Donate to Links
Click on Links masthead to clear previous query from search box
Inspired by the unfolding socialist revolution in Venezuela, as well as the continuing example of socialist Cuba, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is a journal for "Socialism of the 21st century", and the discussions and debates flowing from that powerful example of socialist renewal.
Links is also proud to be the sister publication of Green Left Weekly, the world's leading red-green newspaper, and we urge readers to visit that site regularly.
Please explore Links and subscribe (click on "Subscribe to Links" or "Follow Links on Twitter" in the left menu). Links welcomes readers' constructive comments (but please read the "Comments policy" above).
This site is best viewed with the Firefox internet browser.
Spain: Socialist Party bosses behead leader to allow conservatives to rule
By Dick Nichols
October 13, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — In late September and early October two heavy political bomb blasts shook the already unstable foundations of the Spanish state.
BRICS fantasies and unintended revelations: the wages of sub-imperial assimilation
By Patrick Bond
October 14, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — A Brazilian leader’s faux pas spoke volumes about the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) heads of state summit underway in Goa this weekend. The country’s foreign minister (and occasional presidential candidate) José Serra told an interviewer last month that the BRICS included Argentina. And as he stumbled while spelling out the acronym, Serra also had to be prompted to recall that South Africa is a member (because in English it is the “S” in BRICS, but in Portuguese the country is “Africa do Sul”).
The roots of 1917: Kautsky, the state and revolution in Imperial Russia
By Eric Blanc
October 14, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell’s blog with permission — Abstract: This article reexamines the perspectives on the state and revolution advocated by the early Karl Kautsky and revolutionary social democrats across the Tsarist Empire. Contrary to a common misconception, these “orthodox” Marxists rejected the possibility of a peaceful and gradualist utilization of the capitalist state for socialist transformation. I show that Second International “orthodoxy” proved to be a sufficiently radical political foundation for the Bolsheviks and Finnish socialists to lead the Twentieth century’s first anti-capitalist seizures of power.
Why the White House compares ISDS to gunboat diplomacy
By Felix Holtwell
October 14, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Official lack of foresight knows few bounds, and trade appears to be no exception. In the above quote the US government, the White House site to boot, compares ISDS to a new, better form of gunboat diplomacy. They expect this to be an argument in favour of the arbitration system. Besides the communication blunder this entails, it does show an underlying structure to our global economic system. It shows the force necessary to maintain economic hegemony and how economic policy is still made irrespective of those concerned by it.
Exposing the devil: US foreign policy towards Latin America
By Dae-Han Song
October 12, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from International Strategy Center — Though this famous line emerged from one of the most iconic crime-heist movies of all time, it is just as fitting to the United States’ machinations in Latin America. Of course, few today see the US as benign, or are ignorant of the US’ role in the region. However, even those on the left sometimes forget just how omnipresent and involved the US is in Latin America’s domestic problems and contradictions. As the left forgets this truth, it grows confused and disillusioned with the experiments occurring in Latin America. To properly understand the crises facing progressive parties in Latin America, we must distinguish between its own internal contradictions and those created and instigated by the United States. Only then can we understand the experiments undertaken in Latin America, correctly apply their lessons to our own situation, and find our role in ensuring their success.
Un golpe desde arriba tras un colapso desde abajo
[Original in English here.]
Por Federico Fuentes
12 de octubre, 2016 — Traducido del inglés para Rebelión por Beatriz Morales Bastos — Menos de dos años después de que la candidata del Partido de los Trabajadores (PT) Dilma Rousseff fuera reelegida presidenta de Brasil, el senado brasileño la destituyó.
What is socialism for the twenty-first century?
By Michael A. Lebowitz
October 11, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Monthly Review — Often the best way to begin to understand something is to consider what it is not. Socialism for the twenty-first century is not a society in which people sell their ability to work and are directed from above by others whose goal is profits rather than the satisfaction of human needs. It is not a society where the owners of the means of production benefit by dividing workers and communities in order to drive down wages and intensify work—i.e., gain by increasing exploitation. Socialism for the twenty-first century, in short, is not capitalism.
Ideas for the struggle #7 - Reasons for popular skepticism towards politics and politicians
By Marta Harnecker, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Fair Play! Building solidarity with revolutionary Cuba (1960-1970)
October 9, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell's blog -- The triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959 gave rise to widespread solidarity work in the U.S. and Canada, organized through Fair Play for Cuba committees. Two participants in this experience report here on its scope and lessons.
Western Sahara: recent developments in light of the UN Security Council decision
By Hassan Abenay
Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network broadsheet, September 2016
By Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission
Technology, labour and welfare in the 21st century
By Mike Treen, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
CITES comes to South Africa: Militarizing game parks and marketing wildlife are unsustainable strategies
By Libby Lunstrum and Patrick Bond
September 23, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — A potentially momentous summit of environmental officials takes place in Johannesburg starting this weekend, through October 4: the 17th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, better known as CITES. Based on an agreement between 182 countries, CITES’ aim is to “ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.”
Rendere lo stupro inimmaginabile
[Original in English here.]
di Kamala Emanuel
Struggle over the Cuban press intensifies (Part II)
By Marce Cameron
100 days of the Duterte presidency: the present tactical period and our tasks
By Sonny Melencio
October 3, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Partido Lakas ng Masa -- This article has been presented and discussed by the leadership and organizers of the Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) to mark the coming 100-day anniversary of the Duterte administration. It is a contribution to the discussion among the Left and progressive forces on how to view this administration and the tasks ahead.
Ideas for the struggle #6 - The need to unite the political left and the social left
By Marta Harnecker, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
1. The rejection by a majority of the people of the globalization model imposed on our continent intensifies each day given its inability to solve the most pressing problems of our people. Neoliberal policies implemented by large transnational financial capital, which is backed by a large military and media power, and whose hegemonic headquarters can be found in the United States, have not only been unable to resolve these problems but, on the contrary, have dramatically increased misery and social exclusion, while concentrating wealth in increasingly fewer hands.
Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil capitalism and the crisis of the Earth system
October 3, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from LeftStreamed -- Science tells us that a new and dangerous stage in planetary evolution has begun, the Anthropocene, a time of rising temperatures, extreme weather, rising oceans, and mass species extinctions. Humanity faces not just more pollution or warmer weather, but a crisis of the Earth System. If business as usual continues, this century will be marked by rapid deterioration of our physical, social, and economic environment. Large parts of Earth will become uninhabitable, and civilization itself will be threatened. Facing the Anthropocene shows what has caused this planetary emergency, and what we must do to meet the challenge.
Pablo Solon on ‘Vivir Bien’: Going beyond capitalism?
Introduction and translation by Richard Fidler
September 30, 2016 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Life on the Left -- In his balance sheet of Bolivia’s “process of change,” Bolivian intellectual and activist Pablo Solón advanced some proposals for a new course inspired by the ideas of Vivir Bien, a philosophy associated with the indigenous peoples of the Andean countries of South America. Vivir Bien, roughly translated as “living well,” is incorporated as a guiding principle of the state in the new constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia.[1]
Precarious employment and the role of trade unions in post-socialist Central Europe
By Tibor Meszmann
September 29, 2016 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Left East — Since the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008, precarious employment has increasingly become the focus of attention for socially responsive international organizations and critical scholars and activists. Precarious employment has found its place at the centre of employment and social policy debates.
Recent comments
1 day 15 hours ago
2 weeks 2 days ago
3 weeks 3 days ago
3 weeks 4 days ago
4 weeks 5 days ago
5 weeks 20 hours ago
7 weeks 2 days ago
7 weeks 2 days ago
7 weeks 3 days ago
7 weeks 4 days ago