The work of a radical artist and intellectual should be carried out in the manner of a gentle breeze and mild rain. It cannot be done with haste. It should be done over a long period and done patiently.
Archive | 2019
Defending Venezuela: Two Approaches
The law of diminishing returns does not have to operate in the field of international solidarity.
The struggle for a just society is long, requiring action on many fronts
‘The struggle for a socially just and ecologically sound society requires activity on many fronts. This includes the crucial work of organizing and activist engagement, as well as education about the economic, political, and ecological complexities that exist and why so many of the problems facing humanity are either caused or made worse by capitalism.’
Failure of Trump tax cuts
President Trump’s corporate and income tax cuts enriched corporations, satisfied those already employed and flush with money, and did little to stimulate the national economy.
Vanishing green shoots and the possibility of another crisis
Governments and central banks that were upbeat about global economic recovery are turning pessimistic. A coordinated fiscal stimulus across nations is the need of hour.
A chronicle to define what collectives are in Venezuela
The first time I saw a collective in action and what it’s capable of, I was just a little kid. I’d been, about nine, maybe ten. That takes us back to 1969, in the hills of Los Frailes in Catia, in the upper part of the Macayapa neighbourhood, at the foot of the Waraira Repano.
The mountain of corporate debt will be the seed of the next financial crisis
What have they done with the money? Have they invested in research and development, in production, in the ecological transition, in creating descent jobs, warding off climate change? Not at all!
Defiant resistance: the Venezuelan crises and the possibility of another world
Bob Dylan once said, “Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.” February 23rd, 2019, was the day that Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed President of Venezuela, had “authorized” “humanitarian aid” to enter Venezuela, an attempt to force the Maduro government, and thus the Venezuelan people, to their knees.
Where next for the student climate strikes?
Today marks the latest international day of action for the student climate strike movement. The task ahead is to channel the energy and radicalism of the strikes into the labour movement and fight for a social alternative.
Cyclone Idai, sanctions and capitalism
Western capitalists are to blame largely for climatic changes that causes natural and environmental disasters. Poverty, which is a result of the diabolic and pernicious economic sanctions, has forced the poor to build poor and weak structures that do not withstand the heavy winds and storms.
Is there any way out of the U.S. student debt crisis?
By working three jobs while in college and with some financial assistance from her mother, Karen Hawkins managed to pay off her undergraduate loans of US$12,000 eight years after completing her bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Julian Assange outside the Gate of Hell
I’ve been to see Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy several times, mainly when Rafael Correa was President and the Embassy felt like a liberated space. A few weeks ago I met him again. By now Correa’s successor, Lenín Moreno, had capitulated on every level to the American Empire.
Venezuela confronts fabricated chaos
Against all imperialist logic, the Venezuelan people refuse to be subjugated.
Dossier 15: The art of the revolution will be internationalist
We need all of the cultural workers today—from graphic designers to cartoonists, programmers to poets, psychologists to meme-makers—to seize what we know in order to dream and to construct a world that is not only possible, but necessary.
The U.S. Government has been monitoring Venezuela’s electricity system for over a decade
The North American intelligence agencies and their government’s attention and monitoring of the electricity situation in Venezuela is long-standing. This was confirmed by more than 1,000 documents released by Wikileaks which mention the status of the National Electric System in Venezuela and the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant located in Guri.
Rock’s role in fighting fascism
The National Front (NF) was on the rise in the UK in the mid-1970s. It was the envy of other far right organisations, in particular its ideological cousin, France’s Front National (FN). A decade later the NF was broken and the FN’s star was rising. Why was the NF defeated while the FN went from […]
Silicon Valley and “communication weapons of war”
What a Western Electric advert from 1944 can teach us about Google and Facebook.
Unequal scenes
Inequalities in our social fabric are oftentimes hidden, and hard to see from ground level. Visual barriers, including the structures themselves, prevent us from seeing the incredible contrasts that exist side by side in our cities.
The uneasy U.S.-China relationship: what lies ahead?
The U.S. and China are the two dominant poles in the global economy, as illustrated in the figure below which traces the global trade in parts and components.
U.S. is manufacturing a crisis in Venezuela so that there is chaos and ‘needed’ intervention
America has for years been waging an economic war against Venezuela, including debilitating sanctions which have dramatically affected the state’s ability to purchase medicines, and even mundane replacement parts needed in buses, ambulances, etc.
