Economics

This book is about contemporary capitalism and how it generates and perpetuates a system of inequality and structural violence. Despite its hefty title, it’s a page-turner, accessible to the general reader, as well as having a solid and thorough clarity to hold its own in academic circles.

Using case studies from around the world, Leech illustrates the intentions and realities of capitalism’s economic and social theories and policies.
Remember how Thatcher’s programme for…

Economic justice group UK Uncut has just released a 24-minute documentary on its successful struggle to take the tax authorities to court over their ‘sweetheart deal’ with Goldman Sachs — which let global banking giant off £20m in tax: www.vimeo.com/44017057

In late May, I was invited to a meeting of the Edge Fund, which is attempting to create an activist-led or -advised grant-making body in the UK, breaking down some of the inequalities that exist even in radical-minded philanthropy. The discussion was lively, and the openness of the Edge Fund to activist input was dizzying in its latitude.

Much of current UK activism depends on grants from bodies like the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (the major donor behind the PN-initiated…

As a reader and subscriber to PN since the 1930s, and as one of the founders of the Scott Bader Commonwealth – totally engaged since the end of the Second World War in working to demonstrate a living, economic way of working life beyond capitalism, I found Lucy Lant’s letter and the editor’s reply (PN 2542) deeply challenging and enormously relevant.

[The Scott Bader Commonwealth was established in 1951, when Ernest Bader gave the company to its workforce. Today, Scott Bader is an £…

Well, I agree with everything Lucy Lant (PN 2542) says about climate change and most of what she says about capitalism, but I can’t understand why much of the environmental movement ignores the role of those officially communist countries which are at least as exploitative of the environment and its natural resources.

Yes I know they are not genuinely socialist but they certainly wouldn’t call themselves capitalist and China, to take the worst example, is responsible for huge and…

As the BBC Newsnight economics editor, Paul Mason has become a familiar face on television over the last few years, reporting on the protest movements, revolutions and revolts that have been “kicking off” across the globe since 2009.

Mason is also a keen blogger, and it is these (albeit now cleaned up) postings that form the backbone of this electrifying new book.

The essence of his argument is that “we’re in the middle of a revolution caused by the near collapse of free-market…

PN: What do you mean by capitalism, if you use the term, and what are the changes to our economic system that we should be demanding both now and in the medium term?

MB: In the context of the US it’s really not useful, and I would say detrimental, to speak in terms of capitalism, because it turns the majority of people off right away. We have such a reactionary population and such a lack of a broad spectrum of dialogue that even talking about socialism in the context of the United…

Someone selling Peace News at the St Paul’s Occupy site was taken to task for our (front page) description of the camp in the last issue as an “anti-capitalist occupation”. It turns out that there has been a vigorous debate at Occupy LSX over its attitude towards capitalism, resulting in a decision to move away from the “anti-capitalist” tag.

The site newspaper, The Occupied Times, published two views from the camp. One asked: “Is the best you can wish for yourself and your loved one…

The 30 November strikes by 24 unions in Britain (the biggest for several generations), the protests in Greece and Spain, the global wave of Occupy camps, and the student protests are all caused by the way that governments are reacting to the financial crisis of 2008.

Governments could have chosen to respond by tightening regulation on reckless financial institutions, by redistributing wealth and power and by protecting the poor and the vulnerable from the crisis. Instead, governments…

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are often associated with a bunch of grey-clad number crunchers in Washington DC. Too boring, too technical, too obscure. Its true that their jargon and formula-cluttered reports can easily put off or intimidate anyone.

Perhaps best known for its role in the debt crisis and being a target of protesters in Prague, the World Bank is now expanding its role to a global knowledge bank.

Producing research and setting standards on…

PN In the book you don’t embrace or push any single ideology. Why?

NK For this book, I did not want to be arguing for a particular ideology except democracy. This book is really about democracy, about how democracy has systematically been sabotaged through the harnessing of shocks and crises to bypass democracy.
So the extent to which I’m drumming away at any ideology, it really is deep democracy, participatory democracy.
The closest I ever came to focussing squarely on…

How and when did the INDG come into being?

The International Network on Disarmament and Globalisation formed at the Hague Appeal for Peace conference in May 1999. It arose out of a panel discussion on the Militarisation of the Global Economy, which was standing-room only.

Following the forum, a small meeting was held to continue the discussion and better educate the peace movement about the effects of globalisation on our peace work. (My speech at that Hague…

Born in 1947, Michael Albert has been a radical activist since he opposed the Vietnam War as a student at MIT in Boston in the 1960s. He has gone on to write more than 15 books and establish some of the most important organisations of the American radical left – from the progressive publishing house South End Press, to Z Magazine, and the popular website ZNet. A visionary and strategist, Albert, along with Robin Hahnel, has developed a form of “participatory economics”, or Parecon, as an…

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” It’s more than two years since the “great crash” of 2008. Henry Ford’s famous words are as pertinent as ever.

Apart from flashes of anger about bankers’ bonuses there has been no great social movement rising from the ashes of the financial system. Instead, the most articulate voices in response to the banking…

On 5 March, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, warned that there could be another major financial crisis and accused major banks of being keen “to make money out of gullible or unsuspecting customers”. He called for major reforms.