Rampant Magazine
Capitalism relies on states to create profits, guarantee the functioning of markets, and cheapen labor through violence. Overthrowing capitalism will mean confronting and dismantling prisons, policing, borders, and the military. It’s time we talk about smashing the state.
Chicago pension funds are currently invested in massive weapons manufacturers. But community investments are not only better political options, they make more financial sense.
Social media platforms are key parts of the public square, and ought to be democratically controlled as public utilities. Billionaires and corporations were never allies in efforts to create free and democratic spaces.
Retailers have entered a full-fledged panic about organized looting during the holidays. But how much of that looting is real? And more importantly, who cares?
While Chicago’s housing market heats up, many people will be facing the cold winter without a house. That’s because housing is not treated as a human need, but an investment opportunity.
City budgets are key targets of local organizing and Defund campaigns, but cities themselves are bound by much larger financial forces. A recent book by Destin Jenkins details how cities became trapped by banks and credit rating agencies intent on austerity and racism.
Don’t get it twisted: Biden’s stimulus is a bid to buoy corporate profits disguised in claims of a dramatic historic shift for workers.
Capitalist competition and greed lie at the heart of the power outages causing desperation across the state.
The pandemic has triggered a housing crisis, a looming cataclysmic wave of evictions, and the seeds of a new housing movement fighting to defend and fight against this current situation and against the return to so-called normal.
For years, Chicago's real estate capitalists have been creating a huge property glut downtown. Now that they face the economic consequences of their own actions, they squall about protests in the Loop in a cynical attempt to shift responsibility and secure even more tax breaks.
Billionaires live on a different planet than most working people. They should not just be taxed, but abolished.
The “free market” offers no solutions to the problems we face. To overcome the present crisis, we have to take the reins into our own hands and democratically plan a future for all.
Once controlled by manufacturers, city hall is now dominated by finance and real estate capital. The new bosses are building a racist business climate at the expense of working Chicagoans.
