The Activist » Jason Schulman

It’s Time for the Left to Get Serious

Jason Schulman — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:30:38 +0000

BILL FLETCHER Shortly after last November’s presidential election, I spoke at a forum discussing its implications. There I mentioned that we should anticipate a right-wing populist trend emerging, one that I would describe as “revanchist” – a term meaning “revenge-seeking.” Interestingly enough, a member of the International Socialist Organization dismissed my concerns as pessimistic and unwarranted. [...]

In Defense of Participatory Planning

Jason Schulman — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:10:21 +0000

JASON SCHULMAN I appreciate David Schweickart’s response to my critique of his “Economic Democracy” vision, which helps me to clarify what I see as the problems with it as an “end-goal” for the socialist movement. (And I apologize if my tone was perhaps too antagonistic.) First, I’ll happily acknowledge the gray area between certain “market socialists” like [...]

Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States?

Jason Schulman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:46:06 +0000

Why Is There No Labor Party in the United States? By Robin Archer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. $38.50. 368 pp. JASON SCHULMAN The traditional explanations as to why the United States is the only “advanced capitalist” country with no labor-based party have probably been heard by every socialist at least once. In the late nineteenth century [...]

Martin Luther King and the Memphis Sanitation Strike

Jason Schulman — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:03:43 +0000

A reminder that Martin Luther King, civil rights leader and democratic socialist, died while supporting a struggle to form a union. Produced by the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

DSA on the Health Care Struggle

Jason Schulman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:04:52 +0000

FRANK LLEWELLYN DSA is joining with the AFL-CIO on Wednesday January 13th to call members of the House of Representatives to urge them to stand up for provisions in the House health care bill that are superior to the deeply flawed Senate Bill. We also urge members to call the White House, Senate Majority Leader Harry [...]

The Economics of Socialism

Jason Schulman — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:19:35 +0000

JASON SCHULMAN Back when democratic socialism was a young political movement there seemed to be little need to spell out exactly how a socialist economy would work. When asked, many socialists would have said something along these lines: “The working class will take political power and create a radically democratic state. It will then bring the [...]

The Relevance of Lenin Today

Jason Schulman — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:58:43 +0000

SAMUEL FARBER The left has been experiencing a situation somewhat similar to the World War I years. At that time, the abject failure of social democracy to oppose the imperialist war produced a major crisis on the left. This crisis was eventually “resolved” by the October Revolution and the development of a new revolutionary politics in [...]

Michael Harrington and the Twilight of Capitalism

Jason Schulman — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:06:03 +0000

JASON SCHULMAN Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770) Michael Harrington is rarely taken seriously as a Marxist thinker—indeed, his Marxism is rarely taken seriously at all, by either his critics or sympathizers. In his biography of Harrington, The Other American, Maurice Isserman notes that [...]

The Current Relevance of an Old Debate

Jason Schulman — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:29:31 +0000

JASON SCHULMAN I’m posting this essay in response to some of the comments from Bhaskar’s “Beyond Good and Evil” post. First, I will fess up and say that my arguments are largely derived from the book Revolutionary Strategy by the British Marxist and academic lawyer Mike Macnair. I don’t claim to be offering anything particularly original [...]

State Ownership Vs. Workers’ Ownership: A Marxist Viewpoint

Jason Schulman — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:29:48 +0000

What is the Marxist view of nationalisation? To summarise:

1.) Marxists view things in terms of historical development. The description “progressive” has no moral content for a Marxist. It does not mean “better” in any moral sense, or even, in this sense, necessarily meaning more efficient, it merely means more mature, the more developed form, and therefore closer to being replaced by the next higher form.