<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Marxist-Humanist Initiative</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mhi@marxisthumanistinitiative.org">mhi@marxisthumanistinitiative.org</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 10:49 AM<br>Subject: New videos, NYC discussion 4/13<br>To: MHI Information <<a href="mailto:mhi@marxisthumanistinitiative.org">mhi@marxisthumanistinitiative.org</a>><br><br><br>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">April
1, 2011</span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">Dear
Friend of MHI,</span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><span>����������� </span>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.� </span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><span>����������� </span>Meanwhile, the literal fall-out from
the �natural� and unnatural disasters in Japan continues (see <a href="http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/mhieditorial/mhi-editorial-japan-suffers-triple-disaster-world-holds-its-breath-what-should-humans-build.html" target="_blank">http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/mhieditorial/mhi-editorial-japan-suffers-triple-disaster-world-holds-its-breath-what-should-humans-build.html</a>).
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� (<a href="http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/our-publication" target="_blank">http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/our-publication</a>),
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. </span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><span>����������� </span>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<i> is</i> 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. </span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"><span>����������� </span>We are pleased to announce that
videos of all four events are now posted on our website </span></b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">(<a href="http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/" target="_blank">http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/</a>)<b>.</b> 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.</span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">Finally,
for those in the New York City area</span></b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">, let
me invite you to our next event (co-sponsored with The New SPACE): �<b>�Is
an Emancipatory Communism Possible?�</b>,<b>�</b>a talk by Allan Armstrong
from Scotland. It�s <b>Wednesday April 13 at 7:00 p.m</b>. at TRS Professional
Suites, 44 East 32<sup>nd</sup> Street, 11<sup>th</sup> floor (between Madison
& Park Aves.), Manhattan. See more about the talk at <a href="http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/alternatives-to-capital/413.html" target="_blank">http://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/alternatives-to-capital/413.html</a>.</span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">In
solidarity,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; color: rgb(42, 42, 42);">Anne
Jaclard for MHI </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; color: rgb(42, 42, 42);"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">�</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">�</span></p>
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