Chavez Carries the Torch

Hugo Chavez has become a lightning rod for populist socialism, brashly carrying the torch for the revolutionary Left in the face of stiff opposition. He is at the forefront of a mass movement which is an inspiration to Marxists throughout the world.

The movement has been successfully bearing fruit for the masses in Venezuela. It is not Chavez's tenacity or charisma that has kept him in power, but his sincerity. He truly is a man of the people, with the ability to forge a bond between the masses, the government, and the military resulting in the unification and mobilization of the country. All of this allows Venezuela to build a better tomorrow.

Chavez has also come to realize that there is no “third way,” and that socialism is the only real alternative to neo-liberal capitalist hegemony. In an interview on April 20, 2005, Adan Chavez, Venezuela’s ambassador to Cuba, plainly states:

The President used to consider the option of the so-called “Third Way” – a way between capitalism and socialism. We examined that and, as the President said, we have realized that for the Bolivarian revolution there is no third way possible, we must choose the way of socialism. […] Socialism is a system in which man is above Capital. That is clear.

It is also clear that these ideals are spreading throughout Latin America and beyond. At least partially emboldened by the Venezuelan people's stand against imperialistic influences, people’s movements, from Mexico to Chile to Italy, are taking power under the banners of socialism and communism.

History of Oppression
The history of Venezuela is one of an apartheid society. First, the Spanish colonized the indigenous people, forcing them to work the cocoa and coffee plantations, then importing slaves to aid in the work. After gaining independence, Venezuela remained an oligarchy ruled by the white European descendants of the Spaniards. For 200 years, the two-class society continued until the 1980s when it became clear to even the military that enough was enough. The military’s main role was to suppress mass demonstrations by hungry, dark-skinned people –- the citizen-slaves of Venezuela who could not even afford to buy food. It is out of this situation that the military was forced to break with the capitalists and throw in its lot with the working people and poor of Venezuela.

Improvements Despite the Odds
No one will argue that Venezuela has not faced tough economic hardships in recent years. Nevertheless, despite massive assaults by Capital on the domestic product of the nation through coup attempts and employer sponsored lockouts, the economy continues to improve. This trend is accelerated by the government's policy to take mothballed capital and put it into the hands of the people. By these means, factories and farmland have been revived after having lain idle for years. Additionally, the government has redirected billions of US dollars into social programs, urban revitalization, community building, and small businesses. The net result is that Venezuela’s economy has grown at a pace of 5-percent for six consecutive quarters, totaling of 17-percent for the year of 2004. Perhaps Mr. Bush could take some lessons?

In addition, the Chavistas are addressing the feminization of poverty and indigenous peoples’ rights, reducing unemployment rates drastically, raising minimum wage by 26-percent, granting land titles to peasants (currently at over 75,000) –- the list goes on. It is clear that the working people and poor of Venezuela are bearing the fruits of their hard work by seizing their just dues from the clutches of capital.

A few of Chavez's closest friends

Town hall meeting - Chavez style

The red tide rises, the symbol plain,
of human right and human gain...

References:

• http://www.wto.org/
• http://venezuelanalysis.com/
• http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
• http://bbugs.blogspot.com/
• http://www.eclac.cl/
• http://www.cia.gov/
• http://www.africaspeaks.com/
• http://www.socialistworld.net/

The New Realist -or- Tradition!

Political satire is alive and well, and The Daily Show with John Stewart would have you believe that they are leading the pack. Sometimes I wonder why it is allowed to be on the air - why would the US corporate media machine tolerate it and why would sponsors pay for it?

Usually I find myself watching the show and wondering -- where's the substance?

Is the Daily Show content really all that satirical or political? Is it anything close to radical detournement? When set alongside truly subversive texts like Paul Krassner's The Realist we can only answer, unequivocally, “No.”

The Realist was published as a magazine from 1958 to 1974, the content was so edgy it earned Krassner an extensive FBI file. Krassner reincarnated The Realist as a newsletter in 1985, with the final edition published in 2001. In its pages, Krassner interviewed folks from George Lincoln Rockwell (American Nazi Party) to Jerry Garcia (Dead Head and ice-cream flavor inspiration) covering a wide range of social and political topics. When you see the magazine, it's not suprising to hear that Krassner cut his journalistic teeth at Mad Magazine. In many ways, Krassner is reminiscent of the enigmatic underground comic book artist Robert Crumb (or, as he signed his artwork, R. Crumb).

Enter blogger Bachem Macuno and his brilliant I F----d Ann Coulter In the A--, hard (Warning: NSFW ). This work is sophomoric and offensive, to be sure. Yet this sort of in-your-face satire is refreshing, insofar as it shows that free speech still exists, at least in the blogosphere. Certainly Macuno's blog is offensive to a range of people, from conservatives to feminists. That, however, is what satire is all about. And given that Coulter is the essence of offensiveness (during her speech she suggested that "we oppress liberals" - it's moronic positions like this that led to the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat), albeit state-sponsored offensiveness, this work plays an important role in counterbalancing the excesses of state authority, especially in light of the ongoing assult against public free speech in America. More about the unjust arrest of a UT student can be found here and here.

More on Krassner can be found here.
More on R. Crumb can be found here.

100 Miles for Justice

I was fortunate enough to be able to show solidarity with New York State farm workers this past Monday (May 2nd). NYS farm workers labor without the right to organize unions or bargain collectively, have no access to disability insurance, do not have the right to take an unpaid day off and do not get paid for overtime -- not to speak of a lack of health insurance! On top of this, these workers get paid an average of $7,500 per year and are forced to migrate with the crops throughout the season. Often people think that "migrant farm worker" means "illegal alien." In fact, the designation simply means that the worker must migrate throughout the year to remain employed, regardless of their home or nationality.

The New York State Assembly has passed legislation to increase the rights of farm workers, but so far the Senate has shot down all of the bills. Over the past few years, an organization called Centro Independiente de Trabajadores Agricolas (CITA), led by Rosa Rivera, has been staging actions across New York State to raise awareness and fight for workers rights. CITA's demands include "A day of rest, the right to bargain collectively, overtime pay," to which I can only ask, 'What year is this - 1890!?'

The farmers and growers (those who employ the workers) cry that they will go out of business if they have to treat the workers fairly. Strangely enough, this did not happen in California when Ceasar Chavez organized the farm workers there. The farmers complain that "the workers are asking for the same old rights, year after year" when they should be "learning English." For a moment, let's ignore the blatantly racist position these "benevolent" employers speak from and take their argument seriously. How can these farm workers take any classes (let alone English classes) if they are working 12 hour days, 7 days a week? I spoke with one Oaxacan man whose 17 year old son who works the fields with him. Neither have much energy at the end of the day for anything other than sleep. The truth of the matter is that this has been going on for decades, long before Latin American workers arrived. (Prior to the 70s, most farm workers were poor rural black Americans and guess what? They already spoke English.)

Why is it that the farmers feel they should have a special privelege when it comes to employment practices? And why is it that they seem always to choose the most vulnerable workers to employ? They claim that Americans do not want to do the work, because it is too hard (and imply that Americans are too lazy, especially those welfare bums). If they really feel this way, why then do they fail to give dignity to the people who are actually willing to do this hard work?

On May Day, CITA staged the 100 Miles for Justice March, with the workers starting their march in Albion, NY, and ending in Geneva, NY. I was lucky enough to serve dinner to the marchers at the Geneva's Methodist Church. There, I heard Rosa Rivera speak and met several of the CITA workers and their supporters. Their stories are those of hard-working people who wish only to be treated with dignity. Since this has been denied to them, they are organizing and taking matters into their own very able hands.

Read more here, here, here and here.

Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart

In the struggle to unionize Wal-Mart, it seems that the momentum has swung decidedly to the side of the workers. CNTODD at Freiheit und Wissen highlights a recent article in the NY Times (read his post here). For this Mother's Day (Sunday, May 8th), The UFCW unveiled the "Mother of all Mother's Day" card; an 8 foot by 8 foot Mother's Day card which is a symbol of Wal-Mart's discrimination record against women workers.

The good news here is the sheer scale of the movement to bring Wal-Mart into check. Along with the UFCW, the SEIU has launched a campaign to help in orgainzing Wal-Mart. Members of the IWW/IU 660 Retail Workers Union have started a Wal-Mart wiki.

The overall impact is that the general citizenry and elected officials are waking up to the fact that Wal-Mart is bad for communities and bad for people. There are dozens of politicians mobilizing against the unjust interests of Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart's sweetheart DOL deal is under increasing scrutiny (Dems with balls!).

This is a watershed moment in the history of labor activism post 9/11. Across the country and the world labor is letting managment know that they are sick and tired of the status quo and that the works will simply not take it any more.

Solidarity brothers and sisters -- and mothers!

Labor Arts

Mark Dilley's excellent blog has made me aware of the Labor Arts site, an excellent collection of labor themed artwork and exhibits. Mark linked directly to an excellent exhibit on the IWW (click here).

For those who are not familiar with the IWW, the acronym stands for the Industrial Workers of the World, a Union for All Workers. This year, 2005 is the one-hundredth anniversary of the IWW, having been founded on June 27, 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, by a congress of workers including elements from Socialist Labor Party/Socialist Trades & Labor Alliance, Socialist Party of America, Western Federation of Miners and survivors of International Working People's Association. A full cronology of the first 100 years of the IWW can be found here.

The core philosophy of the IWW is anarcho-syndicalism which can be summarized as follows (from Wikipedia):

Anarcho-syndicalists believe that workers’ organizations — the organizations that struggle against the wage system, which, in anarcho-syndicalist theory, will eventually form the basis of a new society — should be self-managing. They should not have bosses or “business agents”; rather, the workers should be able to make all the decisions that affect them themselves.

Anarcho-syndicalists believe that only direct action — that is, action concentrated on directly attaining a goal, as opposed to indirect action, such as electing a representative to a government position — will allow workers to liberate themselves.

The IWW promotes the General Strike as the ultimate direct action allowing workers to become liberated from the bonds of capital.

One of the other aspects of the IWW that makes it stand out is that it has from the beginning created media to promote worker culture. This includes art, comics, songs and poetry, to name a few. The IWW exhibit at Labor Arts explores this in detail. Many images can also be downloaded directly from the IWW here, here and here.

A list of centennial events can be found here, including a James Connolly celebration in Albany, NY on May 14th.

Carnival of the Un-Capitalists, Vol. 5

The Meat Eating Leftist hosts the special May Day (2005) edition of C-Un-C, to which FOL is a contributor this time around. Check it out!

Happy May Day, 2005!

May Day 2005 rallies around the world.

Workers around the world have marked the May Day holiday with protests calling for more rights and improved benefits, reports Al Jazeera. Worldwide celebrations and worker protests show mass solidarity in the internationalist spirit, reminding the capitalist rulers that their days are numbered. From Tokyo to Havana and across Europe and Canada, millions of workers took to the streets today in May Day rallies and marches. Some highlights include (in no particular order):

• Australia: Thousands flocked to May Day rallies across Sunday to protest the Howard government's planned industrial relations reforms.


• Venezuela: A major trade union initiative in solidarity with Venezuela has been launched by the Hands Off Venezuela campaign. Coinciding with the celebration of International Workers' day, Hands Off Venezuela is promoting an "Open letter to US trade unionists."


• Japan: Over 200,000 workers rally for a global ban on nuclear weapons, in memory of the US nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.


• Bangladesh: 5,000 workers rally for a minimum wage.


• Cuba: 1,000,000 Cubans gathered in the Plaza of the Revolution to hear Fidel Castro.


• Germany: Over 500,000 workers took part in marches and rallies across the country, many focusing on a recent political debate accusing company executives of increasing earnings while squeezing workers' wages and slashing jobs.
  
  
• Russia: Protestors calling for sweeping social reforms mixed with anti-government demonstrators in Moscow. Thousands of Communists rallied under pictures of Lenin and Stalin with traditional red-and-white, hammer-and-sickle banners bearing slogans like "Rise, Save Russia!" and marched down Tverskaya Street, one of Moscow's main boulevards. Radical activists from the National Bolshevik Party and the Red Youth Avant-Garde political group fought briefly with riot police.


• France: demonstrators used May Day to voice opinions on the country's upcoming referendum on the European Union constitution.


• China: China singled out more than 2,900 labourers -- and a few athletes -- for recognition on May Day, dubbing them "model workers," as people across the country started a week-long holiday with visits to squares and parks for kite flying and other recreation.


• Vietnam: Nationwide celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the victory of the Vietnamese people against US imperialism (and I would argue the victory of international solidarity).


• Spain: 25,000 workers rally in Madrid, with 50 rallies organized across Spain. Politicians from the governing Socialist party and the United Left coalition joined the people during the marches .
  

Absent are significant mass demonstrations in the United States. Ironically, the birth of May Day was a result of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago and spearheaded by the IWW and other militant unions. Read more here and here. A rally in Chicago called "Take Back the Original Labor Day" attracted hundreds of workers (see the story here). Every other country -- from Pakistan to Paraguay -- had rallies, which were widely reported, including our very close neighbors, Canada and Mexico.

As it turns out, in the US during the 1930s reactionaries pushed a bill through Congress labeling May Day to be Loyalty Day in order to counter labor celebrations. This slap in the face has been reinstated by George Bush as of 2004.

Another mythology promoted in the US is the May Day pagan celebration of nature, centering on the May pole dance. The true colors of the United States are shown when the ruling elite chooses to promote paganism versus worker solidarity!

Compagni

Salve Compagni di ogni nazione e lingua.

Vi parlo da queste pagine americane, prova tangibile della possibilità di superare confini "etnici" e di dare verità al sentimento internazionalista che ci accomuna.

Volevo spendere qualche parola sulla situazione politica italiana attuale.

Il nostro presidente del consiglio dei ministri, on. Silvio Berlusconi, non smentendo la sua pessima reputazione, ha provveduto a fare il classico "reimpasto di governo." Dopo le gloriose elezioni d'aprile, in cui la coalizione di sinsitra, guidata nel sud dal partito di Rifondazione Comunista, ha stracciato la destra Fascista, e dopo la fuga di alcuni ignavi politici che riportano al nome di UDC, la Destra Italiana, guidata dal liberale Berlusconi ha preferito tirare l'asso dalla manica, ricostituendo un governo che non rappresentà più la scelta degli italiani. Quanto ha fatto dà ragione solo a noi, che siamo convinti della bontà del sistema democratico, ma quello vero, non lo sfacciato oligarchismo mascherato da democrazia che propugnano tanto i governanti Bush, Blair e non ultimo Berlusconi. L'unica opzione possibile è rappresentata dalle elezioni subito, che paradossalmente permetterebbero alla destra di ottenere l'onore delle armi invece della meschinità di cui si stanno coprendo. Compagni, l'ora della nostra rimonta, per l'avvento del momento di transizione che noi chiamiamo Comunismo, si avvicina.

New Translations of Debord

Bill Not Bored (notbored.org) has announced some interesting progress on a recent project, as follows:

Comrades

1. We have translated all of the first volumes of "Guy Debord, Correspondance" (1957-1960, and 1961-1964), neither of which have been in English before. So far we have uploaded the letters to or concerning Ivan Chtcheglov, Socialisme ou Barbarie and the Zengakuren. Scroll to "Letters" on http://www.notbored.org/debord.html
   
   
2. We are the online publishers of two pirated translated of new books by Cornelius Castoriadis, a co-founder of Socialisme ou Barbarie. Neither has ever been in English translation before. See http://www.notbored.org/RTI.html and http://www.notbored.org/FTPK.html
   
   
3. We have begun a series of essays on "Money and Literature." Scroll to the bottom of http://www.notbored.org/contents.html
   
   
4. We have finally worked out the weaknesses of Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" with respect to Debord's "Society of the Spectacle." See http://www.notbored.org/foucault-and-debord.html
   
   
5. This Foucault/Debord commentary is an extended footnote to the beginnings of our meditations on "the prison." See "All the World's A Prison" at http://www.notbored.org/all-the-world.html
   
   
6. We have resumed selling situationist memorabilia. See http://www.notbored.org/buy.html
   
   
7. For a very good read, see "Dancing in the Streets! Anarchists, IWWs, Surrealists, Situationists & Provos in the 1960s, as recorded in the pages of the 'Rebel Workers' and 'Heatwave'" (Charles H Kerr, 2005)
   

Best wishes for May Day, etc
Bill Not Bored

Iraqi Labor Leader Hassam Juma: We Will Defend Our Oil

An Iraqi oil workers union has challenged the largest subcontractor operating in Iraq.
Picture from In These Times

Iraqi labor unions have been gaining steady ground since the fall of Sadam Hussien. A blog maintained by Iraqi Union Solidarity can be found here. Much activity has focused on Basra, but militant union activity is taking place all over Iraq. New freedoms are a double edged sword - the direct authoritarian controls of the Bathists are gone, only to be replaced by the brutal chaos of capitalist imperialism at its worst. Nevertheless brave brothers and sisters are taking a stand to protect their interests against rampant corporate greed. An interview with Hassam Juma can be found here.

The following is from a recent Alternet article:

As U.S. and British forces entered Baghdad on April 9, 2003, and the Saddam Hussein regime crumbled, those who had been driven underground by Hussein's rule began to breathe again. From Syria, Britain, Scandinavia and elsewhere, exiled trade union radicals began to make the long journey home.

The first post-Saddam days saw a ferment of labor organizing. A general strike broke out in Basra, after the British troops tried to install a notorious ex-Baath Party leader as mayor. Within a month, the city already had a labor council bringing together many new unions.

A recent article on Iraqi trade unions written by Giuliana Sgrena can be found here

French Socialists Vote 'Non' II

There are continued hopeful signs of a defeat of the European Constitution in France. The people of Europe are realizing that, although a internationalist tendency is desirable, this Constitution does nothing but put chains onto the everyday people of Europe while institutionalizing neo-liberal, pro-war, imperialist policies.

The awakening to reality began on February 4, when 82% of delegates in France's largest trade union confederation, the CGT, voted to endorse the "no". This was a blow to the CGT's own leadership, which had come out for "yes". The rumblings began to be heard in the ranks of the Socialist Party, whose first secretary François Hollande had railroaded through an internal party referendum which narrowly endorsed the Constitution before anyone had had time to read it.

Read more here and here

The Liberal Democrats are still liberals!

I'm sorry, but over the past few weeks, apart from suffering Tory propaganda every time I step outside, I've been observing a rather worrying new trend in my fellow Brits. It seems that after eight years of the Cheshire cat grin, people are getting sick of New Labour. Now this in itself is fair enough: the disturbing nature of this trend is the increasingly widespread perception among voters that the Liberal Democrats are to the left of Labour. This, too, is perhaps a forgivable assumption. The media often rattles on about the Lib Dems being centre-left, and replacing Old Labour.

Unfortunately, while this is forgivable, it's also bollocks.

Let's not forget that the mass media wants two things from the British public: 1) the majority of people (well, active voters) to accept that everything is going swimmingly and 2) for those who see through the charade to be channelled into a nice, safe and ineffectual political cul-de-sac. The Liberal Democrats are that cul-de-sac. Yes, they make a lot of nice promises. Council tax, war, detention without trial, costly nursing, tuition fees? Sure, we'll get rid of those for ya! However, we cannot forget that however socially liberal they are, the Liberal Democrats are capitalists first and foremost. Even worse, they don't have the left-wing members Labour does.

The Liberal Democrats are not to the left of Labour. Not to the average Labour Left activist, councillor or MP. Because sometimes we forget these people are out there. All those members and ex-members who're horrified at what New Labour has done to their Party. The Lib Dems opposed the minimum wage, want to break up the NHS and run it on market rules. They would scrap the New Deal, the Child Trust Fund, the Winter Fuel Payment and the Pension Credit. However much harm Blair and his post-Thatcherite brand of neo-liberalism have done to the labour movement, we should never fall into the sectarian trap of denying the good he has done.

New Labour has poured money back into the public sector, and Brown even looks like he has an affinity for the dreaded "tax and spend" of yore. These aren't left-wing policies, but they help ordinary working people. Another Tory government would scrap this. Yes, it's highly improbable that Howard's savagely populist rhetoric will get the Tories into power, but it's sure as smeg not worth risking it for the Lib Dems. Nothing good could come of a Lib Dem victory, or even an increase in their MPs. The Lib Dems swing from left to right, depending on their audience, and then they forget about any promises as soon as they're in power.

To hammer the point home, consider that in Scotland the Lib Dems even backtracked on their fundamental opposition to tuition fees and the council tax, suddenly deciding to support them. The Liberal Democrats are environmentalists when they can snatch Green votes, but when they're in local government they go right ahead and ignore simple Green policies, such as diverting road-building funds into public transport. For everyone out there supporting them as a the left-wing alternative, think again.

What do you think will happen if New Labour sees their votes flying over to the self-declared "radical centre"? It certainly won't bring the Labour Left back into power, that's for sure.

Copy Left

The Creative Commons and Copy Left set has now been labelled as Communists by everyones' favorite capitalist, Billyboy Gates. Seems that Bill is feeling threatened by the growing surge of knowlege workers who are building tools, content and whatever else to share with their fellow man for mutual benefit. Certainly there is an element of capitialist struggle in all this - I'm certain that the bricks and mortar and finance capitalists would love nothing more than for the "soft-skills" to be devalued - a fiat of extracting surplus labour par excellance.

So Billy is the defender of the free working programmers and content developers of the world, protecting us from further wage degredation? I hope so! Of course the unionization (see this and this and this) history of Microsoft leaves one with doubts (he writes with a smirk).

Maybe these Creative Commons folks will begin to realize that Bill is in fact correct: because in fact their mission is in line with socialist (and anarchist for that matter) ideals. Read more on the copy left topic here and here.

Visit from Condie?

I guess I am not sure how I should feel about this visitor to our blog (as recorded by NedStat).

9.

22 April

10:13

Department of State, Washington, D.C., United States

Perhaps next time our visitor can leave a comment for us describing her interest.

Dance of the Underclass

I picked up this CD recently. I was mainly after a nice acoustical version of The Internationale I'd heard snippets of on some other blogs and websites. Turns out it was by Alistair Hulett. So I found this CD and it is really great. All the songs are political (Marxist) in nature. The music is pretty traditional Gaelic (Irish/Scottish) and the vocals are good but very folk - this is not the Dropkick Murphies or Flogging Molly

The song list includes (1-4 stars based on my personal and arbitrary tastes :) ):

• Among Proddy Dogs & Papes - A tribute to Scottish identity in opposition to Power, and a bit of an homage to William Wallace (still don't know what a proddy dog or pape is tho)
• Yuppietown - Yuppies moving in and forcing out working class people
• After the Smoke Cleared - Nice personalization of Marx's theory of primative accumulation
• Destitution Road - Trail of Tears for Scotts
• He Fades Away - Too sad for my likin'
• Suicide Town - Cool song about a grim little town
• No Half Measures - About an alcoholic father, poignant
• Farewell to Wiskey - Traditional Gaelic song about, you guessed it, an alcoholic
• The Swaggies Have All Waltzed Matilda Away - Excellent working class song, focuses on Australian solidarity
• The Plains of Maralinga - About the tragedy of bomb tests in Australia and the killing of aboriginals
• Dictatorship of Capital - Good song challenging the basic assumptions of the average non-socialist
• The Internationale - Awesome version, basically the original Pottier text, with the middle verse a bit different (see below).

In Hulett's Internationale the middle verse is as follows:

No more deluded by reaction
On tyrants only we'll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They'll break the ranks and fight no more
and if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We'll shoot the generals on our own side

Very powerful words, and quite appropriate in our own time of perpetual war. Truly we are being sacrified and the ruling classes are cannibals literally devouring our flesh and dignity, and sucking our very life-blood.

So this CD was hard to find but I finally did get it here www.musicfolk.com a very friendly and prompt shop.

Dishevelled Hippies vs. Capitalism

The Green Party of England and Wales, that genuine citadel of ageing hippies, middle-class radicals and moderate socialists, have once again legitimised their image as the "nice party" of British politics.

Their recently published manifesto, while carefully avoiding the words "socialism" or "working-class" like the plague, is a triumph of reformist socialism. Old Labourites will be proud. In an age when the Big Three parties unashamedly endorse the politics of populism and opportunism, where business finances elections and the mass media sets the debate, it's nice to know that some people haven't abandoned their principles for a few extra votes.

Committed to such forgotten concepts as compassion and justice, their traditional "soft Left" policies are a warm reminder that socialism doesn't have to consist of Trots in turbans to attract popular appeal. The Greens, in all their reformist glory, probably accomplish more in their grassroots, cooperative platform than all the various hard Left sects, cults and fronts put together.

Of course, an electoral platform by itself isn't the answer. The Greens are, at best, Old Labour reborn for the 21st Century. But they do serve one, incredibly valuable use: they have recaptured the moral high ground from liberalism. Avoiding confrontational politics, their general attitude is eerily reminiscent of the average primary school: look after those who struggle, share your toys, respect the views of others, always be responsible, and don't be greedy.

Whatever the downside of their policies, the Greens’ support for inclusive, community-based politics and grassroots democracy may be just the tool to get people active in politics again.

Well Attired Socialists Unite!

Secular Human over at "A Socialist World is Possible!" states the following:

"Marxism means not only keeping pace with the changes in reality and keeping in step with the people but also being and thinking ahead of the people. So we do not need the benign blessing of the media, or anyone else for that matter, to enter the 21st century and that too adorned in the fashionable attires chosen by congenital anti-communists."

Fashionable self-assured Socialists marching towards a better tomorrow - what could be better!? I shamelessly admit that I myself am something of a slave to fashion, or as Alphonse might say, a dandy. It is also entirely possible that I just misunderstood the last line of the above, but no matter, I shall detourn and use the text for my own enjoyable ends.

The entire post is here: A Spectre - IV