Catalyst from Jacobin (2017-)

Submitted by jondwhite on May 5, 2017

Jacobin has been discussed before, but an opportunity to discuss it again as they have just launched Catalyst magazine.
https://jacobinmag.com/2017/05/announcing-catalyst
What do libcommers make of the politics?

Spikymike

5 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on November 8, 2018

Seems that Robert Brenner's role on the editorial board has been downgraded/lost (is this the same Brenner author of 'The Origins of Capitalist Development....' in the libcom library?) It is suggested that the politics of Catalyst were starting to diverge from the jacobin line under Brenner. See here:
https://newmilitant.com/coupatcatalyst/

Mike Harman

5 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mike Harman on November 9, 2018

Meanwhile Bhaskar Sunkara just did an editorial talking about getting Democrats elected to congress on the way towards an 'independent party' a few years down the line.

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/democratic-socialist-caucus-congress-elections-ocasio-cortez-bernie

Hieronymous

5 years 4 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Hieronymous on November 10, 2018

Brenner is a Trotskyite in the group Solidarity and recently retired from his position as professor of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. He gained fame in the 1970s for the “Brenner Debate,” which theorized the agrarian origins of capitalism in 15th and 16th century England.

As a Trot, it seems inevitable that his politics would come in conflict with Bhaskar Sunkara’s orthodox Social Democratic electoral reformism and cheerleading for DSA, which has never broken free of the left wing of the Democratic Party.

The article posted by Spikymike above says:

New Militant

Brenner’s economic analysis played a substantial role in some of the first post-2008 outbursts of radicalization in the United States, particularly the 2009/10 California Student movement and more radical expressions of the Occupy Wall Street movement such as the “Oakland Commune”.

Which is complete bullshit. The connection between Brenner and those events is that one of his star graduate students became a member of End Notes, but his own Trotskyite influence was negligible at best and detrimental at worst.