The Official Socialism/Democratic Socialism/Communism/Marxism Thread

[DEAD7]

Took me down from 1000

Keep up the good fight

 

[JahFocus CS]

Socialists and the case for reparations

Good piece looking at the back-and-forth debates a few months ago about reparations among Coates and others, and how socialism isn't at all incompatible with the idea of reparations.

 

[JahFocus CS]

Prabhat Patnaik, "Why Do We Have Unemployment?"

This conclusion can be stated as follows: if we could detach our economy from the global economy, through imposing controls over capital flows into and out of our economy, as we used to have in the days before neo-liberalism, and thereby make the State's fiscal policy independent of the whims and caprices of globalised finance capital, then "demand management" as in the old days could be resumed; aggregate demand could be boosted, and hence employment could increase.

This is certainly true and important. It also constitutes a proximate solution to the crisis of unemployment. But even if this could happen, unemployment would still not be eliminated. This is because a reduction in unemployment, or more accurately in the magnitude of labour reserves (since unemployment does not exist only in an open form), would strengthen the bargaining position of the workers, who would demand higher money wages. If these wage demands are conceded but prices are raised as a result of such money wage increases, then there would be a cost-push inflationary spiral, with money wages and prices chasing one another; this would destabilise the value of money under capitalism. And if these wage demands are conceded and prices not raised as a result of such wage increases, then the share of profits would fall, which the capitalists would certainly not like. It is important for the stability of the system therefore that the relative magnitude of labour reserves must not fall below a certain level. This amounts to saying that the size of the "reserve army of labour" relative to the active (or the total) army has a floor below which it cannot fall.

If unemployment has to be eliminated, ie, if the size of the reserve army is to fall below this floor, then pricing of products cannot be left to capitalist enterprises (for that as we have seen would cause a wage-price spiral). There must then be State intervention in the form of an "incomes and prices policy". The State in such an economy must then not only carry out "demand management"; it must also engage in "distribution management". When after years of pursuing Keynesian policies of "demand management", capitalist economies did start experiencing serious cost-price spirals, many governments did try for a while to introduce "incomes and prices policies", so that the high employment levels could be maintained while inflation could be controlled. But these efforts proved futile.

The reason why they proved futile is because capitalists are opposed to any such extensive State intervention in the economy which is not mediated through them, ie, which does not provide them with "incentives" for improving the state of the economy but attempts to do so directly. This undermines the social legitimacy of capitalism: if the State is so badly needed for increasing employment, people begin to ask, then why doesn't the State take over the running of the economy itself from the capitalists? It is essential for the social legitimacy of the system that capitalists must be seen as indispensible; and to preserve that myth, State intervention must be mediated through them by improving their "incentives", boosting their "animal spirits" and "euphoria"; and so on.

 

[JahFocus CS]

ADD YOUR NAME: Stand with Striking Verizon Workers

Gonna support my local picket line as well

 

[CHL]

 

[Godless Socialist CEO]

I've said it many times, but Pac was ahead of his time. You can listen to many of his songs today, and think he made them a few months ago.

 

[JahFocus CS]

How to Think About (And Win) Socialism | Jacobin

I am not sure how I feel about Wright's politics overall but his arguments are always thought-provoking.

 

[CHL]

Varoufakis’ mission “to save European capitalism from itself”

Interesting article, perhaps a little unfair on Varoufakis IMO but speaks to the reform vs revolution discussion

 

[JahFocus CS]

Varoufakis’ mission “to save European capitalism from itself”

Interesting article, perhaps a little unfair on Varoufakis IMO but speaks to the reform vs revolution discussion

I peeped this last year, I remember it being a good article. Varoufakis is a little at times.

I've been reading through Capitalism and communism - Gilles Dauvé:

Economic and social progress improves the efficiency of human organization and its capacity to associate the components of the labour process - first of all labour power. Then appears the difference (and the opposition) between workers and non-workers, between those who organize work and those who work. The first towns and great irrigation projects are born out of this increase of productive efficiency. Commerce appears as a special activity: now there are men who do not make a living by producing, but by mediating between the various activities of the separate units of production. A large proportion of goods is nothing but commodities. To be used, to put into practice their use value, their ability to fulfil a need, they must be bought, they must fulfil their exchange value. Otherwise, although they exist as material and concrete objects, they do not exist from the point of view of society. One has no right to use them. This fact proves that the commodity is not just a thing, but first and foremost a social relation ruled by a definite logic, the logic of exchange, and not of the fulfilment of needs. Use value is now just the support of value. Production becomes a sphere distinct from consumption; work becomes a sphere distinct from non-work. Ownership is the legal framework of the separation between activities, between men, between units of production. The slave is a commodity for his owner, who buys a man to make him work.

 

[JahFocus CS]

Donate to the Verizon Striking Families Solidarity Fund

Donate if you can, brehs and brehettes

They've gone a month with no pay or benefits now

 

[CHL]

 

[CHL]

How to Spot a Brocialist: The Guys With Righteous Politics but a Dodgy Attitude to Girls | VICE | Australia / NZ
@88m3 lol she seems mad

 

[ⒶⓁⒾⒶⓈ]

socialism is the violent imposition of ones imaginary virtue at the expense of another wallet
-me

 

[Madvillain]

I kinda wanna give this its own thread; woefully unexplored - the Black role in such a large sect of the anti-capitalist left

Black Anarchism: A Reader (PDF)
Black Anarchism: A Reader - Black Rose Anarchist Federation

Black Anarchism: A Reader – PDF

In the expansive terrain of anarchist history, few events loom as large as the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Countless books, films, songs, pamphlets, buttons, t-shirts, and more are rightfully devoted to this transformative struggle for social revolution by Spanish workers and peasants. But digging through the mountain of available material, little can be found on black militants in the Spanish revolution, like the one featured in the powerful photo on the cover of this reader — a member of the Bakunin Barracks in Barcelona, Spain 1936, and a symbol of both the profound presence and absence of Black anarchism internationally.

For more than 150 years, black anarchists have played a critical role in shaping various struggles around the globe, including mass strikes, national liberation movements, tenant organizing, prisoner solidarity, queer liberation, the formation of autonomous black liberation organizations, and more.

Our current political moment is one characterized by a global resurgence of Black rebellion in response to racialized state violence, criminalization, and dispossession. Black and Afro-diasporic communities in places like Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Haiti, Colombia and the US have initiated popular social movements to resist conditions of social death and forge paths toward liberation on their own terms. Given the anti-authoritarian spirit of these struggles, the time is ripe to take a closer look at anarchism more broadly, and Black anarchism in particular.

The deceptive absence of Black anarchist politics in the existing literature can be attributed to an inherent contradiction found within the Eurocentric canon of classical anarchism which, in its allegiance to a Western conception of universalism, overlooks and actively mutes the contributions by colonized peoples. In recent years, Black militants, and others dedicated to Black anarchist politics, have gone a long way toward bringing Black anarchism into focus through numerous essays, books, interviews, and public talks, many of which are brought together for the first time in this reader.

Our hope is that this reader will serve as a fruitful contribution to ongoing dialogues, debates, and struggles occurring throughout the Black diaspora about how to move forward toward our liberation globally. “Anarchism,” noted Hannibal Abdul Shakur, “like anything else finds a radical new meaning when it meets blackness.” While this reader brings us closer to “a radical new meaning” for anarchism, there are glaring gaps that need to be filled to get a fuller picture of Black anarchism, particularly the vital contributions of black women, queer militants, and more folks from the Global South.

In struggle,
Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra

 

[BaggerofTea]

Allow intersectionalist feminism to take over political theory brehs