[Marxism] Theses on Saving the Planet – “The Promise of Ecosocialism”

[Hans G Ehrbar via Marxism]

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Richard Smith's blog posting

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article38762

has many of the same ideas and demands as the non-socialist movement
critical of economic growth.  Nevertheless, Smith dismisses these
growth-critical movements because they try to stop growth without
transcending the capitalist system.  Smith thinks that this cannot work,
because the capitalist economy must grow.

I would like to defend the degrowth movement with this email.
De-growthers are not delusional or naive about capitalism but, on the
contrary, given our time constraints and the present balance of power
between capitalists and workers, I think it is the correct tactic to
call for an end of growth right now, before the end of capitalism is
even on the agenda.  There is no contradiction in this because profits
can be made even in a shrinking or stationary economy, and I think the
capitalist system can limp along even without growth.  It takes class
struggles to force the capitalists to follow a non-growth path, and to
protect the workers in the declining industries etc., but the
capitalists will be on the defensive anyway because everyone knows that
unregulated capitalism, "business as usual," destroys the environment in
order to produce mostly unnecessary junk.  I think it will depend on the
course of these class struggles whether capitalism itself will be
abolished at some point, or whether capitalism survives but is castrated
so much by regulation etc that it is capitalism only in form, but in
essence it is some non-optimal kind of ecosocialism.

I have used here the word "class struggle" and it is useful
to compare it with the classical Marxian class struggles.

In the classical Marxian class struggles, workers have no objections the
industrial labor-saving production methods developed by the capitalists
for the sake of exploiting them.  But they want to take control over
production, so that the wealth created by industrial methods benefits
the producers, not the nonproducers who have usurped control over the
means of production.

Today we know something we did not know in the 19th and most of the 20th
centuries: that the industrial production methods developed by the
capitalists, which are extremely labor-saving nowadays, are not
producing as much wealth as the earlier class struggles assumed.
Industrial production methods are very costly because they use up too
many nonrenewable resources and create so much waste that the planet
becomes unlivable.  This changes the class struggles radically;
it is no longer how to distribute wealth, but how to adjust to the
fact that we are not as wealthy as we thought.

The class struggles as I envision them in the highly industrialized
countries should not only have the aim to regulate production which is
harmful for the planet.  This is not enough.  Class struggles should
also aim to reduce the volume of the capitalists' globalized industrial
production system (which cannot be entirely abolished because it is
needed for computers and solar panels, health care, transportation
systems, etc) to only a small portion of the average working day.  This
is the class struggle which the degrowth movement etc are leading right
now.  This is a fierce fight, because the capitalists claim that
industrial production is so indispensable that it cannot be reduced.  In
order to demand spending less money on highways and more money on mass
transit, a vanguard is needed who switch from their cars to mass transit
even if mass transit is still small and inconvenient.  If the consumers
buy all the gasoline they can get at the gas stations, then the
activists who demand less fracking etc are not credible.  On the other
hand, we also have trump cards in this class struggle.  If capitalists
claim that certain regulation is not possible because it bankrupts
certain firms, then the state can either take over these firms, or allow
them to go bankrupt but guarantee that the workers will get retraining
etc.  There is still lots to do within the capitalist system.


If the working class in the rich countries manage to free themselves
from excess consumption and to place a lid on the industrial sector,
then I am optimistic.  This will take a lot of legitimacy away from the
capitalist system.  Less consumption of industrially produced stuff
means free time, but this free time cannot be used for leisure and
consumption, but will be needed for home production and cooperative
non-industrial production (organic gardening and bicycle repairs), and
sharing and repairs etc in order to keep the industrial sector small,
and arts, education, sport, and human relationships instead of
consumption of 

[Marxism] Liverpool's first Black player declines British honour in protest against colonialism

[Stuart Munckton via Marxism]

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https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/62508
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[Marxism] Grubby Olympic Games

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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A short history:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/the-grubby-history-of-the-olympic-games/

The 1968 Mexico Olympics and the spirit of freedom:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/the-1968-olympics-and-the-spirit-of-resistance/

Phil
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[Marxism] Colombian trade unionists welcome peace, but push for justice

[Stuart Munckton via Marxism]

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 Amid the optimism prompted by the peace deal between the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government of
President Juan Manuel Santos, it is easy to assume the slaughter of trade
unionists and other activists is a thing of the past.

However, 534 people were murdered from 2011 to last year — 134 of those
trade unionists — according to Justice for Colombia, the British trade
union-based campaign against paramilitary violence against the Colombian
labour movement.

At the July policy conference of Britain's largest trade union, Unite,
Colombian Oil Workers' Union (USO) president Cesar Loza and international
secretary Hector Vaca told delegates how their comrades continue to face
death threats.
They said the struggle for social justice had not ended with the ceasefire.

https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/62505
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[Marxism] What tactical attituide should British Trotskyists have to co-ordinated stirkes; unoffical strikes; and Corbyn''s propoal for citzen committees!

[Anthony Brain via Marxism]

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 What position should revolutionaries have to talk of co-ordinated strike 
action by teachrs; junior doctots; and railway workers and Corbyn’s call for 
Citzens Committes? by Anthony Brain

  
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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: White Farm Women Protest Confederate Abuse: The North Carolina Civil War Home Front – Renegade South

[Greg McDonald via Marxism]

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http://civilwarwomenblog.com/salisbury-bread-riot/
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[Marxism] Daily Mail talks about possible co-ordianted strike action in Britain!

[Anthony Brain via Marxism]

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 Junior doctors, rail guards and teachers co-ordinate strike walkouts

  
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[Marxism] Fwd: White Farm Women Protest Confederate Abuse: The North Carolina Civil War Home Front – Renegade South

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://renegadesouth.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/white-farm-women-protest-confederate-abuse-the-north-carolina-civil-war-home-front/
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[Marxism] Conversation at the beach: What does it say about Trump and polls?

[Clay Claiborne via Marxism]

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Yesterday, Jerry (who is white) said to me "You know David (who is white)
is really for Trump. He couldn't stop talking about him." To which I
responded "Oh really, he never talks about Trump to me."

This lead me to question how honestly David would answer a poll about Trump.

Are those who are using Trump's bad polls to argue its safe to vote for
Jill Stein taking the likely effects of racism in driving Trump's poll
lower than his Nov. 8th vote?




Clay Claiborne, Director
Vietnam: American Holocaust 
Linux Beach Productions
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 581-1536

Read my blogs at the Linux Beach 

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[Marxism] Spain and Syria

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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My latest reading in pursuit of understanding the "anti-imperialist" left's
rottenness on Syria, the articles below from:
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/backissu.htm

   - Paul Flewers: *Stalinism & Spain*
   
   - Walter Held: *Stalinism and the POUM in the Spanish Revolution*
   
   - Katia Landau: *Stalinism in Spain*
   

One striking thing is that not only do the authors detail the lies and
slanders concocted by the Stalinists, but they point out how that had
overthrown what had been a norm in the workers' movement of debate, i.e. of
not solving disagreements by violence, the latter justified by reading
certain trends out of the movement via accusing them of working for
imperialism (much like accusations today against Syria Revolution
supporters).
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[Marxism] Theses on Saving the Planet – “The Promise of Ecosocialism”

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article38762
by Richard Smith
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[Marxism] Fwd: Solidarity with Alexandria shipyard workers and Egypt's threatened lawyers

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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-- Forwarded message --
From: Egypt Solidarity 
Date: Mon, Aug 22, 2016 at 8:00 AM
Subject: Solidarity with Alexandria shipyard workers and Egypt's threatened
lawyers
To: acpolla...@gmail.com


*Mobilise solidarity with Alexandria Shipyard workers and Egypt's
threatened lawyers*
View this email in your browser

Egyptian trade unionists call on global labour movement to support
Alexandria Shipyard workers

Leading Egyptian trade unionists have launched an open letter

calling on the global labour movement to mobilise solidarity for the
Alexandria Shipyard workers, as the military court postponed the verdict in
their trial for a second time until 18 September. The workers will face
another month in horrific detention conditions without knowing whether they
will face a jail term for organising to improve their pay and conditions at
work. The 26 workers were sent to trial after the military police
surrounded the Shipyard in May this year, and arrested workers on charges
of “incitement to strike”.

The letter is backed by the Egyptian Union of Oil Workers, and by Mettawa
Mahran, founder of the Independent Union for Private Sector Workers, Su’ad
Omar a well-known trade union activist from Suez, Raed al-Husseini,
president of the Independent Teachers Union and Fatma Ramadan, a trade
union activist with a long history of organising among civil service
workers.

“Putting the Alexandria Shipyard workers on trial in a military court is a
plain violation of international covenants, to which Egypt is a signatory,”
the letter notes. “These state that workers enjoy the right to peaceful
protests, in addition to freedom of expression and the right to
negotiations to realize their legitimate demands for fair salaries and
appropriate conditions of work”

Activists have already organised a widely-supported campaign within Egypt,
mobilising hundreds of signatures from trade unionists and political
activists on a statement in defence

of the Alexandria Shipyard workers, and calling a public meeting in Cairo
on 15 August to build the solidarity movement.

The open letter calls on trade unions around the world to send letters of
protest to Egyptian President al-Sisi, condemning the use of a military
trial against workers exercising their right to organise and collectively
defend their conditions at work.

*What you can do:*

   - *Read and share the full open letter online here
   
*
   - *Write to the Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sisi,*
   Office of the President Al Ittihadia Palace
   Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
   Fax: +202 2 391 1441
   Email: p.spokes...@op.gov.eg
   Twitter: @AlsisiOfficial
   - *Copies to *Deputy Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Human
   Rights
   Laila Bahaa El Din,
   Ministry of Foreign Affairs
   Corniche al-Nil, Cairo
   Arab Republic of Egypt
   Fax: +202 2574 9713
   Email: contact...@mfa.gov.eg
   Twitter: @MfaEgypt
   - *Write to Egyptian Minister of Labour, Mohammed Safan,*
   3 Yousef Abbas Street, Salah Salem,
   Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt
   manpo...@manpower.gov.eg
   - *Sign the international petition in solidarity with the Alexandria
   Shipyard workers here
   
*
   - *Use the social media ban
   
ner
   

   and icons
   

   to spread the message online*
   - *Share the video of UK trade unionists speaking out in support of the
   Alexandria Shipyard workers here
   
*
   - *Pass a resolution in protest at the trial through your union branch*
   - *Read more here
   

   on how military trials are 

Re: [Marxism] Smear campaign against Jill Stein by Democratic Party hack

[David McDonald via Marxism]

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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/its-time-for-black-people-to-break-the-two-party-system/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Steve Bannon, Trump’s Top Guy, Told Me He Was ‘a Leninist’ - The Daily Beast

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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This article was written by Ronald Radosh, a one-time CP'er and now a 
neoconservative on steroids, so it has to be taken with a grain of salt. 
But it is worth reading.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/22/steve-bannon-trump-s-top-guy-told-me-he-was-a-leninist.html
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[Marxism] [UCE] Fwd: 20 Big Questions about the Future of Humanity - Scientific American

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/20-big-questions-about-the-future-of-humanity/
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