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Socialism

Climate Change Brings Socialism And Science Together

September 27, 2017 Eve Ottenberg, www.truth-out.org , ,
By Eve Ottenberg for Truthout - Thanks to climate change, science and socialism have become entwined in ways previously unimaginable. Science brings the news that, unless we act swiftly to control climate change, we will inhabit a dying planet. Socialism traces the causes of this catastrophe to the destructive and chaotic growth model of capitalism and advocates for a different system. Meanwhile, sensing the source of danger to their profits, corporate and government reactionaries fuel disinformation campaigns to discredit science and confuse the public. This has been going on for years, with disastrous results. Ian Angus' new book, A Redder Shade of Green, (red for socialist revolution, green for ecological revolution) is about the prospect of ecosocialism in the face of capitalist ecocide. Angus has written previously about the "Anthropocene," a name for our era that emphasizes the centrality of human-influenced climate change. He does not accuse humanity as a whole of environmental destruction, but only a small sliver of humanity -- the capitalist class, which has left a gigantic, planet-sized carbon footprint. Angus repeatedly stresses that billions of people have a negligible impact on climate change and that the overpopulation argument -- which blames humanity as a whole for climate change -- has been used to distract and undermine an effective, ecosocialist movement. The US military has a hugely destructive impact on the environment.

Social Democracy Is Good. But Not Good Enough.

September 5, 2017 Joseph M. Schwartz Bhaskar Sunkara, www.jacobinmag.com , ,
By Joseph M. Schwartz Bhaskar Sunkara for Jacobin Magazine - John Judis has all the right intentions. He’s looking at the resurgence of openly democratic socialist currents in the United States with a mix of excitement and trepidation. Excitement, because he knows how desperately the country’s workers need social reforms. Trepidation, because he worries that the new left might fall into the familiar traps of insularity and sectarianism. But while Judis wants us to change society for the better, his response to the failures of twentieth-century state socialism would lead us into the dead end of twentieth-century social democracy. In his New Republic essay “The Socialism America Needs Now,” Judis makes a passionate plea for the rebuilding of a social-democratic movement — or what he calls “liberal socialism.” He contends that the welfare state and democratic regulation of a capitalist economy should be the end goal for socialists, as past efforts at top-down nationalization and planning yielded the repressive societies and stagnant economies of the Soviet bloc. In contrast, Judis argues, the Scandinavian states are dynamic capitalist economies that are still far more equitable and humane than the United States. For him, socialism — democratic control over workplaces and the economy — consists of “old nostrums” whose days have past.

Is The Market Economy Working?

August 27, 2017 William Blum, www.williamblum.org , , ,
By William Blum for the Anti-Empire Report. Speaking in very broad terms … slavery gave way to feudalism … feudalism gave way to capitalism … capitalism is not a timelessly valid institution but was created to satisfy certain needs of the time … capitalism has outlived its usefulness and must now give way to socialism … the ultimate incompatibility between capitalist profit motive and human environmental survival demands nothing less. The system corrupts every important aspect of our lives, including the one which takes up the most of our time -– our work, even for corporation executives, who demand huge salaries and benefits to justify their working at jobs that otherwise are not particularly satisfying.

Eugene Debs And The Kingdom Of Evil

July 18, 2017 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com , , ,
By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - Debs burst onto the national stage when he organized a railroad strike in 1894 after the Pullman Co. cut wages by up to one-third but did not lower rents in company housing or reduce dividend payments to its stockholders. Over a hundred thousand workers staged what became the biggest strike in U.S. history on trains carrying Pullman cars. The response was swift and brutal. “Mobilizing all the powers of capital, the owners, representing twenty-four railroads with combined capital of $818,000,00, fought back with the courts and the armed forces of the Federal government behind them,” Barbara W. Tuchman writes in “The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914.” “Three thousand police in the Chicago area were mobilized against the strikers, five thousand professional strikebreakers were sworn in as Federal deputy marshals and given firearms; ultimately six thousand Federal and State troops were brought in, less for the protection of property and the public than to break the strike and crush the union.” Attorney General Richard Olney, who as Tuchman writes “had been a lawyer for railroads before entering the Cabinet and was still a director of several lines involved in the strike,” issued an injunction rendering the strike illegal.

DNC Photoshopping Our Poster: History Of Co-Optation In One Tweet

April 26, 2017 Staff, www.liberationnews.org ,
By Staff of Party for Socialism and Liberation - Last Friday, the official Twitter account of the Democratic Party sent out a Tweet celebrating the defeat of the Republican health plan, including an image of the mass protest movement against Trump. In the bottom of the photo, taken at the Jan. 21 Women’s March in D.C., they flagrantly blacked out the text of a PSL poster that read, “Trump is the Symptom. Capitalism is the Disease. Socialism is the Cure.” The lines about capitalism and socialism were erased but “Trump is the symptom” was left — which allowed people to quickly identify their falsification. Some journalists have asked us if we are considering legal action against the DNC, or will demand they take down the image. We’ve said: no, they should leave it up. The image perfectly illustrates the strategy of the Democratic Party leadership to co-opt the grassroots people’s movements and use them as window dressing for their own political interests. Let the whole world see what they’re up to. Across the country there is in fact a growing interest in socialism, and a growing rejection of capitalism. Our members carried and distributed thousands of newspapers, posters and signs at the Women’s March, and at the #InaugurateTheResistance rally on the Inaugural Parade the day before, which we helped organize.

The Latin American Left Today Global Center For Resistance

April 23, 2017 Staff, www.telesurtv.net/english , , , , , , , , ,
By Staff for Telesur. From Brazil to Venezuela there have been radical shifts in the geopolitical landscape of the region. However, Latin America remains a global center for creativity and resistance. Torn between right and left – and dealing with the significant pressures of imperialism and a colonial legacy – popular forces have been fighting for their social rights and progress, making significant strides and remaining vital despite setbacks. Amid this complicated scenario, teleSUR takes a look at the Latin American left of today – from the Indigenous councils to the national assemblies, the urban centers to the rural villages – which continues to stand strong and fight for an integrated, united and socialist future.

5 Times Donald Trump Praised Socialized Healthcare

March 24, 2017 Staff, www.ijr.com , ,
By Staff of IJR - During a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Monday, Donald Trump touted his healthcare plan. The Washington Examiner called the speech “a mixture of socialism and incoherence.” Trump's Republican opponents have hit the businessman repeatedly over his effusive praise for socialized healthcare, but that hasn't stopped him from pushing ahead. Here are five times Trump's rhetoric about healthcare sounded more socialist than free-market: In September, during an interview on CBS' “60 Minutes,” Trump was asked by Scott Pelley about healthcare...

Are We Ready For Class War Yet?

February 9, 2017 Fred Nagel, www.popularresistance.org , , , ,
By Fred Nagel. Are we ready for class war yet? Or ready at least to fight back in a war that the very wealthy started in earnest over 30 years ago? Now is certainly the time when millions of American citizens are infuriated about their ever diminishing economic prospects. Even during Obama's eight years, the 1% got almost two-thirds of the nation's income growth. Occupy said it well, and so did Bernie Sanders. The working class understood, and voted for someone who they thought might finally break the neoliberal system. In effect, millions of US workers felt they had no choice since Hillary represented all the evils of corporate control and elite thievery. The two dominant parties, however, have represented the same monied interests for a long time.

Putting Human Development At The Center Of Policy

February 5, 2017 Karin Baker, www.solidarity-us.org ,
By Karin Baker for Solidarity. For Lebowitz everything comes down to creating a society where people can become fully developed human beings: 1) Everyone has the right to share in the social heritage of human beings — an equal right to the use and benefits of the products of the social brain and the social hand — in order to be able to develop his or her own potential. 2) Everyone has the right to be able to develop their full potential and capacities through democracy, participation, and protagonism in the workplace and society — a process in which these subjects of activity have the precondition of the health and education that permit them to make full use of this opportunity. 3) Everyone has the right to live in a society in which human beings and nature can be nurtured — a society in which we can develop our full potential in communities based upon cooperation and solidarity.

Rise Up America, Rise Up!

January 9, 2017 Mohammed Mesbahi, www.sharing.org , , , , ,
By Mohammed Mesbahi for Sharing.org. There is no doubt that the people of goodwill throughout the United States must rise up in unison together, and peacefully stand in opposition to the government’s policies as it profits from wars and defends corporate interests, instead of helping ordinary people in their time of greatest need. Who is going to help Detroit now that it is bankrupt, for example – will it be the Pentagon or the CIA, who usurp so much of the nation’s income and resources? America has become like a dysfunctional family in which, by analogy, the children are being abused and neglected until they are eventually forced to leave home and look after themselves. In a similar way, the government in Washington is like the parent who is failing to look after all her children – namely the fifty states, many of whom like Detroit may soon fall into crisis as the economy melts. Is it not inevitable that many of these states will ultimately abandon Washington completely?

A Socialist Economy For The 21st Century

December 20, 2016 Richard Rosen, www.thenextsystem.org ,
By Richard Rosen for The Next System Project - In Next System Project Report 3, author and Tellus Institute co-founder Richard A. Rosen explores the changes he deems necessary for a modern definition of “socialism”, and describes key concepts and issues that arise when aiming to restructure the American economy to include social and environmental sustainability in the Twenty-First Century. To elucidate some of these concepts and issues, Rosen analyzes a set of economic sectors that have very different mechanisms and structures for determining prices, and very different environmental impacts, including: chemical manufacturing, small businesses, housing, defense manufacturing, nonprofit sector, agriculture, and finance.

Fidel Castro In Context

November 27, 2016 ByBelen Fernandez, www.aljazeera.com , ,
ByBelen Fernandez for Al Jazerra. As of the year 2006, Fidel Castro, Cuba's revolutionary leader, who has died aged 90, had reportedly been the subject of no fewer than 638 assassination plots by the CIA. Following the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959, the US political establishment labored to portray the country as not merely an ideological disaster, but also a bastion of malevolence and a downright existential threat. It is within this context that Fidel's legacy must be analysed. And it is this context that grants him legitimacy as a symbol of resistance against hegemony. Despite sensational braying over the decades about the Cuban menace, Castro never posed a physical threat to the US. Rather, the danger always lay in the example he set, which exposed the possibility of challenging the pernicious self-declared US monopoly over human existence - and for which he merits remembrance as a hero.

Justice For Chelsea Manning And Edward Snowden

September 21, 2016 Scott Tucker, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , ,
By Scott Tucker for Popular Resistance.org. Manning’s situation in prison is indeed urgent, we can expect the corporate state and career politicians to respond to such cases with miserly pardons and small portions of charity. In the last days of his presidency, Obama has been pardoning some deserving people, and he could easily include both Manning and Snowden (among other honorable whistleblowers like John Kiriakou) with the stroke of a pen. But this president only finds his “courage” on a dwindling timeline, and is stingy as a banker in spending political capital. Why would this Nobel Peace Prize winner pardon citizens who have already paid a heavy price in exile and prison for their own sacrifices on behalf of peace and democracy? To ask the question is to answer it. Under Obama’s “progressive” administration, we have witnessed a vast expansion of state surveillance and of bombing by drones. Of course, we should still support any public campaign urging holders of high offices to show more courage. But let’s also be honest. We are talking about the kind of courage that could end careers in the capitalist parties. A fraction of the ruling class does become class conscious, and sometimes will take just such risks. The exceptions prove the rule. The drive toward war and empire is bipartisan and corporate.

The Role Of Cooperatives In Constructing 21st Century Socialism

August 17, 2016 Cliff DuRand, www.geo.coop ,
By Cliff DuRand for Grassroots Economic Organizing - This paper conceptualizes socialist construction as a process of incremental reclaiming from capital of those resources that can best be held in common so that members of a community can achieve their fuller human development*. Under democratic rules the community regulates the commons so as to ensure its accessibility and sustainability. The formation of cooperatives is an instance of the socialization of the workplace.

US-Led Economic War, Not Socialism, Is Tearing Venezuela Apart

July 14, 2016 Caleb T. Maupin, www.mintpressnews.com , ,
By Caleb T. Maupin for Mint Press News - WASHINGTON — (ANALYSIS) The political and economic crisis facing Venezuela is being endlessly pointed to as proof of the superiority of the free market. Images and portrayals of Venezuelans rioting in the streets over high food costs, empty grocery stores, medicine shortages, and overflowing garbage bins are the headlines, and the reporting points to socialism as the cause.
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