Noam Chomsky has been writing about the lack of democracy under neoliberal hegemony for decades, which is why I was so surprised that he signed the recent Harper’s Letter.
Archive | 2020
Black August and Black liberation: “study, fast, train, fight.”
The struggle for African/Black freedom in the United States began with the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to this territory in 1619.
How Trump managed to lead the World with the worst response to COVID-19 pandemic
Six months ago, on January 30, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). Ten days before this, the Chinese government had said—to great alarm—that the coronavirus could be transmitted from human to human.
China & U.S. power
Can China do much to fight back against the power wielded by the U.S. in the world economy? At first sight, that looks unlikely. China is big, but world trade is conducted in dollars, and the U.S. has economic, political and military influence across the globe.
Critique of the Gotha Programme – Karl Marx
On this episode of Red Menace Alyson and Breht discuss ‘Critique of the Gotha Programme’ by Karl Marx
John Bellamy Foster: Marxs Ecology – review
Marx’s Ecology: John Bellamy Foster details the ecological foundation of Marx’s critique of capitalism and argues that it has great relevance to understanding the environmental crisis we face today.
ATOMIC BOMBINGS AT 75: Scholars speak out against ‘unnecessary’ attacks
Japan was ready to surrender, making the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki two days later, totally unnecessary and morally indefensible, say a panel of scholars in two video discussions.
A fractured empire, within and without
Two things seem certain at this point: (1) The Trump administration will continue to extend its heavy handed neofascist tactics in the next three months, seeking to expand its political base by these means, and (2) the White House and the Republican Party will try to engineer another set of stimulus payments/tax cuts in early […]
10 new albums for a world in crisis
Here’s a look back at July’s political news and the best new albums that related to it.
The Black Caucus and the dictatorship of (White) capital
Black politics does not exist in the Democratic Party, because the duopoly system serves only the corporate rulers.
Trade and tensions between the U.S. and China
The Donald Trump administration uses every mechanism to cut China out of the global supply chain, but nothing seems to be working as a resolute China is unwilling to back down and dismantle its technological gains.
Crisis and Virus: COVID-19 in context
“Now this liberal virus, which pollutes contemporary social thought and eliminates the capacity to understand the world, let alone to transform it, has profoundly penetrated the whole of the ‘historical left’ formed in the aftermath of the Second World War” (Samir Amin, 2003, 41)
‘Trump’s troops are breaking the law and creating chaos’
Janine Jackson interviewed legal scholar Marjorie Cohn about secret police in Portland for the July 24, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
COVID-19, capitalism and climate
No one should have been surprised by COVID-19. Epidemiologists have been warning for decades about the increasing danger of novel virus pandemics that could cause major human suffering, disrupt the economy and exacerbate the growing inequalities that characterizes the modern world.
UK & Sweden’s carbon targets half what is needed for 1.5C
Climate progressive countries United Kingdom and Sweden have to ramp up their commitments to reach the Paris Agreement goal, according to a new study led by Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester and Upsalla University.
A “brazen giveaway” GOP HEALS Act is a $30 billion bonanza for the Pentagon
The new $1 trillion GOP HEALS act includes billions for F-35 fighters, Apache Helicopters, and other welfare programs for the Pentagon.
A Fifty-Year journey for truth and justice
The back cover of Diana Johnstone’s Circle in the Darkness calls the memoir “a veteran journalist’s lucid, uncompromising tour through half a century of contemporary history,” one that “recounts in detail how the Western Left betrayed its historical principles of social justice and peace and let itself be lured into approval of aggressive U.S.-NATO wars […]
Chart of the day
All told, 54.1 million American workers have filed initial unemployment claims during the past nineteen weeks.
Ernest Mandel and ecosocialism
It is therefore from 1971-72, after the emergence of the first ecological movements and following his reading of the pioneering works of Elmar Altvater, Harry Rothman and Barry Commoner, that he began to integrate the ecological dimension into his thinking.
Humanity protests against the crimes of death
On 23 July, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that the world now has 15 million people infected by COVID-19.
