Class War In Iran

I find it interesting that the right wing embraces feminism in Iran while denoucing it at home. They embrace unions in Iran while attacking them at home. Yep don't ask for consitency out of the right the only consitency they show is the one that says the enemy of my enemy is my friend. For a little while.

Once the working class becomes revolutionary and threatens capitalism and its state, the right quickly returns to its fascist roots to deal with the threat of Bolshevism.

Recently the right wing has taken to reporting on womens and workers struggles in Iran. However the struggle for womens rights ,which is the class struggle, challenges the very nature of the family whether in North America or Iran.
It is the struggle of women as proletarians which is the challenge of this age.
See:Whose Family Values?

The right wings support of unions abroad is not unusual remember Ronald Reagan declaring we are all Solidarity Now, in support of the Polish labour movement, while busting the striking PATCO union which represented air controlers.

The right likes to challenge the left to show solidarity with Women and workers in Iran, which we do contrary to their allegations, such as the case in Canada with support for Nazanin Fateh. Which I have seen no Blogging Tories write about.

Islamic Regime's thugs attack and assault attendants of the peaceful Women's March Iran Press News: It is estimated that approximately 5000 women and supporting men showed up to the General Women's March at Haft'eh Teer Square in Tehran today. The march which was meant to be a peaceful protest against the misogynist rule of the Islamic Republic was slated for 5 to 6 pm Tehran time (9 to 10 am eastern standard time in the U.S.). The participants carried placards, signs and banners protesting the medieval regulations imposed on women and continued to chant slogans supporting women's, children's and human rights.Among those present at the march were academics, well-known human and women's rights activists, student leaders, members of the greater Tehran bus drivers union etc.

Women held up banners calling for equal rights

Demonstration by women in Iran capital – photo report

Iran police beat women activists

Because of course they were protesting without a permit.

No permit issued to women's rally: Official

RIGHTS-IRAN : Braving Threats, Women Demand Legal Reforms

"Women's organisations have not asked for permission for this peaceful event, which is not political at all. Out right to protest peacefully has been recognised by the constitution," one of the organisers of Monday's rally told IPS.

Feminists who organised the event will form a follow-up committee, in hopes that the larger civil society will continue to bring pressure on the government. So far, none of Iran's 12 conservative women MPs have acknowledged the Jun. 12 protest. No group has taken responsibility for this event, because of security fears. Last year, the organisers of a similar event were threatened by unknown security forces.

"One of the security entities has summoned some of the women activists. They have not pointed out any reason," an Iranian woman activist told IPS on condition of anonymity. "They probably asked them to cancel the protest," she added.

The workers movement around the world recognizes the importance of womens rights in civil society. And the womens struggle has been essential to any successful revolution in the past. Whether it was the Paris Commune, the Bolshevik Revolution or the revolution in Tehran that was subverted by the fascist counterrevolution of the Mullahs.

In these revolutions women took the lead over the issue of Bread and Roses, wanting food and being recognized as persons.. And the demonstration the other day in Tehran had that same theme again. The crowd chanted "Rights, Bread & Justice for women".

This is the call of women since the turn of last century as they were exploited in the dark satanic mills of American manufacturing. And as they are today around the world in the new tigers of capitalism.

This is why workers rights and womens rights are the key elements in any proletarian program for revolution.

Unions Around World to Protest Iran's Treatment of Bus Workers

Campaign to Support Workers Fund Iran
The idea to set up an Iranian workers fund has been discussed for a number of years, however, over the last few months the unprecedented escalation in workers struggles to save their jobs against privatisation, or against non payment of wages and the subsequent attacks by security forces and agents of the Iranian Government, have forced us to act urgently. About half of Iran’s workers are currently employed with either temporary or “blank” contracts, depriving them of any rights.

Workers Fund Iran was set up in December 2005 and aims to reduce and relieve poverty amongst Iranian workers (both employed and unemployed) who are victims of the economic policies of the Iranian regime including privatisation. It aims to put at the center of its activities the need to rebuild international working class solidarity, directly with the workers of Iran, in contrast to the funds set up by the US administration to support those Iranian NGOs who follow US policy in the region (including Regime change from above) and its Neo Liberal economic agenda.

Labor Rights Now Blasts Iran Labor Repression

Labor Rights Now blasted the Iranian government for sentencing worker activists to long prison terms for exercising fundamental trade union rights.

"American workers are outraged at the sentencing of Mahmoud Salehi to five years in prison and three years of exile in the city of Ghorvey," LRN President Don Stillman said in a letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Salehi is the former president of the Bakery Workers' Association of the city of Saqez and a co-founder of the Coordinating Committee to Form Workers' Organizations.

"We also condemn the sentence of Jalal Hosseini, a member of the Bakery Workers' Association, to three years imprisonment and the two-year sentences given to Mohsen Hakimi, Mohammad Adipour, and Borhan Divangar," Stillman said.

According to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Salehi and Hosseini were sentenced for their trade union activities.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association urged Iran to drop the charges against the worker activists. Iran is a member of the ILO and is obligated to uphold the right to freedom of association, but failed to do so in these cases.

"Labor Rights Now condemns the utter disregard that the government of Iran has displayed toward internationally recognized worker rights," Stillman's letter to Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

"American workers call upon you to recognize the innocence of Salehi, Hosseini, Hakimi, Adipour, and Divangar and to free them from prison immediately."

More Information

• ICFTU's Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights in Iran

Of course the greatest impediment to independent labour and womens movements in Iran and other countries in the Middle East is the appearance of their being used as puppets of US Imperialism. the enemies of our ememies are NOT our friends. No matter how much they want to be.

Reaching Out to (and messing with) the People of Iran

By fubar
Feb 15 2006 - 1:41pm

From a State Department press release:Reaching Out to the People of Iran

As the Secretary noted in her February 15 Senate testimony, we will work with our friends and allies on a range of measures to reach out to the Iranian people and support their calls for freedom. These will include:

* Empowering Iranian Civil Society: The Administration will spend at least $10 million in FY06 funds to support the cause of freedom in Iran this year. These funds will be used to support political dissidents, labor union leaders and human rights activists. We will also work with NGOs to help build networks of support inside and outside Iran.

How to Stop Iran (Without Firing a Shot)
Current diplomacy isn't working. Here's Plan B.

BY BRET STEPHENS

Support an independent labor movement. On May Day, 10,000 workers took to Tehran's streets to demand the resignation of Iran's labor minister. And despite last year's $60 billion oil-revenue bonanza, the Iranian government routinely fails to pay its civil servants, leading to chronic, spontaneous work stoppages.

Workers' rights got a boost in January when Tehran's bus drivers went on strike to demand the release of their imprisoned and tortured leader Mansour Ossanloo. In a state that bans independent labor unions, the strike was an unprecedented event, calling to mind the 1980 Gdansk dock strike that became Poland's Solidarity movement. That movement succeeded largely thanks to the support of Lane Kirkland's AFL-CIO, which in turn received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy. The same model needs to be energetically applied to Iran today.

"The neat thing about the labor movement is that wherever it goes, it's welcomed," says a source familiar with Iranian workers' groups. "It actually makes America look good."

The real workers movement in Iran and Iraq is represented by the Workers Communist Party of Iran, a group which is left communist and beleives that workers need to create workers councils as an alternative to State Power. This organization will never serve the needs of U.S. Imperialism.

International Labour Solidarity Page of the Worker-communist Party of Iran

References:

Labour and taxation (from Iran) -- Encyclopædia Britannica
Although Iranian workers have, in theory, a right to form labour unions, there is, in actuality, no union system in the country. Workers are represented ostensibly by the Workers' House, a state-sponsored institution that nevertheless attempts to challenge some state policies. Guild unions operate locally in most areas but are limited largely to issuing credentials and licenses. The right of workers to strike is generally not respected by the state, and since 1979 strikes have often been met by police action.

Durham e-Prints - Labour unions, law and conditions in Iran (1900 -1941)

Amazon.com: Labor Unions and Autocracy in Iran (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East):

Also See:

Islam And Class War

Anti Islamism Manifesto

The Need for Arab Anarchism

Muslim

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Speaking of Hell

Yes I was, in the previous post, so when I googled for Hell I came across this new quiz.

Dante's Inferno Test - Impurity, Sin, and Damnation

Which of course temptation led me to take.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Eigth Level of Hell - the Malebolge!

---

Many and varied sinners suffer eternally in the multi-leveled Malebolge, an ampitheatre-shapped pit of despair Wholly of stone and of an iron colour: Those guilty of fraudulence and malice; the seducers and pimps, who are whipped by horned demons; the hypocrites, who struggle to walk in lead-lined cloaks; the barraters, who are ducked in boiling pitch by demons known as the Malebranche. The simonists, wedged into stone holes, and whose feet are licked by flames, kick and writhe desperately. The magicians, diviners, fortune tellers, and panderers are all here, as are the thieves. Some wallow in human excrement. Serpents writhe and wrap around men, sometimes fusing into each other. Bodies are torn apart. When you arrive, you will want to put your hands over your ears because of the lamentations of the sinners here, who are afflicted with scabs like leprosy, and lay sick on the ground, furiously scratching their skin off with their nails. Indeed, justice divine doth smite them with its hammer.

Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Extreme
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test


And of course I suppose I deserve that since I am really out of step with the rest of Canada when it comes to Christian morality. But then I am not a hypocrite like the majority of Canadians who answered this poll.

And I would say that this quiz would be right up the alley for this particular Dante.

For more quiz's see; another-character-generator

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A Rich Man Goes To Heaven

Billionaire Kenneth Thomson, Canada's richest man, dead at 82

Ken Thomson: Canada's wealthiest man never shook Depression-era

Media mogul Kenneth Thomson dies at 82

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24)

Eye of a needle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But he might make it before Lord Black who is defintely going to the other place.

Also See:

CEO Watch: Canadas Richest Man


Criminal Capitalism:

Lord Black Fugitive

Black & Radler,Thick as Thieves

Black Lord Dodges Tax Man

From Black to Iraq and Back

Rescuing Lord Black

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Big Brother IS Watching You At Work

You have been warned. Especially if you are reading this at work, or working on your blog at work.....Or if you surfing the web at work, etc. Remember to use an anonymizer and clean those files.

Electronic Evidence: Catch The Rogue Employee

By Adrian Miedema

The explosion of e-mail communication presents risks and opportunities for employers. Electronic files can be a goldmine of evidence against rogue employees – particularly when the employee believes the file to have been permanently deleted.

Deleted Files: The New "Smoking Gun" Evidence?
Just as e-mails and electronic files present risks, they present great opportunities for lawyers and human resources professionals. It is commonly understood that a "deleted" e-mail or file is gone forever. This is not true. By "deleting" a file, one deletes only the file name and path to the file; the contents of the file actually remain. Often it is only when the hard drive or disc fills up, and the computer needs the disc space, that the "deleted file" will be overwritten. Because most people use far less than 100% of their hard drive space, many deleted files are never overwritten.

The "deleted" files may be recovered with the assistance of a forensic information technology professional who can obtain an "image" of the hard drive, which is an exact copy of the drive, including deleted files. The professional can then find and restore deleted documents including e-mails. It is almost always advisable to use an external forensic IT professional because the person who obtains the "image" may be called as a witness in court. Without formal training in forensics, an inhouse technology professional may see his or her evidence destroyed in cross-examination – and may also be accused of bias.

Because most employees believe that "deleted" really means "deleted", they are often very free with what they say in e-mails – some of which are sent and then promptly deleted. As a result, in employment litigation matters, deleted e-mails can often become critical evidence, if not a source of amusement.

Unbeknownst to most people, personal e-mails sent from work using an employee’s web-based e-mail account such as "Hotmail" will often reside on the work computer. An employee, believing that these e-mails could not be seen by the employer, will often be free with what she says in – or what documents she sends along with – such e-mails. Privacy implications and systems use policies should be considered and consulted before using any such "personal" e-mails as evidence.

Recovered e-mails are particularly useful evidence where an employee steals intellectual property or takes steps – while still employed – to compete against the employer. For instance, an employee might send a customer list by e-mail to his personal e-mail address and then delete the e-mail. That e-mail will usually remain on the hard drive and will be "smoking gun" evidence in legal proceedings against the former employee, such as injunction proceedings to prevent the employee from competing or soliciting clients.

But employers must think beyond computers. Other devices such as cell phones, Blackberries and Palm Pilot-type devices all have memory that can be "imaged" and preserved by the forensic IT professional. The employer should take steps to preserve the potential goldmine of electronic evidence on a departed employee’s hard drive. Don’t shut the computer down, but do ensure that it is safeguarded. In particular, where key salespersons or other key employees depart, the employer should consider obtaining a forensic image of the employee’s hard drive. If litigation arises, the employer may then analyze the forensic image and determine whether, for instance, the employee stole customer lists. The forensic image of the hard drive may be stored and used later if necessary.

Similarly, before dismissing a key employee, the employer should secure the employee’s laptop, cell phone, Blackberry or Palm Pilot to ensure that the employee cannot, after the dismissal, permanently delete or "scrub" files from those devices.

Knowledge is Advantage
Since many employees are not familiar with the recovery of "deleted" files, employers who understand these concepts have a real advantage, particularly where emloyees have engaged in nefarious activities. Employers should take steps to preserve "deleted" e-mails and files that may become key evidence in litigation.

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Life Long Learning

Everybody in Canada agrees Life Long Learning is important for production, GDP, competitiveness, changing working conditions, skills upgrading.

Politicians, business and labour all talk about Life Long Learning. Education and skills upgrading is the pancea for business when they layoff workers for increased profits. Education and skills upgrading is what will make us competitive they say as they ship jobs offshore. Canada lags in global trade race: Emerson

Yep Education and skills are important for the working class. But the reality is, well far less impressive.

Canada is a world leader at giving its residents a first chance to get a high school diploma. But when it comes to second chances, we tumble down the rankings.Our adult education system is spotty, riddled with barriers and unresponsive to the needs of Canadians who lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, say the authors of a new study entitled Too Many Left Behind: Canada's Adult Education and Training System. What is even more troubling, they contend, is that the gap between the winners and losers is widening.Adult education spotty at best

Almost six million Canadians aged 25 and over do not have a high school diploma or higher credentials, says a new report from the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN).
And a staggering nine million people aged 16 to 65 - 42% of Canadians - have literacy skills below the level considered necessary to function in society.Poor literacy skills hinder too many

Lifelong learning eludes those who need it the most: report

Karen Myers

Download

Too Many Left Behind: Canada's Adult Education and Training System. Karen Myers and Patrice de Broucker. CPRN Research Report W|34, June 2006, 109 pages.

A new study from CPRN provides answers and makes recommendations to improve the effectiveness of Canada's adult education systems. Too Many Left Behind: Canada's Adult Education and Training System, by Karen Myers and Patrice de Broucker, documents the availability of formal adult learning opportunities in Canada and the factors influencing the participation of less educated/less skilled workers. The authors pinpoint gaps and suggest ways to overcome them.

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Sex At The World Cup

I knew that would get your attention.

Pagan traditions include a positive attitude towards sexuality. Unlike prudish monotheists. And the Ukraine is full of pagan traditions. So here comes another one.

Most bizarre World Cup incentive

'Like it or not, you're going to have sex'

Ukraine are playing in their first ever World Cup finals and, unsurprisingly, hope to do very well. While everything has been done to prepare players like Andrei Schevchenko and Sergei Rebrov for the big stage, coach Oleg Blokhin has added an extra incentive to his coaching arsenal in a bid to get the very best out of his stars. If winning the World Cup was not incentive enough, the Ukrainian coach has promised that he will waive the squad's rule on celibacy if the team get to the semi-final and allow the players to have sex with their wives and girlfriends. Not only will he allow this, but Blokhin has assured his players that there will be no choice in the matter: "Those who don't feel like it, I'll just drag to their wives."

This may be counter-productive in a couple of ways. Firstly, the sight of a reluctant partner being dragged to the marital bed by the imposing former Soviet Union striker is unlikely to promote harmony between the couples. Secondly, if Ukraine reaches the semi-finals on a no-sex diet, will getting the team off really increase their chances? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I am really enjoying this World Cup.

Ole Украины Ole Ole


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The Magick of Cats

I have cats. Have had for over thirty years. My cat Khan passed on at the fine old age of 25. Now we have two Japanese bob-tails, and two dogs; Schipperke's.
Of them I will blog about later.

For now we are discussing cats. I came across these two interesting tales of cats, witches and politics.

First to Saudi Arabia, again.

Arrest That Cat! Man’s Cruelty to Animals! Roger Harrison, Arab News

JEDDAH, 4 June 2006 — It took five police cars, a limousine and a man pretending to have a firearm to arrest Ms. Eva — who was suspected of witchcraft — and the cat. Ms. Eva was released six hours later after questioning; the cat was detained overnight for inquiries. It reads like an April 1 article in one of the more lurid European tabloids. It is true, however, and it happened in Jeddah. Only the name has been changed. No dewy-eyed animal rights campaigner, Ms. Eva is the soul of practicality. “Cats breed prolifically,” she says. “Neuter them and return them to the streets and, because they are very territorial, the population in that area will quickly come down to controllable levels.” On the night in question, she was trundling her trolley, laden with cat food and water, along one of north Jeddah’s busy main streets. Not only were feline eyes upon her. A Saudi man, pointing what looked like a pistol at her, approached her and demanded to know what she was doing. Not accepting her simple explanation that she was feeding cats, he summoned the police and accused Eva of witchcraft. He had spotted that the cat had been recently sutured after spaying and contended that, “She had opened the cat and taken things out for witchcraft.” Eva is not alone in her passion. There is a group of remarkable women whose passion is animal welfare and who devote a good deal of time and money to healing the discarded and cruelly-treated animals they find in the streets or, if the animals are in extremis, having them humanely put down. The women’s stories are many and harrowing.

And this tail errr tale may be of some import to our Mr. Harper who also is a cat lover and an internationalist.Perhaps he should send his Minister of Foreign Affairs to Jeddah to look into this cat injustice.

Fostering pets

8 June 2006

Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Harper with two foster cats at 24 Sussex Drive.

All too often, family pets such as dogs and cats find themselves in shelters as a result of being abandoned or rescued. The Harpers are proud to support and participate in the Ottawa Humane Society’s Foster Program, which provides temporary homes for pets in the community who are not yet ready for adoption.

And some clever blogger has posted this very funny article on Harper and his cats

Advice to Harper: Beware of cats!

Still there are other more serious aspects to cat symbolism that may be more detrimental to Harper's strategy.

Yep cats represent anarchists and witches points out our friendly blogger Furgaia.

Montague Summers in his turgid tome The History of Witchcraft entitles the first chapter in his book; The Witch Heretic and Anarchist. I know that had an influence on me. So beware of the spell of the cat Mr. Harper.

And lets not forget cats are bravehearted, unlike the Kings who named themselves that and the politician who hides out in the PMO. N.J. cat chases a bear up a tree


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Witches Play Mullahs To A Draw

I found this interesting, Iran vs Mexican Witches The Iranians brought out the Koran and the Mullahs still......it came to a 1-1 draw....after the initial half Mexico won 3-1 I found out later in the day. Ha! Witches 1 Mullahs 0.

Black magic

Meanwhile, fans in Mexico have been praying for the success of their team as Mexico plays Iran in their first match of the World Cup.

As crowds follow the matches on giant screens in Mexico City's central square, Zocalo – the witchcraft master - has set up a shrine of Santa Muerte, or Saint Death.

The witchcraft master believes Santa Muerte will help Mexico to a win as a 12th player.

The sprit, representing death, is widely worshipped in Mexico, and has in the past received many unusual gifts, including shots of tequila and burning cigarettes.

Of course the Iranians should have been prepared for this since many African teams also use shamans and witch doctors in the course of their play.

“If you are a goalkeeper, maybe you put an elephant tooth in your boot to make you big and strong.”

Unfortunately Saudi Arabia is probably not anymore prepared for dealing with any pagan charms the Ukrainian Soccer team and their fans may use against them in the Group H playoffs at the World Cup.. In Saudi Arabia they kill witches.

Status of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia
Magic is widely believed in and sometimes practiced, often in the form of fortune-telling and swindles; however, under Shari’a, the practice of magic is regarded as the worst form of polytheism, an offense for which no repentance is accepted and which is punishable by death. There are an unknown number of detainees held in prison on the charge of "sorcery," including the practice of "black magic" or "witchcraft." In a few cases, self-proclaimed "miracle workers" have been executed for sorcery involving physical harm or apostasy.

If the Saudi soccer team hopes to win they might want to free their sorcerors to help out. Since the Iranian Mullahs could only make it a draw against the Mexican Sorcerors.

Of course no one believes in magic, ahem, until their favorite sports team makes the playoffs.

Guardian Unlimited | Weekend | Hostages to fortune Science has taught us that superstition is just a load of mumbo jumbo. Even so, we carry on with an irrational array of rituals and practices to keep a step ahead of fate. Touch wood? Why bother when we know it makes no difference? By David Newnham.

And all sports are rituals and metaphors. The fans will their teams to win, using rabbits feet, face painting, favorite clothing, etc. This is the meaning of magick; the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will


Chapter 3: The Rendering of Meaning: Ritual, Magic, Myth and Humor

The compelling nature of football ritual is a result of a successful demonstration of the success model. But football not only provides a working demonstration of the traditional success model, it also provides the viewer with ways of monitoring the model. In the real world of the corporation, the actor, who cannot comprehend the structure of the business world, or even the company where he competes for success, cannot directly verify how the system works. In fact he is probably not as successful as he thinks he ought to be, and is confronted with experiences to suggest the system doesn't work. Football, on the other hand, resolves those doubts, and perhaps suggests to those not as successful as they think they should be, that they are not as dedicated, and hardworking as they ought to be. However in football, the accomplishments of individuals are carefully monitored and expressed in the statistics popular with newspaper writers and television commentators:

Football, like chess, laboratory experiments, and the Balinese cockfight, is a dramatic rendition of a metaphor or set of metaphors that represent one way Americans (or at least some Americans) give meaning to portions of their lives. And the ritual validates the truth of that meaning.

There is another aspect of ritual that is not as clear to us in our rituals as it may be when we look at rituals that appear strange to us. Rituals have results that confirm to the participants that the world of ritual and the "real" world are one. That is the rituals "work"; the rituals have real effects.

As I have said before sports is metaphor for war. Especially team sports like soccer, rugy, football (especially in the US where it influences the White House and Pentagon, how many Presidents played football...and generals) and hockey.
And magickal thinking is all about the 'will to win' and that is no more apparent than in sports.

If we Americans have “optimized” rugby according to our notions of progress, there are still things many team owners might like to import from Trobriand cricket. While in football, the home team wins most of the time, in the Trobriand Island sport the home team always wins. There is still consolation for the visitors though, since the home team throws a feast in their honor. Huge differences remain, however. While football, with its fighter plane flyovers and other militaristic trappings often seems to celebrate war, cricket was introduced to the Trobriands in 1903 to replace war. How primitive!The Anthropology of the Super Bowl

Also See:

Magick

Sports

Ukraine

Football



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Suicide A Terrorist Act

Thanks to Blastfurnace for this;

"We're learning tonight that three detainees at Gitmo have committed suicide. Naturally, a military official has already spun this saying it wasn't an act of desperation but an act of terrorism.

Yeah they were trying to make the Americans look bad by committing suicide.

This reminds me of the Rote Army Fraction in Germany in the Seventies,aka Baader-Meinhof Group, an armed struggle group (terrorists) that were busted and then the leaders ended up mysteriously dead in jail. At the time the State ruled it was suicide, but it appeared to everyone else as murder.

When you are declared an Enemy of the State they lock you up and throw away the key. And then you die. If they don't execute you then you mysteriously commit 'suicide'.


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Carnival Of Socialism #4

Comrades;

Welcome to the Carnival of Socialism #4.

We seem to be well on a roll here with four full carnivals of wholesome socialism for the masses. And some interesting arguments as well.

For a blogsphere that appears at times to be full of self righteous right wingers, this is your chance to fling open the window's of your mind.

Take yourself by the hair and turn your self inside out to look at the world with fresh eyes.

Thanks to the insights provided by the following fine folks and their contributions.

Andrew Barttlet posted at the Sharpener, a collective blog of political discussion, the following; Work ethics: efficiency.

He says; "In the age of Homo economicus, of atomised economic units standing in the stead of thinking, civilised men and women, to be an efficient worker from the position and interests of the worker means to maximise the wages received while minimising the amount of labour input. As, in most employing organisations, wages are fixed according to rank, and as promotion hierarchies narrow as one rises through the ranks, the surest way that the majority of workers can maximise individual efficiency is to contribute as little labour as possible while remaining in employment. In other words, to skive and to slack."


The Red Baron tackles the current hot topic of Immigration, Migration and Amnesty from his outpost in the UK. Most folks in North America don't realize that this has been a major issue in Europe and the UK as long as it has in the USA.
A topic I have blogged on as well.

He challenges the contractions of the liberal/social democratic argument for letting some folks stay but restricting others from entering their countries.

"No-one doubts the need for immigration controls, but it would be immoral to deport those already here that our economy depends on" -Jack Dromey Deputy General Secretary T&GWU

The second point of order to Mr Drobey's comment is the economic premise that were there to be an amnesty (which is not going to happen but it is a point of debate) that the illegal workers currently employed within these borders would continue to be as much an asset to our economy as they currently are. This, I'm afraid is romantic idealism. The very reason illegal workers are employed here, just as there are so many Mexicans and other illegal aliens in the US is that these workers are not subject to the same legal protection offered to legitimate employees. They are not subject to the minimum wage standards nor national insurance or pension provision. This is clearly not the choice of the workers but that of the employers who can circumvent a great deal of red tape and save themselves a great deal of money both in the payment of paltry wages and the avoidance of insurance payments for every worker. Furthermore they are able to exploit worker productivity as workers can be sacked easily or threatened with being reported to the authorities if they do not tow the line.

Is there a connection between the current Imperialist agenda in Iraq and Genetically Modified foods (GMO's)? Red Aspire thinks so. In Two beads on a string RA compares the War in Iraq with the continuing efforts to impose GMO, the new Green Revolution, on the developing countries of the world. RA points out; "Aid agencies and NGOs across the globe have been reacting with horror to the
news that new legislation in Iraq was carefully put in place last year by the
United States that will effectively bring the whole of the country’s
agricultural sector under the control of trans-national corporations. This
spells disaster for the Iraqi government and the country’s farmers, paving the
way for companies like Monsanto and Syngenta to control the entire food chain
from planted seed to packaged food products."

Louis Proyect The Unrepentant Marxist takes issue with liberals and right wingers over the issue of Sweat Shop labour in the era of Imperialism. He correctly points out that American defenders of capitalism from the liberal and right wing, and the editorial board at the NYTimes, see no choice but sweat shop labour for Africa.

The opening sentence of Kristof's op-ed piece is meant to startle the reader:

"Africa desperately needs Western help in the form of schools, clinics and sweatshops."

The infatuation with sweatshops on the NY Times op-ed page even extends to Paul Krugman, the liberal icon who really differs little from Thomas Friedman when it comes to a belief in the benefits of low-wage coolie labor. Basically, Krugman wrote a column identical to Kristof's on April 22, 2001

But one wonders in light of Kristof's hymn to sweatshops whether there might be a connection to Friedman's more openly mercenary understanding of how the dollar and the bullet intersect. Could this insufferable moralizing prig be possibly be more interested in corporate profits than he is in missionary-style rescues?

For an answer to this, I'd recommend John Bellamy Foster's article in the current Monthly Review, which does a really good job of describing the emerging strategic interests of US imperialism in Africa–especially in regions that are the focus of Cruise Missile liberals like Kristof.

Always a great turn of phrase in Proyect's writings. I like that 'curise missle liberals'.


Lenins Tomb takes up the challenge of writing a lengthy, well documented essay on Iraq: Nationalism, Communism and Islamism. Lenin has received over 198 comments on it. Showing that many are up to the challenge of reading this treatise. And this may be the reason why, he challenges and titlates his readers in his prologue;

"Someone told me once that if the United States had been serious about making the occupation of Iraq work on usable terms for the ruling class, they would have had to oblige every official to read Hanna Batatu's classic tome, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. That and a few other things besides. As it happens, those driving the policy - while by no means heterodox - went to radical lengths to avoid having to hear from people who knew what they were talking about. We who intend to occupy nowhere but our happy little ruts are faced with all the usual questions: why is the occupation in such trouble; how did Political Islam emerge as a serious force in Iraq; what was the role of the communists, and why have they colluded with the occupiers; how did the Ba'athists develop and come to power; what's the role of Iraqi and Arab nationalism? It seems to me that the main problem to start with is understanding Ba'athism - we're always propelled toward certain metaphors or proto-concepts in describing it. From the lexicon of totalitarianism, it is always either fascist or Stalinist or both, which is understandable in a sense if you're just concerned with certain superficial modes of state rule. I shall argue a fairly orthodox class-based approach. You can't understand what happened in Iraq - from its creation under British occupation to monarchy to Qasim's Free Officers to the Ba'athist dictatorship - without understanding how class structured social power, the state's hegemonic practises and eventually the methods of Ba'athist rule."


Larry Gambone at Porcupine Blog in his essay "The Myth Of Socialism As Statism". asks; "What did the original socialists envision as the owner and controller of the economy? Did they think it ought to be the state? Did they favor nationalization? Or did they want something else entirely? Let’s have a look, going right back to the late 18th Century." He then documents all the Great Socialist thinkers who said workers control and cooperation is the real aim of Socialism. Then he says;

Why The Confusion

The state did play a role in the Marxist parties of the Second International. But its role was not to nationalize industry and create a vast bureaucratic state socialist economy. Put simply, the workers parties were to be elected to the national government, and backed by the trade unions, cooperative movement and other popular organizations, would expropriate the big capitalist enterprises. Three things would then happen:

1. The expropriated enterprises handed over to the workers organizations, coops and municipalities. 2, The army and police disbanded and replaced by worker and municipal militias. 3. Political power decentralized to the cantonal and municipal level and direct democracy and federalism introduced. These three aspects are the famous “withering away of the state” that Marx and Engels talked about.

Ravenblade at Ravens Nest, which I think may be located in the river valley of fair Redmonton, takes on the humanitarian nature of the war in Afghanistan. Wait it's not a war according to the Minister of War.....err Minister of Defense.

Anyways Ravenblade was thumbing through the local papers and discovered some contradicitions.Ignorance is bliss.

A few days later, I was reading a copy of the Edmonton SUN . Someone wrote the following article to the editorials section:

"Could all of the anti-war protesters try protesting in Iraq or Afghanistan where the war is actually going on? Or are you all too comfortable in your homes that were won throughout the hard work and effort of Canadian, American and British troops?- Al Boschman"
Edmonton Sun, March 23, 2006

What exactly does the unprovoked Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have to do with Canadians living in warm homes? In what war were these homes won, exactly? Certainly not Iraq and Afghanistan. Does this loud individual really believe that our troops are defending Canada by invading sovereign countries? Does he honestly believe that Afghanistan posed a military threat to Canada, or that Iraq posed a military threat to America?

Our final contributor is from the Green Left perspective. A local campaign blog to Save the Ribble. It's a campaign to save a river in the UK from city planners and their efforts barrage the river for increased housing and commercial development. It shows again the importance of Thinking Globally, Acting Locally.

Renowned Environmentalists Express Concerns about Barrage Proposals

One of the consequences of global warming and climate change is the likely rise in sea levels over the coming years and decades. Fragile ecosystems such as the Ribble are already vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and low lying flood plain areas will be at increased risk of flooding as sea levels rise. Building a barrage on the Ribble will exacerbate these risks at a time when we should be considering ways to protect our environment from the effects of global warming. The Environment Agency is also warning against building on floodplain as this puts ‘new development at risk from flooding or [is] likely to exacerbate flooding elsewhere’ which alone should prohibit the ‘Central Park’ housing and business building development proposal. In addition this so called ‘Central Park’ will result in the loss of a broad range of natural habitats which support diverse wildlife species. And once our Green Belt is developed and built on it will be lost forever.

In closing ,while they did not ask for it, I would like to contribute my own recommendation; the Atlantic Canadian web site Left News.

While providing a blog of news about the peoples struggles against capitalism, imperialism and all the other oppresive isms from around the world, they too never forget that all issues are local issues. And they interact with their local community by announcing actions, protests, etc. and then reporting on them.

Labour March Concludes Days of Action Against Atlantica!

Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, comrades all, this is your Carnival of Socialism #4.


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