There Is No Such Thing As A Left-Wing Universal Basic Income (UBI#2)
Why do we on the left support the Milton Friedman fix for poverty? We think: Maybe AI led automation will lead to a Leisure Society if we push for a left-wing UBI.
UBI is a Poor Idea, Not an Idea that Helps the Poor (UBI#1)
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a reactionary Milton Friedman idea supported by many of us on the left. I critique real existing UBI point by point. In UBI#2, I will argue that there is no such thing as a workable or winnable left-wing version of UBI.
Liberal Democracy Is Limited. Fight For Democracy Instead.
Why settle for liberal democracy? Why not left-led campaigns for More and Better Democracy? LD#1: This is the first of a series.
What Is Democracy Without Equality of Results?
Liberal democracy is under threat. What kind of democracy should the left fight for? Astra Taylor has both answers and questions.
Neoliberalism Really is Globalization After All
Hayekian neoliberalism is not really a new economics. Quinn Slobodian shows that it is a political movement to recolonize the world and undermine democracy.
A Ten Point Program To Unite the Global Left
The Left regularly succeeds in making clear what it is against. Here is a Ten Point Program that sums up what we are for.
Is a ‘Social Movement Society’ the Way to Win Democracy?
The Right is attacking liberal democracy. The neoliberal Center is gutting it. What can the Left do about it? Donatella della Porta has an idea.
Progressive International: Globalize the Left
Big business globalized and made the left play endless local defence. Progressive International aims to globalize a left that can go on offence.
The Second Impeachment Has Mortally Wounded Trump
Donald Trump has been mortally wounded by the 2nd impeachment trial. But the danger to democracy persists. A 'new constitution' campaign might help fix that.
A Cold War Against China is a Bad Idea
Aggressively expanding NATO led Russians to embrace Putin. Is isolating and encircling China really such a good idea?
Why is Liberal Democracy on Life Support Everywhere?
Liberal democracy was supposed to give some real power to every voter. Surrender of democratic power to an Executive State and Multinationals is discrediting it.
Will a Domestic Terrorism Law Prevent Future Capitol Invasions?
Many liberals echo the FBI’s call for a domestic terrorism law, to prevent another January 6. Be careful what you wish for.
Liberal Democracy, Populism and the January 6 Capitol Putsch
What is liberal democracy? The January 6 Capitol invaders claimed that a liberal establishment had stolen it from them.
Save Planet Earth with a Clean Energy Global Commons
Headlines everywhere trumpet the rapid expansion of clean energy. Joe Biden promises hundreds of thousands of green new jobs. Global warming will be averted after all, I guess. Except, as clean energy rises, carbon emissions continue to go up, way up, here there and everywhere. Why doesn’t an increase in clean energy cause a decrease in dirty energy? Andreas Malm explains why.
How to Use Left Populism to Win a Post-Work Economy
Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams have published a must-read book, Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (Verso, 2015, 2nd ed 2016) that makes new proposals for a long-haul strategy of building the preconditions for a postcapitalist social system.
(A)musings About Marx and the British Left
Is socialism still credible as the alternative to capitalism? If so, what kind of socialism are we talking about? How do we unite today’s Left around that model of socialism? Gavin Kitching draws on Marx to criticize Marx himself, and both Marxists and non-Marxists in the 1970s British Left. He advances some ideas about how to rethink the socialist project.
Unite Around the Basics: Billy Graham’s Lesson for the Left
Can the Left learn from Billy Graham style evangelicals? The answer may be yes.
A Long Struggle for Democracy May Have to Precede Socialism
Gavin Kitching’s Rethinking Socialism: A Theory for a Better Practice (University Paperbacks – Methuen, London 1983) aims to tell uncomfortable truths about Marx, Left activist intellectuals, the working class and socialism in order to advance some bold proposals for rethinking and redirecting the socialist Left in his native Britain.
Has the Left Given Up on Ending Capitalism?
Is the age of left-wing revolutions over? Does this inevitably mean that the left has to accommodate itself to a capitalist economy and a capitalist world system? I firmly believe that the way forward to a more just society will be worked out incrementally by today’s left, especially by the left of that left who want to move society towards a new post-capitalist social system. But facts are facts, and right now the left is united around a set of sacrosanct principles that result in a refusal or incapacity to imagine practical ways of changing who is in power in society’s institutions.
