Reflecting on what’s helped me read more.
All in general audience
“Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.” — Luxemburg, 1918, The Russian Revolution
Luxemburg is not advancing a liberal, idealist moral concern—instead, she is advancing a material, practical concern about the development of scientific socialism. She emphasizes that socialism is best developed by proletarian improvisation, experimentation, and iteration; but this requires freedoms which the Bolshevik party was not extending to the Russian people.
Summarizing Marx’s analysis of the contradiction between ‘capitalist social relations’ and ‘the productive forces developed under capitalism’.
I recommend this book! A summary of how we might go about expressing and hearing our observations, feelings, needs, and requests.
Fascists are strategically building a “parallel economy” in a way that has superficial similarities to the left’s strategy of building dual power. What's the difference, and how does this affect our analysis of building dual power?
Fascism funnels a fear-based individualism into coordinated, exclusionary political actions. It sucks.
The only way to guarantee working class dignity is through working class power.
thoughts on the important distinction between ‘material’ and ‘social’ properties and relations in Marxist analysis
Thoughts on identifying conservative disinformation and reactionary moral panics.
Fields of study in modern universities are results of history, as well as the job opportunities in the broader economy. How might a leftist university’s research areas and majors reflect leftist interests in what is socially valuable, rather than the capitalist interests in profit and market stability?
Thoughts on the intellectual diversity of university professors, and my personal experience in one sociology class with an apparently libertarian/conservative professor.