The Dissident

Expose The Tea Baggers

2010-10-08T12:17:00.000-04:00

The Tea Baggers are a one stop political center of the ignorant ugly American. States Rights is one of their weapons against progress. The term “states’ rights,” some have argued, has long been used as a code word by defenders of segregation. It was the official name of the “Dixiecrat” party led by white supremacist presidential candidate Strom Thurmond. George Wallace, the Alabama governor—who famously declared in his inaugural address, “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”—later remarked that he should have said, “States’ rights now! States’ rights tomorrow! States’ rights forever!” Wallace, however, claimed that segregation was but one issue symbolic of a larger struggle for states’ rights; in that view, which some historians dispute, his replacement of segregation with states’ rights would be more of a clarification than a euphemism. The Flat tax: The dissenting voices seem to be made up of “special interest” groups–the real estate industry, charitable organizations, tax attorneys and tax accountants. The general public needs to learn when it becomes understood that the various flat tax proposals will significantly increase the tax burden of Americans earning less than $100,000 per year. This method of tax punishes working class and poor and allows the wealthy more breaks. Capitalism will save us/ Less Government: Another worry is how the chemical dispersants being used to break up the undersea oil will impact the Gulf’s ecosystems and inhabitants. The dispersant’s ingredients are a trade secret closely held by the company that makes it, and therefore have not been vetted by marine biologists to determine their safety for use in such a large application. It also remains to be seen what impact the tiny oil droplets left in the dispersant’s wake will have. It could actually be worse for the undersea environment to break the oil up into tiny droplets (which is done to try to make it easier for microbes to digest them). Beyond all these undersea environmental effects, the oil is also starting to wash up into coastal wetlands already besieged by overdevelopment, pollution . If there can be any silver lining to this catastrophe, it may be that it is the wake-up call we’ve needed to start moving more rapidly away from fossil fuels to a clean, renewable energy future. For starters, we can all begin to reduce our own oil consumption and opt for clean and green energy sources whenever possible. So far Capitalism supports sweatshops, pollution, endless wars, inequality, and poverty. Also, Capitalism is responsible for un-nutritious genetically modified foods. Lees Government means smaller weaker government for the people. Egregious culture of ignorance and selfishness. They like author Ayn Rand for instance. She was a Author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “Fountainhead.” In Atlas Shrugged the wealth go off to start there own Nation because workers and the poor are leaches and the wealthy should keep their money. In Fountainhead a architect blow up a building claiming it is his and the corporation bastardized it. Of course it isn’t and the judge renders it OK to perform acts oif sabatage, Terrorism, and reckless endangerment, and more. It was his creation it belonged to him. They hate the United Nation because they fear Internationalism and crave isolation and wish to bring the world into the past. And Impose there values on people. They hate socialism and confuse Communism with Socialist. Here is a good site: http://www.bidstrup.com/politics.htm Their mantra is that The top one percent gets everything, and Obama the Socialist supports them with mass money. Capitalism will save us. The top one percent are Capitalists. (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are also Socialist. TV personalities who are expected to incite America Cult of Ignorance. On TV shouting and screaming and suggesting that this country is becoming Socialist. – Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter etc are not ‘average Americans’ they are rich people who make millions and part of the ‘elite’ they pretend to rail against. It is their personal interests they are trying to protect while using the ignorance of poor and working class people to do be manipulated in there Cult. The 2009 Tea Parties are merely an updated version of what took place once upon a time with corporate media being the tool that has violated our trust and replaced trust with psychological techniques and discussions designed to manipulate folks who cannot think in the first place. If they told some of these people whiz was champagne, they would drink it. Fear, greed, ignorance, hate. And using the constitution to do it.

A Social America

2010-09-26T23:47:00.001-04:00

Conservatives are going to hate this. We need a more social America and this is what we socialists should be striving for. So, I’ll list our endeavers. With in a structure of a Bill of Democratic Rights here is what we should do.

1. Rights and duties for all- Clearly stated and understood rights and duties for all (individuals, government, co-operatives, business and trade unions) will create new social cohesion and give everyone a chance to participate in, contribute to and benefit society.

2. Full employment- America cannot afford to exclude people from the work- place. We must harness everyone’s talents and skills. Meaningful jobs amd jobs with justice. will be the norm. That is the road to prosperity and to a fairer society.

3. Investing in people Investing in people – through education, training and progressive social policies, is essential if America is to maintain its prosperity. To move from the old job to the new job, America must invest in constantly developing the skills and knowledge of its people.

4. Inclusive societies – nobody left behind Everybody counts! Ending Capitalism as the norm, introducing better health care, universal income, livable, sustainable society. A Living Wage and Income, Affordable housing.

5. Universal child care Good quality, affordable and accessible child care is a necessity for the 21st century family. It gives children the best possible start to their education, frees parents to enter paid employment, creates jobs, and integrates families into the community. If a parent chooses, they may live with a Universal Income

6. Equal rights for all, Inequality between classes is still unacceptably strong. New policies to change inequality – in work, family and public life – will bring social justice and economic benefits. In a neww Social America There are those who argue that America or Europe can no longer afford its welfare states due to the unrelenting pressure of globalization – that nations should compete to set the lowest rates of taxation and have the fewest workers rights. Europe’s socialists and social democrats know there is a better way. America will not be reduced to a competition between states – we stake our claim to a NEW Social America. Our task is to renew and strengthen our welfare states. This is not to preserve them as they are but to reform them with new rights and privileges. and a new deal between people and government.

7. -The rich and privileged should not be the ones to have an education. Education should be free for all. From ages 16-21 youth should have ½ universal income

8. The elimination of Poverty shall be done trough the Universal Income Ands urban renewal. Real estate due to need not investment. The end of slums, and rural poverty and enriching the lives of all.

9. Improving the quality of life for all and making a society that is peaceful, non racist, ecological, and enlightening.

10. Create a Human rights office and social justice office. This office will be a law enforcement adamancy for labor, social justice, rights of human and animals. A public Advocate to challenge government and have presentation. The Tea Party and Conservatives will really hate this but lighter and enlightened minds shall prevail.

Franken Food

2010-09-11T14:17:00.001-04:00

Genetically modified foods are made from genetically modified organisms. Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques. These techniques are much more precise than mutagenesis (mutation breeding) where an organism is exposed to chemicals to create a artificial yet stable change. Other techniques by which humans modify food organisms include selective breeding (plant breeding and animal breeding), and somaclonal variation. Bans In 2002, Zambia cut off the flow of Genetically Modified Food from UN’s World Food Program. This left a famine-stricken population without food ssistence.[ In December 2005 the Zambian government changed its mind in the face of further famine and allowed the importation of GM maize. However, the Zambian Minister for Agriculture Mundia Sikatana has insisted that the ban on genetically modified maize remains, saying “We do not want genetically modified foods and our hope is that all of us can continue to produce non-GM foods In April 2004 Hugo Chávez announced a total ban on genetically modified seeds in Venezuela. In January 2005, the Hungarian government announced a ban on importing and planting of genetic modified maize seeds, which was subsequently authorized by the EU. On August 18, 2006, American exports of rice to Europe were interrupted when much of the U.S. crop was confirmed to be contaminated with unapproved engineered genes, possibly due to accidental cross-pollination with conventional crops. On February 9, 2010, Indian Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, imposed a moratorium on the cultivation of GMF “for as long as it is needed to establish public trust and confidence”. His decision was made after protest from several groups responding to regulatory approval of the cultivation of Bt brinjal, a GM eggplant in October, 2009. Intellectual property Traditionally, farmers in all nations saved their own seed from year to year. Allowing to follow this practice with genetically modified seed would result in seed developers losing the ability to profit from their breeding work. Therefore, genetically-modified seed are subject to licensing by their developers in contracts that are written to prevent farmers from following this traditional practice. Many objections to genetically modified food crops are based on this change. Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser Enforcement of patents on genetically modified plants is often contentious, especially because of gene flow. In 1998, 95-98 percent of about 10 km2 planted with canola by Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser were found to contain Monsanto Company’s patented Roundup Ready gene although Schmeiser had never purchased seed from Monsanto. The initial source of the plants was undetermined, and could have been through either gene flow or intentional theft. However, the overwhelming predominance of the trait implied that Schmeiser must have intentionally selected for it. The court determined that Schmeiser had saved seed from areas on and adjacent to his property where Roundup had been sprayed, such as ditches and near power poles. Although unable to prove direct theft, Monsanto sued Schmeiser for piracy since he knowingly grew Roundup Ready plants without paying royalties. The case made it to the Canadian Supreme Court, which in 2004 ruled 5 to 4 in Monsanto’s favor. The dissenting judges focused primarily on the fact that Monsanto’s patents covered only the gene itself and glyphosate resistant cells, and failed to cover transgenic plants in their entirety. All of the judges agreed that Schmeiser would not have to pay any damages since he had not benefited from his use of the genetically modified seed. In response to criticism, Monsanto Canada’s Director of Public Affairs stated that “It is not, nor has it ever been Monsanto Canada’s policy to enforce its patent on Roundup Ready crops when they are present on a farmer’s field by accident…Only when there has been a knowing and deliberate violation of its patent rights will Monsanto act. Can you believe that scientists are now actually modifying plants to manufacture pharmaceutical compounds (a technique known as “pharming”), trees which will yield fruit and nuts much earlier in the season than they would naturally, plants that produce new kinds of plastics, and fish that reproduce more rapidly! What are Genetically Modified Organisms ? Farmers have had free seeds in America for 600 years, and now these same free seeds are owned by private sector corporations. Scientists have been and are currently introducing genetic material into organisms to alter, create and affect changes in living plants and animals. These radical changes scientists are developing create specific, desirable traits that might never evolve naturally and in my opinion are extremely dangerous. Collectively called recombinant DNA technology, this practice changes the core genetic make-up of organisms. This genetic manipulation gives scientists the ability to create any trait that they wish, or suppress natural traits they don’t want. There are several reasons this unnatural genetic manipulation may affect you. It’s usually not clear which consumables have been genetically manipulated. You don’t know the long term health effects of these genetically modified foods. Initial research has shown that short-term reactions can be severe. Agro-chemical companies and the government are planning to charge farmers fees to grow their GM crops, thereby negatively affecting the economy and environment. Cultivated Genetically Modified Foods – From bacteria (E. coli) and fungus, fruits and vegetables to animals, genetic manipulation is becoming more and more common in our society. In the US market now, 60 to 70% of the processed foods are genetically modified. In 2006, United States GMO crops reached just shy of 135 million acres, with the total global area exceeding 250 million acres!1 This is a short list of the genetically modified food crops that are grown in the US today: Sugar cane , Sweet peppers, Tomatoes, Bananas ,Strawberries , Soy bean Corn Potatoes , Pineapples ,Cocoa beans ,Yellow squash Zucchini REFERENCES Brief 35: Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2006, Accessed Nov 2007. Available for purchase, http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/35/ The True Food Shopping Guide, http://www.truefoodnow.org/shoppersguide/guide_printable.html, from The True Food Network, http://www.truefoodnow.org/ 50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods, by Nathan Batalion, http://www.raw-wisdom.com/50harmful Ibid. American Rice Banned in Many Countries After Genetic Contamination, http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_1605.cfm, by Thomas Whitman, ed., Ecological Farming Association, August 21, 2006 Health Begins in The Colon, ©2007, by Dr. Edward F. Group III, p. 131 Pharm Phresh Frankenfoods, http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE4/Pharm-Phresh-Frankenfoods7oct02.htm, by Margaret Wertheim, LA Weekly, 7Oct02 Genetically Modified Foods: Are They a Risk to Human/Animal Health? http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/pusztai.html, by Arpad Pusztai. An ActionBioscience.org original article
MOVIES
Super Size Me
Food inc
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Concerned about GM foods?Organic Agriculture Prohibits GMO The Organic Valley Family of Farmswww.organicvalley.coop

Guns Trade

2010-09-04T12:29:00.000-04:00

Just as America's streets are flooded with weaponry, so is the global market-place. From the American-bought hand-gun that killed a Mexican presidential candidate this year to the varied weapons of war equipment used by Iraqi forces during the Persian Gulf War, weapons of every variety are moving undetected across world borders.

Here in the United States, violence-weary Americans have begun standing up to the once all-powerful gun lobbies. In Philadelphia PA there is a murder everyday.

America's arms export policy point to three problems
1. Connected gun merchants are above the law. 2. Many foreign Nations
Aren’t subject to us regulations. 3. Secret Government are complicit in international gun merchandising.
Even a single American-supplied weapon can change an entire contry's history. Luis Donaldo Colosio, the 44-year-old heir-apparent to the Mexican presidency, was killed in March by two bullets fired from a .38-caliber Taurus. The gun was originally purchased in 1977 by a security firm executive in San Francisco and had crossed the Mexican border some time later without a trace, say authorities from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF).

After the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union collapsed. Tens of thousands of ex-Soviet soldiers were put out of work. Much of Eastern Europe was the same. In Africa, the lack of superpower support meant that the traditional militaries collapsed. And societies were beginning to fragment into numerous rebel groups ( National Liberation Front, Democratic Liberation, ETC) and there was a great demand for military arms. Many of the former Soviet citizens became arms dealers. The situation went from a situation traditionally emphasized heavy arms to one which emphasized small arms -- what the soldier could carry. These would have been AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortars, that sort of thing. They were cheap, they were durable, and they could be concealed and easily transported. And I think the fact [is] that the West kept track of the state-to-state arms transfers, but what made this a particularly difficult problem after the end of the Cold War was there was no tracking of small arms.
And it had a major impact on Africa -- very devastating. I guess 7 to 8 million people had been killed by the turn of the century [2000]. There were millions of refugees and internally displaced [people]. Also, numerous people maimed or otherwise brutalized. Whole areas of Africa just ravaged. I think perhaps Sierra Leone, Liberia, and eastern Congo are the most terrifying examples.

The flow of arms into Africa is a worldwide phenomenon. Arms dealers use banks throughout the world. Transportation companies throughout the world, whether it be sea or airplane. Deals are made in one country for arms purchased in other countries. A lot of arms flowed out of the former Soviet republics. But there were also arms coming from European countries as well, and Asian countries. It was a bonanza. And it was unregulated.
The impact on Africa, if you could look at several different sectors of society. The Karamojong people living in eastern Africa, it's a pastoral group, traditional warriors. Suddenly, they're armed with AK-47s. It turned their society into chaos. In eastern Congo, where you had an invasion by the Ugandans and Rwandans and various rebel groups active in the area, it just devastated the entire portion of that country. I can remember speaking with some people who lived there. They said, "There's nothing here. There's no roads. There's no police force. There's no schools. There's no medical services. There's nothing. You're on your own." And that is the most egregious example. And then you have rising crime rates in places like Nairobi or Johannesburg, in part fueled by the easy availability of illegal arms.

Children and millions around, not just Africa, the world are being sensely murder and are victims of international weapons trade.

The Revolutionary United front (RUF) in Sierra Leone armed up to 23,000 child soldiers with illegally acquired arms. These children were mostly used to raid villages and guard diamond mines. They were drugged, raped and forced to commit such atrocities as killing their own parents Many Children are dismember and hacked or shot to death.

The illegal arms trade makes the armed seizure of natural resources possible.

Small arms can be traded directly for natural resources such as oil, diamonds, and timber or for the profits generated by the sale of those natural resources.

This is like a cancer.

Capitalism and Socialism

2010-08-09T14:41:00.001-04:00

The USA is the richest country in the world. Yet millions of people will be homeless at some time over many long years. There’s no national health scheme, and over forty million people cannot afford private coverage. Socialism seems to be the better alternative. Socialism is about solving our Social and Econmic problems in a fair and equitable basis. Social-democracy as Democratic Socialism an alternative strategy for achieving socialism. Socialism is fights for the abolishment of wage-slavery and the capitalist system built on it by a different system – freedom, cooperative, liberty, Democratic labor. What has that got to do with the modest reforms achieved by the Capitalists and Trotskyites? The fight for social reforms and the defense of existing welfare state provisions are indeed necessary for socialists to take up. Although socialsim isn‘t a pencea, it is the true and real political solution. If only a free market economy can offer democracy. Without it you get state control, and state control inevitably stifles democracy socialists do not want a bureaucratic state, high taxes, and inefficiencies as lies told by Democrats, Republicans, and libertarians. Capitalism has become less irrational and inhuman since industrial revolution. Wage slavery and exploitation are still at the heart and root of capitalism. In a world of vast productivity and excess food production, 150 million children (by UN statistics) do not get enough to eat. Capitalism thrives on exploitation as consumers, women, children, seniors and men suffer in the circuit of the underprivileged. The idea that only the market system can be the basis for democracy is like saying only wage slavery for the masses and increasing concentration of wealth and power at the top of society can be the basis of democracy! Democracy in capitalism is limited and unstable. This came from Social Revolutions demanded by the people. We need to spark this up again. Mass self-rule by the producers, dominated neither by a bureaucratic state monopoly nor by the economic rule of the multimillionaires and their officials, is a better form of democracy. See this link for more:
Myths About Socialism http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/10
A Case for Socialism in the Twenty First Century-Jason Schulman http://web.gc.cuny.edu/advocate/FEB05ISSUE/html/caseforsocialism.htm
There are lies myths and slanders against socialism, like Socialism is about bureaucracy, bigger government, more taxes. This is just about providing Socialism to the people and not millionaires.

Social Anthropology

2010-08-01T21:12:00.001-04:00

Social anthropology is one of the four or five branches of anthropology that studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups and siuations. Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive observation (Includin research and participation), the social organization of a particular person: customs, economic and political organization, law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange, kinship and family structure, child rearing and socialization, religion,Socialists must understand ; economic anthropology; environment ; development.Ethnic and gender identity based politics; Intersectional of ethnicity/race, and class; Anthropology of human rights; Anthropology of human inequality; Ethnic inequalities and economic transformation in the planet mission to eliminate poverty. The development of civil society in the world. The impact on this process, climate change policies (focus on their impact on sustainable and livable communities), Science and Technology Studies , sociology of organizations and institutional sociology, theories of power. anthropology of war, violence and conflict, nation-state, ethnicity, and economic anthropology.Many Liberals and Socialist here in America are clueless to the culture and societies of others.The problem is ignorance and inexperience. Many socialists feel that the world should adhere to American values and perpetuate socialism on those values. This is utter non sense.People of different culture and societies have social morays and values of there own, which many American, even socialists do not understand..In the beginning of Star Trek, Captain Kirk speaks about new cultures and civilizations.When many Star Trek and its predecessor shows viewed the different values and natures of alien beings.People criticized Benazare Bhuto when she had an arranged marriage. She explained, even as a Socialist, that this was her way and her religion.If one where to go to Japan or Korea and start preaching the American gospel, they would tell you they have different values and culture.People have their way of life, communication, environmental, and value system different from ours.There are some who believe we should force people to see things our way. This didn’t work in Italy as I once was told by my cousin. A fellow socialist, this is Italy, not America, we do things differently here.If American Socialist are going to be successful, we will have to follow the view of Gene Roddenberry. Also, Burt Wolf says, ” Travel melts away, ignorance, prejudice, and opens our minds.”In dealing with people the mutual respect of being alien and foreign come to understanding. Democratic Socialism will free us all in different ways.With universal understanding, tolerances, and acceptance of similarities and differences. We are all human beings and have many of the same needs. respect is a major ingredient. And diplomacy must be learned.

American Labor Party Points

2010-07-19T15:54:00.000-04:00

What is Democratic Socialism?

It is a Economic and Political system based in fairness and equity. It advocate Public Ownership as in Municipal and State Governments by the people. It forms a radical democracy placing peoples lives in their own hands through democratically controlled institutions, such as banks, utility, businesses, and co-operatives. Democratic Socialism is synonymous with Democracy.

What does a Democratic Socialist Party do?

It brings social and economic justice into our lives. It combats poverty, worker exploitation. It also improves the quality of life in society fostering a better world too live through social programs and public initiatives which improves the quality of life. These include Sustainable and livable communities, Public enterprise, alternative energies, green planning. It denies corporate welfare, socialism for the rich, rich people perks and abatement.

Is a Socialist Party a multi tendency Party?

Yes, but that doesn’t mean we accept Trotskyites and Communists. And we can work with Democrats, Greens, and other Socialist who are on this same page. We will not compromise our fight against Capitalism and we have visions and ideas that come from us and others who’s ideas are sound and for the people.

Te American Labor Party is in Favor of The Socialist International!

We agree that the Socialist International membership has had massive failures. But they have also had massive successes. Like free education, free health care, improving the quality of life. Workers rights and other programs. Amongst the Happiest Countries in the world the top 7 all have had Socialist and Labor Parties. We would like to change the third way and neo-liberal values. We believe we can be an asset.

Why a Labor Party?

Because Labor is how we survive. We have a multitude of issues to fight for, but first and foremost, We are about Labor and Anti Poverty. Once we solve those issues our new Revolution can be successful. We are no Different from our USA forefathers in a fight for Freedom and Democracy. Even George Washing ton thought we should have a Revolution every 200 years to rebuild our Democracy and fight off Imperialistic governments.

What will we do?

We will fight for the freedom and liberty of people who agree with us and some who do not. We believe people should freedom in their lives and electorate, and the USA should be a true Democracy in every sense of the word. We believe in a Social Democracy, economic democracy, and human rights, and a better world.

Socialist International

2010-07-19T15:39:00.000-04:00

The Second International, which was formed in 1889 and dissolved on the eve of World War I in 1914 and the Labour and Socialist International which dissolved itself in 1940 with the rise of Nazism and the start of World War II, constituted some of the same parties that would later form the Socialist International.While the Second International was split by the outbreak of World War a skeleton form survived through the International Socialist Commission. The International re-formed in 1923 (as the Labor and Socialist International), and was reconstituted again, in its present form, after World War II (during which many social democratic and socialist parties had been suppressed in Nazi-occupied Europe).During the post-World War II period, the SI aided social democratic parties in re-establishing themselves when dictatorship gave way to democracy in Portugal (1974) and Spain (1975). Until its 1976 Geneva Congress, the Socialist International had few members outside Europe and no formal involvement with Latin America. In the 1980s, most SI parties gave their backing to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas (FSLN), whose left-wing government had incited enmity from the United States.Since then, the SI has admitted as member-parties not only the FSLN but also the centre-left Puerto Rican Independence Party, as well as the ex-Communist parties such as the Italian Democrats of the Left (Democratici di Sinistra (DS)) and the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO).The Party of European Socialists, a European political party active in the European Parliament, is an associated organization of the Socialist International.
The SI itself is still a top shelf organization of the global left. They officially support the various anti-capitalist movements around the world. The SI calls for the international abolition of the death penalty. The SI favors every country adopting some kind of Ecological policies. They also favor canceling debts in many of the 3rd world nations. It is importantly to remember that the SI opposed the US led action of war on Iraq . Virtually every SI member party opposed the war.
The SI took a stand against apartheid In South Africa supporting Mandella. Being a champion in international human rights. In Jamaica Prime Minster Stanley took a stand against US pressure. The US gave the (socialist) People’s National Party government a hard time for Jamaica trying to get rid of poverty and having the nerve to embrace Cuba. In a Conservative government, the Jamaican begin toting M16 military riffles.
The Socialist Party of Allenede came back to power several years ago which is a adamant rejection of Augusto Pinochet’s fascist reign of terror and human rights abuses which lasted from 1973 until 1990. After the CIA backed overthrow of democratically elected Salvatore Allende.The Movement toward Socialism organization in Venezuela is an observer status member of the SI. The MTS supports the justice and reforms of Hugo Chavez. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has to destroy the Socialist government of Venezuela. The USA’s northern neighbor, Canada. The New Democratic Party did fairly well. They picked up 5 seats in the House of Commons from 14 to 19. electorate.
The Socialist Party of America had had enormous success in Milwaukee when it was an SI party member. No since the early 1900′s has the USA had a real significant Socialist Party. That is Where the American Labor Party and Socialist International step in. The ALP/ISO will seek entrance to the SI.
Dedicated and Inspred by Mel Little

Democracy

2010-07-19T12:21:00.000-04:00

“I am a Socialist because I am for humanity”
Eugene V Debs
“I am a Socialist because I believe that Socialism and Democracy are the only Political Ideologies that allow people to be completely Human.”
Tino Rozzo
　
　
Compiled from Various sources:
Democracy is a political form of government where governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative Democracy has taken a number of forms, both in theory and practice. The following kinds are not exclusive of one another: many specify details of aspects that are independent of one
Representative:
Representative democracy involves the selection of government officials by the people being represented. If the head of state is also democratically elected then it is called a democratic republic. The most common mechanisms involve election of the candidate with a majority or a plurality of the votes.
Representatives may be elected or become diplomatic representatives by a particular district (or constituency), or represent the entire electorate proportionally proportional systems, with some using a combination of the two. Some representative democracies also incorporate elements of direct democracy, such as referendums. A characteristic of representative democracy is that while the representatives are elected by the people to act in their interest, they retain the freedom to exercise their own judgment as how best to do so.
Parliamentary:
Parliamentary democracy is a representative democracy where government is appointed by parliamentary representatives as opposed to a 'presidential rule' wherein the President is both head of state and the head of government and is elected by the voters. Under a parliamentary democracy, government is exercised by delegation to an executive ministry and subject to ongoing review, checks and balances by the legislative parliament elected by the people.
Liberal:
A Liberal democracy is a representative democracy in which the ability of the elected representatives to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of law, and usually moderated by a constitution that emphasizes the protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals, and which places constraints on the leaders and on the extent to which the will of the majority can be exercised against the rights of minorities (see civil liberties).
Direct:
Direct democracy is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally, contrary to relying on intermediaries or representatives. The supporters of direct democracy argue that democracy is more than merely a procedural issue. A direct democracy gives the voting population the power to:
Change constitutional laws, Put forth initiatives, referenda and suggestions for laws,
Give binding orders to elective officials, such as revoking them before the end of their elected term, or initiating a lawsuit for breaking a campaign promise.
Of the three measures mentioned, most operate in developed democracies today. This is part of a gradual shift towards direct democracies. Examples of this include the extensive use of referenda in California with more than 20 million voters, and (i.e., voting).[ in Switzerland, where five million voters decide on national referenda and initiatives two to four times a year; direct democratic instruments are also well established at the cantonal and communal level. Vermont towns have been known for their yearly town meetings, held every March to decide on local issues. No direct democracy is in existence outside the framework of a different overarching form of government. Most direct democracies to date have been weak forms, relatively small communities, usually city-states. The world is yet to see a large, fundamental, working example of direct democracy as of yet, with most examples being small and weak forms.
Participatory:
A Par-polity or Participatory Polity is a theoretical form of democracy that is ruled by a Nested Council structure. The guiding philosophy is that people should have decision making power in proportion to how much they are affected by the decision. Local councils of 25-50 people are completely autonomous on issues that affect only them, and these councils send delegates to higher level councils who are again autonomous regarding issues that affect only the population affected by that council.
A council court of randomly chosen citizens serves as a check on the tyranny of the majority, and rules on which body gets to vote on which issue. Delegates can vote differently than their sending council might wish, but are mandated to communicate the wishes of their sending council. Delegates are recallable at any time. Referenda are possible at any time via votes of the majority of lower level councils, however, not everything is a referendum as this is most likely a waste of time. A par-polity is meant to work in tandem with a participatory economy
Socialist Democracy:
Contemporary social democracy:
A red rose is often used as a symbol of social democracy, mostly adopted in the period after World War II. The American Labor Party uses the rose, carnation, and cardinal.
The contemporary social democratic movement came into being through a break within the socialist movement in the early years of the twentieth century. Speaking broadly, this break can be described as a parting of ways between those who insisted upon political revolution as a precondition for the achievement of socialist goals and those who maintained that a gradual or evolutionary path to socialism was both possible and desirable. Many held a view of quite different objections to Marxism.
　
Social democracy should neither expect nor desire the imminent collapse of the existing economic system What social democracy should be doing, and doing for a long time to come, is organize the working class politically, train it for democracy, and fight for any and all reforms in the state which are designed to raise the working class and make the state more democratic." Eduard Bernstein[15
Social Democracy Economic Planning, Mixed Economy, Participatory planning Market economics, Market-oriented Mixed economy Regulated markets: Social Market, Mixed-Market, Welfare State State ownership or cooperative ownership of the means of production and heavy industry State ownership or cooperative ownership of the means of production Private ownership of the means of production with minimal public ownership of some industry State or public owns resources and major economic institutions, uses the surplus labor to fund government programs, state-directed investment State, public or worker cooperatives own resources and enterprises, uses them to fund government programs, sometimes with state-directed investment State mainly funded through progressive taxation, government regulates private business and provides welfare Socialist economics, Economic planning.
The main feature, All people have the right to freedom and liberty. They have divergent points if view free opinion and expression.
This also means free and unhindered elections, with all candidates represented from various political parties with free and open access to the ballot for freedom of choice. access
　
Democratic Socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations, to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation. The term is sometimes used synonymously with 'social democracy', but many self-identified democratic socialists oppose contemporary social democracy because it is based on the capitalist mode of production.
　
Democratic socialism is difficult to define, and groups of scholars have radically different definitions for the term. Some definitions simply refer to all forms of socialism that follow an electoral, reformist or evolutionary path to socialism, rather than a revolutionary one.] Often, this definition is invoked to distinguish democratic socialism from communism, as in Donald Busky's Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey], Jim Tomlinson's Democratic Socialism and Economic Policy: The Attlee Years, 1945-1951, Norman Thomas Democratic Socialism: a new appraisal or Roy Hattersley's Choose Freedom: The Future of Democratic Socialism.
In light, Capitalism must be eventually burned out, become the exception and not the norm. Nationalization and th end of Neo-liberal programs are the mission.
We reject Democratic Centralism and quasi Democracies. Only Democracy in its truest form
Dedicated to Don Busky-Red Pen. RIP.

Democratic Socialism

2010-07-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

Democratic Socialism advocates for real change. Our agenda has two sides. One for social change, and one for political change. The issue of Social change must be implemented and there must be allowance for it. Here in The USA, along with many communities, even in a global sense, A majority of people public policy that would Further the combat against poverty and social inequality. Many times the preferences of ordinary citizens Are ignored for the sake in demands of powerful elements such as groups, powerful investors, corporations, Major investors and the affluent. Those people do not mind the high degree of inequality. The remedies of societies problems are possible. But frequently fought off with right wing mythology which states. we will create more bureaucracies, smaller government, and Utopianism. The chief purpose of government is to pursue policies that benefit all citizens. Even Republican Abraham Lincoln supported the notion of a "Government For The People". These must include the fight against poverty and economic inequality. In fact these policies are efficient, effective, and freedom enhancing, rather than wasteful or freedom reducing. Social policy often meets Right Wing moral platitudes against those Who need assistance or are suffering and defines them as the undeserved and burden to society. I call for a Political system of Compassion and open mindedness, rather than one of disdain and ignorance. We need to address those who labor, as the are the most important segment of society, since work defines most peoples lives. No more should the worker, nor those who contribute to society have unjust laws against them and be made to suffer the consequences of oppression. Socialist Parties are about "Labor and The People. As many who know, New Zealand, Canada, and Scandinavia are Democratic Socialist States or have had them, they are not neutral. All socialists should are acquainted with being business-minded and union-minded. Opposing capitalism does not mean opposing business or trade; we are not advocates of returning the world to a regressive state, we are advocates of advancing the human condition. That requires knowing the terrain in which modern are fought on behalf of the worker and society for a truer Democracy. In Europe there are ten parties on the ballot-and voting is done on Saturday. It is also treated as a National Holiday. These Countries have a 98% voter turn out. Instead of the 40% we have here. The Mythology of stealing votes, and more parties are hurtful are the cries of the two party duopoly who wish to maintain power. We saw what a fiasco the two party system has been in the last Presidential election and throughout the years. In a real Democracy people have what is called FREEDOM OF CHOICE. In a Democratic society people have the right to exchange ideas and have free and open exchange ideologies, and make choices based upon them. Socialism wishes to transform society. The popular notions of economic development must pass. We have developed a materialistic society based on wasteful consumerism. That must change. We need to build a society that embraces a sustainable future. Many communities are recklessly being destroyed but rampant development. This Development has brought to many strip malls and not enough economic development which produce quality jobs. We need a sustainable future. One that balances our ecological needs with our financial needs. Our future must contain a greater degree of Cooperative Enterprise. We must develop and build Cooperatives so people can have quality jobs that also sustain our lives. Cooperatives are businesses own by Employees. They are run on a democratic basis and fulfill Economic and social needs. The advantages of Cooperatives are that they are Democratic, self sufficient, equal, give equity, Provide a living wage, and ecologically sound. There are many Cooperatives that can be developed. Worker owned Supermarkets, energy Companies, Phone Companies, Social Needs Coops, and more. Coops and Public enterpise should be developed in place of Welfare, because they can alleviate poverty, re-develop Communities, and sustain the natural environment. This would give people the ability to control there own work. Employees would have control of the means of production. It would also eliminate the mindless mind numbing jobs entrenched in Taylorism and Workfare Programs which pay slave wages. We need a welfare system that will give people freedom, and not manage poverty. We can change society so every person can live a happy fulfilling life. One of the best systems of Coop enterprise is the Mondragon system of Spain's Basque region. We have coops in America that provide inexpensive food, and where the first in product labeling and consumer consciousness is providing quality products. We need a better system of work environment. American Socialists advocate

1. Six weeks paid vacation.

2. National Health Care.

3. Social Programs that work.

4. A Living Wage.

5. Free Continued College and University.

6. Ecological Development

7 Labor Rights

8 Meaningful Jobs

By cutting back on Government Waste and Corporate welfare programs we could literally afford all of this For our nation and share with developing nations. Transforming our attitudes away from the coldness of today’ thinking, we could develop a society Where we develop more compassionate, charitable mentality. Where the national wealth is shared and we put a end to the torture of poverty .

Democratic Socialism is about prepetuating a better society.

Workers Democarcy

2010-07-11T08:17:00.001-04:00

Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in all its forms (including voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, systems of appeal, and so on) to the workplace.It usually involves or requires more use of lateral methods like arbitration when workplace disputes arise.Workplace democracy theory closely follows political democracy, especially where businesses are large or politics is small:movement, farm and retail co-operative movements, Democratic Employee Stock Option Plans all made contributions to the theory and practice of workplace democracy and often carried that into the political arena as a "more participatory democracy." The Socialist International Social Democrat, Socialist and Labor Parties should adopted this as one of their Main focuses. Workplace democracy norms such as co-leadership, deliberative democracy applied to any major decision, and leaders who don't do policy. The Democratic Socialist Parties have always supported the notion of work place democracy and democratically controlled institutions.In Sweden, the Social Democratic Party made laws and reforms 1950-70 to achieve more democratic workplaces. The unions right to balance the management and have some influential power was rather radical at that time, but still within the capitalistic society. ( which should be burned out)Politically, Salvador Allende inspired a large number of such experiments in Chile before his death on September 11, 1973. The book Brain of the Firm by Stafford Beer details experiments in workplace feedback that exploited systems theory extensively.Venezuela has instituted worker-run "co-management" initiatives in which workers' councils are the cornerstone of the management of a plant or factory. In experimental co-managed enterprises, such as the state-owned Alcasa factory, workers develop budgets and elect both managers and departmental delegates who work together with strategists on technical issues related to production.
Individual career development
Employee development, job enrichment, job rotation and entrance training can be arranged by the work team itself to suit its own schedule. Job sharing is also possible and desirable if a worker wants time off and another is in a position to do overtime, without the concern that this will set a precedent for management abuses or job losses.Training should not be for insiders or the well connected but should benefit the community.Succession planning is everyone's problem: senior management will be replaced by whoever is elected to replace them. There shall be no discrimination or class. All people will have the opportunity to have positions, entry positions, education, and leadership training. with out coming from and important family or special connections.
Organizational structure and management
Office politics in such an environment can be difficult: people might devote a lot of time to keeping their colleagues satisfied and supporting them socially and politically, and there is less surety of success. Success is much better through a co-operative system. Performance appraisals in particular are very sensitive, as it's conducted by peers. Meetings and meeting systems must generally be very efficient, and require strong models of chairmanship and sophisticated models of how to handle consent and dissent. Open-space meetings and other methods to define their agendas have been used by some organizations, notably political party and management consultant organizations. One example is the Living Agenda pioneered by Canadian political parties.There must be assurances that fellow workers will not abuse and protection instilled by quality control and Union Committees.Organizational culture should however be generally more accepting of organizational learning and peer review of performance.Performance improvement, self-assessment and coping with one's own Ability to adapt and mature. However, this is not to say those skills always apply in management: Peter principle applies if anything faster: people who are perceived as effective are elected to run things, which they promptly fail at. However, there is much more acceptance of returning to the shop as a worker if someone fails at management, which is much more difficult in organizations where there is a culture gap between managers and workers. This can be improved by education for competence and ability in a education system that doesn’t fail to provide the education needed.Also grievance and resolution can be applied. The better planned organization, the better the chances of success. There should be an avoidance of nepotism and the buddy system.
It may be easier in environments where consensus or consensus-seeking decision-making is already practiced for the most important decisions: who leads. Consensus democracy methods already exist to make very large scale decisions in social organizations.
As well as factories producing everything from textiles, ceramics, glass and rubber to food and refrigerators, the network also includes transportation companies, educational facilities and even hospitals. Most of them are headed up by men, but in some cases, the horizontal organizational structure has helped women move into leading roles.
One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the world's governments in 2000 is to promote gender equality and empower women. But in this case, the progress achieved by women is not a result of a government policy. On the contrary, it was the women themselves who took control of the abandoned factories and other businesses and got them back on their feet.
Grissinópoli is a member of the National Movement of Factories Recovered by Workers, a collective of roughly 80 companies formed in the late 1990s to group together bankrupted businesses that had been abandoned by their owners, but not by their employees. These factories are now boss free and co-operative.
Everyone who sells their body for labor for a living are members of the working class. This includes most segments of society, workers who are self-employed as well as wage earners in the employment field. We are different in multitudes of ways but one thing we have in solidarity is that we are all members of the working class, we all depend on our work and that of our families. The real enemies of the working class are the capitalists - a small society that gets their income mainly from stocks, bonds, inheritances, and real estate. They control the political parties and the government with their wealth. These people make their money from birth right, not from work. The more profit they make, the more damage they do. The working class also does not include small employers and managers (petty despots) who control workers. Workers are 90% of the population. Although not all elements of Capitalism are bad, Capitalism should be the exception, no the norm.

Workers Democarcy

2010-07-11T08:17:00.000-04:00

Tea Baggers

2010-06-24T14:52:00.001-04:00

When it comes to Tea I prefer mine to be Oolong at a Chinese restaurant. Jimmy Lee Hollis never fails to strike a reaction.The Tea Part makes erroneous statements, like Obama, Clinton, and Carter where all Socialists. In which I have never heard any speak of Universal health Care, a full time 32 hour week, six weeks vacation, and the improvement of education out side the corporate initiative.Although in this district take heart, we have a Candidate in the American Labor Party/ Independent Socialist Party named Vitov Valdes Munoz. Who is the only progressive on the ballot. So we Leftist Liberals have someone to Vote for.Of course Tea Baggers say only Capitalism will save us. And BP is doing such a splendid job of saving us, that I have a friend in Florida who really appreciate what BP has done for her economy.She is a cook, and she says no one is going to Florida for a vacation. The Oil Glots are already there and the Florida economy in her area is going into collapse.When I figure that we have always hosted sweatshops and labor with multitudes of human rights abuses, one could be sure people didn’t wake up one mourning and say, just for the fun of it, lets start Unions. Capitalism works, and sometimes it works on people, animals, and the environment inhumanely. What a savior.We are also Coffee Party Advocates. Rather than Conservative Reactionary Politics, The National Coffee Party is a Coalition of people who encourage deliberation guided by reason amongst the many viewpoints held by our members. We see our diversity as a strength, not a weakness, because we believe that faithful deliberation from multiple vantage points is the best way to achieve the common good. It is in the responsible and reasonable practice of deliberation that we hope to contribute to society.The National Coffee Party doesn’t run candidates. I have re-founded the American Labor Party/Independent Socialist Party to run candidates and promote a greater democracy.The Tea Party suggested that the Second Amendent allows us to bear arms against the Federal Government. Sounds like sedition too me. On March 20, 2010, before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Bill was voted on in Washington D.C., it was reported that Tea Party protesters against the bill used racial and homophobic slurs. Several black lawmakers said that demonstrators shouted "the N-word" at them. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver said he was spat upon, and Congressman Barney Frank, who is gay, was called a "faggot." Representative André Carson said that as he walked from the Cannon House Office Building with Representative John Lewis, amid chants of "Kill the bill" he heard the "n - word at least 15 times". One man "just rattled it off several times." Carson quoted Lewis as saying, "You know, this reminds me of a different time."I do not believe that the majority of the Tea Party activist are racist but if you go to one of their rallies a good portion of them are. Look up a group called Brave New Films. They have a section on the Tea Party rallies and racism. The ALP/ISO and Coffee Clutch is concerned with many progressive issues. The Coffee Party and ALP/ISO have the same message in Coalition.They are a political movement that developed as an alternative to the Tea Party movement. Its mission states that it is based on the underlying principle that the government is "not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face as Americans. Its stated goals include getting cooperation in government and removing corporate influence from politics.And we endorse Vitov Valdes Munoz for congress.first ALP Cnadidiate since Vito Marcantonio.

IMMIGRANTS USA

2010-06-21T19:18:00.001-04:00

I have studied the Immigration issue and feel I mustadd an alternative insight to the norm of belief andmisconception.I have age on my side with much political memory. I’llstart with the Cold War.As a teenager we heard many things about the SovietUnion. One of the best observations for War Hawks wasthe fact that many people defected from the SovietUnion because of the lack of freedom and Democracy. We where frequently told, no nation is freer thanAmerica. That this is the land of opportunity whereyou could be anything you dreamed becoming. (Which of,course was a lie.) That Human Rights abuses in theSoviet Union where so high, that the KGB would nabanyone off the Street and that person would never beseen again. Give us your Poor, your Cold, and your Hungry it says on the base of the Statue of Liberty.Yes, In America you can say and do the things youwant, and millions of Soviet Block citizens want to the west. The Stories of life under StalinistCommunism was told everyday and we should feel greatful that we where born here because people in the Soviet Block want our freedoms. These defectors where embraced as heroes.Looking a free country to live in.Examining Mexico I see hypocrisy in the Cold War mentality. The Mexicans live pretty much as the old Soviet Citizens did. The citizens fear the Federalies(Police)Mexican can be arrested and sent to jail of any reasonand not see there way out for years no matter theinfraction. Working in Mexican factories, people are forced to work 70 hour a week for low wages. Physical and mental abuse in factories are regular occurrence.One women stated that she didn’t even know who herUnion was or how they represented the people. On an Occasion, one woman did complain to her Union and the next day The Union and Federalies put out a warrant for her arrest. At one point the Chiapa’s Indian tribe in Mexico stood up for their rights and the Government mowed them down. In 1994, Chiapas was involved in a civil war or revolution that lasted only 11 days, the two sidesi nvolved being the Mexican Government and theZapatista Army of National Liberation (the EZLN orZapatistas). Nowadays the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista deLiberación Nacional, named in honour of EmilianoZapata) have rejected the use of force and seek to berecognized as a voice of the disenfranchised. Thereare currently 32 "rebel autonomous zapatistamunicipalities" (independent Zapatista communities,MAREZ in Spanish). And yet with Internationally knownhuman rights abuses, the Clinton Administration stillratifies NAFTA.The enws media frequently, now points to China’s Humanrights abuses as a Communist Country. Amazing how thesame exact huiman rights abuses takes place in Mexico.Looking back at the USA and its Right Wing Citizens,on could easily see the Hypocracy. Those onceembracing the Defectors of the Soviet Union, are thesame people who want fences and walls up between theUS Mexican Boarder. Don’t Meixcans want freedom, liberty, and democracy? Isn’t the United State champions of such said values? Of Course not. The CIA had helped the very oppressive Dictortator of Chile,Pinochet in Office. Then when the Democratic Socialist Manning Government of Jamaica was out of Office, the Conservative Party in Jamaica made special deals in which many where Carrying M16 riffles the next year. And look at the mess made in Iran and Afghanistan. NAFTA isn’t working in Mexico either.It seems that the Libertarian Earnesto Zadillo and Carlos Salinas governments in the 1990’s brought Mexico to such an economic collapse, that the Mexicans are worse off now financially tha any time in History. Most Mexicans would rather be home, and a lot ofAmericans are picking up cheap Real Estate in Mexico.Where does Freedom, Liberty, Democracy play into thelives of these immigrants?

What Our Plans Should Be

2010-06-09T16:50:00.001-04:00

We should dvocate the Abolishment of the Patriot Act • Opposes all warrentless searches as authorized by the new FISA Act• Advocate holding all telecommunications Companies liable for allowing U.S. Government to eavesdrop on Americans • Opposes domestic spying of antiwar groups and American citizens• Opposes waterboarding and any form of prisoner abuse and torture • Opposes the deprivation of legal and constitutional rights and freedoms American citizens and foreign prisoners• Opposes the threat to any and all free speech and lawful dissent in our country
Clear Stand on Important Issues:
1) Stop The War in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring the American troops and reconstruction companies home immediately;
2) Implement a national health care system to include comprehensive health, dental and mental health care for all residents, foreign and domestic.
3) Initiate a guaranteed income for all American families, working or not, at a level of $35,000 per year per adult (2008 Cost of Living levels)
4) Nationalize Oil Industry, Pharmaceutical Industry, Banking and Insurance Industry, Railroad and Automotive Industries, and Entertainment and Sports Industries
5) Phase out all nuclear power plants, shut down waste incinerators, landfills and open-pit mining.
6) Call for unconditional disarmament by the U.S.
7) End U.S. Cuban Embargo and the occupation of Guantanamo, Cuba, and return entire U.S. property to the country of Cuba
8) Call for immediate 50% cut in the military budget, with additional 50% over the next 10 years;
9) Call for treaty outlawing all weapons of mass destruction
10) Abolish CIA, NSA, Homeland Security Agency and all other covert warfare institutions
11) End Israeli occupation of West Bank-East Jerusalem/Gaza; cease all U.S. aid to Israel---as precondition for peace.
12) Disband NATO
13) Cut off all U.S. military aid to Colombia
14) Close all U.S. military facilities that train foreign military and paramilitary personnel.
15) Initiate Worldwide war on poverty and global illnesses, especially in third and fourth world countries;
16) Establish Public ownership and democratic control of all natural resources to preserve wilderness areas and restore environmental quality.
17) Support Kyoto Protocol and lead in controlling global warming and cleaning up of toxic wastes, protect workers and communities from all harmful products
18) Cap and reduce corporate profits and excessive executive salary levels while fostering transfer of corporate ownership and control to workers.
19) Mandate right of employees for access to chose labor union representation to assure fair salaries and benefits.
20) Implement a national housing plan for all Americans
21) Legislate a 30 hour work week, six weeks annual paid vacation and a full pension
22) Provide equal rights to all immigrants; recognize their presence due to unfair U.S. economic policies, war, famine, or bad working conditions
23) Opposes Capital punishment
24) Cease construction of all new prisons nationwide; institute full range of rights and rehabilitation for prisoners;
25) Conduct Massive Rebuilding of United States infrastructure of bridges, railroad lines, major highways and subway systems and rural communities.
26) Reinforce and enhance government and private support of the arts, sports and culture.
27) Assure equal rights of all citizens, in gender, race, age, sexual preference or religion. Eliminate special privileges for all interest groups.
28) Stop America's participation in NAFTA, CAFTA, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, WORLD BANK, IMF, etc.
29) Stop the gauging and rip-offs of consumers by legislating limits and caps for costs in services and products in the market place.
30) Abolish poverty in all its forms in America by assuring every American family with the basics in income, health and housing.
31) Promote a more equitable society by enhancing citizens rights and participatory control
32) During transition to full worker control, require private sector to implement a fairer economic system of consumer costs, profit-margins and regulation of services and products.
33) Reduce Defense spending significantly in the areas of high tech and military equipment and weaponry while enhancing protections and benefits for the common soldier.
34) Promote universal access to education on the college and vocational school level. Promote liberal arts, along with engineering and science, in colleges and universities. Remove the influence of corporate and military entities on our higher institutes of learning.
35) Promote a multi-party system, fair access to debates, universal ballot access, proportional representation and public funding of all elections.
36) Support a woman's right to choose in matters of abortion; and oppose all restrictions on access to abortion.
In additon end U.S. arms sales in world.2) pay off U.S. debts to UN3) advocate constitutional amendment requiring binding vote of people on all issues of war or military intervention.4) support right of soldiers to form unions
LABOR:1) support right of workers to form a union anywhere2) support right to strike3) recognize union based on cards signed4) all workers have a right to collective bargaining5) repeal of the Hatch Act and Taft-Hartley Act, landrum-griffin Act and "right-to-work" laws.6) same benefits for full and part-time workers7) stop using union funds for electing candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties.8) give sanctuary to illegal immigrants in the U.S., full social services and impact immigration influx not with walls or guns or threats of imprisonment, but with fairer policies toward all other countries to enable their economies to thrive and expand as well.
HUMAN NEEDS:1) support arts and culture, universal education 2) right of all people to high quality, low cost housing3) public transportation in urban and rural area such as rail systems, foot and bicycle paths, pedestrian ways, renewable fuels and control of the airline industry
ECONOMICS:1) Supports minimum wage of $15 per hour (COL, 2008)2) re-regulate banking and insurance industries; and all financial and insurance institutions to be socially owned and operated by a democratically controlled national banking authority3) call for a steeply graduated income tax and estate tax, and a maximum income of no more than 10 times minimum.4) cancel 3rd world debt5) expand welfare assistance and unemployment compensation 6) support massive federal investment in urban and rural infrastructure reconstruction and economic development, and more
ENVIRONMENT:1) support large-scale environmental restoration efforts.
ENERGY:1) develop alternative energy sources including solar, geothermal, wind, hydropower, and biomass to end dependency on fossil fuels.2) ensure all people have access to utility services3) mandatory encapsulation of all spent nuclear fuel, etc. and ban on all nuclear materials
AGRICULTURE:1) support system of ecologically based, sustainable, organic agriculture based on family farms and farming cooperatives guaranteeing full workers' rights, etc. See platform.

Euro Socialism: A View

2010-05-31T15:42:00.003-04:00

Socialist Parties in Europe are in turmoil. Why? Because they seem to have the problem of divorcing themselves from an existent Capitalist system.
Capitalism largely doesn’t work. It does on minor level when people start small businesses, or even organic pasta factories.
In Europe even the small businessman have a picture of Che in their pizzeria. Here in America, the local Republican Politician.
In America people are elite minded. In Europe people are Social minded.
The Socialist Parties and Social Democrats have done a more successful job the any other form of Socialism. Why?
Lets look at the Nordic countries. And even Italy. When I went Sardinia, the streets are named after famous Italian Socialists. The Un-socialist thing about Sardinia is poverty and joblessness.
The major problem of the failure of Socialist International Parties is that they lean toward Euro Liberalism. Party leaders cannot even relate to workers and apply elitist values close to conservatives. But many bottom rank and file members are the true radicals. They are the ones fighting the true revolution.
Even now the Party of European Socialist are concerned with initating a more Social Europe. Since the Social Democratic Socialist Parties of Europe are electable, they are the ones delivering the goods. But in very shallow terms. Scandinavian Socialism is the only Socialism that works. They are the happiest countries in the world.
The adoption of Third Way ideology by many social democrats has proved divisive within the broader social democratic community. Traditional social democrats argue that Third Way ideology has caused the movement to become too centrist, and even that the movement may be becoming center-right. In general, apparent reversals in policy have encountered significant opposition among party members and core voters; many of the latter have claimed that their leaders have betrayed the principles of social democracy.
So there are Social Democrats who are Socialists and Socials Democrats who are Euro Liberals.
The Major problems with Euro Socialists, they are suck in a Capitalist mode. Conservatives and Right Euro Liberals have made it impossible for Socialists to maneuver. American Socialists blame The Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese Socialists for austerity and other problems. Socialist inherit horrible government policies from conservatives and Euro Liberals than get blamed for these horrible policies.

The failure of the American Left. In Europe they can at least fashion Coalition Parties, In America Socialist are also political isolationists.
Socialist in America do not practice the democracy they preach. They expel members for free thought, and compromise the liberty and freedom of members who disagree or function on their own. This a is especially done with a Trotsky mentality.
American Socialists blame Lula DeSilva and Bernie Sanders for compromising. Sad to say, that is also what politics is about, unless there is a clear majority. Sanders is the only Socialist in Congress. Lula and even Evo Morales is stuck with their conservative fringes.
Democracy from the top isn’t Democracy, Democratic Centralism isn’t Democracy, it is a form of control. It is a mafia type system where the powerful rule.
Most American Socialists are ignorant of other peoples culture and societies. Not realizing even if people are Socialists in their country they still will not have American Socialist values, nor should they. Even many feminists are not about Liberation. Many are petty despots. (I am a Barbara Ehrenriech feminist.) They studying SOCIAL ANTHOPOLOGY.
Although I appreciate Communism, it has a difficult time in the United States. But one of my heroes is a Communist.

I am a Communist Bastard Sometimes:

Enrico Berlinguer (Italian pronunciation: [berliŋˈɡwɛr]) (25 May 1922 – 11 June 1984) was an Italian politician; he was national secretary of the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano or PCI) from 1972 until his death.
On an internal side, Berlinguer's last major statement was a call for the solidarity among the leftist parties. In June 1984 Berlinguer suddenly left the stage during a speech at public meeting in Padua: he had suffered a brain hemorrhage, and died three days later. More than a million citizens attended his funeral, one of the biggest in Italy's history.
[Enrico Berlinguer has been defined in many ways, but he was generally recognised for political coherence and a certain courage, together with a rare personal and political intelligence. A serious man, he was sincerely respected even by his opponents, and his three days' agony was followed with great attention by the general population. His funeral was followed by a large number of people, perhaps among the highest ever seen in Rome.
The funerals of Enrico Berlinguer produced probably the largest crowds ever to gather in Rome; here they are shown making the clenched fist, symbol of the Communist and leftist movements
The most important political act of his career in the PCI was undoubtedly the dramatic break with Soviet Communism, the so-called strappo, together with the creation of Euro-communism, and his substantial work towards contact with the moderate (and particularly the catholic) half of the country.

(Some Items extricated from Wikipedia.)

Right now as a Euro Socialist I am supporter of the PES and Socialisti Italiano.

“I am a Socialist because I believe that Socialism and Democracy are the only Political Ideologies that allow people to be completely Human.”
Tino Rozzo

“True Socialism is something that must be Evolved into”
Eugene V Debs

Dedicated too Chegetz, Mike Marino, Vito Anthony Marcantonio
Vitov Valdez Munoz (Candidate ALP), Buyana Badrakh (Mongolian Socialist)

Free Market Capitalism

2010-05-15T14:03:00.000-04:00

. I keep hearing only Free Market Capitalism will save us.
Free-market capitalism has come to dominate our economic thinking. It has even led to the mistaken view that there is no other variety of capitalism than the free-market kind. Capitalism is the view that a nation’s economy, for the most part, is better left in private hands rather than being centrally planned by government. In this respect it differs from political and economic systems.

There is no such thing as free-market capitalism . The government championship of free markets make exceptions for patents, and copyrights, which constitute government regulations that favor publishing companies and pharmaceutical companies.
DNA and Seed genes can belong to companies who can ruin our lives if we use them. Seeds farmers have had free and used for 600 years in America are now owned by private companies.

With labor exploitation, poverty, industrial pollution and the lack of compassionate efforts, capitalism has a history of destruction. Sure one could argue the entrepreneurial value and goods for services and jobs. But these can be had by alternative economies.

There is also further empirical evidence to show that even when individuals act selfishly from perfect economic freedom they rarely enhance the good of others, or even themselves. One such bit of evidence is known as “the tragedy of the commons.”

“The race to the bottom,”, whereas the optimal outcome for each individual is not to cooperate while others do cooperate. An example is tax competition among nations. Each nation may benefit from having a high tax on corporate profits to promote income equality. But nations can benefit individually with a lower corporate tax rate to attract business from other nations. This hurts all but the one that lowered the tax rate. To be competitive, each of the other nations would have to lower its tax rate, thereby “racing to the bottom” with a result less favorable in promoting income equality and the good of all.
The poverty rate in the world is 90%.

Universal Health Care and other social programs have a evidence that they do work and are beneficial to society. With our current Corporateocracy our futures maybe hopeless.
Wit such a record of destruction, it is difficult to see how Free Market Capitalism will save us. Is this a Utopian pipe dream? Of course.

The Socialist Soteasan: Chung Bin Park

2010-05-08T07:28:00.001-04:00

Chung-bin Park also known as Soteasan - One of his mottos was:- As material civilization develops, cultivate spiritual civilization accordingly. Born in 1891 he attained Enlightenment (nirvana) in 1916 after twenty years of struggle. Object of worship is the Ill-Won-sang or perfect circle which represents the Dharmakaya Buddha. No Buddha statues. Doctrine based on Three Principles - Cultivation of spiritual stability, study of Facts and Principles, Selection of Right Conduct as well as cultivation of the four graces of Heaven and earth, Parents, Brethren and the Law. Also emphasises the practice of Son - meditation at all times. Aims to build towards United Religions (U.R) and the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace.
I can easily claim, He was definitely a Socialist.
Under Japanese occupation, he was arrested many times. Yet he even won over some Japanese followers. He stated not even alienating people who where oppressors because they where human also and could change for the better. His message was about peace and harmony amongst all people.
"If I where to have Children in many Parts of the world, and they where of different races, I would love them all the same because they are all part of me. As the human race is part of one original source."The worldwide Buddhist community, as an humane whole, transcends divisions prevalent in society today. Social and economic development efforts are undertaken by Buddhists everywhere, International Buddhist wish to foster a new world, transcending race and religions. To bring a consciousness to society in the Global Village.Buddhist feel social and economic development generally take the form of progressive reformist and revolutionary initiatives carried out by Co-operative groups of people in the Cities and Rural areas in which they live. As these initiatives evolve, some grow into more sustantial programs with permanent administrative structures. Buddhist encourage both frugal and cost effectiveness. Changing society from one of wastefulness, to one that takes care of the Earth and Communities.At the heart of all Buddhist development takes recognition of a deep and inseparable connection between the practical and spiritual aspects of daily life. Creating a desire for social change and instilling confidence that it can be achieved must ultimately come from an awakening of the human spirit. Cultivating the spiritual and humane roots of human motivation provides the essential impulse that ensures genuine social advancement.Workers in the development field have increasingly come to understand that the creation and diffusion of knowledge lie at the heart of social progress. Buddhist social and economic development is therefore focused on increasing the capacity of individuals, communities, and institutions to take concrete steps that foster Enlightenment and material well-being. This process of capacity building involves a global enterprise of Education in which Buddhists from virtually every cultural and ethnic background work to apply the methods of science and the moral and spiritual insights found in the the Buddhist teachings to their particular local conditions. It is a Karmic Process in which every local communities gradually improve their ability to define, analyze, and meet the needs of the community. From the Buddhist point of view the set of efforts necessary for building up the social, economic, and moral fabric of life must draw upon the resources of both the mind and the heart. By fully integrating spiritual principles into community development activities, ideas, values, and practical measures emerge that promote self-reliance and safeguard human dignity. In this way, patterns of dependency are avoided and conditions of inequality are progressively eliminated.Won Buddhism has a view of world peace which spiritual. WON BUDDHIST PROPOSALS FOR WORLD PEACE: Won Buddhism nor Buddhism in general, is not confined to one nation or one race. Won Buddhism goals to go beyond any boundaries or obstructions. The founder of Won Buddhism advocates and claims that all religions meet at the thought of lrwonism because the final goal of religions is one and the same. Morality(The Morality based on the Three Principles of Identity). The First Principle of Identity, "All Doctrines Have the Same Origin," suggests that each religion should expand beyond its own boundaries to open up to other religions, since all religions share one Truth and the same goal. The Second Principle of Identity, "All Living Beings Are Related by the Same Force (of Life)," suggests that the human race ought to live as brothers, free from fighting or resentment, since all human beings are of one family. The Third Principle of Identity, "All Enterprises Are for the Same Purpose', suggests that all human enterprises and assertions need to cooperate with each other, rather than rejecting one another, in order to construct a better world on earth. Chongsan's spirit of Samdong Morality is succeeded by Taesan's proposals for world peace, namely, cultivation of the mind-field, development of a worldwide market and the united religions movement "Cultivation of the Mind-field" purposes to foster the strength of mind, which can then make good use of scientific and technological advancement. Otherwise, human beings become enslaved to materialism and degenerate due to the influence of advanced science and technology. Development of a Worldwide Market" purposes to promote international cooperation without confinement to national or racial interests, so the all human beings are equally provided with affluent material conditions in clothing, food, and shelter for their physical needs. The United Religions Movement" purposes to free the individual from one's own religious egotism and boundaries, and to fulfill the original mission of religion. In furtherance of the goal of religious cooperation, the Won Buddhist community proposes to establish an institutionalized organization for world religions comparable to, and on parallel with, the United Nations organization. The Won Buddhist community will take the lead in removing the boundaries and barriers of the past, and creating one global family on earth, in tandem with other religious communities.For further readings The Kyojon and Tea Kyojon are on line. Won Buddhist Teachings. I recommend To Tuk: The Path of Humanity. In the Second Book. Read his examples.

Happiness Economics

2010-05-01T00:21:00.000-04:00

A variety of measures of national income and output are used ineconomics to estimate total economic activity in a Nation , including gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), and net national income (NNI). All are specially concerned with counting the total amount of goods and services produced within some economics measure. It incures one's own personal use, or for one's family, is largely left out of these measures, although some attempts are made to include some of those kinds of production by imputing monetary values.national accounts, of which these figures are a part, this began in the 1930s, in the United States and many European countries. The impetus for that major statistical effort was the Great Depression and the rise of Keynsian economics, which addresses a greater role for the government in managing an economy, and made it necessary for governments to obtain accurate information so that their interventions into the economy could proceed as much as possible on the basis of fact.quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms than GNP or GDP. As a chief economic indicator, GDP has numerous flaws long known to economists. GDP measures the amount of commerce in a nation, but counts remedial and defensive expenditures (such as the costs of security, police, pollution clean up, etc.) as positive contributions to commerce. A better measure of economic well-being would deduct such costs, and add in other non-market benefits (such as volunteer work, unpaid domestic work, and un-priced ecosystem services) in arriving at an indicator of well-being. As economic development on the planet approaches or surpasses the limits of ecosystems to provide resources and absorb human effluents, calling into question the ability of the planet to continue to support civilization (per the arguments of Jared Diamond, among others), many people have called for getting "Beyond GDP" (the title of a recent EU conference) in order to measure progress not as the mere increase in commercial transitions, nor as an increase in specifically economic well-being, but as an increase in general well-being as people themselves subjectively report it. GNH is a strong contributor to this movement to discard measurements of commercial transactions as a key indicator and to instead directly assess changes in the social and psychological well-being of populations.Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization, He used the phrase to the commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. At first offered as a casual concept was taken seriously, as the Center for Bhutan Studies, under the leadership of Kaarma Uru, developed a sophisticated survey instrument to measure the population's general level of well-being. The Canadian health epidemiologist Michael Pennock had a major role in the design of the instrument, and uses (what he calls) a "de-Bhutanized" version of the survey in his work in Victoria, British Columbia.quality of life by combining economists' and psychologists' techniques. It relies on more expansive notions of utility than does conventional economics. Although its usefulness is yet to be determined, it has become a subject of interest and often a measure of comparison with the traditional forms of measuring market health such as GDP and GNP. This field of studies is also called " The economy of happiness.”Easterlin paradox and may result from a "hedonic treadmill." This means that aspirations increase with income; after basic needs are met, relative rather than absolute income levels influence well-being. Happiness economists hope to change the way governments view well-being and how to most effectively govern and allocate resources given this paradox. However, other research suggests that no paradox exists, and happiness is linearly related to the logarithm of absolute (real, PPP-adjusted) income, with little or no relative income. this would be augmented by a Livable, Quality Universal Income.

As can be imagined, arriving at a figure for the total production of goods and services in a large region like a nation entails an enormous amount of data-collection and calculation. Although some attempts were made to estimate national incomes as long ago as the 17th century, the systematic keeping of

In order to count a good or service it is necessary to assign some value to it. The value that all of the measures discussed here assign to a good or service is its market value – the price it incures when bought or sold. No attempt is made to estimate the actual usefulness of a product – its use-value – assuming that to be any different from its market value.

Gross Happiness

The concept of gross national happiness (GNH) was developed in an attempt to define an indicator that measures

The term was coined in 1972 by

Happiness economics

The goal of happiness economics is to determine from what source people derive their well-being. Historically, economists have said that well-being is a simple function of income. However, it has been found that once wealth reaches a subsistence level, its effectiveness as a generator of well-being is greatly diminished. This paradox has been referred to as the

The national income of a nation is an estimate of the yearly production of goods and services. The loss of possible uses of the non-human made physical surroundings, named environmental functions, on which humanity is dependent in all its doings remains outside the estimate. Also the present and future production is dependent on these environmental functions. The sustainable national income (SNI) in a given year is an estimate of the production level at which - with the technology in the year of calculation - environmental functions remain available ‘for ever’.

Sustainable National Income

The sustainable national income (SNI) in a certain year is defined as the maximum attainable production level whereby, with the available technology in the year of calculation, vital environmental functions remain available ‘for ever’. The production level in the same year that is registered in the standard national income (NI) does not meet this condition. Environmental functions and their preservation after all fall outside the NI. The NI is therefore always higher than the SNI. The difference gives information about the distance between the present production level and the production level in a sustainable situation. If the distance decreases then we are on the road to environmental sustainability, the part of the production that is based on unsustainable use of the environment decreases. If the distance increases then we are drifting further away from sustainability.

Transition to environmental sustainability

With the present ecological and sustainable technology, population size as well as production and consumption patterns, the sustainable situation Capitalist governments ignore or put off. Although achieving environmental sustainability will require a long period of time. A Transition path to a sustainable situation is only limited by the condition that vital environmental functions must not be irreparably damaged. But must be scenically repaired. In view of the threat that this may happen it seems urgent to wait no longer with a change of course in the direction of

Universal Income Happiness:

A livable Quality Universal Income would achieve better than what is propose by most. The Basic Income, left Basic would impeded happiness.

In Portugal there are complaints of being supported on the basics, yet there is no quality of life. People feel they are merely existing.

Just providing people with basics cheats them out of happiness, achievement, and pursuit of better quality of life. The Basic Earth Universal Network must consider this. A quality income and quality life for all.

For Barbara La Rue

Capitalism and Mental Illness

2010-04-22T20:29:00.003-04:00

In the United States we have an unfortunate knack of differentiating work/labor and our politics. Or, more specifically, of treating our work practice as if it were essentially not related to politics. This is, of course, an illusion. All work/labor is political. All mental health assessments and interventions are political.

In life after capitalism, mental health institutions will no longer be organized according to the models promoted by slave labor, sociological abuse, poverty. This is promoted and dictated by social control imperatives and corporate profit motives. Instead, the institutional goal Socialism will be to facilitate the fullest development of the potentials of each and every individual, consistent with his or her physical and mental capabilities. Rather than viewing people as objects to be manipulated and controlled for the benefit of capital. The resistance toward empowerment, National Health Care, Universal Income, environment . Workers rights, human rights and dignities, stress and abuse, has engulfed the world in flames of agony.

With developing the Social notions of democratic Socialism as in the Scandinavian Countries, , a post-capitalist social system will inaugurate other transformations in the way that people are treated as human beings.
Post-capitalist

We must engage in empowerment practice. Empowerment practice involves ways of thinking and acting that acknowledge, support and amplify people’s own participation and influence in the decisions that affect their lives.

Abuse, exploitation, stress, fatigue, overwork, slums life, rural poverty life, workplace abuse all cause depression, stress, anxiety, and violence. Also, broken homes,

An average 23 percent of Americans, Britons, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians suffered in the last 12 months, but only 11.5 percent of Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Spaniards and Dutch.
The message could not be clearer. Capitalism is extremely bad for for our mental health.
Capitalism stokes up relative materialism: unrealistic aspirations and the expectation that they can be fulfilled.
It does so to stimulate consumerism in order to increase profits.

individuals or groups to use persistent aggressive or unreasonable behavior against a co-worker or subordinate. Workplace exploitation can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological , physical abuse and humiliation. This type of aggression is particularly difficult because unlike the typical forms of exploitation workplace abusers often operate within the protection of the government and policies of their entreprises and their society. Exploitation in the workplace is in the majority of cases reported as having been perpetrated by management and takes a many of forms .
Unfairly treated
Public humiliation(s)
Regularly threatened with dismissal
Any form of undermining behavior
Taking credit for work that another has done
Unfairly passed over for promotion or denied training opportunities
Being quick to criticize and slow to praise
Character assassination
Spreading malicious rumors
Smear campaigns
Social ostracism
Physical assault

The conflicts that arise in workplaces may be shaped by the unique aspects of this environment, including the long hours many people spend at their workplace, the hierarchical structure of the Corporations, and the difficulties’
It’s a primary contributor to many risk factors that can affect brain development. While all children are vulnerable to things like inadequate nutrition, substance abuse, maternal depression, exposure to environmental toxins, trauma, abuse and poor quality daily care, a disproportionate number of people in low-income families face multiple risk factors, often several of them simultaneously

Our brains learn very early how to cope with the environment to which we are exposed, sometimes with harmful results. (e.g Going Postal, robberies, muggings, gang warfare, etc)

This change must take place at an individual level, in families, in child care facilities and schools, through socialized communities in local and state government.
If we want our children to be successful, the adults in their lives, to identify where change is needed, and to work together to bring about improvements. For this vision to become reality for all people, we must develop strategies to eliminate poverty for young all such as the Universal Income, sustainable livable communities, and community work. We must create programs and services that can improve the life chances for all already in poverty.

Everyone must have empowerment, equal opportunity, and and a life worth living. With the current system this is impossible.

For Buyanzaya Koubry

Food Wars

2010-04-19T12:53:00.003-04:00

Only in America do we have class-ism in food. The New Trend is to go Organic. But isn’t food supposed to be organic to begin with? Isn’t that the essence of food?
When poor people go shopping for food, it is less than nutritious than what rich people could buy. Inexpensive food is chemically laced with almost no Nutritional Value.
But wealthy people will spend $20 on a 4 oz jar of peanut butter that has real ingredients.
The poor and middle class have poor diets in America.
When I went to Italy, the food for all is organic. They use the same farming practices they have used for centuries. In fact Italy hosts two “Blues Zones”. Sardinia and Apulia/Calabria People have healthy diets and lifestyles.
Only during the 20th century was a large supply of new synthetic chemicals introduced to the food supply. This more recent style of production is referred to as "conventional." Under organic production, the use of conventional non-organic pestcides, insecticides and herbicides is greatly restricted and saved as a last resort. However, contrary to popular belief, certain non-organic fertilizers are still used If livestock are involved, they must be reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones, and generally fed a healthy diet.[ In most countries, organic produce may not be genteically modifies. It has been suggested that the application of nanotechnology to food and agriculture is a further technology that needs to be excluded from certified organic food. The Soil Association (UK) has been the first organic certifier to implement a nano-exclusion.
Organic food production is a heavily regulated industry, distinct from home gardening. Currently, the European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan and many other countries require producers to obtain certification in order to market food as "organic" within their borders. Most certifications allow some chemicals and pesticides to be used], so consumers should be aware of the standards .

In the European Union 3.9% of the total utilized agricultural area is used for organic production. The countries with the highest proportion of organic land are Austria (11%) and Italy (8.4), followed by Czech Republic and Greece (both 7.2%). The lowest figures are shown for Malta (0.1%), Poland (0.6%) and Ireland (0.8%)
Austria:
· 11.6% of all farmers produced organically in 2007. The government has created incentives to increase the figure to 20% by 2010.[
· 4.9% of all food products sold in Austrian supermarkets (including discount stores) in 2006 were organic. 8000 different organic products were available in the same year.

Italy:
· Since 2005 all school lunches must be organic by law.
Poland:
· In 2005 168,000 ha of land were under organic management. 7 percent of Polish consumers buy food that was produced according to the EU-Eco-regulation. The value of the organic market is estimated at 50 million Euros (2006).
UK:
· Organic food sales increased from just over £100 million in 1993/94 to £1.21 billion in 2004 (an 11% increase on 2003).
Caribbean
CUBA:
· After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, agricultural inputs that had previously been purchased from Eastern Bloc countries were no longer available in Cuba, and many Cuban farms converted to organic methods out of necessity. Consequently, organic agriculture is a mainstream practice in Cuba, while it remains an alternative practice in most other countries. Although some products called organic in Cuba would not satisfy certification requirements in other countries (crops may be genetically modified, for example, Cuba exports organic citrus and citrus juices to EU markets that meet EU organic standards. Cuba's forced conversion to organic methods may position the country to be a global supplier of organic products.

Jamie Oliver has a new TV show called Food Revolution, this is his staement:

I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It's time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food! You live in an amazing country full of inspirational people and you have the power to change things. With your help, we can get better food into homes, schools and communities all over America and give your kids a better future. Sign the petition to save America's cooking skills and improve school food. It could be the most important thing you ever do for your family. America's health needs you now!

While Frankenfoods/modeified food are known to cause health and nutrition problems. One day we must finally make food organic again.

Alternative Economics

2010-04-11T08:26:00.002-04:00

No doubt poverty and joblessness can be eliminated in our time. Martin Luther King said:
The problem indicates that our emphasis must be two-fold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available."[
Here are a few models:
Worker Self-Management: Each productive enterprise is controlled democratically by its workers.
The Market: These enterprises interact with one another and with consumers in an environment largely free of governmental price controls. Raw materials, instruments of production and consumer goods are all bought and sold at prices largely determined by the forces of supply and demand.
Social Control of Investment: Funds for new investment are generated by a capital assets tax and are returned to the economy through a network of public investment banks and other industries.
These can be developed in the form of Municipal Enterprise, Co-operative Enterprise, Sustainable and Ecological/Green Enterprises. HighTech/Low Tech, Sustaining and infrastructure for Sustainable/Livable Communities.
Here is an example. If a too big to fail bank fails. It should be Nationalized, and broken up. Than given to the employees with the government as a silent partner. The workers control the banks, even voting out corporate officers if they fail or have moral issues. The government, who regulates, gets s split if the profits. The people get a living wage and empowerment. The Executives are no longer allowed to have big paychecks, no get corporate welfare or bonuses. Regulations work where Banks make for Savings and loans. This offsets taxes to being lowered and no tax abatement. More money goes to the community.
Here is a link to a good site:
http://www.careerplanner.com/Career-Articles/Top_Jobs.cfm
Since the manufacturing jobs are not coming back the answer is creating high and low tech jobs that pay a living wage. Maybe starting a Eco Industrial Park.
An eco-industrial park (EIP) is an industrial park in which businesses work in tandem and with the local community in an attempt to reduce waste and pollution, efficiently share resources (such as information, materials, water, energy, infrastructure, and natural resources), and help achieve sustainable development, with the intention of increasing economic and social gains and improving quality of life. An EIP may also be planned, designed, and built in such a way that it makes it easier for businesses to work in tandem, and that results in a more financially sound and beneficial, environmentally and socially friendly project for the developer.
There are many opportunities for Public Works and other Community details.
Co-operatives are one way to go. And we must not forget the importance of the Universal Income/ Basic Income Grant.
In The book, “Toward Useful Unemployment” it describes things people can do to make their own work. (Or not). George Bush was only partly right in his tax return stimulus. The Notion is spending power creates more jobs and consumerism. THE UI/BIG allows everyone to be “Self Employed”. An artisan can practice his hobby, invention, or craft and make market from that creativity. In a regular job situation this si impossible at times.
It is considered that there is a difference between a job and work. People may work harder in there personal lives than at work, while some jobs do not require much work. (I have seen this with my own eyes. It is true)
Also, re-architecture of communities and re-designing towns to a more futurist model will re-invent the small town and home towns into bustling communities with many futuristic jobs. The dependence on Automobiles and long arrivals to work will be eliminated . Communities would be more compact and populous, leaving many green spaces.
Jobs and the workplaces evolves. The Blacksmith, local tinker, milkman, and spinner are all gone. These are casualties of Occupational Evolution.
There are also something coming up called Telecommute jobs, where people can make work from their home computers. Through technological evolution, Robotics, cyborgs, and automation 20th century jobs will disappear. In the 21st Century new work and a new life will be coming. This is a situation that must be fostered right away.
The possibilities are endless, but we will control our own destinies. As Frank Loydd Wright once noted, “A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it. “
　

Full Employment

2010-04-04T10:28:00.001-04:00

The active pursuit of full employment through varied government policies is associated with Keynesian economics and marked the former agenda of many Western nations, until neo-liberalism took hold.
Australia was the first country in the world in which full employment in a free society was made official policy by its government. On May 30, 1945, The Australian Labor Party Prime Minister John Curtin and his Employment Minister John Dedman proposed a white paper in the Australian House of Representatives titled Full Employment In Australia, the first time any government apart Communists had unequivocally committed itself to providing work for any person who was willing and able to work. Conditions of full employment lasted in Australia from 1941 to 1975. This had been preceded by the Harvester Judgment (1907), establishing a living wage; while this earlier case was overturned, it remained influential.
The Job Guarantee (JG) is an economic policy proposal aimed at providing a sustainable solution to the dual problems of inflation and unemployment. Its aim is to create full employment and price stability. It is also referred to as employer of last resort (ELR)
The economic policy stance currently dominant around the world uses unemployment as a policy tool to control inflation; when cost pressures rise, the standard monetary policy carried out by the banks) tightens interest rates, creating a buffer stock of unemployed people, which reduces wage demands, and ultimately inflation. When inflationary expectations subside, these people will get their jobs back. In Marxian terms, the unemployed serve as a reserve army of labor. By contrast, in a job guarantee program, a buffer stock of employed people (employed in the job guarantee program) provides the same protection against inflation without the social costs of unemployment, Fulfilling the dual mandate of full employment and price stability
full employability whereby governments engage in programs to prepare the unemployed for work without guaranteeing that work will be available towards a focus on creating enough work. The full employability agenda has come under fire from a number of sources in recent years
Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person is dependent for a livelihood on the wages earned, especially if the dependency is total and immediate. The term is used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor. Some uses of the term may refer only to a situation of inequality between labor and capital," particularly where workers are paid unreasonably low wages . More controversially, others equate it with a lack of workers' self-management or point to similarities between owning and employing a person, and extend the term to cover a wide range of employment relationships in a hierarchical social environment with limited job-related choices (e.g. working for a wage under threat of starvation, poverty or social relegation).
　
Working poor is a term used to describe individuals and families who maintain regular employment but remain in relative poverty due to low levels of pay and dependent expenses. The working poor are often distinguished from paupers, poor who are supported by government aid or charity.
Living wage is a term used to describe the minimum hourly wage necessary for shelter (housing and incidentals such as clothing and other basic needs) and nutrition for a person for an extended period of time (lifetime). In developed countries such as the United Kingdom or Switzerland, this standard generally means that a person working forty hours a week, with no additional income, should be able to afford a specified quality or quantity of housing, food, utilities, transport, health care, and recreation.
This concept differs from the minimum wage in that the latter is set by law and may fail to meet the requirements of a living wage. It differs somewhat from basic needs in that the basic needs model usually measures a minimum level of consumption, without regard for the source of the income.
basic income is granted independent of other income (including salaries) and wealth, with no other requirement than citizenship. This is a special case of BIG/UI, based on varied goals. While most modern countries have some form of guaranteed minimum income, a basic income is rare. Only the Alaska Dividend exists here, and pays $1000 a year. It is not very sufficient.
A basic income is a proposed system of social security, that periodically provides each citizen with a sum of money that is sufficient to live on. Except for citizenship, a Basic Income is entirely unconditional. There is no means test; the richest as well as the poorest citizens would receive it. In The USA it is possible to give each person $30,000
A basic income is often proposed in the form of a citizen's dividend (a transfer) or a negative income tax (a guarantee). A basic income less than the social minimum is referred to as a partial basic income. (there should be one for poor teens who have no access to a part time job.)
A worldwide basic income, typically including income redistribution between nations, is known as a global basic income.
In many ways a BIG or Universal Income would change social situations and circumstances so no one is stuck in an adverse situation. It would also help people create there own jobs and business thusly stimulating the economy.
In essence, a Living Wage, 32 hour work week. The end of mindless mind numbing jobs replacing with meaningful jobs should be the agenda of all political forces. These forces are being widely ignored even by liberal elements. In which case the Conservative elements of slave labor and wage slavery still exist. With a restructuring society for affordability rather than the corporate profits, only then can the world change

The Un Real Revolution

2010-03-31T20:55:00.000-04:00

The Left has seemed to die after the 1940’s. Back in the day the Left as very sincere and had much influence on people.
Franklins New Deal, and Johnsons Great Society programs where watered down versions of socialism. But they where effective. Only slightly. FDR’s Second Bill of Rights has been passed away from History and the Democratic Party has never fulfilled its promise.
America embrace of the two party system has hurt democracy in America.
The Hippy Revolution was well meaning, but artificial. The Hippies had no attention of getting rid of the two party system. In fact, the hippies where artificial in there Revolution. There excuse wasn’t to get rid of the two party system. It was to maintain, reform and bring it in to enlightenment. And this was to be done by young people who where wet behind the ears themselves.
At least youth stood for something and had a little substance. But even Frank Zappa noted, these people where no different from there parents. I remember one hippy saying they where going to show them how. How to what?
Even today, the Left is stuck in a Clueless Revolution. Still stuck with a 1960’s mentality, they cling to 1960’s values. There is no attempt to obtain Solidarity. One Party tries, The Workers World Party, they include, blacks, whites, latino’s, gays, bi, trans.
There is no strategy, still they are denied access to media, Socialist Parties are still not effective.
Like most, leftists cannot get past the last protest. One can go to many protests and ask people why they are not at least supporting a movements that would be elected and foster change. There is a stupid notion that people can change the world through there organizations. How many peace organization? How many Environmental Organizations? How many fist-waving organizations. And after all that, the world goes on to be the same as it ever was.
Democracy isn’t failing because of the Democrats and Republicans. It is failing because Leftists in America are either in protest groups or fist waving groups, or Fan Clubs like The Democratic Socialists of America or the Labor Party.
The Greens had real possibilities, even Communist and far Left groups had endorsed them. But than Called the Socialist Party USA bourgeois Socialism.
The Greens could have had huge success, but they did not realize. Most Americans indulge themselves for the movement for the moment.
I told the Green to enjoy there moment in the sun. There 10 minutes of fame. Not because I wanted the Greens to die. It is just the way America is, America is country of fads.
America Leftist lack leadership because no one remains true to form. No group reflect democracy, none practice it. In addition, those who are proponents of Democracy are the least to reflect it.
If Americans where truly interested in fostering a genuine Left, they would be doing so right now. That is not happening. A Socialist Strategy must contain recipes for real change and reflect there values true to form.
It is really sad because Americans will completely let go of there democracy and do nothing to protect it. They will go on and on, complain, and never start a real revolution.
The Solution we need is for a major leftist party to be elected to the state house and overturn restrictive election laws. Ballot Access should become easy. Than start a media. MINDTV/WYBE Liberty media in Philly is a great example. That can be put on National Cable. We should also foster a Revolution of Civil Disobedience.
With out advertising, media, and weapons that promote such a thing, such a thing is impossible. Howard Zinn and Michael Moore are wrong. We need a good third party that has sincere people who will win the day. In addition, it must be bigger than the Greens.
We must declare war on poverty, privatization, for Labor and human rights/ we must foster a better society and civilization. This is Socialism. In addition, it is Democracy.
Unlike other countries, even socialist can be mean spirit control freaks that do not see their fellow freedom fighters as brothers. It is all about popularity, control, and self-promotion.
Look at how many parties have power struggle and split. Look how many Democracy Committee seem like Polit Bureaus.
People min these parties will allow there buddies to abuse other members, built you can be thrown out for exercising you free will and mind if you are not a buddy of the control freak in question.
Moreover, the left breaks off into competing interest groups and sells out its credos ever chance it gets…
European Socialism has failed. Nevertheless, is also ahs some incredible successes. This many American Socialist ignore. Funny how so many Socialist have never been to Europe, yet they have uninformed opinions about how things operate.
European Socialist are in the grips of a capitalist, elitist compromise. The parties are lead buy people who forget the poor and workers movement. But at least there are sincere revolutions from below and people are hopeful their parties will one day be genuine socialists.
The Revolution must be lead buy people who are humane and have vision. Socialism and the struggle for democracy. Real Democracy, not democratic centralism. The unreal revolution with the hippy mentality of change the world through organizations and fist waving is the road to failure. The Hippy path failure has lead to the Reagan Era, and The Long Mean Season. The Coolest Generation who thought our generation would save the world was nonsense. Look where that mentality has gotten us today. Reaganomics repeats.
There is surely a plan in Washington to destroy Democracy. We will do nothing about it. let it happen and say what we always say? “Oh well.” We are that apathetic .
If we demand democracy, we may actually be met with a Chinese Democracy situation, where we will be run over by tanks and killed. We are too warm and comfortable for that aren’t we.

Our Economic Down Fall

2010-03-20T11:27:00.003-04:00

Back in my day, we had a notion called the peace dividend, which was supposed to foster a new world of opportunities and improved quality of life. Of course, this never happened.
Automation is making way for reduced employment and the de-skilling of labor in the blue-collar community. Many of the manufacturing jobs go to illegal immigrants because they will not unionize and they are easily underpaid. There is a mission among corporate CEOs to reduce salaries and work hours. This prevents wage increases, unionizing and benefits.
The average CEO makes 800 times more than the average employee. Many get million-dollar bonuses a year and pay fewer taxes than most workers.
Back in the day, we were supposed to have something called the peace dividend. After the Cold War, there was supposed to be good-quality, paying jobs and a goal of full employment. The meaningful jobs, such as maintaining infrastructure, the so-called green jobs (recently outsourced to India) and many other sustainable and livable community jobs that paid a decent wage, never happened. Instead, we got George Bush I's global hegemony, Clinton's NAFTA and GATT and George Bush II's endless wars, which cost us billions of dollars.
The notion of full employment comes from the universal income and public works jobs. The universal income or basic income grant would have stimulated the economy and produced more jobs for everyone who wanted to work. This also would pay for volunteering and public works programs, not just handouts.
This was a farce since the 1970s. Our lives have been undermined by shortages and inflation, Reagan's war on workers and the poor, and decades of presidents, congressmen and senators who have betrayed us. We have the best government money can buy, and the government gives to the rich nine ways to Sunday.
The prosperity of the 1980s brought in a wave of insensitivity, uncaring and elitism by the yuppies who had no respect for anyone below their income, creating a new caste system, rather than a democracy where everyone is free and equal.
Even today we see even the Democrats don't understand us or even know who we are. The struggle of workers means people fall through the cracks with a temporary and horrible safety net.
The long mean season continues today, and the liberals in office are only offering half measures and bury anything and any idea that can save us.
So, you see, that is why good-paying jobs are disappearing.

Letter to Jay

2010-03-03T10:28:00.001-05:00

Dear Jay Blumberg. You asked about Quality jobs and good pay. I am about to tell you why that is not happening.
Back in my day we had a notion called the Peace Dividend.
The Peace Dividend was suppose to foster a new world of opportunities and improved quality of life. Of Course this never happened.
We are melded to the notion of manufacturing jobs. We refuse to acknowledge these jobs are being evolved out of. This is like the Local Black Smith, Tinker, Spinners, and Sawyers.
Automation is making way for reduced employment and de-skilling of labor in the Blue Collar Community. Not to mention many of these jobs go to aliens because they will not unionize and they are easily underpaid.
There is a mission amongst Corporate CEOs to reduce salaries and work hours. This prevents wage increases, unionizing, and benefits.
The average CEO makes 800 time more than the average employee. Many get $54,000,000 a year bonuses and pay less taxes than most workers.
Back in the day we where suppose to have something called the Peace Dividend. After the Cold War there was suppose to be good quality paying jobs and a mission toward full employment. The Meaningful Jobs, such as maintaining infrastructure, the so called Green Jobs, (Recently outsourced to China) and many other Sustainable and Livable community jobs that paid a decent wage never happened. Instead, We got George Bush I’s global hegemony, Clinton’s NAFTA and GATT, George Bush II’s endless wars which costs us billions.
The notion of full employment comes form the Universal Income and public works jobs. (Many people work outside the workplace, in which this was suppose count as work and work is a Job) The Universal Income or Basic Income Grant would have stimulated the economy and produced more jobs for everyone who wanted to work at a regular job. This would also pay for volunteering and public works programs, not just a handout. However there would be a dictatorship of the job.
This was a farce since the 1970’s our lives had been undermined by Ford’s shortages and inflations, Reagan’s war on workers and the poor and decades of Presidents, Congressmen, and Senators who have betrayed us in behalf of there sponsors. We have the best Government money could by and the government gives to the rich nine ways to Sunday. 80’s prosperity brought in a wave of insensitivity, uncaring, and elitism by the Yuppies who had no respect for anyone below there income creating a new caste system, rather than a Democracy where everyone is free and equal.
Even today we see that even the Democrats, our social party, doesn’t understand us or even know who we are. The struggle of workers means people fall through the cracks with a temporary and horrible safety net.
The Long Mean Season continues today and our Liberals and office are only offering us half measures and bury anything and any idea that can save us. So you see, that is why we are not getting good pay or good jobs.

EXPENSE OF SOCIAL PROGRAMS

2010-02-23T18:35:00.003-05:00

ThI am frequently told that we cannot have a social system as they do in Scandinavia or Europe. I feel the need to dispel that because there have been too many distortions on what we can afford. With in year 2004 and 2009 The top 1% received a huge handout in the Trillions. Bush’s welfare for the rich and Obama’s Economic Stimulus and Bailout

As an advocate of the Universal Income and social programs, I had to check the facts.

The items that steal the most money are:
Corporate welfare
Pork Barrel Spending
Tax Havens
Tax Abatement
Socialism for the Rich

Lets look at War at it cost to date:
Cost of U.S. Wars Since 2001
$963,307,450,494 Totaled from below.

Cost of War in Iraq
$708,178,665,506

Cost of War in Afghanistan
$255,128,784,848

Secret Governments
$35,000,000,000

Corporate Welfare
$2,300,000,000,000
$2,000,000,000,000 economic stimulus
GWB 2004 hand out 1,000,000,000,000 (trillion)

Pork Barrel Spending
$410,000,000

Secret Governments
CIA
1,100,000,000,000
Pentagon
$43,900,000,000

Grand Total: $64,442,617,450,494
For Social Spending:$2,002,076,410,463

Socialism for the Rich
N/A: According to 60 Minutes, the wealthy get free homes, beach front homes, SUVs, and other free items. Maybe in the Billions
Tax Abatement: N/A Again, in the Billions
Tax Havens mostly in the Millions. Not Calculated.

http://www.pissedonpolitics.com/2006/04/i_want_my_money_back.htm
http://www.warresisters.org/node/457
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-system-cost
http://evidencebasedprograms.org/wordpress

Taxpayers in the United States will pay $907.3 billion for total Iraq & Afghanistan war spending since 2001. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
267,406,630 People with Health Care for One Year
19,596,112 Public Safety Officers for One year
15,559,271 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year
140,275,201 Scholarships for University Students for One Year (eventual free education)
163,477,477 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550 (See above)
7,057,801 Affordable Housing Units
399,894,220 Children with Health Care for One Year
124,509,400 Head Start Places for Children for One Year
14,904,312 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
939,289,301 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year

*2,000,000,000,000 for Universal Income for every person.

* Actually, the BIG/UI would be a faction since this calculates every living persons included infants. Calculated at $30,000 a year per person. For adults and teens this could be cut down by 1/3.
**Also, with installment of many programs the government would be billions if not trillions in downsizing administrations. In effect urban
renewal would be sustainable reducing cost of deteriorating infrastructure and blight. Preventative measures and Social Programs that work and cultivate self ability and free from dependence. Affordability of other social programs.
***Also investment in urban and municipal and social enterprise, reversing the tide of Privatization and creating public enterprise would give the Government in un-totaled Billions (If not Trillions). This would even reduce taxes.
**** We must also stop Democrats and Republicans from throwing money at programs that do not work. Government accountability is a must.

Dedicated to Bill Pelz, Eric Schuster, Cassidy Martinez, Dave Howell, Karl Widerquist, Sandro Gobetti, Mike Marino, Jim Davis,Vitov Munoz, and Mike Spinosi

Economic Democarcy

2010-02-06T11:28:00.007-05:00

Economic Democarcy(Information Supplied by Varied Sources)
Economic democracy is a social and economic philosophy that suggests an expansion of decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders. Example can be found in Co-ops and ESOPs and even Municipal BusinessesCentralized corporate monopoly of common resources typically forces conditions of artificial scarcity upon the greater majority, resulting in socio-economic imbalances that restrict workers from access to economic opportunity and diminish consumer purchasing power. Also diminishes workers rights and attacks the impoverished.Economic democracy promotes universal access to common resources that are typically privatized by corporate capitalism . Assuming full political rights cannot be won without full economic, social, or political rights, economic democracy suggests alternative models and reform agendas for solving problems of economic instability and deficiency of effective demand. As an alternative model, both market and non-market theories of economic democracy have been proposed. As a reform agenda, supporting theories and real-world examples include democratic cooperatives, fair trade, social credit, and the regionalization of food production.

Worker self-management

According to Schweickart’s model, each productive enterprise is controlled by those who work there. Workers are responsible for the operation of the facility, including organization, operations, production, and the nature, price, and distribution of products. Workers control the means of production and management.Decisions concerning proceeds distribution are made democratically. Problems of authority delegation are solved by democratic representation. Management is not appointed by the State nor elected by the community at large, nor selected by a board of directors elected by stockholders. Whatever internal structures are put in place, ultimate authority rests with the enterprise’s employees.Workers control the workplace, they do not “own” the means of production in Schweickart’s model. Productive resources are regarded as the collective property of the society. Workers have the right to run the enterprise, to use its capital assets as they see fit, and to distribute among themselves the whole of the net profit from production. Societal “ownership” of the enterprise manifests itself in two ways.All firms must pay a tax on their capital assets, which goes into society’s investment fund. In effect, workers rent their capital assets from society.Firms are required to preserve the value of the capital stock entrusted to them. This means that a depreciation fund must be maintained. Money must be set aside to repair or replace existing capital stock. This money may be spent on whatever capital replacements or improvements the firm deems fit, but it may not be used to supplement workers’ incomes.If a firm is unable to generate even the nationally-specified minimum per-capita income, then it must declare bankruptcy. Movable capital will be used to pay creditors. The workers must seek employment elsewhere. In such economic difficulty, workers are free to reorganize the facility, or to leave and seek work elsewhere. They are not free to sell off their capital stocks and use the proceeds as income. A firm can sell off capital stocks and use the proceeds to buy additional capital goods. Or, if the firm wishes to contract its capital base so as to reduce its tax and depreciation obligations, it can sell off some of its assets, but in this case proceeds from the sale go into the national investment fund, not to the workers, since these assets belong to society as a whole.

Inclusive democracy

The proposed system aims to meet the basic needs of all citizens (macro-economic decisions), and secure freedom of choice (micro-economic decisions). Therefore, the system consists of two basic elements: democratic planning, which involves a feedback process between workplace assemblies, demotic assemblies and the confederal assembly, and an artificial market using personal vouchers,a proposed system of vouchers.As with the case of direct democracy, economic democracy today is only feasible at the level of the confederated demoi. It involves the ownership and control of the means of production by the demos. This is radically different from the two main forms of concentration of economic power which ensures freedom of choice but avoids the adverse effects of real markets. Although some have called this system “a form of money based on the labour theory of value”, it is not a money model since vouchers cannot be used as a general medium of exchange and store of wealth.Another distinguishing feature of inclusive democracy is its distinction between basic and non-basic needs. Remuneration is according to need for basic needs, and according to effort for non-basic needs. Inclusive democracy is based on the principle that meeting basic needs is a fundamental human right which is guaranteed to all who are in a physical condition to offer a minimal amount of work. By contrast, participatory economics guarantees that basic needs are satisfied only to the extent they are characterized public goods or are covered by compassion and by a guaranteed basic income for the unemployed and those who cannot work .Within the inclusive democracy project, economic democracy is the authority of demos (community) in the economic sphere — which requires equal distribution of economic power. Therefore, all ‘macro’ economic decisions, namely, decisions concerning the running of the economy as a whole (overall level of production, consumption and investment, amounts of work and leisure implied, technologies to be used, etc.) are made by the citizen body collectively and without representation. However, “micro” economic decisions at the workplace or the household levels are made by the individual production or consumption unit through : capitalist an ’socialist’ growth economy. It is also different from the various types of collectivism , such as workers’ control and milder versions suggested by post-Keynesian social democrats. The demos, therefore, becomes the authentic unit of economic life.For economic democracy to be feasible, proponents of inclusive democracy suggest three preconditions must be satisfied: Demotic self-reliance, demotic ownership of the means of production, and confederal allocation of resources.Demotic self-reliance is meant in terms of radical decentralization and self-reliance, rather than of self-sufficiency.Demotic ownership of productive resources is a kind of ownership which leads to the politicization of the economy, the real synthesis of economy and polity. This is so because economic decision making is carried out by the entire community, through the demotic assemblies, where people make the fundamental macro-economic decisions which affect the whole community, as citizens, rather than as vocationally oriented groups (e.g. workers, as e.g. in participatory economics ). At the same time, workers, apart from participating in the demotic decisions about the overall planning targets, would also participate (in the above broad sense of vocationally oriented groups) in their respective workplace assemblies, in a process of modifying/implementing the Democratic Plan and in running their own workplace.Co federal allocation of resources is required because, although self-reliance allows many decisions to be made at the community level, much remains to be decided at the regional/national/supra-national level. However, it is delegates (rather than representatives) with specific mandates from the demotic assemblies who are involved in a confederal demotic planning process which, in combination with the proposed system of vouchers, effects the allocation of resources in a confederal inclusive democracy.
Rather than an economic shortfall, many analysts consider the gap between production and purchasing power a social dividend. In this view, credit is a public utility rather than debt to financial centers. Once reinvested in human productive potential, the surplus of societal output could actually increase Gross Domestic Product rather than throttling it, resulting in a more efficient economy, overall.

National dividend

In this view, many proponents advocate Basic Income Guarantee (“B.I.G.”) Or Universal Income (UI), previously proposed in the United States by economists, politicians and reformers, including Thomas Paine, Milton Friedman, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and John Kenneth Galbraith. Friedman originally proposed a negative income tax to support this system, but then opposed the bill because its revised implementation would have merely supplemented existing tax-structures rather than replacing them. In 2006, the basic income guarantee was again proposed on the national level by State Representative Bob Filner (D-CA) as H.R. 5257, supported by author Matthew Rothschild.According to the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network:“The basic income guarantee (BIG) is a government insured guarantee that no citizen’s income will fall below some minimal level for any reason. All citizens would receive a BIG without means test or work requirement. BIG is an efficient and effective solution to poverty that preserves individual autonomy and work incentives while simplifying government social policy. Some researchers estimate that a small BIG, sufficient to cut the poverty rate in half could be financed without an increase in taxes by redirecting funds from spending programs and tax deductions aimed at maintaining incomes.”* What maybe problematic about this is the fact that Democrats and Republicans may distort political facts about poverty and place people into another management scheme taking away freed, liberty, and affordability.Likewise, Richard C. Cook suggests existing surplus in United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could support such a system, as GDP of $12.98-trillion minus $9.21-trillion in purchasing power (“wages”) equals a difference of $3.77-trillion. Divided equally amongst United States citizens, Cook estimates a “National Dividend” of approximately $12,600 could be provided annually to every U.S. citizen. A primary function of monetary reform is to “provide sufficient individual income” — not merely “create jobs” — for American workers displaced by technological advancement, outsourcing, and other economic influences beyond their control. Funding of the National Dividend would be drawn from a national credit account, which would include all factors that generate production costs and create new capital assets. The national credit account could also be used for price subsidies to discourage manufacturers from cutting costs by shipping jobs overseas.Rather than Federal Reserve Notes, circulated only through debt payable to a bank with interest, the National Dividend would be “real money”, based on the productive capacity of the economy expressed as GDP. Cook says, “it’s important to realize that Social Credit is not a socialist system. Rather it is ‘democratic capitalism,’ in contrast to the ‘finance capitalism’ that has become so damaging”. Rooted in the ideals of Social Credit, proposed by C.H. Douglas in the 1920s, Cook explains:“The difference between a National Dividend and a basic income guarantee is that the dividend is tied to production and consumption data and may vary from year to year. During years that the dividend falls below a designated threshold, the balance of a basic income guarantee could be provided from tax revenues. But in a highly-automated economy such as that of the U.S., the National Dividend would normally be where all players start with a fair distribution of financial opportunity to succeed, and try to privatize as much as they can as they move around “the commons”. Distinguishing the board game of Monopoly from contemporary real-world business, . Contrasting “redistribution” of income (or property) with “pre-distribution”, (without corporately privatizing) “the commons” to spread ownership universally, without taking wealth from some and giving it to others. His suggested mechanism to this end is the establishment of a “Commons Sector”, ensuring payment from the Corporate Sector for “the commons” they utilize, and equitably distributing the proceeds for the benefit of contemporary and future generations of society.One real-world example of such reform is in the U.S. State of Alaska, where each citizen receives an annual share of the state’s oil revenues called, “Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend”. Barnes suggests this model could extend to other states and nations because “we jointly own many valuable assets”. As corporate pollution of common assets increase, the permits for such pollution would become more scarce, driving prices for those permits up. “Less pollution would equal more revenue”, and over time, “trillions of dollars could flow into an American Permanent Fund”.However, none of these proposals aspire to the mandates recommended by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:Two conditions are indispensable if we are to ensure that the guaranteed income operates as a consistently progressive measure. First, it must be pegged to the median income of society, not the lowest levels of income. To guarantee an income at the floor would simply perpetuate welfare standards and freeze into the society poverty conditions. Second, the guaranteed income must be dynamic; it must automatically increase as the total social income grows. Were it permitted to remain static under growth conditions, the recipients would suffer a relative decline. If periodic reviews disclose that the whole national income has risen, then the guaranteed income would have to be adjusted upward by the same percentage. Without these safeguards a creeping retrogression would occur, nullifying the gains of security and stability.Moreover, proponents of Economic Democracy generally deem any such reform unlikely under the dominance of contemporary command economies. While Thomas Paine originally recommended a National Dividend to compensate for the brutality of British Enclosures, no such large-scale disbursement has materialized in over 200-years since.Since times have changed, there should be a consideration of a Living Wage and a Universal Income comparable with a Living Wage.Monopoly power versus public utilityMain article: J. W. SmithRather than superficially compensating for legalized inequities, many analysts recommend the “enclosures” themselves—property rights laws—should be either abolished or redefined with particular respect for “the commons”. According to J.W. Smith, exclusive title to natural resources and technologies should be converted to inclusive conditional titles –- the condition being that society should collect rental values on all natural resources. Smith suggests the basic principles of monopolization under feudalism were never abandoned, and residues of exclusive feudal property rights restrict the potential efficiency of capitalism in Western cultures. Estimating roughly 60-percent of American capital is little more than capitalized values of unearned wealth, Smith suggests elimination of these monopoly values would double economic efficiency, maintain quality of life, and reduce working hours by half. Wasteful monetary flows can be stopped only by eliminating all methods of monopolization typical in Western economies.J.W. Smith divides “primary (feudal) monopoly” into four general categories; banking, land, technology, and communications. He lists three general categories of “secondary (modern) monopoly”; insurance, law, health care. Smith further claims that converting these exclusive entitlements to inclusive human rights would minimize battles for market share, thereby eliminating most offices and staff needed to maintain monopoly structures, and stop the wars generated to protect them. Dissolving roughly half the economic activity of a monopoly system would reduce the costs of common resources by roughly half, and significantly minimize the most influential factors of poverty.In Smith’s view, most taxes should be eliminated, and productive enterprise should be privately owned and managed. Inventors should be paid well and all technology placed in the public domain. Crucial services currently monopolized through licensing should be legislated as human rights.Smith envisions a balanced economy under a socially-owned banking commons within an inclusive society with full and equal rights for all Federated regions collect resource rents on land and technology to a social fund to operate governments and care for social needs. Socially-owned banks provide finance capital by creating debt-free money for social infrastructure and industry. Rental values return to society through expenditure on public infrastructures. Local labor is trained and employed to build and maintain water systems, sewers, roads, communication systems, railroads, ports, airports, post offices, and education systems. Purchasing power circulates regionally, as labor spends wages in consumption and governments spend resource rent and banking profits to maintain essential services.According to Smith, all monetary systems, including money markets, should function within fractional-reserve banking. Financial capital should be the total savings of all citizens, balanced by primary-created money to fill any shortfall, or its destruction through increased reserve requirements to eliminate any surplus. Adjustments of required reserves should facilitate the balance between building with socially-created money or savings. Any shortage of savings within a socially-owned banking system should be all eviated by simply printing it. The Universal Income should be favored over all, But it must equal the to living wage. Other wise it will be just another poverty management program'

Democratic Economics is the mission of Democratic Socialists simply for the reason that these would present democratically controlled institutions, employment. Some would dispell these as Capitalism and the Government should own everything. This is not true Democratic Socialism.

The Importance of Poverty

2010-02-02T13:55:00.000-05:00

Poverty is very important. It is, if one will, the new slavery. People fall into poverty everyday. The government’s food tamps and welfare programs lead to further distress because people are turned into indentured servants. People are doled out to business and non profits for near than free work, and underpaid work. People fought long and hard for a minimum wage, yet on food stamps and welfare provide exploitation for businesses and corporations for underpaid workers who will be stuck and blamed for remaining on the system.
Let’s look at welfare privatization.

In Wisconsin, the former Vive Governor had started a business putting out welfare workers for substandard wages, and having the government give each business $5,000
Government workers and administrators who keep expanding the public and private social services system, thereby providing exploitation of the poor by a lack of job and salary opportunities. They contribute more money to keep the cycle eternal. They are the ones who make the system so challenging that you practically need a college degree to navigate it, causing loads of frustrated poor people to opt out of the system and often into homelessness.
Originally, well-intentioned workers who have lost sight of the poor as individuals. The same ones, who never really cared in the first place. Essentially, "poverty pimps" callously and purposely profit from the misfortune of others.
People need to be kept down and out because those in power need to keep there power. Like greed there is a psychopathic need to drive people into poverty and than use them for exploitation.
In New York, welfare workers sued the State and won because the court found the State in Violation of the 14 Amendment, now welfare workers must make a minimum wage.
The poor are marketable. Non profit and charities make enormous profits on the poor by charity fund raising. Freeing the poor means these charities and their profits would come to an end. People make great wages by being CEO and Executives in the Charity business.
Criminal business exploit women by marketing them for prostitutes, men are forced into criminal activity. Children are up for sale. Look at Haiti now, people are kidnapping children for adoption. There have been some legitimate churches that hire PR organization to raise money for poverty using false data and use models and false images” for missionary work that aren’t really happening.
The so called legitimate industries use donations and marketing to raise money. The poor get substandard products the executives themselves wouldn’t consume, and they pocket 90% of the profits. This is done with Animal Charity organizations also.
The problem of Solidarity is that whites and blacks and others are divided. While blacks get frequent sympathy, their condition never really in a true manner improves. Poor whites are seen as toothless country bumpkins who deserve our wrath because they are useless stupid hicks.
The lack of socialization, education, and initiative separates two groups from solidarity because they feel they are competing.
Solidarity can be fostered, after all look up the information on the Southern Tennant Union. Black and White tenant Farmers work together in solidarity.
People are living with 20th century values. The work ethic, everyone must have a job. There are no endless jobs, there are no endless opportunities.
One solution is to finally get blacks, whites and other minorities to join in solidarity and demand and end to poverty.
The end of poverty can be through public works, 32 hour work week, The Universal Income. Most of all the socialization of society. We can build a better civilization.
For further information:
http://www.perceptions.couk.com/~perceptions/confirm7.txt
http://www.perceptions.couk.com/~perceptions/fakes.html
This happens especially in the USA

http://cafehayek.com/2007/05/preying_on_the_.html

D 2004 special/Universal Income Report

2010-01-28T17:56:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON (US), 20-22 February 2004: 3rd CONGRESS OF
USBIG
The third congress of the US Basic Income Guarantee
Network took place in Washington, DC at the Hyatt
Regency on Capitol Hill. It attracted a wide variety
of submissions, including from
medical doctors, Post Keynesian economists, and
homeless advocates.
The first speaker was Philip Wogaman, Bill Clinton's
former pastor and the author of Guaranteed Annual
Income: The Moral Issues (1968), written when the
Nixon administration was toying with the idea of
replacing welfare by Milton Friedman's negative income
tax. To the question "Is it moral to give people
things they haven't earned?", Wogaman replies that we
all receive things we haven't earned, from childhood
on. People who believe they earned everything they
have ignore all the unearned advantages they have
received. A basic income is simply an extension of
this recognition that we all stand on each other's
shoulders.
The climax of the congress was an emotional meeting
between Jay Hammond, former governor of Alaska and
father of the world's first genuine basic income
scheme, and Eduardo Suplicy, member of Brazil's
federal senate and father of the world's first
national basic income law. Suplicy presented the new
law to phase in basic income in Brazil, while Hammond
discussed the current effort to increase the size of
the Alaska fund a part of a bill to close the state's
budget gap.
Recurrent questions throughout the meeting included
the question of the relative advantages of an
unconditional basic income, of a right to a job
provided by the government as an employer of last
resort and of a caregiver's credit for care
activities; the question of using natural resources
(as proposed for Iraq and Nigeria on the Alaska
model), land, broadcast spectrum rights, pollution
permits or progressive taxation for funding the
scheme; and the question of where political support
for the scheme would be found.
(Based on accounts by Karl Widerquist for USBIG and
James Hughes for cyberdemocracy.net.)
For further information, http://www.usbig.net/

Get a Job!

2010-01-27T06:02:00.003-05:00

Deep down inside people like to work. OK, some people are lazy and or some people just hate the work place environment. It isn't up to US to judge or impose our values on people.Capitalist Parties and politics offer no alternatives to the work place. But maybe, in a society that is losing it jobs we can create our own. What we need froma government is the creation of an economic democracy. To list the few, here is what we can do to endeavor when The Government works.Democratic Socialism Profit-sharing Cooperative Worker Cooperative Consumers' cooperative Monetary reform Guaranteed minimum income Social Credit Social Economy Industrial democracy Participatory economics Workers' control Workers' self-management Workplace democracy
‘The Small Business administration can be augmented into work creation so can government agencies by introducing Public Work Programs. Also, the Universal Income can provide self employment. One cam grow their own career in there own Career Path with out falling into poverty.
There are also alternatives employment and growth sectors as Public work, municipal and public enterprise. Alternative to entrepreneur economies should be developed. There is a difference between a job and work. People on the job are not always working. In some cases economists had noticed after observation. Jobs are nothing more than people management. It is way to corral society. In a real social society people function best when they have meaningful jobs. Jobs with justice. When was the last time we heard politicians speak of Democratic ESOPs, or Worker own Co-operatives?There are many ideas out there and they are all being ignored. I am supplying a list of books that will also help out in our quest for freedom.
The system doesn’t work for many reason because the essence of human economics and humanness are ignored. It is about corporate welfare, wealth maintenance, power brokering, and the disposability of lower level human beings.In a Capitalist Society people are not human.

Beating The System: The Next American Revolution by Larry RothStraightforward and practical treatise on life without a job, filled with encouraging personal anecdotes and humor. Roth asks us to re-evaluate our lives and gives us tools to live a happy, fulfilling life outside the realm of wage slavery. As a bonus, he includes several essays, for example, by Edith Flowers Kilgo ("Can You Afford Your Job?") and Ed Haugland ("Ditching the Nine to Five Routine")."If you want to quit your job and never have to formally work again, here is a complete lifestyle planner for it." - Workaholics Anonymous"...the story of his own exit from corporate America and a map for others who want to find their way out of the madness of the modern American workplace as well." - www.mind-like-water.com

The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force by Jeremy Rifkin (critique of the book, by Bob Black) * Also see a summary of Rifkin's ideasWhy Work? Arguments for the Leisure Society Ed. by Vernon Richards (including essay by Bertrand Russell)Reclaiming Work: Beyond The Wage-Based Societyby Andre GorzWe are very encouraged that people are writing books like this. We sorely need them. Don't miss this one! It's written in accessible language, and uncluttered with dry academic jargon or stale ideas. Also see his book Paths To Paradise: On The Liberation From Work.

The Right to Useful Unemploymentby Ivan IllichWe love the title! It's what it is all about. Here's a blurb on the book from the AK Press catalog:"Forget a guaranteed job; how about a guaranteed income? If more mechanization is putting more & more people out of work and generating super profits, why do we need to work longer hours?"

The Jobless Future: Sci-Tech and the Dogma of Work by Stanley Aronowitz & William DiFazioDeconstructs the widespread idea that a high-tech economy will lead to more leisure and high-paying jobs for anyone who wants them. Very heavy on theory, light on practical guidance, and full of academic jargon, but the ideas are still worth checking out. "Contrary to the ideologically conditioned theory ..... recipients of guaranteed annual income who are relieved of most obligations to engage in labor do not fall apart.

"Post-Work: The Wages of CybernationEd. by Stanley Aronowitz and Jonathan Cutler

The Overworked Americanby Juliet Schor

Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PRby Sharon BederFrom the back cover: "Few people today can imagine a society that does not revolve around work. How did paid work come to be so central to our lives? Why is it that so many people wouldn't know what to do with themselves or who they were if they did not have their jobs?" Good questions. Pick up her book and find out her answers!The Processed World AnthologyEd. by Chris Carlsson with Mark Leger"The leading anti-work journal..."--J. Hughes, co-editor, Eco-Socialist just LOVE :
Processed World magazine, and the Processed World anthology is a whole book of highlights from years of great, subversive, humorous stuff. 'Nuff said. Highly recommended! Zerowork: The Anti-Work AnthologyEd. by Bob Black and Tad KepleyIncludes
"The Original Affluent Society" by Marshall Sahlins

Why Work? A Case For Fundamental Change by Peter Merry "Why are we working - for whom and to what ends?" This UK-based brief publication, available online and also from the Center for Human Ecology in Scotland, analyzes present employment structures and patterns across Europe in its call for more balanced, human-needs-centered patterns of livelihood. Merry's thesis on the future of work was published as a book under the same title.

Seven Myths About Work by Molly Scott CatoSays the author, "There is so much to say about work. What inspired me to pull together this short book was my belief that much of the unhappiness in modern society is caused by work, or more precisely by work as it has been arranged in the present industrial system." This book was published by GreenAudit in 1996 and sold out. A newer edition has been issued. Check out the publisher's web site for a brief excerpt from the book.

Wages & The Working Day by John KeracherThe Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworkedby Ernie J. ZelinskiAn excellent, best-selling, well-written and savvy book on a subject that's near and dear to our hearts, and very much in the spirit of . The margins are chock full of thought-provoking quotes, Calvin & Hobbes cartoons, and amusing illustrations. We can hardly recommend it highly enough!Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook by Michael FoglerAt 45, Michael Fogler considers himself semi-retired. He's a husband, stay-at-home dad, workshop presenter, peace activist, and freelance musician. At the end of 1990, he and his wife left jobs for home-based lives of greater personal fulfilment. Fogler was so liberated by this change, that he decided to share his experiences and revelations in this book. Reviewed by Sarah Nelson & D.J. Swanson. Highly recommended!When Work Doesn't Work Anymore: Women, Work, and Identityby Elizabeth Perle McKennaThe System Made Me Do It! A Life Changing Approach to Office Politics by Susan M. Osborn, Ph.D.
The Liberation of Workby Folkert Wilken
Work Without End: Abandoning Shorter Hours for the Right to Workby Benjamin HunnicuttHunnicutt is a professor at the University of Iowa. Here's a sample quote from his critical article
The Left and the Future of Work: "Instead of viewing progress as transcending work, necessity and economic concerns, and far from believing that increased freedom from toil is a constituent of human progress, much of the industrial world shares the belief that work is an end in itself, the ultimate measure of progress and the definition of prosperity."
The Future of Work (set of audiocassettes)by Robert Theobald

Reworking Success by Robert Theobald
Sleepers, Wake! Technology & the Future of WorkBy Barry JonesThe Future of WorkEd. by Fred BestThe Protestant Work Ethic: The Psychology of Work Related Beliefs and Behaviorsby Adrian FurnhamFuture Work: Jobs, Self-Employment and Leisure After the Industrial Ageby James RobertsonWorking Harder Isn't Working Put Work In Its Placeboth by Bruce O'HaraThe

Hacker Ethicby Pekka HimanenThe Ideology of Workby Peter D. Anthony
Neither Work Nor LeisureA Culture Where We Don't Stop Playing When We Leave Schoolby Merrick Godhaven

Social Democrats Are Socialists

2010-01-25T20:19:00.002-05:00

aScial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide.
The concept of social democracy has changed throughout the decades since its inception. The fundamental difference between social democratic thought and other forms of socialism historically, social democratic parties advocated socialism in the strict sense, which was to be achieved by class struggle. In the early 20th century, however, a number of socialist parties rejected revolution and other traditional ideas of Marxism such as class struggle, and went on to take more moderate positions. These moderate positions included a belief that reformism was a desirable way to achieve socialism.
However, the third way is a sell out to liberalism, dividing Socialist Social Democrats from Liberal Social Democrats.

The Socialist International (SI) is the main international organization of social democratic and moderate socialist parties. It affirms the following principles: first, freedom—not only individual liberties, but also freedom from discrimination and freedom from dependence on either the owners of the means of production or the holders of abusive political power; second, equality and social justice—not only before the law but also economic and socio-cultural equality as well, and equal opportunities for all including those with physical, mental, or social disabilities; and, third, solidarity—unity and a sense of compassion for the victims of injustice and inequality. These ideals are described in further detail in the SI's Declaration of Principles.
In Denmark, a Fine example for Democratic Socialism:
"I'm being paid right now for not going to school. I'm being paid for parenting," "It's 100 percent paid for by the government for half a year."
Denmark also provides free health care, subsidized childcare and elder care; a social safety net spread the length and breadth of the country.
"I mean, we're pretty much free to do whatever we want. We are secure from the day we are born. For a Dane who lives in Denmark," but workaholics they are not: And that is one trade-off most Americans are not willing to make. Americans, according to Harvard Psychology lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar, want it all.

I interviewed an Italian Socialist: Americans, even socialist are politically undereducated. They think they know Europe and Socialism. Even we criticisms that our Socialism has massive failures and embraced liberalism and privatization. Yet at least our Socialisms have achieved something and we are growing. You cannot say that about the USA.”
Another said, “At least our fight and struggle is genuine. Social Democrats and Socialists herald a better quality of life. We are still fighting for it and unlike America, we will eventually win.”
European countries place ahead of the United States in terms of per capita Gross Domestic Product — Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Netherlands. These are amongst the happiest countries in the world, and they have all hosted Social Democratic and Socialist Parties.
“I heard the nonsense, we are mono-racial, we pay high taxes, and we are controlled by Unions.” One said, “But we have an excellent quality of life.”

What Socialism, Democratic Socialist Social Democracy does is herald a better society, not utopia, but largely a more humane society. A society where people are not abandoned to poverty and social distress, where there is social justice and social consciousness. Where people have happier, more fulfilling, rewarding lives.

American want a bigger house, fancier car, more stuff. And when we get more, there’s always someone with even more stuff, who's just as unhappy. Some suggest that the unhappiest zip codes in the country are the wealthiest, like the Beverly Hills.

The American dream promote a loveless, dog eat dog world of coldness and cruelty. In many ways the American dream is a massive failure. It isn’t bad to want success, The America way is socially and psychologically destructive.

American Voters

2010-01-22T13:09:00.000-05:00

The current Republican victories are a tell tale sign that we Americans are politically undereducated. This isn’t knew. I heard this complaint from immigrants since I was a child.
The Democrats are a major culprit in this failure. Since 1972, with the defeat of the Basic Income Grant in the Senate proved that the future isn‘t going t be the same. The ideals would be squashed and the Democrats became like the Republicans.
American liberalism accommodated itself to the free market nostrums of the right wing and the rapid growth of social inequality, and repudiated any serious program for social reform.
There is a despise amongst Socialist about Social Democrats. Social Democrats are still Capitalist. That is Liberal Social Democrats. Socialist Social Democrats fight for change that contain a Democratic Socialist future.
American voters are probably the worse on the planet. The maintain a two party system, vote on the hopes of change that is never happening. Many vote Republican when the Democrats fail. But we know the Republican will not deliver the goods, ever. So why the does this happen? Because American are people who are entrench in Conformity. People only care about themselves and really do not care about the issues.
People, in America today, especially, hate the poor. We are a Nation of haters, not everyone, but we there are embracement of heavy fascist element in America.
Not only political, but personal.
What I mean by this is that people in America (Not everyone) are apathetic, vote for selfish self interest, and really have to sense of civics are care about humanity.
People will riot in the streets after a sporting event. They turn cars over, set things on fire, resort to violence
When it comes to homelessness poverty, and worker issues. Many will say stuff like, “ I hope a Wal-Mart comes to town so we can get the bums off welfare.”
Yet, have not developed a alternative party movement that is relevant or significant.
There was a revival in the 1990’s with Ross Perot’s National Reform Party (Even today the NRP votes Republican), The NRP is dead, along with the Natural Law Party. The NLP had some flakey notions.
The Socialist Party USA finished 10th of 14. A new high, showing people are tired of the two party system, yet New Jersey has a new Republican Governor. The inability for American to move forward, progress, and create a better society is not in the picture of most voters.
When we look at the Alternatives, when people vote independent, they vote for the Libertarians and National Constitution Party. Two flakey Parties with a ultra right wing agenda. both embrace the right to be ignorant.
The Green Party was becoming the national most popular alternative parties, but struggles between liberal, leftist, and socialist left the party fragmented and marginalized.
The Greens agenda reflected the Socialist International. Which mad many Socialist draw towards the Greens.
The Socialist Parties are also at fault for this. When the Greens where in there hey day, many far left socialist parties endorsed the Greens. The Greens, not all, the right wing Greens where hostile to this.
The in effectiveness of Socialist Parties in America come from the fact that socialist parties on one hand never keep people. People get tired of the movement which remain widely ineffectual.
Socialist Parties in America host and are the play ground of intellectuals, philosophers, and metaphysicians. Not many functionaries.
Socialist Parties spend more time alienating their members than building membership and do not live up to their own ideals.
On the other hand, people are to blame for this too, because rather than fight for a party, people will leave and go some where else. People are great fist wavers for causes, but won’t repair the parties that can get us there.
Many people join Socialist clubs like the Labor Party or Democratic Socialist of America.
Many believe the Revolution is on. There must be a Revolution of the Invisible.
Even when a Socialist Party is sincere and something to offer people gravitate to an intellectual socialist groups.
Giving credit, many Socialist groups have good information and are educational toward the workers movement.
Although many socialists are sincere and very good at their cause, many shun others away due to their own discrimination and intolerance.
I was complained about work to a groups of socialists, and one said to me, “ No one cares about your issues or life.” Hold on now, A Socialist without the ability to relate to a workers struggle, how hypocritical is that?
Socialism is a true answer to politics, because it perpetuates a civilized society of compassion and democracy and freedom.
Democratic Socialism is the answer because it address a varied wide range of issues. America need a good old fashioned Democratic Socialist Party that will takes us there.
Back to voters though. We just cannot blame the voters or parties. There are ballot access issues, the corporate news media., attacks form The Democratic Party.
The American Voter has what I call, the bad lover complex. We know that lover is bad for us. We know they are wrong. Yet we gravitate to that lover like a dope fiend embraces their addiction. We take the abuse, we take the lies, cheating, and all the villainous things that go with the relationship, yet we are still enamored with the lover.
In many ways that makes the American Voter truly sorrowful. On to political awakening and an age of enlightenment.
　
Dedicated to Vitov Valdez Munoz

Bill Of Democratic Rights

2010-01-17T23:38:00.000-05:00

Let it be defined that the Praxis of Democarcy is Freedom and Liberty and the Prinicpels of such subscribed to by All of Humanity. The fore most prinicpals of Democarcy that all people of the World live and be protected, and guarenteed under such principles. This include the Respect for All Life.

ONE: All persons shall have the right to self-determination. Every human being has the right to do with their body what they choose as long as it does not harm others. Each person has the right to choose his or her destiny.
TWO: No Government shall be a permanent one. There shall be equal ballot access and equal public funding for all elections. No political party from Right to Left shall be censored nor exempted from the process. Each shall have equal access to any available media. A Candidate may demand several recounts and all votes must count completely. No court of law, nor any government body can decide otherwise. All votes must count.
THREE: Each individual shall have the right to work. All anti-labor legislation shall be repealed. Each person shall be subject to Labor protection from his or her employers and Labor Unions. Wildcat strikes shall be permissible and not denied. All workers shall have redress for infractions. There shall be democracy in the work place. No Employer can interfere with an employee's life. Each person shall have humane working hours, leisure, confortable retirement, health care, and human rights. All work places shall be democratic with no infringemnet by employers or managers on the individuals personal life. A individual shall have full protection from the government and law.
FOUR: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it is independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
FIVE: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
SIX: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social jutice and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
SEVEN: We shall have a government by the people and for the people. Neo-liberalism shall be abolished and we should have a true government by the people and for the people. All public entities that have been privatized shall be returned to the people. No public entity shall be sold to corporations. There shall be no Privatization of any public entities. No corporation shall be recognized as a person.
EIGHT: Everyone has the right to social programs and security. Every Human being shall be provided with a qualitative basic life support that have been left out of the work force. Each person shall have the right to health care and proper lodging in a conducive environment. Each person has a light to a living substance and universal health care from the government. The Government must provide Universal Income and Health Care.
NINE: Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United States and Nations for the maintenance of peace. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
TEN: Each person shall have free access to quality legal defense and assistance. Ever person regardless of expense shall have free and total access to the law. There shall be no political prisoners. Courts will be about getting down to the truth rather than victory and fairness shall be rule of law. Person siting unfairness shall have a appeal with new evidence submissable and complete retrial. All unjust laws shall be repealed, and all malfunctioning courts must be reformed. Protection of the rights of the citizen comes first.
ELEVEN: Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. Every person shall have a right to attempt to fulfill there aspirations, and not be subject to peresecution by the State. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary of democratic principal. This shall be protected.
TWELEVE: Each Community and State shall become a direct Democracy. Every Citizen shall have a say in Government Sustainable Communities where Stewardship is to the public shall abide by public access and decision in every community. Every citizen shall be able to mandate public policy and the public shall vote on the issues. The ecology and economy shall legally be that of harmony and the people shall control The municipalities, there places of work, the economy, and have personal liberty on their lives.
THIRTEEN: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. There shall be no to limited censorship.
FOURTEEN: No Government cannot henceforth policy of oppression in this or any other country. The Government is fully accountable to the people. There shall be an abolishment of all secret governments and secret government actions. The government is the instrument to the protection of the public. There shall be no presidential wars or police actions. The government shall provide a strong standing military, and temporarily act in foreign conflicts when necessary. No government can undermine the human rights or laws in this country or any other. Only democratically elected governments can set policy. And the people rule.
FIFTHTEEN: All art work shall belong to the creator. No work by any State, Individual, patron or other wise shall be taken away form the artist. The artists art work always belongs to the artist and unless specified work for hire, the creation belongs legally to the creater. No art shall be sold off with out the artists consent, and the artist has the right to use their creativity regardless of current owner. Laws and rights of the artist and the freedom of expression shall be guaranteed.
SIXTEEN: All declarations of human rights and laws protecting human rights where ever in this world shall be common law through out the land. This will include all social, civil liberties, any laws protecting the citizen in the most humane manner shall be implemented and allowed in jurisprudence. All just laws where every implemented on earth shall be rule of law. Everyone is equal under the law, and all laws shall be imposed equally.

http://oracles.0catch.com/bdr.htm

Buddhist View of Conservativism

2010-01-17T16:43:00.004-05:00

RESTORED FROM NEWSVINE We are almost done restoring articles from Newsvine. Buddha believed there where three poisons in the world. Greed, Hate, and ignorance. It seems to me that viewing the conservative mind, the conservatives embrace all three. Let us look at greed. In the 80’s in particular, with Yuppies and Professionalism, greed is good was the values. These values where especially put forward by the Reagan administration. TV went from enlightened entertainment to (Star Trek, MASH) to Dynasty, Dallas, and Falcon Crest. People with money where great, lying, cheating, and stealing where the norm. Humanistic values took the back seat. At least there where redeeming shows such as Murphy Brown. Capitalist values of Elitism became the norm and still effect us today. The catch phrase, “We should go back top Vietnam and win that one.” That is ignorance. Hate: America, even now had developed a racist and fascist hatred of the poor. The poor are lazy, shiftless people who will not work. They leach off the rich and are a drain on society. Yet the wealthy get handouts everyday. $83,000,000,000 goes rewarded for failure and they still give themselves bonuses. Is it society’s responsibility to maintain homes with indoor swimming pools, movie theaters, and bowling alleys, while the person on street lives in a cardboard box? Charity and handouts for the rich? In addition, how many time have youngsters murdered homeless people for sport? There has been a multitude of news stories featuring such activities. Many people are forced in public housing, inferior living conditions, and a underclass that has no chance to get out of its squalled conditions. Ignorance: Is not it the conservative catch phrase today that we have a right to be ignorant. I do not think so. The right to hate discriminate and abuse people do not seem to embrace the path of anything humane. Reagan once said; facts are silly little things. Facts are the path to enlightenment. It is facts that help us deal with reality and find solutions to problems. Ignorance means to also do stupid things. Do we have the right to kill each other, steal, lie, rape, injure? Conservatives are unfeeling hypocrites who look for compassion when they are down, but have no remorse or compassion for others when they are down. The conservative minds darken society. Take a look at conservative history. The Dark Ages, The crusades and other times. Conservatives are a destructive force . This is why we need a Socialist Movement to bring forward a better society. Socialism is about humanity and civilization. On Oprah Winfrey, during an interview with a Danish Citizen , she asked if it was the Socialism that made society better. The girl responded; no, it is about civilization. THAT IS SOCIALISM! It is about fostering a positive, better society and fostering a better world to live in.
For further reading
http://bta.0catch.com/page4.htm

My Socialist Youth

2010-01-14T00:06:00.000-05:00

RESTORED FROM NEWSVINE
Tino Rozzo
As a youngster, I guess one being aware of there class would have Socialist inclinations.
I was raised in the industrial town of Paterson NJ.
My family worked in factories and where low wage earners. My father constantly touted Socialism. I wondered what it was. I went to the now defunct Library on Madison and 6Th Ave and pulled out a book on the three isms.
Capitalism, Socialism, and Fascism. I was sold. I new where I stood. I was a Socialist.
That is where I found my favorite Marxist book, “Das Kapital”
It must have caught on earlier because my father factory was a Union shop. We went on Union picnics and most of my hero’s where Union people. Back in the late 1960’s Unions where very relevant.
I used to go to my mothers factory. There where other factories around. I used to watch the workers come out and they all looked dismal and tired. I remember one man who seemed exhausted and dirty. He wore grey cover alls. No one in the factories seemed happy to be there.
We also had outside class warfare. Paterson was considered low and the kids from the wealthier towns used to come and do something racist called “Whack a n****r day”
Our gang put a stop to that.
Many times the wealthier kids would find kids from Paterson and beat them up. Of course we would retaliate.
One thing that was constantly stressed when you where with wealthy kids. The future was for them, your just going to work. They where the future we where not.
People who worked for a living where paid low, but in the early 70’s the pay check went much further. Capitalism attacked in the early 70 with the fake gas crisis. Forcing oil to go up.
Gerry Ford was President. Suddenly there where shortages everywhere. Sugar, Milk, Wheat, peanuts, you name, Inflation was the economic condition. Ford had distributed WIN buttons, (Whip Inflation Now). As President he was a big joke. That is when it really sunk in. Capitalism was evil and had to go. Bu there was no revolution.
I watched Doctors rip apart patients in the name of profits. People went into poverty.
We needed National Healthcare. Still do.
The Vietnam War took many innocent lives, People came home in rather horrible health.
The Vietnam War was a miserable, illegal, and immoral war that destroyed a lot of lives.
Some friends and I played a little joke one day. It was winter and we whore those Russian style hats with ear muffs. My friend,, Communist, brought Red Stars to school one day and we stuck them on our hats. The teacher yelled at us. “Take those stars off, don’t you know that is the symbol of our enemy. Once in a while we would salute the flag with the Nazi salute.”
The Socialist Workers and Socialist Labor Party was active. I used to Read “The People.”
We frequently saw Socialist posters on the walls of the factories.
Ah our rebellious youth! Me and my Communist friend would go to the rail road bridges. We found paint and would graffiti Socialist slogans. My favorite one was ‘ The only Solution is Socialist Revolution.”
Socialist propaganda was painted all along side of those bridges .
(For those who live in Passaic County, they are the three bridges on Wabash Ave not far from Lafayette.)
I didn’t find the Socialist Party USA till my early twenties. It was the 1980’s and Reagan was about to destroy America.
I was actively involved with the Socialist people there. (That is when I discovered a lot of insincerity, ersatz intellectuals, and dilettantes) Michael Harrington was king of that circuit.
Getting a job at a electronics plant fueled my Socialism. My boss put up anti socialist propaganda about how we are more productive than the Soviet Union.
I told him maybe the USSR wasn’t as shallow and materialistic as we where.
I seen to many people come and go, and they are all the same.
I used to go to the Revolutionary Bookstore, when it was on 10th street in NYC.
The people there, well, had personalities. there I discovered Debs and Thomas.
Back to my misspent socialist youth.
I spent a good deal of my high school years involved in Leftist Politics. Going to protests.
Preaching the Socialist gospel. I never imagined when I grew up I would actually run for office. At 18 I voted in my first Presidential election . And I voted for David McReynolds and Sister Diane Drufenbrock.
Back to High School. I wrote a paper on Marxism and Socialism in which I received an A. I wish I still had that paper.
Some teacher got upset with me because they where died in the wool Capitalists. The system works! If one of NJ over paid teachers.
The Cold War was on. The message was “America is a free country, one can be anything they want’ In Russia they tell you what you are going top be.” I found when I graduated High School, that was anything but true. I was met with much Anti-Italian racism and discrimination.
Through out High School I was frequently turned down for jobs because I wasn’t the right religion or ethnic. This even went into my adulthood.
There was also fear of nuclear wars. Russia wanted to bomb us everyday. They even made movies out of nuclear fear, like “Zero Hour”. Twilight Zone and “Outer Limits” frequently had shows depicting nuclear annihilation.
I regret not finding the Sp earlier. It would be nice to have been a YPSL member. My loss.
Here I am now, still Socialist after all these years.

The End Of Jobs

2010-01-10T14:47:00.003-05:00

Tino Rozzo

My original article was nuked by Newsvine, this is a replacement. Lets consider this a missing episode.
____

Skilled labor within an industry is eliminated by the introduction of technologies operated by semiskilled or unskilled workers. Work is fragmented, and individuals lose the integrated skills and comprehensive knowledge of the skilled craftsman.
I once worked as a computer operator, The Company installed a new computer. 12 operators lost their jobs and the Computer did the work 10 times faster. I never was hired again as a computer operator.
Related to the topic of deskilling is evolution of the work place.
A economist once said, in the factories of the future there will be two employees. A Dog and a man. The man will feed the dog and the dog will keep people away from the machines.
The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October. The largest job losses over the month were in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade.
In October, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since April 1983. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points.
Federal benefits are up to 20 additional weeks to those in about 26 states with unemployment rates exceeding 8.5 percent. In the past two months, more than 600,000 out-of-work people have exhausted their benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project.
The extension brings maximum state and federal unemployment insurance to 99 weeks, the longest ever, reflecting the severity of a recession that has thrown more people out of work for longer periods than at any other time since collection of such data began six decades ago, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This is a good argument to install the Universal Income.
A Capitalists last year laid off the highest number of employees since 2003, while the media industry pink-slipped people at the highest rate since 2001.Employers announced more than 1.22 million job cuts in 2008, up 59% from the previous year. In 2003, more than 1.23 million had been fired. The 2008 hike was driven by the financial sector, which shed 260,110 jobs, the third-highest total for a single industry since Challenger started tracking data in 1993. Layoffs in the media industry, which includes film and TV companies, amounted to 28,083 last year, the highest since 43,420 staffers were let go in 2001 following the bursting of the. December layoffs amounted to 166,348, a record for the final month of the year since 1993. Layoffs in U.S. up 59% from 2007 Media industry made most cuts since 2001
Corporate America last year laid off the highest number of employees since 2003, while the media industry pink-slipped people at the highest rate since 2001.Employers announced more than 1.22 million job cuts in 2008, up 59% from the previous year, thanks to an accelerating of cost cutting in the back half, In 2003, more than 1.23 million had been fired. The 2008 up swing was initiated by the financial sector, which ridded 260,110 jobs, the third-highest total for a single industry since 1993. Layoffs in the media industry, which includes movie and TV companies, amounted to 28,083 last year, the highest since 43,420 workers were made redundant in 2001. In that year total layoffs amounted to nearly 2 million, followed by nearly 1.5 million in 2002. December layoffs racked up 166,348, a record for the since 1993.
Microsoft – 5,000
Intel – 5,000
Time-Warner – 800
Disney – 600
Harley-Davidson -1,100
Deere & Co. – 662
Boeing – 5,300
General Electric -1,000
Motorola -4,000
Merrill LynchBank of America – 35,000
Las Vegas Sands – 11,000
Johnson ControlsAlcoa – 13,500
United States Steel – 4, 225
Eaton – 5, 609
Hertz Global Holdings – 4,000
Best Buy – 500Pfizer – 800
Google – 100
Oracle NA
Below is a list of every major lay off I have uncovered since January 1st, 2009.
There have been over 180,000 layoffs since January 1st.
Date
Company
Lay Offs*
Article
Jan 5
US Steel -4200
Jan 5
Cigna -1100
Jan 6
Alcoa -13500
Jan 7
EMC -2400
Jan 7
Walgreen-1000
Jan 8
Union Pacific-200
Jan 9
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold -2700
Jan 9
Oracle -500
Jan 12
Textron-2600
Jan 12
Mosaic -1000
Jan 12
Best Buy-500
Jan 13
Cummins-1300
Jan 13
KeyCorp -200
Jan 14
Motorola -4000
Jan 14
Delta Air Lines -2000
Jan 14
Ecolab -1000
Jan 14
Google -100
Jan 15
MeadWestvaco -2000
Jan 15
General Electric -1000
Jan 15
Marshall & Ilsley -800
Jan 15
Autodesk -700
Jan 15
Xerox -200
Jan 16
Hertz Global Holdings -4000
Jan 16
Advanced Micro Devices-1700
Jan 16
ConocoPhillips -1300
Jan 16
WellPoint -600
Jan 20
Clear Channel-1800
Jan 21
Eaton -5600
Jan 21
Intel -5000
Jan 21
Burlington Santa Fe -2500
Jan 21
UAL -1000
Jan 21-State of Maryland
700 -Maryland Layoffs
Jan 21
Walt Disney
600
Jan 21
SPX
400
Jan 22
Microsoft
5000
Jan 22
Huntsman
1600
Jan 23 -
Harley-Davidson -1100
Jan 23
Deere & Company-600
Jan 23
Abercrombie & Fitch-50
Jan 26
Caterpillar -20800
Jan 26
Pfizer -19800
Jan 26
General Motors -9700
Jan 26
Sprint Nextel -8000
Jan 26
Home Depot -7000
Jan 26
Texas Instruments -3400
Jan 26
IBM -2800
Jan 26
Lincoln National -500
Jan 27
Target -1000
Jan 27
Masco -600
Jan 28
Boeing -10000
Boeing Layoffs
Jan 28 -
Starbucks -6700 -Starbucks Layoffs
Jan 28
Time Warner -1250
Jan 29
Eastman Kodak -4500
Jan 29
Textron -2000
Jan 29
Ford -1200
Jan 29
Black and Decker -1200
Jan 29
Walt Disney -600
Jan 30
Caterpillar -2100
Caterpillar Layoffs Continue
Feb 2
Macy’s -7000
Macy’s Layoffs
Feb 2
PNC Financial -5800
PNC Financial Layoffs
Feb 2
Liz Claiborne -700
Liz Claiborne Layoffs
Feb 3
Electronic Arts -1100
EA Layoffs
Feb 3
University of Arizona -600
University of Arizona Layoffs
Feb 4
Time Warner -2700
AOL Time Warner Layoffs
Feb 4
Cisco Systems -2000
Feb 5
Estee Lauder -2000
Estee Lauder Layoffs
Feb 5
Allergan -400
　

Cheddi Jagan

2010-01-10T07:57:00.000-05:00

Tino Rozzo

The Dissident 2000

This is a biography of Cheddi Jagan. We recently celebrated Allendes aniversary and I think on equal par we should look into someone we should never forget.Here is the bio of a hero who tried to find a accord with labor and capital. I've been working on this one quite a while. Cheddi Jagan was born on March 22, 1918 on a sugar plantation in Port Mourant, Berbice, the son of indentured sugar workers. His parents Bachoni (mother) and Jagan (father) had arrived in the then British Guiana as young infants with their mothers from the district of Basti in Uttar Pradesh, India. Both his grandmothers came as indentured immigrants in 1901 andwere "bound" by five year contracts to different sugar plantations in the county of Berbice. Life was very hard and both his parents had to start working in the canefields at a young age to supplement the family income.
His mother never went to school, but his father was a bit more fortunate, attending school for threeyears! Because his father worked very hard, he earned the reputation of being the best canecutter andwas promoted to "driver." But still his pay was very small and because he was non-white there was nofurther avenue of promotion. He thus saw the need for formal education, and made sure that his son,Cheddi Jagan attended school.
Cheddi Jagan attended primary school and two years of secondary school in his area. At the age of fifteen his father decided to send him to Queen’s College, a government secondary school in the capital city of Georgetown, about one hundred miles away. There he boarded with three families.
In Georgetown, Cheddi found life very different from life at home where poverty had been intense andhe often had to stay home from school to work in the rice fields and to cut and fetch canes. He alsohelped his mother keep a kitchen garden and to sell produce from it. His mother allowed him to keep apart of the proceeds for his share of the work. Cheddi Jagan wrote that he learned the elements offinance from his mother and acquired any of his leadership qualities from his father, who was bold andflamboyant.
Trying to find a job after graduating high school, became almost impossible. The civil service wasclosed, to be a school teacher you had to become a Christian, something that his Hindu parents wouldhave none of, and his father could not bear the thought of him working on the plantation. Finally hisfather decided to send him to the United States to study dentistry at Howard University in Washington,D.C.
Cheddi left for the United States in September 1935 with two friends and returned to British Guiana in October 1943. He lived in Washington, D.C for two years and attended Howard University, taking a pre-dental course, worked two summers in New York and spent the last five years in Chicago, Illinois at Northwestern University.
Cheddi Jagan was a dedicated student and his hard work earned him a free tuition scholarship for hissecond year at Howard and in 1938 entry into Northwestern University for a four year dental program.
But he was not satisfied to become only a dentist, he wanted to find to find out more about things goingon in the world and enrolled in classes in social sciences. When he graduated from NorthwesternUniversity in 1942 with his degree in Dental Surgery (DDS), he also received his Bachelor of Sciences (B.Sc.) degree.
Because his parents could not afford to support him financially, Cheddi Jagan had to work whileattending school. He had many jobs – tailor (he had "picked" up at home from a friend) in a hock shop;salesperson selling patent medicines; dishwasher; delivering evening newspapers; presser in a laundryand an elevator operator.
On August 5,1943 he married Janet Rosenberg, whom he had met only six months before, at a simpleceremony at the Chicago City Hall without the consent of parents on both sides. In October 1943, hereturned home. His wife Janet, arrived in British Guiana just before Christmas of 1943.
Getting into Stride
Cheddi Jagan's first task was to establish a practice in Georgetown, the Capital. His feeswere low as he did not want to exploit his patients but this led him into a public battle withthe Dental Association for a principle he believed in. He brought four of his brothers and onesister to live with them, so that they could further their education.
Although he liked his profession, at the same time he longed to identify himself with something moremeaningful. In those days, there were no political parties. The planter class dominated the LegislativeCouncil and though some union leaders such as Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, who formed the BGLU in1922, spoke in the legislative Council on behalf of workers, they had no mass political organization. Inexistence then were the League of Colored People and the British Guiana East Indian Association.The LCP did not interest him much since they opposed adult suffrage. The BGIEA supportedconstitutional changes and universal adult suffrage but was unsympathetic to the plight of the workingman.
The dental surgery became a hive of activities and through it he made many important contact, manypatients being ordinary rural and urban workers. Cheddi’s name began to spread in the sugar belt–coming from a sugar estate and as well a doctor who listened to ordinary people. On many occasions hewould be invited by workers to speak and advise them on industrial matters in various parts of thesugar belt. Due to his increased contacts with workers, he became involved in the two trade unions inthe sugar industry, one of them being the ManPower Citizen’s Association.
In 1945 he became treasurer of that union, but was removed after a year when he objected to theglaring reluctance of the union to defend the interests of the sugar workers. It was, he discovered, acompany union. Those were the days when many things were happening. The Royal Commission onThe West Indies headed by Lord Moyne had published its report, which horrified many as it related inconcrete terms the miserable conditions of the workers and farmers. The war had created its owndifficulties in Guyana and the region. These difficulties had stirred widespread debate in which Cheddi and his wife Janet, took an active part. They used to take part in discussions over a wide range ofsubjects at the Carnegie (now National) Library. An important event in that year was the convening inGeorgetown of West Indian Conference attended by such leaders as Grantley Adams of Barbados, Norman Manley and Richard Hart of Jamaica, Albert Gomes of Trinidad and H.N. Critchlow of Guyana.The Labour Party had just won the elections in England and many were openly talking of socialism.
In 1946, H.J.M Hubbard, an avowed Marxist who was at that time the General Secretary of the BritishGuiana Trades Union Council, Ashton Chase assistant secretary in the British Guiana Labour Union, Janet Jagan who was at that time in the Clerical Worker Union, along with Cheddi Jagan formed thePolitical Affairs Committee and established a PAC Bulletin, with Janet as the editor. The PAC waslabour oriented. All four were working in trade unions. In the same year, the Women's Political andEconomic Organisation headed by Janet Jagan, Winifred Gaskin and Frances Van Stafford, was formed.
In 1947 the first elections since World War II were held. There were 14 elected seats to be contested.Apart from the middle class organizations, the LCP and the BGEIA, a Labour Party was formed but thisorganization was a group of individuals put together quickly and without any mass base.
Janet and Cheddi Jagan ran as independent labour candidates -Janet contested in Georgetown andCheddi on the East Coast of Demerara. Janet lost to John Fernandes, a businessman and catholic,

Clinics Expose

2010-01-10T07:53:00.000-05:00

Tino Rozzo

The Dissident 11 1999

Not long ago I placed a petition on e-the people to support health clinics for the indigent. I have discovered a interesting story about how Dis functional and negligent these clinics are and the doctors who run them who are guilty of malpractice.
First there is a woman, we will call her patient X.
Patient X is a factory worker in a sweatshop. She was feeking seriously ill and the Nurses tried to give her a appointment a week away. When a person is feeling ill, what good does a week away appointment do?
Well, after arguing for a appointment, this person was diagnosed with a virus that needed immediate treatment. She asked the doctors for a week off to recuperate.
They told her she would only get three days off. She wasn't ready to go back to work but went anyway. Her oppressive bosses want a not, and after two notes, she's fired regardless of how legitimate her condition is.
She went back to work and by mid mourning she passes out. She goes to the Doctor after arguing for another appointment and she is forced to go to work the next day also.
By next week, she is on the job and gets sicker the following night, where she is rushed to the emergency room. She spends 5 hours waiting for tests that yield nothing. In fact, she even rarely sees a doctor or nurse near by.
She goes to work the following day and turns completely red. Then she is rushed to the emergency room again.
Where another 5 hours in tests are performed and it is discovered she has a bladder infection.
She asks the doctor for more time off, he denies her more time off and the physician will not see her for a follow up appointment.
Obviously the doctors work for the bosses, and the patients health can go to hell.
Mind you, the place of employment will not allow time off for sickness, personal health for more than 2 days.
people loose holiday pay and other pay for any reason what so ever. One can get punished for any basic human function and need.
In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a person is guaranteed health care and it is a basic human right to have a attending physician make sure that patient gets adequate health care. Doctors have a Hypocratic, not hypocritic oath. The doctors are business men and stick up for business. Many doctors are Republicans and in Republican policy will not give patients disability.
Two ways to handle miserable doctors is to turn them in to the licensing board of the state, the other is to report them to the states bio-ethics committee.
The other is to sue for malpractice. Of course a person gets more respect for spilling a hot cup of coffee in there laps. Suing the boss and doctors means that their special friends the lawyers, maybe on the Docs and bosses side

Alternative Parties

2010-01-10T07:37:00.000-05:00

By Tino Rozzo

There has been a debate amongst Socialists about running against Democrats in elections. There are even arguments and good stances on debate. But it boils down to this.
Recent surveys and statistics indicate that only 33% of eligible voters turn up at
The polls and vote. The vote is mostly for a two party system represented by the Democrats and Republicans.
These two parties have nothing new to offer and any inkling of Left ideology is gone from the Democrats.
Even when elected, the Democrats failed to maintain there Left position and completely dissipated it for the sake of big dollar votes. In the day, the Democrats used Socialist policy to gain votes and install the New Deal and Great Society programs. Harry Truman undermined workers democracy bills, while Ford and Reagan dismantled the New Deal and Great society programs. The Democrats are not fighting to get them back.
How ever, statistics show that when an Alternate Party individual runs for office, the voter percentage goes up.
33% vote in the United States, while in Europe, Voter turn out is 99%.
The Alternate Party is tainted in the media as a bunch of whacky people with whacked out ideals. Unfortunately this can be true from time to time, but that not always the case.
The ideals of political mavericks can be quite alarming. Let’s look at Ross Perot.
His Reform Party had quite a few good ideas, but when his organization became popular, the Reform Party became incredulous.
But we have something lacking in the United States. That is freedom of expression and ballot suppression.
First, lets explode the myth that Alternate Political Parties can take votes from the popular party and that the next to left will essentially win. There is no proof of this. How ever statistics show that the more parties on the Ballot, the more people are inclined to vote.
In Italy, 10 parties are on the ballot. Conservatives, Liberals, two Socialist Parties, the Greens, and Communists. There are a smattering of independent parties.
Never, ever is it a question of whether any of these parties will steal votes from the other.
In a Democracy, it is expected that three to ten parties will run for office.
It would be quite OK for a Socialist to run against a Democrat since Democrats are not Socialists and have never adapted a Socialist Program.
In Socialism we are trying to put an end to Capitalism and convert society to a Democratic Socialist Government.
We know what the pitfalls are. And we also realize the transformation to Socialism will be very gradual. It took Rome a long time to fall.

If the Socialist Party USA doesn’t run Candidates, in the long run people will ask who we are, and what have we done. We must have something to show for our efforts.
2. What is needed is equal access to the media-publicly funded campaigns and equal access to all media sources. People have no idea who we are or what makes us Socialists. Especially the young. We have to look at the success pasts socialist have had and recapture the magic. We also must state our approach to Socialism as differing from the Socialist Labor and Socialist Workers Party. And now the Green Party, which isn’t Socialist, but contains a Socialist International ideology.
When I am campaigning some people will ask me, “Why is it that I haven’t heard of this Socialism before?”
Our approach is very important to the decision of the voter.
3. Candidates must get the word out. And the word is Public Funding of Elections, Proportional Representation, and Instant Run Off. The two party system isn’t fighting for this.
Proportional Voting is when the public votes according to ranking a candidate they would like to represent them. As 1 vote may have gone to Gore, 2 to McReynolds putting him in Second place, and maybe a third to Bush.
When the votes are tallied, the first choice wins by the most choices, and the second place determines the Alternative.
In Instant Run Off, this only happens during a tie, a second vote is taken two weeks later, the top three are voted for with a first and second choice.
And there is a distinct winner.
4. The next problem is Ballot Access. In many states it takes thousands of signatures to place candidate. In NJ 100 for Congress, 800 for Governor, 800 for President. In all states, a bonnified party should just fill out a notarized affidavit
and register their candidate.

The Socialists Party USA, is a standard bearer of the American Left
But we cannot count our Victories on election turn outs either. When We marched in NYC in the Anti-War Parade, was amazed about how our fellow protesters clamored to march with us, Even though they were not party members. They were joyful and affectionate toward the SPUSA.
I heard about how some folks saw Maggie Phair on LA TV. and some folks Voted for Thomas, and how some youngsters marched with us because they loved our Party and what we represent. The size of membership and vote totals may not be as significant as how many people like us and how many people sympathize, and how many people we can potentially bring into the party. I remember those feelings when I was young.
There is a particular psychology here. If we do not run a candidate, the image is perceived the SPUSA is politically dead. We have to avoid that at all costs. This is a serious matter!
It is even an ego gratifying experience to have people walk up to you on the street and acknowledge your campaign. It almost seems important to people that, even though we will loose by big numbers, that we appear on the ballot. It represents their ideals and hopes.
In reality it is going to take more then elections for a Political Party to be successful. We must also gain strong numbers and start building a living model of our movement. Job Harrison tried that near Los Angeles with his Co-operative Community. One day we should try it on a larger scale perhaps similar to Co-op Atlantic in Canada. People need to be freed and untied from the Machine and Poverty.
As Socialist in any campaign-Symbolically we represent the hopes and dreams of a nation. And we are America's premiere Democratic Socialist Party. We need to strike that Iron, we need to keep the spark of the movement no matter what.
BREAD AND ROSES!

Neoliberalism Explained

2010-01-10T07:33:00.000-05:00

by Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia“Neo-liberalism” is a set of economic policies that have become widespread during the last 25 years or so. Although the word is rarely heard in the United States, you can clearly see the effects of neo-liberalism here as the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer.
“Liberalism” can refer to political, economic, or even religious ideas. In the U.S. political liberalism has been a strategy to prevent social conflict. It is presented to poor and working people as progressive compared to conservative or Rightwing. Economic liberalism is different. Conservative politicians who say they hate “liberals” — meaning the political type — have no real problem with economic liberalism, including neoliberalism.
“Neo” means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism. So what was the old kind? The liberal school of economics became famous in Europe when Adam Smith, an English economist, published a book in 1776 called THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. He and others advocated the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs, he said; free trade was the best way for a nation’s economy to develop. Such ideas were “liberal” in the sense of no controls. This application of individualism encouraged “free” enterprise,” “free” competition — which came to mean, free for the capitalists to make huge profits as they wished.
Economic liberalism prevailed in the United States through the 1800s and early 1900s. Then the Great Depression of the 1930s led an economist named John Maynard Keynes to a theory that challenged liberalism as the best policy for capitalists. He said, in essence, that full employment is necessary for capitalism to grow and it can be achieved only if governments and central banks intervene to increase employment. These ideas had much influence on President Roosevelt’s New Deal — which did improve life for many people. The belief that government should advance the common good became widely accepted.
But the capitalist crisis over the last 25 years, with its shrinking profit rates, inspired the corporate elite to revive economic liberalism. That’s what makes it “neo” or new. Now, with the rapid globalization of the capitalist economy, we are seeing neo-liberalism on a global scale.
A memorable definition of this process came from Subcomandante Marcos at the Zapatista-sponsored Encuentro Intercontinental por la Humanidad y contra el Neo-liberalismo (Inter-continental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism) of August 1996 in Chiapas when he said: “what the Right offers is to turn the world into one big mall where they can buy Indians here, women there ….” and he might have added, children, immigrants, workers or even a whole country like Mexico.”
The main points of neo-liberalism include:1) THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating “free” enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers’ rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say “an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone.” It’s like Reagan’s “supply-side” and “trickle-down” economics — but somehow the wealth didn’t trickle down very much.
2) CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply — again in the name of reducing government’s role. Of course, they don’t oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.
3) DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on the job.
4) PRIVATIZATION. Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors. This includes banks, key industries, railroads, toll highways, electricity, schools, hospitals and even fresh water. Although usually done in the name of greater efficiency, which is often needed, privatization has mainly had the effect of concentrating wealth even more in a few hands and making the public pay even more for its needs.
5) ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF “THE PUBLIC GOOD” or “COMMUNITY” and replacing it with “individual responsibility.” Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves — then blaming them, if they fail, as “lazy.”
Around the world, neo-liberalism has been imposed by powerful financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. It is raging all over Latin America. The first clear example of neo-liberalism at work came in Chile (with thanks to University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman), after the CIA-supported coup against the popularly elected Allende regime in 1973. Other countries followed, with some of the worst effects in Mexico where wages declined 40 to 50% in the first year of NAFTA while the cost of living rose by 80%. Over 20,000 small and medium businesses have failed and more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises have been privatized in Mexico. As one scholar said, “Neoliberalism means the neo-colonization of Latin America.”
In the United States neo-liberalism is destroying welfare programs; attacking the rights of labor (including all immigrant workers); and cutbacking social programs. The Republican “Contract” on America is pure neo-liberalism. Its supporters are working hard to deny protection to children, youth, women, the planet itself — and trying to trick us into acceptance by saying this will “get government off my back.” The beneficiaries of neo-liberalism are a minority of the world’s people. For the vast majority it brings even more suffering than before: suffering without the small, hard-won gains of the last 60 years, suffering without end.

Radical-Co-operatives

2010-01-10T07:32:00.002-05:00

We go To construct a Movement of Cooperatives You would revolutionize It thinks about I worse number it of people who brutally are explored in the work, or still, that it does not have job. In we have them a design to fight against this reality. For the path of the cooperativismo, we are creating companies who will be burst democraticamente for the workers, which will be free of scanning. In any company, in them we produce value with our work, but in the capitalist companies, a great part of the value who we produce, goes for the capitalist who lives upper-class with the fruits of our work, while in them we only receive the sufficient one to live today, and to come back to work amanha. In the cooperative, in them we receive the value entire that we produce. In we have created them you vary cooperatives. In Goiânia, in them we create a cooperative of trash recycling, and a cooperative of perueiros. In the Mining triangle, we are working with a sector of the movement without land, the MLST of Fight, where hundreds of families in you vary farms are producing of collective and democratic form. In we want them to construct, to develop, and to spread this movement to include million of workers brasileiros.Esse movement is part of a work ampler than it includes the attempt to construct revolutionary socialist unions and, and a revolutionary party of the workers. The design intends to place all the Brazilian economy under democratic control, to create parents where nobody and explored, and to produce what in we need them to live well, without fear, misery. Here in the DF, we are developing a design where, in the first stage, we go to assemble a restaurant with a micron brewery in the flat pilot. We also intend to arrange you vary chacaras where we will produce vegetables, temperos, mushrooms, and others itens for consumption in the restaurant. From this start, we want to expand for other cooperative activities, and also to spread the socialist ideals that go to liberate the classroom of the workers. It has innumerable possibilities. We can in involving them with the ecoturismo, we can create schools, hospitals, you manufacture, farms, supermarkets, the possibilities are almost without limit. We know that our competition does not finish with the capitalism, but believe that through the revolutionary cooperativismo we can help to create the material and social base for the construction of a socialist movement, which finishes with the capitalism and all males that it creates. We are calling you stops participating. Perhaps you have some knowledge or experience that can be useful to this movement. Perhaps you have money to invest. Perhaps socialist you already and, and want to enter to help to spread socialist ideas through this movement. Perhaps you only have enthusiasm and a desire for trabalhar.De any form, it is joined in and will create a movement that fits all in, and that we can expand to fit our friends, relatives, and neighbors also. It enters in contact 427-1192

The Seiketsu Club

2010-01-10T07:28:00.000-05:00

Keywords: economy-inflation, consumption, production, women- equity, management-planning, community, agriculture, internal trade, harvesting Initiative: The Seikatsu Club Community: Founded in 1968 by 200 women in Tokyo, the initiative has now spread throughout Japan and has 400,000 members.Problems/Opportunities Prompting the Initiative: inflation, consumerism, disassociation between consumption and production, environmentally harmful production and consumption patterns.Objectives/Strategies: The club attempts to bring consumers and producers closer together in order to promote the distribution of high quality environmentally friendly products at a better price than the market can offer, and to make explicit the individual’s role in the cycle of production, consumption and disposal. The movement is a reaction to the industrial society and attempts to reform structures of consumption. A sustainable communal society is proposed in the place of the industrial consumer society. The goal is to allow people to act as independently as possible to create a new civil society based on the slogan “autonomy in life”. The organization believes that the best avenue to changing society is outside of institutions, by focussing on individuals.Background: The organization began as a way to save money and has transformed into an organization emphasizing the need to address social concerns (empowerment of women, improvement of workers conditions, and improvement of the environment.)Products Distributed by the Club: The Seikatsu purchase primary products ( rice, milk, chicken, eggs, fish and vegetables) which make up 60% of the products distributed through the co-op. Seasonings, processed food and other merchandise are also available. Products are delivered directly to members.Harmful products are not handled by the organization (ie. synthetic detergents, artificial seasonings.The coop cooperates with local farmers and only purchases products grown with organic fertilizers and as few chemicals as possible. Members agree to purchase a set amount of produce and to overlook imperfections resulting from organic production.Products that have not been available at standards acceptable to the coop have been produced by the Seikatsu. (This has led to the operation of two dairy farms to produce organic milk.) Products are restricted to a single brand for each product (ie one brand of soy sauce). As a result, there are only 400 products available through the co-op yet they meet a diverse number of food needs.Produce is purchased directly from producers. This eliminates the elevation in price brought when dealing with food distributors. In addition, the direct connection has served to make the relation between consumers and producers explicit.Funding: Members make an initial investment of 1000 yen in the coop. Monthly contributions of 1000 yen are also made. The average investment each person has in the coop is 47,000 yen, which is returned when a person leaves the organization. It is the 9th largest coop in Japan (153,000 members) but is fourth in terms of investment capital (7.5 billion yen).Organization: The club plans its purchases through the requirement that members order one week in advance of expected delivery date. Purchasing is made through the basic organizational unit in the coop (the basic unit is a “han” which consists of 6-13 families) The han is the unit that helps to form policy decisions within the co-op as a whole. Co-op members distribute products on different schedules (milk twice a week, eggs, pork, processed food and seasonings once a week and other products once a month.)Each Han is headed by a leader elected by group members for a one year term. The leader from the han attends branch meetings and reflects views of individual member of the han, and is responsible for voting to direct policy at the branch level. There are approximately 153,000 members divided into 25,000 hans, who meet in about 100 branches in ten prefectures in Japan. Each branch develops its own policy and is represented by 10-20 committee members. Annually, a General assembly where group members’ views are heard through the group leaders is held. The board of directors, 10-20 members, is elected during this assembly by the General Assembly (80% are women). The Board of Directors is the policy making and management body for the co-op. As a whole. In such an organization it is believed that all members have an opportunity to have their views heard and see them reflected in policy.Staffing: There is a full time staff of 700.Benefits of the initiative:1. The cycle of production, consumption and disposal, and the individual’s relations within this cycle is made explicit. The initiative serves to educate people about the relation they have to production.2. The program brings together like-minded producers and consumers to create a strong network.3. The size of the organization has effectively challenged some production methods and caused certain changes in products.4. The organization is democratic and allows all to participate directly in the management and policy directions of the coop.5. Women are empowered and receive valuable training through the various labour activities done in the coop.New Directions: The organization has begun to launch political campaigns. (It has successfully boycotted certain soaps and has compelled some local governments to ban the use of synthetic detergents). They have begun to campaign for municipal office with the slogan “political reform from the kitchen”. Thirty-three members of the coop have been elected to municipal government The club also sells insurance to members to safeguard them in case of accident or illness.For more information:“Beyond the consumer society – Japan’s Seikatsu Club,” The Unesco Courier, March 1992, pp. 32-33.Shigeki Maruyama, “Seikatsu: Japanese Housewives organize,” Green Business: Hope or Hoax? Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 1991, pp. 80-87.

Newsvine-Immigrants

2010-01-10T07:27:00.000-05:00

Newsvine has nuked our past posts.If they done so to you, because of their Code of Homor policy. They destroyed your creativity and maybe we can launch a class action suit. This is an abuse of power.
___
The immigrant situation is one that has tested us as a people and we seem to be failing.I went to Italy recently and found out that they had an immigrant problem also. When Communism fell in Albania many Albanians where left in dire poverty and they went to Italy. They saw Italy as if they where coming to America.The Italian government and the European Communities defused this problem by investing in Albania, help build its economy, and give the Albanians a better lot in life.The Albanians no longer immigrated.
It is a different situation here in America, our country is gripped is a crisis where we are failing on almost every level because of our right wing, unenlightened mentalities.America has become a huge cultural failure. We refuse to acknowledge that the reason immigrants are here is because they are unemployed and under employed in there own home lands. They come here and reap more exploitation.
We have this mentality of who is going to do the dirty jobs. I have done them; the dirty jobs are over rated. If you are concerned about the dirty jobs don’t worry who is going to do them- fill out the application. There was a time back in the 70’s when we where moving forward and many books about the future where published. We where suppose to perpetuate a better society where people where free and poverty was suppose to come to an end. And society would be more enjoyable and enlightened.
I went to a town called Pomigliano D Arco in Naples. My cousin showed me the “New”Accomplishments. It seems that there are no longer any ghetto’s. People aren’t persecuted for being poor. The Socialist Parties brought on a more Environmental and cultural consciousness in a city once having problems.
Italy, as the rest of Europe is now ahead of us Socially and Culturally, they are where we where 40 years ago.
Lets not pick on the immigrants, what we need is a new government. One that will bring in new enlightenment and progress. What we may need is a Confederation of American States, A Single Continental Currency, Universal Human and Civil Rights Laws. A Universal Living wage, Full expectance of the UN Charter for Human Rights. If the Immigrants where treated like human beings in there country they wouldn’t be here. If we treated them like human beings, we wouldn’t look at them as doers of the dirty jobs.

Return to Hopelessness

2009-06-09T12:43:00.002-04:00

Tens of millions of people where fooled into voting for Obama and the Democrats last November in the hope that the Democratic Party would reverse the policies of the Republican Party: militarism, attacks on democratic rights and the destruction of the living standards of working people. But the promises of "hope" and "change" have proven to be illusions. In this case, Obama has been a major disappointment.Some 13.5 million people are unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, another 6.7 million people were working fewer that 35 hours a week because of "slack work or business conditions," and more than 2.1 million are classified as "discouraged" and not seeking work. That brings the total unemployed or underemployed to more than 22 million people. It is critical for working people to understand the political meaning of these figures. Obama has summed up his economic philosophy as putting an end to unsustainable levels of consumption spending. It is clear whose consumption is to be cut: Not the luxuries and perquisites of the super-rich, but food, shelter, clothing, transportation, education and other basic necessities of the broad masses of working people.In this manner Obama has betrayed us. He has taken Single Payer health Care off the table. Recently he appointed an Internet Czar. Clearly a patronage job with a frivolous endeavor.So I must ask, where is that Anti Poverty Czar? Where is the Hope for the working Class and poor? Working people must recognize the Obama administration for what it is—the spearhead of an assault by the financial aristocracy. Obama's policies are not the result of inadequate understanding or bad advice. He is a conscious and willing political servant of the multimillionaires, doing what is necessary to defend their class interests both at home and abroad. We have now another inflationary economy coming this way. With gas prices up more than 75% again. Now we have another right turn. The Obama administration said there would be Trails for the people who tortured detainees at Gitmo. Here is a clear violation of Human Rights. This is the worse occurrence in world history since Nazi Germany. Yet The Democrats will not prosecute.This is a clear display of how the Democrats are complicit with the Republicans. And it is the two party system duopoly in conspiracy.How can we continually support an administration and Government that doesn't understand us anyway? Affordable housing to these are home valued at $150,000 here in New Jersey. While the same home in other states are priced at $54,000.
Of course the Democrats say we must support the CIA and Pentagon. The CIA and Pentagon are Secret Governments that shouldn't exist in a Democracy.The Tea Parties had no credibility since they where an example of getting our government to spare the wealthy of taxes.I went to the Tea Party Protests. They seemed like a celebration of ignorance. The signs where racist, low minded, and generally insulting. No one carried signs saying that the wealthy costs New Jersey close to eight billion dollars in taxes. And the citizens. The poor and workers have to pick the tab. Many communities are paying $9,000 in taxes. And some have no Fire department or Police. Yet there is no money for State Police.The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that 5.4 million of the 45 million US home loans were either delinquent or in foreclosure in the first quarter of 2009. The 12.07 percent delinquency and foreclosure rate is expected to rapidly rise under the impact of rising unemployment and underemployment. The Subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages are no longer the principal force of the foreclosure crisis. In the first quarter of 2009, the foreclosure rate for prime fixed-rate mortgages doubled, in comparison to 2008. It is now 6.06 percent, and these loans for the first time make up the largest share of new foreclosures. Home prices dropped 18.7 percent in March, compared to2008, according to Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index, covering 20 largest metropolitan areas. The defense of jobs, living standards and basic democratic rights begins with a decision to break with the two party system. This political situation can play out over and over again. Remember, in the 1970's Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon's Criminal administration. Than Gas Prices went up and many never recovered. That much need hand up never seems to come but for the few, who are already privileged.

Flavor of Revolution

2009-06-09T12:43:00.001-04:00

When I was a teenage Marxist, I used to dream about revolution. I would hope that one day Americans would wake up and revolt against a Capitalist system. I grew up in Paterson New Jersey. It is a small industrial town; 16 miles outside New York City.My home wasn’t too far from the factories where my mother worked in the garment industry.I would watch people come out of work from her plant and other factories and I could remember the tired expression, the defeated look on every ones face.My father worked at Standard Packaging in Clifton NJ. He always express how work sucked and people did not get respect on the job.Paterson had stigma too it. We where a poor people, who where seen as publiens and constantly the source of ridicule. For instance, one could go to West Paterson, or North Haledon. Upper class Caucasian communities. The police would harass anyone from Paterson and ask what they where doing in there towns (according to my cousin, this still happens today) I could remember gangs from wealthier communities, such as Glen Rock and Ridgewood, coming to Paterson and beating up some of the locals. The wealthy got off beating up the poor. They never suspected we would retaliate. And that we did.They used to have something “Whack a Nig--- Day” where they would come to Paterson, find a black person and beat them with a broom stick. Even many of our Whites retaliated entering a gang warfare with these rich kids. This ended when we eventually won. We beat their asses pretty good. (No, I wasn’t involved).I could remember the vehicles coming down 5thAve in Number and the Paterson kids shouting from the cars. This never ended the riff between classes and communities. In the 1970 East Paterson changed it name to Elmwood Park. And in 2008 West Paterson became Woodland Park.East Paterson was one of the few working class towns in Bergen County. Even in High School one could help to notice class differentiations. I started reading Marx’s Das Kapital. Maybe I was 14 at the time. My best friend Nick was a Communist. Together we would hope for Revolution. In the 7th Grade Nick and I and a few other Classmates where severely scolded for wearing Caps with red stars on them. We where severely scolded by Mr. Greff, Our Seventh Grade teacher was livid.“Don’t you know that is the symbol of our enemy?!!!!” Sometimes during assembly, when we saluted the flag we would give the Hiel Hitler salute in Duration.We would also help the Socialist Works Party and Communists stick up their posters.One day I saw graffiti on the way to the Willow brook Mall in Wayne NJ. The Graffiti said, “The only Solution is Socialist Revolution” As an Italian American constantly persecuted because of my ethnicity and social position, this ran true.Getting a part time after school job was next to impossible. I could even remember Walter Kronkite with Cold War rhetoric speaking about who awful Das Kapital was. I was reading it. It wasn’t awful, it was about WORKERS!This is one of the reason I detest academics and intellectuals. Not intellectuals as smart people, but ersatz intellectuals who are theorists, philosophers, social experimenters and have Jobs in the Compassion Industry. I could go on, but this isn’t my Biography.This is about:
SOCIALIST REVOLUTION:
As a person influenced by European Socialism, I am deeply an advocate of Non Violent Change by Election. I believe in the Socialism of the Nordic Countries.All education is free in Denmark, right on through university. And students can take as long as they like to complete their studies."And we get paid to go to school actually. Instead of in the U.S. you pay to go to school, We get paid to go to school if we pass our exams,We're pretty much free to do whatever we want. We're secure from the day we're born. For a Dane who lives in Denmark," A Danish Socialist told me. Don't depend too much on the American dream. Yeah. I think you might get disappointed." Denmark also provides free health care, subsidized child care and elder care, a social safety net spread the length and breadth of the country. And workers rights!An Italian Socialist interviewed said, “It is about living life-Bon Vivance. The art of living.” In Capitalist USA that is impossible. But here in Europe, at least our Non Public transportation is cheaper than in the USA and we are actually Greener. ( I saw this first hand).I used Ryan Air and flew from England to Italy for $30.00. In America the same flight costs $400.00. Your wealthy people hate the poor so much, that they conceived the work ethic as a substitute for slavery.”He was amazed though, that most American are willing slaves. More on that Later.
So, we also have horrible election laws. And we are subject to ruthless politics. The Republicrats will not go away peacefully. One Politician told me in private. I would support alternative party goals, but my Party would get revenge on me.That is true, through out America Alternative party politicians and even insider get victimized by the system. Look a Rob Blagojevich and the former Democratic Governor of Alabama.So what is the solution? You already have the answer. And it seems most people in America want Socialism.Here is how it should take place. We should have all people converge on State Houses, Capital Buildings, Washington DC. And demand that the Democrats and Republican share the power and give power to the people. Temporarily replace them, change the election laws to fair and just elections and let the people vote their will.Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance. In its most nonviolent form (in India, known as ahimsa or satyagraha) it could be said that it is compassion in the form of respectful disagreement. (From Wikipedia.)Her it is-We should also be sparking this. We did the Million Worker March, and Day with Out The Pentagon. Now our future is in this. Along with Elections of course.The Dangers:Look at Tiananmen Square. The CIA and Pentagon will no doubt have some of mowed down. Look at Kent state. The Military can be expected to kill in behalf of the Government. Harassment, persecution, violence, and other things will happen. The Military may even declare martial law and in effect, even form a Junta.Good luck fighting for Socialism and Democracy.

The Homos

2009-05-17T07:30:00.000-04:00

I never really appreciated gay rights in the past. But for anyone the Gay experience has become the most meaningful political experience.
First, the gay experience is the least alienating.
Second, the gay issue is meaningful even to straight people.
Third, The Gay Experience is teaching us more about liberation than any other movement.

Fist, the Gay experience is least alienating because gays and lesbians don’t seek out recruits. They don’t impose their values and will on people.

Second, the gay issue is meaningful to straight people, because straight people can learn about the Struggle to be allowed top love who you choose. People trying to be who they really, truly are.

Third, the gay experiences is a struggle because of past oppression. Gays where tormented, tortured, legally persecuted.

I changed my mind about the Gay issue when I saw a documentary about People in the service during WWII. Many men where put into Cages and beaten and tortured when they where found out. And Water Boarding was part of the torture.

Women joined the service because in the 40’s and 50’s, this was a quick way women could meet each other and find each other in a different way.

One women said after he Commanding Officer found out, “You would have to discharge the whole troop because all the women where lesbians.”
Here is where women can be different, many straight women on the service where more tolerant of their lesbian counter parts than men with Gay counter parts.

Obviously, many gay men had to live in even more secretive lives than women, though women where persecuted just as much. Many States mandates for both Gays and Lesbians where to be placed in mental institutions, where abused psychiatrically (Torture, Lobotomies, imprisoned, etc)

One story I was told about was how gays got there title New York has always been a bastion for Homosexual activity. Most of the Speak easies where Gays and Lesbians could meet where on Gay Street. Gay street is named after Revolutionary War General John Gay.

My view on Gay Rights: All people have the Liberty to be who they are and actuate their lives with out government interference. And have the Freedom to be Gay or Lesbian with out person or private infringement.

If Gays are so evil why are they part of Activist, Religious, and social movements?

The Gay and Lesbian life isn’t perfect. Unfortunately there ha been much abuse in Lesbian Relationships. Statistics show that domestic abuse and violence occur more frequently than with Gay or straight partnerships.
This was reported in a Lesbian Newspaper not long ago. But gays and Lesbians do have essential Social issues all human beings do. What we need is a Socialist Government to assist. Why, because under capitalism social problems go ignored.

How ever with a new openness, less stress, pressure, and discrimination people will be just fine.

I have known many gays and lesbians in my Life, from my life in Paterson and New York City. They have each told me different stories. Not being Gay, the 60’s line “Being free to be me.” means something here.

I watch a Soap called All My Children, A wealthy girl is in love with another, she seems to be wealthy too. But anyway, they fell into dispute when one questioned her Lesbianism. Obviously the other did not understand and she left for Paris. We should all be able to run away from our problems.

Well, as the other had a trauma, she confronted her true self and confirmed her Lesbian nature.

Coming to a conscious awakening and acceptance is very Buddhist, but very mindful.

Coming to terms with who we are and what we should be has made Gay Liberation even more Liberating the other isms.

Socialism should never have to many stems or isms. It should be Purely and Naturally, Socialism.

Maybe we can get Gays and Lesbians to jump on the Universal Income wagon.

Time to get to werk.

Libertarianism

2009-04-29T09:18:00.002-04:00

The concept of Libertarianism isn't new. It is largely based on the Philosophy of Ayn Rand. Who was an anti-Charles Dickens writer. She hated Compassion and was a wealthy person cheerleader. Now, Horatio Alger wasn't a libertarian, he was just a man who wrote books about adventurous people. Despite his remarkable literary output, Alger never became rich from his writing. According to history, he gave most of his money to homeless boys and in some instances was actually conned out of his earnings by boys he tried to help. His books expressed an optimistic wholesomeness.What is Libertarianism?Libertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism (and sometimes called right-libertarianism), describes certain political ideologies which attempt to meld libertarian and conservative ideas, often called "fusionism."Neo-libertarians usually have combined a generally neoconservative outlook with a more pragmatic method. Traditionally, Libertarians where for personal liberties, with out Government interference. Smaller Government.Many today are against abortion and other liberties. This makes them seem like the loony fringe of Republicanism. As if Republicanism isn't loony in itself.Libertarianism is a dangerous form of Politics. Especially its economic philosophy.Libertarians believe Corporations can take care of everything and government should be run by corporations. They even believe the military should be in the hands of the corporations. Their philosophy is, if you're wealthy hooray for you, if you are poor, boo for you.Ronald Reagan used libertarian economics in his "Tickle Down Economics" theory.He brought the Nation in deficit with record spending. George Bush sr. went along with it and by the Clinton administration Crashed our Economy.George Bush Junior went full blown on Libertarian economics and this caused a major depression. Deregulation caused massive greed and allowed for the wealthy to legally rip off the public in which millions are out of work and lost their homes. The taxes are excessive on the poor and almost completely alleviated from the Rich. Bolivia's conservative government tried Libertarian Economics and the National economy crashed. This sent the Nation into turmoil. Evo Morales, Socialist, is now President of Bolivia and has improved its economic state.Privatization is a core belief in libertarianism. That means The Public entity is sold to private hands. The Constitution and other items no longer apply. Also, corporations make a profit on once publically own land. The public loses a profit and income thusly making property taxes soar. Also under private control, corporations are not headquartered in the community and Community services soon deteriorate.Also, Social Justice plays no factor. Libertarians believe that if an employer wishes not to higher an albino just because that person is an albino, because that business is his, he should have to higher an albino.
Libertarians do not believe social justice is both an important issue in politics, religion and civil society. Most individuals wish to live in a just society. The term "social justice" is often employed by the political left to describe a society with a greater degree of economic egalitarianism, which may be achieved through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution, policies aimed toward achieving that which developmental economists refer to as equality of opportunity and equality of outcome.Libertarians believe in a sink or swim society. Sorting out winners from losers. One can admire their view of the work ethic, self suffiecncy, and self control, but feel no obligations toward society. They embrace Anarchic-Capitalism. Business and industry without rules.That means there could be no regulations for a industry that pollutes the environment. If a product is ill manufactured and causse harm to a family member, the company isn't responsible, you are because you bought the product and are responsible for your purchase. Libertarianism means no consumer protection. Landlords can charge what they want for rent. Restaurants can serve bad food, Contractors can screw up your house and get away with it. The Police and Schools would be in the hands of private enterprise There would be no labor protection. (as there is now)Libertarians are also gun nuts. Criminals prefer unarmed victims, governments prefer unarmed citizens. You never need a fire arm till you need it badly. Really? I should buy a gun and protect myself from Libertarians?Libertarians believe in smaller government. But smaller government is weaker government. Would you like to live in Afghanistan?Well, let's face it, who in the world is seeking Libertopia? Does anyone want to go with out Health Care, Public schools, Hospitals, a Police Department, Libraries, The Post Office?Libertarianism is a proven failure. There must be a admission somewhere, after all, isn't there symbol the Statue of Liberty? Which is a government owned entity. And they are against Government owned anything.

Socialist Liberty

2009-04-29T09:16:00.000-04:00

What kind of Socialists are we? There are many varieties. But I think Socialism itself is best manifested in a Democratic Socialist Movement. Why? Because Socialism is a workers movement and more.My own socialism is defined as Libertarian and Democratic. The aim should be less government in many cases. If people will be free, they must be free from the from the constraints of government. Such as the Universal Income or Basic Income Grant. People would have to feel humiliated and indentured to Government because of poverty.Poverty can be eliminated. But than what about the FCC? The FCC should exist because it is needed to regulate media. Regulation helps for many reasons. The FCC shouldn't be about censorship, what it should do is limit ownership of conglomerates and control by corporations because it is a guardian of the people's air waves. Experiencing Government when in need should not incur intrusiveness with a parental government running peoples lives.National Health Care would reduce Government because it would eliminate many departments.Also, there is a cure for addiction not approved by the FDA. There is one drug the cures addiction. This was shown on 60 Minutes.Capitalism forms bigger Government because patronage is important. Rich friends give other rich friends jobs. These jobs could be $100,000 to $2,000,000.Departments without the people's knowledge are created. Reagan created the Department of Domestic Affairs which spies on the public.Now we have the CIA, Pentagon, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security. State Police, the US Marshall. Local Police, Interpol and a few others.These can be merged for security purposes. Others can be eliminated, like the Pentagon and CIA. This should allow more funding for Local and State Police.The Departments of Homeland Security should be a State Level and be controlled by the States.But, Libertarian Socialism doesn't mean less Government, but more efficient Government. We should have a Department of Peace and Diplomacy. A Department of Social Welfare. Since Socialism is a Enlightenment Movement, this is a way of installing a National Enlightenment. (Not to be confused with Buddhist Enlightenment, this entertains those who have obtained Nirvana and Buddhood.)All government entities should have an Internal Affairs Unit (with forensic accounting), Public Advocacy, and local Direct Democracies. People should be included in the process.Rather than wasting time on frivolous TV, people could go to Town Hall and vote on their future. With fair debates and open forums.The Tenth amendment is very important. It gives States autonomy in dealing with issues. The National constitution Party is partly right, but mostly wrong with this.The states should be granted with enough money to adequately run and each community (entertaining home rule) should have its own choices.The Federal Government should mandate federal elections. Removing Ballot Access restrictions and petitions. They should monitor for clean and fair elections.Here in New Jersey there is no money for state police and once again our taxes go up to pay for communities with no Police Department.Now Nationalizing the Industries my be a good idea. They should be in the hands of the workers.The Government should run these industries; they should be privatized and placed in the hands of the workers who run these institutions and Co-operatives or ESOP's. The government should be a silent partner taking some income. And setting a few regulations. The people should vote on these regulations. A system of fairness should be implemented.Of course we need worker policy too free workers from Corporate Servitude. Like having a 32 hour work week, living wage, full workers rights. Union access and representation.Can Anarcho syndicalism be part of our future? Why not?! Syndicalism is an alternative economic system. Anarcho-syndicalists view it as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the State with a new society democratically self-managed by workersAnd that is what we Socialist want also, but there are small divides. Therefore, to liberate themselves, all workers must support one another in their class conflict. Anarcho-syndicalists believe that only direct action (Direct-Action gets the goods!)– 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.Socialist believe in Government representation.How ever Marx was right, capitalism must probably burn itself out. How ever, Unions can be Socialist too, and there should be enough room for both. Many believe we can only fight Capitalism with Capitalism using Capitalist methods. And why not? What is the sense of entering a war when only one side has weapons?Socialist Unionism must be in the middle of the class conflict freeing workers from the Bosses.Eugene V Debs once said (and I paraphrase), "I wish the industrialist would use their patents and free workers from the machine so we can compete as artists do."As a musician, I really appreciate that. Because playing an instrument and entertaining is work. (We are subject to Ergonomics and we have a Union)Socialism doesn't mean more or less government, but adequate government. Government that improves the quality of life gives us liberty and freedom with out always having to fight for it. Having Government in our lives with out intrusive government. Having people control their own lives.Abortion and Gay rights are just that way. Abortions allow women to control her own body with our government interference. Same with Euthanasia. Gays and Lesbians are people who want their own life with their own privacy and to be free to be who they are. The Gay and Lesbian Rights movement has taught us more about Democracy than any other so far. Out side of Co-operativism. Liberation of the individual is freedom and a point of democracy. Norman Thomas started the American Civil Liberties Union because we must keep fighting for Liberty here, in America. Amazing, the worlds greatest democracy and we still have to fight for freedom.

Socialist Strategy

2009-03-28T22:22:00.000-04:00

European and Canadian socialism grew in different ways. We in the USA must take a different approach.In this era we have technology at our disposal. So let's start with Computers. Most socialist parties have a website. The websites seem pretty good and are attractive when well conceived. We have to go beyond a Party website though.We must have some other offerings on the web. Take a look at http://www.care2.comAnd others like it. What a socialist Party must do is take its commissions, make a Care2 Type website which indirectly referrers to its party and includes the Party in its links.We must be subtle on our promotion of Socialism. Have commission start varied websites (Similar to Multi Level Marketing.). The cause must be a different organization, but listing a Socialist Party on its links.Ok, how about TV? It is possible to have TV and Radio on and off the web.BET start in a Basement with two VCRs I hear. In Philadelphia Pa there is a station called Mind-TV, Independence Media. It runs shows hosted by a Lesbian Feminist, ethnic groups; it ran Italian soccer and RAI. It now runs Korean Dramas which are vastly popular. Once again with out mentioning a Socialist Party, we can do the same thing with the success formula of WYBE. And this can be franchised across the country.We can have an Indy News thing where varied socialist Parties are Interviewed.Host Political Debates and have shows like CNN and FOX. Imagine.'This Week with David McReynolds."Or CNN like news, even Comedies like a Daily show.Music Videos and Youth entertainment. Show for all people like PBS Brit-Coms (British Comedies). Leftist movies from around the world and America.Socialist oriented entertainment. Cool, hip, happening.We should include Libertarians and other Right Parties, the FCC may screw us.Radio can be done on the Web or by other means.Maybe some Party members can get on of those low frequency jobbers requiring no license.This may all cost money, but it maybe a worthy investment. Freedom Broadcasting can be in NYC, Philly, Chicago, SF, LA, and more.Blogs are great, but there are way too many. A SP can put something together like the Huffington Post. Perhaps It should be called the American Call.We have to use a Psychology here. If we use the name socialist, it may detract some people. Many Americans have a preconceived notion of socialism. Subtlety is the key here. People may say, 'That is socialist news, I cannot listen to that!"Although this will require and Investment, there is a return with a profit. And the Party won't need to ask for too much money.The next step is even more difficult and complicated. Building locals and creating Socialist Jobs.As I have tried to create a Labor Union. This Union would foster Self Help credit Unions, Worker owned Co-operatives that would have intentions to franchise.Chrysie Hynde started a Vegetarian Restaurant to get kids away from Mall Culture. Why not take it and franchise it around the country? How about Power to the people supermarket chains? Something Like Co-op Atlantic in Canada?
Revolutionary Cooperative Movement, that goes to be a model of a new skill to produce. This model is free of scanning. The workers are the owners, and organize the production democratically. The product of our distributed work and in proportional way to the time that each one contributed in the production process. In them we create this Cooperative Revolutionary Movement as the first pacing in the fight to liberate the humanity of the poverty and scanning. When this movement to grow, goes to create the social and economic base for the construction of a movement of revolutionary unions, and a revolutionary party of workers who together go to finish the workmanship that in we start them here in the Cooperative Would revolutionize. In we go them to adopt spacific and positive ways. In we go them to construct, to produce, to educate, to organize, and to vote to carry through our goal of peace and prosperity without scanning for everybody and with respect our Land All member of the cooperative goes to have intellectual and administrative responsibilities, and all have that to help with the workmanship hand
http://nlp.0catch.com/ficu1.htm
In essence there must be an attraction to build and keep membership.Starting discussion list have been done to death, website, communications posts are Ok, but…..We need to harness the creativity and ideas of the masses. The Social Liberal website lists something called the Idea Factory. We must listen to the people. Not only that, we must have interactivity with the people.Unions in the day had workers to mingle with. Now with the Blue Collar disappearing and part timers who cannot Unionize, we need a different format and avenue of reaching the masses.A Socialist Think tank may not be the answer. But creating external avenues maybe.Like creating an alternative party media center. A WBS net where people can load interactive streaming chats, build websites, and have fun. Creating a Internet playground Maybe just the ticketThere are ideas galore we can come up with. many strategies. But we should pursue them and use the weapons we could have at our advantage. Finally: Our approach must change. We must be giving people what they can relate too.We must send out a positive message. Give positive examples. Carry signs during protests people can relate too.It is wonderful to protest for varied causes. But how about some points as where life can be better and positive?Rick Steves Travel show took him to Sweden and Denmark. He actually spoke about the pluses of Socialism and showed some examples. This was on PBS.We also have to back up our candidates and give them some material and research. Socialist Parties must start backing up their lesser than Presidential Candidates.The Quality if life, sustainability, education, and the rest. The Socialist Party USA has had some past successes. Play off the successes of History and other Socialists around the world.

Socialism, The Real Deal

2009-03-09T11:05:00.000-04:00

I’d like to congratulate Jimmy Lee Hollis on his article on Socialism. Though I must admit, the article was misleading and less than the accurate. The problem with Socialism is that there are too many varieties. Most Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats, and Labor parties affiliated with the Socialist International are Anti-Communist and Anti-Leninist.There have been off shoots of Socialism which where very unsavory. These are artificial Socialisms. Even Hitler knew in Europe that using the word Socialism would appeal to the working class and poor.When Socialism was founded, by Robert Owen, who perpetuate worker owned co-operatives, he visited the USA. He told our forefathers about the Concept of Socialism.They applauded wildly at the prospect. Even Benjamin Franklin started the Nations first worker owned Co-operative and in Paterson NJ, our Nations first Industrial City, Conservative Alexander Hamilton Started the Paterson co-operative of Useful Manufacturers.Socialism is more than Co-operatives, in places like Scandinavia their Socialism has worked to the point where they have:
Among the positive sides of this high-taxation system, one can note: * almost no poverty or starvation, as is the case in American ghettos * virtually no homelessness problem * very little crime * equal opportunity to education & health care, regardless of the wallets
But some say this will not work in the USA. What plays in Peoria, plays on Broadway.Another example is that if a US worker is forced to have an expensive car and drive for two hours each way to get to work, spending money burning gasoline, that shows up as a bigger contribution to GDP than that of the Finnish worker who lives in a comfortable Alternative Energy heated house, doesn't need a car, and rides an inexpensive tram in to work.Public transportation in NJ and the USA today is almost the cost of caviar.
Socialism is a complicated doctrine. It embellishes the best of Humanity, Public ownership (That doesn’t mean your TV is your Neighbors TV too.), Compassion, and Environmental Concerns. Democratic Socialists in Europe where Green even before the Green Party came into existence.What enlightened societies where ever conceived by Conservatives?Wasn’t it the conservative view that the world was flat and that The Planets evolved around the Earth? Didn’t conservatives usher in the Spanish Inquisition and persecuted people on thought crimes?And modern Capitalism has only offered us Strife, Social Problems, and mental and emotional problems in this dog eat dog world.But we have had Socialism and Socialist ideas in America. Teddy Roosevelt leftThe Republican Party to form the Progressive Bull Moose Party. His ideas paved the way for New Deal Administration of Franklin D Roosevelt. Kennedy and Johnson both ushered in the Great Society programs. I admit, some of those programs are seriously flawed, but with out them, we would be worse off. Even Nixon carried on some socialist ideas, like the Universal Income.And we had socialism in America: Oklahoma had 17 socialist locals, with a socialist Mayor once serving in Oklahoma City. Haledon and Passaic had socialist Mayors which vastly improved the quality of life in those towns.Milwaukee was the best example. In the early 20th Century that city had mostly Socialist mayors who improved that city with great reforms. Milwaukee was the only City in the USA not to go into default during the Great Depression.Who says Socialist Economics doesn’t work? In 2004 the Milwaukee CentennialPosted an article that was titled ‘Things where not this Bad in Milwaukee when the Socialists where in Office.” In the USA, before ballot access oppression, the Socialist Party had many Mayors and Councilmen serving through out America. And one congressman elected to the US House of Representatives, Emil P Siedel. There was an American Labor Party Congressman also. Vito Anthony Marcantonio, longest serving Socialist in Congress. And of course today we have Bernie Sanders of Vermont.Socialism is about Improving the quality of life in Community and Nation.Socialism isn’t about mere handouts and laziness. It is about providing a positive future with a positive way of life for all, with human rights, democracy, and social justice.

Public Enterprise

2009-03-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

Nationalization! What are you kidding? That is bad. What we should have is Public Enterprise. That sound much more business like. We hear about Nationalization all the time. Conservatives are crying that we are going to have European Socialism in America.And we should. Why carry on a Culture of ignorance and dystopia of Conservativism,When we can have the enlightenment of European Leftism.The conservative’s cry-Obama is spending money. Excuse me, last time I checked Government has an overhead. And that has to be paid for.Conservatives cry Government should act as a business. Well, it can and should.Nationalizing-ooops, I mean Public Enterprise is the way to go. Let’s look at privatization first. It has been a real cheat. When Governor Christie Todd Whitman privatized most of New Jersey’s public entities, citing they cost the state millions, our property taxes went up and now we pay the highest taxes in the Nation.Nationali---ooops, I mean Public Enterprise can be this:
Business organizations wholly or partly owned by the state and controlled through a public authority by Democratic Means. Some public enterprises are placed under public ownership because, for social reasons, it is thought the service or product should be provided by a Co-operative or ESOP. The Banks, Oil Companies, other Fortune 500 Companies.
Examples of this kind of public enterprise.
An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is an employee benefit plan which makes the employees of a company owners of stock in that company. Several features make ESOPs unique as compared to other employee benefit plans. First, only an ESOP is required by law to invest primarily in the securities of the sponsoring employer. Second, an ESOP is unique among qualified employee benefit plans in its ability to borrow money. As a result, "leveraged ESOPs" may be used as a technique of corporate finance.
Employee ownership appears to increase production and profitability, and improve employees' dedication and sense of ownership. However, democratic leadership must be protected from predator companies, and employee stock ownership can increase financial risk if the company does poorly. Notable employee-owned corporations include the John Lewis Partnership retailers in the UK, and the US news/entertainment firm Tribune Company. The most honored multi-national corporation based wholly on worker-ownership principles is the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation . Unlike the US, however, Spanish law requires that members of the Mondragon Corporation are registered as self-employed. This differentiates co-operative ownership (in which self-employed owner-members each have one voting share, or shares are controlled by a co-operative legal entity) from employee-ownership (where ownership is typically held as a block of shares on behalf of employees using a Employee Benefit Trust, or company rules embed mechanisms for distributing shares to employees and ensuring they remain majority shareholders)Entities proven to work, means profitability for the Company and its employees, and the Government.Let’s make Citibank a Public Enterprise. Lets say it makes $36,000,000,000 a year.Each lower level employees makes a living wage, working 32 hours. The Executive pay scale is reduced to more reasonable income and the Executives makes no more ( salary cap) the 7% to 10% more than the average employee.The Government owns a share and is the major investor at times. In which it takes back a portion of the profits the way a loan works to some degree. This allows the Government to have an income and reduce taxes on workers and communities. And even the Nation.See, conservatives this is Government acting as a business. The Government sets regulations, and receives an income/profit. This contributes to the national wealth.Also to keep government in check, and Citibank in check, A Department of Advocacy is created to assist with efficiency, labor issues, and keeping the government regulations in order. (Actually, outside of regulations, the government should be a silent partner.) So, with the Government getting a share of profits from the Public Enterprise, this should replenish national wealth, and there would be money for highways, Communities, schools, health Care, a universal Income, and more.Where it wouldn’t go? Not to executives who purchase seven homes with seven indoor pools. Exotic vacation welfare. Free stuff from the Government paying corporate welfare and supporting greedy industrial complexes that cost the tax payer billions.We would have a incredible surplus and enough for social programs and livable communities and abolishing poverty and that conservative dystopia.Remember-Nationalization-ooops, Public Enterprise is the Future!
Dedicated to Rob W Tucker

We Need More Left and Progressives

2009-02-19T13:22:00.001-05:00

The current stimulus plan by the Obama administration is a step in the right direction.
I read in the Paper that some journalists feels that stimulus will pad the pockets of the Unemployed.
That is exactly what we should want. After all, why should millionaires and billionaires who take a bath in our money everyday have a handout? It amazes me about the perks and free giveaways the wealthy have gotten through out the years.
It is time to Bail Out the People.
The Bill falls short, not because it puts our financial future in jeopardy. That has already been done by the wealthy. I reality, the Bill falls short because the programs and reforms
needed aren't there.
We are into the twenty First Century. The Industrial era is gone and the service sector jobs are a dead end. We need new policies as the Universal Income, A Livable Basic Income Grant, a Living Wage, Sustainable and Meaningful Jobs and many more.

Bernie Sanders said in a public forum in San Francisco:
The first part of his address focused on the necessity of the progressive movement to come together and "raise up a New America." The Senator noted that progressivemovement is too often focused on single issues and not sufficiently engagedin the hard work that is electoral politics. To succeed in seeing our ideastriumph, Senator Sanders urged progressives to focus on our commonalitiesand not our areas of difference. He touched on his own experience inBurlington in building a progressive coalition on the city council. He notedthat "politics is what happens 365 days a year" and that we as progressivesneeded to engage our neighbors in changing the political culture.

The Reagan/Bush legacy in my estimation important to remember that the damage wrought to the country was "incalculable." It should be cited statistics that in the "boom" Bush years, that is before the financial meltdown, that the average median income in the country fell by $2,000, that 7 million Americans lost their health carecoverage, that 6 million Americans fell out of the middle class and intopoverty and that 3 million lost their pension benefits. progressives stand for a different path. That ours are the majority values and that those start with fairness and equality of opportunity.

That means abolishing poverty. That means ending Apartheid. That means embracing new values. Less racism, less judging thy neighbor for what they do not have. No measuring people by their jobs or joblessness.
That means a New American Dream with a less materialistic culture.
Of course the battle for Democracy in America rages on. The Democrats failed in the past. The 1960 programs left the silent majority out in the cold with horrible government band aide programs which hurt everyone.
If we could do anything we must stand up for the National Health Insurance, Universal Income, and more enlightened education.

We must now Employee Free Choice Act. The Bill requires 60 votes to pass the Senate but that it was likely there would one Republican who would support it and thus it was doubly important that Al Franken be seated in the US Senate. The Senator also voiced strong support for the President's Labor Secretary choice, California Congresswoman Hilda Solis. We need a Government that understands labor and the rest of us.

They Saved Ronnies Brain

2009-02-09T14:03:00.001-05:00

Reagan's reign the United States experienced the beginning of the end of what could have been a great society. Under Reagan, elements within the government engaged in massive criminal activity that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the entrenchment of a vicious and evil criminal organization that has been firmly in power of not only the United States but much of the world. George Bushes desire for international hegeonomy.Reagan's was a criminal president and his crimes where many. This all started well before he was President when he and Bush paid the Iranian's to not release the hostages in order to prevent the re-election of Jimmy Carter in 1980, not mention his reign of ugly conservativism as Governor of California (Where he attacked social programs and eliminated the middle class.) The hostages were released as promised as Reagan was sworn into office. Reagan then secretly sold chemical & biological weapons to Iraq and told CIA friend Saddam Hussein to step up bombing of Iran while still selling weapons to Iran in a war that claimed an estimated one million victims. The criminal activities in the Mid East stretched around the world to Central America in the spectacle that came to be known as Iran-Contra.
In Afghanistan, Reagan was busy funding Osama bin Laden and a terrorist army to displace the Russians. Once the mighty 'Muhjadeen' had completed their task they were partially abandoned and became the Taliban and Al Qaeda. With no real replacement for the Russian backed government, the radical Muslims quickly took power. Only later did the army without a war become the enemy so desperately needed by the US defense industry, CIA, and Pentagon. In Central America, Reagan-Bush ran a massive criminal operation that Thwey They imported hundreds of tons of cocaine into the US and shipped arms illegally to the terrorist Contras that Reagan affectionately called "Freedom Fighters". Coca paste was brought in from South America by plane to an airstrip near Puntarenas, Costa Rica owned by Reagan/Bush ball washer and supporter Julio Calleja and processed on the ranch of CIA operative John Hull. From there the high-grade coke was shipped by plane to the Mina, Arkansas Airport under the protection of Bill Clinton and to various Air Force bases.America's worst financial disaster since the Great Depression occurred under Reagan with the collapse of the Savings & Loan system. Nearly $500 billion was looted from thousands of Savings & Loans by a criminal ring that included the Mafia, CIA and the Bush family. Neil Bush was involved in the collapse of Silverado Savings & Loan but never served any jail time. By the time the Federal government and elite is done milking the scam further, US taxpayers will have paid well over a trillion dollars.
Reagan brought in an era of Fascism. He made hating the poor acceptable and to be insensitive to humane rights and needs. He embraced the values of greed, hate, elitism. His trickle down economics policies and welfare for the Rich schemes made it apparent that he abandoned pro-people politics, for the politics of socialism for the rich. His Economic policy effects us today with the top heavy financial crashes of major financial institutions, international economic distress, mass un-employment have ruined the lives of Millions.The full extent of Reagan's crimes may never be known because George W. Bush issued an executive order which countermands the 1978 Presidential Records Act and prevents the release of 68,000 pages of Reagan era documents. Given that Reagan lacked the intelligence to carry out some of the more elaborate crimes, the records are likely to shed light on the true role of the Bush crime family.Let us remember Reagan as he really was...oLiar oThief oMass murderer oWar criminal oTraitor of the American people oDestroyer of freedom oDestroyer of the environment oCorporate Prostitute
Ronald Reagan’s legacy leaves us with a shameful President even more cunning than the Bushes, but just as criminal and just as horrible. The nightmare of Reagan will not be known for a long time.
Ronnie. Reagan was consistent with his libertarian deregulatory doctrines. If Congress had not stopped him, he would have abolished crucial health and safety requirements imposed on the heavily tax-supported nursing home industry. Instead of firmer enforcement efforts and more adequate standards, he was content to leave the more than one million defenseless elderly in nursing homes.Reagan changed the evolution that would change the future complexion of American politics, organizations who call themselves social conservative have teaming up with their Liberal counterparts to oppose corporate bailouts. The synfuel industry's welfare project is under similar pressure, though its predicted mismanagement and awful economics appear to be self-defeating. This new coalition put up a aggressive fight against the Reaganesque bailout of the big U.S. banks that made such imprudent loans at inflated interest rates to foreign countries. Reagan spent years lecturing around the country for General Electric on the virtues of sink or swim free enterprise, has become the most prominent advocate of corporate bailouts in American history.Reagan also under-minded the alternative energy programs which made Europe way ahead of us in that field.The empowerment and widespread exercise of citizenship is a prerequisite for a sound, democratic society. Revolution empowers more people. It reduces the severe concentration of power and information, and that lifts a nation into a real democracy with Social Justice everywhere in the world. Our history has demonstrated that the well-being of society springs from the growth of daily, active citizenship that provides an enabling environment for good leaders to come forward. Every significant social movement m this century has sprung from activist citizens fighting for their causes - human rights, workers' rights, civil rights, environmental and consumer protection, peace.Don't forget to buy socialist Stuff:http://www.zazzle.com/spusastuff

The Future Can Be Bright

2009-02-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

As I listen to democrats speak of Economic revival, it sounds like everyone is still living in the World War II generation. WWII and the Post War generation has been over for fifty and a half decades now. We are still living in the Twentieth Century in a Twenty-First century World.The day that people could work at their jobs for 30 years is over. We are heading into a Jobless society even if the President creates Millions of Ecological Jobs.That is a step in the right direction, but there still will not be work for all. Creating Meaningful Jobs through the government is a really good idea.First we can start by enlarging Ameri-Corps and Vista Volunteers. These could become Meaningful, fulltime, living wage paying jobs. With a Republicrat Government that could become a failure because there will be no Workers Rights or Labor protection. I knew someone who joined a youth job program and hated it because he was abused buy his bosses. The Republicrats have a way of instituting programs that Control People rather then up lift them.When I tried to join the Peace Corps. I asked to be posted in Asia, the guy yelled at me and said I should be willing to go where I am put, even Africa. All for Democracy and Freedom of Choice. Why should I have my freedom of choice? Isn’t that what America is about, having a free choice?Here is what we have to do in order to have a better society. First we need to get rid of the two party system. Second, we need to institution full workers rights and have Democracy in the work place. Third we need to implement a government employment program like CETA and Work Force America. Than let’s have Jobs with justice. Not crappy service sector jobs which pay minimum wage. Thus Institute a living wage.Let’s get rid of those conservative values of the 20th century and start treating people like Human Beings.We can also have programs that foster worker Owned enterprises, such as Democratic Employee Stock Options Plans and Worker owned Co-operatives.Here is what Co-ops do and how they operate.
1. Voluntary and Open Membership -- Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination. 2. Democratic Member Control -- Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions. The elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives, members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are organized in a democratic manner. 3. Members: Economic Participation -- Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
4. Autonomy and Independence -- Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy. 5. Education, Training, and Information -- Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public, particularly young people and opinion leaders, about the nature and benefits of cooperation.6. Cooperation Among Cooperatives -- Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures. 7. Concern for Community -- While focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies accepted by their members.The movement toward an environmentally sustainable global economy (based in Cooperation and mutualism, not competition) will create far more meaningful jobs. The Major reasons: non-polluting, environmentally sustainable industries tend to be intrinsically more labor intensive and less resource intensive than traditional practice." It nevertheless forms an importance. Among the features of sustainable industry offered in the paper were energy efficient, resource conservation to meet the needs of future generations of people and maintaining environment, safety and skill-enhancing working conditions and opportunities. Low waste production processes, and the use of safe and environmentally compatible materials. Some of the benefits however would be offset by higher prices (due to labor costs) and a theoretically larger population needed to perform the same amount of work, increasing the agricultural and other loads on Society. But the very best we can have a positive future with out poverty and work distress. Along with social programs that free people.Sustainable living encompasses the concepts of sustainability and self-sufficiency. Sustainability, in recent years, has been expressed as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Self-sufficiency is the principle in which individuals or societies consume only that which they have produced. Sustainable urban infrastructure is a form of sustainable design and maintenance, which adheres to the facts and structure of sustainable living. Its main principles are to achieve technological and governmental policies that enable urban planning for sustainable architecture and agriculture.

Open Letter To Michael Moore

2009-01-29T09:13:00.001-05:00

Dear Michael Moore:
I respect you work, and I am a huge fan of yours. How ever I wonder about you politically.You asked America years ago to support Nader. And they did to some degree.Your Documentaries, and exposures where on the money. Good work.Michael, here is my advise. Perpetuate joining, or start a real Democratic Socialist Party here in the USA.
I have no idea why you taught Gore or Nader as Socialists. They are not. Obama was your choice in 2008. Many feel in eight years he will not deliver the goods. I believe, like the Democrats of old, he will bring in programs on a stretcher. Elites, only represents the elites.
Michael, you had the power and the strength in your media power to start a Socialist Party or revive and old one. You seem to be looking for Socialism in all the wrong places.
When I was eleven, after meeting the Democrats I had an inkling that they where a party of phonies. At least the Republicans are honest about being elitists.
The Democrats haven’t spoke about socialist issues and seem no different than the Republicans.
Hilary said minimum wage should be $9.00 and hour. Socialists believe in a maximum wage.Obama said we have been talking about Health Care for twenty years. We socialists have been speaking about it for ever.
How about the Universal Income? You speak about it in your book, even Nixon was a proponent. Yet, no one has spoken of a guaranteed income since it was defeated in the Senate in 1972.
So Mike, are we going to wake up and smell the coffee? Can we start a real Socialist Party now? Maybe we can Nader to join. He could stop called the Socialist Party USA Norman Thomas’s Party.
With that Mike keep up the good work. Maybe we will even fight oppressive ballot access laws in America. How about a film about Socialism and Democracy in Europe?
Conservatives hate Europeanisms. That is because in Europe the solve problems and Socialist Politics is for the people. Democracy!
Socialists may have had their failures, but at least their successes have been grand. Unlike the so called Socialists (Democrats) in America. They are not and never will be, and liberals are as elitist as conservatives. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

American Political Dumbness

2009-01-29T09:12:00.001-05:00

It really is our fault. Common. Snap out of it! Generation after generation we see nothing really changes politically. It is the same ole same ole. Democrats, Republicans, Republicrats.We are truly political idiots. We have no knowledge of politics outside of the corporate news media.My favorite phrase is ‘When are they going to learn?” They already have and that is why they do what they do.Looking at the results
We in America are a politically closed minded people. We have the power of change and yet we will not do it. We believe political myths.
1.People of alternative parties cannot win.2.Alternative Parties steal votes.3.Why throw away my vote when the Candidate cannot win.4.The Democrats are America’s far left party.
The fact is we can win. In the Early days the socialist Party was America’s third party. We actually had 13 locals in places like Oklahoma. Our Mayors had record accomplishments and ran the Cities well.
In Europe there are ten parties on the ballot. Each with a similar or degree of difference. Liberal, Conservative, Green, and Socialist. No one believes in the myth of vote stealing.People have free will and vote their conscious. It would be impossible for Nader to steal votes. People who voted for Nader, did so because they wanted to and thought he was a better choice than Gore.
Eugene V Debs said, “ Why vote for someone who will win and not deliver, than vote for someone who will lose, yet fulfill your desires.” Vote isn’t always a vote for a winner, but for some one who will best represent you and the form of Government you want.
The Democrats are a Right Centrist Party. They stopped being a Leftist Part after Bobby Kennedy.
American culture and society is a massive failure. We are an Anti social society based in selfishness and arrogance. In the last election the big winners in the Alternative Party movement where the Libertarians, and National Constitution. One reflecting the Selfish values of Ian Rand, The other a Theocracy. This shows most Americans do not care about Democracy.The Libertarians have a good rap, they are good on personal liberties. But they are a economic and social disaster. The National Constitution Party wants the dark ages to comeback.Why do people seek socialism world wide? Because it is the only form of Politics that addresses the needs of the people. Socialism isn’t Communism. Many are Democratic Social Democrats. We need a excellent, growing Socialist Party in America. Find one and join one. find the substance and courage to make real change.

The Future of Work

2009-01-29T09:04:00.002-05:00

The future of work can be bright. Work is good. Our job futures look very bleak. The Republicrats offer band aid programs and will not tell us the truth about work and our way of life.The Democrats keep bringing up the American Dream as if it where obtainable by all.It isn’t. Pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps is the Horatio Alger myth. That we can have a business, a big house, two cars in every garage.In America we can do anything, be anything, and become anything. Not true. Our Dreams are shallow and materialistic. Most of all, destructive.There is a certain madness to the American Dream. I hear it all the time. I work at work, than I work at home. Owning a big house and having to take care of a big yard eats up all my time.I travel to work two hours, work nine hours a day, than two hours back. Than I have house hold chores. It is all pressure, part of the Rat Race.Don’t think what you own belongs to you. If you are foreclosed, you loose your treasured possessions, family photos, videos, music, your pets wind up in a animal shelter, your friends. Your home can be taken in tax liens. In New Jersey taxes can be up to $9,000 on a house.Yet , everyone preaches the American Dream as if they we live in an Amway world.At the DNC National Convention, the Dems sounded like and Amway demonstration.Hilary Clinton thought $9.00 and hour would be a great minimum wage.It takes about $20 an hour to live in NJ.Most people loosing their jobs will make substandard wages. I know a women who worked at a company for years, as she made $54,000. She didn’t have a college degree. With or with out a college degree, she will never see that money again.Most chain stores will only hire part time. Grocery centers hire part time so their employees will not Unionize.The Factories are gone for good. Factories sucked to work at anyway. The homes of Slave Labor.Work doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We all work. Much work can be enjoyable if it were not for bosses and hours.Most people say the fell a sleep at work and many think they work too many hours. Many travel too far. People in general say they are unsatisfied with their jobs. There are books, “Unjobbing” By Michael Fogler, “Freedom From Work”, “The End of Work.” By Jeremy Rifkin.In Ralph Bellamy’s book, “Looking Backward.” Tells about a new society. People make their own work.In production I see awesome robots building things humans did. A bread Company through automation once made 1,000,000 loaves of bread a week, with 25,000 employees. Now it makes 1,000,000 loaves a day with 500 employees, and through future automation, 2,000,000 loaves with 5 employees. * Not an actual, but close projection. People in the future can have work they can value. The Futurists lists the top ten jobs of the future.
OUT •Stockbrokers, Auto Dealers, Mail Carriers, Insurance & Real Estate Agents •Teachers •Printers •Stenographers •CEO’s •Orthodontists •Prison Guards •Truckers •Housekeepers •Fathers *********IN •Issue Engineers •Gene Programmers •Pharmers •Organic Monitors •Data Miners •Hot-Line Handymen •Virtual Reality Actors •Narrowcasters •Turing Testers •Knowledge Engineers
OUT - Repetitive, inventory tracking, middlemen. •Insurance Sales •Investment bankers, brokers •Travel agents •Car dealers •Video store clerks •Printers •Newspaper production and delivery (but not news production and delivery) ********IN - Creative work requiring lots of common sense and working with people. •Entertainment - Writers, performers, actors •Software •Science and Technology •Services - Chauffeurs, maids, personal trainers & assistants, police, lawyers, teachers, tutors, tour guides, hotel personnel, yard workers, etc. •Skilled & Craft - Construction, repair, sanitation, highway crews, park service, teachers. •Information services - Infrastructure construction & repair, fiber, cable, satellites, etc. •Medical, Healthcare & Biotechnology - Low to high skilled
All meaningful jobs. And the internet lets be our own Record Company, Movie Makers,Artists, business people. Check out http://www.lulu.com/We can have a 32 hour work week, living wage, six weeks paid vacation. And we can have more. The Future really can be now. Life and work doesn’t have to suck. So, not everyone has to work at Wal-Mart, Target, the local Burger Joint at crap wages.The future can be bright for all and we should be able to have the career we want with out the dictates of government and family. And above all Corporations.

Work 101

2009-01-29T09:02:00.000-05:00

One thing I cannot gather is the Work Ethic. People who worship work. I believe the reason people worship work is because they have empty lives with no talent or creativity. That is not saying work is bad. Work is a good thing.
As the saying goes, with out work, the art suffers. That means if we commit ourselves to working on our endeavors, we can do excellent things. The work ethic should be excellence of execution. It should be doing what we aspire.
We live in a world that demands work enforcement. Everyone wants everyone else to work at the chain stores, The fast food joints, and retail operations, and the mindless mind numbing jobs because each of us subscribes to a poisonous work ethic. Capitalism isn’t about fulfilling our aspirations, it is about controlling people. It is about service.
But what about all those people who’s dreams have come true? What about all those people who have become successful entrepreneurs? What about the rewards of Capitalism? The rewards are actually few and far between.
OK, sometimes the system works. But the rate of success and attainment is still only 10%. Why? Because we are forced to work.
Now let me correct myself. There is a difference between work and a job. A Job is where you are forced to go and do things for the sake of money, which will not even cover living a life or attainment of all things humane. Frequently people work 70 hours a week to make ends meet. There is no quality to life.
Many people do work with out pay. In my example I was forced to take care of my sick father, do painting and landscaping, help my senior neighbors. All without pay. A quality Universal Income would have help me with getting paid for the work I was doing.
So, people seem to work with out getting paid for it. Since our money is is paid out by the US government and not corporations, being tied into corporate pay is slavery. Each person in the world works at something. House work, looking for a job, cutting your grass, helping your community.
The problem, there is no endless supply of jobs. There never was and never will be. And yet, most nations of this world keep their people down and out because they to control their populace.
Wealthy women get millions of dollars when divorcing their husbands for doing work they do not even do themselves. Judges reward millions of dollars to these women as if they worked in coal mines. We should all have it so bad. Yet the world looks down on welfare mothers. People who have no money to raise their families.
People should be able to collect Universal Income with out the government controlling their lives and relegating people to jobs they do not want. But than again, people aren’t getting a living wage, nor a living social security. While billionaires are getting billions in free money from the government, who is going to bail out the people? No one in the two party government. Which is why we should join adequate socialist parties.
The money is there for a Universal Income and all other social programs.
Than there is the continuation of wealth. The is the son of a millionaire who is an artist. A fairly horrible one to say. But his father, a wealthy Los Angeles Capitalist, pays for his art to be exhibited and he has contacts around the world in which his son displays his crappy art.
When we thing of the millions of talented people out there who are working at drug stores, chain stores, and mindless crappy jobs, they do not have families who could buy their success.
Success today is bought and paid for. Many people will not become successful or even fulfill their aspirations because they come from the wrong segment of society. A segment of society whose only guilt is coming from a working class family.
During the cold war we where told that in communist countries that peoples lives where controlled. They had no freedoms, and could not even become what they wanted. The government would even regulate them to jobs they had no choice of getting. But this has always been the case in America too. If you are a wage slave, it certainly isn’t the America that was promised.

Than there as the peace dividend. After the cold war we where suppose to have livable lives. quality jobs and better pay and social progress.
This never happened, when Ronald Reagan was elected, we went from a creditor nation to a debtor nation. Our future has been under mind and we now have conservative values that dehumanize people.
“You are what you do.” “You are your job.” “Without a job you are nothing.” “Hard work builds character.”
(it doesn’t)
People are forever relegated to the bottom. People have no access to education or a way to fulfill their aspirations. People can make there aspirations there work with a Universal Income.
That starving artist working at the crap jobs can be an artist, and the artist can work at his craft and display his artistry, people can develop their talents be be who they where suppose to be. People can share thiner talents with the world.
Eugene V Debs said, ” I wish the Industries would use their patents so they can have machines to do the work of people, and we can compete as artists do.”
It isn’t just about artists, how about writers, or someone who may wish to spread their religious word
and cultivate their spirituality. (Soteasan) Chung Bil Park once said, “As industrial society develops, cultivate spiritual society.”
Your free time could be your work. How many people have turned there hobbies into businesses? How many people have stands at Flea Markets (Swap Meets)?
A Livable Universal Income would allow this. Along with a living wage and benefits.
Not all work is bad work. Some estimate that 75% of all jobs are useless. But than again, how many people would make great Doctors, lawyers, Para-medics, Infrastructure Repair people.
There is a great future for jobs, yet many people will be left out. The will have a lack of education, come from the wrong University of College, come from the wrong segment of society. The truth is there is always a disposable segment of society where people are not seen as human beings.
Educations should be free. We should aim for a more free and equal society. One that sustain peoples self esteem and gives people a worthy life.
The mindless mind numbing jobs and the dirty jobs should be done by teenagers. Sort of as a life boot camp so they can appreciate the good jobs. Life should be a bit difficult in the early years so that we can grow and love what we do in the future.
Work and jobs are not bad things, our approach to them is what is wrong. One economist once said in the future, there will be to workers at a factory. A Man and a Dog. The man will feed the dog, and the dog will keep man away from machines.
Jobs grow and evolve with history and man. Now is the time for human history to evolve and deliver a more promising life.
The future can be bright, we have many social problems. These can be solved. No job should be seen as a permanent job because life changes and the needs of life and the machinery of society changes with it.
Sad to say the dream jobs are just for people who are well connected.
In the future I believe the Internet and computers will set bus free,w e can work at out Artisan-ship through this media because there will be, eventually enough room for everyone.
How ever the big corporations still dominate taking the luster and effort away from all. Cities and communities are run buy corporations leaving the little guy out. Our Work in the future will be in the activism to change the world and deliver us into a real democracy away from a corporate dominated world.
One cannot say work is bad. It took work to create this article. work has beneficial effects of helping us commune with society, make new friends and have some old ones. It achieves getting needed tasks done. Sometimes, if not more often to the benefit of society.

And They Call It Democracy

2009-01-29T09:01:00.000-05:00

Democracy is suppose to be the very heart and soul of our Political lives. But do what we know what Democracy is, how it functions, and how it is suppose to manifest itself?I believe we in America in particular we do not do Democracy well, nor even care about it. With conservatives Freedom and Democracy are hollow words. How could the Party that always violate Civil Liberties and introduces the Patriot Act, be for freedom and Democracy?When we speak about Free Speech, most people really hate it. Many want people controlled. Some people think the Constitution is Democracy. It isn’t. It is just a reflection of it.Many people thought Barak Obama was a Muslim. And if he where, in a real Democracy, with democratic thinking people, that wouldn’t even be a question.So, what if he where a Muslim.Take a look at Ballot Access. In Some States It takes 64,000 signers of a Petition to be on the ballot. Many States have prohibitive laws that allow fair and equal access.Now, isn’t that denying people freedom of choice? Isn’t that denying people the chance to change there government? Or even elect someone with different ideas than the two party system? Many Alternative Party Candidates are either censored, or vilified in the Press.In one election, as I am a frequent candidate, One Democratic opponent accused the Alternative Parties of not supporting his cause and that we only serve to confuse. The Democrats are hostile to change more so than the Republicans.Aren’t the Democrats suppose to be our Liberal Party that supports Civil Rights?Actually, Alternative Parties serve to expose. If thou are confuse, that is your problem.In Europe, there are ten political parties on the Ballot. During a primary election, held on the same day, all opposing party candidates are voted for. The Top Three winners go on to the November Elections. If the Top Two are close they move on to a December election in and instant run off.There are also many public referendums that the People Vote on. In 1992 the Italians voted on how there Congress would work.Thusly, we have the suppression of Ideas. How about some issue, like The Universal Income? A Living Wage? Workers Rights? A 32 hour work week? Sustainable and Livable Communities?It is hard to trust the Democrats. We know what the Republicans are about. But not all Democrats are Liberal. Many are as Conservative, if not more destructive than there counter parts. (Liberal democrats now are pretending to be Green).Than there are our Citizens. Who fails Democracy more than We the People? Our national attitude blows.We look at that guy at the Burger Restaurant, and we never see that server as Human. He is there, he must serve us, and that is where we want him. Why should he go to college, or improve his life? No, we like him where is at. Over worked, underpaid, unable to have a decent life. But we want him there serving our burgers.At Chicago O’hare Air Port I heard one guy rant. That these people behind counters are androids.No one should have a job choice or career, we live to be served and we like being served, as long as it is not us doing the serving. I sometimes believe we really are proponents of slavery.OK folks here we go. Democracy 101. Democracy is a system of government where people have the freedom and liberty to choose their own destiny. Where people can vote for whom we wish and change our government.It also attributes the rights, freedoms, and liberties afforded to all citizens.The freedom to move about. Make choices concerning your life with out a paternalistic government interfering.
For instance, if a women wants to have an abortion, she free will she should be able too because it is her body and her life choice. No one has ever proved that a fetus is a life.In many cases Wealthy women can go to France and have Abortions, yet, poorer womenare stuck. In England, British women help Irish women go to England to have abortionsbecause Ireland still hasn’t legalized abortion. It exists as a semi theocracy.
How about Guys? Aren’t trying to be who they are and pursue there lives with the liberty and freedom all Heterosexuals enjoy? Argues all you want about homosexuality.The facts are, they are here, they are queer, and they aren’t going anywhere. They have been here since time began and they will be here long after we are gone.
We enjoy in the United States some freedom and liberties as citizens. The Governments job is to protect our rights and privileges.
If anyone remembers Faruk Abdul Muhti, he was a political prisoner who died young.He was on a TV Show Called Democracy Now! Speaking about Rights and SweatshopsWhen he was arrested for being a Palestinian. He spent two years in Prison, and denied healthcare for his heart condition.A Judge in York, Pennsylvania couldn’t believe this was happening here in the USA. She set him free. Six months later he died from long term denial of his medications.
Where was his Democracy?
While Billionaires are given billions in Corporate bailouts and welfare, where is our war on poverty? The Indigent are not free.
We in America are bad with Democracy. The news lies to us everyday and gives us no alternatives to request. Our media does our thinking for us and we are hardwired into factoids that are not on par with the Democratic process.
It amazes me after we had a fake cold war with the Soviet Union. We said they where evil and human rights abusers. And yet, we let Mexico and China get away with the same.
Remember the Philippines Revolution. When brutal Dictator Emmanuel Marcos was deposed. George Shultz said we will miss a dear friend. The people of the Philippines expect us to celebrate their freedom and new Democracy. We didn’t.

America The Stupid

2009-01-29T09:00:00.001-05:00

Americans really are the most stupid political people on Earth. I heard it from foreigners from the time I was a child. I know this to be true.So what makes Americans so stupid? We are uneducated and dense and we have no real appreciation of Democracy.When I speak about democracy and its principles to most people, they tend to tilt there heads and disagree. People like the notion of Democracy, but deep down we really despise it.When I was in school my high school history teacher gave us a book called “The principals of Democracy.” We also have “The Great State Papers” Content-Bill of Rights, Constitution of the USA and New Jersey.The NJ Constitution is more Democratic-Article 2 tells us we can change our Government. Article 18 gives us the right to collective bargaining, which is unionizing.If we really care about Democracy, why do we vote for Democrats and Republicans? What is the addiction? The Republicrats are the same Party with two wings.Ballot access for Independent and Alternative Parties is oppressive in most States. Some Presidential Candidates an only run in 13 states.In Many foreign Countries, there are ten political parties on the ballot. In a Primary, the top three winners go on the General Election. If the race between the top two is close they have an instant run off a month later.You can speak to people and get political stupidities. When discussing third parties a person will say something like, “What is a third guy going to do?There is no Third Guy, Third Party. And there shouldn’t be third Parties-Alternative Parties. Than there are the issues. We are a Nation with out a notion. We let TV defineOur issues. Than when we think independently and vote independently we vote for Parties like The Libertarians and Constitution Parties. I admire the Libertarian stance on personal liberties. But there approach to life and economics is Catastrophic. Where in the world are people seeking Libertopia?I ran for office on issues like a Living Wage, Universal Income, Workers Rights, and more. One guy who had nothing to say, who’s only Campaign slogan was Rock the Boat, he received 1,200, while I got 519. Another Candidate, who was a neo-fascist type, received 1,300 votes, while a candidate of enlightenment received 1,400 votes.We like nuts like Ross Perot, and we shut down people who are more for the people.The point is, if you get someone who is more entertaining than real, that person will win the popularity contest. People vote on popularity, not because the candidate has substance.Republicans are very ignorant, we know where they stand. Liberals are funny. Many people I protest with think the Democrats are a Socialist Party.I went to the RNC National Convention in New York City. Many Democrats where carrying Radical signs and thinking there man, was a man of peace.He wasn’t and he no Labor or Anti Poverty Platforms. No ideas about improving the quality life.I said to these people, how do you feel that you are in a Party that doesn’t represent you? They look at you perplexed and say nothing or, one of these days the Party will come around and deliver. Why not Join a Socialist Party and would from there? Oh Independents can’t win. They can if you vote for them.Then there is that look of perplexity. The best was during the cold war. We where fighting the mighty Russian Communist Bear. Trying to tell people there was a difference between Communism and Socialism.Used to tell people about Socialism in Western Europe. (Sweden and Denmark.)These people would look at you perplexed and say, aren’t these countries neutral. Yes, they where neutral, but every country has an inner politics and political parties.Karl Marx was right about the proletariat. In America we are a nation of success junkies and we hate the poor. People in America are always looking up thinking their day will arrive and they will be millionaires and better than the rest.In a supermarket you’ll hear someone say, gosh these steaks are expensive! Then some conservative hunch-brain will say-“Oh, I can afford that! Or, my goodness, train fare is expensive. Hunchy will say. “Oh, well, I can still afford a ticket.” In America we rudely do not commiserate. In European Nations they do.No one in the world could stand to see there fellow human with out health care. In America we don’t mind other peoples suffering, as long as it isn’t us. In Long Branch NJ, Contractors where using imminent domain to take people houses from them. Many Citizens didn’t care. Than when more homes where taken, all of a sudden, those people where seeking others to sympathize. No dice.Than, when it happened some more, than the future victims where dismayed because no one cared. Than there is Michael Moore, a professed Socialist voting for Obama. If Mike where really into it why doesn’t he join or start a meaningful Socialist Party?Our Non-practice of Democracy has hurt us and we loose credibility in the eyes of the world. And we have already lost that credibility.

Cooperative Economy

2009-01-29T08:58:00.000-05:00

The economy is bleak. It is believed, however, that there are adequate solutions to the current global crisis.
During the Democratic National Convention, all I heard was Amway-like philosophy such as entrepreneurialism and competition.The global economy actually needs to change to a more cooperative economy based on need, rather than profit.
Starting with the United States, what we need to do first are these things:
Have the government nationalize all the major industries. They should become partly government owned. Also, they should exist as democratically controlled agencies. When workers control the means of production, there is quality in the workplace and quality for consumers. Place salary caps on all professional executives, eliminating excessive salaries with golden parachutes.
Decentralize the confiscated companies, and keep them as they existed as separate corporations.
Replace the executives who created this mess with new executives with regulated contracts controlling and making their efforts available to public inspection. Accountability and responsibility is the main feature. No one will be able to take a bath in the people’s money.
Arrest and confiscate all the assets of past executives and their golden parachutes. Return that money to the people. The government can use these assets to counter costs of the buyout.
Future allocations of money for new enterprises, such as solar and ecological initiatives, should be implemented with a special program that allows for public enterprise of newly created corporations that are democratically controlled. No more handouts for millionaires and billionaires.
Have the CEOs and executives stand trial for their crimes, and have them sentenced in a just and speedy trial.
Make privatization unconstitutional, and take back all entities sold off without our permission. It is time to end the millionaire/billionaire mentality as the only answer to economic stimulation. It seems Reaganomics finally reared its head and nothing trickled down for anyone who doesn’t have power or influence. It was a disaster 20 years in the making.
If our forefathers had only seen this, our constitution would be different today. Maybe they should have experimented with socialism. Conservative Alexander Hamilton did when he founded the Paterson Society of Useful Manufacturers — one of history’s great businesses and co-operatives that was worker owned and operated.

Universal Income

2009-01-29T08:55:00.002-05:00

THE UNIVERSAL INCOME
The Universal Income or Basic Income Grant isa concept dreived from people like John Locke in the 1800's. Out side of National Healt Care, the UI is the most important political initiative of our time.Mostly Jobs are mindless, boring people management jobs. And they pay very low, wage slavery is still in existence.The welfare system is also slavery. People work for free in State and County pimping operations.There is also an argument that it would bankrupt the country. This Nation seems to have money for everything. $250,000,000,000 for Corporations to big to fail. Another $150,000,000,000 for Automotive industry. NJ Governor Whitman gave Steve Wynn $20,000,000 not to build the Mirage Casino. There seems to be plenty of money for Capitalists, but none for the people.We should be fighting for the universal Income, a livable Social Security. ( ALong with Sustainable and Livable Communities and social programs that work.90% of people min this world live in poverty. In the United States the Success rate is still 90%, which means most of us never get opportunities.We cannot make everyone a millionaire, and not everyone can be a brain surgeon.But should we manage and perpetuate surplus population?This isn't mere Utopia. Here is how we can eliminate poverty all together.1. Enact the UI.2. Perpetuate a Public Works Program ( Americorps/Vista Volunteers)3. Reduce the work hour to 30 hurs.4. Introduce a living wage.5. Make it our mission to build livable sustainable communities.
Wont the Universal Income make us lazy, where will the initiative to work be?People wish to fulfill their aspirations. This means people get paid for personal productivity. I took care of my sick father 15 years. I never saw a dime for it.I done personal work and shouldn't I be paid for it? Being tied to a job and getting paid by a Corporation is a form of slavery. It is people management by the Government in behalf of Corporations.But people will not appreciate things because they didn't earn them!The government isn't the attitude police.Aren't the factories coming back?Snap out of it, the industrial age is over. Factories suck to work in anyway.One economist once said, a factory of the future will have two employees. a man and a dog. The man will feed the dog, and the dog will keep man away from machines.The big thing is deskilling of labor. Work evolves and old jobs disappear. Robotics and Automation will take over.Even non Socialists are writing books Like "Work Sucks" and "Killing the 40 hour work week."If Chinese and Slave labor where not economical, all factories would be mechanized.What are some of the benefits of the UI?
Well, you will not be in perpetual poverty. Lets look at others.1. Your Brother in Law can live in his own.2. Your Mother or Mother In-law will not be forced to move in with you.3. The Crime rate will plummet.4. You can make rent with out worry.5. Your Ex will not need alimony.6. You will not have to support you Parents. ( A Livable Social Security will fix that)7. You'll be free to afford to leave your Job8. You can afford to eat.9. You afford transportation.10. You can have a dignified life with out becoming the government @!$%#.
Also, it creates jobs to economic stimulation But we will need regulations like price control and price gouging. And we need to control the Republicans who will try and undermine all this.Martin Luther King said," I cannot see how not installing a Income For all will not lead to emancipation. I seen thing else that could heal poverty." See a good old socialist handout is a good thing. Our next mission is the Universal income. Deploy Forces!

Universal Income

2009-01-29T08:55:00.001-05:00

Universal Income (2004)

2009-01-29T08:53:00.000-05:00

CLAWS INTERVIEW FORUM RESULTThis is a exchange between Creating Living Alternative To Wage Slavery. As Socialists, we view oursleves as a labor party, but we are also a leisure party. 1. Why should People Collect a Basic Income Grant?To not share the wealth of a society in an equitable way is to ensure suffering, strife and will inhibit the evolution of both the individual and the group involved.2. Aren't people who don't want to work lazy? Shouldn't they contribute to Society?Everyone able should contribute to the society but this in no way requires anyone to have a dead-end job with subsistence wages and questionable benefits. All that are able should be required to supply a variety of services in their community at times as well as be encouraged to explore their natural talents and abilities.3. Some people think everyone can have a job, and that welfare recipients are leeches of society. What is your view?I do not agree, though the current welfare system is detrimental to both the recipient and the society. Based on the economic model that is currently utilized by the society of the USA not everyone can have a job. In fact the economic strategist plan and manipulate the system so that labor is always in abundance and therefore cheap thus ensuring that not all will be employed and that many who are will be under-employed and involved in meaningless labors.4. How would people handle a leisure society? Wouldn't their be work created through leisure?From personal experience I would say that those who are now or recently have been employed in a position where they willingly apply themselves to their tasks will have a more difficult time making the transition than their counterparts who have not invested so much of themselves into their work. The question should not be whether their will be more work created but rather whether it would more useful and satisfying work on both an individual level as well as a societal level.5. Is the economy really doing well, and is it an employee's market?The economy is based on false assumptions and many inequalities and thus has never worked well for all the participants. At present it is doing great damage to the environment and to any people that are not positioned in it's hierarchy.6. Are there any examples of good companies to work for that are progressive?What yardstick is 'Good' qualified by and who decided what standard is used? There are many well meaning people and thus well meaning companies and some that are called progressive or enlightened. But as they are subject to the rules of the current system of economics and the inertia of their underlying cultural beliefs I have yet to find any G'ood' (for the individuals, for the company, for all societies and for the environment) companies. Maybe I haven't looked enough. I would love to hear from anyone about "Good' companies out there.7. What political organizations do you support?At present none.* It should be noted CLAWS isn't part of the SPUSA and many CLAWS may or may not have political affiliations.8. Tell us a bit about the world of work today. The Harris Poll says Everyone is satisfied with their jobs. Is that true?No everyone is not happy with their work today. In fact a great number are not happy on some level (generally more than one). Personally I find the general concept of work in this culture (USA) supports and in fact forces people to become so busy with either work or the prospect of surviving that the possibility for a true democracy is undermined. In addition, the amount of work required has increased for many individuals which translates into less time for individuals/families to evolve and grow in meaningful ways. Work as it is currently contrived too often dehumanizes and thus steals true life experience from those who must work. Quite frankly there is a great deal of unnecessary work being performed and the workload as well as the benefits of it are not equitably shared. This leads to greater class distinction/differences and undermines the very concepts basic to a true democracy and leads to unneeded suffering and strife. It's a well designed machine ensuring that power and privilege stays in the hand of the few, and I'll add, any hope of true enlightenment for the masses.Thank you for the opportunity to not only express my current views but also by being involved with providing a forum where I might learn more via the comments/experiences of others.Chuck Kilmer n_b_check.gif";

Democratic Socialism

2009-01-29T08:51:00.000-05:00

Wow, it seems like the word Socialism is in the media. And it seems that many still have no clue what it is. There are many varieties of Socialism (similar to religious denomination) which can make matters confusing. I essence Democratic Socialists, (Social Democrats) define that what we wish to achieve is a Fair and equitable system of government.Wealth is created through both physical and mental labor by working people. Moreover, all creation of wealth in modern society is a collective and cooperative effort The capitalist distribution of wealth, however, pays little attention to these realities. Wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few rather than in the hands of the many who created it. Socialism isn't about high taxes or loss of personal property.One person can say they takes risks to go into businesses, yet it is th laborers who earn that wealth. There is an ever increasing - and entirely unjustified - gap between rich and poor. Socialism aims to correct this crucial problem. It aims to reduce the gap between rich and poor as much as possible and give workers more control over their own work and the wealth they create. Socialism favors an active, responsible state that owns and manages vital services (water, gas, electricity, public transport, etc.) for the benefit of the people, that guides the economy to serve the needs of the many rather than the profits of the few, and that guarantees a better standard of living including, free health care, education, and a universal income, and more. •Of course these are socialist values: Sovereignty of the people. •Government based upon consent of the governed. •Majority rule. •Minority rights. •Guarantee of basic human rights. •Free and fair elections. •Equality before the law. •Due process of law. •Constitutional limits on government. •Social, economic, and political pluralism. •Values of tolerance, pragmatism, cooperation, and compromiseYou understand, socialism isn’t about laziness, handouts, accommodating irresponsibility. We realize our Capitalist culture vilifies socialism because of its fear. We expose the system for what it really is and we choose a higher path.We do not see these values as being week, we see them as strengths in personhood. Capitalism see people as a means to an end as exploitation for profit, Socialism see people as human beings and wishes to free them.The Arts. Economic growth, and enlightenment have come out of Socialism.Eugene V Debs, Socialist Party of America founder and Presidential candidate said, “I am a Socialist, because I am for Humanity.” The Socialist Party of America was once America’s third party. Out side of the Whigs, the SPA was the first Third Party to garner over one million votes.One writer even calls the SPA the most influential party in America. We have to remember, The Public Library, Post Office, and Social Security are all socialist ideas.Do we have Socialism in America? Yes and no. The New Deal and Great Society was loosely based on Socialist principals. When Norman Thomas, five times presidential candidate was asked how he felt about the Democrats brining in his programs he replied that they brought them in coffin.But he also said, The Democrats are capable of brining in and entire socialist program with out using the word, we may have socialism.I somehow doubt it. As long as there are only two Parties, that may become impossible.However I wish Barak Obama the best of luck. He seems to be the best thing we have had in America in decades. Lets hope we get something better than we gotten in the past.

The Future

2009-01-29T08:48:00.001-05:00

My name is Tino Rozzo. One of the most censored Writers in America. The news papers will not publish most of my writings. FEAR!
Anyway,as an opening, I will say this. America has no strong Socialist Party. One that is both Social Democratic and Socialist. Socialism in America is too Urbane and Intellectual. We need something that grasps hometown USA along with the Cities.
We also live in an age of ignorance. America is a Nation of trends and insincerity. How could we build a Socialist movement with such a large cultural failure. Americans live in a insensitive, isolated world of selfishness. The Libertarian and National Tax Payer Party are are largest Alternative Parties. We are Joking Right?) Than the news media pushes two dead Parties, The Natural Law and Reform Parties.
So how can we foster change? We must grow larger. We need to grow and organization as large as the Democrats and Republicans. We need a machine that will get us there.
Most Socialist Parties splinter and splinter. There is no future plans for promotion or outreach.
They can not seem to get past the last protest.
We need a Party that is a forward Socialist Party. One digestible to all people. One that is Part of the Socialist International.
We have founded, or re-founded an Old Party. One close to Eugene V Debs and Norman Thomas. The Socialist Party USA. There is another though they do not consider themselves Socialist. The Labor Party.
Socialism has a future, though it will be tough. With the election of Barak Obama, the Democrats may deliver some Socialist Programs. But the Democrats have let us down before.
When Norman Thomas was asked how he felt about the Democrats bring in Socialist Programs he said, “They brought them in…in a Coffin.
The Reagan Administration pulled apart the New Deal and Great Society programs leaving us in misery. The Democrats where complicit. Our Nation almost lost its Democracy in the Patriot Act.
With Obama in office, the Democrats will once again win over people with a pretense of Socialism. We will not have what they have in Europe. But this will hurt the Alternative Party movement.
We must not give up. We must not have a One or two Party System. We must still fight for Democrac