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.
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.
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.
Living Together Differently! (tags)
Modern politics must fight against excessiveness and inequality. All progress narratives have worn out. The cake will not become larger. The perspective of conviviality aims at abundance, not at tightening belts..
Refused sharing and rediscovery of sharing are signs of this time. "This economy kills." So Pope Francis judges socio-economic conditions. Taxing the rich is vital. With additional revenue, workers would not feel threatened by immigrants
Economic Stagnation and its Mastery (tags)
Corporate profits explode while investments stagnate.Social housing declines with privatization. According to neoliberal theory, higher profits lead to grater investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to more use of tax havens and companies buying back their stock.
The Long History of Human Incapacitation by Politics and the Press (tags)
With the term "no alternatives," come-of-age citizens who don't join the mainstream press are incapacitated, stamped as troublemakers and not taken seriously. Democracy is not sought any more in a divided country, divided between those above and those below.
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.
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.
Democracy and the Social State (tags)
Finance capitalism and Citizens United turn life, language and democracy upside down as the $150 million given by Wall Street to Hillary Clinton fall under the rubric "social engagement." With these theses, Franz Segbers emphasizes the social state as the foundation of democracy.
Why are the Lambs Silent? (tags)
Techniques-fragmentation and propaganda- make serious violations of moral norms by the ruling elites morally and cognitively invisible to the population. With many examples, professor Mausfeld gives insight in the management of our democracy and how people are kept in apathy.
The Rich are the True Social Parasites (tags)
In the past, social events and revolts shaped a generation. That changed in the 1990s. Identity is drawn from the consumption of brands. Therefore the public longing today is for better products and no longer for a better world.
George Orwell in the Government (tags)
Writing in 1948 off the coast of Scotland, George Orwell foresaw the time when war would become a domestic necessity to divert the people from economic contradictions. Newspeak is used so lies are called truth and slavery freedom.
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.
BRICS: Support for Putin (tags)
Brazil, India, China and South Africa protested against Australia's proposal to exclude Putin from the upcoming G20 meeting. China was formally neutral in the vote on the Crimea resolution. India spoke of "legitimate Russian interests."
The Soup Kitchen State Grows (tags)
Old age poverty is the result of dismantling the social state...What is lacking for the impacted is justice. Need justice and distribution justice have always existed in the political realm. The task of the social state was to fight poverty and protect citizens.
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.
How Does Justice Come to the Economy? (tags)
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.
Newspeak Rules: How Neoliberalism Explains the World (tags)
Originally positive terms were devalued in the last decades (social state became "welfare dictatorship") Social dislocations are charged to the impacted themselves. The scandal of poverty mutates to the scandal of the poor themselves.
George Orwell in the Government: The Rich Come from the Poor (tags)
In Germany as in the US, the rightwing insists poverty is not a question of money but of attitude and thus of one's own making. Falling wages are said to be a sign of structural improvements on the labor market!
Ideology and Morality: What the Financial Crisis teaches about functioning of democracy (tags)
Moralizing is a form of argumentation found in many ideologies and academic systems of thought.. State interventions, we were taught, are bad because they run counter to the objective laws of the market.. The market is a social institution that we interpret in different ways..
On the Way to the Digital Society (tags)
The net must be understood for what it is: a marvelous creative space that forces us to question traditional norms and values, organizational forms and superficially accepted conditions to find new ways into the future.
The Capitalism of Hopelessness (tags)
Regulated capitalism reached its peak in the class compromise of the 1960s when representatives of workers could put the screws on the steamroller CEOs a little. The enemy and dynamic are lost to capitalism. Capitalism flows into a society without utopia and alternative.
Uncovering the Fracture of the System (tags)
Uncovering the fracture and the dislocations of this system, proposing changes and actively interfering is the optimistic side. The collective repression of problems is carried out to a spectacular extent. The welfare state and democracy cannot be separated.
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.
To give a credit to a customer, a bank doesn't need to take the savings of another cutomer from its vaults. It creates the money out of nothing. In a countermove, the bank must deposit money with the central bank. There is a debate whether the creation of money can be left to the banks.
Beyond Possessive Individualism (tags)
Shrinking the financial sector and abandoning neoliberal myths are vital to prevent the next crisis. The authors, German Young Socialists in their 30s, decry the myths that incomes are just, self-interest leads to public interest and economics and politics are separate.
The Capitalism of Hopelessness (tags)
The capitalism of hopelessness is a capitalism where the enemy is lost, where capitalism can no longer fulfill its promise of prosperity for the people as in the 1960s and where capitalism neutralizes all utopian energy and alternatives. Public jobs must be created in the emergency.
The neoliberal growth strategy ofr reducing the price of labor led to a system change from Keynesianism to neoliberal capitalism. Neoliberals never sought full employment. Rather their policy aimed at the permanent division of society.
Attac's Bank Tribunal: The Jury's Verdict (tags)
This crisis did not break out over society like a force of nature. Financial managers spread the legend that financial crises belong to capitalism as water belongs to the ocean and that euphoric phases of bubble formation and the bursting of bubbles come and go like the seasons.
This society cannot afford to dismantle the social state. The social state guarantees inner peace. The strength of a people is measured by the well-being of the weak, those not born with a silver spoon. Solidarity, social justice and equal opportunities are key words and open doors.
Lessons from the Crisis (tags)
Governments are extorted by multinational corporations. Those who made massive profits with bank business must now answer for the losses. The taxpayer may not pay for their crises. If control is not exercised by politics, banks will become absolute rulers with a state guarantee.
In our collective helplessness, we seek salvation in the transcendental empire of the inexplicable. "How could it be?" becomes the self-defense to forget our miserable social existence.. The economic has taken society hostage.
Rich of the World, Enrich Yourselves! (tags)
Financial jugglers speculating with food, oil and other raw materials caused double-digit inflation and made staple foods like rice and wheat into luxury items for millions. Neoliberalism with one blow managed to drive nation states to the defensive.
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.
"One day it dawned on him that the US soldiers were the terrorists. We terrorized the population, intimidated and attacked them, demolished their houses and even raped their women. Those we did not kill have every reason to become terrorists
Soaring Capital Profits and the Mountain of Corpses (tags)
For the first time in the historyof humanity, a surplus of goods could satisfy the basic needs of all earthlings. The moral imperative lives in all of us. Capital rule, the rule of finance capital over the economic events of the world, is nearly total.
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.
Governing against the People (tags)
The dream of 1989 that democracy and capitalism can be reconciled fades.. Elected governments orient their decisions in trans-national groups and global finance markets.
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.
Reforming or Dismantling the Welfare State (tags)
The neoliberal residual state is more a criminal than a welfare state..The welfare state that has constitutional rank in Germany is now without intrinsic value for neoliberals and subject to the location logic of economic and power interests.
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.
The new social and national demagogy entirely comaprable to German fascism conjures away the social question from mass consciousness..Rightwing ideologists know that the war goal and war are irrational.
Calls for Dialogue in the Iran Crisis (tags)
Renunciation on force and non-aggression guarantees are crucial for de-activating the crisis along with convening a UN mediation commission. All military options must be excluded.
A moratorium and a UN mediation commis-sion are vital to prevent escalation in the Iran nuclear conflict.. Since 1968, the nuclear weapon states have refused negotiations on total nuclear disarmament.
The Work Society and the Work Religion (tags)
Work is only a part or fragment of life. Where it becomes everything as a steamroller or religion, it leads to idiotism where social questions and reproduction are ignored.
Hardly anyone today dares financing the social state by cutting the armament budget.. The fat years are over! Three cheers for dis-possession! Expropriation instead of representation!
Consumer Shock at the Pump (tags)
Life was disrupted when the world faced the first oil price crisis in the winter of 1973. People in the southern US are experiencing this today.. Around a quarter of US production was lost through the hurricane.
"How can the state finance itself in times of worldwide competition without damaging the national econmy? How can it find the old strength without creating new poverty?.. There is no system-conforming way out of this vicious circle.."
"New networks arise that support people without locking them in a cage.. We need positive freedom, the freedom to something..For that we must create new institutions. We may not return to the old.."
Europe and the Power of Capital (tags)
"The economic form of neoliberalism is based on political decisions, not practical economic necessities.. Only the democratic nation state can show the economy its place entitling it to exist for people and not vice versa.."
Mobilizing against Education- and Social Cuts (tags)
This struggle is imperative from the knowledge that the political measures of the neoliberal project are morally and economi-cally false..We can only resist this false policy together. Students must convince students that the interests of workers are their interests
French and Dutch Patriots Rout the New World Order
With the Global Climate Change initiative, Bush presented an alternative to the rejected Kyoto protocol..Dan Kowalzig from the NGO Friends of the Earth described the initiative as merely a camouflage to protect industry.
Paul Wolfowitz as Head of the World Bank (tags)
In an Internet poll, Wolfowitz is regarded as a global disaster by over 80% of respondents while less than 10% see Bush's decision as a master stroke..The political scientist Bernd Kubbig points to Wolfowitz' contradictory and sinister role in the iraq conflict.
The predicted consequences of global warming are manifest.. In 2050 England will be half under water.. Production shifts to low-wage countries. Instead of preventing this shift, politics still urges all people to adjust to the little group of egoists.
The Gay Nation must NUKE THE CLOSET: Come out and use our real names! We must unify the Gay Nation, the Youth Nation, and Anarchy into a single concept and campaign, to overthrow the dark age and launch the Age of Light!
Noam Chomsky and Marxism (tags)
Noam Chomsky and Marxism
The Social State is a Civilization Achievement (tags)
"The social state is a civilization achievement Since free enterprise mechanisms alone cannot guarantee social security, the state has the task of guaranteeing social security for all and pursuing a policy of social equali-zation. Democracy needs a social foundation
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?
Kucinich Proposes Unconditional Surrender in Iraq (tags)
Six out of ten Americans can't name a single one of the Democratic Presidential candidates. Dennis Kucinich is trying to get noticed by proposing unconditional surrender in Iraq. Ann nails the Democrats (again).
Activating State or Active Social State (tags)
"Cuts in benefits are not social reforms but a relapse to the last century when society didn't protect its members from general life risks on account of deficient resources.The welfare state is indispensable for the society altogether and for the socially disadvantaged
Nothing Sweeter To Bush Than Revenge (tags)
"Even more sinister, Secretary of State Colin Powell -- in an uncharacteristic role as the godfather-enforcer for the administration -- has been lecturing straying nations that they will be punished for their stand against the war. As he puts it, they will suffer the "consequences." The exact penalties are never spelled out but the ominous threat is left hanging. "
Wellspring of Sympathy Dries Up (tags)
America dissipated the goodwill out of its arrogance and incompetence..A survey recently published by the Pew Centre suggests antipathy toward the US is widespread..The superpower is regarded by its allies with a profound ambivalence.
NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER (tags)
Why there will be no invasion of Iraq...