On fascization

Rather than debating whether today’s far right is fascist, we need to think about fascization. Focusing on language and desire enables us to understand the process of becoming fascist, even within ourselves, and thus to resist it. Pierre Zaoui If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face… Read More On fascization

Palestine & the Commons: Or, Marx & the Musha’a

I believe that the musha’a (community-owned agricultural lands), like similar practices anywhere else in the world, can help us realize a world based on just conditions of mutuality, name it as is your wont: true communism, the cooperative commonwealth, the commons BY PETER LINEBAUGH In 1958 the assistant headmaster did the Bible reading at the morning assembly of the Karachi… Read More Palestine & the Commons: Or, Marx & the Musha’a

Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ gift to Darwin

Jack Guy, CNN Karl Marx once gifted a signed copy of “Das Kapital” to scientist Charles Darwin, but the book remained largely unread, providing an “amusing insight” into the dynamics between these two intellectuals, according to experts. In “Das Kapital,” economist and philosopher Marx explored how the capitalist system works and, he argued, its tendencies toward… Read More Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ gift to Darwin

Like a Top Hat

Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biography by Émile Perreau-Saussine Reviewed by Jonathan Rée Marx’s optimism proved to be ill-founded. The proletariat did not live up to expectations, leaving latter-day Marxists scrambling to find alternative superheroes. Hence, according to MacIntyre, the multitudes of ‘conflicting … political allegiances which now carry Marxist banners’, all expressing a well-founded hatred of capitalism but none offering… Read More Like a Top Hat

The ‘debate of the century’: what happened when Jordan Peterson debated Slavoj Žižek

I did see “the debate of the century”, the debate of our century. It was full of the stench of burning strawmen. A big deal, with huge numbers, and really very little underneath. First posted April 20, 2019 Stephen Marche The controversial thinkers debated happiness, capitalism and Marxism in Toronto. It was billed as a… Read More The ‘debate of the century’: what happened when Jordan Peterson debated Slavoj Žižek

Kojin Karatani’s theorising on modes of exchange and the ring of Capital-Nation-State

A short overview of Kojin Karatani’s Marxist influenced focus on modes of exchange as revealing the Borromean ring of Capital-Nation-State, and the import of this ring for religion. By Martin Shuster Kojin Karatani is one of the most interesting Marxist theorists of the last century. I put his work, as a form of “non-traditional” Marxism, in the… Read More Kojin Karatani’s theorising on modes of exchange and the ring of Capital-Nation-State

Against homogenisation: Advancing diversity through Democratic Confederalism

The homogenic national society is the most artificial society to have ever been created and is the result of the “social engineering project… Due to its bureaucratic nature, Statism needs the homogenisation of space and time to function. It requires that within its borders, cultures and ways of life are melted into one singular artificial… Read More Against homogenisation: Advancing diversity through Democratic Confederalism

China’s capitalist reforms are said to have moved 800 million out of extreme poverty – new data suggests the opposite

It has become an article of faith among many economists that China’s pro-market reforms of the 1980s and 1990s ushered in a sustained reduction in poverty. This narrative relies on figures from the World Bank, showing that over the past 40 years the number of people in China living in “extreme poverty” (less than US$1.90… Read More China’s capitalist reforms are said to have moved 800 million out of extreme poverty – new data suggests the opposite