My 2019 reading notes on The Meaning of the Second World War

My 2019 reading notes on The Meaning of the Second World War 

by Ernest Mandel

Part One: The Historical Framework

Chapters 1. & 2. http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-chapters-1-and-2-of.html

Chapter 3.

http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-chapter-3-of-meaning.html

Chapter 4.

http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-chapter-4-of-meaning.html

Chapter 5.

http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-chapter-5-of-meaning.html

Chapter 6.

http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-for-chapter-6-of-meaning.html

Chapter 7. http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-chapter-7-of-meaning.html

Chapter 8. http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-chapter-8-of-meaning.html

Chapter 9. http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-chapter-9-of-meaning.html

Part Two:  Events and Results

http://marxistupdate.blogspot.com/2019/12/reading-notes-on-part-two-of-meaning-of.html

Jay

15 December 2021

‘Capitalism contaminates land, sea and air for profit’ – The Militant

Below are excerpts from the Socialist Workers Party 2007 resolution “The Stewardship of Nature Also Falls to the Working Class: In Defense of Land and Labor.” It is available in issue no. 14 of New International, a magazine of Marxist politics and theory.

 

Labor’s transformation of nature is the source of all wealth, all advances in social productivity, culture, and conservation. It is the very foundation for the ongoing existence of our species.

At the same time, from the earliest stages of class-divided society, the propertied classes have organized labor to advance their private gain. They have done so with no concern for the social consequences of their methods. The exploiters use labor as an expendable beast of burden, while they simultaneously deplete the soil, destroy forests through slash-and-burn or other farming methods, wipe out animal life through overhunting and overfishing, and poison streams, ponds, and other bodies of water.

Thus, over the thousands of years since the rise of private property, the relationship between social labor and the natural environment has been marked by the mutually contradictory poles of transformation and destruction. …

The capitalist mode of production dominant for the last few hundred years, however, takes on its own particular lawful historical forms and tempos, with ruinous consequences for the producers of wealth themselves. Under capitalism neither nature, tools, nor machinery; neither science, knowledge, nor technique add directly to the value created by workers and appropriated by the exploiting class. The store of value is increased only through the transformation of land and other natural resources by human labor, the use of tools and machines by workers, the toilers’ application of science, knowledge, and technology.

By incorporating the two primary sources of wealth — labor-power and land — Marx observed, “capital acquires a power of expansion that permits it to augment the elements of its accumulation beyond the limits apparently fixed by its own magnitude.” In fact, capital is forced to extend its reach over nature and labor by the cutthroat competition of the system itself and by the workers’ fierce resistance bred by this exploitation.

In just a few hundred years, capitalism — initially germinated in a few parts of Europe — has employed that “power of expansion,” reinforced by military might, not only to engulf the vast majority of the earth but to contaminate its lands, seas, and atmosphere and to extend finance capital’s armed dominion into space.

‘Capitalism contaminates land, sea and air for profit’ – The Militant

Rittenhouse verdict upholds political rights workers need – The Militant

[....]Accusing those you disagree with of being racist or a “white supremacist” has become the stock-in-trade of the left. It’s a way of stifling debate, as well as glorifying anything done in the name of “anti-racism,” including thuggery and looting. All of this is dangerous for the working class.

Both Rittenhouse and his attorney, Mark Richards, denounced those who’ve tried to claim the 18 year old as their own. Richards called out conservative political figures seeking to profit from the acquittal. “They’re raising money on it and you have all these Republican congressmen saying come work for me,” he said. “They want to trade on his celebrity and I think it’s disgusting.” 

“This is something I wish never would have happened, but it did, and we can’t change that,” Rittenhouse said. “But how polarized it became is absolutely sickening. Right or left, people using me for a cause that should never have been used as a cause.” 

Rittenhouse verdict upholds political rights workers need – The Militant

Defend political rights won in blood! – The Militant

[....]The facts presented in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse clearly showed he was not guilty of murder in the killing of two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and that he acted in self-defense. The jury voted unanimously after lengthy deliberation. But it did not stop liberals, from the president on down, and middle-class radicals from disregarding the evidence, vilifying Rittenhouse as a “white supremacist,” denouncing the verdict as racist, and, in some cities, visiting destruction in working-class neighborhoods. They trampled on rights working people and our unions need.

Defending our fundamental political rights, is critical for the working class and our struggles — today and in bigger battles to come.

Defend political rights won in blood! – The Militant

Two views of the Rittenhouse Trial and Acquittal: The Militant versus the petty bourgeois left

Excerpt:

....Those rioting with wild abandon, almost all of them Caucasian, were not supporters of the struggle but out and out enemies and wreckers of the movement and bear primary responsibility for what happened.

Joseph Rosenbaum was a lumpen criminal and sadly, mentally ill, and was filmed, along with others, pushing a lit dumpster towards a gas station located in a working-class, residential neighborhood, and near a hospital.

Gaige Grosskreutz testified during the trial that he wasn't political and did not affiliate to either side, one way or the other.

Most of those plundering the neighborhood were engaged in the destruction of local businesses and destroying cars, those on the car lots and those parked along the road. I'm guessing a good number or workers couldn't make it to work the next day and weren't really in the position to afford a day without pay. Or make repairs to their damaged (or destroyed) property.

Wayne Huber seems to be the one exception of those killed or injured, but when all is said and done, you can't beat someone over the head with a skateboard and not expect a defensive reaction. From the onset it was Rittenhouse who was being chased, which made a guilty verdict not a serious option for people (like the jury) who are not interested in creating narratives that reinforce a preconceived Wokeist view. The same thing applies when you point a Glock at someone's head....

Full:

https://theunionofworkers.wordpress.com/2021/11/24/the-militant-and-world-outlook-discuss-the-kyle-rittenhouse-trial-and-acquittal/ 

Second Amendment important for rights of the working class – The Militant

Excerpt:

[....]Absent from the debate in bourgeois politics over “gun control” is a working-class point of view.

With the exception of the Socialist Workers Party virtually every organization in the U.S. that calls itself socialist — including the Communist Party, Workers World Party, International Socialist Organization, Socialist Alternative and others — has caved into the pressure from the liberal left and embraced the protests as a road forward.

[....]As the class struggle heats up, the rulers will be more and more interested in curtailing our rights and at the same time assuring that their cops and rightist goons are armed to the teeth. The stakes for the working class — and most everyone else — are huge.

We can push back anti-social violence of every description in only one way — with working people in their millions standing up and fighting for better working conditions, against police brutality, for women’s rights, against imperialism’s wars around the world. A byproduct of young people and others having something to fight for, of seeing solidarity in action, will be a decline in crime and in senseless acts of violence.

This can only be made permanent through a social revolution, where the working class takes political and economic power out of the hands of the capitalist class once and for all, transforming ourselves in the process, and joins the worldwide fight for socialism.

Full article:

Second Amendment important for rights of the working class – The Militant

Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha poses question of rights workers need – The Militant

[....]Much of the “left” argues that it will be a great injustice if Rittenhouse is acquitted. They insist he’s a “white supremacist,” though there’s no evidence that’s true and it’s not an issue in the trial. “Rittenhouse was driven by undoubtedly racist motivations to wield a gun against demonstrators taking part in the movement for Black lives,” says a Nov. 11 article on the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s website. “There is no question that Kyle Rittenhouse is guilty.”

But facts do matter, for the working class and our political rights. No one should be convicted without a trial and due process. And, as the liberal Washington Post put it, the prosecution in this case faces a lot of “inconvenient facts.” The working class should jealously guard the right to presumption of innocence and constitutional rights, no matter who the defendant is. In this case — in contrast to the Minneapolis trial of cop Derek Chauvin earlier this year — the judge has mostly upheld those rights.

As the prosecution’s case tottered, the judge has come under attack by the middle-class left. He’s been called a “secret Trumpist” and a “racist.”

The case went to the jury Nov. 15.

Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha poses question of rights workers need – The Militant