Subjects Archives: Marxism

Financial globalization was supposed to spur development. Instead, it transfers money to the global North and exacerbates existing inequalities.

Many commentators and academics interested in African development have in recent decades shown a disinclination or disdain towards incorporating ‘global capitalism’ into their analyses of countries of the continent.

This film was shot in Venezuela in 2008. It provides an essential background to understanding what has been happening in Venezuela in recent times.

Western governments in the NATO military alliance are developing tactics of “cognitive warfare,” using the supposed threats of China and Russia to justify waging a “battle for your brain” in the “human domain,” to “make everyone a weapon.”

The current situation might present an opportunity to strengthen mass movements and to steer the focus towards the rights and livelihoods of women and workers. The ongoing Indian farmers’ movement, which started before the pandemic and continues to stay strong, offers the opportunity to steer the national discourse towards such an agenda.

Annamie Paul’s perspective has overwhelmingly shaped coverage of the dramatic and bitter conflict within the Green Party.

Supposedly “independent” website Bellingcat raked in money from scandal-ridden Western intelligence firms that wreaked havoc – and reaped massive profits – in Syria.

There is nothing more obscene than the existence of hunger, the terrible indignity of working hard but being without the means for sustenance.

The “Vienna Model” for providing subsidized housing is unquestionably one of the singular achievements of Austrian social policy and architectural production.

The University of Bristol has fired Professor David Miller, a leading UK critic of Israel and its lobby.

While there is no one-size-fits-all definition, fascistic groups are generally violent, authoritarian and racist. They may claim to support freedom or the poor, but largely defend the rich and concentrated power.

Life under capitalist rule is perilous. We can’t survive on our own, and we can’t rely on society to support us.

A caricatured account of Althusser’s intellectual trajectory might read something like this…

The picture presented in the volume is one of the Leninists’ Lenin (with partial exceptions), but he and his co-editors certainly did not aim at conveying a composite historical account that would include every possible voice from Russian Orthodox priests’ through neoliberal pundits’ and new right fascists’, to the Vatican’s or the Taliban’s conception of Lenin and his historical role.

MARXIST theory develops with changing times, as capitalism itself develops, which is why it remains a living doctrine. On the question of the role of the peasantry in the revolutionary process that leads to the transcendence of capitalism, there have been significant developments in Marxist theory, which I propose to discuss here.

An interview in the Guardian (9/7/21) made waves—not because of something it said, but because of something it didn’t say.

A socialist forum on China and the Left, sponsored by the Qiao Collective, was held in New York City on September 18, 2021.

In order to commit murder or mayhem under this program, vouchers must be submitted within one week prior to the actions contemplated or within a month afterward. Persons who commit violent acts without valid vouchers will be asked to enter into Voluntary Consent Agreements to desist from unauthorized murder or mayhem, and up to one tenth of any ill-gotten gains will be donated voluntarily to the charity of their choice, without any implication of admission of guilt.

In 1922, the great radical journalist Louise Bryant observed that Lenin drew great strength from the women close to him. Her observation contrasts sharply with the exploitative Lenin who has come to dominate historical studies and biographies.

The frustration with Malm’s lack of clarity and the praise for his ability to bring together Marxism and environmentalism are of a piece: they both attest to the enormous expectations generated by his work, and his willingness to place himself in a position of intellectual leadership.