Monday, November 05, 2007

Eugene Debs

Eugene V. Debs, the leader of the Socialist Party of the United States, who ran for President of the United States while in jail for opposing WWI ,was born today.

Eugene V. Debs with N. Krishna (l) and Frank P. O'Hare (r), 1907

Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

poses with N. Krishna of Bombay (left) and Frank P. O'Hare (right), 1907. Photograph by Bell, Girard, Kansas. Gift of Ann C. Baxter

Yes America had a Socialist Party, in fact it had several, all popular at the turn of last century. Debs joined with Western Miners Union leader Big Bill Haywood and Daniel DeLeon, leader of the Socialist Labour Party, as founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World.

"The old form of trade unionism," cried Debs, "no longer meets the demands of the working class ... It is now positively reactionary, and is maintained, not in the interests of the workers who support it, but in the interests of the capitalist class who exploit the workers." So long as the working class was parceled out among thousands of separate unions, united economic and political action would be impossible. The IWW provided new hope.

Fellow Worker Eugene V Debs | Selected IWW Member Biographies


He was a popular socialist leader who championed the workers cause and in return even those who politically disagreed with him on the left praised him.

E.V. Debs by James P Cannon

My favorite Debs quote which is still relevant today;

"When the working class unites, there will be a lot of jobless labor leaders." Eugene Debs, 1905 speech to the IWW Convention


We could use a Debs today. Especially in the U.S. Presidential Elections. There is a need for a third party and Debs recognized that it should be a party of the working people. The other two of course represent the ruling classes regardless of how inclusive they may be.

"The Republican and Democratic parties, or, to be more exact, the Republican-Democratic party, represent the capitalist class in the class struggle. They are the political wings of the capitalist system and such differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles." Eugene V. Debs
The image “http://en.citizendium.org/images/3/3a/1904SO.JPG” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Debs was one of the most prominent labor organizers and political activists of his time. He was also nominated as the Socialist Party's candidate for president five times. His voting tallies over his first four campaigns effectively illustrate the remarkable growth of the party during that volatile time period:

1900: 94,768
1904: 402,400
1908: 402,820
1912: 897,011

1900 > Popular Votes for Eugene Debs * [ pie chart ] [ map ]

1904 > Popular Votes for Eugene Debs * [ pie chart ] [ map ]

1908 > Popular Votes for Eugene Debs * [ pie chart ] [ map ]

1912 > Popular Votes for Eugene Debs * [ pie chart ] [ map ]

1920 > Popular Votes for Eugene Debs * [ pie chart ] [ map ]


What This Country Needs . . .

'Eugene V. Debs' Is Staging Another White House Bid

By Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 6, 2007; Page D02

NEW YORK -- The politician took the stage amid red balloons and American flags and spoke his famous fighting words: "I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want and get it."

With this, Eugene V. Debs last week announced his sixth bid for U.S. president

Dead man running.

The real Eugene V. Debs passed away in 1926, after five unsuccessful bids for the presidency from 1900 to 1920. But actor Brian Pickett is staging a modest, mock presidential run in his name, starting with Wednesday night's campaign kickoff in a tiny, crowded bar in Manhattan's East Village.

The actual Debs ran on the Socialist Party ticket -- the fifth time from a prison cell -- after being convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 for speaking out against World War I. Though never even close to being elected, he became a national figure who galvanized people with his fervor and idealism. Pickett's theatrical performance, to continue in various forms until the 2008 election, "will resurrect this fiery leader from historical bondage," according to the campaign literature.

The quadrennial season of windbaggery is upon us. Canned speeches, quick retractions, the same old sound bites -- we're in for months and months of it. The more we hear, the more we pine for something authentic. This small-time utopian campaign speaks to that frustration, said Pickett, 28, who teaches drama to New York public school students and has appeared in independent theater productions.

Pickett, like Debs, is tall and wiry. You could even say his gaze echoes Debs biographer Nick Salvatore's description: "piercing yet loving." On Wednesday, Pickett wore a three-piece suit with watch fob and spectacles. As the race develops, he plans to work with campaign manager Sophie Nimmannit, 27, the "Red Genie" -- who wore a short red dress, red feather hat, slash of red lipstick and a scarf printed with the word "Vote" -- in street, bar and theater performances in New York and other cities ( http://www.myspace.com/votedebs).

"I wish you were all socialists," Pickett told his audience of about 35 people. They were artists, activists, at least one Wall Streeter -- and they laughed. Even in Debs's time, many of those who came to hear his impassioned speeches were not socialists. He attracted working- and middle-class people and whipped them into such a frenzy that at one event, according to Salvatore, in the book "Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist," one woman asked another, "Is that Debs?" and the first answered, "Oh no, that ain't Debs -- when Debs comes out, you'll think it's Jesus Christ."

Debs, originally from Terre Haute, Ind., married an upper-class woman who became famous for wearing diamonds to visit him in jail, and he grew more radical as he got older. His life spanned that brief window when socialism was not yet a dirty word but rather a new idea from Europe. He tried to Americanize it, claiming Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau as precursors, wrote Salvatore. America was becoming the greatest industrial power of the world, and the questions socialism addressed were on everyone's mind. In 1912, Debs drew 6 percent of the national presidential vote.

Things have changed. The socialist demands of Debs's time -- the eight-hour workday, abolition of child labor, equal pay for equal work -- have become standard, if not always applied. The word "socialist" seldom comes up. And there are new problems.

"Oh where, oh where have my benefits gone, oh where, oh where can they be?" sang a character in Wednesday's show. The finely dressed Capitalist chimed in: "My PDA's beeping, I'm afraid I can't stay. I'm self-employed and I work all day."

"I would vote for him in a New York minute because he speaks his mind," said Andy Shulman, 34, the actor playing the Capitalist, who works a Wall Street day job. He adds that he is not interested in the radical or extreme, but in someone without the slickness and distance of the big campaign.

"Has a dead man ever run for president?" asked Nola Strand, 24, who played accordion for the show. "Dead men have voted."

Pickett's idea came from television's "West Wing," when Jimmy Smits's character, Matthew V. Santos, ran for president, and fans of the show donned "Vote Santos" shirts and bought "Vote Santos" mugs. If a fictional character could gain a constituency, why not a dead one?

But the ardors of a Debs campaign could wear on him.

In 1900, Debs crisscrossed the country and slept upright on long train trips, refusing to take a Pullman berth with a bed because of labor problems at that company. In 1908, he traveled on his own Red Special train. His speeches could run to two hours, and he would often give 10 a day.

Pickett said he's not sure he has the funds to command a 2008 Red Special. He cut Debs's speeches to something like sound bites, which often sound familiar, except for the florid language. (On war: "The working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both.")



[Eugene Debs]
Eugene V. Debs
Harper's Weekly, August 15, 1896



"How I Became a Socialist"
Eugene V. Debs


It all seems very strange to me now, taking a backward look, that my vision was so focalized on single objective point that I utterly failed to see what now appears as clear as the noonday sun.... The skirmish lines of the American Railway Union were well advanced. A series of small battles were fought and won without the loss of a man.... Next followed the final shock--the Pullman strike--and the American Railway Union again won, clear and complete. The combined corporations were paralized and helpless. At this juncture there were delivered, from wholly unexpected quarters, a swift succession of blows that blinded me for an instant and then opened wide my eyes....

An army of detectives, thugs, and murderers were equipped with badge and bludgeon and turned loose; old hulks of cars were fired; the alarm bells tolled; the people were terrified; the most startling rumors were set afloat; the press volleyed and thundered; and over all the wires sped the news that Chicago's white throat was in the clutch of a red mob; injunctions flew thick and fast, arrests followed, and our office and headquarters, the heart of the strike, was sacked, torn out and nailed up by the "lawful" authorities of the federal government; and when in company with my loyal comrades I found myself in Cook County jail at Chicago with the whole press screaming conspiracy, treason and murder ... I had another exceedingly practical and impressive lesson in Socialism.

The Chicago jail sentences were followed by six months at Woodstock and it was here that Socialism gradually laid hold of me in its own irresistible fashion. Books and pamphlets and letters from Socialists came by every mail and I began to read and think and dissect the anatomy of the system in which workingmen, however organized, could be shattered and battered and splintered...
--From the New York Comrade, April 1902, in Speeches of Eugene V. Debs (New York: International Publisher, 1928)


"Will it succeed?" has been the uppermost question in the minds of thousands of people regarding the effort in co-operation at Ruskin. "Can such an enterprise be made permanent, even if it does attain material success?" and "Will the men and women engaged in it be able to hold together and work together for their common interests?" ... Ruskin HAS SUCCEEDED, and the measure and kind of its success INSURES ITS PERMANENCY and the accomplishing of greater things in the future. We are now in the material stage of development and the close of the first year of co-operation shows a favorable termination to the enterprises started in that time. The year began with the establishment of a co-operative hotel on the old site, it closes with the occupancy of the commodious and substantial structure, herewith illustrated, on the new. THE COMING NATION publishing house is the largest building in this section of Tennessee. It is a frame structure, built entirely of oak, sawed from timber taken from our own land and in our own saw mill. Everything entering into its construction that possibly could be made by Ruskinites is a product of co-operative labor.... --The Coming Nation, July 18, 1896

Not "free silver," not "free trade," not "free gold," not "free high tariff" is what the working class needs. All of these "free" things are like free coffins to be buried in. Our slogan is "Free the Tools of Production."
--The People, New York, in Public Opinion, August 6, 1896



Eugene V. Debs
Socialist Eugene V. Debs was one of the major players in American politics at the turn of the 20th century. He made five attempts to gain the presidency - in 1900, 1904, 1908 1912 and 1920 - all as the standard bearer of the Socialist Party. He conducted his last campaign from behind the bars of a federal prison. A gifted orator, Debs rivaled William Jennings Bryan in his ability to move a crowd with his words.

Born in Indiana in 1855, Debs went to work for the railroad at age 14 but soon gave it up at his mother's urging. He became active in the union movement forming the American Railway Union, the nation's largest, in 1893. Arrested during the Pullman Strike of 1894, he served six months behind bars. In jail, Debs converted to socialism. He helped found the Social Democratic Party of America in 1897, the Socialist Party in 1901 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. "I am for socialism because I am for humanity" he declared.

He opposed America's entrance into World War I and denounced the Espionage Act designed to silence all antiwar sentiment. In 1918, he received a 10-year prison sentence for his public opposition to the war. At his trial, Debs admitted he spoke the words the federal government considered traitorous and addressed the jury in his own defense. "I am doing what little I can to do away with the rule of the great body of people by a relatively small class and establish in this country industrial and social democracy." A guilty verdict sent Debs to the federal prison in Atlanta.

In 1920, the Socialist Party again nominated him as their presidential candidate and over 915,000 voted for prisoner #9653. President Wilson vigorously denied a request for Deb's pardon in 1921. Finally, Warren G. Harding released Debs under a general amnesty on Christmas Day 1921. Harding asked the old socialist to stop by the White House. "I have heard so damned much about you, Mr Debs, that I am very glad to meet you personally" Harding remarked at their meeting. Debs died in 1926.

References: Currie, Harold W., Eugene V. Debs (1976); Morgan, H. Wayne, Eugene V. Debs: Socialist for President (1973).

Winning a World - Recording or Recording with Transcript

Date of Recording: 1904
Duration: 6:50
Call Number: VVL 077

This speech was originally delivered in 1904 and shortly thereafter recorded at one of Edison's sound recording studios. By this time Debs was a leading figure in the U.S. Socialist party, and in this impassioned speech describes a time when the socialist party will "win the world" from the 'frenzied revelry of capitalism." "What man," Debs asks, "unless his brain be atrophied and has become blinded can fail to perceive the impending crisis of a capitalist modern age?" The central metaphor of this speech is "the machine," which refers to the the proliferation of new labor-saving technologies, inventions that Debs saw as fundamental to the social revolution. Here Debs celebrates technology as a great equalizer and emancipator of the working classes: "The mute message of the machine, could but the worker understand and could he but heed it, child of his brain, the machine has come to free and not to enslave; to save and not destroy the author of its being... The machine compels the grand army of toil to rally to its tender, to recognize its power."


Debs Attacks “the Monstrous System” of Capitalism

In 1912, four candidates battled to become President of the United States. Republican incumbent William Howard Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson, a moderate governor, represented the two major parties. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, angered over what he felt was a betrayal of his policies by Taft, his hand-picked successor, abandoned the Republican party and founded the Progressive or “Bull Moose” Party. While all four candidates appealed directly to working-class voters, whose votes would prove decisive, by far the most radical platform in the campaign was that of the Socialist Party nominee, Eugene V. Debs. Running for the fourth time, Debs called for the abolition of capitalism rather than for its reform. In this speech accepting the party’s nomination he proclaimed the Socialist Party “the party of progress, the party of the future.” Debs finished last in the contest, receiving 900,000 votes.



The Canton Ohio Antiwar Speech

By Eugene Victor Debs


Eugene Debs delivering his legendary speech in Canton, Ohio on June 16, 1918.

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

I have just returned from a visit over yonder, where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as to how I say it. I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. They may put those boys in jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they cannot put the Socialist movement in jail. Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way to better conditions for mankind.

If it had not been for the men and women who, in the past, have had the moral courage to go to jail, we would still be in the jungles.

Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war. The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another’s throats for the profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.

They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people.

And here let me emphasize the fact—and it cannot be repeated too often—that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace.

Yours not to reason why; Yours but to do and die.

That is their motto and we object on the part of the awakening workers of this nation.

If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your lives to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous issue of war or peace.



Statement to the Court
Eugene Debs, September 18, 1918

Eugene Debs delivered his Statement to the Court to the Federal Court of Cleveland, Ohio on September 18, 1918 after being convicted of violating the Sedition Act, a protective law passed by Congress to promote the war by banning anti-war propaganda and rhetoric. Under this new law many socialists were unjustly persecuted and stripped of their freedom of speech. As an active socialist, Debs became concerned and attacked American capitalism in an effort to protect first amendment rights. This speech was a plea in his defense for his and other socialists’ freedom of speech. Introduction by Mary Litton Fowler.

Enacts movement from rupture to constitution through identification with marginalized class

Your Honor,years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Invokes revolutionary tradition

I listened to all that was said in this court in support and justification of this prosecution, but my mind remains unchanged. I look upon the Espionage Law as a despotic enactment in flagrant conflict with democratic principles and with the spirit of free institutions…

oppositional

Your Honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in a fundamental change—but if possible by peaceable and orderly means…


Standing here this morning, I recall my boyhood. At fourteen I went to work in a railroad shop; at sixteen I was firing a freight engine on a railroad. I remember all the hardships and privations of that earlier day, and from that time until now my heart has been with the working class. I could have been in Congress long ago. I have preferred to go to prison…

Mammon: Gospel allusion (oppositional tradition accepted by and borrowed from dominant public)

I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads. I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul. I see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men.

Invokes providence; expresses sense of rupture between land of plenty and suffering of millions; transfers guilt from providence to society

In this country—the most favored beneath the bending skies—we have vast areas of the richest and most fertile soil, material resources in inexhaustible abundance, the most marvelous productive machinery on earth, and millions of eager workers ready to apply their labor to that machinery to produce in abundance for every man, woman, and child—and if there are still vast numbers of our people who are the victims of poverty and whose lives are an unceasing struggle all the way from youth to old age, until at last death comes to their rescue and lulls these hapless victims to dreamless sleep, it is not the fault of the Almighty: it cannot be charged to nature, but it is due entirely to the outgrown social system in which we live that ought to be abolished not only in the interest of the toiling masses but in the higher interest of all humanity…

Radical extension

I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries. I believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned—that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all…


I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

Re-genesis

This order of things cannot always endure. I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone. There are multiplied thousands of others who, like myself, have come to realize that before we may truly enjoy the blessings of civilized life, we must reorganize society upon a mutual and cooperative basis; and to this end we have organized a great economic and political movement that spreads over the face of all the earth.

Communality

There are today upwards of sixty millions of Socialists, loyal, devoted adherents to this cause, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color, or sex. They are all making common cause. They are spreading with tireless energy the propaganda of the new social order. They are waiting, watching, and working hopefully through all the hours of the day and the night. They are still in a minority. But they have learned how to be patient and to bide their time. The feel—they know, indeed—that the time is coming, in spite of all opposition, all persecution, when this emancipating gospel will spread among all the peoples, and when this minority will become the triumphant majority and, sweeping into power, inaugurate the greates social and economic change in history.


In that day we shall have the universal commonwealth—the harmonious cooperation of every nation with every other nation on earth…


Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice.

Re-genesis

I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time they will and must come to their own.

Re-genesis

When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.


I am now prepared to receive your sentence.






Eugene V. Debs

EugeneVDebs.com, the official site of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation.

Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive

Dubbing Debs: An Actor Records a Speech by Eugene Debs

Gentle Rebel: Letters of Eugene V. Debs - Google Books

The Socialist Party: Eugene V. Debs and the Radical Politics of the American Working Class... - Google Books

The Eugene V. Debs Reader: Socialism And The Class Struggle

Read complete books and articles on: Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs: an American paradox

Nick Salvatore / Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs: Pullman Strike Leader and Socialist

"In Spiritual Communion: Eugene V. Debs and the Socialist Christians."

DEBS ON YOUTUBE







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Remember, remember the fifth of November

"Remember, remember the fifth of November.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."


'Tis the 5th of November Guy Fawkes Day.

There was a standard toast for Guy Fawkes Day among my acquaintances in Britain:

"To Guy Fawkes - the only man who ever entered Parliament with honest intentions!"


And of course V for Vendetta was modeled on Guy Fawkes.



"The People Should Not Be Afraid of their Governments, Governments should be afraid of their People."




On John Lennon's 1970 solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Lennon sings "Remember, remember, the 5th of November" on the song "Remember". The lyrics are followed by the sound of an explosion.

Remember when you were young
How the hero was never hung
Always got away
Remember how the man
Used to leave you empty handed
Always, always let you down
If you ever change your mind
About leaving it all behind
Remember, remember, today

Don't you worry
'bout what you've done
Don't feel sorry
'bout the way it's gone

Remember when you were small
How people seemed so tall
Always had their way
Remember your ma and pa
Just wishing for movie stardom
Always, always playing a part
If you ever feel so sad
And the whole world is driving you mad
Remember, remember today

Remember
Tribute to V for Vendetta using Remember by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band





SP 14/216; Guy Fawkes' confession, 1605 - opens in a new window

Signature of Guy Fawkes on a confession, 1605


Click to see more images
Next next

Confession of Guy Fawkes


These pages are from the confessions of Guy Fawkes. Fawkes is the most well known of the men who planned to blow up King James I and the Parliament in 1605.

In the years after England split away from the Catholic Church, most English monarchs were not very tolerant of Catholics living in England. James I was a Protestant king and English Catholics despaired of any return to the old religion. A small group decided to blow up both King and Parliament with gunpowder. They planned to place James' daughter Elizabeth ON the throne.They hoped she would marry a Catholic prince AND England would ONCE again be a Catholic country.

The king 's spies discovered the plot. Fawkes was found on the night of 4th/5th November 1605 in the cellars under the Palace of Westminster, where Parliament was due to meet. He had 36 barrels of gunpowder. On the following days, he confessed to the plot and named the others involved.

Fawkes signed 2 confessions - one after torture and another 8 days later. The contrast between them is remarkable. The first document shown here is a page from his confession under torture. His weak and shaky signature ' Guido' can faintly be made out. The second document is from a confession signed later in a steadier hand 'Guido Fawkes'.

Fawkes and the other plotters were executed on 30 and 31 January 1606. Ever since then, every 5th of November there have been firework displays and bonfires to remember the 'Gunpowder Plot '.

http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/crime/Guy%20Fawkes.gif

English playwrights and the theater loved the dramatic
images of Guy Fawkes and the celebration of the Fifth
of November. Bonfires...the plot itself and then there is Guy.
It is hoped that the study of Fawkes as he appears from
play to play throughout the centuries will provide us
with insights into how the history of the plot and its celebrations
evolved through time. See what you find in these works.
They are certainly quite enjoyable and fun in and of themselves.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Guy_Fawkes_portrait.jpg

Security is the chief enemy of mortals.
William Shakespeare

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.

Benjamin Franklin


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Death Penalty For Whom

Over at that bastion of Free Speech the Western Slander's Shotgun Blog comes this example of right-whingnut wombat commentary about the death penalty and the Stephen Harper Party reversal of Canada's long standing policy on clemency for Canadians abroad.

The death penalty should be re-instated in Canada - and should include death for murderers, rapists, child molesters, and thieving Liberal Prime Ministers like Jean the Creton.

Posted by: obc | 2-Nov-07 12:50:36 PM


Pretty nasty....but hey that's free speech...you can call for the death of a former PM and know the Stat Polizia won't come knocking at your door.

I know it's an opinion from the far right....except the majority of the Slanders readers and writers happen to be on the far right.

And other than that, and this, not many musings from wombat nation. The Blogging Tories remain absent from the debate. Even Dr. Roy does not address the Harper decision when quoting from an American study on the joys of the death penalty.

Their silence is acquiescence to opinions of the grown ups.

H/T to Unrepentant Old Hippie for the link to the Shotgun Blog article.


See:

Another Tory For Capital Punishment

Conservative Columnist Opposes Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment Poll

Harpers Lethal Injection

The Return of Capital Punishment

Say No To Capital Punishment

Pro-Life Pro-Death

Free Kadhar

More Foreign Affairs Incompetency




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Thanks Werner

Thousands of readers I am told will now be coming here thanks to Werner Patels latest rant.

Well he claims he has thousands of readers;
This site attracts thousands of readers every day, hits of course do not a reader make. We can't tell if Werner, the pathological liar, is well lying again because his site meter is not publicly available. So we will have to take him at his word.

Anyways I am always happy to have links to my articles even if they come from right-whingnut blogs and even from those pathological types like Werner who suffer from multiple-blog personality syndrome.

As for his comment on my posts, he seems to be in a huff that I quoted the normally pro-Conservative, right wing media types who, unlike him, actually question the reasoning behind the Harper agenda of abandoning Canadians to the death penalty abroad. The Harpocrites claim it will only impact Canadians duly tried and found guilty in democracies. I point out, as do they, that this appears to be another Hidden Agenda on the part of the Stephen Harper Party. And he gets all verklepmt.

Werner goes one step further, he was overjoyed when this policy reversal was first announced, and claims that even a country like Singapore will be able to execute Canadians without the Harpocrites batting an eyelash.

Similarly, if a Canadian is caught smuggling or dealing drugs in Singapore or other countries where capital punishment is the preferred type of sanction for such crimes, he will also have to face the music.
Ahem, note to Werner, Singapore is a city state run by a dictatorship it is not a democracy.

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong wowed his audience at a conference in London, by telling them that Singapore was not a liberal democracy and that we didn't have "a totally independent press".

So even under Harpers misguided new death penalty policy Singapore does not qualify. Unless of course Werner has some inside information that links the Harpocrites new War On Drugs with promoting the Death Penalty for Canadians caught abroad. Of course that would affect these guys.

In fact Singapore has a cozy relationship with the Military Rulers of Burma, birds of a feather, whose funding comes from heroin, it is after all the Golden Triangle, as well as control of the natural resources which are traded with Singapore and China.

Myanmar's generals hit where it hurts - While Son Parties in Singapore


427c7a038335c1765c2d80de43c31322.gif
[In the email, Htet Tay Za, 19-year-old son of Air Bagan CEO, Tay Za, wrote: “US bans us? We're still f---ing cool in Singapore. See my photos? We're sitting on the whole Burmese GDP. We've got timber, gems and gas to be sold to other countries like Singapore, China, India and Russia.]

BANGKOK - For Htet Tay Za, a 19-year-old member of Myanmar's elite who attends an exclusive and expensive international school in Singapore, life is often a party. A picture recently obtained by the Chiang Mai-based publication The Irrawaddy shows the young man being kissed on the cheek by a bikini clad Caucasian woman.

d85045d653f288b4583af69c3016f86b.gifIn another portrait, the partying youngster is seen in festive mood beside a male friend puffing on a water pipe. But the party may beover soon for Htet Tay Za, as his father who pays the bills for his lavish lifestyle, Tay Za, figures prominently in an October 19 executive order from the US Treasury Department that aims to block his assets and make it illegal for US citizens to have any business dealings with him and his private companies.


Anyways it's nice too know that my personal fan club of rightwhingnuts are still reading my missives. And that I continue to irritate them enough for them to comment. My life is so much better for knowing that.


See:

Awfully Quiet Over At BT

Another Tory For Capital Punishment

More Conservative Media Backlash

Conservative Columnist Opposes Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment Poll

Harpers Lethal Injection

The Return of Capital Punishment

Say No To Capital Punishment

Pro-Life Pro-Death

Free Kadhar

More Foreign Affairs Incompetency




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Can't or Won't

Actually lets be honest here Jim, you won't help, it's not that you can't help.

Ottawa urged to act on auto jobs

Can't help auto sector, Flaherty says of job cuts


After all the conservatives only believe in helping those who help themselves. A hand up not a hand out...unless it's another tax cut for business.


See:

Time For A Made In Canada Auto Industry

Unions=Competitiveness



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The Return of Keynes

Public Sector jobs are good for the Economy as the latest Stats Canada employment report shows. Something the neo-con's denied as they slashed public sector jobs in the nineties in order to offset their short term debt and deficit hysteria. Tis the ghost of J.M. Keynes returning after his premature burial.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian economy added six times more jobs than expected in October and wages climbed 4 percent on the year, limiting the Bank of Canada's options to cut interest rates any time soon.

The Canadian dollar shot up to a new historic high on the data, which showed that 63,000 jobs were created last month and that the unemployment rate fell to a 33-year low of 5.8 percent, from 5.9 percent in September.

The figures, released by Statistics Canada on Friday, showed that most of the hiring in Canada was concentrated in the public sector and services industries and was split evenly between full-time and part-time positions.

Evidence of an air-tight job market and wage growth that outpaces inflation limits the Bank of Canada's options to cut interest rates because lower rates could let inflation creep too high.

The average hourly wage grew 4.2 percent on the year for permanent employees and 4.1 percent for all workers, well above the 2.5 percent inflation in the same period.

Statscan showed that services sector employment grew by 66,000 jobs in October, led by health care and social assistance.

"It seems that all that fiscal stimulus we're seeing is translating into rising public sector payrolls, and it's just giving yet another boost to an already strong labor market," said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

In the first 10 months of 2007, employment grew by 2.1 percent, the strongest pace in five years.

The jobless rate fell from 5.9 in September to 5.8 per cent in October.

"These are spectacular job growth numbers," said Avery Shenfeld, a CIBC world markets economist.

"We'd like to see a bit more coming from the private sector. But it's hard to argue with a multi-decade low in the unemployment rate and lots of jobs coming that are going to pay incomes."

According to the latest Labour Force survey, record numbers of Canadians are holding down jobs with October's employment rate reaching an all-time high of 63.7 per cent.

From January to October, Canada's robust economy created 346,000 new jobs, representing the strongest growth for that period in five years.

"There was job loss in Canada during the last month, however, the job creation rollover was extremely strong, much stronger than we expected," BNN's Michael Kane told CTV Newsnet on Friday.

Women and older workers continue to lead the way in employment last month.

Women aged 25 and over posted a record employment rate of 59.4 per cent along with the lowest unemployment rate -- 4.3 per cent -- in more than 30 years.

Workers aged 55 and over continued to see massive gains demonstrating an all-time high participation rate of 33.9 per cent.

Employment for older workers has risen 6.9 per cent since the start of the year, driven by the participation of older women in the work force. By contrast, employment levels have risen 1.2 per cent for those aged 25 to 44 for 2007.

The service sector continued to elevate the nation's employment level with the highest gains in health care, social assistance and public administration. In October, service sector jobs increased by 66,000, representing a growth of 3.2 per cent in 2007.


See:

Time For A Made In Canada Auto Industry

Another Capitalist Myth

The ABC's of Privatizing Daycare

Unions=Competitiveness

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Liberals Gain Third Party Status

The Liberals are not effective as Her Majesty's Official Opposition due to their failed fund raising .

The latest party financial returns published by Elections Canada show the Liberals raised $793,835 from June through to October, less even than the party's third-quarter donations last year.

The legendary "natural governing party" almost fell behind the NDP, which raised just $38,000 less than the Liberals during the same nine-month period.

The figures were released by Elections Canada only this week, but the Liberals were aware of their financial state well before Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean opened the new session of Parliament with a speech from the throne in mid-October.

Add to that any funds they do raise they have to use to pay off their Leadership convention debt. They have no election war chest. They are now just another third party in the House.

And as those of us on the left know politics is all about economics. And economically the Liberals cannot afford an election. Which determines their political praxis. It really doesn't matter whether they want an election or not, they can't afford it.

So they will shut up and sit on their bums fearful of challenging the Stephen Harper Party. And they will continue to claim it's all because the people of Canada don't want an election. When in fact it is because they are politically and financially bankrupt.

While the Tories awash in cash launch another attack ad campaign, we are in the midst of a protracted election campaign whether the Liberals want it or not.
Tories launch fifth negative ad campaign targeting Stephane Dion


Which Garth Turner notes on his blog. H/T to Take Off,eh for the Turner link.

When I spoke with a top dog in the OLO (Office of the Leader of the Opposition) Friday night, he said they were debating what to do about the new attack ad.

The Liberals cannot respond because they lack the moola. Also it doesn't help when your leader sticks his foot in his mouth and mumbles about increasing the GST.

Stephane Dion's
suggestion that he might one day increase the goods and services tax had some of his Liberal troops shaking their heads yesterday.

One Liberal MP actually buried his head in his hands when told of his leader's public musings.

Another simply cursed.

Yep trust the Liberals to blow it. They are not on autopilot they are on auto destruct. And they will end up a third party come the next election.


The image “http://www.ndp.ca/xfer/html/2007-10-12/LiberalWarningHeader-en.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.



SEE:

Harper the Mad Dog

Liberals Favorite Tax Cut

Poll Spin

A Reply To Northern Liberal

Jack Layton PM?

LiberalTory Surplus Story

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Bank Smack Down

It was a Canadian female financial wonk working for CIBC who brought down America's biggest bank.

Woman behind US banking rumble
CIBC World Markets analyst Meredith Whitney, an outspoken television pundit who is married to a professional wrestler, delivered a body slam to the U.S. banking sector this week that has sent stocks reeling in markets around the world.

The champion stock-picker even talks a bit like Rowdy Roddy Piper.

"No one had the moxie to put in print, what I put in print," Ms. Whitney said yesterday.

She had earlier hit Citigroup with a downgrade when it was already hurting from weak profits.

"Is Citigroup's dividend safe?" she demanded in a tough report that followed a 57% drop in third-quarter earnings at the world's largest bank.


Pro Wrestling of course was a popular blue collar sport in Canada well
before it became big entertainment in the U.S. Take that.

And so she was subjected to the macho American male egos in their marketplace, no uppity woman and a Canuck at that will tell them the Emperor has no clothes. Not when they keep cheering on the fiction that nothing is wrong in their market.

CIBC analyst got death threats on Citigroup - report


Meanwhile the CEO of Citigroup leaves the bank with the booty while the U.S. market crashes.

Citi Watch: A Princely Sum for CEO’s Exit?


Perhaps he will take it out with a wheelbarrow like they did in Germany way back when.

[wheelbarrow+money.jpg]

As Jim in San Marcos who blogs as The Great Depression of 2006, writes;

Economic Turpitude

Banks, hedge funds and what ever are taking billions of dollars in loan loss provisions. I have been suggesting for over a year, that a lot of this money may be coming from our retirement funds. Think about it. If your wife buys a new fur coat with your paycheck, now you can’t pay the rent, that is obvious very fast. If the wife turned a trick with the old geezer down stairs and bought the coat, you are stuck wondering how she did it. The reason I suggest Retirement funds, is that the losses suffered so far appear to affect no one. But bear in mind, retirement income funds deal with the future. Most people are not ready to retire so these funds should have plenty of time to recover losses (keep quiet, keep your job). The write downs are massive. Nobody even blinks an eye. What’s a 10 billion dollar loss? The perspective is beyond comprehension. This money has to be coming from somewhere. Whoever’s money it is, they don’t seem to need it--yet.

The money supply worldwide seems to be contracting. Usually this would imply a rise in interest rates. That doesn’t seem to be happening. Commodities are increasing in value, which could be an inflation indicator. If reserves are being added to the banking system, then this could explain why rates are not rising (using a truck is cheaper than a helicopter).

A lot of the new earned money entering into the economy is not being used to create new jobs, its being “invested” in financial instruments. Workers are not creating new product, investors are placing side bets on the financial markets. The profit is gone from home building industry. Investment in rental property is a losing enterprise. Consumption seems to be tapering off. Home remodeling appears to have hit the skids. Starbucks seems to be doing OK, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Interest rates are dropping but you can't force people to borrow money unless there is some sort of return (like a house appreciating at 20% a year). That would explain why the stock market as well as the commodity’s markets are still in play. Cramer the other night was forecasting Google at $750. Everything is still going up. The stock market had a little hiccup on Friday. Nothing to worry about, Google kept on ticking just like a Timex watch. Of course it can’t be a bubble, bubbles don’t get that big!

You have a bunch of banks forming a consortium to bail out the CDO and SIV holders . They are creating a new financial instrument called a "USA," which is short for “Up in Smoke Assets.” It ought to be a hot item if they can figure out a way to package it. It’s kind of like selling invisible goldfish. Give the buyer one or two extra for free, so he thinks he’s getting a real bargain and sell him some invisible fish food to boot.

The economy’s current condition reminds me of the embezzler and a millionaire taking a vacation at the same resort. The embezzler knows whose money he is spending. The millionaire has no idea that he is broke, but hey, everyone is having fun. Are we broke yet?

It's All Good



The Wall Street Journal came out with an article on write downs tied to mortgage debt Saturday. Their bar graph (left) displays about 20.7 billion in 3rd quarter losses. Washington Mutual with 1 billion of charges this quarter didn't even make the list. The amount shown for the Bear Sterns doesn't really reflect what happened when this mess started (BS had a 1.6 billion hedge fund bankruptcy). Of course Amaranth is long forgotten.

The above chart is mixing brokerage houses with banks. So these write offs or what ever, could be coming from several different places, bad housing loans, credit card debt and hedge fund investments. Don't worry everything is "contained." Yea, right!


Here's a list of the top world banks. The banks in the top picture seem to have a handle on projected losses if you compare their net holdings (left) to declared write downs (top). But this is just third quarter losses. So do we multiply this by four to come up with a yearly total? It sounds logically conservative and nightmarish. [Note: Morgan Stanley in the top pic and JP Morgan Chase in the one at the left are not the same company, the first is a brokerage house and the latter is a bank, they were one entity at one time]

HSBC wrote off 11 billion in March, Citibank plans to announce earnings October 15 and refers to earnings as "abysmal" in their news release last week. Two banks not saying much are Bank America, and JP Morgan. It could be an eye opener when they report quarterly earnings.

Now mix in 2.46 trillion dollars of credit card debt. Here is list of the top ten issuers of general purpose credit cards:

1. Bank of America
2. J P Morgan Chase
3. Citigroup
4. American Express
5. Capital One
6. Discover Card
7. HSBC
8. Washington Mutual
9. Wells Fargo
10.U S Bancorp


The puzzle is starting to come together. We know who the players are. Citigroup made all three lists, which doesn't sound too good. They might have company, if Bank of America and J P Morgan "measure up" in the next week or two when they announce earnings. The real problem is the three month time frame this mess transpired in. How can we believe that things are now OK?

The stock market is still going up, go figure. I guess you could call it herd (heard) mentality. Follow your favorite stock commentator over the cliff.
Good to see some American's are realizing that all those folks on the 24/7 Business News channels are wearing rose coloured glasses to go along with their ruby slippers. Of course these Market Wizards belong in the land of Oz.

'It will be a garden variety recession'
Economic Times, India -
US consumption, which is now a record 72% of US GDP, has nowhere to go but down and that has raised the risk of recession in the US and the potential impact ...

Morgan Stanley exec: US recession likely BusinessWeek

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | global credit crunch


For shaky economy, oil spike is irritant
Housing, credit messes -- now this?

But $100-a-barrel oil and possible higher gasoline prices would come at a bad time for the U.S. economy. As an economic force, analysts said, higher oil prices alone would not be enough to cause severe economic damage. Yet on top of other major economic concerns -- a brutal housing correction, troubled financial markets and hard-hit banks -- they could be the catalyst for a possible recession.

Recession symptoms near fever level

Scott Badesch of the United Way is used to seeing people in need. Usually, it is the homeless or the poor who tap the services of Palm Beach County's leading community fund.

But these days, Badesch notices something different.

"We're seeing more and more of the middle class falling into these situations. The demand in our shelters and in our emergency food pantries has never been as great as it is," said Badesch, chief executive of the United Way of Palm Beach County.

Ken Rappaport, a Boca Raton bankruptcy lawyer, also sees people in financial distress.

But when Rappaport received 250 applications for a $10-an-hour receptionist job in his office, that's when the area's economic troubles hit home. Many of the applicants were real estate and mortgage brokers used to sky-high salaries.

"That's scary," Rappaport said. "And that was the thing that brought me to the conclusion: I don't care what anybody says, we are in a recession."

Let's hope women are wrong

Women will be pleasantly surprised if we're not all dining at soup kitchens soon. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll asked people whether it's likely the economy will go into recession in the coming year, and women of all sorts were much more likely than their male counterparts to think that it will. Among people with household income under $40,000, for instance, 78 percent of women expect a recession, vs. 44 percent of men. There's a similar gap between college-educated women and men, 71 percent vs. 54 percent. Among Democrats, 82 percent of women and 64 percent of men expect a recession; among Republicans, the gap is 67 percent vs. 54 percent. Overall, 73 percent of women and 56 percent of men foresee a recession in the coming year.




See:

Fred Thompson WYSIWYG

U.S. Economy Entering Twilight Zone

Sub Prime Exploitation

The Cost of War

America's Debt Economy

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