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This is a tutorial given 13th June 2022 Introduction Hello, I'm going to do this session in two sections. First I'll do a short introduction and give a broad brush description of geopolitics. Then I'll pose some questions so that will can drill down in much more detail. World events have moved geopolitics up the agenda. Almost every day there's news of geopolitical rivalries. Today the E.U/U.K dispute has been all over the news. There's also the war in Ukraine. What we're seeing is the consequences, the expressing, of the transition from a unipolar world to a multi-polar one. There are conflicts between the west and Russia and between the west and China. We need to develop a basic understanding of what drives these events and develop a perspective, a class perspective. So that we can work out what is in the best interests of the working class. Basic description of geopolitics Division of the world according to Haushofer's Pan-Regions Doctrine   I...

Capitalist crisis and the class struggle In Capital Volume Three, chapter thirteen, Karl Marx distilled the essence of a commodity to its fundamental components. He found that a commodity was made up of three parts; Capital (c). This includes everything used in the means of production, plant, machinery, raw materials, intellectual property. Everything a worker requires to produce a product. Wages (v). This is to pay for the ability to work but not work put in as we’ll see. Surplus Value (s). This is the profit or value obtained from utilising labour power (v) to work the means of production (c). From this we can see that Commodity = c+v+s. There are two formulae we can draw on to show the rate of exploitation of labour and also the rate of profit. Rate of Surplus Value (s/v) = % | Rate of Profit (s/c+v) = % This was one of the elements that Marx would draw together to expose the laws that underpin modern capitalism and makes it unique as an economic system. Zentralbiblio...

Intro - Current s tate of play It’s very difficult to get an accurate picture of what’s going on on the ground. In any conflict the first couple of weeks there’s disinformation, competing narratives, have to take what both sides say with a big pinch of salt. Have to wait until clear pattern emerge and what both sides agree on. One objective Russia has achieved is to take NATO membership off the table for good. What is agreed on is the territory Russia has taken. They are beginning to carve up Ukraine. Map of occupied Ukraine as of 21st March 2022 It’s not looking good for Ukraine, they appear to have lost control of the skies and a lot of the transport infrastructure. They don’t seem to be able to move their troops around freely. There’s also reports of shops running low on food and shortages of medicines in hospitals. In two or three weeks we could be looking at the unfolding of a humanitarian crisis. We should make it clear – Totally condemn invasion...

Online News News from English language sites around the globe. Agencies Africa America Asia Europe Middle East Oceania Think Tanks and Others News Agencies AFP news agency @AFP Al Jazeera @AJEnglish Anadolu Agency @anadoluagency BBC News (World) @BBCWorld EFE @EFEnoticias FARS @EnglishFars FRANCE 24 English @France24_en MercoPress @MercoPressNews Reuters Top News @Reuters RT @RT_com TASS @tassagency_en Xinhua Agency @XHNews Africa Ahram Online @ahramonline allAfrica.com @allafrica Cape Times @CapeTimesSA Egypt Independent @EgyIndependent ...

Lifting China from a regional to a global power China's 'The Belt and Road' plan is an economic initiative that if successful, will change the world's geopolitical centre of gravity and lift China from a regional to a global power. The $4 trillion project will aim to connect land areas and sea routes into an economic block that will cover about; "65 percent of the world's population, about one-third of the world's GDP, and about a quarter of all the goods and services the world moves." [1] What is The Belt and Road? Belt and Road.  Source : Xinhua Finance Agency, 2015. The Belt and Road seeks to emulate and extend the ancient Silk Routes which established the region, and China in particular, as one of the world's most important regions up to a few centuries ago. As a report by China's State Council puts it: "The Belt and Road Initiative aims to promote the connectivity of Asian, European and African continents and their ...