Archives: Online Posts
Worker Experiments in New Kinds of Politics
John Schultz challenges the “official history”‘s naturalization of the links between the Democratic Party and the labor movement. Turning to the historical record, Schultz argues the 1930s featured numerous worker experiments in independent labor politics.
Orc Marxism
Lee Konstantinou reviews Robert T. Tally Jr.’s The Mismeasure of Orcs, arguing that their inconsistent humanization by Tolkien signals a contradiction central to the fantasy genre.
Affordability or Crisis of Social Reproduction?
Kim Moody breaks down what the affordability crisis really means—a crisis of social reproduction created by the radical inequality of wealth.
“…to build socialist democracies worldwide”
In this review of Rosenblum;’s We’re Comning for You and Your Rotten System, John Clarke points to the successes of Sawant’s tenure in Seattle, while critically appraising the movement’s success at building popular democracy.
Toward an Iranian Socialism
Robab Vaziri traces the dilemma between theocracy and monarchy to the history of imperial intervention, arguing for a democratic and socialist Iran.
Managing Contradictions at the Border
Elaine Wik looks at the political economy subtending the dynamics of conflict and securitization at the India/Bangladesh border.
A Review of Nancy Holmstrom’s “From a Marxist-Feminist Point of View”
Cinzia Arruzza reviews Nanvy Holmstrom’s rigorous philosophical development of Marx’s theories in From a Marxist-Feminist Point of View.
Communes and Crisis
Manuel Casique Herrera responds to the recent Spectre interview with Geo Maher, arguing that Maher defends the Chavista regime by over-inflating the extent and power of the communes and ignoring political-economic trends before US sanctions. Closer attention to the Venezuelan state’s function as gate-keeper for ground rent for oil in light of global economic trends is necessary to make sense of the regime’s dynamics.
States of Indebtedness
Brandon Webb and Matthew Penney use Japanese state debt to show how both mainstream economics’ fiscal panic narratives and Modern Monetary Theory’s (MMT) closed economy model fail to account for how the monetization of public debt fuels speculative finance, redistributes wealth upward, and undermines social reproduction. A Marxist account of money does far better and points towards the need for a different, non-fetishized social form.
Non-natalism
Leslie Root shows how misguided it is for the left to accept pro-natalist positions. Worry about declining birth rates is based on a misinterpretation of the Total Fertility Rate, and minor social policies promoting higher birth rates will be met with pyrrhic defeat, producing backlash against minorities. The left can rely on better demographic data, and debates on the issue should be informed by reproductive justice, family abolition, and feminism.