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Showing posts from May 3, 2020

France

A good article from last year "Power usually operates through distinct, sometimes competing, sub-groups — senior civil servants, both French and European, intellectuals, bosses, journalists, the conservative right, and the moderate left. Within this cosy framework, turns are taken in power, and these obey certain democratic rituals of elections followed by periods of quiescence." Class war

Global Capitalism

A good framing of the big picture. But like all reformist leftists, no class analysis, no alternative such as nationalising the key sectors of the economy, genuine democracy and transforming the structure of capitalism for the benefits of the majority and the needs of humanity and nature by doing away of the profit motive. May be given the rise of the far right, racism, xenophobia, etc no radical solutions could be envisioned. Only modest ones (!) "In a horrific mind-warp, advanced eonomies suddenly find themselves facing the kinds of dilemma habitually faced by poor countries. We don’t have the tools. In the poor world, the everyday result is that children are stunted and families are impoverished. Millions die for lack of treatment. Covid-19 has delivered a taste of that to the rich world. Whereas one can reasonably say that giant structures such as capitalism and geopolitics stand in the way of addressing the climate crisis, the same is not true of Covid-19. The  cost of v

Environment and Climate Change

The film offers only one concrete solution to our predicament: the most toxic of all possible answers. “We really have got to start dealing with the issue of population … without seeing some sort of major die-off in population, there’s no turning back.” A review of Michael Moor's Planet of the Humans

Middle East and North Africa

An interview with Gilbert Achcar Pandemic and oil crisis could make second Arab spring return with a vengeance Related The seasons after the Arab spring