alanjjohnstone
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The argument has been going on in the US for quite some time about the State subsidising the Walmarts and the McDonalds low wage structure.The difference being between the UK and the UK is that the debate is centred around th $15 minimum wage demand being pushed by the Left. So it is interesting that IDS and Kshama Sawant are singing from the same hymn book and are in general agreement. Also i would add "In the end as with many economic issues it comes down" to who has the strength and fortitude to combat more in the class struggle over wage levels because the cuts in tax-credits will have to be recouped by higher wages extracted from employers by their employees. Pay rises to compensate for lower net pay does not necessarily mean it will automatically happen…unions will have to fight for it…Or workers will have to submit to lower standard of living. No doubt we will see some form of divisive propaganda used by the bosses…the needs of work colleagues who have kids being played off against the young singles…another generational divide and rule perhaps….i recall when i entered employement long ago, pay incremental age scales were the norm in many jobs…perhaps we will witness its return…
Just how important and relevant to your life is your religious philosophy, Paul? What bearing does it have on your daily life?Does it have an effect on your work, on your relationships, on your life-style? Can you go about your day-to-day business without it? Does your "religion" have any actual influence over you?…Does your "God" talk to you…do you "talk" to him?Is it necessary for your religious faith to follow certain rites and ceremonies? Just how religiously observant do you need to be? If you had an accident tomorrow and the head injury impacted upon your brain's memory, a partial amnesia that often occurs with such injuries, and you forgot everything that you had read or been told about religion, would that make you a lesser person for it? Or would you still be Paul Scivier and continue enjoying the things you enjoy without guilt or regret? What i am suggesting by these questions is if your ideas on religion hold no power over you, then why not simply put them aside, forget them entirely, leave these theories you hold on the origin of life and what's after death to speculative meanderings of the mind once you have had a few beers or spliffs and instead work for a cause that would change your life for the better and improve it for all others.If you think some verses or parables in the Bible, or Koran, or the Vedas or from any other religious canon, adds to the case for socialism, by all means quote them in your discussions. Many works of many religion express certain truths of community that socialists accept and seek, what is called the "golden rule"…"do unto others as you have them do unto you".Socialists often use the imagery of poetry or the message in various literature to explain why we want to establish it. But it will not be through religious persuasion or adoption of any religion that socialist society will be achieved but by political action, not prayer.
Not physically.Any comment placed on specific articles at the online Socialist Standard will automatically begin a thread here…all done by the magic of computers…
And those sex-dolls are verging on reality i am told too http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=53372&sid=d70c7dca55c10fcec8e8cbae5e9da3b0&start=15
"Emma Goodman was a vanguardist"There was an actual anarchist magazine called The Vanguard published in the 30s in America of which she was a regular contributor, or at least they published a number of her articles. https://libcom.org/library/vanguard-libertarian-communist-journal
At the time of the Iraq invasion i switched to being a reader of the Independent which had a much more critical analysis of the phony WMD motive. Sadly a few years later and the paper changed ownership and its coverage has swung to the right. I no longer judge the paper as offering genuine balanced reporting. Its reporting of Ukraine and Putin has verged on war-mongering. The story which i read of Brand being heckled is very much the sort of article i have come to expect of the Independent. Asa professional stand-up comedian whatever insults were thrown in his direction he is well accustomed to hecklers. It won't faze him in the slightest.Genuine criticism may well do.
Just to add by quoting Wilhem Reich –
Quote:“Question: If two human beings, A and B, are starving, one of them may accept his fate, refuse to steal, and take to begging or die from hunger, while the other may take the law into his own hands in order to obtain food. A large part of the proletariat, often called the lumpenproletariat, live according to the principles of B. Which of the two types has more elements of class consciousness in him? Stealing is not yet a sign of class consciousness but a brief moment of reflection shows, despite our inner moral resistance, that the man who refuses to submit to law and steals when he is hungry, that’s to say, the man who manifests a will to live, has more energy and fight in him than the one who lies down unprotesting on the butchers slab …we have said that stealing is not yet class consciousness. A brick is not yet a house, but you use bricks to build a house” – SEX-POLi can't imagine any socialist not caring about the imposition of wage cuts, the worsening of working conditions and employment contracts, or the claw-back on the already meagre state benefits of vulnerable and the unfortunate fellow- workers.Nor can i envisage any socialist not endorsing opposition and resistance to such acts and i can't believe any socialist would not be full-heartedly supporting those who make a stand and fight back either by industrial action or merely protests and demonstrations, or, where they can, even by resorting to legal procedures and using the law against the law-makers.If people cannot organise against austerity and have the courage to take action to resist it, just where will they acquire the the cooperation and valour needed to achieve socialism?Sure they are not yet demanding socialism, that is our task in the Socialist Party to educate, agitate and organise so that people understand the cause of our misery and realise what the solution is and how we alone can end our deprivation. Perhaps we should concentrate our attention on how we fail to communicate that message effectively and stop berating our fellow-workers for their failure to comprehend why the economic system does not operate in their interest…after all, from cradle to coffin, they are told capitalism works…when they discover that isn't quite the truth, that is the opening for ourselves to explain why and how we can change things. Meantime, i applaud positive action by my fellow workers to maintain or improve their lives, even if they still have a bit to go to acquire socialist consciousness even if it is simply tens of thousands of them marching from A to B to make a collective statement of "enough is enough…no more"…They'll learn how better to express their views and how more effective they can demonstrate their determination to protest…after all
Quote:"That the emancipation of labour is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries"i was very pleasantly surprised by the simplicity this law lord expressed himself in the article…no legalese mumbo-jumbo but such law references explained in a way to be easily understood.Myths are useful tools and potent weapons but are socialists forbidden from perpetuating some of them for our own advantage. I dare say the history of the labour and socialist movement can be re-written, correcting our emotional attachments but we deign to do so. Takes us back to LBird and his ideology in a way. Is there an objectivity we should be seeking in our case for socialism or can we cherry-pick 'facts' and events to support our position?…Or have we crossed the line between means and ends?
So speaks the city slickerThey certainly won't be on our side if you declare collectivisation of their small-holdings when you have no intention of requisitioning every private home as common property that may have an unused spare bedroom or two.And you will gain little sympathy if you impose inappropriate technology and most of the reasons it is rejected are because of very good reasons applicable to the situation and conditions of capitalist society. The receptiveness in socialism will be very different. The fact is and its been proved over and over again…most small farmers and their communities do adopt new ways of farming and they do use technology…they are neither luddites nor are they unreceptive to innovation and i hazard a guess that the majority of the world's cooperatives are agricultural so they are experienced of organising Perhaps you foresee the landless peasant mass of Canada and the American prairies straining at the fences to seize the vast industrial farms and divide them into tiny individual plots. Perhaps we may see such actions in places where the best fertile land has been reserved for crops that feed cars rather than people. We establish socialism from where we are. I don't believe earlier generation arguments of "rural idiocy" applies these days. The development of socialist consciousness of a vastly evolved "peasantry" is no longer restricted by lack of education, literacy or mobility. I'm not so sure it is valid any longer to talk of a peasant class. For a viewpoint of the potential of small farmers from the UN's FAOhttp://permaculturenews.org/2014/09/26/un-small-farmers-agroecology-can-feed-world/
In defence of the small farmerhttp://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/industrial-agriculture-and-farming-is-a-threat-to-food-supplyI think the comment from a Dr. Kihn makes a relevant contribution
Quote:It's not "big" that is the problem with food supply or anything else. It's "who". Who controls agriculture? Who decides what's important? Who decides that animals are mistreated, that the biosphere gets polluted, that food prices are kept artificially high?The ruling rich do. In this for-profit system, private profit trumps all other considerations. So why do we keep supporting their politicians and parties? Because we don't know who we are. We are not "poor" or "middle class" or "ordinary" or "consumers" or "victims" or "Americans". We are workers and farmers; we are the vast majority in the world, and we have more power than we are ever told.Separate from them. Educate, agitate, organize independently for the good fight.Questions the Pope should be asking.
I saw Anthony Booth, Cherie's dad…so was she and Tony there?Benn, so full of confidence…ahhhhhhhhhhhh…. he always was, wasn't he?
http://www.primeminister.gov.gr/english/2015/06/18/prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-article-in-der-tagesspiegel-german-taxpayers-are-not-paying-for-greek-pensions/Tsipras on the propaganda about Greek pensions
Quote:According to the Ageing Reports (2009, 2015), pension expenditure in Greece rose from 11.7% of GDP in 2007 (slightly higher than the 10.4% in Germany) and reached 16.2% in 2013 (while in Germany the numbers remained almost stable). What caused this increase? Was it due to an increase in pensioners or an increase in pension amounts? The answer is: Neither. The number of pensioners has essentially remained unchanged and pensions have shrunk dramatically due to the implemented policies. Simple arithmetic is sufficient to reach the conclusion that the increase in pension expenditure as a percentage of GDP is entirely due to a decline in GDP (denominator), and not to an increase in expenditure (the numerator). In other words, GDP declined faster than the pensions…The pensions of the elderly are often the last refuge for entire families that have only one or no member working in a country with 25% unemployment in the general population, and 50% among young people.Faced with such a situation we cannot adopt the logic of blind and horizontal cuts, as some have asked us to do, which would result in dramatic social consequences.
