We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Twenty-First Century Imperialism: Militarism, Collaborators And Popular Resistance

Click here to access article by James Petras from his blog.

The author surveys capitalist operations throughout the world to provide insights on the current stage of capitalism. In this process he updates "Marx and Lenin to take account of the systematic criminalization of capital as a central element in the process of capital reproduction.  He writes: "As capital becomes criminal, criminals become capitalists – on a world-historic scale." However, he concludes his essay with hopeful signs of the decay and collapse of capitalism.

Note: there appears to be a typographical error in this overly long and complex sentence: 
The collaboration of the governing political class and their local financial elites was essential in facilitating the long term, large scale plunder of the local economy, taxpayers, employees, negotiating the terms and time frame for paying tribute to the imperial states: Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal because [became] the site of the biggest suction pump for imperial enrichment in modern history: entire working populations are impoverished to transfer wealth for at least the next generation and beyond.
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