Things to consider—

Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way. —Stephen LendmanFor over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.•••••"The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life...." —Randy Shields

British democracy in “terminal decline,” report finds

 ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CORPORATE CRIMINALITY, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, EU.Britain, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIAL APOLOGISTS & COLLABOS, ROTTEN CULTURE, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY  Comments Off
Mar 152013
 
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By Chris Marsden, wsws.org / From our archives

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The latest annual study by Democratic Audit, a research organization based at the University of Liverpool, accurately depicts important aspects of the decay of democratic rule in Britain under the impact of a growing divide between rich and poor.

The academic think-tank finds, “Almost all available indicators suggest that representative democracy is in long-term, terminal decline” and that this decline, though universal, is particularly evident in the UK. Continue reading »

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Class tensions in Europe at the breaking point

 ANNOTATED NEWS, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, IMPERIALISM, INEQUALITY, SOCIAL CHANGE, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, THE LABOR FRONT  Comments Off
Feb 112013
 
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Peter Schwarz, wsws.org

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As usual, it is a social democrat, the ideal Trojan Horse against the masses, that carries out the most brutal “readjustments” for the sake of capitalist viability.

Class tensions in Europe are rapidly intensifying. The ruling class will not rest until it has imposed the full burden of the international financial crisis on the working class. Its aim is to destroy the social gains of the post-war period and slash wages in Europe to a level comparable with those in China and India. Continue reading »

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Eighty years since Hitler’s coming to power

 ANTI-COMMUNISM, ANTI-CORPORATISM, ANTIWAR, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, FALSE FLAGS & PROVOCATIONS, FASCISM, LIBERAL BETRAYALS, MARXISM, PLUTOCRATIC POWER, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY  Comments Off
Feb 022013
 
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Peter Schwarz, wsws.org

Hitler1aEighty years ago, on January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed the leader of the Nazis, Adolf Hitler, as German chancellor. In the ensuing twelve years, the Hitler regime committed crimes never previously witnessed by mankind. It smashed the organized labor movement, subjected the country to a totalitarian dictatorship, destroyed Europe in an unprovoked war of aggression, and murdered millions of Jews, Roma and other minorities.

January 30, 1933 was a historic turning point. Before then, barbarism and anti-Semitism had been considered traits of economic and cultural backwardness. In 1933, however, the elite of a country that was highly developed both economically and culturally handed over power to a barbaric anti-Semite whose party relied on the dregs of society. Continue reading »

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Al Gore grilled by Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show (1.29.13)

 AMERICAN STUDIES, ANNOTATED NEWS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, COMMENTARIAT, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, PUTRID CORPOMEDIA, SICK SOCIETY, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY  Comments Off
Jan 292013
 
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For good or for ill, Matt Lauer is one of a handful of television journalists who seems to have a working brain. Like the rest of his ilk he stays away from systemic issues, and it’s hard to read his political preferences, but, on occasion he comes close to being a tough interviewer that makes the Today Show something more than just fluffery. In this interview he asks some uncomfortable questions of Al Gore (why did you sell Current TV to Al Jazeera?), and while the former VP politely parries the thrust of the interrogation (Lauer is apparently pissed that Gore in his new book pronounces the American media pretty useless), we get a few useful morsels. Invest a few minutes. —Eds

Continue reading »

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The UK’s NHS stifled bit by bit—can a socialist island survive in a toxic capitalist sea?

 CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, EU.Britain, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, POLITICAL ECONOMY, SCUMWATCH, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY  1 Response »
Nov 262012
 
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Massive job losses in UK’s National Health Service
By Robert Stevens, wsws,org

Editors’ Note: It’s clear the British capitalists and their willful minions like the scummy Tony Blair are doing their best to make “socialism”—in this case the revered National Health Service, now 64 years old and still standing—look bad and eventually unacceptable. In that manner, sneakily, they create the conditions for a return to the rotten private healthcare model, as we have in the US.  Defunding —an old tactic—is utilized widely in the US to declaw consumer and environment laws. Public awareness and above all combativeness are critical to stem the constant tide of reaction issuing from the establishment.


The ongoing offensive against the National Health Service (NHS) has led to 28,500 health workers losing their jobs since the Conservative Party/Liberal Democrat coalition came to power in 2010. Continue reading »

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Stemming the Tides of Protest

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, ANNOTATED NEWS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, EU.Spain, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, SOCIAL DEMOCRACY  2 Responses »
Oct 052012
 
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The capitalist system will do everything in its considerable power—no matter how dirty— to block and derail any and all challenges to its continued misrule.  Fasten your seatbelts, folks, it’s definitely gonna be a long and rocky ride!

By William T. Hathaway

Spain’s “indignados” (the outraged ones) clash with police in what seems now like a constant tug of war between an increasingly repressive status quo and the “99%”. With Spanish youth now facing 50% effective unemployment, the bankruptcy of the “free enterprise system” is becoming clear to most rational observers.

As the living conditions of ordinary people inevitably worsen under capitalism and as its wars cause increasing devastation, tides of protest rise up from the population. The ruling elite then seek to stem these tides before they reach flood state.

In 2008 the tide was rising to dangerous levels as millions of people worldwide took to the streets to demonstrate against US economic and military imperialism. The elite then defended against a revolutionary flood by heralding the promise of “Change you can believe in.” They presented a candidate who seemed to be the total opposite of their previous servant, George W. Bush. Barack Obama promised a new era of peace abroad and progressive policies at home. America and the world loved him. His rhetoric of cooperation instead of confrontation won him the presidency and the Nobel Peace Prize. The tide of protest drained away, mollified by his charisma. Continue reading »

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