[Marxism] NZ minimum wage nudged up - shows National and Labour the same
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[Marxism] On the southern Irish election results, especially the drubbing of Labour
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[Marxism] Theodor Bergmann autobiography
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Theodor Bergmann, a German revolutionary who supported Rosa Luxemburg and Paul Levi, wrote a 45 page autobiography on his 100th anniversary if the Google translate was accurate. It is amazing that he is still alive and going strong. http://www.vsa-verlag.de/nc/buecher/detail/artikel/im-jahrhunder-der-katastrophen/ I heard him speak at the Brecht Forum in March 2000 as I reported to the Marxism list back then. I have the highest regard for Theodor Bergmann, the 84 year old editor of the Hamburg-based magazine "Sozialismus," who spoke last night at the Brecht Forum on "The German Anti-Nazi Left". Three years ago the magazine entered into a fraternal relationship with Monthly Review, which is edited by Paul Sweezy and Harry Magdoff, themselves well-known and respected old-timers. Not that I have anything against young radicals, but men and women in their 80s who are still going strong deserve our special respect. "Sozialismus" was also the first serious journal to print something I wrote, namely my puckish report on the last Rethinking Marxism conference, titled "Wissen-shaftskriege" (Science Wars). It told the story of how female Marxist graduate students from India nearly drove a terminally long-winded Etienne Balibar from the stage and how during the aftermath of the protest conference organizers tried to root out a Sokalite conspiracy that presumably was responsible. (There was no such conspiracy.) Bergmann was a member of the youth group of the Left Communists in the 1920s, a party that Cochranite Erwin Baur's mother belonged to as well. In an interview I conducted with him recently, Erwin explained that it was natural for him to end up in the American Trotskyist movement in the 1930s because as he was growing up talk around the dinner table focused on the evils of the capitalist system and the inadequacy of the mass Communist Parties. Erwin, a life-long UAW militant and currently a member of Solidarity, is the same age as Theodor and another example of how to stand up to the system over the long haul. The German Left Communists were a split from the party led by August Thalheimer and Heinrich Brandler. They, along with Paul Levi, were the ideological heirs of Rosa Luxemburg and usually showed better judgement than the Comintern during the 1920s. For example, Paul Levi proposed a united front between Communists and Socialists long before Hitler was a major factor in German politics. When the Comintern instructed the German Communists to instead follow a sectarian line, Levi took his opposition public. For this he was expelled, the first in a series of talented revolutionaries driven from the party. Their sin was in believing that German Marxism alone was responsible for the fate of the German working class in the final analysis. In the article "Rosa Luxemburg's Political Heir: An Appreciation of Paul Levi" that appeared in the Nov.-Dec. 1999 New Left Review, author David Fernbach cites a January 1921 letter from Levi to the German party on the seriousness of the problems in dealing with the Comintern: "[I]f the Communist International functions in Western Europe in terms of admission and expulsion like a recoiling cannon.., then we will experience the heaviest setback.. . [Our Russian] comrades did not clearly realize that splits in a mass party with a different intellectual structure than, for example, that of the illegal party.. cannot be carried out on the basis of resolutions, but only on the basis of political experience." January 1921? This was before the Comintern supposedly went downhill? Clearly the best thing for the German working class would have been if the Comintern had left it alone or at least treated it in the respectful manner that Fidel Castro treats other socialists today rather than trying to browbeat them into blind loyalty. The other major ideological influence on the Left Communists was Bukharin, who is the subject of one of Theodor Bergmann's many books. There are two dominant interpretations of Bukharin today, one--based on Stephen Cohen's biography--is that of a liberalizing bureaucrat who anticipated Gorbachev. The other, part of Trotskyist orthodoxy, is that of Bukharin as friend of rich peasants. To reduce Bukharin to this formula would be the same as characterizing Trotsky only as the Russian revolutionary who "underestimated the peasantry." John Bellamy Foster's brilliant new "Marx's Ecology" reveals another side of Bukharin: an ecosocialist who continued in the vein established by Marx in his examination of the problem of soil fertility. He singles out this paragraph from
[Marxism] A Biographical Sketch of the Iranian Socialist Labor Leader Yadullah Khosroshahi
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Yadullah Khosroshahi (pronounced Yædolah Xosroʃæhi; birth certificate surname is Khosravi (Xosrævi)) who was born in Shahr-e Kurd, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province in Iran on October 28, 1942 and died in London, England, on February 4, 2010, was a central leader of the Iranian oil workers movement and a socialist leader of the Iranian labor movement. full: http://forhumanliberation.blogspot.com/2016/02/2229-biographical-sketch-of-iranian.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Irish General Election Results 2016
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hi The Irish General Election results are showing that there has been no radical change in Irish politics. The general election results are evidence of the political and ideological stagnation within the working class. The evidence produced by the elections shows that the Irish working class is politically and ideologically stagnant. Despite its disastrous record leading up to and including the world 2008 financial crisis Fianna Fáil has electorally won back much of the working class and lower middle class. The increase in support for Sinn Fein is merely support for another bourgeois party by the working class and other social strata. It is ironical that the Socialist Party has been describing the Sinn Fein party as an “anti-establishment” party. There is nothing “anti-establishment” about Sinn Fein. Indeed it has been going out of its way to demonstrate how pro-establishment it is. Increased support for the mix bag of Independents is largely support for other bourgeois political elements. The modest support for the Left is of no real significance. Indeed much of this Left has been becoming increasingly more moderate. Much of their political interventions are little or no different from that of much of the Labour Party of yore. As it sniffs the power it will move further to the right. This Left is largely opportunist and will cut its cloth to increase its popularity. Given this, overall, there has been no significant shift to the Left. The politics and ideology of the Irish working class is as it was in the days before the 2008 financial crisis. Essentially taking place is a reconfiguration or recalibration of bourgeois politics in Ireland to meet the present class needs of the bourgeoisie. The effect of this is to block off the working class from becoming more politicised thereby posing an increasing challenge to the existing system. Any modest gains made by the Left, given its opportunism, will further encourage it to focus on electoralism to the detriment of more radical activism. Emerging from the new political situation will be a tendency by this Left to fetishise electoralism. There is now a strong possibility of the Left joining together to form a new party. Such a new party may even unite with relatively “radical” elements within the existing Labour Party. Such a party will descend into a crass opportunism in the style of the present Labour party. This will bring us back to where we started. Ultimately the source of the problem is the existing character of the working class movement. It is a stubbornly politically stagnant working class. It is a class scurrying about since the 2008 world financial crisis seeking out diverse political elements that it mistakenly thinks will prevent it from loosing “ its benefits” of one sort or another. Consequently it will go to bed with any political element that, it believes, can protect its “welfare” –even with former terrorists. It lacks a class morality. It fails to understand that under capitalism the coalition government was compelled to cut back on the living standards of the working class and the lower middle class. The only other solution is a communist revolution. Despite their claims neither Sinn Fein nor the Left can solve the problems of the working class from within capitalism. The southern Irish working class has not shifted in a leftward direction. Instead it is still essentially politically and ideologically stagnant. It was the world financial crisis that generated the shake up in Irish politics –not the working class nor parties such as Sinn Fein, the Socialist Party nor the SWP. Indeed it was the crisis that rendered them more popular. This is the power of capitalism. Needed, more than ever, is a principled communist movement. Take Care Paddy _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Irish General Election Results 2016
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hi The Irish General Election results are showing that there has been no radical change in Irish politics. The general election results are evidence of the political and ideological stagnation within the working class. The evidence produced by the elections shows that the Irish working class is politically and ideologically stagnant. Despite its disastrous record leading up to and including the world 2008 financial crisis Fianna Fáil has electorally won back much of the working class and lower middle class. The increase in support for Sinn Fein is merely support for another bourgeois party by the working class and other social strata. It is ironical that the Socialist Party has been describing the Sinn Fein party as an “anti-establishment” party. There is nothing “anti-establishment” about Sinn Fein. Indeed it has been going out of its way to demonstrate how pro-establishment it is. Increased support for the mix bag of Independents is largely support for other bourgeois political elements. The modest support for the Left is of no real significance. Indeed much of this Left has been becoming increasingly more moderate. Much of their political interventions are little or no different from that of much of the Labour Party of yore. As it sniffs the power it will move further to the right. This Left is largely opportunist and will cut its cloth to increase its popularity. Given this, overall, there has been no significant shift to the Left. The politics and ideology of the Irish working class is as it was in the days before the 2008 financial crisis. Essentially taking place is a reconfiguration or recalibration of bourgeois politics in Ireland to meet the present class needs of the bourgeoisie. The effect of this is to block off the working class from becoming more politicised thereby posing an increasing challenge to the existing system. Any modest gains made by the Left, given its opportunism, will further encourage it to focus on electoralism to the detriment of more radical activism. Emerging from the new political situation will be a tendency by this Left to fetishise electoralism. There is now a strong possibility of the Left joining together to form a new party. Such a new party may even unite with relatively “radical” elements within the existing Labour Party. Such a party will descend into a crass opportunism in the style of the present Labour party. This will bring us back to where we started. Ultimately the source of the problem is the existing character of the working class movement. It is a stubbornly politically stagnant working class. It is a class scurrying about since the 2008 world financial crisis seeking out diverse political elements that it mistakenly thinks will prevent it from loosing “ its benefits” of one sort or another. Consequently it will go to bed with any political element that, it believes, can protect its “welfare” –even with former terrorists. It lacks a class morality. It fails to understand that under capitalism the coalition government was compelled to cut back on the living standards of the working class and the lower middle class. The only other solution is a communist revolution. Despite their claims neither Sinn Fein nor the Left can solve the problems of the working class from within capitalism. The southern Irish working class has not shifted in a leftward direction. Instead it is still essentially politically and ideologically stagnant. It was the world financial crisis that generated the shake up in Irish politics –not the working class nor parties such as Sinn Fein, the Socialist Party nor the SWP. Indeed it was the crisis that rendered them more popular. This is the power of capitalism. Needed, more than ever, is a principled communist movement. Take Care Paddy _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New Blog Post: Bernie Sanders' "Political Revolution"
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Some say that those of us who do not actively support the Sanders's campaign are "ultra-leftists." I disagree. http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2016/02/29/bernie-sanders-political-revolution/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Another Roberts blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Roberts concludes his latest Jeremiad with this "Monetarist solutions to the global slowdown have failed; Keynesian fiscal solutions are not being introduced and would not work in the long run anyway. The only way out is another slump." This sounds similar to the advice Mellon was supposed to have given Hoover -"Liquidate". Maybe I have become a softie, but I am hoping that we will not go over the edge and that fiscal initiatives will be launched. I am too old to be worried by the claim that Keynesian solutions "will not work in the long run". There is no long run as far as I am concerned. If the austerians have their way and they cut taxes and government spending, then we will simply head into the Slump. Then the suffering will be terrible. At times like this Roberts sounds almost cold-blooded and he reminds me a lot of the characters that ran the ISO tendency here. Having said that, I would repeat his blog is invaluable as a window into the current debates. comradely Gary _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
