Hysterical Populism and the Appetite of Leviathan (tags)
The relationship between economy and social order has been turned upside down: economy is no longer a function of an overarching culture, but conversely, "human society has sunk to being an accessory of the economic system" (Karl Polanyi). RK was founder of Exit & Krisis blogs.
Ukraine's decoupling was foolish and dangerous (tags)
Promote peace, don't fuel conflict. There are only two ways to end a war. Either with a negotiated settlement. Or with the annihilation of one side or the other. That's how wars end, unfortunately, when there is no negotiated settlement...There must be a diplomatic solution.
There are successful examples of non-violent, civil resistance in history. This spares human lives and, when things go well, achieves its goals at least as well as acts of war could. Ukrainian pacifists are trying to show a way out of the spiral of escalation.
Beyond market and state (tags)
The dominant, financial market-oriented factions of capital are using the crisis to further enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else by attempting to appropriate even the wealth of society that is yet to be generated in the medium term by indebting the state.
Systematic Lies and Disinformation From Above (tags)
"In Oct 1962, John F. Kennedy, a level-headed president, sat in the White House and spoke with the Soviet leader Khrushchev through a secret "back channel" behind the backs of his generals and secret services and prevented Cuba's bombing and invasion.
Trump and the Consequences: Democracy at a Crossroads (tags)
What appears here is another form of democracy, without the constitutional state and without opposition. Trump could operate with enemy declarations. Today Donald Trump is a radicalized Nixon. Democracy is always endangered and never given as a present.
Tax Evasion and the Social State (tags)
The good social state invests in the social, in the education of children of the new lower classes... Taxes is the price we pay for a civilized society (Oliver Wendell Holmes).. The state share must increase in a developed society since ever greater demands are made on the state.
Capitalism Can Be Cured (tags)
"The Occupy movement protests worldwide against the power of banks. The Indignados in Spain demonstrate against the system that gives them this crisis and high unemployment. No saying has been criticized more vigorously than Margaret Thatcher's `there is no alternative'."
"Manufacturing Dissent": the Anti-globalization Movement is Funded by the Corporate Elites (tags)
"How is the process of manufacturing dissent achieved? Essentially by "funding dissent", namely by channelling financial resources from those who are the object of the protest movement to those who are involved in organizing the protest movement. Co-optation is not limited to buying the favors of politicians. The economic elites --which control major foundations-- also oversee the funding of numerous NGOs and civil society organizations, which historically have been involved in the protest movement against the established economic and social order. The programs of many NGOs and people's movements rely heavily on both public as well as private funding agencies including the Ford, Rockefeller, McCarthy foundations, among others. The anti-globalization movement is opposed to Wall Street and the Texas oil giants controlled by Rockefeller, et al. Yet the foundations and charities of Rockefeller et al will generously fund progressive anti-capitalist networks as well as environmentalists (opposed to Big Oil) with a view to ultimately overseeing and shaping their various activities."
"War never serves peace" (tags)
War never serves peace just as lies never serve truth and cats are not dogs. We wage war against the nature that we exploit and against the starving whom we drive into misery. As soon as one says war, we fall back thousands of years to the Stone Age and lose the option for the future.
Beyond Market and State (tags)
In a "post-democracy," the interests of global corporations prevail with the continuing facade of democratic institutions and procedures. Interest in politics in the population is very low. Criticism of neoliberalism brings together many movements and groups.
The Blood of the Black Sheep (tags)
Crisis and Catharsis. Capitalism begins its great self-purging to remain what it is. The Wall Street boys and girls have not forgotten how to make money amid crisis. The speculation bubbles burst. The fictional wealth dissolves in thin air thanks to falling home prices and stock prices.
"The Financial Crisis has made Heroes out of Rogues" (tags)
The state should make the economy more social and democratic. The conversions of Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Peter Steinbruick from market fetishism to state optimism were cabaret-style conversions. Democracy should dominate the economy.
“Green” capitalism: German Greens adopt new economic programme (tags)
Germany’s Green Party recently agreed to a new economic programme, published under the title “The Green free-market economy.” The programme paper was developed by prominent party figures under the auspices of the party’s parliamentary faction leader Fritz Kuhn, heralding the free market as the guardian angel of the environment—and their own wallets. Every line of this document reflects the class outlook of the upper middle class—those owning medium-sized businesses and the better-off self-employed—by glorifying the market and private property, while simultaneously expressing the authors’ fear of mounting social inequalities. The entire document is characterised by a continuous “on the one hand...and on the other hand” type of argument.
"At the beginning of the 20th century, Germany was Europe's leading power but we made wrong decisions and experienced a total disaster.." (Joschka Fischer at the Teheran Center, August 2006)
The International Socialist Organization and the 2006 election (tags)
The International Socialist Organization is holding a conference this weekend in New York City under the slogan “Socialism 2006—Build the Left, Fight the Right.” An examination of the perspective upon which this gathering has been organized, however, makes clear that it is aimed at promoting a “left” variety of bourgeois politics, in the form of the Green Party, which can serve only to divert a mass movement that arises against the right-wing policies of the two major parties and lead it into a political dead end.
Czech Greens enter right-wing government (tags)
Following the Czech parliamentary elections of June 2 and 3, the Green Party is now preparing to join the right-wing government of the arch-conservative Citizens Party (ODS). The Greens have now entered an Eastern European parliament for the first time, with Strana Zelenych (SZ) receiving 6.3 percent of the vote. Clearly, the Green Party in Prague is beginning its political odyssey at the point it left off in Germany—as a governing party; but this time no longer in alliance with the Social Democrats, but instead with politically conservative and right-wing parties.
Washington recognizes India as a nuclear power in the middle of the Iran negotiations over its nuclear program. That is a fatal sig-nal. Governments in the third world ask why India's disdain of disarmament is given priority.
Europe’s ‘Green’ militarists (tags)
The days when the German Green Party opposed international military operations by Germany’s armed forces, or at least criticized them, have long since passed. After seven years in government, the party has returned to the opposition benches, but it has by no means returned to its former pacifist positions. The Greens are among the most avid proponents of a German military mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one that could easily become the most extensive and dangerous foreign operation conducted by German soldiers since World War II.
German Greens, Conservatives draw closer together (tags)
Last week, the conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and the free-market liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) started official talks aimed at forming a new coalition government in the state of Baden-Württemberg, after elections were held there at the end of March. Both parties aim to agree on a coalition pact by May 6. The state’s premier, Günther Oettinger (CDU), made this announcement two days before the CDU’s parliamentary faction was due to meet. The CDU had previously held two meetings each with the FDP and the Green Party to assess the possibilities of forming a coalition government. The discussions with the Greens signified yet a further convergence between the two parties and will undoubtedly be viewed in the not-too-distant future as a preparation for the first CDU-Green state government.
UK plan to pressure Syria on weapons (tags)
Britain is pressing to use the combined weight of the European Union's "big three" countries to put pressure on Syria baath party over weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and Iraq, the Guardian has learned. The move follows Libya's dramatic agreement to dismantle its WMD arsenal and is designed to show that Europe, galvanised by Britain, has the clout to help the US deal peacefully with security issues in the Middle East.
CIA: Seven Months Before 9/11, the Agency Said Iraq Posed No Threat to the US (tags)
Contaiment Was Working
Growing opposition to a U.S. war against Iraq was clearly in evidence on March 10 when MoveOn.org, Win Without War, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Artists United to Win Without War delivered petitions bearing more than a million names from 200 countries to the United Nations Security Council.
Iraq was not condemned to be without rights or outlawed for all time. An authorization for the use of force cannot be read from resolution 1441. A right to preventive self-defense may exist in an extreme situation when enemy missiles are ready for launch..
The Message from the Bush Camp: 'It's War Within Weeks' (tags)
· Washington now concentrating on timing · State of union address to 'turn up the heat' · Blair faces nightmare scenario over war decision