[Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism the Jewish Question: Selected Bibliography
I've added some further references to my bibliography in progress, and I'm too worn out to go looking for more material, but here's a good start: Marxism the Jewish Question: Selected Bibliography compiled by Ralph Dumain http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/jews-marxism.html There are some idiosyncratic inclusions, but there are a variety of angles presented here so as to get a good view of the issues and the various applications of these concepts. As I've mentioned, with but a few exceptions I've deflected attention from Marx's On the Jewish Question, which is a whole topic by itself regarding in-depth investigation. I could not find any noteworthy work by Engels on this subject. Most of his remarks consist of reportage of specific events and situations or very specific comments. Of more general interest, the only thing I could find was a commentary about the politics of the anti-Semitic peasantry. I have never been able to find a bibliographic reference for the oft-quoted but never-sourced remark by August Bebel: Anti-semitism is the socialism of fools. It doesn't matter all that much, but maybe someday . . . My bibliography aims at an analytical, theoretical perspective, and is not so much concerned about the specifics of the problem except insofar as the issue is tied into larger struggles over the national question, as per the Bolsheviks vs. the Jewish Labor Bund, which features prominently. Similarly, Zionism plays an ancillary role here, though it is an integral historical component. My explanatory note at the end states my principles of composition. My initial motivation for doing this comes from research into the late 19th-century Eastern European Jewish intelligentsia, without concern for contemporary controversies. However, sad to say, I find this excursion into the past all too relevant to the political degeneracy of the present historical moment. The Internet is a magnificent tool for disseminating poison, and detecting its presence globally. I find that when I have absolutely no intention of getting involved in debates over the Middle East, and even when I'm researching topics having no direct connection with either the past or the present politics of the region or anywhere, I'm bumping constantly into the most vile bigotry as well as the more subtle kind. Such are the fruits not only of the resurgence of the right and neo-nazism, but of the poison tree of Stalinism, ultraleftism, leftist thirdworldism, and third world nationalism, finally dumbed down to the retarded trinity of vulgar anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Zionism, which has been labeled the anti-globalism of fools. (Excuse all the mixed metaphors, but I'm in a hurry.) In this regard, see: Postone, Moishe. http://www.engageonline.org.uk/journal/index.php?journal_id=16article_id=69History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism, Engage, Issue 5, September 2007. I am unfamiliar with the political situation in the UK, but I find the group Engage of interest: http://engageonline.wordpress.com/ I actually am more interested in pursuing my original research project, but given the number of assholes I encounter each day, I find myself deflected from my original mission. ___ Scholars of Wisdom have no rest in this world or in the world to come. -- Talmud ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Anti-Germans
Anti-Germans (communist current) This article pertains to the Anti-German current, for other uses see Anti-German sentiment Anti-German anti-fascist protesters in Frankfurt in 2006. The banner reads Down with Germany/Solidarity with Israel/For Communism! Other photos from the same rally at [1]Anti-German (German: Antideutsch) is the generic name applied to a variety of theoretical and political tendencies within the radical, communist left mainly in Germany and Austria. The Anti-Germans emerged as a distinct political tendency as a response to the rise in racist attacks and nationalism in the wake of the German reunification. The term does not generally refer to any one specific radical left tendency, but rather a wide variety of distinct currents, ranging from the so-called hardcore Anti-Germans such as the quarterly journal Bahamas to softcore Anti-Germans such as the circle around the radical left journal Phase 2, originally conceived as a federal discussion bulletin for the Antifa movement in the wake of the dissolution of the Antifaschistische Aktion/Bundesweite Organisation(Antifascist Action/nationwide Organisation). Some Anti-German ideas have also exerted an influence on the broader radical leftist milieu, such as the monthly magazine konkret and the weekly newspaper Jungle World. Furthermore, the most common practical and theoretical position commonly associated with the anti-Germans, that of solidarity with the state of Israel, is not a position exclusive to the Anti-Germans. The groups Krisis and Exit around the publicist Robert Kurz,[1] as well as many Antifa groups in Germany also hold Israel-sympathetic opinions, while rejecting any identification with the Anti-German current. The basic opinions of the Anti-Germans include support for the state of Israel and - although this is only true for some - American foreign policy such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a critique of mainstream left anti-capitalist views, which are thought to be simplistic and structurally anti-Semitic,[2] and a critique of anti-Semitism, which is considered to be deeply rooted in German cultural history. The Critical Theory of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is often cited by Anti-German theorists along with the original Marxist as well as post-structuralist theory.[3] In 2006 Deutsche Welle estimated the number of Anti-Germans at between 500 and 3,000.[4] Contents [hide] 1 Emergence of the Anti-Germans and the Birth of the Journal Bahamas 2 The Development of the Anti-German Current in the 1990s 3 See also 4 References 5 External links [edit] Emergence of the Anti-Germans and the Birth of the Journal Bahamas The first stirrings of the emergence of the anti-Germans can be traced back to the dissolution process of the Kommunistischer Bund (KB) (Communist Federation), a Marxist-Leninist political organization primarily active in Hamburg and Northern Germany[5] and noted on the Left for its relative sophistication and high level of theoretical reflection as compared to other Marxist-Leninist organizations.[citation needed]. The KB also distinguished itself from other extra-parliamentary groups through a decidedly pessimistic analysis with regard to the potential for revolutionary change in Germany. Known as the Fascisation analysis, this theory held that due to the particularity of German history and development, the endemic crisis of capitalism would lead to a move towards the Right and to a new Fascism.[6] The rapid process of collapse of the German Democratic Republic and the looming reunification of Germany led to an internal crisis within the KB and the development of irreconcilable perspectives within the organization. The majority tendency argued that with the collapse of the GDR, questions of social justice in connection with the restoration of capitalism in the former GDR should constitute the center of political work, and this tendency accordingly sought cooperation with the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).[7] There also emerged a minority tendency which argued for a position of fundamental opposition to the restoration of a unified German nation-state, essentially representing a radicalized version of the Fascisation thesis, arguing that the coming period was one of reaction, and advocating a perspective of opposition against German nationalism, racism, anti-semitism, historical revisionism and a revival of German great power politics. It is said that during an internal debate, representatives of the majority tendency said that the minority current, due to its bleak analysis and unwavering pessimism, might as well just emigrate to the Bahamas.[citation needed][8] The minority tendency, in an ironic gesture, thus named their discussion organ Bahamas.[8] The phrase Nie wieder Deutschland (Germany, Never Again), which became a central Anti-German slogan, originated in demonstrations against reunification.[4][8][9][10] In its first few years of existence, the journal Bahamas served as a pluralistic
[Marxism-Thaxis] Moishe Postone on the Subject i n Marx’s Capital: Review by Andy Blunden
Andy Blunden. March 2005 Moishe Postone on the Subject in Marx’s Capital http://home.mira.net/~andy/works/postone.htm Review: Time, Labor, and social domination. A reinterpretation of Marx’s critical theory, by Moishe Postone 1993 This book was written 12 years ago. Much has happened since, and I don’t know what Postone’s thinking may be today. The book’s chosen protagonist is a “traditional Marxism” which looks more like a pre-Marxist popular socialism, and yet: Within this framework, which I have termed “traditional Marxism,” there have been extremely important theoretical and political differences: for example, deterministic theories as opposed to attempts to treat social subjectivity and class struggle as integral aspects of the history of capitalism; council communists versus party communists; “scientific” theories versus those seeking in various ways to synthesise Marxism and psychoanalysis, or to develop a critical theory of culture or of everyday life. ... p. 10. So one might suppose that this book marks the beginning of Postone’s investigations, perhaps after a period of absorption in “actually existing socialism.” Nevertheless, I will address myself to the contents of the book as written. Postone gives us a good explanation of the notion of “immanent critique,” so far as it goes, but evidently makes a radical break from it himself. Firstly, having convincingly explained how Marx’s presentation of the categories of capital should be understood as specific to the historical epoch he lived in, Postone makes no effort to address the period that he, Postone, lives in, and makes only very occasional and incidental references to the fact that capitalism has since gone through at least several transformations since 1867. Secondly, criticising those who critique from the standpoint of labor, Postone chooses to critique from the standpoint of his imagination: from the standpoint of what “could be” rather than from any standpoint within really existing capitalism – a truly mind-numbing conclusion to draw from a study of Marx’s Capital. Thirdly, despite the fact that Marx never used the term “subject” in the sense of historical or social agent, and far less “identical subject-object” (except on a couple of occasions when ridiculing Hegel) and never described the proletariat as the “(Capital-S) Subject of history,” Postone goes on to claim that Marx “identifies Hegel’s identical subject-object with the proletariat.” [p. 74] Now, Subject is indeed a category which can legitimately be imputed to Marx, even though he never used the term, but one must take care not to impute to Marx such weird and quasi-religious ideas as the proletariat as identical subject-object. Interestingly however, while Postone is pleased to have proved that the proletariat cannot be deemed to be such an agent of history, and claims Marx as his authority for this as well, Postone arrives at no historical agency whatever. He talks of a “postcapitalist society” in which bureaucratic administration has been replaced by a “a political public sphere.” Postone correctly says that capitalism cannot spontaneously pass over into a postcapitalist society, but fails to give even a hint of what agency might bring this about, other than “what could be.” Postone gives a passably good presentation of the relation of Hegel’s dialectic to the form of exposition of Capital, but having brought out how central is the commodity relation to capitalism, he never looks further into the commodity relation.. He thereafter refers to this relation only under the title of “value.” He calls for the abolition of “value” (by whom or how is left to the imagination) but makes absolutely zero effort to investigate the commodity relation or how it might have changed over the 140 years since Capital was written. Such an exercise would be interesting, because Postone is quite content to leave the definition of the proletariat at wage-labour, and build the central plank of his work around time, but does not notice that, increasingly, this definition has turned out to be historically limited and specific. The key and essential fact constituting the proletariat, it seems to me, is lack of access to and control over their means of production, together with, obviously, that their labour expands capital. Nowadays, workers increasingly fight for the right to wages, and capitalists do what they can to distance themselves both from production as such and wage labour. Postone seems to have accepted the tenet of his “traditional Marxism” that the commodity relation belongs to the sphere of distribution, and hasn’t noticed that it has utterly penetrated the sphere of production, the sphere within which, as he says, Marx locates the contradictions of capital. According to Postone, “an identical subject-object
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism the Jewish Question: Selected Bibliography
http://www.mondialisme.org/spip.php?article1315 Here you will find many texts about the socalled Jewish question but in French, translated from English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Specifically about your subject maybe you will find of interest the text of Savas Michael-Matsas a Greek marxist (trotskyist) which has an original point of view, even if I strongly disagree with his political views on Israel today. You also have a book of Arlene Clemesha (a Brazilian Marxist) but in portuguese Le 16/11/09 18:37, « Ralph Dumain » rdum...@autodidactproject.org a écrit : I've added some further references to my bibliography in progress, and I'm too worn out to go looking for more material, but here's a good start: Marxism the Jewish Question: Selected Bibliography compiled by Ralph Dumain http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/jews-marxism.html There are some idiosyncratic inclusions, but there are a variety of angles presented here so as to get a good view of the issues and the various applications of these concepts. As I've mentioned, with but a few exceptions I've deflected attention from Marx's On the Jewish Question, which is a whole topic by itself regarding in-depth investigation. I could not find any noteworthy work by Engels on this subject. Most of his remarks consist of reportage of specific events and situations or very specific comments. Of more general interest, the only thing I could find was a commentary about the politics of the anti-Semitic peasantry. I have never been able to find a bibliographic reference for the oft-quoted but never-sourced remark by August Bebel: Anti-semitism is the socialism of fools. It doesn't matter all that much, but maybe someday . . . My bibliography aims at an analytical, theoretical perspective, and is not so much concerned about the specifics of the problem except insofar as the issue is tied into larger struggles over the national question, as per the Bolsheviks vs. the Jewish Labor Bund, which features prominently. Similarly, Zionism plays an ancillary role here, though it is an integral historical component. My explanatory note at the end states my principles of composition. My initial motivation for doing this comes from research into the late 19th-century Eastern European Jewish intelligentsia, without concern for contemporary controversies. However, sad to say, I find this excursion into the past all too relevant to the political degeneracy of the present historical moment. The Internet is a magnificent tool for disseminating poison, and detecting its presence globally. I find that when I have absolutely no intention of getting involved in debates over the Middle East, and even when I'm researching topics having no direct connection with either the past or the present politics of the region or anywhere, I'm bumping constantly into the most vile bigotry as well as the more subtle kind. Such are the fruits not only of the resurgence of the right and neo-nazism, but of the poison tree of Stalinism, ultraleftism, leftist thirdworldism, and third world nationalism, finally dumbed down to the retarded trinity of vulgar anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Zionism, which has been labeled the anti-globalism of fools. (Excuse all the mixed metaphors, but I'm in a hurry.) In this regard, see: Postone, Moishe. http://www.engageonline.org.uk/journal/index.php?journal_id=16article_id=69 History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism, Engage, Issue 5, September 2007. I am unfamiliar with the political situation in the UK, but I find the group Engage of interest: http://engageonline.wordpress.com/ I actually am more interested in pursuing my original research project, but given the number of assholes I encounter each day, I find myself deflected from my original mission. ___ Scholars of Wisdom have no rest in this world or in the world to come. -- Talmud ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism the Jewish Question: Selected Bibliography
http://www.po.org.ar/edm/edm22/sobre.htm Here is the article of Michael-Matsas in Spanish. I cant find it in English. Le 16/11/09 18:37, « Ralph Dumain » rdum...@autodidactproject.org a écrit : I've added some further references to my bibliography in progress, and I'm too worn out to go looking for more material, but here's a good start: Marxism the Jewish Question: Selected Bibliography compiled by Ralph Dumain http://www.autodidactproject.org/bib/jews-marxism.html There are some idiosyncratic inclusions, but there are a variety of angles presented here so as to get a good view of the issues and the various applications of these concepts. As I've mentioned, with but a few exceptions I've deflected attention from Marx's On the Jewish Question, which is a whole topic by itself regarding in-depth investigation. I could not find any noteworthy work by Engels on this subject. Most of his remarks consist of reportage of specific events and situations or very specific comments. Of more general interest, the only thing I could find was a commentary about the politics of the anti-Semitic peasantry. I have never been able to find a bibliographic reference for the oft-quoted but never-sourced remark by August Bebel: Anti-semitism is the socialism of fools. It doesn't matter all that much, but maybe someday . . . My bibliography aims at an analytical, theoretical perspective, and is not so much concerned about the specifics of the problem except insofar as the issue is tied into larger struggles over the national question, as per the Bolsheviks vs. the Jewish Labor Bund, which features prominently. Similarly, Zionism plays an ancillary role here, though it is an integral historical component. My explanatory note at the end states my principles of composition. My initial motivation for doing this comes from research into the late 19th-century Eastern European Jewish intelligentsia, without concern for contemporary controversies. However, sad to say, I find this excursion into the past all too relevant to the political degeneracy of the present historical moment. The Internet is a magnificent tool for disseminating poison, and detecting its presence globally. I find that when I have absolutely no intention of getting involved in debates over the Middle East, and even when I'm researching topics having no direct connection with either the past or the present politics of the region or anywhere, I'm bumping constantly into the most vile bigotry as well as the more subtle kind. Such are the fruits not only of the resurgence of the right and neo-nazism, but of the poison tree of Stalinism, ultraleftism, leftist thirdworldism, and third world nationalism, finally dumbed down to the retarded trinity of vulgar anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Zionism, which has been labeled the anti-globalism of fools. (Excuse all the mixed metaphors, but I'm in a hurry.) In this regard, see: Postone, Moishe. http://www.engageonline.org.uk/journal/index.php?journal_id=16article_id=69 History and Helplessness: Mass Mobilization and Contemporary Forms of Anticapitalism, Engage, Issue 5, September 2007. I am unfamiliar with the political situation in the UK, but I find the group Engage of interest: http://engageonline.wordpress.com/ I actually am more interested in pursuing my original research project, but given the number of assholes I encounter each day, I find myself deflected from my original mission. ___ Scholars of Wisdom have no rest in this world or in the world to come. -- Talmud ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 73, Issue 12
Is there an ism called ismism? Perhaps ismism is the ism of idiots. --- Go well. Karl Dallas Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/karldallas Want to help the people of Palestine? Then follow http://www.twitter.com/bradfordvp and http://www.twitter.com/dpalestine Such are the fruits not only of the resurgence of the right and neo-nazISM, but of the poison tree of StalinISM, ultraleftISM, leftist thirdworldISM, and third world nationalISM, finally dumbed down to the retarded trinity of vulgar anti-imperialISM, anti-AmericanISM, and anti-ZionISM, which has been labeled the anti-globalISM of fools. (Excuse all the mixed metaphors, but I'm in a hurry.) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
