Originally posted by Ulster
[email protected] 26, 2007 07:53 pm
I get quite annoyed when I read arguments from pedantic right wingers, so I'll do my best to cover everything now. Here's my $0.02
Reactionaries are quick to sing the praises of those who do the least work, eg. Large business people, politicians, church leaders, Royalty etc. The reality is the USA state that calls itself the worlds seat of 'democracy' has little to offer the world in the way of example. Unelected privatised companies with power over essential services (transport health etc) have taken accountability away so that the vote has but no true meaning. This is why the remedy is blanket nationalistion, to ensure these essential services are brought back into accountable government hands. Already the US companies are becoming so huge they have leverage in affecting the democratic processes of other nations, particularly in the 3rd world.
In the UK we are sleepwalking towards a non pluralised plutocratic dictatorship as all 3 major parties sing from precisely the same right-of-centre hymn book.
Communism/Socialism (in my view at least) does not take away the apparatus of plural democracy, on the contary it was this mistake that led to the downfall of revolutions of yore. There is no reason to deny the reactionaries equal forum, the idea is their arguments will be irrelevant in the face of proletarian prosperity which is precisely why they so fear a shift in the status quo.
Capitalism is also guilty of wasting resources, not just mineral (which is an important point I'll come back to) but also human- Vast numbers within the workforce, many of whom are ex-graduates are syphoned off into forms of employment which have little or no relevance to their education or talents, and are there purely because of the demands of the 'market'. Clearly the focus should be on guiding them into areas where they will be of maximum benefit to society, the arts, and the sciences. This brings me onto my final point, science. Reactionaries accuse communists and other progressives of being backward, regressive etc. Clearly the opposite is the case whenever you consider we live in an age where various forms of renewable energies are available yet our primary source of transport is still dependent of the 4-stroke cycle. Rather than upset the apple cart, government leckies shuffle their feet when it comes to approve new technolgies which can run independent of the multi-billion dollar black juice and the obvious environmental catastrophe involved.
Hey my friend here is a great article about the Medicine to cure USA-capitalist hell: US Revolution # 2:
http://americanterrorism.tk/
or
http://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/
Solutions:
American Revolution 2
and a Humane Future of
International Socialist Democracy
“We can have a democratic society or we can have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both.”
— Louis Brandeis
Supreme Court Justice from 1916-1939
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember it or overthrow it.”
— Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address
March 4, 1861
What America needs, above all else, is a second Revolution to finish the work of the first one. American Revolution Two must be spiritual as well as political, and it must retain the full Bill of Rights of the current U.S. Constitution.
There is no solution to this country’s problems without the total overthrow of the U.S. military/government and the parasitical plutocracy which pulls its strings. The defeat of these genocidal state terrorists is also an essential step toward solving the entire world’s problems.
The fascist corporate plutocracy and its military/government puppets will never be reformed. Those who think the rotten system can be reformed from within are fooling themselves. The corporate/banking plutocracy has spent well over a century painstakingly creating a system which is absolutely impervious to any fundamental reform. Bourgeois reformers are toyed with and sneered at by the criminals in power. Would-be reformers merely serve to perpetuate the mass-illusion that we have a “democratic” system. People who seriously and fundamentally challenge the evil system are murdered, harassed or financially destroyed — if they can’t be blackmailed or bribed. Your vote counts for nothing and elections are a total fraud.
Therefore, the U.S. Corporate Mafia Government must be completely overthrown by the American people, and this will be done best through a spiritual and political Revolution using the basic strategy of massive, nonviolent non-cooperation.
The problem is that nonviolence requires a profound and very difficult discipline. And nonviolence can seem futile and cowardly in the face of the U.S. military/government murder of innocent children around the world. Retaliatory violence against the satanic U.S. government and its bestial military agents would be pure justice, and it is a great temptation. So the only question is: would it be more effective in the present circumstances? At this point, it clearly would not be. The U.S. military/government has the overwhelming advantage in firepower, so violence is exactly what they want.
Uncle Sham is a corporate mafia thug with a gun pointed to the world’s head. His itchy finger is on the trigger — and he really enjoys murdering people. He exults in it. One move from anyone to physically challenge his imperial dominance, or even merely to be independent, and he blows their heads off with a satisfied smile. And their children’s heads too.
Then while he struts around the bloody world stage beating his chest in self-congratulation, his corporate media whores all scream their approval and sing his praises for “fighting terrorism” and “liberating” the victims. And legions of bully-worshiping, flag-waving, fist-shaking, mental-puppet patriots join the chorus, whipped into a bloodlusting frenzy by the media whores, all eager to do further violence to anyone who dares to speak out with a genuine moral conscience.
Even without fighting a second Revolutionary War to protect the world’s children from Uncle Sham, if people of conscience in America use violence merely to defend themselves from the U.S. government, then their own innocent children suffer too. Innocent children and adults have been horribly murdered by U.S. government thugs in Waco, Ruby Ridge, the Philadelphia MOVE house, Pine Ridge Reservation and many other places. Uncle Sham and his thugs have no hesitation about murdering anyone’s children.
Basically then, we’re all hostages to U.S. government violence, for the time being, no matter what we do. Therefore we need to use nonviolent methods of opposition until it becomes possible to physically overpower the devils while protecting all innocent children and their families at the same time.
That will become possible only when tens of millions of people in America join the fight to take the satanic U.S. military/government down once and for all. And tens of millions of people will join the fight for two basic reasons:
When they become aware of the horrific realities of this world and are driven to do something to relieve the suffering of innocent victims.
When they realize it is in their self-interest to overthrow the U.S. Corporate Mafia Government.
Most people will be motivated by both reasons, to varying proportional degrees, but those who honestly care about others as much as themselves have always been a minority of people in America. Those who care primarily about their self-interests have always been a majority. That’s why we have the evil government we have.
Various fascistic elements within the American plutocracy have long had plans to use covertly-sponsored “false flag” terrorism to coerce the American people into silence and obedience if necessary, and to imprison and mass-murder all people of conscience who resist. Such plans have been in existence at least since the 1930s, during the Roosevelt Administration. In 1962 the CIA had a plan called “Operation Northwoods” which called for terrorist attacks to be committed against Americans in Miami and Washington D.C. while blaming it on Fidel Castro and Cuba. This would have created the pretext for the kind of full-scale invasion and occupation that has been inflicted on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. The 9-11 attacks were merely a modern-day “Operation Northwoods”.
So far, the 9-11 deception is serving their purposes very well. But whenever the plutocracy fears their power is slipping they’ll simply order another terrorist attack and have their pet media scream about it night and day, and again millions of brainwashed morons will wave their flags and call for “revenge” and “justice”. Again the brain-dead idiots will violently attack whatever political or ethnic group is presented in the corporate media as the latest scapegoat, including all honest and decent people who dare to speak out.
Every possible form of nonviolent civil disobedience must be used to fight the satanic rulers of this country. Massive peaceful protest is a helpful and essential tactic, one which is very important both for psychological morale and for bypassing and overwhelming the censored corporate media. The protests have informed all America that a massive, unstoppable nationwide rebellion is steadily growing. It has very deep roots, and now people know how big it is too.
At some point the rebellion will become so pervasive that another essential tactic will become possible — the nonviolent physical takeovers of all local media outlets, especially T.V. stations, by masses of local anti-government people. This will mean the majority of people in most locations. When the majority of local people control the local media they will liberate the mass-mind of their own society. Every local society will then be able to express itself freely and honestly and publicize issues with which it is actually concerned, and the coming Revolution will gain overwhelming momentum. The revolutionary momentum is already irreversible, but at that point it will pick up so much speed that the corporate/banking parasites and military/government war criminals will be running for their bunkers.
The “Civil Disobedience and Tax Resistance” page continues these simple but essential ideas on revolutionary tactics and strategy. “Taking Action Against American State Terrorism” describes the massive protests that have taken place so far, and links to some important organizing coalitions.
Until nonviolent local media takeovers become possible on a nationwide scale, one of the most essential forms of nonviolent non-cooperation is to stop paying taxes to the Federal government. The U.S. military/government bloodsucks the American people for hundreds of billions of dollars every year to hold the entire world hostage to the Pentagon mass-murder-machine. By not paying taxes we are withdrawing our support from this monumental evil. If we pay taxes we have the blood of innocent people on our hands. We are paying for mass-murder. There is no denying it.
The great irony is that paying income taxes is not even legally required! Most Americans have been kept ignorant of this fact, but it is actually unconstitutional for the Federal government to force people to pay income tax. Federal income tax is technically voluntary. It is not legally mandatory. The criminal U.S. government doesn’t want you to know this, of course, and like the mafia it is, it certainly does harass tax resisters and attempt to punish them. You can legally protect yourself, however. See A Few Facts About Tax Resistance for more information.
“The federal income tax and social security tax are unconstitutional and illegal; the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the income tax amendment) never even came close to being ratified in 1913; federal income taxes are voluntary, not compulsory, and there is no law that requires citizens to file and pay federal income taxes...”
We The People Organization
http://www.givemeliberty.org/features/taxes/showdown.htm
The Need for Spiritual Revolution
The root causes of the problems which bedevil all nations and individuals are always spiritual/moral in nature. Economic, social, psychological and political problems are merely symptoms of a deeper malaise. There can be no real and lasting solution to the world’s problems, therefore, without a spiritual/moral awakening and healing of large numbers of people.
Fortunately this is happening. A steadily growing spiritual awakening really is happening to millions of people in this country and around the world. To a large degree it is manifesting itself on the surface as a growing political and social awakening, facilitated largely by the Internet. But the underlying motivation of this awakening is the deep moral revulsion which hundreds of millions of people increasingly feel toward the bestial, satanic ruling order.
Nobody needs any particular religion or political party to tell them that the current status quo is thoroughly evil. People can feel it in their souls. Moral awareness is built-in to humanity, no matter what belief system people may have. That is why the predatory, parasitical rulers of America use their degraded corporate mass-media to drag large numbers of people down to a subhuman level. Ignorant, immoral subhumans are easy for evil rulers to control and exploit. Moral human beings cannot be controlled by evil rulers.
Whether people realize it or not, we are all engaged in a fight to the death. We are fighting for our very souls, as well as for the innocent children of the world who are butchered by American war criminals. If we fail to care about these children, about their families and all our victimized fellow human beings, we will lose our souls. It’s as simple as that. Those who don’t care will become cowardly, craven slaves to the satanic freaks that are desperately scrambling to conquer the world right now. That is a fate infinitely worse than mere death of the physical body.
* * *
The Candles in the darkness page has links to a small selection of spiritual wisdom teachings.
There are as many ways of knowing God as there are people. Respect for the world’s rich variety of spiritual paths is essential. Appreciation of variety counters the egoic tendency we all have to fall into the trap of cultism. Cultism may be defined as “group egocentricity”, and it can be political as well as religious. Politics and religion are cultic when they claim to have exclusive possession of truth. Cultic exclusivity is always very divisive, and thus it is inevitably destructive. In contrast, true spirituality is always unifying, healing and nourishing in its effect.
Structure of the Political Revolution
Once the U.S. Corporate Mafia Government is relegated to its proper place in the toxic waste dump of history, the question becomes one of what to replace it with. In a successful American Revolution Two, the American people will create some form of Constitutional democracy. The all-important Bill of Rights absolutely must be retained in its entirety, and even strengthened. The first and second amendments in particular are absolutely essential, since they make it possible for all other rights to be maintained by the people. But basic changes must be made to the structure of government to avoid the mistakes of the past. Everything must be eliminated which allows the subversion of the Bill of Rights.
Two New Amendments
To accomplish this, at least two utterly essential new amendments must be added to the Constitution, and vigorously enforced by the people:
The first and most important amendment will forbid both centralized and private ownership of the mass-media.
All the mass-media must be publicly owned and totally decentralized. As long as the mass-media is owned by a few corporations, or any other centralized power, it will always lie about what is happening in this country and in the world. Those people who are foolish enough to trust the corporate mass-media will therefore remain ignorant and grossly misinformed. A real democracy is totally impossible without a well-informed electorate. Corporate control of the mass-media guarantees a thoroughly misinformed and uninformed electorate.
The second new amendment must take all political power away from the corporations and make them fully liable for their criminal actions. As long as huge, ultra-wealthy corporations are effectively above the law they form a modern-day aristocracy, and democracy remains a total charade.
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power.”
— Benito Mussolini
1883-1945
Fascist dictator of Italy
Democratizing the Supreme Court
These Constitutional changes will also make it politically possible to reform the crooked Supreme Court. All Supreme Court judges should be directly elected by the American people. It must also be made possible for the American people to quickly and easily impeach these judges when they inevitably make an unconstitutional decision. It was a crooked Supreme Court decision in 1886 that gave corporations so much power in the first place, effectively ending what little was left of democracy at the national level. Because it’s so very easy for people with money and power to corrupt and control judges, the Supreme Court will always tend to undermine democracy unless it is tightly controlled by the American people.
Parliamentary U.S. government
It would also help a great deal if the American political system joined the modern world and became a parliamentary democracy. America’s present system is intentionally kept backward by the corporate/banking plutocracy because such a draconian system suits their anti-democratic purposes very well. In a parliamentary democracy there will be real power sharing by many political parties. In America today all power resides in one corporate party which pretends to be two — the Democrapublicans.
The system should also be designed so that the American people can quickly and easily oust the President and members of Congress whenever they break the law or do anything against the will of the people.
Democratizing the mass-media and taking power away from corporations is the essential foundation that will make this possible. The American people must create a political system which is actually in their own self-interest, rather than the present-day system of deceit and exploitation which serves the interests of the corporate/banking plutocracy.
Having learned the bitter lessons of corporate mafia capitalism, the majority of people are definitely going to want to try some form of honest, moral democracy for a change. But in order to create an honest democracy people need to know the difference between venal capitalism and true socialism. When the majority of people know the difference, the new political system they create will be a Constitutional socialist democracy.
What is Democratic Socialism?
Democratic socialism is a moral, humane, political system which creates economic well-being and political freedom for the majority of people. In contrast, corporate capitalism creates fascist tyranny and economic exploitation of the majority of people.
Democratic socialism is therefore in the political and economic self-interest of the majority of people. And yet most Americans have a problem understanding this very simple fact — thanks to over a century of very effective political brainwashing by the corporate-controlled mass-media and the government-controlled school system. (See An Appeal to All Working People for a full description of the ideals and principles of democratic socialism.)
The very word “socialism” triggers a negative response in most Americans. Like Pavlov’s dogs, Americans have been trained to mindlessly react, both positively and negatively, to all kinds of things.
After generations of government/corporate mind-control, many Americans are deeply confused about even the most obvious economic realities. Distracting them from the realization that socialism is in their own economic self-interest, capitalist propaganda has fooled a great many Americans into rejecting it on religious grounds. Politicians and the corporate media tell people the lie that all socialism is Marxism and “godless Communism”, and therefore anti-religious. But many socialists are not Marxists. Socialism is not necessarily anti-religious at all.
True Christianity is Socialist
In fact there have been Christian-socialist political parties and utopian communities in both Europe and America since the 19th century. That should come as no surprise to those who actually understand Christianity. Like true Buddhism and true Islam, true Christianity is inherently socialistic. If we define Christianity as the religion of Jesus, rather than the religion of churches and worldly authorities, then we can see why true Christianity and socialism go very naturally together. When Jesus fed the multitudes, that was a socialist act. When Jesus threw the money-changers out of the temple, that was a condemnation of godless capitalism.
If Jesus he were to incarnate in America today, and as many people listened to him as listened to Martin Luther King Jr., he’d meet the same fate. As the song lyrics say: “If Jesus Christ were alive today, he’d be gunned down cold by the CIA.” And he’d be denounced from the poisoned pulpits of many a “Christian” church. America is a satanic nation.
Those so-called “Christians” who advocate war and intolerance and capitalist exploitation are satanic people masquerading as Christians. Evil people have always hidden behind religious facades. These deceivers are involved in Churchianity, not true Christianity.
The Christian tradition of charity and being “our brother’s keeper” is a socialist tradition. Compassion for our fellow human beings is the soul of socialism.
What is Marxism?
Marxism is the marriage of socialism with scientific materialism. The Marxist philosophy was created in the mid-nineteenth century when the dogma of scientific materialism began to dominate Western thinking. Socialists like Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were good and compassionate men, well ahead of their times, morally, yet also a product of their times, intellectually.
Marxism’s greatest strength is its compassion for suffering humanity. Its second greatest strength is its scientific analysis of capitalism. That’s why Marxism is also called “scientific socialism”. But, as with conventional science, Marxism’s greatest weakness is its materialist worldview.
Because Marxism is socialistic, however, it is a very unusual thing — a moral materialism. Generally speaking, the term “moral materialism” is an oxymoron. But Marxism manages to be a moral materialism because all socialism is motivated by compassion for the downtrodden and exploited masses of people in every country.
Marxism’s specifically anti-religious stance is a both a political weakness and a moral strength. It’s a political weakness because so many people are religious, and American capitalists have very successfully exploited that fact in their anti-socialist propaganda. On the other hand, Marxism’s anti-religious stance is a moral strength because religion is very often profoundly corrupt, and it needs to be purified.
Marx was quite right when he said “religion is the opiate of the masses”. A great many people have always used religion as a drug, as something which keeps them from thinking clearly, logically and honestly.
Just as with drugs, religion is used to intoxicate people and influence them in evil ways. U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. Air Force pilots take government-supplied amphetamines before they slaughter women and children in Afghanistan and Iraq and Vietnam and Yugoslavia. Like those U.S. military amphetamines, religions have always been used for grossly evil purposes. The horrifying Catholic Inquisition is a prime example. Bigoted Protestant fundamentalism is another. Racist Talmudic Judaism is another. All the bloody religious wars all over the world throughout history are testimony to the monstrous evil that hides behind religious facades. The revolting Zionist Christians and Zionist Talmudic Jews of today are examples of how violently evil religions threaten the survival of the entire human race. These psychopaths make Karl Marx look like a prophet.
So it’s true that religion is used as an opiate of the masses. But it’s not the whole truth. In spite of the fact that evil people use religion for evil purposes, there are kernels of spiritual truth in every religion. And spiritual truth is independent of all religions.
Socialist Humanity is the Future
Regardless of whether it is Marxist or religious, however, socialism in itself is inherently moral, charitable and unifying. Socialism is human. Capitalism is inherently selfish, competitive and divisive. Capitalism is subhuman. This will be perfectly obvious to anyone who can think clearly and rationally. Unfortunately, that’s asking too much of conventional Americans. Reality is turned on its head in American political culture.
Capitalism, by its very nature, is always tending toward corporate fascism. Under capitalism the majority of people must endlessly battle the anti-democratic, subversive influence of a corporate/banking plutocracy which effectively owns the government. In a system of socialism the greatest danger is the tyranny of an anti-democratic government bureaucracy, a tyranny which is every bit as evil as a corporate plutocracy.
In both cases there is only one way to achieve and maintain democracy, and that is the vigilant, well-informed determination of the majority of people. This is why the mass-media is the single most important factor. Democracy is impossible without an informed electorate, and there is no way for the electorate to be informed as long as the mass-media is controlled by private owners. Those private owners will look out for private interests, which very often are not the same as the public interest. If people want freedom and democracy, there must be genuine, public ownership of all the mass-media, and it must be a decentralized ownership.
When the majority of people are determined to be free and are well-informed about political and social reality, they will know that democratic socialism is the only system which actually looks out for their own interests. Liberated from corporate-media mind-control, they will have no problem seeing the obvious reality that genuinely democratic socialism is profoundly civilized, moral and humane. They will reject with total contempt the evil and animalistic “Rule of the Jungle” exemplified by corporate capitalism.
The social and political facts of life are exactly the opposite of the smooth-talking capitalist propaganda that is incessantly beamed at you through the mind-controlling mass-media. The televised, corporate, Disneyland version of reality is always trying to sell you the fantasy that America is basically a righteous “democracy” run by honest, God-fearin’ “elected representatives” who have “only your best interests at heart”. Meanwhile, in the hard, cold, real world, America is being run into the ground by a criminal plutocracy which ruthlessly exploits everybody for as much as it can get away with. The plutocracy which invariably rules every capitalist society is a greedy parasite of the working classes — who are the vast majority of people.
International socialist democracy is the natural next step in the world’s political evolution. Corporate capitalism is a morally degraded political dinosaur that is retarding the social and political evolution of the entire human race.
See also on this page:
The political differences between Stalinism, communism, anarchy and democratic socialism
Related pages
Civil Disobedience and Tax Resistance
Thomas Jefferson Calling: The Time for Revolution is NOW
by John Kaminski
A Note to the Reader in America
Only massive, nonviolent civil disobedience and tax resistance have the power to bring down the most violent, predatory empire in the world today.
Socialism, real and fake
by Noam Chomsky
An Appeal to All Working People
This is the September 1996 election statement of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), and it’s every bit as relevant today as it was then. Although the SEP is a Marxist party, and thus hampered by the conceptual limitations of scientific materialism, this election statement is nevertheless the best primer I’ve found so far on the political, economic and moral ideals of international socialism.
Know Your Enemy:
The United States Government Committed the September 11 Attacks
Revealing Quotes 2: Corporate Capitalist Plutocracy
Revealing Quotes 4: Jewish Plutocracy, Jewish Power
The Israeli Connection To 9-11
War At Home:
Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It
by Brian Glick
Neighborhood Bully: American Militarism
interview with Ramsey Clark
The CIA, Insider Trading and the World Trade Center Terror Attack
Fake Terror: the Road to Dictatorship
Operation 911: NO SUICIDE PILOTS
U.S. Government Surveillance
U.S. Government Domestic Oppression
The Battle of Seattle
Terrorism Begins At Home: Police Brutality in America
America’s Techno-Fascist Future
Related sites
International A.N.S.W.E.R.
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism!
http://www.internationalanswer.org/
“Build a united and active anti-war movement!”
This site has a great deal of information for anti-war activists, including leaflets and flyers you can download.
International Action Center
http://www.iacenter.org
“Information, activism and resistance to U.S. militarism, war, and corporate greed, linking with struggles against racism and oppression within the United States.”
National War Tax Resistance
Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC)
http://www.nwtrcc.org/
“The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is a coalition of groups from across the U.S., formed in 1982 to provide information and support to people involved in or considering some form of war tax resistance (WTR).
“Affiliate organizations and individual supporters are joined together in a common struggle for a more just and peaceful society. We oppose militarism and war and refuse to participate in the tax system which supports such violence.
“NWTRCC sees poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, economic exploitation, environmental destruction and militarization of law enforcement as integrally linked with the militarism which we abhor. Through the redirection of our tax dollars NWTRCC members contribute directly to the struggle for peace and justice for all. NWTRCC promotes war tax resistance within the context of a broad range of nonviolent strategies for social change, and is firmly embedded in the peace movement.”
“NWTRCC’s goal is to maintain and build a national movement of conscientious objectors to military taxes by supporting, coordinating and publicizing the WTR actions of groups and individuals. These actions include: war tax resistance, protest, and refusal; the redirection of military taxes to meet human needs; support of the U.S. Peace Tax Fund Bill; and adjustment of lifestyle to avoid tax liability. WTR actions are undertaken in accordance with each individual’s moral, religious or political conscience, and are hoped to contribute toward changing the priorities and policies of the U.S. government.”
NWTRCC makes available the book: War Tax Resistance: A Guide To Withholding Your Support From The Military
“The most comprehensive guide to war tax resistance (WTR), including philosophical and political questions, information on the federal budget, the history of WTR, personal WTR stories, methods, consequences, international WTR, WTR organizing, and more."
We The People Organization: Taxes - Showdown
http://www.givemeliberty.org/features/taxes/showdown.htm
“The federal income tax and social security tax are unconstitutional and illegal; the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the income tax amendment) never even came close to being ratified in 1913; federal income taxes are voluntary, not compulsory, and there is no law that requires citizens to file and pay federal income taxes...”
World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org/
WSWS: September 11 Aftermath
http://www.wsws.org/sections/category/news/terr-us.shtml
WSWS: News & Analysis: U.S. Militarism
http://www.wsws.org/sections/category/news/na-milit.shtml
The huge World Socialist Web Site is a great resource for thinking people. WSWS has a massive amount of information and insightful commentary. It specializes in the kind of straight talk about brutal U.S. imperialism which is absolutely unheard-of in the corporate-controlled mass-media.
The homepage is updated daily with real news and analysis from around the world. In particular right now, WSWS is one of the best sites for news and analysis of America’s current genocide and state terrorism of the people in Iraq.
Throughout the site you’ll find the kind of deeply informed, historically aware, refreshingly realistic analysis that only the experience of 154 years of international socialist struggle could make possible.
Millions of people are waking up to the fact that the corporate-owned, mainstream mass-media are lying to them. People of intelligence and conscience are turning off the boob-tube and turning on to truthful, non-corporate news sources on the Internet.
WSWS has very informative sections about the American/British state terrorism of the Afghan peoples, and the racist Israeli terrorism of the Palestinian people.
There is also an extensive number of high-quality articles about the Balkans and the U.S./NATO terror campaign against the Yugoslavian people.
Restoring Pacifica as a Democratic Forum for Independent Voices
http://www.savepacifica.net/index.htm
“Given the importance of the media in hegemonic processes, and in contesting those processes, what is happening to Pacifica, and now WBAI, should be first order business for the left. This was our only radio network, and it is being destroyed!”
— Edward S. Herman
author of The Real Terror Network
The International Office of the Leonard Peltier Defence Committee
http://www.freepeltier.org
Justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.mumia2000.org
Refuse & Resist!
http://www.refuseandresist.org/altindex.html
“Refuse & Resist is the organization for everyone who refuses to go along with today’s national agenda of repression and cruelty, poverty and punishment.”
CollegeActivist.com
http://www.collegeactivist.com/
“Want to spread the word about animal rights on your campus?
“Whether you’re an individual or working with a group, whether you’re just getting started with animal rights or you’re a veteran activist, PETA’s College Action Campaign can help you speak out for animals on your campus!” (And they don’t mean frat boys.)
TV-Turnoff Network
http://www.tvturnoff.org/
“TV-Turnoff Network encourages children and adults to watch much less television in order to promote healthier lives and communities.
“TV-Turnoff Network has helped millions of Americans to break free of TV through our two primary programs, National TV-Turnoff Week and More Reading, Less TV. Our 3,000 members include teachers, parents, doctors, and others — Americans from every corner of the country and walk of life.”
Capitalism Sucks!
http://www.capitalismsucks.com/
“Experts Agree: Capitalism Sucks.”
“How Do You Want to Fight Capitalism Today?”
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
Rage Activism Calendar
http://rage.protest.net/
“The United States of America was founded in revolution, a fact that we citizens choose to remember only once a year. Ever since, our nation has worked to destroy the revolutionary works of people around the globe as they struggle for freedom.
“In 1776, the U.S. was born half-formed, and today the American Revolution is still only half-finished. Soldiers in the late 1700s fought successfully to free all Americans from a British yoke, but neglected to free themselves from their home-grown dictators...”
Bibliography
War Tax Resistance:
A Guide To Withholding Your Support From The Military
Available from the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
“The most comprehensive guide to war tax resistance (WTR), including philosophical and political questions, information on the federal budget, the history of WTR, personal WTR stories, methods, consequences, international WTR, WTR organizing, and more.”
Against Empire
by Michael Parenti
“The history of imperialism is also, however, a history of resistance, struggle, and achievement; Against Empire offers compelling alternatives for progressive change.” .... “Precise, rational ways to transform public policy to build democratic institutions.”
War At Home:
Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It
by Brian Glick
Nonviolent Resistance (Satyagraha)
by Mohandas K. Gandhi
Dover Publications; ISBN 0-486-41606-2
Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of India’s great movement of independence from the bloodsucking British Empire, a liberation which was accomplished by means of nonviolent revolution in spite of the British massacres of Indian people. Gandhi and his followers thus gained the deep respect and admiration of millions of people around the world for their disciplined adherence to the policy of passive resistance, and his ideas were a driving force behind the American civil-rights movement.
This volume focuses on Gandhi’s vision of Satyagraha, whereby one appeals to reason and conscience and puts an end to evil by converting the evil-doer. The book begins with an explanation of the principles of Satyagraha and proceeds with detailed discussions of the self-training and courage necessary for it. Includes discussion of the use and effectiveness of such techniques as non-payment of fines and taxes, social boycotts, fasting, sympathetic strikes, and other forms of non-cooperation.
Autobiography:
The Story of My Experiments with Truth
by Mohandas K. Gandhi
Dover Publications; ISBN 0-486-24593-4
“Personal account of the life of the man who freed India from colonization through the Satyagraha (nonviolent protest) movement. His early boyhood life, legal studies, purification, and the ultimate salvation of his homeland are carefully recounted in this inspiring and critical work of insurmountable importance.”
Blackshirts and Reds:
Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
by Michael Parenti
The Beast Reawakens
by Martin A. Lee
Rogue State:
A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower
by William Blum
Killing Hope:
U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII
by William Blum
The Fire This Time:
U.S. War Crimes in the Gulf
by Ramsey Clark
Desert Slaughter:
The Imperialist War Against Iraq
by the Workers League
Pirates and Emperors, Old and New:
International Terrorism in the Real World
by Noam Chomsky
The Real Terror Network:
Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda
by Edward S. Herman
Western State Terrorism
Alexander George, editor; essays by Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, Gerry O’Sullivan and others
Apocalypse 1945:
The Destruction of Dresden
by David Irving
A People’s History of the United States:
1492 — Present
by Howard Zinn
Derailing Democracy:
The America the Media Don’t Want You to See
by David McGowan
101 Things To Do ’Til The Revolution
by Claire Wolf
“America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.”
“The ideal citizen of a tyrannical state is the man or woman who bows in silent obedience in exchange for the status of a well-cared-for herd animal. Thinking people become the tyrant’s worst enemies.
“Before their thunder roars, there is a period of anticipation, in which more occurs than the literal-minded tyrant can ever understand. A few overt acts of sedition shatter the heavy peace. But the greater force, unrecognized, rolls forward in near silence, as millions of individuals quietly withdraw their consent from the state. The pundits call it apathy. They could not be more wrong.
“That time is now. And we are those people.
“This book is dedicated to you, the enemy of the state.”
Don’t Shoot the Bastards (Yet):
101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom
by Claire Wolf
“Are you... fed up with the Powers That Be encroaching on your freedom?
“Have you... tried everything — voting, peaceful protest, letter writing, petitions — and found that it just didn’t work?
“Are you... beginning to think violent rebellion might be the ultimate, dreaded answer?
“Stop! Wait! There are a lot more things you can do!”
Further bibliography:
Today’s Fascist America
“When we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without a government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.”
— Thomas Paine
Common Sense
The political differences between Stalinism, communism, anarchy and democratic socialism
Because of decades of deceitful propaganda from both capitalists and Soviet Stalinists, most people in the U.S. are likely to make the mistake of thinking that the Stalinist totalitarianism of the Soviet Union represented “communism” or “socialism”.
However true communism and socialism are actually inherently democratic systems — unlike capitalism which inherently tends toward fascism. It was therefore quite natural for the vast majority of working class people in Russia, prior to the Revolution of 1917, to hold the idea of democratic socialism/communism in high esteem. They were not politically retarded (unlike patriotic working class Americans), so they understood the simple, obvious fact that a socialist democracy was in their self-interest.
Therefore, throughout his murderous reign, Josef Stalin sought to exploit the prestige of socialism by claiming that his brutal tyranny was “socialist” and “communist”. In a similar fashion, American capitalism claims it stands for “democracy”, when in fact it has always created and supported brutal fascist dictatorships around the world.
American military pressure and economic subversion worked together with Stalinist tyranny to destroy any hope of democratic socialism in the Soviet Union throughout its 74-year existence. A murderous, nationalistic party dictatorship was falsely labeled “communism” by both capitalists and Stalinists, and to this day most people in America are totally clueless as to the true meaning of socialism and communism.
The collapse of the Stalinist Soviet Union in 1991 and its rapid mutation into a capitalist mafia state was a great victory for American capitalism. All the hapless peoples of the former Soviet bloc exchanged the Stalinist tyranny for the far more degraded tyranny of American-style corporate mafia capitalism. The future is very dark indeed for them all.
Genuine socialist democracy has no chance of surviving anywhere in the world as long as the United States remains a capitalist military power. Only tyrannical, Stalinist police-states can provide sufficient state security even to temporarily fight off CIA subversion. Genuinely democratic, socialist societies have no chance at all. They are too open and free, and therefore too vulnerable.
Everywhere in the world socialist democracy has arisen, the fascism-promoting United States military/government has ruthlessly destroyed it.
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So Stalinism, (what most people erroneously think is “communism”), is the dictatorship of a nationalistic, political-party bureaucracy. But in its true and original meaning, the word “communism” refers to a form of social organization which is radically democratic. It is exactly what the word suggests: communal. Democratic communism is the final stage in the evolution of democratic socialism.
Democratic socialism is an intermediate step. It is based on the observation that the vast majority of our heterogeneous human race still requires some limited degree of hierarchical organization — an honestly democratic government that will maintain an egalitarian peace and stability. Democratic socialism will not be permanent. It is a socio-political organization that will be evolved by society as society itself evolves, until an ideal condition of social harmony and freedom is reached wherein there is actually no need for any sort of governmental authority.
That’s what anarchy is all about. As with “communism”, the true meaning of “anarchy” is contained within the structure of the word: an-archy, “no rulers” — and therefore no tyranny. And for that reason it does not mean chaos. Chaos is just another form of tyranny. Total freedom from any and all forms of tyranny is the ideal of true anarchists. This is the ideal of democratic communism too — co-operative, non-hierarchical, communal living, with all decisions of the group made by truly democratic consensus.
Harmonious anarchy, or democratic communism, therefore, are names given to that ultimate social ideal where there will be no need for any government. But for the present, democratic socialist government is simply realism. At this stage of human evolution, harmonious anarchy is workable only in small groups which are intellectually and emotionally homogenous. It will be obvious to anyone with a little knowledge of history and current events, and a little experience in life, that if all governments miraculously disappeared overnight, societies would degenerate into the tyranny of chaos. People would quickly organize themselves around dominant egos, or warlords, for mutual protection, and these groups would inevitably fight each other. Then within the general chaos the groups would mutate into progressively larger levels of tyrannical social organization until we again had national governments — and again reached the level of international chaos we enjoy today.
This assumption is based not only on the events of history, but on an examination of the fundamental nature of individuals within society. The way in which a society is organized will inevitably be a direct expression of the sum total of that society’s component individuals. And what is the nature of individual people? Virtually all people in the world are egocentric, to varying degrees. Most people are deeply and primitively egocentric. Because we all suffer from egocentricity, most people do not truly like or trust most other people. Most people co-operate within the larger society primarily for selfish survival, not because they honestly love and care about their society in general.
Or to put it clinically: whatever outward appearances of conformity there might be, all societies are actually composed of a very heterogenous mix of egocentric personalities. These differing personalities do not naturally resonate with each other, so there is a fundamental tendency toward disharmony within all societies. Therefore in order to cooperate with each other in general, people need a compelling reason, and that reason is physical survival.
The greatest problem, however, is that there are too many people whose egocentricity is severely pathological. Some of these sick people are very clever and deceitful, some are intellectually intelligent, some are neurotically driven to compete and others are compulsive dominators. Put them all together and you have a government. Or a corporation. (Or an insane asylum.) Meanwhile, the vast majority of people in the world are easily fooled and easily led by dominant individuals within their own cultures. History is proof enough of this. In almost every country, evil leaders have always been able to recruit legions of homicidal psychopaths to fill the ranks of their armies, navies, air forces, intelligence agencies and police forces.
And yet, all these psychopaths are still a small percentage of humanity. It’s amazing, therefore, that they are able to wield as much control as they do over the vast majority of people. In a great many countries today the explanation for this tyranny is that it originates from outside their societies — from the United States government and military. The victim societies are relatively powerless because their fascist governments are given money and weapons by the United States government (using your tax dollars). If the societies resist this imperial tyranny they are slaughtered and tortured by the hundreds of thousands, as in Central America, or even the millions, as during the Korean Genocide and Vietnam Genocide. And no matter what they do they are impoverished by the tens of millions.
So what is the explanation for American society? There is no tyranny outside the United States which oppresses the American people. Why then do so many Americans submit to, and even applaud, the vicious evil of our sadistic government and military? The explanation for this can only be that such Americans are not just stupid and ignorant, they are evil themselves. They may not be homicidal psychopaths, but they aren’t at all enraged by those who are — as long as the psychopaths wear official uniforms. Such Americans are moral cowards. They are very easily corrupted by evil influences, and they permit themselves to be dominated by a diabolically evil government.
“Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one’s self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice.
“Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker, but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.”
— Michael Rivero
WhatReallyHappened.com
All evil empires rise and fall, and a glorious day will come at last when the world is blessed with the total annihilation of the monstrously predatory United States military/government.
But that will not end all of humanity’s problems. Even with the inevitable demise of the Great Satan, humanity will not be prepared to create a paradise on Earth, free of all authority structures. At the present primitive stage of humanity’s social evolution, the vast majority of people are in a sufficiently pathological condition of egocentricity that we are incapable of living harmoniously with each other without at least some degree of benevolent external control.
“There has never been a perfect government, because men have passions; and if they did not have passions, there would be no need for government.”
— Voltaire
Without the benevolent authority of an honestly democratic socialist government, most societies would remain totally vulnerable to the degenerate and predatory tendencies of fascist mafia-capitalism or primitive feudal warlordism (which are essentially the same things).
Socialist democracy represents the beginning of political sanity and social health in this world. But only the beginning.
See also:
Socialism, real and fake
by Noam Chomsky
Revealing Quotes 2: Corporate Capitalist Plutocracy
Revealing Quotes 4: Jewish Plutocracy, Jewish Power
In Defense of the Russian Revolution:
A Reply to the Post-Soviet School of Historical Falsification
by David North
http://www.wsws.org/history/1995/apr1995/idrr.shtml
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“We have assumed the commitment to direct the Bolivarian Revolution towards socialism and to contribute to the socialist path, with a new socialism, a socialism of the 21st century, which is based in solidarity, in fraternity, in love, in justice, in liberty, and in equality.” -Hugo Chavez Frias
"Por desesperada que sea la causa de mi Patria siempre sera la causa del honor, y siempre estaré dispuesto a honrar su enseña con mi sangre" -Juan Pablo Duarte y Diez, Fundador de la Nacionalidad Dominicana <--Dominicanos: visiten mi grupo para ver si salvamos a la Rep. Dominicana: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/socialistas-dominicanos/
"The left is back, and it's the only path we have to get out of the spot to which the right has sunken us. Socialism builds and capitalism destroys." -Hugo Chavez Frias