alanjjohnstone
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Isn't the theory is that this creates funds for business to invest in fixed capital etc and boost the economy with increased manufacture and services but in practice in the US it didn't turn out that way …instead corporations used the injection of funds in share buy-backs to inflate stock-markert price and reward investors and CEOs I wasn't sure so i googled and got this not so much sole cause but a contributory factorhttp://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/16e71bdc-4f16-11e4-9c88-00144feab7de.html#slide0
If we do direct action, the small size of ourselves requires an action that has to have a high impact…to receive attention and publicity from an uncooperative media…..We can always criticise Greenpeace but when they take action it is often spectacular …likewise Fathers for Justice compensated for its small size and previous anonymity to become a newsworthy and household name by various stunts….perhaps our candidates might do lit sales dressed as stereotype capitalists or toffs or whatnot…Vote for the bosses…vote for wage slavery…vote for exploitation…a one-off spoof campaign gimmick…easy enough to do leaflets and placards……i recall when civil servants go on strike there are always someone who turn up in pin-stripe suit and bowler hatand brief case …they get photographed more than the SWP….Lets take the piss occasionally…have a laugh doing activity…Yes, i know it risks ridicule as those screaming lord sutch joke candidates but perhaps if done selectively and with context…And if it does back-fire…i'm sure it will soon be forgotten and have minimum consequences for the party…and i am sure people can improve on that off the top of my head proposal withtheir own better ideas …we have to actually show we aren't the normal run-of-the-mill political party when we claim we aren't…i simply asking how can we get this fact across more effectively and visuallySee also other thread on video(But sounds more like the SPEW to me, and using one of their proxy Labour Party front addresses)
Yes the video was sexist…which i recognised and warned but played down, because the point was that it was original and imaginative, something we have to try and be when it comes to our own publicity in the run-up to May. The video is easily changed to a person's (or either gender) expression of elation, delight and sheer exhilaration and ecstasy that for once in a lifetime, having a socialist candidate to vote for…discovering that there was a party out there reflecting his or her aspirations….i picture a voter going into raptures as he or she votes…and then the follow up voice over explaining why the happy reaction – broadly the socialist case presenting the positive aspects of a socialist society rather than our customary negative descriptions of capitalism.
John, you may be interested in this article if you haven't already read it.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/dining/animal-welfare-at-risk-in-experiments-for-meat-industry.html?_r=1
Quote:the center’s drive to make livestock bigger, leaner, more prolific and more profitable can be punishing, creating harmful complications that require more intensive experiments to solve… the production of meat is a rough enterprise. Yet even against that reality — raising animals to be killed, for profit — the center stands out. Some of its trials have continued long after meat producers balked at the harm they caused animals….Ranchers commonly shelter ewes giving birth in special barns, which cost money to build, maintain and staff. So the center began sending pregnant sheep out to open pastures in hopes of identifying those that would nurture their babies despite severe weather and predators.Quote:As the only consciously-acting life-form within the biosphere, humans ought to act as the biosphere's "brain", consciously regulating its functioning in the interest of present and future generations.I just read this articlehttp://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/21/-sp-why-cant-worlds-greatest-minds-solve-mystery-consciousnessWhen it comes to consciousness, they now discuss a vacumm cleaner posses it. Now i'm in the realms of absolute bewilderment previously reserved for those quantum physics theories. But i suppose the crux is …not so much possessing consciousness but as ALB says…actually being able to act upon it…my toaster might be able to interpret the world but can it change it?
Some i fully agree with you, Some i am suspect such as Gandhi, who i would substitute with Ambedkar. Others i know too little to comment.I can add others who i respect…Martin Luther King, Albert Einstein….oh, the list could be endless and go on and on
Being a few thousand miles away and politically isolated, i see the forum as a place to connect and communicate with comrades and to share information…..much like if i happened to drink in the same pub with them…sometimes it leads to interaction with strangers…but mostly i view it as an accepted place of comradeship.., my local with its regulars, we miss people when they disappear from the forum …..I get input and feedback on current issues that i receive no where else …hence sometimes my own views develop from contributions from others on threads…i learn…If visitors come, they get the welcome they would get if they sat down at the same table as us in a pub, having overheard the topics of converstion …treated with respect and understanding and tolerance if their views prove naive…If it is a club-house for the convinced, i have no problem with that…Actually the distance in location is not important…i'm sure even if we all stayed in same city but didn't meet daily, the forum would reflect our common bounds and serve a purpose….And it saves some people from buying their round if it was a physical meet in a real club and not a virtual one
i note the militant Christian fundamentalist terrorist leader has been sent to the Hague for trial…oh,…The Lords Resistance Army on the BBC's lead story isn't described in religious terms. In fact , out of 4 stories on the webpage about he LRA, there is only one mention of religion in relation to it .."the rebel group commanded by Kony, who claims to be fighting to install a government in Uganda based on the Biblical 10 Commandments"…http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30906019Now…if it had been a muslim MUSLIM Islamic..ISLAMIC…Caliphate…Muslim …MUSLIM group, we'd all know about it, would't we?
Some will find this article on robots in food production of interesthttp://www.financialexpress.com/article/fhw/edge-fhw/foodbots/31824/
Quote:So-called Hubots (human robots) are capable of learning and being used as domestic servants or factory workers.The rich counter-attackhttp://www.ibtimes.co.uk/oxfams-global-inequality-report-blasted-very-misleading-by-adam-smith-institute-1484138
Quote:The researcher said by using a measure of net wealth the Oxfam study failed to capture all assets, citing human capital as a missing one.I thought human capital was labour but no, i was apparently wrong
Quote:"When you do a degree, you then gain human capital. You can produce a lot in your life and also earn a lot in your life," he said."For example, someone who's gone to an Ivy League university. They would've accumulated a lot of debt but if you look at the other side of the balance sheet they have a lot of human capital….under Oxfam's methodology, a young investment banker would be deemed one of the poorest people in the world – because of the debt that they have accumulated – but a rural farmer in India would be considered richer if they had saved any money.I really can't understand what the complaint is about except by nitpicking it tries to undermine the reality regardless of some methodolgical statistical flaw and make us feel sorry for a corporate lawyer
I think my earliest political badge i ever wore in the 70s was the 7:84 one based on the theatre groups name , but stemming from 7% owns 84% of the wealth.But isn't the point often made, it's not even the 1% but the 0.1% or the 0.01% who own the most.
The Maronite Christian Pope adds his voice http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/Jan-18/284490-poverty-and-deprivation-hamper-peace-rai.ashx"Poverty and deprivation are destabilizing factors in the pursuit of peace ..There is no peace where there is underdevelopment,”
