Look who´s serving Roko´s basilisk. Yes, it´s the former Workers League, now the Socialist Equality Party, still headed by Comrade North. Rather than dismantling AI, they want to nationalize it for the benefit of "the working class" or something to that effect. They have even launched a "Socialist AI" all their own (yes, really) which they promote in a very culty manner. Apparently, it has world historic significance, being a weapon of the Party or whatever.
Am I surprised? Nupe. Next question!
Is this true? The first link goes to WSWS, the second to "The Communist", the on-line website of the British RCP.
It certainly sounds as if the RCP temporarily suspended their super-hyper-ultra-sectarian orientation in favor of joining Your Party, the new political formation headed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. For some reason, they have now decided not to engage. Note that the RCP even attacks the SWP and the Socialist Party (presumably the CWI head section) as "sectarian groups"?!
Eh? Compared to whom?
So it seems the RCP are back on course. Unless that was their intention all along, the entire Your Party intermezzo just being a recruitment ploy rather than serious "entryism"...
LOL! About 20 years ago, there was an obscure website somewhere called "Cyber Leninists". Its goal was to organize the working class through the Internet for a socialist revolution. Unless it was a troll. Either way, it didn´t work out very well.
Now, there´s a new player in cyber town: the Workers League/Socialist Equality Party/World Socialist Web Site. If you read carefully, they seem to be suggesting that socialist AI can replace the vanguard party as the chief Organizer, Leader and Educator?! (Or whatever was Lenin´s exact formula.)
It cannot. This is just another little ploy from this small sect, just as their website itself. The working class cannot be organized for revolution through the Internet. But you knew that already. Still, I suppose it might be funny to see what kind of "advise" the Northite AI will give to the atomized petit bourgeois nerds, trolls and kooks who will be drawn to this project.
 |
| Credit: Reddit? |
It begins indeed. This is a somewhat tainted source. I mean, the World Socialist Web Site always opposes everyone to their "right" (as in pretty much everyone). Still, I can´t help linking to it. My guess is that Mamdani can´t or won´t do very much about the cost of living crisis, and will therefore concentrate on "culture war" issues for the next four years.
But we´ll see. If WSWS is right, he´s hardly going to do that, either!
Alan Gelfand recently passed away, and the Socialist Equality Party now admits that he was a leading member of their party and a frequent contributor to their website under the pen name "Alan Gilman". It´s never stated when he joined the SEP (then the Workers´ League) but it´s implied that it was around 1986/87. For a background, see the links to earlier blog posts of mine on the Gelfand case.
Three small leftist groups react to the current political situation in the United States. How should Trump be stopped? By workers´ councils and a general strike? Or campus debates exposing Charlie Kirk´s ideas on affirmative action? Or...not at all?
For your information. Links don´t imply endorsement.
Stop Trump´s military deployment to Portland!
Trump declares war on American cities
World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) doesn´t like RFK Jr, but as usual spins everything in an almost apocalyptic direction. In case you´re interested.
Trumps selects RFK Jr to head department of health
Strictly for the record, this is the reaction of the World Socialist Web Site to Trump´s victory. The WSWS is the mouthpiece of the small Socialist Equality Party (SEP).
Note the peculiar mixture of ultra-leftism and anti-Woke stances. The entire Republican Party is "fascist", but Kamala Harris is also "drenched in blood" (and Woke).
The vote tally for the SEP is unknown at the moment...
On the election of Donald Trump
France again...
In all fairness, World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) opposed the NPF and their alliance with Macron. If their take on the new Barnier government is true, is perhaps another matter entirely. Sure, Macron "played" the leftists, but perhaps he is trying to "play" the RN with a government that LARPs "far right", while actually being centrist/pro-EU BAU?
But of course, that´s above the head of the WSWS, which regards everyone to the right of themselves as "fascist" or at the very least "fascistic". I mean, these guys accused Justin Trudeau of conspiring with far right terrorists?!
And yeah, I know that the guys behind the WSWS are a minuscule Trotskyist sect...
Barnier government ministers embrace policy of the far right
Neo-fascist RN gives its marching orders to the incoming French government
A pro-Imane Khelif article from World Socialist Web Site (WSWS). They believe that the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association (IBA) faked the gender test according to which Khelif is a male when she defeated an up-and-coming Russian boxer. The IOC and the IBA are in conflict with each other, so Khelif could compete (as a female) in the recent Olympic Games.
I have no particular opinion either way, but the Russia-related political shenaningans are obvious. On a more "esoteric" note, the WSWS doesn´t strike me as particularly pro-LGBTQ. They *do* sometimes strike me as "pro-Russian", not because they actually support the Russian Federation, but because they see the US and NATO as the main enemy globally. So it´s intriguing that they suddenly take the anti-Russian/pro-LGBTQ side!
 |
| Muhammad Yunus Credit: University of Salford Press Office |
Micro-credit is usually promoted as some kind of miracle cure for poverty. It´s often associated with Muhammad Yunus, who even got the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The link below goes to a radical leftist critique of this phenomenon published in 2014 (yes, I know that WSWS is a *very* controversial site). Oh, and Yunus was appointed de facto Prime Minister of Bangladesh just the other day...
Micro-credit and the return of debt bondage for the world´s poor
 |
| Credit: AP/Evan Vucci |
Linked to strictly for information purposes. The reaction of the "World Socialist Web Site" to the attempt at Trump´s life. Still, from a leftist viewpoint at least, they do have some kind of point...
 |
| Dems and GOP when hearing about SEP´s POTUS bid |
LOL. Imagine writing stuff like this, all but un-ironically.
Also, Manouchian seems to have been a Stalinoid and so was the French Communist Resistance, so why does the super-duper-Trotskyite "World Socialist Web Site" express political support for him all of a sudden? Shouldn´t this notoriously sectarian group vomit all over Manouchian, too?
I link to this stuff for no particular reason at all. Just killing time at 4:15 AM local time...
Macron pays false tribute to French-Armenian resistance fighter Missak Manouchian
I don´t have Netflix, but "Stranger Things" is apparently its most popular series. The World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) is not amused...
 |
Here we go! Probably just a minor glitch, but who knows?
Note that the harsh lockdowns in China apparently *haven´t* extirpated the virus, now called Omicron BA 2. Hence new lockdowns are constantly needed.
The third article I link to is from WSWS, which takes a pro-Chinese line on this particular issue.
Shanghai residents revolt over Zero Covid Lockdown
Shanghai: Residents "running out of food" in Covid lockdown
Shanghai lockdown extended indefinitely as COVID-19 cases continue to climb
 |
| Credit: Wikipedia |
I doubt anyone gives a damn, but please note how the political logic of WSWS should make them support Russia, and yet they fall short of this, instead opposing both sides. Which simply confirms what I wrote earlier about this current. See my absolutely seminal blog post "Northites: From provocation to parody". Same thing with China, btw. And now, let´s resume our original program!
 |
I didn´t realize David North´s dwindling band of faithless fighters were *so* pro-Russian and pro-Chinese. The logic of their position seems to dictate "military support" to Russia and the PRC in the event of a shooting war with the US. Here, the Northites sound almost like the Spartacist League circa 1984, those peddlers of parody Soviet propaganda!
"The vicious US media campaign against Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva"
 |
| Victoria Woodhull |
The late Louis Proyect, an independent Marxist in the United States, still has a blog presence. In the links below, he defends the 1619 Project from criticism. The 1619 Project argues that the American revolution was a conservative reaction against abolitionism. I previously reviewed several books arguing a similar position. The project is (or was) supported by the New York Times.
Several historians critical of the 1619 Project sent an open letter to NYT protesting the paper´s endorsement. Proyect believes that the letter is actually part of a campaign organized by a far left group, the small but notorious Socialist Equality Party (SEP), often known as World Socialist Web Site (WSWS). Other opponents of the 1619 Project turn out to be Hillary Clinton supporters, Republicans and perhaps racists.
The links below go to Proyect´s exposés of the SEP, and to an article on the early history of Marxism in the United States, where Proyect seemingly supports the faction around Victoria Woodhull, who was expelled by the orthodox Marxists around Sorge.
I´m not entirely convinced by the arguments concerning the American revolution, tbh, and Proyect never reflects over the Black pop front with the New York Times, but the contributions are nevertheless interesting.
Marx, Lincoln and Project 1619
Behind the attack on New York Times Project 1619
Project 1619 and its detractors
The Trotskyist website WSWS reviews "Don´t look up", a dark comedy about climate change and our unwillingness to fight it. (In the film, climate change is symbolized by a comet rapidly approaching Earth, with nobody giving a damn.)
Apparently, the film is made by people connected to Jacobin magazine and the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns! Which makes WSWS go polemical here and there. They also make a tie-in to the COVID pandemic.
