As the name declares, the aim of this blog is to post agitations on a regular basis to help undermine the mirages of mainstream politics. In no other realm could such blatant misinformation, double standards, hypocrisy, self-contradiction, narrow interests packaged as universal truths, and so on, be excused.
Providing rejoinders to this plague of non-truths is the main purpose of this blog. But at the same time, this blog will also explore more positive contributions to political theory; that is, thinking communist theory in our current post-political era. How to reignite a popular war against capital and realize Marx’s vision is the question to be faced here.
Necessary Agitation 
Please post
News & Letters, The Journal of Marxist-Humanism
The May-June 2010 issue of News & Letters is now available on line.
Contents:
“Draft for Marxist-Humanist Perspectives, 2010-2011: Capital devours
lives, labor, land; masses seek paths to freedom”
I. Alienated labor in today’s struggles
a. Labor battles from mine to schoolroom
b. Crisis rooted in production
c. Healthcare battles reveal the menace from the Right
d. Labor internationally: revolt from Greece to China
II. Development: capitalist accumulation or revolution?
a. Haiti after the quake
b. The great land grab
III. War and revolution
a. Afghan war and Kyrgyz revolt
b. Nuclear threat remains
c. Iran’s freedom movement in crosshairs of counter-revolution
IV. Philosophy as a force of revolution
V. Marxist-Humanist Tasks for 2010-11
“For mine bosses, 29 dead just the cost of digging coal”
Before the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in Montcoal W. Va. Massey CEO
Don Blankenship instituted a reign of terror in the 15 Massey mine
communities in West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania…. If any miner
expressed sympathy for a union, objected to unsafe conditions or
criticized Blankenship, that miner was fired on the spot….
“From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya: Marxist-Humanism’s original
contribution”
This excerpt from a transcript of Dunayevskaya’s April 18, 1976, speech
titled, “Our Original Contribution to the Dialectic of the Absolute Idea
as New Beginning: In Theory, and Leadership, and Practice” is an
explicit discussion of what Marxist-Humanism’s original contribution is.
It is central to our projected new work of selected writings by
Dunayevskaya on Marx.
“Essay: Rosa Luxemburg, Raya Dunayevskaya and 21st century socialism”
by Narihiko Ito: A Japanese Marxist’s view
When [Raya Dunayevskaya] sent me her new book Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s
Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution in 1982, I was deeply
impressed. I wanted to talk with her directly and sent her an invitation
to the Third International Rosa Luxemburg Association Conference in
Paris in May 1983….
“Black/Red View: The New Jim Crow”
On April 15 Michelle Alexander gave a talk in Berkeley, Calif., on her
new book, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness (New York, London: The New Press, 2010). We print a
summary of Ms. Alexander’s talk.
“World in View: People’s Climate Summit and protests in Bolivia”
Called after the disastrous failure of the Copenhagen Climate Summit,
the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change and Rights of Mother Earth
is supposed to present an anti-capitalist alternative coming from the
Global South.
More articles, May-June 2010 N&L
“Workshop Talks: Let health workers do their jobs right”
“Anti-choice terrorism”
“Women World Wide”
“ALL Families Rally”
“Save Our Home!”
“Anna Walentynowicz”
“Colombian workers tossed on a trash heap”
“Readers’ Views”
“Dialogue from Network of Iranian Labor Unions”
“Fight the ‘injunktion'”
“‘This is no way to run a school'”
“Hondurans fight back”
“Public subsidizes private ‘affordable housing'”
“Queer Notes”
“Tea party not welcome”
“World in View: Israelis, Palestinians oppose Netanyahu”
“World in View: Thailand
Hi,
I found your post on the Modern Movement really interesting. I’ve been building up a picture of the post RCP activities of Fox, Furedi et al on Powerbase (previously SpinProfiles) as a public record and service.
Hopefully, I haven’t been unfair: I just think people should know about the fuller picture before they get involved.
Anything you’d like to pass on will be gratefully accepted and either published or used to help understand the background, up to and including email lists.
However, be assured we won’t be publicising personal details and are more interested in the long established hard core than newer members who don’t always know what they’re getting into, of course.
I hope that’s of interest to you.
Thanks again for a brilliant post.
Simon
Hi Simon,
Thanks for your comments, but the post was already pretty exhaustive. Although the stuff about the continuity RCP being like a ‘middle class cult’ might be the most uncharitable comment, the overall approach certainly mirrored other small groups that spiraled off in this direction, like the remnants of the Iranian MEK; a group with its own personality cult around Mayram Rajavi. Without wanting to give any specifics, the webs of patronage (people working for the IoI, other ex-RCP members, etc.) and inter-group relationships are really quite weird.
NA
I was a RCP supporter and active ‘Living Marxism’ street vendor in the mid 1990’s. Nothing you say surprises me, even though I still generally have some time for Mick Hume’s analyses it seems Furedi has really gone off his trolley. And the others seem both arrogant as ever, but also extremely confused. As though they are somehow trying to row back to a mooring they’ve let slip. I’d be interested to know about the IoI ‘Right’, figures like Dolan Cummings and Patrick Hayes seem quite odious.