Young Master Smeet
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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/01/c_134870766.htmThis is interesting,
Xingua wrote:DAMASCUS, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — A total of 120 rebels evacuated a western Damascus neighborhood on Monday to rebel-held areas in the northwest of Syria under new deal concluded with the Syrian authorities, a well-informed source told Xinhua.120 rebels evacuated the district of Qudsayah along with their families to rebel-held areas in Idlib province under the UN supervision, Maher Murhej, an opposition activist and head of the Syrian Youth Party, told Xinhua.And a similar deal could end the fighting in Homs. The suggestion is this is an outcome of the Vienna talks. Admittedly, Hawks will say that force, and the hreat of force spurs such deals, but maybe this shows that talks work?
Dave B wrote:The praying five times a day isn’t in the Quran I think and it probably comes from the Zoroastrians. http://heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/worship/ like a lot of religious practice it appears in the supplemental hadiths; I thinkI think it's actually from original practice, although for a while, in Mohammed's time, it was thrice a day, and towards Jeusalem, and then it changed after the Muslims took Mecca. Obviously, it probabkly comes from practicces common among religious groups prior to Mohammed, but I think it is a 'core' thing.
I found that paper here:http://socialistunity.com/how-can-isil-be-defeated/That is a slightly more tendentious 'leave it to Assad and Russia' peice. I don't think that's entirely true, but it is true that britain's financial clout counts for more than military here.
Bit of a lng paper: http://www.securityintransition.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/ISIL-JAN-and-the-war-economy-in-Syria1.pdfSeems to be on the right lines, and with a sensible list of action points (on a quick skim).
ALB wrote:People keep pointing this out but I don't think it means much. He and his regime are basically Baathists, i.e secular pan-Arab nationalists. And as I think you once posted, many people of Sunni origin support the government and occupy top posts in it.Well, in the sense that we'd understand ethnic Catholics in this country, which is basically my point, it's not just confessional, it's cultural, familial and historical.Hence the focus on Islam or Islamism is as eroneous as during the troubles in the six counties/North of Ireland/Northern Ireland…
Just for compare and contrast:Sunni & Shia:https://thesinosaudiblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/mid-east-religion.jpgIraq tribes:http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/images/tribes.jpgAnd for Syria:https://www.quora.com/Escalation-of-the-Syrian-Conflict-Aug%E2%80%93Sep-2013/How-many-tribes-make-up-Syria Actually, closer inspection of this one:http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Syria_Ethnic_1935_lg.pngClosely resembles the current battle lines in Syria. The bottom line is IS is the desert Sunni's of Iraq and Syria.
https://imagopyrenaei.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/syria-iraq-kurdistan-30n.pngA useful map, not how much of the IS territory is basically uninhabitted desert, but they clearly have a presence in Ninnevah, and do seem to hld the oil fields.
I suspect in Iraq Sunni/Shia is much more about tribe and family ties than any religious difference, but also add in that iran works through Shia connexions,a nd Saudi through Sunni, and you have the in built makings for proxy war (also Assad is Shia, as are Hezbollah).
Kautsky wrote:It is a dangerous illusion to think that a movement rooted in a given set of circumstances can be destroyed by violence.[…]He who thinks that lasting peace can be brought about by means of war, “the last war,” is wrong. Equally wrong are those who imagine that the working class can be assured prosperity and freedom by organizing economic life an a militaristic basis. No less erroneous is it to strive for a dictatorship for the purpose of crushing the enemy and establishing the proletariat in a privileged position in the state and Society while reducing the rest of the population to the position of pariahs as a means of establishing ultimately socialist equality for all. But most objectionable of all would it be to attempt to build a regime of humanity upon the basis of brutality, seeing that without the former no true Socialist commonwealth can exist. For this commonwealth must represent the realization of the slogan of the French Revolution, which was: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”Dictators may torture or kill us, but they shall not succeed in demoralizing the soul of our movement, in bringing it to a state where for the sake of saving its life it is willing to renounce its ideal. Our cause will conquer in spite of everything, for in economic life as well as in politics the highest ability to accomplish and to advance things belongs to communities and organizations of free men working in free cooperation. These free communities will far outstrip every collective body, every organization that is built on compulsion and that can be maintained only by brute force; and ultimately the communities based on oppression will perish.https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1934/hitler/ch05.htm
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/11/noam-chomsky-interview-isis-syria-intervention-nato/Tragically, Chomsky talks sense:
Quote:Like it or not, ISIS seems to have established itself pretty firmly in Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria. They seem to be engaged in a process of state building that is extremely brutal but fairly successful, and attracts the support of Sunni communities who may despise ISIS but see it as the only defense against alternatives that are even worse. The one major regional power that is opposing it is Iran, but the Iran-backed Shiite militias are reputed to be as brutal as ISIS and probably mobilize support for ISIS.and
Quote:One can imagine a world in which intervention is undertaken by some benign force dedicated to the interests of people who are suffering. But if we care about victims, we cannot make proposals for imaginary worlds. Only for this world, in which intervention, with rare consistency, is undertaken by powers dedicated to their own interests, where the victims and their fate is incidental, despite lofty professions.The historical record is painfully clear, and there have been no miraculous conversions. That does not mean that intervention can never be justified, but these considerations cannot be ignored — at least, if we care about the victims.Quote:At least 44 people were killed and scores wounded on Sunday in a suspected Russian air strike on a crowded marketplace in Idlib province, activists have told Al Jazeera.Also, Russia accused of deploying cluster munitions, also similar claims in Raqqa.
The BBC sems to vouch for the Bona Fides of the twitter account:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-34933679?ocid=socialflow_twitterAt least it does answer the question of how many civilians are being killed by the French bombings…
https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SLA twitter account purportedly coming from within Raqqa, seems to be indicating civilian casualties are occuring…
I quite like their slogan:http://climatejusticejobs.org.uk/'To change everything, we need everyone'
LBird wrote:It's not an 'amount' (a quantitative factor).It's a 'social relationship' (a qualitative factor).Nearly, but if income from capital is insufficient to avoid needing to sell your labour power then you aren't a capitalist. So, yes, there is the qualitative element, but it has a quantitative corrolary. So, in reality you'd need to have sufficient capital to live as an average social person, so you'd need to have, in the UK capital taking in a return of about £26K, yes, you could work a plot of land, live in a shack, etc. but the minimum is enough to pay your council tax, so about £1K p.a.To take another example, a footballers wages: though millions of pounds are still wages[*] tt would be difficult (though not quite impossible) to not turn a sum of money that large into working capital (you really would have have to piss it up the wall Brewster's Millions style). [*]Excluding image sponsorship and other Intellectual Property rights income.
