[lbo-talk] New Marxist-Humanist articles in "With Sober Senses"

[seth]

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                                                                                                              August 25, 2017
Hello, Friends of MHI,

We hope you’ll read the new articles in our web journal, With Sober Senses<http://marxisthumanistinitiative.us6.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=3bfae7928775a996aaff05fe6&id=b17f525fa9&e=c5b60c13cc>.  In them, MHI and others address the horrors we face today, and explore the ideas which, when seized by mass movements, can overcome them.

  *          Our new editorial, “Will We Allow Trump to Get Away with Fomenting White Supremacy and Racist Violence?<http://marxisthumanistinitiative.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3bfae7928775a996aaff05fe6&id=78888b674e&e=c5b60c13cc>”, places front and center the Achille’s heel of the US–-its racism—and the President’s role as its leading force today:

“Once again, American racism has stolen the headlines away from world events, even from the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and North Korea. With echoes of the 1950s and 1960s, racism has become the central issue for Trump’s America. Tragically, we are moving in the opposite direction from the period of the Civil Rights Movement; white supremacists are attempting to affect a counter-revolution against African-Americans’ gains in justice and equal rights––and the President agrees with them. Today, the question before the U.S. is: Will we let Trump get away with fomenting white supremacy and racist violence?

“The Resistance movement that has opposed Trump from the day he took office is answering “No!” In the first two days following the white supremacist march and murder [Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, VA], more than 900 protests against Trump and the white supremacists took place around the U.S. Large protests occurred in Seattle on Sunday and at Trump Tower in New York City on Monday. Other forms of fightback against white supremacists are also intensifying….”

  *   MHI’s statement, “North Korea and US Threaten Nuclear War<http://marxisthumanistinitiative.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3bfae7928775a996aaff05fe6&id=3594acc0bf&e=c5b60c13cc>,” considers the possibility of  war:

“When the commander-in-chief of the world’s largest military force cannot discuss a tense situation without suggesting nuclear annihilation, we should all be nervous. The cold-war fears of nuclear war may have subsided with the demise of the Soviet Union, but the nuclear weapons in the possession of the US, Russia, and the additional nuclear powers could wipe out humanity many times over and contaminate the earth for centuries.”

  *   The essay “Commemorating Raya Dunayevskaya, 1910-1987: Founder of Marxist-Humanism<http://marxisthumanistinitiative.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3bfae7928775a996aaff05fe6&id=5148eee863&e=c5b60c13cc>” by Travis Blute marks the 30th anniversary of her passing with a review of her development from a rank-and-file Trotskyist to a theorist of state-capitalism to a major 20th century philosopher—and the challenge her work presents to the left to practice Marx’s philosophy today.

“It was her understanding of Marx’s Marxism as humanism that made Dunayevskaya such an agile mind, rather than a dogmatist like many who call themselves Marxist. She always saw that the voices from below, of those who struggle for freedom, had to be listened to by the intellectuals––that their practice was itself a form of theory. However, their practice alone is not enough; the practical idea needs to be related to Marx’s revolutionary philosophical idea of a new society in order for both sides to develop.”

  *   “Against Left Economic Populism<http://marxisthumanistinitiative.us6.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=3bfae7928775a996aaff05fe6&id=eff7c71d51&e=c5b60c13cc>” by Brendan Cooney critiques the assumptions behind the currently popular redistributionist politics which aims to decrease income inequality through progressive taxation, higher minimum wages, generous social welfare programs, regulation of financial capital, and massive government spending programs. Cooney exposes the myths on which this politics is based, and the political implications, saying:

“The populist narrative that blames neoliberalism for all social ills has blinded some on the left to the danger of fascism, indeed blinded some to the existence of a positive content to bourgeois democracy. Convinced that building a left-populist political movement is more important than defeating fascism, these populists now play a dangerous game.”

We invite you to put your comments on these articles and others, and to explore the writings on the whole site. We also welcome article submissions from readers.

For human liberation,
Marxist-Humanist Initiative

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For a description of this pamphlet
by Andrew Kliman, see video<http://marxisthumanistinitiative.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3bfae7928775a996aaff05fe6&id=f5ada8c3a7&e=c5b60c13cc>.

Available for purchase at Bluestockings
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New York, NY 10024

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