Reports from the successfully concluded Founding Conference of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization, Chicago, July 3-4, 2010

Why a New International Marxist-Humanist Organization? Why Now? The Economic, Political, and Philosophical Context By Peter Hudis

It is necessary to look at Marx’s work as a whole, not fragment him into the economic, political, or philosophical dimension alone. In analyzing the global economic crisis, especially in Greece, we need to ask why so many of the current critiques from the left have stressed making the rich not the workers pay, rather than the uprooting of the capitalist system itself.  Here another look at Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Program alongside Dunayevskaya’s writings on the dialectics of organization and philosophy is crucial.  We also need to develop the politicalization of philosophy in light of recent events in Iran, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, and elsewhere. — Editors

Overcoming Some Current Challenges to Dialectical Thought by Kevin Anderson

The views set out in our Statement of Principles and our commitment to the dialectics of revolution place us in conflict with the dominant philosophical perspectives, even on the Left. Two of these dominant perspectives on the Left are:  (1) the tradition of democracy and civil society that emerged in the 1980s as a rejection of revolution and of Marxism and with which are associated thinkers like Jürgen Habermas; (2) the traditions of autonomous Marxism and postcolonialism, which are associated with thinkers like Antonio Negri and Edward Said.   The first of these trends is influential in the mass democratic movement in Iran today, while the second is influential in the anti-globalization movement. — Editors

On Philosophic Battles of Ideas, Past and Present by David Black

Black offers a dialectical critique of Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s materialist interpretation of ancient Greek philosophy, which has influenced a number of current and recent Marxist philosophers, among them Adorno, Postone, and Arthur. Another problem is how some on the left have been uncritical of Islamism, while others like Dawkins have put forth a “new atheism.”  A more dialectical view of religion is presented, rooted in Marx, Hegel, and the last writings of Dunayevskaya on the dialectics of organization and philosophy.  — Editors

Celebrating the Centenary of Raya Dunayevskaya  (1910-1987)

What Does Marxist-Humanism Mean for Today?

The US Marxist-Humanists have produced a video of a meeting at Loyola University Chicago and have also posted the written texts or summaries for some of the presentations.Speakers
Peter McLaren (UCLA)
David Schweickart (Loyola University)
Sandra Rein (University of Alberta)
Ba Karang (West Africa)
Kevin Anderson (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Peter Hudis (Loyola University).

GO TO THE US MARXIST-HUMANISTS SITE

‘REIFICATION A MYTH' SHOCK
(or What Gillian Rose Tells Us About Sohn-Rethel, Adorno, Capitalism and Ancient Greece)

By David Black

“Reification “ is frequently associated with the term “alienation” in the writings of Marx and Hegel, although, as Gillian Rose pointed out, “reification” has no canonical source in Marx or Hegel. Amongst post-Marx marxists “reification” is variously, though not exclusively, defined as:

1. The process by which a social totality (or “wholeness” of a person) is fragmented, destroyed or denied.

2. The process by which concrete labour is abstracted to constitute exchange-value.

3. The transformation of social relations into the appearance of relations between things.

4. The identifying of an abstract concept with a concrete reality.

 
In the theory of George Lukacs (1886-1971) reification is the specifically capitalist form of objectification, which determines the structure of all capitalist social forms. But, as shown by Gillian Rose (1947-1995), in post-Lukacsian “Critical Theory” there is a crucial shift, in which theorists  concerned with “the point in history at which reification irrupted into society, and the possibility or impossibility of overcoming it” usually date it “from the end of Greek antiquity!” The bemusement denoted by the exclamation mark is significant; for in Rose’s view the equation of “alienation “ and “reification” ignores Marx’s notion of “species being” which he developed to counter the unhistorical view of “human nature” as fixed, unchanging essence (part of the problem for Lukacs and those influenced by him was that Marx’s 1844 writings on alienation were unknown until the 1930s). Also, as Rose was well aware, “reification” for some Marxists dated not from the end of Greek antiquity but from the earlier period (early 5th century BCE) which gave birth to  Greek philosophy.  George Thomson, as quoted by Alfred Sohn-Rethel (1899-1990), argues that “civilised thought has been dominated from the earliest times down to the present day by what Marx called the fetishism of commodities, that is, the false consciousness generated by the social relations of commodity production.” This misreading and misuse of Marx’s theory is compounded by Sohn-Rethel’s attempt to build on it. READ IN FULL

We Are All Palestinians Now 

“We are all Palestinians now.”  That was the chant by the mourners in Turkey as the bodies of the nine victims of Israeli shock troops were returned to Istanbul. It is our slogan today as well. READ IN FULL

DEBATE: Marx and the Christian Logic of the Secular State

By Roland Boer

"If you call your state a general Christian state, you are admitting with a diplomatic turn of phrase that it is un-Christian." (Karl Marx)
"The precarious separation of church and state is, once again, under threat. From the invocation of a vague ‘Christian heritage’ by European countries, through the contradictory debates over (Muslim) head-coverings in France and Denmark, to the open avowals of Christian belief and its effect on their political lives by leaders in the UK, Australia and Malaysia, it has once again become clear that the separation of church and state is either an impossible goal or a political fiction."

[PLUS COMMENTS from Stephane Julien, Richard Abernethy and David Black - READ IN FULL]

Notes Towards a Definition of Resistance

(a speculative reading of colonialism in the global context)

By Prakash Kona

"Resistance cannot be understood without a notion of time. The resister creates his or her own time because every other time works against the resistance. In a system of wage slavery the 'time' of the working classes is taken away to incapacitate them from arriving at the consciousness of their being-in-the-world." "Within those brief moments when the system is refueling itself like a beast that must devour in order to acquire the strength to terrorize the world, it is in those nanoseconds that resistance enters those spaces of consciousness, where imagination declares its right to create out of the materials of life a language that articulates the selfhood of the poor and the powerless." [READ IN FULL]

David Harvey's Economics - a comment

This letter of  published in the Big Issue (April 26) was written in response to an article by David Harvey in a previous issue.

In the doldrums of an election campaign where only slightly different alternatives within capitalism are on offer, it is good to read David Harvey's bold call for an alternative to capitalism. I also agree with his view that the name of communism is too damaged by its bad 20th century connotations (Stalin, Mao, etc) to be reclaimed with its good 19th century connotations (Marx and Engels). However, I find his suggestion that the movement should just define itself as anti-capitalist, or the Party of Indignation, less than satisfactory. It is inadequate to declare what we are against without defining what we are for. Capitalism at least has the advantage of being the devil we know. People cannot be expected to stake their whole future on a revolutionary change of system until they have confidence that there is an alternative that will really make life better. Opponents of capitalism need to work out a positive, life-enhancing alternative (something the Left has so far failed to do) and the choice of a name should reflect this. We might take a cue from the young Marx, who described his vision of a new society as a fully developed humanism.

Richard Abernethy

Africom and the USA’s Hidden Battle Front in Africa

By Ba Karang

"AFRICOM is a Unified Combatant Command of the US Department of Defense, responsible for U.S. military operations and military relations with 53 African nations (excepting Egypt). Africa Command was established October 1, 2007 and formally activated October 1, 2008 at a public ceremony at the Pentagon attended by representatives of African nations." [READ IN FULL]

Announcing a new formation: The International Marxist-Humanist Organization

4 March 2010 - The U.S. Marxist-Humanists, the London Corresponding Committee and representatives from Africa, Canada, India, and The Netherlands announce the formation of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization. This new group has come together to issue political-philosophic statements and perspectives as well as engaging in common activities. Its first action is issuing following statement of principles. MORE

A response to Danny Postel's call for critical solidarity with Iran

By Frieda Afary

"In contrast to the period preceding and immediately after the 1979 Revolution, when the vast majority of the Iranian Left consisted of the pro-Soviet Tudeh Party and the Maoist advocates of guerrilla warfare, there is now a growing new Left in Iran that challenges the old Left's legacy of allegiance to the former Soviet Union and Communist China under Mao. This new Left is completely aware of the collaboration of the Tudeh with Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 in the name of anti-imperialism. It invites critiques of Stalinist and Maoist brands of thinking. It has welcomed new translations of Marx's 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts as well as Capital. (See the English translation of Hassan Mortazavi's preface to the new Persian translation of Capital volume I. It is fascinated by the concepts found in G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind. This new generation also reflects the deep interest in philosophy that has characterized Iran during the past two decades. It is challenging the economic and ideological views of the old Left that persist but are devoid of new ideas." READ IN FULL

Support the People of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Face of Imperialist War and Fundamentalist Retrogression!

We protest the sharp escalation of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the Obama administration and the NATO powers. In recent months, the US has announced that it would deploy 30,000 additional combat troops to Afghanistan, which would bring the total NATO forces in the country to over 135,000. The US has also increased its drone attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban targets inside Pakistan. READ IN FULL

Sudan: the Year of Peace or Renewed Civil War?

By Ba Karang

"Beat for Peace" protestors took to the streets in 14 countries the weekend of 9-10 January to call for greater Western pressure to ensure that the peace agreement in Sudan stays on course. Elections are scheduled in Sudan for April 2004 with a referendum in the south on secession set for January 2011.

12 January 2010 - Armed conflict between the main liberation movement, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), in southern Sudan and the Khartoum government officially ended in 2005. According to Global Witness, an estimated 1.5 million people were killed in the more than two decades of armed conflict. According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed on 9th of January 2005,  a referendum will be held in 2011 in which Southern Sudan will determine if it still wants a unity government or an Independent State. (READ IN FULL - 1 comment)

Resist Neocon Witchhunters!

Recently, our friend the radical educationist Peter McLaren has come  under attack from the rightwing National Association of Scholars for his links to the thought of "Paulo Freire, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Che Guevara," as can be seen in NAS's Dec. 15 polemic against Marxist  influences in schools of education and especially the Journal for  Critical Education Policy Studies:

http://www.nas.org/polArticles.cfm?doc_id=1127

We firmly oppose such McCarthyite attacks and express our solidarity  with McLaren and other critics of capitalism menitoned in the NAS  polemic. For McLaren's own position on these matters, see his 2007 response to  Bill Ayres, a leftist critic.  Writing from an empiricist position, Ayres had attacked McClaren for resorting to a philosophically based  critique of education, claiming that this is a distraction from radical activism:

http://www.tcrecord.org/discussion.asp

BA Stewards Strike - a Comment by Richard Abernethy

March 23 2010 - Days before their strike in defence of conditions of work even began, British Airways cabin crew were flying into a storm of denunciation by government ministers, opposition politicians and the right-wing press. MORE