A Few Scattered Thoughts on Future Socialism

by Anindya Sen

Frontier | Vol. 49, No.29, Jan 22 – 28, 2017

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz passed away at the age of 90 on November 25, 2016 in Santiago de Cuba. For last six decades, Cuba and Castro were almost interchangeable words to the world. His death most certainly has created a void in his own country, but perhaps more so in the socialist camp. Even after fall of Berlin wall, he didn’t give up the spirit of socialist internationalism and had always been the spearhead in all the struggles waged against imperialism in any corner of the globe in his lifetime.

However, voids are never left voids; it is filled almost by law of nature. But in order to fill them the posterity must be appreciative of the legacy of leaders like Castro. The lessons of his struggles, both political and personal, the creative motif that made him walk on thorny road lifelong must be understood in proper perspective. They are perhaps the only silver-linings in the narcissistic, self-centered and self-destructive life around civic society bequeathed by capitalism.

Reclaiming Water: Chilean Fight Against US Dam Project Heats Up

telesur | 30 January, 2017

Activists join a protest against the controversial dam in San Jose del Maipo, Chile, in February 2016. | Photo: Courtesy / CIEL

A years-long, high-stakes fight against an embattled U.S. hydroelectric dam in Chile has taken a small but important step in the campaign to halt the project that jeopardizes the water supply for some 7 million people living in and around the capital city of Santiago.

Regenerative medicine

by Orfilio Peláez

Granma | 30 January, 2017

A bag of peripheral blood stem cells. Photo: Institute of Hematology and Immunology archives

Considered one of the most remarkable global scientific advances of the past two decades in the health field, regenerative medicine shows promising prospects for application in the treatment of various conditions.

Based on the same behavior as the human body when repairing itself by replacing damaged cells, with healthy ones, the four fundamental pillars of regenerative medicine lie in treatment using stem cells, the use of proteins capable of regenerating injured tissues, the engineering of tissues that include those produced in a laboratory (in vitro) and that practiced directly on individuals (in vivo), and gene therapy.

Designs On Dissent

by JANE CLINTON

Morning Star | 31 January, 2017

A SMALL silk buttonhole, a pamphlet on how to avoid arrest and a petition for women to sit their medical degree exams.

These are just some of the objects on display at the Radical Voices exhibition at Senate House Library in the University of London charting how protest has been expressed over the past two centuries.

Including petitions, photographs, posters, songs, poetry, book collections, political cartoons, badges and ephemera, it is a rich analysis of the voices that have spoken out and have often forced change.

There’s a James Gillray cartoon dating 1807 — the oldest item on show — along with much more recent items such as a 2003 Stop the War poster and literature printed by Occupy Design in 2012 as part of the occupation at St Paul’s cathedral.

The People Must Know Their History!

by Maxim Gorky

      A poster of October Revolution.

These words were often repeated by the liberal “educators of the people” long before the October Revolution. They expressed the desire of the Russian bourgeois intellectuals to equip the working people with a knowledge of their past and rouse them to active opposition against the autocratic order of the Romanov tsars. For these autocrats were reluctant to share the “fullness of their power” with the landowners, manufacturers, and bankers. In the states of Western Europe the capitalists had long ago taken over power from the monarchy and made themselves complete masters of the soil and the lives of the people–the same people, of course, through whom they had seized power.

California secession movement is trying to gather momentum

A Journal of People report

The California State Capitol in Sacramento. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

A recent CNBC.com report said:
“Backers seeking to break California away from the U.S. started collecting signatures Friday to get a proposed independence measure on the 2018 statewide ballot.
“This isn’t the first effort aimed at California secession but leaders say the previous tries were mostly about building awareness of the issue and increasing public support. They say recent polls show more Californians want a divorce from the union and believe that President Donald Trump’s election also has boosted their cause.
“‘We definitely see that there’s some newfound support for this and we want to get the signatures out there, especially now because we’re in the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency when he’s going to be aggressively pursuing his policies that the people of California are going to reject — and have rejected,’ Louis Marinelli, president of the Yes California Independence movement, said in an interview Friday.”

Violence costs world economy $14 trillion a year: It’s an alarming market failure

A Journal of People report

The economic impact of violence and conflict to the global economy was $13.6 trillion in 2015, said a report of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The figure is equivalent to 13.3 percent of the world GDP or $1,876 PPP per annum, per person. To further break it down, that figure is $5 per person, per day, every day of the year. When one considers that according to the most recent World Bank estimates 10.7% of the world’s population are living on less than $2 per day, it shows an alarming market failure.
The figures in the report are expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
The IEP said:
Iraq, Afghanistan and Venezuela are the countries where the impact of violence is more than 40 percent of GDP, and the Syrian economy is the most affected by violence, at 54.1 percent of GDP. Regionally, the cost of violence has surged in the Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.

What Cuba’s Jose Marti Teaches Us About Trump-Era Imperialism

telesur | 28 January, 2017

Thousands of Cubans participated in the March of the Torches on Saturday, an annual procession that pays homage to national hero Jose Marti on his birthday. Marti was a poet, essayist, novelist, and later in his life, a soldier.

Cancerous chemical is being commonly used in toothpastes, find scientists

A Journal of People report

A new study carried out by the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in the UK and published in the Scientific Reports Journal said:

Toothpastes and a few other food products contain an additive called titanium dioxide, which may cause cancer.

An additive is a substance used in products to improve or preserve it. Titanium dioxide is a naturally occurring oxide of titanium. It is commonly referred to as E171 on the ingredient list and is often used in products like toothpastes, biscuits, chewing gums and sunscreen.

Class Struggle under Neocolonial Relations of Production

by T G Jacob

Frontier | Vol. 49, No.28, Jan 15 – 21, 2017

The proliferation and increasing incidence of farmers killing themselves is the most telling illustration of economic non-viability of the current economics of farming. The political leaderships often frivolously approach such a serious malady hitting at the roots of Indian agriculture. The rate of suicide rate is increasing rather than decreasing or remaining stable. The crisis that is structural is sought to be dismissed as non- existent which is nothing but rank irresponsibility and contempt exhibited by the political class of the country. The roots of the crisis are deep with a long history and have become built-in into the socio-economic framework of rural India in its relations to the rest of India and the world. The ongoing crisis in Indian agriculture is in the nature of struggle between producers and their exploiters who are hell bent to extract maximum surplus from crores of the former using the mechanism of the market. This market is not a monolithic one but with different components all of which are unfavorable to the actual producers. The non-viability of agriculture as an economic proposition can hence be rectified only through a restructuring of the market mechanism which in turn necessitates restructuring of the balance of power between classes in society. This is what makes the farmers’ question in India an intrinsic part of the class struggle.