[Marxism] Jim Anderton 1938-2018 - NZ's last social democrat?

2018-01-08 Thread Philip Ferguson via Marxism
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On Sunday Jim Anderton died, just two weeks before his 80th birthday.
Anderton was the most significant social democrat in NZ politics in the
past 40 years.

My parents were personal friends of Anderton's as well as political
followers and activists in his movement.

I have a 'personal' view of Anderton - he was a kind and generlous
individual - and a 'political' one - he was an autocrat in whom was
reflected the contradictions of social democracy, leading eventually to him
betraying core principles whereas he had once stood firm in support of
certainb principles against all his fellow Labour MPs/gobshites and
departed the LP to found a significant new movement.

https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/01/09/jim-anderton-1938-2018-new-zealands-last-social-democrat/
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[Marxism] Oprah Winfrey’s Shameful Comparison of Black Women’s Jim Crow Era Rape

2018-01-08 Thread Dennis Brasky via Marxism
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I have to admit that I purposely ignored the Golden Globes and all of its
Hollywood Rich Women’s #MeToo moments. However, I was more than insulted
listening online this morning to Oprah compare the violent and brutal pain
of rapes and even murders that Black women endured by racist white men
during Jim Crow to that of rich white women in Hollywood and business.

The brutal gang rape of Recy Taylor by six white men in Alabama is not
comparable to the alleged sexual assaults that rich white women* (often
times purposely endured for fame and money) *are fighting in their new
#TimesUp and #MeToo movements. To compare the savagery and racism that
fueled the many rapes and abuse that Black women had to endure by the hands
of racist white men to that of rich white women’s new fight for dominance
and power is a shameful erasure, even for Oprah. These rich women weren’t
raped, beaten, bloodied and left to die because of hate and white power,
these rich women chose silence out of fear of their careers and wealth,
Black women who chose silence during Jim Crow etc., chose silence out of
fear for their very lives and that of their families.


https://medium.com/@PoliticsPeach/oprah-winfreys-shameful-comparison-of-black-women-s-jim-crow-era-rape-to-that-of-rich-white-women-1b3036b84836
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[Marxism] Fwd: Oprah Winfrey: one of the world's best neoliberal capitalist thinkers | Television & radio | The Guardian

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/may/09/oprah-winfrey-neoliberal-capitalist-thinkers
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[Marxism] Fwd: Fire and Fury? Maybe Donald Trump is only just getting started | Matthew d’Ancona | Opinion | The Guardian

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/07/fire-fury-donald-trump-michael-wolff-book?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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[Marxism] Iran’s President Takes On His Hard-Line Critics

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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NY Times, Jan. 8, 2018
Iran’s President Takes On His Hard-Line Critics
By THOMAS ERDBRINK

TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani of Iran lashed out at his hard-line 
opponents on Monday, saying the protesters who have shaken Iran in 
recent weeks objected not just to the bad economy but also to widespread 
corruption and the clerical government’s restrictive policies on 
personal conduct and freedoms.


“One cannot force one’s lifestyle on the future generations,” Mr. 
Rouhani said, in remarks reported by the ISNA news agency. “The problem 
is that we want two generations after us to live the way we like them to.”


In his most extensive comments yet on the protests, Mr. Rouhani said 
that those people who took to the streets across the country did so 
because they were seeking a better life. “Some imagine that the people 
only want money and a good economy, but will someone accept a 
considerable amount of money per month when for instance the cyber 
network would be completely blocked?” he asked. “Is freedom and the life 
of the people purchasable with money? Why do some give the wrong 
reasons? This is an insult to the people.”


Mr. Rouhani, a moderate, has been seeking a relaxation in social 
controls, but he faces resistance from hard-liners in unelected power 
centers like the judiciary, vetting councils and the state news media. 
They want to keep in place the framework of Islamic laws that 
effectively dictate how people should live, despite enormous changes in 
Iranian society in the past decade alone.


Iran’s judiciary and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blame 
the country’s “enemies” for the protests in over 80 cities, which 
started on Dec. 28. They said the actions were organized by the United 
States, Israel and Saudi Arabia with the aim of bringing down the 
Islamic government.


They call the hundreds of protesters who have been arrested “rioters” 
and want all social media to be banned. In a move seemingly unrelated to 
the protests, but one that gives insight into hard-liners’ attitudes, 
all English classes in elementary schools were banned on Sunday to 
combat the spread of Western influence.


Several political supporters of Mr. Rouhani say that the first protest 
in the city of Mashhad was actually masterminded by the hard-liners, in 
an attempt to discredit the government.


The Iranian president has twice run for office promising to reinvigorate 
the economy, but has little to show for it. To make matters worse, his 
recent budget enraged many by calling for cuts in fuel subsidies and 
cash payments to the poor, alongside sharp rises in spending for many 
clerical institutions.


But the protesters have also spoken of a host of other problems, 
including endemic corruption and the government’s expensive support for 
the Syrian government and Shiite groups throughout the Middle East, 
particularly Hezbollah, the Shiite movement in Lebanon.


Seeking to blunt criticism over the economy, Mr. Rouhani stressed the 
breadth of the protesters’ demands as well as their validity.


“The people have demands, some of which are economic, social and 
security-related, and all these demands should be heeded,” he said on 
Monday. He did not directly refer to slogans calling for Iran’s supreme 
leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to step down, but he said that no one was 
exempt from criticism.


“We have no infallible officials and any authority can be criticized,” 
he said.


Mr. Rouhani said that the social media platform Telegram, used by over 
40 million Iranians but blocked during the protests, would be reopened. 
The photo-sharing app Instagram, which was also closed, has been 
partially reopened but is still not usable on mobile devices.


“Everything good has its disadvantages,” Mr. Rouhani said of social 
media, “but one cannot say that, for instance, automobile and motorcycle 
factories should be completely closed due to the dangers that these have.”

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[Marxism] Fwd: The New Gilded Age: First Time Arrogance, the Second Time Vengeance

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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Very interesting.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/08/the-new-gilded-age-first-time-arrogance-the-second-time-vengeance/
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[Marxism] Why So Cold? Climate Change May Be Part of the Answer

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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NY Times, Jan. 8, 2018
Why So Cold? Climate Change May Be Part of the Answer
By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Want the latest climate news in your inbox? You can sign up here to 
receive Climate Fwd:, our new email newsletter.


As bitter cold continues to grip much of North America and helps spawn 
the fierce storm along the East Coast, the question arises: What’s the 
influence of climate change?


Some scientists studying the connection between climate change and cold 
spells, which occur when cold Arctic air dips south, say that they may 
be related. But the importance of the relationship is not fully clear yet.


The Arctic is not as cold as it used to be — the region is warming 
faster than any other — and studies suggest that this warming is 
weakening the jet stream, which ordinarily acts like a giant lasso, 
corralling cold air around the pole.


“There’s a lot of agreement that the Arctic plays a role, it’s just not 
known exactly how much,” said Marlene Kretschmer, a researcher at the 
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “It’s a very 
complex system.”


The reason a direct connection between cold weather and global warming 
is still up for debate, scientists say, is that there are many other 
factors involved. Ocean temperatures in the tropics, soil moisture, snow 
cover, even the long-term natural variability of large ocean systems all 
can influence the jet stream.


“I think everyone would agree that potentially the warming Arctic could 
have impacts on the lower latitudes,” said Rick Thoman, climate services 
manager with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, Alaska. “But the 
exact connection on the climate scale is an area of active research.”


Much of the Northern Hemisphere is cold this time of year (it’s winter, 
after all). Cold snaps have occurred throughout history — certainly long 
before industrialization resulted in large emissions of greenhouse 
gases. And as with any single weather event, it’s difficult to directly 
attribute the influence of climate change to a particular cold spell.


But scientists have been puzzled by data that at first seems 
counterintuitive: Despite an undeniable overall year-round warming 
trend, winters in North America and Europe have trended cooler over the 
past quarter-century.


“We’re trying to understand these dynamic processes that lead to cold 
winters,” Ms. Kretschmer said.


She is the lead author of a study published last fall that looked at 
four decades of climate data and concluded that the jet stream — usually 
referred to as the polar vortex this time of year — is weakening more 
frequently and staying weaker for longer periods of time. That allows 
cold air to escape the Arctic and move to lower latitudes. But the study 
focused on Europe and Russia.


“The changes in very persistent weak states actually contributed to cold 
outbreaks in Eurasia,” Ms. Kretschmer said. “The bigger question is how 
this is related to climate change.”


Timo Vihma, head of the polar meteorology and climatology group at the 
Finnish Meteorological Institute, explained that warmer air in the 
Arctic reduces the temperature difference between it and lower latitudes 
and weakens the polar vortex.


“When we have a weak temperature gradient between the Arctic and 
mid-latitudes, the result is weaker winds,” he said.


Ordinarily the jet stream is straight, blowing from west to east. When 
it becomes weaker, Dr. Vihma said, it can become wavy, “more like a big 
snake around the Northern Hemisphere.”


The weaker winds are more susceptible to disturbances, such as a zone of 
high pressure that can force colder air southward. These “blocking” 
high-pressure zones are often what creates a severe cold spell that 
lingers for several days or longer.


The current cold snap has been in place for more than a week, and the 
cold air on Wednesday was moving east and colliding with a mass of 
warmer air from the Atlantic Ocean. That created a storm known as a 
“bomb cyclone.”


In a bomb cyclone, the temperature difference between the two air masses 
leads to a steep and rapid — meteorologists often use the term 
“explosive” — drop in atmospheric pressure. The air starts to move and, 
aided by the earth’s rotation, begins to rotate. The swirling air can 
bring high winds and a lot of precipitation, often in the form of snow.


That could happen this time — depending on the track of the storm, parts 
of the Northeast were expecting heavy snow. But one impact of the storm 
is even more clear: After it eventually moves off to the north and west, 
it should draw even more cold polar air into the eastern half of the 
United States, continuing 

[Marxism] Fwd: Climate Change May Have Helped Spark Iran's Protests - Scientific American

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-may-have-helped-spark-iran-rsquo-s-protests/
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[Marxism] Fwd: American Capitalism - New Histories | Columbia University Press

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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American Capitalism
New Histories

Sven Beckert and Christine Desan, eds

Columbia University Press

The United States has long epitomized capitalism. From its enterprising 
shopkeepers, wildcat banks, violent slave plantations, huge industrial 
working class, and raucous commodities trade to its world-spanning 
multinationals, its massive factories, and the centripetal power of New 
York in the world of finance, America has come to symbolize capitalism 
for two centuries and more. But an understanding of the history of 
American capitalism is as elusive as it is urgent. What does it mean to 
make capitalism a subject of historical inquiry? What is its potential 
across multiple disciplines, alongside different methodologies, and in a 
range of geographic and chronological settings? And how does a focus on 
capitalism change our understanding of American history?


American Capitalism presents a sampling of cutting-edge research from 
prominent scholars. These broad-minded and rigorous essays venture new 
angles on finance, debt, and credit; women’s rights; slavery and 
political economy; the racialization of capitalism; labor beyond 
industrial wage workers; and the production of knowledge, including the 
idea of the economy, among other topics. Together, the essays suggest 
emerging themes in the field: a fascination with capitalism as it is 
made by political authority, how it is claimed and contested by 
participants, how it spreads across the globe, and how it can be 
reconceptualized without being universalized. A major statement for a 
wide-open field, this book demonstrates the breadth and scope of the 
work that the history of capitalism can provoke.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sven Beckert is Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University 
and cofounder of the Program on the Study of Capitalism. He is the 
author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History (2014).


Christine Desan is Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University 
and cofounder of the Program on the Study of Capitalism. She is the 
author of Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism (2014).


https://cup.columbia.edu/book/american-capitalism/9780231185240
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[Marxism] Eric Duncan

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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READINGS — From the August 2017 issue of Harper's.

Eric Duncan

By Philip Roth, from remarks he gave at a celebration of his 
seventy-fifth birthday at Columbia University in 2008. They are included 
in Philip Roth: Why Write?, which will be published next month by the 
Library of America.


Seventy-five. How sudden! It may be a commonplace to note that our time 
here steals away at a terrifying speed, but it nonetheless remains 
astonishing that it was just 1943 — it was 1943, the war was on, I was 
ten, and at the kitchen table, my mother was teaching me to type on her 
big Underwood typewriter, its four upward-sloping rows of round white 
keys differentiated by black letters, numerals, and symbols that, taken 
together, constituted all the apparatus necessary to write in English.


I was at the time reading the sea stories of Howard Pease, the Joseph 
Conrad of boys’ books, whose titles included Wind in the Rigging, The 
Black Tanker, Secret Cargo, and Shanghai Passage. As soon as I’d 
mastered the Underwood’s keyboard and the digital gymnastics of the 
touch system of typing, I inserted a clean sheet of white paper into the 
typewriter and tapped out in caps at its exact center a first title of 
my own: Storm Off Hatteras. Beneath that title I didn’t type my name, 
however. I was well aware that Philip Roth wasn’t a writer’s name. I 
typed instead “by Eric Duncan.” That was the name I chose as befitting 
the seafaring author of Storm Off Hatteras, a tale of wild weather and a 
tyrannical captain and mutinous intrigue in the treacherous waters of 
the Atlantic. There’s little that can bestow more confidence and lend 
more authority than a name with two hard c’s in it.


In January 1946, three years later, I graduated from a public elementary 
school in Newark, New Jersey — ours was the first postwar class to enter 
high school. That a brand-new historical moment was upon us was not lost 
on the brightest students in the class, who had been eight or nine when 
the war began and were twelve or thirteen when it concluded. As a result 
of the wartime propaganda to which we’d regularly been exposed for close 
to five years — and because of our almost all being knowledgeable, as 
Jewish children, about anti-Semitism — we had come to be precociously 
alert to the inequalities in American society.


The heady idealistic patriotism with which we were inculcated during the 
war spilled over in its aftermath into a burgeoning concern with 
contemporary social injustice. For me, this led to my being teamed up by 
our eighth-grade teacher with a clever female classmate to write — in 
part on my mother’s Underwood — the script for a graduation play we 
called Let Freedom Ring.


Our one-act play, a quasi allegory with a strong admonitory bent, pitted 
a protagonist named Tolerance (virtuously performed by my coauthor) 
against an antagonist named Prejudice (sinisterly played by me). It 
included a supporting cast of classmates who, in a series of vignettes 
in which they were shown attending to their harmlessly healthy-minded 
pursuits — and which were intended to advertise how wonderful all these 
people were — played representatives of ethnic and religious minorities 
unjustly suffering the injurious inequities of discrimination. Tolerance 
and Prejudice, invisible to the others onstage, stood just to the side 
of each uplifting scene, arguing over the human status of these various 
and sundry non–Anglo-Saxon Americans, Tolerance quoting exemplary 
passages from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the 
United States, and the newspaper columns of Eleanor Roosevelt, while 
Prejudice, appraising her with as much pity as disgust, and in a tone of 
voice he wouldn’t have dared to use at home, said the nastiest things 
about the inferiority of these minorities that he could get away with in 
a school play.


Afterward, in the corridor outside the auditorium, giving me a fervent 
hug to express her delight in my achievement, my proud, admiring mother 
told me, while I was still in my costume of head-to-foot black, that, 
sitting at the edge of her seat in the audience, she who had never 
struck anyone in all her life had wanted to slap my face. “How ever did 
you learn to be so contemptible!” she said, laughing. “You were 
thoroughly despicable!” In truth, I didn’t know — it just seemed to have 
come to me out of nowhere. Secretly it thrilled me to think I had a 
natural talent for it.


Let Freedom Ring ended with the full cast of miscellaneous minorities 
hand in hand at the footlights, joining Tolerance with everything they 
had as she rousingly sang “The House I Live In,” a 1942 pop 

[Marxism] September 1, 1939

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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September 1, 1939
by W. H. Auden

 I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.

Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism’s face
And the international wrong.

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
“I will be true to the wife,
I’ll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
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[Marxism] Oprah Winfrey’s Shameful Comparison of Black Women’s Jim Crow Era Rape

2018-01-08 Thread John Obrien via Marxism
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The comrade's remarks are just lacking knowledge about Oprah Winfrey.

She was born and grew up in poverty in Mississippi under Jim Crow.  And most

people know this and that she was herself molested as a child and raped and

had a child that died while she a teenager in poverty.



Oprah Winfrey gave a wonderful inspiring speech at the Golden Globes.

The critique in general about how she urges adaption instead of total revolution

is legitimate concern, since she is no longer of the working class or views that

class as what is needed to make much needed change enacted to end exploitation

and destruction of all life on this planet.


But as a woman and a Black Woman, who has grown up in this patriarchal sexist

and racist society, she has every right to speak out and say what she did.  And

she knew Recy Taylor and brought that terrible violence to that woman, to the

nation's attention - that helped all women threatened with violence and abuse.


This is 2018, and it would be nice for self proclaimed progressive men to stop

declaring what oppression and to whom matters and that others do not. The

psychological and physical assault that many women face, are all horrible.


That poor disabled Black Lesbians have less power and support is clear, to

not only those who view themselves as Marxists, but to most people in general.

But no woman or man should be sexually assaulted, whether rich or poor.


And being raped or threatened with sexual assault is real for many and is

not to be dismissed or proclaimed "as less oppressive" than other deplorable

acts.  I left the YSA/SWP over its nonsense (That was insulting) when Jack

Barnes cult followers proclaimed Gays and Lesbians had "little social weight".


The same thinking about "comparing" oppression and not acknowledging it

was the patriarchal system that enforced women of all classes isolation and

all being potential sexual victims, even those with maids.  Because it was those

wealthy and powerful men who had control and carried out terror against

rich and poor women.  And yes some wealthy women condoned this for their

own financial and societal status (but not all) and yes rich women can hire

lawyers and might gain more voice and acknowledgement (but not all) and

many remained silent not because as the comrade wrongly writes, but as

Oprah Winfrey stated and has for many years - the fear of shame, rejection

and isolation, if they did not.


Psychological control is a major way to continue people oppressed and it

affects people across the class lines too!


I assume most men on this list want to get rid of the patriarchy and to

also reject bourgeois feminists like Hillary Clinton.  But socialist feminists

should not decry women in film and media and other professions with

more wealth and power than poor women and men wage workers,

being able to challenge and question the patriarchy.  Removing Roger

Ailes, Bill O'Reiley, Charlie Rose, Matt Laer, etc. from power does not

harm us poorer wage workers,  It weakens the patriarchy and thus

creates a more weakened institution and system - not a stronger one.


Class is the prime concern for us, but it should not be the only,

since ending capitalism does not end all sexism, racism, etc. and

ending patriarchy is a good thing!  Margaret Thatcher and Hillary

Clinton relied on the patriarchy for their own power and wealth.

Long overdue to have the Third Wave of Feminism sweep away

much needed foundations of oppression.  It will only lead to more

class awareness by women laborers who will not be satisfied with

the continuing inequality and oppression against them, due to

their status and exploitation.


Would this nation and world be better off if Oprah Winfrey did not

give that speech at the Golden Globes yesterday that was seen by

millions around the world, as the comrade's criticism seems to

suggest?   Keeping things as they were or only waiting for a class

revolution, is not the only options and it might seem irrelevant

or unimportant to the writer, but it is not and very real to many

others.  We will not have a successful needed revolution without

Women of Color's leadership and getting rid of the patriarchy.







I have to admit that I purposely ignored the Golden Globes and all of its
Hollywood Rich Women’s #MeToo moments. However, I was more than insulted
listening online this morning to Oprah compare the violent and brutal pain
of rapes and even murders that Black women endured by racist white men
during Jim Crow to that of rich white women in Hollywood and business.

The brutal gang rape of Recy Taylor by six white men in 

[Marxism] Manufacturing dissent

2018-01-08 Thread Gary MacLennan via Marxism
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The piece by George Lakoff on Trump’s twitter wars that is circulating at 
present has brought back to me debates that were held in Qld in the 70s & 80s 
when we activists were accused of playing into the hands of the far right state 
Premier Bjelke-Petersen. The latter banned street marches and when we held the 
marches and were arrested in our thousands, liberals told us we had walked into 
a trap.  Meanwhile they who were infinitely more intelligent than us did not 
protest at all.

Similarly Matt Zarb-Cousin (whom I admire) has tweeted that the appointment of 
the execrable Toby Young to the post of Universities Overseer is a “dead cat”.  
That is, it is designed to distract us from the troubles that the Tory 
Government is experiencing over the Brexit negotiations and the crisis in the 
National Health System.

I describe the arguments here as the manufacturing of dissent. Basically Lakoff 
maintains that reacting to Trump’s twitter feed is playing Trump’s game.  In 
this analysis Trump emerges as some master manipulator and we are the 
pathetically manipulated that allow him to get away with his true program.

I much prefer to see Trump’s tweets not as the work of a political genius but 
as provocations or probes from the enemy that test out our strength. As such if 
we do not respond then the enemy becomes emboldened.

Thr frantic restless quality of Trump’s presidency is due at least in part to 
the fact that he has been elected in what Reinhart Koselleck called a “saddle 
time”, that is a time when a new consensus is being forged in struggle. The old 
neoliberal centre is in terminal decline and it is very unclear at present what 
will replace it. So for me there is no master plan to trap and distract us, 
just a multitude of attacks which we ignore at our peril.

Comradely

Gary
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[Marxism] Fwd: Students Await Judgment in Suit Over Fordham University Banning of Pro-Palestine Club

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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https://theintercept.com/2018/01/07/palestine-israel-fordham-sjp-lawsuit-bds/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Corpses of Souls

2018-01-08 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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Chris Hedges draws upon Walker Percy to capture the current moment.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/corpses-of-souls/
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[Marxism] Iran: Diverse, Decentralized, Non-Binary: Iran Popular Uprising Defies Outdated Narratives

2018-01-08 Thread mkaradjis . via Marxism
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This is not some naive or utopian uprising. The masses of working and
middle class people,  particularly the hundreds and thousands of women
at the forefronts of these protests, comprehend very well the
potential costs involved in destabilizing a highly hegemonic,
patriarchal, reactionary, sectarian and fragile militarized state.

People know very well that the current uprising can take any turn, in
good or bad directions. But they  also know  that a long oppressed,
alternative, non-sectarian, inter-ethnic conversation about  struggle
in Iran has finally (and unexpectedly) found its way into the public
space. Whatever the outcome of the protests, it is important not
torely on the usual victim blaming and regime normalizing tropes  of
“what did people expect?” or “people should know better” or  “don’t
play with  fire”. These are the same frameworks that are continually
deployed to dehumanize or erase  local  agency  in the Syrian
struggle.

We cannot expect people living anywhere under unbearable economic,
social, and political circumstances to solve all the inherent and deep
contradictions of market capitalism, global imperialism, and
patriarchy before demanding their basic right to bread, dignity,
equality, justice and freedom.

What we can do is resist easy explanations and convenient readings of
history to describe a protest that by its nature defies them, and
listen to the voices on the street.

http://www.mangalmedia.net/english//rapid-diverse-decentralized-three-features-of-growing-protests-in-iran

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