An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore missed one heck of an

inconvenient truth

in his movie of the same name. Actually Al Gore missed the truth about capitalism; and, he missed the truth about socialism. I don't know if this was an act of convenience or inconvenience.

I often get asked: Why bother talking about socialism?

People often say using the word "socialism" scares people away; or they say there is a "better" alternative to capitalism. Quite frequently we hear people say the socialist alternative is not on the political agenda right now. I don't agree with any of this. Nor do I agree that socialism is dead even though the capitalist rags have written its obituary; the longest ongoing obituary I have ever heard of.

No matter how this question is placed we arrive at the same point... there is "an inconvenient truth" that needs to be discussed.

The intended, and sometimes unintended, purpose of posing the question: Why talk about socialism? is to prevent socialism from being discussed in the first place... in the same way other "inconvenient truths" are not supposed to be discussed.

It is always easier, and more convenient, to win an argument if you don't expect, or don't allow, your opposition to respond... another inconvenient truth. The big-business controlled media has done one heck of a big-brainwash in proclaiming socialism dead while refusing to allow living socialists to respond, all the while sanctimoniously proclaiming to be the voice of democracy... now, that is one heck of a clever trick and deception to pull off indefinitely... kind of like the way global warming was denied for so long.

The only equivalent I would be able to think of is if some day in the near future we were to see George Bush and Dick Cheney walking down Wall Street laughing on the way to the bank with their arms around their old buddy Saddam Hussein.

While I am sure the American media would never participate in this kind of hoax and hoodwinking just because they helped Nazi war criminals live out their lives in obscurity in this country until they were ready to die anyways, I doubt that Saddam Hussein escaped the hangman's noose as so many Nazi war criminals did... but, socialism has escaped its hope for death as we can see by developments in South America... as Mark Twain once remarked, "News of my death has been greatly exaggerated." I have often thought what great fun Mark Twain would have had with all the obituaries that have been written for socialism these past fifteen years.

There are even those on the left who have been bullied into being silenced concerning this "inconvenient truth" and have decided in their wisdom that now is not the time to push the socialist alternative to capitalism.

On the contrary, I don't think we will ever find a better time to bring forward the socialist alternative to capitalism then what we have today... as inconvenient a truth as this may be.

If we wait to talk about socialism until there is no opposition to it we will most likely participate in humanity's demise... another "inconvenient truth."

Obviously that ain't good... not for the present or the future... quite frankly, the powers that be will never agree that it is a good time to talk about replacing capitalism... let alone replacing it with socialism.

As we can see from the media and the educational institutions which conduct an unending campaign against socialism while pronouncing it dead, they do not intend to voluntarily allow anything they say about socialism to be challenged; not in the class-room, not in the media, and not in the mines, mills, and factories by working people.

I have always found it very strange that such a struggle would have to be waged against anything that has previously been pronounced dead... certainly George Bush will not continue to hold Saddam Hussein up as his enemy... he died in the hangman's noose... and was pronounced dead. According to all the same publications that gave us the word that Saddam is dead, these same people pronounced socialism dead... over fifteen years ago... socialism must have one heck of an after-life as its ghost continues to linger over most everything these people write about.

I think we all know that socialism is alive and well, otherwise these people in the mainstream media wouldn't have to go on, and on, and on "proving" that "it doesn't work." After all, no one is going to have to prove that Saddam Hussein is really dead every time someone says they have seen him; yet the big-business media has to continually attempt to prove that socialism is dead... if something is dead, be it a person or an idea... it is dead... and you get over the death and move on... there is nothing to fear from the rotting corpse of an idea or that of a person.

I am sure most of humanity will soon forget the name Saddam Hussein just like all the other two bit dictators the CIA installed in power then became expendable when their planned schemes and intrigues to undermine the peoples' struggles for power went sour.

But, unlike Saddam Hussein, the socialist corpse hasn't turned up yet; in fact, capitalism is more likely to be buried in a way that people will never look back and probably won't even remember it any more than they will remember Saddam Hussein... if people do remember capitalism after its passing it will simply be remembered as a terrible tragedy in the human experience, just like General George Armstrong Custer, Jefferson Davis, Henry Ford, Hitler, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Augusto Pinochet, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein... and George Bush.

I guess it all depends who has made the associations for us, that socialism is somehow bad and evil... I find it very ironic that we kind of allow the same people to do our thinking for us in creating the negative associations for socialism while supporting every other dirty deed... the same people do our thinking for us about the war in Iraq, single-payer, universal health care, social security, plant closings, global warming... and of course when it comes to socialism.

We have seen the progression of history... you can't just pretend there is no past and start all over again from scratch... life doesn't work that way.

No matter what you call "it," whatever replaces capitalism will have all the characteristics and features of socialism... and the people doing our thinking for us will attack it in the same way they attack socialism.

We can wait to find a better alternative to capitalism than socialism; we can put off discussing socialism because now is not the time for such discussion--- but we do so at our own peril; especially if scientific projections about global warming and everything it entails is correct... let us not forget, the same media that ridiculed the scientists who began talking about global warming is the very same media that pronounced socialism dead.

I have always wanted to meet Al Gore to ask him: Do you think the capitalist system has played a role in global warming? If so, what might that role be? Did you want to ask Al Gore these questions as you watched the movie "An Inconvenient Truth?" Are we all supposed to wait for Al Gore to produce Part II of "An Inconvenient Truth" to get the answers? Something to sit around the kitchen table and ponder.

Minimum Wage

The minimum wage should be a real living wage based upon scientific calculations, not some figure politicians pull from a hat trying to look good to get votes... neither Teddy Kennedy nor John Sweeney would work flipping hamburgers at McDonalds for $7.25 an hour; why should anyone else?

If a job needs to be done than the employer should have to pay the employee doing that job a real living wage; it is as simple as this. If the employers don't want to pay real living wages let them do the jobs themselves; left with this option employers and our society will quickly learn the central roll of working people in the economy of our nation.

The proposed increase in the minimum wage is really a cut in the standard of living for the working class.

Democrats are eager to push through their minimum wage increase before any national discussion can take place--- the nation, again, gets hoodwinked; just like with the war in Iraq. What we have is Democrats doing the dirty work for the Republicans--- again, just like with the war in Iraq. Workers suffer--- again, just like with the war in Iraq where workers fight and die as Bechtel, Halliburton, and the oil companies profit.

The Democrats are proposing a miserly increase in the minimum wage. John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO is supporting this so-called "increase" in the minimum wage. We should not find it surprising that John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO would negotiate a decrease in living standards now for the entire unorganized section of the working class since unionized workers in AFL-CIO affiliates have had their standards of livings and jobs negotiated out from under them for more than three decades now... this has been the primary impediment to organizing unions in this country... working people are not stupid they can see that unionized workers are constantly loosing ground to this employer/big-business assault on working people who are in unions. Historically workers look to organize unions when they see that their lot in life will become better by joining a union... as long as union leaders negotiate away everything that has been won through decades of very difficult struggles working people are not going to be looking for these unions to represent them... and this is a terrible situation for our entire working class to be in because it is the struggles of new workers coming into unions that is the real pressure to force all wages up--- including the minimum wage.

Unions aren't needed to negotiate wage cuts; employers can do this very well on their own.

No one even gave John Sweeney the right to negotiate a minimum wage... if he would dare to lead a struggle for better contracts for his own members that included increases in pay and real job security this in itself would have forced the minimum wage up long ago... but Sweeney and the unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO have allowed their own members' standard of livings to decline and deteriorate; this is no incentive for anyone to want to join a labor union... now Sweeney wants to bring a reduction in the standard of living to the entire working class through this phony "minimum wage proposal" of the Democrats... in effect, Sweeney now wants to do for the entire working class what he has already done for the members of those union affiliated with the AFL-CIO... negotiate a reduction in living standards... and the Change To Win leadership is even worse.

Here in Minnesota the Democrats did the same dirty work for the Republican governor that Democrats now want to do for George Bush and Bush is all smiles and eager to go along.

Here in Minnesota as soon as the miserly minimum wage "increase" took effect tens of thousands of working people lost access to everything from health care to food stamps to education benefits because they now made "too much money" to qualify for these government programs... they either lost benefits completely or had them so severely reduced the reductions more than ate away the increase in the minimum wage.

In fact, working people would come out ahead in their overall standard of living if the minimum wage was reduced, rather than "rising" to $7.25 an hour; the calculations are very simple. In food stamps, health care, and educational benefits a family of four wold actually receive over $10,000.00 a year more with a slight reduction in the minimum wage, while even in terms of dollars based on a forty hour work week the minimum wage will only work out to about $4,000.00.

Understanding "standard of living" is key to any discussion of increasing the minimum wage; it is this discussion politicians and big-business fear working people taking part in.

In fact, the minimum wage increase could disqualify many workers from receiving Pell Grants and student loans which these same politicians are talking about increasing; what a sad joke... talking about increasing a benefit that you know will be available to far fewer people because of your previous actions.

I say "so-called" increase in the minimum wage because this miserly "increase" will in fact be a very large decrease in the over-all living standards for the overwhelming majority of workers living in poverty and dire straights right now.

This "increase" in the minimum wage will be just enough to push millions of American workers out of many social programs because they will exceed threshold limits that presently give them access to many social programs; anyone can determine this from looking at what has happened in Minnesota.

Where did Democrats arrive at the figure that the minimum wage should be $7.25 an hour? This is a very valid question no one proposing this minimum wage "increase" wants to answer. This wouldn't even pay Teddy Kennedy's bar tab... let alone provide any worker with a living income.

I read in one business journal where a prominent left-wing figure who is supporting this minimum wage increase complained he had a difficult time affording pajamas for his daughter... well, the present proposal will make it even harder to afford those pajamas when those wear out... I am sure that neither John Sweeney or Teddy Kennedy would even bother to blink an eye before purchasing anyone a pair of pajamas, let alone the latest Martha Stewart fashions from K-mart.

How should the minimum wage be calculated? The minimum wage should be calculated based upon the figures arrived at by the United States Department of Labor for a real living income.

George Bush has appointed, with Democratic Party consent, one of the most reactionary, anti-worker, anti-labor, Secretary of Labor to hold that cabinet position in many years. Why hasn't Bush suggested the minimum wage should be based on the figures used by the United States Department of Labor?

There is only one way to arrive at how much the minimum wage should be raised; from the scientific calculations of what the United States Department of Labor determines a real living wage should be.

After all, would any employer work at the same job for any less? If not, than why should any worker?

The time has come for politicians to stop pulling figures from a hat when it comes to the minimum wage and start using scientific calculations. It really doesn't make much sense to pay thousands of employees working for the United States Department of Labor these big salaries if we are not going to use the information resulting from their research; or if their research is invalid. If George Bush or Teddy Kennedy disputes the research that has been done over many years by these employees of the United States Department of Labor who earn high salaries because they are university educated researchers, statisticians, analysts, and policy makers then maybe the wrong people are working for a minimum wage to start with.

Something to think about: Enacting single-payer, universal health care would amount to a far greater increase in the standards of living for working people than the miserly proposed increase in the minimum wage... something neither the Democrats or Republicans want to talk about; something the AFL-CIO and Change To Win hope workers won't figure out.

Another thing to think about as you are sitting around the kitchen table: How can poverty ever be eliminated if employers are allowed to continue paying their employees poverty wages?

We need to add this term to our working class dictionary: standard of living. Check out this link as a place to begin our search for a definition: < http://shr.aaas.org/thesaurus/detail.php?tid=357 > If you want, just click on the heading which will take you right there.

This is what the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights has to say about "standard of living." The AFL-CIO just got done celebrating the 58th Anniversary of this Declaration and Teddy Kennedy helped in the celebration so I assume he and John Sweeney have both had a chance to discuss this:


Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.




Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Date adopted: 10 December 1948

Document Number/Symbol: General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III)

Organization: United Nations General Assembly



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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of
human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore, The General Assembly, Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all
the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.