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A nasty witch and apes—not from Oz
Even little victories are rare in the East German industrial landscape. But it is always worthwhile to oppose evil witches and even defy autocrats wearing golden caps full of diamonds and rubies.
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“They’ve been doing this massive, anti-democratic model of education reform”
CounterSpin interview with Wayne Au on Gates’ educational failure.
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Lula or nothing? The dilemmas of the Brazilian left
The urgent task of defeating the right in the upcoming elections cannot come at the price of compromising the future. If the new radical left fails to put forward a clear critique of Lula’s legacy the dissatisfaction with the intrinsic limits of neo-developmentalism will be easily captured by new voices on the right.
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The New Postcolonial Economics with Fadhel Kaboub
In this episode, we speak with Fadhel Kaboub (@fadhelkaboub), associate professor of economics at Denison University and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. Fadhel outlines a new critical approach to postcolonial political economy, arguing that re-gaining financial sovereignty is a crucial next step for postcolonial nations hoping to achieve social, economic, and environmental justice.
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The chicken game and rotten eggs
Germany’s politicians played the chicken game last week, testing which party, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union or its Bavarian “sister party”, Horst Seehofer’s Christian Social Union, would be the first to swerve.
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Ocasio-Cortez’s win: opportunities and challenges for the left
Ocasio’s victory in the Democratic primaries is a sign of increasing openness to socialism among U.S. voters. The left may squander the opportunity revealed by her win if the wrong lessons are drawn.
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Key congress in Leipzig
Though almost totally ignored elsewhere, an important happening was also taking place in Germany; the leftist DIE LINKE held a congress in the old trading city, Leipzig. What was so important about it?
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Job Guarantee as Historical Struggle with David Stein
In our inaugural episode, we consider the recent resurgence of full employment politics in the United States from both a political and historical perspective with historian David Stein (@davidpstein).
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Five Questions and Answers Concerning the Presidential Elections in Cuba
If the importance of Fidel Castro in the history of Cuba is undeniable, talk about a Castro brothers’ Cuba is inaccurate on the political level.
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Jill Stein breaks the silence on being a Russiagate target
Former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has turned in her campaign materials to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and warns that Russiagate is being used to silent dissent.
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Growing disdain for America’s false democratic ideals
In 2017, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) downgraded the U.S. democratic system. The EIU has an annual Democracy index that provides a snapshot of global democracy by rating countries on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. They are then classified into four types of governments: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime, and authoritarian regime.
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Anti-capitalist meetup: A framework for a better and progressively socialist, U.S. farm bill
Seriously folks, this is the third and final part in an introductory series on the need for a humane socialist U.S. agriculture policy. (Part 1: www.dailykos.com/…; Part 2: www.dailykos.com/….) For over a year I have been plodding along in my spare time researching, thinking, and writing U.S. agriculture-related pieces from what I will call a progressively socialistic perspective. Along the way I have developed the firm conviction that the lack of a comprehensive practical focus on agricultural issues is a major problem for the U.S. left, politically and programmatically.
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What’s a non-racist way to appeal to working-class whites? NYT‘s Edsall can’t think of any
The 2016 presidential exit polls “substantially underestimated the number of Democratic white working-class voters…and overestimated the white college-educated Democratic electorate,” New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall (3/29/18) writes.
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New faces and not policies
There have been some militant strikes in recent months, some are still going on. Can they help in developing healthy antidotes to foul-egg policies of the new government?
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Sunday suspense
Only one force is genuinely suited to exposing the lies and redirecting emotions away from attacks on the poorest victims and towards solidarity with them against the truly guilty forces on high. It is the Left.
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Making everyone happy
After four and a half months of haggling and recrimination and, four days past the deadline, an all-night session, the three parties had finally settled on a coalition government program—179 pages long.
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Utopia and populism
My view is that liberal critics of populism, standing on their heads, get it wrong. If made to stand on their feet, they’d have to admit that populism actually represents the failure of liberal democracy.
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A trial for Lula and Brazilian democracy: What’s next for Brazil?
Brazil has just taken another step toward the dismantling of its democracy. On January 24, an appeals court confirmed a previous ruling against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party), sentencing him to over 12 years in jail.
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GROKO or NO GROKO?
It happened in Bonn last Sunday, on January 21st. There were close to 650 delegates, the gallery in the congress hall was also packed with observers. The suspense was almost visible, also among the demonstrators outside. All over Germany millions were watching closely to see if the future path of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), […]
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Alain Badiou debates reformist Laurent Joffrin
Alain Badiou is former chair of philosophy at École normale supérleure and author of In Praise of Politics. Laurent Joffrin is editor of Libération newspaper—and a reformist who defends existing social democracy. Alain Badiou recently announced that he would stop running his seminar. He also announced that he would soon be publishing The Immanence of Truths, completing […]