wisidagamage – Page 3 – Lanka Socialists Forum

27 Mar

Ernest Mandel-Introduction to Marxist Theory: Selected Writings

wisidagamage0 CommentsReviews

Reviewed by Fabian Van Onzen Originally From: https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/19912_introduction-to-marxist-theory-selected-writings-by-ernest-mandel-reviewed-by-fabian-van-onzen/ Resistance Books, London and the International Institute for Research and Education, Amsterdam, 2021, 306 pp., £15 pbISBN 9780902869653 Ernest Mandel was one of the most significant Marxists of the twentieth century. During his life, Mandel participated in anti-fascist resistance, played a leading role in the Fourth International, and assisted Che Guevara with socialist economic planning after the Cuban Revolution. For many socialists, Mandel’s writings were their first encounter with Marxist theory and played an important role in their political education. In order to stimulate an interest in Mandel’s writings, the International Institute for Research…

26 Mar

The origin of the term “Tree hugger”

wisidagamage0 CommentsEnvironment

Photo: The village women of the Chipko movement in the early 70's in the Garhwal Hills of India, protecting the trees from being cut down. The first tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being turned into the raw material for building a palace. They literally clung to the trees, while being slaughtered by the foresters. But their action led to a royal decree prohibiting the cutting of trees in any Bishnoi village. And now those villages are…

25 Mar

Michael Löwy on Marx

wisidagamage0 CommentsFeatures, Politics

Michael Löwy 22 March 2022 Isabelle Garo and Alex Cukier interviews Michael Löwy about his way into Marxism and the challenges for Marx's thought in the world today. Originally From: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/5306-michael-lowy-on-marx?fbclid=IwAR2CZaSSHBVYsFqvt8H5Ym4Fq2hO9liR4zXP0vm8zSVznwMUwDn1-6EiAYQ How did you first come across Marx’s thought? Let me start from the beginning. I was born in Brazil in 1938, in the city of São Paulo, the son of Jewish parents from Vienna who emigrated to Brazil in the 1930s. I discovered Marx at the age of fifteen, reading the Communist Manifesto that my brother had lent me. It was an immediate revelation, and I started looking for other writings by the same…

25 Mar

Luxemburg’s critique of bourgeois feminism and early social reproduction theory

wisidagamage0 CommentsFeatures, Politics

25th Feb, 2018 Originally From: https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/blog/luxemburgs-critique-bourgeois-feminism-and-early-social-reproduction-theory Ankica Čakardić is an assistant professor and the chair of Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Gender at the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Her research interest include Marxist critique of social contract theory, Political Marxism, Marxist-feminist and Luxemburgian critique of political economy, and history of women’s struggles in Yugoslavia. She is currently finishing her book on the social history of capitalism, Hobbes and Locke. A longer version of this paper, presented at the 2017 London Historical Materialism conference, has been published in the journal's Issue 25.4 as 'From Theory of…

25 Mar

Class Struggle and the Revolutionary Party: A Reappraisal of Rosa Luxemburg’s Theory and Practice of Party Building

wisidagamage0 CommentsFeatures, Politics

1999, by MARIK Soma Republished From: http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article13677 “ In 1903, when the RSDLP was facing dissension on the question relating to membership in the Party, Luxemburg stood on the side of the Mensheviks. She criticized the Leninist-Stalinist teaching about the Party of a new type, resulting from an opportunist theory of spontaneity; she vigorously gave representation against the Bolsheviks, accusing them of ultra-centralism and Blanquisim … In the brochure The Mass Strike she was heavily on the side of the strikers. The pamphlet was characterised by the theory of spontaneity and underestimation of the role of the political party of the proletariat…

25 Mar

Sri Lankan Parliament Concludes Second Reading on Bill to Dispossess Farmers of Farming Land

wisidagamage0 CommentsEconomy, Environment, Human Rights

17th March, 2022 Sri Lankan Parliament Concludes Second Reading on Bill to Dispossess Farmers of Farming Land The Land Development (LDO) (Amendment) Bill got through the second reading in Parliament last Friday. Ignorance and indifference exhibited by Members of Parliament on the issue of farmers’ indebtedness is outrageous. Many of them seem to believe that enabling farmers to mortgage their land to banks is a one-stop solution to all farmer’s problems. The Bill was hurriedly rushed through without creating an environment to deliberate on crucial clauses in the Bill. The LDO Amendment Bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It…