Capitalism

We are living through an unprecedented crisis, in a world beset by massive social problems – the obscene poverty and inequality that neoliberal capitalist globalization has wreaked on at least two-thirds of humanity, the immobility of the political elite almost everywhere, and cultures of violence that poison our lives from the most intimate relations to the mass murder of the world’s wars.

A worker-owned factory in Argentina. The Working World / Flickr

[Webpage editor: Yes, ecosocialists need to take up the issues about the state and the party that are raised in this sympathetic critique of the limits to workers' ownership and cooperatives.]

The world is in crisis.  Capitalism, currently the only economic system in existence, is the cause of this crisis.  It is a crisis that impoverishes millions more every year while enhancing the wealth of the rarefied few who conspire with politicians to make it so.  It is a crisis that manifests itself in endless and meaningless wars.  It is a crisis that dismantles schools, hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure in the name of private profit.

[Webpage editor's note: This 10 minute movie identifies the flaws of cap and trade in a clear, popular fashion.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6FSy6EKrM&feature=player_embedded 

Michael Löwy is a militant of the French section of the Fourth International. His wide-ranging interests include, in part, the connection between the Romantic movement and Marxism, ecosocialism, Liberation Theology and questions of art and culture.

Green illusions: The dirty secrets of clean energy and the future of environmentalism,
by Ozzie Zehner
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012
437 pages, $29.95 ISBN-978-0-8032-3775-9 (paper)

Review by Don Fitz

The Climate Summit in Paris has once again reminded us of how vulnerable we are on planet earth. However, humanity is faced with a number of deep and challenging crises: economic, social, political, over food – and, of course, over climate change, which is threatening the very existence of millions of people. These crises have many of the same root causes, going to the core of our economic system.

WASHINGTON — In a major setback for President Obama’s climate change agenda, the 

The dramatic crash in the price of oil is rewiring the circuits of global capitalism by creating enormous volatility in the world's stock exchanges, hammering banks that made billions of dollars in loans to energy firms, and ravaging the budgets of the world's largest oil-producing countries. Today, oil is trading at around $30 a barrel – roughly 75 per cent below its price of $114 a barrel in the summer of 2014 – that is, a year and a half ago. The collapse has been as sharp as it has been sudden, confounding economic analysts, energy producers and global financial centers.

All over the country, the Kochs and utilities have been blocking solar initiatives — but nowhere more so than in Florida

After decades of false starts, solar power in America is finally poised for its breakthrough moment. The price of solar panels has dropped by more than 80 percent since President Obama took office, and the industry is beginning to compete with coal and natural gas on economics alone.