Commune, a new American socialist magazine, sees the light of the day (h/t Ross Wolfe, from The Charnel House). Welcome, mates (I don’t like the term “comrades” much; I’m Aussie, what can I do?).
Its first issue includes “Three Months Inside Alt-Right New York”, by Jay Firestone. A must-read.
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Regular readers know of my interest in the Revisionist Debates and their consequences for the workers’ movement in Germany and elsewhere. My next recommendations, therefore, shouldn’t come as a surprise: Sean Larson, writing for Jacobin, is the author of two articles on that.
The first, “The Rise and Fall of the Second International” (July 2017), deals with the evolution of the SPD in late 19th/early 20th centuries. In my own writing, I emphasised the political maneuvering within the SPD. Larson adds to that something I mentioned in passing: the relationship between the organised trade union movement and the SPD. The time period he covers, as well, extends beyond the Revisionist Debates proper, leading directly to the collapse of the Second International and the beginning of the Great War.
The second, “Red Flags Over Germany” (Nov 2018), begins with Imperial Germany’s defeat in the war and deals with the German Revolution of 1918, and the logical conclusion to SPD’s reformism: it took up arms against the people. That, too, is a subject I’ve written about.
Additionally, Larson is interviewed by Better Off Red (episode 36, November 2018) on this second article. There readers can find, as well, further reading suggestions.
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No further comments:
Current commitments expressed in the NDCs [i.e. Nationally Determined Contributions] are inadequate to bridge the emissions gap in 2030. Technically, it is still possible to bridge the gap to ensure global warming stays well below 2°C and 1.5°C, but if NDC ambitions are not increased before 2030, exceeding the 1.5°C goal can no longer be avoided. Now more than ever, unprecedented and urgent action is required by all nations. The assessment of actions by the G20 countries indicates that this is yet to happen; in fact, global CO2 emissions increased in 2017 after three years of stagnation. (Source: Executive Summary)
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Maybe I’m just dumb, but I think managing capitalism isn’t too easy. I don’t envy those bona fide geniuses running the planning department of the whole human race.
You better start praying.
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What’s the truth about immigration and wages? That’s another, simpler debate which liberal democracy has turned into a toxic quagmire.
I can’t talk with much knowledge about things abroad; but I have my own views about local things. And locally, the Left (with a few exceptions) seems to have painted itself into a corner on that subject. At one hand, some sectors of it fear discussion of this subject may be used opportunistically by right-wing demagogues for their own less-than-legitimate purposes.
That’s a reasonable concern. The rise of the fashi Right in Europe and the US -- partly on an anti-immigration platform -- is enough to give one pause for thought.
At the other hand, the Left’s Pavlovian refusal to discuss immigration, essentially on moralistic grounds, doesn’t stop the local home-grown demagogic Right from discussing it for their own less-than-legitimate purposes. And discuss it the local Right has. Unopposed. In a stunning Keynesian about-face, local quasi-fashi demagogues, until recently divided on immigration, seem to have discovered that immigration was, after all, too high. I’ll leave readers to decide whether that is evidence of Scott Morrison’s intellectual humility or shameless opportunism (like the Jerusalem embassy thing).
What’s worse, however, is that evidence that excessive levels of immigration -- at least in Australia -- may be hurting not only local workers, but the migrants themselves too, seems to be mounting. The Left has a death wish.
In the Australian Left the only consistently sane stance I’ve seen about immigration comes from the ACTU and Sally McManus.
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George H.W. Bush kicked the bucket. Brace yourselves for a repetition of the spectacle we witnessed after John McCain’s death. “Progressives” worldwide will cry crocodile tears and wail for the deceased’s canonisation, supposedly on his virtue, just like they did with McCain. In reality, they only mean to cynically use his name as a cudgel against the current White House buffoonish orange tenant.
Don’t believe me? Just watch Malcolm Farr in today’s episode of Insiders.
God, in this 34°C day (Sydney temperature), second of summer, give us strength to endure this festival of hypocrisy, sophistry and madness. Paraphrasing the Talking Pictures Insider segment customary parting line: Back to you, MS.
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