In a speech delivered near the end of September 2017 at Sorbonne University, the French President, Emmanuel Macron outlined his vision for a post-Brexit Europe. Amongst various statements detailing the struggles facing Europe, he signalled a commitment to common European policies on defence, asylum and taxation. The formation of new European universities, geared towards the adoption of new languages. The creation of a position of finance minister to supervise the 19 member state eurozone area and a European Monetary Fund. His plans for taxation included an expansion of existing laws to allow for the taxing of multinational technology companies based...
The continuous reoccurrence of crises has, in both Marxian economics and the wider economic field has often been perceived as a moment of reckoning, a chance to examine the fundamentals of the current socio-economic system and the contradictions that lie behind them. What has now across the United Kingdom and further afield been labelled the cost of living crisis marked by spiraling inflation, a rise in the prices of essential goods and corresponding fall in real wages. By now the origins of these various phenomena have been found to be relatively varied with some being traced to abnormal climate conditions1,...
Aside from attempting to strike the usual balance between work, leisure, interests and various collisions of the three, part of what has kept me away from writing for so long has been a project which was intended to combine much of the work that already went into ‘The Production Of Plagues’. This new project was intended to look at the the connection between capitalism, neoliberal economic policy and healthcare in order to provide a cogent analysis of the response to COVID so far beyond provocative conspiracy theory manifestos and what could be described as a more vulgar Marxist analysis. Unlike...
The following contains many ideas first written about in Lupus Draganowl’s pamphlet ‘Against Identity Politics’ which I’ve liberally borrowed from to the extent that this could be considered far more of a detournement of an existing piece as it is an original work the aim being to use recent events as a useful jumping off point for a wider discussion on Stirnerite philosophy and it’s implication for a politics of liberation. Despite the fact that I’ve included many of the concepts which could be considered the core of the pamphlet, I would highly advise reading the original pamphlet however which...
Among the stories that emerged from what was in many ways a historic European Parliament Elections, one I felt particularly attached to was Laura Parker’s campaign. There were many reasons for this, her campaign was socialist, environmentally conscious which lead to her signing up to the European Green New Deal, she’s a high-ranking member of Momentum and she was running in Islington traditionally a Labour heartland however these things appeared to be superseded by Brexit which lead to the election of the Liberal Democrat candidate. This I felt was symptomatic of the current effect that Brexit has on the British...
The recent success of the England team and the corresponding rise of national pride has, I suspect like many who have a slightly more tangled relationship with England and Englishness, created a mixture of complex feelings. For me Englishness unlike to some extent Britishness, has historically lacked much of the cosmopolitan and in many ways outward looking symbolism of latter. This appeared all the more clear when observing the 2016 referendum where vote to leave the EU was largely concentrated within in England, even in Wales, a devolved region which also voted for Brexit analysis suggested that it was retired...
An intriguing post on the collapse subreddit1 recently lead me to thinking about the nature of the crisis we’re currently presented with and how it is best understood. In the post a regular user of the subreddit which largely concerns itself with speculations surrounding the collapse of global civilization, criticized the increasing prevalence of what they referred to as ‘crypto libertarians’ and ‘inflation alarmists’. The user then went on to point to the usual villains of these groups opprobrium, quantitive easing and the general monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. With the dollar well placed as the world’s premier global...
At the end of the last post I wrote on the US election, I ended with a quote from Dave Chappelle taken from his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live, which on reflection poses a particular question, specifically with the depths of the dejection, flat out disbelief and hurt that’s been felt by many following the results of the US election and perhaps more importantly the ongoing pandemic and economic crisis, how is it possible to find a way to continue to find joy in existence? This perhaps sounds incredibly dramatic. However as I write this a march consisting of...
At the time of writing despite various legal challenges and a lack of a concession by the the incumbent President it appears that Joe Biden has defeated Donald Trump to become President-Elect in what has been an, at times, fitful battle for the presidency which saw certain jurisdictions won by just a handful of votes. I, like perhaps many on the left, remain unconvinced of the potential of Joe Biden who on many issues appears to be positioned well on the right of the candidates who campaigned for the democratic candidacy, offering instead of a single payer healthcare a public...
The recent announcement of the UK Government to reimpose a nationwide lockdown has prompted a slew of recrimination with many posing the question of why these additional measures were not enacted sooner. Among the many responses that were given one that seemed particularly egregious1 was that the leader of the opposition had suggested a national ‘circuit-breaker’ lock in line with the SAGE, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies recommendation, prior to the governments most recent suggestions and as such the government could not be seen to be following the leader of the oppositions lead. I would argue however the partisanship...
