Studs Terkel, a prolific American writer and broadcaster over several decades, died at the end October at the age of 96. His style and approach is well illustrated by the sub-title of his 1975 book “Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do”. Besides the...
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Socialism
Studs Terkel – RIP
UK Socialists and WW1
Today (Nov 11th) marks the 90th anniversary of the end of World War One. We recall the socialist opposition to it. The historian George Haupt has written that in July 1914 the workers movement did not consider war a possibility. Speaking six years later the German Social Democrat Karl Kautsky admitted that: “It is...
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The Revolutionary Vote
The vote is a gain, a potential class weapon, a potential “instrument of emancipation” as Marx put it. Despite Lenin’s distortions , Marx and Engels always held that the bourgeois democratic republic was the best political framework for the development and triumph of the socialist movement. This is another pre-1914 socialist position we see...
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Trotskyist Laundry List
One of the most laughable aspects of Trotskyist politics is the continual trotting out of laundry lists of demands. Stalinist/Maoist demands and tactics tend to be cynically practical – e.g.. the alliance of the USSR and Nazi Germany between 1939-41. Trotskyists, on the other hand, make demands that are so unreal they make Charles...
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Why The Economic Crisis?
The WSP has produced three leaflets (in pdf format) meant to aid working people to understand the causes of the current economic crisis: “Booms and slumps – what causes them?” – Discusses in plain terms the causes of economic cycles and why “Ultimately, it is the economy that controls politicians and not the other...
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Production for Profit
The motive for production under capitalism is making a profit. In order for goods to be manufactured or services to be provided, they must result in a reasonable amount of profit, otherwise they won’t be produced. Even ‘loss leaders’ serve the goal of profit, by enticing customers into a shop. In contrast, socialism will...
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Marxism and needs
Is the “world of abundance” traditionally advocated by socialists feasible? Not according to Claude Bitot, known as the author of a book on the future of the movement for communism (see Socialist Standard, December 1995), in his recent book Quel autre monde possible? (“What other world is possible”?). Echoing the ideas of some Greens...
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On replacing a bad system
Advocates of reform often make the mistake of reducing capitalism to a logical structure rather than seeing it “holistically” — as a dynamic process. Even as they note its continued evolution, when they talk about changing it, their interest tends to focus on parts and wholes, on mechanical interactions. Hence, they usually assume it...
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Labor Theory of Value
The article below is one part of my introduction to a book I have translated entitled Marx’s Theory of the Genesis of Money by the Japanese Marxist economist Samezo Kuruma. My discussion of the labor theory of value below is part of my overview of Kuruma’s book so it might be a bit difficult...
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Portland – Marxian Economics for Workers
Title: Portland – Marxian Economics for Workers Location: Portland, OR Description: WSP member FN Brill will present a workshop on \”Marxian Economics for Workers\” at the Portland Radical Bookfair. Time:tba Liberty Hall, 311 N Ivy, Portland, OR Start Time: 12:00 Date: 2008-12-06 End Time: 17:00
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