Official Stats About Gaza

 Here is an official update on "The Israeli Genocide in the Gaza Strip":

Nb. According to Rhashid Khalidi (the author of "The Hundred Years ' War On Palestine"), the actual overall death toll is probably 50-60,000 when you include how many dead Palestinians lie under the rubble of the bombed regions of Gaza.

Richard Wolff on Free Speech

 Here's Richard D. Wolff, an American Marxist economist, discussing both the nature and importance of free speech on university campuses in the U.S.(open the YouTube link):

https://youtu.be/X3phV1l75WU?si=0HHCgJtUW8Ux6qQB

What he has to say applies everywhere.

Standing with the Oppressed: the Palestinians

 FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

In times like these, where there's ethnic cleansing (another Nakba) and 'plausible genocide' occurring in real time in Gaza by the State of Israel via its IDF, we need to stand with the oppressed Palestinians because this is the right and just thing to do.

It's worth looking, then, at this recent powerful speech of Chris Hedges's (a tireless critic of the Zionist State of Israel and its US-led Western supporters) by opening the following YouTube link:

https://youtu.be/vAXsdiW879U?si=J0bcltdhH48YNpi2

At this moment (3 May 2024), more than 50,000 Palestinians (mostly women and children) have been killed and more than 70,000 (mostly women and children again) have also been wounded by the IDF's ongoing military attacks. Also, over 70% of the Gaza Strip (from hospitals to universities to housing, etc) have been destroyed by the constant bombardment of the IDF. Additionally, all basic infrastructure (water, electricity, etc) has been cut off by the Israeli government, plus outside aid. As well, starvation is being used by the Israeli State as a weapon of war to achieve its goal of ethnic cleansing. There's more to say here, of course, but this should be enough to point out that what the State of Israel is doing is immoral, and, furthermore, it's committing what many critics are calling war crimes.

Shedding Some Scattered Light on Yanis Varoufakis's Latest Book: "Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism"

 Here are some important but sketchy points to bear in mind with Yanis Varoufakis's latest book, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism (London: The Bodley Head, 2023).

Firstly, in his theory of technofeudalism, Varoufakis is attempting to identify a new mode of production. It is one which is essentially different to the capitalist mode of production in terms of both its underlying social relations of production (class structure) and its core productive forces (technology) - capitalism is essentially based on a capitalist/wage-labourer social arrangement within an industrial setting (factories, etc.). It is also one which at the same time has something in common with feudalism (a landlord/tenant social arrangement) in terms of how the surplus product of society is extracted by one class from another class as in the form of 'rent'. Thus, his theoretical focus is primarily on how a new socioeconomic class ('cloud capitalists' or 'technofeudalists' as he calls them) extracts the surplus product of society from other socioeconomic classes (which are for him the classes of 'cloud serfs, cloud proles and cloud vassals') via their ownership and control of a new means of production - in this case, 'cloud capital' (i.e., digital data). In short, his theoretical focus is primarily on how the dominant socioeconomic class gets its wealth (and keeps on accumulating it). As a consequence, he develops a theoretical picture in which ''technofeudalists' (the non-productive class) extract a 'rent' (the surplus product of society) via their ownership and control of the 'cloud capital' (the means of production) from the 'cloud serfs, cloud proles and cloud vassals of the world' (the productive classes).

Secondly, he's also concerned with how such a new mode of production consequently affects us all in terms of our freedom and autonomy. As Varoufakis says: we're all in 'mind-chains'. Thus, what he attempts to reveal is how a new form of class oppression and exploitation has emerged over and above the previous one in capitalism.

Thirdly, it's clear from the first appendix to his book that, while Varoufakis claims that 'technofeudalism' has 'killed off capitalism', it is nevertheless predicated on the latter - which consequently means that it can't exist without the latter. The point is, for Varoufakis, 'cloud capital' acquires primacy over 'industrial capital' in his theory of technofeudalism. Still, as Varoufakis himself says, he nonetheless approaches his subject matter from a Marxist perspective!

Finally, it's important not to over-focus on (as some have done in their commentaries of his book) the technology aspects of Varoufakis's technofeudalism theory - as if that is its main focus. Nor, equally (as others have also done), construe his critique of technofeudalism as leaning towards some normative or moral statements about how to improve things under capitalism, especially for businesses with a 'humanist' bent. Thus, it's important not to under-emphasise or downplay his main concern about any mode of production which is based on a socioeconomic class structure that enables one class to live off another class via the ownership and control of the means of production. Consequently, one should not ignore his revolutionary call at the end of his book, which is an allusion to Marx's own at the end of his and Engels's Communist Manifesto, namely, 'We have nothing to lose but our... chains'. Varoufakis is not a mere social-tech reformer but a social revolutionary!

*****

Nb. In another blog post I shall deal more critically with some debatable aspects of Varoufakis's theory of technofeudalism and, in particular, his concept of cloud capital - which will bear down on some internal Marxist critiques of his work (such as, for example, that what he calls technofeudalism is just another way of defining the latest stage of capitalism and that 'cloud capital' itself, like other forms of 'capital' ['financial' and 'landlord capital'], is nothing more than a 'crop-sharer' in the distribution of the surplus value [the unpaid surplus labour of workers] that industrial capitalists extract out of wage-workers at the point of the production process (factories).

Vale Ian Edgell Hunt: 1946-2024

 Ian Edgell Hunt, an Australian Marxist philosopher, died on 13th January 2024, aged 77. Ian Hunt, as a long term member of the Flinders University Philosophy Department (1971-2015) in Adelaide, South Australia, played initially a pivotal role in the setting up and the teaching of a course in Marxism-Leninism, which had attracted the interest of many students over the years of its duration. One of the major outcomes of this was that it led to a number of PhD students under Ian Hunt's supervision who all sought to make their own unique contribution to Marxist philosophy. One of the other major outcomes of this was that it led to a significant number of journal publications on both Marx's Hegelian legacy (the dialectical method) and his critique of political economy. It also led to, ultimately, a book on the metaphysical nature and theoretical role of the dialectical method in Marx's theories of history, capitalism and revolution. The book's title is Dialectical and Analytical Marxism. Ian Hunt, as pointed out by Christopher J. Arthur in his book The New Dialectic and Marx's Capital, was one of a number of contemporary intellectuals who engaged in what might be called a 'new' form of 'Hegelian Marxism'. Later on, Ian Hunt turned his attention to teaching a variety of interconnected courses on political philosophy, with a special focus on John Rawls's theory of justice. This area of teaching and research also led to a number of journal articles on not just Rawls's theory of justice but also on forging an alternative perspective of a 'just and fair' society which consciously drew on Marx's critique of political economy as well: a liberal socialist society. Ultimately, this all culminated in another book, titled Liberal Socialism: An Alternative Social Ideal Grounded in Rawls and Marx. As a philosophy teacher, postgraduate supervisor and academic researcher, Ian Hunt made, undoubtedly, significant contributions in all three areas of his professional life. Ian Hunt was also a radical union activist in the Australian tertiary sector (for more on this aspect of his professional and activist life, see his jointly edited book with Chris Provis, The New Industrial Relations In Australia). Ian Hunt has left behind him a wife plus six children and nine grandchildren. In his own words, he had lived both a 'fortunate' and a 'good' life. He will always be fondly remembered as a friend, postgraduate supervisor and colleague. Vale Ian Edgell Hunt (1946-2024).