Archive | November, 2020

It wasn’t that long ago that the country celebrated frontline workers by banging pots in the evening to thank them for the risks they took doing their jobs during the pandemic.

The Lords of Capital use periods of crisis to devour the less-rich and reshape the political economy to their further advantage, so that the Joe Bidens of the world jump higher and come quicker when summoned.

A second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping across the world with countries reporting record daily case numbers and the World Health Organization (WHO) warning that the death toll could be much higher than during the first wave earlier this year.

Today marks 200 years since the birth of Friedrich Engels, the revolutionary leader who, side by side with Marx, elaborated a good part of what we know today as the theoretical bases of Marxism and built the first international organizations of “insurrectionist wage slaves” who adopted communism as the name for their objective.

The total level of global indebtedness now sits at an astronomical $277 trillion, an increase of $15 trillion since 2019. This amount is equivalent to 365% of the global gross domestic product.

Exploitation begins with the terms on which workers sell their labour power to capital. Marx saw that 140 years ago, and it hasn’t changed since.

With legislative elections on the horizon, Ociel López looks at the different political forces and scenarios ahead.

Just as they failed to hold power to account in the run-up to the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, corporate media is refusing to ask the hard questions about Biden’s hawkish cabinet picks.

Argentina is deep in national mourning, its extravagant relationship with football compounded by its extravagant relationship with one of its greatest sons.

The corporate media have joined the incoming administration in deciding what we can and cannot see and hear.

October 15 was the 33rd anniversary of Thomas Sankara’s death. On this day, he was murdered by imperialist forces at the tender age of 37.

Sidney Powell’s conspiracy theories went too far for Trump’s legal team after her outlandish claims went viral online.

Top meteorologist: only a complete transformation of our industrial, energy and transport systems can stop climate change.

Tiyo Attallah Salah-El’s exemplary life (without parole) is testament to the human spirit and the cause of abolition.

China has described a U.S. report on how Washington should confront and contain Beijing as having been “concocted by Cold War fossils” who are destined to be “swept into the garbage dump of history”.

As Trump continues to contest the validity of the U.S. election, it’s time we look deeper at the causes of our post-truth malaise, argues Marcus Gilroy-Ware

President Donald Trump’s categorical refusal to accept what seems like an inevitable and increasingly crushing election loss has many in media rightly worried about the political repercussions of such a move, with some sounding the alarm over a potential coup d’etat in the U.S. (e.g., Salon, 11/11/20; Washington Post, 11/12/20; Guardian, 11/13/20; New Republic, 11/13/20).

An interview with Jorge Arreaza, foreign minister of Venezuela.

Phil Hearse responds to socialist critics of the creeping fascism thesis who put their faith in parliamentary democracy and liberals like Joe Biden.

One of my frustrations with contemporary Marxist philosophy is the way in which the word ‘dialectical’ is often employed like a magical wand to sanctify various relational phenomena.