Paul Mason’s latest book, PostCapitalism, presents a vision of a new society, without the horrors of the current capitalist system. However, he no longer sees the possibility of mass working-class struggle to change society and dismisses socialism as an old idea whose time has passed. Peter Taaffe reviews.
Socialist thought is re-emerging at the forefront of the movement for global ecological and social change. In the face of the planetary emergency, theorists have unearthed a powerful ecological critique of capitalism at the foundations of Marx’s materialist conception of history. This has led to a more comprehensive conception of socialism rooted in Marx’s analysis of the rift in “the universal metabolism of nature” and his vision of sustainable human development. This work resonates with other approaches for understanding and advancing a Great Transition. Such a social and ecological transformation will require a two-step strategy. First, we must mount struggles for radical reforms in the present that challenge the destructive logic of capital. Second, we must build the broad movement to carry out the long revolutionary transition essential for humanity’s continued development and survival. - See more at: http://www.greattransition.org/publication/marxism-and-ecology#sthash.M8zbagkN.dpuf
Jeremy Corbyn gives his argument that Socialism does work. SUBSCRIBE for more speakers ► http://is.gd/OxfordUnion Jeremy Corbyn addresses the issue of health...
For many decades, the view was widespread on the left that there was a distinct European variety of capitalism which could be positively contrasted with the Anglo-American more 'free market' variety. The labour movements of northern Europe were usually seen as being the decisive force behind greater state economic involvement, more capitalist cooperation with unions, and more egalitarian social welfare and labour market regimes.
Clarifying what Karl Marx thought of the role of cooperatives is useful, not to receive the “correct” answer to what that role will be, but to help think through what alternatives answers might be and how they might color today’s expectations of...
Dr. Paul Cockshott, Computer Scientist at University of Glasgow will give us insights into the potential for cybernetic economics based on his research in computer planning.
According to Wired's senior maverick, Kevin Kelley, the frantic global rush to connect everyone to everyone, all the time, is quietly giving rise to a revised version of socialism.
A new book by French economist Thomas Piketty on "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" has recently caused a major stir on the opinion pages of newspapers and magazines. Piketty has resurrected from the ash heap of history Karl Marx's claim that capitalism inescapably leads to a worsening unequal distribution of wealth with dangerous consequences for human society.
At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.
Paul Cockshott is a Scottish computer scientist and a reader at the University of Glasgow. His major areas of work includearray compilers, econophysics and thephysical foundations of computability.
Politics and polling data reveal a remarkable shift in American attitudes toward socialism. More Democrats now view socialism favorably (42 percent) than unfavorably (34 percent). Among young adults, socialism does even better with a 43 percent favorable view vs. only 26 percent unfavorable. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist, has surprised the establishment with the strength of his campaign.
It would be wrong to characterize Corbynism as accident or manifest disaster. It is no mere attempt to resurrect a defunct left politics of the 1980s, but rather articulates a new discontent with neoliberalism.
THE great 20th-century conservative economist Joseph Schumpeter thought the left had overlooked a major selling point in pressing the case for public — i.e., government — control over productive capital. “One of the most significant titles to superiority,” he suggested, was that public ownership produced profits, which means not having to depend on taxes to raise money.
The challenges faced by Cybersyn’s protagonists were not unique to their era — we will face similar ones. While the project was far from perfect, its lessons should not be ignored by those seeking a future where technology is democratically harnessed for social good.
C4SS Feed 44 presents “Market Anarchism as Stigmergic Socialism” from the book Markets Not Capitalism, written by Brad Spangler, read by Stephanie Murphy and edited by Nick Ford.
I’m lucky enough to occasionally contribute to the New Yorker, where I’ve published three essays so far – all in their “A Critic at Large” section. It’s an interesting and challenging slot. I suspect, though, most people don’t know what writing such a piece entails.
The following reflections deal with a permanent and fundamental challenge that has confronted, and continues to confront, all popular movements struggling against capitalism. By this I mean both those of movements whose explicit radical aim is to abolish the system based on private proprietorship over the modern means of production (capital) in order to replace it with a system based on workers’ social proprietorship, and those of movements which, without going so far, involve mobilization aimed at real and significant transformation of the relations between labor (“employed by capital”) and capital (“which employs the workers”). Both sorts of movements can contribute, in varying degree, to calling capitalism into question; but they also might merely create the illusion of movement in that direction, although in fact only forcing capital to make the transformations it would need to co-opt a given set of working-class demands. We are well aware that it is not always easy to draw the boundary between efficacy and impotence in regard to the strategies resorted to by these movements, no more so than to determine whether their strategic aims are clashing with their tactical situation.
Richard Wolff discusses his conviction that making the transition from capitalism to socialism requires a deliberate critique of workplace organization.
The period of transition between our current capitalist economic and social system and a socialist economy is a very controversial subject among socialists.
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