Leftnews.org » Socialist Theory

Being a communist in 2012

Jeff — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:05:26 +0000

Being a communist in 2012 is not a political choice, but rather an existential matter, writes Santiago Zabala. | Al Jazeera

Unpaid intern sues Harper’s Bazaar for minimum wage | Yahoo News

Faiz — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:42:05 +0000

“[T]he [magazine] does not pay its interns but instead offers them academic credit, a practice that is widespread among publishing companies and in other competitive industries. … Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a company may legally offer unpaid internships so long as they are educational and benefit the intern and not necessarily the employer, according to information published on the Department of Labor’s website.”

Reading Marx’s Capital Vol II – Class 1, Introduction

Jeff — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:11:18 +0000

with David Harvey

The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgeoisie

Jeff — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:48:44 +0000

Slavoj Žižek | London Review of Books |”The possibility of the privatisation of the general intellect was something Marx never envisaged in his writings about capitalism (largely because he overlooked its social dimension). Yet this is at the core of today’s struggles over intellectual property: as the role of the general intellect – based on collective knowledge and social co-operation – has increased in post-industrial capitalism, so wealth accumulates out of all proportion to the labour expended in its production. The result is not, as Marx seems to have expected, the self-dissolution of capitalism, but the gradual transformation of the profit generated by the exploitation of labour into rent appropriated through the privatisation of knowledge.”

Deutscher Prize Lecture 2011: David Harvey

Jeff — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:26:46 +0000

History versus Theory: a Commentary on Marx’s Method of Capital

The 2010 Deutscher Memorial Prize was awarded to David Harvey for his book The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism. Moderated by Alex Callinicos.

The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone | Pulse Media

Faiz — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:44:09 +0000

A lecture form Marxism 2011.

4th North-Atlantic Left Dialogue Seminar in Toronto December 1-4, 2011

Faiz — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:19:58 +0000

Public Dialogue
Situations: The Left’s Responses to the Crisis in Europe & North America

Leo Panitch, Stephanie Ross, Albert Scharenberg, Bill Fletcher

December 1, 7 PM
Wilson Hall, Room 1016

New College, University of Toronto
40 Willcocks Street, at the corner of Spadina.
Free admission

For info: northatlanticld@gmail.com
Left Dialogue Blog

Sponored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the Centre for Social Justice, and the Socialist Project.

Where is China going?

Jeff — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:18:56 +0000

Written by Lal Khan | IMT | After overtaking Japan, this year China became the second largest economy in the world. Some experts have even predicted that by the end of this decade China may become the largest economy bypassing the United States. However, that is based on a mechanical, empirical approach that sees China maintaining its present levels of growth uninterruptedly for years to come. In the past Japan was also supposed to keep on growing, but then its apparent meteoric rise was cut across by a long period of stagnation.

The General Strike

Jeff — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:15:13 +0000

Boaventura de Sousa Santos | MR Zine | What is the significance of this reappearance of the general strike? While it is true that history does not repeat itself, what parallels can be drawn with the conditions and social struggles of the past?

Rethinking the notions of ‘people’ and ‘popular sovereignty’

Jeff — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:04:50 +0000

“In parts of the Marxist and generally radical tradition there has been a reservation against both the notion of the ‘people’ and ‘popular sovereignty’ because of their association with forms of bourgeois mystification of social antagonism and political domination, as exemplified in the image of the people inscribed in the European constitutional tradition that mystifies class division, struggle and exploitation. But we have to reclaim it and transform it.” | By Panagiotis Sotiris | Greek Left Review

Critique of the Gotha Programme by Karl Marx

ac — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:19:36 +0000

“Quite apart from the analysis so far given, it was in general a mistake to make a fuss about so-called distribution and put the principal stress on it. Any distribution whatever of the means of consumption is only a consequence of the distribution of the conditions of production themselves. The latter distribution, however, is a feature of the mode of production itself… Vulgar socialism (and from it in turn a section of the democrats) has taken over from the bourgeois economists the consideration and treatment of distribution as independent of the mode of production and hence the presentation of socialism as turning principally on distribution. After the real relation has long been made clear, why retrogress again?”

-I thought readers would find it refreshing to read something other than utopian promises of redistribution from the ‘left’ wing of capitalist preservation. Capitalism requires poverty and inequality to condition its labour market. We cannot make poverty history through progressive taxation imposed by the bourgeois state. No matter how many new articles the social-democrats of Rabble write and how many times Leftnews.org reposts them, the arguments haven’t progressed an inch since Marx critiqued them.

Ravens and Vultures

Jeff — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:34:09 +0000

Op-ed by Emir Sader | “Did you notice that there are people who say they are of the Left but who seem to only criticize people of the Left? Never against the Right, whatever it does. They specialize in pouring gasoline on any little fire within the Left.”

The Democratic Fraud and the Universalist Alternative

Jeff — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:00:07 +0000

Samir Amin | Monthly Review | The propositions put forward here—and many other possible ones—have no place in the dominant discourse about “civil society.” Rather, they run counter to that discourse which—rather like “postmodernist” ravings à la Negri—is the direct heir of the U.S. “consensus” ideological tradition. A discourse promoted, uncritically repeated, by tens of thousands of NGOs and by their requisite representatives at all the Social Forums. We’re dealing with an ideology that accepts the existing regime (i.e. monopoly capitalism) in all its essentials. It thus has a useful role to play on behalf of capitalist power. It keeps its gears provided with oil. It pretends to “change the world” while promoting a sort of “opposition” with no power to change anything.

A progressive dialogue on the future: Six questions for leftists

Jeff — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:26:21 +0000

By Justin Podur | Rabble.ca

Venezuela’s Social-Based Democratic Model: Innovations and Limitations

Jeff — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:43:14 +0000

By Steve Ellner | venezuelanalysis.com | “The brand of socialism that has emerged in Venezuela under the presidency of Hugo Chávez differs in fundamental ways from orthodox Marxism and past socialist experiences in large part because of its emphasis on social as opposed to economic objectives.”

[Audio] Alan Woods on World Perspectives

Jeff — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:16:22 +0000

Alan Woods speaking on the prospects for the world revolution at the recent World School of the IMT. | In Defence of Marxism

Marxism and ecology (video): John Bellamy Foster at Marxism 2011

Jeff — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:40:13 +0000

Political Economy and the Canadian Working Class: Marxism or Nationalist Reformism? | Murray Smith | Labour / Le Travail

ac — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:08:43 +0000

Abstract:
The dominant, nationalist tradition of left-wing political economy in Canada has always stood as an obstacle to the articulation of a Marxist political economy of Canada capable of contributing to the development of a class struggle, socialist politics. The evolution of the “New Canadian Political Economy” that emerged in the 1960s is traced and its main schools of thought are delineated. Against the nationalist preoccupations of the NCPE, the argument is made that the economic troubles of Canada in the past quarter century are attributable to the “normal” crisis tendencies of an advanced capitalist economy (as analyzed by Marx) and should not be seen as the product of “foreign domination” of the Canadian economy.

A Marxist Analysis of the Global Downturn | Murray Smith | International Bolshevik Tendency

ac — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:36:53 +0000

“Those intent on “Saving the System”—the headline of the 11 October issue of The Economist—insist that there is “no alternative” to global capitalism, and are already seeking to convince the chief victims of the economic crisis—working people and the poor—that they must make major sacrifices to help restore the system’s health. The ideological guardians of the status quo are already putting forward various accounts that absolve the capitalist system itself of responsibility. Some focus on the greed and short-sightedness of the Wall Street financial elite and the failure of various government agencies to adequately regulate the markets. More sophisticated apologists for capitalism are blaming the excesses of “neoliberal ideology” and urging a retreat from “free market fundamentalism.” Some go so far as to advocate a social-democratic “mixed economy” with a significantly expanded public sector.” [...]
“In short, it’s hard to see where the U.S. and the other advanced capitalist economies will find the means for renewed profitable growth. The depth of the crisis and massive existing government debt make a “Keynesian fix” highly improbable. The last time there was a crisis of this magnitude the profit system was only returned to “health” through the combined effects of a massive devaluation of assets (the Great Depression) and the physical destruction of capital stock during the Second World War. Contrary to liberal opinion, it was the cataclysm of global war, not FDR’s “New Deal,” that pulled America out of the 1930s depression and created the conditions for the robust capital accumulation of the post-war era.”

Workers’ Assemblies: A Way to Regroup the Left? | MRZine

Faiz — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:09:25 +0000

A status update on the Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly.