LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Earlier today, economic journalist Doug Henwood broadcast an update on the recent election in Turkey as well as a conversation with Christian Parenti, who assures us, among other things, that the state is strong enough to discipline capital.  That’s interesting, especially for those who will argue that the social relations inherent in capitalist social relations, by which predation and extraction occur, is by its very nature incapable of being disciplined.  Listen (or download) here.

Messina

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BEHIND THE NEWS—[5 NOV 2015]  Hello.  I’m Doug Henwood.  And we’re moments away from Behind the News.  Today, the political economist Sungur Savran talks about the recent election in Turkey.  And Christian Parenti will tell us what the climate movement can learn from the theory and practice of the developmental state.  But, first, some news headlines.  [1]

Hello and welcome to Behind the News.  My name is Doug Henwood.  The usual ration of two guests today:  first, in seconds, the political economist Sungur Savran will talk about the recent election in Turkey, which saw the ruling AKP Party solidify its grip on power.  And, at the bottom of the hour, Christian Parenti will talk about the role of the state in capitalist development and what the environmental movement can appropriate from this history.

First, Sungur Savran.  Savran is an Istanbul-based academic political economist and editor of the website RedMed.org produced by a trio of Marxist political parties:  one Italian, one Greek, one Turkish.  [2]  [c. 32:01]

Next, Christian Parenti.  Christian is the author, most recently, of Tropic of Chaos, a book about climate change, state collapse, and violence.  He teaches in the Liberal Studies programme at NYU  and has an article in the Jacobin magazine website, JacobinMag.com called “Why the State Matters and What the Environmental Movement Can Learn From the History of State-Led Capitalist Development“.

Learn more at BEHIND THE NEWS.

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NEWSWEEK—[3 NOV 2015]  “Election Results Have Dire Consequences for Turkey” by Michael Rubin.

This article first appeared on the American Enterprise Institute site.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan crowed triumphant after the Sunday election victory of his Justice and Development Party (known by its Turkish acronym, AKP), but the rest of the world should mourn. The AKP victory confirms not democracy but rather dictatorship.

The election was a farce. In any election, AKP cheating gives it an extra 5 percent or so bonus. That figure, cited privately by Turkish politicians, diplomats and veteran Turkish journalists, takes into account stuffed ballots, lost ballot boxes from opposition-held areas, voter suppression and—in the November 1 election—enough registered dead people to make a corrupt Chicago politician blush.

Learn more at NEWSWEEK.

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[*]  Behind the News airs Thursdays on 94.1 FM, KPFA, Berkeley, CA and other Pacifica Radio stations and independent stations throughout the USA.

[1]  News Headlines (read by Gabriela Castelan)

[2]  Read the website RedMed.org:

RedMed is a web site that is run by three political parties that are all sections of a revolutionary Marxist international organisation, the Coordination for the Refoundation of the Fourth International (CRFI). The three parties are: the Partito Comunista dei Lavoratori (PCL) of Italy, the Ergatiko Epanastatiko Komma (EEK-Workers Revolutionary Party) of Greece, and the Devrimci İşçi Partisi (DIP-Revolutionary Workers’ Party) of Turkey.

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[Last modified 5 NOV 2015  14:22 PDT]