‘You hold your nose, you take it,’ said Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras in a recent interview with The Guardian. ‘You know that there is no other way.’ He was referring to his astonishing volte-face in summer 2015: a few months after being elected prime minister of Greece thanks to Syriza’s opposition to the EU’s austerity drive and refusal to grant debt relief, he suddenly caved in to the pressure from Brussels and imposed a harsh programme of spending cuts and privatisations: the very policies that he had so vehemently denounced in the years before, making him one of the most popular figures on the European left…. | more…
The author describes this collection of articles as ‘debates, polemics and arguments because although environmentalists, scientists, and socialists share concerns about the devastation of our planet, we frequently differ on explanations and solutions’. The argument Angus repeatedly returns to is a defence of the Marxist method as he understands that, ‘If our political analysis doesn’t have a firm basis in the natural sciences, our efforts to change the world will be in vain. | more…
Helena Sheehan has been reporting and writing about Greece and about the Greek Left for quite a long time. Having been politically associated with Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left), she became active, between other things, in the movement of solidarity with the Greek resistance, before and after the electoral victory of the Left in the general elections of January 2015… | more…
Fred Magdoff, author, with Chris Williams, of Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary Transformation, talks with Brian Becker on “Loud and Clear,” via Sputnik Radio. Listen, below, or at Sputnik News | more…
Gerald Horne, author of Confronting Black Jacobins and the forthcoming The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism, talks with Andrew Batcher, organizer of DC Anti-fascist Coalition, about rise of the far-right across the United States and the painful aftermath of Charlottesville, via Ashlee Bank‘s “Race in America,” on RT. | more…
At 179 pages, this is a must-read book for everyone wanting a just society and a sustainable environment. Marxist Ian Angus is a prolific writer on science and socialism. He states, “Red and green together are the colours of ecosocialism…there can be no true ecological revolution that is not socialist, and no true socialist revolution that is not ecological.” – hence the name of the book… | more…
That first chapter goes on to consider two other products, iPhones and coffee. These too are produced in the global south for consumption in the north. Although very different products, Smith’s teasing out of the socioeconomic relations they embed shows their commonality. All are created under conditions of a super-exploitation which mainstream economics is at pains to conceal or obscure by a ‘value chain’ orthodoxy that would have us believe an iPhone made in China for $80 retails in the west for $800 not through exploitation but because the activities of shipping, advertising and packaging add $720 of value…. | more…
In August 2016, the International Geological Congress voted formally to recognise that the world has entered a new geological era, the Anthropocene. The effect of human activity on the planet has now become as significant as that of the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs and ended the Cretaceous era. In recognising this, it is important not to fall into a view of human effects on the Earth that idealises a separation between human society and a reified ‘Nature’…. | more…
A book for a future society of buen vivir, or living well, with nature and other people? Yes, write Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams in Creating an Ecological Society. How to achieve sustainability with humanity and the planet? Start with context and vision to transcend the status quo of bio-sphere destruction. Reform is a part of the revolutionary process, according to the authors. It is not an either-or binary. The vision thing matters when it comes to the false consciousness of blaming other people for the system’s baked-in flaws. Dividing the working class to weaken it is elites’ go-to tactic. We see that now…. | more…
David L. Wilson, author, with Jane Guskin, of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers (2nd Edition), looks at NAFTA, and why it’s back in the news | more…
Is a world based on equitable needs, empathy, and sustainable economics possible? Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams, who co-wrote Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary Transformation, believe so—but such a world, they argue, would require the end of capitalism. In this Truthout interview, Magdoff—professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont—shares his vision with Mark Karlin. | more…
Samir Amin’s Russia and the Long Transition from Capitalism to Socialism is a collection of essays written between 1990 and 2015 on Soviet and Russian history…. ¶ At first glance, the title might appear to be backwards, as the socialist Soviet Union no longer exists and the capitalist Russian Federation has been deemed to be its successor on the world stage. However, it is from this juncture that Amin asks the reader to look towards the future as a way to analyse the present in comparison with the past, rather than looking back at the past to better understand the present and the possible future. In short, the author’s aim is to juxtapose the future of communism (as a higher mode of production) against the present in comparison with Russia’s past | more…
In or around Baltimore Tuesday, August 22? Come to Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse and hear Howard Ryan talk about his book, Educational Justice: Teaching and Organizing Against the Corporate Juggernaut | more…
