New York Times | What's Left of Communism New York Times Soon, popular views of 1917 changed entirely: Unfettered markets seemed natural and inevitable, while Communism appeared to have always been doomed to Leon Trotsky's dustbin of history. There might be challenges to the globalized liberal order, but ... |
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What's Left of Communism - New York Times
Erasmo Calzadilla
Alexis Jardines
Yes, I know you from there, from Cuba. I couldnt believe your nerve when you denied that you were a Communist. You are incredibly shameless.
Make no mistake; these bullshitters are more Communist than the Castros. All of Erasmo and his gangs unhappiness lie in the fact that the Revolution and its leaders annoy them because, according to them, they moved away from real Marxism and Communism. Erasmo was in Cuba one of most active defenders of Marxism and Communism.
-Alexis Jardines PhD in Philosophy in a comment he placed on the article El sueno americano de un cubano de izquierda (The American Dream of a Cuban leftist).
HAVANA TIMES Well, there you have it. This important Cuban philosopher lost, for a moment, the prudence and moderation that defines the members of his profession.
The man dealt a blow and now we havent heard anything else from him, Im sure he went off to interpret one of Hegels texts and forgot about the loose end he left on the Internet. And he left me with this bad faith, which I, instead of denying it, will take advantage of.
It just so happens that Ive been asking myself for quite some time now whether Marxism maintains anything contemporary about it, and Jardines has led me to focus on this neglected issue for a moment. So, here goes.
It seems to be some kind of historic law that wherever a movement for concentrating power arises, the extreme opposite is also born: calling for redistribution, leveling out and socialization. In political debates and analyses, the terminology which reflects this never-ending confrontation is very common:
Up Down Vertical Horizontal Elitism Masses Individual Spirit Group Creation Network Distribution Pyramid System Social Movement vs Political Parties Monopoly Free Competition Popular Soviets Supreme Soviets Centralism Federalism
There is a kind of historic pendulum between the moment power is concentrated and that of when it is redistributed. One of them dominates for a while and then, when this model expires or reaches its peak, it gives way to the other.
Both trends evolve, change, and more interestingly, convert themselves into their opposite.
Primitive Christianity was a kind of Communism inspired by religion, but over time, this became an institution where power was concentrated and in the hands of a select few. Primitive Capitalism which gave birth to the US was a leveling economic process, and just look at what it has become.
Karl Marx
Marxism would be another variant of Communism, but with a philosophical base this time, which was born within the context of industrial capitalism: Concentrated power in the bourgeoisie needs to return to workers hands via a revolutionary leap which is driven by the progress of science and technology.
Real Marxism and Socialism have effectively fulfilled their intention to level society, at least for some time. After their disappearance the concentration of Capital the most dominant form of power today has gained great impetus, knocking down every obstacle in its path. Who can effectively take on this damaging trend today?
Stopping this tumor without dying in the attempt is one of the most important challenges that humanity faces. In order to manage this, we have to learn from all of those people who have had to come face-to-face with a similar monster throughout history: Anarchists, the first Christians, the first Capitalists, Robin Hood and even Marxists.
Marxists too?
Of course. Putting aside their authoritarian vocation and their desire to have progress as the motor behind change because it wont be possible anymore and also putting a large part of their outdated theories aside, we can rescue their vocation to fight against anything that attacks human empowerment.
For those who want to learn a little more about the process of concentrating wealth, I recommend reading this article by OXFAM.
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The Goodness of Communism - Havana Times
He said that some of these people should also say my life is not Christian, I dont pay my employees proper salaries, I exploit people, I do dirty business, I launder money, (I lead) a double life.
There are many Catholics who are like this and they cause scandal, he said. How many times have we all heard people say if that person is a Catholic, it is better to be an atheist.
Since his election in 2013, Francis has often told Catholics, both priests and lay people, to practice what their religion preaches.
In his often impromptu sermons, he has condemned sexual abuse of children by priests as being tantamount to a Satanic Mass, said Catholics in the mafia excommunicate themselves, and told his own cardinals to not act as if they were princes.
Papa Francis called for a radical change of attitude towards immigrants, saying they should be welcomed with dignity and denouncing the populist rhetoric he said is fueling fear and selfishness in rich countries.
The Pope, who has championed the cause of migrants since taking office in 2013, did not single out any country for criticism, but it was clearly pointed at the UK, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, and the US.
But his words may resonate most in the United States, where an executive order by President Donald Trump moved to suspend arrivals from 7 Muslim countries and deport all illegals, and in a Europe still struggling with a mass influx of more than 1.3-M mostly Muslim migrants and refugees since the start of Y 2015.
Populist anti-immigrant parties have made gains in a number of European countries, including Italy, France and the Netherlands, where anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders Saturday launched his campaign for next months election with a promise to crack down on Moroccan Scum.
For those who flee conflicts and terrible persecutions, often trapped within the grip of criminal organizations who have no scruples, we need to open accessible and secure humanitarian channels, the pope said.
Populist anti-immigrant parties have made gains in a number of European countries, including Italy, France and the Netherlands, where anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders Saturday launched his campaign for next months election with a promise to crack down on Moroccan Scum.
Shayne Heffernan Funds Manager at HEFFX holds a Ph.D. in Economics and brings with him over 25 years of trading experience in Asia and hands on experience in Venture Capital, he has been involved in several start ups that have seen market capitalization over $500m and 1 that reach a peak market cap of $15b. He has managed and overseen start ups in Mining, Shipping, Technology and Financial Services.
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Pope Francis Pushes Communism on Church - Live Trading News
Forbes | Communism Is The Reason For The Trade Deficit With China Forbes What a stunning turn of events over the last generation. Only in 1989, the year of the fateful events in Tiananmen Square, China was irrelevant in the world economy. The battered and brutalized giant had been growing, to be sure, since the agricultural ... |
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Communism Is The Reason For The Trade Deficit With China - Forbes
"We're driving through Seattle right now. It's like an episode of Frasier," G.L. Jaguar says to me shortly after picking up the phone. He and his bandmates in Priests are bundled up in a van, embarking on a cross-country tour to promote their astonishing new album, Nothing Feels Natural. It's a playful and furious album one that feels perfectly suited to soundtrack the increasingly surreal and ominous times that we're living in right now.
Emerging from the D.C. punk underground, Priests have been turning heads for years with their fiery live sounds and chaotic, spirited records. Initially playing with explosive no-wave fury, they've evolved into a tightly coiled unit. On the mic, Priests singer Katie Alice Greer sounds like the long-lost love child of Poly Styrene and Mark E. Smith: Language just seems to pour out of her in manic, poetic fragments. Jaguar's guitar sputters and roars like a drowning surf rock band, and the rhythm section of Taylor Mulitiz's bass lines and Daniele Daniele's drumbeats holds it all together beautifully.
Priests also run their own record label, Sister Polygon. Talking with the quartet as they drove through Frasier Crane's hood, I asked them about the influences behind their new record and the struggles that can come from trying to run your own record label while staying true to your D.I.Y. roots.
New Times: How's the tour been so far?
Katie Alice Greer:It's nice to see so many people coming outwe haven't done a full U.S. tour since 2014. It's very exciting to play in all these cities that we haven't been to in years.
Has it been a challenge playing these new songs live as a four-piece band? You've incorporated a lot of new instruments and sonic touches on the album, like saxophones and pianos.
G.L. Jaguar: We don't have the additional instrumentation when we do it live... there's different ways that the songs play out in a live setting, like through pedals. There are definitely things we did on this record that we can't do live
Greer: This is the first time we've put out a release where we can actually play all the songs live because the basic structure was written by the four of us on our primary instruments. So it was very easy to transpose that into a live setting.
Daniele Daniele:About a month ago, we played a show at home. All the style of musicians who are on the album are DC musicians. So for that we got to have two of our friends come onstage and play those songs with us, songs that they had helped us record and play on. It was a blast.
I read a feature that SPIN recently did on Priests, and it'smentioned in there that Portishead's Thirdwas a big sonic reference point for Nothing Feels Natural. I was surprised by that, because I wouldn't have guessed at all from listening to the album that there was a Portishead influence on it. In what way did you draw inspiration from Third?
Jaguar:Since we tour so much, we're always listening to music in the van. Thirdis an album I really like to put on when I drive. It's a really good, almost-krautrock record where it's constantly flowing. The thing to me that was really appealing, from a sonics perspective, is that it had a lot of these very lo-fi raucous elements, but it was combined with big production values. It was a really good mix of the two. It helped us find a way to bridge our older material with the newer sound: to mix lo-fi rockin' sounds and fill it all out more with synthesizers, percussion, cello, and saxophones. So in that respect, that's how we draw from it sonically.
Speaking of road music, what are you listening to for this tour?
Daniele:As you called, we were just listening to Parliament.
Jaguar: The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, specifically.
That leads me to my next question. Katie, in "Appropriate," there's this line, "Is George Clinton the kinda story your adventure's looking for?" I was wondering what the meaning of that was?
Greer:That song is about cultural appropriation. What I meant with that line is is George Clinton's story really your story, or is it his story and it's something that you're trying on? If you're an artist who's relatively more privileged than someone else, you have access to all these different influences. It's important to be mindful of how you're bringing in your influences. I wrote that song almost as a dialogue between two people; the line before it is someone talking about maggots and bugs. One of my favorite records is [Funkadelic's] Maggot Brain, so it's kind of a nod to the monologue at the beginning of that song.
Considering your band's political beliefs and convictions, I was wondering how that has an impact on how you run your own record label.
Greer: It's important for us to own the means of production whenever possible. It's not always possible, but it feels good to us to have this little world for our music and our friends' music.
Daniele:It's really important to us to not have anyone do any work for free for us. And that goes for the band and the label. The downside to that is we're often paying to play, paying to put out sometimes we end up hitting ourselves financially cause we're trying to live up to that ethos. It's interesting because we want to practice ethos, but we're an island in a sea of capitalism in that way. ... We were in Vancouver last night, and we were talking about the real estate market there. There's all these empty apartments in Vancouverbecause in China you can't keep more than a certain amount of money in your bank account because it can be seized by the government. So all these people don't want to keep money in their accounts, so they just dump it in properties in Vancouver that they're not going to use. They just want to hold their money that way. And I was just like, wow, because China is a communist country essentially I'm not trying to be like "woo China" but I am "woo socialism" and different forms of economy. People are always like, "See? Communism doesn't work. Look at China, look at...," and that's not really fair, because the reason that fucked-up dynamic is happening is because it's one place within a larger capitalistic world economy. I'm not trying to endorse the Chinese economy because it's really fucked-up in a lot of ways. ... I just often feel that way with our record label and with how we run our band, that we're trying to live out certain ideologies but we keep butting our heads up against thisfucked-up system.
Priests will be performing with Olivia Neutron-John and Nanami Ozone at Valley Bar in Phoenix on Thursday, February 23.
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Priests Drummer Compares Running a Record Label to Chinese ... - Phoenix New Times