Most Marxists and anti-Marxists alike probably fail to realise that the highest praise for capitalism is to be found in Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), that readily recognised that the capitalist system promoted urbanisation, industrialisation, technical…
On a day-to-day basis, it is hard to break free of a mindset dominated in the UK by the details of the Brexit negotiations or in the United States by the tweeting of an emotionally volatile president. But in both…
Jeff King HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA – In the 1970s and 1980s, when multinational firms first linked sustainability to business success, the chief catalyst was vulnerability, not altruism. Consumer pressure, political boycotts, and costly lawsuits were damaging companies’ bottom lines, and environmental…
For most of the post-1989 period, the most powerful political and electoral force on the Polish left was the communist successor Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which governed the country from 1993-97 and 2001-5. However, the Alliance has been in the…
Danielle Nierenberg On May 8-9th next Food Policy Action (FPA) is mobilizing stakeholders from across the United States to voice their united opposition to the draft 2018 Farm Bill released by the House Agriculture Committee.
by Bo Rothstein For people like myself, working as a social science researcher, these are very strange times. Almost any colleague, in whatever discipline you talk with, will quickly turn the conversation onto one and only one question – the…
Until January 2018 Carillion was a huge British conglomerate before going bankrupt. From its roots as a construction company, it expanded into a grand-scale facilities management company: The construction projects such as schools, prisons and road-building that it undertook were…
By Chris Hedges Feb 2018 – The proliferation of guns in American society is not only profitable for gun manufacturers, it fools the disempowered into fetishizing weapons as a guarantor of political agency. Guns buttress the myth of a rugged…
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Apr 27 2018 (IPS) – While sustainable development may still seem elusive to some, a new initiative wants to pave a path for nations working towards a greener future.
Once, postmodernism and its protagonists identified themselves as freedom fighters – and probably still do. Their argument goes like this: The universalism of modernity and the logic of the general in industrialized societies, as the German sociologist Andreas Reckwitz calls…
Danielle Nierenberg Food Tank has collected 20 of the best new books in food and agriculture to celebrate spring. Our favorite reads this season cover critical topics including the paradox of obesity and malnutrition, building strong communities through socially-conscious food…
What do you think is the crisis of globalisation and how did it come about? The crisis is the result of a lot of people not being particularly happy about the way that globalisation has gone. I think it’s rooted…
Dhaka-Much of the western world is experiencing a social crisis. Basic public services—in the UK, for instance, the National Health Service—are set at unsustainably low levels of funding. Unemployment, already high amongst the young, is set to rise rapidly as…
Dhaka-Over time, our society has become more aware of discrimination in the workplace.
by Ivan Ascher Milwaukee – With global temperatures rising at an alarming rate, the race is on to lower the world’s consumption of fossil fuels and accelerate the adoption of greener forms of energy. Among the most discussed remedies are…
Why were democratic political systems not responsive early enough to the grievances that autocratic populists have successfully exploited – inequality and economic anxiety, decline of perceived social status, the chasm between elites and ordinary citizens? Had political parties, particularly of…
Danielle Nierenberg At Food Tank, every day is Earth Day, but we invite you to celebrate with us a on April 22nd and challenge you to reflect upon your own eating habits. Are you eating as if the planet matters?
After a very long and rather Kafkaesque election night in Hungary, FIDESZ secured a victory for a third term of governing with a two-thirds majority. After eight years in government, the vote for the radical right in fact increased, with…
By Masood Ahmed Washington DC, Apr 18 (IPS) – When the world’s finance ministers and central bank governors assemble in Washington later this month for their semi-annual IMF meeting, they will no doubt set aside time for yet another discussion…
The Brexit project is already a complete failure. That statement may seem odd, as we are less than one year away from leaving the EU. But what happens in March 2019 if all goes to plan? We leave the EU,…
Sir Frank Peters It’s a proven fact, the more caring that adults are in a child’s life; many times greater are the chances of the child achieving success and happiness. – You reap what you sow.
A decade on from the financial crisis and Europe is finally on a stable path towards recovery, with growing economies and robust improvements in labour market participation in all Member States. However, the long-term implications of the crisis still weigh…
All over the world, populist parties and movements are growing ever more strongly, and established parties appear to lack effective strategies to combat this. A newly-published report from Stockholm-based think tank Futurion confirms that this growing populism can be explained…
Non-EU women immigrants make up about six percent of the prime-age population (25-54 years old) in the EU15 countries. Their lack of integration into the labour market is not only a story of lost opportunity at an individual level. It…
The situation in the Middle East is in chaos — to such an extent it has become a threat to international peace and security.
There is a palpable sense of gloom and foreboding amongst liberals, moderate conservatives and those on the Left in Hungary following Fidesz’s unexpectedly decisive victory in the April 8 parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Orbán and the Fidesz-KDNP coalition swept to…
By Nava Thakuria India continues to be a dangerous place for working journalists as the largest democracy in the globe has lost three journalists in mysterious accidents within the first three months of the year. Even the UN secretary general…
Along with rising income and wealth inequalities, the share of labour (particularly of unskilled labour) is declining both in rich and poor countries. The institutional factor behind this is, of course, the systematic weakening of labour organisations. Outside of the…
Until the terrorist attack at a market in southern France on March 23, French President Emmanuel Macron had been planning to launch a new European-level political campaign. Though the official rollout has now been postponed, Macron’s latest project remains central…
Virtually every month it seems, new controversies emerge swirling around Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter and other Silicon Valley companies. The latest controversy, which involved allies of Donald Trump swiping personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users in…