barbarism
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Australia’s election campaign is driven by a barbarism that dares not speak its name By John Pilger
Last week, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reached back to this era when he declared that no refugees in boats would be permitted to land in Australia. Instead, they are to be sent to concentration camps in impoverished Papua New Guinea, whose government has been suitably bribed. Continue reading
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The Cult of Killing and the Symbolic Order of Western Barbarism: How the Media Worships Violence and “Ritualized Atrocities” By Jean-Claude Paye and Tülay Umay
By focusing public attention on what constitutes a “ritualized atrocity” these gruesome images confirm that the US Empire actually represents an unprecedented regression, a step backwards in the history of humanity. Continue reading
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Michael Lebowitz: Socialism for the 21st century — re-inventing and renewing the struggle
First, why don’t workers put an end to capitalism – given its destruction of human beings and the environment (something Marx was so conscious of). In particular, given the declining standards of life for decades in the United States, the economic disaster in Europe and the current crises, how is it that the system is… Continue reading
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W.W.I: The War That Begat Another By Eve Ottenberg
Who gets to write a war’s history determines how it is viewed for generations. But in the case of World War I, one of the best accounts of the milieu that triggered the conflict was a novel — or three, to be exact: John Dos Passos’ trilogy, U.S.A., published in the 1930s. Any attempt to… Continue reading
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Driving People into Rebellion By Stephen Harper
Of course, it is true that some of the elements of the recent ‘violence’ are socially irresponsible. Given the atomisation of the British working class in recent decades, how could it be otherwise? The burning of people’s homes is deplorable, endangering human life and providing the state with a pretext to hone its repressive apparatuses.… Continue reading
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The Spectre of Barbarism and its Alternative Michael A. Lebowitz
When commentators stress signs of recovery, it is essential to remember that this pattern differs not at all from that of 1929 to 1933 – in other words, the period between the stock market crash and the bank failures – a period before much of the depression of the 1930s. At best, although capitalism itself… Continue reading
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Caught in the glare of history’s headlights By William Bowles
Last night’s late night news on BBC2 (22/1/08) had five ‘experts’ pontificating on about the ‘business cycle’ and they spent around twenty minutes trying avoid explaining where Capitalism was headed and whether anybody or institution had any control over it. They failed miserably, talk about empty heads talking, it was an embarrassing display of denial,… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 