"Every cannon that is built, every warship that is launched, every missile that is fired is ultimately a theft from those who are hungry and have nothing to eat, those who are cold and have no clothes. A world under arms not only squanders money. It also squanders the sweat of its workers, the spirit of its scientists and the hope of its children." former President Dwight D. Eisenhower
How can we regain peace and how can we keep it? (tags)
There is no doubt that Mahatma Gandhi is right. Peace does not come from the motivation of fear, on the contrary, only from the strength of one’s own person; through loyalty to oneself, and through the courage to have one’s own conscience. In Indian: Satyagraha (persistent adherence to the truth), “think for yourself” Kant would have said, “remain yourself.”
There is nothing to fear from China (tags)
Non-interference in the affairs of other states & emphasis on what united them for mutual benefit were important elements of Chinese notions of cooperation just as in Chinese philosophy existence presupposes coexistence.
Russia's war against Ukraine and What are the war aims? (tags)
Erich Vad is an ex-brigade general. From 2006 to 2013, he was the military policy advisor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He is one of the rare voices who spoke out publicly against arms deliveries to Ukraine early on, without political strategy or diplomatic efforts.
In the Trap of NATO and The Collapse of US Hegemony (tags)
Even before the outbreak of the global Covid pandemic, it was widely recognized that U.S. hegemony was in irreversible decline. In August 2021, the Taliban captured Kabul as U.S. forces withdrew. Only about six months later, war broke out between Russia and Ukraine.
We are witnessing the collapse of diplomacy (tags)
We, who keep this society running, are footing the bill, while the super-rich and big corporations are lining their pockets, making profits from the crises.
A possible oil and gas embargo against Russia, for example, will bring the social question to the fore and bring many people to the streets. More and more voices, it is hoped, will then rise up against war and the militarization of our lives.
Any NATO expansion that moves closer to Russia's borders must appear to Russian nationalists as a threat; to moderate Russians Bertram concludes, "It is therefore either thoughtless or dishonest to declare, as the West does, that NATO enlargement is inevitable."
We are all social democrats now. Almost all of us (tags)
A few weeks ago, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said rich households should pay higher taxes. Inequality in income and wealth had reached proportions that threatened social peace. The head of the IMF, Alfred Kammer, called on the German government, as in previous years, to increase its investments.
Utopia, Technology and Struggle. Ways out of the Crisis of Social Democracy (tags)
The big question is still open. Must an emancipatory project aim at a changed distribution of incomes or is hedging capitalism through regulation and redistribution enough? In other words, is shifting to an eco-Keynesian path sufficient to create equal life chances?
The Driving Force of Global Inequality (tags)
Behind closed doors, a powerful industry has developed worldwide since the 1980s: tax avoidance. Taxes that are avoided must be compensated by higher taxation of households with lower incomes.
Europe's Conquest by the US (tags)
The US and NATO have troops at the Russian border. Russia has no troops at the US borders with Canada and Mexico. Who staged the 2014 coup in the Ukraine? Who promised Gorbatchev there would be no NATO expansion to the East? Who is the stabilizer and who is the destabilizer?
Democracy and the Uncanny Power of Money (tags)
Growing inequality is the greatest political problem of our time. Governments are often only actors or puppets of an anonymous regime for the benefit of the privileged where the interests of simple people do not count.
Manipulation of Public Opinion (tags)
Timocracy-rule of the propertied-threatens to replace democracy. The large majority is blocked from political participation and from forming their social future-unlike what was intended in the model of the majority principle in democracy.
The Social State Benefits All of Us (tags)
The social state can on ly fulfill expectations when financed on a broad and just basis. The social state must be adjusted to do justice to the pressing challenges.."The social state is the greatest cultural achievement in the 20th century"
60 Years of Resistance to the German Army (tags)
Today more and more people say Without Us! The German army is filled with so much contradiction that we can be very hopeful we will become a country without an army. We should debate this today. Always saying yes accomplishes nothing.
Prevent the Comeback of the Cold Warriors! (tags)
What lessons were learned from Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iraq and Afghanistan? Can countries become incapable of learning? Is preemptive war, confusion of offense and defense, a Hitlerian perversion? Does cooking intelligence create cynicism instead of public spirit?
Helmut Schmidt: Sanctions against Russia are a "Foolish Thing" (tags)
Schmidt considers the sanctions now imposed as a “foolish thing,” not as a sensible or appropriate reaction to the assimilation of the Crimea in the Russian Federation. Sharper sanctions should not be imposed. In his opinion that would be even greater nonsense.
Labor Solidarity in Neoliberal Structural Change (tags)
The self-regulating market and the invisible hand were neoliberal theories of Frederick August von Hayek and Milton Friedman. Submission to the market was described as a natural law, as natural and self-evident as the rotation of the planets. Solidarity and unions were decried as barriers.
On the Failure of the Mainstream Economy (tags)
The neoliberal mainstream economy and its political backers experienced their Waterloo with the most serious financial and economic crisis in eight decades. States bailed out banks and banks made money by lending back to states. A policy of reduced working hours is necessary.
"Beyond Growth" congress in Berlin, May 20-22. 2011 (tags)
A "Beyond Growth" congress will be held in Berlin, May 20-22. 2011. The driving forces of growth, the limits of growth, the crisis of the work society, an economy beyond growth, justice and the globalized world, sharing and the good life will be discussed.
Profits=Investments=Jobs? (tags)
The claimed connection between profits, investments and jobs is not right. Orders-literally demand-are more important than the profits that are investede for the creation of jobs. Market radicals repress market and system failure.
GERMANY: Oscar Lafontaine on the Financial Markets (tags)
"The present crisis cannot be overcome without a regulation of the financial markets.. When banks are given billions through the so-called bank bailout and these billions disappear somewhere, that is a misappropriation or embezzlement of tax funds.."
After the Bankruptcy (Jurgen Habermas) (tags)
The privatization mania has ended. Politics is necessary for the public interest, not the market. A tension always exists between capitalism and democracy because the market and politics are based on opposite principles.
The Forgotten Priority of Labor Over Capital (tags)
Politics is responsible for a social market economy and its rules and structures. When the state is reduced to only setting the framework for competition and then appeals to the responsibility of individual entrepreneurs, one falls at once in a neoliberal trap.
Another Economy is Possible (tags)
The world economy increasingly has the character of a plutonomy, a wealth economy where the rich appropriate an ever larger share of the social wealth. Imagine an economy that serves justice, peace and creation, where competition and cooperation coexist and the future is safeguarded
Demographic Development: Reality and Media Distortion (tags)
Reducing uhemployment and intensive education for children and youth are prerequisites for mastering the future. Instead the economy and politics constantly refer to demography.. Catastrophic reports sell better than the truth.
What was conceived with Northwoods was nothing but blatant state terrorism perpetrated by a superpower supposedly spreading freedom, democracy and human rights worldwide.. Truth is the first victim before and in every war.
Capital and Labor: Deeds Must Follow Criticism (tags)
A new balance between capital- and labor income is necessary. Unfortunately the opposite is happening. The constant lowering of capital taxation in Germany fans the European tax lowering competition. The public infrastructure deteriorates.
A Moralist on the Social State (tags)
A hundred years ago eight farmers worked to feed one non-farmer. Today one farmer feeds 88 persons..Income from assets and business activities have been consistently relieved of taxes in the last 25 years. Profits soar while investments fall.
Inflationary Deflation or the Dominance of the Global Financial Markets (tags)
"When real interests are above real growth rates of the GDP, debtors are structurally overstrained. The debt crisis of the 1980s and the financial crises of the past decade suggest that a kind of post-modern `plundering capitalism' is arising.."
The Poisoned origin of Christmas (tags)
Thousands of years before Christianity even appeared, cultures all around the world were celebrating a similar holiday, with many of the traditions that we now associate with Christmas. What these cultures celebrated was the “Winter Solstice”... -----------------------------7d338a30f041c Content-Disposition: form-data; name="link"
After the War is Before the War (tags)
The Marburg professor of political science gave this address at the union conference "After the Kosovo War" on Sept 4, 1999. Translated from the German
Nobody will ever find out the real criminals behind the scenes.