DOCSLIB.ORG

As Clinton Militarizes Border with Mexico

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
As Clinton Militarizes Border with Mexico WfJliKEIiS ".fifJ'RIJ SOt No. 683 ~)(~23 30 January 1998 As Clinton Militarizes Border with Mexico Der Spiegel Palmer/U.S. News & World Report Immigrants face terror, exploitation from U.S. capitalist rulers: troops erect steel wall at Mexican border near Sail Diego, children toil for starvation wages in Manhattan garment sweatshop. Government Starves As the capitalist rulers rub their the past two decades. And the elimi­ hands in glee over the sharp decline nation of relatively inexpensive pro­ in welfare rolls across the country, grams like AFDC is only the prelude millions more people grow gaunt Immigrants to a full-scale assault on Social Se­ from hunger. Since Democratic pres­ curity and Medicare. ident Clinton signed the bipartisan measure ending "welfare as we know Racist Repression it" in August 1996, already overbur­ Labor Must Champion Immigrant Rights! on the Border dened soup kitchens and food pan­ Along with driving immigrant tries have been besieged by people families to starvation, the Clinton desperately trying to feed themselves government has drastically beefed up and their children~ In denouncing this grow barer, immigrants who earn on "In racist America, where the words its arsenal of repression along the bor­ vindictive law, we wrote: "The vast in­ average about $10,000 a year find them­ 'welfare queen',have long served as code ders. Under codenames like "Operation crease in human misery resulting from selves giving up fresh meat, spending words for the black ghetto poor, the rul­ Gatekeeper" in California and "Operation ing class thinks it can get away with the new anti-welfare act is still uncharted, rent money on groceries, lining up at shredding welfare by playing the race Rio Grqnde" in Texas, border guards have but there is no doubt that many thousands food pantries and hunting for work in a card. Leaving aside the fact that the been equipped with advanced weaponry will starve and die-from hunger, from city where the unemployment rate stands majority of those on welfare are white, and increasingly reinforced with mili­ untreated contagious diseases, from ex­ at 9.1 percent, nearly double the national the 'welfare reform' bill is aimed at driv­ tary units. Numerous border cities have ing down the wages and further immiser­ posure, from homelessness-as a direct average." The situation has grown so dire ating the entire working class. This fact been closed off with mammoth steel result" (WV No. 650, 30 August 1996). that even Republican NYC mayor Ru­ is being brought home with a vengeance walls, including one in Nogales, Arizona While Democratic and Republican pol­ dolph Giuliani has launched a lawsuit to in the implementation of 'workfare' pro­ which the racist yuppie Clinton adminis­ iticians alike cynically have prated about force the federal government to restore grams aimed at busting the unions by tration grotesquely touts as being de­ moving people "from welfare to work," food stamps for immigrant families, forcing welfare recipients to work these signed to appear "friendly" to Mexico by jobs at starvation wages." . the deadly effects of this assault on the "extreme allowing "light and a feeling of open­ arguing that the cuts imposed What is happening in the U.S. is far poor are so evident this wi'nter that even hardship, hunger and malnutrition." But ness"! Deportations are at a record high from unique. With the heating up of inter­ the capitalist press has had to concede -over 110,000 last year-a 62 percent this racist pig has hardly become a imperialist rivalries in the wake of the that millions are being pushed to the champion of the poor: Giuliani just ap­ increase from the year before. destruction of the Soviet Union, the bour­ brink of starvation. The attack on welfare According to conservative estimates pointed as the city's new "welfare czar" geoisies have escalated their attacks on was promoted by a racist campaign vili­ the author of the Wisconsin plan which by the University of Houston's Center wages, working conditions and social pro­ fying "illegal" immigrants and especially served as the model for the federal anti­ for Immigration, nearly 1,200 people grams across the board in order to in­ the black ghetto poor, particularly women welfare law. died trying to cross from Mexico be­ crease their competitive edge against rival and children for whom Aid to Families tween 1993 and 1996, the vast majority Virtually every major city has expe­ capitalists. Particularly in West Europe, with Dependent Children (AFDC) pro­ of them drowning victims, while others rienced increased demand for emergen­ immigrants and ethnic minorities have vided a slim lifeline. In fact, nearly one were shot down by U.S. troops or cops. cy food aid, with two out of five appli­ been the principal targets of this drive, million "legal" immigrants were cut off A 1997 law gave Immigration and Natu­ cants currently employed. The savagery which is aimed against the whole of the from food stamps and other benefits. ralization Service (INS) agents sweeping of this onslaught, even as the capitalists proletariat. This is. evident in the U.S., as "Denied Food Stamps, Many Immigrants are wallowing in record profits, is bound­ real wages have fallen by one-fifth over continued on page 10 Scrape for Meals," headlined an article less: "illegal" immigrants suffering from in the New York Times (8 December AIDS-who had been granted temporary 1997), while a similar piece in the Los residency in cities like New York-are Angeles Times (27 December 1997) was now having their Medicaid benefits (and titled, "New Face in Line at Soup Kitch­ life-prolonging drugs) taken away, g~\'­ en: Working Poor." ing them the "choice" of dying a cruel In New York City alone, over 70,000 death here or back in their impoverished people are being turned away from food homelands. pantries each month as supplies run out. In pushing the war on welfare, "the The New York Times article noted: "As capitalist rulers seek to pit the white the months pass and kitchen cupboards working class against both blacks and immigrants by portraying them as a drain on the tax dollars of 'hard-working white folks' ," we wrote in the introduction to our January 1997 Black History and the Cl£lSS Struggle pamphlet ("Capitalist Rul­ ers Wage War on Blacks, Immigrants"). 7 25274 11 81030 ,J We continued: Editorial Notes carried out one genocidal massacre after another against the Palestinian people, to Arafat Museum Visit Canceled denounce Arafat as a Hitler. In fact, the Palestinian nationalist leader is a toady of by Vile Zionist Outcry the Israeli Zionist state and U.S. imperial­ ism. The Holocaust Museum visit was in­ When the State Department organized Semitic types have been welcomed at tended to help revive the U.S.-sponsored a tour of the Holocaust Memorial Mu­ the Holocaust Museum. One of the for­ "peace process"-which has effectively seum in Washington, D.C. for visiting eign dignitaries who was feted at the been scuttled by the Netanyahu regime­ Palestinian Authority president Yasir museum's dedication in April 1993 was through which Arafat became an Israeli Arafat. it provoked a ·vile chauvinist fren­ none other than fascistic Croatian strong­ lieutenant in the national subjugation of zy byAmerican Zionists and Israeli prime man Franjo Tudjman, an open apologist the Palestinian masses. As proletarian minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling for the Nazi-allied Ustasha which slaugh­ internationalists, we fight for a socialist Gamma/Studio X right-wing Likud party. The Zionists pro­ tered hundreds of thousands of Jews and federation of the Near East, in which all An earlier visitor to Holocaust Mu­ nounced the Palestinian leader verboten Serbs during World War II. Two years the toilers of the region will achieve social seum: Croatia's Franjo Tudjman, apol­ at the federally funded museum, scream­ before that, the museum site was visited and nationalemancip·ation .• ogist for Ustashi fascists. ing that he was "Hitler incarnate." Only by Lech Walesa, then president of Poland, after this reactionary outcry had suc­ whose fascist-infested Solidarnosc up­ ceeded in canceling Arafat's visit did the holds the anti-Semitic Pilsudskiite dicta­ Zionists back off and say he was welcome torship of the 1920s and' 30s. To this day, The Mendacity of Anarchy after all. Walesa's chief "spiritual advisor" is a The furor over Arafat's proposed visit notoriously anti-Semitic priest named A reader recently brought to our atten­ cited, among other things, eyewitness was not only thoroughly racist but im­ Henryk Jankowski. tion an article by one "Max Anger" in the documentation in Yiddish and Russian­ mensely hypocritical. In pursuit of Zion­ It takes phenomenal chutzpah for the Spring-Summer 1997 issue of Anarchy: held by the YIVO Institute for Jewish ist Realpolitik, some truly sinister anti- Zionists, whose Israeli stormtroopers have A Journal of Desire Armed (!) headlined Research in New York City-attesting to "The Spartacist School of Falsification." anti-Semitic pogroms by Makhno's bands. The article purports to expose our sup­ Evidently unable to challenge our facts, posed lies about anarchist idol Nestor Anger peddled his lying wares in more Honor Lenin, Liebknecht, MakhnlOl, a Ukrainian peasant leader at sympathetic quarters. Luxemburg! the time of the 1917 Russian Revolution Anarchist diatribes against Bolshe­ In upholding the revolutionary traditions and the ensuing Civil War. What this vism/Trotskyism are nothing new. As we of the early Communist movement, this typically mendacious (i.e., deceitful, pre­ noted in our series, the anarchists also month the International Communist League varicating, false) anarchist anti-Marxist raised a hue and cry about Makhno-and commemorates the "Three Ls"-Lenin, Lieb­ drivel "omits" to mention is that, months the Bolsheviks' suppression of the coun­ knecht and Luxemburg.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Atlantic Roots of Working-Class Internationalism: a Historical Re-Interpretation
    THE ATLANTIC ROOTS OF WORKING-CLASS INTERNATIONALISM: A HISTORICAL RE-INTERPRETATION THIERRY DRAPEAU A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2014 © Thierry Drapeau, 2014 Abstract This dissertation offers a historical re-interpretation of working-class internationalism by situating its development within the early modern Atlantic-world economy (c. 1600- 1830). Through an exploration of various moments of insurgency and revolt of an emerging Atlantic class of workers, among them slaves, sailors, servants, and others, it demonstrates that profound and decisive traditions of proletarian solidarity across borders existed prior to the nineteenth-century classical age of working-class internationalism. In doing so, this dissertation alters the prevailing standpoint of the free, white, waged, industrial worker of Europe by bringing in that narrative the agency of the unfree, black (and racialized), wageless, plantation-slave worker of the Americas. Underpinning this intervention is a more generous and complex understanding of capitalism as a mode of production inclusive of unfree forms of labour. In order to recover and foreground early formative moments of working-class internationalism in the Atlantic-world economy, this dissertation proposes to re-theorize this development in terms of processes of transboundary proletarian solidarity in a longue durée frame. Rooted in a multidisciplinary framework of analysis situated at the intersection of Historical Sociology, Global Labour History, Atlantic Studies, and Social History, this strategy has allowed me to illuminate two world-significant moments of proletarian solidarity played out across colonial and imperial borders.
    [Show full text]
  • The Communist Manifesto
    The Communist Manifesto A Study Guide These notes are designed to help new comrades to understand some of the basic ideas of Marxism and how they relate to the politics of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL). More experienced comrades leading the educationals can use the tutor notes to expand on certain key ideas and to direct comrades to other reading. Paul Hampton September 2006 1 The Communist Manifesto A Study Guide Contents Background to the Manifesto 3 Questions 5 Further reading 6 Title, preface, preamble 7 I: Bourgeois and Proletarians 9 II: Proletarians and Communists 19 III: Socialist and Communist Literature 27 IV: Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties 32 Glossary 35 2 Background to the Manifesto The text Karl Marx wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party in German. It was first published in February 1848. It has sometimes been misdated 1847, including in Marx and Engels’ own writings, by Kautsky, Lenin and others. The standard English translation was done by Samuel Moore in 1888 and authorised by Frederick Engels. It can be downloaded from the Marxist Internet Archive http://www.marxists.org.uk/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm There are scores of other editions by different publishers and with other translations. Between 1848 and 1918, the Manifesto was published in more than 35 languages, in some 544 editions, (Beamish 1998 p.233) The text is also in the Marx and Engels Collected Works (MECW), Volume 6, along with other important articles, drafts and reports from the time. http://www.marxists.org.uk/archive/marx/works/cw/volume06/index.htm The context The Communist Manifesto was written for and published by the Communist League, an organisation founded less than a year before it was written.
    [Show full text]
  • Franz Mehring
    KARL MARX THE STORY OF HIS LIFE - BY Franz Mehring .. wrTH ILLUSTRATIONS AND FACSIMILE REPRODUCTIONS, NOTES BY THE AUTHOR, AN APPENDIX PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF EDUARD FUCHS ON THE BASIS OF THE RESEARCHES OF THE MARX•I!.NGELS INSTITUTE, A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND AN INDEX TRANSLATED BY EDWARD FITZGERALD LONDON GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD 40 MUSEUM STREET THIS BOOK IS THE AUTHORISED ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE GERMAN VOLUME : ' KARL MARX : GESCHICHTE SEINES LEBENS ', BY FRANZ MEHRING ENGLISH EDITION FIRST PUBLISHED 1936 SECOND IMPRESSION 1948 MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BUTLER AND TANNER LTD., FROME AND LONDON TO CLARA ZETKIN TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE THE author of this biography was born in 1846 in Pomerania of a well-to-do middle-class family. He studied at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, taking the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the latter. From the beginning his leanings were democratic and liberal, and when the time came for him to submit himself to the stupidities of the Prussian drill sergeant he left Prussia and went to live in Leipzig, which in those days was " foreign territory ". This deliberate revolt caused the breaking off of relations between him and his family. Whilst still a young man he began to take an active part in public life and in the political struggles of the day. At the age of 25 he was a member of the 1 small band of democrats led by Guido Weiss and Johann Jacoby which had sufficient courage to protest openly against the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Bismarck after the Franco­ Prussian War.
    [Show full text]
  • Boundaries of Utopia – Imagining Communism from Plato to Stalin
    Boundaries of Utopia – Imagining Communism from Plato to Stalin The idea that socialism could be established in a single country was adopted as an official doctrine by the Soviet Union in 1925, Stalin and Bukharin being the main formulators of the policy. Before this there had been much debate as to whether the only way to secure socialism would be as a result of socialist revolution on a much broader scale, across all Europe or wider still. This book traces the development of ideas about communist utopia from Plato onwards, paying particular attention to debates about universalist ideology versus the possibility for ‘socialism in one country’. The book argues that although the prevailing view is that ‘socialism in one country’ was a sharp break from a long tradition that tended to view socialism as only possible if universal, in fact the territorially confined socialist project had long roots, including in the writings of Marx and Engels. Erik van Ree is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series 1 Liberal Nationalism in 7 The Telengits of Central Europe Southern Siberia Stefan Auer Landscape, religion and knowledge in motion 2 Civil-Military Relations in Agnieszka Halemba Russia and Eastern Europe David J. Betz 8 The Development of Capitalism in Russia 3 The Extreme Nationalist Simon Clarke Threat in Russia The growing influence of 9 Russian Television Today Western Rightist ideas Primetime drama and comedy Thomas Parland
    [Show full text]
  • Hörmann, Raphael (2007) Authoring the Revolution, 1819- 1848/49: Radical German and English Literature and the Shift from Political to Social Revolution
    Hörmann, Raphael (2007) Authoring the revolution, 1819- 1848/49: radical German and English literature and the shift from political to social revolution. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1774/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] University of Glasgow Faculty of Arts PhD-Thesis in Comparative Literature Authoring the Revolution, 1819-1848/49: Radical German and English Literature and the Shift from Political to Social Revolution Submitted by Raphael HoUrmann @ Raphael H6nnann 2007 Acknowledgments I like to thank the various people and agenciesthat have provided vital help during various stages of this research project. First of all, I am greatly thankful to my supervisors, Professor Mark Ward and Dr. Laura Martin. Laura's pragmatic and practical advice and assistanceproved very helpful for overcomingall major obstacles in the course of my PhD studies at the University of Glasgow. Mark has not only been a tireless proof-reader at various stagesof the thesis, but his great enthusiasm with which he supported my project has been a continuous source of inspiration and encouragement throughout the writing and revising process.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Marx and the Iwma Revisited 299 Jürgen Herres
    “Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth” <UN> Studies in Global Social History Editor Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Editorial Board Sven Beckert (Harvard University, Cambridge, ma, usa) Dirk Hoerder (University of Arizona, Phoenix, ar, usa) Chitra Joshi (Indraprastha College, Delhi University, India) Amarjit Kaur (University of New England, Armidale, Australia) Barbara Weinstein (New York University, New York, ny, usa) volume 29 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sgsh <UN> “Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth” The First International in a Global Perspective Edited by Fabrice Bensimon Quentin Deluermoz Jeanne Moisand leiden | boston <UN> This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc License at the time of publication, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Cover illustration: Bannière de la Solidarité de Fayt (cover and back). Sources: Cornet Fidèle and Massart Théophile entries in Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier en Belgique en ligne : maitron-en -ligne.univ-paris1.fr. Copyright : Bibliothèque et Archives de l’IEV – Brussels. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bensimon, Fabrice, editor. | Deluermoz, Quentin, editor. | Moisand, Jeanne, 1978- editor. Title: “Arise ye wretched of the earth” : the First International in a global perspective / edited by Fabrice Bensimon, Quentin Deluermoz, Jeanne Moisand. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2018] | Series: Studies in global social history, issn 1874-6705 ; volume 29 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018002194 (print) | LCCN 2018004158 (ebook) | isbn 9789004335462 (E-book) | isbn 9789004335455 (hardback : alk.
    [Show full text]
  • Marx and Engels and the Communist Movement the Following Article Is a Chapter from the Idea: Anarchist Communism, Past, Present and Future by Nick Heath
    Marx and Engels and the Communist Movement The following article is a chapter from The Idea: Anarchist Communism, Past, Present and Future by Nick Heath. We should point out that whilst we regard Marx's analysis of capitalism and class society as a very important contribution to revolutionary ideas, we are critical of his attitudes and behaviour within both the Communist League and the First International. Marx was to re-iterate his ideas and to put them into practice in all his time in the working class movement. “Without parties no development, without division no progress” he was to write (polemic with the Kölnische Zeitung newspaper, 1842). In a much later letter to Bebel written in 1873, Engels sums up this approach: “For the rest, old Hegel has already said it; a party proves itself a victorious party by the fact that it splits and can stand the split. The movement of the proletariat necessarily passes through stages of development; at every stage one section of the people lags behind and does not join in the further advance; and this alone explains why it is that actually the “solidarity of the proletariat” is everywhere realised in different party groupings which carry on life and death feuds with one another”. The mythology of Marxism implies that the theory of communism was perfected by Marx and Engels without really taking into consideration all that had gone before and that communism, organised more or less into a loose movement, was created by artisans and workers as a result of their practical experiences in the French Revolution and the events of the 1830s, as well as their continuing theoretical labours.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Marx: Communist As Religious Eschatologist
    Karl Marx: Communist as Religious Eschatologist Murray N. Rothbard* Marx as Millennia1 Communist he key to the intricate and massive system of thought created by Karl Marx is at bottom a simple one: Karl Marx was a Tcommunist. A seemingly trite and banal statement set along- side Marxism's myriad of jargon-ridden concepts in philosophy, eco- nomics, and culture, yet Marx's devotion to communism was his crucial focus, far more central than the class struggle, the dialectic, the theory of surplus value, and all the rest. Communism was the great goal, the vision, the desideratum, the ultimate end that would make the sufferings of mankind throughout history worthwhile. History is the history of suffering, of class struggle, of the exploitation of man by man. In the same way as the return of the Messiah, in Christian theology, will put an end to history and establish a new heaven and a new earth, so the establishment of communism would put an end to human history. And just as for post-millennia1 Chris- tians, man, led by God's prophets and saints, will establish a Kingdom of God on Earth (for pre-millennials, Jesus will have many human assistants in setting up such a kingdom), so, for Marx and other schools of communists, mankind, led by a vanguard of secular saints, will establish a secularized Kingdom of Heaven on earth. In messianic religious movements, the millennium is invariably established by a mighty, violent upheaval, an Armageddon, a great apocalyptic war between good and evil. After this titanic conflict, a millennium, a new age, of peace and harmony, of the reign of justice, will be installed upon the earth.
    [Show full text]
  • Requiem for Marx and the Social and Economic Systems Created in His Name
    REQUIEM for RX Edited with an introduction by Yuri N. Maltsev ~~G Ludwig von Mises Institute l'VIISes Auburn University, Alabama 36849-5301 INSTITUTE Copyright © 1993 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical review or articles. Published by Praxeology Press of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849. Printed in the United States ofAmerica. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-083763 ISBN 0-945466-13-7 Contents Introduction Yuri N. Maltsev ........................... 7 1. The Marxist Case for Socialism David Gordon .......................... .. 33 2. Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis Hans-Hermann Hoppe. .................. .. 51 3. The Marx Nobody Knows Gary North. ........................... .. 75 4. Marxism, Method, and Mercantilism David Osterfeld ........................ .. 125 5. Classical Liberal Roots ofthe Marxist Doctrine of Classes Ralph Raico ........................... .. 189 6. Karl Marx: Communist as Religious Eschatologist Murray N. Rothbard 221 Index 295 Contributors 303 5 The Ludwig von Mises Institute gratefully acknowledges the generosity ofits Members, who made the publication of this book possible. In particular, it wishes to thank the following Patrons: Mark M. Adamo James R. Merrell O. P. Alford, III Dr. Matthew T. Monroe Anonymous (2) Lawrence A. Myers Everett Berg Dr. Richard W. Pooley EBCO Enterprises Dr. Francis Powers Burton S. Blumert Mr. and Mrs. Harold Ranstad John Hamilton Bolstad James M. Rodney Franklin M. Buchta Catherine Dixon Roland Christopher P. Condon Leslie Rose Charles G. Dannelly Gary G. Schlarbaum Mr. and Mrs. William C. Daywitt Edward Schoppe, Jr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Iwma and Its Precursors in London, C. 1830–1860
    chapter � The iwma and Its Precursors in London, c. 1830–1860 Fabrice Bensimon The discussion of the origins of the International Working Men's Association (iwma) is as old as the Association itself. Right from its beginnings, the founding members defined what they saw as its origins. Since then, and in particu- lar with the development of a scientific study of the iwma in the twentieth century, several questions have been raised. The first is the militant origins in the various steps to the founding of the association on 28 September 1864. Who were these activists? Did the scheme of an international association of workers originate long before, or just recently? Was it a linear or rather a pro- tracted progress? What were the meanings that were given to “international- ism”? Another question relates to the longer-term assessment of the growth of working-class internationalism: did it exist, and if it did, according to what patterns did it develop? A possible third question is the study of its fortune: why was the iwma so different from previous attempts? Two broad approaches have been used. The “internal” one, best exempli- fied by the work of Arthur Lehning, has been the minute research on indi- viduals, on the small groups of refugees, trade unionists and political activists whose ideas and commitments led to the creation of the iwma.1 A more “ex- ternal” approach has consisted in addressing the issue of why this association in particular was so successful, while others had failed before: were economic circumstances different? Had labour markets changed? Had working-class practices been transformed in Britain and on the continent? And so on.
    [Show full text]
  • Forum on Samir Amin's Proposal for A
    JOURNAL OF WORLD-SYSTEMS RESEARCH ISSN: 1076-156X | Vol. 25 Issue 2 | DOI 10.5195/JWSR.2019.951 | jwsr.pitt.edu FORUM ON SAMIR AMIN’S PROPOSAL FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL OF WORKERS AND PEOPLES Samir Amin, a leading scholar and co-founder of the world-systems tradition, died on August 12, 2018. Just before his death, he published, along with close allies, a call for ‘workers and the people’ to establish a ‘fifth international’ to coordinate support to progressive movements. To honor Samir Amin’s invaluable contribution to world-systems scholarship, we are pleased to present our readers with a selection of essays responding to Amin’s final message for today’s anti-systemic movements. This forum is being co-published between Globalizations, the Journal of World-Systems Research, and Pambazuka News. Readers can find additional essays and commentary in these outlets. The following essay has been published in Globalizations and is being reproduced here with permission. The Twenty-First Century Revolutions and Internationalism: A World- Historical Perspective Sahan Savas Karatasli University of North Carolina at Greensboro [email protected] Since the turn of the 21st century, we have been experiencing rapid intensification of revolutionary situations, social revolts and rebellions on a global scale (Badiou 2012; Žižek 2012; Mason 2012; Thernborn 2014; Chase-Dunn and Nagy 2019; Karatasli, Kumral, Scully, & Upadhyay 2014; Mason 2012; Therborn 2014; Žižek 2012). This is not an ordinary wave of social unrest. It belongs to one of the major world historical waves of mobilization (see Silver and Slater 1999) which has the potential to transform political structures, economic systems and social relations.
    [Show full text]
  • The Iwma and Its Precursors in London, C. 1830–1860
    chapter � The iwma and Its Precursors in London, c. 1830–1860 Fabrice Bensimon The discussion of the origins of the International Working Men's Association (iwma) is as old as the Association itself. Right from its beginnings, the founding members defined what they saw as its origins. Since then, and in particu- lar with the development of a scientific study of the iwma in the twentieth century, several questions have been raised. The first is the militant origins in the various steps to the founding of the association on 28 September 1864. Who were these activists? Did the scheme of an international association of workers originate long before, or just recently? Was it a linear or rather a pro- tracted progress? What were the meanings that were given to “international- ism”? Another question relates to the longer-term assessment of the growth of working-class internationalism: did it exist, and if it did, according to what patterns did it develop? A possible third question is the study of its fortune: why was the iwma so different from previous attempts? Two broad approaches have been used. The “internal” one, best exempli- fied by the work of Arthur Lehning, has been the minute research on indi- viduals, on the small groups of refugees, trade unionists and political activists whose ideas and commitments led to the creation of the iwma.1 A more “ex- ternal” approach has consisted in addressing the issue of why this association in particular was so successful, while others had failed before: were economic circumstances different? Had labour markets changed? Had working-class practices been transformed in Britain and on the continent? And so on.
    [Show full text]