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The debate about globalisation and its discontents
In 1990, John Major hailed 'the classless society'; in 1997, New Labour announced that 'we're all middle class now', yet we live in an age where food banks, pay day lenders and zero-hour contracts proliferate: it's clear that class matters. Foregrounding the economic nature of class, Split challenges the idea that class can be reduced to the cultural. From precarious labour to rising debt; from the housing crisis to environmental catastrophe; from an inflated prison population to the welfare state; Ben Tippet traces the class divide at the heart of all exploitation. Myth-busting meritocracy, he exposes the role that tax havens, colonialism and inheritance play in the wealth of the elite. Split highlights the potential for a diverse and eclectic working-class bloc to fight back in an age of austerity and uncertainty.
A history of the excesses of capitalism's rampant fossil fuel consumption since 1950.
How work stole our lives and what we can do about it.
We are living in the midst of a profound contradiction: on the one hand, our lives as workers, consumers, and citizens have become ever more monitored by new technologies. On the other, big business and finance have become ever less regulated and controllable. What does this technocratic ideology and surveillance-heavy culture reveal about the deeper reality of modern society? Monitored investigates the history and implications of this contemporary paradox. Peter Bloom reveals pervasive monitoring practices--some familiar, others shocking--that shows how even as ordinary citizens are more tightly regulated than ever, the global elite remains socially and ethically out of control. This will only change, Bloom argues, if we demand that the systems that administer our lives, and the technology that powers them, be forced to become more responsive to the needs of individuals than to business and government, with true social liberation as our ultimate goal.
A clarion call to shut down the business school!
As standards of healthcare decline, so do our bodies; we need a radical vision for healthcare
War Reporters Under Threat describes the threat of violence facing war reporters from the United States government and some of its closest allies. Chris Paterson argues that what should have been the lesson for the press following the invasion of Iraq – that they will be treated instrumentally by the US government – has been mostly ignored. As a result, even nominally democratic states cannot be counted upon to protect journalists in conflict, and urgent reform of legal protections for journalists is required. War Reporters Under Threat combines critical scholarship with original investigation to assess the impact of the US governments obsession with information control and protection of its own troops. While the press-military relationship has been well researched, this book is the first to elaborate the US government threat to journalists, a threat usually dismissed by the global journalism industry.
For almost 10 years, Media Lens has encouraged thousands of readers to email senior editors and journalists, challenging them to account for their distorted reporting on climate change, the Palestine-Israel conflict, the Iraq war and much more. The responses -- often surprising, sometimes outrageous -- reveal the arrogance, unaccountability and servility to power of even our most respected media.
In this age of unchecked emphasis on national security, even liberal democracies seem prone to forgetting the histories of political policing and surveillance undergirding what we think of as our safety. Challenging this social amnesia, Aziz Choudry asks: What can we learn about the power of the state from the very people targeted by its security operations? Drawing on the knowledge of activists and academics from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Chile, Activists and the Surveillance State delves into the harassment, infiltration, and disruption that has colored state responses to those deemed threats to national security. The book shows that, ultimately, movements can learn from their own repression, developing a critical and complex understanding of the nature of states and capital today that can crucially inform the struggles of tomorrow.