Tag: culture

Mike Healy: ‘Marx and Digital Machines: Alienation, Technology, Capitalism’

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8 October 2021 — Marx and Philosophy

by Thomas Klikauer (October 12, 2021 ) |

Ever since German philosopher Hegel discussed alienation and Karl Marx converted it into the sensible framework of the economics of capitalism, alienation isn’t really a new subject–many might even think all has been said. Yet, Healy’s exquisite book applies several recent frameworks of alienation to two groups of workers–IT workers and academics. His book delivers surprising insights and results. Healy has divided his book into eight short and very readable chapters starting with a conceptual chapter on “alienation”. The book’s key empirical chapters are on IT professionals.

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 27 October – 2 November 2013

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2 November 2013 — — Strategic Culture Foundation

Who is the USA in Debt to? (II)

02.11.2013 | 00:00 | Valentin KATASONOV

…Switzerland, Belgium, Great Britain, Luxembourg and Ireland each have a bundle of securities amounting to more than USD 100 billion, and each of them has external debt that far exceeds their GDP… It is one of the main indicators of Europe’s dependence on the United States. And more than that, a number of European countries are not just tributaries of America, they are still acting as tax collectors for the US in other countries. Tiny Luxembourg, for example, purchased US Treasury securities totalling almost USD 150 billion, with a GDP of less than USD 47 billion. Luxembourg is a typical tax collector. It borrows money from other countries on a colossal scale, while Luxembourg’s external debt exceeds its GDP by 46 times!.. Continue reading →

Are we being served? By William Bowles

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21 October 2013

Central to us on the left is the dilemma of a seemingly indifferent working class to the changes that impact directly not only on our material well-being but on the corporatisation of our cultural lives. Some argue that it’s down to the prevailing sense of powerlessness as the gulf between those who govern and the governed, deepens and widens. But there is perhaps another explanation for our disenfranchisement; the role of the ‘middle class’ as a mechanism of social control.

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 13-19 October 2013

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19 October 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Washington Casts Blame for Expansion of Al-Qaeda on Turkey

19.10.2013 | 00:00 | Dmitry MININ

It is no longer possible to conceal the obvious. The West, in its attempts to remove Bashar al-Asad from power during the years of the war in Syria, has nurtured a force so sinister that its tentacles are now reaching to the Western capitals themselves. Al-Qaeda is at the peak of its influence in the Middle East. In Somalia, the group al-Shabaab has announced its complete merger with this organization. In Libya its members unceremoniously arrested the prime minister, and then let him go. In Yemen al-Qaeda essentially rules entire provinces. In Syria itself, no other serious forces remain which are fighting against the regime… Continue reading →

Strategic Culture Foundation 6-12 October 2013

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12 October 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

US: Debts and Back Up

12.10.2013 | 00:00 | Valentin KATASONOV

The published piece called America’s Debt: Upper and Lower Tips of Iceberg offers a wide range of assessments to determine the size of US debt. Today the country has to raise the debt ceiling again, otherwise the United States will lapse into a coma. But are there any limits to raising the ceiling? What is used as the debt backup? Is America able to serve the debt?.. The US economy assets (including financial assets) are not enough to cover even a half of consolidated debt… The total interest rates expenditure goes beyond the US national debt limits, states municipalities, banks, corporations, and households have debts of their own. The last years the experts have tried many times to estimate the total US debt service expenditure… Continue reading →

Strategic Culture Foundation 29 September – 5 October 2013

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5 October 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

CIA Activities in Syria: US Never Stops to Step on Same Rake

05.10.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV

According to the Washington Post (CIA Ramping up Covert Training Program for Moderate Syrian Rebels, Oct.3), the CIA is expanding a clandestine effort to train opposition fighters in Syria, as U.S. officials said… The Washington Post informs that US officials spoke on the condition of anonymity and said the agency has sent additional paramilitary teams to secret bases in Jordan in recent weeks in a push to double the number of rebel fighters getting CIA instruction and weapons before being sent back to Syria… The CIA is «ramping up and expanding its effort», said a U.S. official familiar with operations in Syria, because «it was clear that the opposition was losing, and not only losing tactically but on a more strategic level»… Continue reading →

Strategic Culture Foundation 22-28 September 2013

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28 September 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

East Ghouta: False Flag Chemical Attack

28.09.2013 | 00:00 | Nikolai MALISHEVSKI

The International Institute for Peace, Justice and Human Rights (ISTEAMS) has just published a comprehensive report on the chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of East Ghouta. The document is called The Chemical Attacks on East Ghouta to Justify Military Right to Protect Intervention in Syria… The author is ISTEAMS President and International Coordinator Mother Agnes Mariam of the Cross (el-Salib), the Mother Superior of the Monastery of St. James the Mutilated (Syria). A fearless faithful, she has been collecting the evidence related to bloody events in the conflict zone since the very start of Syrian rebellion: the militants running rampant, the staged fakes and instances of one-sided highlighting of the events in Syria by Western media… Continue reading →

New at SCF 14-21 September 2013: Syria / Russia / Brazil-NSA / Ghouta / Libya

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21 September 2013 — — Strategic Culture Foundation

World Balance Reshaped

21.09.2013 | 00:00 | Nikolai BOBKIN

The United States has a custom of putting the countries, which have fallen out of its favor, on the “rogue states” list. Now it risks itself to be subject to international isolation.  The Washington’s world political center status is being lost, the Obama’s policy on Syria has happened to be short-sighted and strategically wrong. The America’s game with “foes of convenience” like Syria and Iran, has failed.  Nobody wants to join the United States in their fight against these states and the US claim to Middle East domination is being rejected more resolutely…

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 31 August – 7 September 2013: Syria-US / Golan / Iran-Syria / IMF / Iraq

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7 September 2013 — — Strategic Culture Foundation

Global Irresponsibility

07.09.2013 | 10:50 | Georgy VOSKRESENSKY

Next week the US Congress is to express its opinion on the reckless and staggering rush of Barack Obama as the President is pressuring the lawmakers to push through his decision to strike Syria. No details are known and they are changing all the time. The military officials have been asked to revise their plans 50 times since the Pentagon first began considering a «limited» action! The White House let know that the President is still pondering the prospect of expanding the list of targets to be hit by US missiles. These ill-boding fluctuations only feed into congressional uncertainty making the lawmakers doubt President Obama really knows what he is doing…  Continue reading →

New at Strategic Culture Foundation 25-31 August 20103: Syria / Iran / Russia-USA / Brics / Latin America

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31  August 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

US – Syria: «Great Plans» Going Awry

31.08.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV

In a whirlpool of rapidly changing events around Syria one fact seems to be indisputable. The US has very little international support, the plans to lead a representative international coalition have gone awry. It’s an outright foreign policy failure. But the US seems to be unswerving ready to go alone against all the odds. The question is inevitable – does the US have method in its madness?.. All indications suggest that a strike could occur soon after United Nations investigators leave the country. They are scheduled to depart Damascus on Saturday, August 31… Continue reading →

New at Strategic Culture Foundation 18-24 August 2013: Syria / Iran / Eurasia /Egypt / Lebanon / Europe / Greece

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24 August 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Chemicals Seep Through the Cracks in Western-led Axis Against Syria

24.08.2013 | 09:31 | Finian CUNNINGHAM

A recurring pattern throughout the Syrian crisis is the coincidence of massacres suspiciously at times when there is a shift in the political backdrop. This is important to bear in mind when assessing reports this week of an alleged chemical weapon massacre near Damascus where some reports put the death toll at over 1,100…Previously, when the United Nations Security Council was convening to vote on tougher international sanctions against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, a massacre or bombing atrocity would occur, as in the notorious case of Houla village in May 2012 when more than 100 civilians were slaughtered… Continue reading →

New at Strategic Culture Foundation 11-17 August 2013: USA / Kosovo / Egypt / NSA – Brazil / ICC – Africa / Banking / US-Pakistan / US-Russia

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17 August 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

In Pursuit of Global Dictatorship, or When on Trial for the Truth

17.08.2013 | 00:00 | Nikolai MALISHEVSKI

The Snowden affair, which captured the attention of the world’s media, somewhat overshadowed another no less important story also linked to the creation of a global system of total surveillance and suppression by the US administration – the case of WikiLeaks informant Bradley E Manning. Yet at the end of July, a military court in Fort Meade, Maryland, acquitted him of the most serious charge. In August, the court removed a few more of the charges against Manning, such as espionage, theft, computer fraud and so on. As a result, the maximum term of imprisonment the defendant could be sentenced to was reduced from 136 years to 90 years…

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 4 – 10 August 2013: USA / Greece / NSA / Drones – Pakistan / UK / Venezuela / 9/11 / Syria

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10 August 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

The War on Corruption or the Building of a Pax Americana? (II)

10.08.2013 | 13:21 | Valentin KATASONOV

The scandal surrounding the revelations of Edward Snowden have made the question of why American intelligence was so active in Europe, more pointed. Without claiming to have a full answer, one can still assert that it is, in addition to everything else, in order to detect violations of American laws which are extraterritorial in nature. Information on such violations is needed by the ruling elite of the U.S. in order to establish effective economic and political control over Europe and the world… Continue reading →

The Challenge of Sustainable Development and the Culture of Substantive Equality By István Mészáros

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December 2001 — Monthly Review

István MészÁros is author of Socialism or Barbarism: From the “American Century” to the Crossroads (Monthly Review Press, 2001), and Beyond Capital: Toward a Theory of Transition (Monthly Review Press, 1995).

This article is based on a lecture delivered at the Latin American Parliaments’ “Summit on the Social Debt and Latin American Integration,” held in Caracas, Venezuela, July 10-13, 2001.

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 28 July – 3 August 2013: Snowden / Palestine / USA / Hamas / Asia-USA / Canada / Syria / SCO

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3 August 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Snowden: Asylum Granted, Russia-US Ties to Go Through Rough Times

03.08.2013 | 00:00 | Andrei AKULOV

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia… At present Snowden has been relocated to a «safe place»… Sometime before the asylum was granted, Russia’s President Putin had said Edward Snowden has been warned against taking any actions that would damage relations between Moscow and Washington. His pledge to keep away from damaging the United States is a condition for granting asylum and Mr. Snowden has accepted that… Somehow, the events make one more question come to mind. Once Snowden cannot do any damage to the Washington from now on, it’s hard to understand what the US politicians are so jittery about?.. Continue reading →

New at Strategic Culture Foundation 21 – 27 July 2013: Russia-South Ossetia / Syria / Iran / USA / Detroit / Turkey / Japan / EU-NATO / Kosovo

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27 July 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

The Time for a Serious Discussion on the Future of Global Cyberspace Has Come

27.07.2013 | 00:00 | Boris KAZANTSEV

The Snowden affair, as expected, is snowballing, gathering more and more new details and revelations. This has already led to several international scandals (including the egregious example of what happened with Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane) and most likely will lead to more… For several years (and actually, for several decades) there has been a standoff in this area between several key international actors over what can with certainty be called the «new information order»… Despite the extreme difficulty of such effective international control, it is simply essential to make efforts in that direction. The world needs a serious international discussion on the issue of cybersecurity, and the initiatives of Russia and China could truly become a good foundation for it.

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 14-20 July 2013: Egypt / Snowden / US Government …

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20 July 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

US, EU Pose as Honest Brokers While Backing Egypt’s Military Assault on Democracy

20.07.2013 | 00:00 | Finian CUNNINGHAM

Egypt’s political turmoil took on surreal dimensions this week with the swearing in of the military-backed interim civilian government. The procedure was shown «live» on national television, as if to lend an image of «transparency» and «accountability». The central figure in the cabinet photo-op, dressed in khaki military uniform, was the head of the Egyptian armed forces, General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. He was the man who led the military arrest of former president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July, and in turn, ushered in his replacement, Adli Mansour, the country’s top judge, who had served under the ancien regime of Hosni Mubarak…

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 7-13 July 2013: Snowden / Syria / Turkey-Israel / Egypt US-EU /Asia

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13 July 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

The Pursuit of Edward Snowden

13.07.2013 | 00:00 | Wayne MADSEN

Latin America responded to the Morales plane incident by rallying to Snowden’s side. Offers of asylum came from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia and Brazilian legislators called for Brazil to reverse its original denial of asylum and grant it to Snowden… Meanwhile, the Pussy Riot- and FEMEN-supporting U.S. to Moscow, Michael McFaul looked more and more foolish as he pressed Moscow to return Snowden to American soil. Instead, Snowden was permitted to meet human rights officials at Moscow’s airport… America was once again being treated as the renegade country it was during the Bush administration. The only difference was that Obama was putting more resources into capturing Snowden than Bush did in apprehending Bin Laden…

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