Capitalism and Robbery: The Expropriation of Land, Labor, and Corporeal Life

Capitalism and Robbery: The Expropriation of Land, Labor, and Corporeal Life

John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark and Hannah Holleman   The expropriation of the mass of the people from the soil constitutes the basis of the capitalist mode of production.   —Karl Marx(1)   “The power of abstraction,” Karl Marx noted, is absolutely crucial to the theoretical analysis of historical systems, as exemplified by his critique…

Latin America and the Caribbean: Between the Neoliberal Offensive and New Resistances
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Latin America and the Caribbean: Between the Neoliberal Offensive and New Resistances

For quite a few years, the people of Latin America and the Caribbean have been confronted by a new advance of imperialism and capitalism, which has revived a process of recolonization in the region. The agenda of ‘reforms’ driven by these various neoliberal and neofascist projects is mirrored from country to country. As these projects…

Twenty-First-Century Land Grabs: Accumulation by Agricultural Dispossession

Twenty-First-Century Land Grabs: Accumulation by Agricultural Dispossession

Fred Magdoff Land grabs—whether initiated by multinational corporations and private investment firms emanating from the capitalist core, sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, or state entities such as China and India—are now in the news constantly.(1) For example, in July 2013 the Colombian ambassador to the United States resigned over his participation in a…

The Political Tide Sweeping South America Won’t Accept Predatory Capitalism
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The Political Tide Sweeping South America Won’t Accept Predatory Capitalism

Vijay Prashad The slogan is pithy—Neoliberalismo nunca más (Neoliberalism Never Again). It was chanted in the streets of Santiago, Chile; it was drawn on the walls in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and in a more sober register, it is mentioned in a seminar in Mexico City, Mexico. Elections and protests rattle the continent. The protest by…

The Return of Fascism in Contemporary Capitalism
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The Return of Fascism in Contemporary Capitalism

Samir Amin It is not by chance that the very title of this contribution links the return of fascism on the political scene with the crisis of contemporary capitalism. Fascism is not synonymous with an authoritarian police regime that rejects the uncertainties of parliamentary electoral democracy. Fascism is a particular political response to the challenges…

Precarious Work and Contemporary Capitalism

Precarious Work and Contemporary Capitalism

Jonathan White There is understandably a lot of public discussion around the issue of what’s increasingly called precarious work. For some, this is evidence of the emergence of something qualitatively new in our economy. A fundamental shift has happened, the argument goes, toward a ‘gig economy’ in which a whole set of assumptions about the…

Absolute Capitalism

Absolute Capitalism

  John Bellamy Foster This article is based on a keynote address, entitled “Absolute Capitalism: The Neoliberal Project and the Marxian-Polanyian-Foucaultian Critique—Where Do We Go from Here?,” presented to the 2nd Biennial Conference of the Caucus for a New Political Science, February 25, 2019, South Padre Island, Texas. The French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote in…

What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster For those concerned with the fate of the earth, the time has come to face facts: not simply the dire reality of climate change but also the pressing need for social-system change. The failure to arrive at a world climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009 was not simply…

Capitalism and Mental Health
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Capitalism and Mental Health

A mental-health crisis is sweeping the globe. Recent estimates by the World Health Organisation suggest that more than three hundred million people suffer from depression worldwide. Furthermore, twenty-three million are said to experience symptoms of schizophrenia, while approximately eight hundred thousand individuals commit suicide each year. Within the monopoly-capitalist nations, mental-health disorders are the leading…

How Labour’s Radical Agenda was Built from the Ground Up

How Labour’s Radical Agenda was Built from the Ground Up

A common criticism of left-wing politics is that activists always know what they are against, but struggle to articulate what they are for. After this week’s Labour Party conference in Brighton, this taunt can safely be retired. Labour delegates backed a range of radical policies including the introduction of a four-day week with no loss…