After the bait-and-switch bombing of Japan, the appalled leader of the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, embarks on a public crusade for a future free of nuclear holocaust, thinking that great minds will save the people.
Category: Science
Assessing and Regulating Artificial Intelligence
A call for a moratorium on AI development based on the precautionary principle, and a discussion of the difficulty of achieving it in a capitalist society.
Laurent Schwartz: The Vicissitudes of an Internationalist
The first of an occasional series of articles on the lives of figures of the French left.
For more than a decade, from 1936 to 1947, Laurent Schwartz (1915-2002), the famous mathematician, was a Trotskyist in France, though that was only one . . .
Transitioning Away from Animal Exploitation
An Interview with "Unpopular Scientist" Spencer Roberts
Anti-capitalist ecologist Spencer Roberts advocates a decolonial, just transition away from animal agriculture and wildlife extraction.
French Anti-Pass Demonstrations on the Eve of the Presidential Election
The fragmentation of the left has led to an almost certain second-round dual between Macron and Le Pen in 2022, with grave implications for the future of an explicitly left mass movement.
Biden, the Oil Companies, and the Environment
Years of education, protest, and lobbying seem to be finally having an effect on U.S. environmental policies, though not without constant Republican resistance and Democratic vacillation—and so far, neither fast enough or strong enough for the change we need.
Mexico’s AMLO Is No Leftist, as His Handling of Covid Demonstrates
Not only is AMLO’s government not socialist, it is not democratic, it is not competent, and it is not socially responsible. AMLO is a populist with a leftist image and rightist policies.
Pandemic, Depression, and Authoritarianism
We Must Fight for the Future
The United States confronts an uncertain future in the face of an unprecedented situation.
A Global View of Coronavirus, Medical Policy, and Research
In 2019, a new virus of the coronavirus family emerged in Wuhan, China, and the disease that was caused by this virus was named COVID-19 to indicate both the virus associated with it and the year it began. “Patient Zero,” . . .
Ten Aphorisms on Capitalism, Covid-19, and the Climate Crisis
The climate crisis, and by extension, the COVID-19 crisis, is a prolonged act of violence perpetrated on the 99% by capitalism’s accumulation for accumulation’s sake.
An Ideological War
I believe that there is an ideological war going on right now and that the left needs to be prepared to do battle. In the very first days of this crisis, we saw moratoriums on evictions, expedited unemployment benefits, CA . . .
A Medical, Economic and Social Crisis
The global coronavirus outbreak is not (fortunately) the end of civilization, nor is it (unfortunately) the end of capitalism. It is, however, a very deep systemic crisis with interlocking public health, environmental and economic dimensions — and reveals the need . . .
The American Working Class, Coronavirus, and the Recession
This article was originally written for Viento Sur, a political magazine published in the Spanish state.
France: Covid-19: A Very Political Virus
I’ll begin by telling you a story. In August 1940, when the Luftwaffe was crushing London with its bombs, British bourgeois politicians were very reluctant to open the subway system so that people could take refuge there. It took the . . .
13 theses on the imminent ecological catastrophe and the (revolutionary) means of averting it
I. The ecological crisis is already the most important social and political question of the 21st century, and will become even more so in the coming months and years. The future of the planet, and thus of humanity, will be determined in . . .
review
A Radical New Politics of Surrogacy?
Sophie Lewis’ new book Full Surrogacy Now, published by Verso, has gotten a lot of attention in left media circles. Lewis was interviewed on Jacobin Radio’s The Dig
Climate, communism and the Age of Affluence?
Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC) was a slogan in search of a movement, and now it has its manifesto. The aim: to accelerate capitalism’s positives (technological progress), curb its negatives (neoliberal globalisation), and to re-invent communism for the coming Age of Affluence.
Who Wins From “Climate Apartheid”?
African Climate Justice Narratives About the Paris COP21
The billion residents of Africa are amongst the most vulnerable to climate change in coming decades, and of special concern are high-density sites of geopolitical and resource-related conflicts: the copper belt of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and mineral-rich African Great Lakes stretching into northern Uganda, western Ethiopia (bordering the Sudanese war zone), Madagascar and s
review
Science and Sex: Hirschfeld’s Legacy
In the mostly forgotten history of early twentieth-century movements for sexual freedom, Magnus Hirschfeld’s name is one of the most familiar—and one of the most contested. As a Jewish scientist who championed sexual deviants, he made a perfect target for the Nazis, who were tragically successful in extirpating much of his life’s work.
Ebola: Who are the Architects of Death and How Can We Combat Them?
According to the latest predictions of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), if the Ebola pandemic continues to progress at the current rhythm, it could affect 1.4 million people in Liberia and Sierra Leone between now and January 2015, leading to the deaths of 700,000 in a year, and thus making Ebola the third leading cause of death from infectious diseases in Africa, after AIDS and respiratory diseases.
review
The Dialectical Biologist
It has been almost 10 years since the death of the Harvard paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould at the relatively early age of 60. Gould was not only a major figure in the life sciences, he was also one of the great popularizers of science. He wrote a monthly column for Natural History magazine from 1974 to 2001, generating exactly 300 essays that explained complex scientific ideas without oversimplifying them.
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