Contributions & News

Selling Sickness: Capitalism and Health (Part II)

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“Capitalism has had a transformative effect on our society’s approach to health. To say that health is an unchanging aspect of all cultures or historical epochs is simply not true. For example, there is a lot to be said about how capitalism fosters and promotes physical health. Under capitalism, it is usually done for purely individualistic aesthetic purposes. In the hands of companies, these become powerful ideological forces which grant advertisers a worrying degree of influence over us, as they can essentially control the images we think we should have of ourselves. Health becomes almost domineering and transforms into its opposite, a sickness. Women are still generally promoted as sex objects for consumption and men are also presented by companies in the same narrow manner.”

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Women: Takers of Shit

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“Have you ever heard of the “Warm Bath Theory”? It was an idea published by Talcott Parsons, a sociologist who created this idea that the nuclear family prevents its adult members from behaving in dysfunctional ways and encourages them to conform to social norms. The warm bath theory suggests that a man could come home from a stressful day at work and relax into his family/wife, like a warm bath, relieving his stress.

However, as communists, we know that this theory is outdated and quite frankly, full of shit. Fran Ansley, a Marxist-Feminist rephrased it as women being “takers of shit”, in other words when men come home and try to relieve their stress from working in a capitalist system, they do so by taking their frustrations out on their wives.”

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Porn and Power: A Feminist Analysis of Porn and its Effect on Women

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Porn is not feminist, and no reforms or measures are ever going to change that. Not porn made by women, not porn that’s paid for, nothing. This is because nothing will ever change who is hurt by porn, and who benefits. Overwhelmingly women are the ones hurt by porn, either directly by starring in it, or indirectly by experiencing abuse that men have learned from excessive porn consumption and men benefit (sexually and financially). Content made to satisfy men at the expense of all women is not feminist, even if the women are smiling in the thumbnail.

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Capitalism and the Deep State: Part Two

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In this piece Donald Trump’s Presidency and its relationship to the deep-state will be elaborated on further as many of his supporters still cling to the idea that the deep-state is a structure that is almost exclusively anti-Trump. This conception is too narrow, and like other attempts at dissecting the history of the deep-state it cannot explain where it came from. By focusing their arguments around a figure like Trump the right reduces what are broader political discussions into simplistic word salads that lack the required historical perspective.

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Capitalism and the Deep State: Part One

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The deep-state, as described by the far-right, is one that functions independently of the will of the people and whose purpose it is to instigate and oversee political agendas that are, by design, malign, nefarious, and anti-Trump… As with most issues co-opted by the far-right their obsession with the shadowy cabal running Washington is too narrow and as we will see lacks the type of analysis necessary to properly elucidate important political subjects like the deep-state and what its purpose came to be as it evolved as a phenomenon peculiar to the American capitalist system.

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Capitalism and Conspiracies

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When conspiracy theorists try to boil power relations down to one or two individuals who control daily events, Marxists instead point to the economic structure which produces these roles and how they function in a class dynamic which allows political control to be maintained. With power over the process of wealth accumulation via the exploitation of labour playing a key part in how this is achieved. This is contrasted with the rather story-like narrative that conspiracies tend to weave. The convenience that conspiracy theorists enjoy is in not having to engage in a radical critique of society but instead to use an almost atavistic fear to whip the public into a frenzy.

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Reasonably Revolting: The “Socialism” of Jacobin

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Jacobin is not a socialist paper. It exists because the US capitalist media allows it. Their ideology is characterised by their inability to see beyond electoral politics even in the face of persistent failure, and their role as a mouthpiece of US imperialism. Despite their aesthetic, the “Brooklyn Socialism” of Jacobin amounts to little more than the same meek demands of democratic socialism, but in radical dress.

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Why Join a Union?

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Whether by directly improving workers’ pay and conditions, promoting progressive legislation, or reducing economic inequality, being a member of a trade union provides a unique opportunity to proactively remedy social and economic inequity. Trade unions provide an avenue to dissolve the fetters imposed upon ordinary citizens by those who profit from their immiseration. They can help to build a foundation upon which society can be built anew.

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Leo’s Gambit: The Myth of the “Welfare Nation”

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The bogeyman of the welfare cheat is used to accentuate divisions among the working class and create a scapegoat which redirects anger away from the capitalist class. This myth is perpetuated by the capitalist class and their mouthpieces in the media and in government, through over the top articles, wasteful government campaigns and anti-working-class rhetoric.

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