Wednesday 25 March 2020

The Ardern Labour-led Government's Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Posted March 26, 2020, Latest Update March 29.



Overall, the Ardern Government’s response has been reasonably sound (although cruise ship visits and international travel needed to be stopped earlier), and Ardern’s leadership has been superb. Her conveying of information to the public has been clear, accurate, and compassionate. This government has clearly done a much better job of responding to the pandemic than right-wing governments such as the Trump Administration, Boris Johnson’s ‘herd immunity’ Conservative Government in the UK, and the Five Star Movement-Democratic Party coalition Government in Italy. 

But the absence of quarantine for recent arrivals, mass testing, and the creation of make-shift hospital facilities for those who test positive is a major concern. Yesterday (March 25), there 205 confirmed cases, 22 had recovered, and only 5 were in hospital. The latter is shocking because that leaves 178 Covid-19 carriers in family homes throughout New Zealand, where they can infect other family members. Let’s hope all of these people and their families are responsible (although a recent example from Dunedin in which someone flew back from Germany then infected their kid and sent them to Logan Park high school suggests otherwise).

In contrast, take the example this week of China’s advice to Serbia which is summed up by the Serbian President as follows:
“After speaking with the Chinese experts, Aleksandar Vučić said Serbia would move to a regime of mass testing, and would isolate those who tested positive in makeshift facilities, even if they had light symptoms, as lockdown alone will not work.” 


The Ardern Government needs to dump its neoliberal attachment to family/community care of those who test positive for Covid-19 and place them where they belong – in make-shift fit-for-purpose hospital facilities. Narrowly targeted testing, self-isolation of recent arrivals and community care needs to be replaced with mass testing, mandatory quarantine, and hospitalisation of all Covid-19 cases as soon as possible.
------------------

Posted March 29, 2020

Are we ready? Hospital staff brace for the next wave in the fight against coronavirus



This article is well worth reading: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120651219/are-we-ready-hospital-staff-brace-for-the-next-wave-in-the-fight-against-coronavirus

In a previous post, I argued that those who test positive should be placed in a temporary make-shift but fit-for-purpose hospital care facility, even if they only have mild symptoms, in order to ensure effective social isolation (including from other family members) and proper care. 

One of the major barriers to this is that, due to more than 30 years of neoliberal health policy and associated under-funding, hospital care is generally only used as a last resort and for the shortest time possible. This under-funding has: (1) created a public health system that was already thinly stretched, with staffing shortages, prior to the pandemic; and (2) created a health system with a comparatively low per-capita intensive care capacity. 

Re point 1:
"Our consistent view about the health system prior to this is that it was underfunded, and it was certainly understaffed," said Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, which represents thousands of doctors and dentists.

"Services are stretched. It means we're not in the best shape for something like a pandemic." 

Re point 2:
"New Zealand has 153 intensive care unit (ICU) bed spaces in public hospitals nationally, the Ministry of Health said this week. Accounting for beds that could be adapted to support ventilation, the number rises to 560.

There are 520 ventilators spread across all District Health Boards (DHBs).
The number of ICU spaces is low relative to similar countries.
The Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) in 2018 estimated there were 5.14 ICU beds per 100,000 people in New Zealand.
It trails well behind Australia (8.92), nearly all countries in Europe (average 11.5), and Canada (13.5).
Those intensive care spaces must also be shared with patients who have non-Covid-19 related issues, who can occupy 80 to 90 per cent of existing spaces at any one time." 

There is a third important point: New Zealand has a private health care system that has a parasitical relationship to the public health system. For example, although medical training is funded with student fees and government dollars, private hospitals hire these staff without contributing to training costs. Expensive areas of care, such as accident and emergency care, are handled by the public system. There are other examples. This parasitical relationship makes it possible for private health insurers to keep their premiums much lower than they would be in the absence of the public health system. It would be preferable if the government shut down private health care, and converted the private hospitals to public. If all New Zealanders were in the same public health care waka, this would not only be more economically efficient, but would increase political pressure from the public on successive governments to more adequately fund public health care.


------------------------

Posted March 23, 2020
A major weakness of the Ardern Government's response to Covid-19 has been the absence of a reliance on institutionalized quarantine and care. Singapore and China have successfully contained the virus (so far) by hospitalizing and in other ways effectively isolating those who tested positive. 

Yet remarkably in NZ most of the confirmed cases of Covid-19 are at home - not in hospital - and self-isolation not quarantine has been the major mechanism to combat the spread of the virus. What is obviously required is: (1) converting existing facilities into quarantine facilities for recent arrivals and others who need to be placed in quarantine; (2) placing everyone who tests positive in an institutionalised care facility to minimise the risk that they may infect family members and others in their communities.

The WHO has recently pointed out that lockdowns are necessary but not sufficient to combat Covid-19. What is also required is comprehensive testing (not yet done in NZ), tracking and tracing close contacts of those who test positive (this has been done), and effective isolation of those who test positive and who have had close contact with infected persons (not done in NZ). 

So why the reliance on self-isolation and community care rather than quarantine and hospitalisation? Because during over thirty years neoliberalism has created an embedded cultural and political emphasis on self (meaning family) responsibility and, in effect, community care (with women doing a disproportionate amount of unpaid caring for children, the sick, disabled and elderly). 

With respect to health care this has led to hospital care being viewed and provided as an absolute last resort and for the shortest time possible. For example, when I had abdominal surgery in 2010 I was checked in at 9am, had the operation, and sent home with painkillers at 3.30pm. Around the same time my dog had similar surgery and was kept in the veterinary clinic for three days.

The upshot being that the lack of mandatory quarantine and insufficient institutional health care to contain Covid-19 is ultimately due to the neoliberal policies that govern NZ’s health system. The pandemic is thus highlighting the damage that neoliberalism has done to our public health system, most obviously with years of under-funding by a succession of governments since 1984.

Sunday 22 March 2020

Covid-19 Pandemic and Global Economic Crisis: Official Accounts and Sources of Information

I will be regularly updating this post. Original Post 23-3-2020, Update: 23-3-2020.
There is a great deal of disinformation circulating on social media. It is important to base our thinking about the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated global economic crisis on reliable sources of information. 

Mainstream sources are not entirely reliable for a variety of reasons that include: questionable methodology, acknowledged limitations in the availability of reliable data, the adoption of a fundamentally neoliberal perspective, downplaying the role of neoliberalism in promoting the under-funding of public health systems since the late 1970s, and so forth. But information from these sources is generally more reliable than a great deal of that which circulates via social media- especially when it originates from the far right.

John Hopkins Medicine Tracking Map
This is the most reliable source of statistical data on the pandemic (confirmed cases, recovered cases, deaths).
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

The same source provides sound medical information on the nature of the illness.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus/ 


World Health Organization (WHO)
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but the WHO is producing a great deal of information that should be a starting point for, among other things, considering the empirical dimension of the pandemic.
https://www.who.int/ 

For the WHO tracking map see: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/685d0ace521648f8a5beeeee1b9125cd
 

Responses by Mainstream International Economic Agencies

From the IMF:

• 'Coronavirus Economic Planning: Hoping for the Best, Prepared for the Worst"

https://blogs.imf.org/2020/03/12/coronavirus-economic-planning-hoping-for-the-best-prepared-for-the-worst/ 

• Monetary and Financial Stability During the Coronavirus Outbreak

 "The global spread of the coronavirus is a human tragedy unfolding across the world. Quantifying the economic impact is complex, giving rise to significant uncertainty about the economic outlook and the associated downside risks. Such an abrupt rise in uncertainty can put both economic growth and financial stability at risk. In addition to targeted economic policies and fiscal measures, the right monetary and financial stability policies will be vital to help buttress the global economy."

https://blogs.imf.org/2020/03/11/monetary-and-financial-stability-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/

• 'Limiting the Economic Fallout of the Coronavirus with Large Targeted Policies'
https://blogs.imf.org/2020/03/09/limiting-the-economic-fallout-of-the-coronavirus-with-large-targeted-policies/ 


From the OECD:

• 'The impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on economic prospects is severe.'

 "Growth was weak but stabilising until the coronavirus Covid-19 hit. Restrictions on movement of people, goods and services, and containment measures such as factory closures have cut manufacturing and domestic demand sharply in China. The impact on the rest of the world through business travel and tourism, supply chains, commodities and lower confidence is growing."

http://www.oecd.org/economic-outlook/ 

OECD Interim Economic Assessment Coronavirus: The world economy at risk 2 March 2020

"The adverse impact on confidence, financial markets, the travel sector and disruption to supply chains contributes to the downward revisions in all G20 economies in 2020, particularly ones strongly interconnected to China, such as Japan, Korea and Australia."
 
PDF can be downloaded from:
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/7969896b-en.pdf?expires=1584306274&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=6DA605D97E99723BF3452DA2CA714B6C 

From the World Bank:

• 'Swift action can help developing countries limit economic harm of coronavirus'

"We know from history that when the global economy faces a common threat, quick, coordinated, and decisive action makes all the difference. That is beginning to happen. Several countries have announced stimulus programs, many have cut interest rates, and both the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund have unveiled massive financial-support packages to help countries overcome the health crisis and limit the economic damage."
 
"No one can reliably predict the full economic impact of the outbreak. Too much depends on what is unknowable—how long the outbreak lasts, how many countries it afflicts, and the extent to which a coordinated, concerted, fast-track policy response is mobilized and sustained. But what we do know is that the outbreak arrived at a weak point for the world economy, when global growth was beginning to pick up from its lowest rate since the 2009 financial crisis."
https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/swift-action-can-help-developing-countries-limit-economic-harm-coronavirus 

• 'Coronavirus highlights the need to strengthen health systems'

For years the IMF, OECD and World Bank have promoted neoliberal policies that have involved the under-funding of public health systems. No self-critical reflection on this in this article. Nonetheless, it is important to argue for more funding for public health. 

"But addressing emergency health and economic impacts from this outbreak must be followed by longer-term investments to build stronger and more resilient health systems. 
 
This makes sense both from a health and an economic perspective. Putting more resources on the front lines to detect and treat conditions early, before they become more serious, saves lives, improves health outcomes, reduces healthcare costs and strengthens preparedness for when outbreaks occur."

https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/coronavirus-covid19-highlights-need-strengthen-health-systems

Thursday 5 March 2020

Coronavirus: Marxist Accounts

Initial Post: March 3, 2020; Current Update March 23, 2020

Here are a series of links, which I will update as the pandemic continues to spread, to Marxist accounts.

------

Most recent analysis of the economic impact by Marxist economist Michael Roberts:  

• The 'emerging market' slump

"Forecasts of a global slump in the rest of 2020 are coming in droves from mainstream economists – it’s now the consensus that there will be a contraction in global real GDP in at least two consecutive quarters (Q1 and Q2), in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and the ‘lock down’ in response."

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/03/19/the-emerging-market-slump/ 

• 'It was the virus that did it.'

"This biological crisis has created panic in financial markets. Stock markets have plunged as much 30% in the space of weeks.  The fantasy world of every rising financial assets funded by ever lower borrowing costs is over.

COVID-19 appears to be an ‘unknown unknown’, like the ‘black swan’-type global financial crash that triggered the Great Recession over ten years ago.  But COVID-19, just like that financial crash, is not really a bolt out of the blue – a so-called ‘shock’ to an otherwise harmoniously growing capitalist economy.  Even before the pandemic struck, in most major capitalist economies, whether in the so-called developed world or in the ‘developing’ economies of the ‘Global South’, economic activity was slowing to a stop, with some economies already contracting in national output and investment, and many others on the brink."

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/it-was-the-virus-that-did-it/ 

---------

From the Marxist geographer David Harvey, 

• 'Anti-capitalist politics in the Time of Covid-19'

(Posted March 19, 2020)


'Workforces in most parts of the world have long been socialized to behave as good neoliberal subjects (which means blaming themselves or God if anything goes wrong but never daring to suggest capitalism might be the problem). But even good neoliberal subjects can see that there is something wrong with the way this pandemic is being responded to. 

The big question is how long will this go on? It could be more than a year and the longer it goes on the more the devaluation including of the labor force. Unemployment levels will almost certain rise to levels comparable to the 1930s in the absence of massive state interventions that will have to go against the neoliberal grain.'

 http://davidharvey.org/2020/03/anti-capitalist-politics-in-the-time-of-covid-19/#more-3209

---------

Inadequate Action against Covid-19: The Ardern Government Must Put People before Profit

Posted in the ISO NZ website (19-3-2020).

Martin Gregory argues that New Zealand's Labour-led Government needed to go harder and earlier with its measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Around the world capitalist governments (there are no others, unfortunately) have criminally permitted Covid-19 to spread and cause needless deaths. From the political harassment of Li Wenliang by the Chinese Stalinist police state to the present day, governments have behaved appallingly. Why? Because they have sought to limit the impact of responses to Covid-19 on the business of making money. Consequently, government measures have consistently been too little, too late."

https://iso.org.nz/2020/03/19/inadequate-action-against-covid-19-the-ardern-government-must-put-people-before-profit/ 

----------

Article published March 15 in Red Flag by Australian Marxist political economist Rick Kuhn:

• 'Viral plague and economic crisis.'

 "We’re experiencing a triple crisis of production: brought about by the Covid-19 virus, a financial bubble bursting and, underlying that, stagnant profits. 

Natural disasters have brought about catastrophic falls in production and consumption throughout the existence of the human species. In contrast, purely economic crises are a recent phenomenon resulting from the spread of capitalism. But the two kinds of calamity interact because our world is governed by both scientific laws of physics, chemistry and biology and by the logic of the social system, capitalism, that we inhabit."

https://redflag.org.au/node/7054



--------





"With the prospect of a rapid escalation in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia, with the risk of hundreds if not thousands of deaths, and with a health crisis that, as the government now admits, could go for six months or longer, the Morrison government is responsible for a looming humanitarian disaster."

https://redflag.org.au/node/7057

-------

For the background and conditions that generate this kind of virus see the following book:


Rob Wallace, (2016) Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Infectious Disease, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science. New York: Monthly Review Press.
 

From the Monthly Review (US):


'Coronavirus: a disaster of capitalism’s making'
Posted Mar 04, 2020 by Ben Hillier
Originally published: Red Flag (March 2, 2020)

“What to do if confronted with an extremely contagious virus that medical experts say they have not seen before and don’t understand, and which is fast spreading and killing hundreds of people? a) Take precautionary measures to stop the virus spreading and prepare the health system for a potential shock? Or b) Ignore it, blithely assert–without any evidence–that it is little different from the common flu, accuse your adversaries, who are taking it more seriously, of scaremongering for political gain and then, when a pandemic is imminent and doctors still can’t say exactly how bad the virus is, tell everyone that everything’s under control despite little to nothing having been done to prepare for a local outbreak?”





'Coronavirus: Bracing for the economic shockwave'
Posted Mar 04, 2020 by Yves Smith
Originally published: Naked Capitalism (March 2, 2020)

“A case fatality rate of between 2% to 4% rivals and even exceeds that of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which is estimated to have killed upwards of 50 million people. Even a case fatality rate of 0.7% — which means 7 out of every 1,000 infected people would die — is sobering. It is seven times the fatality rate for seasonal flu, which is estimated to kill between 290,000 and 650,000 people a year globally.”


'No, the coronavirus is not responsible for the fall of stock prices'
Posted Mar 04, 2020 by Éric Toussaint
Originally published: CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of Illegal Debt) (March 3, 2020)

“We are witnessing a big crisis in the stock markets of the Wall Street, Europe, Japan and Shanghai, and many blame the coronavirus for it. In the last week of February 2020, the worst week since October 2008, the Dow Jones fell 12.4%, the S&P 500 fell 11.5% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 10.5%. The scenario is similar in Europe and Asia for the corresponding period. On the London Stock Exchange, the FTSE-100 fell by 11.32%, in Paris the CAC 40 fell by 12%, in Frankfurt the DAX lost 12.44%, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange the Nikkei fell by 9.6%, the Chinese stock exchanges (Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong) also fell.


-----------

From the UK Socialist Worker:

'Coronavirus shows capitalism is sick'

by Alex Callinicos


See also:




------------

From the Socialist Review of Aotearoa/NewZealand:

'Why is New Zealand so Sinophobic?'

By Brandon Johnstone


-------------

From Red Flag (published by Socialist Alternative in Australia).

• ‘We need more panic buying. Of ventilators, anti-virals and hospital beds.’
by Louise O’Shea  
"Despite the relatively recent experience of the SARS, Ebola and MERS epidemics, the health system is woefully underprepared to effectively deal with a pandemic. The cumulative neglect and defunding of the public health system under successive governments has created a situation where people suffer needlessly and die prematurely because of a lack of resources, even in the absence of a deadly pandemic. In the face of the coronavirus threat, this disgraceful situation has become positively criminal."


• ‘Coronavirus demands international solidarity, not authoritarianism’
by Sarah Garnham

“The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has unleashed terror upon the people of Wuhan. It has killed over 1000 and possibly infected hundreds of thousands. It has also spread beyond China and has the potential to become a pandemic that will kill millions.

This living nightmare is the work of modern capitalism. Virus outbreaks are not flukes of nature, nor are they akin to alien invasion. It is the cut-throat, profit driven and ecologically destructive logic of production, in particular food production, that enables the spread of toxic pathogens. In an increasingly globalised world with long production chains, the risk of epidemics developing into pandemics is dramatically increased.”
https://redflag.org.au/node/7017

---------------

From Climate and Capitalism:

Article by, and interview of, Rob Wallace

• 'Coronavirus: Agribusiness breeds another deadly epidemic'

"Once again, authorities are scrambling to deal with a fast-spreading disease after the fact, while the systemic causes remain in place."


https://climateandcapitalism.com/2020/01/29/coronavirus-a-deadly-result/

• 'Capitalist agriculture and Covid-19: A deadly combination.'

"The new coronavirus is keeping the world in a state of shock. But instead of fighting the structural causes of the pandemic, the government is focusing on emergency measures."

https://climateandcapitalism.com/2020/03/11/capitalist-agriculture-and-covid-19-a-deadly-combination/ 

-------

From Jacobin in the US:





'Our Economic Model Is Making Us More Vulnerable to Coronavirus'

The coronavirus is making the argument for antitrust — single sources of supply for all kinds of suddenly essential medical needs are leading to shortages and could cause huge price jumps.  

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/03/monopoly-coronavirus-antitrust-supply-chain-disaster-preparedness 

--------------

Responses by Mainstream International Economic Agencies

From the IMF:

• 'Coronavirus Economic Planning: Hoping for the Best, Prepared for the Worst"

https://blogs.imf.org/2020/03/12/coronavirus-economic-planning-hoping-for-the-best-prepared-for-the-worst/ 

• Monetary and Financial Stability During the Coronavirus Outbreak

 "The global spread of the coronavirus is a human tragedy unfolding across the world. Quantifying the economic impact is complex, giving rise to significant uncertainty about the economic outlook and the associated downside risks. Such an abrupt rise in uncertainty can put both economic growth and financial stability at risk. In addition to targeted economic policies and fiscal measures, the right monetary and financial stability policies will be vital to help buttress the global economy."

https://blogs.imf.org/2020/03/11/monetary-and-financial-stability-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/

• 'Limiting the Economic Fallout of the Coronavirus with Large Targeted Policies'

https://blogs.imf.org/2020/03/09/limiting-the-economic-fallout-of-the-coronavirus-with-large-targeted-policies/ 


From the OECD:

• 'The impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on economic prospects is severe.'

 "Growth was weak but stabilising until the coronavirus Covid-19 hit. Restrictions on movement of people, goods and services, and containment measures such as factory closures have cut manufacturing and domestic demand sharply in China. The impact on the rest of the world through business travel and tourism, supply chains, commodities and lower confidence is growing."

http://www.oecd.org/economic-outlook/ 

OECD Interim Economic Assessment Coronavirus: The world economy at risk 2 March 2020

"The adverse impact on confidence, financial markets, the travel sector and disruption to supply chains contributes to the downward revisions in all G20 economies in 2020, particularly ones strongly interconnected to China, such as Japan, Korea and Australia."
 
PDF can be downloaded from:
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/7969896b-en.pdf?expires=1584306274&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=6DA605D97E99723BF3452DA2CA714B6C 

From the World Bank:

• 'Swift action can help developing countries limit economic harm of coronavirus'

"We know from history that when the global economy faces a common threat, quick, coordinated, and decisive action makes all the difference. That is beginning to happen. Several countries have announced stimulus programs, many have cut interest rates, and both the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund have unveiled massive financial-support packages to help countries overcome the health crisis and limit the economic damage."

"No one can reliably predict the full economic impact of the outbreak. Too much depends on what is unknowable—how long the outbreak lasts, how many countries it afflicts, and the extent to which a coordinated, concerted, fast-track policy response is mobilized and sustained. But what we do know is that the outbreak arrived at a weak point for the world economy, when global growth was beginning to pick up from its lowest rate since the 2009 financial crisis."

https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/swift-action-can-help-developing-countries-limit-economic-harm-coronavirus 

• 'Coronavirus highlights the need to strengthen health systems'

For years the IMF, OECD and World Bank have promoted neoliberal policies that have involved the under-funding of public health systems. No self-critical reflection on this in this article. Nonetheless, it is important to argue for more funding for public health. 

"But addressing emergency health and economic impacts from this outbreak must be followed by longer-term investments to build stronger and more resilient health systems. 
 
This makes sense both from a health and an economic perspective. Putting more resources on the front lines to detect and treat conditions early, before they become more serious, saves lives, improves health outcomes, reduces healthcare costs and strengthens preparedness for when outbreaks occur."

https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/coronavirus-covid19-highlights-need-strengthen-health-systems

 

Sunday 23 February 2020

POLS 323 Marxism - Classical and Contemporary - 2020



This is where I'll be putting links to audio-visual and other material for POLS 323 Marxism: Classical and Contemporary during Semester 1, 2020. I will be adding to, editing, and updating this blog during the course of the semester. So it is a work in progress.


Some of the av-material and links overlap with POLS 208 Democracy, so check that blog out as well. https://briansroper.blogspot.com/2019/07/pols-208-democracy-videos-and-links-2019.html


The lecture schedule is outlined below.



Lecture Schedule
Introduction
1.      What is Marxism? Is Marxism Still Relevant? Why Classical and Contemporary Marxism?
Section 1: Laying the Foundations: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
2.      Karl Marx: Brief Biographical Sketch and ‘Marx in Soho’
3.      Karl Marx: Intellectual Significance, Biography and Historical Context
4.      Marx’s General Theory of History: Dialectical and Historical Materialism
5.      Marx’s Critique of Capitalism: Analysing Capitalist Exploitation
6.      Marx’s Critique of Capitalism: Analysing Capitalist Economic Crisis
7.      Marx’s Critique of Capitalism: What is Alienation? What’s Wrong with Liberal Democracy?
8.      Frederick Engels’ Contribution to Establishing Marxism: Biography, Early Development of Historical Materialism and Marxian Socialism, Dialectics, and Critical Analysis of Women’s Oppression.
Section 2: Classical Marxism: Overview, Context and Key Figures
9.      German Social Democracy, Classical Marxism and Vladimir Lenin’s Theory of Revolution
10.    Marxist Conceptions of Socialist Organisation from Marx to Lenin and Beyond
11.    Rosa Luxemburg: Reform or Revolution?
12.    Rosa Luxemburg: The Mass Strike and Luxemburg’s Critique of the Bolsheviks
13.    Leon Trotsky: The Fight Against Stalinism
14.    Antonio Gramsci: Hegemony and Contradictory Consciousness
         ----------------Mid-Semester Break----------------
15.    Georg Lukacs: History and Class Consciousness
16.    The Classical Marxist Vision of Socialism: Revolution, Socialism and Participatory Democracy

Section 3: Contemporary Marxism
17.    Marxist Economics: The Global Financial Crisis and its Aftermath (1)
18.    Marxist Economics: The Global Financial Crisis and its Aftermath (2)
18.B. The Political Economy of the Covid-19 Pandemic
19.    Marxist Educational Sociology: Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education
20.    Marxist International Relations: Imperialism and the Causes of War
21.    Applying Marxism in Practice: Trotskyism and The International Socialist Tradition
22.    Marxist Ecology: Analysing the Causes of Resource Depletion, Habitat Destruction, and Global Warming
23.    Socialist and Marxist Feminism: Capitalism, Gender Inequality, Intersectionality and Women’s Liberation
24.    Digital Disconnect: The History and Political Economy of the Internet
25.    The Ideological Bias of the Corporate Media: Manufacturing Consent?
Conclusion: Results and Prospects
26.    The Democratic Socialist Alternative to 21st Century Capitalism.

Music Videos 2020

Lecture 1
• Marlon Williams - Beautiful Dress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lrNMdiWDUs
• Arcade Fire - Ready to Start
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNn6mimskt0
• The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world

Lecture 2
• Bob Marley - Redemption Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md8EesTaIsA
• The Uncluded - Delicate Cycle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHYhzg8QWbI

Lecture 3
• Big Thief - Masterpiece
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oacUgWXrqwc
• PJ Harvey - The Wheel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ReW0jJkag8

Lecture 4
• Courtney Marie Andrews - Table for One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6k0vEBdlG0
• Sunflower Bean - Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13hhqEpxMwI

Lecture 5
• Florence and the Machine - Hunger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GHXEGz3PJg
• Valerie June - Shakedown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cShj4BimPXc

Lecture 7
• Julia Jacklin -Body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvJ2PiBgtQ 
• Wolf Alice -Don't Delete the Kisses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqxE-zppu30

Lecture 8
• Sunflower Bean - 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_EylIzpggU
• Daughter - Smother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1CiINFsBkY&list=RDv1CiINFsBkY&start_radio=1

Lecture 9
• Linton Kwesi Johnson - Reggae Fi Peach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHrlmwudYuA


Lecture 10
• Rage Against the Machine - Take the Power Back
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEorxBT0bcM\

Lectures 11-12
• The Specials - Ghost Town
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ2oXzrnti4
• The Interrupters - Take Back the Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Ol-YDS4Jc
• P J Harvey - Good Fortune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDBZZ3uvimE
• Jamie XX - Loud Places
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP9luRtEqjc

Lecture 13
• Slowdive - Star Roving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogCih4OavoY
• Boots Riley - The Guillotine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acT_PSAZ7BQ

Lecture 14
• The Clash - Call Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScaGjwkg2Y

Lecture 16
• Lana Del Rey - Mariners Apartment Complex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uFv9Ts7Sdw


Videos and Links
Introductions to Marx and Marxism
Marx in Soho performed by Brian Jones
This play provides both a genuinely amusing and accurate account of Marx's life and central ideas. Well worth watching. Learn stuff and have a good laugh while doing so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2baw7stI6U 
'Karl Marx' 30 minute humorous introduction to Marx by Marx Steel (in 2003). Unfortunately the only online version I have been able to find is very low definition- but it is still well worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02ddGtKZuSU


David Harvey on the Global Financial Crisis and Crises of Capitalism.
Animation of David Harvey providing a 10 minute oral outline of the Marxist analysis of capitalist economic crises.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0 


Roland Boer, 'In Defence of Engels', published on the Philosophers for Change blog site.
An interesting article by the author of a very good book on Engels:
Roland Boer, Criticism of Earth: On Marx, Engels and Theology (Chicago and Leiden: Haymarket and Brill, (2014 [2012]).
 Among other things, argues that Engels' "
writes of ‘two great discoveries, the materialistic conception of history and the revelation of the secret of capitalistic production through surplus-value …. With these discoveries Socialism became a science’.[31] As ever, Engels attributes these discoveries to Marx, but they were also very much his achievement."
https://philosophersforchange.org/2014/09/09/in-defence-of-engels/

 
New Zealand
For New Zealand material, some of which is relevant to this course, go to:
The Russian Revolution

The most accurate short (20 minutes long) video documentary on the Russian Revolution that I have been able to find currently (2016) available on Youtube is:
Timeline: The Russian Revolution - by British socialist John Rees - produced as part of a historical 'timeline' series of historical documentaries produced by Islam TV in the UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VldXUyCaeQ


Rosa Luxemburg - Then and Now

An excellent slideshow with Alistair Hulett singing the Internationale in the background.  

Lenin - What is Soviet Power?

Five minute speech by Lenin with English subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l53FPENoAU
Another interesting short speech by Lenin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_EcpFLmUaU

 

Antonio Gramsci - Five Lectures

There are some interesting, informative and illuminating lectures on Gramsci available online. Here are the best five (in my view).

1. Peter Thomas – ‘Gramsci and Hegemony’ (37 minutes)
If you only have time to listen to one of these lectures, then catch the excellent lecture by Peter D. Thomas – author of the best book on Gramsci published during the past decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exe5U3kFU5g

2. Alex Callinicos - ‘Gramsci and the Art of Politics’ (66 minutes)
A superb lecture on Gramsci is by Alex Callinicos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bP_IEzHRjM

3. Megan Trudell – ‘The Uses and Abuses of Gramsci’ (65 minutes)
Megan Trudel provide a critique of common misinterpretations and misrepresentations of Gramsci.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNuhNnSoAOQ

4. Paul D’Amato – ‘Life of a Revolutionary’ (69 minutes)
This lecture provides a superb account of the historical context of Gramsci’s intellectual and political life from 1914 to 1926.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEXsE-sP2ps

5. Bob Jessop – ‘The Life and Work of Gramsci’ (62 minutes)
This lecture by Jessop provide a very clear account of key concepts in Gramsci’s thought, but doesn’t put enough emphasis on the context of Gramsci’s intellectual and political life, nor duly acknowledge that Gramsci was a resolutely revolutionary Marxist.
https://bobjessop.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/1-bob-jessop-lectures-on-gramsci.mp3


Climate Change and Capitalism

The Titanic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPoMFB0FjYg
• To access the 2014 major assessment report (AR5) by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), go to: http://www.ipcc.ch/

If you want to download the most important graphs and figures then go to: http://www.climatechange2013.org/report/reports-graphic/ch2-graphics/

• To access the 2007 major assessment report (AR4) by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
go to: http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_synthesis_report.htm

• Video showing thinning of Greenland polar ice based on international study using satellite data and photographs from the University of Leeds website.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GAhA8NBHZIo

• See also the British channel 4 news report on the study (2012) at:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/3336/

• "2012 Record Low Artic Ice Sheet". The Arctic ice cap is melting at a rapid rate and may shrink to its lowest-ever level within weeks as temperatures continue to rise. Al Jazeera's Nick Clark joined an expedition travelling deep into the Arctic Circle to Qaanaaq, in Greenland. Three minute report on the melting of the Arctic ice caps. Well worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwwBcdmT8tc

• Very interesting report on the 'carbon bubble' on the Guardian website. Highlights which stock exchange listed companies have the greatest carbon assets and the financial risks that they face if these assets become unburnable due to the introduction of more effective environmental policies addressing the causes of climate change. This also indicates just how powerfully motivated these companies are to lobby governments to prevent them introducting more effective environmental policies to counter global warming.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2013/apr/19/countries-exposed-carbon-bubble-map

• Really interesting article in The Guardian: "The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change

• John Bellamy Foster gives lecture on capitalism and climate change.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmhFc9kdTRU&list=PL432220236CB86FAB

• Climate Central - a US based research foundation - has an interactive 'Surging Seas' map that allows you to see the degree of encroachment on land of sea level rises.
http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/
 
Comparative Statistics on Gender Inequality

• UN Women provides lots of interesting and useful comparative data on gender inequality and women's participation in government.
http://www.unwomen.org/

The most recent (2011) Progress of Women report can be downloaded from:
http://www.unwomen.org/resources/progress-of-the-worlds-women/

The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics can be downloaded from: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW2010pub.htm

The World's Women 2015: Trends and Statistics can be downloaded from: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/worldswomen.html

• Statistics New Zeland bar graphs describing female representation in parliament and local government from 1996 to 2014 can be found at:
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Trust%20and%20participation%20in%20government/female-rep-parl-local-govt.aspx


Digital Disconnect: Robert McChesney on How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy

• Short 17 minute segment on the capitalist political of the internet with Aaron Swartz and Robert McChesney (from Democracy Now!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5yCL2U6Fzo

• This is a lecture on capitalism and the internet by Robert McChesney.
https://vimeo.com/144932323

He gives another lecture on the same topic at;
https://archive.org/details/Digital_Disconnect_-
Manufacturing Consent 9 Minute Summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTBWfkE7BXU


Amy Goodman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5scBuP2EK-I _How_Capitalism_is_Turning_the_Internet_Against_Democracy

Videos on the Global Justice and Occupy Movements


Showdown in Seattle- 'This is what democracy looks like'. Part V of the Indy Media documentary on the global justice protests that successfully shutdown the millenium round of the WTO at the end of 1999. This sparked the dramatic growth of the global justice movement during the first half of the 2000s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYyCDE6dbDU&list=PLBA3384E63E9826B2&index=5

• Occupy Wall Street Video: Global Day of Action, 15OCT
Six minute video focusing on the protests of Occupy New York.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfXPCkXBqRE

• The Guardian: Occupy Protests Mapped Around The World
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/oct/18/occupy-protests-map-world

• The Guardian: Images of the World Social Forum 2013 in Tunis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/gallery/2013/mar/28/world-social-forum-alternative-world-in-pictures?INTCMP=SRCH#/?picture=406383884&index=0


• A Twenty Year Programme of Neoliberal Fiscal Austerity?
British Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, said in 2013 that the cuts pushed through by the Coalition did not go nearly far enough. He said that there was a “very long way to go” and added: “This is not a two-year project or a five-year project. This is a 10-year project, a 20-year generational battle to beef up the economy in ways that we have not seen for many, many decades.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10156170/Twenty-years-to-fix-economy.html


The Neoliberal Critique of Marxism

• Milton Friedman - Redistribution of Wealth Chicago and monetarist economist, Milton Friedman, providing a neoliberal justification of the unequal distribution of wealth in advanced capitalist societies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJwUaVDIPXg

• Hayek on Socialism Friedrich von Hayek providing a brief critique of socialism. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbYdbf3EEc