The coronavirus pandemic has triggered a contagious crash in the world’s stock and money markets already inflated and distorted by cheap credit intended for but not directed into new investment. In other words, they were ready to blow. A global recession now appears inevitable as production dependent on global supply lines comes to a grinding […]
You are browsing archives for
Tag: democracy
Parliament’s two civil wars: time for a
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 […]
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 […]
‘What would those at the time of Peterlo
It’s taken 200 years but Manchester is finally going to get a proper memorial to mark the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Conceptual installation artist Jeremy Deller’s design has just won the approval of the council’s planning committee after a degree of haggling. With the August bicentenary of the massacre, fast approaching, Deller’s work will be […]
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 […]
In the midst of splits and political mel...
The resignation of eight Labour MPs and three Tories from their parties in order to form a reactionary “Independent” Group in the House of Commons is a clear indication that the present Parliamentary system is in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Holding the fractured system together looks like mission impossible. A strategy to renew […]
Brexit crisis shows political system is ...
The dramatic deadlock in the UK over Brexit is a spectacular expression of a broken political system. Our existing form of democracy is simply incapable of representing the diverse interests of the people, whichever way they voted in the 2016 referendum. Ravaged by decades of neoliberal-driven globalisation, the system is but a shell, a shadow […]
Tories ignore global heatwave and give b...
In the midst of the global heatwave, energy minister Claire Perry’s approval of the first UK fracking licence under its new, more permissive regulatory regime reveals more of the real, corporate power behind the government. Approval for shale gas extraction company Cuadrilla to begin extraction in Lancashire has injected new energy into the opposition movement […]
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 […]
A democratic revolution can unite for an...
Is the alternative to Brexit simply the UK remaining a member state of the European Union? Or is there a case for a more imaginative and democratic option that could appeal to both leavers and remainers? It’s worth asking these questions because Brexit is clearly a multi-layered challenge that will dominate politics for the foreseeable […]
In Tory Britain, the only certainty is u...
The break-up of the Tory government is more than just a crisis of a party that lost its majority, with many preferring a genuinely warm person like Jeremy Corbyn instead of a robotic prime minister. Corbyn promised an end to austerity and change to benefit the many, while Theresa May promised more pain allied to […]
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 […]
Planning for a Corbyn government
The prospect of a Jeremy Corbyn-led government grows closer as Theresa May’s divided government staggers from pillar to post in the wake of the abysmal failure of her pathetic “strong and stable” election campaign. That’s why we’re planning ahead by getting together on October 28. Any number of issues, most notably Brexit, could hasten the […]
The case for a democratic revolution
1 The present political and economic system prioritises and serves powerful corporate and financial interests and not those of the majority. 2 Therefore the system cannot be regarded as democratic in a meaningful way, as is claimed by the ruling elites and others who endorse or support the status quo. 3 The capitalist type of […]
A better democracy – create anew
Imagine tomorrow you were to be born again into the world, a world you can control but you cannot control what characteristics you’ll be born with. You don’t know whether you will be a man or a woman, black or white, born in Sierra Leone or Manhattan, fat or thin, good at maths or sport. […]
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 […]