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Fascism: Avoiding Anachronism
Anti-Fascism and Fascism What is fascism? Or, more pertinently, what was fascism, since the ideology and movement of that name developed in the specific historical conditions of the period between the last century’s two world wars. The word itself originated in Italy as the name given itself by an ultra-nationalist group opposed both to parliamentary…
Neo-Liberalism: Old Religion Repackaged
It’s not neo-liberalism that’s to blame – it’s capitalism In Marx’s day the doctrine that the government should not interfere in the operation of the capitalist economy was known as ‘Manchesterism’ after the city in the north of England where capitalist industry was then most developed and whose capitalists wanted to be free to pursue…
China: Points for Perfection
Credit and Control in China One consequence of new technology has been a vast increase in the extent of surveillance of people, whether by the state or private companies. CCTV, facial recognition, tracking the use of debit and credit cards, having access to phone records, cookies and other ways of recording a person’s use of…
“They’re killing us like dogs” — a massacre in Bolivia and a plea for help
The latest report from Bolivia speaks of strikes by workers and killings by the new authorities. From the Common Dreams website. I am writing from Bolivia just days after witnessing the November 19 military massacre at the Senkata gas plant in the indigenous city of El Alto and the tear-gassing of a peaceful funeral procession…
Bolivia – Morales comes up against capitalism
For many, the years following Evo Morales’s 2005 election in Bolivia were marked by jubilation and hope. For Bolivia’s indigenous people, support for Morales appeared to be paying off. The poverty rate dropped from 59.9 percent in 2006 to 36.4 percent. Access for indigenous communities to electricity, sewerage and water service all grew. Morales presided over…
The nuclear threat: resetting the doomsday clock
On the morning of 13 January 2018 a message was broadcast by the emergency alert system over television, radio and mobile phones to the people of Hawaii. The message stated that there was an incoming ballistic missile threat and advised residents to seek shelter, ending with: ‘this is not a drill.’ It seems the Hawaiian…
Hong Kong: the struggle for political democracy
Socialists can only applaud when workers around the world struggle for political democracy and freedom to organise as this is essential for the eventual struggle for socialism. After all, if workers are not willing to struggle for what they hold to be legitimate democratic rights, they are unlikely to strive for the transformation of society,…
African migration and the looting of Africa
There is a view that Africans are somehow “invading” Europe, even worse “swarming” into Europe. Anti-immigration rhetoric speaks of building fences and creating a Fortress Europe. It is as if there is a war, and Europeans must protect themselves against invaders. A year ago, the UN’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng…
Indonesia: from anti-Imperialism to imperialism
In August, East Timor (Timor Leste) celebrated 20 years independence from Indonesia. The 1974 left-wing coup in Portugal led to the dismantling of its colonies including what was then called Portuguese Timor. Indonesian forces commenced covert attacks, then invaded in 1975. An estimated 100,000 conflict-related deaths through the entire period 1974 to 1999, including 18,600…
Capitalism’s holy grail
Here’s an easy question – what’s your view of censorship? If you’re a socialist and a democrat, you’re probably against it. After all, you argue, the only really effective way to combat bad ideas is to bring them out in the open and put them up against good ideas, and you can’t do that if…