Moo
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
‘When Russia first invaded Ukraine two cities negotiated to allow the Russian army to take over without armed resistance – Kherson on the Black Sea coast and Kupiansk near Kharkov and the border with Russia. This saved the places from destruction and their population from being killed in any crossfire and was obviously the sensible thing for the local authorities to have done.
‘But it wasn’t to last. Last year the Ukrainian nationalists recaptured Kupiansk and later the Russian army withdrew from Kherson. They were “liberated” but were now in the front line and both have since been bombarded and large parts of them reduced to ruins.’
ALB, may I use this quote in a letter I’m currently writing in response to the below Ukrainian nationalist article in the Frome Times?
http://www.frometimes.co.uk/2023/08/30/frome-honours-ukrainian-independence-day/
DJP, I didn’t mean literal fighting. I meant trying to persuade the workers of the world to become socialists.
The way I see it is: if the world socialist revolution was meant to happen, then it will, but if it wasn’t, then it won’t.
All we in the World Socialist Movement can do is help it arrive sooner, rather than later.
‘Not. Going. To. Happen.’
It doesn’t matter whether or not it WILL happen. The point is it COULD happen. Also, capitalism cannot be reformed to be eco-friendly or work in the interests of the exploited class. So, we will never stop fighting for the kind of society John Lennon described in his song: Imagine.
Recently PBS America broadcast a great two part documentary called: ‘Europe’s Forgotten Dictatorships’.
Part one is about the regime of the colonels in Greece; while part two is about fascist Portugal.
This documentary disproves the claim that the Allies in WW2 were anti-fascism. This is because Portugal; Greece; and Spain (while they were right-wing dictatorships) were close allies of the West during the Cold War.
The one about mosquitoes is a legitimate complaint. I would be cheesed off if I were visiting a holiday destination that had a mosquito problem, and there was no warning in the brochure.
What’s the Colour of Money? by Hollywood Beyond
LYRICS:
Dull my senses
Steal my pride
Principles denied
Passion faked and sold to the anthem green and gold.
Colour of the virtue by working like a slave
More precious than life itself
What’s the colour tempting fate?
What’s the colour of money?
What’s the colour of money?
Don’t tell me that you think it’s green
Me, I know it’s red.
What’s the colour of money?
What’s the colour of money?
Don’t tell me that you think it’s green
Me, I know it’s red!
Dull my senses
Steal my pride
Principles denied
Passion faked and sold to the anthem green and gold.
What was a useful tool
Has taken our control
It takes away your hearts and wraps it up around your soul.
What’s the colour of money?
What’s the colour of money?
Don’t tell me that you think it’s green,
Me, I know it’s red
What’s the colour of money?
What’s the colour of money?
Don’t tell me that you think it’s green,
Me, I know it’s red
What’s the colour of money?
What’s the colour of money?
I know it’s red
I know it’s red
Dull my senses
Steal my pride
Principles denied
Passion faked and sold to the anthem green and gold.
Colour of the virtue by working like a slave
More precious than life itself
Familiarity breeds contempt.
What’s the colour of money?
What’s the colour of money?
Don’t tell me that you think it’s green,
Me, I know it’s red
What’s the colour of money?
What’s the colour of money?
Don’t tell me that you think it’s green,
Me, I know it’s redWe (i.e. the Socialist Party) have nothing against trade unions fighting to defend/improve their real wages & working conditions. To paraphrase Karl Marx: Trade unionism puts the breaks on workers’ exploitation, but doesn’t stop it.
We would just prefer it if the majority of workers became socialists and organised for socialism.
DJP
‘Sounds like you’re saying reforms are fine so long as you don’t ask for them!’
That is what I’m saying. For example, the SPGB didn’t advocate the post-war ‘welfare state’ (significantly improving state-benefits & old age pensions, and creating the National Health Service), however, they didn’t complain about it when it was established.
Gradualism is the belief that parliament can slowly & steadily reform capitalism into socialism (that is what the Independent Labour Party wrongly believed).
Reformism is the the belief that parliament can solve the problems caused by capitalism without getting rid of it (that is what the early Labour Party wrongly believed, and the Greens still do).
The SPGB was created with the belief that voting in elections will achieve socialism, but voting for a reformist party would (and has) impeded it.
While we have nothing against reforms, we are against reformism: that the proletariat should beg the capitalist state for a few more crumbs, when we can, should, and deserve to take the whole bakery.
Where would the money come from to provide children with free school meals? Answer: through taxation.
Where does tax money come from? Answer: from the profits of the capitalist class.
Where do profits come from? Answer: from exploiting the working class who produce the wealth of society.
The state-corporate media accused Corbyn of being a neo-Stalinist by purging anyone from the Labour Party who disagreed with him (when in fact he accommodated the right of his party). Starmer has been purging the LP of all who disagree with him for over 3 years, and the silence from the state-corporate media is deafening.
The Electoral Calculus is still predicting a Labour super majority for the next general election (73 percent!). SOURCE: https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html
By-elections aren’t good predictors of what will happen at a general election because voter turnout for the former is a lot lower than for the latter.
‘Actually, of course, all governments are just in office as no government has the power to overcome the economics laws of capitalism and make the system serve the interest of the majority.’
Very true. Thank God Corbyn didn’t become prime minister, because the current cost of living crisis would have been blamed on his so-called socialist policies.
Populist (adjective): relating to or characteristic of a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people [i.e. medium/low paid workers] who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
The state-corporate media describe as populist, parties that are too far to the left or too far to the right of the centre-ground.
Capitalist parties are like Penguin chocolate bars. They come in different wrappers, but they’re all the same on the inside.
I know I’m preaching to the choir, but it’s sort of like being pregnant, in that you can’t be a bit pregnant; you’re either pregnant or you’re not. Just like you can’t have a less profit driven system. Either profit is the driving force in wealth production/distribution, or it’s not.
The Somerton & Frome candidate, Rosie Mitchell, who has labelled herself as an independent socialist, has written in Frome’s local free newspaper that she is committed to: “a fairer less profit driven system that works for society and for the planet”.
Which makes me wonder how the hell socialism went from meaning: “a classless, stateless, moneyless global community of common ownership & democratic control of the earth’s natural & industrial resources, where people live by the principle of: from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs” to “a less profit driven system”.
