Health, health care and capitalism
According to the widespread interpretation of our days, the huge improvement concerning health affairs over the past 100-150 years is obviously an achievement of capitalism. In fact the relationship between capitalism and health conditions is rather contradictious thus the revolution in public health and later the establishment of universal social security systems often were realized against the active resistance of capitalists. Countries less developed according to capitalist standards or even non-capitalistic ones have also been able to achieve a dramatic improvement in extending life expectancies at relatively low costs. Capitalism is unable to actually solve the stubborn inequality – one of the fundamental reasons of health problems, furthermore is unwilling to raise this question. In the past decades, private capital interest became more and more determining in the operation of the health care system – having the result of increasing inequality in the access to and level of health care services.
The original article in the Socialist Register (Vol. 46), 2010 .
Liberation theology: its present state in Latin-America
The starting point of liberation theology is the situation of the oppressed. The God of love cannot exist there, where injustice, exploitation and war are present. Thus, it is such a theology that does not seek to answer whether God exists, rather where he exists. Fundamentals of its theoretical background and discourse are the reality of social struggle for justice and Christian commitment.
Mexico in chronological 2011: Welcome in historical 2010!
By now, Mexico has become a permanent war zone, where the corrupt political elite can and able to maintain its legitimacy by the vehement application of different suppression systems of violence. As a result the "thermometer of social discontent" shows an ever increasing fever. How long can be a nation oppressed? What were the causes of the 1810 independence war and the 1910 revolution? What are the similarities of the present situation to the one then? What are the conditions for the arrival of a "2010"? What can it bring about at all? Nos vemos el 2010! (We will meet in 2010!)
The neozapatist movement: its theory and practice
Meanwhile zapatistas walk. They walk and pose questions. Slowly but they move forward. One step ahead, two steps back. They sow seeds and animate their children. They pay attention, talk, act and listen to the others, smile and sing on the land. Why is the Zapatista Autonomy so profoundly different from the well known socio-political context reproduced by the dominant culture of our time day-by-day? Does this very different really work? And if yes, what are the reasons behind?
Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle
Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)