4 April 2013 — Socialist Project
I coined the term ‘Venture Communism’ in 2001 to promote the ideal of workers’ self-organization of production as a way of addressing class conflict. Telekommunisten is a collective based in Berlin, Germany, where I have lived since 2003.
3 April 2013 — The Bullet • Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 796
By James Brophy, Robert DeMatteo, Margaret Keith and Michael Gilbertson
As part of a team of international researchers, we have produced a new epidemiological study[1] on the causes of breast cancer. This study adds considerable weight to a growing body of evidence that challenges the prevailing beliefs of the cancer establishment that has minimized the risk of breast cancer posed by occupational and environmental exposures to chemicals. Continue reading
18 March 2013 — Socialist Project
142nd anniversary of the Paris Commune – which existed from March 18 to May 28, 1871.
12 November 2012 — The Bullet • Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 728
A storm is brewing in Southern Europe. In Greece on November 6 and 7 another general strike will take place. On November 14 Portuguese, Cypriot, Spanish and Italian trade unions intend to go on strike in opposition to the austerity policies of the European Union. Belgian and British trade unions, as well as the European and German trade union confederations, are also calling for action. If the mobilization is successful, this transnational strike will be a milestone in the formation of a European protest movement desperately needed to prevent the final demolition of the European welfare states.
29 September 2012 — Socialist Project
View complete playlist (in 3 parts) or watch individual parts here: Part 2 (20 mins) and Part 3 (Q+A, 17 mins).
Ingo Schmidt is an economist, a writer, and a labour educator. He is the Coordinator of the Labour Studies Program at Athabasca University. Continue reading
15 October 2012 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 713
“Independent Catalonia? Over my dead body and those of many other soldiers.” It was with these words that on August 31, retired infantry lieutenant-colonel Francisco Alaman Castro referred to the possibility of an independent Catalonia. And he added: “We will not make it easy. Although the lion seems to be sleeping, they have no interest in provoking it too much, because it has already given enough proof of its ferocity over the centuries. These plebs are not up to much, if we know how to confront them.” Continue reading
12 May 2012 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 632
The recent electoral results in Greece was a serious blow to the governments of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy [referred collectively as ‘Merkozy’], as well as to all those arrogant neoliberal parties, politicians, analysts, EU, ECB and IMF officials who thought that the European people can suffer passively and for an indefinite period the extreme austerity policies of neoliberal orthodoxy, which supposedly aim to an exit from the capitalist crisis in Europe.
17 February 2012 — Socialist Project
Moderated by Kevin Edmonds.
Updates on the ongoing legal efforts to try Jean Claude Duvalier for human rights abuses against the Haitian people and the strong legal action against the United Nations on behalf of 5,000 victims of cholera for its role in the introduction of cholera into Haiti. Continue reading
26 February 2012 — The Bullet • A Socialist Project e-bulletin No. 602
It is a truism to say that democracy began with the Greeks – less so to say that it originated in popular rebellion against debt and debt-bondage. Yet, with the Greek people ensnared once more in the vice-grip of rich debt-holders, it may be useful to recall that fact. For the only hope today of reclaiming democracy in Greece (and elsewhere) resides in the prospect of a mass uprising against modern debt-bondage that extends the rule of the people into the economic sphere.
14 February 2012 — The Bullet • Socialist Project – E-Bulletin No. 598
On Sunday 12 February 2012 the people of Greece, in demonstrations and street fights all over the country expressed in a massive, collective and heroic way their anger against the terms of the new loan agreement dictated by the EU–ECB–IMF ‘troika’ (Eurpoean Union, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund). Workers, youth, students filled the streets with rage, defying the extreme aggression by police forces, setting another example of struggle and solidarity.
30 November 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 575
Israel is currently experiencing an internationally visible collapse of its ‘liberal democratic’ camp, raising significant problems for a state whose underlying theocratic and apartheid features have historically been partially covered from international view by liberal democratic pretenses.
Given that the governments of Greece and Italy are apparently being seized for direct political rule by the financial system, one might suggest that dispensing with democratic niceties is the international order of the day. Perhaps, then, Israel won’t find itself all that isolated after all. But it might. In any case, developments in Israel and the commentary that they have triggered should provide the opportunity to forcefully brush aside any lingering illusions about Israeli establishment ‘moderation.’ Such illusions are little more than an unfortunate hangover from years gone by, when Israeli colonial rule found unlikely allies even among ostensible Western progressives.
17 November 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 570
In recent years Karl Marx has again been featured in the world’s press because of his prescient insights into the cyclical and structural character of capitalist crises. Now there is another reason why he should be re-read in the light of Greece and Italy: the reappearance of the ‘technical government.’
1 November 2011 — Socialist Project
Completely unexpected, 2011 has emerged as a year of revolt against neoliberalism and austerity, from Tahrir Square in Cairo to Plaça de Catalunya of the indignados to Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall Street. The overthrow of long-standing authoritarian regimes in the Arab world re-asserted the moral and organizational capacities of workers and popular movements to transform the world.
As Adam Hanieh writes in his contribution here: “The events of the year are one of those historical moments where the lessons of many decades can be telescoped into a few brief moments and seemingly minor occurrences can take on immense significance. The entry of millions of Egyptians onto the political stage has graphically illuminated the real processes that underlie the politics of the Middle East. It has laid bare the longstanding complicity of the U.S. and other world powers with the worst possible
regimes, revealed the empty and hypocritical rhetoric of United States President Barack Obama and other leaders, exposed the craven capitulation of all the Arab regimes, and demonstrated the real alliances between these regimes, Israel and the USA. These are political lessons that will long be remembered.
23 October 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 561
Note: This text is part of a longer article about the global crisis and resistance that is being written by Kolya Abramsky, and will explore questions of the emerging worldwide political struggle which is the latest stage of the crisis’ development; the limits of political reformism; control of key means of production and reproduction; and the question of force. It was hoped that this longer article could be finished already by now, but this has not been possible. However, due to the urgency of the situation in Greece, and the fact that the situation can change radically in the next few days, he has decided, together with Aris Leonas, who is the main author of this text on Greece, to send this part out separately.
21 October 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 560 – Toronto New Socialists
The Occupy Wall Street movement and the mobilizations of the ‘indignant’ in Europe have sparked solidarity actions in many places around the world. October 15, 2011 was a massive day of action that included over 60 marches in Spain, a huge demonstration of over 100,000 in Rome and Occupy actions in cities and towns across North America and in many other places.
7 October 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 552
O No, wait! You’re supposed to arrest the bankers!When he ran for president in 1948, Harry Truman complained of the “blood-suckers of Wall Street,” an unkind characterization of the upstanding bankers and financiers who manage America’s money so brilliantly. Over sixty years later we now find a large number of Americans out on the Streets of Finance repeating Harry’s commentary, rather less politely. Why choose the titans of finance on Wall Street to trash?
Might it be because in addition to committing the crime of the century by causing the Great Financial Crisis (we have almost ninety years to go, so they have ample opportunity to do even worse), they are, as Harry pointed out, social and economic vampires. A few simple and easily accessible, yet largely unnoticed, statistics demonstrate the blood-sucking. In 1950 the U.S. finance and insurance business generated (i.e., siphoned off) 2.4 per cent of national product, rather slim and meager pickings. After reaching three per cent in 1953, the titans of finance required fifteen years to achieve four per cent (1968), and another thirteen to hit five (1981).
6 October 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 551
The entrapment and arrest of 700 peaceful Occupy Wall Street (OWS) activists on the Brooklyn Bridge has created a huge wave of support for their movement. The number of daytime occupants in Liberty Plaza doubled or tripled from 100 the week prior to 200-300 this past Monday and Tuesday. These people are the core who maintain the occupation of the plaza, making it possible for several hundreds and sometimes thousands to hold rallies in the late afternoon and participate in the open mic speakouts and General Assembly meetings in the evening.
23 September 2011 — • The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 547 – www.davidmcnally.org
While I was cursing the inane mainstream commentary on the global economy recently, I was reminded of a pivotal scene in the 1976 movie, All the President’s Men. As two young reporters investigate the burglary of Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Hotel, a disgruntled, high-ranking FBI agent, code-named Deep Throat, advises, “Follow the money. Always follow the money.”
11 September 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 543
What happened to the North American Left? Why is it that, even now, when capitalism seems so obviously unappealing, unsustainable and unfair, the Left cannot mount a more serious challenge to the Right or its grim austerity agenda?
15 August 2011 — The Bullet • Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 536
A common response of the left to the financial crisis that broke out in the USA in 2007-08 was often a kind of Michael Moore-type populist one: Why are you bailing the banks out? Let them go under. This kind of the response was, of course, utterly irresponsible, with no thought given to what would happen to the savings of workers, let alone to the paychecks deposited into their bank accounts, or even to the fact that what was at stake was the roofs over their heads.
The New Dark Age 