Israeli and Iranian protesters have joined forces against the threat of war between their countries – Editors.

The financial meltdown of 2008, the first effect of which was a decline in the “real” economy, has now plunged several European states into sovereign debt crises, amid fears of further collapses of the banks, decline in “social cohesion,” the end of globalisation, and the deepening of  international conflicts. As unemployment in the European Union reaches 17 million, its national governments, bitterly divided amongst themselves, are effectively waging war on the livelihoods of their people.  But can the Left, Labour and  Occupy activists move popular resistance towards an adequate critique of capitalism that raises the prospect of a radical overturning of capitalist relations of production?

We urge our readers to sign this statement – Editors

Link to Against Intervention and War

Last summer, Spencer A. Leonard interviewed Kevin Anderson, author of Lenin, Hegel, and Western Marxism (1995) and Marx at the Margins (2010). The interview was broadcast on August 2, 2011 on the radio show Radical Minds on WHPK–FM Chicago. What follows is an edited transcript of their conversation. 

Mansoor and More’s music video evokes global protests for democracy and against capital, from the revolutions in the Middle East to demonstrations in Europe and North America – Editors.

Russia’s anti-regime demonstrations are the biggest popular mobilization since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and carry with them the real possibility of another revolution – Editors

150 years after the U.S. Civil War, how does John Brown’s stand at Harpers Ferry  look after the rise of identity politics, multiculturalism and cultural relativism in an  increasingly globalized world? — Editors

Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, has resolved to “kill off the health and safety culture for good,” an attitude that poses a threat to all workers and reveals the inhumanity of capitalism. — Editors

Peter Hudis is interviewed by Sasha Lilley on “Against the Grain,” KPFA-FM (Pacifica Radio), San Francisco on the ideas and legacy of revolutionary thinker and leader Rosa Luxemburg. Based upon the Letters of Rosa Luxemburg (2011), edited by Hudis, Laschitza, and Adler. 1 hour  — Editors

 Link to Interview

The inane politics of Newt Gingrich and his ilk is a symptom of the degeneration of U.S. capitalism, which has created a danger to humanity — Editors

The Great Chartist Meeting on Kennington Common, London in 1848.

The Chartist movement of the 1830s and 1840s went beyond 18th century popular radicalism toward socialism.  Leaders like George Julian Harney not only called for social revolution but also published Helen Macfarlane’s first English translation of the Communist Manifesto. This article was first published in The Platypus Review No. 42 (Dec. 2011-Jan. 2012) – Editors

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Hassan Mortazavi’s 2008 Persian translation of Marx’s Capital, Vol. I, is to be commended as one of the few to include the textual variants from the French edition, variants that are yet to appear in any English edition. These show Marx’s shift toward a more multilinear theory of social development in his later years and call into question some of Engels’s editing decisions.  The relevance of Marx and of Marxist-Humanism for today and the enduring significance of Rosa Luxemburg are also discussed.

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Originally appeared in Global Discourse: A Developmental Journal of Research in Politics and International Relations, Vol. 1: Issue II: Special Issue Part 2: Examining the Contemporary Relevance of Marxism

 The ‘Occupy’ demonstrations that began on Wall Street, then Oakland and elsewhere in the US, are now part of a Global movement, the immediate causes of which go back to the Arab revolutions of early 2011.  We have assembled reports, largely from Marxist-Humanist participants, in cities in the US and the UK — Editors

An assessment of the Arab Spring half a year later, in light of (1) the “clash of barbarisms” between the U.S. and Al Qaeda, (2) Marx’s concept of revolution, and (3) the possibilities for a revolutionary future – Editors

The revolutionary movements of the year 2011, above all in the Arab countries, and the life and thought of Rosa Luxemburg, are connected. Presented at the Anarchist Book Fair, London — Editors

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Marx’s writings on slavery, race, and class in relation to capital are examined in light of critics who paint him as a class reductionist with little awareness of or sensitivity to race — Editors

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 Marx’s dialectic of race and class is related to that of Frantz Fanon and to the Civil War in the U.S., which unleashed many revolutionary possibilities – Editors.

The following comments on whether Luxemburg took back her 1918 critique of the Russian Revolution are in response to The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg (Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg Vol. I). The original debate on Principia Dialectica, was entitled ‘More on Bolshevik censorship’ – Editors

The explosion of rage and revolt on the streets of British cities, recalls the dramatic “uprisings” of the 1980s. The author, a resident of the riot-hit London Borough of Haringey, looks at what has changed and why it matters – Editors

(Photo: The old Co-op Building, built in the 1920s as the pride of Tottenham’s labour movement, burns to the ground.)

In the aftermath of the Massacre in Norway, Norwegian-African Ba Karang examines the ideological strands of the Far Right in the thinking of Anders Breivik. — Editors

The capitulation on the part of Obama and the Democrats to the far-Right agenda of the Republicans in the latest battle over raising the deficit ceiling raises the issue of whether capitalism is undermining its own conditions of existence. — Editors

In the 1960s and 1970s, Herbert Marcuse and Raya Dunayevskaya developed differing responses to the new stage of capitalist production represented by automation. – Editors

Veteran socialist Greeman’s book collects his essays on the radical movement, as well as biographical and theoretical reflections. – Editors

This review of one of the few recent books devoted to Lenin’s thought – with much discussion of dialectics — is particularly timely now that Lenin Reloaded is appearing in Spanish, Turkish, and other languages. – Editors

We publish the following piece by political prisoner Khalfani Malik Khaldun, which speaks to the issues that have helped foment the ongoing hunger strike of prisoners in Pelican Bay, California, as well as elsewhere in California. Now is the time to demonstrate support for those wrongly incarcerated and suffering the terrible abuses of the U.S. criminal injustice system — Editors

We publish below a dialogue between Rinita Mazumdar and Heather Tomanovsky on Tomanovsky’s essay, “Marx, Gender, and Human Emancipation,” which originally appeared on this website. We would be glad to consider more contributions to this discussion – Editors

The following exchange between Steven Colatrella and Peter Hudis is in response Hudis’s essay on “Directly and Indirectly Social Labor: What Kind of Human Relations Can Transcend Capitalism?” which appears on US Marxist-Humanists website: We would be glad to consider more contributions to this ongoing discussion. – Editors

In Adorno for Revolutionaries Ben Watson attempts to show how Theodore Adorno, starting with the commodity form, outlined a revolutionary musicology, a passageway between subjective feeling and objective conditions. In extending the analysis beyond the confines of ‘highbrow’ classical music Watson aims to ‘detonate the explosive core of Adorno’s method’. – Editors

The revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and the uprising in Libya have exhibited a post-Islamist and post-nationalist character.  After challenging both the political and the economic order, they face dangers from old forces like the military and the Islamists (Egypt) or of violent repression (Libya) – Editors

Irish Labor Protest

The new political reality introduced by the Republicans’ advances in the U.S. mid-term elections, along with the ongoing global economic crisis, calls upon radical thinkers and activists to reconsider their response to capitalism’s drive for unending austerity measures. Originally presented at a panel on “Marxism Beyond the Boundaries,” sponsored by the Hobgoblin Online Journal and the International Marxist-Humanist Organization, London, November 11, 2010 – Editors.

It is argued that today’s crisis is best confronted through a return to Rosa Luxemburg’s key contributions to Marxist philosophy viewed through the Marxist Humanist lens of Raya Dunayevskaya, with a particular emphasis on the relationship of theory to practice. This chapter originally appeared in Gender Activism: Rosa Luxemburg Annual Seminar, Institute for Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, South Africa, 2008 (http://www.ru.ac.za/iser).  –Editors

Celebrating the Centenary of Raya Dunayevskaya  (1910-1987)

Video of meeting at Loyola University Chicago featuring presentations by Peter McLaren (UCLA), David Schweickart (Loyola University), Sandra Rein (University of Alberta), Ba Karang (West Africa), Kevin Anderson (University of California, Santa Barbara), and Peter Hudis (Loyola University). We have also posted the written texts or summaries for some of the presentations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The October 5 demonstration in New York, when labor unions and community organizations came out to support Occupy Wall Street, produced one of the largest turnouts to date of the Occupy Wall Street movement  — Editors

This translation by Said Tah and Yashar Shaf of parts of Anderson’s April 2011 article on “Arab Revolutions at the Crossroads” was published in Iran in Shargh Online, Oct. 8, 2011. The translation includes the introduction, conclusion, and discussion of Libya – Editors

Moonwords in a month of spreading occupations

As the tired sun crawls beyond
the world’s crumbling rim
seeking its troubled nightly bed,
Luna glows ever bolder in relief,
her eyes imperious,
her nose an arrow pointing
even leftwards,
signaling Nature’s nightly news.

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This statement on behalf of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization was presented by Ali Reza on September 30, at the beginning of the Third Conference of the Iranian Left Alliance Abroad, Montreal, Canada – Editors

A Syrian protestor assesses the social content of the revolt and the possibility of its moving beyond the demand for political transformation and toward a wider socio-economic revolution, while also critiquing the narrow forms of anti-imperialism that have plagued the Arab Left. This article first appeared in English in Jadaliyya - Editors