Tariq Ali - 1968 and after: Inside the Revolution

1968 was the Year of Revolution. In France ten million workers went on strike and occupied their factories. The barricades went up again in Paris. In Czechoslovakia the Prague spring bloomed with an intensity of its own, only to be crushed by Russian tanks a few months later. In Vietnam the Communists launched their Tet (New Year) offensive which shattered the United States and changed the course of history. A radical wave swept the world. From Washington to London, from Paris to Saigon, from La Paz to Colombo, revolutionaries were on the march. Today, ten years later, many of the hopes aroused by May 1968 seem to be utopian. Yet were they? Was it all just the impassioned outpourings of a youth frustrated and alienated by ruling-class complacency? Or did it represent something more fundamental? Tariq Ali was a leader of the international revolutionary movement in 1968. In this book he describes the hopes and aspirations of all those who struggled in that year.

Eric Hobsbawm - Industry and empire: from 1750 to the present day

This outstanding history describes and accounts for Britain's rise as the world's first industrial world power, its decline from the temporary dominance of the pioneer, its rather special relationship with the rest of the world (notably the underdeveloped countries) and the effects of all these on the life of the British people.

20 лет «Единой России». Она была партией власти, а превратилась в пустой бренд

«Единой России» 1 декабря исполнится 20 лет. У партии в течение всего времени сохранялось большинство в парламенте, и ранее она была важным политтехнологическим инструментом.

Но последние несколько лет организация теряет свою функциональную роль. По формальным признакам ЕР нельзя назвать классической партией у нее нет явной идеологии, партией власти ее тоже нельзя считать она не определяет политику в России. В новом выпуске политического шоу «Перцев и Гаазе» ведущие рассказывают историю «Единой России» и разбираются, во что она превратилась к 20-летнему юбилею

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CRhRT7zb1io

Daniel Singer - Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968

"Daniel Singer is the left's most brilliant arsonist. He sets ablaze whole forests of desiccated clichés about 'the end of history' and 'the triumph of the market' in order to light the way forward for the next generation of radical thinkers and activists." Mike Davis

Was the Long March a Dead End? An Exchange on Radicals and the University

In the 1960s, young radicals saw the university as an ideal site for agitating and organizing. What changed?

«Sometimes I think about what higher education looked like to a smart kid in the early 1960s. I’m sure the picture is rosier in hindsight, but even at the time it must have been impressive wealthy, expanding, dynamic. No wonder young radicals saw higher education as an ideal place to start their long march through the institutions. C. Wright Mills’s “Letter to the New Left” already predicted in 1960 that the young intelligentsia would take over the proletariat’s role as history’s agent of change. That same year, the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-ins were started by four college freshmen, sparking a new phase in the civil rights movement that drew support from a multiracial youth coalition. In 1962, the Students for a Democratic Society’s Port Huron Statement announced the arrival of a generation of students “bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities” ready to change the world. Universities had power, and it looked like they had the potential to change, radically, for the better»

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/was-the-long-march-a-dead-end-an-exchange-on-radicals-and-the-university

A Barthes Reader

A Barthes Reader gives one the image of Barthes as one of the great public teachers of our time, someone who thought out, argued for, and made available several steps in a penetrating reflection on language sign systems, texts- and what they have to tell us about the concept of being human. Susan Sontag's prefatory essay is one of her finest acts of criticism, informed by intellectual sympathy and a sure sense of the contours of the mind she is describing.

Salim Lamrani - The Economic War Against Cuba: A Historical and Legal Perspective on the U.S. Blockade

It is impossible to fully understand Cuba today without also understanding the economic sanctions levied against it by the United States. For over fifty years, these sanctions have been upheld by
every presidential administration, and at times intensified by individual presidents and acts of Congress. They are a key part of the U.S. government’s ongoing campaign to undermine the Cuban Revolution, and stand in egregious violation of international law. Most importantly, the sanctions are cruelly designed for their harmful impact on the Cuban people.

In this concise and sober account, Salim Lamrani explains everything you need to know about U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba: their origins, their provisions, how they contravene international
law, and how they affect the lives of Cubans. He examines the U.S. government’s own official documents to expose what is hiding in plain sight: an indefensible, vicious, and wasteful blockade
that has been roundly condemned by citizens around the world.

Marcello Musto - Friedrich Engels Was More Than Second Fiddle to Karl Marx

Friedrich Engels once wrote that he played “second fiddle” to Marx. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, we should remember the profound influence that Engels had on his friend and comrade, as well as his own theoretical contributions.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/friedrich-engels-karl-marx-relationship

О фрилансерах, тэйлоризме и профсоюзах

"Книжный разбор" на YouTube канале Юманите. Говорим о книше Даниэль Ланар. "Невыносимое подчинение работников". О фрилансерах, тэйлоризме и профсоюзах.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SDZo_ZLkL4M&fbclid=IwAR0OPhIt0f2Ji5ahPtQbT0KruW_zXhe6MJ4B5cXuowzfc67UByUUFRRD_BE

Jeremy Morris - Russia as vanguard: Authoritarian neoliberalism and surveillance capitalism

This article takes up the problem of Russian neoliberalism – how to understand the relationship between the social state and neoliberal economic reforms/governmentality (which often seem contradictory). In turn, this relationship tells us about the alignment of state, digital governance, and capital interests in Russia. Based on long term ethnographic participant observation, my research has looked at ‘work’ broadly defined and in particular the case of SEZs (Special Economic Zones) and their roles in the surveillence of work and the (re)moulding of labouring persons. 

https://lefteast.org/russia-vanguard-authoritarian-neoliberalism-surveillance-capitalism/

Росен Джагалов - Траектории постсоветских либералов, или Расизм как высшая стадия антикоммунизма

В этой статье Росен Джагалов анализирует формирование и изменение дискурса (пост)советской интеллигенции на протяжении нескольких десятилетий. Автор дает ответ на вопрос: как могут люди, искренне считающие себя носителями либеральных идей, иметь дремучие расистские убеждения и не видеть в этом противоречия? Этот вопрос стал особенно актуальным, когда русскоязычная публичная сфера практически единогласно осуждала движение Black Lives Matter, не гнушаясь расистской риторикой. Но то, что пишет Джагалов о российской интеллигенции, в не меньшей степени касается и украинской: в обсуждениях американских событий большинство отечественных интеллектуалов с удовольствием примеряли на себя бремя белого человека.

Свежее подтверждение того, что расизм постсоветской интеллигенции не знает границ, подоспело с обострением ситуации на белорусско-польской границе: российские, украинские и белорусские либерально настроенные обозреватели, обычно выступающие за прогрессивную социальную повестку, вдруг в один голос солидаризировались с правоконсервативным правительством Польши в его «крестовом походе» против ближневосточных искателей убежища. Отказывая последним в праве на субъектность, они перенимают геополитический язык «гибридной войны», за которым просвечивает мировоззрение, наделяющее людей неравной ценностью в зависимости от их происхождения.

https://commons.com.ua/ru/rasizm-vysshee-proyavlenie-antikommunizma/

Mitchell Abidor - May Made Me: An Oral History of the 1968 Uprising in France

The mass protests that shook France in May 1968 were exciting, dangerous, creative, and influential, changing European politics to this day. Students demonstrated, workers went on general strike, and factories and universities were occupied. Before it was all over, children, homemakers, and the elderly were swept up in the life-changing events that targeted bureaucratic capitalism and the staid Communist Party. The French state was on the ropes and feared civil war or revolution. Decades later, here are the eye-opening oral testimonies of those young rebels who demanded the impossible. Published on the 50th anniversary of those momentous events, May Made Me presents the legacy of the uprising: how those explosive experiences changed both the individual and history.

“These powerful and moving testimonies create an eye-opening account of the inspiring events of May ’68, which are more relevant for today’s activists than ever before.” Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future

Алексей Цветков - Карл Каутский (эпизод 1)

Это первая часть видео-лекции о  крупном марксистском теоретике Карле Каутском, образ которого для русского читателя был, отчасти, раскритикован Лениным в его известной брошюре "Пролетарская революция и ренегат Каутский". Левый публицист и философ Алексей Цветков расскажет нам в своих двух выступлениях о том, кем был в свое время Карл Каутский, какую роль он играл в левом движении, и какое наследие оставил

00:08 - Булгаков и Мандельштам о Каутском
01:13 - Шаги и даты биографии
12:15 - Корни социалистической традиции
13:58 - "Эрфуртская программа"
16:18 - Интеллигенция и социализм
17:09 - Спор с Бернштейном
17:48 - Происхождение морали
22:22 - Колониальный вопрос и "ультраимпериализм"
25:16 - Поздний Каутский и роль партии

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jInadBUhY5E