What is literature for? (tags)
Since 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, humankind has made a tremendous leap backward. We are witnessing the systematic dismantling of the welfare state, the atomization of the working class, the collapse of union membership, the abandonment of any attachment to republican principles. Mainstream discourse encourages us to resign.
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.
War in Ukraine. Nato taboos fall (tags)
This military-scientific glorification of a war that has long been hopeless for both sides, which is also supported by some media, leads to the postulation of the prospect of victory against one's better judgment. What is meant, however, is more likely a victorious peace.
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.
Enlargement to the East: How Nato broke its word (tags)
One point of contention, however, should have been settled by the declassified documents. They allow no other conclusion than that the West made a promise to Gorbachev to leave NATO in its former borders, but that this promise was already broken at the end of the 1990s.
On the Power of Money: Three by Eugen Drewermann (tags)
Only faith (as in a religion), the "invisible hand," the "law" of the "free" market can judge everything. State interventions can only be annoying. The market itself is allegedly "social". Everyone acts according to his advantage. The system is not social but criminal and unjust.
Vienna: Housing is a Human Right (tags)
Housing as a human right is subverted by the right of speculation. The Vienna Housing Fund buys up potential development land and prevents speculation. Rents in Vienna are half the rents in Munich.
Affordable Rents? A State of Emergency Intensifies (tags)
Rents explode in cities after massive sales of public housing to brutal investors. In 1987, there were 5.5 million social apartments in Germany. Today, there are 1.5 million. Land speculation was prevented in Vienna. The Vienna Housing Fund buys up possible development land.
Trade War and Zero Deficit Myth (tags)
State debts are often necessary and are not automatically bad economically. Investments are prerequisites of future prosperity. When private parties spend too little, the state must step into the breach.
Detente Policy and Media Hysteria (tags)
Antje Vollmer is a Green politician who was vice-president of the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2005. She urges a robust public debate over the new hard-line German foreign policy that forgets the war and Russian help in reunification. What has the politics of regime change brought?
The Totalitarianism of the Market (tags)
Neoliberalism demands reeducation for its implementation like command socialism. The neoliberal view of the person is exemplified by the figure of the Homo Oeconomicus and is the antipole of the socialist person. All persons are entrepreneurs of themseves.
For 40 years, the Bremen study group has published memorandums. The council of experts promoted the profits of businesses, not aggregate economic demand. Mass unemployment surpassed the 5 million mark because of neoliberal structural reforms.
Free Trade Agreement TTIP Endangers Democracy (tags)
Investor courts of arbitration create an exclusive special right for foreign corporations. They could demand compensation when their profits are narrowed by democratic decisions.
Billy Graham: Pro Christ or Anti Christ (tags)
Billy Graham was more a representative of the imperial American elite than a follower of the meek and humble Jesus. He comforted every president for 70 years in their shameful Korean War, Vietnam War and Iraq War. Fast cleaning and Graham soap marked "God's machine gun."
class war
The Cup (R)money passes us (tags)
Remember the neoliberalism of Reaganomics was an ideology that is carried out from America in Germany-with all its consequences from deregulation of the banking sector and the labor market and the change from the market economy to market society up to rule of the financial sector.
A Financial Boom Despite the Crisis (tags)
For the banks, deficit state budgets become important clients. They compensate the private demand for credit. The financial boom is completely based on support measures of state organs. An economic upswing is not in sight.
How Much Democracy is Left? (tags)
Politics no longer determines the econmy; the mammoth econmy defines politics. The US has long been a plutocracy instead of a democracy and has prescribed this system of capital rule for the whole world. Capital rule is always central rule
Inequality and Equal Opportunity: A German Perspective (tags)
A fifth of Germans no longer believe the national economy is just. With false signals, false promises and false goals, politics kindles the feeling of injustice. The idea of equal opportunity turns out to be the grand delusion of Germany.
Billions Dissolve in Thin Air (tags)
While the political class practices faith healing, all the participants know the end is coming when more speculative bubbles burst. The popular dogma that financial markets and the world economy are more efficient when deregulated and liberalized is over.
The big brother from the North misled the South.. The slogan "More Market, Less State" is losing a few old friends in Europe.. What is changing is the discourse, the eulogy of the market and its possibilities.
Who Frees Us From Capital? (tags)
Whole continents bowed to the Washington Consensus..The World Bank must end its embittered attack on distribution policy.. Privatization awakened false hopes.. Evo Morales in Bolivia nationalized the oil and gas economy and raised the monthly minimum wage to $100.
"Capitalism is not the solution" (tags)
Attac turns against the unjust sides of globalization. We need the contagious power of the ideas of freedom, justice and equality. The last European revolution in 1989 succeeded despite dictatorial conditions.
"Unemployment is a Victory" (tags)
Higher productivity allows a maximum in prosperity to be realized with a minimum in human labor. Freedom, not full employment, is the alternative today.
Social Cuts Cause Suffering (tags)
"Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come" (Victor Hugo).. Liberated from their existential worries, people could develop their talents.. A basic income could expand the efficiency of our society.
How Much Poverty Can a Society Endure? (tags)
Pretending that justice is possible with growing inequality is pure ideology. Distribu-tive justice is the key for a peaceful future.. Spending for the welfare state has not grown in Germany.
Captain Ahab and his Watery Grave (tags)
The novel Moby Dick appeared to Moltmann and others as the American myth. "Thewhite whale is the symbol of evil and Captain Ahab is the tragic hero. America's messianic dream becomes the tragic myth."
The fianncial markets, the fifth branch, are probably the most important markets today. Many remain excluded from this time- and space compression. Most people are barred from the advantages of globalization like greater mobility and improved communication
News Junkie Scott's Blog (11/23/05) (tags)
Iraqi families living on rotting garbage dumps.
Social Security and Modern Society (tags)
Social security is not a mere burden but a benefit of productivity. Countries with comfortable social security systems are internationally very competitive. Social security supports economic growth and employment.
Social Security is Not for Sale (tags)
The market is a tool effective after fundamental political questions are answered: What kind of society do we want? Are education, health care, housing, water and land public goods or privileges?
Over 6 million jobs would be created in Germany if the 33 million employees worked 20 percent less. 100 billion Euro would be restored to state treasuries. All that is needed is political will, not neoliberal indifference.
:::NETSTRIKE against NATO's security conference in Munich !!:: (tags)
The NATO Conference on Security Policy is a conference organized by a private person called Horst Teltschik, former advisor of Helmut Kohl, former Manager of BMW and now an employee at Boeing, one of the biggest weapons manufacturers in the world.
"We are the Greatest Backwoods of the World": Interview with Norman Birnbaum (tags)
"I am astonished or shocked at this total submissiveness toward my country. Intelligent people fade out the shady sides of our country, the broad trails of blood of our military interventions and the cynical contempt of the govt for its own citizens.. "
Silence is Deadly. Anti-War Day Sept 1, 2003 (tags)
"The US wages a pure imperial war of conquest with the admitted lies that its own country and the world had to be preventively defended against the threat of weapons of mass destruction.. God is with us on the way to the Americanization of all cultures.."
On the Human Right to Laziness (tags)
"Paul Lafargue spoke satirically about the first sinister acceleration thrusts of early industry: "All individual and social misery comes from a passion for work. O laziness, be merciful with your endless misery!: O laziness, you are the balm for the pains!"
globalisation means war (tags)
The global Swiss banking syndicate that is backing the war effort