Alvin Finkel
@alvinfinkel.bsky.social
Socialist historian; author of Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality; president, Alberta Labour History Institute
This prize-winning article that attacks the waste of technology on arms production rather than human needs makes frequent reference to my book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality.
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
“How Might Current and Emerging Technologies Best Be Mobilized to Secure Perpetual Peace?”
Hinternet Essay Prize Contest, 2025
substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:41 PM
This prize-winning article that attacks the waste of technology on arms production rather than human needs makes frequent reference to my book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality.
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Here's a review of my book Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality that appears in the leading independent Pakistani newspaper. The North American daily newspapers by contrast have been unwilling to provide a review. www.thefridaytimes.com/25-Nov-2025/...
Alvin Finkel Traces The History Of Inequality From Foraging To Neoliberalism
Faiths like Buddhism and Islam emerged as 'religions of protest' against social inequality, but faced co-option or opposition from vested interests
www.thefridaytimes.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Here's a review of my book Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality that appears in the leading independent Pakistani newspaper. The North American daily newspapers by contrast have been unwilling to provide a review. www.thefridaytimes.com/25-Nov-2025/...
Note that Indigenous peoples in North America say that each decision we make should consider impacts on the next seven generations.
November 24, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Note that Indigenous peoples in North America say that each decision we make should consider impacts on the next seven generations.
The US "while developing an international public relations exercise that presented their country as a paragon of democracy, were busily overthrowing governments, elected or otherwise, that they regarded as unwilling to let US companies invest and trade as if they were nationals." (From "Humans")
November 23, 2025 at 5:43 AM
The US "while developing an international public relations exercise that presented their country as a paragon of democracy, were busily overthrowing governments, elected or otherwise, that they regarded as unwilling to let US companies invest and trade as if they were nationals." (From "Humans")
Marwan Barghouti is likely the person most able to broker a just peace for the Palestinian people. But Israeli opponents of a two-state solution, particularly the genocidaires who form the current government, want him to die in prison.
www.timesofisrael.com/buoyed-by-tr...
www.timesofisrael.com/buoyed-by-tr...
Buoyed by Trump, Marwan Barghouti’s wife presses Israelis to free terror convict for peace
After her husband was passed over for release last month, Fadwa Barghouti says in 1st-ever interview with Israeli press that his ability to unify Palestinians behind 2-state platform can stabilize reg...
www.timesofisrael.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Marwan Barghouti is likely the person most able to broker a just peace for the Palestinian people. But Israeli opponents of a two-state solution, particularly the genocidaires who form the current government, want him to die in prison.
www.timesofisrael.com/buoyed-by-tr...
www.timesofisrael.com/buoyed-by-tr...
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies.. a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is.. spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children.” Eisenhower, 1953.
November 19, 2025 at 8:07 AM
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies.. a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is.. spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children.” Eisenhower, 1953.
Trump spilled the beans on private insurance companies, saying they are "money sucking." Yes, he said it because he wants to end Obamacare and leave the poor without insurance. But regardless of his motives, the #1 fascist has publicly agreed with the basic argument for Medicare for All. Repeat it.
November 9, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Trump spilled the beans on private insurance companies, saying they are "money sucking." Yes, he said it because he wants to end Obamacare and leave the poor without insurance. But regardless of his motives, the #1 fascist has publicly agreed with the basic argument for Medicare for All. Repeat it.
What if we told the history of humans not by focusing on "leaders" but on the leaderless societies that characterized most of human existence and on the working people who have characterized the period of elite "leaders?" That's what my book, "Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality" does.
November 5, 2025 at 6:59 PM
What if we told the history of humans not by focusing on "leaders" but on the leaderless societies that characterized most of human existence and on the working people who have characterized the period of elite "leaders?" That's what my book, "Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle for Equality" does.
During the Republican leadership race in 1968, William F. Buckley, commenting favorably on Nixon and Reagan and unfavorably on Nelson Rockefeller, who, though, absurdly rich, was a teeny-bit liberal, argued that the party had to remember that "we are the party of human greed."
November 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
During the Republican leadership race in 1968, William F. Buckley, commenting favorably on Nixon and Reagan and unfavorably on Nelson Rockefeller, who, though, absurdly rich, was a teeny-bit liberal, argued that the party had to remember that "we are the party of human greed."
Trump defends free speech for Nazis and other bigots. But when a Canadian premier advertised on right-wing US media against tariffs with quotes from Ronald Reagan, Mr. Free Speech cancelled discussions with Canada re tariffs. So that premier pulled the ads. Trump ONLY defends free speech for bigots.
October 24, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Trump defends free speech for Nazis and other bigots. But when a Canadian premier advertised on right-wing US media against tariffs with quotes from Ronald Reagan, Mr. Free Speech cancelled discussions with Canada re tariffs. So that premier pulled the ads. Trump ONLY defends free speech for bigots.
Trump's extravagant ballroom is just an extension of the president's small penis, his search for grandeur. He's actually a very little man, a petty child who needs constant reassurance. And he's happy to take bribes from donors seeking favours from the president in return for massaging his sick ego.
October 23, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Trump's extravagant ballroom is just an extension of the president's small penis, his search for grandeur. He's actually a very little man, a petty child who needs constant reassurance. And he's happy to take bribes from donors seeking favours from the president in return for massaging his sick ego.
Today in one of Canada's most left-wing neighbourhoods, I saw the absurd sign on a car: "Gun rights are human rights." No, they aren't. A dead Minnesota assemblywoman, a dead far right leader, dead school kids. On and on it goes. Their human right to die a natural death outweighs your right to guns.
September 10, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Today in one of Canada's most left-wing neighbourhoods, I saw the absurd sign on a car: "Gun rights are human rights." No, they aren't. A dead Minnesota assemblywoman, a dead far right leader, dead school kids. On and on it goes. Their human right to die a natural death outweighs your right to guns.
A win for the Dems was expected in the Virginia special election yesterday. But the newbie's 75% vote was 8% greater than his predecessor's margin. The decline in the Republican vote in that seat is the real story. If they lose that much of the vote in 2026, it's a Dem house by a huge margin.
September 10, 2025 at 6:31 PM
A win for the Dems was expected in the Virginia special election yesterday. But the newbie's 75% vote was 8% greater than his predecessor's margin. The decline in the Republican vote in that seat is the real story. If they lose that much of the vote in 2026, it's a Dem house by a huge margin.
Trump to Epstein: "Closer. Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell, oh-woh-woh?" But it appears that the Epstein files reveal the secret. But during the election last year, Trump seemed to believe that "nobody knows, just we two." Bondi let Trump know what's in the files, and so....
September 8, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Trump to Epstein: "Closer. Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell, oh-woh-woh?" But it appears that the Epstein files reveal the secret. But during the election last year, Trump seemed to believe that "nobody knows, just we two." Bondi let Trump know what's in the files, and so....
"Business interests in every one of the democracies of Western Europe and of the New World welcomed Hitlerism as a barrier to the expansion of Communism." Sumner Welles, Under Secretary of State to US President FDR in 1944-from my book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle For Equality.
September 6, 2025 at 10:41 PM
"Business interests in every one of the democracies of Western Europe and of the New World welcomed Hitlerism as a barrier to the expansion of Communism." Sumner Welles, Under Secretary of State to US President FDR in 1944-from my book, Humans: The 300,000 Year Struggle For Equality.
Trump's much-repeated lies about him having provided water to southern California during the wildfires despite rejection by Governor Newsom--neither happened--continue even after being exposed as impossible many times. Either Trump is just a compulsive liar or he is too demented to know he is lying.
September 1, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Trump's much-repeated lies about him having provided water to southern California during the wildfires despite rejection by Governor Newsom--neither happened--continue even after being exposed as impossible many times. Either Trump is just a compulsive liar or he is too demented to know he is lying.
..the president did order the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from dams at Lake Kaweah and Lake Success, it rushed into a dry lakebed in California’s Central Valley.
..not only was the water unable to flow to Southern California, but it would most likely go to waste.
..not only was the water unable to flow to Southern California, but it would most likely go to waste.
September 1, 2025 at 1:14 AM
..the president did order the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from dams at Lake Kaweah and Lake Success, it rushed into a dry lakebed in California’s Central Valley.
..not only was the water unable to flow to Southern California, but it would most likely go to waste.
..not only was the water unable to flow to Southern California, but it would most likely go to waste.
A convicted rapist thinks he can remove someone who might maybe eventually be charged on what look like made-up mortgage fraud accusations by the Department of (In)justice and then might be convicted of that in court (very unlikely). If she wasn't a Black woman, would this racist rapist do that?
August 29, 2025 at 7:51 AM
A convicted rapist thinks he can remove someone who might maybe eventually be charged on what look like made-up mortgage fraud accusations by the Department of (In)justice and then might be convicted of that in court (very unlikely). If she wasn't a Black woman, would this racist rapist do that?
Comparisons of Chamberlain at Munich and Trump-Putin miss the point when they talk about "appeasement." Chamberlain LIKED what Hitler was doing because Hitler planned to invade the USSR and weaken global communism. Trump LIKES Putin's invasions and wants to emulate them in Panama & Greenland.
August 25, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Comparisons of Chamberlain at Munich and Trump-Putin miss the point when they talk about "appeasement." Chamberlain LIKED what Hitler was doing because Hitler planned to invade the USSR and weaken global communism. Trump LIKES Putin's invasions and wants to emulate them in Panama & Greenland.
Trump-manufactured figures are lies; real stats that are responded to by firing their providers constitute an effort to persuade the public that only lies are the truth; and the effort to tell teachers and professors what they can say of America's past is an effort to erase the search for truth.
August 25, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Trump-manufactured figures are lies; real stats that are responded to by firing their providers constitute an effort to persuade the public that only lies are the truth; and the effort to tell teachers and professors what they can say of America's past is an effort to erase the search for truth.
Thinking of ICE. It's a blight on both the US and Canada that we view some people as good enough to do the hardest work but not good enough to become our citizens. So we call them "temporary foreign workers" or "illegals" and let employers treat them like dirt--then we deport them.
August 16, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Thinking of ICE. It's a blight on both the US and Canada that we view some people as good enough to do the hardest work but not good enough to become our citizens. So we call them "temporary foreign workers" or "illegals" and let employers treat them like dirt--then we deport them.
The treatment of immigrants in the US and unfortunately, though it's getting less coverage, in Canada too, has the markings of fascism. In the US it's full dehumanization of people, locking those who are "othered" in cages and sending them to fascist countries that are not even their former homes.
August 12, 2025 at 5:28 PM
The treatment of immigrants in the US and unfortunately, though it's getting less coverage, in Canada too, has the markings of fascism. In the US it's full dehumanization of people, locking those who are "othered" in cages and sending them to fascist countries that are not even their former homes.
Oil and gas companies' tactics on GHG emissions have mimicked the earlier strategies of Big Tobacco and the asbestos industry: lies, phony grassroots organizations, and later pretending to cooperate with efforts to reduce GHG emissions. With Trump in power, the latter has become unnecessary.
August 4, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Oil and gas companies' tactics on GHG emissions have mimicked the earlier strategies of Big Tobacco and the asbestos industry: lies, phony grassroots organizations, and later pretending to cooperate with efforts to reduce GHG emissions. With Trump in power, the latter has become unnecessary.