Ashley Smith

Dec 27, 2024 | links.org.au | Ashley Smith |Ilya Budraitskis |Ia Eradze |Luka Nakhutsrishvili |Lela Rekhviashvili

First jointly published by Posle Media and Tempest. The country of Georgia, a small nation of 3.8 million people in the Caucasus, has been thrown into a profound crisis. Its people have risen up against the ruling party, Georgian Dream, over the passage of its Russa-style “foreign influence law,” homophobic anti-LGBTQ propaganda law, rigging of the recent election, and suspension of accession talks for membership in the EU.

Dec 7, 2024 | links.org.au | Ashley Smith

First published at Tempest. For the last four years, Joe Biden and his anointed but defeated successor, Kamala Harris, attempted to refurbish U.S. capitalism and reassert U.S. hegemony over the world system, particularly against China, but also Russia and a host of regional powers. Their program of liberal reform at home failed to address the economic grievances of the country’s exploited and oppressed majority.

Dec 3, 2024 | links.org.au | Ashley Smith |Thomas Hummel

First published at Tempest. Increasingly, understanding the inter-imperialist competition between the United States and China is becoming essential to understanding the dynamics of the modern capitalist system. With the goal of broadening our understanding of the dynamics at play, Ashley Smith, along with co-authors Eli Friedman, Kevin Lin, and Rosa Liu, have published China in Global Capitalism: Building International Solidarity Against Imperial Rivalry, out now from Haymarket Books.

Aug 19, 2024 | links.org.au | Ashley Smith

First published at Tempest. Bourgeois electoral politics in the U.S. has entered an epoch of unprecedented instability exemplified by three signal events. First, President Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate and consequent collapse in polls seemed to doom the Democrats to certain defeat.

Jul 17, 2024 | links.org.au | Ashley Smith

First published at Tempest. The United States was already headed for one of the most acute political crises in recent memory. Then former president and convicted felon Donald Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Pennsylvania. Having survived, Trump has consolidated his base and cornered the Democrats by blaming them for the attack. Trump will now position himself as a strong man and survivor over a debilitated Biden campaign.