In Yabebyry, where Barrett has gone from clandestine fugitive to a symbol of pride, hopes are high that his writing can also help lead to a new future. “Rafael Barrett planted a seed here,” said Esquivel Romero. “I’m convinced that through these efforts we’ll see our young people being more prominent, defending themselves, and defending the rights of the community and its people.” | more…
Richard Clarke recommends a hugely valuable text for those seeking theoretical analysis and practical action to defend public services: ‘Matthews argues that capitalism’s devaluation of the “normative body” and the social exclusion of many disabled individuals “is firmly grounded within capitalism’s rejection of them as a source of economic value”….’ | more…
Excerpted from:
CHAPTER 8: Healthcare under Capitalism
Fundamental to the Marxist method is dialectics, with change understood as emerging from the interaction between objects and phenomena. The health status of any individual arises from the dialectical interaction between the materialism of their body and the materialism of the social context within which the body is situated. The body has its own biological structural organization, governed by its own internal biological forces. Without doubt there exists an expected way in which the body functions, reflecting its inherent structural operation, which, when operating in the expected manner, contributes to the existence of good health. Yet, both good and poor health, do not, in many incidences, simply arise from, or can be reduced to, the positive and negative functioning of the body. Instead, as crucial as the biological operation of the body is, the structural organization and operation of society plays a vital role in influencing how someone experiences their health, with differing social environments more or less conducive to good health. | more…
….and the “normal” body, if you want to use that term, is the one which can keep up with the productivity of machinery, of factory life. And what Marx argued in fact was that in most cases, the productivity of machinery could outpace that of the ‘normal’ body, if you want to put it that way…” | more…
The slight thaw in the US relationship during Obama’s presidency was thrown into deep freeze at the twilight of Trump’s first term when Cuba was reinstated onto the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. Biden left it untouched. On 30 October, the UN general assembly once again voted on the resolution, titled ‘Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.’ It passed with 187 votes in favour, two against (Israel and the US)… | more…
“…what makes you shudder is when he declares: ‘Now I’m going to pull up all the trees around the property so that it looks nice.’
Yes, the gleaming, stupid façade must look clean, bare, with its brazen colors that profane the softness of the rural tones. People must say: ‘This is the new house of so-and-so, that man who is now so rich.’ It must be possible to contemplate the monument to so-and-so’s endeavors without obstruction. Trees are surplus to requirement: ‘They block the view.’ And there is not only vanity in this eagerness to strip the ground: there is hatred, hatred of trees.
Is this possible? Hatred of beings that, unmoving, with their noble limbs always open, offer us the caress of their shade without ever tiring; the silent fertility of their fruits; the multifarious, exquisite poetry that they raise up to the sky? They claim that there are harmful plants. Perhaps there are, but that should not be reason to hate them. Our hatred condemns them. Our love would perhaps transform them and redeem them….” | more…
“The book under review furnishes ample proof that professional historians do not have the market cornered on rigorous historical method, and the most fascinating portions of Batterson’s brilliant book draw on reasoning methods that may be common to mathematicians but elude the practitioners of other disciplines….” –The Historian | more…
Losurdo provides us with an ideological map of opportunist Continental left-wing philosophy. The Western Marxists that he criticizes are the Frankfurt School (Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Jurgen Habermas); French theory ( Alain Badiou; Michel Foucault); Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (authors of Empire); Hannah Arendt; Slavoj Zizek; Ernst Bloch; Norberto Bobbio; Leon Trotsky and his disciples (including Perry Anderson) and others. Losurdo demonstrates the influence of Western Marxism on such writers as Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser who did not wholly succumb to it…. | more…
we’re born with the wit to master Advanced Drone Escape 101 and How to Breathe Through Dust 202. By the time this war began, I was already a seasoned student. I had passed the tests five times already, miraculously surviving five destructive wars in just 25 years. So I was familiar with the drill: grab your documents, your children and whatever food you can carry, and run. But knowing the drill doesn’t make it easier. | more…
It is true that what Losurdo leaves us is not an encyclopedia nor a comforting panacea. Instead, like Virgil leading Dante through the inferno, he offers to help light the way as our guide through this capitalist imperialist hellscape. Like Virgil, however, Losurdo cannot see this journey through for us. | more…
….cites a popular and influential book by a self-proclaimed Marxist that invites us to “change the world without taking power.” “Here,” declares Losurdo, “the self-dissolution of Western Marxism ends up departing from the terrain of politics and settling in the land of religion.” Losurdo is clear that “changing the world” involves an intensification of anti-colonial struggle, and an ongoing renewal of Marxism, not limited to any hemisphere. | more…
Despite the explicitly national flavor of its title, the core themes that run through ‘Paraguayan Sorrow’ resonate broadly in space and time. No doubt thanks to his international education and background, Barrett was able to quote, compare, and draw inspiration from writers and case studies from around the world…. | more…
