---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Marxist-Humanist Initiative <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 10:49 AM Subject: New videos, NYC discussion 4/13 To: MHI Information <[email protected]> April 1, 2011 Dear Friend of MHI, These are tumultuous times, with revolutions and counter-revolutions changing the face of the Middle East and North Africa day-by-day. We support the efforts of the masses who are fighting tyrants in Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, and elsewhere. In particular, we try to follow, hear from, and write about those people who are trying to work out how to build a different society, such as the Egyptians who have just re-occupied Tahrir Square with demands to curb the continuing power of the military. Meanwhile, the literal fall-out from the “natural” and unnatural disasters in Japan continues (see http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/mhieditorial/mhi-editorial-japan-su...). The onslaught of assaults on U.S. workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights is stirring up resistance such as the battle in Wisconsin over collective bargaining. MHI is attempting to analyze all these events in our web publication, “With Sober Senses” ( http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/our-publication), but it is difficult to keep up. The constants in these world events are the destructive power of capitalist society, and capitalism’s generation of its own opposition through revolts that release human creativity. The theoretical contexts and possibilities raised by these “constants” proved to be controversial at the panel discussions that MHI organized at the recent Left Forum conference and an additional meeting in New York. At the Left Forum, we put on two panels on “Is Socialism Possible?” featuring many views by a variety of Marxists, anarchists, and autonomists, and another panel called “The Great Recession and Its Aftermath” featuring Andrew Kliman, David McNally, Fred Moseley, and Alan Freeman. At the panels and at our later meeting, “Crisis, Austerity & Resistance in the Euro Zone: A View from Finland,” there was much disagreement about the nature of the recent crisis, about what reforms are capable of achieving, and about whether socialism* is* a kind of reformed capitalism or whether it can only develop out of a complete break with existing society. For example, some thought that regulating or nationalizing the banking industry could cause it to help working people, and some thought that socialism could emerge through efforts to establish cooperative labor within capitalism. MHI speakers, in contrast, argued that capitalism must be uprooted in order for a new mode of production and a human society to emerge, and called for theoretical work on the question of what is necessary to establish socialism. * We are pleased to announce that videos of all four events are now posted on our website *(http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/)*.* We encourage you to send us your comments, especially on the questions of whether reforms that are fundamental as well as sustainable are possible, and what would constitute socialism. *Finally, for those in the New York City area*, let me invite you to our next event (co-sponsored with The New SPACE): *“Is an Emancipatory Communism Possible?”*,* *a talk by Allan Armstrong from Scotland. It’s *Wednesday April 13 at 7:00 p.m*. at TRS Professional Suites, 44 East 32nd Street, 11thfloor (between Madison & Park Aves.), Manhattan. See more about the talk at http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/alternatives-to-capital/413.html. In solidarity, Anne Jaclard for MHI -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens