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Mr. Ip and the Wall Street Journal Discover Wealth Inequality
It was in 2013 that Thomas Piketty rediscovered the problem of wealth inequality with his celebrated book Capital in the Twenty-first Century. Published by Harvard University Press and selling several million copies, the book turned prevailing mainstream economic thinking on its head. Academic economists and capitalist apologists had long assured us that capitalism persistently created wealth […]
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Tax the Rich Rally in Albany
Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of the “capital of capitalism” was a tremendous accomplishment and a blow to Zionists, Wall Street and Democratic Party higher-ups. Even the New York Times described his victory as a “surge of anti-establishment discontent.” Just a few of Mamdani’s frequent pre-election critical comments on capitalism include: * Taxation […]
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Nayib Bukele and the Working-Class Struggle in El Salvador

This article analyzes the emergence of Nayib Bukele as a political figure in El Salvador from a Marxist materialist perspective. Bukele’s ascent is the result of both the failure of capitalist neoliberalist policies and the lack of a working-class struggle instrument. The author concludes that the only alternative lies in constructing a democratic political movement […]
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Imperialism, Multipolarity, and Palestine
It is a continuing source of frustration that an important segment of the Left holds the view that weakening the United States’ long-established grip on the top rungs of the hierarchical system of imperialism is — in itself — an attack on imperialism. Many of our friends, including those who claim to aim at a […]
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Paradise: A Dystopian Anti-Capitalist Gem
The 2023 German film Paradise went virtually unnoticed by commentators on the socialist left. Yet, it is amongst the best dystopian anti-capitalist films produced in the decade. The film follows the life of Max, an employee of Aeon, a company that buys life years from the poor to give them to the rich. Yes, you […]
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Santa Claus and the Contradictions of Bourgeois Ideology

A comrade recently pointed my attention to a comedy skit by Foil Arms and Hog called “Santa is Captured by the Russians,” where for two minutes Mr. Claus is interrogated by the Soviet police. Below are some excerpts from the conversation: Santa: I think there has been some sort of a mistake. You see I […]
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In Search of Kindness
Now is the season when priests proclaim, “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men” and mainstream media soothe us with stories and images of kindness. But why do peace and goodwill remain just dreams? Why is kindness so rare in the world today? Why is it limited to the personal sphere? Why is the wider world […]
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Marx, Gandhi and Primitive Accumulation: A Response to Akeel Bilgrami
Akeel Bilgrami’s article “Gandhi and Liberal Modernity: The Vexed Question of Caste” undertakes a materialist interpretation of Gandhi’s thought against the background of capitalism and the agrarian question. Gandhi’s idealization of precapitalist communities is given “descriptive” dignity as an implicit grasp of the inapplicability of the Marxist notion of “primitive accumulation” to India. While those […]
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Can Poorer Nations Break the Cycle of Dependency That Has Inflicted Grief for a Hundred Years?

In late July, I visited two settlements of the Landless Rural Workers (MST) on the outskirts of São Paulo (Brazil). Both settlements are named for brave women, the Brazilian lawmaker Marielle Franco – who was assassinated in 2018 – and Irmã Alberta – an Italian Catholic nun who died in 2018. The lands where the […]
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What a Giant Pile of Unsold Clothing in the Desert Can Teach Us about Real Resistance
According to this article: “Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, has been a dumping ground for fast fashion leftovers. A mountain of discarded clothing, including Christmas sweaters and ski boots, cuts a strange sight in the desert, which is increasingly suffering from pollution created by the fashion industry.” Some further explanation from […]