Sunday, 7/26, 6:30 pm, Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland

On the 20th Anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre:

How the fascist genocide still haunts today’s crisis ridden world, including the Left which still hasn’t faced the tragedy of Bosnia.

Italian premiere Renzi recently commented that the plight of drowning immigrants fleeing war and terror in Africa was “Europe’s Srebrenica today”. Renzi’s moment of conscience in no way signals a fundamental change in Europe, where a fascistic undertow of narrow nationalism sets the priority: making sure desperate people have no escape, no way to embarrass Europe in the first place. Twenty years ago some like News & Letters Marxist-Humanists and journalist Bill Weinberg challenged the Left to defend the Bosniak struggle for a multi-ethnic society. Srebrenica’s haunting presence also demands a confrontation with how a Serbian Marxist humanist Mihailo Markovic transformed into his opposite, a genocidal fascist. We will discuss a report by Gerry Emmett to News and Letters Committees’ 2015 Plenum and Ron Kelch’s presentation at the U.S. Social Forum in San Jose. Can a new engagement with Marx’s original humanism help address persistence of counter-revolution within revolutionary politics?