[Marxism] Ireland: development and under-development

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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I've finally got a review up of Maurice Coakley's very good book on Irish
under-development and its causes.  The book came out a couple of years ago
and I read it then.  Because I've been very remiss in doing anything on it,
I've written what is as much a summary of it as a review.

Anyway, for people interested in Irish history and politics and questions
of uneven development and under-development, you might be interested:
https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/in-review-maurice-coakley-on-how-britain-under-developed-ireland/
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[Marxism] Catalonia: the nun entering Spain's regional politics

[Shalva Eliava via Marxism]

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Sister Teresa Forcades hopes to change a ‘sick society’ by leading a leftwing 
movement that could bring together parties as diverse as Podemos and the 
Catalan republican left


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/07/homily-to-catalonia-nun-entering-spains-regional-politics

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Re: [Marxism] Erdoğan’s win in Turkey heralds a surprising rise in the new left | Richard Seymour | Comment is free | The Guardian

[MM via Marxism]

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> On 08 Jun 2015, at 12:09 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/12/erdogan-turkey-president-surprising-rise-new-left
>  
> 

Richard’s piece contains some useful background, but it is from last year. 
Here’s what happened this time:

"Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has suffered his biggest setback in 
13 years of amassing power as voters denied his ruling party a parliamentary 
majority for the first time since 2002 and gave the country’s large Kurdish 
minority its biggest voice ever in national politics.

"The election result on Sunday, with almost all votes counted, appeared to 
wreck Erdoğan’s ambition of rewriting the constitution to establish himself as 
an all-powerful executive president. Erdoğan’s governing Justice and 
Development party, or AKP, won the election comfortably for the fourth time in 
a row, with around 41% of the vote, but that represented a steep fall in 
support from 49% in 2011, throwing the government of the country into great 
uncertainty.

"The vote was the first time in four general elections that support for Erdoğan 
decreased. The fall coupled with an election triumph for a new pro-Kurdish 
party meant it was unlikely that the AKP would be able to form a majority 
government, forcing it to negotiate a coalition, probably with extreme 
nationalists, or to call a fresh election if no parliamentary majority can be 
secured within six weeks.

"The new party, the HDP or Peoples’ Democratic party, largely representing the 
Kurds but also encompassing leftwing liberals, surpassed the steep 10% 
threshold for entering parliament to take more than 12% of the vote and around 
80 seats in the 550-strong chamber.

…

"Official results based on 99.9% of votes counted gave the AKP 41%, followed by 
the Republican People’s party (CHP) on 25%, the Nationalist Movement Party 
(MHP) on 16.5% and the HDP in fourth place with 13%.

"Turnout was at 86%."


Full: 
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/07/turkey-election-preliminary-results-erdogan-akp-party

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[Marxism] Fwd: Energy for Society in Balance with Nature | manuelgarciajr

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://manuelgarciajr.com/2015/06/08/energy-for-society-in-balance-with-nature/
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[Marxism] A Crisis at the Edge of Physics

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, June 7 2015
A Crisis at the Edge of Physics
By ADAM FRANK and MARCELO GLEISER

DO physicists need empirical evidence to confirm their theories?

You may think that the answer is an obvious yes, experimental 
confirmation being the very heart of science. But a growing controversy 
at the frontiers of physics and cosmology suggests that the situation is 
not so simple.


A few months ago in the journal Nature, two leading researchers, George 
Ellis and Joseph Silk, published a controversial piece called 
“Scientific Method: Defend the Integrity of Physics.” They criticized a 
newfound willingness among some scientists to explicitly set aside the 
need for experimental confirmation of today’s most ambitious cosmic 
theories — so long as those theories are “sufficiently elegant and 
explanatory.” Despite working at the cutting edge of knowledge, such 
scientists are, for Professors Ellis and Silk, “breaking with centuries 
of philosophical tradition of defining scientific knowledge as empirical.”


Whether or not you agree with them, the professors have identified a 
mounting concern in fundamental physics: Today, our most ambitious 
science can seem at odds with the empirical methodology that has 
historically given the field its credibility.


How did we get to this impasse? In a way, the landmark detection three 
years ago of the elusive Higgs boson particle by researchers at the 
Large Hadron Collider marked the end of an era. Predicted about 50 years 
ago, the Higgs particle is the linchpin of what physicists call the 
“standard model” of particle physics, a powerful mathematical theory 
that accounts for all the fundamental entities in the quantum world 
(quarks and leptons) and all the known forces acting between them 
(gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces).


But the standard model, despite the glory of its vindication, is also a 
dead end. It offers no path forward to unite its vision of nature’s tiny 
building blocks with the other great edifice of 20th-century physics: 
Einstein’s cosmic-scale description of gravity. Without a unification of 
these two theories — a so-called theory of quantum gravity — we have no 
idea why our universe is made up of just these particles, forces and 
properties. (We also can’t know how to truly understand the Big Bang, 
the cosmic event that marked the beginning of time.)



This is where the specter of an evidence-independent science arises. For 
most of the last half-century, physicists have struggled to move beyond 
the standard model to reach the ultimate goal of uniting gravity and the 
quantum world. Many tantalizing possibilities (like the often-discussed 
string theory) have been explored, but so far with no concrete success 
in terms of experimental validation.


Today, the favored theory for the next step beyond the standard model is 
called supersymmetry (which is also the basis for string theory). 
Supersymmetry predicts the existence of a “partner” particle for every 
particle that we currently know. It doubles the number of elementary 
particles of matter in nature. The theory is elegant mathematically, and 
the particles whose existence it predicts might also explain the 
universe’s unaccounted-for “dark matter.” As a result, many researchers 
were confident that supersymmetry would be experimentally validated soon 
after the Large Hadron Collider became operational.


That’s not how things worked out, however. To date, no supersymmetric 
particles have been found. If the Large Hadron Collider cannot detect 
these particles, many physicists will declare supersymmetry — and, by 
extension, string theory — just another beautiful idea in physics that 
didn’t pan out.


But many won’t. Some may choose instead to simply retune their models to 
predict supersymmetric particles at masses beyond the reach of the Large 
Hadron Collider’s power of detection — and that of any foreseeable 
substitute.


Implicit in such a maneuver is a philosophical question: How are we to 
determine whether a theory is true if it cannot be validated 
experimentally? Should we abandon it just because, at a given level of 
technological capacity, empirical support might be impossible? If not, 
how long should we wait for such experimental machinery before moving 
on: ten years? Fifty years? Centuries?


Consider, likewise, the cutting-edge theory in physics that suggests 
that our universe is just one universe in a profusion of separate 
universes that make up the so-called multiverse. This theory could help 
solve some deep scientific conundrums about our own universe (such as 
the so-called fine-tuning problem), but at conside

[Marxism] NBC botches a simple curtain-raiser for the Mexican midterm elections

[Joaquín Bustelo via Marxism]

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What an article!

Calls a state a region. Says a small settlement within that state is 
another region. Gets the place where police kidnapped and disappeared 43 
students from a training institute for rural teachers wrong. 
Uncritically accepts government alibi to shift the blame for this crime 
onto drug traffickers. Gets the first name of the of the head of the 
National Electoral Institute wrong and says he is the INE's spokesperson 
instead of its president.


So much ignorance in only 300 words!

http://hatueysashes.blogspot.com/2015/06/nbc-botches-simple-curtain-raiser-for.html
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[Marxism] call for mobilizations of solidarity w/ Greece June 20 - 26

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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Call for a European bottom up mobilization, from movements of Greece:
Unite against austerity and injustice
LeftEast, June 2



The Greek movements appeal for solidarity across Europe
Left Unity, Britain


Kate Hudson writes -

As Greece faces continued attacks from the pro-austerity Troika, an
urgent Call for Support and Solidarity with Greece has been issued by
hundreds of trade unions, professional associations, community
activist networks, pensioners groups, ecologist organisations, migrant
and refugee groups, social solidarity networks and public
personalities.

The purpose of the Call is to mobilise people across Europe against
pro-austerity forces and EU institutions and in solidarity with those
who fight for social justice and democracy. Already a five thousand
strong conference in Paris this weekend has brought European movements
and parties together in support.

At the same time anti-austerity organisations across Europe are
stepping up their local activity and have called ‘With the Greeks
against austerity’ – a week of solidarity action from 20th–26th June.
Greece is on the front line against austerity and a defeat there will
be a defeat for all of us, so it is vital that the anti-austerity
movement in Britain supports both the Call and the week of action.

Left Unity stands in solidarity with the people of Greece and with its
sister party, Syriza: so let’s do all we can to mobilise. Please read
the call below and share it and also please join or organise local
solidarity actions too. In London there will be the March against
Austerity on June 20th organised by the People’s Assembly with a
strong European bloc in solidarity with Greece, and further solidarity
actions during the week.

Follow further developments here 

United we stand against austerity and social injustice

‘The outcome of the ongoing battle against austerity will define the
future not only of the Greeks but also the future of the European
people who struggle for more democracy and equality. During the
previous governments, Greece used to be a guinea pig but now is a
positive example which some forces want to smash.

Therefore, there is a need for building a militant European social and
political front against the pressure of the EU institutions, leading
to the suffocation of the Greek society, and to the restart of the
austerity programmes implemented already for 4 years by the previous
governments with catastrophic results. The Greek people, by their
mandate of the 25th of January, condemned the austerity policies, as
well as the anti-labour laws and the privatization programmes. The
policies supported by SYRIZA have adopted the demands of the trade
union and social movements of Europe for the last 10 years, and now we
need the support of these movements in order to repel these pressures
and to proceed with the progressive programme of social justice. The
European Establishment needs to punish the counter-paradigm of social
justice and democracy defended by the representatives of Greek people,
because they’re afraid of it: Do not let them do it!

In the period from now till the upcoming June, negotiations are taking
place among the Greek Government and the European Institutions. The
economic elite find it difficult to accept that someone challenges
their policies and propose an alternative plan for economy. They are
using all means to blackmail the Greek people and its Government. Show
us we are not alone in this fight!

We must put pressure on these institutions to cease this unacceptable
behavior and make them accept that it is the citizens of Europe who
must decide for their future. Based on the recent decisions of the
Athens meeting on the 2nd of May, we, a broad coalition of social
organizations, unions and networks, intellectuals, artists, migrant
organizations and various left, green and progressive political powers
being active in Greece, propose international actions between the 20
and the 26th of June in order to create the positive social and
political environment that will support the Greek struggle. Moreover
we are willing to host an event here in Athens on the 27th to share
ours and yours experiences of mobilizations and solidarity. It is
significant to transform the European peoples from passive viewers to
active players of this story.

This event will provide the necessary space to these actors in order
to express their concern regarding the negotiations but mainly to
bring to the su

[Marxism] Fwd: Hillary Clinton Traces Friendly Path, Troubling Party - NYTimes.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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This article is a total fucking joke. The NYT chides Clinton for running 
a campaign modeled on Obama's since it is not centrist enough. Don't 
they understand that if elected, she will be as centrist as Obama or her 
husband? That's what the Democrats are all about, sound somewhat like 
FDR but govern like Herbert Hoover.



NY Times, June 7 2015
Hillary Clinton Traces Friendly Path, Troubling Party
By JONATHAN MARTIN and MAGGIE HABERMAN

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be dispensing with the 
nationwide electoral strategy that won her husband two terms in the 
White House and brought white working-class voters and great stretches 
of what is now red-state America back to Democrats.


Instead, she is poised to retrace Barack Obama’s far narrower path to 
the presidency: a campaign focused more on mobilizing supporters in the 
Great Lakes states and in parts of the West and South than on persuading 
undecided voters.


Mrs. Clinton’s aides say it is the only way to win in an era of 
heightened polarization, when a declining pool of voters is truly up for 
grabs. Her liberal policy positions, they say, will fire up Democrats, a 
less difficult task than trying to win over independents in more hostile 
territory — even though a broader strategy could help lift the party 
with her.


full: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/us/politics/hillary-clinton-traces-friendly-path-troubling-party.html?ref=politics

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[Marxism] Fwd: Erdoğan’s win in Turkey heralds a surprising rise in the new left | Richard Seymour | Comment is free | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/12/erdogan-turkey-president-surprising-rise-new-left
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[Marxism] Fwd: Turkey’s Rejuvenated Left | Jacobin

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/06/erdogan-turkey-elections-gezi-hdp/
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[Marxism] Turkey’s Ruling Party Loses Parliamentary Majority

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, June 7 2015
Turkey’s Ruling Party Loses Parliamentary Majority
By TIM ARANGO and CEYLAN YEGINSU

ISTANBUL — Turkish voters delivered a rebuke on Sunday to President 
Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his party lost its majority in Parliament in a 
historic election that ended, for now, his ambition to rewrite the 
Constitution and establish an American-style presidential system.


The election results represented a significant setback to Mr. Erdogan, 
an Islamist who has steadily increased his power as president, a partly 
but not solely ceremonial post, after more than a decade as prime 
minister, and indicated that Mr. Erdogan’s efforts to accumulate power 
had run aground. And it was a significant victory to the cadre of Kurds, 
liberals and secular Turks who found their voice of opposition to Mr. 
Erdogan during sweeping antigovernment protests two years ago.


Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., still won by far 
the most seats in Parliament, but not a majority, according to 
preliminary results released Sunday night. The outcome suggested 
contentious days of jockeying ahead as the party moves to form a 
coalition government. Already, analysts were raising the possibility 
Sunday of new elections if a government cannot be formed swiftly. Many 
Turks were happy to see Mr. Erdogan’s powers curtailed, even though the 
prospect of a coalition government evokes dark memories of political 
instability and economic malaise during the 1990s.


With 99 percent of the votes counted, the A.K.P. had won 41 percent of 
the vote, according to TRT, a state-run broadcaster, down from nearly 50 
percent during the last national election in 2011. The percentage gave 
it an estimated 259 seats in Turkey’s Parliament, compared with the 327 
seats it has now.


“The outcome is an end to Erdogan’s presidential ambitions,” said Soner 
Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey and a fellow at the Washington Institute 
for Near East Policy.


Almost immediately, the results raised questions about the political 
future of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who moved to that position 
from that of foreign minister last year and was seen as a loyal 
subordinate of Mr. Erdogan. Mr. Davutoglu, who during the campaign vowed 
to resign if the A.K.P. did not win a majority, told reporters on Sunday 
evening in brief comments, “whatever the people decide is for the best.” 
Mr. Davutoglu was due to speak later in the evening in Ankara.


Mr. Erdogan, who as president was not on the ballot Sunday, will 
probably remain Turkey’s dominant political figure even if his powers 
have been rolled back, given his outsized personality and his still-deep 
well of support among Turkey’s religious conservatives, who form the 
backbone of his constituency. But even among those supporters, including 
ones in Kasimpasa, the Istanbul neighborhood where Mr. Erdogan spent 
part of his youth, there are signs that his popularity is flagging, 
partly because of his push for more powers over the judiciary and his 
crackdown on any form of criticism, including prosecutions of those who 
insult him on social media.


“A lot of people in Kasimpasa have become disheartened by Erdogan’s 
aggressive approach in recent weeks,” said Aydin, 77, who gave only his 
first name because some of his family members are close to Mr. Erdogan. 
“I voted for the A.K.P. because it has become habit, but I think Erdogan 
lost votes this week.”


The election was seen as a referendum on Mr. Erdogan’s tenure, 
especially his plan for a presidential system that would have given him 
more power. Polling had consistently shown that the majority of Turks 
are opposed to the change.


By law, Mr. Erdogan can call for a new election after 45 days if a 
coalition is not formed.


The election turned on the historic performance at the ballot box of 
Turkey’s Kurdish minority, which aligned with liberals and secular Turks 
opposed to Mr. Erdogan’s leadership to win almost 13 percent of the 
vote, passing a 10 percent legal threshold and earning representation in 
Parliament. The People’s Democratic Party, a largely Kurdish bloc known 
as H.D.P., was able to broaden its base by fielding a slate of 
candidates that included women, gays and other minorities and appealed 
to voters whose goal was to curtail Mr. Erdogan’s powers.


“I voted for H.D.P. because it’s the only party that can break up 
Erdogan’s bid for absolute power,” said Selen Olcay, 47, a fitness 
instructor who voted in Istanbul’s Sariyer district. “In this election a 
lot of Turks abandoned their ideological preferences and voted 
strategically to derail Erdogan’s one-man rule.”


The Kurdish party opted t

[Marxism] Fwd: Charlie’s Country | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Opening last Friday at Lincoln Plaza Cinema in NY, “Charlie’s Country” 
is now the fourth film I have seen that stars Australian aboriginal 
actor David Gulpilil who I first saw in “Walkabout” back in 1971 when he 
was 18 years old. Now 65 he is just as capable of conveying the 
psychological depth of an indigenous person as he ever was, in this case 
more essentially since he is the co-author of the screenplay.


Directed by Nicolas Roeg, “Walkabout” depicted the complex interaction 
of a young brother and sister stranded in the outback with a young 
aborigine out on a rite of puberty testing his ability to survive in the 
wilderness. As a perfect complement to his first film, the latest shows 
his character Charlie returning once again to the bush but more as 
someone in the twilight of his life in a search to find the life that 
was once so meaningful to him but that has been destroyed by the white 
Australian colonizer.


full: http://louisproyect.org/2015/06/07/charlies-country/
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[Marxism] 'Scottish Syriza' gains support from left in Greece, Spain, Canada; May 24 election in Spain; elsewhere, Portugal, Ireland

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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Scottish Syriza' gains support from left in Greece, Spain and Canada
Tom Gordon, Scottish Political Editor
Herald Scotland, Edinburgh, June 7


THE fledgling left-wing coalition dubbed the Scottish Syriza is to
receive strategic advice from the real thing ahead of next year's
Holyrood elections.

The new electoral pact, anchored around the Scottish Socialist Party
and the grassroots Scottish Left Project, will meet representatives of
Greece's ruling party Syriza in Edinburgh today, as well as members of
Spain's left-wing Podemos movement.

The gathering is expected to discuss tactics for the 2016 election,
when the new Scottish anti-austerity coalition hopes to return
Socialist MSPs through the regional list system.

The development comes just days after Quebec Solidaire, the radical
coalition in Quebec's National Assembly, agreed to give its support to
the Scottish alliance.

Delegates unanimously backed the move at their conference in Montreal
last week, at which Scottish trade union activist Cat Boyd spoke on
the Left's post-referendum revival.

Amir Khadir, a Quebec Solidaire National Assembly member, said:
"Austerity, whether British or Canadian, has left the vulnerable
behind and impoverished ordinary people.

"But there is hope, as Cat Boyd reminded us about the struggle of
ordinary people in Scotland and how Yes voters said Yes to a new and
different country.

"The rising momentum behind the Scottish Left Project gives us hope
and courage to fight for justice at home and solidarity abroad."

The Sunday Herald revealed last month that the Scottish Socialist
Party (SSP) and Scottish Left Project plan to stand candidates under a
new shared platform next May, despite misgivings among some SSP
members that the party's identity could be diluted.

The new alliance has yet to be named, but United Left and Scottish
Left are possibilities.

Former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars said he was "delighted" at the
prospect of a pact.

He said: "Because of the problems with the Labour party, there are now
opportunities for a non-Labour left, which was quite fractured, to
come together.

"I think it would be a very good thing if a new socialist Left
developed in Scotland, and stood for elections. I'd be a liar if I
said anything different.

"If socialists can get together in a new coalition then I am
delighted, absolutely delighted.

"And if my colleagues in the SNP are unhappy about that, well, I've
got nothing against them."

He added: "I'm not saying that the SNP has become overmighty at the
moment, but I think in a democracy it is not healthy for the parties
or society to have one party that's dominant for too long. There have
to be alternatives available to people."

SSP co-convenor Colin Fox added: "Sunday's meeting is to learn from
Syriza and Podemos's experience. Podemos have just fought regional
elections in Spain. I would expect to get endorsements from Syriza and
Podemos later this year."

A Scottish Left Project spokesperson said: "Just as Quebec Solidaire
support the development of the radical left in Scotland, we support
their campaign in Quebec.

"After a period of decline, the forces of the radical left are now in
the ascendency as the international fight back against austerity
intensifies.

"'We are also working with representatives of Syriza, and are looking
to see how a variety of their organisational and political techniques
could be implemented in Scotland.

"It is not about creating a carbon copy, but it is important that we
can take advice, learn from and work with those on the radical left
who have experience of electoral breakthroughs.'

Scottish Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said: "It's no surprise to
see this group modelling itself on a party currently presiding over
the most chaotic economy in Europe.

"I'm sure they can come up with enough of their own crazily damaging
ideas without getting input from other radical left-wingers."


This Spanish protest party just caused a massive political earthquake
by Roland Lloyd Parry, Elodie Cuzin, with Daniel Bosque in Barcelona,
AFP, May 25


Madrid (AFP) - Spain faced a changed political landscape Monday after
the "Indignado" protest movement gave the ruling conservative rivals a
battering in local elections, topping the vote in Barcelona and
shattering the governing party's majority in Madrid.

In a dramatic shakeup of Spanish politics, an upstart group backed by
the anti-austerity protest party Podemos

[Marxism] Ronnie Gilbert, Folk Singer for the Weavers, Dies at 88

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, June 7 2015
Ronnie Gilbert, Folk Singer for the Weavers, Dies at 88
By BRUCE WEBER

Ronnie Gilbert, whose crystalline, bold contralto provided distaff 
ballast for the Weavers, the seminal quartet that helped propel folk 
music to wide popularity and establish its power as an agent of social 
change, died on Saturday in Mill Valley, Calif. She was 88.


The death was confirmed by her partner, Donna Korones.

Ms. Gilbert had a résumé as a stage actor and later in life a career as 
a psychologist, but her enduring impact was as a singer.


The Weavers, whose other members were Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Fred 
Hellerman, started playing together in the late 1940s. Like-minded 
musicians with progressive political views, they performed work songs, 
union songs and gospel songs, and became known for American folk 
standards like “On Top of Old Smoky,” “Goodnight, Irene” (first recorded 
by the blues singer Lead Belly), Woody Guthrie’s “So Long, It’s Been 
Good to Know Yuh” and “The Hammer Song” (a.k.a. “If I Had a Hammer”) by 
Mr. Seeger and Mr. Hays, as well as songs from other cultures, including 
“Wimoweh” from Africa and “Tzena Tzena Tzena,” a Hebrew song popular in 
Israel (though it was written before Israel was established in 1948).


Their voices, especially Ms. Gilbert’s, were powerful, their harmonies 
were distinctive and their attitude was an enthusiastic embrace of the 
listener. Together those elements created a singalong populism that laid 
the groundwork for a folk-music boom in the 1950s and 1960s and its 
concomitant earnest strain of 1960s counterculture.


The Kingston Trio, the Limeliters and Peter, Paul & Mary, among others, 
were direct musical descendants; slightly more distant relations 
included Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Phil Ochs.


“We sang songs of hope in that strange time after World War II, when 
already the world was preparing for Cold War,” Ms. Gilbert recalled in 
“The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time,” a 1982 documentary about the group. 
“We still had the feeling that if we could sing loud enough and strong 
enough and hopefully enough, it would make a difference.”


The Weavers’ own narrative was a dramatic one, a product of the 
political moment. Hardly confrontational or subversive in their 
presentations — in their public appearances they were well groomed, the 
men often wearing jackets and ties and Ms. Gilbert a dress — they were 
nonetheless targeted by the anti-Communist right wing.


In 1949 they were still an informal ensemble, playing at union meetings 
and on picket lines but rarely if ever for money. They were on the verge 
of dispersing when Max Gordon, owner of the Village Vanguard in 
Manhattan, booked them to play for two weeks during the Christmas 
holidays. Instantly a hit, they were so popular that they stayed at the 
Vanguard for six months and were signed by Decca Records. For the next 
two years, touring and recording and appearing on radio and television, 
they were among the biggest musical stars in the country.


But in June 1950, the influential pamphlet “Red Channels,” purportedly 
an exposé of the Communist infiltration of the entertainment industry, 
was published, and it named Pete Seeger, who had in fact been a member 
of the Communist Party earlier in his life.


The following year the Weavers were investigated by the Senate Internal 
Security Subcommittee, whose purview was to root out subversive citizen 
threats. In 1952, while they were on tour in Ohio, a paid informant for 
the F.B.I., Harvey Matusow, testified before the Ohio Un-American 
Activities Commission that three members of the group, including Ms. 
Gilbert, were Communist Party members. (Mr. Matusow would later write a 
book in which he recanted dozens of his accusations.) The Weavers were 
blacklisted; invitations to perform and record dried up, their 
recordings were removed from stores, and the group disbanded. With her 
husband, Martin Weg, a dentist, Ms. Gilbert moved to California, where 
they started a family.


Then, in 1955, the Weavers’ manager, Harold Leventhal, arranged a 
concert at Carnegie Hall. The show sold out, perceived by many ticket 
buyers not just as a musical event but as an act of defiance against the 
overzealousness of anti-Communists.


It renewed interest in the Weavers, and though Seeger (who died in 2014) 
left the group a couple of years later, the group, with a series of 
replacements continued to perform and record until 1964, when they gave 
a farewell concert in Chicago. Their influence — and Ms. Gilbert’s — was 
by then well established.


“I was at the 1955 concert at Carnegie Hall,” Mary Travers of Peter, 
Paul & Mary wro

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: ZCommunications » Syriza and the future of the left

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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I think that this article i well worth reading.  The excerpt Louis
chose, tied together with his own article criticizing facile calls for
socialist revolution, might cause you to underestimate it imo.  As i
read it, Karpozilos is saying that Syriza's plan for 'changing Greece,
changing Europe' and overcoming Eurozone austerity policies simply by
winning an election is looking hopeless.  But this apparent reformist
dead end can not be surmounted by facile calls for national
revolution.  The way forward is using transitional demands directed to
the needs of European working people to build a new revolutionary
international movement that makes the capitalist EU an anachronism.
I will share some additional excerpts below.  btw Karpozilos is
teaching history at Columbia University

The promise of history: Syriza and the future of the left
by Kostis Karpozilos
Red Pepper, June 2015

. . .
...Even though much of the European left focused on the radical
tendencies within Syriza, the transformation of the party’s rhetoric
was much more important. In order to convince voters that the
catastrophic propaganda of the right was unfounded, Syriza
overstretched a promise of radical change without considerable cost.
According to Syriza's strategy, the dominant powers in the European
Union were eager to accept that the austerity program in Greece was
not working because it was irrational. Therefore, they would welcome a
new agenda for the exodus of Greece from recession, appreciating at
the same time that Syriza had abandoned the radical proclamations of
the past in favor of a noble compromise. This mind-soothing reasoning
appealed to the Greek public. Recent polls have demonstrated that the
vast majority of Greeks want the country to stay in the European
Union. Therefore Syriza’s promise sounded like a win-win situation:
the end of austerity with Greece in the Eurozone.

The emphasis on the irrational character of the dominant neoliberal
model had a self-assuring effect, but avoided the difficult question:
what if the European elites are following a conscious plan that
guarantees the material interests of the dominant economies? If this
were indeed the case, then the left would have to think over its
position towards the European Union. If the European Union structure
does not allow space even for the slightest reform then the left
should emancipate its political imagination away from the European
Union towards a new European project.
. . .
Confronted with a historic crisis of capitalism, the left appears
trapped in history: in its own history of failures and in the
repetition of analysis and tactics that have no broader appeal. This
is equally true for reformists and revolutionaries alike. The former
dream of a retreat to the social contract of postwar capitalism; the
latter dream a repetition of history based on the belief that the
masses are always ready and just need the right kind of leadership.
Both models have been tested across the European left and have failed.
This failure is the elephant in the room.

The left of the 21st century should attempt a synthesis between a
programme for the immediate future and a vision of a radically
different world. The Greek left has a unique opportunity, in power, to
promote this synthesis. More than once the representatives of Syriza
have been confronted with the question 'do you want Greece outside or
inside the Eurozone?' It is time for the left to reframe this
question: do we want the Eurozone to look like Greece in the near
future? If not, it is time for a radical project, encompassing
reformist changes that will revolutionise everyday conditions not only
in Greece but also across Europe.


On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 6:55 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism
 wrote:
>
> Within the disheartening political map of Europe, defined by ruling
> neoliberal and reactionary forces, any effort for a progressive national
> solution is doomed. This is particularly true for countries in the European
> periphery. In the 1990s the celebrated ‘Greek miracle’ of unprecedented
> growth was founded on a structural transformation of the national economy,
> encouraged ideologically and financially by the European Union. The decline
> of agricultural production and the decline of small and medium-scale
> industries was greeted as a sign of modernisation, while Greek capitalists
> transferred their activities to the Balkans, taking advantage of low wages
> and a lack of regulation.
>
> This structural transformation became evident in the last few years. Even
> though mainstream media focus on the transfer o

[Marxism] MEXICO: Militarized elections

[Celeste Murillo via Marxism]

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Source: http://www.laizquierdadiario.com/Militarized-elections

MEXICO: Militarized elections

Thousands of teachers from the National Teachers Coordinator (CNTE), along
with students, social organizations, the parents of the 43, local farmers,
and popular sectors have been organizing a great mobilization for the past
few days in order to boycott and stop the elections. Up until Friday,
Lorenzo Cordova, the president of the National Electoral Institute (INE),
was announcing his guarantee that the elections were going to take place
throughout the whole state of Oaxaca.

The actions taken by section 22, section 18, and 7 of the State Coordinator
of Education Workers in Guerrero (CETEG) alongside popular sectors to
boycott the elections demonstrates the profound hatred and out right
questioning of this “democracy” and their militarized elections.

After 72 hours the following has taken place: In Veracruz students and
activists houses were raided by paramilitary and “thugs” heavily armed,
resulting in a number of injuries; 2 students from the Autonomous
University of Puebla (UAP) were detained and accused of a bomb attack; a
professor is dead and a student teacher (normalista) is in a coma after
confrontation between the police and armed civilians. There is a report for
2 missing students. Also, organized “thugs” in Pachutla attacked teachers
from the 22nd section of CNTE who had taken over a gas station. A few hours
ago in Xolapa, Guerrero, the “community police” was unarmed and 10 members
were executed without any kind of trial.

Tanks, helicopters, artillery units and hundreds of other army materials
flown into Oaxaca by military planes have been arriving in preparation for
the elections. This is an unprecedented situation in which they are forcing
the population to vote with a gun to their backs. It is a clear example of
how degraded and illegitimate the regime has become.

These elections are militarized, revealing just how profoundly undemocratic
and reactionary the capitalist system really is in its attempt to
legitimize an election that has been heavily questioned. The PRI party and
all the parties of the regime, are willing to continue their plans to give
away the nation resources in favor of U.S. imperialism, no matter what the
cost.

In the next few hours there is a possibility of new confrontations with the
army and the police in the states that are mobilized, especially in
Atyotzinapa, where last night students were denouncing that the electric
power had been cut off and there were threats that the police would enter
the student campus.

Meanwhile, the PRD governor Mancera has withdrawn all the police from
Mexico City to the barracks so that they can be deployed to the election
polls today Sunday the 7th, in order to guarantee a “peaceful” election day.

Due to the mobilization of armed forces, and the virtual “state of siege”,
human rights groups have begun to denounce horrendous human rights
violations by the State. This repressive dynamic is similar to the one that
began with the inauguration of Pena Nieto’s government back in Dec of 2012,
when mobilized popular sectors protesting Pena Nieto’s elections were
severely repressed.

Nothing good can become of the “democracy for the rich” proposed by the
parties of the regime, PRI, PAN, PRD, PVEM. They can only have more
repression, misery, hunger, unemployment and exploitation to offer.

It’s necessary to take the struggles of the San Quintin laborers as an
example, along with the workers of the Triumph multinational, the miners of
Cananea and other sectors that are mobilized despite the militarization,
the “narcos”, the para-military and this terrible attack by the bosses and
the government.

This is why we are calling on all the unions who call themselves
democratic, social organizations, civil and human rights groups, rural
workers, women, indigenous communities, and students to begin organizing a
great democratic movement on the streets to stop the militarization of the
country and to organize ourselves independently from the parties in power
in order to stop the attack.

Translation: Sara Jayne @surdaso
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[Marxism] Clinton Cash

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(This article, which is behind a NY Review paywall, reflects 
considerable nervousness about the sleazy Clinton Foundation. The author 
is a Blue Dog Democrat who does about as good a job as he can rebutting 
the new book by rightwing journalist Peter Schweitzer but admits in the 
final analysis that the Democrats have a ticking time-bomb in the way 
these pigs have gotten rich in the name of doing good.)



NY Review, JUNE 25, 2015 ISSUE
The Hillary in Our Future
Michael Tomasky

Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and 
Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich

by Peter Schweizer
Harper, 243 pp., $27.99

As Hillary Rodham Clinton pursues the 2016 Democratic presidential 
nomination, we face a situation that is wholly without precedent in 
modern American electoral history. There have been presumptive nominees 
before, usually sitting vice-presidents—Al Gore in 2000, George H.W. 
Bush in 1988, and Hubert Humphrey in 1968, to name three. But even they 
faced competition from candidates who were certainly from the “first 
tier”—Bill Bradley, Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, Bobby Kennedy, and Gene McCarthy.


Clinton faces no such opposition within her party. It’s good that 
Senator Bernie Sanders has decided to enter the race. Clinton will have 
to debate him, and his mere presence will force her to take positions 
she could otherwise get away with not taking. But it’s rather unlikely 
that a socialist from Vermont can capture a major-party nomination. 
Similarly, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley probably doesn’t 
arouse much concern at Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters. He has a solid 
record of achievement in Annapolis and intriguing credentials as a 
Catholic committed to social justice. But he comes with baggage, too—the 
extremely incompetent implementation of Obamacare in his state and, now, 
the mere fact that he was once the mayor of the sad, segregated city of 
Baltimore, perpetually suspended in a kind of bitter aspic of 
deindustrialization, disinvestment, and broken promises. Sometimes 
governors exude clear presidential potential, as did Bill Clinton and 
George W. Bush. O’Malley, so far anyway, does not.


And that’s about it. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is out; she 
plainly does not want to be president. Although she’s been active in 
opposing Obama’s proposed Pacific trade agreement, she’s never shown a 
deep interest in foreign policy, which is a rather important part of any 
president’s job, particularly so at this point in history. Short of 
incapacitating illness or a scandal of enormous proportions, Clinton 
will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee.


This puts her in a strong position, but it also places a special burden 
on her. It means that the nation’s liberals and Democrats, millions of 
people who usually have a choice to make, in essence don’t have one 
here. There is much at stake in next year’s election. For a start, a new 
president who serves two terms may well nominate three or even four 
justices to the Supreme Court, meaning either that the Court’s 
conservative majority will be solidified and enlarged, with more allies 
of Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito, or that it will be reversed, giving 
the country a liberal Supreme Court majority for the first time since 
the 1980s. Such a Court could spend a generation or two reversing the 
precedents set by the Courts of William Rehnquist and John Roberts.


So Clinton, who leads in national polls and will benefit from an 
Electoral College map that favors any Democratic candidate, has a 
special obligation as a candidate. She has to run a better race than she 
ran in 2008. She needs to show—as she already has on issues like 
immigration, criminal justice, and the tax rates of hedge fund 
managers—that she is attuned to where the electorate is today. And she 
needs to take all reasonable steps to avoid taints of scandal. If a 
late-breaking controversy over Clinton’s record and character propels 
someone like Scott Walker to the White House, the sense of betrayal and 
despair will be ferocious.


The Clinton Foundation—until recently the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea 
Clinton Foundation—has done a lot of good in the world since its 
founding in 2001. By far its largest program—$128 million spent in 
2013—is the Clinton Health Access Initiative, which facilitates the 
provision of, and negotiates price reductions for, AIDS and malarial 
drugs to millions of people in Africa and elsewhere. It does other work 
to expand access to health care in developing countries.


The second-largest of the foundation’s seven major programs ($23.6 
million in 2013) is the Clinton Global I

[Marxism] Fwd: ZCommunications » Syriza and the future of the left

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Within the disheartening political map of Europe, defined by ruling 
neoliberal and reactionary forces, any effort for a progressive national 
solution is doomed. This is particularly true for countries in the 
European periphery. In the 1990s the celebrated ‘Greek miracle’ of 
unprecedented growth was founded on a structural transformation of the 
national economy, encouraged ideologically and financially by the 
European Union. The decline of agricultural production and the decline 
of small and medium-scale industries was greeted as a sign of 
modernisation, while Greek capitalists transferred their activities to 
the Balkans, taking advantage of low wages and a lack of regulation.


This structural transformation became evident in the last few years. 
Even though mainstream media focus on the transfer of personal savings 
to foreign banks, the hidden parallel universe of ship-owners and elites 
that traditionally evaded taxation has readily transferred its financial 
activities beyond the borders. As the historian Christos Chatziosif has 
underlined, this shift explains the paradox of a national elite that has 
not given any assistance to the governmental efforts for the restoration 
of the national economy. Deprived of allies in the European Union, 
Syriza’s agenda for national reconstruction within the European Union is 
deadlocked.


full: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/syriza-and-the-future-of-the-left/

At the risk of defying reality, I think it would be worthwhile to think 
about what it would mean to “build socialism” in Greece. In fact, 
there’s very little engagement with that question in the IDOM website. 
Mostly there are calls for radical action such as the following: “Rather 
than requesting a European debt conference with bourgeois governments we 
should hold directly in Greece an international conference of the mass 
organisations of the working class and of the youth against capitalism!” 
(The comrades are fond of the exclamation point.)


full: 
http://louisproyect.org/2015/05/18/socialist-revolution-in-greece-easy-to-say-harder-to-do/

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[Marxism] Fwd: War with Isis: As the militant threat grows, so does the West's self-deception - Voices - The Independent

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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This is Patrick Cockburn going all medieval on the need for the West to 
defeat ISIS:


http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/war-with-isis-as-the-militant-threat-grows-so-does-the-wests-selfdeception-10302380.html

Four years ago, this was him arguing that "Western intervention in Syria 
would make matters worse; There are good reasons why Britain and other 
foreign states should limit their involvement in the conflicts now 
raging in the Arab world": 
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/patrick-cockburn-western-intervention-in-syria-would-make-matters-worse-2275027.html


I know that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds but really...
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[Marxism] Taking up arms against Australian women - domestic violence and terrorism

[John Passant via Marxism]

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Taking up arms against Australian women - domestic violence and terrorism

Combatting domestic violence at a minimum requires a challenge to the 
dominance of the family and ultimately its overthrow. Tony Abbott will 
do nothing that might undermine the ideology of the family let alone 
overthrow it. Nor will he address the 'less than men' messages about 
women that flow from the paramountcy of the family unit in capitalist 
society. Instead he has cut funding for domestic violence services.


http://enpassant.com.au/2015/06/07/taking-up-arms-against-australian-women-domestic-violence-and-terrorism/

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