[Marxism] Prague Spring 50 years on (Green Left Weekly)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/prague-spring-50-years-when-soviet-tanks-crushed-democratic-socialist-hopes


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Re: [Marxism] Capitalism and the Brenner thesis

[Ralph Johansen via Marxism]

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The basic problem is that we are talking at cross-purposes. Brenner is 
correct in referring to capitalism as A MODE OF PRODUCTION originating 
in England.


However, people like Jim Blaut and Alex Anievas and Kerem Nisanciogulu, 
the authors of "How the West Came to Rule: the Geopolitical Origins of 
Capitalism", are focused on how the SYSTEM originated. That is what 
interests me, not whether wage labor first became generalized in Norfolk 
in 1535 or whatever else Sebastian Dimmock unearthed. I am much more 
interested in what was happening in Potosi in the 16th century, where 
the largest agglomeration of wage labor in history appeared.


I find the idea that the SYSTEM originated in England preposterous. 
Capitalism is a world system, just as feudalism (tributary, to be more 
exact) was a world system. Trying to establish where feudalism as a mode 
of production began is a sterile exercise.


In fact, until Brenner began his research into these issues, nobody had 
the same kind of goal. In the legendary Sweezy-Dobb debate, Dobb 
actually defended an analysis much more in common with Blaut and 
Anievas/Nisancioglu as pointed out here:


"Moreover, there were indirect ways in which the prosperity of foreign 
trade in the Tudor Age aided industrial development in the ensuing 
century. Some of the fortunes made by foreign adventurers no doubt 
eventually found their way into industrial enterprise; while, as we 
shall presently see, the expansion of overseas markets, ESPECIALLY 
OVERSEAS MARKETS, in the seventeenth century, to some extent acted as a 
lever to the profitability of manufacture at home."


https://louisproyect.org/2007/06/01/robert-brenner-and-primitive-accumulation/


As to the significance of what Brenner and Dimmock among others are 
doing, I quote below from Dimmock's Introduction. By the way, Dimmock 
wrote his thesis on the empirical evidence for the inception of 
capitalism in England, which comprises the second half of his book, and 
in doing so he came into close touch with the views of Brenner's 
critics, especially those writing after the thick of the Brenner debate 
whom he responds to. most effectively in my estimation, in the first 
half of his book. I have seen no rejoinder from Henry Heller, Chris 
Harman, Neil Davidson, S.R. Epstein, all of the other major critics of 
Brenner's thesis non-Marxist and Marxist (Harman is no longer with us), 
in the four years since publication of Dimmock's book.


Quoting from p. 3 of Dimmock's Introduction:

"The phrases 'the origin of capitalism' and 'the transition to 
capitalism' are often used interchangeably. The focus of this book is on 
the 'origin' because it wishes to place emphasis on a period of historic 
rupture, the key stage marking the beginning from a non-capitalist to a 
capitalist society  without necessarily referring to a completed 
transition. If it is recognized that capitalism had a beginning, and 
that it is not simply a term which describes a higher form of 
'commercial society' that has existed since ancient times  , it should 
be concluded that capitalism is another specific form of society with a 
beginning and an end like all other previous specific forms. If this 
conclusion is drawn, discussions about the future of capitalism can be 
informed by knowledge of how such permanent historic ruptures occur, 
right down to the names and motivations of individuals and classes who 
created or attempted to resist them."


Lou, you write: "However, people like Jim Blaut and Alex Anievas and 
Kerem Nisanciogulu, the authors of "How the West Came to Rule: the 
Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism", are focused on how the SYSTEM 
originated. That is what interests me, not whether wage labor first 
became generalized in Norfolk in 1535 or whatever else Sebastian Dimmock 
unearthed. I am much more interested in what was happening in Potosi in 
the 16th century, where the largest agglomeration of wage labor in 
history appeared.


That too. No question. Except, "System": "An organized, purposeful 
structure that consists of interrelated and interdependent elements." "A 
set of detailed methods, procedures and routines created to carry out a 
specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a problem." 
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/system.html. This describes 
what took place in its theretofore unique, initial organized systemic 
forms in the English countryside over the period from 1400 to 1600. The 
"system" was implicit in the "mode of production." And how we see what 
happened in history, what were the motivations of the 

Re: [Marxism] Life in Turkey Now: Tough Talk, but Fears of Drug Shortages - The New York Times

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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The article makes no mention of military spending as a factor in the economic 
crisis.  The Turkish army is at war with guerrilla forces in eastern Turkey, 
Afrin and northern Iraq.

Chr Slee

From: Marxism  on behalf of Louis Proyect 
via Marxism 
Sent: Saturday, 18 August 2018 1:17:53 AM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: [Marxism] Life in Turkey Now: Tough Talk, but Fears of Drug Shortages 
- The New York Times

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Helping to support my mother-in-law in Istanbul, this hits home.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/business/turkey-lira-currency.html
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Re: [Marxism] What's behind the explosive growth of the DSA?

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Comrades responded to my description of EBDSA with everything from starting
a new branch to starting a political education class. It's not just that
simple.

The net effect of what the East Bay DSA (EBDSA) leadership has done is
succeed in creating an atmosphere where it's commonly accepted that
campaigning for the Democrats and/or for their programs is the only thing
that DSA can do.

There's another point: I really don't think EBDSA is just an extreme
exception, that what's happening in the rest of DSA runs completely counter
to EBDSA. This whole business of "there is no leadership", for example:
There is **always** a leadership. The only question is whether it operates
from behind the scenes, all the while declaiming that it doesn't exist, or
whether it's out in the open.

And the fact is that the entire DSA is moving in more or less the same
direction as EBDSA. Why is it, after all, that there is no serious
discussion of what concrete steps DSA can take to start down the road
towards a working class party?

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] Soaring Household Debt Pushes More U.K. Families To the Brink | Occupy.com

[Richard Taylor via Marxism]

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> https://www.occupy.com/article/soaring-household-debt-pushes-more-uk-families-brink?utm_source=Website+Join+2018_campaign=732a9c4188-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_medium=email_term=0_226e2e982d-732a9c4188-74116273#sthash.364mnLWC.dpbs
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[Marxism] Capitalism and the Brenner thesis

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(Ralph, I wouldn't bother cc'ing PEN-L on this stuff. That place is 
deader than a doornail.)


The basic problem is that we are talking at cross-purposes. Brenner is 
correct in referring to capitalism as A MODE OF PRODUCTION originating 
in England.


However, people like Jim Blaut and Alex Anievas and Kerem Nisanciogulu, 
the authors of "How the West Came to Rule: the Geopolitical Origins of 
Capitalism", are focused on how the SYSTEM originated. That is what 
interests me, not whether wage labor first became generalized in Norfolk 
in 1535 or whatever else Sebastian Dimmock unearthed. I am much more 
interested in what was happening in Potosi in the 16th century, where 
the largest agglomeration of wage labor in history appeared.


I find the idea that the SYSTEM originated in England preposterous. 
Capitalism is a world system, just as feudalism (tributary, to be more 
exact) was a world system. Trying to establish where feudalism as a mode 
of production began is a sterile exercise.


In fact, until Brenner began his research into these issues, nobody had 
the same kind of goal. In the legendary Sweezy-Dobb debate, Dobb 
actually defended an analysis much more in common with Blaut and 
Anievas/Nisancioglu as pointed out here:


"Moreover, there were indirect ways in which the prosperity of foreign 
trade in the Tudor Age aided industrial development in the ensuing 
century. Some of the fortunes made by foreign adventurers no doubt 
eventually found their way into industrial enterprise; while, as we 
shall presently see, the expansion of overseas markets, ESPECIALLY 
OVERSEAS MARKETS, in the seventeenth century, to some extent acted as a 
lever to the profitability of manufacture at home."


https://louisproyect.org/2007/06/01/robert-brenner-and-primitive-accumulation/

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[Marxism] Assad Regime Restoring Economic Ties with Jordan and UAE | Foundation for Defense of Democracies

[Richard Taylor via Marxism]

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> http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/badran-tony-assad-regime-restoring-economic-ties-with-jordan-and-uae/
>  
> 
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Re: [Marxism] Connecticut and the West Indies: Sugar Spurs Trans-Atlantic Trade | ConnecticutHistory.org

[Ralph Johansen via Marxism]

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Good gravy, I'm bad at composing messages.


Louis Proyect wrote

The other day Ralph Johansen asked me about the Brenner thesis.

I am much more up to speed on Charles Post's attempt to apply the 
Brenner thesis to the USA. Like Brenner, takes great pains to 
disassociate forced labor from free wage labor in obvious defiance of 
the history found in Horne's new book. Horne goes to great length to 
make the connections utterly absent in Political Marxism. Of the 
greatest interest to me is the interrelationship between the Barbados 
and New England. If petty commodity production in New England was a 
response to the demands generated by the growth of manufacturing, where 
did the capital used to launch manufacturing come from?


The answer is the Barbados slave trade and sugar production as this 
article points out:


https://connecticuthistory.org/connecticut-and-the-west-indies-trade/

If you go to Post's book, there are about 200 words referencing Barbados 
but none connects them to New England. No wonder there has never been a 
single Black scholar who has bought into Political Marxism.


Lou, I respect your voracious coverage of all kinds of topics, which you 
toss back to the list as you dig. I don't know about Post, but I sort of 
despair at your treatment of Brenner. My reading is different. Brenner 
is focused on the initial impetus to capitalism, its specific unique 
appearance. His efforts have no relevance to mercantilism, to 
development of capitalism in America or anywhere else, subsequent to its 
initial appearance in agrarian England, especially from 1400-1600.  
Except for its more or less simultaneous appearance in the Flemish-Dutch 
lowlands. Dimmock responds in detail to Brenner's critics, non-Marxists 
and Marxists, including Henry Heller, Chris Harman, Neil Davidson, S.R. 
Epstein, and others. effectively as I read him. And from a search online 
I have seen no reply from any (Harman is no longer with us), in the four 
years since publication of Dimmock's book. I doubt that this is because 
they think it's no longer relevant.


As to the presence in the Americas especially of capitalist production 
using slaves, Marx though sparse in treatment of the slave mode of 
production 
https://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/pe/pe-ch02.htm was very 
clear about it being a one-off, temporally brief and grafted form on 
what I'd call the metabolic corpus of capitalism, which takes 
pre-capitalist forms, customs and modes into its over all organization 
of production to the extent that they enable or enhance the capitalist 
mode, and sloughs them off when they no longer serve that purpose.


I don't know if you've seen this; others as well.

As here"

"In plantation colonies where commercial speculations figure from the 
start and production is intended for the world market, the capitalist 
mode of production exists, although only in a formal sense, since the 
slavery of Negroes precludes free wage-labor, which is the basis of 
capitalist production. But the business in which slaves are used is 
conducted by capitalists. The method of production which they introduce 
has not arisen out of slavery but is grafted on to it. In this case the 
same person is capitalist and landowner." -- Marx, Theories of Surplus 
Value, Part II, pages 302-3


Here

"...although the slave thus raised for the market had become an element 
of annual reproduction, this method did not suffice for a long time, so 
that the African slave trade was continued as long as possible for the 
purpose of supplying the market." -- Marx, Capital, Volume II, Chicago, 
Charles Kerr & Co., 1909, page 559.


And here

"...as soon as people, whose production still moves within the lower 
forms of slave-labor, courvee labor, etc., are drawn into the whirlpool 
of an international market dominated by the capitalistic mode of 
production, the sale of their products for export becoming their 
principal interest, the civilized horrors of over-work are grafted on 
the barbaric horrors of slavery, serfdom, etc. Hence the Negro labor in 
the Southern States of the American Union preserved something of a 
patriarchal character, so long as production was chiefly directed to 
immediate local consumption.  But in proportion, as the export of cotton 
became of vital interest to these states, the over-working of the Negro 
and sometimes the using up of his life in 7 years' of labor became a 
factor in a calculated and calculating system.  It was no longer a 
question of obtaining from him a certain quantity of useful products.  
It was now a question of 

[Marxism] I am much more up to speed on Charles Post's attempt to apply the Brenner thesis to the USA. Like Brenner, takes great pains to disassociate forced labor from free wage labor in obvious defi

[Ralph Johansen via Marxism]

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Louis Proyect wrote

The other day Ralph Johansen asked me about the Brenner thesis.

I am much more up to speed on Charles Post's attempt to apply the 
Brenner thesis to the USA. Like Brenner, takes great pains to 
disassociate forced labor from free wage labor in obvious defiance of 
the history found in Horne's new book. Horne goes to great length to 
make the connections utterly absent in Political Marxism. Of the 
greatest interest to me is the interrelationship between the Barbados 
and New England. If petty commodity production in New England was a 
response to the demands generated by the growth of manufacturing, where 
did the capital used to launch manufacturing come from?


The answer is the Barbados slave trade and sugar production as this 
article points out:


https://connecticuthistory.org/connecticut-and-the-west-indies-trade/

If you go to Post's book, there are about 200 words referencing Barbados 
but none connects them to New England. No wonder there has never been a 
single Black scholar who has bought into Political Marxism.


Lou, I respect your voracious coverage of all kinds of topics, which you 
toss back to the list as you dig. I don't know about Post, but I sort of 
despair at your treatment of Brenner. My reading is different. Brenner 
is focused on the initial impetus to capitalism, its specific unique 
appearance. His efforts have no relevance to mercantilism, to 
development of capitalism in America or anywhere else, subsequent to its 
initial appearance in agrarian England, especially from 1400-1600.  
Except for its more or less simultaneous appearance in the Flemish-Dutch 
lowlands. Dimmock responds in detail to Brenner's critics, non-Marxists 
and Marxists, including Henry Heller, Chris Harman, Neil Davidson, S.R. 
Epstein, and others. effectively as I read him. And from a search online 
I have seen no reply from any (Harman is no longer with us), in the four 
years since publication of Dimmock's book. I doubt that this is because 
they think it's no longer relevant.


As to the presence in the Americas especially of capitalist production 
using slaves, Marx though sparse in treatment of the slave mode of 
production 
https://www.marxists.org/subject/economy/authors/pe/pe-ch02.htm was very 
clear about it being a one-off, temporally brief and grafted form on 
what I'd call the metabolic corpus of capitalism, which takes 
pre-capitalist forms, customs and modes into its over all organization 
of production to the extent that they enable or enhance the capitalist 
mode, and sloughs them off when they no longer serve that purpose.


I don't know if you've seen this; others as well.

As here"

"In plantation colonies where commercial speculations figure from the 
start and production is intended for the world market, the capitalist 
mode of production exists, although only in a formal sense, since the 
slavery of Negroes precludes free wage-labor, which is the basis of 
capitalist production. But the business in which slaves are used is 
conducted by capitalists. The method of production which they introduce 
has not arisen out of slavery but is grafted on to it. In this case the 
same person is capitalist and landowner." -- Marx, Theories of Surplus 
Value, Part II, pages 302-3


Here

"...although the slave thus raised for the market had become an element 
of annual reproduction, this method did not suffice for a long time, so 
that the African slave trade was continued as long as possible for the 
purpose of supplying the market." -- Marx, Capital, Volume II, Chicago, 
Charles Kerr & Co., 1909, page 559.


And here

"...as soon as people, whose production still moves within the lower 
forms of slave-labor, courvee labor, etc., are drawn into the whirlpool 
of an international market dominated by the capitalistic mode of 
production, the sale of their products for export becoming their 
principal interest, the civilized horrors of over-work are grafted on 
the barbaric horrors of slavery, serfdom, etc. Hence the Negro labor in 
the Southern States of the American Union preserved something of a 
patriarchal character, so long as production was chiefly directed to 
immediate local consumption.  But in proportion, as the export of cotton 
became of vital interest to these states, the over-working of the Negro 
and sometimes the using up of his life in 7 years' of labor became a 
factor in a calculated and calculating system.  It was no longer a 
question of obtaining from him a certain quantity of useful products.  
It was now a question of production of surplus-labor itself." -- Marx, 

Re: [Marxism] ARE THE THIEVES FALLING OUT?

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

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 Yes, both the fascists and the Nazis politically purged their police and
military forces.  Remember that scandalous practice Hitler introduced of
swearing fealty to him rather than to the nation?  But, even if there were
serious extralegal armed bands operating with impunity on a large scale,
Trump simply doesn't really have the attention span for it.

Trump and his circle have utter contempt for anyone who actually knows how
to do something.  This covers the kid bagging groceries to the woman at the
McDonald's window giving the Secret Service limo the president's Big Mac .
. . and all civil servants or all sorts, including those who have spent
their lives performing roles the State once viewed as essential.  We're
getting the pushback because the childish tantrums are infringing on the
well-established practices of the intelligence community and law
enforcement.

And, btw, the Republicans are useless as a pet rock in protecting those
practices, so who rises to defend the imperialist structure, eh?  :-)

Cheers,
Mark L.
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[Marxism] Connecticut and the West Indies: Sugar Spurs Trans-Atlantic Trade | ConnecticutHistory.org

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Currently reading Gerald Horne's "Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The 
Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy and Capitalism in Seventeenth Century 
North America and the Caribbean" that overlaps to a large degree with 
Norget's book on the Munsees. Horne is focused on slavery while Norget 
on Indian removal but in either case the perpetrators were Dutch and 
British in the 17th century.


The other day Ralph Johansen asked me about the Brenner thesis. It has 
been a decade since I was in the middle of the debate with Richard 
Seymour who had been posting articles on his blog making the case for 
Political Marxism.


I am much more up to speed on Charles Post's attempt to apply the 
Brenner thesis to the USA. Like Brenner, takes great pains to 
disassociate forced labor from free wage labor in obvious defiance of 
the history found in Horne's new book. Horne goes to great length to 
make the connections utterly absent in Political Marxism. Of the 
greatest interest to me is the interrelationship between the Barbados 
and New England. If petty commodity production in New England was a 
response to the demands generated by the growth of manufacturing, where 
did the capital used to launch manufacturing come from?


The answer is the Barbados slave trade and sugar production as this 
article points out:


https://connecticuthistory.org/connecticut-and-the-west-indies-trade/

If you go to Post's book, there are about 200 words referencing Barbados 
but none connects them to New England. No wonder there has never been a 
single Black scholar who has bought into Political Marxism.

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Re: [Marxism] Blackkklansman: Spike Lee Delivers a Masterpiece

[Glenn Kissack via Marxism]

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Boots Riley expressed some thoughts about this:

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/08/boots-riley-blackkklansman-spike-lee-cops-racism-1201993595/amp/

> When we are talking about a film the characters are different and distinct 
> entities that are separate from the real world forms that inspire them. The 
> textual Stallworth is different than the real man. 
> 
> Best regards,
> Andrew Stewart 
> 


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Re: [Marxism] Blackkklansman: Spike Lee Delivers a Masterpiece

[Jeffrey Masko via Marxism]

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Sad that Spike Lee is seen as *the* important black filmmaker when so many
others are ignored, especially by him in his position at NYU. Brandon
Harris article on N+1 susses out why white audiences love Spike; he caters
to them as he caters to his students at Yale and other ivy league
institutions where he get to guest lecture.

"
Lee’s celebrity, which grew exponentially while he shucked and jived with
Michael Jordan during his Mars Blackmon years, shielded him from such
indignities. For much of his career in the studio system, Lee received
final cut, giving him the authority to make his films as he wished. In an
America that seems to prefer a single black arbiter of negro feelings and
beliefs, his career and public persona have eclipsed everyone else’s. It
has also, somewhat dispiritingly, eclipsed his own filmmaking.

In many ways, this state of affairs seems to suit Lee just fine. He, too,
seems to prefer a single black arbiter. More than a few young filmmakers
Lee has mentored at NYU, black and white, have offered casual anecdotes of
his evasiveness and defensiveness when dealing with potential heirs. One
ex-student of Lee’s once bemoaned at a party how his professor would read
the scripts of students who were the sons of white billionaires but not of
those like him, who’d grown up on the streets of black Bed-Stuy (unless
they were gay and female, a baffling wrinkle). “A sucker move,” the student
said. Another, a documentary filmmaker, went so far as to say that his
mentor was happy to help cinematographers, actors, and documentarians who
were black, but male narrative directors were another story; he liked being
the only iconic American film director among black males and wished, in his
heart of hearts, to stay that way.
"

And this, “I want to say that it is a terrible thing to be a black artist
in this country,” (Bill) Gunn wrote in the *Times* in 1973, “for reasons
too private to expose to the arrogance of white criticism.”1
 How is it
possible that this still rings true? How likely is it that Charles Burnett,
Haile Gerima, Julie Dash, Wendell B. Harris Jr., Tina Mabry, Dee Rees,
Dennis Dortch, Billy Woodberry, Larry Clark (the black one), Leslie Harris,
Darnell Martin, Rashaad Ernesto Green, Michael Schultz, Kasi Lemmons, Barry
Jenkins, Shaka King, Damon Russell, or Moon Molson will get a directing job
on the kind of topical, studio-financed film that Lee, for more than a
decade, made seem commonplace?"


Btw, Julie Dash spoke a few years ago at a society for cinema and media
studies conference and said that she can get a meeting any time with any
studio and they would love her to make films for them, as long as she
doesn't do the kind of work that made Daughters of the Dust one fo the best
"black" films of all time. But she didn't start out making Nike film
commercials either.

jeffrey

https://nplusonemag.com/issue-22/reviews/blood-couple/
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Re: [Marxism] Blackkklansman: Spike Lee Delivers a Masterpiece

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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I have to admit my guilt, I didn't get around to watching the miniseries 
(mostly because I also had missed the original film, a blasphemy itself). The 
fact that Lee has gotten over the hump with gender is really amazing to see, 
particularly because of the place he occupies in the mainstream. When I went 
into the theater one of the previews was for another one of those ghastly Tyler 
Perry films, this one in particular was extremely problematic in representing 
Black women. Lee has been critical of Perry previously and now he can make 
those criticisms with a full throat. I have personally avoided Perry's work 
entirely but the overall impression that I have is that he is even worse than 
Lee ever was, particularly in a suspense picture that turned contracting HIV 
into a morality play (barf!). He also makes his movies in a Right to Work state 
if I am not mistaken.

By the way, was it your daughter that made HEIR TO AN EXECUTION? That was a 
stellar film and really astounding for me.

Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 

Hi Andrew -- I was afraid to read the rest of your review because I look 
forward to seeing the film and didn't want too many "spoilers" -- but I cannot 
wait to see it.

I have always respected Spike Lee and am impressed that he did present a fully 
developed woman (though I imagine the SERIES of "She's Gotta Have it" should do 
the same, no?

All the best, Mike
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Re: [Marxism] ARE THE THIEVES FALLING OUT?

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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LOUIS:

If you want a parallel of how this has played out in the American past, it
is best to look at the early 50s when McCarthy was bullying the Army. It
was this that finally sealed his doom. Since Donald Trump's was deeply
influenced by Roy Cohn, McCarthy's right-hand man, you can anticipate where
this is going.

ME:

EXCEPT, Trump may think he's smarter than McCarthy and able to complete Roy
Cohn's "work"?   (don't think so)

BUT -- bigger question -- can Trump truly weaken the imperialist/repressive
mechanisms --- those institutions were STRENGTHENED during the Cold War and
the slapping down of McCarthy actually proved it 
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Re: [Marxism] Blackkklansman: Spike Lee Delivers a Masterpiece

[Glenn Kissack via Marxism]

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> https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/17/blackkklansman-spike-lee-delivers-a-masterpiece/
> 

What does it mean to say that Ron Stallworth was a “good cop”? At the same time 
he was infiltrating the Klan he was infiltrating and reporting on left groups 
that were organizing anti-Klan protests:

http://time.com/5357789/the-true-story-behind-blackkklansman-according-to-the-man-who-inspired-the-movie/

Glenn


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Re: [Marxism] ARE THE THIEVES FALLING OUT?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 8/17/18 12:05 PM, Michael Meeropol via Marxism wrote:


Are Trump's attacks on the actual implementers of American Imperialism and
repression here at home WEAKENING the enforcement structures of American
imperialism and domestic repression -- IRONICALLY, making fascism LESS
likely??

He supports LOCAL fascists (urging cops to be "less gentle" with suspects,
pardoning Sheriff Joe) but may be weakening the national forces
necessary to repress the domestic population and project American power
overseas 


In some ways, Trump is a pint-sized version of Erdogan. Remember that 
when he took office in Turkey, it was on the basis of a hard-core 
religious base as well that confronted an old-guard deeply rooted in the 
nation's Kemalist origins.


Erdogan was able to purge the military and courts of the Kemalists 
through a combination of illegal and legal means. Trump would love 
nothing more than to rule the USA as absolutely as Erdogan rules Turkey 
but he lacks the social base.


In my view, the prospects for Trump Erdoganizing the USA are remote. The 
big bourgeoisie's interests are reflected in the Washington Post and the 
NY Times, the Council on Foreign Relations, the CIA and FBI bureaucracy, 
the officer caste, Wall St. banks, and the biggest corporations 
including heavy industry.


The reason there is a sense of Trump having his way is that some of his 
goals overlap with the big bourgeoisie such as cutting taxes, 
regulations, and destroying what's left of the unions.


If you want a parallel of how this has played out in the American past, 
it is best to look at the early 50s when McCarthy was bullying the Army. 
It was this that finally sealed his doom. Since Donald Trump's was 
deeply influenced by Roy Cohn, McCarthy's right-hand man, you can 
anticipate where this is going.

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[Marxism] ARE THE THIEVES FALLING OUT?

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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The reaction of all former CIA heads (and others) to Trump's petty attack
on John Brennan raises an interesting question --

Are Trump's individual foibles actually getting in the way of AMerican
Imperialism and repression at home?

I have argued that Trump is a fascist and Trumpism is an incipient move
towards fascism here --

But I do not think either Hitler or Mussolini SMASHED and otherwise damaged
the repressive and military apparatus of their countries when they took
over ---

Are Trump's attacks on the actual implementers of American Imperialism and
repression here at home WEAKENING the enforcement structures of American
imperialism and domestic repression -- IRONICALLY, making fascism LESS
likely??

He supports LOCAL fascists (urging cops to be "less gentle" with suspects,
pardoning Sheriff Joe) but may be weakening the national forces
necessary to repress the domestic population and project American power
overseas 

Just wondering ..
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[Marxism] HISTORIAN SCHOOLS GOP CANDIDATE ON ROBERT E. LEE

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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https://www.alternet.org/professor-destroys-chris-mcdaniel-myths-about-civil-war?src=newsletter1095343
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Re: [Marxism] Blackkklansman: Spike Lee Delivers a Masterpiece

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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When we are talking about a film the characters are different and distinct 
entities that are separate from the real world forms that inspire them. The 
textual Stallworth is different than the real man. 

Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 


> https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/17/blackkklansman-spike-lee-delivers-a-masterpiece/
> 

What does it mean to say that Ron Stallworth was a “good cop”? At the same time 
he was infiltrating the Klan he was infiltrating and reporting on left groups 
that were organizing anti-Klan protests:

http://time.com/5357789/the-true-story-behind-blackkklansman-according-to-the-man-who-inspired-the-movie/

Glenn
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Re: [Marxism] Two movies

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/world/asia/crazy-rich-asians-cast-singapore.html
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[Marxism] Life in Turkey Now: Tough Talk, but Fears of Drug Shortages - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Helping to support my mother-in-law in Istanbul, this hits home.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/business/turkey-lira-currency.html
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[Marxism] Two movies

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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 Based on what I have seen, I intend to see Blackkklansman.

And I had assumed that Crazy Rich Asians was simply light entertainment and it 
may be just that.  But I am intrigued to learn of the reaction among 
Asian-American audiences.
It suggests that the movie is in some way stirring up a lifetime of painful 
experiences, or at least filling a long felt need.
ken h


https://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/movies/surreal-tears-of-joy-among-reactions-to-crazy-rich-asians-1.23401997
 

Reactions from Asian-American audiences at early screenings of the movie have 
already exceeded Kwan’s expectations.


“I’ve heard from so many people that have seen the film that they burst out 
crying, for reasons they don’t even understand — grown men, middle-aged men,” 
the author said.
“A fan wrote to me a touching email that he’d never seen his father cry before, 
and here he was in a screening with his 70-something-year-old father and [the 
dad] just burst into tears because this is something he never imagined he’d see 
in his lifetime.”
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[Marxism] The problem with a People's Vote | Richard Seymour on Patreon

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.patreon.com/posts/problem-with-20328588?utm_medium=post_notification_email
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[Marxism] Memoir of War | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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“Memoir of War” is an adaptation of Marguerite Duras’s La Douleur (The 
Pain, published in English as The War), a 1985 semi-fictional memoir 
about her experiences living in Vichy France in 1945 and during the 
immediate post-liberation period. Her husband Robert Antelme was a 
member of the Resistance and a Communist like her. With Antelme a 
prisoner in a slave labor camp in Germany, she tries to prevent him from 
being transferred to an even more lethal camp like Dachau by forming 
ties to a Vichy collaborator who has a double agenda: to extract 
information about the Resistance and to seduce her. She walks a 
tightrope, trying to exploit her relationship with him to keep her 
husband alive while avoiding a Harvey Weinstein moment.


The film is among the best I have seen about living under fascism and a 
reminder of how great a writer Marguerite Duras was. “Memoir of War” 
relies on her character’s (played brilliantly by Mélanie Thierry) 
voiceover drawn from the text of La Douleur. I generally find such a 
device intrusive but in this instance it worked perfectly since the 
literary text meshed so well with the cinematic texture. Setting the 
tone for the remainder of the film, we hear Duras’s words before the 
credits role as she sits alone in her apartment smoking a cigarette 
while pacing the floor:


	I found this diary in the blue cupboards at Neaulphe. I don’t remember 
writing it. I know I did though. I know it was me. I recognize the 
handwriting and the details of what happened. I can picture the place. 
The Gare D’Orsay. My itineraries. But not myself writing. What I found 
was evenly filled pages, the letters tiny, unbelievably placid and 
regular. What I found was a phenomenal chaos of thought and feeling that 
I dare not amend, besides which literary polish strikes me as shameful. 
One thing is sure, obvious. It is unthinkable that these words were 
written whilst waiting for Robert.


Of course, the claim that she didn’t “remember writing it” has to be 
taken with a grain of salt. To understand why she would 
double-reflexively write, “I don’t remember writing it”, you have to 
place her in the context of French postwar culture. Now obscure to most 
young people except maybe those who major in French literature at your 
better universities, Duras was among France’s leading literary figures 
in the 1950s. She worked in many genres, including fiction, theater, 
essays, and screenwriting. In 1959, she was nominated for an Academy 
Award for the screenplay for “Hiroshima, Mon Amour”, an antiwar film 
that relies heavily on the interior monologues of the two main 
characters. (This classic film can be seen here.)


full: https://louisproyect.org/2018/08/17/memoir-of-war/
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[Marxism] Times: Walmart Is Finding Success in the Grocery Aisle

[Andrew Pollack via Marxism]

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[Ripe for the pickin' (expropriating, that is). Think back to previous
government takeovers during times of war and class struggle.]

"Walmart said on Thursday that it expected to offer home delivery of
groceries to 40 percent of the United States population by the end of the
year."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/business/walmart-earnings.html?rref=collection%2Fissuecollection%2Ftodays-new-york-times
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[Marxism] Examining Trump's possible use of a racial epithet through the lens of scholarly analysis of the word (opinion)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/08/17/examining-trumps-possible-use-racial-epithet-through-lens-scholarly-analysis-word
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[Marxism] The Barbarism of US Immigration Policy

[Ron Jacobs via Marxism]

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http://stillhomeron.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-barbarism-of-us-immigration-policy.html

-- 
Check out my newest books *Still Tripping in the Dark

*,* Capitalism
,
and Daydream Sunset:60s Counterculture in the 70s
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[Marxism] An Updated and Improved Marxism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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A rather silly but erudite defense of the idea that socialism will be 
the end result of cooperatives gradually displacing capitalist firms 
like capitalist firms displaced feudal institutions in the late middle ages.


https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/17/an-updated-and-improved-marxism/
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[Marxism] Africa’s Pioneering Marxist Political Economist, Samir Amin (1931-2018)

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By Patrick Bond.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/08/17/africas-pioneering-marxist-political-economist-samir-amin-1931-2018/
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[Marxism] Frida Kahlo: artist and revolutionary | Judy Cox | Counterfire

[Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism]

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http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19792-frida-kahlo-artist-and-revolutionary


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