War Clouds in Eastern Mediterranean

Down with the imperialist aggression of the EU, Israel and Arab tyrants against Turkey! Support the ongoing Arab Revolution!

https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/war-clouds-in-eastern-mediterranean/ <https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/war-clouds-in-eastern-mediterranean/>

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Revisiting the MPP After Its “People’s Convention”
Socialist Organizer, Sept. 13
https://tinyurl.com/y28h7dvq

"One month ago, The Organizer Weekly published an editorial with our
assessment of the Movement for a People’s Party (MPP). We affirmed,
based on MPP texts and actions that (1) the MPP was not proposing to
build a party truly independent of the Democrats and Republicans, and
(2) the MPP was not proposing to build a working-class party rooted in
the struggles of workers and oppressed communities — proposing instead
a multi-class “people’s party.”
. . .
"Let’s take a closer look at the August 30 “People’s Convention”
sponsored by the MPP to see if our assessment of the MPP is off base."
. . .

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From Trouw.nl 14/9:

Mexican presidents Salinas, Calderón and Peña Nieto now finally under investigation in what could be the "Trial of the century". Key figure is former Pemex director Emilio Lozoya.
Critics say it's AMLO who wants to reckon with his old adversaries. He proposes a referendum (!) next year about a possible trial of these three.

In Dutch:

https://www.trouw.nl/buitenland/mexico-denkt-eindelijk-aan-vervolgen-oud-presidenten~bbfbefc4/

Yes sex workers ought to be protected,and unionized.They ought to also undergo regular,government mandated,health checks,and screenings.Brothels ought to be regularly cleaned,sanitized,and inspected,much the way hotels are.It should be illegal to be a pimp.A lot of us on the left get that.But with all that said,why is it that a country like New Zealand has failed to control the sex trafficking of underage girls and boys?Or the sexual exploitation of Maori people?Why is sex work,in NZ,not monitored,to the degree it is in some European countries,like Switzerland,or the Netherlands?

Trotsky's words were very wise,for their time,and somewhat prophetic,given that the first nuclear power plant did not begin operations until 1951.However,at that time,no one could forsee what would happen in the future,with disasters,like Three Mile Island,Chernobyl,Fukushima,etc.Nuclear is no safer,or cleaner,than fossil fuels,and we need to abandon both.

Then we get to renewables,like solar.Solar panels require mining for rare earth metals for their construction,and only have a definite life span.Many are probably just tossed in landfills,after they have lived out their usefulness.There they can leach toxins,into the soil or ground water.This could be said of any storage battery.There is some debate about the reliability,and efficiency,of wind farms.Could this land be used for other purposes,like wildlife habitat,or the growing of food?I believe the perfect,safest,and most environmentally friendly renewable energy source has yet to be invented. 

I guess you haven't read Zerzan yet, nor are you familiar with continental philosophy. Zerzan engages alot with it. I can recommend his radio show also. Yes, neoprimitivism is an analytical tool, not an ideology; I certainly don't wish the destruction of civilisation. If boogie man the US keeps on this self-destructive path it certainly will collaps all by itself. No Marx is going to save you.

No part of a spiritual community, mister Kalosar-Mercader911. I was here ten years ago, but lost contact. Groups.io is much better.

Read these:

Camejo:

Against Sectarianism, https://www.marxists.org/archive/camejo/1983/againstsectarianism.htm

Problems of Vanguardism, https://www.marxists.org/archive/camejo/1984/19841001.htm

Return to Materialism, https://www.marxists.org/archive/camejo/1995/materialism.htm

The Cochranite Legacy: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/amersocialist/cochranite_legacy.htm

Our Orientation, by Bert Cochran, https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/ibt/ibt08.htm

From The American Socialist:

Founding of the Socialist Union
Prospects of American Radicalism by Bert Cochran
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/amersocialist/v01n01-jan-1954-American%20Socialist.pdf

Heyday of American Radicalism by Bert Cochran
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/amersocialist/v01n07-jul-1954-American%20Socialist.pdf

John Bellamy Foster is my second favorite academic.In my opinion,he is only topped by Gerald Horne.

"Marx was a hippy"--not true but who cares anyway?  The Marx we value <em>could not</em> have resorted to the nonsensical intuitive romantic moralism that underlies all this neoprimitive nonsense.  Be anything you like, but you can't be a "neoprimitive" and a Marxist too. 

Of course you are free to say anything you like--but that is another matter. Donald Trump proves this every day.

"Anticipated this response."  If by this you mean you expected your drivel to be exposed as nonsense, then congratulations on your uncanny perspicacity.  

"Analytical tool."  What exactly is that supposed to mean?  I don't see any analysis here, only a small, steaming pile of smug and fatuous bald assertions without evidence or actual argumentation of any kind. 

We will have to go forward with advanced industrial civilization or else.  Maybe it will be "else." But those who airily dismiss this--like the nullities who prattle on about the need to eliminate white collar "bullshit jobs" and workers--can always be detected by their unwillingness or inability to engage with the reality of social reproduction and their substitution of some insipid fantasy instead.

One associates this kind of thing with the sort of little "spiritual" communities  that are supposed to be maintained by wealthy eccentrics on English country estates.  It makes a fun plot for a Midsomer Murder, but is otherwise not worth engaging with.

Crackpot stuff.

I've read a couple of Sacco's other graphic novels.The Will Eisner influence is strong here.

Excellent article,with some very good historical background.May I suggest two more books,that are among the best I ever read,Lawrence Goodwyn's The Populist Moment,and Hammer and Hoe,by Robin O. Kelly.

So how do you convince lefties,who vote for the Democrats,out of fear,and lesserevilism,to abandon the Democratic Party,and either vote for an established party,like the Greens,or to build an entirely new party? 

Do you think the Movement For A People's Party is going to have any success?

Hawkins again makes the point we have heard so many times before,that the tactic of changing the Democratic Party from within is a bust.Myee's Hoening's excellent piece in Counterpunch the other day,again argues that the DSA will never truly be a voice for socialism,the poor,and working class,so long as they are tied to the Democratic Party.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/11/democrats-and-republicans-should-just-merge/

The question here for the DSA,is could the DSA sever all ties with the Democrats,without losing a significant amount of their membership,and how might they do this,and avoid such a loss?  

What if we were to build a real socialist,or populist left party,that would be big enough to gain national notoriety?Could we be big enough and powerful enough to survive a new Red Scare,or neo-McCarthyist attacks?One need only look at the baseless socialist/communist mud thrown at blantant right wingers,like Biden and Harris.

I know there are those here who do not approve of Democratic Centralism,and may think bottom up organizing is better.I do believe there is room on the left for groups that practice both models to exist side by side,and work together for common goals.I may also get banned for mentioning the PSL enough times,but we have been doing exactly what Hawkins talks about here as far as local branches offering political education to the public at large.Before COVID-19 hit,we regularly offered public classes,seminars,and study groups.Education about the basics of Marxism.Education about important issues of the day,from a Marxist perspective.Education about the real history of socialist,and communist countries.Our local membership includes a semi-retired college professor,who is a top China expert.Our outreach here is largely based on what communist and socialist parties in the US were doing in the 1890s-1930s.We have even offered conferences on ecosocialism,and climate change.Of course,COVID-19 has pretty much put such public activities on an indefinite hold.Some PSL branches now post invitations to such events as Zoom meetings,on social media.

Like the Panthers,the PSL is also involved in community outreach efforts,as far as providing aid to the undocumented,and the poorest people left out of government assistance programs.Food assistance,helping these people get stimulus checks,mask and hand sanitizer making parties,drives for clothing and hygeine products for Central American refugee,you name it.You might want to check out the social media feeds of some of the branches about these activities.  

If anybody knows of such activities by other socialist parties,I would really like to hear about them.

Our branch also has two heads of union locals,one is a teacher,the other a carpenter.This is not uncommon.

Sectarianism is an issue Hawkins fails to mention here,and it's the proverbial elephant in the room.It is one of the more serious issues we on the left face,whether it be in internet discussion groups,in street level political organizing,or in inter-party relationships.We on the left will never be a large enough force to be reckoned with,until we settle our sectarian differences.   

I've been interested in new nukes for some time and at one time was ready to hop on the thorium bandwagon.  Frankly, my loss of interest has less to do with one big problem for a hedgehog (waste, steam explosions) than with the accumulation of many smaller problems for foxes, most of them stemming from what I see as the radical incapacity of capitalism to grapple with the social scope of the associated issues.

From what I can tell, several proposed new reactor designs could reduce the waste-storage toxicity problem to the scale of a hundred or a few hundred years rather than many thousands.  Other problems, eg the management of molten salt corrosiveness over decades and the possibility of eg massive accidental releases of gamma radiation as a result of this in certain types of thorium MSRs (David Walters help me out on this!) are lost in the fog of contending promotions.  

It would be entirely reasonable, given the alternatives, for humanity to embrace responsibility for greatly reduced quantities of nuclear waste over a hundred or a few hundred years--it would require less of a sustained effort than the maintenance of Notre Dame Cathedral or the Aya Sofia Mosque, let alone the Pantheon.  Surely a worldwide revolution  would create conditions that would allow us to assume that responsibility.

The Hanford and other bogeyman nuclear pollution sites mentioned here are relict of the US weapons program and constitute essentially a different workstream entirely from nuclear power station waste, as David Walters points out.  This is not to minimize the problem they present--as does medical nuclear waste, also unrelated to power generation--but to put it in its place in the context of nuclear power generation as a climate-change mitigation strategy.

The reality IMO is simply that we on the left do not possess adequate and trustworthy information on any of the proposed "solutions"--from Terra Power to ThorCon--because AFAIK none of those solutions has actually been built, and because the voices describing them are not responsible, objective scientific voices but the voices of businesspeople trying to sell "entrepreneurial" free-market products, most of which currently remain vaporware. Even in the case of the IMO undeniably brilliant Kirk Sorensen, still lless the lesser lights of Martingale, Inc.--what we are hearing is the voice of money talking--hence an alienated and completely unreliable discourse based on a model of production that cannot succeed at the level of social criticality required.

Nuclear anything is difficult to understand and probably impossible to grasp in its full complexity unless one is a nuclear scientist or engineer.  It's a fact that almost anything involving engineering design is a lot harder for the Hueys, Deweys, and Louies of the gutbucket left to grasp (myself included)--I personally fade out even when being lectured on the complexities of carburetors or the engineering required to produce really effective steam locomotives--but "nuclear" takes this to unimaginable heights.

It's really too bad that apparently nobody of Haldane's caliber exists today to organize a standards-based left inquiry into these matters.  Short of an international Marxist task force of qualified engineers and scientists--and who could verify their bona fides anyway?--there does not appear to be a way forward here.  But IMO that is greatly to be regretted. Can we look to China? I doubt it.

I suspect that a lot of nuclear normal scientists and engineers have inherited as a badge of pride the feeling that they have become Kali, the Destroyer of Worlds, without experiencing Oppenheimer's moral revulsion to that insight.  To such people, perhaps the rest of us are mere arselings  who cannot handle the truth.  Many of them, I suspect, will say anything to silence criticism or delude critics.  As long as this obstacle exists, if it does, no progress can be made on new nukes even if there does turn out to be a feasible way forward.