The Communist Family
From each according to his abilityTo each according to his needs* If you did not know the source of this you could easily mistake it for a description of the…
Karl Marx
Should Leftists and Progressives trust Pfizer and Big Pharma?
The Left has always had a strong tradition of emphasizing the importance of science and empirical understanding of the world. Remember that foundational socialists such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx,…
Leftists should abandon the term “Anthropocene” in discussing the climate crisis
With the facts in front of us — with even further evidence that corporations overwhelmingly produce the majority of our global greenhouse gas emissions — it’s clear that responsibility for…
Leo Panitch, intellectual pillar of the Canadian left, dead at 75 of COVID-19
Leo Victor Panitch, one of the intellectual pillars of the Canadian left and a leading scholar of the global depredations of neoliberalism, died Saturday from COVID-19. He was 75. Born…
Death toll from fall of Montreal statue still stands at zero, but apoplectic Wexiters may be at risk
The death toll from the fall of John A. Macdonald’s statue in Montreal Saturday still stands at zero, the gods be praised. One would have thought it was much higher,…
And This, Kids, Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
It’s not just that governments don’t tax enough. It’s that they don’t tax big incomes and big wealth nearly enough. Economist and professor Richard Wolff argues that modern global capitalism…
Roubini – When the Next Crash Comes
Economist Nouriel Roubini skyrocketed to fame as the first to foretell the crash of 2007/2008 (a claim that overlooks the even earlier warnings from Stiglitz and Krugman). In 2011 Roubini…
How far is the United Conservative Party prepared to go to be tolerant of intolerance? Quite far, apparently
MLA Richard Gotfried defeated candidate Cindy Ross last night for the United Conservative Party nomination in the Calgary-Fish Creek Riding. Mr. Gotfried, narrowly elected as a Progressive Conservative candidate in…
The Rehabilitation of Marx. Happy 200th, Karl!
Tomorrow is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. I first encountered the Communist Manifesto in officer school. I understood almost none of it but I discovered that…
Was the UCP practicing ‘cultural Marxism’ when it fled the Legislature to avoid the ‘Bubble Zone’ debate?
We’re all “cultural Marxists” now, I guess. Consider Jason Kenney and the Legislative caucus of the ephemerally named political entity known as the United Conservative Party. (By which I mean,…
ANDREW WHO? Oh, wait! I grabbed the wrong picture from the file cabinet!
PHOTOS: Andrew Scheer … I mean Joe Clark, a then-almost-unknown MP from Alberta, celebrates his victory in the Tory party leadership contest with his wife, Maureen McTeer, on Feb. 22,…
Madmen in the White House … this time it’s a thing, not just a ‘strategy’
PHOTOS: U.S. President Richard Nixon pointing the way to the exit for Donald Trump’s benefit. Below: Mr. Nixon about to board the helicopter that would take him away from Washington…
Stop. Obeying. The. Rich. NOW!
Once upon a time, we were taught to envy and respect our “betters,” like the rich. No more. They’re taking our money and throwing us under the bus every day.…
Economic history in the present: The wage fund and the minimum wage
How many bushels of wheat do you make a year? While this is not the most relevant question to be asking about wages today, some of the discussion around the…
Capitalism: Swing Your Sledgehammer
It’s all about vision and hope, in an effort to envision how economics and markets can exist after the toxicity of capitalism is gone, gone gone. Are you up for…
Cheap T-Shirts Keep Harper in Power
Whenever I read stories about corporations wanting to do the right thing, I never hold my breath. Clothing corporations, the sector where “sweatshops” originates, want us to believe they care.…
Economic Growth? I Prefer Steady State
Economic growth suggests that infinite growth is possible. Even with a growing earth population and increasing climate breakdown, people still think we can continue growing. I like using the seasons…
Fried Squirrels
It’s a crisp, foggy November Saturday morning in the south side of the city. Seventeen people sit in the large open area at the back end of an organic fair…
Got PTSD?
September 12, 2013 PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is thankfully becoming less stigmatized due to increased awareness, but like most mental health issues, there stigma that prevents open discussion about…