Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
No matter the country, capitalism is always the enemy
We have drifted too long without class analysis, taking sides in uprisings and wars based on shallow understandings and personal political preferences rather than the material realities of economics, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
NO HERO BY DEFAULT: Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reviews a group of armed forces cadets during their graduation ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Oct. 3, 2022

WE SWIM in a sea of obfuscation, confusion, and fabrication. We are bombarded by academics, commentators, consultants — experts of every type — who build their brands on telling us what our rulers want us to hear. Through calculated ruses, they penetrate our entertainment, even our escapism, with embedded messages that strengthen conformity and consensus.

The purveyors of this conformity — the messengers — are given the stolid image of trustworthy tradition or the superficial appearance of daring nonconformity or diversity, depending on the sensibility of the audience, though the message is the same in all cases.

Today’s bourgeois society has utilised previously unimaginable advances in communication and technology to achieve even more unimaginable control over the thinking of the people. This is what Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky so insightfully called “manufacturing consent.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
LIBERATION: Mission Robinson literacy class in the La Vega neighbourhood of Caracas. Applying the Cuban literacy method ‘Yes, I can!’ - the state provides free textbooks and educational videos / Piv: Oriana Elicabe/orianomada/flickr/CC
Features / 13 February 2026
13 February 2026

ISAAC SANEY points to the global stakes involved in defending the Cuban revolution against imperialism and calls for resistance

Tents are set up along a freeway in a homeless encampment, May 12, 2025, in Los Angeles
Features / 27 May 2025
27 May 2025

In 2024, 19 households grew richer by $1 trillion while 66 million households shared 3 per cent of wealth in the US, validating Marx’s prediction that capitalism ‘establishes an accumulation of misery corresponding with accumulation of capital,’ writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY

US President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he depart
Eyes Left / 16 April 2025
16 April 2025
ANDREW MURRAY casts an eye over past upheavals and asks whether the left can find a fire escape before the world goes up in flames