Capitalism
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Aleela
The tantalum for the capacitors and cobalt for the batteries which power our cell phones are often mined by children in Congo making twenty cents per day. Those children come from a society where rape of women and girls is endemic. Continue reading
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Euro Crisis: Britain’s Financial Arsonist Returns to the Scene of the Crime By Finian Cunningham
The spectacle of bankrupt David Cameron swaggering over to Europe to ask equally bankrupt European governments for more deregulatory concessions for the City of London is about as stupefying as an arsonist returning to the scene of the crime – and asking for more gasoline. Continue reading
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Democracy and Debt By Michael Hudson
Book V of Aristotle’s Politics describes the eternal transition of oligarchies making themselves into hereditary aristocracies – which end up being overthrown by tyrants or develop internal rivalries as some families decide to ‘take the multitude into their camp’ and usher in democracy, within which an oligarchy emerges once again, followed by aristocracy, democracy, and… Continue reading
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Video: Degredation of Democracy By Michael Hudson
Michael appears on Capital Account to discuss his two most recent articles, Democracy & Debt and Europe’s Transition from Social Democracy to Oligarchy. Continue reading
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Europe’s Transition From Social Democracy to Oligarchy By Michael Hudson
The easiest way to understand Europe’s financial crisis is to look at the solutions being proposed to resolve it. They are a banker’s dream, a grab bag of giveaways that few voters would be likely to approve in a democratic referendum. Continue reading
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Video: Gil Scott-Heron 'Work for Peace'
“The military and the monetary / Get together whenever it’s necessary / Turning our brothers and sisters into mercenaries / They are turning the planet into a cemetery.” — Gil Scott-Heron, ‘Work for Peace’ from the album ‘Spirits’. 1994 Continue reading
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Video: Public Dialogue Situations: The Left’s Responses to the Crisis in Europe and North America
With Leo Panitch, Stephanie Ross, Albert Scharenberg and Bill Fletcher. Moderated by Greg Albo. Sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the Centre for Social Justice, and the Socialist Project. Continue reading
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The Anti-Empire Report 2 December 2011 By William Blum: Some thoughts that OCCUPY my mind
When the Vietnam War became history, and the protest signs and the bullhorns were put away, so too was the serious side of most protestors’ alienation and hostility toward the government. They returned, with minimal resistance, to the restless pursuit of success, and the belief that the choice facing the world was either “capitalist democracy”… Continue reading
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UK Public Sector Strike: Osborne Lights the Fuse to a Perfect Storm
Osborne’s mini-budget, spewed forth in the House of Commons the day before the two million-strong one-day public sector strike over pensions, is a big ‘fuck you’ to the majority of the population of the UK. Continue reading
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Africa Lies Naked to Euro-American Military Offensive By Glen Ford
As the U.S. and its NATO allies move southward to further consolidate their grip on Africa, following the seizure of Libya and its vast oil fields, most of the continent’s leadership seems to welcome re-absorption into empire. ‘Africa is the most vulnerable region in America’s warpath, a continent ripe for the plucking due to the… Continue reading
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Decolonizing Our Occupations By Jared Ball
White privilege, the legacy of 500 years of European military and economic suppression of the rest of the planet, is manifest even in movements that purport to be transformational, like Occupy Wall Street. Beneath the politics of economic reordering lie notions that the ‘new’ and overwhelmingly white movement somehow supersedes the centuries-old aspirations of Europe’s… Continue reading
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Video: The Super Committee and the Attack on Labor By Michael Hudson
Michael Hudson: Austerity and recession used to lower wages Continue reading
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Infographic: The size and power of the U.S. food oligopoly
If you didn’t know that Big Food wields disproportionate influence in America today, reading this infographic will be a great wakeup call. Continue reading
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Taking on the Military Keynesians By Mark Engler
More than 40 years ago, long before anyone had ever heard of Barack Obama, before the collapse of Bear Stearns, and before contemporary debates about bailouts and debt ceilings, two authors, Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy, considered a tricky problem. In times of downturn, the government must spend to stimulate the economy. Continue reading
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#OWS and the Young Trade Unionists by Mark Nowak
If you head down to the IBEW Local 24 Union Hall Auditorium on W. Patapsco Avenue in Baltimore on the first Tuesday of any month, you’ll encounter a meeting of an energetic group of young union members from the Metro Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. Continue reading
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Video: Kapitalism 101
New to me but check it out. Lots of analysis and plenty of videos Here are two from the site on the ‘law of the falling rate of profit’. Continue reading
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Genocidal Cynicism Part Two BY Fidel Castro
While Israel was speedily creating a nuclear arsenal, in 1981 it attacked and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. It did exactly the same thing to the Syrian reactor at Dayr az-Zawr in 2007, an occurrence of which world opinion was oddly not informed. Continue reading
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Genocidal Cynicism Part One BY Fidel Castro
I feel the duty to convey to those taking the trouble to read these Reflections the opinion that all of us, with no exception, are obliged to create awareness about the risks that humankind are running in an inexorable manner, towards a final and total catastrophe as the consequence of irresponsible decisions made by politicians… Continue reading
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Video: GTWA Day School: Understanding and Fighting Austerity
12 November 2011 — Left Streamed Toronto — 12 November 2011. View on YouTube website What are some of the forces that are driving the current crisis? How is it pushing forward the agenda of business and governments to get working people and our organizations to tighten our belts and accept their calls for austerity?… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 