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