Free Rodney Reed; exonerate, don't execute.

I sent this to Texas Governor Greg Abbott today:


I would like to make an appointment to speak in person with Governor Abbott about the Rodney Reed case.


While Attorney General Mr. Abbott promised no innocent person would ever be executed in Texas.

Now, Governor Abbott is doing nothing to stop the execution of Rodney Reed.


Had the police and prosecutor conducted the proper kind of investigation into the murder of Miss Stites, Rodney Reed never would have been brought to trial in the first place.


Rodney Reed is the victim of a racist frame-up.


Please let me know when I can come in to speak with Governor Abbott concerning this matter.


Alan L. Maki

Will it be war or human needs... we can't have both.

How often have you heard reactionary politicians who are opposed to universal social programs and even the most modest reforms say, “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” followed by their favorite excuse, “There is no money.”


Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands everything has to be paid for.


However, there is such a thing as a “free lunch;” but, as a society we agree to pay for those free lunches for school children.


As far as there being no money for social programs, this is a matter of the struggle over priorities... why do those who say there is no money never quibble about the cost of militarism and wars?


Anyone capable of logical thinking understands that if you spend trillions of dollars on militarism and wars that money is no longer available to be spent funding “free school lunches,” health care, child care, public education or maintaining the public infrastructure; for much less than is being squandered on militarism and wars we could fully fund all of this.


Whether it’s Republicans with, “There is no such thing as a free lunch” or Wall Street bribed Democrats claiming, when it comes to social programs, “We must pay as we go,” neither party ever subjects spending on militarism and wars to the same scrutiny nor complains about spending on militarism and wars...


In fact, Democrats and Republicans join hands in overwhelming bi-partisan unity to keep increasing the budget for militarism and their never-ending dirty imperialist wars.


We have seen the failure of the Democrats to defend the New Deal reforms while these Democrats often join Republican attacks on these programs. A perfect example is how Obama appointed the reactionary Republican Alan Simpson to oversee the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform where he attacked everything from Social Security to the Food Stamp Program.


Democrats have rejected the “spend on people not on war” views of Henry Wallace, Claude “Red” Pepper, Frances Perkins and George McGovern.


We might as well be dumping the tremendous wealth of our Nation created by the working class into the deepest depths of the oceans for all the good this spending on militarism and wars is doing for us.


The most massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich takes place through military spending which further enriches the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction.


The corporate owned, dominated and controlled mainstream media and the over-paid pundits and professors use every conceivable means to steer us away from having this discussion about our Nation’s priorities.


And this is not going to change until the working class takes the initiative to organize its own political party...


A real people’s party that is both anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist not afraid to challenge Wall Street for both political and economic power.


Immediately we need to launch struggles for:


Ending these wars.


Increasing Social Security; no retiree should get less than $2,700.00 a month.


Cancelling student debt.


Creating a National Public Health Care System.


Creating a National Public Child Care program.


Fully fund public education.


Raise the Minimum Wage to a real living wage based on the actual cost-of-living; let any employer who does not want to pay workers a real living wage do whatever jobs that need to be done do the work themselves.


This discussion begins around our kitchen tables and must continue into our break rooms at work and brought into the public square.


We need to write letters, leaflet, petition, demonstrate.


The key to winning is:


Education.


Organization.


Unity.


Action.


We need to create a new kind of discussion focused on the politics and economics of livelihood.
Working people need to be empowered.


Winning is all about working class power.


Dare to struggle; dare to win.

We need to stop being so timid. Speak your mind!

Trump and the Republicans, along with many Democrats, are resorting to red-baiting and anti-Communism along with vicious attacks on socialism that are nothing but lies.


They are doing this hoping to bully people into silence and to head off any discussion about socialism being an alternative to capitalism.


It is up to socialists to bring socialism into the public square and to explain the solutions socialists have to all of these problems.


This becomes even more important as the capitalist economy is headed towards a severe economic crash.


Wall Street knows this crash is coming and instead of doing what is required to prevent this economic disaster, because the richest of the rich further enrich themselves from the hard times they force upon us, they want a tyrant like Trump in power to control the people.


We are in a terrible mess.


On the one hand we are confronted with climate change; on the other hand we are confronted with an economy about to go to hell. And on top of this we have a Wall Street bribed government which thinks it can dictate and bully the rest of the world to conform to Wall Street’s agenda which sets us up for more of these never-ending dirty imperialist wars.


This is capitalism.


The alternative is socialism; a cooperative socialist commonwealth based on peace where jobs are created solving the problems of people and society in a way that is in harmony with Mother Nature.


Working people are going to have to give some serious thought to the situation we are in.


Working people are going to have to stop being so timid.


Working people are going to have to begin bringing forward real solutions to our problems- the reforms we need to survive as we prepare the way for ending capitalism and getting us on the road to socialism.

The message I sent to Ilhan Omar:

Stay strong; your voice is appreciated... in solidarity and struggle for social and economic justice and a better world through socialism!

Seeking refugee status... the truth

I don’t think people understand how difficult it is for people seeking refugee status to get a fair hearing... especially from the Trump Administration since Trump has many racist and anti-Communist biases.


One thing missed when it comes to asylum seekers is that many have “criminal records” because the government has subjected them to criminal prosecutions because they are involved in struggles for reforms and to defend their rights and livelihoods.


These prosecutions are part of the persecution.

Often the charges are trumped up charges, to boot.


I was deported from Canada and denied a fair hearing before it’s immigration and refugee board because of my numerous arrests in opposition to the Vietnam War and union picket line activity.
One of the “crimes” was for “destruction of government property.” Sounds real bad, doesn’t it.
Well, I posted a bumper sticker on the door of the federal building that said, “We want jobs not war” on the day I was drafted.


So, just because someone has a “criminal record” should not exclude them from getting a hearing because that criminal record might be part of the reason the people are seeking political asylum.
Now, in my own case, the United States government refused to release its files that the FBI maintains on me and refused to cooperate with requests from the Refugee Board.


Now, consider this when it comes to the countries south of our border...


The United States government has been a party to much of the political repression that takes place down there...


A fair hearing on a refugee claim would require that the United States government would have to disclose its participation in the crimes. This will not be easy to do.


In my case I had many lawyers working on my behalf and thousands of dollars were spent trying to get a fair hearing.


I really doubt many of these people coming with refugee claims ever get the fair hearing they are entitled to.


Trump does not want to acknowledge the criminal activity by the CIA and private security firms operating south of the border... thus they are trying to make it difficult for people to get fair hearings on their refugee claims.


And while Trump claims he is against the drug gangs, let us remember that it was through the Iran-Contra Affair that these gangs involved in the drug trade became so strong.


On top of all of this there is the anti-union, anti-Communism and very racist prejudice that is working against people seeking refugee status.

Taking a joy ride in space... on our "dime."

All of these wealthy people are taking a joy ride on Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic at the expense of working people who have been exploited and have had no say in how the wealth created by their labor is used.


Does anyone ask the workers who have created the wealth being used to give these wealthy people a joy ride if that money could have been better spent for the benefit of society right here on earth in eliminating poverty, providing a better quality education or decent housing or health care?

And we have billionaires Elan Musk and Jeff Bezos making similar outlandish expenditures for the same purpose.


What kind of society prevents those who have created the wealth from participating in the decision-making process of how this wealth will be used?


If reports in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are correct about how Branson, Bezos and Musk abuse and exploit labor are correct, it would seem justice would require these workers have a say in how the wealth they have created under such cruel duress should have a say.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) leads the way, again

Simpson is first Canadian national union Black female leader

July 19, 2019 Nearly 30 years after being a shop steward in her workplace, Jan Simpson is the first Black woman to lead a national union in Canada. The postal worker was elected national President at the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) convention in Toronto. 

From Newsweek: Almost 80 Percent of Philosophy Majors Favor Socialism, Poll Finds

https://www.newsweek.com/socialism-philosophy-majors-college-poll-1449238?fbclid=IwAR3VtgImmdYQNj-nDIrxret67r5wT6pY8BWT3IcxJZnrQ8HmQuqSGe0K5WI

Puerto Ricans show how to get rid of a crooked and corrupt leader who hides his corruption behind a wall of hate

We need to take a lesson from Puerto Ricans and hit the streets... to get rid of Trump.

A billionaire Democrat says he will vote for Trump rather than vote for Bernie Sanders

The truth slips out... these rich bastards sank George McGovern’s campaign and voted for and supported Richard Nixon...


Previous to this, back in 1948, the rich bastards in the Democratic Party forced out Henry Wallace and they defeated one of the best United States Senators, Claude Pepper when Harry “At Bomber” Truman recruited a two-bit half assed fascist bastard to run against Claude Pepper because he was a friend of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union and worked for peace through mutual cooperation with the Soviet Union.

Now the truth comes out, straight from this horse’s ass...


Listen very closely:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvq3erqnqko&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2Bj7fFHr9LzNarl9vq7iYOcbWDiI9qBAjg95jVpam8unW4hYUnuHD2vqA

youtube.com

Democrats Candidate Declines Capitalist Label; Why It Matters | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Lies, Lies, Lies and more lies fabricated by both Democrats and Republicans

No wonder the American people have a lower opinion of Congress than they do of Trump.


Trump lies about everything; so do the party hacks from both parties. And so do the “journalists” covering these politicians.


And so do the pundits... Karl Rove is the perfect example of one of these professional liars whose lies are intended to spread hate and division.


Then we have the problem where people will just repeat all these lies actually thinking they are spreading the truth even though they never take the time to research anything for themselves.

Almost all of the lies are fabricated around racism, red-baiting or anti-Communism using the most vile forms of national chauvinism and the most despicable kinds of jingoism.


Then we have guys like the “linguist” George Lakoff whose work for the Democratic Party revolves around formulating “progressive policy directives” free from specific solutions with the sole intent being to hoodwink people out of their votes.


Lakoff does the same kind of dirty work for the Democratic Party like what Karl Rove does for the Republicans.


When Trump or these others “quote” someone they intentionally twist the quote in order to be able to justify the lie that is supposed to be their response to the quote; so we get lie piled on top of lie; and then their supporters add their own little twist when they repeat the lie; and then when you challenge their litany of lies they create even more lies to “defend” their indefensible positions... and then people wonder why we have so many confused people in this country.


Why do people allow a bunch of liars to do their thinking for them? When you allow others to do your thinking for you, you are contributing to the attack on democracy and this allows and enables politicians to get away with starting wars and violating people’s most basic and fundamental human rights.


And it allows politicians to get away bringing forward gimmicks instead of real solutions... Medicare for All being a classic example of such a campaign gimmick... people who have never taken the time to read the proposed legislation don’t even know that it’s proponents haven’t even included how it will be funded. Who would support such legislation when there is no funding proposal for it... yet people will make up another lie pretending they know how it will be funded!

A question for the Working Class Studies Association

I posted this on the Working Class Studies Association Facebook page and wanted to share it with all of you:


At what point does the WCSA initiate a discussion about the need for a new working class based people’s party and begin discussing the successes of the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the Progressive Party?


I wonder why the WCSA has not held some kind of forum or workshop to discuss what Elmer Benson wrote and introduce this in classrooms across the country for students to study and discuss?

http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/47/v47i04p154-161.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3I7AK7Rs9-KzdCtCK3ngkd01q2AIqvQTTJD5M3e0UlsuOg8VObbKW8jSM


And along these lines, why is there practically no discussion in academia about the way one of the most ardent supporters of the New Deal and peace, Claude Pepper, was treated by Harry Truman and the Democrats... they selected a reactionary Democrat to defeat Pepper in the Florida Primary in a vicious anti-Communist red-baiting campaign.


If you have any members in Austin they may want to check out the Claude Pepper files that are mixed in with the Charles Marsh files at the LBJ Library in the University of Texas campus.


Henry Wallace chose to leave the Democratic Party and his good friend Claude Pepper decided to remain in the Democratic Party... there is a lesson to be learned here. How might we be living in a very different country today had there been a Wallace-Pepper Progressive Party ticket placed before the American people?


Why do so many in academia, especially those who identify with the working class, continue to support the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates when the working class needs it’s own party because of how the Democrats treat workers in offering gimmicks as a way to trick workers out of their votes instead of real solutions to problems?


At what point does all of this get discussed?


So far there has been no response.

It can't happen here

This is not that far fetched. Bormann and Himmler made plans to carry on the work of the Nazis outside of Germany in Argentina and the United States should they be defeated and to these ends the Nazis invested in property and businesses in both countries. Do we really think the Nazis who fled the Red Army and went to both Argentina and the United States weren’t carrying out their agenda all this time? After all, the Nazis packed Madison Square Gardens and other huge convention centers around the country... these fascists did not just disappear and Nazis smuggled into our country from Germany at the end of World War II by the Dulles brothers... what were they up to?

Claude Pepper, who had been a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee visited Hitler’s bunker and concluded that Hitler had escaped... and Eisenhower also said he believed Hitler had escaped and Stalin said the same thing.


Trump’s father was part of these fascist movements.


There is good reason to believe it is more than coincidental that the politics of Trump mimics the Nazis.


We must also remember that sections of U.S. big business partnered with Hitler and backed the Nazis.


It is not coincidental that American politics changed so drastically after World War II and where we are at today.


“It Can’t Happen Here” is perhaps more appropriate for today than when it was written...

Gary Huck

We need to ask why it has become so easy for Trump to tap into racism, red-baiting and anti-Communism to hide his corruption.

Mueller wasted thirty-million dollars

After listening to Mueller “answer” questions today, does anyone really believe giving this guy thirty-million dollars to spend on an investigation was money well spent?

So, the Mueller hearing didn’t go well for the Democrats...

... surprise, surprise; only a bunch of Dumb Donkeys could have thought it would turn out otherwise.
In fact, Robert Mueller as the head of the FBI interfered and meddled in our elections more than the Russians ever could have as he ordered the repression of Communists and socialists, the main critics and opponents of Wall Street monopolists and their imperialist agenda of never-ending dirty imperialist wars paid for through austerity measures here at home shoved down the throats of working people.

Capitalism has to go

The supporters and apologists for capitalism cannot escape the fact that exploitation of man by man is what makes capitalism capitalism... and war, poverty and racism are an integral part of capitalism from which there is no escape except through socialist revolution. This is why the over-paid pundits promoting capitalism, and even the democratic socialists who love capitalism in the social democratic countries of Scandinavia, refuse to debate Marxists.

4

Why was it so easy for Nazi war criminals to immigrate to the United States?

About this immigration issue.


Nazi war criminals were smuggled into the United States by those in power.


It is far easier for war criminals and the murderous thugs who worked to prop up every two-bit half-assed fascist dictator supported by the CIA to get into this country than honest working people, many of whom have been their victims, to get into our country... and this is the real disgrace of the immigration policies of both the Republicans and the Democrats.

And on top of this, there is this racist fascist bastard Stephen Miller being allowed to establish U.S. immigration policies that includes the very mean, cruel and inhumane policy of separating children from their parents... a policy that could only be advocated by the most strident racist, fascist Hitlerite.


Racist.


Fascist.


Imperialist.


These are the proper words to describe those at the helm of U.S. government today.
Concentration camps... another correct term.


This is what we get when Wall Street is placed in control to make sure the capitalist system keeps churning out maximum profits for themselves- the very few- instead of creating a society, socialism, which works for everyone else.

The Choice Isn’t Between Capitalism or Socialism

Leave it to Bloomberg to add confusion...

bloomberg.com

The Choice Isn’t Between Capitalism or Socialism

All countries practice a mix of both, and the U.S. isn’t the free-market leader…

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-23/the-choice-isn-t-between-capitalism-or-socialism?fbclid=IwAR2UznxtWZTuMXpiAdzB9jTYyzMRk-Ols_Q8FAD7My627SvtSnO8MeVY0G0


The choice is between capitalism and socialism if we want to survive we will have to take the socialist road and that path is very clear... one only needs to read The Communist Manifesto instead of relying on the billionaires like Bloomberg and their over-paid pundits creating lies like this to confuse and disorient working people.

We have no “mix” of the two systems in this country. The Wall Street capitalist monopolists own the mines, mills, factories along with the transportation, banking, communications, health care and media industries.


The only reforms we have have been won through very difficult struggles with these Wall Street capitalist monopolists opposing us.


These capitalists have opposed everything from public education to Social Security.


And these Wall Street capitalist monopolists rob us of the reforms we need to live decent lives as they squander the wealth only workers have created on militarism and their wars... this is something Bloomberg does not want to talk about- these dirty imperialist wars.


Bloomberg would like us to believe capitalism is not responsible for the three main evils of the modern world: war, poverty and racism.


Bloomberg’s Wall Street crowd has given us Donald Trump and his band of the most vile and corrupt racists, fascists and warmongers.


When was the last time Bloomberg ever allowed a Communist to express their opinions in his publications or news outlets?


Bloomberg does not believe in democracy except for the very wealthiest of the capitalist oligarchs... this article is sheer lies and hypocrisy because the only choice we have is between capitalism and socialism... the two do not “mix.”


Those who choose capitalism choose exploitation and war.


Choosing socialism is choosing life and a better world free from exploitation, war, poverty and racism.


Bloomberg will never choose to forego exploitation and war because he profits from both.
Ask yourself if you have ever heard Marxist views like this permitted in any Bloomberg media:


https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/climate-change-and-the-military-industrial-complex1


Or views like this:


http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/one-of-my-blog-posts-hits-all-time-high.html

Or:


http://socialismtheoryandpractice.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-socialism-byalbert-einstein.html

Working people are not provided access to voice their opinions by the likes of Bloomberg who is all riled and rattled now that his rotten capitalist system is being challenged by grassroots and rank-and-file activists and common people who realize socialism is the way out of this capitalist mess.

bloomberg.com

The Choice Isn’t Between Capitalism or Socialism

All countries practice a mix of both, and the U.S. isn’t the free-market leader…

The role of fear in promoting war

Have you noticed how Trump is trying to prevent people from going to certain countries?


They first make people fear the people in these countries by telling you that you will not be safe in these countries.


If we are afraid of people then it is easier to justify war.

How patient are you?

How many generations must we wait for real health care reform?


Can your health wait?

Consumer debt in the United States hits...

$13.6 trillion dollars

Hong Kong

The problems in Hong Kong have their roots in British colonialism but you would never know this from the mainstream media.

Health care for all the people not for profits for the few.

When I asked Ted Kennedy back in 1972 when Democrats were going to enact Medicare for All he told me that we had to be patient.


Well, back in 1948 Harry Truman ran on a platform which included Medicare for All...


That was seventy years ago.


Does anyone know how many people have suffered and died for lack of health care during these seventy years?


Will the Democrats tell us how many families have lost their homes and everything they worked a lifetime for in order to pay health care bills over this seventy year period?


Will Democrats tell us how many families have had to file medical bankruptcies over these seventy years?


Medicare for All has been the Democrats favorite election gimmick to suck people in. They had no intent of enacting it seventy years ago and they have no intent of enacting it today... not even if there wasn’t one single Republican in Congress.


Frances Perkins placed a National Public Health Care System on the agenda back in 1936 and the Democrats rejected it...


We need to place a National Public Health Care System on the agenda today by building a movement pushing for:


Publicly financed health care.


Publicly administered health care.


Publicly delivered health care.


There is nothing controversial about such health care...


As Frances Perkins pointed out, such a health care system is based on the model of public education and no government program works better than public education.


Now...


The Democrats have never delivered health care reform protecting all of us because their main claim is that it is too expensive.


But...


They have never questioned the cost of militarism and wars nor suggested we have neighborhood and community health care centers across the country providing free health care while creating over twelve million good jobs paying real living wages...


Instead of our tax dollars paying for over 850 U.S. military bases dotting the globe on foreign soil...


We would get about the same number public community health care centers providing the American people with free health care... and for a much lower price.


Imperialist militarism and wars has a very real cost...


Do you want militarism and wars or health care?


Demand that a National Public Health Care System be funded by a Peace Dividend... that Peace Dividend Democrats promised us, just like Medicare for All, exactly seventy years ago, too.


We didn’t get a Peace Dividend.


We didn’t get Medicare for All.


What we got was a great big national debt the bankers and the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction profit from.


Instead of wasting our time supporting these worthless Democrats we should be organizing a massive People’s Lobby to demand a Peace Dividend to pay for a National Public Health Care System.


Medicare for All is nothing but a gimmick and a scam... don’t be sucked in by the Democrats... even if enacted it would be no better than the present Medicare system, which, by the way, Democrats working with Republicans have been wrecking instead of improving... huge payroll taxes still rising, Part B premiums sky high, huge co-pays, the need for very expensive supplemental insurance, no coverage for many very basic health needs like dental and hearing.


I challenge anyone to claim a National Public Health System is not better alternative than Medicare for All which leaves the private, for-profit health care system intact for the doctors, administrators and bill collectors, hospitals, nursing homes and pharmaceutical companies to continue enriching themselves at our expense.


Doctors are bankrupting Medicare and Medicaid because instead of the government setting the fees for service, the American Medical Association establishes fees and under the Medicare for All legislation the American Medical Association would continue to set the fees.

Iran

It's like these idiots won't be satisfied until they are in a war with Iran.

Let’s Talk About the Politics and Economics of Livelihood and what we socialist can do

So, Facebook has denied me the right to create a new page entitled, “Let’s Talk About the Politics and Economics of Livelihood.”


I set up the page and made a post and the Facebook censors shut the page down about half an hour later.


This is what I had posted as the first post:


Any legitimate electoral struggle mobilizes people for action at the polls and mass action in the streets and at work and in the schools and neighborhoods.


This is where I think Bernie Sanders and other Democrats claiming to be liberal, progressive or left show us they are not actually interested in building real people’s movements.


Bernie Sanders claims a circle of one-million supporters but makes no attempt to mobilize these supporters to do anything except go to the voting booth.


Every one of those people have a circle of family, friends, neighbors, fellow students or workers... so the influence goes way beyond the one-million.


Any legitimate people’s electoral movement must bring people into the streets to back up its demands.


This is the only way struggles are ever won.


In fact, the Democrats don’t want people in the streets because those people will take on Democrats as well as Republicans over issues of peace, social and economic justice... we saw this with LBJ.


If one examines history we see this during the 1930’s, the movement against the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, too.


It takes persistent and sustained struggles to win.


Now, consider if Bernie Sanders was to help organize a new party which viewed things in this way.


We would have a huge movement of well over twenty-million people which would grow even larger the more we pushed our demands.


Notice: I never said “pressing the flesh was without merit” in the electoral arena... but, it must be combined with mass action.


And the reason for using social media like Facebook, blogging and blogtalk is to mobilize people for mass action... mass action, something Democrats want to contain to electoral struggle.


Because, again, these Democrats are afraid that a fully mobilized people will act against their own neo-liberal imperialist Wall Street agenda.


We need to build socialist political education and action committees to initiate these kinds of struggles based around the politics and economics of peace and in defense of our rights and livelihoods.


We need real health care reform. Medicare for All is a concept conceived for well-heeled upper middle class people... what we working people really need is a National Public Health Care System:


Publicly financed.


Publicly administered.


Publicly delivered.


Not for profit.


Free for all.


Any government with such a bloated military budget that can afford war after war and over 800 military bases dotting the globe certainly can afford to place a public health care center in every single neighborhood and community providing free health care for all.


The model of public education works for health care, too. But, instead of funding it through regressive taxes fund it with a huge peace dividend.


Then look at Social Security. No one should receive less than $2,700.00 a month and the age of retirement should be lowered to 58.


As far as this $1.4 trillion student loan debt there should be no garnishments of wages on anyone with an income under $40,000.00 a year.


No more wars, tariffs or sanctions.


People and our living environment before profits.


Think about this... we can’t continue to allow a bunch of greedy Wall Street millionaires and billionaires along with their over-paid pundits and muddle-headed upper-middle class management stooges to do our thinking for us.


We need a nationwide network of socialists... small groups of people who help each other learn and understand issues... meeting around kitchen tables... writing letters to the editor and distributing leaflets... tabling.. informational picketing and demonstrations.


Book clubs. discussion groups, roundtable discussions, organize debates.


One by one and we begin to add up... just like a little raindrop, alone we don't amount to much; but let it pour.


Socialism is working class power.

Form the "New Deal" to the "Great Society"... now is the time for socialism.

We have had “The New Deal” with Franklin Roosevelt. Most Democrats and Republicans opposed the New Deal reforms... it took huge coalitions led by working people and their organizations militantly fighting to force this package of reforms through Congress.



Then we had “The Great Society” with LBJ. Again, huge coalitions; this time of the working class and the racially and nationally oppressed people, forced Congress to implement reforms when Democrats and Republicans balked.



Now it’s time for “Socialism.”



Only a massive anti-monopoly/anti-imperialist movement led by a militant united working class can achieve socialism which is all about taking political and economic power out of the hands of the Wall Street exploiters who are the warmongering merchants of death and destruction keeping us on the path squandering the wealth worker’s create on militarism and wars instead of providing the kinds of socially useful and necessary universal social programs which will enable us to live in peace with the rest of the world in a society without poverty- in a society which provides us all with a decent high quality life with a good public education (pre-school through university), a National Public Health Care System based on the model of public education (publicly financed, publicly administered and publicly delivered), a National Public Child Care System, affordable housing and mass transit and real living wage jobs for all with the mines, mills, factories and the banking and energy complexes along with transportation coming under public ownership and democratic control.



We need our own working class based people’s party and a vast network of working class and community based socialist organizations in every workplace, neighborhood and community colleges and universities to win socialism which is working class power.



What you can do:



Start a socialist club where you live or where you work or go to school.



Begin a monthly book club taking up these issues. There are many good books to use like “Madam Secretary, Frances Perkins” by George Martin or a new book by Robert Caro, “Working.” These book clubs can be held in a home, church, library, union hall or community center or even at a picnic table in a public park.



Initiate public forums and round-table discussions around these questions.



Write a letter to the editor.



Circulate leaflets; ask relatives, friends, neighbors and fellow workers to sign petitions advocating for these universal social programs... don’t settle for the campaign gimmicks brought forward by the Democrats to hoodwink us out of our votes.



We must get people thinking beyond war and focused on peace. Put people to work solving the problems of people and society.



We need to get people thinking in terms of a National Public Health Care System not this phony Medicare for All which leaves the for-profit health Care System intact.



We need to get people to understand that the Minimum Wage must be based on the real and actual cost-of-living and legislatively tied to the changing cost-of-living factors and not some figure pulled out of a hat by opportunist politicians at election time- politicians who have no idea about the daily struggles of working people trying to make ends meet from pay check to pay check or worse yet, trying to live without a job, without a pay check.

We need to advance the idea that Social Security must become not a miserly monthly check but a real living income providing people a decent quality life in retirement and old age.




We must insist that there be a moratorium on all student debt collections while a solution to this problem is found and all student debt collections must immediately be taken out of the hands of the banks and private debt collectors who are acting like mobsters employed by loan sharks.



The defense of democracy is an important and integral part of the struggle for socialism. As such, Trump must be impeached and removed from office--- lie after lie, sanctions and tariffs instigating wars, an administration embroiled in corruption.



Democracy requires the full participation of working people in all decision making processes--- political and economic.



What happened to Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society"?







Forty-seven percent of the American people now tell the pollsters they are willing to consider voting for socialists for public office... these are your relatives, your friends, your neighbors and your fellow workers; these are the people we must bring into active struggle for socialism. Give these people something to think about by printing off these three articles on your printer and putting them in their hands for consideration... invite them for a discussion:



https://socialismtheoryandpractice.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-socialism-byalbert-einstein.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR2_VQ3KMBjRTNgzWZUqRE-qUhlf-OsdYF5F6Olq4zN64-yhnj17TQsu2nU


http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/47/v47i04p154-161.pdf?fbclid=IwAR10WtUWnkboVmYQ7is5l3sm2uNppjXM-OqcBgGUlg7fUy4qktNgYjt5ZgI


https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/climate-change-and-the-military-industrial-complex1?fbclid=IwAR1Mna2MojMxLCmqO1yp1E4W525-QNjLRZqv6z-_idt79YFehyCpz1zXsHM


Pass on the link to my blog where they will read things like this:



https://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/one-of-my-blog-posts-hits-all-time-high.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR3S33wcNLBVhoTh9rkrJQmmU6slKHLOFlQfaTelpct263DCzf0ORzlJKdc


No one is going to build a movement for socialism for us; as working people we must do this together.



Each one of us is like a tiny little raindrop, we don't amount to much... but, let it pour!



Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood... the working class socialist politics of peace, equality and prosperity for all of us who create the great wealth of this country.



Capitalism is the system of exploitation, wars, racism and poverty through which the Wall Street bankers and employers get rich.



Socialism is a cooperative system based on peace, full equality and prosperity for all.



People before profits!

"Why Socialism?" by Albert Einstein... check it out.

Einstein wrote in this important essay in defense of socialism:

"...we should not assume that experts are the only ones who have a right to express themselves on questions.."

A thought about democracy from Canada

Glen Wreggitt from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada wrote this comment on Facebook which I think we need to discuss very widely. I would encourage you to share this thought widely:


Democracy doesn't mean the same thing to them as it does to us. To them, a democracy is a country that is 'open for business', which means 'open for exploitation'. A 'dictator' to them is someone who was democratically elected and makes policies that raise the standard of living for their people instead of 'opening the country for business', the business of enriching American corporations at the expense of the people.

Tolkien

We just saw the movie “Tolkien.”


It was a good, but slow moving and often boring, love story and anti-war movie.


There was only a very slight hint that Tolkien built his own stories around the Finnish Kalevala... the epic rune of the Finnish people’s Long enduring struggle of good versus evil around which the Finns created their powerful Communist Party and revolution that was drenched in blood.

But, I guess we can’t expect the Hollywood crowd to provide reality and truth... especially when it comes to war and the people’s struggles against the evils of exploitation, war, the destruction of our living environment and oppression resulting from slavery, feudalism, capitalism and imperialism.


I would recommend, in addition to reading Tolkien people check out the Finnish “Kalevala” and the “Communist Manifesto.”

Will jobs ever "return?"

Trump has lied about “bringing factories back from China.”


In fact, the Chinese own at least 51% of these factories.


So, what this means is that American corporations can leave China but they can’t take the factories and machinery or technology with them.

The factories will continue producing the same products and these products would have a competitive edge against any similar products produced here... good luck with that.


In addition, these manufacturing facilities set up here will not require many workers as we can seen from the new Stanley plant which intends to produce Craftsman tools in Dallas, Texas... this plant will employ few workers while using a very automated production process based on Artificial Intelligence where automation, robotics, computers are brought together by Artificial Intelligence.


And China is light years ahead of the United States with Artificial Intelligence.


For our own good... We had better learn to get along with China.


Jobs aren't going to "come back."


New jobs may be created but if they are, workers are going to have to militantly assert their rights in the workplace... fewer hours, more pay; decent working conditions, etc.