Compiled by Dick Bennett. https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2025/06/omni-war-watch-wednesdays-233-june-11.html
“Why Socialism?
Adbusters
The New Republic (May 2025).
Robert Sepansic. “Returning to the Dark Ages.”
Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?”: The Enduring Legacy of His Classic Essay, edited and with an Introduction by by John Bellamy Foster. Monthly Review P, 2025.
First published more than seventy-five years ago in the inaugural issue of Monthly Review: An Independent Socialism Magazine, Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?” is an unheralded classic. Written during the McCarthyite witch-hunt in the United States, it constituted an act of defiance, making a case for socialism unrivaled in its time or ours. Yet, its very existence has been an embarrassment to an establishment which has continually sought to downplay the significance of his iconoclastic essay, together with Einstein’s socialism itself.
This slim, elegant volume includes Einstein’s essay along with a detailed commentary on his essay by Monthly Review editor, John Bellamy Foster. Foster’s introduction tells the story of Einstein’s life-long commitment to socialism and the events leading to the publication of “Why Socialism?” and contextualizes the importance of his essay as we enter a time of planetary crisis and new threats of world war.
ADBUSTERS
Adbusters, satirists of capitalism and empire based in Vancouver, I first encountered in the 19860s, then lost touch with them, and now was loaned a copy of recent work in one publication, a collection of shock photos and quotations entitled ADBUSTERS: A NEW LEFT. The first page presents a photo of Josephy Goebbels dressed in leather coat, with clenched fist, declaring: “Make the lie big. Make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” The next 2 pages give a doctored photo of a red-faced Trump spewing black compost? from his mouth and 3 statements juxtaposed in yellow: climate change is a hoax; I won the 2020 election; Ukraine started the war. Some 24 pages apply Martin Niemöller’s “First they came for” warning to the present. Next the New Left’s Manifesto for World Revolution. And much more. The book ends with a person in silhouette standing on the famous Bull outside the Stock Exchange in NYC, declaring in large black letters on yellow background: Occupy Trump! It’s a kick.
The New Republic (May 2025).
The 13 articles and reviews in this no. range widely. Timothy Noah offers an excellent summary of “How to Fight: A Citizen’s Guide to Resistance” (to Trump). Tori Otten berates the Democratic Party’s failure to confront Trump successfully. Alon Pinkas takes us “Back to the Future in the Middle East” to “the rise and fall of the two-state solution in Palestine.” George Black guides us back into the “Heart of Darkness in El Salvador,” reopening the Cold War murder of nuns in that country. Daphne Merkin reviews a new book on Anne Frank. A collection for readers seeking to understand adult issues present and past.
“Really Bad Idea #8: Returning to the Dark Ages. The Rise of End Times Fascism” by Robert Sepansic. Portside Snapshot (4-25-25). https://portside.org/2025-04-24/tidbits-apr24-reader-comments-pope-francismessage-peace-and-gaza-rise-end-times-fascism?utm_medium=email&utm_source=portside-snapshot#6
END OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #233, JUNE 11, 2025.