9 Nov 2014
1 Apr 2014
There’s a Class War Going On and the Poor Are Getting Their Butts Kicked
Although they say they're concerned about inequality, economic policymakers continue to pummel low-income families and the jobless, and that’s bad for all of us.
A year ago I asked if Karl Marx was, in certain respects, right about capitalism, and argued that class struggle was making a comeback. The German philosopher believed the capitalist system was inherently unjust. Capitalism, Marx predicted, would inevitably concentrate wealth in the hands of a few while impoverishing everyone else. There is ample evidence that Marx’s theorizing is becoming reality.
Meanwhile in the US…
WAR ON THE POOR - Ryan Budget Slashes Food Stamps, Health Care For Poor, Assistance To Low-Income College Students, Federal Worker Pensions... Huffington Post
8 Mar 2014
27 Jul 2013
19 Jun 2013
Scores detained in Turkey police swoop
Police in Turkey have arrested 85 people following more than two weeks of anti-government protests. Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said on Tuesday that 62 people had been detained in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, while 23 others had been arrested in the capital Ankara as a result of raids in several cities.
“The operations are against members of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, who also attended the Gezi Park protests, as part of an investigation being conducted by The detained people were accused of damaging public property and inciting violence.
Earlier, police detained a dozen people who stood still at Istanbul's Taksim Square in a form of passive defiance against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's authority after activists were ousted from a sit-in at Gezi Park over the weekend. Erodogan brushed aside criticism of the crackdown on Tuesday and vowed to increase the police's powers to deal with the unrest.
24 Sept 2012
Opposition shut out in Belarus election
Official results in Belarus' parliamentary election have delivered an overwhelming victory to parties allied to President Alexander Lukashenko, fulfilling a prediction by opposition groups that boycotted the vote amid claims it would again be rigged for the president.
Central Elections Commission Chairwoman Lidiya Yermoshina said on Monday that she had received a preliminary turnout figure of 74.3 per cent and downplayed more sceptical assessments by independent election observers, saying that only official turnout tallies would be considered.
There were no runoffs, and Yermoshina said that all but one of the 110 seats in parliament had been assigned. The vote was held on Sunday without the main opposition parties, which boycotted to protest the detention of political prisoners and election fraud.
28 Oct 2011
12 Sept 2011
Masquerade in Moscow
The Russian Bolshevik revolution was not a spontaneous uprising of the masses. It was planned, financed, and orchestrated by outsiders. Some of the financing came from Germany which hoped that internal problems would force Russia out of the war against her. But most of the money and leadership came from financiers in England and the United States. It was the perfect example of the Rothschild formula in action.
This group centered mainly around a secret society created by Cecil Rhodes, one of the world's wealthiest men at the time. The purpose of that group was nothing less than world dominion and the establishment of a modern feudalist society controlled by the world's central banks. Headquartered in England, the Rhodes inner-most directorate was called the Round Table. In other countries, there were established subordinate structures called Round-Table Groups. The Round-Table Group in the united States became known as the Council on Foreign Relations. The CFR, which was initially dominated by J.P. Morgan and later by the Rockefellers, is the most powerful group in America today. it is even more powerful than the federal government, because almost all of the key positions in government are held by its members. In other words, it is the United States government.
8 Sept 2011
Ikea 'used political prisoners in GDR as slave labour'
Ikea developed strong links with the communist state in the 1970s, opening a number of manufacturing facilities, one of which, according to Stasi records discovered by German television company WDR, used political prisoners to construct sofas. The factory in Waldheim stood next to a prison, and inmates were used as unpaid labour, it is claimed. Gaols in the Democratic Republic housed significant numbers of political prisoners, with some estimates indicating they made up at least 20 per cent of the entire prison population.
Quoted in a Stasi file, Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea’s founder, said while he had no official knowledge of the use of prison labour, if it did indeed exist “in the opinion of Ikea it would be in society’s interests”. Hans Otto Klare, who had been sent to Waldheim prison for trying to escape to West Germany, described conditions in the factory as harsh.
“Our labour team lived on the upper floor of the factory with the windows covered,” he told WDR about his time making hinges and other components for Ikea furniture. “The machines were on the lower floor, and you had little rest. On the factory floor you had no proper seating, no ear protection: no gloves. Conditions were even more primitive there then in the rest of the GDR. It was slave labour.”
13 Aug 2011
Germany marks 50 years since Berlin Wall
Germany is marking 50 years since the building of the Berlin Wall when the communist East closed its border, dividing the city for 28 years. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit told a ceremony on Bernauer Street: "The Wall is history but we must not forget it." President Christian Wulff said Germany had been securely established as a reunified country.
The city observed a minute's silence at noon (10:00 GMT) in memory of those who died trying to escape. Soldiers from the East began construction on the morning of 13 August 1961