Interviews

As the Lebanese revolutionary uprising enters its third month, the ancien regime has already unleashed counterrevolutionary practices in all its forms. Fear-mongering of pre-October 17 sectarian tensions alongside blaming the impending economic collapse on the continuous protests and reviving the specter of the civil war is rife on Lebanese TV channels as members of the Lebanese ruling class battle to hold on to a sinking structure. Although the momentum is not as prominent as it used to be during the first weeks of the revolution, slogans, chants, and demands are witnessing a sharp politicization that opens endless possibilities for class conscious struggles as the anger of the masses are directed at the main perpetrator of the economic crisis, local banks. Accordingly, state repression has also increased in the last couple of days as 61 protesters directing their anger on local banks in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut on the 90th day of the revolution were arrested and detained overnight. Mattia Gallo, from Global Project, interviews Elia El Khazen on the recent developments and the “Nationalize the banks” campaign that he is a member of.  Elia El Khazen is a member of the Lebanese based Marxist organization the Socialist Forum and the campaign to nationalize the private banks in Lebanon تأميم المصارف. He is on the editorial board of المنشور and the Historical Materialism journal. His work has appeared on Salvage, Jacobin, and other journals.

–translated by Joel Ruggi

Michael Heinrich is the author of a major, multi-volume biography on Karl Marx. The first volume appeared 2018 – to coincide with the 200^th anniversary of Marx’s birth – and is being translated into English. Heinrich’s research on Marx has coincided with the project of collecting the known manuscripts of Marx and Engels into theMarx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe. His PhD dissertation, published asThe Science of Value [Die Wissenschaft vom Wert – 1991], engaged with Marx’s critique of political economy, as well as the broader traditions of classical and neo-classical theories of political economy. Heinrich has also written commentaries and introductions on Capital and political economy as well as engaging in recent Anglophone debates over Marx’s theories inCapital.   

Edited for publication by Daniel Lopez

Originally published at https://www.laizquierdadiario.com/Para-Althusser-la-filosofia-debe-sacudir-las-cosas 

Originally published in French in Période

Hans Hautmann (1943–2018) on the Austrian council movement and why it was so much stronger than its counterpart on the other side of the German-Austrian border.

Apart from being a very productive scholar, you have also been engaged in political debates and activism, for example as part of the academic advisory council of Attac. Which experiences and events politicized you, and which role has political activism played throughout your life and career?

A version of this interview appeared in French at http://revueperiode.net/la-valeur-de-lart-entretien-avec-dave-beech/ 

 A version of this interview appeared in French at http://revueperiode.net/le-role-de-la-prison-dans-la-lutte-des-classes-entretien-avec-ruth-w-gilmore/

A French version of this interview was originally published in Période:http://revueperiode.net/red-black-a-haiti-entretien-avec-matthew-j-smith/

A version of this article was originally published at https://kritisch-lesen.de/interview/solidaritat-ist-das-ergebnis-politischer-arbeit