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.
Welcome to post-democracy! (tags)
In the current systemic crisis, this capitalist pseudo-democracy is producing a real dystopia on a par with the nightmares of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley: the apparently responsible citizen (in reality a powerless object in the heteronomous process of capital exploitation) chooses the way in which his intensified exploitation and alienation is to be concretely organized and perfected.
Can state-capitalist China inherit the USA as hegemon? (tags)
China's growth is also running on credit, and the People's Republic is similarly highly indebted as the descending Western centers of the world system.10 The Chinese deficit economy is generating even far greater speculative excesses than was the case in the U.S. or Western Europe,
In the run-up to the founding of NATO, those responsible in the USA knew: The Soviet Union posed no military threat. The weakened power could not sustain an attack on Western Europe even if it wanted to: The Soviet Union's economy is largely destroyed and technologically obsolete.
Waging war or building bridges (tags)
"NATO is de facto at war with Russia and using Ukraine as a tool to do it." And further, "Everything about NATO is hypocrisy. They declare themselves the 'peace alliance,' but their history is nothing but war.
Shooting resumes in the Donbass civil war (tags)
Not so long ago, Ukraine was committed to neutrality. If Ireland can be neutral, if Austria can be neutral, if Finland can be neutral, then why not Ukraine? After all, this was the official Ukrainian policy until the neo-nationalists came to power in 2014.
Toward a new economic policy paradigm (tags)
Over the years, the institutionally enshrined budget discipline has created a considerable investment backlog. Important investments in infrastructure, education and climate protection have not taken place.
FemApocalypse - How underprivileged is the institutionalized woman? (tags)
"Meglio un asino vivo che un dottore morto"... Before I join the canon, for the sake of my sexuality, that puts forward women's rights for Ilse Koch (Witch of Buchenwald), I am of the opinion that the issue of gender equality requires an objective analysis, because not only women and women, men and men, Men and women but according to Dr. Edith Butler up to 16 genders have different views on this dualistic construct at first sight. Before equality between men and women, however, for logic reasons, equality between men should first be achieved.
For a democratic polarization (tags)
The new world economic crisis has shown yet again that one can't leave it to the market to provide for a strong economy. In any case, it is a truism that a community with a certain quality of life depends to a great extent on resources that the market does not produce.
The richest animal on earth - Nazis and animal welfare (tags)
Was it just conditioning or why did dogs collaborate with the Nazis? And why are there are only few rich cats?
The Perpetrator-Victim Reversal (tags)
The West refuses to give the Red Army credit for Germany's liberation from fascism - instead, it diligently stokes the Cold War with Russia. France and West Germany were liberated by the landing of the Western Allies in Normandy - but all of Eastern Europe must have shaken off the yoke of Nazism all by itself.
Life Lies of the Islands of Prosperity (tags)
The embarrassing secret of the 'Western' model of society and development is that it only works under very specific political and economic, ecological and social conditions. Preconditions that lie essentially outside this model and are hidden or made invisible by the social actors of its glorifying preservation. '
A Social Change is Overdue (tags)
Social rental housing construction which has been increasingly restricted since the 1980s must be resumed on a grand scale and rapidly promoted to offer low-income earners, single parents and large families a place to stay.
Working Digitally in Just Economies (tags)
Reducing working hours is an attractive scenario, an optimistic picture of a possible future of society. Less than 2% of German workers labor in agriculture, down from 40% in the 19th century. The future of work is person-related work. The state must intervene with subsidies.
Memorandum 2017: Alternatives for a Solidarity Europe: Instead of "Germany First" (tags)
The European Union is at a crossroads. The reason lies in the neoliberal redistribution policy favoring capital incomes over many years. "Mass unemployment intensified and was not ended in Europe. Millions of those with work are in precarious working conditions."
Competition Ideology and Power Reality (tags)
Competition cannot be an end-in-itself. Uncontrolled private power leads to misuse. Uncontrolled competition increasingly destroys itself through concentration and centralization processes. Bastard Keynesianism helps the banks. People diverted from real cause of crises
Social Inequality in the Descent Society (tags)
The elevator effect is not true any more. This changed from the 1990s. People no longer move up together. A society of descent, precariousness and polarization has come ou9t of the society of social ascent. Ascents and descents have a collective and an individual dimension.
Thirty Years after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, the disaster continues.
The Military-Industrial Complex is the Greatest Threat for World Peace (tags)
Fighting the dominant culture of war that is promoted by all the media justifications of war and war propaganda is vital. This culture must be decoded as misanthropic and shattered. Building a culture of peace is the project of the century.
Growth, Prosperity and Quality of Life (tags)
"Our understanding of a modern economic and social system is strongly influenced by the phase between 1950 and 1975 when the social market economy was created and democracy was re-stabilized. Since then conditions have changed. New answers are necessary."
NATO Expands, not Russia (tags)
For me the root of the present conflict lies in this decision of NATO that was dangerous and wrong...The simple technique is followed: demonizing the adversary, fomenting chaos and covering up one's own violence.
NATO Plans Global Dominance (tags)
NATO
Putin Signs Crimean Reunification Treaty (tags)
Crimea
Germany
Ukraine Dodged a Bullet (tags)
Ukraine
class war
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.
liar
10 Theses about the Crisis: Ingo Schulze (tags)
German novelist Ingo Schulze's 2012 "Our Beautiful New Clothes" explains how we have accepted the form without the substance of democracy. People accepted the emperor's new clothes until a child cried "but he has nothing on." Maybe Hans Christian Anderson can help us.
Medrciless Samaritans and 10 Causes of the Crisis (tags)
"There is no society. There are only individual men and women," said Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, had a great share in the crisis in which Europe, capitalism and democracy find themselves.
Capitalism Doesn't Need Democracy (tags)
The minority of a minority have seriously damaged the public interest for personal enrichment. The community itself is culpable for not resisting its plundering.and choosing representatives that defend its interests.
Stand for Socialism against Modern Revisionism (tags)
Revisionism is the systematic revision of and deviation from Marxism, the basic revolutionary principles of the proletariat laid down by Marx and Engels and further developed by the series of thinkers and leaders in socialist revolution and construction. The revisionists call themselves Marxists, even claim to make an updated and creative application of Marxism but they do so essentially to sugarcoat the bourgeois antiproletarian and anti-Marxist ideas that they propagate.
Stand for Socialism against Modern Revisionism (tags)
Revisionism is the systematic revision of and deviation from Marxism, the basic revolutionary principles of the proletariat laid down by Marx and Engels and further developed by the series of thinkers and leaders in socialist revolution and construction. The revisionists call themselves Marxists, even claim to make an updated and creative application of Marxism but they do so essentially to sugarcoat the bourgeois antiproletarian and anti-Marxist ideas that they propagate.
Stand for Socialism against Modern Revisionism (tags)
Revisionism is the systematic revision of and deviation from Marxism, the basic revolutionary principles of the proletariat laid down by Marx and Engels and further developed by the series of thinkers and leaders in socialist revolution and construction. The revisionists call themselves Marxists, even claim to make an updated and creative application of Marxism but they do so essentially to sugarcoat the bourgeois antiproletarian and anti-Marxist ideas that they propagate.
waging war against peace
"Campaign against the Weak" (tags)
Social justice, solidarity and sharing opens doors. We have to do some rethinking. The social state does not create the problems that efficient workers are lacking and jobs for many are lacking. Mass unemployment is a social declaration: "We don't need you."
GERMANY: Notes on Neoliberalism (tags)
"The neoliberal revolution was the product of an historical development, a reaction to changed circumstances. In its course, many western states in the 1970s and 1980s reordered the relation of state and private power.."
23 Theses on the Capitalist Crisis (tags)
Since the middle of the 1990s, the real economy only grew on account of the expansion of credit. After the dot.com crisis, the floodgates were opened. In the next four years, the Fed brought more dollars in circulation than in the whole 200-year US history.
Venezuela: Why Unlimited Re-election is Bad for the Revolution (tags)
A supporter of Hugo Chavez' anti-imperialist efforts explains why he is nevertheless opposed to Venezuela's recent constitutional amendment abolishing term limits.
Doug Dowd's "At the Cliff's Edge" (tags)
an indictment of imperialism
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.
F. William Engdahl's "A Century of War" (tags)
An epic work on the importance of oil.
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
The Future of Work-driven Society (tags)
When less and less time needs to be spent working for a living in Western industrialised countries, this partial freedom of gainful occupation is increasingly becoming a problem for those dismissed. The vision of working less and living longer is a utopia that is also realistic.
Ex-Mossad chief+German uberspy+top-dollar GOP lobbyists = Kurds snag 15 tons of $100 bills (tags)
During Saddam Hussein’s rein, the Oil-for-Food “revenue was spent in Arab parts of Iraq but not in Kurdistan,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “Kurdistan’s share of the fund was set at 13%. At least $4 billion accrued in Kurdistan’s name, Kurdish officials say, and some contend that the amount could be as much as $5.5 billion.” The paper reported that in late June 2004, just five days before he turned Iraq back over to domestic rule and flew out of Iraq, then-top US official in Iraq Paul Bremer ordered the transfer by three U.S. military helicopters of $1.4 billion in 100 dollar bills to Kurdistan—his calculation of the Kurds’ share of Oil-for-Food funds; but the Kurds and their advocates believe they are owed a few billion more. It was so much cash—15 tons’ worth—the paper further reported, that no bank could be found in which to deposit it.
More Employment through a Different Distribution (tags)
More employment comes through reduced working hours and public investments more than tax subsidies. The state has destroyed jobs. The global attack of neoliberalism has gravely damaged the democratic welfare state.
Exploitation and Precarity (tags)
The exclusion processes are actually the result of radicalized capital exploitation strategies.. In the last two decades capital has learned that low-wage zones can be enforced when the collapse zones are intimidatingly present.
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.
Taking Impeachment on the Road (tags)
Impeachment can play a vital role in building resistance to dictatorship, both in the electoral politics and on the street. It’s not an either/or proposition.
AND THERE WAS NO REFERENDUM IN ISRAEL... (tags)
This article looks at Prime Minister-elect Olmert's contention that the elections were a referendum to carry out further withdrawals/expulsions from Judea/Samaria (the West Bank).
Memorandum 2005: Alternative Economic Policy (tags)
In Germany and the US, the corporation is often stylized as the suffering servant. The market is made sacrosanct; all problems are defined as interferencs with the market. Profits soar and investments fall. Corporations pay increasingly less tax.
What are Social Human Rights? (tags)
Who prosecutes those responsible that more than a billion people must live from a dollar a day while wealth constantly grows?
From Keynesianism to Thatcherism (tags)
The analysis of whether aggregate economic problems are more on the supply- or demand side and whether they are short-term or long-term precedes all state economic policy.
Repressing the Class Struggle (tags)
As the employers' president said, capital and labor have long been reconciled among us. He said this while employers forced down wages with the help of politicians, cut pen-sion claims, reduced social benefits and extorted dependent persons.
This is how the sheep dogs keep the sheep complaint and exploitable. Remember 911? Bali? Oklahoma? Notice that all this bullshit started around the time people were starting to stand up to parasites like the WTO? Think about it!!
Democracy in America: Tocqueville (tags)
Despotism of the majority appeared in the two-party system from the start.. Under the flag of sovereignty of the people, the majority become a silenced degraded mass.. In democracy, people become increasingly equal; in industry, people become unequal.
ISRAEL HAS ALREADY HELD A REFERENDUM LONG AGO (tags)
It looks at the new Labor-Likud-UTJ government in Israel and reviews the discussion about whether or not to have a referendum over Prime Minister Sharon's Gaza Plan.
Paid Work and Basic Income (tags)
The goal of basic income advocates is to neutralize capitalism in one of its central premises: the generalziation of paid labor as the only or at least dominant path of securing existence. The future would be brighter if this were on the agenda.
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.
Sweden: Poorer Than You Think (tags)
"The first lesson is that war produces war. War against terrorism produces terrorist war. The second lesson is that domestic war corresponds to foreign war. The military question and the social question are closely connected.."
Nazi ghosts (by Latuff) (tags)
Copyright-free artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff.
History- 17 Years Later (tags)
A wonderful piece by John Bennett in a time of conglomorate-controlled media.
The Israeli government has vowed to expel Yasser Arafat, calling him an "obstacle" to peace. But the 72-year-old Palestinian leader is much more than that; he is a career terrorist, trained, armed and bankrolled by the Soviet Union and its satellites for decades.
The Cancun Summit-WTO on the edge of abyss (tags)
WTO
"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.. "
This e-mail received from a good friend and he vouches for the authenticity of the message. As you read this, think about the murder rate on the streets of every metroplex in this nation. Summed up -- very likely in the double digits-daily. So why is there not the outrage exhibited by the Liberals in the media to match their outrage about our forces in Iraq? Do you suppose it is safer for our troops on the streets of Baghdad than it is for us on the streets of our large cities? Or is it the Vietnam card being replayed?
Listen to the MOCKINGBIRD (tags)
"You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month." CIA operative discussing with Philip Graham, editor Washington Post, on the availability and prices of journalists willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories. "Katherine The Great," by Deborah Davis (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1991)
basic stats for US imperialism (tags)
a reference guide for activists.
Reversal of Fortune -part II (tags)
In my first e-mail/ post "Reversal of Fortune" I discussed how the 1962 Democratic sweep was a near mirror image of the reverse GOP victory in '02. I asked what caused such a complete reversal of fortune over the last 40 years. The JFK assassination 13 months after the '62 election that had held so much hope for change was first step of such reversal.
The Flexible Person: Critical Psychology and Fitness Training (tags)
With athletic and medical metaphors, persons even in nursery school are urged to fitness training. Under globalization, societies find themsevles in positional competition. National chances are set against the global threat. Trans.from German
Uranium Is From Cold War West Germany, Probably made For The U.S. or U.K.!!! (tags)
The uranium seized in Turkey is from cold war West Germany, Probably made For The U.S. or U.K.!!! Tell everyone, and kill this war monger propaganda in the bud!
Saving and improving Social Security: The Communist Party’s solution (tags)
Marx’s observation that the task of a movement goes beyond mere interpretation of events was never more apt than when it comes to the struggle to defend – and improve – the Social Security system.
Alto a Guárdian (Stop Operation Gatekeeper) I (tags)
Alto a Guárdian (Stop Operation Gatekeeper) I
Alto a Guárdian (Stop Operation Gatekeeper) IV (tags)
Alto a Guárdian (Stop Operation Gatekeeper) IV