Did Rosa Luxemburg Take Back Her Critique of the Russian Revolution?

Debate: Peter Hudis, Jacqueline Rose, Chris Cutrone, and Others READ IN FULL

The Syrian “Common”: The Uprising of the Working Society -- by Yassin Ali Haj Saleh

August 14, 2011

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 READ IN FULL

Technology, Labor, and the Transcendence of Capital: Revisiting the Marcuse - Dunayevskaya Debate – by Kelly Green

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

The Oslo Massacre and the ‘Reasoning’ of the Far Right – by Ba Karang

August 9, 2011

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 READ MORE..

‘No Justice, No Peace’ and Blood and Flames on England’s Streets:
1981, 1985 and 2011 -- by David Black

12 Aug 2011 -- The “Tottenham Riots” of 1985 began with a protest outside Tottenham police station over the fatal collapse of Cynthia Jarret during an illegal police raid on her home on the Broadwater Farm housing estate, after the wrongful arrest of her son. The police station protest developed into a pitched all-night battle between police and the Caribbean youth of Broadwater Farm, ending with the killing of a police officer. Twenty-six years later, on Saturday 6 August 2011, another protest took place outside Tottenham police station, this time over the killing two days earlier of former Broadwater Farm resident, Mark Duggan, in a stake-out by armed police. READ IN FULL

 

Ben Watson's ADORNO FOR REVOLUTIONARIES reviewed by David Black

 

 

Arab Revolutions at the Crossroads – by Kevin Anderson

April 2, 2011 - 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 READ IN FULL

Huge Mobilization in London Against Cutbacks Shows Both Promise and Contradictions – by David Black

March 28 2010
At least 250,000 people - up to 500,000 according to some reports - attended the March 26 London demonstration organized by the Trades Union Congress to protest against the Tory-Liberal coalition's public sector cuts. This was undoubtedly the most significant mobilization of working people since the Anti-Poll Tax campaign of more than twenty years ago. Probably most of the trade union members who marched to Hyde Park on Saturday had never before been on a demonstration.
READ IN FULL

History Matters

THE ILLUSIONS OF ‘SOLIDARITY’ -- by David Brown

A ‘Lost Text’ from 1975 rediscovered: David Brown on the ‘Illusions’ of Maurice Brinton and Cornelius Castoriadis

Editorial notes by the Hobgoblin Collective, 21 January 2011

We publish for the first time the following text, written in 1975 as a letter to the membership of the Solidarity group – also known as ‘Solidarity For Workers Power’. This group was founded in 1960 by Chris Pallis, an eminent neurologist who wrote under the name “Maurice Brinton,” and Ken Weller, a young shop steward working in the motor industry. The document comes in two parts: "The Illusions of Solidarity" and "To the Membership of Solidarity (London) 1975."

On Hegel, Rosa Luxemburg and Marxist-Humanism – by David Black

December 15, 2010

On Hegel’s Dialectic of the “Beautiful Soul” in the French Revolution and the question of  “ethical reality” in the political philosophies of Rosa Luxemburg, Raya Dunayevskaya and Gillian Rose; 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 Read More...

Not Just Capital and Class: Marx on Non-Western Societies, Nationalism and Ethnicity – by Kevin Anderson

December 15, 2010

While Marx’s major writings concentrated on capital and class in Western Europe, he also wrote extensively on ethnicity and nationalism, colonialism, and non-Western societies. A slightly different version appeared in Socialism and Democracy, Nov. 2010. Parts of the first half were presented at plenary sessions at the Historical Materialism Conference, London, November 14, 2010; parts of the second half were 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

Read More...

Dialectics of Economic Turbulence – by Peter Hudis

December 15, 2010

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. Read More...

Marx, Gender, and Human Emancipation – by Heather Tomanovsky

December 14, 2010

Marx’s writings on gender and the family are significantly more substantial and more valuable than is usually acknowledged.  Marx showed considerable insight into the gender relations of his own time, pointing to the need for a total transformation of society that would necessarily involve new relations between men and women, albeit with some problematic elements as well.  –Editors Read More...

Reading Luxemburg Through Dunayevskaya for Today, Theory as Practice

By Sandra Rein

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) Read More...

 

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