Subjects Archives: Inequality

  • Capitalism and punishment. Figure 1.

    Capitalism and punishment

    David Russio takes a look into the punishments (deaths) that come from capitalism. For is it really bringing balance to the destruction that it causes. That seems to be the loaded question we all know the answer to.

  • Supporters of the Opposition Alliance in the streets. | Photo: Reuters

    Honduras’ Opposition Alliance says election ‘stolen,’ won’t accept results

    Former President Manuel Zelaya, leader of the opposition, accused the TSE of stealing the election from the alliance.

  • Paramilitaries on the Colombia-Venezuela border

    “Colombia is safe for business, but not for people”

    Murders of trade unionists and social leaders, paramilitary activity, coca production… If we only paid attention to the mainstream media we would not get the idea that these problems are actually growing in Colombia, one year after the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC came into place. To get a better picture and understand how all these elements connect to US policy and corporate interests, we interviewed Daniel Kovalik, a lawyer and human rights activist who has long been involved in the struggle for peace and justice in Colombia.

  • Fidel Castro Ruz

    One year without Fidel – the foundations of our patriotism

    No other Latin American Marxist was such a preacher of Marti’s ideas than Fidel Castro.

  • Apolonio

    Killings, evacuations, rights violations on weekend after talks termination

    The ink has yet to dry on President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation No. 360 signed last Thursday but killings and harassments of activists, indigenous peoples and human rights defenders have already increased over the weekend.

  • Robin D. G. Kelley

    What is racial capitalism and why does it matter?

    Talk by Robin D. G. Kelley on “What is Racial Capitalism and Why Does It Matter?” recorded November 7, 2017 at Kane Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Sponsored by the UW Simpson Center for the Humanities.

  • Social reproduction theory: What’s the big idea?

    Key to social reproduction theory (SRT) is an understanding of the ‘production of goods and services and the production of life are part of one integrated process’, or in other words: acknowledging that race and gender oppression occur capitalistically.
    In this article, Susan Ferguson, a contributor to Social Reproduction Theory, shows how SRT can deepen our understanding of everyday life under capitalism. She explores the history of this dialectical approach, its variances, and its potentialities; providing an answer to the question: social reproduction theory, what’s the big idea?

  • Net neutrality (Source: Blue Fletch)

    U.S. government commission’s plan to repeal net neutrality will hit marginalized communities hardest

    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States—an independent government agency that regulates interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable—emitted a preliminary proposal on Tuesday that seeks to repeal “net neutrality”.

  • Originally published in Puck magazine in 1883, “The Protectors of Our Industries” shows Cyrus Field, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Russell Sage. (Photo credit: ProMarket.org)

    The precariat under rentier capitalism

    The Precariat under Rentier Capitalism Guy Standing We are in the midst of a Global Transformation, analogous to Karl Polanyi’s Great Transformation described in his seminal 1944 book. Whereas Polanyi’s Transformation was about constructing national market systems, today’s is about the painful construction of a global market system. To use Polanyi’s term, the ‘dis-embedded’ phase has been dominated by an ideology of market liberalisation, commodification and privatisation, orchestrated by financial interests, as in his model. The similarities also extend to today’s fundamental challenge, how to construct a ‘re-embedded’ phase, with new systems of regulation, distribution and social protection.

  • Blair, Mugabe, 1997

    Mugabe, Land, Thatcher, Blair & imperialism

    So, farewell then, Robert Mugabe, ruler of Zimbabwe for 37 years. As the western media celebrate your demise, and Zimbabwe’s people wonder what will happen next, it is worth making a note of some forgotten events that helped pave the way for your country’s crisis. As one might expect, this involves the Brits.

  • Net Neutrality - Wake Up Call

    The FCC’s plan to end Net Neutrality: What you need to know

    The details of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to destroy Net Neutrality are out. And they’re even worse than expected. Our lawyers and policy experts are reviewing the reports and gathering details about Pai’s plan. This is our first read on the most important details you need to know about this proposal. We will update this post as new details emerge.  

  • Bags of corn flour left to rot seen inside Demaseca's company plant in Venezuela. | Photo: Alba Movimientos

    Venezuelan company lets 55 tons of flour rot

    The company received more than US$85 million in government subsidies in 2015 for the production and distribution of food at fair prices.

  • Woody Wood / CC BY-NC 2.0

    Just say no to NAFTA

    The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is unpopular with many working people in the United States, who correctly blame it for encouraging capital flight, job losses, deindustrialization, and wage suppression.

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates

    The meritocratic myopia of Ta-Nehisi Coates

    A question that might sound ludicrous to some: what do Trump and liberals have in common? Answer: a penchant for discussing anything other than class and capitalism—seriously.

  • 'What a Rigged Economy Looks Like': Top 10% Now Own 77% of American Wealth

    At the bottom of the wealth pyramid

    Yesterday, I looked at the enormous wealth of U.S. billionaires and the growing gap between them and the rest of the American people.

  • “Halting at Noon.” Slaves kneeling to pray while chained together. (New York Public Library)

    Faith, myths, and Black Prometheus

    The mythologizing thought and rhetoric that sees in human struggles the pitting of god against god is as ancient as any human storytelling. More recently Black Theologians have seen in the history of black people the need to efface a white God who condones oppression and to replace him with a black God of the oppressed. Hickman’s book provides the link that ties the ancient and the modern together.

  • Photo Credit: Resumen Medio Oriente

    Yemen, the most forgotten country in the world

    Since May 2015, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has sustained a permanent military invasion against Yemen, the poorest country of the Middle East. The House of Saud argues that the lands and air attacks are due to the advancement of the Ansarolá movement, born in the core of the Houthis tribe which exercises the Zaydi shi’a Islam.

  • Berlin Bulletin by Victor Grossman

    From gender to Jamaica

    It didn’t affect many people directly, but even small victories are welcome these days. Germany’s Constitutional Court just ruled that no-one should be forced to declare themselves officially male or female. It thus created a third open category anyone can opt for (or be opted by parents when still a child). I think everyone can […]

  • The South produces epistemologically-based theory—it’s not just a provider of native experimentation

    A century after the Bolshevik Revolution

    In the world we’re living in, it’s not enough to solve the tension between capital and work, the ongoing crisis of civilization urgently demands that we address the tension between capital and nature, which is currently compromising the existence of life in our planet.

  • Women in the FARC make up an estimated 45 percent of the guerrilla force. Source: Flickr / Silvia Andrea Moreno

    FARC’s insurgent feminism moves from the battlefield to society

    Diana Lozado was 21 when she left her home city of Nieva and fled into the jungle to fight with the FARC. She had always been fascinated by the guerrilla movement and its fight against inequality in the countryside, and Lozado wanted to be part of it.