Tag: socialism

The People First: Rohini Hensman on Democracy, Resistance, and the Global Left

NB: An important interview about an important book. DS Documents unearthed by Robert Parry and reported in an article entitled When Israel/Neocons Favoured Iran show that Israel’s Likud government of Menachem Begin became an important source of covert arms supplies to Iran after Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, with the profits being invested in Jewish… Read More The People First: Rohini Hensman on Democracy, Resistance, and the Global Left

Dilip

Alasdair MacIntyre Leaves a Legacy to Wrestle With / Alasdair MacIntyre obituary

The major intellectual and moral preoccupations of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, who died this week at the age of 96, speak to key issues of modernity and morality that leftists will be grappling with for a long time. Nick French: Alasdair MacIntyre Leaves a Legacy to Wrestle With lasdair MacIntyre, the preeminent moral philosopher known for… Read More Alasdair MacIntyre Leaves a Legacy to Wrestle With / Alasdair MacIntyre obituary

Dilip

No Alternative?

Both Perestroika and Thatcherism, then, meant scaling back economic and social security to drive efficiency gains and shift labor and capital from declining to rising industries. If this similarity between East and West is unsettling to readers today, it is nonetheless one that, as Bartel’s archival work demonstrates, was recognized behind closed doors at the… Read More No Alternative?

Dilip

On the Poverty of Student Life Considered in its Economic, Political, Psychological, Sexual, and Especially Intellectual Aspects, with a Modest Proposal for Doing Away With It (Strasbourg, 1966)

Situationist International and the Students of Strasbourg  November 1966 On the Poverty of Student Life: The Little Pamphlet that Started a Revolution The Situationist International (SI) was founded in 1957 by a half-dozen European avant-garde artists. Recent historical events, chiefly workers uprisings in East Germany, Poland and Hungary, convinced them that a social revolution was… Read More On the Poverty of Student Life Considered in its Economic, Political, Psychological, Sexual, and Especially Intellectual Aspects, with a Modest Proposal for Doing Away With It (Strasbourg, 1966)

Dilip

Retotalising Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction to its History

Jairus Banaji I’ve divided this presentation into four distinct parts.[1] A shorthand description of these might be Imagine these themes as chapters to a book called Introduction to a History of Capitalism. So, what this talk sets out to do is simply construct a framework where we can think about capitalism historically. To start with the conventional narratives,… Read More Retotalising Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction to its History

Dilip

The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi is a classic critique of capitalism – but it wasn’t an overnight success

Gareth Dale Hungarian social theorist Karl Polanyi is best known for his exploration of the collapse of liberal institutions that occurred between 1914 and 1945. His book, The Great Transformation, traces the catastrophes of those decades to the globalisation of market liberalism. In his view, the attempt by liberal social engineers to establish a “self-regulated” market… Read More The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi is a classic critique of capitalism – but it wasn’t an overnight success

Dilip

Paul Mattick Sr. (1904–1981)

By Jairus Banaji Paul Mattick Sr. (1904–1981), left Germany for the US when he was 22. Mattick saw the revolutions in Russia and China as ‘not proletarian revolutions in the Marxist sense, leading to the “association of free and equal producers”, but state-capitalist revolutions, which were objectively unable to issue into socialism’. ‘Marxism served here… Read More Paul Mattick Sr. (1904–1981)

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1918-1921: The Italian factory occupations and Biennio Rosso (Two Red Years)

A brief history of the Italian Biennio Rosso (two red years) and the mass factory occupations of 1920 where half a million workers ran their workplaces for themselves. The reformist unions then negotiated an end to the conflicts, clearing the path for the fascist reaction – the Biennio Nero (two black years) of 1921-22. After… Read More 1918-1921: The Italian factory occupations and Biennio Rosso (Two Red Years)

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Welcome to the Age of Technofeudalism: Yanis Varoufakis interviewed by WIRED magazine

NB: The notions of technofeudalism, ‘cloud capital’, ‘cloud proletarians’ and ‘cloud rent’ are insightful. Varoufakis has an active intellect and thoughtful people from all walks of life will gain from taking his ideas seriously. DS The tech giants have overthrown capitalism. That’s the argument of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who became famous trying… Read More Welcome to the Age of Technofeudalism: Yanis Varoufakis interviewed by WIRED magazine

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Forget Corbynism 2.0. Something bigger is happening on the British left

A new generation across the UK is demanding political representation. But this unstoppable force is meeting an immovable object, the Labour Party… The real politics happens outside parliament. We’ve already witnessed huge protests take shape against the massacre in Gaza, and the coming years could see mass movements and industrial unrest over cuts and living… Read More Forget Corbynism 2.0. Something bigger is happening on the British left

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