“Accumulate, accumulate! That is Moses and the prophets!… Accumulation for the sake of accumulation, production for the sake of production: this was the historical mission of the bourgeoisie in the period of its domination …” Karl Marx, Capital, Vol 1, Ch 25 The world is threatened with environmental disaster and capitalists hope to make a killing off of it. Fossil[Read More...]
Ecological and social conditions are mostly ignored in a system in which profit is the goal Fred Magdoff, Professor Emeritus, University of Vermont, Plant and Soil Science, in an interview conducted by Farooque Chowdhury in June 2021, discusses aspects of capitalist agriculture, and politics with the agriculture system. The interview was conducted in view of Fred Magdoff’s (with Professor Harold van Es)[Read More...]
Food nourishes life. Our farmers produce more than enough food to feed all the people on the planet but due to socially unjust and ecologically unsustainable food systems, many people are forced to go hungry. Moreover farmers who help nurture life, continue to struggle for their livelihoods and human rights. In lead up to 2021 World Localization Day, farmers from[Read More...]
What will life be like after peak oil, in an age of major climate shifts? Hollywood movies often depict it as a bleak, dystopian world where each day is a struggle to survive after every system we depend on has been stripped away. Unfortunately, that version of the story seems to be on track so far. Despite mounting scientific consensus on[Read More...]
I first met Indigenous wisdom keepers as a child. After days of off-road driving to the Gran Sabana in Venezuela, we had arrived at the ancestral lands of the Pemón people, where they still lived. “Go fill up your thermoses with water from the river,” my father said. As I got out of the car with my round, red canteen[Read More...]
An extremely important recent statement on critical issues faced by humankind was recently released in late April by 126 Nobel Laureates. This statement was inspired by the discussions at the 2021 Nobel Prize Summit , issued by the Steering Committee and co-signed by Nobel Laureates and experts. This statement is titled Our Planet, Our Future—A Call for Action (OPOF-CA). While this[Read More...]
Written by Kunzang Deachen, Chozin Palmo and Jigmet Singge Ladakh – high on the Tibetan Plateau at the northern extreme of India – is the place we call home. The vast majority of Ladakhis are villagers, who have, for centuries, provided for most of their physical and emotional needs through interdependent webs of relationship with the land and with community. We[Read More...]
Introduction Our ability to achieve a livable future for all depends on whether we can foster an unprecedented degree of social learning. There is no change without learning, and no learning without change. But with the stakes higher than ever before, time is worryingly short. How, under such urgency, do we effect such a large-scale paradigm shift? Formal education systems[Read More...]
Aggressive forms of capitalism are not only snatching jobs ruthlessly but in addition are also increasing job related discontent, frustration and alienation. At the same time there is growing yearning for forms of economic organizations which can provide more satisfactory, stable, sustainable and creative livelihoods. In this context cooperatives should be getting increasing attention. However organization of cooperatives cannot[Read More...]
The Green New Deal has attracted perhaps the greatest attention of any proposal for decades. It would guarantee Medicare-for-All, Housing-for-All, student loan forgiveness and propose the largest economic growth in human history to address unemployment and climate change. But the last of these hits a stumbling block. Creation of all forms of energy contributes to the destruction of nature and[Read More...]
