As the Tories brutally turn on each other in their bid to replace Theresa May as prime minister, significant sections of the Parliamentary Labour Party have decided it’s time to launch yet another attack on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. So we have two parallel civil wars in Parliament as both major parties consume themselves over Brexit […]
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Tag: capitalism
Farage is a clear and present danger. He...
The rapid rise of the Brexit Party to first place in the opinion polls for the European elections is rightly sending shockwaves through Westminster and beyond. It is currently forecast to win more votes than the Tories and Labour combined. Make no mistake, Farage is preparing a kind of insurrection against a system which is […]
There’s nothing green about bio-energy
The Bio-fuel Deception: Going Hungry on the Green Carbon Diet by Okbazghi Yohannes, Monthly Review Press, review by Penny Cole The story of bio-fuels is a moral tale of how marketised, profit-driven responses to climate change will both fail to solve the problem and cause unconsidered damaging outcomes. As millions of hectares of land are […]
A decade after the crash, a fairer, kind...
Ten years ago, the world economy ground to a halt in the wake of the biggest financial crash in the history of capitalism. The vastly overinflated atmospheric layer of global credit had burst. The banks and the entire financial system were in trouble, big trouble. Bear Stearns and Northern Rock led the collapse. Then on […]
Trade unions at the crossroads as TUC ma...
In June 1868, trade unions in Britain came together to launch a combined organisation. As the TUC — Trades Union Congress — celebrates its 150th birthday, the movement faces, arguably, its biggest battle for survival. Peter Arkell reports. Membership of TUC-affiliated unions has fallen relentlessly to reach a new low today of just over 6 […]
Everything you wanted to know about neol...
A profound crisis is threatening humanity. Democratic politics is being driven out by authoritarian populism in country after country. The planet’s fragile ecosystem is under unprecedented assault as a result of profit-seeking overproduction. International conflict looms more threateningly than at any time since the 1930s. Last, but not least, the global economic system has been […]
Why we need a governing legislative fram...
In the e-book Democracy Unchained, Chapter 2 charts the rise of a corporatocracy that has re-fashioned the state to serve the needs of powerful corporations and their shareholders – particularly over the last 30 years. It states: “By the 21st century, fewer than 100 transnational corporations (TNCs) dominated the world economy …” and “… some […]
Inequality will persist without redistri...
Luck determines the winners and losers of society, not merit or hard work. Those that start out with more get more, and those that start with little often fall through the gaps. Inequality is not only caused by the human inventions of rent, profit and interest but also by a quirk of the economic system […]
Arturo Ui is everywhere – thanks to Trum
Review: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Friday 9th June 2017 On the night of this performance in Glasgow, by final year students of West College Scotland, Bertolt Brecht’s play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was also being staged in London, at the Donmar Warehouse with Lenny Henry […]
The robots are coming
The robots are coming, there`s not much doubt about that. The question is: Are they welcome? And how do they actually make profits for the employer? Do they create profit in the same way as a human worker? But first the robots themselves … In 10-20 years in all likelihood, your coffee in Starbucks will […]
New democratic constitution key to Corby...
You couldn’t argue with most of Labour’s manifesto drafted by Jeremy Corbyn and his team. Abolition of tuition fees, extra resources for schools and the NHS, building 100,000 new affordable homes, lifting the public sector pay freeze, increased resources for local councils, repeal of the hated bedroom tax and recent anti-union laws all feature in […]
Hammond fiddles while the economy burns ...
We had to wait for elder statesman Ken Clarke in questions from MPs to introduce, ever so gently, a reference to the threat of recession. It was the first and last time even a hint of reality entered the proceedings of the chancellor’s autumn statement. Beyond the borders of the UK, however, and beyond the […]
‘Global disintegration’ threatens world
The vertiginous, downward spiral of the global capitalist economy is at last forcing itself into the consciousness of even its most loyal supporters and advocates. Not the least affected among them is Professor Lawrence Summers. You won’t find a more steadfast and respected pillar of the economic and financial establishment anywhere on the planet. Chief […]
How to create our own future
There’s no shortage of critiques of capitalism these days, but realistic and inspiring proposals for the means to replace it with something better are rare. Inventing the Future goes some way to filling the gap. Review by Gerry Gold Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams kick off with an in-depth examination of the lack of results […]