‘The Canary in the Coal Mine’: Sri Lanka’s Crisis is a Chronicle Foretold

August 16, 2022Leave a comment

Tuesday, 16 August, 2022 — Socialist Project

Éric Toussaint and B. Skanthakumar

Sri Lanka’s acute economic crisis and sovereign debt default, along with its people’s uprising in 2022, has drawn attention across the world. It is described as the ‘canary in the coal mine’, that is, a harbinger of the likely future for other global south countries. Eric Toussaint, spokesperson for the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) interviewed via email Colombo-based Balasingham Skanthakumar of the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka and the CADTM’s South Asia network. The responses in draft were improved by Amali Wedagedera’s review and finalized on 5th August.

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2005-22′: The crisis of western capitalism behind the left and far right radicalism

April 24, 2022Leave a comment

Saturday, 23 April 2022 — MROnline

Originally published: Defend Democracy Press on April 21, 2022 by Dimitris Konstantakopoulos

First of two articles

In a previous article we have tried to explain the rise of the extreme right in Europe, in its various forms, as a result of the deep crisis of world (western) Capitalism. The same is true of the rise of the radical left, where and when we witness it. It is simply impossible to understand what is going on now in the world if we don’t take into consideration the crisis the globally dominant Western capitalism has been facing since 2008. The depth of this crisis is comparable to the depth of the two biggest crises in the history of capitalism, those of 1873 and 1929.

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Was COVID-19 a Cover for an Anticipated or Planned Financial Crisis?

August 20, 2020August 23, 2020Leave a comment

20 August, 2020 — Global Research

The internationalization of increased unemployment and poverty brought about in the name of combating the corona crisis is having the effect of further widening the polarization between rich and poor on a global scale.

By Anthony Hall

A major sign of financial distress in the US economy kicked in in mid-September of 2019 when there was a breakdown in the normal operation of the Repo Market. This repurchase market in the United States is important in maintaining liquidity in the financial system.

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The Davos Reset 2021 Agenda of the World Economic Forum. A New Phase of Economic and Social Destruction?

June 10, 2020June 10, 2020Leave a comment

10 June 2020 — Global Research

“The Great Restart” – Curse or Blessing?

By Dr. Rudolf Hänsel

On June 3, 2020, as a consequence of the “global health crisis”, the World Economic Forum WEF in Geneva announced a “unique twin summit” for January 2021 in Davos, Switzerland.(1) The theme should be “The Great Reset”. The WEF defines the “Great Reset” as “a commitment to jointly and urgently create the foundations of our economic and social system for a fairer, more sustainable and resilient future”.World leaders from government, business and civil society will be invited. In a dialogue conducted by the younger generation, they are to be virtually linked with “stakeholders” worldwide. These are individuals and interest groups with a network in 400 cities around the world who have a legitimate interest in the course and outcome of the summit. All announcements sound promising and promise a bright future.

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A zoom discussion with Michael Roberts on the prospects for the world economy post-lockdown

May 7, 2020Leave a comment

7 May 2020 — theplanningmotivedotcom

This is a very topical discussion and one with which the Bank of England has engaged in. It projects a 14% fall in GDP this year (the most in 300 years) followed by a 15% jump next year. This means a net rise in GDP of 1% over two years. This bounce back could have been justified had the world economy been in good health, instead of suffering a severe underlying condition, chronically low profitability. In the face of a profit crisis, Brexit and a fracturing global economy, that projection of bounce back is the most optimistic since capital first deprived labourers of their instruments of production turning them into an industrial proletariat.
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Marxism and the Climate Crisis: African Eco-Socialist Alternatives

February 17, 20206 Comments

16 February, 2020 — MROnline

Originally published: ROAPE (Review of African Political Economy) by Vishwas Satgar (February 14, 2020) |

Introducing an important book series on Democratic Marxism in Africa, Vishwas Satgar explains that the project is premised on a rejection of the authoritarianism of vanguardist politics and the need to learn critical lessons from all the left projects of the 20th century. There is a rich inheritance of emancipatory Marxism in Africa, which includes Frantz Fanon, Ruth First, Samir Amin, Sam Moyo, Harold Wolpe and many others. Today, Satgar argues, the challenge is to defeat carbon capitalism accelerating the climate crisis and fomenting exclusionary nationalisms and for this there has to be a return to Marx.

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