alanjjohnstone
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An interesting interview focussed on the current popularity of the UBI. Mateo Alaluf is the author of the book Universal Basic Income. New Label of Precariousness (Allocation Universelle. Nouveau label de précarité), and co-editor of the anthology Against the Universal Basic Income (Contre l’allocation universelle).http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/03/universal-basic-income-a-fast-track-to-precariousness/
A serious question. This exchange has been going on for years among LBird, YMS and Robbo, with the occasional contribution from others. Has anyone learned anything positive from the outcome of this debate?LBird concedes the exchanges has led to the expansion of his reading but has Robbo or YMS themselves ever increased LBird's knowledge or understanding, directly?Conversely, has YMS or Robbo gained deeper insight from anything LBird has said in reply to them?If the answer is no to either of these questions, it has been a disappointing outcome of all those years.But perhaps one of those on the fringes of the discussions might have learned something. But I fear i haven't really. I got left behind in year zero and never ever caught up.That depresses me for i do consider myself receptive to education. Not sure anyone on this thread should claim to be a teacher but i perhaps should think about what Dietzgen said " If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class, the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself." Which may well mean no longer paying any attention to this ongoing polemic because somebody has failed to communicate effectively…and i keep pointing this out to all and sundry.
An update on that article is that more troops are being sent into Mosul in Iraq, as well. http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/82nd-airborne-mosul-iraq-islamic-stateWhile media concentrated on the civilian casualties in Aleppo by the Russians, it is only now that they are being obliged to report the many deaths from US air-raids but the new narrative is that such casualties are unavoidable in city warfare and mainly due to ISIS using them as civilian shields.
For a few years now, LBird, you have been offering a critique of the SPGB.Can i suggest you put it to the workers now by sharing it with them. Is it possible for you to re-format your case into something that is in a more readable form rather than disjointed by the cut and thrust of a forum exchange.As others have done and demonstrated on this list, it is possible to create your own web-pages and present your ideas and interpretations of other thinkers' ideas thus bring the arguments to a wider audience of workers.They will then decide exactly how necessary this debate is to them. You know my attitude for i have said it before…if i was sitting with you, Robbo and YMS, i would have, by now, changed tables. Actually, it could have gotten to the stage where i would have gone on to switch pubs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyandry_in_IndiaWhile living in Kerala i was told by a very reliable local that in some hill villages polyandry was still practised.
http://www.thejournal.ie/donkeys-chinese-medicine-3300944-Mar2017/
Quote:The donkey-hide gelatin has no commercial value in Africa but is highly sought after in China as an ingredient for traditional medicine to treat health problems such as anaemia and menopause-linked ailments.Capitalism = "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." – Einstein"Worth a good read, Marcos – Einstein advocating a socialist societyhttps://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/
Quote:Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.I think the case for minimising meat consumption has been effectively made if we are to have a sustainable food production.As for tobacco, any argument against self-harm is appropriate and criticism of the diversion of agricultural resources in food-insecure countries into this cash-crop seems legitimate. Prohibition may well be unachievable but the promotion of alcohol for escapism and the profit of corporations may well not exist in a socialist society, where craft-beers and micro-breweries might well prevail.And i recall one critique of Libertarian Communism…"Not libertarian but libertine"Should we emphasise principles of hedonism. Or should we make socialism ascetic and abstemious.Sylvia Pankhurst"We do not preach a gospel of want and scarcity…We do not call for limitation of births, for penurious thrift, and self-denial."She never said it but Emma Goldman gets the credit…"If i can't dance, i don't want a part of your revolution)
An updatehttp://www.dw.com/en/belarus-arrests-dozens-in-crackdown-claims-weapons-found/a-38099994http://www.dw.com/en/belarus-protests-tax-on-unemployed-parasites/a-37911647
I'm happy enough with the moderator's tolerance and his leeway. I'd also go along with any of his decisions to lock any threads, re-direct them to off-topic or to the rubbish bin. We all have the power to unsubscribe to various threads and we all have the choice whether to contribute to them.I am not sure that their presence has been so detrimental and i don't think the case has been made that it has deterred others from visiting. Maybe it has. Maybe is hasn't. Who can actually say? Its guess-work and, of course, the big picture is that we simply don't have too much traffic anyways so i don't think we should be trying to place blame on the eccentrics who believe an obscure web-page like ours is of value for their pet theories and projects.Actually historically, isn't this just a continuance of a trend that always existed within the Party, long before the ease of the internet posts and they are merely carrying on a long-standing tradition of the Party to be a sounding board for bizarre ideas.Perhaps LBird will get around to authoring a book on Engelsian Materialism and feature the SPGB. If his word-count is anything to go by, he has posted sufficient for a few volumes, it just needs edited and formatted.
Quote:My old man doesn't even have a mobile phone never mind a Kindle so I think that's out of it.Then buy a Kindle with him, with books already uploaded. 50 quid or thereabouts for basic model, even cheaper 2nd hand. Plenty of free books. They are easier than mobiles to use, handier than books. Text size are adjustable for ailing eyesight.
Quote:In my vocabulary, "exchange" does not require property or imply property necessarily. There are exchanges that involve property, but there are also exchanges that do not.Exchange value. A relative magnitude which expresses the relationship between two commodities. The proportion in which commodities tend to exchange with each other depends upon the amount of socially necessary labour-time spent in producing them. Commodities actually sell at market prices that rise and fall according to market conditions around a point regulated by their value and, more specifically, their price of production. (See also LABOUR THEORY OF VALUE; PRICE OF PRODUCTION; VALUE.)We use accepted definitions used by Marx and other economists and don't make up words. "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." ..Yup, exchange within the family exists as Steve indicates…so let us permit mums to charge babies for breast milk. A balance can be created at birth and children can pay back the debt when they grow up. But on the wider scale, production is a social process with a worldwide division of labour but within the market consumption is not social but dog eat dog profit making. Marx called it the "anarchy of production", everybody out to make a fast buck individually. It was Marx who said people could in fact "exchange" work-roles"in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic."
That many people did not vote for Hilarity Clinton due to well-founded and justified trust issues is not in dispute.We have threads on this forum and blog posts that have been very critical of both Clinton and Sanders, long before Trump became elected. But just when will the Trump supporters start to desert him? Even Fox news (other than Hannity) cannot maintain their belief in his claims nor the manner of how his administration defends them.I never place much faith in the fluctuating approval polls. Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president. Daily results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 national adults. It is presently 37%.Somehow if he survives the first term, i got a feeling he won't seek a 2nd term….but feel free to shoot me down on that speculation. Perhaps he will even resign in the near future on the health issue of those heel-bone spurs that got him out of the Vietnam War.But it does raise an interesting question for my pet hobby-horse – the JFK assassination. If the "conspirators" were so determined to rid themselves of JFK for whatever reason they might have, did they need to shoot him…or wouldn't political machinations and impeachment have served equally as well.
