Review by Alex Miller

Engels: A Revolutionary Life

By John Green

Artery Publications

Paperback 2008

347 pages, £10

By John Riddell

June 8, 2008 -- One of the most important developments in Cuban Marxism in recent years has been increased attention to the writings of Ernesto Che Guevara on the economics and politics of the transition to socialism.

A milestone in this process was the publication in 2006 by Ocean Press and Cuba's Centro de Estudios Che Guevara of Apuntes criticos a la economía política [Critical Notes on Political Economy], a collection of Che's writings from the years 1962 to 1965, many of them previously unpublished. The book includes a lengthy excerpt from a letter to Fidel Castro, entitled ``Some Thoughts on the Transition to Socialism''. In it, in extremely condensed comments, Che presented his views on economic development in the Soviet Union.[1]

In 1965, the Soviet economy stood at the end of a period of rapid growth that had brought improvements to the still very low living standards of working people. Soviet prestige had been enhanced by engineering successes in defence production and space exploration. Most Western observers then considered that it showed more dynamism than its US counterpart.

By Michael A. Lebowitz

Ideas become a material force when they grasp the minds of masses. This is true not only of ideas which can support revolutionary change. It is also true of those ideas which prevent change. An obvious example is the concept of TINA -- the idea that there is no alternative, no alternative to neoliberalism, no alternative to capitalism.

A clip from the BBC's Around the World in 80 Gardens (2008) introduces the urban organic food gardening revolution in Havana, Cuba. Click HERE for a three-part talk by Cuban permaculturist Roberto Perez that delves deeper into Cuba's green revolution, and an interview with the makers of The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, the film in which Perez featured.

So there’s nothing to stop us from emulating the Cuban farming revolution.

Reviews by Alex Miller

Karl Marx: A Biography
By David McLellan, Palgrave Macmillan
4th Edition 2006
487 pages, paperback

By Dave Holmes

When one sees a modern city from the air, especially at night, it is a truly awe-inspiring spectacle. What always strikes me is the immensity of the project, a testimony to the power and creativity of human beings. However, on the ground and actually living and working in this wonder, things are quite different and the social and ecological problems crowd in and fill one’s view. The truth is that our cities have always been dominated by the rich and powerful and built and operated to serve their needs — not those of the mass of working people who live and toil in them.

* * *

This article is based on a talk presented at the Climate Change | Social Change Conference in Sydney, April 2008. The conference was organised by Green Left Weekly. For more articles, audio and video from the conference, click here.

* * *

By Michael A. Lebowitz

[Translation by J. Duckworth]

A medida que el primero de mayo se acerca, vale la pena recordar cuatro aspectos sobre ese día:

1. Para l@s trabajador@s el primero de mayo no es la celebración de un día feriado estatal, ni un regalo de él, sino que conmemorara es la lucha —desde abajo— de l@s trabajador@s.

2. Inicialmente, el primero de mayo se centraba en la lucha por una jornada laboral mas corta.

3. La lucha para una jornada laboral mas corta no es una lucha aislada sino la lucha contra la explotación capitalista.

4. La lucha contra la explotación capitalista es una parte esencial pero no es la única parte de la lucha general contra el capitalismo.

Hoy quiero exponer algunas ideas que se refieren tanto a la jornada laboral capitalista como a la socialista y espero que ellas puedan ser útiles en la lucha actual en Venezuela y que sirvan, de manera más inmediata, a los debates de hoy.

By Michael A. Lebowitz

April 24, 2008 -- As May Day approaches, there are four things that are worth remembering:

1. For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below.

2. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday.

3. The struggle for the shorter workday is not an isolated struggle but is the struggle against capitalist exploitation.

Roberto Perez, Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, a Cuban NGO. Feature talk at the Climate Change Social Change Conference, Sydney, April 12, 2008. The conference was organised by Green Left Weekly.

Climate action now! Socialist Climate Change Charter

Climate action now!

Download the Socialist Alliance Climate Change Charter here Download easy-to-print version of the Socialist Alliance Climate Change Charter (with references) here To see how the charter was created click here SUMMARY: Warnings that can’t be ignored Climate scientists have been warning us about global warming for Australia climate change Documents environment socialism Socialist Alliance 1 comment Read more A revolutionary response to the climate change crisis ``We need an emergency mobilisation of society, a five- or 10-year plan to achieve a drastic reorientation of our economy and use of energy. Anything else is simply not serious.'' climate change DSP environment Marxist theory socialism Socialist Alliance 4 comments Read more Was Milosevic's Serbia socialist? By Michael Karadjis Kosova Serbia socialism Stalinism Yugoslavia Add new comment Read more Venezuela: Draft program and principles of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) [Below, Links provides translations of the draft program and principles of the provisionally named United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which are currently being discussed at its founding congress. The documents were drafted by the provisional leadership of the PSUV. Documents PSUV socialism Venezuela Add new comment Read more New pamphlet: Comintern: Revolutionary Internationalism in Lenin's Time [The following is the introduction to a new pamphlet, Comintern: Revolutionary Internationalism in Lenin's Time, produced by the Canadian Socialist Voice collective. The full text is available at http://www.socialistvoice.ca/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/comintern-riddell.pdf] Communist International Marxist theory socialism Socialist Voice (Canada) Add new comment Read more 'Without worker-management, there is no socialism' [A talk given at the two-day seminar “Workers Management: Theory and Practise”, held on October 26 and 27, 2007, organised by the Human Development and Transformative Praxis Program at the Caracas-based Miranda International Marxist theory socialism Venezuela workers' control Yugoslavia 1 comment Read more `Socialisms' in the 21st Century Haiman El Troudi has occupied many positions in Venezuela’s revolutionary government. He was the director of the Office of President (2005–2006) under Hugo Chavez and secretary of the Maisanta socialism Venezuela workers' control Add new comment Read more The prospects for socialism (or barbarism) By Boris Kagarlitsky Not long before the European elections, in which the social democratic vote collapsed, two of the most authoritative social democratic leaders, Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, published a letter in which they formulated the principles of the so-called "new centre" (neue Mitte). These principles could be summed up as arguing that the traditional ideas of social democracy (redistribution, a mixed economy and state regulation in the spirit of Keynes) needed to be replaced by new approaches in the spirit of neo-liberalism. True, the authors of the letter took their distance from neo-liberalism itself, stating that they did not share its illusions that all problems could be solved through market methods. At the same time, they proposed to solve the problems of world trade by liberalising it further. Instead of solidarity, they called for increased competition, and instead of job creation, for preparing young people better for life under the conditions of a constantly changing market conjuncture. capitalism Germany Issue 14 left unity PDS Russia socialism Add new comment Read more Women's liberation and the fight for socialism By Lisa Macdonald Lisa Macdonald is a member of the Political Committee of the Democratic Socialist Party in Australia. With the advent of the long economic downturn in the mid-1970s, capitalism launched the most concerted worldwide offensive against women's rights in 40 years. In the neo-colonial countries, women are bearing the brunt of IMF and World Bank-imposed economic structural adjustment programs, the rise of religious fundamentalism in many countries is pushing women back into the dark ages, and women are the largely invisible victims in the increasing number of localised wars over the ever shrinking resources not in the hands of the imperialists. In the former Soviet bloc countries, as the restoration of capitalism removes most of the protections for workers that accompanied the planned economy, it is women who are thrown first onto the scrap heap as privatisation creates skyrocketing unemployment and public welfare spending is slashed. DSP Issue 15 leninism Marxist theory Russian Revolution socialism women Add new comment Read more The Brazilian Workers Party and the participatory budget in Rio Grande do Sul By Ben Reid CONTENTS Brazil Issue 23 latin america PT socialism Add new comment Read more 'Socialism in one country' and the Cuban Revolution By Celia Hart Celia Hart is the daughter of two veterans of the Cuban revolution: Haydée Santamaría, who participated in the July 26,1953, assault on the Moncada Barracks, and Armando Hart, the former minister of culture. Reprinted from Tricontinental Magazine.   CONTENTS Why Trotsky? The Cuban Revolution, paradigm of a socialist revolution Internationalism in the development of the Cuban revolution Social justice: the other cornerstone of the Cuban nation Final notes   "Homeland is humanity."—José Martí cuba internationalism Issue 26 latin america socialism Trotskyism Add new comment Read more The Venezuelan revolution and the need for solidarity By Stuart Munckton Stuart Munckton is the national coordinator of the Australian socialist youth organisation Resistance. This the text of a talk presented to a Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) educational conference in January 2005. Contents From anti-imperialism to anti-capitalism Anti-capitalist trajectory Is the leadership revolutionary? The struggle for state power Cuba cuba DSP Issue 27 latin america Marxist theory Resistance (Australia) socialism Venezuela Add new comment Read more Socialism and the market - China and Vietnam compared by Michael Karadjis   Michael Karadjis is an Australian socialist currently living and researching in Vietnam.   Contents Differences in collectivisation and de-collectivisation Differences in SOE reform Roles of state sectors change in opposite directions Why the difference? Massive privatisation in China and slowdown in Vietnam Party, bureaucracy and capitalist business Mass lay-offs in Chinese privatisation Labour and unions Differences within the ruling parties Health and education Socialist orientation and the nature of SOE Problems ahead for Vietnam Footnotes China Issue 27 socialism Stalinism Vietnam Add new comment Read more Powered by Drupal - Design by Artinet