RM, vol. 13, #2, 2001, same issue w/Zizek on Lenin.
We are pleased to include in this issue a follow-up to the article on Marxism and human rights, by Neve Gordon, Jacinda Swanson, and Joseph Buttigieg, that was published in the Fall 1999 (volume 12, number 2) issue of RM. In an innovative experiment designed to foster a dialogue between the Marxist academic community and the human rights movement, the authors of that article met with Reed Brody, the Advocacy Director of Human Rights Watch, and various staff members in order to review and discuss the implications of the criticisms of the work of HRW originally raised by Gordon et al. The transcript of their open and honest roundtable discussion reveals various points of agreement—for example, the important role that Marxist political economy can play both in analyzing the causes of human rights abuses and in finding solutions and the need for bottom-up, popular organizing in addition to shaming techniques. It also demonstrates the need for further conversations (since individual articles and reports are easily subject to omissions and misunderstandings) and charts new ways in which the two communities can collaborate in order to promote not only individual, civil rights but also collective, socioeconomic rights.
-- Michael Pugliese
"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening to each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding that we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and shouted at each other, as if we were in a madhouse." -Tolstoy