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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
American Labour’S Cold War Abroad: From Deep Freeze To Détente, 1945-1970 By Anthony Carew: A Review Essay, Kim Scipes
American Labour’S Cold War Abroad: From Deep Freeze To Détente, 1945-1970 By Anthony Carew: A Review Essay, Kim Scipes
Class, Race and Corporate Power
With Anthony Carew’s new book, we are much closer to having a definitive empirical history of US Labor’s foreign policy operations across this 25-year period, including the AFL’s, the CIO’s, and the AFL-CIO’s foreign operations between 1945 and 1970. Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews by a careful and extremely meticulous scholar, we now have more details than all-but-a-few specialists may want to know. While not the first book to cover this subject, nor particular aspects of this subject, Carew’s intervention adds greatly to what we know and, in a number of ways, re-establishes the groundwork from which …
The Improbable Militarist: Jimmy Carter, The Revolution In Military Affairs And Limits Of The American Two-Party System, Jeremy Kuzmarov
The Improbable Militarist: Jimmy Carter, The Revolution In Military Affairs And Limits Of The American Two-Party System, Jeremy Kuzmarov
Class, Race and Corporate Power
Jimmy Carter is known for championing peace and pro-democracy causes in his post-presidency and is widely respected as a moral leader. Few Americans, however, are aware of the fact that in his last two years, Carter presided over a huge increase of the military budget that amounted to the largest in history to that point and promoted the adoption of fancy new military technologies which would be applied in wars waged by his successors. This paper examines Carter’s foreign policy and his embrace of the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), which aimed to reinvigorate American military power after Vietnam …
A New Gilded Age: Corporate Power And Socialism In The 21st Century, Eljeer Hawkins
A New Gilded Age: Corporate Power And Socialism In The 21st Century, Eljeer Hawkins
Class, Race and Corporate Power
Building on the author’s experience and accumulated knowledge from years as a left activist, this essay articulates the similarities between our current moment and the original Gilded Age of the late 19thand early 20thcenturies. The conclusion presented here is that when there is extreme wealth inequality, increased exploitation, and attempts to normalize oppression and bigotry, resistance emerges. This is precisely what we have been seeing around the world, most notably in the US. The eventual successes or failures of the developing socialist movement will be determined by how well we learn from history, rearticulate our theories, …
The Significance And Shortcomings Of Karl Marx, Chris Wright
The Significance And Shortcomings Of Karl Marx, Chris Wright
Class, Race and Corporate Power
In this essay I explain both why Karl Marx remains an important thinker and why he is in some respects inadequate. I focus on the central issue of 'materialism vs. idealism,' and briefly explore ways in which contemporary intellectuals still haven't assimilated the insights of historical materialism. In the last section of the paper I examine the greatest weakness of Marxism, its theory of proletarian revolution, and propose an alternative conceptualization that both updates the theory for the twenty-first century and is more faithful to historical materialism than Marx's own conception was.
Sugarcane Stalinism: State-Capitalism And Development In Cuba, Emanuel Santos
Sugarcane Stalinism: State-Capitalism And Development In Cuba, Emanuel Santos
Class, Race and Corporate Power
Though their conclusions are radically different, defenders of both “socialist” and “neither socialist, nor capitalist” theories about Cuba and other statified societies nevertheless coincide in the view that the nationalization of private enterprises constitutes a partial, or perhaps even wholesale, negation of capitalism and its laws of motion. Throughout this essay, I will attempt a critical analysis of the aforementioned theories employing an approach that is methodologically Marxist and forthright in its commitment to workers’ self-emancipation. I will argue, moreover, that “socialist” Cuba is really a society based on wage labor and capital accumulation. The defining characteristics of this society, …
Socialism & Universal Basic Income, Bryant W. Sculos
Socialism & Universal Basic Income, Bryant W. Sculos
Class, Race and Corporate Power
The idea of universal basic income (UBI) has taken on new life as people experience greater inequality and greater exploitation than ever before—combined with the recurrence of the historically-cyclical fear of mass unemployment driven by rapid advancements in automation technologies. But the idea of providing every person with a certain amount of money, regardless of their socioeconomic status or (in)ability to or (dis)interest in working, is far from universally-accepted by socialists. This essay offers replies to three common socialist criticisms of various basic income proposals, in an effort to defend the radical potential of UBI; a potential that is consonant …
Who Leads Global Capitalism? The Unlikely Rise Of China, Jerry R. Harris
Who Leads Global Capitalism? The Unlikely Rise Of China, Jerry R. Harris
Class, Race and Corporate Power
The idea that China, once the center of world revolutionary passion, should lead global capitalism is as unexpected as it is ironic. But the emergence of the transnational capitalist class (TCC) has promoted a multi-centric world order where “everything solid melts into air.” Disappearing is the dominant position of the US, further undercut by the erratic nationalism of President Trump. With the US acting as if globalization is the unwanted step-child of its hegemonic power, the guardianship of transnational capital has fallen to the Chinese.
"In The Shadows Of The American Century: The Rise And Decline Of Us Global Power" (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017) A Review Essay, Kim Scipes
Class, Race and Corporate Power
A review of Alfred W. McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power published by Haymarket Books, 2017.
Clowns To The Left, Jokers To The Right: The 2016 Presidential Campaign In Two Books, Garrett Pierman
Clowns To The Left, Jokers To The Right: The 2016 Presidential Campaign In Two Books, Garrett Pierman
Class, Race and Corporate Power
In this essay, two books are first reviewed. The first, Trump's Great Again, gives us a glimpse into the winning 2016 presidential campaign. The second, What Happened by Hillary Clinton, presents the memoir of the losing candidate. Having reviewed both, the essay then delves into a critical commentary on the election, ultimately making the claim that the perceived and obvious inauthenticity of Clinton was less effective than the perceived authenticity of Trump, a lesson that the Democrats would do well to learn for 2020.
Beyond The Last Jedi – Uncompromising Hope In The Politics Of Star Wars, Lucas Miranda
Beyond The Last Jedi – Uncompromising Hope In The Politics Of Star Wars, Lucas Miranda
Class, Race and Corporate Power
Star Wars: The Last Jedi was probably the most political movie of the franchise so far. In this piece, I analyze how this film has subverted much of the SW lore by, interestingly, making its political dimensions significantly more real (and hence more complex). Throughout the piece, I use this reflection as a heuristic device to comment on how the movie might teach us how to interpret, critique, and deal with politics in a more sound, effective, and hopeful manner. E. H. Carr is invoked to assist in this endeavor, as I reflect upon the themes of (neoliberal) war profiteering, …
Popular Radicalism In The 1930s: The History Of The Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill, Chris Wright
Popular Radicalism In The 1930s: The History Of The Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill, Chris Wright
Class, Race and Corporate Power
Historiography on the Great Depression in the U.S. evinces a lacuna. Despite all the scholarship on political radicalism in this period, one of the most remarkable manifestations of such radicalism has tended to be ignored: namely, the mass popular movement behind the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill. This bill, which the Communist Party wrote in 1930, was introduced in Congress three times, in 1934, ’35, and ’36, as an alternative to the far more conservative Social Security Act. Its socialistic nature ensured that it never had any chance of becoming law, but it also enabled it to become enormously popular among …
Us Empire In The Age Of Trump, Rebecca Thorpe
Us Empire In The Age Of Trump, Rebecca Thorpe
Class, Race and Corporate Power
To reflect on the decline of American influence in the geopolitical sphere, its internal fracturing and polarization, atrophying commitment to liberal democratic values and persistent tendency to confront global conflicts with military solutions raises crucial questions about whether American empire is sustainable, and whether it is in fact worth sustaining. First, how is it that a nation founded on liberal principles such as checks and balances, limited powers and individual rights has come to embrace its opposite—that is, virtually unbounded executive authority to stamp out security threats without regard for legal and ethical limitations? Second, what does an executive monopoly …
Exploring The Shadows Of America’S Security State (Or How I Learned Not To Love Big Brother) Reprinted From Tomdispatch.Com Courtesy Of Haymarket Books, Alfred W. Mccoy
Exploring The Shadows Of America’S Security State (Or How I Learned Not To Love Big Brother) Reprinted From Tomdispatch.Com Courtesy Of Haymarket Books, Alfred W. Mccoy
Class, Race and Corporate Power
This piece has been reprinted from TomDispatch.com and is an adapted and expanded version of the introduction to Alfred W. McCoy's new book: In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power (Haymarket Books, 2017). Thanks to TomDispatch.com, Dr. McCoy and Haymarket Books for allowing us to reprint this here.
Apple “Porn”: Design Videos As Seduction And Exploitation, Suzanne E. Ferriss
Apple “Porn”: Design Videos As Seduction And Exploitation, Suzanne E. Ferriss
Class, Race and Corporate Power
In addition to broadcast commercials, Apple creates design videos—screened at Apple launch events and developers’ conferences, and simulcast on the Internet and streaming on Apple TV—as a second-order of promotional activity. They are not nationally broadcast commercials but advertising disguised as how-its-made documentaries. Purportedly, they document design and manufacturing, but, ironically and tellingly, they do little, if anything at all, to reveal actual work. As this article demonstrates, they fetishize the manufacturing process of a commodity that is already fetishized: the iPhone. The videos simulate cinematically both the device and its manufacturing process, making both the object and its creation …