[Marxism] "Conventional capitalism is dying" - covid-19 and the return of the state

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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This is a genuinely brilliant piece on the long term implications of the
current crisis, set in the historical context of the evolution of
capitalism from the early 20th century.

https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/conventional-capitalism-is-dying-covid-19-recession-and-the-return-of-the-state/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Online forum Sunday (AEST): Imperialism & global inequality during covid-19

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View this email in your browser

*This Sunday, Socialist Alternative will be hosting an online forum on
Imperialism & global inequality during covid-19*

The global pandemic has laid bare the international inequality created by
global capitalism. The world's poor in the global south will experience the
disease very differently as it pours through their under-developed health
systems that have been targeted by economic and military imperialism.

Meanwhile, imperialist competition means that blockades, sanctions, and
sieges are preventing millions of people from accessing vital medical
equipment.

*Our Speakers:*

   - Frieda Afary - Frieda is an Iranian American socialist, translator,
   writer and producer of the blog Iranian Progressives in Translation. She is
   a co-founder of the Alliance of Middle Eastern and North African Socialists.
   - Omar Hassan, a Lebanese Australian socialist based in Melbourne.
   - Hosted by Liz Walsh, from Socialist Alternative Melbourne.

The forum will be livestreamed this Sunday at 2pm AEST / 1.30pm (SA / NT) /
12pm (WA). For more info, see the facebook event
.
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[Marxism] Covid-19 in India...

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https://redflag.org.au/index.php/node/7106
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[Marxism] [UCE] We've been down this road before: Jesse Jackson, the Democrats and the left

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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"Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign was more radical than Sanders’ 2016
campaign, despite Jackson himself being a more conservative figure who had
long represented a Black entrepreneurial elite. Amidst a deep social crisis
that afflicted US society and African Americans in particular, Jackson was
catapulted to prominence by a powerful revolt against Reagan’s pro-war,
austerity policies. Jackson’s radical rhetoric was augmented by a loyal
band of followers. A large section of the left, principally Maoists and
ex-Maoists with origins in the New Left, provided not only foot soldiers
but skilled organisers with roots in Asian and Chicano communities, and in
anti-racist, anti-war, and women’s, lesbian and gay liberation movements.
The Rainbow Coalition was a pole of attraction to a fragmented left that
hoped to build a beachhead inside the Democrats and a base from which to
organise outside the Democrats.

By 1989, this project was in disarray. The mass anti-war and
anti-intervention rallies of the early 1980s were no more. Working class
resistance to the Reagan offensive and employers’ assault on living
standards had dissipated. Groups such as the League of Revolutionary
Socialists made peace with the Democrat machine and wound up any public
profile. Others withdrew from the Rainbow, but, demoralised, lacked any
capacity to rebuild a left on the outside.

The Jackson/Rainbow campaigns provide valuable lessons for those looking to
Bernie Sanders today. Firstly, the claim that it was possible to build
“independent politics” through the structures of the Rainbow proved to be a
myth. The Democratic Party will tolerate such efforts so long as they can
enlist new voters in Democrat caucuses and expand the party’s voter base.
However, the rationale for the Rainbow was to secure Jackson’s electoral
victory in the primaries. So long as the Rainbow Left worked towards that
end they were tolerated – even welcomed – within the Rainbow. Once the
Rainbow Left had served its purpose, it was cast aside. Having been locked
into the Democrats for five years, the Rainbow Left found itself locked out.

Secondly, the idea that the Rainbow could serve as a means to bring about a
realignment in US politics, either inside or outside the Democrats, was
mistaken. US politics was moving sharply to the right. Reagan was the front
man for neoliberalism, but Democrats such as Walter Mondale and Gary Hart
were willing accomplices. The Democrats’ rightward lurch, which began
before Reagan’s ascendency and continued in the 1990s under Clinton, was
driven by the declining profitability of US capitalism. Whereas Roosevelt’s
New Deal and Kennedy’s Great Society programs implemented a reform package
in response to the demands of the union and civil rights movements, the
Democrats could no longer accede to such demands while simultaneously
meeting the demands of big business. Moreover, the US ruling class had
forged a consensus that to maintain its imperial hegemony, it needed to
embark on a massive armaments program that could ensure its victory in the
Cold War.

Thirdly, the strategy pursued by the Rainbow Left, despite protestations to
the contrary, was fundamentally electoralist. While NCM groups shared an
analysis that the Democratic Party was a capitalist party that couldn’t be
reformed, a consensus also emerged that their decade-long engagement with
struggles of workers and the oppressed needed to be complemented by
electoral work that could win a larger audience for socialist ideas. For
some, electoral work came to be redefined as a form of “mass” work.
However, for the vast majority of Democrats, whether politicians or
volunteers, they are in it to win. They are not in it for mass organising
or left propaganda. Nor are they in it to disseminate arguments for
building a new party outside the Democrats.

A successful strategy for winning elections differs fundamentally from one
that can win strikes or build militant mass actions. Whereas strikes and
protest actions are directed at an opposing party and are manifestations of
class struggle and conflict, elections are a means to winning a vote from
the largest possible audience. The former involves taking risks, making
sacrifices and challenging the economic and political establishment; the
latter involves getting as many supporters as possible out to vote. Within
the time frame of an election and the rules of the game, an election
campaign by itself cannot transform mass consciousness. It can only relate
to existing consciousness. Inevitably, this requires adapting your
electoral platform to the prevailing mood of the electorate.

Roosevelt’s New Deal and Kennedy’s Great 

[Marxism] Fuelled by Coal - Piercing the mirage of a sustainable capitalist Australia

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"The second decade of the twenty-first century ended with catastrophic
bushfires across the Australian continent. In some states the bushfires
began in September, well before the onset of summer. As early as 12
November 2019 a catastrophic bushfire warning was in place across most of
NSW including greater Sydney. In an ominous start to the bushfire season,
on this day fire threatened Sydney suburbs, and in some suburbs residents
were told to leave or stay at their own peril. Almost 600 schools were
closed. Those at risk from fire were told by NSW Rural Fire Service: “If
you are threatened by fire, you need to take action to protect
yourself…there are simply not enough fire trucks for every house. If you
call for help, you may not get it. Do not expect a firetruck”. A thick
cloud of toxic smoke descended on Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, and
travelled even as far as New Zealand, resulting in poor visibility and
burning eyes and lungs for any who dared to venture outside

[...] the contempt shown towards NSW residents has a simple commodity at
its heart: coal. Coal is a central feature of Australian capitalism and, as
I will argue in this article, its importance to the economy means that the
interests of the coal industry take precedence over other considerations,
regardless of the party of government. In order to understand this dynamic
I will discuss the history of the industry with a focus on NSW and
Queensland, as well as exploring some of the dynamics around the
development of Australia’s domestic energy supply. I will then move on to
discuss what I consider the key driving factor of the Australian coal
industry: the vastly profitable export market, which saw the Australian
extraction industry expand faster than any other country’s between 2000 and
2017.8 Finally, I will consider the influence the coal industry wields in
the sphere of parliamentary politics, as well as providing a critique of
the politics of several ideas that dominate the climate justice movement in
Australia. The crucial underlying argument I make is that any serious
attempt to challenge the coal industry will by necessity need to challenge
Australian capitalism as a whole.

https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/fuelled-by-coal-piercing-the-mirage-of-a-sustainable-capitalist-australia/


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[Marxism] Making sense of the global rebellion

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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The first article from the new edition of the Marxist Left Review is now
online. Check it out, and subscribe to support this important publication!

---

"The causes of the rebellion have been widely discussed by a press corps
disturbed by their insurrectionary verve. The New York Times has suddenly
rediscovered the existence of workers and the poor, describing the protests
as “a louder-than-usual howl against elites in countries where democracy is
a source of disappointment, corruption is seen as brazen, and a tiny
political class lives large while the younger generation struggles to get
by”.

The revival of revolt should come as no surprise. The post-GFC era has seen
the intensification of class war through low pay, high rates of youth
unemployment, unaffordable housing and education and an ostentatiously wide
gap between rich and poor. These factors combine to produce a generation
pessimistic about their future and angry about their present.

The mass strikes that shook France at the end of 2019 are typical. Emmanuel
Macron was elected as a centrist saviour – neither left nor right but
modern. In reality his presidency sought to reboot the French economy
through savage attacks on workers and their organisations, most recently
with proposed cuts to pensions. Under pressure from the rank and file,
unions have called a number of major general strikes, which have been
strengthened by more localised but ongoing actions by railway workers,
petrol workers, teachers and others. Actions continued throughout Christmas
holidays, as activists refused to give Macron the present of social peace.
At the time of writing, the strikes had been running for 29 days straight,
the longest period of continuous strike action since 1968. The
determination of the Yellow Vest protesters prepared the ground for this
breakthrough, normalising widespread and militant opposition to Macron.
These crucial events are a reminder that the West will not remain immune to
the social eruptions being seen in Santiago, Baghdad and Hong Kong. By
bringing the global revolt to the imperial centre, French strikers have
made it possible to imagine the defeat of neoliberalism at the core of the
capitalist system."
https://marxistleftreview.org/articles/resisting-barbarism-the-contours-of-a-global-rebellion/

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[Marxism] Announcing: new edition of Marxist Left Review

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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Issue 19 of the Marxist Left Review is going to the printers today! It has
three major themes: the return of revolutionary protests to the world
stage; responding to the climate crisis; and debates on the left regarding
reformism and electoral strategies for change.

The full list of articles is:

- Resisting barbarism: Contours of a global rebellion by Omar Hassan
- Is the world economy on the verge of a new recession? by Tom Bramble
- From revolutionary possibility to fascist defeat: The French - Popular
Front of 1936-38 by Sandra Bloodworth
- We’ve been down this road before: Jesse Jackson, the Democrats and the
left by Nick Everett
- New movement, new debates: The contested politics of climate change by
Sarah Garnham
- Fuelled by coal: Piercing the mirage of a sustainable capitalist
Australia by Catarina Da Silva
- Interview: Gilbert Achcar on the undying revolutions in the Middle East
and North Africa
- Interview: Isabelle Garo on Marx’s strategic thought and the spirit of
revolt
- Review: Workers’ anti-war resistance in Japan by Shomi Yoon
- Review: The politics of the Indonesian union movement by Ben Reid

Please follow the link to our website and subscribe now to help out
Australia's only Marxist journal. A reminder that all purchases and
subscriptions grant you access to the ebook in multiple formats as well,
which will be sent out to subscribers immediately via email.

https://marxistleftreview.org/
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[Marxism] More than 100, 000 mobilise across Australia in response to bushfires and climate change

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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More than 100,000 people mobilised across Australia today, in huge
demonstrations called by Uni Students for Climate Justice.

Hopefully this sets a new benchmark for responding to extreme environmental
events. These incidents, and the way they are mismanaged by corrupt
capitalist states, are not tragedies or natural disasters, they're the
blowback after decades of exploitative, unsustainable corporate-driven
development. And we're not putting up with it any more.

https://redflag.org.au/node/6993



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[Marxism] Eyewitness reports from Hong Kong

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More excellent on-the-spot coverage of the semi-insurrectionary Hong Kong
rebellion by Red Flag Newspaper editor, Ben Hillier.
"The last week at the Polytechnic is illustrative of the lengths the young
people here will go to make the point that is scrawled in graffiti around
the city: “If we burn, you burn with us”. For days, hundreds of young women
and men raced frantically to barricade every entrance and exit. In the
canteen they stockpiled noodles, biscuits, muesli bars, and bottles of
water. Along with their supporters, they took over the retail shops and
turned them into 24-hour communal kitchens. They set up medical stations
with boxes and boxes of supplies. They collected for distribution hundreds
of gas masks, goggles, fresh clothes, towels and soap. They armed
themselves with bins full of broken paving bricks and garden stones,
baseball bats, hammers and metal bars pilfered from railings along the
roadsides. And they built an arsenal of Molotov cocktails, gas bombs, flour
bombs and dye bombs. By Saturday afternoon, there were hundreds of petrol
bombs to feed the front lines – and for the next 36 hours, a group of about
30 young people worked tirelessly to keep production going as the war raged
around them.

“The rule is dead, and our life is alight”, Tin, a recent graduate from
another university, said as he rested outside PolyU’s smashed up
administration building. “The world has been reversed. You are supposed to
follow the rules and that makes things work smoothly. But now the rules are
the problem; we have an obligation to protest.” Tin is a member of what Au
Loong Yu, a respected veteran activist and author, calls “Generation
Catastrophe”, otherwise known as the ’97 generation – those born several
years each side of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. “This
generation is very unlucky”, Au says. “At first, the older generation
couldn’t understand – why are they so without hope? Why do they talk about
revolution? It’s because they sense the catastrophe. Like Greta Thunberg
and the climate, but much more intense in some ways. This generation has
continuous bad news.”

https://redflag.org.au/node/6958

And there's an excellent podcast interview on the same issue:
https://redflag.podbean.com/e/red-flag-editor-ben-hillier-reports-from-hong-kong/


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[Marxism] Daily reports from RedFlag editor in Hong Kong

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Hi all,

Ben Hillier has gone to HK to report on the state of the movement there for
Redflag. Check out his coverage:

"Hong Kong Polytechnic is calm, the barricades enormous, and the graffiti
ubiquitous. Among the slogans are “Liberty or death”, “Kill someone, pay
the price”, and “If your family member were killed, would you still go to
work?” The last is an exhortation for the city’s workers to strike over the
death of 22-year-old Chow Tsz-lok last week. Police say he fell from a car
park. Students don’t believe it.

Several buildings have been smashed up, including the ground floor of the
registrar’s office. Masked students chat in a coffee shop amid the
shattered glass. Others continue spraying political slogans on the ground
outside the student association and on walls not already covered. Two more
drive seconded maintenance vehicles about. On the roof, a lookout keeps
watch. They are nervous, one student says, about another police offensive,
like that at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

CUHK is under siege. The train line to it has been shut and, being in the
outer east of the region, you can get there only by car. But police have
set up roadblocks to control who goes into the area. The university has
cancelled all classes until the end of the year and is telling resident
students to leave. It is an ominous development that will isolate the
activists on campus and open them to a perhaps more ferocious attack. At
least 60 people were injured when police invaded the campus on Tuesday,
firing rubber bullets and tear gas. It wasn’t just current students. Many
alumni rushed to the university to help. The university president and other
officials came to negotiate with police. They were tear gassed as well.

The university has historically been one of the centres of student activism
in Hong Kong. And it has been at the forefront of opposition to the
now-shelved “extradition law” – a catalyst for the current upheaval because
it would have allowed Hong Kongers to be extradited to the mainland for
trial and imprisonment. “These students have been very active”, Au Loong
Yu, a veteran activist and author, says in his office on the other side of
town. “CUHK got the moniker ‘Riot University’ from pro-Beijing netizens and
it has been taken up by many people. They and the police say the dorms are
factories for producing Molotov cocktails and that the university
encourages it.” CUHK militants certainly are tough. After suffering the
assault on Tuesday, today (Wednesday) students were testing a catapult they
built to launch petrol bombs at police when they next try to take the
campus, according to a report in the *South China Morning Post*. There is
consensus here that CUHK is the most important centre of university
activism and – depending on which side you are on – that it must be either
defended or crushed.
He will be reporting daily. https://redflag.org.au/node/6951
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[Marxism] Fwd: URGENT: Appeal for donations following police crackdown on Melbourne climate protest

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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*please forward to relevant networks**


Climate activists protesting one of the world's biggest mining conferences
have been met with an extremely heavy handed response from Victoria Police.

After four days of peaceful picketing, an astonishing 80 activists have
been arrested as police repeatedly attempted to violently disperse the
demonstration. They used pepper spray and batons for crowd control, punched
people, and charged horses directly through the crowd. One protestor was
taken away in an ambulance, suspected to have broken both her legs. Many
others required first aid after mistreatment, with dozens pepper-sprayed
gratuitously
.
Organisers of the protest, including Victorian Socialist's candidate for
Broadmeadows, Jerome Small, were specifically targeted with arrests and
intimidation. Those arrested could see fines of over $4,000 each.

These tactics won't stop us protesting, but they can intimidate other
supporters and the arrests so far could cost activists tens of thousands of
dollars in fines. *Please chip in*

to
help us pay these legal fees and fines. A donation of any amount will help
the climate movement and send a message that this brutal treatment is
unacceptable.

The International Mining and Resources Conference was attended by 400+
companies. Together they contribute 18% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
These companies are responsible for shocking exploitation of indigenous
peoples, the environment and their workers.

*Donate here*

to
support arrested activists and ensure that protests against this disgusting
event can go ahead next year.

Find out more here .

More media coverage:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/oct/30/melbourne-police-arrest-12-on-second-day-of-climate-protest-at-imarc-mining-conference

https://7news.com.au/news/climate-change/premier-police-defend-actions-after-melbourne-protesters-cop-capsicum-spray-c-531665


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[Marxism] Podcast on Lebanese protests

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Really useful stuff.

https://m.soundcloud.com/lebpoliticspodcast/episode-59-lebanon-on-fire
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[Marxism] New edition of Marxist Left Review on law and order, immigration, sectarianism in the middle east and more

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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Hi all,

Just wanted to draw people's attention to the fact that the most recent
edition of the Marxist Left Review  is now
online in full. It contains the following pieces, feel free to subscribe or
purchase a copy to support the project.

*Police state: The politics of law and order *
Tom Bramble analyses the factors driving the terrifying growth of the
police state in Australia.

*The political economy of immigration to Australia *
Jordan Humphreys explores the nature of immigration to Australia. By
highlighting its importance to ruling class strategies for economic growth,
he explains how and why the numbers and origins of immigrants have changed
over time.

*The social construction of sectarianism in the Middle East *
Omar Hassan outlines a materialist explanation of sectarian conflict in the
Middle East, arguing that true social liberation is bound up with the
abolition of capitalism in the region.

*The SWAG years: Revolutionary organising in 1970s Australia *
Tess Lee Ack draws together anecdotes and lessons from her involvement in
the founding years of international socialism of 1970s Australia, from
which Socialist Alternative was formed in 1995.

*Review: Genocide in the Kimberley *
Alexis Vassiley reviews an excellent new book describing the brutal
policing of Indigenous peoples in the Kimberley in the late 19th century.

*Review: The making of the Australian working class *
Diane Fieldes reviews a fascinating new work that documents the early
formation of working class consciousness in Australia.
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[Marxism] New article responding to 'class-first' marxists

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One of my favourite articles in the latest edition of the Marxist Left
Review  is this piece by Sarah Ganham. It is
an engaged and engaging critique of a set of economistic responses to the
failure of identity politics that are growing among sections of the broad
left.

"Overall the net effect of neoliberalism has been to accelerate the
oppression of the working class and women and racial minorities. Far from
social emancipation coming at the expense of workers’ rights, we’ve been
pushed back on all fronts. The co-option of members of oppressed groups
into the ranks of the middle and upper classes in no way diminishes this
fact. Those who have risen in this way have themselves experienced a
lessening of oppression, but their numbers are finite and, like every other
neoliberal venture, their gains do not trickle down.



...it is essential that the left understands oppression, relates to those
affected by it and actively strengthens movements against it. These
movements are necessary not only to challenge specific forms of oppression,
but also to rebuild a united and powerful working class movement. To this
end it is imperative to confront, rather than accept, racist and sexist
attitudes within the working class. But also, we need to understand that
this is not just a moral task. Rather it is an imperative that stems from a
theoretical and political approach that recognises the integration of
oppression and class within the totality of capitalism. A working class
perspective that prioritises mass action and builds in the direction of
politically engaged forms of class struggle is crucial in order for these
movements to win. Socialists have always played a role in orienting
movements against oppression in this way.

There is another reason this integrated approach is important. It informs
but is also necessary to build a movement capable of overthrowing the
entire capitalist system. For the working class to fulfil its potential of
liberating itself and humanity from the horrors of capitalist society, it
must become the “universal” class, capable of “represent[ing] its interest
as the common interest of all the members of society”.[45] Both the
struggle for and the establishment of socialism can only be based on the
most radical form of democracy and equality. This means articulating the
demands of all the oppressed, in order to lead them in a united struggle
against the common enemy. Such an articulation can only stem from a
development of consciousness within the working class of the ways in which
the structures of specific forms of oppression are linked to the structures
of their own oppression and exploitation. With this understanding, it’s
clear that the interests of the oppressed are indivisible from those of the
working class as a whole."


http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/no-16-summer-2018/161-against-reductionism-marxism-and-oppression


The edition also includes serious work on the crisis of neoliberalism
,
a political economy of the situation in Gaza

right now, trump's strategy for the US empire
,
Engels on the rise of women's oppression
,
and more.
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[Marxism] Syria and the Western Left

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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An excellent piece, critiquing both liberal interventionism and 'hands off
syria' positions, as well as some of the moralistic sectarianism that has
developed around the issue.

https://redflag.org.au/node/5559

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[Marxism] [UCE] Audios from Sydney Socialism conference, including talk on Arab Spring

[Omar Hassan via Marxism]

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Hi all,

Of interest to many on this list might be the audio recordings from
Socialist Alternative's (AU) annual Socialism conference in Sydney,
especially the world in crisis stream which covers a range of contemporary
issues.

My talk on the situation in the Middle East today is relevant to a number
of the debates on this list RE Syria, our attitude to the US, etc.

http://www.socialismsydney.com/socialism2016.html.


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