By Michael Faulkner – 06.09.13

First, a word or two about democracy in the European Union. On May 27th, a meeting of EU foreign ministers decided to lift  the EU embargo on supplying arms to the opponents of Bashir al-Assad’s regime. Of the 27 states represented, 25 were strongly opposed to lifting the embargo. Only the U.K. and France were in favour. Nevertheless, according to Britain’s foreign secretary William Hague, “EU nations agreed to bring the arms embargo on the Syrian opposition to an end. This was the outcome that the United Kingdom wanted.” Given that only two of the countries represented...

By Michael Faulkner - 05.26.13

Since the rebellion against the Assad regime exploded more than two years ago, the United States, Britain, France, Turkey and other NATO states have pledged their support to the eclectic conglomerate of oppositionists that have grown out of the initial popular uprising. Following NATO-backed success in toppling Gaddafi in Libya it was hoped that one big push by...

By Michael Faulkner – 05.12.13

“Mankind thus inevitably sets itself only such tasks as it is able to solve, since closer examination will always show that the task itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution are already present, or at least in the process of formation.” Karl Marx (From Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859).

This optimistic claim made by Marx more than 150 years ago comes to mind when considering what is, without doubt, the biggest, most pressing question facing humankind today: is it still possible in the next...