David Camfield - Böcker

Does Canada have a working-class movement? Though many of us think of ourselves as middle class, most of us are, in fact, working class: we work for a wage. And though many of us are members of unions – the most significant organizations of the working-class movement in Canada – most people do not understand themselves to be part of this movement. Canadian Labour in Crisis asks why this is so. Through an analysis of the contemporary Canadian working-class movement and its historical development, David Camfield offers an explanation for its current state and argues that reform within the movement is not enough. From the structure of organizations to their activities and even the guiding ideology, Camfield contends that the movement needs a radical reinvention – and offers us a new way forward in reaching this goal.

The view that capitalism is an inherently flawed, exploitative, crisis-prone, oppressive system is not new. But neoliberal capitalism's flaws are increasingly dangerous in Western countries and globally as corporations exert growing influence on governments, as the endless pursuit of profits pushes our climate to the breaking point and as far-right politics dominate the media. Solutions are needed. Fast.In We Can Do Better, David Camfield lays out a theoretical basis for political and social change that fuses critical Marxism with insights from anti-racist queer feminism. This reconstructed historical materialism treats capitalism and class as inextricably interwoven with gender, race and sexuality. After discussing today's most influential social theories, Camfield uses this theory to analyze a range of issues that face our world today, including climate change, growing social insecurity and the persistence of sexism and racism. Camfield argues that the key to achieving change for the better is social struggle, and he offers ideas about moving from social theory to social action.

Increasingly, people are responding to the contemporary crises underwritten by capitalism by exploring the politics of communism. Some have taken a sympathetic, even nostalgic, view of "actually existing socialist" (AES) societies past and present, including the USSR, China, and Cuba, and the Marxist-Leninist political tradition associated with them. They see these states as a powerful alternative to capitalism, governed by parties genuinely committed to socialism and staunchly resisting Western imperialism. But were these societies really in transition towards a classless, stateless society of freedom - the original communist goal? Is Marxism-Leninism the political approach that should orient people on the left now? Red Flags traces the path from the 1917 Russian Revolution to the construction of the world's first AES society: the USSR. It also looks at the post-revolution societies created along the same lines in China and Cuba. Using the intellectual tools of historical materialism, Red Flags argues that they were not in fact moving towards communism because the social relations remained fixed in class exploitation. The workers were never liberated. At a time of burgeoning anti-communism from both conservatives and liberals, this book is an accessible, vibrant synthesis of the history of communism that draws on the latest research to develop a rigorous analysis of the contradictions and uneasy truths the left needs to confront if it is to build a genuinely liberatory alternative to capitalism.

This book presents the current clinical evidence on the efficacy of herbal and nutritional treatments for anxiety that is experienced in association with psychiatric disorders, and explains how health professionals can apply this knowledge to the benefit of patients presenting with a wide range of symptoms, including comorbid mood disorders.