[Marxism] Bangladesh: Huge May Day march mourns dead, demands justice and change

[Stuart Munckton]

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Thousands of workers paraded through central Dhaka on May Day to demand
safety at work after the collapse of garment factory on April 24 -- the
country's worst industrial disaster. The collapse killed 402 people and
injured 2500.

A huge procession of workers on foot, lorry and motorcycle wound its way
through central Dhaka waving banners, beating drums and chanting "direct
action" and "death penalty" for the owner of the factory.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53980
-- 
“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s
original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made,
through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man
Under Socialism

“The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker

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[Marxism] Bolivia expels USAID on May Day; large marches in Venezuela asn new labour law comes in

[Stuart Munckton]

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Bolivian President Evo Morales told a May Day demonstration in La Paz that
his government would expel the US Agency for International Development
(USAID), the BBC
said
that
day.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53979


There were large marches in Caracas by supporters and opponents of
venezuela's revolutionary government on May 1, as well as smaller ones
around the country, to mark International Workers Day. Government
supporters celebrated a minimum wage rise and a new labour law that extends
workers' rights. Government opponents, however, demanded a “fair wage”.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53978

-- 
“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s
original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made,
through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man
Under Socialism

“The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker

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Re: [Marxism] upside-down May Day

[dajj1950]

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>You've really put your finger on something!
>Happy May Day, comrade!

On the way home I popped into Book Grocer - its a chain that sells remaindered
books for #10. Found  a copy of Anthony Summers, The Secret Life of J. Edgar
Hoover.
Flipping through it on the way home I discovered that his last day on earth
was May 1 1972.  
Now isn't that another reason to celebrate May 1!
So our march for Mayday is this coming Sunday. And I will drag my aged body
along for one more time.
doug jordan 
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[Marxism] The ULA in Ireland

[Philip Ferguson]

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For better or worse, the existing state of the ULA was foreseeable at the
start.  It was a train wreck about to happen.

For instance, the ULA declined to take a position on the national
question.  Unbelievable.  Ireland and they can't even take a position on
the national question.

Of course, not taking a position *is* actually taking a position.  It's
taking a position on side with the status quo.  This was pointed up by the
fact that the ULA onl;y organised in the south, not the north.  Just like
the main bourgeois parties - only organise one side of the border.

While the SP had the most appalling position on the national question, the
SWP was the one least inclined to talk about socialism.  So there was an
odd kind of symmetry about the ULA.

However, at least Clare Daly has been prepared, since her departure from
the SP, to at least speak out to some extent about the prisoners in the
north, and attend activities in support of Marion Price.

The people in Ireland who talk about *both* the national question and
socialism, and are not afraid to use the 's' word, are the left-wing
republicans - groups like eirigi and the RNU and the IRSP, which stand well
to the left of the ULA.  That's not to say their positions on everything
are wonderful - eirigi recently adopted a position on abortion which is
rather woeful.  But on the bulk of issues, they were well to the left of
the bulk of the Irish trotskyists.

For a couple of discussions about these issues see, for instance:
The New IRA and socialist-republicanism in the twenty-first century:
http://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/the-new-ira-and-socialist-republicanism-in-the-twenty-first-century/
The burning of the British embassy 40 years on:
http://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/the-burning-of-the-british-embassy-40-years-on/
eirigi's Easter promise - two views:
http://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/eirigis-easter-promise-two-views/

The Easter Promise discussion is also being continued.  There's another
piece by Rayner Lysaght, a response to my response to his original article.

Phil

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Re: [Marxism] This list, (was To V. C.)

[Richard Menec]

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At risk of echoing the below sentiment, I want to say that marxmail is my
daily bread, so to speak, and is shared amongst friends and comrades not
only here in Winnipeg, but around the world.

in struggle,
Richard Menec


Happy May Day Lou, and keep your chin up. You and this list are an important
Internet resource, and that includes your commentary. 

(snip)



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Re: [Marxism] This list, (was To V. C.)

[Gulf Mann]

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Happy May Day Lou, and keep your chin up. You and this list are an
important Internet resource, and that includes your commentary. As Ken and
others have already written, the circulation and impact of Marxmail goes
far beyond those who subscribe to it. Every day I forward multiple items to
some or all of the 20+ people in my mini-network, including 3 who worked
with you here in Houston. Although I know you would rather walk on hot
coals for eternity, if you ever ventured back to Houston, you wouldn't have
to pay for lodging. You and Les deserve more than a medal, and have the
respect and admiration of many. ~Gulfmann

On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 3:46 PM, Ken Hiebert  wrote:

> :
> Even though there are only 1,500 subscribers I expect that certain items
> get a broader circulation.  Every once in a while there is an item that i
> forward to other lists.
>
> 
> Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
> Set your options at:
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>

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[Marxism] Review of Keynesian Economics: Vol 1, Issue 2

[Thomas Palley]

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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

 

Issue 2 of the Review of Keynesian Economics (ROKE) is devoted to the
"Theory of Endogenous Money", and two articles are available free on line
here  .

 

ROKE is planning a special issue on "The Economics of Deflation." Articles
can address theory, policy, history, and country specific experiences.
Papers are due May 1, 2014. Further details on the submission and review
process are available here
 .

 

I hope you will consider helping the ROKE project by subscribing; by asking
your library to subscribe; and by submitting manuscripts.

 

Sincerely,

 

Tom Palley

 

Thomas Palley

Senior Economic Policy Adviser, AFL-CIO and 

Research Associate, Economic Policy Institute

Tel: (202)-667-5518

e-mail: m...@thomaspalley.com

www.thomaspalley.com

 

>From Financial Crisis to Stagnation, February 2013, $20.15 at Amazon.com. 

 

 


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[Marxism] Socialist Alliance: 'Long live May Day! Unite to fight back!'

[Stuart Munckton]

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"Here in Australia, the left is emboldened by a new hope for the greater
unity of the socialist organisations, in particular between the two largest
left groups: the Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative. We urge
other groups to join in the new unity process that has begun.

I"n the spirit of unity, the Socialist Alliance initiated united
"Fightback" contingents in the May Day marches in several cities around
Australia this year. We express our deepest appreciation to all the groups
that have joined these contingents."

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53976

-- 
“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s
original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made,
through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man
Under Socialism

“The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker

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[Marxism] A May Day Solidarity Manifesto!

[jeremy]

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The following was posted as a comment to the AFL-CIO NOW Blog announcement: 
"The Future of Work, Unions? Tune into the AFL-CIO Tweet Chat with President 
Trumka?"  starting on Monday, May 6, 3:30pm ET, until the AFL-CIO Convention. 
Read the full announcement, and my comment, here:

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Organizing-Bargaining/The-Future-of-Work-Unions-Tune-into-the-AFL-CIO-Tweet-Chat-with-President-Trumka

A May Day Solidarity Manifesto!

Attention All Members of an AFL-CIO Union! 

The quadrennial AFL-CIO National Convention is to be held Sept. 8-12, 2013, in 
Los Angeles, CA. 

Please consider supporting. or becoming yourself, a convention delegate from 
your AFL-CIO union local, to support these new fight-back strategies and to 
elect, or become part of, a new leadership to implement them!

These new strategies, under new AFL-CIO leadership, will mobilize all 
working people to fight back for immediate economic justice by electing 
pro-labor candidates to every level of local, state, and federal government. In 
the long term, working people will be united in a new Solidarity Party to fight 
for a new socialist economy "of, by, and for the people". 

AFL-CIO President Trumka, and his "leadership" team, hope to stay in power for 
another four years. But these current office holders have done nothing to stop 
the further decline of AFL-CIO membership (400,000 decline in 2012). 

With President Trumka's abject support of Obama, "Obamacare", and the 
Democratic Party, the existing AFL-CIO "leadership" is apparently clueless. 
Despite the dire organizational, political, economic and ecological crises 
facing organized labor and all working people, there are no new strategies from 
the incumbent leadership to fight back. 

What new organizational, political and economic strategies could a new AFL-CIO 
leadership use to fight back for the betterment of all working people?
What are the new economic and political realities facing organized labor that 
now demand new strategies?

1. Simple trade unionism, relying only on labor contracts, by itself has failed 
to sufficiently promote the economic betterment of organized workers. Most of 
the factors that mean a decent standard of living for working people are 
determined by laws passed by pro-labor officials at every level of local, State 
and Federal government. 

2. The "capitalist economy" serves to maximize the profit and wealth of the 
corporate-capitalist top 1%, by maximizing the exploitation (minimizing the 
wealth) of the bottom 99%. Workers, even with militant trade unionism, cannot 
fight back in a globalized capitalist world economy. Trade unionism, by itself, 
is kept powerless to fight back effectively in a capitalist-controlled economy. 

3. For the economic survival and betterment of the working class majority, the 
"capitalist economy" must end. The transitional struggle for a new "socialist 
economy", that provides a universal minimum standard of living for all, should 
begin with the organized labor movement. 

4. Thus a new AFL-CIO leadership should call for a new political party, The 
Solidarity Party, to powerfully unite trade unionized and unorganized workers, 
to replace both corporate-corrupted Democratic and Republican Parties. The 
Solidarity Party, by refusing all corporate money and  agendas, will fight back 
politically to elect pro-labor lawmakers to rebuild the economy for the 
economic betterment of all working people. 

5. A new AFL-CIO leadership should help produce, sponsor and demand a nightly 
PBS television program that presents news and current affairs commentary from a 
pro-labor economic perspective. A new voice for working people will be heard at 
last in corporate controlled mass media!

End the Barbarism of Capitalism! Fight back for an Eco-Socialist Economy!

http://www.infowells.com


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Re: [Marxism] Chris Burford obituary

[Jim Farmelant]

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On Wed, 01 May 2013 16:55:30 -0400 Louis Proyect  writes:
 > 
> Speaking of figures from the early days of Marxism mailing lists, 
> this 
> just turned up on Doug's list. Chris could be a very irritating 
> figure 
> even though he was sincere and well-meaning in his intentions. He 
> defended a kind of soft Stalinism that irritated the ortho-Trots to 
> no 
> end, always from the soothing and platitudinous manner one might 
> expect 
> from a psychiatrist, which is what he was.
> 
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/apr/27/chris-burford-obituary 
> 

I believe that he had been a member of the old CPGB prior to its
dissolution in the early 1990s.  He was a member of the Democratic Left
organization which sprung out of the eurocommunist wing of the CPGB and
remained involved in the various successor organizations to the
Democratic Left.  He seems to have followed those organizations into
becoming a strong supporter of New Labour.  He was, I recall, an avid
supporter of Al Gore when he ran for POTUS back in 2000.  At the same
time, he was a strong supporter of Sedero Luminoso in Peru.

Jim Farmelant
http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
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Learn or Review Basic Math

Woman is 53 But Looks 25
53/YO Mom reveals 1 simple wrinkle trick that has angered doctors...
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Re: [Marxism] Chris Burford obituary

[Gary MacLennan]

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I am sorry to hear this.  He was very sympathetic to myself and my family.
Politically we were at odds over the Stalin thing.  In Ken Loach's film on
the Spanish Civil war the long scene where the peasants debate seizing the
land of the rich found Chris opposed to the seizures.  That threw me and
when the Marxism list died we never communicated again.  As always I regret
that.

comradely

Gary

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[Marxism] Whose Interests are Served by the BRICS?

[steve sharra]

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http://www.iwallerstein.com/interests-served-brics/

Whose Interests are Served by the BRICS?

Immanuel Wallerstein

Commentary No. 352, May 1, 2013

In 2001, Jim O’Neill, then chair of Goldman Sachs Assets Management,
wrote an article for their subscribers entitled “The World Needs
Better Economic BRICs.” O’Neill invented the acronym to describe the
so-called emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and
to recommend them to investors as the economic “future” of the
world-economy.

The term caught on, and the BRICs became an actual group that met
together regularly and later added South Africa to membership,
changing the small “s” to a capital “S.” Since 2001, the BRICS have
flourished economically, at least relative to other states in the
world-system. They have also become a very controversial subject.
There are those who think of the BRICS as the avant-garde of
anti-imperialist struggle. There are those who, quite to the contrary,
think of the BRICS as subimperialist agents of the true North (North
America, western Europe, and Japan). And there are those who argue
that they are both.

In the wake of the post-hegemonic decline of U.S. power, prestige, and
authority, the world seems to have settled into a multipolar
geopolitical structure. In this current situation of some 8-10-12 loci
of significant geopolitical power, the BRICS are definitely part of
the new picture. By their efforts to forge new structures on the world
scene, such as the interbank structure they are seeking to create, to
sit alongside and substitute for the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), they are certainly weakening still further the power of the
United States and other segments of the old North in favor of the
South, or at least of the BRICS themselves. If one’s definition of
anti-imperialism is reducing the power of the United States, then the
BRICS certainly represent an anti-imperialist force.

However, geopolitics is not the only thing that matters. We will also
want to know something about the internal class struggles within BRICS
countries, the relations of BRICS countries to each other, and the
relation of BRICS countries to the non-BRICS countries in the South.
On all three issues, the record of the BRICS is murky, to say the
least.

How can we assess the internal class struggles within the BRICS
countries? One standard way is to look at the degree of polarization,
as indicated by GINI measures of inequality. Another way is to see how
much state money is being utilized to reduce the degree of poverty
among the poorest strata. Of the five BRICS countries, only Brazil has
significantly improved its scores on such measures. In some cases,
despite an increase in the GDP, the measures are worse than say twenty
years ago.

If we look at the economic relations of the BRICS countries to each
other, China outshines the others in rise in GDP and in accumulated
assets. India and Russia seem to feel the need to protect themselves
against Chinese strength. Brazil and South Africa seem to be suffering
from present and potential Chinese investing in key arenas.

If we look at the relations of BRICS countries to other countries in
the South, we hear increasing complaints that the way each of these
countries relates to its immediate (and not so immediate) neighbors
resembles too much the ways in which the United States and the old
North related to them. They are sometimes accused of not being
“subimperial” but of being simply “imperial.”

What makes the BRICS seem so important today has been their high rates
of growth since say 2000, rates of growth that have been significantly
higher than those of the old North. But will this continue? Their
rates of growth have already begun to slip. Some other countries in
the South – Mexico, Indonesia, (south) Korea, Turkey – seem to be
matching them.

However, given the world depression in which we continue to exist, and
the low likelihood of significant recovery in the next decade or so,
the possibility that, in a decade, a future Goldman Sachs analyst will
continue to project the BRICS as the (economic) future is rather
dubious. Indeed, the likelihood that the BRICS will continue to be a
regularly meeting group with presumably common policies seems remote.

The world-system’s structural crisis is moving too fast, and in too
many uncertain ways, to assume sufficient relative stability to allow
the BRICS as such to continue to play a special role, either
geopolitically or economically. Like globalization itself as a
concept, the BRICS may turn out to be a passing phenomenon.

--
http://mlauzi.blogspot.com/ |
http://freireproject.org/users/steve-sharra |
http://www.zeleza.com/blog/stevesharra |
http://mabloga.feedcluster.com/ | http://mlauziglobal.feedcluster.com/
| http://www

[Marxism] The Trial

[Ken Hiebert]

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As an inveterate channel surfer I just came across The Trial with Glenn Ford 
and Dorothy Maguire (1955)..  I don't doubt that this was an anti-communist 
movie, but it is clear that whoever wrote it had been around the left.  An 
interesting portrait.
ken h

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[Marxism] Why support the Syrian revolution?

[Louis Proyect]

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By Michael Neumann, a frequent contributor to Counterpunch and the son 
of Franz Neumann.


http://insufficientrespect.blogspot.fr/2013/05/why-support-syrian-revolution_1.html


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[Marxism] Chris Burford obituary

[Louis Proyect]

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Speaking of figures from the early days of Marxism mailing lists, this 
just turned up on Doug's list. Chris could be a very irritating figure 
even though he was sincere and well-meaning in his intentions. He 
defended a kind of soft Stalinism that irritated the ortho-Trots to no 
end, always from the soothing and platitudinous manner one might expect 
from a psychiatrist, which is what he was.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/apr/27/chris-burford-obituary 
Chris Burford obituary


Dinah Hutchinson

guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 April 2012 06.50 EDT

Chris Burford The ideas of Chris Burford, a consultant psychiatrist at 
St Ann's hospital, Tottenham, were at first considered radical, but over 
the years earned him respect


My brother, Chris Burford, who has died aged 67 of a pulmonary embolism, 
was an NHS consultant psychiatrist. He worked for a large part of his 
professional life at St Ann's hospital, in Tottenham, north London.


His early work focused on adolescent mental health, and included 
treating young anorexia sufferers. Chris was keen to reduce the stigma 
attached to a range of mental health problems. He pioneered a team-based 
multi-disciplinary approach, with less reliance on medication and 
increased community-based support. His ideas were at first considered 
radical and controversial, sometimes unwelcome to the establishment, but 
over the years earned him respect.


He was born Dion Chris Burford in London, one of three children of Leon 
Burford, a businessman, and his wife, Joan. He was called Dion by his 
family but soon called himself Chris, in his medical work, and in other 
areas – a much more friendly and easily acceptable name than one based 
on ancient Greek.


He grew up in Wimbledon, where our mother ran a pre-preparatory school 
in the family home. Chris went to King's College school, Wimbledon, and 
then to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history. Towards the end of 
his course, he decided he wanted to study medicine so, having finished 
his history degree, he returned home to study for science A-levels. He 
went back to Peterhouse to read medicine, qualifying in 1973.


He had a wide range of interests, among them religions including 
Buddhism, Islam and latterly the Quakers. In his youth, he travelled to 
mainland China, interested in communism. He studied German at the Goethe 
Institute. He campaigned against the regime in South Africa through 
Doctors Against Apartheid, and against poverty.


He was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and retired in 2010, but remained 
very active. Only days before his death, he was preparing notes for a 
meeting.


His work on psychosis was known worldwide and he was involved in the 
International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to 
Psychosis; an annual lecture in his name will be inaugurated this year 
by the society's US branch.


Chris was divorced. Our younger brother David predeceased him in 2008. 
He is survived by me and his nieces and nephews



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Re: [Marxism] Marxmail's fifteenth anniversary

[Mark Lause]

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"In 1998 it was swimming against the stream to call for a 'a non-sectarian
and non-dogmatic approach.' Thanks to the inexorable tide turning against
the 'vanguardist' model, the list has become a lot more civil and a lot
less like a parliament of fools. I hope that the list will continue to be
an important asset for those trying to construct a genuine revolutionary
movement. Insofar as it serves that need, to even the slightest degree, it
will have vindicated itself."

So worth repeating!

Happy May Day and Happy Anniversary to this List!  May it live long and
enjoy more and deeper vindication!

ML

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[Marxism] Marxmail's fifteenth anniversary

[Louis Proyect]

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I usually post longer articles to my blog but since this is really about 
email communications, I am sending along the whole thing:


When I started working at Columbia University in 1991, the school was 
still mainframe-oriented just like the firms I used to work at on Wall 
Street. They had an email system called PROFS that ran under IBM’s VM 
operating system. That name might ring a bell with you since it was the 
same email system that Oliver North used.


About once a week I got an email with listserv in the subject heading 
that announced new listservs, usually something like “Raising Angora 
rabbits” or “The Bahai guide to a successful marriage”. About six months 
into getting such announcements, I strolled into the cubicle of the 
programmer who administered VM email and asked him what the hell a 
listserv was. He smiled and said, “So you haven’t heard about the Internet”.


After he explained what a listserv was (the term originally applied to 
IBM’s proprietary list handling software), I realized that there might 
be a listserv out there that would be useful to me. So I sent off a 
command to “list all” and got back something like 1500 listservs, one of 
which was PEN-L, the Progressive Economists List moderated by Michael 
Perelman, the prolific and inscrutable Marxist economist. I have been 
subbed to PEN-L for the better part of 22 years except for brief periods 
when Michael disciplined me for flaming people over something like the 
Brenner thesis or threatening to punch somebody in the nose (Doug 
Henwood on one occasion.)


In 1994 I got an announcement for a new mailing list called Marxism that 
was a project of the Spoons Collective. Jonathan Beasley-Murray, a grad 
student under Michael Hardt at Duke and a Spoons Collective member, 
kicked things off:


	So essentially (and following Negri etc.) I am interested in an 
analysis of the State, and also in looking at economics or the "base": 
hence, for me, the project to read _Capital_.  Also, I hope, this 
entails a "return" to Althusser (who, in my opinion, was never so 
interested in culture and ideology as he was in the State and economics, 
and who was the last thing around before everyone, by which I mean the 
Birmingham school, jumped on the Gramscian bandwagon).


	And I throw Bourdieu into the mix for good luck too.  I find his 
analysis of culture extremely useful, and a useful "antidote" to the 
celebratory nature of much of what passes for cultural studies nowadays. 
 However, I am interested in supplementing Bourdieu's social analysis, 
in part through a fuller investigation of the nature and sources of 
power (which is a given in his framework, it seems) and partly through 
re-interrogating both his notions of class and the moments at which he 
suggests the system may break down (which I compare to a 
DeleuzoGuattarian deterritorialization).  These moments, however, are 
few and far between.


(This is from the archived pre-Marxmail Marxism lists at 
http://www.driftline.org/.)


You can imagine my consternation when I saw something like 
DeleuzoGuattarian deterritorialization. What kind of jive was that? 
After spending 11 years in the Trotskyist movement, I had no inkling 
that Marxism had become so fashionable in the academy—or at least a 
peculiar subgenre of it.


Within a year or so, the center of gravity in the Marxism list had 
shifted away from cultural studies and toward “Marxism-Leninism”. It was 
what Lenin might have called “One Step Forward and Twelve Steps 
Backward” since the left was still in the midst of sectarian vanguardist 
illusions that it is only first beginning to address and overcome.


By 1996 the Marxism list had degenerated into perpetual trench warfare 
between ortho-Trotskyists like Hugh Rodwell and Bob Malecki on one side 
(a Morenoite and Spartacist League fellow-traveler respectively) and 
supporters of The Shining Path in Peru on the other. If this was not bad 
enough, the Maoists were at each others' throats over who was the 
legitimate representative—one Adolfo Olaechea in London or Luis Quispe 
in New Jersey. They spent an inordinate amount of time and energy trying 
to expose each other as police spies or issuing death threats. Adolfo 
was quite a master of invective, making me look like St. Francis of 
Assissi by comparison. Here he is lacing into Bob Malecki:


	Malecki - you are so stupid and lazy.  Always trying to mix-up 
different kettles of fish.  In Peru it is not the GPU who is saying that 
the best strategy for the DEFENCE OF THE RULING CLASS STATE is to use 
"leftists" infiltrated in the social fabric, unions, "popular 
organisations", etc. IT IS THE MILITARY HIGH COMMAND behind the walls of 
their FORTIFIED VILLAS. It is the bloody rich speaking in the "tongues 
of

Re: [Marxism] Storm Effort Causes a Rift in a Shifting Occupy Movement

[Louis Proyect]

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On 5/1/13 12:38 PM, Louis Proyect wrote:

So far Occupy Sandy has spent $670,000, according to information the
group makes public online, disbursed for essentials like medical
supplies ($5,000) and tools for mold remediation ($93,454). But as
immediate needs for relief have died down, the group has begun programs
reflective of a shift in tactics and a broad interpretation of
“rebuilding,” like “Wildfire,” a series of political action classes in
the Rockaways, which so far has received $10,600. That shift, toward
what one storm volunteer called “indoctrination,” has caused some
discomfort among donors and recipients alike.



Just got off the phone from talking to Jeff, my old friend who was 
featured in my Rockaways video. He went to the Wildfire meeting last 
night and had the following comments.


One, the meeting was held in Far Rockaway, the poorer and largely Black 
and Latino east end of the peninsula. There were 40 people in 
attendance, divided pretty equally between white, Black and Latino.


He had to leave 2 hours into the meeting and just before two working 
groups were breaking out, one on how to structure Wildfire 
democratically and two how to connect with other like-minded groups.


One of the more interesting points he made was about the participation 
of a Black detective from a local precinct who was pushing for people 
coming out for a anti-"Stop and Frisk" protest.


There was also a big push to get people out for the big May Day event today.

Interesting...



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[Marxism] Storm Effort Causes a Rift in a Shifting Occupy Movement

[Louis Proyect]

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(A member of the Wildfire group that is mentioned in the next to last 
paragraph and which is based in the Rockaways spoke at the recent 
Ecosocialism conference in NY.)


NY Times April 30, 2013
Storm Effort Causes a Rift in a Shifting Occupy Movement
By SARAH MASLIN NIR

Not long ago, the Occupy Wall Street movement seemed poised to largely 
fade from the national conversation with few concrete accomplishments 
beyond introducing its hallmark phrase, “We are the 99 percent.”


Then Hurricane Sandy struck. In its aftermath, Occupy Wall Street 
protesters rushed to apply their rabble-rousing hustle to cleaning out 
houses, clearing debris and raising more than $1.5 million for relief 
efforts. In some minds, Occupy members had become less a collection of 
disaffected class warriors than a group of efficient community 
volunteers. Occupy Sandy, as the effort came to be known, became one of 
the most widely praised groups working on the storm recovery.


As Occupy members around the country plan the movement’s annual May Day 
protests, a central question has emerged: whether Occupy Sandy 
represents a betrayal of the Occupy movement, or its future.


“We’re helping poor people; before we were fighting rich people,” said 
Goldi Guerra, 45, who camped for a time at Zuccotti Park, the site in 
Lower Manhattan where the movement took root, and since the storm has 
spent nearly every day helping victims on Staten Island. “It’s still the 
same equation. But it’s much more glass half full, optimistic, giving 
and” — he added, referring to the many clashes between protesters and 
the police — “legal.”


But the shift away from the core message of income inequality has 
contributed to a growing rift within Occupy, which once seemed poised to 
become a leftist alternative to the Tea Party. The storm response 
brought a more mainstream contingent into the shrinking movement, as 
Occupiers were joined in mucking out houses by people who shared their 
values but had found their tactics too radical. But now some members say 
in the process the movement has sold out, that by soliciting donations 
from corporations like Home Depot and applying for government grants, it 
has allied itself with the very forces it was formed to fight against.


“People gain power by standing together,” said Bill Dobbs, an Occupy 
member who early on criticized the change in direction. “If we are doing 
scores of projects around the city, that’s important work, but the focus 
has to come back to the most powerful financial institutions.”


The debate between lofty ideals and practical goals has echoes in Occupy 
groups around the country.


“A lot of people look towards New York City as kind of a leader,” said 
Tracy Lubbehusen, 36, a member of Occupy Terre Haute in Indiana, who is 
traveling to New York to take part in the protests on Wednesday. “They 
are thinking that what is going to happen in New York City is going to 
go for the rest of the country.”


Some satellite Occupy groups have similarly evolved into service 
organizations; others have recommitted to protesting. But even those 
focusing on protesting have noticed an increase in good will because of 
the storm response. “I was usually yelled at to get a job,” said Chris 
Wahmhoff, 34, a member of Occupy Kalamazoo in Michigan, which still 
holds protests. “Now literally I will get thumbs up.”


On Staten Island, Mr. Guerra and some of his peers see storm relief work 
as consistent with the original movement’s principle of tackling 
injustices it perceives the rich have dealt society. For example, many 
members believe the intense storm was a product of global warming, and 
they link that phenomenon to corporations polluting the environment. 
Fighting for the little guy, these adherents say, has many forms, from 
scouring mold off I-beams to taking to the streets.


In the Rockaways in Queens, Occupy Sandy members are teaching storm 
victims about conducting sit-ins, in anticipation of any government 
efforts to use eminent domain to remove residents’ homes from vulnerable 
parts of the seashore. But it is clear that few of the people who bedded 
down on Zuccotti’s concrete remain among the ranks of Occupy Sandy. Many 
simply returned to school or found jobs, but others have retreated for 
ideological reasons.


Last winter, in heated e-mail exchanges between separate Occupy Sandy 
groups serving Red Hook, Brooklyn, some members railed against the 
groups’ cozy relationship with the City Council speaker, Christine C. 
Quinn, and the local police precinct. The clash led to walkouts and 
stopped much of their work in the community, said Rebecca Manski, 35.


“There are various things that have come out of Occupy Wall Street and 
taken on a life of their own, and we want the

[Marxism] Jeff Perry on the new edition of Ted Allen's "The Invention of the White Race"

[Louis Proyect]

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Theodore W. Allen’s The Invention of the White Race

by Jeffrey B. Perry

The Invention of the White Race, Vol. I: Racial Oppression and Social 
Control (New Expanded Edition, Verso Books, November 2012) ISBN: 
9781844677696


The Invention of the White Race, Vol. II: The Origin of Racial 
Oppression in Anglo-America (New Expanded Edition, Verso Books, November 
2012) ISBN: 9781844677702


Theodore W. Allen’s two-volume The Invention of the White Race, 
republished by Verso Books in a New Expanded Edition, presents a 
full-scale challenge to what Allen refers to as “The Great White 
Assumption” – “the unquestioning, indeed unthinking acceptance of the 
‘white’ identity of European-Americans of all classes as a natural 
attribute rather than a social construct.” Its thesis on the origin and 
nature of the “white race” contains the root of a new and radical 
approach to United States history, one that challenges master narratives 
taught in the media and in schools, colleges, and universities. With its 
equalitarian motif and emphasis on class struggle it speaks to people 
today who strive for change worldwide.


Allen’s original 700-pages magnum opus, already recognized as a 
“classic” by scholars such as Audrey Smedley, Wilson J. Moses, Nell 
Painter, and Gerald Horne, included extensive notes and appendices based 
on his twenty-plus years of primary source research. The November 2012 
Verso edition adds new front and back matter, expanded indexes, and 
internal study guides for use by individuals, classes, and study groups. 
Invention is a major contribution to our historical understanding, it is 
meant to stand the test of time, and it can be expected to grow in 
importance in the 21st century.


“When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no 
‘white’ people there; nor, according to the colonial records, would 
there be for another sixty years.”


That arresting statement, printed on the back cover of the first (1994) 
volume, reflected the fact that, after pouring through 885 county-years 
of Virginia’s colonial records, Allen found “no instance of the official 
use of the word ‘white’ as a token of social status” prior to its 
appearance in a 1691 law. As he explained, “Others living in the colony 
at that time were English; they had been English when they left England, 
and naturally they and their Virginia-born children were English, they 
were not ‘white.’” “White identity had to be carefully taught, and it 
would be only after the passage of some six crucial decades” that the 
word “would appear as a synonym for European-American.”


Allen was not merely speaking of word usage, however. His probing 
research led him to conclude – based on the commonality of experience 
and demonstrated solidarity between African-American and 
European-American laboring people, the lack of a substantial 
intermediate buffer social control stratum, and the “indeterminate” 
status of African-Americans – that the “white race” was not, and could 
not have been, functioning in early Virginia.


It is in the context of such findings that he offers his major thesis -- 
the “white race” was invented as a ruling class social control formation 
in response to labor solidarity as manifested in the later, civil war 
stages of Bacon's Rebellion (1676-77).  To this he adds two important 
corollaries: 1) the ruling elite, in its own class interest, 
deliberately instituted a system of racial privileges to define and 
maintain the “white race” and 2) the consequences were not only ruinous 
to the interests of African-Americans, they were also “disastrous” for 
European-American workers, whose class interests differed fundamentally 
from those of the ruling elite.


In Volume I Allen offers a critical examination of the two main lines of 
historiography on the slavery and racism debate: the psycho-cultural 
approach, which he strongly criticizes; and the socio-economic approach, 
which he seeks to free from certain apparent weaknesses. He then 
proceeds to develop a definition of racial oppression in terms of social 
control, a definition not based on “phenotype,” or classification by 
complexion. In the process, he offers compelling analogies between the 
oppression of the Irish in Ireland (under Anglo-Norman rule and under 
“Protestant Ascendancy”) and white supremacist oppression of African 
Americans and Indians.


Allen emphasizes that maximizing profit and maintaining social control 
are two priority tasks of the ruling class. He describes how racial 
oppression is one form of ruling class response to the problem of social 
control and national oppression is another.  The difference centers on 
whether the key component of the intermediate social control stratum are 
members of the oppressor gr

Re: [Marxism] upside-down May Day

[Andrew Pollack]

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You've really put your finger on something!
Happy May Day, comrade!

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[Marxism] upside-down May Day

[Issam Mansour]

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My wife, who works for an international pharmaceutical company from its
Toronto branch, has a manager who "leads" the work of her programming unit
from Barcelona; he, in Spain, gets a day off for May Day and she, in Canada,
gets to work harder.

I've always thought that the first sign of the Zombie Apocalypse was the
death of the working class in North America and its rebirth as CZF's -
Consumer-Zombie-Fetishists. 

For expressing pessimism, I'm sure that I'll be visited tonight by the
ghosts of May Day Past, Present, and Future.  Wish me luck.

Happy May Day to all.

Issam Mansour

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[Marxism] A Solidarity Statement on Sexual Violence and the Left | Solidarity

[Louis Proyect]

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More about the PLP sect in the U.S. than the SWP.

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3835


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Re: [Marxism] Syria Rebellion & The Boer Rebellion

[Paul Flewers]

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I'm not sure that this is a valid comparison. The Boers were settlers
and no more a friend to the African population than the British
colonists. However we might view the present state of play in Syria --
and I'm not optimistic about the prospects of a democratic,
progressive outcome -- the original upsurge against the Assad
dictatorship had a democratic content that was absent in the Boer's
rebellion.

Paul F


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[Marxism] "Generation Without Fear" Demands Free Education in Chile

[Dennis Brasky]

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**

* *

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10159

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[Marxism] Guerrilla strategy of the right in Venezuela - América Latina en Movimiento

[Louis Proyect]

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http://alainet.org/active/63692


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[Marxism] Hardt and Negri plagiarize Graeber?

[Louis Proyect]

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Once upon a time there was a mass of wage workers; today there is a 
multitude of precarious workers. The former were exploited by capital, 
but that exploitation was masked by the myth of a free and equal 
exchange among owners of commodities. The latter continue to be 
exploited, but the dominant image of their relationship to capital is 
configured no longer as an equal relationship of exchange but rather as 
a hierarchical relation of debtor to creditor. According to the 
mercantile myth of capitalist production, the owner of capital meets the 
owner of labor power in the marketplace, and they make a fair and free 
exchange: I give you my work and you give me a wage. This was the Eden, 
Karl Marx writes ironically, of “freedom, equality, property, and 
Bentham.” There’s no need for us to remind you how false and mystifying 
this supposed freedom and equality actually are.


full: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16075-declaration-an-excerpt


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Re: [Marxism] BRICS-watch: Immanuel Wallerstein's ambivalent

[Andrew Pollack]

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BRICS panel at this year's Left Forum:

http://www.leftforum.org/content/brics-which-side-are-they

featuring Patrick Bond, Horace Campbell, and likely others

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Re: [Marxism] BRICS-watch: Immanuel Wallerstein's ambivalent

[Ismail Lagardien]

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In haste, I agree with the conclusions, but not quite with the argument. 

Roughly, without much thinking or significant research My sense is that the 
BRICS will try to expand. I know, for instance, that Indonesia and Nigeria have 
made representation for inclusion. Doing so may diffuse power across quite a 
territorially vast span of countries. We should not under-estimate regional 
priorities. Anyway, if this dispersion does occur, the BRICS may  to lose 
power, coherence and stability as some kind of hegemon - to the extent that 
global/historical orders require hegemonic stability. 

Given the systemic crisis underway at the moment, and my sense is that its full 
(historical, philosophical and social) impact has not yet run its course 
(global-systemically), I can't see how the BRICS would 

a) resuscitate the global capitalism (as a functional totality)
b) revitalise the institutions of global capitalism 
c) keep US militarism in check, and 
d) generally re-introduce confidence in the system. 

These are some of the cornerstone projects for global capitalist stability and 
coherence and/or putative next hegemonic period

It is important to note that when China joined the WTO they presented an 
important message to the world: they opted into the existing structures, and 
did not want to replace it. My sense is that BRICS countries will, likewise, 
want to retain global capitalist institutions, organisations and structures and 
herein lies a potential crisis. 

So, where am I going... not sure, I guess, what I am saying is that it's too 
soon to tell (i don't like predictions). If i were to read the piece 
critically, i would, as a Critical Realist, start with some questions about 
ontology. One of the first would be to define imperialism/sub-imperialism. 
Second I would raise the level of analysis away from sub-national/national to 
global/historical/systemic. Across the long view, the rise and decline of 
growth within BRICS countries may well be irrelevant - which brings us to 
Wallerstein's conclusions...

A good piece, nonetheless. Thanks, Patrick.





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[Marxism] Who Will Lead the U.S. Working Class? :: Monthly Review

[Louis Proyect]

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Michael Yates reviews two books on the labor movement.

http://monthlyreview.org/2013/05/01/who-will-lead-the-u-s-working-class


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[Marxism] Delhi: Public Meeting on Repression of Cultural Activists

[Politicus E.]

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Sanhati Invites you to a Public meeting and discussion on State
Repression on Cultural Activists at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, ITO, New Delhi 5th May 2013, 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Repression of militant people's movements and struggles of workers and
peasants have intensified across India. The unprecedented military assault
in central and eastern India under Operation Green Hunt has already made
us witness innumerable atrocities against adivasi villagers and Maoist
cadres, along with the speeding up of land grab and MOUs with
corporations. The continuing witch-hunt of struggling Maruti workers and
the recent spate of arrests of striking workers in Noida, as well as
repression on villagers resisting the POSCO project in Odisha are part of
the larger and increasingly fascist assault on movements. Draconian laws
like the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) have become the new
weapon in the hands of the state to arrest and silence workers', peasants'
and student activists across India. A recent manifestation of this
repression is the crackdown and repression on radical cultural activists-
prominently, Jiten Marandi of Jharkhand and artists from Kabir Kala Manch
in Mumbai, but also including several lesser known activists across India.

A cultural political activist involved in mass movements in Jharkhand,
Jiten Marandi had been militantly protesting displacement, loot of natural
resources, exploitation of the adivasis by the state-corporate nexus in
Jharkhand. His songs came to symbolize the voice of people's resistance
and their vision for a new just society. Arrested on fabricated charges of
participation in a Maoist attack in 2008, along with 4 other adivasi
peasant activists, Jiten was swiftly given the death sentence by the
sessions court. The High Court acquitted him December 2011, only to be
re-arrested by the Jharkhand police under the Jharkhand Control of Crime
Act. In March 2013, Jiten has finally been released after having spent 5
years in prison, solely for being a revolutionary cultural activist.
However, his wife, Aparna Marandi, who was arrested last year on a
different charge, still languishes in jail.

In Pune, Maharashtra, Kabir Kala Manch, active since 2002, sang songs and
poetry and staged street plays on caste oppression, atrocities on Dalits,
class inequality and farmer suicides among other issues. Performing among
the common people in slums of the city, they developed into a radical
Ambedkarite-Marxist cultural group. In 2011, two of its members Deepak
Dengle and Siddharth Bhonsle were branded as Naxalites and arrested under
the UAPA. Cases were also filed against other members which forced Sheetal
Sathe, Sachin Mali, Sagar Gorkhe and 3 others to go underground. In
February this year, the Bombay High Court granted bail to the two arrested
members of KKM, and in its judgement claimed that speaking about
corruption, social inequality, exploitation of the poor does not allow one
to be prosecuted as a Maoist. Recently, Sheetal Sathe and Sachin Mali have
voluntarily appeared before the court to be tried in their cases, after 2
years of being underground. Both have been sent to judicial custody after
interrogation by the Anti-Terrorism Squad, and  are likely to be slapped
with charges under UAPA. Similar cases are happening every day. This week,
Sabyasachi Goswami, a revolutionary poet who was released on bail last
year from a prison in West Bengal, was rearrested by the Special Task
Force of the West Bengal police from Kolkata without any charges against
him.

The plight of these activists and groups exposes the state of the right to
free expression in India. While the corporate media increasingly
sensationalizes issues of violation of 'freedom of speech' of celebrities
and privileged writers, it intentionally ignores the suppression of the
cultural freedom of anti-establishment and radical artists. But the issue
at hand is not just of an assault on freedom of speech and creative
expression. It is  the systematic persecution of voices of dissent that
put forward deeply political visions of a revolutionary transformation of
society. Such assertions have become more urgent in these times of an
all-out attack on the working people, resources, livelihoods and radical
left movements in this country. These are people's artists who have used
various cultural forms to expose and challenge various oppressions.
Expressing the concerns and problems of toiling masses, at a time when
imperialist onslaught is producing crass consumerist and desensitized
anti-people culture, we must strive to secure the right of cultural and
political activists to sing, perform and produce revolutionary cultural
forms.

Sanhati stands in solidarity with these and other cultural acti

[Marxism] Haaay to the Chief: The Military-Industrial Complex Conquers the Homos

[Louis Proyect]

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On Bradley Manning being dropped as grand marshal of SF LGBT Parade.

http://gawker.com/haaay-to-the-chief-the-military-industrial-complex-con-486133694


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[Marxism] BRICS-watch: Immanuel Wallerstein's ambivalent

[Patrick Bond]

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**Commentary No. 352, May 1, 2013

"Whose Interests are Served by the BRICS?"


Immanuel Wallerstein


In 2001, Jim O'Neill, then chair of Goldman Sachs Assets Management, 
wrote an article for their subscribers entitled "The World Needs Better 
Economic BRICs." O'Neill invented the acronym to describe the so-called 
emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and to recommend 
them to investors as the economic "future" of the world-economy.


The term caught on, and the BRICs became an actual group that met 
together regularly and later added South Africa to membership, changing 
the small "s" to a capital "S." Since 2001, the BRICS have flourished 
economically, at least relative to other states in the world-system. 
They have also become a very controversial subject. There are those who 
think of the BRICS as the avant-garde of anti-imperialist struggle. 
There are those who, quite to the contrary, think of the BRICS as 
subimperialist agents of the true North (North America, western Europe, 
and Japan). And there are those who argue that they are both.


In the wake of the post-hegemonic decline of U.S. power, prestige, and 
authority, the world seems to have settled into a multipolar 
geopolitical structure. In this current situation of some 8-10-12 loci 
of significant geopolitical power, the BRICS are definitely part of the 
new picture. By their efforts to forge new structures on the world 
scene, such as the interbank structure they are seeking to create, to 
sit alongside and substitute for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 
they are certainly weakening still further the power of the United 
States and other segments of the old North in favor of the South, or at 
least of the BRICS themselves. If one's definition of anti-imperialism 
is reducing the power of the United States, then the BRICS certainly 
represent an anti-imperialist force.


However, geopolitics is not the only thing that matters. We will also 
want to know something about the internal class struggles within BRICS 
countries, the relations of BRICS countries to each other, and the 
relation of BRICS countries to the non-BRICS**countries in the South. On 
all three issues, the record of the BRICS is murky, to say the least.


How can we assess the internal class struggles within the BRICS 
countries? One standard way is to look at the degree of polarization, as 
indicated by GINI measures of inequality. Another way is to see how much 
state money is being utilized to reduce the degree of poverty among the 
poorest strata. Of the five BRICS countries, only Brazil has 
significantly improved its scores on such measures. In some cases, 
despite an increase in the GDP, the measures are worse than say twenty 
years ago.


If we look at the economic relations of the BRICS countries to each 
other, China outshines the others in rise in GDP and in accumulated 
assets. India and Russia seem to feel the need to protect themselves 
against Chinese strength. Brazil and South Africa seem to be suffering 
from present and potential Chinese investing in key arenas.


If we look at the relations of BRICS countries to other countries in the 
South, we hear increasing complaints that the way each of these 
countries relates to its immediate (and not so immediate) neighbors 
resembles too much the ways in which the United States and the old North 
related to them. They are sometimes accused of not being "subimperial" 
but of being simply "imperial."


What makes the BRICS seem so important today has been their high rates 
of growth since say 2000, rates of growth that have been significantly 
higher than those of the old North. But will this continue? Their rates 
of growth have already begun to slip. Some other countries in the South 
- Mexico, Indonesia, (south) Korea, Turkey - seem to be matching them.


However, given the world depression in which we continue to exist, and 
the low likelihood of significant recovery in the next decade or so, the 
possibility that, in a decade, a future Goldman Sachs analyst will 
continue to project the BRICS as the (economic) future is rather 
dubious. Indeed, the likelihood that the BRICS will continue to be a 
regularly meeting group with presumably common policies seems remote.


The world-system's structural crisis is moving too fast, and in too many 
uncertain ways, to assume sufficient relative stability to allow the 
BRICS as such to continue to play a special role, either geopolitically 
or economically. Like globalization itself as a concept, the BRICS may 
turn out to be a passing phenomenon.





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[Marxism] Labor values: $3 bn for drones but more poverty for single parents and big cuts for Universities.

[En Passant with John Passant]

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Funding the defence killing machine in Australia; attacking workers and the 
poor - these are Labor's real values; these are Labor's priorities.  

http://enpassant.com.au/2013/05/01/labor-priorities-3-bn-for-drones-but-poverty-for-single-parents-and-cuts-for-universities/

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[Marxism] CfP Critical Visual Theory - Deadline June 15

[Christian Fuchs]

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Call for Papers for a special issue of tripleC
(http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/index): Communication, 
Capitalism & Critique: Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable 
Information Society

on the general topic of

Critical Visual Theory

Detailed Information/CfP:
http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/CfP_VisualCommunication.pdf

Edited by Peter Ludes, Mass Communication, Jacobs University Bremen, 
Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Media Studies, Hamburg University, and

Winfried Nöth, Cognitive Semiotics, São Paulo Catholic University.

The overall task of this special issue is to combine critical insights 
into current economic, technical, political, cultural, and ecological 
dimensions of transnational and global visual communication. The papers 
to be included in this issue should make use of critical theories to 
advance a better understanding of visual information technologies in 
general and of strategies of veiling financial, military, economic, 
religious interests in particular. A special focus will be on current 
forms of surveillance of public and private life.


The editors invite contributions to topics such as:

* Visual humanities and social sciences: concepts, methods, and theories
* Visual data and semiotics: networks and analyses
* Visual hegemonies: image- and profit-making
* Veiling: Key Invisibles
* Visual culture zones: Africa, Arab countries, China, Europe, India,
Japan, Latin and North America

Preliminary time schedule

June 15, 2013: Abstract submission, via email to
p.lu...@jacobs-university.de, kathrin.fahlenbr...@uni-hamburg.de,  and
no...@uni-kassel.de .
July 15, 2013: Feedback to authors about acceptance or rejection of abstract
September 15, 2013: Submission of full papers to the editors via
http://www.triple-c.at via the electronic submission
system: 
http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

.

Guidelines for formatting and style:
http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/about/submissions#authorGuidelines
http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/tripleC_2013.dot

tripleC – Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information 
Society is a journal that is specialising in publishing articles that 
focus on critical studies of media, communication and digital media in 
the context of the information society. It is indexed in Scopus and 
Communication & Mass Media Complete.




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Re: [Marxism] Ireland: What’s left after the ULA? | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

[Sebastian Clare]

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April 29, 2013 //-- This brief report intends to outline the situation
>> within the Irish left following the slow implosion of the United Left
>> Alliance (ULA).
>>
>>
> Another shitty outcome to be expected from the "Socialist Alliance" model,
> with the various sects looking only at how they can gain some petty
> advantage. I always think of this image when these projects crash and burn:
>
> http://musicsavvymom.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/dogs-playing-poker.jpg
>

That picture is, sadly, a pretty accurate representation of the various
sects' approach to the United Left Alliance.

I have been a member of the ULA since its inception in late 2010, having
been an unaligned left activist since leaving the SWP in 2006. The major
positive that may come out of the ULA is in drawing together people such as
myself, who are now attempting to keep the alliance together via the new
United Left bloc featuring the two TDs Clare Daly and Joan Collins and a
number of councillors.

If we can push on and actually attract support, while maintaining a more
cohesive and democratic organisational structure, perhaps the ULA
experiment will not have been in vain.

That is, granted, a very big 'if'.

Solidarity,
Seb

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[Marxism] What's new at Links: Venezuela, Hugo Moldiz, workers' control, N. Korea, Ken Loach, Ecosocialist conf, Adam Hanieh, left unity

[glparramatta]

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What's new at Links: Venezuela, Hugo Moldiz, workers' control, N. Korea, 
Ken Loach, Ecosocialist conf, Adam Hanieh, left unity


* * *
Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - 
at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373


You can also follow Links on Twitter at 
http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism or on Facebook at 
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643


Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed 
(http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an 
article, please send it to linkssocial...@gmail.com


*Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in Links.

*Comments welcome on all articles

*Return daily for new articles

* * *


   Venezuela: Imperialism prepares fascist movement to defeat
   revolution 

By *Luis Bilbao*, Caracas
April 22, 2013 -- With cold calculation, the counter-revolutionary 
command ordered the murder of nine people and numerous acts of violence 
and destruction since early April 15. The United States is testing out a 
new way to defeat the Bolivarian Revolution: the creation of a classic 
fascist movement.


A week before the election victory of Nicolás Maduro on April 14, 
referring to the attack on artists committed to the revolution, I 
pointed out the differences between McCarthyism and Nazism-fascism in an 
article published in the /Correo del Orinoco/.


 * Read more 


   'There are no recipes for socialism': interview with Hugo Moldiz,
   Bolivian Marxist 

*Hugo Moldiz* interviewed by *Coral Wynter* and *Jim McIlroy*
April 24, 2013 -- Hugo Moldiz is a respected Marxist journalist and 
author living in La Paz. He has written several books, including 
/Bolivia in the Times of Evo/, published by Ocean Sur in 2009. He is 
editor of the weekly /La Epoca/ and has also contributed many articles 
to the magazine /America XXI/. We interviewed him during a recent visit 
to La Paz, Bolivia.


 * Read more 


   Britain: The 1970s and the movement for workers' control
   

By *Andrew Coates*

   /Trade unions have historically bargained for better terms for the
   sale of labour power; they have not been able to challenge the
   existence of the labour market itself. Today, however, the relation
   between "political" and "economic" struggle have changed." /-- Perry
   Anderson. "The Limits and Possibilities", in /The Incompatibles:
   Trade Union Militancy and the Consensus/,1967.

 * Read more 


   Behind the crisis: US tightens chokehold on North Korea
   

By *David Whitehouse*
April 22, 2013 -- In the 60 years since the end of the Korean War, US 
policy toward North Korea has fluctuated between the options of 
"containment" and "rollback".


 * Read more 


   Hugo Chávez: Tribune of world's dispossessed/Tribuna de los
   desposeídos del mundo 

By *John Riddell*
April 15, 2013 -- Hugo Chávez was not only a great Bolivarian patriot; 
he was a tribune of the world's dispossessed.


 * Read more 


   Britain's days of hope -- Ken Loach's 'The Spirit of '45' reviewed
   

Left-wing film director *Ken Loach* is at the centre of a movement for a 
new left party in Britain that is committed to defending and extending 
the welfare state and uncompromisingly fighting austerity. More than 
8000 people have signed his appeal for such a party. A vital component 
of this campaign has been the success of his new documentary, /The 
Spirit of '45/.


 * Read more 


   North America: Ecosocialist Conference shows potential for a united
   green left 

Introduction *by Ian Angus*
April 23, 2013 -- I was unable to attend the Ecosocialist Conference in 
New York City on April 20, 2013, and it is clear from all reports that I 
missed an important and inspiring event. The meeting was organised by 
the Ecosocialist Contingent, the alliance that participated as a united 
anti-capitalist voice in the demonstration against the Keystone XL 
Pipeline in Washington on February 17.


 * Read more 


   Adam Hanieh: A strategic overview of the struggles in the Middle
   East (video) 

April 21, 2013 -- *Adam Hanieh* addressed the 2013 April 2013 Socialist 
Resistance conference in Britain on the social upheavals in the Middle 
East and their strategic context.



   Socialist Resistance (Britain): 'Build a broad left party, fight for
   Marxist uni