Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Debunking the 3 Biggest Myths About Antifa

[A.R. G via Marxism]

  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.
*

*I should clarify, as to the substance of this broken clock's argument, I
think he's off. The fact that antifa groups also do non-violent things
(like fundraising and community work and so on) has nothing to do with
whether or not they are violent, and it is very strange to see Sunshine try
to downplay Antifa's violence rather than what I've seen from his type in
other places, which is to justify it rather than minimize it. The same
language he is using about how anti-fascist groups are primarily not
involved in violence can be made for any number of violent groups,
including the cops. It's not like every police officer shoots someone every
day, and cops might also do good-will gestures to the community. Hardly an
argument.

The second point is irrelevant given that there isn't any moral equivalence
over what the two groups are fighting for, so whether or not they are both
violent should be besides the point. An awfully unnecessarily defensive
line of argument. Moreover, from the stats that he has collected (assuming
they are correct) it sounds like neither group is particularly significant
in terms of causing deaths. He says far-right groups have killed 450 people
since 1990, in what appears to be mostly hate crimes and clashes with
leftists. Obviously a terrible thing, but over the course of 27 years that
is not particularly significant relative to crime generally in the United
States, particularly given that there is no evidence that these crimes were
carried out by a single, organized group.

The last part is totally off. The reason there is such a strong backlash
against the far-right has nothing to do with Antifa, unless by "Antifa" he
means literally anyone that opposed the Nazis. These groups have largely
faced significant backlash due to their own poor form, including Anglin's
decision to degrade and dehumanize Heather Heyer as well as the inability
of other far-right groups to have the kind of necessary organizational
structure to police their membership. Likewise, these far right groups were
demanding a particular form of far-right extremism that has always been
unable to make the kinds of in-roads as, say, the Tea Party. They are
flailing around Nazi arm-bands and defending two fallen regimes that
collapsed in part due to America's wars. Even those who have sought to
defend the Confederacy have tried to distance themselves from overt white
supremacy; these people didn't. So it would be a surprise if there *wasn't* a
strong backlash against the far-right after Cville. He's also wrong to
conflate what happened there with what happened to the Yiannopolous event
at Berkeley. The truth is that Yiannopoulos' events had been targeted by
Antifa at virtually every venue; Berkeley was the first time that there was
so much property damage as well as police repression that the cops called
it off. It may have triggered greater scrutiny on him (which resulted in
someone digging up his nasty pedophile comments) but there's hardly a chain
of causality, and in fact the event triggered quite a bit of
*positive* publicity
for Yiannopoulos including press coverage on Bill Maher (who is frankly a
much bigger piece of crap because he has greater influence).

I'm not dismissing violence as a strategy outright but the article itself
is self-aggrandizing talking points for the small cult that they have
formed. It's also worth noting that in spite of the willingness to use
violence, it appears that these groups have almost completely avoided any
form of violence that is lethal; it almost seems like they are having fun.
Furthermore, despite all the posturing they don't seem to have politics
beyond their rejection of fascism. If Spencer Sunshine is indicative, that
can mean practically anything to the incoherent types that show up in these
cults, including various left-wing causes and communities.

- Amith
_
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] Fwd: Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Winner, a Lefty Hero, & a Plagiarist. | New Republic

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  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.
*



https://newrepublic.com/article/118114/chris-hedges-pulitzer-winner-lefty-hero-plagiarist
_
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] Fwd: Why Socialism Is Back as a Political Force That Will Only Grow | Big Think

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  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.
*



http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/why-socialism-is-back-as-a-political-force-that-will-only-grow
_
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] Fwd: Debunking the 3 Biggest Myths About Antifa

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  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.
*

Spencer Sunshine, not Amith Gupta's favorite person, is an antifa 
propagandist.


http://reverepress.com/resistance/debunking-3-biggest-myths-antifa/
_
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] The truth about Syria

[Michael Yates via Marxism]

  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.
*

This Facebook post is stated with remarkable clarity. Geopolitics are 
important, but they can only take us so far. Many on the left give lip service 
to democracy and popular uprisings, but they don't really believe what they 
say. I remember arguing with colleagues at college about postwar Vietnam. They 
were going on and on about the plight of the boat people. They didn't seem to 
grasp that when a nation's people are slaughtered, even under the best of 
circumstances (the Vietnamese liberation was, after all, due to the North 
Vietnamese communists and their allies in the NLF), radical democracy is 
unlikely to flourish and those who had aided the enemy unlikely to be treated 
with compassion. What government could do this and survive? Matters will be 
much worse when the government, such as it is, is run by a fascist murderer 
like Assad. And given the circumstances, isn't it likely that fanatics would 
have soon enough emerged, irrespective of any US efforts to crush them. Extreme 
misery n
 ever brings out the best in people. Of course, the US has never cared, and 
still doesn't, if Assad stays in power. It surely has never wanted a real 
democracy to flourish anywhere in the world.
_
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] People are radicalizing the Bolivarian Revolution | MR Online

[michael a. lebowitz via Marxism]

  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.
*

Apropos recent posts on the crisis in Venezuela:

"The other thing I’d like to emphasize, which I hope to speak to more as 
we go on, is that all of the grassroots organizing and mobilizing that 
the Bolivarian Revolution has been known for over the years is very much 
alive and kicking right now. This was never of interest to the 
mainstream media, but even the alternative media has been rather remiss 
in its coverage, and far too often it is as if the people, communities, 
and movements that are doing a tremendous amount of inspiring work on 
the ground are invisible."


**
https://mronline.org/2017/09/01/people-are-radicalizing-the-bolivarian-revolution/ 




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


_
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] Chechnyan refugees in Canada

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

  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.
*

Just caught a story on CTV about LGBTQ refugees coming to Canada from Chechnya.
ken h

https://www.rainbowrailroad.ca/ 
_
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] Labor Day 2017

[John Reimann via Marxism]

  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.
*

"A ferment is bubbling up in US society. It is a ferment partly born of the
crisis of the US capitalist class, who has largely lost control over its
presidency; a ferment born of the out-of-control attacks of the racist and
fascist lunatics; a ferment born of desperation on the part of sections of
the working class. That ferment was most recently visible in the massive
counter-demonstrations against the fascists, first in Boston and then in
San Francisco and Berkeley.

Beneath the Surface
It’s important to bear in mind that process when we survey the state of
affairs of the unions this Labor Day. That’s because what we see, if viewed
in isolation, can be pretty depressing. Nevertheless, in order to see
things clearly, and in order to be able to play a role in producing the
necessary changes, we have to be brutally clear headed about this state of
affairs.

And what a year it’s been since Labor Day 2016! Who would have expected
that in a year from then we’d be living under a Trump presidency, complete
with a revived fascist movement? Not one that is about to become a mass
force, but one that is a serious threat nevertheless.

Nissan Defeat
One of the most prominent events for the unions was the defeat of the UAW
organizing drive at the Nissan auto plant in Canton, Mississippi. There,
the leadership followed the pattern set through their failed organizing
drive in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2014. In that instance, they reportedly
signed a “neutrality agreement” which committing the union to helping VW
“maintain and where possible enhance the const advantages and other
competitive advantages.” In other words, the UAW was going to help VW keep
the wages low. You couldn’t have a better example of the labor/management
collaboration strategy – a strategy that is driving the unions and the
working class in general right over a cliff. Having learned absolutely
nothing from that defeat, the UAW leadership took a similar approach in the
case of the recent Nissan organizing drive.

Evidently they were unable to obtain such a “neutrality agreement” so what
they did was pitch the organizing drive as a continuation of the civil
rights movement of the 1960s (since most of the workers at the plant are
black) instead of a fight for better wages, benefits and working
conditions. Meanwhile, they put forward the slogan “Pro Nissan; pro union”.
(See photos.) The message of this slogan is that the union is not an
organization through which workers can fight the employer for better wages
and conditions. How could anything different be posed, though, since the
top pay for more recently hired workers under the UAW’s two-tier agreement
at other plants in the North is around $20 per hour, which is below the
wage for Nissan workers in Canton!"
https://oaklandsocialist.com/2017/09/02/labor-day-2017-change-it-must-so-change-it-will/
-- 
"No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them."
Asata Shakur
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com and //
www.facebook.com/WorkersIntlNetwork?ref=stream
_
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] Fwd: Harvey Victims Face Toxic Pollution as Hurricane Recovery Begins

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  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.
*



https://theintercept.com/2017/08/31/harvey-victims-face-toxic-pollution-as-hurricane-recovery-begins/
_
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] Fwd: 'The S-word': how young Americans fell in love with socialism | US news | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  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.
*



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/02/socialism-young-americans-bernie-sanders
_
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] Fwd: US government secret plan for surviving total nuclear war - Business Insider

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

  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.
*



http://www.businessinsider.com/us-government-secret-plan-for-surviving-end-of-world-2017-4
_
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] Fwd: Latest on Redline blog

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

  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.
*

Another busy week at the blog.

Check out:

The real scandal around Winston Peters' superannuation is that some people
want to undermine the universal nature of pensions and have the pension
means-tested: 
*https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/08/30/winston-peters-super-the-real-scandal/
*

Immigration is a key political issue because it shows whether people stand
for pulling up the drawbridge on a cosy little privileged NZ or show
solidarity with the workers of the world and the right to free movement:
*https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/election-time-is-open-season-on-immigration/
*

And, for background reading, see, The Case for Open Borders:
*https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/the-case-for-open-borders/
*

Ultra-rightist groups in the USA have been emboldened by the Trump
presidency.  Among those taing them on have been San Francisco
wharfies: 
*https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/san-francisco-wharfies-strike-action-against-far-right/
*

A legacy of defeats and the impact of living in a member of the imperialist
club have had a debilitating effect on workers' consciousness and
preparedness to struggle in New Zealand:
*https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/whats-up-with-the-working-class-in-new-zealand/
*

Global action against extra-judicial killings in the Philippines:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/08/26/global-action-against
-philippines-extrajudicial-killings/

A group of artists are continuing the conversation Metiria Turei MP started
– demanding a more compassionate social welfare system. They asked artists
who have been on a benefit in NZ (DPB, sickness, invalids, jobseeker,
whatever) to draw a picture of themselves, and write a couple of sentences
next to it about their experiences.  See: https://rdln.wordpress.co
m/2017/08/24/we-are-beneficiariesthe-worst-thing-was-seeing-
my-mum-single-broke-crying-in-a-winz-office/
(Scroll down from there to see the others)

Phil
for the Redline blog collective
_
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