Author: Talia Baroncelli

UAW: Historic Demand to Eliminate Wage Tiers – Frank Hammer

UAW: Historic Demand to Eliminate Wage Tiers – Frank Hammer

Frank Hammer, former President of United Auto Workers (UAW) local 909 in Detroit and retired GM worker, explains how “legacy” workers are standing up for new hires. This is critical to building working-class solidarity. He also reflects on the history of autoworker strikes in the U.S. and in Mexico, reminding us of the deadly incident at the Ford Cuautitlán plant, in which thugs dressed in Ford uniforms shot dead one of the workers and injured ten others.

Climate Lobbyists Hijack Progressive Climate Bills – Rebecca Burns
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Climate Lobbyists Hijack Progressive Climate Bills – Rebecca Burns

Rebecca Burns, journalist at the investigative news outlet The Lever, discusses her reporting on extensive lobbying efforts to hold up legislation which would require companies to disclose all of their greenhouse gas emissions. In a recent report, she details how the same lobbyists who seek to derail progressive climate legislation in California are also getting paid by counties and cities along the California coast to deal with the impact of coastal erosion and fires.

Debt and Climate Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World – Asoka Bandarage
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Debt and Climate Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World – Asoka Bandarage

Dr. Asoka Bandarage is an adjunct professor at the California Institute for Integral Studies and the author of a new book, Crisis in Sri Lanka and the World. Sri Lanka has had a minuscule carbon footprint, and yet the country is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, coastal erosion, and flooding. She discusses the convergence of existential climate and debt crises in Sri Lanka, the latter resulting from IMF debt restructuring and the lack of a globally coordinated multilateral sovereign debt mechanism that places traditional and private lenders on an equal footing.

Corruption in Lebanon Propped up by the Transnational Capitalist Elite – Nadim Houry
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Corruption in Lebanon Propped up by the Transnational Capitalist Elite – Nadim Houry

Widespread corruption in Lebanon is fostered by the country’s ruling class, whose business interests are enmeshed with those of international finance. Nadim Houry, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, explains how Lebanon’s culture of political impunity is tied to the reconstruction agreements put in place in 1990, at the end of the 15-year civil war. The ongoing political deadlock shields the authorities from scrutiny and allows for vulture capitalists such as the former governor of Lebanon’s Central Bank, Riad Salameh, to embezzle the country’s resources. At the same time, ordinary people are faced with crushing inflation.

Revolutionary Mathematics: Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, and the Logic of Capitalism

Revolutionary Mathematics: Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, and the Logic of Capitalism

Justin Joque is a visualization librarian at the University of Michigan and the author of the book Revolutionary Mathematics: Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, and the Logic of Capitalism. His book examines the statistical models on which our algorithms, machine learning, and financial systems are built, highlighting the mechanisms of abstraction which lend these models an air of misleading objectivity. Can statistical models be used towards emancipatory aims?

Global Upheaval Undermining Food Security – Matin Qaim

Global Upheaval Undermining Food Security – Matin Qaim

Matin Qaim, Director of the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn, examines the various aspects comprising food security, namely local and global supply chains, the generation of income for local farmers, investments in the production of nutritious foods, as well as accounting for climate externalities. Attaining food security has become even more difficult given the disruptions around the pandemic, rising inflation, and the failed Black Sea grain deal. He asserts that small-scale farming and agroecological approaches are not necessarily low-tech and that certain technologies, if applied correctly, can assist smallholder farmers.

U.S. and China Must Cooperate to Reduce Threat of Nuclear War and Deal With Climate Crisis
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U.S. and China Must Cooperate to Reduce Threat of Nuclear War and Deal With Climate Crisis

Talia Baroncelli and Paul Jay discuss Russian threats to use tactical nuclear weapons against Western Europe and what role China can play in solving the existential crisis of climate and threats of nuclear war—part 2 of 2.

Russian Anti-War Activist – Boris Kagarlitsky Arrested – Paul Jay
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Russian Anti-War Activist – Boris Kagarlitsky Arrested – Paul Jay

Paul Jay and Talia Baroncelli discuss the recent arrest of Russian anti-war sociologist and Marxist Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky. Boris was interviewed several times on theAnalysis.news. Talia and Paul dig into what a long-term stalemate and threats of nuclear war might mean for Ukraine, Russia, and the world—part 1 of 2.

Protests Against Police Brutality – What’s Next for France?

Protests Against Police Brutality – What’s Next for France?

Yasser Louati, political analyst and Head of the Committee for Justice and Liberties, highlights the brutal practices of the French police, as well as the proximity of the police unions to Marine Le Pen’s right-wing ideology. He discusses how French secularism, or laïcité, has been instrumentalized against racialized groups and minorities. Furthermore, he argues that France is at a crossroads; as seen in the anti-pension reform protests, different groups from the fringes of French society are uniting to protest the neoliberal state, as well as its policies which sustain religious and racial discrimination and the increased alienation of the poorer classes. Will French society keep fighting for justice and rise up against the regime, as it has done in various movements in the past? 

Extraction, Destruction of Ecosystems, and Fires in North America – Éric Pineault
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Extraction, Destruction of Ecosystems, and Fires in North America – Éric Pineault

Éric Pineault, professor of ecological economics at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at the University of Quebec in Montreal, explains how the fires raging in Canada are a corollary of the paradigm termed Extreme Oil. He discusses various oil and gas projects across North America, as well as the Canadian government’s support for the Trans Mountain Pipeline project, and how terms such as “net zero” and “carbon neutral” are misleading and conveniently serve Big Oil’s aims. 

His recent book A Social Ecology of Capital presents an empirical analysis of capitalist societies, which both builds on and enhances Marxist theories by accounting for the energy extraction and colonization of ecosystems, a characteristic of what he terms our “fossil-industrial” society. His conception of capitalist metabolism outlines extractivism, production, consumption, and waste dissipation, which leads to an absorption of surplus energy, capital accumulation, and profit maximization. Most importantly, how is this understanding of social ecology useful for furthering a project of emancipation?

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