Articles by Robin Blackburn
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Gunboat Abolitionism
in NLR 87, May-June 2014, pp. 143-152
Subjects: History and Historiography
Robin Blackburn on Richard Huzzey, Freedom Burning. Victorian Britain’s anti-slavery crusade as accomplice of imperial expansion.
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Stuart Hall, 1932–2014
in NLR 86, March-April 2014, pp. 75-93
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History , New Left
Founding editor of NLR, pioneer of Cultural Studies, early analyst of Thatcherism, theorist of Caribbean identities, nuncio of New Times—Robin Blackburn remembers Stuart Hall.
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Finance for Anarchists
in NLR 79, January-February 2013, pp. 141-150
Subjects: Anthropology , World Economy and Globalization
Robin Blackburn on David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Anthropological enquiry into the fluctuating forms of money and credit over the longue durée.
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Alexander Cockburn, 1941–2012
in NLR 76, July-August 2012, pp. 65-75
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History
A tribute to Alexander Cockburn—director of CounterPunch, Marxian environmentalist, long-standing editor of New Left Review. Robin Blackburn traces his path from County Cork to Soho, Havana to Manhattan, the Florida Keys to California’s Lost Coast.
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Crisis 2.0
in NLR 72, November-December 2011, pp. 33-62
Subjects: World Economy and Globalization , Economic Policy
Atlantic economies remain mired in unemployment and stagnation three years on from 2008. Diagnosing the underlying causes of the crisis as global over-capacity, deficient demand and anarchic credit creation, Robin Blackburn explores proposals for a genuine exit from it to the left.
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Reclaiming Human Rights
in NLR 69, May-June 2011, pp. 126-138
Subjects: Political Theory and Strategy
Robin Blackburn on Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Demystifying the origins and ideological ascendancy of human-rights discourse.
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State of the Union
in NLR 61, January-February 2010, pp. 153-174
Subjects: History and Historiography , United States
The fate of post-bellum attempts to extend egalitarian impulses across race lines and factory floors, amid the sharpening class struggles of the Gilded Age.
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Value Theory and the Chinese Worker
in NLR 56, March-April 2009, pp. 128-135
Subjects: Economic Theory , World Economy and Globalization , Economic Policy
In answer, Blackburn explores the paradoxes of fictitious capital, underwritten by super-exploitation of China’s producers. A public-utility credit system, democratic forms of nationalization and mechanisms to socialize investment as steps towards financial dual power.
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The Philosopher and his Blacks
in NLR 52, July-August 2008, pp. 127-137
Subjects: France , History and Historiography , Political Theory and Strategy
Robin Blackburn on Louis Sala-Molins, Dark Side of the Light. Polemical assault on the French Enlightenment’s record on slavery—Condorcet’s contradictions, Diderot’s compromises, Montesquieu’s motivations.
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The Subprime Crisis
in NLR 50, March-April 2008, pp. 63-106
Subjects: United States , World Economy and Globalization
As reverberations from the stricken mortgage market reach the real economy, Robin Blackburn reveals the origins of the crunch in the shadowy realms of financialization. Precedents from the bubbles and crash of the 1920s, warnings from pioneers and venture capitalists, and proposals for how to turn the crisis to socially redistributive effect.
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Plan for a Global Pension
in NLR 47, September-October 2007, pp. 71-92
Subjects: Economic Policy
On current projections, a fifth of the world’s population will be over 60 by 2050. With old-age poverty set to increase across the planet, Robin Blackburn presents a plan for funding a universal pension of a dollar a day.
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Finance and the Fourth Dimension
in NLR 39, May-June 2006, pp. 39-70
Subjects: Economic Theory , World Economy and Globalization
The concept of alternative futures, banished from postmodernity’s eternal present, flourishes on the financial summits of the global economy. Robin Blackburn argues against a neo-Luddite dismissal of the new financial engineering techniques by the Left, while coolly assessing the economic and social costs of their current configurations.
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Imperial Margarine
in NLR 35, September-October 2005, pp. 124-136
Subjects: Britain , History and Historiography , United States
Robin Blackburn on Niall Ferguson, Colossus and Empire. Rehabilitations of colonial rule for today’s proconsuls in Baghdad and Kabul.
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Capital and Social Europe
in NLR 34, July-August 2005, pp. 87-112
Subjects: Europe , Welfare State , Economic Policy
What positive programme can the Left propose for a ‘social Europe’, against the Anglo-Saxon model? Robin Blackburn outlines first steps towards a new financial regime aimed at boosting resources for sustainable health and retirement provision, with a share levy on corporations, redistributed across the continent.
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Creed and Conquest
in NLR 32, March-April 2005, pp. 143-151
Subjects: Nationalism , United States
Robin Blackburn on Anatol Lieven, America Right or Wrong. Universal principles and local ressentiments as twin motors of US nationalism, in a study of the ambiguous relation between patriotic creed and heartland ethos.
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Symptoms of Euro-Denial
in NLR 18, November-December 2002, pp. 131-140
Subjects: Economic Theory , Europe
Robin Blackburn on Will Hutton, The World We’re In. Does a critique of the Anglo-American version of capitalism have to appeal to a stumbling European variant, as sentimental antithesis?
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The Enron Debacle and the Pension Crisis
in NLR 14, March-April 2002, pp. 26-51
Subjects: World Economy and Globalization , Welfare State
What does the collapse of America’s energy conglomerate reveal about the mechanisms of financial intermediation? Crooked accountancy and plundering of employee pensions as badges of the Anglo-Saxon model that is conquering the landscape of capital today.
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Cuba under the Hammer
in NLR 4, July-August 2000, pp. 5-36
Subjects: Cuba , United States , International Relations
How has the Cuban Revolution withstood the American siege at the end of the century? In the wake of the Elián González affair, Robin Blackburn looks at exile politics in Miami, the record of the White House, and the scene in Havana.
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Reply to Henri Jacot
in NLR 1, January-February 2000, pp. 130-136
Subjects: Economic Theory , France , Social Theory
Robin Blackburn develops his argument that pension funds might be unexpected sources of social change.
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Kosovo: The War of NATO Expansion
in NLR I/235, May-June 1999, pp. 107-123
Subjects: United States , War and Peace , Balkans
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The New Collectivism: Pension Reform, Grey Capitalism and Complex Socialism
in NLR I/233, January-February 1999, pp. 3-65
Subjects: Economic Theory , Social Theory
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Reflections on Blair's Velvet Revolution
in NLR I/223, May-June 1997, pp. 3-16
Subjects: Britain , Political Theory and Strategy , Labour Movements and Parties
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Raphael Samuel: The Politics of Thick Description
in NLR I/221, January-February 1997, pp. 133-138
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History , New Left
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Ernest Mandel 1923-1995
in NLR I/213, September-October 1995, pp. 96-100
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History
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Ireland and the NLR
in NLR I/212, July-August 1995, pp. 151-155
Subjects: Britain , Ireland , New Left , Political Theory and Strategy
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Ralph Miliband 1924-1994
in NLR I/206, July-August 1994, pp. 15-22
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History
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Edward Thompson and the New Left
in NLR I/201, September-October 1993, pp. 3-9
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History , Britain , History and Historiography , New Left
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- The Break-up of Yugoslavia and the Fate of Bosnia
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The Ruins of Westminster
in NLR I/191, January-February 1992, pp. 5-35
Subjects: Britain , Political Theory and Strategy
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Russia Should Be Looking East, Not West
in NLR I/189, September-October 1991, pp. 137-140
Subjects: China , Soviet Union and Russia , International Relations
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Fin de Siecle: Socialism after the Crash
in NLR I/185, January-February 1991, pp. 5-66
Subjects: Communist Movement , Political Theory and Strategy , Soviet Union and Russia
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Raymond Williams and the Politics of a New Left
in NLR I/168, March-April 1988, pp. 12-22
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History , New Left
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Nicolas Krasso: 1930-1986
in NLR I/155, January-February 1986, pp. 125-128
Subjects: Biography and Intellectual History
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Marxism: Theory of Proletarian Revolution
in NLR I/97, May-June 1976, pp. 3-35
Subjects: Political Theory and Strategy
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The Test in Portugal
in NLR I/87-88, September-December 1974, pp. 5-46
Subjects: Political Theory and Strategy , Portugal
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The Heath Government: A New Course for British Capitalism
in NLR I/70, November-December 1971, pp. 3-26
Subjects: Britain , Political Theory and Strategy
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- Comment on Lucien Rey
- Comment on Magas
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The First Circle
in NLR I/63, September-October 1970, pp. 56-64
Subjects: Political Theory and Strategy , Soviet Union and Russia
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Inequality and Exploitation
in NLR I/42, March-April 1967, pp. 3-24
Subjects: Britain , Political Theory and Strategy , Welfare State
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- Prologue to the Cuban Revolution
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Guerilla Warfare
in NLR I/18, January-February 1963, pp. 32-36
Subjects: Third World , United States
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