Richard Wolff is professor of economics at UMass Amherst. He talks about the underlying cause of the current capitalist crisis (NOT ``financial'' crisis) and capitalism in general. Socialism and workers' democracy is presented as the alternative. The talk was presented by the Association for Economic and Social Analysis and the journal Rethinking Marxism in early October 2008.
October 4, 2008
(KPFA/Left Business Observer) Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin (preceded by a lengthy commentary by Doug Henwood) on the financial crisis,
neoliberalism and the American empire -- the end of what, if anything,
exactly?
October 4, 2008
(KPFA/Left Business Observer) Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin on the financial crisis,
neoliberalism and the American empire -- the end of what, if anything,
exactly? Listen HERE
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is proud to post the now classic and historic documentary by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Brianabout the April 2002 US-backed coup attempt, which briefly deposed Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez. A
television crew from Ireland's Radio Telifís Éireann happened to be
recording a documentary about Chávez during the events of April 11,
2002.
Shifting focus, they followed the events as they occurred. During their
filming, the crew recorded images that
contradicted explanations given by the anti-Chávez opposition, the private media,
the US State Department and then White House Press Secretary Ari
Fleischer. The documentary reveals that the coup was the result of a
conspiracy between various old guard and anti-Chávez factions within
Venezuela and the United States.It also graphically shows how Venezuela's poor and working people -- the overwhelming majority of the population -- mobilised in their hundreds of thousands to defeat the coup.
This pamphlet first appeared in the form of a series of leading articles in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, beginning on April 4th, 1849. The text is made up of from lectures delivered by Marx before the German Workingmen’s Club of Brussels in 1847. The series was never completed. The promise “to be continued,” at the end of the editorial in Number 269 of the newspaper, remained unfulfilled in consequence of the precipitous events of that time: the invasion of Hungary by the Russians [Tsarist troops invaded Hungary in 1849 to keep the Austrian Hapsburg dynasty in power], and the uprisings in Dresden, Iserlohn, Elberfeld, the Palatinate, and in Baden [Spontaneous uprisings in Germany in May-July 1849, supporting the Imperial Constitution which were crushed in mid-July], which led to the suppression of the paper on May 19th, 1849. And among the papers left by Marx no manuscript of any continuation of these articles has been found.
`A Maoist Vision for a New Nepal' -- MP3
recordings of a talk by Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda), followed by questions and answers, presented to the India China Institute of New School
University, New York City, on September 26, 2008. The MP3 audio clips were first presented on the Hegemonik site, and are posted here with permission
September
23, 2008 -- After decades of enduring attacks within Cuba’s own borders (acts
of arson, sabotage, assassinations and the use of biological weapons) perpetrated
by anti-Cuban terrorist groups based in southern Florida that enjoy the support
and consent of the US government, and after the United States repeatedly
refused to implement measures to prevent such attacks, a group of unarmed men travelled from Cuba to the United States to monitor the
activities of mercenary groups responsible for those attacks and organisations
that support them and to warn Cuba of their aggressive intentions.
* * *
September 12, 2008, protest in Washington DC to mark the tenth anniversary of the unjust imprisonment of the Cuban 5
Scenes from Howard's Zinn's Marx in Soho (Bob Weick of the Iron Age Theatre appears in videos 2 & 5). For the latest on the play, go to http://www.marxinsoho.com/ Four more scenes follow: click HERE.
August 27, 2008 -- Federico Fuentes,
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal's and Green Left Weekly's Latin America correspondent based in Venezuela and editor of Bolivia Rising, talks with Latin Radical about the recent referendum in Bolivia. It was
called by Bolivia's Indigenous president, Evo Morales. In spite
of right-wing calls to defeat the referendum
(and continuing threats from the wealthy eastern provinces to split the country into ``autonomous'' states) the referendum victory strengthened the position
of a president who is introducing reforms that phase
out the negative influence of multinational corporations and global
privatisation.
[Note: although the voice quality is clear there is some static and radio interference in this
interview, which begins about seven minutes into the
interview.]
The so-called ``Act of Free Choice'' was a sham referendum held in 1969 to decide whether Indonesia should govern West Papua. The small sample of indigenous West Papuans selected to vote were threatened with physical voilence if they voted against the Indonesian regime. Of course, they ``voted'' to remain part of Indonesia.
August 20, 2008 -- Afghanistan lives in fear of US-sponsored warlords. These hated warlords are not scared by the Taliban monster raising its head in the south. But ironically, they live in the fear of an unarmed women in her late twenties: Malalai Joya.
To silence Joya's defiant voice, the warlords who dominate the national parliament suspended Joya's membership for three years in 2007. Earlier, at almost every parliamentary session she attended, she had her hair pulled or was physically attacked, and called names such as ``whore''. ``They even threatened me in the parliament with rape'', she says. But she neither toned down her criticism of the warlords (``they must be tried'') nor the US occupation of her country (``the ‘war on terror’ is a mockery''). Understandably, she's been declared the ``bravest woman in Afghanistan'' and even compared with Burma's Aung Sun Suu Kyi.
August 14, 2008 -- Georgia has resolutely condemned Russia's actions in Chechnya. Russia has severely criticised NATO actions towards Serbia. Later on the Georgian authorities tried to do the same thing in South Ossetia as the Russian authorities had done in Chechnya. Moscow decided to treat Georgia in the same way as NATO had treated Serbia. Bad habits are contagious.
Two communities affected by one new global market – the trade in carbon dioxide. In Scotland, a town has been polluted by oil and chemical companies since the 1940s. In Brazil, local people's water and land is being swallowed up by destructive monoculture eucalyptus tree plantations. Both communities now share a new threat.
As part of the deal to reduce greenhouse gases that cause dangerous climate change, major polluters can now buy carbon credits that allow them to pay someone else to reduce emissions instead of cutting their own pollution.
What this means for those living next to the oil industry in Scotland is the continuation of pollution caused by their toxic neighbours. Meanwhile in Brazil, the schemes that generate carbon credits gives an injection of cash for more planting of the damaging eucalyptus plantations.
The two communities are now connected by bearing the brunt of the new trade in carbon credits.
The Carbon Connection follows the story of two groups of people from each community who learned to use video cameras and made their own films about living with the impacts of the carbon market.
Teacher and
actor Brian Jones educated and moved his audience with his talk, ``Martin Luther
King's
last struggle'' at the United States' International Socialist
Organization's ``Socialism 2008'' conference in Chicago on June 20,
2008.
Since 1999, Jones has portrayed Karl Marx in Howard Zinn's play Marx
in Soho in US tours. He lent his voice to the audio recording of
Noam Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival and to several staged
readings from Zinn's latest book, Voices of a People's History of the
United States. He is a teacher in New York and contributes frequently to
the Socialist Worker newspaper and the International Socialist Review
magazine.
Socialism conferences are sponsored annually by the Center for Economic
Research and Social Change, publisher of International Socialist Review
and Haymarket Books. Conferences are co-sponsored by the International
Socialist Organization, publisher of Socialist Worker and Obrero
Socialista.
