Remembering Bertolt Brecht

Remembering Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht the playwright appears to have overshadowed his other artistic identities nearly completely, though, in truth, Brecht wore more creative hats than most other artists of his time. He was a theatre-producer, essayist, critic, novelist, short-story writer, drama theorist and film-script writer. And, above all, he was a poet. Indeed, Brecht was a poet…

Capitalism Has Failed—What Next?
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Capitalism Has Failed—What Next?

Less than two decades into the twenty-first century, it is evident that capitalism has failed as a social system. The world is mired in economic stagnation, financialisation, and the most extreme inequality in human history, accompanied by mass unemployment and underemployment, precariousness, poverty, hunger, wasted output and lives, and what at this point can only…

Defiant Resistance: The Venezuelan Crises and the Possibility of Another World

Defiant Resistance: The Venezuelan Crises and the Possibility of Another World

Bob Dylan once said, “Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.” February 23rd, 2019, was the day that Juan Guaidó, the self-proclaimed President of Venezuela, had “authorised” “humanitarian aid” to enter Venezuela, an attempt to force the Maduro government, and thus the Venezuelan people, to their knees. There is great urgency…

How is Mexico’s Fourth Transformation Progressing?

How is Mexico’s Fourth Transformation Progressing?

As he nears his sixth month in office, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (popularly known as AMLO) travels around the nation holding public events to report on his social policies and asking citizens for help in removing the vices of the old regime from the State.   AMLO exhibits a unique leadership in this…

The Commune is the Supreme Expression of Participatory Democracy

The Commune is the Supreme Expression of Participatory Democracy

[The Alexis Vive Patriotic Force, which has deep roots in 23 de Enero barrio (an area in a town that is inhabited by poor people) in Caracas (capital of Venezuela), began planning a commune years before Chavez even proposed the communal path toward socialism. Yet, when Chavez announced the plan to join communal councils into…

One Million Species Face Extinction: UN Report

One Million Species Face Extinction: UN Report

Nearly one million species risk becoming extinct within decades while current efforts to conserve the earth’s resources will likely fail if radical action is not taken, says a major UN report on the impact of humans on nature.   Speaking in Paris at the launch of the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services—the…

Modi Govt has Crippled the Public Sector
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Modi Govt has Crippled the Public Sector

ONGC, the once-glittering and now struggling Maharatna, best exemplifies the fact that there is something sinister in the very approach of the outgoing Modi Government towards the public sector enterprises (PSUs). In May 2019, the cash reserves of ONGC, the richest PSU, had fallen in the last two years of Modi Government to a miserable…