alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I think working animals will remain but they are not pets by definition. Hopefully, horse and greyhound racing also disappears as well as other cruel animal-centred "sports".Also what about the pedigree commercialisation and the inbreeding of breed faults.Guide dogs for the blind but if we can have driverless cars, the same technology can give the blind "sight" – think Geordi La Forge of Star TrekWere cats the most efficient pest control or are feral cats a pest themselves. I'd put money on a ratter terrier than a cat on a small farm, even the cutesy Yorkie.Again to recall my youth, milk, coal and brewery dray horse-drawn wagons were a common sight even on the cobbled hilly streets of Edinburgh. Perhaps when the roads are cleared of private vehicles, there will be a return. Who knows but i think more likely will be the technologically more advanced drone-delivery. But socialism will always be a work in progress and the real question is when do we begin the task of adapting…prior to the establishment or only after political power is acquired.I think Robbo and i contemplate a period on the threshold of socialism where issues are going to be seriously debated on what and how changes will be implemented by the concerned and relevant scientific, professional and trade bodies to minimise that inevitable "transitional" period and make it as short as possible. After all, for decision making people need options and the case for them presented for their appraisal…democratic control.
Ornithologists will be delighted when the domestic cat disappears from the garden and the genocide of birds ceases.So will communities rejoice when the quarries for cat-litter are filled in and land-scaped. Ttwo million tons of clay are mined mostly by strip mining in the United States every year, requiring massive amounts of soil and rock to be moved in order to access the mineral seam underneath.Veterinary resources for "small-animals" diverted from livestock farms and food processing monitoring.Many cities and towns have better animal health facilities than clinics for people. Pet food is directly and indirectly in competition to ourselves for protein and not just the rejected bits unfit for human consumption.Perhaps the only way Tim's pork pie is going to be sustainable is when pigs are fed what dogs get fed now.And if we can eat a pig, then we can have, as many poverty-stricken people do, dog and cat for dinner. After all, the pet guinea pig is a meal in South America. And Europeans relish horse flesh.I mentioned we got chicken only at Xmas when i was young. We had "poor-man's chicken" – rabbit – a lot more until myxomatosis (And why not solve the pigeon problem and replace chicken with them?) The psychological bond with pets is broken when we become a more social and communal species, no longer requiring a dog as our best friend and a substitute for real family, neighbours and friends and that old lonely cat-lady is enjoying being around people once more. If only my two dogs and kitten-expecting cat could read this.
Asia prepares for you dying olderhttp://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1227576/thais-chinese-growing-old-before-getting-rich
Quote:the biggest result could come from raising female participation rates in the labour market such as child-care subsidies and allowances and employer incentives to become more family-friendlyQuote:Lets bulldoze the ugly squalor that scars so much of our cities and turn these areas into city farms. Lets recycle our shit and use the stuff productively rather than dump it into the sea or wherever. Lets bring the countryside right into the heart of the city (the original idea behind the Garden Cities movement).https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening)I know from anecdotal evidence that there are many who would like a plot but the council waiting list is ten-fold longer than the housing list and the trend now is to sell allotments to property developers. The number of plots in England has fallen from a peak of 1.4 million in 1949 to around 150,000 today. In 1996 there were four people waiting for every 100 plots, but that has risen to 57 today.Our council house had a back garden and we grew tatties, rhubarb, carrots, all easy growing for a lazy dad. And whatever happened to the gooseberry?Oh, and just to add irritation salt to the wound on lifestyles, i have decided to do a future SS article on the probable demise of the pet in socialism…Maybe for a working title call it "Animal lovers against nature" lovers".
What our political rivals are saying about farming and foodhttp://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/25218/05-04-2017/what-would-a-socialist-food-industry-look-like
Robbo, I'll concede to Tim and Vin that i do have a tendency to over-simplify future problems for socialism as black and white rather than the 50 shades of grey that a complex world economy throws up. But overall, i have to accept that we need changes and some may well not be palatable for everybody. If it retards recruitmant to the socialist mission as Gnome suggests, so be it – but the Party has never pussy-footed around its unpopular conclusions.The necessities of life will be distributed through free access. How future generations inside socialism determine what is basic needs and what are luxuries, i leave to them, although we can all speculate about it today. They will also evolve their own and widely diverse methods of "rationing" "scarce" goods and we can take educated guesses at these. But i still insist that we will make decisions on a social level that will mean a restriction on individual choices.Global warming doesn't magically disappear over-night because we end capitalism and socialism arrives. It has to be tackled by human action just as it was created by human action.As follow-up to the report i cited, another has come across my horizon, this time from the FAOhttp://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/04/06/almost-half-the-forests-that-once-covered-earth-now-gone_c1512741
Quote:"According to the report, more people will be eating fewer cereals and larger amounts of meat, fruits, vegetables and processed food — a result of an ongoing global dietary transition. This will further add to those pressures, driving more deforestation, land degradation and greenhouse gas emissions…It warns that high-input, resource-intensive farming systems, which have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, cannot deliver sustainable food and agricultural production. According to the report, the world needs to shift to more sustainable food systems, which make more efficient use of land, water and other inputs."That pork pie has consequences.
Also this which argues that changes need not be dramatic but simply small adjustments to our diet. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-04/tl-tlp040317.php
Quote:Modifying diets by a few grams per day according to the composition of vegetables, fruit and meat could significantly reduce groundwater use in India, and help the country meet the challenge of feeding 1.64 billion people by 2050…The study looked specifically at India, where approximately half of the usable water is currently required for irrigation. The population of India is predicted to rise to 1.64 billion people by 2050, and in order to ensure enough freshwater is available, water use will need to be reduced by a third…They found that modifying the average diet to increase fruit consumption by 51.5g per day and vegetable consumption by 17.5g per day, along with a reduction in the consumption of poultry of 6.8g per day could lead to a 30% reduction in freshwater use and a 13% reduction in dietary greenhouse gas emissions… Our study …finds modest dietary changes could help meet the challenge of developing a resilient food system in the country."Coincidentally, i just came across this report, todayhttp://news.asiaone.com/news/world/protect-small-farms-meet-growing-global-food-needs-study-says
Quote:More than half of the world's food is produced by small and medium farmers, particularly in Africa and Asia, said researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia. While large-scale plantation agriculture is expanding, small farms with less than 20 hectares of land should be protected because they produce more diverse and nutritious food, the study said. "It is vital that we protect and support small farms and more diverse agriculture so as to ensure sustainable and nutritional food production," Mario Herrero, the study's lead author, said in a statement. "Large farms, in contrast are less diverse." Big farms larger than 50 hectares dominate food production in the western hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand, producing more than three quarters of the cereals, livestock and fruit in those regions, the study said. In South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, small farms produce about 75 per cent of the food, the study said."It is not any sandal-wearing lentil-eating Neil from the Young Ones saying this but hard-nosed researchers. And i can search out many other sources asserting similar if you so wish.
Marx looks awfully emaciated in the Trier model of the statue…https://www.thelocal.de/userdata/images/article/49acb8b4521ee1e9b94d8405777aee6c922ecbb82216ded96c06d927ef89f4f1.jpg
Beijing unveiled “historic” plans to build a new city there in a bid to slash pollution and congestion. Plans for the Xiongan New Area, a special economic zone that authorities say will eventually cover an area nearly three times that of New YorkChina has created dozens of “new areas” in recent years as part of a massive urbanisation drive that has seen hundreds of millions of people pour into its cities. Critics say many have become ghost towns but in a recent interview Wade Shepard, the author of a book on the phenomenon, said some were now beginning to take off.“There’s really no such thing as a ghost city. It’s just a phase of development.”https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/china-plans-build-new-city-nearly-three-times-the-size-of-new-york
240 posts some of them very detailed and you read them all…kudos to you John Pozzi…Or are you merely replying to the title of the thread.
In 1844 Marx wrote that "the existence of the state and the existence of slavery are inseparable" – "The King of Prussia and Social Reform"Again, as Engels wrote in a letter to Bebel in March 1875, "Marx's book against Proudhon and later the Communist Manifesto directly declare that with the introduction of the socialist order of society the state will dissolve itself and disappear".Then, in a circular against the Bakunin prepared for the First International in 1875, Marx wrote: "To all socialists anarchy means this: the aim of the proletarian movement–that is to say the abolition of social classes–once achieved, the power of the state, which now serves only to keep the vast majority of producers under the yoke of a small minority of exploiters, will vanish, and the functions of government become purely administrative"
Quote:The capitalist mode of production has created conditions of abundance. We usewhat we have. For eample railway workers taking over their work place and ensuring goodworking conditions and ensuring free rides for everyone, reducing work timewith the help of the millions presently engaged in capitalism's dirty workassociated with money. The same thing happening in all of the wealthproducing industries. No need to close Asda or Sainsburies, or theirsuppliers they can be run by those already involved, perhaps change of name.There will be a rapid improvent of working conditions for the same reasongiven for the railways. The democratic organisations at all levels local, national, and worldwide can be used to fascilitate this revolutionI think we can all fully accept that statement, Vin. I don't think any member would contest your view. But as been pointed out on this forum before, i'm not the most optimistic of persons. We have 400 years of capitalist damage and harm to weigh on the scales alongside its positive contributions to production and distribution. But as i said to Tim, socialism cannot be simply business as usual. We have to accept existential changes has taken place and not go into denial that we don't face unprecedented environmental threats which have to be very rapidly remedied for socialism to thrive. We are also very much a world socialist movement and so we have to be aware of the situation and conditions of our fellow-workers around the world are to become as much our primary concern as the problems on our door-step. It wasn't only Hardie who suggested that we should expected a veritable cornucopia but also Pieter Lawrence when discussing post-capitalism in its earlier days said we would encounter necessary phases. First, there would have to be urgent action to relieve the worst problems of food shortages, health-care and housing which affect billions of people throughout the world.Secondly, longer term action to construct means of production and infrastructures such as transport systems for the supply of permanent housing and durable consumption goods. These could be designed in line with conservation principles, which means they would be made to last for a long time, using materials that where possible could be re-cycled and would require minimum maintenance.Thirdly, with these objectives achieved there could be an eventual fall in production, and society could move into a stable mode. This would achieve a rhythm of daily production in line with daily needs with no significant growth. On this basis, the world community could live in material well-being whilst looking after the planet. Isn't it possible to envisage what Marx called “simple reproduction” by which he meant that the stock of means of production was simply reproduced from year to year at its previously existing level, a situation where human needs were in balance with the resources needed to satisfy them. Such a society would already have decided, according to its own criteria and through its own decision-making processes, on the most appropriate way to allocate resources to meet the needs of its members. This having been done, it would only need to go on repeating this continuously from production period to production period. Production would not be ever-increasing but would be stabilized at the level required to satisfy needs. All that would be produced would be products for consumption and the products needed to replace and repair the raw materials and instruments of production used up in producing these consumer goods. The point about such a situation is that there will no longer be any imperative need to develop productivity, i.e. to cut costs in the sense of using less resources; nor will there be the blind pressure to do so that is exerted under capitalism through the market. It also means that once you’ve achieved satisfactory levels of consumer goods, you don’t insist on producing more and more. Total social production could even be reduced. You achieve this “steady state” and you don’t go on expanding production. Zero-Growth.
Oh and because i was under the influence of the toxic quality of alcohol, a hang-over from drinking Singha, i forgot to offer this link to an article by me which doesn't speculate on socialist tea but explains why there will be a rapid migration from the tea plantationsTea Slaveshttp://www.countercurrents.org/johnstone140214.htm
