Attack on Texas synagogue shows danger posed by Jew-hatred today – The Militant

[....] antisemitism is growing amid the heightened class tensions of today’s capitalist crisis.

A central element of Jew-hatred is the assertion that Jews secretly control governments, banks, corporations and economic life around the world. This takes the blame off the real source of the exploitation and oppression working people face — the normal functioning of capitalism and the rulers’ drive to maximize profits. Such conspiracy theories have been the stock-in-trade of ultra-rightist and fascist forces — mortal enemies of the working class and its allies — as well as growing numbers of antisemites on the left.

Noting the FBI and most of the press initially refused to call the attack for what it was, Bret Stephens, in the New York Times, pointed out this was “not just a matter of a journalistic lapse,” but “profoundly worrisome.” Many Jews in the U.S. think they are doing well, Stephens noted. But “anyone with a long view of Jewish history should know” how quickly that “can turn to political and personal ruin even — or especially — in countries where it might seem unthinkable.” He noted that the singling out of Israel under the banner of anti-Zionism has come “a more acceptable way” of promoting antisemitism.

“Working people and our unions must speak out against Jew-hatred, wherever it comes from the left or from the right,” said Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party spokesperson in Texas. “The insidious lies that Jews control the government or are responsible for the evils bred by capitalism must be answered.

“This is a question of life or death for the union movement and the working class. No major section of the ruling class is financing antisemitic groups today,” Kennedy said. “But that will change when the crisis heats up, struggles by workers and farmers accelerate and sections of the ruling class come to fear that growing numbers of working people will seek ways to end capitalist rule. Workers and our unions will have to combat Jew-hatred on the road to bringing to power a government of workers and farmers.”

Attack on Texas synagogue shows danger posed by Jew-hatred today – The Militant

Democrats launch attack on rights, Constitution, claim to ‘save democracy’ – The Militant

Since before Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, the Democrats have campaigned nonstop to paint him as a criminal, outside the pale of normal bourgeois political dispute, bar him from office and demonize his working-class supporters. This drive reached a fever pitch for the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol building.

The liberals’ witch hunt against Trump is at the heart of their election campaign strategy in 2022 as they desperately try to hold onto control of at least the House of Representatives as the Joseph Biden presidency becomes less and less popular. And they dream of barring Trump from ever running for president again, fearing he would likely win.

Their drive against him is one part of the liberals’ broader effort to deal blows to the Constitution and longstanding norms of capitalist politics in order to gain control of Congress and advance their program....

Full:

Democrats launch attack on rights, Constitution, claim to ‘save democracy’ – The Militant

The Year in Review – The Union Of Workers

https://theunionofworkers.wordpress.com/2021/12/31/the-year-in-review/ 

Twelve notable Militant articles from 2021

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