comment and analysis
Seven theses on the present crisis - João Bernardo
A survey of the financial crisis, systemic regulation problems for global capital, the economic growth of China, India and Brazil and its relation to the investment strategies of transnational capital.
"Contrary to what happened the 1930s, the economic and financial crisis which the United States is undergoing is not a world crisis but rather the strengthening of the development opportunities of huge areas of the globe."
Aftermath of wildcat at Israel Railways
Using an inside source, an Israeli libertarian communist constructs an analysis of the picture behind the scenes at the recent wildcat of Israel Railways workers. For context, see the original news update.
“We couldn't even walk around a train station without workers eating at us!” – One of the six union representatives accused of being responsible for the wildcat, at the disciplinary hearing.
“What you saw today was a distress signal from workers without a leadership... what they needed was a bear hug, an open ear...” – advocate for same, at the disciplinary hearing.
Beyond good and evil: the Gaza massacre
The left's response to Israeli atrocities in Gaza provides a case study in ressentiment. If we want to stop such slaughters rather than participate in the spectacle of them, we need to stop fetishising distant victims and start trying to exercise power over our own lives so that meaningful solidarity becomes possible.
A tentative peace reigns in Gaza, if you can call a devastated open prison, surrounded by one of the most powerful militaries in the world, where "Hamas fighters stride confidently down the road with rifles slung across their shoulders" as at peace.
What recession means for us
An analysis of the likely impact of the coming recession on workers' lives and a rallying call for collective action to mitigate that impact.
The recession is here. We're told to tighten our belts and brace ourselves for redundancies, wage and service cuts. Politicians and business leaders are united in saying we should pay for a crisis not of our making [see box for a brief history of the crisis]. A recession is simply when the economy shrinks for 6 months in a row.
The politics of affirmation... or the politics of negation?
What is it that defines communist politics from the politics of the rest of the left? This blog argues that communist politics are a politics of negation; a movement to abolish the present state of things.
Political debate often tends to quickly polarise into simple binaries. This is perhaps even more so online. Mainstream politics has its liberals/conservatives and left/right; radical politics has its anarchist/Marxist and reform/revolution.
Inflation: rising prices and the 2% pay ceiling
An analysis of the use of inflation to attack workers' conditions.
If the government were to announce that it was cutting the wages of all workers - public and private sector - there would presumably be uproar. And yet this is exactly what they have done by calling for ‘pay restraint’ and insisting all wage rises are capped at 2%. Make no mistake, a sub-inflation pay ‘rise’ is a pay cut. No amount of statistical trickery changes this simple fact.
War on the streets in Armenia
February and March in Armenia saw a disputed presidential election (19/2/2008) followed by eleven days of demonstrations in the capital Yerevan, broken up by tanks, police attacks and the imposition of a State of Emergency (1/3/2008).
Eight people, including a child, were killed by police and around 100 were injured including 33 police. An apparently unrelated border fire-fight on 4/3/08 in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, disputed with neighbouring state of Azerbaijan with whom Armenia is still technically at war, broke a ceasefire agreed in 1994, killing 12 Armenian conscripts.
State terror and dirty war: a year of state recuperation in Mexico
An in-depth look at the contemporary situation in Mexico in the aftermath of recent state offensives against movements in Chiapas, Oaxaca and San Salvador Atenco.
Following a heady 18 months of diverse and popular struggles up down the country, the Mexican state is using familiar tactics to reassert itself as the country’s main authority.
UK: Prison officers in mass unlawful strike
Some 20,000 prison officers in England and Wales took illegal unofficial action on Wednesday 29 August against Gordon Brown’s public sector wage cuts and the disastrous overcrowding in prisons.
Some 20,000 prison officers in England and Wales took illegal unofficial action on Wednesday 29 August against Gordon Brown’s public sector wage cuts and the disastrous overcrowding in prisons.
Workers struggle betrayed by State and union in Venezuela
This article was written by a revolutionary who has been working with the occupied factory in Venezuela.
Workers Control at Venezuela’s Sanitarios Maracay under Attack
By Megan Hise
