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Socialism

A Socialist Economy For The 21st Century

December 20, 2016 Richard Rosen, www.thenextsystem.org ,
By Richard Rosen for The Next System Project - In Next System Project Report 3, author and Tellus Institute co-founder Richard A. Rosen explores the changes he deems necessary for a modern definition of “socialism”, and describes key concepts and issues that arise when aiming to restructure the American economy to include social and environmental sustainability in the Twenty-First Century. To elucidate some of these concepts and issues, Rosen analyzes a set of economic sectors that have very different mechanisms and structures for determining prices, and very different environmental impacts, including: chemical manufacturing, small businesses, housing, defense manufacturing, nonprofit sector, agriculture, and finance.

Fidel Castro In Context

November 27, 2016 ByBelen Fernandez, www.aljazeera.com , ,
ByBelen Fernandez for Al Jazerra. As of the year 2006, Fidel Castro, Cuba's revolutionary leader, who has died aged 90, had reportedly been the subject of no fewer than 638 assassination plots by the CIA. Following the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959, the US political establishment labored to portray the country as not merely an ideological disaster, but also a bastion of malevolence and a downright existential threat. It is within this context that Fidel's legacy must be analysed. And it is this context that grants him legitimacy as a symbol of resistance against hegemony. Despite sensational braying over the decades about the Cuban menace, Castro never posed a physical threat to the US. Rather, the danger always lay in the example he set, which exposed the possibility of challenging the pernicious self-declared US monopoly over human existence - and for which he merits remembrance as a hero.

Justice For Chelsea Manning And Edward Snowden

September 21, 2016 Scott Tucker, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , ,
By Scott Tucker for Popular Resistance.org. Manning’s situation in prison is indeed urgent, we can expect the corporate state and career politicians to respond to such cases with miserly pardons and small portions of charity. In the last days of his presidency, Obama has been pardoning some deserving people, and he could easily include both Manning and Snowden (among other honorable whistleblowers like John Kiriakou) with the stroke of a pen. But this president only finds his “courage” on a dwindling timeline, and is stingy as a banker in spending political capital. Why would this Nobel Peace Prize winner pardon citizens who have already paid a heavy price in exile and prison for their own sacrifices on behalf of peace and democracy? To ask the question is to answer it. Under Obama’s “progressive” administration, we have witnessed a vast expansion of state surveillance and of bombing by drones. Of course, we should still support any public campaign urging holders of high offices to show more courage. But let’s also be honest. We are talking about the kind of courage that could end careers in the capitalist parties. A fraction of the ruling class does become class conscious, and sometimes will take just such risks. The exceptions prove the rule. The drive toward war and empire is bipartisan and corporate.

The Role Of Cooperatives In Constructing 21st Century Socialism

August 17, 2016 Cliff DuRand, www.geo.coop ,
By Cliff DuRand for Grassroots Economic Organizing - This paper conceptualizes socialist construction as a process of incremental reclaiming from capital of those resources that can best be held in common so that members of a community can achieve their fuller human development*. Under democratic rules the community regulates the commons so as to ensure its accessibility and sustainability. The formation of cooperatives is an instance of the socialization of the workplace.

US-Led Economic War, Not Socialism, Is Tearing Venezuela Apart

July 14, 2016 Caleb T. Maupin, www.mintpressnews.com , ,
By Caleb T. Maupin for Mint Press News - WASHINGTON — (ANALYSIS) The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market. Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.

Poverty Has Always Accompanied Capitalism

July 10, 2016 Mark Karlin, www.truthout.org , , ,
By Mark Karlin for Truthout. What economic theory Americans learn comes mostly - directly or indirectly - from college and university teachers: their classes, the textbooks they write, the journalists and politicians shaped by them, etc. The substance of the mainstream economics delivered in these ways is this: economics is a basic science that explains how the economy works. By "the economy" is meant modern capitalism as if (1) nothing else, no other system, was of interest today (other than for historians) and (2) no alternative ways of theorizing, thinking about economies, exist or are worth considering. Indeed, most mainstream textbooks have the word "economics" in their title as if no differentiating adjective (such as neoclassical or Marxist etc.) needs to be added to let readers know which among alternative theories was being used by the author.

How To Socialize America’s Energy

May 22, 2016 Kate Aronoff, www.theleapblog.org , , , ,
By Kate Aronoff for the LEAP Blog. Today’s renewable energy sector, while growing rapidly, hardly offers a roadmap to the transition needed. As billionaires battle over the profits promised by the “clean energy revolution,” experts agree that cobbling together private-sector solutions will not be enough. Neither will the boutique solutions on offer from the left. A more radical approach—one commensurate to the scale of the problem—will require state intervention. Yet traditional forms of public investment remain elusive. Calls for a Green New Deal or wartime-level mobilization against climate change, to use the oft-invoked metaphors (A “Marshall Plan for the Earth,” in Naomi Klein’s version), each take their cues from an economic ideology antithetical to today’s. Instead of direct investment, funding for renewables comes largely via tax credits and market-based incentives for private companies, including the recently extended 30 percent Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar. Public infrastructure spending and job creation programs remain off the table.

More Americans Want Socialist Healthcare Than You Think

May 20, 2016 Harry Cheadle, www.vice.com , ,
By Harry Cheadle for Vice - The passage of the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, shows what it takes to create a new government benefit in 21st-century America. The debate over the bill during Obama's first term was a nationwide shoutfest that turned violent at times; since Obamacare became law in 2010, the Republican-controlled House has continuously voted to defund it, conservatives have challenged it in multiple court battles (at least one of which is still being fought), many GOP-run states have stalled the expansion of Medicaid that was supposed to come with the law...

Mapping American Social Movements Through 20th Century

May 9, 2016 James Gregory, www.fdepts.washington.edu , , , ,
By James Gregory forUniversity of Washington - This collaborative project features maps and other visualizations showing the chronological geography of dozens of social movements that have influenced American life and politics during the 20th century, including radical movements, labor movements, women's movements, many different civil rights movements, environmentalist movements, and more. Until now historians and social scientists have mostly studied social movements in isolation and often with little attention to geography.

Mapping The European Left Socialist Parties In The EU

April 16, 2016 Dominic Heilig, www.frosalux-nyc.org , ,
By Dominic Heilig for Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - The European party system is changing rapidly. As a result of the ongoing neoliberal attack, the middle class is shrinking quickly, and the decades-old party allegiance of large groups of voters has followed suit. The European far right has been able to capitalize on this development; in many countries, populist and radical right-wing parties have experienced an unprecedented boom, as Thilo Janssen’s RLS-study on “Far-right Parties and the European Union” shows.

Anniversary Of The Paris Commune, 1871

March 18, 2016 The Days of the Paris Commune, www.daysofthecommune.com , ,
By The Days of the Paris Commune, The Paris Commune was 72 days when the working class seized power in Paris and put in place their own government. During the Commune workers occupied their own city, creating a progressive democratic assembly from March 18 to May 28, 1871 before being brutally destroyed by the French Government.The commune has been talked about and analyzed by many for the lessons it taught. We thought on this anniversary we'd remember some of the lessons of the Paris Commune.

The Socialist Origins Of International Working Women’s Day

March 9, 2016 Jennie Ernewein, www.marxist.ca , ,
By Jennie Ernewein for Fightback - Over 100 years have passed since the first International Women’s Day was organized. Although International Women’s Day (IWD) has, in recent years, become an event that focuses on the celebration of women’s rights and achievements, the socialist origins of the IWD have become lesser known. Originally called International Working Women’s Day, it was proposed by Clara Zetkin of the International Women’s Conference that was linked to the Socialist Second International in 1910.

Why Are There Suddenly Millions Of Socialists In America?

March 4, 2016 Harold Meyerson, www.theguardian.com , , ,
By Harold Meyerson for The Guardian - In 1906 German sociologist Werner Sombart wrote an essay entitled Why Is There No Socialism in the United States? that sought to explain why the US, alone among industrialized democracies, had not developed a major socialist movement. Today, however, we need to pose a different question: why are there socialists in the United States? In this nation that has long been resistant to socialism’s call, who are all these people who now suddenly deem themselves socialists? Where did they come from? What do they mean by socialism?

The No State Solution In Kurdistan: Libertarian Socialism Institutionalized

March 2, 2016 Alexander Kolokotronis, www.newpol.org , , ,
By Alexander Kolokotronis for New Politics - In what many outside of the territory are referring to as the Rojava Revolution, a major shift in political philosophy and political programmatics has taken place in Kurdistan. Yet, this shift is not limited to the region of Rojava, or what many call Syrian or Western Kurdistan – a region where the Democratic Union Party (PYD) has taken an active part in this change. In “Turkish,” or rather Northern Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been the foremost leader. In Eastern Kurdistan (lying within Iranian borders) the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) has taken to the change in ideological orientation as well.

Venezuela Agricultural Communes Oppose Privatization Of Lands

February 9, 2016 Lucas Koerner, www.venezuelanalysis.com , , , , ,
By Lucas Koerner for Venezuela Analysis – After passing a motion by majority vote on Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly will launch an inquiry into the expropriations of privately owned land and enterprises spearheaded by the socialist government in past years. The country’s newly elected parliament, dominated by the right-wing opposition, has vowed to reverse the socialist government’s social and economic policies, which included the breakup of large private firms and landholdings deemed unproductive and their transfer to state, worker, or communal control.
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