Struggle against GANGSTERISM and DEGENERACY
Posted in: Marxist-Leninism | Comments (2)
Gangsterism is a broad term that reflects the degeneration of working peoples into counterproductive lifestyle at the hands of capitalism. This includes the degeneration of those who have fallen through the social cracks, at the hands of capitalism, into the rank and file of the lumpenproletariat.
The lumpenproletariat was defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as “the refuse of all classes,” and as a particularly counter-revolutionary force with no real motive for participating in any revolutionary struggles.
The fight against degeneration is as important to Marxism-Leninism as the promulgation of theory, practical work towards the liberation of the working-classes and ultimately the defeat of the bourgeoisie and its social-structure.
The struggle against gangsterism and other routes towards degeneration requires adherence to discipline, to recognition of one’s collective interests in the class-struggle and opposition to the hedonistic pursuit of self-interests. Gangsterism emerges amidst the most overtly oppressed peoples – even in imperialist nations dominated lacking any revolutionary force. Capitalism destroys hundreds of thousands of lives every year, and in the wake of staggering defeat, the “remnants” of society are left with desperation to gain some form of sustenance in order to live.
Thus, the struggle against gangsterism is a struggle against the degeneration of the remnants of working people into a counter-revolutionary, self-destructive entity.
Gangsterism is enabled by social liberalism that promotes the unquestionable value of the individual over the collective. The praise of the individual and the satisfaction of not only his needs, but also his most base wants, is the unremarkable climax of years of bourgeois propaganda emphasizing self-worship.
So what makes gangsterism incompatible with socialism and the liberation of the working classes?
First, it distracts the working class from attaining political objectives by averting their time, energy and resources into a lifestyle diametrically opposed to revolutionary progress. Joining street gangs, peddling drugs, fighting and dying for gang territory are objectively destructive to the working class and only secure the political and economic strength of the bourgeoisie.
Secondly, it promotes harmful behavior amongst the most oppressed people within society. There is no objective benefit to the use of narcotics and their promotion amongst working peoples should be wholeheartedly condemned. Abstaining from narcotics trafficking, dealing and recreational use is objectively beneficial to working people. However, this is not an endorsement of the bourgeois “war against drugs,” which is inherently anti-working class. The true enemy are the elements of the bourgeoisie that make harmful substances available to working people all over the globe, including organized crime syndicates, drug cartels, Wall Street and imperialist governments.
Thirdly, the use of narcotics is in and of itself selfish. Justifying one’s recreational use of drugs to escape the harsh realities of bourgeois society is not an acceptable excuse. Such attitudes reek with exceptionalism and self-interest. The working class can and only will achieve true liberation from the yolk of global capitalism if it is sober enough to do so.
While Marxism-Leninism is materialistic and scientific – that doesn’t mean its morally nihilistic in terms of individual and collective moral values. The morality of Marxism-Leninism is derived from a consequentialist understanding of what promotes the victory of socialism over global capitalism. This particularly applies to the international proletariat currently engaged in struggles for national liberation, self-determination and socialism.
Iron Bolshevik @ January 6, 2009
FMP Video News Brief - Zionist Bomb School, kill 40
Posted in: Globalism / Imperialism, Wars | Comments (0)
From Free Media Productions News:
Jan. 6 – Zionist forces, once again ignoring international calls for a cease-fire, continued their terror in Gaza, hitting a United Nations School on Tuesday used for protecting refugees from Israeli attacks. The United Nations reported 40 civilian casualties from the attack.
Hekkenschroeder @ January 6, 2009
Shipping Jobs Overseas ruined Economy
Posted in: Global Economic Meltdown, Globalism / Imperialism | Comments (0)
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/flint/index.ssf/2008/11/sending_jobs_overseas_ruined_e.html
Listen to all the crying and whining by General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Sears, Wal-Mart, Kmart and other companies about how they can’t seem to sell enough products to stay afloat.
Evidently, these companies didn’t do a lot of thinking about who was going to buy their products when they began 20 years ago to ship their manufacturing processes overseas.
Some went to China, some to India, some to Mexico or anywhere else the labor and environmental laws were lax and allowed them to make huge profits without any controls.
All those people who were fired, laid off, displaced and given early retirement because their jobs were located outside the country could no longer afford to buy the products of those same companies for which they had worked. When you have no job, it’s hard to buy a new car every couple of years, or buy a new TV or even Christmas presents when you can’t afford health care, gasoline or even sometimes to pay the rent or just buy food. It’s a shame, but now those big companies and some small ones are finding out what they should have foreseen long ago.
Ross Perot had it just right, and now these companies can hear that giant sucking sound. It’s the sound of their futures going down the drain. In most cases, someone has said to them, “I told you so.”
Jack R. Smith
Durand
I agree with this point of view. Another of example of why globalism CAN’T work. It isn’t a matter of whether or not you want it to work, it can’t work.
Metal Gear @ January 6, 2009
January 10: National March - LET GAZA LIVE!
Posted in: Globalism / Imperialism | Comments (0)
LET GAZA LIVE!
Stop the U.S./Israeli War
Against the
Palestinian People
National March on Washington
Saturday, January 10
Assemble at the White House (north side) at 1:00 PM
Sponsoring organizations: ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, American Muslim Task Force, National Council of Arab Americans, Al-Awda - International Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and hundreds of others
Flyer for DC Demonstration (for reproduction & dissemination)
There will be coinciding West Coast demonstrations in San Francisco (11 am at Civic Center) , Los Angeles (12 noon at Westwood Federal Building), San Diego (details TBA) and elsewhere.
Calendar of Emergency Demonstrations Taking Place This Week
Statements from the Free Palestine Alliance
The Free Palestine Alliance, a member group of the ANSWER Coalition National Steering Committee, has been writing daily statements about the Gaza Strip Massacre. These are important statements of political orientation from the Palestinian-American community. Click here to read the statements issued by the Free Palestine Alliance.
Send a letter to the State Department and Congress
Join with people around the country and around the world who are demanding an end to U.S. aid to Israel. This is an urgent situation and we must all act now. You can send a letter with our easy click and send system demanding an end to U.S. aid to Israel. Without U.S. aid, the Israeli military attacks, siege and blockade of Gaza could not be continued. Click this link now to send a letter to the State Department and elected officials in Congress.
Besoshvili @ January 5, 2009
Individualism vs Collectivism in times of Economic Struggle
Posted in: Economics, Global Economic Meltdown | Comments (1)
In a time of economic recession and slowdown, does it make sense to allow the individual to fragment from the collective or must the Government step in and dictate group cohesion to jump start the economy? If the “free market” falls apart, does it make sense to glue it back together? Answer this from your own philosophical angle. I would suppose a nationalist would answer that the Government should impose martial law, a capitalist would say the opposite and talk about human rights, and a Marxist would answer that capitalism should be allowed to self-destruct but then authoritarianism should eventually rise with a new infrastructure. Where do you stand on this spectrum?
Metal Gear @ January 5, 2009
FMP Videos - Solidarity with Hamas
Posted in: Uncategorized | Comments (2)
Free Media Productions video entitled “Solidarity with Hamas.” Uploaded to FMPVideoZone youtube channel on 1/4/2008.
Iron Bolshevik @ January 5, 2009
Anti-Zionist Protest in San Francisco - 12/30/2008
Posted in: Globalism / Imperialism | Comments (1)
Dec. 30, 2008 - Hundreds of protesters took to the streets to show their solidarity with the people of Gaza and demanding an end to US/Imperialist support to the terrorist-Zionist regime of Israel.
The high-quality footage will be uploaded soon, but in the meantime here is some video from the protest which took place mostly in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Hobbes @ January 3, 2009
Anti-Zionist/Pro-Palestine Protest - San Jose 1/4/2009
Posted in: Globalism / Imperialism | Comments (2)
Show solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand an immediate end to the murderous attacks carried out by the Zionist-Israeli military using US weapons against the people of Gaza.
WHEN: 12 PM Sunday January 4, 2009
WHERE: Corner of Stevens CreekBlvd. and Winchester Blvd., San Jose, CA 95117
ORGANIZED BY: South Bay Mobilization & San Jose Peace and Justice Center.
Besoshvili @ January 3, 2009
Is Globalization inevitable?
Posted in: Globalism / Imperialism | Comments (7)
Globalization—the process through which an increasingly free flow of ideas, people, goods, services, and capital leads to the integration of economies and societies—has brought rising prosperity to the countries that have participated. It has boosted incomes and helped raise living standards in many parts of the world, partly by making sophisticated technologies available to less advanced countries. Since 1960, for example, life expectancy in India has risen by more than 20 years, and illiteracy in Korea has gone from nearly 30 percent to almost zero. These improvements are due to a number of factors, but it is unlikely that they could have occurred without globalization. In addition, greater integration has promoted human freedom by spreading information and increasing choices. (Aninat)
Globalization will be the biggest transformation that humankind will ever experience. There is no reason to oppose it. Globalization will continue the path of merging people together into larger and larger entities. This has been the path of humankind since the beginning to end: small families, extended families, tribes, nations, empires, and finally to one world government. Each point along the way is a dramatic increase in population numbers compared to the previous type of civilization.
As human populations grow and technology increases, it is easier to hop on a plane and fly across the world, you can drive in your car hundreds of miles into the neighboring nation, and you can shift your resources (money, family, materials, etc.) across the entire planet. This has made it easy for immigrants to invade First-World nations. In addition, no nation can have a high level of prosperity by isolating herself from the world. Natural resources are distributed around the globe so powerful nations seek to exploit and transfer them to themselves. Free trade and free markets dictate that labor and products freely move across borders to eliminate inefficiency in the system. Half of the world’s produce is grown in China; many things that are packaged in the USA are manufactured overseas.
If there were a restriction on the flow of natural resources, labor, products, goods, and services across borders, there would be an accompanying decline in standard of living for all nations. This is due to much inefficiency such as economies of scale, non-competitive labor wages, lower output of products and services, and so forth.
One of the ironies of the recent success of India and China is the fear that… success in these two countries comes at the expense of the United States. These fears are fundamentally wrong and, even worse, dangerous. They are wrong because the world is not a zero-sum struggle… but rather is a positive-sum opportunity in which improving technologies and skills can raise living standards around the world.
—Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty, 2005
The melding of economies, cultures, peoples, nations, is inevitable. It’s a melting pot of races and cultures. It’s already starting and evolution will mean the extinction of those not fit to reproduce.
Globalization has various aspects that affect the world in several different ways. Below is a list of the beneficial results:
*Industrial (alias trans-nationalization)
1. Emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies.
* Financial
1. Emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for corporate, national and sub-national borrowers.
2. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization are examples of global financial systems.
* Economic
1. Realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods and capital.
2. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), European Union (EU), North American Union (NAU) of Canada-United States-Mexico, the Trans-Atlantic free market and free trade agreement between Europe and the United States, the continuous push for free trade at the Asia-Pacific Summit from both Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, the entire Western world is pushing for more economic integration of the globe.
Asia-Pacific Economic Summit (APEC): http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/11/23/bush_promotes_free_trade_at_asia_pacific_summit_in_peru/
USA-Europe free market: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59713
3. NAFTA Super Highway (a system of freeways that will link Mexico, Canada, and the USA together for trucks and cars to drive freely across the continent).
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=15497
4. Amero as the new currency for the NAU, Euro as the new currency for the EU
5. The decreasing value of local currencies such as the Mexican peso, American dollar, British pound, etc.
* Political
1. Political globalization is the creation of a world government which regulates the relationships among nations and guarantees the rights arising from social and economic globalization. The United States has enjoyed a position of power among the world powers; in part because of its strong and wealthy economy. With the influence of globalization and with the help of the United States’ own economy, China has experience some tremendous growth within the past decade. If China continues to grow at the rate projected by the trends, then it is very likely that in the next twenty years, there will be a major reallocation of power among the world leaders. China will have enough wealth, industry, and technology to rival the United States for the position of leading world power.
2. The European Union (EU) and North American Union (NAU) of Canada-United States-Mexico are not only economic entities but also political ones as well.
* Informational
1. Increase in information flow between geographically remote locations, via the Internet, TV, music, movies, …
* Cultural
1. Growth of cross-cultural contacts, friendships, relationships. American and European males marry mail-order brides from the Phillipines, India, Russia, China, and so forth.
2. Advent of new categories of consciousness and identities such as Globalism - which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to consume and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a “world culture.” People become world citizens.
* Ecological
1. The advent of global environmental challenges that cannot be solved without international cooperation, such as climate change, global warming, cross-boundary water and air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species.
2. Many factories are built in developing countries where they can pollute freely.
* Social
1. The achievement of free circulation by people of all nations
* Transportation
1. Fewer and fewer European cars on European roads each year (the same can also be said about American cars on American roads). More cars are made in Asia, Latin America, and so forth by outsourcing. Ford has factories in Mexico now.
2. The death of distance through the incorporation of technology to decrease travel time. Airplanes and boats can take you around the world in a short period of time.
* Greater international cultural exchange
1. Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies).
2. However, the imported culture can easily supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity through hybridization or even assimilation.
3. The most prominent form of this is Westernization, but Sinicization of cultures has taken place over most of Asia for many centuries.
* Greater international travel and tourism
1. Greater immigration, including illegal immigration
2. Spread of local consumer products (e.g. food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture)
3. World-wide fads and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Numa Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace.
4. World-wide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
5. Formation or development of a set of universal values
* Technical/legal
1. Development of a global telecommunications infrastructure and greater trans-border data flow, using such technologies as the Internet, communication satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones
2. Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g. copyright laws, patents and world trade agreements.
3. The push by many advocates for an international criminal court and international justice movements.
One powerful source has blown down cultural boundaries around the entire world. What is this influential tool? It is the Internet and its endless margin of discovery. With the Internet people can easily access someone half way across the world. They could converse with someone living a completely different lifestyle yet still have something in common, the Internet. If language is a barrier then a website like Flickr, a photo sharing site, lets people from Singapore and Germany alike communicate without words. The Internet in essence makes the world a smaller place. Someone in America can be eating Japanese noodles for lunch while someone in Sydney Australia is eating classic Italian meatballs. One classic culture aspect is food. India is known for their curry and exotic spices. Paris is known for its smelly cheeses. America is known for its burgers and fries. McDonalds was once an American favorite with its cheery mascot, Ronald, red and yellow theme, and greasy fast food. Now it is a global enterprise with 31,000 locations worldwide with locations in Kuwait, Egypt, and Malta. This restaurant is just one example of food going big on the global scale. Meditation has been a sacred practice for centuries in Indian culture. It calms the body and helps one connect to their inner being while shying away from their conditioned self. Before globalization, Americans did not meditate or crunch their bodies into knots on a yoga mat. After globalization this is a common practice, it is even considered a chic way to keep your body in shape. Some people are even traveling to India to get the full experience themselves. Another common practice brought about by globalization would be Chinese symbol tattoos. These specific tattoos are a huge hit with today’s younger generation and are quickly becoming the norm. With the melding of cultures using another countries language in ones body art is now considered normal. Culture is defined as patterns of human activity and the symbols that give these activities significance. Culture is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold, and activities they practice. Globalization has joined different cultures and made it into something different. As Erla Zwingle, from the National Geographic article titled “Globalization” states, “When cultures receive outside influences, they ignore some and adopt others, and then almost immediately start to transform them.” (Wikipedia)
It is inevitable that cultures will clash, as with the Amerindians and Iberians (Spain, Portugal, Italy). The strongest culture will always win. Race is irrelevant in a borderless world where even a small amount of miscegenation combined over thousands of years will gradually lead to complete racial assimilation. Globalization means the “death” of the European and Asian race, but the birth of a new mixed-race, just like how the Latinos/Hispanics were created 400 years ago by European explorers (White men) and Amerindian women in Latin America. The Amerindian race is–for all practical purposes–extinct due to racial assimilation, disease, colonization, loss of culture, loss of sovereign territory, etc.
Nationalists declare that Native Americans should return to Asia and leave the Americas to its original fauna, Japanese should cross back to continental Asia and leave Japan to the Ainu, and Southeast Asians should move north and restore the Negrito. The Brahmin should leave India for Europe. Anglo-Saxons should return to Jutland and leave Britannia to the Britons. Celtic Britons should return to France and leave Caledonia to the Picts, and the Franks should return to the forests of Germania, and so on endlessly. Humans have been migrating all over the globe for hundreds of thousands of years. Why force everyone to return to his or her “homeland?” Throughout history, all humans are immigrants.
Globalization is erasing borders and transforming humankind into a one world government. Nationalists will fight back and conflict will occur, violence and death will be common, but in reality no culture really “dies,” all cultures and peoples are integrated into a bigger and better culture. Race will cease to exist. Assimilation will be common. I consider myself to be a world citizen. Everyone is human, there is no such thing as race. Race has always been mercurial, are Latinos a race? Are Indians (from India) a race since a majority of them contain White Aryan/European male Y-chromosome M17 genetic markers from a White conquest thousands of years ago (Brahmin, upper-class light-skinned Indians)?
Globalization continues, nations disappear, cultures disappear and transform, all people will be altered, races change and die, and new races and cultures are born.
Worldwide statistics strongly support globalization:
• From 1981 to 2001, according to World Bank figures, the number of people living on $1 a day or less declined from 1.5 billion to 1.1 billion in absolute terms. At the same time, the world population increased, so in percentage terms the number of such people in developing nations declined from 40% to 20% of the population with the greatest improvements occurring in economies rapidly reducing barriers to trade and investment.
• The percentage of people living on less than $2 a day has decreased greatly in areas affected by globalization, whereas poverty rates in other areas have remained largely stagnant. In East-Asia, including China, the percentage has decreased by 50.1% compared to a 2.2% increase in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Income inequality for the world as a whole is diminishing. Due to definitional issues and data availability, there is disagreement with regards to the pace of the decline in extreme poverty. As noted below, there are others disputing this. The economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin in a 2007 analysis argues that this is incorrect, income inequality for the world as a whole has diminished. Regardless of who is right about the past trend in income inequality, it has been argued that improving absolute poverty is more important than relative inequality.
• Life expectancy has almost doubled in the developing world since World War II and is starting to close the gap between itself and the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Even in Sub-Saharan Africa, the least developed region, life expectancy increased from 30 years before World War II to about a peak of about 50 years before the AIDS pandemic and other diseases started to force it down to the current level of 47 years. Infant mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world.
• Democracy has increased dramatically from there being almost no nations with universal suffrage in 1900 to 62.5% of all nations having it in 2000.
• Feminism has made advances in areas such as Bangladesh through providing women with jobs and economic safety.
• The proportion of the world’s population living in countries where per-capita food supplies are less than 2,200 calories (9,200 kilojoules) per day decreased from 56% in the mid-1960s to below 10% by the 1990s.
• Between 1950 and 1999, global literacy increased from 52% to 81% of the world. Women made up much of the gap: female literacy as a percentage of male literacy has increased from 59% in 1970 to 80% in 2000.
• The percentage of children in the labor force has fallen from 24% in 1960 to 10% in 2000.
• There are increasing trends in the use of electric power, cars, radios, and telephones per capita, as well as a growing proportion of the population with access to clean water.
• The book The Improving State of the World also finds evidence for that these, and other, measures of human well-being has improved and that globalization is part of the explanation. It also responds to arguments that environmental impact will limit the progress.
• Although critics of globalization complain of Westernization, a 2005 UNESCO report showed that cultural exchange is becoming mutual. In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America’s and the European Union’s shares of cultural exports declined, while Asia’s cultural exports grew to surpass North America.
(Wikipedia)
MLA style citation:
Aninat, Eduardo. “Surmounting the Challenges of Globalization.” Finance & Development 39 (2002). International Monetary Fund (IMF). 1 Mar. 2002. International Monetary Fund. 2 Jan. 2009 <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2002/03/aninat.htm>.
“Globalization.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 2 January 2009, at 11:47 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2 Jan. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization>.
Maverick @ January 2, 2009
Maoist rank & file carry on revolutionary struggle
Posted in: Marxist-Leninism, The Media, Wars | Comments (0)
While internal struggles are taking place amidst the coalition government in Nepal, activists and supporters of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) have been carrying on the banner of armed struggle for the liberation of the working masses. Members of the Young Communist League, the militant youth wing of the Party, have carried out a number of important tasks in continuing the revolutionary struggle. Just last week the organization led an attack on the counter-revolutionary Himal Media and sacked the reactionary journalists who wished to restore the widely despised Monarchy.
The attacks carried out on counter-revolutionaries have received wide-spread condemnation from Western imperialists and “human rights” groups. The December 21st occupation of Himal Media, led by Ramesh Babu Paint – Chairman of the All Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union, shows that the revolutionary spirit is strong in the youth of Nepal.
The bourgeoisie of any country grows nervous when they see the masses “getting out of line,” or “forgetting their place.” The rebellious Maoists set an invaluable precedent for all workers and peasants of the oppressed world, showing that it’s still possible to resist imperialism and the puppet governments that enable it.
Counter-revolutionary critics in the Western world are hiding their insidious attacks on the revolutionary struggle of the CPN (M) behind the typical veil of “rights” – the latest slogan accusing Maoist supporters and activists of undermining “freedom of the press” and “citizens’ right to information.”
However accusations from imperialist apologists have no solid basis in reality. What “freedom of the press” exists in a society where information is bought and sold on the market; where advertising rates take precedence over unbiased reporting, and media outlets are more accountable to shareholders and investors, rather than the public? Private ownership of the means and instruments of mass-communication is 100% diametrically opposed to the very principle of “freedom of the press.” True freedom of the press cannot emerge by simple declaration or promulgation. It must come with a struggle against the parasitic capitalist class who treat information as just another commodity on the market. Socialism represents the only possibility for true “freedom of the press,” and that is exactly the direction the militant activists plan to take.
Besoshvili @ December 31, 2008
