Forget Bitcoin. It’s the underlying technology, blockchain, that is generating the most excitement. Even utopia!
Geography Archives: Global
Vladimir Vernadsky and the disruption of the biosphere
Virtually unknown in the west, the great Russian geologist and geochemist pioneered scientific study of life’s impact on the Earth.
What Karl Marx has to say about today’s environmental problems
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and an economic shift in China it seemed that capitalism had become the only game in town. Karl Marx’s ideas could safely be relegated to the dustbin of history. However the global financial crash of 2008 and its aftermath sent many rushing back to the bin.
Zillah Eisenstein and Damayan: race, gender and socialism
Zillah Eisenstein is one of the foremost political theorists and activists of our time.
Marx and nature
At the end of January 2018, the rollercoaster ride that is the Trump presidency took another unexpected turn: the leader of the free world claimed that the United States could reenter the 2015 Paris climate agreement—if the U.S. were given a “completely different deal.”
Mental illness and the psychological trap – a political problem
Mental illness is a serious problem, reaching epidemic status, and the problem is increasing rapidly amongst young people not only in South Africa but globally. There is a tendency in society to either: (1) disregard mental illness as a serious problem, or (2) to recognise mental illness as a problem but fail to treat the […]
Marx’s birthday and the dismal science
With 2017 marking the 150th anniversary of Capital and 2018 marking the bicentennial of the birth of Karl Marx, it is not a surprise that the number of events and exhibitions celebrating Marx’s work and exploring the significance of Marxism in the world today have gone through the roof.
Marx and Feminism
Noted scholar Nancy Fraser joined us for a wide-ranging interview covering Marx’ and Engels’ view of social reproduction, the tension between class, gender, and race, and the need for a “Feminism for the 99%”
Unions and “work ethic”
Unions and “work ethic”
The problem with “overpopulation”
The problem with “overpopulation”
Marx ratio
First there was the Great Gatsby curve. Then there was the Proust index. Now, thanks to Neil Irwin, we have the Marx ratio.
All the best: the Leo Panitch show
Max Shanly and Matt Zarb-Cousin sit in starstruck awe as Professor Leo Panitch explains how the world works in a dulcet Canadian accent.
How identity politics has divided the left: an interview with Asad Haider
Identity politics has something for everyone—but not in a good way. In her 2016 election campaign, Hillary Clinton invoked “intersectionality” and “white privilege” as a shallow gesture of allyship to young liberal voters.
Eco-Marxism and deforestation
The article uses the Eco Marxist perspective to look at deforestation and the impact it has on Earth in terms of soil erosion, air pollution and the threat it places on plant and animal life.
Channel the panic into political action
A conversation with Andreas Malm about the impotence of postmodernism in face of climate change and capital’s role in the destruction of nature.
Steven Pinker’s ideas about progress are fatally flawed. These eight graphs show why
It’s time to reclaim the mantle of “Progress” for progressives. By falsely tethering the concept of progress to free market economics and centrist values, Steven Pinker has tried to appropriate a great idea for which he has no rightful claim.
The truth shall make you free
Over the course of the nineteenth century, the violence of white civilization — its destruction of Africa, devastation of the Americas, and plunder of Asia — was obscured, or else rationalized, by a growing accretion of lies about the darker races and their civilizations, lies masquerading as truth, as Western art and science were directed […]
Utopia and value theory
Mainstream economists refer to it as price theory, everyone else value theory. But whatever it’s called, it’s at the center of economists’ differing explanations of what happens in (and alongside) markets.
The Specter of Marxism: interview with John Bellamy Foster
There is no doubt that the Marxian theoretical critique of capitalism is more relevant today than ever and is exerting enormous and growing influence in many parts of the world, a mark of the deepening crisis of the system, and the rise of dissent
Marx after Marx
On Karl Marx’s 200th Birth Anniversary SFI organised a lecture on Marx After Marx delivered by Prof. Prabhat Patnaik.
