economics

The permanent crisis: Henryk Grossman’s interpretation of Marx’s theory of capitalist accumulation - Paul Mattick

Mattick's classic work on the economic theories of Henryk Grossman and the dynamics behind the inevitable downfall of capitalism.

Introduction

Modern capitalism and revolution - Paul Cardan

Paul Cardan (Cornelius Castoriadis) attempts to describe and analyse the features and dynamics of the fully-industrialised capitalist societies of the early 1960s.

About the text

Burma: International power play?

Rob Ray looks at the economics surrounding the ‘Saffron Revolution’ in gas-rich Burma for Freedom newspaper

In the aftermath of the Burmese protests, in which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets alongside Buddhist monks, there has been mounting international pressure on China and India to pull back their substantial economic support to the country.

Private Equity: a vicious new breed?

Rob Ray looks at the recent manoeuvrings of Private Equity and asks what relevance its growth may have

In scenes reminiscent of the 80s pre-stock market crisis, a major row has blown up over the attempted Private Equity takeovers of high-street giants Sainsbury’s and Boots.

A prole's guide to the recession: economics with the truth - Wildcat (UK)

A guide to the language of economics and recession as it relates to workers, as opposed to abstract mystifying jargon.

A redefining of some economic terms.

=========

A PROLE'S GUIDE TO THE RECESSION

- Economics With The Truth

Going east: Direct investments in Eastern Europe

New Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile in the Czech Republic

Article looking at the flow of investments from Germany (and elsewhere in Western Europe) to countries further east.

“Then I will leave and go to the east!”
What some decades ago might have been a defiant outcry of desillusioned lefty teachers, under the threat of dismissal due to their CP membership, is now taken up again and realised by the ‘class enemy’.

Foreign investments in the Czech Republic: Boom or fall? 2004

Article analysing foreign investment and business in the Czech Republic since 1989 and recent changes which are occuring.

Transformation towards private capitalism, which started after 1989, was at the beginning mainly affected by the struggle inside the old-new ruling class for the actual character of this change. Already in 1990 the Czech faction of bourgeoisie led by Vaclav Klaus, who was minister of finance and who later became the prime minister and who is now the present president, got the strongest position.

Migration, industry and struggles in Poland, 1956-2005

An analysis of Poland, its economy, its social and political history and how it has been shaped by workers' struggles past and present.

Behind the Border
It is only a one hour journey from Berlin to the German-Polish border, the supermarkets in Berlin offer Polish food, immigrants from Poland are part of daily life in the German capital - nevertheless there are not many direct contacts (apart from perhaps the punk scene). The ‘iron curtain’ is slow to dissolve, due to languages and the geographical location.

Romania after the transition - restructuring and struggle, 2004

Article looking at capitalist restructuring and economic changes in Romania, and the growing militancy of the working class.

Romania after the Transition
Promised Land and Class Struggle

The reproduction of daily life - Fredy Perlman - Treason pamphlet

Fredy Perlman's pamphlet of working class economics, as compiled by Treason Press, February 2004.

Originally published 1969

A better formatted version of this text can be found here: http://libcom.org/library/reproduction-everyday-life-fredy-perlman

The parallax view: Karatani’s 'Transcritique. On Kant and Marx' - Slavoj Žižek

The philosophical basis for social action, as recast in Kojin Karatani’s striking Transcritique. On Kant and Marx. Slavoj Žižek investigates the irreducible antinomies of production and circulation — or economics and politics — as envisioned from the gap in between.

SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK: THE PARALLAX VIEW

Abolish Restaurants

Abolish Restaurants is an illustrated guide to the daily misery, stress, boredom, and alienation of restaurant work, as well as the ways in which restaurant workers fight against it.

Drawing on a range of anti-capitalist ideas as well as a heaping plate of personal experience, it is part analysis and part call-to-arms.

Download Abolish Restaurants in PDF format (13.4Mb)

The text-only version is reproduced below

ABOLISH RESTAURANTS

Chile: Anatomy of an economic miracle, 1970-1986

Article debunking myths about Chilean dictator General Pinochet's supposed "economic miracle."

From Black Flag 216, published in 1999.

Anatomy of an Economic Miracle

The Fetish Speaks!

Marx spoke of the commodity - now the commodity speaks of Marx... Quotes from Marx's Capital are given an unusual setting.

Is Latin America really turning left?

James Petras examines recent social movements and developments in the class struggle in Latin America.

A new series of social and national polarities in the Western Hemisphere has dominated political life over the past few years. At the beginning of the new millennium the national confrontation was between Cuba and the US/EU, and the social confrontations between the rural/indian and urban/unemployed movements and a continent-wide collection of neo-liberal regimes.

Housing Benefit

A short article from 'the Whinger' p. petard on proposed Housing Benefit reform.
www.geocities.com/doodlepaul
===============
Housing Benefit

Five Pounds and Five Pennies

A short article from 'the Whinger' p. petard on the minimum wage
===========
Five pounds and five pennies

The Decadence of Capital

"The Decadence of Capital"

An Alibi For "Progress"?

Published in Fifth Estate, Detroit, late 1980s.

Strange Victories

- by Midnight Notes

Originally published in Midnight Notes #1, 1979

Published as a pamphlet by Elephant Editions, London, 1985

Also included in the collection - Midnight Oil: Work, Energy and War 1973-1992 .

*********************************

INTRODUCTION

One in four youth unemployment figure disputed

Our interview with economist and European labour trends specialist Florence Lefresne about the CPE.

In the interview Lefresne, of the Institute of Economic and Social Research, questions the widely reported one in four youth unemployment figures that have been used repeatedly as a justification for the CPE.

news

Bus workers wildcat in Liverpool
More than 100 bus drivers staged an unofficial strike at Arriva’s Speke depot yesterday (May 7th) hitting hundreds of services.

articles

Struggle is a school: the rise of a shack dwellers movement in Durban, South Africa
This article by Richard Pithouse, first published in Monthly Review, charts the rise of the militant South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo which first emerged in 1995 and has gone from strength to strength since then despite severe state repression.

1968

1957-1975: The Vietnam War
Howard Zinn's short history of the war in Vietnam from the beginning of the Communist insurgency in 1957 until the defeat of US and South Vietnamese forces in 1975.

economics

1968

drop down