With our twelfth issue, Insurgent Notes returns to the fray. We do so in the further development of the atmosphere which has developed in fits and starts from the 2008 meltdown to Occupy to Black Lives Matter to today when, as our editorial analyzes, the center-right and center-left blocs of the two dominant American parties are seriously fraying at the edges, with promise of more to come, above all (hopefully) when the elections are out of the way.
Matthew Quest has given us a further installment of his work on C.L.R. James, dealing with James’s relationship with Cuba, an historical article which was suddenly made topical by the recent US-Cuban rapprochement.
Jason Rhodes gives us a profound update and elaboration of his contribution to IN No. 1, (“Capitalism is a Waste of Time”), showing how, for 150 years, political economy from Malthus to Keynes (as distinct from Marx’s critique of political economy), bourgeois theoreticians were consciously attempting to divert attention from the huge costs of the consumption of the unproductive classes (those who consume and do not produce, Rosa Luxemburg’s lapidary “King–Ministers–Civil Servants–Professors–Whores”) and the potential—a shorter work week and greater wealth for all—if such resources and labor power were put to useful activity.
Loren Goldner turns our view to the global proletariat in articles on the struggles of immigrant logistics workers in Italy and on the class struggle in China.
Finally, in our book review section, John Garvey reviews the very interesting graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg, Red Rosa by Kate Evans, featuring an artful use of graphics and of little-known quotes from Luxemburg’s life and letters, an excellent introduction to this woman who is one of the great inspirations of Insurgent Notes. Noel Ignatiev replies to John on the national question, as debated between Luxemburg and Lenin. And then John responds to Noel. More to come, for sure!
Finally, Loren Goldner reviews Beth Macy’s Factory Man, a book portraying the fate of wood furniture workers in Virginia and North Carolina, where the industry was largely wiped out by imports from China, Vietnam and Indonesia, another book made topical by the emergence of the “angry white male” as the apparent key to the 2016 election.
We anticipate that there will be much more to say and much more to do in the days to come.