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Ten eventful days in Germany set alarm signals clanging louder and louder—worst of all in the East German state of Saxony—but in Berlin as well!

Longtime revolutionary activist Kwame Somburu made it a point throughout his life to stress the “scientific” in socialist. During a time of confusion regarding what socialism is, Kwame’s insistence has never been more crucial.

The only thing that could alter this dire situation, all over the world, is the rise of another power in society. We need not millions but hundreds of millions of people, necessarily predominantly working class, in the street day in and day out.

Faith that environmental catastrophe can best be avoided by technological gadgetry rather than a change in social relationships received a big shot in the arm with the May 2018 publication of Energy: A Human History by prolific author Richard Rhodes. Rhodes profoundly misses the connection between technology and class relationships when he presents nuclear power as a socially neutral source of energy. Rather than pointing to a solution for climate change, his radiation denial mirrors Donald Trump’s climate denial in its derogation of scientific research and its personality attacks.

Trump wants to resolve the crisis for America, caused by neo-liberalism, within the basic confines of neo-liberalism itself, i.e. without violating its core characteristic, which is free global mobility of finance.

Leading Earth System scientists warn: “The Earth System may be approaching a planetary threshold that could lock in a continuing rapid pathway toward much hotter conditions.… Incremental linear changes to the present socioeconomic system are not enough to stabilize the Earth System.”

Samir Amin, the renowned Marxist thinker and economist, passed away on August 13 in Paris. Born in Cairo on September 3, 1931, to an Egyptian father and a French mother, he had his initial education in Egypt before moving to Paris where he obtained his doctorate in Political Economy.

If you regretted (or rejoiced) that the left-wing German scene, rarely mentioned by US media, was an unimportant sideshow, be prepared for a surprising new hope, called Aufstehen: Stand Up—or for its opposite, more fear.

Samir Amin’s work will provide inspiration to revolutionaries in their struggle against capital for many years to come.

“The gross irrationality of our economic and social system is a measure of what we could do to improve the lives of people and the environment.”

Venezuelanalysis is the only independent English language website covering news and analysis on Venezuela from a progressive perspective & which platforms leftist grassroots voices. It is run by committed journalists, authors and academics & praised by renowned journalists and intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Marta Harnecker and Oliver Stone.

While many countries claim to be protect civil rights and democracy, their ties to imperialism ensure silence in such moments. They predictably failed to denounce the assassination attempt, even after signing international agreements defining an attempt on the life of a head of state as a “terrorist act.”

Capitalists profit from the misery of both those who are unemployed and those who are lucky enough to be working full-time but seeing their work hours increase, their benefits diced, their wages cut. This very much describes the state of modern journalism in 2018.

A sober analysis of the positions of Owen Jones and Paul Mason on a wide range of issues shows that they are in fact distinctly un-radical, frequently opportunist in nature, and (particularly in Mason’s case) openly reactionary and imperialist.

The national leader of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), the economist João Pedro Stédile, is at the frontline for the liberation of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He predicts that if Lula’s candidacy is prevented, a political crisis will become even more acute.

Recovering the socialist character of Chavismo in Venezuela depends on activating its latent revolutionary component. This, in turn, hinges on re-encountering the aspiration toward substantive democracy and communal control of production that was once more present in the movement.

The conventional wisdom is there have been two globalizations in the modern era. This paper challenges that view and argues there have been three globalizations, not two.

Even little victories are rare in the East German industrial landscape. But it is always worthwhile to oppose evil witches and even defy autocrats wearing golden caps full of diamonds and rubies.

The deepening of economic globalization appears to have ground to a halt and the process may even unravel a little. The sudden stop has surprised economists, whose belief in globalization has strong parallels with Fukuyama’s (1989) flawed end of history hypothesis.

The enormous dangers that rapid climate change present to humanity as a whole, and the inability of the existing capitalist political-economic structure to address them, symbolized by the presence of Donald Trump in the White House, have engendered a desperate search for technofixes in the form of schemes for geoengineering, defined as massive, deliberate human interventions to manipulate the entire climate or the planet as a whole.