Socialist Voice

Between 2004 and 2015, Socialist Voice published a wide variety of articles reflecting a non-sectarian, revolutionary socialist outlook on history, politics, and the global struggle for a better world.

We’re proud of what we have achieved, but our commitments to broader movements for justice and social change have made it difficult for the editors to devote the time that a publication of this scope requires.

So we have reluctantly decided to suspend publication indefinitely.

We will continue working closely with the many activists we have met through Socialist Voice. We also intend to keep writing for a variety of publications, including Links, Green Left Weekly, and The Bullet, which over the years have republished many SV articles.

We will keep this website online. To view all the articles Socialist Voice has published, see the Index by Date or the Index by Subject. To locate articles by specific authors, or containing keywords,  use the Search box in the left column.

Socialist Voice also published 17 pamphlets: all are available as free PDF downloads from Reading from the Left.

Would a socialist regime allow real money online casinos?

In 2009, Russia banned gambling to reduce cases of casino addiction. However, there are still special zones where gambling may take place under controlled circumstances. New legislation also affects online casinos. As a result, all casinos in Russia were closed. In Europe and North America, online casino sites are legal with cooperation of valid framework in the respective country, including Canadian real money casinos.

There are of some exceptions in Russia. Gambling permitted zones include the Siberian cities of Altaj, Vladivostok, the enclave of Kaliningrad and the southern Russian city of Azov. These cities are at least 1000 kilometres away from the capital Moscow. Land based casinos are difficult to reach and are not located in urban areas. This should prevent more and more people from perceiving gambling as attractive and falling into addiction. There were various plans for the gaming zones, for example, the cities were to be built on the model of Las Vegas. But the plans for this were discarded.

When it comes to online casinos, the Russian government has drawn up plans to issue special licenses for online gambling, but operators must adhere to very strict regulations. Official licenses would reduce and curb illegal gaming. However, these plans have not yet been implemented, but are pure theory.

Illegal gambling sites are regularly closed in Russia, and the operators then expect a heavy fine or even prison. Websites of providers from abroad are blocked. Some online casinos and large providers are even blacklisted. Internet gambling in Russia is therefore still strictly controlled.

The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons

By Ian Angus. Will shared resources always be misused and overused? Is community ownership of land, forests and fisheries a guaranteed road to ecological disaster? Is privatization the only way to protect the environment and end Third World poverty? Most economists and development planners will answer “yes” — and for proof they will point to the most influential article ever written on those important questions.

Since its publication in Science in December 1968, “The Tragedy of the Commons” has been anthologized in at least 111 books, making it one of the most-reprinted articles ever to appear in any scientific journal. It is also one of the most-quoted: a recent Google search found “about 302,000” results for the phrase “tragedy of the commons.”

For 40 years it has been, in the words of a World Bank Discussion Paper, “the dominant paradigm within which social scientists assess natural resource issues.” (Bromley and Cernea 1989: 6) It has been used time and again to justify stealing indigenous peoples’ lands, privatizing health care and other social services, giving corporations ‘tradable permits’ to pollute the air and water, and much more.

Noted anthropologist Dr. G.N. Appell (1995) writes that the article “has been embraced as a sacred text by scholars and professionals in the practice of designing futures for others and imposing their own economic and environmental rationality on other social systems of which they have incomplete understanding and knowledge.”

Like most sacred texts, “The Tragedy of the Commons” is more often cited than read. As we will see, although its title sounds authoritative and scientific, it fell far short of science.

FOOD CRISIS: Capitalism, Agribusiness, and the Food Sovereignty Alternative

“Nowhere in the world, in no act of genocide, in no war, are so many people killed per minute, per hour and per day as those who are killed by hunger and poverty on our planet.” —Fidel Castro, 1998
When food riots broke out in Haiti last month, the first country to respond was Venezuela. Within days, planes were on their way from Caracas, carrying 364 tons of badly needed food.

The people of Haiti are “suffering from the attacks of the empire’s global capitalism,” Venezuelan president Hugo Chàvez said. “This calls for genuine and profound solidarity from all of us. It is the least we can do for Haiti.” Venezuela’s action is in the finest tradition of human solidarity. When people are hungry, we should do our best to feed them. Venezuela’s example should be applauded and emulated. But aid, however necessary, is only a stopgap. To truly address the problem of world hunger, we must understand and then change the system that causes it.

Why We Boycott Israel

When Israeli commandos attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters on May 31, murdered nine humanitarian aid workers and seized the cargo of badly needed supplies for Gaza, they touched off an international storm of outrage that continues to this day. The widespread anger has galvanized the international movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people, drawing in new forces and producing new initiatives.

Following the attack on the flotilla, Palestinian civil society issued an appeal to progressive forces around the world to redouble their solidarity efforts and to strengthen the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) against Israel. On June 7 the major Palestinian trade union federations appealed to dock workers to refuse to handle Israeli cargo. They said:

Gaza today has become the test of our universal morality and our common humanity. During the South African anti-apartheid struggle, the world was inspired by the brave and principled actions of dockworkers unions who refused to handle South African cargo, contributing significantly to the ultimate fall of apartheid. Today, we call on you, dockworkers unions of the world, to do the same against Israel’s occupation and apartheid. This is the most effective form of solidarity to end injustice and uphold universal human rights.

Workers in a number of countries responded to this call.

The Swedish Dockers’ Union, which had supported the Freedom Flotilla, declared a one-week blockade on Israeli goods and ships beginning on June 23. The union also called for “a general blockade of Israeli goods until the rights of the Palestinian people are guaranteed and the blockade of Gaza is lifted.”