As the Obama administration’s “stimulus plan” moves toward realization, and as more people, in broad swathes of the population, are affected in ever more serious ways by this economic crisis, we need to understand its causes and the ramifications. The following essay by Marxist geographer David Harvey originally appeared in The Bullet. We are posting the essay in two parts. This is the first.
Why the U.S. Stimulus Package is Bound to Fail
by David Harvey
Much is to be gained by viewing the contemporary crisis as a surface eruption generated out of deep tectonic shifts in the spatio-temporal disposition of capitalist development. The tectonic plates are now accelerating their motion and the likelihood of more frequent and more violent crises of the sort that have been occurring since 1980 or so will almost certainly increase. The manner, form, spatiality and time of these surface disruptions are almost impossible to predict, but that they will occur with greater frequency and depth is almost certain. The events of 2008 have therefore to be situated in the context of a deeper pattern. Since these stresses are internal to the capitalist dynamic (which does not preclude some seemingly external disruptive event like a catastrophic pandemic also occurring), then what better argument could there be, as Marx once put it, “for capitalism to be gone and to make way for some alternative and more rational mode of production.” Read the rest of this entry »
Even more revealing was a paragraph embedded in that piece:
“Although the government has not released updated information about rural unrest, officials have been strategizing about how best to keep large protests and riots from spreading, should the dispossessed grow unruly.
“This week, more than 3,000 public security directors from across the country are gathering in the capital to learn how to neutralize rallies and strikes before they blossom into so-called mass incidents. At a meeting of the Chinese cabinet last month, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told government leaders they should prepare for rough times ahead. “The country’s employment situation is extremely grim,” he said.”
Too often, the Bolivarian Revolution currently underway in Venezuela is dismissed by its critics—on the right and left—as a fundamentally statist enterprise. We are told it is, at best, a continuation of the corrupt, bureaucratic status quo or, at worst, a personalistic consolidation of state power in the hands of a single individual at the expense of those “checks and balances” traditionally associated with western liberal democracies. These perspectives are erroneous, since they cannot account for what have emerged as the central planks of the revolutionary process. I will focus on the most significant of these planks: the explosion of communal power.
By viewing the process through the Leninist concept of “dual power”—that is, the construction of an autonomous, alternative power capable of challenging the existing state structure—we can see that the establishment of communal councils in Venezuela is clearly a positive step toward the development of fuller and deeper democracy, which is encouraging in and of itself. But the councils’ significance goes beyond that. The consolidation of communal power says much about the role of the state in the Venezuelan Revolution. Specifically, what is unique about the Venezuelan situation is the fact that sectors of the state are working actively to dismantle and dissolve the old state apparatus by devolving power to local organs capable of constituting a dual power. Transcending the simplistic debate between taking or opposing state power, a focus on dual power allows us to concentrate on what really matters in Venezuela and elsewhere: the revolutionary transformation of existing repressive structures. Read the rest of this entry »
Politically, Hans Rosling sees the world through the prism of western aid and numerous prejudices. But his presentation here of changes in world poverty since 1980s is, nonetheless, fascinating. Don’t miss this discussoin of the world’s big North-South divide and how it has changed over thirty years. You may well find some of this suprising. (This is part of the remarkable TEDtalks series of lectures. More to come.)
This Red Star (Vol. 2, # 4) article was originally posted by Maoist Revolution Digest #1618. It is being made available on Banned Thought.
This talk took place in the context of demands by reactionary parties that Prachanda not attend the celebration of the People’s Liberation Army and the people’s war — saying that attending would legitimize this revolutionary army and delegitimize the reactionary National Army (which the civilian government also formally heads.)
“Many people still are not ready to accept a decade long People’s War to be the foundation of the declaration of republic. They hesitate to accept the truth that republic has been established on the strong foundation of PW. Therefore, the present situation is sharper than before.”
Changed role and responsibility of PLA
Prachanda
I am not in the same responsibility of supreme commander on this auspicious occasion of 14th anniversary of People’s War and 8th People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Day. I am feeling that the continuity of the past has been disconnected. I, on this occasion, am feeling pride of being the first elected Prime Minister of republic Nepal. I am feeling a deep responsibility.
We are in period of the peace process. Big challenges are before us to carry the peace process into a logical end for the bright future of Nepalese people. We have spilled our blood mostly for the election of the Constituent Assembly. We are now in the government, on the occasion for writing a new constitution. A deep responsibility is upon our shoulders.
I am speaking before you as the responsibility of a prime minister. Many different opinions and the some of the people have too many questions about Unified CPN (Maoist) and PLA if they are really in favour of peace process and they contribute to the peace process. They are raising so many questions at a time if Unified CPN (Maoist) is ready to write a constitution with multiparty competition, where there will be a political freedom, freedom of press, human rights etc.
Is human history directionally oriented? Does it point toward the overcoming of class society? This is one question — a contentious one — raised in the following, the third and final part of this essay written for Kasama. The first two parts are here and here.
Why historical materialism matters, 3
by Eddy Laing
Economic Base, Political-Ideological Superstructure and the Need for Revolution
In their historical analysis, Marx and Engels specifically noted and partly described several types of societies that have existed over the past two thousand years, primarily citing the Mediterranean and Europe. Tribal societies, slave societies, feudal societies, and capitalist societies have each been characterized by distinctive but generalizable economic relationships and technologies (e.g. estate agriculture using slave labor together with small-scale handicraft production) and ideo-political superstructures (Roman or common law, literature and music, religions and customs, etc.) In every stratified society, the dominant class exerts hegemonic control over the rest of society, including over intellectual life, aspirations, and the ability of subaltern strata to express ideas independent of that dominant, ruling class narrative. The proletariat (and every other non-dominant class) is not only expropriated economically; they are expropriated in every aspect of culture including their intellectual life. Consider, for example, how the ruling class narrative defines popular discussions of ‘democracy’, ‘dictatorship’, ‘violence’, ‘peace’, ‘terrorism’, ‘economic crisis’, and so on.
As NYU faculty, we call on the Administration to reinstate those students who have been summarily suspended for their recent protest at Kimmel, pending proper hearings by NYU’s disciplinary board. If there is disciplinary action, it should follow–not precede–fair hearings, in which both sides are represented and the faculty consulted.
The Administration’s statement on the Kimmel occupation focused only on student misconduct, thereby failing to acknowledge that the protest took place in response to the Administration’s conduct of university business. We therefore call on the Administration to address the serious policy issues that the protest has now raised, by working with the faculty, students, and staff to establish a university-wide fiscal accountability committee. In these hard times, candor and transparency are essential, if NYU’s economic policies are not to cause more friction, misunderstanding, and civil disobedience.
Allegations of excessive use of force against the protesters should be investigated promptly by an independent university committee.
We view the Kimmel occupation as symptomatic of a deeper malady afflicting NYU: a lack of educational community. In such a community, students would not find it necessary to take over buildings to make their voices heard and their ideas respected.
We have often sharply debated here questions of how to pursue progressive politics. And we clearly need to explore how to carry out revolutionary preparations in the context of an intense economic crisis.
Here is a article Keith shared with Kasama. As is typically true for many posts, Kasama does not endorse the analysis here but offers it because of its interest for readers. The piece has also been published on Keith’s blog Pirate Caucus which promotes “revolutionary democracy.”
By Keith Joseph
The economic crisis is in essence a debt crisis. For all the economic complexity involved in the details it basically easy to understand. There are way too many pieces of paper that supposedly entitle their holders to social wealth and there is not enough of that wealth to meet all those claims. Debt is just a promise to pay in the future what one does not have today. There are simply way too many of these promises and no way that they can all be paid.
In order for our society to get out of this crisis much of this debt has to be “forgiven.” In other words the creditors who lent the money have to accept that they are not going to be paid back and they will have to take the loss. This is no sin nor is it a crime. It is a part of the risk which lenders take and which, according to their economic theories, entitles them to profit. It also entitles them to lose. That is what “risk” means. The crisis continues because they won’t accept that they lost.
Once they take the loss the economy will start to move forward again. The crisis is continuing because the banks who loaned the money don’t want to accept the loss.
The bailouts are designed so that the banks do not have to accept the loss. Instead of the banks taking the hit, the government will borrow money to be paid back by our future tax dollars and they will give this money to the banks to make up for the losses they should have taken. That is a solution to the crisis but not the only one.
Instead of asking Washington to bailout people instead of banks, or asking the government to help Main St , instead of Wall St. we should just help ourselves, and solve this crisis by forming a union of debtors.
A debtors union is open to all who are indebted–credit cards, car loans, mortgages, student loans, medical bills etc. and once we organize ourselves we can refuse to pay and organize a mass default and force the debt to be written off, or we could decide to renegotiate the debt at a steep discount maybe twenty cents on the dollar. That will be for the union members to decide for themselves. In any event, we can take our destiny into our hands –Let’s “bailout” ourselves, lets “recapitalize” ourselves, lets get out of debt!
Fox asks East Lansing Mayor Verg Bernero if autoworkers shouldn’t have their wages and health care cut. Bernero rips back in angry protest against the attacks on working people. His response is shaped as an argument for “reciprocity” between workers and Wall Street — and opposition to a global “race to the bottom.” (“We’ll take our lumps, but….”)
It is a snapshot of a debate that is erupting over the economic crisis.
Jeffrey St. Clair’s Red State Rebels titled this video clip “How to Destroy a Fox News Anchor.” But really, Bernero’s defense of wages and benefits (though fiery, populist and far to rarely heard on TV) concedes far too much to capitalism. He assumes precisely the framework that must now be challenged.
So this is actually NOT HOW we should want to ”destroy a Fox News Anchor.” Something far more radical, biting and true is needed. This spontaneously emerging debate (framed by acceptance of this system and the terms of trade unionism) sharply poses questions of how revolutionaries should speak to these questions. And how we should start to mobilize people to speak and act.
This Red Star (Vol. 2, # 4) article was originally posted by Maoist Revolution Digest #1618. It is being made available on Banned Thought.
A burning question facing the Nepali revolution is how to move forward from an anti-monarchist revolution to a full anti-feudal revolution and then beyond to socialism. One issue at the heart of this is the question of agrarian revolution — how to fundamentally change the lives of the vast majority of people by radically changing the social relationships in the countryside.
The impoverished highlands that cover much of Nepal often have little to expropriate: there is little surplus and few plantation-like farms. It is the collective mobilization of the people to create roads, schools, new local communal industry and some day electification, only possible through new communal socialist forms of organization, that forms a key step toward the radical transformation of life.
This report describes the embryonic socialist forms emerging under communist leadership in Nepal’s countryside — and promotes them as models for the country as a whole.
At the graves of Afghani villagers killed by U.S. bombing
This is a moment that screams out for consistent internationalism, clear communist analysis, and creatively explained anti-imperialism.
It is a moment shaped by a sharp contradiction: This new government has started off its rule by sending more troops to prop up a vicious occupation of Afghanistan. And yet the level of resistance to that war and this escalation is incredibly, intolerably low.
For far too many people, this war in Afghanistan is still seen as “the good war” (the justified one) — while the Iraq war is seen as the “wrong war” (an invasion based on Cheney’s lies). there is in the U.S. ruling class that there can be no retreat from the U.S. intrusion into the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. And there is a very low understanding of the U.S. imperialist interests in this region, their purposes in this “war on terror,” and very little knowledge of the repeated “death from above” that has been killing Afghani people.
The new president, who ran as an anti-war Democrat, is now the commander in chief of vast brutal empire. He seeking to repackage this domination — and was hoisted into power (in part) to do exactly that.
“To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.”
We have been discussing here the degree to which inevitability and directionality are inherent in the development of various processes. Biological evolution and human social development are clearly distinct from each other (governed by different dynamics). But, nonetheless, there is something for revolutionaries to learn from Stephen Jay Gould’s lifelong challenge to the assumption of progressive directionality in evolution — and his polemical criticism of notions of life inherently moving from lower to higher.
Therehas objectively been in human social development an overall growth in social productive forces (overall, but hardly universal or continual) — that is relatively recent (over the last 20,000 years) and now relatively explosive (over the last two hundred years). And there has been, parallel to that, a series of radical changes in social organization, ideas, and forms of human political organization (including the development of nation states, and now many new international fusions based on the intense linkages of the global world market).
In an early discussion, I commented on the influence exherted by Gould in debates among communists:
“A great deal was learned from the works of Steven J. Gould (the radical evolutionary biologist). I can’t capsulize it all here…. but his work was characterized by several things I’ll note in passing: One was the ability to appreciate the value of wrong ideas (in a provocative and materialist way) including by uncovering what was correct within concepts that were (overall) wrong. Second Gould increasingly over his life went to war with determinism and teleology — and fought against inventing non-existing tendencies within nature (for example there is no tendency for life to go from simple to complex). ”
Here is a video in which Gould takes up these issues in a beginning way. It is part of a six part 1984 interview available on youtube.
“It’s just the simple thing that’s hard, so hard to do.”
Alain Badiou:
“The communist hypothesis remains the good one, I do not see any other. If we have to abandon this hypothesis, then it is no longer worth doing anything at all in the field of collective action. Without the horizon of communism, without this Idea, there is nothing in the historical and political becoming of any interest to a philosopher. Let everyone bother about his own affairs, and let us stop talking about it. In this case, the rat-man is right, as is, by the way, the case with some ex-communists who are either avid of their rents or who lost courage. However, to hold on to the Idea, to the existence of this hypothesis, does not mean that we should retain its first form of presentation which was centered on property and State. In fact, what is imposed on us as a task, even as a philosophical obligation, is to help a new mode of existence of the hypothesis to deploy itself.”
Speakers:
Judith Balso, Alain Badiou, Bruno Bosteels, Terry Eagleton, Peter Hallward, Michael Hardt, Jean-Luc Nancy, Toni Negri, Jacques Ranciere, Alessandro Russo, Alberto Toscano, Gianni Vattimo, Slavoj Zizek
“As the global economic collapse continues to unfold, the spirit of revolt and resistance is being rekindled within the hearts of the masses, and the people of the world are rising up. Resistance is spreading from Athens, Riga, Paris, Budapest, Kiev, Reykjavik, China, Mexico, and elsewhere.”
Revolt Spreads Across the Globe as “Crisis” Continues to Unfold
By Nathan Coe, GNN
“They say that the fires of revolt will spread everywhere, and we see acts like damage to bank branches or state buildings and claims of solidarity with the Greek rioters.”
After numerous European governments expressed fear that the unrest in Greece would spread to neighboring countries and perhaps around the world, the spreading global revolt has taken on another tone: that of confronting the elite for their manipulation of the economic “crisis” (which is really a systemic collapse) in order to consolidate yet even more wealth as the masses of the world suffer the brunt of the former’s greed. The spirit of the Greek revolt has not been forgotten, however, for it is clear whose interests the police serve and protect (as America was recently reminded in Oakland).
This appeared on Elliot’s Lines of Flight blog and is available in pdf. Redflags suggested sharing it. This is may not be the Kasama Project’s take on these matters. But it is of interest for reasons that are obvious.
by Elliot Liu
With the election of Obama and a widening economic crisis, it seems immense changes are sweeping national and global politics every week or so. Radicals, along with everybody else, are struggling to comprehend the nature of the changes around us, and the directions we can head in the future.
The good news: pretty much everybody thinks the next few years are going to offer the greatest opportunity to remake our world in decades.
The bad news: there are as many opinions about how to do it as there are letters in this paragraph.
Amid the flurry of forums, panel discussions, listserv back-and-forths and spirited bar talk animating lefty circles right now, socialist groups are putting forth proposals for new directions in the capital-L Left. Two notable proposals appeared recently in pamphlets distributed online and in bookstores. The first, Which Way Is Left, was produced by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a nationwide post-Maoist group formed in 1985. The second, Manifesto For A Left Turn, was put together by a collection of professors from the east coast including Stanley Aronowitz and Rick Wolff. Both pamphlets call for cohesion and organization-building in the U.S. left, and both fill me with mixed emotions.
On the one hand, the manner in which these pamphlets talk about the purpose of organizations, and methods of building them, tell me the party-building left is headed in interesting new directions. On the other hand, I’m critical of each pamphlet along pretty predictable lines. Which Way and Manifesto both fall within Marxist traditions that generally aim at taking state power through hierarchical organizations, while I identify with horizontalist, anti-authoritarian or anarchist struggles that have eschewed both. I’m inspired by Zapatista communities, Italian autonomia, and the counter-globalization movements, to name a few.
What Do The Pamphlets Say?
Each proposal claims the main stumbling block for movements here in the settler state is the fractured nature of our resistance, and both provide a laundry list of contemporary problems. For the Which Way authors, there’s a dearth of analyses that provide frameworks for effective action, a lack of trust between radical groups, and a failure to appreciate the immense scale of movement necessary to challenge U.S. power. Manifesto laments how progressives focus myopically on single issues, or limit themselves to acting as reformist hangers-on to the Democratic Party. Both pamphlets claim a national political formation and/or socialist party should be formed to address these problems.
For all the unapologetic womp heads who visit Kasama. This is for us. =)
From Wiki: Evol Intent is a hardstep drum and bass/IDM group formed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. in 2000. The group is comprised of The Enemy (Ashley Jones), Knick (Nick Weiller), and Gigantor (Mike Diasio).
Spread far and wide and come to Washington Square immediately. After offering to begin good faith negotiations, NYU has arrested and suspended the student negotiator team and initiated a police raid of the occupied space. This follows police pepper spraying and arresting supporters overnight, and NYU shutting off restroom access, internet, and power this morning.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, Feb. 20, 2009
Contacts:
Inside the Occupation: Emily Stainkamp, (336) 207-8318 | Farah Khimji, (214) 277-3879 | Outside the Occupation: Legba Carrefour, (703) 354-2044 | Emma Gordon, (518) 221-5787 | http://takebacknyu.com
NYU Students Shut Down Building In Protest;
Administration shuts off internet, power, restroom access, refuses to negotiate and initiates police raid.
New York: A student occupation of an NYU building stretched into its third day as the demonstration shut down the entirety of the Kimmel Center on Washington Square. Police clashed with supporters outside overnight and the NYU administration refused to negotiate with protesters, instead turning off internet and power, cutting off restroom access and sending police to raid the space, arresting and assaulting students.
In January, 1988, I was appointed to the Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies at Bard College. As this was a Presidential appointment outside the tenure system, I have served under a series of contracts. The last of these was half-time (one semester on, one off, with half salary and full benefits year-round), effective from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2009. On February 7 I received a letter from Michèle Dominy, Dean of the College, informing me that my contract would not be renewed this July 1 and that I would be moved to emeritus status as of that day. She wrote that this decision was made by President Botstein, Executive Vice-President Papadimitriou and herself, in consultation with members of the Faculty Senate.
As the Obama administration’s “stimulus plan” moves toward realization, and as more people, in broad swathes of the population, are affected in ever more serious ways by this economic crisis, we need to understand its causes and the ramifications. The following essay by Marxist geographer David Harvey originally appeared in The Bullet. We are posting the essay in two parts. This is the first.
From 
