The Covid-19 pandemic exposes the cruel and absurd results of relying on markets for the satisfaction of human needs. In Las Vegas homeless men sleep on a parking lot on a street full of empty hotels.
Why are medical supplies in such short supply? This study explains the main reasons and presents three case studies: respiratory face masks, ventilators, and vaccines.
A Marxian analysis of the pandemic, its origin, and its economic impact. Reposted from the magazine Internationalist Perspective.
What is a coronavirus? Where does the latest one come from? Why do we now face, about once every decade, an epidemic of some ‘new’ disease? In this article I answer these questions and demonstrate the link between COVID-19 and what might appear an unrelated issue — deforestation.
Including a response from Comrade Paddy Shannon and a counter-response from the author.
What if there was a way to make capitalism environmentally friendly and more economically robust, in a way that benefited workers in particular? Liberals like Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are claiming that a ‘Green New Deal’ would do just that. Can it? Or is it the very nature of capitalism that makes it so destructive to the environment?
Joe the Dolphin pleads for more dolphin-friendly fishing methods and against the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Mekong.
Can a Green New Deal within capitalism resolve the climate crisis? The author of this article, reproduced from the journal Internationalist Perspective, argues that any such program would be either inadequate or incompatible with the capitalist drive for growth.
The author formulates alternative long-range scenarios for human survival or extinction in the context of global heating. What are the prospects of ‘green capitalism’? What does the climate crisis imply for our thinking about socialism?
In fighting to survive as a species in a bearable climate, we are up against a broad range of capitalist interests. Ultimately we shall need to halt the endlessly expanding ‘growth machine’ of capitalism.
What sense does it make for a big city to exist in the middle of a scorching desert? What contribution does Las Vegas make to human wellbeing?