Obsolete Communism THE Left-Wing Alternative Hardcover – 1968 by Daniel Cohn-Bendit; Gabriel Cohn-Bendit; (Author)

Communist opposition to Zionism has a long history which pre-dates both the Russian Revolution and the Balfour Declaration of November 1917. Yet the Communist and Marxist critique of Zionism has always had a curious inconsistency, since it is not applied to all nationalist solutions of social problems. Thus Soviet and Chinese Communists regard their Marxist-Leninist ideology as perfectly compatible with Russian or Chinese nationalism, and the same is true of the 'people's democracies' in Eastern Europe or Asia where nationalism has been a predominant force. Similarly, Arab and Palestinian nationalism have been considered 'progressive' despite their very thin socialist content. Only in the case of Zionism, which historically has been a reaction to the failure of European and Islamic societies to resolve the Jewish question on democratic lines, has a major national movement been judged a priori 'reactionary', illegitimate and ultimately condemned to extinction. Anti-Zionism has become the great bazaar in which Soviet and Chinese Communists, Arab and Third World Marxists, Trotskyists, anarchists and Castroists together with feudal sheikhs, conservative Islamic rulers, and oil companies in the West (plus fascist fringe-groups) can find common ground in their antagonism to the Jewish State. Contemporary anti-Zionism is not merely the anti-Semitism of the left - Israel has even become the alibi for reviving the hoary Nazi myth of 'World Jewry' seeking to control and manipulate the fate of humanity. The essays in this book will give the reader a better understanding of the causes and possible consequences of this sinister trend. Mostly written between the Six-Day War of 1967 and the October War of 1973, they remain timely and important for the light they shed on a development whose implications are only now becoming fully apparent. They analyse the complex and changing factors which have influenced the position of the Communist parties and New Left movements towards the Middle East conflict, the significance of the 'anti-Zionist' campaigns in Russia and Eastern Europe, the dissentions and contradictions in western Communist parties, the relations of Soviet, Chinese and East German Communists to the Arab world, and the attitude of the post-Auschwitz New Left to Israel and the Jewish problem. All these disparate elements must be taken into account if one is to understand Communist and Marxist standpoints towards Israel and the Middle East conflict. Subject categories: Anti-Zionism; Communism; Israel; Politics

We can't sit under Mises at his famous Vienna private seminar. We can't go back in time and attend his New York seminar, or follow him to his speaking engagements that he held in the 50s and 60s.But thanks to this second volume in a thrilling series (here is volume one), we do have access to what he said. He is warm, funny, passionate, and learned. This book provides a candid look at the man and his teaching style. It demonstrates his dazzling command over the material, and teaches in a breezier way than his treatises.This volume contains nine lectures delivered over one week, from June 23, to July 3, 1952, at the San Francisco Public Library. Mises was at his prime as a teacher and lecturer. He shares a lifetime of learning on topics that were (and remain) central to American public life.As the title indicates, his main focus is on Marxism. He discusses Marx and his place in the history of ideas, the destruction wrought by his dangerous ideology, the manner in which his followers have covered up his errors, and how the Marxists themselves have worked for so long to save Marxism from itself. He discusses Marxist claims about history and refutes the smear of the industrial revolution.The approach is systematic but casual. So the reader encounters wonderful insights in the form of short asides. For example: "The worst thing that can happen to a socialist is to have his country ruled by socialists who are not his friends."As a lecturer, he is steady and relentless. The reader can nearly "hear" him speaking through the prose. And there are times when Mises reveals a level of rhetorical passion that you would never encounter in print. That's because what is printed here are not pre-prepared lectures in the sense that they were written out. They were transcribed by Bettina Bien Greaves from what he actually said.Thus can we hear this passage:It is not true, as Marx said, that the improvements in technology are available only to the exploiters and that the masses are living in a state much worse than on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. Everything the Marxists say about exploitation is absolutely wrong! Lies! In fact, capitalism made it possible for many persons to survive who wouldn't have otherwise.Some readers of Mises's larger works have said that while his rigor is dazzling, the man himself can seem remote. Whether or not you agree with this observation, Mises comes across in these lectures as brilliant but very warm and charming in an old world sense.This approach is particularly fruitful in the last four of the lectures, which cover topics such as savings, interest, inflation, profit and loss, and the place of foreign investment. The lecture on interest rates, for example, must surely rank as one of the best explanations of this complicated topic. He recounts the history of the attempt to suppress interest rates, from the ancient world to the modern period. He explains why this cannot work because interest is merely the objective sign of a phenomenon that is integral to human action. As he moves on to money, Mises reveals himself to be tougher on the issue of fiduciary media than he was when he wrote his 1912 book The Theory of Money and Credit.In response to a question Mises says: "In the future no additional banknotes should be issued, no additional credit should be entered on a bank subject to check, unless there is 100 percent coverage in money."Also not to be missed is Mises's wry defense of "money cranks": at least they were only more consistent than the advocates of Keynesian and monetarism.Mises was clearly pressed for time, so he had to be at once thorough and move quickly through the material. It's still not "light reading" by the normal standards, but for people who want to see a great mind at work, this has a wonderful element of spontaneity about it that attracts and teaches at the same time.

"A series of public lectures on nationalism arranged by the History of Ideas Unit in the Research School of Social Sciences of the Australian National University."

With a new introduction by the author, this is an enduring analysis of British politics, stressing the lessons to be learnt from history. By the winner of the 1993 Wolfson History Prize awarded as 'tribute to a lifetime's contribution to the study of history.'

Book by Laski, Harold Joseph

Book by Kohn, Hans

The distinguished playwright and memoirist recounts the intrusion of congressional and other witch-hunters, Red-baiters, and ideologues into her and Dashiell Hammett's lives in the 1950s and the losses and discomforts suffered. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

"Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This updated second edition presents nationalism as the most important social force shaping the ways in which people live their lives. It explains the formative influence of nationalism in the public spheres of politics and the economy, as well as the private spheres of emotional wellbeing and mental illness. In this new edition, Liah Greenfeld adds the discussion of civilization to concepts addressed in the original edition, providing an original, meaningful, logical definition of the concept, and allowing for a reliable delineation of the three civilizations coexisting in the world today: the monotheistic one, the Indic, and the Sinic. She explains how nationalism is modified by the civilizational background. Basing its conclusions on over 35 years of original comparative historical research, this book bears the characteristic Liah Greenfeld imprint: fact-based discussion, logical rigor, unexpected connections, and an exceptionally wide range of issues woven together to explain the way we live now. Key features of the second edition include: - preface addressing the spread of nationalism into China and India - updated reading lists, directing students and scholars towards useful resources for further in-depth study"-- Provided by publisher.

In 1920, Ludwig von Mises dropped a bombshell on the European economic world with his article called "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." It argued that socialism was impossible as an economic system. It set off two decades of debate, so by the time the essays appeared in English, in this very book here, in 1935, the debate was still raging. This volume edited by F.A. Hayek dug the knife into socialism's heart unlike any book to ever appear. It contains essays by Mises along with a foreword and afterword by Hayek. It also contains more commentary by N.G. Pierson, George Halm, and Enrico Barone. It is exceptionally well edited and beautifully argued, and has not been in print for many years. The contents are nothing short of prophetic. The so-called "Calculation Argument" has never been answered. It shows that without private property in capital goods, there can be no prices and hence no data available for cost accounting. Production becomes random at best, and completely irrational. Mises had convinced his generation and this book completely devastates the whole socialist apparatus from a theoretical point of view. No one interested in this debate can afford not to be well-versed in the contents of this book.

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Murray Bookchin was one of the most important radical thinkers of the twentieth century. This is his final book, completed just before he died in 2006. It is the first book to comprehensively explain his political ideas. In the 1960s Murray Bookchin introduced the concept of ecology into progressive politics, and he is widely regarded as the foremost theorist of the green and anarchist movements. Bookchin argued that capitalism and the nation state, as well as oppressive social relations in general, must be abolished if we are to have a rational and ecological society. According to Bookchin, we must fundamentally remake society along ecological lines, based on principles of confederation, humanism, non-hierarchy and direct democracy. In a time when the left is highly defensive, Bookchin's ideas of social ecology present a strong vision of an alternative society. With today's huge improvements in communications, his bold ideas are increasingly practical and, faced with ecological catastrophe, they are increasingly necessary. This is a must-read for students of political theory and anti-globalisation activists.

Trotsky's theory of the permanent revolution is one of the most important additions to the arsenal of marxism. It was first developed by Trotsky in 1904, on the eve of the first Russian Revolution. At that time, all the tendencies of the Russian Social Democracy had the perspective of a bourgeois democratic revolution. Trotsky alone in 1905 put forward the idea that the Russian working class could come to power before the workers of Western Europe. The correctness of Trotsky's theory was brilliantly demonstrated in 1917, when the Bolshevik Party under Lenin and Trotsky led the Russian proletariat to power in the first workers state in the world. However, after the death of Lenin in 1924, the theory of the permanent revolution was subject to a vitriolic onslaught by the stalinist bureaucracy, which had in effect renounced world revolution in favour of "socialism in one country". The attack on the theory came to epitomise the struggle against "Trotskyism". Today, however, with the collapse of Stalinism (and with it "socialism in one country"), Trotsky's theory of the permanent revolution has become more relevant than ever. This edition contains an introduction by Alan Woods, editor of marxist.com.

Braunthal, Julius

Modern societies currently lack positive alternative visions of the future. Many writers have claimed that the only option is a return to free-market capitalism, in which success and survival depend on being as competitive as possible whether as a nation, firm or individual.; Paul Hirst argues that there are viable alternative futures and widely applicable models that can be used to structure change. Hirst's distinctive approach to political theory reasons from real political problems rather than confining itself to abstract concepts.; Presenting an innovative political position, this collection of essays represents an attempt to re- state a practical third way between the discredited ideals of state socialism and laissez-faire capitalism.

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