[Marxism] What's new at Links: Thailand, B olivia, N-power, Greens, Philippines, Chicka Dix on, Canada, COSATU on Terre’Blanche, Québec, Oscar Romero, climate
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What's new at Links: Thailand, Bolivia, N-power, Greens, Philippines, Chicka Dixon, Canada, COSATU on Terre’Blanche, Québec, Oscar Romero, climate * * * Subscribe free to Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal - at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373 You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10865397643 Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed (http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to consider an article, please send it to li...@dsp.org.au *Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in Links. * * * Thailand: Asia-Pacific left statement -- `Resolve crisis through democracy, not crackdown!' http://links.org.au/node/1613 By *Socialist Party of Malaysia* (PSM), *Working People's Association* (PRP) of Indonesia, *People’s Democratic Party* (PRD) of Indonesia, *Turn Left Thailand*, *Partido Lakas ng Masa* (PLM) of the Philippines*, Socialist Alliance* of Australia, *Solidarity* (Australia) April 10, 2010 -- We are deeply concerned over the current situation in Thailand where military-backed Prime Minister Ahbisit Vejjajiva has declared a state of emergency and started a bloody crackdown amidst escalating protests calling for a fresh election. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/1613 Bolivia: Bittersweet victory highlights obstacles for process of change http://links.org.au/node/1611 By *Federico Fuentes*, Caracas April 10, 2010 Although final figures will not be known until April 24, the results of Bolivia's April 4 regional elections have ratified the continued advance of the democratic and cultural revolution led by the country's first Indigenous president, Evo Morales. However, it also highlights some of the shortcomings and obstacles the process of change faces. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/1611 (Updated April 11) Thailand: Tyrants shoot the people to cling to power; Time for immediate fresh elections http://links.org.au/node/1610 *STOP PRESS -- April 10, 2010* By *Giles Ji Ungpakorn* Soldiers armed with live and rubber bullets and CS gas have attacked the peaceful pro-democracy Red Shirts at various spots in the centre of Bangkok. At least 15 people, Red Shirts and one Japanese Reuters reporter, have been shot dead by armed troops using automatic weapons, and tanks [were used] against peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators. Hundreds more people have been injured. The military-backed government of Abhisit Vejjajiva has blood on its hands and should resign immediately. Some soldiers have been taken prisoner and weapons seized. Red Shirts outside Bangkok have seized many provincial headquarters. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/1610 Why James Hansen is wrong on nuclear power http://links.org.au/node/1607 By *Renfrey Clarke* April 8, 2010 -- “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” Attributed to economist J.M. Keynes, that retort has always been good advice. Now that carrying on with “business as usual” greenhouse gas emissions has been revealed as a road to disaster, should environmentalists change their minds on nuclear power? * Read more http://links.org.au/node/1607 The Australian Greens: mainstream party or minor irritant? http://links.org.au/node/1612 The following speech was delivered as the 10th Annual Juanita Nielsen Lecture, on March 23, 2010. Sylvia Hale is a Greens member of the NSW state parliament, elected to the Legislative Council (upper house) in 2003. Juanita Nielsen was a campaigner against the big business development of Kings Cross, Sydney, who disappeared in 1975, and widely suspected of having been kidnapped and murdered by crime figures associated with property developers. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/1612 Philippines: Ric Reyes for Pasig mayor -- a model electoral campaign for the left http://links.org.au/node/1609 / /By *Reihana Mohideen* April 7, 2010 -- Ric Reyes' campaign for mayor of the city Pasig was formally launched at a 5000-strong local rally on March 26. The march, the biggest to be held in that city for many years, snaked its way on a long march through the working-class sections of Pasig. Ric Reyes' campaign is a model campaign for the left – an example of how to conduct a united, principled and effective electoral intervention. * Read more http://links.org.au/node/1609 The thoughts of `Chairman' Chicka Dixon; `The Fox has the last laugh http://links.org.au/node/1608 */I believe every woman of this planet is my sister. I believe every man on this planet is my brother. Like all Kooris [Indigenous people] I know
[Marxism] Britain: Push for for ecocide prosecutions for mass ecological destruction
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Push to prosecute mass ecosystem destruction as 'ecocide' April 12, 2010 http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/push-to-prosecute-mass-ecosystem-destruction-as-ecocide-20100411-s0ww.html *LONDON: *A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace - alongside genocide and crimes against humanity - is being launched in Britain. The proposal for the United Nations to accept ''ecocide'' as a fifth ''crime against peace'', which could be tried at the International Criminal Court, is the brainchild of a lawyer-turned-campaigner, Polly Higgins. The idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread damage to the environment such as fossil fuels, mining, agriculture, chemicals and forestry. Supporters of an ecocide law also believe it could be used to prosecute ''climate deniers'' who distort science and facts to discourage voters and politicians from taking action to tackle global warming and climate change. ''Ecocide is in essence the very antithesis of life,'' Ms Higgins said. ''It leads to resource depletion, and where there is escalation of resource depletion, war comes chasing behind. Where such destruction arises out of the actions of mankind, ecocide can be regarded as a crime against peace.'' Ms Higgins, formerly a barrister in London specialising in employment, has already had success at the United Nations with a Universal Declaration for Planetary Rights, modelled on the human rights declaration. ''My starting point was 'how do we create a duty of care to the planet, a pre-emptive obligation to not harm the planet?'' she asked. After a successful introduction at the UN in 2008, the idea has been adopted by the Bolivian government, which will propose a full members' vote. Ecocide is already recognised by dictionaries. *Guardian News Media* -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 11/04/2010 23:06, Louis Proyect wrote: == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == From Rees's How to start a new left wing group: the rules: Avoid the words socialist, communist, Marxist, workers and Party when coining your group's name. It is the 21st century. full: http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/blogs/66-luna17-activist/4573-how-to-start-a-new-left-wing-group-the-rules Just to be clear, that was written by a Newcastle-based member of the /Counterfire/ group named Alex Snowdon rather than by John Rees himself. It appears on /Rees's Pieces/ (/Counterfire/'s cognomenclature in the UK), I suspect, because the site features almost everything written on its' members blogs. To answer your question, it may be that Alex read your blog, and decided to take that advice. However, I suspect what is more likely is that he is making fun of how ridiculous new sects look when they take to rationalising a series of choices forced on them by circumstances beyond their control, and then offere these as a series of pat 'rules' that anyone forming a new leftist group can follow. Hence, dropping newspapers only makes sense if you don't have a grassroots network or a trade union base - otherwise it's actually not possible to build an active membership without the face-to-face interaction that paper sales provide. Having a sense of perspective about how tiny you are is only comforting if your membership is not much above sixty - usually, having a sense of perspective entails being realistic about your capacities, not soothing one's soul about the poverty of said capacities. Rediscovering the ABC of your tradition and not slagging off the party you've just left is only appropriate if you have just left a party and wish to stake a claim to its tradition (cf Lindsey German's summation of the principles of said tradition: bending the stick, seizing the key link in the chain and the polemic), while at the same time constantly slagging off the party you've just left in thinly veiled terms for having abandoned said tradition. Avoiding the words socialist, workers etc is only appropriate if either a) the group you intend to set up has nothing to do with revolutionary socialism, or b) you believe that people who might be put off by mention of socialism can be deceived into joining a marxist group. The rest is just filler, and ruins what is otherwise a very witty satire on the grandiose delusions of grand-standing personality cults. He should have called it Hot Sects! Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the RCP. -- Richard Seymour Writer and blogger Email: leninstombb...@googlemail.com Website: http://www.leninology.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/leninology Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Seymour_(writer) Book: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/seymour_r_the_liberal_defense_of_murder.shtml Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Greetings all
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Yes, welcome. Grab a chair and pour a glass Then, feel free find a revisionist, throw the contents of the glass at them and break the chair over their head. ML Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Chris Hedges - the face of resistance
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/one_marines_liberty_walk_for_the_rest_of_us_20100411/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Richard Seymour wrote: Avoiding the words socialist, workers etc is only appropriate if either a) the group you intend to set up has nothing to do with revolutionary socialism, or b) you believe that people who might be put off by mention of socialism can be deceived into joining a marxist group. It all depends. In the late 1800s, socialism was a mass movement that millions of workers identified with, even if they never held membership. By the 1940s, this had changed fundamentally. Workers either viewed themselves as Communist, with all the problems this involved. Or they viewed themselves as socialists in the reformist tradition. Tiny groups vying for their allegiance called themselves socialist (or communist) as well but *never recruited large numbers of workers*. So the basic raison d'etre for launching a new socialist formation of this sort was never fulfilled. The reason Camejo explored the idea of dumping the old vocabulary was to force radicals to rethink how they connected to the masses. He followed up the North Star Network with activity in the Green Party, which for a brief time could have functioned as a pole of attraction for Marxists in the U.S., just as Die Linke does in Germany or other such groups in Europe. I think such formations will play an increasingly important role until the workers are ready in massive numbers to join a revolutionary organization that looks nothing like the self-declared vanguard parties of today. That is not to say that self-declared vanguard formations cannot play a useful role today. They do. But they are constitutionally incapable of breaking through their own self-imposed sectarian glass ceiling. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] History of the Green Party and Movements in the U.S.
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I apologize if this article from 2006 has already appeared on the list. DT http://www.social-ecology.org/2006/01/the-greens-as-a-social-movement-values-and-conflicts-2/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 12/04/2010 14:26, Louis Proyect wrote: It all depends. In the late 1800s, socialism was a mass movement that millions of workers identified with, even if they never held membership. By the 1940s, this had changed fundamentally. Workers either viewed themselves as Communist, with all the problems this involved. Or they viewed themselves as socialists in the reformist tradition. Tiny groups vying for their allegiance called themselves socialist (or communist) as well but *never recruited large numbers of workers*. So the basic raison d'etre for launching a new socialist formation of this sort was never fulfilled. The reason Camejo explored the idea of dumping the old vocabulary was to force radicals to rethink how they connected to the masses. He followed up the North Star Network with activity in the Green Party, which for a brief time could have functioned as a pole of attraction for Marxists in the U.S., just as Die Linke does in Germany or other such groups in Europe. I think such formations will play an increasingly important role until the workers are ready in massive numbers to join a revolutionary organization that looks nothing like the self-declared vanguard parties of today. That is not to say that self-declared vanguard formations cannot play a useful role today. They do. But they are constitutionally incapable of breaking through their own self-imposed sectarian glass ceiling. Sure, but there's a difference between the question of how radicals relate to the masses and how revolutionaries should do so. I'm in favour of forming broader groups that could be called any number of things. They certainly don't have to say 'socialist', or 'workers', or 'communist', or 'hammer' in their name. I was in a group that called itself 'Respect' for Christs' sake. And I agree with your basic point that such broad radical left formations will be important in the medium term, for much the reasons that you lay out. But within such formations, there will be revolutionaries of various kinds, perhaps organised as either a faction or a party. It is important that they are open about their politics - if they take their politics seriously, that is. The sentence in Snowdon's article that we're discussing rejected the use of the language of socialism in a left-wing group's name on the grounds that it is the 21st Century. Well, yes it is. But the language of socialism does not inherently limit one's appeal, it isn't itself any more dated than the language of liberalism or conservatism (a lot less so) and it isn't what has held socialists back. The Scottish Socialist Party, eg, was not destroyed because it called itself socialist, but because it tore itself apart overt a Murdoch media witch-hunt. -- Richard Seymour Writer and blogger Email: leninstombb...@googlemail.com Website: http://www.leninology.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/leninology Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Seymour_(writer) Book: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/seymour_r_the_liberal_defense_of_murder.shtml Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Kyn and Scottish/Bremen Schools
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Went to Kyn´s article, and found out a most interesting thing. If Kyn is quite solid in his denunciation of the schools of Scotland and Bremen as at best ill-researchers of the sources they quote, it looks like this is a debate between misquoters. Kyn states that among his students there is a Federico Morchio, Minister, Argentina. You can be absolutely certain that this Morchio has never been Minister at the Federal level in Argentina, ever. At most, he was chief of cabinet in the Secretary for Industry, Commerce and Small/medium enterprises during the early, and most neoliberal, moments of the Kirchner administration (2003). His being a minister has to do with a third rank position in the Arg Diplomatic Service, where he seems to be acting on secondary or third-rank issues related to Foreign Direct Investment. A typical position-eater of the neoliberal breed, a grey bureaucrat that either has duped Kyn into believing he has got a ministerial rank, either has been presented by Kyn as still another neoliberal pupil of his in the former neoliberal paradise of Argentina. If Kyn´s remaining examples of students and colleagues are consistent, I would think it twice before calling this man a market socialist, BTW. What I believe is that both Kyn and the two schools belong to the same gender of budget nipping intellectuals. They just cater to different buyers. -- Néstor Gorojovsky El texto principal de este correo puede no ser de mi autoría Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Richard Seymour wrote: Sure, but there's a difference between the question of how radicals relate to the masses and how revolutionaries should do so. I'm in favour of forming broader groups that could be called any number of things. They certainly don't have to say 'socialist', or 'workers', or 'communist', or 'hammer' in their name. I was in a group that called itself 'Respect' for Christs' sake. For people new to Marxmail and unfamiliar with British far left politics, Richard is a member of the British SWP that recently suffered something of a split involving leading members John Rees and Lindsey German. While I am not familiar with all the disputed issues, I know that the Respect experience was fairly important. Both sides seem to support a united front approach to electoral formations such as Respect that in my opinion is a formula for disaster since it requires the revolutionary members of the group to accept the discipline of their own organization. From my own experience in the American SWP, this kind of behavior in the mass movement alienated just about everybody who was not a member or sympathizer of our sect. Here is my analysis: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/11/04/the-swp-respect-and-the-united-front/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 12/04/2010 14:37, Louis Proyect wrote: It’s quite obvious really – why give yourself a name that sounds very old-fashioned when you are new and looking to the future? And why choose a name that sounds like every little left-wing group there’s ever been? *shrugs*... I mean, really, Louis. Who /isn't/ looking to the future? Do you know anyone who explicitly says they're looking to the past? Or who claims to want to imitate the failures of the past? Doesn't every politician in the world castigate the past relentlessly? Tired solutions, thereof. Failed remedies, thereof. Outmoded ideas, thereof. The future, by contrast, is just as glam as can be. The Idiot's Guide to PR surely has a section all of its own about how marvellous and estimable the future really is. It's just like someone saying they oppose the bad and admire the good. It's platitudinous public relations twaddle, designed to simulate openness, reflectiveness, and new thinking. More to the point, the name doesn't make the difference in this respect. What the name does is concisely communicate the nature of one's politics. It doesn't prevent one from being stuck in a time-warp, it doesn't differentiate one from Bob Avakian's gang, it doesn't stop one from being dogmatic, and it doesn't stop one from circling the drain just like previous sects. And, again, the idea that calling oneself a socialist is inherently more dated than calling oneself conservative or liberal or social democratic or Christian Democratic (etc etc etc.) is trite. No offence to my ex-comrades, but for all the emphasis they have placed on dynamism, verve and various cognate terms, I am even less impressed by the quality of their current strategic thinking than I was when they were still comrades to man. -- Richard Seymour Writer and blogger Email: leninstombb...@googlemail.com Website: http://www.leninology.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/leninology Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Seymour_(writer) Book: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/seymour_r_the_liberal_defense_of_murder.shtml Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Richard Seymour wrote: *shrugs*... I mean, really, Louis. Who /isn't/ looking to the future? Do you know anyone who explicitly says they're looking to the past? You can't have it both ways. Groups like the American SWP and the British SWP are consumed with the question of revolutionary continuity, showing that they are the true successors of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. Just read Tony Cliff on Trotskyism after Trotsky to get a feel for how important pedigree is: http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/cliff/works/1999/trotism/ch06.htm I propose dumping this kind of junk, but my message is directed more to the young unaffiliated Marxists who read my blog or subscribe to Marxmail rather than members of such groups who would regard me as a liquidationist or worse. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == It reminds me of when I went to Sunday School in the Episcopal Church and we were taught about the Apostolic Succession. It meant that all Anglican bishops could trace the bishops who consecrated them all the way back to the 12 Apostles. We were taught that the Lutherans and Methodists (for example) had allowed that succession to be broken. Sometimes I wonder if this kind of sectarianism is a peculiarity of the English-speaking world and that because of the peculiar character of the Reformation in Great Britain it became part of our culture that has been allowed to infect the socialist movement. You can't have it both ways. Groups like the American SWP and the British SWP are consumed with the question of revolutionary continuity, showing that they are the true successors of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. Just read Tony Cliff on Trotskyism after Trotsky to get a feel for how important pedigree is: http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/cliff/works/1999/trotism/ch06.htm Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] WOLA versus Honduran democracy
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.counterpunch.org/pine04122010.html Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Richard Seymour wrote: Another way in which what you've said is a non-sequitur is that there is no such entity as groups like the American SWP and the British SWP. They are apples and oranges as regards their way of organising, their internal culture, their relationship with others, etc etc. You have experience of one, and not of the other, and I recommend that you don't confuse the two. I am not talking about their ideology, obviously. I am talking about their understanding of Leninism. The party I joined and have been a member of for over a dozen years now has /never/ evinced any obessesion with revolutionary continuity as long as I have been around, and we do not pretend to be the true successors to Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky (and Bukharin and Gramsci and Luxembourg and various other interesting thinkers and revolutionaries) - at least, if any member of the SWP has ever made such a silly claim, I trust they are suitably embarrassed by it. John Molyneux, The authentic Marxist tradition The authentic Marxist tradition is not difficult to identify. It runs, from Marx and Engels, through the revolutionary left wing of the Second International (especially in Russia and Germany), reaches its height with the Russian Revolution and the early years of the Comintern, and is continued, in the most difficult circumstances possible, by the Left Opposition and the Trotskyist movement in the 1930s. The history and theory of this tradition has been so copiously analysed, defended and, where necessary, criticised by members of our own political tendency, [139] that only a few general observations are required here. It is a tradition whose leading representatives, after its founders, are clearly Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky, but they are surrounded by many figures of only slightly lesser stature – Mehring, Zetkin, the early Bukharin, James Connolly, John McLean, Victor Serge, Alfred Rosmer, and so on, as well as hundreds of thousands of working class fighters. It is a tradition which has sought always to unite theory and practice and therefore has never rested content with received wisdom or fixed dogma but has sought to apply Marxism to a changing world. Its most important contributions include theories of the party (Lenin), the mass strike (Luxemburg), permanent revolution (Trotsky), imperialism and the world economy (Luxemburg, Bukharin, Lenin and Trotsky), the counter-revolutionary role of Stalinism (Trotsky), fascism (Trotsky) and the restoration of the activist, dialectical element in Marxist philosophy (Lenin, Gramsci and Lukacs). It has been for most of its existence, with the exception of the revolutionary years of 1917–23, the tradition of a tiny minority. This is unfortunate but unavoidable. The ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class and the mass of workers reach revolutionary consciousness only in revolutionary struggle. The permanent co-existence of a mass Marxist movement with capitalism is therefore impossible. Its very presence constitutes a threat to the capitalist order which, if it is not realised, will be removed. It is therefore a tradition whose advances and retreats reflect, in the last analysis, the advances and retreats of the working class. It is not a monolithic tradition, but is characterised by vigorous debate (think of Luxemburg and Lenin on the party and the national question, or Lenin and Trotsky on the nature of the Russian Revolution, or the internal debates of the Bolshevik Party before and after 1917). Nor is it a tradition free from error (witness Trotsky's workers' state analysis of Russia). But it is united by the class basis on which it stands, the world working class [140], and therefore has been in an important sense cumulative, with each Marxist generation building on the achievements of its forebears. It is also our tradition. The traditions which the Socialist Workers Party in Britain and its international affiliates have sought to continue and develop over more than thirty years. Historical circumstances have not yet confronted us with the flames of war, revolution and counter-revolution. These are the conditions which put movements and theories to the test, revealing their inadequacies but also allowing them to achieve their full stature. Consequently, our achievements, theoretical and practical, appear small beer compared with those of our predecessors. Nonetheless, our major theoretical contributions and distinctive political positions – the state capitalist analysis of Stalinist states, the theory of deflected permanent revolution in the Third World, the analysis of the arms economy boom and the new economic crisis, the critique of the trade union bureaucracy – have
Re: [Marxism] Hugo Chavez on the need for a new international
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == If you are referring to Chavez' speech in November 2009, that speech as not been translated to the best of my knowledge. It is apparently 5 hours long and only part of it dealt with the question of the Fifth International. From: Louis Proyect l...@panix.com To: Adam Richmond adambrichm...@yahoo.com Sent: Mon, April 12, 2010 8:13:33 AM Subject: [Marxism] Hugo Chavez on the need for a new international == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I cannot find the text of his actual speech. If anybody has it, either in Spanish or English, please send it to me or post a link here. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/adambrichmond%40yahoo.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 12/04/2010 15:53, Louis Proyect wrote: I am not talking about their ideology, obviously. I am talking about their understanding of Leninism. Well, quite. But I wasn't talking about ideology either - I was speaking of culture, organisation and ways of relating to others. You infer from your experience of the SWP US things about the SWP UK, but these inferences - so I was explaining - aren't valid. If the SWP US are obsessed with revolutionary continuity, whatever that is, it doesn't follow that those of us on the other side of the Atlantic who happen to use the same name, are. It just doesn't consume us in the way that you suggested. John Molyneux, The authentic Marxist tradition The authentic Marxist tradition is not difficult to identify. It runs, from Marx and Engels ... And yet, strange to relate, this assertion does not entail that the SWP UK is the sole true bearer of the marxist tradition (note the definite article), which is the caricature upon which I originally commented. What is the purpose of the cited essay? In a nutshell, it is to distinguish marxism from Stalinism - a reasonable point, I would have thought. Since there are those who castigate marxism as an inherently totalitarian doctrine, as one that leads to dictatorship and terror wherever it is applied, Molyneux recalls that there is a better tradition, of socialism from below, which is closer to the original intent of the First Internationalists, much of the Second International, the early Bolsheviks, and the minority of marxists who rejected Stalinism since its inception. That the SWP argues that this is closer to both the letter and spirit of marxism than the scholastic pseudo-scientific official discourses of the USSR, for example, hardly amounts to the erection of a sectarian party line. That it also wishes to situate itself among that minority tradition is, again, not an argument for revolutionary purity. It is not a small matter that marxism became associated with a grotesque tyranny and its epigones, and it is not unimportant, petty or sectarian to take issue with that. The only basis on which it is possible to do so is to examine the concrete history of marxist ideas and movements as they developed, from Marx onward, and to offer an explanation as to what went wrong - which is what Molyneux was doing. Possibly, marxists should stop doing this, dump it all as so much junk, but that does mean abandoning any idea of rebutting anticommunist anathema and keeping marxist ideas relevant. -- Richard Seymour Writer and blogger Email: leninstombb...@googlemail.com Website: http://www.leninology.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/leninology Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Seymour_(writer) Book: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/seymour_r_the_liberal_defense_of_murder.shtml Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 12/04/2010 16:58, Louis Proyect wrote: Yeah, that's a problem, however. If there is Stalinism in Cuba, something I heard on almost a daily basis from Kevin Murphy, the batty winner of the Isaac Deutscher Prize a couple of years ago, then I am a Stalinist. In fact, he used to call me Koba, the lovely chap. Well, Kevin Murphy is a scholar who has worked hard to arrive at his understanding of Stalinism, not least with his /Revolution and Counterrevolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory/. I don't think him at all batty, regardless of how uncivil he might have been to you in the past. Here's the substantive issue. It's not a minor principle of marxism that the emancipation of the working class is the act of the working class. This happens to be fundamental. But, according to the SWP (UK), even Trotsky didn't take that point to its logical conclusion in his analysis of the USSR. Now, there is no way that the SWP regards Trotsky as somehow external to the authentic marxist tradition. Similarly, I would argue that you are wrong to describe Cuba as a socialist society, and that to see it as such is inconsistent with the basic principle that for there to be a socialist society, the working class has to be in power. But it doesn't follow that the state caps want to have you ex-communicated from the marxist tradition. -- Richard Seymour Writer and blogger Email: leninstombb...@googlemail.com Website: http://www.leninology.blogspot.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/leninology Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Seymour_(writer) Book: http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/s-titles/seymour_r_the_liberal_defense_of_murder.shtml Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Richard Seymour wrote: Well, Kevin Murphy is a scholar who has worked hard to arrive at his understanding of Stalinism, not least with his /Revolution and Counterrevolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory/. I don't think him at all batty, regardless of how uncivil he might have been to you in the past. I had a glance at this book about a year ago and it seemed like a very nice dissertation. With all the time he used to waste on alt.politics.socialism.trotsky, I am surprised he ever got if finished. Perhaps if you were on this newsgroup, you might have seen the battiness I alluded to, including his claim that Cuban helicopters dropped sandbags on rafts trying to reach Miami in order to murder all those aboard. His hatred of Cuba was palpable. Similarly, I would argue that you are wrong to describe Cuba as a socialist society, and that to see it as such is inconsistent with the basic principle that for there to be a socialist society, the working class has to be in power. But it doesn't follow that the state caps want to have you ex-communicated from the marxist tradition. Actually, I rather enjoy being excommunicated. After 10 years in the American SWP, I would tend to reject any club that would have me as a member. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == == Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:46:00 +0100 From: Richard Seymour leninstombb...@googlemail.com To: =?iso-8859-1?q?Vladimiro_Giacch=E9?= md1...@mclink.it Subject: Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew beenreading the Unrepentant Marxist? == == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Similarly, I would argue that you are wrong to describe Cuba as a socialist society, and that to see it as such is inconsistent with the basic principle that for there to be a socialist society, the working class has to be in power. I'm afraid it's hard to find any socialist society in the world on this basis. In the past, in the present as well as in the future. Sometimes I'm inclined to think that the purity of our ideals is a proxy of our actual impotence... Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew been reading the Unrepentant Marxist?
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == My real bone of contention with the SWP isn't the substance of its politics, but rather how they pursue those politics Engaging in valuable work from below in social movements and in united fronts, but never really broaching idea of the unity of Marxists, as Marxists, in a Marxist party that would allow for permanent factions and freedom of discussion and debate and form the social base for a rejuvenated left. I remember during my first week of my first semester at college when I went to an anti-war rally and was bombarded with Socialist Workers, Revolution! newspapers, even a Workers' Vanguard or two, the PSL's paper, etc and I had no idea what to make of all these left-sects even though I knew my politics were vaguely socialist and I was familiar with the figure of Leon Trotsky (background I doubt most people have). What I see (from afar mind you) are a bunch of groups duplicating each others efforts, a bunch of competiting sects and no viable revolutionary left. Why couldn't SPEW, the SPW and the smaller groupings like the CPGB and Permanent Revolution be in the same party? Given freedom of discussion, I have no doubt that a principled line will win out. I guess this is the definition of a liquidationist stance, but is the alternative for groups like the SPW just hovering around the 5, 6 thousand mark until objective conditions allow for an explosion in their ranks? On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 12:46 PM, Richard Seymour leninstombb...@googlemail.com wrote: Well, Kevin Murphy is a scholar who has worked hard to arrive at his understanding of Stalinism, not least with his /Revolution and Counterrevolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory/. I don't think him at all batty, regardless of how uncivil he might have been to you in the past. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Has John Rees's crew
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == If by the purity of our ideals you mean socialism and if by our actual impotence you mean the lack of socialism in the world, then yes, it's a problem we're all well aware of. On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 1:03 PM, Vladimiro Giacche' md1...@mclink.itwrote: I'm afraid it's hard to find any socialist society in the world on this basis. In the past, in the present as well as in the future. Sometimes I'm inclined to think that the purity of our ideals is a proxy of our actual impotence... Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Kyn
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I have now read Kyn's protest. I have at no time indicated that Kyn was a current supporter of socialism. He did however do pioneering work on the computation of sectoral labour values using input output tables, this preceeded the work of Shaikh and his students at the New School, and it seemed therefore appropriate to give him credit for the work that he did in the 1960s. I had already gathered from his current position that he is no longer a socialist. If time allows I may write a response to his criticism of the labour theory of value. His points about the computing power required to perform detailed calculations of labour values have been refuted by us many times since the 1990s. With 1990 technology it was already possible, now with 20 years advance in computing power it is even easier. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Millibands
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 4/12/10 2:44 PM, Ernest Leif wrote: Just read NYRB article on Afghanistan by David Milliband. Now I know that apples sometimes fall far, very far, from the the tree but WTF? His father must be rolling over in his grave. Just had to put this out there. it would be nice to know more about the tree... who is daddy millband? Les Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Millibands
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Daddy Milliband was Ralph Milliband. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Miliband http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is_8_55/ai_112411341/ Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant -- Original Message -- From: Les Schaffer schaf...@optonline.net Subject: Re: [Marxism] The Millibands Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:56:34 -0400 On 4/12/10 2:44 PM, Ernest Leif wrote: Just read NYRB article on Afghanistan by David Milliband. Now I know that apples sometimes fall far, very far, from the the tree but WTF? His father must be rolling over in his grave. Just had to put this out there. it would be nice to know more about the tree... who is daddy millband? Les Acai Berry ... EXPOSED Warning! Health Reporter Discovers the Shocking Truth About Acai Berry http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4bc372dfdc0f923a92dst05vuc Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] History of the Marxist Internationals (conclusion, the call for a Fifth International)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/history-of-the-marxist-internationals-conclusion-the-call-for-a-fifth-international/ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Comintern (The Stalinist-Hoxhaist World Party)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On 4/12/2010 6:39 PM, S. Artesian wrote: In general, and in particular, I advise staying clear of ideologies. Marx's analysis and it revolutionary impact is highly unideological, highly concrete. Stalinism is a bit more than a personality cult, having a bit more responsibility for what happened to the prospects for the international socialist revolution than, say, Bakuninism, or Ayn Randism. I get to thinking sometimes that the present state of affairs in capitalist America may be the result of Randian libertarian thinking among the ruling class and most of the working class. Also, I speculate that the present sorry state of most of the so-called Left throughout the world is due more to crypto-Bakuninism than to Leninism per se. I think Marx would disagree with your opinion about his work's impact being highly unideological. Marx's work may have practical significance but it never ceases, not for a moment, to be ideological. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Millibands
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == A good friend of mine was a personal friend of Ralph Milliband and got to know the boys as they grew up. It seems that one day they looked at the father and decided that he had achieved nothing as a militant communist. So they came in from the cold and now are an essential part of the Labour Party machine and the American Imperial imperative. Some achievement boys! Well done. Of course this is a terrible betrayal of all the father stood for, but as I always point out that aside from the psychological dimensions of such actions, and there would have been a very sublimated drive to a kind of patricide, the material benefits of betraying the father have been considerable. Quite simply because of the father the boys had something to sell and the Establishment was very willing to part with the 30 pieces of silver. regards Gary Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] An interesting development
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Bhaskar Sunkara wrote: Given that this is an era when even the real labor parties of the world Labour in the UK, the SPD in Germany--- are at best bourgeois workers parties (to use Lenin's parlance) with operative social liberal politics, one has to question what the point of building a party of this nature would be. If the social movements were strong enough to allow for a social democratic (labor) party to succeed within our SMPD, Presidential-election system, the neoliberals wouldn't have control of the Democratic Party to begin with. If you think that the DP's assault on the Nader campaign was brutal, wait until you see what happens when the trade unions enter the electoral arena. There will be hell to pay. Also as Doug (Henwood) mentions: A NC friend in the know says that, sadly, there may not be much here. The guy behind the move is Dana Cope, director of the State Employees Assoc. of North Carolina, who's been steadily drifting to the right. He may be drifting to the right, but forming a labor party takes a lot of guts. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] From A Friend
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Loren Goldner asked me to post this to the list, which I am happy to do. After a decent interval following its publication in New Politics No. 47, I have posted my article Global Leveraged Buyout or 'the Longest Boom in Capitalist History'? A Reply to Robert Fitch critiquing Fitch's inability to distinguish between a phase of decadence in which capital expands while social reproduction contracts, from the actual expanded reproduction of society that characterized booms in capitalism's ascendant phase. See the Break Their Haughty Power web site http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner Fitch's article to which I reply is linked in mine. Comments/critique appreciated. Loren Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Millibands
==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==
On 13 April 2010 04:56, Les Schaffer schaf...@optonline.net wrote:
it would be nice to know more about the tree... who is daddy millband?
Among other things, he was co-editor of the annual 'Socilialist
Register' with Leo Panitch.
And author of many good books:
http://www.librarything.com/author/milibandralph
(and two of his offspring now populate the Brown ministry.)
-AA.
--
Ambrose Andrews
LPO box 8274 ANU Acton ACT 0200 Australia
http://www.vrvl.net/~ambrose/
mailto:ambr...@vrvl.net
voicemail:+61_261112936
work:+61_261256749
mobile:+61_415544621
irc:{undernet|freenode|oftc}:znalo
xmpp:ambr...@jabber.fsfe.org
skype:znalo7
CE38 8B79 C0A7 DF4A 4F54 E352 2647 19A1 DB3B F823
556A 6D19 0904 827C 9DB8 3697 32D0 1E11 403F 2BE1
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Re: [Marxism] Comintern (The Stalinist-Hoxhaist World Party)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == What you mean crypto-bakunisist? http://www.struggle.ws/anarchism/writers/anarcho/Proyect_reply.htmhttp://www.struggle.ws/anarchism/writers/anarcho/Proyect_reply.html On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 4:35 PM, Christian cchrist...@bellsouth.net wrote: Also, I speculate that the present sorry state of most of the so-called Left throughout the world is due more to crypto-Bakuninism than to Leninism per se. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Malatesta
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errico_Malatesta Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Pablo Solon on the Peoples Climate Summit
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == VIDEO: Bolivia's UN Ambassador, Pablo Solon, explains what happened in Copenhagen, and why his country has called the Peoples Climate Summit. http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=2077 Ian Angus Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
