Living Marxism: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Former British magazine (1988–2000)}}

'''''Living Marxism''''' was a British magazine originally launched in 1988 as the journal of the [[Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1978)|Revolutionary Communist Party]] (RCP). The magazine attracted attention for denying both the [[Rwandan genocide]] and [[Bosnian genocide]]. Rebranded as '''''LM''''' in 1992, it ceased publication in March 2000 following a successful libel lawsuit brought by [[ITN]] over Living Marxism's criticism of ITN's coverage of the Bosnian war.<ref name="BBC-15-March-2000">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/677481.stm "ITN wins Bosnian war libel case"]. ''BBC News''. 15 March 2000</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Wells|first=Matt|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/31/medialaw.media|title=LM closes after losing libel action|work=The Guardian|date=31 March 2000|access-date=9 July 2016}}</ref> It was promptly resurrected as ''[[Spiked (magazine)|Spiked]]'', an [[online magazine|Internet magazine]].

It was published by Junius Publications Ltd until 1997, and then by Informinc Ltd.<ref name="the Guardian 1999">{{cite web | title=Licence to rile | website=the Guardian | date=15 May 1999 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/may/15/weekend7.weekend2 | access-date=29 December 2022}}</ref> Its editor, [[Mick Hume]], an [[American Studies]] graduate from [[Manchester University]] then aged 29, said: "Our readers are young, angry, thinking people."<ref name="the Guardian 1999"/> At its peak in the 1990s, it had a circulation of between 10,000 and 15,000.<ref name="Hepworth 2022 pp. 591–621">{{cite journal | last=Hepworth | first=Jack | title=‘The'The moral rearmament of imperialism’imperialism': the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Northern Ireland conflict, and the new world order, 1981-19941981–1994 | journal=Contemporary British History | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=36 | issue=4 | date=28 April 2022 | issn=1361-9462 | doi=10.1080/13619462.2022.2070479 | pages=591–621| doi-access=free }}</ref>

The spirit of ''LM'' is to go against the grain: to oppose all censorship, bans and codes of conduct; to stand up for social and scientific experimentation; to insist that we have the right to live as autonomous adults who take responsibility for our own affairs. These are basic human values that cannot be compromised if we are ever going to create a world fit for people.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000607160440/http://www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM97/index.html Welcome to the new-look LM -– the big-mouthed, broad-minded magazine that will shout what others don't dare to whisper], LM issue 97, February 1997</ref>}}

Views expounded with regularity in ''LM'' included "[[Culture of fear|fear culture]]", for example by questioning the then media coverage of [[AIDS]] as a predominantly homosexual disease in the West. Its critique covered media coverage in Africa and the developing world in the context of Western intervention, underdevelopment and poverty. It debated environmentalist claims that limiting [[Consumption (economics)|consumption]] was a [[Progressivism|progressive]] view.{{cn|date=November 2020}}

''LM'' writers criticizedcriticised the media portrayal of the civil wars in [[Rwandan Civil War|Rwanda]] and [[Bosnian War|Bosnia]] and disputed that either Serb or Hutu forces committed genocide during those conflicts. In 1993, ''LM'' published an exhibition titled "Genocide against the Serbs" which juxtaposed images of Serbs killed in World War II-era crimes with Serbian soldiers killed in battle during the Yugoslav Wars.<ref name=Hoare>{{cite journal |last1=Hoare |first1=Marko Attila |title=Genocide in the former Yugoslavia: a critique of left revisionism's denial |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |date=2003 |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=543–563 |doi=10.1080/1462352032000149495|s2cid=145169670 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Katerji |first1=Oz |title=The West's leftist 'intellectuals' who traffic in genocide denial, from Srebrenica to Syria {{!}} Opinion |url=https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-west-s-leftist-male-intellectuals-who-traffic-in-genocide-denial-1.5626759 |access-date=16 November 2020 |work=Haaretz.com |date=2017 |language=en}}</ref> In 1995, ''LM'' published an article by [[Fiona Fox]] arguing that:<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM85/LM85_Rwanda.html/ |title= Massacring the truth in Rwanda |date= December 1995 |first= Fiona |last= Foster |work= Living Marxism |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20010521175331/http://www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM85/LM85_Rwanda.html/ |archive-date= 21 May 2001 }}</ref><ref>Chris McGreal, "[https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,3604,181819,00.html Genocide? What genocide?]", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 20 March 2000</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Melvern |first1=Linda |author-link1=Linda Melvern |title=Intent to Deceive: Denying the Rwandan Genocide |date=2020 |publisher=Verso Books |isbn=978-1-78873-328-1 |page=133 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/Intent_to_Deceive/59LMDwAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gbpv=159LMDwAAQBAJ&bsqq=Barrie%20Collins |language=en}}</ref>

{{quote| The lesson I would draw from my visit is that we must reject the term ‘genocide’'genocide' in Rwanda. It has been used inside and outside Rwanda to criminalise the majority of ordinary Rwandan people, to justify outside interference in the country’scountry's affairs, and to lend legitimacy to a minority military government imposed on Rwanda by Western powers.}}

Historian [[Marko Attila Hoare]] characterizedcriticised their position as [[genocide denial]] in relation to both the [[Rwandan genocide|Rwandan]] and [[Bosnian genocide]]s.<ref name=Hoare/>

It has been suggested by environmentalists such as [[George Monbiot]]<ref>Monbiot, George (9 December 2003). [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/dec/09/highereducation.uk2 "Invasion of the entryists"]. ''The Guardian'' (London).</ref> and [[Peter Melchett]] that the group of writers associated with ''LM'' continue to constitute an ''LM'' network pursuing an ideologically motivated [[Anti-environmentalism|anti-environmentalist]] agenda under the guise of promoting [[humanism]].<ref>Melchett, Peter (19 April 2007). [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_melchett/2007/04/farming_for_the_future.html "Clear intentions"]. ''The Guardian'' (London).</ref><ref>[http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=39 Profiles: Martin Durkin], [http://www.lobbywatch.org/lm_intro.html LobbyWatch]. Retrieved 17 April 2007.</ref> Writers who used to write for ''Living Marxism'' reject this as a "[[McCarthyism|McCarthyite]] [[conspiracy theory]]".<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3132/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070528170133/http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3132/ |url-status= dead |archive-date= 28 May 2007 |date=25 April 2007 |title= Humanising politics—that is my only agenda |first= Brendan |last= O'Neill |work= Spiked Online}}</ref>

Looking back Hume commented in ''[[The Times]]'': {{quote|Would I do it again? We could have got out of the case by apologising, which seems to be the fashionable thing to do. But I believe in the unfashionable freedom to state what you understand to be true, even if it causes offence. I would do almost anything to avoid ever again setting foot in Court 14. But some things really are more important than a mortgage.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article419696.ece |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110523235709/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article419696.ece |url-status= dead |archive-date= 23 May 2011 |title= The day I faced being a £1m bankrupt |date=7 March 2005 |first= Mick |last= Hume |newspaper = The Times |location =London |access-date=14 April 2007}}</ref>}}

In contrast, Professor Campbell of [[Durham University]] summarised his study of the case as follows: <blockquote>[A]s strange as existing British libel law is, it had an important and surprisingly beneficial effect in the case of ITN vs LM. The LM defendants and Thomas Deichmann were properly represented at the trial and were able to lay out all the details of their claim that the ITN reporters had "deliberately misrepresented" the situation at Trnopolje. Having charged 'deliberate misrepresentation', they needed to prove 'deliberate misrepresentation'. To this end, the LM defendants were able to cross-examine Penny Marshall and Ian Williams, as well as every member of the ITN crews who were at the camps, along with other witnesses. (That they didn't take up the opportunity to cross-examine the Bosnian doctor imprisoned at Trnopolje, who featured in the ITN stories and was called to testify on the conditions he and others suffered, was perhaps the moment any remaining shred of credibility for LM's allegations evaporated). They were able to show the ITN reports to the court, including the rushes from which the final TV stories were edited, and conduct a forensic examination of the visuals they alleged were deceitful. And all of this took place in front of a jury of twelve citizens who they needed to convince about the truthfulness of their allegations.

They failed. The jury found unanimously against LM and awarded the maximum possible damages. So it was not ITN that bankrupted LM. It was LM's lies about the ITN reports that bankrupted themselves, morally and financially. Despite their failure, those who lied about the ITN reports have had no trouble obtaining regular access to the mainstream media in Britain, where they continue to make their case as though the 2000 court verdict simply didn't exist. Their freedom of speech has thus not been permanently infringed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/11/14/chomskys-bosnian-shame/|title=Chomsky's Bosnian shame -– David Campbell|date=14 November 2009|access-date=16 November 2009|archive-date=19 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019101209/http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/11/14/chomskys-bosnian-shame/|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

* [[Fiona Fox (UK press officer)|Fiona Fox]]

[[Category:Deniers of the Bosnian genocide denial]]