[Marxism] From the archives: TIME named Einstein 'Person of the Century' but refused to say that he was a socialist

[Joaquin Bustelo via Marxism]

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http://hatueysashes.blogspot.com/2017/05/from-archives-times-person-of-century.html

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Re: [Marxism] Russian media comes clean

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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A follow-up:

From 1,649 factually untrue reports published by pro-Kremlin media 
outlets over the past eighteen months. The reports were compiled by the 
Disinformation Review, a European Union project set up to monitor 
Russian disinformation campaigns.


The United States is preparing to make Siberia its fifty-first state.

Estonia is building a concentration camp for its Russian-speaking citizens.

European children sleep with Hitler dolls.

Angela Merkel is the daughter of Adolf Hitler.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s daughter owns a hospital that cures Islamic State 
fighters.


“ISIS” stands for the Israeli Secret Intelligence Services.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a Jew, and he is supported 
by John McCain.


Osama bin Laden is living in the Bahamas, sponsored by the CIA.

The German government buys Czech prostitutes to satisfy the needs of 
young refugees.


An English firm makes clothes out of human leather, using the skin of 
the victims of the Ukrainian and Syrian crises.


The Georgian market is flooded by Belgian frozen chicken, which contains 
a substance more poisonous than cyanide.


Westerners marry dogs, pigs, and crocodiles.

Because of African migrants, bestiality in Germany is on the rise.

Legalization of incest has begun in the West.

Condoms are not effective at preventing H.I.V.; they contribute to the 
epidemic.


Schools in Germany are educating students about sadomasochism. 
Role-playing is involved.


Germany and the E.U. want to legalize pedophilia.

In Latvia, shops distribute baby bottles with nipples in the form of a 
phallus.


The human species evolved not in Africa but in the territories of 
present-day Russia.


Genghis Khan was a Russian.

Russia is overshadowing the United States in every possible parameter.

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[Marxism] Russian media comes clean

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Sputnik news: "We are fake".

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201705041053273158-syria-chemical-attack-civilians-fake/
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[Marxism] Fwd: The bullies of Urumqi: The extraordinary ways in which China humiliates Muslims | The Economist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.economist.com/news/china/21721680-bans-abnormal-beards-and-even-name-muhammad-extraordinary-ways-which-china-humiliates
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[Marxism] France’s Presidential Election Splinters the Country’s Culturati

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, May 6 2017
France’s Presidential Election Splinters the Country’s Culturati
By RACHEL DONADIO

Supporters awaiting the National Front candidate Marine Le Pen ahead of 
a rally in Villepinte, France. Credit Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
PARIS — The French comedian Sophia Aram took to the airwaves of one of 
France’s most popular morning radio shows this week. In the squealy 
voice of a teenage girl, she cried, “I can be against toothbrushes, and 
against cavities!” She then added: “Hashtag: NeitherCheeseNorDessert.”


Ms. Aram was making light of what she saw as a worrisome trend ahead of 
the French presidential election on Sunday, a race that has divided the 
country’s intellectuals and cultural figures: voters, especially on the 
left, who might abstain or cast a blank ballot because they intensely 
dislike both the centrist front-runner Emmanuel Macron and his far-right 
rival, Marine Le Pen.


The “Neither-Nor” impulse, as it’s called here, was a factor in past 
French elections, but greater discontent — with conventional political 
parties and the European Union — has been particularly strong this time.


“A lot of people don’t recognize themselves in either of these 
candidates,” said Sudhir Hazareesingh, a politics professor at Oxford 
University and the author of “How the French Think.” The backdrop is a 
French left that’s divided, especially over the big Cs: capitalism and 
communism — and the collapse of the governing Socialist party in this 
election.


Ms. Aram and others worry that this plague-on-both-your-houses sentiment 
is, in effect, a vote for Ms. Le Pen, the National Front’s candidate — 
whom they regard as xenophobic, divisive and authoritarian. And that has 
prompted a flurry of last-minute mobilizations among the cultural elite 
to rally left-leaning abstainers, including by the actor Mathieu 
Kassovitz and the directors Agnès Varda, Jacques Audiard and Bertrand 
Tavernier.


In writing her radio riff, Ms. Aram said she had listened to friends and 
young people. “What struck me is the irresponsibility of some of the 
‘Neither-Nor’ supporters,” she wrote in an email. “I think that equating 
Le Pen and Macron and standing under a ‘Without Me May 7’ banner, hoping 
that other people are going to stop the National Front is totally 
irresponsible.”


But many on the left and right also see Mr. Macron as a continuation of 
the policies of President François Hollande and his Socialist 
government, which, for different reasons, they want to reject. (Mr. 
Macron left the government to form his own party, En Marche!, or 
Onward!) Supporters of the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who 
received nearly 20 percent in the first round, view Mr. Macron as a 
protector of the status quo and disagree with his pro-Europe stance and 
his role in loosening French labor laws.


One of the most prominent intellectuals to say he will cast a blank 
ballot is the left-wing historian Emmanuel Todd. He is the author of 
“Who Is Charlie?” a controversial book that said the mass rallies of 
solidarity in France after the murder of journalists at the satirical 
weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in 2015 were a cover for 
Islamophobia.


“In terms of threats to liberal democracy, threat No. 1 is the National 
Front,” Mr. Todd said in an interview. “But the forces behind Macron, 
the people who are pro-Euro, pro-Europe, pro-Germany, are a major threat 
to democracy.”


He said he had voted for Mr. Mélenchon in the first round and didn’t 
believe Ms. Le Pen would win on Sunday, so he would sit out the vote. 
“It’s the usual French theater,” Mr. Todd said. “We’re not on the verge 
of falling into Nazism or fascism at all.”


Some see a deep French discomfort about money as part of the left’s — 
and right’s — disdain for Mr. Macron, who was an investment banker and 
later became economy minister under Mr. Hollande. “For French people, 
money and capitalism is a kind of curse,” said the intellectual Pascal 
Bruckner, whose 2015 book “The Wisdom of Money” explores French 
ambivalence about money, which he believes is rooted in Roman Catholic 
culture.


For his part, Mr. Bruckner compared Mr. Mélenchon’s refusal to back Mr. 
Macron to the German Communist party leader in 1933 urging Communists to 
vote against the Socialists rather than against the Nazis. “It’s 
catastrophic,” he said.


“The French are nostalgic for an ideological, utopian communism, which 
never existed,” he added.


Zeev Sternhell, the Polish-born, left-leaning Israeli political 
scientist and author of “Neither Left Nor Right,” a controversial book 
on the rise of fascism in France in the 1930s, said Mr. 

[Marxism] In Its Defense Against Fraud Suit From Bernie Supporters, the DNC Just Dug Itself Into an Epic Hole - In These Times

[Richard Sprout via Marxism]

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http://inthesetimes.com/article/20105/in-its-defense-against-fraud-suit-from-bernie-supporters-the-dnc-just-dug-i


Sent from my iPhone

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[Marxism] Fwd: Why does the Russian revolution matter? | Books | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By China Mieville

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/06/russian-revolution-matter-china-mieville
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[Marxism] Cuba and immunotherapy

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Just got this email from an old friend from Bard College.



UPDATE 5

  Dear Family/Friends

The plan to address my lung cancer in NYC by radiation through Sloan 
Kettering did not work out. The good news is that I have since qualified 
for a clinical trial at Roswell Park treating this condition with a 
combination of immuno-therapy, Opdivo, and the Cuban vaccine, Cimavax. 
This is the only place in this country with permission to test Cimavax, 
which has had impressive results. I just returned from Buffalo where I 
will soon start in Phase 1 of this trial, a very hopeful situation. The 
alternative was to go to Cuba. Easier to take the train to Buffalo. 
Anyone interested in learning more about this study, and the Cuban 
vaccine, check the link below.


https://www.roswellpark.org/cancer-vaccine

Once again, thank you all for your words, emails, texts and phone calls. 
Your loving outreach is a gift.


Abrazos to all,

Paul


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Re: [Marxism] Zoom update

[Walter Daum via Marxism]

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Hi Ralph and all,

Thanks for your recap. As I see it, Marx’s orchestra metaphor was meant 
to describe labor under capitalism, and I guess (because I’m still 
reading) that Lebowitz applies it also to labor under “real socialism.” 
Those are both exploitative class societies. But things would not be the 
same under Marx’s proposed society of associated producers (communism), 
where all share the decision-making powers of the conductor even though 
at any moment they may assign the leadership task to one person. If that 
is “protagonistic democracy,” then I think that’s what Marx advocated.


I have two basic problems with Lebowitz’s take. 1) If he believes that 
for Marx an imposed authority (conductor vs. conducted) applies even 
under communism, I don’t see where he finds that in Marx’s work. 2) Nor 
do I see how the desired protagonistic democracy can be attributed to 
Chavez’s Venezuela, where the first step towards communism – the 
overthrow of capitalist power – had not been taken. Even where there 
existed workers’ councils, industry and the state were not in the hands 
of the working class, so the workers did not have the power to set 
either goals or methods of work. Those were set by the laws of capital: 
profit, competition, etc., and in the end they were enforced by the 
still-capitalist state.


On one of Lebowitz’s main themes, I agree that “real socialism” (i.e., 
Stalinism) did not measure up to the standards of socialism or communism 
as Marx envisioned them. And of course, he is not the only one to have 
said so. I have not finished reading his book on The Contradictions of 
Real Socialism, so I cannot yet say how his analysis stacks up against 
others.


But on another of his themes, I am mystified as to how he sees anything 
like Marxist standards being met in Venezuela. Chavez may have spoken 
beautiful words about socialism, and that may well have encouraged many 
workers in their struggles with their capitalist bosses, but he by no 
means consistently supported their struggles. He acted as if he was the 
sole conductor, not one of a democratic many.


Walter





On 5/5/2017 11:34 AM, Ralph Johansen wrote:
I'm sorry that you didn't make it Sunday, and the next session is on 
May 14, 10AM ESDT, not May 9 as I mistakenly had it. I did send this 
message but possibly no follow-up, and we met on the 30th. Still no 
recorded sessions online from David for you to review and catch up.


At the last meeting we were discussing Lebowitz's chapter 8 page 149, 
on The Orchestra Conductor, and we agreed to take it from there.


Here, Lebowitz appears to tie this orchestra view to Marx, the 
statement on coordination  to "insure a harmonious cooperation of the 
activities of individuals" ( Marx) - his metaphor of the orchestra 
conductor, for whom music is the only thing that counts - I am 
necessary; without me, there would be chaos. In this perspective, the 
right to participate collectively in discussions and to offer 
suggestions to improve a predetermined course of action is permitted, 
ie, democracy is collective participation, often considerable - not 
participation in the development of the goal but rather to comment and 
approve the plan of the conductor.


So, the question for discussion is this statement and whether Lebowitz 
correctly ascribes this view to Marx as opposed to his own view, and 
if so whether we subscribe to Lebowitz's view - that for people to 
transform themselves through their activities it is essential that 
they fully participate in the planning and carrying out of 
organization through "protagonistic democracy."


So, what of Marx's view if true, and why did he go there?

  On 4/14/2017 7:53 PM, Walter Daum wrote:
>>> In my case the 16th poses no problem, but the 23rd will be on the
>>> weekend of the Historical Materialism conference in NY, so I would
>>> have to miss the zoom group then.
>>>
>>> Walter
>>>
>>>
>>> On 4/14/2017 9:10 PM, Ralph Johansen wrote:
 So postpone a week?



On 5/5/2017 6:33 AM, Walter Daum wrote:


Hi Ralph et al,

I missed Sunday’s meeting; I don’t think I got the Zoom invitation.

On May 9 I would like to participate. The Ghosh article looks very 
interesting – will that be part of the discussion?


Walter


On 5/5/2017 3:02 AM, Ralph Johansen wrote:


In Sunday's meeting we discussed chapters 6 and 7 of Lebowitz's The 
Socialist Imperative. For the next session on May 9 we will cover 
chapters 8 and 9.


Globalization and the End of the Labor Aristocracy by Jayati Ghosh 
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2017/0317ghosh.html


This is worth reading, whether or not one agrees that what he 
depicts here spells 

Re: [Marxism] Zoom update

[Walter Daum via Marxism]

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Hi Ralph et al,

I missed Sunday’s meeting; I don’t think I got the Zoom invitation.

On May 9 I would like to participate. The Ghosh article looks very 
interesting – will that be part of the discussion?


Walter


On 5/5/2017 3:02 AM, Ralph Johansen wrote:


In Sunday's meeting we discussed chapters 6 and 7 of Lebowitz's The 
Socialist Imperative. For the next session on May 9 we will cover 
chapters 8 and 9.


Globalization and the End of the Labor Aristocracy by Jayati Ghosh 
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2017/0317ghosh.html


This is worth reading, whether or not one agrees that what he depicts 
here spells the end of, rather than a wrenching shift in, the go-along 
position of labor and the end of the social contract which has bought 
class quiescence especially but not exclusively in the advanced 
countries.


For instance, and this has to do with our discussion Sunday, in the 
face of climate change, energy and resource depletion and falling 
profit rate that goes with a profit-driven, market-dominated, 
increasingly capital-intensive, expansionary, highly competitive 
capitalist world economy, with the prospect of multiplying goods and 
services and two cars in every middle-class household's driveway in 
China and India and Brazil and Mexico and who knows where else, how 
long can capital continue to produce for and generate an ever-larger 
world market through global rentier mark-up oligopsonies, 12,000-mile 
supply chains and cheap labor, and all the shifts entailed? As opposed 
maybe to the dominance again of domestic production for domestic 
markets? Things seem to be moving ever faster in less predictable ways.




 
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[Marxism] Fwd: The Emerging Worldwide Alliance of Parties on the Far Right, Led by Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://apjjf.org/2017/09/Wittner.html
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[Marxism] The Iranian presidential election: plenty of candidates, just no choice

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/05/06/iranian-presidential-election-plenty-of-candidates-little-choice/
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[Marxism] PFLP and Syria

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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Leila Khaled briefly on their position:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/05/06/leila-khaled-on-the-pflp-and-syria/
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