No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban and the War through Afghan Eyes
By Anand Gopal
Picador, New York, 2014

Reviewed by Chris Slee

This book, published seven years before the Taliban took control of Kabul for a second time in 2021, helps explain their victory.

By John Riddell

October 20, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell Marxist Essays and Commentary — Addressing the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee on 17 August  2021, Xi Jinping, president of the Chinese People’s Republic, stressed the need for “common prosperity” as a fundamental requirement of socialism.[1] The Central Committee responded by calling on high-income individuals and businesses to “give back more to society.”[2]

Big-businesses media in the West have reacted to this development with expressions of concern. “The End of a ‘Gilded Age’: China is Bringing Business to Heel,” declared A New York Times headline. “Where once executives had a green light to grow at any cost,” the Times continued, “officials now want to dictate which industries boom, which ones bust.”[3]

By Seiya Morita

January 21, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Despite the many voices in favor of a change of government heard on the eve of Japan’s 49th general election held at the end of October 2021, the ruling parties, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Kōmeitō, secured a stable absolute majority. They achieved this with only a minimal loss of seats (LDP from 276 to 261; Kōmeitō from 29 to 32; total from 305 to 293). The main opposition parties, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), which fielded coalition candidates in most single-seat electoral districts in an effort to change the government, lost seats (CDP from 109 to 96; JCP from 12 to 10). Most of the seats lost were snatched up by Nihon Ishin No Kai, an Osaka-based neoliberal party, which increased its number of seats several times over (from 11 to 41).

There are two contrasting assessments of the election results and the opposition coalition. Many in the media argued that the opposition coalition was a failure, or even a disaster. On the other hand, the supporters of the opposition, including the Communist Party leadership itself, are of the opinion that it was not a great defeat at all, and even think they got the ruling parties on the ropes.

January 21, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Dani Films — Climate change is among the world’s greatest challenges. As a small Caribbean island, Cuba is disproportionately affected by climate change through extreme weather events. Up to 10% of Cuban territory could be submerged by the end of the century, wiping out coastal towns, polluting water supplies, destroying agricultural lands and forcing one million people to relocate. Finding solutions is now essential.

In this documentary, Dr Helen Yaffe goes to Cuba to find out about ‘Tarea Vida’ (Life Task), a long-term state plan to protect the population, environment and the economy from climate change. The Cuban approach combines environmental science, natural solutions and community participation in strategies for adaptation and mitigation. There are lessons here for the world.

Produced by DaniFilms with Dr Helen Yaffe from the University of Glasgow for the COP26 conference in Glasgow.

Directed, Edited and Produced by Daniesky Acosta. Co-directed by Hugo Rivalta. Co-produced by Helen Yaffe. Assistant producer Laura Rivalta.

By William Briggs

January 21, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Hardly a week goes by without a new book, commentary or academic paper being published about China in the 21^st century. Most of these portray China as a threat and most link this to the idea that China is socialist. The demonisation is real. The threat is real, although it is a threat that comes from the United States and its allies. However, regardless of attacks from the West, China cannot be considered socialist.

The characterisation of China is a key part of the US campaign against China. China’s economic rise threatens US hegemony. The left, quite correctly, stands against the threats that emanate from the USA. Socialists can recognise that hundreds of millions have been brought out of poverty in China. But what they cannot do is accept that China is a socialist state, or that its advances are because of any socialist or Marxist policy.

There needs to be clarity in our analysis of just what China is. Some voices on the left promote the alleged socialist credentials of China. Their arguments, however, do not stand up to scrutiny. 

By Youngsu Won

January 2, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — With 2022 beginning, South Korea's left remains extremely divided and politically fragmented. In terms of institutional politics, the only left-wing party in parliament is Shim Sang-jung’s Justice Party (JP), nominally the third party in parliament with just 6 seats out of 295. Unfortunately, JP is the exclusive representative of progressive politics in South Korea’s parliament. Moreover, and in spite of its moderate position, it is evident that JP’s links with labour and popular movements are quite thin and fragile. Some Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) unionists are party members, but most labour and social movement leaders and activists do not belong to JP.

The over-representation of JP in progressive politics is a tragic result of the political collapse of the National Liberation (NL) tendency-led Unified Progressive Party (UPP), which has no seats in parliament and is struggling to politically survive after the party’s arbitrary and forceful dissolution by the Park Geun-hye government in 2013. Though this party remains organisationally strong, in a relative sense, and influential among labour and popular movements, its power in comparison to the previous Democratic Labour Party (DLP) was tremendously weakened. The DLP-UPP years has long gone.

By Rasti Delizo

January 8, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Today’s imperialist world system reflects a combined set of diverse crises sharpening the global order’s systemic contradictions. These inherently include the generalized and deepening crisis of the international capitalist economy, the deadly and unabating COVID-19 pandemic, rising regional and transregional political-security tensions driven by inter-imperialist competitions, and the catastrophic climate change emergency endangering humankind and its ecosystems. The consequence of this historical conjuncture of worldwide ruptures already poses a direct threat to the future of our universal humanity. Hence, the international working-class movement—led by progressive, Left and revolutionary socialist forces—is now urgently tasked to overcome the multiple crises of capitalism by resolutely advancing the general struggle for world socialism. 

By William Briggs

January 8, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — A lie, well told, is often easy to believe. The fiction that China somehow presents a threat to our lives and lifestyles proves the point. Cold War rhetoric is accepted as truth, even when there is no ideological battlefield.

The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was supposedly about ideas. It was presented as a battle between the forces of light on one side and the forces of darkness on the other. The idea was well marketed, and the world ran along these ‘ideological’ rails for the better part of half a century until the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

By Susan Rosenthal

January 8, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialism is the Best Medicine — The emergence of yet another COVID variant and a surge of new infections and restrictions have people wondering if this pandemic will ever end.

We’ve known how to stop infectious disease transmission for over a century. The problem is that our profit-driven society is structured to a) promote the spread of infectious diseases and b) block effective measures to stop them.

Hosted by Just Transition Hub

By Kevin Skerrett

December 6, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Project — For many sports fans in Canada, the most memorable moment of this past summer’s Olympic Games in Japan was the triumph of the Canadian women’s soccer team, a heart-stopping penalty-shootout win over Sweden that garnered them an unprecedented gold medal. For followers of the team, and especially its veterans, there was additional relish in reaching that pinnacle after having already defeated the #1-ranked US team in the semi-final, a win that arguably avenged a crushing – highly contentious – semi-final loss to the US in the 2012 Olympic semi-final.

An unquestionably stirring moment – even for those who reject the nationalism and hyper-commodification that the Olympic Games both feeds and thrives on. But the Canadian women’s soccer win could also be viewed in light of decades of social and political struggle over the rights of women to simply play ‘football’. The fact is that exactly 100 years ago today, on December 5th, 1921, England’s Football Association (FA) officially banned women from playing the game under their authority – no use of their grounds, no support from their teams, not even accessing their referees and officials.

By Sonny Melencio

November 25, 2021  — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Rappler — Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) fielded almost a complete slate from presidency, vice presidency, senators, and partylist in the 2022 elections. Our slate consists of labor leader Ka Leody de Guzman for president, activist parliamentarian and Laban ng Masa chairperson Walden Bello as vice president, workers’ advocate Luke Espiritu as senator, and environmental leaders Roy Cabonegro and David D’Angelo also as senators. 

We are also running as PLM partylist in Congress, with nominees coming from public sector unions, people’s organizations, women, and urban poor groups. We have a few local candidates contesting political clans and dynasties in areas such as Carmona, Cavite; Caloocan City; Zambales; and others.

Fielding candidates for top posts is a bold and daring move for Left groups. It has never been done before. The closest experience is the running of eight senatorial candidates by Partido ng Bayan (PnB) in 1987, shortly after the EDSA People’s Power Revolution in 1986.

By Dick Nichols

November 15, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — The casual observer of the Spanish Basque Country (Euskadi) might have thought that the October 18 declaration of left-independentist alliance EH Bildu and its largest affiliate Sortu would have been welcomed by all sides of politics (see English version here).

The statement, which was read in Spanish by EH Bildu coordinator general Arnaldo Otegi and in Basque (euskara) by Sortu general secretary Arkaitz Rodríguez, delivered what many have long sought from the abertzale (patriotic) left: acknowledgment of the suffering caused by the 43-year-long military-terrorist actions of its armed wing, Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA). 

By Geoff Mirelowitz

November 14, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from World-Outlook — September 11 marked the 48^th anniversary of the 1973 bloody military coup, backed by Washington, which overthrew the elected Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) government led by Salvador Allende in Chile.

On September 12, Jacobin, a magazine that describes itself as “a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture,” published an interview by Mia Dragnic with Tomás Moulian titled, “Salvador Allende Was Overthrown Because His Government Showed Chile Could Be Transformed.” Moulian is a sociologist today. According to Jacobin, he was “one of the leading militants of the Popular Unitary Action Movement (MAPU Obrero Campesino), a left-wing party that played a key role in Allende’s Popular Unity government,” and a “pre-candidate for the Communist Party in the 2005 presidential election.”

Eric Blanc’s article, “Socialists Should Take the Right Lessons from the Russian Revolution,” also originally appeared in Jacobin in July.

By Mike Taber

November 14, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell's Marxist Essays and Commentary via World-Outlook — Eric Blanc is a serious and dedicated socialist historian and activist who doesn’t hesitate to jump into the fray and take positions he knows are controversial. Such an attitude is commendable, even if I disagree with his conclusions. His latest article, “Socialists Should Take the Right Lessons from the Russian Revolution” — published in Jacobin and reprinted on John Riddell’s website — is no exception and merits careful examination.

In his article Blanc aims to set the record straight on V. I. Lenin and the Russian Revolution, and to demolish the “myth of Bolshevik exceptionalism,” which he asserts is “wrong for our own time.” Instead, he seeks to establish the “right lessons” socialists should take from the history of the fight for “socialist transformation.”

By Eric Blanc

November 14, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from World-Outlook — Socialists have rightly taken inspiration from the Russian Revolution for generations, but many of the lessons drawn from it are wrong for our own time. To make change today, we need to take democratic socialism seriously as a theory and practice.

Radicals have lived under the political shadow of the Russian Revolution for more than a hundred years. Inspired by the example of 1917, generation after generation of socialists sought to learn and implement what they took to be the core political lessons of the Bolsheviks.

Though millions of activists gave everything to this project and played important roles in winning gains for working people across the world, Leninist parties have never come close to making their own revolution in advanced capitalist democracy. The tragedy of the Bolsheviks’ inspiring example was not only that they so quickly succumbed to the horrors of Stalinism, but that they over-projected a revolutionary approach ill-suited for parliamentary contexts.

November 14, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — This is a prerecording of the 2020 Deutscher Prize Lecture by John Bellamy Foster. The title of the lecture is: “The Return of the Dialectics of Nature: Marxian Ecology and the Struggle for Freedom as Necessity.” In addition to this lecture a remote panel discussion was held on November 12, 2021.

By William M. LeoGrande, John M. Kirk and Philip Brenner

November 11, 2021  — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Center for Latin American & Latino Studies — Fifteen months before the island-wide protests that rocked Cuba on July 11, 2021, Rowman and Littlefield published Cuba at the Crossroads, which we edited. The book explored several challenges the country was facing—though at the time of writing COVID-19 was not among them—and anticipated that change would be inevitable. Contrary to a common narrative that Cuba is mired in the twentieth century unable to adapt to new circumstances, Cuba at the Crossroads highlighted changes that had occurred in the six years since we had edited A Contemporary Cuba Reader: The Revolution under Raúl Castro. But most observers did not appreciate how angry many Cubans have become over the slow pace of change and the government’s seeming lack of understanding of the suffering Cubans were experiencing. The unprecedented outpouring of protests on July 11 surprised analysts and even the protest organizers themselves. 

November 11, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Socialist Project — The Scarlet Standard are joined by Sam Gindin, a legendary Canadian labour researcher, author, and organizer, to chat about a wide-range of topics involving the state of labour in North America. They try to dissect the pesky truth of neoliberalism, the limits of unions, and what is next for the left under Biden.

By Don Fitz

November 6, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — As climate change leads humanity’s march to Armageddon, data surfacing during late 2021 suggests that the march could be much briefer than previously thought. “Nature is starting to emit greenhouse gases in competition with cars, planes, trains, and factories,” asserts Robert Hunziker. The Amazon has switched from soaking up CO2 to emitting it. Likewise, the Arctic has flipped from being a carbon sink to becoming an emission source. Permafrost is giving off the three main greenhouse gases (GHGs): CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide. So much Siberian permafrost is melting that buildings are collapsing as methane bombs explode, resulting in craters 100 feet deep.