Bulletin N° 689

 

Subject: THE FUTURE OF “HAPPINESS.”

 

21 March 2016
Grenoble, France

 

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

The four items below present a lucid picture of the counter-revolutionary environment we have inherited since the late 1970s. An increasing number of critics have come to believe that the ruling class harbors no illusions about saving the capitalist system which has made them rich; their intentions at present are to profit as much as they can while the system is still afloat. Like the proverbial passengers of the Titanic, rather than sharing the life boats for the inevitable plunge into the icy waters below, the corporate leadership instead are pillaging their fellow passengers and covering up their crimes, and they will continue to do so as long as opportunities for profits are manifest and their servile lieutenants remain obeisant. For the increasing number of people on this planet who find themselves “not profitable,” (i.e. unexploitable) lifeboats are not within their reach and the future is foreboding . . . .

 

Political opposition has become a question of aesthetics:

 

Don’t die ugly; Become informed, and join the Resistance!

 

 

Please see below . . .

·        Jane Mayer’s discussion of her new book, Dark Money, which goes back to the Anti-Vietnam War days when millions of people around the world were questioning the legitimacy of capitalism as a system under which we might wish to live.

 

·        Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums, suggests an epic violence is about to break out against the world’s poor and vulnerable.

 

·        Shir Hever, a political scientist and Ph.D. student in Germany, discusses the emergence of extreme right-wing political parties in Germany and in other parts of Europe.

 

·        And slain community organizer, Berta Cáceres, is the subject of US imperial overreach into local politics in Honduras and in other parts of the world.

 

 

Sincerely,

Francis Feeley

Professor of American Studies

University of Grenoble-3

Director of Research

University of Paris-Nanterre

Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements

The University of California-San Diego

http://www.ceimsa.org  

 

 

a.

Mayer's historical account touches on how and when American universities came under siege by "free market" front groups.

 

Jane Mayer, "Dark Money"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wULHP8oXxxg

 

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b.

The Path to Dissent:


Mike Davis on the Trump phenomenon and why young people are so open to socialism.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/03/davis-core-millenials-bernie-socialism/ 
by Mike Davis


I manifestly do believe that we have arrived at a final conflict that will decide the survival of a large part of poor humanity over the next half century. Against this future we must fight like the Red Army in the rubble of Stalingrad. Fight with hope, fight without hope, but fight absolutely.

Mike Davis is the author of several books, including Planet of Slums and City of Quartz.

 

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c.

Rightward shift in Regional German Elections

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15899


Shir Hever, a political scientist and Ph.D. student in Germany, talks about what the success of the radical right means for Germany and the overall rightward trend in Europe.

 

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d.

Berta-daughter

Slain Activist Berta Cáceres’ Daughter: US Military Aid Has Fueled Repression & Violence in Honduras