alanjjohnstone
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https://www.dw.com/en/award-winning-german-docufilm-gets-to-the-heart-of-meat-processing/a-53959266
Regeln am Band, bei hoher Geschwindigkeit (“Rules on the assembly line, at high speed”)
Almost one hundred years after Brecht’s drama that describes abuses in the slaughterhouses of Chicago, Lokshina’s film also criticizes capitalism. Temporary, subcontracting work in the meat industry keeps workers isolated and stops them from organizing. “They cannot rebel against the deplorable conditions,” Lokshina says.
I think the sad thing will be is that the beneficiaries of the future failure of the coalition will be Sinn Fein
‘We want to establish a participatory democracy. ‘
Yet i still cannot track down a website that is devoted to their political views. Are others having better luck?
The Anglican church should reconsider the way statues and other representations of Jesus portray him as white in the light of the Black Lives Matter protests, the archbishop of Canterbury has said.
Cause and effect
Ever since i retired from Royal Mail, the industry has been in deep trouble, experiencing one problem after another
Ergo – I was the one who was keeping things going when i worked there
😆
Not all BLM activists are radical militants in the UK
What we are still up against.
Atheists and humanists are facing discrimination and persecution in some countries because of their beliefs and values, according to a new report. Evidence is growing that humanist and atheist activists are being targeted on the basis of their rejection of a majority religion or their promotion of human rights, democratic values and critical thinking, it says.
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/topic/religious-believers-in-london/page/2/#post-204536
BTW, is the Humanist Association still a proscribed organisation that Party members cannot join or was it another silly resolution that has been made null and void?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/06/24/plant-based-diet-our-planet-urgently-needs
The gulf between what people say they understand is necessary and what their actions continue to prove otherwise is alarming. It is nowhere more evident than their dietary choices…
Producing 1kg of beef, for example, uses 163 times more land than producing rice, beans or potatoes. To put things into stark context, 70% of formerly forested land in the Amazon is being used to graze cattle and most of the rest is being used to grow soy beans for animals living in the perfect breeding ground for new epidemics, factory farms. In total, around 80% of available arable land is used for livestock farming, yet animal products provide less than 20% of our calories. As much as we try to ignore the voices of the experts, it is getting increasingly difficult. You have to drive your head further and further into the sand with each and every passing day. But, that is what people continue to do. Even those who consider themselves to be open minded liberals. They are anything but when it comes to their dietary choices…
For every kilogram of chicken flesh we consume, we have wasted between 2-5kg of edible food. When it comes to pig flesh, that rises to between 4-9kg and for cows it rises to a staggering 6-25kg of feed. This is hugely inefficient and completely unsustainable.
Lew – Buddhism is the world’s fourth largest religion, and along with other non-theistic religions, does not entail a belief in the existence of a supernatural entity that intervenes in nature and human affairs.
Mutual aid – A Hindu can be an atheist-materialist. So can a Buddhist, with no concept of God or soul.
I live in a strongly devout Buddhist country. It may be the original canon of the Buddha to hold no beliefs in supernatural entities or superstitions but these are indeed practiced and followed by the people and the Buddhist monks reinforce such ideas with religious blessings and rituals. Just as the Church was parasitic upon the community, Buddhist monks equally are as well, perhaps even more so.
Both however have their radical wings – Liberation theology and what is called engaged Buddhism, being examples. And such sects as the Quakers whose meeting halls, many branches happily make use of.
I don’t think think it is helpful to equate religion with always being props of our exploiters. They have grown into being very critical of capitalist society Although they still remain the most committed to reformism, whether it is social or individual lifestyle-ism.
From the Manifesto – “Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist tinge. Has not Christianity declaimed against private property, against marriage, against the State? Has it not preached in the place of these, charity and poverty, celibacy and mortification of the flesh, monastic life and Mother Church? Christian Socialism is but the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat.” [remains true but i would substitute aristocrat with reformer]
In many ways James Connolly’s interpretation has come about – that to survive the church will pragmatically adhere to many socialist ideas and jettison their anti-socialism, much in the way they accept evolution and drop their fundamentalist creationism these days. I have made a habit of posting various “progressive” statements of the Pope on the forum as an instance of this trend.
But i note people have avoided the two elephants in the room – the growing strength of Islam and its counter-revolutionary role. Or the existing political conservatism of American evangelicals.
There will be religious believers within the socialist movement and many will be good solid revolutionaries. As stated, religion is very malleable and can be moulded into any shape or form.
However, our question is whether we should continue to exclude them from membership of our Party.
If we changed that policy, do not think think there will be a sudden rush of Form As .That will not happen. I doubt we would perceive any change whatsoever in numbers. Nor do i believe we would become entangled in any religious controversies within the Party arising from different religious persuasions.
But what we will occur (and for want of a better expression) – we will lose the moral high ground of remaining true to materialist convictions. It is a price i don’t think is worth paying.
I prefer if the Party followed the one-time custom of the US military regarding being gay – Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell.
That would permit some who hold various individual levels of personal religious belief to join but prohibit professed Church members from joining.
But some members would rightly consider it a backslide to making religion a private matter and not a social question.
I live in a provincial capital which claim to fame is the annual Elephant Festival. I never go to the events.
I have seen elephants in all their aspects…wild, working, temple, tourist…and it never makes me happy. They have such sad soulful eyes,
An interesting interview
“…Human beings are not prepared to protect nature in any sense. Because in all our history as a species, our deepest conviction always was that we are the ones who have to be protected by the powers of nature. And we are not really prepared for this inversion. Just as a baby cannot carry his or her mother, human beings are not prepared — or not able — to carry nature…”
“But I drew attention to that passage in his article myself”
You didn’t quote what i quoted in your #204345 message. The emphasis of your post was the quackery of TCM and there we agree 100%.
We have the knowledge, technology and resources to make choices right now but one reason that we make our choice is the all-pervasive power of advertising we are subjected to from childhood into adulthood on what to eat.
Religion is another factor, Cultural custom is another. I note the Yulin festival of dog-eating is currently underway. No meat-eater can object to their choice of flesh. I myself have eaten roasted guinea-pig washed down with Inca Cola, (My wife’s favourite snack is ants eggs)
Tsk tsk…i cited the article you recommended as recommending vegetarianism and yet you insist on prevaricating …
Why would you be transporting live animals unless its part of the meat-industry…why would ploughing be a cause unless livestock was previously reared in the fields….(anthrax i think can still be contracted from soil from ages ago)
One of my dogs got Weils disease which led to a dispute with the Buddhist vet when because of the high risk of transmission to family and neighbours i asked her for my dog to be put down. Ended up with a compromise – the vet prepared the syringe but i had to press the plunger.
You know my ultimate position…pet-ownership will become more redundant as the psychological crutch for having pets disappears so people will end up with more social distancing from animals.
A caveat – as we have seen with the todays self isolation and staying at home, perhaps with socialism turning urban centres into a more countrified and rural setting, wild-life will once again be common in residential areas and bring increasing contact…just a thought.
“if you’re a protestant worker you get to live in a better quality slum than a catholic worker. If your a white worker, you get to live in a better quality slum than a black worker”
LBJ said, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
Another article promoting the campaign
What these wealthy and privileged didn’t count on, she said, “Is us. Us galvanizing our collectives. Us drawing strength from those who came before us. Us unifying, standing shoulder to shoulder empowering each other. Us loving to get in good trouble. And us being that new and unsettling force who will not stop until we have safe housing for all people and future generations to come.”
