Marta Harnecker
Biographic Data
| ID | 444040 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marta Harnecker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marta |
| FAMILY NAME | Harnecker |
| SIGNATURE | HARNECKER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Ecología |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A New Revolutionary Subject
Monthly Review and Monthly Review Press author, world socialist activist, and theorist of revolution, Marta Harnecker, died on June 15, 2019, at age 82. In her memory, we republish an exchange between her and Greek journalist Tassos Tsakiroglou, conducted in advance of the 2017 conference on 150 Years of Marx's Capital: Reflections for the Twenty-First Century
A New Revolutionary Subject: Marta Harnecker interviewed by Tassos Tsakiroglou
Although today there are some setbacks in the region, nobody can deny that there is a huge difference between the Latin America that Hugo Chávez inherited and the Latin America he left us. A new revolutionary subject has been created.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website
Social Movements and Progressive Governments: Building a New Relationship in Latin America
The major element missing from Latin American politics in recent decades has been, with rare exceptions, the traditional workers' movement, beaten down by flexibilization, subcontracting, and other neoliberal measures.... The fall of the Berlin Wall and the defeat of Soviet socialism left the parties and social organizations of the left inspired by that model seriously weakened. At the same time, trade unions were hit hard by the weakening of the…
A World To Build: New Paths toward Twenty-First Century Socialism
Harnecker offers a useful overview of the changing political map in Latin America, examining the trajectories of several progressive Latin American governments as they work to develop alternative models to capitalism.--Provided by publisher
Question 3: Incentives and Consciousness
If socialist society is not constructed out of pre-existing socialist individuals, then how does it handle the historical limitations inherited from pre-socialist conditions? What is the best way to advance beyond the limitations of short-term and irresponsible anti-social self-interest? What is the nature of the individual-social relationship
Question 4: Stages and Productive Forces
Does socialism progress through stages? Is there a higher, or communist, stage? How can stages, as a manifestation of the objectivity of social evolution, be reconciled with the marshaling of will and consciousness necessary for building socialist society? What role does (or should) development of the productive forces play in a) socialist social evolution; b) socialist theory? How does socialism envision the evolution of democracy? the state
Question 5: Social and Long-Term Planning
What does socialism contribute to social planning, in the sense of shaping the social and physical environment over the long term (as distinct from the ever-present matter of short-term coordination of activities)? Can it incorporate genuine entre-preneurialism and/or inventiveness? What are the prospects for growth, and how will socialist growth differ from capitalist growth? How can/must socialism build into its core processes the transcendence…
Question 1: Why Socialism
What is the ultimate grounding and historical justification for projecting a socialist society? Broadly conceptualized, what do socialists want? What are the defining qualities of socialism, and how do those qualities constitute a decisive advance over capitalism and class-antagonistic societies in general
Question 2: Feasibility and Coordination
What are the distinctive features of a socialist organization of production, distribution, consumption? How are complex choices made, and highly variegated individual needs and interests reconciled? What should be the balance among: market, central plan, iterative coordination, negotiated coordination
Democracia y socialismo: El futuro enraizado en el presente
La democracia liberal representativa es presentada como la única y verdadera democracia. Además de que, en su nombre, se invaden territorios y sacrifican pueblos enteros, la voluntad popular no se expresa libremente en las urnas y, en última instancia, el pueblo no es quien gobierna. No es suficiente otorgar un sentido social a la democracia liberal —al atender, por ejemplo, problemas como alimentación, salud y educación—, sino que el desafío es …
I. Latin America
Latin America was the first region in the world where neoliberal policies were introduced. Chile, my country, was used as a testing ground before Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government implemented them in the United Kingdom. But Latin America was also the first region in the world where these policies came to be rejected as policies that only served to increase poverty, aggravate social inequalities, destroy the environment, and weaken wor…
Latin America & Twenty-First Century Socialism: Inventing to Avoid Mistakes
Twenty years ago, left forces in Latin America and in the world in general were going through a difficult period. The Berlin Wall had fallen; the Soviet Union hurtled into an abyss and disappeared completely by the end of 1991. Deprived of the rearguard it needed, the Sandinista Revolution was defeated at the polls in February 1990, and Central American guerrilla movements were forced to demobilize. The only country that kept the banners of revol…
Conclusion
My reflections on the kind of political instrument needed to build twenty-first century socialism are intended to contribute to a larger body of thought about the horizon toward which a growing number of Latin American governments are moving. I conclude by emphasizing the need for a new left culture, a tolerant and pluralist culture that stresses that which unites us rather than that which divides us. A culture that promotes unity around values—s…
II. Twenty-First Century Socialism
"Why talk of socialism?" we may ask. After all, "socialism" has had such negative connotations since its collapse in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. For many years after Soviet socialism disappeared, intellectuals and progressive forces talked more of what socialism must not be than of the model that we actually wanted to build. Some of the facets of Soviet socialism that were rejected—and rightly so—were: statism, state ca…
Rebuilding the Left
What future is there for the left, faced with the challenges of the twenty-first century? Based on a lifetime’s experience in politics, Marta Harnecker addresses the crisis facing the left today. At its heart, this book is a critique of social democratic realpolitik. Harnecker reminds us that, contrary to today’s orthodoxy, politics is not the art of the possible but the art of making the impossible possible by building a social and political for…
On Leftist Strategy
Hugo Cha_vez on the Failed Coup
This article is excerpted from Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution: Hugo Chávez Talks to Marta Harneckerto be published by Monthly Review Press in September. The book covers a wide range of topics, including Chávez's political formation, the transformation currently taking place in Venezuela, and its place in the global context. In what follows, Chávez recounts the events of the failed coup d'etat of April 11, 2002.—EdsThis article can also b…
Report from Venezuela: Aluminum Workers Choose Their Managers and Increase Production
Alcasa, a state-owned aluminum processing plant in the southeastern state of Bolívar, has long been an important employer in a region where the lion's share of Venezuela's mining and processing plants are located. Yet since the mid-1990s it has been plagued by inefficiency and corruption. According to Trino Silva, secretary general of the union, Alcasa's production has been in "the red" for the past sixteen years. Though the aluminum they produce…
After the Referendum: Venezuela Faces New Challenges
With President Hugo Chávez's victory in the August 15 referendum, the Venezuelan opposition suffered the third great defeat in its struggle to end his government. The unprecedented recall referendum ratified Chávez's presidency by a margin of two million votes and was declared valid unanimously by the hundreds of international observers who scrutinized it.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are…
Understanding the Past to Make the Future: Reflections on Allende's Government
The Venezuelan Military: The Making of an Anomaly
Led by Hugo Chavez, a former military officer, a "Bolivarian revolutionary process" has been underway in Venezuela since Chavez's election to the presidency in 1998. While genuine progressive changes have been made, and although Chavez has won the enmity of the country's rich and powerful, this "Bolivarian revolution" has been rejected by some on the left because it is headed by a military man and because the military has played a significant and…
Forging a Union of the Party Left and the Social Left
The globalization model imposed on our continent has proven unable to solve the most pressing problems in our countries and, consequently, has encountered intense opposition. Its rejection is being expressed through many different resistance practices and struggles. Left fronts or political processes of the Left in opposition to neoliberalism are consolidating in several Latin American countries. In others, powerful social movements have become m…
A questionnaire investigation on factors of importance for the development of anthelmintic resistance of nematodes in sow herds in Denmark
A questionnaire survey on the use of anthelmintics and presence of other potential risk factors for the development of anthelmintic resistance of nematodes in 136 Danish sow herds was carried out between November 1992-February 1993. Twenty one veterinarians who specialize in diseases of pigs administered the questionnaire in personal interviews during their regular visits to the respective pig farmers. In the study population, 91% of the farmers …
Marxismo y humanismo
La autora presenta una revisión crítica de la aportación de Althusser al marxismo, treinta años después de la famosa revisión estructuralista del filósofo francés.
The Question of the Vanguard and the Present Crisis in Latin America
Latin America & Twenty-First Century Socialism: Inventing to Avoid Mistakes
Twenty years ago, left forces in Latin America and in the world in general were going through a difficult period. The Berlin Wall had fallen; the Soviet Union hurtled into an abyss and disappeared completely by the end of 1991. Deprived of the rearguard it needed, the Sandinista Revolution was defeated at the polls in February 1990, and Central American guerrilla movements were forced to demobilize. The only country that kept the banners of revol…
After the Referendum: Venezuela Faces New Challenges
With President Hugo Chávez's victory in the August 15 referendum, the Venezuelan opposition suffered the third great defeat in its struggle to end his government. The unprecedented recall referendum ratified Chávez's presidency by a margin of two million votes and was declared valid unanimously by the hundreds of international observers who scrutinized it.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are…
Question 5: Social and Long-Term Planning
What does socialism contribute to social planning, in the sense of shaping the social and physical environment over the long term (as distinct from the ever-present matter of short-term coordination of activities)? Can it incorporate genuine entre-preneurialism and/or inventiveness? What are the prospects for growth, and how will socialist growth differ from capitalist growth? How can/must socialism build into its core processes the transcendence…
The Question of the Vanguard and the Present Crisis in Latin America
Question 3: Incentives and Consciousness
If socialist society is not constructed out of pre-existing socialist individuals, then how does it handle the historical limitations inherited from pre-socialist conditions? What is the best way to advance beyond the limitations of short-term and irresponsible anti-social self-interest? What is the nature of the individual-social relationship
Question 4: Stages and Productive Forces
Does socialism progress through stages? Is there a higher, or communist, stage? How can stages, as a manifestation of the objectivity of social evolution, be reconciled with the marshaling of will and consciousness necessary for building socialist society? What role does (or should) development of the productive forces play in a) socialist social evolution; b) socialist theory? How does socialism envision the evolution of democracy? the state
Question 2: Feasibility and Coordination
What are the distinctive features of a socialist organization of production, distribution, consumption? How are complex choices made, and highly variegated individual needs and interests reconciled? What should be the balance among: market, central plan, iterative coordination, negotiated coordination
II. Twenty-First Century Socialism
"Why talk of socialism?" we may ask. After all, "socialism" has had such negative connotations since its collapse in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. For many years after Soviet socialism disappeared, intellectuals and progressive forces talked more of what socialism must not be than of the model that we actually wanted to build. Some of the facets of Soviet socialism that were rejected—and rightly so—were: statism, state ca…
On Leftist Strategy
Los conceptos elementales del materialismo histórico
Cuba: Dictatorship or Democracy
Propuesta de FMLN: Un desafío a la estrategia contrainsurgente
La entrevista gira alrededor de la propuesta del FMLN, en especial sobre el cambio dado por el FMLN en cuanto a las elecciones. La entrevista indaga las causas que han llevado al FMLN a pasar a la ofensiva en este terreno, las condiciones para enfrentar el reto electoral, las principales objeciones contra la propuesta hechas desde la derecha y la izquierda y los riesgos que tiene para el FMLN. También se discute el papel de las masas y su relació…
The Question of the Vanguard and the Present Crisis in Latin America
A questionnaire investigation on factors of importance for the development of anthelmintic resistance of nematodes in sow herds in Denmark
A questionnaire survey on the use of anthelmintics and presence of other potential risk factors for the development of anthelmintic resistance of nematodes in 136 Danish sow herds was carried out between November 1992-February 1993. Twenty one veterinarians who specialize in diseases of pigs administered the questionnaire in personal interviews during their regular visits to the respective pig farmers. In the study population, 91% of the farmers …
Marxismo y humanismo
La autora presenta una revisión crítica de la aportación de Althusser al marxismo, treinta años después de la famosa revisión estructuralista del filósofo francés.
Forging a Union of the Party Left and the Social Left
The globalization model imposed on our continent has proven unable to solve the most pressing problems in our countries and, consequently, has encountered intense opposition. Its rejection is being expressed through many different resistance practices and struggles. Left fronts or political processes of the Left in opposition to neoliberalism are consolidating in several Latin American countries. In others, powerful social movements have become m…
Understanding the Past to Make the Future: Reflections on Allende's Government
The Venezuelan Military: The Making of an Anomaly
Led by Hugo Chavez, a former military officer, a "Bolivarian revolutionary process" has been underway in Venezuela since Chavez's election to the presidency in 1998. While genuine progressive changes have been made, and although Chavez has won the enmity of the country's rich and powerful, this "Bolivarian revolution" has been rejected by some on the left because it is headed by a military man and because the military has played a significant and…
After the Referendum: Venezuela Faces New Challenges
With President Hugo Chávez's victory in the August 15 referendum, the Venezuelan opposition suffered the third great defeat in its struggle to end his government. The unprecedented recall referendum ratified Chávez's presidency by a margin of two million votes and was declared valid unanimously by the hundreds of international observers who scrutinized it.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are…
On Leftist Strategy
Hugo Cha_vez on the Failed Coup
This article is excerpted from Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution: Hugo Chávez Talks to Marta Harneckerto be published by Monthly Review Press in September. The book covers a wide range of topics, including Chávez's political formation, the transformation currently taking place in Venezuela, and its place in the global context. In what follows, Chávez recounts the events of the failed coup d'etat of April 11, 2002.—EdsThis article can also b…
Report from Venezuela: Aluminum Workers Choose Their Managers and Increase Production
Alcasa, a state-owned aluminum processing plant in the southeastern state of Bolívar, has long been an important employer in a region where the lion's share of Venezuela's mining and processing plants are located. Yet since the mid-1990s it has been plagued by inefficiency and corruption. According to Trino Silva, secretary general of the union, Alcasa's production has been in "the red" for the past sixteen years. Though the aluminum they produce…
Rebuilding the Left
What future is there for the left, faced with the challenges of the twenty-first century? Based on a lifetime’s experience in politics, Marta Harnecker addresses the crisis facing the left today. At its heart, this book is a critique of social democratic realpolitik. Harnecker reminds us that, contrary to today’s orthodoxy, politics is not the art of the possible but the art of making the impossible possible by building a social and political for…
I. Latin America
Latin America was the first region in the world where neoliberal policies were introduced. Chile, my country, was used as a testing ground before Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government implemented them in the United Kingdom. But Latin America was also the first region in the world where these policies came to be rejected as policies that only served to increase poverty, aggravate social inequalities, destroy the environment, and weaken wor…
Latin America & Twenty-First Century Socialism: Inventing to Avoid Mistakes
Twenty years ago, left forces in Latin America and in the world in general were going through a difficult period. The Berlin Wall had fallen; the Soviet Union hurtled into an abyss and disappeared completely by the end of 1991. Deprived of the rearguard it needed, the Sandinista Revolution was defeated at the polls in February 1990, and Central American guerrilla movements were forced to demobilize. The only country that kept the banners of revol…
Conclusion
My reflections on the kind of political instrument needed to build twenty-first century socialism are intended to contribute to a larger body of thought about the horizon toward which a growing number of Latin American governments are moving. I conclude by emphasizing the need for a new left culture, a tolerant and pluralist culture that stresses that which unites us rather than that which divides us. A culture that promotes unity around values—s…
II. Twenty-First Century Socialism
"Why talk of socialism?" we may ask. After all, "socialism" has had such negative connotations since its collapse in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries. For many years after Soviet socialism disappeared, intellectuals and progressive forces talked more of what socialism must not be than of the model that we actually wanted to build. Some of the facets of Soviet socialism that were rejected—and rightly so—were: statism, state ca…
Democracia y socialismo: El futuro enraizado en el presente
La democracia liberal representativa es presentada como la única y verdadera democracia. Además de que, en su nombre, se invaden territorios y sacrifican pueblos enteros, la voluntad popular no se expresa libremente en las urnas y, en última instancia, el pueblo no es quien gobierna. No es suficiente otorgar un sentido social a la democracia liberal —al atender, por ejemplo, problemas como alimentación, salud y educación—, sino que el desafío es …
Question 3: Incentives and Consciousness
If socialist society is not constructed out of pre-existing socialist individuals, then how does it handle the historical limitations inherited from pre-socialist conditions? What is the best way to advance beyond the limitations of short-term and irresponsible anti-social self-interest? What is the nature of the individual-social relationship
Question 4: Stages and Productive Forces
Does socialism progress through stages? Is there a higher, or communist, stage? How can stages, as a manifestation of the objectivity of social evolution, be reconciled with the marshaling of will and consciousness necessary for building socialist society? What role does (or should) development of the productive forces play in a) socialist social evolution; b) socialist theory? How does socialism envision the evolution of democracy? the state
Question 5: Social and Long-Term Planning
What does socialism contribute to social planning, in the sense of shaping the social and physical environment over the long term (as distinct from the ever-present matter of short-term coordination of activities)? Can it incorporate genuine entre-preneurialism and/or inventiveness? What are the prospects for growth, and how will socialist growth differ from capitalist growth? How can/must socialism build into its core processes the transcendence…
Question 1: Why Socialism
What is the ultimate grounding and historical justification for projecting a socialist society? Broadly conceptualized, what do socialists want? What are the defining qualities of socialism, and how do those qualities constitute a decisive advance over capitalism and class-antagonistic societies in general
Question 2: Feasibility and Coordination
What are the distinctive features of a socialist organization of production, distribution, consumption? How are complex choices made, and highly variegated individual needs and interests reconciled? What should be the balance among: market, central plan, iterative coordination, negotiated coordination
A World To Build: New Paths toward Twenty-First Century Socialism
Harnecker offers a useful overview of the changing political map in Latin America, examining the trajectories of several progressive Latin American governments as they work to develop alternative models to capitalism.--Provided by publisher
Political science (24 works) · Law (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Politics (16 works) · Political economy (14 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Economic history (12 works) · Economics (12 works) · History (12 works) · Latin Americans (10 works)