Leftnews.org | News and Views from the Left

by Editors — last modified 2018-05-01T13:01:25-04:00

Contributors: Faiz Ahmed, JBB, Graham H. Cox, R. Dubois, JA Cox

The best of the political left-wing from around the web.

Renminbi: A Century of Change

— by JBB — last modified Nov 12, 2018 09:55 AM

by Sit Tsui, Qiu Jiansheng, Yan Xiaohui, Erebus Wong and Wen Tiejun | Monthly Review | There is considerable interest in the history and characterization of China’s economy. This overview of the evolution of the renminbi from the late Qing dynasty to the present, shows how China’s political and economic changes in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are reflected in the development of its highly contested modern currency system.

Directing the Revolution | Jacobin

— by Roxanne Dubois — last modified Nov 12, 2018 08:27 AM

Political cinema can sometimes be too highbrow for a mass audience. But in the 1960s and early '70s, French-Greek director Costa-Gavras showed that films with a revolutionary message can also be popular.

Investors focus on retailers as wages rise | Reuters

— by Faiz Ahmed — last modified Nov 11, 2018 03:35 PM

Aka: "Why Trump is winning"

Germany has no place in WW1 ceremony for 'winners'- far-right leader | Reuters

— by Faiz Ahmed — last modified Nov 11, 2018 03:23 PM

"Germany lost the war and Merkel’s participation in a ceremony for the former allies amounted to an attempt to rewrite history, AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland said."

Poland's eurosceptic leaders, far right mark independence centenary at mass march | Reuters

— by Faiz Ahmed — last modified Nov 11, 2018 03:21 PM

"Some chanted: “Pride, pride, national pride” and “Yesterday it was Moscow, today it is Brussels, stripping us of our sovereignty.” Warsaw’s city mayor sought to ban a far-right march held on Nov. 11 annually for almost a decade but a court overruled her."

How Opposition to World War One Galvanized the Left | The New Republic

— by Faiz Ahmed — last modified Nov 11, 2018 03:19 PM

"[T]he contemporary American left (by which I mean, liberals and radicals) should emulate the strategy the anti-war coalition followed from 1914 to 1918: Organize local groups, put on imaginative kinds of protests, exclude no one who supports your basic demand(s), and work with elected officials who are sympathetic to you but don’t depend on them to remain steadfast when times get rough. In the end, you have to convince a majority of Americans or, at least, persuade them not to support your opposition."

When America’s Most Prominent Socialist Was Jailed for Speaking Out Against World War I | Smithsonian

— by Faiz Ahmed — last modified Nov 11, 2018 03:15 PM

"When World War I broke out in Europe in August 1914, Debs joined the movement to preserve American neutrality. Early in the war, most of the nation, from conservative isolationists in the Midwest to liberals in the East, wanted to stay out of Europe’s war. Although many Americans agreed with Debs on the merits, fewer aligned with his socialist critique of entering the war. It was a battle between the ruling classes of the warring nations, he argued – and in fact, an economic critique of the war, which notes that the U.S. profited from trade with Britain and wartime loans to the Allied powers, persists among historians today."

Opposition to World War I | Wikipedia

— by Faiz Ahmed — last modified Nov 11, 2018 03:13 PM

"In Canada opposition to conscription and involvement in the war centered on French Canadian nationalists led by Henri Bourassa. Following the 1917 elections, the government implemented the Military Service Act 1917 that came into effect in 1918, which sparked a weekend of rioting in Quebec city between March 28 and April 1, 1918. Invoking the War Measures Act of 1914, the federal government sent troops to restore order in the city, which opened fire on a demonstration on April 1st."

Croatian man breaks his leg vandalising anti-fascist monument | The Guardian

— by Faiz Ahmed — last modified Nov 08, 2018 04:04 PM

"Končar was celebrated as a Yugoslav hero for his fight against Croatia’s fascist government. In 1942 he was captured by Italian forces and executed at the age of 31 with several of his communist comrades. When asked by a judge if he would seek clemency, he allegedly replied: “I will not ask for mercy nor would I have it for you!” Several thousand anti-fascist monuments have been vandalised or destroyed since Croatia’s independence in 1991."

America’s halfway house

— by JBB — last modified Nov 07, 2018 10:10 AM

Michael Roberts Blog | Timing a recession is notoriously hard (I’ve tried!). And this long, crawling depressive ‘recovery’ has defied the odds; as only one recovery on record (from 1991-2001) has lasted as long as a decade. But there will be no escape for American capitalism as Trump enters the second half of his presidential term.

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