[Marxism] Resurgent Chavismo take the initiative with Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly vote

[Carlo Sands via Marxism]

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The Constituent Assembly will not solve everything by itself, but it has
already proven a much-needed shot in the arm for Chavismo and provides a
tremendous chance to push the Bolivarian Revolution forward.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/resurgent-chavismo-take-initiative-venezuela%E2%80%99s-constituent-assembly-vote

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[Marxism] Fwd: [New post] The works of Henri Lefebvre

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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-- Forwarded message --
From: The Charnel-House 
Date: Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 8:38 PM
Subject: [New post] The works of Henri Lefebvre
To: hasc.warrior.s...@gmail.com


Ross Wolfe posted: "Henri Lefebvre’s work spans a variety of disciplines
and fields, ranging from philosophy and sociology to architecture and
urbanism. Obviously, this relates to a number of the themes discussed on
this blog. A past entry featured Alfred Schmidt's laudatory"

New post on *The Charnel-House*
 The works of Henri Lefebvre
 by Ross
Wolfe 

Henri Lefebvre’s work spans a variety of disciplines and fields, ranging
from philosophy and sociology to architecture and urbanism. Obviously, this
relates to a number of the themes discussed on this blog. A past entry
featured Alfred Schmidt's laudatory essay

dedicated to Lefebvre, which I urge everyone to read. Roland Barthes, in
his *Mythologies*, defended his contemporary against "criticism blind and
dumb" in the press: "You don't explain philosophers, but they explain you.
You have no desire to understand that play by the Marxist Lefebvre, but you
can be sure that the Marxist Lefebvre understands your incomprehension
perfectly, and above all that he understands (for I myself suspect you to
be more subtle than stupid) the delightfully 'harmless' confession you make
of it."

Lefebvre blazed a path, moreover, in the theoretical inquiry into "everyday
life," taking up a thread from the early Soviet discourse on the
transformation of "everyday life" [*быт*] and Marx's musings on "practical
everyday life" [*praktischen Werkeltagslebens*]. Trotsky had authored a
book on the subject in the 1920s, under the title *Problems of Everyday
Life*
,
and the three-volume *Critique of Everyday Life* by Lefebvre, released over
the course of four decades (1946, 1961, and 1981), can be seen as an
elaboration of its themes. Eventually, inspired by this series, the
Situationist upstar Raoul Vaneigem would publish *The Revolution of
Everyday Life*

(1967), while the Catholic theorist Michel de Certeau released two volumes
of *The Practice of Everyday Life* (1976
,
1980

).

Russell Jacoby passingly remarked in his excellent *Dialectic of Defeat:
Contours of Western Marxism* (1981) that "Lefebvre's career in France
recapitulates the general development of Western Marxism." He continued:
"Lefebvre left the French Communist party only after 1956, but his earlier
activities and writings betrayed a commitment to unorthodox Marxism. He
belonged to a group called 'Philosophies,' which briefly (1925-1926) formed
an alliance with the surrealists. With Norbert Guterman he translated
Hegel, Lenin's Hegel notebooks, and early Marx. He also wrote with Guterman
a book that represented a high point of French Western Marxism in this
earlier period, *La Conscience mystifiée*. Published in 1936, the title
itself hints of *History and Class Consciousness*… rewritten in the context
of the struggle against fascism."

George Lichtheim in his survey of *Marxism in Modern France*

(1966) likewise heaped praise upon Lefebvre, describing him as follows:

The Marxian concepts of "alienation" and "total man" were already central
to Lefebvre's interwar reflections, from the time he came across Marx's
early philosophical writings. The "Paris Manuscripts" of 1844 had been a
revelation for Marxists of Lefebvre's generation; and the echo of this
discovery resounds throughout the concluding chapter of *Le Matérialisme
dialectique*: first published in 1939, when — as the author remarked in
1957 — communists still tended to express disdain for the topic. Though
politically orthodox, Lefebvre in 1939 was already going against the
official line, which in those years was based on the Leninist
interpretation of Marxism as a doctrine centered on the analysis 

[Marxism] Fwd: Diana Johnstone on the Left, the Bolshevik Revolution, and More – NeoPopulism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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This is *really* interesting, a defense of Diana Johnstone's article in 
MR that characterizes me as "pathologically prolix". I should add that 
to Mark Cooper's description of me years ago as the "prolific buffoon". 
As I said in my latest article, I have had 1,104,852 unique visitors 
since 2004 to the Unrepentant Marxist. This blog is obviously not part 
of the 10 percent of committed Marxists I am addressing.


https://neopopulism.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/diana-johnstone-on-the-left-the-bolshevik-revolution-and-more/

What's of real interest to me is not the article by this anonymous 
blogger but his blogroll which is really a barometer of Red-Brown 
politics today. Let me go through some of them:


1. Cogito, Ergo, Sum--Seeking truth and beauty from the heavenly city.

A Christian blog with the latest article on "Having Children Study the 
Bible", just the sort of thing that resonates with Johnstone's defense 
of Stalin, I guess.


https://epeuthutebetes.wordpress.com/

2. Cultura Transversal

A Spanish-language website now defunct apparently that includes an 
article praising an "anti-globalization" book by Alain de Benoist. Who's 
Alain de Benoist, you ask? He is a founder of the New Right movement in 
France that is considered a major influence on Richard Spencer et al's 
alt-right. Some scholars consider de Benoist a fascist.


https://culturatransversal.wordpress.com/

3. Dissident Voice

Began as a voice of opposition to the invasion of Iraq and is now a 
typical conspiracist website like Information Clearing House, Global 
Research, Voltairenet et al.


http://dissidentvoice.org/


4. El Manifiesto

Another Spanish-language pro-Benoist website that has an article on the 
"immigration invasion" of Europe and a big portrait of Stalin on the 
home page. Perfect.


http://www.elmanifiesto.com/

5. Institute for National Revolutionary Studies

Includes an article with positive references to Otto Strasser, the Nazi 
"leftist" killed by Hitler on the night of the long knives 
(https://institutenr.org/2017/07/27/neo-nationalism-and-the-neue-rechte-in-west-germany-from-1946-to-1988-robert-steuckers-vouloir-n4546-1988/)


https://institutenr.org

6. Katehon

Russian website of a think-tank that has a board of directors led by 
Konstantin Malofeev. He is described in a ThinkProgress article:


Malofeev, 42, made his fortune in private equity and now runs Russia’s 
largest charity —the St. Basil the Great Foundation. He’s also president 
of Katehon, a right-wing think tank, and started his own television 
station, Tsargrad TV, a platform for figures like American conspiracy 
theorist Alex Jones and Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin — a man 
known as “Putin’s Rasputin,” as well as a member of Katehon’s 
supervisory board. Malofeev is a traditionalist, much like Dugin, and a 
devout practitioner of the Orthodox faith. 
(https://thinkprogress.org/putins-man-in-europe-a4fe6bb48d76/)


http://katehon.com/

7. The National Party – Ireland

Described by Wikipedia as a far-right party that is anti-abortion and 
anti-immigration. A Wikipedia article on its leader Justin Barrett states:


Barrett has spoken at events organised by the neo-nazi National 
Democratic Party of Germany (German: Nationaldemokratische Partei 
Deutschlands, NPD) several times, and was the guest of honour at a NPD 
rally in Passau, Germany in 2000, in which anti-Semitic speeches, 
peppered with quotes from Adolf Hitler were given, alongside claims that 
"Germany was the biggest victim of the second World War". Hundreds of 
skinheads gave standing ovations to elderly Nazis.


http://www.nationalparty.ie/latest-news/

8. Thermidor

The about us page speaks frankly: "Thermidor Magazine is an 
international samizdat publication dedicated to giving a voice to the 
New Far Right Internationale."


http://thermidormag.com/

9. Vdare

A filthy anti-immigration website, the most recent article is by Ann 
Coulter: Contract With Republicans—Point 1 Is BUILD THE WALL!


http://www.vdare.com/










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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] One of Syria’s best-known democracy activists has been executed

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Washington Post, August 3 2017
One of Syria’s best-known democracy activists has been executed
By Liz Sly

BEIRUT — Most of the activists who embraced the calls for freedom that 
resonated across Syria in 2011 were imprisoned, killed or forced into 
exile before anyone even knew their names.


One whose reputation had become known beyond Syria’s borders was Bassel 
Khartabil Safadi, an Internet pioneer who embodied the hopes of a new 
generation that technology could be leveraged to build a fairer world. 
He was a successful Internet entrepreneur in the years before the 2011 
uprising and then became an enthusiastic participant in Syria’s protest 
movement — until he was detained by government security forces in March 
2012.


This week, his family heard confirmation from an undisclosed source in 
Damascus of the news they long had dreaded: Safadi was executed by the 
government in October 2015, just days after prison guards came and took 
him away from his cell, never to be heard from again.


“Words are difficult to come by,” wrote his wife, Noura, in a Facebook 
post Monday that announced the news of his death to family and friends. 
“This is the end that suits a hero like him.”


Safadi’s fate is one that has been shared by untold thousands of Syrians 
who took part in the protests only to vanish into the black hole of 
Syria’s prison system. Many simply disappear without a trace, their 
families left frantically scrambling to find out where they are.


According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, more than 100,000 
people have been detained since the uprising began, and the whereabouts 
of many remain unknown. Amnesty International has reported thousands of 
secret executions of political prisoners at the prison of Sednaya 
outside Damascus. Safadi was held at a different but equally notorious 
facility, Adra, where executions also have been held.


A brief trial by a military court preceded Safadi’s execution, but such 
courts “are notorious for conducting closed-door proceedings that do not 
meet the minimum international standards for a fair trial,” Amnesty said 
in a statement issued Tuesday.


His death “is a grim reminder of the horrors that take place in Syrian 
prisons every day. The tens of thousands of people currently locked away 
inside Syrian government detention facilities face torture, ill 
treatment and extrajudicial executions,” said Anna Neistat, Amnesty’s 
senior director of research.


It is also a reminder of the cruel trajectory of the Syrian revolt, 
which began peacefully with widespread anti-government demonstrations 
but rapidly mutated into raging war.


Safadi, a Syria-born Palestinian who was 34 at the time of his death, 
remained a staunch proponent of peaceful change. But in conversations 
with The Washington Post over Skype throughout the first year of the 
protests, his mood shifted, from confidence that change was coming to 
fear that he was being targeted for his activism. He went underground, 
moved frequently and became afraid to talk after learning that security 
forces were hunting for him.


His connections with the international Internet community prompted 
widespread appeals for his release after he was detained, without 
result. The Index on Censorship awarded him its annual prize for digital 
freedom. Foreign Policy named him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers of 
2012 “for insisting, against all odds, on a peaceful Syrian revolution.”


Friends who mourned him Tuesday said they were struck by the contrast in 
outcomes between those who are detained by the government for advocating 
peaceful change and the militant Islamists, thousands of whom have been 
freed since the uprising began, who often go on to head armed groups.


“Bassel was a threat to the regime because he spoke a language they 
don’t understand,” said Mohammed Najem, a friend of Safadi’s who met him 
in 2009. “The regime prefers to deal with Islamists because they speak 
the same language, of sectarianism and violence.”


As word of his death spread, tributes came from those who had known and 
worked with him. “Bassel Khartabil lived and died for his belief in 
transparency and a free Internet,” said the Index on Censorship, which 
awarded him its 2013 Digital Freedom Award.


“His death is a terrible reminder of what many individuals and families 
risk in order to make a better society,” said Creative Commons.

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[Marxism] Fwd: Left Out? – Raiot

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Hostile review of Vijay Prashad's new book.

http://raiot.in/left-out/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Syria’s Disappeared

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://lb.boell.org/en/2017/08/02/syrias-disappeared
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[Marxism] Fwd: bellingcat - Khan Sheikhoun, and the Persistence of Conspiracy Theories and Sarin - bellingcat

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/08/03/khan-sheikhoun-persistence-conspiracy-theories-sarin/
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[Marxism] Fwd: The tragedy of Venezuela | Michael Roberts Blog

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Michael Roberts aligns with the anti-Maduro left.

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/the-tragedy-of-venezuela/
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[Marxism] Fwd: More Undocumented Immigrants, Fewer DUIs - Pacific Standard

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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While the reasons for this correlation weren't investigated, Light and 
his colleagues offer several possible explanations. "Undocumented 
persons may be less likely to drive after drinking, or drive at all, 
because of fear of police surveillance and deportation," they write. 
"For similar reasons, they may socialize and drink primarily within 
immigrant enclaves, obviating the need to drive."


They further note that "undocumented immigrants are often motivated by 
economic opportunities for themselves and their families." This drive 
might "predispose them to less criminal involvement, and healthier 
behaviors."


full: 
https://psmag.com/social-justice/more-undocumented-immigrants-fewer-duis

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[Marxism] Trump’s transgender military ban: how should the left respond?

[Carlo Sands via Marxism]

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The character of the US military is irrelevant as to whether US military
personnel should have protections from discrimination.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/trump%E2%80%99s-transgender-military-ban-how-should-left-respond

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