Field Notes
From The Editor
Capitalism, Utopian and Scientific
By Paul MattickIn the old days of the historical Left the most-widely read piece of Marxist writing was probably Friedrich Engels’s Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. In this short text, Engels sketched the history of capitalism and the development of socialist ideas and movements as part of that history.
Notes from the Anthropocene #1
By Glenn Dyer and Stephanie WakefieldOn September 21, 2014, nearly 400,000 people took part in the People’s Climate March and Mobilization, winding their way from Central Park through Midtown Manhattan and ending with a block party celebration on the city’s mostly empty West Side (flooded during Sandy).
A Chinaman’s Chance
By Sokthan YengEvery time a stranger uses the greeting “ni hao” to start a conversation with me (of Asian ancestry, but not Chinese), I’m reminded that the distinction between Chinese and the more generic Asian-American is blurry at best.
#FloodWallStreet Climate Activists: It’s Capitalism, Stupid!
By Geoff Gilbert“We are unstoppable, This is what democracy looks like.” The populist chants rang through Manhattan’s Financial District in a scene that is becoming familiar in our post-recession world of mass economic deprivation and uncertainty.
Politics Without Politics
By Anselm JappeMust it be taken then as an article of faith that opposition to capitalism, or to its contemporary excesses, goes via what is commonly called politics? It is clear that nothing would have changed if Ségolène Royal, the 2007 French Socialist Party candidate for president, had been elected instead of rightist Nicolas Sarkozy.
