The struggle for actually building socialist society

An Interview with Fred Engst

MR Online | January 24, 2018

The following interview with Fred Engst was conducted by Onurcan Ülker (bios beneath interview) on April 7, 2017 in Beijing. It was originally published by Research Unit for Political Economy (RUPE) on January 19, 2018 under the same title. The present version has been edited and reformatted. As the RUPE editors noted in their original introduction, the Engst interview “provides very significant insights into the building of socialism in China on the basis of both direct experience and deep reflection.” Indeed, like other correctives we have published, Engst also strongly contradicts critiques of Mao that have become dominant. We were particularly impressed with the section, “The real ‘Chinese miracle’ was socialism,” in which Engst argues persuasively against the claim that economic growth was feeble in comparison to Post-Mao Era. With straightforward statistical comparison and a clear critique of the use of “retro-computed GDP” by contemporary scholars, Engst shows that “The economic base built in Mao’s era laid the foundation for a sovereign capitalist development.” —Eds.

Lula, Brazil elections and the left

TeleSUR speaks to Sabrina Fernandes, a professor and researcher at the University of Brasilia.

teleSUR | January 24, 2018

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva. | Photo: Reuters

In an exclusive interview with teleSUR, Brazilian professor and researcher Sabrina Fernandes discusses former President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva’s Jan. 24 corruption trial and forthcoming elections in the South American country.

Protests in Honduras intensify leading up to inauguration day

The Dawn News | January 23, 2018

Juan Orlando Hernández, who was “elected” president in Honduras as a result of fraud and corruption, will hold his swearing in ceremony on January 27 in what may be the first closed-door inauguration (although his government has purposely not shared details about the ceremony). Leading up to what many consider will be an illegitimate inauguration, social movements and organization, sectors of the political opposition and members of civil society have been mobilizing across Honduras to show their rejection and indignation to the political situation in Honduras that did not begin with electoral fraud but has also highlighted the impunity and unreeled power of the military and police to repress, detain and kill citizens at an alarming rate.

More the Smartphone more the teens’ unhappiness: study graphs correlations between happiness and screen activities and non-screen activities

A Journal of People report

Too much Smartphone use makes teens unhappy, finds a new research from San Diego State University. Teens glued to their Smartphones and other devices are unhappier than those spending less time on digital media, the research finds.

The study gathered data from over one million 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders in the U.S. showing teens who spent more time on social media, gaming, texting and video-chatting on their phones were not as happy as those who played sports, went outside and interacted with real human beings.

Smartphone, Smartness And Stupidity

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents.org | January 25, 2018

A new research by scientists at the San Diego State University finds, to put it briefly, a correlation between over-use of Smartphone and teens’ increased unhappiness. All major news providers have prominently presented the news of the study. Overall finding of the study annoys all parents, guardians and responsible citizens.

We Need Radical Imagination

by Sarah van Gelder

YES! Magazine | January 25, 2018

“The more people we include, the more powerful and supported we are.” Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash.

 

There are many consequences to the near daily barrage of lies, violence, bigotry, and vulgarity produced by the Trump administration. One impact: This atmosphere crowds out space for imagining and creating new possibilities.

India: The Telengana Scenario–Marginalising Female Labour

by P Aravinda

Frontier | Vol. 50, No.29, Jan 21 – 27, 2017

The book “FEMINIZING THE LABOUR RELATIONS” by Dr M Vanamala is an empirical study of changing production roles of female labour and their effects on the lives of women in a village in Medak district of Telangana state. As stated by the author, the “focus of the study is to probe into the quality of life and work life in the occupations of female labour shifted from female intensive, sex sequential paddy cultivation as non-agricultural occupations”. Further, the author also states “the objective of the study is to trace the relationship between the processes of commoditization of farmland and the changing female production roles in farm employment” and “to trace new social structures of accumulation (italics in the original) emerging in the processes of new female non-farm employment”.