I've found the last few episodes on David Harvey's podcast illuminating in terms of predicting the historical trends arising from the pandemic. He has this focus on 'getting out from under the pandemic' to glimpse at what might come after. One theme is ...
There are very simple explanations for all these things though. The Uyghur population has grown quite steadily and consistently since 1949. The 1.1% of Uyghur women of childbearing age who requested IUDs are doing so because they do not want to have ...
When you say The South has gradually moved away from the oppressive militarism and built as enlightened a modern society as they could. I refer you to the previous point about the systematic killing of democrats, peace activists, trade unionists, and ...
It's a bizarre argument to claim that 'Han' Chinese are concerned about Muslims as a demographic threat, considering how Uyghurs (along with various other ethnic minorities) were specifically exempt from the one child policy. Also, this post reads as if ...
That discussion available to watch here for other readers, and Ash Sarkar deserves the recommendation! Edit: link the Downstream show, not TyskySour
Sidestepping the whole criticism of Corbyn as a figure, one of the failings of the Labour left was their inability to properly set out what they meant by socialism. The party has manifestos, but it does not have a long-term programme with a clear vision of...
Socialism is when the government does stuff, and it's more socialism the more stuff it does. I was reading through this thread knowing with dread that I'd find this argument eventually, and here it is! It is not at all curious to observe that the ...
That explains it, probably the conditions of the embargo.
Yeah, Corbyn was pretty clear about it in 2015. I am opposed to the use of nuclear weapons. I am opposed to the holding of nuclear weapons. I want to see a nuclear-free world. I believe it is possible. Asked if he would ever use authorise the use of ...
I still maintain that the Afghan communists did more to develop the country and advance civil liberties in 14 years of socialist construction than the following 29 years of Taliban/NATO occupation. There was already a generation which saw a better way of ...
I was unsure on the Cuban vaccine(s), when I first heard about it I'd understood that they were developed by a Cuban medical institute, but that the actual pharmaceutical production was being done in China. Is that still the case? There's a similar ...
Pfizer have also (allegedly) been very demanding in negotiations with Argentina, pushing them to look for alternatives. I'm wary of monopoly corporations with the power to enforce decisions impinging on the sovereignty of national governments. And ...
I would note that the workers on the sharp end of western imperialism probably don't consider 'US security guarantees' as reassuring as you do. Meanwhile the People's Republic is committed to a multi-polar order and cooperation with the global south. See ...
On the other hand though, should we not also remain critical of claims made by people speaking from government offices in Washington DC? Of course I'm sceptical of this happy coalition of US neoconservatives, Turkish nationalists, right-wing fundamentalist...
This is funny because the World Uyghur Congress you mention there does in fact receive a generous budget from the US government. And the leader of the WUC's 'Campaign for Uyghurs' - Rushan Abbas, was at one point directly employed by the CIA.
Also in Britain the Tories are playing fast and loose with the vaccination timetable. The course of vaccination comes in two doses, and the current strategy is to prioritise getting first doses out to as many people as possible, while delaying the follow-...
However part of that will be accepting hundreds of deaths. As a morbid warning about the herd immunity strategy, the death toll in Britain just passed 100,000. The latest figure for today was 1,631 deaths. It's not really comparable to your average flu ...
As Victor Hugo said: Today for the whole earth France is named Révolution; and henceforth this word will be the name of civilization until the day it is replaced with the word Harmony. Looking at the world, I'm still waiting for harmony, so revolution it ...
I think one of the problems of the US Liberals is exactly this, that they too often resort to ridicule and they fail to take their enemies seriously. The 'orange man bad' stuff often misses the point entirely. There's this line of argument that Trump is ...
Francis Cabrel wrote this haunting song about them. It's a violent and tragic story of a cult which was wiped out through long years of systematic killing and torture. Obviously the comparison with Parler was rhetorical.
All the time Assange was under asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy the liberal press assured us that he should simply come out and have faith in the legal process. The uncomfortable prospect that the US might drag him off to be tortured in Guantanamo Bay was ...
You're skirting around one of the most glaring problems with Malthus (and JS Mill etc), that they don't take into account the existence of social forces as a whole. We see clearly that the material limits of nature are changeable, and they can be altered ...
Admittedly this discussion is drifting away from OP's revelation that liberalism 'doesn't work' though.
So read and share the Guardian by all means, but have no illusions about where it stands in relation to popular movements of the left. Yes, there are occasional good opinion pieces on CiF, those lonely voices don't excuse the shameful editorial line of the...
In the last decade there's only been one British daily newspaper which consistently and enthusiastically called for a Labour vote on election day... and it wasn't the graun.
Absolutely, neoliberalism is a political project. There was no intention to have the wealth trickle down, and the people expected no social advances from it.
To reclaim the terrible ultra-leftist slogan: Neither the Troika nor the Tories but international socialism! And you're correct, there's always been a democratic left position critical of the EU as a neoliberal trading bloc and an instrument of the ...
You're right to be critical of motivations, I don't trust the state or the pharmaceutical corporations either. But at this point I think there are a lot of people in Britain (myself included) who will be rolling up our sleeves and getting in line the ...
I don't know the calculation behind it but the hopeful scenario in Britain is that vaccinating around 30-40% of the population should be enough to bring the rate of infection down to the point where it settles down to a handful of cases per day, rather ...
I just read it, it's a useful summary. Using his terms I would see New Zealand as still stuck in the long 90s, and a moderate Labour government is pretty much the standard form for 'neoliberal management + reformist social advances'.
I love that response to the automation of labour: Henry, how are you going to get [these robots] to buy your cars? Try as it might, capital can never break free from the working class.
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