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The Israeli govt policy of collective punishment is not derived from the Nazis but from the preceding British colonial administration which used to use it against the Jewish nationalists who used terrorism to try to establish a Jewish State in Palestine.

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Irony never works properly as someone is bound to think you mean what your words say. That's what they taught us at Speakers Class.

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People in Greece would have to have been masochists to vote for the other lot. Sad thing is that, given capitalism, Syriza won't be able to do much for them.

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Here's George Galloway saying "Je suis Mohammed" . After all, he needs their votes if he's not going to get booted out as MP for Bradford in May:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/george-galloway-condemns-racist-islamophobic-hypocritical-rag-charlie-hebdo-at-freedom-of-speech-rally-9990490.html?icn=puff-9

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I think that researchers even in Israel accept that "six million" is not to be taken literally.  Seehttp://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-features/.premium-1.540880But, as you say, even one million would be bad enough.But even six million is low compared to the total of probably well over over 60 million (60,000,000) who died as a result of the Second World Slaughter.

Quote:

The overall death and destruction that took place during World War II may well be beyond human comprehension. Historians estimate that military casualties on all sides, in both the European and Pacific theaters, reached up to 25 million, and that civilian casualties ranged from 38 million to as high a figure as 55 million – meaning that somewhere between 3 and 4 percent of the world’s total population died in the conflict.

Personally I don't like the word "holocaust" because of its religious connotations and don't think much of "Holocaust Day" either as that leaves out the much greater number of others who got killed.  What would be more appropriate would be a World Slaughter Day.

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Actually Dylan was quite popular amongst Party members in the 1960s. Didn't he sing an anti-war song called "Masters of War" or something like that? But then he went funny and became a born-again christian and from then on it's been downhill all the way.

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tDon't forget that they are doing the same thing to UKIP too, also perceived by the dominant section of the ruling class as a threat to their interests.

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Now the government is flying flags at half-mast for the old bastard:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/11365375/Government-criticised-for-lowering-flags-along-Whitehall-in-honour-of-King-Abdullah.htmlThis is for the head of an Islamic State which applies sharia "law" in all its ferocity. But then its "our" Islamic State and, besides, has juicy arms deals to offer. What next will they do to get one? Will Cameron allow himself to be buggered by a Saudi prince?

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Apparently the matter of a referendum on the budget is back on the agenda again:http://brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/green-party-says-cuts-calls-jason-kitcat-make-way/

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One down but how many more of the bastards to go (and some will no doubt be in the literal sense)? And what about the hypocrites from the Western states would are attending the funeral of the deceased head of the Islamic State of Saudi Arabia?

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More here. Aout the proposed shadow boxing between the capitalist parties' "leaders":http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamieross/beer-baccy-and-tv-debatesScroll down to No 6.

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Here's a couple of short pieces on it:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2010/no-1267-march-2010/letterhttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2010/no-1265-january-2010/cooking-books-2-financial-alchemyThere's also been a short thread on it here on this forum:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/general-discussion/why-hasnt-quantitative-easing-caused-inflationBasically,  you're right: the aim is to inflate just "asset prices" not the general price level. In any event, despite QE, the general price level hasn't risen any faster than it usually does now. In fact, it's now rising slower than this.

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I'd have thought that the whole concept of "human capital" is itself a condemnation of capitalism.

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alanjjohnstone wrote:

(But sounds more like the SPEW to me, and using one of their proxy Labour Party front addresses)

The addresses on the leaflet make it clear that it is aimed at us not Labour or SPEW, either to discredit us or perhaps even to give us credit where it's not due. Or maybe it's just a spoof of the sort that Screaming Comrade Alan has been suggesting we do. Judge for yourself.

Quote:

It appears to us in the Socialist Party that the old Job Centre Plus officers are gradually being turned into Sanctions Centre Plus offices The Sanction Advisors at the Sanction Centre Plus offices have no intention of finding job seekers employment. These Sanction Advisors are there just to impose sanctions.If this were not bad enough, rumours and individual reports show that the managers of these Sanction Centre Plus offices are ordering their staff not to impose sanctions on people who may cause trouble. Burly muscular young men fall into this category. We believe this is due to lack of protective screens. Instead Sanction Centre Plus staff are ordered to target the weak, the vulnerable and females. The thinking behind this is that if these vulnerable females cause trouble, the Sanction Centre plus Storm Troopers can threaten them with physical violence.We in the Socialist Party are going to protest that Sanction Centre Plus staff stop this process of bullying vulnerable females. We in the Socialist Party will provide Guardian Angels, that is muscular young men to accompany vulnerable young females who are being threatened by the Sanction Centre Plus officers. These Sanction Centre Plus officers may complain like Nazi Concentration Camp guards that they are only obeying orders. When the Sanction Centre Plus managers send their jack booted storm troopers to stop our Guardian Angels protecting vulnerable young females from persecution we will have no hesitation in fighting back and calling on the free press to report what is happening in Sanction Centre Plus offices.The Socialist Party is then going to launch the biggest civil disobedience campaign since the Peasants Revolt. Every Job Seeker who is sanctioned should stop paying rent and Council Tax and spend the money on feeding their family. If one person takes on the system, the system will crush you. That is why the Socialist Party working with Residents Associations, Welfare Rights Groups and Charities will organise a massive rent and Council Tax strike. When the authorities ask why hundreds of thousands of job seekers are not paying their rent and Council Tax, our answer will be "Tell us which is more important feeding our families or paying taxes. If you want us to do both stop the Sanction Centre Plus stopping our money."Please help us in our campaign to protect vulnerable people being persecuted by the Sanction Centre Plus.

As if we had enough "muscular young men" among our members to pull something like this off ! Perhaps we can pass the text on to Ian Bone.

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Vin wrote:

Do we think workers should organise in unions to resist the downward pressure on wages? And the downward pressure on benefits?

This is a different question, to which the answer is yes. At one time the membership of our old Bolton branch and the local Claimants Union was the same, though of course Party members in the union were doing so as individual workers and socialists  who were unemployed (it wasn't a trotskyist-style takeover).Your original question was whether we should urge workers to break the law to resist downward pressures on benefits, to which the answer was that this was up to them and that it was not up to us to tell workers to take risks that we ourselves as individuals didn't run. In any event, we only give general advice on how to resist (e.g do it democratically) while we concentrate on our specific activity of promoting socialism.

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