Putting humans back into socialism
Review by Federico Fuentes
The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development
By Michael Lebowitz
Monthly Review Press, 2010
December 5, 2010 -- Green Left Weekly -- The onset of the global economic crisis in mid 2008, symbolised by the collapse of some of Wall Street’s most iconic companies, led to soaring sales of Karl Marx’s seminal work Das Kapital, as many sought explanations to the tumultuous events unfolding. Although written more than 100 years ago, this devastating and insightful dissection of how capital functions is still a powerful tool for people looking to understand and change the world.
Marx’s aim was to provide a handbook for working-class activists that unravelled the logic of capital and its inherently exploitative nature. Marx said this was necessary because as long as workers did not understand that capital was the result of their exploitation, they would not be able to defeat their enemy.
‘Climate capitalism’ won at Cancun – everyone else loses
Protest in Cancun.
[For more analysis of the Cancun climate talks, click HERE.]
By Patrick Bond, Cancun, Mexico
December 12, 2010 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal – The December 11 closure of the 16th Conference of the Parties – COP16 global climate summit – in balmy Cancun was portrayed by most participants and mainstream journalists as a victory, a “step forward”. Bragged US State Department lead negotiator Todd Stern, “Ideas that were first of all, skeletal last year, and not approved, are now approved and elaborated.”
Cancun climate talks: `Hollow and false' -- Bolivia, activists condemn deadly `betrayal'
Red Road Cancun, by Allan Lissner. Highlighting Indigenous voices excluded from the COP16 UN Climate Conference in Cancun, Mexico.
Statement by the Plurinational State of Bolivia
December 11, 2010 -- Cancun, Mexico -- The Plurinational State of Bolivia believes that the Cancun text is a hollow and false victory that was imposed without consensus, and its cost will be measured in human lives. History will judge harshly.
Cuba: Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution
Translation by Marce Cameron (Australia-Cuba Friendship Society), corrections by Paul Greene.
Speech by general secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) Vickramabahu Karunaratne ("Bahu") at the Tamil National Remembrance Day, November 28, 2010, in London.
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I am thankful for the organisation of this event for giving me the opportunity to shed my tears in memory of those who gave their life to the liberation of Tamil homeland.Tamils have been killed by successive Sinhala-chauvinist governments in Sri lanka, last but not the least by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. Not only Tamils, but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and to attack Tamils. Thousands of these young Sinhalese died in an alien land.
Essential guide for green left activists
Derek Wall discusses the crisis in the financial system, wall is an activist in Green Left, an ecosocialist current in the Green Party of England and Wales. Filmed at the Coalition of Resistance (http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk) conference November 27, 2010.
The Rise of the Green Left: Inside the Worldwide Ecosocialist Movement
By Derek Wall
Pluto Press, 190 pages, paperback
Review by Mat Ward
France: Not victorious, but not defeated
By Murray Smith
Rani Rasiah
2010-12-05 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/lewica.pl -- 1 maja 1996 Jawatankuasa Sokongan Masyarakat Ladang (JSML), sojusz pracowników plantacji należący do Jeringan Rakyat Tertindas [Sieć Opresjonowanych (JERIT, akronim oznaczający ‘krzyk’), malezyjskie zrzeszenie grup obywatelskich], rozpoczął kampanię na rzecz wprowadzenia minimalnego miesięcznego wynagrodzenia dla robotników. Wzywał on do całkowitego zerwania z opartym na skrajnym wyzysku, kolonialnym systemem wynagrodzeń, w którym robotnikom wypłacano dniówki o wysokości zależnej od rynkowej ceny oleju, pogody i zbiorów - czynników całkowicie niezależnych od pracowników.
Poparcie opinii publicznej dla płacy minimalnej w wysokości 750 ringgitów wzrosło, kiedy w trakcie kampanii rzucono światło na skandaliczny kontrast pomiędzy zamożnymi, acz bezwzględnymi potentatami, a żyjącymi w biedzie i zacofaniu 300 tysiącami pracowników. Co więcej, ujawniono, że największym udziałowcem we wszystkich większych firmach plantacyjnych był rząd, pod przykrywką agencji w rodzaju Permodalan Nasional Berhad i Amanah Saham Nasional.
Wanderings of a Zen Marxist: 30th anniversary of John Lennon's murder -- `The US vs John Lennon'
On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was murdered in New York.
[For more analysis of the Cancun climate talks, click HERE.]
December 6, 2010 -- Democracy Now! -- Secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have revealed new details about how the United States manipulated last year’s climate talks in Copenhagen. The cables show how the United States sought dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming, how financial and other aid was used to gain political backing, and how the United States mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the [US-sponsored and -imposed] "Copenhagen Accord". We speak to Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Pablo Solón. Several of the cables addressed Bolivia’s opposition to the US-backed accord.
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Lenin and Trotsky on Wikileaks (well, sort of)
German workers strike against the war, January 1918.
December 7, 2010 -- November 8, 1917, the day after the victory of Bolshevik-led Russian Revolution, the first foreign policy decision of the revolutionary government was the "Decree on Peace", written by Lenin and adopted on that day by the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. It proposed an end to the carnage of World War I on the basis of a "just, democratic peace". It declared the abolition of existing secret treaties and promised that all future treaties would be negotiated "openly in full view of the whole people".