Alex Callinicos

Brexit chaos means trouble for Johnson

Boris Johnson won the 2019 general election by promising to “get Brexit done”. Like all his other promises, this was broken.

Capitalism will not solve energy squeeze

Energy is what the political economist Simon Bromley called a “strategic commodity”. In other words, a state that controls access to it has power over other states.

Defend David Miller and academic freedom

In a serious attack on academic freedom, Bristol University has sacked one of its professors of sociology, David Miller.

Biden ramps up new arms race with China

Aukus is the agreement by the United States and Britain to supply Australia with the technology to build eight nuclear submarines.

Boris Johnson’s strength is also his weakness

Johnson dominates British politics to an extent that no one has since Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. The fundamental reason for this is Johnson’s willingness to challenge establishment neoliberalism.

Europe’s imperialism is still reliant on US

The Western ruling classes’ response to the entirely predictable Taliban victory in Afghanistan is astonishing—combining arrogance, self-deception, and panic.

Don’t obscure Marx’s valuable insights

It is hazardous to treat the Grundrisse as where we can find the real Marx. But it looks as if this is where Harvey is going

The three phases of Biden’s presidency

Six months into Joe Biden’s presidency, I would say attitudes towards him have gone through three phases—relief, surprise, and increasingly, disappointment.

Virus has created potential for boom—and bust

Are we heading, as some commentators claim, for another “Roaring Twenties”, like the economic boom that followed the terrible flu pandemic of 1918-19?

Good riddance to Donald Rumsfeld

“Donald Rumsfeld never loses.” James Mann in his book about George W Bush’s war cabinet, The Rise of the Vulcans, calls this “an old bit of folk wisdom that has been quietly passed around among Republicans for decades”.

China’s champions of state capitalism

Zheng Zeguang, the Chinese ambassador to Britain, recently tweeted a picture of him visiting Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate, London.

Covid has stirred up the labour market

The general agitation about inflation continues among the bosses

Tories bank on Brexit divides in Ireland

Why did the Northern Ireland protocol to the Brexit agreement between Britain and the European Union figure so large at the G7 summit in Cornwall?

Huge anger at the Tories lies just beneath the surface

"The Banality of evil” is a phrase coined by the philosopher Hannah Arendt when she was covering the trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

What is behind the fears about inflation?

One issue is dominating discussion of the major economies—inflation. This has to do with both reality and fear.

Israel’s strategy fuels resistance

There was never any doubt that the giant Israeli military machine could inflict terrible death and devastation on Gaza.

Neoliberalism is alive and useful to rulers

Is neoliberalism over? This is what many of its defenders are beginning to fear. Chris Giles, the economics editor of the Financial Times, recently lamented, “The left is winning the economic battle of ideas.”

Dark web of Tory sleaze unravelled

The most interesting thing about the Tory sleaze scandal is not the Boris Johnson vs Dominic Cummings grudge match, enjoyable though that is. Everyone knows these are two thoroughly unscrupulous and unpleasant individuals.

Biden’s economic shift boosts bosses

JOE BIDEN, a veteran Democratic Party politician, was generally seen as the continuity candidate when he ran successfully for the presidency of the United States. “Continuity” here means with the previous Democratic administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.