Wine and Cheese

Benefit envy without benefit - Junge Linke

Submitted by Django on Jan 2 2013 23:16

Junge Linke discuss the government's mobilisation of benefits envy as part of its assault on living standards.

The government is undertaking a massive impoverishment programme, part of which is to cut housing benefits.

Gentrification - the economy of the land and the role of politics

Wine and Cheese on the politics and economics of land and housing.

1. The Economy of the Land

Who displaces whom and why?

Islamism – Consequence of, heir to and rival of frustrated Arab nationalism

Wine and Cheese on the origins and meaning of Islamism.

1. Islam has a bad press in the free West: followers of Islam still live in the Middle Ages, one hears, and Islamic clerics may conduct procedures their Christian colleagues have only been allowed to dream of for 150 years – to veil women, stone sinners, and burn heretics to death.

“If we have rice, we can have everything”: a critique of Khmer Rouge ideology and practice

Junge Linke on the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in Cambodia, and its origins.

1. The Khmer Rouge have become synonymous with the terror of ‘communism’.

Wikileaks: The state persecutes its idealists - Junge Linke

Junge Linke discuss Wikileaks.

1. The premise of the WikiLeaks project is that the exposure of governmental and corporate secrets is the critique of those parties. The project and its manifesto – written by Julian Assange before WikiLeaks took off – is concerned with fighting conspiracies, acts carried out in hiding, away from the prying eyes of the public.

Private property, exclusion and the state - Junge Linke

Junge Linke on the interdependence of private property, capitalism and the state

Any reasonable analysis of capitalist societies must include a critique of private property in the means of production. Most Marxists would agree. But it takes two to tango. The capitalist mode of production cannot be completely self-sufficient. It’s ridden with prerequisites, and it is the state that introduces and maintains these prerequisites.

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?" - Junge Linke

Junge Linke on elections, democracy and the state under capitalism.

… “Oh yes ”, said Ford with a shrug, “of course”. “But”, said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?” “Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard, ” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”1

  • 1. Douglas Adams. So long, and thanks for all the fish. Chapter 36. 1984

Proud to be ... So what?

Junge Linke on identity politics, and the emancipation of oppressed groups under capitalism.

Identity is the forced community of individuals

Why anti-national?

Why is nationalism so effective and so persistent? What is the basis for the continual appeal of nationalism in its many forms? Wine and Cheese tackle the question.

When we declare our opposition to capital and nation, quite a few people would agree with the later part if we appended an ‘-ism’. Being a ‘nationalist’ is not a badge of honour these days, instead it is reserved for the types of the British National Party. A proper, democratic citizen does not consider himself a nationalist, instead the much more noble label ‘patriot’ is preferred.

Public debt makes the state go round

As the general election approaches, the major parties argue over how to deal with the budget deficit. Wine and Cheese examine the global financial system and ask whether debt is a problem in itself, and how much debt is "too much"?

In May 2010 voters in the UK are asked to decide on the appointment of the state’s most important employees for the next five years. Although voters are not asked anything but a question about personnel and no issue of substance is actually their call, the surrounding debates focus on the budget deficit as the decisive factor.