End-year Round Up

This year I got much clearer on the corruption and incompetence of our various leaderships.  

All the information coming to me via Twitter, some great Tweeps out there, and several super blogs have helped me get a lot clearer this year, and here they are, fyi.

But first of all, a couple of websites have also been really useful, data-wise:

• "The Spirit Level" is an excellent explanation of why social democracy, at a minimum, and re-distributive fiscal policies are pre-conditions for a semi-decent, non-barbarous society. The related website of The Equality Trust has all the data, and the principal critiques of the analysis. 
•  False Economy also has lots of data on how and why the decision to cut rather than increase public spending will protect the wealth of a lot of already rich people, and provide massive new sources of income to others through privatisation, but not solve the underlying tensions.  It also has a great little video.

And very importantly for me personally, a friend shared a terrific paper on social democracy, by the late, much admired Tony Judt:  What is Living and What is Dead about Social Democracy.  This really clarified for me what we are fighting for right now, and the limitations of that fight.

Image via Wikipedia

Of course, this could/should be about way more than social democracy, but we've got to defend that first off.

But back to blogs ....

The brilliant and very funny Madam Miaow has done a good brief  round-up of some of the greats of the leftist blogosphere, including HarpyMarx, Gauche, Laurie Penny at the New Statesman, not to mention herself of course.  And she includes fellow Orwell Prize short-listee Jack of Kent, who's so lovely and interesting we wish he was a lefty.  Madam M also mentions Dolphinarium, but she is just way too into the catholic hierarchy for me.

In addition, I keep going back to these ones :-

• One of yer actual (former) bankers gives an inside view on what's going on via Leftbanker

• Also, there are some very useful progressive tax blogs, which have all the counter-arguments.  I will get the links to these.  And who'da thunk that tax issues could actually be interesting?

• Not Just the Minutiae has loads of interesting articles, videos and other bits of leftist this and that, always illuminating

• And for sheer solid up to the minute analysis, New Left Project, Lenin's Tomb, Michael Meacher and Counterfire are all great.

• Too Much To Say For Myself has a solid feminist perspective, often tackling issues others are not.

• And currently for stuff on Wikileaks, but a whole lot of other things too, you can't do better than Glenn Greenwald over there at Salon.com

• Oh, and don't forget to check out the truly great Amy Goodman at Democracy Now VERY regularly (wish we had something like this in UK) 

And, finally, I really liked Socialist Unity's Blogging at the Crossroads.  It gives a solid overview of the status of left blogging and social media organizing just now. Very interesting, with lots of links in case, like me, you missed stuff.

I could go on and on of course .......