Book Review from the December 2008 issue of the Socialist Standard
Green Capitalism. Manufacturing Scarcity in an Age of Abundance. By James Heartfield. www.heartfield.org .2008
James Heartfield is associated with the former Trotskyist (British) Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) which used to publish Living Marxism (LM) and has moved on considerably since “the collapse of...
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An urban myth is circulating on the internet that banks have been creating money out of thin air.
Those who have seen the cult film Zeitgeist and its sequel Zeitgeist Addendum, popular amongst conspiracy theorists and others suspicious of governments and banks, will have heard recounted the argument that banks can somehow create money out...
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Why do capitalist states prepare for and wage war?
As we socialists never tire of pointing out, the primary function of military power in capitalism is to protect and expand control over resources, markets and transport routes on behalf of the capitalist class of the country concerned. However, the costs and risks that wars and...
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South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics this week announced it had negotiated a 99-year lease on some 3.2 million acres of farmland on Madagascar ,about half the size of Belgium , That’s nearly half of Madagascar’s arable land, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization, and Daewoo plans to put about three quarters of it...
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Down through the ages there have been various interpretations of history. For example, there are the theories which see in history the working out and realization of some sort of divine plan – like Hegel’s philosophy of history, which sees the whole historical development of society as the realization stage by stage of the...
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Stephen Muchiri, head of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation, stated recently that: “The amount of money used for the bailouts in the U.S. and Europe — people here are saying that money is enough to feed the poor in Africa for the next three years.” This estimate seems to be rather conservative as, according...
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A recent issue of the magazine TIME (14 October) highlighted the immense profits to be made in capitalism even in a trade recession. ” Need to start a war? No problem. While stock markets grate and financial institutions (and even whole countries, like Iceland) teeter on bankruptcy, one global industry is still drawing plenty...
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In 1921 36 companies were responsible for 85 percent of US grain exports. By the end of the 70s six companies controlled 90+ percent of Canadian, European, Australian and Argentinian grain and currently Cargill and Continental each control 25 percent of the world’s grain trade. While 37 nations have been plunged into food crisis...
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So Wall Street has their cake and gets to eat it too. No surprise. And the politicians of all stripes wring their hands and make grandiloquent sound-bites of how they should be listened to.
It’s just so much noise. Both Democrats and Republicans are shocked. SHOCKED! So much for the reputation of Ivy...
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The WSP got a an e-mail recently from some right-wing blogger for the New York Times who asked if we considered Barak Obama a socialist and if we supported his tax plans. blah, blah, blah. We won’t pass judgement on an article which may or may not see the light of day....
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