Climate catastrophe and `freedom of consumption' (tags)
It is not five to twelve, but five past twelve, as philosopher Slavoj Žižek writes. The fact that climate change is a fact (the details may well be debated) and poses a serious threat to humanity is something that the last fool should have realized by now.1 It is also clear that the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases must be radically and rapidly reduced.
Total Competition or Repressive Administration of People (tags)
An awareness of the monstrosities of our glorious capitalist society is the first prerequisite for thinking beyond that society.:..The regularities of capitalist society are not laws of nature, so they can be abolished in principle. With such abolition, a new society can become possible.
I consume, theerefore I am (tags)
People who, according to Erich Fromm, are afraid of freedom, who, suffer from "mental constipation" according to Wilhelm Reich, With consumer freedom, the long tradition of Enlightenment thinking is simply erased:
Learning to Feel Collectively (tags)
The starting point of the upheavals are the anti-colonial movements that have been spreading across the globe since the end of World War II. With the Black Civil Rights Movement, they penetrate into the heart of the capitalist world system starting in the mid-1950s, where they politicize liberal students* and the beat culture.
The contagion of revolt spreads…Revolts everywhere! (tags)
Boris Johnson and the Long Shadow of Stalinism (tags)
The capitalist bourgeoisie needs and defends democracy as a form of social freedom only as long as it is useful to its own class rule. Their understanding of democracy & freedom is structurally limited. The 26 community centers in Vancouver could revive freedom and democracy.
The class struggle of th Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson (tags)
The Libertarians’ economic program voices the economic grievances of some of the more economically insecure layers of the American middle class through their criticisms of the domination of the major banks and corporations. Based on conceptions which originate in the right-wing and anticommunist Austrian School of bourgeois economics
It’s enough to read just a few lines of the bourgeois press to get an idea of what will happen after the failed coup of 15 July: “The iron fist of Erdogan after the failed coup in Turkey: I am ready to reinstate the death penalty. 8000 police officers were suspended, opponents were stripped naked and hog-tied. The European Union: If executions resume, Turkey will not enter Europe“(1).
Paris Attacks - Bourgeois Terrorism (tags)
statement on Paris attacks from Internationalist Communist Perspective
After the Attacks in Paris (tags)
“We are at war!”: such is the leitmotiv of government officials and politicians from the various French parties, after the deadly attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis.
Turkey: Class War against Capitalism! (tags)
On Saturday, October 10th, a terrible bombing attack struck the event organized by the “pro-Kurdish” HDP opposition party as a part of the election campaign
At the end of yet another «historic» marathon session Brussels negotiations between the Greek government and its creditors, a «definitive» agreement has yet again been found to «resolve" the Greek crisis: Greek Prime Minister Tsipras and his team have come to accept as a condition for new loans to the virtually bankrupt Greek government, a plan of austerity measures significantly harsher than he had rejected a week earlier and against which he had, supposedly, held a referendum! The only point where he apparently got something concrete, is that of the reduction in military spending: the creditors have accepted that it is weaker than what they asked for...
The attack against Charlie Hebdo (tags)
After the attack against Charlie Hebdo, all the formidable power of the media and bourgeois propaganda kicked in to use the emotion born of the bloody massacre to rouse support for "national unity" and the "values of the Republic." the Government, parties of the left, right and far- right (excised by the organizers of the Paris march, the far-right Front National (FN) of le Pen called for demonstrations in the provinces), trade union apparachniks and multiple associations called for large demonstrations of unity: so that rich and poor, unemployed and capitalists, workers and employers could march together for "freedom of expression" and against "terrorism", behind French political leaders and government officials and those of other countries, German, Spanish, English, etc. or even Turkish such as the Prime Minister of that government which has imprisoned dozens of journalists, which violently suppressed Kurdish demonstrators (thirty dead) and which supports the activities of jihadist groups in Syria, Israelis such as Netanyahu still dripping in blood from all its victims in Gaza, etc. a true imperialist Holy Alliance.
Ferguson: an episode in the war class (tags)
On August 9 in Ferguson, a small suburb of St. Louis, a cop killed Michael Brown firing 6 bullets into him: this young black man, unarmed, with his arms raised in the air, had made the mistake of not responding to his order to walk on the sidewalk. Michael Brown was left like a dog in the street for several hours without even his parents allowed to come close to his body.
Down with the Imperialist War in Iraq and Syria! (tags)
In early August the American government decided to launch a limited “humanitarian action” – in the form of mass bombing! – in Iraq, after an international campaign to mobilize public opinion over the plight of the Yazidi and Christian minorities who have been threatened with “genocide” by the advance of Islamist rebels of “the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” (better known by the acronym ISIS).
After the removal of Morsi in Egypt (tags)
The removal of the Morsi government is not a victory for the proletariat and the exploited Egyptian masses Victory can only be achieved by the proletarian class struggle against capitalism!
May 5th is the birth date of Karl Marx, one of humanity’s most influential theorists.
No to imperialist military intervention in Libya! (tags)
Since Saturday, March 19, a US-led military coalition, including, besides English and French Forces, participation by Canadian, Italian, Spanish, and other countries, commenced the bombardment of military installations and concentrations of troops loyal to the Gaddafi government. The stated purpose of this military intervention which has been endorsed by the Security Council of the UN and the Arab League, is to get government forces off the offensive against the rebels, in order to avoid a “massacre of the civilian population”.
A powerful wave of anger among the poor and unemployed Arab masses shakes the young, voracious and brutal capitalism of the North African and Middle Eastern countries supported by the old and bloody capitalism in Europe and America. Anticipation of a social wave that can only be resolved in favor of the vast majority of the population by the emergence of the proletarian class.
French Students Mobilize: "Sarkozy, You're Screwed, The Youth Are In the Streets!" (tags)
From our correspondent in France
Kangaroo Court in the Philippine Underground Movement (tags)
It is clear that the Communist Party of the Philippines’ theory and practice of due process is based on the assumption of innocence or diminished criminal culpability when cadres toe the official line, but becomes assumed guilt when cadres raise questions against the central leadership.
Haiti Earthquake: Capitalism, Occupation and Revolution (tags)
The earthquake that wrecked the capital of Haiti and surrounding areas on January 12 produced human tragedy of almost unfathomable proportions. It has been termed “the most destructive natural disaster in modern times.” Five months later, Haiti is no longer in the headlines or on the nightly TV news, but for the hard-hit Haitian population the scene has hardly changed. Now a new disaster is in the making as the hurricane season begins. This was a calamity made by capitalism: the earthquake was predictable and was predicted; the inferior construction methods are the result of Haiti’s poverty, and the swollen slums were the result of U.S. policies that have destroyed Haitian agriculture, forcing peasants off the land. On top of everything, Haiti is under imperialist occupation: Washington makes sure it has ultimate control of the strategically placed island, as it has throughout the Cold War and since. Haiti's devastation is not the result of “natural” causes or even “neo-liberal” policies – it is the product of the oppression of this semi-colonial country by the imperial masters ever since black slaves rose up to abolish slavery and throw out the colonialists two centuries ago. No new “economic model” can resolve this: what’s required is a new Haitian Revolution, a workers revolution overthrowing capitalism throughout the Caribbean and extending into the heart of imperialism.
State Terrorism and massacres: constant characteristics of the policy of the Israeli bourgeoisie (tags)
The Israeli attack on the “Freedom Flotilla” of pacifist organizations under the guidance of the Turkish NGO Insani Vafki Yardim, which wanted to break the blockade to bring medicine and food to the people of Gaza, starving and subjected to terrible imprisonment since June 16, 2007, is another demonstration of the military and repressive nature of the “only democratic country in the Middle East.”
Bombard the Headquarters of the Opportunist Utrecht Mafia! (tags)
Comrade Mao-Zedong had been so clear in his teachings. Practice is primary over theory. He rhetorically asked in his philosophical writings, “Where do correct ideas come from? Do they fall from the sky? Are they innate in the mind? No, they come from social practice and social practice alone.”
Animal farm within the national democratic revolution in the Philippines (tags)
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) says that all comrades are equal, and cadres fulfill division of tasks within the organization. All are subject to Party policies under the principle of the individual is subordinate to the organization, the lower organ is subordinate to the higher organ, and the whole Party is under the Central Committee.
For the Iranian workers, only one solution: the class struggle ! (tags)
The brutal repression of street demonstrations that have hit Tehran and the larger cities shows the determination of the Iranian government's Ahmadinejad not to tolerate any questioning of his political power. Accused of electoral fraud, the supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei and the outgoing president have responded with arrests, beatings and shootings; the police, the Pasdaran, and Basji volunteers headed by the Pasdaran are the instruments of the current repression.
For the Resumtion of the Class Struggle! (tags)
The economic crisis which has crashed down on society has already had and for a long time will have disastrous consequences for the lives of the masses, as every worker can see in his daily life or her work. The bourgeois economists themselves admit it: they do not know what the causes of the crisis are – satisfying themselves by blaming the greed of the bankers or excessive financial deregulation – and they do not know when it will end and give way to the long-awaited “economic recovery”. The current crisis is the crisis of the capitalist mode of production, incapable of stopping itself, forced to produce always more commodities, at a certain point it comes up against the limits of the market.
CAPITALIST CATASTROPHE AND PROLETARIAN STRUGGLES (tags)
Hi fellows, here is the very first draft translation in English of the first pages of our last review in French "Communisme" N°60. Sorry for the language but improvements will come later. Meanwhile, have a good reading and we are waiting for your comments and critics...
Israel, Bloody Executioner for the World Capitalist Order (tags)
On Saturday evening January 3, after one week of air raids which left more than 450 dead and more than 2000 wounded, the Israeli army began its land offensive into Gaza. Its military officials declare that the operation will be “long”. The odious Israeli propaganda, broadcast by the majority of the international media, presents this bloody attack as a “response” to the salvos of the “terrorists”of Hamas in power in Gaza.
May the Anger of the Unemployed and Students be Tranformed into Combativeness for the Resumption of the Class Struggle of the Proletariat !
Leftist Union Leaders Assassinated in Venezuela (tags)
On November 27, three leftist union leaders in the Venezuelan state of Aragua – Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández and Carlos Requena – were gunned down by an assassin. The murder came hours after the unionists had led a workers occupation of a Colombian-owned milk plant which had been brutally broken up by state police. All three were leaders of the UNT (National Workers Union) and of the USI (Socialist Left Unity), a party which has opposed attempts by the government of Hugo Chávez to impose state control of labor, and has fought the rightist opposition backed by imperialism. They may have been murdered by assassins hired by the Colombian company, by elements connected to the police of outgoing state governor, a former Chávez ally, or by supporters of a current official of the governing United Socialist Party. In any case, despite Chávez’ socialist rhetoric, the reality of the bourgeois Bolivarian “revolution” in Venezuela today is that leftist unionists are murdered while the forces of capitalist state repression back up the bosses. While many leftists have called on the Chávez government to investigate, Trotskyists call for organizing workers defense guards and imposing workers control of production. Venezuela today is stuck at a crossroads. Building a Bolshevik-type workers party based on Trotsky’s program of permanent revolution is key.
"The Objective Situation, the Bush Regime, and the Bourgeois Elections" (tags)
Bob Avakian's "The Objective Situation, the Bush Regime, and the Bourgeois Elections" in Revolution, Issue #142, read and download at: http://www.revcom.us/a/142/Avakian_Objective_Situation-en.html.
What Will It Take to Defeat the War? (tags)
On June 28-29, an “Open National Antiwar Conference” was held in Cleveland, called by a newly minted National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation. Over objections from the conference organizers, centrally Socialist Action, the assembly voted to change the name to include reference to the war on Afghanistan, and to emphasize the connection with U.S. backing for the Zionist occupation of Palestine. (The sponsors of the confab were so right-wing that they feared losing “unity” with Democratic Party supporters of Israel and the Afghanistan war!) What did not change at all was the popular-front character of the new outfit, tying it to the bourgeois parties despite the fig leaf of electoral “independence.” Making this utterly clear, it was decided not to call a national antiwar mobilization prior to the November elections explicitly in order to court those forces who wish to aid the Democrats (and therefore want to avoid making problems for the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama). Here is the leaflet issued by the Internationalist Group at the conference.
Puerto Rico: All Out to Defend the Teachers’ Struggle! (tags)
We are on the threshold of a major class battle in Puerto Rico. Every day new preparations are announced for the coming strike of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation (FMPR). With 42,000 members, a majority of them women, the FMPR represents almost all of Puerto Rico’s teachers and is by far the largest union on the island. The Shock Force of the Puerto Rican Police and National Guard are being readied to go after the strikers. The struggle of the Puerto Rican teachers affects everybody. The working class as a whole, students and parents, teachers and defenders of workers’ rights around the world must come out in defense of the FMPR! If there are mass arrests, the response must be massive blockades and spreading the struggle to the point of shutting the island down. In order to win this strike, it is necessary to prepare for a struggle not only of the teachers but within the whole workers movement against the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy that sabotages the workers’ struggle. Above all, it is necessary to fight against illusions in and ties with bourgeois parties and politicians. It’s high time to begin building a revolutionary internationalist workers party.
No matter what they say, the bourgeois cannot escape the fact that Marx's ideas still hold water after all these years. His analysis of the capitalist system, its laws and contradictions are as relevant today as they were 150 years ago. The serious journals of capitalism confirm this.
A MODEST LABOR PROPOSAL (tags)
COMMENTARY
notes from new palestine: revolution overturns and destroys everything... (tags)
what is being done is selling the masses capitalism and calling it all liberation and now revolution -- b.u.t. what it really is is using our peoples -- a few select -- from oprah to jay z and obama as a tool to colonize afrika and our minds for the masters. it works well for the bourgeois classes -- for it advances their cause, class and position and therefore them = the 10 to 1% -- for them it is a revolution -- one of privilege and capital and not of movement and the masses.
Against the repression in Oaxaca, Anti-capitalist class struggle! (tags)
For several months the town of Oaxaca, capital of the Mexican State of the same name, has been the center (of a movement) of important struggles which have undergone (or suffered) repeated attacks by the forces of repression (police, army and paramilitary) with many victims: at the end of November the toll was 22 dead and 34 disappeared.
ON CONGRESSMAN KUCINICH'S CAMPAIGN (tags)
BREAK WITH THE DEMOCRATS
A party lives when there is the existence of a doctrine and a method of action. A party is a school of political thought and consequently an organisation of struggle. The first characteristic is a fact of consciousness, the second is a fact of will, or more precisely of a striving towards a final end.
WOT: Revolution in news will lead to overthrow of capitalist rule (tags)
The industrial revolution created the modern proletariat. The revolution in communications will allow this proletariat to make itself conscious and will lead to the overthrow of the system of bourgeois rule. For the first time in history, the majority of suffering humanity will have access to a clear, accurate and comprehensive class-based picture of what is wrong with the world and how to coordinate their actions in order to end bourgeois rule and usher in a world without hunger, privation or war. As decade rolls after decade, information war will transform the terrain of the class struggle -- including world culture, world politics and the left ecosystem which gives birth to revolutionary organizations. These nine theses are the second installment of "Seventeen Theses on the Destiny of the Revolution in Communications and the Concept of Workers' Rule". ...brought to you by the Weapon of Transparency channel...
THE FINAL ELECTION LINE
Communistic persistences in the course of human history (tags)
What characterizes the manufacturing division of labour? The fact that a partial worker doesn't produce any commodities; that only the partial workers' common product becomes commodities
The Mark Foley scandal: Where is the crime? Down with this reactionary crusade! (tags)
It is the capitalists and their parties who politicize sex. They claim to be defending the innocent and vulnerable, but anyone who has seen the pictures from Abu Ghraib prison knows that this government doesn't give a damn about sexual torture and molestation. Their real intent is to persecute anyone who strays outside the completely artificial bounds prescribed by the patriarchal, heterosexual bourgeois family, and in the process arrogate to themselves ever greater police powers.
A MODEST PROPOSAL-RECRUIT, RUN INDEPENDENT LABOR MILITANT CANDIDATES FOR THE 2006 ELECTION (tags)
IN THE TIME OF THE GREAT FEAR WE NEED OUR OWN CANDIDATES.
HONOR JAMES CONNOLLY AND EASTER, 1916 (tags)
THIS MONTH MARKS THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRISH UPRISING. HONOR JAMES CONNOLLY AND THE IRISH LIBERATION FIGHTERS.
Crimethinc: In Love With Love Itself (tags)
A true review in three parts of Crimethinc's "Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook"
Bush Concealing Imperialist Goals Behind Democratic Rhetoric (tags)
Webster's defines euphemeism as the substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensive..Capitlaism has little to do with democracy or freedom or liberty.
outFarpress presents: Fr Roy Bourgeois on the School of the Americas (tags)
Father Roy Bourgeois is a leader of the movement to shut down the School of the Americas in Georgia. He speaks of his military service, work in Central America, and the annual demonstration at Fort Benning. 48:46. 2 files, broadcast quality and slow modem streaming. Free to rebroadcast.
RCP Cries "Wolf" over Fascism (tags)
A comment on RCP's current "Battle for the Future" campaign: Hysteria about "fascism" serves to hide the essential role of the Democratic Party in the political and economic system of imperialism
Revolutionary Anarchism and Political Parties (tags)
For a long time there has been an erroneous conception regarding anarchists' views on parties. In this document, we, as revolutionary anarchists, wish to clarify the matter a little.
The Politics of Imperialism (tags)
Latin America provides a powerful reference point for the toilers of the world suffering from the imperial re-division of their countries.
Philippines 2003: how 300 troops mutiny unmasked "war on terror" (tags)
[As you may notice, I’ve cut this part of the article because the question of peace talks between the left party RPMP-RPA-ABB and the Government has obviously nothing to do with the gangsters of GUAC. It's better to avoid any confusion. – Felix Zorba, October 7, 2003]
Haiti-there is no solution under Capitalism! (tags)
Haiti
Haiti-Which way forward against Imperialism? (tags)
Haiti
War and the National Question-A reply to Luis Oviedo of the PO (tags)
War and the National Question
The Permanent Revolution: Battle cry of the 21st Century (tags)
On the trotskyist review Marxism Alive 2 - October 2000
Philippines: 300 troops mutiny unmasks "war on terror" (tags)
A group of 296 soldiers - 70 junior officers and 226 enlisted men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)- staged on July 27 a siege of the Oakwood Premier luxury hotel at the Ayala Center in Makati.
Politicians attempts to liquidate anti-war movements (tags)
Their opposition to anger is a reflection of the bourgeois fear that anger is contagious and will lead to the awakening of a class that has, it must be said, a good deal to be angry about.
Which way forward for the development of a powerful anti-war movement? (tags)
Thousands of serious activists are giving thought to all questions related to the development of an anti-war movement that can strike even more powerful blows against this latest round of imperialist wars. This article represents an effort to directly confront the most serious questions related to the development of the anti-war movement.
BTL:U.S. Army's School of the Americas Target of Anti-Terrorism Campaign (tags)
Last year, the school was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, but opponents assert that a new name has changed nothing. They continue their campaign demanding that Congress cut funding to the school and close it down. Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Father Bourgeois about the movement to close the School of the America's and the upcoming protest.
Class Tensions Boil As Bourgeois Elections Draw Near in Colombia (tags)
BOGOTA -- Blown-up bridges, intimidation, fears of fraud and a gunfight that left nine people dead have heightened class tension in Colombia with just hours to go before bourgeois elections.