COVID-19 Accelerated the Corporate Takeover of the Economy
Unless working people organize to resist it, the legacy of the pandemic, like the legacy of the financial crisis, will be a permanent shift in power in favor of capital.
66 Article(s) by: Grace Blakeley
Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune, and the author of Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation.
While Average People Suffered, 5 Million People Became Millionaires Under COVID-19
The pandemic was and remains brutal for average people. But not for the rich: central bank policies created 5 million new millionaires during the pandemic. It's the latest sign that our economy is rigged for the wealthy.
Corporate Welfare Props Up the Billionaire Class
The last year has seen the largest increase in billionaire wealth in history, but it has little to do with innovation — states across the world are pursuing policies which guarantee that the rich get richer.
Capitalism Is Driving COVID Disaster in the Global South
The only way to prevent devastating COVID-19 crises like the one currently underway in India is to challenge the power of Western states and corporations.
Keir Starmer’s First Year as Labour Leader Has Been a Disaster for the Left
Last April, Keir Starmer was elected party leader on a promise to make Labour a “real opposition” again. Yet instead of pushing back on a dangerous right-wing government, he’s decided to make the socialist left his main enemy.
The System of Capitalism Has Always Been Built on Violence
Capitalism is often presented as synonymous with peaceful exchange. But the system has always reproduced itself through violence in defense of private property and power.
Bill Gates Can’t Save the Planet
Bill Gates is making the rounds promoting his plan to solve climate change. But his new book ignores the fact that the same capitalist system that made him rich is the one killing the planet. We need a working-class environmentalism.
The GameStop Revolt Exposed Capitalism
The Reddit-led GameStop short squeeze wasn’t a threat to capitalism, but it did reveal to a huge number of people that the system is rigged. That’s popular education socialists should be grateful for.
The Extreme Center Is Waging War on the Left
In both Britain and the United States, a resurgent political center has declared war on the Left. But establishment politics and pro-corporate measures will only deepen the present crisis.
Why the Superrich Keep Getting Richer
Billionaires like Jeff Bezos aren't obscenely wealthy because they work harder than everyone else or they're more innovative. They're obscenely wealthy because their corporate empires drain society's resources — and we'd all be better off without them.
The Tories Can’t Save the UK From Economic Calamity
The United Kingdom is headed for a massive economic crash. Unsurprisingly, the Tories' proposals for fixing it fall far short. We need significant intervention by the state, not a wild throwing of money at corporations and praying they'll use it to help us.
How the UK Labour Party Lost the Working Class
More low-income voters backed the Tories than the Labour Party in the 2019 election for the first time ever. Labour’s decision to side with the establishment rather than the voters over Brexit pushed them into the Tories’ arms.
We Aren’t Entering Into an Economic Recovery — Another Crash Is Coming
Stock markets across the world are rallying as lockdowns lift and central banks pump money into the economy. But the economy isn’t on the mend — on the contrary, this will likely be a calm before the storm of yet another devastating crash.
Remembering Capitalism’s Crimes
A new book uncovers the reality of America's victory in the Cold War — detailing how massacres of leftists in twenty-two countries helped to overcome resistance to capitalism across the world, writes Grace Blakeley.
Every Economic Question Is a Question of Power
The links between business, finance, and the state do not represent a perversion of liberal democracy — they are an unavoidable feature of capitalist political economy.
How We Can Break the Power of Finance
An important new book, Sabotage: The Hidden Nature of Finance, skewers the destructive role of finance in our economic system. But its authors shy away from the radical implications of their analysis and end up peddling technocratic illusions about the necessary cure.
Democratic Socialism Is Still the Future
Despite this weekend's defeat for the Left in the leadership election, Jeremy Corbyn's democratic socialism remains hugely popular among Labour members – and the only way out of the economic crisis we find ourselves in. As Corbyn himself put it: "There is no such thing as Corbynism. There is socialism."
The Coronavirus Crisis Is Political
In 2008, they told us not to “politicize” the crash. We ended up with a decade of austerity. The coronavirus crisis will reshape the economy in profound ways — now is the time to make socialist arguments about how to respond.
The Coronavirus Economic Crash
Today's coronavirus crash in the stock market exposed the frailty of global capitalism. With governments tapped out on quantitative easing, only significant public investment on the scale of a Green New Deal can prevent a slump.
Socialists Should Talk About Aspiration
Rebecca Long-Bailey's "aspirational socialism" is an attempt to overcome a pervasive problem: after a decade of austerity, many working people don't believe that politics can make their lives better.