US Marxist-Humanists

A Comment on Raya Dunayevskaya's Concept of the Masses as Revolutionary Subject

By a Chinese intellectual

In her books, Raya Dunayevskaya saw in the masses the spontaneity and self-movement of the revolutionary subject. In her 1958 Marxism and Freedom, she discussed the differences in this regard between Karl Marx and the radical intellectuals Ferdinand Lassalle and Pierre Proudhon. In my view, this constituted a discussion in the abstract. In her 1973 Philosophy and Revolution, she saw the masses' struggles as movements of liberation by rank-and-file workers, women, the Black dimension, and youth. In my opinion, this was a discussion in the concrete.

During a regular ISAP check-in on Wednesday, Haitian community activist Jean Montrevil was detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York. Jean is currently facing deportation because of a 20-year-old drug conviction for which he has served his time. He is not a "serious violent offender," and has not broken any laws since.

Recently, our friend the radical educationist Peter McLlaren has come under attack from the rightwing National Association of Scholars for his links to the thought of "Paolo Freire, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Che Guevara," as can be seen in NAS's Dec. 15 polemic against Marxist influences in schools of education and especially the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies.

Ian MacDonald, a leading contributor to The Hobgoblin, has died from cancer, aged 52. As Unison lead convenor for Surrey, Ian made a video for his trade union colleagues from his hospital bed, with solidarity greetings on the ongoing struggles in children's services. "But at the moment," he said "I've got my own fight; I wish you the utmost the very best and in yours." Days later Ian lost the fight.

By Ian MacDonald

This is a previously unfeatured article that was mis-placed a year ago as a comment below an article from a correspondent. Ian's article in fact uniquely expresses his philosophical approach to struggles in the workplace that is his legacy. -- London Corresponding Committee/Hobgoblin.

On Dec. 10, the police violently broke up a peaceful sit-in by students at San Francisco State University. We express our solidarity with the students who occupied the Business Building at SFSU, and with all others in California struggling for the right to an education. We find especially noteworthy that the SFSU students are linking their movement to anti-racist and labor movements, to the protests against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to the wider struggle against capital. Below we reprint their statement and their demands.
US Marxist-Humanists

By Eli Messinger

PART 1. REVOLUTION: POLITICAL AND/OR SOCIAL?

This study of the development of Marx’s theory of revolution--using Marxism as its method--focuses on the formative years of 1842-1848. Although I will raise some criticisms concerning the treatment of dialectics, it is unusual and especially valuable in drawing connections between Marx’s theoretical concepts and his deepening involvement in this early, ideologically vibrant period of European working class activity.

By Kevin Anderson

In the Grundrisse (1857-58), Marx sketches a multilinear theory of history. This marks an important turn in his thought. These themes are taken up again and developed further in Capital, Vol. I (1872-75), but as a theorization of contemporary possibilities rather than past history.

By Alireza

On September 23, 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the blatant thief of the June Iranian presidential elections, visited New York City to attend the United Nations summit conference. In opposition to his presence there, thousands of Iranian exiles, students, youths, activists, and women, young and old alike demonstrated in front of the United Nations building.

By Khalfani Malik Khaldun

Khalfani Malik Khladun is a New Afrikan political prisoner who is incarcerated a the Westville Detention Center in Illinios. He is one of the leading voices from inside the prison walls against the abuses of the U.S. criminal injustice system. We call on our readers to support his struggle for exoneration.

The following statement by the US Marxist-Humanists, London Corresponding Committee and international Marxist-Humanists from Canada, India, and West Africa is a contribution for the events in solidarity with the democracy movement in Iran in September and the fall.

The protests over the blatant theft of the June presidential elections have touched off the biggest crisis for the Islamic Republic of Iran in over two decades. Since June, millions of people have taken to the streets to decry the blatantly fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, especially youth, women, workers, and intellectuals. Chanting "Death to the Dictator," they continue to do so in the face of beatings, arrests, imprisonment, show trials, torture, and rape.

By Karen Kubby

Radical change is never accepted easily. With the current discussion on health care reform, we have an opportunity to dismantle three basic dysfunctional tenets of the current system.

By Richard Abernethy

For eighteen days, from July 20 to August 7, a group of workers at the Vestas wind turbine factory at Newport, on the Isle of Wight, on the south coast of England, held a sit-in at the plant. The occupation was part of a continuing campaign to prevent the closure of the plant by the Danish-owned company, Vestas Wind Systems, and the loss of about 625 jobs.

By Peter Hudis

"That which Hegel judged to be the synthesis of the 'Self-Thinking Idea' and the 'Self-Bringing Forth of Liberty,' Marxist-Humanism holds, is what Marx had called the new society…it is on this basis that we are asking those who agree with our principles to join us and take organizational responsibility for projecting Marxist-Humanism because, in truth, philosophy itself does not reach its full articulation until it has discovered the right organizational form."
—Raya Dunayevskaya, "On Listening to Marx Think as Challengers to All Post-Marx Marxists" (June 5, 1984), Raya Dunayevskaya Collection [RDC], 8183

Racism, Class and Profiling

By Cyrus Bina

Author's note: The arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates speaks to the question of race and class in America. In terms of the media and pundit response, it also speaks to the absurdity of personalization and thus the substitution, in this case, of Gates's socioeconomic status for the social question of "race" in the United States.

By Dale Parsons

There are "two worlds" in each country, the "rulers" and the "ruled" or to put it more concretely, between workers and non-workers. Never, in my lifetime, has the divide between workers and non-workers in the U.S. been as vast as it is during the current economic crisis. The working class is bearing the brunt of the crisis, yet how much of their actual voice are we hearing in the political debate about the economy?

Given the importance of the events in Iran to the worldwide movement for human emancipation, I would like to call attention to the Iranian American translator Frieda Afary’s blog, " Iranian Progressives in Translation ." In recent weeks, Iranian Progressives in Translation has featured the voices of feminist, gay, youth, and Marxist thinkers and activists. While we have already reprinted some of these translations on our website, I would like urge our readers to visit this website directly.

By Kamran Afary and Kevin Anderson

The upheaval in Iran has shaken up Iranian and even regional politics. Not since the Palestinian Intifada of 1987 has the Middle East seen such a massive and persistent grassroots mobilization. At the same time, the Iranian upheaval is also the product of deep divisions inside the nation’s dominant classes.

A year after its publication, the new Persian translation of Marx's Capital has sold out in Iran and is undergoing a reprint. Translator Hassan Mortazavi explains why he felt compelled to translate Capital anew, years after the publication of Iraj Eskandari's translation in 1973.

Paresh Chattopadhyay

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the great movement of the Chinese students centred on Beijing's Tiananmen square and the bloody suppression of this non-violent, democratic movement by the Chinese state power.

By Marilyn Nissim-Sabat and Kevin Anderson

The French CGT union’s racist expulsion of African immigrants from its offices reveals deep contradictions inside the labor movement.

’This place is a thousand times worse than Guantanamo’

Excerpts from a report on the torture of students arrested At Tehran University from Akhbar Rooz

Translator’s note: During the early morning hours of June 15, 2009, The dormitory of Tehran University was attacked by Iranian security forces and plainclothes policemen. Five students were killed and many were arrested. Below is a report which describes the ordeal of the arrested students.

The blatant theft of the June elections has touched off the biggest crisis for the Islamic Republic of Iran in over two decades. Large sectors of the Iranian people have come into the streets to protest, especially youth, women, and intellectuals. Already, the population is beginning to lose its fear, at least in major cities like Isfahan, Tabriz, and Shiraz, and especially Tehran, where protestors have repeatedly confronted the fundamentalist Basiji militia, in some cases driving them off the streets.

By Peter Hudis

The prevailing narrative that has emerged about today’s financial and economic crisis is that it is the fault of greedy bankers, shortsighted financiers, and lax government regulators. On all sides of the political spectrum we hear growing demands to bring such individuals to heel. Cut corporate bonuses and tighten financial regulations—so demand most Democrats and some Republicans. Vastly increase government stimulus spending—so proclaim the Liberals and many Leftists. Hang the bankers—so insist many Marxists and anarchists (“Hang the Bankers” was actually one of the banners at the protest at the G-20 Summit this spring). On both the Left and the Right, everyone seems fixated on punishing the greedy capitalists who got us into this mess.

...

The Sichuan earthquake is very terrible; it killed so many people within a brief second, especially many students of middle schools and primary schools, and even some kindergartens. You can imagine how deeply many families are damaged under the policy of population control. The number of victims is increasing every day. The official figure is about 50,000, but most of people in China do not think so.

By Heather Tomanovsky

The German Ideology (1845), often seen as the most materialistic of Marx’s early writings, has been taken up mostly by structuralist and orthodox Marxists, but this work is especially important in terms of understanding Marx’s views on gender and the family to Marxist-Humanists as well.

Peter Hudis's response to Chris Cutrone's "Capital in history: The need for a Marxian philosophy of history of the Left" argues that "We cannot adequately challenge today’s regression by leaving a gap between 'is ' and 'ought'—between our critique of capital and our conception of the alternative to it." The entire essay is reprinted here. Links to Cutrone's essay and his subsequent reply, "Remember the future! A rejoinder to Peter Hudis on 'Capital in History,' are included at the end. The exchange appeared in The Platypus Affilicated Society web site.

Statement of the U.S. Marxist-Humanists

Israel’s war on Gaza killed 1300 Palestinians, over 400 of them children. Its military has committed war crimes on a vast scale. These included indiscriminate shelling and air strikes against a civilian population of 1.4 million people with nowhere to flee. The Israeli armed forces deliberately targeted schools, hospitals, mosques, and United Nations agencies. Israeli forces also used white phosphorus shells in civilian areas, another war crime. In what amounts to a macabre battlefield “experiment,” they additionally used a horrific new weapon, the Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME), which slices up people within a small radius. DIME is likely to be banned under the Geneva Convention.

By Kevin Anderson, co-author of Foucault and the Iranian Revolution

Israel’s invasion and devastation of the Gaza Strip is one more illustration of that nation’s barbaric behavior toward weaker peoples and nations. Far from the small beleaguered land represented in its own propaganda and that of its US supporters, nuclearly-armed Israel’s war machine is unmatched in the region, allowing it to attack its neighbors with impunity.