In modern-day politics, figures such as Meghan Markle, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michelle Obama, and Kamala Harris are seen as heroes of our times who have overcome the odds in order to make the world a better place for women everywhere. By taking up space in male-dominated settings, they are sending the message that they’re a force to be reckoned with. Powerful. Commanding. In control. However, this doesn’t automatically mean that they’re making progress on behalf of women everywhere. . . .
neoliberalism
The Historical Roots of the Somali Election Crisis
Elections in the Somali capital of Muqdisho have been delayed due to disagreements between the President and the opposition – a coalition of regional governors and prominent national politicians, including the recently removed premier and two former presidents. This essay argues that the recurring political crisis between different ruling-class factions and between Muqdisho and the provinces has its roots not in the ideological afterlives of a pre-colonial ‘tribal’ mode of living – as per the dominant narrative, but in the country’s integration into the global capitalist-imperialist system since the late 19th century, and especially since the neoliberal recolonisation of the country in the aftermath of the 1977–78 Ogaden War. . . .
Joe Biden and the ‘Passive Revolution’
Though it appears that Biden has pulled off a revival of centrism amid an ‘organic crisis’, his honeymoon period will be short-lived as there is a crisis of legitimacy of the ideas, institutions, and coalitions that undergird U.S. neoliberal capitalism. During moments like this, the ruling class may attempt what Gramsci called a ‘passive revolution’ – implementing symbolic or limited change from above without fundamentally transforming social relations – to restore its hegemony and stave off challenges to its position within society. Key parts of this process include the co-optation of demands from below, new political coalitions, paying lip service . . .
It Wasn’t 2020, It Was The Ruling Class Trying to Kill You
Reflections on COVID-19, capitalism, empire, and the worst year ever from the Hood Communist editorial staff. . . .
“The threat comes from the neoliberal Right”
Originally published on Kosmodromio who spoke with Ajamu Baraka, human rights defender whose experience spans thirty years of domestic and international education and activism, national coordinator of the Black Peace Alliance (BAP) and US vice-presidential nominee of the Green Party of the United States for the 2016 election. A few days after the elections how would you describe the political landscape in the US today? Cause here in Europe there is the feeling that America remains deeply polarized. What Donald Trump’s defeat and Joe Biden’s victory means for the American people? It remains to be seen in practice what truth . . .
The Comfortable Ones
This poem is for the comfortable ones. For the bureaucrats who exist to insure their existence. For the civil servants who are not civil and do not serve. For the teachers who teach what to think but don’t know how to think. For the policeman who serve capital and protect property. For the doctors selling health, the lawyers selling justice, and the politicians selling their souls. For the upwardly mobile, down pressing, respectable, well mannered, individualist. For the use-to-bees, claim-to-bees, and wanna-bees. This poem -is for the wealthy ones. For their peace absent justice, structurally adjusted, debt servicing, payment balancing, . . .
Black Misleaders Back Susan Rice as Top Diplomat
Originally published by our friends at Black Agenda Report Genocide in Congo and militarization of the African continent are Susan Rice’s specialties, but Black Democrats see her as a “role model.” “Rice cultivated relations with every pro-U.S. warlord in Africa.” No one in high levels of U.S. government has been more intimately complicit in the death of more than six million Africans in the Democratic Republic of Congo than Susan Rice, the bloodstained Democratic Party political operative who is actively seeking the job of secretary of state in the incoming Biden administration. If recent history is a guide, we can . . .
The Myth of “People of Color” & “Allies” V.S. Principled Solidarity
First off, there is no such thing as “people of color.” The subtle inference in that term is that colonized communities have color and Europeans (white people) do not which is false. Obviously, all people have color so there is no reason to provide Europeans with that type of status. Secondly, colonized communities are each their own distinct cultures and histories and therefore needn’t be lumped together as some sort of monolithic entity. Third, its critical that those of us from these colonized communities began to discuss openly and honestly the dysfunction that white supremacy has marinaded onto our day . . .