Reflections on the Political Crisis and Right-wing Populism (tags)
The policies of neoliberal globalization have driven an enormous strengthening of transnational corporations and finance capital, and at the same time the division between rich and poor, between the top "1%" and the rest of the "99%"[28].
Against the cannabilism of capital (tags)
Civic democracy has become as threadbare as a worn-out shirt.. While the Corona measures condemn us all to an existence as individuals, each in his cell, alienating us from each other with masks, making any experience of collectivity impossible,
The future of humanity and the earth require a break from the rule of capital and the security state.... The political public is now at least beginning to discuss again how to deal with the constitution and fundamental rights. It remains to be seen what will become of them.
Advice on Corona and Budget 2020 (tags)
Emancipatory politics is characterized by the fact that interests are negotiated. The post-Corona phase will show what can be learned about the relation between politics and capital. Civil society should be engaged and resistant to ruling politics
Chaos.Thbe New Age of Revolutions (tags)
The End of the Megamachine brings to light the roots of the destructive forces threatening the future of humankind today. Dismantling Western progress mythologies, Scheidler shows how the logics of endless capital accumulation have devastated both human societies & ecosystems
Boris Johnson and the Long Shadow of Stalinism (tags)
The capitalist bourgeoisie needs and defends democracy as a form of social freedom only as long as it is useful to its own class rule. Their understanding of democracy & freedom is structurally limited. The 26 community centers in Vancouver could revive freedom and democracy.
Make Social Democracy Great Again (tags)
Erik Olin Wright spoke of smashing, taming, escaping and eroding capitalism as alternatives of the transformational left. We must resist the "selective perception" of the elite that ignores market distortions, market failures, state failures, and the attack on the poor, seniors and students
Markets as a Fetish, Globalization, and Dissent Management (tags)
Economic inequality must be reduced and democratic participation regained. Resisting tax avoidance, financial market regulations, climate policy, and globally combating poverty should be priorities.
“Hegemony How-To”: Rethinking Activism and Embracing Power (tags)
knowledge of what is wrong with a social system and knowledge of how to change the system are two completely different categories of knowledge.
Become a Solidarity Person (tags)
The majority of the world's population doesn't want to know anything about globalized neoliberal capitalism anymore. Many millions are dying in the consequences. The political institutions are extorted by financial elites and their media aids. The interests of big owners of capital dominate.
Gramsci on US President Trump: "Delicate and Dangerous" (tags)
The rulers integrate the ruled in their "hegemony." Our essential task is conquering power for the working class. I believe life means taking sides. Indifference is apathy, parasitism, cowardice and iws the opposite of life.
Why Philippine President Duterte is not a socialist (tags)
As new Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte prepares to assume office, a growing number of Filipinos seem to – or want to – believe his surprising claim that he will be the country’s first “socialist” President.
Free collection of articles.
LONG LIVE ANDRES BONIFACIO, FILIPINO REVOLUTIONARY (tags)
November 30 is the anniversary of the Philippine revolution against Spain led by Andres Bonifacio, the "supremo" organizer, theoretician and strategist. This essay seeks to explain the essence of his greatness.
How Neoliberalism Gained Hegemony (tags)
The pressing question is why do the masses vote against their own interests and applaud those who champion goals opposed to their well-being or welfare? Ideas prevail because power is on their side, not because they are better. Neoliberalism went from sect to cultural hegemony
Democracy and socialism (tags)
Democracy is the most popular word in the vocabulary of politics but also the most brazenly abused.
Philippines: 'Forward, Bayanihang Sosyalismo!' Popularising a socialism 'with local colour (tags)
The following is the English-language translation of a document on bayanihan socialism that was presented at the convention of the Philippines socialist party Partido Lakas ng Masa (Party of the Labouring Masses, PLM) in December, 2013.
The Dislocation of Homo Oeconomicus (tags)
"Students rate the teachers and demand a very specific kind of knowledge from them: it should be measurable, packaged and practical and cannot contain any uncertainties. Experimenting or thinking is not desired. There is a relation between service-provider and customer..."
Uncovering the Fracture of the System (tags)
Uncovering the fracture and the dislocations of this system, proposing changes and actively interfering is the optimistic side. The collective repression of problems is carried out to a spectacular extent. The welfare state and democracy cannot be separated.
CORPORATE MEDIA IS COMING TO HOME (tags)
Capital’s most severe crisis in seventy years ought to be a moment of significant opportunity for the left. But as the right mobilizes disgruntled Americans via its vast radio, television, web, and print empires, the one mass medium available to the left is driving out its best and brightest.
Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge - Part II" (tags)
a stinging indictment of US imperialism
The Future of Work-driven Society (tags)
When less and less time needs to be spent working for a living in Western industrialised countries, this partial freedom of gainful occupation is increasingly becoming a problem for those dismissed. The vision of working less and living longer is a utopia that is also realistic.
Rightwing Anti-Capitalism (tags)
The interests of the working class are no longer defended by the dominant parties. On the background of this representation crisis (cf Gramsci), rightwing populist parties have electoral successes all over Europe.
E. San Juan's recent book, ONLY BY STRUGGLE (Quezon City: Giraffe Books), represents one of the most important progressive voices in the movement for national democracy and liberation in the Philippines. This review highlights some noteworthy themes of the work.
DIRTY SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE (tags)
HOW THE US FEDERAL RESERVE HAS ABUSED THE PUBLIC SINCE INCEPTION
DIRTY SECRETS OF THE TEMPLE (tags)
AN ACCOUNT OF HOW THE US FEDERAL RESERVE HAS ABUSED THE PUBLIC SINCE INCEPTION
FILIPINOS IN THE U.S.A. AND AROUND THE WORLD: WHENCE AND WHITHER? (tags)
About ten million Filipinos are now scattered in the U.S. and around the world, chiefly as exploited migrant labor. Meanwhile, 85 million Filipinos--with the exception of a tiny privileged minority--are sufffering and resisting the current repressive regime in a rapidly deteriorating neocolonized social order. The Philippines has one of the most durable and vibrant revolutionary traditions in the whole world--the first Asian people to revolt against Western colonialism. 4.1 million Filipinos died opposing U.S. domination in the Filipino-American War at the turn of the last century. Today Filipinos are engaged in a popular democratic revolutionary process against U.S. imperialism and its local agents. Can overseas Filipinos contribute to the radical transformation of a world afflicted by the atrocities and terrors of global capitalism?
BUSH WORLD - TOO MANY STATES (tags)
A scathing indictment of Bush-Cheney policy broadly with a special focus on the Iraq war and in a little historical context.
Health in Neoliberalism (tags)
A cost explosion has not occurred in legal health insurance in Germany. If there is a financial problem, it is the problem of inadequate revenues. Mass unemployment is the central cause of the rising health premiums.
Western Culture, Opera, and Cultural Marxism (tags)
Opera allowed me to relax, sit back, and soak in my culture -- until last summer. That's when I realized operas were stocked with old fashioned Marxist critiques of capitalism and snide attacks on Western civilization -- and rotten to the core.
The social construction of consciousness (tags)
This paper gives a theoretical discussion of the source and methodology of the social construction of consciousness. The first section introduces the piece. The second establishes the relationship between "interests" and "consciousness." The third describes growing inequality in the US. The fourth develops the structural source of consciousness. The fifth details the interlocking nature of politics and economy in the US. The sixth section discusses how our consciousness can be constructed. The final section offers some solutions.