alanjjohnstone
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http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/01/15/5488779/new-analysis-of-rocket-used-in.html?storylink=addthis#.Ute6sbgLS0s.twitter&rh=1 I won't hold my breath waiting for the BBC to lead with this story. "A team of security and arms experts, has concluded that the range of the rocket that delivered sarin in the largest attack that night was too short for the device to have been fired from the Syrian government positions where the Obama administration insists they originated". And despite the Western politicians including Cameron and Hague denials, the Syrian rebels had indeed the capability of producing such weaponry. The BBC would rather go with a story about how slow the Syrians and UN are dismantling of the chemical weapons. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-25755767 I'm glad i'm not paying a TV license feeRead more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/01/15/5488779/new-analysis-of-rocket-used-in.html?storylink=addthis#.Ute6sbgLS0s.twitter&rh=1#storylink=cpy
The US Department of Defense electricity consumption is slightly less than Denmark.The DoD average daily oil use is just ahead of Sweden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_usage_of_the_United_States_military
This is not including all the energy used in the armament manufacturing industry in the US. Nor the rest of the worlds military forces and arms industries.
But if nuclear power still operates in socialism, we have all that nuclear warhead high grade uranium available for energy …Highly-enriched uranium in US and Russian weapons and other military stockpiles amounts to about 1500 tonnes, equivalent to about seven times annual world mine production. World stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium are reported to be some 260 tonnes, which if used in mixed oxide fuel in conventional reactors would be equivalent to a little over one year’s world uranium production.I'm no way endorsing their politics but highlighting as i have done in other posts on other threads that i do detect a growing movement for alternative solutions, most are superficial, some are deeper. Some are progressive , some are reactionary. We cannot just put isolated time-lines on such things as the Arab Spring, Occupy, the colour coded 'revolutions' or counter-pose right and left themes. I just get a feeling that there is 'something in the air' right now which is world-wide. I am not sure socialists will succeed in tapping into it, we are still too ineffectual but we should be busy observing and commentating on it. As you often say , issues and people have brought back the public space for socialism to be raised once more.As an aside , my interest in religion was how one man and twelve followers develop into such a universal movement. Was it all down to Paul's revisionism and the state co-opting it? Christianity met a need and when these needs changed , Christianity evolved with it too. ….Why and also how ideas spread socially interests me. i always wondered how the populism of Strasserite brownshirt 'leftism' was so easily overthrown by a Hitlerite coup without any repercussions…no opposition such as the case against Stalin with Trotskyism. It simply melted away and vanished as a current, not existing even underground. The rise of AAP is not something that is getting too much column inches or air-time in the UK, particularly how they love to depict India as the worlds largest democracy. Al Jazeera seems to be giving publicity to it. Another article here on it being still constrained by being an urban Delhi political force.http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/01/india-anarchy-simple-living-201411211118725180.html
mcolome1 wrote:There is another armed group that is growing in Mexico, and it is called: "Auto-defensas" ( Self-defenses ) They are not Anarchists, Leninists, Trotskyist, Maoists, Guevarists, Castroists, or whatever might be politically named, they are just peoples who are tired of the violence that existed in the Mexican society, and against the violence produced by the drugs cartels, and the armed forces of the state, and against the brutal violence that exist against women and children.The UK press mostly just call them vigilante groups. Is it just a one-issue group, simply anti-drug cartel.?There has been little analyses of its components. We should be wary , the KKK was an Confederate vigilante group to stop carpet-bagging Northerners taking advantage of the defeated South but swiftly transformed into racist terrorists. Are they mexican land-owners as the district of activity seems to be the rich farm-land regions.
As a PS…there exists plenty of scope in alternative energy for technological innovation, in agriuculture for scientists to investigate new ways and methods of farming , for a whole host of illnesses that chemists and molecular biologists can begin experimenting with once the demand for anti-depressants disappears. Capitalism keeps technology in a straight-jacket, socialism will set the scientists and the technicians and the inventors free. But under the direction of society and for its needs, not a stock-holder's interest
Our argument for socialism is not one based on new potential technological developments as you say, as helpful as they may be, but on the rational production and planning of existing technologies. We have no need of Star Trek replicators. Food production already can produce abundance for all to eat and satisfy an even a bigger population at current production levels. The purpose of GM is not to increase production but to make agriculture more profitable (and even then it is a short term fix) for business. GMO is an irrelevancy to food supply just as Spanish tasteless strawberries naturally selectively bred for longer shelf life hopefully does not reflect food choice in socialism. GMO is a distraction from worthwhile research into new methods of produucing our food because it offers certain large corporations large profits.A similar argument is made against the pharmaeutical industry. R and D is devoted to the money making medicines not the orphan drugs or to the even more basic life-safer prevention though public health. Existing nuclear power may serve as a temporary stop-gap, after all i think the French is almost totally reliant on it and it is one reason they have a total ban on fracking. But saying that and accepting that socialism would gradually dismantle the nuclear power stations just as a number of capitalist countries have chosen to do, is in no way endorsing it as a viable desirable energy source and suggesting more. I do know some environmentalists like Monbiot present the case for more nuclear energy in preference to the dirtier co2 producing ones, so i guess there is reason to debate it. But as i indicated in my previous post, as long as the old energy systems remain the most profitable, there will be little development in renewals and clean alternatives. It is not our job to advise the capitalist class on their best long term interests but nor is it our job to give them a sympathetic hearing for their short term predatory practices. The more we demonstrate that the energy and farming policies of the ruling class will always be based foremost on profit, perhaps we can get the message across that the future choice of workers is indeed going to be socialism or barbarism.
I am not sure opposing fracking under capitalism is jumping on the band-wagon. And accusations of NIMBYism can be equally levelled at hose who will support fracking for a cash payment – IMBYism. Under capitalism to make those profits health and safety rules are bent and i see that the UK is already busy re-working the rules. “Cameron wrote to the president of the EC, José Manuel Barroso, stating: “It is essential the EU minimise the regulatory burdens and costs on industry and domestic bill payers by not creating uncertainty or introducing new legislation.” He added: “The [shale gas] industry in the UK has told us that new EU legislation would delay imminent investment.”http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/14/uk-defeats-european-bid-fracking-regulationsNote the comment i emphasised…just who is calling the shots?One of our objections to capitalism is the shortcuts it takes to save money and disregard of the well-being of people. GMO and nuclear are unnecessary technologies in socialism and are not required threfore why have unnecessary risk. Likewise, fracking is the use of immense natural resources for the reward of the few. Again, existing alternative energy technology makes this form of mining superfluous and acceptable only in a profit system. There will certainly be no windfall drop in domestic bills. I also note that Cameron also plays on the emotive line, that to be against fracking is “irrational” “religiously opposed”, an easy way to dismiss opponents…A position not far off climate change deniers who think global warming is all a conspiracy by lefty greens. CO2 emissions from shale gas may be less and may be a subsitute for the more damaging coal power stations but it still contributes to global warming, so any attempt to encourage more is certainly not in the interests of humanity so a principled stand is justified. Jason Bourdoff, director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy – When gas and oil prices are high, “people are pretty good at figuring out new technologies, But when those prices are low, introduction of new technologies becomes more difficult, he added. Without policy guiding fuel choice, he said, technology built by markets today will “lock in” energy choices for 30-40 years.http://bipartisanpolicy.org/news/articles/2013/10/fracking-tech-%E2%80%98-carbon-bridge-too-far%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-expert As you said on another thread, what happened to peak oil. William Reilly, former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “It seems not implausible to me that we will have both a gas glut and also an oil glut,” Just where will that leave wind tide and solar power development and all the rest of renewable sustainable sources
A satirical piece on the Indian Communist Party, funny, imho, even if it is defending reformism and promoting the Common Man Party's free water policyhttp://www.countercurrents.org/sagar140114.htm
I read this comment on a website reporting on one of the media's energy experts views"councils would be IRRESPONSIBLE not to encourage fracking" as it's a 'gift horse' that can lift us out of our economic droop. France rejected it, that's true, but that's because they have kept up their development of nuclear plants; we let that slip but are getting back on track now." …….Anything that reaps huge profits for the 0.0001% is 'good for the economy, good for Britain, and we'd be irresponsible not to pursue': nuclear, fracking, arms, nhs privatisation, gambling … – it's all 'good'.
Coincidental, the current issue of Libertarian Communism has as its theme co-ops.http://www.stephenshenfield.net/pdf/lib_com/Lib_Com_25.pdfA couple of the articles seem intent on the justifying co-ops by stating they are examples that show people are capable of organising the work-process democratically. Using a word from Cde O Neil's vocabulary, i found this rather snotty and perhaps it reveals rather more about the actual work experience of the writers. From personal experience and from reading others in the field of the psychology of work , workers invarably develop their own informal ways of working that is constantly under attack from management. They adapt techniques to make it easier and quicker to achieve'job and finish'. they frequently administer the overtime rota and often the allocation of duties. We don't need told that we are capable of self-organising. I won't bother explaining the experience of centuries of trade unionism, mutual aid societies, social clubs etc run by 'humble' workers for centuries. This what gets me so often…the self righteous 'we re-invent the wheel' attitude. As another article should have touched on but didn't , the democratic organisation by workers is pre-capitalist when peasants and serfs had control of the commons to make the democratic decisions on usage by open general assemblies when fairs brought these workers together.We don't need to prove anything to anybody but ourselves and do workers co-ops actually do that? Rant over
Another call for alternative capitalism by Richard Wolff http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20991-worker-coops-and-left-strategy i added a comment and another called DrKihn had something worthwhile to say.
Certainly compared with the usual iconic figure, Gandhi, Ambedkar, is an improvement and of course his politics is determined by the material conditions found in India, choosing as his religion Buddhism rather than Hinduism . We do have a Dalit capitalist and ruling class in many states of India eg Uttar Pradesh. By no means do i consider myself any sort or authority on caste hence the scarcity of articles on my blogs – it is a subject that pervades the whole of Indian culture but one westerners are simply unaware of as it is the great unmentionable, even for liberal minded Indians, i have found, and although Hindu, it crosses over into the muslim and christian religions where conversion is supposed to end caste discrimination too, as do the other curses of India, arranged marriages and the dowry system. I made an attempt at a short blog here.http://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2012/05/sacred-cows.htmlhttp://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2008/05/class-war-not-caste-war.htmlEven the Maoist Naxalite uprising is accused of being predominantly led by non-Dalits. In relation with population numbers, Trotskyism is as much ineffectual presence as our own. I did learn that there is a Zeitgeist group in Banglalore which shouldn't be too much of a surprise as it is the IT capital of India. Politically many have joined the secular humanist groups combatting guruism. One of my closest Indian friends brother was active in this field…and the death threats he received were to be treated seriously as another anti-god-men spokesperson was indeed assassinated.For those who still hankar for the old soviet stalin days i recommend a visit to the other 'communist' state Kerala. Never saw so many hammer and sickles, red flags and che guevara pictures but don't expect any serious political duiscussions. I met the local town's CPI(ML) candidate for equivalent of mayor. It was no secret that it was a political struggle for control of the state-licensed alcohol outlets, particular important in a tourist resort. Lenin much less Marx never ever featured in the local punch-ups at election times.It is in the back of my mind to return to live in India so perhaps i might join the WSPI and contribute a bit more on their website, something they didn't have when i previously resided there.
Can comrades who have other than English as mother tongue or are fluent in a second language add others and add to our foreign language section.
