[Marxism] Jacobin: Walking on the Fighting Side of Me

[Greg McDonald via Marxism]

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http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/04/jacobin-walking-on-the-fighting-side-of-me

Were you thinking, I really need to know what Jacobin has to say about
Merle Haggard? Probably not. Unfortunately, Jacobin decided to publish a
Merle Haggard obituary of sorts, by Jonah Walters
.
It is, without exaggeration, the worst essay I have ever seen in that
publication and one of the worst essays on music I have ever read. It is
essentially an exercise in Aesthetic Stalinism, arguing that Merle Haggard
was a terrible person and overrated artist because he was supposedly the
voice of American reaction for a half-century. This is not only wrong
politically, it’s wrong musically. Let’s break it down.
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[Marxism] Firefighters and their union in New Zealand

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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One of the unions in New Zealand that has been noticeable for defending pay
and conditions on the job and solidarising with other workers in struggle
has been the firefighters.  They have had some tough battles of their own,
but also supported the Auckland port workers in their fight to defend jobs
and conditions and, most recently, Auckland health workers.  The NZPFU (New
Zealand Professional Firefighters Union) is also the only union to have
succeeded in getting a referendum on workers' rights.  In their case it was
about defending jobs.

Firefighters gathered hundreds of thousands of. . .
full at:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/firefighters-coverage-on-redline/
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Re: [Marxism] Stalin and Soviet philosophy

[Jim Farmelant via Marxism]

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Some years ago, I summarized the 1920's debate between the Deborinists and the 
Mechanists along the following lines:

Probably the most important debate that drew the attention of Soviet 
philosophers during the early years of the USSR was the debate between the 
"mechanists" and the "dialecticians" or Deborinists. This debate at first began 
as a discussion within the philosophy of science but over time came to 
encompass most aspects of philosophy. Furthermore, despite the fact it was 
formally settled in 1929, the issues underlying the debate never went away, and 
recurred in different forms over time. Indeed, since the issues at hand were 
among the most important ones concerning Marxist philosophy, they in fact have 
never really went away.

By the early 1920's, Soviet philosophers were debating what conception of 
materialism provided the best philosophical basis for Marxism. One school held 
that a mechanistic conception of materialism was acceptable. Most of the 
advocates of this view either came straight out of the natural sciences, or 
they were philosophers who had been closely associated with natural science in 
some way. Among the leading advocates of this school were A.K. Timartizev, 
Timianski, Lyubov Akselrod, and I. I. Stepanov.

These people were staunch empiricists. They did not deny the validity of 
dialectics but maintained that dialectics must limit itself to what was 
observable and verifiable by the methods of natural science. Dialectics must 
follow science, and not pretend to be able to lead it. Materialism for these 
people meant a strict and thorough reliance upon the methods and findings of 
the natural sciences. These philosophers embraced the label of "mechanists" as 
a designation for their school of thought, and they insisted that a mechanistic 
outlook was valid not only for the natural sciences but also for the philosophy 
of history and of society as well. For these people, a Marxist philosophy 
therefore had to root itself in the natural sciences and to follow the findings 
of natural science. In their view, it was illegitimate to posit a Marxist 
philosophy that would attempt to dictate to the sciences.

Closely allied to the mechanists, though not entirely agreeing with them was 
the prominent Bolshevik, N.I. Bukharin. Thus Bukharin in his *Historical 
Materialism* embraced a positivist interpretation of Marx's materialist 
conception of history, emphasizing that the goal was to develop causal 
explanations of history, which would take the place of teleological 
explanations. Furthermore, Bukharin argued that "It is quite possible to 
transcribe the 'mystical' (as Marx put it) language of Hegelian dialectics into 
the language of modern mechanics." Bukharin thus maintained that Marx's 
materialist conception of history should over time lead to the development of a 
positive science of society that would be mechanistic in character and in which 
the concept of equilibrium would play a central role.

The mechanists maintained that the dialectical conception of nature, properly 
understood, was the mechanist conception. Indeed, Stepanov once wrote an 
article bearing the title "The Dialectical Understanding of Nature is the 
Mechanistic Understanding" in case anyone should be confused about his position.

As the mechanists saw it, Soviet philosophy was torn by a debate between those 
who maintained that dialectical method was one to be used insomuch as it was 
fruitful for revealing new facts about nature and society, versus those who 
looked to the dialectical philosophy of Hegel to provide themselves with 
ready-made solutions to problems. The mechanists charged their opponents (i.e. 
the dialecticians) with offering a priori solutions to problems in the 
philosophy of nature and the philosophy of history.

Opposing the mechanists were the so-called dialecticians or Deborinists. These 
people had a much higher regard for Hegel than did the mechanists. Furthermore, 
they maintained that the mechanists misunderstood how Marx & Engels had 
reconstructed Hegelian dialectics on a materialist basis. The dialecticians 
were vigorous defenders of what Marxists call the "dialectics of nature." They 
maintained that the laws of dialectics as described by Engels in such works as 
*Anti-Duhring* and "The Dialectics of Nature* are actually found in nature. 
Dialectics reflects the natural world. The dialecticians argued that the 
mechanists were positing a narrow, rigid, and lifeless conception of nature. 
Whereas, the mechanists tended to be either natural scientists or philosophers 
close to the natural sciences, the
dialecticians tended to be professional 

Re: [Marxism] Mondoweiss pimps for Assad

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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see also Louis's earlier piece:
https://louisproyect.org/2014/01/18/mondoweiss-as-a-baathist-outlet/
and a great guide - ironically at mondo - by Ramah Kudaimi:
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/08/dos-and-donts-for-progressives-discussing-syria/


On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 8:31 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> On 4/25/16 5:47 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/say-hello-to-zenobia-a-report-from-palmyra-rising-from-the-ashes/
>> The delegation was organized by an explicitly pro-Assad group and the
>> reportback is unabashedly pro-regime, pro-Russia genocide.
>>
>
> I just posted a comment:
>
> Sad to see Jeff Klein writing this kind of garbage. I knew him back in the
> late 80s when he was involved with Tecnica and when both of us had high
> hopes that the FSLN could have succeeded in building an alternative to
> neoliberalism. But writing this kind of pap for a blood-drenched tyranny
> whose top capitalist crony of Bashar al-Assad was revealed to be hiding
> billions in Panama banks really makes me want to throw up.
>
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Re: [Marxism] Mondoweiss pimps for Assad

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 4/25/16 5:47 PM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote:


http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/say-hello-to-zenobia-a-report-from-palmyra-rising-from-the-ashes/
The delegation was organized by an explicitly pro-Assad group and the
reportback is unabashedly pro-regime, pro-Russia genocide.


I just posted a comment:

Sad to see Jeff Klein writing this kind of garbage. I knew him back in 
the late 80s when he was involved with Tecnica and when both of us had 
high hopes that the FSLN could have succeeded in building an alternative 
to neoliberalism. But writing this kind of pap for a blood-drenched 
tyranny whose top capitalist crony of Bashar al-Assad was revealed to be 
hiding billions in Panama banks really makes me want to throw up.

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[Marxism] Nelson Valdes and that ubiquitous misinterpretation of Marx

[michael a. lebowitz via Marxism]

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In his thoughtful Counterpunch comment on the 'updating' of the Cuban 
model, Nelson Valdes writes:


'Karl Marx in /_The Critique of the Gotha Program 
_ 
/said that “Right can never be higher than the economic structure of 
society and its cultural development conditioned thereby.” In other 
words, if Cuba is to move into the logic that capacity to purchase 
should be a significant mechanism to obtain things, how “fair” is that 
when some people have a head start because they have foreign exchange 
from abroad in their pockets while others do not? Is it that efficiency 
is to be measured by profitability, cost of production or something 
else? Is it that the social wage [services provided without citizens 
direct payment] will be reduced and the stress will be on personal 
income? Is the piece rate how work and income will be established? These 
are some of the questions concerning Cubans today. The newer policies 
and the expected outcomes could very well demolish the /highly 
integrated/ /and unique/ nation state that was created after 1959.'
Nelson doubtless knows that this quotation is consistently repeated 
in Cuba as a theoretical guideline for its 'updated' model. 
Unfortunately, Cuban direction interprets that quote from Marx in the 
same way as the Soviets, the Chinese and the Vietnamese leadership et al 
have--- that the further development of productive forces [by all means 
necessary?] is the necessary condition for the advancement of socialism. 
So, wait. The problem with this interpretation, though,is that it 
asserts that 'the economic structure of society' is identical with 
productive forces--- rather than referring to the relations of 
production of a sociey! In fact, it is the latter which corresponds to 
Marx's argument in the Gotha Critique [see my discussion in The 
Socialist Imperative: from Gotha to Now, published in 2015 by Monthly 
Review], and it is the failure to understand this that historically has 
led to that deadend that Che warned about. And. of course, to a working 
class with neither the strength nor the will to resist the restoration 
of capitalism.

 michael

--
-
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Home:   Phone 604-689-9510
Cell: 604-789-4803


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[Marxism] Some nice little mementos of 1916 rebellion

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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http://www.siopaeirigi.org/category-s/143.htm
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[Marxism] 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rebellion

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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April 24 marked the 100th anniversary of the Irish Rebellion of 1916,
although back then the 24th was Monday not Sunday as this year.

In 1995/96 I did a 120,000-word masters thesis on the road to the Rising,
the war for independence and winners and losers in the new 'free
state'/civil war outcome.  In the first two chapters I also looked at the
rise of historical revisionism - a virulently anti-republican school of
Irish historiography.

All the chapters are listed here:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/100th-anniversary-of-irelands-1916-rebellion/
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: No, Seymour Hersh, the shish kebab does not favor Sharia law | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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speaking of Australia, notice that the Assadist tour promoted by mondoweiss
is organized out of there

On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 8:06 PM, Michael Karadjis via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Well, the shawarma may not favour Sharia law as Hersh believes, but I've
> heard in good authority that Sharia law does favour the shawarma. Therefore
> we need a campaign to boycott this sharia food. In Australia, there have
> been a number of organisations already campaigning against the imposition
> of Sharia law in Australia, and some specifically campaign against halal
> food. Clearly we can see the outlines of a broad united front.
>
> -Original Message- From: Louis Proyect via Marxism
> Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 2:18 AM
> To: Michael Karadjis
> Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: No, Seymour Hersh, the shish kebab does not favor
> Sharia law | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
>
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>
>
>
>
> https://louisproyect.org/2016/04/25/no-seymour-hersh-the-shish-kebab-does-not-favor-sharia-law/
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: No, Seymour Hersh, the shish kebab does not favor Sharia law | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Michael Karadjis via Marxism]

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Well, the shawarma may not favour Sharia law as Hersh believes, but I've 
heard in good authority that Sharia law does favour the shawarma. 
Therefore we need a campaign to boycott this sharia food. In Australia, 
there have been a number of organisations already campaigning against 
the imposition of Sharia law in Australia, and some specifically 
campaign against halal food. Clearly we can see the outlines of a broad 
united front.


-Original Message- 
From: Louis Proyect via Marxism

Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 2:18 AM
To: Michael Karadjis
Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: No, Seymour Hersh, the shish kebab does not 
favor Sharia law | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist


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https://louisproyect.org/2016/04/25/no-seymour-hersh-the-shish-kebab-does-not-favor-sharia-law/
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[Marxism] a snip

[Gary MacLennan via Marxism]

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"The material conditions that generate the need for people to look for
substitutes for their agency—distress and oppression on the one hand,
married to feeling relatively powerless, on the other—all of that continues
to exist in late capitalism both because of, and despite the miscarriage of
concrete utopia."

I snipped the above from Lou's post.  I do so look forward to reading the
fuller version of his analysis of Stalinism.  I was especially intrigued by
the relevance of this remark for an understanding of the phenomenon of Left
Nietzscheanism or to be more exact the refuge by defeated leftist
intellectuals in the paranoid boasting that was the staple of Nietzsche's
offerings.

Someday I may get the time to do a full exploration of the duality of
Stalinism and Nietzscheanism. I am thinking especially of the fact that the
turn to Nietzsche in the 60s in France was partly sparked by the fear of
the PCF coming back into government in the Union de la Gauche.  So to
prevent that we had the rubbish about "There is no such thing as the truth
(Is that true?) the "End of the Grand Narratives" and the ontology of the
"rhizome" - (The potato rules). All would be risible if they had not been
taken so seriously and gone on to infect a whole generation of students.

comradely

Gary
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Re: [Marxism] Mondoweiss pimps for Assad

[A.R. G via Marxism]

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Some of the comments are good and correctly compared this to Zionist
warzone touring.

I'm not against traveling to any of these places (in fact I'd encourage it)
but doing so as part of a pro-regime junket is another story.

On Monday, April 25, 2016, Andrew Pollack via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
>
> http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/say-hello-to-zenobia-a-report-from-palmyra-rising-from-the-ashes/
> The delegation was organized by an explicitly pro-Assad group and the
> reportback is unabashedly pro-regime, pro-Russia genocide.
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-- 
- Amith
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[Marxism] Mondoweiss pimps for Assad

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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http://mondoweiss.net/2016/04/say-hello-to-zenobia-a-report-from-palmyra-rising-from-the-ashes/
The delegation was organized by an explicitly pro-Assad group and the
reportback is unabashedly pro-regime, pro-Russia genocide.
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[Marxism] Slump capitalism and the end of history

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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I did this in 1997, but still seems relevant (sadly).

https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/from-the-vaults-slump-capitalism-and-the-end-of-history-1997/

Phil
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[Marxism] Stalin and Soviet philosophy

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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There's some really good stuff in the Crisis and Critique special issue 
on Stalin (as well as some awful stuff, especially Roland Boer). This is 
among the more interesting articles.



When the Soviet state finally won the Civil War against its multiple
external and internal enemies, it found itself in a difficult (almost
impossible) economic and political situation. Theoretically unified around
Plekhanov’s interpretation of Marxism, Soviet leaders struggled to fit
the new existing reality of the success of their revolution and the old
philosophical debates about its ultimate theoretical justification. The
role of Hegel (and his understanding of the philosophy of history and
dialectics) and his connection to Marx and Lenin emerged as one of the
most important theoretical aspects of the emerging Soviet school of
philosophy. Initially engaged as part of the so-called “mechanists versus
dialecticians” debate, Hegel’s dialectical heritage slowly but surely came
to mean the inevitability of history’s movement away from capitalism
toward socialism. By the time Stalin and his supporters succeeded in
their struggle for power, this notion of history and its dialectics became
prevalent and was finally codified in the peculiarly un-dialectical
presentation in the infamous theoretical insertion in the Party’s official
history published in 1938. This section – “On dialectical and historical
materialism” – written by Stalin himself, represented the final word in the
long and still considerably understudied history of Hegel’s adventures in
the early Russian and Soviet Marxist tradition.




http://crisiscritique.org/ccmarch/pavlov.pdf
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[Marxism] Fwd: No, Seymour Hersh, the shish kebab does not favor Sharia law | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://louisproyect.org/2016/04/25/no-seymour-hersh-the-shish-kebab-does-not-favor-sharia-law/
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[Marxism] Fwd: James Connolly: The Irish Rebel Abroad | Dissent Magazine

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/james-connolly-irish-rebel-comic-excerpt
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[Marxism] Fwd: Cuba and the Future: a Great Debate Has Just Begun

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(By Nelson Valdes, a long-time and highly respected scholar of the Cuban 
Revolution. One wonders if Lippmann will spew his venom at him as well.)


The re-stratification of Cuban society had begun. One should note that 
the size of the work force involved in state employment has declined 
while the private sector continues to grow.


Recent changes in US policy toward the island reveal the Obama 
administration objective: riding such major shifts in Cuban employment 
and property patterns in order to foment a Thermidorean Reaction that 
would bring to an end the Cuban revolutionary regime.*


In his recent public speech, Fidel Castro said, “To our brothers and 
sisters of the world we have to say, the Cuban people shall overcome.” 
[7] Fidel Castro has considered the possibility of two alternative Cuban 
revolutionary regimes: one without capitalism, the other with it but 
under the leadership of the Communist Party. In either case the issue, 
as in 1959, is sovereignty.


full: 
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/25/cuba-and-the-future-a-great-debate-has-just-begun/

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[Marxism] James T. Farrell on Hollywood

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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New at MIA
Also posted today several columns by C.L.R. James, various Workers Party
articles
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[Marxism] Fwd: Obama sends more forces to Syria to build on gains over Islamic State | Reuters

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-usa-syria-idUSKCN0XL0ZE
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Re: [Marxism] Reply to Walter Lippmann

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 4/25/16 4:21 AM, Marce Cameron via Marxism wrote:


http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/reply-to-walter-lippmann.html


Lippmann: Writing from the comfort of an imperialist metropolis, while 
Washington and its mediatic presstitutes are working 24-7 to impose 
capitalist "democracy" on Cuba, Cameron does Cuba a serious disservice, 
promoting himself as the island's virtual judge, jury and executioner.



---

This business about writing from the comfort is a well-worn trope of 
Lippmann. He used to use it all the time on Marxmail if you mounted any 
criticism of the Cuban government or any constituent of the Bolivarian 
revolution. It was a cheap demagogic trick that I hated since it 
reminded me of the petty-bourgeois baiting I used to get in the SWP. 
Lippmann is basically a Stalinist. I plan to write something about 
Stalinism in a day or so based on this journal that published Boer's 
idiotic article comparing Stalin to St. Augustine. That book Khiyana 
that included my article on Syria has an introductory article that makes 
an essential point:


"The anti-Stalinist left should be used to the fact that large sections 
of the left are susceptible to Stalinist illusions. A crucial issue is 
how a lack of confidence among people in their own ability to unite in 
struggle has intersected with Stalinism's alarming ability to reinvent 
itself since the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Though the Soviet Union 
disappeared, the ideological illusions it created have clung on. Marx 
long ago observed that if you wished to abolish religion you would also 
have to abolish the material conditions that gave rise to religious 
illusions. The material conditions that generate the need for people to 
look for substitutes for their agency—distress and oppression on the one 
hand, married to feeling relatively powerless, on the other—all of that 
continues to exist in late capitalism both because of, and despite the 
miscarriage of concrete utopia."

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[Marxism] Reply to Walter Lippmann

[Marce Cameron via Marxism]

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http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/reply-to-walter-lippmann.html
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