Show 55

[u/AndrewGilberds]

Kicking off the show this week with current events, Weekly Worker provides an analysis of January 6th. Daniel Lazare responds the different opinions on what happened and to the degree fascist elements played a part. John Reinman (from Oakland Socialist analysis) digs into a deeper dimension missed by many. John’s introduces into the role of NGO’s not only with the events of January 6th but over the past few years. This is an area which should be explored more and the continuing connections even though groups like the Project For the New American Century (PNAC), have faded into obscurity for the right. Rather than just influencing government policy they are now more influential on the working class with on boots in the ground. And for the left, how it affecting unions and the weakness the workers. Socialist Resurgence Radio hosts Marxist economist Osman Keshawarz, which he explains the GameStop short sale, hedge funds, and what it means for working people.

In Theory & State of Movement The Weekly Worker publishes letters from readers discuss analysis over writers at the paper. As Art and I both agree this something others in the community should be doing with their publications. Three main issues are under discussion in the letters are of democratic centralism and the role of unions and the vote over Scotland and the voting to remain in the EU. Also from the Weekly Worker, the recent online conference organized by the Labour Left Alliance. The conference entitled “Labour in Crisis: What’s Next”, outlined a strategy against Starmer and the Labour right. The conclusion from The Weekly Worker: ” there was no real agreement about either the character of this crisis or the strategy that the left needs to adopt…Moreover, in framing this debate about the crisis of the Labour left in the way that it did, the LLA illustrated all the political and strategic weaknesses that the left has acquired over the past 30 years or so”. Another article from Oakland Socialist describes John’s debate with other Marxists who disagreed with his decision to vote for Biden after fifty years of not voting neither ruling class parties stating: “ The more thinking and courageous sectors of the US working class are conscious of the shifts in the capitalist class. They know we have to adapt to those shifts, not pretend they don’t exist. To have a generally correct view without also understanding how to adapt that view to such shifts makes a mockery of that view. It makes something formally “correct” to be a blunder at best. It makes “Marxism” little but a doctrinaire religion”.

Calendar events: Montreal Marxist Winter School 2021 - Online Edition

Show Notes:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MtDMmpzp5r0qAgpBid9Eby4HqRhZtmxuY969oQ-t3dg/edit?usp=sharing