Archives
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What Could a Left Presidency Look Like in Mexico?
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador could become Mexico’s first progressive president in generations, but what would such a presidency actually look like? It is not an easy question to answer, though his time as leader of Mexico’s largest city could offer some insights. Keep reading »
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Focus on China: The East is Green?
Martin Empson examines the contradictions behind the green rhetoric of the Chinese government and its continued reliance on fossil fuels. Keep reading »
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Gaza: Who or What Has a Right to Exist?
Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom (Verso, 2018), is an extraordinary book. It is also a difficult book to read. In his preface, Norman Finkelstein writes that this work “has … Keep reading »
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The Crisis of Social Democracy: From Norway to Europe
The crisis of social democracy is being debated throughout Europe. Several of the historically strong labour parties have almost been wiped out in elections while others seem unable to recover … Keep reading »
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Ecological Sustainability, Inequality and Social Class
Karl Marx’s concept of sustainability is connected to his concepts of metabolism and reproduction. While the first connection is well recognized in recent literature (famously in the work of Paul … Keep reading »
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New Era in War on Workers: The Ramaphosa Presidency in South Africa
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) views the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa to the position of President of the Republic of South Africa, as a new era in the war against workers and the working class majority in the country. Keep reading »
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Amazon Is a 21st-Century Digital Chain Gang
When Amazon announced plans to locate a $5-billion, 50,000-employee complex as its second headquarters somewhere in North America, state governments and municipalities fell over themselves offering billions of dollars in tax abatements and corporate subsidies to secure the prize. Keep reading »
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The Geopolitics of the Kurds and the case of Rojava
How does the military cooperation of the Kurds in Rojava and Northern Syria with the USA, Russia and other forces affect their standing in the larger Syrian context? Keep reading »
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Fragmentation in Toronto’s Hotel Sector
The intensity of the current conflict between UNITE HERE and its trusteeship of Local 75 and Unifor’s formation of a new local of hospitality workers (condemned by most of the labour movement as a raid) makes critical self-reflection and discussion especially difficult. In this essay, Steven Tufts attempts to put this clash into perspective and offers ways forward that point to a unity beyond the current polarizing divisions in the sector. Keep reading »
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BDS Movement Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Norwegian parliamentarian Bjørnar Moxnes has officially nominated the BDS movement for Palestinian rights for a Nobel Peace Prize. He did so with the support of his party, the progressive Rødt (Red) Party, explaining why BDS “should be supported without reservation by all democratically-minded people and states.” Keep reading »
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At the Interstices of Race, Class and Imperialism: A. Sivanandan (1923-2018)
Ambalavaner Sivanandan, who has died aged 94 in London on 3 January 2018, was an organic intellectual working at the interstices of race, class and imperialism in the movements in which he was unconditionally immersed. A skillful essayist and gripping orator, he chiselled powerful idioms and imagery which travelled across his writing, and from his speeches to his writing, and back again. His prose was crafted not so much to be read quietly, as recited aloud. Keep reading »
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Red and Green: The Ecosocialist Perspective
The contemporary international political economy is marked by a great contradiction. On a planet characterized by finite resources, the economy is predicated upon an absurd and irrational logic of infinite expansion and accumulation. With its fossil fuel based operations continually spewing carbon into the earth’s atmosphere, the capitalist system’s productivist obsession with profit has brought humanity to the brink of an abyss. Keep reading »