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I was at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, commissioned to head a team studying the domestic and export prospects of Indian machine tools. These were real machine tools not the abstract sector of the Mahalanobis K sector model. I was working with the famous Indian industrial designing company, M N Dastur.

The Dastur engineers went to some countries. I went to Czechoslovakia and later joined a Dastur engineer in Africa, where they were buying HMT tools. Czechoslovakia prided itself on being an advanced European country. Bata was their best-known brand, but there were many other firms, especially in the machine tools section. Following Marshal Titos Yugoslavia, which had moved out of the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union earlier, it had overthrown the Bear and was going to be an independent socialist state. Meanwhile, it had an interim government. This was the Prague Spring of 1968.

In the late spring of 1968, everybody and his uncle had landed up in Prague. The Czech capital had around 10,000 hotel rooms but 1,500 people were arriving there daily. My hosts said no rooms were available. But do you have a driving licence, they asked me. I said, yes: My American driving licence was still valid. They were happy with the American licence. A room was arranged for me at Horovice, near Plzen from where Pilsner beer comes, and I was given a Skoda car on daily rent. I was to drive down to Prague every day.

The inn at Horovice was actually a bar with two nicely furnished rooms on the first floor. I was given one. I would go to the bar at around 7 pm and start with a Pilsner. The locals were there a very friendly lot to the visiting Indian. I found it difficult to pay for a round. After eating sausages and goulash, at around 11pm, I would climb up to my room, yearning for some well-earned sleep. When I came down for breakfast early the next morning, looking forward to my toast and black coffee, to get over my hangover, my friends were back for more beer and sausages, before going to work. I would then drive my Skoda through the beautiful Bohemian countryside in lovely weather to Prague, stopping on the way for some fresh strawberries. Everything was fine and the Lord was in his heaven.

In Prague, the men and women I worked with were very proud Czechs. They took great pleasure in explaining to me the countrys industrial and economic history and that their economists, who had migrated to the US, like Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, were referring to the Baltics for examples of backwardness, for the Big Push and Balanced Growth theories, and not Czechoslovakia. They showed me Czech art forms, both in galleries and in public places like parks, railway stations and in their cathedrals, and got passes for tables at overbooked restaurants for gorgeous meals with me.

Their machine tools were still some of the best in the world. I admired the advanced material used, the flexibility built in the design to incorporate additional auxiliaries to take care of what would now be called multi-tasking. They knew HMT and were quite keen to cooperate in joint ventures. They had the confidence to share and prosper, rather than be secretive in IPR tyranny. Again, a characteristic that the teacher in me liked.

I left the country with the cockles of my heart warmed by Horovice, the beauty and warmth of the Prague Spring, and my admiration for good mechanics. When I landed in Calcutta, visualising another visit to the Howrah, the newspapers had headlines, Soviet tanks in Prague. The Prague Spring was over.

One evening with the breeze flowing in, my friend, the economist K N Raj, sitting in his lovely home on a hill in Thiruvananthapuram, built by Laurie Baker with local material, told me how difficult it was to convince our socialist friends of the need to combine freedom and social institutions. Prague then, Kyiv now, another beautiful city where I have stayed. The problems of democratic socialism remain. Also in the Homeland. Everything changes, but nothing really does.

This column first appeared in the print edition on March 16, 2022 under the title Prague spring, Kyiv winter. The writer is an economist and a former Union minister

See the original post here:
Prague then, Kyiv now: Problems of democratic socialism - The Indian Express

National Republicans are vowing to go all in to defeat what they see as a weakened opponent either way, forcing Democrats to spend heavily defending turf theyve never worried about heading into a general election. And the headwinds could be in the GOPs favor, with national polling pointing to a GOP takeover of the House and the party making stunning inroads with Latino voters in recent years under former President Donald Trump.

For sure its going to be competitive if shes the nominee, Rep. Filemn Vela (D-Texas) said of Cisneros. And then, frankly, I mean, because of the investigation it will be competitive for him too.

Vela who has endorsed Cuellar and is retiring after five terms representing another Rio Grande Valley district offered a stern warning for Democrats: The national party systems have ignored South Texas since the last election. And I think were in grave danger of losing at least two out of three South Texas seats.

Democrats insist they still hold the advantage in the Cuellar seat, which actually got slightly bluer in redistricting: President Joe Biden would have won it by 7 points. But some in the party are also painfully aware of their partys struggles with Latino voters in the last two elections particularly when the GOP makes central campaign topics out of immigration and border security. Hillary Clinton carried the old version of the district by nearly 30 points in 2016, but four years later, Biden won there by a mere 4.4 points.

We are going to flip this district. Its winnable, said Cassy Garcia, the GOP candidate who finished first in Tuesdays primary. A former staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Garcia will face her own runoff against Sandra Whitten, the GOPs nominee against Cuellar in 2020.

If Garcia wins, shes said she will make border security one of her top issues. In an interview, Garcia touted her endorsement from the border patrol union, the National Border Patrol Council which endorsed her over Cuellar this year.

She said she would be happy to face either Democrat in November, criticizing Cuellars loyalty to Speaker Nancy Pelosiand bashing Cisneros as an open borders advocate tied to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.).

Shes endorsed by AOC, who wants to abolish DHS and support open borders, Garcia said, referring the Department of Homeland Security. Shes anti-oil and gas. Energy equals jobs in our district.

Buoyed by their gains in 2020, Republicans see more Latino districts as possible flips in 2022, especially in Texas. Their party, with Trumps help, continues to hammer Biden and Democrats on the border, which they see as the path to victory here.

By late Wednesday, Cuellar led Cisneros by 807 votes in a close Democratic primary vote count, 48.5 percent to 46.8 percent, with Cisneros excelling in the northern counties near San Antonio and Cuellar running up margins further south around Laredo. Neither cleared the 50 percent threshold to avoid the runoff, which is set for May 24.

Both Cuellar and Cisneros would bring their own unique liabilities into a general election in Texas 28th District, which includes Cuellars home base in Laredo and stretches up north toward San Antonio.

For Cuellar, there has been no clarity on the mysterious FBI raid of his home in January, though he has said he has committed no wrongdoing. Its a significant burden for a 17-year congressman, one of the most conservative in the caucus, who hasnt stared down a serious general election challenge against a Republican since 2002.

Cisneros, who has been embraced by national progressives, has previously taken potentially damaging positions on border and immigration issues, such as her 2019 proposal to split ICE in half as she pushed for more focus on drug and human trafficking.

She has also staked out a pro-abortion rights stance in a heavily Catholic district, which Democrats in the district have warned could be weaponized by Republicans going into November.

If in fact, she were to take it just looking again to possibility she does have a challenge. We are a conservative community. I suspect that the right to choose will become a huge, huge issue, said Sylvia Bruni, chair of the Webb County Democratic Party, which does not endorse in primary races.

She pointed to the heavily distorted ads that pro-Trump coalitions ran in the 2020 election.

If you vote for Biden, theyre killing babies at 9 months, Bruni said, summing up the attacks. And on the Democrats climate change push, she said Republicans generalized the partys positions as: Youre going to be homeless, you wont have food on the table.

Cisneros strongly pushed back on the notion that she couldnt beat a Republican in the general election, arguing that her partys flagging performance in South Texas was less about voters abandoning Democratic ideas and more about the party becoming too complacent with its base: For a very long time, we were taken for granted, she said.

Cuellar, and whatever investigation sparked the raid on his home and office, are the real danger to the party, Cisneros added.

Hes not able to fundraise. Hes under this cloud of mystery, Cisneros said in an interview outside her campaign headquarters just before primary day. What is going on? Hes a sitting member of Congress, like why is this happening?

Speaking to POLITICO by phone last month, Cuellar said Cisneros would struggle to defeat a Republican in a general election, blasting what he called more socialist type of views.

Ive heard some people say they probably wont support her as a Democrat, Cuellar said.

Republicans also plan to contest a neighboring Rio Grande Valley seat that Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez vacated to run in the new version of Velas district. That seat is now the most competitive in the state, and Republicans have nominated Latina businesswoman Monica De La Cruz. On the Democratic side, attorney and Army veteran Ruben Ramirez and business owner Michelle Vallejo will compete in a runoff.

Velas district, meanwhile, morphed into one that Biden would have carried by 16 points.

National Republicans were most excited about Garcias candidacy out of the crowded field vying to take on Cuellar. She also had more than $100,000 in the bank as of mid-February.

Cassy is a really strong candidate, said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who has endorsed her. I hired her to work for Sen. Cruz, when I was chief of staff we all worked together. Shes very well liked, very well respected in the valley. She knows Border Patrol really well.

The South Texas Democrats also know Garcia from her time working for Cruz. Vela said he has a good personal relationship with her even if he disagrees with some of her politics.

Shes going to be a damn good candidate for Republicans in that district, Vela said.

See the original post:
'Corruption' or 'socialism': GOP takes aim at South Texas either way - POLITICO

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Australia is holding an online meeting via Zoom at 4 p.m. (AEDT) Saturday, March 12 to discuss the urgent need to build an international anti-war movement of youth, students and workers as the danger of nuclear war heightens amid the escalating crisis in Ukraine.

The IYSSE urges students and young people in Australia, New Zealand, throughout the region and internationally, to participate in the meeting, which will examine questions of life and death for billions of people around the world. Register for the meeting by clicking this link.

At no point since the Second World War, has the threat of a nuclear exchange been so present. Despite the provocations by the US and NATO powers, Russias invasion of Ukraine must be opposed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin took the unprecedented post-Cold War action of placing the countrys nuclear deterrent forces on alert. Putin, and the section of the Russian capitalist class he represents, cling to the delusion that they can shift US-NATO foreign policy and recognise Russian security interests in Ukraine through threats.

The catastrophe that was set in motion by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 cannot be averted through the reactionary ideology of Russian nationalism which serves the interests of the countrys oligarchs represented by Putin.

Despite the reckless actions of Putin and the Russian ruling elite, principal responsibility for the present crisis and the threat of nuclear war lies with US imperialism and its NATO allies. For decades, the US and NATO have been engaged in provocative militarist and economic intrigues in Eastern Europe and throughout the globe.

In 2014, a US-backed coup placed an anti-Russian government in power in Ukraine. NATO has been engaged since 1991 in a relentless expansion into Eastern Europe. The United States took the lead in planning for the use of nuclear weapons by withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, stationing offensive missiles in Romania and Poland, and undertaking a multitrillion-dollar expansion of US nuclear forces.

In the last week, bellicose war rhetoric of politicians and officials in the US, Britain, Germany, Australia and other imperialist nations have accompanied economic warfare and the sending of NATO weaponry to Ukraine. All of this points to a de facto NATO war against Russia.

The present crisis has emerged out of a very definite context: the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. COVID has exacerbated the social and political crisis globally and has led to nearly one million deaths in the US alone according to official figures. The Omicron variant of Sars-Cov-2 has seen over 2,000 Americans die every day over the past month.

Around the world, governments are dispensing with scientifically-guided measures to stem the viruss spread because they cut across the profit-making ability of the tiny, wealthy capitalist oligarchy. For the ultra-rich, who have gorged themselves during the pandemic, the lives and livelihoods of workers and their families are sacrifices that must be made in order for their continued domination over the worlds resources.

In the face of this mounting social polarisation, the administration of US President Joe Biden aims to manufacture unity at home and project conflict outward through war. Emerging out of the Second World War as the dominant superpower in the world, the United States is now experiencing massive economic, political and social turmoil. It sees Russia and the economic rise of China as the main threats to its plans to retain its position as the global hegemon. As Leon Trotsky, co-leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution with Vladmir Lenin and founder of the Fourth International, said in 1934:

US capitalism is up against the same problems that pushed Germany in 1914 on the path of war. The world is divided? It must be redivided. For Germany it was a question of organising Europe. The United States must organise the world. History is bringing mankind face to face with the volcanic eruption of American imperialism.

But the crisis in the United States is only the most extreme manifestation of the crisis of world capitalism.

In order to understand how to fight against war, youth and students must understand the objective conditions which lead to war. Militarism and armed conflict do not arise out of the minds of individual capitalist politicians. These are merely the reflections of a far deeper process which emerges necessarily out of the contradictions of the capitalist profit system itself. Above all, war emerges because of the division of the world economy into competing nation states, whose ruling capitalist elites vie for control over resources, markets, and spheres of influence.

World war, therefore, can only be averted by the action of the international working class overthrowing the predatory capitalist system and replacing it with world socialism. Youth and students must reject all attempts to divide young people and workers on the basis of nationality. The international working class must adopt an independent position in response to the escalating crisis. It is necessary to oppose imperialism without adapting to Russian nationalism, and to oppose Russian nationalism without adapting to imperialism.

Young people must turn to the worlds working class as the only social force capable of ending capitalism and, hence, ending the war and social misery that it brings. As the youth and student arm of the International Committee of the Fourth International, the IYSSE insists that a Marxist revolutionary party must be built to politically lead the working class to resolve the crisis of capitalism through the establishment of a socialist system based on social need, not private profit.

This perspective and the historical questions that arise out of itincluding around the key strategic experience of the 1917 Russian Revolution which ended the First World Warwill be discussed at the IYSSEs upcoming online meeting. To learn more about the IYSSEs program to build an international anti-war movement of workers and youth and find out how you can join in this struggle, attend our meeting on Saturday, March 12 at 4 p.m.!

Join the fight against imperialist war and for socialist revolution!

Register for the online meeting here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BcVL0fDVTDyHObXC5yJgZA

Foreword to the German edition of David Norths Quarter Century of War

Johannes Stern, 5 October 2020

After three decades of US-led wars, the outbreak of a third world war, which would be fought with nuclear weapons, is an imminent and concrete danger.

Excerpt from:
The threat of world war looms: Take up the fight against imperialism and for international socialism! - WSWS

In a Guest Columnist article that appeared in the Sylva Herald Feb. 17, Ron Robinson gave his version of what he heard in a conversation from which he eavesdropped while drinking a beer in the Crazy Biker Brewery. Ron claimed he heard a conversation between a young lady and a bearded fellow called Joe.

According to Robinson, the young lady said she had attended the Republican debate between eight candidates in Franklin. Ron claimed the young lady conveyed the following comments: (1) The Republican debate in Franklin was a contest to broadcast their radical right agendas ... and opposed Build Back Better funding for our states infrastructure. (2) The Republican candidates will keep your neighbor from going back to work by opposing lower cost of child care provided by Build Back Better.

Regarding item #1 above, some consider quoting hearsay irresponsible due to the lack of verification of the information from first hand witness.

My wife and I attended that debate. We heard no radical right agenda expressed by the Republican candidates. Perhaps the mistake is the quality of Rons source who might have been perverted by a radical left agenda.

One thing is clear: the Infrastructure Bill and the Build Back Better Bill are two different bills. For the young lady to say Build Back Better funding for our states infrastructure indicates a lack of understanding that the two bills are not the same. This should have been a red flag to a reasonable person as to the credibility of the young lady.

Regarding item #2 above, the Republican candidates are not the ones keeping ones neighbor from going back to work.

What the young lady, if Ron heard her correctly, is saying is that the government is responsible for financing the care of our children. That was one of the objectives of the Build Back Better bill that did not pass the Senate, government financed child care.

The definition of a Socialist government is the following according to Websters dictionary: advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production.

Going to work is a means of production. Therefore, what the young lady was advocating was a more socialistic government, as is advocated in President Bidens Build Back Better Bill.

Therefore, Joe was correct in labeling Joe Bidens administration as a socialist government ... giving away millions and billions to those that need the governments help in order to go to work. The revised Build Back Better Bill is valued at $1.9 trillion. Yes, most would call that millions, billions, and even almost $2 trillion!

Last, as to the question Ron Robinson said the young lady raised regarding who do you consider patriots in our country?

A good answer to that question was given to us by President Kennedy on 20 January 1961: Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country. The Build Back Better Bill is full of what your country can do for you, which sure sounds like Websters definition of Socialism.

Robinson stated that he could not hear Joes answer to what constitutes a Socialist government. Is that because Ron did not want to hear Joes answer?

Michael Padgett is a retired Army Colonel having commanded units through Brigade level command. He currently teaches federal government employees. He and his wife, Sheila, reside in Sylva.

Read the rest here:
Differing thoughts on BBB and defining socialism - The Sylva Herald

The Stop the War Coalition held a No to war in Ukraine rally in Londons Conway Hall Wednesday evening. In an act of supreme political cowardice, neither former shadow chancellor John McDonnell nor former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, leading figures of the Labour left, took their seats next to former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The event took place amid an ongoing witch-hunt of anti-NATO opposition organised by current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who has greeted the Ukraine war with the declaration that his is the party of NATO.

Last Thursday, Starmer threatened to withdraw the party whip from 11 Labour MPs, a rump of the Socialist Campaign Group, including Abbott and McDonnell, if they did not withdraw their support from an STWC open letter. The letter opposed NATOs eastward expansion and the UKs pouring oil on the fire in Ukraine, calling for a negotiated settlement recognising the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination while addressing Russias security concerns.

Starmer claimed all 11 scalps within the first hour, as every one of them rushed to remove their signature. He pushed his advantage the next day, effectively shutting down the partys youth movement, Young Labour, for tweets supporting Stop the War and criticising Labours backing Nato aggression.

Last Saturday, McDonnell spoke at a pro-Ukraine demonstration in London with the ferociously pro-NATO warmonger Paul Mason. On Tuesday, Abbott told Politics Live, Nobody wants to attack NATO. Asked if Starmers threat to withdraw the whip applied to her she replied, I am a loyal supporter of Keir Starmer, and it will never come to that.

Abbott and McDonnell pressed their faces further into the dirt on Wednesday. Throughout the morning, the media was full of speculation about whether McDonnell, listed on the STWCs advertising as a panellist, would attend the Conway Hall rally.

On Monday, Starmer had told the Parliamentary Labour Party that there was no place for anyone drawing false equivalence between the actions of Russia and the actions of NATO. One Labour source told the Huffington Post that if McDonnell attended the STWC event, hell lose the whip. Any Labour MPs who speak at anything that is anti-Nato from now on are likely to be out.

LabourList reported that the threat of expulsions was still a live issue: behind the scenes, a number of Labour MPs have been urging Starmer to go further. With the chances of Jeremy Corbyn returning to the parliamentary party looking close to zero now, some are determined that as many Corbynites as possible are also ousted.

McDonnell was as eager as Abbott to prove his loyalty, issuing a statement that afternoon. Referring to the speculation about my attendance at tonights Stop the War meeting and reports of threats if I do, he said, My response is that people are dying on the streets of Ukrainian cities. This is not the time to be distracted by political arguments here. Now is the time to unite and do all we can to assist the people of Ukraine desperately seeking asylum and to do all we can to bring about peace.

Nothing is more important at this time. Nothing should distract us from that. So I wont feed into that distraction by going tonight.

Suggesting Labour Party members be given clarity over the Labour Partys attitude to attending demonstrations organised by Stop the War, he concluded, My final comment is that, in the wider context of securing a socialist Labour government, and possibly inspired by my team Liverpool at Wembley at the weekend, I do believe its important for socialists to stay on the pitch for as long as it takes.

Abbott made the same decision, though she is such an inconsequential figure that the first time anyone knew she had been planning on attending the event was when she told the Guardian late Wednesday evening she no longer was.

McDonnells statement is an insult to anyone who ever followed him. There is no effort to assist the people of Ukraine being organised by the Labour Party to distract from. What McDonnell proposes to avoid a political argument over is a relentless campaign of anti-Russian militarism and invective unleashed by the worlds imperialist powers in an effort to use the invasion of Ukraine they provoked to engineer regime change in Moscow.

To move from a war crisis threatening the worlds working class with catastrophe to a tortured football analogy is politically revolting. McDonnell is not staying on the pitch to wait for a socialist Labour government. His pitch is a party of imperialist warmongers and he will remain a well-paid flunkey of that party no matter what crimes it commits.

What socialist could possibly want to remain a member of an out-and-out Thatcherite party of war? It is a political cesspit.

Stop the War pressed on with their rally, with Corbyn, convenor and vice chair of STWC Lindsey German and Chris Nineham, leading Pabloite Tariq Ali, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Kate Hudson, National Education Union joint general secretary Kevin Courtney (in a personal capacity) and Sinn Fin MP Chris Hazzard in attendance. But its entire political perspective is in ruins. Hostile to an anti-war movement based on the working class and the struggle for socialism, the STWC makes appeals to the British ruling class to adopt a different, less militarist, foreign policyfor which the Labour left were identified as parliamentary champions.

This bankrupt perspective was summed up in the organisations refusal to criticise Corbyns countless retreats before the right-wing, pro-war majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party during his time as leader. McDonnell and Abbott, Corbyns closest allies, entrusted with the most senior positions in his shadow cabinet, are only continuing his record of political prostration.

At Stop the Wars 20th anniversary meeting last year, former chair Andrew Murray, one of Corbyns advisers, explained, We have to think about everything we say, and how we protesthow itll not just impact on public opinion, but how it could impact on Jeremy, who is a very staunch friend of Stop the War We have a lot of money in the bank with each other, as it were.

The end result of Corbyns STWC-approved capitulations is that the Labour Party is firmly in the hands of Starmer, more right-wing than ever, and not even one of its MPs will turn up to STWC events or sign their open letters. None will any longer utter a word of criticism of NATO and all will collaborate with Starmers crackdown.

Neither Stop the War nor Corbyn have made criticisms of Abbott, McDonnell or any of the other SCG MPs. Were Corbyn still sitting as a Labour MPhe had the whip withdrawn over the anti-Semitism witch-huntthere is every likelihood he would have done the same as his followers.

A mass anti-war movement must be built. It is being given sharp lessons in who its friends and enemies are. The fight against war must be based on a struggle to organise the international working class and waged in absolute opposition McDonnell, Abbott, Corbyn and all the other faux-left enablers of British imperialism.

Foreword to the German edition of David Norths Quarter Century of War

Johannes Stern, 5 October 2020

After three decades of US-led wars, the outbreak of a third world war, which would be fought with nuclear weapons, is an imminent and concrete danger.

Excerpt from:
John McDonnell and Diane Abbott pull out of Stop the War Coalition rally - WSWS