Seven new books and four book reviews. Engels at 200; Capitalist Crime; Eleanor Marx on England; Wheat’s Biography; Early Capitalist Farming; Renewable Energy; Sinking Middle Class
Reading for reds and greens
Archive | Capitalism
Capitalism kills
Tyson managers laid bets on how many workers would get Covid-19
Lawsuit says Tyson Foods ordered sick workers to stay on the line, while bosses ran a pool on how many would contract the virus
Book Review
A People’s Guide to Capitalism
It’s not easy to explain Marx’s economics in a clear, straightforward and entertaining way, but Hadas Thier succeeds brilliantly. Nobody has done it better.
Video Online
Mike Davis & Rob Wallace:
COVID, Capitalism, and Ecology
Recorded on October 17: An online discussion with the left’s top pandemic analysts.
Movement debate
Ecosocialism and/or Degrowth?
Should the ecological left aim to reduce all consumption, or to radically transform the prevalent type of consumption?
Biodiversity
Capitalism – not ‘humanity’ – is killing the world’s wildlife
The new Living Planet report grimly documents global environmental destruction, but lets the responsible systems and institutions off the hook
Book Review
People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons
Not just renewable energy, but global system change! A call to arms for a transformative approach to energy and a new society.
Blue Acceleration
Deep sea mining threatens more than the seafloor
The damage caused by proposed deep sea mining projects can extend hundreds to thousands of feet up
Lockdown reading
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, Pandemic Edition (July 2020)
A special edition of Ecosocialist Bookshelf: six books we recommend for understanding the deadliest global health crisis of our time
Covid kills
Not just meat: All farm and food workers are in peril
The profit-driven food system endangers the lives of millions of low-paid workers. It’s time to adopt more humane and robust methods of feeding humanity.
Break Neoliberalism
A Ten-Point Agenda for the Global South After COVID-19
Neoliberalism has driven the the world system into a cul-de-sac. The Global South must lead in building a new international economic order
Real rides and fantasies
Cars and drivers in the age of inequality
A magazine for fans of very expensive cars unexpectedly exposes the gross economic inequality that characterizes the U.S. today
Interview with Fred Magdoff
Pandemic: ‘This is a time for bold programs from the left’
Covid-19 exposes capitalism’s gross inability to meet human needs. We must demand immediate measures to help people survive and recover.
Reading matters
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, April 2020
Six important new books: The Return of Nature … Deaths of Despair … Rebel Cinderella … August Bebel … The Green New Deal and Beyond … The Triumph of Doubt
Pandemic
Pulverized: Capitalism, Africa and Covid-19
In the Global North it is a ‘novel threat.’ In the South, it extends the common experience of brutal assaults accompanied by waves of illness and death
Disaster capitalism
‘Venture philanthropists’ seek climate change profits in Myanmar
The last remaining underexploited economy in southeast Asia offers new opportunities for capital accumulation with a green veneer
Agribusiness kills
Capitalist agriculture and Covid-19: A deadly combination
A socialist biologist explains the tight links between new viruses, industrial food production, and the profitability of multinational corporations.
Earth is burning
Capitalist roots of the environment crisis
What’s behind the breakdown of the relationship between human society and the natural world on which we depend?
Behind the noise
The phony war over inequality statistics
Methodological nitpicking obscures the undeniable fact that a ludicrously small number of individuals hold the same amount of wealth as billions of others
Great Transition Debate
‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ is a hoax
CSR is a public replations framework that lets corporations greenwash their public images, pretending to change so that everything can remain the same