alanjjohnstone
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Some may find this article of interest and relevanthttp://www.countercurrents.org/swanson090115.htm
Quote:"American youths consistently receive prison sentences sixty percent longer than adults for the same crimes. When adults are the victims of sex crimes, sentences are tougher than when the victims are children; and parents who abuse their children receive shorter sentences than strangers do."And a reply to the scientist's open letter herehttp://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/nuclear-power-still-not-good-bet
The CPGB, Weekly Worker on if Syriza wins?
Quote:The unfolding situation in Greece further reinforces the orthodox, classical Marxist view that the working class should not seek to come to power prematurely – and by that we mean not just in one country. Rather, we mean that the working class must have a reasonable chance of coming to power on something like a continent-wide basis and thus a realisticchance of implementing the minimum programme – that is our bottom-line perspective. If not, you are doomed to either carry out the programme of another class – carry out its historical mission – or become an agent of capital. Communists should therefore constitute themselves as a party of extreme opposition to austerity, not the instrument of austerity. And, unfortunately, as things stand at the present, there is no prospect whatsoever of, say, the Italian working class coming to the rescue of Greece – let alone France, Germany, Britain, etc. Hence we repeat our call for Syriza not to ‘take the power’.http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1040/what-if-syriza-wins/I have heard similar conclusions being reached by SPGB members when discussing hypothetical situations facing ourselves in the future. But i think what CPGB fails to do in their article is explain why this dilemma is one that will always be faced by reformist parties who offer a platform of measures, some possible with difficulty, others simply not feasible under any circumstance.The pretty icing on the cake is seldom palatable but it is what people are being asked to vote for…I think the CPGB may well have to concede that our principled stand for socialism and nothing else is the valid one.Perhaps someone might like to write a letter and inform them
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/the-unfolding-revolution-in-rojava/ Another article to evaluate.
Quote:If the democratic nation is its spirit, democratic autonomy is its body. Democratic autonomy is the state by which the construction of the democratic nation comes to take on flesh and bone and is realised concretely.A short summary of this system’s essentials goes like this: The source of power is the people and it is the people who possess the power. Administration is provided for by organizations and assemblies chosen by elections. No government can remain outside or above the Social Contract established by the Administration of Democratic Autonomy and be considered legitimate. The source of the assemblies and governing bodies founded on a democratic foundation is the people. No body which acts by itself or in the interest of a single group is accepted…Political autonomy here means fundamentally the transfer of executive and legislative powers in a constitutional and participatory manner from the central state to regional bodies chosen democratically in a manner which sufficiently protects cultural and ethnic minorities living in their traditional homelands. We are talking about a model which when the Syrian Civil War was beginning found its own way (its 3rd way theory) without taking sides and demanded to govern itself using its own means and resources; a model which favors the will of a society as a political whole and a system which it develops itself……The economic pillar has been an essential part of the Rojava revolution! It defends an autonomous economic model and is working to put it into practice. Capitalism has surrounded everyone and everything, and in a century in which it is difficult to breath and where we are seemingly bereft of alternatives an exit is now being discovered through an alternative economic model and a communal economy. Dr. Ahmet Yusuf, the Economic Minister of the Efrîn Canton, made some important remarks recently at conference held on the ‘Democratic Autonomous Economy.’ He said “We take as a principle the protection and defense of natural resources. What we mean by defense is not defense in a military sense, but the self-defense against the exploitation and oppression which society now faces. There are many obstacles to restructuring the communal economy in Rojava. Systems which take capitalist systems as their reference have attempted to to obstruct our progress in the economic as well as the social spheres. We ourselves take the communal economy for our principal. We are working to create a system which combines anti-liberalism, ecological sustainability, and moral common property with communal and cultural production.”…i think you quite accurately state the problem with co-ops and why they cannot succeed. I think you wish it might be different and suggest improvements but for those to be adopted is as much a struggle to achieve as it is to convince workers to accept socialism. Some of us will become involved with the union movement, and some will take part in other things like neighbourhood councils, school activities, local food allotments and co-ops…anything that can make our lives under capitalism easier to survive or offers a better opportunity to resist. We can sometimes show the linkage between our everyday lives and the type of society we aspire towards…democratic decision-making, popular participation, rotation of delegates …ways that render the need for a special leadership role superfluous. We don't need to be academically or book-clever expert on socialism, the recommended reading list is surprisingly not very long. (And we probably all disagree on what should be included in it)It is interaction with other people, the talking, the discussions, the exchanges, the debates, all the informal education that takes place within socialist organisations which is the important thing in my opinion. We never ever stop learning and the more we are active, the more lessons we have to learn.The school for socialists, is the party, and i think every party has its study groups and education classes and other members who act as teachers and tutors and mentors (not leaders). There is a basic core that we should all agree with to join together and act in unison for socialism, but some secondary side-issues we can have divergent opinion and differ upon without effecting unity of purpose. If you visit some of the other topics on this forum, you will recognise that we have members possessing contrary ideas but who fully concur on the important principles.
Quote:and to think about using them in such way as to manage them for future generations into perpetuity.As today's SOYMB blog commented on the report
Quote:Only socialism can fully ascribe and abide with the Great Law of the Iroquois:“In all of your deliberations in the Confederate Council, in your efforts at law making, in all your official acts, self-interest shall be cast into oblivion. Cast not over your shoulder behind you the warnings of the nephews and nieces should they chide you for any error or wrong you may do, but return to the way of the Great Law which is just and right. Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground – the unborn of the future Nation.”http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/01/oil-in-soil-coal-in-hole.html
Sarda, co-operatives are not a new idea, nor are they recent organisations.Many hundreds of millions of workers over the last couple of hundred of years have participated in a variety of different forms of co-operatives.Criticisms of them are not from any abstract theoretical basis but from actual experience of how they begin, how they develop and what they evolve into, and sadly, in many cases, why they fade and disappear. Co-ops have been well and truly thoroughly tested and found to be wanting. We have to learn from the lessons of past and not go on repeating our mistakes. We have to learn to drop flawed ideas. Co-ops are, as we suggest, a means of coping with our disadvantaged position within capitalism but it is not a solution to it. As a training school for socialists or as a method of achieving socialism, they simply have too many inherent faults to be used effectively as a strategy or tactic.We cannot keep on repeating the errors of the past, nor should we keep re-inventing the wheel.Workers will always opt for the easiest road, unfortunately, it is not always possible to have a smooth path despite the claims of those who say they are leading the way. And the easiest road usually ends up in a dead -end after very many detours , regardless of the short-cuts they say they are taking.Socialists have a map which we use as a guide and we possess compasses to determine our direction. Those who advocate co-operatives as method of liberation are going around in circles and end up where they began.
Part 2 can now be read herehttp://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/whither-cuba-us-relations/The author is even more sympathetic to Cuba's position.He describes Cuba as not being a "one-man show" but instead governed by "a tradition of collective leadership", … a distinction without a difference, in my opinion
Not all would agree, though.http://www.sabinabecker.com/2014/12/why-the-marquis-de-sade-is-nobodys-hero.htmlYet he had his sadean sympathisers, Simone Beauvoir and Angela Carter.Can we turn a disregard his earlier sexual violence because we respect his later progressive poltical views?
A party member but living abroad but still able to be active in advocating socialist ideas via the internetThe Socialist Party has always debated and discussed this sort of issue ever since it began, and there has always been a contrast of views and opinions. We try not to make life-style decisions for our members but i personally think by not clearly articulating our aspirations for the socialist future, even if it is only a pious wish at this moment in time, we may well be charged with complicity with many of prevailing cultural norms that should be openly condemned. In 1904 animal rights was not exactly at the forefront of workers concerns, but neither was the environment and many other ills we now face. I'm not of the mind that we cannot make recommendations based upon our understanding of capitalist system. We have three good reasons for doing so…firstly, meat-eating is not an efficient method of food production, secondly that there is very good evidence that it is not nutritious or healthy, and thirdly, it is reprehensible to impose pain and suffering upon other living beings where there is no need to do so. Politically and economically there is little an individual can really do, just in the case of the impotence of what an individual person can do to combat climate change and global warming. Change has to be social and systemic to succeed. Plus it is not for a small group of propagandists, as we are presently, to determine what the character of a socialist society should be.What we can do is suggest what the goal should be and leave the how to those with the responsibility of implementing these objectives. For many socialists it is a matter of pragmatic priority as these quotes explain
Quote:All socialists are of course opposed to cruelty to animals but, just like the rest of the population, have differing views as to what constitutes cruelty. Some may go shooting birds and rabbits, some go fishing, some eat meat, some are vegetarians, some perhaps are vegans. There is no line or policy on the matter, because we are an organisation of people who have come together to campaign for socialism and nothing else. We wouldn't go so far as to say nothing can be done to improve the lot of animals within capitalism nor as to denounce the RSPCA and the Cat Protection League as reformist enemies of the working class. It's just that they have different priorities from us and that we are not ourselves in the business of advocating reforms (legislative measures) in any field. It only remains to add that arguments over this issue will no doubt continue into socialist societyQuote:Socialists are not unduly sentimental about animals, and consider that a human’s first loyalty should be their own species. Nevertheless, the degree to which human society is ‘civilised’ can reasonably be gauged by its treatment of animals and the natural world as well as by its treatment of humans, and socialism, in its abolition of all aspects of the appalling savagery of capitalism, will undoubtedly do its part to abolish all unnecessary suffering by non-human sentient creatures.Quote:we contend that humans and other animals do not have rights…but this does not stop some socialists responding to the cruelty that the profit system inflicts on the vast majority by becoming vegetarian or vegan. The Socialist Party, however, does not have a position on this but would agree with William Morris that “a man can hardly be a sound Socialist who puts forward vegetarianism as a solution of the difficulties between labour and capital, as some people do” …Those who advocate animal rather than human liberation put the cart before the horse!Quote:In a genuinely socialist system of this kind cruelty to animals can be expected to stop as it would have no basis for occurring. The ending of the oppression and exploitation of humans by other humans—and the cruel treatment meted out as a matter of state policy by soldiers, police and prison guards …will make humans generally less tolerant towards cruelty to other animals.I hope this shows that we lack that sectarian dogma that many unjustly accuse us of. We can challenge and discredit religion and predict from our knowledge of it that it will decline and disappear but we recognise that we cannot decree or impose materialist or atheistic thought upon unwilling religious believers. We have an evolutionary approach to God's "end".
Our blog today posted a story on how the power utility industry in America in alliance with the fossil fuel industry are intent upon imposing taxes upon homeowners who install solar panel systems. http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-sun-is-owned-by-no-one.html
There are a few like Richard Wolf and Gar Alperovitz who argue this type of approach and they have some support from the likes of Chomsky who suggested the alternative to Obama's federal bailout of General Motors should have been the unions making them into co-operatives like Mondragon. I think most on this list would judge that cooperatives can be of a short-term benefit to some workers in a particular situation but isn't a permanent solution on a class-wide, world-wide level. Our website and blogs have several articles explaining why we think it is ultimately a doomed strategy. Just one link amongst many for you to followhttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2013/no-1312-december-2013/cooking-books-co-operatives-can%E2%80%99t-escape-capital
Those with an interest in Cuba will find much in this interview/article worth the while to read. It seems to be a very measured analysis, dispelling some of the anti-Castro rhetoric but still maintaining an overall critical approach, but, imho, it is a still a bit too sympathetic to Cuban apologistshttp://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/anarchism-and-communism-in-cuba/I'll provide the link to part 2 when it comes on-line
