[Marxism] Invitation to attend virtual lecture on Lenin at 150 this Wednesday, April 22nd.

[Kaiwen Dong via Marxism]

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Dear Marxism Mailing list,

My name is Kaiwen, and I am a student studying math and a member of the
Platypus Affiliated Society. If you are free *today* i.e. *Wednesday, April
22nd*, I would like to invite you to attend a virtual lecture over Zoom
that will be given by Chris Cutrone (who teaches at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago) on Lenin at 150 at *11 AM Pacific/12 PM Mountain/1 PM
Central/2 PM Eastern/6 PM GMT*.

Zoom link here:
https://zoom.us/j/96101299683

On the occasion of his 150th birthday, Platypus poses the question: What is
Lenin's legacy today?

Reference will be made to Ralph Miliband's critical essay on Lenin's 100th
birthday in 1970 on Lenin's State and Revolution, republished in Jacobin
magazine in 2018:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/lenin-state-and-revolution-miliband

Facebook event page here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/215170119778817/

We hope to see some of those on the Marxism Mailing list there! Hope you
all are safe and well during these uncertain times.

Warmest regards,
Kaiwen
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Re: [Marxism] Bernie’s Campaign Strategy Wasn’t the Problem

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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Heideman has joined the Seth Ackerman - Eric Blanc Lovin' Spoonful
camarilla "Do You Believe in Magic?"

In this article there's hagiography of Bernie Sanders:
Heideman: "...the 'concessions' that Bernie’s campaign has already
won, by mobilizing millions of young, working-class, oppressed people
into political activity, and shifting wholesale the national
discussion. Previously fringe social-democratic policies, like
Medicare for All and free public college education, now have majority
support."

Is Heideman actually ignorant of the fact that there was majority
support for national single-payer healthcare when the Clintons took
office?  And ever since.

Refusal to face reality:  "Now after the dust has settled, we need to
face the fact that Sanders was more decisively defeated this time than
in 2016.  Sanders never won more than 30 percent of the Democratic
primary voters. His victories came because the establishment vote was
split. He consistently failed to win over older Black voters, or turn
out new, young voters."
"Facing Reality: The Socialist Left, the Sanders Campaign and Our Future"
by Charles Post, Ashley Smith, April 14, 2020
https://newpol.org/facing-reality-the-socialist-left-the-sanders-campaign-and-our-future/



On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 2:19 PM Louis Proyect via Marxism
 wrote:
>
> So funny. Paul Heideman and some other idiot answer Sanders's critics
> but ignore criticisms from the Marxist left who make the same points he
> made in 2016 before his Road to Damascus Conversion.
>
> https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/bernie-sanders-campaign-strategy-democratic-party-biden-trump
>

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[Marxism] The Neo-Marxist Roots of Modern Monetary Theory | Mises Wire

[MM via Marxism]

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Meanwhile, over at the Mises Institute:

"The influence of the economics of Michal Kalecki on Modern Monetary Theory 
(MMT) is hard to ignore. With its roots in the Neo-Marxist macroeconomic theory 
of Michal Kalecki, MMT carries with it the heritage of the labor theory of 
value and the Marxist state and class analysis. As a Marxist, Kalecki views the 
economy through the lens that capitalism is a class society. For him, two 
classes operate in the economy: the capitalists (the bourgeoisie) and the 
workers (the proletariat). Kalecki prepared the theoretical groundwork for the 
expansion of government spending, particularly in the countries of the third 
world. Yet while most developing countries have abandoned this theory, it 
celebrates its comeback disguised as “ Modern Monetary Theory ”.

…

“While many developing countries have abandoned the failed approach of 
development by debt and turned to solid economic policies, the opposite is 
happening in the United States and some other parts of the developed world. The 
enthusiasm that met the proposals of free education, health care for all, and a 
fully renewed ecological infrastructure, is a sign utopian wishful thinking. If 
realized, these plans will not bring prosperity and social justice, but 
hyperinflation, economic stagnation, and socio-political chaos."

https://mises.org/wire/neo-marxist-roots-modern-monetary-theory 

Of course, the fine people at Mises are hardly much better informed about MMT 
than many of its critics from the left, but it’s striking that so many of the 
latter seem so comfortable aligning with the Austrians.

Apologies if I’ve gone over the 6-post limit today. I won’t post any more — in 
fact, I don’t think I’ll engage around this topic any further on the list. 
Happy to field good-faith queries off-list.
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Re: [Marxism] MMT in practice

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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 Your quibble about a secondary theoretical issue is interesting.   It
would be useful to learn about your expectations for practice of MMT by an
actually-existing capitalist state.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 7:30 PM MM  wrote:

> On Apr 21, 2020, at 8:16 PM, Dayne Goodwin via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>
> … MMT's apparent claim
> that there is no relationship between the value of a currency and the labor
> theory of value is valid.
>
>
On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 6:16 PM Dayne Goodwin 
wrote:

> From the recent discussion here it seems to me that MMT is a view of the
> relationship between a state and fiat currency and a theory of how a state
> could use fiat currency and economic planning to implement full
> employment.
>
> Actually existing states are instruments of the ruling class in class
> societies.  Has MMT ever been put in practice by a state?  Would a
> capitalist state commit to full employment?
>
> Maybe MMT could be used by a workers state after a socialist revolution
> has removed the capitalist class from state power.  If MMT was ever
> practiced by a state it might be possible to examine whether MMT's apparent
> claim that there is no relationship between the value of a currency and the
> labor theory of value is valid.
>


 On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 7:30 PM MM  wrote:

> I don’t think any of the main MMT proponents holds that view. Here are the
> concluding paragraphs of Randy Wray’s paper, “Theories of Value and the
> Monetary Theory of Production,” in which he embraces and defends the labor
> theory of value:
>
> "It is frequently argued that the LTV is "metaphysical" (an argument also
> adopted by Robinson 1967, p. xi), or that one could just as well argue that
> capital produces all value, or that petrol does, and so on.31 This involves
> a fundamental misunderstanding of a monetary production economy. In an
> economy that is able to produce, and in which most production occurs on the
> basis of hiring labor at a money wage, wages are simultaneously the major
> cost of production and the source of the revenues that validate production.
> Labor simultaneously produces the physical output–but, more importantly, it
> sets in motion the monetary flows that are the purpose of
> production. Because the majority of worker income will be used to purchase
> the necessities of life, the wage bill returns as capitalist receipts,
> while the link between capitalist income and spending is different because
> the goal of capitalist activity is money and not necessities. In Kalecki's
> terminology, workers spend what they get and capitalists get what they
> spend; Marx's equivalent expression is "the part of the variable capital
> that A advances at any one time to his workers constantly flows back to him
> from the circulation sphere". (Marx Vol 2, p. 406).
>
> "There are other reasons why adoption of some other "factor" of production
> as the source of value would be mistaken. First, of course, there is the
> problem of adoption of a measure of value that is not itself a value.
> The separation of labor (not a value) from labor power (a commodity with
> value) provides the external measure of value. The problem with trying to
> use capital as the source of value is that it is itself a value, a value
> that depends on other values (for example, prospective profits); further,
> the heterogeneity problems with capital are surely much greater than those
> encountered in the case of labor. (Dobb 1945) Second, the focus on labor
> is consistent with the observation that it is obvious that man as a tool
> using animal manufactures instruments to increase control over nature.
> Third, the focus on labor and relations of production is consistent with
> the view of capitalist production as the product of relations of men with
> men. Value is not an attribute of things, but is a social relation between
> men. (Dobb 1945, p. 59) It should be noted, however, that no claim is made
> that other "factors of production" are not "productive" in a technical
> sense; even Marx argued that capital produces wealth. Nor is there any
> claim that embodied labor is the only thing commodities have in common. It
> is merely claimed that labor fulfills the requirements of a theory of value
> while other "factors" do not, and that the LTV is consistent with Keynes's
> analysis.
>
> "Similarly, the choice of the money-unit (wage unit) in Keynes's system is
> due to the prominent role given to liquidity preference and expectations.
> This in turn reflects a fundamental characteristic of a capitalist society
> in which the individual faces a type of uncertainty that is unique to an
> economy based 

Re: [Marxism] MMT in practice

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 8:16 PM, Dayne Goodwin via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> … MMT's apparent claim
> that there is no relationship between the value of a currency and the labor
> theory of value is valid.

I don’t think any of the main MMT proponents holds that view. Here are the 
concluding paragraphs of Randy Wray’s paper, “Theories of Value and the 
Monetary Theory of Production,” in which he embraces and defends the labor 
theory of value: 

"It is frequently argued that the LTV is "metaphysical" (an argument also 
adopted by Robinson 1967, p. xi), or that one could just as well argue that 
capital produces all value, or that petrol does, and so on.31 This involves a 
fundamental misunderstanding of a monetary production economy. In an economy 
that is able to produce, and in which most production occurs on the basis of 
hiring labor at a money wage, wages are simultaneously the major cost of 
production and the source of the revenues that validate production. Labor 
simultaneously produces the physical output–but, more importantly, it sets in 
motion the monetary flows that are the purpose of production. Because the 
majority of worker income will be used to purchase the necessities of life, the 
wage bill returns as capitalist receipts, while the link between capitalist 
income and spending is different because the goal of capitalist activity is 
money and not necessities. In Kalecki's terminology, workers spend what they 
get and capitalists get what they spend; Marx's equivalent expression is "the 
part of the variable capital that A advances at any one time to his workers 
constantly flows back to him from the circulation sphere". (Marx Vol 2, p. 406).

"There are other reasons why adoption of some other "factor" of production as 
the source of value would be mistaken. First, of course, there is the problem 
of adoption of a measure of value that is not itself a value. The separation of 
labor (not a value) from labor power (a commodity with value) provides the 
external measure of value. The problem with trying to use capital as the source 
of value is that it is itself a value, a value that depends on other values 
(for example, prospective profits); further, the heterogeneity problems with 
capital are surely much greater than those encountered in the case of labor. 
(Dobb 1945) Second, the focus on labor is consistent with the observation that 
it is obvious that man as a tool using animal manufactures instruments to 
increase control over nature. Third, the focus on labor and relations of 
production is consistent with the view of capitalist production as the product 
of relations of men with men. Value is not an attribute of things, but is a 
social relation between men. (Dobb 1945, p. 59) It should be noted, however, 
that no claim is made that other "factors of production" are not "productive" 
in a technical sense; even Marx argued that capital produces wealth. Nor is 
there any claim that embodied labor is the only thing commodities have in 
common. It is merely claimed that labor fulfills the requirements of a theory 
of value while other "factors" do not, and that the LTV is consistent with 
Keynes's analysis.

"Similarly, the choice of the money-unit (wage unit) in Keynes's system is due 
to the prominent role given to liquidity preference and expectations. This in 
turn reflects a fundamental characteristic of a capitalist society in which the 
individual faces a type of uncertainty that is unique to an economy based on 
atomistic diffusion of decision making and individual responsibility for one's 
own welfare. This cannot be dismissed by handwaves about the "long run" or 
"fundamentals". In this sense, liquidity preference reflects social relations 
of production in a manner similar to but distinct from the way labor values 
reflect social relations in production.”

Maybe it would be useful if people would offer source references for positions 
they attribute to “MMT,” rather than just pulling stuff out of the air.
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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Death Cults, Wildcats, and Liberal Civility | Afflict The Comfortable (The Mind of Bob Buzzanco)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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For about a week now, media and liberal hysterics have been riveted to 
scenes of protestors in many states having outdoor demonstrations to 
demand that “the economy” reopen.  They’re white people, many of whom 
are hoisting Confederate flags and Trump signs.  The most notable has 
been a young woman proclaiming her pro-choice ideology, not for 
reproductive rights, but with regard to her refusal to wear a mask, and 
supporting Trump in 2020.  The Media has jumped all over these protests, 
even though their numbers aren’t great.


https://secure-web.cisco.com/1P4vFm9k9lD_iKu2mfTVOj47gUE6cjFGyP7Kjsgx5GJ4ZUOoELzCDrNZaviOC7I5Zt6zJ1l2nbJcrql1Aw5CC5Qxa1xndLocclmrlzZmd8kWulTYg6SFZFqPbgPT9GV_Vf65I9y6bQfghMBVbge8SRhxIAwhE61vy8zF2ajfftVpKmSNQo5aFocd11Ywar0kCm2s7v2F520VW4AGA2ZjYfP03_ECWLZKG7th54q4pKeo2yIfRTQ6cGyd0-9Jro4bsbPSeiCTxuRHkYVC0KDldeIE6Irr7SjPGT9dLaVXlJLw3kcomrx9NlqX5ITqcXqSsTqf6kQItn6aeO8cs5J7tPOjC9W3RSBgTNa1wK8gcO-y14DC53YlHjFh7c9UhZJDejevJEUtGDc_Q2PBox6ljAQ/https%3A%2F%2Fafflictthecomfortable.org%2F2020%2F04%2F21%2Fdeath-cults-wildcats-and-liberal-civility%2F
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[Marxism] MMT in practice

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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>From the recent discussion here it seems to me that MMT is a view of the
relationship between a state and fiat currency and a theory of how a state
could use fiat currency and economic planning to implement full
employment.

Actually existing states are instruments of the ruling class in class
societies.  Has MMT ever been put in practice by a state?  Would a
capitalist state commit to full employment?

Maybe MMT could be used by a workers state after a socialist revolution has
removed the capitalist class from state power.  If MMT was ever practiced
by a state it might be possible to examine whether MMT's apparent claim
that there is no relationship between the value of a currency and the labor
theory of value is valid.
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Re: [Marxism] Why Don’t You Just Die! | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Gary MacLennan via Marxism]

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I watched the first 5 minutes of the Netflix Trotsky film. I was absolutely
stunned. I had got my 9 yr grandson to sit down with me to watch a film
about "a great Russian revolutionary" and sweet Jesus and His Holy Mother
the opening scene in the train was unbelievable. Shagging to the left of
me. Shagging to the right of me! I rushed to try and turn it off over the
protests of the grandson. When I eventually worked out  how to do it, I
think he may have been scarred for life.

Never a dull moment in lock down.

comradely

Gary

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:49 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Unless you are one of those fat slobs wearing a MAGA cap out on the
> street demanding that Chick-fil-A’s be re-opened immediately, you’re
> like me—under house arrest from COVID-19. Assuming that you’ve run out
> of things to watch on Netflix, I have great news. I just watched “Why
> Don’t You Just Die!”, a Russian film originally slated for theatrical
> opening in N.Y. but re-released as VOD yesterday (availability below).
>
> https://louisproyect.org/2020/04/21/why-dont-you-just-die/
>
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Re: [Marxism] The Unheard-of Center: Critique after Modern Monetary Theory | Literature, the Humanities,

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 4:27 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> What a bunch of jive.

It’s an intentional provocation, not a policy document.
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Re: [Marxism] The Unheard-of Center: Critique after Modern Monetary Theory | Literature, the Humanities,

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 4:57 PM, MM  wrote:
> 
>> On Apr 21, 2020, at 4:27 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>> mailto:marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>> wrote:
>> 
>> What a bunch of jive.
> 
> It’s an intentional provocation, not a policy document.

By the way, I don’t think Scott would call himself a “leading MMT theorist.” 
He’s not even an economist, but a young media scholar.

Here’s a better place to start:

Modern Monetary Theory and Practice: An Introductory Text
Mitchell, Prof W F; Wray, Prof L R; Watts, Prof M J
https://www.abebooks.com/9781530338795/Modern-Monetary-Theory-Practice-Introductory-1530338794/plp

Again, if you need a straw man to debunk in order to feel better about your 
ignorance, you’ll definitely be able to find one.
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[Marxism] The Unheard-of Center: Critique after Modern Monetary Theory | Literature, the Humanities,

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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I recommend this article by Scott Ferguson, a leading MMT theorist. It 
is filled with more malarkey than I've seen since reading Hardt-Negri's 
"Empire" 20 years ago:


"Supplanting what economist Abba Lerner once termed the myth of world 
money with an interdependent politics rooted in strong public spending 
regimes, the MMT Job Guarantee would thus begin to turn neoliberal 
financial capitalism outside-in and expose the constricting paroxysms of 
present social production to more congenial and commodious orbits."


What a bunch of jive.

https://arcade.stanford.edu/content/unheard-center-critique-after-modern-monetary-theory

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[Marxism] Film at Lincoln Center's Spring 2020 Virtual Cinema Lineup

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) announces the upcoming FLC Virtual Cinema 
lineup for the 2020 spring season. Made possible by partnerships with 
distributors, a portion of all proceeds from the FLC Virtual Cinema 
screenings will support Film at Lincoln Center during the coronavirus 
theater closures.


https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/film-at-lincoln-centers-spring-2020-virtual-cinema-lineup/

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[Marxism] Bernie’s Campaign Strategy Wasn’t the Problem

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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So funny. Paul Heideman and some other idiot answer Sanders's critics 
but ignore criticisms from the Marxist left who make the same points he 
made in 2016 before his Road to Damascus Conversion.


https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/bernie-sanders-campaign-strategy-democratic-party-biden-trump

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[Marxism] Why Don’t You Just Die! | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Unless you are one of those fat slobs wearing a MAGA cap out on the 
street demanding that Chick-fil-A’s be re-opened immediately, you’re 
like me—under house arrest from COVID-19. Assuming that you’ve run out 
of things to watch on Netflix, I have great news. I just watched “Why 
Don’t You Just Die!”, a Russian film originally slated for theatrical 
opening in N.Y. but re-released as VOD yesterday (availability below).


https://louisproyect.org/2020/04/21/why-dont-you-just-die/

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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 1:22 PM, John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> Question for the MMT advocates, or anybody who understands the theory: Am I
> right that MMT advocates that countries simply print up cash rather than
> float bonds and T-notes - in other words rather than go into debt? A simple
> "yes" or "no" will do.


A simple yes or no won’t do because the question reflects multiple 
misunderstandings.

MMT doesn’t advocate any specific policy for all countries, or for any specific 
country. It offers a description of how central government spending works, and 
a framework for understanding how much fiscal space a given country has for 
using that spending power. As I wrote earlier, it’s best understood as a lens 
through which to understand structural impediments to the effective use of 
public spending. To the extent that the MMT lens is more widely understood 
among the public, it then becomes increasingly possible to assert 
mass-democratic pressure on that spending, in ways that can advance the kinds 
of social goals that hopefully everyone on this list would embrace.

“Print up cash” isn’t an accurate description of how money is created. The 
authorizing government body (in the US, Congress) passes a spending bill, and 
that spending takes place through keystrokes that change bank balances. But far 
more importantly, it matters a great deal how that money is spent, because even 
for a country with “full monetary sovereignty,” the impacts of public spending 
are constrained by the availability of real resources — including labor, but 
also raw materials, energy, food, technology, etc.

When new spending happens, new money is created. In accounting terms, the 
record of that spending is a “deficit”; on the other side of the ledger it is 
simply “money in circulation.” Each dollar is worth exactly one other dollar, 
so the government technically “owes” exactly the amount of money that is in 
circulation — but it is also the sole issuer of the currency it offers in 
exchange for existing dollars.

In the US, there is a legal requirement to turn that deficit into debt through 
the issuance of bonds / T-bills, but that’s because of a law passed by 
Congress; it isn’t an inherent part of the money creation process. There are 
different views among MMT scholars on the wisdom of that. Either way, MMT 
doesn’t “advocate” “printing up cash,” or the reverse; it offers a description 
of how the process works; an explanation of why many countries can do more of 
that than many people realize; some suggestions on how that greater spending 
power could best be used (although the details will always be dependent on the 
concrete national context); and some ideas for how countries that are 
especially constrained in that regard can move towards greater independence and 
autonomy. 

BTW, I’m not particularly an advocate of MMT, but I am an advocate of reading 
in good faith and taking advantage of useful insights wherever they originate. 
The refusal of folks on the left to engage with this body of thought is beyond 
bizarre — borderline pathological. What I’m waiting for now is what typically 
comes next: As folks spend enough time with the material for the penny to drop, 
they’ll suddenly say, “Oh, of course, I’ve known that all along! MMT has 
nothing new to offer!” Wait for it.
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Re: [Marxism] WA Post: "Record government and corporate debt risks tipping point"

[John A Imani via Marxism]

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<>

Don't think so.  I wrote:  " after an initial pre-inflation wage boost
(most important are a rise in the minimum and the guarantee of
employment).  True.  Did not specify how many hirees to this or that
industry but what was offered was the general proposition that all who want
work should have it and at a living wage.  Maybe the respondent has a
detailed plan as to where these jobs will be located and what they are to
do.  I would like to see it.

As for the snide against Marx and use of his quotes, I am after all a
Marxian on a Marxist listserve and, for the life of me, there is no one
that I would ever want to quote more.

JAI


On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 7:32 PM MM  wrote:

> On Apr 20, 2020, at 9:59 PM, John A Imani via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>
> JAI
>
>
> What’s missing from JAI’s response — but is dealt with at length in the
> interview I posted, and runs throughout the MMT literature — is what the
> newly printed money is put to use to do.
>
> Unless comrades are willing to start dealing with the details of specific
> national contexts and industrial strategies, this is all sound and fury,
> signifying nothing. Pick a country — any country — and start dealing with
> the numbers. But for Christ’s sake stop with the fucking Marxian scriptural
> references.
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Question for the MMT advocates, or anybody who understands the theory: Am I
right that MMT advocates that countries simply print up cash rather than
float bonds and T-notes - in other words rather than go into debt? A simple
"yes" or "no" will do.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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Re: [Marxism] How Useful Is Modern Money Theory for Developing Countries?

[David Duport via Marxism]

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Here are links to a series of blog posts demolishing so-called "Modern
Monetary Theory," by Argentine Marxist economist Rolando Astarita (in
Spanish):


https://rolandoastarita.blog/2018/07/19/economia-k-y-la-teoria-monetaria-moderna-1/


https://rolandoastarita.blog/2018/07/25/economia-k-y-la-teoria-monetaria-moderna-2/

https://rolandoastarita.blog/2018/08/03/economia-k-y-la-teoria-monetaria-moderna-3/

https://rolandoastarita.blog/2018/08/12/economia-k-y-la-teoria-monetaria-moderna-ultima-parte/

https://rolandoastarita.blog/2018/08/22/tmm-y-curanderismo-social/

https://rolandoastarita.blog/2019/03/28/discusiones-en-torno-a-la-tmm/

https://rolandoastarita.blog/2019/09/19/la-tmm-y-los-argumentos-monetaristas/





On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 11:21 AM MM via Marxism 
wrote:

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> *
>
> > On Apr 21, 2020, at 9:48 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
> >
> >
> https://therealnews.com/stories/modern-monetary-theory-developing-countries
> <
> https://therealnews.com/stories/modern-monetary-theory-developing-countries
> >
>
> The mistake all of these critics make is to assume that MMT is an economic
> paradigm offering a set of policy prescriptions, rather than a lens through
> which to analyze national economies in order to identify the specific
> structural impediments to advancing public, democratic control over the
> economy (from which a tailored set of policy prescriptions could be
> developed). Once you understand it, the resistance to it from the right
> makes perfect sense; rightwing  economists and thinktanks understand
> perfectly well that MMT’s wider acceptance will make their efforts to
> maintain class-divided societies much harder. The resistance to it from the
> left is much sadder and more pathetic — as far as I can tell it mainly
> boils down to sectarian habits of argumentation, turf and reputations. And
> it’s bizarre to watch it in action.
> _
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[Marxism] South African reverbs Re: MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[Patrick Bond via Marxism]

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On 4/21/2020 3:42 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:

On 4/21/20 9:26 AM, MM wrote:


That’s why I recommended the interview with Fadhel — the application 
of MMT to the global South is *exactly* what he is focused on...


Yes, he addresses the question of how developing countries can gain 
monetary sovereignty in a podcast.


How about a video? Last November in Tunis, we had a conference on 
"Monetary Sovereignty in Africa" sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg 
Foundation, with unusual comradeliness between strands of heterodoxy 
that are typically in internecine competition.


(If competition is what you want, I would recommend the Michael Roberts 
and Doug Henwood critiques of MMT, which are offered with great 
attention to politics: 
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2019/01/28/modern-monetary-theory-part-1-chartalism-and-marx/ 
and 
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/modern-monetary-theory-isnt-helping .)


If you want to see the talks and slides from Tunis, they've just 
uploaded them: 
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23MonetarySovereigntyAfrica


A leading marxist political economist, Prabhat Patnaik, offered a great 
keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d017id91fWk


And Fadhel's talk is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD6mUDRwZ7k

(My report from the South African front is here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakjZF-kyb0=1496s )


Six months later, there's an excellent debate about MMT's relevance 
brewing here in SA because of the (hopefully-waning) ultra-neoliberalism 
in the Treasury and SA Reserve Bank, egged on by credit rating agencies. 
An emergency SARB purchase of $60 mn in Treasury securities on March 25 
- when no one else came to the auction and interest rates shot up from 9 
to 12% - may have opened up the possibility of up to $1 bn a month in 
future QE-style purchases.


The balance of forces will determine whether such MMT-lite fiscal 
stimulus can be pushed into healthcare financing (estimates from the 
government are $250 mn in new spending is required through September), 
food relief and income support, plus Green New Deal infrastructure - as 
the precariat starves and social dissent rises. The state is currently 
offering a fiscal stimulus of just 0.1% of GDP - which last year was 
$260 bn - compared to Britain's 15%. So the second largest union 
movement wants to see $40 bn in new emergency funding whereas a 
centre-left institute just called for $16 bn, and the 5th largest bank 
also asked for at least $5 bn more.


Now, unless a prescribed-assets requirement is put on the $50 bn in 
institutional investment funds within SA, or new foreign loans are 
announced, some major MMT-type central bank interventions to pay for the 
fiscal expansion (and also cover the new $10 bn hole in tax revenues) 
are probably on the cards, even though the SARB leader remains verbally 
opposed.


(He is also the head of the IMF's main policy committee - and studied in 
London at SOAS where marxist economists are thick on the ground - but 
along with the IMF Managing Director, Europeans and some emerging 
economy elites, he failed to get a global-Keynesian boost pushed through 
Special Drawing Rights issuance last Friday, thanks to Trump's 
stinginess and financial-geopolitical agenda; I think that's ok, it's 
far better to have more international financial delinking now, than IMF 
relegitimation, but others would disagree.)


I've just listened to Matias and Greg on RealNews - 
https://therealnews.com/stories/modern-monetary-theory-developing-countries 
- and the very detailed attention they give to hard currency and local 
currency is absolutely essential. SA's foreign debt is at least $185 bn 
(prior to the Feb-April 2020 melt - likely now its $200 bn). Repayment 
of not just interest but transnational corporate profits and dividends 
will be mighty hard in coming weeks, as the $55 bn in (Feb 2020) foreign 
reserves rapidly shrink.


There are repeated fears expressed that the IMF, World Bank or BRICS New 
Development Bank will come in and make even more of a mess than they 
have to date (prolific!). So exchange control tightening is of the 
essence, but global and local financiers - and yes, rich white folk 
aiming to get their wealth out of SA pronto - are profoundly opposed to 
this vital task, one Keynes advised was absolutely critical to gaining 
monetary, fiscal and credit-system sovereignty.


In our circumstances, here, it strikes me that MMT is a potential 
non-reformist reform, a stepping stone to survival, first to limit 
social misery, but also to debunk neoliberal dogmas. This is one of 
those areas where the Keynesian, post-Keynesian and 

Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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Hey folks --- just in case you are wondering --- I am a person mostly
(totally??) ignorant of MMT (haven't taught Macro since 2014 and never used
it in any of my classes) who VERY MUCH APPRECIATES the debate you have been
having --- it is clarifying a lot for me --

So don't think you are a handful of people listening to echoes in an empty
room --

There is an "audience"

Thanks, Mike

[SO NOW A QUESTION FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY --- is the recent collapse of
the price of oil and the improvement in the competitive position of
renewables something that may reduce (eliminate) the importance of the fact
that oil is priced in dollars?]
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[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Ortega Bayona on Henson, 'Agrarian Revolt in the Sierra of Chihuahua, 1959-1965'

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
- - -
Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via 
https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/

Begin forwarded message:

> From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
> Date: April 21, 2020 at 11:04:47 AM EDT
> To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> Cc: H-Net Staff 
> Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]:  Ortega Bayona on Henson, 'Agrarian Revolt 
> in the Sierra of Chihuahua, 1959-1965'
> Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> 
> Elizabeth Henson.  Agrarian Revolt in the Sierra of Chihuahua, 
> 1959-1965.  Tucson  University of Arizona Press, 2019.  269 pp.  
> $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8165-3873-7.
> 
> Reviewed by Berenice Ortega Bayona (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de 
> México)
> Published on H-LatAm (April, 2020)
> Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz
> 
> Elizabeth Henson's historical study depicts what is widely considered 
> to be the beginning of left-wing guerrilla movements in 
> twentieth-century Mexico as part of a much more long-standing process 
> of political violence. The author goes beyond the specific event of 
> the infamous assault on the Madera military base in the state of 
> Chihuahua in 1965 and the individual actors involved to characterize 
> the underlying patterns and structures of inequality, 
> authoritarianism, and political organization. From the armed 
> rebellions and revolutions of the nineteenth and early twentieth 
> centuries through the so-called Dirty War period to the latest, 
> innovative form of a left-wing guerrilla found in the EZLN (Ejército 
> Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, or Zapatista Army of National 
> Liberation), radical mobilized popular sectors have consistently made 
> themselves present in the shaping of politics in Mexico, regardless 
> of the adverse circumstances. This study seems timely and relevant in 
> the current national context of organized crime violence and the 
> spread of "self-defense" armed peasant groups that react to it, 
> particularly in the states of Michoacán, Jalisco and Guerrero. As 
> this book shows, these rural and communitarian armed self-defense 
> groups date back many years before the current context of organized 
> crime. This book can also be situated within the recent surge of 
> studies on 60s-70s guerrillas in Mexico that have emerged due to the 
> greater availability of archives of government ministries and 
> political organizations since 2000. Yet we cannot deny that concern 
> about widespread violence, its causes, and reactions to it motivate 
> much of the increased interest in this topic. 
> 
> In order to understand the motivations behind armed political 
> violence in Chihuahua and the formation of the Grupo Popular 
> Guerrillero (GPG), Henson's study reconstructs in detail the 
> struggles over the state's land and resources over the last century. 
> In the first chapter, she frames the political violence and the 
> development of the guerrilla in the national context of the Cold War, 
> the role of US intervention, the persecution of left-wing rural 
> movements, the influence of the Cuban revolution on the Mexican Left, 
> and the emergence of New Left urban and student communist movements. 
> In the second chapter, she describes the long history of land 
> disputes in the local terrain, including Chihuahua's remoteness in 
> the eighteenth century, its large _haciendas_ with little protection 
> against Native American raids from the north, the strengthening of a 
> sense of a _serrano_ identity and of autonomy in the nineteenth 
> century, and the growth of foreign investment in mining, lumber, and 
> large-scale agriculture and ranching towards the beginning of the 
> twentieth century. In chapter 3, the author then outlines the role of 
> the Bosques de Chihuahua company--which integrated the four largest 
> livestock investors in the state (the so-called Cuatro Amigos)--in 
> the intimidation and persecution of peasants and small ranchers with 
> claims to land. As is thoroughly documented by Henson, this company 
> operated, in practice, as a paramilitary group, with _cacique _thugs 
> stripping small ranchers and peasants of their lands, raping women 
> and killing opponents. These patterns of violence, Henson's research 
> also shows us, were backed up and protected by corrupt and 
> authoritarian state structures. As a result of all this, many of the 
> _serranos_ began to organize in the 1950s to resist the violence and 
> the dispossession of their lands. 
> 
> The center of the book, chapters 4 and 5, describe the further 
> organization and radicalization of groups of displaced peasants and 
> ranchers, in the context of the second half of the twentieth 

Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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The basic premise of MMT is that a country can print mountains of cash
without any consequence in relation to the world economy. Except for
America, which has the unique privilege of being the world reserve
currency, and Saudi Arabia, which produces the commodity that the dollar is
pegged to, that function is fundamentally impossible BECAUSE Global
Northern imperialism would basically scuttle the implementation of an MMT
project overnight. MMT exists in an ideological bubble divorced from the
rule of finance capital. Even if you have issues with varieties of
Leninism, any Marxist analysis divorced from imperialism in this manner is
pretty inept. Except for the efforts of the Chinese, who have stockpiled
gold so they can eventually transition the yuan to the gold standard, there
isn't a world currency not dependent on the American petro-dollar in our
post-Bretton Woods worldwide economic landscape.

>From Henwood (again so it sinks in this time):

Countries around the world keep their reserves (basically rainy-day funds
on a very large scale held by governments at their central banks) in
dollars, which make them effectively a captive market for US Treasury bonds
(which is how the dollars are kept). Also, major commodities like oil are
priced in dollars, forcing countries to accumulate the currency to pay for
essential imports. That means the United States, exceptionally, can run
giant deficits and borrow on a vast scale with little constraint (so far).
Nor do we have to worry about the value of the dollar (for now, though you
have to wonder how long the exorbitant privilege will last in a world where
US dominance is eroding). But less privileged countries have to worry about
foreign investors dumping their bonds and driving down the value of their
currency, which would jack up interest rates and inflation.

-- 
Best regards,

Andrew Stewart


Message: 13
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 09:26:12 -0400
From: MM 
To: Louis Proyect 
Cc: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition

Subject: Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain;   charset=utf-8

> On Apr 21, 2020, at 8:50 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
>
> Actually, I think it is probably beyond the scope of MMT. I just read
Doug Henwood's article that makes clear it is a policy for G7 nations,
especially the USA, not poor countries like Nicaragua. Indeed, I came to
the conclusion long ago that post-Keynesian economics has little to offer
places like Nicaragua. I got to know Nathan Tankus fairly well when I was
writing some stuff about the difficulties of getting Greece back on the
drachma that were cross-posted on Naked Capitalism. As I began reading Yves
Smith's blog and spending some time with her and Nathan, it occurred to me
at some point that they had zero interest in the global South or what is
sometimes called "development economics".

That?s why I recommended the interview with Fadhel ? the application of MMT
to the global South is *exactly* what he is focused on. But it?s easy to
convince yourself you?ve won an argument when you refuse to listen to the
other side.
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Re: [Marxism] How Useful Is Modern Money Theory for Developing Countries?

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 9:48 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://therealnews.com/stories/modern-monetary-theory-developing-countries 
> 

The mistake all of these critics make is to assume that MMT is an economic 
paradigm offering a set of policy prescriptions, rather than a lens through 
which to analyze national economies in order to identify the specific 
structural impediments to advancing public, democratic control over the economy 
(from which a tailored set of policy prescriptions could be developed). Once 
you understand it, the resistance to it from the right makes perfect sense; 
rightwing  economists and thinktanks understand perfectly well that MMT’s wider 
acceptance will make their efforts to maintain class-divided societies much 
harder. The resistance to it from the left is much sadder and more pathetic — 
as far as I can tell it mainly boils down to sectarian habits of argumentation, 
turf and reputations. And it’s bizarre to watch it in action.
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Re: [Marxism] How Useful Is Modern Money Theory for Developing Countries?

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 9:48 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> https://therealnews.com/stories/modern-monetary-theory-developing-countries


There are many more examples of pieces written from a basically hostile 
standpoint that also cherry pick quotes and construct a strawperson version of 
the thought in order to dismiss it, rather than bothering to grapple with the 
original materials, including from places like Cato and Hoover, both of which 
seem especially keen to make sure that nobody takes MMT seriously. I can 
provide links if you want.


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[Marxism] Is MMT “America First” Economics?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/is-mmt-america-first-economics

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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 9:26 AM, MM  wrote:
> 
>> On Apr 21, 2020, at 8:50 AM, Louis Proyect > > wrote:
>> 
>> Actually, I think it is probably beyond the scope of MMT. I just read Doug 
>> Henwood's article that makes clear it is a policy for G7 nations, especially 
>> the USA, not poor countries like Nicaragua. Indeed, I came to the conclusion 
>> long ago that post-Keynesian economics has little to offer places like 
>> Nicaragua. I got to know Nathan Tankus fairly well when I was writing some 
>> stuff about the difficulties of getting Greece back on the drachma that were 
>> cross-posted on Naked Capitalism. As I began reading Yves Smith's blog and 
>> spending some time with her and Nathan, it occurred to me at some point that 
>> they had zero interest in the global South or what is sometimes called 
>> "development economics".
> 
> That’s why I recommended the interview with Fadhel — the application of MMT 
> to the global South is *exactly* what he is focused on. But it’s easy to 
> convince yourself you’ve won an argument when you refuse to listen to the 
> other side.

By the way, the only thing that Doug’s Jacobin piece “makes clear” is that he 
also refused to do any serious study of MMT, because he was convinced he 
already understood it. Pavlina Tcherneva’s response to it is also worth 
reading, although she doesn’t deal explicitly with the developmental econ side:

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/mmt-modern-monetary-theory-doug-henwood-overton-window

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[Marxism] How Useful Is Modern Money Theory for Developing Countries?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://therealnews.com/stories/modern-monetary-theory-developing-countries

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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 4/21/20 9:26 AM, MM wrote:


That’s why I recommended the interview with Fadhel — the application of 
MMT to the global South is *exactly* what he is focused on. But it’s 
easy to convince yourself you’ve won an argument when you refuse to 
listen to the other side.


Yes, he addresses the question of how developing countries can gain 
monetary sovereignty in a podcast. I am not trying to avoid his ideas 
but I have a real antipathy to podcasts. I just can't abide by the idea 
of sitting through an hour of someone making impromptu observations. I 
get my information from reading, not listening.


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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 8:50 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
> 
> Actually, I think it is probably beyond the scope of MMT. I just read Doug 
> Henwood's article that makes clear it is a policy for G7 nations, especially 
> the USA, not poor countries like Nicaragua. Indeed, I came to the conclusion 
> long ago that post-Keynesian economics has little to offer places like 
> Nicaragua. I got to know Nathan Tankus fairly well when I was writing some 
> stuff about the difficulties of getting Greece back on the drachma that were 
> cross-posted on Naked Capitalism. As I began reading Yves Smith's blog and 
> spending some time with her and Nathan, it occurred to me at some point that 
> they had zero interest in the global South or what is sometimes called 
> "development economics".

That’s why I recommended the interview with Fadhel — the application of MMT to 
the global South is *exactly* what he is focused on. But it’s easy to convince 
yourself you’ve won an argument when you refuse to listen to the other side.
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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Apr 21, 2020, at 9:42 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:
> 
> Yes, he addresses the question of how developing countries can gain monetary 
> sovereignty in a podcast. I am not trying to avoid his ideas but I have a 
> real antipathy to podcasts. I just can't abide by the idea of sitting through 
> an hour of someone making impromptu observations. I get my information from 
> reading, not listening.

I can’t make you listen to it, but it isn’t “impromptu observations” — it’s a 
fairly systematic presentation of the key issues. And I suspect you’ll 
immediately know what sorts of questions need to be asked and answered about 
the Nicaraguan economy in order to understand what went wrong: questions mainly 
around food imports, energy, and technology. I just don’t know enough about the 
country to say much of use, and I can’t justify putting the time into it given 
other writing obligations.
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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 4/21/20 8:37 AM, MM wrote:


You want me to spend time reading up on the Nicaraguan economy from 
decades ago so that I can write an essay specifically for you, because 
you can’t be bothered to listen to a recorded interview while you do the 
dishes? No thank you.


Actually, I think it is probably beyond the scope of MMT. I just read 
Doug Henwood's article that makes clear it is a policy for G7 nations, 
especially the USA, not poor countries like Nicaragua. Indeed, I came to 
the conclusion long ago that post-Keynesian economics has little to 
offer places like Nicaragua. I got to know Nathan Tankus fairly well 
when I was writing some stuff about the difficulties of getting Greece 
back on the drachma that were cross-posted on Naked Capitalism. As I 
began reading Yves Smith's blog and spending some time with her and 
Nathan, it occurred to me at some point that they had zero interest in 
the global South or what is sometimes called "development economics".


"I did get to explain MMT to Emmanuel Wallerstein recently. He was 
non-committal, saying essentially that he did not understand it. Not in 
his bailiwick."


--Binoy Kampmark

Doug Henwood:
Another serious problem with MMT is its embeddedness in a rich-country 
perspective, and in particular American exceptionalism — in this case 
the “exorbitant privilege,” as a French finance minister once put it, 
that comes with issuing the world’s dominant currency. Countries around 
the world keep their reserves (basically rainy-day funds on a very large 
scale held by governments at their central banks) in dollars, which make 
them effectively a captive market for US Treasury bonds (which is how 
the dollars are kept). Also, major commodities like oil are priced in 
dollars, forcing countries to accumulate the currency to pay for 
essential imports. That means the United States, exceptionally, can run 
giant deficits and borrow on a vast scale with little constraint (so 
far). Nor do we have to worry about the value of the dollar (for now, 
though you have to wonder how long the exorbitant privilege will last in 
a world where US dominance is eroding).


But less privileged countries have to worry about foreign investors 
dumping their bonds and driving down the value of their currency, which 
would jack up interest rates and inflation. Salvador Allende’s 
government greatly increased spending and raised the incomes of the 
poorest in Chile in the early 1970s; that worked nicely for a while, but 
then inflation took off. Allende wasn’t operating from the MMT playbook, 
merely resorting to policies pursued by many progressive governments 
facing political opposition and resource constraints. But such 
experiments rarely end well, and similar problems would face a poor 
country trying to stimulate its way to prosperity today, as we see in 
Venezuela now.


Compared to the United States, such countries enjoy less “monetary 
sovereignty” — a core MMT concept. A monetarily sovereign state is one 
that can spend its currency at will, including from pure keystrokes. 
America enjoys a lot of monetary sovereignty; so do Canada, Japan, and 
Britain, though to a lesser degree. Those countries need, for example, 
to import things priced in dollars, like oil, and the value of their 
currency has a direct effect on living standards that Americans are 
insulated from because we can print the currency in which that oil is 
priced. Brazil, in turn, has even less freedom; it needs harder 
currencies like dollars and euros to import commodities and advanced 
manufactured goods; and poorer countries like Bolivia or Ghana have even 
less. To buy essential imports, these countries often have to borrow in 
those hard currencies. To pay off the loans, they need to earn foreign 
currency through exports.


MMT has little helpful to say about that situation — in fact, its 
advocates sometimes seem to lecture them that foreign borrowing is 
risky, which it is, but sometimes it’s the only way you can buy power 
plants and locomotives. MMTers like William Mitchell and Wray write as 
if borrowing abroad is just a bad choice, and not something forced on 
subordinate economies. When I asked Mosler what MMT had to offer Turkey, 
a country whose currency has been losing value for the last four years 
and had something of a financial crisis in the summer of 2018, he 
responded with a bit of avian whimsy: “Without our recipe for Turkey 
they’re a dead duck.” (In fact, Turkey had been pursuing MMT-friendly 
expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, including state guarantees of 
private corporate debt, and inflation was around 11–12 percent and 
rising.) Not satisfied 

[Marxism] Lift the blockade against Cuba to strengthen the fight against Covid 19

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article6539 


According to official data, in 2019, Cuban health personnel abroad exceeded 
28,000 in 60 countries.

To date, Cuba has sent 21 brigades of health professionals to join national and 
local efforts in 20 countries that have recently requested Cuban medical 
assistance to combat coronavirus. These 21 brigades are in addition to or 
reinforce the medical collaboration brigades in 60 nations, where they were 
already providing services.

Over the past 50 years, Cuban medical personnel have carried out missions in 
164 countries in Africa, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.

Cuban health personnel have accumulated a great deal of experience in the fight 
against the dengue fever that periodically shakes the island, as well as the 
Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry and Liberia (2014-2015) and the 
cholera epidemic in Haiti. It has also intervened effectively to help the 
victims of several earthquakes in this Caribbean country as well as in Pakistan 
(2005) and Nepal (2015); against floods and hurricanes in Central America and 
the Caribbean. The World Health Organization has recognized the importance and 
quality of Cuban medical aid at the international level.
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Re: [Marxism] MMT, Chartalism, and Keynesianism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 4/20/20 10:55 PM, MM via Marxism wrote:

This is really getting embarrassing. Why are people so enthusiastically 
committed to pronouncing on stuff they don’t have the first clue about? I feel 
like I’m trapped in a Monty Python sketch.


If you were in command of the theory, you wouldn't need to continue to 
write such abusive stuff. When I asked you about Nicaragua, you had an 
opportunity to write a thousand words or so explaining why it didn't 
work there. Asking me to listen to a podcast, which I never do because 
they take too long to make key points, or to read Nathan Tankus was just 
your way of telling me that you don't want to be bothered putting 
together a small essay.


One of the unfortunate legacies of social media is that it has led to 
the Twitterization of debates. I stay away from debating people on FB 
because it is a waste of time. The listserv is a bit of a brontosaurus 
because the norm is for people to develop their ideas at some length 
rather than to shoot out 3 or 4 sentence comments. If I were you, I'd 
lay off the cheap insults and stick to the substantive or else you might 
end up like Michael Probsting.


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[Marxism] [UCE] COVID-19 and containment | Michael Roberts Blog

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Indeed, some in financial circles argue that the virus is ‘getting rid’ 
of the old and the sick who are mostly unproductive in generating value 
and profit.  After the pandemic is over, the world will be ‘leaner and 
fitter’ and able to expand more ‘productively’.


Marx and Engels were vehement in their condemnation of Malthus’ 
‘survival of the fittest’ theory; Engels calling it “this vile, infamous 
theory, this hideous blasphemy against nature and mankind”.  But they 
did not condemn it on anti-humane grounds only, but also that Malthus 
was wrong economically too.  Productivity growth does not depend on 
keeping the population down but on increasing the productive forces and 
on the march of science and technology.  It is not an issue of 
overpopulation but one of inequality and poverty bred by capitalist 
accumulation and appropriation of value created by the power of labour.


https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/covid-19-and-containment/

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[Marxism] Fw: Articles from the Philippine Left: Ang Masa para sa Sosyalismo -- Building the Philippine Socialist Movement Today

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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(Sent at the request of Reihana Mohideen)

Emerging Cracks Within the Duterte Faction, by Sonny Melencio
https://angmasa.org/2020/04/04/emerging-cracks-within-the-duterte-factions/--

For Socialist Solutions to the Capitalist Crisis, by Reihana Mohideen
https://angmasa.org/2020/04/06/for-socialist-solutions-to-the-capitalist-crises/

Press Statement from the Freedom from Debt Coalition
https://angmasa.org/2020/04/18/freedom-from-debt-coalition/

Reihana Mohideen




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