Introduction The Hunger Games (2012), based on the book of the same name by Suzanne Collins, is not an easy film to watch. It follows the story of an adolescent girl named Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) made to fight in a… Read More ›
Books
Free Market Health Care: True Stories by Michael Parenti
I recently wrote an article about my personal experiences in dealing with the medical system while undergoing surgery (“Free Market Medicine: A Personal Account”). In response, a number of readers sent me accounts of their own experiences trying to get… Read More ›
SOPA’s big brother signed by EU nations amid widespread protests
Polish citizens take to the streets in protest at ACTA By Jennifer Baker IDG News Service – The European Union signed up to the controversial Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday despite widespread opposition, particularly in Poland, where people… Read More ›
Review of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”
When someone writes and speaks out to expose a system of injustice from the perspective of a former insider, every effort is taken to discredit such a person. The more controversial the information they bring forward, the more their character… Read More ›
Review of “Are Prisons Obsolete?”
In our “democratic” society, we have been taught that, while everyone is entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” there are those who do not deserve the same “rights” to which we are all supposedly entitled. The exception… Read More ›
Karl Marx Voted Greatest Thinker of the Millennium
Marx took the top spot by a wide margin followed by Einstein, Newton, and Darwin, in second, third and fourth places. Revolutionary writer Karl Marx has topped a BBC News Online poll to find the greatest thinker of the millennium…. Read More ›
Review of “The Working Poor: Invisible in America”
In capitalism’s mythology, society functions according to merit. Wealth and decadence are the tell-tale signs of hard work and brilliance paying off, while poverty is a sign of laziness, irresponsibility and a disposition or work-ethic undeserving of the products of… Read More ›
Pacifism: How to Do The Enemy’s Job For Them
“As an ex-Indian civil servant, it always makes me shout with laughter to hear, for instance, Gandhi named as an example of the success of non-violence. As long as twenty years ago it was cynically admitted in Anglo-Indian circles that… Read More ›
Review of “Soil, Not Oil”
In her book Soil Not Oil, Vandana Shiva argues that ecological and social justice are connected in that the chief victims of ecological injustices, such as pollution, leading to climate change and increased resource consumption by corporations to meet demands… Read More ›
Review of “Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis”
In any society, police forces and other agents of organized repression do their work on behalf of that society’s ruling class. In capitalism, the police are the reserve army of capital, protecting bourgeois property and society from working people and… Read More ›
Review of “The Theory of the Leisure Class”
“The history of all hitherto society is a history of class struggle.” These words, from Marx’s Manifesto of the Communist Party, assert an essential truth about the organization of human civilization through exploitative modes of production. From slave economies to… Read More ›
Review of “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland”
A Glimpse at the Perpetrators of Genocide When we think about the various atrocities of history, something in our nature wants us to think of the perpetrators as being different from normal people. We envision brutes and sadists; stereotypical villains… Read More ›
Review of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”
Slog through the murky depths of scandal, controversy, and murder in Jeremy Scahill’s chilling account of Blackwater Worldwide’s ascension to prominence as the world’s most powerful private military company (PMC). Jeremy Scahill earns his keep as an accomplished investigative journalist… Read More ›
Review of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”
The Theory of “Shock Therapy” Every once in a while, a book comes along that sets the liberals on fire. The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein is one such book. This volume has been hawked… Read More ›
Review: Genocide, War Crimes and the West
Adam Jones’ book Genocide, War Crimes and the West: History and Complicity is an incredibly revealing anthology containing accounts of atrocities carried out by Western imperial capitalism and those who serve its interests abroad. Articles describing the little-known and little-understood… Read More ›
The Red Phoenix 