An affiliate of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization
The U.S. Marxist-Humanists organization, grounded in Marx’s Marxism and Raya Dunayevskaya’s ideas, aims to develop a viable vision of a truly new human society that can give direction to today’s many freedom struggles.
Israel’s murderous invasion of Lebanon was an overreaching comparable to the US war in Iraq, as the Islamist Hezbollah movement emerged stronger than before. It also placed Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran, at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the first time. Leftist positions uncritical of Hezbollah and Iran are also critiqued as part of a call for a return to Marx’s vision of a total uprooting of capitalism — Editors
A report on the March 12-14 conference on “Rosa Luxemburg’s Thought and Its Contemporary Value” at Wuhan University, China, where discussion focused not only Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital but also, to a surprising extent, on dialectics and humanism as well as feminism — Editors
A report from the World Social Forum in Caracas. The turn to the left in Latin America, especially in Bolivia and Venezuela, has challenged US imperialism, and invigorated the global left. But the turn toward statism in Venezuela has also been challenged by some of that country’s youthful leftists, including anarchists. The lack of an in-depth discussion of exactly what constitutes a society that negates and transcends capitalism remains a problem — Editors
An assessment of the situation in Bolivia in the aftermath of the election of the leftist Evo Morales to the presidency, in a society with a long history of labor and indigenous struggles — Editors
A review of John McClendon, C.L.R. James’s Notes on Dialectics: Left Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism? Originally appeared in Socialism and Democracy, July 2005 – Editors
Read More...The tsunami that impacted over a dozen nations in the Indian Ocean region at the end of 2004 was a natural catastrophe, but it was no less of a social disaster. Nowhere is that truer than in Acheh, the province of northern Sumatra that was most gravely affected by the tsunami — Editors
Wadood Hamad is correct that many today are “stuck between two inadequate visions” — either apologizing for U.S. imperialist actions or “cheering any misguided ‘apparent’ resistance to imperialism.” Avoiding these false alternatives is not only needed to develop a successful antiwar movement; it is needed to ensure that the idea of freedom is not forsaken by today’s radicals.
Read More...The future of an ecological critique of existing society, if not the existence of society itself, depends upon halting capital’s relentless drive for self-expansion. A Marxist-Humanist approach to the ecological crisis rejects the view that capital can be controlled by the state AND the view that civilization and/or economic development must be jettisoned in the name of ecological diversity — Editors
An examination of the work that contains Marx’s most detailed discussion of a non-capitalist society, his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program, this presentation focuses on the differences between the lower and the higher phases of communism in that work. Issues such as directly vs. indirectly social labor, and the factors that must exist before it is possible to reach “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” are discussed. Originally presented as part of a Marxist-Humanist class series entitled “Beyond Capitalism,” Chicago – Editors
Read More...Capital’s drive for self-expansion is the foundation of the ecological crisis, this vs. those, even on left, who believe that capital can be controlled. Even revolutionary Marxist thinkers like Istvan Meszaros believe that capital can be controlled, holding to the notion that the post-capitalist society would not end the wages system. Nor do neo-primitivist ecologists offer a viable solution, since they evade the question of achieving industrial and economic development in a non-capitalist manner. Originally read (in the author’s absence) at Workshop on “Ecology and the Future Society,” Nagpur, India, January 15-16, 2005 — Editors
