News

Ukraine is tangled in an imperial game

What kind of geopolitical game is going on in Ukraine? All kinds of rumours are circulating.

Scotland polls have warmonger worried

David Cameron’s hamfisted intervention in the debate on Scottish independence confirms that the British ruling class is getting worried about the outcome of September’s referendum.

An olympic struggle between oligarchs of West and East

The Winter Olympics in Sochi start this week amid a welter of controversies. Radical lawyer Bill Bowring summed them up—corruption and cronyism surrounding the construction of Olympic facilities, the war between Moscow and Central Asian jihadis, Russia’s anti-LGBT law, and so on.

Recovery runs into a new currency crash

The corporate rich, along with their celebrity hangers-on and intellectual apologists, had their annual bash at Davos in Switzerland last week. They should have been starting to feel happier.

The establishment in a breakdown of trust

The frenzy with which the coalition attacks migrants and “welfare cheats” may reflect the fact that it can no longer fall back on unquestioning public trust in the pillars of the state writes Alex Callinicos

Dodgy labels like 'Mints' can't disguise inequality

Alex Callinicos looks at former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill's latest neoliberal musings

Tory recovery is another debt boom

George Osborne's Autumn Statement on Thursday of this week is no doubt set to continue the tactical adjustments that a coalition that is fundamentally on the defensive has been pursuing.

Iran deal could let US focus on China

It’s an open question whether or not the deal struck last weekend in Geneva between Iran and the United States, alongside five other “world powers”, will stick, writes Alex Callinicos

Will China abandon its state capitalism?

The paralysis in Washington is turning more eyes towards Beijing. Often this reflects quite exaggerated expectations about China’s emergence as a new superpower on the verge of displacing the United States.

The Bank of England is feeding a monster

Mark Carney, the new governor of the Bank of England, has learned nothing from the financial crisis, says Alex Callinicos

Grangemouth was no test of strength

A great deal of nonsense has been said about the dispute over the petrochemicals plant at Grangemouth in Scotland. BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last Saturday ran an item comparing the Unite union leaders’ climb-down at Grangemouth to the defeat of the 1984-5 miners’ strike. Both, presenter John Humphreys suggested, represented a historic weakening of union power.

What George Osborne's visit to China tells us about Britain's economy

The British business delegation to China headed by George Osborne and Boris Johnson was more interesting than these things usually are. Chinese people still have bitter memories of imperial arrogance during the colonial era. So, if they noticed the visit at all, they must have been amused by Britain hustling for Chinese custom.

Capitalism is still a badly wounded beast

While expressing greater optimism about British prospects, the IMF cut its forecasts for global economic growth this year and next. This isn’t primarily because of the uncertainty caused by the standoff between Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress in the United States, writes Alex Callinicos

US budget crisis can lead to a new slump

Once again the United States is shutting down government services because of a confrontation between president Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress.

A class divided by money and power

THE G20 summit has been dominated by the divisions among the Great Powers over Syria. The line-up has been predictable. A joint statement signed by the US, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey called for “a strong international response” to Bashar al-Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

Cameron—at war with his own side over Syria

David Cameron’s defeat in the House of Commons last week has left the policy of using Western military power for “humanitarian” purposes in tatters.

Syria ‘response’ is a dangerous gamble for the West

Whatever the extract truth about the chemical weapons attack east of Damascus on Wednesday of last week, it seems to have been on a huge scale, writes Alex Callinicos

Egypt's revolution is a giant learning process

The Egyptian Revolution is teaching us what we had at best learned from books before. It is showing that revolutions are vast complex processes that embrace both advances and retreats.

Coalition keeps us in a cycle of crises

Sometimes the witlessness of the Guardian surpasses all understanding. Last Saturday it carried an article explaining why, after the Office for National Statistics announced that Britain’s economy grew by 0.6 percent in the second quarter of 2013, “The future looks bright for Osborne”.

Will Detroit disaster lead to new revolts?

Detroit, I Do Mind Dying, by Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin, paints a marvellous portrait of a great industrial city pulsating with working class revolt.