I am new to the list, though I have been reading LBO for a few years now (remind me to re-sub now that 13 months of unemployment is over :). I have just waded through half of the March archive. Wow, I thought I wrote a lot of e-mail...
I normally harass people on the aut-op-sy list, but I wanted to share the misery around and I was trying to get more into the dollar versus euro discussion, which we are sort of plodding around on. I don;t know enough to be much help, so I was reading stuff here to see the word. I have also been taking quotes from Doug Henwood's Wall Street entirely out of context to try and wrestle with the issue, but I prolly won't do that here, as the author might notice.
However, I have had to put that idea on the back burner for a moment because a friend of mine, Nicholas De Genova, has come under serious attack for speaking out against the war at a Columbia University-sponsored teach-in last week. He took up something along the lines of a revolutionary defeatist position and called for a 'million Mogadishus', which has now led to his speech making it to CNN, the NY Times and Post, Rush Limpbaugh, a host of semi-fascist web sites, but has also prompted people to try and pressure the university to fire him (which seems likely) including alumni and a forming group of politicians. He is also being forced to possibly relocate to a new home due to threats of violence up to and including murder by pro-war people. Also, one of the teach-in main organizers, professor Cohen, has stabbed him in the back publicly, trying to claim that he somehow manipulated his way onto the speakers panel.
If you search Yahoo for 'million Mogadishus', you will see the outpouring of filth on him. For more information, you can check out the Columbia Spectator's website (the University student newspaper), including a student march in defense of him and his own defense of his speech.
I do not have a usable e-mail address for him right now, at least not that I can give out in public, so if anyone would like to send words of support and people to contact in NYC to hook up with, I would appreciate it.
If anyone wants, I can right a small intro. Otherwise, i will drop in when time permits.
Cheers, Chris