The three states in Eastern Germany now facing elections (two of them on Sunday) will be forced to decide on coalitions; no party will be strong enough to rule alone, most likely not even in two-party tandems.
Subjects Archives: Democracy
Political upheaval over Tlaib and Omar shows the power of BDS
We are in the middle of a political upheaval on Israel/Palestine in the United States, and Americans who are concerned with Palestinian human rights live for these moments. They are the moments of potential change: When more tarnish is added to Israel’s image, and Americans get a clearer picture of what the Jewish state actually […]
A Tale of Corruption by the United Auto Workers and the Big Three American Automakers
What follows is a somewhat complex tale of what happens when a labor union, structured to be unaccountable to the rank-and-file membership, embraces a system of labor-management cooperation rather than a class-conscious understanding that workers and their employers are adversaries with fundamentally opposed goals and desires.
Warnings ancient and modern
Before the Berlin Wall was torn down we all made sarcastic jokes about its official designation by East German (GDR) party leaders as “anti-fascist protective barrier”. But hearing racist ranting by AfD leaders now hoping for victories and seeing gangs of marching thugs with barely–paraphrased Nazi slogans we must wonder if perhaps that scorned terminology […]
The Squad vs. Trump and Pelosi
In the past couple weeks, President Trump has gone on a racist, red-baiting rampage against four congresswomen elected in 2018. The four women of color–Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley–are now collectively known in the media as the “squad.”
Trump’s ‘diplomacy’ in Iran is a cynical farce
The problem for any negotiations is that the U.S. position is untenable. The U.S. wants to prevent Iran from exercising its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968) to enrich uranium even to low levels. It is this impossible position by Washington that will prevent diplomacy.
A fateful tug-of-war
On June 2nd Christian Democrat Walter Lübcke was shot dead in front of his home. Stimulated by fascist blogs, one of them that of a prominent adherent of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the murderer, a dyed-in-the-wool fascist, had been plotting the attack ever since hearing Lübcke’s fierce reply to vicious anti-foreigner catcalls at a public event […]
Snow queen and Bremen hopes
In late June, some 5000 protestors camped out, as part of the “Stop Air Base Ramstein Campaign,” drawing attention to Germany’s increasing militarization via NATO. They demanded the U.S. Army base at Ramstein—where the top generals direct troop movements in Africa and the Near East, and deploy drones to murder anyone the Pentagon decides is […]
Warning to progressive Dems: you’re leaving corporate media’s comfort zone
After the first round of Democratic primary debates, the line from corporate media and their overwhelmingly centrist sources was clear: The Democrats are moving dangerously to the left, at their own peril.
The hybrid war against Iran
Trump might not have sent in a suite of missiles to hit Iran last week, but the United States has—of course—already opened up a certain kind of war against Iran.
Using Democratic institutions to smash Democratic aspirations (the Brazil model)
Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has now been in prison since April 2018. More than four hundred Brazilian lawyers have signed a statement that expresses alarm at what they see as procedural irregularities in the case against him.
Review of Alan Nasser’s, Overrripe Economy
Alan Nasser has written a masterful book, one that belongs in every serious leftist and socialist library, and one that certainly deserves to be widely and extensively read.
Imagining the Green New Deal with Robert Hockett
In this episode, we speak with Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. At Cornell, about his role in crafting the Green New Deal Resolution, his conception of finance as a franchise, and his experience as an advisor to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well to Senators Sanders and Warren.
Venezuela in the Crisis
The solution of the Venezuelan “crisis” lies in good faith negotiations between the government and the opposition, an end to the economic war, and the lifting of sanctions.
The Green New Deal’s magical realism
The half-measures and failed “market mechanisms” of the mainstream more “unrealistic” than the bold plans put forward by the Green New Deal. The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but that won’t mean very much if, within just a few decades, the planet can no longer sustain life as we know it.
Killing the most beautiful things we own
The fight over the Amazon is not new, but the scale of its potential destruction has considerably increased. The protagonists of the murder of the Amazon are clear: capitalist firms of different scales and the political class that enables them.
Trillion dollar Wall Street bailouts, Bernie Sanders, and the Washington Post
The newspaper’s fact-checker might need to work on his own understanding of the facts, because Sanders seems on pretty solid ground here
Sighs of relief
Germany’s feverish political scene cooled off just a little. Two big sighs of relief permitted some people, at least temporarily, to stop chewing their fingernails.
The Historic Anachronism and Necessary Supersession of the State
This previously unpublished essay is taken from volume 1 of Mészáros’s Beyond Leviathan: Critique of the State, which remained incomplete at the time of his death in October 2017. —The Editors
The defeat of democracy in Brazil
Many wonder how it is possible, following the democratic governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula, and Dilma Rousseff, that Brazilians have elected as President a shady federal deputy and die-hard defender of the military dictatorship that ruledthe country 1964-1985.
