Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
When you mention “the politics of food”, most people look at you askance. Through no fault of their own, they have never been told about the crucial links of consumerism, politics or economics to food and its production. They certainly know about the Thatcherite “hand-bag” economics. The ever-rising cost of […]
Marxists know well the state is not a neutral arbiter but a mechanism for managing the affairs of the capitalist class. While the state may exhibit relative autonomy, that is, it can act independently from capital, it functions, in the last instance, to reproduce the conditions for accumulation, whether state […]
The current coalition government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and motley crew of right-wing independent TDs has found itself embroiled in a bitter row with the opposition over speaking rights in the Dáil for those independents who support the government. At the same time as the Dáil was in “turmoil” […]
Investigating an Economic Alternative, Part 4 Over the past three articles, we have dismantled the myths of capitalist efficiency, exposed the failures of privatisation, and demonstrated the necessity of public ownership as a democratic imperative. We have argued that nationalisation of key sectors of the economy and the use of […]
As recent announcements indicate, both the European Union and the British government have markedly oriented public spending policies towards militarisation. The North of our island has been a direct recipient of such expenditures, notably Thales in Belfast. Military expenditure historically plays three important roles in capitalist societies: it protects the […]
Investigating an Economic Alternative, Part 3 In the previous two articles a case for public ownership has been made based on the economic and social benefits of taking key industries into public ownership[1]. In this article we will explore the theme of democracy and the deepening of democratic principles through […]
The supposed dynamism of capitalism, a system celebrated for its unrelenting drive towards production and accumulation, is now facing another unravelling of its contradictions. The mirage of a post-pandemic recovery has stalled, revealing a toxic brew of stagnating growth, persistent inflation, and an out-of-control tech and AI bubble: classic stagflation […]
Investigating an Economic Alternative Part 2 Following on from last month’s article[1] we delve deeper into the transformative potential of public monopolies[2] and the role of cross-subsidisation in building an economy for the common good. The ideological dogma of free-market capitalism has long upheld private enterprise as the pinnacle of […]
Ireland has an FDI-dependent economy, of that there is little doubt or even disagreement across the political spectrum. Approximately 280,000 workers are directly employed by FDI and 30% of Dublin jobs are in FDI companies. This job dependency grows significantly when we consider jobs indirectly associated to the presence of […]
The Illusion of Competition: Why Capitalism Breeds Inefficiency Capitalism, in its idealised form, is built upon the foundation of perfect competition. Orthodox economic models envision a utopia where countless small firms vie for market share, prices reflect the marginal cost of production, and resources flow seamlessly to their most efficient […]
The trajectory of the global capitalist economy reveals a deep and persistent malaise. Since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, G7 economies have failed to regain their former dynamism. The acute yet temporary recession triggered by the global pandemic has only exacerbated this long-term trend. Across the G7, metrics for business […]
Recently China made a bond sale in Saudi Arabia. While perhaps not particularly notable on the surface, if we dig a little deeper, we can see some signs of China’s broader geopolitical goals being played out. China has long called for a global system of cooperation, based on the UN […]
The election last month of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America has received extensive media coverage. Much of the reporting has, understandably, focused on the individual and his idiosyncratic, even eccentric behaviour. How did such an unconventional character manage to persuade a majority of Americans to […]
Our understanding of foreign direct investment (FDI) is heavily influenced by Lenin’s analysis of imperialism, where FDI is seen as the export of capital from the advanced capitalist core, led by monopolists, to peripheral countries. The motive behind this is clear: to secure higher rates of surplus value no longer […]
The US Empire is in the throes of a cycle leading to its terminal decline. It is not possible to predict how long this phase will last but there is ample evidence that this process is underway. History teaches us, too, that while imperialism is a affliction on humanity in […]
The three party coalition government of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party is clearly running out of steam. Their Programme for Government has failed on many levels, from housing to the environment to healthcare, the list goes on. Their housing strategy has failed as private capital is driven […]