Welcome to Litsy!

As I've just received December's number of the #SocialistStandard I thought I'd best read November's! ?

There's an article, "Is Capitalism Dead?" reviewing Varoufakis's book "Technofeudalism - What Killed Capitalism", which mordantly answers the question that if so (which isn't accepted), this alternative is no better. See the film Blade Runner, the Aliens franchise, & Murderbot Diaries as fictional examples of what this economy might look like.

"Neurodivergence is not purely created by capitalism...but the way it manifests today is shaped by the demands and pressures of this system.
Traits like hyperfocus, pattern recognition, and creative thinking can help people resist the nonsense of capitalism. Yet capitalism only values these traits when they increase productivity.
The fight against capitalism must also be a fight for neurodivergent liberation." ✊♾️
#SocialistStandard #1452

Back from Manchester Trans Pride March a little tired and much inspired! #TransRightsAreHumanRights ✊?️‍⚧️

#SocialistStandard #1452 was waiting on the door mat, speaking of which, Kier Starmer makes the cover following his meetings with ??
Obvs, the SPGB aren't fans of Labour, and this issue sets out what they're getting wrong (equally obvs, not dismantling capitalism!).
The "Capitalism is Mental" article looks like it might be interesting.

"Israel, the US's rogue proxy in the Middle East with it's own agenda, initiated the current East by attacking Iran with the declared aim of physically preventing it acquiring the nuclear bomb."

Feels like #1451 of the #SocialistStandard is going to be heavy! ?
#AntifaBookClub

#SocialistStandard #1450
"Commiserations to you job-seekers out there who fancied themselves as Chief Executive Officer of the international corporation RCC Inc. The position has been filled. There were 135 internal candidates vying to fulfil it with an external individual, Trump, suggesting that he should get the job because he was already running America and as the job involved a one-day week, Sundays, it would be a doddle to do.

⬇️

"Why tariffs are not an issue:
'Tariff Reform, Free Trade or No Trade? The Fiscal Fraud Exposed' was the front-page headline of the Socialist Standard in April 1910."
#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

Articles include a critique (and rejection) of the UK Supreme Court's ruling on a legal definition of sex and gender ✊?️‍⚧️
DT and tariffs
A critique (and rejection) of the tactics of Just Stop Oil
DT Vs Greenland
The monetisation of universities

#SocialistStandard April 2025 had a cover story about Little Trump (a name that fits Nige on several levels 🍑💨), which looks at his pernicious political presence, offering a hopeful analysis that his dream (threat?) of becoming the next UK PM is unlikely to happen🤞
Other articles include a stirring call for solidarity with trans people, a slightly snotty reply to a critical letter, a continuation of the series on socialist fundamentals, & a ⬇️

#TransRightsReadathon
“Digital Book Burnings in Trump's America:
Attacks on marginalised groups are likely an early indication of rising authoritarianism. A century ago, the Nazi party of Germany targeted transgender people & the scientists who were pioneers of sexual research, raiding Magnus Hirschfeld‘s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, one of the world‘s first centres dedicated to the study and care of queer and trans people. The Nazi Party ⬇️

#SocialistStandard #1447
I have nothing to say about the cover story that can't be expressed by ?‍??
Other stories dip into AI panic amongst the super rich and tech bros; tariffs and the likely unintended consequences of ?'s "plan"; Taiwan, China and the West; the fundamentally pro-social nature of humans; musings about the concept of money, and; the socialist lessons to be learnt by reflecting upon road rage!
Free to read link in comments ✊?

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

"On 20 January Donald Trump officially became president of the United States, much to the consternation of almost 50 percent of the US electorate, and many others around the world."

"When the brutal 50-year tyranny of the Assad dynasty collapsed last month, people danced in the streets in many parts of Syria as they contemplated an unprecedented new beginning."
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

#SocialistStandard issue 1445, has an editorial about the regime change in Syria, a main article about how tech companies leverage political power, continues its series of essays about socialism based on an address by William Morris, ⬇️

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

"So the 'isolationist' section of the ruling class has won control of political power in the United States." - Editorial: "Trump Triumphs"

#SocialistStandard #1444 examines Trump's election win, the cover story being about climate change, the catastrophic floods in Spain, and the likely impact of the POTUS Elect's denialism.
Also included, the fourth part of an analysis of a speech by William Morris; a rather ⬇️

I received #SocialistStandard #1443 on 1st November, but couldn't face reading it then. As the strap line says, whoever would've won workers would've lost, but by far the worst of the possibilities happened.

"The main effect of capitalist elections is not to bring about real change but to promote the illusion of change."

"If capitalist democracy is a rigged circus anyway, some will think, why not elect the most outrageous clown?" ?

"In 2023, three million people in the UK appealed to food banks for food relief. That's one in twenty of the population who did not have enough to eat for some part of last year... In the United States, the world's richest nation, the number of people visiting food banks last year hit 26 million, one American in 13."

Sobering statistics.

#SocialistStandard #1441