Marx on imperialism

by Prabhat Patnaik

People’s Democracy (Vol. XLI No. 52) | December 24, 2017

On February 19, 1881, Karl Marx had written a remarkable letter to N.F. Danielson, the renowned Narodnik economist who had also gone under the name of Nikolayon and whose work had been much discussed by Lenin. In that letter Marx had said the following:

In India serious complications, if not a general outbreak, is in store for the British government. What the English take from them annually in the form of rent, dividends for railways useless to the Hindus; pensions for military and civil service men, for Afghanistan and other wars, etc., etc. – what they take from them without any equivalent and quite apart from what they appropriate to themselves annually within India, speaking only of the value of the commodities the Indians have gratuitously and annually to send over to England – it amounts to more than the total sum of income of the sixty millions of agricultural and industrial labourers of India! This is a bleeding process, with a vengeance! The famine years are pressing each other and in dimensions till now not yet suspected in Europe!

US: Taxes, inequality, and class power

by Marty Hart-Landsberg

Reports from the Economic Front | December 22, 2017

No doubt about it, the recently passed tax bill is terrible for working people.  But as Lance Taylor states in a blog post titled “Why Stopping Tax ‘Reform’ Won’t Stop Inequality”: “Inequality isn’t driven by taxes—its driven by the power of capital in relation to workers.”  Said differently we need to concentrate our efforts on shifting the balance of class power.  And that means, among other things, putting more of our energy into workplace organizing and revitalizing the trade union movement.

The Great October Revolution: Punishment’s politics

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents.org | December 11, 2017

Politics is not absent in the philosophy and culture of punishment ruling machines practice; and there’s nothing like class-neutral politics although a group of bookmen always suffer with annoyance and pain while they enter into discourse with issues like politics and punishment practiced by the poor and the exploited, and especially in case of the Great October Revolution. Punishment system is slanted in terms of class interest when it transects property and power. Punishment system in tsarist Russia was no exception; and the Great October Revolution had to weed that out, which was not a task of carrying with a stroke of a pen or through a few deliberations in legislative chamber or through mere pious wishes free from use of force, which a group of scholars dream and demand.

CEO-Worker Income Gap Higher in U.S. Than Anywhere Else: Analysis

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer

Common Dreams | December 28, 2017

A new analysis by Bloomberg found that chief executives of American companies made, on average, 256 times that of their employees. (Photo: jerry dohnal/flickr/cc)

As corporations and wealthy individuals across the United States are slated to benefit from massive tax breaks thanks to the GOP’s latest tax legislation, a Bloomberg analysispublished Thursday found that chief executives of American companies already make 265 times the amount of money an average worker is paid—the largest CEO-worker income gap in the world.

“CEOs of the biggest publicly traded U.S. companies averaged $14.3 million in annual pay, more than double that of their Canadian counterparts and 10 times greater than those in India,” according to Bloomberg. While India ranked second on Bloomberg‘s CEO pay-to-average income ratio, Indian chief executives made about a tenth of their American counterparts’ incomes, averaging $1.46 million annually.

We are here, and will remain, free, sovereign and independent

Stated Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, closing the National Assembly of People’s Power 8th Legislature’s 10th Period of Ordinary Sessions

Granma | December 22, 2017

Photo: Estudio Revolución

Speech presented by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, during the closure of the National Assembly of People’s Power 8th Legislature’s 10th Period of Ordinary Sessions, in Havana’s International Conference Center, December 21, 2017, Year 59 of the Revolution

(Council of State transcript / GI translation)

Compañeras and compañeros:

It is my responsibility to make the closing remarks for this last Period of Ordinary Sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power’s 8th Legislature. On this occasion, I will address several topics of national and international relevance.

The Childhood of America’s Power Elite and its War Addiction

by Dr.Gary Brumback

The Greanville Post | December 21, 2017

America was born in the womb of war, has never stopped warring, and her fate will most likely be to die in the arms of war. Her warring addiction has been passed down from one generation to the next as her very few power elites have instigated war for self-serving purposes.

Political leadership failed India’s environment in 2017

by Kanchi Kohli and Manju Menon

DNA | December 26, 2017

 environment

 

2017 has come to a close. For those working on environmental issues and seeking justice for the people who bear the costs of pernicious development, this year ends on a somber realization. Despite the immense visible anger and frustration among urban and rural citizens, the young and the old, on the state of the environment, of livelihoods such as farming and fisheries, and of public health, there is still a vacancy in political leadership on these issues in India.