Category Archives: Bourgeois politics

“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” — Karl Marx, The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Centrism extremism: how horseshoe-politics silences brutality

Posted on 02/07/2016 by yeksmesh

Extremism as a concept is central to current popular political discourse. In its common definition, however, it is also a highly flawed. Its use shows a bias towards centrist politics that silences a history of extremism. Centrists are just as well … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Critique of the Left, History, Politics, Uncategorized | Comments Off

What does a Corbyn victory mean?

Posted on 17/08/2015 by Sami El-Sayed

With Jeremy Corbyn’s grassroots campaign in full swing, we must decide how to best orientate towards the front runner for the Labour leadership position. There’s no doubting that his campaign has opened up the space for the left to break … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Politics, Proletarian politics | Comments Off

SYRIZA: Was capitulation inevitable?

Posted on 17/07/2015 by Sami El-Sayed

With the events of January 25th, a shot rang out across Europe, which would reverberate across the world. The election of the first radical left government in decades, which threatened to challenge the rule of austerity in the European Union. … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Critique of the Left, Politics, Proletarian politics | 1 Comment

The four contradictions of liberalism

Posted on 17/07/2015 by yeksmesh

Liberalism produced some of the greatest political advances of our age. As socialists we often obscure this, but civil and political rights combined with representative democracy make for one of the most potent and liberating achievements of the period following the … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, History, Politics, Proletarian politics | 3 Comments

Some Various Tidbits on #GE2015

Posted on 08/05/2015 by Jerome Nikolai Warren

I was present at the Brixton Recreation Center earlier tonight, where vote counting was going — and continues to go — on. Workers there are paid a standard rate that is independent of how long they spend counting votes, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Critique of the Left, Politics | Tagged british election, Cameron, Conservative, election 2015, Labour, Miliband, Tory | Comments Off

Notes on Ideology, Power, the Media and the Irish Crisis

Posted on 15/05/2014 by Henry Silke

An introduction to the study of ideological power structures and their relevance in the Irish economic crisis (Notes from a presentation to the Dublin Left Forum 10/05/2014) Introduction Since the onset of the crisis that the Irish state thus far … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Cultural analysis, Philosophy, Proletarian politics | Comments Off

The twilight of democracy

Posted on 13/11/2013 by modulus

There’s a certain story that can be told about popular participation in government. It begins with Athens, glorious and bright, yet outnumbered and besieged by the sinister forces of oriental despotism. It continues with Rome, a mixed constitution where power … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Politics | 4 Comments

Provisional thoughts on Egypt

Posted on 28/07/2013 by Maximilien Robespierre

Between January and October 1850, Karl Marx wrote a series of four articles on the revolutionary situation in France for the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, which were collected and published with the dreadfully uninspiring title Class Struggles in France: 1848-1850. Decades later, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Politics, Proletarian politics | Comments Off

Beyond law: towards an alternative to legal regulation under socialism

Posted on 06/03/2013 by modulus

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. –Anatole France, Le Lys Rouge As a Marxist and a lawyer, I often find … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, History, Philosophy, Politics, Proletarian politics | 3 Comments

14N and some thoughts on the conjuncture

Posted on 17/11/2012 by modulus

First off, by 14N I mean the European Day of Action and Solidarity which took place the 14th of November. It’s a Spanish convention to abbreviate dates that way, hence the 15M movement, the 23F coup, etc. Here in Iberia–both … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Politics | Comments Off

Limited liability: why we should want more of it

Posted on 30/08/2012 by modulus

On my previous post on corporate personhood I intended to also deal with the matter of limited liability–hence the URL of the post. However, I couldn’t do that in that post, so here it goes. Limited liability is a privilege … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Economics, History, Politics, Proletarian politics | Comments Off

Corporate personhood

Posted on 05/08/2012 by modulus

One common complaint in anticapitalist circles is that the system of rights which once was designed to apply to human beings has been, through judicial interpretation, extended to so-called juridical persons–not persons at all, that is. Thus, corporations are given … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, History, Politics, Proletarian politics | 1 Comment

The rise of money

Posted on 17/07/2012 by James O'Brien

Joseph Chamberlain is nowadays a half-remembered – by aficionados of British imperial history and resentful Irish nationalists – politician from the 19th century. Mostly he is remembered for siring two sons who followed him into politics and even then he … Continue reading →

Posted in Bourgeois politics, Geopolitics, History, Politics, Proletarian politics | Comments Off

The NGO Industrial Complex

Posted on 24/06/2012 by modulus

The discourse of human rights: drawbacks and opportunities Many people on the left (mainstream or otherwise) align relatively uncritically with the pronouncements issued by neutral-seeming human rights NGOs. These organisations present themselves as “independent”, “apolitical”, just conveying value-free information to … Continue reading →