Month: October 2016

In 2011 Australian economist and self-described social-democrat, John Quiggin posted a series of blog articles…

In 2011 Australian economist and self-described social-democrat, John Quiggin posted a series of blog articles about Marxism and its relevance to Leftist strategy in the modern age. Specifically he asked “what becomes of Marxism if you abandon belief in the likelihood or desirability of revolution?”

He posted on three distinctive elements of Marxism:

Class

http://johnquiggin.com/2011/06/19/marxism-without-revolution-class/

Crisis

http://crookedtimber.org/2011/06/25/marxism-without-revolution-crisis/

Capital

http://johnquiggin.com/2011/07/01/marxism-without-revolution-class-2/

He concludes that there remains many useful insights in Marxism but as a philosophy informing Left strategy, there’s much that could also lead political paralysis and inaction.

The posts caused a minor flutter at the time. Here are some of the less sniffy responses from Marxists.

Peter Frase at Jacobin

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/07/reanimated-marxism/

And Dr Tad at Left Flank

http://left-flank.org/2011/07/04/john-quiggin-marxism-without-revolution-and-left-strategy-a-response-part-1/

This is all about the squeeze points.

This is all about the squeeze points. In previous times, workers could at least withdraw their labour and negotiate from there. The owners now control all the squeeze points and have it all sewn up.

That is except for one small detail: they serve no purpose either and could therefore have it all taken off them.

Expect to see the security state becoming more and more skewed against the citizenry.ο»Ώ

Universal Basic Income is a technocratic answer to this question. It assumes that something as fundamental as the distribution of work and income can be settled without a lot of struggle, politics and, yes, actual revolution.

Originally shared by Emlyn O’Regan

Barack Obama says UBI is a thing.

β€œWhat is indisputable … is that as AI gets further incorporated, and the society potentially gets wealthier, the link between production and distribution, how much you work and how much you make, gets further and further attenuated,” Obama told Dadich and Ito.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/president-obama-basic-income-debate-2016-10?r=US&IR=T