[Marxism] Chapo Trap House shitting on the Krassenstein brothers and the Resistance (TM)

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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Yes, I know Louis hates them but this shit was funny



And here's them making fun of John Podhoretz.


-- 
Best regards,

Andrew Stewart
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[Marxism] Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, superstar -- and what Engels would have said about her

[Joaquin Bustelo via Marxism]

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http://hatueysashes.blogspot.com/2018/08/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-superstar.html

That's from my blog. And before you go apeshit, read it closely enough 
to understand that my point is that it is not about her, it is about us.


Honestly, I don't write this stuff to be provocative but I know many 
comrades profoundly disagree.


So what follows is an attempt to explain the main elements of my 
thinking about the course I have chosen, with special emphasis on how I 
believe it is fully in keeping with the way Marx and Engels approached 
these sorts of questions.


The core of my analysis is that Bernie's campaign, the DSA's growth, 
Ocasio's victory, etc., are all expressions of a movement in the working 
class, not a movement in the sense of a protest campaign but in the 
sense of a change or development in mass consciousness. This started 
with Occupy and was evidenced by its slogan we are the 99%, which tens 
of millions of people immediatelly identified with.


Both the Sanders and Ocasio campaigns were extremely aggressive and loud 
in identifying with the working class and emphasizing it through things 
like the contributions policy.


I know some comrades think that all this is a fake and a fraud, there is 
just an illusion of class identity. From my point of view that is really 
irrelevant in addressing the question of tactics. I think the clearest 
explanation of the right tactics is Engels's famous letter to Sorge 
about the Henry George candidacy for mayor of New York. 
[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1886/letters/86_11_29.htm]


But you might object, what good is Engels's advise if we're dealing with 
a complete counterfeit? Well, here is how his letter starts: "The Henry 
George boom has of course brought to light a colossal mass of fraud and 
I am glad I was not there."  He says it was not just a fraud but a 
colossal one so revolting that he was glad to be thousands of miles away.


So did he proclaim it a catastrophic setback for the class? Actually, 
quite the opposite. The next sentence after the one I just quoted says 
"But despite it all it has been an epoch-making day."


Not just a relative advance considering the nefarious circumstances but 
"epoch making." A "colossal mass of fraud" that was a world historic 
advance for the working class.


The next couple of sentences are the famous ones about how "the Germans" 
in the United States treat Marxism as a dogma instead of a guide to 
action. And then he presents the following approach to tactics. At the 
heart of it is how to deal with the *contradiction* between workers 
realizing they need to come together as a political force but beginning 
to do so around "a colossal mass of fraud."


* * *

   The first great step of importance for every country newly entering
   into the movement is always the organisation of the workers as an
   independent political party, no matter how, so long as it is a
   distinct workers' party. And this step has been taken, far more
   rapidly than we had a right to hope, and that is the main thing.
   That the first programme of this party is still confused and highly
   deficient, that it has set up the banner of Henry George, these are
   inevitable evils but also only transitory ones. The masses must have
   time and opportunity to develop and they can only have the
   opportunity when they have /their own movement--no matter in what
   form so long as it is only their own movement/--in which they are
   driven further by their own mistakes and learn wisdom by hurting
   themselves.

* * *

Comrades will object that in no way can the Sanders campaign or Ocasio's 
be equated with Henry George's, there are no ongoing institutions, no 
mechanisms for discussion and decision making etc. But I think here it 
is very important to not project  our understanding of "party" to what 
Marx and Engels were talking about in the 1840s when they first laid out 
their views.


If you re-read the Communist Manifesto which is where the whole concept 
of the centrality of the party in the worker's movement is first 
thoroughly dealt with, you will see there are references to concrete, 
existing parties in the last chapter. They mention two parties as 
worker's parties: the Chartists and the U.S. Agrarian Reformers. That 
last one is a somewhat mystifying reference because it is not exactly 
clear who they're referring to or what information they had that led 
them to call it a working class party.


But the Chartists Marx and Engels did know very well, and that was not a 
"party" as we would use the word today but a movement around a petition 
called the "People's Charter." There were 

[Marxism] (52) The Assassination of Trotsky (1972) Starring Richard Burton - YouTube

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeKHthb-YMM
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Re: [Marxism] What's behind the explosive growth of the DSA?

[Joaquin Bustelo via Marxism]

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On 8/20/2018 12:08 AM, John Reimann wrote:
thank you, Joaquin Bustelo, for that information on the origin of the 
slogan. However, your general history confirms my belief. As you say, 
the adoption of the slogan by DSA came about in part through the role 
of the national office of DSA. And that office would resist to the end 
any campaign that was not acceptable to the "progressive" wing of the 
Democratic Party.


Let me get this straight.

The DSA National Office capitulates to the Democrats. Yet it adopts 
Abolish ICE *before* any of the Democrats.


But!!! Some Democrats, pressured by the mijente campaign and recognizing 
that ICE --at least under this name-- is toast after kidnapping children 
at the border, say "Abolish ICE."


Which proves just how capitulationist the DSA N.O. is: they 
*pre-capitulated* to the Democrats by adopting a demand of the 
intransigent wing of the immigrant rights movement even BEFORE some 
Democrats felt compelled to at least pretend to support it.


But wait a minute!!!

I think that by adopting the demand of the immigrant rights movement the 
DSA is trying to discredit the Immigrant Rights Movement because the 
DSA, by pre-capitulating in adopting this demand, is trying to make it 
seem like the Latino immigrant rights movement is ALSO pre-capitulating 
because it's the same demand as the DSA is supporting, when in fact the 
demand is absolutely righteous and the DSA National Office has a 
fiendishly clever plan to oppose it by supporting it.


Gotta go. Alex Jones is calling about me appearing on his show on 
account of how the DSA, by fiendishly opposing the demand by supporting 
it, is actually supporting the demand by opposing it, since everyone 
knows how treacherous and capitulationist the DSA is, so because they're 
trying to fool people into believing they oppose the demand by 
supporting it, what they're really trying to do is to support the 
demand, by getting people to think they're opposing it because they're 
supporting it.


There is a historical precedent: https://youtu.be/xWGAdzn5_KU?t=50s

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[Marxism] Secularists, Secularism and the Syrian uprising (Part 2/2) (Joseph Daher - Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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Syrian secularists are under attack online and on the ground. Joseph Daher 
takes a critical look at recent efforts to discredit the contribution of Syrian 
secularists to the 2011 revolution and offers historic perspective on the 
meaning of secularism and how the concept been used and misused in the battle …
You may view the latest post at 
https://www.allianceofmesocialists.org/secularists-secularism-and-the-syrian-uprising-part-2-2/
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[Marxism] Secularists, Secularism and the Syrian uprising (Part 1/2) (Joseph Daher - Alliance of Middle Eastern Socialists)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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Syrian secularists, and moreover the concept of secularism, are under attack 
online and on the ground. Joseph Daher takes a critical look at recent efforts 
to discredit the contribution of Syrian secularists to the 2011 revolution and 
offers historic perspective on the meaning of secularism and how the concept 
has …
You may view the latest post at 
https://www.allianceofmesocialists.org/secularists-secularism-and-the-syrian-uprising-part-1-2/
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[Marxism] The Social Consciousness of Sid Grossman, a Photographer of the People | Monica Uszerowicz | Hyperallergic

[Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism]

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https://hyperallergic.com/451947/sid-grossman-pamm/


Sent from my iPhone
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[Marxism] The Philanthropy Racket or: How The People Destroying the World Anoint Themselves Its Saviors - In These Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://inthesetimes.com/article/21346/philanthropy-global-elite-neoliberal-marketworld-economy
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Re: [Marxism] Reply to David McDonald

[Tim Nelson via Marxism]

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Having been debating John on this over the last couple of days, I would
agree that David got this wrong. John has clearly stated his anti-Assad
position.

I imagine David just misread the exchange.

Ps. I don't know either of these gentlemen, and have no dog in this fight.

On Wed, 22 Aug 2018, 19:53 John Reimann via Marxism, <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> I was not going to write any further on the subject of alleged
> anti-Semitism in the LP, but I must defend myself:
>
> "The real discussion should be Corbyn's, the Labor Party's, and the Stop
> the War Coalition's views AND actions on Syria," writes David McDonald.
> He writes that among others I am guilty of drawing attention away from this
> issue.
>
> Has he even bothered to read anything beyond maybe a sentence here and
> there of what I wrote? In every letter I sent on the issue, I have said
> that the real issue is the support for Assad. What on earth would justify
> McDonald's false accusation?
>
> 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] Reply to David McDonald

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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I was not going to write any further on the subject of alleged
anti-Semitism in the LP, but I must defend myself:

"The real discussion should be Corbyn's, the Labor Party's, and the Stop
the War Coalition's views AND actions on Syria," writes David McDonald.
He writes that among others I am guilty of drawing attention away from this
issue.

Has he even bothered to read anything beyond maybe a sentence here and
there of what I wrote? In every letter I sent on the issue, I have said
that the real issue is the support for Assad. What on earth would justify
McDonald's false accusation?

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[Tim Nelson via Marxism]

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"Because the Syrian Revolution, as an extension of the Arab Spring, is
the signal event of the 21st Century. It has ripped through what we used to
call the left, made certain Stalinists ally with certain Trotskyists, made
that claque ally with straightforward rightists, and generally upended the
comfort zone of a lot of people."

This is a very important point. I'm reminded of some vaguely remembered
quote that I heard from a socialist in 1914. The gist of it is, after the
SPD voted for war credits, all the certainties of the proceeding decades
became obsolete. It was like waking up to a new world. It may seem
hyperbolic to make the comparison, but I think it's valid. Syria has blown
the Western left apart.

"How has this escaped the attention of the leader of the Labour Party? The
man  John Reimann thinks should be the next Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom? Is it because Corbyn is, as Reimann avers, "confused" about Syria?
This is not even vaguely possible, unless by "confused" you mean prepared
to sell out an actual, real, ongoing revolution because you are a Stalinist
hack who assumes any evil committed by your leaders is 1) OK, or 2)
regrettable but just the price of doing the people's business."
As I stated earlier, I don't think Corbyns position is confused. It's a
standard position for the labour left, with an ideology and tradition
behind it. However, I'd be shocked if a left social democratic leader in
Britain actually took a consistent  internationalist position on a
rebellion in the third world. It's not their tradition. Their tradition is
to support dictatorships in the third world that oppose "imperialism " (I.
E. US imperialism ). They've done this since 1939 and will continue to do
so.

That being said, I still want Corbyn to be PM, as that at least provides an
opportunity for a socialist foreign policy to be argued for. That
opportunity won't arise under Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But from now
on, scathing criticism of his abominable policy on Syria should be central
to any real left wing critique of Corbyn.

We can't be caught saying "well he may be overlooking genocide in the
Middle East, but at least he's promised to nationalise the trains". It's
inane, and makes the British left look pathetic.

Tim  N




On Wed, 22 Aug 2018, 17:04 David McDonald via Marxism, <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> *
>
> I agree fully with Tim Nelson's comments on John Reimann's contribution to
> this thread.
>
> Let's forget about the jejune discussion of whether Corbyn has slipped from
> Anti-Zionism to antisemitism. This has been posed as the real issue because
> it's something that Stalinists, and apparently John Reimann, are
> comfortable arguing about. The real discussion should be Corbyn's, the
> Labor Party's, and the Stop the War Coalition's views AND actions on Syria.
> (Corbyn was Chairman of the Stop the War Coalition until elected as Labour
> leader.)
>
> Why? Because the Syrian Revolution, as an extension of the Arab Spring, is
> the signal event of the 21st Century. It has ripped through what we used to
> call the left, made certain Stalinists ally with certain Trotskyists, made
> that claque ally with straightforward rightists, and generally upended the
> comfort zone of a lot of people.
>
> The Revolution's enemies have caused the greatest human migration since
> World War II, and this in turn has helped to fuel the nationalist plague
> sweeping right-wing parties into or close to power throughout Europe.
>
> I am close to concluding that Syria has become a totalitarian state in the
> sense that Arendt uses that term: a state based on absolute subjugation of
> the population through terror of the secret police with the goal, not of
> world conquest (as with Hitler and Stalin) but of conquest of his own
> country even at the cost of the total destruction of that same country. As
> the secret police themselves say it in their graffiti, "Assad or we burn
> the country."
>
> This horror has been ignored by most of the world for 7 years. That's way
> longer than the entire arc of Hitler's Final Solution. Not just
> governments, but many so-called leftists have refused to aid or even
> verbally defend the Syrian Revolution. Yassin al-Haj Saleh, as close to
> being the spiritual father of the Syrian Revolution as anyone living, drips
> with contempt 

[Marxism] Budour Hassan: "On The Allies We’re Not Proud Of: A Palestinian Response to Troubling Discourse on Syria

[David McDonald via Marxism]

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https://wewritewhatwelike.com/2016/10/12/on-the-allies-were-not-proud-of-a-palestinian-response-to-troubling-discourse-on-syria/

This is one Palestinian writer's thoughts on what it means that
pro-Palestinian people and groups support Assad.
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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[Jason via Marxism]

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On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 10:02 AM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

> Is the refusal of
> these lefts to look at what is happening to the Rohingya evidence of
> Islamophobia?


I think it is, yes.
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[Marxism] Beijing’s Bid for Global Power in the Age of Trump

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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*“America First” Versus China’s Strategy of the Four Continents*
By Alfred W. McCoy 

In 1958, Chinese leader Mao Zedong launched an attempt at the instant
industrialization of an agricultural society, including the creation of
little backyard steel furnaces in its rural countryside. That vast
convulsion went by the optimistic name of the Great Leap Forward
. It ended up
disrupting the country’s agricultural system and causing a disastrous
famine in which millions died. If, at that nadir moment in China’s modern
history, 1960, I had told you that the country would indeed have a
successful Great Leap Forward in the years to come, would, in fact, pass
Japan

to
become the world’s second largest economy in 2010 and be slated to pass the
United States

to
become number one by 2030, I’m sure you would have considered it an absurd
real-world version of a fairy tale. And yet in the years between 1960 and
2018, that’s exactly what happened. China industrialized in a staggering
way, became a planetary leader

in
technology, and is now returning to the sort of imperial preeminence that
it hasn’t known since the Qing dynasty began to buckle under the pressure
of the West and the opium wars back in the early nineteenth century.

Think of China’s development in the last few decades as the planet’s true
Great Leap Forward. After all, in my lifetime, that country journeyed from
a third world nation to, as historian Alfred McCoy, author of *In the
Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power*
,
suggests today, a potential global hegemon. Of course, all of this is
happening on a Trumpian planet in which the very meaning of hegemony, as
McCoy suggests today, may be up for grabs.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176460/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_will_china_be_the_next_global_hegemon/#more
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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[David McDonald via Marxism]

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I agree fully with Tim Nelson's comments on John Reimann's contribution to
this thread.

Let's forget about the jejune discussion of whether Corbyn has slipped from
Anti-Zionism to antisemitism. This has been posed as the real issue because
it's something that Stalinists, and apparently John Reimann, are
comfortable arguing about. The real discussion should be Corbyn's, the
Labor Party's, and the Stop the War Coalition's views AND actions on Syria.
(Corbyn was Chairman of the Stop the War Coalition until elected as Labour
leader.)

Why? Because the Syrian Revolution, as an extension of the Arab Spring, is
the signal event of the 21st Century. It has ripped through what we used to
call the left, made certain Stalinists ally with certain Trotskyists, made
that claque ally with straightforward rightists, and generally upended the
comfort zone of a lot of people.

The Revolution's enemies have caused the greatest human migration since
World War II, and this in turn has helped to fuel the nationalist plague
sweeping right-wing parties into or close to power throughout Europe.

I am close to concluding that Syria has become a totalitarian state in the
sense that Arendt uses that term: a state based on absolute subjugation of
the population through terror of the secret police with the goal, not of
world conquest (as with Hitler and Stalin) but of conquest of his own
country even at the cost of the total destruction of that same country. As
the secret police themselves say it in their graffiti, "Assad or we burn
the country."

This horror has been ignored by most of the world for 7 years. That's way
longer than the entire arc of Hitler's Final Solution. Not just
governments, but many so-called leftists have refused to aid or even
verbally defend the Syrian Revolution. Yassin al-Haj Saleh, as close to
being the spiritual father of the Syrian Revolution as anyone living, drips
with contempt when he discusses Western leftists' sellout of Syria's
revolution.

Foremost among the UK's apologists for Assad and his genocidal regime has
been the Stop the War Coalition, of which Corbyn, as noted, was Chairman.
This piece of shit former antiwar organization once refused to allow a
pro-revolution Syrian speaker AT A DEMONSTRATION ABOUT SYRIA. It has been
utterly silent about the crimes of the Assadists as their civilian victims
number half a million dead, 6 million displaced within Syria, and 5 million
who have fled Syria.

Arendt pointed out that the full flower of totalitarian violence against
the people is reserved for the time when all opposition has been
vanquished, all other potential leaderships exterminated, all popular
institutions no matter how benign smashed. Has this not been announced in
advance by Assad with his admission that ten of thousands of political
prisoners are dead, listed by name? With the announcement that there is a
list of two million more to be dealt with still in the files of the secret
police? With the announcement that over 100,000 supposedly loyal-to-Assad
families are suspect?

How has this escaped the attention of the leader of the Labour Party? The
man  John Reimann thinks should be the next Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom? Is it because Corbyn is, as Reimann avers, "confused" about Syria?
This is not even vaguely possible, unless by "confused" you mean prepared
to sell out an actual, real, ongoing revolution because you are a Stalinist
hack who assumes any evil committed by your leaders is 1) OK, or 2)
regrettable but just the price of doing the people's business.

It appears to me that John Reimann has stumbled here bcause he thinks class
trumps everything and has therefore decided that Corbyn's victory is so
vital that what anyone can see is a historical betrayal, even himself in
better days,  becomes mere "confusion" when it appears in someone Reimann
thinks bears the mantle of labour.

As a seasoned revolutionary, Reimann ought to be familiar with the idea of
critical support. I know I am, and I think it ought to be applied to Corbyn
by explaining up and down the length of the Labour Party that he is not
confused, but consciously selling out the Syrian revolution because he is
enslaved to Stalinist ideology, and that the consequences of that are and
will be deadly to the Labour Party. I say this provisionally because I am
sick and tired of reading ignorant rants from Brits about American
politics, especially and because I agree the newly won ranks of the Labour
party deserve the same level of attention that DSAers in the US require,
which is to find a way to go through the experience with them so they will
listen to you. I admit to having no idea of how to do that 

[Marxism] Top university’s course turns out to be propaganda - Estonian news

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Students walk out on Vanessa Beeley lecture.

https://news.postimees.ee/4511277/top-university-s-course-turns-out-to-be-propaganda
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Re: [Marxism] Norman G Finkelstein on the accusations of anti-semitism against Corbyn's Labour Party.

[Paul Flewers via Marxism]

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Finkelstein's article has raised some hackles over here. I wrote the following 
comment on a Facebook thread.

Paul F



Finkelstein is crossing an unwelcome line with this piece. There are a couple 
of tell-tale phrases: 'Jews are incomparably organized as they have created a 
plethora of interlocking, overlapping, and mutually reinforcing communal and 
defense organizations that operate in both the domestic and international 
arenas', and, 'The wonder would be if these raw data [on the proportion of Jews 
in prominent positions] didn’t translate into outsized Jewish political power.' 

What he writes about US politicians, with the implication that some sort of 
Jewish force is influencing if not governing US high politics, is quite at odds 
with what he wrote (quite accurately) a short while ago where he stated that 
pro-Israel policies are voted through because they are in the interests of US 
foreign policy, and that were this to be no longer to be the case, the 
pro-Israel lobby would wither on the vine. Now the tail -- and, moreover, a 
Jewish one rather than a pro-Zionist one -- seems to be wagging the dog.

Here's another very worrying bit, on matters close to home: 'Were it not for 
the outsized power of British Jews, it’s hard to conceive that British society 
would be interminably chasing after a hobgoblin. True, although fighting 
anti-Semitism is the rallying cry, a broad array of powerful entrenched social 
forces, acting on not-so-hidden agendas of their own, have coalesced around 
this putative cause. It cannot be gainsaid, however, that Jewish organizations 
form the poisoned tip of this spear.'

I feel that the matter of allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party has 
pretty much accidentally become the axis around which the anti-Corbyn campaign 
revolves. I don't believe that anyone or any organisation decided: 'Let's whack 
Corbyn on anti-Semitism, that'll do the job nicely.' It's just emerged that 
way, it's the form which the campaign has taken. There is a very broad range of 
opposition to Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party and potential Prime 
Minister, and this opposition covers a very wide range of topics, far beyond 
anti-Jewish prejudice and Israel/Palestine. That's the content of the campaign, 
let's not confuse form with content.

It's true that the broad campaign against Corbyn has 'coalesced around this 
putative cause', and of course that will bring in various Jewish groups that 
don't like Corbyn, but to view these groups as the main force behind the 
campaign, rather than to view their formal prominence as the result of the form 
that the campaign has taken, and -- worse -- to see that as the result of 'the 
outsized power of British Jews' is getting things seriously back to front and 
putting the author amongst some very dubious company.

Up till now, what I've read of Finkelstein's writings have carefully eschewed 
this sort of thing, even when he has been typically provocative in his writing 
style. What he has written here is quite unacceptable, and shows a decided 
shift in his analysis into the murky world of anti-Jewish conspiracies.

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[Marxism] Royal African Company - Wikipedia

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Plenty of discussion of this outfit in Gerald Horne's book. Wiki states 
that "Between 1672 and 1689, the Company transported 90,000 to 100,000 
slaves. Its profits made a major contribution to the increase in the 
financial power of those who controlled the City of London." Among its 
stock-holders was John Locke, who was the secretary to the board of 
governors of South Carolina, a sub-colony of Barbados in effect, that 
defended slavery as a fundamental property right. I always got a laugh 
out of Ellen Meiksins Wood referring to Locke as the preeminent 
philosopher of capitalism when he was up to his neck in what she called 
"precapitalism".


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_African_Company
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[Marxism] [UCE] Anti-Semitism and the socialist left | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://louisproyect.org/2018/01/22/anti-semitism-and-the-socialist-left/
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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[Tim Nelson via Marxism]

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"Jason writes, "my claim (of anti-Semitism on the left) needs to be backed
up and I'm not going to do it here and I'm not asking anyone to just take
my word for it." But that is exactly what he's doing. And I have to say,
Tim's notes more or less do the same."

I don't actually, there are plenty of examples which are a matter of public
record. Galloway's I've already cited. Jackie Walker's as well. There are
plenty of examples going through the Labour Party's disciplinary
procedures. Some of them are vexatious or spurious. Some of them are valid.

"The cries of anti-Semitism also help drown out any
legitimate criticism of the racist State of Israel. Let's not fall into
that trap."

My view is that we continuously fall into a trap every time we join the
supporters of the Israeli state by doing the same as them. They claim all
anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. People on the left see all accusations of
anti-Semitism as an attempt to discredit anti-Zionism. We should separate
the two, not help conflate them.

"It's support for Assad that is the real issue."

There's no one "real issue", there are several real issues, many of which
interconnect.




On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 3:01 PM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> Jason writes, "my claim (of anti-Semitism on the left) needs to be backed
> up and I'm not going to do it here and I'm not asking anyone to just take
> my word for it." But that is exactly what he's doing. And I have to say,
> Tim's notes more or less do the same.
>
> As we all know, "anti-Semitism" is the first line of defense for the
> Zionists, and in fact  Jason's arguments indirectly bolster that. He points
> to the fact that so many of those active in the movement against the racist
> State of Israel ignore at best the war crimes of Assad if they don't
> outright support him. For Jason, this is evidence of anti-Semitism. It has
> nothing whatsoever to do with anti-Semitism, and Jason's argument comes
> dangerously close to merging with the Zionists' claim that criticism of
> Zionism is automatically anti-Semitism. The hypocritical approach of the
> left Assadists is all about a shallow reading of "opposition" to US
> imperialism, a refusal to even half way seriously study the facts. It's
> related to their silliness regarding Trump, as I pointed out in my last
> note. It's related to their considering any criticism of the Trump-Putin
> links to being support for US imperialism and for war. Is the refusal of
> these lefts to look at what is happening to the Rohingya evidence of
> Islamophobia?
>
> Again: The real issue is defense of Assad. By falling into the campaign
> against Corbyn with the claims of anti-Semitism, they are actually
> detracting from that main issue. The Blairites and the Tories are happy to
> distract from that issue, because (I assume) British imperialism in fact
> also supports Assad. The cries of anti-Semitism also help drown out any
> legitimate criticism of the racist State of Israel. Let's not fall into
> that trap.
>
> It's support for Assad that is the real issue.
>
> 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] Betting Utah Sands Will Be the Next Great Oil Source - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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From the NYT's resident fracking supporter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/business/energy-environment/oil-sands-utah.html

My take-down of him from 2010:

https://louisproyect.org/2010/11/07/clifford-krauss-propagandist-par-excellence/
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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Jason writes, "my claim (of anti-Semitism on the left) needs to be backed
up and I'm not going to do it here and I'm not asking anyone to just take
my word for it." But that is exactly what he's doing. And I have to say,
Tim's notes more or less do the same.

As we all know, "anti-Semitism" is the first line of defense for the
Zionists, and in fact  Jason's arguments indirectly bolster that. He points
to the fact that so many of those active in the movement against the racist
State of Israel ignore at best the war crimes of Assad if they don't
outright support him. For Jason, this is evidence of anti-Semitism. It has
nothing whatsoever to do with anti-Semitism, and Jason's argument comes
dangerously close to merging with the Zionists' claim that criticism of
Zionism is automatically anti-Semitism. The hypocritical approach of the
left Assadists is all about a shallow reading of "opposition" to US
imperialism, a refusal to even half way seriously study the facts. It's
related to their silliness regarding Trump, as I pointed out in my last
note. It's related to their considering any criticism of the Trump-Putin
links to being support for US imperialism and for war. Is the refusal of
these lefts to look at what is happening to the Rohingya evidence of
Islamophobia?

Again: The real issue is defense of Assad. By falling into the campaign
against Corbyn with the claims of anti-Semitism, they are actually
detracting from that main issue. The Blairites and the Tories are happy to
distract from that issue, because (I assume) British imperialism in fact
also supports Assad. The cries of anti-Semitism also help drown out any
legitimate criticism of the racist State of Israel. Let's not fall into
that trap.

It's support for Assad that is the real issue.

John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[Jason via Marxism]

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I think anti-Semitism on the left is becoming a real problem now. I think
for John and others to dismiss concerns about this because of their past
experience or that of one friend is short-sighted in the extreme. Yes, my
claim needs to be backed up and I'm not going to do it here and I'm not
asking anyone to just take my word for it, but again, I would warn people
against dismissing these concerns simply because of the past or how they
can be 'weaponized' by those uncritical of Israel, etc.

It's connected to Assadism in that the conspiracist and campist ways of
thinking play into the same kind of thinking as the Protocols. And while
anti-Semitism charges are used to dismiss criticisms of Israel, given that
pro-BDS is now hegemonic on the left but that same left says nothing or
cares nothing for Palestinians in Syria, that certainly suggests there's
something more "anti-Israel" than pro-Palestinian in their stance and that
is dangerous (I put "anti-Israel" in scare quotes because I do not equate
that position with being "anti-Israel" in the sense of supporting one
democratic and therefor Palestinian state because that position requires
being in solidarity with all Palestinians including and especially in some
ways with those in Syria).

Reaction is on the rise around the world and within the left (Assadism
again being a prominent but the only example of that in both cases). To
dismiss out of hand claims of a rise of anti-Semitism on the left in these
conditions strikes me as a dangerous stance to take. Sure, investigate,
have a sense of proportion, etc. but I see Tim and others making a nuanced
and persuasive case and at the least it deserves a more serious engagement
than what it's getting.
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[Marxism] Norman G Finkelstein on the accusations of anti-semitism against Corbyn's Labour Party.

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3979-the-chimera-of-british-anti-semitism-and-how-not-to-fight-it-if-it-were-real
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[Marxism] Hanna Mina, Syrian Novelist Who Chronicled the Poor, Dies at 94

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Aug. 22, 2018
Hanna Mina, Syrian Novelist Who Chronicled the Poor, Dies at 94
By Karen Zraick

Hanna Mina, an eminent Syrian writer who chronicled the lives of the 
poor and oppressed in dozens of books as one of the first Arab novelists 
to employ social realism, died on Tuesday in Damascus. He was 94.


His death was confirmed by Syrian state media.

Mr. Mina’s career spanned half a century, and several of his works were 
adapted for film and television. But only two were translated into English.


Bassam Frangieh, a professor of Arabic at Claremont McKenna College in 
California who translated Mr. Mina’s novel “Sun on a Cloudy Day” with 
Clementina Brown, called him “a majestic figure” in Arabic literature.


“Hanna Mina always sided with the poor against the rich, against 
corruption,” Mr. Frangieh said in an interview. “He was leading a 
literary revolution in his writing in order to create a new 
consciousness of the Arab people.”


“Sun on a Cloudy Day,” originally published in 1973, captured the 
essence of Mr. Mina’s work and his central arguments against imperialism 
and oppression, Mr. Frangieh said. It tells the story of a young Syrian 
man who rebels against his elite family during the French Mandate, when 
France held administrative control of Syria. It was a time of shifting 
political realities: The Ottoman Empire had been partitioned after the 
end of World War I, and Syria did not gain independence until 1943.


The man’s family is decadent and aligned with the French. Searching for 
an oud teacher, he makes his way to a poor area of the city, where he 
finds a teacher who is also an ardent nationalist. He falls in love with 
a prostitute who lives in the teacher’s basement, scandalizing his family.


“The inner turmoil of this man,” one reviewer noted, “mirrors the 
political torment of a torn, occupied nation.”


The other work of Mr. Mina’s to be translated into English, “Fragments 
of Memory,” is a semi-autobiographical novel about a poor, troubled 
family in rural northern Syria, also set during the French Mandate. When 
the silk industry collapses because of new technology and cheap imports, 
the family’s already precarious lives are thrown into even greater turmoil.


“He was born at a time of great social and political change,” said 
Cathia Jenainati, a professor at the University of Warwick in Coventry, 
England, who has studied Mr. Mina’s work. “And he spent his whole life 
writing about ways in which social justice can be achieved in Syria.”


Mr. Mina was born on March 9, 1924, in the Syrian coastal area of 
Latakia, and later lived in what is now southern Turkey as a young 
child, according to published accounts. The family moved back to Latakia 
when Turkey took over that area.


Mr. Mina worked many jobs as a young man. He was a barber, a sailor and 
a porter on the docks until he began publishing stories in Syrian 
newspapers. His first novel, “The Blue Lamps,” was published in 1954.


But those early jobs always remained with him. Many of his later works 
dealt with the theme of the sea, including his most famous one, “The 
Sail and the Storm.”


Mr. Mina helped found the Syrian Writers Association in 1951, and the 
Arab Writers Union in the late ’60s. (He quit the union in protest in 
1995, in solidarity with the famed poet Adonis, who was thrown out after 
meeting with Israeli intellectuals.)


There was no immediate word on his survivors.

In an article about Mr. Mina’s death, the news site Al Arabiya published 
what it said was his handwritten will, dated Aug. 17, 2008. In the note, 
he requested a simple funeral, with no publicity and no grieving.


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[Marxism] Pompeo names high-level Syria team as Trump looks for the exit

[RKOB via Marxism]

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https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/08/pompeo-names-high-level-syria-team.html

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(Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net)
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[Marxism] How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump - MIT Technology Review

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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By Zeynep Tufekci, a co-moderator of the mailing list that predated 
Marxmail.


https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611806/how-social-media-took-us-from-tahrir-square-to-donald-trump/
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[Marxism] In Wake of Trump, Radicalism Soars on Campus

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(Surprised to see that the new SDS is still around, given DSA tsunami.)

About a dozen college students sit around a small circular table outside 
of a boba tea house on the outskirts of Arizona State University’s 
(ASU’s) Tempe campus, discussing guns, Democratic Party politics, 
tuition reform and Chairman Mao Zedong. They are loud enough for 
passersby to take notice, their voices competing against the sound of 
cars whizzing by Rural Road.


As they fish the last bits of boba from the bottom of their cups, they 
decry the anti-gun views of liberals nationwide, emphasizing that though 
gun violence is horrific, allowing law enforcement a monopoly on 
firearms would be extremely dangerous.


This isn’t just any group of college students. They are members of ASU’s 
chapter of the modern-day incarnation of Students for a Democratic 
Society (SDS), the militant student group of the 1960s especially known 
for its activism against the Vietnam War.


In its present embodiment, the group follows an amorphous structure 
similar to its predecessor. Unlike other campus political and activist 
clubs, whose work is grounded in party politics, SDS is all about public 
and direct action against institutions and other figures of authority – 
in other words, making demands through protests, boycotts or sit-ins.


“We don’t canvass. We don’t do petitions for putting people in office. 
We don’t participate in trying to get bills passed,” said the group’s 
charismatic chair Fallon Leyba, who, while emphasizing the decentralized 
framework of SDS leadership, describes herself as the organization’s 
spokesperson and coordinator.


“The purpose of the club,” Leyba said, is “trying to get individuals on 
campus to stop being apathetic.”


full: 
https://truthout.org/articles/in-wake-of-trump-radicalism-soars-on-campus/

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[Marxism] How Slavery Inspired Modern Business Management | Boston Review

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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http://bostonreview.net/race/caitlin-c-rosenthal-how-slavery-inspired-modern-business-management
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[Marxism] Accountable, inclusive or responsible capitalism? | Michael Roberts Blog

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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A look at Elizabeth Warren's Accountable Capitalism Act.

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2018/08/21/accountable-inclusive-or-responsible-capitalism/
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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com>
2:31 AM (7 minutes ago)
to nelsontim86, Activists
I do not defend the Assadism in the least. In fact, I'm in the midst of a
debate on an email list with some people over exactly the article on
Williamson and his support for that disgusting Beeley. But I have not seen
anything that seriously convinces me of anti-Semitism as a major issue
within Labour. And socialists should not conflate the two issues,
especially not now when Assad is reaching an agreement with Netanyahu.
Stick to the real issue, which is the Assadism!

As for the "movement" here in Oakland, and the US in general: Again, the
Assadism is a huge problem. It's combined with the most ridiculous approach
to this whole crisis of the mainstream of the US capitalist class vs.
Trump. Some take the position that comes close to supporting Trump because
it's the FBI that's investigating him. Others say nonsense like, "We don't
doubt that Trump and Putin may have collaborated. We just don't care."
Others say nonsense like that nothing has changed here in the last 200
years. As for bourgeois democracy, one eally rrevolutionary individual
commented that we should stick to looking for the overthrow of capitalism
rather than worry if martial law may be imposed.

It's all the most out of touch childishness imaginable.

But I have to say, I'm 72 years old now. I've been active in the union
movement for 45 years and on the left for almost as long. I'm also of
Jewish descent and pretty much look it. I could count the number of times
I've encountered anti-semitism in the left movement on the fingers of one
hand. In my experience, it just simply is not a serious problem in the left
here, and most certainly not compared to the REAL nonsense that passes for
"thinking" on the left.

To repeat: Stick to the real issue!
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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Re: [Marxism] Labour can be Jo Cox?s party or Chris Williamson?s ? it cannot be both

[Tim Nelson via Marxism]

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Hi John


"Williamson's support for Beeley and Assad is one thing. It is totally
reprehensible. All these allegations about anti-Semitism in the British
Labour Party are something entirely different."


They are not different. Or rather, there's an overlap. Ba'athism is deeply
anti-Semitic, and Stalinism has more than flirted with anti-Semitism in the
past. There is a long and deeply complex relationship between the Labour
left and Stalinism, which has led many on the Labour left into a pretty
much wholesale adoption of the Stalinist position on anti-imperialism,
which includes uncritical support for regimes that are supposedly opposing
imperialism, such as Assad's Ba'athist regime.


"Isn't it odd that these
allegations never arose until the left Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership?"


Not particularly. The Labour right, the press and the Tories were looking
for something to discredit the left, and found this. They're using it
entirely cynically, but it doesn't necessarily follow that it is an entire
fabrication. We didn't find out about Trump's "pussy grabbing" until he ran
for President. That doesn't mean the whole story is a lie. What we need to
do, like I said, is separate the real instances of anti-Semitism from the
false ones.


"And you think anti-Semitism is real in British politics? You should try the
snobs in the Tory party! But this, of course is, ignored."


You don't know me, but rest assured, I have to deal with Tory (local)
politicians on a daily basis as a part of my work. I know what they are. The
Conservative and Unionist Party are unapologetic racists. Boris Johnson is
flirting with Steve Bannon. Their racism and imperialism is unabashed and
should always be fought. That doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist in the
labour movement, and shouldn’t be ruthlessly tackled when it arises.
Pointing to the racism of the other side doesn’t negate racism in our
movement.


“I have a good
friend who's very active in the Labour Party and in its left wing -
Momentum. His last name is Roger Silverman. Is that Jewish enough for you?
He says he has not experienced any anti-Semitism in the LP nor in
Momentum.”


I also know Jewish people inside the Labour Party who would say similar
things. While I respect that position, I just think it’s wrong. I’m not
Jewish, but I have witnessed anti-semitism on the British left. It’s not
vitriolic, or even very open. It’s mostly based on ignorance and tropes,
that could be dealt with by education, rather than condemnation. But it’s
there.


I don’t know what the left is like in Oakland, I hope it’s amazing, but in
Britain, due to decades of isolation, we have accumulated our fair share of
conspiracy theorists, cranks and weirdos. Orwell complained about it in the
1930s, and if anything it’s got worse. Such people aren’t *dominant *but
they’re real. Add to that the role of the Stalinists, who purposely play on
conspiracy theories when executing contortions to defend their latest
favourite dictator and you have a toxic mix.


“The claims are largely based on Corbyn's opposition to the racist State of
Israel. Many of those claims originate from the Israeli supporters. And now
socialists are going to join in on that? Here are a couple of articles
dealing with those claims:
https://www.hotpress.com/opinion/eamonn-mccann-jeremy-corbyn
-anti-semitism-row-22752609
Roger, himself, has written something on the issue. It is here:
https://oaklandsocialist.com/2018/04/06/corbyn-an-anti-semit
e-roger-silverman-comments/”


The right do indeed conflate anti-zionism with anti-semitism. We need to
combat that by doing the *opposite. *Namely, correctly identifying actual
anti-semitism, and separating it from legitimate criticisms of the Israeli
state. We can’t combat it by simply assuming *any *accusation of
anti-semitism against the left, wherever it comes from, is because the left
opposes Israel. That’s a dangerous road to go down, as we’re essentially
doing the same as the right – we’re lumping the two together.


“As for Corbyn: Yes, his position on Syria is confused at best. But let's
not overlook is overall role. This has been to bring a whole layer of
idealistic and angry youth into political activism and to oppose austerity.”


He has done exactly that. I’m a member of the Labour Party and will
continue to be, for all its problems. However, we should be very wary of
simply saying stuff like this whenever legitimate criticisms of the
leadership, or the movement as a whole, are raised. Corbyn’s position on
Syria isn’t confused, it’s atrocious, and the position of some people in
his inner circle is worse than that, as far as I’m concerned they’re
complicit in Assad’s 

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