Introduction My wife (who was born in Guatemala) and I went to see the film La Llorona last night. The showing of the film was sponsored by The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education and the Socialist Project. Here is what the advertisement says: FilmSocial Presents: La Llarona Wednesday, October 30 / 7:00 pm - 9:00 … Continue reading La Llorona, a Guatemalan Film on Guatemala’s Genocide–Sort of
Tag: Socialism
An Interesting Response from Barry Weisleder, Canadian Federal Secretary of Socialist Action, located in Toronto
I just had an interesting experience with a Socialist Action Conference held online at the 4:00 session: There were three presenters at the 4:00 session: Lisa Kreut (Hospital Employees Union in British Columbia), Corey David (machinist and member of the Municipal Socialist Alliance) and Julius Arscott, former executive member of the Ontario Public Service Employees … Continue reading An Interesting Response from Barry Weisleder, Canadian Federal Secretary of Socialist Action, located in Toronto
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Ten
Introduction It is interesting that social democrats express themselves in different ways. Thus, Professor Noonan, a professor at the University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada), who teaches Marxism, among other courses, presents a few truths that give credence to a number of distortions and silences in his recent post on his blog (see https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/25539351/posts/5759). Distortions and Silences … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Ten
Review of Thier’s Book “A People’s Guide to Capitalism,” Part Two
I recently participated in a group called No One Is Illegal here in Toronto. The group decided to provide a zoom reading meeting every week to discuss the book A People's Guide to Capitalism, by Hadas Thier, with many participants not belonging to the group but interested in understanding more about capitalism. We read the … Continue reading Review of Thier’s Book “A People’s Guide to Capitalism,” Part Two
The Ontario Federation of Labour’s Workers-First Agenda: A Critique: Part Two
Introduction The first part of this series focused on a critique of the phrase "good jobs and decent work" expressed in the Ontario Federation of Labour's campaign titled "Building the Fight for a Workers-First Agenda" (https://ofl.ca/event/activist-assembly-2022/). This post will focus on a critique of the phrases "high quality affordable housing" and "health care." I draw … Continue reading The Ontario Federation of Labour’s Workers-First Agenda: A Critique: Part Two
An Inadequate Critique of a Radical Basic Income: The Case of the Toronto Radical John Clarke, Part Three: Basic Income
Introduction In two earlier posts, I criticized the views of the radical activist here in Toronto, John Clarke (see Critique of the Limited Aim (Solution)–Decent Wages–of a Radical Social Democrat: The Case of the Toronto Radical, John Clarke: Part One and Critique of a Limited Definition of the Problem: The Case of the Toronto Radical … Continue reading An Inadequate Critique of a Radical Basic Income: The Case of the Toronto Radical John Clarke, Part Three: Basic Income
Reform Versus Abolition of the Police, Part Five: More Philosophical Considerations
This is the fifth and perhaps the last post in a five-part series on the issue of the reform of the police versus its abolition. (I came across an article on unions and the police (not police unions) and may write a post on that still). It is more theoretical than the first four posts … Continue reading Reform Versus Abolition of the Police, Part Five: More Philosophical Considerations
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Eight: Class Harmony
This is an elaboration of a critique of an academic leftist (aka academic historical materialist), the philosopher Jeff Noonan. Professor Noonan's neglect of the relatively privileged status of university professors in relation to other workers leads him to assert the following (from Thinkings 4: Collected Interventions, Readings, Evocations, 2014-2015, page 13): Whether or not it was … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Eight: Class Harmony
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Seven: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government and Nationalization in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part Two
In a previous post, I pointed out how Professor Noonan idealized the nation state. This post will expand on this view by showing that Professor Noonan's proposal to nationalize the economy by means of the modern state does the same thing--idealizes the modern state. Professor Noonan makes the following claim: The alternative is to use … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Seven: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government and Nationalization in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part Two
The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Six: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part One
Professor Noonan, a self-declared historical materialist and teacher of Marxism, continues to argue a political position that ignores the reality of capitalist society. In his post Back to the Magic Mountain, he argues the following: No one should fetishize the nation state, but it remains the dominant form of political society and, when it chooses … Continue reading The Poverty of Academic Leftism, Part Six: The Idealization of the Nation State or the National Government in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Part One
The Abolitionary 