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On Photography: Space and Place
The simple quietness in Leiva’s photography reveals his poetic contemplation while exposing the loss of visual honesty in an era of hyper imagery manipulation.
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Robbing the Soil, 2: ‘Systematic theft of communal property’
“The expropriation of the mass of the people from the soil forms the basis of the capitalist mode of production.” (Karl Marx)
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Ol’ Red Jack Hirschman: He weaponized words
Jack Hirschman (December 13, 1933 – August 22, 2021) was an American poet and social activist who wrote more than 100 volumes of poetry and essays.
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The Philosophy of Money with Graham Hubbs
Graham Hubbs speaks with Scott Ferguson and Andrés Bernal about the relationship between Modern Monetary Theory and philosophy. Associate Professor & chair of the department of politics & philosophy at the University of Idaho, Hubbs convened a conference panel on Modern Monetary Theory at the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association in January 2021.
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The Truth About the First Thanksgiving
Origin myths do not come cheaply. To glorify the Pilgrims is dangerous. The genial omissions and false details our texts use to retail the Pilgrim legend promote Anglocentrism, which only handicaps us when dealing with all those whose culture is not Anglo.
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Leaked report of the IPCC reveals that the growth model of capitalism is unsustainable
Another leak of the UN report warns that the only known way to avert climate breakdown is to avoid any model which is based on perpetual growth.
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On the IPCC’s latest climate report: What does it tell us?
The UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released its latest comprehensive report on the state of the earth’s climate. The much-anticipated report dominated the headlines for a few days in early August, then quickly disappeared amidst the latest news from Afghanistan, the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections in the US, and all the latest political rumblings.
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North Dakota gets fracked
When the big shutdown finally takes hold in the Bakken, the frackers will have gone and most wells abandoned, and people in the region will still have to deal with the illegal trash dumps, polluted streams, health problems, and other unfortunate effects of the boom.
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Latin American socialism and the fight against COVID-19: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua
Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua all demonstrate what a society can do when it embraces a centralized system, people over profit, and solidarity. Not only are citizens protected, but the will to fight against threats like COVID-19 is all the stronger when nations are united behind a popular and radical project.
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U.S. defeat in Afghanistan—A contrast with the Soviet experience
The U.S. has been defeated today in Afghanistan not by a super power with an advanced military, but by a rag-tag army of fanatical locals who perfected and consolidated their fanaticism under U.S., Saudi and Pakistani tutelage in the 1980s to fight the Soviets.
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At the brink of a new world system: imperialism, race and caste
The U.S. has degenerated to such an extent that is probably one of the least democratic countries in the world. It is ruled by an extremely powerful and undemocratic billionaire class, buttressed by an entrenched bureaucracy and intelligence apparatus, and legitimized by an obsequious media which does not even pretend to be neutral.
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Race hustling at George Floyd square: a valuable teaching moment
Only “niggers” have the right to employ the example of George Floyd to fight oppression. And, “there are no niggers in Cuba!” So proclaimed someone who identified himself as a “nigger” to a group of us at George Floyd Square on Saturday afternoon, July 31.
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Berlin Wall and Kaiser Palace: Berlin Bulletin No. 194 August 10, 2021
Until 1989 that terrible Berlin Wall angered many an East German. The small part of Germany it helped preserve for 28 years was always the butt of anger, sarcasm, vituperation and resistance in one form or another.
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The Ballot or the Brick: On Elizabeth Hinton’s ‘America on Fire’ and Vicky Osterweil’s ‘In Defense of Looting’
Two new books trace anti-police uprisings to the urban riots of the Civil Rights era. But as twenty million people took to the streets in 2020, why did so few pick up a brick? And would the movement to which they belong be better off if they had?
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Robbing the soil, 1: Commons and classes before capitalism
“All progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil.” (Karl Marx)
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The Uncontrollability of Globalizing Capital
We live in an age of unprecedented historical crisis. Its severity can be gauged by the fact that we are not facing a more or less extensive cyclic crisis of capitalism as experienced in the past, but the deepening structural crisis of the capital system itself.
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Dossier No. 43: CoronaShock and education in Brazil: One and a half years later
One and a half years since the beginning of the pandemic in Brazil, it is possible to better evaluate some of its effects. The most visible immediate aspect of the pandemic has certainly been the sudden suspension of in-person activities and the temporary closure of schools and universities.
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…For Brother Glen
A poem in remembrance of Glen Ford, whose untimely death on July 28, 2021, we deeply mourn.
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Judgment day over the killing fields in the Philippines
Diverse international groups along with the U.S. State Department have taken notice of Rodrigo Duterte’s record of killings and wanton defiance of universal norms of justice. Duterte’s regime might claim to honor the right to life, liberty, and security of persons guaranteed by the UN Declaration of Human Rights and other Covenants; but its practice consistently defiles those norms. Mass media and internet platforms cannot keep up with the regime’s punitive outrages.
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Repressing radical protest, tolerating reactionary violence: The U.S. double standard in historical context
The following essay examines the different reactions to radical and reactionary protest, and situates them in a broader historical context. In doing so, we find that the capitalist state will tolerate reactionary violence to a large extent since it represents no threat to capitalist property relations. In contrast, when faced with radical (and particularly socialist) movements capitalist states engage in much more severe repression.