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Even 133 years after his death, the teachings of philosopher Karl Marx seem more relevant today than ever before. They've also gained in popularity. In a recent survey, 43% of young Americans under the age of 30 voiced favorable leanings to the notion of socialism. Is this a sign of a new anti-capitalism trend taking over in the United States? The new documentary titled How Capitalism is Killing Itself, produced by the acclaimed series The Empire Files, seeks to find answers.

The film dissects the tenants of Marx's economic principles, which were largely born out of a humanist philosophy. As recounted by Dr. Richard Wolf, the film's chief interview subject, Marxist economist and Professor Emeritus of Economics at University of Massachusetts - Amherst, the philosopher set out to uncover the root of social inequality, and identified a purely capitalistic system as its major culprit. In his view, capitalism could only thrive by imposing various social ills upon society such as impoverishment, inequality and exploitation. Therefore, the Marxist-led socialist movement is characterized by a need to redefine the very foundations of what he viewed as a deeply flawed and immoral system.

There are many indications that the long reign of capitalism may be on the ropes, especially when observed through the prism of this year's United States presidential election. Self-confirmed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders has proven enormously successful in spreading the gospel that Marx first preached well over a century ago. The youth, in particular, has flocked in support of Sander's candidacy and his message in record numbers. As members of this new generation eventually assume the mantle of leadership in their country, could their firmly held beliefs facilitate the end of capitalism as we know it?

How Capitalism is Killing Itself is a fast-paced and informative expose, but it makes no illusions to an even handed treatment of its subject; its agenda is implicit in its title. But even for the most fervent skeptics or the uninitiated, the film proves illuminating in its attempts to dispel much of the misgivings, fear and misinterpretations of the Marxist philosophy.

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How Capitalism is Killing Itself - Top Documentary Films

NewsBusters (blog)

Nets Ignore Ongoing Disaster in Venezuela; Downplay Role of Socialism NewsBusters (blog) Just this year alone, more than 50 people have been killed protesting the heartbreaking malpractice of Venezuela's socialist dictatorship. According to the IMF, inflation will surpass 700% this year, while unemployment will hit 25%; shortages of ... Goldman Sachs Gives Lifeline to Venezuela's Socialist DictatorNew York Magazine Media Ignores Ongoing Socialist Disaster Unfolding in VenezuelaThe New American 'It's Not Charity': Russia Questions Cuba's Ability to Pay for Russian Oil to Replace Venezuela'sBreitbart News Forbes -American Thinker (blog) -RollingStone.com all 268 news articles »

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Nets Ignore Ongoing Disaster in Venezuela; Downplay Role of Socialism - NewsBusters (blog)

The crowd at the Socialism conference

THE CONTRAST couldn't be more stark--at the same time that Donald Trump's war on immigrants, workers and democracy grinds on, the audience for socialist ideas continues to grow.

It seems like a lot longer than a year ago when Bernie Sanders's socialist campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination was shocking pundits with its popularity and outperforming all expectations.

Now, more than four months into the Trump presidency, it would be easy to pronounce that time some strange aberration. Did that even happen?

Instead, Trump's amped-up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is sowing fear across the U.S., and despite the steady stream of scandals hammering its credibility, his administration is still trying to ram through its agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy, increases in defense spending and budget cuts for social services.

But there are actually plenty of signs that the opening for rebuilding socialist politics and organization in the United States persists.

One measure is the large turnouts for left-wing events and meetings, such as the 3,000-plus who packed into Chicago's famous Auditorium Theater in May to hear global justice campaigner Naomi Klein and mass incarceration critic Michelle Alexander in a discussion moderated by author and activist Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.

Another measure is the marked increase in attendance at meetings of socialist organization such as the Democratic Socialists of America and the International Socialist Organization (ISO), Socialist Worker's publisher.

Yet another is the record number of registrations for the Socialism 2017 conference in Chicago. Already, more than 1,100 people are registered to attend the event, which SW co-sponsors along with the ISO, Haymarket Books, the International Socialist Review and Jacobin magazine.

This year, there will be no shortage of presentations and performances by famous figures such as actor John Cusack, NFL defensive end Michael Bennett, comedian Hari Kondabolu, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.

But the heart of the Socialism conference is the dozens of sessions that focus on the theory, history and politics of socialism from below--with introductions given by people engaged in the day-to-day work of building activist campaigns and struggles for justice in the U.S. and around the world.

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HISTORY DOESN'T remember all the many organizers and activists who made the most important social changes possible. Even when our side wins victories, they are skipped over in favor of the media focus on the words and actions of the powerful.

The Socialism conference puts the focus where we think it belongs--on the people who spend so many hours discussing, strategizing and organizing in order to change the world.

Consider some of the recent struggles you've read about at SocialistWorker.org: The mobilization to defend Carimer Andujar from the threat of deportation. Or Jose Charles--false charges of felony assault of a police officer were dropped by Greensboro, North Carolina, prosecutors after a long struggle organized by his family and supporters. Or the victory won by parents and teachers who came together to protest an abusive principal at a New York City elementary school.

The names of the people who organized these struggles--who made the plans, who wrote the leaflets and posted on social media, who put out press releases, who told their neighbors and friends and anyone who would listen why it was important to take a side--may not be known far and wide.

But they are at the center of the Socialism conference, and they run through everything we write at SW.

We focus on these stories not only because they deserve to be better known, but to learn and generalize the lessons they hold for other people who want to stand up against injustice--most of all, the idea that persistent efforts to mobilize masses of people to demand change can win, even against powerful institutions and stubborn administrators.

Right now, many people--us included--have been focused a lot of the time on the rapid-fire revelations driving the Trump White House's spectacular meltdown.

Of course, the Trump administration is trying to stay on the attack--for example, by pushing through a disastrous health care bill with potentially devastating consequences for people with pre-existing conditions. And by elevating perhaps the most reactionary cop in America--and that's saying something--to a key role at the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump's right-wing agenda is all too real in all our lives. But the building blocks to resist that agenda are real, too, as the local victories reported on at SW demonstrate.

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THE CHALLENGE facing the left is how to assemble these building blocks--now and in the long run--into a bridge that can reach between the different struggles, large and small, in Trump's America, and into the future to the bigger uprisings needed to transform the economic and political structures that uphold inequality and injustice.

We need a revolutionary left that combines urgency and patience--in the right proportions and at the right times--in order to move beyond capitalism.

Socialism 2017 aims to bring together radicals and activists from around the country to engage in discussions about both the past and the present in order to advance a new socialist movement in the U.S.

This process has already begun, but the question of what ideas will serve as the foundation of a new left has yet to be answered. But one thing is certain--there are many different ideas seeking an audience in this moment.

With the rise of the alt-right under Trump, the left faces urgent challenges, including about tactics and strategies, that it must meet. This means, for example, addressing the counterproductive tactics of the Black Bloc on display in Portland on May Day.

With each struggle, it's essential to draw out lessons for the future--and to contribute toward building left organization that can be the bearer of those lessons in the future.

The reason that the Bolshevik Party in Russia was able to win leadership during the 1917 revolution 100 years ago was the years of long and patient organizing before 1917 to build up an organization made up of leaders with the capacity to understand what was at stake in any struggle, explain those stakes to others and put forward a lead for the working-class movement.

No social struggle that aims to achieve lasting success can do so without knowing its history and refining and clarifying its ideas. Socialism 2017 looks like it will be the biggest conference ever--and hopefully, it will be able to contribute that much more to a new era of resistance.

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building blocks of Socialism - Socialist Worker Online

Journalists are now reporting regularly on the crisis in Venezuela, with shortages of everything from toilet paper to foodand now daily street protests. What the news reports too often miss is, Why? Why is a formerly middle-class, oil-rich country now so desperately poor?

The Weekly Standard notes a New York Times article, How Venezuela Stumbled to the Brink of Collapse, that spends 1800 words on the countryscollapse into authoritarianism. The Standard summarizes:

The strongman Hugo Chvez ran for president in 1998. His populist message of returning power to the people won him victory. Chvez polarized because populism describes a world divided between the righteous people and the corrupt elite. Now, under the late Chvezs successor, Nicols Maduro, The political system, after years of erosion, has become a hybrid of democratic and authoritarian features.

But never does the article identify what economic system could cause such disaster. It does mention specific policies: subsidies, welfare programs, money printing, inflation, and price controls. But nationalization is never mentioned. And in particular, the Standard points out, the article does not use the word socialism (or socialist). It does not mention that Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro have headed theUnited Socialist Party of Venezuela. Socialism is the cause that must not be named.

So its refreshing to see a rather more forthright article in the Washington Post this weekend by Mariana Zuniga and Nick Miroff:

With cash running low and debts piling up, Venezuelas socialist government has cut back sharply on food imports.

Venezuelas disaster is man-made, economists point out the result of farm nationalizations, currency distortions and a government takeover of food distribution. While millions of Venezuelans cant get enough to eat, officials have refused to allow international aid groups to deliver food, accustomed to viewing their oil-rich country as the benefactor of poorer nations, not a charity case.

Its not only the nationalization of land, said Carlos Machado, an expert on Venezuelan agriculture. The government has made the decision to be the producer, processor and distributor, so the entire chain of food production suffers from an inefficient agricultural bureaucracy.

My colleague Marian Tupy notes that according to the Economic Freedom of the World Index, economic freedom in Venezuela fell from just above 7 out of 10 in 1970 to barely above 3 in this decade. Meanwhile, its GDP per capita has fallen over 40 years, while Chiles has tripled.

Venezuela doesnt have to be poor. But to restore its standard of living, it will have to reverse recent changes in property rights, judicial independence, free trade, and corruption.

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Socialist Catastrophe in Venezuela - Cato Institute (blog)

Chuck Woolery, the well-coiffed former Wheel of Fortune and Love Connection host, has recently complained that his right-wing views have prevented him from finding work in Hollywood. His foray, via Twitter, into the complex relationship between the European Jewish diaspora, German philosophy and the rise of socialism in 20th century Russia is unlikely to have Burbank's best producers rushing to their phones.

Woolery is no neophyte to the profitable business of attacking and riling liberals and Democrats, oftenwith lines that could have been borrowed from Rush Limbaugh. For example, when tellingFOXBusiness earlier in May thathis politics stopped him getting work, he addedhisobservation the left is really operating on all German ideas instead of American ideas. While this could be a reference to the moral philosophy of Enlightenment-era Immanuel Kant, it far more likely an allusion to Adolf Hitler.

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Woolery has also made known his suspicionof Islam, tweeting last week in response to the suicide bombing in Manchester, England:

While he may no longer be a television mainstay, Woolery is the host of a short podcast, Blunt Force Truth, in which he uses his once-ubiquitous baritone to harangue the rights favorite targets: liberal nitwits, socialist Europe andthe Arab World. One recent segment, for example, involved a tortured joke about liberals and rectal cranial infusion, whatever that is. The New York Times, in a measuredassessment, called him a firebrand who takes particular delight in fricasseeing liberal celebrities.

It is unclear why Woolery chose Memorial Day to expound on his theories about Judaism and socialism. Those theories, such as they are, are neither new nor correct. Karl Marx, the principal author of The Communist Manifesto, wasJewish, but his forebears religion played no known role in the formation of his world-changing theories ofhistory, social organizationand the interactions between capital and labor.

In 1942, the historian Solomon F. Bloom wrote that Antisemitic enemies of Marxism have naturally made the most of the Jewish origin and ancestry of its principal leader in order to confound at one blow both Judaism and socialism. It looks as if Woolery borrowed from this very playbook.

As for Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, his own Jewish background is even more tenuous. While he did have Jewish roots, these were distant and not at all known by his Bolshevik compatriots or his Soviet subjects.

But in broadly blaming Jews for the debacle that was Soviet Communism, Woolery has an unlikely ally: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the famous 1962 chronicle of the gulags. In 2003, Solzhenitsynan ethnic Russian who tended towardSlavophiliapublished Two Hundred Years Together. The opaque title was a reference to the 1772 partial annexation of Poland and Russia which greatly increased the Russian Jewish population, as The Guardian explained. The book caused a furor for seeming blaming some of the worst depredations of Soviet rule on Jews while downplaying the abuses Jews faced, especially under Stalin.

In defending the book, Solzhenitsyn said, I have never made general conclusions about a people. I will always differentiate between layers of Jews. One layer rushed headfirst to the revolution. Another, to the contrary, was trying to stand back.

A review of Solzhenitsyn's book on the website of white nationalist David Duke praises the author, a grand old man, for revealing the awe-inspiring extent of the Jewish domination of the Soviet Union during its first two decades of existence.

Reactions to Woolerys tweet were, for the most part,critical:

Woolery tried to explainhimself later in the afternoon:

Woolery might be heartened to know that he has support on Gab, a social network that has recently gained favor with the extreme right. One user called him Chuck No More Jewish Tomfoolery Woolery," while another suggested the Holocaust was a hoax.

A screenshot from the social network Gab. Gab

How this will affect Woolery's triumphant return to Hollywood is unknown.

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Game Show Host Chuck Woolery Accused of Anti-Semitism After Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin Comments on Twitter - Newsweek