The Bureau of Labor Statistics just published its latest news release on union membership. Unfortunately, the downward trend continues.
Subjects Archives: Political Economy
My hopes lie shattered
Late last year, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton went to Miami (USA), where he coined a new–chilling–phrase: troika of tyranny. It echoed former U.S. President George W. Bush’s phrase, axis of evil. Bush’s axis included Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
Why the World Bank’s optimism about global poverty misses the point
The World Bank’s latest annual report on poverty and shared prosperity has an unsurprisingly positive message that only 10% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty in 2015, which is the most recent year that available data allows for global poverty estimates to be made.
Macron, Yellow Vests and the class struggle in France
As the Yellow Vest movement in France continues its novel and inspiring revolt, president Emmanuel Macron could not help expressing his class disdain for ordinary people: at a gala speech on 11 January, he declared: “Too many French people don’t know the meaning of the word ‘effort’. That’s part of the explanation for the present […]
Britain robbed India of $45 trillion & Thence 1.8 billion Indians died from deprivation
Eminent Indian economist Professor Utsa Patnaik (Jawaharlal Nehru University) has estimated that Britain robbed India of $45 trillion between 1765 and 1938, however it is estimated that if India had remained free with 24% of world GDP as in 1700 then its cumulative GDP would have been $232 trillion greater (1700-2003) and $44 trillion greater (1700-1950).
We have to make sure the “Green New Deal” doesn’t become green capitalism
Incoming Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made waves in late November when she called for a Green New Deal (GND)—a plan to “transition” the U.S. economy to “become carbon neutral” over the course of 10 years.
Struggles that make the land proud
On 8 and 9 January, over 160 million workers went on strike in India from a broad range of sectors, from industrial workers to health care workers. This has been one of the largest general strikes in the world.
Are we at a tipping point?
“Liberal democracy is crumbling.” A Harvard Law Professor opened a recent talk with this matter-of-fact statement and the audience readily murmured its assent.
“Activists shall not fear, we are fighting for justice” – MST’s Stedile
Landless leader told Brasil de Fato that, despite threats, MST will not back off from social struggle.
The roots of Karl Marx’s anti-Colonialism
Through his relationship with the Chartist radical and labor poet Ernest Jones, Karl Marx came to realize the necessity of opposing slavery and colonialism in ending capitalism.
How to get Venezuela’s economy going again
In this interview with Venezuelanalysis, an independent researcher speaks frankly about the roots of the country’s economic crisis and outlines a series of policies to revert it.
Mind the gap
We’re all done singing to “days gone by” (even though no one really knows the lyrics). But, unless we change our tune and resolve to fundamentally alter the way the economy is organized, we’re going to have to face up to the problem that’s been haunting the United States for decades now: growing inequality.
Brazil’s road to neo-fascism
Pedro Rocha de Oliveira considers the context of Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power in Brazil.
When “green” doesn’t “grow”
The onslaught of extreme weather and the increasingly stark scientific assessment leave no doubt that we face an ecological and civilizational emergency. But in the year since COP23 in Bonn, Germany, a constant stream of headlines and reports have confirmed that governments are not on track to meet their climate commitments.
Living amidst the catastrophes of “the Living Contradiction”
“By its nature,” Marx writes in the climactic passage of a magnificent but very dense section of the Grundrisse, capital “posits a barrier to labor and value-creation in contradiction to its tendency to expand them boundlessly. And in as much as it both posits a barrier specific to itself, and on the other side equally […]
