Category Archives: Justice

What Next?

Posted on by
Reply

It has become clear to everyone except the professional political class that things cannot go on this way. . . The most important fact is that the neo-liberal experiment of the last few decades, what one might call the Great Leap Backward, has failed. In fact this project must be considered to constitute as great a crime against humanity as Stalin’s or Mao’s. . . In economic terms the measure of capitalism’s failure is the growth of inequality. The gap between the global rich and poor has increased over the last few decades. Wealth does not ‘trickle down’, on the contrary it is siphoned up. . .
Read more . . . 

Noam Chomsky Speaks to Occupy: If We Want a Chance at a Decent Future, the Movement Here and Around the World Must Grow

Posted on by
Reply

The 1970s set off a kind of a vicious cycle that led to a concentration of wealth increasingly in the hands of the financial sector, which doesn’t benefit the economy. Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power, which, in turn, arrives to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle. . . Take a look at what’s happening right now. The big topic in Washington that everyone concentrates on is the deficit. For the public, correctly, the deficit is not much of an issue. The issue is joblessness, not a deficit. Now there’s a deficit commission but no joblessness commission. . . The public wants higher taxes on the wealthy and to preserve the limited social benefits. The outcome of the deficit commission is probably going to be the opposite. . . Well, now the world is indeed splitting into a plutonomy and a precariat, again in the imagery of the Occupy movement, the 1 percent and the 99 percent.
Read more . . . 

Slavoj Zizek: ‘Now the field is open’

Posted on by
2

The philosopher discusses the momentous changes taking place in the global financial and political system.

From the Middle East to the streets of London and cities across the US there is a discontent with the status quo. Whether it is with the iron grip of entrenched governments or the widening economic divide between the rich and those struggling to get by. But where are those so hungry for change heading? How profound is their long-term vision to transform society?

Slovenian-born philosopher Slavoj Zizek, whose critical examination of both capitalism and socialism has made him an internationally recognised intellectual, speaks to Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman about the momentous changes taking place in the global financial and political system.

In his distinct and colourful manner, he analyses the Arab Spring, the eurozone crisis, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the rise of China. Concerned about the future of the existing western democratic capitalism Zizek believes that the current “system has lost its self-evidence, its automatic legitimacy, and now the field is open.”

Watch Video here . . .