Solidarity, decency, socialism: in memory of Marko Bojcun

Denys Pilash

On March 11th 2023 our friend and comrade of Commons, known political economist, political scientist, labour movement historian and an activist of left-wing movements and solidarity with Ukraine, Marko Bojcun, passed away. He played an important role in keeping the flame of the Ukrainian left alive and in giving it, through emigrants and dissidents, to present time Ukraine.

During the last years of his 72-year life he was heavily ill with cancer and despite that he continued to work and never lost optimism of the will to make as much impact as possible. His magnum opus, which was based on his doctoral thesis (“Labour Movement and National Question in Ukraine: 1880-1920”) written in 1985, was significantly expanded with inclusion of previously unavailable sources and new research.

Λάβαμε και δημοσιεύουμε το εξής κατεπείγον μήνυμα από τον φίλο σ. Ουκρανό ιστορικό Αντρίι Ζντόρωφ, συγγραφέα του κειμένου για την μπολσεβίκα Γιεβγκένια Μπος που είχαμε δημοσιεύσει τον περασμένο Νοέμβρη (https://www.contra-xreos.gr/arthra/3036-ta-paradoksa-tou-ethnikou-midenismou)

Пролетар України - субота, 17 червня 2023 р.

Igor Kuznetsov 2012

Prisoner of Conscience

This week I got the news from Mordor: my friend from Tomsk, Igor Kuznetsov, was sent from pre-detention center № 4 in Moscow to the Serbsky Research Institute for Clinical Psychiatric Examination. Igor was arrested on September 16, 2021 on charges of inciting mass disorder via the Chto Delat telegram channel. Together with ten other members of the channel he was allegedly preparing mass riots on Election Day, September 17, 2021. Two months later the FSB (political police) brought another charge against him - participation in the alleged "extremist community" Left Resistance. https://memohrc.org/ru/defendants/kuznecov-igor-vasilevich

Greece: right-wing landslide, left-wing collapse. Surprise or predicted electoral result?

by Yorgos Mitralias

How can we explain the victory, or rather triumph, of the Greek right and the defeat, or rather collapse, of the Syriza Left in the May 21 elections? How do we explain the fact that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy (ND) party more than doubled (41%) Syriza's score (20%)? And how can we explain the fact that, right up until the eve of the elections, the Left - practically of all persuasions - was predicting electoral results that would serve as a springboard for the final assault by a burgeoning Greek popular movement against the power of a weakened and crisis-stricken Right?

Un ricordo di Livio Maitan

di Fabrizio Burattini

La Quarta Internazionale (e per certi versi l’intero trotskismo italiano) dal dopoguerra in poi in Italia si è riconosciuta in Livio Maitan (Venezia 1923-Roma 2004). Livio, di cui in queste settimane ricorre il centenario della nascita, è stato un militante rivoluzionario marxista attivo, sul piano politico e su quello teorico per quasi sessant'anni, fino alla sua morte, nel dibattito e nell’azione del movimento operaio italiano ed internazionale.

Jacques Gaillot – Camarade évêque

par COUSTAL François

A 87 ans, Monseigneur Jacques Gaillot vient de mourir. Pour lui rendre hommage, la Conférence des Evêques de France vient de déclarer : « Au delà de certaines prises de position qui ont pu diviser, nous nous rappelons qu’il a surtout gardé le souci des plus pauvres et des périphéries ». Passons charitablement sur les « périphéries »… Mais il est vrai que sur nombre de sujets dits « de société » – notamment la reconnaissance du divorce, le mariage des prêtres, le recours au préservatif pour combattre le développement du sida, l’ordination des femmes ou encore les droits des homosexuels – M^gr Gaillot exprimait des opinions progressistes et, par là-même, absolument contraires aux dogmes maintenus de l’Eglise catholique. Ses prises de position publiques voire médiatiques étaient d’ailleurs ressenties par l’appareil clérical comme autant de provocations. Jusqu’à la sanction : en 1995, le Vatican lui retire sa charge d’évêque d’Evreux. L’imagination cléricale étant apparemment sans limite, il est alors nommé à titre honorifique évêque « in partibus » du diocèse de Partenia. Un diocèse théoriquement situé en Mauritanie mais, en réalité, un diocèse purement fantôme dans la mesure où il n’y a plus là-bas ni églises ni catholiques… depuis des siècles ! Désormais évêque sans diocèse, M^gr Gaillot fera donc de Partenia le symbole de la lutte des « sans ».

Anti-War Playlist: Russian Music Against the War

by SOROKINA Yanina

Since Russia invaded Ukraine four months ago, over 16,000 people have been detained or arrested for protesting the war, the independent police-monitoring website OVD-info reports.

Despite the political crackdown, Russians are finding a way to voice their opinion. Many Russian-speaking musicians turn to allegories and melodies to express their anti-war positions.

This playlist includes anti-war clips and songs Russian musicians made since their country invaded Ukraine.

Their concerts are now banned in Russia, St. Petersburg media outlet Fontanka reported Friday.

The 1953 London Debt Agreement on Germany’s debt

by Eric Toussaint

Germany benefited from the cancellation of most of its debt as of February 27, 1953. This cancellation was instrumental in helping the country regain its position as the leading economic power on the European continent. Since then, no other country has received such favourable treatment. It is very important to know the why and how of this debt cancellation. In a nutshell, the great creditor bloc of West Germany wanted to give the German economy a real boost and make it a stable and central element in the struggle between the Atlantic and Eastern blocs.

The Far Right in Ukraine: an Interview with Taras Bilous

by BILOUS Taras, SHALOM Stephen R.

Taras Bilous is a Ukrainian historian, an editor of Commons: Journal of Social Criticism, and an activist in Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement). He is currently serving in the Ukrainian army. He was interviewed by Stephen R. Shalom, a member of the New Politics editorial board. Denys Pilash helped with the translation.

New Politics (NP): How would you assess the influence of far-right forces in Ukraine? We have seen claims that, on the one hand, suggest that Ukraine is a Nazi state, or, on the other hand, that the far right is an insignificant factor in Ukrainian life. What is your assessment?

Richest 1% bag nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world put together over the past two years

by Oxfam

• The super-rich outstrip their extraordinary grab of half of all new wealth in past decade.
• Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7 billion a day even as at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages.
• A tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.

According to a new report published by Oxfam, the richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, reveals a new Oxfam report today. During the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth. . 

Retraites : une mobilisation historique à transformer en victoire contre Macron

Les chiffres de grève et de manifestations sont historiques, avec 1,2 million de manifestantEs selon la police, plus de deux millions selon l’intersyndicale, des taux de grève très importants (ainsi plus de 70 % dans l’éducation), des mobilisations massives dans les villes. 50 000 à Bordeaux et à Toulouse, 20 000 au Mans, 3500 à Alençon, 4000 à Compiègne, 20 000 à Nice, 7000 à Agen et Montauban, 4000 à Gap, 15 000 à Avignon, 50 000 à Nantes, 10 000 à Saint-Nazaire, 20 000 à Rouen, 35 000 au Havre, 15 000 à Bayonne et Pau, 13 000 à Quimper, 13 500 à Brest, 11 000 à Angoulême, 10 000 à Poitiers, 13 000 à Angers, et bien entendu plusieurs centaines de milliers à Paris (bien loin des 80 000 annoncés par le ministère de l’Intérieur)…

The House Speaker Crisis and the Transformation of the Republican Party

By oaklandsocialist

The last two times members of the House of Representatives had to resort to multiple ballots to elect a House Speaker tell us a lot about the present crisis. Both times the crisis resulted from a major shift in US politics and either the rise of a new party or a major shift in the role of an already existing one.

1858-9

In 1858, the Republican Party, which had suddenly emerged, won a plurality in the House. It in effect replaced the Whig Party, which contained both pro and anti-slavery forces. But by 1858 the issue of slavery had become so hot that a party combining both sides of the issue could not survive. While the Republican Party was not overtly anti-slavery, it was the political center of anti-slavery elements. Because the Republicans didn’t have an outright majority, they could not elect their own Speaker without support from another party. This battle over House Speaker indicated a fundamental realignment in US politics. That realignment could only be settled by war – the US Civil War, and the Speaker battle was a warning of that coming Civil War.

COP 27 (Climat) – Victoire fossile à Sharm-el-Sheikh : il ne reste que la lutte

par TANURO Daniel

Quelque jours avant l’ouverture de la COP27 à Sharm-el-Sheikh, en Egypte, j’ai écrit que cette conférence serait un « nouveau sommet du greenwashing, du capitalisme vert et de la répression ». C’était une erreur. Le greenwashing et la répression étaient plus que jamais au rendez-vous sur les rives de la Mer Rouge, mais le capitalisme vert, lui, a subi un revers, et les fossiles ont remporté une nette victoire.

En matière climatique, on peut définir le capitalisme vert comme la fraction du patronat et de ses représentants politiques qui prétend que la catastrophe peut être arrêtée par une politique de marché qui incite les entreprises à adopter des technologies énergétiques vertes ou « bas carbone », de sorte qu’il serait possible de concilier croissance économique, croissance des profits et baisse rapide des émissions, et même d’atteindre le « zéro émissions nettes » en 2050. Ce volet, dit de « mitigation » du changement climatique, est alors complété par un volet dit « d’adaptation » aux effets désormais inévitable du réchauffement, et par un volet « financement » (à destination des pays du Sud, principalement). Sur ces deux plans-là aussi, les tenants du capitalisme vert estiment que le marché peut faire le job - ils y voient même une opportunité pour le capital.

The Uprising in China - Resisting lockdowns, repression, and precarity

by Yun Dong

Young, angry protesters in Shanghai confronted the police that encircled them, calling for freedom and shouting, “Aren’t you supposed to serve the people?!” Hundreds had gathered in the evening of November 26^th on Urumqi Road in Shanghai, which has served as the symbolic site to hold vigils to pay tribute to the victims of a fire at a high-rise residential building in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province.

The fire led to the death of at least ten people and injured nine others from several families. It took three hours to extinguish it. Protesters believe that the victims could have been saved had the residential complex not been under Covid lockdown, despite the government’s claims that the tragedy had nothing to do with the lockdown.

L’économie du football entre dans une nouvelle ère

par ARONDEL Luc

« L’hypermodernité » du ballon rond se caractérise par de fortes inégalités, des profils inédits d’investisseurs, les stratégies de mondialisation des grands clubs et l’arrivée de nouveaux diffuseurs.

L’idée que le football est le « miroir » de la société est souvent avancée dans les salons et s’avère plutôt exacte du point de vue de son économie. Branko Milanovic, spécialiste reconnu des inégalités et fin analyste du ballon rond, l’observe bien : « Le football a été un miroir de la société, où les inégalités se sont accrues de manière exponentielle au cours des trois dernières décennies », explique-t-il dans les colonnes du magazine Forbes.

Statement by Ukrainian Feminists in Solidarity with Iranian Women

by Collective

We, Ukrainian feminists, express our solidarity with Iranian uprising, triggered by the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini by the Iranian moral police. Thousands of women responded to this crime by going out on the streets, cutting their hair and publicly taking off and burning hijabs as a symbol of their oppression. What started as a protest against police brutality and obligatory hijab, quickly transformed into a general resistance of the Iranian people against the patriarchal and dictatorial mullah regime and the authoritarian form of capitalism that it represents. The grassroot mobilization is today being joined by schoolgirls, students, trade unions, ethnic minorities, and people from other social groups affected by the economic crises, high food prices, social cuts, and privatization. This new wave of struggles thus continues and expands the series of uprisings against socio-economic inequalities, political oppression and ethnic disctimination that shook Iran during the last decade.