Re: [Marxism] Leon Trotsky: Is It Possible to Fix a Definite Schedule for a Counter-Revolution or a Revolution? (September 1923)

[Jon Flanders via Marxism]

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On 09/24/2018 03:28 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:

As it turns out, the article is online and truly misbegotten.

How so? I don't see any mention of the need to for the uprising in 
Germany to co-incide with the date of the October Revolution. What 
Trotsky argues for is the need for
a conscious decision when to strike. Which makes sense to me. Seizing 
power means actually seizing things. That has to be planned and 
organized. If a union decides to go
on strike, it has to be a very planned and timed affair. The same would 
hold for a revolution.


Jon Flanders

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[Marxism] The Left and the Democratic Party

[David Berger via Marxism]

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Here's an ongoing exchange, as it's gone so far, between Carl Davidson and 
myself on the Left and the Democratic Party


DAVID BERGER: 

(1) I'm a member of the NYC DSA Labor Branch. I'm working with the branch and 
NYC DSA as a whole to organize with and especially inside the organized and 
unorganized working class.

(2) How do you expect to turn a major organ of the capitalist class to the 
service of the working class? Do you really think you can make an alliance with 
elements of the capitalist class?

No socialist, Communist, Maoist, etc., group has ever done this without being 
taken over by the bourgeoisie.

CARL DAVIDSON: 1. Good. 

DAVID BERGER: 邏

CARL DAVIDSON: 2. No, not really. The task is to find the ways to bring it to 
crisis,

DAVID BERGER: I assume you're referring to the current division in the 
Democratic Party between so-called corporate Democrats and so-called 
progressive Democrats. 

CARL DAVIDSON: but in a way that most of its base creates something new in the 
process. 

DAVID BERGER: Basically you're expecting that "the base" will be able to take 
advantage of the split in the ruling class and build a coalition in this gap. 
This is a recap of the bizarre notion of a multi-class bloc, whether it's a 
popular front or a bloc of four classes.

CARL DAVIDSON: My guess is they'll split and wreck it first, but you never know 
for a certainty.

DAVID BERGER: My idea, based on what has happened with social Democratic, 
Stalinist and Maoist parties is that they will be neutralized and harnessed by 
the bourgeoisie.

CARL DAVIDSON: As for alliances with one sector of capitalists against another, 
certainly, we do it all the time.

DAVID BERGER: This I want to hear about.

CARL DAVIDSON: My union, the USW, formed an alliance with Gamesa, a Spanish 
wind turbine firm, to open three new factories creating about 900 new USW jobs.

DAVID BERGER: So, what you're saying is that your union won some new factories, 
presumably here in the US. Guess what: Your union made a deal with a bunch of 
capitalists against another group of workers somewhere. What did your union 
promise that other workers couldn't promise? Tax breaks? Lower wages? Lower 
benefits.

CARL DAVIDSON: And you're wrong on the last point.

CARL DAVIDSON: Yugoslavia, Albania, China and Vietnam parties all came to power 
with a section of capital in tow.

DAVID BERGER: They sure did. And they exploited the working class to pave the 
way for capitalism.

CARL DAVIDSON: Two didn't last, but that's another story.

DAVID BERGER: Carl is trying to say that China and Vietnam are socialist. 
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[Marxism] Anthoney Bourdains last words to his audiance

[DW via Marxism]

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The best essay/review I've read on the final episodes of Anthony Bourdain's
"Parts Unknown". His last episode was with comedian and writers, W. Kamau
Bell which took place in Kenya. The essay says in part:

"Who gets to tell the stories? This is a question asked often. The answer
in this case, for better or worse, is I do. At least this time I do,"
Bourdain says in his final narration. "I do my best. I look. I listen. But
in the end I know. It's my story, not Kumau's, not Kenya's or Kenyans.
Those stories are yet to be heard."


"Those words, his last to us, are almost chilling to hear, knowing what we
know now. And they also offer something of a challenge. For 17 years, he
told the stories. Who will tell them now?"

Full:
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a23342650/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown-season-12-premiere-episode-review/
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[Marxism] Leon Trotsky: Is It Possible to Fix a Definite Schedule for a Counter-Revolution or a Revolution? (September 1923)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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I'll be scanning in another couple of chapters from Werner Angress's 
book on the German CP between 1921 to 1923 pretty soon. In reviewing the 
chapter on the preparations for the 1923 revolution, another fiasco, 
Angress mentions an article about Trotsky arguing for the need to set a 
date and one that coincides with the Russian Revolution. As it turns 
out, the article is online and truly misbegotten.


https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/fi/vol08/no07/trotsky.html
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[Marxism] Steelworkers strike?

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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From the time of the W. VA. teachers' strike, it seemed that a strike wave
was in the offing. That was because wages were lagging but unemployment was
pretty low, and both for some years. Now, it's more than in the offing;
it's here, and for the first time in decades. That, in itself, is important
enough. But now it seems that the Steelworkers might be going out on
strike. That has double importance. Triple actually.

Part of it is just as part of the strike wave itself.

Second is the fact that many of the steelworkers were at the base of
Trump's blue collar support. It's a virtual certainty that he won't support
the strikers (assuming they do go out). That will have a huge impact on
those of them who supported him.

Third is the fact of the traditional role of the industrial sector of the
working class. Historically, it's been that sector that has most clearly
carried the traditions of the class struggle. But in the US for decades
now, their role has been reversed. Due to the wave of runaway shops and
plant closings, the industrial workers (e.g. auto workers) have in many
ways been at the tail end of the labor movement. Could a strike of
steelworkers start to reverse this and vault them to its head? What impact
would that have as far as starting to develop a true working class party?

See this short video
 on the
situation among steelworkers.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] US military document reveals how the West opposed a democratic Syria, by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, September 2018)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://mondediplo.com/outside-in/syria-democracy-documents
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[Marxism] Trump's working class support comes from those who identify as middle class

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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Interesting article although I certainly disagree with the last paragraph’s
plea to organize supervisors as part of the working class!

How might working-class people’s class identifications and loyalties affect
their political choices?  We all know that there are workers who identify
with the working class, who work in solidarity with their fellow workers,
who seek to advance their interests *as a class,*while others identify with
the boss and  seek to advance their interests *on their own*.
Traditionally, foremen (and they are more often men than women so I am
keeping the archaic nomenclature), who stand in a contradictory location
betwixt workers and owners, have embraced *bossism*, a term I am coining
here to mean identification with the boss through disciplining of other
workers.   They are like Fer, the sadistic prisoner in Solzhenitsyn’s *One
Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
*,
who takes the side of the camp guards and is trying to rise to the position
of engineer at the construction site.  Or like “Yock,” the evil foreman who
Jack Metzgar describes as getting into interminable duels with his father
and other workers on the line in *Striking Steel.
*  Like prison guards, they work for
the master. They are trained in cruelty and rewarded for being hard on
everyone else, including those who look like them but especially those who
don’t.  I am sure there are many good and kind forepersons out there, but
most enterprises that run on fear and intimidation need the unkind kind.
Anyone knowledgeable in history knows that capitalism thrives when it keeps
workers in line.

Is it possible that the candidate who promised tax cuts for the wealthy *and
strong discipline for the unruly* appealed particularly well to foremen and
supervisors *among the working class*?  Could workers who vote Republican
be, well, *tools* of the master?  And so I turned to the General Social
Survey (GSS) to see if there was something going on with this. And I found
some interesting patterns.

https://workingclassstudies.wordpress.com/2018/09/24/working-class-politics-and-the-foremen-problem/
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[Marxism] a disaster for paleontology

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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On Sept. 18, 1996, President Bill Clinton set aside these federal lands

 as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
.
The goal was to protect their paleontological treasures, preserve their
hundreds of archaeological sites and keep one of America’s last
wildernesses intact.

Decades of ongoing research in this region have literally rewritten what
scientists know about Mesozoic life, especially about the ecosystems that
immediately preceded the final extinction of the dinosaurs.
Paleontologists like
me  know
that the still-pristine Grand Staircase-Escalante region has divulged only
a fragment of its paleontological story.

But the Trump administration has systematically cut

entire
chapters of that narrative out of the national monument
,
including key segments of what Clinton’s original proclamation called “one
of the best and most continuous records of Late Cretaceous terrestrial life
in the world.” The changes not only are at odds with scientific goals for
which the monument was created, but researchers contend they endanger the
unique natural heritage that belongs to us all.

https://theconversation.com/shrinking-the-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument-is-a-disaster-for-paleontology-103414
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Re: [Marxism] How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump | The New Yorker

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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My basic instinct is to be skeptical but I have to admit the article's
description of the book makes the conclusion VERY CONVINCING ... (so far!)

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump
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Re: [Marxism] How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump | The New Yorker

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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Here is a scary thought -- if Hillary had squeaked in to the Presidency,
the Court packing would not have occurred and the massive deportations and
family separations would not have occurred (as much as under Trump) and
environmental roll backs would not have occurred -- but NEITHER would the
mobilization of young people, the various women's marches, etc.

AND -- the mass movement towards fascism would have been MUCH STRONGER and
the probability of a Republican wave in 2018 followed by a MUCH MORE
POLITICALLY ACCEPTABLE extreme right-winger knocking off Hillary in 2020
would have been much higher --
Scary to think we actually as better off in the long run mobilizing to
fight TRUMP than complaining about Hillary's policies from a much more
isolated position ... while being placed in the very dicey position of
"defending" her from extreme right wing attacks 
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[Marxism] Russia woos white South African farmers - The Washington Post

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/why-russia-is-wooing-south-africas-white-farmers/2018/09/23/3308a7c4-b6a3-11e8-ae4f-2c1439c96d79_story.html
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Re: [Marxism] How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump | The New Yorker

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/24/18 8:48 AM, Michael Meeropol wrote:
My basic instinct is to be skeptical but I have to admit the article's 
description of the book makes the conclusion VERY CONVINCING ... (so far!)


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump 



The problem is that one cannot *prove* that the intervention enabled 
Trump to be elected. But the author of the book appears to be much more 
rigorous than the sort of thing you hear on MSNBC.

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[Marxism] How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump | The New Yorker

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump
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