Capitalism
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Capitalism versus Life on Earth
Environmental destruction isn’t driven by human nature or mistaken ideas. It is an inevitable consequence of a system built on capital accumulation. Continue reading
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Challenges of Internationalism, Solidarity and Integration of Peoples
Thank you Programme Director. May I take this opportunity to thank the International Secretariat for creating this space for us. I see this space as an instrument full of possibilities and hope for a better world, a world that we want and for which we are all prepared to fight. May I also thank all… Continue reading
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Roger and me – a socialist view on Extinction Rebellion
Around 7am on the fourth day of Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) “Spring Rebellion” in Melbourne in early October the clouds to the east cleared enough for the first bright rays of sun to penetrate through to a city centre still shrouded in a cold, misty rain. A dazzling rainbow appeared above the skyline – arching over… Continue reading
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Ecosocialist Bookshelf, November 2019
4 November 2019 — Climate & Capitalism The red and green shelf is overflowing! Nine important new books address topics ranging from ecosocialism and rising seas to trees, growth and global poverty. Ecosocialist Bookshelf is an occasional feature. We can’t review every book we receive, but we will list and link to any that seem relevant… Continue reading
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Dammed Good Question about the Green New Deal
Hydroelectric power from dams might be the thorniest question that proponents of the Green New Deal (GND) have to grapple with. Providing more energy than solar and wind combined, dams could well become the backup for energy if it proves impossible to get off of fossil fuels fast enough. Continue reading
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GLYPHOSATE: DESTRUCTOR OF HUMAN HEALTH AND BIODIVERSITY
An increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, obesity and autism has been reported in Scotland. Similar increases have been seen globally. The herbicide glyphosate was introduced in 1974 and its use is accelerating. The manufacturers claim it to be safe, but none of the Regulatory Agencies are monitoring glyphosate levels in groundwater. Continue reading
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WATCH: Banking Nature How the Financial Elite are Commodifying “Conservation”
This film explores the truly insane & disturbing world of ‘nature commodification’ in all its warped dystopian horror. Continue reading
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The Incredible Shrinking Overton Window by Caitlin Johnstone
The plutocrat-owned narrative managers of the political/media class work constantly to shrink the Overton window, the spectrum of debate that is considered socially acceptable. They do this by framing more and more debates in terms of how the oligarchic empire should be sustained and supported, steering them away from debates about whether that empire should be permitted to exist at… Continue reading
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Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care
This short, readable and stimulating book begins with the author overturning perceived knowledge about the 18th century economist Robert Malthus. Malthus is best know for his extended work An Essay on the Principle of Population, an influential book that has rarely been read by those who claim to extend his ideas. Giorgos Kallis argues that… Continue reading
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XR: A Socialist perspective
With Extinction Rebellion growing rapidly across the world in the fight against climate change, John Molyneux gives his perspective on how socialists should respond to this phenomenon. Continue reading
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Here’s How Much Worse Things Will Get If Capitalism Isn’t Overthrown
In his novel The Man in the High Castle, which depicts a Nazi-dominated world, Philip K. Dick describes a dynamic where the Reich, despite holding enormous power, makes itself progressively more volatile and reactive. At one point in the book, a character observes that “most high-placed Nazis are refusing to face facts vis-a-vis their economic plight.… Continue reading
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“Let Them Eat Cotton” : Genetically Modified Cotton as a “Solution to Human Hunger”? Approved by FDA
US Government regulators have approved a genetically modified cotton variety as a “potential solution to human hunger.” The radical decision is to permit consumption by humans, in addition to animals, of seeds of a GMO cotton developed at Texas A&M University, with no independent long-term testing. It opens grave new concerns about the safety of… Continue reading
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Into the Tempest: Essays on the New Global Capitalism
Capitalism’s grow-or-die imperative is driving humanity to the brink of extinction. At the present rate of global greenhouse gas emissions, the climate crisis alone could soon end civilization and destroy the biosphere. Biologists report that up to a million species of plants and animals are on the verge of extinction. Global capitalism is not only… Continue reading
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Revolts Against The Neoliberal World Order
Protests against the US and big finance-imposed neoliberal capitalism have exploded across the globe. Two weeks ago, in Pink Tide Against US Domination Rising Again In Latin America, we reviewed 12 Latin America nations that are rising up against privatization, the cutting of social programs, soaring prices and low wages. In the last week, mass protests… Continue reading
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Western progressives and the imperialist Inquisition
Most people who think of themselves as progressive in the imperialist countries of North America and Western Europe, continue to believe the right wing opposition version of events in Nicaragua in 2018. A great many also accept some version of the right wing opposition account of the crisis in Venezuela. One obvious reason they do… Continue reading
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Disrupting the nitrogen cycle: Articles on a major metabolic rift
How the global nitrogen cycle has been disrupted by an economic system that values profits more than life itself. Continue reading
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The top 1% own 45% of all global personal wealth; 10% own 82%; the bottom 50% own less than 1%
The annual Credit Suisse report on global wealth has just been released. This report remains the most comprehensive and explanatory analysis of global wealth (not income) and inequality of wealth. Every year the CS global wealth report analyses the household wealth of 5.1 billion people across the globe. Continue reading
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British Workers By Tony Norfield
As we wait impatiently while the Brits go through the interminable travail of Brexit, let us have a look at who they are. Not directly in a social, cultural or political sense, but by reviewing the data on UK employment. Work gives a foundation for people’s daily lives and will, in turn, have an impact… Continue reading
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The Return of the Class Struggle
A specter is haunting the world. It is not yet that of communism, but that of class struggle—in capital letters. This new wave of protests began with the emergence of the yellow vests in France, which for the first time in many years made the ruling class of an imperialist country fear revolt. It has… Continue reading
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Corporate debt, fiscal stimulus and the next recession
The debt owed by corporations in the major economies has risen since the end of the Great Recession in 2009. With global growth slowing and the prospect rising of an outright global recession recurring ten years after the last one, the debt held by corporations may soon become so burdensome to a sufficiently large number… Continue reading