Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
Bertrand Russell
I must interrupt this program to make an important announcement: American imperialism, is taking control of the world. It is no good appealing to your government for help as most western, governments are to be involved in the plot. It is believed that the United Nations, has been taken over by protection racketeers and is in need of rescuing.
Nations in the western hemisphere have been sprayed by a gray mist substance. The effect of this has been to rendered most of the populations of the countries, whose leaders are colluding in this event, unable to act, even to put the simplest facts together.
In the western states, most people are wandering about aimlessly moving commodities from one place to the other, then moving them back again, as if nothing has happened. The slaughter of people who do not conform to giving up their land and possessions, has started in areas all over the world, but this seems to be confined to democratic regions, that haven’t been sprayed by the strange dust.
There have been unconfirmed reports, that this taking-over process, has been going on for tens of years. Although it is rumored that the masses of documentation that proves the subservience of our leaders to American Imperialism, are false, or don’t exist. Governments are asking their people to stay calm and trusting them to sort something out. And warn, “it would be stupid for citizens to try anything on their own.”
All City Strolls, have been canceled for the near future as people are not to be seen in the street for fear of public communication. (A homeland security package has been transferred from our administration headquarters in the United States, explaining all.) It is recommended that citizens, who have not been sprayed yet: stay indoors as much as possible; watch television for instruction and enlightenment and stay optimistic. The dust will reach them some how…
More fantasy
Paul Wolfowitz (deputy to Rumsfeld in the department of defense), came up with the “Defense Planning Guidance” – a first laying out of a post cold war era strategy, in which America would become the sole superpower, to rule forever. When Wolfowitz, first came up with this plan in 1992, people in the American administration, thought he was crazy, people in Europe, thought he was really crazy.
His idea is now government policy in the United States, and the same policy is now being adhered to and implemented by the British government.
How did we arrive here…
“In his introduction to his biography of Hitler, the British historian Ian Kershaw writes that he is not so interested in the character of the German dictator, but more in “the question of how Hitler became possible.” He writes: “If a satisfactory answer to this question cannot be found on the basis of the given characteristics of Hitler, then one must look instead principally to German society – the social and political driving forces that made Hitler possible.” [Schwarz]
So what are the social and political driving forces that made Donald Rumsfeld, Bush, Blair, possible. Big Question, with many answers, the main one being, I believe, is, the dislocation of working people from their politics. The working classes political perspective has been diluted, from one of a vision of truer socialism, equality, cooperation and solidarity, to one of, getting rid of one corrupt party and replacing it with a hopefully less corrupt one.
In Britain voters ejected the tory party and installed, what we thought, was the labour party. Did anyone really believe that anything would change for working people. Maybe you could be forgiven for not realising how bad it could get, but there is worse to come and unless some hopeful vision can be restored and acted upon, working people will bear most of the brunt of it.
The media controls the message
“Not even during the Second World War, when Britain did face a real threat of invasion, have so many basic democratic freedoms been jettisoned.” [SEPB]
If we ignore the psychopaths who control America for a moment and concentrate on the ones who are in power in Britain – namely Tony Blair’s Government. Where does one start, or end in describing the morass of intertwining lies, deceptions and out and out shameful, acts of inhumanity that constitutes our present Government. These acts are nothing new, in global, and even domestic politics, but something that rogue states [USA Britain] have been building on for centuries. What is different today is the scale of destruction and death and the speed in which it is being executed.
Another frightening aspect of our present global situation, is the acquiescence of most of academia and the media monopoly, in misinforming the public of how bad the situation is and will get and for how long it has been going on. Plus the lack of coverage and views of the mass of dissenters, to the carnage, called US/British foreign policy.
Credulity meets farce
The farce of the Hutton enquiry, where the government was absolved of mass murder is typical of the acquiescence mentioned above; where government ministers continuously lie and deceived and one line of criticism can mean disaster for democratic opinion and free speech, as in the case of Gilligan.The blatant contempt for judgment and freedom of the press, is, or should be an insult to anyone even with the slightest knowledge of what is happening in Iraq. A SEP (Socialist Equality Party) article outlines the damaging repercussions to free speech and the right to be informed by this political farce:
“Gilligan was found to have committed the cardinal sin of impugning the integrity of the government and the security services, especially by his remark that the government “probably” knew its claim that Iraq could launch WMD within 45-minutes was wrong. The BBC’s board of governors was found to have “defective” editorial structures because it had allowed his story to stand and was condemned for having defended their reporter from Campbell’s witch-hunt. Hutton also concluded that Kelly was “partially responsible” for his own misfortune, underscoring the ruthlessness of the British state, even against one of its own
Thus, reality has been turned on its head.
Gilligan and the BBC are held to an exacting account for a never repeated remark made during a one minute, early morning radio broadcast. In contrast, the government and its spy chiefs are not required to answer for using untrue statements to drag the country into a war that, has killed thousands of innocent people,
as well as nearly sixty British soldiers, and reduced a country to ruins. The verdict against the BBC has major implications for the future of the corporation and more broadly for press freedoms in Britain. The entire future of the BBC as a public broadcaster may be thrown into question when its charter is due for renewal in 2006. The commercial stations may be allowed a greater share of the market, with one of the major beneficiaries being the government’s most fervent supporter—Rupert Murdoch.”
Out of the frying pan…
As the right deconstruct democratic process, left wing saviors, are lining up to extricate working people, from the jaws of capitalism. As always, there is some blind faith to contend with, and some principals to jettison – in order that we can be led
Two wrongs don’t make a right and two rights don’t make a party. Because you do not agree with how George Galloway, was ousted from the labour party, or for that mater, if you are anti Blair, that Galloway is a viable answer to your problems. It means that you do not agree with the way someone was expelled from a so called democratic party. It means that the labour party use illegal means to rid themselves of people who do not toe the party line.
Because millions of people agree that they are against the war in Iraq, it doesn’t mean that the these same people can form an all encompassing political idea [Respect] to challenge Blair, and more important, to forward socialism. It only means that millions of people are against the war in Iraq.
The tried and tested?
“Not surprisingly given the hypocrites and liars who fill the parliamentary benches, there is huge disillusionment with all three main parties. That is why Respect has begun to break through. We stand in the tradition of the Old Labour values of solidarity, community, justice and decent public services. Respect was founded by people like George Galloway who have been tried and tested and who have taken a principled stand when others like the Lib Dems ran for cover. Now we have shown that we can win, many more can be won to voting for us and joining us.
The above is from Respect, Election Breakthrough leaflet Which states “NEW LABOUR, LIBDEMS, TORIES ARE ALL THE SAME”
The question is how different is Respect, and which principled stance does George Galloway, take…
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Part 2.
Out of the frying pan…
The following are excerpts are from an article by Chris Marsden and Julie Hyland. These points should be of concern to voters, who may be tempted to put their faith in the advice of the coordinator classes, rather than their own instincts and judgments, that will lead them toward a happier life and a fairer society. The subject here is RESPECT but it could easily be any of the other party’s that claim to represent working folks concerns.
Excerpts from. Britain: The Respect-Unity coalition and the politics of opportunism (WSWS)
My Italics added. (I have highlighted what I feel are relevant points concerning the eroding of socialist principals to fit leadership needs. The whole article, which is much longer, is linked at the bottom of the page)
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The politics of opportunism
“The name is an acronym for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment, Community and Trade Unionism. Headed by former Labour MP George Galloway, its leading personnel are largely drawn from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).
However, an appraisal of its origins and program shows that Respect has been established in order to prevent a genuine political break with Labourism. It is based on the explicit rejection of any possibility of constructing a socialist party based on the working class.”
Where the idea began – Built on the back of the anti war coalition.
” As is usual with war there is usually a lot of bobbing and weaving as leaders of various organizations try to line themselves up with the most popular view at the best possible time. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy spoke at the first antiwar demonstration, but thereafter refused to take part and ended up supporting “our boys” once war – was declared. More importantly the Trades Union Congress (TUC), after initially declaring its opposition to war, issued a public statement that it would no longer support a movement critical of Blair.”
Enter George Galloway: the voice of the people.
“Due to the absence of any significant opposition within the Labour Party to the war, George Galloway, a man with a record of opportunist relations with a number of Arab bourgeois regimes, including that of Saddam Hussein, was promoted by the STWC as representing the voice of dissent from within the government’s ranks.”
Enter the coordinator class.
“The SWP does not articulate the interests of the working class, but of a significant layer of the middle class that benefited from the old welfare state provisions and occupied positions within academia, local government, the civil service and the trade unions.”
Who will work with anyone. And abandon any principals that do not fit the remit of short term power gains.
“The response of the SWP has been a sharp lurch to the right. It has concluded that the reason for its lack of success is its association with socialism and the working class and so it has abandoned the Socialist Alliance project orientation in favour of the construction of Respect.
This is not merely a continuation of its; old orientation under a new name. It evidences the incorporation of the SWP and a number of smaller groupings into the framework of bourgeois politics.
The SWP has decided that the anti war movement’s ability to galvanise broader social layers must provide the template for creating its own explicitly non-socialist political vehicle. Though its orientation to the Labour and trade union bureaucracy remains as a constant, it is to be complimented by an appeal to all; antiwar forces and to Muslims in particular.”
in order to win
“Respect’s founding declaration reiterates these claims that a movement’s viability depends on its ability to make the broadest appeal on the least controversial basis. Consequently its “declaration for a left electoral challenge to New Labour” on which it is to contest the European elections is less than 700 words in length.”
if we take it easy and curtail our socialist views and opinions, maybe we could re-introduce them later.. after we win…
“…In a recent interview…Galloway made clear that Respect’s aim is to win support from sections of the Labour and trade union bureaucracy. A success for Respect in the European elections could enable pressure to be brought to bear in the Labour Party to depose Blair as leader and tack left, he said… That, however, was a task for the future. Until then even reformist socialism should be spoken of only behind closed doors.”
“We want to rally people who are progressive, but perhaps might not define themselves a socialists yet… it is important that we don’t define ourselves in such a way that we rule out winning people that we can win.”
at any cost
“The SWP’s uncritical embrace of Galloway speaks volumes. A Labour Party member for 35 years and an MP, he is a life long admirer of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the former Soviet Union and a consummate political operator and self-publicist. He is avowedly hostile to Marxist socialism, which the SWP purports to represent. During the first public meeting launching the “coalition of dissent”, Galloway denounced revolutionary socialism as a foreign import and counterpoised his belief in a party uniting everyone including Tories who believed in democracy.”
in any form
“An alliance based on anti-Marxism
Galloway has no power base, nor significant political support. In the SWP he has been given a ready made electoral machine, one that he can rely on to offer a left veneer to a program that is explicitly bourgeois and anti-socialist. Moreover, he is free to pursue his political project together with the SWP while maintaining his already existing relations with the Arab bourgeoisie and continuing his efforts to cultivate others such as the Muslim Association of Britain.”
and finally to acquire pseudo socialism with adjustments concerning – republics, the monarchy, and wages
“It is virtually impossible to read any political comment by the SWP on the new coalition that does not make a ritual denunciation of sectarianism. But this is solely to provide a justification for its jettisoning of fundamental socialist and democratic principles.
At the convention on January 25, the total time allotted for contributions from the floor was less than two hours. Any one challenging aspects of the declaration was booed and hissed by the audience of mainly SWP members and voted down. An amendment proposing that the R in Respect should stand for Republicanism was rejected by the SWP on the grounds that one shouldn’t make a “big deal” about the monarchy; the issue is basically “immaterial” as France and the US are republics and who would think they are any the more democratic than Britain?
A motion proposing that the declaration specifies its support for open borders—an end to immigration controls— was also defeated.
An amendment proposing that Respect should commit itself to its elected representatives accepting only the wage of a skilled worker—”a workers representative on a workers wage”—was also overwhelmingly defeated. The SWP opposer argued that whilst “no one in this hall would not subscribe to this aspiration… Respect is not a particular socialist organisation.
…a danger that we would be exclusive if we carried this. What are we going to say to people like George Galloway? Are we going to make it a condition that they have to accept a workers’ wage? It would be to misconstrue what Respect is about.”
… Galloway has stated openly that he “has no time for the idea of workers’ representatives on a worker’s wage,” that he “could not live on three workers wages,” and that £150,000 a year is what he “needs to function properly as a leading figure in a party of the British political system.”
Galloway’s, preference is for the concerns of the coordinator class, not the working class, with late Arafat, and the conservative, PLO leadership, rather than what the ordinary Palestinian. This is the man who hangs up the phone during a discussion with a Palestinian, because of his views [the Palestinians] that Arafat, does not representing ordinary Palestinian people. Galloway retorts “I am not listening to this rubbish and “I am paying for this phone call,” then hangs up. (Lesley Riddock Radio Scotland) A man of the people, I think not. So who are Galloway’s, people? -The “rich guys sitting in back rooms who work out deals together, and the population’s irrelevant.” that Chomsky describes here.
Part 3.
Good grounds for belief
Bridging the gap of disconnection and disillusionment to one of solidarity:
Lets start with the rich guys and how they operate The American banker, JP Morgan, said: The working class? They’re no problem. I can buy one half to kill the other half. Party politics, operate much the same way. The bigger part of the voting population winning over the smaller part and eventually the majority of both parts realising, neither are any better off.
Nothing has changed since Morgan’s time. Alienation of working people, in a much more global scale than before. It has been uncovered, not by the big US media of course, that the American administration are planning to use foreign nationals, from places like South America, as soldiers in the US armed forces. (and have already started in Iraq.) A privatise army, that will facilitate the poor of one country, killing the poor of another. This is all achievable, through corrupt voting systems, propaganda, racism, fear mongering, violence and coercion, in a country that has some of the worst poverty in the western world. Our own administration, (British) seem to be welcoming and in some cases surpassing American in the achievements, of making a mockery of civil society.
This mockery is being implemented completely oblivious to the dissent, debate and views of the general public. We are becoming America without even realising it. One of the lessons we should be learning from this is, voting for change only rearranges the problems. We need to move the focus of attention back on to the people and sanity and away from the mandarins of power, who are dehumanising the very institutions that were created to protect our liberty from the vagaries of power. We will not change things to any great extent by voting or throwing stones at tanks. We can achieve things by knowing and relating our ideas to each other and we could start in our locality. This is where the main threat to elite power will begin.
Ok, if you have to vote
Before we start placing our bets on the next festival of derision, lies and contempt toward ordinary peoples opinions and values, (the next election) maybe we should consider some things.
First.It is not in the nature of politicians to inform the population of what is going on. Why. To protect their interests of course, Most politicians are business men, career orientated, power seekers. They may shout at each other and treat each other as the enemy. Underneath they are all part of the same club, right and left. There may be a few discrepancies here and there, but I think it is prudent to see them all in this category.
Second. Most politicians are lawyers or ex lawyers and spend most of their time making money, investing in property and such like They will spending as little time as possible on the business of their constituents unless there is something in it for them. What they are really good at, is giving the impression that they know every thing and you (the voter) know nothing. Politicians ( the coordinator classes) do not know where you live, how you live, or care. The coordinator classes are there to control the masses for the upper classes. ( an interesting rhyme to learn and remember)
It is not in the interest of the afore mentioned that you should start thinking for yourself. Can you imagine the trouble it would cause if people paid close attention to how these administrators, control what is happening. It is in the interest of the coordinators that you should feel powerless and that, you could not operate without them. It is of prime importance that the citizen – does things through the proper channels – ie the ones that the coordinator controls.
Separate charismatic, personality, from political ideas and get rich schemes of the fear industry.
It is useful to think of the above government workers, as coordinators and not as personalities. We are not dealing with pop stars here. We are dealing with people who make decisions that can drastically effect our well being, through creating illegal wars, that we do not wish to be involved in and curtailing our liberty by proposing ID systems, that will do more to control the individuals actions, than the actions of those who are deemed to be a danger to us.
It is important to separate and concentrate less on the charisma of the candidate, and focus more on the ideas that they represent. And if the ideas that they do presented, can not be understood, or are unexplainable to the layperson, they will probably do him or her more harm, than good. Ideas should stand on their own merit, not on the patronizing charm of the proposer no mater how high up the chain of command they sit. In fact the further up the chain of command they are the more abstract, unbelievable, and useless to ordinary people their ideas become.
War creates capital for the upper classes and poverty for the lower classes. (check your history books and try and find a member of the ruling classes who went bust paying for a war. They are non existent. Getting rich by war, however, there are countless examples) And the spin off’s – ID cards are good for business and would chiefly transfers a population of personalities into a list of useful categories of consumer types for business. Not only that. Guess who will pay for them.
Damage limitation voting
The above are only a few but important examples we should be aware of. If you want to vote for someone who knows very little about your situation, (apart from your profile data on your ID card). How many people know or have even seen their MP? When choosing from the bunch we need make sure it is someone who can do the least damage, not promise what the can not hope to do, when they get in. After you have voted him or her in, you had better be prepared to cajole, check out, question and keep on their case, to make sure the person you have voted, to represent you, does what they said they would do .
Voting for someone is only the first step .Coordinators with new found power should be treated like pre – school children in a toy shop. If you leave them unchecked they will wander off towards the goodies, oblivious to what is happening around them, who is going to pay for the expensive toy that they have found, and what they were brought into the shop for in the first place.
When you switch on the news of an evening, do you ever wonder what all this stuff has to do with you. (not the celebrates or stories to make you scared, but the politics) Can you relate to any of it. Is this part of your world. These are supposed to be intelligent people representing our interests, not morons arguing over who has the best toys, who has spent the most money.
The politicians game is not to agree with each other, even over the most obvious solutions to problems that would benefit the general population, (which would make people interested in the news) but to infer that there is some really important debate going on that is beyond the viewers or listeners understanding. (Which stops people having any interest in the news)
Coordinators are consumed in their own importance and operate in the pretensions of their own bubble, that floats above the political landscape, not in it, where you are.
It is not to difficult for people to believe the above. The problem is we are all caught up in the zero-sum-game and feel debilitated and useless, when we look at the grand scale of events and the machine that drives them. But we [public] inadvertently represent most of the components of the same machine that moulds and controls us.
The question that remains is how do we get back to some kind of human notion of living in the world. We are living in a global, social disaster, that is driven by western nut cases, we call leaders. While these big issues are a global problem, in order to drag ourselves back from the edge that we are being pushed toward, we need to start at the local level. (where we are) The fortunate thing is, we have the power to change big things, through our collective (smaller) actions. All we need is the confidence in our ability to make change happen.
How to build the bridge that can span the gap between a positive hope of the future and the hopelessness, which has become the staple of much of working people. This at present I believe is the main challenge of any socialist movement. A challenge that should be built on principals that seek to gain power and control for working people, rather than the uselessness of the replacement of the right wing coordinators, with left wing coordinators, who will spend much of their time making deals with [big business] the workers oppressors.
Looking back to go forward
In realizing this forward lasting vision we need to go back. Not back in a regressive manner, but back to an idea and experience before capitalism where the will of the people could be felt through kinship and mutual aid rather than destruction, bullshit and fear.
We are forever being urged by our present leaders to go forward; forget the past -there are new horizons to be aimed for -we need to forget these old ideas and learn new ones – There is good reason for this kind of rhetoric, because the ruling classes know as well as anyone, that, the study of what happened in the past is the key to understanding the present and to building a better future for workers.
Pig in the middle
No matter what the particular parties politics, are, left or right, their policies will always depend on living off the backs of the working people. The coordinator class, of which the earlier mentioned SWP are part of, is yet another layer of bureaucratic subterfuge, and mostly men in suits, who will trade off working class principals and standards for political expediency, in order to gain power – As usual the workers find themselves as pig in the middle. On the one hand the state structure that has kept them oppressed by the exploits of the rentier society – and on the other a left wing who are watering down the very structures that could go towards creating a lasting change that would meet better the needs of working people
Awakening the real left wing.
The working classes need to reconnect with the old values that have been knocked out of them with so many battering’s from market economical subservience, and from left wing sects playing to the people whilst seeking power at all costs, just like their seemingly opposites. There are many working people in the world, on the front line of the conflict, not in the meeting halls discussing different brands of politics. It is these people who we should be looking to for direction. The people who risk and put their bodies where they will do most good, and do not rely on the rhetoric of ideologies. And if we look we will find the same kind of people in our communities. It is these people we can learn from and in turn should be encouraging, for it was from the work and effort of these same communities that radical movements were built.
We, if striving to improve the world for workers, need to start living by our principals, and raising our spirits to believing that there is an alternative to the crap that is consuming our world. We need to reclaim our culture and detach and discard what is harmful to it. We need to hope for a better future and instill that hope in the people around us who lack it. But we need to remember who we are doing it for and not be distracted from our goal – by those who think they know our lives better than we do ourselves.
How do we start
By rejecting the status quo and replacing it by a set of principals that will focus on who you/we are, and what you wish your life to be. And by using these principals to determine your actions. This is not as difficult as it may seem because each and every day we have to make decisions, usually to someone else’s rules. Well first we could start by questioning these rules according to the principals that we have set for yourself.
Where will we find the time
Some people have more time than others. But what is more important is not how much time you have, but how it is used. like the fraudster who deducted a penny from each account amassed millions over the course of time. Each and every, no mater how small effort made, time spent, adds up to something bigger. Each time the debilitating technology is switched to off and people start communicate with each other in our communities, we advance humanity. Each time we open our mouths in protest or stop to write a letter, we build confidence in ourselves and encourage others.
We must tend to our garden
How many new (government sponsored) retail parks do we need saturating our communities, as well as our minds and destroying communal integration and pastoral reality. Before we can change the world we must tend our own communities in order to plan our future.
It was not by accident that the great city planner Patrick Geddes encouraged his children to be gardiner’s as an important part of their education, if not the most important part. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau understood well the analogy of the garden, concerning politics when he advises “We must tend to our garden” – with good reason. A garden, like politics, can’t be ignored until you find time for it.
A garden needs constant attention if you wish it to bear the fruits of your toil. A garden is an ever changing place which needs coordinated ideas, an economic balance of labour, long term plans to suit growth, the unpredictably of changing elements. The success or failure, taking into the consideration the changing nature of a garden, are mainly down to the experience of the gardener.
As in the Garden, in our communities we will need to grope our way back to a saner world by making smaller changes and by trial and error, rather than being led by the machinations of the “political business” which demands fast answers to difficult decisions and slow action, to obvious basic needs of people, culminating inexpensive costs to the tax payer who inevitably ends up having little to show in return.
The only thing today’s market economy has to offer most people is poverty. The other vote catching alternative to capitalism, may be a more lenient form of authority, exercised by those on the left, who claim to have the workers best interests at heart. However in the end, whichever form of political action that is taken – the only people who can shape, project and protect working peoples concerns and interests, are the people themselves – and the only way we advance in the struggle to regain and maintain our liberty in the long run, is by mutual aid and by understanding the seductive techniques of ideologies and how to guarding against them.
Live the life
How will we get there By participating in the decisions that affect and at present, control our freedom to act in our best interests. To question at each stage and to ensure the validity of political proposals and decisions that are carried out for working peoples benefit and the judgment of such proposals and decisions on there merit.
Our economy should benefit more the people who do most of the work Our present economic system is the worst possible structure in achieving these ends.
Economics can be complicated but not impossible for working people to understand – and will become easier to understand when people realised the benefits gained for their interest.
History a powerful tool of empowerment
The study of history is the essential ingredient in political life. and it is through the examination of the past that will shed light on the complexities of the present – That the economic system that represses us from a carefree life was designed by people with the same flesh and blood and thinking processes as us. And the economic system that is in use today (practically unchanged in its goals) was tailored from its conception to favour the rich. It was not god given, or a factor of human nature – it was one way of doing things – not the only way and can be changed.
The historical question that could be looked at regarding contemporary economic structures, is. What did we do before Ricardo, the rentier society, kings and queens, churches, who have always exploited us. An examination of peoples history (usually the unofficial account) will inform us that any progress made concerning the advancement of conditions, at the grass roots, was through the efforts of grass roots activity, not by the kindness of our rulers.
We have become so brainwashed, into believing that the political and economic, structure that we live under can not be changed,
It may be that we are soon to find out ultimately where our present forms of governments, economic systems will deliver us.
Perhaps we can survive in the west, for some time, with the rest of the world barren, dead or completely subservient to our demands. But market capitalism has nowhere else to go, apart from destroying the competition, then destroying itself (empires always destroy themselves). And to help them along in this process – It is becoming obvious to small defenseless countries, especially the ones that are rich in minerals, that the only way that they can protect themselves against imperialist bullies, primarily the USA, is being armed with weapons of mass destruction. It is an imperative to our survival that we find the will and to use our imagination to change the present situation. (I would refer you to the “New American Century document” if you are in doubt about what the present situation is. )
These are desperate times
The desperation of poorer nations, who are more and more being made, to being accepted as non-people by western power and the struggle of the domestic working classes, caught between unemployment and cheap wages must surely be ringing bells for change. If we are to address these problems We need to address the earlier question. How Hitler, Bush, (Rumsfeld) Blair, became possible. The answer is, we let them happen, we put our world in the hands of the psychopath. The question now is – how do we take it back.
We have to learn how we arrived here in the first place, then proceed with caution to rectify the disparities that have made us enemies to our fellow workers of other nations. Our problems are global we can no longer exist in the bubble of nation states. And we can no longer trust our liberty and values to the professionals, who constantly rob us of our voice
A political garden needs constant attention and therefore a shared workload to proceed. Care and attention is needed to coordinate the life of the garden. Species of plant and vegetable need to co exist. Every area needs special attention through balance and proportion, the expected and the unexpected will need to be prepared for – If we learn how to value and judge our political life by these methods, we will have no need for leaders and coordinators to judge what kind of life we deserve. We will soon regain our skills of cooperation and creativity. But first we need to start to think of a vision for a new future and in the process we are sure to find together the strength that will make it possible.
We have just witnessed in America, and will no doubt in the near future in this country witness the same scenario of voting against or for a mirror or its reflection.
We may even get out on the street and protest. We may write articles like this one, to try and convince each other on how to make our lives better. No matter what we do, no mater how much noise we make, no mater how right we are, no mater how obvious things seem. Nothing much will change unless we are willing to do the boring, thankless, seemingly unimportant, seemingly small, rote tasks, that are an imperative to organising for change.
So long as the folk reading this who are “not into politics” actually believe that. We are lost. We are all involved in politics, whether we like it or not. The challenge of governments and corporations is to instill the former. The challenge of socialist movements is to convince people, through their actions, of the latter and to encourage in our communities, useful, enlightened and creative involvement. Starting, at the threshold of peoples experience, and what they understand, what they can do. not what I or others might tell them.
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