Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
The Guardian recently reported that International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva admitted the rapid rise of non-bank lending “keeps me awake every so often at night” (“Head of IMF says risks in private credit market keep her awake at night”, The Guardian, 16 October 2025). The Financial Times […]
The German auto industry is burning out. Next Wednesday, the production lines at Volkswagen will stand idle. According to information from Bild, production of the VW Golf at the Wolfsburg plant will be suspended. The production break will then be gradually extended to other models and to other locations. The […]
Thirty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germans still earn roughly 21 percent less than their western counterparts. According to figures from the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), full-time employees in the east make on average €13,400 less per year. Symbolically, that means from 16 October until […]
Many working families will face very difficult choices this coming winter regarding putting food on the table or heating their homes. The unit rates for electricity, as well as the standing charges, will each increase by 9.5%. While the price of food continues to increase, between June 2024 and June 2025 food and non-alcoholic […]
The business press is increasingly concerned about the AI stock market bubble. Concerns are being highlighted about over-concentration in AI-related giants, noting that the hype around AI may be inflating valuations while delivering lacklustre returns (Tech Stocks are sending a warning, Financial Times, 23 August). A recently published Massachusetts Institute of […]
The World Bank’s June 10th press release – Global Economy Set for Weakest Run Since 2008 Outside of Recessions – projects world output to expand by only 2.3 per cent in 2025. That projection is the lowest level in a non-recession year since 2008. Nearly 70 per cent of economies, […]
As we near the conclusion of this series, it is necessary to reiterate the critical relationship between economics and politics—the essence of Marxist political economy. The previous seven articles examined capitalism’s failures, exposing its inefficiencies and ecological destruction while highlighting the transformative potential of democratic planning and public ownership. Now, […]
The European Central Bank’s (ECB) recent statements on inflation and interest rates provide insight into the contradictions of capitalist production. Last month’s headline inflation was 1.9%, under the ECB’s 2% target – an adopted target among central banks in many advanced capitalist economies. Inflation in the Eurozone is expected to […]
Since 2008, governments across mature capitalist economies have come to rely heavily on debt issuance. For example, governments in the US, Japan, the UK, France, and Italy are now structurally dependent on deficit spending, low interest rates and debt rollover to maintain political-economic stability. Persistent deficits, even during tepid growth, […]
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 […]