“Socialism for the 21st century … a combination of social ownership of the means of production, social production organized by workers and communities, and a society based upon solidarity which is oriented toward producing for communal needs and communal purposes” Michael A. Lebowitz The following two documents are presentations made or prepared for different purposes [...]
“There are many possible demands and plans that a powerful mass movement could make, but their particulars are less important than the building of working class solidarity. That is the key germ of socialism, whatever particular historically contingent institutions socialist movements might create…dialectics of alienation and liberation are deeply connected to issues of class consciousness [...]
“The only way forward is through a direct confrontation with political and economic elites. Positive progressive change is never willingly given up by elites – it must be forcibly taken from below. This is the most important lesson to take from the global backlash against neoliberalism.” Firemen on strike in Nice, France, on September 7, [...]
America and Europe face the worst jobs crisis since the 1930s and risk “an explosion of social unrest” unless they tread carefully, the International Monetary Fund has warned. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The labour market is in dire straits. The Great Recession has left behind a waste land of unemployment,” said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s chief, [...]
Washington is printing money, the modern equivalent of digging gold out of the ground, rather than earning the means to pay its bills. And the political and military elites are apparently indifferent to the fate of domestic business and industry. Americans must learn … from the Spanish experience … and take corrective action while they [...]
25 Sept 2010 Romania:Thousands demonstrate in Bucharest against social cuts , Over 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Bucharest on Wednesday to protest against the Romanian government’s austerity policies. (wsws) Spanish Unions Predict Successful General Strike Sep 24 (Prensa Latina) The two largest Spanish trade unions on Friday predicted success for a [...]
Economic austerity plans are arousing the ire of trade unions across continental Europe, although the degree of militancy varies widely. France’s trade unions are to hold a further day of strikes and mass protests on September 23 against pension reforms. The unions have set a target of mobilising more than the 1.1m-2.7m people who took [...]
Thousands of Cambodian garment workers have gone on strike for higher wages, reinforcing a trend that has seen substantial pay increases among some of Asia’s lowest-paid workers. Growing labour unrest is hitting low-wage industries across Asia, with widespread strikes in China, Vietnam and Bangladesh as well as Cambodia as economies start to recover from the [...]
US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities and the American Way of War from World War II to Iraq [*] preeminence of strategic bombing as quintessential to the US way of war,one that would characterize subsequent major wars that have wreaked yetgreater devastation on noncombatant populations. Yet for all the powerunleashed by US bombers, [...]
Along with some of Wall Street’s most storied firms, a certain vision of capitalism has collapsed. How we restore faith in our brand. The implosion of America’s most storied investment banks. The vanishing of more than a trillion dollars in stock-market wealth in a day. A $700 billion tab for U.S. taxpayers. The scale of [...]