Accumulation of what?

Published on Real-World Economics Review Blog RWER, by Editor, Aug 4, 2015.

The answer depends on what we mean by capital accumulation. The common view of this process is deeply utilitarian. Capitalists, we are told, seek to maximize their so-called ‘real wealth’: they try to accumulate as many machines, structures, inventories and intellectual property rights as they can … // Continuer la lecture de « Accumulation of what? »

german Know-Nothings today

Published on MrZine.org, by Victor Grossman, Aug 2, 2015.

« I don’t know. » Those words, often repeated 160-odd years ago in the USA, earned the gang of those using them the nickname « Know-Nothing Party. » Those were no expressions of intellectual modesty; party doings were secret, so members were not supposed to disclose anything about them, but just say, « I don’t know. » Their patriotic title was actually « American Party, » but many members truly knew almost nothing except that they hated immigrants, especially Catholic Germans and Irish, and wanted to bar them from entry, from citizenship and from the vote. Continuer la lecture de « german Know-Nothings today »

the growing pains of urban agriculture

Published on Montreal Gazette, by Donna Nebenzahl, Aug 1, 2015.

… The beds of this Action Communiterre collective garden in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce are already yielding lettuce, Swiss chard, peas, nasturtiums and a variety of herbs, along with raspberries from the bushes that form a pollinating garden around the edges of the space. The runner beans are climbing above the carrots, marigolds grow alongside eggplant, and peppers and tomatoes are being tied to strings attached to the wood frames that support them. Continuer la lecture de « the growing pains of urban agriculture »