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Political Economy
Quantitative Easing 3
| Barry Finger September 14, 2012 |
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke announced yesterday that the Fed would buy mortgage-backed bonds at a rate of $40 billion a month until the employment picture improves and will leave effective interest rates near zero through 2015.
The Greek Grassroots Challenge to the Politics of Austerity
| Thomas Harrison and Joanne Landy August 16, 2012 |
Harrison and Landy recently returned from a trip to Greece, where they met with activists and others to gain a better understanding of the popular upsurge against the Greek government’s austerity program.
Ireland: Still Up Recession Creek Without a Paddle
| by Lily Murphy | Summer 2012 |
On December 6th 1921 the Anglo-Irish treaty was signed. It was an agreement between Britain and Ireland to end the Irish war of independence and create peace on the war ravaged island of Ireland, but the main clause of the treaty was that six counties of the north of Ireland would remain under British rule while the remaining twenty-six counties could enjoy limited freedom as a self governing dominion of the British empire.
Overlooking Outsourcing
| Marvin Mandell July 11, 2012 |
I have read many analyses of the failure to recall Gov. Walker in Wisconsin, and I am astonished that not one even mentions American industries either outsourcing or just folding their tents because they are unable to compete with foreign companies. Steel is an example of the latter: many steel workers now work as greeters at Walmart.
Surely this is an important cause of labor's sad decline. Industrial capitalism has given way to finance capitalism, as everyone knows.
"Right-to-Work," Organized Labor, and "The Proletariat as a Whole"
| George Fish July 10, 2012 |
On January 31, 2012, the Republican majorities in both the Indiana Senate and House passed "right-to-work" legislation, riding roughshod over both the Democratic minority and tens of thousands mobilized workers and their allies. Indiana thus became the first new "right-to-work" state since Oklahoma, which became one in 2002—and a possible harbinger of more defeats for organized labor to come.
Cuba, Socialism and Democracy
| Charlie Post July 3, 2012 |
In January 2011, members of the Participatory and Democratic Socialism Movement proposed that the Cuban Communist Party adopt its "Proposals for the Advance of Socialism in Cuba." ("Socialism and the 'Citizens' Demand for Another Cuba," Pedro Campos, Havana Times, June 24, 2012)* These socialist critics of the Cuban regime offered a program of radical democratic proposals including full freedom of speech and press, freedom of association (including parties and unions), freeing of po
Getting Serious About Class Dynamics: Culture, Politics and Class
| by William Tabb | Summer 2012 |
Labor historians have detailed how the structure of the workplace, the cultural aspects of community, and spatial patterning all impact class consciousness. From coal mining that paradigmatically has the workers living in the hollow and the bosses on the hill to the ethnic enclaves of steel town where different nationality/ethnic groups each occupied their own distinct neighborhoods with taverns, union halls and churches, socialization matters.
The Return of the Russian Revolution: Nature of and Perspectives on the Wave of Social Protest in Russia
| by Alexei Gusev | Summer 2012 |
"Every generation needs a new revolution"
Thomas Jefferson
"The most dangerous thing is to create a system of permanent revolution."
Vladimir Putin
Did organized money defeat organized labor?
| Barry Finger June 13, 2012 |
That appears to be the Democratic Party’s takeaway from its humbling defeat in the Wisconsin recall election. That and the ever familiar lament that workers no longer seem capable of voting consistently in their own financial interests, consistency in this case meaning in solidarity with embattled public sector workers and their unions. 38% of households with union members voted for the incumbent, as did a majority of non-college graduates. Walker carried the 10 poorest counties in the state by a 13% margin.
Alternet's "New Economic Visions" Series
| Amy Littlefield May 27, 2012 |
Alternet has a new series on "New Economic Visions" that may be of interest to New Politics readers. Here's the description from Alternet: