As the US "Summit for Democracy" continues today, it's worth remembering how the US has actively destroyed democracies across much of the global South over the past several decades, while propping up authoritarian regimes. Here are a few prominent examples:
In 1953, the US worked with Britain to orchestrate a coup that deposed Mohammed Mosaddegh, the elected Prime Minister of Iran, and in his place propped up the authoritarian regime of Reza Shah. Remember Mosaddegh:
In 1954, the US orchestrated a coup to depose Jacobo Árbenz, the democratically elected leader of Guatemala, and installed the military dictator Carlos Castillo Armas in his place. Remember Árbenz:
In 1961, the US conspired with the UK and Belgiam to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected leader of the Republic of Congo. They installed the Mobutu dictatorship in his place. Remember Lumumba:
In 1964, the US orchestrated a coup against João Goulart, the democratically elected leader of Brazil, and replaced him with a right-wing military junta. Remember Goulart:
In 1966, the US and Britain backed a coup against Kwame Nkrumah, the democratically elected president of Ghana, and installed a military junta to rule in his place. Remember Nkrumah:
In 1973, the US orchestrated a coup that deposed Salvadore Allende, the democratically elected leader of Chile, and installed the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in his place. Remember Allende:
The US supported the Batista dictatorship in Cuba; Suharto's blood-soaked regime in Indonesia; the apartheid state in South Africa; the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. They have propped up the regime in Saudi Arabia for several decades. It's a long and devastating list.
The US has destroyed many of the South's most promising democratic movements, whenever they have shown even the slightest inkling of supporting socialist or anti-imperialist policies. Because for the US, what ultimately matters is US economic interests and US hegemony. That's it.
*Belgium
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We have *extraordinary* productive capacities. We can do virtually anything. Renewable energy? Integrated public transit? Regenerative farming? High-quality affordable housing for all? DONE. But we are prevented from doing these things because they are not profitable to capital.
Medicines to end preventable diseases. Universal public healthcare. Insulated buildings. High-efficiency appliances in every household...
We live in a *shadow* of the society we could have because we do not have democratic control over finance and production.
We face mass deprivation, human misery and ecological crisis all around us. All of it totally unnecessary. And we are told to believe that this is somehow natural and "normal". It's wild.
Major investors like BlackRock and JPMorgan have pulled out of Climate Action commitments because they can achieve higher profits doing fossil fuels and emissions. A clear reminder that capitalism cannot achieve green transition with the necessary speed. ft.com/content/ab26da…
Renewables are cheap. Rapid decarbonization can be achieved. But affordability and feasibility are not what matters to capital. What matters is profits. They will invest in whatever is most profitable, and all of us are hostage to their insane logic.
It is critical to understand: finance represents power over our collective productive capacities - *our* labour and resources. With these capacities we can easily solve social & ecological problems. But we are prevented from doing so because capital directs our efforts elsewhere.
Did capitalist reforms reduce extreme poverty in China? New empirical data suggests the opposite. In the 1980s, socialist China had some of the lowest rates of extreme poverty in the periphery, while the capitalist reforms caused poverty to increase. theconversation.com/chinas-capital…
Scholars have long argued that the World Bank's $1.90 method suffers from a significant limitation, as it does not tell us whether people can actually afford essential goods (food, shelter, clothing, fuel), whose prices may move differently to the rest of the economy.
To overcome this limitation, we need to measure incomes against the cost of basic needs. This is a more robust approach.
With this method, we see that China's public provisioning systems ensured that even low-income people could access essential goods.
Here’s a quick roundup of highlights from research we published in 2023, on climate change, capitalism, colonialism, degrowth and post-capitalist futures. As always, free PDFs are available via the link at the end of the thread. 🧵
1) This one is my top highlight. Rich countries have dramatically exceeded their fair-shares of the carbon budget for 1.5°C. In a zero-by-2050 scenario they will owe $192 trillion to global South countries in compensation for atmospheric appropriation. nature.com/articles/s4189…
2) Rich countries and elites are overwhelmingly responsible for excess emissions, but communities in the global South—and racially minoritized groups within nations—face a disproportionate burden of illness and mortality due to climate change. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Thanks to a lot of tech bros and economists getting Very Upset about degrowth, this article is now the number one trending publication at Nature. nature.com/articles/d4158…
I mean, the authors of this piece wrote totally obscene things like "Wealthy economies should scale down destructive and unnecessary forms of production to reduce energy and material use, and focus economic activity around securing human needs and well-being." Heretics, all.
But, but... but what about technology!
Yeah mate we like technology too. We also like a habitable planet. And we don't like imperialism. All of these things can go together. monthlyreview.org/2023/07/01/on-…
"Those who wish to unleash technological innovation and production to achieve ecological objectives often hitch this dream to the wagon of capitalist growth. But in fact capitalism and growthism *limit* what we can achieve." jasonhickel.org/blog/2023/12/2…
"Scaling down less-necessary production liberates productive capacities (factories, labour, materials) which can then be remobilized to do the production and innovation required for rapid decarbonization."
"A degrowth scenario is not a “smaller economy” (i.e., a low-capacity economy). It is a high-capacity economy which is reducing less-necessary production, and therefore is suddenly endowed with spare capacity than can be redirected for necessary purposes."