Subjects Archives: Socialism

  • News from Nowhere

    Dreaming of communism: News from Nowhere

    There can be no denying that the content of News from Nowhere, the utopian romance penned by painter, poet and designer William Morris, was heavily indebted to the writings of Karl Marx. Morris was exploring these from the spring of 1882, the year before Marx died and the year of his own 48th birthday. He continued to read Marx, especially Capital, in its French edition, the first English edition being still a few years away.

  • Scene from The Young Karl Marx

    A Review of The Young Karl Marx

    The success of The Young Karl Marx derives from Peck’s ability to demonstrate the relevance of Marx for the present.

  • Capitalism vs. Socialism

    What do we mean by socialism?

    What the hell is socialism, anyway? Over the last decade, it has been one of the most frequently looked up words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. And it’s easy to see why so many people feel the need for clarification.

  • Eduardo Galeano

    The political economy of space and time in Eduardo Galeano

    Uruguyan novelist and historian Eduardo Galeano (1940–2015) wrote more than 40 books. Monthly Review lauded his creative non-fiction Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (1973[1971]) as ‘outstanding political economy … and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx’.

  • Jeremy Corbyn

    Reds under the Bed

    The British conservative media and party establishment are renewing their attempts to paint Jeremy Corbyn as a traitor. But given the failure of this approach in the past, why would they attempt it again?

  • Uptopian socialism

    Utopian socialism

    Just nine years ago, in the midst of the Second Great Depression, Newsweek declared that “we are all socialists now.”

  • February Revolution (1917)

    Russian debt repudiation, 100 years on

    One achievement of the Russian revolution that is often ignored is the fulfillment of a promise made by the Russian revolutionaries in 1905: that all debts contracted by the Tsarist regime that had been overthrown some eleven months earlier were cancelled.

  • Image: OnceAndFutureLaura/Flickr

    A farewell to Omelas: remembering Ursula Le Guin

    I had a friend who as a child wrote to Ursula Le Guin. He was feeling miserable, bad things had happened to him and he wanted to run away to Earthsea. He told her that he felt ashamed that he wasn’t facing up to life, felt it was a failing that he just wanted to live a fantasy.

  • Caracas Distrito Federal Venezuela

    A socialist development strategy for the 21st century (Part 1)

    1. Introduction Capitalist development is based upon labour exploitation and environmental destruction. Through sexism and racism it has established second class citizens who are doubly-exploited. Democracy under capitalism is of the ‘low-intensity’ variety—where decision over economic resource generation and use are off-limits to the majority of the population, and where political systems facilitate the (mis)representation […]

  • Time is money

    Value, credit and crisis: Reading Marx out of context can lead to confusion

    A literalist, out-of-context reading of Marx can get one into trouble, or at the very least, leave you hopelessly confused. For help, I look to David Harvey. Perhaps the preeminent expert on Marx’s Capital in the English-speaking world, Harvey meticulously reconstructed Marx’s approach to money in his major treatise, Limits to Capital (1982).

  • Rosa Luxemburg

    On January 15, 1919: Rosa Luxemburg was murdered

    The great revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg was murdered by Freikorp in Berlin, and her body thrown into the Landwehr Canal on this day in 1919.

  • Jeremy Corbyn Speaks On Labour's Anti-Semitism Inquiry Findings

    Jeremy Corbyn’s Geneva speech in full

    The Labour leader sets out a vision for a more just international order and a new and independent foreign policy for Britain when he becomes Prime Minister.

  • Burning bolivar

    The campaign against the economic war and corruption in Venezuela

    The resounding Chavista victory in the October 15 gubernatorial elections provides a golden opportunity to take bold measures to overcome shortcomings even while risking clashes with powerful individuals or groups.

  • October Revolution

    The Bolshevik Revolution and the legacy of anti-imperialism

    For those of us dedicated to revolutionary politics, taking control of this history is a crucial step towards building of international solidarity in the fightback against capitalist globalization and emergent neofascism, which is rearing its ugly head across the globe.

  • Participants of the Second Latin American Encounter of Anti Imperialist Communicators, gathered in Vallegrande, Bolivia. (Photo credit: Resumen Latinoamericano)

    Towards a massive anti-imperialist communication network

    In a context as special as the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the murder of Ernesto Che Guevara, the participants of the Second Latin American Encounter of Anti Imperialist Communicators, gathered in Vallegrande, Bolivia, couldn’t help being touched by the thought and practice of journalist and communicator Guevara.

  • Writing while socialist

    With each workshop the broad outlines of socialist writing become clear to me. I am now able to better distinguish between capitalist writing—which typically emerges from the liberal, mainstream media and is intended to produce commodities—and socialist writing—which is intended to produce a confident community of struggle.

  • A man walks past a graffiti in Caracas, Venezuela August 13, 2017.

    U.S. congress asks Pentagon to prepare to intervene in Venezuela

    In the light of these Congressional moves, the “military option” which Trump has mentioned is far from being some crazy comment or out-of-place remark, but a carefully put together political plan, taking shape and methodically checking off its procedural stages.

  • Mujeres Revolucionarias (archived)

    Venezuela creates day of socialist feminism

    Venezuela announced Thursday the creation of a national day to celebrate socialist feminism, while activists are continuing to push for greater women’s rights.

  • Che’s professional ID card in Mexico. Photo: Marta Rojas

    Dr. Ernesto in Mexico

    Ernesto Guevara’s medical colleagues, both in Peru and Mexico, agree that he was profoundly interested in the social function of medicine, and that he had the makings of a researcher, although politics dominated his extraordinarily analytical mind.

  • Residents Using Truck To Navigate Through Flood Water

    Venezuela’s Citgo provides free gas to Harvey rescue teams

    Venezuela has provided free gas to rescues workers, firefighters and police in their efforts to help victims in areas affected by Harvey, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.