alanjjohnstone
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It would be a very useful resource but it is also an ambitious one, Marcos. It is a wide subject to cover. Would it concentrate solely on Lenin or encompass Leninism?
Even I have mixed feelings whether Lenin was sincere or a fraud. Was he always a dictator-to-be or was it the conditions that he faced that obliged him to impose a dictatorship over the proletariat rather than a dictatorship of the proletariat? I think you’d find that the Party is not of one mind on this topic.
We have done a couple of history pamphlets now. I think it is time for something of a more contemporary nature.
Nationalism is something we should try to explain and is very relevant in this period of migrants and refugees and populism.
In economics, we should have a response to the Universal Basic Income.
Also a reply to proponents of cooperatives which is gaining in popularity could be helpful.
I believe we have a banking pamphlet already being prepared.
I am sure you also have a wish-list of pamphlets you would like to be published aside from a Lenin one.
The Democrats are still the Wall St Party
“Those elites might allow some progressive tinkering on the margins, but nothing that challenges the inequities that keep them wealthy and their victims weak.”
Another reappraisal of the urgency of the crisis
“meeting the internationally agreed aspiration of keeping global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is still possible. The scientists say it is therefore the choices being made by global society, not physics, which is the obstacle to meeting the goal.
The study found that if all fossil fuel infrastructure – power plants, factories, vehicles, ships and planes – from now on are replaced by zero-carbon alternatives at the end of their useful lives, there is a 64% chance of staying under 1.5C.”Christopher Smith, of the University of Leeds, who led the research, said: “We are basically saying we can’t build anything now that emits fossil fuels…“The climate system is not stopping you hitting the target, global society is stopping you,” Smith said.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, used computer models to estimate by how much global temperatures would rise if a fossil fuel infrastructure phaseout began immediately. The lifespan for power plants was set at 40 years, cars an average of 15 years and planes 26 years. The work also assumes a rapid end to beef and dairy consumption, which is responsible for significant global emissions.
In this scenario, the models suggest carbon emissions would decline to zero over the next four decades and there would be a 66% chance of the global temperature rise remaining below 1.5C. If the phaseout does not begin until 2030, the chance is 33%.
The analysis did not include the possibility of tipping points such as the sudden release of huge volumes of methane from permafrost, which could spark runaway global warming.Prof Dave Reay, of the University of Edinburgh, who also was not part of the research team, said: “Whether it’s drilling a new gas well, keeping an old coal power station open, or even buying a diesel car, the choices we make today will largely determine the climate pathways of tomorrow. The message of this new study is loud and clear: act now or see the last chance for a safer climate future ebb away.”
As the situation is no longer science but politics and economics, how many of us are confident that the decisions made will no longer be based on profits?
mith’s personal belief is that global heating will surpass 1.5C. “I don’t think we will do enough, quickly enough. I think we are heading for 2C to 2.5C.”
Blaming anti-Semitism in Europe on the Muslims
“Zionism is incorporated into Austrian and German nationalism, the far right accomplishes two goals: It whitewashes its bloody history of anti-Semitism and justifies its vicious Islamophobia”
The most extreme opponents of genetically modified foods know the least about science but believe they know the most, researchers have found.
The finding has echoes of the Dunning-Kruger effect, the observation from social psychology that incompetence prevents the incompetent from recognising their incompetence.
Also involved two other traits of behaviour
The first is “active information avoidance”, where people reject information that would help them understand the world because it clashes with their existing beliefs.
The second is the “backfire effect”, which describes how people can become entrenched in their original positions after rejecting new information.
“This is often used to explain why many Americans refuse to believe in evolution and why so many Americans feel that vaccination is harmful to children,” O’Dwyer said. “It also figures into the debates on global warming and makes correcting erroneous beliefs highly challenging.”
But is there now a lesson for ourselves in politics
“Extremists think they understand this stuff already, so they are not going to be very receptive to education. You first need to get them to appreciate the gaps in their knowledge.”
How would socialists accomplish this?
Another throws hat into the ring
Julián Castro, the federal housing secretary under Barack Obama, announced his presidential bid on Saturday with an address in his home city of San Antonio, Texas , where he served for five years as mayor.
Could this be the cause
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/12/subprime-timebomb-back-companies-lighting-the-fuse
“The Bank of England, Australia’s central bank, the International Monetary Fund and members of the US Federal Reserve have raised red flags over so-called leveraged loans, which are offered to companies already in debt but often come with few strings attached.”
An Irish View
Sadly, Vinnie, there is little support for the idea of a wide-ranging conference and that is something which is reflected in the low level of participation on the forum of the membership as a whole. Many voices and views are missing.
Why that is so and what the consequences may be can only be speculated upon but it does not lead to a cheery prognosis for our future when so many of the members forego discussion and debate when the means and methods have never been so available to all to engage with one another and exchange opinions and information.
I was pleased that ALB and hopefully others attended this EU demonstration, but Class War, an organization that is relatively small and very much lacking our resources, is capable of a creating a more prominent presence than ourselves. It has been the way of things that we are not able to get our own message out there. For all intents and purposes we are invisible.
We need an audience to hear our case and we are not being very successful in attracting one.
I very much doubt that the media will steer the debate as Corbyn would hope.
It is part of the power possessed by our masters that they determine what the issues will be in political debates.
I fear that the debate will continue as it is now, various sectors of the capitalist class with vested interests vying for political supremacy and many seeking concessions and compromises as the best option for themselves making things even more complex for any yes/no answer.
Brexiteers and Remainers will persist in presenting the illusion that their interests are in the interests of us the working class, the “national interest”, when in the end, there is very little for us as a class to gain, although at an individual level there may be advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I have been on the receiving end of the Brexit decision but I cannot give support to the Remainers. A plague on both is my attitude.
Our role as a party is to offer a class analysis which has led us to conclude that we should stand aside regards support or no support for those who say they speak for us but instead continue to criticize the hypocrisy of them all.
Ominous warnings from Brexiteer
Rafael Solís accused Ortega of transforming the Central American country into “a state of terror” The Supreme Court judge – a longtime associate of the 73-year-old Sandinista – claimed peaceful protests had been repressed “with bloodshed and fire” and heavily armed paramilitaries unleashed to sow fear.
Solís called himself “an ex-Sandinista militant” and said he was resigning because Nicaragua had become a dictatorship resembling an absolute monarchy with two kings: Ortega and his powerful first lady and vice-president, Rosario Murillo.
He said, “I do not desire a civil war for Nicaragua but it’s clear to me this is the path you are going down.”
Solís was a Ortega confidant, part of Ortega’s inner circle and was reportedly best man at Ortega’s 2005 wedding to Murillo.
Perhaps this thread should be re-titled to Democrats in 2020 race
Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic US representative from Hawaii, said she will run for president in 2020, CNN reported on Friday.
“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” she said in an interview with CNN that is scheduled to air on Saturday.
Gabbard is a 37-year-old Iraq war veteran and the first Hindu and first Samoan-American elected to the US Congress. She said “the issue of war and peace” would be the main focus of her campaign. She endorsed Sanders for president, becoming one of the few members of Congress to do so.
Gabbard has also drawn criticism for secretly meeting with Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, during a 2017 trip to the war-torn country. Gabbard opposes removing Assad from power.The Democratic field could eventually include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as the former vice-president Joe Biden. Julian Castro, Barack Obama’s former housing secretary, also formed an exploratory committee in December
It may well indeed be the hypocritical clap-trap we are accustomed to hear from Labour. Matt, but if it becomes the theme of a coming election then he has chosen a much better suited battle-field for ourselves in the war of ideas than an election solely focused on nationalist nonsense and a internecine dispute within the capitalist class.
