Capitalism
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Ecosocialist Alliance Statement on G7 Meeting
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US (and the EU) have a great part of the immense wealth of the richest countries in the world in 2021. This wealth is more than sufficient to provide for the needs for food, water, health, housing and education of the global population. Continue reading
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“Viruses of Mass Destruction”
The war of words between China and the USA took a turn for the worst, when the neo-con loaded Biden Administration tasked the CIA with the verification of the origins of the Covid virus by insinuating it could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory where it had been modified. This is not a question of… Continue reading
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Old Normal vs New: From 1980s Neoliberalism to the ‘Great Reset’
Sold under the pretence of a quest for optimising well-being and ‘happiness’, capitalism thrives on the exploitation of peoples and the environment. What really matters is the strive to maintain viable profit margins. Continue reading
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UK gene editing public consultation announcement expected mid-June
This month the UK government is expected to follow through on Boris Johnson’s promise to “liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti–genetic modification rules” by removing safety checks and (probably) GMO labelling and traceability from some crops and livestock made with experimental new genetic engineering techniques. It comes after a public consultation that… Continue reading
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Four competing views on how to save the Earth
You could be forgiven for thinking that the only book on climate change published recently is Bill Gates’ self-serving How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. Gates’ book is a political intervention into the debates around climate change. He and his class get nervous when thousands of young people demand system change on mass protests. Instead,… Continue reading
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Anti-Anti-Imperialism: Gilbert Achcar’s Leftist Imperialism with Caveats
Behind Achcar’s leftish rhetoric is a flawed belief that somehow the imperialist actions of the U.S. and its allies may be truly humanitarian. Academic Gilbert Achcar, in an article appearing originally in The Nation and picked up by New Politics, proves by his own example that what he calls “progressive democratic anti-imperialists” are not progressive.… Continue reading
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Chris Hedges: “Dying for an iPhone”
The suffering of the working class, within and outside the United States, is ignored by our corporatized media, and yet, it is one of the most important human rights issues of our era. Continue reading
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Ecosocialist Bookshelf, June 2021
1 June 2021 — Origin: Climate & Capitalism Reading for Reds and Greens New books on Food, Military Science, Nature, Forest Communication, Covid Failure, and Deadly Phones Ecosocialist Bookshelf is a monthly column, hosted by Ian Angus. Books described here may be reviewed at length in future. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement,… Continue reading
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The productivity crisis
It has been the historic mission of the capitalist mode of production to develop the “productive forces” (namely the technology and labour necessary to increase the output of things and services that human society needs or wants). Indeed, it is the main claim of supporters of capitalism that it is the best (even only) system… Continue reading
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The Paris Commune: Marx, Mao, Tomorrow
In 1871, Karl Marx proposed an account of the Paris Commune that is wholly inscribed in the question of the state. For him, it comprises the first historical case in which the proletariat assumes its transitory function of the direction, or administration, of the entire society. From the Commune’s initiatives and impasses, he is led… Continue reading
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Watch: Big Pharma’s Fraudulent ‘Clinical Trials’
As much of the world rushes to receive a lightly-tested pharmaceutical product, we thought it was high time to look again at the (very) big business of medicine. Leemon McHenry, PhD, guides us to the fraudulent core of ghostwritten studies, captured legislators, revolving-door regulatory agencies, pay-to-play medical journals, and the “key opinion leaders” who lend… Continue reading
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UK Crony Capitalism: High Court: Day 4
Today in the High Court, Government’s lawyers set out their defence to our legal challenge over PPE contracts handed to “VIP” companies. Government claims that companies in the VIP Lane did not materially benefit from their special treatment, and that it was simply a different route by which they could win contracts. Continue reading
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We should all be worried about the United Nations Food Systems Summit
Since Ms. Kalibata [Agnes Kalibata, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA)] was named special envoy [to the UN Food Systems Summit], there has been a public outcry over this clear conflict of interest. 176 civil society organizations from 83 countries sent a letter to the UN Secretary General António Guterres… Continue reading
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Watch: The Real Mission to Mars
Apparently — and entirely predictably — low-Earth-orbit is now firmly within the widening tides of corporate capitalism’s great waste ocean. The communications satellites our overclass uses to maintain its web of ever-expending commercialism is now creating a real crisis of off-planet clutter: Continue reading
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Microsoft vs Indian Farmers: Agri-Stacking the System
In April, the Indian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft, allowing its local partner CropData to leverage a master database of farmers. The MoU seems to be part of the AgriStack policy initiative, which involves the roll out of ‘disruptive’ technologies and digital databases in the agricultural sector. Continue reading
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UK Crony Capitalism: Tuesday in Court
On Tuesday, our legal challenge to the PPE procurement scandal will be heard in the High Court. It’s the first day of a mammoth five day hearing. Continue reading
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Modern Marxist Monetary Theory or MMMT
MMMT has to solve two issues. Firstly, how can token money, that is money without any intrinsic value, circulate valuable commodities. Secondly, why do prices not fall in line with the cheapening of production in terms of labour time when circulated by this symbolic money. This article briefly addresses these two questions. Continue reading
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Some notes on the world economy now
The IMF foresees a strong economic recovery. The assumption is that the virus can be controlled to such an extent that lockdowns and social distancing are no longer necessary. This is mainly due to the vaccination campaigns. Continue reading
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G7 or failed colonial powers telling the world what to do
G7 are a bunch of western countries—the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada—who believe that they have the “civilizational” mandate to tell the world how it should be run Continue reading
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South Africa: Blame for May Day’s bare whimper
May Day 2021 has come and gone, without much of a whimper, let alone a bang. And it is the novel coronavirus that is only marginally responsible. Because there would not have been much of a bang even without the pandemic. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 