Dauvé does it again

Gilles Dauvé, otherwise known by his pen name Jean Barrot, has a long history of writing lucid, insightful texts that grapple with the very deepest questions the movement towards communism has to confront. [...]

Preliminary notes on the state and 19th century capitalism

A brief and sloppy look at some of the ways in which the state intervened in economies in the supposedly laissez-faire 19th century. [...]

Rich Man's Congress

On Friday, Oregon senator Jeff Merkley begged Kentucky senator Jim Bunning to drop his one-man opposition to the extension of unemployment benefits for over a million Americans. Bunning’s response? Tough shit. He also complained that because the Senate would not agree to drop debating an extension and adjourn, I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina [...]

Poverty affects mental development

The Wired Science blog reports on a new study that links childhood poverty with impaired cognitive development. Bad news for the 1.4 billion people worldwide who live on less than $1.25 a day (according to the World Bank), not to mention the hundreds of millions of proletarians in the west who struggle to survive [...]