A report on the March 12-14 conference on “Rosa Luxemburg’s Thought and Its Contemporary Value” at Wuhan University, China, where discussion focused not only Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital but also, to a surprising extent, on dialectics and humanism as well as feminism – Editors

The Danish cartoons demonizing Muslims should not be defended as free speech given the context of their publication, in which oppressed minorities inside Europe were demeaned in a racist manner by the dominant media. At the same time, equally reactionary forces in the Muslim world have taken advantage of the controversy to shore up their support – Editors

A report from the World Social Forum in Caracas. The turn to the left in Latin America, especially in Bolivia and Venezuela, has challenged US imperialism, and invigorated the global left. But the turn toward statism in Venezuela has also been challenged by some of that country’s youthful leftists, including anarchists. The lack of an in-depth discussion of exactly what constitutes a society that negates and transcends capitalism remains a problem – Editors

An assessment of the situation in Bolivia in the aftermath of the election of the leftist Evo Morales to the presidency, in a society with a long history of labor and indigenous struggles – Editors

Critique of John Holloway’s Change the World without Taking Power. Originally appeared in Open Space Forum (India): http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=49 – Editors

Hurricane Katrina did far more than wreak an enormous amount of human, material, and environmental devastation to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The giant storm violently lifted the curtain that obscures the racial and class divides that constitute American civilization and made plain for the world to see that anti-Black racism continues to shape the reality for millions.

A review of John McClendon, C.L.R. James’s Notes on Dialectics: Left Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism? (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2004), Originally appeared in Socialism and Democracy, July 2005 — Editors

The tsunami that impacted over a dozen nations in the Indian Ocean region at the end of 2004 was a natural catastrophe, but it was no less of a social disaster. Nowhere is that truer than in Acheh, the province of northern Sumatra that was most gravely affected by the tsunami – Editors

Wadood Hamad is correct that many today are “stuck between two inadequate visions” — either apologizing for U.S. imperialist actions or “cheering any misguided ‘apparent’ resistance to imperialism.” Avoiding these false alternatives is not only needed to develop a successful antiwar movement; it is needed to ensure that the idea of freedom is not forsaken by today’s radicals.

An examination of the work that contains Marx’s most detailed discussion of a non-capitalist society, his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program, this presentation focuses on the differences between the lower and the higher phases of communism in that work.  Issues such as directly vs. indirectly social labor, and the factors that must exist before it is possible to reach “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” are discussed.  Originally presented as part of a Marxist-Humanist class series entitled “Beyond Capitalism,” Chicago – Editors

A report on the January 2005 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil – Editors

Capital’s drive for self-expansion is the foundation of the ecological crisis, this vs. those, even on left, who believe that capital can be controlled.  Even revolutionary Marxist thinkers like Istvan Meszaros believe that capital can be controlled, holding to the notion that the post-capitalist society would not end the wages system.  Nor do neo-primitivist ecologists offer a viable solution, since they evade the question of achieving industrial and economic development in a non-capitalist manner. Originally read (in the author’s absence) at Workshop on “Ecology and the Future Society,”  Nagpur, India, January 15-16, 2005 – Editors

China’s rapid economic development rests upon the expropriation of rural workers. Worker and peasant resistance is analyzed. At the same time, an international conference on Rosa Luxemburg in Guangzhou emphasized her concept of socialist democracy – Editors