alanjjohnstone
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Can we say India’s caste system was feudal? Or AMP?
It seems casteism can co-exist with capitalism, as did apartheid, although i believe the Party’s case was it wasn’t the boycott of South Africa or the ungovernable social unrest that ended apartheid but the requirement of business to incorporate the African and Indian population
Sinn Fein calls for re-unification referendum
Sinn Féin is presently the most popular party in the Republic, with support at 32%.
In Northern Ireland, in the December general election Sinn Féin’s overall vote in the north fell by 6.7 percentage points.
The fastest-growing bloc is the so-called non-aligned – voters who shun traditional orange/green labels. Opinion polls suggest they tilt towards the status quo: staying in the UK.
Anthony McIntyre, a former Belfast IRA member and commentator, said: “No provisional IRA volunteer who fought the provo war will see a united Ireland.” The NHS and other benefits of the UK would swing the result, he predicted. “People who are only nominally nationalist will vote for the union. That’s where the veto lies.”
Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Féin said the promise of a new, progressive, inclusive Ireland, with an NHS-style health service, would win over enough voters. She said a united Ireland must offer unionists “the kinds of protections and assurances that they need” – for instance, a possible continued role for the Stormont assembly
The “Global Gag Rule” is a US government policy that requires non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are not based in the US and that receive US global health assistance to certify that they will not provide, refer for, counsel on, or advocate for abortion as a method of family planning.
While prior iterations applied only to family planning assistance (US$575 million in 2016), Trump’s new version extends the restrictions to nearly all US global health assistance – an estimated US$9.5 billion – which includes funding for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal and child health. For example, it now means that an organisation that provides HIV care and treatment with US funding may not also provide safe abortion.
NGOs were forced to choose between providing safe legal abortion services and accepting US global health funding. NGOs that turned down US funding had to then find replacement funding from other sources. This led to health facilities being closed, frequent contraceptive stockouts, staff layoffs and salary cuts. It also led to the curtailment of community-based activities, such as community health volunteers referring women for services. NGOs that provided comprehensive integrated sexual and reproductive health services – such as HIV, child health and maternal health – reported closure of some components of their service delivery when they were forced to choose between US funding and funding for these other services. This meant that women encountered more difficulties obtaining these services.
https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/here-are-the-dire-effects-of-the-u-s-global-gag-rule/
This debate has been wonderfully instructive to me on history. (as has the other debate on the other thread has been about philosophy – i particular was struck by the dance and dancer analogy)
But as always i want the things about the past i learn to have an application for the present and the future.
With this new analysis of class division, social change and political revolution being discussed, what can we say about today?
I assume that the history TM presents shows that the bourgeoisie dominated the social and economic relationships that existed, and that the political power of the time reflected this but often splintered over internecine disputes of which section should dominate.
My question is that will the economic class struggle and the class war bring forward a new society. The core of Marxist belief. Or will it be the secondary influences of capitalism. Its incapacity and inability to solve its deleterious effects such as environment destruction, global movement of migrants, pandemics and wars that will produce the revolutionary collective consciousness and will for a political revolution.
Shall we continue to talk about the working class or change our language to working people or merely The People.
We dominate all except the exercise of political power.
(apologies for the clumsy manner in how i pose the conundrum)
When we discuss the enclosures just how much of the Commons was privatised by the nascent capitalists?
pro-choice activists in Gibraltar were hopeful that their territory’s abortion laws – the harshest in Europe – could soon be overturned.
Terminations are banned in the tiny British territory, even in the cases of rape, incest, or foetal abnormality where the foetus will not survive. Abortions are punishable by life imprisonment, except when the woman’s life is in danger.
A historic referendum, originally scheduled for March, would have given Gibraltar’s citizens the unprecedented chance to vote to decriminalise abortion. But just a week before the vote was due to take place, the government announced that it would be postponed because of coronavirus. Six months on – and despite seeing only 350 Covid-19 cases and no deaths – Gibraltarians are still waiting.
Bars and shops are open, and now that life has returned to relative normality, pro-choice activists argue that rescheduling the referendum must be a priority.
Fur farming to be banned. Poland would then join Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and the UK, which have all banned fur farming. France now plans to follow suit
Minks are by far the biggest group of animals on Polish fur farms. There are more than six million minks on farms countrywide,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54345622
Armenia says one of its fighter jets was shot down by a Turkey jet. If true (Turkey denies its aircraft was involved) it is a serious escalation
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/29/rival-scientists-lockdowns-scientific-covid-19
A tale of two sciences on lockdown policy
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/27/confirmed-is-a-meaningless-word-in-msm-news-reporting/
Colouring their reporting by the media
Intelligence “source” – A lying, torturing, propagandizing, drug trafficking, assassinating, coup-staging, warmongering, psychopathic spook agency with an extensive history of deceit and depravity that selectively gives information to news reporters with whom it has a good relationship is never doing so for noble reasons. It is doing so for the same rapacious power-grabbing reasons it does all the other evil things it does.
China has begun five military exercises simultaneously along different parts of its coast, the second time in two months it will have such concurrent drills against a backdrop of rising regional tensions.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/28/china-holds-simultaneous-military-drills-in-four-seas-again
Tesco will commit to boosting sales of meat alternatives by 300% within five years, by 2025. Over the past year, demand for chilled meat-free foods – the most popular line including burger, sausage and mince substitutes – has increased by almost 50%, the retailer said. As a result, it is expanding into more categories and creating larger “centrepiece” dishes for two people as well as family-sized portions.
The trend reflects people increasingly adopting “flexitarian” diets – cutting down on meat and dairy while eating more plant-based foods.
Cindy McCain, the widow of Republican Sen. John McCain, will advise Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential transition team as it prepares for him to take office if he wins in November, the team announced Monday. McCain is the second Republican on the 16-member transition advisory board,
