"It’s by thinking about hierarchy, and its associated concentrations of power, that I’ve realized how tyrannous a meritocracy can be. Those at the top of the hierarchy determine the skills that will be rewarded. If you happen to have these skills, the world is a meritocracy. If you don’t have these skills, the world is a tyranny."
http://www.socialisteconomist.com/2019/11/the-tyranny-of-meritocracy.html
http://www.socialisteconomist.com/2019/11/the-tyranny-of-meritocracy.html
Socialisteconomist
The Tyranny of Meritocracy
✑ Blair Fix. Like many Canadians, I grew up with a faith in meritocracy. It’s by thinking about hierarchy, and its associated concentrations of power, that I’ve realized how tyrannous a meritocracy can be.
Forwarded from Hacker News
"In 2008, the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor found that more than half of the world’s population fell outside effective legal protections (...)"
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/i-cant-turn-my-back-on-suffering-the-fearless-few-lawyers-defending-lgbtiq-people-in-north-africa/
UN Report: www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Making_the_Law_Work_for_Everyone.pdf
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/i-cant-turn-my-back-on-suffering-the-fearless-few-lawyers-defending-lgbtiq-people-in-north-africa/
UN Report: www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Making_the_Law_Work_for_Everyone.pdf
openDemocracy
“I can’t turn my back on suffering”: The fearless few lawyers defending LGBTIQ people in North Africa
In Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, these lawyers face a backlash from all sides. How can you access justice if no one will defend you?
"Workers who make iPhones in the 21st century, are twenty-five times more exploited than textile workers in England in the 19th century. Based on a marxist analysis, the current rate of exploitation is 2458%."
http://www.socialisteconomist.com/2019/09/a-marxist-analysis-of-iphone.html
http://www.socialisteconomist.com/2019/09/a-marxist-analysis-of-iphone.html
Socialisteconomist
A Marxist Analysis of the iPhone
✑ E. Ahmet Tonak / Tricontinental Institute. Workers who make iPhones in the 21st century, are twenty-five times more exploited than textile workers in England in the 19th century. Based on a marxist analysis, the current rate of exploitation is 2458%.
iphone_rate_exploitation_full.pdf
4.3 MB
The article is just an extract from a longer dossier on the topic noscriptd "The Rate of Exploitation (The Case of the iPhone)", published by Tricontinental Institute
"Liebig played a pioneering role in studying the changing soil chemistry in relation to the advancing capitalist industrial agriculture. He noted that the production of crops depended on the soil containing essential nutrients—such as, but not limited to, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. He explained that a rational system of agriculture must be governed by the “law of compensation” or the law of replacement.33 The nutrients that are absorbed by plants as they grow must be restored to the soil to support future crops. But this was far from the case in Western Europe and the United States in the nineteenth century. Liebig noted that the British high-farming techniques constituted a “robbery system,” leading to the despoliation of the soil."
https://monthlyreview.org/2019/12/01/capitalism-and-robbery/
https://monthlyreview.org/2019/12/01/capitalism-and-robbery/
Monthly Review
Monthly Review | Capitalism and Robbery
Historical capitalism cannot be understood aside from its existence as a colonial/imperialist world system in which the violent exercise of power is an ever-present reality. In order to uncover the…