William Bowles – Essays
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A word (or two) with my readers
3 February 2012 A word (or two) with my readers I’m not sure how many of you are aware of what it takes to keep this site bumping along, as aside from trying to write on a regular basis, I also try to keep the digests as well as third party articles uptodate as well. Continue reading
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Moral capitalism? What an insult to our intelligence! By William Bowles
PM Cameron’s call for a “moral capitalism” would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic and hypocritical. After all, hasn’t it been capitalism’s alleged occupation of the ‘moral high ground’ what they now choose to call ‘humanitarian intervention’ that has been used as a justification for mass murder and genocide? But plainly the millions killed… Continue reading
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A captive nation By William Bowles
‘Boom and bust’ no matter what the pundits say, is built into the very nature of capitalism. At best ‘tinkering’ with it brings a temporary reprieve from the inevitable and even the ‘tinkering’ is the result of working class intervention into the affairs of capitalism eg, the ‘welfare state’. Ultimately, the outcome every time is… Continue reading
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Sleepwalking into fascism By William Bowles
If I am right about the slumbering state of the Brits, and I fear that I am, what will it take to wake them up? Some kind of cataclysm, the total meltdown of society? Jackboots in the high street? We are almost there what with millions of surveillance cameras and snooping in our emails and… Continue reading
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Season’s Greetings
31 December 2011 I’d like to wish all my readers a progressive and happy new year, though the direction things appear to be headed I’m not too confident about the outcome, unless we get our act together and toss the barbarians out. A luta continua William Bowles Continue reading
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A history lesson By William Bowles
The history of capitalism is the history of continuous revolutions in production: from the rural to the city; from cottage industry to factory; and finally from factory to ‘outsourcing’, the rise of the ‘service’ industry, de-industrialization and the financialization of capital. The end of an economy based on actual production and along with it, the… Continue reading
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Are we living in a fool’s paradise? By William Bowles
We are now literally, passive observers of our own funerals in a world of total media saturation and control. A world of endless tragedy but at a distance, mediated by an unseen hand and fed to us pretty much like an out-of-control soap opera, where events break and at first reporting is chaotic and normally… Continue reading
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It’s an (English) dog’s life By William Bowles
Franco’s insurrection could never have succeeded without the military support of Hitler’s Germany and the alleged ‘neutrality’ of the Western powers that effectively isolated the Republican government. Even the Soviet Union’s role, ostensibly supporting the Republican government, was motivated by a similar nationalist thinking to its vacillation over Libya and with the same, predictable and… Continue reading
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OWS: Leading from behind? By William Bowles
What are Lefties to make of OWS? Is it ‘ours’? Where is it headed? Is it socialist? And what is it with occupations anyway? Continue reading
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In Training By William Bowles
31 October 2011 Some readers may find it difficult to believe that for a brief time during my early, spotty teenage years, like thousands of others of my kind, I hung out out on railway stations collecting engine numbers and ticking them off in my Ian Allen train spotters guide. When I look back on… Continue reading
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The BBC: NATO’s media partner-in-crime By William Bowles
Well they’ve finally silenced Muammar Gaddafi, the man the BBC calls “an oddball until the end”. The manner of his capture and death seems not to bother the BBC but then who cares about ‘oddballs’? Continue reading
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Capitalism: what a load of rubbish! By William Bowles
The controversy over climate change illustrates the fundamental dilemma that capitalism has when it comes to facing up to the end-product of production purely for the sake of profit. Small-time it’s toxic but tolerable. Global it spells almost certain disaster for us as a species along with countless thousands of others. Continue reading
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Labouring under an illusion By William Bowles
Allegedly attacking the institutions that the Labour government wholeheartedly embraced–principally the financial sector and their “fast buck” culture–Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, which even more than Thatcher created the conditions for today’s economic meltdown, now expects us to forget thirteen years of neoliberal, imperial rule under the ‘party of labour’ with exhortations by… Continue reading
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In the belly of the beast By William Bowles
In case you hadn’t noticed, especially if you get your news from the MSM, there is the mother of all capitalist crises unfolding around us. A crisis that appears to be far deeper even than the Crash of ’29 and given the global nature of corporate capitalism, nobody (except the rich) can escape its awful… Continue reading
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What is going on in Libya? By William Bowles
The BBC is reporting the ‘fall of Tripoli/Gaddafi’ except for ‘mopping up’ “pockets” of resistance. On the other hand, here is a report, including audio that says the opposite Continue reading
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An update on InI and other ramblings By William Bowles
Somewhere, on some now obsolete media, thus irrecoverable, and maybe even in print, there exists the very first thing I ever wrote specifically for my first online endeavour, New York On-Line. If I can be bothered (you’ll know soon enough) I’ll try and dig out the hard copy as I’m sure I have it in… Continue reading
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The state unleashes the Dogs of Media By William Bowles
What a depressing state of affairs. The media, like some slavering pack of wolves, eager for blood has descended on our dispossessed and demonized them some more. It’s like something out of the worst of the Victorian period, where to be poor was literally regarded as a crime and treated as such. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 