This poem, written in 1935 by black American jazz poet, communist, civil rights activist, novelist and playwright, Langston Hughes (1901-1967), is pertinent to our present time.
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Ecosocialism and degrowth are great ways to become irrelevant
David McMullen
This essay originally appeared in Platypus Review 167 | June 2024
ECOSOCIALISM IS NOW well entrenched in the “Left,” and is endorsed by many long-established sects. Proponents believe the deteriorating natural environment has created an urgent need to cast off capitalism and adopt this new green and crunchy variety of socialism. We will then be able to cease growing the world economy and start degrowing to a lower, steady state. Only in this way can we remain within “planetary boundaries”; for the present system cannot do this, with capitalist competition dictating both growth through the treadmill of accumulation and an indifference to environmental costs that do not show up on company balance sheets. Their slogan is “system change not climate change.”
Continue readingA response to “The legacy of 1968”
Platypus Review 165 | April 2024
On June 24, 2023 at Trades Hall in Melbourne, Australia, the Platypus Affiliated Society hosted a panel on the legacy of 1968.[1] The speakers included Andy Blunden, Alison Thorne, and Arthur Dent. Barry York provides his response to the panel.
Continue readingTunnels under hospitals
I had an interesting encounter two days ago with a bloke who had worked for 37 years in hospital administration at a major hospital in an Australian city. He said he was puzzled by all the fuss about the tunnels under the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
He explained that all major hospitals in Australia have elaborate and extensive tunnel systems and networks under their buildings. I asked him why they had these tunnels and he explained in some detail the various roles they played that were essential to a large hospital’s functioning. You can hear his explanation in the ten minute audio clip below.
Continue readingLessons from 3CR – Jews Against Zionism and Anti-Semitism, late 1970s
I’m reproducing the first few sections of an important document called Nazi-Zionist Collaboration from the late 1970s in Melbourne as it is relevant to, and has lessons for, the current Palestinian solidarity campaign. The document was a submission to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. It was first republished in 1981.
Continue readingThe Westminster Declaration – struggle for free speech against censorship
The Westminster Declaration
We write as journalists, artists, authors, activists, technologists, and academics to warn of increasing international censorship that threatens to erode centuries-old democratic norms.
Continue readingTechnology and the future of work: a Marxist perspective
Technology and the Future of Work
Albert Langer
(Originally published in Readings on Technology and Change, Community Research Centre, Monash University 1985)
Attitudes towards technology and the future of work reflect a fundamental division in world outlook generally.
People with a progressive world outlook compare the present with the future and find it wanting. They are excited by the possibilities of the future and optimistic about achieving those possibilities. Correspondingly they are discOntented with the present and welcome its disintegration. Above all, progressives advocate the abolition of the wages system, and the system of property ownership on which it rests, as the principal barrier to the unfolding of human potential.
Continue readingThe Legacy of 1968 – panel discussion
A panel discussion on the Legacy of 1968, and how Marxism was transformed by the radical decade of the 1960s.
Continue readingInternational Women’s Day – a lesson from Nina Simone
Nina Simone was influenced by two actvists who were themselves influenced by Marxism and who she knew personally, Lorraine Hansberry and Langston Hughes. She was a fighter, who used her music as a weapon in struggle.
Continue readingMultipolarity, the Mantra of Authoritarianism (reprinted from ‘The India Forum: a journal-magazine on contemporary issues’ (December 2022)
I just wish the term ‘pseudo-left’ would be used instead of ‘Left’. Those who support the autocrats and fascists against the people struggling for democracy can never be regarded as on the left, no matter how they might self-identify.
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Multipolarity,
the Mantra of Authoritarianism
The Left’s advocacy for ‘multipolarity’ against a US-led unipolar order has, in effect, defended authoritarianism across the world. The Left must reflect on how its language enables such regimes.
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C21st Left 