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Articles by Hans Zobel
Workers Shouldn’t Have to Pay the Costs of the Energy Crisis
Interview by Peter Schadt Hans Zobel The Russian attack on Ukraine and resulting Western sanctions are leading to rising inflation in Germany. The prices for gas, oil, and electricity are becoming increasingly unaffordable for many workers. The so-called “Gasumlage,” a measure which would have enabled the importers of gas to pass on their rising cost, has been brought down in parliament. Yet many fear that even the cap on energy prices will not stop rising poverty.
The Ban on Russian Oil Is Another Way for Germany to Assert Its Power
Germany needed alternatives and immediately began to examine all options. Within a few days, there was even revived discussion of nuclear power. Leading daily FAZ argued for “realism” about what nuclear power can do: “Germany consumed almost 1,000 terawatt hours (TWh) of natural gas last year, a good half came from Russia. At the same time, the last nuclear power plants generated just under 70 TWh of electricity.
The Problem With ‘Green Capitalism’
A view of a Tesla charging station. Photo: Torbjorn Sandbakk/Unsplash On March 4, the German state of Brandenburg announced that the planned Tesla “Gigafactory” to the southeast of Berlin has received the final necessary permits. The start of auto production there has thus moved another step closer – posing the question of what Elon Musk’s project does indeed mean for nature, and all of us.
Under Capitalism, “Labor-Saving” Technology Only Adds to Our Workload
The term Industry 4.0 was first introduced ten years ago in Germany at the Hanover Messe, one of the world’s largest trade fairs. Heralding a “fourth industrial revolution,” this PR label quickly become a well-known brand name for the German state’s political and economic program. The economic basis of this program is often referred to as digitalization.
Friedrich Engels, a Thinker for Today
Friedrich Engels was many things: a soldier, a journalist, a historian, an economist, a capitalist, and a communist revolutionary. Many stories could be told about his life, from his taste for fox hunting with England’s ruling elite to his affairs with Irish proletarian women. Whoever is interested in the all-too-human aspect of this “frock-coated communist” will find a rich body of literature. But rather less examined is whether Engels’s particular critique of capitalism still holds.
How Digitalization Is Preparing a Fight for World Market Supremacy
The United States and China are engaging in a trade war that British think tank Chatham House calls rooted in “a race for global technological dominance.” And for German business daily Handelsblatt, “Europe is getting caught in the crossfire of [this] technology war.” Faced with this threat, the European Commission has reserved large parts of its coronavirus recovery fund to boosting or maintaining Europe’s “digital sovereignty.” Technology, it would seem, is a matter of power politics.
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