Browsing: Politics
Rebellion is the Gateway to Our Future
Rampant editorial collective statement PostedJune 1, 2020 If police brutality, the pandemic, and impending economic depression robbed us all of a future, this rebellion is the beginning of our collective struggle to take it back. We are in the middle of the most powerful upsurge of nationwide urban rebellions since the 1960s. This rebellion is a long time coming. While the future is uncertain, it is clear that a tremendous force was unlocked by the demonstrators who faced off against the police in every major American city this weekend. The nation has followed the example of those in Minneapolis who…
PREGNANT PAUSE: Remarks on the Corona Crisis
from Ken Knabb We were already living in a general global crisis, but most people were only vaguely aware of it since it was manifested in a confusing array of particular crises — social, political, economic, environmental. Climate change is the most momentous of these crises, but it is so complicated and so gradual that it has been easy for most people to ignore it. The corona crisis has been sudden, undeniable, and inescapable. It is also taking place in an unprecedented context. If this crisis had taken place fifty or sixty years ago, we would have been totally at…
Lenin at 150 – an appreciation
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” – Lenin (born April 22, 1870) David McNally writes: I have long been allergic to the Lenin cult nurtured in many quarters. More than one radical group has been ruined by puffed up “generals” passing off their hectoring commands in place of real politics. But Lenin himself, that’s another story. Perry Anderson once observed that Lenin effectively created a Marxist “science of politics.” But there is more to it than that. It is true that Lenin was uniquely attentive to the concrete specificities of political struggle. The…
COVID-19: marking the death knell of the old world and midwife to the new
In just two weeks the world has been educated as to the incompatibility of free market neoliberal nostrums and the political and geopolitical order they support with the needs of humanity and the planet. On a national and international level coronavirus is ravaging not only the lives of its victims and those affected by its social and economic consequences, it has taken a bludgeon to a status quo that is now lies broken and blooded on the ground. To watch Donald Trump and Boris Johnson address their respective nations to update them on the pandemic’s impact and their response is…
Capitalism doesn’t have a handbrake
A further report from Maria Maza in Spain. Things are getting more and more difficult as days pass by. We are seeing the Government implementing measure after measure as events are coming. No emergency protocol whatsoever on any western country, but witnessing it in my own country is heartbreaking. To give them their due, they’ve been ruling for just two or three months, and a considerable number of the ministers had no previous experience on governing and face a corrosive campaign of hate and lies from the racist and authoritarian far-right. Plus this is overwhelming to all countries. Some of…
The pandemic, the working class and the left
The Coronavirus pandemic is accelerating across the world. Every few days the scope and scale of the disease is increasing. Hundreds of thousands of people are being infected, many thousands have already died and many tens of thousands will die. In China where the outbreak was first identified, it has been brought under control but elsewhere it is spreading rapidly. In its wake the virus is transforming everyday life. The main way to fight it is self-isolation and social distancing. No longer can people socialise as they did. Grandparents cannot help look after their grandkids. The schools are shut. The…
Lessons from the onset of the Covid-19 crisis in Greece
This is an important report from Panagiotis Georgakopoulos , head of the intensive care unit at the hospital of Patra for many years. Panagiotis was also head of the national organisation of public health prevention policies during the Syriza government. Starting from Achaia region… The first case of Covid-19 infection in Greece was identified at the end of February and concerned a young woman from Thessaloniki who had recently traveled to Milan, Italy. The second case of Covid-19 infection involved a 66-year-old man, who had recently traveled to Israel and Egypt, and firstly visited a private doctor in Amaliada city,…
Why we need to requisition property to address the pandemic
Learning from housing histories: Why we need to requisition property to address the pandemic By Samuel Burgum, University of Sheffield (@SJBurgum) The UK Government’s commitment to upholding individualised private property during the global Coronavirus pandemic is matched only by their wilful ignorance of historical responses to crises. At the time of writing, they are ignoring