socialism
Sexual self-determination in socialist Cuba: An interview with CENESEX director Mariela Castro Espín
CENESEX director Mariela Castro Espín (centre).
March 23, 2011 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- In Cuba, there is a LGBTT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, transsexual] movement whose gestation is found at the intersection of the state and organised civil society. This movement seeks to tackle the main themes of LGBTT reality from the perspective of human rights, health and social integration, while inserting itself into the national project of a just society. Historically, the space for its existence was provided by the country’s women’s movement, which was largely responsible for making Cuba, in 2008, the first country in the Americas to have sex-change operations included in the universal health-care system.
Camila Piñeiro Harnecker: `Cuba needs changes, to take us forward rather than backwards'
Cuban workers march on May Day 2009. Photo by Bill Hackwell/Havana Times.
Why does health care in Cuba cost 96% less than in the US?
Claudia Lopez, an intern, with outpatients at 5 de Septiembre Polyclinic, Havana.
What if the state of the world were measured by its majority?
What real democracy looks like: a communal council in Merida votes for its electoral commission in July 2010.
Fred Magdoff: Creating an ecological civilisation
By Fred Magdoff
``It is inconceivable that capitalism itself will lead directly to an ecological civilization that provides the basic needs for all people. However, building an ecological civilization that is socially just will not automatically happen in post-capitalist societies. It will occur only through the concerted action and constant vigilance of an engaged population.''
January 2011 -- Monthly Review -- Given the overwhelming harm being done to the world’s environment and to its people, it is essential today to consider how we might organize a truly ecological civilization—one that exists in harmony with natural systems—instead of trying to overwhelm and dominate nature. This is not just an ethical issue; it is essential for our survival as a species and the survival of many other species that we reverse the degradation of the earth’s life support systems that once provided dependable climate, clean air, clean water (fresh and ocean), bountiful oceans, and healthy and productive soils.
Συνέντευξη με τον Michael Lebowitz και την Marta Harnecker: "Να ξαναεφεύρουμε τον σοσιαλισμό"
[English: http://links.org.au/node/2072]
alterthess :: όλες οι ειδήσεις από την άλλη Θεσσαλονίκη (http://alterthess.gr) --
Los seres humanos como centro de nuestro socialismo
[English at http://links.org.au/node/2042.]
Por Federico Fuentes, traducido por Janet Duckworth
Resena sobre libro, La alternativa socialista: el verdadero desarrollo humano, de Michael Lebowitz
Green Left Weekly/Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- La llegada de la crisis económica mundial a mediados de 2008, simbolizada por el colapso de algunas de las empresas más icónicas de Wall Street, condujo a un incremento vertiginoso de las ventas de El Capital, la obra maestra de Carlos Marx, porque mucha gente buscó una explicación de los acontecimientos apocalípticos que se estaban desarrollando.
Putting humans back into socialism
Review by Federico Fuentes
The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development
By Michael Lebowitz
Monthly Review Press, 2010
December 5, 2010 -- Green Left Weekly -- The onset of the global economic crisis in mid 2008, symbolised by the collapse of some of Wall Street’s most iconic companies, led to soaring sales of Karl Marx’s seminal work Das Kapital, as many sought explanations to the tumultuous events unfolding. Although written more than 100 years ago, this devastating and insightful dissection of how capital functions is still a powerful tool for people looking to understand and change the world.
Marx’s aim was to provide a handbook for working-class activists that unravelled the logic of capital and its inherently exploitative nature. Marx said this was necessary because as long as workers did not understand that capital was the result of their exploitation, they would not be able to defeat their enemy.
The left cannot ignore China’s achievements, but neither can it be too celebratory
Rural poverty in China is much higher than urban poverty.
Britain: Understanding the Green Party
November 2, 2010 -- New Left Project -- Derek Wall is an economics lecturer and writer. He has been a member of the Green Party since 1980 and was Green Party principal speaker from 2006 to 2007. He is a founder of the Ecosocialist International and Green Left [an organised ecosocialist group within the Green Party] and has written widely on green politics. His latest books are The Rise of the Green Left and The No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics. In this interview, he and Edward Lewis examine the nature and politics of the Green Party from a left perspective.
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What are the origins of the Green Party? What are the circumstances that brought it about?