/archives/2011/10/public_happines.html
By Staughton Lynd, FirstoftheMonth.org
The link is to a symposium in which Lynd's speech is the third document
"The Populist Movement Reborn, at Last, in Occupy"
http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/cafe2/article/175
By Rosalyn Baxandall, On the Issues, posted October 14
The author is an emeritus professor of American Studies at SUNY Old Westbury
"The Price of the Libya Intervention: Surface to Air Missiles for All"
http://www.fpif.org/blog/the_price_of_the_libya_intervention_surface_to_air_missiles_for_all
By Conn Hallinan, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted October 14
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F.
from The Real News :
Date: 4 October 2011
Subject: The irrationality of capitalism.
Leo Panitch: We are witnessing the irrationality of capitalism and the incredible struggle of people in the street
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=7544
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G.
from Francis Feeley
Date: 5 November 2011
Subject: [SAES] Discussions on "How best to respond?" after the General Strike in Oakland, California on 2 November 2011.
Dear Colleagues,
For those of us still interested in learning lessons from past experiences,
and specifically lessons from experiences in US society, the two short
videos below on "thinking globally and acting locally" offer important
information on strategies, tactics and logistics in the weeks and months to come . . . .
November 5, 2011
Occupy Oakland Closes the Port
Davey D: Occupy Oakland is built on the shoulders of decades of struggle
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=7549
and
November 4, 2011
Hundreds of Community Activists Gather in Baltimore
Fair Development Conference held to discuss local organizing strategies
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=7548
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Université de Grenoble-3
Director of Research
Université de Paris-10
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
________________
H.
from CBS New Program, "60 Minutes" :
Date: 15 December 2008
Subject: The Big Crash Coming.
The Huge Crash Coming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shYJ_KkbzWg&feature=related